The first cousin of DC Deputy Waldo Mora Longa was prosecuted yesterday afternoon as the perpetrator of homicides and aggravated kidnappings, crimes committed in September 1973 and March 1974, respectively, by Carabineros officers serving in Curacaví.

The individual is Gerardo Aravena Longa, who at that time served as a lieutenant at the local police station. Until a few years ago, he maintained a close relationship with his cousin and even worked at the radio station owned by the deputy.

Aravena Longa was detained and held incommunicado along with three other people last Wednesday, and remained in those conditions until yesterday, when special judge Daniel Calvo resolved his procedural status.

The former lieutenant was charged as the perpetrator of the homicides of three people executed at Cuesta Barriga and for the kidnappings of José Barrera Barrera and Segundo Gárate Torres. The former was a truck driver, union leader, and sympathizer of the Socialist Party; the latter was a militant of the Christian Left.

Despite having occurred at different times, the homicides and kidnappings are closely linked. The facts account for the premeditation with which the repressive agents of the military regime acted. The tragic story was reconstructed by Judge Calvo after the case reached his hands at the end of last year, following the reorganization by the Supreme Court of the cases being investigated by Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia.

According to the evidence included in the case file, José Barrera was detained at his home by hooded Carabineros and military personnel on the night of March 14, 1974, and was taken from there to an unknown destination.

This occurred six months after Barrera suffered a first detention, from which he emerged alive only because his captors did not realize that the burst of gunfire they had directed at him had not caused his death.

It happened that on September 14, 1973, a Carabineros patrol under the command of then-Lieutenant Aravena Longa took him from his house and transported him to the station, where six other people were also being held: Jorge Toro Toro, Jorge Yáñez, Justo Mendoza Santibáñez, Segundo Gárate Torres, Jaime Cabrera, and Enrique Venegas Santibáñez.

Barrera and the other detainees were taken from the station on the night of September 16, 1973, loaded into two vehicles, and driven to Cuesta Barriga, reports the website www.memoriaviva.cl. They were made to climb up to the remains of a house, and in what used to be the kitchen, they were placed with their backs to the wall while being blinded by flashlights shone in their faces.

Five Carabineros stood in front of them, led by Lieutenant Aravena Longa, who gave the order to fire. The detainees fell under the machine-gun fire, but three remained alive: Gárate, Venegas, and Barrera.

The first of them, in an agonizing state, complained, and the captors finished him off with more shots. After some time, Venegas and Barrera realized they had only been wounded in the legs and managed to escape after being abandoned by their attackers, who believed them dead.

They headed through the hills toward the Rinconada sector in Maipú, and after several days of walking, they managed to contact their families. José Barrera then moved to Huasco, to the house of some relatives, along with his spouse and children.

There, he found work and even used his own name without difficulty. After six months, he decided to return home, and his brother, Víctor, spoke with Rebeca Valdebenito, the secretary of the then-military ruler Augusto Pinochet.

The woman gave Víctor Barrera a letter to contact Army Colonel Francisco Saavedra at the Ministry of Defense. He, in turn, put Víctor Barrera in contact with the acting war auditor, FACH Commander Luis Marín, who took him to Talagante to discuss the case with a Carabineros major.

The conclusion was that Juan Barrera should present himself to formalize his claim. Barrera traveled to Santiago to resolve his situation and live without fear. He arrived in the capital with his family on March 10, 1974, and three days later presented himself to the Carabineros.

A major named Hernández, who was the contact, communicated by telephone with Lieutenant Aravena Longa in Curacaví. After that, he told the victim that there were no charges against him and that he should be at ease.

He arrived home around 8:30 p.m. that night. The next day he was to go to the local station, but at two in the morning on March 14, 1974, a contingent of Carabineros and military personnel, all hooded and heavily armed, burst into his house again.

Without showing an arrest warrant, they put him into a van and took him away in the direction of the police unit. Barrera's family made numerous efforts. As in many other cases of the forcibly disappeared, authorities of the time assured them that the situation would not affect the victim's physical integrity, but since that date, there has been no further news of him.

Of the five executed at Cuesta Barriga on September 16, 1973, the body of Nicolás Gárate was not found, nor was his death certified; like Barrera, he remains in the status of forcibly disappeared.

Source: El Mostrador, January 17, 2003

For those who splattered the homeland with blood: I ask for punishment

Around a hundred people gathered at 6:30 p.m. this Friday, May 28, at Parque Bustamante, near Plaza Italia, summoned by the Comisión Funa. The motive this time was to denounce the general manager of Radio Santiago, Gerardo Aravena Longa, at his workplace, located at Calle Triana No. 868, in the commune of Providencia, for his responsibility in human rights violations.

Two Carabineros buses, a water cannon vehicle, a "zorrillo" (tear gas vehicle), several patrol cars, and motorcyclists monitored the protesters. The demonstrators, as on other occasions, did not let themselves be intimidated and carried out their denunciation activity with total normalcy.

They gathered at the monument to the legendary guerrilla Manuel Rodríguez and marched about five blocks along Calle Providencia, shouting and handing out their flyers to passersby and neighbors. A poster board indicated the turn of the new target: "Gerardo Aravena Longa: Murderer." The denunciation According to the information provided by the Comisión Funa, Gerardo Alejandro Aravena Longa served as a Carabineros lieutenant in the town of Curacaví at the time of the coup d'état.

On September 14, 1973, together with a Carabineros patrol, he detained a group of social and union leaders from the area, taking them to Cuesta Barriga, where Segundo Gárate Torres, Jorge Toro, Jorge Yáñez, Justo Mendoza Santibáñez, Jaime Cabrera, Enrique Venegas Santibáñez, and José Barrera were executed by firing squad.

Segundo Gárate was left very badly wounded, and the then-Lieutenant Aravena Longa fired a shot into his head. José Barrera, a union leader and socialist sympathizer, miraculously survived the execution along with Enrique Venegas, hiding in the surrounding fields.

José Barrera moved to the town of Huasco, in the III Region, along with his wife and children, to the house of some relatives. After about six months, he decided to return home, for which his brother Víctor Barrera spoke with the secretary of Augusto Pinochet.

After several efforts, Barrera was summoned to appear before a Carabineros major named Hernández in the city of Talagante, presenting himself on March 13, 1974. Major Hernández communicated the fact to Aravena Longa, and that same night, José Barrera was kidnapped by a group of hooded uniformed men.

Since that day, he remains disappeared, as does the body of Segundo Gárate. On January 16, 2003, the then-minister with exclusive dedication to human rights cases, Daniel Calvo, prosecuted Gerardo Aravena Longa as the perpetrator of the crimes of "aggravated kidnapping" and "aggravated homicide" for the disappearance of José Barrera.

Despite this, the cousin of Waldo Mora Longa, a Christian Democrat (DC) deputy, remains free and occupying the position of general manager of Radio Santiago. During the Funa, a group of young people performed a dance in front of Radio Santiago while reciting Pablo Neruda's poem "The Enemies": "...For those who splattered the homeland with blood, I ask for punishment.

For the executioner who ordered this death, I ask for punishment. For the traitor who rose above the crime, I ask for punishment. For the one who gave the order of agony, I ask for punishment. For those who defended this crime, I ask for punishment...".

The protesters, despite the police deployment, shouted again and again: "If there is no justice, there is Funa." Curiously, no one appeared from Radio Santiago. At the end of the denunciation action, the Comisión Funa called for solidarity with the Chilean and Mapuche political prisoners fighting for their freedom.

Source: El Siglo, June 7, 2004

16-year prison sentences handed down to former military personnel for crimes at Cuesta Barriga

Ruling by visiting judge Joaquín Billard affects former Army Lieutenant Carlos Figueroa Silva and former Carabineros Colonel Gerardo Aravena Longa. Former Army Lieutenant Carlos Figueroa Silva and former Carabineros Colonel Gerardo Aravena Longa were sentenced to 16 years in prison as perpetrators of the crime of aggravated homicide against five opponents of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship at Cuesta Barriga, in Curacaví.

In his ruling, visiting judge Joaquín Billard establishes that the crimes took place between September 1973 and March 1974, when the military personnel kidnapped and executed by firing squad José Barrera Barrera, Segundo Gárate Torres, Jorge Toro Toro, Justo Mendoza Santibáñez, and Jorge Yáñez.

The judge also decreed compensation of $30 million, a sum that the State must pay to Víctor Barrera, brother of one of the victims, based on the moral damage the family has suffered, which "must be compensated and regulated," the ruling states.

The resolution was reached after "30 years of impunity," highlighted plaintiff lawyer Nelson Caucoto. "(The ruling) establishes justice; this is an emblematic case of the Curacaví area, where five residents of that sector were kidnapped and murdered," he added.

On September 14, 1973, a group of Carabineros detained the four victims, telling them they would be taken to the National Stadium, a situation that never occurred, as they were driven to "Cuesta Barriga," where they were executed by firing squad.

Despite the shots, Barrera was the only one who survived and managed to remain hidden for some months, after which he contacted his brother to tell him what had happened. The latter went to the Ministry of Defense to clarify the situation.

The authorities communicated with Colonel Aravena, who indicated that there were no charges against him, so he could go home in peace, which took place on the night of March 14, 1974. However, at two in the morning, while he was sleeping in his room, a group of uniformed men arrived at the property to detain him and take him to the Curacaví Carabineros station, where his trail was lost.

Source: El Mostrador, July 17, 2007

Seven years in prison for former Carabinero who ordered Cuesta Barriga massacre

Former Colonel Gerardo Aravena Longa (pictured) is the first cousin of former DC deputy Waldo Mora Longa. He led the firing squads of five people in that sector of the route between Santiago and Valparaíso.

One survived, but upon returning to Curacaví in 1974, the same officer took him from his house to execute him definitively. The Supreme Court sentenced former Carabineros Colonel Gerardo Aravena Longa to seven years in prison this Thursday for the firing squads that occurred at Cuesta Barriga in 1973 and the execution of a survivor in 1974.

In its ruling, the country's highest court reduced the 16-year prison sentence that visiting judge Joaquín Billard had handed down in 2007 against Aravena Longa, who was a lieutenant at the time of the events.

The sentence is for the aggravated homicides of Jorge Toro Toro, Justo Mendoza Yáñez, Jorge Yáñez, and Segundo Gárate Torres, which occurred on September 16, 1973, and of José Barrera Barrera, on March 14, 1974.

The five were detained at the Curacaví station, from where they were taken by a patrol of military and Carabineros who, it was supposed, would transfer them to the detention center installed at the National Stadium.

At Cuesta Barriga, they were forced to get off the truck in which they were being transported and were executed by firing squad by order of the then-Lieutenant Aravena Longa. Incredibly, José Barrera survived with some wounds in his legs.

Barrera hid in Huasco, but returned to Curacaví on March 13, 1974, where the Carabineros informed him that there were no charges against him. However, in the early hours of the following day, Barrera was taken from his home by a police patrol in charge of Aravena Longa and murdered.

The convicted man reached the rank of colonel and, after retiring, served as general manager of Radio Santiago, owned by his first cousin and former DC deputy, Waldo Mora Longa.

Source: La Nación, March 8, 2012

Minister Marianela Cifuentes sentences former Carabineros for homicide at Puente Esperanza in Padre Hurtado

The visiting minister sentenced Gerardo Alejandro Aravena Longa, Carabineros lieutenant and head of the Curacaví station at the time of the events, to effective prison terms of 3 years and 15 years and one day, as the perpetrator of the consummated crimes of simple kidnapping and aggravated homicide of Muñoz Rojas.

The minister in extraordinary visit for human rights violation cases of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, sentenced retired Carabineros members for their responsibility in the consummated crimes of simple kidnapping and homicide of Segundo Hernán Antonio Muñoz Rojas, illicit acts perpetrated in 1973 in the communes of Curacaví and Padre Hurtado.

In the ruling, Minister Cifuentes Alarcón sentenced Gerardo Alejandro Aravena Longa, Carabineros lieutenant and head of the Curacaví station at the time of the events, to effective prison terms of 3 years and 15 years and one day, as the perpetrator of the consummated crimes of simple kidnapping and aggravated homicide of Muñoz Rojas.

Meanwhile, former police officer Carlos Patricio Donoso Figueroa must serve 541 days and 5 years and one day of effective prison, as the perpetrator of the consummated crime of simple kidnapping and as an accomplice to the aggravated homicide, respectively.

In the case, the visiting minister sentenced Eduardo Matías Cabello Villena and Ciro del Carmen González Hernández to 541 days in prison, with the benefit of conditional remission of the sentence, as perpetrators only of the crime of simple kidnapping; and decreed the acquittal of César Valenzuela Sepúlveda for lack of participation in the crime of simple kidnapping, and acquitted Eduardo Matías Cabello Villena, Ciro del Carmen González Hernández, and César Valenzuela Sepúlveda of responsibility in the aggravated homicide.

Regarding civil matters, the ruling accepted the claim for compensation for damages filed, ordering the State of Chile to pay, as moral damages, the sums of $100,000,000 (one hundred million pesos) and $50,000,000 (fifty million pesos) to the mother and sister of the victim, respectively.

During the investigation stage of the case, Minister Cifuentes managed to establish the following facts: 1st That on October 11, 1973, during the night, Segundo Hernán Antonio Muñoz Rojas was detained, without legal basis, at his home, located in the Laura Allende camp in the commune of Curacaví, by Lieutenant Gerardo Alejandro Aravena Longa and personnel under his command, among them, Sergeants Eliseo Santander Ramírez, Manuel del Carmen Espinoza Aguilera, and Benjamín Seguel Ortiz—currently deceased—and Carabinero Ciro del Carmen González Hernández, all assigned to the Curacaví Carabineros station. 2nd That, subsequently, Muñoz Rojas was transported to the Curacaví Carabineros station, a police unit in charge of Lieutenant Gerardo Alejandro Aravena Longa, where he was kept locked up, without legal basis, until the early hours of October 14, 1973, a period during which he was subjected to physical abuse. 3rd That on October 14, 1973, in the early hours, Lieutenant Gerardo Alejandro Aravena Longa, in the company of 2nd Sergeant Benjamín Seguel Ortiz and police officer Carlos Patricio Donoso Figueroa, transported Muñoz Rojas from the aforementioned police unit to the Esperanza bridge, at Km 4 of route G 68, commune of Padre Hurtado, where Benjamín Seguel Ortiz fired at him, causing his body to fall into the riverbed. 4th That, subsequently, the victim's body was found in that place and, after being sent to the Legal Medical Service, it was determined that he died due to a gunshot wound that entered through the abdomen.

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl, March 29, 2019

Supreme Court sentences former Carabineros for crime against worker in Curacaví in 1973

The Supreme Court rejected the application of partial prescription and confirmed the conviction of four former members of the Carabineros for their responsibility in the simple kidnapping and aggravated homicide of the agricultural worker, Segundo Hernán Muñoz Rojas, 19 years old, committed in October 1973 in the commune of Curacaví. by Darío Núñez In the sentence (docket 33.452-2019), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, and lawyer (i) Diego Munita—accepted a cassation appeal filed by the plaintiffs, rejected the cassation filed by the convicted, and, in a replacement sentence, ratified the first-instance ruling that sentenced the former Carabineros officer, Gerardo Alejandro Aravena Longa, to 15 years in prison for his responsibility as a perpetrator in the aggravated homicide and three years in prison for his responsibility as a perpetrator in the kidnapping. Meanwhile, former Carabinero Carlos Patricio Donoso Figueroa must serve a sentence of 5 years and one day in prison as an accomplice to the homicide and 541 days in prison as an accomplice to the kidnapping. Finally, former Carabineros Eduardo Matías Cabello Villena and Ciro del Carmen González Hernández must serve a sentence of 541 days in prison as perpetrators of the simple kidnapping of the victim. The Supreme Court considered that there was an infringement by a Chamber of the San Miguel Court of Appeals in applying, in October 2019, partial prescription to reduce the sentence for Aravena Longa, as it omitted the nature of the crime against humanity that the offender had committed, on which the ruling of the first-instance minister, Marianela Cifuentes, had already pronounced itself. In this regard, the Supreme Court's resolution states: "in accordance with international human rights regulations contained mainly in the Geneva Conventions, prescription, total or gradual, is prevented regarding crimes committed in cases of armed conflicts without an international character. The same conclusion is reached by collating both the norms of the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons with those of the Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, since, in accordance with that regulation, gradual prescription has the same nature as total prescription." And it adds: "Because of this, this court takes into consideration that the estimation of gradual prescription regarding those responsible for the commission of crimes against humanity affects the principle of proportionality of the sentence, since the gravity of the acts perpetrated with the intervention of State agents determines that the response to the perpetrator of the transgression must be consistent with the affectation of the legal interest and the culpability with which they acted." In March 2019, the visiting minister for human rights cases, Marianela Cifuentes, issued a sentence in which she sentenced Aravena Longa, Donoso Figueroa, Cabello Villena, and González Hernández to the same sentences that the Supreme Court ruling now restores. Regarding this criminal act, Minister Cifuentes' investigation established that on October 11, 1973, during the night, Segundo Hernán Antonio Muñoz Rojas was detained, without legal basis, at his home, located in the Laura Allende camp in the commune of Curacaví, by Lieutenant Gerardo Alejandro Aravena Longa and personnel under his command, among them, Sergeants Elíseo Santander Ramírez, Manuel del Carmen Espinoza Aguilera, and Benjamín Seguel Ortiz—currently deceased—and Carabinero Ciro del Carmen González Hernández, all assigned to the Curacaví Carabineros station. The detainee Muñoz Rojas was transported to the Curacaví station, a police unit in charge of Lieutenant Gerardo Alejandro Aravena Longa, where he was kept locked up and subjected to physical abuse until the early hours of October 14, 1973. At that moment, Lieutenant Aravena Longa, in the company of 2nd Sergeant Benjamín Seguel Ortiz and police officer Carlos Patricio Donoso Figueroa, transported Muñoz Rojas from the aforementioned police unit to the Esperanza bridge, at Km 4 of route G 68, commune of Padre Hurtado, where he was executed; by order of Aravena Longa, Carabinero Benjamín Seguel Ortiz fired at him, causing the victim's body to fall into the riverbed. Subsequently, the corpse was found by third parties in that place and later sent as an unidentified person (NN) to the Legal Medical Service and interred in that condition in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery of Santiago.

Source: resumen.cl, June 17, 2022

Former Carabinero convicted for Cuesta Barriga massacre during the dictatorship has died

The former Carabineros colonel was being held in Punta Peuco prison and was convicted for the firing squads that occurred at Cuesta Barriga in 1973 and the execution of a survivor of the same in 1974. This Sunday, the death of former Carabineros Colonel Gerardo Aravena Longa, who was being held in Punta Peuco prison for crimes against humanity during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, became known.

According to information gathered by T13.cl, Aravena Longa died on January 31 at the Carabineros Hospital (HOSCAR).

Firing squads at Cuesta Barriga

The former police officer was convicted for the firing squads that occurred at Cuesta Barriga in 1973 and the execution of a survivor in 1974. According to press compilations by Memoria Viva, Aravena at that date served as a lieutenant at the local police station.

The sentence was for the homicides of Jorge Toro Toro, Justo Mendoza Yáñez, Jorge Yáñez, and Segundo Gárate Torres, which occurred on September 16, 1973, and of José Barrera Barrera, on March 14, 1974.

The five were detained at the Curacaví station, from where they were taken by a patrol of military and Carabineros who, it was supposed, would transfer them to the detention center installed at the National Stadium.

At Cuesta Barriga, they were forced to get off the truck in which they were being transported and were executed by firing squad by order of the then-Lieutenant Aravena Longa. José Barrera survived with some wounds in his legs.

Barrera hid in Huasco, but returned to Curacaví in 1974, where the Carabineros informed him that he had no charges against him; however, in the early hours of the following day, he was taken from his home by a police patrol in charge of Aravena Longa and murdered.

Source: t13.cl, February 2, 2025