In the early hours of June 24, 1976, Oscar Eduardo AVELLO AVELLO, a medical student at the Universidad de Chile and a member of the MIR, was arrested at his home.

On June 25, 1976, Orlando Patricio GUARATEGUA QUINTEROS, a student of Industrial Technology at the Universidad Técnica and a member of the MIR, was arrested on a public street. His home was raided in the early hours of June 26 by several armed agents wearing red and white armbands who claimed to be searching for weapons. There has been no further news of him since.

On June 27, 1976, Miguel Hernán OVALLE NARVAEZ, also a member of the MIR, was arrested on a public street by agents traveling in a vehicle without license plates. They forced the victim, who was already handcuffed, into the car and took him to an unknown destination. The victim's home was also subsequently raided in search of weapons. To this date, his whereabouts remain unknown.

On June 28, 1976, Héctor Manuel CONTRERAS ROJAS, a radio controller and neighbor of the also disappeared Miguel Ovalle, was likewise arrested on a public street. His home was also raided in the days following his arrest. Since that date, nothing more has been known of him.

On June 28, 1976, another member of the MIR, Sergio Manuel FUENZALIDA LOYOLA, was arrested by agents who took him to an unknown destination. He has remained disappeared ever since.

The Commission, noting the existence of witnesses to the arrests of these five victims, the fact that they formed a cell of the MIR, and that there has been no further news of them, reached the conviction that they were victims of human rights violations, consisting of their arrest and forced disappearance by state agents, even though it cannot state with certainty which agency carried out the arrests.

Orlando Guarategua Quinteros, single, 23 years old, Industrial Technology student at the Universidad Técnica del Estado, and member of the MIR, was detained by DINA agents on a public street at approximately 18:30 on June 25, 1976.

Moments earlier, the victim had left his grandmother's house in Ampliación Lo Franco, stating that he was heading to his home, where he never arrived. Since that date, he has remained in the status of forcibly disappeared.

At approximately 01:30 on the morning of Saturday, June 26, 1976, the day after his disappearance, five individuals in civilian clothes, armed with submachine guns and wearing red and white armbands, arrived at the victim's home in the commune of Recoleta.

They proceeded to raid the property, claiming they were searching for weapons. While they were carrying out this procedure, Dionisio Cabrera, a neighbor and friend of the victim, arrived at the house. He had come to look for Orlando, as Orlando had been invited to a family celebration at his home.

Once at the scene, he stated in his testimony, "I spotted a blue Peugeot car parked in front of the house... when I knocked, two people in civilian clothes opened the door, one of them with a submachine gun in his hand." After identifying himself, he asked the individuals to state the reason for their presence at his friend's house, to which they replied that they were conducting a raid because "Patricio is in political trouble."

Mrs. Silvia Quintero Croff, the victim's mother, stated in the recurso de amparo (writ of habeas corpus) that "during the raid (the individuals) asked me several questions about my son. They asked what he did for a living, who his friends were, who came to the house..." When the operation concluded, the individuals left the premises, taking with them some belongings and $17,000, which was a loan the victim had obtained to buy a pickup truck for work.

During those days, the DINA detained Oscar Eduardo Avello Avello on June 24, 1976; on June 26, 1976, they detained José Santos Hinojosa Araos, who had been at the victim's house until 23:30 on June 24, at which time Orlando Guarategua had walked him home.

On the 27th of the same month, Miguel Hernán Ovalle Narváez was also detained; on June 28, Héctor Manuel Contreras Rojas, a neighbor of Miguel Ovalle, and Sergio Manuel Fuenzalida Loyola were detained.

All were left-wing militants and belonged to the same political coordination structure. Furthermore, all of those mentioned remain in the status of forcibly disappeared after being detained by the DINA, despite numerous efforts made by their families. Hinojosa Araos was seen at the secret DINA detention center of Villa Grimaldi.

Subsequently, dated June 27, 1976, Mrs. Silvia Quintero received a letter from her son, which, in addition to having a peculiar spelling error, did not indicate its place of origin or the situation he was in. This letter was incorporated into the judicial proceedings regarding the victim's alleged disappearance.

Judicial and/or Administrative Proceedings

On June 28, 1976, a recurso de amparo (writ of habeas corpus), case file No. 566-76, was filed with the Santiago Court of Appeals on behalf of the victim.

When consulted, the Ministry of the Interior responded on July 5 through the Minister, Division General Raúl Benavides Escobar, stating that the victim had not been detained by order of his department.

On July 8, 1976, based on the information provided by the administrative authority, the Santiago Court of Appeals resolved to reject the amparo, without prejudice to notifying the competent court so that it could initiate the corresponding summary proceedings.

Thus, on July 20, case file No. 121.850 was initiated in the Third Criminal Court of Santiago to establish what had happened to Orlando Guarategua Quinteros.

On August 2, 1976, a complaint regarding the victim's alleged disappearance was filed with the Third Criminal Court of the capital, and it was ordered to be consolidated with the case already being processed in that same court, which had been initiated by the Court of Appeals.

In compliance with an investigative order from the judge, the Investigative Police (Policía de Investigaciones) reported in August 1976 that, after conducting various inquiries at hospitals, hotels, and the Legal Medical Institute, they were unable to locate the victim or find information regarding his whereabouts.

During the month of September 1976, the various cemeteries of the capital reported that they had no record of any corpse being admitted under the name of Orlando Guarategua Quinteros.

Granting a request from the complainant, the judge ordered that all security services of the Armed Forces and police, as well as the DINA, be officially notified.

Dated December 16, 1976, the court received an official letter from the Ministry of the Interior indicating that they had no information on the victim. It further added that "for reasons exclusively of national security, it has been ordered that all information regarding persons arrested or presumably detained for infringement of the provisions in force regarding the State of Siege be channeled through this Department of State." Therefore, the Minister requested that the judge not send official inquiries to the DINA, but rather directly to him.

After receiving a report from the Investigative Police stating that their officers had not carried out any raid on the victim's property, the judge declared the summary proceedings closed on December 31, 1976, and, given that "the perpetration of a crime is not fully justified," determined to temporarily dismiss the case. On March 10, 1977, the Court of Appeals confirmed the resolution.

On March 29, 1979, a request was made to reopen the case and return it to the summary stage, which was approved by the judge, as it was necessary to carry out a series of procedures that were pending or had not been performed.

On June 22, 1979, it was resolved that the processing of the case would continue under the Visita (special investigation) conducted by the Minister of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Servando Jordán López, who had been appointed in April of that year by the appellate court to investigate complaints regarding forcibly disappeared persons in the Metropolitan Region.

The International Police reported on July 12, 1979, that Orlando Guarategua Quinteros had no record of leaving the country. Similar information was sent by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Brigadier General Enrique Valdés Puga, who reported on July 24, 1979, that there was no evidence that the victim had left the country via asylum.

On August 3, 1979, the Minister in charge of the Visita received an official letter from the Minister of the Interior, Sergio Fernández Fernández, indicating that, according to his inquiry to the Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI), that agency communicated that "after reviewing the relevant documentation, there is no record of any detention" of the victim.

On September 14, 1979, Minister Jordán resolved to close the summary proceedings and temporarily dismiss the case "because the commission of any crime has not been fully established." The resolution was confirmed by the Supreme Court on December 31, 1979.

Background information on the investigation conducted by Minister Servando Jordán into a significant number of forcibly disappeared persons in Santiago, contained in more than 5,000 pages over several years of investigation, can be found in the file of Eduardo Enrique Alarcón Jara, who was detained on July 30, 1974.

Although no significant progress was made in the specific case of Orlando Guarategua, the investigation yielded important evidence regarding the operations of the DINA.

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity