On July 23, 1976, Eduardo CANTEROS PRADO, a militant of the PC, and his 21-year-old niece, Clara Elena CANTEROS TORRES, a militant of the JJCC, were detained near their homes. Eduardo Canteros remained held at Villa Grimaldi, the place from which he disappeared, until March 21, 1990, when his remains were accidentally discovered in a clandestine grave located at the Las Tórtolas estate in Colina, which belonged to the Ejército until 1980, along with the remains of Vicente ATENCIO CORTES, a former parliamentarian and member of the Central Committee of the PC, who was detained on August 11, 1976, and also held at Villa Grimaldi. The remains found belonging to a third person have not been identified to date.

Regarding the situation of Clara Canteros, there has been no further news regarding her whereabouts since the date of her detention.

Based on the evidence gathered, the Commission can affirm that these three individuals were detained and forcibly disappeared by State agents, in violation of their human rights, and that the subsequent discovery of the remains of two of them confirms the conviction expressed regarding the third, as well as other similar cases narrated in this chapter.

Eduardo Canteros Prado, married, father of 10, a Civil Engineer and member of the Communist Party, was detained on July 23, 1976, at approximately 9:40 p.m., on a public street in front of his home located at Calle Panamá Nº8807, in the La Florida commune, as he was returning home from work.

Just outside his residence, he was called over by the occupants of a blue car parked on the street, who turned out to be agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA). They proceeded to apprehend him, forcing him into one of the three vehicles they were using.

Eyewitnesses to the detention included Jorge Antonio Muñoz Muñoz, a nephew by marriage; José Desiderio Muñoz Muñoz, brother of the former; and María Enolfa Gormaz Vera, Eduardo Canteros' spouse. All of them were able to observe the circumstances of the detention.

The Muñoz brothers even had a brief conversation with Mr. Eduardo prior to his apprehension. Meanwhile, minutes before her husband's detention, Mrs. María Gormaz had received a "visit" at her home from one of the agents, who asked to speak with him under the pretext of a supposed accident involving his niece, Clara Elena Canteros Torres.

She was also detained that same day and, like her uncle Eduardo, remains a forcibly disappeared person.

As previously indicated, three vehicles participated in the operation: a blue car, into which Eduardo Canteros was forced, a taxi, and a large red car.

From that location, the captors transported the detainee to the clandestine detention center known as "Villa Grimaldi," located in the La Reina commune in the city of Santiago, where he was held and tortured.

While there, Eduardo Canteros Prado was seen by Isaac Godoy Castillo, who testified that on August 26, 1976, while being held at Villa Grimaldi, he saw Eduardo Canteros among other detainees. He was part of a group of detainees—including Pedro Silva Bustos, Lenín Díaz Silva, Darío Miranda Godoy, and Jorge Solovera Gallardo—whom he remembers seeing as they were being returned to their respective cells after having cleaned the area.

All of them remain forcibly disappeared to this day.

Villa Grimaldi is the precise location where the trail of Eduardo Canteros was lost.

It should be noted that, despite the military government's denial of the detention of Eduardo Canteros and his niece Clara Canteros, there is proven evidence of the detention of Communist militants in 1976.

On July 14 and 17, 1976, the government's National Directorate of Social Communication issued statements announcing that, following operations carried out by security services, 32 "mailbox houses" (clandestine communication hubs) of the Communist Party had been dismantled, which served as links between the party's National Directorate and its Regional Committees, in addition to the detention of militants from that organization.

It was added that no further information could be provided so as not to hinder the ongoing investigations.

Another piece of evidence regarding the actions of security agencies in the disappearance of Communist militants appeared in the August 12, 1976, edition of the weekly magazine "Que Pasa," in an article titled "From the MIR to the PC," which noted that militants and leaders of the Communist Party had been detained following operations carried out by security agencies.

It even provided the names of some of those detained.

However, on March 21, 1990, while excavation work was being carried out on the grounds of the Fundo Las Tórtolas in Colina—which had belonged to the Army until 1980—the remains of three people were found in two clandestine graves; one of them corresponded to Eduardo Canteros Prado.

Another set of remains belonged to the former parliamentarian and member of the Communist Party's Central Committee, Vicente Atencio Cortés, who was detained on August 11, 1976, and was seen by witnesses at the DINA's Villa Grimaldi facility.

As of December 1992, the remains of the third victim had not yet been identified; preliminary information indicated they belonged to the forcibly disappeared Alejandro Avalos Davidson, who was detained on November 20, 1975, and also seen at Villa Grimaldi.

His niece, Clara Canteros Torres, remains in the status of disappeared. The remains of Eduardo Canteros were handed over to his family for burial in June 1990.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On July 26, 1976, an Amparo appeal (habeas corpus) under file Nº646-76 was filed before the Santiago Court of Appeals on behalf of Eduardo Canteros Prado and Clara Elena Canteros Torres. It was rejected on August 6, 1976, based solely on a report from the Ministry of the Interior, which denied that the detention had been ordered by that Secretariat of State.

Later, on the 18th of the same month, a criminal complaint for the kidnapping of Clara Elena Canteros Torres and Eduardo Canteros Prado was filed before the 11th Criminal Court of Santiago against security agents; the case was registered under Nº7.438-9.

The case was dismissed on May 3, 1978, by virtue of the Amnesty Law (D.L. Nº2.191), and the summary proceedings were reopened on June 21, 1978. The case was temporarily dismissed on October 2, 1979, a resolution that was confirmed by the Santiago Court of Appeals on December 18, 1979.

On the other hand, on August 1, 1978, relatives of 70 disappeared persons, including those of Eduardo Canteros Prado, filed a criminal complaint before the 10th Criminal Court of Santiago for the crime of aggravated kidnapping against General (Ret.) Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, Army Colonel Marcelo Luis Moren Brito, and Army Lieutenant Colonel Rolf Gonzalo Wenderoth Pozo.

The identities of other agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), information on the aforementioned organization's secret detention centers, and other data regarding its structure and resources were also provided to the Court.

Without conducting any investigation, on August 10 of that year, the judge of the 10th Court declared herself incompetent and referred the case to the Military Justice system; after several appeals, in May 1979 the case was reopened in the 2nd Military Prosecutor's Office of Santiago, under file N°553-78.

In 1983, the Court reviewed the four volumes of the Extraordinary Visit for cases of forcibly disappeared persons in the Metropolitan Region, which was substantiated by Minister Servando Jordán. These contained important information regarding the actions of the DINA and the responsibility of that security agency for hundreds of forcibly disappeared persons.

Without any investigative steps being taken for four years, on November 20, 1989, Army Lieutenant Colonel Enrique Ibarra Chamorro, Military Prosecutor General, requested the application of the Amnesty Decree Law (D.L. 2.191) for this case, arguing that the process had the exclusive purpose of investigating alleged crimes that occurred between September 11, 1973, and March 10, 1978, and because, during the 10 years of proceedings, it had not been possible to "determine the responsibility of any person." On November 30, 1989, the request was accepted by the 2nd Military Court, which dismissed the case totally and definitively—even though it was still in the summary stage—on the grounds that "the criminal responsibility of the persons allegedly accused of the reported acts had been extinguished." The plaintiffs appealed this resolution to the Martial Court, which confirmed the ruling in January 1992. A Complaint Appeal was then filed before the Supreme Court of Justice, which, as of December 1992, had not yet issued its resolution.

(Complete records of the complaint against Manuel Contreras can be found in the case of Eduardo Alarcón Jara, July 30, 1974).

On March 22, 1990, lawyers from the Vicaría de la Solidaridad filed a complaint for illegal burial before the 19th Criminal Court of Santiago following the discovery of three bodies on March 21 in the sector known as Las Tórtolas in Colina, where the Compañía Minera Disputada de Las Condes was carrying out land clearing work. The aforementioned land had belonged to the Army until 1980.

Among other measures, forensic examinations were requested to achieve full identification. This case is being processed under file Nro. 35625-6, and the family of Canteros Prado became a party to it once his remains were handed over in July 1990. As of December 1992, this case was in the summary stage.

In June 1990, after several expert reports and the delivery of anthropomorphic files of the forcibly disappeared persons of Santiago to the Court, it was possible to establish the identity of two of the bodies. One corresponded to Eduardo Canteros Prado, and the other to Vicente Atencio Cortés.

On August 23, 1991, María Enolfa Gómez Vera filed a criminal complaint against those responsible as authors, accomplices, or cover-ups in the kidnapping and qualified homicide of her spouse, Eduardo Canteros Prado.

The aforementioned complaint entered the 11th Criminal Court under file Nro. 7438. As of December 1992, the case was in the summary stage, without having advanced in establishing the responsibilities of the perpetrators for either the illegal burial or the homicide of Eduardo Canteros Prado.

Source: Vicaría de la Solidaridad