Speaking at the Human Rights Seminar convened in early December by Army Commander in Chief Emilio Cheyre, Socialist Party leader Ricardo Nuñez commented that everyone shares a measure of responsibility for the consequences of the military dictatorship. Isabel Gallardo Moreno, whose father, brother, sister, sister in law and brother-in-law were cruelly tortured and killed by the dictatorship, takes issue with that position.

Since the public address by President Ricardo Lagos in which he presented the Report from the National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture, I feel the need to voice my opinion as direct family member of five persons who were executed by agents of the Pinochet dictatorship. Various politicians including Ricardo Nunez of the Socialist Party reacted to the Report with the allegation that the military coup of 1973 was inevitable and that we all share the blame for the unethical conduct of the military with their prisoners.

I insist that the victims have no share of guilt for the fate they endured. No one sought the abuses and gross mistreatment my family members suffered. I believe that the facts speak for themselves. Take, for example, the case of my own family, murdered between November 18 and 19, 1975.

Five and a half members of the Gallardo family died as a result of unspeakable torture in Villa Grimaldi. The baby my sister carried in her womb was also tortured and died with her. They were suddenly and violently arrested and taken to the Investigations police offices headed by Ernesto Baeza Michelsen. From there they were abducted, taken to an unknown location. Much later we learned they were transferred to the torture center run by the DINA, a place the Army called by the code name Commando Terranova (Villa Grimaldi).

Numerous surviving former prisoners were witnesses to the horrors my family suffered and has testified in court. However, the day after their arrest they were supposedly found dead as a result of an armed attack. Some communications media and the journalist Julio Lopez Blanco, in particular, reported that these "subversives" had attacked "forces of order" by spelunking down the rocky Rinconada de Maipu, a site occupied by the Army in those days.

You have to wonder where those "subversives" garnered the physical strength, the weapons and capability to attack the well armed, superior forces of the DINA in order to escape from Villa Grimaldi and reach the hills of Rinconada de Maipu. Anyone familiar with the geography of Santiago knows that even with the highway we have today it is rather complicated to traverse that distance.

All the more so when we consider who the alleged subversives were. They were the following persons:

-My father Alberto Gallardo Pacheco, 62 years of age, was a lathe operator by trade. He was afflicted by severely curved spine (scoliosis), which affected his breathing, as he could not keep his back straight long due to work-related injuries.

-My sister, Catalina Gallardo Moreno, 29 years old, was a Manpower Secretary. She was still breast-feeding her six-month old baby. Catalina had beautiful eyes, brimming with myriad dreams she hoped to fulfill and utopias she hoped to build.

-My sister in law Monica Pacheco Sanchez, 25 years old, was an English language teacher at a municipal school. She was three months pregnant. At the time of the military coup she had been 8 months pregnant, but lost that baby due to the emotional strain of those days

-My brother Roberto Gallardo Moreno, 25 years old, had recently completed mandatory military service and was witness to many unethical actions committed by the army. -And the following year, on October 20, 1976 my brother in law Juan Rolando Rodríguez Cordero was allegedly wounded in a false, armed confrontation on the street. DINA agents took him to a hospital, from which he left dead.

Today, 29 years after the murder of my family in torture, we are still waiting for a response from the courts in this case that has numerous witnesses who have generously testified regarding the martyrdom endured by my family.

What were the accusations against my family? No court proceedings or even the semblance of a trial was held before killing them. The Rettig Report confirmed that they were subjected to all kinds of torture and could not have a dignified burial. The bodies showed evident signs of torture. It hurts me especially that they plucked out her eyeballs leaving the sockets empty, because her eyes were of such brilliance and depth.

We have repeatedly denounced the men who tortured our family members. Their names in addition to those other lower-ranking officers have been heard in case after case of torture victims. They are:
Marcelo Moren Brito
Francisco Ferrer Lima
Miguel Krassnoff Marchenko
Manuel Contreras Sepulveda
Ernesto Baeza Michelsen

None of the perpetrators of these crimes has offered the slightest gesture of repentance for what their actions. Never have they explained what the victims did to deserve such punishment. On the contrary, during a cross examination between my mother and Baeza a few years ago, he told her that she was crazy and suggested that maybe her children and her husband never existed. In other words, it was a cynical mockery.

Today, I ask myself if with the evidence of these facts, will certain politicians still dare to say that "the victims asked for it..." and that our family seeks vengeance after all these 29 years.

Is it an act of vengeance to seek justice from the courts, Mr. Vidal? I have never heard my mother, who is now 79, in a vindictive spirit. Never during her long struggle for Truth and Justice have I heard her ask that the torturers be hung by the testicles as they did to my father. I have only heard my mother sigh and say, "If only someday the country will recognize that my husband and my children were neither criminals nor immoral people, and cleanse their names. That way I will be able to go and show them to those who pointed the finger at me and jeer."

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