IACHR takes to Inter-American Court case concerning Chile about forced disappearance during the dictatorship and the failure to ensure redress

December 9, 2025

Washington, DC—The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) filed on September 24, 2025, an application before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Case 13,858, with regard to Chile. The case concerns the forced disappearance of Gustavo Guillermo Ramírez Calderón in the context of the military dictatorship, impunity regarding these events, and the failure to provide comprehensive reparation to his family.

The petition, taken to the IACHR in 2009, concerns Ramírez Calderón, a 20-year-old Socialist Party activist and member of the Chilean rebel group National Liberation Army, who was kidnapped in 1975 by officers of the intelligence service of the Carabineros (Chile’s national police) and taken to various clandestine detention facilities (SICAR, Cuatro Álamos, and Villa Grimaldi), where he was subjected to torture. Someone who was in detention with him said that he had heard Ramírez Calderón scream while he was being tortured and that he later heard that the young man had suffered a heart attack. Ramírez Calderón has been missing since then.

Although his family filed a writ of amparo in 1975, the authorities denied that he had ever been detained and the Santiago Court of Appeals denied the writ of amparo. The criminal case was transferred and placed under military jurisdiction, which closed the case and dismissed the charges in 1990. After democracy was restored, this became Case 2182-1998 on crimes committed in Villa Grimaldi. In 2014, the Supreme Court convicted six former intelligence service officers of aggravated kidnaping and granted financial compensation to the victim’s mother. The civil lawsuit filed by his sister, however, was definitively dismissed over the period 2002–2009, citing a statute of limitations.

In Merits Report 154/23, the IACHR noted that the components of forced disappearance had been fully established, and the State itself admitted this. The IACHR also found that there was sufficient evidence to conclude that Ramírez Calderón had been subjected to torture while in detention. The IACHR highlighted the fact that the criminal investigation had been transferred to military courts, where it had been inactive for a decade until the case was dismissed in application of the Amnesty Law, and noted that this had affected both efforts to solve the case and the search for the victim.

The IACHR further stressed that evidence of torture had not been investigated, that the application of the Amnesty Law and the statute of limitations in civil actions had led to impunity, and that military courts were not the courts of competent jurisdiction to handle this case. The IACHR noted that Chile is yet to classify forced disappearance as an autonomous crime, in keeping with the applicable inter-American standards, which entails that the State is still not complying with its obligations. Finally, the IACHR stressed the profound emotional and moral impact the victim’s family had suffered, given the drawn-out absence of truth and justice.

The IACHR therefore concluded that the State of Chile was liable for violations of the rights to juridical personality, life, personal integrity, personal liberty, a fair trial, and judicial protection held in Articles 3, 4.1, 5.1, 5.2, 7, 8.1, and 25.1 of the American Convention, in accordance with Articles 1.1 and 2 of that instrument. The IACHR further concluded that the State was liable for violations of Articles I and III of the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons and Articles 1, 6, and 8 of the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture.

The IACHR therefore asked the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to demand that the State take the following measures:

1. Provide comprehensive reparations for the human rights violations mentioned in the Merits Report, including both economic and non-economic damages, taking into consideration the compensation that has already been paid.
2. Enable effective judicial remedies for the victim’s family to be able to demand redress or pay direct compensation under the criteria established by the Inter-American Court in the case Órdenes Guerra et al. v. Chile, without prejudice to any administrative programs in place.
3. Provide any physical and mental healthcare necessary for the rehabilitation of the victim’s family, free of charge and in agreement with the beneficiaries.
4. Investigate Ramírez Calderón’s whereabouts, and identify his remains and hand them over to his family, if applicable.
5. Launch an ex-officio criminal investigation that is diligent and effective into the evidence of torture, to establish what happened and determine who may have been responsible for it.
6. Reform criminal law, in a timely manner, to ensure it is compatible with international standards concerning forced disappearance.

The IACHR is a principal and autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), whose mandate stems from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has the mandate to promote the observance and defense of human rights in the region and acts as an advisory body to the OAS on the matter. The IACHR is made up of seven independent members who are elected by the OAS General Assembly in their personal capacity, and do not represent their countries of origin or residence.

No. 257/25

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