VICENTE ISRAEL GARCIA RAMIREZ
Vicente Israel García Ramírez was 19 years' old at the time of his arrest and subsequent "disappearance". In 1995 his mother expressed the following:
"Eighteen years ago, on 30 April 1977, my beloved son Vicente Israel García Ramírez aged 19 was detained and ''disappeared'' by agents of the state, the DINA. I never imagined that it would be possible to let a mother and family wait for so many long years without knowing his fate, without knowing where his remains were left ...On the 18th anniversary of his "disappearance", I cannot help but express my pain and my impotence. It seems that with each passing day, the pain becomes greater and the sense of impotence increases, because such disdain, insensitivity and silent complicity is beyond comprehension ... I wish to know where my beloved son Vicente is, where all the young ''disappeared'' are. I demand that my right to truth and justice are respected. I ask do not forget, because my son and all our children deserve forever our respect and our remembrance".(41)
Vicente García Ramírez, a student who was a member of the Socialist Party, was arrested at his home with his wife Karin Reimer Carrasco by members of the DINA at about 8.30am on 30 April 1977. The two were blindfolded and taken to a DINA detention centre believed to be in the Calle Borgoño. According to Karin Reimer Carrasco, Vicente was put in a separate cell and tortured. Another relative who had also been detained, reported hearing Vicente in the next cell groaning and with apparent respiratory difficulties. The following day, she heard his captors offering him breakfast on condition that he "talked". The relatives were released on 3 May 1977.
Recursos de amparo submitted on his behalf by his mother and his wife in May were rejected. In August the case was sent to the 2nd Criminal Court (Segundo Juzgado del Crimen) in Santiago for further investigation. In May 1978, a judge's decision to close the case on the basis of the amnesty law was revoked a couple of months later by by the Santiago Appeals Court. In September 1978 the court accepted a request from the family to question an acquaintance of Vicente García's - a member of the army - about a car owned by Vicente in which the two had been driving three days before his arrest and from which papers belonging to the Socialist Party had subsequently gone missing. Relatives informed the court that the car had been requisitioned by the DINA. Ten months later, the soldier testified before the court that the vehicle indeed belonged to Vicente García but is reported to have said that he had no recollection of who they had visited shortly before Vicente García's arrest nor was he able to say anything about the papers.
In 1979, the case was once again suspended while the following year, the appeals court once again revoked the order. In 1980, relatives informed the court that a car fitting the description of Vicente García's had been seen in the Calle Borgoño parked opposite a centre belonging to the security police, the CNI (Central Nacional de Informaciones).
In August 1980, a criminal complaint for abduction was added to the case. The member of the army was again called to testify and unlike the previous occasion, gave the name of the person, who was also in the army, that he and Vicente García had visited on 27 April 1977.
The following year, the order to suspend the case was once again revoked but in May 1982, an order to suspend the case was upheld by the appeals court.
(41) Hace 18 años, un 30 de abril de 1977, mi amado hijo Vicente Israel García Ramírez, de 19 años, fue detenido y hecho desaparecer por agentes de un organismo del Estado, la DINA. Nunca imaginé que se podría mantener a una madre y a una familia por tan largos años sin saber de su destino, sin saber dónde dejaron sus restos ...
Cuando se cumplen 18 años de su desaparición, no puedo dejar de expresar mi dolor y mi impotencia. Pareciera ser que cada día que pasa el dolor se torna más presente y la impotencia aumenta, porque es incomprensible tanto desdén, insensibilidad y cómplice silencio Anhelo saber dónde está mi querido hijo Vicente, dónde están los jóvenes desaparecidos. Exijo que mi derecho a la verdad y a la justicia sean respetados. Pido no olvidar, porque mi hijo y todos los hijos nuestros merecen por siempre nuestro respeto y recuerdo".
Source; Amnesty International – Document: AI Index: AMR 22/014/2001 dated 10 December 2001 – Titled ; CHILE - Testament to suffering and courage: the long quest for justice and truth