On September 2, 1974, MIR militant Luis Alberto GUENDELMAN WISNIAK was arrested at his home in the Las Condes commune by DINA agents, who were holding a friend of his in custody at the time, who was released some time later.

According to several witnesses, Luis Guendelman was held in DINA facilities and was last seen at Cuatro Alamos. As narrated above in this chapter, in July 1975, the DINA attempted to pass off a corpse found in Argentina as the remains of Luis Guendelman, in a disinformation maneuver known as "Operation Colombo."

The Commission is convinced that his disappearance was the work of State agents, who thereby violated his human rights.

Luis Alberto Guendelman Wisniak, married, an architecture graduate from the Universidad de Chile and a member of the MIR, was detained on September 2, 1974, at approximately 10:30 p.m. at his home, in the presence of his spouse, María Francisca Hurtado, by 7 or 8 armed agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), among whom were Osvaldo Romo Mena and Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes ("El Troglo").

The agents were holding a friend of the victim, Arnaldo Salamero, as a detainee; Salamero would later be released from Tres Alamos and travel to Mexico. Luis Alberto Guendelman was taken to the house at Calle José Domingo Cañas No. 1367—a secret DINA detention and torture center—and subsequently to Cuatro Alamos, from where he disappeared.

The captors were traveling in a yellow or beige Chevrolet pickup truck with a green canopy that read "Carpas Gillibrandt" and bore the license plate UY55 from La Granja. The following morning, September 3, the victim was brought back to his home by his captors.

The household employee, Berta Carrasco, saw him at 8:30 a.m., looking emaciated and surrounded by civilians, who proceeded to carry out a thorough search of the property.

Prior to these events, Luis Alberto Guendelman would regularly go to Arnaldo Salamero's home to make and receive phone calls. On the night of September 2, a young woman who identified herself as Alejandra arrived at that house, claiming to be there on behalf of Luis Alberto (Marcia Alejandra Merino, who had been detained for three or four months at Londres 38 and had become a DINA collaborator), accompanied by a young man wearing a leather jacket.

Moments later, a group of men led by Osvaldo Romo Mena arrived and began interrogating Arnaldo Salamero regarding Luis Alberto. The DINA agents detained Arnaldo Salamero and took him in the pickup truck to the victim's home.

There, they proceeded to detain the victim, returning the witness to his home. Around 2:00 a.m. on September 3, Romo appeared again before Arnaldo Salamero and asked for the keys to a house he owned in Las Vertientes, which he used to lend to the victim and his wife.

Since the declarant did not have them, as he kept them at his business, Romo left. On the morning of September 3, he appeared again, bringing the victim with him to Salamero's business. He asked for the keys and left in the same pickup truck from the previous night.

On the night of September 3, 1974, DINA agents led by Osvaldo Romo detained Arnaldo Salamero at his home and took him to the secret DINA facility located at José Domingo Cañas. There, he was confronted with the victim before they were separated.

On the fourth day, Salamero was interrogated again, with Romo participating in the interrogation. On the fifth day of his detention, the witness was taken to Cuatro Alamos, where, three days later, he heard Luis Alberto Guendelman's voice in the hallway leading to the bathroom.

On the tenth day, Salamero was placed in the "libre plática" (general population) section at Tres Alamos, where he learned 5 days later that Luis Alberto Guendelman had been taken out of Cuatro Alamos to an unknown destination. This information was provided by an Austrian detainee known as "PIL." Subsequently, no one was able to provide further information about the victim.

When Arnaldo Salamero was in the general population section at Tres Alamos, Sara Wisniak—the victim's mother—came to the facility, but Conrado Pacheco, the head of the camp, prevented her from speaking with the witness.

As noted, Osvaldo Romo and Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes participated in the victim's detention, with the collaboration of Marcia Alejandra Merino Vega, known as "Flaca Alejandra."

For his part, Miguel Antonio Albrecht, detained by the DINA on September 3, 1974, remained in a facility he could not identify, where he shared a cell with the victim. On September 5 of the same year, both were taken in the same van to Cuatro Alamos, where they remained in the same room until September 13, the date on which the witness was transferred to the general population section at Tres Alamos.

Agustín Holgado Bloch, who was detained on September 12, 1974, and passed through various detention centers, was taken to Cuatro Alamos on September 25 of the same year. There, the declarant arrived at a room where Luis Guendelman and Luis Arce were being held; Luis was the brother of Luz Arce, a socialist militant who became a DINA collaborator after her detention.

The witness saw him in good physical condition, intact, talkative, and well-dressed, and he told him that he was indeed a relative of the owners of the Guendelman stores. On the morning of September 26, agents called for the victim and told him to take "his things."

In November 1974, the United States Department of State informed Senator J. William Fulbright in writing that the U.S. Embassy in Chile had learned unofficially, through Chilean government sources, that Guendelman was at Cuatro Alamos in good health.

On February 6, 1975, the U.S. Embassy in Chile also informed the Dean of the University of California, Berkeley, Mr. Milton Chernin, in writing that it had informally learned that the victim was at Cuatro Alamos, with no charges against him. "His name was added to the Embassy note—it does not appear on any of the numerous lists of detainees who have been allowed to leave Chile, which have been published by the Chilean government." The U.S.

Embassy in Chile provided the same information to Professor Clarkson H. Oglesby of Stanford University.

Furthermore, Simón Guendelman, the victim's brother who resided in the United States, learned unofficially that Luis Alberto Guendelman had been hospitalized for serious health reasons at the Military Hospital of Santiago between November and December 1974.

In May 1975, Manuel Trucco, Chile's Ambassador to the United States, stated to a representative of the American press that, during his inquiries, he had received contradictory responses regarding the detention of Luis Alberto Guendelman. In June of the same year, an INTERPOL member investigating the case stated in Buenos Aires that the victim was being held in a "northern province."

On October 24, 1974, one of the agents who had participated in the search on September 3, 1974, appeared at Luis Alberto's home and was recognized by Berta Carrasco. The agent left a summons for the victim's spouse. From this, it could be inferred that he was an official belonging to a so-called "Group 3" of the Investigations Service.

On July 12, 1975, the Chilean press reported that in the town of Pilar, 45 kilometers northwest of Buenos Aires, two semi-charred and riddled bodies had been found inside a car, with a banner over them that read "Discharged by the MIR." The documents found among the remains supposedly corresponded to Luis Alberto Guendelman and Jaime Robotham Bravo (detained by the DINA and currently forcibly disappeared).

The Chilean press of the time stated that the discovery of these bodies confirmed that "many individuals who appear as disappeared are elements who left the country clandestinely." It added that the identity of the dead had been confirmed by Chilean authorities and that "Amnesty International will have no choice but to erase their names from the list of disappeared persons in Chile."

Faced with this news, Sara Wisniak, who resided in Israel, traveled to Buenos Aires on July 13, 1975. Together with the Deputy Consul, Mr. Mujica, and a relative, she went to the Pilar Morgue, where she demanded to see the body that supposedly belonged to her son.

The sight, as she described it, was horrific: "there were two human torsos, totally charred, missing their limbs." She immediately realized that the corpse identified as the victim did not match his physical characteristics.

Luis Alberto Guendelman had undergone surgery for a fibrocarcoma that required the removal of his left buttock and part of his coccyx bone. The torso shown to Sara Wisniak did not present any of these characteristics. Furthermore, the teeth showed crookedness and extractions. Luis Alberto Guendelman had a complete, straight, and healthy set of teeth.

Moreover, the identity card—which showed no signs of having been exposed to fire—was of the plastic type, open on one side and stapled shut; the surname was misspelled, the photograph did not correspond to the victim, the fingerprint did not match that on the passport, the signature was notoriously forged, and the supposed signature of the Chief of the Identification Cabinet of Chile was also found to be forged.

The final conclusion was that the remains did not belong to Luis Alberto Guendelman Wisniak. The same occurred with the body reported to be Jaime Robotham. It had all been a DINA maneuver intended to distract attention from the numerous reports of detentions followed by disappearances, known as "Operation Colombo," which also included the case of another forcibly disappeared person, Juan Carlos Perelman Ide, whose remains were also supposedly found in the town of Pilar a week after these events occurred.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On September 4, 1974, a writ of amparo (habeas corpus) was filed for the victim before the Santiago Court of Appeals, registered under No. 1052-74. In the filing, Hamilton Hurtado, the victim's father-in-law, noted: "this situation is aggravated by the fact that he suffers from a bone ailment in his hips and some time ago had to undergo various surgical interventions, for which reason he must be careful of blows and exaggerated physical efforts, which could leave him disabled." On October 24, 1974, the Minister of the Interior and Division General, Raúl Benavides Escobar, officially informed the Court for the first time that the victim was not being held by order of any administrative authority and that his whereabouts were unknown. On November 4 of the same year, Hamilton Hurtado stated in a document to the Court that "it has already been two months and two days since Luis Guendelman was detained under the circumstances described in the writ of amparo, and nothing has been known of him." He added that the family, in their incessant search, had managed to establish that the victim had been detained and held by the DINA. In this regard, he requested that the aforementioned organization be consulted by telephone, at number 392631. The Court resolved to request information from the Minister of the Interior to determine if that information was accurate.

Without having received a response, on December 28, 1974, the family requested the appointment of a Visiting Judge to investigate the reported facts and take statements from both the eyewitnesses to the apprehension and those who recognized the police officials who participated in it.

On January 6, 1975, the request was denied, and after numerous reiterations, the Acting Minister of the Interior, Vice Admiral Patricio Carvajal Prado, officially informed the Court that there were no records regarding the victim (February 26, 1975).

On March 20 of the same year, Minister Benavides, without responding to the inquiry, officially stated that information had already been provided on October 24, 1974.

Without further proceedings or inquiries, on March 27, 1975—more than six months after its filing—the Court rejected the amparo based on the negative reports from the authorities. The records were sent to the corresponding Criminal Court.

The case was then instructed in the 3rd Criminal Court of Santiago, under case file No. 117.886-1. During the processing of this case, Hamilton Hurtado testified; in addition to recounting the circumstances of the victim's detention, he reported the discovery of two bodies in the town of Pilar, Argentina, which were initially attributed to Luis Alberto Guendelman and Jaime Robotham, with the falsehood of that information being proven.

The process consisted only of this proceeding. Nothing was investigated; the witness Berta Carrasco was not summoned, nor were the detainees who had been held with the victim; no official request was sent to International Police; the alleged death of the victim in Argentina was not investigated; and no official request was sent to the detention centers where the victim had been seen.

In short, without further evidence, on February 2, 1976, the summary was closed and the case was temporarily dismissed because the commission of a crime was not fully justified. On June 16 of the same year, the Court of Appeals approved the resolution.

The family, for its part, carried out countless administrative actions, sending letters to various authorities. This task was also supported by authorities from the Faculty of Architecture of the Universidad de Chile, religious dignitaries of the Jewish community, and officials of the Israeli diplomatic mission in Chile.

Simón Guendelman collected all the records and information regarding the victim obtained through the U.S. Embassy in Chile and through the exchange of notes at the North American university level. In addition, letters were sent—and remained unanswered—to the Minister of Justice, the Minister of the Interior, and the President of the Government Junta, Augusto Pinochet, among others.

Luis Alberto Guendelman Wisniak remains a forcibly disappeared person to this day.

On November 23, 1992, following the detention on the 16th of that month of former DINA agent Osvaldo Romo Mena, a new complaint was filed for the kidnapping of Luis Guendelman. This case was filed in the 3rd Criminal Court of Santiago under case file No. 117886-1.

On November 26, three days after the summary began and after being extensively interrogated, Romo was charged in the aforementioned case. The former agent had been located in Brazil the previous July as a result of a series of proceedings carried out by order of Judge Gloria Olivares in the 3rd Criminal Court of Santiago, in the case regarding the disappearance of Alfonso Chanfreau Oyarce.

On July 29, 1992, Romo was detained in Brazil; three and a half months later, the Brazilian authorities expelled him from their territory. Romo had remained in that country since the end of 1975. At that time, he had been summoned in several cases involving forcibly disappeared persons, so the DINA decided he should leave the country.

The security agency, among other forms of support, provided him with false identity documents for himself and his family. The name he used was Osvaldo Andrés Henríquez Mena. As of December 1992, he had been interrogated in relation to several cases of forcibly disappeared persons, with charges having been filed in 6 of these cases, including the case of Luis Guendelman.

Source: (Corporation Report)