Occupation: Mapuche Language Professor at the University of Leiden, Holland.

Political Affiliation: Militant of the MIR, former leader of the Peasant Communal Council in Cautín Date of Detention: February 19, 1981 * Name: JOSE ALEJANDRO CAMPOS CIFUENTES Tax ID (RUT): No information Date of Birth: 28-10-50, 30 years old at the time of detention Address: Temuco Marital Status: Single, 1 child Occupation: Former nursing student Political Affiliation: Militant of the MIR Date of Detention: February 19, 1981

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

José Alejandro Campos, father of one child, nursing student, and militant of the MIR, and Luis Quinchavil, Mapuche Language Professor at the University of Leiden, Holland, and militant of the MIR, were detained on February 19, 1981, by an Argentine Gendarmerie patrol while attempting to cross the Andes Mountains near the Paimún or Hua Hum Pass, opposite Junín de los Andes.

Two other MIR militants were with them; they were not seen by the gendarmes and managed to enter Chile. After speaking with the detainees and requesting their identification, both were taken to a Gendarmerie facility in the aforementioned Argentine locality.

This was the last time they were seen, and they have been forcibly disappeared since then. According to unofficial Argentine sources, the victims were handed over to Chilean security forces, in compliance with agreements between the respective national police forces.

Campos and Quinchavil were traveling with false identities: the former as Jorge Fortunato Herrera Avendaño and the latter as Elías Santibáñez Ortiz; both carried Chilean passports and national identity cards.

In 1981, the MIR initiated an "operation return," which consisted of the illegal entry of several militants who were in exile and prohibited from entering the country. These prohibitions were administrative measures issued by the Ministry of the Interior, by virtue of the provisions of Decree Law No. 81, promulgated by the Military Junta.

José Alejandro Campos had been detained previously, in October 1973, and subjected to a War Council in Temuco, in case file 1449-73, being sentenced to 15 years in prison. This sentence was commuted to banishment by virtue of Decree Law 504, and he left on February 11, 1976, bound for Denmark.

Luis Quinchavil was also detained in 1973, on November 23, by the Army Intelligence Service and sentenced by a War Council in Temuco, in case file 2025-73, for violation of the State Security Law, to a 7-year prison term.

He also availed himself of Decree Law 504 and had his sentence commuted to banishment, traveling on June 10, 1976, to Holland. In that country, he worked as a Mapuche language professor at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Leiden.

Both appeared on the National List of Chileans prohibited from entering the country, by virtue of Decree Law No. 81.

The rest of the MIR members who entered settled in the pre-Andean zone of Lanco (Temuco) and Neltume, where they were detained and seven of them were victims of political executions in September of that year.

In July, a major military operation began in the area, commanded by Brigadier General Rolando Figueroa Quezada, in which members of the Carabineros, the Army, and the National Intelligence Center (CNI) participated by air and land.

Several people were detained in Temuco and Lanco, accused of collaborating with the "extremists," while the press reported "clashes" with the "guerrillas," who were cornered in the Andean zone. Regarding these operations, an incident occurred with Argentine Gendarmerie personnel when Chilean soldiers penetrated neighboring territory in pursuit of the MIR members.

According to "El Mercurio," they were authorized to continue the search there.

All the events that occurred daily were widely reported by the press, except for the names of the detainees. However, in September, the Army declared "No guerrillas, no guerrillas," adding that the news about detained guerrillas was false.

The truth is that the deaths in these circumstances in September 1981, which were reported, involved seven people, of whom only four were identified and buried by relatives.

Regarding the disappeared Campos and Quinchavil, who were supposed to be part of this group, nothing more was ever known about what happened to them.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On July 18, 1981, a French lawyer filed a writ of amparo (habeas corpus) on behalf of both men before the Santiago Court of Appeals, case file 597-81. Relatives of the victims also joined the appeal.

The Department of Immigration of the Investigations police reported that there was no record of the entry of the subjects through the HUA HUM Pass.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported, for its part, that both appeared on the National List with a prohibition on entering the country, "a measure taken by the Ministry of the Interior, by virtue of Decree Law No. 81."

However, the Minister of the Interior—Sergio Fernández Fernández—indicated to the Court that there were no records in that Ministry related to the victims.

On September 3 of that year, the appeal was dismissed by the court, which deemed that the detention of Campos and Quinchavil was not presumable.

In Argentina, a "Habeas Corpus" action was also initiated on behalf of the victims, but the authorities of that country denied their participation in the events.

Complaints were also made to international organizations, without achieving positive results. The governments of France, Holland, and Denmark—the latter two being the countries of origin of the victims' partners—also took steps with the same result.

In Chile, the French lawyer met with the Undersecretary of Justice, and an interview with the Foreign Minister was denied: it was stated that the Minister "did not want to speak with someone from a Human Rights organization."

Source: (Corporation Report)

For the memory of all those who were victims of Operation Condor; we thank their families for the stories and shared memories. Editors: María Luisa Ortiz Rojas / Marcela Paz Sandoval Osorio

Source: cedocmuseodelamemoria.cl 01/2020

In the framework of the anniversary of the Military Coup, the Chilean College of Nurses A.G. and its Human Rights Commission pay tribute to nurses who were victims of human rights violations during the Dictatorship.

He was born in Carahue, was the fifth of 12 children, and was 30 years old and had one child (with his partner of Norwegian nationality, Gunvor Kristine Sorli) at the time of his detention. A militant of the MIR. "Campito," as they called him, began studying nursing at the University of Chile, Temuco campus, in 1971, where he remained until early 1973, the year he was called to perform mandatory military service, reporting on April 2 and being discharged on August 31 by order of the IV Army Division of Valdivia.

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

This sentence was commuted to banishment, and he left on February 11, 1976, bound for Denmark, with a prohibition on 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 comrade Luis Quinchavil Suárez (known as "Quincha," a Mapuche language professor at the University of Leiden 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, and were placed at the disposal of CNI agents in Neltume, in whose hands both disappeared, in violation of their human rights.

According to what was stated on July 7, 2004, in the ruling of the plenary of the Court of Appeals that approved the stripping of Augusto Pinochet's immunity due to his connection with the so-called "Operation Condor," witnesses indicate that both were allegedly transported 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, allegedly by Captain Julio Benimelli, at 2:45 in the morning 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 the disappearance of Campito, on March 20, 1981, the Temuco campuses of the "University of Chile" and the "Technical State University" merged into the University of the Frontier (UFRO).

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

Source: colegiodeenfermeras.cl 10/9/2021 Date: 10-09-2021

Artists forcibly disappeared and victims of political executions by the civil-military dictatorship

During the civil-military dictatorship, at least a hundred people linked to culture, the arts, and heritage were victims of political executions or were forcibly disappeared.

September 11 marked the beginning of the most painful stage we have ever lived, caused by State agents and civilian accomplices. Today we commemorate 48 years of that tragedy that still mourns all of Chile.

More than three thousand people—men, women, children, and young people, including primary, secondary, and university students; pregnant women, the elderly, the blind, and the disabled—were directly affected, and hundreds of thousands became family members and victims of the dictatorship. Those who survive fight tirelessly for justice, reparation, and non-repetition of genocidal acts by the State.

Men and women whose contribution to society came from their social struggle, as militants, and also from their trades and occupations as shoemakers, laborers, textile employees, doctors, linotypists, dressmakers, secretaries, union and neighborhood leaders, municipal officials, public employees, railway workers, newspaper sellers, carpenters; peasant workers, miners, forestry workers, construction workers; and engineers.

Also those who were just passing through, on a mission, studying, or had started a family in Chile, coming from Vietnam, France, Spain, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, England, Ecuador, among other countries.

Some of their murderers and accomplices who pay mild sentences in luxury prisons have deprived us of them, but they have also deprived us of nearly a hundred artists and creators whom we have identified, with the desire to offer a tribute to those who, from the cultures, arts, and heritage, were victims of state terrorism.

We have recognized 82 people whose creativity was expressed in audiovisuals, crafts, theater, architecture, photography, Visual Arts, literature, and music.

In this note, you will be able to find the names of the people whose information allows them to be associated with an artistic language, according to the available information; however, it is highly possible that many remain to be identified.

You will also find a link to the information that, among all the people who make the site www.memoriaviva.com possible, is made available to us so that we can contribute to not forgetting until there is justice. For them… No forgiveness, no forgetting!!

[List of 82 names omitted for brevity, including:] 63. Luis Quinchavil Suarez. Mapuche Language Professor, University of Leiden, Holland. Forcibly disappeared.

Source: prensaopal.cl 8/09/2021 Date: 08-09-2021

Emblematic Supreme Court ruling: annuls 1973 War Council sentence against Pinochet opponents

The ruling of the Second Chamber of the highest court acquitted the 23 convicted individuals, who were subjected to torture, suffered threats, and were subject to a policy of repression by the military dictatorship.

The Supreme Court accepted this Wednesday the review appeal and annulled the sentence handed down by the War Council, held in October 1973 in the city of Temuco, after establishing that the confessions of the convicted were obtained under torture.

In a unanimous ruling, the Second Chamber of the highest court, composed of ministers Milton Juica, Carlos Künsemüller, Lamberto Cisternas, and lawyers (i) Leonor Etcheberry and María Cristina Gajardo, annulled the sentence of military judge Héctor Bravo Muñoz and acquitted the 23 convicted individuals upon verifying their complete innocence.

Said sentence considers that the war councils convened after September 11, 1973, were framed within a policy of repression implemented by the government of the time.

"That from the background exposed above, the existence of a method, pattern, or general system of physical or mental impairment and affront to their dignity is demonstrated, to which the accused were subjected before the convened War Councils, which were committed by their interrogators, guards, or other officials who intervened in the procedure while said accused were kept detained, all with the object of obtaining their admission or confession of the facts attributed to them, as well as for them to implicate or charge the rest of the prosecuted in the same facts," the ruling maintains.

The prisoners "were frequently drugged with pentothal, endured beatings, application of electricity, and sexual humiliation," the ruling adds, noting that they also suffered threats and mock executions, among other practices.

It also indicates that some reported that they were subjected to torture "in front of their partners or that their children were brought in to pressure them to provide information," as is also stated in the report of the Valech Commission, which a few years ago certified the torture of some 33,000 Chileans during the dictatorship (1973-1990).

During the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, according to official data, some 3,200 Chileans died at the hands of State agents, of whom 1,192 still appear as forcibly disappeared, while another 33,000 suffered torture and imprisonment for political reasons.

"The sentence handed down in the War Council convened on October 31, 1974, is invalidated and, consequently, all proceedings in case file No. 2025-1973 are annulled, and it is declared that Enrique Lagos Schuffeneger, Julio Erices Astorga, Luis Bustos Fierro, Jorge Tapia Aedo, Kattie Heybon Villalobos, Dagoberto Vásquez Leal, José Rosas Vergara, Rogelio Durán Donoso, Víctor Gavilán Pinto, Firiley Elgueta Jaramillo, Héctor Contreras Droguet, Luis Alarcón Seguel, Rudecindo Quinchavil Suárez, Luis Quinchavil Suárez, Juan Ortega Aguilar, Gilberto Peña Conejeros, Leonel Sáez Aguilar, Víctor Pérez Zeleda, María Teresa Rivera Geldres, Joaquín Delgado Sagredo, Albán Flores Flores, Eduardo Araneda Alvarado, and Ariel Sepúlveda Quiroz are acquitted, their complete innocence having been satisfactorily proven," the ruling concludes.

Source: elmostrador.cl 27/6/2018 Date: 27-06-2018

Mother Language Day: Remembering Luis Quinchavil, professor and activist of Mapuzungun, forcibly disappeared by the dictatorships of Chile and Argentina

Every February 21, International Mother Language Day is commemorated, created as an alarm since at least 43% of the 6,000 languages estimated to be spoken in the world are in danger of extinction, a situation that is also experienced in Chile for several indigenous peoples. In this framework, we remember a great professor and activist of Mapuzungun, Luis Quinchavil Suárez.

Who was Luis Quinchavil Suárez?

Luis Quinchavil Suárez, Mapuche, from a community in the commune of Nueva Imperial, Araucanía Region. He was born on August 26, 1938. He was an academic and Mapuche peasant leader in the Province of Cautín. He was also a militant in the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) at the time of his forced disappearance in 1981.

Source: Elciudadano.com 21/2/2024

A story of struggle and resistance in the Chilean south

Luis Quinchavil Suárez, political name "Quincha"; detained by the Argentine gendarmerie in a place near the Huahum Pass on the border with Chile on February 19, 1981; he was then handed over to the repressive apparatuses of the Chilean dictatorship and has been missing since then. He was an agricultural worker, originally from Nueva Imperial, Temuco; single. He was 38 years old.

"El Viejo Quincha" was a Mapuche of lineage who, during his exile in Holland, became a professor at the Faculty of Arts of the prestigious University of Leiden. His great aspiration was that of the entire Mapuche people: the recovery of ancestral lands for his people.

He was a calm, jovial, conversational, and cheerful guy. He was also a very good cook; it was like his hidden vocation because he enjoyed cooking. People grew fond of "El Viejo."

(This book was written by the survivors of the guerrilla experience in Chile)

Source: COMITÉ MEMORIA NELTUME - Guerrilla in Neltume

In the sound capsule, "The First Steps" (part one) Rebel Memories museoneltume.cl March 2022 The first steps; the first thing I want to say is that it is about two dear comrades, militants of the MIR, who were living in exile after being expelled from the country.

They had been prisoners in the Temuco jail: Luis Quinchavil Suárez, "el Quincha," who in those days lived in Holland, and José Campos Cifuentes, "Campito," in Norway. Both were originally from the Araucanía region.

When the MIR made the decision to implement the guerrilla project known as the "Toki Lautaro" guerrilla detachment, in charge of comrade Paine, who would travel through the MIR exile community calling on comrades to respond to the demands of the rural guerrilla combatant, he summoned these two comrades who already knew each other and had been prisoners in Temuco.

Both were available and placed themselves under command. As time went on, in terms of the project's development, all the combatants moved to Cuba, where they joined the Luciano Cruz school to receive the instruction pertinent to the mission entrusted.

It is the year 1979; comrade Campito is not part of this school because he had joined another that was implemented in North Korea. In the course of the instruction, a group of comrades was designated to form an advance patrol.

It would have the mission of entering Chile and entering the Neltume mountain range and preparing the conditions to receive the bulk of the contingent that would be arriving soon. This patrol was made up of comrades Pedro, Río, and Moisés, who were at the Luciano Cruz school, to whom Tucapel, Sergio, Luisa, José, Teo, and Campito were added.

It is the month of January 1980 when the patrol begins to leave Cuba separately, after passing through Paris, where basic equipment is bought—backpacks, boots, gloves, balaclavas, and thermal clothing—for the entry into Chile.

The next step is for us all to meet in Buenos Aires and from there, separated into two groups, travel to Junín de los Andes. From this place, we head on foot to the northern tip of Lake Huenchulafquen; here we will meet to form a single patrol and head toward the border.

Here the first problem arises: the group where Campito is gets lost and the two groups do not manage to meet. The information provided on a map and the operational information on the ground do not correspond to reality.

Campito and Río make the decision to return to Buenos Aires to reconnect with Paris, while the other comrades enter Chile by different routes and later reach the mountains. Meanwhile, Quincha is in Paris recovering from an operation on the meniscus of his right knee.

In those days, Moisés leaves Chile to report the results of the "Paine" advance patrol to the bulk of the contingent that is in Paris. From that moment, the transfer to Chile begins via different routes.

Moisés receives the instruction that Quincha should recover and that he should gather Rigo and Campito and a couple of comrades who are about to arrive in Cuba, who never arrived, to enter Chile via the route known as Paris, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Neuquén, Junín de los Andes, and walk to cross the mountain and reach Temuco, where they will follow the instructions for the next steps.

Source: museoneltume.cl March 2022

In the sound capsule, "A border feeling," we recount, based on the testimony of a survivor, the detention of Quincha and Campito. (2)

We were climbing the mountain range heading for the border, no more than three hours from the limit. Everything is going as planned. Old Quincha, as we all affectionately called him, with the festivity with which he related to everyone, is walking very well despite not finishing his recovery stage from the knee operation.

As dawn surprised us, for security—since that path is used by not a few people who pass to Argentina looking for better fortunes—we decided to look for a place to spend the day and continue the march the following night.

We got into a natural cave that is in the terrain and prepared to rest; we were quite tired from the long walk already. Surely we fell asleep as if in our own home, when Campito wakes me up to tell me that he was very thirsty, and I tell him, "Go out to the path and with great caution, walk a little upward and you will surely find a spring; take a canteen." And just then I hear Quincha say to him, "I'll go with you!" and they leave the hole.

The sun is already high; a few minutes pass and we hear voices and sounds of horses as if in a stampede. I peek out to the path and manage to see a group of military men—gendarmes, as they call them—coming.

I quickly submerge myself in the hole, and in rigorous silence, we hear them pass almost over our heads; they are talking as if nothing were wrong. I peek out again, and from behind I see that they are a platoon of about fifteen men and their respective mounts, thinking that the noise produced by the horses' shoes on a very stony path would alert the comrades, allowing them to hide in the thick foliage of the sector.

With Rigo, without saying a word and with a heavy heart, we wait for the comrades to return. Thousands of seconds pass and they do not arrive until we hear horse footsteps and some voices pass in front of the hole, and we hear Campito say, "We have our things in a hole around here," and Quincha as if wanting to distract the soldier's attention, "And what are we going to tell your boss down there?" And they continue going down.

I peek out to the path and I can see that they are two soldiers on horseback who are herding our two comrades. We quickly take our things and organize his to strengthen the idea of us staying alone. We abandoned the cave that is in the direction of the river, a hundred meters down.

From that place, we managed to see the comrades and the soldiers pass by the bridge that arrives further up. We stayed watching the bridge, and after about an hour, the four of them returned upward. They arrived to look for their things because after a while we see them pass by the bridge carrying their backpacks.

We spent the day in that place, managing to see the soldiers in the afternoon on their way back, having gone up to the border. We heard them bathing in the river happily, and the next morning we heard noises of trucks and we could realize by the commotion they made that they loaded the horses and withdrew from the place.

It is February 19, 1981. During that day there was no movement on the bridge, so at nightfall, together with Rigo and heartbroken by what had happened to our dear comrades, we continued the march, entering Chile. We arrived in Temuco and were able to report in writing what had happened. Over the years, the precise place of the detention was located and a small memorial was placed.

They remain in the status of forcibly disappeared and there is a judicial case in progress. Eternal glory to them; the struggle continues.

Source: museoneltume.cl March 2022