Julio Fidel Flores Pérez, 22 years old, single, a Mining Engineering student at the Universidad Técnica del Estado and a member of the MIR, was detained on January 10, 1975, at approximately 01:30 in the morning, at his home and in the presence of his family.

At that hour, 6 heavily armed agents of the Dirección Nacional de Inteligencia (DINA) arrived at his home, verbally identifying themselves as "police." The group was led by a young man of about 25 years of age, while the rest were individuals around 40 years old.

Without showing any warrant, they entered the home and began a search, stating that it was only a routine act. They searched the patio of the house, opened suitcases and drawers, and even tore up cigarettes found on the nightstand.

They found nothing unusual; in fact, the one acting as the leader commented, "everything is normal." After about half an hour, they decided to leave, but concluded beforehand that Julio Fidel had to accompany them. The captors promised the victim's mother, Mrs. Julia Filomena Pérez, that they would bring her son back in about 45 minutes.

However, that did not happen. On the contrary, the victim was taken to the secret DINA detention and torture center known as Villa Grimaldi, from where he disappeared on January 30, 1975. In that facility, Julio Fidel Flores was seen by numerous witnesses.

María Alicia Salinas learned on January 10, 1975, that the victim had arrived at Villa Grimaldi as a detainee. Julia Myriam Escobar saw him arrive, stating that, days later, she saw him again, but he was walking with difficulty and hunching over slightly with each step.

In this regard, the witnesses are consistent: as the days passed, the victim appeared physically deteriorated, his effort to remain standing was noticeable, he took very slow steps, and, as Jorge Bórquez observed, it seemed as if his body weighed him down. Angeles Alvarez noted that this was the result of the torture suffered by the victim.

The statements also coincide that Julio Flores remained in Villa Grimaldi until the end of January 1975. Hugo Salinas, who shared a room with the victim on the nights of January 27, 28, and 29, 1975, saw when he was taken out of Villa Grimaldi on January 30 or February 1, 1975, along with another group of detainees, among whom were Jaime Robotham Bravo and Herbit Ríos Soto; both, like Julio Fidel, remain forcibly disappeared to this day.

The detention of the victim was part of a concerted DINA action aimed at dismantling the MIR, of which the victim was a member, which resulted in numerous detentions and disappearances of members of that party.

Among others, Herbit Ríos had been detained on January 3, 1975; Patricio Urbina Chamorro on January 6 of the same year; and Claudio Contreras Hernández on the 7th. All of them were seen at Villa Grimaldi and disappeared from that facility.

According to what the victim's family reported to the Court, and in accordance with the statements of the witnesses, the DINA agents who had a direct relationship with the victim's disappearance were Marcelo Moren Brito, who at the time the events occurred served as one of the chiefs of Villa Grimaldi; Fernando Adrián Laureani Maturana, known as "Lieutenant Pablo," who detained and interrogated prisoners at Villa Grimaldi and whose physical description—young, blond, and green-eyed—corresponded to that of one of Julio Fidel's captors; and Osvaldo Romo Mena, who, in addition to being an interrogator and torturer at Villa Grimaldi, was involved in the detention and disappearance of numerous MIR members.

Subsequently, in July 1975, the victim's name appeared on the list of 119 Chileans who had allegedly died abroad. The veracity of this fact has never been proven; moreover, no government, not even the Chilean one, officially ratified it.

Time proved the falsity of this information. There were two lists: one of 60 names that appeared in the magazine Lea in Argentina and another of 59 in the newspaper O'DIA in Curitiba, Brazil. The 119 names corresponded to people who had disappeared after being detained between the months of June 1974 and February 1975, and the majority had been seen by witnesses in secret DINA detention centers.

Arcadia Patricia Flores Pérez, the victim's only sister, searched for him intensely for 5 years, even setting aside her studies. Later, she lived with a clandestine member of the MIR. He was detained, and when she was alone at home, the residence was raided, resulting in a shootout in which 27-year-old Arcadia Flores was killed (August 16, 1981).

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On January 13, 1975, a writ of amparo (habeas corpus) was filed for the victim at the Santiago Court of Appeals, which was registered under No. 73-75. When consulted, the various authorities were consistent in responding to the Court that Julio Fidel Flores was not being held.

The Division General and Minister of the Interior, Raúl Benavides Escobar, denied the victim's detention (February 7, 1975). For its part, the DINA issued a statement indicating that any inquiry should be directed to the Ministry of the Interior or the National Executive Secretariat of Detainees (March 1975).

And this Executive Secretariat (SENDET), in turn, reported having forwarded all inquiries regarding detentions, including that of the victim, to the Ministry of the Interior (April 1975).

On April 28, 1975, the writ was rejected, and the records were sent to the 4th Criminal Court of San Miguel to initiate a summary investigation into the disappearance of Julio Fidel Flores, opening case file No. 9541-9.

On April 18, 1975, a second amparo had been filed for the victim at the Santiago Court of Appeals, which was registered under No. 538-75. During its processing, the authorities consulted again stated they lacked information related to the detention of Julio Fidel Flores.

Both the Minister of the Interior, Division General Raúl Benavides Escobar, and the DINA reported in exactly the same terms as mentioned previously. By virtue of these records, the amparo was rejected on June 20, 1975, and the documents were sent to the 4th Criminal Court of San Miguel, where they were added to case file No. 9541-9, which had been initiated on May 5, 1975.

Along with summoning the witnesses of the victim's imprisonment to testify, the Court consulted authorities. Once again, the Minister of the Interior, Raúl Benavides, responded that Julio Fidel was not being held (November 1975).

On April 30, 1976, without further progress in the investigation, the summary was closed and the case was temporarily dismissed. The Court of Appeals approved the resolution on July 8, 1976, following a report from the Prosecutor, who had stated: "no matter how much it is presumed or the conviction is acquired that Julio Fidel Flores was detained, the truth is that officially the Courts are notified that he was not detained."

The case was reopened on August 6 of the same year, with new inquiries made to authorities and witnesses summoned. And, for the second time, it was closed and temporarily dismissed on June 30, 1977. The Prosecutor's ruling stated, "the process provides evidence to presume that personnel of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) have had participation in the commission of the facts subject to the investigation." The Court of Appeals approved the ruling in October 1977.

On July 24, 1980, a criminal complaint was filed for the aggravated kidnapping of Julio Fidel, denouncing the DINA's modus operandi: the existence of files, clandestine centers, material infrastructure, the use of license plates for their vehicles that were granted "as a favor" by various Municipalities, names of their agents, etc.

On August 4, 1980, the Judge reopened the summary, focusing the investigation especially on the search for Osvaldo Romo Mena, which proved fruitless, and the summoning of DINA agents to testify. Thus, records regarding Romo, Rolf Wenderoth, and Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko were added to the case, as well as a list of "favor" license plates given to the DINA by the Traffic Department of the La Cisterna Municipality.

It was not possible to obtain this from other Municipalities.

In June 1982, after numerous proceedings, a statement was obtained via official letter from Rolf Gonzalo Wenderoth Pozo, at that time an Army Lieutenant Colonel and Governor of the Osorno Province, who acknowledged having served at Villa Grimaldi while he was a DINA official.

He denied knowing the victim and said he had been in charge of the Analysis Unit, adding that the aforementioned facility depended on the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional. For his part, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, an Army Major in 1982, also acknowledged having belonged to the DINA between 1974 and 1976, dedicated to administrative tasks.

He declared before the Court that he had not known Villa Grimaldi.

On October 4, 1983, the summary was closed, with the request to summon Marcelo Moren Brito to testify still pending.

On October 15 of the same year, the case was temporarily dismissed. The ruling was approved by the San Miguel Court of Appeals on December 28, 1983.

Along with the processing of the previous case, the family of Julio Fidel Flores Pérez joined the families of 70 forcibly disappeared persons at the 10th Criminal Court of Santiago to file a criminal complaint for kidnapping against General Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, Marcelo Luis Manuel Moren Brito, and Rolf Gonzalo Wenderoth Pozo, Army Colonel and Lieutenant Colonel respectively (August 1, 1978).

The Judge declared himself incompetent and sent the records to the Military Justice system, which assigned the case to the 2nd Military Prosecutor's Office, which registered it under No. 553-78. On November 20, 1989, Army Lieutenant Colonel Enrique Ibarra Chamorro, General Military Prosecutor, requested the application of the Amnesty Decree Law (D.L. 2.191) for this case, because the process had the exclusive purpose of investigating alleged crimes that occurred during the period between September 11, 1973, and March 10, 1978, and because, during the 10 years of processing, it had not been possible to "determine the responsibility of any person." On November 30, 1989, the request was accepted by the 2nd Military Court, which totally and definitively dismissed the case, which was still in the summary stage, because "the criminal responsibility of the persons allegedly accused of the reported facts was extinguished." The plaintiff parties appealed this resolution to the Court Martial, which confirmed the ruling in January 1992. A Complaint Appeal was then filed before the Supreme Court of Justice, which by December 1992 had not yet issued its resolution. (Further background in the case of Eduardo Enrique Alarcón Jara - July 30, 1974).

The agent Osvaldo Romo Mena, linked to the detention and disappearance of Julio Fidel Flores Pérez, was arrested in November 1992. In the process handled for the victim, it had not been possible to locate the aforementioned agent.

His recent location was the result of a series of proceedings carried out by the judge of the 3rd Criminal Court of Santiago in the case regarding the disappearance of Alfonso Chanfreau Oyarce. Romo had left the country at the end of 1975, for which the DINA provided him with false identity documents.

At that time, he was being summoned by several Courts handling cases of human rights violation victims. As of December 1992, Romo had been charged in six cases involving forcibly disappeared persons and had several pending court summons.

Source: Rettig Report

This act of reparation is part of the program of activities commemorating the 40th anniversary of the coup d'état and is organized jointly by the U. de Santiago de Chile and the Corporación Solidaria UTE-Usach.

The symbolic ceremony will take place on September 6 in the Aula Magna and aims to keep alive the memory of those who were victims of the repression imposed by the dictatorial regime of General Augusto Pinochet.

Within the framework of the activities organized by the Universidad de Santiago de Chile to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Coup d'État, the Institution will posthumously deliver professional degree diplomas to the families of the dozens of students of this Corporation—the Universidad Técnica del Estado during the military coup, and later, the Universidad de Santiago—who were murdered or disappeared during the military dictatorship.

The activity, scheduled for September 6 at 11:30 a.m. in the Aula Magna, is organized jointly by the U. de Santiago and the Corporación Solidaria UTE-Usach, with the objective of paying tribute to the memory of these students and providing some reparation for the damage caused to these young people and their families.

When announcing the commemorative activities a few days ago (see related note), the Vice-Rector for Outreach, Dr. Sergio González, maintained that the University "is committed to its history, because this was a setting in which repression, political violence, preyed upon the members of its university community."

On that occasion, the Vice-Rector stated that "it is a duty to promote reflection, from academia, to provide support from our recent memory for a commemoration that contributes to the construction of a future with solid foundations."

In this line, the president of the Corporación Solidaria UTE-Usach, Emilio Daroch, expressed his gratification for the realization of this tribute and maintained that it is necessary to maintain the memory of a brutal historical stage for the university community.

Daroch also explained that they are working fundamentally with the students who were disappeared or murdered at the Santiago branch of the Universidad Técnica del Estado, later the Universidad de Santiago de Chile.

"We have a database of about 68 colleagues, but we are reviewing the list, so we estimate that around 40 students will benefit from this posthumous degree. We have located family members of practically all of them," said the president of the Corporation, which brings together hundreds of students from this University who lived through the bloodiest years of the dictatorship in its classrooms.

This emotional act joins a series of university activities, such as the installation of commemorative plaques and symbolic acts inside the campus; the publication of books on Víctor Jara, Salvador Allende, and political imprisonment; and a memory route between the University and the Estadio Víctor Jara, based on the writings of Luis Vitale, among many others.

Former students value the initiative

María Angélica Muñoz was a student at the Universidad Técnica del Estado, was present during the difficult moments of this institution, and today states that "this is an act of reparation different from everything that has been done."

"As a family member of a forcibly disappeared person told me," the former student relates, "this is the reparation of a dream. It goes beyond economic or material reparation; it is the reparation of a dream that, due to the horror, these students could not fulfill."

Meanwhile, Alexis Zamorano, a former UTE student, feels even more committed to the mission of keeping the memory alive, given that his situation at the time was particular.

"I have no qualms about acknowledging," Zamorano pointed out, "that I happened to be the only student from the Universidad Técnica del Estado who had to do military service during September 11, 1973."

"That day I was in the city of Antofagasta in a telecommunications unit. I was a jailer of my own classmates because I had the circumstance of finding myself on the other side of the barbed wire. It was a very strong experience," pointed out this former student, who at that time was a member of the Communist Youth.

For her part, the member of the Corporación Solidaria UTE-Usach, Erica Osorio, was a Civil Construction student and president of her student council during 1973. "They took us from the University to the Estadio Chile, and those were very strong moments where we thought we were all going to die," she commented.

For Erica Osorio, "it is fundamental that the new young generations maintain the memory, because here at the University, a process took place in which we were all committed."

"It is extremely important that today's students learn about the process that this institution lived through and how that dream was truncated. This is part of our history and serves to raise awareness so that such events do not happen again," concluded the former student leader of the Universidad Técnica del Estado.

Source: usach.cl 5/7/2013

Date: 05-07-2013

Court sentences Contreras to 15 years in prison for kidnapping of MIR member

The court also sentenced retired colonels Marcelo Moren Brito, Rolf Wenderoth, and Francisco Ferrer Lima, former Army brigadiers Miguel Krassnoff and Pedro Espinoza, and non-commissioned officer Basclay Zapata to ten years and one day.

The Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced retired General Manuel Contreras, former head of the DINA, the secret police of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship, to fifteen years and one day in prison this Friday for the disappearance of a MIR member in 1975.

The court also sentenced retired colonels Marcelo Moren Brito, Rolf Wenderoth, and Francisco Ferrer Lima, former Army brigadiers Miguel Krassnoff and Pedro Espinoza, and non-commissioned officer Basclay Zapata to ten years and one day.

The ruling, agreed upon unanimously by the Ninth Chamber of the Court of Appeals, ratified the first-instance resolution issued by Judge Alejandro Solís on January 18 of this year.

The court, however, rejected the civil lawsuit filed by the victim's family members against the Chilean State, in which they requested monetary compensation.

The case refers to the kidnapping of Julio Flores, 22, who was a student at the Universidad Técnica del Estado and a member of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR).

The young man was detained by DINA agents on January 10, 1975, at his home in Santiago and was last seen at the Villa Grimaldi torture center, from where he disappeared, according to the Rettig Report.

With this Friday's sentence, Contreras has accumulated fifteen convictions against him, totaling more than 200 years in prison, although at least half are still pending review by the Supreme Court.

With these sentences, the Court of Appeals completes 21 rulings in human rights violation cases so far this year. According to the Rettig Report, during the Pinochet dictatorship, more than 3,200 people died at the hands of State agents, of whom 1,192 are listed as forcibly disappeared.

Source: December 28, 2007 El Mostrador

Date: 28-12-2007