Case No. 50.048 (Case No. 50.980): aggravated kidnapping of LUIS ALBERTO YAÑEZ VÁSQUEZ and GASPAR ANTONIO HERNÁNDEZ MANRIQUEZ

17) Testimony of Norma del Carmen Hernández Manríquez, on pages 605 and 610, who ratifies her statement given to the Investigative Police on page 166 (currently 568), in which she indicates that on October 13, 1973, in the afternoon, while she was at her home located at Calle Dos sur Nº 390 in Parral, together with her two-year-old son and a nephew of the same age, a contingent composed of military personnel, a civilian whom she recognized as her cousin José Luciano Manríquez Ortega, and Carabineros from the 3rd Precinct of Parral, Luis Hidalgo and another surnamed Luarte, forced their way into the place. She did not recognize any of the military personnel, nor does she know which regiment they belonged to. Once those military personnel and Carabineros entered her home, her cousin José Luciano also entered, who pointed out to the Carabineros that his brother Gaspar was hiding weapons there and that she was going to leave him clothes, food, and bullets where he was hiding. Faced with this, the military personnel began to beat her while asking about Gaspar's whereabouts, to which she replied that he had taken the 16:30 bus to go to the house of her other brother named José Rogelio, nicknamed "El Águila" (The Eagle), who lived in a house located in the Torca sector together with his partner Margarita Morales Sepúlveda, and where he intended to plant rice. After that response, the officials left her house, as did José, but not before telling her that she could not leave the house. The following day, in the afternoon, her sister-in-law Margarita Morales arrived at her house and told her that in the early morning, while she was sleeping in her house together with her two-year-old son, as well as Gaspar, a group of military personnel, Carabineros, and civilians arrived at the place and proceeded to detain Gaspar, whom they took out of the house naked to then take him to the backyard where they beat him and submerged his head in the canal located there. Furthermore, her sister-in-law indicated that they were torturing her brother with electricity, asking him at all times about Rogelio, and when he did not give a satisfactory answer, they beat him. All that interrogation was carried out in the patio, and after a few minutes, the military personnel transferred Gaspar to one of the vehicles and took him to the Parral police station, where his trail is lost. For this reason, that same afternoon, she went to the Carabineros station to ask about her brother Gaspar, and the officer on duty indicated that he was not being held there, without giving any further explanations. Faced with this, she returned to her house, and over time she went several times to the Artillery School of Linares and the prison in the same city, always asking about Gaspar, without having any news of his whereabouts.

Source: Judiciary, November 12, 2008