The visiting minister of the Temuco Court of Appeals, Fernando Carreño Ortega, issued a first-instance conviction regarding the kidnapping and qualified homicide of Juan Bastías Riquelme, Leomeres Monroy Seguel, and Hernaldo Aguilera Salas, all of which occurred in October 1973 in the town of Freire, Araucanía Region.

The magistrate determined the following sentences against retired officers of the Carabineros de Chile, who participated in the events described below: Retired Carabineros Sergeant 2nd Class Camilo Cumilaf Nahuelfil : acquitted due to lack of participation in the qualified kidnapping of Juan Bastías Riquelme.

Retired Carabineros Sergeant 2nd Class Erasmo Henríquez Palma : sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison for the qualified homicides of Leomeres Monroy Seguel and Hernaldo Aguilera Salas. Retired Carabineros Sergeant 1st Class Juan Pasmiño Sepúlveda : sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison for the qualified homicides of Leomeres Monroy Seguel and Hernaldo Aguilera Salas.

Retired Carabinero Luis Henríquez Apablaza : sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison for the qualified homicides of Leomeres Monroy Seguel and Hernaldo Aguilera Salas. Retired Carabineros Sergeant 1st Class Juan Hernández Ponce : sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison for the qualified homicides of Leomeres Monroy Seguel and Hernaldo Aguilera Salas.

Retired Carabineros Sub-officer Ramón Arias Unzueta : sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison for the qualified homicides of Leomeres Monroy Seguel and Hernaldo Aguilera Salas. This is the eleventh conviction by Minister Fernando Carreño in cases linked to human rights violations and the seventh so far in the year 2008.

Source: pjud.cl, October 10, 2008

Ruling against former Carabineros for human rights violations confirmed

The Temuco Court of Appeals ratified yesterday the sentences of 10 years and one day in prison against five retired Carabineros officers, accused of human rights violations in 1973. The convicted individuals are Luis Henríquez Apablaza, Juan Palmiño Sepúlveda, Ramón Arias Unzueta, Erasmo Enrique Palma, and Juan Hernando Sprai , from the Freire Precinct , who will not have the possibility of accessing benefits.

The former uniformed officers participated in the double qualified homicide of agricultural leaders Leomeres Monroy Seguel (25) and Hernaldo Aguilera Salas (28), in October 1973. The former police officers began serving their sentences in the Temuco prison, the location to which they have already been transferred.

Source: La Nación, February 6, 2009

Supreme Court issues convictions against former Carabineros and former detectives for dictatorship-era crimes

Convictions confirmed for two former Carabineros for the crime of an agricultural worker in Freire in 1973 The Supreme Court convicted two former Carabineros stationed at the Freire Precinct at the time of the events for their responsibility in the consummated crime of the qualified kidnapping of agricultural worker Alejo Barriga Nahuelhual, committed starting on October 17, 1973, in the aforementioned commune.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 247.871-2023), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of Minister Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Ministers María Teresa Letelier and María Cristina Gajardo, and acting attorneys Pía Tavolari and Eduardo Gandulfo—rejected the appeal filed by the convicted individuals and confirmed the sentence that condemned Ramón Arias Unzueta and Juan Arturo Hernández Ponce to 13-year prison terms as authors of the crime.

The other convicted individuals, Juan Héctor Pasmiño Sepúlveda and Erasmo Ananías Henríquez Palma, passed away after the first-instance ruling was issued. The facts The judicial investigation established that after September 11, 1973, the most senior and trusted personnel of the head of the Freire Carabineros Precinct, Lieutenant Luis Hidalgo López (now deceased), were in charge of operational tasks.

Among them were Juan Pasmiño Sepúlveda, Erasmo Ananías Henríquez Palma, Juan Arturo Hernández Ponce, Ramón Arias Unzueta, and the now-deceased Hugo Avendaño Valk and Luis Henríquez Apablaza. This same group was responsible for carrying out arrests for political reasons; those apprehended were taken to the unit's cells and interrogated by Lieutenant Luis Hidalgo López without being entered into the guard logs.

In this sense, the heads of each Carabineros unit had the autonomy to detain individuals and place them at the disposal of the corresponding Prosecutor's Office. Alejo Barriga Nahuelhual, a 40-year-old widower, had allegedly been detained in 1972 for a common crime at the Freire Carabineros Precinct, but he escaped from the police unit by taking advantage of a lapse in attention by the guard sub-officer, Juan Pasmiño Sepúlveda.

A summary investigation was opened in which Pasmiño was sanctioned with fifteen days of arrest and a notation in his service record for acting with inexcusable negligence in the custody of the detainee.

On the night of October 17, 1973, a neighbor of Alejo Barriga Nahuelhual heard gunshots coming from his house, so he went outside and observed a Carabineros vehicle in front of Barriga's house, located approximately 100 meters from his own.

The next day, the neighbor went with his son to Alejo Barriga's house, seeing the door destroyed, the bed completely stained with blood, and traces of blood leading out the front door toward the yard, indicating that he had been dragged.

The same neighbor knew that on previous occasions, Freire Carabineros had gone to look for Alejo Barriga to arrest him, without finding him on any of those occasions. Likewise, they learned that two local peasants had been arrested the same previous night.

Alejo's sister went to her brother's house the following day and was able to see a trail of blood from inside the house to the street, noticing that all the property's belongings were scattered, in addition to broken glass and cups.

On several occasions, the sister went to the Freire Precinct to ask about Alejo without receiving any answers; the whereabouts of Alejo Barriga Nahuelhual remain unknown to this day. Convictions confirmed for two former detectives for the crime of a resident in La Legua in 1973 The Supreme Court rejected the appeal filed against the sentence that convicted two former detective inspectors of the Fifth Judicial Precinct of the PDI (Investigations Police) for their responsibility in the consummated crime of the qualified kidnapping of Sergio Hernán Valdovinos Pérez, committed starting in December 1973 in the La Legua neighborhood of Santiago. In a unanimous ruling (case file 18.231-2024), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed in this case by Minister Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Ministers Eliana Quezada and María Carolina Catepillán, and acting attorneys Pía Tavolari and Juan Carlos Ferrada—ratified the sentence that condemned Julio Avilés Romero and René Humberto Martínez Rivas to 6 years in prison as authors of the crime. The judicial investigation established that on December 19, 1973, Sergio Hernán Valdovinos Pérez, a 29-year-old master painter, was detained at the corner of Avenida Santa Rosa and Placer by police officers from the Fifth Judicial Precinct of the Investigations Police. Among the apprehending officers were Inspector Sergio Orlando Paiva Aravena and detectives Julio Avilés Romero and René Humberto Martínez Rivas, who took the detainee to the Fifth Precinct facility that operated at the General Headquarters of the Investigations Police, located on Calle General Mackenna in the commune of Santiago, where he was kept prisoner and subjected to interrogations and illegitimate duress. The following day, the PDI officers took Valdovinos Pérez out of the facility and brought him to the La Legua neighborhood to point out the residence of three other people who were also detained and transferred to the aforementioned Fifth Investigations Precinct. On December 21, 1973, in the afternoon, Inspector Sergio Paiva Aravena and detectives Julio Avilés Romero and René Martínez Rivas again took Sergio Valdovinos Pérez out of the police unit in a car driven by police assistant Ignacio Israel Olarte Sepúlveda, also carrying another of the individuals detained in the La Legua neighborhood. They headed to Calle Franklin, where they detained a fifth person, and then moved to the La Legua neighborhood, parking the vehicle in which they were traveling on Calle Santa Elisa, in the vicinity of the home of one of the people detained the day before. The PDI officers prepared to carry out a raid on the home of Sergio Hernán Valdovinos Pérez and made him get out of the police vehicle. At that moment, the detainee Valdovinos Pérez allegedly tried to flee, but the fact is that police assistant Ignacio Olarte Sepúlveda killed him with a gunshot to the thorax. by Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl, July 21, 2025