The visiting minister of the Temuco Court of Appeals, Alvaro Mesa Latorre, indicted retired Carabineros Luis Arnoldo Becerra Jaramillo and Guillermo Fabio Muñoz Rodhe as accessories to the crime of qualified homicide of Guillermo Hernández Elgueta, perpetrated in the commune of Toltén in October 1973.

Given the merit of the evidence, from which it is clear that the freedom of the accused constitutes a danger to the security of society, the investigating minister did not grant them the benefit of provisional release on bail, ordering preventive detention for Luis Arnoldo Becerra Jaramillo and Guillermo Muñoz Rodhe , who were admitted to the Second Carabineros Precinct of Temuco as defendants in open custody.

Minister Alvaro Mesa was able to establish:

A.-

That after September 11, 1973, as a result of an order issued nationwide to the armed and law enforcement institutions, the Toltén Carabineros Station increased its staffing, as personnel from smaller units were recalled, with the uniformed officers required to sleep at the unit, as the order compelled them to remain in a state of barracks confinement or Grade 1 alert.

As a result of the above, there was a restructuring of the command of the aforementioned Station, with First Sergeant Manuel Jesús Verdugo Reyes remaining as its chief, who until that date had served as chief of the Queule locality outpost.

B.-

That in the month of October 1973, Guillermo Hernández Elgueta, 30 years old, Sub-delegate of Cunco, was detained in the locality of Comuy by officials of the Toltén Station, following an order issued by superiors, and was transported to the Toltén police unit.

C.-

That following the line described in the previous paragraph, during the night, while Guillermo Hernández Elgueta was being held at the Toltén Carabineros Station, he was shot in the thoracic region by First Sergeant Haroldo Hernández, without any motive.

At that moment, police officials dependent on the station were sleeping inside, including those added from smaller units as a result of the order described in the first paragraph. Upon hearing the shot, some of the uniformed officers got up, among them Juan Alfonso Prado Ponce, the Carabinero who participated in the apprehension of Guillermo Hernández, and were able to see his body lying on the floor with traces of blood around it.

D.-

That after this event occurred, the station's superiors noticed the condition of Hernández Elgueta, and he was transported to the Toltén hospital in a pickup truck driven by Carabinero Juan Alfonso Prado Ponce and admitted immediately to the morgue, due to his status as deceased.

At that location, they forced the director, Aurelio Soto Donoso, a general practitioner by profession, to perform an autopsy on the body of Hernández Elgueta, noticing that he presented around five bullet wounds in the back, managing to extract the lead slugs from each of them, which were then handed over to the Carabineros who arrived to collect the body from that place.

E.-

That subsequently, a police official went to the then-mayor of Toltén, Ernesto Lobos Virano, to order him to take charge of the body of Hernández Elgueta, without providing him with details of his identity or the circumstances of his death.

Complying with the uniformed officer's order, the mayor commissioned the construction of the coffin from two municipal employees – Jorge René Cortés Cruces and José Belisario Valdebenito Bravo – who later, with the help of two Carabineros from the Toltén Station, placed the body of Hernández Elgueta inside and transported it to the commune's cemetery, where he was buried without a name.

At least seven uniformed officers from the Station attended the burial, among whom was First Sergeant Haroldo Hernández and the two Carabineros who cooperated in removing the body from the hospital morgue, being transported to that place in a minibus driven by Reynaldo Levillán Isla, which belonged to the Municipality of Toltén and which, after September 11, 1973, was parked daily inside the aforementioned Station.

F.-

That according to the medical death certificate and its subsequent registration, the death of Guillermo Hernández Elgueta was caused by bullet wounds, the investigation concludes. Minister Alvaro Mesa Latorre was appointed as instructor of human rights cases in place of Minister Fernando Carreño starting in September 2011.

At the time of assuming the position, he received 41 cases in the summary stage. He currently oversees 113 cases comprising a total of 290 volumes, of which 9 are in the plenary stage; 5 have been ruled upon.

Apart from these cases, 5 have been dismissed. In total, he has recorded 64 indictments to date, with 113 people indicted and 40 accused. In his investigative work, the investigating minister of the Temuco Court of Appeals is assisted by three judicial clerks and 8 detectives from the Human Rights Crimes Investigation Brigade of the Investigations Police of Chile.

Source: araucaniacuenta.cl, October 29, 2015

Two former Carabineros indicted as accessories to a homicide that occurred in 1973

The event occurred in Toltén, following the murder of Guillermo Hernández Elgueta. Retired police officers Luis Becerra Jaramillo and Guillermo Muñoz Rodhe were placed in preventive detention. The visiting minister of the Temuco Court of Appeals, Álvaro Mesa, indicted two former Carabineros as accessories to the crime of qualified homicide of Guillermo Hernández Elgueta, an event that occurred in Toltén in October 1973.

They are Luis Arnoldo Becerra Jaramillo and Guillermo Fabio Muñoz Rodhe, who were placed in preventive detention, entering the Second Carabineros Precinct of Temuco as defendants in open custody. In the investigation, Minister Mesa was able to establish that after being detained in October 1973, Guillermo Hernández was taken to the Toltén station, where he was shot in the chest.

After confirming his death, the victim was taken to the Toltén cemetery where he was buried without a name. The medical death certificate indicates that the death of Guillermo Hernández was caused by five bullet wounds.

Source: soychile.cl, October 28, 2015

Temuco Court of Appeals confirms sentence for the homicide of Guillermo Hernández Elgueta

The Temuco Court of Appeals confirmed the sentence that convicted retired Carabineros Juan Alfonso Prado Ponce , Guillermo Fabio Muñoz Rohde , and Luis Arnoldo Becerra Jaramillo to a penalty of 5 years in prison as accessories to the crime of qualified homicide of Guillermo Hernández Elgueta , perpetrated in the commune of Toltén in October 1973 .

In a unanimous ruling (docket 34-2017), the First Chamber of the appellate court – composed of ministers Luis Troncoso Lagos, Cecilia Aravena López , and Luis Olivares Apablaza – confirmed the sentence of the extraordinary visiting minister, Alvaro Mesa Latorre , which also definitively dismissed the charges against Manuel Jesús Verdugo Reyes – for the same crime – due to his state of health.

THE FACTS

During the investigation, Minister Alvaro Mesa was able to establish:

A.-

That after September 11, 1973, as a result of an order issued nationwide to the armed and law enforcement institutions, the Toltén Carabineros Station increased its staffing, as personnel from smaller units were recalled, with the uniformed officers required to sleep at the unit, as the order compelled them to remain in a state of barracks confinement or Grade 1 alert.

As a result of the above, there was a restructuring of the command of the aforementioned Station, with First Sergeant Manuel Jesús Verdugo Reyes remaining as its chief, who until that date had served as chief of the Queule locality outpost.

B.-

That in the month of October 1973, Guillermo Hernández Elgueta, 30 years old, Sub-delegate of Cunco, was detained in the locality of Comuy by officials of the Toltén Station, following an order issued by superiors, and was transported to the Toltén police unit.

C.-

That following the line described in the previous paragraph, during the night, while Guillermo Hernández Elgueta was being held at the Toltén Carabineros Station, he was shot in the thoracic region by First Sergeant Haroldo Hernández (R.I.P.), without any motive.

At that moment, police officials dependent on the station were sleeping inside, including those added from smaller units as a result of the order described in the first paragraph. Upon hearing the shot, some of the uniformed officers got up, among them Juan Alfonso Prado Ponce and Luis Arnoldo Becerra Jaramillo, who participated in the apprehension of Guillermo Hernández, and were able to see his body lying on the floor with traces of blood around it.

D.-

That after this event occurred, the station's superiors noticed the condition of Hernández Elgueta, and he was transported to the Toltén hospital in a pickup truck driven by Carabinero Juan Alfonso Prado Ponce and admitted immediately to the morgue, due to his status as deceased.

At that location, they forced the director, Aurelio Soto Donoso, a general practitioner by profession, to perform an autopsy on the body of Hernández Elgueta, noticing that he presented around five bullet wounds in the back, managing to extract the lead slugs from each of them, which were then handed over to the Carabineros who arrived to collect the body from that place.

E.-

That subsequently, a police official went to the then-mayor of Toltén, Ernesto Lobos Virano, to order him to take charge of the body of Hernández Elgueta, without providing him with details of his identity or the circumstances of his death.

Complying with the uniformed officer's order, the mayor commissioned the construction of the coffin from two municipal employees – Jorge René Cortés Cruces and José Belisario Valdebenito Bravo – who later, with the help of Luis Arnoldo Becerra Jaramillo and Guillermo Fabio Muñoz Rohde, officials of the Toltén Station, placed the body of Hernández Elgueta inside and transported it to the commune's cemetery, where he was buried without a name.

At least seven uniformed officers from the Station attended the burial, among whom were First Sergeant Haroldo Hernández (R.I.P.), Luis Arnoldo Becerra Jaramillo, and Guillermo Fabio Muñoz Rohde, being transported to that place in a minibus driven by Reynaldo Levillán Isla, which belonged to the Municipality of Toltén and which, after September 11, 1973, was parked daily inside the aforementioned Station.

F.-

That according to the medical death certificate and its subsequent registration, the death of Guillermo Hernández Elgueta was caused by bullet wounds,” the sentence points out. The convicted individuals were granted the benefit of intensive supervised release.

Source: araucaniacuenta.cl, May 17, 2017