d) Victims of the Partido Socialista

d.1) Responsibility of the DINA

The persecution of members of the Partido Socialista (PS) occurred throughout the 1974-1975 period. The disappearances and executions of its members are linked to the leadership positions many of them had held, given this party's very significant participation in the government of President Allende, in the State apparatus, and in trade union and social organizations.

In 1974, the repression can be characterized as inorganic, as it encompassed a heterogeneous group of people who held various minor positions in the PS throughout the country. These individuals occupied leadership roles at the social base level.

By 1975, however, when an organized apparatus existed within the PS, the repression was focused directly on its top leadership and culminated in their capture and subsequent disappearance. Later, in late 1975 and early 1976, several leaders who had replaced the top leadership were persecuted and forcibly disappeared.

On January 3, 1974, José Manuel RIVAS RACHITOFF, Rebeca María ESPINOZA SEPULVEDA, José PEREZ HERMOSILLA, and two others were detained in the vicinity of the Plaza de la Constitución in Santiago by members of the FACh.

All of them worked at or had recently been expelled from Indap, and with the exception of Rebeca Espinoza, those affected were militants of the PS. They were transferred to the Guarnición Aérea del Bosque, where they were interrogated.

There is express acknowledgment in an official document signed by an Aviation General to the Criminal Court investigating their disappearance that, subsequently, the detainees were placed at the disposal of the DINA.

The DINA took them to Tejas Verdes. According to testimonies received by this Commission, José Rivas and José Pérez were held in one of the cells at that detention center, showing clear signs of having been tortured, so much so that the former "could not go to the bathroom on his own" and "was spitting blood from his mouth."

Other witnesses also report the presence of Rebeca Espinoza in that same detention center and state that she had likewise been tortured.

None of these three people regained their freedom, and no further news of them has been heard.

The Commission is convinced that their disappearance was the work of State agents, who thereby violated their human rights.

José Miguel Mario Miguel Julio Rivas Rachitoff, married, 4 children, journalist, former INDAP official, and member of the Socialist Party, was detained on January 3, 1974, shortly after noon, in the vicinity of the Plaza de la Constitución, Santiago, by agents of the Chilean Air Force (FACH) who were dressed in civilian clothes.

On the same occasion, and at different moments, the following were also detained: Rebeca María Espinoza Sepúlveda, a former INDAP official and currently a forcibly disappeared person, along with two of her children and a granddaughter only a few months old (they would be released hours later from the El Bosque Air Base); José Leonardo Pérez Hermosilla, a former INDAP official and currently a forcibly disappeared person; Julio Hernán Parraguez Acevedo (who would be released two months later from the Tejas Verdes Regiment); and José Medina Garcés, a former INDAP official, who was subsequently released.

José Miguel Rivas—like the rest of the detainees—was taken to the Aeronautical Polytechnic Academy in El Bosque, where he remained for three days. After this time, he was transferred to the Tejas Verdes Military Engineers School Regiment, from which he disappeared. Rebeca María Espinoza and José Leonardo Pérez Hermosilla also disappeared from this facility.

The victim's detention is expressly acknowledged in an official letter that Aviation General Mario Vivero Avila—Commander of the Santiago Air Force Garrison—sent to the 2nd Criminal Court of Santiago, where the alleged disappearance of the victim was being investigated, on February 17, 1975.

In said letter, General Vivero Avila indicated that José Miguel Rivas had been detained on January 3, 1974, by order of the El Bosque Air Garrison, due to his history of extremist activities. Along with him—it was added—Julio Parraguez, José Pérez Hermosilla, Rebeca Espinoza Sepúlveda, and José Medina Garcés were also detained.

Subsequently, the detainees were handed over to the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA).

Julio Hernán Parraguez recalls that on that day, at lunchtime, he passed through the Plaza de la Constitución on his way to the Ministry of Agriculture. There, he met the victim, Rebeca Espinoza, José Pérez Hermosilla, and José Medina.

After talking for a few minutes, the witness left the area, only to pass by the same place half an hour later. He then noted that the group was no longer there. He continued toward Teatinos, where a civilian approached him, threatened him with a weapon, pushed him against one of the walls of La Moneda, tied his hands behind his back, and forced him into a vehicle, taking him to the Aeronautical Polytechnic Academy in El Bosque.

At this FACH facility, he was taken to a large room where the victim, Rebeca Espinoza, José Leonardo Pérez, José Medina, and other people the witness did not know were already being held. There, they were interrogated separately about their respective political and work activities, especially regarding an alleged "meeting" they had supposedly held in the Plaza de la Constitución.

At the end of the interrogations, their papers and personal documents were taken away, and they were taken to another room where they were tied up and blindfolded. In this room, there were about 10 other people.

For the rest of the time, they continued to be taken out one by one for interrogation. The witness did not suffer mistreatment, but some of the other detainees returned from the interrogations with clear signs of pain.

After three days, they were loaded onto a truck to be taken to the Tejas Verdes Military Engineers School Regiment. At that military facility, Julio Hernán Parraguez was kept in the same cabin as José Miguel Rivas and José Pérez Hermosilla, in addition to some university students whose names he does not remember.

Four or five days later, the victim and Pérez Hermosilla were taken out of the cabin, supposedly to be taken for interrogation, and were not returned. In turn, the witness was taken to the sector where the detainees who were not held incommunicado were kept. There, he remained with José Medina, and from a distance, in the women's sector, he saw Rebeca Espinoza every day.

One day—Parraguez does not remember the date—Rivas Rachitoff was returned to the cabins where the witness was being held. He was in very poor physical condition, and the rest of the prisoners had to support him to take him to the bathroom because he could not do it himself.

He was spitting blood from his mouth. The victim remained in that sector for several days until he was taken away, with no one knowing where. He never returned, and in the camp, it was rumored that he had been taken to the San Antonio Hospital.

Julio Hernán Parraguez remained in Tejas Verdes for almost four months, being taken on several occasions for interrogation to the basement of the Officers' Club, where he heard the screams of Rebeca Espinoza while she was being tortured. The witness was released on April 19, 1974, when he was taken out of Tejas Verdes in a moving truck that left him in Cerrillos.

Manuel José Salinas Letelier is also a witness to the victim's stay in Tejas Verdes. The declarant was detained on January 16, 1974, and taken to several facilities, including the Military Engineers School Regiment, where he was subjected to intense torture.

In the basement of the Officers' Club—amidst the interrogations, Salinas Letelier could hear the sounds of a piano—he was stripped, hooded, beaten, hung, and subjected to electric shocks. His torturers even had to perform heart massage to revive him from a severe fainting spell.

It was at this military facility that he saw José Miguel Rivas in poor physical condition. On one occasion, the victim was taken out for interrogation and he never heard from him again. The witness remained in Tejas Verdes for two months.

For his part, Gines Emilio Rojas Gómez, author of the book "Tejas Verdes, mis primeros cinco minutos" (Tejas Verdes, My First Five Minutes), testified regarding the victim's imprisonment at the Military Engineers School Regiment, both through a sworn statement and before the 1st Criminal Court of San Antonio during the investigation conducted in relation to José Leonardo Pérez (1991).

The declarant was detained on January 23, 1974, while he was at the National Television (TVN) facilities. He was taken to several facilities, including the Tejas Verdes Regiment, where he remained until approximately February 15, 1974.

A few days after being admitted to that facility, a detainee approached him and said, "Rivas is looking for you." He indeed found the victim in one of the wooden cabins, where he had already been for almost a month.

He saw him in terrible physical condition as a result of the torture to which he had been subjected. He was constantly shivering, his arms were practically immobile, and he was passing blood when urinating.

In the short time they were together, Rivas gave him advice on how to defend himself when interrogated. He also told him that they had kept him hanging from an iron bar all night, tied by his hands and feet, which left his muscles uncontrolled.

The victim added that he had been detained when he was coming from a print shop and ran into some friends on the street. Rivas told the witness that he knew he would not leave there alive. That same night, the victim was taken out again for interrogation, and at dawn, the military called other detainees to help move him.

The victim asked to be taken to the bathroom—which was a pit full of worms—where he passed only blood. In the cabin, the prisoners covered him as best they could, and the next day, the nurses who routinely came to check on the condition of the detainees reported the situation to the military.

Rivas Rachitoff was in a serious state of health, with a fever and dehydrated. He was taken out by the military on a stretcher, according to the witness, to be transferred to the San Antonio Hospital.

Later, in 1990, when Ginés Emilio Rojas visited San Antonio for the launch of his book, he learned from the person who was the Head Nurse at the hospital in that port in 1974 that José Miguel Rivas had indeed been admitted to that health center in serious condition. However, the next day, he had been removed from the hospital by the same military personnel who had brought him.

The witness also saw José Leonardo Pérez and Rebeca Espinoza at Tejas Verdes.

While the victim was disappearing from the Tejas Verdes Regiment, his family carried out various efforts to locate his whereabouts. His mother, Olga Rachitoff, a Peruvian national suffering from severe emotional problems due to the victim's detention, had to return to her country.

María Isabel Rivas—the victim's aunt—continued with the procedures. The efforts in this regard were numerous, and in June 1974, the National Executive Secretariat for Detainees (SENDET) informed María Isabel Rivas and the victim's spouse that Rivas Rachitoff was on a list of detainees, held without charges and at the disposal of the DINA, which was why they lacked further information.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On October 17, 1974, the family filed a complaint for the alleged disappearance of the victim before the 2nd Criminal Court of Santiago, which was registered under case number 82.597-11. The filing recounted the exact circumstances surrounding the detention and disappearance of Rivas Rachitoff, requesting—among other things—that official letters be sent to SENDET, the DINA, the El Bosque Polytechnic Academy, and the Tejas Verdes Regiment.

On October 29, 1974, Group Commander Fritz Dreyer Hansen, of the Aeronautical Polytechnic Academy, sent an official letter to the Court stating that any inquiry regarding detainees should be made directly to the Santiago Air Force Garrison.

On October 31 of that same year, Lieutenant Colonel Luis Rodríguez Díaz, Military Prosecutor of Tejas Verdes, reported that the victim had not been detained nor was he at the disposal of that Prosecutor's Office.

Colonel Jorge Espinoza Ulloa, Executive Secretary of SENDET, indicated in turn, in October 1974, that said agency lacked information regarding the victim. Despite those letters, on February 17, 1975, the letter from Aviation General Mario Vivero Avila, Commander of the Santiago Air Force Garrison, was received, which accounted for the detention of the victim along with Julio Parraguez, José Pérez Hermosilla, Rebeca Espinoza, and José Medina, who were subsequently handed over to the DINA.

On March 6, 1975, Visiting Minister Enrique Zurita Camps requested that case from the 2nd Criminal Court to consolidate it, on March 17, 1975, with case number 106.657, which had been initiated following a mass writ of amparo for 131 people.

On March 24, 1974, the aforementioned mass amparo was filed before the Court of Appeals of Santiago—including the victim's name in the filing—which was registered under number 289-74. The Court made various inquiries to the authorities of the time, without being able to establish the particular situation of those under the amparo.

On November 28, 1974, the filing was rejected, which led the plaintiffs to appeal that ruling. On January 31, 1975, the Plenary of the Supreme Court confirmed the appealed resolution and, in the same act, agreed to appoint an Extraordinary Visiting Minister to focus on the corresponding investigation.

The appointment fell to Minister Enrique Zurita Camps, who on February 24, 1975, instructed the proceedings of case number 106.657 in the 1st Criminal Court of Santiago.

The process began with the summoning of the complaining relatives. Official letters were sent to the authorities—all with negative responses—and files were consolidated regarding the alleged disappearances of some of the victims under the amparo, including the cases of 11 people detained in Isla de Maipo, some of whose bodies later appeared in the Lonquén Ovens, in addition to the cases of Enrique París Roa and Enrique Huerta Corvalán, both of whom disappeared from La Moneda on September 11, 1973.

As already mentioned, the case for the alleged disappearance of the victim (case number 82597-11) was consolidated on March 17, 1975.

It was to Minister Zurita Camps that the DINA sent a letter on April 9, 1975, stating that in relation to the victim and Julio Parraguez Acevedo, inquiries should be directed to the Ministry of the Interior or SENDET.

The latter agency reported, on September 9, 1975, through its Executive Secretary, Colonel Jorge Espinoza Ulloa, that it did not have a record of the detention of Rivas Rachitoff in any of the Detention Camps that were under its jurisdiction.

On September 25, 1975—without having delved into the reported cases—the Visiting Minister closed the summary proceedings for "being unable to advance further in the investigation." On September 29 of the same year, he issued a ruling.

In the case of Rivas Rachitoff, he declared himself incompetent because personnel from the Air Force or the DINA and Army officials were involved in said disappearance.

On May 10, 1976, the Court of Appeals of Santiago approved that resolution.

Thus, the case of José Miguel Rivas Rachitoff passed to the Military Justice system, which accepted jurisdiction on July 1, 1976, placing the case in the III Military Prosecutor's Office, which registered it under number 1382-76.

Without any action being taken, on August 9, 1976, the summary proceedings were closed, and on the 10th of the same month and year, the case was temporarily dismissed because the existence of the crime had not been proven. On September 14, 1976, the Court Martial approved the consulted resolution.

Years later, on February 2, 1990, at the request of Lieutenant Colonel Enrique Ibarra Chamorro, General Military Prosecutor, the Military Justice system applied Decree Law 2191 of April 1978, which provided for amnesty for crimes committed prior to that date.

The case for the alleged disappearance of José Miguel Rivas Rachitoff was then totally and definitively dismissed. The resolution was appealed to the Court Martial.