Address: Providencia 1765 Apt. 2201, Providencia commune, Santiago Marital Status: Single Occupation: Distributor of books and stationery for the firm "Calderón Hermanos." Political Affiliation: Militant of the Communist Party.

Former President of the miners' union, María Elena nitrate office, in Tocopilla. Former national councilor of the Central Unica de Trabajadores (CUT). Date of Detention: July 30, 1976

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

Nicolás López Suárez, single, former mining union leader and National Councilor of the CUT, a militant of the Communist Party, went on July 30, 1976, as was his custom, to have lunch at the "Carrera" Restaurant, located at the intersection of Alameda and Maturana streets in the capital, in the company of Mrs.

Ana Altamirano, the wife of a friend and fellow Party member of the victim named Juan Gianelli, who had been detained by security agents a few days earlier and remains forcibly disappeared to this day.

A nephew of the victim, Juan Montalván López, who worked at the aforementioned establishment, observed two civilians enter the premises; they sat at one end of the counter and from there observed both the victim and his companion.

Nicolás López, upon realizing he was being watched, decided to leave the place. He immediately exited the restaurant, put his companion in a taxi, and headed toward the intersection of Alameda and Cummings streets with the intention of catching a bus.

Minutes later, near 14:00 hours, Juan Montalván—who had agreed to meet with the victim at the exit of his workplace at the indicated time—went out to the street looking for his uncle, but could not find him.

Subsequently, the victim's relatives learned that Nicolás López was seen being forced off a bus by two civilians who took him to an unknown destination.

Juan Montalván López testified before the 5th Criminal Court of Santiago, which processed the case regarding the kidnapping of the victim, that "on July 30, 1976, I was working as a waiter when my uncle Nicolás López Suárez arrived at the restaurant, around 13:00 to 13:30 hours, and at the same counter he met a woman of about 35 years old, rather tall, thin, and fair-skinned; a person with whom he was talking for a while and then both went to sit at a table and had lunch together.

At that moment, two individuals arrived at the business, one tall and blond, solid, about 40 years old, and the other dark-haired, rather short, about 35 years old, who sat at one end of the counter and from there began to watch and look in a disguised manner at both my uncle and his companion."

In August 1976, Juana Muñoz Tapia—Nicolás López's partner—was unofficially informed that the victim, after his detention on July 30, had been taken to the Ministry of Defense, and was transferred around August 16 to a regiment in the capital, a facility where he remained in very poor physical condition, as he had systematically refused to speak, even to say his name.

This attitude of López Suárez, she was told, could mean that they would never see him again.

The victim had been previously detained on September 11, 1973, by military personnel, who took him to the Estadio Nacional, a facility where he remained deprived of liberty until the 16th of that same month and year.

In the report prepared by the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation (created by the President of the Republic, Patricio Aylwin Azócar, with the purpose of investigating and making known to the country the most serious human rights violations committed between September 11, 1973, and March 10, 1990), it was stated that "Nicolás Alberto López Suárez, who had been intensely sought by security agencies, was detained on July 30, 1976, on a public street, by agents of the Comando Conjunto, without it being possible to determine the facilities in which he remained detained or his subsequent fate, his whereabouts remaining unknown since then."

Likewise, the detention of Nicolás López Suárez occurred at a time when security agencies unleashed a strong offensive against the Communist Party, with many members and leaders of this political group being detained.

In press publications of the time, it was reported that in July 1976, the National Directorate of Social Communication (DINACOS) informed the public that the government had detected great activity by the Communist Party and that several militants and leaders had been detained.

For its part, the magazine "Qué Pasa," in its issues 235 (October 23, 1975) and 277 (August 12, 1976), informed its readers that "in these months, the communist militants and leaders who have disappeared from their usual activities and homes have reached significant numbers."

The detentions and disappearances of communist militants and leaders that occurred in 1976 must be linked to one another, as they undoubtedly respond to prior methodical planning carried out by an organization endowed with material means and with the guarantees of anonymity and impunity to act in a criminal manner and in open violation of fundamental human rights.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On August 3, 1976, a writ of amparo (habeas corpus) was filed on behalf of Nicolás López Suárez before the Santiago Court of Appeals, which was registered under No. 688-76.

The Minister of the Interior reported that the victim was not being held by order of that Ministry.

Based solely on the merit of the preceding report, and without having issued an official request to the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), as expressly requested by the petitioner, the Court rejected the amparo.

That resolution was appealed, with a request again made for an official request to be sent to the DINA.

However, the Supreme Court, hearing the appeal, denied the preceding request, requiring a new report from the Minister of the Interior, which was negative.

With only this information, the Supreme Court confirmed the resolution that declared the writ of amparo inadmissible.

On August 13, 1976, Juana Muñoz Tapia, the victim's partner, filed a complaint for the crime of kidnapping perpetrated against Nicolás López Suárez before the Fifth Criminal Court of Santiago, which was registered under No. 102.706-1.

On August 16, the Court accepted the complaint, ordering a summary investigation, dispatching the corresponding order to investigate, and granting the measures requested by the complainant, which were the sending of official letters to the Ministry of the Interior and the Air Force Combat Command.

This last request was based on the fact that Mrs. Muñoz had received unofficial information that the victim's captors belonged to the Air Force.

The Air Force General and Commander of the Combat Command, Mario Vivero Avila, informed the Court on September 8 that Nicolás López Suárez was not being held or prosecuted by order of the Aviation Courts.

For its part, the Minister of the Interior, Division General Raúl Benavides Escobar, informed the Court that the victim was not being held by order of that Ministry.

The order to investigate dispatched in the case files to the Investigative Police did not provide information that would allow for the establishment of the victim's whereabouts. After verifying unsuccessful measures at healthcare facilities, the Legal Medical Institute, and the National Executive Secretariat for Detainees (SENDET), it was returned to the Court, which ordered it to be added to the case file on October 29, 1976.

On November 29, 1976, Juana Muñoz Tapia appeared before the court and fully ratified the filed complaint, reaffirming once again the facts exposed in the repressive situation.

The declarant also pointed out that "unofficially and through officials of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), whose names she preferred to omit, she learned that the victim was detained near the 'Carrera' Restaurant by the same individuals who entered there to watch him on July 30, 1976, and who belonged to the Chilean Air Force, 'currently being held in a regiment in this city'."

Finally, Mrs. Muñoz added that "the victim had a brother who belonged to the Army, who died in 1974 in an accident. When the detention of Nicolás López occurred, they called the widow of this brother, named Eliana Bravo, by telephone from the Ministry of Defense, informing her of the arrest."

Elsa Suárez requested that the Court send an official letter to the Legal Medical Institute. On November 30, 1976, the Court did not grant the request, as she was not a party to the complaint, but without prejudice to that resolution, it ruled ex officio to decree that an official letter be sent to the aforementioned organization so that it could report on the possible entry of the victim into that establishment.

The Legal Medical Institute of Santiago, through the Head of the Thanatology Section, reported negatively to the request on December 28 of the same year.

Again, on January 11, 1977, Elsa Suárez requested the practice of measures that the Court did not grant, arguing that she was not a party to the case's complaint. However, ruling ex officio, the Court decreed the measures, which were: the sending of official letters to the International Police, the Civil Registry and Identification Service, and the General Cemetery.

In the course of January and February 1977, both the International Police and the General Cemetery reported in negative terms. For its part, the Civil Registry and Identification Service reported that after checking the indexes and the Independencia sub-office, the death of Nicolás López Suárez did not appear registered.

In response to a press publication that appeared in the newspaper "El Mercurio" of Santiago on December 22, 1977, which reported on an interview held between the then-President of the Republic and the Director of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mr.

Alexandre Hay, regarding the problem of the disappeared, it was requested that the Court dispatch an official letter to said international organization so that it could report on the matter. There is no record in the case files of a response to this letter or of its dispatch.

On May 10, Juan de la Cruz Montalván López appeared before the Court and reaffirmed the facts already exposed in the repressive situation regarding the disappearance of the victim.

On August 9, 1977, the Judge of the Fifth Criminal Court of Santiago declared the summary closed and, bearing in mind that from the various antecedents accumulated in the course of the process, the perpetration of the reported crime of kidnapping was not fully justified, she temporarily dismissed the case until new and better investigative data were presented.

The preceding resolution was approved by the Santiago Court of Appeals on October 25, 1977.

Source: Corporación report

The Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced nine former agents of the so-called Comando Conjunto for their responsibility in the crime of qualified kidnapping of Nicolás Alberto López Suárez, perpetrated starting on July 30, 1976, in the Metropolitan Region.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 22-2017), the Fourth Chamber of the appellate court—composed of ministers Gloria Solís, Paola Robinovich, and the acting lawyer Rodrigo Asenjo—sentenced Antonio Benedicto Quirós Reyes, Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, Daniel Luis Gimpert Corvalán, Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa, Raúl Horacio González Fernández, Juan Atilio Aravena Hurtuvia, Ernesto Arturo Lobos Gálvez, and Miguel Arturo Estay Reyno to 10 years and one day in prison as authors of the crime.

Meanwhile, Viviana Ugarte Sandoval was sentenced to 3 years and one day in prison as an accomplice.

By majority, with the dissenting vote of Minister Robinovich, the chamber revoked the ruling in the part that sentenced the convicted individuals for illicit association.

"Regarding the crime of illicit association for which the convicted individuals in this case have been accused and sentenced, these judges share what was expressed by the Judicial Prosecutor Mrs. Clara Carrasco Andonie in her report on page 2,626 and following of the case files, when she points out: '...does not share the thesis of the sentencer who considers this illicit act justified, but rather estimates that this criminal type is not configured in this instance, since the accused are agents of the State, members of its defense institutions, and therefore it is not appropriate to consider that they constitute a criminal association, since this type is structured as a particular form of criminal organization whose objective is precisely to commit acts contrary to the law, which is repugnant to the principles that govern the country's defense institutions, which is why she is of the opinion that the sentence should be revoked in this aspect and the accused acquitted in this chapter'," the ruling states.

The resolution adds: "Furthermore, it is not possible, given the nature of the institution to which the convicted individuals belong, to consider that the objective elements required for the configuration of the illicit act in question are present in this instance.

Thus, as a consequence of what was expressed above, the allegation raised by the defense of the convicted Saavedra Loyola must be accepted, in the sense that the existence of the crime of illicit association for which his client was charged has not been proven, and consequently, he must be acquitted of said crime, as must his co-participants."

In the civil aspect, the State was ordered to pay a total compensation of $210,000,000 (two hundred and ten million pesos) to the victim's relatives.

Source: adprensa.cl 5/12/2019 Date: 05-12-2019

Supreme Court confirms sentences of seven agents of the Comando Conjunto for the disappearance of a national leader of the CUT

The Supreme Court rejected the appeals for cassation on the merits filed by the defense against the sentence that convicted seven agents of the so-called Comando Conjunto for their responsibility in the crime of qualified kidnapping of the union leader Nicolás Alberto López Suárez, committed starting in July 1976, in Santiago.

The victim, 40 years old, was a leader of the Communist Party in hiding and a member of the National Council of the Central Unica de Trabajadores (CUT). He was kidnapped on a public street by agents of this repressive organization on July 30, 1976, and since then all traces of him have been lost.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 889-2020), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Minister María Teresa Letelier, and the acting lawyer Diego Munita—dismissed the appeals filed against the sentence issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals, which sentenced former Air Force officer Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, former Navy officer Daniel Luis Enrique Guimpert Corvalán, former Carabineros officer Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa, former Air Force non-commissioned officer Raúl Horacio González Fernández, and civilian agents Juan Atilio Aravena Hurtuvia and Ernesto Arturo Lobos Gálvez to 10 years and one day in prison as authors of the crime; and Viviana Lucinda Ugarte Sandoval to 3 years and one day in prison as an accomplice.

The agents sentenced in the first instance to 15 years and one day in prison as authors of the crimes of illicit association and qualified kidnapping—the former Air Force General and former head of the SIFA and the Comando Conjunto at the time, César Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger; former Air Force Colonel Antonio Benedicto Quiros Reyes; and civilian agents César Luis Adolfo Palma Ramírez and Miguel Arturo Estay Reyno, alias "El Fanta"—died during the course of the process.

The Facts In the judicial investigation stage, it was established that during the years 1975 and 1976, a repressive organization functioned—called the "Intelligence Community" and later known as the "Comando Conjunto"—formed by members of different branches of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, and also by some civilians who were former members of the anti-Marxist group called "Patria y Libertad."

Said repressive organization was constituted by decision of the Intelligence Directorates of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, whose headquarters were installed in a building located at Juan Antonio Ríos Street No. 6 in downtown Santiago (JAR 6), where the Intelligence Directorates of the Air Force (DIFA), the Army (DINE), the Navy (SIN), and the Carabineros (SICAR) were located.

Operationally, the aforementioned repressive organization functioned in clandestine detention and torture centers, called "Nido 20" (located in the sector of Paradero 20 of Gran Avenida) and "Nido 18" (located in the sector of Paradero 18 of Vicuña Mackenna); and later, from October or November 1975, in "Remo 0," located inside the Air Force's Antiaircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina.

Finally, at the beginning of 1976, the operational agents moved from this last place—with the exclusion of the Army members, who at that time withdrew from the organization—to the "La Firma" barracks, located on Calle 18, in downtown Santiago, at the 200 block, in the building of the former newspaper "El Clarín."

The "La Firma" barracks functioned until December 1976 and corresponds to an old building with several rooms, some of which were offices, others interrogation rooms, and others, dungeons.

In all the clandestine detention centers mentioned above, torture was carried out on the detainees, some of whom died as a consequence of the same, or were executed by the agents, who made their bodies disappear.

The heads of these facilities were Navy Lieutenant Daniel Luis Guimpert Corvalán, who in turn reported to Commander Sergio Barra Von Kretschman, director of the SIN; Air Force agent Roberto Fuentes Morrison, who reported to Air Force Commander Juan Saavedra Loyola, who in turn reported to the director of the DIFA, Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger; and Carabineros Lieutenant Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa, who in turn was a subordinate of the Captain of that corps, Germán Esquivel Caballero, with the head of the Carabineros intelligence area being Colonel Rubén Romero Gormaz.

Guimpert Corvalán, Fuentes Morrison, and Muñoz Gamboa each directed groups of subordinates who carried out operational tasks, detaining people to take them to the aforementioned facility, where they were interrogated under torture, executed, and made to disappear.

From the end of 1975 and throughout 1976, the repressive activity of the Comando Conjunto was directed especially against the clandestine structure of the Communist Youth (JJ.CC.), but also against some of the clandestine militants of the Communist Party (PC).

For this, it used information provided by militants of the JJ.CC. who, after being detained, became collaborators and in some cases agents, such as Carol Flores Castillo, Miguel Estay Reyno, and René Basoa Alarcón.

This is how numerous leaders of the communist collective began to be detained, both those who were performing or had assumed leadership tasks in it to replace those who were detained, and those who were "frozen" (hidden in safe houses) as a preventive measure against the wave of repression unleashed against the organization.

From the second half of 1976, both the JJ.CC. and the PC had an internal leadership (within the country), with different commissions developing their functions in specific fronts, such as the union front.

One of the members of said union commission was Nicolás López Suárez, but his contact with the Party (Juan Antonio Gianelli Company) had been detained—and was missing—since July 26, 1976. As a security measure, López Suárez moved from his home in the Providencia commune to the home of a nephew on República Street, in downtown Santiago; this nephew worked as a waiter at the "Carrera Restaurant," located at Avenida Libertador Bernardo O’Higgins No. 2167, and collaborated with the clandestine work of the Communist Party, with the aforementioned establishment being used as a "mailbox."

On July 30, 1976, at the aforementioned restaurant, Nicolás López met for lunch with the wife of his already-detained contact. The leader indicated to his nephew that he was being followed and that he wanted to talk to him once he left.

Likewise, two individuals arrived at the premises who sat near Nicolás López and his companion and began to watch them; these individuals had already been at the restaurant before.

Then, at approximately 14:00 hours, his nephew went to change clothes to meet with Nicolás López once his shift ended, but when he left the premises, he and his companion were no longer there, nor were the individuals who were watching him.

According to some witnesses, upon leaving the restaurant, López left the woman in a taxi at the same corner of the establishment. His nephew later recognized in the photographs shown to him Roberto Fuentes Morrison as one of the people who was following Nicolás López and who, on the day of his disappearance, was watching him inside the restaurant.

Likewise, the companion lady later pointed out that one of the people she saw in the restaurant on the day of the events was Fuentes Morrison, whom she knew from before.

Let us note that Roberto Fuentes Morrison, alias "El Wally," was a former Air Force reserve officer who had been recruited as a civilian agent to carry out repressive tasks. This criminal was executed by an operational group of the anti-dictatorial Resistance on June 9, 1989, in the Ñuñoa commune, in Santiago.

Source: resumen.cl 31.8.2023

Dear Tata Nicolás: Hello Tata Nicolás, how are you? I hope you are doing very well, wherever you are. The truth is that I am writing to you from the future to tell you what has become of Chile and the family from the day of July 30, 1976, the day on which they detained you and made you disappear, until July 30, 2020, the day this letter was written.

First, to tell you that Nena died a few years ago. I am sure, and at the same time I say it with all pride, that she never lowered her arms, never stopped seeking justice, and never forgot you. Also to tell you that you had two children, of whom today you would be very proud: Alejandra and Nicolás.

Nicolás is one of the best uncles one could have, an excellent person and a great dad; and Alejandra, my mother and your daughter, is one of the strongest, bravest, most intelligent, consistent, and fighting women and people I have ever been able to know.

Unfortunately, Tata Nicolás, you know that I could not meet you, but thanks to your daughter—a person who, every time she has to talk about you or remember you, gets emotional and exhausts the existing synonyms to describe the wonderful person you were and would continue to be.

Thanks to that, today I can say that I am very happy and proud that you are my grandfather: a consistent, neat, brave, strong, noble man, and of a very human ideal, which was always reflected in your support and fierce defense of the workers you represented.

It also gives me great sadness that, for the simple fact of having a noble, human ideal or simply for thinking differently, they did to you what they did. But not everything is so sad, or black and white, as one might say, since your same strength, courage, bravery, impetus, and the most beautiful thing: your beautiful and noble ideals that, together with your noble empathy towards others, passed from generation to generation and today are in your children.

Also to tell you, Tata Nicolás, that your daughter, who is my mother, Alejandra, has not stopped looking for you and continues with Nena's fight. I wish that one day we could give you a proper burial and farewell.

To tell you that we, the students, last year, on Friday, October 18, 2019, after 5 days in a row of evasion in the subway, started the most important social outburst of the last 30 years in Chile. In which people are reacting and waking up in the face of the thousands and thousands of injustices, robberies, and looting that the Mapuche, Aymara, Atacameño, Diaguita, Selknam, and Chilean people, among many others, have suffered.

From the beginning of the dictatorship to the present day, where the State and the Chilean political class have refused to listen to the people and their demands, as dignified and basic as quality, free, open, and non-sexist education, as well as stopping profiting from natural resources and devastating the land along with its flora and fauna, while not charging for a basic right which is that of having water, greater sentences for human rights violators, who are the perpetrators of crimes against humanity during the dictatorship, and also that retirees in Chile can have dignified pensions, to be able to enjoy their old age and not have to work at 70, 80 years old to be able to eat or live with the bare minimum. And it is that the State, apart from refusing to listen to the people, has responded with brutal violence towards them and each of their protesters, who every day went to Plaza Dignidad (formerly Plaza Baquedano) to ask for and demand their rights. All this was maintained from October 18 until approximately March 2020. During all these months, unfortunately, 411 people had their eyes mutilated and 33 people died, of which 4 were at the hands of State agents. This clearly shows that the State and the Chilean political class do not want this political system to change, which for years has kept them in power through their abuses and looting, along with the money they steal from the same people. Well, Tata Nicolás, I send you a kiss and I hope you are at peace. Goodbye, your grandson Bashir. P.S. I will find you. Bashir Emilio Sambra López, 16 years old, grandson of Nicolás Alberto López Suárez, forcibly disappeared since July 30, 1976.

Source: epistolariodelamemoria.cl 11/09/2020 Date: 09-11-2020