Mario Salinas Vera, a 16-year-old student, was detained on 20 October 1973 in the Población Nogales, around 21:00 hours. The apprehension was carried out by a group of military personnel who arrived in the sector where he lived.

The victim was loaded onto a military truck, which had the number 2268 on its body. The following day, he was driven to the same sector where he lived, in the same truck in which he had been transported for his detention.

On that occasion, he was also guarded by military personnel. His father, in the recurso de amparo (writ of habeas corpus), adds: The next day, "they transported him in the same truck to the neighborhood where he lived, passing in front of my house around 10:00 hours, approximately, having the opportunity to exchange a few words, to the effect that my son was allegedly involved in some incident, according to the brief and superficial explanations I managed to obtain." These military personnel said that he would be released a few days later.

This version is complemented by the report from the Investigations service, which accounts for inquiries made by said service by order of the Court where a complaint for alleged disappearance was being processed.

It states: "various inquiries carried out by the investigating officer in the Población Nogales sector, several neighbors stated that the aforementioned Salinas Vera, together with a group of boys, fired a revolver inside the Población and wounded a person, whose identity is unknown, a few days after the military coup.

He also had his head shaved to the skin and for these reasons was detained by a military patrol." His father, from the very first moment, stated that the captors were soldiers from the Guardia Vieja Regiment, stationed at the Municipal facility in Maipú.

This information was confirmed through the complaint made in the recurso de amparo. Thus, the detention was acknowledged by Lieutenant Colonel Luis Prüssing, Commander of the N°18 "Guardia Vieja" Regiment stationed in Maipú, who claimed that the victim was released on 21 October, that is, the day after his detention.

Mario Salinas was being prosecuted for theft in the 4th Criminal Court and had obtained the benefit of release on bail. From the first moment, his relatives made multiple efforts to locate him, but to this date, his fate remains unknown.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On 24 October 1973, his father, Marcos Salinas Salinas, filed a Recurso de Amparo before the Santiago Court of Appeals, case file 582-73. In said appeal, reports were requested from the 11th Carabineros Precinct, the Military Garrison based at the Maipú Municipal Stadium, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Zone under State of Siege.

The official requests were reiterated due to the lack of response. In a response dated 9 November 1973, the Commander of the N°18 "Guardia Vieja" Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Luis Prüssing Schwartz, replied to the Commander-in-Chief of the 2nd Army Division "that regarding the citizen mentioned in the recurso de amparo, he was released on 21 October." For his part, General Sergio Arellano Stark, Commander-in-Chief of the 2nd Army Division, on 7 January 1974, sent an official letter responding that the person under protection was not being prosecuted or detained by Military Tribunals.

Based solely on the information provided by the military authority and adding that "from all of which it does not appear that Mario Salinas Vera is currently detained," the Court of Appeals rejected the recurso de amparo on 10 January 1974.

Subsequently, on 21 June 1974, his father filed a Complaint for Alleged Disappearance before the 7th Criminal Court of Santiago, which was registered under N°76061-4. In it, official requests were ordered to the Commander of the Military Detachment of the Guardia Vieja Regiment stationed at the Maipú Municipal facility, the Legal Medical Institute, the Central Identification Cabinet, and the Director of the Civil Registry, the latter to report if a death had been registered.

Both the Civil Registry and the Legal Medical Institute responded the following month that the victim was not registered. In October of the same year, his father requested by written petition to the Court that the officer who was on guard at said Regiment on the day of the events be summoned to testify, and that an official request be sent to the Ministry of National Defense to report the name of the person who was driving the identified truck.

The request was accepted by the Court. In March 1975, 4 months after the official request was dispatched, the Commander of the Guardia Vieja Regiment, Maipú sub-group, Gastón Anabalón, responded that the victim did not appear in the Detainee Logbook kept as control in said Sub-group.

The tenor of the inquiry made by the judge was not answered. In the month of June, new official requests were dispatched to different agencies with the object of finding the whereabouts of the victim, such as the National Secretariat for Detainees (SENDET), the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and International Police.

The Recurso de Amparo case file 582-73 was also requested for review. A broad order to investigate was also dispatched to the Investigations service. Once again, the responses received to said official requests did not yield any results to determine the whereabouts of Mario Salinas Vera.

Thus, on 20 January 1976, one year and 7 months after the start of the Alleged Disappearance case, the judge declared the summary closed and the case was temporarily dismissed "until new and better data for the investigation are presented." Finally, on 13 April 1976, the Santiago Court of Appeals approved the consulted resolution.

The anthropomorphic data of Mario Salinas Vera were attached to case 4449-AF of the 22nd Criminal Court of Santiago, for the crime of illegal inhumation in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery, of unidentified persons who died between September and December 1973.

The Investigating Judge of the case ordered the excavation of 108 graves in September 1991. From there, 125 bodies were exhumed, which were sent to the Legal Medical Institute. Currently (end of 1992), the identification forensic reports are pending.

Source: Corporation report

“Breaking the silence of children and adolescents who were political executions during the civic-military dictatorship: 1973-1990” is the title of this work presented within the framework of the commemorative activities for the 50th anniversary of the Coup d'État.

The publication was edited by the Association of Relatives of Political Executions, in conjunction with the Memory and Human Rights Unit of the Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage and the Human Rights Chair of the Vice-Rectorate for Extension and Communications of the University of Chile.

Those who wish to have the book may request a copy free of charge. More than 140 people were part of the emotional presentation of this book, which is proposed as one more action to achieve truth, justice, and to preserve the memory of the victims of the Pinochet dictatorship.

The launch of the work, held at the Central House of the University of Chile, featured the special participation of the relatives of the murdered children and adolescents, as well as members of human rights organizations and representatives of memorial sites.

According to the organizers, the title accounts for the historic struggle of the Association of Relatives of Political Executions to confront the oblivion and impunity of the crimes perpetrated by state terrorism in Chile.

The publication, in this sense, fulfills a heartfelt desire of the Association, which considers it imperative for progress in truth, justice, memory, and reparation to rescue and make visible the stories, biographies, and lives of the children and adolescents murdered during the 17 years of dictatorship.

Thus, based on photographs, letters, testimonies—all documents from personal archives—and official reports, accompanied by illustrations and verses from national poets, this book presents a central, yet less known, history of the crimes perpetrated in one of the darkest periods of Chile's recent history.

For the academic coordinator of the Human Rights Chair of the Vice-Rectorate for Extension and Communications of the U. of Chile, Claudio Nash, this book is not only constituted as a written record of remembrance, “but it is a space to question, from that personal and collective history, the present and the future.

In that present, we realize the enormous challenges we have for the future, and these are not easy times—once again—for human rights, but there is a commitment we have with the history of those children, that we cannot abandon the fight for a dignified Chile, that we cannot abandon the fight so that human rights are truly the center of democratic culture, and that 'never again' is an essential part of the exercise of power in this country.” Alicia Lira, president of the Association of Relatives of Political Executions, referred to the devastating account that accompanies each of the biographies exposed in this book. “Faced with the tragedy that our children and adolescents lived, the pain of the families who were deprived of growing up with their loved ones, of studying, playing, or dreaming, it is necessary that this society knows that they silenced the cries, the songs, and the play of each and every one of them,” she emphasized. During the day, it was possible to account for the work carried out by the Association, which for more than 40 years has fought to clarify what happened during the dictatorship, as well as to vindicate the names of their kidnapped and executed relatives and friends. In the instance, the urgency of rebuilding historical memory and deepening the education of future generations was also commented on, as they are present spectators of the authoritarian escalation that occurred after the social uprising and denialism. One of the greatest challenges of this research, the authors point out, consisted of going beyond the violent facts that the victims lived and that surrounded their execution at the hands of State agents. In the presentation, they explained that the deep desire of this project was “to bring them to life in the voice and writings of their loved ones.” For this, they resorted to the Association's own archive, which for years has guarded documents that families managed to preserve, overcoming raids and the very need to destroy and burn their family memories out of safety and fear. Among these pages are incorporated photographs, letters, testimonies, and other documents that families and friends delivered or wrote especially for this book.

Source: uchile.cl 24/4/2023 (EXCERPT) Date: 24-04-2023

The highest court rejected the appeal in cassation on the merits presented by the defense and confirmed the sentence that condemned retired Army officer Hamilton Orlando Rousseau Rosales Barrueta to a penalty of 10 years in prison.

The Supreme Court rejected the appeal in cassation on the merits presented by the defense and confirmed the sentence that condemned retired Army officer Hamilton Orlando Rousseau Rosales Barrueta to a penalty of 10 years in prison, in his capacity as the author of the crime of qualified kidnapping of the teenager Mario Salinas Vera, detained in October 1973, the date since which he has been disappeared.

In a unanimous ruling, the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, minister María Teresa Letelier, and lawyer (i) Gonzalo Ruz—dismissed the admissibility of the appeal filed against the sentence, issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals, as it contained contradictory and mutually incompatible requests.

In the first-instance ruling, the visiting minister Mario Carroza established the following facts: «a.- That, in the period prior to 11 September 1973 and then in the context of the seizure of power that was being established in the country, deep institutional transformations began to be carried out, and given the control that was required to be exercised at a national level, the high command of the Chilean Army decided to initiate a process of reorganization of its troops, to deal with the obstacles that were perceived, and in that way reduce the conflicts that would arise due to the existence of political forces; b.- That, in the circumstances described above, and as a result of the events that occurred in the country on 11 September 1973, the Military Government ordered total control of the city of Santiago, for which it distributed missions to be carried out in geographical locations of the city to military units, as in this case, when the battalion of the N° 18 ‘Guardia Vieja’ Regiment was settled in the ‘FISA’ facility in the Cerrillos commune, under the charge of the Regiment Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Luis Víctor Prüssing Schwartz, seconded by Major Hamilton Orlando Rousseau Rosales Barrueta, with his contingent being responsible for controlling the Maipú commune; c.- That in that context, the Regiment had moved a large part of its contingent from Los Andes, belonging to the Infantry, Hunter, Mortar, Artillery, and Andean companies, not only to the International Fair of Santiago (FISA) facility, but also proceeded to canton its troops in the Medialuna and the Municipal Gymnasium of the Maipú Commune, authorizing them to carry out patrols in the industrial belt of Cerrillos, in the Estación Central Commune, Avenida 5 de Abril, Pajaritos, Las Rejas, General Velásquez, and other sectors of the jurisdiction; d.- That such being the case, on 20 October 1973, Mario Salinas Vera, 16 years of age, without political affiliation, was detained without a judicial order from the Población Los Nogales of the Maipú Commune, current Estación Central commune, by troops of said Regiment, by virtue of orders issued by the Regiment command, who loaded him onto an Army truck and transported him to the Gymnasium of the aforementioned commune, located at Avenida Las Rejas and 5 de Abril, a place where his brother Miguel Salinas Vera was detained and claims to have seen him on that occasion; e.- That while being held captive in said facilities, the following day, in the morning hours, Mario Salinas Vera was transported in a military truck to his parents' house by the same soldiers of said Regiment, they spoke with them, and immediately afterward, they took him away to an unknown destination, which to this date has not been able to be established, despite all the efforts of his relatives to locate him». In the civil aspect, the State was condemned to pay an indemnity of twenty million pesos to the victim's brother.

Source: elciudadano.cl, 11 August 2022 Date: 11-08-2022

Santiago Court condemns retired Army officers for qualified kidnapping of teenager in Maipú

The Santiago Court of Appeals condemned two retired Army officers for their responsibility in the qualified kidnapping of 16-year-old teenager Mario Salinas Vera, which occurred starting in October 1973, in the Población Los Nogales in Maipú.

In a unanimous ruling (file 3.317-2018), the Third Chamber of the appellate court—composed of ministers Carlos Gajardo, Elsa Barrientos, and lawyer (I) Óscar Torres—condemned Luis Prüssing Schwartz and Hamilton Rosales Barrueta to a penalty of 10 years in prison for their responsibility in the kidnapping of Mario Salinas.

Likewise, Hugo Arias Saéz was acquitted due to a lack of participation in the illicit act. «That the facts described in the eighth motive of the appealed sentence are constitutive of the crime of qualified kidnapping, provided for and sanctioned in article 141, paragraph 3, of the Penal Code, in force at the time the events occurred, which punished said conduct with the penalty of presidio mayor in any of its degrees, considering the harm caused, the nature of having intervened in a forced detention, and that to this date the whereabouts of the victim are unknown.

In effect, the cited legal provision provides: «If the confinement or detention lasts for more than ninety days, or if it results in serious harm to the person or interests of the confined or detained person, the penalty shall be presidio mayor in any of its degrees», which is the case under study, since all the elements of objective typicity are met, as State officials abused their work or position from the moment the victim, Mario Salinas Vera, 16 years old, was detained without a judicial order from the Población Los Nogales in the Maipú Commune by troops of the Guardia Vieja Regiment, who loaded him onto an army truck, transported him to the commune's gymnasium, and the following day in the same vehicle passed by his parents' house, and took him away to an unknown destination, which to this date has not been able to be established», the ruling says. It adds that: «Regarding the participation that corresponds to the accused Rosales Barrueta in the events, to determine it, it is appropriate to consider the rank or position that the accused held, Army Major, and transferred to Santiago, after 11 September 1973, he became part of the Maipú Sub-Group, under the charge of Commander Prüssing, continuing as second in command, remaining in charge of the operational part, destined, as he himself expresses, to the control of the curfew hours of the civilian population, patrols, detention of persons if they presented signs of carrying elements intended for demonstrations or disturbances, and raids. In this context, he refers to the operation carried out in the Población Los Nogales, the place where the victim's parents had their home, an occasion in which he indicated to Carabineros and Investigations officers that they should take advantage of his cooperation to "clean" said population of the criminals who swarmed the sector and for that, he ordered the personnel of the Regiment stationed at the Fisa to close it». Furthermore, it is considered that: «On the basis of these antecedents, it is possible to consider him as a participant in the capacity of author of the aforementioned crime, since as Second Commander of the Maipú Sub-group, in charge of operational tasks, he allowed the realization of the criminal action, as the missions to be carried out by his subordinates depended on him, and whose results he necessarily must have known and accepted, for which he cannot be considered alien to the forced disappearance of Mario Salinas Vera». In the civil aspect, the State was condemned to pay $20,000,000 (twenty million pesos) to the victim's brother.

Source: adprensa.cl 30/9/2019 Date: 30-09-2019