Rodolfo Arturo Marchant Villaseca, married, refrigeration technician, former union leader, and socialist militant, was detained on January 2, 1975, at the home of his brother, Hugo César Marchant, at Calle Bernal del Mercado 551, at approximately 11:30 p.m.

The detention was carried out by four individuals in civilian clothes who were traveling in a red, double-cab pickup truck without license plates.

These individuals arrived at Hugo Marchant's house asking directly for his brother Rodolfo. Upon realizing he was not there, they sat in the living room to wait for him. One of them had a notebook that he consulted from time to time. Hugo Marchant was able to notice that the subjects knew his brother's daily routine and had other information about him, such as his current job.

At 11:30 p.m., while entering his brother's house, Rodolfo Marchant was detained in the presence of his brother and his spouse. The couple was asked to go to the second floor, as the agents claimed they needed to speak confidentially with Rodolfo about the whereabouts of a secretary from his former job.

They quickly displayed blue identification cards. Without searching the home, they had the owner of the house come down after a few minutes. They explained that they were taking his brother to ask him a few questions and that they would return soon.

Two or four days after his detention, he was taken to the home of a former office colleague in a SICAR vehicle.

Witnesses to the detention provided a physical description of the captors. All four had very short hair and were dressed in civilian clothes. Two of them, the younger ones, were wearing sportswear; the other two were in formal attire. One of them carried a black suitcase and a tape recorder.

The head of personnel at the Empresa Nacional de Frigoríficos (ENAFRI), Alfredo Saavedra Castillo, declared before the Maipú Investigations unit: "that the personnel file of Mr. Rodolfo Arturo Marchant Villaseca records that he was head of the Federation of Unions, political delegate to the plenary of the left, and Secretary of the Partido Socialista." Saavedra added: "this man always gave us problems since he was at the head of every political movement that existed in the industry; he also went to work in Copiapó and Curicó where he allegedly made contact with guerrilla centers in those cities."

Rodolfo Arturo Marchant Villaseca was President of the ENAFRI Union between 1972 and 1973. He continued to serve in this position until October 1973. At the time of his detention, he was working as a driver, driving a pickup truck belonging to his father-in-law, José Lecaros Fernández, which provided services to the Industria Litográfica Moderna.

In July 1975, the name of the affected party appeared on a list of 119 Chileans who had allegedly died in Argentina, some in supposed clashes with security forces of that country and others among themselves, as a result of "internal feuds." This falsehood was published in two press outlets that appeared only that day, undoubtedly with the sole objective of disseminating the news.

One was the newspaper O'DIA of Curitiba, Brazil, and the other was the Argentine magazine LEA, both unknown in their respective countries. This information was denied by the Argentine and Brazilian authorities, who stated they had no knowledge of these events.

The Chilean military government said there was no record of these alleged deaths of Chileans abroad and that there was no record of any of them having left the country. The names on these lists correspond to people detained by Chilean security services between the months of June 1974 and February 1975, who were seen by witnesses in DINA detention centers and who remain forcibly disappeared to this day.

The name of Rodolfo Arturo Marchant Villaseca appeared in the magazine LEA.

To date, Rodolfo Marchant Villaseca remains forcibly disappeared.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On January 6, 1975, the brother of the affected party, Hugo César Marchant, filed a writ of amparo (habeas corpus) before the Santiago Court of Appeals, case file No. 26-75. The filing requested various official reports from the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Defense, and the Chief of the State of Siege Zone of Santiago.

Given the negative responses from all these authorities, the amparo was rejected, and it was ordered that a summary investigation be opened regarding the disappearance of Rodolfo Arturo Marchant Villaseca.

The customary note from the duty prosecutor of the time is highlighted, which states: "as can be seen, once again it is not possible to provide an adequate response to the family of a disappeared person," dated January 8, 1975.

The summary investigation for alleged misfortune was conducted by the 7th Criminal Court of Santiago under case file 76.723-4. The judge of this court, Mr. Germán Hermosilla, issued a temporary dismissal on November 24, 1975, due to there being "no indications of who is responsible." The Court limited itself to sending the standard official requests, receiving the usual negative responses from government authorities.

The temporary dismissal was ratified by the First Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals on March 12, 1976.

Negative responses were received from the Legal Medical Institute of the Ministry of Defense, the Department of Immigration of the Civil Registry Service (regarding Marchant's death certificate, July 2, 1975), the SENDET, the head of the Department of Special Services of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Enrique Cid Coubles, and the Argentine Consulate.

Administrative actions taken by the family include: a letter to the Court of Appeals, a letter to Mrs. Lucía de Pinochet, and another to the International Commission of Jurists.

To this date, nothing is known about the whereabouts of Rodolfo Arturo Marchant Villaseca.

Source: Corporation report

He was last seen at Villa Grimaldi after being detained by the DINA.

The minister on special assignment for human rights violation cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Mario Carroza, issued an indictment for the aggravated kidnapping of Rodolfo Marchant Villaseca, a crime perpetrated starting on January 2, 1975, in Santiago.

In the resolution, Minister Carroza prosecuted former agents of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda and Marcelo Moren Brito for their responsibility in the crime.

According to the evidence gathered during the investigation stage, the magistrate was able to establish that: "On January 2, 1975, around 11:30 p.m., four individuals dressed in civilian clothes entered the property at Calle Bernal del Mercado No. 551, in Santiago.

Armed with firearms, they intimidated the brother and sister-in-law of the victim, Rodolfo Marchant Villaseca, then asked for him, and upon finding he was not there, waited at the location until he arrived and the agents detained him.

They transported him to the Terranova barracks or 'Villa Grimaldi,' a detention center of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional, and this is the last news known of his person, according to the accounts of witnesses who saw him and were in the same condition in said detention or interrogation center."

Source: villagrimaldi.cl 25/4/2023

Date: 25-04-2023

Rodolfo Arturo Marchant Villaseca

Rodolfo Arturo Marchant Villaseca was born on August 29, 1945, in Santiago. His parents were the military man Luis Alberto Marchant and Sabina Villaseca, natives of the town of Roma, near the city of San Fernando, in the current Sixth Region.

The couple had five children, and Rodolfo was the youngest. When little Rodolfo was five years old, his mother died of cancer. His father remarried, but the difficult relationship that his new wife had with his children forced the little ones to go live in San Fernando, where they were under the care of a maternal aunt.

After the death of his stepmother, Rodolfo and some of his siblings returned to Santiago, living with their father again.

Rodolfo entered the Industrial School No. 1, an establishment where he studied to be a refrigeration technician.

On June 28, 1972, he married Isabel Fernández Loyola, a young teacher, with whom he had his only child, who was born on April 6, 1973.

The couple bought a house in Melipilla, where they settled with the purpose of establishing and planning their life together.

By that time, Rodolfo was an active militant of the PS. After working in Curicó, at the date of the military coup, he was working at the Empresa Nacional de Frigoríficos (ENAFRI), where he was also the president of the union, a position he held between 1972 and 1973, which he maintained even until October '73.

The detention Rodolfo was detained at 11:30 p.m. on February 2, 1975, at the home of his brother Hugo César Marchant, at Calle Bernal del Mercado 551, in Santiago, a place where he stayed overnight after leaving work, since due to the curfew he only returned to his home in Melipilla in the mornings.

At the date of his detention, he was working as a driver on the night shift—from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.—with his father-in-law, José Lecaros, who rented a pickup truck to Industria Litografía Moderna, in Maipú, transporting the workers of that company to their homes.

The detention was carried out by four individuals dressed in civilian clothes who were traveling in a red, double-cab pickup truck without license plates.

These individuals arrived at Hugo Marchant's house asking directly for his brother Rodolfo. Upon realizing he was not there, they sat in the living room to wait for him. One of them had a notebook that he consulted from time to time. Hugo Marchant was able to notice that the subjects knew his brother's daily routine and had other information about him, such as his current job.

At 11:30 p.m., while entering his brother's house, Rodolfo was detained in the presence of his brother and his spouse. The couple was asked to go to the second floor, as the agents claimed they needed to speak confidentially with Rodolfo about the whereabouts of a secretary from his former job.

They quickly displayed blue identification cards. Without searching the home, they had the owner of the house come down after a few minutes. They explained that they were taking his brother to ask him a few questions and that they would return soon.

Two or four days after his detention, he was taken to the home of a former office colleague in a SICAR vehicle.

Witnesses to the detention provided a physical description of the captors. All four had very short hair and were dressed in civilian clothes. Two of them, the younger ones, were wearing sportswear; the other two were in formal attire. One of them carried a black suitcase and a tape recorder.

The head of personnel at the Empresa Nacional de Frigoríficos (ENAFRI), Alfredo Saavedra Castillo, declared before the Maipú Investigations unit: "that the personnel file of Mr. Rodolfo Arturo Marchant Villaseca records that he was head of the Federation of Unions, political delegate to the plenary of the left, and Secretary of the Partido Socialista." Saavedra added: "this man always gave us problems since he was at the head of every political movement that existed in the industry."

In July 1975, Rodolfo's name appeared on a list of 119 Chileans who had allegedly died in Argentina, some in supposed clashes with security forces of that country and others among themselves, as a result of "internal feuds." This falsehood was published in two press outlets that appeared only that day, undoubtedly with the sole objective of disseminating the news.

One was the newspaper O'DIA of Curitiba, Brazil, and the other was the Argentine magazine LEA, both unknown in their respective countries. This information was denied by the Argentine and Brazilian authorities, who stated they had no knowledge of these events.

The Chilean military government said there was no record of these alleged deaths of Chileans abroad and that there was no record of any of them having left the country. The names on these lists correspond to people detained by Chilean security services between the months of June 1974 and February 1975, who were seen by witnesses in DINA detention centers and who remain forcibly disappeared to this day.

The name of Rodolfo Arturo Marchant Villaseca appeared in the magazine LEA.

At the time of his kidnapping, Rodolfo Marchant was 28 years old.

Source: pschile.cl (undated)