D.O.B. : 27 10 55, 18 years old at the time of his detention Address : Lord Cochrane 1624, Santiago Marital Status : Single Occupation : Independent Worker Political Affiliation : None Date of Detention : January 18, 1974

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

Sergio Enrique Gutiérrez Seguel, 18 years of age, was detained on January 18, 1974, along with his friends Domingo Cubillos Guajardo, 19, and Ramón Ortiz Orellana, 16. The three were returning from a birthday party around midnight when they were intercepted by two individuals with whom they argued, who turned out to be plainclothes Carabineros.

The young men ran and sought refuge in a tenement located on Calle Gálvez near the 1200 block, being pursued by the Carabineros. Once inside the tenement, they hid in a crawlspace that connected to a neighboring bakery located at Calle San Diego No. 1255.

For their part, the Carabineros telephoned the Fourth Precinct from a house in the neighborhood, reporting what had happened and requesting reinforcements. They then entered the aforementioned bakery, where they claimed to be looking for criminals who were inside.

Gunshots were heard, and the young men were then taken from the premises and driven away in a Carabineros van that had arrived to assist in the operation. From the moment of their apprehension, Sergio Gutiérrez, Domingo Cubillos, and Ramón Ortiz have remained in the status of forcibly disappeared.

Sergio Gutiérrez's mother went to the Fourth Precinct of the Carabineros, where the detention of her son at that facility was denied; she also visited other precincts, first aid stations, hospitals, and the Estadio Chile without obtaining information on the whereabouts of the affected party.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On January 29, 1974, a complaint for alleged disappearance was filed for Domingo Cubillos, Ramón Ortiz, and Sergio Gutiérrez, case file 98.068-3, before the 5th Criminal Court of Santiago, a complaint that was entered via a report submitted by the Carabineros.

The mothers of the three boys ratified the complaint before the Court, further noting that their sons had no political activities and that on the day of their detention, they were coming from a birthday party and appeared to be intoxicated.

The Court issued an official request to the Fourth Precinct seeking information regarding the detention of the young men, to which the Commissioner, Carabineros Major Héctor Rozas Montecinos, responded, stating that there was no record of the detention or presence of the minors in that unit.

Furthermore, the National Executive Secretary of SENDET, Colonel Jorge Espinoza Ulloa, reported that there was no record of the detention of Sergio Gutiérrez and Domingo Cubillos; however, the detention of Ramón Ortiz O. was recorded between January 7 and January 9, 1974, the day he was released by the Investigations Service.

Two witnesses to the events appeared before the Court; one of them stated that he recognized the three young men, as he saw them often in the tenement, and that they were indeed being pursued by two civilians who later identified themselves as Carabineros.

He added that a military patrol also arrived at the scene in a jeep, which presumably also participated in the detention operation. The other witness, an employee of the bakery, confirmed the fact that the uniformed officers entered the premises in search of the young men, but he did not witness the detention because he was not allowed to leave the room where he was located.

On May 16, 1974, the summary proceedings were closed, and the case was temporarily dismissed because, according to the Judge, there was insufficient evidence to charge any specific person as the author, accomplice, or accessory to the reported crime.

On July 17, the Court of Appeals approved the dismissal without considering the report from the Prosecutor, who stated that "the investigation has provided more than sufficient evidence that should have guided the Judge's decision to declare himself incompetent and refer the case to the Military Justice system." In the respective resolution, the Court replaced the grounds for the aforementioned dismissal with the claim that the crime was not sufficiently proven.

On March 29, 1974, the Committee for Cooperation for Peace in Chile filed a mass writ of amparo, case file 289-74, before the Santiago Court of Appeals, on behalf of 131 people who were missing as of that date and whose information had been verified by that organization.

Among those protected were the three young men detained on January 18. On November 29, the Court rejected the writ, a resolution that was approved by the Supreme Court on January 31, 1975. In the resolution, the Court ordered the appointment of an Extraordinary Visiting Minister, which fell to Minister Enrique Zurita Camps, who on February 24, 1975, initiated proceedings under case file No. 106.657 of the First Criminal Court of Santiago.

On September 25, 1975, without having delved into any of the cases of the forcibly disappeared, the summary was closed because "no further progress could be made in the investigation." On September 29 of the same year, the Visiting Minister issued a ruling declaring himself incompetent in 13 of the 131 cases, as the participation of Military or Carabineros forces in the investigated events was evident.

Furthermore, 22 people were found to be at liberty and not disappeared. In the remaining cases, he issued a temporary dismissal, as the existence of any criminal act in their disappearances was not fully justified. Among the latter are the young men Domingo Cubillos, Ramón Ortiz, and Sergio Gutiérrez. As of May 10, 1976, the Santiago Court of Appeals approved said resolution.

Source: Corporation report

In the summer of 1974, terror continued to prevail in the country. Four months after the military coup, group executions, detentions, and disappearances of people continued; imprisonment, public and clandestine detention and torture centers remained full; thousands went into exile or sought refuge in embassies in Santiago.

Specifically, on January 18, events occurred such as the execution of 6 political and social leaders in the city of Quillota by members of the Cavalry School of the same city. The executed were Víctor Fuenzalida, 35, a leader of the PC; Manuel Hurtado, 35, a leader of the PS; Osvaldo Manzano, 32, President of the Rayon Said Union and a member of the MIR; Julio Loo, 27, a textile worker and communist militant; Ángel Díaz, a 41-year-old neighborhood leader and textile worker; and Hugo Aranda, 30, single, a peasant and neighborhood leader.

The previous day, in the same city of Quillota, socialist militants Pablo Gac Espinoza, former mayor of Quillota, and Rubén Cabezas Pares, lawyer and prosecutor for the CORA of Quillota, were detained and forcibly disappeared by agents of the Military Intelligence Service (SIM).

That same January 18, 1974, but in Santiago, a group of young men returning from a birthday party in downtown Santiago were surprised by two Carabineros who requested reinforcements. On Calle San Diego, near the 1255 block, Ramón Ortiz Orellana, 16, a student at Industrial School No. 3; Sergio Enrique Gutiérrez Seguel, 18, a worker; and Domingo Cubillos Guajardo, a 19-year-old shoemaker, were detained in an operation that included military personnel, Carabineros, and armed civilians.

All were loaded into a police vehicle and remain disappeared to this day.

Source: resumen.cl, January 18, 2024

Date: 01-18-2024

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

The book was produced by the Association of Relatives of Political Executions (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 primarily 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 each of the lives and stories of the victims in a comprehensive and careful manner.

During the research, access was granted to the archive of the Association of Relatives of Political Executions, 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 4/20/2023

Date: 04-20-2023