Occupation: Industrial mechanic. Worker at the Politec factory Political Affiliation: Militant of the MIR Date of Detention: October 12, 1973

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

Waldemar Segundo Monsálvez Toledo, married, father of three, and an industrial mechanic, lived with his spouse Inés Sandoval Fuentealba and their three children in the "Nueva la Habana" camp (currently "Nuevo Amanecer") until the date of his detention.

He was also a militant of the MIR, a community leader in the sector where he lived, and a participant in the Supply and Price Board (JAP), which was in charge of distributing food to the residents. Waldemar Monsálvez’s home was also shared by his cousin, María Armandina Ojeda Toledo, and his uncle, Ramón Toledo Chaipul; the latter was also a coworker and an eyewitness to his detention.

This young worker was employed at the textile company "Politec," located at Calle Los Tres Antonios N°756 in Santiago. On October 10, 1973, he had an altercation with another worker surnamed Vera, who mocked Monsálvez regarding the fall of Salvador Allende's government.

The argument turned into a physical fight, and upon learning of this, the owner of the company, accompanied by two workers, filed a complaint with the 13th Carabineros Precinct. On October 11, 1973, Waldemar Monsálvez left his home at 9:00 PM and headed to work at the factory, where he was scheduled to work the night shift from 11:00 PM to 7:00 AM.

His coworkers warned him that his boss had reported him to the police and also told him that graffiti alluding to the MIR had appeared in the workers' bathrooms, with rumors circulating in the company that Waldemar Monsálvez was the author of those slogans.

Given these circumstances, the worker left the factory and returned shortly after, reporting that he had presented himself at the 13th Carabineros Precinct, located near the company, where he was told to return to work and not to worry.

Despite the above, a Carabineros bus arrived at the factory at 1:00 AM on October 12, 1973, and the uniformed officers proceeded to arrest Waldemar Monsálvez in the presence of all his coworkers. One of the officers asked him how many children he had and expressed his regret when Monsálvez replied that he was the father of three children.

Since that date, his family has not known his whereabouts. Inés Sandoval Fuentealba, Waldemar Monsálvez’s spouse, went to the "Politec" factory the following day, where she was immediately informed of what had happened by his coworkers and neighbors, including Juan Gutiérrez Chávez and his wife Nolfa González, Oscar Uribe, Enrique Molina, Teresa Almarza Olate, and Marcelo Olate.

The company secretary, who paid her her husband's final wages, told her that his detention was because he was "an insolent, an unbearable person."

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

Inés Sandoval began an intense search, visiting the 13th Carabineros Precinct, most of the precincts in the capital, Cerro Chena, the Ministry of Defense daily for several months, the Public Jail, the Penitentiary, the Investigations police, the National Stadium, the Estadio Chile, the Legal Medical Institute, etc.

The search concluded in 1975 when, overwhelmed by economic problems, the woman left for Osorno with her eldest daughter and left the other two children in the care of relatives in Santiago. On October 25, 1991, María Armandina Ojeda filed a complaint for the kidnapping and eventual homicide of her cousin Waldemar Monsálvez before the 14th Criminal Court of Santiago.

This complaint initiated case file 112.427-5 of that Court; its subsequent processing is unknown. The anthropometric records of Waldemar Segundo Monsálvez Toledo were attached to case 4449-AF of the 22nd Criminal Court of Santiago regarding the crime of illegal burial 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 and sent to the Legal Medical Institute. Currently (late 1992), the forensic identification reports are pending.

Source: Corporation report

These are the remains of two victims who were correctly identified by the SML at the end of 2009.

This morning, visiting minister Alejandro Solís arrived at the General Cemetery to continue the handover of the remains of forcibly disappeared persons from Patio 29 who were identified through forensic examinations by the Legal Medical Institute and the University of North Texas laboratory in the United States.

These are the remains of Adrián del Carmen Sepúlveda Farías and Waldemar Segundo Monsalve Toledo, who were identified at the end of 2009. The procedure took place at the Memorial for the Forcibly Disappeared and the Memorial for the Politically Executed at the General Cemetery, according to the judiciary.

Along with the above, the SML handed over the remains of Raúl Luis Jiménez Barrera, identified on January 22, 2010. More than 100 forensic examinations remain to be performed.

Source: latercera.cl 20/5/2010

Date: 20-05-2010

The historic correct identification of Patio 29 victims

The presidential delegate for Human Rights, María Luisa Sepúlveda, stated that this "is the beginning of the end" of the ordeal for the families, which materialized with the confirmation of three identities.

She announced that new names could be known next week. Last Wednesday, Minister Alejandro Solís informed the families of three victims of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship of their correct identities, after more than a hundred were misidentified by the Legal Medical Institute, as was revealed in 2006.

These are people who were murdered in 1973 and thrown into graves marked as "NN" in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery, from where they were exhumed after the restoration of democracy in the country. Solís met with the families of the first three identified victims and with leaders of the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared (AFDD) and the Association of Relatives of the Politically Executed (AFEP).

The remains belong to the forcibly disappeared Waldemar Segundo Monsalve Toledo, Pablo Aranda Schmied, and the politically executed Nelson Muñoz Torres. The forensic examinations to establish their identities were carried out by the Health Science Center of the University of North Texas (USA), which confirmed that the DNA samples from the relatives were compatible with the victims, sources said.

Meanwhile, the presidential delegate for Human Rights, María Luisa Sepúlveda, stated that the identification of the first three bodies from Patio 29 "is the beginning of the end" of the ordeal for their families. "This is the beginning of the end, as the minister receives the reports.

I believe that by next week he may receive a few more," Sepúlveda added. In 2006, it was revealed that there were errors in the identification of the remains from Patio 29, and since then, the Legal Medical Institute began a series of audits to correctly identify the victims.

Judge Solís, who was accompanied by the director of the Legal Medical Institute, Patricio Bustos, explained to the families that the identification was carried out through mitochondrial DNA and Nuclear ATR DNA analyses, commissioned in May 2008 for a total of 123 sets of remains exhumed from Patio 29.

The analyses were carried out following a scientific audit conducted at the Genetics Unit of the Legal Medical Institute and the appointment, in March 2007, of a Panel of Experts composed of forensic doctors María Cristina de Mendoza and Francisco Etxeberría and geneticist Rhonda Raby.

The history of the victims According to the Rettig Report, which in 1991 certified some 2,279 cases of deaths at the hands of state agents, Waldemar Segundo Monsalve Toledo was detained on October 12, 1973, in the vicinity of the company where he worked, and his whereabouts had been unknown since that date.

Meanwhile, Pablo Aranda Schmied was detained on September 17, 1973, at the San Juan de Dios Hospital, where he was doing an internship as a third-year medical student, and his whereabouts had also been unknown since that date.

Nelson Muñoz Torres, for his part, was a 20-year-old shoeshine boy who was found dead on a street in Santiago, due to multiple gunshot wounds, on September 23, 1973. When the unmarked graves of Patio 29 were opened in 1991, it was discovered that some contained up to three bodies in a single coffin.

When asked about this, Augusto Pinochet, while still commander-in-chief of the Army, commented: "What a great economy!" In July 2006, Patio 29 was declared a National Monument.

Source: elmostrador.cl 3/12/2009

Date: 03-12-2009

Patio 29: Behind the Iron Cross (BOOK)

Patio 29 was usually intended for the burial of the indigent, psychiatric patients, and people who died without being identified (NN). However, between September 1973 and January 1974, its graves were used to hide victims of repression as "NN." Javiera Bustamante and Stephan Ruderer reconstruct the painful history of the site, using testimonies from the families of the forcibly disappeared, letters, documents, and other sources.

The book also accounts for the arduous process of identification and handover of the bodies, as well as the irregularities that characterized these proceedings. The powerful photographs that illustrate the volume were taken by visual artist Mara Daruich. Bustamante, Javiera; Ruderer, Stephan

Source: ocholibros.cl (undated)