Ricardo Octavio López Elgueda, 15 years of age, a street market vendor with no political affiliation, was detained on the morning of September 20, 1973, inside his home and in the presence of his family, during an intense operation carried out in the Población La Bandera by members of the Air Force (FACH), Carabineros, and the Army.

He was taken to a field in the neighborhood—where numerous other detainees were being held—where he was blindfolded and mistreated by his captors. From that location, they were transferred to the 25th Carabineros Precinct, located on Avenida Santa Rosa. He was seen by witnesses at this police facility, after which he disappeared.

Margarita Elgueda González, the victim's mother, stated that her home was raided by Army and FACH personnel, who proceeded to detain her son because he did not have an identity card. They took him to the Avenida Santa Rosa Precinct, where she arrived at 5:30 p.m. that same day.

There, a military officer informed her that the minor had been taken to the Estadio Nacional, which turned out to be false.

A neighbor of the young man, Graciela del Carmen Páez Córdova, stated in a sworn declaration that on September 20, 1973, starting at 6:00 a.m., a vast operation began in the Población La Bandera sector.

Around 7:00 a.m., members of the FACH raided her home and detained her spouse, Emilio Escobar Flores, because he had a blue cap he used for his work as a car attendant. The people being detained—the witness said—were taken to a nearby field, where they were beaten and trampled. They were blindfolded and forced to lie face down on the ground. The operation lasted until around 6:00 p.m.

When they took Emilio Escobar toward the field, Graciela Páez went out into the street to see what was happening. Around 11:00 a.m., she witnessed the detention of Ricardo Octavio López, who lived with his family about 40 meters from the witness's house.

They dragged him out with rifle butts while his older brother, Jaime, then 19 years old, begged the captors not to take him. Like the witness's husband, the victim was taken to the field and subjected to harsh treatment, without any consideration for his young age.

Graciela Páez continued her account by saying that starting at 5:00 p.m., the uniformed officers began a selection process for the numerous detainees. Those who had or had previously had problems with the ordinary justice system were marked on their backs with red paint and separated from the rest to be taken later to the Investigations police or other detention centers.

Those who were not in that situation—including the victim and Emilio Escobar—were forced onto trucks with beatings. Fifteen days later, Emilio Escobar was released. During that entire period, he remained held incommunicado at the Cerro Chena military facility, where he was tortured. However, the minor Ricardo Octavio was not taken to that location.

Cecilia Basaez Jorquera, also a resident of Población La Bandera—whose brother was also detained during the operation—was a witness to the victim's detention. She declared that the detainees were taken to the neighborhood field, a place she went to in order to see her relative, where she learned that López Elgueda was there.

The witness's brother was released from the Santa Rosa Precinct, where Ricardo Octavio remained.

For his part, Adolfo Navia Pérez—also a resident of Población La Bandera—was detained at 2:30 p.m. on that September 20 by a Sergeant and a Corporal from the FACH, who threw him to the ground with rifle butts.

Half an hour later, they put him on a truck and took him to the 25th Carabineros Precinct on Avenida Santa Rosa. There, around 5:00 p.m., they put him in a cell near the entrance and adjacent to the guard room.

It was a medium-sized room that was packed with detainees. Two of his brothers, aged 17 and 16 respectively, were there, and sitting in a corner, he saw Ricardo Octavio López Elgueda, whom he knew. The victim told him that he had been detained for not having an identity card.

Moments later, an Army Captain—only military and FACH personnel were seen at the precinct—called for Ricardo Octavio, and nothing more was heard of him. Subsequently, the witness and his two brothers were called.

In the guard room, they were interrogated by the same Army Officer about their jobs or occupations, who stated that "your brothers are being released, but you will pay for them." Instantly, a soldier marked his back with red paint and they were forced onto a truck where other detainees were also being held, including a priest and an Argentine citizen.

Just as the vehicle was starting to move, the witness's father arrived at the precinct and showed the witness's military license to the Army Captain. The officer made him get off the truck with his hands up and told him, "take your license and keep working, because we have plenty to kill."

While her son was disappearing from the 25th Carabineros Precinct, Margarita Elgueda González went to various detention centers in search of Ricardo Octavio. At the El Bosque Air Base, they read her a list of detained persons, which included the names of several acquaintances who had been arrested along with the victim.

She pointed this out to the uniformed officers, who, upon seeing her cry and learning that the victim was only 15 years old, asked her for a photo of the minor. But they said they knew nothing about the matter.

As a result of the raid carried out in Población La Bandera, the victim, Héctor Orlando Vicencio González, and Simón Eladio Sánchez Pérez—the latter only 17 years old and only passing through the neighborhood—disappeared after being detained for similar reasons, such as not having an identity card.

Regarding another detainee from that operation, Luis Osvaldo Silva, a 38-year-old street vendor, his body was found on Cerro San Cristóbal with multiple gunshot wounds. According to the death certificate, the date of death was September 21, 1973.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On March 24, 1974, a mass writ of amparo (habeas corpus) was filed for 131 people before the Santiago Court of Appeals, registered under No. 289-74. The situation of this minor was included in the filing.

During the long processing of the writ, various inquiries were made to the authorities of the time, without obtaining positive responses regarding the respective situations of those protected. On November 28, 1974, the writ of amparo was rejected.

The ruling was appealed, and on January 31, 1975, the Plenary of the Supreme Court confirmed the resolution and, in the same act, agreed to appoint a Visiting Judge (Ministro en Visita Extraordinaria) to conduct the corresponding investigation. The appointment fell to Judge Enrique Zurita Camps, who, on February 24, 1975, initiated case file No. 106.657 in the 1st Criminal Court of Santiago.

That case began with the summoning of the complaining family members, who appeared over the course of several months. In the case of Ricardo Octavio López, Margarita Elgueda was not summoned because, according to the investigating officials in charge of the proceedings, her address could not be located.

Official letters were also sent to the authorities—all with negative responses—and cases that were being processed in different courts regarding reports of alleged disappearances were consolidated, including the files of 11 people who had been detained in Isla de Maipo, some of whose bodies were found in the Lonquén ovens, and the cases of Enrique París Roa and Enrique Huerta Corvalán, both of whom disappeared after being detained at La Moneda on September 11, 1973.

On September 25, 1975—without having delved into any of the reported cases—the summary was closed because "no further progress could be made in the investigation." On September 29 of the same year, Judge Enrique Zurita issued a ruling.

In the case of the forcibly disappeared José Miguel Rivas Rachitoff, Luis Sergio Gutiérrez Rivas, and the 11 people from Isla de Maipo, he declared himself incompetent because personnel from the Air Force, the DINA, the Army, and Carabineros were involved in the events, respectively.

In the case of the victims of political execution Santos Pascual Calderón Saldaño (detained in Paine on October 20, 1973, by members of the San Bernardo Infantry School Regiment and whose body was found three days later with gunshot wounds) and Calixto Peralta Gajardo (detained on January 29, 1974, by armed civilians and whose body was admitted to the Legal Medical Institute a few hours later, also with gunshot wounds), Judge Zurita temporarily dismissed the case.

Regarding 22 cases, the case was partially and definitively dismissed because it was determined that these people were at liberty and not disappeared. However, the name of Gustavo Farías Vargas, who disappeared from the Tejas Verdes Military Engineers School Regiment in October 1973, was included here, and he maintains the status of disappeared to this day.

Regarding the rest of the reported cases—including the minor Ricardo López Elgueda—the case was temporarily dismissed because the existence of any criminal act was not fully justified.

On May 10, 1976, the Santiago Court of Appeals approved the ruling of the Visiting Judge, Enrique Zurita Camps.

For her part, the victim's mother carried out a series of administrative efforts aimed at finding her son's whereabouts. In 1974, she even wrote to General Pinochet, receiving as a response a letter signed by Colonel Jorge Espinoza Ulloa, Executive Secretary of the National Executive Secretariat of Detainees (SENDET), on February 20, 1974.

It stated that the victim did not appear on that organization's lists of detainees.

Years later, on April 1, 1991, the family members of Ricardo Octavio López Elgueda, Héctor Orlando Vicencio González, and Simón Eladio Sánchez Pérez filed a complaint for alleged disappearance before the 22nd Criminal Court of Santiago, which was registered under No. 3447-5.

In the filing, they recounted the circumstances in which they disappeared and requested various proceedings, including certified copies of the files of the bodies admitted to the Legal Medical Institute of Santiago as "NN" (unidentified) on September 20, 21, and 22, 1973, whose deaths appeared to have occurred on Cerro San Cristóbal.

The file containing the information regarding Luis Osvaldo Silva, whose body was found on the aforementioned hill, was also requested.

As of December 1992, this case remained open with pending proceedings.

On the other hand, the anthropometric data of Ricardo Octavio López Elgueda 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

As anticipated, Judge Alejandro Solís announced today new results from the forensic identification of human remains found in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery. The bodies correspond to the forcibly disappeared Juan Carlos Díaz Fierro, Ricardo Octavio López Elgueda, and Adrián del Carmen Sepúlveda Farías.

The bone samples were sent by the magistrate to the University of North Texas Health Science Center laboratory, which indicated in its report that the genetic compatibility has a 99.999% probability of identification.

The analyses were carried out following the scientific audit conducted at the Genetics Unit of the Legal Medical Service and the appointment in March 2007 of the so-called Panel of Experts, which included forensic doctors María Cristina de Mendoza and Francisco Etxeberría and geneticist Rhonda Robby.

The information gathered by human rights entities indicates that Juan Carlos Díaz Fierro was detained on September 19, 1973, at his workplace—"Casa García"—located at Avenida Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins and Avenida España, and taken to the Army War Academy.

His remains were handed over to his family on October 27, 1973, at the Legal Medical Service (SML), where they had been brought by a military ambulance. In the case of Ricardo Octavio López Elgueda, he was a 14-year-old minor, a street market vendor with no political affiliation, who was detained on the morning of September 20, 1973, inside his home in the presence of his family, during an operation carried out in the Población La Bandera by members of the Air Force, Carabineros, and the Army.

From there, he was taken to a neighborhood field and transferred to the 25th Carabineros Precinct. His body was found on September 21, 1973, on Cerro San Cristóbal. Finally, Adrián Sepúlveda Farías was detained on September 23, 1973, at the Sumar Textile Industry along with two other workers from the same company.

His remains appeared the same day in the Pedro de Valdivia Norte sector. Regarding this last victim, there is an open criminal case in which the Supreme Court sentenced Hernán Ovalle Hidalgo on October 22, 2007, to 12 years in prison for his responsibility as an accomplice to the qualified homicides of Adrián Sepúlveda Farías, Donato Quispe Choque, and Ofelia Villarroel Latín.

Source: Tuesday, December 29, 2009 Lanacion.cl Date: 29-12-2009

Judge Solís delivered identification of three more bodies exhumed from Patio 29

The presiding judge confirmed that the results of the forensic examinations allow for the conclusion that the remains correspond to the forcibly disappeared Juan Carlos Díaz Fierro, Ricardo Octavio López Elgueda, and Adrián del Carmen Sepúlveda Farías.

The presiding judge, Alejandro Solís, announced today, Tuesday, the results of the forensic examinations that allow for the conclusion that the remains of the three exhumed bodies correspond to the forcibly disappeared Juan Carlos Díaz Fierro, Ricardo Octavio López Elgueda, and Adrián del Carmen Sepúlveda Farías.

This follows the sending of samples to the University of North Texas Health Science Center laboratory, which resulted in genetic compatibility with a 99.999% probability of identification. The analyses were carried out following the scientific audit conducted at the Genetics Unit of the Legal Medical Service and the appointment in March 2007 of the so-called Panel of Experts, which included forensic doctors María Cristina de Mendoza and Francisco Etxeberría and geneticist Rhonda Robby.

According to the records of the time, Juan Carlos Díaz Fierro was detained on September 19, 1973, at his workplace—"Casa García"—located at Avenida Libertador Bernardo O’Higgins and Avenida España, and taken to the Army War Academy.

His remains were handed over to his family on October 27, 1973, at the Legal Medical Service (SML), where they had been brought by a military ambulance. Meanwhile, Ricardo Octavio López Elgueda, a 14-year-old minor, a street market vendor with no political affiliation, was detained on the morning of September 20, 1973, inside his home in the presence of his family, during an operation carried out in the Población La Bandera by members of the Air Force, Carabineros, and the Army.

From there, he was taken to a neighborhood field and transferred to the 25th Carabineros Precinct. His body was found on September 21, 1973, on Cerro San Cristóbal. Finally, Adrián Sepúlveda Farías was detained on September 23, 1973, at the Sumar Textile Industry along with two other workers from the same company.

His remains appeared the same day in the Pedro de Valdivia Norte sector. Regarding this last victim, there is an open criminal case in which the Supreme Court sentenced Hernán Ovalle Hidalgo on October 22, 2007, to 12 years in prison for his responsibility as an accomplice to the qualified homicides of Adrián Sepúlveda Farías, Donato Quispe Choque, and Ofelia Villarroel Latín.

The Visiting Judge Alejandro Solís reported the new identifications of remains of people exhumed from Patio 29 of the General Cemetery, which were not properly carried out by the SML at the time. This information, which was first delivered to the victims' families, is in addition to that provided by the magistrate at the beginning of December.

Source: adnradio.cl 29/12/2009

Patio 29. Behind the Iron Cross (book)

Authors : Javiera Bustamante and Stephan Ruderer.

Topic : Focuses on Patio 29 of the General Cemetery of Santiago, which originally housed the bodies of the indigent, psychiatric patients, and unidentified persons. Between September 1973 and January 1974, it was also used to bury victims of political repression during the Chilean dictatorship as "NN" (unidentified).

The book reconstructs this history through testimonies, letters, documents, and photographs by Mara Daruich.

Source: ocholibros.cl no date

Breaking the silence of children and adolescents who were victims of political execution during the civil-military dictatorship 1973-1990 (BOOK)

The book "Breaking the silence of children and adolescents who were victims of political execution during the civil-military dictatorship 1973-1990" incorporates testimonies, photographs, letters, and other documents that families and friends provided or wrote specifically to be published.

It was produced by the Association of Relatives of Victims of Political Execution (AFEP) with the support of the Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage, through the Culture, Memory, and Human Rights Unit, and the Human Rights Chair of the University of Chile.

The publication, based mainly on the Report of the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation (1991) and the Report of the National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation (1996), seeks to reconstruct in a comprehensive and careful manner each of the lives and stories of the victims.

During the research, the archive of the Association of Relatives of Victims of Political Execution was accessed, where documents that families have preserved over the years are kept. Illustrations by Álvaro Gómez were also included. The creation process was a complex challenge that involved combining delicacy, respect, and methodological rigor to state a painful and inescapable truth in this work.

Source: Cultura.gob.cl 20/4/2023