On August 21, 1974, Víctor Daniel AREVALO MUÑOZ was arrested at his workplace at the Vega Central, apparently due to his ties to the PC. The following day, Alberto Vladimir ARIAS VEGA, a communist and a neighborhood acquaintance of Víctor Arévalo in Conchalí with whom he had political ties, was also arrested.

That same day, August 22, Víctor Arévalo’s spouse was arrested by the DINA and taken to Londres N° 38, where she confirmed the presence of Alberto Arias.

The spouse was released, but Víctor Arévalo and Alberto Arias remained forcibly disappeared while in the custody of the DINA.

The Commission is convinced that the disappearance of both men was the work of State agents, who thereby violated their human rights.

Víctor Daniel Arévalo Muñoz, married, father of one, linked to the Communist Party and suffering from epilepsy, was detained on August 21, 1974, around 3:00 p.m., at his workplace. In the presence of witnesses, he was seized by four agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), who took him first to the Huechuraba Carabineros Station and later to Londres 38, a secret DINA detention and torture center, from where he was forcibly disappeared.

Two days later, on August 23, his spouse, Ana Cristina Olivos, was also detained; she saw him at Londres 38.

As witness Alejandro Matta stated before the Investigating Judge, he was with the victim in the storage area of a fruit business located inside the Vega Central market. Around three in the afternoon, while they were having lunch, four tall, stocky, young individuals arrived, accompanied by a woman who pointed at the victim with her finger, saying, "this is him." The agents then grabbed Víctor Daniel Arévalo by the arms and took him away without a word.

For her part, María Cristina Silva, who was detained on that same day, August 21, 1974, at 2:00 p.m., by three civilians traveling in a new, light-blue Chevrolet pickup truck—which had been reported stolen—declared that they took her to the Huechuraba Carabineros Station. Her captors asked her about the victim and left her in the custody of the Carabineros while they left the police station.

Around 3:30 p.m., they returned, bringing Víctor Daniel Arévalo as a detainee. The witness noted that the three agents were wearing suits. One was of medium height, gray-haired, rather heavy-set, with a drinker’s face, a hoarse voice, and claimed to be named Jorge López.

The second was dark-skinned, with curly black hair, and short. The third was thin, with brown hair, and was driving the pickup truck. Meanwhile, María Angélica Loyola, also detained that August 21 by two civilians in a pickup truck who cited a robbery as the reason for her detention, was taken to the Huechuraba Station and interrogated regarding the political militancy of the victim, whom she saw arrive at the police station.

At 6:00 p.m., three civilians arrived at the station accompanied by Hilda Salgado, a neighbor of the victim and both witnesses, who claimed to have seen the detainees burying weapons and accused them of being "communists."

Hours later, around 9:00 p.m., a tall, blond agent arrived at the station in an orange car and gave the order to transfer the three prisoners to Londres 38, which was carried out in the light-blue pickup truck.

Once there, they were intensely interrogated about the "buried weapons" and were separated during the questioning. María Cristina Silva was even taken out of the facility and driven to what she believed was a hill (she was blindfolded), where she was made to walk until they stopped at a spot where she could hear the voices of several people.

There, they asked her if she recognized anyone. Given her negative responses, she was taken back to Londres 38. It was already August 22, 1974. Upon arriving, she noticed that in the large room was Alberto Bladimir Arias Vega, a communist militant detained in the early hours of August 22, an acquaintance of the witness and the victim, and currently a forcibly disappeared person, with whom she spoke.

Late that night, María Cristina Silva and María Angélica Loyola were released at the intersection of Avenida Matta and San Diego (August 22, 1974).

On the morning of August 23, 1974, three civilians identifying themselves as "police" arrived at Víctor Daniel Arévalo’s home in a new, light-blue Chevrolet pickup truck. Without showing any warrant, they proceeded to violently and thoroughly search the property, breaking objects and slashing mattresses.

The victim’s mother recognized among them a large, dark-skinned, curly-haired man whom she had repeatedly encountered as a passenger on the Ovalle-Negrete buses (Guillermo Muñoz); "when he spots me, he lowers his head," she declared before the Investigating Judge in April 1980.

After the search, in which they found nothing, the DINA agents proceeded to detain Ana Cristina Olivos, the victim’s spouse, and took her to Londres 38. They put her in the pickup truck and drove off along Avda.

Independencia. Upon arriving in front of the Conchalí Municipal Building, they put tape over her eyes and dark glasses on her. Once inside the facility, which had a gray metal gate, she was taken through a gallery with red and white tiled floors to a small room where about 30 detainees were held, all sitting on the floor, overcrowded and in poor conditions.

What surprised her most was the presence of small children; she even heard one, who could not have been more than a year old, crying throughout the night. People were taken to another room for interrogation, and everyone could hear the continuous screams and moans of pain.

When she arrived in that room, the tape over her eyes had come loose, and she saw her friend Alberto Bladimir Arias, who had his right arm in a cast and was also suffering from the flu, constantly complaining of pain (he had recently undergone surgery for a work-related accident).

Her husband was also there; one of the guards told him, "here is your wife, you see we didn't kill her." After about three hours, she, the victim, and Alberto Arias were taken for interrogation. They went through a hallway and up a staircase to a room where about four men acted as interrogators.

Three of them were between 45 and 50 years old. One was of medium height and stocky; the second had graying hair; and the third, who was the one doing the beating, was heavy-set, tall, and asked insistently about the weapons. Alberto Arias, despite his condition, was treated violently.

As for Víctor Daniel Arévalo, his situation, as she observed it, was extremely harsh. The day after his detention, he had been taken to the Elías Lafferte camp and forced to dig numerous holes in the ground to search for the weapons they were supposedly hiding there.

Because they found nothing, his captors took their rage out on him, beating him with fists and rubber truncheons all over his body. She saw him swollen and bruised. In subsequent interrogations, he continued to be severely punished.

During one torture session that took place around 2:00 a.m. in the presence of his spouse, as Víctor Daniel Arévalo insisted he knew nothing about the alleged weapons, and amidst continuous blows, one of the guards said, "this one doesn't want to talk, the best thing is to run the pickup truck over him, that way he'll talk."

Subsequently, the victim was taken to interrogations alone. Upon returning to the room, he suffered an epileptic seizure with strong convulsions. The guards claimed the attack was fake and even kicked him while he was on the floor.

When the victim recovered somewhat, he told his wife that they had put him on "the grill" (an iron cot to which the naked victim was tied to be subjected to electric shocks on different parts of the body) and that they had applied electricity to his ears, mouth, and genitals.

Afterward, they had poured a liquid into his mouth that wounded his tongue; they also inserted an iron rod into his anus until he bled. Ana Cristina Olivos managed to see him and confirm that his mouth was indeed swollen and wounded, that his hands were bruised, and that he had to remain in a squatting position because he could not sit down.

She took off the dark green corduroy jacket she was wearing and gave it to Víctor Daniel Arévalo, who was having difficulty breathing and speaking.

At the same time, the captors constantly threatened Ana Cristina Olivos with putting her on "the grill" as well. During the interrogations, they hit her in the face, pulled her hair hard, and shoved her constantly, in addition to using her during the interrogations to which they subjected her husband.

On August 24, 1974, after she and her husband were forced to sign a document admitting to having had weapons in their home, Ana Cristina Olivos was put into a light-blue/silver, older-model car and released at the intersection of Franklin and Arturo Prat.

The vehicle was driven by the same gray-haired man who had witnessed the interrogations and torture. She would never hear from her husband again; when she asked the agent about his fate, he replied that he did not know what would happen to him.

The victim had been detained on a previous occasion. In October 1973, following a denunciation, he was detained by Carabineros who took him to the Investigations Headquarters. He was released the following day, without charges, after being beaten.

On September 27, 1974, María Cristina Olivos went to the National Executive Secretariat for Detainees (SENDET) to inquire about her husband. There, an official in charge of providing information to the families of detainees, after checking some lists and documents on the counter, told her that the victim was at Tres Alamos and that she could bring him clothes and food the next day.

He added that she could visit him on September 30. She did so. However, upon arriving at that facility, the guard on duty told her that Víctor Daniel Arévalo was not detained there and that he might possibly be held incommunicado.

For his part, in January 1980, Alejandro Matta stated in his judicial declaration that about 8 months after Arévalo’s detention, a man arrived at the warehouse with a "card holder" containing documents and a warehouse card.

Among the documents was the identity card of Víctor Daniel Arévalo Muñoz. The person who brought them said he had found them at the Puente Independencia, in Mapocho. The witness does not know what happened to that card holder.

In July 1975, the victim’s name appeared on the list of 119 Chileans who had allegedly died in clashes abroad. His name was included in the list published by the Buenos Aires weekly "Lea," which appeared for the first and only time on that occasion, without a responsible editor or printer's imprint.

The veracity of this fact has never been proven; furthermore, no government officially ratified it. In this regard, on September 9, 1975, Army Major Enrique Cid Coubles, of the Human Rights Secretariat of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, informed the Court that "there is no official record that the persons named in the lists published in 'Lea' and 'O'Día' have died abroad." He added that there was also no record that those persons had left the country.

For his part, Division General and Director of Investigations, Ernesto Baeza Michaelsen, informed the Investigating Judge in January 1980 that the victim had no travel records as of August 1, 1974. In February 1980, Raúl Mardones, by order of the Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, informed Judge Jordán that Víctor Daniel Arévalo did not appear to have left the country via asylum.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On September 5, 1974, a writ of amparo (habeas corpus) was filed on behalf of the victim before the Santiago Court of Appeals, registered under No. 1058-74. In the filing, Ana Cristina Olivos gave a detailed account to the Court Ministers of the torture to which her husband had been subjected, adding, "my husband's life is in danger at this moment, as I was able to verify personally." In a subsequent written statement, she provided information regarding the victim's presence at Tres Alamos that she had received at SENDET.

In this regard, she requested the appointment of a Court Minister to visit said facility. On October 5, 1974, the Court issued an order to the "Commander in charge of the Tres Alamos detention center" to report on the victim's imprisonment.

On February 3, 1975, there was still no response. Without having received any official response from an administrative authority regarding the matter, and relying on an official letter from the Ministry of National Defense stating that the victim had no record, as reported by SENDET, the amparo was rejected on March 5, 1975—six months after it was filed.

No further proceedings were taken. The records were sent to the corresponding Criminal Court.

The case was then investigated by the 3rd Criminal Court of Santiago, case file No. 117.763-2, on March 13, 1975. After issuing only one order to investigate, which was limited to interviewing the victim's spouse, the summary was closed on May 23 of the same year.

On the 27th of that same month, the case was temporarily dismissed because the "perpetration of a crime was not completely justified." The Prosecutor ruled that the investigation was not exhausted and that it was necessary to reiterate the request to the Ministry of the Interior, from which there had been no response; to take more complete statements from the victim's spouse; to investigate the name of the official who had attended to her at SENDET, summon him, and interrogate him; and to summon and interrogate the victim's employer.

On July 23, 1975, the Court of Appeals revoked the judge's ruling.

At this stage of the proceedings, Ana Cristina Olivos attached to the case the press information reporting the death of 119 Chileans, all forcibly disappeared, in alleged clashes abroad. In this regard, Army Major Enrique Cid reported having no information.

For his part, Colonel Jorge Espinoza Ulloa, Executive Secretary of SENDET, issued an official letter on September 9, 1975, stating that it was "impossible to give an answer" since all officials collaborated in that function and "not one specific person for a specific day." The Court then took steps to locate the whereabouts of María Cristina Silva, whose existence the spouse had reported.

However, this effort was unsuccessful, and the summary was closed again on January 27, 1976, with the case being temporarily dismissed without any progress in the investigation. On March 19 of the same year, the Court of Appeals approved the resolution.

On December 10, 1979, Ana Cristina Olivos presented new evidence, including a sworn statement from María Cristina Silva (which recounted the victim's stay at the Huechuraba Station and at Londres 38) and requested the reopening of the summary.

The judge decided to send the records to Investigating Judge Servando Jordán López, appointed to handle cases of forcibly disappeared persons reported in the Santiago jurisdiction. On December 13 of the same year, the Investigating Judge reopened the summary and continued with the proceedings.

The witnesses to the detention and imprisonment of Víctor Daniel Arévalo testified before him. Likewise, the Judge sent an official letter to the Huechuraba Carabineros Station requesting information on whether, in August 1974, a robbery complaint had been filed at that facility by Hilda Salgado against the victim, María Cristina Silva, and María Angélica Loyola.

On January 22, 1980, the Commissioner, Carabineros Major Robinson Medina Galaz, reported that there were no records in this regard because the logbook where the record might have been had been incinerated.

Furthermore, and for the first time since the amparo was filed in September 1974, the Ministry of the Interior sent an official letter to the Court stating that the CNI leadership had no record of the victim's detention. The letter was signed by Enrique Montero Marx, Acting Minister of the Interior, and was dated January 28, 1980.

The Investigating Judge took statements from five Carabineros who served at the Huechuraba, Conchalí Station in August 1974. All stated that they did not remember the events and did not know Víctor Daniel Arévalo Muñoz.

On May 5, 1980, Judge Jordán consolidated the victim's case with the case being handled for the disappearance of Alberto Bladimir Arias Vega, which occurred on the same date as the victim's. On May 23 of the same year, Servando Jordán López declared himself incompetent and sent the records to the Military Justice system, which assigned them to the Third Military Prosecutor's Office of Santiago under file number 392-80.

Before this Court, the plaintiffs requested the identification of Hilda Salgado, the neighbor of the victim who had denounced him for having weapons, and her subsequent summons to testify. After the corresponding inquiries, it was established on February 5, 1981, that a person named Hilda Rosa Salgado had traveled to Argentina.

However, it was not clear that it was the same person in question. A sworn statement from Ana Cristina Olivos was attached to the case, detailing the conditions in which she saw Víctor Daniel Arévalo and Alberto Bladimir Arias at Londres 38.

Without further proceedings, the summary was closed on July 29, 1981, as the "investigation was exhausted." On August 11 of the same year, the case was temporarily dismissed because the "perpetration of the reported events was not completely justified." The resolution was appealed to the Court Martial, which confirmed the ruling on November 5, 1981.

In October 1989, Lieutenant Colonel Enrique Ibarra Chamorro, Interim Military Prosecutor General, requested that a total and definitive dismissal be issued because it was appropriate to "apply the Amnesty contemplated in Decree Law 2.191 of 1978." On October 30 of the same year, the 2nd Military Court of Santiago accepted the request and dismissed the case totally and definitively, which was confirmed by the Court Martial, leading to the filing of a Complaint Appeal before the Supreme Court, with the ruling pending as of December 1992.

The victim's family also carried out various administrative efforts to locate the whereabouts of Víctor Daniel Arévalo, without obtaining results.

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity