FACh Sub-officer (Ret.) threw bodies of those executed in Calama into the sea

A sub-officer (Ret.) of the FACh (Chilean Air Force) acknowledged to La Nación that in 1975, it was his duty to throw the bagged bodies of the 26 people executed by the Caravan of Death in 1973 in Calama into the sea from his C-47 model aircraft.

The sub-officer (Ret.), S.O.L.M., said he was "psychologically shattered" by this memory, and as he has not appeared involved in other crimes against humanity during the dictatorship to date, La Nación has chosen not to publish his identity.

The sub-officer admitted that in August of this year, he recounted his bitter experience during the proceedings being conducted for these exhumations by Judge Patricia Almazán of the Court of Appeals of Antofagasta, a case previously overseen by former judge Juan Guzmán.

It is the first time that a member of the FACh has acknowledged that this institution was part of the operations to throw exhumed prisoners' bodies into the sea. As established in several legal proceedings, the method was used systematically in different parts of the country starting in 1978, under instructions from the Army high command led by dictator Augusto Pinochet.

The Chilean Investigative Police had long been tracking the trail of an eyewitness to this operation who could confirm what was declared in the proceedings in late 2004 by Army intelligence sub-officer (Ret.) Manuel Aguirre Cortés.

Aguirre implicated the current commander of the II Army Division and military judge of Santiago, General Miguel Trincado Araneda, of participating alongside him in these exhumations and of commanding the transport of the bodies in a truck to the Calama airfield, where they were loaded aboard the C-47.

The FACh sub-officer (Ret.) says he does not know the identities of the Army officials who were on the ground with the bodies. However, procedural statements from other officers (Ret.) acknowledging the operation and a police report complicate Trincado's situation, precisely as the Army is about to announce the new high command.

In two judicial statements, General Trincado denied his participation in and knowledge of this event, although he admitted that at the Calama Regiment, "I was there from August 1974 until December 1977, as commander of the section and later of the Infantry company." The Army has denied any involvement of this general in the crime.

For its part, the FACh had also denied the participation of its personnel and flight equipment in this operation until now. "I am not going to talk anymore because I am very unwell and I don't want any more war," S.O.L.M. told La Nación, but in his statement during the proceedings, he narrated that "we came from Cerro Moreno (FACh air base in Antofagasta) and landed in Calama with a C-47.

Uniformed Army officials loaded some long bundles similar to corpses wrapped in white fabric (...) We took off, and after about two hours, the pilot ordered me to throw all the bundles into the sea (...) I don't know where it was," he stated in his judicial testimony.

When asked who the two Army officials on the ground were, he said, "I don't want to talk anymore." Meanwhile, interviewed by La Nación, sub-officer Manuel Aguirre maintained his statements in the proceedings and said, "I stand by the truth," expressing that he had no problem being confronted with General Trincado. "He and I loaded the bodies onto the plane.

He was there then, as a lieutenant, acting as the head of the Intelligence Section of the Calama Regiment."

Police report implicates General Trincado

A July 2005 report by the Investigative Police concluded that "although he denies his participation in this event, General Miguel Trincado Araneda cannot be unaware of it." The document maintains the same regarding Colonel (Ret.) Julio Salazar Lantery, who was the head of Intelligence for the First Army Division in Antofagasta, and Colonel (Ret.) Luis Aracena Romo, at that time acting commander of the Calama regiment, whose titular head was Colonel Eduardo Ibáñez Tillería.

In a 2005 procedural statement, Aracena specified that the event occurred "in the second half of 1975." For his part, Salazar Lantery denied participation in the exhumation but admitted in the investigation that "in 1975 there was an agreement to exhume the bodies (...) They were loaded onto a FACh plane (...) requested by the commander of the First Division, General Carol Urzúa (deceased) to the Air Brigade, which was carried out through the major surnamed Pérez-Canto, of the Regional Intelligence Center, CIRE." Both S.O.L.M. and Aguirre agree that the bodies were wrapped in "white sacks." According to information from the proceedings, two other members of the Antofagasta delegation that traveled to Calama to supervise the exhumation are Colonel (Ret.) Domingo Flores Figueroa and DINA agent Luis Besamat Morales. Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.) Carlos Minoletti, who was the head of the Engineers company of the Calama regiment, also participated in the exhumation.

Source: La Nación, November 7, 2005