Marta Inés Alvarado Borgel was born in Santiago on October 20, 1952, the daughter of Clara Inés Borgel González and Alfonso Alvarado Borquez. She studied at the "Manuel de Salas" Experimental Lyceum, completing her sixth-year exams with a specialization in Humanities in 1970. She suffered from a very serious illness, "Psoriasis Diables."

She was detained on the street on July 15, 1974, at approximately 3:00 PM, in front of a store on Avenida Providencia near the corner of Avenida Lyon, by three DINA agents, according to the statement of Verónica Martínez, who was accompanying her.

Two hours later, they took her to the latter's home, located at Antonio Varas 240, Apt. 202. At that location, they proceeded to detain everyone who arrived: Antonio Osorio Olivares, Juan Chacón Zenteno, Juan Chacón Olivares, and Martín Elgueta Pinto. They were subsequently taken out in pairs and transferred to Londres 38, a DINA torture center.

At that location, they were interrogated and whipped, as certified by the statements of some of those who were detained alongside M. Inés and later released.

On July 17 and 18, 1974, she was taken to her parents' house by plainclothes agents, who remained at that location for three days on the second occasion, keeping the family under house arrest.

Her mother, in case file 91.675 of the 6th Criminal Court, states: "Again, on the 25th of the same month, upon arriving at my house, I found my daughter again, accompanied by three men and Martín Elgueta Pinto, who was also detained.

Both had a black mark on their foreheads. When I asked her what that was, she told me not to ask her anything, and that the less I did, the less I would compromise myself. Afterward, they took her away, and I have not seen her again to this day."

"I wish to inform Your Honor that I learned my daughter had been tortured; I noticed she was extremely nervous and her mouth was disfigured."

María Inés was seen at Londres 38 until August 2, 1974, as recorded in the statements of several detainees who were later released.

Her name appears on the lists of the "119," published by the weekly LEA of Buenos Aires and the newspaper O'DIA of Curitiba, Brazil, on July 22 and 24, 1975, as "persons supposedly deceased abroad," along with Martín Elgueta and Juan Chacón Olivares.

All of them are forcibly disappeared, and regarding them, government authorities have maintained absolute silence, systematically denying their detention, closing cases, providing no answers to legal requests, and evading their responsibility.

At 22 years of age at the time of her detention, she was part of a group of men and women who fought to the ultimate consequences for a just society built and growing in freedom and democracy.

Today, they are not with us, but their cause is a double reason for their relatives, friends, and comrades, who will not stop until they CLARIFY THE TRUTH, DEMAND JUSTICE, AND PUNISH those responsible.

Source: Clara Inés Borgel González

The visiting minister of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Leopoldo Llanos, sentenced eleven DINA agents for their responsibility in the kidnapping and disappearance of two 21-year-olds: María Inés Alvarado Börgel, a secretary, and Martín Elgueta Pinto, a commercial engineering student at the University of Chile.

Both were detained at Londres 38, a secret detention and torture center located in downtown Santiago. It operated from late 1973 until approximately the final days of August 1974. It held about sixty detainees who remained blindfolded, with their hands tied, gathered in a large room from where they were taken to other areas "to be interrogated and tortured with different types of whipping," the magistrate determined.

The events began in the commune of Providencia on July 15, 1974, at the apartment at Antonio Varas 240, the home of 29-year-old veterinarian Juan Chacón Olivares (forcibly disappeared), who lived with his wife, Verónica Martínez, and their daughter, Camila.

There, they sheltered Martín Elgueta and María Inés Alvarado, who had met as students at the Manuel de Salas Lyceum. Martín Elgueta, son of the former Socialist Party deputy Belarmino Elgueta, had joined the MIR when he was a high school student and, at the time of his detention, was a member of the central committee. María Inés Alvarado acted as a liaison for that party(1).

That day, María Inés, Verónica, and her daughter Camila "went out to shop, and about twenty minutes later, Verónica and Camila returned and recounted that they had been intercepted by two Chevrolet C10 pickup trucks while crossing Providencia, and that she had managed to escape while María Inés was being detained," Antonio Osorio Olivares, the nephew of the homeowner, told the court.

BRUTALLY TORTURED

In the afternoon, two men brought María Inés to the apartment "carried on their shoulders. She was not in physical condition to walk. They rang the doorbell, and upon opening the door, about ten to fifteen people entered, both men and women, all armed, looking for weapons and dollars (...) They left María Inés sitting on the stairs, and I could see she was bleeding," Osorio specified during the investigation.

"Around 7:30 PM, Martín arrived at the apartment; I opened the door and he was immediately detained. After a few hours, my uncle (Juan Chacón) and I were taken from the apartment, leaving Verónica and Martín behind," he detailed. "They led us to the detention center located behind the San Francisco Church.

There were about thirty people; shortly after, Verónica, Martín, and my uncle Juan Chacón arrived. The most brutally tortured were Juan Chacón, Martín Elgueta, and María Inés Alvarado," he added. After a few days, Osorio was taken to Cuatro Álamos. "Martín Elgueta and María Inés remained at Londres 38," he indicated.

Rafael Alvarado Börgel, María Inés's brother, noted that his sister was "taken to her father's house at Dublé Almeyda 3469, Ñuñoa, where they lived with her mother, Clara Börgel." She arrived "along with four plainclothes subjects who were traveling in a red Chevrolet C10 pickup truck; saying that his sister was detained, they entered her room to take her clothes," he pointed out. "It was difficult for her to walk and she had dried blood on the side of her mouth, and she looked worried and scared by the situation," he recalled.

Among those who brought her, he recognized the torturer Osvaldo Romo.

BURNED ON THE FOREHEAD

The next day, the same agents brought María Inés back, and she remained in the house accompanied by two agents. "The subjects spent the night in the house, and the next day in the morning, Romo returned to pick up María Inés, taking her to her sister Ana Verónica." It was the last time he saw her alive.

She was "very ill physically, she was deteriorated, and had a kind of burn mark on her forehead." Rafael detailed that he recognized Miguel Krassnoff as one of the agents who went with his sister to the house for the first time.

Her sister, Ana Verónica, saw her for the last time on July 26. "She presented various aftereffects that accounted for the torture to which she was being subjected." Among the agents accompanying his sister, she recognized Basclay Zapata.

Silvia Rosa Vergara Rifo was detained by the DINA on July 20, 1974, and transferred to Londres 38. There, she saw María Inés. "They called her 'Rayito' (Little Ray) because she had hair dye. They made her wash the dishes that the guards used," Vergara asserted.

ARAUCO FISHERY TRUCK

Silvia Vergara's judicial testimony was corroborated by conscript Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, who served as a guard at Londres 38 in 1974. "The detainees were left on the first floor blindfolded and seated; there were men and women.

Those who had been there longer offered to serve food and wash dishes," he assured the court. "A detainee they called 'Rayito de Sol' (Sunbeam) because of the highlights (dye) she had in her hair offered to wash the dishes on some occasions when I was on guard duty.

This task did not correspond to them, but we, to take them out of the routine they had there and the conditions in which they found themselves, sitting in chairs all day, authorized them to perform this task," he specified.

Cristián Esteban van Yurick Altamirano, detained on July 12, 1974, and whose brother Edwin is disappeared, knew Martín and María Inés at the Manuel de Salas Lyceum. He spoke with Martín, although "we had no organic link within the party; we never worked together," he explained to the court.

Jorge Antonio Lepileo Barrios, an army official, was assigned to the Londres 38 barracks as a guard. He told the court that "the detainees were taken to the offices that each group had on the second floor, where they were interrogated by the same agents who brought them, and (Marcelo) Moren also intervened on some occasions.

Many times I heard them scream when they were interrogating the detainees (...) They were hung by their hands and feet," he added, "electricity was applied to them. The detainees were removed by the same operational groups, who apparently carried out procedures with them.

There were occasions when a truck from the Arauco Fishery arrived at the barracks. And for that, he came with a list provided by the General Headquarters, which he showed to the head of the operational part, who was Marcelo Moren, and he ordered the officers or the most senior ones to take out the detainees who were on the list," Lepileo testified.

María Cristina Olivares Castro was detained on July 17, 1974, and taken to Londres 38. During the night, she noticed that "they took out a Chevrolet pickup truck in which four men were going, (Osvaldo) Romo and three others; at that moment, they were taking María Inés."

María Cristina could not confirm if she returned, as she was detained for two days. Regarding Martín Elgueta, she saw him "that same night when they ordered me to serve food to the other detainees; Martín even asked me to repeat his portion." She saw him again on the morning of July 18.

"I have suffered much torture, but I am in good health. No matter how much they torture me, I will not speak, for I have nothing to say," he commented to Olivares.

Former MIR leader Hernán Aguiló noted that "I am alive thanks to the heroic behavior of Martín Elgueta, since after he was detained, I attended the contact points we had agreed upon"(2).

MARTÍN ELGUETA AT CUATRO ÁLAMOS

Raúl Alberto Iturra Muñoz, detained in January 1974, saw Martín Elgueta at Cuatro Álamos, a DINA site from where detainees could move to free speech or disappear. Those who survived recovered there from the torture before being legally recognized as political prisoners. Manuel José Salinas Letelier, detained on January 16 of that year, also saw him there.

Graciela Scarlett Mathieu Loguercio was detained on July 15, 1974, in the afternoon, and recalled that "they take me to the street, put me in a pickup truck, and put 'scotch' tape on my eyes, then a cloth blindfold.

I could hear that the truck made many turns, and along the way, they picked up more detainees, whom I could not see, but subsequently identified as Martín Elgueta Pinto and María Inés Alvarado Börgel."

At Londres 38, she was interrogated and tortured by Basclay Zapata. She heard "Marcelo Moren Brito, who had a hoarse voice, and Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, who was a polite agent in the interrogations, but in the end, was the most perverse." After Londres 38, she was transferred to Cuatro Álamos before July 27, 1974, where she spent approximately a week. "On the third or fourth day she was there, she saw Martín Elgueta when he requested to go to the bathroom.

While walking to it, she saw Martín through a window, walking down a hallway," Mathieu recalled.

Héctor Hernán González Osorio was detained on December 6, 1974, and transferred to Villa Grimaldi. Regarding Martín, he recalled that "Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko told me that he had passed through the place.

I remember very well when he told me, because on that occasion Krassnoff was hitting me and I fell to the ground and he replied: 'You deflated just like the fat guy Renato,'" he pointed out in a statement. "Renato" was the name his comrades gave to Martín Elgueta.

ITURRIAGA NEUMANN AND MARTÍN CIGA IN ARGENTINA

The victims of Operation Colombo were part of the communication setup that tried to make 119 forcibly disappeared detainees appear as dead in internal disputes abroad.

The Human Rights Brigade of the PDI informed Minister Llanos that "according to the analysis carried out on Operation Colombo, it constitutes a psychological warfare maneuver organized by the National Intelligence Directorate, with the purpose of covering up the kidnappings of 119 people, currently forcibly disappeared...

This operation was carried out in two phases. In the first stage, Lautaro Enrique Arancibia Clavel received the then-Army Major Raúl Iturriaga Neumann, an agent of the National Intelligence Directorate, and contacted him with Martín Ciga Correa, head of the security apparatus of the Justicialist Military Militia, so that this Argentine far-right group would make the corpses of people, unknown to date, appear, whose bodies would be used to simulate that they corresponded to Chilean citizens who had been kidnapped in our country, a situation that was denied by the government authorities of our country," the PDI report stated.

Regarding the final destination of the victims, the report of PDI sub-prefect Sandro Gaete was incorporated into the process, who stated that "in a first stage, the prisoners of Londres 38 were taken to Tejas Verdes in sealed fishery trucks, this until April 1974 more or less.

In a second stage, the bodies of the prisoners would have been taken to the Tobalaba Airfield to then be thrown into the sea."

THE SENTENCES

Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Basclay Zapata Reyes, and Risiere del Prado Altez España: 15 years and one day in prison, as authors of the repeated crimes of qualified kidnapping and application of torture to Alvarado and Elgueta.

César Manríquez Bravo, Nelson Paz Bustamante, José Yévenes Vergara, and Osvaldo Pulgar Gallardo: 10 years and one day in prison, as authors.

Pedro Espinoza Bravo and Orlando Manzo Durán: 7 years in prison, as authors of the qualified kidnapping of Elgueta.

Agent Sergio Castillo González: 5 years and one day in prison, as an accomplice to both kidnappings.

Raúl Iturriaga Neumann: 4 years in prison, as an accomplice to the kidnapping of Martín Elgueta.

Source: puntofinal.cl, May 11, 2017

Date: 05-11-2017

María Inés Alvarado Börgel was born in October 1952 and grew up in a large, unique house very close to Plaza Ñuñoa. What can I tell you about her? María Inés had four siblings: Hugo, Ani, Foncho, and Rafi.

Her mother was a teacher named Inés, and her father was named Alfonso and was a firefighter... Oh! And how could I not mention her adorable nieces and nephews: Verito and Sergio. With them, she would escape some weekends to San Sebastián in her orange car... they would go to watch the sea for a while and forget about this city.

She studied at the Manuel de Salas Lyceum, which was a very important place for her. She liked many things, such as playing the guitar—she said it relaxed her. She loved to sew—she made herself pajamas and robes and painted them with flowers and leaves.

She also loved writing in her diary; there, she captured her feelings and the events of her day-to-day life. Between its pages, she left part of her history: a dried flower, a chocolate wrapper, her memories.

Her convictions and dreams led her to become a militant of the MIR, where she found a space for struggle and resistance. One winter afternoon in '74, she was detained while buying pantyhose at Lyon and Providencia.

Her mother searched for her as long as her strength allowed, and her family continues to do so to this day.

She is María Inés Alvarado Börgel, a forcibly disappeared detainee since July 15, 1974. I am Daniela Alvarado and I remember my aunt. Remember her, remind others of her.

Technical sheet

This micro-biography was created from the text provided by María Inés's relatives and recorded by Daniela Alvarado in the months of December 2013 and July 2014, in the studios of Radio Universidad de Chile, where it was subsequently mixed and broadcast.

Source: latidosdelamemoria.cl, undated

They had been a couple and were kidnapped in 1974 by DINA agents for their militancy in the MIR. The convicted are César Manríquez Bravo (former Army General and head of the DINA Metropolitan Brigade), José Yévenes Vergara (former Carabineros corporal), Osvaldo Pulgar Gallardo (former Carabineros non-commissioned officer), Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko (former Army Brigadier and head of the Halcón Group), Pedro Espinoza Bravo (former Army Brigadier and second-in-command of the DINA), and Raúl Iturriaga Neumann (former Army General and deputy director of DINA Intelligence).

In a unanimous ruling, 49 years after the first appeal was presented to the courts, the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court confirmed the sentences and rejected the cassation appeals filed by the defense of those convicted for the detention and disappearance of María Inés Alvarado Börgel and Martín Elgueta Pinto, both former students of the Manuel de Salas Lyceum and militants of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), the site Londres 38 reported this Friday.

The convicted, all DINA agents, are César Manríquez Bravo (former Army General and head of the DINA Metropolitan Brigade), José Yévenes Vergara (former Carabineros corporal), Osvaldo Pulgar Gallardo (former Carabineros non-commissioned officer), Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko (former Army Brigadier and head of the Halcón Group), Pedro Espinoza Bravo (former Army Brigadier and second-in-command of the DINA), and Raúl Iturriaga Neumann (former Army General and deputy director of DINA Intelligence).

They requested partial prescription

At the hearing held on March 9, while the defense for Krassnoff Martchenko urged that the partial prescription (Art. 103 of the Penal Code) be applied to him, the rest of the five convicted sought to obtain their acquittals through the invalidation of the ruling of the Court of Appeals that increased the sentences imposed by Minister Leopoldo Llanos Sagristá in the first instance.

However, the appeals were rejected, some of them due to insurmountable inconsistencies that prevented even analysis by the Court. Regarding the allegation of Art. 103 of the Penal Code, the jurisprudence that considers this an inapplicable precept for crimes against humanity was confirmed.

Thus, the sentences imposed remained as follows: Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, José Yévenes Vergara, César Manríquez Bravo, and Osvaldo Pulgar Gallardo, sentenced to fifteen years and one day each as authors of the qualified kidnappings of María Inés Alvarado and Martín Elgueta, while Pedro Espinoza Bravo and Raúl Iturriaga Neumann are sentenced to 13 years as authors of the kidnapping of Martín Elgueta only.

False conference

The conviction of Espinoza and Iturriaga for the disappearance of the latter is due to the fact that his name was included in a list of MIR leaders who were dead, imprisoned, and exiled, delivered at the February 1975 press conference held, under duress, by members of the MIR who remained kidnapped at Villa Grimaldi.

This conference took place in what was then the Diego Portales building and was organized by Espinoza himself. On the list, Martín appears as an exile, when at that date about seven months had passed since his detention and disappearance.

Regarding María Inés Alvarado and Martín Elgueta, the following was held as true:

"María Inés Alvarado Borgel, 21 years old, secretary, MIR militant, was detained on July 15, 1974, by DINA agents on a public street, around 3:00 PM, while walking with her friend Verónica Martínez Ahumada, who managed to flee; not so María Inés Alvarado, who was surrounded by the agents, who proceeded to detain her without any judicial order, being transferred to the DINA facility at Londres 38, a place where she was seen by witnesses.

On July 17, 18, and 25 of the same year, María Inés was taken from the place toward her mother's house and other addresses of her relatives, guarded by plainclothes agents, occasions on which they could see María Inés in terrible physical condition, dejected, unkempt, with her legs and forehead burned.

Subsequently, she was left at the Londres 38 barracks, where she is again seen by witnesses who also remained detained in the place, without having made contact with her relatives again, nor having carried out procedures before State agencies, without registering entries or exits from the country, and without her death being recorded."

Meanwhile, "Martín Elgueta Pinto, 21 years old, commercial engineering student at the University of Chile, MIR militant, was detained on July 15, 1974, by DINA agents at the apartment of Juan Rosendo Chacón (currently a forcibly disappeared detainee), around 7:30 PM, being transferred to the DINA facility at Londres 38, a place where he was seen by witnesses.

From this detention center, he was taken out on July 17 and 25 of the same year; on the first occasion, he was taken to the house of María Cheuquemán, who worked for his family, and on the second occasion to the house of the parents of María Inés Alvarado Borgel, where they were seen by relatives, guarded by plainclothes agents.

Subsequently, he was left at the Londres 38 barracks, where he is again seen by witnesses who also remained detained in the place; later he is seen at the Cuatro Álamos facility, from where his trail is lost.

Through witnesses and other background information, it has been established that he was taken on some occasions to Villa Grimaldi, a detention center where he was interrogated and subjected to physical duress, without having made contact with his relatives again, nor having carried out procedures before State agencies, without registering entries or exits from the country, and without his death being recorded."

Death of the convicted

In the first-instance ruling, issued six years ago, there were eleven convicted, but five of them died in the meantime.

This final stage of processing is the culmination of a long journey that began with the filing of amparo appeals in July 1974, as soon as the kidnappings occurred, continued with reports of alleged disappearance, individual and collective criminal complaints, and requests for the appointment of visiting ministers for groups of victims of which María Inés and Martín were a part.

Despite these and numerous other efforts, the cases of both were transferred to military justice, where they were amnestied shortly before the end of the dictatorship.

Only starting in 1992 could these cases be reopened, adding new testimonies of the victims' passage through the detention centers. But their processing lasted for another 31 years. As these cases were handled separately, their unification was requested, and in that process, it was requested to add to the crime of kidnapping already contemplated, the prosecution for torture, generally not contemplated in cases of forcibly disappeared or executed detainees, despite the existence of numerous records that have demonstrated the systematic practice of torture in these cases and in that of all the people who remained prisoners in detention centers like Londres 38. However, this request was not accepted by Judge Leopoldo Llanos, who was leading the investigation.

Biographies

María Inés Alvarado was born on October 20, 1952, in Santiago, Chile; she studied at the Manuel de Salas Lyceum, from which she graduated in 1970, to then work as a secretary. During the Popular Unity government, she joined the MIR and, after the coup d'état, became linked to the Coordination of the northwestern sector of Santiago of the same movement.

Martín Elgueta Pinto was born on July 1, 1953, in Santiago, Chile; he studied at the La Salle School and the Manuel de Salas Lyceum, where he was part of the Student Center; subsequently, in 1971, he began studying Economics at the University of Chile. He joined the MIR in 1968, while still in high school, and assumed the position of head of the Secondary Brigade of this organization.

During the Popular Unity, he directed the MIR's Political-Military Group 4, a territorial structure that covered the communes of Maipú and Cerrillos and the Villa Francia and José María Caro settlements. After the coup d'état, he became a member of the MIR Central Committee and coordinator of the western zone of Santiago, corresponding to the communes of La Cisterna, Barrancas, and Maipú.

María Inés and Martín had been a couple, and both were detained on July 15, 1974, under different circumstances, to then be taken to Londres 38. In July 1975, their names appeared on the list of the 119, known as Operation Colombo, a setup organized by the DINA, with the support of numerous national and foreign media outlets, intended to cover up the detention and disappearance of 119 people through false information that reported their deaths outside Chile, in clashes with foreign police, or as a result of internal struggles.

Martín Elgueta's name is part of the memorial of the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Chile, in memory of the students and academics disappeared and executed during the civil-military dictatorship.

In addition, Martín and María Inés are remembered in the memorial of the Manuel de Salas Lyceum, along with 13 other former students disappeared or executed from that establishment. Also, students of this lyceum formed the Elgueta Pinto Brigade in 2013, a propaganda group in homage to Martín Elgueta.

Likewise, both are present in the Londres 38 memorial, composed of 98 plaques bearing the names of the people who were executed, made to disappear, or died as a result of torture after having remained prisoners in that facility.

Source: elmostrador.cl, April 15, 2023

Date: 04-15-2023

Santiago Court issues new sentences for six former DINA agents

The justice system established that the six former agents, including Miguel Krassnoff, are responsible for the disappearances of MIR militants María Inés Alvarado Borgel and Martín Elgueta Pinto.

The Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced six former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) to 15 years and one day for four of them, and 13 years and one day for the remaining two, for the qualified kidnapping (forced disappearance) of two people in July 1974.

The justice system established that they are responsible for the disappearances of María Inés Alvarado Borgel and Martín Elgueta Pinto, militants of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), who were last seen alive at the clandestine detention center Londres 38.

The sentence was decreed in a unanimous ruling by the court that determined sentences of 15 years and one day in prison for Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, César Manríquez Bravo, José Yévenes Vergara, and Osvaldo Pulgar Gallardo as authors of the crimes, classified as crimes against humanity.

All of them are currently serving sentences in prison for their participation in human rights violations during the Pinochet dictatorship.

The Justice system also ruled sentences of 13 years and one day for Pedro Espinoza Bravo and Raúl Iturriaga Neumann as authors of the crime of qualified kidnapping of Elgueta Pinto.

Source: theclinic.cl, June 24, 2020

Date: 06-24-2020

Human Rights: Santiago Court issued new sentences against Iturriaga, Krassnoff, and Espinoza

Six former DINA agents are responsible for the qualified kidnapping of María Inés Alvarado and Martín Elgueta, cases related to the Londres 38 barracks.

The Santiago Court of Appeals issued sentences against 6 former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA)—the repressive political police of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship—for their responsibility in the qualified kidnapping of María Inés Alvarado Borgel and Martín Elgueta Pinto.

The victims were detained on July 15, 1974, and were last seen alive at the clandestine detention center on Calle Londres 38, in the heart of the capital.

Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, César Manríquez Bravo, José Yévenes Vergara, and Osvaldo Pulgar Gallardo received sentences of 15 years and 1 day in prison, as authors.

Meanwhile, Pedro Espinoza Bravo and Raúl Iturriaga Neumann "were sentenced to 13 years in prison, as authors of the qualified kidnapping of Elgueta Pinto."

It was a unanimous ruling, in which ministers María Soledad Melo and Jessica González, along with member lawyer Gonzalo Ruz, also acquitted former agent Nelson Paz Bustamante.

"Effectively, the crime in question constitutes a crime against humanity, since qualified kidnappings—termed by International Human Rights Law as 'forced disappearances'—form part of a generalized and systematic attack against a specific group of the civilian population, composed, in this case, by members and adherents of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), a status that the victim held at that time; on the other hand, it is a common requirement to conceive the crime as one against humanity that the authors or accomplices be agents of the State, a status that the accused held at that time," the resolution asserts.

Source: cooperativa.cl, June 24, 2020

Date: 06-24-2020

Former LMS students, victims of the military dictatorship, received posthumous degrees at the University of Chile

Former LMS students, victims of the military dictatorship, received posthumous degrees at the University of Chile.

Last Wednesday, April 11, at the institution's Main House, a symbolic graduation and delivery of professional degrees owed to 100 students of the U. of Chile who were forcibly disappeared and politically executed during the dictatorship took place. Four of them were from Manuel de Salas.

The University of Chile delivered posthumous and symbolic degrees to its students who were forcibly disappeared and politically executed by the civil-military dictatorship commanded by Augusto Pinochet Ugarte.

Relatives of 100 students received their owed degrees this April 11 at the institution's Main House: four of them were former students of the Manuel de Salas Experimental Lyceum.

They are

Martín Elgueta Pinto, forcibly disappeared, who graduated from the Lyceum in 1970, who received the degree of Commercial Engineer; Luis Fernando Fuentes Riquelme, forcibly disappeared, who graduated in 1969, that of State Professor in Biology and Science; Luis Julio Guajardo Zamorano, forcibly disappeared, who graduated in 1968, that of Civil Mechanical Engineer; and Eugenio Robotham Bravo, forcibly disappeared, who graduated in 1968, as a Sociologist.

The highest authority of the University, Rector Ennio Vivaldi, presented the recognitions and addressed each of the relatives and attendees. "The U. of Chile is making a gesture of demonstration of moral autonomy today. The military dictatorship told us they had died, and today we feel entitled to say something else and give them this diploma," he highlighted.

According to the Director of the LMS, "today, the names of the four recognized students, in addition to 11 other forcibly disappeared and politically executed students of the Lyceum, are honored in our Memorial that pays homage to these fighters who dignified us with their sacrifice."

On September 11 of this year, the U. of Chile will distinguish the new names that the investigation yields, and the process will continue until all students who were victims of political violence during the civil-military dictatorship are recognized.

The Memorial

Every morning, at the beginning of the school day, the students of the Manuel de Salas Lyceum enter through the main entrance of the institution and are greeted by a sculpture of two young people made by Sergio Castillo Amunategui, which commemorates the 15 former students disappeared or executed during Pinochet's civil-military dictatorship.

The Memorial was inaugurated in 1991 in the establishment's park, and at the end of 2013, the LMS Alumni Center proposed to the Lyceum's administration to move the sculpture to a more visible place. After the development of a project, the Memorial was repositioned in September 2015 to this daily space of entry to a new day of experiences and learning.

Thus, day by day, students can see and remember the names of our fallen:

María Inés Alvarado Börgel, Jaime Buzio Lorca, Arnoldo Camú Veloso, Luis Alberto Corvalán Castillo, Alejandro de la Barra Villaroel, Martín Elgueta Pinto, Sergio Gabriel Flores Durán, Luis Fernando Fuentes Riquelme, Carlos Enrique Godoy Lagarrigue, Luis Julio Guajardo Zamorano, Jorge Mario Jordán Domic, Hugo Martínez González, Littré Quiroga Carvajal, Jaime Eugenio Robotham Bravo, and Edwin Van Yuric Altamirano.

Source: ims.cl, April 13, 2018