CAMPOS VINES, HERIBERTO: 71 years old, married, farmer, forcibly disappeared on September 16, 1973, in Santa Bárbara, Bío-Bío province. José Emiliano Balboa Benítez, a member of the Christian Democratic Party, was detained that day at 18:00 hours in Santa Bárbara by Carabineros officers.

He has been missing ever since. Heriberto Campos Vines, a member of the Communist Party, disappeared after being detained by Carabineros from Quilaco and Santa Bárbara at the exit of the road to Ralco, in the presence of witnesses.

According to statements from family members and witnesses, on September 16, 1973, at approximately 18:00 hours, Carabineros personnel forcibly entered the home of José Balboa, who was a well-known leader of the Christian Democratic Party in Santa Bárbara.

The police, belonging to the Quilaco station, beat him and took him away to an unknown destination. He has been missing since that time. In the towns of Santa Bárbara and Quilaco, the Rettig Report recorded sixteen cases of people who were detained by Carabineros officers between September 11 and October 23, 1973, and who, while in the power of their captors, disappeared.

All of them were classified as victims of human rights violations. Considering the evidence received and the investigation carried out by this Corporation, the Superior Council reached the conviction that José Emiliano Balboa Benítez and Heriberto Campos Vines disappeared after being detained by State agents. For this reason, it declared them victims of human rights violations.

Source: Corporacion

In the spring of 1998, a group of young Christian Democrats, among them José Valencia Castañeda, broke the party's lethargy, but even more so the oblivion and omission, by installing a bronze memorial plaque at their party's headquarters on the Alameda near La Moneda.

The plaque listed PDC militants who were victims of the civil-military dictatorship that ravaged Chile for seventeen long years. Among them are the most well-known, such as President Eduardo Frei Montalva, murdered by a group of agents from Pinochet's political police through poisons injected into his body following a simple operation he had undergone.

He died in January 1982 in a clinic in Providencia. Also included is the DC youth leader Mario Martínez, who was found drowned with a backpack on his back on a beach in Rocas de Santo Domingo in the middle of winter in August 1986.

The leader had reported that he felt persecuted and threatened due to his youth political work. The third most well-known is the 49-year-old transport worker Mario Fernández López, who was detained for his party work in Ovalle in October 1984 by agents of the CNI, Pinochet's political police.

He was taken to La Serena, tortured in a facility belonging to this sinister entity, and died in the hospital where he arrived in agony. The confessed murderer of the president of the ANEF, Tucapel Jiménez, Army Major Carlos Herrera, is detained and prosecuted for this crime.

Why write a book? José Valencia points out that "it was an initiative they had longed to carry out for years, and it came to bring justice to Christian Democratic men and women who were executed or who, to this day, remain in the painful condition of being forcibly disappeared." They were anonymous grassroots militants from the union, student, peasant, and professional worlds, whose names until then remained practically unknown to the bulk of the DC membership and party leadership, forgotten by the ups and downs and demands of situational politics, which were permanently pressured by the management of successive elections, the administration of power, and the exercise of governmental responsibility. Valencia asserts that "Their names, however, were carried in the hearts of their families, friends, and fellow travelers, like an imperishable fire kept alive in the folds of memory, of their memories." Valencia Castañeda is the author of the book “The Plaque. Much more than a piece of metal.” He is a journalist, designer, and illustrator. He has been a member of the Christian Democratic Party since he was 15 years old; in 1987, he was a victim of political imprisonment, and his case is recorded in the Valech Commission report. In his first work, the author recalls to Cambio21 the history of the plaque that contains the names of 16 people linked to the DC who lost their lives at the hands of State agents during the dark period of the civil-military dictatorship. When did this initiative begin? This was gestated in 1998; I had party responsibilities as a national councilor for the Christian Democratic Youth. It was a year marked by demonstrations, since after handing over command of the Army, Pinochet was sworn in before the National Congress as a senator-for-life, as established by the 1980 Constitution. It was one of the authoritarian enclaves with which the old regime intended to maintain its unacceptable guardianship over the recently recovered Chilean democracy. In that context, we decided to recognize our fallen comrades, of course in the sense of demanding truth and justice for them and their families. That is how we installed a plaque at the party headquarters with the names of the DC victims of the civil-military dictatorship. How many cases are there? Today, we still do not know how many there are. But currently, we have counted 16 victims, including those disappeared and/or executed, who were linked to the DC through membership or proximity, although originally the plaque considered only 14. The official bodies that addressed the matter in democracy could not access precise information due to the perpetrators' pacts of silence and the well-founded fear of the families. We did not have those certainties in 1998 either, which is why I put the phrase on the plaque: “tribute to the Christian Democrats who gave their lives for justice and freedom, to those mentioned here, to those whose names we never knew, and to those who day by day dedicate their lives to the defense and promotion of human rights.” The plaque also has the former President Frei Montalva inscribed... Indeed, his name is incorporated; he was one of the two people added in 2017. When the plaque was originally created, there was no judicial certainty that Mr. Eduardo was also part of this sad list. There was legal and technical-forensic work that made it possible to establish the truth and identify the culprits. In that sense, it is important to recognize the enormous effort made by the family of former President Frei Ruíz Tagle, especially the work of his sister and daughter of Frei Montalva, Carmen, to achieve results in an investigation that, by all appearances and from the beginning, pointed to the participation of third parties in his death, and specifically members of the intelligence agencies of Pinochet's dictatorship. How did the idea of writing a book arise and why now? The installation and reinstallation of the plaque meant a work of gathering information that allowed us to have the basis to begin writing this short history, which also deals with the context and how the JDC of the time decided to create this testimony. I considered it important to do so to rescue the memory of the victims, just now, when there have been serious human rights violations due to police repression, where State terrorism, which today looms by mutilating or blinding protesters and keeping the young people of the social revolt imprisoned, evokes for us when the dictatorship detained and disappeared people, or when it executed people in fake confrontations. These are the DC members who were murdered by the Dictatorship 1. Eduardo Frei Montalva, Political Assassination. 2. Guillermo Amador Álvarez Cañas, Political Execution. 3. José Emiliano Balboa Benítez, Forcibly Disappeared. 4. Sonia De Las Mercedes Bustos Reyes, Forcibly Disappeared. 5. Hernán Horacio Castillo Calcagni, Political Execution. 6. Gustavo Efraín Domínguez Jara, Forcibly Disappeared. 7. Tomás Rogelio Domínguez Jara, Forcibly Disappeared. 8. Mario Gilberto Fernández López, Political Assassination. 9. Mario Daniel Martínez Rodríguez, Political Assassination. 10. Juan Guillermo Navarrete Solar, Political Execution. 11. Juan Segundo Palma Arévalo, Political Execution. 12. Roberto Romualdo Romero Reyes, Political Execution. 13. Sergio Orlando Verdugo Herrera, Political Execution. 14. Juan Antonio Villaseñor Jara, Political Execution. 15. Sergio Gervasio Rodríguez Villanueva, Forcibly Disappeared. 16. Fernando David Becerra Julio, Political Execution.

Source: cambio21.cl, December 17, 2020

Date: 12-17-2020

. At the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, on Friday, September 10, the second edition of the book “The Plaque, much more than a piece of metal” was launched. The presentation of the manuscript was carried out by the president of the Chilean Commission for Human Rights, lawyer Carlos Margotta Trincado.

The work by journalist and designer José Valencia Castañeda relates the details of the recognition made by a group of militants from the Christian Democratic Youth in 1998 by installing a bronze plaque with the names of the DC martyrs murdered during the dictatorship.

Cambio21 spoke with the book's author, José Valencia, who appears in the photo. -How did the idea of installing a plaque with the DC victims at the party headquarters arise? -The answer is circumscribed to a series of very particular contextual situations: in 1998, with Pinochet assuming the role of senator-for-life, there was a need to avoid oblivion, and an urgency to vindicate our martyrs and publish their names by casting them in bronze.

It is a plaque that originally contained inaccuracies and omissions, which was lost for a decade and was replaced in 2017. This manuscript is the history of that memorial plaque; it is not the history of the victims because I consider that each one of them deserves their own book to know their lives, their dreams, and their ideas. -What is the meaning of this publication? -This book is the history of a vindication, that of the memory of sixteen people, men and women, who embraced the cause of Christian humanism, and who, by reason of their militancy or adherence to the values that inspired their work, were victims of the most brutal dictatorial repression. It is an action to rescue memory. -Who were the victims? -They are 16 people murdered by State agents, 11 political executions and 5 forcibly disappeared. A group of ordinary Chilean men and women—secretaries, peasants, professionals, public servants, retirees, merchants, high school students, and university students—who, at a vibrant moment in their lives, were militants in the political expression of Christian humanism. Among them, also a former President of the Republic. -What did you find in the investigation? -I found some clarifications, relevant data that differ from the official history, and mainly heartbreaking testimonies. It was not easy to gather information from direct sources to build the biographical sketches contained in this publication. From that perspective, this book is perhaps—still in its second edition—a provisional text, whose final drafting is still pending. This is not accidental, since after so many decades of oblivion, the testimonies of relatives, friends, and fellow travelers have been lost in time. But I managed to find some family members and in them also the victims; I must admit that I was moved on more than one occasion by the stories and the small passages of life that they told me and that they treasure as the most precious of memories. I appreciate the sincerity, the trust, and the contribution of those testimonies. -Why write this book so many years later? -Because I am part of a generation that refuses to forget and continues to think that accessing the whole truth and all of justice constitutes the necessary and essential condition to heal the wounds of 17 years of systematic human rights violations, without justice and without truth to this day. Because in this Government, I saw again the actions of State terrorism, torturing, mutilating, and blinding protesters of the social revolt. Because now, there are political prisoners in Chile again, and for that same reason, I am convinced that this book constitutes a small contribution thinking of future generations, so that the serious human rights violations like those that occurred here—and which loom again today when crowds fill the city streets and repression proceeds by emulating the brutality of the civil-military dictatorship—never happen again in Chile. *These are the DC members who were murdered by the Dictatorship: 1. Eduardo Frei Montalva, Political Assassination. 2. Guillermo Amador Álvarez Cañas, Political Execution. 3. José Emiliano Balboa Benítez, Forcibly Disappeared. 4. Sonia De Las Mercedes Bustos Reyes, Forcibly Disappeared. 5. Hernán Horacio Castillo Calcagni, Political Execution. 6. Gustavo Efraín Domínguez Jara, Forcibly Disappeared. 7. Tomás Rogelio Domínguez Jara, Forcibly Disappeared. 8. Mario Gilberto Fernández López, Political Assassination. 9. Mario Daniel Martínez Rodríguez, Political Assassination. 10. Juan Guillermo Navarrete Solar, Political Execution. 11. Juan Segundo Palma Arévalo, Political Execution. 12. Roberto Romualdo Romero Reyes, Political Execution. 13. Sergio Orlando Verdugo Herrera, Political Execution. 14. Juan Antonio Villaseñor Jara, Political Execution. 15. Sergio Gervasio Rodríguez Villanueva, Forcibly Disappeared. 16. Fernando David Becerra Julio, Political Execution.

Source: enlafontana.cl 9/15/2021

Christian Democracy and the 50 years of the Coup. The unknown history of the 16 DC militants and sympathizers who were murdered by the dictatorship.

In little more than a month, it will be 50 years since the civil-military coup that overthrew the Popular Unity Government. After the bombing of the La Moneda Palace was completed, the Military Junta began a fierce persecution of UP adherents; the militants of the left-wing political parties were victims of the most violent repression, suffering political imprisonment, torture, exile, execution, and forced disappearance.

The Communist Party, the MIR, and the PS suffered the annihilation of hundreds of their militants; the MAPU, the Christian Left, and the Radicals also knew the horror of the military regime. The Christian Democracy, a party in opposition to Salvador Allende, also recorded fatal victims among its ranks during the dictatorial period.

It is a rather unknown history, which journalist and designer José Valencia Castañeda recorded a couple of years ago in the book “The Plaque, Much More than a Piece of Metal.” In the turbulent political atmosphere in which half a century of the coup d'état is being marked, Cambio21 spoke with the author of the book to learn more details about the publication and his impression of the current situation.

Who perpetrated these crimes and who are the victims in the Christian Democracy? The murderers in all cases were State agents who sometimes acted with the collaboration of civilians, depending on the context and the characteristics of the victims.

The martyrs are people who, at a vibrant moment in their lives, were militants in the political expression of Christian humanism—ordinary Chilean men and women, secretaries, peasants, professionals, public servants, retirees, merchants, high school students, university students, and a former President of the Republic.

The assassination by poisoning of President Frei is the consequence of a planned action in which personnel from the Army's National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), medical personnel, civilians, and people close to his family, such as his driver, participated, betraying his trust in exchange for money and protection.

Who are the remaining DC martyrs of the dictatorship? The other murdered DC members are Mario Martínez, who, like Sergio Verdugo, was threatened, followed, kidnapped, and murdered by the CNI. Mario Fernández died as a consequence of the torture inflicted by his captors; Guillermo Álvarez was detained through a gigantic military operation at his home, while he was convalescing from a surgical intervention, only to be executed by firing squad along with other port leaders.

Hernán Castillo Calcagni was murdered with high-caliber weaponry at his workplace on September 11, 1973. Juan Navarrete was detained and murdered by Carabineros, as were Juan Palma and Roberto Romero, all executed by the same uniformed police.

Juan Villaseñor and Fernando Becerra were killed with war weaponry, riddled with bullets by military personnel who abused their status of impunity. José Balboa Benítez, Sonia Bustos Reyes, Sergio Rodríguez Villanueva, and the brothers Gustavo and Tomás Domínguez Jara were captured, taken to clandestine detention centers, and to this day remain in the condition of being forcibly disappeared.

Why did the dictatorship murder militants of the Christian Democracy, a party opposed to the UP Government? In the 16 cases mentioned, there are not only militants, but also people of DC thought. They were executed in diverse circumstances; at times the DINA, the CNI, Carabineros, or the Army intervened.

Some of them were killed in the context of protests or due to abuse of power. Let us remember that in Chile there are documented records of 2,125 political executions and 1,102 forcibly disappeared persons.

It is important to remember that in the Christian Democracy there were sectors that sympathized with the Coup, but it was a political party in opposition to the dictatorship. On September 13, 1973, 13 militants signed a letter condemning the overthrow of President Salvador Allende, and over time the DC acquired a very important and vital role among the parties opposed to the military regime.

The assassination of Frei Montalva occurred after the massive act at the Caupolicán Theater, with a call for the unity of all opposition forces and a categorical rejection of the abuses of human rights that were taking place.

The same applies to Mario Martínez, a leader of the USACH Student Federation, and Mario Fernández, a transport leader. The DC became a threat to the dictatorship, in a dimension and at a time different from the left-wing parties, but it clearly became a problem for Pinochet.

In your book, you speak of State terrorism; to what situations are you referring with this statement? The first act of terrorism they committed was the bombing of La Moneda. It is a disproportionate and unnecessary action, the justification for which lies in inflicting fear on the population.

The Chilean Air Force launched missiles repeatedly at the Government Palace, and with that, it collapsed the roof, the old and thick walls; it destroyed it, set it on fire, and reduced it to ruins. That is the first signal, followed by a series of situations designed to inflict dread on people, such as the case of the three Communist Party professionals kidnapped on public roads in broad daylight and who were later beheaded, the assassination of the president of the ANEF, Tucapel Jiménez, or when they burned Rodrigo Rojas and Carmen Gloria Quintana alive; those events are not coincidental.

They were planned actions to terrorize people, as was the impunity they flaunted with arbitrary detentions, intimidation, torture, the theft of property and belongings, and all the outrages they perpetrated while acting with the complicity and control of the media, which functioned as a propaganda apparatus for the dictatorship.

Almost 50 years have passed since some of the murders described in your book; what is the relevance that your publication acquires in this context? The value of this manuscript lies in the fact that it is a printed testimony, an austere and perhaps still unfinished record, because time has passed and some of the victims' relatives are no longer here, and the case records are incomplete.

This book is an attempt to rescue the memory of 16 martyrs who fought for the cause of justice and freedom; some of them did so from clandestinity and others as public leaders. The text is a modest message not to forget the atrocious crimes of the civil-military dictatorship, to remember that there were civilians involved, who were accomplices and in some cases also executioners.

This is important because today we see that there are sectors on the extreme right that intend to justify or differentiate the Coup from the Dictatorship, as if the overthrow of the Popular Unity Government had not been an anti-democratic, bloody, violent, and macabre act, instigated and financed by the CIA, the US government, and the economic groups that managed to involve important sectors of the Armed Forces officer corps.

There are still hundreds of forcibly disappeared persons who have not been identified; the executioners and their accomplices placed the greatest number of obstacles so that we could never find them. They have information; we need to know where they are.

Despite the passage of time, we will continue searching, and 50 years after the coup, we continue to demand justice. These are the DC members who were murdered by the Dictatorship: 1. Eduardo Frei Montalva, Political Assassination. 2.

Guillermo Amador Álvarez Cañas, Political Execution. 3. José Emiliano Balboa Benítez, Forcibly Disappeared. 4. Sonia De Las Mercedes Bustos Reyes, Forcibly Disappeared. 5. Hernán Horacio Castillo Calcagni, Political Execution. 6.

Gustavo Efraín Domínguez Jara, Forcibly Disappeared. 7. Tomás Rogelio Domínguez Jara, Forcibly Disappeared. 8. Mario Gilberto Fernández López, Political Assassination. 9. Mario Daniel Martínez Rodríguez, Political Assassination. 10.

Juan Guillermo Navarrete Solar, Political Execution. 11. Juan Segundo Palma Arévalo, Political Execution. 12. Roberto Romualdo Romero Reyes, Political Execution. 13. Sergio Orlando Verdugo Herrera, Political Execution. 14. Juan Antonio Villaseñor Jara, Political Execution. 15. Sergio Gervasio Rodríguez Villanueva, Forcibly Disappeared. 16. Fernando David Becerra Julio, Political Execution.

Source: cambio21.cl 8/3/2023

Date: 08-03-2023