Other Localities

On October 13, 1973, four cases of forcibly disappeared persons were recorded in the town of Catillo. They are:

Ruperto TORRES ARAVENA, 58 years old, a chemical engineer and farmer by profession. He had no political affiliation. The affected individual was required to report daily to sign a register at the Catillo Carabineros station, following a previous detention. Upon appearing to fulfill this obligation, he was detained on October 13.

Miguel ROJAS ROJAS, 52 years old, an agricultural worker and member of the Partido Socialista, who belonged to the El Palomar Settlement Union.

Gilberto ROJAS VASQUEZ, 28 years old, a carpenter and member of the Partido Comunista. He resided in Santiago, but was passing through the town at the time.

They were father and son, respectively; they were detained at their home located at the Fundo El Palomar in an operation carried out by soldiers from the Linares Artillery Regiment and Carabineros. They were taken to the Catillo station, from which point all trace of both was lost.

Ramiro ROMERO GONZALEZ, 28 years old, a peasant union leader who worked at the Nuevo Porvenir Settlement and was a member of the Partido Socialista. He was detained on October 13 at the Catillo station when he voluntarily appeared in response to a summons issued to him by an officer of that police unit.

Alfredo Durán Durán, a Civil Registry official in Catillo, was also allegedly detained on the same day, which is the last date on which any news regarding his whereabouts is available. As there are no eyewitnesses to his detention, this Commission has been unable to form a conviction regarding his status as a victim.

Carabineros informed the families of the detainees that they had been taken to the Parral police station on the same day of their detention, a fact that was denied to the family at that police facility.

While the families of the detainees were at the Parral police station, a *carabinero* communicated by telephone with the Catillo station, where they were informed that the individuals had been released.

In the various judicial proceedings pursued on behalf of the disappeared, official information varied, even falling into contradictions that remain inexplicable.

The set of disparate versions provided by the authorities; the complete absence of news regarding the detainees to date; the fact that none of them have records of leaving the national territory, that they do not appear in current electoral rolls, and have not requested a national identity card in the last 17 years; the verified intervention of Carabineros personnel from the Catillo station in their detentions; the political affiliation of the victims; and the lack of response to the requests for cooperation that the Commission submitted to the responsible authorities, have led this Commission to form the conviction that these individuals are victims of grave human rights violations, from the moment they were subjected to forced disappearance by agents of the State of Chile.

Ruperto Oriol Torres Aravena, married, father of 3, small farmer, Chemical Engineer, with no known political affiliation, was detained for the first time in September 1973 by the Carabineros of Catillo and transferred to the Parral Jail, where he remained for approximately one week.

After being released, he was required to continue signing in every other day at the Catillo police station (Retén). On that occasion, he was detained along with his son Gustavo, who was also released.

Subsequently, he was detained again on October 13, 1973, by the Carabineros of Catillo. That day, the victim received a message from said Carabineros indicating that he should report to the local station to wait for a phone call.

This version is corroborated by statements made by family members and witnesses during the judicial investigation.

His brother, Julio Torres Aravena, states: "My brother Ruperto Torres had been called by the Carabineros of Catillo and was to report to that station. This happened, and I learned that my brother had reported to said station on the 13th of the current month and had remained detained there." In his inquiries, through another detainee, he confirmed the victim's detention.

This witness stated he had been in the same cell with him, telling him "that he would be released later."

Another sister, Gala Torres Aravena, adds in a sworn statement: "On October 13, 1973, he was called from the Catillo Carabineros station by Sergeant Toledo, under the pretext that he had a phone call in his name."

For his part, Jorge Torres Torres, a cousin of the victim, added: "In the month of September 1973, Ruperto Torres was detained by Carabineros and sent to the Parral Jail; I do not know for what reason...

He was released, but had to go sign in every other day at the Catillo Carabineros station, and in the month of October 1973, he was summoned by a carabinero from that station and never returned home, remaining forcibly disappeared to this day."

Miguel Ignacio Torres Torres provided important background information to the Investigative Police (Policía de Investigaciones). He declared: "I was detained by Carabineros personnel from Catillo and taken to the Parral Jail...

Subsequently, I was released with the order to sign in every day in a logbook for people on conditional release, which was kept at the Catillo Carabineros station. On that same date, Ruperto Torres Aravena was also detained, but he was also released under the same condition, as he had to go sign in at the Catillo Carabineros station every other day." He continues in his statement: "On October 13, the head of the Catillo Carabineros station, surnamed Toledo, went to notify him at his house that he had to go to the station that same day, as he had to settle a pending matter." Ruperto Torres asked Miguel Torres to accompany him, taking advantage of the fact that the latter had to go sign the logbook. They rode on horseback to the Catillo station, arriving around 4:00 PM on that day, the 13th. Once at the station door, he left the victim there and continued on to a relative's house to deliver an errand. Miguel Torres returned to the station around 4:30 PM and continues his account: "The carabinero on duty told me that Ruperto Torres had to stay there to settle some details of his problem and that for that reason, I had to return his horse and spurs to his wife... I went immediately to their house and told them what had happened. His wife and his son Gustavo went to the Carabineros, but they were told there that Ruperto Torres had left for his home on foot."

During the proceedings, some of the carabineros from the Catillo station also testified. First Corporal Luis Palma Acuña asserts: "I remember that on one occasion Ruperto Torres was detained, but he was subsequently released on the condition that he had to report to sign in by order of the Governor, which he did not do." For his part, First Sergeant José Jara Maldonado adds: "...

Ruperto Torres had to report to sign in at said station for having been detained previously at that same station, having been released. The truth is that the last time he did so, I was not at the station.

I must add that I know that Torres, on the day he disappeared, signed the book as usual and went to his home. I learned of this from the statements of the officer on duty." These statements did not yield concrete results regarding the reported events.

His family members began the search from the very first moment to find his whereabouts.

In the judicial complaint, his brother Julio continues by stating: "I went to the Catillo station and they told me that my brother had not been detained and that he had been released that same day at 6:00 PM... subsequently, at the same Catillo station, they informed me that my brother had been sent to the Local Public Jail, where he was not found to be detained."

For his part, the Governor of Parral informed them that there was no order against him, and the Carabineros denied the detention, "as it was not registered in the books."

While his family members were making inquiries to find his whereabouts, the local press on October 28, 1973, published Edict No. 5, signed by the Governor of Parral, Carabineros Major Pablo Rodney Caulier Grant, in which, by order of the Plaza Command in the State of Emergency for the Department of Parral, it was ordered: "That persons who have knowledge or information regarding the current whereabouts of Ruperto Torres Aravena must communicate it immediately to this Governorate, the Parral Carabineros Commissariat, or the nearest police detachment.

Those who do not comply with this provision while being in a position to do so will be subject to the sanctions established by the Plaza Command for these cases. It should be noted that the aforementioned fugitive has not complied with the obligation to report to the Catillo station after having been granted conditional release." Thus, the authority definitively denied his detention.

For its part, the Government of Chile informed the special United Nations group investigating human rights violations in our country that Ruperto Oriol Torres Aravena "did not have a legal existence." Faced with evidence presented by the aforementioned Commission in its 1976 report, the Government of Chile claimed it had been a mistake, because "it had been checked with the surnames swapped, and it must have been Ruperto Aravena Torres, who has a criminal record prior to 1973 and who is charged in a Criminal Court of Mulchén." This identity did not correspond to that of the victim.

His detention and subsequent disappearance are situated within the repressive context that occurred in the town of Catillo on September 13, 1973, where, in addition to the victim, Ramiro Romero González, Miguel Rojas Rojas, Gilberto Antonio Rojas Vásquez, and Alfredo Durán Durán were also detained, all of whom remain disappeared to this date.

The same difficulty that the family members had in advancing the investigation was encountered by the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation. Thus, in their final report on the case, they note "the lack of response to the requests for collaboration that the Commission requested from the responsible authorities..."

Thus, despite the tireless efforts made by his family members to find his whereabouts, to this date, the fate of the victim remains unknown.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

Following a complaint for disappearance filed by the victim's brother, Julio Torres Aravena, before the Catillo Carabineros station, this unit forwarded the records to the Parral Court of Letters. Said complaint was filed under No. 29183.

It was initiated on October 14, 1973, the day after his detention. The report forwarding the records is signed by the head of the Catillo station, Carabineros Sergeant Diógenes Toledo. Said report does not account for the events as they were reported to the station, which is why his brother clarified the terms in which they occurred before the court, directly implicating the Catillo Carabineros.

In response to an order to investigate, issued to the Investigative Police, Talca Prefecture, Parral Inspectorate, at the end of October, this service reported on the interview with the complainant and mentioned that Ruperto Torres "is a fugitive from the Plaza Command in the State of Emergency of the Department of Parral, for which he is being sought, as he did not comply with the order to report to the Catillo Carabineros station after having been granted conditional release." Edict No. 5, which accounts for the search for the victim, is attached.

The investigation was completed with the statement of a witness who did not provide clarifying data to the investigation.

With this background, on December 29, 1973, the judge closed the summary and temporarily dismissed the case "because the crime was not legally proven," a resolution that was approved on February 18, 1974, by the Chillán Court of Appeals.

On March 10, 1978, the Deacon of the Bishopric of Linares, Manuel Medel Troncoso, on behalf of his family members, filed a Complaint for Presumed Misfortune in favor of the victim before the same court, which was filed under No. 32491.

Once again, the Investigative Police reported on March 29, 1978, on inquiries made with family members and witnesses who provided valuable information. It was also proven that at the date of the reported events, the Head of the Catillo station was Sub-Officer Major Diógenes Toledo Pérez, a person who retired, and efforts to find his whereabouts yielded no results.

In the month of April of the same year, cases 32.491 and 29.183 were consolidated, and the witnesses who had testified before the Investigative Police were summoned.

Likewise, the Court requested the names of the Carabineros officers who were at the Catillo station and summoned some of them to testify, but they did not provide information to locate the victim's whereabouts.

Without all the summoned carabineros having testified, the case was dismissed on October 6, 1979.

For its part, the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, created by Presidential Decree to learn about reports of human rights violations that occurred in the country, forwarded the victim's records in January 1991, upon ending its mandate, to the Parral Court of Letters so that a judicial investigation could be carried out in light of the collected information.

In turn, his sister Gala Torres filed a Criminal Complaint in March 1992 for kidnapping and probable homicide against those responsible, and especially against the carabinero Diógenes Toledo Pérez and another surnamed Jara, before the Parral Court of Letters.

In said complaint, it is requested that it be consolidated with case file 54598, which arose from the complaint of the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation.

At the Police Station (Carabineros) of Termas de Catillo, 350 kilometers from Santiago, there are "alleged" (as the dictator would say) human remains of people who were buried under the station itself in the two months following the military coup in Chile on September 11, 1973.

This discovery occurred when the Carabineros of Chile decided to enlarge their barracks; workers were ordered to carry out excavations for a concrete slab next to the barracks to enlarge the facilities. The surprise of these workers was great when, upon excavating, bones and human remains began to appear.

The Carabineros of Chile did not conduct any investigation, but the information leaked through the workers and later through their wives upon hearing these comments. The family provided information to the District Prosecutor, and she requested absolute confidentiality during the time the investigation was being conducted; thus, a few days later, some detectives from the Civil Police appeared and were interrogating the local people.

It should be noted that all the inhabitants of this village called Termas de Catillo have known about the discovery.

After 15 days of investigation, they delivered their report to the District Prosecutor; "coincidentally," this prosecutor did not inform the families of the result of the investigation, and although one of the sons of the disappeared Ruperto Torres, Gustavo Torres Castillo, appeared to find out the results, he was informed that the Prosecutor had been transferred to another investigation outside the area.

In this way, the government repeats the situation and the justification that has been given to the forcibly disappeared of Chile, that is, "let us forget the murders committed by the dictatorship."

Apparently, the government of Mr. Sebastián Piñera Echeñique has commitments to the dictatorship or to the Armed Forces of our country, as this information has been practically ignored; let us not forget that he is or has been the owner of a large part of the media companies in Chile.

We, the direct family, his children and nephews, demand an answer, as we have almost absolute certainty that it is there that the remains of Ruperto Oriol Torres Aravena are located.

Meanwhile, access to the place where the remains of the bodies were presumably found has been denied to the family members of Ruperto Torres, and according to information given by the construction workers, the concrete slab for that construction continued to be poured, leaving buried under cement the evidence that possibly involves the Carabineros of Chile.

Regarding RUPERTO ORIOL TORRES ARAVENA, disappeared on October 13, 1973:

The truth is that Ruperto was presumably kidnapped by the Carabineros of Chile at the Termas de Catillo station, twenty-three kilometers from the city of Parral and 350 kilometers south of Santiago (Capital of Chile), as were other people from the same place.

Ruperto was told by two Carabineros (Chilean police) that by order of Sergeant Hermógenes Toledo, he should report to the barracks of that village, located about three kilometers from his home, a place called "Bajo de los Torres."

"He who has nothing to hide, has nothing to fear," says the proverb. Ruperto went to report that same afternoon, almost at nightfall; they only returned his blanket and the horse. Mrs. Paulina Castillo (his wife) began to search for him from that moment on.

Cowardly, the Carabineros said he had been transferred to another place; Mrs. Paulina would leave to search for him there, from that place they would send her to another, and so on; in a few years, she aged searching for him and died.

Mrs. Gala Torres Aravena, sister of Ruperto Torres Aravena, also began the search for Ruperto from the first day and was one of the first to found the movement of the Chilean disappeared (Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared) AFDD together with the former Vicariate of Solidarity.

Gala Torres Aravena died in 2002 without ceasing to work on the search for her brother, a task that today falls to her children and nephews.

René Bravo Torres (Nephew)

(received by memoriaviva on 12-01-2010)

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity