Between October 5, 6, and 7, 1973, 18 peasants from the area, none of whom had political affiliations, were executed at the mountain estates known as El Morro, Carmen y Maitenes, and Pemehue, located east of Mulchén.

A patrol of approximately thirty people, composed of carabineros, military personnel, and civilians from Mulchén, went to the aforementioned estates carrying a pre-prepared list of the individuals who were to be detained and subsequently executed.

The patrol, traveling on horseback, arrived at the El Morro estate on the afternoon of October 5. They proceeded to detain five peasants at their homes and led them to the banks of the Renaico River:

Juan de Dios LAUBRA BREVIS, 26 years old, agricultural worker.

Domingo SEPULVEDA CASTILLO, 29 years old, estate house servant.

Edmundo José VIDAL AEDO, 20 years old, agricultural worker.

Celsio Nicasio VIVANCO CARRASCO, 26 years old, agricultural worker.

José Florencio YAÑEZ DURAN, 34 years old, agricultural worker.

Witnesses heard gunshots. In the month of December, neighbors and family members found the bodies in the La Playita sector with bullet wounds and their hands tied behind their backs with wire.

The group of uniformed personnel and civilians continued upward until they reached the Carmen y Maitenes estate, where they detained eight peasants at their homes, took them to the main house, and beat them and forced them to beat one another:

Miguel del Carmen ALBORNOZ ACUÑA, 20 years old, agricultural worker.

Daniel Alfonso ALBORNOZ GONZALEZ, 28 years old, agricultural worker.

Alejandro ALBORNOZ GONZALEZ, 48 years old, agricultural worker.

Guillermo José ALBORNOZ GONZALEZ, 32 years old, agricultural worker.

Luis Alberto GODOY SANDOVAL, 23 years old, agricultural worker.

Florencio RUBILAR GUTIERREZ, 25 years old, agricultural worker.

José Liborio RUBILAR GUTIERREZ, 28 years old, agricultural worker.

José Lorenzo RUBILAR GUTIERREZ, 33 years old, agricultural worker.

Around 23:00 hours, witnesses heard bursts of machine-gun fire. The following day, members of the patrol buried seven bodies in a pit dug in a field near the houses, covering them with sod. That same day, October 7, they began their journey toward Pemehue, taking with them a detained and physically battered Guillermo Albornoz, whose body later appeared downstream in the Renaico River.

At the Pemehue estate, they again proceeded to detain five peasants at their homes:

Alberto ALBORNOZ GONZALEZ, 41 years old, agricultural worker.

Felidor Exequiel ALBORNOZ GONZALEZ, 33 years old, agricultural worker.

José Fernando GUTIERREZ ASCENCIO, 25 years old, agricultural worker.

Gerónimo Humberto SANDOVAL MEDINA, 22 years old, agricultural worker.

Juan de Dios ROA RIQUELME, 35 years old, agricultural worker.

During the night, repeated bursts of gunfire were heard. Family members later found their bodies with their hands tied, their faces destroyed, and numerous bullet wounds.

All of them were buried in the same places where they were found.

On November 21, 1979, a criminal complaint was filed in the Mulchén Court, case file No. 20.595, for the crimes of trespassing, kidnapping, illegal duress, bodily injury, and qualified homicide of 18 peasants from Mulchén.

The action was filed against the participants of the "patrol." The Illustrious Court of Appeals of Concepción appointed a Visiting Judge (Ministro en Visita) who proceeded to investigate the case.

After an exhaustive investigation, the Judge concluded that the patrol of military personnel, carabineros, and civilians who went to the aforementioned estates were the perpetrators of the victims' deaths and the subsequent burial or, in some cases, the disappearance of the bodies.

The bodies were illegally exhumed, presumably in the month of March 1979, before the judicial investigation was carried out; however, numerous forensic examinations were able to be performed to identify the corpses based on the remains that were left and because some of them were still buried.

The Judge declared himself incompetent to continue hearing the case and referred the files to the Military Prosecutor's Office of Concepción. On January 7, 1983, the Military Judge of the Third Military Court issued a definitive dismissal of the case and applied the amnesty law to the accused.

On December 18, 1983, the Court Martial annulled the application of amnesty and changed the nature of the dismissal to temporary.

The evidence presented allows this Commission to form the conviction that the execution and subsequent concealment of the bodies of the 18 peasants from the El Morro, Carmen y Maitenes, and Pemehue estates constitutes a grave violation of human rights for which State agents and the civilians who participated with them are responsible.

Edmundo José Vidal Aedo, single, agricultural worker, with no political affiliation, was detained on Friday, October 5, around 5:00 PM, when he reported to the "El Morro" Carabineros station. He had been previously summoned by uniformed members of a patrol composed of military personnel, Carabineros, and heavily armed civilians, who had arrived at the "El Morro" Hacienda moments earlier.

At that location, they proceeded to raid various homes, seize food, interrogate residents, and summon several workers to the "El Morro" station.

Among the members of the operation, the residents of the Hacienda were able to identify two Carabineros who had previously belonged to the "El Morro" station staff, Osvaldo Díaz Díaz (alias "El Alicate") and another with the surname Guzmán; the then-Lieutenant of Carabineros of the Mulchén station, Jorge Maturana Concha.

The civilians included Romualdo ("Mayo") Guzmán Saavedra, a farmer; Francisco Urrizola Elías, an industrialist and owner of a lumber yard; Ramón Elías Abella, a lumber industrialist; Aquiles Guzmán Fritz, a farmer; all residing in Mulchén; Rolf Düring Pohler, son of the owners of the Fundo Verdún; Samuel Arriagada Domínguez, his brother, and Raúl Tirapeguy.

Lieutenant Jorge Maturana Concha carried a notebook containing the names of various people from the property, notes he attempted to complete with data regarding political affiliation and/or union activities with the help of teacher Benjamín Elías Sandoval Pozas, who was the Director of the "El Morro" School.

They confiscated a vehicle belonging to him, which some members of the patrol used to locate the previously identified workers.

On that occasion, along with Juan Laubra Brevis, the workers José Florencio Yañez, Celsio Vivanco Carrasco, Edmundo Vidal Aedo, and Domingo Sepúlveda Castillo were detained and held. After being tortured, they were transported by their captors to a site on the Renaico River known as "La Playita," where they were executed with their eyes blindfolded and their hands tied behind their backs with barbed wire.

At that location, the bodies were abandoned by the perpetrators. Days later, due to the river rising, the bodies appeared successively over about twenty-eight days at different points along the banks of the Renaico.

Upon being found by relatives and people from the area, they were interred in graves dug for that purpose, where they were given an improvised burial in places that were duly fenced and marked.

Following the execution, the patrol carried out other detentions, but all remaining detainees were released at the time of their arrest or in the morning hours, as the patrol prepared to depart for the "El Carmen Maitenes" Fundo, without having coincided in the detention facility with those executed.

The same patrol of uniformed personnel and civilians that detained the peasants of the El Morro Hacienda also detained thirteen other peasants at the Carmen Maitenes Fundo and later at the Pemehue Fundo: Miguel Albornoz Acuña, Alberto, Alejandro Daniel, Felidor, and Guillermo Albornoz González, Luis Godoy Sandoval, José Gutiérrez Ascencio, Juan Roa Riquelme, Florencio, Liborio, and Lorenzo Rubilar Gutiérrez, and Humberto Sandoval Medina.

These thirteen peasants were also executed by their captors.

In 1978, three uniformed Carabineros interrogated the Hacienda's groundskeeper, surnamed Sandoval, about the exact burial sites of the victims, mentioning each of the five names to him. He specified the location where the remains of Domingo Sepúlveda and Edmundo Vidal Aedo were found, while indicating vaguely where the remaining graves were said to be, as he did not know their exact location.

Days later, the same officials arrived by vehicle at the area where the victims' graves were located; they remained there for a time and then left, without anyone suspecting that they had clandestinely removed the remains.

In 1980, as a result of the investigation conducted by the Visiting Judge regarding the disappearance of these 18 detainees, it was possible to establish the site of the first burial at the Hacienda Los Morros and find some remains.

After significant forensic analysis, it was determined that the identity of the skeletal remains and clothing belonged to the 5 detainees from the aforementioned Hacienda, among whom was Edmundo Vidal Aedo. (For more information, see the cases of Juan de Dios Laubra Brevis and Florencio Rubilar Gutiérrez).

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On November 21, 1979, a criminal complaint was filed in the Mulchén Court of Letters for the crimes of "illegal entry, kidnapping, illegitimate coercion, injury, and qualified homicide committed against the persons of José Liborio, José Lorenzo, and Florencio Rubilar Gutiérrez; Alejandro, Daniel, José Guillermo, Alberto, and Felidor Albornoz González; Miguel Albornoz Acuña; Gerónimo Sandoval Medina, and Luis Alberto Godoy Sandoval." This complaint was consolidated with case 20.595 filed before the same court.

On November 22, 1979, the appointment of a Visiting Judge was requested to investigate these events. On May 6, 1980, the Concepción Court of Appeals appointed Judge Carlos Cerda Medina for that purpose.

On July 14, 1980, the Concepción Court of Appeals, accepting a document presented by the Archbishopric of the same city, agreed to authorize Judge Cerda to investigate the events that occurred at the "El Morro" Hacienda, consolidating those records with case No. 20.595 of the Mulchén Court of Letters.

The judicial investigation established the responsibility of military and Carabinero personnel, accompanied by civilians, in the detention, imprisonment, execution, and illegal burial of five peasants from the "El Morro" Hacienda.

On December 21, 1980, the Visiting Judge declared himself incompetent to continue hearing the case because uniformed personnel were implicated; the case was transferred to the III Military Court of Concepción, registered under No. 446-81.

On January 7, 1983, by virtue of Amnesty Decree Law 2191, the military courts dismissed the case completely and definitively. However, on December 18 of that same year, the Martial Court set aside the application of amnesty and changed the nature of the dismissal from definitive to temporary.

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity