On July 20, 1974, DINA agents detained MIR leader Luis Julio GUAJARDO ZAMORANO, who was at a bicycle repair shop near the Club Hípico in Santiago. Later, the same agents returned to the location to detain the owner of the shop, Sergio Daniel TORMEN MENDEZ, and two other people who were later released, among them Sergio Tormen’s brother, Peter.

On July 27, 1974, José Manuel RAMIREZ ROSALES was detained at his home; he had replaced Luis Julio Guajardo in his position within the MIR following the latter's detention.

All three detainees were forcibly disappeared while in the custody of the DINA, with testimonies confirming their presence at the Londres N° 38 facility.

The Commission is convinced that these three individuals were disappeared by the actions of State agents, in violation of their human rights.

Address: Simón Bolívar No. 7343, House 11, Ñuñoa, Santiago Marital Status: Single Activity: University student; cyclist Repressive Status: Community leader, member of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) Date of Detention: July 20, 1974

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

Luis Guajardo Zamorano, 22 years old, a member of the "Centenario" cycling club and a leader in the MIR, was detained on July 20, 1974, around 11:00 a.m. at the cycling workshop located at 2554 San Dionisio Street, Santiago.

He was seized by three DINA agents in a red, double-cab C10 pickup truck, into which he was forced. One of the captors interrogated the workshop owners, 14-year-old Peter Tormen Méndez and Sergio Daniel Tormen Méndez, a national cycling champion, regarding Guajardo Zamorano's activities.

After the interrogation, the agents left for an unknown destination. However, half an hour later, the same individuals returned to the workshop and asked for a bag the victim had allegedly left there. Receiving no answer, they proceeded to detain the Tormen Méndez brothers, blindfolded them, and took them away to an unknown location.

That same day, around 9:00 p.m., the same individuals appeared at the residence adjacent to the cycling workshop and arrested Juan Andrés Moraga Gutiérrez, coach of the Chilean National Cycling Team. They placed him in a pickup truck where Sergio Tormen was already being held, blindfolded. They were forbidden from speaking to one another, and Moraga Gutiérrez was blindfolded with adhesive tape.

Two days later, Peter Tormen and Juan Moraga, who had been held at Londres 38 after their arrest, were taken from that secret DINA facility in a vehicle, still blindfolded, and released at the intersection of Avenida Matta and San Diego.

While at the clandestine barracks, they had been forced to provide statements and were kept blindfolded the entire time. Luis Guajardo Zamorano and Sergio Tormen Méndez remained in DINA custody, and their final fate at the hands of their captors remains unknown.

However, it has been possible to learn some circumstances surrounding their time at Londres 38. On July 23, 1974, Luis Guajardo was taken from the DINA detention and torture center to the western sector of the capital for the purpose of identifying his party comrades (in DINA terminology, this was known as "porotear").

Around 11:00 a.m., the victim managed to break free from his torturers. Upon running to General Velásquez Street, near number 1890, he threw himself under the wheels of a 1967 Ford truck. The driver later stated, "I found out at the police station that he was apparently an extremist who had escaped and was running to flee." The vehicle managed to maneuver, only striking him in the leg.

Luis Guajardo lay on the side of the road, only able to ask for help and moan in agony. The priest Vicente Irarrázabal arrived at the scene, assisted Guajardo, and accompanied him in an ambulance requested by a bystander to the Posta No. 3 of the Public Assistance service.

There, he was attended to by Dr. Leopoldo Benavides Zamora, who confirmed he treated the victim. The victim presented with contusions and abrasions on his hip, thigh, and left leg, and complained of severe pain in his testicles.

As he was conscious and had stable blood pressure, the doctor issued an order for him to go to the Traumatology Institute within 24 hours. However, at that moment, two men approached and told him the young man was under arrest.

The doctor informed them that the patient needed traumatological care for a possible hip fracture and testicular contusion; the civilians then indicated they would take him to the Military Hospital, information the doctor noted on the patient's chart.

The individuals also told the doctor that Guajardo Zamorano was an escaped extremist and that was why they were detaining him. Subsequent inquiries at the Military Hospital confirmed that he was never admitted to that medical facility.

Testimonies from surviving victims indicate that the victim was returned to Londres 38. Erika Hennings de Chanfreau, Patricia Barceló, and Scarlett Mathieu Loguercio all agree that he was in poor physical condition as a result of the torture to which he had been subjected.

Another survivor, Cristián Van Yurick Altamirano, states in a sworn declaration that he saw Luis Guajardo Zamorano at Londres 38, whom he knew from before; there was talk about him because he had tried to escape during an outing, and he had a broken leg.

Agents Osvaldo Romo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Basclay Zapata (known as "El Troglo"), and Marcelo Moren Brito (known as "El Ronco," "El Oso," or "El Coronta") participated in the interrogations, torture, and sexual violence at this facility.

Despite countless efforts and inquiries made by his family to various national and international authorities, it has not been possible to establish the fate of the victim after he was captured by the DINA.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On July 26, 1974, his mother, Eliana Zamorano Rojas, filed a writ of amparo (habeas corpus) on his behalf before the Santiago Court of Appeals, case file 80974, attaching as evidence a certificate from Posta No. 3 documenting the medical care provided to her son.

That same day, the Court ordered the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Defense to be notified. On December 12, 1974, the Minister of the Interior, General Raúl Benavides Escobar, replied to the Court that the person in question was not being held by order of that Ministry.

Almost six months later, on January 13, 1975, the Military Hospital informed the court that it had no records of the victim. The information from the Santiago State of Siege Headquarters was of the same tenor.

In April 1975, the Deputy Director of Public Assistance informed the Court that there was no record of Luis Guajardo Zamorano's treatment at the Central House of that service. In May of that year, ten months after the writ of amparo was filed, the petitioner went to the court to inquire about new resolutions and proceedings, only to find the abnormal situation that the file was not in the Court and, according to what she was told, was in the possession of officials or authorities of the Executive Branch.

Finally, on May 6, 1975, the writ of amparo was rejected based on the information provided by government authorities, and the records were sent to the Second Criminal Court of Santiago to initiate proceedings regarding the disappearance of the victim.

On May 9, the 2nd Criminal Court initiated case 83.4135 and ordered Posta No. 3 to send the medical chart of Luis Guajardo Zamorano. The medical center complied with the court's order, and the chart, along with noting the victim's injuries, indicated his destination as "Military Hospital Traumatology (detained)." However, the report requested from the indicated hospital stated that the victim had not been treated there.

Likewise, the official request to the DINA, answered by the National Executive Secretariat for Detainees (SENDET), indicated that the agency had no records of Luis Guajardo. The investigation ordered by the Investigative Service to determine who transported the detainee from Posta No. 3 to the Military Hospital yielded no results.

The judge summoned Dr. Leopoldo Benavides Zamora, who treated the injured man at Posta 3; Héctor Hernán Roa and Carlos Antonio Tapia Figueroa, the ambulance nurse's aide and driver who picked up the victim after he was hit; and the priest Vicente Irarrázabal García Huidobro. All confirmed the circumstances of the accident and his subsequent transfer to Posta No. 3.

On September 13, the Court consolidated case 101.381 from the Fifth Criminal Court, which was investigating the same facts and had been initiated following a complaint filed by the victim's mother. In this proceeding, Ignacio Enrique Pinto Rojas, the driver of the truck that struck the victim, appeared and stated that after the accident, he called for an ambulance and, after the injured man was taken away, he went to the Cabo Tomás Pereira Carabineros Station, located in the Los Nogales neighborhood.

From there, they called the Posta, and the Carabineros officer who checked the information told him the injured man had been taken to the Military Hospital because he was an "extremist and escaped prisoner of war." On July 23 and 24, 1975, news reports from wire services were reproduced in El Mercurio and La Segunda providing a list of 119 Chileans who, according to the press, were extremists who had died in various South American countries.

The Court resolved to request that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs report on the veracity of the news, but the Ministry did not respond to the judicial request. The witnesses to the detention and imprisonment of Luis Guajardo, Peter Tormen Méndez and Juan Moraga Gutiérrez, also appeared before the court and ratified the circumstances of the events they experienced.

Likewise, repeated official requests to the authorities yielded no results, as they insistently denied having any records regarding the victim.

Furthermore, the relevant records from case 59.217 of the Third Criminal Court, which investigated the accident in which the victim was injured, were consolidated into the case. These files did not provide new information to clarify the investigated crime, as they only confirmed the facts already described.

On April 30, 1977, Judge Raquel Camposano Echegaray temporarily dismissed case 83.413-5 on the grounds that the existence of the reported crime was not justified in the files. This resolution was approved by the Santiago Court of Appeals on July 22, 1977, without taking into account the opinion of the Court Prosecutor, who recommended dismissing the case but substituting the reason for dismissal, stating that in his judgment, the gathered evidence "leads to the conclusion, in terms of conviction, that a punishable act was indeed perpetrated against Luis Julio Guajardo Zamorano."

On October 2, 1979, the case was sent to Visiting Minister Servando Jordán López, who, after reviewing it, returned the records. In March 1980, the case was reopened at the request of the complainant, and case 20.058 from the Eighth Criminal Court, which investigated the alleged disappearance of national cycling champion Sergio Tormen, who was detained along with the victim, was brought in for review.

From that case, the statement provided by Peter Tormen Méndez stands out; he noted that when he was interrogated, the agents told him he was "a big fish in the MIR." Also noted was a communication from the Chief of the State of Siege Zone to Lucía Méndez de Tormen, stating that "it was determined that your son Sergio is being held by an agency not dependent on this headquarters." The communication added that he was being investigated for participation in subversive activities.

Subsequently, Colonel Orlando Ibáñez Alvarez appeared before the Court and ratified what was stated in his communication. Case 20.058 was consolidated with case 83.4133 as they involved the same facts.

However, the files were sent to Visiting Minister Servando Jordán, who, on June 12, 1980, resolved that the respective cases be consolidated with case 55378 of the Second Military Prosecutor's Office of Santiago, which originated from a criminal complaint filed against the Chief of the DINA, Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, and against Marcelo Luis Manuel Moren Brito and Rolf Gonzalo Wenderoth Pozo, colonel and lieutenant colonel respectively, for the crime of kidnapping several people (all forcibly disappeared), including Luis Guajardo and Sergio Tormen.

Before the various cases of forcibly disappeared persons reviewed by Minister Servando Jordán were transferred to Military Justice, General Manuel Contreras and Army Colonel Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko appeared before the Minister and denied that the DINA used the Londres 38 facility to hold detainees, though they did acknowledge it as a DINA barracks.

However, Minister Servando Jordán visited the barracks, and his description of the facilities and their layout is similar to the descriptions provided by the surviving victims who were held there to be interrogated and tortured.

This case was dismissed by the Military Justice system in November 1989. An appeal was filed with the Court Martial, which confirmed the dismissal resolution based on Decree Law 2.191 (Amnesty Law). As of December 1992, the Supreme Court was expected to rule on a complaint filed in the aforementioned case.

Finally, following the arrest of former DINA agent Osvaldo Romo Mena, a new complaint for the kidnapping of Luis Guajardo was filed on November 30, 1992. This case is being processed in the 10th Criminal Court of Santiago and, as of December 1992, was in the summary stage with pending proceedings.

Romo, who was apprehended in November 1992 upon arriving in Chile after being expelled from Brazil, already faces 7 indictments, 6 in cases of forcibly disappeared persons and 1 in a death case. His expulsion from Brazilian territory was the result of his location by the Chilean Investigative Police during a series of proceedings ordered by Judge Gloria Olivares of the 3rd Criminal Court in the case regarding the disappearance of Alfonso Chanfreau Oyarce.

The DINA agent had been living in Brazil since late 1975; he arrived in that country supported by DINA superiors who, because he had been summoned judicially in cases involving forcibly disappeared persons, provided him with a false identity and the means to settle in that country.

(For complete details of the complaint against Manuel Contreras, see the case of Eduardo Alarcón Jara.)

Source: (Corporation Report)