Luis Hipólito Zúñiga Adasme, 19 years old, a porter at the Lo Valledor market with no political affiliation, was detained on November 15, 1981, by agents of the Investigations police (Investigaciones) on a public street in the Población Nueva Independencia, near Avenida Departamental, at approximately 21:30 hours.

The victim was at the corner of Calle 7 and Pasaje E in the Población Nueva Independencia, in the company of a group of approximately 10 young men, among whom were José Henríquez Herrera, Juan Carlos Henríquez Herrera, another youth named "Germán," and Pablo Rodríguez Leal—the latter also having been forcibly disappeared since that day, as recorded in the final report of the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation.

They were drinking in that location when they were interrupted by four civilians armed with submachine guns who stepped out of an Investigations of Chile van. One of them was a subject approximately 30 years old, dark-skinned, with wavy hair, wearing a poncho and brandishing a short submachine gun, pointing it at them and stating: "...let's go." A few meters from the spot, the police vehicle was parked, in which another subject was also pointing a pistol at the group.

One of the young men ironically replied to the officers that they would not all fit in the van, which triggered a violent reaction from the detectives, who beat the young man who had answered them.

This event caused the group to scatter; only Luis Zúñiga Adasme and Pablo Rodríguez Leal were unable to flee because they were sitting on the ground, and they were detained by the Investigations officers.

According to the victim's family, the young Pablo Rodríguez Leal was being sought by agents of the National Intelligence Center (CNI), as he had caused damage at the headquarters of the National Youth Secretariat that same month of November 1981, having been reported by a local neighbor.

Once informed of what had happened, the family of Luis Zúñiga Adasme proceeded to carry out numerous efforts to locate the victim's whereabouts, visiting police stations, Investigations offices, emergency clinics, hospitals, and the Legal Medical Institute, all of which were fruitless.

They even published notices in the newspapers "La Tercera" and "Las Ultimas Noticias," including a photograph of the victim, without obtaining any positive results.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDINGS

Ms. Yolanda Zúñiga Adasme, sister of Luis Hipólito Zúñiga Adasme, filed a writ of amparo (habeas corpus) in favor of the victim before the Presidente Aguirre Cerda Court of Appeals. The writ was denied, and the records were sent to the Third Criminal Court of Major Quantities of San Miguel, where case file 33.641-8 was opened for the alleged disappearance of Luis Zúñiga Adasme and Pablo Rodríguez Leal.

This court declared itself incompetent and, in April 1982, sent the files to the Tenth Court of Major Quantities of Santiago, which processed the case under file number 19.605-8.

During the course of the summary proceedings, the plaintiff requested more than 20 investigative steps from the court; however, in April 1983, one year after the proceedings began in the Third Court, many of them were still pending, a situation that only began to speed up starting in May of that year.

On September 20, 1983, the court declared the summary closed and requested the temporary dismissal of the case, a resolution that was revoked by the Santiago Court of Appeals in October 1983 because the investigation was incomplete, ordering it to be returned to the summary stage.

On March 26, 1984, Ms. Yolanda Zúñiga Adasme filed a criminal complaint for the kidnapping of Luis Zúñiga Adasme before the same Third Court of Major Quantities of Santiago.

However, in June of that year, the case was closed again, and the complaint was met with a "await the merits of the case" ruling, without accepting the investigative steps requested therein—a resolution that was appealed by the plaintiffs, who pointed out the ineffectiveness and lack of investigative zeal of the court.

The request was accepted, and the court was ordered to proceed with the requests expressed in the appeal.

Without having managed to carry out one of the pending investigative steps, because Investigations reported that it was not possible to locate the whereabouts of one of the witnesses, the summary was closed on August 29, 1984, and the temporary dismissal of the case was decreed, a resolution that was confirmed by the Court on September 21 of the same year.

Even though the file is not currently available for review, the fact remains that none of the efforts to find the victim's whereabouts yielded any positive results. As of the date of this report, José Hipólito Zúñiga Adasme remains in the status of forcibly disappeared.

Source: (Corporation Report)

The First Chamber ordered the State of Chile to pay a total compensation of $180,000,000 for moral damages to the siblings of Luis Zúñiga Adasme, a 19-year-old youth who was detained on a public street by officials of the Investigations Police on November 15, 1981, the date from which he remains in the status of forcibly disappeared.

The Santiago Court of Appeals ordered the State of Chile to pay a total compensation of $180,000,000 (one hundred and eighty million pesos) for moral damages to the siblings of Luis Hipólito Zúñiga Adasme, a 19-year-old youth who was detained on a public street by officials of the Investigations Police on November 15, 1981, the date from which he remains in the status of forcibly disappeared.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 9.048-2020), the First Chamber of the appellate court—composed of ministers Omar Astudillo, Ana María Osorio, and acting lawyer Paola Herrera—revoked the challenged sentence issued by the 14th Civil Court of Santiago, which had rejected the claim.

“As has been maintained by the highest court in recent times, ‘the only limitation for those who claim damages suffered as a consequence of the actions of State agents is to demonstrate the existence of said detriment, so that formally it is sufficient to allege the existence of the harmful act and the effective intervention of such agents,’ CS File No. 3.432-2018; a hypothesis that concurs in the case sub lite,” the ruling states.

The resolution adds: “Without a doubt, the disappearance of a family member under the conditions that have been established cannot leave his siblings unscathed, many of them of similar ages and with whom Hipólito Zúñiga Adasme formed a large nuclear family; proof of this is what was declared before the judge a quo by the witnesses (...), all neighbors of the Zúñiga Adasme family for decades, who, in summary, although in general terms, gave an account—in what is of interest—of the suffering experienced by the plaintiffs due to the loss of their disappeared brother; which was reflected in the words of the deponents, in their decline and permanent sadness, which they still perceive today, knowing that as a result of the damage, some of the sisters have had to pay for extensive psychological treatment.”

For the Santiago Court, “The description narrated by the witnesses corresponds precisely to the concept of moral damage, understood as the pain, affliction, and sorrow of a psychic and even physical nature that is experienced as a result of a specific event.”

“Since moral impairment is essentially subjective in nature, its determination is entrusted to the prudence of the court, which, for its regulation, must consider, among other elements, the circumstances of the commission of the harmful act, the context in which it was executed, and the intensity of the suffering caused,” it adds.

“By virtue of the reasoning, considering the young age of the disappeared person, the suddenness of his detention, and the time elapsed since his disappearance, all of which has caused emotional suffering in the lives of the plaintiffs, the claim for compensation for moral damages will be accepted, for the sums that will be indicated in the operative part of this sentence,” it concludes.

Therefore, it is resolved that: “the appealed sentence of May 5, 2020, issued by the Fourteenth Civil Court of Santiago, is revoked insofar as it rejected in all its parts the claim filed for compensation for moral damages and, in its place, it is declared that it is accepted and the State of Chile is ordered to pay to each of the plaintiffs, Sergio Antonio, Leonardo Floridor, Sara Cecilia, Roberto Enrique, Pedro Alfredo, Amalia del Carmen, Miguel Ángel, Manuel Ignacio, and Oriana Isolda, all surnamed Zúñiga Adasme, the sum of twenty million pesos ($20,000,000) as compensation for the moral damages claimed.

The sums ordered to be paid, in each case, will be adjusted according to the variation experienced by the Consumer Price Index from the time this sentence is final and will accrue interest from the time the debtor is in default.”

Source: pjud.cl 6/4/2021

Date: 06-04-2021