Address : Carlos Alamos 758, Población Malaquías Concha, Linares. Marital Status : Married Occupation : Agricultural technician. Political Affiliation : Militant of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR); Regional Secretary of the MIR for Linares Maule; member of its Central Committee; former official of the Corporación de Reforma Agraria (CORA) in Linares.

Date of Detention : January 2, 1974

Guillermo del Canto Ramírez, married, an official of the Corporación de Reforma Agraria (CORA) and a militant of the MIR, whom the Army Intelligence Service had been seeking since November 1973, was detained on January 2, 1974, at a relative's home in Santiago.

He was detained by personnel from the Linares Military Intelligence Service (SIM) and officials from the Investigations Service of the same city, who transported him to the Escuela Militar in Santiago and, from there, to the Escuela de Artillería Regiment in Linares, where he was forcibly disappeared on or about January 15, 1974.

Army Captain Claudio Lecaros, an agent of the SIM, participated in his apprehension.

That day, at approximately 00:30 hours, Guillermo del Canto and his spouse, Marianela Méndez Soto, were at the home of the victim's cousins, Félix Ignacio Valenzuela Tello and María Antonieta Romo Ferrer, located at Calle Santa Clara 560, La Cisterna, Santiago.

Relatives of the Valenzuela Romo couple were also present. After midnight, several individuals entered the home violently, identifying themselves as soldiers from the Linares Regiment. According to the statement by María Antonieta Romo, the group appeared to be led by an Army Major.

The uniformed men were accompanied by three civilians who claimed to be from Investigations and, based on their actions, there was no doubt that they knew the victim.

The detention of Guillermo del Canto and Félix Valenzuela proceeded immediately, and both were taken to the Escuela Militar. At this facility, they were tied to a chair with wire, and the interrogation began. Félix Valenzuela was asked his name and work activities, without further insistence. As for the victim, he was beaten on several occasions.

The following day, at 15:00 hours, Félix Valenzuela was released, while, as he later learned, Guillermo del Canto was transferred to Linares.

Juan Carlos del Canto Ramírez, the victim's brother, who later sought asylum in the French Embassy, was detained in Santiago in October 1973, along with another brother, Ricardo del Canto. Transferred to the Escuela de Artillería Regiment in Linares, he saw Guillermo held there on January 6, 1974, around 10:00 in the morning, while the witness was being transferred to Temuco.

In that city, Juan Carlos del Canto was taken to the Tucapel Regiment, where he was interrogated by a Lieutenant named Ubilla, who, among other topics, asked him about his brother Guillermo del Canto. When the declarant replied that he had seen him detained at the Escuela de Artillería in Linares, the officer communicated by radio with that military facility, where they denied the victim's presence there.

For his part, Mariano del Canto Romo, the victim's father, reported to the Minister of the Interior on August 31, 1978, that at the time of his son's detention, two vehicles belonging to him had been seized: a red Fiat 600 (not returned as of that date) and a Citroën, which was later given to Marianela Méndez Soto.

In other statements, Mariano del Canto indicated that his son remained at the Escuela de Artillería until January 15, 1974, the date on which, according to the Linares Command, he was returned to Santiago.

As previously mentioned, Guillermo del Canto had been sought since before his detention. On October 24, 1979, Investigations informed the Court that the files of the Police Informatics Section showed that, via a radiogram dated November 5, 1973, from Talca, the military authority of Linares had ordered the location and detention of the victim.

This information was corroborated in an official letter that the then-Minister of the Interior, Sergio Fernández Fernández, sent to the same Court in November 1980, communicating that the detention of Guillermo del Canto had been requested by the Military Authority of Linares.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On May 6, 1974, a writ of amparo (habeas corpus) was filed on behalf of the victim before the Santiago Court of Appeals, registered under No. 430-74. Only by virtue of negative reports from the authorities, the filing was rejected on November 18, 1974, 6 months after its submission.

Subsequently, on March 21, 1979, the Supreme Court of Justice, following a filing by the Episcopal Vicars of the Catholic Church of Santiago, ordered the Court of Appeals to initiate proceedings for the investigation of 9 cases of "presumed disappearances." The name of Guillermo del Canto was included on the list.

The Court of Appeals referred the records to the 3rd Criminal Court of Santiago, which opened case file No. 130.923 on July 26, 1979. The process began with the attendance of some of the victims' relatives.

In the particular case of Guillermo del Canto, it was established that he had been sought by the military authorities of Linares since November 1973 due to his status as a regional leader of the MIR in the area.

The witnesses to the victim's detention, María Antonieta Romo Ferrer and Félix Valenzuela Tello, appeared before the Court. For its part, the Linares Investigations Commissariat, in an official letter dated November 2, 1979, signed by Sub-Commissary Chief Germán Jara Bahamondes, reported that the detention of the victim was not registered in their books.

Following a judicial order, Investigations communicated to the Court that Guillermo del Canto had records in the Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI) regarding his political activities (militant and leader of the MIR) and the fact that he had been "sought by the military authority of Linares." It was also reported that, after making the pertinent inquiries, del Canto Ramírez did not appear to have traveled abroad and that his body had not entered the Legal Medical Institute (October 15, 1979).

Furthermore, in January 1980, the Minister of National Defense, Lieutenant Colonel Raúl Benavides Escobar, reported that Army personnel "have not participated in the possible detention of the citizen" Guillermo del Canto. In turn, Colonel Ricardo Canales Varas, Director of the Escuela de Artillería in Linares, stated that the victim had no records in that Military Unit (March 14, 1981).

In general terms, in addition to carrying out proceedings for the other situations investigated, it was established that there was no "List of Detainees of the National Stadium." The response regarding this was obtained through an official letter that Minister of Defense Raúl Benavides sent to Minister of the Interior Sergio Fernández Fernández on November 22, 1979, communicating that such a list did not exist.

The summary was closed on September 17, 1982, and the case was temporarily dismissed on September 23 of that same year because "the existence of the alleged crime that has been reported" was not fully proven. The Santiago Court of Appeals approved the resolution on April 7, 1983.

At the same time, the victim's family carried out numerous administrative efforts aimed at finding the whereabouts of Guillermo del Canto. They mainly wrote to the authorities of the time. Thus, on June 6, 1974, Mariano del Canto Romo wrote to General Augusto Pinochet, recounting the circumstances surrounding his son's detention and his stay at the Escuela de Artillería Regiment in Linares until January 15, 1974.

The response was only obtained in December of that year and was signed by the Executive Secretary of the National Secretariat of Detainees (SENDET), Colonel Jorge Espinoza Ulloa. It stated that the victim did not appear as "detained, deceased, prosecuted, or at liberty." It added that inquiries had been made in Military Units, Carabineros, and Investigations, which also did not contain records regarding the victim. "The foregoing," it stated, "does not rule out the possibility that, as has been proven in other cases, he may have decided to leave the country clandestinely." However, Guillermo del Canto's relatives insisted, with the testimonies of direct witnesses to the victim's apprehension and imprisonment, on his detention and his stay at the Escuela Militar in Santiago and the Escuela de Artillería in Linares, where they informed the family on January 15, 1974, that Guillermo del Canto had been transferred to Santiago.

Source: Vicaría de la Solidaridad

Visiting Judge Alejandro Solís prosecuted five retired members of the Army and two former detectives as authors of the aggravated kidnapping of three MIR militants and a union leader, who were last seen alive at the Escuela de Artillería in Linares between September 12, 1973, and January 2, 1974.

The ruling is an expansion of the resolution issued on July 6, 2003, when he prosecuted six former uniformed officers for other cases of forcibly disappeared persons contained in the same episode.

The magistrate decided to prosecute retired Colonel Gabriel del Río Espinoza, who was the commander of the aforementioned facility and, at the same time, regional intendant at the time; retired Colonel Claudio Abdón Lecaros Carrasco; former Investigations commissary Héctor Torres Guajardo; retired Sergeant Major Antonio Aguilar Barrientos; and former Investigations commissary Nelson Volta Rosas, as authors of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Guillermo del Canto Ramírez, a leader of the MIR.

According to the investigation substantiated by Solís, at 00:30 hours on January 2, 1974, Del Canto was detained while he was with his spouse, Marianela Méndez Soto, at the home of his cousin Félix Ignacio Valenzuela Ferrer, located at Calle Santa Clara No. 560 in the commune of La Cisterna.

In effect, several officials who claimed to belong to the Linares city Regiment entered the place and detained del Canto Ramírez and his cousin, because he was an "accessory after the fact"—according to the captors.

Both detainees were taken in a truck to the Escuela Militar in Santiago, where they were interrogated. The following morning, Valenzuela Ferrer was released, while Guillermo del Canto was transferred to the Escuela de Artillería Regiment in Linares, where he remained detained for a few days, being interrogated and tortured, to later, on an undetermined date, be taken to the Tejas Verdes prisoner camp in San Antonio, where his trail was lost until today.

Three other victims

On the other hand, Judge Solís prosecuted retired General Carlos Edmundo Morales Retamal, then director of the Escuela de Artillería in Linares, as the author of the crime of aggravated kidnapping against university student and former MIR militant María Isabel Beltrán Sánchez, committed starting September 18, 1973.

He also prosecuted former Investigations commissary Héctor Armando Torres Guajardo and retired Sergeant Major Antonio Aguilar Barrientos as authors of the crime of aggravated kidnapping against former MIR militant Héctor Hernán Contreras Cabrera, committed starting December 8, 1973.

Finally, the judge prosecuted retired Colonel Juan Hernán Morales Salgado as the author of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of José Alfonso Saavedra Betancourt, a former union leader of the Celco company, perpetrated starting September 12, 1973.

The magistrate granted provisional release to all those prosecuted, and only in the case of Morales Salgado, who is being charged in this case for the first time, was the benefit granted subject to consultation with the Court of Appeals.

The First Chamber of the appellate court confirmed the release of the former military officer this Tuesday, with the favorable votes of judges Juan Cristóbal Mera and Amanda Valdovinos, as well as lawyer Benito Mauriz.

Mery's colleagues

In the prosecution, which consists of more than 60 pages, Judge Solís noted the various allusions that exist in these cases regarding the participation of the former director of Investigations in the detention of these opponents of the military regime.

In fact, several witnesses identify him as part of the group of agents who detained María Isabel Beltrán. Likewise, one of the detectives who served at the Escuela de Artillería, Armando Torres Guajardo, maintained that in that unit "there was a Security Department, in charge of Captain Lecaros, and it had other officials, such as Nelson Mery, under the command of Jorge Zincke."

"He participated in the interrogations, and regarding María Isabel Beltrán, a MIR militant arrested in Santiago, he witnessed about 3 interrogations led by Captain Lecaros, who, to intimidate her, would hit her on the back with a rubber 'churro' (baton)."

Meanwhile, one of the survivors of the Escuela de Artillería in Linares, Osvaldo Efraín Salazar Saavedra, who was detained on December 19, 1973, by a platoon of soldiers and detectives who took him to the Escuela Militar and then transferred him to the Escuela de Artillería in Linares, states that Nelson Mery participated in that group.

For his part, the former director of the civil police, who left his post due to his alleged link to human rights violations, declared in the proceedings that "on September 12, 1973, while being a detective, he was designated as a liaison officer at the Escuela de Artillería in Linares, and on one occasion he was called from the 'Intelligence Office,' and Aguilar asked him if he knew Patricia Contreras, whom he knew because he was a friend of her sister, Elena."

"He answered yes, and they ordered him to go to Santiago because she was allegedly involved in hiding weapons in Panimávida. They arrived at a house on Calle Cienfuegos in a military jeep, in charge of Captain Humberto Julio; Sergeant Aguilar and Detective Volta also went.

They detained her and took her to the Escuela Militar; the next day, on the way back, he got out of the jeep and looked into the truck she was in and also found María Isabel Beltrán, who was detained by the military personnel," he added.

"He always considered that María Isabel Beltrán was a military intelligence target, as stated in writing by Colonel Morales Retamal, who points out that she belonged to a MIR cell, maintained extremist activities in Parral, and was involved in the infiltration of people into the Armed Forces, the main charge for which she was detained," Mery assured the court.

Source: April 19, 2006, El Mostrador.cl Date: 04-19-2006

Account of Alfredo Nelson Paredes Celis

He was 28 years old, an agricultural engineer, and worked in Linares as an official for the CORA. He was detained in the first days of January 1974 in San Bernardo.

According to information provided by former militants, Guillermo belonged to the MIR and had come from Temuco to organize the Party in the area. In this province, he was known as Hugo García; he was even mentioned by this name in the official military edicts (Bandos).

Alfredo Nelson Paredes Celis, a former political prisoner and laborer who was prosecuted and later expelled to Belgium, where he currently lives, recounted that Guillermo had been taken to Tejas Verdes.

"On January 15, while I was a prisoner in that facility and they were torturing me, I heard moans and screams. When my blindfold slipped, I saw Hugo García tied up, naked, and savagely tortured. While they threatened him, they told him they would take him to Linares, and they effectively did so."

We have not been able to obtain further information about Guillermo.

Source: Labradores de esperanza, derechos.org