• Claudio Jesús ESCANILLA ESCOBAR, 16 years old, shoeshine boy, with no political affiliation. He was detained by a military patrol in the Plaza de Parral and taken to the Carabineros Police Station. During the night, he was transferred to the city jail, a facility where he remained until October 23.
• Rafael Alonso DIAZ MEZA, 23 years old, laborer, detained on public streets by Carabineros officers from Parral on September 22 along with Manuel Bascuñán, and taken to the Parral Jail. He remained there until October 23.
• Ireneo Alberto MENDEZ HERNANDEZ, 22 years old, member of the Socialist Party. He was detained by Carabineros officers from the Copihue station and transferred to the Parral Jail.
• José Ignacio BUSTOS FUENTES, 52 years old, merchant, member of the Communist Party. He turned himself in voluntarily to the Parral Carabineros on September 13, as he had been sought at his home by Army personnel. He was subsequently transferred to the Parral Jail.
• Manuel Eduardo BASCUÑAN ARAVENA, 23 years old, student, member of the Socialist Party. He was detained on public streets by Carabineros officers from Parral on September 22 along with Rafael Díaz, and taken to the Parral Jail.
• Oscar Abdón RETAMAL PEREZ, 19 years old, high school student, member of the Socialist Party. Detained on September 25 by Carabineros officers from Retiro and taken to the Parral Jail the day after his arrest.
• Roberto del Carmen ROMERO MUÑOZ, 23 years old, laborer. Detained on October 9 when he presented himself voluntarily at the Parral Carabineros Police Station after being summoned. He was admitted as a detainee to the Public Jail the same day.

These seven individuals are recorded as having left the Parral Public Jail on October 23, 1973, from where they were taken by a Carabineros patrol to testify at the Military Prosecutor's Office, by order of the Parral Departmental Governor, as evidenced by various means before this Commission.

Upon reviewing the Logbook of the Parral Public Jail, this Commission was able to verify that it states that on October 23, 1973, "by order of the Departmental Governor..., the following detainees are released: José Bustos Fuentes, Claudio Escanilla Escobar, Rafael Díaz Meza, Ireneo Méndez Hernández, Manuel Bascuñán Aravena, Roberto Romero Muñoz, and Oscar Abdón Retamal Pérez." This Commission has formed the conviction that the detention and forced disappearance of these individuals occurred at the hands of State agents.

These individuals were victims of a grave violation of their civil rights. This conviction is supported by the following elements:

• The detentions are documented and supported by testimony;
• The last news regarding them is in their capacity as detainees.
• As stated above; the repeated occurrence of this procedure in the Region and their political affiliations make it implausible that they would have been released.

(Rettig Report)

Source: Corporation report

They sent "Callín" to buy yeast and he never returned. His mother waited for him at the door until she died. She would say: "But how? He just went to buy something, how could he take so long?" and she would sit on her doorstep waiting for him.

Callín was always a restless boy; he liked to hang out with the older ones. They would gather in the corner plaza, paint graffiti in support of Allende, or hand out pamphlets. At sixteen, he believed in the revolution.

His family, eight or nine siblings, children of peasants, never got involved in politics, but Callín did. He worked shining shoes in the Plaza de Armas of Parral, where you can still see the shoeshine stands, although all of them disappeared.

Claudio Jesús Escanilla Escobar was his name, but everyone in Parral called him "El Callín." On September 13, he was detained by a military patrol. He was with Nelson León and Emiliano Mena, but they would be released days later.

Mrs. Julia, his mother, was told by the shoeshine boys in the plaza that the military and Carabineros Sergeant Luis Hidalgo had detained him, and that, apparently, he was being held at the Parral Police Station.

And indeed, on September 14, they transferred him to the jail, where Mrs. Julia could only leave him clothes and food, as they never allowed her to see him. Along with Callín, thirty-three other people were detained, most of them young people who were not yet twenty-two.

Children of laborers, peasants, poor people who, for one reason or another, were detained, taken to the Parral Police Station, and then never heard from again. Even back then, the idea circulated that they had been taken to Colonia Dignidad, the German enclave that operated with total impunity for decades in Chile and was led by former Hitler Youth member Paul Schäfer.

The first to be detained was Luis Evangelista Aguayo Fernández, twenty years old; followed by Hugo Enrique Soto Campos, eighteen years old and a high school student. Aurelio Clodomiro Peñailillo Sepúlveda, thirty-two years old and retired due to disability, was also detained.

Also Oscar Eladio Saldías Daza, twenty years old, from a low-income family, who worked to care for his mother and a five-year-old niece they were raising. Also Enrique Ángel Carreño González, the only university student, who was released and then arrested, never to be heard from again.

Also José Ignacio Bustos Fuentes, fifty-two years old, a peasant who lived with his mother, who toured the military barracks of Linares and Talca, but no one ever saw him again. Also Rafael Alonso Díaz Meza, twenty-three years old; Irineo Alberto Méndez Hernández, twenty-two; Manuel Eduardo Bascuñán Aravena, twenty-three; Óscar Abdón Retamal Pérez, nineteen and a student; Roberto del Carmen Romero Muñoz, twenty-three years old and an agricultural laborer.

In October, the following people disappeared: Armando Edelmiro Morales Morales, nineteen years old and a high school student. Luis Enrique Rivera Cofré, twenty-one years old, father of nine-month-old Vladimir Rivera Órdenes and an unborn child who would also be named Luis.

Also disappeared were Víctor Julio Vivanco Vásquez, nineteen years old; and José Hernán Riveros Chávez, twenty-three. In Catillo, a community near Parral, Miguel Rojas Rojas and Gilberto Rojas Vásquez, father and son, were detained.

Also Ruperto Oriol Torres Aravena, fifty-eight years old, a peasant and father of three children who were left orphaned. Also Ramiro Romero González, twenty-eight years old, a peasant, married, two children.

And Alfredo Durán Durán, forty-eight years old, who worked at the Civil Registry. The last cases of forcibly disappeared persons in Parral correspond to 1974, plus one murdered woman, Bella Aurora Sepúlveda Valenzuela.

These were twelve men, eight of whom were linked to a singular repressive event known as the "El Águila" case. Among them were Aroldo Vivían Laurie Luengo and Hernán Sarmiento Sabater. The last detainees were José Luis Morales Ruiz, twenty-one years old, an artisan who had two children, and Juan Francisco Ponce González, for whom there is no record and who does not even appear in the Rettig Report.

In the majority of the detentions, except for those involved in the "El Águila" case, the name of Luis Hidalgo appears—a kind gentleman who, until the day he died, walked through the center of Parral with total impunity.

No one ever confronted him, out of fear, of course. He was not convicted, he did not set foot in jail, he did not repent, and it is most likely that for many, he is one of the most prominent figures of Parral.

When I asked Mrs. Julia why she went out every day to sit outside her house, she replied: "In case Callín appears, so he knows this is his home." No one could ever get her to leave that spot until she died, waiting for the son who, on that fateful day, went out to buy yeast.

Book: In the town there is a small, dark house. Author: Vladimir Rivera Órdenes (Parral, 1973) is a screenwriter, narrator, and teacher. Chronicle: The pride of being from Parral.

Source: ruil.cl 08/30/2021

Date: 08-30-2021