Washington Cid Urrutia, a member of the MIR, was arrested in the early hours of December 8, 1974, at the indicated address, along with his spouse, María Isabel Ortega Fuentes, by agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) who did not present a warrant. On that occasion, and at the same location, José Hernán Carrasco Vásquez was also arrested.

The three detainees, blindfolded and with their hands tied, were taken in a pickup truck to Villa Grimaldi, a facility under the control of the DINA, located in Peñalolén.

Regarding that place, María Isabel Ortega states, "I remained there for a period of 16 days, until December 24. On several occasions, I was subjected to physical and moral duress along with my husband.

I was taken out of there on the indicated day, at 6:00 PM. My spouse was taken out of Villa Grimaldi on the same day, at 6:00 AM, in a pickup truck, along with other detainees, as I was able to verify myself by lifting my blindfold for a few moments upon hearing that a vehicle was about to depart."

She adds: "I was taken incommunicado to the Cuatro Álamos facility in Santiago, also under the authority of the DINA. There, I had to sign a statement to the effect that I had not received any kind of duress.

My husband was not there, nor was he during my stay in that place. I was there until the morning of December 31. I was taken to the adjacent facility of Tres Álamos, where I was allowed to speak freely. I remained there continuously until June 16, 1975, the date on which I was transferred to the El Salitre Camp, located in San Juan de Pirque."

María Isabel Ortega was released on July 17, 1975. She has not seen her spouse again.

José Hernán Carrasco Vásquez appeared on February 19, 1975, on a national broadcast sponsored by the Government, in which he, along with other detained MIR leaders (Cristián Pedro Pablo Mallol Comandari, Humberto Menanteaux Aceituno, and Héctor Hernán González Osorio), called on militants to cease the struggle against the military government.

He was then released under surveillance, only to be arrested again at his home on November 20, 1975. Since that day, his relatives have been unaware of his whereabouts. Subsequently, they learned by chance that his corpse and that of Humberto Menanteaux had been admitted as "N.N." (unidentified) to the Legal Medical Institute.

The death certificate reads: "Date of death: December 1, 1975. Time: unknown. Place: Santiago. Chada: Ravine. Age: 28 years. Cause: Multiple gunshot wounds with exit wounds." There is no doubt, then, that Carrasco Vásquez and Menanteaux Aceituno were murdered, and to date, it has not been possible to establish who the perpetrators of these crimes were.

Eyewitnesses to the arrest of Washington Cid, apart from his aforementioned spouse, were her father and sister: Ricardo Antonio Ortega Rojas and Inés Ximena Ortega Fuentes. Both provided statements to the 10th Criminal Court, as did María Isabel Ortega, who did so after being released.

Despite the evident arrest, on July 24, 1975, Washington Cid appeared on a list of 59 Chileans "killed in a confrontation in Salta, Argentina." This implausible news of dubious origin was never proven.

The Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs himself stripped it of any official character in his report addressed to the Criminal Judge. However, while on one hand the Government denied or downplayed the official nature of the news, on the other, curiously, it appeared in a certain sense to endorse it through the Ministry of the Interior.

Thus, on September 23, 1976, this Secretary of State informed the Court of Appeals that Washington Cid was not being held by his order, stating verbatim: "It is, however, worth pointing out to Your Honor that in press reports from Santiago, dated July 24 and 25, 1975, the aforementioned Cid Urrutia appears among those disappeared in the Argentine Republic."

There is not only evidence of the actual arrest of Washington Cid but also of his time as a detainee in a facility under the control of the DINA, as testified by Nelly Bernarda Pinto Contreras, Jesús Tamblay Flores, and Luis Alfredo Muñoz González, who declared before the Criminal Judge on August 10, 1976, while they were detained at Tres Álamos.

Nelly Pinto states: "I have been detained at the Tres Álamos Camp since January 3, 1975. I was arrested on December 18, 1974, and before arriving at my current place of confinement, I remained at Villa Grimaldi, which apparently is located in Peñalolén. One arrives there blindfolded, for which reason I cannot be certain that that was my place of stay."

"I met Washington Cid precisely at Villa Grimaldi. I did not manage to speak with him. I was detained along with his wife, María Isabel Ortega Fuentes. This lady told me on one occasion that a person who was passing through the courtyard of the facility and who was detained in an adjacent shed was her husband, Cid Urrutia.

I also remember that Cid sent a note to María Ortega through a guard, the content of which I do not know. Furthermore, I was able to witness on one occasion that the two of them were talking in the courtyard, where they met.

Subsequently, María Ortega was released. Cid Urrutia was taken out of Villa Grimaldi along with another person on December 24, 1974, and his current whereabouts are unknown. We never heard from him again."

Jesús Clara Tamblay Flores notes: "...I have remained at the Tres Álamos Camp since January 3, 1975. Previously, I had stayed at Villa Grimaldi. I remained there from December 18 until the 26th of the same month.

I do not know Washington Cid Urrutia. I only know his wife, who was a fellow detainee at Grimaldi. This woman told me on several occasions that her husband was there. I remember that she requested an interview with her husband to inform him that she was pregnant.

Furthermore, I knew that she watched him through a hole in the door. However, I did not get to see him. Through Cid's wife herself, named María Isabel Ortega Fuentes, I learned that on December 24, her husband had been transferred to another place, which I do not know. I am unaware of the current whereabouts of Cid Urrutia."

Luis Alfredo Muñoz González provided the most important statement. In it, he states: "...I have been detained at the Tres Álamos Camp since February 27, 1975. There, I personally met Washington Cid Urrutia, even speaking with him.

I knew him because we were fellow detainees and we were kept in the same room. In this way, it was he himself who told me his name. Regarding his arrest, he told me that he was there because of his political activity.

He had been arrested more or less on December 7, 1974. He remained at Villa Grimaldi until December 24, 1974, the date on which he was taken out of there, and I do not know the place to which he was taken. Subsequently, I have not known anything about his whereabouts..."

When the court requested reports from the DINA and the person in charge of Villa Grimaldi, the Minister of the Interior responded for them on October 6, 1976, stating that, according to the DINA, Cid had not been arrested by agents of their department, nor did he appear with any record in the respective files.

On the other hand, he added that there were no "other camps intended for the detention of persons arrested by virtue of the state of siege, other than Puchuncaví, Tres Álamos, and Cuatro Álamos." This last part of the report clashes with a public and notorious fact, which is precisely the existence of Villa Grimaldi as a detention center or facility under the control of the DINA.

This was, moreover, recognized by the Investigations [Police] to the Criminal Justice system (e.g., in case 6.149-7 of the 11th Criminal Court, regarding the kidnapping of Bernardo Araya Zuleta and Olga Flores Barraza, the Investigations Service informed the judge on June 2, 1976, "that indeed at Camino Lo Arrieta 8200, Peñalolén, is Villa Grimaldi, which is a dependency of the DINA").

Then, for further evidence, sworn statements signed by Guillermo Segundo Cornejo Díaz, Mario Francisco Venegas Jara, and the aforementioned Luis Alfredo Muñoz González, who were detained along with Washington Cid at Villa Grimaldi, were added to the case file.

LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On December 9, 1974, María Isabel Fuentes Abrigo filed a Writ of Amparo (Habeas Corpus) in favor of her daughter María Isabel Ortega Fuentes and her spouse, Washington Cid Urrutia (Roll 1.541-74) before the Santiago Court of Appeals.

The Minister of the Interior acknowledged the arrest of María Isabel Ortega ("she is detained at the 3 Álamos camp in compliance with what is ordered by Exempt Decree No. 729," the date of which he does not indicate), but denied that Cid was being held by his order (reports of 10.1.75).

The Chief of the State of Siege Zone of the Santiago province specified the date of the arrest decree for María Isabel Ortega: January 3, 1975. He thus omitted the entire period during which she was held incommunicado at Villa Grimaldi.

Regarding Washington Cid, he stated: "no case is being investigated against him in the 2nd Military Court, nor is he detained within the jurisdiction of this Zone Headquarters under State of Siege" (report of January 20, 1975).

On January 23, 1975, the Court rejected the Writ with a notable justification: for lack of substantiation. On April 25, 1975, a complaint was filed for the illegal arrest of Washington Cid. The investigation was substantiated by the 10th Criminal Court of Greater Santiago, before which the named witnesses testified and the aforementioned evidence was produced.

The court requested reports from Investigations and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; it received the testimonies of Nelly Pinto, Jesús Clara Tamblay, and Luis Alfredo Muñoz, and issued an official letter to the DINA and the person or authority in charge of Villa Grimaldi.

Investigations (9th Judicial Precinct) responded that through reports 10.209 and 10.306, both from the month of September in question (1975), two decrees were reported in this same case, in which it is noted that Washington Cid was arrested by the military authority.

"In the Technical Advisory Department of our service, the arrest of Cid Urrutia does not appear registered, as it was by a separate organization, and therefore the place where he is detained cannot be specified." Later, the Chief Commissioner, Manuel Aburto Olivos, and the detective Juan Collao Ayala would say before the judge that they only limited themselves to transcribing what was asserted by the complainant, incurring an involuntary error (statements of 19.11.76).

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, as stated, stripped the news about 59 Chileans killed in a confrontation in Salta, Argentina, of official character and verification.

The official letters addressed to the DINA and the person in charge of Villa Grimaldi were answered by the Minister of the Interior in the manner already described.

On September 17, 1976, with the new background information and evidentiary elements accumulated in the judicial investigation, a new Writ of Amparo was filed (Roll 897-76). Once again, on September 23 of that year, the Minister of the Interior reported negatively, but added the suggestive paragraph already noted ("It is, however, worth pointing out to Your Honor that in press reports from Santiago, dated July 24 and 25, 1975, the aforementioned Cid Urrutia appears among those disappeared in the Argentine Republic").

The Court of Appeals then issued an official letter to the DINA, and the Minister of the Interior responded that, according to that organization, there were no records regarding the affected party (13.10.76).

On October 22, the Court ruled on the new Writ, rejecting it and ordering the judge to carry out some proceedings: summoning José Hernán Carrasco Vásquez, expanding the report from Investigations in which "it is noted that Washington Cid was arrested by the military authority"; an official letter to the Ministry of the Interior regarding the deprivation of liberty of María Isabel Ortega Fuentes and the date on which she was released; an official letter to the same Secretary of State to report on the dates of detention of Nelly Pinto, Clara Tamblay, and Luis Muñoz (witnesses) and the places where they remained detained since their first arrest. On October 27 (1976), the Supreme Court confirmed the ruling. Once the background information was received by the Criminal Judge, Inspector Juan Collao Ayala and Commissioner Manuel Aburto Olivos testified in the sense explained above.

Regarding the arrests of María Isabel Ortega Fuentes and the other witnesses: Nelly Pinto, Clara Tamblay, and Luis Muñoz, the Ministry of the Interior omits, precisely, the period in which they were held incommunicado at Villa Grimaldi, counting the arrests only from the moment the detainees were allowed to speak freely.

This has turned out to be a habitual procedure, perfectly consistent with the Minister's refusal to recognize Villa Grimaldi as a detention site under the control of the DINA.

The summoning of José Hernán Carrasco Vásquez finally resulted in the verification of his death caused by a "set of multiple gunshot wounds with exit wounds..."

On February 9, 1977, the judge issued an official letter: "to the Minister General of Government" to report "on the result of the investigation announced by the President of the Republic regarding the 119 disappeared persons and the status in which it stands in relation to the aforementioned Cid Urrutia."

The Secretary General of Government replied that the "treatment given does not correspond to that which should be granted to a Minister of State and that the matter consulted is not within the competence of that ministry, a circumstance that makes the return of the submitted document necessary."

Of the investigation promised by General Pinochet on August 21, 1975, in relation to the 119 Chileans killed abroad, nothing has been known until now.

The court also received a report from the Civil Registry Office of Independencia, which stated that it did not register the death of Washington Cid (18.3.77).

The General, Catholic, and Metropolitan cemeteries reported that the affected party was not buried in those facilities (9-5, 5-5, and 10-5-77 respectively).

On 18.5.77, the Legal Medical Institute reported that it did not register the admission of his corpse.

The Department of Foreigners and International Police of Investigations indicated that Washington Cid does not have a record of leaving the country (Pudahuel outpost).

On August 23, 1977, the judge declared the summary closed and issued a temporary dismissal order. The Court of Appeals confirmed the resolution on November 4 of the same year.

Washington Cid, arrested by DINA agents on December 8, 1974, remains disappeared to this day.

Source: Corporation report

He was born in the city of Chillán on December 3, 1949, being the only child of a marriage formed by two beings who forged in him all their illusions and all the dreams that the imagination of those who give life can conceive.

He grew up surrounded by affection and was formed sheltered by the scale of values and deep-rooted family principles. All this resulted in a happy, expressive, and affectionate child. Later, he would be an adolescent very dear to his family and friends.

He always showed off his great sympathy, and many knew his high spirit of self-improvement and altruism. He earned the respect of all who knew him, and not a few admired him for his inexhaustible capacity to communicate with all types of people; of any social, political, or religious nature.

A good student in the different courses that were prior to his university life, and once there, he was an outstanding student of Sociology, a field he entered after finishing his Pedagogy in Mathematics at the same University.

A lover of music, sociology, and good literature, he molded his character and personality on the basis of humanism, social justice, and the deserved well-being of man, without distinctions.

Sensitive and passionate, he defended his ideals, but without ever transgressing the norms of respect for the opinions and beliefs of those around him, and for that reason, everyone respected his. Until that horrible day, in which not only did they not forgive him for thinking differently, but apparently, they also did not forgive him, like so many others, for the most wonderful miracle: LIVING.

He did not get to know the face or the smile of his son, who was born when he had already disappeared. To that son, no one and nothing has been able to give an answer to this day. Neither to his mother, nor to his grandparents, nor to his family, nor to his friends, nor to his companions.

Time, which has run swiftly and in silence in the face of their longing to know the... when? ...where? ...why?, has not been able to do so.

At not yet 25 years old, his dreams, his ideals, and his hopes were cut short, and with them, not only his own, but also those of those who were his EVERYTHING; his family, his companions, his friends, in whose hearts his rich and gurgling laughter is still missed... his rich and warm presence. Today, disappeared.

Source: Sergia Urrutia

Operation Colombo: Supreme Court convicts former DINA agents for the kidnapping of Washington Cid Urrutia.

The highest Court confirmed the challenged sentence, which sentenced Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann to 7 years in prison, as perpetrators of the crime.

The Supreme Court convicted nine former members of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Washington Cid Urrutia, an illicit act perpetrated starting on December 8, 1974, in the commune of Renca, within the framework of the so-called "Operation Colombo."

The highest Court confirmed the challenged sentence, which sentenced Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann to 7 years in prison, as perpetrators of the crime.

Meanwhile, agents Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, and Rolf Gonzalo Wenderoth Pozo must serve 5 years and one day in prison.

In the case, the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court decreed the acquittal of former agent Palmira Almuna Guzmán, as her responsibility in the events was not proven; and ratified the resolution that acquitted another 62 former members of the DINA for lack of participation in the crime.

In the investigation stage, the Minister in visitation for human rights violation cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Hernán Crisosto Greisse, managed to establish the following facts:

That in the early hours of December 8, 1974, Washington Cid Urrutia, a member of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), was arrested at his home located at Pasaje 15, No. 2973, Población Cervecerías Unidas, Renca commune, by agents belonging to the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), who, after tying him up and blindfolding him, put him in the back of a pickup truck and transported him to the clandestine detention facility called "Terranova" or "Villa Grimaldi," located at José Arrieta No. 8200, in the commune of La Reina, which was guarded by armed guards and to which only DINA agents had access;

That the victim, Cid Urrutia, during his stay at the Villa Grimaldi barracks, remained without contact with the outside, blindfolded and tied up, being continuously subjected to interrogations under torture by DINA agents who operated in said barracks with the purpose of obtaining information regarding members of the MIR, to proceed with the arrest of the members of that organization;

That the last time the victim, Cid Urrutia, was seen by other detainees was on an undetermined day in the month of December 1974, and there is no information on his whereabouts to date;

That the name of Washington Cid Urrutia appeared on a list of one hundred and nineteen people, published in the national press after it appeared on a list published in the magazine Novo O'Día of Curitiba, Brazil, dated June 25, 1975, in which it was reported that Washington Cid Urrutia had died in Argentina, along with fifty-eight other people belonging to the MIR, due to internal quarrels that arose among those members;

That the publications that declared the victim, Cid Urrutia, dead had their origin in disinformation maneuvers carried out by DINA agents abroad.

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl 16/5/2018 Date: 05-16-2018

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

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

Through exempt decree number 0030766 of the University of 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 deliver the distinction of 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 house, starting at 12:30 PM.

For Vivaldi, "this initiative has two very profound meanings. On one hand, it is a gesture of reparation for the victims themselves and for their relatives, 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 Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) was found dead on September 4, 1989, on General Bulnes street, 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 Association of Relatives of Political Executed Persons (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 University of Chile had, since similar gestures had already been fulfilled by other universities such as the U. de Santiago and the Austral in Valdivia. But it is an enormous signal for democracy and so that a true 'never again' is fulfilled in Chile."

[List of 48 students omitted for brevity]

Source: latercera.com 9/08/2017 Date: 09-08-2017

Human rights reparations declared imprescriptible

The constitutional chamber ordered the State to pay 260 million pesos to the relatives of the forcibly disappeared Washington Cid.

"Just as crimes against humanity are imprescriptible, so are the reparatory actions that arise from such crimes."

In this way, the third chamber of the Supreme Court—which analyzes constitutional matters and settles compensation conflicts against the State—accepted the lawsuit filed by the widow of Washington Cid Urrutia against the treasury for the moral damage caused by the disappearance of her husband—a member of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR)—starting on December 8, 1974.

This ruling is unprecedented, as never before had this chamber of the highest court declared that crimes against humanity, such as human rights violations that occurred during the military regime, are illicit acts that do not expire with time and that, therefore, compensatory actions related to them do not perish either.

Minister Haroldo Brito and the lawyers Nelson Pozo and Maricruz Gómez, after reversing the rejection of the civil action in the second instance, ordered the State of Chile to pay 130 million pesos to the widow, María Isabel Ortega Fuentes, and the same amount to the couple's son, Ricardo Cid Ortega, totaling $260 million as economic compensation.

The resolution had the dissenting vote of ministers Héctor Carreño and Pedro Pierry, who were in favor of the statute of limitations applying to the lawsuit.

The ruling describes that "regarding the moral damage suffered by the plaintiffs, without a doubt, the arrest and disappearance of the spouse and father of one of them without being able to resort to the basic right of demanding the timely clarification of the crime to justice and without even being able to have until today the consolation of knowing the whereabouts of their loved one (...) allows us to verify the existence of the moral damage that is claimed and, the judges prudently assessing its amount."

The lawyer for the beneficiaries, Nelson Caucoto, expressed his satisfaction because "in the long run, with patience, we have been managing to bore through an immense rock, which is the rock that does not allow for reparations," the jurist sentenced.

Source: April 11, 2010, La Nación Date: 04-11-2010

Ambush on key cases of the DINA, the Joint Command, and the CNI

On Monday, the Administrative Corporation of the judiciary must report the cost that the nomination of special judges will have. Meanwhile, the human rights world has the hope that they will advance where until now their efforts have been fruitless: the cases benefited by a judge of exclusive dedication correspond mostly to disappearances perpetrated by the DINA, the Joint Command, and an emblematic case of the CNI.

The hour of the DINA

The net is tightening on the DINA with the case of the MIR militant, Carlos Cubillos Gálvez, arrested in 1974 on a street in the Ñuñoa commune. Witnesses indicated that he was taken to the Londres 38 facility and nothing more was heard of him. His case—roll 11337/6—is in the Eighth Criminal Court of Santiago.

In that same court is the case of the MIR militant, Juan Carlos Perelman (roll 12193-8), who was arrested in 1975 by DINA agents along with his partner, who was released some time later. The Rettig Report affirmed that his disappearance was the responsibility of State agents.

On August 1, 1974, Sergio Sebastián Montecinos Alfaro was arrested, who, at 28 years old, was the union coordinator of the political parties that had adhered to the UP in the Western Zone of Santiago. He was taken from his home by DINA agents and seen for the last time at the Londres 38 facility. His case No. 2310-00 is also in the Eighth Court of Santiago.

The kidnapping of Luis Jaime Palominos Rojas, on December 7, 1974, is the responsibility of the same security agency. The case of this MIR militant, labeled with the number 2808-5, will also be investigated by a special judge in the 11th Criminal Court of Santiago.

The minister of exclusive dedication of that same court will focus on the case of Jaime Cádiz Norambuena (case 768-6). This MIR militant was arrested in the José María Caro neighborhood and disappeared from the DINA facility at Londres 38.

Number 2161-8 of that court records another DINA case on which the judge will place emphasis. The MIR member Jorge Humberto D'orival Briceño was arrested at his home in the Conchalí commune and seen later, along with two other detainees, at Villa Grimaldi. The trail of all three was lost at the Cuatro Álamos facility.

The judge of exclusive dedication of the Third Criminal Court of San Miguel will investigate the case of Leopoldo Muñoz Andrade, a MIR militant who disappeared from the DINA facility of Cuatro Álamos. In the hands of this magistrate will also be the clarification of the disappearance of another MIR member, Daniel Reyes Piña, who was last seen at Londres 38.

To that repressive agency is also attributed the disappearance of Víctor Fernando Olea Alegría on September 11, 1974. He was 24 years old when he was arrested by agents on a public road. His case is located in the Ninth Criminal Court of Santiago with the number 76667.

Another case that will have special attention will be that of Washington Cid Urrutia, who disappeared in 1974 from Villa Grimaldi. His case is located in the Tenth Criminal Court of Santiago and is attributed to the DINA.

Towards other repressive agencies

Not only the DINA will be investigated by the special judges. The criminal actions perpetrated by the Joint Command will have the same destination. In fact, the mandate of the Supreme Court touches the threads of one of the cases that offers the greatest contradictions with the report of the Armed Forces: the disappearance of the Communist Youth militant Carol Fedor Flores Castillo.

The military report establishes that Flores Castillo was arrested in 1976, killed, and thrown into the sea off the coast of San Antonio. However, Flores was captured along with his brothers in 1974 and remained imprisoned for six months.

In 1976, he began to collaborate with the Joint Command, a process that lasted until June 7 of that year. The former Joint Command agent Andrés Valenzuela confessed that he was killed along with a soldier in the Cajón del Maipo and thrown into the river. Now his crime will be investigated by the judge of the Tenth Court of Santiago.

In the Fourth Criminal Court of San Miguel, under number 10161, is the case of Alonso Gahona Chávez, who allegedly died a victim of repeated torture along with Humberto Castro in the so-called "Nido 20." This was the name of the secret detention and torture facility located at Santa Teresa 037 street, near the 20th stop of the Gran Avenida in Santiago.

This facility operated during 1975 under the control of DIFA agents with whom civilians from nationalist or far-right groups collaborated.

The external guard of the facility was in charge of students from the Air Force School of Specialties. Gahona, a leader of the workers of the La Cisterna Municipality and a communist militant, known as "Yuri," had been arrested on September 8, 1975, on a public road. His corpse was allegedly wrapped in plastic and, apparently, thrown into the sea.

From the facility called "Remo Cero," of the Colina anti-aircraft artillery regiment, Miguel Rodríguez Gallardo was taken and possibly buried on military land in Peldehue. Case 10617 of the Fourth Court of San Miguel will attempt to reach the bases of the Joint Command.

A special judge will also investigate the fate of at least one of the forcibly disappeared persons from La Moneda. In the Ninth Criminal Court of Santiago is case 17584, which corresponds to Osvaldo Ramos Rivera, a member of the GAP (Presidential Security Group) of only 22 years old.

Ramos was arrested inside the government palace by military personnel, along with Antonio Aguirre Vásquez. As a result of their wounds, both were transferred to the Posta Central, where there is a record of their stay. They were taken from there by uniformed personnel, and since then, their whereabouts are unknown.

In the Eighth Criminal Court of Santiago, the case of another GAP member, Mario Ramiro Melo, a retired Army officer, who disappeared on September 29, 1973, will be investigated.

The case of Miguel Acuña Castillo, labeled with the number 11509-8 in the Eighth Court of Santiago, will also be investigated. Acuña was a leader of the secondary student section of the MIR when he disappeared in 1974, along with his friend Héctor Garay Hermosilla.

The work of the special judges will also extend to the Air Force War Academy. In the Ninth Criminal Court of Santiago, the case of José Luis Baeza, 41 years old, a salesman and member of the Central Committee of the PC (Communist Party), will be seen. He was apprehended along with three other people in a house in Santiago that served for meetings and contacts for members of that group.

The perpetrators of the arrest were identified as members of the Air Force Intelligence Service, commanded by a well-known Intelligence Chief. Baeza was taken to the War Academy of that institution, where he was seen by several witnesses. These testimonies contradict the official version provided by the Minister of the Interior who, at that time, denied his arrest.

Source: Primera Línea, June 22, 2001 Date: 06-22-2001