On May 24, the Supreme Court confirmed the conviction of the operational command of the Regional Intelligence Center (Cire) for the kidnapping and forced disappearance of Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR) militant Rudy Cárcamo Ruiz.

Rudy Cárcamo was kidnapped from his home in Talcahuano on the night of November 27, 1974, and held at the Talcahuano Naval Base. There, he was tortured to death in the locker rooms, which were used as dungeons, at the Francisco Acosta stadium within the Naval Base sports complex, adjacent to the indoor gymnasium and the entrance to the Asmar shipyard.

Those sentenced to 5 years and 1 day in prison are the head of the Navy Intelligence Department (Ancla Dos), frigate captain Hugo Nelson González D’Arcangeli; the assistant to the head of the Intelligence Department, naval lieutenant Víctor Ernesto Donoso Barrera; Carabineros captain Conrado Alfredo Sesnic Guerricabeitia; the inspector of the former Investigations Service, now the PDI, Osvaldo Francisco Harnish Salazar; and, finally, Navy second lieutenant José Raúl Cáceres González.

All sentences are without parole, meaning they must serve the prison terms effectively. They were also sentenced to the accessory penalties of absolute and perpetual disqualification from holding public office and exercising political rights.

The military and police ranks mentioned are those they held at the time of the kidnapping. Due to their repressive services, they later attained high ranks within their institutions.

In Concepción, both the investigating judge, Carlos Aldana, and the Court of Appeals had sentenced them to 541 days of imprisonment, with the benefit of a suspended sentence, meaning they would only serve time in prison if they committed a new crime.

In short, a derisory sentence, effectively judicial impunity for the criminals. The Supreme Court, however, in a split decision, increased the sentence to five years and one day of effective imprisonment and perpetual disqualification from their political rights.

Justice Milton Juica voted to increase them to ten years and one day, given the nature and gravity of the investigated crime, while Justice Hugo Dolmestch voted to maintain the first-instance sentences of 541 days, suspended.

DINA EXTENSIONS

The Regional Intelligence Centers were created in 1974 throughout the country and operated in areas not reached by the DINA, though they acted in coordination with it. They were composed of intelligence departments from the various branches of the Armed Forces, Carabineros, and Investigations.

In Concepción, its clandestine facilities were located on the third floor at the corner of Barros Arana and Pasaje Portales, above what was the Rotisería Pujol, currently Banco Santander. Its commander was always an Army lieutenant colonel, and its operational command was composed of those currently convicted and Carabineros captain Sergio Arévalo Cid, all acting as heads of a large contingent of marines, naval infantry, non-commissioned officers, and Army troops, Carabineros, and detectives.

From its creation in 1974, the Cire of Concepción—known as Ancla 2—had a prisoner camp at the Talcahuano Naval Base sports complex, where it operated until mid-1975, at which point it was moved to the old facilities of the El Morro fort, adjacent to the El Morro stadium on Avenida Blanco Encalada. It remained in this latter location until approximately 1982.

In its facilities at the Talcahuano Naval Base, in addition to Rudy Cárcamo, they murdered the Brazilian internationalist Jane Vanini in December 1974, and the Socialist mayor of Cañete, Elías Jana Santibáñez, in February 1975 (Jane Vanini was secretary of Punto Final).

In September of that year, they murdered Oscar Arros in Lota when they were transporting him from the El Morro fort to force him to denounce his comrades in that city, which he refused to do. In coordination with the DINA, they murdered Eulogio Fritz Monsalves in Santiago in February 1975, who had assumed the regional leadership of the MIR in September 1973.

Hundreds of political prisoners were kidnapped by agents of this repressive body and tortured both at the Francisco Acosta stadium at the Naval Base and at the El Morro fort. Almost all of them were militants of the MIR, who had organized to resist the military dictatorship from the very moment of the 1973 coup d'état.

The imposition of the accessory penalty on all those convicted, of perpetual disqualification from public office and political rights, places them on the margins of society. They have been stripped of their status as citizens, the maximum sanction in the political and social order of our country.

THE RUDY CÁRCAMO CASE

Rudy Cárcamo Ruiz, married, one child, a worker and MIR militant, was detained on November 27, 1974, around 10:00 PM. Cárcamo lived at the home of his in-laws, who, along with his spouse—Lilian Alegría Erices—witnessed the arrest.

Three subjects in civilian clothes, armed with submachine guns, appeared and identified themselves as police. After asking for the victim, they proceeded to take him away, stating they were taking him to the Investigations barracks. However, he was taken immediately to the Talcahuano Naval Base, where, that same night, another detainee, Jaime Oehninger Gatica, had to identify him.

At the Naval Base, he was placed in the gymnasium, isolated in a room. According to the testimony of Luis Enrique Peebles, who was a prisoner in the same facility in December of that year, detainees were assigned a number by which they were called.

He was in a room in the gymnasium, and in the adjacent room was prisoner No. 105, isolated from the rest. According to what Jaime Oehninger told him, this detainee was Rudy Cárcamo. Peebles was taken out on December 24, 1974, and upon returning on the 31st of the same month, he no longer heard noises in the adjacent room, and when the guard relief took roll call, No. 105 was no longer called.

Another detainee who saw Cárcamo at the Naval Base was Sergio Armando Medina Viveros.

Previously, on October 16, 1973, Rudy Cárcamo was detained at his home at the time, the Lenin settlement in Talcahuano, where he was an active participant in community activities. During this detention, he was taken to Isla Quiriquina and later to the Talcahuano Naval Base gymnasium, where he remained until July 21, 1974, when he was released without being charged.

He then went to live at his in-laws' house, from where he was detained three months later.

Source: puntofinal.cl, June 8, 2012

The Last Intendant of Salvador Allende in Concepción

On the eve of the 39th anniversary of Fernando Álvarez's death, his widow, Adriana Ramírez, only wants to know who, how, and why they executed her husband on November 8, 1973. For the sake of her three “little angels,” the pharmaceutical chemist and former professor at the University of Concepción says today that she had to overcome her grief, and she reveals that in the Intendencia's safe, Álvarez kept the name of the real author of the death of Corporal Aroca.

The document was recovered by the Carabineros patrol that beat others to detaining him at his home on September 11, 1973. General (ret.) Washington Carrasco and six Carabineros officers (ret.) have testified in this human rights case.

In a simple apartment with a view of Cerro Caracol, with her rocking chair, her collection of blue and brown bottles, and pieces of handicrafts from Hugo Chávez's homeland, Adriana Ramírez Núñez, the widow of Salvador Allende's last intendant in Concepción, Fernando Álvarez Castillo, lives in her solitude.

From above, the bustle of children at recess can be heard; there is noise in the street, but inside that home—where she keeps the copper urns with the ashes of her parents and her husband—the peace is absolute.

After the formal introductions, she—with a piercing and inquisitive look—seems to ask herself: Do I speak or do I not speak? She does not like interviews, but the arrival of Marcela, her youngest daughter, encourages her.

And she says that she was the only one of the three children who protested when they were told of their father's murder: “Why? Why?” she sobbed. Alerted by the doorbell that rang at 7:25 AM on September 11, 1973, at Freire 1899 in Concepción, and the voices coming from the first floor, she went down a few steps and managed to see her father putting on his pants over his pajamas. “Go back upstairs!” a plainclothes Carabinero ordered her, and the girl returned to her room and stayed there curled up, quiet, mute, waiting.

She was 9 years old.

This pharmaceutical chemist and retired former professor at the University of Concepción, who is still as tall and slender as a pear tree at 78 years old, will mark thirty-nine years of widowhood this coming November 8.

Her stature—rather short—says nothing of the strength her words have when, in the middle of the interview, she clarifies: “I am a grounded woman, very practical, and that bothers people. I thought more about my children than about the one who left, and I couldn't risk losing my source of income at the University of Concepción; I had to feed my three little angels.” And she dedicated herself to her work and raising her children, the eldest being 15 years old.

Adriana never participated actively in human rights groups, and although she is a Communist Party militant and felt after the coup that “I had the plague”—as she illustrates the stigma that fell upon all survivors of the former Unidad Popular during the military government—in the Chemistry Institute where she worked, there was always solidarity, starting with former dean Germán Acuña—father of the Christian Democrat doctor Germán Acuña Gamé—the deputy director Sergio Quadri, and other teachers and administrative staff.

Her colleagues, she says, were “exceptional.”

And she also considers the investigation being carried out by Judge Carlos Aldana in case file 31-2010, for the crime of illicit association and the homicide of Fernando Álvarez, in which she is a plaintiff, to be exceptional.

The State is also a plaintiff against all those who may be responsible as authors, accomplices, or cover-ups for the repeated crimes of “consummated kidnapping and qualified homicide” committed against Fernando Álvarez Castillo, sanctioned under articles 141 and 391 of the Penal Code, respectively, in relation to common article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, and who was classified as a victim of human rights violations in the capacity of forcibly disappeared by the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, according to the Undersecretary of the Interior, Rodrigo Ubilla Mackenney.

What do you expect from the inquiries that Judge Aldana is making?

“That the murderers tell me why and how they killed him and who gave the order. That is all I want to know; I am not asking for compensation or anything like that. They treated him like a criminal from the moment they detained him.

I know the surnames of all of them, but not their faces. I want to know what a criminal who beats another person to death is like, whatever his name is and whatever branch he belongs to,” the widow specifies.

In the case, General (ret.) Washington Carrasco and retired Carabineros officers Benjamín Bustos, former Prefect of Concepción; Fernando Pinares, former commissioner of the Fourth Carabineros Precinct (today the First Precinct); captains Sergio Arévalo Cid and Alex Graft; and Lieutenant Roberto Ricotti are being investigated for their alleged responsibility.

All were members of the civil commission of the time that later became the Sicar, a Carabineros intelligence agency that depended on the deputy prefect of services Fernando Poo, now deceased; Luis Ortiz Lorenzo, head of E-2 (military intelligence), also deceased; and two or three others involved who participated in the interrogations of Álvarez and other political prisoners regarding the discovery of weapons, the murder of Corporal Exequiel Aroca, and the famous Plan Zeta—which did not manage to materialize at the time—and which was allegedly oriented and directed toward finishing off some military personnel, judges, and people linked to the Right.

The Russian AKAs

From his detention and a stay of a little over a month on Isla Quiriquina, under the custody of the Navy, the former authority was transferred on November 5, 1973—along with Dr. Jorge Peña Delgado and professor Eliecer Carrasco—to the facilities at Salas 329, to be interrogated by the Carabineros Civil Commission and E-2.

A fourth member of the group, the former president of Banco Concepción, Ozren Agnic, was taken to the Regional Stadium.

The interrogation was ordered by the former commander-in-chief of the III Army Division, General (ret.) Washington Carrasco—as he himself acknowledges in the case files—after the discovery of 10 Russian AKA submachine guns with ammunition that were found in Lota.

Captains Arévalo and Graft allegedly participated directly in the inquiries, although they declared before the courts that they only witnessed the interrogation in the capacity of observers of the two military men—a non-commissioned officer and a corporal—who were stationed at the Fourth Precinct on the afternoon of November 7.

And although at the time, Álvarez's death was attributed according to the official version to cardiorespiratory arrest—as reported also by the newspapers El SUR and Diario Color—the former intendant died as a result of a hemothorax, a blunt blow to the left side of his body that caused the rupture of blood vessels in his lung and filled it with fluid.

Three autopsy reports coincide in their assessment.

Early on November 8, Álvarez was found lifeless in his cell on the second floor of Salas 329; there is no certainty of the time of death, but there is of the moment the interrogation ended: at 7:00 PM, although his wife suspects he died shortly before midnight: “I was here, at this same table playing solitaire, and I felt a cut in my head, as if something stopped.

They killed Fernando, I thought. It was a Wednesday night, and we had been looking for him since Monday the 5th. I told Julio, a cousin who was accompanying me, that we should go to sleep; that a lot of work awaited us the next day.”

She says that—alerted to her husband's transfer from Quiriquina to Concepción on the 5th—she had requested an audience, and the day after experiencing that “sensation,” she was waiting in the anteroom at the III Army Division to speak with the head of the military intelligence service, when two detectives arrived to look for her and took her to the Legal Medical Institute to identify the body and certify his identity.

That same night, General Carrasco called her on the phone and offered his condolences in the name of the Armed Forces—“I felt it as a mockery,” she says—and in a later interview, he acknowledged that he had had him interrogated regarding an alleged illegal importation of weapons and the Plan Zeta.

On that occasion, “he said that he never thought the interrogation would be so harsh and that Fernando would not resist it, and just as we wished, he placed a plane at our disposal to transport and cremate the body in Santiago.”

She, she adds, was only authorized to look at the corpse, but she observed the blackened tips of his fingers and two visible marks on his face resulting from blows, which indicates to her that they had applied electricity.

She knows—she adds—that an agreement between the Army and Carabineros had been broken, since it was the latter who beat others to detaining him at his home; and that happened because of “the knowledge Fernando had regarding the person responsible for the death of Corporal Aroca, who had been shot by an unknown person in front of the PS headquarters.

Fernando was murdered by State agents without having any responsibility for arms trafficking crimes or the so-called Plan Zeta.”

You also declared that before being taken to Quiriquina, Carabineros took your husband to the Intendencia and he gave them a document he had in the safe. Do you know what it was about? “I am the only one who knows about that document, because Fernando showed it to me. It was a paper, a sheet, and there was the name of the real murderer of Corporal Aroca.”

And why didn't you take it to the courts?

“He didn't have time; that was shortly before September 11. In those days, I don't know if you remember, we were all running around with different activities. We also knew the Coup was coming.”

And who was mentioned in the paper?

“I didn't read it. I even offered to keep it, but Fernando chose to leave it in the Intendencia's safe. I cannot prove that the document exists, but Fernando showed it to me and told me that it had been a Carabineros officer.”

Crime at Castellón 46

Corporal Exequiel Aroca Cuevas (39, married, father of four children) was murdered on August 30, 1972, in front of the PS headquarters at Castellón 46 in Concepción, at the end of a march by supporters and opponents of the Allende government, when the police arrived in two buses to respond to complaints from neighbors who were complaining about stones being thrown at their houses while there was a “caceroleo” (pot-banging protest) in the sector.

That night, around 10:30 PM, a witness, identified as Julio Schindler, who was heading to his home in the university neighborhood, ran into the scene point-blank and transported the mortally wounded Carabinero to the Regional Hospital.

In the midst of the Unidad Popular, according to Schindler, the result of a sort of conspiracy was being experienced: to produce a death to change the correlation of political forces of the moment, and in which some Carabineros officers were allegedly involved.

Eleven months later, the military coup took place, and for that crime, only the “guerrilla” Héctor Figueroa Yáñez was held responsible. “I didn't shoot from the roof of the PS!” the man, sentenced to 9 years in prison by a military court for the crime of mistreatment of Carabineros resulting in death, told this journalist at the time from Norway, where he lives today.

And he added in a publication in El Sur in August 2007: “I know there were our people up there (on the roof of the PS headquarters); they fired with empty bottles. From other roofs further back, they fired at our people, and we assume it was people from Patria y Libertad.

If the prosecutor who sentenced me had wanted to know the truth, he would have achieved it, but he did not act in the most correct way; they forced me to sign a statement under beatings.” In the same publication, Figueroa admitted that there were weapons in the PS headquarters: “Yes, there was something to protect the Allende government, but they belonged to a very restricted circle.”

The death of Corporal Aroca caused such a stir in a zone and a country as polarized as Chile was in 1973 that a special commission of the Chamber of Deputies, tasked with hearing a constitutional accusation presented by the PDC at the time, dismissed Intendant Wladimir Chávez.

With that murder—as a corollary—they accused him of having violated clear constitutional provisions regarding the granting of permits for public gatherings.

In that context, in October '72, Fernando Álvarez Castillo assumed the position and became Allende's third intendant in Concepción after Egidio Contreras and Waldimir Chávez, with interim periods by Gilberto Grandón.

Testimonies of those involved

In the case files, the former head of the Sicar, Sergio Arévalo, declares that as a result of reports at the time, they found 10 AKA submachine guns in Lota, and General Washington Carrasco ordered the head of intelligence of the III Division to send Army officials to interrogate Álvarez with all the elements.

In that context, at the beginning of November, they brought him from Quiriquina to the Fourth Carabineros Precinct. Once there, a place was set up to interrogate him and Dr. Peña Delgado. Neither—he says—had information about the weapons, and neither of them was subjected to illegal duress.

Once the interrogation was concluded, the military and Carabineros withdrew, and the next morning he learned of the death.

Colonel (ret.) Roberto Ricotti García, later a liaison between Carabineros and the Army, declares that the interrogation lasted between 5 and 6 minutes and dealt with armaments—“it was said that weapons had arrived from Cuba hidden in bags of sugar”—political meetings, and the presence of foreigners at the time.

Neither of the two former officers acknowledges having committed illegal duress, despite the fact that in his testimony, Dr. Peña expresses that Carabineros officials who were wearing uniforms—among them was Major (ret.) Fernando Pinares—interrogated him. To him...

-he states- he was not pressured, but during one of the interrogations regarding the existence of clandestine hospitals, someone removed his blindfold and “I saw him (Fernando Álvarez) lying on a bench, his body tied to it, and when I tried to approach, they hit me with a rifle butt in the calf, which knocked me to the ground.”

The interrogations followed a softening-up system at first -describes professor Eliecer Carrasco, former secretary of the PS of Concepción-; they would tie them up and sit them in a chair with a hood to prevent them from seeing and to hinder their breathing, in addition to holding weapons against their temples; then they would leave them alone, and before interrogating us, “they would beat us brutally; on one occasion I fell off the chair while tied up.

I remember that the first blows were to the pit of the stomach, and only then would they begin to interrogate us.”

Sentenced to 5 years in prison by a War Council in Concepción, lawyer and former deputy for Concepción, Iván Quintana, recognizes in court records Captain (ret.) Arévalo Cid as his torturer at the former Fourth Police Station (Cuarta Comisaría) of Carabineros in Concepción, where he was detained a week before Álvarez, Peña, and Carrasco. “I was tortured at least three times; in two of them, I was blindfolded, and in the last one, they removed the blindfold to confront me with other political prisoners.

I had the opportunity to see my torturers (…) and among them were Lieutenants Ricotti, Jorge Offerman, and Graft, and among the Carabineros, Héctor Cares and Raúl Hermosilla; another wore prescription glasses, and a fourth was on guard duty in front of the house of General Silvio Salgado, in Chorrillos and Chépical, near my residence.”

Curious. Due to their “direct and immediate participation,” the same officers and troop personnel mentioned by Quintana -in addition to Major (ret.) Pinares- are mentioned to the judge by the former prefect of Concepción, also investigated for the events, Benjamín Bustos, who received the order to detain Álvarez directly from General Carrasco on the night of September 10 to 11, when a sort of local command was established.

It is also known that the Carabinero Hermosilla was the perpetrator of the death of the mayor of Coelemu, Luis Acevedo Andrade. The body was buried illegally on the road to Santa Juana, in front of the Iglesia de Piedra.

Radio Host and Scriptwriter

A law graduate, but a radio worker – host and scriptwriter – at the University of Concepción radio station, was Fernando Álvarez. He had a good voice, diction, and a broad culture, says his wife. The couple met during Allende’s first presidential campaign (1952) and married in 1958.

And, being practical, she clarifies: “It was by no means love at first sight, but he was an intelligent, cultured man, very accessible, with a good demeanor, and very affectionate toward his children Marcos, Aurora, and Marcela; he played marbles with them, flew kites, and helped them with their homework.”

Adriana remembers that she was “first lady” between October 1972 and September 1973; she was in charge of the Coordinating Committee of Mothers’ Centers – Cocema, the predecessor to Cema Chile – and although she was interested in women being trained in basic electricity and plumbing, the initiative only managed to be written down on paper.

At the time, social activity was intense -which is why she laughs when she remembers that, in a confrontation, Major Commissioner Fernando Pinares denied knowing her on two occasions-; she supervised the sales room where products from state-owned companies were sold -glass, earthenware, and fabrics from Tomé, mainly- so that women could make garments.

But she did not leave the Central Institute of Chemistry, where she was dedicated to organic elemental microanalysis, because she was very clear that the political position would be temporary, and the University supported her with a more flexible schedule -and even more so after '73- because there were no other people who could operate the equipment.

“I was never a mere side dish nor just the wife of…; I was part of the Allende government out of conviction, and all my life I had a level of awareness of what was happening and what was going to happen, but I never indoctrinated my children, just as my father and mother did not do with me,” she says.

But Marcela, the daughter, today a pediatrician, says that her mother reacted with alarm when she -a student leader of Medicine at the FEC- committed herself in her own way to fighting the regime, and the CNI came to the house looking for her. The University, she says, was her moment of rebellion.

“I felt in debt to my father, and I shouted and protested everything I had to shout and protest, but when I failed a class for the first time and my mother scolded me and hit me, I understood that I had not chosen the right path; it was a luxury I could not afford; we had to move forward, be good people and professionals to -from there- serve the just cause of changing the world, as our parents set out to do.

We were fortunate, I would also say: we had a body, we were able to mourn it, live our grief, and from that grief, move forward.”

From that morning when he was detained, the family never saw the husband or the father again. Nor did Concepción see the last UP mayor again. And while Marcela has continued to ask herself “why? why?” -without finding the answer- every May 29 -on his birthday- and every November 8 -on the day of his death-, she brings four red roses, one for each member of the family, and deposits them next to the copper urn that her mother treasures in the bedroom.

And the fact is that Mrs. Adriana does not like cemeteries. Another peculiarity of this Capricorn woman. “I am a stubborn goat!” she asserts.

Source: revistanos.cl, October 31, 2012

Reconstitution of the death of former mayor Fernando Álvarez: another step toward obtaining truth and justice

“They detained Fernando early, around 6:30 or 7 in the morning on September 11, 1973, and about half an hour later I met with Adriana, and she informed me that they had practically taken Fernando out of bed…. And from then on, he was not seen until they delivered him dead.”

Olimpia’s memories became more vivid this Tuesday on the occasion of the reconstitution of the death of the former communist mayor, which occurred on November 7, 1973, in the facilities of what was the Fourth Police Station of Carabineros of Concepción, today the First.

It was Judge Carlos Aldana, who has been handling this case reopened in 2011, who ordered this proceeding, which lasted for four hours. Six people participated, four as defendants and two as witnesses. It was military prosecutor Fernando Grandón who took the statements.

Meanwhile, in front of the First Police Station, on Salas Street, a group of communist militants held up signs and shouted, demanding justice.

Professor Olimpia Riveros was one of them. She was particularly moved, as she knew Fernando Álvarez and his family closely, since they were neighbors and even shared a radio vocation.

“Fernando was a brilliant man, a radio host, a leader of the Communist Party, a scriptwriter, an upright man, a leader of the University of Concepción Employees’ Association, with a tremendous vocation for social service and deep convictions. We hope that this step being taken brings us closer to justice,” she stated.

In passing, she recounted that Álvarez’s widow, Adriana Ramírez, received a call from General Washington Carrasco himself, the mayor after the coup, offering his condolences for the death of her husband. “But Adriana had an attitude of great integrity and told him that she did not accept his hypocritical condolences…”

Fernando Álvarez passed away on November 7, 1973, and the medical certificate that was issued speaks of a “hemothorax” as the cause of death.

Olimpia Riveros remembers that at the time “they said he was a heart patient and that he had suffered an attack, but he was a healthy, athletic man. There are many testimonies indicating that when he was taken from Quiriquina Island and brought here, he died in the midst of torture.”

Among those who arrived at the First Police Station was lawyer Iván Quintana, who knew the facts and some of the perpetrators, although he was not with Fernando Álvarez when he was detained at the facility.

However, he offered his vision: “I came as a possible witness, but it was not feasible because statements were taken from the witnesses who were with Fernando on the day of his death…,” he recounted.

He also said that among those giving statements at that time was former Colonel Sergio Arévalo Cid, who, in Quintana’s words, “was the chief of the torturers. I saw that…,” he asserted.

Regarding the possible responsibility of former General Washington Carrasco, he said he undoubtedly had knowledge of what happened. “From the prefect of the zone to the last Carabinero, they maintain that no one saw when Fernando died; not even the one in charge of the guard, nor the dungeons, saw anything until the corpse appeared.”

For Quintana, the facts have been proven for a long time, but he valued the proceeding carried out by Judge Aldana because it can contribute to the clarification of this case. “That is why we believe the magistrate is making a good effort, and that is why we expect positive results.”

Once the proceeding ended, around 1:30 PM, the plaintiff lawyer for the case on behalf of the Human Rights Program of the Ministry of the Interior, Patricia Parra, reported that two of the defendants remained detained.

One is the retired Carabinero Colonel Sergio Arévalo Cid, who was the chief of SICAR, the Carabinero Intelligence Service. The other detainee is José Puga Pascua, a former military officer who was in the Military Intelligence Service.

Lawyer Parra valued the proceeding carried out and said that Judge Aldana has five days to decide the procedural status of the two detainees.

All in all, the situation is complex, as there are no remains of the body to perform new forensic tests and thus contrast the autopsy provided at the time.

Source: Resumen.cl, January 31, 2013

Judge Carlos Aldana sentences former Carabinero colonel to more than 20 years in prison for his participation in emblematic Human Rights cases

Retired Carabinero Colonel Sergio Arévalo Cid (69) was sentenced to effective prison terms of 15 years and one day as the author of two crimes of qualified homicide against Ecuadorian students of the University of Concepción, Felipe Porfirio Campos Carrillo and Freddy Jimmy Torres Villalba, an event that occurred on September 19, 1973, and 5 years and one day as the author of the qualified kidnapping of Héctor Roberto Rodríguez Cárcamo, perpetrated on September 19, 1973.

Likewise, Colonel (ret.) Fernando Pinares Carrasco was acquitted of the accusation that presumed him to be the author of the crimes of qualified homicide of Felipe Porfirio Campos Carrillo and Fredy Jimmy Torres Villalba.

Carabinero officer Renato Guillermo Rodríguez Sullivan was also acquitted of the accusation that presumed him to be the author of the crime of qualified kidnapping of Héctor Roberto Rodríguez Cárcamo.

According to the evidence gathered in the investigation by the special visiting judge for Human Rights cases, Carlos Aldana Fuentes, it was possible to learn and demonstrate the operation of the Carabinero Intelligence Service (SICAR), proving that between September 16 and 19, 1973, Felipe Porfirio Campos Carrillo and Freddy Jimmy Torres Villalba, of Ecuadorian nationality and who were studying at the University of Concepción, were detained without a competent judicial or administrative order by Carabinero officials and taken to the facilities of the Fourth Police Station of Carabineros of Chile in Concepción.

“…being taken out of this place on the 19th of that month and year by Carabinero personnel and transported to the southern mouth of the Bío Bío River, where they were found dead the next day, presenting several bullet impacts on their bodies, the cause of their deaths being multiple gunshot wounds,” the resolution asserted.

On the other hand, it was demonstrated that around 9:30 PM on September 19, 1973, a Carabinero patrol, composed of an officer and two subordinate officials, went to the residence at Carrera 2166 interior in this city, without any judicial or administrative order, detained Héctor Roberto Rodríguez Cárcamo, and transported him to the facilities of the Fourth Police Station of Carabineros of Concepción, located at Salas and San Martín streets.

“…without registering his entry in the corresponding guard books, where he was interrogated by SICAR officials regarding his political activities, circumstances from which all news regarding his destination or whereabouts is unknown,” the ruling indicated.

In the twenty-first consideration of the resolution, it is detailed that despite the denial of the accused Sergio Arévalo Cid, the judge acquires conviction of his culpable participation, “by merit of the witness statements and the very words of the accused Arévalo Cid, in that he recognizes that on September 18, 1973, that is, one day prior to the date of the death of Campos Carrillo and Torres Villalba and the disappearance of Rodríguez, he was in charge, as chief of SICAR, a unit that interrogated and determined the fate of the political prisoners who arrived at the Fourth Police Station of Carabineros of Concepción, the place where the first two were detained and tortured and the third was handed over to the personnel under his command,” the sentence expressed.

It adds that although in official terms the accused was legally incorporated into SICAR on March 10, 1974, it was demonstrated through documents that “it is placed on record that this Officer (Arévalo Cid) began to form the SICAR in this Prefecture on 18-IX-1973, the date on which this service was provisionally formed,” complemented the ruling that resolves -in the first instance- the oldest Human Rights case that was currently being processed under Judge Aldana.

Source: Poder Judicial Concepción, October 21, 2013

Retired uniformed personnel processed for torture of former mayor Fernando Castillo Álvarez

Retired Carabinero Colonel Sergio Arévalo Cid and retired Army Sergeant Major José Francisco Puga Pascua were processed and placed in preventive detention as authors of the torments applied to the former mayor of Concepción, Fernando Álvarez Castillo.

According to the evidence gathered in the investigation being carried out by the judge of the Court of Appeals of Concepción, Carlos Aldana, based on witness statements, documentary evidence, and forensic reports, the participation of State agents in the events that ended with the death of the regional authority was proven.

It was established that in the early hours of September 11, 1973, Carabinero personnel, under the command of Major Mario Omero Cáceres Riquelme, detained the mayor of Concepción at his home, transporting him to the Talcahuano Naval Base, from where he was sent to Quiriquina Island.

He remained detained there until November 5, 1973, the date on which, by order of the then-mayor, Lieutenant General Washington Carrasco Fernández, he was transferred along with other people to the Fourth Police Station of Concepción, where he was placed at the disposal of the Carabinero Intelligence Service (SICAR), under the command of Captain Sergio Arévalo Cid, to be interrogated regarding the alleged existence of weapons hidden in the Province of Concepción.

"Officials of SICAR and the Military Intelligence Service of the III Army Division based in Concepción (E-2) participated in the aforementioned interrogations, during which illegal coercion was applied, consisting of electric shocks and punches, resulting in superficial abrasions accompanied by bruising in the left hip region, until the morning of November 8, when Álvarez Castillo appeared dead in his detention cell," the investigation details.

The autopsy performed at the Legal Medical Institute of Concepción, by doctors Francisco Behm and Guillermo Beddings, determined that the cause of death of the former mayor had been acute anemia due to left hemothorax.

"From the scene reconstruction proceedings on pages 528 and 561, well-founded presumptions arise to estimate that they have had participation as authors in the referred crime, as they interrogated the detainee under illegal coercion while he was captive in the former Fourth Police Station of Carabineros of Concepción," explains Judge Aldana’s resolution.

After being apprehended by personnel of the Investigative Brigade of Crimes against Human Rights and the Homicide Brigade of the Investigative Police of Concepción and being notified of the indictment against them, Arévalo Cid was sent to the Sixth Police Station of Carabineros, while Puga Pascua was sent to the facilities of the Reinforced Regiment No. 7 Chacabuco, to serve their preventive detention.

Source: terra.cl, June 25, 2013

Visiting Judge Carlos Aldana sentences retired Carabinero colonel for Human Rights violations

The special visiting judge for Human Rights cases of the Court of Appeals of Concepción, Carlos Aldana Fuentes, sentenced retired Carabinero Colonel Sergio Arévalo Cid (69) to effective prison terms of 15 years and one day as the author of the qualified homicides of the Ecuadorian students of the University of Concepción, Felipe Porfirio Campos Carrillo and Freddy Jimmy Torres Villalba, crimes perpetrated on September 19, 1973.

Likewise, he sentenced the former officer to a term of 5 years and one day as the author of the qualified kidnapping of Héctor Roberto Rodríguez Cárcamo, perpetrated on September 19, 1973.

In the case, Judge Aldana acquitted Colonel (ret.) Fernando Pinares Carrasco of the crimes of qualified homicide of Campos Carrillo and Torres Villalba; and Renato Guillermo Rodríguez Sullivan of the qualified kidnapping of Rodríguez Cárcamo.

According to the evidence gathered in the investigation by Judge Aldana Fuentes, it was possible to prove that, between September 16 and 19, 1973, Felipe Porfirio Campos Carrillo and Freddy Jimmy Torres Villalba, of Ecuadorian nationality, were detained without a competent judicial or administrative order by Carabinero officials and taken to the facilities of the Fourth Police Station of Concepción.

A facility from which they were removed “by Carabinero personnel and transported to the southern mouth of the Bío Bío River, where they were found dead the next day, presenting several bullet impacts on their bodies, the cause of their deaths being multiple gunshot wounds,” the resolution maintains.

Likewise, it was demonstrated that around 9:30 PM on September 19, 1973, “a Carabinero patrol, composed of an officer and two subordinate officials, went to the residence at Carrera 2166 interior in this city, without any judicial or administrative order, detained Héctor Roberto Rodríguez Cárcamo, and transported him to the facilities of the Fourth Police Station of Carabineros of Concepción, located at Salas and San Martín streets (…), without registering his entry in the corresponding guard books, where he was interrogated by SICAR officials regarding his political activities, circumstances from which all news regarding his destination or whereabouts is unknown,” the resolution adds.

In the twenty-first consideration of the ruling, it is detailed that, despite the denial of the accused, the judge acquires conviction of his culpable participation “by merit of the witness statements and the very words of the accused Arévalo Cid, in that he recognizes that on September 18, 1973, that is, one day prior to the date of the death of Campos Carrillo and Torres Villalba and the disappearance of Rodríguez, he was in charge, as chief of SICAR, a unit that interrogated and determined the fate of the political prisoners who arrived at the Fourth Police Station of Carabineros of Concepción, the place where the first two were detained and tortured and the third was handed over to the personnel under his command.”

The resolution adds that although in official terms the accused was legally incorporated into SICAR on March 10, 1974, it was demonstrated through documentation from the time “that this Officer (Arévalo Cid) began to form the SICAR in this Prefecture on 18-IX-1973, the date on which this service was provisionally formed,” complemented the ruling that resolves -in the first instance- the oldest case for human rights violations being processed by Judge Aldana.

Source: Radio.udechile.cl, October 22, 2013

Former Carabinero Intelligence chief processed for kidnapping of two Coronel residents in 1973

Retired Carabineros officer Sergio Arévalo Cid was prosecuted as the perpetrator of the aggravated kidnapping of Zenón Sáez Fuentes and Hernán Quilagaiza Oxa, with an arrest warrant issued to the PDI’s Concepción Homicide Brigade. The resolution was issued by the minister for human rights cases of the Concepción Court of Appeals, Carlos Aldana.

The events date back to the first days of October 1973, in the commune of Coronel. On October 3, around 11:45 a.m., patrols of military and Carabineros arrived at the Coronel Hospital, where they detained approximately 25 employees of the medical center, including Zenón Sáez Fuentes, a socialist militant and ambulance driver.

They were taken to the Seventh Carabineros Precinct of Coronel. Around 9:00 p.m., the group was removed from the facility and taken to the Lo Rojas police station, where Sáez was interrogated under illegitimate duress, remaining there for 2 to 3 days.

He was subsequently removed from there and taken to the Casa de la Cultura de Enacar, where Hernán Quilagaiza was also being held; he had been apprehended on October 6, at 9:00 a.m., at the offices of the Schwager machine shop by Carabineros.

That same day, October 6, Sáez and Quilagaiza were removed from the site by a Carabineros patrol under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Mario Cáceres Riquelme. They were taken to Concepción to the Fourth Carabineros Precinct—today the First—where they were interrogated by Lieutenant Colonel Cáceres and transferred to the Intelligence Service, where they were again subjected to interrogations.

It was at that unit that certain and verifiable news of both detainees was obtained. It was established during the proceedings that, in order to evade his responsibility, Lieutenant Colonel Cáceres falsely informed the press that Sáez and Quilagaiza had been released.

At that time, Captain Sergio Arévalo Cid was the Chief of the Sicar, and although he has denied his participation in the events during the proceedings, Minister Aldana believes that there are well-founded presumptions "to consider that he corresponds to the participation as an author in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Hernán Quilagaiza and Zenón Sáez, in the capacity of author, insofar as the victims were in the charge of the Carabineros Intelligence Unit that he commanded, a hierarchical organization for which he had responsibility for its work and operation."

This is inferred from the various records collected in the case, for example, from what was stated by Lieutenant Colonel Cáceres in the authorized copy of Confidential Report No. 130, which indicates that he "constituted himself at the Schwager Guest House due to information provided by the Intelligence Services, in search of weapons hidden underground, detaining three individuals identified as the alleged perpetrators: Frank Mardones, an ambulance driver (Sáez), and the Company's radio operator, surnamed Quilagaiza."

Likewise, there are records indicating that the Intelligence Section was created on February 14, 1974, subordinate to the Staff of the IV Zone of Carabineros, commanded by a Captain as Section Chief, a position held by the prosecuted Arévalo Cid since September 19, 1973.

Added to this are the statements of the then-prefect of Concepción, Benjamín Bustos Lagos, and the sub-prefect of Services, Fernando Torres Gacitúa, to the effect that in the days following September 11, 1973, "all political prisoners were in the charge of the Sicar, whose chief was Captain Arévalo Cid, who worked with Commander Cáceres, who was the third man in command at the Prefecture and entirely operational."

Along with issuing an arrest warrant for the accused, under penalty of being declared a fugitive if he is not found or does not appear within 30 days, Minister Aldana also ordered that a mental examination be performed on the accused.

Source: resumen.cl, November 21, 2013

Supreme Court issues sentence for the homicides and kidnapping of University of Concepción students.

The ruling sentenced retired Carabineros Colonel Sergio Arévalo Cid to 15 years and one day in prison for the two homicides, and 5 years and one day in prison for the aggravated kidnapping.

The Supreme Court issued a final sentence in the investigation into the aggravated homicides of Ecuadorian students from the University of Concepción, Felipe Porfirio Campos Carrillo and Freddy Jimmy Torres Villalba, and the aggravated kidnapping of Héctor Roberto Rodríguez Cárcamo, crimes perpetrated on September 19, 1973.

In a split decision, the Second Chamber of the highest Court, composed of ministers Hugo Dolmestch, Carlos Künsemüller, Haroldo Brito, Andrea Muñoz, and Jorge Dahm, sentenced retired Carabineros Colonel Sergio Arévalo Cid to 15 years and one day in prison for the two homicides, and 5 years and one day in prison for the aggravated kidnapping.

Likewise, the resolution of the visiting minister Carlos Aldana was confirmed, which acquitted retired Colonel Fernando Pinares Carrasco of the aggravated homicides of Campos Carrillo and Torres Villalba, and Renato Guillermo Rodríguez Sullivan of the aggravated kidnapping of Rodríguez Cárcamo.

The Supreme Court's sentence accepts the cassation appeal filed against the sentence of the Concepción Court of Appeals, which had convicted Pinares Carrasco for responsibility in the homicides.

According to the records gathered during the investigation stage, Minister Aldana managed to prove that, between September 16 and 19, 1973, Felipe Porfirio Campos Carrillo and Freddy Jimmy Torres Villalba, of Ecuadorian nationality, were detained without a competent judicial or administrative order by Carabineros officers and taken to the facilities of the Fourth Precinct of Concepción.

They were removed from this police facility "by Carabineros personnel and taken to the southern mouth of the Bío Bío River, where they were found dead the following day, presenting several bullet impacts on their bodies, the cause of their deaths being multiple gunshot wounds."

The resolution also points out that around 9:30 p.m. on September 19, 1973, "a Carabineros patrol, composed of an officer and two subordinate officials, went to the address at Calle Carrera 2166 interior, in this city, without any judicial or administrative order, detained Héctor Roberto Rodríguez Cárcamo and took him to the facilities of the Fourth Carabineros Precinct of Concepción, located at the corner of Calle Salas and San Martín (…), without registering his entry in the corresponding guard books, where he was interrogated by Sicar officials regarding his political activities, circumstances from which all news regarding his destination or whereabouts is unknown."

It is further detailed that, despite the accused's denial, the judge acquired conviction of his culpable participation "on the merits of the witnesses' statements and the own words of the accused Arévalo Cid, in that he acknowledges that on September 18, 1973—that is, one day prior to the date of the death of Campos Carrillo and Torres Villalba and the disappearance of Rodríguez—he was in charge, as chief of the Sicar, of the unit that interrogated and determined the fate of the political prisoners who arrived at the Fourth Carabineros Precinct of Concepción, the place where the first two were detained and tortured and the third was handed over to the personnel under his command."

The resolution adds that although in official terms the accused was legally incorporated into the Sicar on March 10, 1974, documentation from the time demonstrated "that this officer (Arévalo Cid) began to form the Sicar in this Prefecture on 9-18-1973, the date on which this service was provisionally formed," which complements the ruling that resolves, in the first instance, the oldest human rights violation case being processed by Minister Aldana.

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl, April 27, 2016

Supreme Court convicts retired Carabineros officer for the application of torture against the former Intendant of Concepción.

The highest Court confirmed the sentence that convicted Sergio Arévalo Cid and José Francisco Puga Pascua to 4 years in prison, with the benefit of supervised release, for torture applied to Fernando Álvarez Castillo.

In a split decision, the Supreme Court convicted two retired members of the Carabineros for their responsibility in illegitimate duress resulting in the death of the former Intendant of the Concepción province, Fernando Álvarez Castillo, which occurred on November 8, 1973, at the Isla Quiriquina naval base.

The chamber of the highest Court considered the penalty applied by the Concepción Court of Appeals, which increased the sanction applied by Visiting Minister Carlos Aldana, to be appropriate.

The sentence points out that, without prejudice to the fact that the reasons expressed above are sufficient to determine the fate of the appeal under study, this court deems it appropriate to point out that even if the aforementioned defect had not been incurred, it could not prosper, since the second paragraph of article 150 No. 1 of the Penal Code in force at the time of the events prescribes that "if the application of torture or the unnecessary rigor employed results in injuries or death of the patient, the penalties indicated for these crimes in their maximum degrees shall be applied to the person responsible."

Thus, according to the grammatical element of interpretation of the expression "these crimes," it cannot be understood that it refers to the expressions "injuries or death," since they were not used as equivalents of the criminal types of injury or homicide, but in relation to the result of the crime of application of torture or unnecessary rigor, a consequence that entails the application of the penalty for these crimes to the maximum, that is, those of application of torture or unnecessary rigor, which are the only ones mentioned by the cited norm.

To maintain the contrary would mean recognizing objective responsibility, which is not consistent with the principles of modern criminal law, since the agent who applied the torture or unnecessary rigor would be sanctioned based on the result of injuries or death caused by his negligence or imprudence.

Finally, the reasoning carried out by the judges is not contrary to the reliable history of the law, since, as the appellant himself acknowledges, the second paragraph was added with the object of avoiding the application of a meager penalty, which is remedied in this case by providing that if the result of injuries or death occurs, the penalty indicated for the crime of application of torture or unnecessary rigor in its maximum degree is applied.

Minister Aldana's investigation determined that:

a) That in the early hours of September 11, 1973, a group of Carabineros de Chile, under the command of Major Mario Omero Cáceres Riquelme, proceeded to detain the Intendant of the Province of Concepción, Mr.

Fernando Álvarez Castillo, at his home, and he was taken to the facilities of the Talcahuano Naval Base, from where he was sent to Isla Quiriquina, where he remained imprisoned until November 5, 1973, the date on which, by order of the then-Intendant of the province of Concepción, Lieutenant General Washington Carrasco Fernández, he was transferred along with other people to the then-Fourth Carabineros Precinct of Concepción, where he was placed at the disposal of the Carabineros Intelligence Service under the command of Captain Sergio Arévalo Cid, in order to be interrogated about the alleged existence of weapons hidden in the province of Concepción.

b) That officials of the Carabineros de Chile Intelligence Service (Sicar) and the Military Intelligence Service of the III Army Division based in Concepción (E2) participated in the aforementioned interrogations, at which time illegitimate duress consisting of electric shocks and punches was applied to the victim Álvarez Castillo, resulting in superficial abrasions accompanied by bruising in the left hip region.

c) That on the morning of November 8, Álvarez Castillo appeared dead in his prison cell, due to acute anemia caused by a left hemothorax, originated by the violent action of his guards while they were interrogating him under the application of torture by electricity and blows to the body.

In the civil aspect, the State was ordered to pay compensation of $360,000,000 to the victim's spouse and children.

The decision was adopted with the dissenting vote of Minister Juica. In the opinion of the dissenter, the substantial error is concretized in the improper application of article 150 of the Penal Code, which refers by extension, for this case, to the crime of homicide, a norm that did not need to be expressly violated because said breach is produced implicitly with the evocation of the first norm and, furthermore, coincides with the cause of substantial nullity provided for in No. 1 of article 546 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, since in this situation, although the sentence qualified the crime according to the law—unnecessary duress resulting in death—the truth is that the legal mistake occurred when imposing on the convicted persons a penalty less than what was legally appropriate, incurring an error of law in fixing the nature and degree of the penalty.

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl, June 6, 2018

Concepción Court rejects request from Punta Peuco inmate to serve sentence at home.

The request of a Punta Peuco prisoner, a retired Carabineros officer, to serve the remainder of the nearly 40 years of prison to which he has been sentenced for human rights violations in the Bío Bío Region at home was rejected.

Sergio Arévalo Cid, now 81 years old, received his first sentence five years ago, and has now asked the minister of the Concepción Court of Appeals, Carlos Aldana, to allow him to serve the sanctions under total house arrest, arguing his old age, state of health, and also invoking international treaties signed by Chile regarding human rights.

Lawyer Patricia Parra, an expert in crimes against humanity cases, expressed her satisfaction with the magistrate's decision, arguing that the sentences against Arévalo are also a way of repairing the damage caused to the victims of the dictatorship.

According to Minister Aldana's resolution, after analyzing reports from the Legal Medical Service on the convicted person, no health problems are observed.

Likewise, regarding the Inter-American Convention on Protecting the Human Rights of Older Persons, it does not contain aspects that regulate alternative fulfillment of custodial sentences.

Source: radiobiobio.cl, April 5, 2019

Amidst the orgy of crimes and violence unleashed following the military coup of September 1973, young Ecuadorians Felipe Campos Carrillo and Jimmy Torres Villalba met their deaths on Chilean soil. They were Baptist evangelicals with no political affiliation.

The former was studying Engineering and the latter Kinesiology, both 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 made by José Florentino Fuentes Castro, a retired Carabineros sergeant convicted in the "Caso Degollados" (Degollados Case), during 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 bastards hanging there all night. And the bastards didn't want to talk. And there was the bald guy who was a major.

That bastard ordered those bastards 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 killed. “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 until now was the head of SICAR, Colonel Sergio Arévalos Cid, but this evidence identifies other individuals involved and confirms the order to execute the detainees.

In the audio, laughter can be heard amidst the account of how the bodies of the riddled 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 bastards 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 about the case of the two students while collaborating with an initiative by human rights organizations in Chile and Ecuador to file a criminal complaint before the Supreme Court of that country against Augusto Pinochet, who was traveling there to participate in a meeting of the Chiefs of the Armies 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 “possibly were into something, I don’t know (…) Unfortunately, in these cases, the innocent suffer for the guilty”…

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 there had been a “Marxist guerrilla army” composed of thousands of people from different parts of Latin America.

For example, an editorial in “El Mercurio” maintained on September 28, 1973: “Throughout the last three years, the extremist and terrorist elements of the continent found refuge, protection, and help in this country for their activities,” 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 Penquista 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 mouth of the Bío Bío river (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, they 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 in which the murder was allegedly carried out.” It concluded: “The uniformed police are working arduously” on the clarification of “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 lacked any 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 with extremists, pointing out that the young men lived with some of those “elements” at the University and, therefore, they could have executed them “upon knowing that they were not addicted to their ideas, and fearing that 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 the 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 heard by the students, which earned them the congratulations of the police (…) Later, 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 today 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 Penquista 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 without an answer.”

They were waked at the Temple of the First Baptist Church of Concepción, where Campos worshipped, accompanied occasionally 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 Bible 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, appearing “very satisfied with the situation of calm that it is experiencing.” He noted: “From what the institution has informed me and from what I was able to appreciate, 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 extremist foreigners and a large quantity of weapons 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 the police action aimed at locating him, since his capture was ordered to all units in the country.” The arrest 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 to be developed throughout the country on September 17.” It was referring to “Plan Zeta,” 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 this “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 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 accredited in 1990 that the students were held in 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 out on the night of September 19 by a large police caravan that left from the guardhouse on Salas Street, and transported to the area of the southern mouth 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 were they murdered? They were university students, they were foreigners, and they even looked Cuban. That is why they were detained, tortured in 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, told 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 in 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 situation as foreigners. “The consul was not there and his wife recommended they present themselves to the Carabineros.

That is what they did.” 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, torturing, and killing him, but they incinerated him,” he denounced.

The tyranny, in effect, 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

Former Carabineros officer and 3 former Navy officers prosecuted for kidnapping and torture of workers detained on Isla Quiriquina in Talcahuano

The minister on special assignment for human rights violation cases of the Court of Appeals of Concepción, Yolanda Méndez Mardones, issued an indictment against a former Carabineros colonel for his responsibility in the crimes of kidnapping with serious injury and the application of torture perpetrated starting July 13, 1974, against Armando Eugenio Aburto Hermosilla, a worker at the Compañía de Acero del Pacífico SA, Huachipato plant.

She also issued an indictment against three former Navy officers for their responsibility in the crimes of kidnapping with serious injury and the application of torture against ASMAR (Astilleros y Maestranzas de la Armada) welder Rubén Darío Oñate Alarcón, perpetrated in October 1973 in Talcahuano and Isla Quiriquina.

In the resolution (case file 12-2018), Minister Méndez Mardones prosecuted the former officer and operational agent of the Regional Intelligence Center (CIRE), Sergio Arévalo Cid, as the perpetrator of crimes against humanity against the steel worker, who was detained at the General Headquarters of the III Army Division, the Public Jail of Concepción, and Isla Quiriquina.

CAP Worker In the early hours of July 13, 1974, Armando Eugenio Aburto Hermosilla, then 39 years old, was detained at his home on Bulnes Street in the city of Concepción. A group of CIRE agents commanded by José Francisco Puga Pascua (now deceased), who belonged to the Army, broke into his home, ordering him to hand over all Communist Party documents.

When the victim indicated that he did not possess such documents, they told him he was under arrest.

The CIRE structure was directed by the Chief of the Third Army Division and the Chief of the Second Naval Zone, and was also composed of different officials from the military and order and security institutions, including members of the SICAR (Carabineros Intelligence Service), whose Chief of Operations was the then-Captain Sergio Arévalo Cid.

This same agent was the one who entrusted investigation tasks regarding people opposed to the dictatorial regime and carried out the detentions with personnel under his command.

In the present case, after detaining Armando Aburto Hermosilla, they put a hood on him, put him in a vehicle, and drove him to the facilities of the Third Army Division, located in the heart of the city of Concepción, at the corner of Castellón and O'Higgins streets. Once there, they left him in a gymnasium located inside that Army facility, where there were around 70 people in detention.

To interrogate him, they took him to an office, where they stripped him and used an instrument to apply electricity to the most sensitive parts of his body—his ears, nipples, and also the genital area—through an electric conductor.

The torture sessions occurred every two hours and lasted for five days; there was a radio turned on at full volume in the room so that his screams would not be heard and to make him lose his sense of time.

Likewise, they made him place his hands on the table, and when he began to doze off, one of the agents would come from behind and strike him hard on the ears with both hands, a torture method known as the “telephone.”

According to records in the case initiated at the time in the Third Military Court of Concepción, which was reviewed, Armando Aburto Hermosilla was detained on July 13, 1974, along with nine other people, and after having his statement taken, he was admitted to the public jail of this city on July 19, 1974.

Later, the processing of said case was suspended and the accused were “released” but placed at the disposal of the DINA, that is, detained in other facilities.

The victim, Armando Aburto Hermosilla, remained a prisoner until April 8, 1975, being subjected to torture and illegitimate coercion in the various places where he was held: General Headquarters of the III Army Division, Public Jail of Concepción, Isla Quiriquina Prisoner Camp in Talcahuano, and, finally, returned to the Public Jail of Concepción.

Minister Méndez Mardones points out in her resolution: “That the illicit acts described above are, furthermore, crimes against humanity, since the punishable acts were perpetrated in a context of serious, massive, and systematic violations of the Human Rights of the detained persons, verified by State agents who had at their disposal all the material and economic means to carry out a state policy of exclusion, harassment, persecution, and/or extermination of citizens who, immediately after and subsequent to September 11, 1973, were labeled as belonging to or sympathizing with the political regime deposed by the military government that assumed control of the country from the indicated date.”

Meanwhile, the prosecuted Sergio Arévalo Cid is currently being held at the Punta Peuco Penitentiary Compliance Center serving a sentence for other human rights crimes, so he must be notified of this new indictment against him at that location.

ASMAR worker kidnapped and tortured at Naval Base, Fuerte Borgoño, and Isla Quiriquina

In another case handled by the minister, she issued an indictment against three former Navy officers for their responsibility in the crimes of kidnapping with serious injury and the application of torture against ASMAR (Astilleros y Maestranzas de la Armada) welder Rubén Darío Oñate Alarcón, perpetrated in October 1973 in Talcahuano and Isla Quiriquina.

In the resolution (case file 13-2018, notebook O), the minister prosecuted former naval officers Luis Eduardo Kohler Herrera, José Raúl Cáceres González, and Julio Humberto Salvador Alarcón Saavedra as co-perpetrators of crimes against humanity against the worker, who was detained at Fuerte Borgoño, the Talcahuano Naval Base, and Isla Quiriquina.

In the judicial investigation, Minister Méndez Mardones managed to prove that Rubén Darío Oñate Alarcón, then 30 years old, who worked as a welder at ASMAR, was detained on October 20, 1973, around 12:00 PM, while he was working overtime inside a ship.

In the incident, he was called to the deck by a Captain, who escorted him to the entrance of ASMAR where the then-Navy Corvette Captain, Luis Eduardo Kohler Herrera, was waiting for him. Without any reason, he struck him in the chest with a rifle butt and then struck him squarely on the right eyebrow, and immediately gave the order to put him in a jeep-type vehicle, face down, while the soldiers placed their boots against his neck.

In those conditions, they transported him to the facilities of Fuerte Borgoño, located on the Tumbes peninsula.

Once at Fuerte Borgoño, the prisoner Rubén Oñate was taken to a room, where he was interrogated about an alleged visit to Cuba, and since they deemed that the detainee was lying, they beat him fiercely; immediately afterward, they took him outside and made him run along an inclined path, while some agents kicked him and a truck drove over his legs at the height of his knees.

He was also subjected to what is called a “submarine,” consisting of submerging his head in muddy water in a kind of lagoon that was in the sector, and on other occasions in a drum with sewage, urine, and fecal matter, in addition to continuing to beat him after being resuscitated.

Additionally, he was subjected to a mock execution, by virtue of which they blindfolded him and put a weapon to his head; likewise, during the days he remained at Fuerte Borgoño, he received no food or water.

After seven days subjected to abuse, he was taken to the gymnasium of the Talcahuano Naval Base, and after a couple of months in that place, he was taken to Isla Quiriquina, where he remained until May 9, 1974.

Likewise, the minister records in her resolution the nature of crimes against humanity committed in this event. In the case, the visiting minister ordered the PDI Human Rights Crimes Investigation Brigade to personally notify the prosecuted Kohler Herrera and Cáceres González of the resolution issued, while for Salvador Alarcón Saavedra, said procedure will be carried out by Gendarmerie officials, as he is being held at the Punta Peuco Penitentiary Compliance Center serving a sentence for other human rights crimes.

By Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl, November 5, 2022

Minister Yolanda Méndez prosecutes retired Carabineros colonel for kidnapping and torture of steel worker

In the resolution (case file 12-2018), Minister Méndez Mardones prosecuted Sergio Arévalo Cid as the perpetrator of crimes against humanity against the worker, who was detained at the General Headquarters of the III Army Division, the public jail of Concepción, and Isla Quiriquina.

The minister on special assignment for human rights violation cases of the Court of Appeals of Concepción, Yolanda Méndez Mardones, issued an indictment against a retired Carabineros colonel for his responsibility in the crimes of kidnapping with serious injury and the application of torture against Armando Eugenio Aburto Hermosilla, a worker at the Compañía de Acero del Pacífico SA, Huachipato plant.

The illicit acts were perpetrated starting July 13, 1974.

In the resolution (case file 12-2018), Minister Méndez Mardones prosecuted Sergio Arévalo Cid as the perpetrator of crimes against humanity against the worker, who was detained at the General Headquarters of the III Army Division, the public jail of Concepción, and Isla Quiriquina.

During the investigation stage of the case, the visiting minister gathered sufficient evidence to consider the following facts proven:

“a) That around 03:15 AM on July 13, 1974, while Mr. Armando Eugenio Aburto Hermosilla—then 39 years old—was at his home located at Bulnes No. 276 in the city of Concepción, together with his family group consisting of his spouse, Mrs.

Gabriela Betancour Benavente, who was six months pregnant, and two of his three daughters, a group of CIRE (Regional Intelligence Center) agents commanded by José Francisco Puga Pascua, now deceased, who belonged to the Army, entered his home violently and armed with submachine guns, ordering him to hand over all Communist Party documents.

When the victim indicated that he did not possess such documents, they told him he was under arrest.

b) That, at that time, the CIRE structure was directed by the Chief of the Third Army Division and the Chief of the Second Naval Zone, and was also composed of different officials from the military and order and security institutions, including members of the SICAR (Carabineros Intelligence Service), whose Chief of Operations was Captain Sergio Arévalo Cid, and who, according to the evidence gathered in this investigation, was the one who entrusted the tasks to be carried out related to political investigations, and if such investigations resulted in the detention of people, these were carried out by CIRE officials who received express instructions from Captain Arévalo Cid.

c) That, under the noted circumstances, without a competent judicial or administrative order, the agents took Mr. Armando Eugenio Aburto Hermosilla out of his home, immediately put two hoods on him, and put him in a vehicle that was parked on the street, transporting him to the Third Army Division, located at the corner of Castellón and O’Higgins streets in this city.

d) That, once there, they left him in a gymnasium located inside that Army facility, where there were around 70 people sitting on the floor, and when the soldiers guarding them passed by, they kicked them and treated them with insults.

e) That, to interrogate him, they took him to an office, where they stripped him and used an instrument—a kind of crochet hook—to apply electricity to the most sensitive parts of his body—his ears, nipples, and also the genital area—through an electric conductor.

These torture sessions occurred every two hours for five days; there was a radio turned on at full volume in the room so that his screams would not be heard and, furthermore, to make him lose his sense of time.

Likewise, they made him place his hands on the table, and when he began to doze off, one of the agents would come from behind and strike him hard on the ears with both hands, a torture method known as the “telephone.” f) That, as stated in the authorized copy of case File No. 1116-74, filed in the Third Military Court of Concepción, which was reviewed, Mr.

Armando Aburto Hermosilla was detained on July 13, 1974, along with nine other people, as recorded in C.G.III.D.E.E.2 (2) No. 2426/26, of July 15, 1974, which reports on a clandestine Communist Party organization, and after having his statement taken and having been admitted to the public jail of this city on July 19, 1974, the processing of said case was suspended and the accused were released and placed at the disposal of the DINA.

g) That according to evidence in this case, and sent from the Archive of the Archbishopric of Concepción, Mr. Armando Aburto Hermosilla was detained by order of the Military Authority and by virtue of the State of Siege existing at the time, on July 13, 1974, remaining imprisoned until April 8, 1975, in the following places: General Headquarters of the III Army Division, where he was kept blindfolded and subjected to torture and illegitimate coercion; later he was in the public jail of Concepción; subsequently he was taken to the Isla Quiriquina Prisoner Camp in Talcahuano; and, finally, he was returned to the public jail of Concepción, from where he was released unconditionally on April 8, 1975, without charges.”

For the court: “(…) the facts referred to in the preceding consideration constitute the crimes of kidnapping with serious injury and the application of torture, provided for and punished in articles 141, paragraph 3, and 150, No. 1 of the Penal Code, in its text in force at the time of the investigated events, in the consummated degree, committed against Mr.

Armando Eugenio Aburto Hermosilla, starting July 13, 1974.”

Likewise, it records: “That the illicit acts described above are, furthermore, crimes against humanity, since the punishable acts were perpetrated in a context of serious, massive, and systematic violations of the Human Rights of the detained persons, verified by State agents who had at their disposal all the material and economic means to carry out a state policy of exclusion, harassment, persecution, and/or extermination of citizens who, immediately after and subsequent to September 11, 1973, were labeled as belonging to or sympathizing with the political regime deposed by the military government that assumed control of the country from the indicated date.”

Because the prosecuted is currently being held at the Punta Peuco Penitentiary Compliance Center, Minister Méndez Mardones ordered that Gendarmerie personnel must notify him of the indictment issued against him, “(…) who must report to the Court on the fulfillment of this mandate, that is, notification of the indictment, with an indication of whether the prosecuted appeals this resolution at the time of notification or if he reserves the right to appeal.”

Source: Judiciary, November 4, 2022

Retired Carabineros colonel Sergio Arévalo Cid (84) dies in Punta Peuco; he was sentenced to more than 40 years in prison

Retired Carabineros colonel Sergio Arévalo Cid (84) dies in Punta Peuco; he was sentenced to more than 40 years in prison as the perpetrator of qualified kidnapping, perpetrated in September 1973.

The detainees “were removed by Carabineros personnel and transported to the area of the southern mouth of the Bío Bío river, where they were found dead the next day, presenting several bullet impacts on their bodies, the cause of their deaths being multiple bullet wounds,” the resolution maintains.

A confession by José Florentino Fuentes Castro, a retired Carabineros sergeant convicted in the “Caso Degollados,” 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 bastards hanging there all night. And the bastards didn't want to talk. And there was the bald guy who was a major. That bastard ordered those bastards to be killed.

And do you know where we took them? To the river mouth.” In the dialogue, it is specified 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 killed. “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 until now was the head of SICAR, Colonel Sergio Arévalos Cid, but with this evidence, other individuals involved are identified and the order to execute the detainees is confirmed.

In the audio, laughter can be heard amidst the account of how the bodies of the riddled 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 bastards had a money receipt in their wallets.”

And 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.”

Source: Piensaprensa.cl, July 30, 2024