Case File No. 51.925-1: Illegal burial of Grober Hugo Venegas Islas

FIFTH: That at pages 254, 352 to 355, 436, 437, 648, 692, 696, 828, 964, 968, and 1,037, the accused Patricio Vicente Padilla Villén testified. In his police statement from pages 352 to 355, ratified at page 436, he stated that he entered the Military School in 1965, graduating as a Second Lieutenant in 1967.

His first assignment was the No. 4 “Rancagua” Infantry Regiment in Arica, where he served until 1970. He was then transferred to the “Calama” Regiment in that city, and subsequently, in 1972, returned to the Rancagua Regiment in Arica, where he remained until 1977.

That year, he was assigned to the Army General Command on an extra-institutional commission (DINA and CNI), where he remained until 1980. In 1980, he returned to the Army, being transferred to the “Lanceros” Regiment in Puerto Natales; in 1981, to the Caupolicán Regiment in Porvenir; and in 1988, he was transferred to the “Chorrillos” Regiment in Punta Arenas, retiring in 1990 with the rank of Major while at that last regiment.

He states that in 1975, he recalls he was serving in the Rancagua Regiment of Arica, in the Regiment’s Section II, under the command of Major Benjamín Araya Pérez, and the CIRE (Regional Intelligence Center) was created.

This unit was composed of, among others, a civilian with the surname Mercado Valenzuela who had been a non-commissioned officer of the Regiment, rehired after September 11, 1973; personnel from the Carabineros, apparently two non-commissioned officers; some three or four enlisted men from the Regiment; and two members of the Navy, one of whom was a non-commissioned officer.

He adds that because conscripts linked to drug use were detected in the Regiment at the end of 1974, in 1975 Major Araya gave them the mission of searching for information regarding the suppliers of drugs to the soldiers.

Thus, on an unspecified date in 1975, Major Araya gave him the order to go to the Investigations Police barracks to retrieve a detainee linked to cocaine trafficking. By virtue of this, he personally went to the Investigations unit in a car confiscated from Customs, accompanied by two men under his command, and proceeded to retrieve a detainee whose name he does not remember.

On that occasion, he signed a logbook at the guard post, where the removal of the aforementioned detainee was recorded. Once that procedure was completed, they took the subject to a barracks located on a road leading to a roundabout that intersected with a road to the Azapa Valley.

There was an abandoned house there that was used as the CIRE barracks. He notes that upon arriving at that place, they notified Major Araya of the result of the operation; Araya arrived at the barracks.

He does not remember how long the subject was in their custody, nor does he remember who interrogated him. He adds that after being subjected to an interrogation, Major Araya gave the order to kill him, verbally, to an intelligence specialist enlisted man who worked with him in Section II, whose name he does not remember.

He implied that every intelligence specialist would eventually have to execute or kill a subject. He ordered them to take him to the Azapa Valley, find an unpopulated place, and bring digging tools. He gave them details on how to do it, stating that before carrying out the execution, no one should get emboldened by alcohol; that the subject had to be stripped and shot in the head.

He notes that at that time, due to what was being experienced in the country, one fulfilled any mission; therefore, this task entrusted to them by Major Araya was carried out just as he ordered in his instructions.

That is, at night they traveled to the area of Alto Ramírez in the Azapa Valley, the subject was forced to undress and dig a pit, which must have measured 1.80 meters by 50 centimeters, with a depth of approximately 1.20 meters.

Once the pit was finished, the enlisted man who executed him fired a shot into his head, at the nape of the neck, apparently with a “Rossi” brand revolver; then the body fell into the pit and was immediately covered with sand, though he does not know if the clothing was buried or not.

Once the task was completed, they left the place for the barracks to subsequently inform Major Araya by telephone that the mission had been accomplished. The next day, Major Araya went to the barracks to inquire about the details of the subject’s execution and ordered him to go to the Investigations barracks to report the subject’s escape, which he did.

He adds that he subsequently forgot about the case, but a year later he had to go to testify at a Court in Arica regarding this case, where he only stated that he had retrieved the detainee from Investigations and that he had subsequently escaped in the Azapa Valley sector.

He finally explains that to locate where the subject was buried in Alto Ramírez, in the Azapa Valley, one would have to locate a restaurant that existed in those years, which was characterized by the preparation of pork, a popular, hole-in-the-wall type place.

The pit would be located diagonally about 200 or 300 meters away, on a plain that later touched a dry arm of a stream. He notes that despite the time elapsed and the fact that he has not visited the area since that time (he testified in December 2002), with the purpose of cooperating with the search for the body, he could make an effort to locate the place, in the event that the court so determines.

He points out that the Commander of the Regiment was General Jorge Dowling Santa María, who had a certain friendship with Major Araya. He states, on page 437, on March 5, 2003, that the previous day he was present at the scene of the events, indicating different possible places for the concealment of Grober Venegas’s body, without success, since the place has been modified by earthworks and the accumulation of grass, so, due to the time elapsed, he cannot yet specify with exactitude the place where the remains of the deceased would be found.

In his statement on page 648, after ratifying his police statement contained on page 597 as annex 66 of police report 43/51009 on page 515, he reiterates what was already said, adding data on the approximate location of the concealment of the remains of the aforementioned subject, aided by a map added on page 646, at which time he refers that in such a task he was accompanied by the non-commissioned officer Mercado, now deceased (sic), by an Army Corporal whose name he does not remember, but provides his physical characteristics, and by a Navy non-commissioned officer who could be Bernabé Vega Velásquez, whose name sounds familiar and whom he also describes physically. He adds that the events occurred just as indicated in the statement he gave in Concepción, on January 14, 2010, before the Investigations Police (page 597). In a confrontation on page 692 with Bernabé Vega Velásquez, a retired Navy official, also a member of the CIRE, which Padilla Villén directed at the time of the events, he incriminates Vega as one of the participants in the execution of the subject in the Azapa Valley, then retracts his statement in light of what the latter presented. In his statement on page 696, given during a confrontation with Sergio Mercado Valenzuela, after also incriminating him as one of his companions in the execution of the detainee Grober Venegas Islas in the Azapa Valley, already referred to, he reiterates what was already said regarding the retrieval of a detainee accused of drug trafficking from the Arica Investigations Police, as well as the modus operandi of the execution to which he was subjected, adding that after arriving at a place that seemed correct to carry out the order, the excavation of a pit approximately 2 meters long by 70 centimeters wide began. The detainee was blindfolded; then he had the detainee brought down and led to the place, he was made to undress, the hands he had tied were released, he was made to crouch in front of the pit, the blindfold was removed, and he proceeded to shoot him in the head with his service weapon. He points out that it may have been a Rossi revolver; he fired the shot himself with said service weapon, and once dead, he was arranged in the pit by the Corporals. He adds that once Major Araya was informed of the fact, he commented that he was going to make a statement indicating that the prisoner, at the moment he was going to indicate where the drugs were buried in the Azapa Valley, due to the lack of visibility in the place, had escaped, and, in parallel, he would issue a notice to all Armed Forces units ordering the search and arrest of Grober Venegas Islas. That event was never commented on again. Based on what was declared, he affirmed once more that Mercado was present at this event, a circumstance that the latter flatly denies. He reiterates in his statement on page 828, in a confrontation with José Luis Catalán Reyes, what was already stated regarding the investigated event, a person whom he points out as one of those who accompanied him in the execution that took place in the Azapa Valley, already recounted, along with Mercado. However, in his appearance on page 964, he rectifies the statement given on page 696, in that he said there that he proceeded to shoot the detainee with his service weapon, because it was not he who shot him but José Catalán, one of the members of the group also composed of himself, Mercado Valenzuela, José Catalán, and an Army non-commissioned officer, whom he does not remember. He justifies his retraction by the fact that of the members of the group, the only Officer was him; the others were of lower rank, so there was nothing to do but blame himself directly for the fact, since no one would believe that in an event of that nature, it would be a subordinate official, a Second Corporal as Catalán was, and not the Officer present, who assumed such a role. He adds that Catalán was designated for that task by Major Araya, head of Department II and also head of the CIRE of Arica, because he was the only one in the group with an approved Intelligence course, a designation he made in a meeting held with all those who were going to go to carry out the order, where he even warned them that no one should consume liquor and that he should be informed after the mission was accomplished. He states that the Investigations Police were lied to, telling them that they needed the detainee for a military operation and that after it was completed, they would return him, despite the fact that the purpose was to kill him in compliance with Major Araya’s order. He adds that the detainee was that night at the CIRE barracks and the following night his execution took place, prior to which the detainee was taken to Azapa in the trunk of a white Dodge vehicle that they boarded, Mercado as the driver, he as the co-pilot, and in the back, Corporal Catalán and the non-commissioned officer he does not remember. He points out that he does not remember that any official from the Investigations Police attended this event. The detainee was placed in the trunk by his companions, by his order; he does not remember if the man was blindfolded and tied, although, he notes, it was possible that he was due to the nature of the operation. Next, he briefly relates the route taken to reach Alto Ramírez, to a place that is the same point where the first excavation was carried out with machinery and where in practice there was no result, this sector being chosen for the execution, the safest to point out. He adds that at the execution point, they walked about 50 meters from where they parked the car to a soft place, then he ordered them to bring down the detainee, who personally dug the hole; he was made to undress, he was made to kneel on the floor, and, he adds, he told him to pray a prayer of his belief, and the man began to cry, a prayer he made while kneeling. He notes that, immediately afterward, Catalán approached and aimed at his head, at the nape of the neck, with his service weapon, possibly a .38 caliber Rossi revolver, and shot him; he fell immediately, then he was quickly arranged to leave the site, an operation that was done by his companions. Regarding the clothing, he points out, the logical thing is that they would have brought it and not left it buried next to the detainee’s body. He adds that once the task was completed, they returned to the barracks and then each one went to his house; he, for his part, met personally with Major Araya the next day in his office, gave him a detailed account of the execution, and the latter told him that cryptograms would be sent to all Units in Chile informing them that the detainee, at the moment he was indicating the place where he had drugs and weapons hidden, had escaped taking advantage of the darkness of the night, for his search, thereby implying an escape, which was not true. It was added for this purpose that the detainee had escaped to Bolivia, a country in which he had relatives. In a confrontation with José Luis Catalán Reyes, on page 968, after ratifying the statement given previously (page 964), he recognizes again his participation in the execution of Grober Venegas in the Azapa Valley sector, already referred to. He insists that the one who fired the shot at the detainee Venegas was Corporal Catalán, which he affirms despite having blamed himself until the moment of his retraction in a previous appearance before the confrontation, of having been his executioner, a retraction that occurred for the reasons given for adopting that decision in the aforementioned appearance (page 964). He adds that Catalán had the intelligence course and, as they understood from Major Araya’s words, it was an “initiation” in which a person with those characteristics had the cold blood and the necessary quality to demonstrate how it was done. He notes that prior to the execution, in a meeting they had with Major Benjamín Araya and which all those involved in this event attended, the latter decided that Mr. Catalán would be the executor of the shot, and he ordered it in the presence of the group. He affirms that Catalán knew what the matter was about, was at the previous meeting held on the morning of that day, and was ready to comply with the order in such a way that he cannot affirm his ignorance of the mission, and such is the case that at 8:30 PM, when they prepared to leave the Barracks for the execution, only those who were at the meeting remained for its fulfillment, since at that time the personnel had already retired, and as he said in his statement, Mr. Catalán and the other non-commissioned officer with the surname Mercado, by his order, put the person in the vehicle. In his appearance on page 1,037, after ratifying his statements given in the case regarding these events, he states that after Grober Venegas dug the pit and prayed a prayer of his creed, being inside it, he called Catalán and told him that “he was ready,” he ordered him to shoot him after having provided him with an automatic pistol, the brand of which he does not remember, but he is sure that it was a pistol because after the shot was fired by Catalán, they had to focus on looking for the casing of the fired bullet, something that if it had been a revolver would not have been necessary, since in that case, the casing in that type of weapon remains in the cylinder. He adds then that, due to the time elapsed, 35 years to date, he has tried to remember regarding the participants, and according to what he discussed with Catalán and Vignolo on the subject, honestly, he has doubts about the involvement of Sergio Mercado Valenzuela; he notes that he has consulted both and they have told him that they do not have proof of Mercado’s presence in this event. He points out that he does not intend to save anyone, but that he cannot say with certainty that Mercado Valenzuela intervened. He ends his statement by making it known that he is willing to collaborate in the search for the remains of Grober Venegas, that it has not been his intention to hinder the action of justice by distracting attention from the search with excavations in non-existent places; that he hopes that with the participation of Catalán and Vignolo, they will find the remains of the person indicated to end this episode once and for all. That during his stay at the CIRE, he only records participation in this case of the death of Grober Venegas Islas and in the case of the death of a homosexual brought to the CIRE and in no other; that the superior order emanated from the then head of Section II, Major Benjamín Araya Pérez, and in accordance with that order, the execution was carried out; that he does not intend to exculpate himself from responsibility for what he has said, but it is what happened.

Source: Judiciary, November 8, 2011