On the dawn of October 3, an operation was carried out in which thirteen other agricultural workers from the town of Paine were detained. On this occasion, the troops belonging to the San Bernardo Infantry Regiment arrived in a red truck, with their faces painted black.

They entered the homes from which they took the detainees, to transport them to San Bernardo and from there to the Cerro Chena Detention Center. These thirteen people were detained that night, along with others who were subsequently released:

• José Angel CABEZAS BUENO, 21 years old, single;
• Francisco Javier CALDERON NILO, 19 years old, single;
• Domingo Antonio GALAZ SALAS, 23 years old, single;
• José Emilio GONZALEZ ESPINOZA, 32 years old, married;
• Juan Rosendo GONZALEZ PEREZ, 23 years old;
• Aurelio Enrique HIDALGO MELLA, 22 years old, single;
• Bernabé del Carmen LOPEZ LOPEZ, 23 years old, single;
• Carlos Manuel ORTIZ ORTIZ, 18 years old, single;
• Héctor Santiago PINTO CARORA, 34 years old, married;
• Pedro Hernán PINTO CAROCA, 42 years old, married;
• Aliro del Carmen VALDIVIA VALDIVIA, 39 years old, married;
• Hugo Alfredo VIDAL ARENAS, 27 years old, married; and
• Víctor Manuel ZAMORANO GONZALEZ, single.

Several people who were detained at the Cerro Chena Detention Center report having been transported there along with the aforementioned detainees. In that place, they were generally kept blindfolded and were subjected to torture and interrogations.

Subsequently, some of them were released. The relatives of the forcibly disappeared went on several occasions to that Detention Center, where the detention was not officially acknowledged. However, in the Amparo Appeal 283-79 filed on behalf of Ignacio Santander Albornoz and Juan Cuadra Espinoza, it was reported on April 16, 1974, by the Interior Zone Chief of the Departments of San Bernardo and Maipo that “the detainees Ignacio Santander Albornoz and Juan Cuadra Espinoza were discharged by the sentries of the Chena Prison Camp on October 4, 1973.” In the month of December, relatives were informed at the Legal Medical Service that there was a record of the entry of the remains of all these detainees and that they had been buried in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery. Around the same date, locals discovered human remains in the Cuesta de Chada area. The relatives went there and were able to recognize, in most cases, remains of the clothing that the detainees were wearing when they were taken from their homes. The remains, which were scattered at the site, were collected by Carabineros personnel and sent to the Legal Medical Service, where the corresponding forensic examinations were carried out, but the identities of the individuals were not determined. In the month of September 1990, the Minister of the Court of Appeals, Germán Hermosilla, constituted himself at that Medical Service with the objective of identifying the remains that had remained unidentified since 1974. The bodies finally recognized correspond to the following people: José Cabezas Bueno; Francisco Calderón Nilo; Domingo Galaz Salas; Emilio González Espinoza; Juan González Pérez; Aurelio Hidalgo; Bernabé López; Héctor and Pedro Pinto Caroca; Aliro Valdivia Valdivia; Hugo Vidal Arenas, Manuel Zamorano González, Hector Castro Saez, and Juan Nuñez Vargas. According to the information indicated and gathered, the direct responsibility of State agents and civilians from Paine in the detention and death of the detainees on September 24 and October 3, 1973, is proven. Therefore, this Commission has formed the conviction that all of them are victims of a violation of their right to life, with the remains of sixteen of them having been identified: fourteen whose bones were recognized in 1990 and two whose execution was acknowledged by the authorities of the time.

Source: (Rettig Report)

The minister for human rights violation cases of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes, who is leading new proceedings in the investigation, highlighted that the bodies of the peasants remained for 16 years in cold storage at the SML, without being handed over to their families.

A new stage has begun in the investigations into the case of 14 peasants from the Viña El Escorial Settlement in Paine, who were detained and executed in 1973 by agents of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship.

The minister in extraordinary visit for human rights violation cases of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, led a series of proceedings last Monday, November 25, together with officers of the Investigative Brigade of Crimes against Human Rights of the Investigative Police (Bridehu) and personnel from the Legal Medical Service (SML) to carry out an exhaustive analysis of the terrain where soldiers from the San Bernardo Infantry School executed the 14 peasants in October 1973.

The proceedings will last for a week and include the use of a drone, a metal detector, and excavation of both the property and the settling ponds located at the foot of a ravine. “We are at Cuesta Chada, kilometer 38, to begin the proceedings decreed in case 14-2024 for illegal burial.

In this place, in 1973, precisely on October 3, soldiers from the San Bernardo Infantry School executed 14 peasants from the El Escorial sector,” indicated the visiting minister. A new stage has begun in the investigations into the case of 14 peasants from the Viña El Escorial Settlement in Paine. “That day, after their execution, the bodies were abandoned, and relatives were only able to find them in the month of January 1974.

On that occasion, no work was done at the crime scene; rather, the bodies were collected by the relatives themselves and, after notifying the local Carabineros, they were placed in three burlap sacks. The bones were disarticulated, fragmented, and were transported to the Legal Medical Service,” she explained. “Subsequently, in the month of March of that year, a study of these bones was carried out at the Legal Medical Service, managing to determine that they were approximately 14 people,” she added.

Cifuentes highlighted that the victims' bodies remained in cold storage for 16 years without being handed over to their families. “After that, the bodies were not handed over to their families, but were placed in cold storage at the Legal Medical Service and remained there for 16 years until 1990, the date on which Minister Germán Hermosilla of the San Miguel Court of Appeals ordered a study of those bones to be carried out and constituted himself at this place,” she reported, as noted in a press release from the Judiciary. “On that occasion, he constituted himself on October 16 and 17, 1990, managing to find bone evidence, ballistic evidence, and even cultural evidence again. But it was not done with the latest technology either, and therefore, although the case related to these events, which is the main Paine case, has reached a final judgment, a complaint was filed by the Human Rights Program within the framework of the National Search Plan in order to carry out an exhaustive study of the terrain, which is what is going to be done on this occasion,” she concluded. Kidnapping and homicide of 14 peasants from Paine According to the information gathered during the investigation stage, the visiting minister established the following facts: “That, on the dawn of October 3, 1973, at the El Escorial Settlement in Paine, soldiers of the Second Rifle Company of the San Bernardo Infantry School, under the command of Second Lieutenant Osvaldo Andrés Magaña, detained, without legal right, Francisco Javier Calderon Nilo, Domingo Octavio Galaz Salas, José Emilio González Espinoza, Juan Rosendo González Pérez, Aurelio Enrique Hidalgo Mella, Bernabé del Carmen López López, Héctor Santiago Pinto Caroca, Hernán Pinto Caroca, Aliro del Carmen Valdivia Valdivia, Hugo Alfredo Vidal Arenas, and Víctor Manuel Zamorano González, to then execute them along with Juan Bautista Núñez Vargas, Héctor Castro Sáez, and José Cabeza Bueno, in the Cuesta Chada sector, to which they were transported in the aforementioned red Dodge truck, driven by Juan Guillermo Quintanilla Jerez, shooting them with the firearms they were carrying, their bodies being found abandoned in the aforementioned place some time later.”

Source: elciudadano.cl, November 27, 2024

Paine Case: Supreme Court sentences 11 (retired) members of the Army and Carabineros for 38 murders during the dictatorship

The highest court rejected the application of the half-prescription in favor of the uniformed officers, as had been ruled by the San Miguel Court of Appeals. This Tuesday, the Supreme Court confirmed the sentence that had been handed down on October 29, 2019, by the Minister in extraordinary visit, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, in the case titled “Main Paine,” regarding the responsibility of 11 (retired) members of the Army and Carabineros in the qualified homicides of 38 residents of different settlements in Paine, crimes that occurred between September 24 and October 16, 1973.

Thus, the application of the half-prescription with which the San Miguel Court of Appeals had subsequently favored the uniformed officers was dismissed, and instead, some of the imposed sentences were increased.

What the highest court did was to accept the cassation appeals presented by the plaintiffs against the aforementioned ruling of the San Miguel court. In that sense, the Supreme Court considered that said figure should not be accepted in cases of crimes against humanity, such as those of Paine, arguing that International Human Rights Law rejects “impunity and the imposition of sentences not proportional to the intrinsic gravity of the crimes.” The 38 victims of this case are José Cabezas Bueno, Francisco Calderón Nilo, Héctor Castro Sáez, Domingo Galaz Salas, José González Espinoza, Juan González Pérez, Aurelio Hidalgo Mella, Bernabé López López, Juan Núñez Vargas, Héctor Pinto Caroca, Hernán Pinto Caroca, Aliro Valdivia Valdivia, Hugo Alfredo Arenas, Víctor Zamorano González, José Adasme Núñez, Pedro Cabezas Villegas, Ramón Capetillo Mora, José Castro Maldonado, Patricio Duque Orellana, José Fredes García, Luis Gaete Balmaceda, Carlos Gaete López, Luis Lazo Maldonado, Samuel Lazo Maldonado, Carlos Lazo Quinteros, Samuel Lazo Quinteros, René Maureira Gajardo, Rosalindo Herrera Muñoz, Jorge Muñoz Peñaloza, Mario Muñoz Peñaloza, Ramiro Muñoz Peñaloza, Silvestre Muñoz Peñaloza, Carlos Nieto Duarte, Andrés Pereira Salsberg, Laureano Quiroz Pezoa, Roberto Serrano Galaz, Luis Silva Carreño, and Basilio Valenzuela Álvarez. In the sentence, the Second Chamber of the highest court sentenced (retired) Army members Jorge Romero Campos and Arturo Fernández Rodríguez to a penalty of 20 years in prison for their responsibility in the 38 qualified homicides that occurred in the “El Escorial” sector and in the “Campo Lindo” and “24 de abril” settlements. Meanwhile, the (retired) members of that branch of the Armed Forces José Vásquez Silva, Carlos Lazo Santibáñez, Juan Opazo Vera, Roberto Pinto Labordarie, Jorge Saavedra Meza, Víctor Sandoval Muñoz, and Carlos Durán Rodríguez were sentenced to 10 years in prison for their responsibility in the same crimes. On the other hand, Army conscript Raúl Areyte Valdenegro must serve a sentence of 7 years and 6 months in prison for his responsibility in the 14 homicides of the aforementioned “El Escorial” sector. Finally, (retired) Carabineros officer Nelson Bravo Espinoza was sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison for his responsibility in the qualified kidnappings of Ramón Capetillo Mora and Mario Muñoz Peñaloza, committed on October 8 and 10, 1973. The murders The Supreme Court ruling details that after the illegal detentions of the residents of the “El Escorial,” “Campo Lindo,” “24 de abril,” “Nuevo Sendero,” and “El Tránsito” settlements by the uniformed officers, they were transported to the Cerro Chena prison camp of the San Bernardo Infantry School. Some were taken to a ravine in Cuesta de Chada, where they were executed, their bodies being found abandoned at the site some time later. Others were transported to the Los Arrayanes ravine in the vicinity of Lake Rapel, where they were shot by soldiers, who buried their bodies at the same site; only bone and dental fragments of 11 victims were found years later, as their bodies had been removed and transported to an unknown location. In the civil aspect, the State was ordered to pay compensation to the victims' families.

Source: lavozdelosquesobran.cl June 17, 2022

Date: 06-17-2022

Human Rights: Supreme Court increased sentences for crimes against humanity in Paine

After almost 50 years, the Supreme Court ratified the sentences against eleven genocidaires responsible for the crimes of homicide and qualified kidnapping, respectively, for the events that ended in the execution and disappearance of 38 inhabitants of the Paine commune, committed after the 1973 civil-military coup.

This is the episode called ‘Main Paine’ of the investigation into the serial murders committed by soldiers, police, and civilians—all mandated by the latifundist employers—crimes that resulted in the execution and subsequent disappearance of 38 workers, students, and peasants from that rural commune south of Santiago.

The ruling of the Second Penal Chamber of the Supreme Court thus finalized the sentences for the crime of qualified homicide that the Fourth Chamber of the San Miguel Court of Appeals resolved in November 2020, after applying the “half-prescription” and thus reducing the criminal sanction.

The Supreme Court thus dismissed the application of the half-prescription and increased the sentences for the retired members of the Army and Carabineros de Chile for their responsibility in the qualified homicides of José Cabezas Bueno, Francisco Calderón Nilo, Héctor Castro Sáez, Domingo Galaz Salas, José González Espinoza, Juan González Pérez, Aurelio Hidalgo Mella, Bernabé López López, Juan Núñez Vargas, Héctor Pinto Caroca, Hernán Pinto Caroca, Aliro Valdivia Valdivia, Hugo Alfredo Arenas, and Víctor Zamorano González, and José Adasme Núñez, Pedro Cabezas Villegas, Ramón Capetillo Mora, José Castro Maldonado, Patricio Duque Orellana, José Fredes García, Luis Gaete Balmaceda, Carlos Gaete López, Luis Lazo Maldonado, Samuel Lazo Maldonado, Carlos Lazo Quinteros, Samuel Lazo Quinteros, René Maureira Gajardo, Rosalindo Herrera Muñoz, Jorge Muñoz Peñaloza, Mario Muñoz Peñaloza, Ramiro Muñoz Peñaloza, Silvestre Muñoz Peñaloza, Carlos Nieto Duarte, Andrés Pereira Salsberg, Laureano Quiroz Pezoa, Roberto Serrano Galaz, Luis Silva Carreño, and Basilio Valenzuela Álvarez, which occurred between September 24 and October 16, 1973, in different settlements of the Paine commune. In the sentence (roll 149.250-2020), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, minister María Teresa Letelier, and (ad hoc) lawyers Diego Munita and Leonor Etcheberry—sentenced retired Army members Jorge Romero Campos and Arturo Fernández Rodríguez to 20 years in prison for their responsibility in the 38 cases of qualified homicide, the first 14 of which occurred between September 24 and October 3, 1973, in the “El Escorial” sector, and the last 24 between October 8 and October 16, 1973, in the “Campo Lindo” and “24 de abril” settlements. In its ruling, the second penal chamber of the highest court of justice, composed of ministers Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, María Teresa Letelier, and (ad hoc) lawyers Diego Munita and Leonor Etcheberry, sentenced the criminals against humanity Jorge Romero Campos and Arturo Fernández Rodríguez to 20 years of major imprisonment in its maximum degree, as authors of qualified homicide. At the same time, the repressor Raúl Francisco Areyte Valdenegro was sentenced to seven years and six months of major imprisonment in its minimum degree, as author of qualified homicide, while Nelson Iván Bravo Espinoza was sentenced to 10 years and one day of major imprisonment in its medium degree, as author of the crime of qualified kidnapping of Ramón Capetillo Mora and Mario Muñoz Peñaloza, committed on October 8 and 10, 1973. The ruling of the Second Penal Chamber of the Supreme Court was received with some satisfaction by the relatives. Also with the serenity that, despite the long wait for justice, they made their own on this “long and painful road,” according to Flor Lazo, president of the Association of Relatives of Forcibly Disappeared and Executed Detainees of Paine.

Source: radionuevomundo.cl June 16, 2022

Date: 06-16-2022

Minister Marianela Cifuentes issues order for the entry into Colina I prison of a person convicted of the murder of peasants in Paine

The Minister in extraordinary visit for human rights violation cases of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, ordered today—Thursday, December 14—the entry of Juan Dionisio Opazo Vera, a conscript soldier at the time of the events, into the Colina I Penitentiary Compliance Center, to serve a single sentence of 10 years of effective imprisonment, as the author of 38 consummated crimes of qualified homicide.

These crimes were perpetrated between September and October 1973 in the Paine commune. Opazo Vera was placed at the disposal of the court by Carabineros, in compliance with the arrest warrant issued on June 16 of last year.

In the early hours of today, the fugitive was arrested by an OS9 team of Carabineros, created especially for the capture of those prosecuted and convicted for human rights violations. A team that, in September, managed to locate and arrest retired Carabineros officer Héctor Osses Yáñez, who was also a fugitive.

In the resolution (case roll 4-2002 “Paine Episode”), Minister Cifuentes Alarcón sentenced Opazo Vera as the author of the consummated crimes of qualified homicide of José Ángel Cabezas Bueno, Francisco Javier Calderón Nilo, Héctor Guillermo Castro Sáez, Domingo Octavio Galaz Salas, José Emilio González Espinoza, Juan Rosendo González Pérez, Aurelio Enrique Hidalgo Mella, Bernabé del Carmen López López, Juan Bautista Núñez Vargas, Héctor Santiago Pinto Caroca, Hernán Pinto Caroca, Aliro del Carmen Valdivia Valdivia, Hugo Alfredo Vidal Arenas, Víctor Manuel Zamorano González, José Domingo Adasme Núñez, Pedro Antonio Cabezas Villegas, Ramón Alfredo Capetillo Mora, José Ignacio Castro Maldonado, Patricio Loreto Duque Orellana, José Germán Fredes García, Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda, Carlos Enrique Gaete López, Rosalindo Delfín Herrera Muñoz, Luis Rodolfo Lazo Maldonado, Samuel del Tránsito Lazo Maldonado, Carlos Enrique Lazo Quinteros, Samuel Altamiro Lazo Quinteros, René del Rosario Maureira Gajardo, Jorge Hernán Muñoz Peñaloza, Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, Ramiro Antonio Muñoz Peñaloza, Silvestre René Muñoz Peñaloza, Carlos Alberto Nieto Duarte, Andrés Pereira Salsberg, Laureano Quiroz Pezoa, Roberto Estevan Serrano Galaz, Luis Silva Carreño, and Basilio Antonio Valenzuela Álvarez. Crimes perpetrated between September and October 1973.

Source: pjud.cl December 14, 2023

Testimony of José Alejandro Hidalgo Mella, brother of Aurelio Enrique Hidalgo Mella (excerpt)

He is one of the seventy forcibly disappeared and executed detainees of Paine. He was twenty-two years old at the time of his detention and disappearance, single, worked as an agricultural laborer, and had no known political affiliation.

According to the Rettig Report, he was detained on October 3, 1973, in an operation carried out by the San Bernardo Infantry Regiment, transported to that facility, and from there to the Cerro Chena detention center, the place from which he disappeared.

In 1990, judicial investigations determined that Aurelio Hidalgo was executed, his body illegally buried, and his corpse retained at the Legal Medical Institute for sixteen years. Following the identification of his body, he was handed over to his relatives in 1991.

Below, we present the testimony of José Alejandro Hidalgo Mella, brother of Aurelio Enrique Hidalgo Mella. This testimony is based on conversations held between José and the researcher from Germina, knowledge for action.

My name is José Alejandro Hidalgo Mella, brother of Aurelio Enrique Hidalgo Mella, who was forcibly disappeared on October 3, 1973, from the El Escorial estate, where the family lived. My parents, Nolberto Hidalgo Valdivia and María Mella Gatica, were from Lampa, and in ’56 we arrived at the hills of El Escorial because my dad found a job there.

He worked making firewood, charcoal, things like that independently. We lived up on the hill for a little more than two years, until they gave him work on the estate. They made him the estate’s livestock foreman, and that’s why they gave him this house.

My mom was a housewife. All the siblings started working at El Escorial. I worked in the vineyard, plowing, pruning, and all those things. We were nine siblings, three women and six men. María, Zulema, Juana, Ruperto, and I are still alive.

Roberto, Eugenio, and Juan passed away, and they killed Aurelio. Aurelio, Lelo as we all called him, was one of the youngest, he was twenty-two years old, so he lived and worked at El Escorial with my parents.

In 1971, the same day they took over the El Tránsito estate, they came looking for me to go work there, so I went that same day to work, but not to live there right away because the house was still occupied.

Since the El Escorial estate was under occupation, they wouldn’t let anyone in or out, so I had to go talk to the board, I told them that they had come looking for me from El Tránsito and that I wanted them to let me leave in the morning and enter the estate in the afternoon.

There was no problem. The only one I remember from that board is Juan Núñez; they killed him. I worked in the fields there, there were also vineyards, but the wine wasn’t bottled; it was sold in large vats.

The CORA kept half the wine, and the rest was for the settlers, who sold it by the jug, by the demijohn to whoever came to buy, but they sold it right there, only on the estate. When they detained my brother, I was already married, I had four children, and shortly before the Coup, I had gone with my family to the El Tránsito settlement, so I wasn’t there when they came looking for him.

According to what my parents told me, they took Lelo from the house around seven in the morning. He was just getting up to go work in the vineyards. Those who detained him didn’t arrive asking questions, because at that time they just arrived and went into the houses and took whoever they were looking for.

They only took my brother. My other brothers also worked on the estate, but no one else was registered in the union, although I don’t think that’s why they didn’t take them, because they detained a lot of people from here who weren’t involved in anything.

We never knew why they took him, what they blamed him for, because they didn’t take the leaders from here, only one of them was detained, the others all remained. Aurelio was young, he was single, and he was quiet.

The only thing he did was work all week; on Sunday he would go to the field to play soccer, and that was the only route he had, only here inside the estate, he didn’t go anywhere else. His friends were just people from the estate, the youth of the estate.

April 24 and El Tránsito were the same estate, but in this last settlement, I understand that it was the bosses themselves who handed over those lands, and it was formed after April 24. They also took people from here; they took Cabezas and Serrano, who was a leader of El Tránsito. (excerpt)

Source: germina.cl 2014 (excerpt)