Arturo Alejandro Navarrete Leiva, single, 21 years old at the time of his detention, a railway worker, was detained on October 11, 1973, at approximately 8:45 PM on Calle Basilio Urrutia, in front of the "Diana" soda fountain in the city of Temuco.

His arrest was witnessed by numerous people who saw soldiers force him and another person into the vehicle they were using, after which he was taken to an unknown destination. The day after the events, his mother, Magdalena Leiva Fritis, having been informed by one of the witnesses to the apprehension, went to the Tucapel Regiment, the FACH (Chilean Air Force) base, and the city jail, only to be told at all these locations that her son was not in the prisoner registries.

All subsequent efforts made by his family to discover the fate of Arturo Navarrete were unsuccessful.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDINGS

On July 4, 1979, his mother, previously identified, filed a complaint for alleged disappearance, which was added to case 2-79, presided over by Visiting Judge Alfredo Meynet González, who investigated the cases of the forcibly disappeared persons from the Department of Temuco.

On October 25, 1979, the Judge declared himself incompetent to continue hearing the case and referred the records to the IV Military Court of Valdivia, on the grounds that all the persons whose disappearance was being investigated had been detained on different occasions and in different places by personnel from the Carabineros, the Army, or the Air Force, in various patrols acting unequivocally in the line of duty; he concluded that it was reasonable to presume some form of responsibility for the disappearance of these persons on the part of the uniformed personnel who carried out their confirmed detention.

In December of that year, the Military Court accepted jurisdiction and ordered the Cautín Military Prosecutor's Office to investigate case 1192-79. In the investigation order issued by said Prosecutor's Office and carried out by the Investigative Police, it was reported that the victim was not registered at the city's Identification Office (despite having an identity card issued by that office), nor was he registered in the Statistics Section of the Temuco Public Jail.

The mother and a sister of the victim were also interviewed and confirmed the circumstances of his arrest. Of particular relevance is the interview conducted with José Fernando Rivas Zapata, a former coworker of Arturo Navarrete, who stated that on October 11, 1973, around 8:30 PM, he was walking with his friend "Zapatín" along Calle Basilio Urrutia.

Upon reaching the intersection with Calle Janequeo, he noticed his friend Arturo Navarrete exit the "Diana" soda fountain, quite drunk, in the company of another young man with whom he was arguing over a parka.

At that moment, two soldiers with rifles arrived and attempted to detain them, but he approached and told the soldiers that they were his friends and that he would take them home. However, another pair of soldiers appeared and prepared to detain all four.

His friend "El Zapatín" intervened in the argument and, addressing the soldier in charge, showed him a badge identifying him as a Reserve Corporal, stating that they had nothing to do with the two "drunkards." The soldiers, who appeared to be those on duty in the military housing sector, took his friend and the person he was arguing with into custody.

The next day, he communicated what had happened to Arturo Navarrete's family. Finally, the Investigative Police added in their report to the Prosecutor's Office that, upon consulting the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement institutions of the city, it was stated that he was not entered or registered as a detainee.

In April 1980, José Fernando Rivas Zapata appeared before the Military Prosecutor's Office, ratifying what he had declared to the Investigative Police and adding that his friend, whom he knew only as "El Zapatín," could provide information regarding the victim's detention.

Finally, he provided the court with the possible address of his friend "El Zapatín," whom he believed, at the time of his statement, to be serving in the Army in the city of Punta Arenas. There is no record in the proceedings of the Prosecutor's Office having taken any steps to identify and locate the person mentioned as "El Zapatín."

On October 24, 1980, the Military Judge dismissed the case in its entirety and permanently by virtue of the 1978 Amnesty Decree Law.

Source: Corporation report

Six retired military personnel were sentenced to 13 years in prison for the murder of a railway worker that occurred during the dictatorship. They are Manuel Rafael Campos Ceballos, Manuel Reinaldo Canales Valdés, Juan Carlos Concha Belmar, Gabriel Alfonso Dittus Marín, Sergio Orlando Vallejos Garcés, and Héctor Mauricio Villablanca Huenulao.

During the investigation led by the extraordinary visiting judge for human rights violation cases of the Temuco Court of Appeals, Álvaro Mesa, it was established that the events occurred on October 11, 1973.

That day, the 21-year-old railway worker, ARTURO ALEJANDRO NAVARRETE LEIVA, was detained at approximately 8:45 PM on Calle Basilio Urrutia. Witnesses saw how the soldiers forced him, along with another person, into the vehicle they were using.

He was taken to the banks of the Cautín River in the Población Amanecer sector, and at that location, by order of Second Lieutenant Manuel Espinoza Ponce, they shot him and then threw his body into the current.

The following day, his mother, Magdalena Leiva Fritis, informed by one of the witnesses to his detention, went to the Tucapel Regiment, the FACH Air Base in Temuco, and the city's public jail, where she was informed that her son was not in the prisoner registry.

For their authorship of the events, Judge Mesa sentenced the 6 retired Army officials to 13 years in prison for the crime of qualified homicide. In the civil aspect, he ordered the State to pay the sum of 150 million pesos as compensation for damages, for moral injury resulting from the murder of Arturo Navarrete Leiva, in amounts distributed in the sentence.

Source: biobio.cl, February 21, 2017

Date: 21-02-2017

The Supreme Court confirmed a sentence reduction, from 13 to 5 years in prison, and granted supervised release to six soldiers who, in October 1973, murdered a worker and threw his body into a river, where it has not been found since, judicial sources reported today.

Arturo Alejandro Navarrete Leiva, the victim, was 21 years old and worked for the State Railway Company when he was detained by a military patrol, in front of numerous witnesses, in the city of Temuco, in southern Chile, on October 11, 1973, one month after the military coup led by Augusto Pinochet.

The Second Chamber of the Supreme Court confirmed a previous ruling, issued by the Temuco Court of Appeals on September 7, 2017, which reduced the first-instance sentence issued by special judge Álvaro Mesa, the investigator of the case, from 13 to 5 years in prison.

The Chamber of the highest Chilean court is the same one that last week released seven former agents of the Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990), who had been convicted of crimes against humanity. Both courts also granted the defendants Manuel Campos Cabello, Manuel Canales Valdés, Juan Cancino Belmar, Gabriel Dittus Marín, Sergio Vallejos Garcés, and Héctor Villablanca Huenulao the benefit of supervised release.

Among other arguments, the judges accepted the defense's claim by Campos, Canales, and Villablanca that they were simple recruits and felt an "uncontrollable fear" of their boss, Lieutenant Manuel Espinoza Ponce, and therefore blindly obeyed his orders.

Espinoza Ponce, who died some time ago, was also involved in the disappearance of eleven other people who were executed by firing squad without trial, their bodies also thrown into rivers in Temuco. With counter-insurgency training at the School of the Americas, after the 1973 coup, Espinoza, who called himself "The Jackal," formed a "Brave Patrol" with enlisted men and recruits from the Tucapel regiment in that city to patrol the area, detain, and guard people on public roads.

Arturo Navarrete Leiva was one of them, but his detention was denied by the military, the Police, or the Prison Service during numerous efforts made by his mother, Magdalena Leiva, to find him. In the civil section, the Court ordered the State of Chile to pay compensation of 150 million pesos (about 230,700 dollars) to the victim's family.

Source: theclinic.cl, August 10, 2018

Date: 10-08-2018

Supreme Court convicts six retired Army members for the homicide of a railway worker in Temuco.

The highest Court sentenced Manuel Campos Cabello, Manuel Canales Valdés, Juan Cancino Belmar, Gabriel Dittus Marín, Sergio Vallejos Garcés, and Héctor Villablanca Huenulao to 5 years in prison, with the benefit of supervised release, as authors of the crime.

In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court convicted six retired Army members for their responsibility in the crime of qualified homicide of ARTURO ALEJANDRO NAVARRETE LEIVA, an illicit act perpetrated on October 11, 1973, in the city of Temuco.

During the investigation stage of the case, the extraordinary visiting judge for human rights violation cases, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, managed to establish the following facts:

A.-

That immediately after the events of September 11, 1973, the armed forces and law enforcement took control of the city of Temuco, with Colonel Pablo Iturriaga Marchesse, commander of the No. 8 "Tucapel" Infantry Regiment of this city, establishing himself as Governor of Temuco, and also remaining as head of the Temuco Garrison.

B.-

Within the aforementioned military unit, a special group called the "Brave Patrol" or "Jackal Patrol" was formed, composed of enlisted soldiers and conscripts of the Second Hunter Company, under the orders of Second Lieutenant Manuel Espinoza Ponce, who in turn received orders from the lieutenant in command of the Company.

This group was responsible, among other functions, for carrying out patrols within the city of Temuco, as well as guarding detainees held in the facilities of the "Tucapel" regiment in Temuco.

C.-

That Arturo Alejandro Navarrete Leiva, single, 21 years old at the time of his detention, a railway worker, was detained on October 11, 1973, around 8:45 PM, on Calle Basilio Urrutia, in the Railway Station sector, in front of the "Diana" soda fountain in the city of Temuco.

His detention was witnessed by numerous people who saw how the soldiers forced him, along with another person, into the vehicle they were using. He was taken to the banks of the Cautín River in the Población Amanecer sector of the city of Temuco, where the group of soldiers, in a firing squad position, under the command and by order of Second Lieutenant Manuel Espinoza Ponce, proceeded to shoot and kill him, subsequently throwing his body into the waters of the aforementioned Cautín River.

D.-

The day after the events, his mother, Magdalena Leiva Fritis, informed by one of the witnesses to his detention, went to the Tucapel Regiment, the FACH Air Base in Temuco, and the city's public jail, being informed at all these places that her son was not in the prisoner registries.

All subsequent efforts made by his family to discover the fate of Arturo Navarrete Leiva were unsuccessful. In the civil aspect, the State of Chile was ordered to pay compensation of $150,000,000 to the victim's family.

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl, August 9, 2018

Date: 09-08-2018

Six former Army members convicted in Temuco for the 1973 crime against a railway worker

The extraordinary visiting judge for human rights violation cases of the Temuco Court of Appeals, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, in a ruling issued this month, sentenced the former Army officials Manuel Rafael Campos Ceballos, Manuel Reinaldo Canales Valdés, Juan Carlos Concha Belmar, Gabriel Alfonso Dittus Marín, Sergio Orlando Vallejos Garcés, and Héctor Mauricio Villablanca Huenulao to 13 years in prison as authors of the qualified homicide of Arturo Alejandro Navarrete Leiva, perpetrated in the regional capital of La Araucanía on October 11, 1973.

Judge Mesa permanently dismissed the charges against Juan Bautista Labraña Luvecce in this same crime. In the investigation, Judge Álvaro Mesa established: «A.- That immediately after the events of September 11, 1973, the armed forces and law enforcement took control of the city of Temuco, with Colonel Pablo Iturriaga Marchesse, Commander of the No. 8 "Tucapel" Infantry Regiment of this city, establishing himself as Governor of Temuco, and also remaining as Head of the Temuco Garrison.

B.- Within the aforementioned military unit, a special group called the "Brave Patrol" or "Jackal Patrol" was formed, composed of enlisted soldiers and conscripts of the Second Hunter Company, under the orders of Second Lieutenant Manuel Espinoza Ponce, who in turn received orders from the Lieutenant in command of the Company.

This group was responsible, among other functions, for carrying out patrols within the city of Temuco, as well as guarding detainees held in the facilities of the "Tucapel" regiment in Temuco. C.- That Arturo Alejandro Navarrete Leiva, single, 21 years old at the time of his detention, a railway worker, was detained on October 11, 1973, around 8:45 PM, on Calle Basilio Urrutia, in the Railway Station sector, in front of the "Diana" soda fountain in the city of Temuco.

His detention was witnessed by numerous people who saw how the soldiers forced him, along with another person, into the vehicle they were using. He was taken to the banks of the Cautín River in the Población Amanecer sector of the city of Temuco, where the group of soldiers, in a firing squad position, under the command and by order of Second Lieutenant Manuel Espinoza Ponce, proceeded to shoot and kill him, subsequently throwing his body into the waters of the aforementioned Cautín River.

D.- The day after the events, his mother, Magdalena Leiva Fritis, informed by one of the witnesses to his detention, went to the Tucapel Regiment, the FACH Air Base in Temuco, and the city's public jail, being informed at all these places that her son was not in the prisoner registries. All subsequent efforts made by his family to discover the fate of Arturo Navarrete Leiva were unsuccessful».

Source: resumen.cl, February 23, 2017

Date: 23-02-2017

Judge Mesa indicts former soldiers for the qualified homicide of Arturo Navarrete Leiva

The visiting judge for human rights violation cases of the Temuco Court of Appeals, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, indicted and ordered the preventive detention of: Sergio Orlando Vallejos Garcés, Juan Bautista Labraña Luvecce, Héctor Mauricio Villablanca Huenulao, Juan Carlos Concha Belmar, Manuel Reinaldo Canales Valdés, Manuel Rafael Campos Ceballos, and Gabriel Alfonso Dittus Marín, as authors of the crime of qualified homicide against ARTURO ALEJANDRO NAVARRETE LEIVA, perpetrated in the commune of Temuco on October 11, 1973.

According to the information gathered in the investigation, the investigating judge Álvaro Mesa managed to establish, at this procedural stage, the participation of the former Army officials in the homicide of the young man who worked as a laborer: A.- That immediately after the events of September 11, 1973, the armed forces and law enforcement took control of the city of Temuco, with Colonel Pablo Iturriaga Marchesse, Commander of the No. 8 "Tucapel" Infantry Regiment of this city, establishing himself as Governor of Temuco, and also remaining as Head of the Temuco Garrison.

B.- Within the aforementioned military unit, a special group called the "Brave Patrol" or "Jackal Patrol" was formed, composed of enlisted soldiers and conscripts of the Second Hunter Company, under the orders of Second Lieutenant Manuel Espinoza Ponce, who in turn received orders from the Lieutenant in command of the Company.

This group was responsible, among other functions, for carrying out patrols within the city of Temuco, as well as guarding detainees held in the facilities of the "Tucapel" regiment in Temuco. C.- That Arturo Alejandro Navarrete Leiva, single, 21 years old at the time of his detention, a railway worker, was detained on October 11, 1973, around 8:45 PM, on Calle Basilio Urrutia, in the Railway Station sector, in front of the "Diana" soda fountain in the city of Temuco.

His detention was witnessed by numerous people who saw how the soldiers forced him, along with another person, into the vehicle they were using. He was taken to the banks of the Cautín River in the Población Amanecer sector of the city of Temuco, where the group of soldiers, in a firing squad position, under the command and by order of Second Lieutenant Manuel Espinoza Ponce, proceeded to shoot and kill him, subsequently throwing his body into the waters of the aforementioned Cautín River.

D.- The day after the events, his mother, Magdalena Leiva Fritis, informed by one of the witnesses to his detention, went to the Tucapel Regiment, the FACH Air Base in Temuco, and the city's public jail, being informed at all these places that her son was not in the prisoner registries.

All subsequent efforts made by his family to discover the fate of Arturo Navarrete Leiva were unsuccessful. The indictment maintains. Judge Álvaro Mesa Latorre was appointed as instructor for human rights cases in place of Judge Fernando Carreño starting in September 2011.

At the time of assuming, he received 41 cases in the summary stage. He currently oversees 110 cases totaling 217 volumes, of which 4 are in the plenary stage; 3 have been ruled on and 4 dismissed. In total, he has registered 56 indictments to date, with 133 people currently under prosecution.

In his investigative work, the investigating judge of the Temuco Court of Appeals is assisted by three judicial clerks and five detectives from the Human Rights Crimes Investigation Brigade of the Chilean Investigative Police.

Source: araucaniacuenta.cl, June 30, 2015

Date: 30-06-2015

They will serve sentences under supervised release; six retired Army officers convicted for the homicide of a railway worker in Temuco

The Supreme Court convicted six retired Army members for their responsibility in the crime of qualified homicide of ARTURO ALEJANDRO NAVARRETE LEIVA, an illicit act perpetrated on October 11, 1973, in the city of Temuco.

In a unanimous ruling, the Second Chamber of the highest court sentenced Manuel Campos Cabello, Manuel Canales Valdés, Juan Cancino Belmar, Gabriel Dittus Marín, Sergio Vallejos Garcés, and Héctor Villablanca Huenulao to 5 years in prison, with the benefit of supervised release, as authors of the crime.

In the civil aspect, the State of Chile was ordered to pay compensation of $150 million pesos to the victim's family. During the investigation stage of the case, the extraordinary visiting judge for human rights violation cases, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, managed to establish that immediately after the events of September 11, 1973, the armed forces and law enforcement took control of the city of Temuco, with Colonel Pablo Iturriaga Marchesse, commander of the No. 8 "Tucapel" Infantry Regiment of this city, establishing himself as Governor of Temuco, and also remaining as head of the Temuco Garrison.

Within that military unit, a special group called the "Brave Patrol" or "Jackal Patrol" was formed, composed of enlisted soldiers and conscripts of the Second Hunter Company, under the orders of Second Lieutenant Manuel Espinoza Ponce, who in turn received orders from the lieutenant in command of the Company.

This group was responsible, among other functions, for carrying out patrols within the city of Temuco, as well as guarding detainees held in the facilities of the "Tucapel" regiment in Temuco. Arturo Alejandro Navarrete Leiva was 21 years old at the time of his detention.

He was a railway worker and was detained on October 11, 1973, around 8:45 PM, on Calle Basilio Urrutia, in the Railway Station sector, in front of the "Diana" soda fountain in the city of Temuco. His detention was witnessed by numerous people who saw how the soldiers forced him, along with another person, into the vehicle they were using.

He was taken to the banks of the Cautín River in the Población Amanecer sector of the city of Temuco, where the group of soldiers, in a firing squad position, under the command and by order of Second Lieutenant Manuel Espinoza Ponce, proceeded to shoot and kill him, subsequently throwing his body into the waters of the Cautín River.

The day after the events, his mother, Magdalena Leiva Fritis, informed by one of the witnesses to his detention, went to the Tucapel Regiment, the FACH Air Base in Temuco, and the city's public jail, being informed at all these places that her son was not in the prisoner registries. All subsequent efforts made by his family to discover the fate of Arturo Navarrete Leiva were unsuccessful.

Source: elciudadano.com