Before the death of President Allende and prior to the departure of Minister Flores and his two companions from the La Moneda Palace, the suicide of Augusto OLIVARES BECERRA occurred. He was a journalist, a member of the Partido Socialista, the Press Director of the National Television channel, and an advisor to President Allende.

He was on the first floor of the building, together with some civilians. According to the information gathered by the Commission, it is possible to establish that he withdrew to a bathroom located under a staircase, after which a gunshot was heard.

The bullet entered through his temple, leaving him in an agonizing state. One of the doctors who was inside the Palace recounted to this Commission the moment he placed Olivares's head on his lap, confirming his death moments later.

The situation of harassment at La Moneda in which Augusto Olivares took his own life leads the Commission to consider him a victim of the situation of political violence.

The group that left the Palace via Calle Morandé was detained by military forces, who forced them to lie face down on the ground. This group was composed of presidential advisors, members of the GAP, doctors who provided services at La Moneda, and officials from the Investigaciones Service.

Most of the doctors who were present (with the exception of some who served as advisors to the President and who will be mentioned later) were released at that time. The rest of the detainees were then moved to the sidewalk, where they remained lying down.

At 18:00 hours, this group was taken to the Tacna Regiment in two military vehicles. They remained in that facility lying on the ground, face down, with their hands behind their necks, from the afternoon of September 11 until midday on September 13.

On September 12, the members of the Investigaciones Service were released, except for one who also remained in this facility until midday on the 13th, at which time he was released.

According to the information gathered, the Commission can state that the group that remained at the Tacna Regiment until midday on the 13th was composed, on one hand, of nine advisors and members of the Presidency of the Republic and, on the other, of fifteen members of the GAP.

As indicated above, the information gathered allows us to state that the former Director of Investigaciones, Eduardo Paredes, was also detained at the Tacna Regiment until September 13. For this Commission, the version published in the press at that time, which maintained that Paredes had died in a confrontation, is implausible.

From this group, the advisors and members of the Presidency of the Republic were: Jaime BARRIOS MEZA […] Daniel ESCOBAR CRUZ […] Egidio Enrique HUERTA CORVALAN […] Claudio JIMENO GRENDI[…] Georges KLEIN PIPPER […] Eduardo PAREDES BARRIENTOS […] Egidio Enrique PARIS ROA […] Héctor PINCHEIRA NUÑEZ […] Arsenio POUPIN OSSIEL […] Manuel CASTRO ZAMORANO […] Sergio CONTRERAS […] José FREIRE MEDINA […] Daniel GUTIERREZ AYALA, 25 years old; Oscar LAGOS RIOS […] Oscar MARAMBIO ARAYA […] Juan MONTIGLIO MURUA […] Julio MORENO PULGAR […] Jorge ORREGO GONZALEZ […] Oscar RAMIREZ BARRIA […] Luis RODRIGUEZ RIQUELME […] Jaime SOTELO OJEDA […] Julio TAPIA MARTINEZ […] Oscar VALLADARES CAROCA […] Juan VARGAS CONTRERAS […] All of them were, in addition, members of the Partido Socialista.

The members of the group composed of the President's advisors and members of the GAP, with their hands and feet tied, were loaded onto military trucks and taken from the Regiment to an unknown destination.

Consistent testimonies indicate that the military vehicle headed to Peldehue, to the grounds assigned to the Tacna Regiment, where they were allegedly executed and buried. Since that date, all of them have remained in the status of forcibly disappeared.

The Commission learned that one of the members of the GAP managed to evade his captors by switching from his group to another and was subsequently released. It is highly improbable that he is one of those recently mentioned.

Considering that this group of the President's collaborators left the La Moneda Palace via Calle Morandé at approximately 14:00 hours, where they were detained by State agents, held in a military facility, and from there taken by them to an uncertain destination, this Commission is convinced of their status as victims, as their disappearance is the responsibility of the State agents who held them in detention.

Another situation, linked to the previous one, is that of a group of people who were detained outside the La Moneda Palace around 08:45 in the morning. All of them were members of the GAP and arrived at that time in a pickup truck, being detained by Carabineros personnel.

The information gathered allows us to state that at least the following people were detained under those circumstances: Domingo BLANCO TARRES […] Carlos Alfonso CRUZ ZAVALLA […] Gonzalo JORQUERA LEYTON, […]; all of them members of the Partido Socialista. The same situation occurred with Enrique ROPERT CONTRERAS […]

All these detainees were taken to the Intendencia of Santiago and from there removed at approximately 11:00 hours that same day to be taken to the Sixth Precinct of Carabineros.

Their lifeless bodies were found on the banks of the Mapocho River, under the Bulnes Bridge, at the end of September 1973, with the exception of Domingo Blanco Tarrés. The latter was taken by Investigaciones personnel to the Santiago Preventive Detention Center, from where he was released on September 19, 1973, by order of the Second Military Prosecutor's Office of Santiago.

Since then, he has been in the status of disappeared.

Considering that there is sufficient evidence to state that all these people were detained by State agents and that subsequently, three of them were found dead from gunshot wounds at the Bulnes Bridge of the Mapocho River and one of them disappeared after having been removed from the Santiago Preventive Detention Center, also by State agents, this Commission is convinced of their status as victims of human rights violations attributable to those agents, in the persons of Domingo Blanco Tarrés, Carlos Cruz Zavalla, Gonzalo Jorquera Leyton, and Enrique Ropert Contreras.

On the other hand, on that same day, the 11th, while they were attempting to travel from Talca to Santiago to join the President's Security Detail group, two members of said group were detained by a military patrol on the Pan-American Highway, near Curicó: Francisco LARA RUIZ […] Wagner Herid SALINAS MUÑOZ […], both members of the Partido Socialista.

Both were in Talca and, upon learning of what had happened, decided to head to Santiago. On the outskirts of Curicó, they were intercepted by a military patrol, who, upon seeing documents proving their membership in the GAP, proceeded to detain them and transfer them to the Curicó Jail.

The Gendarmerie Service reported that on September 30, 1973, they were released from that penal facility, but that they were handed over to State agents "with a short shackle and a padlock, both prisoners shackled." Their remains were handed over to their families at the Santiago Morgue, with their deaths certified on October 5, 1973, and gunshot wounds cited as the cause.

According to this information, the Commission is convinced of the responsibility held by State agents in the deaths of Francisco Lara Ruiz and Wagner Herid Salinas Muñoz.

Address: General Bonilla 6035, Block 11, Depto. 31, Población Cañada Norte, Pudahuel (formerly the commune of Barrancas) Marital Status: Married, 2 children Occupation: Farmer Repressive Status: Member of the Presidential Guard, GAP. Militant of the Socialist Party Date of Detention: September 11, 1973

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

Daniel Antonio Gutiérrez Ayala, married, father of two, and a militant of the Socialist Party, was detained on September 11, 1973, as the last group of people inside the La Moneda Palace was leaving. He was taken to the Tacna Regiment, where he remained until September 13, the date on which he was driven away in a military truck to an unknown destination.

He remains forcibly disappeared to this day.

Daniel Gutiérrez was a member of the Presidential Guard, better known by the acronym GAP, "Grupo de amigos personales" (Group of Personal Friends), alluding to an expression used by the President of the Republic himself.

The victim was a farmer from Villa Alegre and had worked in agriculture until he moved to Santiago, where he worked on the construction of the capital's Metro system before joining the GAP. On September 9, after spending a few days of leave with his family, he returned to his duties at the presidential residence located at Tomas Moro No. 200.

On September 11, Daniel Gutiérrez was at La Moneda. Nursing assistant Hilda Rosa Varas Gaete, who was at La Moneda on that day, September 11, 1973, stated in a sworn affidavit that during her time on the first floor of the building, she was able to see Jano Barrientos and Gutiérrez Ayala, among other members of the GAP.

On September 11, the La Moneda Presidential Palace, the seat of government, was seized by Army infantry and tank units led by General Javier Palacios, later joined by Carabineros forces. At 11:00 a.m., the Chilean Air Force began the bombardment, which destroyed a large part of La Moneda.

The members of the Presidential Guard and other individuals remained in the Palace until they received the order from President Salvador Allende to leave, which they did through a door on Calle Morandé 80.

There, they were held at gunpoint and beaten by the military and ordered to lie on the ground with their hands behind their necks, under constant threat, including being crushed by a tank that moved toward them.

Two members of the Presidential Guard, Antonio Aguirre Vásquez and Osvaldo Ramos Rivera, were taken prisoner inside La Moneda and sent to the Public Assistance Emergency Hospital because they were wounded; a few days later, these individuals were removed from the medical center by military personnel, and since then, they have remained in the status of forcibly disappeared.

Other GAP members who were coming from the El Cañaveral presidential residence did not manage to enter La Moneda and were detained in the vicinity by Carabineros. Among them were Gonzalo Jorquera Leyton, Williams Osvaldo Ramírez Barría, Carlos Cruz Zavala, and Domingo Blanco Tarrés, who were part of a group of approximately 13 people, some of whom were subsequently executed, while the others remain in the status of forcibly disappeared.

The people detained at La Moneda remained on Calle Morandé until 6:00 p.m. At that hour, these prisoners were taken in two military vehicles to the Tacna Regiment, located about 12 blocks from the La Moneda Palace and under the command of Colonel Joaquín Ramírez Pineda.

Survivors of these events have provided information that allows for the reconstruction of these facts: the prisoners remained in the aforementioned regiment until September 13. While detained there, they were forced to crawl on their knees, lie down with their arms behind their necks, or stand with their arms raised.

For nearly 48 hours, they were forced to remain in painful positions on rough or gravel ground, being trampled by soldiers who ran over them and beat them with the butts of their weapons or wounded them with their bayonets, under the constant watch of guards armed with machine guns who threatened them and asked the officers to execute them immediately.

Later, they were kept in an area known as the "boxes" or former stables; from there, the prisoners were taken to an office located on the second floor of the Regiment, where they were tortured and interrogated by personnel from the Military Intelligence Service (SIM).

Afterward, they were returned in poor physical condition to rejoin the other prisoners and continue in the painful positions assigned to them. Each change of guard began with a beating of the prisoners with rifle butts.

There were 49 such prisoners. Of these, it was ordered that the 17 detectives who made up the presidential protection team be released, and some other prisoners were separated. Finally, a group of people remained as prisoners, 21 of whom have been identified: ten advisors to the President of the Republic or government officials, ten members of the Presidential Guard, and one laborer.

The President's advisors were Jaime Barrios Meza, presidential advisor and General Manager of the Central Bank of Chile; Sergio Contreras, public relations officer for the Intendancy and journalist; Daniel Escobar Cruz, Chief of Cabinet for the Undersecretary of the Interior; Enrique Huerta Corvalán, Palace Intendant; Claudio Jimeno Grendi, presidential advisor; Eduardo Paredes Barrientos, presidential advisor and former Director of Investigations; Enrique París Roa, presidential advisor and member of the Superior Council of the University of Chile; Héctor Ricardo Pincheira Núñez, presidential advisor; and Arsenio Poupin Oissel, Undersecretary General of Government and presidential advisor. The members of the Presidential Guard who have been identified are as follows: José Freire Medina, Daniel Gutiérrez Ayala, Oscar Lagos Ríos, Juan Montiglio Murúa, Julio Hernán Moreno Pulgar, Luis Rodríguez Riquelme, Jaime Sotelo Ojeda, Julio Tapia Martínez, Oscar Valladares Caroca, Juan Vargas Contreras, and Héctor Daniel Urrutia Molina. Additionally, there was the laborer Oscar Luis Avilés Jofré, who had gone to La Moneda in support of the Government.

Dr. Oscar Iván Soto Guzmán, who was Allende's personal physician and survived these events, stated in a notarized declaration that on September 11 he was at La Moneda and saw several of President Salvador Allende's collaborators, among them Daniel Antonio Gutiérrez Ayala, a member of the GAP who, along with others, was detained and taken by bus to the Tacna Regiment.

Another survivor, Juan Bautista Osses Beltrán, remembers among the detainees "Chino Jano," which is Daniel Gutiérrez, who on September 12 was taken out of the group to be interrogated while they were prisoners at the Tacna Regiment.

Detective Eduardo José Ellis Belmar stated in a notarized declaration that on September 11 he saw Daniel Gutiérrez at La Moneda, whom they nicknamed "Jano," and that he was in the group of La Moneda prisoners who remained as prisoners at the Tacna Regiment. Detective Ellis notes that he saw him until noon on September 12, the time at which Ellis was released.

Around 2:00 p.m. on September 13, 1973, these prisoners, with their hands and feet tied, were thrown into a military truck, piled one on top of the other, and driven out of the Regiment to an unknown destination.

However, one of those who managed to survive and has contributed to reconstructing these events is Juan Bautista Osses Beltrán, who was taken prisoner to the Tacna Regiment but was incorporated into another group of prisoners, which allowed him to survive after being imprisoned at the Estadio Chile and the Estadio Nacional.

Osses notes in his extensive statement that a group of 13 members of the Presidential Guard accompanied Allende to La Moneda and were detained inside. Subsequently, along with the other prisoners, he was taken to the Tacna Regiment, where they were informed that they would be executed by firing squad at 12:00 midnight, then that the execution would be at 3:00 a.m., and later, it was indicated at 6:00 a.m.

Osses has recognized that among the detainees at the Tacna Regiment were Héctor Daniel Urrutia, Daniel Gutiérrez, Enrique Huerta, Oscar Lagos Ríos, Juan Montiglio, Julio Moreno, Eduardo Paredes, Enrique París, Georges Klein, Héctor Pincheira, Arsenio Poupin, Luis Rodríguez Riquelme, and Oscar Valladares.

The witness was taken out of the Tacna Regiment in the early hours of September 13, 1973, and taken along with other detainees to the Estadio Chile.

Beatriz Celsa Parrau Tejos, who was detained at the Tacna Regiment, is the one who has been able to provide some important background. She was at INDUMETAL, where she was attending to a wounded person in her capacity as a nurse.

At 6:00 p.m. on September 11, this company was occupied by Carabineros, and everyone there was detained and taken to a police station and, on the same day, transferred to the Tacna Regiment. There, she learned that those who had been captured at La Moneda were being held, and despite being separated from that group, she had the opportunity to see them when they went to the bathroom or when they were taken to interrogations.

There, she saw several doctors she knew from her professional activities and government leaders. She also observed numerous groups of other prisoners entering or leaving. On September 13, at noon, through the cracks of the warehouse where about 90 women were locked up, Celsa Parrau was able to see a truck leave the Regiment carrying bundles that looked like human bodies.

When they were taken out of the aforementioned warehouse at 2:30 p.m., she observed that the La Moneda prisoners were no longer there.

For his part, the Chief of Investigations at La Moneda, detective Juan Seoane, remained among the detainees at the Government Palace until after noon on September 13, at which time he was able to witness how the prisoners were taken away in a military truck.

According to the testimonies of the survivors, they heard from the military personnel who participated in the operation that they had been taken to the Peldehue military grounds, located in Colina, where they had allegedly been executed and buried.

A soldier from the Tacna Regiment who was able to witness part of the events recounted that the prisoners were tied with wire and thrown into an Army Pegaso truck that was part of a convoy that left the barracks at approximately 2:00 p.m., while all conscripts were ordered to remain in their quarters and not walk through the courtyards.

In the afternoon, the contingent that had been part of the convoy returned, and word spread among the military that the prisoners had been taken to the property that the Tacna Regiment has in the Peldehue military grounds in Colina; there, they had allegedly been killed in front of a hole or pit, with a diameter of about five to six meters and several meters deep, which existed a short distance from the house used by the property's guard personnel.

The prisoners were placed in groups of four at the edge of the pit and shot. Once executed and thrown to the bottom of the pit, grenades were allegedly thrown inside, and thus the executions continued four by four.

The aforementioned soldier declares that it was his turn to go to the mentioned property at the end of September 1973 and he found the cited pit covered. There, it was confirmed to him that the executed had been buried in that place and that there were 26 or 27 of them. Before being murdered, they shouted slogans alluding to the Unidad Popular government.

Daniel Gutiérrez's family suffered various actions against them; the homes of his parents and siblings in Villa Alegre were raided several times, and one of his sisters was detained on other occasions. These actions were carried out by Carabineros, members of the Investigations police, and personnel from the Army's Artillery School in Linares.

The massacre of prisoners has never been officially acknowledged, nor have the bodies been returned, and the aforementioned individuals, including Daniel Antonio Gutiérrez Ayala, have remained disappeared since September 13, 1973.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On March 8, 1976, the victim's spouse filed a complaint for alleged disappearance before the Second Major Criminal Court of Santiago, registered under No. 84689-3, attaching several documents regarding the victim's identity and requesting that civil and military authorities be officially notified regarding the victim's fate.

The Statistics and Information Department of the National Health Service reported on March 16, 1976, via official letter 1204, that Daniel Antonio Gutiérrez Ayala did not appear in the records of the General Cemetery.

Similar information was received from the Legal Medical Institute on March 19, 1976. The Civil Registry Officer of Independencia communicated that the autopsy number was missing to locate what was requested and that, after searching the death indices, he did not appear in the year 1973.

General Raúl Benavides, Minister of the Interior, reported that the victim was not being held by order of that Ministry. This information is contained in official letter 1204 of March 17, 1976, sent to the Judge of the 2nd Major Criminal Court.

Lieutenant Colonel Juan Jara Cornejo, Commander of the Tacna Regiment, in official letter 3550/46 of March 23, 1976, informed the Second Court that he had no records of Daniel Antonio Gutiérrez Ayala, "since there were people detained in the Regiment on a temporary basis and in transit to the Estadio Chile."

On April 5, 1976, detective Sergio Sánchez of the 2nd Judicial Police Station signed Report 1040, in which he reported the actions taken: interrogation of Daniel Gutiérrez's spouse, which confirmed the complaint; inquiries to the different organizations related to political prisoners; and investigations at the Legal Medical Institute and other sources, all of which did not lead to positive results regarding the victim's fate.

On April 22, 1976, the judge of the Second Criminal Court closed the summary proceedings and ordered a temporary dismissal, pending review by the Court, considering that the perpetration of a punishable act had not been proven. The Court of Appeals approved the dismissal on June 30, 1976.

On July 24, 1991, a criminal complaint was filed, registered under No. 126465-6, against all those who had participated in the detention, kidnapping, and subsequent crimes that resulted in the victim's disappearance, requesting that the Civil Registry be officially notified to verify if there was a death certificate or renewal of documents; that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Police be notified to verify if there were records of the victim leaving the country; and that an investigation order be issued.

Currently, at the end of 1992, the case is in the summary stage of processing.

In addition to the aforementioned judicial actions, in June 1974, inquiries were made to the National Executive Secretariat for Detainees. Background information was also presented, and complaints were filed before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States.

Source: Vicaría de la Solidaridad

On a humid June evening, I arrived at his sisters' house in Villa Alegre. I was accompanied by Soraya, a great friend and former employee of CODEPU, who had known the case closely.

“He surrendered at La Moneda,” Aida recounts. “He appears in the photo where they are on the ground with their arms crossed behind their heads and there is a tank in the background; afterwards, he disappeared. It is known that they were transferred to the Tacna Regiment and then to the Blindados 2, today Fuerte Arteaga. He was 24 years old, he was the youngest, the President’s favorite,” she adds.

In the group of detainees were doctors, lawyers, and officials from the Investigations Police.

“This group of collaborators left the La Moneda Palace via Morandé Street at approximately 14:00 hours. At 18:00 hours, this group was taken to the Tacna Regiment in two military vehicles. In that facility, they remained lying on the ground, face down, with their hands behind their necks, from the 11th until midday on September 13th.

Coinciding testimonies indicate that they were taken to Peldehue, where they were allegedly executed and buried. Since that date, they all remain in the status of forcibly disappeared” (Museum of Memory and Human Rights).

Rita, another of his sisters, wipes away tears while she speaks. “They raided our house in Certenejas several times. They would surround the house at night, destroying the floor and the furniture. We were detained by the Carabineros for short periods.

One night they pulled my father out of bed. They tore his clothes, they hit him with the butts of their rifles. I threw myself over him and screamed at them, ‘Cowards!’. They took both of us prisoner,” Rita remembers. “And I told the captain: ‘It takes so many of you to arrest a woman, yet when people are out robbing, no one comes!’” she points out.

Someone mentions a medical bag that the doctor had allegedly left behind in Certenejas. I ask what they know about that valuable object. “It was a brown leather bag. It had everything in it, even tools for minor surgeries; the 2010 earthquake destroyed the house where it was, we were able to rescue very few things. I haven’t gone back inside,” says Aída.

To prevent their parents from falling ill due to not having news of Daniel, the family decided to lie to them. They told them he had managed to travel to Cuba. The story was believable, and the parents did not doubt it.

Sometimes they would invent a letter they had supposedly received from the island: “My lovely mother, I am well, but I still cannot return. I miss you all very much, I hope to hug you soon. Your son, Daniel.”

“We would read those letters to them from time to time, and my mother would say: ‘Any day now I will see Daniel walk through the door,’” Aida notes.

The intimidation continued. They even detained the mother. “Why were they bothering us?” Rita asks herself, “they would take the radios, everything.” The persecution continued. Rita was fired from the hospital where she worked, and Aída, the teacher, had her history specialization revoked. She continued studying and managed to obtain other postgraduate degrees.

In 1994, the alleged remains of Daniel Gutiérrez Ayala were handed over to his family. They corresponded to people exhumed from Patio 29 of the General Cemetery, the place where the bodies of the forcibly disappeared were hidden. Faced with the evidence, the family decided to confess the truth to the parents. And they went to the Legal Medical Institute in Santiago.

“My father looked at the small coffin and said: ‘Is my son in there?’, then he fainted,” Rita remembers.

Subsequently, it was learned that errors had been made in the identification of the remains. Daniel disappeared again. The family had to endure a new pain.

To this day, Daniel remains lost in the fog of repression and hatred, and it is unlikely he will ever return to Villa Alegre.

That afternoon, I returned home overwhelmed by the rain and the story of the young member of the GAP. His sisters’ words still resonate in my memory: “we have had no truth, and even less justice.”

In May 2018, the Minister of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vázquez, sentenced seven retired officers for the crimes of kidnapping and homicide of 23 collaborators of President Salvador Allende who were detained at La Moneda.

Source: gap-chile.org 23/02/2021

Date: 23-02-2021

Court approves extension of extradition for retired General Joaquín Ramírez Pineda

The commander of the Tacna Regiment in 1973 is being prosecuted in Chile for the qualified kidnappings in the so-called La Moneda Palace case.

The Supreme Court extended the extradition request to Argentina for Luis Joaquín Ramírez Pineda, commander of the Tacna Regiment in 1973, who is currently detained in Buenos Aires.

Ramírez Pineda is being prosecuted in our country by Minister Juan Eduardo Fuentes Belmar in the investigation into qualified kidnappings in the so-called La Moneda Palace case.

In a unanimous ruling, the ministers of the Second Chamber, Nibaldo Segura, Rubén Ballesteros, Jaime Rodríguez, Hugo Dolmestch, and Carlos Künsemüller, accepted the request made by Minister Fuentes Belmar in the case of 9 victims who have been missing since September 11, 1973.

They are Jaime Gilson Sotelo Ojeda, Sergio Contreras, Héctor Ricardo Pincheira Núñez, José Freire Medina, Juan Eduardo Paredes Barrientos, Egidio Enrique Paris Roa, Manuel Ramón Castro Zamorano, Daniel Antonio Gutiérrez Ayala, and Fernando Rodríguez Riquelme.

In 2003, the Supreme Court decided to submit an extradition request for the individual prosecuted for the kidnapping cases of Jaime Antonio Barrios Meza, Daniel Francisco Escobar Cruz, Enrique Lelio Huerta Corvalán, Claudio Raúl Jimeno Grendi, Jorge Klein Pipper, Óscar Reinaldo Lagos Ríos, Juan José Montiglio Murúa, Julio Hernán Moreno Pulgar, Arsenio Poupin Oissel, Julio Fernando Tapia Martínez, Óscar Enrique Valladares Caroca, and Juan Alejandro Vargas Contreras, which also occurred starting in 1973 at the La Moneda Palace.

The background information for the extension of the extradition request has already been sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs so that it may forward it to Argentina for processing in that country.

Source: El Mercurio, March 20, 2009

Date: 20-03-2009

Minister dismisses case regarding the removal of bodies of the forcibly disappeared

Minister Juan Eduardo Fuentes, in charge of investigating the removal of bodies from the Peldehue Regiment in 1978, dismissed the judicial action against retired members of the Army, considering that they are not connected to the main crime of the case, permanent kidnapping.

The judge’s decision was applied to the case that occurred in 1978 involving the bodies of the former advisors to President Salvador Allende who were detained at the La Moneda Palace on September 11, 1973.

As reported by Radio Cooperativa, the ruling annuls the indictments that were pending against retired non-commissioned officers Fernando Remigio Burgos Díaz, Sergio Antonio Medina Salazar, Isidro Custodio Durán Muñoz, and retired officer José Jaime Darrigrandi Marques.

The ruling maintains that the act constitutes an infraction of Article 144 of the Sanitary Code and does not have the character of a "crime against humanity."

The indictments that were annulled corresponded to the alleged removal of the remains of the former manager of the Central Bank, Jaime Barrios Meza; the Palace intendant, Enrique Huerta Corvalán; the PS leader, Claudio Jimeno Grendi; the communist leader, Georges Klein Pipper; the former undersecretary general of Government, Arsenio Poupin Oissel; and the former chief of staff of the Undersecretariat of the Interior, Daniel Escobar Cruz.

Added to them are Oscar Lagos Ríos, Juan Montiglio Murúa, Julio Moreno Pulgar, Julio Tapia Martínez, Oscar Valladares, and Juan Vargas Contreras, all members of the Group of Friends of the President (GAP) and militants of the Socialist Party.

Source: El Mercurio, September 1, 2005

Date: 01-09-2005

Remains correspond to the forcibly disappeared from La Moneda

Visiting Minister Amanda Valdovinos, in charge of verifying information from the Dialogue Table regarding the location of the remains of some 20 forcibly disappeared persons inside the Justo Arteaga Regiment in Colina, discovered the exact place where the bodies were clandestinely buried after the military coup of September 11, 1973.

An exclusive source confirmed to La Voz that the remains are in a 15-meter-deep pit.

Last January, excavation work on the land—which was donated by the Catholic Church to the Army for war practice before the military coup—focused on a 15 by 13-meter pit, from which more than 400 bone fragments scattered at a depth of nearly three meters have been extracted to date.

However, soil studies carried out by a botanist and by the National Geology and Mining Service (Sernageomin) allowed for the determination that the fragments correspond to the remains left behind by the removal of the bones at the end of the 1970s.

The precision of the specialists is such that it was determined that, due to their location, they were dragged from one of the ends of the excavation site through the use of a backhoe, the characteristics of which (make, model, and ownership) are documented in the case file.

Pit equivalent to six stories

The fragments, which include skulls, phalanges, vertebrae, teeth, and dental arches, come from a pit about five meters in diameter and about 15 meters deep—equivalent to a six-story building—where the bodies were thrown after the detainees were executed by firing squad and dynamited (using grenades) inside.

In the coming days, excavations will focus on that location, and it is not ruled out that findings of a large magnitude of bones will be verified.

So far, with the collections made, the Legal Medical Service has been able to approximate the number of people whose remains were at the site to about ten. However, with the dental pieces and the background information available in the case, five identities have been confirmed, which will only be made official once the proceedings are exhausted.

The relatives of the alleged victims have been informed periodically by Judge Valdovinos. The latest report delivered by the minister to the Supreme Court also confirms errors in the report delivered by the Army to the Dialogue Table, since the location has been identified thanks to the testimonies of locals and former uniformed personnel who have voluntarily approached the court.

All the information gathered by Minister Amanda Valdovinos will be referred to the corresponding criminal or military courts to determine those responsible for the homicides and the illegal inhumations and exhumations documented in the investigation.

Who are they? According to the Rettig Report, 21 were the detainees from La Moneda who ended tragically in Colina. The advisors to President Allende: Eduardo Paredes Barrientos, former director of Investigations; Enrique París Roa; Jaime Barrios Meza, general manager of the Central Bank; Sergio Contreras; Daniel Escobar Cruz; Enrique Huerta Corvalán; Claudio Jimeno Grendi; Dr.

Georges Klein Pipper; Héctor Pincheira Núñez; and Arsenio Poupin Oissel, Undersecretary General of Government. The members of the GAP: José Freire Medina, Daniel Gutiérrez Ayala, Oscar Lagos Ríos, Juan Montiglio Murúa, Julio Moreno Pulgar, Luis Rodríguez Riquelme, Jaime Sotelo Ojeda, Julio Tapia Martínez, Héctor Urrutia Molina, Oscar Valladares Caroca, Juan Vargas Contreras, and Oscar Luis Avilés Jofré.

Source: Primera Linea, April 4, 2002

Date: 04-04-2002

Supreme Court sentences retired military personnel for kidnapping and homicide of detainees at La Moneda on September 11, 1973

The Supreme Court increased the sentences to be served by retired Army officers for their responsibility in the repeated and consummated crimes of kidnapping and qualified homicide of advisors and collaborators of the President of the Republic, Salvador Allende Gossens, who were detained at the La Moneda Palace on September 11, 1973, and subsequently executed and illegally buried inside the Arteaga fort in Peldehue.

In a unanimous ruling on criminal matters (case file 5.005-2022), the Second Chamber of the high court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, and minister María Teresa Letelier—established an error in the challenged sentence, issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals, in the part that acquitted Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Eliseo Antonio Cornejo Escobedo, and Jorge Ismael Gamboa Álvarez, sentencing them instead as perpetrators of the crimes for having had control over the events.

“That it must also be kept in mind that in relation to authorship, there is control of the act: a. In the conduct of the immediate perpetrator who carries out and controls the act objectively and subjectively by their own hand (control of the action); b.

In the control of the will as happens in cases of mediate authorship; c. In cases of functional control as occurs in the case of co-authorship,” the ruling states.

The resolution adds that: “An immediate or direct perpetrator will be the one who carries out directly, materially, or by their own hand, in whole or in part, the conduct described in the penal type, with the punishable act being objectively and subjectively imputable to them.

The immediate perpetrator is the master of the act, because they retain the power to decide autonomously on the continuation of the criminal event until its consummation.”

“Thus, in every intentional crime of commission like the one investigated in these proceedings, one must consider as an immediate or direct perpetrator whoever materially carries out all the requirements contained in the description of the penal type, as well as whoever materially executes the order of another, if all the requirements of the typical act concur in said execution,” it adds.

“For its part,” it continues, “the mediate perpetrator is the one who executes their own act through another whose conduct they instrumentalize. It is the one who, controlling the act and possessing the other special characteristics of authorship, makes use of another person called an instrument, to execute the typical conduct.

In mediate authorship, control of the act presupposes that the global event presents itself as the work of the directive will of the person behind it and that this person controls the conduct of the executor through their influence over them.”

“Thus, one of the cases of mediate authorship through control of the will consists in the use of an organized apparatus of power, in which the subject behind it has at their disposal a perfectly ordered machinery, of a state, paramilitary, or mafia nature, with whose help they can commit a multiplicity of crimes through the intermediary, who carries out the conduct fully conscious, without coercion or error.

In these cases, the ‘instrument’ that enables the person behind it to execute the orders of the mediate perpetrator is the apparatus as such, which is composed of a plurality of people who are integrated into pre-established structures, who cooperate in diverse functions related to the organization and whose framework ensures the person behind it control over the result.

The one who acts individually does not play a decisive role for the acting of the organization because they can dispose of many executors willing to do what is asked of them, so that the mediate perpetrator can, through the apparatus at their disposal, produce the result with greater security than even in the assumption of control through coercion and error, which are recognized almost unanimously as cases of mediate authorship (Roxin, ‘Organizational control as an independent form of mediate authorship,’ in Revista de Estudios de la Justicia, No. 7, 2006, pp. 14-15),” the resolution cites.

“Following the aforementioned author, the decisive factor to substantiate the control of the will in such cases resides in the fungibility of the executor. Indeed, the aforementioned jurist refers that there is a manifestation of mediate control of the act, which is, control of the will by virtue of organized machinery or power structures, alluding, thus, to the assumptions that in the postwar period have increasingly occupied jurisprudence and which are characterized because the subject behind it has at their disposal personal machinery (almost always state-organized) with whose help they can commit crimes (Roxin, Claus, Authorship and control of the act in Criminal Law. Seventh edition, Editorial Marcial Pons, Madrid, 2000, p. 270),” the ruling affirms.

“In this sense, authorized national doctrine has pointed out that a mediate perpetrator is one who, to execute the typical act, makes use of another, whose will they control through the organized apparatus of power, and who is the one who carries it out materially,” it highlights.

“In our positive law, mediate authorship is recognized in Article 15 No. 2 of the Penal Code, which ‘According to the scope of Article 15 and the thinking of the drafting Commission, a mediate perpetrator is the subject who manages to have another person carry out a criminal action by having directly influenced them.

In our legislation, in mediate authorship, the intermediary acts intentionally, and not as a simple instrument; they have knowledge that they are committing a forced or induced crime and, therefore, although they are a mediator between the one who forces or induces and the result, they are much more than a means of execution, and for that reason, they are also a perpetrator, but an immediate one.

No. 2 of Article 15 legislatively enshrines what doctrine calls ‘the perpetrator behind the perpetrator,’ with the following characteristics: a) Two actions coexist, that of the mediate perpetrator, constituted by the use of instigation (in the case under examination, by control of the will by virtue of organized power structures), and that of the immediate perpetrator, who materially carries out the act, and b) Both the mediate and immediate perpetrator act intentionally in the same sense, so that the latter is not an instrument of the former, because they know what they are doing and the significance of their acting, which comes to be the effect or complementary consequence of the action of the inducer (mediate perpetrator). It is a matter of two complementary actions, the concurrence of which is required for the existence of the crime; without the behavior of the mediate perpetrator, no crime would be incurred’ (Garrido Montt, Mario. Stages of the Execution of the crime, authorship and participation. Editorial Jurídica de Chile, 1984),” the ruling details.

“Finally,” it continues, “co-perpetrators will be those who execute the act jointly and by mutual agreement (express or tacit), dividing the realization of the plan, in such terms that they have co-control of the act, on whose consummation they decide jointly, because each of the contributions separately considered is functional to the execution of the act in its totality.

In co-authorship, there is functional control, because the perpetrators share the realization of the act, they ‘divide the work,’ so that none of them has total realization of it, but rather they commit it among all of them.

In the words of Bacigalupo, the essential element of co-authorship is the co-control of the act. This element has been characterized by Roxin as functional control of the perpetrator in the sense that each of the co-perpetrators has in their hands control of the act through the part that corresponds to them in the division of labor (Bacigalupo, Enrique.

Criminal Law, General Part. 2nd, renewed and expanded edition, Hammurabi, Buenos Aires, p. 501).”

For the Supreme Court: “(…) under the conditions described above, it must be taken into consideration that the subject who supervised the detentions of the victims in the military facilities, ordered that their executions be carried out in the shortest possible time, for which they had to be transferred to the establishment where they were to be carried out, and witnessed the executions, as well as the individuals who guarded the victims while they were in the first military facility, then transferred those detainees to the place of their execution, keeping them tied up and then proceeding to shoot them, causing their death, to then bury them, with the bone remains of the victims not being able to be identified because they were removed from that place subsequently, are responsible for the illicit acts as perpetrators, as they made a functionally significant contribution to the act (functional control), in accordance with the normative hypotheses of authorship provided for in the national legal system, in Article 15 of the Penal Code, which provides: ‘The following are considered perpetrators: 1° Those who take part in the execution of the act, whether in an immediate and direct manner, or by preventing or trying to prevent it from being avoided. 2° Those who directly force or induce another to execute it. 3° Those who, having conspired for its execution, facilitate the means with which the act is carried out or witness it without taking immediate part in it.’”

“That, consequently, the legal error in which the challenged sentence has incurred has been produced by estimating that, regarding Espinoza Bravo, only the intent to kill was proven; regarding Cornejo Escobedo, he did not have control of the act regarding the confinement of the victims and the transfer of the detainees, it was within his functions; and regarding Gamboa Álvarez, for not having intervened in the custody of the persons deprived of liberty in the Tacna Regiment (considerations ninth, seventeenth, and twenty-first),” the resolution maintains.

Likewise, the ruling records that: “Everything reflected upon evidences the errors of law in which the sentence under examination incurs, since it restricts the criminal participation of perpetrators in the crimes under examination, only to those who detained and confined the victims Sergio Contreras, Daniel Francisco Escobar Cruz, José Freire Medina, Daniel Antonio Gutiérrez Ayala, Enrique Lelio Huerta Corvalán, Juan Antonio Eduardo Paredes Barrientos, Arsenio Poupin Oissel, and Óscar Enrique Valladares Caroca, exonerating from criminal responsibility the Army officials who, in the case of Espinoza Bravo, supervised their detention and ordered that their executions be carried out quickly, as well as witnessed them, and regarding Cornejo Escobedo and Gamboa Álvarez, transferred the detainees tied up from the Tacna Regiment to the Peldehue military facility, proceeding to shoot the aforementioned victims, all of them consequently retaining control of the act, being able to stop both the transfer and the execution of the victims at any moment, for which they are responsible in accordance with the normative hypothesis of authorship provided for in Article 15 No. 1 of the Penal Code. The error has had an influence on the dispositive part of the ruling, since it meant acquitting the accused as perpetrators of qualified kidnapping regarding the eight people mentioned.”

“That, for the reasons developed, the ground for nullity in substance will be accepted, based on number 4 of Article 546 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, filed by the Human Rights Program, insofar as the appealed sentence acquitted Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Eliseo Antonio Cornejo Escobedo, and Jorge Ismael Gamboa Álvarez, since the judges of the merits, when qualifying the conduct displayed by these accused regarding the victims Sergio Contreras, Daniel Francisco Escobar Cruz, José Freire Medina, Daniel Antonio Gutiérrez Ayala, Enrique Lelio Huerta Corvalán, Juan Antonio Eduardo Paredes Barrientos, Arsenio Poupin Oissel, and Óscar Enrique Valladares Caroca, qualified as lawful acts that the penal law considers to be crimes, thus infringing Articles 15 and 141 of the Penal Code,” the cassation ruling concludes.

Sentences Therefore, in the replacement sentence, it is resolved:

“I.- That the aforementioned sentence is revoked insofar as it acquitted Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Eliseo Antonio Cornejo Escobedo, and Jorge Ismael Gamboa Álvarez of the charges formulated as perpetrators of the repeated crimes of qualified kidnapping of Sergio Contreras, Daniel Francisco Escobar Cruz, José Freire Medina, Daniel Antonio Gutiérrez Ayala, Enrique Lelio Huerta Corvalán, Juan Antonio Eduardo Paredes Barrientos, Arsenio Poupin Oissel, and Óscar Enrique Valladares Caroca, and in its place, it is decided that they are sentenced to the following sanctions:

1.- Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, to a sentence of twenty years of major imprisonment in its maximum degree, legal accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and positions and political rights and absolute disqualification for titular professions while the sentence lasts, plus the payment of the costs of the case, for his participation as a perpetrator in the repeated crimes of qualified kidnapping of Sergio Contreras, Daniel Francisco Escobar Cruz, José Freire Medina, Daniel Antonio Gutiérrez Ayala, Enrique Lelio Huerta Corvalán, Juan Antonio Eduardo Paredes Barrientos, Arsenio Poupin Oissel, and Óscar Enrique Valladares Caroca, committed starting September 11, 1973, all in the city of Santiago, corporal punishment of effective fulfillment, as the requirements demanded by Law No. 18.216 for the granting of substitute sentences are not met in his regard.

2.- Eliseo Antonio Cornejo Escobedo and Jorge Ismael Gamboa Álvarez to a sentence of fifteen years and one day of major imprisonment in its maximum degree, legal accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and positions and political rights and absolute disqualification for titular professions while the sentence lasts, plus the payment of the costs of the case, for their participation as perpetrators in the repeated crimes of qualified kidnapping of Sergio Contreras, Daniel Francisco Escobar Cruz, José Freire Medina, Daniel Antonio Gutiérrez Ayala, Enrique Lelio Huerta Corvalán, Juan Antonio Eduardo Paredes Barrientos, Arsenio Poupin Oissel, and Óscar Enrique Valladares Caroca, committed starting September 11, 1973, all in the city of Santiago, corporal punishment of effective fulfillment, as the requirements demanded by Law No. 18.216 for the granting of substitute sentences are not met in their regard.

II.- That the aforementioned pronouncement is confirmed in all other appealed matters, with the following declarations:

1.- That Servando Elías Maureira Roa is sentenced to the corporal punishment of fifteen years and one day of major imprisonment in its maximum degree, plus the accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and positions and political rights and that of absolute disqualification for titular professions while the sentence lasts, plus the payment of the costs, in the capacity of perpetrator of the aforementioned qualified kidnapping crimes, corporal punishment of effective fulfillment, as the requirements demanded by Law No. 18.216 for the granting of substitute sentences are not met in his regard.

2.- That Servando Elías Maureira Roa, Eliseo Antonio Cornejo Escobedo, and Jorge Ismael Gamboa Álvarez are sentenced to the corporal punishment of fifteen years and one day of major imprisonment in its maximum degree, plus the accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and positions and political rights and that of absolute disqualification for titular professions while the sentence lasts, plus the payment of the costs, in the capacity of perpetrators of the crimes of qualified homicide of Óscar Luis Avilés Jofré, Jaime Antonio Barrios Meza, Manuel Ramón Castro Zamorano, Claudio Raúl Jimeno Grendi, Georges Klein Pipper, Óscar Reinaldo Lagos Ríos, Julio Hernán Moreno Pulgar, Egidio Enrique Paris Roa, Héctor Ricardo Pincheira Núñez, Luis Fernando Rodríguez Riquelme, Jaime Gilson Sotelo Ojeda, Julio Fernando Tapia Martínez, Héctor Daniel Urrutia Molina, Juan Alejandro Vargas Contreras, and Juan José Montiglio Murúa, corporal punishment of effective fulfillment, as the requirements demanded by Law No. 18.216 for the granting of substitute sentences are not met in their regard.

In its civil section

III.- The aforementioned award is revoked insofar as it rejects the civil claim filed by Mr. Rubén Alejandro Contreras Isla, and in its place, it is declared that it is accepted, regulating the compensation for moral damages to which he is entitled in the sum of $150,000,000 (one hundred and fifty million pesos).

IV.- That the aforementioned sentence is revoked insofar as it accepted the claim for compensation for damages for moral injury filed by Mrs. Schlomit Montiglio Cepeda, and in its place, it is declared that it is rejected.

V.- That the ruling is revoked in the part that establishes that the payment of adjustments is due from the month prior to the date of the issuance of the first-instance sentence and the month prior to its payment, accruing current interest for adjustable operations, for the same period, and in its place, it is declared that the sums ordered to be paid will be adjusted according to the variation experienced by the Consumer Price Index between the date of the execution of this ruling and the effective payment of the indemnities, accruing interest for non-adjustable operations from the moment the debtor is in default.

VI.- That the appealed ruling is confirmed in all other matters.”

Decision agreed upon with the dissenting vote of Minister Llanos, who was in favor of confirming the first-instance sentence, also in the part that accepted the claim for compensation for damages for moral injury filed by Schlomit Montiglio Cepeda, “in the form that the challenged ruling does.”

Machine-gunned in Peldehue

In the first-degree ruling, the presiding minister Miguel Vázquez Plaza established the following facts:

“a.- That, on September 11, 1973, the Armed Forces and Order carried out a previously planned coup d’état, through which the Government of the time was overthrown, accompanied by a handful of political advisors, GAP, and officials of the Investigations Service, for reasons of a political, economic, and social nature that are not the case to analyze in this judicial venue, for which they seized power and, to concretize the uprising, the Government Palace where the former President of the Republic Salvador Allende Gossens was located was surrounded by military forces and after warnings that the occupants of La Moneda should abandon said site; upon not doing so, the seat of government was bombed by Hawker Hunter planes, without any people dying as a result of that act. Then, the occupants of La Moneda left, with their hands raised, being taken by the military forces to the outside.

b.- That, on the occasion of the events that occurred on September 11, 1973, military troops that entered the La Moneda Palace proceeded to the detention of a group of about 50 people, composed of direct political advisors, members of the security device of President Allende (GAP), doctors, and officials of the Investigations Police of Chile, who surrendered to the military forces occupying the La Moneda Palace, some of whom were released and others were detained and transferred, for the most part, to the Tacna Regiment of the Chilean Army, being entered in such capacity into said Regiment, without any formal charge, except that they performed various functions in the recently overthrown government. The following day, the officials of the Investigations Police who worked inside La Moneda were released.

c.- That, on September 13, 1973, the detainees Sergio Contreras, Daniel Francisco Escobar Cruz, José Freire Medina, Daniel Antonio Gutiérrez Ayala, Enrique Lelio Huerta Corvalán, Juan José Montiglio Murúa, Juan Eduardo Paredes Barrientos, Arsenio Poupin Oissel, Óscar Enrique Valladares Caroca, Óscar Luis Avilés Jofré, Jaime Antonio Barrios Meza, Manuel Ramón Castro Zamorano, Claudio Raúl Jimeno Grendi, Georges Klein Pipper, Óscar Reinaldo Lagos Ríos, Julio Hernán Moreno Pulgar, Egidio Enrique Paris Roa, Héctor Ricardo Pincheira Núñez, Luis Fernando Rodríguez Riquelme, Jaime Gilson Sotelo Ojeda, Julio Fernando Tapia Martínez, Héctor Daniel Urrutia Molina, and Juan Alejandro Vargas Contreras, who still remained in the Tacna Regiment and who came from the group of prisoners captured from the La Moneda Palace, were tied by their feet and hands with wires, then loaded onto a military truck, guarded by officers and military personnel, and immediately transferred to a predetermined place, located on the property destined for the Tacna Regiment that was in the Peldehue military facility, adjacent to the San Martín highway, Colina sector, which was carried out by virtue of an order that emanated directly from the commander of the Tacna Regiment, who in turn requested or received said instructions from a military officer of higher rank, who at that moment was serving as commander of the Santiago Military Garrison, commander of the Second Army Division, and military judge of Santiago.

d.- That, upon arriving at said place in Peldehue, the aforementioned detainees were taken off the military truck and, according to the background information gathered in the investigation, the installation of a machine gun was ordered, through which fire was opened on said prisoners, who were tied by their hands and feet with wires, who were located at the edge of a pit or empty trench previously excavated on said property, and who, upon receiving the bullet impacts, fell inside said trench.

Once the executions concluded, the military personnel threw grenades into the trench, which exploded at the site, subsequently covering them with earth and thus burying the bodies of such prisoners; actions that were controlled and verified by an officer of the Army Intelligence Directorate who witnessed the executions from a distance close to the site of the events.

e.- That, once the actions of executing the detainees and subsequently burying their bodies in the aforementioned trench were concluded, the group of military personnel who had participated in the operation, composed of officers and lower-ranking military personnel, returned in the same vehicles used for the initial transfer to the Tacna Regiment, reporting said events to the commander of the unit, who in turn had to communicate them to the superior hierarchical officer, commander of the Santiago Military Garrison.

f.- That, on the occasion of having discovered in other cases bodies buried clandestinely, the order was given by the Army high command that the remains be removed from the place where they had been executed, transferring them to an unknown destination (apparently thrown into the sea or in the high mountain range); however, excavations carried out at the place where the execution took place found remains that were positively identified regarding: Óscar Luis Avilés Jofré, Jaime Antonio Barrios Meza, Manuel Ramón Castro Zamorano, Claudio Raúl Jimeno Grendi, Jorge Klein Pipper, Óscar Reinaldo Lagos Ríos, Julio Hernán Moreno Pulgar, Egidio Enrique Paris Roa, Héctor Ricardo Pincheira Núñez, Luis Fernando Rodríguez Riquelme, Jaime Gilson Sotelo Ojeda, Julio Fernando Tapia Martínez, Héctor Daniel Urrutia Molina, Juan Alejandro Vargas Contreras, and Juan José Montiglio Murúa; as reported by the integrated expert reports sent by the Legal Medical Service, from page 7960 and following, 8762 and following, 9666 and following, 9701 and following, and 12383 and following, by forensic medical examinations carried out on the bone evidence recovered from the ‘Fuerte Arteaga’ military facility located in the town of Peldehue in the commune of Colina, and of the human remains associated with Protocol No. 1561-01 of the Legal Medical Service linked to this case, in which it is also stated that the most probable immediate medical cause of the death of these people was produced by hemorrhagic shock as a consequence of firearm injuries, the forensic medical etiology of the death being therefore of a violent homicidal nature.

g.- That, the rest of the people who were detained in La Moneda on September 11, 1973, and taken out of the Tacna Regiment, namely: Sergio Contreras, Daniel Francisco Escobar Cruz, José Freire Medina, Daniel Antonio Gutiérrez Ayala, Enrique Lelio Huerta Corvalán, Juan Eduardo Paredes Barrientos, Arsenio Poupin Oissel, and Óscar Enrique Valladares Caroca, were not identified in the bone remains found there, their whereabouts being unknown since that date.”

Source: pudj.cl 16/12/2023