Manuel Natalio Chamorro Gómez, married, father of 5, an employee of Textil Hirmas, was detained on April 3, 1974, around 10:00 PM, while he was heading to his work at Industrias Hirmas, located in the commune of Renca, by armed military personnel traveling in a red pickup truck.

As was the custom, around 9:50 PM, the third-shift workers would leave their homes in the housing development that the company had built for them near the factory and walk toward their workplace.

While walking along the Panamericana, they noticed, shortly before arriving, that there were soldiers stationed on both sides of the road, and the red pickup truck was parked on the shoulder with armed uniformed men inside.

Walking ahead of Manuel Chamorro, who was at the back of the line, was Guillermo Reyes Salinas, who saw them put the victim into the vehicle, which then sped off toward the south. Reyes himself told what happened to Chamorro’s spouse, Mireya Díaz Marín, who was pregnant at the time.

Another Hirmas worker, José Sepúlveda Sepúlveda, also saw the soldiers and stated that when they arrived at work, everyone realized that Chamorro had not arrived.

His wife searched for him in various places, and at the end of November 1974, she was informed by SENDET that he was being held incommunicado, without being told the location.

In December 1977, plainclothes personnel claiming to belong to the Ministry of the Interior visited the homes of his relatives and suggested the possibility that the victim had been killed by extremists.

His coworker Guillermo Reyes also searched for him at the Investigaciones offices in Renca and Santiago, with no positive results. Furthermore, together with the Government Delegate at the factory, Colonel Jorge Almazabal, they went to the Buin Regiment, but they did not find him there either.

The Hirmas factory had been intervened during the Unidad Popular government, and following the Military Coup, the Army took charge of it. The former interventor was detained, as were other workers who participated in the administration.

Manuel Chamorro worked for 25 years in this industry and never participated in politics, nor was he part of any union.

His last daughter was born a few months after the victim was forcibly disappeared.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On January 6, 1975, his wife and sister filed a writ of amparo (habeas corpus) before the Santiago Court of Appeals denouncing the disappearance of the victim, for which there is no record.

On April 6, 1974, his sister Graciela Chamorro Gómez reported the incident to the 9th Investigaciones Precinct, who notified the 9th Criminal Court of Santiago, a tribunal that opened case file 20.789 for alleged disappearance.

On June 2, 1974, Investigaciones reported that they had interviewed relatives and Guillermo Reyes, a witness to the detention, and it was verified that the victim had no criminal or political record with that service.

After this report, the case had no further movement. No other action was taken until three years later, in October 1977, when the case file was requested by the 10th Criminal Court, a tribunal that was investigating another case regarding the victim's disappearance, which was ordered to be consolidated.

In this new case, file 4654 1, which began in March 1977 following a complaint filed by the spouse and sister of the victim, the Ministry of the Interior reported having no information on Manuel Chamorro.

Investigaciones officers re-interviewed the witness Guillermo Reyes Salinas, who stated on this occasion that he did not clearly remember the circumstances of the victim's detention, although he did remember the presence of a military patrol on the way to work on the day the events occurred.

With this information and negative responses from the Legal Medical Institute, the Psychiatric Hospital, the Department of Foreigners, and cemeteries regarding the victim's presence in those locations, on June 2 of the same year, the summary was closed and a temporary dismissal was issued, as the crime could not be proven.

However, this resolution was revoked by the Santiago Court of Appeals, which ordered the reopening of the summary and for new proceedings to be carried out.

One of these was to request the case file being investigated for the same events in the 9th Court, and the other was to summon the witness Reyes Salinas to testify. The latter appeared to testify but ratified what he had stated to Investigaciones regarding not remembering what happened.

However, after the Tribunal learned of what this witness had declared in the 9th Court case, where he provided more information, it was decided to summon him again. In this second statement, he provided a more complete account of what happened to the victim.

The Ministry of the Interior again responded that it had no information on the victim. The 2nd Military Court replied the same.

On December 15, 1977, a complaint for kidnapping was filed against the military personnel who were patrolling the sector that day, which was added to the proceedings.

On November 15, 1978, the summary was closed again and a temporary dismissal was issued because the crime could not be proven, even though some proceedings were still pending, such as the summons to testify of Colonel José Almazabal, the former military interventor of Hirmas. However, on this occasion, the Santiago Court of Appeals confirmed the dismissal.

Source: (Corporation Report)

My dad, Manuel, was born in Maule on February 1, 1933. His parents were named Pedro and Uberlinda, and he had two siblings: Graciela and Eduardo. When he was small, his parents separated, and he came to Santiago with his mother and sister.

At a very young age, he began working at the Hirmas cotton factory, first as a laborer in the construction of the housing development and later as a loom mechanic, performing maintenance on the machines.

He was very handsome, tall, with a fair complexion and green eyes. He met Mireya near the housing development and began seeing her; they were soon married. They had five children: María Angélica, Manuel, Mireya, Lleliza, and Betsi.

He worked at night at Hirmas, and when he arrived in the morning, he would sometimes bring me candy. He would make the candy wrapper crinkle, and I would go to look for them; sometimes it was a joke, he liked to play with us. He would also tell us stories where he made the sounds, as if we were in the forest…

He had many friends and liked to go out to eat grilled meats and boiled potatoes with arrollado. I remember a childhood vacation when we traveled with the whole family by train to Talca to see his brother Eduardo; we were all very happy.

He participated in his workplace union; I have heard stories about him: that one time he put up a flag in the middle of a demonstration on the Panamericana, or that he had socialist ideas. One night on the way to the factory, they detained him; no one could tell us anything more about him. I was 5 years old, and my mom was two months pregnant with Betsi.

He was Manuel Natalio Chamorro Gómez, forcibly disappeared on April 3, 1974. I am his daughter, Lleliza Chamorro, and I remember him. Remember him, and remind others.

Technical Data To create this microbiography, Lleliza Chamorro was interviewed. She recorded this radio segment in October 2014 at the studios of Radio Universidad de Chile, where it was subsequently mixed and broadcast.

Source: latidosdelamemoria.cl, undated