Gastón Lobos

Luis Gastón Lobos Barrientos (15 November 1926 – detained-disappeared, 5 October 1973) was a sitting parliamentarian who was detained and disappeared by the regime of Augusto Pinochet.

A member of the Radical Party of Chile, he had been elected deputy in March 1973 for the Twenty-first Departmental District, which included the then-departments of Temuco, Lautaro, Imperial, Pitrufquén, and Villarrica, Cautín Province, for the 1973–1977 term.

Biography A professional accountant, he joined the Radical Party of Chile in 1945, holding various positions within the organization.

Settled in the Araucanía region, he carried out various public activities, including serving as president of the Tourism Council of Temuco, president of the National Board of School Aid and Scholarships in Cautín, president of the Red Cross of Pitrufquén (1960–1961), Director of the 1st Fire Company of Pitrufquén and Superintendent of the Fire Department of that city, president of the Mapuche Credit Council of the State Bank of Chile, and councilor of the Industrial Development Board for Bíobío, Malleco, and Cautín.

President Salvador Allende appointed him Intendant (provincial governor) of Cautín Province, a position he held from November 18, 1970, until November 8, 1972, when he resigned to run as a candidate for deputy in the March 1973 elections.

He served as deputy until the coup d’état of September 11, 1973, when he was first detained on September 13 of that same year. This arrest was carried out by Carabineros of Pitrufquén, who transferred him to the Second Police Station of Temuco, where house arrest was ordered. Finally, on October 5, 1973, he was once again taken from his home by Carabineros, and his whereabouts have remained unknown since then.