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.
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[edit] Events of the case
At 8 AM of July 2, 1986, she was part of a small group of people that were setting up a barricade in the Los Nogales neighborhood, in the municipality of Estacion Central area. That day was a day of national protest against the military dictatorship. The group was carrying 5 old tires, a molotov cocktail and a gallon of gasoline. They were intercepted by an army patrol that was clearing barricades in the area of General Velasquez Avenue. All escaped except for her and Rodrigo Rojas DeNegri, a young photographer. The patrol, under the command of Lieutenant Pedro Fernández Dittus, was composed of 3 officers, 5 petty officers, and 17 soldiers.
There are two versions for the succeding events: according to the official version of the military patrol as Quintana and DeNegri were arrested, some of the molotov cocktails they were carrying broke and exploded, setting them on fire accidentally. The opposing version (of Quintana, the only survivor) accuses that both of them were severely beaten by military personnel, and later soaked with gasoline and set afire.
Both parties agree on that after both of the youngsters were in flames and unconscious, patrol members wrapped them in blankets, loaded them into a military vehicle and drove them to an isolated road in the outskirts of Santiago, over 20 kilometers away. There, in an irrigation ditch, they were dumped and left to die. Some agricultural workers found them and notified the police, who then took them to a public hospital.
Quintana and Rojas were later moved to another hospital, but Rojas died four days later due to his injuries. Even though Carmen Gloria Quintana suffered second- and third-degree burns that covered 62 per cent of her body, many broken teeth, and teetered between life and death for weeks, she survived. Quintana underwent a long medical treatment in Chile and Canada, but still sustains disfiguring scars as a result of her burns.
[edit] Aftermath
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 (about U$500,000) in compensatory damages.
