Address: Sector Chifca La Poza. (15 km. North of Osorno) Marital Status: Single Occupation: Tractor driver Political Affiliation: President of the Bernardo O'Higgins Union of San Pablo. Communal President of the Socialist Party. Date of Detention: September 17, 1973

Carlos Zapata Aguila, 28 years of age at the time of the events, single, a driver by profession, union leader and Communal President of the Socialist Party, was detained on September 17, 1973, at approximately 6:00 PM, at the "San Ramón" estate (now "Santa Margarita") in Osorno, while he was driving a tractor and taking the vehicle to the main houses.

His captors were Carabineros belonging to the San Pablo station, among whom were Lieutenant Nelson Eugenio Rodríguez Guerrero and Carabinero Rigoberto Moraga Fuentealba. Upon stopping the vehicle, the Carabineros forcibly took the keys from the driver, beating him with the weapons they were carrying, and finally threw him into the interior of the San Pablo hospital ambulance, the vehicle in which the police were traveling.

Witnesses to these events were Zapata's mother, Mrs. María del Carmen Aguila Aguila; the owner of the property, Ricardo Elwanger; his wife, Gabriela Mohr; and the ambulance driver, Filiberto Cárdenas Rubio, a driver for the Municipality of San Pablo.

The detention was carried out outside of all legality. Following the detention, and given that Zapata did not return home, on September 19 of that year, his mother went to the San Pablo police station, where she was informed that they had taken the detainee to the Osorno Regiment.

There, she was told that they had no political prisoners and was referred to the Military Prosecutor's Office, a tribunal that informed her that he was being held and that the family members should remain calm because the detainee was going to be prosecuted.

It should be noted that during the course of September 17, the leaders of the Socialist Party and the Unión Campesina Union, René Nolberto Salgado Salgado and Arturo Chacón Salgado, were also detained; they also remain forcibly disappeared to this day.

Both were taken to the San Pablo Carabineros station, as stated by Santiago Segundo Cárcamo Aguilar, brother-in-law of René Nolberto Salgado, who was detained at the time and released from the San Pablo station at 8:00 PM on September 17, 1973.

Carlos Zapata Aguila had been detained previously on September 11, 1973, by Carabineros Lieutenant Rodríguez and was released after 3 days of confinement, as no charges against him could be proven.

In 1990, information gathered by the families of these 3 victims was brought to the attention of the Osorno Court of Letters in order to request the exhumation of 3 graves located in an area near the town of San Pablo, where these 3 people could have been illegally buried.

The Court agreed to carry out the proceedings, without obtaining the expected results.

To this date, the fate of Carlos Zapata Aguila and his companions Arturo Chacón Salgado and René Salgado Salgado at the hands of their captors remains unknown.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

In the month of April 1979, a complaint for "Presumed Misfortune" (Presunta Desgracia) was filed before the 1st Court of Letters of Osorno. The summary investigation was initiated under case file 22751 against the Carabineros of the town of San Pablo, the Arauco Regiment, and the Military Prosecutor's Office, in order for them to report whether Carlos Zapata Aguila had been detained under their orders.

All three entities responded negatively; upon reviewing the documentation, the name of the aforementioned person did not appear. Witness Ricardo Elwanger Schuller, owner of the Margarita estate, testified before the Tribunal, confirming the arrest of Zapata Aguila on his property, adding that the action had been perpetrated by Lieutenant Rodríguez and two other Carabineros.

Elwanger's wife, Gabriela Mohr, testified in similar terms.

On May 28, 1979, a criminal complaint was filed before the same Tribunal for the crimes of kidnapping, serious injury, and homicide committed against the person of Carlos Zapata Aguila, against Carabinero Rigoberto Moraga Fuentealba, Lieutenant Nelson Enrique Rodríguez Guerrero, and against all those who might appear in the course of the process as authors, accomplices, or accessories after the fact of the aforementioned crimes.

The complaint was consolidated from the beginning of its processing with the complaint file 22751. The complaint included a detailed account of the circumstances of the arrest and the efforts made by the family aimed at clarifying the case.

Among these, it was brought to the Tribunal's attention that when Zapata's relatives went to the Osorno Investigative Service to file the corresponding report, it had been received by a detective named Labra, who referred the relatives to the Second Court of Osorno, where they were attended to by Judge Elba Sanhueza.

She limited herself to telling the mother of the disappeared man not to think that her son had died and "that one day he would return." At the time, a judicial investigation had not been initiated as required.

During the processing of the complaint, Filiberto Cárdenas Rubio testified regarding the events, stating that he had worked as a municipal employee since 1972, specifically as a driver, adding that on September 11, 1973, around 8:00 AM, by order of the Mayor of the Commune, Mr.

Alfredo Hott, he was placed at the disposal of the San Pablo station, under the command of Carabineros Lieutenant Nelson Rodríguez Guerrero, working with them for about a year in his capacity as a driver.

Furthermore, all eyewitnesses who testified before the tribunal confirmed the information already provided in the filing of the complaint. Despite this, and without ordering new proceedings, on October 16 the summary was declared closed, and 6 days later the case was temporarily dismissed.

The resolution was appealed, and on December 6 the Court of Appeals revoked the Judge's resolution because the investigation appeared incomplete, ordering new proceedings along with the resolution. Simultaneously, on December 7, 1979, the Valdivia Court of Appeals appointed Juana González I. as an Extraordinary Visiting Minister in the 1st Court of Letters for the purpose of continuing summary file 22751. (In parallel, the Visiting Minister was in charge of 16 cases of forcibly disappeared persons from the X Region).

On December 13, 1979, Alfredo Hott Schwalm, Mayor of the town of San Pablo, testified before the Tribunal, stating in one part: "by order of the Intendant of Osorno, named Abarca, who was the Commander of the Arauco Regiment of this city, I had to hand over the Municipality's vehicles to the Carabineros, and I handed them over to Lieutenant Nelson Rodríguez Guerrero; they were a truck and an ambulance." Retired Carabinero Rigoberto Moraga Fuentes testified before the Tribunal on January 24, 1980, stating that he did not remember having detained Carlos Zapata Aguila, adding that given the circumstances in which the country found itself, station chiefs were authorized to carry out operations and detentions in the places they deemed necessary, with detainees remaining "no more than 48 hours in the station and then being transferred to the Military Prosecutor's Office of Osorno." This same former officer, when confronted with Zapata Aguila's mother, denied knowing the complainant or the disappeared son, adding "in the case that he had been detained, they remained in the station for 24 hours and were then transferred to the Military Prosecutor's Office of Osorno."

When testifying, Carabineros Major Nelson Eugenio Rodríguez Guerrero added the following regarding the treatment of detainees: "If weapons were found, they went to the Prosecutor's Office, and if they were political activists, they went to the Arauco regiment." Regarding the detention of Zapata Aguila, he stated he did not remember the event.

On April 15, 1980, the Tribunal visited the San Pablo station, finding that all documentation related to guard logbooks, crime statistics, and reports to tribunals had been incinerated in accordance with institutional administrative regulations.

On April 17, 1980, the Visiting Minister resolved that "from the information, it is clear that members of the Carabineros participated in the investigated events," adding that the Military Tribunals were competent to hear these facts.

Thus, the file was sent to the Military Prosecutor's Office. This resolution was appealed on April 22, 1980; the Court confirmed the Visiting Minister's resolution on July 4, 1980. On July 14, the plaintiff filed a complaint with the Supreme Court. On October 22, 1980, the Supreme Court dismissed the complaint.

In 1990, a complaint was filed before the Osorno Court of Letters for the illegal burial of bodies and possible homicide of Carlos Zapata Aguila, Arturo Chacón Salgado, and René Salgado Salgado.

The Tribunal acted on the request made to it, ordering the removal of the graves, but the expected results were not obtained. No human remains were located in them.

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity

By a vote of two to one, the Valdivia Court of Appeals granted freedom today to six retired Carabineros prosecuted for the qualified kidnapping of a communist militant and three PS leaders. With its decision, the appellate court confirmed the resolution of the judge with exclusive dedication to Human Rights cases, Raúl Ramírez López.

Those who benefited are General (ret.) Nelson Rodríguez Guerrero and retired non-commissioned officers Amado Hernández Rivas, Nelson Soto Rubilar, Pablo Mancilla, Renato Lizana, and Dagoberto Gajardo. All of them were charged last Monday for the qualified kidnapping of communist militant Mario Opazo Guarda and socialist leaders Nolberto Salgado, Arturo Chacón, and Carlos Zapata Águila.

According to the investigation, the accused were serving in 1973 at the San Pablo Carabineros station, where the four disappeared persons were taken after being apprehended. It was in that place that they were last seen alive.

Source: November 28, 2004 El Mercurio

Date: 11-28-2004

Retired police officers prosecuted for qualified kidnapping

A retired General of the Carabineros and five other former non-commissioned officers of the institution were prosecuted as authors of the crime of qualified kidnapping in the Tenth Region. The events date back to 1973, when Socialist Party (PS) militants Nolberto Salgado, Arturo Chacón, and Carlos Zapata, and one from the Communist Party (PC), identified as Mario Opazo Guarda, disappeared from the San Pablo station in Osorno.

The resolution of the judge dedicated to human rights cases in the provinces of Valdivia and Osorno, Raúl Ramírez, affected General (ret.) Nelson Rodríguez Guerrero and non-commissioned officers Armando Hernández Rivas, Nelson Soto Rubilar, Pablo Mancilla Bórquez, Renato Lizana, and Dagoberto Gajardo Cerón.

The Radio Cooperativa report highlighted that the investigation by the multidisciplinary team of the Investigative Police in charge of the case was complicated by the fact that the former officers currently had addresses in Antofagasta, Santiago, Temuco, Osorno, and Coyhaique.

At the close of this note, the prosecuted General (ret.) Rodríguez was being held at the Osorno prefecture facilities, while his remaining five subordinates were transferred to the first Carabineros station in the same city.

Source: November 23, 2004 El Mostrador

Date: 11-23-2004