Manuel Eduardo Sanhueza Mellado, a laborer, married, and a militant of the Communist Youth (J.J.C.C.), was detained on July 10, 1974, by civilians who violently entered his home in the "Venceremos" neighborhood of Arica.

One of the agents identified himself as Luis Herrera and claimed to belong to the Military Intelligence Service (SIM). It was around 4:00 a.m. The victim was detained in the company of his spouse, Cecilia Linoska Rojas Orellana. Both were transported in a jeep to the "Rancagua" Regiment in Arica. There, they were separated, and she would only see him one more time.

That same day, SIM agents also proceeded to detain other relatives of the victim: his father-in-law, Orlando Rojas Vergara; his sister-in-law, Nieves Berta Rojas Orellana; her newborn daughter; and his brother-in-law, Raúl Patricio Poblete Sepúlveda.

All of them were accused of being communists by their captors and taken to the "Rancagua" Regiment in Arica. During the detention of the latter group, they recognized the participation of military personnel Luis Carrera, Manuel Caballero, Cereceda, Mercado, and the then-Lieutenant Armando Fernández Larios.

During their time at the Regiment, the detainees were interrogated, subjected to torture, and confronted with Manuel Sanhueza. His spouse, Cecilia Linoska Rojas, saw him in very poor physical condition: Manuel Sanhueza could not stand on his own; two people held him up while his face revealed intense pain.

For her part, Nieves Berta Rojas states that she heard Manuel’s screams while he was being tortured and saw him for the last time lying in a courtyard of the Regiment, curled up inside a blanket.

Raúl Patricio Poblete, the victim's brother-in-law, who remained held incommunicado for 17 days at the "Rancagua" Regiment, relates that during that period he was transported to a place he presumes was in the Altiplano.

He was taken near a town to a facility whose characteristics he cannot specify. There, he was interrogated and tortured by an Army Officer. The witness knows that while he was in that place, there was another prisoner whom he never saw. However, based on some references made by the interrogators, he assumes it could have been Manuel Sanhueza.

Two days later, Raúl Patricio Poblete was taken back to the Regiment. It was then that he saw Manuel Sanhueza for the first time since he had been detained, which left a deep impression on him. He looked emaciated, his eyes were sunken, he could barely walk, he held his left side with his hands, and he remained as if doubled over.

On July 27, 1974, the victim, his father-in-law Orlando Rojas, and Raúl Patricio Poblete were taken out of the "Rancagua" Regiment in Arica together and transported to Pisagua under the guard of a military patrol commanded by an officer whom the witnesses believe to be Fernández Larios.

Once in the town of Pisagua, the three detainees were taken to the premises of a Carabineros police station, where they were entered into a logbook signed by the officer in charge of the group. They were placed in separate cells with dirt floors and adobe walls. It was between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. on July 28, 1974.

Around 9:00 a.m. that same day, the military personnel removed Orlando Rojas Vergara and Raúl Patricio Poblete from their respective cells, put them on a truck, and prepared to continue the journey to the Pisagua Prison.

Upon realizing that Manuel Sanhueza was missing, the witnesses pointed this out to the officer. The officer went back into the police station, and when he returned, his expression had changed. He came back alone, looking pale and annoyed, and in a very military style, stated that he had only been handed two prisoners.

They never saw Manuel Eduardo Sanhueza Mellado again.

In October 1974, Cecilia Linoska Rojas, Orlando Rojas, and Raúl Patricio Poblete—who were still detained—were taken to the Military Prosecutor's Office in Arica. There, an official read them a telegram informing them that on October 2 of that year, Manuel Sanhueza had died in Pisagua in a fishing accident along with two common criminals, with only the guard who was watching them surviving.

Also, in a case filed in the same Military Prosecutor's Office of Arica against the victim (docket 135-74), on February 25, 1975, the case was dismissed because his "death was established by the death certificate added to the summary."

However, in July 1976, Cecilia Linoska Rojas Orellana, in her search for her husband, requested that death certificate from the Civil Registry and Identification Service. She was never able to obtain it. Manuel Sanhueza's death was not registered in the Arica or Iquique offices of that service.

Nothing more was known about the victim until June 2, 1990, when his body was identified among the remains discovered in a clandestine grave in Pisagua. The forensic report estimated the date of death to be approximately July 29, 1974. His remains were transported to Concepción, where his family gave him a final burial.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On June 26, 1990, Cecilia Linoska Rojas Orellana filed a criminal complaint for Illicit Association, Kidnapping with Homicide, and Illegal Inhumation against all those responsible for her husband's disappearance in the case being handled by Visiting Judge Hernán Sánchez Marré.

That case had been initiated on June 1, 1990, following a report made to the Pozo Almonte Criminal Court on May 31, 1990, regarding the Illegal Inhumation of bodies. That filing informed the Court that in the town of Pisagua, in a place near the cemetery but outside of it, approximately 11 bodies had been buried outside the bounds of the law.

Those bodies—it was noted—were buried in a grave specially dug for that purpose, located on the western side of the cemetery in an area with uneven terrain.

Judge Nelson Muñoz Morales accepted the report, assigned it case number 3805, and began excavations on June 1, which resulted in the discovery of 20 bodies, including that of the victim. Five days later, the Supreme Court appointed Hernán Sánchez Marré as Visiting Judge (June 6, 1990), who continued the corresponding investigations, managing, through the statements of countless witnesses, to reconstruct the events that occurred at the Pisagua Prisoner Camp.

However, he was unable to access the files of the War Councils held at that detention center, which resulted in the death penalty for many of the accused.

Precisely one month after the report was filed and four days after Cecilia Rojas presented her complaint, on June 31, 1990, the VI Military Court of Arica, presided over by Major General Patricio Serre Ochsenius, requested that the Visiting Judge decline his jurisdiction to continue hearing the case, as "there was military personnel apparently involved." On August 8, 1990, Judge Hernán Sánchez denied the request for incompetence, elevating the records to the Supreme Court to resolve the matter.

On November 15, 1990, the highest Court resolved the jurisdiction in favor of the Military Justice system, placing the case in the Iquique Prosecutor's Office, which assigned it case number 321-90.

On February 5, 1991, the former prosecutor of Pisagua, Mario Sergio Acuña Riquelme, while testifying as a witness in the Military Prosecutor's Office of Iquique, asked the Court to apply the provisions of Decree Law 2.191 of April 1978 (Amnesty Law).

On that exact same day, Military Prosecutor Juan Romo Aravena ordered the closure of the summary, and on February 26, 1991, he dismissed the case totally and definitively under D.L. 2.191. This resolution was confirmed by the Martial Court.

Currently (December 1992), the records of this case are in the Supreme Court awaiting a resolution on the appeals filed by the lawyers of the victims of Pisagua.

Source: (Corporation Report)

"We are here as we have been for so many years, creating MEMORY, to remember our relatives. (...) With much love and affection, we remember them because they live on in our memory (...) We are still waiting with open arms for our beloved forcibly disappeared."

A brief, emotional ceremony loaded with symbolism was held in Plaza Condell to remember all those who died or were forcibly disappeared in Iquique and Pisagua during the dictatorship. Nearly half a decade after the coup d'état, relatives, colleagues, and friends do not give up the fight for truth and justice, because "no one and nothing is forgotten."

The ceremony, the "Tree of Life and Justice," was convened by the Association of Relatives of Political Executions and Disappeared of Iquique and Pisagua (AFEPI), presided over by Héctor Marín. The board also includes Lizabeth Millar and Engracias Palominos.

On the occasion, a small Christmas tree was installed, and each of the attendees helped decorate it with images of the victims of the dictator Pinochet. They remembered not only those from Iquique and Pisagua but also executed and disappeared persons from other cities whose families live in Iquique.

Héctor Marín read the names of the victims:

Political executions found in the Pisagua grave: Marcelo Guzmán Fuentes Luis Lizardi Lizardi Juan Calderón Villalón Humberto Lizardi Flores Mario Morris Barrios José Córdova Croxatto Germán Palominos Lamas Julio Cabezas Gacitúa Nelson Márquez Agurto Alberto Yáñez Carvajal Manuel Sanhueza Mellado

Forcibly disappeared in Iquique

Jorge Marín Rossel William Millar Sanhueza Marcelino Lamas Largo Rolando Silva López

Detained and died as a result of torture: Priest Gerardo Poblete Fernández.

Detained and sent to Pisagua, died as a result of torture: Isaías Higueras Zúñiga.

Forcibly disappeared in democracy

José Vergara Espinoza

Detained and disappeared in Pisagua

Rodolfo Fuenzalida Hernández Michel Nash Sáez Henry Torres Flores Nolberto Cañas Cañas Juan Jiménez Vidal Freddy Taberna Gallegos Juan Antonio Ruz Díaz José Sampson Ocaranza

At the National Stadium, Santiago

The brothers

Ernesto Salamanca Morales Gerardo Rubilar Morales

Disappeared between Iquique and Arica

Pedro Mella Vergara

Disappeared in Santiago

Víctor Zerega Ponce Alfonso Chanfreau Oyarce

Iquique natives murdered in Antofagasta: Nesko Teodorovic Sertic Elizabeth Cabrera Balarriz Washington Muñoz Donoso

Iquique native murdered in Tocopilla

Vicente Cepeda Soto

Caravan of Death

Adolfo Palleras Norambuena José Saavedra González

Discovered in Patio 29, Santiago

Eduardo Toro Vélez (buried in Iquique)

Source: edicioncero.cl 17/12/2021 Date: 17-12-2021

Santiago Court of Appeals sentences Army officer to 5 years and one day in prison for the qualified kidnapping of an exhumed victim

The appellate court increased the sentence that had been handed down by visiting judge Mario Carroza, reclassifying the crime from simple kidnapping to qualified kidnapping.

The Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced retired Army officer Manuel Caballero Villanueva to 5 years and one day in prison as the perpetrator of the crime of qualified kidnapping of Manuel Sanhueza Mellado, who was illegally detained on July 10, 1974, in the city of Arica, and whose remains were found in a common grave in Pisagua in 1990.

The sentence indicates that

a. The victim in the case, Manuel Sanhueza Mellado, was detained on July 10, 1974, at his home located in the 'Venceremos' neighborhood of the city of Arica, along with his spouse Cecilia Linoska Rojas Orellana, by plainclothes agents, one of whom identified himself as Luis Carrera, claiming to belong to the Military Intelligence Service.

Subsequently, the couple was transported in a jeep to the Rancagua Regiment of that city, where they were separated. On that same date, his father-in-law, Orlando Rojas Vergara, and his sister-in-law, Nieves Berta Rojas Orellana, were detained after being accused of being communists and were also taken to the Regiment.

On the 12th, they were placed at the disposal of the Military Prosecutor. b. Subsequently, on July 27, 1974, Sanhueza Mellado, his father-in-law Orlando Rojas, and Raúl Patricio Poblete were transported in a vehicle from the Rancagua Regiment of Arica to the Pisagua prisoner-of-war camp under the guard of a military patrol commanded by an officer.

Once in the town of Pisagua, at the Carabineros police station, before being transferred to the Prisoner Camp, the three detainees were locked in separate cells. c. Around 09:00 hours the following day, military personnel removed Orlando Rojas Vergara and Raúl Patricio Poblete from their confinement, put them on a truck, and as they were preparing to continue the march toward the prisoner camp, their relatives noticed the absence of Manuel Sanhueza Mellado and warned the officer.

The officer then returned to the police unit to inquire, but upon returning, he stated that the order only referred to the two of them. d. The aforementioned Carabineros police station in Pisagua was the last place where there was news of the victim, Sanhueza Mellado, until the month of June 1990, when his remains were found in a clandestine common grave near the cemetery of the town of Pisagua, where he was identified and it was determined that the cause of his death, according to Autopsy Protocol No. 059/90, was bullet wounds to the thorax.

The resolution adds that, in direct relation to what has been expressed regarding the allegations of the appellants, these judges keep in mind that the legal classification of the facts described in the previous motive does not conform to that indicated by the lower court judge in the seventh motive of his sentence, in which he considered them characteristic of the figure of simple kidnapping under Article 141 of the Penal Code of the time of the events.

For the appellate court, the truth is that these same facts find a better classification in the crime of qualified kidnapping, an illicit act described and sanctioned in Article 141 of the Penal Code, in the wording in force at the time of the events, when referring to a victim who was illicitly deprived of their liberty without a judicial order to justify it, confinement that lasted for more than ninety days and due to the grave damage caused to the person of the kidnapped individual, given that for a long time there were no signs of his whereabouts, and only in 1990 were his remains located in a clandestine common grave in the vicinity of Pisagua.

This illicit act—it continues—is contemplated in the 1st paragraph of Article 141 of the aforementioned legal text, aggravated in the terms provided in its 3rd paragraph. Kidnapping is understood as "He who without right locks up or detains another, depriving them of their liberty," which is qualified by the passage of time, more than 90 days of deprivation of liberty, or by grave damage to the person or interests of the kidnapped individual.

Thus, the governing verbs of the crime of kidnapping are detention and confinement, with the perpetrators of the crime being those who execute either of these two actions.

It adds that detention is understood as the apprehension of a person, depriving them of their liberty and forcing them to be in a place against their will; and confinement is the maintenance of a person in a place from which they cannot escape, even if the space has exits.

In the case at hand, the victim was kidnapped from his home without any order from a competent authority; then, he was kept in precarious conditions and subjected to interrogations, and for a long time, his true whereabouts were ignored, until finally, in 1990, his remains were found in a clandestine common grave in the vicinity of Pisagua.

Regarding the civil aspect, the sentence ordering the State to pay a total sum of $150,000,000 to the victim's relatives was confirmed.

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl 29/7/2020 Date: 29-07-2020

Despite 29 years having passed, the so-called "bag No. 20," which would contain at least 3 sets of remains of executed persons, yields no results

On June 2, 1990, at the dawn of the recovered democracy and after a fruitless search of years, the clandestine grave of Pisagua was discovered. Judge Nelson Muñoz (RIP) played a transcendental role, who, despite all the attempts to investigate coming from the justice system itself, traveled to Pisagua and directed the operation to recover the bodies.

On the team was the archaeologist—also deceased—Olaf Olmos, who directed the excavation to ensure no damage occurred. Fernando Muñoz (RIP), owner of Radio Iquique, recorded every step with his camera.

Thus, amidst tension, nervousness, and even fear, 19 bodies were recovered. The first was that of the young communist militant Manuel "Choño" Sanhueza, who had been detained in Arica, and until that moment, no one knew of his whereabouts, nor that he had been in Pisagua.

The image of the young Sanhueza, which reflected the horror of the execution by firing squad on his face; with his hands tied behind his back, his eyes blindfolded, and the bullet holes in his body, went around the world.

Until that moment, June 1990, the official version of the dictatorship was that they had not been executed. Even in the case of 6 non-political prisoners, it was reported to their relatives that they had been released in the days following September 11; however, their bodies were in the grave.

The political prisoners found in the grave are:

Marcelo Guzmán Fuentes, Luis Lizardi Lizardi, Juan Valencia Hinojosa, Juan Calderón Villalón, Humberto Lizardi Flores, Mario Morris Barrios, José Córdova Croxatto, Germán Palominos Lamas, Julio Cabezas Gacitúa, Nelson Márquez Agurto, Alberto Yánez Carvajal, Luis Toro Castillo, and Manuel Sanhueza Mellado.

Also the merchants, without political affiliation: Luis Manríquez Wilden, Hugo Martínez Guillen, Orlando Cabello Cabello, Juan Rojas Osega, Nicolás Chanes Chanes, and Juan Mamani García.

At least three other bodies are part of the evidence labeled as "bag No. 20," whose forensic examinations have never been completed. First, the examination was in Chile, later it was sent abroad, but until now, there is no final forensic report.

Source: edicioncero.cl 2/6/2019 Date: 02-06-2019

President of AFEPI, after pilgrimage to the "Para que Nunca Más" Mausoleum: "This is the real Chile; that of injustices and inequalities; not the one from the speech"

Anyelina Rojas Valdés.—Héctor Marín formulated a harsh criticism of Sebastián Piñera's presidential report during the pilgrimage to the "Para Que Nunca Más" (So That It Never Happens Again) Mausoleum, where several of the remains of former political prisoners who appeared in the clandestine grave of Pisagua lie. "This is the real Chile, of injustice and inequality; not the one from the presidential report," he expressed in his capacity as President of AFEPI.

Marín, who presides over this association of Disappeared and Political Executions of Pisagua (AFEPI), was the only speaker at this act, which takes place every year with a pilgrimage to Cemetery No. 3. He also highlighted that another group was at the same time paying tribute to the executed in Pisagua, at the very site of the grave where their bodies were found.

The ceremony, which started at the front of the cemetery, was attended by numerous former political prisoners, relatives, and friends. Also notable was the presence of several authorities such as Rubén Berríos, President of the CORE; regional councilors Pedro Cisternas and Alberto Martínez; councilmen Matías Ramírez and Octavio López; the representative of the Municipality of Iquique, Germán Gampuy; and also leaders of political parties and trade union organizations, such as ANEF.

PRESENT, NOW AND FOREVER

The President of AFEPI pointed out his message: "From the captors, there has been no type of collaboration before the courts of justice to find the whereabouts of our forcibly disappeared relatives; the pact of silence continues with the complicity of the State of Chile and the governments in turn from 1990 until today.

The amnesty law remains, the 1980 constitution of the civil-military dictatorship remains, the privileges for the murderers remain, with ridiculous sentences for killing, lying, raping, torturing, and making our relatives disappear; most of them with suspended sentences, meaning without spending a day in jail."

Then, the names of each of the disappeared and executed in Pisagua were read, while the attendees pronounced in unison and aloud the traditional "present, now and forever."

Then, they entered the cemetery to reach the "Para Que Nunca Más" Mausoleum, where floral offerings were deposited and a tribute was paid to the executed and also to those who remain disappeared.

TESTIMONIES

Nadia García is one of the women who was a prisoner in Pisagua and who was taken to the only War Council that existed in Chile during the dictatorship. With great lucidity, she remembers her captivity and only wants the history to be known so that it is not repeated.

Wilfredo Chacama, although he did not reach Pisagua, suffered political imprisonment at the Telecommunications Regiment and the Iquique Prison. And although the years pass, he says he does not lose hope that his disappeared colleagues will be found.

Source: edicioncero.cl 2/6/2019 Date: 02-06-2019

Resident of La Agüita tortured and executed in Pisagua: Justice dawns for "Choño" Sanhueza

On February 12, the Second Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals ordered the prosecution of Enrique Fuenzalida Puelma, former military prosecutor of Arica between April 1974 and June 1976, for his alleged responsibility in the murder of Communist militant Manuel Sanhueza Mellado, which occurred in July 1974.

The uniformed lawyer is accused of the crimes of kidnapping and homicide of Sanhueza, whose remains were found in 1990 in Pisagua. The court ordered the arrest of the accused, who entered the Punta Peuco prison in the following days.

Manuel Sanhueza—known as "Choño" Sanhueza—was a prominent leader of the Communist Youth (Juventudes Comunistas) from the mid-60s, a member of the central committee, national coordinator for shantytown residents, and regional secretary in Arica at the time of his detention by the Military Intelligence Service (SIM).

His body was found in a hidden grave in Pisagua, along with 19 other corpses, on June 2, 1990, following a report by the Vicaría de la Solidaridad. The discovery of "Choño's" body, preserved by the salt of the desert, was captured in a photograph widely circulated in Chile and the world, in which he appeared blindfolded, shot in the chest, and with a rictus that shocked not only the families of those who were victims of political executions and the forcibly disappeared during the years of the military dictatorship.

"Choño," the son of Víctor Sanhueza and Margarita Mellado, was born in Concepción on November 22, 1943, very close to the Agüita de la Perdiz neighborhood, on the slopes of Cerro Caracol. From a young age, he was a furniture maker and a hardworking community leader, just like his father.

He was also a talented midfielder for the local soccer club La Toma, whose skill dazzled the directors of the Universidad de Chile, who tried to recruit him for their honor team, the then-famous "Ballet Azul."

Manuel preferred to stay in the working-class neighborhoods of Concepción, organizing new sports clubs, working alongside his father, and helping his neighbors. In 1960, he joined the Communist Youth, and by 1966 he was participating with enthusiasm in the Brigada Ramona Parra.

Very soon, the "elders" took notice of him, and in 1967 he was sent to a cadre school in the Soviet Union. Upon his return in 1969, he was assigned to the regional committee of the "Jota" in Valdivia, and by 1970 he was already fulfilling duties in the central committee as the coordinator for shantytown residents.

Manuel Guerrero Ceballos, also a member of the PC youth leadership, was his companion and friend. While imprisoned in Cuatro Alamos in 1976, he wrote a text remembering "Choño," which his son—Manuel Guerrero Antequera—shared years later through social media:

"In a revolutionary organization, no one is indispensable, but it is difficult to imagine a better coordinator for shantytown work than 'Choño,' a position he held during the final years before the fascist coup.

He was an indefatigable activist; he traveled through the neighborhoods encouraging the organization of cultural and youth centers, neighborhood councils, supply and price committees, and volunteer work days.

Before that, he had been a leader of several land seizures that homeless residents carried out by forcibly occupying vacant state or private sites, where they would build a shack of cardboard or sheets, with no protection other than their organization and determination, as well as the inevitable Chilean flags they raised like a shield. 'Choño' knew that struggle like the back of his hand.

A man born and raised in the neighborhoods, a fighter for his livelihood, from childhood he was the creator of his own life with more imagination than money, quick-witted, a friend to his friends, a conversationalist, a flirt, and a lover of good food and good wine."

Manuel Guerrero regained his freedom shortly after and continued working in the underground until March 1985, when he was kidnapped by agents of the Carabineros Communications Directorate (Dicomcar) and had his throat slit along with two other Communist leaders on the shoulder of a rural road in the western area of Santiago.

ALONGSIDE VÍCTOR JARA

With his colorful and clear language, "Choño" stood out among his comrades. He spoke bluntly, without mincing words. When discussions became tangled, he used to say that the most important thing was to know that imperialism was the fundamental enemy; once that was clear, there were no problems with the rest.

Despite having completed only a few years of primary school, he possessed a broad culture, the product of his self-taught efforts. He was accustomed to carrying a book that he read with care and later discussed with anyone willing to listen.

With the same simplicity with which he spoke in the shantytowns, he addressed the university students who always invited him to their events, talks, and forums. With his characteristic countenance and figure, his bowed legs, and his unwavering enthusiasm, he was wherever he was needed. He was inexhaustible.

His contagious enthusiasm captivated Víctor Jara, who let himself be led by "Choño" through the country's marginal neighborhoods, getting to know the marrow of the working-class suburbs and the trembling flesh of poverty.

The vital rhythm of both amalgamated and grew, so it was common to see them coming and going, talking and arguing, sweeping everything along with their programs in various neighborhoods and communes of Santiago.

José Manuel Parada used to say that if the fever of "Choño" and Víctor had infected all young Communists, they would have ended up dedicated exclusively to shantytown work. From that relationship between the two innate activists was born the collection of songs by Víctor Jara that, gathered on a long-playing record, bore precisely the name La Población.

Since settling in Santiago, Manuel Sanhueza lived in Quinta Normal and regularly visited the PC office where he was a militant, at the base of the Paula Jaraquemada neighborhood, in the old Carrascal district, whose militants were quite undisciplined but among the most combative when it came to defending the popular government.

The mere presence of "Choño" brought order to the most heated meetings.

Sanhueza would begin his intervention by taking off his watch, which he placed on the table, and with his characteristic voice, he would say: "Compañeros, what the hell is going on?" And immediately, calmly, he would begin to list the difficulties until reaching the responsibilities; and there his voice would rise, he would strike his fist on the tabletop, and he would end by sentencing: "And now, compañeros... the bullshit is over!"

He always made time to teach the most diligent how to lead a meeting, how to write a political report, how to organize a march... In the end, with everyone more relaxed, he would invite them to share a bottle of red wine at "Don Rigo," a recreational tavern in the Tropezón square, by Walker Martínez and Mapocho, in a "diamond tip" where it was said that the brave died.

In mid-1972, he was sent to Arica to support the Communist youth work in the 1973 parliamentary campaign. His efforts and those of his comrades succeeded in the PC electing two deputies: Oriel Viciani in Arica and Vicente Atencio in Iquique. "Choño" had fallen in love with a "jotosa" (a member of the Communist Youth)—Cecilia Rojas Orellana—and they decided to marry, settle in the city of eternal spring, and join the tasks of supporting the government of Salvador Allende.

In Arica, the coup caught him by surprise, but he was not daunted. He assumed the role of clandestine regional secretary of the "Jota" and faced the problems head-on. He tried to reorganize the party, traveled through the towns in the area encouraging the militants, created a clandestine newspaper, and had the idea of calling for small meetings on the beaches.

It was too much, and his name was already on all the wanted lists carried by the agents of repression.

THE DETENTION

At four in the morning on July 10, 1974, a military intelligence patrol violently broke into "Choño's" home in the Venceremos neighborhood—later 11 de Septiembre and today Cardenal Silva Henríquez—and along with his pregnant wife, his brother-in-law, and his father-in-law, he was taken to the Rancagua regiment, commanded by Colonel Odlanier Mena.

Manuel Sanhueza was subjected to savage torture for 17 days. He was even taken to a foothills sector where they continued to flagellate him for another two days, hanging him naked in the open air, enduring the altiplano cold.

On July 27, the three men were taken out of the Rancagua regiment and led to Carabineros facilities in Pisagua. On the morning of the 28th, the brother-in-law and the father-in-law were taken to Arica and locked in the prisoner camp, from where they were taken to the Military Prosecutor's Office.

There, an official read them a telegram stating that Manuel Sanhueza had died in a fishing accident along with two other common prisoners, with only the guard who was watching them surviving, and that his body could not be recovered.

Cecilia, "Choño's" wife, lost the child she was expecting due to the torture to which she was subjected. She, her brother, and her father searched for Manuel fruitlessly until they could do no more. The woman left for exile.

Only on June 18, 1990, at the Legal Medical Service of Iquique, did María Maluenda, mother of José Manuel Parada, identify the body of "Choño" found in the Pisagua grave. He had been tortured with cruelty and brutality.

Obviously, they did not manage to extract any denunciation from him. Had he done so, many people would have fallen, given the knowledge Sanhueza had of his organization, both locally and nationally. His remains were taken to Concepción, where his family and the residents of Agüita de la Perdiz gave him a final burial.

THE PISAGUA CAMP

The first prisoner camp was built in the late 40s, during the presidency of Gabriel González Videla, as a detention center for Communists. Located 192 kilometers north of Iquique, it was enabled again in the first days of the 1973 military coup.

Nearly 2,500 prisoners passed through there. The camp was under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Ramón Larraín Larraín. On May 6, 1974, the army moved the detainees to the second floor of a warehouse in the hamlet.

Ten days later, 126 common prisoners arrived; almost nothing has been known about them. Although there is no evidence of mass executions of common prisoners, as there are no complaints, in 1998 Carlos Herrera Jiménez, a former military intelligence agent, admitted to having participated in the execution of criminals and minors.

In 1973, Pisagua was a town with a military base and a jail. Most of the prisoners were locked in the 26 cells of the jail, ten of them measuring two by four meters. The women remained captive in a building next to the theater.

In general, the prisoners came from different cities of the Norte Grande, while many others were former prisoners from the training ship Esmeralda and had been taken there on the freighter Maipo, of the Compañía Sudamericana de Vapores.

On the day of the coup, Colonel Odlanier Mena Salinas assumed the position of highest military authority of the province in Arica, seconded by his aide, Captain Ricardo Gaete, and Captain Patricio Varela as public relations officer.

On that same date, a wartime military tribunal was constituted, composed of Mena himself plus civil judge Humberto Retamal and Lieutenant Colonel Mario Carrasco González. A war council was also formed, composed of Lieutenant Colonels Eduardo Oyarzún Sepúlveda and Walter Luther Melcher and Majors Julio Salazar Lanteri, Hugo Sepúlveda Fuentes, and Luis Aguayo Benard.

The Military Intelligence Service (SIM) was in charge of the interrogations and surveillance of political prisoners. For this, Lieutenant Colonel Eduardo Oyarzún, second commander of the Rancagua regiment, formed two groups: an operational command, led by Major Julio Salazar, and an intelligence command, led by Major Luis Aguayo.

Among the detainees, word spread that the group led by Aguayo Benard, seconded by Captain Patricio Padilla and non-commissioned officers Juan Cereceda Lawson, José Luis Catalán, Luis Carrera Bravo, Pedro Fuentes Carrasco, Sergio Mercado Valenzuela, and René Bravo Llanos, was in charge of the "dirtiest" work, such as torture, rape, and executions.

In charge of the Norte Grande military zone was General Carlos Forestier.

In August 2015, Judge Carroza prosecuted retired non-commissioned officers Luis Carrera Bravo and Napoleón Ríos Carvajal for their responsibility in the kidnapping and homicide of Manuel Sanhueza. Both are in Punta Peuco.

Lawyer Adil Brkovic, a plaintiff in the case, is trying to find out what happened to Hugo Martínez Martínez and Henry Torres Flores, two alleged "criminals" alongside whom—according to the military—"Choño" had died.

Source: resumen.cl, March 14, 2016

Date: 03-14-2016

Supreme Court increases compensation to spouse of victim executed and illegally buried in Pisagua

In a unanimous ruling, the Second Chamber of the high court set at $100,000,000 the amount of compensation that the state must pay to the spouse of Manuel Eduardo Sanhueza Mellado, who was illegally detained on July 10, 1974, in Arica and whose remains were found in a clandestine grave in Pisagua in 1990.

In a unanimous ruling (case roll 125.650-2020), the Second Chamber of the high court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, minister María Teresa Letelier, and lawyer (i) Eduardo Morales—confirmed the challenged sentence issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals, with the declaration that the compensation amount to the victim's spouse is increased in proportion to the proven damage.

"That the nature of the moral damage in question requires that the determination of the monetary amount that allows in some way to repair, mitigate, or help to bear the pain caused by the established illicit act, necessarily leads to its determination being carried out prudently, given the need to fix with accuracy and certainty the sum that serves those objectives; this does not mean that such evaluation is arbitrary or capricious, but, on the contrary, that given the lack of rules providing uniform and universal formulas, guidelines, or methods for all types of situations, the court must analyze each case based on its specificities and particularities, weighing them with caution and moderation, based on the principles of equity referred to in numeral 5 of article 170 of the Code of Civil Procedure, which undoubtedly gives it greater flexibility for such determination, without such exercise implying in any way releasing it from the duty to express the reasons that led to that decision, since in this way what is ordered to be paid by the ruling is justified," the ruling states.

"That it is not disputed in the process that Ms. Cecilia Linoska Rojas Orellana was the spouse of the victim Manuel Sanhueza Mellado and that Ms. Gladys Sanhueza Mellado and Ms. Olivia Rosa Sanhueza Mellado were his sisters," it adds.

The resolution adds: "That although the first-instance ruling partially granted the compensation requested regarding each of the plaintiffs, the spiritual affliction caused to the victim's spouse cannot be equated or compared with that experienced by his sisters, given that with the former, a life project is formed that is cut short on the occasion of the crime of qualified kidnapping and subsequent disappearance until the discovery of his mortal remains in 1990; in this understanding, its amount must be regulated at a considerably higher sum than that established in favor of his sisters."

"That, however, and in relation to the victim's sisters, the amount set by the second-instance judges is consistent and in accordance with others set by this Court, so they will be maintained at the same figure decreed in the appealed sentence," the ruling concludes in the civil aspect.

In the criminal sphere, the high court rejected the cassation appeals filed against the resolution that acquitted one of the accused and, furthermore, did not issue a pronouncement regarding the sentenced Manuel Gregorio Caballero Villanueva, who passed away in August 2022 while the appeal was being processed before the Supreme Court.

Mass grave

In the first-instance ruling, visiting judge Mario Carroza established the following facts:

" a. That the victim in this case, Manuel Sanhueza Mellado, was detained on July 10, 1974, at his home located in the 'Venceremos' neighborhood of the city of Arica, together with his spouse Cecilia Linoska Rojas Orellana, by plainclothes agents, one of whom allegedly identified himself as Luis Carrera, claiming to belong to the Military Intelligence Service; subsequently, the couple was transported in a jeep to the Rancagua Regiment of that city, and at that place they were separated.

On that same date, his father-in-law, Orlando Rojas Vergara, and his sister-in-law, Nieves Berta Rojas Orellana, were detained upon being accused of being Communists and were also transported to the regiment.

On the 12th, they were placed at the disposal of the military prosecutor; b. That, subsequently, on July 27, 1974, Sanhueza Mellado, his father-in-law Orlando Rojas, and Raúl Patricio Poblete were transported in a vehicle from the Rancagua Regiment of Arica to the Pisagua prisoner-of-war camp, under the surveillance of a military patrol led by an officer; once in the town of Pisagua, at the Carabineros station, before being transferred to the prisoner camp, the three detainees were locked in different cells; c.

That, around 09:00 hours the following day, soldiers removed Orlando Rojas Vergara and Raúl Patricio Poblete from their confinement, put them on a truck, and at the moment they were preparing to continue the march to the prisoner camp, their relatives noticed the absence of Manuel Sanhueza Mellado and warned the officer; the latter then returned to the police unit to inquire, but upon returning, he indicated that the order only referred to the two of them; and, d.

That the aforementioned Carabineros station of Pisagua was the last place where news was had of the victim Sanhueza Mellado, until in the month of June 1990, his remains were found in a clandestine mass grave near the cemetery of the town of Pisagua, where he was identified and it was determined that the cause of his death, according to Autopsy Protocol No. 059/90, was gunshot wounds to the thorax. "

Source: pjud.cl, 12/06/2023

MANUEL SANHUEZA MELLADO: THE FACE THAT EMERGED FROM THE DEPTHS OF THE DESERT

Sand and salt, a grimace of horror and pain, my silent cry against the dictatorship. Sand and salt, excavators to reclaim identity. Sand and salt, we are remains torn from the grave of shame. Sand and salt, Pisagua and the horror of rape and torture cross the desert.

Voices coming to life, escaping oblivion. Sand and salt and the bullets of the cowardly soldiers drawing a geography of death on my chest. Sand and salt, my clothes intact, my eyes blindfolded, and my hands tied behind my back.

Sand and salt, the struggles for land seizures, my working-class and poor suburban neighborhoods where humanity flourishes, where the desire to build the present makes space among the shacks, among the barefoot children who run through the streets playing with a rag ball or running around a stray dog.

Sand and salt, my militancy, my ideals, being a Communist. Sand and salt, I imagine myself walking with my friend Víctor or listening to him play the guitar and sing a song. Our destiny also crossed: whipped and executed by bullets.

Sand and salt, and I think of the luck I had because my bones appeared. Sand and salt, where are the other comrades? Here we are at 19 and the bag 20. Sand and salt, no one can keep turning their face and remaining indifferent.

Sand and salt, we are evidently speaking and narrating a disappeared history, the history of a rebellious generation that the brutality and repression of the dictatorial machine tried to silence and erase forever.

Thanks to the sand, the salt, and the tireless search of our loved ones, our memory, which always shone in a dark sky, now reveals itself to also illuminate the existence of those who still remain ghosts, without a grave, but with paper flowers made of memories and love.

My name is Manuel Sanhueza Mellado, nicknamed "Choño," I am 30 years old, I am married, and I am a militant of the Communist Youth. On July 10, 1974, they took me from my home along with my wife, my brother-in-law, and my father-in-law.

Do you know that my partner is pregnant? I am afraid that under the military something bad could happen to her and the baby. It is a tremendous fear that takes my breath away.

They separated us. They tortured me, they hung me naked in the open air, and despite everything I suffered, I never denounced or betrayed my comrades. It is July and it is cold. It is July and it is not time to die.

It is July and I continue to resist. My existence to the agents is so cheap, it is worth nothing. It is July and it is winter. I will not be able to see spring or summer again, I know it.

A terrible day in July they took me to the wall, the smell of the sea passed by my nose. A burst and nothing more. I fell dead to the ground and they threw me into the grave already full of corpses.

Sand and salt, June 2, 1990, the discovery of the Pisagua grave, my face finally appeared. Again I felt the smell of the sea, the heat of the sun, friendly voices of those who saved us from disappearance, they gave us the freedom to receive the embrace of our relatives and many other people.

My face and my body, a photograph from the hell of what was, so that no one denies what happened. Death under the Pinochet regime has my appearance. Look at me well and fix this image in your head! Here I am as a permanent witness to state, military, and civil brutality.

MANUEL SANHUEZA CONTINUES TO LIVE IN THE STRUGGLE!

NO FORGIVENESS, NO FORGETTING! UNTIL MEMORY BECOMES A HABIT!

Chantal Castiglione

Source: corporacionute-usach.cl, June 2021