The magistrate indicted seven retired members of the Carabineros de Chile for events that occurred in October 1973, which led to the disappearance of a 15-year-old minor and three adults—aged between 18 and 22—in the south-eastern area of Santiago (the current commune of Peñalolén).

Judge Solís ordered the prosecution of former members of the police unit Carlos Contreras Guzmán, Bernardo Pérez Arriagada, Juan Paredes Rodríguez, Pedro Herrera Mossuto, and José Tito Alveal for the abduction of the minor Pedro Pérez Godoy and the aggravated kidnapping of José Ramírez Díaz.

According to the evidence currently existing in the case file, “Pedro Hugo Pérez Godoy, single, born on September 3, 1958, was 15 years, one month, and 22 days old as of October 17, 1973. He was a primary school student with no political affiliation, whose residence was located at Manzana 10, Sitio 20, Villa Los Guindos in the commune of Ñuñoa.

José Adrián Ramírez Díaz, single, 20 years old, a street market vendor’s assistant, with no political affiliation, illiterate, and a member of a family of eleven siblings, resided at Manzana 17, Pasaje 152, house 6882, Villa Pedro Lagos in the commune of Peñalolén.

On October 17, 1973, they were walking along a street near their homes with a friend, José Romilio Sepúlveda Merino. At approximately 3:00 p.m., as they reached the intersection of Los Orientales and Ictinos streets, in the commune of Ñuñoa (now Peñalolén), they were detained without cause or any administrative or judicial order by Bernardo Pérez Arriagada and Carlos Contreras Guzmán, officers belonging to the 13th Carabineros Precinct of Ñuñoa, who were traveling in a grey vehicle and wearing civilian clothes.” They were taken to the precinct, but could not be processed there because the cells were full, so they were transferred to the Quilín Police Post, a unit under the 13th Precinct. However, there is no record of the victims' entry at that police unit, though there is a record of the departure of Pedro Hugo Pérez Godoy, who was removed from the post along with José Ramírez at 1:00 a.m., during the curfew, by Carabinero Bernardo Pérez Arriagada. They were taken to a red pickup truck parked outside the police facility, where Carabineros Juan Paredes Rodríguez and the aforementioned Contreras Torres were waiting. The latter had received the order to accompany Pérez Arriagada on this procedure from Suboficial Mayor José Tito Alveal, who in turn was under the command of Herrera Mossuto. The young men were forced into the back of the pickup truck. The truck, with José Ramírez Díaz and Pedro Hugo Pérez Godoy still deprived of their liberty, was driven from the post to the grounds of the Viña Cousiño Macul, where the vehicle stopped and the detainees were made to get out. They were forced to walk to the banks of the San Carlos canal. It was at this location that, from a few meters away, they were shot with firearms, resulting in their deaths from multiple wounds. Their bodies were then thrown into the canal’s current—a maneuver that, according to the witness Sepúlveda, had been suggested from the very moment of the detention, which had no motive, by Corporal Contreras: “Let’s kill them and throw them into the canal!” Nevertheless, the victims' remains were found illegally buried in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery. Due to the lack of accurate scientific methods at the time, they could not be correctly identified in the proceedings held at the 22nd Criminal Court. Indeed, although some of the recovered remains were attributed to the young Pérez Godoy, it was ultimately confirmed through DNA genetic testing that they belonged to another person. Regarding Ramírez Díaz, the identification of his remains is still pending. Consequently, the death of neither detainee has been legally and reliably confirmed. We only know that those deprived of their liberty have not made contact with their families, nor have they carried out administrative procedures with State agencies, and there is no record of them entering or leaving the country,” the ruling states. Meanwhile, for the aggravated homicides of Hernán Peña Catalán and Luis Vergara González, Judge Alejandro Solís indicted former police officers Juan Veloso Ortiz, Francisco Contreras Torres, and Pedro Herrera Mossuto. Regarding this case, the magistrate has determined that: “On October 15, 1973, Luis Armando Vergara González, married, father of one child, 22 years old, a laborer with no political affiliation, whose residence was located at Villa Lautaro, Manzana E, Sitio 18, Población Lo Hermida in the commune of Ñuñoa, was detained in the vicinity at approximately 9:15 p.m. He was apprehended without legal cause by Carabineros officers belonging to the 13th Precinct of Los Guindos in Ñuñoa, Francisco Contreras Torres and Manuel Veloso Ortiz, who were traveling in a red pickup truck that had been illicitly requisitioned from Miriam Contreras Bell, personal secretary to former President Salvador Allende.” “Immediately, the captors and the detainee went to the home of Hernán Manuel Peña Catalán, married, father of two children, 20 years old, who worked as a driver and had no political affiliation. Although his residence was located at Villa El Duraznal, Manzana 7, Sitio 5, Población Lo Hermida in the commune of Ñuñoa, he could not be found by the police at that location. However, after a search conducted in the vicinity of his home, Peña Catalán was detained, and together with Vergara González, they were taken to the aforementioned precinct.” Both victims were definitively identified through DNA testing performed at the Legal Medical Service after 2003. The defendants were held in preventive detention, a measure to be carried out in one of the Carabineros detention centers determined by the police institution. Furthermore, it is ordered: “Without prejudice to what has been resolved, the investigation shall continue regarding the repressive situation that affected Sergio Alberto Gajardo Hidalgo during the same period in which the crimes subject to this resolution were committed.”

Source: El Mostrador, December 7, 2012

7 former Carabineros indicted for kidnappings and executions of residents

Judge Alejandro Solís (pictured) ordered the preventive detention of former uniformed officers who had problems with long-haired youths and street market vendors in the Peñalolén sector in October 1973.

This is the latest resolution from the judge who took on human rights cases in 2002 and is due to retire this month. Visiting Judge Alejandro Solís Muñoz indicted 7 retired Carabineros for 4 cases of forcibly disappeared persons and political executions that occurred in Peñalolén.

The remains of 3 victims were found in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery. The judge also ordered the preventive detention of the former officers.

The victims are

• Pedro Hugo Pérez Godoy, 15 years old at the time of his detention on October 17, 1973, primary school student, no political affiliation, resident of Villa Los Guindos in the commune of Ñuñoa.
• José Adrián Ramírez Díaz, friend of the former, 20 years old at the time of his detention alongside Pérez Godoy, street market vendor, no political affiliation, illiterate, member of a family of eleven siblings, resident of Villa Pedro Lagos in the commune of Peñalolén.
• Luis Armando Vergara González, married, father of one child, 22 years old at the time of his detention on October 15, 1973, laborer, no political affiliation, resident of the Lo Hermida neighborhood in the then-commune of Ñuñoa.
• Hernán Manuel Peña Catalán, friend of the former, married, father of two children, 20 years old at the time of his detention on the same day, driver, no political affiliation, also resident of the Lo Hermida neighborhood.

The defendants for the kidnapping of Pérez Godoy and the aggravated kidnapping of Ramírez Díaz are:

• Carabinero (R) Carlos Contreras Guzmán.
• Carabinero (R) Bernardo Pérez Arriagada.
• Carabinero (R) Juan Paredes Rodríguez.
• Suboficial (R) José Tito Alveal.
• Teniente (R) Pedro Herrera Mossuto.

Meanwhile, for the aggravated homicides of Peña Catalán and Vergara González, the defendants are:

• Carabinero (R) Juan Veloso Ortiz.
• Carabinero (R) Francisco Contreras Torres.
• Teniente (R) Pedro Herrera Mossuto.

KIDNAPPINGS OF PÉREZ AND RAMÍREZ

According to the case files, Pérez Godoy and Ramírez Díaz were detained in Peñalolén without a judicial order by the defendants Pérez Arriagada and Contreras Guzmán, who were wearing civilian clothes. They took them to the then-13th Precinct of Ñuñoa and then to the Quilín Police Post.

Godoy and Ramírez were removed from the post in the early morning hours, while the curfew was in full effect, and taken to the Cousiño Macul vineyard by Carabineros Contreras Guzmán, Pérez, and Paredes, where they shot them and threw their bodies into the San Carlos canal.

The three followed orders from Tito Alveal and Herrera. The remains of Pérez Godoy have not yet been identified, and the recognition of Ramírez Díaz's remains is still pending. Therefore, Judge Solís's resolution indicates that the death of these two victims “has not been legally and reliably confirmed.” According to information on the Memoria Viva website, Pérez and Ramírez had had problems with these Carabineros for wearing their hair long.

Pérez had even suffered a humiliating haircut at the hands of the officers. The two were detained along with a third youth, José Romilio Sepúlveda Merino, who was released because he was suffering from scabies. This young man alerted the families.

THEY WERE IN “LA PAYITA’S” PICKUP TRUCK

Regarding Vergara González and Peña Catalán, Judge Solís was able to establish that they were detained in Peñalolén by Carabineros Contreras Torres and Veloso Ortiz, who were traveling in a pickup truck illegally seized from Miriam Contreras Bell, personal secretary to former President Salvador Allende, better known as “La Payita.” Both were taken to the 13th Precinct, where all trace of them was lost.

In the days following the detentions, the Carabineros denied having arrested them, but later claimed they had released them. Both victims were found in Patio 29 and definitively identified through DNA testing performed at the Legal Medical Service after 2003.

SOLÍS’S LAST RESOLUTION

Meanwhile, court sources reported that the resolution against the 7 former Carabineros will be the last one adopted by Judge Solís, appointed in 2002 as a visiting judge for human rights cases, as he turns 75 on December 27 and must retire.

Judge Solís developed multiple human rights investigations and issued numerous convictions, most notably those against the former director of the DINA, General (R) Manuel Contreras.

Source: La Nación, December 7, 2012

Seven retired Carabineros indicted for human rights violations in 1973

The former officers were charged with the crimes of abduction of minors, homicide, and aggravated kidnapping, and their release was considered “a danger to the safety of society.” Visiting Judge Alejandro Solís decided to indict seven retired members of the Carabineros for four cases of forcibly disappeared persons that occurred during 1973 in the communes of Peñalolén and Ñuñoa.

They are former officers Bernardo Segundo Pérez Arriagada, Juan Gregorio Paredes Rodríguez, Carlos Alfredo Contreras Guzmán, Pedro Alejandro Lorenzo Herrera Mossuto, and José Tito Alveal, who were considered by the magistrate to be the perpetrators of the abduction of 15-year-old Pedro Hugo Pérez Godoy and the aggravated kidnapping of José Adrián Ramírez Díaz.

They are joined by Juan Manuel Veloso Ortiz and Francisco Fernando Contreras Torres, as perpetrators of the crimes of aggravated homicide committed against Hernán Peña Catalán and Luis Armando Vergara González.

Pedro Alejandro Lorenzo Herrera Mossuto also participated in this case, according to the judicial investigation. In the document, Judge Solís states that the freedom of the accused “is a danger to the safety of society” and orders that they be detained by personnel of the Investigative Police and transferred to a Carabineros detention facility.

As reported by Radio Cooperativa, some of the victims had been identified in 2003 via DNA at the Legal Medical Service, and this is considered the last resolution by Judge Solís, as he will begin his vacation period in the coming days and will turn 75 on December 27, at which point he must leave the Judiciary.

Source: El Mercurio, December 7, 2012

Former Carabineros indicted for case of victims illegally buried in Patio 29

The defendants were held in preventive detention, a measure to be carried out in one of the Carabineros detention centers determined by the police institution. Visiting Judge Alejandro Solís Muñoz issued indictments in four cases of forcibly disappeared persons and political executions whose remains were found illegally buried in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery.

The magistrate indicted seven retired members of the Carabineros de Chile for events that occurred in October 1973, which led to the disappearance of a 15-year-old minor and three adults—aged between 18 and 22—in the south-eastern area of Santiago (the current commune of Peñalolén).

Judge Solís ordered the prosecution of former members of the police unit Carlos Contreras Guzmán, Bernardo Pérez Arriagada, Juan Paredes Rodríguez, Pedro Herrera Mossuto, and José Tito Alveal for the abduction of the minor Pedro Pérez Godoy and the aggravated kidnapping of José Ramírez Díaz.

According to the evidence currently existing in the case file, “Pedro Hugo Pérez Godoy, single, born on September 3, 1958, was 15 years, one month, and 22 days old as of October 17, 1973. He was a primary school student with no political affiliation, whose residence was located at Manzana 10, Sitio 20, Villa Los Guindos in the commune of Ñuñoa.

José Adrián Ramírez Díaz, single, 20 years old, a street market vendor’s assistant, with no political affiliation, illiterate, and a member of a family of eleven siblings, resided at Manzana 17, Pasaje 152, house 6882, Villa Pedro Lagos in the commune of Peñalolén.

On October 17, 1973, they were walking along a street near their homes with a friend, José Romilio Sepúlveda Merino. At approximately 3:00 p.m., as they reached the intersection of Los Orientales and Ictinos streets, in the commune of Ñuñoa (now Peñalolén), they were detained without cause or any administrative or judicial order by Bernardo Pérez Arriagada and Carlos Contreras Guzmán, officers belonging to the 13th Carabineros Precinct of Ñuñoa, who were traveling in a grey vehicle and wearing civilian clothes.

They were taken to the precinct, but could not be processed there because the cells were full, so they were transferred to the Quilín Police Post, a unit under the 13th Precinct. However, there is no record of the victims' entry at that police unit, though there is a record of the departure of Pedro Hugo Pérez Godoy, who was removed from the post along with José Ramírez at 1:00 a.m., during the curfew, by Carabinero Bernardo Pérez Arriagada.

They were taken to a red pickup truck parked outside the police facility, where Carabineros Juan Paredes Rodríguez and the aforementioned Contreras Torres were waiting. The latter had received the order to accompany Pérez Arriagada on this procedure from Suboficial Mayor José Tito Alveal, who in turn was under the command of Herrera Mossuto.

The young men were forced into the back of the pickup truck. The truck, with José Ramírez Díaz and Pedro Hugo Pérez Godoy still deprived of their liberty, was driven from the post to the grounds of the Viña Cousiño Macul, where the vehicle stopped and the detainees were made to get out.

They were forced to walk to the banks of the San Carlos canal. It was at this location that, from a few meters away, they were shot with firearms, resulting in their deaths from multiple wounds. Their bodies were then thrown into the canal’s current—a maneuver that, according to the witness Sepúlveda, had been suggested from the very moment of the detention, which had no motive, by Corporal Contreras: “Let’s kill them and throw them into the canal!” Nevertheless, the victims' remains were found illegally buried in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery.

Due to the lack of accurate scientific methods at the time, they could not be correctly identified in the proceedings held at the 22nd Criminal Court. Indeed, although some of the recovered remains were attributed to the young Pérez Godoy, it was ultimately confirmed through DNA genetic testing that they belonged to another person.

Regarding Ramírez Díaz, the identification of his remains is still pending. Consequently, the death of neither detainee has been legally and reliably confirmed. We only know that those deprived of their liberty have not made contact with their families, nor have they carried out administrative procedures with State agencies, and there is no record of them entering or leaving the country,” the ruling states.

Meanwhile, for the aggravated homicides of Hernán Peña Catalán and Luis Vergara González, Judge Alejandro Solís indicted former police officers Juan Veloso Ortiz, Francisco Contreras Torres, and Pedro Herrera Mossuto.

Regarding this case, the magistrate has determined that: “On October 15, 1973, Luis Armando Vergara González, married, father of one child, 22 years old, a laborer with no political affiliation, whose residence was located at Villa Lautaro, Manzana E, Sitio 18, Población Lo Hermida in the commune of Ñuñoa, was detained in the vicinity at approximately 9:15 p.m.

He was apprehended without legal cause by Carabineros officers belonging to the 13th Precinct of Los Guindos of Ñuñoa, Francisco Contreras Torres and Manuel Veloso Ortiz, who were traveling in a red pickup truck that had been illicitly requisitioned from Miriam Contreras Bell, personal secretary to former President Salvador Allende.

Immediately, the captors and the detainee went to the home of Hernán Manuel Peña Catalán, married, father of two children, 20 years old, who worked as a driver and had no political affiliation. Although his residence was located at Villa El Duraznal, Manzana 7, Sitio 5, Población Lo Hermida in the commune of Ñuñoa, he could not be found by the police at that location.

However, after a search conducted in the vicinity of his home, Peña Catalán was detained, and together with Vergara González, they were taken to the aforementioned precinct.” Both victims were definitively identified through DNA testing performed at the Legal Medical Service after 2003.

The defendants were held in preventive detention, a measure to be carried out in one of the Carabineros detention centers determined by the police institution. Furthermore, Judge Solís determined that: “Given the significance of the statements provided by Francisco Fernando Contreras Torres (October 31, 2003, pp. 658–660 of Vol.

II, Case File 15,607); Luis Arturo Mora Vera (pp. 880–881, dated April 21, 2004, Case File 15,607); Bernardo Segundo Pérez Arriagada (pp. 202–203 verso, dated September 9, 2003, and pp. 878–880, dated November 23, 2010, both Case File 9,731); Juan Gregorio Paredes Rodríguez (pp. 294, dated May 17, 2004, and 236, dated January 5, 2004, both from Case File 9,731); Carlos Alfredo Contreras Guzmán (pp. 883–885, dated November 24, 2010, p. 567, dated March 7, 1980, and p. 557, dated December 10, 1979, all from Case File 9,731); Pedro Alejandro Lorenzo Mossuto (p. 709, dated November 13, 2003, and p. 881, dated November 23, 2010, both from Case File 9,731); Juan Manuel Veloso Ortiz (p. 1059, dated August 18, 2006, from Case File 15,607) and the confrontation proceedings on pp. 283, 284 (without prejudice to “exhorting them to tell the truth” in a new statement), 269, 304, 305, 306, 329, 727 of Case File 9,731 and 839 of Case File 15,607, authorized photocopies of these shall be made and kept in a separate file under custody.” Furthermore, it is ordered: “Without prejudice to what has been resolved, the investigation shall continue regarding the repressive situation that affected Sergio Alberto Gajardo Hidalgo during the same period in which the crimes subject to this resolution were committed.”

Source: El Mostrador, December 7, 2012