The story of the crime against Father Gerardo Poblete Fernández could be made into a film. Its main plot, beyond the torture that killed him, would be betrayal. But above all, it would be the concealment of the truth about his death, not only by military and police officers, but by members of his own congregation.

It was this latter fact that triggered the departure of his friend and Salesian seminarian Ricardo Salgado from the congregation, deeply disillusioned, a couple of years after the tragic events. Salgado had been detained and tortured alongside Poblete on October 21, 1973, in Iquique by the Carabineros. “With everything I saw, a fracture occurred with the institution of the church, more so than with the faith,” he told La Nación Domingo last March, when “The Hidden History of the Crime of Father Gerardo Poblete” was published.

The report shook the Salesians. Days after the publication, the congregation approached the family for the first time, acknowledging their long absence. Finally, today the Salesians will vindicate the memory of Father Gerardo Poblete in a Eucharist to be held at 3:00 PM at the Templo de la Gratitud Nacional, at the corner of Alameda and Cumming.

The entire congregation will attend, as well as students, parents, guardians, family, and friends. A small urn will contain the priest's bones, whose remains were exhumed last April by order of Judge Daniel Calvo.

After 28 years It took 28 years for the congregation to finally file a criminal complaint in January 2001 for the homicide of its member, sponsored by Fasic lawyer Nelson Caucoto. In October 2002, the family also filed a complaint.

Judge Daniel Calvo began issuing rulings and prosecuted retired Colonels Gustavo San Martín Ravanal and Enzo Meniconi Lorca, and retired non-commissioned officers Blas Barraza Quintero and Froilán Mondaca Sáez, all of the Carabineros, as perpetrators and accomplices of the crime.

When this event occurred, the director of the Salesian community of Iquique in 1973, Maximiano Ortúzar Cariola, claimed that Father Poblete “died of a heart attack.” Even the Bishop of Iquique in 1973, José del Carmen Valle, wrote a letter to a military commission that arrived in that city to “investigate” the causes of the priest's death, in which he expressed his willingness to collaborate for the common good of Chile.

Days after the murder of Father Poblete, the Salesian school in Iquique served as an espionage center for the Army, which set itself up to monitor the population with binoculars. The seminarian Salgado was a witness. Everything is documented in the case file of Judge Calvo’s proceedings.

Source: La Nación, October 20, 2003

Sentence for retired Carabinero officer increased to 10 years in Gerardo Poblete case

Judge Iván Elgueta and the presiding lawyer of the Eighth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Carlos López, prevented the president of the chamber, Judge Cornelio Villarroel, from applying the statute of limitations to one officer and two non-commissioned officers of the Iquique Carabineros—all retired—who on October 21, 1973, murdered Salesian priest Gerardo Poblete Fernández in a police barracks.

Thus, by a vote of two to one, the chamber confirmed the sentences that Judge Joaquín Billard had applied to the police officers in October 2007. The difference is that this new resolution transformed the main culprit, the then-commissioner of the Iquique Prefecture, Enzo Meniconi Lorca, from an accomplice—according to Billard, who had applied only three years of imprisonment in 2007—into a perpetrator of qualified homicide.

Consequently, his sentence was increased to ten years and one day, which means effective service of the sentence. Elgueta and López maintained the ten-year sentences for non-commissioned officers Blas Barraza Quinteros and Froilán Mondaca Sáez as perpetrators of the homicide.

Villarroel, who presided over the chamber, defended his dissenting vote, confirming his unwavering position in favor of the military and civilians who committed crimes against humanity during the military oppression, as a supporter of amnesty, the statute of limitations, and opposed to the thesis of kidnapping as a permanent crime in the case of the forcibly disappeared.

Judge Villarroel always voted in favor of Pinochet whenever he was subjected to the impeachment process in the Court of Appeals in the cases for which he was later prosecuted. The final instance now remains in the Supreme Court, which has been substantially reducing sentences for human rights violators through the cassation process.

The case of Father Poblete caused deep discrepancies within the Salesians, as the congregation remained silent for years about the true cause of the priest's death and did not seek justice for the crime until 2001, as the victim's sister, Edmee Poblete, stated in March 2003.

Maximiano Ortúzar Cariola, director of the Salesian community in Iquique in 1973, participated in the concealment of the truth regarding the religious man's death. He admitted during the proceedings and later ratified in an interview with LND that "I wanted to save the honor of the Carabineros and I proposed to the police that they say Father Poblete died of a heart attack." This was what was reported to the family and officially to the congregation. "I did it because I felt fear," said Ortúzar.

But General Carlos Forestier, then head of the VI Army Division in Iquique, improved the version: "he died from injuries sustained when falling from the step of the Carabineros van," he said in a statement.

Source: La Nación, Friday, June 27, 2008

Supreme Court sentenced retired Carabineros for priest's crime in 1973

Retired non-commissioned officers Blas Barraza Quintero and Froilán Moncada Sáez were sentenced to 6 years in prison as perpetrators of the qualified homicide of Salesian priest Gerardo Poblete. The Supreme Court issued a final judgment for the homicide of Salesian priest Gerardo Poblete Fernández, which occurred on October 21, 1973, in Iquique, sentencing two retired Carabineros non-commissioned officers.

In a split decision, the Second Chamber of the highest court sentenced Blas Barraza Quintero and Froilán Moncada Sáez to 6 years of imprisonment without benefits as perpetrators of the crime of qualified homicide of the priest.

Judges Jaime Rodríguez, Hugo Dolmestch, and Carlos Künsemüller were in favor of applying the sentence, while magistrates Nibaldo Segura and Rubén Ballesteros were in favor of applying the statute of limitations to the criminal action.

Source: El Mercurio, September 10, 2009

Judge Olivares issues indictment against Miguel Aguirre and Blas Barraza for qualified homicide in Pisagua

Justice has made a new advance after an exhaustive investigation into human rights cases in Iquique and Pisagua, as visiting Judge Mónica Olivares Ojeda issued an indictment in the investigation she is conducting into the qualified homicide of prison guard Isaías Higueras Zúñiga, which occurred on January 19, 1974, in the town of Pisagua, after he was brutally tortured.

The visiting judge, who also presides over the Iquique Court of Appeals, held retired members of the Chilean Army responsible for the crime of qualified homicide: Miguel Chile Aguirre Álvarez and Blas Daniel Barraza Quinteros. Following the indictment, the visiting judge must bring the case to a plenary session to subsequently issue a first-instance sentence.

TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION

According to the records of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission: “On January 11, 1974, ISAÍAS HIGUERAS ZÚÑIGA, 39 years old, a prison guard at the Iquique Jail and a communist militant, passed away.

He had been detained and taken to the Telecommunications Regiment in Iquique, being subsequently transferred to Pisagua. His spouse officially received the version that her husband had died of a heart attack.

This information was provided by the person who was then the Warden of the Iquique Jail and ratified at the facilities of the VI Army Division in that city. The remains of Mr. Isaías Higueras were delivered to his spouse inside a sealed urn.

This Commission is convinced, especially due to the statements of multiple and concordant eyewitnesses that she knew, that his death occurred as a result of the illegal coercion to which he was subjected by State agents while he was detained in the Pisagua prison camp, where his guards beat him to death.”

MEMORIES

Higueras's wife, Diana Brerms, interviewed at the time of the discovery of the clandestine grave in Pisagua, said she had certain testimony that her husband, who worked at the Iquique jail, was taken out and transferred to the Pisagua prison camp.

This occurred on January 11, 1974. Subsequently, Higueras was beaten to death during the torture sessions to which he was subjected. His body was delivered to the family in a sealed urn, and they had to bury him immediately, without holding a wake or having anyone accompany them to the burial.

They arrived at the Iquique Cemetery No. 3 when it was already closed, so they had to break the padlock. The woman had bought a cheap niche on the top floor, but the soldiers could not get the coffin in, so they used one lower down and told her, “you’re going to have to pay the difference.” However, the official report the family received was that Higueras—who was a member of the Communist Party—died as a result of a massive heart attack due to physical and emotional stress.

This is the information contained in the medical certificate. It should be noted that both accused, Miguel Aguirre, known as “el flaco Aguirre,” and Blas Barraza, are recognized as torturers by former political prisoners of Pisagua, who suffered from their brutal methods to obtain information.

In command of the team was the former Prosecutor of Pisagua, Mario Acuña. In operational roles was Lieutenant Carlos Herrera, known as “Bocaccio,” joined by Aguirre, Barraza, and other torturers.

BLAS BARRAZA

His full name is Blas Daniel Barraza Quinteros. He belonged to the Carabineros branch, where he held the rank of non-commissioned officer by September 11. He is already convicted in other human rights cases where his participation was proven.

He was prosecuted as a perpetrator of qualified kidnapping against Jorge Marín Rossel, 18 years old, and William Millar Sanhueza, 35, at the time of his death. Both were murdered in Cemetery No. 3, accused of escaping from the telecommunications regiment, which their relatives and witnesses denied.

Barraza was also prosecuted and convicted for being the perpetrator of the qualified homicide of Salesian priest Gerardo Francisco Poblete, who died as a result of the numerous blows he received from the moment he was taken from the Colegio Don Bosco, before the astonished gaze of his classmates.

The young priest was savagely beaten during the short transfer from the Colegio Don Bosco to the Carabineros facility, which was located where the central offices of Eliqsa, at Zegers and Lynch, operate today. Hence, the plaza in that area bears his name today.

MIGUEL AGUIRRE

Although the former Army corporal managed to lead a relatively normal life in Iquique after the recovery of democracy and the discovery of the clandestine grave in Pisagua, he was often confronted in the streets of the city by former prisoners or relatives of prisoners and the executed.

He always denied his participation in human rights abuses. He even declared in the 1990s in the newspaper La Época that he had a clear conscience. In 2012, when Judge Olivares had already taken over the investigation, she called for a recognition lineup with the participation of political prisoners, who unequivocally identified “el flaco” Aguirre as their torturer.

After that, he went to the Alto Hospicio prison, but later regained his freedom, secluding himself in his home. One of the prisoners who provided statements to the judge pointed out that they were summoned to testify as witnesses to the human rights violations that occurred in Pisagua, but as the investigation progressed, the judge began to establish the status of the declarants as victims.

That is to say, they were both victims and witnesses.

Source: edicioncero.cl, June 25, 2014

47 years after the events | Justice convicts retired military officers for the kidnappings of Jorge Marín and William Millar

The Santiago Court of Appeals convicted three retired members of the Army as perpetrators of the crime of qualified kidnapping of Jorge Rogelio Marín Rossel and Williams Millar Sanhueza. These crimes were perpetrated in September 1973 in the city of Iquique.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 201-2017), the Sixth Chamber of the appellate court—composed of judges Paola Plaza, Maritza Villadangos, and Guillermo de la Barra—confirmed the sentence that convicted Miguel Chile Aguirre Álvarez, Blas Daniel Barraza Quinteros, and Pedro Santiago Collado Martí to 10 years and one day in prison as perpetrators of the crimes, after ruling out the possibility of applying the statute of limitations or partial statute of limitations in this instance, as they are crimes against humanity. “We are facing a state policy of public order control that authorized State agents to detain and even deprive citizens of their lives or make them disappear, without consequences, due to the guarantee of impunity that the regime itself generated regarding the criminal and all other responsibilities attributable to them. This reveals that their actions were either ordered or at least had the approval or tolerance of those responsible for designing and implementing this state policy of public order control. In the words of the Judicial Prosecutor’s Office, ‘the regime prevailing at the time proceeded through its agents to detain and torture the victims, with their whereabouts remaining unknown to date, with forced disappearance being a crime that offends all of humanity,’” the ruling states. “Furthermore, in relation to the gradual statute of limitations of the action exercised, it is convenient to remember that Article 103 of the Penal Code is not only contemplated in the same title as the statute of limitations, but is developed after it, which reveals the close link between both institutions,” it adds. For the Santiago Court: “It cannot be overlooked that the estimation of the gradual statute of limitations regarding those responsible for the commission of crimes against humanity affects the principle of proportionality of the penalty, because given the indisputable gravity of the facts, perpetrated with the intervention of State agents, it determines that the response to the perpetrator of the transgression must be consistent with the impairment of the legal interest and the culpability with which they acted.” In the civil aspect, the appealed sentence was confirmed “with the declaration that the Chilean Treasury is ordered to pay the following compensation for moral damages: $20,000,000 (twenty million pesos) to each of the plaintiffs Héctor Marín Rossel, Hugo Marín Rossel, Ana María Marín Rossel, and Wilfredo Sepúlveda Rossel, siblings of Jorge Rogelio Marín Rossel; $15,000,000 (fifteen million pesos) to Aura Teresa Peña Martínez, spouse of Williams Millar Sanhueza; $30,000,000 (thirty million pesos) to each of the plaintiffs Lisabeth Millar Peña and Alexis Millar Peña, daughters of Williams Millar Sanhueza; and $50,000,000 (fifty million pesos) to Salomé Castillo Parraga, spouse of Jorge Marín Rossel.”

Source: elsoldeiquique.cl, May 19, 2020