: 21 years old, student, Uruguayan, forcibly disappeared in Puente Alto at the end of September 1973.

ARIEL ARCOS

: Uruguayan, forcibly disappeared in Puente Alto at the end of September 1973.

POVASCHUK GALEAZZO, JUAN ANTONIO

: 24 years old, married, Uruguayan, photographer, forcibly disappeared in Puente Alto, Santiago, at the end of September 1973.

Ariel Arcos, Enrique Pagardoy, and Juan Antonio Povaschuk were detained near San José del Maipo in the Cajón del Maipo, likely on September 29, 1973, by Carabineros officers and Army personnel, and transferred to what was then the Puente Alto Railway Regiment.

Their whereabouts have remained unknown since that time. According to surviving witnesses, also of Uruguayan nationality, as of September 11, 1973, all of them, including Ariel Arcos, Enrique Pagardoy, and Juan Povaschuk, were living in the town of El Ingenio in the Cajón del Maipo. They had traveled to Chile as political exiles, as they were linked to the Tupamaro movement in their home country.

According to the witnesses, due to the events of September 11, 1973, the group had agreed that if any one of them were detained, the rest should flee toward Argentina by crossing the mountain range. For this reason, when one of the group members was detained by Carabineros on September 20, the others rushed to carry out the planned journey.

Thus, in the final days of September 1973, the group headed to the town of El Volcán in the Cajón del Maipo, and while Juan Povaschuk and Ariel Arcos went ahead to scout the terrain, the others, including Enrique Julio Pagardoy, took refuge inside an abandoned mine near the area.

The next day, they were surprised at that location by Carabineros, who took them to the San José de Maipo Police Station, where they were subjected to interrogation and mistreatment.

During the night of that same day, they were removed by military personnel from the then-Puente Alto Railway Regiment and taken to their military facility, where they were again interrogated and beaten, this time by individuals dressed in civilian clothing.

At this location, the survivors saw that Ariel Arcos and Juan Povaschuk were also being held. Subsequently, the military separated the group. Three members were taken to the Estadio Nacional, while Enrique Pagardoy, Juan Povaschuk, and Ariel Arcos remained at the Regiment. Nothing more was heard of them from that point on.

Considering the evidence gathered and the investigation conducted, the Superior Council reached the conviction that Ariel Arcos, Enrique Pagardoy Saquieres, and Juan Antonio Povaschuk Galeazzo disappeared while they were deprived of their liberty by State agents. For this reason, it declared them victims of human rights violations.

Source: Corporation Report

Montevideo, Canelones (Atlántida). At the time of the disappearance, he resided in Santiago de Chile, Chile Studies, date, and institutions attended

Primary : School No. 146 of Atlántida Secondary : Liceo de Atlántida Workplaces, dates, and employers

Inmobiliaria Penelman (Atlántida, Canelones department) until 1971 Union, movement, political sector, and/or activity of reference at the time of disappearance

: MLN

ANNEX OF HISTORICAL DATA REGARDING THE DISAPPEARANCE

Date of disappearance

: LAST WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 1973

Place of disappearance (locality, city, country

)

Santiago de Chile, Chile Time and circumstances

While attempting, along with ARIEL ARCOS, JUAN ANTONIO POVASCHUK (also disappeared), and other Uruguayans, to cross the mountain range toward Argentina through the Paso Cajón del Maipo, they were detained and taken to the Puente Alto Railway Command.

They were held there for several days, being interrogated and tortured. Subsequently, the group, excluding PAGARDOY, was loaded onto a bus along with other people bound for the Estadio Nacional; POVASCHUK AND ARCOS were forced to disembark and placed next to PAGARDOY with their backs against the barracks wall, where they were seen for the last time. Forces involved in the detention

Military

CARABINEROS OF SAN JOSE DE MAIPO

Description of the operation (with reference to circumstances, use of vehicles and weapons, duress

)

They were detained inside an abandoned mine, taken in a pickup truck to the SAN JOSE DE MAIPO POLICE STATION, where they were divided by sex. Later, soldiers from the PUENTE ALTO BARRACKS, along with men in civilian clothes (supposedly intelligence agents), transferred them to another location where they were tortured and then returned to the barracks.

They were handcuffed alongside other Chilean prisoners. Identification of other victims involved in the detention operation (full name, ID, age, marital status, address, reference group

)

ARIEL ARCOS (disappeared), lived with Mr. Pagardoy JUAN ANTONIO POVASCHUK GALEAZZO (disappeared) Records of the disappeared person prior to the detention (means, date, authority, etc.

)

Criminal Record No. 234.228 for criminal association, 5th Shift Investigative Court, with a capture order from the 4th Shift 1st Instance Military Court of Montevideo. Existence of home or workplace searches of the disappeared person, either before, during, or after the detention, referring to the disappeared person or persons linked to them (circumstances, date, authority, judicial order or other, witnesses, etc.

)

Inmobiliaria Perelman – Atlántida, Canelones – was searched. Mr. Pagardoy was detained for political reasons between 02.18.71 and 02.03.72 and subsequently left Uruguay for Chile on June 28, 1973, settling in Santiago. Actual or alleged place of detention (identification, description, sources of information, if multiple, indicate them

)

SAN JOSE DE MAIPO POLICE STATION – CHILE –

PUENTE ALTO RAILWAY COMMAND (BARRACKS) – CHILE –

Cases that could be linked to this disappearance, including those of family members, children disappeared, or born in captivity

Disappearance of JUAN ANTONIO POVASCHUK AND ARIEL ARCOS

ANNEX OF INFORMATION ON ACTIONS TAKEN REGARDING THE DISAPPEARANCE

NATIONAL SCOPE

ACTIONS IN THE JUDICIAL SPHERE

Criminal Complaint

Criminal lawsuit against Gen. Augusto Pinochet, Gen. Manuel Contreras, and other responsible parties. Filed on 10/23/00. Court Case File 2182-98. Financial reparations against the State based on the disappearance, even in cases where a settlement agreement was reached: Lifetime pension for his mother from the Chilean State through the National Corporation for Reparation and Reconciliation.

ACTIONS BEFORE CONSULATES AND/OR EMBASSIES

Agency : Embassies of Uruguay in Argentina, Embassies of France and Germany Type of action : complaint Date(s) : October 1973

ACTIONS BEFORE NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS

ACTIONS IN THE UN SPHERE

Organization where action was taken

UNHCR

Type of action : complaint Indicate if there is proof and identification of the procedure : yes Date(s) : 5/74 Resolution or attitude assumed as a result : appears on lists of wanted persons Refugee status Existence of record : yes Result of the intervention : negative

OTHER ORGANIZATIONS

NATIONAL CORPORATION FOR REPARATION AND RECONCILIATION – CHILE –

Source: Human Rights Secretariat - Uruguay

The space, named Luisa Cuesta, is in Atlántida, next to Liceo 1, where both young men studied.

Two of those old double school desks, but made of iron, along with a concrete seat and a stone with a plaque, were installed next to Liceo 1 in Atlántida to form a memorial to remember Ariel Arcos Latorre (1950-1973) and Julio Enrique Pagardoy Saquieres (1952-1973). “Former students of the Atlántida liceo, militants of the MLN [National Liberation Movement]-Tupamaros, murdered by the Chilean dictatorship,” says the plaque of what is now the Luisa Cuesta Memory Space, as the Atlántida Recent Memory Rescue Commission decided to name the site. “When I arrived, I thought the desks were actually made of wood,” said the Mayor of Canelones, Yamandú Orsi, who highlighted the work as a “good idea,” noting the “welcoming space, the well-made work, beautiful, well-resolved, because with very little, one realizes how much is behind it.”

“It is very good to have memory to try to illuminate the future. Perhaps by remembering we do not know what to do moving forward, but we know what we must not do. Thank you for coming to this encounter with the soul, with the kids who were left by the wayside and could not exhaust the beautiful fuse of their lives,” were the words of former President José Mujica, who arrived by surprise at the end of the ceremony, as the rain came and went, accompanied by his wife, former Vice President Lucía Topolansky.

Florencia Rodríguez and Juan Bruschi spoke on behalf of the commission and told the story of the initiative. “For us, it is a special and moving day; this memorial is the result of a process that began in July 2018, the year the commission was formed.

This commission is made up of neighbors from the area, people interested in the subject of human rights, in this case related to the recent past of our country, with the objective of building collective memory in the territory, of promoting the remembrance of a dark part of our history, so that crimes against humanity are not repeated, to say 'Never again state terrorism',” expressed Rodríguez.

“We are here to pay tribute to Ariel Arcos and Julio Pagardoy, young forcibly disappeared persons. Young people from the area who went to study at this liceo in 1973, belonging to the MLN-T, and who, under the operation of Plan Cóndor, were detained and forcibly disappeared, and finally murdered in Chile,” said Bruschi, who added that they decided to name the space Luisa Cuesta “for her strength and her fight for truth, memory, and justice.”

“In her, the struggle of many relatives of the disappeared from those years is symbolized, who to this day continue searching and asking where their loved ones are,” added Rodríguez. “We want this space to be a place of reflection, of contact with this history of resistance of our people, a history that, like many others, was silenced during the terror of the dark years,” noted Bruschi. (excerpt)

Source: ladiaria.com.uy 08/14/2021

Date: 08-14-2021

Court ordered the Treasury to pay compensation for a disappeared Uruguayan

The appellate court ratified the sentence for the kidnapping of Enrique Pagardoy Saquieres.

The Santiago Court of Appeals confirmed the sentence ordering the State of Chile to pay $150 million in compensation to the family of Uruguayan citizen Enrique Julio Pagardoy Saquieres, who has been a forcibly disappeared person since September 11, 1973, in the Cajón del Maipo sector.

In a split decision, the Fourth Chamber of the appellate court—with votes in favor from judges Mireya López and Viviana Toro, and a dissenting vote from judge Alfredo Pfeiffer—confirmed the sentence ordering the payment of $100,000,000 to Gladys Saquieres Pereira and $50,000,000 to Virginia Pagardoy Saquieres, the victim's mother and sister.

The sentence ratifies the ruling of the judge of the Nineteenth Civil Court of Santiago, Jacqueline Benquis Monares, which established the responsibility of State agents in the disappearance of Pagardoy Saquieres.

“Having established the illicit act, the responsibility of the State, and the circumstances of the detention and disappearance of Mr. Enrique Pagardoy Saquieres, son and brother of the plaintiffs, and that it would not have taken place had the intervention of state officials not occurred, the responsibility of the State of Chile in the recounted events remains established,” the court ruling reads.

Source: adnradio.cl 05/25/2017

Date: 05-25-2017

Courts investigate torture and genocidal crimes in Cordillera Province

The San Miguel Court of Appeals appointed Judge Marínela Cifuentes Alarcón to investigate, among others, the following crimes related to the Cordillera province:

Regarding the young students, FRANCISCO EUGENIO VIERA OVALLE, 19 years old, from the Liceo Industrial de Puente Alto, a militant of the Socialist Youth, was detained on September 19, 1973; and HECTOR ENRIQUE HERNANDEZ GARCES, 17 years old, a student at the Liceo Industrial de Puente Alto and a member of the Socialist Youth, was detained on September 27, 1973.

Both were murdered by members of the Army, officers from the San Bernardo Infantry School, at the concentration, torture, and execution camp known as “Cerro Chena”. Their remains rest in the Bajos de Mena cemetery.

Their torturers were Army officers: Andrés Magaña, Alfonso Faúndez, Víctor Pino, Sergio Rodríguez, and Carabineros Lieutenant Sergio Ávila Quiroga. Francisco Viera and Héctor Hernández were murdered on October 6, 1973; they sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the back and were executed without any military trial. That same day, 18 other detainees were massacred at Cerro Chena.

Regarding the responsibilities of Colonel Mateo Durruty Blanco, Lieutenant Colonel Rolf Wenderott Pozo, officers Pedro Teyssedre Cartagena, Francisco Martínez Benavides, Lander Uriarte Burotto, and non-commissioned officers Luis Canales Pino and René Cruces Tapia, all members of the Military Intelligence Service (SIM) of the Puente Alto Railway Regiment.

JAIME JIMENEZ JIMENEZ, 29 years old, a leader of the Central Única de Trabajadores de Chile, was detained in the Nuevo Amanecer neighborhood of Puente Alto by troops from the local regiment. His body was found dead on Avenida Camilo Henríquez, east of Puente Alto, on October 17, 1973.

His remains were taken to the General Cemetery of Santiago, “Patio 29”; they were later exhumed and handed over to his family by the Legal Medical Institute.

JORGE ERNESTO CARRION CASTRO, 22 years old, worked at the Empresa Metropolitana de Obras Sanitarias (EMOS), was married with 2 children, a militant of the MIR, and president of the “Luis Emilio Recabarren” camp; he lived on Calle Los Pinos, in what is now the Vista Hermosa neighborhood of Puente Alto.

During a violent raid on the camp, 60 residents were detained; some had fled to the “El Coipo” hill. The young Jorge Carrión was taken to the Puente Alto regiment and was murdered on October 5, 1973, while attempting to escape. His family reported the murder to the Puente Alto Criminal Court.

The three Uruguayan Tupamaros citizens were detained at the end of September 1973 by police officers from the San José de Maipo Carabineros sub-precinct. They were accused of trying to leave the country through a mountain pass.

During those months, the persecution of South American citizens was carried out with extreme violence throughout the country. The Carabineros of San José de Maipo handed them over to the Colonel and Commander of the Puente Alto Regiment, Mateo Durruty Blanco; for this reason, he is being prosecuted for the detention and disappearance of the three young men: ENRIQUE JULIO PAGARDOY SAQUIERES, 20 years old, from Montevideo, who worked in Canelones while in Chile; ARIEL ARCOS LATORRE, 20 years old, who arrived in Chile three months before the coup d'état, from whom he of course refuted the fact and denied everything again: “I never knew anything, there were never any detainees in my regiment,” insisted and lied the commander and Chief of the Plaza of Puente Alto.

In various raids, thirteen peasants from different settlements in Paine were detained by soldiers from the San Bernardo Infantry School. They were subsequently tortured at Cerro Chena, taken away in trucks, and sent to the San Vicente de Pirque sector to be executed, under the responsibility of officers Andrés Magaña Bau, Guillermo Castro Muñoz, and non-commissioned officer José Vásquez.

The peasants were shot in the back and buried in mass graves. Later, the bodies were exhumed by soldiers from Puente Alto and Carabineros, who threw them onto the southern slope of the Maipo River. They were then sent to the Legal Medical Institute and subsequently transferred to the General Cemetery of Santiago, “Patio 29”.

LUIS OSVALDO GONZALEZ MONDACA, 32 years old, married with 5 children, president of the “Huiticalán” settlement, was detained in the commune of Paine. He was captured by Army troops from the San Bernardo Infantry School on October 23, 1973, at 10:00 hours.

He was executed at Cerro Grande de Pirque. LUIS SILVA CARREÑO, 43 years old, married, 7 children, a peasant detained at the “Arco Iris” settlement in Paine on October 16, 1973, was executed at Cerro Grande de Pirque.

MANUEL SILVA CARREÑO, 44 years old, married, a peasant from the “Arco Iris” settlement in Paine, was detained on October 29, 1973, and executed at Cerro Grande de Pirque. PEDRO JUAN MENESES BRITO, 30 years old, single, a socialist militant and president of the “El Vínculo” settlement in Paine, was detained on October 21, 1973, and murdered on October 23, 1973, at Cerro Grande de Pirque.

ROLANDO ANASTACIO DONAIRE RODRIGUEZ, 49 years old, married with 6 children, was detained on October 23, 1973, at the “Huiticalán” settlement in Paine and executed at Cerro Grande de Pirque. BENJAMIN ADOLFO CAMUS SILVA, 31 years old, married with 2 children, was detained on October 20, 1973, at the “Huiticalán” settlement in Paine and executed at Cerro Grande de Pirque.

SANTOS PASCUAL CALDERON SALDAÑO, 28 years old, married, a socialist militant, was detained on October 20, 1973, at the “Huiticalán” settlement in Paine and executed at Cerro Grande de Pirque. BAUTISTA SEGUNDO OYARZO TORRES was detained at the “Huiticalán” settlement on October 23, 1973, in Paine and executed at Cerro Grande de Pirque.

JUAN MANUEL ORTIZ ACEVEDO, 38 years old, married with 4 children, president of the “El Rangue” settlement, was detained on October 13, 1973, in Paine and executed at Cerro Grande de Pirque. LUIS CELESTINO ORTIZ ACEVEDO, 36 years old, married, 7 children, president of the JAP, was detained at the “El Rangue” settlement in Paine on October 13, 1973, and executed at Cerro Grande de Pirque.

FRANCISCO JAVIER LIZAMA IRARRAZABAL, 34 years old, married, a socialist militant and president of the “El Rangue” settlement in Paine, was detained on October 13, 1973, and executed at Cerro Grande de Pirque.

JOSE MANUEL DIAZ INOSTROSA, 29 years old, president of the “Marcel Alto” settlement in Paine. JOSE MANUEL PAVEZ HENRIQUEZ, 25 years old, vice president of the “El Patagual” settlement in Paine, was detained on October 13, 1973, and executed at Cerro Grande de Pirque.

JULIO SEGUNDO VALENCIA CASTILLO, 32 years old, married with 2 children, a taxi driver and president of the Coordinadora de Allegados de Puente Alto. On September 27, 1984, residents of the Puente Alto commune carried out a “land seizure” and were violently evicted by Carabineros.

That night, Carabineros began searching for Julio Valencia; when they found him, they beat him with a stone and kicked him on the ground. Not satisfied with that, a Carabineros officer cut his throat with a yatagan.

His lifeless body was dumped on Calle Oscar Bonilla in Puente Alto. His remains rest in the Bajos de Mena cemetery. Currently, the Puente Alto Communal of the Communist Party bears his name in his honor.

PATRICIO LEONEL GONZALEZ GONZALEZ, 23 years old, a worker, attended primary school at School No. 2 on Calle Eyzaguirre and secondary school at the Liceo Industrial Las Nieves. He resided in the old Pedro Aguirre Cerda neighborhood.

A militant of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez (FPMR), the Communal of the Communist Youth (JJ-CC) of Puente Alto bears his name in honor of his trajectory. He was murdered on December 10, 1985, at 1:30 hours on Avenida Concha y Toro, in front of No. 0160 in Puente Alto.

He was shot by Carabineros from the commune and Army troops from the Puente Alto regiment in broad daylight, in an unequal confrontation. The uniformed men numbered more than 20 and were armed with war weaponry, while “Pato” only had a low-caliber pistol.

The book “Una historia de amor y coraje en Puente Alto” was published, featuring poems in tribute to this committed social combatant. His remains rest in the Bajos de Mena cemetery. The individuals responsible for the crime are Juan Orlando Muñoz Orellana, Nelson Mario Pérez, and Ramón Antonio Venegas Arenas, all Carabineros officers at the time of the events, who were prosecuted as perpetrators by Judge Cifuentes, who also ordered their preventive detention.

Former political prisoners from Puente Alto in the Supreme Court

Regarding torture and torment, the Investigative Police (PDI) Human Rights Brigade, under instructions from the Visiting Judge Mario Carroza Espinoza of the Santiago Court of Appeals, is investigating the complaints filed and accepted by former political prisoners residing in Puente Alto: Luis Lobos and Raúl Vargas, both former union leaders, and Sergio Solís and Ricardo Klapp, former political leaders of our provincial capital.

In addition, the PDI Human Rights Brigade is investigating in Pirque the case of the 13 peasants from Paine murdered in San Vicente in October 1973 at the former Salvador Allende Agrarian Reform Center.

Human Rights organizations must promote the necessary protagonism of the people with social, civic, and popular participation; to transition from an exclamatory democracy to a participatory democracy that is respectful of Human Rights.

Source: elclarin.cl 26/11/2015 Date: 26-11-2015

JUSTICE IN CHILE: SIX RETIRED MILITARY OFFICERS IMPRISONED FOR THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THREE YOUNG URUGUAYANS

Ariel Arcos Latorre, Juan Povaschuck Galeazzo, and Enrique Pargadoy Saquieres, all Uruguayans, were detained in the Cajón del Maipo, probably on September 29, 1973, by Carabineros and Army troops, and were transferred to the then-Railway Regiment of Puente Alto. Their whereabouts remain unknown since then.

“The Supreme Court of Chile issued a final ruling this Tuesday, April 14, 2015, in the case of the Uruguayans 'Ariel Arcos and others.' The conviction against the 6 defendants, all as perpetrators of the qualified kidnapping of three young Uruguayans in Puente Alto in 1973, was ratified to six years of effective imprisonment.

All those convicted are retired Army officers, starting with the Commander of the Puente Alto Regiment at the time, Mateo Durruty, whose son is an active-duty Army General and Director of the Military Hospital,” reported Chilean Human Rights lawyer Dr.

Cristian Cruz via email past noon on Tuesday, which prompted an immediate telephone contact with CX36 to explain the scope of the ruling and detail the aforementioned case involving three young Uruguayans.

In contact with ‘Contrapunto,’ the afternoon program of Centenario, Dr. Cristian Cruz explained that “today the Supreme Court issued sentences against State agents for various crimes of qualified kidnapping and homicide, perpetrated between 1973 and 1975, in Valparaíso, Cajón del Maipo, and Cerro San Cristóbal, respectively,” and referred specifically to the ruling (*) of the case he led, which—he noted—“issued a sentence in the investigation into the qualified kidnappings of Uruguayan citizens Ariel Arcos Latorre, Juan Povaschuck Galeazzo, and Enrique Pargadoy Saquieres, illicit acts perpetrated at the end of 1973 in the Cajón del Maipo sector. In the resolution, the chamber rejected the appeal for cassation and confirmed the 6-year prison sentences for: Mateo Durruty Blanco, Mickel Uriarte Burotto, Gabriel Bernardo Montero Uranga, Francisco Fernando Martínez Benavides, Moisés Retamal Bustos, and Guillermo Antonio Vargas Avendaño, as perpetrators.” As the Radio Centenario audience knows, every day at 8:15 hours, we remember the comrades murdered or forcibly disappeared within the framework of Operation Condor, the repressive coordination of the civil-military dictatorships of the Southern Cone. From these materials, we extract the data of these three young Uruguayans whose murderers were convicted today in Chile:

PAGARDOY SAQUIERES, Enrique Julio, “El Negro”

Detained-disappeared on 9/29/73 in Chile.

Extracted from the book A Todos Ellos

Born in Montevideo on February 6, 1952. Single, employee of a real estate agency in Atlántida, Pagardoy was a militant of the MLN, for which he was imprisoned between February 1971 and December 1972. On June 27, 1973, he left the country together with Ariel Arcos, bound for Chile via Buenos Aires.

He traveled to Chile in July 1973 and was detained on September 29, 1973, together with Uruguayans Juan Antonio Povaschuk and Ariel Arcos, in El Cajón del Maipo, while they were trying to cross the mountain range on foot, heading to Argentina. All three are disappeared.

The preliminary report of the Commission for Peace to the Presidency of the Republic of Uruguay, from October 2002, in Chapter III regarding: “COMPLAINTS ABOUT URUGUAYAN CITIZENS ALLEGEDLY DISAPPEARED IN OTHER COUNTRIES” states:

"1. CHILE

6. The complaints regarding Uruguayan citizens allegedly disappeared in Chile received by the COMMISSION amount to 7. 7. The COMMISSION considers the 7 complaints partially confirmed, based on the terms of the official reports issued by agencies of that country in relation to the persons identified in ANNEX X (three of them are: Enrique Pagardoy Saquieres, Juan Povaschuk, and Ariel Arcos)."

POVASCHUCK GALEAZZO, Juan Antonio.

Detained-disappeared on 9/29/73. Born in Montevideo on January 5, 1949, he lived in Cerrito de la Victoria. Married, father of a daughter, student of Economic Sciences and a photographer by profession, he was a militant in the MLN, for which he was imprisoned since November 1971.

Once released, he traveled to Chile, where he entered as a tourist on July 4, 1973, coming from Argentina. He was detained on September 29, 1973, together with several Uruguayans (Pagardoy and Arcos, among others) who were trying to leave for Argentina after the coup d'état in Chile, the country where they resided.

He remains disappeared, as do Enrique Pagardoy and Ariel Arcos, who were detained on that occasion.

ARCOS LATORRE, Ariel.

Detained-Disappeared on 9/29/73 in Chile.

Extracted from the book A Todos Ellos

Born in Rivera on December 1, 1949. He was single, an engineering student, an automotive mechanic, lived in Las Toscas, and was a militant of the MLN, for which he was imprisoned from February 1971 to December 1972. On June 27, 1973, he left the country bound for Chile, via Buenos Aires, together with Enrique Pagardoy.

Information provided by the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation of the Chilean State:

“Enrique Julio Pagardoy Saquieres, 21 years old, student, Uruguayan, detained-disappeared in Puente Alto at the end of September 1973. Juan Antonio Povaschuck Galeazzo, 24 years old, married, Uruguayan, photographer, detained-disappeared in Puente Alto, Santiago, at the end of September 1973.

Ariel Arcos, Uruguayan, detained-disappeared in Puente Alto at the end of September 1973. The three Uruguayans were detained near San José del Maipo in the Cajón del Maipo, probably on September 29, 1973, by Carabineros officials and Army troops, and transferred to the then-Railway Regiment of Puente Alto.

Since then, their whereabouts are unknown. According to surviving witnesses, also of Uruguayan nationality, as of September 11, 1973, all of them, including Arcos, Pagardoy, and Povaschuck, were living in the town of El Ingenio in the Cajón del Maipo.

They had traveled to Chile as political exiles, as they were linked to the Tupamaro movement in their countries. According to the witnesses, due to the events of September 11, 1973, the group had agreed that if anyone was detained, the rest should flee to Argentina by crossing the mountain range.

For that reason, when one of the group members was detained by Carabineros on September 20, the others rushed the planned trip. Thus, in the last days of September 1973, the group headed to the town of El Volcán in the Cajón del Maipo, and while Juan Povaschuck and Ariel Arcos went ahead to scout the terrain, the others, among whom was Enrique Pagardoy, took refuge inside an abandoned mine near the place.

The next day they were surprised in that place by Carabineros, who took them as detainees to the San José del Maipo police station, where they were subjected to interrogations and mistreatment. During the night of that same day, they were taken out by soldiers from the then-Railway Regiment of Puente Alto and driven to their military facility, where they were again interrogated and beaten, this time by people dressed in civilian clothes.

In this place, the survivors saw that Ariel Arcos and Juan Povaschuck were also detained. Subsequently, the military separated the group. Three members were taken to the National Stadium, and Enrique Pagardoy, Juan Povaschuck, and Ariel Arcos remained at the regiment.

Since then, nothing more was heard of them. Considering the background gathered and the investigation carried out by this Corporation, the Superior Council reached the conviction that Ariel Arcos, Enrique Pagardoy, and Juan Povaschuck disappeared while they were deprived of their liberty by State agents. For this reason, it declared them victims of human rights violations.”

Source: radio36.com.uy 14/04/2015 Date: 14-04-2015

SIX CHILEAN MILITARY OFFICERS CONVICTED FOR THE DISAPPEARANCE OF 3 URUGUAYANS

In 2012, only Colonel Mateo Durruty had been sentenced to 6 years in prison. Now, retired General Francisco Martínez, former Brigadier Ander Uriarte, and former non-commissioned officers Gabriel Montero, Moisés Retamal, and Guillermo Vargas have been added. The young men were captured in the Cajón del Maipo after the 1973 military coup while trying to cross the mountain range to Argentina.

The Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced 6 retired Chilean military officers this Monday to 6-year prison terms for the qualified kidnapping of 3 young Uruguayans after the 1973 military coup, according to judicial sources.

In a unanimous ruling, the II Chamber of the appellate court modified the first-instance sentence, issued by special judge Joaquín Billard Acuña, which had sentenced only Colonel Mateo Durruty to 6 years in prison for this crime.

Now, retired General Francisco Martínez, former Brigadier Ander Uriarte, and former non-commissioned officers Gabriel Montero, Moisés Retamal, and Guillermo Vargas have been added to the conviction.

All those convicted are currently at liberty, a statement from the Judiciary indicated.

As this is a second-instance ruling, the defense for the uniformed officers can appeal to the Supreme Court.

CAPTURED IN THE CAJÓN DEL MAIPO

The victims were the Uruguayans Ariel Arcos Latorre, Juan Povaschuk Galeazzo, and Enrique Pargadoy Saquieres, who were detained by Carabineros on September 29, 1973, in an abandoned mine in the Cajón del Maipo along with 4 other compatriots, including 2 women, who managed to survive.

The 3 had arrived in Chile as refugees during the government of Salvador Allende, fearing they would be detained in their country on suspicion of belonging to the leftist revolutionary group National Liberation Movement-Tupamaros.

After Pinochet's coup, the young men tried to flee Chile by crossing the Andes Mountains on foot toward Argentina, a circumstance in which they were detained and handed over by the Carabineros to soldiers of the Railway Regiment of Puente Alto.

TORTURE AND DISAPPEARANCE

In the regiment, according to testimonies from some military personnel of the same unit and survivors, they were severely beaten and, among other tortures, were forced to eat crushed glass. Ariel Arcos Latorre, 23 years old, was a university student, as was Enrique Pagardoy, 21 years old, and Juan Antonio Povaschuk, 24 years old, was a photographer.

After a couple of days of confinement in the regiment, the transfer of the detainees to the National Stadium was ordered, but Arcos, Pagardoy, and Povaschuk were separated from the group by order of one of the officers, and since then nothing more was heard of them.

Source: LA NACIÓN - May 26, 2014 Date: 26-05-2014

Retired military officers prosecuted for the kidnapping of Uruguayans

A retired general and a brigadier were prosecuted by Judge Joaquín Billard as perpetrators of the kidnapping and disappearance in September 1973 of Uruguayan citizens Ariel Arcos Latorre, Juan Povaschuk Galeazzo, and Enrique Pargadoy Saquieres.

The accused are General Francisco Martínez Benavides and Colonel Lander Uriarte Burotto, as well as the also retired non-commissioned officer René Cruces Tapia. Previously, the former commander of the Puente Alto Mountain Engineer Regiment, retired Colonel Mateo Durruty Blanco, had also been declared a defendant for this same crime.

Days after the military coup, six Uruguayans were arrested by Carabineros from the San José de Maipo sub-precinct inside an abandoned mine in the mountain area. Apparently, they were hiding to plan an escape to Argentina, as they had taken refuge in Chile after the Uruguayan military uprising on June 27, 1973.

The police took them to the aforementioned regiment, where, according to the case records, they were repeatedly tortured, just like the hundreds of prisoners who passed through that barracks commanded by Durruty.

Some were even forced to swallow crushed glass, as testified judicially by former detainee Alfonso Brizuela Durán. One night, they were taken out of that barracks by Army personnel to be supposedly transferred to the National Stadium.

However, on the way, the guards took the three mentioned Uruguayans out of the military vehicle and made them disappear to this day. Both General Francisco Martínez and Colonel Lander Uriarte and non-commissioned officer René Cruces belong to the group of accused of committing lesser-known crimes against humanity and are being prosecuted for the first time.

In the case of Durruty Blanco, he already has a sentence of 10 years and one day issued in the first instance by the Minister of the Court of Appeals of San Miguel, Marta Hantke, for the kidnapping and disappearance from the Puente Alto regiment in September 1973 of Juan Manuel Llanca Rodas.

But this sentence must still be reviewed by that court and then by the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court, which could leave Durruty at liberty if it significantly reduces the sentence, as is the criticized legal criterion that that court established more than two years ago. Those prosecuted by Billard were granted provisional release while the investigation continues.

Source: LA NACIÓN - January 15, 2009 Date: 15-01-2009

Pagardoy Saquieres, Julio Enrique

Julio Enrique was born in Montevideo, lived his childhood and adolescence in Atlántida (Canelones), and studied at High School No. 1 of that city. He joined the National Liberation Movement-Tupamaros when he was 18 years old.

Within the framework of the Prompt Security Measures, he was detained for participating in a demonstration in front of the Faculty of Architecture and prosecuted, for which he remained imprisoned in the Punta Carretas Penitentiary between February 1971 and December 1972.

On June 27, 1973, after the coup d'état, Julio went to Argentina with Ariel Arcos to reach Chile, where he entered on July 4, 1973. Upon the occurrence of the coup d'état in Chile and the unleashed persecution, he tried to leave for Argentina together with several Uruguayan comrades.

They were captured on September 29, 1973, by Carabineros and Chilean Army troops. That same day, during the night, soldiers from the No. 7 Railway Engineer Regiment of Puente Alto transferred them to the barracks.

In that place, he disappeared along with Ariel Arcos and Juan Antonio Povaschuk. Julio was 21 years old. For those and other crimes, the former commander of the Puente Alto Mountain Engineer Regiment, retired Chilean Colonel Mateo Durruty Blanco, was prosecuted in 2007.

In 2009, three retired military officers were prosecuted in Chile for kidnapping and disappearance: General Francisco Martínez Benavides, Colonel Lander Uriarte Burotto, and non-commissioned officer René Cruces Tapia.

The Santiago Court of Appeals confirmed on May 26, 2014, the six-year prison sentences against six retired Chilean military officers for the kidnapping, torture, and disappearance of the three young men.

Name: Julio Enrique

Surname: Pagardoy Saquieres Date of birth: 06/02/1952 Place of birth: Montevideo Age: 21 Nationality: Uruguay Occupation: Student Political affiliation: National Liberation Movement - Tupamaros (M.L.N.-T) Date of kidnapping/detention: 29/09/1973 Country of kidnapping/detention: Chile Place(s) of detention: Puente Alto Railway Engineer Regiment Place of death or disappearance: Puente Alto Railway Engineer Regiment Country of death or disappearance: Chile Victim of: Forcible disappearance

Source: sitiosdememoria.uy

Uruguayan Ambassador to Chile: Truth in Human Rights is not an alternative to Justice “it cannot replace the State's obligation to punish the guilty”

The Ambassador of Uruguay to Chile, Rodolfo Camarosano, made these statements after placing a commemorative plaque at Villa Grimaldi in memory of the forcibly disappeared persons from his country in Chile.

In an emotional ceremony, the Ambassador of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay to Chile, Rodolfo Camarosano, placed a plaque at the Villa Grimaldi Peace Park with the list of the forcibly disappeared persons from his country in Chile.

The diplomat was accompanied by the ambassadors to Chile of Venezuela, Arévalo Méndez; of Mexico, Otto Granados; and of Cuba, Adolfo Curbelo, in an activity that began with a guided tour, which was also attended by Uruguayans residing in Chile, relatives of the victims, and the general public.

The diplomat, on behalf of his Government, thanked the Villa Grimaldi Peace Park Corporation “for allowing us to be present here and leave on the wall that mark of what we call active memory.” On the occasion, he expressed that there must never again be “torture, executions, and the forcible disappearance of persons.

The whole of society must continue to reflect so as not to ignore history.” “We want and demand truth, because truth is an instrument of protection that serves to avoid living through terrible experiences again.

Knowing about what happened helps to forge the conscience and commitment of the members of society so that it is not repeated in the future,” he noted. “Truth is necessary to understand, but it is also a way of doing justice; it is not an alternative to it but an integral part of it.

It cannot replace the State's obligation to punish the guilty and ask the victims to renounce their rights,” he added. Commitment: truth and justice for the disappeared Uruguayans “We are aware that many times the truth is so complex that we can only approximate it, but that does not imply that it is not necessary to travel that path, in which we all are.

On that path, we find ourselves as representatives of the Uruguayan State,” he pointed out. He then said that he committed himself not to lower his arms to find truth and justice and named the Uruguayan forcibly disappeared persons who are from now on on the commemorative plaque at the memorial site located in the Peñalolén commune: Ariel Arcos; Arazati López; Enrique Pagardoy; Nelsa Gadea; Julio César Fernández; Juan Povaschuk; Alberto Fontela; Juan Cendán; and Mónica Benayo.

For her part, the General Secretary of the Villa Grimaldi Peace Park Corporation, Teresa Izquierdo, said that it was a source of pride “for the fighters for human rights who make up its board of directors, as well as for its members and professionals, that your Government has decided to pay tribute to its citizens who were forcibly disappeared in Chile at our memorial site.” “What we are doing with the Uruguayan Embassy is a necessary exercise of historical memory: we do not want human rights violations to occur again in Chile and Uruguay and in any other country in Latin America or in the entire world. Their names are now engraved forever on one of our walls to remember them,” and she wished “a better world for our countries.” The thread to narrate the history of the Libertad prison Subsequently, the documentary El Almanaque was screened, by filmmaker José Pedro Charlo, a former political prisoner for 8 years, who attended the presentation and ceremony. Charlo stated that his film did not arise from a plan to show the history of the Libertad prison, located in Montevideo, the largest political prison of the 70s, which came to have 2,872 people. The story of El Almanaque recounts how one of the inmates, Jorge Tiscornia, kept in the interior of his clogs, in great detail, during 12 years of his imprisonment, the details of what was happening inside the prison, and even photographed it at the end of his confinement. Charlo indicated that for him what was important was “the personal bond, and finding threads that allow telling the stories in such a way that those stories pose a dialogue with the spectator that reaches the sensitivity of the spectator in some way.” “I wanted to tell the story of the Libertad prison, and at some point, that plan was in me, but I could not tell it until I found the way to do it, starting from reading the book that Jorge (Tiscornia) wrote,” the protagonist, he detailed. Then the work El Pozo was presented with musicians Gonzalo Victoria from Uruguay and Jorge Martínez from Chile, dedicated to the Uruguayan composer, archaeologist, and researcher Oscar “Laucha” Prieto, who was also a political prisoner during the Uruguayan military dictatorship.

Source: villagrimaldi.cl (no date)