Manuel Zacarias González Vargas
Empleado Maestranza FF.CC. — 46 years old.
Background
Manuel Zacarias González Vargas
Empleado Maestranza FF.CC. — 46 years old.
Case summary
Manuel Zacarías González Vargas, a 46-year-old employee of the Railway Workshop and member of the Communist Party, was a victim of human rights violations on October 6, 1973, in San Bernardo. His case is part of the judicial process known as the "San Bernardo Episode," which occurred during the Chilean military dictatorship.
Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos[1]
On October 6, 1973, the following individuals were killed by members of the Army:
Héctor Enrique HERNANDEZ GARCES, 17 years old, a high school student at a school in Puente Alto and a sympathizer of the Socialist Youth. He was arrested on September 27, 1973, at his home by military personnel who were tracking one of his friends, Francisco Viera.
Arturo KOYK FREDES, 48 years old, a worker at the San Bernardo Railway Workshops and a member of the Partido Comunista. He was arrested in the early hours of September 28 at his home by the same military patrol that captured Mauricio Cea and Roberto Avila.
Alfredo ACEVEDO PEREIRA, 27 years old, a worker at the San Bernardo Railway Workshops and a member of the Partido Comunista.
Raúl CASTRO CALDERA, 23 years old, a worker at the San Bernardo Railway Workshops and a member of the Partido Comunista.
Hernán CHAMORRO MONARDES, 29 years old, a worker at the San Bernardo Railway Workshops and a member of the Partido Comunista.
Manuel GONZALEZ VARGAS, 46 years old, a worker at the San Bernardo Railway Workshops and a member of the Partido Comunista.
Adiel MONSALVES MARTINEZ, 41 years old, a worker at the San Bernardo Railway Workshops, a union leader, and a member of the Partido Comunista.
José MORALES ALVAREZ, 31 years old, a worker at the San Bernardo Railway Workshops, Vice President of the Railway Workers' Council, and a member of the Partido Comunista.
Pedro OYARZUN ZAMORANO, 36 years old, a worker at the San Bernardo Railway Workshops, a union leader, and a member of the Partido Comunista.
Joel Guillermo SILVA OLIVA, 37 years old, a worker at the San Bernardo Railway Workshops and a member of the Partido Comunista.
Ramón VIVANCO DIAZ, 44 years old, a worker at the San Bernardo Railway Workshops and a member of the Partido Comunista.
(Juan Guillermo Cuadra Espinoza, Gustavo Martínez Vera, and Carlos Ortiz Ortiz met the same fate; they had been arrested in Paine and taken to the Cerro Chena detention center. However, the situation affecting them is recounted in the section corresponding to the town of Paine.)
The eleven people mentioned above were arrested on September 28, 1973, by military personnel during an operation carried out at the San Bernardo Railway Workshops.
Javier Antonio PACHECO MONSALVE, 31 years old, a furniture maker and a member of the GAP (President Allende's security detail) for a time. His wife, María Isabel Beltran Sánchez, is a forcibly disappeared person. He was a member of the MIR. He was arrested on October 5 by military personnel.
All of the aforementioned individuals were executed on October 6, 1973, by Army personnel at the Cerro Chena detention center, suffering multiple gunshot wounds. Their deaths are recorded in death certificates, many of which list the San Bernardo Infantry School as the place of death.
Regarding the case of Arturo Koyk, although his death certificate indicates the date as September 28, 1973, the Commission possesses evidence that allows it to confirm he was killed together with the railway personnel on October 6.
The families only learned of the deaths upon discovering their bodies at the Legal Medical Institute. Some of the bodies were not recovered by their next of kin and were buried in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery.
Faced with the concern of relatives and coworkers, military authorities in the area summoned a union assembly where they reported that the affected individuals were participating in paramilitary activities and had attempted to escape from Cerro Chena, which had allegedly motivated the military to kill them.
On the other hand, witnesses who spoke with the workers while they were detained indicated that the workers had told them they were being accused of intending to blow up the gasometer or gas pipeline of the Workshops, which would have caused half of San Bernardo to explode.
The Commission reached the conviction that the deaths of the victims constituted a case of human rights violations and could not accept the version provided to the families, based on the following considerations:
– There is no official document that supports the version of an escape given by the military overseer, nor is there any press information or judicial investigation to that effect. – The testimonies received by this Commission regarding the conditions in which detainees were held at Cerro Chena also disprove a possible escape.
Before arriving at the site, detainees were blindfolded and remained in that condition throughout their detention. Furthermore, the entire detention camp was surrounded by barbed-wire fences. The paths were lined with small ditches into which detainees often fell precisely because they could not see. – An attempted escape would have required prior coordination among the victims, which was impracticable because the detained railway workers were not grouped together but distributed in different sectors of the facility. – Autopsy protocols confirm that all victims died from gunfire, with most shots fired from a long distance and in an upward trajectory. This corroborates testimonies received by the Commission, which indicate that the victims were taken from their cells and brought to the hill, where they were forced to climb while soldiers fired at them from behind. – All bodies were sent to the Legal Medical Institute with the notation that they had been "found" at the San Bernardo Infantry School. This Commission verified that there was no judicial proceeding regarding the discovery of bodies at that facility.
This Commission reached the conviction that all the victims were executed outside of any legal process by State agents.
Judicial Case Files[2]
Episodio San Bernardo
- Hector Solis
- 03-02-f
- 1462-2007
- 6379-2010
- Metropolitana De Santiago
- Escuela De Infanteria De San Bernardo Cuartel Dos Cerro Chena
- Victor Pinto Perez
References
- 1Museum of Memoryhttps://interactivos.museodelamemoria.cl/victims/?p=1716
- 2Judicial Case Fileshttps://expedientesdelarepresion.cl/causa/episodio-san-bernardo/