Gaspar Medina Medina studied accounting at the Liceo Comercial Vespertino in Concepción, Chile.

Gaspar Medina Medina was kidnapped in Futaleufú, Postal Code 9200, Argentina. He was detained on September 9, 1976; there is no testimony regarding his time in a clandestine detention center. His disappearance is registered with the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights and the CELS (Center for Legal and Social Studies of Argentina).

Testimony provided by the son of Gaspar Medina Medina:

Some history about my father

A militant of the Partido Socialista in Concepción, Chile. He was working at Petroquímica Chilena in Talcahuano at the time of his arrest. He was arrested in September 1973, directly after the coup d'état in Chile.

He was taken for interrogation to the Fuerte Borgoño located at the Talcahuano naval base, and three months later was transferred to the concentration camp for political prisoners on Isla Quiriquina, where he remained until he was released at the end of 1975 (as I recall).

In 1976, he traveled to Argentina, where he sought and was granted political refugee status in the city of Mendoza by the CEAS. Through the CEAS, he managed to bring his family to Mendoza, and they resided at Juan B.

Justo 261 in the city of Mendoza. In September 1976, a person approached our home and asked to speak with my mother. I was present for the conversation, which took place at the front door of the house.

This man, very nervous, told my mother that my father had been arrested in a military operation where they forced him into a truck and took him away with other companions. This event may have occurred in Futaleufú, Chubut Province.

With Mom, and after having received the aforementioned information, we went quickly to the CEAS offices to file a report. There, the CEAS lawyer attended to us and took notes on the matter. His disappearance was registered on September 28, 1976.

In 1979, Gaspar Medina's family was expelled from Argentina and received permanent residency status in the Kingdom of Sweden, where they settled. On April 11, 2011, Gaspar Medina's wife passed away at the age of 80, leaving behind 7 children, 12 grandchildren, and 2 great-grandchildren.

To this day, there is very little information we can provide, as we have not had any real support from any institution in Chile. In 2014, I received a response to an email I had sent quite some time ago.

The person who responded was the official in charge of the Undersecretariat of Human Rights for the province of Chubut, who showed great interest in helping and asked me for more details about my father.

Of course, I will be eternally grateful to her for giving me that small hope of being able to find my father's remains and being able to give him a burial where we would have a reference point to go and leave at least a flower.

Source: Vicaría de la Solidaridad, CONADEP

The Association of University Professors of the Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia San Juan Bosco held a tribute yesterday to those disappeared during the military dictatorship in Chubut. The general secretary, Elena González, also asked to repudiate the victims of the attacks at the hands of the Triple A in Comodoro.

The tribute to the forcibly disappeared of Chubut at the University took place yesterday at noon on the steps leading to the central building, where relatives of those disappeared and murdered during the last dictatorship unveiled a plaque that will eternalize their names.

This tribute was also held at the Esquel branches on Saturday and in Trelew on Sunday, March 24; in Madryn, the ceremony will take place on Thursday, April 4. The plaque unveiled by Bruno Cordano—brother of Humberto Cordano López—and José Trigo—brother of Raúl Horacio Trigo—contains the names of Norberto Félix Amaturi, Horacio Bau, Elvio Angel Bel, Orlando Cancio Morales, Elisa Cayul, Miguel Ricardo Chiernajowsky, Ricardo Alberto Cittadini, Eduardo Alberto Colella, Humberto Cordano López, José Esteban Cugura, Juan Oscar Cugura, Margarita Delgado, Marta Isabel Ferrer, Rubén Horacio Gargaglione, Susana Jenkins Rambousek, Carlos Alberto Juárez, Pedro Llorente Serrano, Daniel Heriberto Maldonado, GASPAR MEDINA MEDINA, José Delineo Méndez, Julio Argentino Mussi, Miguel Angel Pincheira, Eduardo Gustavo Ricoy, José Luís Rodríguez Dieguez, Javier Octavio Seminario, Guillermo David Silveira, Lidia del Carmen Soto, Raúl Horacio Trigo, and Miguel Angel Arraras.

A LIST THAT DOES NOT CLOSE

Regarding the decision to hold this act, Elena González indicated that "we do not want current discussions to erase history" and stressed that "managing to put together this list cost us a lot; we had even set up the plaque placing them in alphabetical order, when some relatives informed us about Miguel Angel Arraras, which is why he remained at the end.

Even at the Esquel act, a group of relatives asked us to also add Ricardo Vásquez from that city, who had been detained in Buenos Aires, but he considered himself a Chubut native," she indicated. "Memory is a collective construction, and many years have passed since the victims of the dictatorship began to have their place in history." This was acknowledged by José Trigo while speaking with Diario Patagónico. "A lot of time has passed, but the human rights policy initiated by Néstor Kirchner has been very important; from then on, it is as if the sentiment grew, raising awareness about what happened, but we also recognize what Raúl Alfonsín did," added the man who lost his brother during the last dictatorship.

MEMORY, TRUTH, JUSTICE

During the act, Bruno Cordano took the floor and recalled the hard moments he lived through when his brother disappeared and, after several years, it became known how he was murdered by the military. "They killed the best part of our generation, young people with many ideals," he maintained.

He then recounted that his brother had traveled to Buenos Aires to seek political asylum, given that he was a member of the Committee of Solidarity with Chile and had helped many compatriots; he was being pursued by the DINA.

He was kidnapped on May 23, 1977. "He was betrayed by his best friend, Rubén Leiva, who played both sides and handed him over tied hand and foot. He took the plane and they followed him to Buenos Aires; from there he went to Necochea to see another contact he had at a bank, who also worked for the services, and there the Argentine police took him and handed him over to the Navy.

They put him in a drum with cement and threw him into the Río de la Plata. All thanks to Rubén Leiva, who as soon as democracy arrived, presented himself as a great politician but who in reality was a traitor to the fatherland," he affirmed.

In this context, the rector, Adolfo Genini, who participated in the act along with other university and municipal authorities, indicated that "the teachers' union has in some way taken the responsibility to be able to do this, both at this branch and in the rest of the branches, and from there generate a series of acts that allow for the history of history to be made, something that has not yet been done.

It has been pointed out here that it has been very difficult to obtain the list of the disappeared, as if there is something that still needs to be clarified, and it is probable that more people will be added to this list."

Source: treslineas.com.ar 03/26/2013

Date: 03-26-2013

On the occasion of the National Day of Memory for Truth and Justice.

In this context, teachers, students, social organizations, and the community in general were present, as well as the rector of the institution of higher learning, Adolfo Genini, and academic delegates from the Esquel branch.

In dialogue with EL CHUBUT, Verónica Botto, an ADU delegate, highlighted that "this ceremony was a tribute to the detainees and disappeared from and in Chubut, that is, all the people originally from Chubut who were detained and disappeared in other parts of the country, or those from other parts of the country who disappeared here.

What we wanted was to hold this tribute in all the branches of the University, placing a plaque with the names of these people. Taking advantage of the fact that today (yesterday) there was a meeting of the University's Superior Council, we decided to hold this tribute." She reported that the province of Chubut has a total of 29 disappeared persons. "In Esquel, where one might think that nothing happened, there are five disappeared persons, and we added one more person.

In reality, it was quite complicated for us to get the list of disappeared persons because the complete data does not exist anywhere, and we were asked by the Network for Identity to add Ricardo Vázquez, who was not born nor disappeared in Esquel but lived there for many years.

His father was a school principal; they had many ties to the community and therefore he is considered a disappeared person from Esquel. The other five disappeared are Norberto Amaturi, José and Esteban Cugura, a CHILEAN citizen GASPAR MEDINA MEDINA who was disappeared here, and Eduardo Alberto Colella, who was doing his military service here when he disappeared." For her part, the general secretary of ADU, Elena González, pointed out, "We considered some time ago that this tribute had to be held because we had to know the names, reconstruct recent history, and be clear that the dictatorship passed through the province of Chubut with detainees, with disappeared persons, with those dismissed from their jobs. That is what we want to be known, because if one does not know their most recent history, one cannot build a future."

THE HISTORY

OF HISTORY

By way of reflection, finally, rector Adolfo Genini pointed out that "with this, we wanted to remember a very painful episode for Argentina, but one that is part of Argentine history, and that is undeniable.

The teachers' union has in some way taken the responsibility to be able to do this, both at this branch and in the rest of the branches, and from there generate a series of acts that allow for the history of history to be made, something that has not yet been done.

It has been pointed out here that it has been very difficult to obtain the list of the disappeared, as if there is something that still needs to be clarified, and it is probable that more people will be added to this list."

Source: elchubut.com.ar 03/23/2013

Date: 03-23-2013