On November 22, 1973, Luis Alberto LEAL ARRATIA, 55 years old, a farmer and member of the Partido Izquierda Radical (PIR) who had actively participated in the regional Agrarian Reform process, was detained and forcibly disappeared.

He was detained on three occasions. The first was by members of the Fuerza Aérea; subsequently by Carabineros, who transferred him to the Temuco Prison and released him on October 17, 1973. Finally, on November 22, 1973, he was detained once again, this time by plainclothes agents at his daughter's home in Temuco.

Since then, there has been no news of him, despite all the efforts made by his family members.

Having verified the detention of Luis Alberto Leal, given the manner of his apprehension, the date on which it occurred, his political affiliation, and the fact that there has been no news of him for the last 17 years from either his family or the State of Chile, this Commission has formed the conviction that Luis Alberto Leal was made to disappear by State agents in an act of grave violation of his human rights.

Repressive Status: Former leader of the Confederación Triunfo Campesino. Member of the Partido de Izquierda Radical. Date of Detention: November 22, 1973

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

Luis Alberto Leal Arratia, a widower, father of 4, farmer, member of the Partido de Izquierda Radical (PIR), and an active participant in the Agrarian Reform process in the region, was detained for the first time on October 9, 1973, by Carabineros from the Padre las Casas station.

He was transferred to the Temuco Public Jail and placed at the disposal of the Cautín Military Prosecutor's Office. On October 17, the case (No. 12-B) initiated against him was dismissed, and he was released.

However, on November 22, 1973, while visiting the home of his daughter, María Eugenia Leal Carrasco, located at 591 Andrés Bello Street, Temuco, he was detained by three civilians. They arrived in a Fiat 600 automobile at approximately 10:00 PM and, without providing further information or identifying themselves, proceeded to arrest him.

They did not allow any of the family members present—his daughter, his son-in-law, and the latter's mother—to accompany him to the Tucapel Regiment, which they indicated as the victim's destination. The following day, his son-in-law, Agustín Bravo Fuentealba, went to the indicated Regiment and encountered one of the civilian captors, who was now wearing an Army Officer's uniform.

When questioned, the Officer absolutely denied having detained his father-in-law and denied that he was being held at the Regiment. Faced with this denial, he inquired at various locations, such as the police station, the Public Jail, the Investigations police, and other detention centers of the time, all of which stated they had no record of him.

In December of that year, his son, Luis Leal Leal, went to the Ministry of the Interior, where he was given a card and sent to an office for locating detainees (SENDET) that operated in the former seat of the National Congress. At that office, he searched for the victim's name on the lists of detainees from the country's various prison camps, but he did not appear on any of them.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDINGS

On February 7, 1979, his son, Luis Leal, filed a report of "Presumed Misfortune" (Presunta Desgracia) with the Third Criminal Court of Temuco, in which he set forth the circumstances of the arrest described in the previous paragraph, initiating case No. 154.

During the processing of the case, the Civil Registry and Identification Service of Temuco reported that the victim's death was not registered; his filiation and background records were requested; and the Cautín Military Prosecutor's Office informed the court about case 12-B, which had been filed against Mr.

Luis Leal Arratia and in which he had been acquitted. On March 29, 1979, María Eugenia Leal Carrasco appeared before the court and stated that her father was detained in October 1973, around 10:00 PM, by 4 unknown men who were in a light blue pickup truck; she did not know the reason for the detention or the destination.

She added that prior to his disappearance, he had been detained by personnel from the Regiment. Also in that month and year, Gredumila Fuentealba Barriga appeared; she recalled that at the end of 1973, she did not remember the month or day, but it was around 10:30 PM, while she was having dinner with her son Agustín Bravo, her daughter-in-law María Leal, and her son's father-in-law, Luis Alberto Leal Arratia.

There was a knock at the door; she believes it was Mr. Luis Alberto who got up to answer it, then returned to say he was going out, without saying where he was going or anything else. Finally, on April 3, 1979, the complainant, Luis Alberto Leal Leal, appeared before the court and fully ratified the content of the complaint, as he had drafted it himself together with the sponsoring lawyer.

He added that his father was a member of the Partido de Izquierda Radical and a leader of a peasant federation. In 1974, he consulted two lawyers in Temuco who refused to sponsor a writ of amparo (habeas corpus) on behalf of the detainee.

He noted in his statement that the version of the detention provided in the complaint was given to him by his sister, María Eugenia, and her then-husband, Agustín Bravo Fuentealba, who were present when the events occurred.

In April 1979, the case was referred to the Visiting Minister Alfredo Meynet González for consolidation with case 2-79, which was investigating the cases of forcibly disappeared persons in the Temuco department.

The Minister requested information about Luis Leal from the Tucapel Regiment, which indicated that there was no record and/or information regarding the victim's detention in that unit. On October 25, Mr.

Alfredo Meynet declared himself incompetent to continue hearing the case and referred the records to the IV Military Court of Valdivia, on the grounds that all the persons whose disappearance was being investigated were detained, on different occasions and in different places, by Carabineros, Army, or Air Force personnel, in various patrols acting unequivocally in the line of duty, concluding that it is reasonable to presume some degree of responsibility for the disappearance of these persons on the part of the uniformed personnel who proceeded with their proven detention.

In December 1979, the Military Court accepted jurisdiction and ordered the Cautín Military Prosecutor's Office to instruct case 1192-bis-79. The Prosecutor's Office requested information from the Temuco Penitentiary, learning that Luis Alberto Leal Arratia was registered as having entered that penal unit on October 10, 1973, for a violation of Law 17.798; his date of release was recorded as October 17, 1973, by order of the Cautín Military Prosecutor's Office in case 12-B.

On October 24, 1980, the Military Judge dismissed the case totally and definitively by virtue of the 1978 Amnesty Decree Law. In none of the judicial instances in which the process was handled was the version contained in the complaint confronted—specifically the claim that one of the civilian captors was recognized by the witness Agustín Bravo at the Tucapel Regiment, wearing an Army Officer's uniform.

Source: (Corporation Report)