Date of Birth: 30/11/35, 40 years old at the time of his detention. Address: 2º Avenida 1438, Gran Avenida Paradero 13, Santiago Marital Status: Married, three children Occupation: Primary School Teacher Political Affiliation: Communist Party; Coordinator of the Political Commission of the Central Committee; Former Regional Coordinator of Education (1972) in Antofagasta; Regional Secretary of the Communist Party in Antofagasta (1974) Date of Detention: May 7, 1976

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

José Manuel Guggiana Espoz, married, father of three, a teacher and former Regional Secretary of the Communist Party in Antofagasta, was detained in Santiago, without witnesses, possibly on a public street, by agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) on May 7, 1976, at a time when the DINA was carrying out an intense crackdown against the Communist Party.

At that time, José Manuel Guggiana was part of a coordinating team for the Political Commission of the Communist Party, along with Marta Ugarte Román—who was detained in August 1976 and whose mutilated body appeared on "La Ballena" beach in Los Molles, in the city of La Ligua, in September 1976, showing brutal signs of torture—and Elisa Escobar, who also remains forcibly disappeared since May 1976.

Prior to his detention, Guggiana Espoz had already been detained in October 1973. On October 4 of that year, around 10:00 a.m., military personnel arrived at his home located in Villa Toconce, in Antofagasta, to ask for him.

Nancy Figueroa—the victim's spouse—stated that the uniformed men, who arrived in a military regiment vehicle and a private car, were heavily armed and included a Captain and a Lieutenant. Upon not finding him, they went to School No. 34, where he was a teacher.

They took him from there in the presence of his students, drove him to his home, raided the house—finding nothing—and then took him to the Antofagasta Regiment. José Manuel Guggiana was released that same day around 19:00 hours. Upon returning home, he recounted that an officer had told him he would be closely watched, as "the communists were doing ant-like work."

Until July 1974, the victim continued working as a teacher. During that time, he assumed the role of Regional Secretary of the Communist Party in Antofagasta, where previous leaders had already been detained.

However, he did not manage to hold the position for more than three or four months. On July 24, 1974, around 18:45 hours, five civilians arrived at his house asking for him. At 21:00 hours, other unknown individuals returned.

In the early hours of July 25, plainclothes Carabineros, members of the Carabineros Intelligence Service (SICAR), raided the house, taking with them books, records, and documents belonging to the victim, who had left the home on July 24 for personal safety reasons.

Indeed, as soon as the civilians arrived at his house, Bernardo Javier—the victim's 14-year-old son—quickly went to the bus stop and warned his father of what was happening. His father left the area and asked him to bring him clothes the following day at a corner of the neighborhood.

Bernardo Javier did so personally, and that was the last time he saw the victim in Antofagasta. During those same days, Guggiana Espoz traveled to Santiago.

On July 27, in the early morning, the SICAR appeared at his home again at 02:20 hours. On that occasion, a Lieutenant named Ovando was present, along with Carabineros Ismael Rivero, Ramírez, and Segovia.

The agents interrogated the victim's wife and their three children, separating them into different rooms. After two hours, having obtained no information on Guggiana Espoz's whereabouts, they decided to leave and take his eldest son, 15-year-old José Emilio, into custody.

They blindfolded him in front of the entire family and put him into a red car, without telling his mother where they were taking him (a recurso de amparo [writ of habeas corpus] was filed for the minor). The adolescent was detained for about 7 days at the Carabineros Instruction Group in Antofagasta. One night, the captors dropped José Emilio off at his home; he did not speak of what had happened.

Once he arrived in Santiago, José Manuel Guggiana lived in a house rented by a friend and party comrade, located on Gran Avenida. Shortly after, he made contact with Hugo Vivanco (who was forcibly disappeared in August 1976), beginning to work on party matters with the regional branches that the Communist Party had in the south of the country.

He traveled constantly and maintained—through other people—epistolary contact with his family.

In January 1975, around the 20th, Bernardo Javier traveled to the south on a tour with his school's symphony orchestra. When they arrived in Temuco—they stayed at the city's Regiment—a teacher told him he would see his father. The director gave him an address, where he met with the victim. He gave him a radio as a gift, and that was the last time he saw him.

During 1975, the family knew very little about Guggiana Espoz. On May 19, 1976, civilians arrived at his house in Antofagasta again, telling Nancy not to go out, because if she did, she would never see her eldest son again. Also in 1976, a teacher told José Emilio that his father had been killed in Santiago.

Around May 4, 1976, the victim commented to the owner of the house where he was living that he was very surprised because Marta Ugarte had not arrived for a meeting, and the same had occurred with Elisa Escobar; he had party-related ties with both.

Thus, on May 7, 1976, Guggiana left the house around 9:00 a.m., saying he was going to try to contact Marta Ugarte and that he would return for lunch. He never returned, nor was he ever seen again. Elisa Escobar had been detained on May 6.

The detention and disappearance of the victim were part of a major DINA crackdown against the Communist Party—its Central Committee members, leaders of various important party structures, their liaisons, and militants—which occurred in May 1976. During those days, numerous detentions of leaders took place, many of whom, including the victim, remain in the status of forcibly disappeared.

Regarding these events, the National Directorate of Social Communication (DINACOS), in public statements issued in July 1976, reported that the Intelligence Services, knowing that the Communist Party had ordered mass asylum requests and other political actions, taking advantage of the Organization of American States (OAS) Assembly in Santiago, had decided to "act against the 'mailbox houses' (32 in total in Santiago) that this Party maintains for liaison between the Political Commission and the different regional branches." It added that in the "mailbox houses," "those members of the clandestine Communist Party who were dedicated to this type of liaison" had been detained. In a second statement on July 17, DINACOS said that the Government had deemed it appropriate to "provide only a part of the abundant background information, having to reserve, for obvious reasons, all those that affect the ongoing investigation regarding the subversive action of the P.C." Finally, it was officially stated that in said operation, "an important group of clandestine communist leaders was detained."

For its part, the press of the time (the magazine "Qué Pasa," August 1976) reported that, according to what the Government declared, 32 "mailbox houses" had been dismantled in an action carried out against communists in May 1976.

The journalistic article spoke of the detention of militants of that Party and even gave the names of Bernardo Araya, Uldarico Donaire, and Víctor Díaz—among others—who remain disappeared to this day.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On November 24, 1976, before the 1st Criminal Court of Antofagasta, Nancy Figueroa filed a complaint for the alleged disappearance of the victim. The results have been null in terms of locating the whereabouts of José Manuel Guggiana Espoz.

The court confirmed the 10-year prison sentence against three former military personnel and members of the DINA for the qualified kidnapping of merchant Rodolfo Marcial Núñez Benavides, who is listed as a forcibly disappeared person.

The Second Chamber of the San Miguel Court of Appeals ratified this Tuesday the sentence against three former agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the qualified kidnapping of merchant Rodolfo Marcial Núñez Benavides, who to this date is listed as a forcibly disappeared person.

This crime was perpetrated starting on May 18, 1976, in the midst of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. The victim, 54 years old, was married and a father of three. In addition to being a salesman, he had been a union leader and was a militant of the Communist Party and the organization secretary for said group.

The detention and disappearance of Núñez Benavides is part of a concerted DINA action unleashed in May 1976 and directed against the Communist Party, against members of the Central Committee, leaders of various important party structures, their liaisons, and militants.

In that repressive offensive, among other high-ranking leaders, the following were kidnapped: Miguel Luis Morales Ramírez on May 3; Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso and Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays on May 4; Uldarico Donaire Cortés and Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño on May 5; Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda on May 6; Fernando Antonio Lara Rojas and José Manuel Guggiana Espoz on May 7; Lenín Adán Díaz Silva on May 9; Marcelo Renán Concha Bascunán on May 10; on May 12, the Deputy General Secretary of the PC, Víctor Manuel Díaz López, and Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández were detained; on May 18, they detained Núñez Benavides, and on the 19th, César Domingo Cerda Cuevas. All these militants remain in the status of forcibly disappeared. In their resolution, judges Liliana Mera Muñoz, Luis Sepúlveda Coronado, and the acting lawyer, Juan Carlo Silva Aldunate, confirmed the first-instance sentence issued by the minister in extraordinary visit for human rights violation cases of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, and sentenced the former military personnel Pedro Espinoza Bravo, an Army Brigadier at the time of the events; Juan Morales Salgado, an Army Major; and Juvenal Piña Garrido, a First Sergeant of the same institution, to the penalty of ten years of presidio mayor in its minimum degree as authors of the qualified kidnapping of the victim.

Source: Elciudadano.com 3/12/2024