Alberto Gonzalez Albornoz
Obrero Agrícola CONAF — 41 years old.
Background
Alberto Gonzalez Albornoz
Obrero Agrícola CONAF — 41 years old.
Case summary
Alberto González Albornoz, a 41-year-old agricultural worker for CONAF with no political affiliation, was executed on October 7, 1973. He was one of the 18 victims of a massacre of peasants in the mountainous area of Mulchén, perpetrated by a patrol of Carabineros, military personnel, and civilians.
Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos[1]
Between October 5, 6, and October 7, 1973, 18 peasants from the area, none of whom had political affiliations, were executed at the mountain estates known as El Morro, Carmen y Maitenes, and Pemehue, located east of Mulchén.
A patrol of approximately thirty people, composed of carabineros, military personnel, and civilians from Mulchén, went to the aforementioned estates carrying a pre-prepared list of the individuals who were to be detained and subsequently executed.
The patrol, traveling on horseback, arrived at the El Morro estate on the afternoon of October 5. They proceeded to detain five peasants at their homes and led them to the banks of the Renaico River:
Juan de Dios LAUBRA BREVIS, 26 years old, agricultural worker.
Domingo SEPULVEDA CASTILLO, 29 years old, estate house servant.
Edmundo José VIDAL AEDO, 20 years old, agricultural worker.
Celsio Nicasio VIVANCO CARRASCO, 26 years old, agricultural worker.
José Florencio YAÑEZ DURAN, 34 years old, agricultural worker.
Witnesses heard gunshots. In the month of December, neighbors and family members found the bodies in the La Playita sector, bearing bullet wounds and with their hands tied behind their backs with wire.
The group of uniformed personnel and civilians continued upward until they reached the Carmen y Maitenes estate, where they detained eight peasants at their homes, took them to the main house, and beat them and forced them to beat one another:
Miguel del Carmen ALBORNOZ ACUÑA, 20 years old, agricultural worker.
Daniel Alfonso ALBORNOZ GONZALEZ, 28 years old, agricultural worker.
Alejandro ALBORNOZ GONZALEZ, 48 years old, agricultural worker.
Guillermo José ALBORNOZ GONZALEZ, 32 years old, agricultural worker.
Luis Alberto GODOY SANDOVAL, 23 years old, agricultural worker.
Florencio RUBILAR GUTIERREZ, 25 years old, agricultural worker.
José Liborio RUBILAR GUTIERREZ, 28 years old, agricultural worker.
José Lorenzo RUBILAR GUTIERREZ, 33 years old, agricultural worker.
Around 23:00 hours, witnesses heard bursts of machine-gun fire. The following day, members of the patrol buried seven bodies in a pit dug in a field near the houses, covering them with grass. That same day, October 7, they began their journey toward Pemehue, taking with them a detained and physically battered Guillermo Albornoz, whose body later appeared downstream in the Renaico River.
At the Pemehue estate, they again proceeded to detain five peasants at their homes:
Alberto ALBORNOZ GONZALEZ, 41 years old, agricultural worker.
Felidor Exequiel ALBORNOZ GONZALEZ, 33 years old, agricultural worker.
José Fernando GUTIERREZ ASCENCIO, 25 years old, agricultural worker.
Gerónimo Humberto SANDOVAL MEDINA, 22 years old, agricultural worker.
Juan de Dios ROA RIQUELME, 35 years old, agricultural worker.
During the night, repeated bursts of gunfire were heard. Family members later found their bodies with their hands tied, their faces destroyed, and numerous bullet wounds.
All of them were buried in the same places where they were found.
On November 21, 1979, a criminal complaint was filed in the Court of Mulchén, case file No. 20.595, for the crimes of trespassing, kidnapping, illegal coercion, bodily injury, and qualified homicide of 18 peasants from Mulchén.
The action was filed against the participants of the "patrol." The Illustrious Court of Appeals of Concepción appointed a Visiting Judge (Ministro en Visita) who proceeded to investigate the case.
After an exhaustive investigation, the Judge concluded that the patrol of military personnel, carabineros, and civilians who went to the aforementioned estates were the perpetrators of the victims' deaths and their subsequent burial or, in some cases, the disappearance of their bodies.
The bodies were illegally exhumed, presumably in the month of March 1979, before the judicial investigation was carried out; nevertheless, numerous forensic examinations were able to be performed to identify the corpses based on the remains that were left and because some of them were still buried.
The Judge declared himself incompetent to continue hearing the case and referred the files to the Military Prosecutor's Office of Concepción. On January 7, 1983, the Military Judge of the Third Military Court issued a definitive dismissal of the case and applied the amnesty law to the accused.
On December 18, 1983, the Court Martial annulled the application of the amnesty and changed the nature of the dismissal to temporary.
The evidence presented allows this Commission to form the conviction that the execution and subsequent concealment of the bodies of the 18 peasants from the El Morro, Carmen y Maitenes, and Pemehue estates constitutes a grave violation of human rights for which State agents and the civilians who participated with them are responsible.
Judicial Case Files[2]
Caso Episodio Mulchén José Fernando Gutiérrez Ascencio y otros
- Carlos Aldana
- 202-2018
- 20983-2020
- 30-2007
- Araucania
- Fundo Carmen Y Maitenes
- Hector Armando Guzman Saldana
- Jacob Del Carmen Ortiz Palma
- Jaime Garcia Zamorano
- Jaime Muller Aviles
- Jose Iturriaga Valenzuela
- Juan Carlos Balboa Ortega
- Juan De Dios Higueras Alvarez
- Julio Fuentes Chavarriga
- Julio Guillermo Humberto Reyes Garrido
- Luis Palacios Torres
- Osvaldo Enrique Diaz Diaz
References
- 1Museum of Memoryhttps://interactivos.museodelamemoria.cl/victims/?p=178
- 2