Address : Puerto Aysén No. 1986, Población Santa Cecilia, Pudahuel, Santiago Marital Status : Married Occupation : Independent textile artisan. Member of AMPICH (National Association of Medium and Small Industry and Craftsmanship of Chile) Political Affiliation : Militant of the Communist Party. Former union leader. Date of Detention : October 31, 1975

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

José Santos Rocha Alvarez, married, textile artisan, and communist militant, was detained on October 31, 1975, at his home in Población Santa Cecilia, where he was alone because his wife had traveled the previous day to the town of Pailahueque, near Victoria, in Malleco.

Around 04:00 in the morning, several individuals dressed in civilian clothes and heavily armed arrived at the victim's home in three vehicles. The subjects jumped over the house's gate, which always remained locked, entered the front yard, and proceeded to pound forcefully on the front door.

Upon being called, José Rocha Alvarez opened the door, and the civilians entered the dwelling. Sounds of blows and shouting were then heard; the victim was interrogated by the "visitors" in the patio of the house and then taken away by them as a detainee, departing for an unknown destination.

Neighbors of the victim witnessed these events, but citing fear, they have refused to provide statements regarding them.

Noticing the victim's absence, his brother-in-law, Rolando Padilla Etter, arrived at his house on November 1, 1975, around 9:00 in the morning, finding everything open, including the front door, and in complete disarray.

It was evident that the place had been raided or searched. The beds were tossed, all documentation and papers contained in nightstands and cabinets were on the floor, and the wardrobes were also in total disorder.

The above was also confirmed by the victim's spouse, Lidia Briceño Burgos, who, upon returning home, encountered the scene described.

On November 16, 1975, the victim's spouse went to the "Tres Alamos" Prisoner Camp to find out if her husband was being held there. The guard on duty, a Carabineros officer, informed her that José Rocha Alvarez was being held incommunicado at the "Cuatro Alamos" facility, where visits were not permitted.

He added that the aforementioned facility was located adjacent to "Tres Alamos" and that not even he could enter it.

On November 17 of the same year, Lidia Briceño repeated her visit to "Tres Alamos" and was informed again by the guard that the victim was in "Cuatro Alamos," adding, on this occasion, that it was likely the detainee would be moved to open status that same afternoon.

Hopeful due to this information, José Rocha's spouse went to "Tres Alamos" the following day (November 18). On this occasion, the only response she received was that visits were not permitted and that no further inquiries would be answered.

In subsequent visits to the aforementioned facility, Mrs. Briceño was told that the information given about her husband was erroneous, as there had been a "case of mistaken identity."

In March 1991, the national public learned through the press of the confessions of Luz Arce Sandoval—a former collaborator of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA)—who, when testifying before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, exposed the nature of said organization, its mode of operation, part of its structure, the identification of the individuals who comprised it, and her testimony regarding several people who were detained and kidnapped by DINA agents and who remain forcibly disappeared to this day.

Regarding José Santos Rocha Alvarez, she claims to have seen his name in reports as a person detained at Villa Grimaldi.

Furthermore, the report delivered by the aforementioned National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation indicates that the victim was detained by agents of the Joint Command (Comando Conjunto).

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

Lucía Rocha Alvarez, the victim's sister, filed a writ of amparo (habeas corpus) on his behalf on November 3, 1975, before the Santiago Court of Appeals, which was registered under No. 1446-75.

On November 6 of the same year, the victim's spouse, Mrs. Lidia Briceño Burgos, became a party to the aforementioned writ.

During the processing of the case, reports were requested from the Minister of Defense and the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), which stated that José Rocha Alvarez was not being held in detention.

Based on the merit of said reports and without sending official letters to the Ministry of Defense, the National Executive Secretariat of Detainees (SENDET), and the Commander of the "Cuatro Alamos" Prisoner Camp, as the petitioner had expressly requested, the Court of Appeals dismissed the filed writ of amparo on November 20, 1975.

In this same resolution, the Court ordered the records to be sent to the 9th Criminal Court of Santiago so that a summary investigation could be immediately initiated to investigate the possible commission of a crime regarding the disappearance of José Santos Rocha Alvarez.

On this same date (November 20), Lidia Briceño informed the Court that during visits to the "Tres Alamos" Detention Camp, she was informed by the guard of said facility that the victim was being held incommunicado in "Cuatro Alamos," which was later denied, with the addition that it had been a "case of mistaken identity." The Court also forwarded this information to the corresponding Criminal Court.

On December 2, 1975, a process for the alleged disappearance of the victim was initiated by official letter from the Court of Appeals before the 9th Criminal Court of Santiago, which was registered under No. 15.403-10.

On December 12 of the aforementioned year, the Court ordered that official letters be sent to the "Tres and Cuatro Alamos" camps to report whether José Rocha Alvarez was being held in said facilities.

While the response to the previous measure was pending, Lidia Briceño Burgos filed a complaint before the 9th Court for the crime of kidnapping committed against the person of the victim, which was consolidated with the case of the alleged disappearance and continued processing under the latter's file number.

In the respective pleading, it is noted that her neighbor, María Castillo Riquelme, was a witness to the victim's detention, and it is requested that she be summoned to appear before the court.

However, the aforementioned witness, upon appearing before the Court, limited herself to stating that she learned of José Rocha's detention through the words of his brother.

For its part, the order to investigate issued in the case did not yield information that would allow for the establishment of the victim's whereabouts. After measures were carried out without positive results before the Military Intelligence Service (SIM), DINA, SENDET, prison establishments, hospitals, and other similar places, it was returned to the Court, which ordered it to be added to the case files.

The Acting Director of the Legal Medical Service, Dr. Tomás Tobar Pinochet, informed the Court on January 14, 1976, that "after a thorough review of the admissions of deceased persons in the Thanatology Section, from January 1 to December 31, 1974, the entire year 1975, and from January 1, 1976, to date, the body of José Santos Rocha Alvarez is not registered for a forensic autopsy."

The Acting National Executive Secretary of Detainees, Captain Juan Manuel Vergara Villalobos, reported on January 15, 1976, that "said Secretariat has no record of the victim's detention."

Without obtaining a response to the official letters ordered to be sent to the Chief of the "Tres Alamos" and "Cuatro Alamos" Prisoner Camps, and without complying with the measure decreed on April 10, 1976, to send an official letter to the Minister of the Interior, the Court declared the summary closed and temporarily dismissed the case, as "from the gathered evidence, the existence of the investigated crime is not clearly established, until new and better investigative data are presented." All of this occurred on August 14, 1976.

When the preceding resolution was elevated for consultation, it was approved by the Santiago Court of Appeals on October 22, 1976.

On July 5, 1979, Lidia Briceño Burgos requested the reopening of the summary from the 9th Criminal Court of Santiago. To this end, she attached a sworn statement from Rolando Padilla Etter, the victim's brother-in-law, in which he accounts for the state in which he found José Santos Rocha's home on the morning of November 1, 1975, which clearly evidenced that a raid had taken place at the location.

This information had not been recorded in the case files until then.

On July 13, 1979, the Court granted the request and ordered the dismissal to be set aside. However, by resolution of July 19 of the same year, it was decided that, bearing in mind that Minister Servando Jordán López had been appointed as an Extraordinary Visiting Judge to hear cases initiated for alleged disappearance or missing persons, the court was incompetent to continue hearing this case, and it so declared and ordered the records to be sent to the indicated Visiting Minister.

On August 27, 1979, Minister Servando Jordán, ruling on the request to reopen the summary, did not grant it, bearing in mind that: Lidia Briceño Burgos is not a party to this case, that it is currently dismissed, and that the respective document does not comply with the provisions of the Bar Association Law regarding the form of appearing in court.

Subsequently, he returned the case files to the 9th Criminal Court of Santiago.

On June 25, 1991, Lidia Briceño Burgos filed a complaint before the 9th Criminal Court of Santiago for the crimes of kidnapping, illicit association, homicide, and probable illegal burial of José Santos Rocha Alvarez against the members, agents, or officials of the so-called Joint Command, who, as authors, accomplices, or cover-ups, caused the victim to disappear to this day.

The case was entered for processing under file No. 15403-10 and, as of December 1992, remains in the summary stage.

One of the agents of the Anti-Subversive Joint Command, the civilian Miguel Estay Reyno, nicknamed "El Fanta," was arrested on December 20, 1992. The aforementioned agent had been living in Paraguay, the country to which he had fled after the throat-slitting of three communist professionals in 1985.

He had been implicated in these events, and the Minister substantiating the case for that crime had located him after a series of investigative measures. Estay Reyno had pending summons in several cases involving forcibly disappeared persons. Relatives of José Santos were studying the records to request his appearance before the Court substantiating the case for the victim.

The decision of the highest court concerns the qualified kidnapping of five communist militants in 1975 and 1976. With this, the ministers of the Second Chamber dismissed the reduction of sentences for two Navy officers.

The Second Chamber of the Supreme Court finalized the convictions against former uniformed personnel and agents of the Joint Command accused of the qualified kidnapping of Carlos Sánchez Cornejo, a postal and telegraph pensioner, detained on December 17, 1975; Francisco Hernán Ortiz Valladares, a furniture maker, detained on October 30, 1975; José Santos Rocha Álvarez, a textile artisan, detained on October 31, 1975; José Weibel Navarrete, a leader of the Communist Youth, which occurred on March 29, 1976; and the hydraulic engineer Mariano Turiel Palomera, on July 15 of the same year.

In this way, ministers Haroldo Brito, Jorge Dahm, María Teresa Letelier, Diego Simpertigue, and the acting lawyer Pía Tavolari rejected the cassation appeals filed by the defense of two of the sentenced individuals against the ruling issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals in April 2019, which sought the reduction of their sentences through the application of the "half-prescription" (statute of limitations reduction), which was dismissed by the court.

Thus, the Court dismissed modifying the convictions of Navy officer Daniel Guimpert Corvalán and sentenced him to twelve years of major imprisonment in its medium degree, as the author of the crimes of qualified kidnapping, in a consummated character, regarding the three victims.

The same applies to fellow Navy member Carlos Hernán Rodrigo Villarreal, whose sentence of 5 years and one day of major imprisonment in its minimum degree was ratified as a co-author of the consummated qualified kidnapping of José Weibel Navarrete.

It should be noted that the court finalized the resolution of the capital's appellate court, which had previously ratified the ruling of Minister Miguel Vásquez Plaza, who was in charge of the process and who issued the first-instance sentence.

In said sentence, FACH (Air Force) officers Freddy Ruiz Bunger (deceased in the interim), Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, and Carabineros officer Manuel Muñoz Gamboa were sentenced to 18 years of imprisonment for the qualified kidnappings of the five victims.

The court sentenced fellow FACH officer Benedicto Quiroz Reyes (deceased in the interim) to 6 years of imprisonment for the kidnapping of Mariano Turiel Palomera.

Similarly, Carabineros officer Alejandro Sáez Mardones and FACH military member Roberto Flores Cisternas were sentenced to 5 years and one day of imprisonment for the qualified kidnapping of José Weibel Navarrete.

Lawyer Nelson Caucoto, representative of 3 of the 5 victims, stated that "The Supreme Court ratifies once again that the half-prescription does not apply to crimes against humanity. A new process against the Joint Command comes to an end with the ruling of the highest court.

The crimes of that organization have definitively been brought to light, and the administration of justice has fulfilled its function by sanctioning them. A great sorrow for not having located the whereabouts of the victims, and this revives the obligation of the State of Chile and its authorities to locate them, without renunciation and making maximum efforts in that regard," he noted.

The Joint Command operated between the years 1975 and 1976. It was composed of agents from the Air Force Intelligence Directorate (DIFA), Carabineros (DICAR), Navy (SIN), and Army (DINE), as well as civilians.

Its main objective was the repression of the Communist Youth and the Communist Party, for which it proceeded to detain people linked to said party, who were deprived of liberty to obtain information through physical and psychological torture, and subsequently released, transferred to an unknown destination, or murdered.

The Facts According to the information gathered by the court, the following facts were established: That, on 12/17/1975, Carlos Sánchez Cornejo, a militant of the Communist Party, left his home located in this city, Población Huemul No. 2, in the afternoon to buy the evening newspaper, being detained by agents of the Joint Command, taken to "Remo Cero," a place where he was seen by other detainees and from where his trail is lost.

That, on 03/29/1976, while José Weibel Navarrete was traveling on bus 9046 of the Américo Vespucio route, license plate SL-45, in the company of his spouse and 2 minor children, agents of the so-called Joint Command intercepted and boarded said bus, and taking advantage of a commotion due to an alleged robbery, they forced him off, putting him into a vehicle that transported him to the "La Firma" detention facility.

He was also held at the "Casa de solteros" (Bachelors' House) of the FACH conscripts, agents of the Joint Command, at Bellavista No. 125. From there, he was taken by the heads of the operational groups, with his final destination unknown.

That, on the afternoon of 10/30/1975, around 18:30, the member of the Communist Party of Chile, Francisco Hernán Ortiz Valladares, was detained in his furniture workshop located inside his home at Calle Romero No. 3016, by two individuals in civilian clothes, who took him from the area in a car driven by a third individual. (SIC) Around 23:30 that same day, about eight individuals in civilian clothes, carrying submachine guns, entered the home of Raúl Armando Castro Vega, jumping over the exterior gate of the property.

They had Ortiz Valladares detained and handcuffed in their custody. He had made a closet there in September of that same year. One of the subjects stated that they were looking for a false bottom in the closet where weapons or documents might be hidden; finding nothing, they left the place in four cars, and since that date, he has been disappeared, with his whereabouts unknown.

That, in the early hours of 10/31/1975, between 3:00 and 4:00, the member of the Communist Party José Santos Rocha Álvarez, known and politically related to Ortiz Valladares, was detained at his home in Puerto Aysén, site 155, Población Las Casas, commune of Barrancas, by people in civilian clothes who were moving in 3 vehicles.

Firearms were found at that location. Both detainees were taken to an unknown destination. Ortiz Valladares was later seen at "Remo Cero," a place where he was interrogated and tortured, and a political investigation file was created for him by agents of said command, dated 11/04/1975.

For Rocha Álvarez, the same type of file was created on 11/02/1975, with the final destination of both remaining unknown.

That, on 07/15/1976, at 8:00, the member of the Communist Youth of Chile, Mariano León Turiel Palomera, left his home together with his wife, she to go to her work and he to carry out various errands. That day, he picked up clothes from a dry cleaner on Calle Merced, between Ahumada and Bandera, and also money for a housing subsidy at the Banco Estado, located at Bandera and San Pablo, from where his trail is lost.

Subsequent to the disappearance of Turiel Palomera, an anonymous letter was sent to the courts, the author of which states that the Communist Youth militant Mariano León Turiel Palomera was detained near the Mapocho Station by the so-called Joint Command, and that the material perpetrators were the team of agents of the Chilean Navy belonging to said command, which fully coincides with the place where the trail of Mariano León Turiel Palomera was lost that day, 07/15/1976.

Source: radio.uchile.cl 7/21/2022 Date: 07-21-2022

Artists forcibly disappeared and executed by the civil-military dictatorship

During the civil-military dictatorship, at least a hundred people linked to culture, the arts, and heritage were executed and disappeared.

September 11 marked the beginning of the most painful stage we have ever lived, caused by State agents and civilian accomplices. Today we commemorate 48 years of that tragedy that still mourns all of Chile.

More than three thousand people—men, women, children, and young people such as primary, secondary, and university students; pregnant women, the elderly, the blind, the disabled—were directly affected, and hundreds of thousands became family members and victims of the dictatorship. Those who survive fight tirelessly for justice, reparation, and non-repetition of genocidal acts by the State.

Men and women whose contribution to society came from their social struggle, as militants, and also from their trades and occupations as shoemakers, laborers, textile employees, doctors, linotypists, dressmakers, secretaries, union and neighborhood leaders, municipal officials, public employees, railway employees, newspaper vendors, carpenters; peasant laborers, miners, forestry workers, construction workers; engineers.

Also those who were passing through, on a mission, studying, or had formed a family in Chile, coming from Vietnam, France, Spain, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, England, Ecuador, among other countries.

Some of their murderers and accomplices who pay mild sentences in luxury prisons have deprived us of them, but they have also deprived us of nearly a hundred artists and creators whom we have identified, with the desire to offer a tribute to those who, from the realms of culture, the arts, and heritage, were victims of state terrorism.

We have recognized 82 people whose creativity was expressed in audiovisuals, crafts, theater, architecture, photography, Visual Arts, literature, and music.

In this note, you will be able to find the names of the people whose information allows them to be associated with an artistic language, according to the information available; however, it is highly possible that many more remain to be identified.

You will also find a link to the information that, among all the people who make the site www.memoriaviva.com possible, is made available to us so that we can contribute to not forgetting until there is justice.

For them… No forgiveness, no forgetting!!

[List of 82 names omitted for brevity in this translation example]

Source: prensaopal.cl 9/08/2021 Date: 09-08-2021