Representative Position: Head of the IX Rural Zone of the National Health Service (S.N.S.), member of the MIR. Date of Detention: September 15, 1973

Arturo Enrique Hillerns Larrañaga, a surgeon, father of a 4-month-old child, and a member of the MIR, was detained on September 15, 1973, at approximately 2:00 a.m., by about 20 officers from the Second Police Station (Segunda Comisaría) of Carabineros in Temuco.

They violently broke into his home at 161 Lynch Street, conducting an illegal raid and destroying clothing and household goods. Among the police officers, his family was able to recognize the then-Lieutenant Osvaldo Muñoz Mondaca, who loudly asked for Jaime Eltit Spielmann, the victim's brother-in-law.

Jaime Eltit was detained by military personnel in the city of Santiago on October 6, 1973, and has been forcibly disappeared ever since. Muñoz Mondaca interrogated the residents of the house about Jaime's friends and their addresses, warning them that he knew who the Marxists were.

As the Carabineros were leaving, Arturo Hillerns noticed that some officers were taking books from the house and intercepted them, pointing out that they could not do so because they were medical textbooks.

At that moment, one of the officers in charge asked for his name and then told him that he was the one they were looking to detain. Arturo requested the corresponding arrest warrant, to which the officer, pointing his weapon at him, replied, "this is my order." He was placed into a white pickup truck with a canopy and no license plates, with the officers stating they were taking him to the Second Police Station.

That same day, the 15th, once the curfew was lifted, his father-in-law, Emilio Eltit, went to the police station accompanied by lawyer Teodoro Ribera. The lawyer entered the barracks and was told that the victim had never been detained.

Hours later, his father-in-law, accompanied by his daughter Elizabeth Eltit, the victim's spouse, went to the station again, where they were informed that the victim was not being held and that the captors had been "left-wing extremists disguised as Carabineros." His family inquired about him at the Tucapel Regiment and the Temuco Air Force Base, only to be informed that he was not being held in those locations.

However, the day after his apprehension, Communiqué No. 1 from the Temuco Garrison Command informed the public that "Dr. Arturo Hillerns Larrañaga fled on September 15, 1973, at 3:00 a.m., while being transported from his home to the No. 3 Helicopter Group for the purpose of obtaining information on extremist groups." The communiqué was signed by Colonel Pablo Iturriaga Marchesse, Commander of the Garrison.

The statement effectively acknowledges the detention of the victim and provides an implausible version of his escape, given that upon being detained, he was handcuffed and placed in a pickup truck with 7 armed police guards and escorted by several other pickup trucks, all without license plates, which would have made any escape attempt by the victim impossible.

To this date, the fate or whereabouts of Arturo Enrique Hillerns Larrañaga remain unknown.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

His mother, Elena María Larrañaga Opazo, filed a writ of amparo (habeas corpus) with the Temuco Court of Appeals on August 16, 1978 (case file 49-78), detailing the circumstances of the arrest.

The Court of Appeals, which initially did not accept the petition for processing—a decision later revoked by the Supreme Court—requested information regarding the victim's situation from various authorities.

Notable among these is the report from the Cautín Military Prosecutor's Office, which indicated that after reviewing the case files of the former Army Prosecutor's Office held at that court, there was no record of any process, complaint, or summary proceeding against the officers and troops responsible for the custody of Arturo Enrique Hillerns Larrañaga, who was detained on September 15 at 2:00 a.m. and whose alleged escape, publicly reported on the 16th of that month and year, was supposedly due to negligence.

The Court was informed that the victim was listed as a fugitive in case 865-74 (violation of Article 8 of Law 17.798), which was archived as of September 4, 1978, at the Fourth Military Court of Valdivia.

For its part, the Cautín Prefecture of Carabineros indicated, following a report requested from the 2nd Police Station, that the records for that year had been incinerated in accordance with regulations, and that the officers who served in that unit at the time had been transferred to other stations in the country.

The Minister of the Interior, Sergio Fernández Fernández, responded on September 6, 1978, that his Ministry possessed no information regarding the victim. On the 21st of that month, the Court of Appeals rejected the writ of amparo, a decision confirmed by the Supreme Court.

The higher court ordered the Court of Appeals to remit the records to the 2nd Civil Court of Temuco to investigate the possible commission of a crime in the disappearance of the victim. In this latter court, case file 47473 was initiated, and an order to investigate was issued to the Investigations Police (Policía de Investigaciones).

This institution proceeded to interrogate the victim's family, who ratified their previous statements; they also interviewed Major Osvaldo Muñoz Mondaca, Commissioner of the Third Police Station of Padre Las Casas, who stated he had no information or knowledge regarding the disappearance of Arturo Hillerns.

Furthermore, the testimony of his wife, Elizabeth Maritza Eltit Spielmann—who was in exile in Mexico at the time—was added to the case. She explained that her husband, after being dismissed from his position at the S.N.S., was summoned via a radio broadcast, along with other public employees, to report to the Tucapel Regiment in Temuco.

Complying with this summons, he went to the Regiment, where they searched his home and interrogated him regarding his duties at the S.N.S., telling him there were no charges against him and that he could even leave the city if he wished—which he did not do, as he had nothing to fear.

In April 1979, the Civil Court remitted the records to be consolidated with Case 2-79, instructed by the Visiting Minister (Ministro en Visita) Alfredo Meynet González, which investigated the cases of forcibly disappeared persons in the Department of Temuco.

In October of that year, the victim's mother filed a criminal complaint for kidnapping and potential homicide against Osvaldo Muñoz Mondaca and Pablo Iturriaga Marchesse before the Visiting Minister. On October 25, 1979, the Minister declared himself incompetent to continue hearing the case and remitted the records to the Fourth Military Court of Valdivia, on the grounds that all the persons whose disappearances were being investigated had been detained at different times and places by personnel from the Carabineros, the Army, or the Air Force, acting unequivocally in the line of duty.

Having been proven, through statements from family members and numerous witnesses, that since the detention of these individuals nothing more was ever heard of them, and given that there is official evidence in many cases that the respective disappeared persons were released without any of them ever arriving home, nor is there any news of their current whereabouts, it is reasonable to presume some form of responsibility for the disappearance of said persons on the part of the uniformed personnel who carried out the confirmed detentions.

The plaintiff appealed the declaration of incompetence, but the appeal was declared inadmissible by the appellate court because it was filed on the sixth day after notification of the resolution.

In December of that year, the Military Justice system accepted jurisdiction and ordered the Cautín Military Prosecutor's Office to instruct case 1192 bis-79. In March 1980, Carabineros Major Osvaldo Muñoz Mondaca (the accused) testified in the process via a rogatory commission.

He stated that as of September 11, 1973, he was serving in the Carabineros with the rank of Lieutenant and was in charge of the Coilaco Police Station (part of the Second Police Station of Temuco). On a date he does not recall, but after September 11, while during curfew hours, he was driving from the 2nd Police Station of Temuco to the station under his command in a pickup truck, accompanied only by his driver, whose surname was Lagos.

He noticed movement of people and individuals wearing helmets on one of the streets adjacent to Lautaro, arriving at the door of the house mentioned in the complaint (where the victim's detention took place).

There, he saw Carabineros personnel and encountered Mr. Emilio Eltit, the father, at the door of the house. Upon seeing him, and knowing him from before, Eltit pointed out that they were raiding his house, that a Captain was inside conducting the operation, and that they wanted to detain his son and another relative.

However, he did not indicate the identity of the Captain supposedly inside the house, nor was Muñoz Mondaca able to identify him. Eltit asked him to help convince the officer to desist from his operation, to which he replied that he could do nothing, as it was an officer of higher rank, and that under those circumstances, he had to obey whatever that officer told him.

As the situation was delicate due to the circumstances of the time, he left for his station without stopping anywhere else or having another encounter with anyone. Finally, he declared that he did not know the Jaime Eltit mentioned in the complaint, and that the claim that he was asking for him is false, as he never entered the house at any time.

That same month and year, Colonel (Ret.) Pablo Iturriaga Marchesse appeared before the Prosecutor's Office. Regarding the complaint in which he is accused, he stated that he did not personally act in any of the operations carried out in the area to clarify the political situation at the time.

Thus, the persons mentioned in the aforementioned Communiqué (in which he announced the "escape" of the victim) were not known to him, and he only received news of them through the reports provided to him at the end of the operations in his capacity as Head of the Plaza.

He added in his statement that, given the time elapsed, he could not establish which patrol provided the information that appeared in the aforementioned Communiqué, since, as Head of the Plaza or Forces, he had responsibility for the Armed Forces and Carabineros who acted to safeguard the security of the population at that time.

In June 1980, Pedro Segundo Lagos Romero, a retired Carabinero, appeared before the Prosecutor's Office and stated that, indeed, as of September 11, 1973, he was working as a Carabineros driver at the Coilaco station. Regarding the events reported in the complaint, what he remembers is similar to what was recalled by Major Osvaldo Muñoz Mondaca.

In October 1980, the Military Judge dismissed the case totally and definitively by virtue of the 1978 Amnesty Decree. That ruling was appealed by the plaintiff.

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity

The final commemorative act for the 40th anniversary of the coup d'état, organized by the Human Rights, Solidarity, and Social Conflicts Office of the FEC, was held this morning with the unveiling of the refurbished plaque bearing the names of the 54 students, alumni, professors, and staff of the University of Concepción who were murdered during the military regime, many of whom remain forcibly disappeared to this day.

Gabriel Provoste, the FEC's Human Rights representative, indicated that this is the final expression of the activities they organized for September, stating that "the objective is to commemorate the comrades from the UdeC who were victims of the military dictatorship."

Provoste noted that over the course of the last 20 years—the memorial was erected in 1993 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the coup—the monument has suffered constant deterioration, explaining that "we have changed the plaque, added the names of ten other comrades who were not on the previous one, and at the same time restored the piece." The student leader recalled that the idea for the memorial was linked to a plaza for reflection, for which they are still working and seeking resources.

Around 150 people attended the activity, including associations of former political prisoners of the MIR, student organizations, and the Bautista van Schouwen Vasey mutualist society.

The sculpture "Homage to the forcibly disappeared students" is a concrete and mosaic group representing four erect figures in a synthesis recognizable as human forms, tied together with metal rings. They are arranged in a semicircle, the center of which is occupied by an inclined stone slab supporting a bronze list engraved with the names of the University students who were forcibly disappeared during the 1973-1990 period.

The members of the UdeC community who were victims of the dictatorship's violence and were recognized today are Enrique Carreño, Eduardo Crisóstomo, Ogán Lagos, Fabián Ibarra, Fernando Alvarez, Jaime Eltit, Dignaldo Araneda, Muriel Dockendorff, Héctor González, Alexei Jaccard, César Negrete, Wladimir Araneda, José Aguayo, Miguel Catalán, Silvia Calfulén, Ricardo Ruz, Héctor Rodríguez, José Bordaz, Alan Bruce, Edgardo and Miguel Enríquez Espinoza; Caupolicán Inostroza, Marcos Montecinos, Juan Perelman, José Randolph, Freddy Torres, Arturo Villabela, Felipe Campos, Luis Barra, Jorge Grez, ARTURO HILLERNS, Fernando Krauss, Bautista Van Schouwen, Carlos Rioseco, José Carrasco Tapia, José Carrasco Vásquez, Juan Espinosa, Sonia Ríos, Carlos Contreras Maluje, José Jara, Héctor Zúñiga, Elizabeth Cabrera, Roberto Chávez, Washington Cid, Carlos Fernández, Jorge Fuentes, Juan Carlos Gómez, Nelson Herrera, Sergio Lagos, Luis Pincheira, Sergio Riffo, Ariel Salinas, Patricio Sobarzo, Héctor Velásquez, Manuel Villalobos, Rolando Angulo, Jaime Araya, and Luis Cornejo.

Source: udec.cl 22/03/2016

Date: 22-03-2016

Human Rights Summary April 2014

Minister Madrid issues sentence for the qualified kidnapping of a doctor in Temuco

April 17: Minister Alejandro Madrid issued a sentence in the investigation into the crime of qualified kidnapping of the doctor Arturo Hillerns Larrañaga, which occurred starting on September 25, 1973, in the city of Temuco.

In the resolution, the magistrate sentenced Carabineros Gonzalo Arias González, Eduardo Riquelme Rodríguez, Francisco Ferrada González, and Óscar Muñoz Mondaca to 5 years and one day in prison, without benefits; and Hugo Opazo Inzunza, Omar Burgo Dejean, and Ernesto Garrido Bravo to 3 years with the benefit of supervised release.

In the case of the accused Juan Verdugo Jara, an acquittal was issued.

According to the records, a communiqué acknowledges the detention of the victim and provides an implausible version of his escape, given that upon being detained, he was handcuffed and placed in a pickup truck with armed police guards and escorted by several other pickup trucks, all without license plates, which made any escape attempt by the victim impossible.

To this date, the destination or whereabouts of Arturo Hillerns Larrañaga remain unknown. "This event is part of a pattern similar to others that occurred during that era, which began with the tracking and surveillance of the victims until ending in their kidnapping," the sentence adds.

In the civil aspect, Minister Madrid accepted the civil lawsuit filed against the state, ordering the payment of sixty million pesos to Elizabeth Eltit Spielmann (the victim's wife) and an equal sum to Arturo Hillerns Eltit (his son).

Source: 3y4alamos.cl 29/05/2014 (excerpt)

Date: 29-05-2014

Supreme Court confirms sentences for crimes against MIR members and a doctor in Temuco

This week, the Supreme Court ratified the sentences appealed in two human rights violation cases that were investigated, in the first instance, by Visiting Ministers Leopoldo Llanos Sagristá and Alejandro Madrid Crohare.

Doctor from Temuco

In the second ruling (case file 173-2016), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of the same ministers mentioned above—rejected the cassation appeal filed against the sentence that convicted retired members of the Carabineros for the qualified kidnapping of the doctor ARTURO HILLERNS LARRAGAÑAGA, a crime perpetrated starting on September 15, 1973, in Temuco.

The confirmed sentence, issued on April 15, 2014, sentenced former Carabineros officers Francisco Neftalí Ferrada González and Osvaldo Muñoz Mondaca to 10 years in prison as authors of the crime. Meanwhile, former uniformed police officers Eduardo Enrique Riquelme Rodríguez, Omar Burgos Dejean, and Hugo Opazo Insunza must each serve 3 years and one day in prison as accomplices.

Likewise, former Carabineros officer Gonzalo Enrique Arias González and former police officials Ernesto Idelfonso Garrido Bravo and Juan de Dios Aliro Verdugo Jara were acquitted as their participation in the events could not be proven.

In the first instance, Minister Alejandro Madrid established that:

«Starting on September 11, 1973, a civil commission was organized at the 2nd Police Station of Carabineros in Temuco, which was "composed of officials from this police force, under the command of Lieutenant Eduardo Riquelme Rodríguez, and reported directly to Commander Gonzalo Arias González, head of services and second-in-command of the Cautín Prefecture of Carabineros.

The personnel of this unit operated independently of the functions of the 2nd Police Station and generally wore civilian clothes. Although it operated in a building located at the corner of General Cruz and Antonio Varas streets, the detainees were physically kept in the back of the 2nd Police Station, located at 1248 Claro Solar Street, in an office that had an entrance, a false door (a rear entrance leading to the railway line), and an independent cell.

Political detainees were not entered into the Guard Books and were taken directly to these facilities. This unit moved in "Chevrolet" C-10 pickup trucks with canopies. This unit was created for the purpose of working on political matters ordered for investigation to comply with orders issued by the Military Prosecutor's Office of Temuco and, therefore, was in charge of political detainees regarding their apprehension and interrogation.

Depending on the case and the decision regarding their situation, they were handed over, indiscriminately, to Department II of the Chilean Air Force at the Maquehue Air Base in Temuco, to the No. 8 Tucapel Infantry Regiment, or to the city's Public Jail.

In all these detention centers, officials operated who, holding various ranks of command, ordered some and executed others, the capture of persons who were members of or sympathetic to political parties or left-wing movements, whom they illegally locked up in the places designated for that purpose, breaking them under physical torture of various kinds in order to make them provide information about other people in left-wing politics so they could be apprehended."

Under these circumstances, it continues, "(...) on September 15, 1973, around 02:00 a.m., officials from the 2nd Police Station of Carabineros in Temuco violently broke into the property at 161 Lynch Street, conducting an illegal raid and destroying clothing and household goods.

Among the police officers, the family was able to recognize the then-Lieutenant Osvaldo Muñoz Mondaca, who loudly asked for Jaime Eltit Spielmann, brother-in-law of Arturo Hillerns Larrañaga, who was subsequently detained by military personnel in the city of Santiago on October 6, 1973, and has been forcibly disappeared since then.

The residents of the house were interrogated about Jaime's friends and the addresses they had, warning them that it was known who the Marxists were. When the officials were proceeding to leave, another group appeared from the backyard, composed of five Carabineros officials, different from those who were interrogating, who had entered through the back of the property and had raided some rooms, seizing boxes of books and documents that belonged to Arturo Hillerns Larrañaga.

They were dressed differently from the previous ones, as one was wearing riding boots, and another was wearing a helmet and a greatcoat (which his spouse recognized as members of the so-called Civil Commission of the 2nd Police Station of Carabineros); at that moment, Arturo Hillerns Larrañaga asked "why are you taking those boxes of books?", as they were his property and consisted of medical texts.

The official in charge asked for his name, and upon being given it, indicated: "We were looking for you!". Arturo Hillerns requested that the corresponding arrest warrant be shown to him, to which the Officer, pointing his firearm at him, expressed: "This is my order...!".

In this way, Hillerns was placed into a white pickup truck with a canopy and no license plates, with the family being informed that they were taking him to the 2nd Police Station of Carabineros in Temuco."

Source: resumen.cl 25 Jun 2016