Jacqueline Paulette Drouilly Yurich and Marcelo Saline Eytel

The names of my daughter and son-in-law can be found and resonate in numerous countries in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and the United Nations… but one has to publicly declare, together with hundreds of others, ‘This will never happen again in Chile.’

Jacqueline Paulette Drouilly Yurich and her husband Marcelo Saline Eytel were kidnapped in 1974. Norma Yurich Costagliola has struggled to learn what happened to her 25-year old daughter and her son-in-law. Norma and her husband came from the city of Temuco to have lunch with the couple in Santiago five days before the couple disappeared.

“On Wednesday, October 30, 1974, close to midnight, trucks with men dressed as civilians arrived, asking for Marcelo (my son-in-law). Jacqueline told them that he was not there but would come soon, and that she was his wife. Then they began to question her, and abruptly made their way up to the 2nd floor, assaulting her and committing all kinds of atrocities in order find out the whereabouts of her husband.

“According to Maril Varela [Jacqueline and Marcelo's neighbor], these guys returned several times to the ground floor. After throwing my daughter, who barely had enough time to put on a wool coat and hat, into a truck, they told those in the house that she was being taken as a ‘hostage.’”

A family friend who visited Jacqueline’s apartment the next day learned what happened and warned Norma and her husband in Temuco, who traveled to Santiago and began their ‘lengthy and distressing pilgrimage.’ Someone advised them to go to the Committee for Peace, and then Norma and her husband spoke with Maril, only to learn that her son-in-law had been taken away by taxi the following day in front of his house. Norma remembers:

“We sent appeals for legal protection, denounced the kidnapping, and sent two to three page letters to many generals and figures of all the government branches. We had interviews with consuls, ambassadors, high commissioners. Over the years, we made several visits a day to the National Prisoners Service, asking and asking the Ministry of Defense.”

Sometimes the places of confinement told Norma they did not have her daughter, and told her to stop asking. At other times they claimed not to have any news, or advised her to go the National Prisoners Service. Norma was not only concerned for her daughter and son-in-law, but for the unborn child she carried: Jacqueline was three months pregnant. Despite her search, Norma still does not know what happened to her grandchild.

“Today, the testimonies, the sworn declarations, and the witnesses are all over Chile and the world. The names of my daughter and son-in-law can be found and resonate in numerous countries in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and the United Nations… but one has to publicly declare, together with hundreds of others, ‘This will never happen again in Chile.’”

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Jacqueline Paulette Drouilly Yurich and Marcelo Saline Eytel