Political Affiliation: President of the Neighborhood Council of the Pudahuel district. Militant of the Communist Youth Date of Detention: August 24, 1974

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

Juan Bautista Maturana Pérez, married with two children, a merchant, and Washington Hernán Maturana Pérez, single, brothers and both militants of the Communist Party, have remained forcibly disappeared since August 24, 1974, the date on which they were detained along with other members of their family group by DINA agents.

Around 4:00 PM that Saturday, 3 individuals in civilian clothes arrived at the residence on Calle Salesianos No. 907 in the commune of San Miguel. After identifying themselves as "police," they asked for the head of the house, Mr.

Roberto Maturana, who was not at the property at that time. For this reason, the subjects decided to take his spouse, Elsa Pérez, and his son, Washington Maturana, who were at home, into custody. They were placed into a white Citroën without license plates and taken to an unknown destination.

Upon learning of what had happened, Juan Bautista Maturana immediately went to his parents' home to learn more details about what had happened to his mother and younger brother. Later, in order to report the events, he went to the 12th Carabineros Precinct of San Miguel, where he was told they had no information about the incident and that they would send a patrol to the detainees' home.

Once at the scene, the police officers indicated that, based on the characteristics of the event, the captors must have been agents of the Military Intelligence Service (SIM) and that the most appropriate course of action was for him to go to the Military Prosecutor's Office located on Calle Vidaurre to request information regarding his detained relatives.

At the moment Juan Bautista Maturana was preparing to take a taxi to go to the Military Courts, the Citroën in which his relatives had been taken pulled up near him; two subjects got out and detained him, taking him to the DINA facility located at Calle Londres No. 38, where his mother and brother were being held.

His detention was witnessed by his spouse, Fanny Saavedra, and other neighbors who were in the vicinity.

Later, the agents returned to the house on Calle Salesianos 907, setting up there to wait for the other members of the family group who they had not found in the afternoon. During the night of that August 24, 1974, while the agents remained in the property, a brother of the victims, Jaime Maturana Pérez, arrived, unaware of what had happened that afternoon.

Once inside the home, he was also detained. Later, at 11:00 PM, the father of the victims, Hernán Maturana Pérez, arrived at the house and was also immediately detained and taken to the facility at Calle Londres 38, where all members of the family who had been detained throughout the day were able to meet.

Along with being transferred to another facility, Cuatro Alamos, about 15 days later, the parents, Elsa Pérez and Hernán Maturana, were released, while their sons Washington and Juan Bautista remained in that place.

The other brother, Jaime Maturana, was transferred to the Tres Alamos facility, and his detention was acknowledged by the Ministry of the Interior, as recorded in the judicial proceedings.

Years later, and after the family had carried out a series of procedures before administrative authorities and international organizations, on December 14, 1977, around 9:30 PM, three subjects appeared at the home of the victims' father.

They identified themselves as members of the Vicariate and the Investigations police; they then asked Mr. Hernán about his sons. Upon receiving the response that both had remained disappeared since their detention by DINA agents, they replied that his sons might be abroad, to which the father indicated that they were not police officials or from the Vicariate, but rather DINA agents.

They then left the house, indicating that they would return.

In July 1975, the Chilean newspapers La Segunda and El Mercurio reproduced articles from two apocryphal foreign publications, the weekly LEA from Argentina and the newspaper O'DIA from Curitiba, Brazil, which provided a list of Chileans killed in alleged confrontations with the Argentine police in the province of Salta.

The name of Juan Bautista Maturana Pérez appeared in the Brazilian publication. When consulted by the Courts of Justice, the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs could not verify the veracity of the facts mentioned in the publications, dismissing their credibility; the Argentine authorities provided the same response.

It should be noted that the names of the people appearing in the publications correspond to 119 Chileans who were detained by the DINA and subsequently forcibly disappeared.

To this date, the Maturana Pérez brothers remain in the status of forcibly disappeared after being detained by DINA agents.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On August 27, 1974, a Writ of Amparo (Habeas Corpus) was filed before the Court of Appeals of Pedro Aguirre Cerda. The filing was registered under Case No. 997-74 and was presented by Fanny Saavedra on behalf of her spouse Juan Bautista Maturana Pérez, Washington Maturana Pérez, Jaime Maturana Pérez, Hernán Roberto Maturana Pérez, and Elsa Pérez Garcés.

The writ was rejected on December 2, 1974, with the Court basing its decision on information provided by administrative and military authorities stating that the victims had not been detained.

Hernán Maturana filed a complaint with the 1st Criminal Court of San Miguel for the kidnapping of his sons Washington and Juan Maturana Pérez. The case was registered on October 30, 1974, under Case No. 41.511, in which a series of measures were ordered to clarify what happened to the detainees.

The National Executive Secretariat for Detainees (SENDET) informed the Judge that the persons mentioned in his inquiry were not registered as detainees in that organization's files.

The Investigations Police provided an official letter regarding an order to investigate issued by the Court, in which, dated November 30, 1974, it is stated that inquiries made in hospitals, prison facilities, and other entities did not allow for the whereabouts of the victims to be determined.

On December 9, 1974, Case No. 41.676, initiated on December 5, 1974, by an official letter from the Court of Appeals and which had the purpose of investigating the same facts, was consolidated with the present case.

On December 20, 1974, SENDET reported that it only had records for Jaime Maturana Pérez, who was at that date detained in the Puchuncaví prisoner camp.

The Investigating Judge decided to close the summary proceedings on January 27, 1975. Furthermore, given that the commission of the reported crime that originated the case had not been fully established, he decreed a temporary dismissal.

Subsequently, on July 30, 1975, a request was made to unarchive the case, reopen the summary proceedings, and carry out new measures derived from the information that appeared in La Segunda regarding alleged confrontations between Chilean citizens and Argentine police in the trans-Andean province of Salta. The judge granted the request.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through its Human Rights Secretariat, headed by Army Major Enrique Cid Coubles, responded to the Court's inquiry regarding the case of the "119" that "there is no official record whatsoever that the persons named in the lists published in 'LEA' and 'O'DIA' have died abroad," adding in the official letter that there are also no records that they left the country.

The response is dated September 9, 1975.

On October 7, 1975, the closure of the summary proceedings and the temporary dismissal of the case were again decreed. The Court of Appeals approved the resolution on January 16, 1976.

On June 26, 1980, Hernán Maturana filed a criminal complaint for the kidnapping of his sons Washington and Juan Maturana. The action was directed against DINA agents Germán Jorge Barriga Muñoz, Emilio Troncoso Vivallos, Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo, and Julio Leyton Robles, whom he identified as responsible for the kidnapping of his two sons.

The Judge accepted the complaint and ordered a series of requested measures, among others, summoning the accused DINA agents to appear. Despite having been summoned on countless occasions by the Judge, they never appeared in Court.

In March 1981, it was requested that the case be heard by a Visiting Minister of the Court of Appeals, a situation that was denied. In August 1981, the Judge decreed the closure of the summary proceedings and the temporary dismissal of the case.

Source: Corporation report

In Case No. 3-2014, instructed to investigate the crime of aggravated kidnapping, it has been ordered to issue an URGENT official letter to you in order to request, if possible, that you send an email and/or make a statement on your social and digital networks to all your collaborators, with the objective of locating witnesses to the detention of Juan Bautista Maturana Pérez and Washington Hernán Maturana Pérez, detained on August 24, 1974, from their home located at Calle Salesianos No. 907 in the Commune of San Miguel, with both remaining in the status of forcibly disappeared to this date.

Sincerely,

MARIANELA CIFUENTES ALARCON

EXTRAORDINARY VISITING MINISTER

Source: villagrimaldi.cl 3/25/2023

Date: 03-25-2023