The accused were held in preventive detention, a measure they must serve in one of the Carabineros detention centers determined by the police institution. Investigating judge Alejandro Solís Muñoz issued indictments in four cases of forcibly disappeared and political execution victims whose remains were found illegally buried in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery.

The magistrate charged seven retired members of the Carabineros de Chile for events that occurred in October 1973, which led to the disappearance of a 15-year-old minor and three adults—aged between 18 and 22—in the southeastern area of Santiago (current commune of Peñalolén).

Judge Solís indicted former members of the police unit Carlos Contreras Guzmán, Bernardo Pérez Arriagada, Juan Paredes Rodríguez, Pedro Herrera Mossuto, and José Tito Alveal for the abduction of the minor Pedro Pérez Godoy and the aggravated kidnapping of José Ramírez Díaz.

According to the evidence currently existing in the case, “Pedro Hugo Pérez Godoy, single, born on September 3, 1958, was 15 years, one month, and 22 days old on October 17, 1973, a primary school student with no political affiliation, whose residence was located at Manzana 10, Sitio 20, Villa Los Guindos in the commune of Ñuñoa; and José Adrián Ramírez Díaz, single, 20 years old, assistant at street markets, with no political affiliation, illiterate, member of a family of eleven siblings, residing at Manzana 17, Pasaje 152, house 6882, Villa Pedro Lagos in the commune of Peñalolén, were walking on a street near their homes on October 17, 1973, together with a friend, José Romilio Sepúlveda Merino. At the moment they reached the intersection of Los Orientales and Ictinos streets, in the commune of Ñuñoa, now Peñalolén, at approximately 3:00 PM, they were detained without any stated cause or any administrative or judicial order by Bernardo Pérez Arriagada and Carlos Contreras Guzmán, officers belonging to the 13th Carabineros Precinct of Ñuñoa, who were traveling in a gray vehicle and wearing civilian clothes. They were taken to the premises of said precinct but could not be admitted because the cells were full, for which reason they were transferred to the Retén Quilín, a unit dependent on the 13th Precinct. However, there is no record of the victims' entry into said police unit, but there is a record of the departure of Pedro Hugo Pérez Godoy, who was removed from the Retén along with José Ramírez at 1:00 AM, during the curfew, by Carabinero Bernardo Pérez Arriagada, to a red pickup truck parked outside the police facility where Carabineros Juan Paredes Rodríguez and the aforementioned Contreras Torres were waiting. The latter had received the order to accompany Pérez Arriagada in this procedure from Suboficial Mayor José Tito Alveal, who in turn was under the command of Herrera Mossuto. The young men were forced to climb into the back of the pickup truck. The truck, where José Ramírez Díaz and Pedro Hugo Pérez Godoy remained deprived of their liberty, was driven from the Retén to the grounds of the Viña Cousiño Macul, where the vehicle stopped and the detainees were made to get out and were forced to walk to the banks of the San Carlos canal. It was at this site that, from a few meters away, they were shot with firearms, as a result of which the multiple wounds received caused their deaths; immediately, their bodies were thrown into the canal's current, a maneuver that, according to witness Sepúlveda, had been suggested from the very moment of the detention—which had no reason to be carried out—by Corporal Contreras: 'Let’s kill them and throw them into the canal!' Nevertheless, the victims' remains were found illegally buried in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery and, due to the lack of accurate scientific methods at the time, could not be correctly identified in the proceedings held at the 22nd Criminal Court; indeed, although some of the recovered skeletal remains were attributed to the young Pérez Godoy, it was finally confirmed through DNA genetic testing that they belonged to another person, and as for Ramírez Díaz, the identification of his remains is still pending. Consequently, the death of neither of the detainees has been legally and reliably confirmed; we only know that those deprived of their liberty have not made contact with their relatives, nor carried out administrative procedures before State agencies, without registering any entries or exits from the country,” the ruling states. Meanwhile, for the aggravated homicides of Hernán Peña Catalán and Luis Vergara González, Judge Alejandro Solís indicted former police officers Juan Veloso Ortiz, Francisco Contreras Torres, and Pedro Herrera Mossuto. Regarding this case, the magistrate has managed to determine that: “On October 15, 1973, Luis Armando Vergara González, married, father of one child, was 22 years old, a laborer, with no political affiliation, and his residence was located at Villa Lautaro, Manzana E, Sitio 18, Población Lo Hermida in the commune of Ñuñoa, when he was detained in its vicinity at approximately 9:15 PM, as he was apprehended without legal cause by Carabineros officers belonging to the 13th Precinct of Los Guindos in Ñuñoa, Francisco Contreras Torres and Manuel Veloso Ortiz, who were traveling in a red pickup truck that had been illicitly requisitioned from Miriam Contreras Bell, personal secretary to former President Salvador Allende. Immediately, the captors, together with the detainee, went to the home of Hernán Manuel Peña Catalán, married, father of two children, 20 years old, who worked as a driver, with no political affiliation whatsoever. Although his residence was located at Villa El Duraznal, Manzana 7, Sitio 5, Población Lo Hermida in the commune of Ñuñoa, he could not be found by the police at that location. However, after a search carried out in the vicinity of his home, Peña Catalán was detained and, together with Vergara González, was taken to the premises of the aforementioned Precinct.” Both victims were definitively identified by DNA testing performed at the Legal Medical Service after 2003. The accused were held in preventive detention, a measure they must serve in one of the Carabineros detention centers determined by the police institution. Furthermore, Judge Solís determined that: “Given the significance of the statements provided by Francisco Fernando Contreras Torres (on October 31, 2003, from pp. 658 to 660 of Volume II, Case File 15.607); Luis Arturo Mora Vera (pp. 880 to 881, dated April 21, 2004, Case File 15.607); Bernardo Segundo Pérez Arriagada (pp. 202 to 203 verso, dated September 9, 2003, and pp. 878 to 880, dated November 23, 2010, both Case File 9.731); Juan Gregorio Paredes Rodríguez (p. 294, dated May 17, 2004, and p. 236, dated January 5, 2004, both from Case File 9.731); Carlos Alfredo Contreras Guzmán (pp. 883 to 885, dated November 24, 2010, p. 567, dated March 7, 1980, and p. 557, dated December 10, 1979, all from Case File 9.731); Pedro Alejandro Lorenzo Mossuto (p. 709, dated November 13, 2003, and p. 881, dated November 23, 2010, both from Case File 9.731); Juan Manuel Veloso Ortiz (p. 1059, dated August 18, 2006, from Case File 15.607) and the confrontation proceedings on pp. 283, 284 (without prejudice to 'exhorting them to tell the truth' in a new statement), pp. 269, 304, 305, 306, 329, 727 of Case File 9.731 and 839 of Case File 15.607, let an authorized photocopy of these be made and kept in a Separate File, in custody.” Likewise, it is ordered: “Without prejudice to what has been resolved, continue the investigation regarding the repressive situation that affected Sergio Alberto Gajardo Hidalgo during the same period in which the illicit acts that are the subject of this resolution were committed.”

Source: elmostrador.cl, December 7, 2012