On April 3, 1976, Luis MUÑOZ VELASQUEZ, former Secretary of the San Bernardo Section of the PS and candidate for Councilman; Juan Humberto HERNANDEZ ZASPE, former President of the Federation of Industrial and Technical Students (FEITECH); and Manuel Jesús TAMAYO MARTINEZ, a sociologist and socialist leader who worked closely with members of his party's Central Committee, serving as a "liaison" between Carlos Lorca, Ricardo Lagos—also forcibly disappeared—and another socialist faction, were detained along with other Chileans on a public street in Mendoza.

The three were friends and had arrived in Argentina during 1974, leaving Chile where they were being persecuted for political reasons. They worked together at the "Modernflood company" in Mendoza and were in charge of reorganizing a Socialist Coordinator, participating in activities of the so-called PS Consensus Commission.

According to several eyewitnesses, the military operation involved joint forces from the Argentine Federal Police and DINA agents.

There is testimony that the three detainees were transported by land from Mendoza to Villa Grimaldi at the end of April 1976.

The Commission estimates that the three socialist detainees were forcibly disappeared while in the power of their captors, DINA agents, in Chile, in violation of their human rights.

Source: (Rettig Report)

Juan Hernández Zaspe was born in Santiago on April 19, 1952. The son of Juan and Teresa, he was the second of twelve siblings. He completed his primary education at the El Buen Pastor Parochial School and the Vicente Valdés Industrial School in La Florida, later attending secondary school at Industrial School No. 3 in Recoleta, where he specialized as a Mechanical Turner.

It was at the latter school that his social vocation and initial political concerns began to emerge. In the unique and intense context of the late 1960s, he fully identified with the rebellious and critical spirit of the student revolts of May '68, which led him to participate in massive youth protests against the Vietnam War and the interference of North American imperialism in Latin America, as well as against certain initiatives carried out by the Frei Montalva government, including the Student Military Service.

At that time, he became actively involved in his school's Student Center, a decision he made alongside his total conviction in leftist ideas—a sector where he believed he could channel his vocation for fighting for the rights of youth, women, and workers, and where he believed he could change the country's social structures to make it more just and solidary.

He soon became a prominent leader in his school's Student Center, to the point that he soon joined the Federation of Industrial and Technical Students of Chile (FEITECH), while simultaneously joining the Socialist Youth (JS) in 1969, in the midst of the presidential campaign of Salvador Allende, the standard-bearer of the leftist forces grouped in the Popular Unity.

Top leader of technical and industrial students

By 1970, Juan was already a major student leader, recognized by his peers, friends, and teachers—a leadership that motivated him to run, a year later, as a candidate for national leader of FEITECH, where he was elected—by universal vote—as the new national president of that student organization.

Juan Hernández Zaspe.

At the head of the organization, Juan carried out tireless activity, organizing meetings, seminars, and congresses aimed at strengthening the associative work of Chile's technical and industrial high school students, an effort that would be crowned by their massive participation in the volunteer work days that the Popular Government promoted through the National Office of Volunteer Service (ONSEV).

In 1971, along with 300 FEITECH students, he left for the cities of Osorno, Puerto Varas, and Puerto Montt to work on repairing homes and schools in the working-class sectors of those cities. In the rural areas of these same locations, the young people took on the task of bringing literacy programs to youth and adults in the peasant world.

In the summer of 1972, in charge of a large contingent of students from his organization, he participated in the legendary Cabildo Volunteer Works—which the reactionary press dubbed the "revolutionary Woodstock"—where, together with high school students from FESES and workers from the Youth CUT, he worked on the construction of a drain—or underground dam—to facilitate the incorporation of one thousand new hectares into the agricultural production of that sector.

Indefatigable, at the beginning of 1973, he once again took the lead of the FEITECH volunteers, traveling with nearly 300 students to the rural localities of Coquimbo and La Serena, where they collaborated with small farmers in the papaya harvest.

Fully integrated into the JS, Juan was invited in 1972 to be part of the Chilean delegation to the World Festival of Youth and Students, held in the former GDR, which he attended alongside artists such as the singer Marcelo and the actress Peggy Cordero, and student leaders such as Camilo Escalona, president of the pro-UP sector of FESES.

At that massive international event, Juan carried the voice of the thousands of young people who were participating in the revolutionary process taking place in Chile, which for many countries constituted an example to be imitated.

In May 1973, Juan was integrated into the Central Committee of the JS, following a motion presented by Carlos Lorca, which sought to incorporate into that body the majority of the social leaders that the JS had at that time.

In clandestinity

After the coup, Juan dedicated himself to working in the locksmith and metal structures workshop he owned with his father and brothers, while also joining the tasks of the clandestine and silent re-articulation of the Party. However, by the end of 1973, the persecution against PS members began to be felt, especially those with ties to the leadership and the dispersed bases of the organization.

That stalking soon reached Juan's home. According to Teresa de Jesús Zazpe, his mother, the family home was raided on several occasions after the coup, which motivated her son to move to Argentina in September 1975. His decision was reinforced when the DINA dismantled several socialist structures linked to the party leadership in Chile, some of which Juan was associated with.

Settled in Mendoza, he soon met up with two other friends of his, also party militants: Manuel Tamayo and Luis Muñoz, who also felt the DINA's stalking very closely.

In December 1975, Juan returned to Chile for a few days and went back to the Argentine city on January 7, 1976. Days later, he requested political asylum in Argentina through the Coordinating Office for Social Action in Buenos Aires.

In Mendoza, he lived in a home under the protection of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), while finding work at the Modernflood company, which Manuel Tamayo and Luis Muñoz also joined.

In Santiago, meanwhile, his parents' house was raided again by DINA agents, who went so far as to state, verbatim, that they were looking for Juan because he was "a dangerous element," since he "worked against the government from Argentina."

Given the outlook that awaited him in Chile, his family asked him not to travel to the country, as he had planned to do—to attend his parents' wedding anniversary—in March 1976, a wish he harbored given his father's delicate state of health.

Persuaded of the inconvenience of returning to Chile, Juan sent some letters and notes to his family, in which he mentioned that he was being watched and followed by unknown civilians. He was likely unaware that those civilians were part of a complex and all-powerful repressive apparatus, a machinery of State terrorism established the previous year in Santiago, Chile, which sought the cooperation of intelligence services throughout the Southern Cone for effective repression against opponents of the respective dictatorships that were then ravaging the region.

Under the stalking of the Condor

That organization, christened as the "Condor System," had been formed at a meeting held in November 1975 at the War Academy of the Chilean Army, with the participation of those responsible for the repression in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Chile.

The meeting was chaired by Manuel Contreras, in his capacity as representative of the host country. The Brazilian intelligence services participated in the meeting as "observers."

A declassified FBI memorandum, written by FBI agent in Buenos Aires Robert Scherer on September 28, 1976, reported that Operation Condor "is the code name for the collection, exchange, and storage of secret information relative to the so-called 'leftists,' communists, and Marxists, which was recently established between intelligence services in South America, with the goal of eliminating Marxist activities in the region.

Furthermore, 'Operation Condor' has planned joint operations against terrorist targets in member countries." A third, even more secret phase, involved "the formation of special groups from member countries, which shall travel anywhere in the world to non-member countries, to carry out punishments including assassination against terrorists or supporters of terrorist organizations from the member countries of Operation Condor."

The conspiring military justified their coordination as a response to the articulation that revolutionary groups from Southern Cone countries were attempting to carry out, but they also showed themselves determined to act against democratic politicians who denounced the Latin American dictatorships to the influential North American and European public opinion.

In their sights were some human rights defense entities that were providing support to the dozens of refugees who, for example, arrived in Argentina from Chile and other border countries, seeking minimal security in the only country that was then governed under a regime with a certain appearance of democracy.

One of these organizations was the UNHCR. As long as they did not break the laws of the country where they had sought refuge, the exiles were protected by international laws. At least in theory. Soon, that protection became relative with the operational articulation of the Southern Cone intelligence services.

It was precisely within the framework of an Operation Condor action that Juan and his companions were apprehended in front of number 1270 Belgrano Street, in Mendoza, on April 3, 1976. Agents of the Argentine Federal Police and the DINA participated in his capture, in a deployment that included the occupation of the adjacent streets.

After his disappearance, Juan's mother learned, through a cousin, the Catholic Archbishop of Santa Fe—Monsignor Vicente Zaspe—that her son was in Chile, "in the Peñalolén camp (Villa Grimaldi), at least until the moment of writing these lines, that is, July 20 (...) He is held by the Army Prosecutor's Office and was handed over by the Argentine authorities."

Upon hearing the news, the family did not stop making every effort: writs of amparo, complaints for alleged misfortune, visits to detention centers, statements in courts, and also at the Investigative Police, all without response.

At the time of being detained by the DINA and Condor agents, Juan was 23 years old.

Testimony of Flor Hernández Zazpe at Villa Grimaldi, April 2005

Writing about Juan as a sister, after so many years of his absence, is, without a doubt, doing so with a lump in my throat, with a tight heart, and a broken voice. However, in writing these lines to tell what our Juan was like, I do so with joy and emotion upon noting that although time passes, the indelible moments of so many living memories still persist in us, which I want to share to keep his memory alive.

Juan was part of a very large family, the second child of twelve siblings. As the oldest of the boys, he always assumed his condition as such, to defend us, to advise us, and also to rebuke us in the face of certain rebelliousness typical of our childhood and youth.

Juan was always a cheerful child; he enjoyed simple things. Always looking for different ways to entertain himself, he read a lot, collected stamps, collected magazines, laughed heartily at Condorito, his favorite magazine, enjoyed flying the kites he made himself, and which, as the years passed, he made for my younger brothers; he enjoyed soccer and was a fan of the Universidad de Chile.

I remember that on one occasion, Colo Colo was playing against a foreign team, and we didn't understand why he was cheering for them. His answer impressed us with its wisdom: "You always have to be with the team that represents your country, no matter what it is." That, in a way, already indicated the early commitment he had to the homeland.

Since there were several of us siblings and we lived in a large house, we formed teams and shared countless games; of course, his team always won. He was fast and smart. As a teenager, he liked to play the guitar; I have an indelible memory of the song "Morir un Poco," and we envied his ability to pluck the strings.

What we never understood was his fondness for tangos, which at that stage for us was music that only old people liked.

How can I forget that stage of full adolescence when there was no shortage of parties. To obtain the always mandatory paternal permission, the inevitable phrase was: "Yes, as long as your brother accompanies you." Sometimes, Juan would pretend he was going with us; he would drop us off only to return home to sleep, although he would still get up in the middle of the night to come pick us up.

Complicities like these were also those of the time at high school, when we were called to the guardian for behavioral problems. To avoid the reprimands of our parents, we would ask for his support, and Juan would show up with a serious face and a circumspect attitude to learn of our faults. Of course, that way no one else found out about them.

We always admired that ability to listen to us, welcome us, and advise us. He was our friend, the most reserved of our confidants, and the most loyal of our accomplices. For many people in the neighborhood, he was also the soul of the parties, the one who is always surrounded by friends, the most entertaining.

At the end of the 60s, his political life began when he decided to join the Socialist Youth, in the days of Salvador Allende's campaign. His stage as a young man committed to student leadership and the ideals of a new society began.

We had to start working immediately, and his first task was to go out into the streets to carry out propaganda. I remember that a bunch of cheerful young people would arrive at my house, waiting for the night to go out and do graffiti.

In those tasks, Juan would commit us all, even Pedro and Toño, the brothers who were only 14 and 13 years old. Since the risks were the same for everyone, on more than one occasion they were also detained, and we had to go get them out of the police station.

In 1970, he was already a young man recognized for his leadership, which influenced his election as president of FEITECH, the federation that grouped students from industrial and technical schools throughout the country.

In that capacity, he assumed the responsibility of organizing volunteer work, with which young people gave effort and concrete work to the development of the country. He carried out the first challenge in the current Tenth Region, in charge of more than 300 volunteers.

At that time, Juan was only 20 years old, and his capacity for command was incredible. He was admired and respected by his peers; I can attest to this since we traveled with him on that occasion, and even today, many of those who participated in that journey still remember his natural leadership and the admiration he provoked among the students.

We felt the pride of having a brother who was so serious and responsible, with a clear capacity to consider what the commitment and role that young people should have in the society we were determined to build should be.

However, this maturity and seriousness that he demonstrated did not inhibit another facet of his personality, one of greater sensitivity, for example, when he picked up and cared for abandoned animals: he liked them a lot, and perhaps the only restriction I remember on his part was not to use the slingshots my little brothers had made for themselves.

His militant commitment was total, to the point that, because he was born on April 19—the date of the founding of the PS—he often left us with the cake waiting at home, because first, we had to celebrate the party's anniversary.

When he left for Argentina in September 1975, it was very sad for us. We knew that Juan was in danger, but we never thought that departure would be so terrible. He wrote to us all one by one; the mailman arrived with eleven letters, one for each of the siblings, plus the one for mom and the one addressed to dad, which we still keep as a very precious treasure.

How can I forget the day he returned to Chile, on the eve of the end-of-year holidays in '75, loaded with gifts for everyone, toys for Paula, Rosa, Vicente, and José, who were the youngest, between 5 and 9 years old—an indelible memory for them, especially in the many Christmases that we have not been able to be with him.

He returned to Mendoza on January 7, 1976, hoping to return in March; in the meantime, the DINA arrived at our house, looking for Juan, because they knew he was working against the regime from Argentina.

The story is well known. Operation Condor had already begun to act: Juan was detained along with Manuel and Luis on April 3 of that fateful year.

In his last letter, dated two weeks before his detention, he gave me an answer to the one I had sent him telling him that I was finishing my stage as a Pedagogy student, a letter that also reflected his commitment and sensitivity to children.

"I know that you will soon start teaching, that you will start having your students, and from here, a strong wish that you do very well in this task, which will be difficult at the beginning, but I think you will like it.

Always remember that you will be somewhat responsible for the mentality of those children you will teach. Teach them not only physical and material knowledge but love for the classmate, love not only for the material but spiritual love, for their neighbor, for the helpless, for the needy; that they are not raised in an environment of selfishness but in a solidary environment, an environment where they know the reason for things.

Do not hide the sufferings of the world, but prepare them to help lighten those sufferings. Do not hide from them the reason for their existence nor their work in the world. Thus, you will not only be teaching, but preparing them for life."

Source: pschile.cl undated

The Eleventh Chamber of the Court of Appeals modified the trial court's sentence and convicted a total of 22 former DINA agents for their responsibility in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated homicide committed in Chile and abroad.

The Santiago Court of Appeals increased the sentences to be served by 22 former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for the aggravated kidnappings of Jorge Fuentes Alarcón, Julio Valladares Caroca, Juan Hernández Zazpe, Manuel Tamayo Martínez, Luis Muñoz Velásquez, Alexei Jaccard Siegler, and Héctor Velásquez Mardones, and the aggravated homicides of Ricardo Ramírez Herrera, Jacobo Stoulman Bartnik, Matilde Pessa Mois, Hernán Soto González, and Ruiter Correa Arce.

These crimes were perpetrated within the framework of the so-called "Operation Condor," a cooperation agreement between the repressive groups of Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Uruguay during the 1970s.

In the ruling (case file 4.545-2019), the Eleventh Chamber of the Court of Appeals—composed of justices Jessica González, Loreto Gutiérrez, and Jaime Balmaceda—modified the trial court's convictions and increased the criminal penalties for the former agents involved in the crimes committed both in Chile and abroad.

1) Agents Cristoph Willike Floel and Raúl Iturriaga Neumann must serve a 20-year prison sentence as perpetrators of the aggravated kidnappings of Jorge Fuentes Alarcón, Julio Valladares Caroca, Juan Hernández Zazpe, Manuel Tamayo Martínez, Luis Muñoz Velásquez, Alexei Jaccard Siegler, and Héctor Velásquez Mardones, and a 20-year sentence as perpetrators of the aggravated homicides of Ricardo Ramírez Herrera, Jacobo Stoulman Bartnik, Matilde Pessa Mois, Hernán Soto González, and Ruiter Correa Arce.

2) Agent Juan Morales Salgado was sentenced to a 20-year prison term for the aggravated kidnappings of Alexei Jaccard Siegler and Héctor Velásquez Mardones, and a 20-year prison term for the aggravated homicides of Ricardo Ramírez Herrera, Jacobo Stoulman Bartnik, and Matilde Pessa Mois.

3) Meanwhile, agent Pedro Espinoza Bravo must serve a 20-year prison sentence for the aggravated kidnappings of Julio Valladares Caroca, Manuel Tamayo Martínez, Alexei Jaccard Siegler, and Héctor Velásquez Mardones; and a 20-year prison sentence for the aggravated homicides of Ricardo Ramírez Herrera, Jacobo Stoulman Bartnik, Matilde Pessa Mois, Hernán Soto González, and Ruiter Correa Arce.

4) Jorge Escobar Fuentes, Federico Chaigneau Sepúlveda, and Miguel Riveros Valderrama will serve an 18-year prison sentence for the kidnappings of Alexei Jaccard Siegler and Héctor Velásquez Mardones; and an 18-year prison sentence for the aggravated homicides of Ricardo Ramírez Herrera, Jacobo Stoulman Bartnik, Matilde Pessa Mois, Hernán Soto González, and Ruiter Correa Arce.

5) Agent Gladys Calderón Carreño was sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison for the aggravated kidnappings of Alexei Jaccard Siegler and Héctor Velásquez Mardones; and 15 years and one day in prison for the aggravated homicides of Ricardo Ramírez Herrera, Jacobo Stoulman Bartnik, Matilde Pessa Mois, Hernán Soto González, and Ruiter Correa Arce.

6) Agents Jaime Ojeda Obando and Eduardo Oyarce Riquelme will serve a 5-year and one-day prison sentence for the aggravated kidnappings of Alexei Jaccard Siegler and Héctor Velásquez Mardones; and a 10-year and one-day prison sentence for the aggravated homicides of Ricardo Ramírez Herrera, Jacobo Stoulman Bartnik, and Matilde Pessa Mois.

7) Miguel Krasnoff Martchenko and Gerardo Godoy García will serve 15 years and one day in prison for the aggravated kidnapping of Jorge Fuentes Alarcón.

8) Agent Hermon Alfaro Mundaca was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the aggravated kidnapping of Jorge Fuentes Alarcón. José Fuentes Torres, Jorge Andrade Gómez, José Aravena Ruiz, Luis Torres Méndez, María Gabriela Órdenes Montecinos, Osvaldo Pulgar Gallardo, and Rodolfo Concha Rodríguez, who had been acquitted in the first-instance ruling, were sentenced to the same penalty for the same crime.

9) Finally, Jerónimo Neira Méndez and Manuel Rivas Díaz must serve a 3-year and one-day prison sentence for the aggravated kidnapping of Jorge Fuentes Alarcón.

The Court shared the first-instance criterion regarding the participation of those convicted in the case, as there were real and proven records regarding their participation in the events, whether as inducing perpetrators or direct perpetrators of the crimes attributed to each of them.

"Regarding the convictions and, specifically, in relation to those defendants whose participation was classified as co-perpetration, the Court agrees with the conclusion reached by the first-instance judge, in that with the evidence collected during the investigation, it is possible to construct various judicial presumptions that, by meeting the requirements of being based on real and proven facts, being multiple, serious, precise, direct, and concordant, are sufficient to maintain with conviction that the defendants Cristoph Georg Willeke Floel, Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann, Juan Hernán Morales Salgado, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Jorge Marcelo Escobar Fuentes, Federico Humberto Chaigneau Sepúlveda, Miguel René Riveros Valderrama, Gladys de las Mercedes Calderón Carreño, Carlos José Leonardo López Tapia, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Eduardo Alejandro Oyarce Riquelme, Héctor Raúl Valdebenito Araya, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Ciro Ernesto Torré Sáez, and Orlando José Manzo Durán participated as co-perpetrators, in the terms of Nos. 1, 2, and 3 of Article 15 of the Penal Code, as specified in each case, of the repeated crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Jorge Isaac Fuentes Alarcón, Juan Humberto Hernández Zazpe, Manuel Jesús Tamayo Martínez, Luis Gonzalo Muñoz Velásquez, Julio del Tránsito Valladares Caroca, Alexei Vladimir Jaccard Siegler, and Héctor Heraldo Velásquez Mardones, and of aggravated homicide of Ricardo Ignacio Ramírez Herrera, Jacobo Stoulman Bortnik, Matilde Pessa Mois, Hernán Soto Gálvez, and Ruiter Correa Arce," the ruling states.

It adds: "Indeed, in the case of those who were part of the Foreign Department of the National Intelligence Directorate—Willeke Floel, Iturriaga Neumann, and Espinoza Bravo—in the twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth, thirty-first, thirty-second, thirty-fourth, and thirty-fifth foundations, all the evidentiary background on which the charges are based is set forth one by one, and it is correctly concluded that the form of authorship applicable to each of them is that of No. 1 of Article 15 of the Penal Code for the first named, having taken part in the execution of the acts immediately and directly, and of No. 2 in relation to the remaining two, as it was demonstrated that they forced or directly induced others to execute them.

The same applies to the agents of the National Intelligence Directorate who were part of the so-called Lautaro Brigade, which operated in the barracks located at Calle Simón Bolívar No. 8.630 in the commune of La Reina, in relation to the aggravated kidnappings of victims Jaccard Siegler and Velásquez Mardones and the aggravated homicides of victims Ramírez Herrera, Stoulman Bortnik, and Pessa Mois, that is, the convicted Valdebenito Araya, Morales Salgado, Oyarce Riquelme, and Ojeda Obando; and the sentenced Calderón Carreño, Riveros Valderrama, Chaigneau Sepúlveda, and Escobar Fuentes in these same illicit acts and also in the aggravated homicides of victims Soto Gálvez and Correa Arce.

The thirty-seventh, thirty-ninth, forty-fourth, and fifty-fourth foundations, regarding the first four, and the forty-second, forty-seventh, fiftieth, and fifty-second motives, in relation to the remaining four, provide a detailed account of the background from which it is possible to conclude with certainty that at the time of the events, these defendants were part, as operational agents, of the National Intelligence Directorate brigade that carried out the kidnapping of Communist Party militants, among whose members were the people just named, such that, although some of them do not remember their specific names, it is indisputable to conclude, as the a quo does, that they took part in their illegitimate deprivation of liberty, in some cases, and in their homicide, in others, whether immediately and directly, or by forcing or directly inducing others to execute these acts, in the manner provided for in the aforementioned Nos. 1 and 2 of the cited Article 15 and that, for this reason, they are punishable co-perpetrators of these illicit acts.

In turn, the defendants Godoy García and Krassnoff Martchenko, agents of the National Intelligence Directorate assigned to the so-called Terranova Barracks or Villa Grimaldi and convicted for the aggravated kidnapping of the victim Jorge Isaac Fuentes Alarcón, are also perpetrators in the terms of No. 1 of the same Article 15, as heads of operational groups—Tucán and Halcón, respectively—in charge of dismantling the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) through the kidnapping and homicide of its members, one of whom was the aforementioned Fuentes Alarcón, who, as stated, was illegitimately deprived of liberty in the town of Enramada in the Republic of Paraguay and transferred first to Cuatro Álamos and then to Villa Grimaldi, the latter place where, according to numerous pieces of evidence reviewed in the first-instance ruling, he was interrogated and subjected to torture to obtain information about the organization in which he was a militant, activities in which the heads of the aforementioned operational groups evidently had to participate, and which abundant evidence also indicates they directed these interrogations. In these capacities as direct interrogators or indirect custodians of a person who, after being kidnapped, was kept deprived of liberty in Villa Grimaldi, it must be concluded that, as in the previous cases, although they do not remember the specific name of the victim Jorge Isaac Fuentes Alarcón, the defendants Godoy García and Krassnoff Martchenko took part in his kidnapping immediately and directly in the manner provided for in No. 1 of Article 15 of the Penal Code.

It should be specified that according to this rule, in what is of interest, those who take part in the execution of the act immediately and directly are considered perpetrators; and the truth is that in the case of the crime of kidnapping, the execution of the typical conduct is not exhausted with the act of—to put it one way—the material or physical "apprehension" of the kidnapped person, but continues to be executed, and therefore the crime is in the course of consummation as long as the illegitimate confinement or illegitimate deprivation of liberty lasts.

Consequently, those who perform acts that allow that state to be perpetuated are strictly executing the conduct described by the type, regardless of the prior agreement that may or may not have mediated with other participants.

In other words, their acts are not simple facilitation of means for the execution or mere presence without taking direct part in it (in which case the determination of the eventual prior agreement would be relevant to classify the intervention as authorship or complicity, according to what is provided by Articles 15 No. 3 and 16 of the Penal Code), but are executive acts proper to authorship.

For the same reason, whoever forces or induces another to execute any of these acts is evidently a mediate perpetrator in the terms of No. 2 of Article 15 and their conduct, therefore, is also punishable.

Under such conditions, we agree with the first-instance judge when he concludes that those who were accused as co-perpetrator executors of the crime of aggravated kidnapping or as mediate co-perpetrators of the same effectively hold such quality, since the conduct displayed by each of them, as was proven, satisfies the requirements of the type of Article 141 of the Penal Code, in relation to the first part of No. 1 of Article 15 of the same legal body and No. 2 of that precept."

Civil Reparations

In the civil aspect, the amounts of the indemnifications for some of the victims' relatives were modified, and two new reparatory measures requested by the spouse of Alexei Jaccard Siegler were accepted: ordering the State to allocate the sum of $15,000,000 so that, through the Ministry of Education, books on the subject of Human Rights are acquired, which must be delivered equitably to all public schools in the commune of Chiguayante, and that a plaque be installed in a visible place in the libraries of each of them, informing of the existence of such books and that they were delivered in memory of Alexei Jaccard Siegler, a victim of Human Rights violations during the military dictatorship.

In addition, the State of Chile must deliver $75,000,000 to the University of Concepción so that it may institute the "Alexei Jaccard Siegler" award, which will be granted annually to a regular student of that institution who develops research on the subject of Human Rights in the context of their studies at the University of Concepción, and which will amount to the equivalent in pesos of 100 Unidades de Fomento (UF), with the University itself having to regulate the requirements, conditions, and terms of the work.

The Facts

During the investigation stage, Justice Mario Carroza established:

• That following the events that occurred in the country on September 11, 1973, the Military Government formally instituted on November 25, 1975, in a meeting held in the city of Santiago, Chile, a plan for the coordination of actions and mutual support between the leaders of the intelligence services of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Chile, intended to destabilize opponents of the regimes assumed by the Armed Forces and Order;

• That this link generated, in a state-led and immediate manner, a reality that had already been forged in concrete actions between the aforementioned countries, that is, surveillance, detentions, interrogations under torture, transfers between countries, and the disappearance or execution of persons opposed to the de facto established governments;

• The previous scenario would have allowed cases such as those indicated below to be consummated:

• That on May 17, 1975, Jorge Isaac Fuentes Alarcón, a militant of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), was detained in the Republic of Paraguay, in the town of Enramada, and then transferred to the city of Asunción, where he remained deprived of liberty until September 23, 1975, when his clandestine transfer to Chile by air was decided by DINA agents, who, once in the country, took him to the secret detention and torture centers maintained by this organization, that is, Cuatro Álamos and Villa Grimaldi. It is in the latter place where Fuentes remained a prisoner and deprived of liberty for the longest time, received cruel treatment from his captors, was interrogated under torture, and was kept in inhumane conditions until probably January 17, 1976, when other prisoners saw him for the last time, his whereabouts remaining unknown to this day.

• That, in turn, on July 2, 1976, in the city of La Paz, Republic of Bolivia, the Chilean citizen Julio del Tránsito Valladares Caroca, a militant of the Socialist Party, was detained by the Directorate of Political Order, the security agency of that country at that time. In the aforementioned condition, he remained detained until November 13, 1976, the date on which he was handed over to DINA agents in the border town of Charaña, who transferred him to our country and took him to the "Cuatro Álamos" Prisoner Camp, which was located on Calle Canadá near the 3,000 block of Vicuña Mackenna, remaining under the custody of its agents, a place where, according to witnesses, he remained locked up and incommunicado, and where he was seen alive for the last time at the end of November 1976;

• That on the other hand, on April 3, 1976, in the city of Mendoza, Republic of Argentina, three Chilean citizens, Juan Humberto Hernández Zazpe, Manuel Jesús Tamayo Martínez, and Luis Gonzalo Muñoz Velásquez, socialist militants, were detained and transferred clandestinely by land to Chile and placed at the disposal of the agents of the National Intelligence Directorate, who took them to the Villa Grimaldi Barracks, located at Avenida José Arrieta No. 8.200 in Santiago, as has already been said, a political prisoner camp that belonged to the aforementioned intelligence organization; in that place they were locked up, interrogated, and tortured, and they were seen alive for the last time at the end of April 1976, their whereabouts remaining unknown to date;

• That finally, in an episode that occurred in 1977, militants of the Communist Party, whose external organic leadership had decided on the need to channel external financial aid to the Party in Chile, asked one of them to travel from Switzerland—Alexei Vladimir Jaccard Siegler—to Chile, with a stopover in Buenos Aires, to meet with another militant who was to travel from Russia—Ricardo Ignacio Ramírez Herrera—and for both to also contact the militant who resided in that city—Héctor Heraldo Velásquez Mardones. This meeting could not take place because the three were detained by the Argentine Federal Police on May 16, 1977, without legal basis, and deprived of liberty to be handed over to the agents of the National Intelligence Directorate, who transferred them to Santiago de Chile, where they were locked up in the Simón Bolívar Barracks, located on the street of the same name, No. 8.630, were interrogated under torture, and on an undetermined date disappeared. The search continues to this day as it has not been possible to find the victims Jaccard and Velásquez, who do not have recorded exits or entries, nor are their deaths confirmed, but part of the remains of their companion in misfortune, Ricardo Ignacio Ramírez Herrera, has been found in Chile, in the sector called "Cuesta Barriga," as well as those belonging to the married couple formed by Jacobo Stoulman Bortnik and Matilde Pessa Mois, who traveled to Buenos Aires to finalize the dispatch of the money to our country, but were detained beforehand—on May 29, 1977—at Ezeiza Airport, at the moment they were getting off the plane that brought them from Chile, with all trace of them being lost from that moment on, until the aforementioned certain evidence of both having been buried in the aforementioned place;

• In this operation, Communist Party militants who were in Chile and served as liaisons in this operation also participated, but when the ruse was discovered, they were executed: Hernán Soto Gálvez on an undetermined date between June 7 and November 10, 1977, and Ruiter Enrique Correa Arce on May 28 of that same year; and

• The analysis of the background reviewed in the preceding paragraphs highlights the noted cooperation and coordination of the intelligence services, in concrete cases, where the intelligence agents of our country, in these cases, colluding with those of Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia, not only concerted the detention of the victims but also created the conditions to lock them up and transfer them to our country, with the sinister purpose of confining them in clandestine centers to interrogate them, torture them, and then proceed with extreme cruelty to eliminate them.

Source: pdju.cl 25/7/2022

Date: 25-07-2022

NEW COMPLAINT AGAINST PINOCHET

The siblings of three young socialists who disappeared within the framework of the so-called "Operation Condor" will present today, May 5, the 96th complaint against Augusto Pinochet. The accusatory brief, sponsored by lawyer Nelson Caucoto, is also directed against retired General Manuel Contreras and all those who may be responsible for the disappearance of Juan Hernández Zazpe (23 years old), Luis Muñoz Velásquez (28), and Manuel Tamayo Martínez (24), detained on April 3, 1976, in Mendoza, Argentina, by DINA agents and subsequently transferred to the Villa Grimaldi torture center, where they were last seen.

Source: DERECHOS CHILE - May 5, 2000

Date: 05-05-2000

81st complaint against Pinochet announced for disappeared socialists.

This was indicated during a commemorative act held this Sunday at the current Peace Park (former Villa Grimaldi) in memory of Luis Muñoz Velásquez, Manuel Tamayo Martínez, and Juan Hernández Zazpe, who were victims of the aforementioned operation.

These three leaders were kidnapped in Mendoza, Argentina, by DINA personnel in April 1976, to then be transferred to Villa Grimaldi and subsequently to Colonia Dignidad, from where their trail is lost.

Source: TERCERA - April 3, 2000

Date: 03-04-2000

Victims of Chile Hernández Zazpe, Tamayo Martínez, and Muñoz Velásquez

Honorable Judges: We shall now describe the events that occurred to three Chilean citizens, members of the Socialist Party of that country.

Juan Humberto Hernández Zaspe, a Chilean, 23 years old at the time of the events, was a member of the Socialist Party from a very young age. He was president of the Federation of Secondary Students (FEITECH) and, as a representative, traveled to different regions and countries.

Following the 1973 coup d'état in Chile, the leadership of the Socialist Youth went underground. After the detention of a large number of them in September 1975, Hernández Zaspe left the country in search of safety. He settled in the Argentine city of Mendoza, where he reunited with two of his party comrades, Manuel Jesús Tamayo Martínez and Luis Gonzalo Muñoz Velásquez.

Manuel Jesús Tamayo Martínez was also a member of the Socialist Party from his youth. In their neighborhood, he met Hernández Zaspe, with whom he forged a deep friendship, as they were not only neighbors but also shared political affinities.

Due to the establishment of the dictatorial regime, both he and his family suffered intense persecution, which led him to go into exile in Argentina at the beginning of 1976. He planned to continue his journey to Ecuador but settled first in the city of Mendoza.

Luis Gonzalo Muñoz Velázquez belonged to a family with strong ties to the Socialist Party. After the coup d'état, many of them were persecuted, suffered home raids, and were imprisoned by the dictatorship, which forced them to leave their country.

As refugees, they initially settled in Argentina. Luis, who had been detained in Chile for a brief period in 1975, initially fled to the city of Posadas, in Misiones, where his parents were also located, but later, in the first months of 1976, he moved to Mendoza along with his brother Alex and his sister-in-law.

Unlike the rest of his family, he did not request refugee status from the UNHCR until he arrived in Mendoza, as he always maintained the intention of being able to return to his country.

In Mendoza, Hernández and Tamayo lived together in an apartment on Calle Belgrano, while Muñoz lived in another on the same street with his brother Alex, his sister-in-law, and another Chilean refugee, José Cerda.

With the goal of reorganizing the resistance and forming a coordinating committee for the Socialist Party, Hernández, Tamayo, and Muñoz continued their political activities from Mendoza, regrouping other compatriots who had also escaped the Chilean dictatorship.

Between December 1975 and January 1976, Hernández Zaspe traveled to Chile to visit his family. Once he returned to Mendoza, the DINA raided the family home in Chile on several occasions. Insistently, and despite knowing that he was in the city of Mendoza and continuing his political activity from there, they appeared demanding the presence of Juan Humberto, who planned to return to Chile for a visit in March; however, the pressure from the repressive forces stalking him once again thwarted his plans.

In Mendoza, they suffered similar pressure.

We must recall the particular harassment that Chilean citizens faced in that city at the hands of the local police. Furthermore, personnel from the Chilean DINA circulated permanently through the city streets, monitoring the movements of their compatriots.

This circumstance forced them to approach the local UNHCR office to request refugee status. There, they were instructed to return on April 5, 1976, to continue the process, but they never arrived.

On April 3, 1976, Hernández Zaspe, Tamayo Martínez, and Muñoz Velázquez were kidnapped on a public street, on Calle Belgrano in the Argentine city of Mendoza. This city, as we know, was within the jurisdiction of Area 332, under the command of the Director of the Liceo Militar General Espejo, based in that city.

Around 5:30 p.m., while walking along Calle Belgrano, they were surprised and subdued by a group of men. Some of them, belonging to the Argentine Army, were in uniform and traveling in a truck belonging to that force.

Others, dressed in civilian clothes, traveled in private cars identified with Argentine and Chilean license plates; among them were personnel from the local police and the Chilean DINA.

Hernández, Tamayo, and Muñoz were violently placed against a wall, searched, beaten, and then forced into the military truck. Muñoz stood up inside the vehicle, the bed of which was not covered by a tarp, and raised his arms to draw the attention of passersby. However, he was thrown to the floor of the truck. They set off and took them to one of the military units located in Parque San Martín.

That same night, in the back of a pickup truck, they were transported to Chile. There, they were taken first to the clandestine detention center (CCD) known as "Cuatro Álamos," located in the city of Santiago, and later housed in the CCD "Villa Grimaldi," on the outskirts of the city, where they were savagely tortured.

It was at the Villa Grimaldi CCD where they were last seen. Juan Humberto Hernández Zaspe, Manuel Jesús Tamayo Martínez, and Luis Gonzalo Muñoz Velásquez remain forcibly disappeared to this day.

The Muñoz Velázquez family learned of what had happened immediately, as one of his brothers witnessed the operation and notified their relatives in Chile so that they could take action.

For its part, the Hernández Zaspe family found out a few days later, when Flor, Luis's sister, traveled to Mendoza and met Jorge Quesada, a friend of her brother, at his home. He told her what had happened and recommended that she return to Chile, as he feared the house was under surveillance.

Furthermore, worried about having no news of him, they wrote to a relative who, after some inquiries, confirmed that Juan Humberto had been detained in Mendoza and handed over to Chilean forces by the Argentine authorities.

The Tamayo Martínez family also learned of the detention a few days after it occurred, as, in addition to the news brought by Flor Hernández Zaspe from Mendoza, they received a call that alerted them.

Since then, the three families attempted to file complaints and take steps to find their loved ones, but none of these efforts yielded results. Both the Argentine and Chilean authorities denied information regarding their whereabouts.

Evidence

The facts related are supported by abundant testimonial and documentary evidence incorporated into the debate.

Flor Hernández Zaspe, Juan Humberto's sister, testified in this debate regarding her brother's political affiliation and the persecution he suffered for that reason. She recounted the circumstances of her brother's exile in Mendoza and added that they always maintained fluid contact through correspondence.

She gave an account of the visit she made to the family home in Chile between December 1977 and the first days of January 1978, and the raids they suffered once her brother returned to Mendoza. In this regard, she related that the first few times they did not identify themselves, but by the third occasion, they presented themselves as members of the DINA and, after demanding Juan Humberto's presence, stated they knew he was in the city of Mendoza working against the Chilean dictatorship.

It is clear that this information came from the coordinated intelligence tasks that the Argentine and Chilean repressive forces were carrying out.

Flor Hernández Zaspe concluded that if the Chilean repressors already had that information, the reason for appearing at her home was to collect more data on her brother, such as activities or relationships he had in Mendoza.

She also concluded that the Chilean intelligence directorate operated in a coordinated manner with other military agencies in Latin America in search of their opponents, a fact that has been proven in this trial.

Flor Hernández Zaspe stated that she had warned her brother about these raids and the information the repressors had, all of which motivated the cancellation of his next visit to Chile. In this regard, she added that once her brother Juan Humberto disappeared in Argentina, the DINA did not return to look for him at his home in Chile.

Regarding the kidnapping operation, Flor Hernández related the circumstances in which it occurred, all of which she was able to reconstruct based on the account of Chilean witnesses who witnessed it and who were also based in Mendoza.

In this sense, she explained that in the second week of April 1976, she traveled to Mendoza and met a young Chilean at her brother's house. He told her how Luis had been detained on a public street along with Muñoz Velázquez and Tamayo. Furthermore, she added that the young man recommended that they not file any complaint and return to Chile soon, as the situation in Mendoza was very difficult.

Flor Hernández Zaspe also remembered Manuel Jesús Tamayo Martínez, whom she knew from being friends in the neighborhood in Chile.

Honorable Judges: In this courtroom, we have also heard from Manuel Tamayo's siblings, Juan Jorge and Adriana Iris Tamayo Martínez. Both referred to their brother's political trajectory and recounted the persecution he was subjected to in his country.

Particularly, Juan Tamayo described the relationship that united him with Juan Humberto Hernández Zaspe, with whom he shared political participation in the Socialist Party and with whom he had also lived in the city of Mendoza for a time.

Having also lived in that city, Juan Tamayo recalled the presence of Chilean DINA personnel on the streets of Mendoza and the insecurity this caused for Chilean refugees.

Both Juan and Adriana Tamayo recalled the way they learned about the disappearance of their brother Manuel in Mendoza and the difficulties they had in taking action.

For his part, Alex Muñoz Velázquez, brother of Luis Gonzalo, referred to his brother's political trajectory and the persecution he was subjected to in Chile. He recounted his transfer to our country and the place where they settled in the city of Mendoza.

José Cerda Herrera also provided testimony in the debate; he knew Luis Gonzalo Muñoz Velázquez from Chile and reunited with him in the Argentine city of Mendoza, where both had escaped due to the persecution in their country.

He recalled that it was there that he met Juan Humberto Hernández Zaspe and Manuel Jesús Tamayo Martínez and that together, the four of them worked to regroup the Chilean exiles of the party. Although he referred to the meetings, he clarified that for security reasons, they did not know the activities of the others.

Regarding the persecution in the city of Mendoza, Cerda Herrera recalled the presence of Chilean intelligence personnel who infiltrated the exiles, and that some even requested refugee status from the UNHCR, but that this organization rejected them.

Honorable Judges: Alex Muñoz, María Cecilia Muñoz, and José Cerda Herrera witnessed the kidnappings of Hernández Zaspe, Tamayo Martínez, and Muñoz Velásquez. In this hearing, the three agreed on the circumstances in which the operation took place, which we have already described.

The first two clarified that they were able to recognize that it was Luis Muñoz Velázquez and his friends when he waved his arms inside the military truck, showing himself, and they could clearly see that he was wearing the clothes they themselves had lent him that day.

In particular, Alex Muñoz described the presence of Chilean personnel and vehicles; and María Muñoz clarified that she was able to recognize the Chilean personnel by their tone of voice.

The three also explained what the fate of the victims was, according to what they were able to reconstruct over time. Thus, all three affirmed that after their detentions, Hernández Zaspe, Muñoz Velázquez, and Tamayo Martínez were transferred from the city of Mendoza to Chile, where they were last seen at the CCD known as Villa Grimaldi.

In particular, Flor Hernández Zaspe referred to the correspondence they exchanged with a relative who, at that time, was the Archbishop of Santa Fe, Vicente Hernández Zaspe, whom they asked for help in locating Juan Humberto.

He informed them that after his detention in Mendoza, his brother and his companions were handed over by the Argentine authorities to the Chilean forces and that he was in a "camp in Peñalolén." The witness added that years later she learned that it was the CCD "Villa Grimaldi"; and that there were survivors of that detention center who remembered the arrival, from Argentina, of 3 prisoners who were in very poor health.

In this sense, we have heard in this room from witnesses Gabriela Salazar and Juan Carlos Feres Nazarala, survivors of Chilean detention centers, who shared captivity with Hernández Zaspe, Tamayo Martínez, and Muñoz Velázquez and who confirm the clandestine transfers from the Argentine city of Mendoza to Chile.

Gabriela Salazar, a survivor of the Villa Grimaldi and Cuatro Álamos detention centers, recalled the arrival of three detainees at the latter place of confinement, which she described as a transit point for detainees.

She told this room that from the cell in which she was held, she could hear the new arrivals asking the guards of the place to give them water and complaining of exhaustion from having been transferred from the city of Mendoza.

Salazar clarified that although she could not speak directly with them, she heard those moans and, years later, related what she experienced with what was known up to that moment about the fate of Hernández, Tamayo, and Muñoz.

She explained that due to the location of her cell, she could hear if the arriving detainees were housed in Cuatro Álamos or if they were transferred immediately. That is why she asserted that the detained Muñoz, Hernández, and Tamayo did not enter the detention center, and were therefore transferred.

On the other hand, her testimony also illustrates the dimension of Condor and the interaction of Chile with the rest of the Southern Cone dictatorships, as she recalled other kidnapped persons who were transferred to Chile from other countries.

Added to Salazar's testimony is that of Juan Carlos Feres Nazarala, a survivor of the CCD located on the outskirts of the city of Santiago de Chile known as "Villa Grimaldi," who shared captivity with Luis Gonzalo Muñoz Velásquez.

Feres recalled that although he could not see him, they were able to talk. Thus, he was able to verify the deplorable physical state in which Muñoz was by the way he complained of pain. Feres concluded that, without a doubt, Muñoz had been tortured in that CCD.

Feres also reproduced in the hearing everything that Muñoz told him about the circumstances of his kidnapping in the city of Mendoza, the participation of Argentine and Chilean personnel in that procedure, and the transfer to Chile, by land, in the back of a pickup truck.

He also added that Muñoz detailed the complicity of the authorities of both countries when, at the time of the transfer, he heard them making jocular comments about the "cargo" they were transporting.

In addition to what Muñoz himself related about the presence of DINA personnel in the operation, Feres recalled that in the detention center there was an officer of that corps who, playing the macabre role of the "good cop" and after not having visited him for six or seven days, appeared and offered him an Argentine-brand cigarette.

This officer told him that he had recently bought them in Argentina, where he had had to travel to carry out a mission.

Feres Nazarala explained that although he could not speak to or see Hernández Zaspe and Tamayo Martínez in Villa Grimaldi, he knew from Muñoz that they were also transferred to that CCD. He also explained that, judging by the deplorable physical state in which Muñoz was after having been tortured, it was possible that Hernández and Tamayo had died as a consequence of the torments received in that place.

Finally, Feres Nazarala recalled Muñoz's concern that his family did not know he was detained on Chilean soil and, therefore, as soon as he regained his freedom, he brought this circumstance to the attention of a lawyer who notified his family.

The synthesized evidentiary framework is reinforced by the abundant documentary evidence incorporated into this debate. Among it, we have the handwritten letters by Juan Humberto Hernández Zaspe, provided by his sister Flor when testifying at the hearing.

In them, the fluid communication he maintained with his family is evident. In addition to telling about his work activities, Hernández relates the harassment that Chileans suffered at the hands of the Argentine authorities. The last letter received is dated March 21, 1976, a few days before his kidnapping and disappearance.

Also incorporated are the records sent by the justice system of Mendoza, where the background information that both the Vicariate of Solidarity of Chile and the Mendoza regional branch of the Ecumenical Movement for Human Rights had regarding these events was compiled.

Likewise, their disappearances are also the subject of investigation before the Chilean justice system within the framework of Case No. 2182-98 "Operation Condor," from which some elements were sent via letters rogatory and incorporated into this debate.

Among them, we have the presentations and complaints filed by the victims' relatives, who related the circumstances regarding the disappearance of their loved ones in the same way they did in this hearing.

As we have already explained, here too, the deaths or removals of some defendants and the limitations of the investigative stage prevent us from making formal accusations against some of those responsible for these events.

For the moment, it is only appropriate to mention that Carlos Horacio Tragant is charged with the illegal deprivation of liberty of Juan Humberto Hernández Zaspe, to which we will return when examining his responsibility.

Source: mpf.gob.ar (undated)

In Tribute to Flor Hernández Zaspe

During the writing of this article, Flor Hernández Zaspe, Human Rights Secretary of the Socialist Party (PS), passed away. She was an exceptional person whose life was dedicated to the search for truth and justice for the forcibly disappeared of the Chilean military dictatorship, in particular, her brother Juan Hernández Zaspe.

Comrade Flor was a bulwark in the fight against the denialism of the Chilean right and gave the best of herself to prevent the forgetting of the thousands of fighters who fell in the struggle for the freedom of Chile.

In saying goodbye to her, socialists from the broadest sectors do so with immense affection for her breadth, coherence, consistency, and loyalty to the socialist flag, that same flag for which her brother gave his life.

December 10 commemorates the approval, in 1948, of the Declaration of Human Rights as a universal value and a solemn commitment of States, various organizations, public institutions, and civil society to respect for the dignity of the person as the cornerstone of democratic coexistence on a global scale.

Humanity had just left behind the bitter and tragic hours of World War II, in whose battles and in the destruction of cities and facilities nearly 60 million people perished, a frightening and desolate balance of suffering for combatants and the civilian population struck and decimated by indiscriminate bombing and, at the end of the war, by the deadly and terrible use of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

In the concentration camps, the Nazis massacred the Jewish community of different countries, totaling more than 4 million people, and the invasion of the former Soviet Union had a cost of more than 20 million victims from the Russian people.

There was no alternative but to assume a vital, irrevocable commitment to respect for Human Rights. Paradoxically, by Stalin's decision, the Soviet Union did not sign the Declaration.

However, the value and scope of the principles established in the 1948 Universal Declaration gained more and more universality until reaching an unquestionable validity in the present. Only criminal regimes, ignorant people, or those who are excessively retrograde disregard, violate, or trample on the dignity of persons, peoples, and nations.

Shameful attitude of the right

This is what happened with the Pinochet dictatorship, which carried out massive and systematic sadistic and aberrant crimes that shocked the international community. Military fascism, with the support of the civilian right, attempted the genocide of the Chilean left. The Rettig Report and the Valech Report investigated and dramatically corroborated such terrible events.

As long as the historical truth is disregarded or evaded, and the right fosters denialism regarding human rights violations, the deep distrust that underlies the national community cannot be resolved because there was an essential actor, the political right, that induced the physical elimination of its adversaries and refuses to say as a political sector: "we will never do it again." Whoever thinks that the absence of that fundamental political declaration can be overlooked and that such an affirmation can be perpetually avoided is mistaken.

Those who supported, justified, and applauded the criminal regime are those who must assume the political responsibility that they have avoided for almost half a century now.

That is a key factor in Chile's great problem, a crucial obstacle in the task of rebuilding the democratic legitimacy of the political system: the shameful attitude of the Chilean right washing its hands, both its party elites and the controllers of the mega-business consortia, by denying their political responsibility in forging, installing, and perpetuating the most criminal regime in the history of Chile.

That mantle of impunity with which the civilian right protects itself every day is a lead armor that keeps Chilean democracy fragile and, deep down, weakens it before any adventure or adventurer who might again attempt to attack the fundamental rights of the human person.

This week, the Courts of Justice once again condemned a group of DINA agents for a terrible murder; the victim was Marta Ugarte, a communist militant murdered for her participation in the struggle for the return of freedom and democracy to Chile.

However, Rojo Edwards, spokesperson for the far-right campaign, when challenged by the defeated official candidate, Sebastián Sichel, to sign a commitment of unrestricted respect for Human Rights, responded with the old ruse that the dilemma posed is between communism and freedom.

In concrete terms, the ultra-conservative option contains the resolute purpose of attacking the freedoms and rights that were so costly to reconquer. Thus, the most genuine pro-business candidacy is revealed because it is the continuity of Pinochet.

Its political will is to repress for the seamless empire of the free market, that is, the freedom to crush the population to satisfy the insatiable power core of the mercantilist right.

That is the power bloc to be defeated on December 19, and in the sea of flags that wave with that objective in the citizen mobilizations, in support of Gabriel Boric, the flag of Chilean socialism must fly proud and haughty.

Camilo Escalona Medina, General Secretary of the Socialist Party

Source: pagina19.cl (undated)