November 19 Marks 50 Years Since the Birth of Deputy Carlos Lorca Tobar: A Reflection on His Legacy

Original article: 19 de noviembre, cincuenta años después: Natalicio del Diputado Carlos Lorca Tobar DD.DD.

By Jaime Lorca Tobar, Director of Memory and Future

On November 19, 1944, Carlos Lorca Tobar was born, the leading figure of the Socialist Youth and the youth organizations of the Popular Unity during President Allende’s regime. Following the military coup, he joined the antifascist resistance without hesitation, becoming a target for the regime and was kidnapped in June 1975 by the DINA along with the last leaders of the clandestine socialist organization and their contacts.

Despite his immense contributions, Carlos Lorca and other kidnapped socialists were never officially recognized as political prisoners. Witnesses recount that both Carlos and Exequiel Ponce, Ricardo Lagos, and their female contacts (Carolina Wiff, Michelle Peña, Mireya Rodríguez, along with nursing students Rosa Soliz and Sara Donoso) were brutally tortured in Villa Grimaldi in Peñalolén until the summer of 1976, when DINA transferred them to the notorious Colonia Dignidad, where they continued to endure inhuman, cruel, and degrading treatment.

Juan Muñoz Alarcón’s testimony (the hooded figure from the National Stadium) presented before the Archdiocesan Solidarity Vicariate indicates that by mid-1977, both Deputy Lorca and the highest leader of the clandestine Socialism, port leader Exequiel Ponce Vicencio, were imprisoned in the underground dungeons of that Nazi enclave, in dire conditions; some, according to Muñoz Alarcón, were in a state of brain death.

Subsequently, it became known that the detained disappeared were murdered, buried, then exhumed in Colonia Dignidad, where DINA’s henchmen operated. Their bodies were incinerated, their bones dissolved, and ground into ashes, which were ultimately discarded into the river running through Colonia Dignidad, the Perquilauquen River.

At the time of his assassination, Deputy Carlos Lorca was about to turn 33 years old. His remains, like those of other socialist leaders, were never found and will never receive a dignified burial, as he and his fellow leaders were brilliant young fighters for Democracy and Socialism. Today, fifty years after these crimes, we face a situation where the right, particularly the far-right, is rising in Chile, with a solid parliamentary presence in both chambers and reportedly confident that they will win the presidency through elections for the first time in Chile’s history.

Nostalgic for Pinochet’s dictatorship, these groups have effectively disseminated a narrative built on sowing lies, hatred, and fear; manipulations that persuade many through their unmatched media power. Thus, the transition initiated with the victory of NO in 1988, achieved through popular mobilization and struggle, seems to be coming to an end, leaving no accountability for the perpetrators of Carlos Lorca’s assassination. His remains were never found, nor will they be, and perhaps a memorial site at Colonia Dignidad, where so many suffered abuse, torture, and murder, will not be established. These will be part of the deficits of this half-hearted transition, «to the extent possible.»

The individuals seeking to regain power in March 2026 are the denialists of these horrific crimes, those who wish to grant amnesty or pardons to human rights violators incarcerated in Punta Peuco, and who have shown no signs of remorse or cooperation with the justice system in the search for over a thousand disappearances. They are the very same who claim that, under certain circumstances, they would repeat the barbarity, imposing a terrorist dictatorship.

It will soon be time to analyze how we have arrived at this point, to understand the root causes of the rise of fascist far-right, to then take the necessary measures to alter this authoritarian drift with the conscious will of the vast national majority. Immediately, we must exert all efforts to secure an electoral victory with Jeannette Jara on the upcoming Sunday, December 14.

Let us proceed with the same conviction, talent, commitment, and determination that Carlos Lorca dedicated to the workers’ cause, facing the dictatorship with clean hands, armed solely with his firm democratic and socialist beliefs, just as Salvador Allende did on September 11 from La Moneda.

By Jaime Lorca Tobar, Director of Memory and Future.-