42 years old, married, farmer, forcibly disappeared on June 15, 1974, in Lautaro. Domingo Huenul Huaiquil was detained that day, around 18:00, inside the "El Rayo" restaurant, located at the bus terminal in the city of Lautaro, by Carabineros officers, who placed him into an institutional van.

His whereabouts have remained unknown since then. According to statements made by family members, Domingo Huenul, who had been involved in a land dispute on a farm in the area, had had personal grievances with one of his captors.

According to the statements of an eyewitness, the Carabineros, belonging to the Lautaro Police Station, entered the aforementioned restaurant and arrested Domingo Huenul along with other people who were eating in the establishment.

The family inquired for information at the Lautaro Carabineros station, where they denied his detention. Despite multiple subsequent inquiries, it was impossible for his relatives to obtain information about his whereabouts or fate.

Considering the background information gathered and the investigation carried out by this Corporation, the Superior Council reached the conviction that Domingo Huenul Huaiquil was detained by State agents and disappeared while being held in that status. Consequently, it declared him a victim of human rights violations.

Source: (Corporation Report)

In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court sentences retired Carabineros for the aggravated kidnapping of a farmer in Lautaro.

The highest Court rejected an appeal for cassation against the first-instance sentence and sentenced Domingo Campos Collao and Germán García Moreno to 12 years in prison for their responsibility in the crime.

In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court sentenced two retired members of the Carabineros for the aggravated kidnapping of the farmer Domingo Huenul Huaiquil, which occurred starting on June 15, 1974, in the commune of Lautaro, Araucanía region.

The sentence maintains that a reading of the appeal makes it manifest that it involves subsidiary and mutually exclusive arguments. Indeed, its initial segment extends to the error of law committed in considering the conviction decision mistaken, as the accused allegedly did not have the intervention attributed to them in the crime.

However, immediately thereafter, it rules out the concurrence of a circumstance that aggravates the imposed penalty—Article 12 No. 8 of the Penal Code—and argues for the concurrence of another that mitigates it—Article 103 of the Penal Code—allegations that certainly presuppose participation in a crime whose sanction is sought to be moderated.

As can be seen, what is postulated in relation to the modifying circumstances implies the abandonment of the previous thesis by which the criminal responsibility of the accused is denied; under these conditions, this petition cannot be addressed, because the effectiveness of some defects cannot be subordinated to the existence or non-existence of others, disregarding the formality that is characteristic of this strict-law appeal.

The investigation by the visiting judge Álvaro Mesa Latorre established that: Domingo Huenul Huaiquil, a 42-year-old farmer, residing in the Pinchunlao settlement of the commune of Perquenco, traveled to the city of Lautaro on June 15, 1974.

In that city, he entered the "El Rayo" restaurant, located at the city's bus terminal, but around 18:00, he was detained by Carabineros, who placed him into an institutional van, apparently without carrying a judicial order for such purposes.

His whereabouts have remained unknown since then. According to the statements of the eyewitness, Luis Gabriel Grunewaldt Millapán, the Carabineros who entered the aforementioned restaurant and arrested Domingo Huenul along with other people who were eating in the establishment belonged to the 1st Police Station of Lautaro.

The apprehending personnel were identified by the witness as Enrique Ferriere Valeze (R.I.P.), the driver of the vehicle, plus Corporals Domingo Antonio Campos Collao and Germán Emeterio García Romero.

The first two belonged to the operational group described above; the latter allegedly had past grievances with the victim, according to the statements of Huenul Huaiquil's relatives, in addition to the fact that his family owned land adjacent to that of Grunewaldt Millapán.

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl 8/28/2019

Date: 08-28-2019

Retired Carabineros are accused of the aggravated kidnapping of a farmer in Lautaro in 1974

Two retired Carabineros officials were accused as perpetrators of the aggravated kidnapping of a farmer, which occurred in Lautaro in 1974. The decision was made by the extraordinary visiting judge for human rights violation cases of the Temuco Court of Appeals, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, who accused the retired Carabineros, Germán Emeterio García Romero and Domingo Antonio Campos Collao, as perpetrators of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Domingo Huenul Huaiquil, which occurred in the commune of Lautaro on June 15, 1974.

In the investigation, Judge Mesa established that the victim, 42 years of age, residing in the Pinchunlao settlement of the commune of Perquenco, traveled to the city of Lautaro on June 15, 1974, where he entered the "El Rayo" restaurant, located at the city's bus terminal, being detained in that place by Carabineros, who placed him into an institutional van, apparently without carrying a judicial order for such purposes, with his whereabouts unknown since then.

According to the statement of an eyewitness to the events, the Carabineros who entered the aforementioned restaurant and arrested Domingo Huenul along with other people who were eating in the establishment belonged to the First Police Station of Lautaro, establishing that the Carabinero Germán Emeterio García Romero allegedly had previous grievances with the victim, which was ratified by relatives of the detained and currently forcibly disappeared farmer.

The decision by Judge Mesa to charge the two retired Carabineros was elevated to the plenary of the Temuco Court of Appeals.

Source: biobio.cl 7/17/2016

Date: 07-17-2016

Two retired Carabineros in preventive detention in Temuco

Germán Emeterio García Romero and Domingo Antonio Campos Collao were accused of the kidnapping of the farmer Domingo Huenul Huaiquil in June 1974. The visiting judge, Álvaro Mesa, ruled that two Carabineros who are now retired (Germán Emeterio García Romero and Domingo Antonio Campos Collao) participated together with the Army in the kidnapping of the farmer Domingo Huenul Huaiquil on June 15, 1974, under the orders of Lieutenant José Orlando Huerta Ávila.

That day, the farmer arrived in the commune of Lautaro and around 18:00 was detained by Carabineros, with his trail being lost from that moment on. The information was provided by the eyewitness Luis Gabriel Grunewaldt, who according to Radio Bio Bio also saw the detention of other people.

The two retired Carabineros who were detained are in preventive detention at the Second Police Station of the Carabineros in Temuco.

Source: laopinion.cl 1/24/2016

Date: 01-24-2016