Luis Rolando Tapia Concha, married, father of 3, English teacher, contractor for the Agrarian Reform Corporation (CORA), and sympathizer of the Communist Party, was detained on April 20, 1974, at approximately 19:00 hours, at his home located at the Salida a Linares Palmilla.

He was seized by plainclothes officers, apparently belonging to the Military Intelligence Service (SIM). The agents were traveling in a white citroneta, which was parked about one hundred meters from the house, and they used it to take the victim away. They claimed they would release him after making a few "clarifications."

Two of the captors remained at the scene, one of whom proceeded to interrogate his wife, Mrs. Solidia Leiva, about a lame neighbor and a man with the surname Lavín, neither of whom she knew or could identify. Shortly thereafter, they left the home.

Luis Tapia was taken to the Army Artillery School, where he was seen that same day by another prisoner, Gilberto Alegría Vargas, who was later released. In a sworn statement, Alegría indicated that he saw Tapia in the facility's theater, lying down and tied to a cot with a wire mesh base, while being tortured by Antonio Aguilar, a military officer whom he knew because they were neighbors in the Población Malaquías Concha in Linares.

Alegría managed to hear part of the interrogation to which Tapia was being subjected; they were asking him for the names of other people. The witness was then hooded and tortured and never heard from Luis Tapia again.

That same day, around 22:00 hours, Luis Tapia was brought to the area where he lived by the same civilians. On this occasion, the captors detained a neighbor, Pedro Figueroa Sepúlveda, whom they forced to walk to a forest located in front of Tapia's home, at the Fundo Chacahuín in Palmilla.

In this place, there was a group of military personnel, civilians, and others, including Luis Rolando Tapia, who were digging holes. Figueroa was placed next to the latter group, where he was able to speak with the victim, and was later taken in a pickup truck to the Artillery School, while the others remained in the forest.

Pedro Figueroa was subsequently transferred to the Linares Jail, where he remained a prisoner for five months. During this period, he did not encounter his former neighbor again, who is currently forcibly disappeared.

Witnesses to these events also included Figueroa's spouse, Ruth Guzmán, and her sister, Juana Guzmán, who was also a neighbor of Tapia. Tapia's spouse, Solidia Leiva, heard the arrival of vehicles and people at the forest but could only see the lights, as her house was on the other side of the road, below the level of the path.

She did manage to spot civilians and military personnel as they moved toward the parked vehicles. Around 1:00 in the morning, she heard her husband's voice complaining, which led her to assume he was also in the group.

The next day, she learned from neighbors that they had been searching the forest for weapons that were allegedly hidden there, but they found nothing. A week later, Solidia Leiva went to look where the digging had taken place and was able to confirm that there were four or five holes, some quite deep and others smaller.

About three weeks later, her home was raided by Carabineros officers who were traveling in an institutional van. They stated that her husband had escaped and brought an arrest warrant against him.

A week after this, the home was raided again, this time by a group consisting of military personnel and civilians who claimed to be looking for weapons. The agents broke the floor of one room and dug a very large hole near the house. During this search, they found a hunting shotgun belonging to the victim's father, which they took with them.

More or less a month after he was detained, his wife was summoned by the Military Prosecutor of Linares, Major Carlos Romero Muñoz, to the Artillery School, where she was interrogated about her husband's activities. They accused him of being involved in transporting weapons, and when she asked where he was, the officer replied that he had escaped.

Despite the Military Prosecutor's claim that Luis Tapia had escaped, he has been forcibly disappeared since he was detained by security forces on the afternoon of April 20, 1974.

Judicial and/or Administrative Proceedings

On April 6, 1979, case file 47.065 was initiated in the 1st Criminal Court of Linares regarding the alleged disappearance of Luis Rolando Tapia Concha, by order of the Talca Court of Appeals, which was complying with a Supreme Court resolution to open investigations into complaints of forcibly disappeared persons.

The Linares Carabineros Prefecture reported that the documentation from that period had been incinerated, and therefore they could not provide information related to the requested facts.

The inquiries carried out by the civil police, in compliance with a court order to investigate, did not yield significant results since, as they reported, the victim was not known among the neighbors. However, they managed to establish that Tapia had a record with the Regional Intelligence Command (CIRE), where he was accused of participating in Socialist Party meetings and attempting to assault the Artillery School in the company of Lorenzo Manuel Antich.

Subsequently, a new report was issued, which included statements from neighbors providing some details about the victim's detention. Furthermore, according to inquiries made at the Artillery School, there were no records of the victim there.

The Director of that Military Institute reported the same to the Court in June 1979, adding that there was no Captain Romero in that unit at the time the events occurred. This response is highly unbelievable given the file that the CIRE had on Tapia Concha and, regarding Prosecutor Romero, he provided statements to the Court at a later date.

Pedro Figueroa—who had also been detained—his spouse Ruth Guzmán, his sister-in-law Juana Guzmán, and the victim's wife all testified before the Judge, and all provided details of what had happened.

The owners of the Fundo Chacahuín also appeared before the Court, stating that they had personally verified the existence of the holes made on their property in the search for weapons.

After receiving a response from the Army Personnel Directorate, which indicated that it could not provide information on Captain Romero because there were several captains with that name, the Judge closed the summary on July 24, 1979, and issued a temporary dismissal of the case, as the crime had not been proven.

However, this resolution was revoked by the Talca Court of Appeals, which took up the recommendations of the Court's Prosecutor and ordered that the Linares Military Prosecutor's Office be notified to report whether Luis Tapia had been placed at its disposal.

Furthermore, it was to be determined who had been the Military Prosecutor at that time, and he was to be questioned regarding the account given by the victim's wife, Solidia Leiva.

The Linares Military Prosecutor's Office reported that the victim was not registered in the Case Entry Books or sentencing copies, and there was no record that he had been placed at the disposal of that court.

However, in case 21-74 of that Military Prosecutor's Office, regarding an infraction of the Arms Control Law against Lorenzo Antich Rojas and others, Luis Tapia was declared in contempt, without having testified.

A son of Solidia Leiva, who lived with them, and the victim's three children also appeared to testify. Finally, in October 1979, a request was sent to the 14th Criminal Court of Santiago to take a statement from the former Military Prosecutor of Linares, who had been promoted to Army Lieutenant Colonel, Carlos Romero Muñoz.

Despite repeated official letters sent to the Military Command Institute, where he worked, the officer did not respond to any of them. Finally, after being informed that the Ministry of Defense would be notified of what was happening, on June 27, 1980, eight months later, Lieutenant Colonel Romero appeared to testify.

The officer acknowledged that in 1974 he served as Military Prosecutor in the city of Linares, in proceedings related "to political, subversive activities and similar matters." He noted that he remembered being given information regarding a clandestine cell that had the objective, among others, of assaulting the Artillery School, in which a "Nano" was mentioned, but that this person was not detained.

He expressed that there must have been some relationship between this Nano and Solidia Leiva, and that was why he summoned her to testify. Regarding the manner and circumstances of the victim's detention indicated in the request, he declared that he had no knowledge of them. He recalled with precision the convictions and their fulfillment in case file 21-74.

After receiving this statement, on July 8, 1980, the Judge closed the summary and again issued a temporary dismissal of the case, as the crime had not been proven. On this occasion, the Talca Court approved this resolution on July 25 of the same year.

Source: (Corporation Report)

The summary of the case, which investigates the whereabouts of a PC sympathizer kidnapped in 1974, was reopened last Thursday by the highest court. The current director of Investigations was attached—as a detective—to the Linares Artillery School at that time. The Army must also submit a report.

The proceeding is part of the actions ordered by the Second Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court, after it resolved to reopen the case regarding the disappearance of Luis Rolando Tapia Concha, who was detained on April 20, 1974, by personnel dependent on the Military Intelligence Service (SIM).

The highest court's resolution revoked the decision to close the summary issued by the Court Martial on June 15, 1998.

At that time, the current director of Investigations, Nelson Mery, was working at the Linares Police Station and was attached to the Artillery School of that city.

In that context, the Second Chamber's resolution orders him to testify by official letter as a witness regarding the people who were detained during his activities at that military facility, specifically those he himself apprehended in the framework of said functions, whom he must "identify and summon" to testify in Court about the facts of the case.

Another of the proceedings ordered by the highest court consists of interrogating the director of the Artillery School in order to determine the officers and non-commissioned officers in charge of the Military Intelligence Service assigned to that unit in April 1974.

The determination also orders a report to be requested from the Army Chief of Staff (General Roberto Arancibia Clavel) to establish the name and rank of the senior officers and those of any rank, permanent or on special assignment, at the Artillery School in the month of April 1974, who will be interrogated about the circumstances of Tapia Concha's detention and his subsequent fate.

Mery has already testified and provided full cooperation as a witness in this case and others regarding human rights violations, such as the disappearance of María Isabel Beltrán, detained in 1973 in Santiago.

According to other records, the police chief left his temporary assignment at the Artillery School on December 28, 1973, and rejoined his police duties in the same city as head of Foreigners and International Police.

Vienna Convention

In its decision to reopen the summary, the Criminal Chamber dismissed the possibility of definitively dismissing the investigation after reaffirming the criterion that the amnesty law applies to specific individuals and not to punishable acts. The Army Auditor General, Juan Romero, voted against the resolution.

"The literal nature of the norm shows that amnesty requires a penalty, that is, the sanction that must be applied to the person responsible for a crime, for which the complete identification of the subject responsible for the punishable act and their participation is necessary," states one of the considerations of the ruling that accepted the appeal filed in the case.

The ruling also includes the application of the Vienna Convention and other international treaties, such as the Geneva Convention. "In accordance with the provisions of articles 2 and 3, which are common to the four conventions incorporated into our legislation, it is manifest that its application (of the amnesty) affects and is limited specifically to cases of declared war."

Torture in the regiment

Luis Tapia Concha was a contractor for the Agrarian Reform Corporation (CORA), an English teacher, and a sympathizer of the Communist Party when he was kidnapped at 19:00 hours at the exit of Linares to Palmilla, on April 20, 1974, by civilians belonging to the SIM who were traveling in a white citroneta.

The prisoner was seen at the Artillery School while being tortured by a military officer identified as Antonio Aguilar. He has been missing ever since: in response to inquiries from his relatives, the regiment's authorities responded with the—false—version that he had escaped.

Source: El Mostrador, July 17, 2002

Date: 07-17-2002

Supreme Court accepts appeal and orders the State to indemnify children of forcibly disappeared person

In a unanimous ruling, the Second Chamber of the highest court accepted the appeal filed by the plaintiffs and, in a replacement sentence, confirmed the first-instance ruling that ordered the State to pay a total indemnity of $360,000,000 for moral damages to the children of Luis Rolando Tapia Concha, who was detained on April 20, 1974, by State agents in the commune of Linares, with his whereabouts and fate remaining unknown since then.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 6.531-2022), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Leopoldo Llanos, minister María Teresa Letelier, and lawyers Juan Carlos Ferrada and Eduardo Gandulfo—established an error of law in the appealed sentence, issued by the Talca Court of Appeals, which rejected the lawsuit by accepting the exceptions of full reparation and statute of limitations filed by the State.

"Indeed, just as the appellant invokes, the civil action filed here against the State, aimed at obtaining full reparation for the damages caused to the plaintiff, finds its foundation in the general principles of International Human Rights Law and its normative consecration in the International Treaties ratified by Chile, which oblige the Chilean State to recognize and protect the right to full reparation, by virtue of the provisions of the second paragraph of article 5 and article 6 of the Political Constitution of the Republic," the ruling states.

"It must also be taken into consideration that the State's system of responsibility derives from articles 6, third paragraph, of the Political Constitution of the Republic and 3 of Law No. 18.575, Constitutional Organic Law of General Bases of State Administration, which, if the thesis of the ruling were accepted, would remain unapplied," it adds.

The resolution adds that: "On the other hand, articles 1.1 and 63.1 of the American Convention on Human Rights establish that the State's responsibility for this type of illicit act is subject to the rules of International Law, which cannot be breached under the pretext of making other provisions of domestic law prevail, because if an illicit act attributable to a State is verified, its international responsibility for the violation of a norm of this nature arises immediately, with the consequent duty of reparation and to cease the consequences of the violation."

"Thus, these higher-ranking norms impose a limit and a duty of action on public authorities, and especially on national courts, as they cannot interpret the provisions of domestic law in such a way that they leave the norms of International Law that establish this right to reparation without application, as this could compromise the international responsibility of the State of Chile," it highlights.

"Under these conditions, it is true that the lower court judges incurred an error of law when accepting the exception of payment of the civil lawsuit filed against the State, an error that has substantially influenced the operative part of the sentence, so that the appeal will be accepted," the resolution affirms.

For the Criminal Chamber: "In this way, in the present case, the norms of domestic law provided for in the Civil Code regarding the statute of limitations for common civil actions for damages, on which the lower court judges base their decision, are not relevant, as they are in contradiction with the rules of International Human Rights Law that protect the right of victims and relatives to receive the corresponding reparation, an international normative statute that has been recognized by Chile and which, without prejudice to the date of its consecration and internal recognition, corresponds to jus cogens norms, imperative international law that protects essential values shared by the international community that should have been recognized by the trial judges when resolving the lawsuit filed (SCS File No. 8318-18 of September 26, 2019, File No. 29944-18 of March 26, 2019, and File No. 29617-19 of March 2, 2020)."

Likewise, the ruling states that: "The international responsibility of the State arises at the moment in which its actions infringe the limits set by human rights as attributes inherent to the dignity of persons, without the need for fault or guilt on the part of the material author of the act."

"In short, the obligation of reparation is an obligation that weighs on the State that has violated human rights, an obligation that is part of Chile's legal statute, as has been pointed out," it notes.

"In sum," it deepens, "with the obligation to repair victims and their families enshrined by international Human Rights regulations weighing on the State, domestic law does not become a sustainable argument to exempt it from its fulfillment. Not only because of what has already been expressed but because this duty of the State also finds its consecration in domestic law."

"Indeed, the State's system of responsibility also derives from article 3 of Law No. 18.575, Constitutional Organic Law of General Bases of State Administration, which provides that the State Administration is at the service of the human person, that its purpose is to promote the common good, and that one of the principles to which it must subject its action is that of responsibility; and, consequently, article 4 provides that 'the State shall be responsible for the damages caused by the organs of the Administration in the exercise of their functions, without prejudice to the responsibilities that may affect the official who caused them.' Thus, it can only be concluded that the moral damage caused by the illicit conduct of the officials or agents of the State who are authors of the crimes against humanity on which the present action is based must be indemnified by the State," concludes the cassation ruling.

Therefore, it is resolved in the replacement sentence that: "For these considerations and also seeing the provisions of articles 170, 186, 187, and 227 of the Code of Civil Procedure, articles 1551, 2314, and 2329 of the Civil Code, and articles 6, 38, and 19 Nos. 22 and 24 of the Political Constitution of the Republic, the appealed sentence of December 26, 2018, issued by the 1st Civil Court of Talca, issued in case File C-1470-2017, is confirmed."

Source: pjud.cl 8/8/2024

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE FORCIBLY DISAPPEARED

Every August 30, the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances is commemorated. In Chile, there are more than three thousand forcibly disappeared persons registered during the Civil-Military Dictatorship (1973-1990), which sought to end its political opponents and generate terror in the population, thereby nullifying any attempt at opposition.

Families were left plunged into the anguish and despair of not knowing the fate of so many whose final destination we still do not know to this day.

The Chilean teaching profession was not immune to this suffering, as we have forcibly disappeared persons, among whom we mention and pay tribute to:

Cesar Osvaldo Ávila Lara

Christian Víctor Cartagena Pérez Juan Antonio Gianelli Company Luis Emilio Maturana González Rubén Eduardo Morales Jara Juan Isaías Heredia Olivares Luis Justino Vásquez Muñoz Juan Fernando Ortiz Letelier Ricardo Aurelio Troncoso Muñoz Gonzalo Marcial Toro Garland Luis Rolando Tapia Concha Marta Lidia Ugarte Román, the latter a teacher and the first forcibly disappeared person whose body was found.

For all of them, we must continue seeking Truth and Justice, which is an absolutely necessary right for us to change our society, so that we can build an inclusive, more egalitarian, and democratic country, in which human rights are not just a mere discourse, but become reality.

The democracy we live in, although imperfect, cost the blood of compatriots, many tears, and the suffering of mothers, wives, daughters, and sons of those we remember today.

Likewise, we must not forget those who have waged an incessant and tireless fight for Truth, Justice, and Reparation, who have maintained the Historical Memory necessary for the clarification of the facts and the dignification of the victims that opens the path toward Peace.

"Memory allows us to move from pain to the sentence of 'never again'; it is memory that allows us to understand the past."

College of Teachers

Department of Human Rights.

Source: colegiodeprofesores.cl 30/8/2024

Vigil for memory, tribute by the Concepción Association of Forcibly Disappeared Persons

Tribute to Luis Rolando Tapia Concha, Forcibly Disappeared, April 20, 1974, Linares Available at youtube.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiOpYSlyAhA&t=1548s

Source: youtube.com, gabriel faure 2020