Amidst the orgy of crimes and violence unleashed following the coup d'État of September 1973, young Ecuadorians Felipe Campos Carrillo and Jimmy Torres Villalba met their deaths on Chilean soil. They were Baptist evangelicals.

They had no political affiliation. The former was studying Engineering and the latter Kinesiology. Both were at the Universidad de Concepción. They were 19 and 23 years old, respectively.

Chilevisión and CNN Chile provided new information regarding their murders after revealing confessions from José Florentino Fuentes Castro, a retired Carabineros sergeant convicted in the "Caso Degollados" (Degollados Case), in a conversation with another former officer.

Fuentes Castro participated in the detention of the two students. He stated: "Where the flagpoles were, we had those guys hanging there all night. And the guys didn't want to talk. And there was the bald guy who was a major.

That guy ordered those guys to be killed. And do you know where we took them? To the river mouth." The dialogue specifies that they are talking about Alejandro Cárcamo: "At the School, we called Cárcamo the butcher truck."

The young men were taken in a caravan to the river mouth, where they were put to death. "We were in the Sicar (Carabineros Intelligence Service), we were the ones who took them there. With Manuel Alfaro Contreras." In the judicial investigation, the only person convicted so far has been the head of the Sicar, Colonel Sergio Arévalos Cid, but this evidence identifies others involved and confirms the order to execute the detainees.

In the audio, laughter can be heard amidst the account of how the riddled bodies of the students were found. Fuentes commented: "Some fishermen found them the next day and they were tied up like that, instead of handcuffs, they were tied with Carabineros shirt sleeves, and the guys had a money receipt in their wallets." He added: "I know who was there.

It was almost all the lackeys. The ones I'm telling you about. Arriagada, Prieto. We never wanted to talk. Never."

In 1997, I learned of the case of the two students while collaborating with an initiative by human rights organizations in Chile and Ecuador to file a criminal complaint in the Supreme Court of that country against Augusto Pinochet, who was traveling there to participate in a meeting of Army chiefs of the Americas. The former dictator was still serving as Commander-in-Chief.

The action was presented by a group of 21 prominent figures from Ecuador, such as former Vice President of the Republic León Roldós Aguilera and painter Oswaldo Guayasamín. The lawsuit, based on four cases, included the executions of Torres and Campos. The purpose was to achieve Pinochet's arrest. On that occasion, he managed to escape.

In Quito, the general told the press that the young men "were possibly into something, I don't know (...) Unfortunately, in these cases, the just pay for the sinners"...

He concluded: "What explanation do you want me to give? That I ask for forgiveness, as some say?"

THE COVER-UP OF THE DOUBLE CRIME

The context was the persecution unleashed against foreigners who were in Chile, under the accusation that a "Marxist guerrilla army" existed, composed of thousands of people from different parts of Latin America.

For example, an editorial in "El Mercurio" maintained on September 28, 1973: "Over the last three years, extremist and terrorist elements from the continent found refuge, protection, and help for their activities in this country," which included "militancy in national Marxist parties and the consequent interference in internal politics" and "the organization and support of clandestine organizations in their countries of origin." It maintained: "Nearly 13,000 Latin American extremists remained in Chile during the last months."

During the early hours of Friday, September 21, according to the edition of "La Tercera" the following day, "two extremists riddled with bullets" were found in the Concepción area. They were foreigners.

The note indicated that "the mysterious discovery of two corpses riddled with bullets has the local police on edge (sic). The discovery was made by Carabineros personnel (...) when they were carrying out a patrol in the vicinity of the Bío Bío river mouth (sic).

The subjects, unknown until now, are young." Their bodies showed "several bullet impacts in different parts" of their bodies. But, it clarified, "according to the police, these are by no means holes produced by military projectiles." Furthermore, "an official Carabineros spokesperson did not rule out that it could be a vendetta by left-wing extremists, due to the way the murder was carried out." It concluded: "The uniformed police are working hard" to clarify "this singular case."

One detail: the date and circumstances provided by the newspaper regarding the discovery of the bodies were inaccurate: fisherman Gabriel Gaete found the bodies on September 20.

A little later, the morning paper was forced to rectify. "The case (...) changed its nature radically," it noted on September 28. The riddled young men were no longer "extremists," but students of Ecuadorian origin who had no connection to Chilean internal politics: Felipe Porfirio Campos Carrillo and Jimmy Freddy Torres Villalva.

The newspaper clarified that "none of these students was a militant of the MIR or any other extremist group (...) It is clear that they were not extremists."

However, the newspaper insisted on the existence of a connection to extremists, noting that the young men lived with some of those "elements" at the University and, therefore, they could have executed them "upon knowing they were not addicted to their ideas, and fearing they had heard more than was convenient." Thus, the note was titled: "Police search for murderers of two Ecuadorian students.

They were allegedly executed by extremists."

The reason for the "rectification" was evident in the same note: "The guardians of both were elements persecuted by the UP parties." They were Mario Olavarría and Joel Salamanca, who "endorsed what had already been said by the doctor of the Legal Medical Institute, Dr. Behm, who knew them." They were referring to forensic doctor Francisco Behn Kun, an academic at the Universidad de Concepción.

Olavarría and Salamanca told "La Tercera" that both young men "went on September 11 to present themselves at their country's consulate, where the representative recommended they go to the Carabineros, advice that was heeded by the students, which earned them the congratulations of the police (...) Afterward, they only saw them lying on the cold slab of the Morgue."

Indeed, a key fact to disprove that they were left-wing extremists was the anti-socialist political affiliation of the young men's guardians. Engineer Mario Olavarría Aranguren, for example, was then the director of the School of Engineering and the Area of Physical and Mathematical Sciences at the Universidad de Concepción, and was a member of the National Party.

After the coup d'État, he was appointed Academic Vice-Rector by the delegate rector (appointed by the dictatorship), retired Navy Captain Guillermo González Bastidas. His son, Mario Olavarría Rodríguez, is currently the Mayor of Colina representing the UDI, a position he has held uninterruptedly since the year 2000, following a prosperous political career that began at the Jaime Guzmán Foundation.

The wake for the young men in Concepción was held on October 27, 1973, amidst the obvious shock of their classmates. The Concepción newspaper "Crónica" described: "Two coffins, one black and one brown, with three girls and as many young men standing guard of honor, contain the remains of Felipe and Jimmy.

Students who arrived from Ecuador in search of a destiny, which was tragically cut short by authors who remain in anonymity."

After adding that the authors of the double homicide still remained in impunity, the tabloid asked: "Will the case be clarified? When? These are questions that, at least for now, remain unanswered."

They were waked at the Temple of the First Baptist Church of Concepción, where Campos worshipped, occasionally accompanied by his friend and compatriot Torres. Pastor Luis Mussiett Canales, now deceased, received threats not to perform the services at the temple, but he did not desist.

Campos also participated in the University Biblical Group, which issued a statement repudiating the crime, as recalled by Josué Fonseca, today Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Concepción, who was the last to see the young man alive and later worked intensely on the cause of justice and reparation in the case.

On October 6, the General Director of Carabineros, César Mendoza Durán, visited the area, showing himself "very satisfied with the calm situation it is experiencing." He noted: "From what the institution has informed me and from what I was able to see, I am really very happy with the situation of tranquility that this province is experiencing." However, he warned that "there is a latent danger of revenge, since there were more than 13,000 foreign extremists and a large quantity of armaments in Chile" ("La Tercera," October 7, 1973).

Almost immediately after, on October 9, "La Tercera" reported that the case had been clarified, following the capture of the "regional secretary of the MIR, lawyer Pedro Henríquez Barra," who had allegedly hidden in a large house in the sector called Manquimávida, on the banks of the Bío Bío river, "to evade police action aimed at locating him, since his capture was ordered to all units in the country." The detention was achieved as a result of a neighbor's tip.

It added that the arrest allowed for the capture of five other MIR members, "who were involved in the dark plans that were going to be developed throughout the country on September 17." It was referring to "Plan Z," a crude invention of the emerging dictatorship to try to justify the overthrow of the constitutional government, which maintained that the left was preparing a self-coup through the assassination of all its opponents.

"La Tercera" pointed out that that "extremist" group had the mission of "directing the actions aimed at killing numerous people in the Villa San Pedro sector."

The note "revealed" that "the six individuals confessed their participation in the murder of the Ecuadorian students Freddy Torres and Felipe Campos (...) Even one of them, José Pérez, admitted to having fired a Super Batán .22 caliber machine gun, which took the lives of the young men." The crime, it specified, "was carried out in revenge for the deaths of the left."

Certainly, it was all a lie. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission certified in 1990 that the students were held at the Fourth Carabineros Precinct of Concepción and that they "were executed by State agents."

The judicial investigation managed to prove that between September 16 and 19, 1973, Felipe Porfirio Campos Carrillo and Freddy Jimmy Torres Villalba were detained, "without a competent judicial or administrative order," by Carabineros officials who took them to the facilities of the Fourth Precinct of Concepción.

From there, they were taken on the night of September 19 by a large police caravan that left from the guard post on Calle Salas, and transported to the south river mouth sector of the Bío Bío river, to be executed with multiple bullet impacts. The bodies were found in Boca Sur, split in half and bloodless, which showed that the homicide had been perpetrated elsewhere.

Why did they murder them? They were university students, they were foreigners, and they even looked Cuban. That is why they were detained, tortured at the precinct, and then at the river mouth, where they kept them hanging all night.

Then they riddled them with bullets. The murderers were satisfied: they had won a new battle against "atheistic communism." They also thought that the waters would hide their crime, but their bodies were found.

Jimmy's brother, Kenny Torres, recounted on the "Memoria Viva" portal that the young man arrived in Chile at the end of March 1973, after obtaining the "Professor Salvador Gálvez Rojas Scholarship," granted by the Universidad de Concepción to the best student in Latin America.

He had achieved recognition as the best graduate of the Adolfo María Astudillo School in Babahoyo. At the time of leaving for Chile, he was in his first year at the Faculty of Engineering at the Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral. "For Mario Olavarría, Jimmy's guardian, his pupil, of modest origin, was an introspective and very studious boy (...) He only dedicated himself to studying, as he fervently wished to finish his degree," he commented.

Regarding his compatriot, Felipe Campos, also without militancy, he recalled that "he was a graduate of the Eloy Alfaro School in the city of Guayaquil. His parents, Felipe Campos Robles and Ruth Carrillo, came from modest homes." He added that "he was admitted by 'special merit' of his brother José Campos, a brilliant fourth-year medical student.

Dr. Behm gave him this opportunity." His guardian was the Superintendent of the company Armco S.A., Joel Salamanca. He also had outstanding work as a student.

The young men lived in a university residence, but—he stressed—"they never intervened in any activity that was not strictly student-related (...) completely alien to the political issues that were shaking the Republic of Chile."

Specifying details already known in 1973, he pointed out that Salamanca told him that the young men went to the Ecuadorian Consulate to ask about their status as foreigners. "The consul was not there and his wife recommended they present themselves to the Carabineros.

They did so." Later, the executive read a news story about the discovery of two bodies floating in the Bío Bío river, in which their clothes were described: "Salamanca shuddered: his pupil and Jimmy were wearing the same clothing." At the morgue, Dr.

Behm confirmed that the corpses "presented identical wounds: bullet perforations, multiple trauma in different parts of the body, signs of torture with cigarette butts. In addition, they showed traces of torment with electric shocks."

But the cruelty knew no limits. On October 6, the remains of the young men arrived in Ecuador. The relatives then learned that they would only be able to recover their ashes. "The executioners of my brother were not only satisfied with detaining him, torturing him, and killing him, but they incinerated him," he denounced.

The tyranny, indeed, did not allow their bodies to be repatriated, so they had to be incinerated for their restitution.

"They fell under the treacherous bullets of rifles (...) drunk on the blood of innocent victims," he sentenced.

By Víctor Osorio. The author is a journalist and executive director of the Progresa Foundation.

Source: cronicadigital.cl September 11, 2020

Mocking remarks of a dictator's executioner: "We killed every guy we caught"

The retired Carabineros sergeant who was involved in acts that turned him into an executioner, José Florentino Fuentes Castro, was convicted for acts committed during the dictatorship. The infamous "Caso Degollados" has him as the main protagonist of a story that CHV showed hours ago, with a controversial audio of his from that time.

In the aforementioned, he is heard in a conversation with another officer. The former prisoner of Punta Peuco, who was granted parole in 2016, reviews his life as a former agent of the Carabineros Intelligence Service (Sicar).

Due to its relevance, the record of the man who turned out to be one of the authors of the murder of Manuel Parada, Santiago Nattino, and Manuel Guerrero was handed over to the justice system.

"We grabbed these guys. We killed every guy we caught. When the guys were killed, the remorse starts. So we would have a drink, but very little, to get drunk, to escape, to get high, whatever, any bullshit.

Yes, I don't feel remorse, I think what I did was fair," Fuentes indicated. In addition, he illustrated the participation of the Carabineros and highlighted that the then-Lieutenant Cádiz Stewart, who ended up as a general, was protected by instructions from his general father.

"But he doesn't know, I know him because of that. 'Lolo' had instructions from my general not to let him participate in bullshit. And later, with the guys wounded, they don't have to talk. So, it's ugly when you tell someone... damn, a wounded guy and finishing him off. That's like cowardice, but the thing had to be done," he added to his remarks.

At the same time, he highlighted: "Where the flagpoles were, we had those guys hanging there all night. And the guys didn't want to talk. And there was the bald guy who was a major. That guy ordered those guys to be killed. Do you know where we took them? To the river mouth. We used to call Cárcamo 'the butcher truck' at the School."

"We were in the Sicar, we were the ones who took them there. With Manuel Alfaro Contreras," he asserted. In the audio, laughter can be heard, as if it were a daily situation, but it corresponds to a raw account of how the two bodies of the riddled Ecuadorians were found. "I know who was there.

It was almost all the lackeys. The ones I'm telling you about. Arriagada, Prieto. We never wanted to talk. Never," concluded Fuentes.

Source: ilustrado.cl, September 1, 2020

The macabre audio of a former Carabineros officer that revealed unpublished details of human rights violations committed during the dictatorship

Former Carabineros sergeant José Florentino Fuentes Castro recounted without remorse his past as a Sicar agent and the crimes he committed in the town of Netulme in the 80s and in the "Ecuadorians Case" in Concepción in 1973.

A revealing audio was released during the last day regarding the human rights violations committed during the dictatorship. The record corresponds to the former Carabineros sergeant, José Florentino Fuentes Castro, convicted in the so-called "Caso Degollados."

In the audio, which was revealed by Chilevisión Noticias, Fuentes is heard talking to another retired Carabineros officer, telling him macabre details of his past as an agent of the Carabineros Intelligence Service (Sicar), and releasing unpublished information about crimes he committed in the town of Netulme in the 80s and in the Ecuadorians Case in Concepción in 1973.

Regarding the first of these, Fuentes recounts that at that time "we grabbed these guys. We killed every guy we caught. When the guys were killed, the remorse starts. So we would have a drink, but I very little, to get drunk, to escape, to get high, whatever, any bullshit."

Next, regarding these massacres carried out, he reflects with coldness that "I don't feel remorse, I think what I did was fair," adding that "with the guys wounded, they don't have to talk. So, it's ugly when you tell someone... damn, a wounded guy and finishing him off. That's like cowardice, but the thing had to be done."

Likewise, the former Carabineros officer gave details of the operation that ended the lives of Felipe Campos Carrillo (19) and Jimmy Torres Villalba (23), two students from the Universidad de Concepción of Ecuadorian origin who were murdered on September 17, 1973.

"Where the flagpoles were, we had those guys hanging there all night. And the guys didn't want to talk. And there was the bald guy who was a major. That guy ordered those guys to be killed. And do you know where we took them? To the river mouth (of the Bío Bío River)," recounts Fuentes about this case.

The former officer also mentions other Sicar personnel, such as Manuel Alfaro Contreras, who were allegedly involved in this crime for which only the former colonel, Sergio Arévalos Cid, is convicted, according to the cited media.

Finally, José Florentino Fuentes says that the two students, already dead, were found by "some fishermen the next day and they were tied up like that, instead of handcuffs, they were tied with Carabineros shirt sleeves and the guys, in their wallets, had a money receipt."

"We never wanted to talk. Never," he concludes.

Source: theclinic.cl, September 1, 2020