José Raúl Velásquez Vargas, single, an employee of the Palena Road Department, was detained on October 9, 1973, around 10:30 a.m., at his home in Alto de Yungue, Palena. According to a witness, the apprehension was carried out by local Carabineros, among whom was a Carabinero named Martínez.

He was taken to the 5th Police Station in the town, where his mother, Zulema Vargas, went to inquire about his situation and leave food for the victim. At this location, his detention was acknowledged, and his mother was informed that he would be released that same night.

The following day, when his mother went to bring him breakfast, the Carabinero Sub-officer Francisco Córdova told her "not to look for him anymore." Since that date, the victim's whereabouts remain unknown.

His situation is linked to other repressive events that occurred and affected his father and brother. His brother, Rubén Alejandro Velásquez Vargas, a farmer, was detained on October 5, 1973, at his home in Alto Yungue, Palena.

The apprehension was carried out by a group of Carabineros from Alto Palena, who arrived at the victim's house firing their weapons. He was with his wife, Ana Delia Soto Alvarez, and their one-year-old son.

Faced with this situation, Rubén Velásquez surrendered to the uniformed officers. Along with another farmer, Luis Espinoza Bastidas, he was taken away. The other detainee was sent to the town of Chin-Chin. The trail of the victim's brother was lost definitively, and he remains a forcibly disappeared person to this day.

At the same time, his father, José Esaú Velásquez Velásquez, also a farmer, was apprehended while working on his land, when Carabineros arrived accompanied by a neighbor. A witness who provided his account to the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation stated that he was killed without any provocation.

The death reportedly occurred at Lago Yungue, 70 km from Palena. The official version of the time, which appeared in the local press on October 11, 1973, labeled Velásquez Velásquez as an extremist who, it was said, "sowed terror in the Continental Chiloé area and was shot to death while trying to attack a Carabinero Corporal during his arrest in the wooded region of the place called 'El Tranquilo,' located seventy kilometers from Palena." The report continued: "The incident occurred when Carabineros of the sector tried to arrest Esaú Velásquez for carrying out subversive actions and terrorist activities in the area. When Carabineros located him and tried to apprehend him in a forest situated between 'El Tranquilo' and Lago Yungue, where the extremist tried to evade police action, Velásquez Velásquez, upon being surprised, attacked a Carabinero Corporal with a machete, who, in repelling the imminent action, used his weapon, shooting him. Furthermore, according to the same report, in the search that Carabineros conducted at the house of Esaú Velásquez, they found abundant Marxist propaganda, dynamite, fuses, and detonators, elements that were intended to carry out acts of sabotage in the area." The press version does not state which authority was responsible for this information. The body was not returned to his family for burial.

The National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, which reviewed this complaint, concluded that the death of José Velásquez Velásquez and the disappearance of his 2 sons constitute human rights violations for which State agents are responsible, based on the following considerations:

• The existence of testimonies that refute the official version regarding the father's death and others that confirm the detentions of the sons;
• The implausibility of the characteristics of the alleged attack by José Velásquez, who supposedly intended to confront an armed patrol with a machete;
• The circumstance that the father and his two sons were victims of three separate repressive acts of a different nature and that an explanation was only provided for one of them;
• The fact that the Carabineros involved in the incident did not accept the Commission's invitation to provide their testimony.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

No judicial actions are recorded.

Source: Rettig Report

Daniel Velásquez—still seeking answers and justice 50 years after the disappearance of his father, his uncle, and his grandfather—narrates the moving story of forced absences during the dictatorship. The following words are the direct testimony of Daniel Velásquez, a man marked by the painful legacy of the military dictatorship. This is his account:

A DAY THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING

"I was born in Palena and the story I will tell you begins in 1973, on October 5, with my dad, my mom, and my grandfather, who lived in the countryside, in a sector called Lago Yungue. I was barely four months old when the military coup occurred.

My brother, with whom I have a difference of barely a year, and I were the youngest in the family. He, unfortunately, passed away at 45. Today, only my mother and I remain as direct heirs to the family history.

My mother, Ana, who is the witness to the events, told me in detail what happened that day. She remembers how a Carabinero arrived at our home firing into the air. My father thought it was hunters chasing ducks, since in October they were hunted in abundance in that area.

However, the reality was different. It wasn't long before a delegation of Carabineros arrived, accompanied by two civilians. They entered our house with violence, demanding weapons.

In the midst of that chaos, my grandfather, who was in the field taking care of a sick cow, was detained and, according to the stories told, murdered and buried in an unknown location. We never found his body, nor that of my father or my uncle.

My mother described with pain how they were beaten and tortured. The Carabineros insisted that they hand over weapons, claiming that my grandfather was a "terrorist" and that he possessed heavy weaponry, such as dynamite and machine guns. My family, however, had no such weapons. The most dangerous things they possessed were a machete and a knife, common tools in the province."

TIED WITH WIRE

"My father was tied with wire, his teeth shattered by the blows. My mother, helpless in the face of the situation, wished it were all just a dream. While this was happening, I was in Palena due to a health condition I was born with, a cleft lip, and I was under the care of my paternal grandmother.

The hours passed, and the Carabineros, acquaintances of my mother since she used to wash their clothes, kept insisting. Finally, they told her they would take my father to the other side of the river. That day, my family's life changed forever.

We were a modest, simple family. My mother, who worked from a very young age, was no more than 18 years old at the time. She tells me that the Carabineros insisted a lot, asking for the supposed weapons, but she had never seen weapons there. Only common tools like machetes, brush hooks, axes, and knives. But never weapons. She had no reason to lie about it.

My mother remembers the day they took my father. They dragged him like dead weight, as he could not walk due to the blows they gave him on his thighs and calves. She told me that, after this, they put him on a boat and crossed to the field of a certain Ernesto de Ocariz.

Two days later, from our house, she tells me, conversations could be heard on the other side of the river, but nothing more... and my mom, in her desperation, decided to take her own life along with my brother.

She wanted to throw herself into the river to kill herself, but she never realized there was a Carabinero stationed at a fixed point who was watching her. So when she tried to do this, the Carabinero approached and told her: 'Mrs. Ana, don't do it because your husband will be back in about four or five days.'"

IF YOUR SON WALKS

.... "What struck her most was that my brother was walking, and within that period when all this terrible thing happened, my brother never walked, he never wanted to walk. So on one occasion, my mother says that Captain Garrido told her: 'If your son walks, you will have the same end as your father-in-law, whom they had killed.' And my brother never walked.

It was destiny so that nothing would happen.

Days later, the Carabineros returned, without the company of the two civilians who had initially guided them. Shortly after, a Carabinero with the surname Segura approached and warned my mom that she could not go to Palena for a month and a half.

If they found her there, she would suffer the same fate as her father-in-law and husband. Desperate and young, with a son in her care and our house completely destroyed, she decided to escape. She took a horse and headed to Palena, always fearful that they would discover her.

On the way, she passed by the house of a man with the surname Reyes. Although he could not help her, he gave her the option of continuing or returning. With her son in her arms, she decided to continue. Finally, she arrived at the house of a sister on her father's side, who hid them for a month. Terror took hold of everyone."

WITHOUT SEEING THE LIGHT OF DAY

"After thirty days, she gathered the courage to go to Palena. She arrived at night at my paternal grandmother's house. She decided to take me with her and left my brother with my grandmother. For approximately eight months, my mother was secluded, almost without going out into the light of day.

When things began to calm down, she started to go out sporadically. However, she did not want to stay in Palena due to everything that had happened there. At that moment, a medical order arose that required me to have surgery for my cleft lip in Puerto Montt. This situation gave my mother the opportunity to leave Palena. This happened around May or June 1975, and we moved to Puerto Montt."

THE HIDDEN TRUTHS

"Over time, my mother found out that they had murdered my uncle Raúl, who worked at the Road Department. It was said that they had taken my uncle to the border so he would cross into Argentina. Another rumor claimed that he was buried next to the Palena River, while another version maintained that they had buried him in the old Palena stables.

Although this last theory is the one most affirmed, it was never thoroughly investigated. There are witnesses who could have shed light on what happened, but out of fear or for other reasons, they refrained from testifying.

My uncle Raúl was also in Palena when he was arrested and subsequently executed. They went to look for him at his work, at the Road Department, with the excuse that my grandfather needed him. After that encounter, he never returned to his work, nor to his life. He disappeared.

Regarding my father and my grandfather, rumors also arose about their destinations after they crossed the river. Some said their bodies were covered with large stones; others commented that the animals in the field fed on my grandfather's remains. Unfortunately, the truth has never been known."

ELUSIVE JUSTICE

"I feel a mixture of sadness and anger for everything that happened. I started a trial in the year 2000, but the sentences were minimal and the culprits were never detained. My mother knows who they are and, during a reconstruction of the scene, some recognized her and greeted her.

Today, many of them are already elderly, between 80 and 90 years old, and despite everything, justice has not been served.

I am often asked why I think justice has been so elusive in this case. I don't have a clear answer. Over the years, we have had many governments and they all seem to take up the issue of human rights when it suits them, especially during elections.

I am 50 years old and I have seen many presidents do the same. Recently, the current government has started work to search for the disappeared, but I have the feeling that everything will repeat itself."

INCESANT SEARCH

"For a time, I dedicated myself personally to searching for my family without the help of authorities. Many gave me clues or places where I could find my father, and although I searched obsessively, I never found anything. Not even a piece of clothing, even though my mother clearly remembered how my father was dressed that day.

We tried to reconstruct the events with those involved, but they always refused to collaborate, maintaining a 'pact of silence.' In 2001 or 2002, after detaining some Carabineros in Chaitén, one of them, Juan Segura Gutiérrez, called me to deny his participation and blame another. I never had contact with any of them again.

Recently, my last uncle passed away. Originally, the family was composed of my grandparents and three sons: my dad, Rubén Alejandro, who was the oldest; José Raúl Velázquez, an employee at the Road Department; and Francisco Velázquez Vargas, the youngest, who recently passed away and worked at CONAF.

My mother keeps many painful details in her heart. There are things that, according to her, I don't need to know. I understand and respect her decision because she must have lived through truly difficult moments.

I once tried to get her to share everything with me, so she could free herself from that weight, but she replied that there are memories that mark you forever. And I understand her perfectly. This is part of our family's history: Velázquez Vargas and Velázquez Soto. Thank you for allowing me to share my story and contribute to the collective memory of our land."

MEMORIAL PLAQUE

The National Association of Fiscal Employees (ANEF) of Los Lagos, presided over by Pamela Espinoza, managed, together with the Velásquez family and friends, the placement of a plaque in the commune of Palena to keep their memory alive.

In a simple and emotional ceremony, in which the National President of ANEF, José Pérez Debelli, was also present, a tribute was paid to those who were victims of the dictatorship, even in the most remote corners of the country. "Memory is crucial so that these events are not repeated and so that future generations understand the importance of human rights."

??We Remember and Honor Their Memory

THE RETTIG REPORT RECORDS THE DATA

JOSE RAUL VELASQUEZ VARGAS

Forcibly disappeared. Palena, October 1973. He was 24 years old, single. He worked as an employee of the Road Department in Palena. Detained on October 9, 1973, in Alto Palena by Carabineros. His whereabouts are unknown; he remains disappeared.

RUBEN ALEJANDRO VELASQUEZ VARGAS

Forcibly disappeared. Palena, October 1973. 28 years old, married. He was a farmer. Detained at his home in Alto Yungue, Palena, by Carabineros, in the presence of his family. The last place he was seen was on the banks of the Palena River.

JOSE ESAU VELASQUEZ VELASQUEZ

Deceased. Alto Palena, October 1973. He was 52 years old, married, and had three children. He was a farmer. He was executed on October 5, 1973, in the El Yungue sector, Alto Palena, accused of attempted assault and illegal possession of weapons and subversive material, a version that the Rettig Commission dismissed, forming the conviction that he was killed by Carabineros of Alto Palena.

Source: elajitador.cl 18/10/2023