PART THREE
Chapter Two (A.2.c)

1974 through August 1977 (continued)

1. HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS COMMITTED BY GOVERNMENT AGENTS OR PERSONS WORKING FOR THEM (continued)
   
   
   2. CASES (continued)
      
      
      5. Victims from other political groups, or who were not politically active, or whose political position is unknown
         
         
         1. Cases in which the DINA was responsible
            
            e.1.1) Activists from the MAPU
            
            

            Persecution of active members of MAPU (United Popular Action Movement) was generally the consequence of repression aimed at the major organizations of the Chilean left, primarily the MIR. MAPU members suffered human rights violations basically in those cases in which they had relationships of some sort with the MIR.
            
            On September 14, 1974, Luis Eduardo DURAN RIVAS, 29, a vendor and MAPU activist, was arrested. He was apparently responsible for putting together an underground newspaper which was sent outside the country. On this occasion he went to ask a MIR friend for money, unaware that the DINA had set up a trap at his house. He was arrested and subjected to harsh torture. Several other members of the MAPU were then arrested. Since then there has been no news about his whereabouts. The Commission is convinced that his disappearance was the work of government agents who thus violated his human rights.
            
            On September 17, 1974, Héctor Patricio VERGARA DOXRUD, 32, a civil engineer and MAPU activist, was arrested. He supervised Luis Durán's work in editing the clandestine newspaper, which was largely put together in his offices. Other members of MAPU were arrested with him, but they were later released. On the basis of testimony it has received, the Commission has been able to establish that Héctor Vergara was held prisoner at José Domingo Cañas with other MAPU activists, including Luis Durán. They were later taken to Cuatro Alamos. The Commission is convinced that his disappearance was the work of government agents who thus violated his human rights.
            
            On March 15, 1975, Luis Enrique GONZALEZ GONZALEZ, 27, a MAPU activist, was arrested a few blocks from his house. He was jailed in Santiago; apparently DINA agents shot and wounded him on the street. Someone who happened to see the event told his wife what had happened. The Commission has come to the conviction that Luis González disappeared as a result of actions for which the DINA was responsible and in violation of his human rights.
            
            On May 26, 1976, Elizabeth Mercedes REKAS URRA, who was four months pregnant, was arrested along with her husband, Antonio ELIZONDO ORMAECHEA, a MAPU activist, according to her brother, Andrés Constantino Rekas Urra. The latter was arrested on the street on May 24, and immediately taken to a place that he identified as Villa Grimaldi. There he was interrogated about the activities and whereabouts of his sister Elizabeth, his brother-in-law Antonio, and their mutual friend Juan Bosco MAINO CANALES. He was told that he would be released only when they had been arrested. The next day his captors took him from Villa Grimaldi to where his sister and brother-in-law worked so that he could point them out. He was later taken back to Villa Grimaldi. On the 26th, while still at Villa Grimaldi, Andrés Rekas heard the distinct sound of his brother-in-law's Citroneta. A few moments later, he heard a woman screaming and realized that it was his sister Elizabeth Mercedes. He was released that same day. A few days later he went to the apartment of his sister and brother-in-law, and saw that they were not there; it was all torn apart, and had obviously been ransacked.
            
            The notary public Rafael Zaldívar drew up a document on the condition of the apartment of this married couple. He also noted that Juan Maino's glasses, watch, and a magazine were on the dining room table. Maino was a MAPU leader who was arrested that day in the apartment.
            
            On December 30, 1980, Carlos Montes was arrested by CNI agents. During questioning he was shown a document he had signed that was on Juan Maino the day he was arrested. When Carlos Montes was arrested, the Interior Ministry told the court that he was a high level MAPU leader, and that "after the arrest of one of its most important members, Juan Maino," Montes had gone underground to avoid being arrested. The Commission holds the conviction that Elizabeth Rekas, Antonio Elizondo and Juan Maino were arrested and underwent disappearance at the hands of government agents in a grave violation of their human rights.
            
            

            e.1.2) Activist from the Christian Left
            
            

            On June 26, 1976, several armed agents arrested José Santos HINOJOSA ARAOS, who was active in the Christian Left. According to witnesses, he was taken to Villa Grimaldi. Nothing further was heard of him after April 1977. However, on June 27, 1976, the agents who took part in his arrest went back to his house and told his family that he had escaped and left a policeman wounded. A family member wrote down the license number of the car they were driving and gave it to the court. The court in turn made a formal request of the municipality to which that number was assigned and was told that the license number had been assigned to the Diego Portales building, presidency of the republic, DINAR section. It is important to note that upon receiving an official inquiry from the court, the assistant director of logistics at the DINA stated that all the license numbers of DINA cars were listed in the Motor Vehicles Registry with the acronym DINAR, which meant National Rehabilitation Directorate [Dirección Nacional de Rehabilitación]. In response to a formal request from the courts for information on the DINAR, the Interior Ministry replied that it had no information on it. When the Interior Ministry was formally asked for the name of the official in charge of Villa Grimaldi in April 1977, it replied that the CNI had reported that when it took over the site it was empty, and had no staff and that there was no documentation of any sort, and hence it was unaware of who had been occupying it. In view of all the foregoing, the Commission is convinced that Hinojosa underwent forced disappearance at the hands of government agents in violation of his human rights.
            
            

            e.1.3) Activist from the Radical party
            
            

            On August 3, 1974, Juan Aniceto MENESES REYES, a university student who was active in the Radical party, was arrested in Santiago by DINA agents. He disappeared from the DINA facility at Londres No. 38, where witnesses saw him. The Commission is convinced that his disappearance was the work of government agents who thus violated his human rights.
            
            

            e.1.4) Victims who were not, or were not known to be, politically active
            
            

            In the month of January 1974, Félix Marmaduque VARGAS FERNANDEZ, 31, a personal bodyguard of former president Salvador Allende, was arrested in Santiago. His captors took him to the prison camp at the Tejas Verdes Engineering School in San Antonio, and he disappeared from that site. The Commission is convinced that his disappearance was the work of government agents who thus violated his human rights.
            
            On September 16, 1974, Sergio Edrulfo CARRASCO DIAZ, 18, an accounting student, disappeared. He was arrested at his home in Santiago in the presence of witnesses, presumably by DINA members. Since that day there has been no information on him. The Commission is convinced that his disappearance was the work of government agents who thus violated his human rights.
            
            

         2. Cases in which other agencies or undetermined agencies were responsible
            
            On February 7, 1974, Carlos Hugo ZELAYA SUAZO, a union representative at the wine company where he worked, was arrested in Santiago by soldiers. Evidence gathered by the Commission indicates that the troops came to the wine company and asked the owner for Carlos Zelaya. He voluntarily presented himself to the soldiers, and they took him away under arrest. Since that day his whereabouts remain unknown. His relatives have testified that he was held prisoner at the Tacna Regiment. The evidence gathered enables the Commission to come to the conviction that Carlos Zelaya was arrested by government agents, and that he disappeared as a result of their actions in violation of his human rights.
            
            On March 14, 1974, José Guillermo BARRERA BARRERA, 30, a leader of the Patriotic Transportation Movement (MOPARE) in Curacaví, disappeared. In September 1973 police from the headquarters in Curacaví had arrested him along with other persons and had taken them to the Barriga upgrade, where all the prisoners were shot to death, except for José Barrera and one more person who were merely wounded and managed to escape after their executioners had left. Subsequently he went with his wife and two children to the northern part of the country. While he was working there, his brother called him to say that he had talked to a number of government officials who had told him that there would be no problem should he return. In order to be even more certain, José Barrera had a meeting in Talagante with the area police chief who told him that there was no objection to his returning to Curacaví with his whole family. Hence he returned on March 14, but that very night police from the Curacaví police headquarters and army troops arrested him at his house. Since then nothing further has been known about José Barrera. The Commission is convinced that his disappearance was the work of government agents who thus violated his human rights.
            
            On April 19, 1974, Jorge Eduardo VILLAROEL VILCHES, 35, likewise a MOPARE leader in Limache, was arrested by police. He had previously been arrested in September 1973 and had been held for a week at the El Belloto air base. He was then released and continued to live in Limache with his wife and three children. According to the testimony of a witness that the Commission received, after arresting him, the police turned him over to security agents who took him away. Since then nothing further has been known about him. In view of the evidence gathered, this Commission holds the conviction that Jorge Villarroel disappeared while being held under arrest by government agents in violation of his human rights.
            
            On August 6, 1974, the bodies of Eduardo Exequiel MUÑOZ TAPIA, a vendor, and Luis Segundo TOLEDO GONZALEZ, a worker, were found at the bottom of the Maipú lagoon. Around the neck of each was a sign that read, "For being an informer-The Resistance." Muñoz had been arrested August 1, and Toledo the following day, by civilians who said they were from the investigative police. The Commission has come to the conviction that they were killed for political reasons in violation of their human rights, but it does not have enough evidence to determine who was responsible.
            
            On August 10, 1974, plainclothes agents arrested the student Dignaldo Herminio ARANEDA PIZZINI at his home in the La Reina district. He disappeared, and there is no evidence that he was held at any of the detention sites. The Commission believes that the testimony by witnesses indicating that he was arrested is enough to enable it to come to the conviction that Dignaldo Araneda disappeared at the hands of government agents who thus violated his human rights.
            
            On August 13, 1974, civilians who did not identify themselves arrested Hugo Antonio CONCHA VILLEGAS, 29, who was married and had three children and worked at the Comandari company. Until September 11, 1973, he had been president of the Professional Union of Workers and a member of the Revolutionary Workers Front (FTR). He had been arrested previously several times after the military coup, and had been tortured every time. Once he had to be taken by ambulance to an emergency ward after being left abandoned by his captors. He was put on trial at a war tribunal in 1974 for breaking the State Security Law, but the case was dropped for lack of evidence. The last time he was arrested, his captors said they needed him to identify a person. The evidence gathered enables the Commission to hold the conviction that Hugo Concha disappeared at the hands of government agents in violation of his human rights.
            
            On August 16, 1974, Sergio Emilio VERA FIGUEROA, 27, who was married and had one son, was arrested by security agents who came that morning to the downtown bookstore where he worked. Apparently he was arrested because his wife, who later left the country, was active in the MIR. Since then nothing further has been known about him. The Commission holds the conviction that Sergio Vera was imprisoned by government agents and consequently has disappeared.
            
            On August 24, 1974, plainclothes agents who said they were from the Military Intelligence Service (SIM) arrested Gary Nelson OLMOS GUZMAN, a shoemaker, at his grandmother's house in the San Miguel district. There is no evidence on his fate since that moment. The Commission believes that it is possible to come to the conviction that Gary Olmos disappeared at the hands of government agents in violation of his human rights. That conviction is based on the following: evidence that he was arrested; the fact that during this period many people were secretly arrested and held prisoner; the lack of further indications of where he is despite inquiries made by his family, the courts, human rights organizations, and the Commission itself.
            
            On September 7, 1974, Asrael Leonardo RETAMALES BRICEÑO, a merchant, was arrested where he worked at the agricultural fair in Maipú, by unidentified agents who had previously come looking for him at this same location. His house was later searched by agents who acknowledged that he was under arrest and said that he was at Tres Alamos. A policeman at the prison camp also said that he was being held in solitary confinement in Cuatro Alamos. Asrael Retamales disappeared while being held by the DINA at Cuatro Alamos where he was observed by witnesses. The Commission is convinced that his disappearance was the work of government agents who thus violated his human rights.
            
            On September 11, 1974, Víctor Fernando OLEA ALEGRIA, 24, a worker, disappeared in Santiago. He was arrested in the presence of witnesses that day, and there has been no further word of him since then. The Commission came to the conviction that he suffered a human rights violation at the hands of government agents who made him disappear.
            
            On November 17, 1974, Juan Belarmino YAÑEZ ORELLANA was killed when a military patrol shot at the taxi in which he was riding at the intersection of Calles Alberto Magno and Manuel Montt in Santiago. The taxi driver was held under arrest for two weeks at Tres Alamos. Hence the Commission has come to the conviction that Yañez was executed by government agents in violation of his human rights.
            
            On December 5, 1974, unidentified agents in plainclothes arrested Luis Hernán FUENTES GONZALEZ at his workplace at the train station in San Bernardo. Luis Fuentes disappeared that day, but there is no evidence on places where he might have been held prisoner. The Commission believes that testimony by witnesses to his arrest taken in combination with the fact that there has been no further word about him, leads to the honest conviction that Luis Fuentes disappeared at the hands of government agents who thus violated his human rights.
            
            On December 9, 1974, Claudio Enrique GONZALEZ NUÑEZ, an employee at the University of Chile School of Health who was not known to be politically active, was arrested by plainclothes agents at his workplace in Santiago. There is no information on where he was taken. The Commission is convinced that Claudio González disappeared at the hands of government agents, who thus violated his human rights.
            
            On December 23, 1974, plainclothes agents searched the home of Héctor Pedro MATURANA ESPINOZA, a teacher, in La Villa Portales in Santiago. When he arrived there he was arrested, and there has been no further word about him. The Commission believes that it is possible to come to the conviction that Héctor Maturana disappeared at the hands of government agents in violation of his human rights, since there is proof that he was arrested and bearing in mind the background of his case.
            
            On April 5, 1975, Segundo Elías LLANCAQUEO MILLAN, a farmer at the Juan Huelipán agricultural cooperative, was killed. Early in the morning that day members of the police and investigative police took him from his house and shot him. He had spent a year in hiding after the military coup. This information, in combination with those of other similar cases in which agents in charge of public order illegally killed Mapuches in this area, enable the Commission to come to the conviction that Segundo Llancaqueo was executed by public servants in violation of his human rights.
            
            On May 29, 1975, Carlos Antonio VARGAS ARANCIBIA, 36, an electrician who was active in the Revolutionary Radical Youth in the city of Limache, was arrested. Nothing has been heard of him since the moment of his disappearance. The Commission came to the conviction that he disappeared at the hands of government agents who thus violated his fundamental rights.
            
            On June 5, 1975, Zoilo Galvarino OLIVARES GUERRA, 35, a worker who was active in the youth organization of the Radical party and was connected to Vargas, disappeared in Viña del Mar. Testimony by several witnesses proves that security agents were following him. Since that moment it has not been possible to determine his whereabouts. The Commission believes that it can reasonably be presumed that his disappearance was the work of government agents in violation of his human rights.
            
            On September 15, 1975, Luis Hernán TREJO SAAVEDRA, a CUT leader, was arrested in the city of Curicó. The military prosecutor's office in the city acknowledged that he had been arrested, and said that he had been turned over to officials in Santiago. His whereabouts remain unknown to this day. The Commission is convinced that his disappearance was the work of government agents who thus violated his human rights.
            
            On September 10, 1975, Juan Segundo TRALCAL HUENCHUMAN, a farmer, and his family were forced out of their house by police from the Pillalebún checkpoint. The police shot at them with bursts of automatic weapons fire for no reason whatsoever. Tralcal, his wife, and their youngest daughter were wounded. Juan Segundo Tralcal later died at the hospital in Lautaro where he had been taken by the police themselves. The Commission holds the conviction that he was executed without any due process of law by government agents who thus violated his human rights.
            
            On the night of January 13, 1976, police and soldiers carried out a joint operation in the La Pincoya, Patria Nueva, and El Rodeo settlements located in the Conchalí district. A number of people were arrested in that operation, including Adán del Carmen CANCINO ARMIJO, who was apprehended at his home and taken with a group of other people in buses to a place known as Las Siete Canchas. At that point everyone else was released, but Cancino's whereabouts remain unknown to this day. The Commission is convinced that his disappearance was the work of government agents who thus violated his human rights.
            
            On March 24, 1976, Patricio Amador ALVAREZ LOPEZ, a minor, was killed. He had been arrested with three other youths the night before in front of Night School No. 4 by three agents who were driving a pickup truck. A few blocks away the other youths were released. Alvarez's body appeared the next day at the Medical Legal Institute, where it had been taken by police. It was established that the cause of death was a penetrating bullet wound through the chest, and that the body was badly bruised on the head, torso, and extremities. On April 27 in response to an inquiry from the family members, the Interior Ministry responded that it did not have any evidence on Alvarez. Later, however, in its "Observations on the Report of the United Nations Ad-Hoc Working Group on the Situation of Human Rights in Chile," the government reported that he had been killed in a gun battle with police on March 24 of that year. In view of testimony given by other people who were imprisoned with him, evidence of the repression that his family suffered, and contradictions in the official accounts, the Commission has been able to come to the conviction that Alvarez was executed by government agents without any due process of law and in violation of his human rights.
            
            On May 28, 1976, Héctor Manuel SAGREDO ARANEDA, who was not known to be politically active, was arrested before witnesses at his home by police who were carrying out a large scale operation in the area of Hualpencillo, Talcahuano. Since then there has been no word on his whereabouts. The Commission is convinced that his disappearance was the work of government agents who thus violated his human rights.
            
            On July 2, 1976, Julio del Tránsito VALLADARES CAROCA, an agricultural accountant, was arrested in La Paz, Bolivia. Bolivian officials handed him and other Chileans over to Chilean officials on the border at Caraña on November 13, 1976. There has been no further trace of him since that date. The Interior Ministry acknowledged that Valladares had been arrested. However, when the court ordered that the names of the arresting agents be provided, it refused to do so "solely on the grounds of security." The Commission is convinced that his disappearance was the work of government agents who thus violated his human rights.
            
            On July 18, 1976, Jorge SAN MARTIN LIZAMA, 20, who was unmarried and not politically active, was killed. In the judicial inquiry into this case, the police from Curacautín who were involved in the events, stated that they had gone to the area of Chorrillos in response to a report of a robbery taking place in one of the houses. When they arrived they found the intruder, who attacked them by throwing a clay flowerpot through the window at them. In response one of the police shot and killed San Martín. However, the autopsy report contradicts the police account, when it says the body had a cut on the neck that suggested an attempt at surgical cutting of the veins. It described it as "an oblique 35 millimeter cut whose edges were a centimeter apart and with a smooth bottom. The wound shows no sign of having been treated and crosses the middle third of the carotid artery." Besides that cut the body had two bullet wounds, one of them shot at close range, according to the coroner. For these reasons this Commission has come to the conviction that Jorge San Martín Lizama was executed by government agents in violation of his human rights.
            
            On September 8, 1976, the body of Domingo Enrique MARTINEZ VALENZUELA, a vendor, was found on the banks of the Mapocho River in Santiago. Witnesses testify that he had been arrested early in the morning of September 5, 1976, at home by soldiers in black berets. The Commission came to the conviction that Domingo Martínez was executed without any due process of law by government agents in violation of his human rights.
            
            Those disappeared in Arica for alleged espionage
            
            On May 14, 1977, Pedro Segundo MELLA VERGARA, a surveyor, was in a bar in Arica along with his wife and a friend. As they were leaving, Pedro Mella was arrested by two people in civilian clothes who did not identify themselves but were able to call on a police truck patrolling the area for help. Mella was taken to the First police station in Arica. When they investigated these events, police officials testified to the court that the people in civilian clothes who arrested Pedro Mella were SIM (Military Intelligence Service) agents from Arica who told them that he was under suspicion for espionage. They asked the police not to register the arrest and took him away.
            
            The next day, May 15, 1977, Sergio OVIEDO SARRIA was arrested at the customs office in Chacalluta. On May 31, 1977 Isidoro Segundo CASTRO VILLANUEVA, was arrested at the club for army subofficers in Arica (formerly the Hotel Tinos). On July 31, 1977, Juan José PAILLALEF PAILLALEF was arrested at the bus station in Arica.
            
            SIM officials in Arica admitted to the judge of the Third Criminal Court of Arica that on May 14, 1977 they had held Pedro Mella under arrest for an hour, in order to open a photo file on him. They said he had been released and that his house was not searched. However, neither Pedro Mella nor any of the other three people listed ever returned to their homes after being arrested. In light of the evidence it was able to examine on these events, the Commission came to the conviction that these four people disappeared involuntarily in Arica as the result of the activity of government agents.
            
            
      6. DINA agents who disappeared at the hands of their own colleagues
         
         This Commission has investigated and examined two cases of DINA agents who disappeared at the hands of this agency because they were judged to be traitors. They were even subjected to "tougher" treatment than ordinary prisoners. The manner in which this intelligence service was created during the months after September 11 can help explain these events. The Commission's investigation has led to the conclusion that the DINA was formed with members of all branches of the armed forces and police. The criteria for choosing the members at that time were not strict, and hence it was not necessarily the best men who were sent. In some cases, as we will specify below, and in others that the Commission has discovered, there was no scrutiny of the political past of each member of the armed forces or police who was sent to serve at the DINA, nor of their family. That is the origin of the strange and contradictory fact that certain people were serving as DINA agents or prison guards and were guarding or investigating people whose political sympathies they shared. Moreover, the Commission has examined some cases of people who were sent to the DINA without receiving any explanations of where they were going or what they were supposed to do. They were simply told to report to Tejas Verdes. One person was euphemistically told that he "was going to have a vacation" at that beach resort.
         
         Approximately June 24, 1974, Rodolfo Valentín GONZALEZ PEREZ, 19, a Chilean Air Force enlisted man and a DINA agent, was arrested by the DINA. lie was ordered to do guard duty at the rooms of the military hospital where there were political prisoners. At the same time his brother, a left activist, had taken asylum in the Argentinean embassy. The DINA was unaware of this fact. Rodolfo González was in contact with prisoners in the hospital and tried to help them, taking information back and forth between them and their relatives. According to the testimony received by the Commission, he was very confused in his personal life. He was discovered and taken to "the tower" in Villa Grimaldi, where he was subjected to harsh torture. He threw himself out a window to end his torment, but he was given medical treatment and put back in prison. Since then there has been no further information on him. This Commission has come to the conviction that Rodolfo González disappeared at the hands of government agents-the very organization for which he worked-who thus violated his human rights.
         
         On March 14, 1975, Carlos Alberto CARRASCO MATUS, 21, a DINA agent and guard at the solitary confinement area known as Cuatro Alamos, was apprehended by his colleagues. Apparently he belonged to a left party before September 1973. Many people who were held there have testified with admiration and affection that there was a guard named "Mauro" who was kind and tried to encourage them, by making their lives there a little more endurable. The DINA learned what he was doing and obtained proof that "Mauro" was Carlos Carrasco, and that he was providing the names of prisoners and information about them to left parties and their families. He was jailed and brutally tortured. Some witnesses have said that one of the DINA leaders beat him to death with a chain in one of the back courtyards of Villa Grimaldi. This Commission has come to the conviction that he disappeared at the hands of the DINA in violation of his human rights.
         
         
      7. Chileans killed or disappeared outside the country
         
         
         1. By DINA activity or involvement
            
            The murder of General Carlos PRATS GONZALEZ (ret.) and his wife Sofía CUTHBERT CHIARLEONI
            
            General Carlos Prats (ret.), 59, the former commander-in-chief of the Chilean Army, left the country and went to Buenos Aires, in his own words "at a moment of danger...early in the morning on September 15, 1973, when he was fortunately warned on time that groups who were out of control were trying to locate and kill him, taking advantage of the impunity offered by the chaotic situation of the country at that time." His wife, Sofía Cuthbert, 56, followed him a few days later.
            
            This statement by Carlos Prats, and others that will be quoted in this section of the report, as well as the whole context, are closely connected to certain other suggestive aspects or well-founded presumptions that this Commission took into account in arriving at its conviction. Taken one by one, they are not equally compelling, nor are they equally established. Taken all together, they have led the Commission to its conviction as here presented.
            
            In Buenos Aires General Prats (ret.) knew that he was under surveillance by informers, who, in his mind, "had come over from Chile to look for the hint of something that could stain his honor or that would make it possible to portray him as the general who was working on behalf of Marxism." Efforts were made to closely monitor his activities in Buenos Aires, and agents of the Chilean government expressed open or veiled criticism of him in Chile and elsewhere.
            
            These reasons weighed heavily in prompting General Prats and his wife to leave Argentina and move to some European country. Hence in July 1974 Sofia Cuthbert de Prats asked the Chilean consul general in Argentina for passports and said that they were going to travel to Brazil. Her passport had been withheld as she was leaving Chile, and General Prats', which was that of a government official, had expired. According to General Prats' family, the only ones who knew that they were planning a trip were those Chilean diplomatic officials.
            
            They did not obtain their passports. The official explanations, which can be read in the documents that the Commission has examined, do not give any credible reason for any refusal or delay. That is even more the case in view of the fact that the Chilean ambassador in Argentina sent the Chilean Foreign Ministry a telex to the effect that General Prats had received a death threat, with a request that it also be forwarded to the top army leadership. The threat was made in the form of a telephone call from someone with a Chilean accent "with a forced Argentinean accent," according to General Prats. The anonymous caller mentioned the trip to Brazil; relatives of the Prats say that they had mentioned this idea only to embassy officials. A friend of the Prats told the Chilean ambassador of this threat on September 4, 1974, and he immediately sent the telex. The Commission has verified all of this.
            
            Some weeks later, on September 30, 1974 as General Prats and his wife were about to park their car at its site on Calle Malabia, a bomb placed under the transmission was activated by remote control and exploded, killing them both instantaneously. This Commission has gathered a vast amount of information on this terrorist act that killed General Carlos Prats and his wife, Sofía Cuthbert. Specific people are mentioned in this information. Nevertheless, the Commission has held to its obligation not to directly identify alleged individual perpetrators, except in communications with the courts, where it is proper to do so, as explained earlier in this report. In this case, adhering to that norm means that the account will be more complex, but such a procedure is absolutely necessary if each part of this report is to remain faithful to the Commission's decision.
            
            Information on the Prats case includes the following: study of the file of the criminal process that is being prepared on these events in Argentina; study of the file prepared when the Argentinean government asked the United States government to extradite to Argentina the former DINA agent mentioned below; study of various other relevant legal cases in United States courts; statements by witnesses and expert testimony on the car bomb that killed General Prats and his wife in comparison with the car bomb explosion in Washington D.C. in September 1976 that killed Orlando Letelier and Ronnie Moffit; public and private documents such as statements by witnesses, including statements made confidentially to this Commission, in Chile and elsewhere about trips of DINA agents insofar as such trips are relevant to this case; other actions of the DINA in Chile and elsewhere; communications and statements by DINA agents on such activities outside the country, and specifically on the Prats case; statements and other efforts by the Chilean government with regard to these activities in general and aspects that are relevant to the Prats case in particular.
            
            Having weighed this evidence, the Commission has come to the honest conviction that General Prats and his wife Sofía Cuthbert were killed in violation of their human rights by a terrorist action for which agents of the Chilean government-who may reasonably be presumed to have belonged to the DINA-were responsible. In coming to this conclusion, the Commission has borne in mind the following:
            
            
            • The judicial investigation carried out by the federal judge in Argentina, involving two officials who belonged to the DINA. On April 11, 1983 preventive detention was ordered for one of these DINA agents, and an order was given to ask the United States government to extradite him, since he was responsible in principle for aggravated homicide in conjunction with the use of a false passport. This agent who is a U.S. citizen, sometimes used a false U.S. passport, under the name of "Kenneth Enyart." On May 15, 1989 in that same case the Argentinean legal system ordered that a second DINA agent be charged and arrested for his participation in this double murder. This person, who was a Chilean citizen, was living in Argentina at that time. There is abundant proof that he was carrying out important tasks for the DINA in Buenos Aires.
              
              
            • In 1978 in a United States court the DINA agent who sometimes travelled under the name of Kenneth Enyart pleaded guilty to the charge of placing the bomb that killed Orlando Letelier and Ronnie Moffit. This same agent came to Buenos Aires under the name of Kenneth Enyart some weeks before the assassination attempt and left Argentina for Uruguay a few hours afterward, that is, on September 30, 1974, according to reliable proof. There is reliable proof that he entered Chile on October 1. There is also proof that the DINA agent mentioned above who lived in Buenos Aires also left Argentina that same day.
              
              
            • The agent who used the passport with the name of Kenneth Enyart was expelled from Chile on April 8, 1978 at the request of the United States government for his involvement in the murder of Orlando Letelier and Ronnie Moffit, which took place there. With regard to what Chilean and United States officials and their legal representatives did in connection with this expulsion and the various legal efforts and trials that took place in the United States since that time and until very recently, the following facts are clear:
              
              
            • Testimony by witnesses whom this Commission regards as trustworthy indicates that shortly before this DINA agent was expelled from Chile, representatives of the Chilean government asked the United States government to send them a letter formalizing their request to have him expelled. The Chilean representatives asked that the letter should include among other accusations that he had entered Chile under a false U.S. passport with the name Kenneth Enyart; it also expressly asked that the letter not mention that he had used that same passport to enter other countries.
              
              
            • On April 7, 1978 the Chilean government signed an agreement with the district attorney of the District of Columbia in the United States restricting the use that could be made of information obtained in investigating the Letelier case with regard to actions of Chilean citizens in the United States. That agreement, along with the agreement by which the aforementioned DINA agent pleaded guilty to a charge in the Letelier case were then interpreted scrupulously on various occasions in United States courts in the sense that severe prohibitions or restrictions were placed on the questions that could be posed to this agent on various matters, including the Prats case.
              
              
            • It is clear from legal memoranda and court files that this DINA agent was so concerned about possible questions on the Prats case during the investigation or court actions in the United States that should that happen he was prepared to take the Fifth Amendment, which in the U.S. Constitution enables one to refuse to answer a question on the grounds that it may be self-incriminating.
              
              
            • The Commission was able to examine the sworn courtroom testimony of a U.S. citizen, from which it can clearly be inferred that this DINA agent had confessed to him that he had been involved in the killing of Prats and his wife.
              
              
            • The method used in both the Prats and Letelier cases was to place a bomb on a similar part of the victims' cars. It has also been proven that the DINA had begun to work in Buenos Aires in 1974 before this murder attempt, and that, as has been noted, one of its agents returned from Buenos Aires to Chile hours after the murder of these two people.
              
              
            • Finally, the Commission has not been able to formulate a plausible hypothesis on the motive that someone other than agents of the Chilean government might have had for killing Carlos Prats and Sofía Cuthbert nor has it found any evidence of such motivation. On the other hand, a plausible hypothesis of motivation can be formulated on the basis of the actions of such agents of the Chilean government both in Chile and elsewhere, particularly in Argentina and in the United States; it is also possible that they were worried that General Prats' influence on the Chilean political scene might reach unmanageable proportions. The Commission emphasizes that this last observation is intended only to shed more light on matters, and that its conviction is grounded on the combination of factors previously set forth.
              
              
            The murder of Orlando LETELIER DEL SOLAR and Ronnie MOFFIT
            
            On September 21, 1976, Orlando Letelier del Solar and Ronnie Moffit were killed in Washington D.C., when a bomb placed under their automobile exploded. Ronnie Moffit's husband, Michael Moffit, who was also in the car, escaped without injury.
            
            Orlando Letelier, 44, had been ambassador to the United States for the Allende government. He had also served that government as foreign minister and minister of defense. He was serving in the latter post on September 11, 1973. Orlando Letelier was arrested that same day at his office in the ministry of defense. He was held imprisoned for a long period of time, first at the Tacna Regiment, and then at the Military Academy. He was then taken to the Dawson Island prison camp for eleven months. Next he was held for a time in the Air Force War Academy basement, until he was finally transferred to the Ritoque prison camp. He was then released and went into exile.
            
            He first travelled to Venezuela and then to the United States, where he worked at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington D.C. During that period he also returned to his work within the Socialist party. He played a very important role within the party and in opposing the Chilean government outside the country. Shortly before his death, the Chilean government stripped him of his Chilean citizenship. Ronnie Moffit, 25, was a U.S. citizen and a colleague at the Institute for Policy Studies.
            
            In the investigation into these events by the U.S. justice system, three of those persons involved pleaded guilty. They all stated that DINA agents were involved in the planning as well as the execution of the murder. The highest officials of the agency were involved in preparing the crime, and they entrusted its execution to one of their agents who had previously been assigned other jobs outside the country. After an initial unsuccessful attempt to obtain false U.S. passports in Paraguay, they used false Chilean government passports issued by the Foreign Ministry.
            
            Two agents who had gone to the United States for this mission kept the victim-in principle only Letelier himself-under surveillance. In executing the crime, they were aided by members of a clandestine anti-Castro group in the United States, who provided help in both making and placing the car bomb. It was they who activated the remote control device that set off the explosion. According to the autopsy reports, Letelier died of bleeding caused by the loss of his lower extremities, and Moffit died of blood in her lungs, and a cut in her throat and right carotid artery.
            
            Once it was clear that Chilean agents had been involved in this terrorist action, there were a number of maneuvers in the country to prevent the crime from being solved. These included having people not involved report in response to the subpoenas presented by the U.S. government, and, according to witnesses, destroying testimony on who was responsible after it had been presented to the Chilean military prosecutor who was pursuing the investigation.
            
            The Commission has studied and weighed the abundant evidence on this case in Chile and elsewhere. This includes the documentation of case 192-78 in the Chilean military justice system which deals with falsifying passports and other crimes related to the Letelier case, as well as the court records and other documentation on the case in the United States in its various phases and levels. On its own the Commission has obtained a number of further statements relevant to the case.
            
            On these grounds, the Commission has come to the honest conviction that the human rights of Orlando Letelier and Ronnie Moffit were violated, and that they were victims of a terrorist act committed by agents of the Chilean government, namely DINA agents who planned this terrorist action and executed it with help from other persons.
            
            The BEAUSIRE case
            
            On November 2, 1974, Argentinean police arrested Guillermo Roberto BEAUSIRE ALONSO, as he was landing at Ezeiza airport in Buenos Aires on a flight from Chile. He had dual citizenship (British and Chilean), was studying economics, worked at the stock exchange in Santiago, and was not politically active. Both he and his family were being pursued by the DINA in an effort to get to his sister Mary Ann Beausire and Andrés Pascal Allende, her common-law husband. At that moment Guillermo Roberto Beausire's mother and other relatives were being held at the José Domingo Cañas DINA facility. She has stated that she heard her son's voice there four days after he was arrested. Many witnesses have testified before this Commission that they saw Guillermo Roberto Beausire during his captivity in Chile. He was held at the following detention sites: José Domingo Cañas, Villa Grimaldi, and La Venda Sexy (the Discotheque). He vanished from this last site on June 2, 1975. The Commission came to the conviction that Guillermo Beausire disappeared at the hands of the DINA in violation of his human rights. It also believes that his case illustrates the degree of collaboration existing between the DINA and Argentinean security services in late 1974.
            
            Repression against the MIR in Argentina
            
            Even before the March 1976 military coup in Argentina a high level of collaboration existed between the Chilean and Argentinean security services. The large number of messages sent indicated that the contacts between the External DINA in Buenos Aires and Santiago were intended not only for purposes of exchanging information, but for aiding in the seizure of Chilean activists. The documents the Commission was able to examine in connection with the cases of Jean Yves Claudet Fernández, Jorge Fuentes Alarcón, and others were very revealing.
            
            On November 1, 1975, security agents arrested Jean Yves CLAUDET FERNANDEZ, who had dual French and Chilean citizenship and was active in the MIR, at the Hotel Liberty in Buenos Aires. He had been judicially processed in Chile after September 11, 1973. After a short period of exile in France he was now in Argentina, where he was actively involved in reorganizing the MIR and doing important work on the organization's intelligence team.
            
            The Commission came to the conviction that those who abducted him were DINA members acting on their own or in coordination with Argentinean security agents. It learned that the DINA sent a number of items such as photographs to help its agents in Buenos Aires locate Jean Claudet. The arrest of a MIR courier nicknamed "Daniel" provided the security agency with the information it needed to locate Claudet in the hotel in Buenos Aires. The Commission is convinced that Claudet's disappearance was the work of government agents who thus violated his human rights. On the basis of the unmistakable references made by a DINA agent in Argentina in written statements that the Commission was able to examine, it believes that there are serious reasons for presuming that Jean Ives Claudet was executed in Argentina and that the DINA was involved.
            
            On May 16, 1975, Jorge Isaac FUENTES ALARCON crossed the border between Argentina and Paraguay on a bus. Sitting next to him was Amílcar Santucho, brother of the top leader of the ERP (Revolutionary People's Army) in Argentina. The Paraguayan police arrested them both and took them to Asunción. The documents clearly indicate that the Chilean intelligence services were very interested in capturing Jorge Fuentes, a sociologist, because he was working as a MIR courier in the Southern Cone and was directly connected to Edgardo Enríquez and Jean Claudet in setting up the Revolutionary Coordinating Body. This was a kind of common effort involving various movements throughout the area that advocated armed insurgency. The Chilean agents were so interested in Jorge Fuentes that they had him transferred from Asunción to Villa Grimaldi in Santiago. Many witnesses have testified that Jorge Fuentes arrived with scabies all over his body, and was in poor condition from being tortured. The evidence indicates that various agencies were involved in capturing this MIR leader: the Argentinean intelligence services provided information on Jorge Fuentes' false passport, the U.S. embassy staff in Buenos Aires kept the investigative police in Chile advised of the results of his interrogation, and the Paraguayan police allowed him to be transferred secretly. Many witnesses have provided consistent testimony on the fact that Jorge Fuentes was held at Villa Grimaldi. He was treated for his scabies while being tortured and subjected to degrading treatment. The Commission is convinced that his disappearance was the work of government agents who thus violated his human rights.
            
            On April 10, 1976, around sundown, Edgardo ENRIQUEZ ESPINOZA, the number three MIR figure and brother of the secretary general who by this time was dead [Miguel Enríquez], was arrested as he left a meeting of the Revolutionary Coordinating Body in Buenos Aires. At the same time the Argentinean federal police, working directly with agents from the DINA foreign department, also arrested a young Brazilian woman, Regina Marcondes, who is also disappeared, and a number of other Chileans who belonged to the MIR. Edgardo Enríquez was transferred to the Argentinean concentration camps El Olimpo, Campo de Mayo and the Navy Mechanic School, near Buenos Aires.
            
            Although Chilean authorities have emphatically denied that Edgardo Enríquez was arrested, the Commission, on the basis of testimony from trustworthy and serious witnesses, has come to the conclusion that this leader, who was under the protection of the UNHCR [United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] was taken from the Argentinean prison camps to Villa Grimaldi in Santiago. To further corroborate that conviction, it may be noted that the Commission was able to examine a confidential report from the DINA to its external branch in Buenos Aires dated December 23, 1975, which notes that at this time, four months before his seizure, the DINA had the MIR leader and a number of his fellow workers surrounded and ordered its agents to "transfer him to Chile after capturing him." The Commission received testimony from another witness that a telex had been sent to advise that the mission had been completed. The Commission is convinced that his disappearance was the work of government agents who thus violated his human rights.
            
            In July of 1976, Patricio BIEDMA SCHADEWALDT, the last MIR leader connected to the Revolutionary Coordinating Body whom the security agencies had detected, was arrested. Patricio Biedma was a sociologist who was Argentinean in nationality but had made his home in Chile since 1968. Because he was being pursued for political reasons in Chile after September 11, 1973, he returned to Argentina. He remained active within the Chilean MIR, however, and was working alongside its top leaders.
            
            It has been established that Patricio Biedma was arrested in a house-to-house sweep in Buenos Aires in July 1976. He was taken to several sites, including Automotores Orletti, which belonged to the SIDE, a security agency with which the DINA had close ties. A member of the Chilean military interrogated Patricio Biedma there, according to the testimony of a number of Argentinean prisoners. Biedma's fate is probably connected to that of Edgardo Enríquez and Jorge Fuentes. While imprisoned, Patricio Biedma told a witness that he was worried that he was going to be taken to Chile.
            
            In the light of these and other documents provided to it, the Commission came to the moral conviction that Patricio Biedma was in fact abducted by agents who acted under the protection of Argentinean officials. It is reasonable to assume that after the closing of the Automotores Orletti site in mid-1976 he could have been handed over to the DINA agents who were in Buenos Aires. The Commission is convinced that his disappearance was the work of government agents who thus violated his human rights.
            
            Repression against Socialists
            
            After the March 1976 coup in Argentina, Chilean security services and Argentinean paramilitary and military groups worked together more systematically in carrying out abductions and disappearances. The Commission examined such collaboration in the disappearance of three activists of the Socialist party who were exiled in Mendoza.
            
            On April 3, 1976, Luis MUÑOZ VELASQUEZ, former regional secretary of the Socialist party in San Bernardo and candidate for alderman, Juan Humberto HERNANDEZ ZASPE, former president of the Federation of Students of Industry and Technology, and Manuel Jesús TAMAYO MARTINEZ, a sociologist and Socialist leader who was working closely with members of the party central committee and whose role was to be a liaison between Carlos Lorca and Ricardo Lagos (who are now disappeared) and another faction within the party, were arrested together with other Chileans on the streets of Mendoza. These three men were friends. They had come to Argentina in 1974 from Chile where they were being pursued for political reasons. They were all working at the Modernflood company in Mendoza and were in charge of reorganizing a Socialist Coordinating Committee. They were also involved in activities of what was called the Socialist party "Commission of Consensus." A number of eyewitnesses have testified that the Argentinean federal police and DINA agents worked together in this operation. Witnesses have said that the three prisoners were taken by land from Mendoza to Villa Grimaldi in late April 1976. The Commission believes that the three Socialists disappeared in Chile while they were in the hands of their captors, who were DINA agents, and that their human rights were violated.
            
            On July 27, 1976, Luis Enrique ELGUETA DIAZ was arrested together with his common-law wife and her sister twenty-five days after they arrived in Argentina. Both of the women were of Argentinean nationality. He had taken refuge there after he was expelled from the University of Chile music department due to his known MIR involvement in Santiago. Before leaving he told a friend the address of a relative at whose house he would be staying in Buenos Aires. His friend, Sergio Fuenzalida was arrested in Santiago by DINA agents on June 28, 1976, along with six other people, all of whom are still disappeared. The Commission came to the conviction that Elgueta, who was being energetically pursued in Chile after the DINA operation that wiped out his friends' group in Santiago, was turned over to DINA agents in Buenos Aires. The Commission is convinced that his disappearance was the work of government agents who thus violated his human rights.
            
            On May 23, 1977, Humberto CORDANO LOPEZ, a nurse and member of the Communist party who had gone into exile in Comodoro Rivadavia after September 11, 1973, was arrested. Reliable and consistent witnesses have stated that he was arrested that day near the Hotel Céntrico in Comodoro Rivadavia. Humberto Cordano belonged to the Argentinean Committee for Solidarity with Chile in that province and had worked on behalf of Chilean prisoners. Hence DINA agents were known to be following him. From testimony by witnesses and other evidence, it can be deduced that a Chilean DINA collaborator who was assigned to spotting Chilean refugees in that border province informed on Humberto Cordano. The Commission came to the conviction that government agents were responsible for the human rights violation he suffered, namely being abducted and then disappearing.
            
            On May 16, 1977, the Chilean-Swiss student Alexei Vladimir JACCARD SIEGLER was arrested in Buenos Aires. He had arrived in Argentina the previous day and was due to leave for Chile the following day. According to documentation provided to the Commission, Alexei Jaccard was carrying money destined for Chile. Ricardo Ignacio RAMIREZ HERRERA, who was in charge of the organization and finances of the Chilean Communist party in Buenos Aires, and Héctor Heraldo VELASQUEZ MARDONES, another Chilean Communist, were arrested in the same operation. In a single day the Chilean and Argentinean agents captured three Chilean citizens and five Argentineans who were members of the Chile Solidarity Committee in Argentina. These latter were providing housing for the Chileans. All eight are still disappeared.
            
            The Commission came to the conviction that Alexei Jaccard had been arrested on a public thoroughfare and taken to Argentinean federal police facility. There he was interrogated and taken to the Navy Mechanic School in Buenos Aires. The active role played by the DINA and the Chilean government in this case begins with the unlawful arrest of three people on foreign soil with the complicity of an Argentine security services and continues all the way to the supplying of false information to Swiss diplomats who were looking for one of their citizens.
            
            The Chilean international police provided the Argentinean Foreign Ministry with false information claiming that Ricardo Ramirez had made trips in 1977 and 1983. The Argentinean courts had requested the information. Another report that the police sent this Commission, which is in line with the facts, indicates that his only trip was from Santiago to Germany in March 1976, when he left as a political exile with the aim of living in Hungary.
            
            In light of this and other evidence, the Commission was able to prove that after the arrest of these three Chilean Communists in Buenos Aires, Chilean and Argentinean security agencies fired a barrage of false documents and misinformation in order to cover up for one another against the pressure of the Swiss government which was insisting on learning what had happened to one of its citizens who was in transit. Therefore, the Commission believes that Ricardo Ramírez and Héctor Velásquez, as well as Alexei Jaccard, suffered human rights violations in a foreign country and that agents of the Chilean government were involved in those violations.
            
            On July 2, 1975, in Bahía Blanca, Argentina, a group of armed civilians abducted Víctor Eduardo OLIVA TRONCOSO, a MIR activist who was exiled in Argentina under the protection of the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). That same day the body of this 22-year-old student was found with 35 bullet wounds. It was identified by a UNHCR representative and a relative.
            
            Weighing the evidence specific to this case, and taking into account the context of proven DINA actions in Argentina at this time, the Commission came to the conviction that the DINA was involved in the violent death of Víctor Oliva, even if its agents may not have been the material authors of his murder. The method of execution fits the pattern of operation of the Argentinean extremist group the Triple A, which worked in coordination or collaboration with the DINA. The Commission also believes that it is very likely that this murder was part of a DINA disinformation maneuver. The most widely known episodes of that maneuver occurred shortly after the killing of Víctor Eduardo Oliva (the "Colombo" case and the "list of 119" mentioned earlier). It was probably also intended to intimidate Chilean left activists who were living in Argentina.
            
            
         2. Cases in which it cannot be said that a Chilean agency was involved in the events
            
            The Commission examined a number of cases in which the human rights of Chileans were violated in Argentina in which it cannot come to the conviction that agents of the Chilean government were involved. The circumstances in which these people were living, the fact that the Chilean political situation was the major reason why they left the country, and the proven collaboration between groups and agencies in Argentina with Chilean government agents, provide the background for the Commission's decision to study such cases and mention them, so as to provide a complete picture of the truth, its antecedents and circumstances, as it was enjoined to do. However, the Commission is not thereby stating that the Chilean government or its agents were responsible for the specific events recounted here. Such persons are nonetheless being declared to be victims of the situation of political violence in Chile, because of the way in which events in Chilean political life were influential in placing them in such a dangerous situation, as well as for other reasons already discussed.
            
            g.2.1) Anti-refugee actions
            
            

            Chileans who had been pursued after September 11, 1973 felt in danger even after taking refuge in Argentina. As political tension was mounting in that country-and was to culminate with the March 24, 1976 coup-paramilitary groups, security groups or groups directly connected to the federal police were being formed.
            
            In 1975 all trace was lost of Leandro LLANCALEO CALFUQUEN, a farmer and member of the Communist party who was the secretary of the union in Puerto Domínguez and who had taken up legal residence in Mendoza, Argentina in 1974. In Chile he had been pursued after September 11, 1973. In 1975 his family lost contact with him, even though previously he had communicated regularly. The Commission was unable to come to the moral conviction that agents of the Chilean government were responsible for the disappearance of Leandro Llancaleo. Nevertheless, given all the circumstances and his political history, the Commission was able to come to the conclusion that Leandro Llancaleo underwent forced disappearance in Argentina within this general political context.
            
            On January 24, 1975, Sergio Eduardo MONTENEGRO GODOY, a former government employee who was an active member of a left group (which his relatives were unable to specify), was killed. He was held at the National Stadium after September 11, 1973. After he was released, certain civilians repeatedly visited him at his home. In March 1974 he went to Argentina as a political refugee under United Nations protection. With money provided by the U.N., he and two other exiles set up a grocery store in Buenos Aires. On that day two men shot Sergio Montenegro at his business, but left without taking anything. The Commission has come to the conviction that Sergio Montenegro was killed in violation of his human rights within the context previously described. However, it is not in a position to state that agents of the Chilean government were responsible.
            
            In July 1976, all contact with Miguel Iván ORELLANA CASTRO, 27, a MIR activist who had been exiled in Cuba, ceased. He disappeared as he was en route to Buenos Aires to a political meeting after he secretly entered the country. Given the context in which Miguel Orellana was arrested and the connections between the security agencies of both countries, this Commission decided that he is to be regarded as having suffered a grave human rights violation in a foreign country, but cannot state whether Chilean agents were involved in the events.
            
            On September 24, 1976, Rachel Elizabeth VENEGAS ILLANES, a governess who was active in the MIR, was arrested in Buenos Aires. There has been no further information about her. She had been tried by the military prosecutor's office in Victoria and sentenced to a long period of house arrest, and then left Chile. In Buenos Aires a few days before her arrest, she received a visa to go to Holland. The Commission has come to the conviction that the arrest of Rachel Venegas was a human rights violation which took place in the context described above. However, it cannot state that agents of the Chilean government were responsible.
            
            On April 6, 1977, the former aeronautical director of the Chilean Air Force, Jorge SAGAUTA HERRERA, 51, was arrested by Argentinean security forces at a friend's house in Buenos Aires. When in the course of the raid he was found to be carrying a list of Chilean political prisoners the agents took him away and made him disappear. The Commission has come to the conviction that his case was a human rights violation which took place within the context described above; however, there is no proof that agents of the Chilean government were responsible.
            
            

            g.2.2) Actions against Argentinean-Chilean married couples
            
            

            On April 15, 1976, Frida Elena LASCHAN MELLADO, a Chilean who was married to Miguel Angel ATANASIU JARA, an Argentinean, and their newborn son, Pablo ATANASIU LASCHAN, were arrested in Buenos Aires. Both parents were students and MIR activists. This young couple had left Chile in the post-September 11, 1973 period, after Frida Laschan, a CORA employee in Lautaro, was arrested by police in that city and put on trial by the military prosecutor's office. Both were afraid and sensed that they were under surveillance in Argentina. The Commission is convinced that this couple and their child underwent forced disappearance in Argentina in violation of their human rights in the context described above. However, it cannot state beyond all possibility of error that agents of the Chilean government were responsible.
            
            In the early morning of July 16, 1976, members of the Argentinean army arrested Guillermo TAMBURINI and María Cecilia MAGNET FERRERO, in their apartment on Calle Córdova in Buenos Aires. He was a physician of Argentinean nationality and had fled the post-September 11, 1973 repression. She was a Chilean sociologist who was active in the MAPU and came to Buenos Aires in late 1973. This couple often told their friends that they felt they were being pursued. Guillermo Tamburini was hit by a bullet during the arrest. In light of the evidence it has studied, the Commission judged that Guillermo Tamburini and María Cecilia Magnet disappeared in the context already described in violation of their human rights, and that Argentinean government agents were involved. It does not have the evidence that would enable it to say that agents of the Chilean government were responsible.
            
            On January 10, 1977, José Luis APPEL DE LA CRUZ was abducted by a group of armed civilians on a public thoroughfare in the city of Cipolletti in the province of Neuquén, Argentina, before the eyes of his wife, Carmen Angélica DELARD CABEZAS, and their daughter. Carmen Delard disappeared from the police station in the city when she went to file a complaint on the disappearance of her husband. A week later, on January 17, her sister Gloria Ximena DELARD CABEZAS was arrested at her home in Buenos Aires along with her husband Roberto CRISTI MELERO, and their two sons. Gloria Delard was pregnant with her third child. The patrol of federal police agents took them to the Navy Mechanic School, and they then disappeared. The two sisters, Carmen and Gloria Delard, and their husbands were students and MIR activists at the University of Concepción. Since they were being pursued in Chile after September 11, 1973, they accepted the offer of a family friend, a former army colonel, to help them cross the border, and they went to live in Neuquén and Buenos Aires.
            
            After they were arrested, the grandparents located the children from both marriages at various orphanages. The only information about the Gloria Delard's third child came in the form of unconfirmed reports that it was born while she was being held prisoner; her parents were not able to locate it. The Commission has come to the conviction that both couples were subjected to forced disappearance in violation of their human rights in the context already described. However there is not enough evidence to state that agents of the Chilean government were involved.
            
            On May 19, 1977, Oscar Lautaro HUERAVILO SAAVEDRA, 23, a Chilean office worker who was not known to be politically active, was arrested in Buenos Aires along with his Argentinean wife, Mirta Mónica ALONSO, who was six months pregnant. The child was born in prison and was later reclaimed by the grandmother. The couple disappeared in violation of their human rights in the context described above. There is no proof that Chilean agents were involved.
            
            On May 19, 1977, José Liberio POBLETE ROA, a member of the "Christians for Socialism" community, was arrested with his Argentinean wife, Claudia POBLETE HLACZIK, and their eight-month-old daughter. The couple and their daughter disappeared. Witnesses have said that they were held at the El Banco and El Olimpo prison sites in Buenos Aires. All trace of them was lost in mid-1979. The Commission came to the conviction that their captors violated their human rights. However, there is no proof that Chilean agents were involved in what happened.
            
            On May 29, 1977, the Chilean couple, Matilde PESSA MOIS and Jacobo STOULMAN BOERTNIK, who were not politically involved and had no political ties, were arrested as their flight landed in Buenos Aires from Santiago and before they went through the international police checkpoint. The couple was later registered at the Hotel Winston Palace in Buenos Aires, which at that time was used by the Argentinean secret services. The Commission is convinced that their human rights were violated. Their case, however, does not fit into the context described above, since they were not politically active. The Commission verified that the DINA was aware of this case, but it does not have grounds for attributing this disappearance to agents of the Chilean government.
            
            

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Posted by USIP Library on: October 4 2002
Source: Report of the Chilean National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation
(Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1993), vol. II/II, Part Three, Chapter Two (A.2.e), 599-620.
Note: Digitized and posted by permission of the University of Notre Dame Press, February 22, 2000.