Address: Calle Prat s/n, Quinta La Palma, Santa Bárbara. Marital Status: Married, 9 children. Occupation: Agricultural laborer. Political Affiliation: No known political affiliation Date of Detention: October 23, 1973

CARLOS JACINTO D'APOLLONIO ZAPATA

ID Number: No information Date of Birth: 22/06/51, 22 years old at the time of detention Address: Calle Prat s/n, Quinta Palma, Santa Bárbara. Marital Status: Single. Occupation: Waiter. Political Affiliation: No known political affiliation Date of Detention: October 23, 1973

Sergio D'Apollonio Peterman, married, father of 9, an agricultural laborer, was detained along with his son Carlos D'Apollonio Zapata, 22 years of age, at 3:00 a.m. on October 23, 1973, at a house they were guarding in the town of Santa Bárbara.

The captors were 3 Carabineros from the Santa Bárbara station, among whom were an officer named Daniel Torres and another nicknamed "el Cotorra." They arrived in a red pickup truck owned by José Domínguez (in other cases, a civilian named Jorge Domínguez has been mentioned, as well as a son of the same name).

The Carabineros stated that they were acting on a report made by a neighbor named Eduardo Pérez. After detaining them, they took them to the Bío Bío bridge. There, they forced them out of the vehicle and carried out political executions; once they were dead, they threw their bodies into the river.

These events were witnessed by Sergio D'Apollonio's wife and his daughter Cristina, who remained hidden near the site of the execution.

At dawn, once the police had withdrawn, both women attempted to retrieve the bodies from the water, succeeding only in recovering that of Carlos Jacinto. The body of Sergio D'Apollonio could not be recovered.

The following day, October 24, while Carlos Jacinto's body was being waked in a house, Carabineros from the Santa Bárbara station arrived and "seized" the corpse to throw it back into the river at the Pinto bridge, near the mountain range.

While the family was living through this new tragedy of not even being able to wake their dead, the mother was in Los Angeles reporting what had happened to the Military Prosecutor's Office. There, they told her they would send a military patrol to the town and instructed her to report the events to the 2nd Criminal Court of Los Angeles.

Upon returning to her home in Santa Bárbara, she learned what had happened. Although the events were reported immediately, no authority ever investigated the facts, nor was it possible to obtain official certification of the deaths.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On October 24, 1973, the events were reported to the Military Prosecutor's Office and the 2nd Criminal Court of Los Angeles. The processing that the aforementioned report should have received is unknown. The family members presented the facts to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Source: Vicaría de la Solidaridad

Ruthless and merciless. Like a plague, the repression that was unleashed upon peasants and rural workers immediately after the coup d'état of September 1973 spread across the fields of the region.

The peasantry of the area had joined with enthusiasm and fervor the wave of rebellion that was forged in the momentum of agrarian reform and the conquest of rights and freedoms. A dignified life was the goal that drove the struggles and hopes of the rural poor. "Land for those who work it" was the specific form that the beginning of that path toward a better life took.

The popular government of Salvador Allende promoted an agrarian reform that intended to affect only estates of more than 80 basic irrigated hectares, which, given our geography and the legal loopholes of the powerful, limited its application to a few properties in the central plains.

The exploitation of rural workers, however, developed without limits or objections from the sea to the mountains, and from the mountains to the sea, on estates and latifundios of various sizes and characteristics.

But once the triumph of the Allende government arrived, the peasants and agricultural workers who lived and suffered that employer exploitation did not look at hectare limits, nor did they subordinate themselves to external programmatic definitions, to propose escaping the yoke of the bosses.

They undertook their own path of struggle and seized estates and properties to exercise their freedom and demand or apply their rights. The seizures led to the expropriation of estates and latifundios, to the creation of settlements and peasant communities, to the construction of unions and cooperatives, to collective and broad organizations, to forging their own destiny.

This wave of peasant rebellion generated, inevitably, the absolute hatred of bosses, of the momios (fascists), of the powerful. In this area, right-wing currents were powerful, possessed organized paramilitary groups, and remained—and remain—powerful.

When they managed to consummate the coup d'état that overthrew the Allende government, they unleashed all their hatred, their spirit of revanchism, and their thirst for vengeance upon the peasantry and rural workers.

The former bosses, together with right-wing paramilitary bands and other lackeys of the powerful, led the incursions unleashed upon the fields by uniformed troops with lists in hand; or, those civilians joined the repressive incursions full of criminal enthusiasm.

The uniformed troops, military and Carabineros, carried out repressive incursions on the places, estates, and hamlets that had most distinguished themselves in the struggle for their rights during the Allende government, or from before, or always.

The objective was to silence them, annihilate them, subdue them, and restore the employer order by the power of the bullet and the bayonet of the uniformed men.

This was particularly massive and virulent in the Bío-Bío province, especially in the communes of Santa Bárbara, Quilleco, Quilaco, and Mulchén. There, civilians even acted on their own, participated in interrogations and torture inside military and police units, or participated actively in the executions of captured peasants.

The repressive actions sought not only the intimidation of citizens but the subjugation of the people and to sow terror in the population as a whole. To these raids was added the despicable method of making the bodies of the victims caused by the repressive hordes disappear; a situation of disappearance that in most cases continues to this day.

This practice gave rise to the existence of the forcibly disappeared.

A case that illustrates in a brutal way the brutality (redundancy intended) and the hatred of the executors, their ruthless and macabre methods, is found in what happened to the D'Apollonio family in the commune of Santa Bárbara.

Sergio D'Apollonio Peterman, a 48-year-old agricultural laborer, married, father of 9, and his son CARLOS JACINTO D'APOLLONIO ZAPATA, an agricultural laborer, 22 years old, were detained at 3:00 a.m. on October 23, 1973, by Carabineros from the Santa Bárbara station.

The captors were accompanied by the civilian fascist Jorge Domínguez and were mobilized in a pickup truck belonging to the latifundista José Domínguez, father of the former. After detaining them, they took them to a nearby bridge that crosses the Bío-Bío river; they made them get out of the vehicle; they executed them with bursts of gunfire; once they were dead, they threw their bodies into the river.

All of this was seen by the wife of Sergio D'Apollonio and his daughter Cristina, who had followed the steps of the convoy and observed the events hidden at a certain distance. At dawn, when the police had left the place, both women went down to the riverbed and tried to recover the bodies of their loved ones from the waters.

They could only rescue the body of Carlos Jacinto. On October 24, while they were waking the corpse of Carlos in the family home, the same Carabineros from the Santa Bárbara station arrived at the house and, by the empire of the power of arms, took the corpse to throw it again into the Bío-Bío river, this time over the Pinto Bridge, further into the mountain range.

Cases like this are found by the dozens in the fields of the area, but the peasantry was not only attacked in the fields.

In fact, the repression unleashed on localities and small towns in the area is also part of this great reprisal directed against the peasant and rural world. Within that framework are included the massive and notorious actions of reprisal and annihilation carried out in places like Santa Juana, Nacimiento, Laja, Hualqui, Coelemu, and San Rosendo, among other places.

For the managers and executors of the coup d'état, the rural world was a priority target of the subsequent reprisal unleashed upon the population. It is not a minor fact that in the area that comprises the current region, 29% of the victims (political executions and forcibly disappeared) caused in the first post-coup period (between September and December 1973) are people from the peasant and rural world of the area.

In the Bío-Bío province, this percentage reaches 43.5% of the victims, and in the Ñuble province, 34.5%. To these victims must be added those peasants who were detained, imprisoned, tortured, and expelled from their lands as part of this war against the people instigated by the bosses and executed by uniformed men and fascists.

Thus, the empire of terror was established in the fields. And the former bosses recovered their estates and powers, re-establishing their order protected by the violence and criminality of the dictatorial regime.

Source: resumen.cl 18/09/2013 Date: 18-09-2013

A totally irregular situation is occurring in the commune of Curacautín, in La Araucanía, specifically at the Collico school, where the municipality maintains a criminal against humanity as director. This is Juan Carlos Burgos Belauzarán, a civilian convicted for his participation in the disappearance of 28 peasants in Santa Bárbara and Quilaco, in the foothills of the Bío-Bío, between September and December 1973.

Juan Carlos Burgos Belauzarán is the name of the criminal against humanity who works as the teacher in charge of the Collico rural school in Curacautín. The offender was convicted, along with four Carabineros and nine civilians, as the author of the kidnapping and disappearance of 28 peasants in Quilaco and Santa Bárbara, in what constitutes one of the most brutal crimes of the dictatorship.

Burgos Belauzarán was sentenced to four years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree, accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights, and absolute disqualification for professional practice for the duration of the sentence, but he currently appears as the teacher in charge of the Collico rural school, with a salary of more than $2 million.

He has occupied the position since at least 2016.

Due to the gravity of this situation, not only because of its illegality but because of what a conviction for crimes against humanity entails, RESUMEN contacted both the DAEM (Municipal Education Administration Department) of Curacautín and the Regional Ministerial Secretariat (Seremi) of Education in La Araucanía, from where they avoided assuming responsibilities and announced that the situation is in the hands of a legal team "to reach a resolution."

From the municipal education department, they indicated that "the Supreme Court has not yet informed us, and in the collection of background information now, the disqualification appeared, and that is why the information was raised to the lawyers. I had no idea; I have been in the position for almost a year and I am not from Curacautín either."

Patricio Aguilera, director of the DAEM, noted that this rural school is currently in recess, but Juan Carlos Burgos Belauzarán appears earning a salary, in March 2023, of more than $2 million. In this line, Aguilera replied that "he is on medical leave and the leave is paid by the Isapre (health insurance).

We have now sent the background information to the legal advisors when we received the certificate of disqualification; we immediately referred it to our lawyers."

When asked, the Seremi of Education of La Araucanía, María Isabel Mariñanco, about the reason for the permanence of a human rights violator as the person in charge of a school, she limited herself to blaming the maintainer, avoiding referring to a possible taking of measures.

"In the administrative sphere of the management of educational establishments, the hiring of personnel is under the responsibility of the maintainer, which in this case corresponds to the municipality.

As the Ministry of Education, we call on the municipalities and the local public education service, in their capacity as maintainers, to provide greater rigor to the processes of reviewing the background of those who perform work in educational establishments."

For now, the criminal against humanity, Juan Carlos Burgos Belauzarán, is on medical leave and, according to the DAEM, they are "waiting" for the review by the legal team to finalize his dismissal; for the time being, he continues to appear as the teacher in charge of the Collico school.

Below, we describe the events in which Burgos Belauzarán participated directly as an author, committed in Santa Bárbara and Quilaco between September and December 1973:

In the judicial investigation, the various criminal episodes carried out by the uniformed and civilian executors of true extermination raids are established in detail.

Thus, on September 13, 1973, a group of civilians and Carabineros, all armed with firearms and moving in motorized vehicles, arrived at the home of Cristino Humberto Cid Fuentealba, located at the El Rodal plot on the outskirts of Quilaco, proceeding to detain him in the presence of his family members, only to take him away walking from that place to an unknown destination, making him disappear to this date.

On September 14, 1973, Juan de Dios Fuentes Lizama and Juan Francisco Fuentes Lizama were kidnapped from their home located in a hut on the Corcovado estate, on the road to Villacura, in the commune of Santa Bárbara, by Carabineros and civilians, without any knowledge of their destination to this date.

On September 16, 1973, Juan de Dios Rubio Llancao and Julio Alberto Rubio Llancao were detained and transferred to the Carabineros station of Santa Bárbara in charge of the Unit Chief, the then-lieutenant Planté Aravena Sáez.

On the same day, Guillermo Purrán Treca went to the indicated police unit in search of protection because he could not return to his home, as he had missed the bus and the start time of the curfew was approaching, but they left him there as a detainee.

At night, these three peasants plus José María Tranamil Pereira, who had also been detained, were taken out of the police facility and transferred to the Quilaco bridge where the Carabineros riddled them with bullets, with no news of the four peasants known since that date.

On September 16, 1973, Sebastián Hernaldo Campos Díaz presented himself voluntarily to the Carabineros station of Santa Bárbara, as he had been summoned previously, remaining detained without any news of his whereabouts to this date.

At noon on September 17, 1973, Elba Burgos Sáez was detained by Carabineros on a public street in the city of Santa Bárbara, was put into a pickup truck, and was taken to an unknown destination, with no news of her whereabouts or existence known since that date.

On the afternoon of September 17, 1973, José Rafael Zúñiga Aceldine, José Secundino Zúñiga Aceldine, and José Gilberto Araneda Riquelme went voluntarily to the Carabineros station of Santa Bárbara, complying with a summons that, through a third party, Carabineros of the aforementioned police unit had made to them, being entered into said facility as detainees, with no news of their whereabouts or destination known since that date.

In the commune of Quilaco, in the early hours of September 20, 1973, a group of Carabineros and civilians arrived at the home of José Felidor Pinto Pinto, leader of the Campo Lindo peasant settlement, located on the old Huinquén estate, whom they detained, taking him out of his house and taking him to an unknown destination in vehicles from that place, from which moment no news of his destination was ever had again, his trail disappearing to this date.

In the morning hours of September 20, 1973, in the commune of Santa Bárbara, the group of executioners arrived at the 'El Huachi' estate, located 8 kilometers from that commune, and detained José Domingo Godoy Acuña, Julio César Godoy Godoy, and Desiderio Aguilera Solís, transferring them to the Carabineros station of Santa Bárbara, from where they were taken out at night to an unknown destination and have not been seen again or had news of their whereabouts to this date.

More or less at noon that day, the same group headed to the Loncopangue village and also to the vicinity of the Rañiguel estate in the same sector, proceeding to detain Luis Alberto Cid Cid, Luis Bastías Sandoval, and Raimundo Salazar Muñoz, being put into a truck of the Municipality of Quilaco driven by José Feliciano Gutiérrez Ortiz, known as 'El Chamo', to then be taken along the public road that leads to Quilaco to a path that leads to the confluence of the Bío Bío and Quilmes rivers, where they were taken out of the vehicle and, guarded by their captors, were taken walking to the banks of the indicated watercourses, at which moment their captors allegedly fired at them with firearms, their bodies falling into the channel of the mentioned rivers, their real whereabouts being unknown to this date. Also that same day, in the afternoon, the local Segundo Marcial Soto Quijón was detained in Quilaco by a group made up of Carabineros and civilians, a date from which they made him disappear.

In the commune of Santa Bárbara, at approximately 14:00 hours on the same day, September 20, the criminal group detained José Nazario Godoy Acuña in the Los Junquillos sector, who was subsequently transferred to the Carabineros station of Santa Bárbara.

Around 22:30 hours on September 20, 1973, in the commune of Santa Bárbara, they arrived at the home of Manuel Salamanca Mella, located on Avenida La Feria without number in Santa Bárbara, where they detained him in the presence of his family members, to then take him to the Carabineros station.

On the same date, the same group went to the boarding house located at Calle Rosas N° 343 of the commune of Santa Bárbara, where they detained José Mariano Godoy Acuña, being transferred to the station where they were seen for the last time, without them having been seen again or having news of their whereabouts to this date.

On the night of September 20, 1973, the same armed group of Carabineros and civilians arrived at the home of Miguel Cuevas Pincheira located at Calle Rosas N° 371 of Santa Bárbara and detained him, in the presence of his family members, spouse, and children, taking him out of his house and transferring him to an unknown place without him having been seen again or having news of his whereabouts to this date.

On September 23, 1973, in the early hours of the morning, the group of executioners broke into the La Palma plot, in the commune of Santa Bárbara, to kidnap from their home the peasants Sergio D’Apollonio Petermann, 48 years of age, and his son Carlos Jacinto D’Apollonio Zapata, 22 years of age.

They transferred Carlos Jacinto to the bridge that connects the communes of Santa Bárbara and Quilaco, over the Bío Bío river, where they put him on one of the railings and fired at him with firearms, thus falling into the riverbed.

However, the current dragged his body to one of the banks where, hours later on the morning of the following day, his body was found by family members and acquaintances. They took the corpse to his home and proceeded to wake him to then give him burial, but in the afternoon of that day, the same individuals who had kidnapped him the night before broke in to seize the young man's body and took it away to make it disappear to the present.

On the morning of November 3, 1973, at approximately 11:00 a.m., the group of Carabineros and civilians arrived at Plot N° 112 of the Piñiquihue sector of the commune of Quilaco, where they detained José Roberto Molina Quezada, took him out of his house, and took him away in a vehicle to an unknown destination, a moment from which no news or knowledge of his whereabouts was ever had again.

On the night of Saturday, November 3, they arrived at the home of Gabriel José Viveros Flores located on the outskirts of Loncopangue, proceeding to detain him in the presence of his family members, taking him out of his house and taking him away to an unknown destination.

Around 16:00 hours on November 7, 1973, in circumstances where Aliro Segundo Oporto Durán, 17 years of age, was in a house located in the Raleo sector of the town of Alto Bío Bío, Carabineros personnel arrived to detain him, but the young man ran in the direction of the Bío Bío river, being pursued by the police, one of whom shot at him, managing to apprehend him, a moment from which all news of his whereabouts or existence is unknown.

by Juan Contreras Jara

Source: resumen.cl, May 10, 2023 Date: 10-05-2023

Nearly five years later: case of peasants disappeared in 1973 in Santa Bárbara remains stalled

The Santa Bárbara case is about to reach forty-five years of waiting for the Concepción Court of Appeals to review the ruling on the disappearance of 28 peasants in 1973.

It is the oldest case in the appellate court, whose processing has been delayed both by the ministers themselves and by those convicted.

In this investigation, 17 former uniformed officers and civilians were convicted for the qualified kidnapping of the peasants of Santa Bárbara and Quilaco, who disappeared in 1973.

The sentence is from 2013 and the appeals by the defense were presented the following year, since when the victims' families have been waiting for the second-instance ruling.

However, with various arguments, the hearing of the case has already been delayed for five years, now with the change of lawyer for one of those convicted, which was described as a scandal by the spokesperson for the group of families of the forcibly disappeared, Norma Panés.

One of the plaintiff lawyers, Patricio Robles, agreed, describing the maneuver used by one of those convicted, Sergio Fuentes Valenzuela—who should already be serving a 10-year prison sentence according to the victims—as a dilatory tactic.

But the most serious thing is that by suspending the hearing of the appeals, the Court of Appeals removes the case from the possibility of processing, which could be avoided, explained the leader of the Bar Association, Ignacio Sapiaín, specifying that while a new defense takes over, the arguments can be kept on hold.

We attempted to consult both the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court regarding the Santa Bárbara case, without any statement existing as of the closing of this note regarding such a sensitive issue where the victims have been waiting for justice for more than 45 years.

Source: biobio.cl 14/01/2019 Date: 14-01-2019

Supreme Court convicts retired Carabineros and civilians for qualified kidnapping in Santa Bárbara and Quilaco in 1973

The Second Chamber acted ex officio to overturn the appealed judgment in the part that considered the civilians as accomplices to the crimes and, in a replacement judgment, convicted them as perpetrators for having had direct participation in the arrests and kidnappings.

The Supreme Court accepted the filed appeals for cassation on the merits and issued a final judgment in the investigation into the aggravated kidnappings of José Domingo Godoy Acuña, Julio Godoy Godoy, Desiderio Aguilera Solís, José Nazario Godoy Acuña, Manuel Salamanca Mella, José Mariano Godoy Acuña, Miguel Cuevas Pincheira, Sebastián Hernaldo Campos Díaz, José Rafael Zúñiga Aceldine, José Secundino Zúñiga Aceldine, José Gilberto Araneda Riquelme, Juan de Dios Rubio Llancao, Julio Rubio Llancao, José María Tranamil Pereira, José Guillermo Purrán Treca, Elba Burgos Sáez, Juan de Dios Fuentes Lizama, Juan Francisco Fuentes Lizama, Sergio D’Apollonio Petermann, and Aliro Oporto Durán; and of Cristino Humberto Cid Fuentealba, José Felidor Pinto Pinto, Luis Alberto Cid Cid, Luis Alberto Bastías Sandoval, Raimundo Salazar Muñoz, Gabriel José Viveros Flores, Segundo Marcial Soto Quijón, and José Roberto Molina Quezada. These illicit acts were perpetrated in the communes of Santa Bárbara and Quilaco, respectively, between September and December 1973.

In a split decision (case file 24.143-2019), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, and minister María Teresa Letelier—acted ex officio to overturn the appealed judgment, issued by the Court of Appeals of Concepción, in the part that considered the civilians as accomplices to the crimes and, in a replacement judgment, convicted them as perpetrators for having had direct participation in the arrests and kidnappings.

In the final judgment, the following were convicted as perpetrators of the crimes: Planté Euclide Aravena Sáez to a sentence of 14 years in prison; Héctor Isaías Echeverría Beltrán and José Heraldo Pulgar Riquelme must serve 11 years in prison; Carlos Santiago Sepúlveda Rivera and Exequiel del Carmen Celedón Barrera, 10 years and one day; Sergio Amado Fuentes Valenzuela, Luis Enrique Ricardo Antonio Barrueto Bartning, and Manuel Darío Barrueto Bartning to 10 years and one day of imprisonment; meanwhile, Jorge Denis Domínguez Larenas, Jorge Eduardo Valdivia Dames, and José Roberto Valdivia Dames must serve 5 years and one day in prison. Finally, the convicted individuals Eugenio Villa Urrutia, Juan Carlos Burgos Belauzarán, and José Feliciano Gutiérrez Ortiz were sentenced to 4 years in prison, with the benefit of supervised release for the same period.

“Regarding the denounced defect, it should be kept in mind that to analyze the degree of participation that—among others—corresponded to the accused Luis Barrueto Bartning, Manuel Barrueto Bartning, and Sergio Fuentes Valenzuela in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Manuel Salamanca, José Domingo Godoy Acuña, José Nazario Godoy Acuña, and José Mariano Godoy Acuña; and to the defendant Jorge Domínguez Larenas in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Sergio D’Apollonio Petermann, the second-instance judgment, in its 57th finding, referred to the functional theory of the act and analyzed the requirements of co-perpetration, after which it concluded in reasoning 59 that the conduct of all the civilians who intervened in the events could only be considered as complicity,” the ruling states.

The resolution adds: “To arrive at such a conclusion, the trial judges considered that although the defendants collaborated with the arrest of each of the victims, ‘the control of the kidnapping act always remained with the police officers, since the collaborative actions of these subjects lasted only until the detainees were in the hands of the public official, police authority, or in the police station or outpost to which the detainees were taken.

Therefore, what was acted and decided by said Carabineros officials, in terms of causing the disappearance of each of the detained victims to this day, is not an action over which these accused could have had control.

This factual circumstance is even recognized in the thirty-sixth finding of the first-instance judgment when, analyzing the participation of Planté Euclide Aravena Sáez, it mentions that ‘he organized a group of civilians to provide collaboration to the officials of his unit and that he had the most complete and absolute authority over these and the civilians under his command…’”

For the Penal Chamber, in this instance: “However, from a careful reading of the sixty-sixth, sixty-seventh, sixty-eighth, sixty-ninth, seventy-first, seventy-second, fifty-fourth, fifty-fifth, fifty-sixth, forty-sixth, and forty-seventh findings of the first-instance judgment, it is inferred that the defendants Luis Barrueto Bartning, Manuel Barrueto Bartning, Sergio Fuentes Valenzuela, and Jorge Domínguez Larenas carried out a series of actions that constitute the immediate and direct execution of the criminal type at hand.”

“Indeed,” it elaborates, “as stated in the sixty-sixth finding, the defendant Luis Barrueto Bartning stated that after September 11, 1973, he was called by the Chief of the Military Garrison of Los Ángeles to collaborate with the Army in transport and patrol tasks, since on that date a report was received at the garrison that there were extremist elements in the sector, so he placed himself at the disposal of the Chief of the Santa Bárbara Police Station to help identify those people.

He added that upon reporting, they left for the El Huachi estate in two vehicles, one of which was a pickup truck he owned, which he was driving. He added that together with his brother Manuel, they collaborated in the identification of several people, who were arrested by Carabineros, loaded into the vehicles, and transported.

He stated that on the way, other people were arrested—whom he lists—and that subsequently, upon realizing one was missing, they went with his brother and Carabineros to look for him in his truck. These admissions of responsibility are also corroborated—among others—by the testimonies of Julio Erices Cid on page 412, Jacinta Godoy Acuña on page 388 vta, and Juan Salamanca Godoy on page 414.”

“For his part, Manuel Barrueto Bartning, as appears from reasoning seventy, acknowledged having been part of a voluntary collaboration force of the Carabineros de Chile and that he was authorized to carry weapons,” it highlights.

“He added that he took officials to his estate called ‘El Huachi,’ although he attributes it to a different purpose, acknowledging that between 8 to 9 people were arrested at the location and that on the way back, after stopping a bus, more were apprehended.

Likewise, he accepted that in the particular case of Salamanca Mella, as he resisted arrest, he struggled with him and hit him on the head with a weapon. All these background facts are also complemented by the assertions of Julio Erices Cid on page 412, who pointed out that Manuel Barrueto was driving the truck where several detainees were lying face down in the cargo area, also corroborated by the statements of witnesses Sylvia Cerda Rodríguez, Jacinta Godoy Acuña, and Juan Salamanca Godoy,” the ruling records.

Likewise, the highest court reproduces: “(…) the fifty-fourth finding, which states that the accused Sergio Fuentes Valenzuela acknowledged having served as an assistant at the Santa Bárbara Carabineros station, at the request of Planté Aravena, although he limited his actions to domestic chores at the location.

However, the above was refuted by the testimony of José Aguilera Godoy, who identified him as the person who arrested his uncle Nazario Godoy and hit him on the forehead; by the statements of Jacinta Godoy, who incriminates him as one of the subjects who arrested her husband Manuel Salamanca; by the assertions of Julio Erices on page 412, who mentions him as one of the subjects who went armed with the Barrueto brothers during the arrests; by the testimony of José Aguilera on page 440, who points him out as one of the civilians who intervened in the arrest of Desiderio Aguilera; and by the testimony of Maritza Cuevas on page 2078 and Dorian Cuevas on page 1031, who identify him as the subject who was at their house on the day of their father’s arrest.”

“Finally,” it continues, “regarding Jorge Domínguez Larenas, the forty-fifth finding states that he acknowledged having provided collaboration to the Carabineros of the Santa Bárbara station, being recruited by Lieutenant Planté Aravena, from whom he obeyed direct orders; however, he limits his actions to domestic chores inside the station.

Notwithstanding the above, said exculpation was refuted by the statements of Juana D’Apollonio, who in the scene reconstruction proceeding identified him as one of the subjects who entered her house, arresting her relatives, also corroborated by the testimony of Juana D’Apollonio on page 1215, who points him out as one of the individuals who entered her home, taking out her father, whom they loaded into a red pickup truck owned by the defendant Domínguez, and the statement of Catalina Zapata on page 2755, who points him out as one of the subjects who participated in the arrest of her husband.”

For the Penal Chamber of the Supreme Court: “All of the above constitute factual circumstances that account for the performance of actions that cannot be considered as mere cooperation—in the terms of Article 16 of the Penal Code—but must be classified as executive, as they demonstrate the performance of acts that constitute the confinement and arrest of another, without legal right, depriving them of liberty; that is, the facts that the law describes to typify the crime of kidnapping, so their participation corresponds to that of direct perpetrators for having taken part in the execution of the act.”

“Consequently, the second-instance court errs in affirming that their conduct could only be considered as complicity, since their actions were not limited to performing acts of assistance or collaboration but of execution in the punishable act, an error of law that has had a substantial influence on the operative part of the challenged ruling, since it is entirely evident that if the cited provisions had been applied correctly, Luis Barrueto Bartning, Manuel Barrueto Bartning, Sergio Fuentes Valenzuela, and Jorge Domínguez Larenas would have been convicted as perpetrators of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping referred to in the preceding findings,” the ruling concludes.

The highest court also addressed: “That, on the other hand, and notwithstanding the rejection of the appeal for cassation on the merits filed by the Program for the Continuation of Law 19.123, on page 9807, due to defects in its formalization, during the deliberation stage, it was noted that the second-instance judgment also revoked that of the lower court, by considering that the actions performed by the accused Luis Barrueto Bartning and Manuel Barrueto Bartning in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Julio Godoy Godoy, Desiderio Aguilera Aguilera, and Miguel Cuevas Pincheira; the accused Jorge Valdivia Dames and José Valdivia Dames in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Miguel Cuevas Pincheira; the accused Sergio Fuentes Valenzuela in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Julio Godoy Godoy, Desiderio Aguilera Aguilera, and Miguel Cuevas Pincheira; the accused Eugenio Villa Urrutia and José Gutiérrez Ortiz in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Cristino Cid Fuentealba, José Pinto Pinto, Luis Cid Cid, Luis Bastías Sandoval, Raimundo Salazar Muñoz, Gabriel Viveros Flores, and José Molina Quezada; the accused Juan Carlos Burgos Belauzaran in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Cristino Cid Fuentealba, José Pinto Pinto, Luis Cid Cid, Luis Bastías Sandoval, and Raimundo Salazar Muñoz; and the defendant Exequiel Celedón Barrera in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Cristino Cid Fuentealba and José Pinto Pinto, could only be considered as complicity, notwithstanding that as seen from findings 65, 66, 67, 70, 71, 58, 59, 62, 63, 54, 55, 80, 84, 82, 85, and 86 of the first-instance ruling, all of them intervened together with the police officials in the illegal arrest of the aforementioned victims, to then take them to the Santa Bárbara Police Station, with their whereabouts remaining unknown to this date.”

“Under these conditions, each of the mentioned accused executed part of the conduct described by the criminal type, that is, they intervene in an action of their own, and are not limited to cooperating in that of another, thereby incurring the trial judges in the ground for cassation on the merits contemplated in Article 546 No. 1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure—by attributing participation to them as accomplices, an error of law that has had a substantial influence on the operative part of the challenged ruling, since the correct application of Article 15 of the Penal Code would have led to convicting them as perpetrators in the crimes indicated regarding each of them, which is important for the purposes of making use of the power to act ex officio, since it is permitted only when the appeal has been rejected due to formalization defects, as provided by Article 785 of the Code of Civil Procedure,” it concludes.

Executions and disappearances

In the first-instance ruling, visiting judge Raquel Lermanda established the following facts:

“1.- That on September 23, 1973, around 3:10 hours, while Sergio D'Apollonio Petermann was in his house located at the ‘La Palma’ smallholding, commune of Santa Bárbara, a group mobilized with 4 to 5 Carabineros and civilians arrived, proceeding to arrest him without a competent judicial or administrative order, being subsequently transferred to an unknown location, from which moment all news of his whereabouts or existence is unknown to this date. 2.- That on September 23, 1973, while Carlos Jacinto D'Apollonio Zapata was in his house located at the La Palma smallholding in the commune of Santa Bárbara, a mobilized group of approximately 4 or 5 people arrived, among whom were Carabineros and civilians, proceeding to arrest him without a competent legal order, taking him out of his home and transferring him to the bridge that connects the communes of Santa Bárbara and Quilaco over the Bío Bío River, where he was placed on one of the railings and shot with a firearm, his body falling into the river and being dragged to one of its banks, where the next day he was found by relatives and acquaintances, wounded by gunfire, being taken to his home for the wake. Around 15:30 hours that same day, the same people who apprehended him, against the authorization of the family and without a legal administrative order, removed said body, apparently lifeless, and took it to an unknown destination. 3.- That around 14:30 hours on September 17, 1973, Elba Burgos Sáez was arrested on Camilo Henríquez Street between Rosas and Manuel Rodríguez streets in Santa Bárbara by Carabineros officials, without a legal arrest warrant against her, and they were moving in a pickup truck into which they loaded her, with all news of her whereabouts or existence being unknown from that date to this date. 4.- That, around 16:00 hours on November 7, 1973, while Aliro Segundo Oporto Durán, 17 years of age, was in a house located in the Raleo sector of the town of Alto Bío Bío, Carabineros personnel arrived to arrest him without a competent legal order, with him running toward the bank of the Bío Bío River, being pursued by the police, one of whom shot him, managing to apprehend him, from which moment all news of his whereabouts or existence is unknown. 5.- That, in the afternoon of September 17, 1973, José Rafael Zúñiga Aceldine, José Secundino Zúñiga Aceldine, and José Gilberto Araneda Riquelme voluntarily appeared at the Santa Bárbara Carabineros station, complying with a summons that had been made to them by Carabineros of the aforementioned Police Unit through Juan Albornoz Lagos, being entered into said station as detainees, without a competent legal order, with all news about their whereabouts or destination being unknown from that date. 6.- That, on September 14, 1973, Juan de Dios Fuentes Lizama and Juan Francisco Fuentes Lizama were arrested at their home located in a hut on the Corcovado estate, on the road to Villacura, in the commune of Santa Bárbara, by Carabineros personnel and civilians, without a legal arrest warrant and without any knowledge of their destination or whereabouts to this date. 7.- That, on September 16, 1973, Juan de Dios and Julio Alberto Rubio Llancao were arrested and transferred to the Santa Bárbara Carabineros station in charge of the Unit Chief, Lieutenant Planté Aravena Sáez. The same day, Guillermo Purrán Treca resorted to the indicated police unit in search of protection because he could not return to his home, as the bus had left him and the start time of the curfew was approaching, remaining detained. At night, the three, plus José María Tranamil Pereira, who was also detained without a competent order, were taken out of the station and transferred to the Quilaco bridge where the Carabineros shot them, with all news about the destination or whereabouts of Juan de Dios Rubio Llancao, Julio Rubio Llancao, José María Tranamil Pereira, and José Guillermo Purrán Treca being unknown from that date. 8.- a) That, in the morning of September 20, 1973, in the commune of Santa Bárbara, a group of Carabineros and civilians, armed with firearms, who were moving in motorized vehicles and without having a legitimate order, arrived at the ‘El Huachi’ estate, located 8 kilometers from that commune, and arrested José Domingo Godoy Acuña, Julio César Godoy Godoy, and Desiderio Aguilera Solís, transferring them to the Santa Bárbara Carabineros station, from where they were taken out at night to an unknown destination and have not been seen again or had news of their whereabouts to this date; b) That, after the above occurred and at approximately 14:00 hours on the same day, September 20, 1973, the same group without a legitimate order arrested José Nazario Godoy Acuña in the Los Junquillos sector of the commune of Santa Bárbara, in the presence of José Gilberto Aguilera Godoy, who was subsequently transferred to the Santa Bárbara Carabineros station and from there, all trace of him was lost, without any news of his whereabouts to this date; c) That around 22:30 hours on September 20, 1973, in the commune of Santa Bárbara, a group of Carabineros and civilians, armed with firearms who were moving in motorized vehicles and without having a legitimate order, arrived at the home of Manuel Salamanca Mella, located on Avenida La Feria without number in Santa Bárbara, where they proceeded to arrest him in the presence of his relatives, to then take him to the Santa Bárbara Carabineros station, where he was last seen, without him having been seen again or having news of his whereabouts to this date; and d) That, after that, on the same date, the same group went to the boarding house located at 343 Rosas Street in the commune of Santa Bárbara, where without a legitimate order they proceeded to arrest José Mariano Godoy Acuña, being transferred to the Santa Bárbara Carabineros station, where he was last seen without him having been seen again or having news of his whereabouts to this date. 9.- That on the night of September 20, 1973, an armed group of Carabineros and civilians arrived at the home of Miguel Cuevas Pincheira located at 371 Rosas Street in Santa Bárbara and without a legitimate order proceeded to arrest him in the presence of his relatives, spouse, and children, taking him out of his house and transferring him to an unknown location without him having been seen again or having news of his whereabouts to this date. 10.- That, around 16:30 hrs. on September 16, 1973, Sebastián Hernaldo Campos Díaz appeared voluntarily at the Santa Bárbara Carabineros station, as he had been summoned previously, remaining detained without being shown a legitimate order and without any news of his whereabouts to this date. 11.- a) That in the commune of Quilaco, in the days following September 11, 1973, a group of civilians and Carabineros, all armed with firearms and moving in motorized vehicles, without having a legitimate order, arrived at the home of Cristino Humberto Cid Fuentealba, located on the El Rodal plot, on the outskirts of Quilaco, proceeding to arrest him in the presence of his relatives, to then take him walking from that place to an unknown destination, without him having been seen again or having news of his whereabouts to this date; b) That, in the early morning of September 20, 1973, a group of Carabineros and civilians arrived at the home of José Felidor Pinto Pinto, leader of the Campo Lindo peasant settlement, located on the old Huinquén estate, whom they arrested, taking him out of his house and carrying him in vehicles from that place, with the same group moving with him to an unknown destination, from which moment there was never any news or knowledge, his trace disappearing, to this date; c) That after the above occurred, and being more or less noon on September 20, 1973, the same group went to the Loncopangue villa and also to the vicinity of the Rañiguel estate in the same sector, proceeding to arrest Luis Alberto Cid Cid, Luis Bastías Sandoval, and Raimundo Salazar Muñoz, being loaded into a truck of the Quilaco Municipality driven by José Feliciano Gutiérrez Ortiz, known as ‘El Chamo,’ to then be taken along the public road that leads to Quilaco to a path that leads to the confluence of the Bío Bío and Quilmes rivers, where they were taken off the vehicle and watched by their captors, they were taken walking to the banks of the indicated watercourses, at which moment their apprehenders allegedly shot them with firearms, their bodies falling into the channel of the mentioned rivers, with their whereabouts being reliably unknown to this date; d) That, that same day, in the afternoon, Segundo Marcial Soto Quijón was arrested in Quilaco without a legitimate order by a group made up of Carabineros and civilians, from which date there has been no news of his whereabouts; e) That, in the morning of November 3, 1973, at approximately 11:00 hrs., a group of Carabineros and civilians arrived at Plot No. 112 of the Piñiquihue sector of the commune of Quilaco, the home of José Roberto Molina Quezada, whom they arrested without a legitimate order, took him out of his house, and took him away in a vehicle to an unknown destination, from which moment there was never any news or knowledge of his whereabouts; f) That on the night of Saturday, November 3, 1973, an armed group of Carabineros and civilians arrived at the home of Gabriel José Viveros Flores located on the outskirts of Loncopangue, proceeding to arrest him in the presence of his relatives, taking him out of his house and transferring him to an unknown location without him having returned or having news of his whereabouts to this date.”

Decision to act ex officio to overturn the judgment with the dissenting vote of minister Letelier, who considered it inappropriate regarding the brothers Jorge Eduardo and José Roberto Valdivia Dames.

Source: pujd.cl 20/10/2022

A necessary history: Sergio and Carlos Jacinto D’Apollonio

After the 1973 coup d’état, many Chileans were persecuted and forcibly disappeared throughout the country. The D’Apollonio family was a victim of a wave of repression against peasants and workers in southern Chile by civilians and uniformed troops. Sergio and Carlos were kidnapped, murdered, and thrown into a river, never to be seen again. youtube.com

Source: uplatv.cl undated