Rosa Elena Morales Morales, single, a communist militant and former secretary to President Salvador Allende’s Ministers of Labor, Mireya Baltra and Luis Figueroa, was detained by agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) on August 18, 1976, at approximately 8:00 p.m.

She was on a public street, at the intersection of Avenida Matta and Lord Cochrane, while traveling in a taxi with her friend Berta Laporte del Solar. The victim had been temporarily living at Berta Laporte’s home in the Las Condes commune since August 10 of that year.

On the day of her detention, she asked Ms. Laporte to accompany her to retrieve some belongings from a house located on Calle Lord Cochrane. They arrived at this location around 7:00 p.m. and were received by another woman, María Galaz.

After gathering some clothes, both women left in a taxi. Upon reaching the intersection with Avenida Matta, the taxi was intercepted by a burgundy Peugeot. Three individuals exited the vehicle, proceeded to detain the women, and ordered the taxi driver to leave the scene.

They were immediately taken, handcuffed and blindfolded with patches held in place by adhesive tape, to a secret detention center. During the half-hour journey, Rosa Morales was subjected to mockery and insults by her captors.

Upon arriving at the facility, they were separated; however, Berta Laporte was able to hear the victim’s desperate screams, which ceased moments later. Meanwhile, Laporte was interrogated regarding the life and activities of Rosa Morales, and the records of her spouse were also registered.

The interrogation was conducted under heavy pressure and threats. Finally, around midnight, she was taken to her home, which was raided by agents who removed several bundles and a handbag they had been eagerly searching for, all belonging to Rosa Morales.

It should be added that the witness was left terrified by the experience and by the captors' threat to kidnap her again if she reported what had happened.

Rosa Morales had been sought by security forces since mid-June 1976, when two civilians went looking for her at the home of her nephew, Nivaldo Miño. Subsequently, the agents, who carried a photograph of the victim, went to the nephew's workplace, identified themselves to him as "police," and interrogated him about his aunt's whereabouts.

These events were repeated on two more occasions, and the young man's home remained under visible surveillance.

It should be noted that during the month of August 1976, the military government's security agencies carried out an operation against the Communist Party, detaining numerous leaders and members of those ranks in Santiago.

These operations were even reported in a Public Declaration in July of that year by the Government's Social Communication Directorate (DINACOS), which stated that, following the raid on numerous "mailbox houses" (clandestine meeting points) that the Party maintained to communicate with its militants, a large amount of information had been seized that would allow for the dismantling of that political organization.

It added that, due to the success of the ongoing investigations, they could not provide names.

Regarding the victim, it can be added that during that month of August, almost the entire leadership of the Northern Regional branch was detained, as were members of the Local Committees dependent on that party structure, one of which she was a member of.

Some survivors of these arrests recounted their experience and confinement in Villa Grimaldi, a DINA detention center located at José Arrieta 8.200, where, among others, the Political Secretary of that Regional branch, Julio Vega—also forcibly disappeared—was seen.

Despite the evidence of her arrest and the fact that she was being sought by security forces, who used a photograph of her for that purpose, the authorities never acknowledged the detention of Rosa Morales Morales, who has been missing since she was kidnapped on August 18, 1976.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDINGS

On August 26, 1976, her sister María del Rosario filed a writ of amparo (habeas corpus) with the Santiago Court of Appeals, case file 829-76. After receiving a negative report from the Ministry of the Interior regarding the victim's detention on September 7 of that year, the 4th Chamber of the Court dismissed the appeal and resolved to remit the records to the corresponding Criminal Court to investigate the reported facts.

The resolution denying the appeal was challenged before the Supreme Court, which confirmed the ruling on the 13th of the same month. It was not until November 9, 1976, that the Court of Appeals remitted the records to the 5th Criminal Court, which opened case file 103.230 for the alleged disappearance of Rosa Morales Morales.

However, on June 6, 1977, this case was consolidated with another being investigated in the same court, case file 102.919-4, initiated on September 28, 1976, following a kidnapping complaint filed by her sister.

The Minister of the Interior responded once again in negative terms regarding any information related to the victim's arrest. Likewise, inquiries made by the civil police, following an order to investigate, yielded no positive results regarding the whereabouts of Rosa Morales Morales.

There was also no record of her leaving the country according to international police, nor of her death at the Legal Medical Institute.

On March 23, 1977, a sworn statement from Berta Laporte's spouse was attached to the court file, recounting the circumstances of the victim's detention and the inability of the main witness to appear in court due to being deeply traumatized and psychologically damaged.

On February 15, 1978, at the request of the affected party, a request was sent to the Director of the International Red Cross to provide any information on Rosa Morales that the organization might have received from the military authorities.

This request originated from a news report in the press, in which the Director stated that General Pinochet had told him that, regarding the reported forcibly disappeared persons, the majority had been located in their homes and others had sought asylum, and that these situations had been clarified.

Despite this request being reiterated on two more occasions, on May 8, 1978, the proceeding was dismissed as futile.

On the same date, the judge of the 5th Criminal Court closed the summary proceedings and issued a definitive dismissal of the case, by virtue of Amnesty Decree Law 2191, recently issued by the Military Junta.

The Public Prosecutor's Office, represented by the Prosecutor of the Court of Appeals, indicated to that Court that amnesty was not applicable in this case, as no crime had been proven that could be the subject of such amnesty.

The Court of Appeals, on June 28 of the same year, ordered the revocation of the 5th Court's ruling, as the investigation was not exhausted, and ordered the completion of the pending proceedings.

Among the pending proceedings was the submission of the victim's identification extract, which had been ordered by the same Court when it ruled on the writ of amparo. It also ordered an investigation into Berta Laporte's address so that she could be summoned to testify in court.

On August 20, 1979, a kidnapping complaint was filed before the Visiting Judge Servando Jordán López, appointed by the Santiago Court of Appeals to investigate cases of disappearances of persons detained by security services in Santiago.

On October 22 of the same year, the Judge processed the complaint and consolidated it with the case being heard in the 5th Court, continuing the proceedings under his visit.

A nephew of the victim, Nivaldo Miño Morales, testified before the Judge; agents had searched for the victim at his home one month before her kidnapping.

The Director of Investigations reported that Rosa Morales had a political file as a former leader of the Supply and Price Control Boards (JAP).

On October 22, 1979, an official letter was sent to the new Minister of the Interior, Sergio Fernández Fernández, asking if Rosa Morales appeared on the list of dangerous persons maintained by that Ministry.

Minister Fernández took two months to respond—and only after the respective letter was reiterated on two occasions—stating that, according to information from the National Intelligence Center (CNI), the legal successor to the DINA, the victim did not appear on those lists.

Judge Jordán dismissed the summons for Berta Laporte to testify because she could not be located. It should be noted that the sponsoring lawyer had informed the Court that the witness was out of the country.

On December 14, 1979, Judge Jordán considered the investigation exhausted and closed the summary proceedings, a resolution that was appealed to the Court of Appeals and confirmed by the higher court.

Following the confirmation of the closure of the summary, on April 1, 1980, the Judge issued a temporary dismissal of the case, as the crime had not been proven. This ruling was also appealed, but on September 2, 1980, the Santiago Court of Appeals approved the dismissal issued by the Judge.

Other efforts made directly by the family to administrative authorities also failed to yield positive results that would allow them to know the fate of Rosa Morales Morales.

Source: Corporation report

The Rosa Elena Morales Morales popular grocery store, located in the Juan Antonio Ríos neighborhood at Calle Gamero #2670, in the Independencia commune, is part of the "Trenza la Río" space. On August 30, they decided, together with other organizations, to hold an emotional tour through their neighborhood where they displayed the various murals representing their fallen, whom they remember with great love and pain as banners of their struggles.

Thus, Rosa Elena Morales is part of these symbols of struggle, this comrade being a model combatant who, like any organized resident, deserves to be remembered.

Source: 7norteradio instagram.com