Visiting Minister of the Temuco Court of Appeals indicts retired colonel for homicide cases.

A magistrate of the Court of Appeals has indicted retired Colonel Jorge Nibaldo Del Río Del Río, who is currently serving two sentences at the Cordillera Prison, for crimes committed in October 1973 in the commune of Puerto Saavedra.

The visiting minister of the Temuco Court of Appeals, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, issued an indictment in the investigation into the aggravated homicides of Bernardo Nahuelcoy Chihuaicura, Francisco Curamil Castillo, Mauricio Huenucoy Antil, and Francisco Porma Cheuquecoy, which occurred in Puerto Saavedra during October 1973.

The magistrate indicted the retired colonel, Jorge Nibaldo Del Río Del Río, who is currently serving two sentences at the Cordillera Prison: one for the same crime and another for unlawful coercion.

Source: El Austral de la Araucania, February 4, 2008

The Lautaro Patrol: The secret police that forcibly disappeared Mapuche people during the dictatorship

Retired Carabineros officer Domingo Campos Collao is the latest individual from La Araucanía to be convicted and admitted to Punta Peuco prison. Last August, he left the Temuco Court of Appeals, guarded by prison officers and accompanied by his son, to serve a sentence of five years and one day for his responsibility as the perpetrator of the kidnapping of Gervasio Huaiquil Calviqueo, a Mapuche man with no political affiliation who was detained by the Lautaro Patrol.

This group was composed of military and Carabineros personnel who, under the guise of a "cattle rustler cleanup," detained and forcibly disappeared Mapuche people in the province of Cautín during the dictatorship.

Manuela (43) was the one who suggested to the family that they commemorate her father at the end of this month with a mass at the chapel in Lautaro, in La Araucanía. When the priest asked for the reason, if it was in memory of a deceased person, the only thing she could answer was: −"It’s just that, well, we don't know, Father.

But if that is not the case, I would like to think that by now, he would have remembered the family, but we don't know,"− she told him. Gervasio Héctor Huaiquil Calviqueo would be 69 years old today. After the Patrol detained him on October 26, 1975, his mother, Mercedes Huaiquilao (75), tried not to alter their routines too much.

She would tell his siblings not to be late coming home from school, that their father would arrive in the afternoon, and she would leave a place set for him at teatime. Over time, that wait became unsustainable, and it was better not to talk so much about what had happened to their father.

They had to go on. At that time, Manuela was only six months old, and everything she knows about Gervasio has come from the accounts of others. Since she arrived in Santiago to work, she says she has inevitably continued looking for him.

And although she has no photographic references, not even his ID photo, she imagines him as one of her brothers who, according to what Mercedes has told her, looks a lot like him. −"I always look at the faces of people sleeping in the plazas, on the streets.

Could it be that they beat him so much that he forgot about us? Could it be my old man who is there?"− Manuela sometimes thinks. On August 29, retired Carabineros officer Domingo Campos Collao, one of the members of the Lautaro Patrol, left the Temuco Court of Appeals guarded by prison officers and accompanied by his son, bound for Punta Peuco prison.

The court sentenced him to five years and one day for his responsibility as the perpetrator of the aggravated kidnapping of Gervasio Huaiquil, a Mapuche farmer with no political affiliation. Manuela says that after his detention, the Carabineros and military personnel who made up this secret police locked them inside and set fire to the community ruka where they lived.

If it hadn't been for the help of their neighbors, she, her mother, and her siblings would have burned to death inside. From that moment, the voice of one of the Carabineros remained etched in the memory of Mercedes, her mother: "Let's set fire to these damn Indians." That Wednesday in August, the family's lawyer told Manuela to tune in to the regional channel because Collao was appearing live as he left the court.

She was not able to watch it; nor did she want to meet him in person at the trial hearings. She says it was enough to hear what her mother told her about the confrontation they had a few years ago. The rage and the pain are passed on.

A cleanup of cattle rustlers

On the day of the Coup, the military barricaded themselves in the La Concepción Regiment, and the Carabineros also remained confined to the first police station of Lautaro. Some declared that for months they were performing administrative duties; they slept in the Carabineros' archive offices without leaving the barracks.

When Colonel Hernán Ramírez Ramírez took power over the governorship that until that September had been headed by the communist Fernando Teillier, father of the writer Jorge Teillier, they requisitioned a dark green pickup truck with a white roof.

That vehicle became the hallmark of the Patrol, a group specifically formed to detain opponents of the dictatorship in the province of Cautín and its surroundings. Of the members of this secret police, four of them today have "R.I.P." attached to their names in judicial documents: Lieutenant Orlando Huerta Ávila, the man who gave the orders, Juvenal Sanhueza, Enrique Ferrier, and Mario Ponce Orellana, while Domingo Campos Collao has been in prison for a few months.

The group was assigned an exclusive office inside the barracks where they interrogated detainees. For the rest of the Carabineros, entry was forbidden, although they knew that decisions were made there regarding the "cattle rustler cleanup" being carried out in the area.

In the first few days, the Patrol brought nearly forty detainees to the station, a figure that would increase as the months went by. The Army officers had a disadvantage that they were quickly able to overcome with the help of the Carabineros.

The military did not know many sectors that were made impassable by the thick vegetation of the forests; something the police knew well from their constant rounds in the territory, especially due to arrests for animal theft or livestock rustling.

It was a close collaboration that allowed the procedures to be carried out, led by Carabineros Major Jorge Schweizer and Colonel Ramírez. −"It was toward the countryside where the terrorists had the land seizures,"− reads the statement made by Schweizer, the boss of the barracks, in the judicial process for the case of the peasant José Domingo Llabulen, who like Gervasio Huaiquil was another victim of the Patrol.

They spoke of the detainees not only as "cattle rustlers" but also as "Mapuche with bad records" or "political indigenous people"; the Carabineros' archives unit maintained a list and a detailed sketch of the places where they lived.

These were valuable coordinates for the Army. −"Regarding the other indigenous people I am named, José Domingo Llabulen, Juan Milla Montuy, Julio Paine Lipin, and José Cuevas Cifuentes, for the first one, I showed his address to the officials or the military, that's all (...) For what reason did they ask for those lists?

I imagine it was to eliminate those people. They never appeared again,"− declared Campos Collao before the justice system.

The Llabulen assignment

Campos Collao was also convicted for the disappearance of José Domingo Llabulen Pilquinao, a peasant and member of the Communist Party, which occurred on October 11, 1973. Although in February of this year, Minister Álvaro Mesa Latorre issued a twelve-year sentence for his responsibility as the perpetrator of aggravated kidnapping, the Temuco Court of Appeals considered the partial statute of limitations, reducing it to five years, which would allow Collao to opt for parole.

Bus driver Manuel "Nilo" Cid and bus assistant Benedicto Mardones were witnesses to José's detention. Nilo was driving a 1961 white and green Ford that traveled between Lautaro, Chumil, and Temuco. On the morning of October 11, 1973, José boarded the bus with two of his children.

He was going to sell an animal in town. The day passed, and both workers of the "Rojas" buses were preparing to return to the first city on a now-routine trip: the passengers returned loaded with purchases and would stop at different points to head into their rural homes.

Everyone knew the trip started at 5:00 PM. Thirty minutes earlier, a Carabineros Patrol asked Nilo about a certain Llabulen. He said no, that he hadn't picked him up that morning. But his words would not prevent them from continuing to circle the area, a patrol that was already raising suspicions, especially among those who moved frequently through the sector.

Shortly after, José Llabulen appeared on the road again, and the driver, somewhat alarmed, suggested that he go on foot on the other side of the Cautín bridge so they wouldn't see him on the bus. −"No, negro, it can't be that bad!"− he replied, incredulous, and went to sit in the back of the vehicle.

Before crossing the bridge, the pickup truck overtook the bus, forcing it to stop near a mill. They made all the passengers get off. José moved behind the other people, and before getting off, he exchanged a few words with the driver: he entrusted him with the package he was carrying; it was a jug of kerosene and a package of food.

He knew how necessary it was for his family. Corporal Enrique Ferrier hit him with the butt of his rifle, and together with his peer Domingo Campos Collao, they threw him into the pickup truck. Of the whole group, they only took him.

They accused him of cattle theft. The next day, his wife, Francisca Llaulen Antilao, went to inquire at all the places where she thought her husband could be: the Carabineros of Lautaro, the La Concepción Regiment, the Investigative Police, and the public jail.

Nothing. No one knew the whereabouts of José Llabulen. Two days passed, and the children went to the bus office to look for the package their father had left, not knowing, until then, that he would become one of the forcibly disappeared of Lautaro.

Illicit association

It was rumored that Corporal Enrique Ferrier had marks on the handle of his revolver to keep count of the people detained or murdered. According to what soldier Paicaví Painemal saw, who was doing his military service in '73, the detainees arrived at the regiment at night, after passing through the dungeons and stables of the first police station of Lautaro.

He also remembers that the torture sessions of those detained for "political issues" were in the gymnasium, the stables, and the riding arena; punches and kicks to different parts of the body, they would hang them, and they likely applied electric shocks.

In judicial statements, several Carabineros officials acknowledge that the majority of the detainees were of Mapuche origin. In the testimonies provided in both the case of José Llabulen and Gervasio Huaiquil, it is read that some Carabineros and officers thought it was all a bad joke because they saw that everything was functioning regularly.

Retired Army Colonel Jorge Nibaldo del Río has asserted before the justice system that he never received instructions to detain civilians or carry out raids in their communities. −"Perhaps I should have investigated more thoroughly,"− said Lieutenant Marcial Vera Ríos when the lawyers reviewed these facts before the courts, and he added in his statement of January 1996: −"The serious problem was that the command of the station did not know how or could not put a stop in time to the detentions or the activities of the Carabineros with the military."− Until now, in none of the judicial cases in which members of the Patrol have been prosecuted has the crime of illicit association been considered, despite the fact that this was an organization that answered to a hierarchy and was constituted specifically to commit crimes. And the military remains untouchable; only the Carabineros have been prosecuted.

Source: eldesconcierto.cl, November 12, 2018

Minister Álvaro Mesa indicts retired Army officer and retired Carabineros officer for unlawful coercion and illegal detention of a CORFO employee

The minister on special assignment for human rights violation cases in the jurisdictions of Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Coyhaique, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, indicted retired Army Colonel Jorge Nibaldo Del Río Del Río as the perpetrator of the crimes of unlawful coercion and illegal detention of Guido Erwis Venegas Avilés, classified as crimes against humanity.

These illicit acts were perpetrated in September 1973 in the commune of Lautaro.

In the resolution (case file 45.373), the investigating minister also indicted retired Carabineros First Sergeant Domingo Antonio Campos Collao as an accomplice to the crime of unlawful coercion, classified as a crime against humanity, against the same victim.

During the investigation phase of the case, Minister Mesa Latorre gathered sufficient evidence to establish the following facts, which constitute crimes against humanity:

“

A.-

That on September 11, 1973, the Armed Forces and the Forces of Public Order and Security assumed supreme command of the Nation, consolidating the Constituent, Legislative, and Executive powers within the Government Junta, as established in Communiqué No. 5 of the same date, as well as in Decree Law No. 1, subsequently clarified and supplemented by Decree Laws Nos. 128, 527, and 788.

Among other measures, a State of Siege was declared throughout the national territory, and a level-one state of alert was ordered for the Armed Forces and the Forces of Order and Security.

B.-

That by September 11, 1973, as a result of the events occurring in the country, a special operational group called the “civil commission” was formed in all police stations. This group was dedicated to intelligence tasks consisting of investigating and gathering information on specific individuals who were considered in military communiqués, among others; that is, these were tasks that fell outside of standard police procedures [the foregoing is documented in case file 113.987 from the First Criminal Court of Temuco, file 14-2013 from the Illustrious Court of Appeals of Valdivia, file 45.359 from the Lautaro Court of Letters, file 45.362 from the Lautaro Court of Letters, and file 45.368 from the Lautaro Court of Letters], among others, all of which were processed by this Tribunal and are of public knowledge.

C.-

That in the case of the 1st Carabineros Station of Lautaro, it was under the command of Carabineros Commissioner Major Jorge Enrique Schweizer Gómez (deceased), followed in command by Captain Marcial Edmundo Vera Ríos (deceased).

The special group was composed of and led by Lieutenant José Orlando Huerta Ávila (deceased), Enrique Ferrier Valeze (deceased), Mario Ponce Orellana (deceased), Egidio Manuel Sandoval Umaña (deceased), Juvenal Santiago Sanhueza Sanhueza (deceased), Santiago Millangir Hueche (deceased), and Domingo Antonio Campos Collao, among others.

This special group carried out patrols in rural and urban areas and also collaborated with personnel from the La Concepción Regiment of Lautaro. The group was led by Captain Jorge Nibaldo Del Río Del Río, conducting joint patrols in the rural area under the jurisdiction of said police unit, proceeding to identify the names and addresses of individuals who were subsequently detained and taken to the station to be interrogated in various facilities, such as the Lautaro station itself and the La Concepción Regiment of Lautaro.

D.-

That the facilities of the 1st Carabineros Station of Lautaro were used to hold those detained by this special group and those detained by personnel from the La Concepción Regiment of Lautaro, who were subsequently transported by this special group to an unknown destination or were removed by personnel from the La Concepción Regiment of Lautaro, according to testimonies, including those of Víctor Matus Vásquez, from pp. 426 to 427 (Vol.

II); José Domingo Segundo Llabulén Llabulén, p. 810 (Vol. III); Francisca Llaulén Antilao, p. 811 (Vol. III); Sergio Samuel Jara Sandoval, p. 814 (Vol. III); Santiago Millangir Hueche, from pp. 807 to 808 (Vol.

III); Paicavi Lemolemo Painemal Morales, from pp. 507 to 509 (Vol. II); Hernán Patricio Mardones Díaz, from pp. 495 to 497 (Vol. II); Rafael García Ferlice, from pp. 801 to 803 (Vol. III); Mario Ponce Orellana, p. 804 (Vol.

III); Ida del Carmen Meliquén Quilodrán, p. 806 (Vol. III); and Carlos Antonio Navarro Schifferli, p. 807 (Vol. III), a place where men and women were held in detention indiscriminately. As indicated, the superior command composed of Jorge Enrique Schweizer Gómez (deceased), Marcial Edmundo Vera (deceased), and José Orlando Huerta Ávila (deceased) had knowledge of all these records of detentions of people who were brought to the Lautaro station.

E.-

That Guido Erwis Venegas Avilés, in 1973, was 26 years old and worked as an executive for the agricultural company Magrimsa, and was on that date on a service commission at CORFO in the city of Concepción, while also serving as the communal secretary of the Socialist Party in the city of Lautaro. (As documented in, among other records, pp. 01, 14, 232, 312, 384, Vol. I).

F.-

That on September 13, 1973, Venegas Avilés was at the Calatayú Estate in the Quillem sector (Perquenco), together with Luis Candia Figueroa, a leader of the Socialist Party and student leader at the University of Temuco.

Both were in hiding, with intentions of fleeing to Argentina, as they had been sought by the authorities, at which moment two trucks and a jeep with personnel from the La Concepción Regiment of Lautaro arrived, who detained them and loaded them onto one of the trucks, in which a teacher named Norton Maza Ferreira and a merchant named Rodolfo Mencke were also being held.

The detainees were threatened at all times by a military officer who struck them with his fists, breaking their noses.

G.-

That upon being detained, Guido Venegas and Luis Candia were transported to the La Concepción Regiment of Lautaro, where Venegas Avilés was taken into a room and interrogated by approximately three to four people, remaining blindfolded and held in that facility until midnight, to then be taken to the 1st Carabineros Station of Lautaro, where he saw Carabineros Domingo Campos Collao, Sergeant Santiago Millanguir Hueche, and Víctor Matus Vásquez (as documented in, among other records, pp. 14, 15, Vol.

I), being able to recognize the first of these as he was a cousin of his ex-spouse. He arrived at said police unit at approximately one or two in the morning, where Venegas Avilés was beaten with a baton on his head and all over his body.

At the same time, his head was partially shaved, and he was left in a cell with other detainees, where he told the other detainees what had happened. Among them was the priest Wilfredo Alarcón, who recounts in his book Biografía sobre Juan Ansina that: “They were the ones who impressed me most that day, you saw them arrive that night, around two or three in the morning, Guido Venegas, soaking wet, dripping water, drenched... his face looked like a bag of bruised meat, his eyes had sunk, his nose broken, his lips impossible, his head broken, according to him his ribs broken so he couldn't move, there wasn't a good part on him... and then Candia, I don't know if they hit him less or if he was more resistant, but he seemed less damaged... although his nose was also broken and the blows were visible on his face” (as documented in, among other records, pp. 01, 14, 32, 43, 59, 84, 85, 87, Vol. I; p. 543, Vol. II). That despite the aforementioned uniformed officers, including Domingo Campos Collao, being part of the group of people (Carabineros) present at the aforementioned station while Venegas Avilés was being beaten and tortured by a Carabinero (Badge 79, unidentified), they did not take any action to prevent the execution of the crime, nor did they report or inform their Carabineros superiors or any other authority of the event. Likewise, there is no record that an investigation was conducted into those crimes or that they were reported to the courts of justice at the time of the events, nor is there any record of an administrative investigation having been initiated as a consequence of the commission of this crime.

H.-

That the day after what is related in the previous paragraph, Guido Venegas was transferred to the La Concepción Regiment of Lautaro and led to a room while blindfolded; they beat him with their feet and fists, placed a sack of wet sand on his body, and tortured him by placing a plastic bag over his head, suffocating him until he almost lost consciousness, and interrogated him while showing him, with threats, photographs of his wife and infant daughter.

This session was directed by Captain Jorge Nibaldo Del Río Del Río, a person whom Venegas Avilés was able to recognize, as he states on p. 15: “...I recognized him by his voice since it had been him who had interrogated me the first time I was taken to the aforementioned regiment...”, while he received blows with an iron bar to his lips, which caused several of his teeth to be knocked out.

These facts coincide with the statement of Lidia del Carmen Torres Abarzúa, widow of retired Army non-commissioned officer Nelson Medina Caro, who details on p. 167 that: “...three more people, Guido Venegas, Luis De la Maza, and Luis Candia, were detained and tortured by Jorge del Rio and Rafael García, after having been surprised hiding in a well located in the field...” adding that her husband had received orders from Jorge Del Río to execute the aforementioned individuals but did not comply, and he was then returned to the Carabineros Station of Lautaro, where he remained until the first days of October 1973. (As documented in, among other records, pp. 01, 09, 10, 14, 15, 16, 134, 150, 167, 175 (Vol. I); pp. 674, 675 (Vol. II)).

I.-

That while detained at the Lautaro station, during the first days of October 1973, Guido Venegas Avilés was taken to the Temuco jail, being released at the end of October of that year without a prior trial. (As documented in, among other records, pp. 01, 366 bis, 368 (Vol.

I)). Subsequently, he continued to be sought by the Carabineros, a situation that ended in January 1975, that is, after a process before the military prosecutor's office, being temporarily dismissed by Military Prosecutor Alfonso Podlech Michaud, subsequently obtaining his freedom.”

Regarding the accused Jorge Nibaldo del Rio Río, his house arrest was ordered due to his age, for which the 34th Criminal Court of Santiago was notified to enforce the decreed precautionary measure. Meanwhile, regarding the accused Domingo Campos Collao, no precautionary measure was decreed, as he is currently serving a sentence at the Punta Peuco Prison for other human rights violation cases.

Source: pjud.cl, April 24, 2023

Minister Álvaro Mesa sentences retired military and Carabineros personnel for aggravated homicide and unlawful coercion in Puerto Saavedra and Lautaro

In the ruling (case file 27.530 A and B), the responsibility of the retired uniformed officers was established in the aggravated homicides of Bernardo Nahuelcoy Chihuaicura, Francisco Curamil Castillo, Mauricio Huenucoy Antil, and Francisco Porma Cheuquecoy, which occurred between September and October 1973 in Puerto Saavedra, and the aggravated homicide of Luis Mora San Juan in October 1973 in Lautaro.

The minister on special assignment for human rights violation cases in the jurisdictions of Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Coyhaique, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, issued sentence number 72 on the matter and sentenced 17 retired members of the Army and Carabineros for aggravated homicide and unlawful coercion to the detriment of 9 victims.

These illicit acts were perpetrated in the communes of Puerto Saavedra and Lautaro between September and October 1973.

In the ruling (case file 27.530 A and B), the responsibility of the retired uniformed officers was established in the aggravated homicides of Bernardo Nahuelcoy Chihuaicura, Francisco Curamil Castillo, Mauricio Huenucoy Antil, and Francisco Porma Cheuquecoy, which occurred between September and October 1973 in Puerto Saavedra, and the aggravated homicide of Luis Mora San Juan in October 1973 in Lautaro.

Likewise, responsibility was established for the crimes of unlawful coercion against Bernardo Nahuelcoy Chihuaicura, Francisco Curamil Castillo, Mauricio Huenucoy Antil, Francisco Porma Cheuquecoy, Marta Sonia Ibáñez Ibáñez, Ruperto Bañares Bañares, Gabriel Contreras Poza, and Segundo Orlando López Araneda, which occurred in September 1973 at the Carabineros Station of Puerto Saavedra.

In the sentence, Minister Mesa Latorre sentenced:

1) Jorge Nibaldo Del Río Del Río to life imprisonment for his responsibility as the perpetrator of 5 crimes of aggravated homicide and 10 years of imprisonment for his responsibility as the perpetrator of 8 crimes of unlawful coercion.

2) Juan Enrique Silva Rebeco to life imprisonment for his responsibility as the perpetrator of 4 crimes of aggravated homicide, 10 years of imprisonment as the perpetrator of 7 crimes of unlawful coercion, and 60 days of imprisonment for his responsibility as an accomplice to a crime of unlawful coercion.

3) Carlos Alejandro Brunevald Huaiquilao and Miguel Fernando Rubio Diocaretz to life imprisonment as perpetrators of 4 homicides, 8 years of imprisonment as perpetrators of 6 crimes of unlawful coercion, and 120 days of imprisonment as accomplices to 2 crimes of unlawful coercion.

4) Roberto Sigisfredo San Martín Pérez to 20 years of imprisonment as the perpetrator of 4 aggravated homicides and 480 days of imprisonment as the perpetrator of 8 crimes of unlawful coercion.

5) César Gabriel Edgardo Anziani Riquelme to 20 years of imprisonment as the perpetrator of 4 aggravated homicides, 420 days of imprisonment as the perpetrator of 7 crimes of unlawful coercion, and a fine of 10 Monthly Tax Units (UTM) as an accomplice to an act of unlawful coercion.

6) Daniel del Carmen Riquelme Reyes to 20 years of imprisonment as an accomplice to 4 aggravated homicides, 10 years of imprisonment as the perpetrator of 7 crimes of unlawful coercion, and 60 days of imprisonment as an accomplice to a crime of unlawful coercion.

7) Héctor Hernán Moncada Sepúlveda to 20 years of imprisonment as an accomplice to 4 aggravated homicides and 10 years of imprisonment as the perpetrator of 8 crimes of unlawful coercion.

8) Hernán Molina Vera, Rafael Laureano Recabal Bascuñán, José Guillermo Garrido Bustos, Sebastián Enrique Muñoz Gangas, Luis Humberto Casanova Águila, Olegario Segundo Alba Martínez, and Waldamiro Antonio Rebolledo Burgos to 20 years of imprisonment as accomplices to 4 aggravated homicides and 480 days of imprisonment as accomplices to 8 crimes of unlawful coercion.

9) Enrique Segundo Merino Sagardía to 15 years of imprisonment as an accomplice to 4 aggravated homicides and a fine of 10 Monthly Tax Units (UTM) as an accomplice to 8 crimes of unlawful coercion.

10) Francisco Enrique Muñoz Pérez to 5 years of imprisonment as an accomplice to an aggravated homicide.

The investigating minister acquitted Ernesto Darío Ortega Saavedra of all charges brought against him in the indictment of September 30, 2016 (pp. 4,089 to 4,103, Vol. XII).

In the civil aspect, the magistrate accepted the claims filed by the defense and ordered the State to pay a total compensation of $4,130,000,000 (four billion one hundred thirty million pesos) for moral damages to the victims' families.

In the sentence, Minister Mesa Latorre established that:

Bernardo Nahuelcoy Chihuaicura, an employee of the Puerto Saavedra hospital; Francisco Curamil Castillo and Mauricio Huenucoy Antil, residents of the “Elmo Catalán” settlement; and Francisco Porma Cheucucoy, a small farmer, were detained by a patrol composed of military personnel from the No. 4 “La Concepción” Reinforced Mountain Regiment of Lautaro and Carabineros; they were subjected to unlawful coercion at the Carabineros Station of Puerto Saavedra and then illegally executed on the banks of the Imperial River, where their bodies were abandoned and left floating.

Marta Sonia Ibáñez Ibáñez, Ruperto Bañares Bañares, Gabriel Contreras Poza, and Segundo Orlando López Araneda were detained at different times between September and October 1973 at the Carabineros Station of Puerto Saavedra and subjected to different types of coercion before being released without judicial charges.

Meanwhile, Luis Mora San Juan was detained by a military patrol at the “El Luchador” settlement in the vicinity of Lautaro and executed outside of any legal process on the outskirts of the city; his body was left abandoned and partially buried, being located by relatives and taken to the local hospital morgue.

Source: pjud.cl, April 26, 2023

Minister Álvaro Mesa sentences retired military and Carabineros personnel for unlawful coercion and illegal detention in Lautaro

In the ruling (case file 45.373), Minister Mesa Latorre sentenced Del Río del Río to 3 years of effective imprisonment, plus the legal accessory of suspension from public office or position during the term of the sentence, as the perpetrator of the consummated crime of unlawful coercion; and to 540 days of imprisonment, plus the accessory of suspension from public office or position during the term of the sentence, as the perpetrator of the consummated crime of illegal detention.

The minister on special assignment for human rights violation cases in the jurisdictions of Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Coyhaique, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, in sentence number 94 on the matter, sentenced, with costs, retired Army Captain Jorge Nibaldo del Río del Río and former Carabinero Domingo Antonio Campos Collao for their responsibilities in the consummated crimes of unlawful coercion and illegal detention, classified as crimes against humanity, against Guido Erwis Venegas Avilés.

These illicit acts were perpetrated in September 1973 in the city of Lautaro.

In the ruling (case file 45.373), Minister Mesa Latorre sentenced Del Río del Río to 3 years of effective imprisonment, plus the legal accessory of suspension from public office or position during the term of the sentence, as the perpetrator of the consummated crime of unlawful coercion; and to 540 days of imprisonment, plus the accessory of suspension from public office or position during the term of the sentence, as the perpetrator of the consummated crime of illegal detention.

Meanwhile, Campos Collao must serve 60 days of imprisonment and the accessory of suspension from public office or position during the term of the sentence, as an accomplice to the consummated crime of unlawful coercion.

In the sentence, Minister Mesa Latorre established the following facts:

“A.- That on September 11, 1973, the Armed Forces and the Forces of Public Order and Security assumed supreme command of the Nation, consolidating the Constituent, Legislative, and Executive powers within the Government Junta, as established in Communiqué No. 5 of the same date, as well as in Decree Law No. 1, subsequently clarified and supplemented by Decree Laws Nos. 128, 527, and 788.

Among other measures, a State of Siege was declared throughout the national territory, and a level-one state of alert was ordered for the Armed Forces and the Forces of Order and Security.

B.- That by September 11, 1973, as a result of the events occurring in the country, a special operational group called the ‘civil commission’ was formed in all police stations. This group was dedicated to intelligence tasks consisting of investigating and gathering information on specific individuals who were considered in military communiqués, among others; that is, these were tasks that fell outside of standard police procedures [the foregoing is documented in case file 113.987 from the First Criminal Court of Temuco, file 14-2013 from the Illustrious Court of Appeals of Valdivia, file 45.359 from the Lautaro Court of Letters, file 45.362 from the Lautaro Court of Letters, and file 45.368 from the Lautaro Court of Letters], among others, all of which were processed by this Tribunal and are of public knowledge.

C.- That in the case of the 1st Carabineros Station of Lautaro, it was under the command of Carabineros Commissioner Major Jorge Enrique Schweizer Gómez (deceased, as documented on p. 375, Vol. I), followed in command by Captain Marcial Edmundo Vera Ríos (deceased, as documented on p. 798, Vol.

III). The special group was composed of and led by Lieutenant José Orlando Huerta Ávila (deceased, as documented on p. 587, Vol. II), Enrique Ferrier Valeze (deceased, as documented on p. 591, Vol. II), Mario Ponce Orellana (deceased, as documented on p. 795, Vol.

III), Egidio Manuel Sandoval Umaña (deceased, as documented on p. 796, Vol. III), Juvenal Santiago Sanhueza Sanhueza (deceased, as documented on p. 797, Vol. III), Santiago Millangir Hueche (deceased, as documented on p. 590, Vol.

II), and Domingo Antonio Campos Collao, among others. This special group carried out patrols in rural and urban areas and also collaborated with personnel from the La Concepción Regiment of Lautaro. The group was led by Captain Jorge Nibaldo del Río del Río, conducting joint patrols in the rural area under the jurisdiction of said police unit, proceeding to identify the names and addresses of individuals who were subsequently detained and taken to the station to be interrogated in various facilities, such as the Lautaro station itself and the La Concepción Regiment of Lautaro (as documented in, among other records, pp. 14, 15, 16, 133, 134, 135, 140, 142, 156, 161, 164, 171, 172, 176, 185, 186, 220, 226, 335, Vol. I; pp. 420, 422, 426, 519, 547, Vol. II). The detentions carried out by this special group were performed without presenting a prior judicial order. (The foregoing is documented in case file 45.306-B ‘Burgos, Hadad and Ponce episode’ from the Lautaro Court of Letters, processed by this Tribunal and of public knowledge, as well as, among others, the statements of Víctor Matus Vásquez, pp. 426 to 427, Vol. II; Marcial Edmundo Vera Ríos, pp. 534 to 545, Vol. II, and p. 815, Vol. III; Ángel Segundino Fuentes Pardo, p. 133, Vol. I; Paicaví Lemolemo Painemal Morales, pp. 507 to 509, Vol. II; Hernán Patricio Juan Antonio Mardones Díaz, pp. 495 to 497, Vol. II; Robinson Fernando Castillo Orellana, pp. 812 to 813, Vol. III; Sergio Manuel Jara Sandoval, p. 814, Vol. III; Santiago Millangir Hueche, p. 807, Vol. III; José Arturo Araneda Pulgar, pp. 816 to 817, Vol. III; and Hugo Gómez Cofre, pp. 818 to 819, Vol. III).

D.- That the facilities of the 1st Carabineros Station of Lautaro were used to hold those detained by this special group and those detained by personnel from the La Concepción Regiment of Lautaro, who were subsequently transported by this special group to an unknown destination or were removed by personnel from the La Concepción Regiment of Lautaro, according to testimonies, including those of Víctor Matus Vásquez, pp. 426 to 427 (Vol.

II); José Domingo Segundo Llabulén Llabulén, p. 810 (Vol. III); Francisca Llaulén Antilao, p. 811 (Vol. III); Sergio Samuel Jara Sandoval, p. 814 (Vol. III); Santiago Millangir Hueche, pp. 807 to 808 (Vol.

III); Paicaví Lemolemo Painemal Morales, pp. 507 to 509 (Vol. II); Hernán Patricio Mardones Díaz, pp. 495 to 497 (Vol. II); Rafael García Ferlice, pp. 801 to 803 (Vol. III); Mario Ponce Orellana, p. 804 (Vol.

III); Ida del Carmen Meliquén Quilodrán, p. 806 (Vol. III); and Carlos Antonio Navarro Schifferli, p. 807 (Vol. III), a place where men and women were held in detention indiscriminately. As indicated, the superior command composed of Jorge Enrique Schweizer Gómez (deceased, as documented on p. 375, Vol.

I), Marcial Edmundo Vera (deceased, as documented on p. 798, Vol. III), and José Orlando Huerta Ávila (deceased, as documented on p. 587, Vol. II) had knowledge of all these records of detentions of people who were brought to the Lautaro station.

E.- That Guido Erwis Venegas Avilés, in 1973, was 26 years old and worked as an executive for the agricultural company Magrimsa, and was on that date on a service commission at CORFO in the city of Concepción, while also serving as the communal secretary of the Socialist Party in the city of Lautaro. (As documented in, among other records, pp. 01, 14, 232, 312, 384, Vol. I).

F.- That on September 13, 1973, Venegas Avilés was at the Calatayú Estate in the Quillem sector (Perquenco), together with Luis Candía Figueroa, a leader of the Socialist Party and student leader at the University of Temuco.

Both were in hiding, with intentions of fleeing to Argentina, as they had been sought by the authorities, at which moment two trucks and a jeep with personnel from the La Concepción Regiment of Lautaro arrived, who detained them and loaded them onto one of the trucks, in which a teacher named Norton Maza Ferreira and a merchant named Rodolfo Mencke were also being held.

The detainees were threatened at all times by a military officer who struck them with his fists, breaking their noses. [As documented in, among other records, pp. 01, 10, 14, 42, 59, 167, 235, 320, 368, Vol. I].

G.- That upon being detained, Guido Venegas and Luis Candía were transported to the La Concepción Regiment of Lautaro, where Venegas Avilés was taken into a room and interrogated by approximately three to four people, remaining blindfolded and held in that facility until midnight, to then be taken to the 1st Carabineros Station of Lautaro, where he saw Carabineros Domingo Campos Collao, Sergeant Santiago Millanguir Hueche, and Víctor Matus Vásquez (as documented in, among other records, pp. 14, 15, Vol.

I), being able to recognize the first of these as he was a cousin of his ex-spouse. He arrived at said police unit at approximately one or two in the morning, where Venegas Avilés was beaten with a baton on his head and all over his body.

At the same time, his head was partially shaved, and he was left in a cell with other detainees, where he told the other detainees what had happened. Among them was the priest Wilfredo Alarcón, who recounts in his book Biografía sobre Juan Andina that: “...They were the ones who impressed me most that day, you saw them arrive that night, around two or three in the morning, Guido Venegas, soaking wet, dripping water, drenched... his face looked like a bag of bruised meat, his eyes had sunk, his nose broken, his lips impossible, his head broken, according to him his ribs broken so he couldn't move, there wasn't a good part on him... and then Candía, I don't know if they hit him less or if he was more resistant, but he seemed less damaged... although his nose was also broken and the blows were visible on his face” (as documented in, among other records, pp. 01, 14, 32, 43, 59, 84, 85, 87, Vol. I; p. 543, Vol. II). That despite the aforementioned uniformed officers, including Domingo Campos Collao, being part of the group of people (Carabineros) present at the aforementioned station while Venegas Avilés was being beaten and tortured by a Carabinero (Badge 79, unidentified), they did not take any action to prevent the execution of the crime, nor did they report or inform their Carabineros superiors or any other authority of the event. Likewise, there is no record that an investigation was conducted into those crimes or that they were reported to the courts of justice at the time of the events, nor is there any record of an administrative investigation having been initiated as a consequence of the commission of this crime.

H.- That the day after what is related in the previous paragraph, Guido Venegas was transferred to the La Concepción Regiment of Lautaro and led to a room while blindfolded; they beat him with their feet and fists, placed a sack of wet sand on his body, and tortured him by placing a plastic bag over his head, suffocating him until he almost lost consciousness, and interrogated him while showing him, with threats, photographs of his wife and infant daughter.

This session was directed by Captain Jorge Nibaldo del Río del Río, a person whom Venegas Avilés was able to recognize, as he states on p. 15: “...I recognized him by his voice since it had been him who had interrogated me the first time I was taken to the aforementioned regiment...”, while he received blows with an iron bar to his lips, which caused several of his teeth to be knocked out.

These facts coincide with the statement of Lidia del Carmen Torres Abarzúa, widow of retired Army non-commissioned officer Nelson Medina Caro, who details on p. 167 that: “...three more people, Guido Venegas, Luis de la Maza, and Luis Candía, were detained and tortured by Jorge del Rio and Rafael García, after having been surprised hiding in a well located in the field...” adding that her husband had received orders from Jorge del Río to execute the aforementioned individuals but did not comply, and he was then returned to the Carabineros Station of Lautaro, where he remained until the first days of October 1973. [As documented in, among other records, pp. 01, 09, 10, 14, 15, 16, 134, 150, 167, 175, Vol. I; pp. 674, 675, Vol. II].

I.- That while detained at the Carabineros Station of Lautaro, during the first days of October 1973, Guido Venegas Avilés was taken to the Temuco jail, being released at the end of October of that year without a prior trial. [As documented in, among other records, pp. 01, 366 bis, 368, Vol.

I]. Subsequently, he continued to be sought by the Carabineros, a situation that ended in January 1975, that is, after a process before the Military Prosecutor's Office, being temporarily dismissed by Military Prosecutor Alfonso Podlech Michaud, subsequently obtaining his freedom.”

In the civil sphere, the minister ordered the State, with costs, to pay compensation of $50,000,000 for moral damages to the victim.

Source: Poder Judicial, July 25, 2024