Juan Bautista Avila Velásquez was forcibly disappeared around the third week of October 1973, while en route from the prison to the Carabineros police station located on Calle Beauchef, in the city of Valdivia, after having been detained and held incommunicado for 21 days.

His whereabouts remain unknown since that time. Juan Avila was detained on approximately September 18, 1973, in the interior of Liquiñe, along with his sister Yolanda Avila Velásquez and his brother-in-law José Gregorio Liendo Vera, known as "Comandante Pepe," a high-ranking leader of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR) in the Panguipulli area.

The three detainees remained for a few days at the Carabineros station in that town and were then transferred to the Valdivia Public Prison. At the police facility, Juan Avila was tortured, and in prison, he was subjected to mistreatment, leaving his physical and psychological state very precarious to the point that he could barely walk.

On the day of his disappearance, he left the prison along with a group of detainees, all of whom had been ordered to report immediately to the Carabineros police station on Calle Beauchef to obtain a safe-conduct pass.

However, due to his physical condition, he had to separate from the group and stop to rest. From that moment on, his whereabouts have been unknown. Considering the evidence gathered and the investigation conducted by this Corporation, the Superior Council declared Juan Bautista Avila Velásquez a victim of human rights violations.

Source: Corporacion

On September 18, 1973, Jorge Ávila Pizarro, a doctor at the Psychiatric Hospital and a militant of the MIR who had been detained and transferred to the Estadio Nacional, was executed. On December 20, 1973, the family managed to find out that Jorge Ávila Pizarro had been dead since September 18, 1973, and was buried in Section 29 of the Cementerio General.

The cause of death: "facio-cranio-encephalic firearm wound and left thoracic gunshot wound." On September 18, 1973, Juan Guillermo Fuentes Ravanal, 24 years old, a laborer and militant of the MIR, was detained at his home in the "Trabajadores al Poder" camp; that same day, along with two other leftist militants from that camp, he was executed by firing squad at the Quillota Regiment.

On September 18, at 7:30 PM, Jorge Yáñez Olave, a journalist and head of the local MIR committee, and Jaime Torres Salazar, a labor leader of the MIR, were detained in Cauquenes. Both were working on the formation of the Sindicato de Celulosa Constitución (CELCO); they were taken to be executed by firing squad on the beach of Constitución along with three other leftist militants, and their bodies subsequently disappeared.

On September 18, 1973 (approximately), Juan Bautista Ávila Velásquez, a militant of the MIR, was detained by Carabineros in the interior of Liquiñe, along with his sister Yolanda Ávila Velásquez and his brother-in-law José Gregorio Liendo Vera, a high-ranking leader of the MIR in the Panguipulli area.

He was forcibly disappeared around the third week of October 1973, on the way from the prison to the Carabineros police station located on Calle Beauchef, in the city of Valdivia, after having been detained and held incommunicado for 21 days.

On the morning of September 18, 1973, Manuel Segundo Maldonado Miranda, 43 years old, an agricultural laborer, peasant leader of the MCR, and President of the "El Esfuerzo Campesino" settlement (formerly the Santa Inés de Lampa estate), was detained with his son by a patrol from the Parachute and Special Forces Regiment of Peldehue.

On September 20, he was murdered and his body was dumped in a public thoroughfare. The autopsy indicates that he had multiple gunshot wounds to the cranium and the thoracic-abdominal region.

Source: resumen.cl, September 18, 2013

Date: 09-18-2013