Mario Eduardo Calderón Tapia, single, journalist, former student leader, and militant of the MIR, was detained by the DINA on September 25, 1974, at approximately 09:30 hours on a public street between Bandera and Catedral streets.

That same day, around 20:00 hours, civilians who identified themselves as belonging to the National Intelligence Service raided the property at 89 Dardignac Street, where he was renting a room under the name Víctor Rodríguez.

The civilians informed the owner of the boarding house, Ms. Dolores Galdames Chacón, that he was being held in a location they could not disclose, and that she could obtain news regarding his situation at the SENDET.

After being detained, he was taken to the José Domingo Cañas facility, where he was interrogated and tortured. Subsequently, he was seen at Villa Grimaldi and 4 Alamos, from where he was forcibly disappeared around the second week of November 1974.

Ms. Dolores Galdames, owner of the aforementioned property, stated when interviewed by the Investigative Police—who were executing a search order issued by the respective judicial process—that in the second half of September 1974, two individuals arrived at her house and showed her a laminated document from the Intelligence Service.

They stated that by superior order they had to raid the house, which they effectively did, searching all the rooms. From the room rented by a person she knew as Víctor Rodríguez, they removed all his belongings, consisting of clothing and two or three suitcases, which they took with them. She stated she did not know if Víctor Rodríguez was the same person as Mario Calderón Tapia.

Regarding his time at José Domingo Cañas, testimonies from survivors of DINA detention provide accounts. Ms. Rosalía Amparo Martínez Cereceda stated that she was detained by the DINA on September 23, 1974, and taken to the José Domingo Cañas house, where she noticed the presence of other prisoners, among them one they called "the Black man from Coquimbo" (el Negro de Coquimbo), with the surname Calderón, who was brought into her room for a brief moment.

He worked with Lumi Videla (murdered by the DINA, after which her body was thrown into the Italian Embassy); his detention took place on the street. He was intensely tortured. Agents later recounted that Calderón, during one of the interrogations, had given them a location where he was supposed to meet another person; they had taken him to the contact site, but Calderón had managed to escape, entering a church where he was recaptured and taken back to José Domingo Cañas, where he was tortured again.

It was Lumi Videla herself, who was also detained at that location, who told her that Calderón worked with her. Mr. Edmundo Lebrecht, detained on September 30, 1974, and taken to that facility, stated in his testimony that he had seen and spoken with Mario Calderón Tapia there.

Mr. Cristián Esteban Van Yurick Altamirano, detained by the DINA on July 12, 1974, stated in his testimony that he had been held at Londres 38, Villa Grimaldi, 4 Alamos, and José Domingo Cañas. He was taken to the latter facility from 4 Alamos to be interrogated and tortured. In one of these sessions, he saw Mario Calderón Tapia, who was complaining a great deal.

Other DINA survivors provide accounts of the victim's time at the 4 Alamos facility. Mr. Helios Figuerola Pujol, a Spanish national, indicated in his statement that he was detained on September 24 by DINA agents, who had arrested his mother the day before to force him to turn himself in.

He was taken to a facility he believes may have been Villa Grimaldi, where he was interrogated and tortured. On September 30, he was transferred to 4 Alamos, where he remained until November 20 of that year.

Between October 4 and October 9, 1974, Mario Calderón Tapia arrived at his cell accompanied by two other detainees, named José Jara Castro and Aldo Pérez (both of whom, like the victim, are forcibly disappeared).

Calderón Tapia arrived exhausted; his left eye showed a hematoma and his testicles bore burn marks from the application of electricity. Calderón himself told him that he was detained after a chase by a group of agents led by "Guatón Romo" (Osvaldo Romo Mena) and "Muñeco" between Catedral and Bandera streets, and was immediately taken to José Domingo Cañas, where he was tortured by his captors.

They shared the same cell until the early hours of a day in the second week of November 1974, the date on which he was taken away along with José Jara Castro and Aldo Pérez. For his part, Mr. Raúl Alberto Iturra Muñoz stated in his testimony that he was detained on January 4, 1974, and that after having been at Londres 38, Tejas Verdes, and the San Antonio Prison, he was transferred to 4 Alamos, where he noticed the presence of Mario Eduardo Calderón Tapia.

Finally, Ms. Juana Martínez Torreblanca stated in a sworn affidavit that she was detained on August 20, 1975, along with Susana Calderón Tapia, the victim's sister, and that after passing through several detention centers, they were taken to 3 Alamos, whose incommunicado wing is known as 4 Alamos.

There, Susana Calderón occupied a bunk bed on whose nearby wall there was an inscription that read "the Black man Calderón passed through here," along with a MIR slogan and a date from about three months earlier. Susana Calderón was expelled from the country in November 1975.

Parallel to his detention and imprisonment in DINA facilities, Calderón Tapia was being prosecuted in Valparaíso, along with other MIR militants—some of whom are also forcibly disappeared—in case A637 of the Navy's War Council, following a report by the military chief of the Valparaíso State of Siege Zone.

On March 29, 1976, as a fugitive defendant, the proceedings of the case were suspended until his appearance or apprehension. The other defendants, who like Calderón Tapia are forcibly disappeared, remained in the same situation.

His name appeared on a list of 119 Chileans who had allegedly died abroad at the hands of their own party comrades or in clashes with the Argentine Armed Forces. These lists were published by the magazines LEA in Argentina and O'DIA in Brazil, both of which published only one issue without a responsible editor and whose addresses listed as the printer's imprint turned out to be false.

Regarding this situation, and in relation to the investigation by Minister Bañados into the assassination of Orlando Letelier, statements by Mariana Callejas have reached the press, in which she explains that the case of "the 119" was known as "Operation Colombo" and that her spouse, Michael Townley, received about 100 identity cards belonging to DINA prisoners, which later appeared on those lists.

On October 24, 1983, by virtue of exempt decree N°4393 signed by the Minister of the Interior, Mr. Sergio Onofre Jarpa, he was prohibited from entering national territory, a situation that raised many expectations for the family, but it was ultimately concluded that it was an error.

His mother, Ms. Alicia Tapia López, who in 1979 was president of the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared of Valparaíso, was the target of an attempted homicide on the night of July 9, 1979, by civilians who attempted to run her over three times with a blue car while she was walking along a street in Cerro Barón, Valparaíso, where she resides.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On October 16, 1974, a writ of amparo (habeas corpus) was filed on his behalf before the Santiago Court of Appeals, case file 1268-74, in which reports were requested from the Ministers of the Interior and Defense regarding the whereabouts of the victim, and the responses were negative.

In view of this, and for the sake of better resolution, the Court requested reports from the Chief of the State of Siege Zone and the Commander-in-Chief of the Combat Aviation Command, whose responses were also negative.

The Court then agreed to issue an official letter to the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) to report correctly and directly whether the person in question was or had been detained by that Directorate. On March 4, 1975, the Army Intelligence Directorate replied that that Directorate had not carried out the detention of the person mentioned.

Based on these negative results, on March 11, 1975, the writ of amparo was rejected, and the relevant files were sent to the 3rd Criminal Court to initiate proceedings for the disappearance of the individual.

On March 20, the 3rd Criminal Court of Santiago initiated case file 117.786, issuing an investigation order to the Investigative Service, in which Ms. Dolores Galdames Chacón was interviewed, whose statements have already been presented. Additionally, the SENDET was consulted, where the names of Mario Calderón Tapia and Víctor Rodríguez did not appear registered as detainees.

With this single investigative step, on April 29, 1975, Judge María Antonieta Gutiérrez temporarily dismissed the case on the grounds that the existence of a specific crime had not been proven in the records.

The resolution was confirmed by the Santiago Court of Appeals, despite the fact that there is no record in the process of the witness Dolores Galdames Chacón having appeared to ratify her statements so that the Court could establish that Mario Calderón Tapia and Víctor Rodríguez were the same person.

On May 14, 1975, a complaint of alleged misfortune was filed before the Second Criminal Court of Santiago, case file 83.461, in which the Court was requested to constitute itself at Villa Grimaldi. The Judge rejected this request but ordered the Investigative Police to verify if the victim was being held at that location.

On May 23, 1975, the Investigative Police informed the Court that the indicated place corresponded to facilities of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) and that there were no detainees or prisoners there.

On the other hand, the DINA, in responding to a request from the Court, informed that such information had to be requested from the Ministry of the Interior or the SENDET and that that organization did not possess any information in this regard.

Likewise, that Secretariat of State and the National Executive Secretariat of Detainees (SENDET) reported not having the victim registered as a detainee; and inquiries by the Investigative Police at the Legal Medical Institute yielded no results.

On October 29, 1975, the case was temporarily dismissed on the grounds that the perpetration of a crime in the reported events had not been established in the records, a resolution that was approved by the Santiago Court of Appeals, accepting the opinion of the Court Prosecutor.

The latter, after summarizing all the proceedings, concluded that the mother of the disappeared person could not be provided with evidence regarding the fate of her son; "the Courts are not in a position to provide an answer."

One of the agents who apprehended Mario Calderón Tapia, Osvaldo Romo Mena, was arrested in November 1992 after being expelled from Brazil, the country where he had been residing under the false name of Osvaldo Andrés Henríquez Mena.

His location was the result of a series of measures ordered by the 3rd Criminal Court in the case regarding the disappearance of Alfonso Chanfreau Oyarce. For 17 years, Romo evaded justice; he left the country at the end of 1975 on instructions from the DINA, an institution that also provided him with means such as false identity documents for him and his family.

By December 1992, Romo had testified in several courts and had been charged in 6 cases of forcibly disappeared persons. It is hoped that his statements will help clarify other cases of forcibly disappeared persons, including that of Mario Calderón Tapia.

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity

Operation Colombo was a major intelligence operation and a communication setup by the DINA, which attempted to make 119 people kidnapped in Chile appear as having been killed abroad.

The Second Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court revoked the sentence that had acquitted more than 60 former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) and convicted them as responsible for the disappearance of 16 left-wing militants, mostly from the MIR, in the process known as Operation Colombo, which in this case was perpetrated between June 17, 1974, and January 6, 1975, during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

The ruling was issued by ministers Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, María Teresa Letelier, and Diego Simpertigue. They revoked the sentence issued by the Court of Appeals and sentenced former DINA chiefs and officers César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff, and Raúl Iturriaga Neumann to 15 years and one day of major imprisonment in its maximum degree as authors of the crimes of qualified kidnapping of the victims.

Similarly, the court sentenced 53 former agents to an effective penalty of 10 years and one day of major imprisonment in its medium degree as authors of the same crime, who had previously been acquitted by the capital's appellate court, despite having been convicted in the first instance as accomplices and authors.

Furthermore, this time all must enter prison, with some of them already in prison for other crimes against humanity.

These are former DINA agents Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Manuel Andrés Carevic, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, Jose Abel Aravena Ruiz, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, Nelson Aquiles Ortiz Vignolo, Rudeslindo Urrutia Jorquera, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Manuel Heriberto Avendaño Gonzalez, Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte, Alejandro Francisco Astudillo Adonis, Daniel Alberto Galaz Orellana, Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, Leoncio Enrique Velásquez Guala, José Enrique Fuentes Torres, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, Luis René Torres Méndez, Rodolfo Valentino Concha Rodríguez, Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar, Hugo Del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Manuel Rivas Diaz, Daniel Valentín Cancino Varas, Juan Evangelista Duarte Gallegos, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Jorge Antonio Lepileo Barrios, Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza, Pedro Ariel Aravena Aravena, Carlos Alfonso Sáez Sanhueza, Juan Carlos Villanueva Alvear, Alfredo Orlando Moya Tejeda, Rafael De Jesús Riveros Frost, Silvio Antonio Concha González, Luis Fernando Espinace Contreras, Hernán Patricio Valenzuela Salas, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, Sylvia Teresa Oyarce Pinto, Osvaldo Pulgar Gallardo, José Avelino Yévenes Vergara, Olegario Enrique González Moreno, Werner Zanghellini, Hector Flores Vergara.

Jaime Alfonso Fernández Garrido received a sentence of 5 years and one day of major imprisonment in its minimum degree as author of the crime of qualified kidnapping of Ida Vera Almarza. Meanwhile, Samuel Fuenzalida Devia was sentenced to 541 days and one day for the same crime, but will not serve time in prison.

This is an extensive process that had its first instance sentence in 2017 at the hands of minister Hernán Crisosto Greisse. In the course of the investigation, some agents have died, such as Basclay Zapata, Ciro Torré, Manzo Duran, Ricardo Lawrence, among others.

For Nelson Caucoto, the plaintiff lawyer representing 13 of the 16 victims, this is "a transcendent ruling in Chilean judicial history, since the Supreme Court has restored the sense of justice for crimes of this nature, which had been left in a literally unacceptable situation of impunity.

The highest court has once again rejected the partial statute of limitations and the appeals of the defense of the convicted, and has accepted the appeals of the plaintiffs," he noted.

Caucoto adds that "it is a modern ruling based on international law and domestic legislation. It is undoubtedly the case that justice operates here as a healing process for so many relatives of victims who still survive, and it is a pity that others did not live to see this end."

Operation Colombo was a major intelligence operation and a communication setup by the DINA, which attempted to make 119 people kidnapped in Chile by the DINA appear as having been killed abroad, claiming they had perished after fighting among themselves.

This process investigated the fate of 16 of those 119 victims. They are Francisco Aedo Carrasco, Jorge Elías Andrónicos Antequera, Juan Carlos Andrónicos Antequera, Jaime Buzio Lorca, Mario Calderón Tapia, Cecilia Castro Salvadores, Rodolfo Espejo Gómez, Agustín Fioraso Chau, Gregorio Gaete Farías, Mauricio Jorquera Encina, Isidro Pizarro Meniconi, Marcos Quiñones Lembach, Sergio Reyes Navarrete, Ida Vera Almarza, Juan Carlos Rodríguez Araya, and Jilberto Urbina Pizarro.

Source: radio.uchile.cl, March 3, 2023

Date: 03-03-2023

Mario Calderón Tapia: Biography of a revolutionary journalist

On Thursday, April 7, the book "Un Mundo que Cambiar. Biografía de Mario Calderón Tapia" ("A World to Change. Biography of Mario Calderón Tapia"), written by his sister Aminie Calderón Tapia, was launched in the Félix Morales Hall at the Universidad de Playa Ancha (UPLA) in Valparaíso.

By Guillermo Correa Camiroaga, from Valparaíso In a hall packed with people—where different generations of the rebellious young men and women of yesterday mingled with the young journalism students of today—an emotional event took place where Popular Historical Memory intertwined with the Ethical Commitment of the Journalism program, read aloud by the students who entered this important profession this year at UPLA in Valparaíso.

This ceremony was divided into three parts. In the first, academics and authorities of the Journalism program welcomed the new students, expressing, among other things, that: "Journalism differs from history because, as journalists, we work with a past that we can still call the present (...) life is woven by creating ties between the present, the past, and also the future; hence the importance of memory to understand the present and dream of the future (...) that is why today this makes so much sense.

We have, on one hand, a new generation of future journalists full of energy, projects, dreams, and hopes; they also have doubts, insecurities, and fears, and today they are going to seal an Ethical Commitment to the values that animate our profession (...) Today we also remember our history, full of the dreams of other youths (...) The history of Mario Calderón is knotted with the present of those of us who are practicing this profession today and those who have entered to become professionals (...) We thus unite both moments today: the welcome for the class of 2022 and the launch of Aminie Calderón's book about her brother. Two stitches of the same thread, two strokes of time that come together on the same line of meaning..." "This moment we are living now will remain recorded in our memory, because we are remembering Mario Calderón, a young man who, like the young people here, fought for his dreams. He arrived at this institution when it was the Valparaíso branch of the Universidad de Chile to study journalism, like many of you (...) He, as his mother used to say, was always able to observe social reality and became concerned, wanting to stop being just an observer in order to communicate it with a purpose. Today we are remembering him, and he has been present in the hearts of so many journalists and those who knew him; we have given him a place in our institution where our institutional character is combined with our training spaces, in the Audiovisual Area. There is a plaque and a photo of him there (...)" Subsequently, in the second part of this event, the actual book launch took place, moderated by Danilo Ahumada, National President of the Colegio de Periodistas de Chile, with panelists Aminie Calderón Tapia, the author of the book; Adolfo Tannenbaum, a friend of Mario Calderón Tapia; and Marcelo Bertrand, editor of "Mundo de Papel Ediciones." During the introduction to this section, Danilo Ahumada stated: "For us, it was very important to be able to meet in this space, in person, because the last in-person activity we had was on October 18, 2019, when we precisely inaugurated, in the place where faculty and UPLATV coexist, the 'Mario Calderón Tapia Collaborative Workspace.' Then came the social revolt, the pandemic, and today we meet again with memory, but with resistant memory. It is no coincidence, this gesture of being able to bring together these generations that are represented here today by comrades who fought in those difficult times, but which becomes alive and present with the struggles we have today. That is why it is so significant that we can be gathered here today (...) As President of the Colegio de Periodistas de Chile, I have had to lead a process that is not just from today, but comes from before, with the struggle of comrades for freedom of expression, with the comrades who have resisted labor precariousness, who have fought to advance toward the right to communication, so that we have more media outlets, against the concentration of media that has built a single, hegemonic discourse that has done so much damage to Chilean society (...) As a professor, I also became linked to the history of Mario Calderón through the exercise of memory. Just like him, I followed the path of leadership in the student federation, and therefore, personally, he is a comrade who represents me, and that is why I am honored to be in this space (...) Therefore, reflecting on the book 'Un Mundo que Cambiar. La Biografía de Mario Calderón Tapia,' written by his sister Aminie, is not a petrified return to that past; it is an exercise in motion that mobilizes memories and allows us to situate ourselves in this present of enormous transformations and a future that will be the result of the commitment we apply daily. It is also to resignify and bring to life those experiences lived by our comrade Mario 'Negro' Calderón, a journalist, forcibly disappeared in the midst of the civil-military dictatorship..." Danilo immediately gave the floor to Aminie, sister of Mario Calderón Tapia and author of the book, who gave an extensive presentation regarding its content, in part of which she expressed the following: "It is very striking and of great importance to me that it is in this place where we have gathered around his memory, where he finished his journalism degree in 1971, to return in 1972 as an assistant professor for journalism, advertising, and propaganda courses. Mario came from our family, which was deeply committed to the social struggle of the country that was emerging in Valparaíso. Our grandmother, María Castro Astudillo, was an anarchist leader who fought for the right to vote in the thirties. She was also a union leader and participated in the founding of the Partido Socialista in Valparaíso. Later, her son became a great union fighter for health workers. My father became President of the FENAT in the fifties and led his colleagues in the great strike of 1955, a reason that earned him four months of imprisonment in the Valparaíso jail (...) In 1959, Mario, urged by our father, joined the Christian Democratic youth of the time. Father and son were attracted by the 'revolution in liberty.' Soon, young Mario assumed leadership positions in this organization. The word 'revolution' began to have meaning for his mere 16 years (...) at that time, he began his incorporation into the first student struggles, where he stood out for his personal characteristics and his leadership status (...) in '61 he entered the Law program, where he stood out for his leadership attitude, and that was how in October of '63, at the age of 19, he was elected President of the FECH Valparaíso (...) In 1967, after a trip to Cuba, where he saw a true revolution, Mario participated in the Regional Congress of that year for the founding of the MIR (Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria) in Valparaíso. As a founding member, he joined the leadership of that organization. In '67, he entered the School of Journalism of the then-Pedagógico. During his time at the School, he worked at night to pay for his studies and to support the family we formed together with our mother. During his four years of study, he joined the student struggles, cooperating in the Worker-Student Committees. In '69, he participated in the struggles for the University Reform and in the occupations of university premises, being a leader of the Strike Command and participating in the Communications Brigade, working with the unions of Valparaíso. In 1970, he participated in the Reform Convention of the School of Journalism. The year of his graduation, 1971, he was a member of the Drafting Commission for the Foundations of the Program. All of that was accompanied by his political choice. It should be noted that my brother did not only stand out in his life as a student and worker, but what was most important in my eyes was his human quality, as an affectionate brother and son who showed special concern for our family (...) Charismatic and with a wide smile, he was appreciated even by his political opponents (...) Endowed with generosity and material detachment, along with his consistency, the most fundamental value that later led him to risk his life for the values he defended. He belonged to the sixties generation, a disruptive and rebellious one that would later be the target of the dictatorship's repressive apparatuses (...) The civil-military dictatorship directed its repression toward an important sector of the Chilean population deemed 'anti-patriots and internal enemies.' It was not an isolated process, but an institutional framework stemming from the State with the systematic and permanent practice of persecution, torture, and murder. Although Mario was sought by the repressive forces of the dictatorship in Valparaíso, he managed to escape to Santiago, where he continued his struggle until he was kidnapped and forcibly disappeared under the direct orders of Miguel Krassnoff and his Halcón Brigade. Today, he is part of the list of the 119 forcibly disappeared under the so-called Operation Colombo. Operation Colombo was a perverse plan, extracted from the manuals of the School of the Americas. It was the preamble to the coordination of the Security Services, whose objective was to make people believe that the 119 people detained in the dungeons, desperately sought by their families, had eliminated each other in a struggle abroad. A crude and false lie that did not take long to be unmasked by international media. In this specific case, the journalists and media outlets that were addicted to the regime showed their lack of ethics, their obsequiousness, and their complicity with the bloodthirsty dictatorship. I come today to meet young people who aspire to be journalists and who commit to being worthy of their profession, conscious of the responsibility of their role as communicators, who must respect the inalienable right of the citizenry to have broad and truthful information. We must be vigilant, because in our country, the status of journalist was darkened by those who, without pity or shame, collaborated in the setups intended to cover up the murders of the dictatorship, failing the ethics of their profession, as was demonstrated in the trial of the Colegio de Periodistas in 2005, following Operation Colombo, in the case of the 119 forcibly disappeared. 31 journalists were cruelly murdered during the dictatorship. They died for freedom, as they were tenacious opponents of the de facto regime. Reviewing their professional and political performance, knowing their young lives, we see that they leave an example to follow. Mario remained clandestine for a year in Santiago until he was detained on September 25, 1974, at the corner of Catedral and Bandera streets, at nine-thirty in the morning, being horribly tortured, and subsequently murdered. We do not know in what remote place of this country they hid his body. We have searched for him incessantly (...) His name will now be engraved in the metal that will preserve his memory as a symbol of the era of student struggles waged to achieve a democratic university at that time, a period in which Mario played a preponderant role in this Faculty. We need light to illuminate the path of the new generations who will persevere in his struggle toward a just and egalitarian world for which Mario also fought. They tried to sink his dignity, his joy for living, to abolish his ideas; however, his memory has managed to overcome time and horror, and we find it on the path of Historical Memory, flying over the open fields of hope to reach a just and egalitarian society. They did not destroy him. The proof of this is that we are gathered around his memory. He gives us history, the insubordinate, the rebellious, the one written by the peoples who fight for their freedom and social justice." At the end of this second part of the ceremony, María Teresa Aguilera, a colleague and friend of Aminie, presented a bouquet of flowers on behalf of friends and comrades from past and present generations, as a recognition of the tireless and important task of rescuing popular Historical Memory carried out by our comrade Aminie, work that she has captured so far in three books: "Éramos Liceanas en Septiembre del 73" ("We Were High School Girls in September of '73"), "Guerrilleros de la Nueva Aurora" ("Guerrillas of the New Dawn"), and "Un Mundo que Cambiar. Biografía de Mario Calderón Tapia." Popular art was not absent from this activity, and the songs "El Aparecido" by Víctor Jara and "El Necio" by Silvio Rodríguez filled the Aula Magna of the Universidad de Playa Ancha with melody and content. The third and final part of this ceremony took place in the Audiovisual Area of the Journalism program, where the Memory Plaque was re-inaugurated. It had been installed on October 18, 2019, in an act in homage to Mario Calderón Tapia, precisely the day the rebellion of millions of Chileans across the length and breadth of the national territory erupted with the fury of a volcano. With the dignity of a people fighting decisively to break the chains of abuse, inequality, and oppression, they put the government of Sebastián Piñera and the neoliberal institutional framework in check—a popular rebellion that fierce state repression, with its murdered, imprisoned, tortured, and eye-mutilated victims, could not contain, but which was indeed dismantled by the "Agreement for Peace and the New Constitution," along with the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic in our country. Upon unveiling the Memory Plaque, Aminie stated that: "Mario will be remembered as a leader, as a worker, as a militant, as a popular fighter, but he is my brother, and there is great emotion present in me at these moments. In any case, I want to reiterate that despite the emotions that memories provoke in us, one cannot build a future without rescuing our memory."

Source: resumen.cl 10/4/2022

Date: 04-10-2022

"Operation Colombo" ruling is a shameful mockery for the families (excerpt)

Aminie, upon sending the photograph that titles this note, stated:

"This photo causes me a lot of emotion, because it acquires a new and great dimension. That photo was taken on Cerro Barón in July 1973. Mario was going to a meeting and I was with some friends; I was about 15 years old, so I called Mario and he came down the stairs located in the center of the neighborhood, so I said to him, 'Mario, let's take a photo for posterity.' Imagine, happily I have that photo, because there is no other photo besides when I was little, and this was a month and a half before the coup..." One of the most abominable characteristics of the post-dictatorial period has been impunity regarding Human Rights. This has its origin in the approach of the "justice to the extent possible" doctrine advocated by civilian governments and the multiple attempts deployed to establish a "point final" (final point), which, thanks to the tenacious struggle of the families of victims of repression and Human Rights organizations, has been prevented. Today, 47 years after the coup d'état, this is dramatically illustrated by the thousand forcibly disappeared persons whose bodies have not been found by their families, to which is added the long passage of years to reach some convictions that, due to the exaggerated time elapsed, represent a form of impunity. Many of these family members have passed away without having known the fate and whereabouts of the forcibly disappeared, nor being present to witness the determinations of justice in cases where insignificant sentences are obtained, which have nothing to do with the atrocity of the crimes committed. What has happened with the recent Operation Colombo ruling is an aberrant and clear demonstration of this impunity, since 45 years after the events occurred—which in itself constitutes impunity due to the lateness of the resolution—the Santiago Court of Appeals dismissed the first-instance convictions handed down by Judge Crisosto, reducing them in a shameful manner. Aminie Calderón Tapia, sister of Mario Calderón Tapia, one of the 16 cases included in this lawsuit, exposes the following in a Public Letter titled "The Mockery": (excerpt)

Source: elporteño.cl 12/2/2020

Date: 12-02-2020

Chile – 106 DINA agents convicted for 16 victims of "Operation Colombo."

The visiting judge of the Santiago Court of Appeals for Human Rights cases, Hernán Crisosto Greisse, convicted 106 agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the aggravated kidnappings of Francisco Aedo Carrasco, Juan Andrónicos Antequera, Jorge Andrónicos Antequera, Jaime Buzio Lorca, Mario Eduardo Calderón Tapia, Cecilia Castro Salvadores, Juan Carlos Rodríguez Araya, Rodolfo Espejo Gómez, Agustín Fiorasso Chau, Gregorio Gaete Farías, Mauricio Jorquera Encina, Isidro Pizarro Meniconi, Marcos Quiñones Lembach, Sergio Reyes Navarrete, Jilberto Urbina Chamorro, and Ida Vera Almarza, victims of the disinformation maneuvers abroad known as "Operation Colombo." The magistrate sentenced former army officers César Raúl Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann, and Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko to 20 years in prison for their responsibility as authors of the aggravated kidnappings of the 16 victims. Meanwhile, former officers Gerardo Ernesto Urrich González, Sergio Hernán Castillo González, Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, and Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos (Army); Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, Ciro Ernesto Torre Sáez, and Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán (Carabineros); José Orlando Gonzalo Manzo Durán (Gendarmerie); and agents Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca, Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, José Abel Aravena Ruiz, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, Nelson Aquiles Ortiz Vignolo, Rudeslindo Urrutia Jorquera, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Gerardo Meza Acuña, Manuel Heriberto Avendaño González, José Nelson Fuentealba Saldías, Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte, Alejandro Francisco Astudillo Adonis, Demóstenes Eugenio Cárdenas Saavedra, Daniel Alberto Galaz Orellana, Leoncio Enrique Velásquez Guala, Teresa del Carmen Osorio Navarro, José Enrique Fuentes Torres, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Hiro Alvarez Vega, Gustavo Galvarino Caruman Soto, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, Luis René Torres Méndez, Rodolfo Valentino Concha Rodríguez, Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar, Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Juan Ángel Urbina Cáceres, Manuel de la Cruz Rivas Díaz, Risiere del Prado Altez España, Daniel Valentín Cancino Varas, Juan Evaristo Duarte Gallegos, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Guido Arnoldo Jara Brevis, Leonidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Jorge Antonio Lepileo Barrios, Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza, Pedro Ariel Aravena Aravena, Carlos Alfonso Sáez Sanhueza, Juan Carlos Villanueva Alvear, Alfredo Orlando Moya Tejeda, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, Silvio Antonio Concha González, Luis Fernando Espinace Contreras, Hernán Patricio Valenzuela Salas, Luis Rigoberto Videla Inzunza, Sylvia Teresa Oyarce Pinto, Osvaldo Enrique Pulgar Gallardo, José Avelino Yévenes Vergara, and Olegario Enrique González Moreno were sentenced to 13 years in prison for their responsibility as authors. Agents Werner Enrique Zanghellini Martínez and Héctor Alfredo Flores Vergara must serve a sentence of 10 years and one day in prison as authors. Agents Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo and Jaime Alfonso Fernández Garrido were sentenced to 6 years in prison for their responsibility as authors. Meanwhile, agent Samuel Enrique Fuenzalida Devia was sanctioned with 541 days in prison for his responsibility as an author. Convicted as accomplices with a sentence of 5 years and one day in prison were agents: José Jaime Mora Diocares, Armando Segundo Cofre Correa, Moisés Paulino Campos Figueroa, Oscar Belarmino La Flor Flores, Sergio Iván Díaz Lara, Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel, Jaime Humberto Paris Ramos, Jorge Laureano Sagardia Monje, José Stalin Muñoz Leal, Víctor Manuel de la Cruz San Martín Jiménez, Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, Camilo Torres Negrier, Manuel Antonio Montre Méndez, Sergio Hernán Castro Andrade, Nelson Eduardo Iturriaga Cortes, Carlos Justo Bermúdez Méndez, Fernando Adrián Roa Montaña, Reinaldo Alfonso Concha Orellana, Osvaldo Octavio Castillo Arellano, Gustavo Humberto Apablaza Meneses, Hugo Hernán Clavería Leiva, Juan Carlos Escobar Valenzuela, Carlos Enrique Miranda Mesa, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, Juan Ignacio Suárez Delgado, Raúl Alberto Soto Pérez, José Dorohi Hormazábal Rodríguez, Rufino Espinoza Espinoza, Héctor Carlos Díaz Cabezas, Jorge Segundo Madariaga Acevedo, and Miguel Ángel Yáñez Ugalde. Also as accomplices, with the same degree of participation, agents Jorge Luis Venegas Silva, Edinson Antonio Fernández Sanhueza, and Pedro Mora Villanueva were sentenced to 3 years and one day in prison, with the benefit of supervised release. A total of 13 agents were acquitted of the charges against them. In accordance with the provisions of Article 692 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, regarding Jorge Laureano Sagardía Monje, Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza, and Víctor Manuel De la Cruz San Martín Jiménez, the serving of the sentence was suspended, in another display of what is known as "biological impunity," and they must, in due course, be handed over to the custody of a family member who must propose their defense. The facts According to the investigation by Judge Hernán Crisosto, the 16 victims—militants of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionario (MIR) and the Partido Socialista—were detained by agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) between June 17, 1974, and January 6, 1975, in different communes of the Metropolitan region such as Santiago, Providencia, La Reina, and Ñuñoa, and taken to the detention centers of Londres 38, José Domingo Cañas, Tres y Cuatro Álamos, and Villa Grimaldi, the last places where they were seen alive. Their names appeared on two lists published on June 25, 1975, in the magazine Novo O’Dia of Curitiba, Brazil, and on July 15, 1975, in the magazine Lea of Buenos Aires, Argentina, which registered unique editions in disinformation maneuvers executed abroad by the DINA. The Francisco Aedo and others episode is the last of the proceedings in the series of cases of victims of the so-called "Operation Colombo," which Judge Hernán Crisosto instructed, and in which a first-instance sentence is handed down.

Source: werkwnrojo.cl 6/4/2017

Date: 06-04-2017

Homage to journalists forcibly disappeared and murdered during the military dictatorship

The following statement from the Latin American College of Journalists (COLAPER) remembers the information professionals who were victims of political violence in Chile during 17 years.

Today, September 11, 2013, marks 40 years since the coup d'état perpetrated by Augusto Pinochet against the democratic regime established at the ballot box and against the Popular Unity government, presided over by Salvador Allende.

With this, a military regime was established that took power through violence and antidemocratic methods. The Latin American College of Journalists rejects them in their entirety.

This event altered the entire recent history of Chile, transforming it to its deepest roots: it meant a radical change in the conception of politics, the economy, culture, and freedoms. During the coup and the subsequent years of military dictatorship, human rights were violated with death and torture.

Journalism and journalists were not left on the sidelines of these events. Freedom of expression was reduced to its minimum manifestation, with the establishment of prior censorship that forcefully limited the possibilities for communicators to transmit the internal reality of Chile, as well as that of the exterior, to the audience to whom they are accountable.

On a date as significant as today, September 11, 2013, the representation of the Latin American College of Journalists (COLAPER) in Chile wishes to pay tribute to the journalists who died during the days of the coup d'état and throughout the entire dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet over the following nearly 17 years.

Likewise, COLAPER wishes to pay tribute to all those who suffered torture, reprisals, were threatened, or were in any way limited in the exercise of the freedom of information and expression throughout those years. Their names do not appear in this letter, but the recognition of the Latin American College of Journalists is also for them.

Santiago de Chile, September 11, 2013,

Signed, Juan Delgado Celis, President of the Latin American College of Journalists (COLAPER); Claudia Castro Quintas, General Secretary of Human Rights of COLAPER; Roberto Vilches, representative of COLAPER (Chile); Guido Cengiarotti Aumatell, President of the Latin American Journalists Network.

List of journalists forcibly disappeared and murdered during the dictatorship. Source: Morir es la Noticia

1.- Diana Arón Svigiliski. Journalist, graduate of the Universidad Católica. Forcibly disappeared, arrested in Santiago, November 18, 1974.

2.- Carlos Bascuñán Mourgues-Dewet. Journalist, Universidad de Concepción. His remains were found in the mountains, 225 km south of Copiapó, on November 5, 1973.

3.- Carlos Berger Guralnik. Journalist by choice. Qualified lawyer from the Universidad de Chile. On October 19, 1973, executed by firing squad on the outskirts of Calama.

4.- Juan Manuel Bertoló Rivas. Self-taught journalist, reporter for the newspaper El Mercurio. He was detained on February 10, 1990, by the Carabineros; his death remains unclarified.

5.- Mario Eduardo Calderón Tapia. Journalist, graduated from the Universidad de Chile in Valparaíso in 1971. Forcibly disappeared, arrested in Santiago on September 25, 1974.

6.- Augusto Carmona Acevedo. Journalism graduate from the Universidad de Chile. Detained December 7, 1977, at Calle Barcelona No. 2524, San Miguel.

7.- José Humberto Carrasco Tapia. Journalist, Universidad de Chile. On September 8, 1986, he was riddled with bullets at the Parque del Recuerdo cemetery.

8.- Daniel Antonio Castro López. Correspondent for the newspaper Clarín in Temuco. October 10/11, 1975. Detained in Liquiñe along with 14 people; they were killed in the Toltén River.

9.- Sergio Contreras. Radio and PR journalist. Detained at La Moneda on September 11, 1973.

10.- Luis Eduardo Durán Rivas. Journalist from the U. de Chile. Forcibly disappeared, arrested in Santiago on September 14, 1974.

11.- Guillermo Gálvez Rivadeneira. Reporter (ORBE agency) up to director of a media outlet (magazine Hechos Mundiales). Forcibly disappeared, kidnapped on July 28, 1976.

12.- Máximo Antonio Gedda Ortiz. TV director, journalist. Forcibly disappeared, arrested on a bus in Santiago on July 16, 1974.

13.- Leonardo Henrichsen. Cameraman, correspondent for Swedish television and Canal 13 of Buenos Aires. Santiago. Assassinated on June 29, 1973, while reporting on the military uprising of the 2nd Armored Regiment, known as "El Tanquetazo," which was suppressed by General Carlos Prats González.

14.- Charles Edmund Horman Lazar. Graduate of Harvard University, journalist and screenwriter. Detained on September 17, 1973. Executed on September 18, 1975, at the Estadio Nacional.

15.- Ricardo Cristian Montecinos Slaughter. Freelance photographer and filmmaker, Chilean-American and resident of the United States. Santiago, October 17, 1975. Kidnapped from his apartment and executed by firing squad that same night in the Lo Prado tunnel.

16.- Archibaldo Morales Villanueva. Self-taught journalist and announcer. Disappeared on November 5, 1973.

17.- Augusto Olivares Becerra. Editor, columnist, and radio and television commentator. La Moneda, September 11, 1973.

18.- José Leonardo Pérez Hermosilla. Opinion piece writer. Forcibly disappeared, he was arrested on January 5, 1974, in Santiago and probably murdered at Tejas Verdes in February of that year.

19.- José Miguel Rivas Rachitoff. Self-taught journalist. Forcibly disappeared, arrested on January 3, 1974, in Santiago.

20.- José Tohá González. Editorialist and political leader. Santiago, March 15, 1974. Died in captivity at the Military School.

21.- Ernesto Traubmann Riegelhaupt. Correspondent, radio operator. Detained in the early hours of September 12, 1973; his trail was lost at the Ministry of Defense.

22.- Ricardo Troncoso León. Journalist, photographer, playwright, director, and theater actor. Forcibly disappeared, he was arrested at his home in Chillán on October 1, 1973.

23.- Jorge Bernabé Yáñez Olave. Journalist and poet. Forcibly disappeared, he was arrested on September 16, 1973, on the road from Chanco to Cauquenes.

Journalism students murdered and disappeared.

Luis Eduardo Alaniz, Jaime Aldoney, Juan Elías Espinoza, Arcadia Flores, Rodolfo Jacinto Fuenzalida, Jorge Eduardo Jara, Nenhad Teodorovic Sertic.

Source: puroperiodismo.cl 9/11/2013

Date: 09-11-2013

A World to Change. Biography of Mario Calderón Tapia (book)

Launch of the book "A World to Change. Biography of Mario Calderón Tapia" by author Aminie Calderón Tapia. Aminie is the sister of journalist Mario Eduardo Calderón Tapia, forcibly disappeared since September 25, 1974.

Aminie is the co-author of the book "We Were High School Girls in September of '73" (2011). The work was awarded in 2012 by the National Council of Books and Reading in the Memory Writings contest, recognized as a great contribution to the collective and historical memory of our country.

In 2018, she published the book "Guerrillas of the New Dawn," the first novel by Aminie Calderón Tapia, a work that contributes to rescuing the memory of those who fought in the resistance against the dictatorship in Chile.

"A World to Change. Biography of Mario Calderón Tapia" is her latest book, with which she continues the recovery of historical memory.

Panelists

Ricardo Frödden Adolfo Tannembaun Marcelo Beltrand

Author bio

Aminie Calderón Tapia (Valparaíso, 1956). She studied at the Ramón Barros Luco School and at the No. 1 Girls' High School and the Eduardo de la Barra High School in Valparaíso. As a militant of the Revolutionary Student Front – Movement of the Revolutionary Left (FER-MIR) in the 70s, she had active participation in the student struggle during the time of President Allende's government.

In 1976, she was expelled from the country.

Source: parquecultural.cl 9/9/2022

President Boric and Minister Vallejo unveil plaque in recognition of journalists and communications workers murdered during the dictatorship

Within the framework of Journalist's Day, the authorities led the commemorative ceremony at La Moneda together with relatives of communicators and human rights groups.

This Tuesday, July 11, on Journalist's Day in Chile, the President of the Republic, Gabriel Boric; the Minister Secretary General of Government, Camila Vallejo; the Minister of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage, Jaime de Aguirre, together with relatives and human rights groups, participated in an act of memory and reparation in commemoration of journalists and communications workers murdered during the dictatorship.

50 years after the coup d'état and from La Moneda, the tribute act was held, which included the unveiling of a commemorative plaque with the names of the murdered communicators. In addition, the Journalists' Association of Chile was greeted, which celebrates 67 years of history after having been created by law in 1956.

"We have invited you to commemorate Journalist's Day to build, collectively, an instance of solemn tribute, memory, and reparation, dedicated especially on this occasion to those men and women, journalists and communicators who, fighting for noble causes in which they believed, gave their lives for the defense of the right to think differently, to express themselves, to communicate, and to inform," stated Minister Vallejo.

She added: "Starting today, in an act of profound justice with the historical, political, and social memory of our country, the names of these communicators will be stamped in this Government Palace, outside the La Moneda Journalists' Association Hall.

Today in this Palace, they are remembered, they are paid tribute, and their names are written so that the history of our country knows their identities, their lives, and their struggles, so that this sad, raw, and brutal history is never repeated again."

Memory, justice, and reparation

Ana María Arón, sister of Diana Arón, a journalist 7 months pregnant who was detained and forcibly disappeared in 1974, pointed out during the ceremony that "because we received wounds, we have to tell others about the suffering we lived through.

It is not enough for me to repair myself alone. I need others to know what I suffered, not what our relatives who are no longer here suffered, but what we suffered in this incessant, impotent search, receiving absurd answers.

We are guardians of the memory, and we must remember to be able to heal, remember to tell others, remember so that our dead women and our dead men can be at peace, and we can be too," concluded Ana María.

Also present at the event were the Undersecretary of Segegob, Nicole Cardoch; the Undersecretary of Human Rights, Xavier Altamirano; the director of the Museum of Memory, María Fernanda García; the National Journalism Award winners Faride Zerán, Sergio Campos, and Mónica González; as well as representatives of CNTV, Anatel, Archi, and the Memory network.

According to the Report of the National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture, there were nearly 230 cases of journalists who suffered political imprisonment; to these must be added 70 more cases of people who did not have the profession but were directly linked to the activity.

According to figures from the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, there were 37 journalists and/or communicators who suffered disappearance or execution:

Luis Alaniz Álvarez; Jaime Aldoney Vargas; Hugo Araya González; Diana Arón Svigilisky; Mario Barrios Gallardo; Carlos Bascuñán Mourgues-Dewet; Carlos Berger Guralnik; Mario Calderón Tapia; Augusto Carmona Acevedo; José Carrasco Tapia; José Carrasco Vásquez; Daniel Castro López; Óscar Castro Videla; Sergio Contreras; Luis Durán Rivas; Juan Espinoza Parra; Arcadia Flores Pérez; Guillermo Gálvez Rivadeneira; Alfonso Gamboa Farías; Máximo Gedda Ortiz; Leonardo Henrichsen; Charles Horman; Eduardo Jara Aravena; Richard Montecinos Slaughter; Archibaldo Morales Villanueva; Jonathan Moyle; Augusto Olivares Becerra; José Pérez Hermosilla; José Rivas Rachitoff; Jaime Sierra Castillo; Nenad Teodorovic Sertic; José Tohá González; Ernesto Traubmann Riegelhaupt; Ricardo Troncoso León; Jane Vanini Capozi; Fernando Vergara Vargas; and Jorge Yáñez Olave.

Source: msgg.gob.cl 11/6/2023

TRIBUTE TO MARIO CALDERÓN TAPIA

MAY 23, 1943–SEPTEMBER 25, 1974

Today is your birthday and we think of you as always, as every year on this date, as every day of our existence. You are in our hearts, in that of your family as well as in that of your friends and comrades.

With them, we would like to share aspects of your life, situations they do not know that will allow them to know you even more—yes, even more, perhaps for those closest to you who shared your daily work in militancy, in your professional life, in short, in your wonderful existence.

But I cannot stop thinking about you, sir. Are you eating peacefully with your family? I suppose so! Because the hand of Chilean justice has allowed you to enjoy these years of your family life, hasn't it?

I imagine that at night you are invaded by the images of those you tormented, and when you wake up, the air in your bedroom breathes the nauseating stench left by the sessions in the torture chambers. Yes, of course I think of you and/or you all, but certainly not in the same way as I do for our Mario.

I tell you why: because today I want to remember a human being, and you are not one. Today, for me, is a day to remember great men, you see? Like Mario.

Mario, you were born on a day in May, the 23rd of the year '43. It seems history wanted you to remain in it; while you were seeing the light in South America, a war was being waged in Europe. At that moment, there were those who fought for freedom; there were great men who gave their lives for dignity.

With your arrival, you made your mother Alicia and your father Mario happy. You were a pampered child and received that love that later made you who you were.

You were a playful and precocious little one. You would climb onto the cupboards to grab the thermometer, you would take apart clocks, and you would play with your little friends, telling them: "You are the Secretary, you are the Treasurer, and I am the President." As if it had been a riddle—years later, in 1963, when you were only twenty years old, you were elected President of the Student Federation of the University of Chile.

You soon learned to read, write, and add; Dad taught you, as he realized you had a great aptitude for learning at only four years old. The time came to enter school. Being an only child, your parents—who were very young and both working—wanted to give you the best education and sent you to the Colegio Agustín Edwards "LA SALLE." The teachers immediately asked to speak with your parents; they proposed "skipping you a grade" because you were advanced.

That is how you graduated from secondary school at only 16 years old. During your 10 years of study, you were awarded; at my mother's house, the medals you "collected" and your diplomas are on the wall, as well as the photos of you as the school flag-bearer, a position coveted by the best student in the school.

With pride, our mother says: ". . . and he earned a place on the school's honor roll. . ." When you had not yet turned 16, in January of '59, you were already interested in attending university for History courses on the civilizations of the Orient.

In 1960, you took the Baccalaureate in Letters at the Catholic University and the University of Chile in Valparaíso. All of this filled the hearts of our parents and the family with pride. You gave them satisfaction because you were a teenager like any other, but very conscious that without studies you would get nowhere.

A stubborn reader, we still possess the classics of the most famous stories that you wanted to have so much at that time, and which many years later you acquired—the A. DUMAS collection. A beautiful collection, bound in a blue cover with gold lettering.

Your !books! were one of your concerns when you had to leave our home to save your life from the henchmen who pursued you with a hatred as if you had murdered their mother. Sometimes I ask myself what cursed poison poisoned their souls, that they were not capable of discerning between good and evil, and that they executed the orders of those who did not want to stain their General's uniform, so the dirty work had to be executed by them.

Your books are another story; they were buried somewhere for five years—those we were able to save that day in September 1973, when they descended with the arrogance that characterized them. I will never forget the face of the Carabineros officer who rummaged through your bedroom, who violated your privacy, who took what he thought was most important, and took away quantities of writings that were only Journalism assignments, diaries, and magazines.

But they did not take your collection of childhood dreams, nor that of Lenin or Marx, or other works. Now they are nothing less than here in Belgium, in a library that my mother has. We know that every time we look at your collection, it is a part of you that emerges from the old pages.

At the same time as your studies, you developed a life of social and political action. You began by militating in the Christian Democratic Youth (JDC). I still don't know why—I think perhaps influenced by my father's own activity, or perhaps because you believed what was being preached at that time in that organization.

You participated actively in the campaign of Mr. Eduardo Frei Montalva; as testimony to this, we possess the thank-you letter he sent you himself from La Moneda for your work in the campaign. But as happened to many, disappointment soon arrived, and the feeling of having been betrayed.

You felt very uncomfortable when you were in Cuba representing an organization of Christian Democratic students and had to answer questions about the situation in Chile. It was February 12, 1967. ". . . how difficult it is to defend a government like FREI's, when it is compared on the very ground of the Cuban revolution. . ." It was the contact with the daily social injustice when, through the streets of Cerro Barón, barefoot, semi-naked little children walked with little pants tied with a string, with snot hanging from their noses, or the massacre at El Salvador. . .

You said to yourself: Enough! We must act in a more radical and concrete way; my ideas are of a deeper and also more honest advancement? I think all of this was what was brewing in the depths of your soul.

I imagine it was not without an internal conflict and deep reflection. Elements of greater complexity surely counted for you to decide to become a revolutionary. Probably your trip to Cuba. . . When I read your diary of that stay on the island, I try to find the very moment in which that break occurred with what had been your path until then.

It is the year 1963, in January; you were designated as the sole delegate for Chile to a Seminar on the Training of Latin American Student Leaders, which was held in Caracas. On that same occasion, you traveled to Lima, Peru, and Panama, where you were able to verify with your own eyes ". . . how American exploitation was carried out, in the Canal Zone, in an inhumane way and unknown to those who do not know up close the military domination of imperialism. . ."

In February 1967, you were invited to visit Cuba in your capacity as former president of the Student Federation. This proof of democratic expression by the government of Cuba touched you deeply. You did not belong to the same line outwardly, but in your brain, you had moved closer to that ideal of a social system that would allow opening the doors of a better world to Chile and South America.

What you saw, what you verified with your own eyes; you see and visit with freedom what you wanted. I remember when you returned, you told us that you had asked to speak with an important leader in Cuba—I think it was like a mayor—and they told you, "Go to such and such a place, he is working." In a sugar cane plantation, there he was, under the oppressive heat with a machete cutting cane.

You didn't have to wait months for him to answer if you could interview that gentleman, and on top of that, he works like all the workers without thinking himself—as we say in the Chilean way—superior. I think all these experiences were reaffirming your desire to belong to an organization that reflected in a more authentic way what you thought our world should be like.

Upon returning, you continued your life as a young man, student, worker, and militant in different student organizations, representing them. Your qualities as a leader manifested themselves wherever you went.

With your charisma, your great smile, your height of one meter eighty-eight, your dark skin, and above all your great friendliness, you made people seek your company. You could enter a shanty as well as the best hotel in Paris, and you produced that attraction around you.

More than your physical appearance, I think you radiated a friendliness that made you shine. I try not to idealize you too much; I know it is normal having lost you in this way, but I believe I am objective. That is how you were, dear brother. You broke hearts, but yours was also broken. From your love life, you left us your son, today already a man.

Our father did not live with us; I did not have him daily at home during my childhood. It was you who assumed that role with great responsibility. When I was little, I saw you as a father, as I had to obey you when you got strict with me, but I always received much affection from you.

I remember your concern and the love you transmitted to me; it is the greatest legacy you have left me. Teaching how to love is one of the most difficult tasks of the human condition, and you gave your heart generously, just as you gave it for a cause and an ideal without expecting to obtain personal wealth.

You were an altruist. You would have been an excellent father. Your son did not have you; he grew up in Argentina and now lives in Germany. You would be proud of him, for with great willpower and courage he has moved forward, and he also has great social sensitivity.

He occupies himself with carrying out aid projects for children without means who are suffering from the crises in their little stomachs in the brother country.

The MIR searches for you

The year 1968 was a year of rebellion: the invasion of Prague, the "May revolution" in France, young people in the streets expressing themselves in several countries of the globe, the effervescence of the word revolution. . .

The MIR made itself known through the actions of a group of young people who wanted to break the social imbalance and longed for deep changes in Chilean society. Founded in 1965, the MIR marked its position of independence from the Soviet Union, which I believe made it stand in a very unpleasant position in the face of the traditional left of our country.

A new organization that is born and acts not without intransigence. Soon they labeled us as extremists, "crazy firefighters," etc., to which we reacted by increasing popular work in the countryside and in the shantytowns to show that we were not, for we did not want to act alone and our task was to be inserted into the class struggles in the very womb of the working class.

Regarding the distancing itself; already in the diary you wrote in Cuba, you stated ". . . each country corresponds to different revolutionary processes. . ."

I don't know exactly at what moment, but I remember being about 10 years old. There is a knock at our door; when I opened it, I held my head very high because two young men were standing there, and one of them, very handsome, wrapped in a poncho and with a big smile and a voice with an affectionate tone, as one speaks to a child, crouched down and asked me: "Is Mario here?

Do you know what time he returns?" I never forgot it; they left a mark on me because they were very special. Years later, in the underground, you confessed to me: "It was Luciano Cruz who came to the house that time." I have also learned something about your encounter with this movement.

They had heard of you, your gifts as a student leader, your charisma, your ideas of revolution when you were still in the JDC, etc. The MIR, which sought to expand, decided to look for you. I understood your paleness that day in the month of August 1971; Luciano died accidentally.

That period with so much conflict, the "specter" of the complicated national political situation. . . little by little, people of your kind became "dangerous" for imperialism. And you had become a man with firm ideas in the purpose of founding one day a single and great unified party of workers.

Meanwhile, you militated in the MIR, where you identified yourself more deeply with its principles and foundations, the impetus of youth whose driving force was the passionate, loyal, and risky militancy of those of us who participated in its ranks.

I remember that from your return from Cuba until the Coup d'État, the years passed quickly. You told me that the important thing was to be on the side of the people and the workers; it didn't matter if you militated in this or that left-wing organization.

When I asked you, just having entered the Lyceum, in which organization I could militate—since I also felt the need to participate in the historical process that was taking place in Chile, and this did not pass by the door of the lyceum but also entered it—I remember we didn't talk anymore until one day, not long after, we met in the middle of a large demonstration in Valparaíso.

You had no idea that I was also in your same ranks. For security reasons, we decided to hide that we were siblings, always trying to protect me as much as possible, but happy that I also embraced your ideas.

At that moment, you told me: "You are no longer just my little sister, but my comrade in struggle." From then on, I was your comrade. I felt that I had grown and that I was becoming a person who could maintain even stronger ties with my brother, for we were united by the same desires for a better world.

You were our wall. I know that life would have separated us anyway, for one day one has children, or wants to live other experiences, and in a society like the one we wanted, the most likely thing is that young people like me at that time would have continued our adolescence and would have become men and women like in any society, performing our daily work with a family life, happy to contribute to a world in which social justice reigned.

But everything was cut short. At 16, my adolescence ended; my home exploded, the firm floor on which I walked crumbled like an earthquake of the strongest kind, and fear invaded our souls. We never thought that a dictatorship could be so sinister and above all. . . how the human condition could be turned into the purest display of bestiality and cannibalism.

People like you save the human condition and make it more limpid, and thanks to the historical role you have played by giving your life for an ideal, you show the young people of today that it is possible to be young and live fully while at the same time feeling deeply involved in society.

Through this tribute, I wanted to tell some little pieces of your life. The young people of today also live through difficult periods of illness, of unemployment, in a world where only the "law of the bill" seems to reign, in a world where one sees imperialism acting with more force than usual.

September 11, the last day in our house.

You went out to make a phone call, you returned saying that the lines were cut. Now it was serious. . . the coup, so warned by our organization, was a tangible reality. You hugged us and walked out along the street that went up toward the hills; we followed you with our eyes until your silhouette was lost.

We know that you walked hidden in the ravines and that there were those who, out of fear, did not let you into their houses to spend the night. You were in one of them, sleeping between the door of a house and the screen door.

Until finally, a couple sheltered you in their humble little shack. "El Panadero" gave you the only bed they had. This gentleman helped you get out of Valpo, disguised as such; he protected you during what they had to walk, willing to give his life for you.

You were able to remain underground in Santiago until one day in September, "Guatón Romo" and his henchmen "grabbed" you at the streets of Catedral and Banderas at 9:30 A.M.

After having pursued you, firing shots, you stopped because you reached a place where children were passing; you thought you would put them in danger. As comrades relate in the different testimonies, you remained in José Domingo Cañas and in Villa Grimaldi; you were savagely tortured, but they got nothing out of you.

One day in November, when you were already in Cuatro Álamos, they came to look for you, along with other comrades. They were given the order to take their clothes, and they never returned. . .

Dear brother; all these years of intense searching, of hope and deeply mocked justice, have not erased your memory from our hearts. And to think that today you would be 60 years old. I cannot imagine your physical appearance at this age; you remained with the image of the young, upright, and honest man that you were.

Today I speak to you because I have not been able to do so during all this time. I would like to tell you that my daughters know you; you are "Uncle MARIO," and when we meet with our mother, there is always some allusion to you. You entered their lives, and your story will be known by future generations; you departed for centuries of history with us.

Someday we will know what happened. . . For the moment, I want to talk about you, talk to you, and remember you together with my mother and daughters. It is not a day like the others in this country; it is a day to remember the best that a man like you has given to future generations, values that ennoble the human species.

UNTIL ALWAYS!

Aminie Calderón Tapia, your sister.

Source: Aminie Calderón Tapia

"El Negro Calderón" passed through here

Mario Calderón Tapia

"El Negro Calderón" passed through here by: Collective of the School of Journalism of the ARCIS University under the direction of Gladys Díaz

NAME

Mario Eduardo Calderón Tapia

PLACE AND DATE OF BIRTH

Valparaíso, May 23, 1943

SPECIALTY

Journalist, graduated from the University of Chile in Valparaíso in 1971.

PLACE AND DATE OF DEATH

Forcibly disappeared, arrested in Santiago on September 25, 1974

ACTIVITIES

Leader of the JDC, president of the FECH of Valparaíso in 1963, chronicler for La Unión, professor of Journalism, worker at EMPORCHI, correspondent for El Rebelde, and leader of the MIR.

JUDICIAL SITUATION (1996)

Case filed in the Third Criminal Court of Santiago, Roll 130923. It is in the summary stage.

"El Negro Calderón passed through here," said the graffiti carved on the wall of a cell for incommunicado prisoners at the Cuatro Álamos facility in Santiago. Susana Calderón Tapia read the message-testimony that her brother stamped, between torture sessions, while occupying the same bunk in August 1975.

Next to Mario's mark was a slogan of the MIR dated May of that year. There, his trail was lost.

Reporter, university professor, promoter of the workers' press, political leader of the JDC and later of the MIR, Mario Eduardo Calderón Tapia wrote with his trajectory in Valparaíso the best chronicle against oblivion.

Graduated in Journalism in 1971, he joined the communications office of the Port Company of Chile (EMPORCHI). He worked as a reporter for the newspaper La Unión in Valparaíso, where he published reports that reflected his social sensitivity. "The men who work at night," "The presidential elections of '70," "Health activities" were the titles of some of his topics.

Simultaneously, he served as an assistant professor for the chairs of Interpretative Journalism and Advertising and Propaganda at the School of Journalism. He was a correspondent for El Rebelde, the newspaper of the MIR, and also directed workers' newspapers such as El Tomatín and Despertar Obrero.

The parents In his formation as an organizer, activist, agitator, and natural leader, Mario Calderón Sr., a Falangist militant and founder of the Christian Democratic Party, had a decisive influence. A practitioner by profession, he demonstrated his commitment and political coherence as a leader of the Federation of Health Workers.

His mother, Alicia Tapia, a housewife, has been searching incessantly for the traces of her son since 1974. In 1979, she assumed the Presidency of the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared of Valparaíso. That year, they tried to run her over on three occasions, near her home, to stop her search.

In a letter written in the heat of the anti-dictatorship protests of August 1983, Mrs. Alicia wrote to the President of the Supreme Court, Rafael Retamal: "The memory of my son strengthens me and has made the woman I am today emerge. Everything has been difficult for me. I had to face the outside world and assume new responsibilities. I have learned to overcome the brutal loss of my dear Mario."

Study and work Mario Calderón was educated at the Colegio La Salle, from 1949 to 1959. He began his political activity as a secondary student, and at 17 he was already a youth leader of the DC. In her letter to Minister Retamal, his mother evokes those years: "My son's childhood and adolescence passed like most of the lives of the children of the people.

He learned to know the limitations of insufficient economic resources; he knew up close the sufferings and shortages of marginalized families, and he defined his thirst for knowledge from a very young age."

In 1961, Mario began studying law at the University of Chile. Two years later, representing the left wing of the JDC, he won the Presidency of the Student Federation of the University of Chile in Valparaíso.

In addition to studying and militating, Mario obtained his first job at the College of Practitioners of Chile. In 1965, he had to interrupt his studies to enter as an employee at EMPORCHI, where he worked as an actuary in the Prosecutor's Office of the Port Administration and later as deputy head of the Elevators section.

Later, he worked as a dockage letter liquidator and assistant inspector of works, planning, and statistics in the port's Works section.

The JDC of the port

The Christian Democratic Youth of Valparaíso, led at the time by young people of popular social origin, had more left-wing positions than the JDC in the rest of the country. Arnoldo Torres Ramos, a friend and fellow traveler of "El Negro" Calderón, remembers now: "The Christian Democratic leaders of that time were children of workers and very popular sectors, while the most prominent left-wing militants were children of well-off professionals."

"El Negro Calderón" belonged to a generation of young DC members who radicalized and ended up abandoning those ranks to militate in left-wing parties and organizations or form new parties, such as the MAPU and the Christian Left.

His personal evolution was nourished, among other sources, by his own experience in the JDC as an organizer and propagandist for the National Peasant Liberation Movement, where the young people carried out agitation work in favor of Agrarian Reform.

Youth leaders like Rodrigo Ambrosio, and intellectuals like Jacques Chonchol and Julio Silva Solar, by claiming the right to revolution and questioning private property, also fueled that process, nuanced by experiences with workers and peasants in the mines and in the fields.

The "Naranjazo"

In his distancing from the Christian Democracy, "El Negro Calderón" was influenced by the right's support for Eduardo Frei Montalva in the 1964 elections, after the "Naranjazo" in Curicó, a surprising electoral victory for the socialist Oscar Naranjo in an area traditionally influenced by the right.

They were extraordinary elections to replace a deceased deputy, precisely the father of the elected one.

The rearrangement of the political forces that would participate in the presidential elections of that year was the trigger that stimulated the organization of the dissidents in the DC. The right withdrew the presidential nominations of its candidates Julio Durán and Jorge Prat to support the candidacy of Frei Montalva.

In the summer of 1964/65, with Frei already in the Presidency, Mario Calderón, still active in the JDC, participated in volunteer work with the group that built the Los Maitenes Public School in Casablanca. On March 11, 1966, during a strike in the large copper mining industry, eight people were murdered by police forces in the El Salvador mine.

Arnoldo Torres: "After the El Salvador massacre, a National Board of the JDC took place in which about thirty dissidents participated, among them Mario Calderón. When Frei entered the Board, we shouted 'Murderer!' It was a very strong moment, some shouting and others applauding."

Decisive trip At 23 years old, in 1967, he entered Journalism at the University of Chile in Valparaíso. Soon he was invited to Cuba. His comrades remember that he returned transformed, won over to the Cuban Revolution, and with the firm resolution to break with his party.

His enthusiasm and conviction were contagious. "The return of 'El Negro' confirmed that we were poorly positioned within the PDC," recalled his friend Arnoldo Torres.

During those years, "El Negro" Calderón met Miguel Enríquez, the head of the MIR, in Viña del Mar. "We felt identified with the positions of the MIR," said Torres. Fifty young Christian Democrats went to the MIR led by Calderón, while other dissidents formed the MAPU or joined the Communist and Socialist parties.

Leader of the MIR

Calderón joined the regional leadership of the MIR in Valparaíso, worked in the student and union areas, while working at EMPORCHI and continuing his journalism studies. These were times of struggle for university reform. "El Negro" Calderón led the strike at the School of Journalism and worked in the communications brigade that maintained contact with the port unions.

He had natural gifts as an orator. At popular rallies, he was always seen on the podium.

Arnoldo Torres: "The MIR came to have very important union work, due to the roots Mario had in the popular sectors. 80% of the MIR militants in Valparaíso were workers. After the marches, dozens of comrades would stay to ask how to join the MIR."

Torres estimates that this class composition of the MIR in the port caused conflicts with its national leadership, constituted fundamentally by intellectuals, professionals, and students. In Valparaíso, the leaders did not understand their party's emphasis on the differences with socialists and communists and wondered why it was necessary to vote against the PS or the PC. "The internal conflict between the union base and the leadership continued until the days of the coup," affirmed Torres.

Dancer and handsome

His friends remember him as sensitive, good-natured, affectionate, a lover of cinema and theater, and a tireless student. "He was a rigorous reader: he underlined books, took notes, and always carried his little notebook..." recalled Arnoldo Torres.

The socialist and communist leaders of the time describe him as a handsome young man, besieged by women. Neither activism nor his love for reading prevented him from dancing all night at university parties, going out for beer with friends, or participating with enthusiasm in the organization of the freshman reception parties.

The arrest "El Negro Calderón" went underground on September 11. He left Valparaíso for Santiago. His friend Torres revealed that during that period he had a partner with whom he "shared a secret and clandestine relationship." He was arrested on September 25, 1974, at 9:30 in the morning, by agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), at the streets of Bandera and Catedral.

That night, they raided the room he was renting at Dardignac 89. The owner of the property, Dolores Galdames, related that two intelligence agents took all the belongings of Víctor Rodríguez, the name by which she knew "El Negro" Calderón. They indicated to her that her tenant was being held in a place they could not reveal.

Information from the Vicariate of Solidarity of the Archdiocese of Santiago indicates that he was transferred to the DINA facility at José Domingo Cañas 1367, where he was tortured. Subsequently, he was seen at Villa Grimaldi and at Cuatro Álamos, from where he disappeared in the second week of November 1974.

The witnesses In addition to his sister, five survivors testified to the passage of "El Negro Calderón" through the secret prisons of the DINA. Rosalía Martínez Cereceda, arrested on 9/23/74, and Edmundo Lebrecht, an actor arrested on 9/30/74, saw him and spoke with him at José Domingo Cañas. Cristián Van Yurick Altamirano also saw him in terrible physical condition.

Raúl Alberto Iturra, arrested on January 4, 1974, saw him at Cuatro Álamos. The Spanish citizen Helios Figuerola Pujol, arrested on the same date as Mario, declared under oath: "Between October 4 and 9, 1974, Mr.

Mario Eduardo Calderón Tapia arrived at the cell, accompanied by two other detainees, Messrs. José Jara Castro and Aldo Pérez. Calderón Tapia arrived exhausted. His left eye showed a hematoma and his testicles, burn marks from the application of electric shocks."

Calderón told Figuerola Pujol that he was arrested by DINA agents commanded by Osvaldo Romo Mena, among them a subject called "El Muñeco," who tortured him at José Domingo Cañas. Figuerola declared that one dawn in the second week of November 1974, the DINA took Calderón, José Jara Castro, and Aldo Pérez from the cell. All three are disappeared.

La Unión (7/29/73): Funeral of Arturo Araya, Naval Aide-de-Camp to Salvador Allende.

The disappearance

The military never acknowledged the arrest of Mario Calderón Tapia. In the so-called "Operation Colombo," the DINA included his name among "The 119" dead in fictitious internal struggles abroad, whose names appeared in the apocryphal magazines Lea of Argentina and O’Dia of Brazil, which lacked a responsible editor and whose addresses turned out to be false.

Chilean journalists, attached to the foreign service of the time, intervened in this perverse maneuver destined for deception.

His mother managed to have Susana, her teenage daughter who had been arrested, expelled from the country. Then, she began a long cycle of judicial and administrative proceedings. On 3/11/1975, the Court of Appeals of Santiago rejected an amparo appeal filed the previous year.

The case went to the Third Criminal Court of Santiago. Judge María Antonieta Gutiérrez temporarily dismissed the case on 4/29/1975. In May, the family filed a complaint for alleged misfortune before the Second Criminal Court of Santiago.

The investigating judge rejected the request to constitute himself at Villa Grimaldi, while the civil police informed the Court, on May 25, that there were neither detainees nor prisoners in that place. On October 29, 1975, the Court of Appeals of Santiago temporarily dismissed the case.

"El Negro Calderón" passed through Cuatro Álamos and left his signature. But in Valparaíso, he left much more than that. That is why speaking of "El Negro Calderón" is speaking of Valparaíso.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

This journalistic research work was carried out by a collective of students and teachers from the School of Journalism of the ARCIS University, coordinated by the journalist Gladys Díaz, director of the School.

This information has been extracted verbatim from: Morir es la Noticia Ernesto Carmona Editor (Journalists tell the story of their murdered and/or disappeared colleagues) (Third Edition); SANTIAGO DE CHILE 1998

Source: This information has been extracted verbatim from: Morir es la Noticia Ernesto Carmona Editor