Occupation: Former Chemistry professor at the Instituto Pedagógico of the Universidad de Chile (until the end of 1973). Private photographer. Political Affiliation: Militant of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR) Date of Detention: September 16, 1974

Vicente Segundo Palomino Benítez, a Chemistry professor at the Universidad de Chile and a militant of the MIR, was detained on September 16, 1974, between 3:00 PM and 4:00 PM, on a street in downtown Santiago by a group of approximately 10 civilians armed with machine guns. They were traveling in a winter-white, closed-body van with red trim and no license plates.

The captors forced the detainee into the vehicle and drove him to the photography studio that he operated on Calle Santa Genoveva, next to No. 1353, in the commune of Quinta Normal, which served as his place of work.

Upon arriving at the location, Vicente Palomino was taken out of the van, handcuffed, and brought into the building, while his captors thoroughly raided the studio, seizing all the photographic equipment found there.

Once this objective was completed, the group of armed civilians and the detainee departed for an unknown destination. This event was witnessed by numerous neighbors in the area, including Mr. Alejandro Catalán Madariaga, who was also intimidated by Palomino Benítez's captors, warning him not to comment on anything he had witnessed.

On September 19, 1974, Vicente Palomino was brought back to his photography studio, this time accompanied by two armed individuals in a van. The agents entered the premises with the victim and proceeded to remove a camera belonging to him, after which they left with the detainee, again heading toward an unknown destination.

There are also eyewitnesses to this event, identified as Ms. Ester Benítez Oria, María Alejandra Catalán Saavedra (aunt and cousin of the victim, both residing at Santa Genoveva 1353), and Mr. Alejandro Catalán Madariaga. The first two provided statements to the 1st Criminal Court of Santiago, which later substantiated a case for alleged disappearance.

In a complaint for kidnapping filed by the victim's sister, Ms. Julia Palomino Benítez, before the Ninth Criminal Court of Santiago on October 14, 1974, she stated that "on September 16 of that year, while she was at the corner of Calle Santa Genoveva and Vicuña Rosas in the commune of Quinta Normal, at approximately 3:30 PM, she witnessed from a distance how her brother was violently pulled from the back of a red, modern-style Chevrolet van with a cream-colored roof and no license plates, with his hands handcuffed." She added that "in the aforementioned vehicle there were about 10 individuals carrying handguns, dressed in civilian clothes, and ranging in age between 25 and 40 years old. The victim was then taken into a house where his photography studio operated, which was raided and completely dismantled in a period of no more than half an hour, after which they all left in the direction of Calle Andes."

Many years later, in a sworn statement provided by Cristián Van Yurick Altamirano, who was detained by armed agents belonging to the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) on July 12, 1974, he recounted that he remained held in Room No. 13 of the 4 Alamos incommunicado prisoner camp with Vicente Palomino Benítez, along with other prisoners whom he identified as Héctor Zúñiga Tapia, Néstor Gallardo Agüero, Carlos Gajardo Wolff, the brothers Juan Carlos and Jorge Andrónicos Antequera, and others, all of whom remain forcibly disappeared to this day.

Regarding the victim, he recalled that "he was with Zúñiga Tapia; they were mathematicians (former students of the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the Universidad de Chile), and for this reason, they would teach mathematics classes to the rest of the detainees, and we would play chess." Van Yurick also noted in his statement that the victim had spent time held at the secret DINA detention and torture house located at José Domingo Cañas.

Furthermore, he stated that while he was held at 4 Alamos, the witness was permanently taken to the José Domingo Cañas house and to Villa Grimaldi for short periods; and that he had contact with the victim until October 20, 1974, the date on which Van Yurick was transferred to "Tres Alamos."

It should be noted that the victim's name appeared on a list of 119 people reported as dead during alleged guerrilla actions in various foreign countries (Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, Mexico, and France), published in the magazine LEA of Buenos Aires and in the newspaper O'Dia of the city of Curitiba, Brazil.

These lists appeared only once and without a responsible editor. Three Chilean newspapers reproduced these reports: El Mercurio, La Segunda, and Las Ultimas Noticias, on July 23, 24, and 25, 1975, respectively.

When consulted on the matter, the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed the Magistrate of the Ninth Criminal Court of Santiago that there was no official record establishing that the mentioned individuals had actually died abroad or had left the country.

Judicial and/or Administrative Actions

The victim's sister, Julia Palomino Benítez, filed a recurso de amparo (habeas corpus) with the Santiago Court of Appeals on September 25, 1974. It was registered under No. 1115.

When the Minister of the Interior was officially requested to respond, he replied on October 11, 1975, that Vicente Palomino Benítez was not being held by order of any administrative authority, and that his current whereabouts were unknown. Subsequently, it was decreed that an official request be sent to the Ministry of Defense, a measure that was reiterated on three occasions.

Only in November 1974 was it certified in the case files that "the Ministry of Defense, by confidential official letter dated the 21st of the current month, accompanied by an official letter from the National Executive Secretariat of Detainees (SENDET), has reported that 'the victim has not been reported to the military justice system nor does he have a record in this Ministry'."

Based on the reports transcribed, the Court rejected the recurso de amparo filed on November 28, 1974, ordering the referral of the records to the corresponding Criminal Court so that it could investigate the possible existence of any crime committed in connection with the disappearance of Vicente Palomino.

By official letter from the Court of Appeals, a case for the alleged disappearance of the victim was initiated on December 5, 1975, before the 1st Criminal Court of Santiago, which was registered under No. 106.400.

Once the ordered investigation was returned, it provided no information that would allow for the establishment of the victim's whereabouts. Fruitless efforts were made to this end at the General Directorate of Investigations (Detainee Entry Book), the National Executive Secretariat of Detainees, and through patrols in the capital's neighborhoods, hotels, boarding houses, and brothels.

Without ordering further proceedings, the 1st Criminal Court declared the summary closed and dismissed the case on February 19, 1975, as it did not appear proven in the records that the disappearance of Vicente Palomino was due to a crime or quasi-crime.

Upon appeal of this resolution, the Prosecutor of the Santiago Court of Appeals, in his report dated March 10, 1975, stated: "that he has no other path but to accept the dismissal issued. It seems implausible, but it must be accepted.

No news of any kind is obtained regarding Vicente Segundo Palomino Benítez, who, according to the statements of his sister in the case files, was detained in the city center on September 16, 1974, by more or less 10 people dressed in civilian clothes."

Based on the Prosecutor's report and the records in the case files, the Court approved the dismissal resolution on April 8, 1975.

Having decreed the reopening of the summary at the request of the victim's father, on October 24, 1978, Ms. Ester Benítez Oria, residing at Santa Genoveva 1353 in Quinta Normal, appeared before the 1st Criminal Court, stating: "that she is the aunt of the victim, who maintained a photography studio next to her home." She added that "on September 19, 1974, two people arrived at the place, traveling in a van, in the company of Vicente Palomino, looking for a camera." Likewise, Ms.

María Alejandra Catalán Saavedra, cousin of the victim and residing at the same address as the previous witness, appeared and fully ratified what was stated by Ms. Benítez, declaring that she had also been an eyewitness to the events described.

Efforts were also made to compel the judicial appearance of a third witness to the events, Mr. Alejandro Catalán Madariaga, but it was not possible as he could not be located.

At the request of Mr. Inocente Palomino Urbina, the victim's father, official letters were sent to the International Police and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which responded in the course of November 1978 that the person in question had no record of travel outside the country between September 1, 1974, and October 15, 1978, nor did he appear on any list of asylum seekers after September 16, 1974.

Despite the proceedings carried out, particularly the statements of the witnesses who saw the victim in the company of two unknown individuals, the case was temporarily dismissed on December 7, 1978, a resolution that was approved by the Santiago Court of Appeals.

Parallel to the processing of the recurso de amparo filed on behalf of the victim, a complaint for kidnapping was presented before the 9th Criminal Court of Santiago on October 4, 1974.

In this case, registered under No. 12.938 9, a broad order to investigate was decreed. After verifying proceedings that yielded no results before SENDET and the National Service of Detainees, where lists of those arrested by the military intelligence service exist, it was returned to the Court.

On August 4, 1975, the complainant Julia Palomino Benítez submitted to the case a photocopy of a press publication that appeared in the newspaper El Mercurio of Santiago on July 23 of that year, in which it is indicated that the victim, along with 59 other people, had allegedly died in guerrilla actions that occurred in Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, Mexico, and France, according to versions published in the magazine LEA of Buenos Aires.

Likewise, it was requested that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs be officially notified so that this body could instruct the consular agents accredited in the named countries to report if "the body of Vicente Palomino had been identified, if his death had been registered in the Civil Registry Book of the Consular Agency, if it was possible to repatriate his remains or if his burial place was known, and, finally, what the source of the information had been."

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through its Human Rights Secretariat, headed by Army Major Enrique Cid Coubles, informed the Court on September 9, 1975, of the following: "1) The news published by the magazine LEA of Buenos Aires allegedly came from Mexico, via FONEL (Latin American Editorial Fund), a journalistic agency specializing in Marxist activities; 2) there is no official record that the people named in the published list have died abroad; 3) there is also no record that these people have left the country (if they had, it would have had to be clandestinely); and 4) the authorities of the countries where, according to the publications, the events would have occurred, have reported nothing on the matter."

With all the background information presented, the Court, keeping in mind that the existence of the crime of kidnapping that gave rise to the formation of the summary was not completely justified, temporarily dismissed the case on September 26, 1975.

Upon appeal of this resolution, the Santiago Court of Appeals ordered the suspension of the effects of the dismissal order and the reinstatement of the case to the summary stage, so that the 9th Court could officially request information from the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) regarding the victim.

Once the files were returned to the original Court, an official letter was ordered to be sent to the DINA on November 22, 1975. Only on December 5 of that year did the Minister of the Interior at the time, Division General Raúl Benavides Escobar, report that the victim was not being held by order of this Ministry, adding that: "the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), in its Official Letter (R) No.

S.G.3550/48/567, dated the 1st of the current month, has reported that this person has no record in its files and has not been detained by personnel of that agency."

Based on this report, the case was temporarily dismissed on December 22, 1975, until new and better investigative data could be presented. Upon appeal of this resolution, it was confirmed by the Santiago Court of Appeals on March 30, 1976.

On May 28, 1975, a complaint for mass kidnapping was presented, bringing to the attention of the Santiago Court of Appeals a series of complaints regarding the disappearance of 163 people, which occurred while they were under arrest, requesting the appointment of a Ministro en Visita (Special Investigating Judge).

The aforementioned presentation was accompanied by extensive documentation including photographs and identification documents of each arrested person, and a sworn statement before a Notary Public from a family member and an eyewitness to the event.

It was also noted that the request covered the situation of people arrested during the second half of 1974 and the first half of 1975, for whom recursos de amparo had been filed in a timely manner and for whom an investigation by the ordinary Criminal Courts had also been requested.

The Santiago Court of Appeals, by resolution of the Full Tribunal dated June 23, 1975, rejected the request for the appointment of a Ministro en Visita. Only five magistrates of the High Court were in favor of accepting the request and investigating the referred complaints.

On July 4, 1975, the Committee for Cooperation for Peace in Chile, adopting the request of the families of those 163 people who disappeared during their arrest, submitted a new request for the appointment of a Ministro en Visita to the Supreme Court, which was rejected on July 11 of the same year, arguing that: "the respective judges have carried out adequate investigations in the majority of the corresponding summary cases." On this occasion, three magistrates of the highest Court—its President, Mr.

José María Eyzaguirre, and Ministers Ortiz and Erbetta—were in favor of accepting the request, given "the gravity presented by the case, due to the number of disappeared persons and the time elapsed since they have been so."

Due to the occurrence of new events that implied adding important background information to the cases included in the list of 163 disappeared persons, a new request for the appointment of a Ministro en Visita was made by the Committee for Cooperation for Peace in Chile on August 1, 1975.

Among these facts is that on July 23, 1975, the national press reproduced a news item from the magazine LEA of Buenos Aires, according to which 60 people were reported dead in various foreign countries (Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, Mexico, and France).

Likewise, on July 24, 1975, the newspaper La Segunda, citing the newspaper O'Dia as its source, provided a new list that this time included 59 Chileans dead, wounded, or escaped, following an armed confrontation with Argentine police forces that occurred in the town of Salta.

This new request was also rejected.

For their part, the family of Vicente Palomino Benítez made constant visits to the National Executive Secretariat of Detainees, the "Tres Alamos" prisoner camp, the Ministry of Defense, the Investigations police, the Aviation Prosecutor's Office, various first-aid posts, hospitals, the Legal Medical Institute, jails, and prisons, in addition to sending a letter to General Herman Brady R.

Everything was in vain; they would never again have news of the victim from that day in September 1974 when he was kidnapped by a group of people dressed in civilian clothes, and he remains forcibly disappeared to this day.

During the civil-military dictatorship, at least a hundred people linked to culture, the arts, and heritage were executed and 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, such as primary, secondary, and university students; pregnant women, the elderly, the visually impaired, 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 the 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 employees, newspaper vendors, carpenters; peasant, mining, forestry, and construction workers; and engineers.

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

Some of their murderers and accomplices, who are serving lukewarm 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 fields of culture, 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 more 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!! VICENTE SEGUNDO PALOMINO BENITEZ, PHOTOGRAPHER, FORCIBLY DISAPPEARED 9/16/1974

Source: prensaopal.cl 9/8/2021 Date: 09-08-2021

Teaching memory: the teachers' tribute to the professors who were victims of the dictatorship

For the Teachers' Association (Colegio de Profesores), September 11 is an especially significant date. Military repression directly affected hundreds of teachers, with dozens of teachers registered as forcibly disappeared to this day, along with teachers executed for their social and political activity.

Some of them were detained in their own schools, from where their trail was lost forever. There are also hundreds of teachers who were tortured, exiled, and dismissed from their jobs. "There can be no context that justifies murdering, disappearing, or torturing.

There can be no context that justifies that," asserts Mario Aguilar, President of the Teachers' Association, on the day before a new commemoration of the 1973 Coup d'État. Furthermore, the Coup d'État implied the end of the Single Union of Education Workers (SUTE), the solid professional and union organization that teachers from all over the country had established in 1970 together with the school's support staff.

Along with this, in the same year, 1973, the Military Junta ended the Normal Schools and their centuries-old tradition of teacher training, which had sustained the growth of Public Education throughout the 20th century.

Likewise, the regime intervened in the school curriculum, modifying the teaching that was imparted in the classrooms. The development of the Dictatorship also entailed the municipalization of State educational establishments.

This transfer diminished the extensive public school system built over decades in the country, but it also originated the "Historical Debt" that affects thousands of teachers to this day. In 1981, teachers were forcibly transferred from their status as public officials to municipal employees without respecting the salary adjustments to which they were entitled, affecting their salaries while they were active teachers and reducing their pensions once they retired.

One more consequence of the Coup d'État on the teaching profession, which remains unresolved to this day. For all these reasons, 136 teachers who were victims of forced disappearances and summary executions for political reasons have been permanently honored with a commemorative plaque in the building of the National Directorate of the Teachers' Association since 2014.

That building, in turn, bears the name of Manuel Guerrero Ceballos, another teacher who was a victim of the Dictatorship. Recently, in addition, the Reception Hall of the Casa del Maestro in Santiago was renamed in honor of Juan Antonio Gianelli Company, a teacher and leader of the SUTE, who was made to disappear by the Comando Conjunto in 1976. "Along with remembering our colleagues and keeping them very present in our minds and hearts, it is also important to have a commitment as educators to a culture of Human Rights so that tragedies like this never happen again in Chile, so that Human Rights are never again trampled on in Chile as they were in that period," reflects the President of the Teachers' Association.

Source: colegiodeprofesores.cl 9/10/2018 Date: 09-10-2018

Justice issues convictions in two cases of human rights violations

The Santiago Court of Appeals issued sentences in two cases of human rights violations that were investigated in the first instance by the special investigating judges Hernán Crisosto Greisse and Mario Carroza Espinosa, respectively.

In the first ruling (case file 266-2016), the First Chamber of the appellate court—composed of ministers Leopoldo Llanos, María Luisa Riesco, and the lawyer (i) Paola Herrera—convicted nine former agents of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Vicente Segundo Palomino Benítez, a victim of the so-called "Operation Colombo." Ruling that convicted the former agents: César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann to 13-year prison terms, as authors of the crime. Meanwhile, Orlando José Manzo Durán must serve 4 years in prison as a co-author; and Manuel Heriberto Avendaño González, Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda, Alejandro Francisco Astudillo Adonis, and Demóstenes Eugenio Cárdenas Saavedra were sentenced to 3 years in prison. During the investigation stage, the special judge Hernán Crisosto managed to establish the following facts: "In the afternoon of September 16, 1974, Vicente Segundo Palomino Benítez, a militant of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR), was detained on a public street in downtown Santiago by agents belonging to the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA). Days later, on September 19 of the same year, four armed agents took Palomino Benítez to the place where he worked as a photographer, located at Calle Santa Genoveva No. 1353, in Quinta Normal, where they raided the place, being seen by witnesses, including family members and neighbors, who observed that the detainee could not walk on his own." Subsequently, it was possible to establish, through different testimonies, the passage of Vicente Palomino Benítez through the clandestine DINA detention centers known as "Londres 38," located at that address in the commune of Santiago, and "Cuatro Álamos," located at Calle Canadá No. 3000, in Santiago, centers that were guarded by armed guards and to which only DINA agents had access. That the victim, Palomino Benítez, during his stay at the Londres 38 and Cuatro Álamos barracks, remained without contact with the outside world, blindfolded and tied up, being continuously subjected to interrogations under torture by DINA agents who operated in said barracks for the purpose of obtaining information regarding members of the MIR, in order to proceed with the detention of the members of that organization. That the last time the victim, Palomino Benítez, was seen by other detainees occurred on an undetermined day in October 1974, and he is currently missing. That the name of Vicente Segundo Palomino Benítez appeared on a list of 119 people, published in the national press after it appeared on a list published in the Argentine magazine LEA, dated July 15, 1975, in which it was reported that Vicente Segundo Palomino Benítez had died in Argentina, along with 59 other people belonging to the MIR, due to internal quarrels that arose among those members. That the publications that reported the victim, Palomino Benítez, as dead had their origin in disinformation maneuvers carried out by DINA agents abroad." In the civil aspect, the sentence that ordered the State to pay compensation of $100,000,000 (one hundred million pesos) to the victim's family members was confirmed. Decision adopted with the dissenting vote of Minister Llanos.

Villa Robert Kennedy

In the second ruling (case file 833-2016), the Sixth Chamber of the appellate court—composed of ministers Hernán Crisosto, Elsa Barrientos, and Nora Rosati—convicted two retired members of the Carabineros for their responsibility in the crime of homicide of Nelson Jorge Flores Zapata.

The crime was perpetrated on October 2, 1973, in the Villa Robert Kennedy. In the resolution, the appellate court sentenced Miguel Ángel Álvarez Muñoz and Luis Alejandro Duarte Arriagada to 10 years and one day in prison, as authors of the crime.

During the investigation stage, the judge Mario Carroza managed to establish the following facts: "On October 2, 1973, near 3:00 AM, a group of at least five officials of the Carabineros de Chile, from the Vista Alegre station, Maipú commune, entered the home located at Pasaje Terao No. 1.374, in the Villa Robert Kennedy, Alessandri neighborhood, of the aforementioned commune, in which Nelson Jorge Flores Zapata lived, whom they detained and moved unarmed to the patio of the property, where he allegedly began to struggle with First Corporal Miguel Ángel Álvarez Muñoz, a situation that led the Carabinero Luis Alejandro Duarte Arriagada to fire a burst of bullets at Flores Zapata with an UZI submachine gun, and the same for the Carabinero Miguel Ángel Álvarez Muñoz, with his ZIG rifle, as a result of which Nelson Flores Zapata suffered multiple bullet wounds." In the civil aspect, the State of Chile was ordered to pay compensation of $100,000,000 (one hundred million pesos) to the victim's family members.

Source: infogate.cl 2/19/2018 Date: 02-19-2018

Operation Colombo: Justice convicts nine former DINA agents

The Court of Appeals issued a sentence for the crime of the former MIR militant Vicente Segundo Palomino. There were also convictions for former Carabineros for the death of Nelson Flores Zapata, which occurred in the Villa Robert Kennedy.

Nine former agents of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) were convicted this Monday by the Santiago Court of Appeals to various sentences for the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Vicente Segundo Palomino Benítez, one of the victims of Operation Colombo.

The convicted are César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann, to 13-year prison terms, as authors of the crime; Orlando José Manzo Durán, to four years in prison, as a co-author; and Manuel Heriberto Avendaño González, Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda, Alejandro Francisco Astudillo Adonis, and Demóstenes Eugenio Cárdenas Saavedra, to three years in prison.

The ruling was delivered by the First Chamber of the appellate court, composed of ministers Leopoldo Llanos, María Luisa Riesco, and the lawyer Paola Herrera. The first of these voted against the sentence that ordered the State to pay one hundred million pesos as compensation to the victim's family.

During the investigation, the special judge Hernán Crisosto established that Palomino, a militant of the MIR, was detained on September 16, 1974, in downtown Santiago by DINA agents. Three days later, four armed agents took him to the place where he worked as a photographer, in Quinta Normal, "where they raided the place, being seen by witnesses, including family members and neighbors, who observed that the detainee could not walk on his own." Subsequently, the detainee passed through Londres 38 and Cuatro Álamos, without contact with the outside world, blindfolded and tied up, subjected to interrogations under torture to obtain information about the MIR. The last time Palomino was seen by other detainees was in October 1974. He then disappeared and his name appeared among the 119 people involved in Operation Colombo. Crime in Villa Robert Kennedy On the other hand, the Sixth Chamber of the Court of Appeals, composed of ministers Hernán Crisosto, Elsa Barrientos, and Nora Rosati, convicted two retired Carabineros officers for the homicide of Nelson Jorge Flores Zapata, which occurred on October 2, 1973, in the Villa Robert Kennedy. The convicted are Miguel Ángel Álvarez Muñoz and Luis Alejandro Duarte Arriagada, who received sentences of ten years and one day in prison, as authors of the crime. According to the investigation by judge Mario Carroza, near three in the morning that day, at least five Carabineros entered the victim's home in Maipú: "He allegedly began to struggle with First Corporal Miguel Ángel Álvarez Muñoz, a situation that led the Carabinero Luis Alejandro Duarte Arriagada to fire a burst of bullets at Flores Zapata with an UZI submachine gun, and the same for the Carabinero Miguel Ángel Álvarez Muñoz, with his ZIG rifle, as a result of which Nelson Flores Zapata suffered multiple bullet wounds," it was established. In this case, the State must also compensate the victim's family with one hundred million pesos.

Source: radio.uchile.cl, July 19, 2018

Teaching mathematics and chess to fellow prisoners

For Vicente Palomino Benítez

A surviving former prisoner remembers Vicente Palomino, who was disappeared, especially because Vicente, along with another former student of the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the Universidad de Chile, Héctor Zúñiga Tapia, taught mathematics to the detainees and organized chess games.

The prisoners called them "The Mathematicians." But in reality, Vicente Segundo Palomino Benítez was a Chemistry professor at the Instituto Pedagógico, dismissed, and when he disappeared, he worked as a private photographer in Quinta Normal.

Ten against one. A militant of the MIR, he was detained in downtown Santiago on September 16, 1974, between 3:00 PM and 4:00 PM, by a group of about 10 civilians armed with machine guns, traveling in a winter-white, closed-body van with red trim and no license plates.

They took him to his photography studio on Calle Santa Genoveva, in the commune of Quinta Normal. After the raid, the agents took all the photographic material. The operation was seen by, among other neighbors, Alejandro Catalán Madariaga, who was warned not to comment on anything he had witnessed.

Vicente's sister, Julia Palomino, who filed a complaint for kidnapping, declared before the Ninth Criminal Court of Santiago on October 14, 1974, that "on September 16 of that year, while she was at the corner of Calle Santa Genoveva and Vicuña Rosas," she observed those events from a distance. Lucía Sepúlveda

Source: archivochile.com, no date

Teachers joined the tribute to those who fell during the dictatorship

President of the Teachers' Association highlighted the need to install the subject of Human Rights in study plans. Santiago, September 13.—A delegation from the Teachers' Association of Chile was present at the pilgrimage to the Memorial of the Forcibly Disappeared and Politically Executed at the General Cemetery, convened by the National Assembly for Human Rights. "This is a historic date that moves us as a union, in honor of our fallen, and always raising the banners of truth and justice and asking that measures be adopted to advance a national Human Rights policy," indicated the president of the Teachers' Association, Jaime Gajardo. Hundreds of people with flags, banners, placards, and drums joined the traditional march that left from Plaza Los Héroes, moved along Alameda, San Antonio, and Recoleta, and ended with an act at the gates of the General Cemetery, where the victims were remembered 42 years after the coup d'État. Gajardo indicated that as a union, the need to restore Civic Education in all establishments in the country has been proposed. "We believe that the subject of Human Rights should be installed in all study plans. We have proposed that the curriculum must be strengthened and awareness created so that events like those the country experienced never happen again, where there is a very deep wound that we must help heal, and one of those ways is through education," the leader specified. In the central act, the president of the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared, Lorena Pizarro, pointed out that "those who believe that this march is only to remember are wrong. It is to remember in the struggle, in the demands, and in the example of those men and women who, with a broad unitary construction, achieved the popular triumph of President Salvador Allende." "Today we commemorate by calling on ourselves. It is enough to feel that the enemy is among us; it is enough to ask each of us who is the most consistent or most revolutionary, because reality tells us that the people are having a hard time and the necessary changes must be made," pointed out Lorena Pizarro. Department of Communications

TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION OF CHILE A.G.

Source: colegiodeprofesores.cl 2015