Address : Los Baqueanos No. 1742, Peñalolén, Santiago Marital Status : Married, 5 children Occupation : Auto body repairman Political Affiliation : Member of the Communist Party, Press Secretary of the Peñalolén Local Committee Date of Detention : August 23, 1974

Eduardo Fernando Zúñiga Zúñiga, married, father of 5, auto body repairman, and communist militant, was detained at approximately 6:00 a.m. on August 23, 1974, at his home by a group of military personnel who entered the residence, forced him to get up, dress, and leave with them.

His arrest was part of a mass detention during an operation carried out in the neighborhood sector known as La Faena, located in the current commune of Peñalolén, in which members of the Army, Air Force, Carabineros, Investigations, and security agents participated.

Among the latter was Osvaldo Romo Mena, better known as "El guatón Romo," a DINA agent who, until September 11, 1973, had resided in that neighborhood and was a political and neighborhood leader, which is why he actively collaborated in denouncing the residents. During the operation, he acted while wearing an Air Force uniform.

After being taken out into the street, all the detainees were brought to a field in the sector and then transported in buses and trucks to the Military School, where they remained until the following day, when they were transferred to DINA detention centers.

Of the large group of detainees, six remain forcibly disappeared to this day, including Eduardo Zúñiga. They are: Stalin Arturo Aguilera Peñaloza, local leader of the Communist Party and Secretary of Neighborhood Council No. 19 Villa Naciones Unidas; Manuel Filamir Cartes Lara, local leader of the Communist Party and the Manuel Rodríguez Homeless Committee of Peñalolén; Modesto Segundo Espinoza Pozo, MIR militant, former president of the Villa Lo Arrieta Neighborhood Council and union leader of the Housing Corporation (CORVI); and José Segundo Flores Rojas, Communist Party militant.

A former detainee, who had known Eduardo Zúñiga since they were teenagers and later through their party activities and roles as leaders in the same neighborhood, declared that he had been with the victim at a date he could not specify exactly, but which falls between the final months of 1974 and the first months of 1975, at the Puchuncaví detention camp.

He recounts the following: "I met Eduardo Zúñiga there; he was in a Carabineros van and had been taken out to urinate. In the bathroom, we hugged each other. He managed to tell me that he was going to Valparaíso, that they were requesting him from there.

He did not manage to indicate where he was coming from when we were surprised by a police officer in charge of his custody, who reprimanded him severely, forcing him to board the van they were traveling in immediately."

For his part, Manuel Salinas, another former detainee of the DINA, stated that he had been with Eduardo Zúñiga between the months of August and September 1974, in room No. 13 of the "Cuatro Alamos" incommunicado detention center.

The victim's spouse carried out various efforts to locate her husband's whereabouts at the Military School, SENDET, the Ministry of Defense, and the "Tres Alamos" Detention Camp, all of which were unsuccessful.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On August 30, 1974, a writ of amparo (habeas corpus) was filed on his behalf, case file No. 1.024-74, before the Santiago Court of Appeals.

Once the respective reports were requested, the Commander-in-Chief of the Jurisdictional Area of the Second Army Division and the Minister of the Interior responded, stating that they had no record of detention or charges against Eduardo Zúñiga.

Based on this information, the Court rejected the amparo on November 7, 1974.

An appeal was filed, but the resolution was confirmed on November 13 with the instruction to investigate whether the victim's disappearance constituted a crime. The records were sent to the 11th Criminal Court of Greater Quantities, where case file 6375 for alleged disappearance was opened on November 21, 1974.

The victim's spouse ratified the complaint.

The Chief of the State of Siege Zone of the Province of Santiago reported that Eduardo Zúñiga had not been detained by units or agencies under that Command.

After these proceedings, which did not provide new information to the investigation, the summary was declared closed and the case was temporarily dismissed on March 16, 1975; this ruling was approved by the Court of Appeals on May 23.

One of the arresting agents, Osvaldo Romo Mena, has been in detention since November 1992, after being located as a result of a series of proceedings ordered in the case regarding the disappearance of Alfonso Chanfreau Oyarce.

At that time, Romo was expelled from Brazil, where he had been living under a false identity since the end of 1975. By December 1992, he had appeared before several courts handling cases of forcibly disappeared persons and had been indicted in 6 of them.

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity

This Saturday, December 1, a commemorative plaque was unveiled at the site where the Melinka-Puchuncaví prison camp operated between 1973 and 1976. It is titled "Enredadera de la Memoria" (Memory Vine) by the regional artist and academic Leandro Silva.

The milestone is part of the "Ruta de la Memoria" (Memory Route) initiative in Valparaíso, which, through the installation of plaques, seeks to identify for the public the various locations that served as centers of political imprisonment and torture in the region, of which seven already exist.

"This memorial that we are handing over to the community today, we understand, contributes among several facets directly to education in the promotion of human rights in a transversal manner; it also aims to offer public recognition to the victims of political violence in the region, their families, and the communities that were forcibly involved," indicated the president of the Puchuncaví Memory and Culture Corporation, Rodrigo del Villar, at the time of the unveiling.

"The artistic proposal also crosses art and culture as means of connection; we contribute this grain of sand to inaugurate today this memorial of the memory route of the Valparaíso region, a site of memory," expressed Carolina Arce, coordinator of the Department of Cultural Citizenship of the Regional Ministerial Secretariat (Seremi) of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage of the Valparaíso region.

RELEVANCE OF THE MILESTONE

The event was attended by more than a hundred former political prisoners from the camp, along with their families, and members of different human rights groups at the national, communal, and zonal levels, as well as cultural and community organizations.

Along with recalling anecdotes and describing the life of the prisoners inside the camp, the architect and vice president of the Corporation, Miguel Ángel Montecino, explained that—thanks to the "Sendero de la Memoria" (Memory Path) project, financed by the Undersecretariat of Human Rights of the Ministry of Justice—the site will be intervened (there is a 20-year bailment agreement) to create a series of heritage landmarks within the camp that reflect part of the site's history.

It should be remembered that in March of this year, the declaration of Melinka as a National Monument in the Historical category was made official. A project to enhance the site will be carried out, through which certain landmarks of the Camp will be reconstructed, as well as a cultural center for the entire Puchuncaví community.

Del Villar highlighted that an important part of the work carried out by the Corporation in the region has been convened by the Table for Memory, Culture, and Human Rights, which has promoted the memory route through a collaboration and transfer agreement financed by the Seremi of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage of the Valparaíso Region.

"From a work perspective, we understand that dialogue and interaction with the Puchuncaví community, whether with schools, neighborhood units, social and cultural organizations, human rights groups in the region and the rest of the country, as well as the general public, is the appropriate method to establish communication and reach agreements.

The human group that constitutes our Corporation seeks to foster spaces that contribute a grain of sand to the development and growth of the Commune," concluded Del Villar.

The specific location of the plaque is on Route F-30 E, a few meters from the current Carabineros station of the commune, on the road that connects it with Ventanas.

Source: elmatutino.cl 05/12/2018

Date: 05-12-2018

New plaques added to the Londres 38 memorial

Recent judicial rulings determined that the forcibly disappeared persons Nelsa Gadea Galán and Eduardo Zúñiga were held at that center of detention and extermination that operated in the heart of Santiago.

In an atmosphere of reflection as dusk fell over the city, the president of Londres 38 Space of Memories, Erika Hennings, began the simple inauguration ceremony for new plaques at the Memorial, which bears the names of the people who were detained and forcibly disappeared from the DINA barracks located meters from the San Francisco Church.

The new plaques, which join the 96 already held by the Memorial, bear the names of Nelsa Gadea Galán, a Uruguayan MIR militant who was captured in December 1973, and EDUARDO FERNANDO ZUÑIGA ZUÑIGA, a communist leader from Peñalolén, detained in August 1974.

Nelsa's sister thanked those who organized the event, noting that she attended with mixed feelings of pride and pain, while Susana, daughter of Eduardo Zúñiga, highlighted that her father was a social fighter and that she would not rest in her fight for justice and truth.

The emotional event—where the main plaque at the entrance of the site of memory was also inaugurated—was attended by relatives of the political prisoners who were held at Londres 38; Mayor Carolina Tohá, the Ambassador of Uruguay, Rodolfo Camarosano; the Ambassador of the European Union, Rafael Dochao-Moreno; and residents of Santiago.

Londres 38 Space of Memories defines itself as a place where memory is always under construction because the truth remains incomplete, and its objective is to contribute to the knowledge and transmission of what happened in that DINA barracks from the 1973 Coup d'État until 1975.

Erika Hennings is the wife of Alfonso Chanfreau, a MIR leader of French origin who was detained in July 1974 and taken to Londres 38. There, he was seen by his wife, who was tortured alongside him, and in August he was transferred to an unknown destination.

Source: munistgo.cl 09/10/2013

Date: 09-10-2013