On December 24, 1973, a group of people who were circulating on the El Ala Bridge saw several bodies on the river bank. It involved at least nine people who had clearly been murdered by the military dictatorship, highlighting the case of Patricio Weitzel, a watchmaker by trade, who had disappeared from his home in October of the same year, when he was arrested by the military. .
The time of his death is even known about Weitzel, since his watch stopped due to the bullet wounds that the body received.
For the families of all those who were shot and abandoned at the El Ala Bridge, the place became an object of worship and memory thanks to priests like José Luis Ysern, who every year held a mass on the site together with the relatives of all those who were found in that place. Over time, a Memorial built by the sculptor Sandra Santander was installed, with 17 metal rails that belonged to the original bridge, burned at the end of the 1970s so that no religious services of any kind could continue to be held there. . With this, for decades Portezuelo was separated from Chillán, until the nineties when the Minister of Public Works at the time, Ricardo Lagos, inaugurated a new viaduct.
Today, in addition to being a meeting and remembrance site, the El Ala Bridge Memorial will be a National Historic Monument thanks to the approval of the National Monuments Council of the initiative presented a few months ago. The news was released this Wednesday, after the meeting where the members approved the motion at the Palacio de La Moneda in Santiago. It is the first Site of Memory in the region to become a National Monument, and it occurs within the framework of what will be the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the military coup.
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The extraordinary session, where seven other declarations were also approved, was attended by Teresa Retamal Silva, coordinator of Human Rights of Ñuble, who thanked Monuments for the approval. “The fact of being here for us as relatives and former political prisoners is very exciting, we are very grateful to the different entities of the regions and of Santiago. Without empathy and the desire to do things, human rights organizations at the national level would not be here. For us, the declaration is a yearning for many years, because it is a memorial that is between two territories and we have never been able to protect it. Thank you for listening to us and also for wanting to preserve memory, because that is also part of the repair of our relatives, children, grandchildren, husbands and brothers.
Through the same statement, the Seremi de las Culturas, Scarlet Hidalgo (also present at the extraordinary session), indicated that “it fills us with emotion to be a privileged witness of a symbolic reparation action by the State of Chile for the victims of the civic-military dictatorship, through the recognition of the Puente El Ala memorial as the first site of memory declared for the Ñuble Region. The recognition of the horrors experienced 50 years ago, is reflected in this site as a place of reflection and respect for life, thought and also care for democracy. Embrace with great affection the victims and relatives of those who have been murdered, detained, disappeared, and politically tortured in the Ñuble region, because they are the ones who have kept the memory during these 50 years. So that never again.”
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At the El Ala Bridge Memorial, they added Atacama, with the Regiment No. 23 of Copiapó, and Arica and Parinacota, with the former Arica Prison. The other recognized facilities are the CNI building in Talca, the Ancud Police Station, the grave of the La Serena Cemetery and the Pisagua Prison Camp.
