CARLOS ENRIQUE GAETE LOPEZ

Date of Birth: 01-14-44, 29 years old at the time of detention Address: Asentamiento 24 de Abril, Paine Marital Status: Married Occupation: Agricultural laborer Political Affiliation: No known political affiliation Date of Detention: October 16, 1973

Carlos Enrique Gaete López, 29 years old at the time of the events, married, father of three, agricultural laborer, with no political affiliation, was detained at his home in the presence of his family at 3:20 a.m. on October 16, 1973.

His captors were military personnel who arrived at the home demanding that the street door be opened, while verbally identifying themselves as police. The home was raided, and Gaete López was detained without the corresponding legal warrant. From that moment on, his family has been unaware of his whereabouts; he remains a victim of forced disappearance.

That night and in the early hours of October 16, 1973, in a vast operation carried out by military personnel under the orders of Army Lieutenant Andrés Magaña, 22 people were detained from their homes. In none of these cases was there the corresponding authorization to conduct raids or arrests.

The military personnel participating in the operation wore field gear or gray uniforms covered by a cape of the same color; they wore armbands and had black berets or helmets on their heads. Their faces were in some cases smeared with soot, and in others, covered with balaclavas.

They moved in at least one red truck with side railings and a jeep. Everyone was heavily armed and illuminated the rooms with flashlights, preventing the residents from turning on the lights. The operation began at the first hour of October 16 and lasted until 04:00 a.m.

The people who were detained, mostly settlers who had participated in the agrarian reform process during the administrations of Presidents Frei and Allende, were listed on a roster carried by the military.

Their homes were raided, and the detainees were taken from their houses, with the families being warned that they would return during the day after giving statements in San Bernardo. Everyone was loaded onto a truck that was waiting on the main road.

The operation was carried out silently, and the victims' relatives were forbidden from leaving their homes. The operation began with the detention of Andrés Pereira Salsberg, an industrialist and owner of a machine shop; then René del Rosario Maureira Gajardo, a merchant, was detained.

Immediately after, the military headed toward the sector corresponding to the Asentamiento 24 de Abril, where they detained Patricio Loreto Duque Orellana, the brothers Raúl Antonio, Silvestre René, and Jorge Hernán Muñoz Peñaloza, their brother-in-law Basilio Antonio Valenzuela Alvarez, Germán Fredes García, Carlos Enrique Gaete López, Carlos Alberto Nieto Duarte, Laureano Quiroz Pezoa, Rosalindo Delfín Hernán Muñoz, and Ramón Luis Silva Carreño.

They then proceeded to the Asentamiento El Tránsito, where Pedro Antonio Cabezas Villegas and Roberto Servando Galaz were detained. Finally, they went to the Asentamiento Nuevo Sendero, where they detained Enrique Lazo Quintero, his brother Samuel Altamiro Lazo Quintero and his sons Luis Rodolfo and Samuel Lazo Maldonado, José Domingo Adasme Núñez, Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda, and José Ignacio Gaete Maldonado.

On October 10, Carabineros from the Paine Sub-precinct had detained Samuel Altamiro Lazo Quinteros at his home in the Asentamiento "El Tránsito," who had been released after 24 hours of detention at said Sub-precinct.

This farmer was detained again in the early hours of October 16, 1973. Subsequent to his first detention, he informed his fellow settlers that he had been warned by the Carabineros that in the following days, military personnel from the San Bernardo Infantry School would arrive and proceed to detain the settlers.

The farmers of said settlement who had approached the Sub-precinct, where they had a conversation with Sergeant Reyes regarding their situation, had received identical information.

During the search undertaken by the family to find the affected party, they believed they had found him in 1979 upon making contact with a person with mental disabilities who was wandering around the Huelquén sector in Paine, and whose physical characteristics resembled him enormously.

Given the gravity of the facts, the information was brought to the attention of the Court. Only months later, and after fingerprinting and other laboratory tests were performed, it was conclusively determined that it was not the same person, identifying this second individual as Juan Nicolás Farías Farías, a resident of Melipilla.

Of all the people detained on October 16, 1973, their presence in any detention center remains unknown. To date, there are no witnesses regarding this. Judicial records allow for the conclusion that they were taken that early morning in the direction of the hills of Codegua, near Melipilla, where they were executed. Their remains have not been found.

The detention and subsequent disappearance of these cases are framed within the repression that took place in Paine in 1973. (Further information in the case of José Domingo Adasme Núñez).

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On December 7, 1973, a writ of amparo (habeas corpus) was filed before the Santiago Court of Appeals in favor of Carlos Enrique Gaete López, Rosalindo Delfín Herrera Muñoz, Basilio Antonio Valenzuela Alvarez, Patricio Loreto Duque Orellana, and the brothers Jorge Hernán, Silvestre René, and Ramiro Antonio Muñoz Peñaloza.

The filing of the amparo was handled by lawyer Andrés Aylwin A., at the request of the victims' families. Its case number was 687-73. The appeal was denied on January 8, 1974, as was its appeal before the Supreme Court on January 30, 1974.

The resolutions that did not grant the amparo petition were based on reports issued by military and administrative authorities, which indicated that the detention of the affected party was not registered.

On March 24, 1974, a mass amparo petition for 131 people was filed before the Santiago Court of Appeals, which was assigned case number 289-74. Carlos Enrique Gaete López was included in it.

Authorities were consulted without being able to establish the particular situation of each of the protected individuals. On November 28, 1974, the amparo was rejected. The resolution was appealed. The Plenary of the Supreme Court confirmed the ruling on January 31, 1975, agreeing to appoint an Extraordinary Visiting Judge (Ministro en Visita Extraordinaria) to focus on the corresponding investigation.

The appointment fell to Judge Enrique Zurita Camps, who on February 24 of that year instructed case N°106657 in the First Criminal Court of Santiago. The relatives of the Muñoz Peñaloza brothers were summoned to testify by Judge Zurita, leaving a new record of the circumstances of their detention.

On September 25, 1975, without having delved into any of the reported cases, the summary was closed for "being unable to advance further in the investigation." On September 29 of the same year, the Judge issued a ruling; in the case of Gaete López, as well as in 27 other cases of detainees from Paine, he temporarily dismissed the case, as the existence of any criminal act was not fully justified.

On May 10, 1976, the Santiago Court of Appeals approved the resolution of Judge Zurita Camps.

On March 21, 1975, a complaint for alleged disappearance was filed before the Maipo-Buin Judge of Letters following the detention and subsequent disappearance of 23 locals from Paine, the vast majority of whom were farmers detained by the military, except for one detained by Carabineros, and among whom the case of Carlos Enrique Gaete López was included.

The case for the group of affected individuals was assigned case number 24005-1, under Judge Javier Torres. After 3 months, María Inés López Ahumada and Teresa Celinda López Meza appeared before the Court to ratify the complaint.

Starting in July, the first investigative steps were decreed. The National Executive Secretariat of Detainees and the San Bernardo Infantry School were officially notified. Both, in their response letters, stated they had no information regarding the people consulted.

The Legal Medical Institute, for its part, replied that the names of those 23 people did not appear in the index book of bodies admitted to that establishment. The Court issued a broad order to investigate to the Carabineros and the Investigations police.

The Carabineros limited themselves to taking statements from the 2 complainants, while the Investigations police, in addition to carrying out similar procedures to those performed by the Carabineros, informed the Court that they had made inquiries in order to "locate and identify the people who apparently wore military uniforms on the day of the events, without favorable results." Without having decreed other measures, in November 1975, the Court decided to close the summary and definitively dismiss the case, as "no presumptions appeared from the summary that the reported facts had been verified." On January 20, 1976, the Rancagua Court of Appeals confirmed the dismissal, modifying it to temporary. The case was archived. On March 23, 1977, the case was reopened after a request to that effect presented by the complaining party was accepted. The request for reopening was based on the fact that 10 cases included in case 24005-1 appeared as part of a list of 63 people, of whom the Chilean government, at the 30th session of the UN in 1975, stated that they were not "forcibly disappeared"—as their relatives reported—but rather were dead people whose bodies were recorded in the index books of the Legal Medical Institute. This list of 63 names was included in the document titled "Current Situation of Human Rights in Chile" (Volume II, pp. 381-383). The information contained in the report—the complainants added—was contradictory to what that Court had received from the same Legal Medical Institute when consulted. Carlos Enrique Gaete López was part of the lists and was assigned protocol N°3393.

On July 11, 1979, a criminal complaint was filed against the personnel of the San Bernardo Infantry School who detained and caused the disappearance of Carlos Enrique Gaete López. From its inception, the case was consolidated with case file 24005-1.

On April 3, 1979, Judge Juan Rivas Larraín of the Rancagua Court of Appeals had been appointed to continue hearing case 24005-1, in response to a request presented by the Catholic Church to the Supreme Court so that Visiting Judges could focus on the cases of forcibly disappeared persons throughout the national territory.

Thus, two years after the reopening of the case, upon assuming the case, Judge Rivas ordered the first steps aimed at clarifying the contradiction between the information the Court possessed regarding the 10 people and that which the Chilean government provided to the UN.

In April, he officially requested the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to inform him of the background and procedures that allowed for the compilation of the list of "presumably disappeared persons" who had been located in the records of the Legal Medical Institute.

In May 1979, the Judge visited the Legal Medical Institute and conducted an ocular inspection; he requested and was presented with the general index of body admissions corresponding to the 2nd semester of 1973 to the date of the procedure, verifying that the people whose alleged disappearance was being investigated did not appear.

He also reviewed the "General Index of Autopsy Registry" book, and upon examining especially the autopsy protocol numbers that the Chilean Government's report assigned to the people it indicated as having been admitted to the Legal Medical Institute, he verified that said protocols referred to unidentified people recorded as NN (John/Jane Doe).

Their identification had not been possible due to the lack of epidermis on their hands. None of those protocols recorded a subsequent identification. He also verified that all those NNs were people who had died after September 11, 1973, due to gunshot wounds, whose deaths had occurred in Santiago and its surroundings.

On that occasion, Dr. Claudio Molina Fraga, Director of the Institute, informed the Court that on the occasion of the investigation carried out by the Visiting Judge of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Adolfo Bañados, regarding the discovery of bodies in the town of Lonquén, a report had been issued addressed to that Judge regarding the identity of the signature and stamp that appeared at the end of the list in reference, and regarding which there were many doubts as to whether the first corresponded to that of Dr.

Alfredo Vargas Baeza (RIP) and the second to the Institute. The official letter in question contained information on the possible origin of the discrepancies between the Institute's records and those recorded in the list used by the government.

On that occasion, the Visiting Judge requested a copy of that official letter (Off. N°36 of February 12, 1979), a request that was objected to by the establishment's legal advisor, stating that the original document had been sent as confidential to the Court whose file was in the Military Prosecutor's Office due to the incompetence of Visiting Judge Adolfo Bañados.

Visiting Judge Rivas officially requested the Military Prosecutor's Office (May 1979) to authorize the Legal Medical Institute to deliver a copy of Official Letter N°36. In June of the same year, the Military Prosecutor, Gonzalo Salazar Swett, responded negatively to the Visiting Judge, stating verbatim: "I inform you that it is not possible to grant the request of your Honor for now, given the state of the case." Faced with such a response, the Visiting Judge officially requested the Santiago Court of Appeals to send him an authorized copy of Official Letter N°36, receiving a refusal to such a request, stating verbatim: "The full Court of this Court agreed not to grant your request, given that the report referred to belongs to confidential records of this presidency. Without prejudice to what Judge Bañados may wish to resolve."

Thus, he had to officially request it directly from Judge Adolfo Bañados, who would send a copy of the aforementioned official letter. In August 1979, the Commander-in-Chief of the II Army Division and Military Court sent the Court his authorization for the Legal Medical Institute to deliver a copy of Official Letter 36 to the Extraordinary Visiting Judge, Juan Rivas.

A few days earlier, he had declared himself incompetent to continue investigating case 24005, due to the recent creation of the President Aguirre Cerda Court of Appeals, to whose jurisdiction the Buin-Maipo Court corresponded.

At the moment of his incompetence, he established the falsity of the list used by the Chilean agency in its report on the "Current Situation of Human Rights." The investigation was continued starting August 13, 1979, by Visiting Judge Humberto Espejo C., under case number 1-79.

During the investigation into the irregularities contained in reports issued under the responsibility of the Legal Medical Institute, the Director of said Institute had expressed to the Court the interest in initiating an internal summary to clarify such an irregularity.

When requested for information in November 1979 regarding the result of said summary, its director Claudio Molina Fraga responded in April 1980, informing verbatim in one of its parts: "no summary was carried out nor did anyone request it and, if it had been done, the same conclusions contained in the official letter sent to Visiting Judge Adolfo Bañados Cuadra would have been reached, who did not deem it necessary to request further information in relation to this process."

In May 1980, the Extraordinary Visiting Judge, Humberto Espejo, by instruction of the President Aguirre Cerda Court of Appeals, sent official letters to the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court communicating that the various records in the process suggested the existence of a possible irregularity in the compilation of "a list of disappeared persons"; he brought this to his attention as it corresponded to his supervision of the services of the Legal Medical Institute.

The relevant pages of case 24005-1 were attached to the official letter.

In case 24005-1, there are no subsequent resolutions from the prosecutor recorded.

In December 1979, nine criminal complaints were consolidated into case 1-79 against the members of the San Bernardo Infantry School staff for the crimes of kidnapping in the persons of Pedro Hernán Pinto Caroca, Ramón Luis Silva Carreño, Laureano Quiroz Pezoa, Ramiro Antonio Muñoz Peñaloza, Silvestre René Muñoz Peñaloza, José Ignacio Castro Maldonado, Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda, José Germán Fredes García, and Carlos Gaete López.

Five complaints against Colonel Jorge Dawling Santa María for the cover-up of the crime of illegal arrest in the persons of Jorge Hernán Muñoz Peñaloza, Carlos Enrique Lazo Quinteros, Carlos Alberto Nieto Duarte, José Domingo Adasme Núñez, Samuel Altamira Lazo Quinteros, Samuel del Tránsito Lazo Maldonado, and Luis Rodolfo Lazo Maldonado.

A complaint for the kidnapping and qualified homicide of Juan Guillermo Cuadra Espinoza and Ignacio del Tránsito Santander Albornoz, perpetrated by members of the San Bernardo Infantry School.

A complaint against Lieutenant Andrés Magaña Bau for the crime of illegal arrest of René del Rosario Maureira Gajardo; a complaint for the kidnapping of Andrés Pereira Salsberg; and a complaint for the crime of kidnapping of Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza against Carabineros Sergeant Manuel Reyes. (Further information regarding this last complaint in the account of Mario E. Muñoz Peñaloza).

Regarding the accused Colonel Jorge Dawling Santa María, who in 1979 served as Director of the San Bernardo Infantry School, on September 26, 1978, an official letter was sent requesting all the information he had from his department regarding the personnel of that unit who performed duties in the months of September and October 1973.

The response did not arrive. The Court reported such behavior to the Court of Appeals, which on November 14, 1978, resolved in Plenary that the aforementioned Colonel should abide by what is prescribed in Art. 191 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (that is, depending on his rank, whether he appears or not).

The response letter finally arrived signed by the new Director of the Infantry School, Carlos Meirelles Müller, in which he limited himself to stating that there was no intention to hide information, that there were documents with the requested information, and added that Colonel Dawling Santa María had handed over command and ceased to belong to the institution.

On February 7, 1979, in a new official letter, Colonel Meirelles was requested to provide the list of the institution's personnel as of October 1973, responding that he did not have the authority to provide that information and that it must be requested from the Minister of National Defense.

Starting in April 1979, and with Judge Humberto Espejo in charge of the investigation, after the creation of the President Aguirre Cerda Court of Appeals to which it territorially corresponded to continue the case, the official letters were diversified in order to establish the identification of those who participated in the operations that occurred in Paine and its surroundings.

The Minister of National Defense was officially requested not only to inquire about the personnel already indicated but also to request the appearance of Colonel Dawling Santa María, Lieutenant Andrés Magaña Bau—identified by the victims' families as the person in charge of the October 16, 1973 operation—and Colonel Pedro Montalva Calvo, deputy director of the Infantry School as of October 1973.

In April 1979, Army Lieutenant Andrés Magaña Bau appeared before the Court, at which time he denied his participation in the October 16, 1973 operation, as well as in any other that had been carried out in Paine.

When confronted with relatives of one of the forcibly disappeared persons of October 16, René del R. Maureira Gajardo, he denied knowing the members of that family, despite the fact that they affirmed having been together on more than one occasion at social events prior to September 11, 1973.

Regarding Colonel Jorge Dawling Santa María, the Court had been informed in a response letter that since August 1978, he had been appointed Military Attaché at the Embassy of Uruguay, a position that would last for more than a year.

For his part, Colonel Pedro Montalva Calvo, upon appearing before the Court on December 10, 1979, declared and affirmed the existence of a Detention Camp at Cerro Chena dependent on the Infantry School, which, according to his statement, ceased to function in December 1973 at the time he assumed the Directorate of the School.

Prior to that, its Director had been Colonel Leonel Köning Altterman, who gave written orders regarding who entered as detainees. When the then-Director of the School, Colonel Köning, was summoned to testify, the Court was notified that he had committed suicide on June 21, 1979.

On December 12, 1979, Judge Espejo declared himself incompetent and sent the records to the Military Prosecutor's Office, given that all the complaints and lawsuits contained in this case (file 1-79) attributed the authorship of the arrests to personnel of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, both from the San Bernardo Infantry School and the Paine Sub-precinct.

On March 6, 1980, the Court revoked the incompetence and ordered some steps to advance the investigation. As a result, Colonel Jorge Dawling Santa María was summoned again to testify. On April 2, 1980, the Minister of Defense, Lieutenant General Raúl Benavides E., informed the Court that Mr.

Dawling Santa María held the rank of Brigadier General and, in accordance with Art. 191 and 192 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, must testify in writing. The Minister sent an erroneously formulated guideline, which gave rise to the Brigadier General responding: "in relation to questions 2 through 13, I have no information to point out."

On June 5, 1980, Judge Espejo declared himself incompetent for the second time, basing his resolution on exactly the same terms as the previous one. There was an appeal, and on July 25, 1980, the resolution was revoked, and the Court of Appeals ordered the Visiting Judge to prepare a new questionnaire to be answered by the Brigadier General, based on the accusations made in the complaints against him that are part of the process.

In July 1980, the Court received a response letter from the Brigadier General, the content of which did not provide information, arguing that in 1974 there were no longer written records in the Infantry School regarding military maneuvers and operations.

His letter concluded by stating that he had brought the records of case 1-79 to the attention of the Army General Command, since he was accused in the transcribed complaints of participation as a cover-up in "alleged crimes" that he would have committed "in the line of duty."

On October 17, 1980, the records were definitively sent to the II Military Prosecutor's Office; on that occasion, the jurisdictional inhibition operated.

On May 24, 1982, the case was totally and temporarily dismissed: "notwithstanding that the investigation is exhausted, the perpetration of the facts reported at page 1 and attributed to personnel of the Armed Forces and Order, subject to military jurisdiction, is not completely proven."

Such resolution was appealed and revoked in March 1984 by the Martial Court, ordering steps aimed at completing the investigation. During 1985, at least 26 Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers who performed duties in September-October 1973 at the Infantry School testified.

All of them denied their participation in operations in Paine and its surroundings, denied knowing about the presence of prisoners in the Chena detention camp, as well as knowing of its existence.

On November 22, the Military Prosecutor of the II Military Prosecutor's Office, Enrique Ibarra Chamorro, became a party representing the Military Public Ministry and requested the application of the Amnesty Law D.L. 2991-78.

The Military Judge dismissed the case totally and definitively because the criminal liability of the persons allegedly accused of the reported facts was extinguished. Such resolution was revoked in February 1992 by the Martial Court; this Court instructed that the case return to the summary stage and ordered the exhumation of the six graves in Patio 29.

Said exhumation could not be carried out by order of this Court, since in September 1991, in case 4449-AF of the 22nd Criminal Court of Santiago, the exhumation of all the remains of unidentified persons buried between September and December 1973 in the aforementioned patio in the General Cemetery had been carried out. As of December 1992, the case continued to be processed.

It should be noted that in this case, investigations were also carried out regarding Patio 29 of the General Cemetery starting in November 1979, when Monsignor Ignacio Ortúzar R.—in his capacity as Vicar General and Acting Vicar of the Vicariate of Solidarity—reported to the Court the existence of massive and irregular burials of people in Patio 29 of the aforementioned cemetery, which would affect nearly 200 graves.

From the investigation, the Court was able to conclude that at least 6 graves could yield information regarding forcibly disappeared persons included in the process. Between the years 1981-1987, the exhumation of those six graves was requested from the Court on five occasions, the request being denied, arguing that it was inconclusive given the time elapsed.

In August 1990, case 2-90-E was initiated in the Buin-Maipo Judge of Letters with the appointment of Visiting Judge Germán Hermosilla by the President Aguirre Cerda Court of Appeals. Said appointment was due to a request to that effect from the Vicariate of Solidarity of the Archbishopric of Santiago, given the existence of illegal burials of people in the town of Paine that affected forcibly disappeared persons.

The records of Carlos Enrique Gaete López were delivered to the Court.

On March 15, 1991, Mrs. María del Tránsito Venegas Cortés testified before Visiting Judge Germán Hermosilla, in her capacity as the mother of Jorge Reyes Cortés, who in 1973 had to perform military service at the San Bernardo Infantry School.

Her words, which account for the fate of the 22 people detained on October 16, 1973, were recorded in the file. Verbatim, in one of its parts, she said: "a few days after they took my cousin Luisa's husband, Roberto Serrano, I went to visit my aunt Rosa's house and I saw that she was very desperate and crying for the fate of her husband.

So I told her 'don't cry anymore Lucha, your husband was taken by the military, Jorge was with them.' I was referring to the fact that my son had to carry out this detention. My son Jorge had told me about this a few months later, I don't remember exactly when; I found out a few days later as I said before.

They had them for months without going out after the Coup, so when he went to the house, he told me. He wasn't calm, he was like scared, desperate, and not only him but also his companions. My son didn't know Roberto Serrano; when they went to their house, Jorge met Luisa.

He told me that these detentions were done at night. Yes, it is true that my son told me that it was his turn to shoot at Serrano, but that he asked a companion to change places with him. He also told me that if he said he wouldn't shoot, they would kill him.

It is true that I told Luisa this, since she was taking clothes to her husband at Cerro Chena and they received them there, when Serrano was dead." Jorge Reyes Cortés currently serves in the Los Andes Regiment, with his military rank unknown.

Although Mrs. María Venegas Cortez declared that she did not remember having indicated the hills near Codegua and Melipilla as the place of execution, the wife of Serrano Galaz did remember it, as recorded in her statements before Visiting Judge Humberto Espejo.

On April 22, 1980, Jorge Reyes Cortez appeared before the Court in case file 1-79. In his statement, he denied any participation in the events; verbatim, in one of its parts, he said: "I never participated in any operation in Paine, I never knew there were detainees at Cerro Chena, nor did I recognize any of the detainees in the few times I had to be on guard when they arrived." The Visiting Judge has carried out various ocular inspections in rural sectors in the surroundings of Paine, without positive results for the case of the forcibly disappeared persons of October 16, 1973.

On August 22, 1991, case 4449-AF was initiated in the 22nd Criminal Court of Santiago, upon proceeding with the judicial investigation of the crime of illegal burial of people who currently remain buried as NNs in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery, information contained in a criminal complaint filed by the Vicariate of Solidarity of the Archbishopric of Santiago.

Anthropomorphic information of Carlos Enrique Gaete López was delivered in that case. In September 1991, the exhumation of 108 graves in Patio 29 was carried out. Currently (December 1992), the extracted remains are at the Legal Medical Institute undergoing the identification process.

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity

This Wednesday, June 15, the Supreme Court, in an unprecedented ruling, dismissed the statute of limitations requested in the case of the murder of 38 people in Paine during the dictatorship, and increased the sentences for members of the Army and Carabineros for their responsibility in the crimes that occurred during September and October 1973.

Finally, seven retired military personnel were sentenced to 10 years in prison, another former military officer was sentenced to seven years in prison, while three other Carabineros also received prison sentences.

The murders that occurred in Paine are emblematic cases among the crimes against humanity that took place during the dictatorship, as they demonstrate the complicity between uniformed personnel and civilians in the planning and execution of these crimes.

They are also emblematic because key testimony to elucidate these events was provided by Alejandro Bustos, a peasant who managed to survive a firing squad by hiding among the bodies of the victims who were beside him. His statement was key to reaching the truth in these cases.

Journalist Javier Rebolledo deeply investigated the relationship between uniformed personnel and civilians in the human rights violations that occurred during the dictatorship, and especially the murders in Paine, which involve nearly 70 victims, most of them peasants who benefited from the agrarian reform implemented during the Unidad Popular.

One of these crimes is the "Paine Massacre," as the execution where Bustos survived is known. Rebolledo's investigation was captured in his 2015 book, A la Sombra de los Cuervos, Los Cómplices Civiles de la Dictadura (In the Shadow of the Ravens: The Civil Accomplices of the Dictatorship).

"I would tell you that the civilians, to a large extent—without taking responsibility away from the Carabineros or the military—provided information to the uniformed personnel; they worked together with them with an impressive hatred."

In this interview, Rebolledo comments to Interferencia on the impact the level of violence and hatred from the civilians who participated in these murders and disappearances had on him, and the role played by the Kast family, especially the father and brother of the former presidential candidate, José Antonio Kast, in these crimes.

The case of the Paine murders, which you investigated, is shocking; it even involves a person who survived a firing squad, and thanks to his testimony, it was possible to know what happened. You have already investigated other cases of human rights violations. What in particular caught your attention about the Paine murders?

-What caught my attention was that this was a revenge by civilians, in conjunction with uniformed personnel, both with Carabineros and with the military in different operations and on different days. I would tell you that the civilians, to a large extent—without taking responsibility away from the Carabineros or the military—provided information to the uniformed personnel; they worked together with them with an impressive hatred, a hatred rarely seen.

The level of cruelty, of viciousness, even after the crimes, is something that, at least for me, I don't know if I had seen before, with as much viciousness as in these cases.

Paine, as a commune, has the highest number of forcibly disappeared and executed persons of the dictatorship by population density. There are 70 victims in a small population, which gives a high percentage of those who were murdered.

An example of this is that there is a place in Paine that was called "the widows' alley," and that place was called that because a military unit went to look for almost all the men on that street, where the women were practically left alone to this day.

The case you mention, where there is a survivor of a firing squad, Alejandro Bustos, known as "el colorín," is important because he can place civilians who participated in these crimes, and among others, Christian Kast, who is the former president of Cecinas Bavaria, and also the brother of José Antonio Kast and Miguel Kast—the ideologue of the dictatorship's economic changes, as acknowledged by Joaquín Lavín.

In that case, known as the "Paine Massacre," the victims, after being executed, had their eyes gouged out and their tongues cut off with corvos (curved knives). And of course, the level of violence, the level of cruelty that these civilians had, in conjunction with the military and Carabineros, in the detentions, the torture, the crimes, and the forced disappearances that were carried out, is impressive.

• How did the Kast family participate in these murders and executions? What role did they have in these crimes?

• There is, among several testimonies, that of the sister of Pedro Vargas Barrientos—currently a forcibly disappeared person—Silvia, who recounts that her brother Pedro, along with his whole family, worked at Cecinas Bavaria and helped generate wealth for the company when the Kast family had just started with their first sandwich shop on the side of the North-South highway, in the Buin sector. And this young man, Pedro Vargas, continued working there and over the years organized a union, which was his "biggest mistake," because then they demoted him to a night watchman, gave him a weapon, and later he had to leave his job. Pedro was one of the first people to be detained at the Paine barracks.

His sister went to plead for Pedro's life to Michael Kast—who was the father of José Antonio, Christian, and Miguel Kast, and grandfather of Felipe Kast—and Michael Kast did not provide her with any help; he told her to go home and, on the contrary...

In these cases, it has never been determined, judicially, exactly which vehicles participated in the detentions that ended in each of the executions and forced disappearances. But the concrete case is that Michael Kast himself acknowledged that he provided a truck with a driver to the Carabineros to "carry out their work," and the work at that time was the detention of people, although he did not acknowledge it that way.

And he died as an accused person in the eyes of the justice system for this case. That is why his final responsibility for the events could not be pursued, because he died.

There is the testimony of a Carabinero, Osvaldo Dominguez Muller, who points out that at the Paine police station—which, by the way, was the place from where people disappeared—he saw Michael Kast's car parked there on the days when there were murders and disappearances.

And there is the testimony of Christian Kast himself, who acknowledges that he went out "to patrol," along with other civilians, with the military and Carabineros.

"And Christian Kast was not prosecuted because the justice system determined that at the time of these crimes he was a minor; that is why his responsibility was not pursued, for that reason. And he himself acknowledged, when he was interrogated, that he was at the police station."

Added to all this is the testimony of Alejandro Bustos, who says that he was beaten at the Carabineros station and that Christian Kast was present. And when they executed him—where he survived—although those who fired were uniformed personnel, several civilians were present with their vehicles, among them Christian Kast.

And Christian Kast was not prosecuted because the justice system determined that at the time of these crimes he was a minor; that is why his responsibility was not pursued, for that reason. And he himself acknowledged, when he was interrogated, that he was at the police station, where barbecues were held with Carabineros and civilians, and that there he saw a detainee nicknamed "el harina seca," Luis Nelson Cádiz Molina, and he says he saw him leave with his head shaved, bald.

And well, Cádiz is a forcibly disappeared person, and I ask myself, if one knows that a person is a forcibly disappeared person, and Christian Kast says he saw him, didn't he have a duty to report the fact?

He was probably one of the last people to see him alive, who could provide a clue about the whereabouts of this person, and he did not approach the justice system to collaborate; it was the other way around, the justice system had to go looking for him, many years after the events occurred.

• Is it possible that José Antonio Kast did not know about these events?

• I cannot work with conjectures. I know what Christian Kast declared and what his father Michael Kast declared; I know Michael Kast's past, the work Miguel Kast did during the dictatorship, and I know what Alejandro Bustos declared regarding Christian Kast. One knows what political stance José Antonio Kast has, and I cannot know if he knew or did not know. What I can say is that he cannot say "my family had nothing to do with it," that they did not patrol, that they did not support the repression, nor provide vehicles, nor that someone from his family was not identified at a firing squad; that he cannot say.

"José Antonio Kast has said that there is nothing judicial against his family, but he does not say the reasons, and one reason is that his father died as an accused person; he died before he had a conviction."

And that is what he has said; he has said that there is nothing judicial against his family, but he does not say the reasons, and one reason is that his father died as an accused person; he died before he had a conviction; and secondly, his brother Christian Kast was not pursued for criminal responsibility because it was determined that he was a minor at the time the crimes occurred.

• What you are telling is also relevant because among those convicted for dictatorship crimes in Paine is a civilian, who was the first civilian convicted for human rights cases during the dictatorship in Chile, the businessman Francisco Luzoro, in 2017. In matters of memory, civilians and companies that participated in these crimes are spoken of as "third-party actors." Do you think that progress can continue to be made in justice in these cases that involve "third-party actors"?

• It should be that way. But we know that a lot of time has passed; the complainants, the relatives, the perpetrators are dying, and this case has been neglected... I don't have much hope, honestly; I see it as difficult. I think the Luzoro case is an isolated example; there are a couple more civilians convicted, but I don't see the path going that way.

Whenever a conviction comes out, at least it is a little bit of justice. In this case, they are convictions; perhaps they are not the highest convictions, as one might expect, but it is a little bit of justice.

One celebrates that there is some justice, but on the other hand, there is also criticism, because one expects more to be done. One sees a positive side and a negative one, since the sentence is low and one thinks about how the relatives and society in general take it.

Source: interferencia.cl 06/17/2022

Date: 06-17-2022

Supreme Court confirms convictions and increases sentences for 11 former members of the Army and Carabineros for the crime of 38 peasants from Paine in 1973

The criminal acts were committed between September 24 and October 16, 1973, in different settlements and localities of Paine. In the "El Escorial" settlement, the peasants Héctor Guillermo Castro Sáez, Juan Bautista Núñez Vargas, José Ángel Cabezas Bueno, Francisco Javier Calderón 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 were detained and then murdered.

In the "Campo Lindo" settlement, Ramón Alfredo Capetillo Mora was detained and then executed; in the "24 de Abril" settlement, the peasants Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, Patricio Loreto Duque Orellana, José Germán Fredes García, Carlos Enrique Gaete López, Rosalindo Delfín Herrera Muñoz, Jorge Hernán Muñoz Peñaloza, Ramiro Antonio Muñoz Peñaloza, Silvestre René Muñoz Peñaloza, Carlos Alberto Nieto Duarte, Laureano Quiroz Pezoa, Luis Ramón Silva Carreño, and Basilio Antonio Valenzuela Álvarez were detained and then murdered.

In the "Nuevo Sendero" settlement, the peasants José Domingo Adasme Núñez, José Ignacio Castro Maldonado, Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda, Luis Rodolfo Lazo Maldonado, Samuel del Tránsito Lazo Maldonado, Carlos Enrique Lazo Quinteros, and Samuel Altamiro Lazo Quinteros were detained and then executed.

Finally, in the "El Tránsito" settlement, they detained and then murdered Pedro Antonio Cabezas Villegas and Roberto Estevan Serrano Galaz; meanwhile, in the urban area of the Paine commune, René del Rosario Maureira Gajardo and Andrés Pereira Salsberg were detained and then murdered.

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, lawyer (i) Diego Munita, and lawyer (i) Leonor Etcheberry—sentenced former Army officers Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos (retired with the rank of Brigadier) and Arturo Guillermo Fernández Rodríguez (retired with the rank of Colonel) 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.

Meanwhile, former Army non-commissioned officer José Hugo Vásquez Silva, and former conscript soldiers (at the time of the events) Carlos del Tránsito Lazo Santibáñez, Juan Dionisio Opazo Vera, Roberto Mauricio Pinto Labordarie, Jorge Segundo Saavedra Meza, Víctor Reinaldo Sandoval Muñoz, and Carlos Enrique Durán Rodríguez were sentenced to 10 years in prison for their responsibility in the 38 crimes mentioned above.

Meanwhile, former conscript Raúl Francisco Areyte Valdenegro must serve a sentence of 7 years and 6 months in prison for his responsibility in the 14 homicides in the "El Escorial" sector.

Finally, former Carabineros officer Nelson Iván Bravo Espinoza is 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 highest court accepted the cassation appeals filed by the plaintiffs against the sentence of the Court of Appeals of San Miguel, which had applied the figure of the partial statute of limitations, considering that the figure should not be accepted in cases of crimes against humanity.

Other criminals involved and convicted in the first-instance sentence were dismissed because they died during the course of the process; such is the case of former Army officers Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau, Carlos Walter Kyling Schmidt, and the civilian criminal Juan Guillermo Quintanilla Jérez.

The investigation by the visiting minister of the Court of Appeals of San Miguel, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, established regarding the events in "El Escorial":

"1st That on September 24, 1973, in the afternoon, soldiers of the Second Rifle Company of the Infantry School of San Bernardo appeared at the "El Escorial" settlement of the Paine commune and detained, without legal right, Héctor Guillermo Castro Sáez and Juan Bautista Núñez Vargas, among others.

2nd That, after their detention, Héctor Castro Sáez and Juan Núñez Vargas were transferred to the Cerro Chena prisoner camp of the Infantry School of San Bernardo, where they were kept illegally imprisoned.

3rd That, on October 2, 1973, soldiers of the Infantry School of San Bernardo appeared at the "El Escorial" settlement of the Paine commune and detained, without legal right, José Ángel Cabezas Bueno, who, immediately after, was transferred to the Cerro Chena prisoner camp.

4th That, on October 3, 1973, in the early morning, soldiers of the Second Rifle Company of the Infantry School of San Bernardo, commanded by Captain Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos, left from the Cerro Chena prisoner camp, in charge of Lieutenant Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau and Second Lieutenants Carlos Walter Kyling Schmidt and Arturo Guillermo Fernández Rodríguez, with the detainees José Ángel Cabezas Bueno, Héctor Guillermo Castro Sáez, and Juan Bautista Núñez Vargas, in a red Dodge truck driven by Juan Guillermo Quintanilla Jerez, headed to the "El Escorial" settlement of the Paine commune and detained, without legal right, Francisco Javier Calderón 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.

5th That, subsequently, in the same truck, they transferred all the detainees to a ravine in the Cuesta de Chada and executed them, shooting them with the firearms they were carrying, their bodies being found abandoned in the aforementioned place some time later."

Meanwhile, regarding the illicit acts in the "Campo Lindo" and "24 de Abril" settlements, it was proven that:

"1st That, on October 8, 1973, officials of the Paine Carabineros Sub-station appeared at the "Campo Lindo" settlement of the same commune and detained, without legal right, Ramón Alfredo Capetillo Mora, who, immediately after, was locked up in the aforementioned police unit.

2nd That, in the following days, Ramón Capetillo Mora was transferred to the Cerro Chena prisoner camp of the Infantry School of San Bernardo.

3rd That, on October 10, 1973, officials of the Paine Carabineros Sub-station appeared at the "24 de Abril" settlement of the same commune and detained, without legal right, Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, who, immediately after, was locked up in the aforementioned police unit.

4th That, in the following days, Mario Muñoz Peñaloza was transferred to the Cerro Chena prisoner camp of the Infantry School of San Bernardo.

5th That, at the time of the events, the Paine Carabineros Sub-station was in charge of Captain Nelson Iván Bravo Espinoza.

6th That, on October 16, 1973, in the early morning, soldiers of the Second Rifle Company of the Infantry School of San Bernardo, commanded by Captain Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos, left from the Cerro Chena prisoner camp, in charge of Lieutenant Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau and Second Lieutenants Carlos Walter Kyling Schmidt and Arturo Guillermo Fernández Rodríguez, with the detainees Ramón Alfredo Capetillo Mora and Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, in a red Dodge truck driven by Juan Guillermo Quintanilla Jerez, with the purpose of detaining twenty-two people in the Paine locality.

Thus, in their respective homes, located in the urban area of the Paine commune, they detained, without legal right, René del Rosario Maureira Gajardo and Andrés Pereira Salsberg. In the "24 de Abril" settlement, Patricio Loreto Duque Orellana, José Germán Fredes García, Carlos Enrique Gaete López, Rosalindo Delfín Herrera Muñoz, Jorge Hernán Muñoz Peñaloza, Ramiro Antonio Muñoz Peñaloza, Silvestre René Muñoz Peñaloza, Carlos Alberto Nieto Duarte, Laureano Quiroz Pezoa, Luis Ramón Silva Carreño, and Basilio Antonio Valenzuela Álvarez.

In the "Nuevo Sendero" settlement, José Domingo Adasme Núñez, José Ignacio Castro Maldonado, Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda, Luis Rodolfo Lazo Maldonado, Samuel del Tránsito Lazo Maldonado, Carlos Enrique Lazo Quinteros, and Samuel Altamiro Lazo Quinteros and, finally, in the "El Tránsito" settlement, Pedro Antonio Cabezas Villegas and Roberto Estevan Serrano Galaz.

7th That, subsequently, the aforementioned detainees were transferred to the Los Arrayanes ravine, Los Quillayes sector, in the vicinity of Lake Rapel, where they were executed by firing squad by the aforementioned soldiers and the civilian who accompanied them, who, immediately after, buried their bodies in the same place, only bone and dental fragments of eleven of the twenty-four victims being found years later, because their bodies were removed and transferred to an unknown location to this date."

Source: resumen.cl 06/15/2022

Date: 06-15-2022

Paine Case: San Miguel Court convicts 13 retired military personnel for qualified homicide

The appellate court sentenced 13 military personnel for the crimes that occurred between September 24 and October 16, 1973, in the Quebrada los Quillayes and Cuesta Chada sector.

Paine is the commune that, proportionally, suffered the greatest number of executed and forcibly disappeared victims during the dictatorship.

In 1973, 38 peasants residing in the sector were executed in Cuesta Chada and Quebrada Los Quillayes, which motivated one of the longest human rights investigations in our country.

On Wednesday, November 11, in the sentence roll 3.221-2019, the Fourth Chamber of the San Miguel Court, composed of ministers Diego Simpértigue, Ana Cinfuegos, and Dora Mondaca, reclassified the qualified kidnappings as qualified homicides and reduced the criminal sanction that the convicted Jorge Romero Campos, Osvaldo Magaña Bau, and Juan Quintanilla Jerez must serve to 15 years in prison, as authors of the crimes.

For their part, Carlos Kyling Schmidt and Arturo Fernández Rodríguez were sentenced to 10 years in prison; and José Vásquez Silva, Carlos Lazo Santibáñez, Juan Opazo Vera, Rodrigo Pinto Labordarie, Jorge Saavedra Mesa, Víctor Sandoval Muñoz, Carlos Durán Rodríguez, and Raúl Areyte Valdenegro must serve 5 years and one day in prison.

Former Carabineros officer Nelson Iván Bravo Espinoza was also sentenced to 5 years in prison with the benefit of intensive supervised release as the author of two crimes of simple kidnapping.

"That regarding the legal qualification, it should be noted that although the Tribunal's accusation indicates that crimes of qualified kidnapping were committed, at the date the events investigated in this case were committed, said typical figure, contained in article 141 of the Penal Code, could not be configured, since the victims, as established in the thirteenth and thirty-first considerations, were detained and subsequently executed by the perpetrators," the ruling reads.

Once the appellate court's ruling was known, lawyer Luciano Fouilloux, a plaintiff in the case, gave his impressions to Cooperativa, in which he assured that the judicial resolution comes to make a historical adjustment in human rights cases.

"We are tired but satisfied, because an adjustment has been made with history and with so many innocent and defenseless victims. It is a very hard case, a very historical case. Paine is the locality in which, in relation to victim-population, there was more repression in Chile, without a doubt," expressed the lawyer.

Also, Lorena Pizarro, representative of the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared, reacted to the ruling and criticized the lack of life sentences for crimes as serious as those that occurred in Paine during the dictatorship.

"One cannot say that there is justice in Chile. It is different that we will always fight for the courts of justice to fulfill their duty, but this justice is late, where many of the relatives have passed away, where it is also a truth where the political civilians responsible for the genocide are always excluded, where the sentences do not have a correlation with the magnitude of the crime committed," she pointed out.

Source: radio.uchile.cl 11/12/2020

Date: 11-12-2020

Memorial Paine concludes reconstruction of the scene of the crimes of Cuesta de Chada and Quebrada Los Quillayes

With a massive participation of the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared and Executed of Paine, and the Memorial Paine Corporation, the three-day reconstruction of the scene of the crimes perpetrated by civilians and military personnel on October 3 and 16, 1973, was carried out.

Personnel of the Human Rights Brigade of the PDI participate in the reconstruction of the scene of the crimes committed on October 3, 1973, in Cuesta de Chada.

The judicial proceedings, ordered by the Minister of the Court of Appeals of San Miguel, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, took place on December 16, 17, and 18 at the places of detention and execution of the 38 victims left by the civic-military operations that terrorized the Paine community more than 42 years ago.

In the proceeding, aspirants and officials of the Human Rights Brigade of the Investigative Police (PDI) embodied the victims and the perpetrators, according to the account of the confessed authors, actions that were developed under the attention of the lawyer of the Human Rights Program of the Ministry of the Interior and Public Security, Gabriel Aguirre Luco.

During the first day of proceedings (Wednesday, December 16), the delegation visited the localities of Paine Centro, 24 de Abril, Nuevo Sendero, and El Tránsito, places from which 22 men (most of them peasants who lived inside Agrarian Reform settlements in 1973) were kidnapped in the early morning of October 16, 1973.

To those 22 illegal detentions are added the detentions of Ramón Capetillo Mora (kidnapped on October 8, 1973, from the Campo Lindo peasant settlement) and Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza (detained on October 10, 1973, after voluntarily appearing to testify at the Paine Sub-station).

On the second day of expert examinations (Thursday, December 17), proceedings were carried out with the aim of recreating the executions perpetrated on October 3, 1973, at Cerro Redondo in Cuesta de Chada, by the south-east access of the Paine commune.

On that occasion, the confessed authors of these crimes—all of them former uniformed personnel from the Second Rifle Company of the Infantry School of San Bernardo—testified one by one before Minister Cifuentes, pointing out the ways in which the detainees were transferred, located, and executed by firing squad in that place, an occasion that gave rise to scenes of deep pain among the relatives of the victims, upon knowing and hearing directly from the protagonists of these horrendous crimes.

Especially violent and provocative were the statements of former military officer Andrés Magaña Bau, who in 1973 was in charge of these actions under the rank of Second Lieutenant. Faced with the Minister's questions, the aforementioned Magaña insisted on declaring that the detainees received "humane treatment" from the soldiers who made up the unit that accompanied him in the early morning of October 3, pointing out that "the soldiers behaved as decorously as possible," adding: "I did it that way because it occurred to me that it was the most humane thing."

In addition to the aforementioned Andrés Magaña, for those executions, José Vásquez Silva, Raúl Areyte Valdenegro, Carlos Durán Rodríguez, Carlos Lazo Santibáñez, Juan Opazo Vera, Roberto Pinto Laborderie, Jorge Saavedra Mesa, and Víctor Sandoval Muñoz testified before the Minister—in the capacity of defendants.

Consecutively, on the afternoon of the same day, the 17th, the kidnappings of 14 peasants, detained from their homes during September 24 and October 2, 1973, were reconstructed. The events occurred 42 years ago inside the El Escorial peasant settlement.

Finally, on Friday, December 18, these proceedings were put to an end with the recreation of the crimes perpetrated in the early morning of October 16, 1973, in the Quebrada Los Quillayes, Litueche commune, VI Region.

The accused (the same as in the Chada case, with the exception of Raúl Areyte Valdenegro) were transferred to this place, who, under the painful, indignant, and dismayed gaze of the relatives of those executed, represented the execution of the 24 victims.

Once again, Magaña's words ignited the spirits of the relatives, when he declared: "When I receive the patrol, I told them: 'You know the order we have. I don't want any mistreatment. We are going to deceive them and we are going to tell them that we are taking them to testify at the [Infantry School of San Bernardo].'"

Regarding the final destination of the victims of Los Quillayes, he pointed out: "The mission was to take these people and kill them in situ. I insisted on how I was going to do such a thing. I participated to designate that each soldier had a person [assigned], so that no one would be left crying or suffering.

They were not finished off, [the soldiers] fired a shot and began to arrange them very dignifiedly, without any mistreatment." Finally, he declared: "We did not bury them to hide them, [but rather] we did it out of humanity. How were we going to leave them dumped there?"

Consulted about the statements of the former uniformed officer, the President of the AFDDyE of Paine, Mrs. Sonia Carreño, pointed out emphatically: "Andrés Magaña Bau must be imprisoned, to pay for all the misdeeds committed during the Military Dictatorship," an opinion that is shared by Flor Lazo, Secretary of the AFDDyE of Paine, who pointed out that these proceedings fulfill an important function, but from which it has been difficult for them to recover: "In essence, it is a very important proceeding, which revives in detail and with part of the protagonists—the executioners—the tragedy, of the true genocide that was experienced on October 16, 1973." Regarding the value of these proceedings, she pointed out: "they add the fundamental piece that will allow the human rights violators of our relatives and our families to be duly convicted."

At the end of these inquiries, the definitive closure of the investigative process and the issuance of definitive sentences are expected. As the Memorial Paine Corporation, we adhere to the desires of the AFDDyE of Paine, waiting together with it for truth and justice.

The victims of October 3 are

José Cabezas Bueno, Manuel Ortiz Ortiz, Alirio del Carmen Valdivia Valdivia, Víctor Zamorano González, Francisco Calderón Nilo, Alfredo Vidal Arenas, Bernabé López López, Emilio González Espinoza, Juan González Pérez, Aurelio Hidalgo Mella, Domingo Galaz Salas, and the brothers Héctor and Pedro Pinto Caroca.

The victims of October 16 are

Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, Ramón Capetillo Mora, Andrés Pereira Salsberg, René Maureira Gajardo, Patricio Loreto Duque Orellana, José Germán Fredes García, CARLOS ENRIQUE GAETE LOPEZ, Rosalindo Delfín Herrera Muñoz, Jorge Hernán Muñoz Peñaloza, Ramiro Antonio Muñoz Peñaloza, Silvestre René Muñoz Peñaloza, Carlos Alberto Nieto Duarte, Laureano Quiroz Pezoa, Luis Silva Carreño, Basilio Antonio Valenzuela Álvarez, Pedro Antonio Cabezas Villegas, Roberto Esteban Serrano Galaz, José Ignacio Castro Maldonado, Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda, Luis Rodolfo Lazo Maldonado, Samuel del Tránsito Lazo Maldonado, Carlos Enrique Lazo Quinteros, Samuel Antonio Lazo Quinteros, and José Domingo Adasme Núñez.

Source: vientosdelsur.ch 12/16/no year

Testimony of Ana Luisa Gaete Cabrera (excerpt)

My name is Ana Luisa Gaete Cabrera, daughter of María Inés Cabrera Hernández and Carlos Enrique Gaete López, detained at his house in the 24 de Abril settlement on October 16, 1973. I am his eldest daughter, the only one from the relationship he had with my mom.

He had me while single and then he got married and had another family, from there I have three siblings: Joselo, Patricia, and Pamela who currently live in Huelquén.

I was very small, I was six years old when they took him. I don't have many memories of him; the only thing I remember is that he used to come to see me, he would come to leave me money and nothing else.

I also remember that he wore a beard all over his face and that he was tall. He acknowledged me and everything; he would go to leave me money at the court. He would go to leave it for me there because I was raised by my maternal grandparents, María Luisa Hernández Córdova and Carlos Cabrera Espinoza, in Buin.

Yes, I remember that I was kind of afraid of him, because he wore a very thick beard, and I always thought he was going to take me away. I didn't have much contact with my paternal family, neither with my grandparents José and Ana, nor with my uncles.

I saw my grandparents once or twice. I was about fifteen years old when we were walking through downtown Buin with my mom (my grandmother) and we saw my grandfather José who was walking with a black ribbon on his jacket, and my mom told me, "Mrs.

Ana must have passed away because look, your grandfather is wearing the black ribbon." I didn't speak to my grandfather that time. I didn't have much of a relationship with my mom either because I didn't grow up with her.

When my mom had me, she was in a coma for about three months because she was very young at the time of the birth, she was a young girl. That is why they handed me over to the care of my grandmother. I have a maternal aunt, Margarita, who is the same age as me; we are six months apart, so when I arrived as a newborn, my grandmother breastfed her and me.

Later I didn't want to go back with my mom. For me, my grandparents are my parents, my uncles are my siblings, and my mom is also like another sister. Over time, my mom also went back to living her life, she had seven more children; with me, we are eight.

For my part, I also made my own family. I got married twenty-five years ago, I have three children, Carla, 25 years old, María, 20 years old, and Víctor, who is 11 years old. I also have a grandson, Damián, who is 6 years old and is the son of my eldest daughter.

The absence: Regarding my dad's detention, I found out through my grandmother, because his name appeared in the newspaper, I don't remember which one. I was six years old. In the news, it said that my dad had been detained and that they couldn't find him.

I fell ill when I found out; I was ill for about three days, I got a fever from not knowing where he was and that they had taken him, that he was no longer there. After the news in the newspaper, I didn't know anything else.

I was left alone, my paternal uncles never came to see me, nothing at all. They knew I existed, but never anything. My siblings had a similar experience; they always tell me that they were going from one side to another.

In my paternal family, only my dad and a nephew of his, son of my uncle Lucho and father of Amparo Gaete Becerra, were detained. From what I have known, on the day of my dad's detention, the soldiers arrived at his house and just took him out; I think they knew where he lived and everything.

My dad lived in 24 de Abril with his family, and he was super young. Before living there, he lived in Huelquén, in a sector called Victoria, close to Santa Teresa, where my maternal grandparents lived before going to live in Buin with me and where he surely met my mom.

Since I don't have many memories of my dad, I don't truly know if his family looked for him. I imagine my grandparents looked for him. I also don't know my mom's reaction when she found out about this whole story, since I almost didn't see her.

The only thing someone has told me about my dad was when we went to Los Quillayes for the first time, in the year 2010. A girl told a lady that I was Carlos Gaete's daughter and she told me, "Yes? I knew Carlos, your dad, he was a very good person and I also know his siblings." I have never asked my uncles about my dad, nor did I know him through photos; I didn't have anything.

A short time ago, in a meeting of the Association, they gave me the photo of the portrait that is on the Paseo de la Memoria. It is the only thing I have of him; I don't even know what he was like when he was young, and my siblings don't either, I think, because none of them have photos of him. (excerpt)

Source: germina.cl 2014 (excerpt)