Sara de Lourdes Donoso Palacios, a nursing student and member of the Partido Socialista, was detained on July 15, 1975, around 08:30 in the morning, by two agents of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) at the entrance of the Servicio Nacional de Salud clinic, located at Calle Independencia No. 1345.

Although there are no direct testimonies of her detention—witnesses did not testify out of fear—it is established that Sara Donoso and her captors walked along Independencia toward the north, where she was forced into a van.

The victim's father, Juan Donoso Oliva, learned of the events through a phone call received on Wednesday, July 16, of the same year, during which the head nurse of the clinic asked for Sara Donoso, who had not shown up for work. Later, the father would confirm his daughter's detention through information provided by the victim's coworkers.

For its part, the Investigaciones police, in response to an investigation order from the 8th Criminal Court, indicated that inquiries made to students and professors at the Calle Independencia clinic "corroborated what was expressed by the complainant (Juan Donoso)" (August 25, 1975).

Furthermore, the events leading up to the disappearance of Sara Donoso, whose enrollment in the Nursing program at the Universidad de Chile had been cancelled, only confirm her detention by DINA agents.

The victim lived in a downtown apartment with Rosa Soliz (also a socialist militant and forcibly disappeared). Both worked at the same clinic and served as liaisons within the Partido Socialista, both between the central leadership and between it and other political parties. Sara Donoso and Rosa Soliz worked for the party under the orders of Modesta Carolina Wiff, also forcibly disappeared.

Thus, her detention and disappearance are part of a DINA operation directed against the highest-ranking socialist leaders of the time, members of the Political Commission and their liaisons and couriers, carried out in the months of June and July 1975.

In June, the detentions of Michelle Peña, Exequiel Ponce, Mireya Rodríguez, Carlos Lorca, Ricardo Lagos, and Modesta Carolina Wiff took place. In the month of July, the victim and Rosa Soliz were detained. All of them remain forcibly disappeared to this day.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On July 25, 1975, a writ of amparo (habeas corpus) was filed on behalf of the victim at the Santiago Court of Appeals, which was registered under No. 862-75. Without a single action taken, the Court rejected the filing "because the deprivation of liberty of Sara Donoso Palacios is not attributed to any authority."

The records were sent to the 3rd Criminal Court of Santiago, where case file No. 118.657-5 was opened. On September 11, 1975, in another report to the one previously mentioned, Investigaciones indicated to the Court that upon consulting clinic staff, who refused to give their names, "it was established that Sara Donoso was indeed taken by people in civilian clothes who forced her into a van, about which no further information is known." For their part, the authorities systematically denied the detention of the victim.

Raúl Benavides Escobar, Minister of the Interior and Division General, officially informed the Court that the victim was not being held by order of that Ministry (November 11, 1975). Three days later, on November 14 of the same year, Minister Benavides added that the DINA had no records regarding the victim.

The National Executive Secretary of Detainees (SENDET), Colonel Jorge Espinoza Ulloa, also reported having no data on the matter.

On December 5, 1975, the summary proceedings were closed and the case was temporarily dismissed. The ruling was approved by the Court of Appeals on January 22, 1976.

On August 1, 1975, a case for the alleged disappearance of the victim had been opened in the 8th Criminal Court, which was registered under No. 12.621-3. During the processing of this case, the authorities also persisted in denying the detention of Sara Donoso.

This was reported by Minister of the Interior Benavides and the Executive Secretary of SENDET, Colonel Jorge Espinoza. Subsequently, on February 20, 1976, for jurisdictional reasons, the judge declared himself incompetent and sent the records to the 3rd Criminal Court, where they were consolidated with the previous case (file No. 118.657).

As that case had been temporarily dismissed without further investigation, this complaint of alleged disappearance was automatically dismissed as well.

For its part, the family inquired at hospitals, emergency clinics, the Legal Medical Service, SENDET, Tres Alamos, police stations, etc. To this day, it has not been possible to determine the fate of Sara Donoso Palacios from the moment she was detained by two DINA agents.

Source: Corporation report

I greet you cordially, hoping you are doing very well. I inform you that on 01/22/2009, Mr. Juan Eduardo Donoso Oliva filed a criminal complaint against Manuel Contreras, Miguel Krassnoff, Marcelo Morén, Basclay Zapata, and all those who may be responsible for the aggravated kidnapping of his daughter SARA DE LOURDES DONOSO PALACIOS, events that occurred on July 15, 1975.

FASIC will sponsor this complaint through the undersigned lawyer. The case is currently being investigated by Minister Jorge Zepeda A. of the Santiago Court of Appeals and is in the summary stage. Sincerely,

Source: Luis Cortés Olivares, FASIC lawyer

On Monday, the Third Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Raúl Iturriaga Neumann, Juvenal Piña Garrido, Rolf Wenderoth Pozo, and Manuel Carevic Cubillos—all agents of the dissolved DINA—to 15 years and one day of effective imprisonment as perpetrators of crimes against humanity.

This is for the kidnapping of 11 members of the central committee of the Partido Socialista between March and December 1975: Exequiel Ponce Vicencio, Ricardo Ernesto Lagos Salinas, Jaime Eugenio López Arellano, Carlos Enrique Lorca Tobar, Alfredo Rojas Castañeda, Michelle Marguerite Peña Herreros, Mireya Herminia Rodríguez Díaz, Modesta Carolina Wiff Sepúlveda, Sara de Lourdes Donoso Palacios, Rosa Elvira Soliz Poveda, and Adolfo Ariel Mancilla Ramírez. "The active subjects were part of the DINA and the Purén Brigade, within Villa Grimaldi, in such a way that they represented and fulfilled functions within a State policy prevailing at that time, and in that context, they carried out the repression of different political groups, including members of the political committee of the Partido Socialista, resulting in the kidnappings of the victims," the court ruled. "All of this was inserted into a line of conduct composed of a multiplicity of acts of a similar nature directed against civilians—systematic violations of Human Rights—that had been occurring for a long time against anyone who participated in an ideology different from those who held power at that time," the judges explained in their ruling. According to the Court, the perpetrators were protected by "a system that at the time allowed, favored, or guaranteed their impunity, all with the aim of hiding, denying, or distorting the reality and nature of the attack," thus allowing for absolute or relative impunity.

Source: biobiochile.cl 1/5/2021 Date: 01-05-2021

Department and School of Nursing commemorate the International Day of their discipline

The activity included a tribute to Sara Donoso and Rosa Solís, two students of this unit who recently received their posthumous degrees from the Universidad de Chile, as they were victims of the military dictatorship.

In the meeting, held on May 11, 2018, the director of the Nursing Department, Professor Silvana Castillo, reflected on the evolution of this discipline, from direct patient care to working with families and communities in health prevention. "This expansion of our horizons has led to us being recognized in many countries, in addition to our roles in assistance, management, research, and education, a fifth space in public policy," she noted.

For this reason, she detailed some of the achievements reached by her unit, such as the current training of more than 500 undergraduate students, with an innovative curriculum that has incorporated emerging topics such as care for the elderly, adolescents, health and gender, disaster response, the mainstreaming of mental health and ethics, as well as the development of social and communication skills; the strengthening of a psychosocial support program for its students; the conducting of courses for the Metropolitan Health Service, as well as diploma programs in various areas of health and education for more than 600 nursing professionals throughout the country. Likewise, she announced that they are working on gerontogeriatric nursing and oncology nursing specialties; she delved into various initiatives that bring together academics and students around community engagement, such as the radio program Caleidoscopio de la Salud and others; and the promotion of different instances of academic development, such as the renewal of the agreement with the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario, RNAO. Subsequently, Professor Claudia Collado, director of the School of Nursing, also referred to the evolution of care roles, moving toward a more supportive nursing, part of a horizontal relationship with users that recognizes them and invites them to be part of initiatives for their health. For her part, and representing the Nursing Student Center, Mariel Gormaz referred to the relevance of supporting and empowering current social demands regarding women's rights. The initiative continued with the conference "Nursing Leadership and Health as a Human Right," by nurse Pamela Vivanco; the tribute to Sara Donoso and Rosa Solís, two students of the discipline who recently received their posthumous degrees from the Universidad de Chile, as they were victims of the military dictatorship; and an awards ceremony for academics and staff of this community. Finally, the rector of the Universidad de Chile, Dr. Ennio Vivaldi, highlighted the role of nurses in the care and dignity of people and, in reference to the contingency of university movements regarding protocols against the violation of women's rights, highlighted the work carried out by the three estates that led to the policy and action protocol for these cases, as well as the contribution made to the articles of the State Universities Law, incorporating sexual harassment as a punishable act.

Source: medicina.uchile.cl 5/16/2018 Date: 05-16-2018

U. de Chile to award posthumous degrees to 104 executed and disappeared persons

Symbolic recognition will be directed to former students murdered during the military regime.

Through exempt decree number 0030766 of the Universidad de Chile, authorized by the Comptroller General of the Republic on September 4 of this year, said university was enabled, for the first time in its history, to award posthumous and symbolic degrees to students who were political executions victims and those who became forcibly disappeared during the military regime.

The official ceremony, which will be led by rector Ennio Vivaldi, will take place next Monday the 11th, in the Domeyko courtyard of the central building, starting at 12:30. For Vivaldi, "this initiative has two very deep meanings.

On one hand, it is a gesture of reparation for the victims themselves and for their families, who also affectively associate their loved ones with this great institution that is the U. de Chile. On the other hand, the U. de Chile feels that it is fulfilling its moral duty by not granting the dictatorship the terrible objective of, in addition to having cut their lives short, erasing their achievements as students and future professionals for Chile." The list includes 104 former students of the university who were murdered by State agents between 1973 and 1989.

Among the most remembered cases is that of history student Jécar Nehgme, who also appears as the last victim of the Augusto Pinochet regime. This former leader of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR) was found dead on September 4, 1989, on Calle General Bulnes, a few days before the elections that would mark the return to democracy.

After a long judicial process, which was resolved in 2008, it was established that the perpetrators of the murder were the metropolitan chief of the CNI, Brigadier (ret.) Enrique Levy Araneda; Colonel (ret.) Pedro Guzmán Olivares; and Captain (ret.) Luis Sanhueza Ross.

Social organizations valued the gesture. The president of the Agrupación de Ejecutados Políticos (AFEP), Alicia Lira, pointed out that "it is a great gesture, which we recognize enormously. With this, Rector Vivaldi fulfills a pending task that the Universidad de Chile had, since similar gestures had already been fulfilled by other universities such as the U. de Santiago and the Austral de Valdivia.

But it is a huge signal for democracy and for a true 'never again' to be fulfilled in Chile." List of Universidad de Chile students who were victims of the civil-military dictatorship: [...] 23. Donoso Palacios, Sara de Lourdes. Nursing student. Forcibly disappeared. [...] 93. Soliz Poveda, Rosa. Nursing student. Forcibly disappeared. [...]

Source: latercera.cl 09/08/2017 Date: 09-08-2017

WE REMEMBER OUR COLLEAGUES WHO WERE VICTIMS OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS DURING THE DICTATORSHIP

In the context of the anniversary of the Military Coup, the Colegio de Enfermeras de Chile A.G. (Chilean Nurses Association) and its Human Rights Commission pay tribute to nurses who were victims of human rights violations during the Dictatorship.

Carmen Margarita Díaz Darricarrere

She was 24 years old and a nursing student at the University of Chile, Temuco campus, and a militant of the MIR, when she was detained by the DINA on February 13, 1975, around 10:30 a.m., a block and a half from her home located at Calle Los Illanes Nº75 in Las Condes, Santiago, along with Eduardo Iván Montti Cordero (29 years old, a graduate in Mechanical Engineering from the State Technical University) and his youngest son, only 5 years old.

After being held in a house along with other victims of the dictatorship, they were all transferred to the secret DINA facility known as Villa Grimaldi, where they were interrogated, tortured, and held in a place called "La Torre," from where they were forcibly disappeared in the last week of February 1975.

The 5-year-old boy, who was also taken to Villa Grimaldi, was transferred to a children's home, where he was fortuitously found by the remaining members of his family.

She was forcibly disappeared along with Jaime Vásquez Sáenz, Alan Bruce Catalá, and Eugenio Iván Montti Cordero.

In December 2006, Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda was sentenced to fifteen years of major imprisonment in its medium degree and the respective accessory penalties as the perpetrator of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Eugenio Iván Montti Cordero and Carmen Margarita Díaz Darricarrere.

Marcelo Luis Manuel Moren Brito and Rolf Gonzalo Wenderoth Pozo were sentenced to ten years and one day of major imprisonment in its medium degree and the corresponding accessory penalties for their responsibility as co-perpetrators of the aforementioned aggravated kidnapping crimes.

Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko and Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes were also sentenced as accomplices in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Eugenio and Carmen to five years and one day of major imprisonment in its minimum degree and the corresponding accessory penalties, with all being ordered to pay the costs of the proceedings.

Brigadier Fernando Lauriani and Carabineros officer Gerardo Godoy, both retired, were acquitted.

The appellate court also dismissed the case against former civilian agent Osvaldo Romo due to his death. Despite the efforts, inquiries, and judicial actions carried out by her family, the final fate she met at the hands of DINA agents remains unknown.

On March 20, 1981, the Temuco campuses of the "University of Chile" and the "State Technical University" merged into the University of the Frontera (UFRO).

In 2011, Carmen Díaz received her posthumous nursing degree from the University of the Frontera. In early 2018, she received her posthumous nursing degree from the University of Chile.

Hilda Isolina Velasquez Calderón

During the early morning of September 14, 1973, at their home in the Población Independencia in the city of Talca, three members of a family were awakened, raided, interrogated, and executed by firearm: Héctor Valenzuela Salazar (27 years old, university professor of Philosophy and PS militant), Hilda Isolina Velasquez Calderón (31 years old, university nurse and communist militant), and their eldest daughter Claudia Andrea Valenzuela Velázquez (6 years old).

Carabineros arrived at the family's home as part of investigations they were conducting following the Paso Nevado incident, where they were erroneously linked to the attempted escape of Germán Castro (Intendant of the Province of Talca for the UP, socialist militant, executed by firing squad at the Chorrillos Regiment on September 27, 1973, whose case never went through a War Council as news reports of the time implied).

After killing them, the uniformed officers claimed it was a confrontation. When the professor's relatives arrived, the bodies were still in the house, and the Carabineros present explained that it had been a suicide.

According to the Rettig Report, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission declared with conviction that Héctor, Hilda, and Claudia were victims of a grave violation of their human rights, as they were executed by State Agents without any justification.

The couple's younger children, Paula (4 years old) and Gonzalo (2 years old) at the time, hid and were spared the fate of their sister and parents; however, they were injured nonetheless.

On December 5, 2003, the bodies of the 3 political execution victims were exhumed from the Municipal Cemetery of Talca.

In 2004, former Carabinero Emilio Muga Galfano confessed to being the perpetrator of the acts. It was not until 2009 that Muga was prosecuted; he remained free on bail after paying 500,000 pesos. In 2010, the Talca Court of Appeals sentenced Muga to 5 years and one day of imprisonment for both the homicides of Héctor and Hilda, ruling that he must serve the sentence effectively given the length of the sentence and the unfavorable reports from the Santiago Oriente Social Reintegration Center of the Gendarmería.

Emilio Muga Galfano died before serving his derisory sentence. There has been no sentence regarding the political execution of Hilda's eldest daughter, 6-year-old Claudia.

Jenny del Carmen Barra Rosales

A nursing student at the Catholic University and a MIR militant, she was detained for the first time on January 17, 1974, at 20 years of age, by soldiers from the San Bernardo Infantry School. On that occasion, she remained detained for approximately 6 months at Cerro Chena, the Tejas Verdes facility, the Correctional House, and the Tres Alamos Camp under the rules of the State of Siege.

At that time, she was accused of distributing pamphlets and belonging to the Revolutionary Student Front (FER).

Once she regained her freedom, she continued her studies in the nursing program at the Catholic University of Santiago. On October 17, 1977, she informed third parties that she had been followed from Santiago, but she did not attach importance to it.

She was seen in a gray Peugeot 404, license plate CH-800 from Renca, requested from the Municipality by the former-DINA (the DINA had been dissolved in August 1977, replaced by the National Intelligence Center or "CNI"). Said car belonged to the Ministry of Defense.

Subsequently, she was transferred to a torture center, according to witnesses, along with her friend, PS militant and photographer Hernán Santos Pérez Álvarez, where both were forcibly disappeared. On November 4, 1977, her mother, Laurisa Rosales, filed a Writ of Amparo, for which information was requested from the Ministry of the Interior and Investigations, who stated that there were only records of her first detention, leading to the rejection of this Writ and the opening of a summary proceeding.

Laurisa denounced kidnapping, and the case was dismissed considering an alleged statute of limitations, but because the investigation had not been completed, the summary proceeding was reopened, only to be temporarily dismissed in 1980. Her remains were found in 2001 in an abandoned mine in Cuesta Barriga, an alternative road connecting Santiago and Valparaíso (120 km west of the capital).

In the old mine, 200 small bone fragments were found, traces of the bodies that dictatorship agents had exhumed in 1979 and forcibly disappeared again to eliminate traces of the victims' whereabouts, in an operation known as "Television Transfer," according to a government statement.

Jenny Barra is the first disappeared woman in Chile whose remains have been identified thanks to the multidisciplinary work of the SML (Legal Medical Service).

In this case, there was also collaboration from an Austrian laboratory that contributed to the genetic analyses. In Plaza Guarello in San Bernardo, there is a memorial for the victims of the dictatorship that bears Jenny Barra's name.

In October 2012, her family was notified of the confirmed identity of Jenny's remains, which were buried in November of the same year. In 2013, she received her posthumous nursing degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.

At the end of 2018, a commemorative plaque in her honor was inaugurated, and the student center room of the Catholic University's Nursing School was named the Jenny Barra Room.

José Alejandro Campos Cifuentes

He was born in Carehue, the fifth of 12 children; he was 30 years old and had a son (with his partner of Norwegian nationality, Gunvor Kristine Sorli) at the time of his detention. A MIR militant, "Campito," as he was called, began studying nursing at the University of Chile, Temuco campus, in 1971, where he remained until early 1973, the year he was called up for mandatory military service.

He reported on April 2 and was discharged on August 31 by order of the IV Army Division of Valdivia.

He voluntarily reported to the Temuco Regiment on October 7 of the same year. The following day, he was declared a prisoner, taken to a War Council by the Cautín Military Prosecutor's Office, and sentenced for treason to 15 years in prison starting October 8 in the Temuco Penitentiary.

This sentence was commuted to expulsion, and he left on February 11, 1976, bound for Denmark, with a prohibition on re-entering the country. In 1981, he attempted to return clandestinely to Chile in the MIR's "Operation Return."

On February 19, he was detained along with his companion Luis Quinchavil Suárez (known as "Quincha," a Mapuche language professor at the University of Heiden in Holland and also an exiled MIR militant) at the Chilean-Argentine border by 18 Argentine gendarmes on horseback at the Paimún or Hua Hum pass, in the X Region, opposite Junín de los Andes.

They were handed over to CNI agents in Neltume, at whose hands both were forcibly disappeared, in violation of their human rights.

According to what was stated on July 7, 2004, in the ruling of the full Court of Appeals approving the stripping of Augusto Pinochet's immunity for his connection to the so-called "Operation Condor," witnesses indicate that both were allegedly transferred by Captain Augusto Werner Hasse, Sergeant Héctor Barra Molina, and a corporal surnamed Sandoval to the Carabineros Intelligence Directorate in Valdivia, to then be taken, presumably by Captain Julio Benimelli, at 2:45 a.m. in a dark green Veranello pickup truck, both blindfolded, to the La Reina shooting range in Santiago, where, according to testimonies, they were allegedly blown up with dynamite.

José Campos and Luis Quinchavil remain in the status of forcibly disappeared to this day, as they have not been found. One month after Campito's disappearance, on March 20, 1981, the Temuco campuses of the "University of Chile" and the "State Technical University" merged into the University of the Frontera (UFRO).

To date, the University of Chile has not awarded him any posthumous degree; however, in 2011, Campito received his posthumous nursing degree from the University of the Frontera.

Rosa Elvira Soliz Poveda

She was the eldest of nine siblings, born on July 27, 1951, in Nehuentue, a small fishing cove in the province of Cautín, into a working-class family.

Her father worked in the Lota coal mine, so she completed her early studies at a school in this mining center. In 1963, the family moved to the Población Santa Mónica in Conchalí, Santiago, and Rosa continued her studies at the Ramón Freire and Ignacio Carrera Pinto high schools, from which she graduated at the end of 1970.

From the following year, while studying nursing at the University of Chile, her concern for social issues led her to join the ranks of the Socialist Youth and to participate actively in the Social Action Office of the FECH (Student Federation of the University of Chile) in the Faculty of Medicine, as well as in volunteer work sessions in the neighborhoods of northern Santiago.

After a series of summary proceedings carried out by the new military authorities who intervened at the University of Chile, Rosa had her enrollment canceled arbitrarily due to her "leftist ideas." This did not stop her, and she began working as a private nursing assistant.

Subsequently, along with her colleague Sara Donoso, she began working at the National Health Service Clinic at Avenida Independencia No. 1345 (currently "CESFAM Dr. Agustín Cruz Melo").

Both found it necessary to live in safe houses in downtown Santiago, Independencia, and later in Peñalolén, adopting the names "Cecilia" and "Carmen" for their safety. Around July 7, 1975, Rosa was detained by two DINA agents from the safe house in Peñalolén and, according to witnesses, was taken from the Ogalle barracks (José Domingo Cañas) to the Terranova barracks (Villa Grimaldi).

Sara's father, Juan Donoso Oliva, learned of her capture through a phone call received on Wednesday, July 16, 1975. Despite the reports of presumed disappearance in 1990 after the end of the military dictatorship, her final whereabouts could not be found, and the case was temporarily dismissed.

In 2018, former agents Rolf Gonzalo Wenderoth Pozo and Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos were sentenced to 18 years in prison as co-perpetrators of the aggravated kidnapping of Rosa and 10 other socialist militants; Gerardo Ernesto Urrich González was sentenced to 16 years of effective prison as a co-perpetrator of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Rosa and 8 other socialist militants, and the acquittal of agent Jorge Madariaga Acevedo was decreed.

In early 2018, she received her posthumous nursing degree from the University of Chile.

Sara de Lourdes Donoso Palacios

She was born on February 11, 1950, in Antofagasta; she spent part of her childhood with her family at the "Pedro de Valdivia" nitrate office. In 1970, she entered the Technical University and studied Design for only 1 semester, then worked at the Banco Español for a time, and began studying Nursing at the University of Chile until 1973, the year she was suspended.

She was very supportive and a great reader. A militant of the Socialist Party of Chile since 1974, she became involved, along with her colleague Rosa Solis, with the clandestine leadership of that party.

In 1974, her enrollment had been suspended due to her political affiliation, and she had been reinstated in 1975. Along with her colleague Rosa Solis, she began working in the context of her Professional Internship (final practice before graduation) at the National Health Service Clinic at Avenida Independencia No. 1345 (currently "CESFAM Dr. Agustín Cruz Melo").

Both found it necessary to live in safe houses in downtown Santiago, Independencia, and later in Peñalolén, adopting the names "Cecilia" and "Carmen" for their safety. On July 15, 1975, at 8:30 a.m., at the entrance of the clinic where she was doing her Professional Internship, she was detained by two DINA agents. She was 25 years old at the time of her detention.

Some staff members and a colleague saw two men detain her and put her into a pickup truck, but no one dared to testify at that time. To date, and based on the investigations carried out, it has only been possible to confirm her detention, which is related to the detention of high-ranking leaders of the Socialist Party who were also forcibly disappeared, and to that of her colleague Rosa Solis.

In 2018, former agents Rolf Gonzalo Wenderoth Pozo and Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos were sentenced to 18 years in prison as co-perpetrators of the aggravated kidnapping of Sara and 10 other socialist militants; Gerardo Ernesto Urrich González was sentenced to 16 years of effective prison as a co-perpetrator of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Sara and 8 other socialist militants, and the acquittal of agent Jorge Madariaga Acevedo was decreed.

In early 2018, she received her posthumous nursing degree from the University of Chile.

Waldo César Alfaro Retamal

He began as an intern and paramedic assistant in 1961 at the Linares Hospital, from where he was sent to the University of Chile in Santiago to graduate in 1966 as the first man in Chile to be professionally trained as a nurse, a career that at that time was only practiced by women.

He was awarded as the best student of his class. He worked at the Linares Hospital and was a militant of the PS; he was married to Isolina Martínez Benavides. According to witness statements, he was detained on July 6, 1974, by a military patrol at his home. He was charged with abandonment of duties and the clandestine maintenance of a medical arsenal.

He was transferred to the Artillery School to be interrogated. Three days later, he was released. On July 10, 1974, he was detained again by the military and transferred to the regiment.

On this occasion, according to eyewitnesses who heard his screams of pain, he was severely beaten and subjected to interrogations under torture. He died on July 11, 1974, at 35 years of age, at the Artillery School military facility, due to "acute anemia secondary to a cutting wound of the left thigh, complicated, suicide," as recorded in the Death Certificate.

He was found dead inside the cell where he was being held incommunicado.

In his mouth, according to the Autopsy Protocol, there was a handkerchief that completely filled his oral cavity and was tightly held by his teeth; and over the wound, as recorded in the inspection report of the Prosecutor's Office that investigated his death, "in his wound, there was a rag with which he surely tried to plug it."

Both the femoral artery and vein of Waldo's left thigh had been completely severed, which would have caused massive hemorrhage, hypovolemic shock, and death.

The causal element of the wound was not found, and the Prosecutor's Office dismissed the investigation, considering that no crime was sufficiently proven. Subsequently, it was considered that, regardless of whether it was suicide or not, the influence of the torture and cruel treatment received by State Agents while he was detained was a determining factor in Waldo's death, for which he was declared a victim of human rights violations.

Humberto Cordano López

He worked as a paramedic in the town of Puerto Cisnes, was a member of the PC, and was exiled in Comodoro Rivadavia after September 11, 1973. He was detained on May 23, 1977.

Reliable and consistent testimonies indicate that the victim was detained on the aforementioned day in the vicinity of the Hotel Céntrico in Comodoro Rivadavia. A member of the Argentine Committee of Solidarity with Chile in this province, Humberto Cordano had made efforts on behalf of Chilean detainees, as a result of which he was notoriously followed by DINA agents in that Argentine city.

It emerges from the testimonies and other background information that Humberto Cordano was betrayed by a Chilean, a DINA collaborator, in charge of detecting Chilean refugees in this province bordering Chile.

According to the Rettig Report, the Commission reached the conviction that in the human rights violation to which the victim was subjected, consisting of his detention and subsequent disappearance, agents bear responsibility.

of the State of Chile, in violation of their human rights. In 2001, the press gained access to information indicating that Humberto's case is mentioned in the "documentary evidence" provided by the Argentine Ministry of the Interior regarding the disappearance of Chilean citizens in the context of the investigations into Operation "Condor."

Mario Luis Quezada Solis

Born on August 2, 1943, he was 32 years old at the time of his detention, single, a nursing assistant, and a communist militant. Mario had been a political prisoner of the military regime in Antofagasta after the coup, from where he was released, moving to Santa Rosa No. 339, house 4, Santiago.

He was detained by DINA agents on December 12, 1975, after 3:00 PM, at the home of José Luis Núñez Zamora (detained 2 days earlier by the DINA), at Elisa Reyes No. 554, La Granja, Santiago. After having lunch with his family, he left the house around 3:00 PM and never returned.

Around 11:00 PM, a pair of young individuals arrived at his home in a red Chevrolet pickup truck, claiming to be friends of Mario. They carried a handwritten note from the victim stating that he was fine.

Along with this, they took a typewriter and some papers. On December 22, they returned and requested clothing for Mario Luis. On the 24th, another group of civilians appeared, but this time they thoroughly searched the home.

All the participants were armed and held María Ercilia Quezada Solís (the victim's sister) at gunpoint while she was washing clothes. On the 28th, armed civilians appeared and spent several hours in the house in a waiting posture.

Subsequently, in the month of January 1976, one of the individuals who had brought the note "visited" the home, reporting that he was fine. Mario Luis Quezada Solís was taken by his captors to an unknown facility, where he was tortured and remained for some days, apparently in an underground area.

From there, he was transferred to the DINA detention and torture center at "Villa Grimaldi" (Lo Arrieta, No. 8200). There, he was held and tortured in the "La Torre" (The Tower) sector. He shared his captivity with Oscar Patricio Orellana Figueroa, Hugo Pinto Yáñez (survivors who testified regarding this), Alejandro Avalos Davidson, Santiago Ferruz López, and Ramón Ascencio Subiabre.

The latter three, like Mario Quezada, remain forcibly disappeared following their detention. Due to the conclusive evidence of Quezada Solís's detention by State agents, the Ministry of the Interior first acknowledged the detention to the Santiago Court of Appeals and later to the Fourth Criminal Court of Santiago.

However, it indicated the "Cuatro Alamos" detention camp as the place of confinement instead of "Villa Grimaldi," adding that the detainee had been released on December 30, 1975, despite the fact that the last time he was seen alive was in mid-January 1976 at the DINA facility.

According to testimonies, at noon on January 12, 1976, Mario Quezada Solís was taken from the facility to an unknown destination, along with fellow forcibly disappeared detainee Jorge Fuentes Alarcón. To this date, nothing is known about Mario's whereabouts or fate.

María Noelia Salazar Quezada (no photo available) She was 32 years old at the time of her death, single, reportedly a militant of the MIR, and died on September 11, 1973, in Santiago. María Noelia Salazar Quezada died that day at 10:35 AM at the Posta Central due to a gunshot wound to the cranium, as recorded in the Medical Death Certificate from the Legal Medical Institute.

Despite not having been able to establish the precise circumstances in which her death occurred, given the era and the cause, María Noelia Salazar Quezada was declared a victim of the prevailing political violence, being considered a political execution. Author: Human Rights Commission of the College of Nurses of Chile A.G.

Source: colegiodeenfermeras.cl 9/9/2021

Sara de Lourdes Donoso Palacios

Sara de Lourdes Donoso Palacios was the eldest of three siblings; she was born on February 11, 1950, in Antofagasta, and spent part of her childhood in María Elena. From a young age, she was drawn to art and painting.

After completing her secondary studies at the Liceo de Niñas N° 5, she enrolled in the Design program at the State Technical University (UTE), which she left after one year of study. Her decision, according to what she told her mother at the time, was due "to the excessive political activity that took place at the UTE," a situation that made her uncomfortable, even though she had always expressed sensitivity and concern for social issues.

For this reason, in 1970, after a brief period as an employee at the Banco Español de Santiago, she decided to prepare to take the Academic Aptitude Test for a second time. With the excellent results she obtained, she decided to enroll in the School of Nursing at the University of Chile.

In the classrooms of the old school building on Zañartu Street, she discovered that many of her classmates had concerns similar to hers: a vocation for social change and, in her case, a great desire to participate and be an active protagonist of her time.

In the school courtyards, she met Rosa Solís Poveda, a classmate of very modest origins, with whom she established a close relationship. Rosa was on the left and, little by little, began to integrate Sara into the activities of students supporting the Unidad Popular.

One of the nursing students from that class, Pilar Planet, still remembers Sara with affection, recalling her as "sensitive and supportive, talkative, with a spontaneous and cheerful smile behind her black hair and bangs that reached her eyes."

University Disciplinary Proceedings

After the military coup, within the framework of a University of Chile intervened by the new military authorities, there was a true parade of students called to testify, and a long list of results following the "declarations." Sara was subjected to disciplinary proceedings under the implausible charge of having stolen some uniforms and aprons from her school, although it was evident that this was nothing more than a crude excuse for the harassment that became frequent against students, teachers, and staff suspected of sympathizing with the left.

She was sanctioned with a one-year suspension from her studies. Meanwhile, the new university authorities canceled Rosa's enrollment. Sara managed to resume her studies only in March 1975, while Rosa, unable to return to classes, managed as an independent nursing assistant.

Shortly after, both began working at the National Health Service Clinic at Avenida Independencia No. 134. Sara was happy because her work at that clinic had been recognized as an internship by her school, one of the requirements for her graduation. Although Rosa could not yet resume her studies, she shared the joy and hope that filled her friend.

In Clandestinity

Since the end of the previous year, Sara and Rosa had joined the PS in clandestinity, performing functions in a support group for Carlos Lorca, the former FECH leader and former deputy who was part of the Clandestine Interior Directorate of that party after the military coup.

In these tasks, they operated under the guidance of Carolina Wiff Sepúlveda ("Marcela"), performing liaison functions both between the PS Political Commission and between it and other parties. By then, both had decided to leave their homes so as not to compromise their families.

Aura Poveda, Rosa's mother, indicated that Sara and her daughter shared a small apartment in downtown Santiago at the Portal Fernández Concha, across from the Plaza de Armas in Santiago. Later, she recalls, "both were moved to a house located near Santos Dumont, and then, almost coinciding with the last time I heard from her, to a home in the Peñalolén sector." Marisol Bravo, who also collaborated with another of the PS clandestine support teams, met both young women toward the end of January 1974: "They were 'Cecilia' and 'Carmen,' both short and very close friends. 'Cecilia' had mischievous eyes, a round face, was friendly, easy to talk to, and had a ready laugh. 'Carmen,' even smaller, had a serious face, slightly almond-shaped eyes, and straight hair. She was shy but very warm." The first one she connected with was "Cecilia." Marisol recalls that "we would talk a bit while making contacts, and that's how I found out that her family was right-wing, that she had a brother she loved very much, that she lived in clandestinity but communicated periodically with her family to inform them she was fine. Later, she introduced me to 'Carmen.' I calculated that they lived together, but they didn't confirm it. I sensed a great affection between them and thought they might be university classmates. I didn't ask them directly. At that time, it was necessary to know as little as possible," she recalls. Edith Donoso, another collaborator of the PS Interior Directorate, recalls that at the safe house on Chile-España Street—between Núñez de Arce and Alonso de Ercilla—where Lorca and other high-ranking socialist leaders in clandestinity (Exequiel Ponce, Jaime López, and Luis Urtubia) were hidden for a time, "two nursing girls used to arrive, one with bangs and the other with almond-shaped eyes, who performed duties as liaisons and couriers for the organization." Indeed, both friends were the liaisons for one of the communication circuits between the clandestine directorates of the PS and the PC, which had been established through Carlos Lorca and José Weibel (deputy general secretary of the JJCC, member of the PC leadership, and disappeared since March 29, 1976). Shaira Sepúlveda, who was precisely the communist counterpart to both friends and who dealt directly with Weibel, gives an account of this important and until now unknown role of Sara Donoso and Rosa Solís: "In 1975, I performed liaison duties between my party, the PC, and the socialist leader Carlos Lorca. For these purposes, I had contacts with a young PS militant, about 22 years old, short and thin, who on one occasion, I remember, mentioned to me that she was studying nursing." "Our work consisted of setting points for the exchange of documentation and information of interest to our respective leaders," she adds. "In mid-June, I calculate, she told me that the PS had decided to replace her with another comrade, who would continue performing her same functions. She introduced her to me; it was a girl about 20 to 23 years old, also short, with straight hair, almond-shaped eyes, and also related to the field of nursing."

The Fall The house on Santos Dumont that Rosa's mother alluded to was actually a residence located on Juárez Street, almost at the corner of Avenida La Paz, which Professor Alberto Galleguillos, another collaborator of the PS leadership, had rented at their request.

According to Galleguillos's testimony, that house was a sort of "second safe house, to which important leaders and militants moved when a comrade fell." Galleguillos recalls that at the end of June 1975, after the fall of Ponce, Lorca, and Lagos, a prompt evacuation was decided for the comrades who were hiding in the Juárez house at that moment: "It fell to me to take charge of the urgent transfer of two young girls, Rosa and Sara, whom, with my brother, we took in his car to a house of a helper he had in Peñalolén.

The two, having learned of the fall of the Interior Directorate, were devastated, in very poor spirits, and in a destitute economic situation." Marisol Bravo, around those same days, had a final contact with Sara Donoso. "She was worried because it was already known that the Clandestine Directorate had fallen.

According to her, they had seen Ricardo Lagos at the Madre e Hijo Presbyterian Clinic—one of the medical centers where Michelle Peña was monitoring her pregnancy—and he had implied that they had grabbed him.

She knew nothing about Michelle. We set a new point, and she gave me her family's phone number so I could notify them if she didn't arrive. The day of the contact and the following one arrived, and 'Cecilia' did not appear." Alberto Galleguillos, in the meantime, returned to see the two girls at the Peñalolén home, "but inexplicably, they were not in the house.

A neighbor told me that the previous night, one of them had left accompanied by two men and had not returned." Shaira Sepúlveda, for her part, found out in July '75 about the fall of Carlos Lorca through José Weibel: "Around those days, the young woman who now acted as my liaison with the PS contacted me, and we agreed to meet the next day.

We assumed she would have infrastructure and money problems, having been disconnected from her party, so the PC decided that I should go to the meeting and provide her with some money. We met, exchanged some information, and I suggested that she travel to the provinces for some time to lay low." "After that meeting, where I noticed her nervousness and her lack of support from her party structure, I went to a new point we agreed upon, which we set for July 21 at 6:00 PM, at Sucre and Salvador.

When I arrived at the place, she walked toward me, and I noticed she wanted to warn me that she was in an anomalous situation. Indeed, in a matter of seconds, five or six men appeared and subdued me. Two vehicles arrived at the place, a white Citroën and a Chevrolet-type pickup truck with a green canvas on its back." "They quickly put me in the Citroën and blindfolded me with adhesive tape.

After a few turns, they stopped and moved me to the back of the Chevrolet pickup, where the two PS liaison girls who worked with me were. At that moment, the girl with the almond-shaped eyes apologized to me for what happened; she was terrified.

She told me that she had been detained days earlier and that her name was Rosa. It was noticeable that she and the other girl, the one who dealt with me at the beginning, had been heavily tortured. She also told me her real name: Sara." "After a few minutes, we arrived at a house that I assumed (and later confirmed) was a property located on José Domingo Cañas.

Upon arriving, they took us down and removed our blindfolds. After a few hours, I lost track of them." Indeed, Sara and Rosa were transferred from the Ollague barracks—the name the DINA gave to the José Domingo Cañas facility—to Villa Grimaldi—the Terranova barracks—where the DINA's Metropolitan Intelligence Brigade operated and where the members of the PS Clandestine Directorate were being held.

The Facts Sara was kidnapped at 8:30 AM on July 15, 1975, at the entrance of the clinic where she worked, from where her trail was lost. According to some witnesses—who did not testify at the time out of fear—it is known that she walked with her captors along Independencia toward the north, where she was forced into a pickup truck.

Sara's father, Juan Donoso Oliva, found out about her capture through a phone call received on Wednesday, July 16, 1975, through which the head nurse of the clinic asked about her, noting that she had not shown up for work.

Subsequently, the father would confirm his daughter's detention through information provided by the young woman's coworkers, who commented that "Sara was taken by some people in civilian clothes who forced her into a pickup truck, about which no further details are known." In mid-July 1975, Alberto Galleguillos was detained along with his partner, Silvia Ugalde.

After several days of duress at Villa Grimaldi, the woman recognized, in a corner of the facility's guardhouse, the young militants Sara Donoso and Rosa Solís. "They were sitting, very beaten, and seemed to protect themselves by huddling against each other.

They looked drugged and were covered by a blanket." Minutes later, Silvia witnessed a comment from the agent Basclay Zapata, known as "El Troglo" for his brutality: According to Ugalde, Zapata was very excited and was making jokes regarding the anniversary of the Cuban Revolution.

At one point, "El Troglo" looked contemptuously at the two girls and shouted: "Alright, these two, off to celebrate July 26th at Colonia Dignidad!" It was the last time she saw them.

Source: pschile.cl undated

Corrections in bold to the previous text, sent by her sister Patricia:

Sara de Lourdes Donoso Palacios, a 4th-year Nursing student, a militant of the Socialist Party, was detained on July 15, 1975, around 08:30 in the morning, by two agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), at the entrance of the National Health Service Clinic, located at 1345 Independencia Street, where she was completing her internship.

Although there are no official testimonies of her detention, as witnesses did not testify out of fear, it is established that Sara Donoso and her captors walked along Independencia toward the north, where she was forced into a pickup truck.

The victim's father, Juan Donoso Oliva, found out about the events through a phone call received on Wednesday, July 16 of the same year, through which the head nurse of the Clinic asked about Sara Donoso, who had not shown up for her internship.

Subsequently, the father would confirm his daughter's detention through information provided by the affected party's coworkers. For its part, the Investigations police, in a response to an investigation order from the 8th Criminal Court, indicated that inquiries made to students and professors at the Independencia Street Clinic "corroborated what was expressed by the complainant (Juan Donoso)," (August 25, 1975).

Furthermore, the events prior to the disappearance of Sara Donoso, whose nursing enrollment at the University of Chile had been suspended during 1974, and who had been reinstated to finish her internship in 1975, do nothing but confirm her detention by DINA agents.

The affected party lived in a downtown apartment together with Rosa Soliz (also a socialist militant and forcibly disappeared detainee). Both worked at the same Clinic and performed liaison functions within the Socialist Party, both between the central Directorate and between it and other political parties.

Sara Donoso and Rosa Soliz worked for the party under the orders of Modesta Carolina Wiff, also a forcibly disappeared detainee. Thus, her detention and disappearance are part of a DINA operation directed against the highest socialist leaders of the time, members of the Political Commission and their liaisons and couriers, carried out in the months of June and July 1975.

In June, the detentions of Michelle Peña, Exequiel Ponce, Mireya Rodríguez, Carlos Lorca, Ricardo Lagos, and Modesta Carolina Wiff were carried out. In the month of July, the affected party and Rosa Soliz were detained. All of them remain forcibly disappeared to this day.

Source: Patricia Donoso