Carmen Gloria Quintana
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Carmen Gloria Quintana Arancibia (born c. 1968) is a Chilean woman who was burned alive by an army patrol during a street demonstration against the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. She became a symbol for hope for democracy in Chile.
On the morning of July 2, 1986, a day of national protest against the military dictatorship, a military patrol commanded by Army captain Pedro Fernández Dittus intercepted a group of young people who were setting up a barricade[citation needed] in Los Nogales neighborhood, in the municipality of Estación Central in Santiago, Chile. All escaped except Quintana, an engineering student at the University of Santiago, Chile and photographer Rodrigo Rojas DeNegri.
There are two versions for the events that followed: According to the official version of the dictatorship, as they were arrested, some of the molotov cocktails they were carrying exploded, setting them on fire accidentally. Quintana's version argues that both were severely beaten by military personnel, and later soaked with gasoline and set afire. Both parties agree on that once Quintana and Rojas were in flames and unconscious, patrol members wrapped them in blankets and drove them to an isolated road in the outskirts of Santiago. Quintana and Rojas were taken to a hospital by local dwellers who found them, but Rojas died four days later due to his injuries. Quintana underwent a long medical treatment in Chile and Canada, but still sustains disfiguring scars as a result of her burns.
On January 3, 1991 a military court found Fernández Dittus guilty of negligence for failing to get medical attention for Rojas, but absolved him of any responsibility in the Quintana burning. In 1993 the Supreme Court sentenced Fernández Dittus to 600 days in prison for his responsibility in the burning death of Rojas DeNegri and the serious burns sustained by Quintana. In October 2000 a court ordered the government to pay Quintana 251.7 million pesos in compensatory damages.
