Address: Pasaje Norte No. 63, Población Purén, Chillán Marital Status: Married, one child Occupation: Sociology graduate from the Universidad de Concepción. Employee Political Affiliation: Militant of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR). Former student leader Date of Detention: February 7, 1975

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

Sergio Humberto Lagos Marín, married, one child, a Sociology graduate from the Universidad de Concepción and a militant of the MIR, was detained under the following circumstances: on February 7, 1975, at approximately 16:00 hours, the victim, in the company of his mother, Margarita Marín Gajardo, and a seven-year-old younger brother, entered a soda fountain located on Calle San Pablo, between Cumming and Maturana, to have a drink and a snack, as they had been running errands in downtown Santiago.

Sergio Lagos then indicated that he needed to speak to a friend by phone, and since the establishment did not have one, the victim went out and crossed the street to call from a shop almost directly opposite.

Margarita Marín saw a patrol vehicle approaching slowly—she could not identify if it belonged to the Investigaciones or the Carabineros—with three individuals in civilian clothes inside. The vehicle stopped a few meters ahead.

Only about ten minutes had passed when Mrs. Marín and her young son went out to the street to wait for the victim. Outside, there was a group of people talking and commenting that the patrol vehicle had detained and forced three people who were walking down the street at that moment into the vehicle.

Based on the description they gave of one of them, Mrs. Margarita realized that her son, Sergio Lagos Marín, was one of the detainees.

The responsibility of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) in the detention of the victim has been confirmed by the following evidence.

Indeed, on the day Sergio Lagos Marín was apprehended, he was supposed to meet in public with Oscar Hernán Angulo Matamala, also a militant of the MIR, who was already detained and in the custody of the DINA since February 5, 1975.

The aforementioned witness would later recount that he was detained by DINA agents at the doors of the Hospital Salvador in the capital, where he had gone to visit his mother, who was suffering from advanced cancer and partial paralysis on her right side.

Once apprehended, he was forced into a car, handcuffed, and blindfolded, being taken directly to Villa Grimaldi, receiving blows to his body during the journey. Upon arriving at the aforementioned facility, he was immediately handed over to agent Osvaldo Romo Mena and taken for interrogation.

He remained incommunicado for approximately seven days in a solitary cell measuring 80 cm by 1.60 m and 2.5 m high, completely dark, and always standing and blindfolded.

During his stay at Villa Grimaldi—he added—he was with the following people who remain forcibly disappeared to this day and whose detention has been denied by the corresponding authorities: Sergio Humberto Lagos Marín, Eugenio Iván Montti Cordero, Patricio Humberto Cerda Aparicio, Manuel Edgardo Cortez Joo, Juan Molina Mogollones, Rodrigo Ugas Morales, and Juan Carlos Perelman Ide.

All of them were supposedly transferred to another facility on the same day, at the end of February 1975.

The witness continues by noting that during the three and a half months he remained at Villa Grimaldi, he was interrogated seven times under illegitimate duress, such as the application of electricity and beatings to various parts of his body.

Likewise, the presence of Sergio Lagos Marín at the secret detention and torture center run by the DINA, known as Villa Grimaldi and located at José Arrieta 8200, Peñalolén, has been confirmed through the accounts of other witnesses.

Thus, the former detainee Sergio Humberto Lagos Moya stated in a sworn declaration that: "a special relationship was established between him and the victim at Villa Grimaldi, due to the coincidence of their names and surnames; and that he saw him periodically until March 5, 1975, the date on which the witness was released, with the victim remaining in the mentioned facility in very poor condition due to the torture suffered."

Furthermore, in March 1991, the national public learned through the press of the confessions of Luz Arce Sandoval, a former detainee—who, under the pressure of torture, became a collaborator for the DINA—who, when testifying before the Rettig Report (National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation), provided information about said organization, its mode of operation, part of its structure, the identification of individuals who were part of it, and her testimony regarding several people who were detained and kidnapped by DINA agents and who remain forcibly disappeared to this day.

Regarding the victim, she states that she "remembers his name as a detained person."

Finally, it is important to note that on April 25, 1974, a 21-year-old brother of the victim—Ogan Esteban Lagos Marín—was taken from the Public Jail of Chillán, where he had been detained since March, and transferred to the Regimiento No. 9 of that city, from where he disappeared.

Another brother, Nelson Ernesto Lagos Marín, died on September 23, 1985, as a result of the detonation of an explosive device in the home he occupied in the city of Chillán.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

Margarita Marín Gajardo filed a writ of amparo (habeas corpus) on behalf of the victim before the Santiago Court of Appeals on February 28, 1975, which was registered under No. 306-75.

The General Directorate of Investigations, following an official request, informed the Court on March 10, 1975, that "after making the pertinent inquiries at this Central Headquarters and dependent units, it was established that Sergio Lagos Marín is not currently detained, nor has he been previously."

In the same month of March 1975, the Chief of Staff of the CAJSI and General Command of the Army Garrison, Colonel Hernán Ramírez Ramírez, reported that the victim was not being investigated in the II Military Court, nor was he detained within the jurisdiction of that State headquarters.

For its part, on April 8, 1975, the Ministry of the Interior at the time, Division General Raúl Benavides Escobar, informed the Court that Sergio Lagos was not detained by order of this Ministry. This negative report was repeated again on the 21st of the same month and year.

On April 23, 1975, the Court of Appeals, without insisting on obtaining a response to the official letter sent to the General Directorate of Investigations and without having officially requested information from the DINA, as the petitioner had expressly requested, dismissed the writ of amparo, noting that the reports in the file did not show that the victim was detained or imprisoned, nor that there was an arrest warrant against him.

In the same resolution, it ordered the records to be sent to the corresponding Criminal Court so that it could investigate the possible commission of a crime regarding the disappearance of Sergio Humberto Lagos Marín.

Thus, by official letter from the Court of Appeals, a complaint for the alleged disappearance of the victim was initiated on April 30, 1975, before the 3rd Criminal Court of Santiago, which was registered under No. 118.074-6.

The order to investigate issued in the case did not provide any information that would allow for the determination of the victim's fate or whereabouts.

On August 13, 1975, it was ordered to officially request the Ministry of the Interior for authorization for the Court to visit the detention camps known as "Tres Alamos" and "Cuatro Alamos," also requesting a report on how many detention camps existed in the city.

The Ministry of the Interior, in a response letter, stated that for security reasons, and before issuing a statement, it requested that the reasons requiring the Court's visit to the mentioned camps, and the judicial proceedings or actions that would be carried out within them, be specified precisely.

On September 1, 1975, the Court resolved to officially request the Ministry of the Interior again, pointing out that the purpose of the decreed action was to interrogate the detainee Humberto Lagos Marín.

On September 22 of the same year, the Minister of the Interior at the time, Raúl Benavides Escobar, reported that after reviewing the index cards of this Ministry, a Sergio Humberto Lagos Moya appeared, who was detained in the "Cuatro Alamos" camp and was released by Exempt Decree No. 873 of this State Secretariat dated March 4, 1975.

Likewise, a Lagos Marín Ogan Esteban appeared, who remained detained in the Chillán prison and was released on April 29, 1974. Under these circumstances, and since no Sergio Humberto Lagos Marín is detained, I would be grateful if Your Honor would communicate to this Ministry if, after knowing these facts, authorization would still be necessary for that Court to visit the "Tres Alamos" and "Cuatro Alamos" detention camps.

Based solely on the merit of this report, the Court declared the summary closed and temporarily dismissed the case on December 27, 1975, until new or better investigative data were presented.

The dismissal resolution was approved by the Santiago Court of Appeals on October 7, 1975.

On July 4, 1991, the victim's wife, María Angélica Concha Contreras, filed a criminal complaint before the Third Criminal Court of Santiago for the crimes of kidnapping and illicit association against those DINA agents who, as perpetrators, accomplices, or accessories, appear responsible for the reported facts, who must be identified and prosecuted.

This complaint was added to the case for the alleged disappearance of the victim, registered under No. 118.074-6. As of December 1992, the case was in a state of secret summary and had pending proceedings.

One of the DINA agents who had active participation in the detention and interrogation operations of MIR militants, Osvaldo Romo Mena, was arrested in November 1992. The former agent had been located in Brazil under the false identity of Osvaldo Andrés Henríquez Mena, following a series of proceedings decreed in the case of the disappearance of Alfonso Chanfreau Oyarce.

In July 1992, Romo was arrested and in November expelled from the country.

Under the orders of the DINA, the agent and his family moved to Brazil at the end of 1975, at a time when he had been summoned by several courts that were processing cases of forcibly disappeared persons; the aforementioned security agency, among other means, provided him with false identity documents for himself, his spouse, and his children.

As of December 1992, Romo had been charged in six cases of forcibly disappeared persons and had several situations pending before the courts.

Source: Corporation report

On the La Castilla campus, surrounded by students, computers, classes, and laughter, Jorge Lagos Marín performs his work as the person in charge of the Computer Laboratories in the Faculty of Education and Humanities.

The walls of his office, where he is interviewed, are partially covered with calendars featuring photographs of the students who have served as laboratory assistants. They are young people from different majors who have wanted to be part of that area of the University, and each one has left some memory in Jorge's mind.

A native of Chillán, with a vocation for teaching, and saved by what many believe is a miracle after a massive heart attack, the staff member has no qualms about telling pleasant episodes of his life, and some not so pleasant, but which have transformed him into the man he is today, although, in his own words, "just as grumpy" as ever.

Large Family Currently, Jorge has formed his own family, consisting of his wife and three daughters, Pilar, Margarita, Marcela, and Camila, respectively, but in his childhood, there were seven siblings, a mother, and a father, Margarita and Humberto, she a housewife and he a laborer.

They lived as a family in the Población Purén, a sector of hard work where there were many families like them. Although Jorge mentions how difficult it was to have a childhood with material shortages, what prevails in his words is a sense of pride in understanding that they were able to overcome that. "Our origin was quite modest, in a sector of hard work.

I don't know how we dealt with that; I have never been able to explain it well. There are things that are inconceivable for a family today; a family with two or three is already a lot. We had to walk, cross the whole city to get to school, using what was left over from the older brother; we survived," he explains.

He confesses that, "according to my folks, I was quite mischievous, with pranks that sometimes bordered on delinquency (laughs), with a couple of classmates or neighborhood friends. But nothing more than taking an apple or a magazine here and there, things that were also forbidden to us," he adds, reminiscing. "I have always praised my parents for how it was possible that we managed to move forward; in fact, the four siblings who survived have a very good academic background," highlights Lagos.

Already as a young man and after the pranks, high school arrived. In a context where few could think about continuing to study, he began his path in the technical area. "At least the younger ones were taught to study a technical career to be able to enter the labor market immediately.

It was not thought of at that time, in general, to continue studying. That is, the issue was to finish Humanities at that time, if it was achieved, and to be able to work in anything. I studied Electricity, my other brother did too, another studied Mechanics at the Industrial School, and another Accounting.

We didn't necessarily practice them, but that's where they took us; we didn't choose where to study, but it was what there was, what was possible," recalls Jorge.

His Arrival at the UBB

By twists of fate, and despite having a vocation as a Mathematics teacher, he ended up arriving at the Universidad de Concepción to study, just like another of his brothers thanks to a great effort, Civil Electrical Engineering, a degree he ended up leaving in the third year.

He returned to Chillán to give private lessons in the subject he is passionate about, classes he also taught in pre-university courses in the 80s, until he arrived at the Universidad del Bío-Bío in 1992 to collaborate in the beginnings of the Execution Engineering in Computing and Informatics of the Faculty of Business Sciences. "They needed someone who could handle the computer issue to help with a job similar to what I do currently.

It was to meet the needs of the engineers, since a room with computers was being set up and someone had to take charge of that part."

Finally, he arrived at the Faculty of Education and Humanities, where he has formed ties with the university community and built his family life around the La Castilla campus, thus prioritizing his quality of life.

Jorge remembers those beginnings and highlights the emphasis that, as he explains, was given to UBB pedagogies at the end of the 90s; he laughs when mentioning that diskettes were used there, "the 3.5 ones, not the 5 ¼ ones, then the boom of CDs and then it advanced to pendrives, which were a marvel, but now they are just lying around," he clarifies.

In October 2016, he suffered a heart attack, "I was unconscious of what happened, but according to those who lived through it and are close, it is a miracle that I am here. At work, I started to feel strange, a little weak, and at the insistence of my daughters, I had exams done and it was determined that I had a problem and they sent me quickly to the Hospital Las Higueras in Talcahuano; there I lost touch with the world.

Apparently, I arrived just in time, mechanical ventilator, pacemaker," he says.

Months after the health problem occurred, he returned to work; his rest was brief for the severity of that, but he recognizes that he is not in a position where he is required to make a major physical effort. "Now, I was always left with the doubt of whether I stayed here because I had some debt to pay, or if it is a prize (laughs).

I remember that I received many displays of affection and love from people I didn't expect, but that's where the subject changes a little, they get a little closer. That was gained; there are people who stop by more often to ask how I am, 'you can't die, eh,' my colleagues tell me."

Tragedy That Deserves to be Remembered

His family was made up of seven siblings; however, three of them died during the dictatorship: Ogan Esteban, Sergio Humberto, and Nelson Ernesto. 1974, 1975, and 1985 were the years that marked Jorge's parents and clearly him, who of the siblings who are alive is the one who has always taken charge of legal matters with the aim of seeking justice and not forgetting what should not be forgotten, both for his core family and for the country.

"Two of them were students at the Universidad de Concepción, the oldest in Sociology, another in Agronomy, and the third worked in commerce; I lived with him more and we had less age difference. They all left children," he explains.

Trying to attend all the commemorations that time allows him, he admits that he never had time to assimilate what happened, "I think that until today it is not closed; at least on my side, it is an open wound.

You suffer a lot; I suffered a lot seeing my folks, my mom especially, because I understand that for a mother, losing children is the worst thing that can happen to her. This is one of the greatest sufferings. Seeing the children they left behind; the first left two, the second one, and the third one."

With ups and downs in his life, Jorge Lagos Marín insists that it is not yet time to retire, neither in his work nor in life; he loves what he has built. In addition, he adds, "what would I do? I know I would invent something, but no, I prefer to continue."

Source: perfiles.ubiobio.cl 23/4/2019 Date: 23-04-2019

Sociology and Anthropology Students Remembered Victims of the Military Dictatorship (excerpt)

Within the framework of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances—which was established in 2011 thanks to the initiative of the Latin American Federation of Associations of Relatives of Detained-Disappeared Persons (Fedefam) and the support of the UN—representatives of the Sociology Coordinator and the Popular Anthropology Collective of the UdeC carried out interventions to remember colleagues who were victims of the military dictatorship.

Interrupted Sociology

With an artistic installation that attempted to simulate a classroom, the Sociology Coordinator of the Universidad de Concepción paid tribute to 17 students of the program who suffered political execution or forced disappearance between 1973 and 1990.

"Today we are facing a denialist onslaught that seeks to hide the crimes against humanity committed by the State of Chile during the civil-military dictatorship. That is why, as Sociology students of the Universidad de Concepción, we want to remember the colleagues we are missing, who were students like you and me, and whose families could not even bury their bodies," indicated the Sociology Coordinator in the brochures that were handed out to students who approached to witness this space of memory.

The people remembered this Thursday were: – Juan Carlos Gómez Iturra – Nelson Herrera Riveros – Luis Pincheira Llanos – Héctor Sobarzo Núñez – Héctor Velásquez – Ana Luisa Peñailillo Parra – Elizabeth Cabrera Balarritz – Carlos Fernández Zapata – Jorge Fuentes Alarcón – Sergio Riffo Ramos – Roberto Chaer Vásquez – Ariel Salinas Argomedo – Manuel Villalobos Díaz – Washington Cid Urrutia – Sergio Lagos Marín – Alejandro Robinson Mella Flores

Source: socialesudec.cl 30/8/2018 Date: 30-08-2018