Pedro Antonio Cerda Zúñiga, married, worked as an agricultural laborer at the "Cerrillos" estate, located in Curacaví, near the Lo Prado Tunnel, for approximately 9 years. As a skilled worker, he had been granted a portion of land where he cultivated potatoes, residing in the neighborhood now known as "11 de Septiembre" in Curacaví.

Two days after the Military Coup of September 11, 1973, Pedro Cerda returned to work, leaving his home for the aforementioned estate; his whereabouts have been unknown since that time. After a week of absence from the home, his spouse, Mrs.

Patricia del Carmen Orozco Cerda, went to the property in search of information, where she was attended to by the Administrator, known as "don René," who informed her that her husband had been detained by soldiers on September 13 and taken to Santiago.

Mrs. Orozco then traveled to the capital, where she could not obtain any news of her spouse, whether at the National Stadium, the Ministry of Defense, or other places she visited. Upon returning to Curacaví, another worker from the property named Juan Jeria, who took charge of the disappeared man's potato harvest, informed her that Pedro Cerda had been killed at the estate itself, where he was also buried.

Mrs. Orozco spoke again with don René, who confessed to her that the victim had been killed on September 13 without going into details regarding the perpetrators, adding that he himself had arranged for a mass to be held for the deceased, later handing over some of the personal belongings that Pedro Cerda was carrying when he left his home that day, namely: an Omega brand wristwatch, a wallet containing money, his identity card, driver's license, Social Security booklet, a bag, and his jacket.

Don René warned the woman not to return to the estate. While it is highly probable that the version given by the Administrator is true, his family was never able to verify it, and for them, his status is that of a forcibly disappeared person.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

Criminal complaint for the crime of Homicide, filed before the Casablanca Court of Letters on March 27, 1992, Case File 36.021 1, currently in the summary phase with pending proceedings. The spouse of the disappeared man visited the Ministry of Defense, the National Stadium, regiments, prisons, and the Civil Registry, without obtaining any results.

In 1992, the Vicariate of Solidarity submitted the background information on the Cerda Zúñiga case to the National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation for his classification as a victim of human rights violations.

The anthropometric data of Pedro Antonio Cerda Zúñiga were attached to case 4449 AF of the 22nd Criminal Court of Santiago for the crime of illegal burial in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery of unidentified persons who died between September and December 1973.

The Investigating Judge of the case ordered the excavation of 108 graves in September 1991. From there, 125 bodies were exhumed and sent to the Legal Medical Institute. Currently (late 1992), the forensic identification reports are pending.

Source: Corporation report

The Human Rights Committee of this city and other groups, including the Research Nucleus on the Sociology of the Body from the Department of Sociology of the Faculty of Social Sciences, inaugurated the stone that will keep alive the memory of the day seven residents of Curacaví were murdered against a wall with point-blank gunfire.

On September 16, 1973, Segundo Nicolás Garate Torres (28), Jorge Gustavo Gómez Retamales (28), Justo Joaquín Mendoza Santibáñez (23), Gastón Reimundo Manzo Santibáñez (34), Juan Manuel Toro Toro (30), and Juan Guillermo Barrera Barrera were detained in Curacaví as political prisoners.

On April 2, 2011, the Memorial for the Forcibly Disappeared and Victims of Political Execution was erected, located at the former Curacaví Carabineros Station, so that the Chilean people do not forget what happened that day.

The initiative was carried out by the Human Rights Committee of this city and the Research Nucleus on the Sociology of the Body of the Department of Sociology of the Faculty of Social Sciences, among other groups.

The former Carabineros Station was a place of political imprisonment and torture where several citizens were deprived of their liberty and the majority were executed. Therefore, the installation of this memorial is a historical symbol, as it "seeks not to forget what happened to those who were kidnapped and killed in that place," commented Kerly Fuentes Mucherl, a member of the Sociology of the Body Nucleus of the Department of Sociology at FACSO, University of Chile.

She added: "In the place where the Station was located, the intention is to carry out activities for the Curacaví community, such as: educational and interactive workshops, the installation of a community library, and providing medical and legal assistance." The implementation of the set of educational and cultural activities at the former Carabineros Station will be in charge of the Curacaví Human Rights Committee and the Leftist Youth Movement of this city (MOJIC).

Simultaneously—the sociologist commented—the "Punished Memories/Bodies" research line of the Sociology of the Body Nucleus will conduct a study on the logic of punishment applied to those who were kidnapped in this Station during the years 1973-1977. "This makes this place very different from others," she noted.

In fact, Leopoldo Montenegro, of the Londres 38 Corporation, considered the possibility of thinking about recognition for other buildings where Chilean citizens were also tortured and killed during the dictatorship era.

Around 60 people were present at the site, including relatives of the forcibly disappeared, who inaugurated the memorial, upon which the names of their loved ones were inscribed. Also present was former political prisoner Juana Aguilera Jaramillo, who currently serves on the Ethics Commission Against Torture. Communications Dept. of Sociology

Source: uchile.cl 11/4/2011

Date: 04-11-2011