El Ciudadano
Original article: Dirigente sindical torturado en el Estadio Nacional tras el golpe: Corte ordena al Fisco pagar $50 millones
Union Leader Tortured at National Stadium After Coup: Court Orders State to Pay $50 Million
In a ruling that reinforces legal precedents regarding reparations for victims of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, the Eighth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals unanimously confirmed a compensation amount of $50,000,000 (fifty million pesos) that the Chilean State must pay to V.H.S.V., a union leader who was detained and tortured at the National Stadium following the 1973 coup.
The ruling, signed by judges Alejandro Rivera, Sandra Araya, and attorney Paola Herrera, states that the amount is exclusively for moral damages, dismissing any claims for other reparative benefits that the claimant may have previously received.
The events leading to the lawsuit date back to the initial and most brutal days of repression. V.H.S.V., born on October 12, 1945 and serving as a union leader at the time of the coup, was arrested on September 17, 1973. From that point, he began a harrowing journey through some of the most notorious detention and torture centers of Pinochet’s regime.
Tortured Under Dictatorship
According to judicial records, on September 17, 1973, the member of the Socialist Party was arrested without a warrant at his workplace, the state company Agencias Graham S.A.C. (formerly property of the social area of the Unidad Popular), where he was the head of personnel. He had worked there since 1967, previously serving as a delegate and president of the union. His arrest was carried out by Navy personnel ordered to the company by General Alberto Bachelet.
The events unfolded with extreme violence, as he was beaten and struck with rifle butts, then lifted off the ground by kicks while being restrained with his hands behind his back and his thumbs tied with wires.
He was then thrown into a truck and taken to the Ministry of Defense, where he was handed over to the Army. A colonel interrogated him, threatening him with a service pistol and warning: «If you try anything against me, I will kill you, understood?» Later, he was transferred by Carabineros to the National Stadium, where he remained until November 11, 1973.
During his time in this facility, he was isolated and under military control. His account describes systematic and widespread torture.
The ruling notes that detainees were called by loudspeakers to a red disc near the presidential stands. Torture sessions lasted entire days and included beatings with feet, fists, and rifle butts, mock executions, and electric shock.
The complainant stated that no one was safe from these episodes and that the daily wait for the call was excruciating in itself.
His transfer to the Chacabuco Concentration Camp occurred on November 11, 1973, under extreme conditions, as he reported being taken by bus to the dock in Valparaíso and loaded into the holds of the ship «Andalien,» where he remained for nearly a week without seeing the light of day. After disembarking in Antofagasta, he was transported by narrow-gauge train to the Chacabuco nitrate office in the middle of the desert.
Upon arrival, prisoners were stripped for inspection in a dirt courtyard.
In the concentration camp, he was designated as the «chief» of his group of 18 prisoners, responsible to the guards, a position he maintained throughout his stay under threat of punishment.
He recounted being subjected to psychological torture methods, such as low-flying Hawker Hunter planes from the Chilean Air Force at midday and the constant sound of a tank circling the camp at night, taking advantage of the desert’s silence.
By mid-February 1974, V.H.S.V. was transported along with other prisoners by truck to the FACH Cerro Moreno base in Antofagasta.
He was then loaded onto a military plane to Santiago and held overnight at Estadio Chile, which was also full of detainees, until he was finally released on February 17, 1974.
As a result of the physical and psychological torture he endured, V.H.S.V. reported suffering from depression, paranoia, sleep disorders, anxiety, and chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
This account, officially recorded in the Valech Commission, serves as a detailed testimony of illegal detention, systematic torture, confinement in multiple mass detention centers, and the severe long-term consequences suffered by a citizen due to his union and political activities during the civic-military dictatorship.
Indefinite Moral Damages
The Court of Appeals essentially confirmed the previous ruling of the 14th Civil Court of Santiago issued on October 24, 2024, but increased the compensation amount after thorough analysis. A key point of the decision is the categorical separation of this compensation for moral damages from any refurbishment pensions the claimant may have received under laws such as 19.992 (PRAIS), 19.234, 20.134, or 20.874.
«Given the reasoning in the twelfth consideration of the appealed ruling, it is inappropriate to state that the economic benefits received by the claimant under Laws No. 19.992, 19.234, 20.134, and 20.874 preclude the exercise of the action initiated in these proceedings, as such benefits have a distinct nature from the damage compensation requested, which determines not only the rejection of the comprehensive damage reparations exception but also prevents any attribution of the received money to the compensation for damages,» indicated the appellate tribunal.
In determining the compensation amount of $50 million, the Court explained that it took into account the severity of the proven facts and the permanent psychological harm they caused.
«Regarding the regulation of quantum, based on the assessment carried out by this Court of the narrated facts, as it has been established that the plaintiff has been recognized as the victim of a violation of his fundamental rights, the amount of compensation will be set by considering the time he was deprived of liberty and the psychological harm he demonstrated, thus concluding justly the granting of a replacement satisfaction that, prudently and equitably, based on the merit of the facts, amounts to $50,000,000,» the court argued.
The ruling also establishes the financial conditions of the compensation, ordering that the amount be adjusted according to inflation and accrue interest from the debtor’s default.
«As for the adjustments, these will proceed according to changes in the consumer price index from the date the ruling becomes final until the time of actual payment. Meanwhile, interest will apply from the time the debtor defaults until the date of actual payment,» it specified.
Legal Reparation for Union Leader Victim of the Dictatorship
In its conclusions, the appellate court resolved:
«I.- Confirming the appealed ruling of October 24, 2024, issued by the Fourteenth Civil Court of Santiago, stating the defendant must pay as compensation for moral damage the sum of $50,000,000 (fifty million pesos).
II.- The aforementioned amounts shall accrue adjustments according to the changes in the consumer price index from the date the ruling becomes final and standard interest from the point the debtor is in default until actual payment.»
This ruling, which is now final, marks another milestone in the long quest for justice and comprehensive reparations by victims of human rights violations during the civil-military dictatorship, highlighting that the moral damage caused by torture and political imprisonment is a debt that the State must address independently of any other reparative measures.
View the Ruling from the Court of Appeals
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