Political Affiliation: Member of the Socialist Party, local Secretary of the P.S. in Villarrica Date of Detention: September 13, 1973

Name: ELIAS DAGOBERTO GONZALEZ ORTEGA ID: No information DOB: 28 12 48, 24 years old at the time of detention Address: Gerónimo de Alderete 1059, Villarrica Marital Status: Single Occupation: Head of Warehouses at the Banco del Estado resort in Villarrica Political Affiliation: Member of the Socialist Party. Propaganda Officer for Villarrica Date of Detention: September 13, 1973

Name: JUAN DE DIOS CABRERA FIGUEROA ID: No information DOB: 27 10 53; 20 years old at the time of detention Address: Villarrica Marital Status: Single Occupation: Student Political Affiliation: Member of the Socialist Youth Date of Detention: September 13, 1973

Name: JUAN CARLOS SCHMIDT ARRIAGADA ID: No information DOB: 24 10 1951, 21 years old at the time of detention Address: Villarrica Marital Status: Married, no children Occupation: Employee of the Housing Corporation (CORVI) Political Affiliation: Member of the Socialist Party Date of Detention: September 13, 1973

Name: RICARDO AUGUSTO SCHMIDT ARRIAGADA ID: No information DOB: 18 10 1954, 18 years old at the time of detention Address: Villarrica Marital Status: Single Occupation: Student Political Affiliation: Member of the Socialist Party Date of Detention: September 13, 1973

Name: ALEJANDRO ESCOBAR VASQUEZ ID: No information DOB: 11 10 54, 18 years old at the time of detention Address: Caupolicán 1855, Villarrica Marital Status: Single Occupation: Student Political Affiliation: Member of the Socialist Youth Date of Detention: September 13, 1973

Name: HECTOR DOMINGO AGUAYO OLAVARRIA ID: No information DOB: 10 06 56, 17 years old at the time of detention Address: Pedro Montt 967, Villarrica Marital Status: Single Occupation: Student Political Affiliation: Member of the Socialist Youth Date of Detention: September 13, 1973

Hugo Arner González Ortega, 23, his brother Elías Dagoberto González Ortega, 24, the brothers Juan Carlos and Ricardo Schmidt Arriagada, 21 and 20 years old respectively, Juan de Dios Cabrera Figueroa, 20, Alejandro Escobar Vásquez, 18, and Héctor Domingo Aguayo Olavarría, 17, all members of the Socialist Party, have been forcibly disappeared since September 13, 1973.

After their homes in the city of Villarrica were raided by Carabineros personnel, they decided to cross the border through a mountain pass in the Curarrehue sector.

Some time later, Investigations personnel appeared at the home of the Schmidt Arriagada brothers and informed their relatives that the young men had been detained.

Information obtained by Héctor Aguayo's family indicates that the group of young men was detained in the area of the Río Turbio bridge, eight kilometers toward Pichares, while they were attempting to cross on foot into Argentina.

The apprehension was reportedly carried out by Carabineros personnel traveling in a private pickup truck owned by a resident of the city of Pucón. Initially, the detainees were taken to the Pucón police station, subsequently to Villarrica, and from there sent to the Tucapel Regiment in Temuco, where they disappeared.

Unofficial reports indicate that they were victims of political executions at that location.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDINGS

The victims' families conducted inquiries in the area in search of them, without any positive results.

On August 24, 1990, the family of Alejandro Escobar Vásquez filed a complaint for alleged disappearance before the Villarrica Court of Letters, registered under No. 28451. On August 27, the Judge of Villarrica declared himself incompetent, referring the case files to the Pucón Judge of Letters as it fell under his jurisdiction and processing.

The declination of jurisdiction was accepted by the Pucón Criminal Judge, who ordered a broad investigation and issued an official letter to the Cautín Carabineros Prefecture requesting a list of personnel serving in the Pucón, Curarrehue, and Villarrica units between September and December 1973. The case was registered under No. 2.596.

The Carabineros police stations contacted responded that they had no records regarding Alejandro Escobar Vásquez and stated that the Daily or Guard Logs have a "validity period of 3 to 4 months," after which they are kept in each unit's archive for one year before being incinerated.

The investigating judge, not having been informed by the corresponding police units of their staff at the time of the events, requested from the General Director of Carabineros the list of personnel serving in the Curarrehue, Pucón, and Catripulli units as of September 1973.

On April 11, 1991, General Director of Carabineros Rodolfo Stange Oelckers responded in Official Letter No. 229, stating "that it is not possible to grant the request by virtue of the fact that the required information is classified as 'secret' in accordance with Article 436 No. 1 of the Code of Military Justice."

On July 23, 1991, the court ordered an official letter to be sent to the Commander-in-Chief of the Army requesting the list of officers and non-commissioned officers serving in the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, given that there are "facts that lead to the presumption that Army personnel from the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco had intervention in, or at least knowledge of, the detention in 1973 of several residents of this jurisdiction and nearby areas, some of whom have not been found to this date, and with the object of attempting to establish the final fate of said citizens."

In August 1991, in a classified official letter, the Chief of the Army General Staff, Rodrigo Sánchez Casillas, responded that in his opinion the requested information is of the type referred to in the final paragraph of Article 144 of the Code of Military Justice, for which reason, as they are "secret documents that may affect the security of national defense in general and the institution in particular, it is not possible to grant the request."

On August 30, 1991, the investigating judge declared the summary closed and temporarily dismissed the case "until new or better investigative data are presented."

On September 26, 1991, the Temuco Court of Appeals approved the aforementioned resolution upon review.

For its part, the family of Héctor Domingo Aguayo Olavarría filed a complaint for alleged disappearance on January 21, 1991, before the Pucón Court of Letters, registered under No. 2726, which was still in process at the time of this report.

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity

The extraordinary visiting minister Álvaro Mesa Latorre issued indictment No. 84 and filed charges against Óscar Alfonso Ernesto Podlech Michaud, Pedro Guillermo Manuel Tichauer Salcedo, Raimundo Ignacio García Covarrubias, and Romilio Osvaldo Lavín Muñoz for their responsibility as accomplices in the crime against humanity of kidnapping with serious injury of 8 young men.

The extraordinary visiting minister for human rights violation cases in the jurisdictions of Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Coyhaique, Álvaro Claudio Mesa Latorre, issued indictment No. 84 in the cases he is processing and filed charges against the military prosecutor at the time of the events, Óscar Alfonso Ernesto Podlech Michaud, and retired Army officers Pedro Guillermo Manuel Tichauer Salcedo, Raimundo Ignacio García Covarrubias, and Romilio Osvaldo Lavín Muñoz, for their responsibility as accomplices in the crime against humanity of kidnapping with serious injury of Hugo Arner González Ortega, Elías Dagoberto González Ortega, Carlos Schmidt Arriagada, Ricardo Schmidt Arriagada, Juan de Dios Cabrera Figueroa, Alejandro Escobar Vásquez, Héctor Domingo Aguayo Olavarría, and Raúl Marcial Figueroa Burckhardt. These crimes were perpetrated between late September and early October 1973 in the commune of Pucón.

In the resolution (case file 4.473), Minister Mesa Latorre identified retired Carabineros officer Luis Robinson Bustos Letelier as the perpetrator of the crime of illegal detention of the González Ortega brothers, the Schmidt Arriagada brothers, Cabrera Figueroa, Escobar Vásquez, Aguayo Olavarría, and Figueroa Burckhardt.

The Facts During the investigative stage of the case, the visiting minister managed to gather sufficient evidence to establish the following facts:

“A.-

That immediately following the military coup of September 11, 1973, the new authorities of the country ordered the systematic persecution and detention of militants and sympathizers of the Unidad Popular parties, especially those who held positions in the deposed public administration, as evidenced by, among other proofs, the statements of Luis Robinson Bustos Letelier, from fs. 413 to fs. 414 vta. (volume II); of Ricardo Virginio Aguayo Olavarría, from fs. 2.055 to fs. 2057 (volume VI) and from fs. 2.061 to fs. 2.062 (volume VI); and military decrees published in the press of the time, from fs. 2.979 to fs. 2.998 (volume IX).

B.-

That in Temuco, the armed forces and order forces took control of the city, with Colonel Pablo Iturriaga Marchesse (deceased, as stated at fs. 3.898 volume XI), Commander of the No. 8 ‘Tucapel’ Infantry Regiment of this city, establishing himself as Governor of Temuco, who also remained as Chief of the Temuco Garrison, as stated, for example, in the statement of Óscar Alfonso Podlech Michaud, from fs. 3.788 to fs. 3.796 (volume XI).

C.-

That in this sense, on the same day, September 11, 1973, the lawyer Óscar Alfonso Ernesto Podlech Michaud, who was also a Reserve Lieutenant of the Chilean Army, was called to collaborate with the new regime.

He presented himself at the ‘Tucapel’ Regiment to support the work of the Military Prosecutor's Office that operated inside the unit, which was in charge of the Second Commander, Major Luis Jofré Soto (deceased, as stated at fs. 3.899 volume XI).

This officer, however, had to assume greater functions as Second Commander of the Tucapel Regiment shortly thereafter. From that day forward, civilians began to arrive at the Regiment who had been called to present themselves before the Military Prosecutor's Office through decrees published in the written press and on the radio, or who were brought in as detainees by Carabineros and/or military patrols from different points in the region, mainly from police stations and outposts, as evidenced by, among other proofs, the military decrees published in the press of the time (…).

D.-

That given the high number of detainees and people called to provide statements, the Military Prosecutor's Office was reinforced to carry out its work with officials of the Judiciary who were requested from the Illustrious Court of Appeals of Temuco by the aforementioned lawyer, who, acting as Ad-hoc Prosecutor, made a presentation to the Plenary of the Appellate Court, after which some court clerks from different tribunals and a Court Rapporteur were assigned on commission of service, as evidenced in the statement of Adrián Segundo González Maldonado, from fs. 70 vta. to fs. 71 (volume I); and a copy of the Plenary minutes of the Illustrious Court of Appeals of Temuco, from fs. 3.786 to fs. 3.787 (volume XI), among other proofs.

E.-

That due to a lack of knowledge in criminal procedural matters, added to his weak character and his work as Second Commander of the Regiment, Major Luis Jofré Soto began delegating functions as Military Prosecutor to the legal advisor to the Prosecutor's Office, Mr.

Óscar Alfonso Ernesto Podlech Michaud, who began to hold the position of de facto Prosecutor, to the point that he conducted prison visits and lawyers, relatives, and even ecclesiastical dignitaries consulted him regarding the fate of the detainees. However, Major Jofré Soto continued to sign the administrative dispatches most of the time and participated in some interrogations of detainees (…).

F.-

That the people called to present themselves to the Military Prosecutor's Office and those brought in as detainees from different points in the region were kept in facilities located next to the guardhouse and in the large gymnasium.

Once interrogated by Military Prosecutor's Office personnel, by detectives attached to the Regiment, or by the officers themselves who participated in these activities, among whom were Raimundo Ignacio García Covarrubias, Pedro Guillermo Manuel Tichahuer Salcedo, and Romilio Osvaldo Lavín Muñoz, among other members of the army, some were released, only to be apprehended again later as will be detailed in point 44, others were sent to their homes under house arrest, and others were taken to the public jail where they remained while their procedural situation was resolved (…).

G.-

That also by September 1973, in the No. 8 ‘Tucapel’ Infantry Regiment of Temuco, there existed the Second Section of Information and Intelligence, which was in charge of Captain Nelson Manuel Uldaricio Ubilla Toledo (deceased as stated at fs. 3500 volume X), who also exercised a duality of functions by also being the Commander of the Headquarters and Services Company of said Regiment.

In this Second Section, and under his dependency, some non-commissioned officers of that institution also performed functions, work that was reinforced after September 11, 1973, with the addition of Investigations and Carabineros officials, who provided political information to the aforementioned officer regarding all those persons subject to an investigation by the Military Prosecutor's Office.

Likewise, some officers, enlisted men, and conscripts of the Regiment joined the intelligence tasks (…).

H.-

That as the days went by, the Military Prosecutor's Office and the Second Intelligence Section began to work together to interrogate the detainees, who remained confined in the jail or in some facility of the Tucapel Regiment.

To articulate this work, two locations were enabled in the military unit, one located between the Headquarters and Services Company and the Mortar Company, and another in an old, disused gymnasium located to the side of the conscript soldiers' ‘mess hall.’ In this way, the detainees were interrogated at the Military Prosecutor's Office and physically pressured in one of the aforementioned facilities to ‘soften them up’ before or after these interrogations (…).

I.-

That in both interrogation and torture rooms there were implements to tie up the detainees and apply electricity to different parts of their bodies, in addition to applying other types of torment such as kicks and punches.

Conscript soldiers participated in this task, collaborating with Captain Nelson Ubilla Toledo. Some officers of the ‘Tucapel’ Regiment and some enlisted soldiers from the Headquarters and Services Companies also participated in the interrogation and/or torture sessions of detainees in those places (…).

J.-

That, in addition to all of the above, a special group called the ‘Patrulla Brava’ or ‘Patrulla Chacal’ was formed within the aforementioned military unit, composed of enlisted soldiers and conscripts of the Second Hunters Company, who in turn received orders from an officer.

This group was in charge, among other functions, of guarding the detainees who were kept in the facilities of the ‘Tucapel’ Regiment of Temuco (…).

K.-

That at the regional level, in the commune of Villarrica, the Forces of Order and Security, led by Carabineros, proceeded to raid the homes of people who were known supporters of the recently overthrown government, with the object of proceeding to their detention, and in many cases, their subsequent transfer by land or air to the facilities of the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, to be placed at the disposal of the Military Prosecutor's Office (…).

L.-

That following the dynamic of detentions and subsequent transfer, in many cases, to the facilities of the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco during the days following September 11, 1973, a significant number of people in the IX region resulted dead or disappeared, with several of these deaths being explained by regional military authorities through the publication of decrees issued either from the Intendancy or from the Temuco Military Garrison.

In other cases, the victims were released only to be immediately apprehended and re-entered as detainees into the facilities of the same Regiment or another institution, with the object of being physically pressured to such an extent that many of them died as a result of the torture received.

Finally, in other cases, such as the one at hand, there has been a total and permanent concealment regarding the whereabouts of the victims after they remained confined inside the same Regiment.

M.-

That Hugo Arner González Ortega, 23, Head of Roads and Works of the Municipality of Villarrica and member of the Socialist Party; Elías Dagoberto González Ortega, 24, Head of Warehouses at the Banco del Estado resort in Villarrica, member of the Socialist Party and Propaganda Officer in Villarrica; Juan de Dios Cabrera Figueroa, 20, student and member of the Socialist Youth; Carlos Schmidt Arriagada, 21, employee of the Housing Corporation (CORVI) and member of the Socialist Party; Ricardo Augusto Schmidt Arriagada, 18, student and member of the Socialist Party; Alejandro Escobar Vásquez, 18, student and member of the Socialist Party; Héctor Domingo Aguayo Olavarría, 17, student and member of the Socialist Youth; and Raúl Marcial Figueroa Burckhardt, 22, member of the Socialist Youth, decided to leave the country because they believed their lives, or at least their physical integrity, were in serious danger, because the homes of some of them had already been raided by the Villarrica Carabineros, who were searching for them intensely (…).

N.-

That on September 13, 1973, the eight young men identified above took a minibus that would take them toward Curarrehue, where they would attempt to cross into Argentina through some border pass. However, one of the young men regretted it and cried, which is why they all decided to get off the public transport vehicle in the Río Turbio bridge sector, near the fork in the road that leads toward the town of Caburgua and the commune of Curarrehue, respectively.

Immediately afterward, they began to march toward Caburgua, taking care not to encounter military or Carabineros patrols so as not to be detected (…).

O.-

That after having walked about eight kilometers, they spotted a vehicle approaching from Pucón. Héctor Domingo Aguayo Olavarría recognized the vehicle as the pickup truck that had belonged to his father and which had been sold some time ago to a well-known merchant in Pucón, so they did not suspect that it could be a patrol.

However, traveling in said vehicle were Luis Robinson Bustos Letelier, Captain of Carabineros, chief of the Pucón Sub-station (prosecuted at fs. 2.071 and following of this case), and other uniformed officers from the same unit, who, upon seeing the group of young men on the road, stopped their vehicle next to them (…).

P.-

That Luis Robinson Bustos Letelier, chief of the patrol, after a brief interrogation, ordered the detention of the eight young men without, apparently, carrying an order or having legal authority for such an act, ordering their transfer to the facilities of the Pucón Sub-station.

For these purposes, the aforementioned Carabineros Captain and some of his companions remained at the scene, while Corporal Monsalve, the driver of the vehicle, and another officer took the detainees to the Sub-station, as evidenced in the statement of Diógenes Segundo Bravo Bernales, from fs. 60 to fs. 61 (volume I) and from fs. 72 vta. to fs. 73 (volume I).

In that place, there were also other people in the same status, all detained for political reasons, among them Juan Luis Díaz Cortés, a sympathizer of Salvador Allende's government, detained on a first occasion on September 14, 1973, in the commune of Curarrehue and transferred to that police facility, where he observed Héctor Aguayo Olavarría, whom he had known since childhood, being able to notice that he was very physically mistreated, had an inflamed testicle, and had his hair shaved on the top of his head. ‘Chachi’ told him where they had been detained and the reasons why they decided to return to Villarrica, moments when they were intercepted by a patrol that detained them. He added that they were interrogated regarding the possession of weapons and the place where they hid them, at the same time that they were subjected to endless beatings. Subsequently, Juan Luis Díaz Cortés, along with other detainees, were removed from that police facility (…).

Q.-

That when Bustos Letelier returned to the unit, he was informed by the guard Sub-officer Diógenes Bravo Bernales that the detainees had been transferred to the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, as stated in the statement of Luis Robinson Bustos Letelier, at fs. 58 (volume I).

R.-

That the victims were effectively entered into the facilities of the No. 8 Tucapel Infantry Regiment of Temuco, a place where, as stated, from September 11, 1973, a large number of people from different parts of the region were kept as detainees solely for their political affiliation.

After that, they were momentarily released (…) only to finally return as detainees again to the facilities of the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco.

S.-

That in the aforementioned Regiment, the victims were seen by other people who were in the same status, such as the case of the Spanish citizen Francisco Jerónimo Matta Aro, detained between Pucón and Curarrehue approximately on September 13, 1973, who confessed to his son that he knew Héctor Aguayo Olavarría because the latter's father was from the Socialist Party and a friend of his family, that both were transferred as detainees to the facilities of the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, and were placed at the disposal of Military Prosecutor Alfonso Podlech Michaud, who ordered the expulsion of his father from the national territory for supposedly being a financier of the MIR guerrilla and the Socialist Party, and ordered Héctor Aguayo, along with another person, to remain at the Prosecutor's Office as they would be interrogated, as stated from fs. 626 to fs. 627 (volume II) and from fs. 786 to fs. 787 (volume III). For his part, Manuel Antonio Humaña Jiménez, Director at that time of School No. 17 of Curarrehue and Secretary of the Christian Assembly of that commune, detained there on September 17, 1973, and transferred to the facilities of the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, not only saw Héctor Aguayo Olavarría, his student from that school, in said facility, but the latter approached him, hugged him, and cried in his arms, telling him that he had been detained the day before along with a group of friends in the El Turbio sector of Pucón, to finally be transferred to that place; facts that are recorded from fs. 478 to fs. 479 (volume II), from fs. 501 to fs. 506 (volume II), from fs. 559 (volume II), and from fs. 3.854 to fs. 3.857 (volume XI). Likewise, in the Regiment's gymnasium, but in the bathrooms of this facility, Renato Arturo Santana Dubreuil, a member of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), was able to exchange words with Héctor Aguayo Olavarría, whom he knew by the nickname ‘el Chachi’ and knew was only 16 years old, as recorded from fs. 581 to fs. 583 (volume II), and from fs. 799 (volume III). The same occurs with René Esteban Díaz Cortés, a sympathizer of Salvador Allende's government at that time, detained on September 17, 1973, in the commune of Curarrehue and transferred to the gymnasium of the aforementioned Regiment, a place where he observed an indeterminate number of detained people and particularly a group of 8 young men, among whom was Héctor Aguayo Olavarría, whom he also recognized by the nickname ‘el Chachi’ from years ago in Curarrehue, being able to notice that all the young men were sitting on the floor with their legs crossed, gagged, and with their hands tied behind their backs, as recorded from fs. 474 to fs. 475 (volume II), and from fs. 800 (volume III). In this same sense, Juan Luis Díaz Cortés, a sympathizer of the same government, who, as stated, in his first detention had seen Héctor Aguayo at the Pucón Carabineros Sub-station, was detained a second time in the commune of Curarrehue along with his brother René Díaz on September 17, 1973, to subsequently be transferred to the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, where Héctor Aguayo Olavarría directly told him that he knew the military personnel there would kill him, given that they had already told him so. After that episode and in the afternoon, they were ordered to form up in the Regiment's courtyard, where an officer, whose identity Mr. Díaz does not know, read a document, naming some detainees, among whom were his brother, René Díaz Cortés, Héctor Aguayo Olavarría, and the Schmidt brothers, prisoners who were transferred to the Regiment's guardhouse, pointing out that only his brother returned and that he never saw the other detainees again, as recorded from fs. 476 to fs. 477 (volume II) and from fs. 666 (volume II). As can be seen, the dynamic regarding the 8 young men detained and kidnapped corresponded to a habitual practice that the armed forces and order forces of that time had regarding opponents of the military regime, which consisted of releasing them after being detained for a couple of days or weeks (false freedom), only to be detained again when they left the facility and taken to that location. The facts described so far account for this situation. Without prejudice to what will be exposed below.

T.-

That during those days, inside the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, a conscript with the initials M.J.C.S was serving in the Headquarters and Services Company, who, after observing the photographs of Héctor Aguayo Olavarría, Elías González Ortega, and Hugo González Ortega, which are recorded from fs. 5 to fs. 7 of the secret case file, was able to perfectly recognize them when they were being tortured in a room located in the Headquarters and Services Company of the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, a place where two officers and a group of detectives were present; stating that the detainees were transferred to this facility in view of everyone who was in the Company, given that everyone had knowledge of its existence. This conscript was located 10 meters from that room and was an eyewitness to when nylon bags were placed on the detainees and current was applied to different parts of their bodies, as well as being able to hear the screams of pain resulting from the same. Although he states that at that time it was difficult to memorize the faces of the detainees because they were shaved, he memorized the faces of the indicated victims because upon entering the torture room they were blindfolded, but upon leaving they did so without a blindfold, which is why he was able to recognize them perfectly, as recorded in his statements from fs. 3 to fs. 4, from fs. 35 to fs. 38, from fs. 93 to fs. 95, all from the secret case file of this cause.

U.-

That days after the events described in the preceding paragraph, the conscript with the initials M.J.C.S had to load a military truck with the bodies of deceased people from the Cautín Island shooting range on two occasions.

On the first occasion, he loaded 10 bodies, all male, whose ages fluctuated between 25 and 30 years old; while the second time he loaded 8 bodies, also male, but on this occasion, they were younger people than in the previous case.

Present at the scene, among others, were some conscripts from his company, among whom he remembers José Chávez Etchepare and Luis Valeria Candia (deceased as stated at fs. 3.505 volume X and fs. 3.502 volume X).

Although it was night, with the light of the vehicles he could observe that they were indeed young people, who presented multiple bullet impacts, even one of them presented a bullet impact in the head, adding that almost all of them had their hands tied and their faces uncovered, being able to recognize according to the photographs from fs. 5 to 7 of the secret file, that of these 8 bodies, 3 corresponded to Héctor Aguayo Olavarría and the brothers Hugo and Elías González Ortega, as recorded in his statements from fs. 3 to fs. 4, from fs. 35 to fs. 38, from fs. 93 to fs. 95, all from the secret case file of this cause. It is noted that this secret witness with the initials M.J.C.S underwent an expert examination of his mental faculties, which indicated that he is a lucid person, oriented in time and space; normal psychomotricity; without productive symptomatology at the time of the examination; without alterations in the course or content of thought or language. Notificative language, of good quality; Euthymic, with adequate affective resonance. No anxious or depressive symptomatology is noted; in performance tests, preserved memory is noted. He possesses a good capacity for abstraction. In short, the expert report concluded that he is a man without alteration of judgment of reality, with an intellectual level that clinically is in the normal range and has all his higher cortical functions preserved. Psychiatric expert report recorded from fs. 180 to fs. 183, of the secret case file.

V.-

That after which, and on both occasions, the truck left in the direction of the Allipén bridge, with him remaining along with the conscripts of his company at the Regiment, and the personnel of the Second Hunters Company took charge of the transfer of the corpses to the aforementioned river.

This conscript was later able to confirm that the Allipén bridge was the final destination of these bodies, where they were thrown into its waters, since conscript Luis Valeria Candia (deceased at fs. 3.502 volume X), boasting about these events, told him about the situation, as recorded from fs. 3 to fs. 4 and from fs. 35 to fs. 37 of the secret file.

W.-

That in this sense, days after September 11, 1973, in circumstances where Rubén Ernesto Sandoval Muñoz, a civilian who was engaged in recreational fishing in the Toltén River, between the Pitrufquén - Faja Maisan section, was carrying out this activity along with José Tomás Palazuelos, he found around 12 bodies in different sectors, all male, being able to remember that 4 of these corpses were older people and the rest corresponded to very young people.

Among the bodies he visualized in the river, the one of a young man caught his special attention, which was stranded in a river break between the bajada de piedra and chesta sector, and presented a perforation on the right side of his skull; causing him the impression that it was the product of a gunshot.

He remembers that on his body, in the sand, were his identity documents, which indicated the word Villarrica, not being able to distinguish his name. The clothing of this young man corresponded to a jacket, jeans, and sneakers.

He did not notice if he presented other wounds, given that for fear he preferred to leave the place, however, he reported the discovery of corpses to the Carabineros officer Lukowiak (Sub-officer Major who at that time belonged to the staff of the 5th Carabineros Station of Pitrufquén), however, he threatened him, which is why he did not report the fact at the time.

Upon the exhibition of photographs by this tribunal, Rubén Sandoval Muñoz stated that indeed the young man he saw in the river was Héctor Aguayo Olavarría, since his image remained very marked, mainly due to the shape of his nose, which was very wide, making him look like a boxer, facts that are recorded at fs. 2.156 volume VII, fs. 2.645 volume VIII, and fs. 2.305 volume VII.

X.-

That likewise, Juan Esteban Ortiz Parra, a boatman at that time, states that days after September 11, 1973, he found a large number of bodies floating in the waters of the Toltén River, and others stranded on the riverbank near the Galpones sector of the commune of Pitrufquén, focusing particularly on one of them.

The above, because it was a very young person and he thought it could be a known person, which is why he proceeded to check it, immediately realizing that this was not the case, since among his clothing he found a paper from a school in Villarrica and managed to distinguish that his surname was Aguayo; noting that the body of this young man presented a perforation in the back of his skull, his hands were tied with barbed wire, he was wearing blue jeans and a sweater.

Regarding his physical characteristics, apparently, he did not exceed 15 or 16 years of age, he was of short stature, not being able to specify more characteristics due to the fact that the body was very beaten due to the action of the rocks. Boatmen also saw the bodies, mentioning among them, precisely, Rubén Sandoval, as recorded at fs. 2.154, volume VI.

Y.-

That finally, after the detention on September 13, 1973, the relatives of the victims never again had news about Hugo Arner González Ortega, Elías Dagoberto González Ortega, Carlos Schmidt Arriagada, Ricardo Augusto Schmidt Arriagada, Juan de Dios Cabrera Figueroa, Alejandro Escobar Vásquez, Héctor Domingo Aguayo Olavarría, and Raúl Marcial Figueroa Burckhardt, which is why they began a fruitless search in the different detention centers that housed political prisoners at that time; for example, the family of Héctor Aguayo Olavarría, after finding out through...

Luis Díaz and Esteban Díaz, having learned from Héctor that he was being held inside the Tucapel Regiment in Temuco, immediately went to this location, where his detention was denied. The same occurred when they inquired about him at the Villarrica Police Station.

Later, and due to the political persecution the family was suffering, the mother of Héctor Aguayo Olavarría, along with his brothers and sisters, decided to emigrate to Argentina; however, Héctor's father remained in Curarrehue in search of his son, where he passed away without finding him.

Z.-

Currently, only the account existing in the Museum of Memory and Human Rights remains, which details the disappearance of these young men following their detention on September 13, 1973. It has been possible to verify until now, as has been stated, that in accordance with the accounts, the victims were indeed detained, outside of any judicial process, in the area of the Río Turbio bridge, near the fork in the road leading to the town of Caburgua and the commune of Curarrehue, by Luis Robinson Bustos Letelier, a Carabineros Captain and head of the Pucón Sub-station.

They were immediately transferred to said police unit, then taken as detainees to the facilities of the Tucapel Regiment in Temuco, momentarily released, and then apprehended once again; on this occasion, they were pressured and tortured inside the same Regiment.

And as stated, for reasons not clarified in the case files, they were transferred to the public jail in the city of Temuco, only to finally return in the same status to the facilities of the Tucapel Regiment in Temuco.

As described by the witness with the initials M.J.C.S., when he was tasked with loading 8 bodies of deceased persons from the shooting range on Isla Cautín, he recognized Héctor Aguayo Olavarría, Hugo Arner González Ortega, and Elías Dagoberto González Ortega, at least 3 of the 8 victims in the case.

The dynamic of detaining, granting freedom, and then re-apprehending the same people to re-enter them as political prisoners was a habitual practice used by state agents.

Ad-hoc Prosecutor

Likewise, the resolution states: “That the aforementioned facts must have been known to the officers in command of the Headquarters and Services Company of the Tucapel Regiment in Temuco, among them, Raimundo Ignacio García Covarrubias, Pedro Guillermo Manuel Tichauer Salcedo, and Romilio Osvaldo Lavín Muñoz, to which this conscript with the initials M.J.C.S. belonged.

And as detailed in item 37 of this resolution, Mr. Alfonso Podlech Michaud acted from September 11, 1973, as legal advisor and ad-hoc Military Prosecutor of the Tucapel Regiment in Temuco, interrogating detainees and deciding the fate of those deprived of liberty, holding at that date the power of decision and command within the facilities of the aforementioned Regiment.

Likewise, and as detailed in item 51, in relation to the statement by Spanish citizen Francisco Jerónimo Matta Aro, the facts were known to the lawyer Alfonso Podlech Michaud, since according to what Mr.

Matta told his son, it was Mr. Podlech who ordered Héctor Aguayo, along with another person, to remain in the Prosecutor's Office as they were to be interrogated. In this sense, in his capacity as ad-hoc Prosecutor and Legal Advisor to the Military Prosecutor's Office, he did not denounce or inform the military hierarchy or any other authority of the investigated illicit acts, nor is there any record that an investigation was carried out, nor the existence of a registry as a consequence of the commission of these acts.”

“Such were the powers,” it continues, “that this lawyer had, that the very statements of the Guard Chief of the Temuco public jail for October 1973, in his declaration on pages 4,195 to 4,196, Volume XII, stated that, given the overcrowding after September 11, 1973, he went to speak with the person in charge of the military prosecutor's office, alluding to the aforementioned lawyer, who ‘normalized the situation.’ A consequence of what was previously exposed are the multiple assertions made by members who served inside the Regiment at the time of the investigated events, namely: statements by Aquiles Poblete Muller (deceased as recorded on page 4,147, Volume XII), a retired Commissioner of the Chilean Investigative Police, who in his declaration on page 3,665, Volume X, expressed that ‘the great person responsible for all this and who decided the fate of the detainees is the lawyer Alfonso Podlech, who was in charge of the military prosecutor's office.’

In this same vein, it is relevant to keep in mind what was stated by the First Sergeant of the Tucapel Regiment, José Heriberto Mansilla Gatica, who in his judicial declaration on page 3,809, Volume XI, pointed out: ‘… as of September 1973, the second commander of the Regiment, surnamed Jofré, did not take statements.

Iturriaga Marchesse only dealt with general matters. The daily work of the prosecutor's office, such as interrogating and making decisions regarding the detainees, was Alfonso Podlech’s.’”

For the visiting judge, in this instance: “Likewise, and to reinforce what was stated above, it is of utmost importance to mention the document on page 4,156, Volume XII, which accounts for a release order for two people, dated September 28, 1973, issued by the Military Prosecutor's Office of Temuco and signed by the lawyer and ad-hoc military prosecutor in question.

This is in relation to what is concluded in the documentary expert report on pages 4,157 to 4,185, Volume XII, issued by the Central Criminalistics Laboratory of the Chilean Investigative Police, which, among other things, expresses the following: ‘the evidence examined on this occasion allows us to establish that the impugned signature traced over the text indicating FISCAL, in the ‘LIBERTAT’ [sic] order No.

S/N, from the Cautín-Temuco Military Prosecutor's Office, dated September 28, 1973, addressed to the Carabineros of Chile, Pucón Sub-station, which orders the release of Mario Fernando Cortés Bornard and Ubildo Antonio Jiménez Vargas, is genuine of Óscar Alfonso Podlech Michaud,’ which is also directly linked to the documentary expert report prepared by the Central Criminalistics Laboratory of the Chilean Investigative Police, on pages 4,186 to 4,192, Volume XII, in that it concludes the following: ‘the evaluation of the evidence examined on this occasion allows us to establish that the impugned signature, subscribed over the text Luis A. Jofré Soto Mayor Fiscal, on the copy of the authorization dated in Temuco on December 18, 1973, addressed to Dr. Wolfgang Reuter, Regional Hospital, issued by the Cautín-Temuco Military Prosecutor's Office of the Chilean Army, is genuine of Óscar Alfonso Podlech Michaud.’ What was previously expressed corroborates the responsibility in these events of the aforementioned legal advisor and ad-hoc Military Prosecutor.”

“That to date, no public official of the Chilean Army or any other branch of the Armed Forces and/or Order and Security who served at the time of the events has provided any information to the respective authority in relation to what happened to Hugo Arner González Ortega, Elías Dagoberto González Ortega, Juan Carlos Schmidt Arriagada, Ricardo Schmidt Arriagada, Juan de Dios Cabrera Figueroa, Alejandro Escobar Vásquez, Héctor Domingo Aguayo Olavarría, and Raúl Marcial Figueroa Burckhardt, maintaining to this day the concealment of all types of information regarding their whereabouts,” it concludes.

Source: pjud.cl, November 8, 2022

Date: 11-08-2022

Four former Army officers and one former military prosecutor prosecuted for crimes against humanity committed in Temuco in 1973 and 1974

In separate cases, the minister on extraordinary assignment for human rights violation cases for the jurisdictions of Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Coyhaique, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, issued indictments against four former Army officers and one civilian who acted as a military prosecutor for crimes against humanity committed against 9 workers, victims of repressive episodes recorded in the province of Cautín in September 1973 and August 1974.

Eight young victims of kidnapping with serious injury

In a resolution adopted in case file 4.473, the visiting judge indicted the civilian who was then ad-hoc military prosecutor Óscar Alfonso Ernesto Podlech Michaud and the former Army officers Pedro Guillermo Manuel Tichauer Salcedo, Raimundo Ignacio García Covarrubias, and Romilio Osvaldo Lavín Muñoz, as accomplices to the crime of kidnapping with serious injury, committed starting September 13, 1973, at the No. 8 "Tucapel" Infantry Regiment of Temuco, as a crime against humanity, against the victims Hugo Arner González Ortega, Elías Dagoberto González Ortega, Carlos Schmidt Arriagada, Ricardo Augusto Schmidt Arriagada, Juan de Dios Cabrera Figueroa, Héctor Domingo Aguayo Olavarría, Alejandro Escobar Vásquez, and Raúl Marcial Figueroa Burckhardt.

Source: resumen.cl, July 12, 2022

Date: 07-12-2022

Minister Álvaro Mesa issues indictment for kidnapping with serious injury at Temuco regiment in 1973

The minister on extraordinary assignment for human rights violation cases for the jurisdictions of Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Coyhaique, Álvaro Claudio Mesa Latorre, issued indictment number 130 on the matter, for the crime of kidnapping with serious injury of eight young men. The illicit act was committed in September 1973, at the No. 8 “Tucapel” Infantry Regiment of Temuco.

In the resolution (case file 4.473), the visiting judge indicted the then ad-hoc military prosecutor Óscar Alfonso Ernesto Podlech Michaud and the retired Army officers Pedro Guillermo Manuel Tichauer Salcedo, Raimundo Ignacio García Covarrubias, and Romilio Osvaldo Lavín Muñoz, as accomplices to the crime of kidnapping with serious injury, as a crime against humanity, against the victims Hugo Arner González Ortega, Elías Dagoberto González Ortega, Carlos Schmidt Arriagada, Ricardo Augusto Schmidt Arriagada, Juan de Dios Cabrera Figueroa, Alejandro Escobar Vásquez, Héctor Domingo Aguayo Olavarría, and Raúl Marcial Figueroa Burckhardt. The illicit act was perpetrated starting September 13, 1973.

During the investigation stage of the case, Minister Mesa Latorre managed to gather sufficient evidence to consider the following facts proven:

“That Hugo Arner González Ortega, 23 years old, Head of Roads and Works of the Municipality of Villarrica and a militant of the Socialist Party; Elías Dagoberto González Ortega, 24 years old, Head of Warehouses for the Banco del Estado Resort in Villarrica, a militant of the Socialist Party and Propaganda Officer in Villarrica; Juan de Dios Cabrera Figueroa, 20 years old, student and militant of the Socialist Youth; Carlos Schmidt Arriagada, 21 years old, employee of the Housing Corporation (CORVI) and militant of the Socialist Party; Ricardo Augusto Schmidt Arriagada, 18 years old, student and militant of the Socialist Party; Alejandro Escobar Vásquez, 18 years old, student and militant of the Socialist Party; Héctor Domingo Aguayo Olavarría, 17 years old, student and militant of the Socialist Youth; and Raúl Marcial Figueroa Burckhardt, 22 years old, militant of the Socialist Youth, decided to leave the country because they believed their lives or at least their physical integrity were in serious danger, because the homes of some of them had already been raided by the Carabineros of Villarrica, who were searching for them intensely.

That on September 13, 1973, the eight young men identified above took a minibus that would take them toward Curarrehue, where they would attempt to cross into Argentina through some border crossing. However, one of the young men regretted it and cried, which is why they all decided to get off the public transport vehicle in the area of the Río Turbio bridge, near the fork in the road leading to the town of Caburgua and the commune of Curarrehue, respectively.

Immediately afterward, they began their march toward Caburgua, taking care not to encounter military or Carabinero patrols so as not to be detected.

That after having walked about eight kilometers, they spotted a vehicle approaching from Pucón. Héctor Domingo Aguayo Olavarría recognized the vehicle as the pickup truck that had belonged to his father and which had been sold some time ago to a well-known merchant from Pucón, so they did not suspect it could be a patrol.

However, in said vehicle were Luis Robinson Bustos Letelier, a Carabineros Captain and head of the Pucón Sub-station, and other uniformed officers from the same unit, who, upon seeing the group of young men on the road, stopped their vehicle next to them.

That Luis Robinson Bustos Letelier, head of the patrol, after a brief interrogation, ordered the detention of the eight young men without apparently carrying an order or having legal authority for such an act, ordering their transfer to the facilities of the Pucón Sub-station.

For these purposes, the Carabineros Captain, the aforementioned officer, and some of his companions remained at the scene, while Corporal Monsalve, the driver of the vehicle, and another officer took the detainees to the Sub-station, as recorded in the declaration of Diógenes Segundo Bravo Bernales (…).

That when Bustos Letelier returned to the unit, he was informed by the duty Sub-officer Diógenes Bravo Bernales that the detainees had been transferred to the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco.

That the victims were indeed entered into the facilities of the No. 8 Tucapel Infantry Regiment of Temuco, a place where, as stated, starting September 11, 1973, a large number of people from different parts of the region were held as detainees solely for their political affiliation.

After that, they were allegedly released momentarily, only to be detained again and, on this occasion, pressured and tortured inside the same Regiment. And for reasons not clarified in the case files, they were transferred to the public jail in the city of Temuco, to finally return as detainees once again to the facilities of the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco.

That in the aforementioned Regiment, the victims were seen by other people who were in the same status, such as the case of the Spanish citizen Francisco Jerónimo Matta Aro, detained between Pucón and Curarrehue approximately on September 13, 1973, who confessed to his son that he knew Héctor Aguayo Olavarría because his father was from the Socialist Party and a friend of his family, that both were transferred as detainees to the facilities of the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, and were placed at the disposal of the Military Prosecutor Alfonso Podlech Michaud, who ordered the expulsion of his father from the national territory for supposedly being a financier of the MIR guerrilla and the Socialist Party, and ordered Héctor Aguayo, along with another person, to remain in the Prosecutor's Office as they would be interrogated (…).

That during those days, inside the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, a conscript with the initials M.J.C.S. was serving in the Headquarters and Services Company, who, after observing the photographs of Héctor Aguayo Olavarría, Elías Dagoberto González Ortega, and Hugo González Ortega, which are on pages 5 to 7 of the secret case file, was able to perfectly recognize them when they were being tortured in a room located in the Headquarters and Services Company of the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, a place where two officers and a group of detectives were present; stating that the detainees were transferred to this facility in plain view of everyone who was in the Company, as everyone was aware of its existence. This conscript was located 10 meters from that room and was an eyewitness to when nylon bags were placed over the detainees and they were subjected to electric shocks on different parts of their bodies, and he could also hear the screams of pain resulting from the same. That although he states that at that time it was difficult to memorize the faces of the detainees because they were shaved, he memorized the faces of the indicated victims because upon entering the torture room they were blindfolded, but upon leaving they did so without a blindfold, which is why he was able to recognize them perfectly.

That days after the events described in the previous paragraph, the conscript with the initials M.J.C.S. was tasked on two occasions with loading a military truck with bodies of deceased persons from the shooting range on Isla Cautín.

On the first occasion, he loaded 10 bodies, all male, whose ages fluctuated between 25 and 30 years old; while the second time he loaded 8 bodies, also male, but on this occasion, they were younger people than in the previous case.

That present at the scene, among others, were some conscripts from his company, among whom he remembers José Chávez Etchepare and Luis Valeria Candia (deceased as recorded on page 3,505, Volume X, and page 3,502, Volume X).

That although it was night, with the light from the vehicles he could observe that they were indeed young people, who presented multiple bullet impacts, even one of them presented a bullet impact in the head, adding that almost all of them had their hands tied and their faces uncovered, being able to recognize according to the photographs on pages 5 to 7 of the secret case file, that of these 8 bodies, 3 corresponded to Héctor Aguayo Olavarría, and the brothers Hugo and Elías González Ortega, all from the secret case file of this cause (…).

That after which, and on both occasions, the truck left in the direction of the Allipén bridge, while he and the conscripts of his company remained in the Regiment, and the personnel of the Second Cazadores took charge of the transfer of the corpses to the aforementioned river.

That this conscript was later able to confirm that the Allipén bridge was the final destination of these bodies, where they were thrown into its waters, since the conscript Luis Valeria Candia (deceased on page 3,502, Volume X), boasting about these events, told him about the situation.

That finally, after the detention on September 13, 1973, the relatives of the victims never again had news about Hugo Arner González Ortega, Elías Dagoberto González Ortega, Carlos Schmidt Arriagada, Ricardo Augusto Schmidt Arriagada, Juan de Dios Cabrera Figueroa, Alejandro Escobar Vásquez, Héctor Domingo Aguayo Olavarría, and Raúl Marcial Figueroa Burckhardt, which is why they began a fruitless search in the different detention centers that housed political prisoners at that time; for example, the family of Héctor Aguayo Olavarría, after learning from Luis Díaz and Esteban Díaz that Héctor was being held inside the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, immediately went to this place, where his detention was denied. The same happened when they inquired about him at the Pucón Police Station. Later, and due to the political persecution the family was suffering, the mother of Héctor Aguayo Olavarría, along with his brothers and sisters, decided to emigrate to Argentina; however, Héctor's father remained in Curarrehue in search of his son, where he passed away without finding him.

That the aforementioned facts must have been known to the officers in command of the Headquarters and Services Company of the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, among them, Raimundo Ignacio García Covarrubias, Pedro Guillermo Manuel Tichauer Salcedo, and Romilio Osvaldo Lavín Muñoz, to which this conscript with the initials M.J.C.S. belonged.

And as detailed in item 37 of this resolution, Mr. Alfonso Podlech Michaud acted from September 11, 1973, as legal advisor and ad-hoc Military Prosecutor of the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, interrogating detainees and deciding the fate of those deprived of liberty, holding at that date the power of decision and command within the facilities of the aforementioned Regiment.

Likewise, and as detailed in item 51, in relation to the statement by Spanish citizen Francisco Jerónimo Matta Aro, the facts were known to the lawyer Alfonso Podlech Michaud, since according to what Mr.

Matta told his son, it was Mr. Podlech who ordered Héctor Aguayo, along with another person, to remain in the Prosecutor's Office as they would be interrogated. In this sense, in his capacity as ad-hoc Prosecutor and Legal Advisor to the Military Prosecutor's Office, he did not denounce or inform the military hierarchy or any other authority of the investigated illicit acts, nor is there any record that an investigation was carried out, nor the existence of a registry as a consequence of the commission of these acts (…).”

“Given the merit of the evidence, the nature of the crime, the assigned penalty, the age of the prosecuted, and the health situation in which the country finds itself, it is more appropriate for the purposes of the procedure –for now– to decree the personal precautionary measure of total house arrest,” adds the indictment.

Likewise, it adds: “Given the merit of the evidence, from which it is clear that the freedom of the prosecuted constitutes a danger to the security of society; taking into account, also, the probable legal sanction of the crimes in which their participation is attributed; and having seen the provisions of article 363 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, they will not be granted the benefit of provisional release.”

Source: pjud.cl, 07-11-2022

Date: 07-11-2022

Retired Carabinero remains in preventive detention for illegal detention of young men during dictatorship

By decision of the minister on assignment for human rights violation cases of the Temuco Court of Appeals, Álvaro Mesa, a retired Carabinero was prosecuted and placed in preventive detention within the framework of the investigation into the illegal detention of eight young men, which occurred in Pucón on September 13, 1973.

The measure affects Luis Robinson Bustos Letelier, who was identified as the perpetrator of the crimes of illegal detention of the brothers Hugo Arner and Elías Dagoberto González Ortega, in addition to Juan Carlos and Ricardo Schmidt Arriagada, along with Juan de Dios Cabrera Figueroa, Alejandro Escobar Vásquez, Héctor Domingo Aguayo Olavarría, and Raúl Marcial Figueroa Burckhardt, whose ages ranged between 17 and 24 years old.

On September 13, 1973, the eight young men took a minibus that would take them toward Curarrehue, where they would attempt to cross into Argentina through some border crossing. However, for reasons still not clarified, they decided to get off the public transport vehicle in the area of the Río Turbio bridge, near the fork in the road leading to the town of Caburgua and the commune of Curarrehue, respectively.

Immediately afterward, they began their march toward Caburgua, taking care not to encounter military or Carabinero patrols so as not to be detected.

However, a civilian pickup truck suddenly arrived at the scene, in which a Carabineros captain, head of the Pucón Sub-station, and other uniformed officers from the same unit were traveling, who, upon seeing the group of young men on the road, stopped their vehicle next to them, proceeding to detain them and ordering them to be taken to the police unit.

The head of the patrol and some of his companions remained at the scene, while the driver of the pickup truck and another officer took the detainees away. When the officer returned to the unit, he was informed that the detainees had been transferred to the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco.

Source: biobio.cl, July 21, 2015

Date: 07-21-2015

Three former Army officers and one civilian sentenced for the crime of eight people in Villarrica in 1973

In the ruling (case file 4.473), Minister Mesa Latorre sentenced the civilian, then ad-hoc military prosecutor Óscar Alfonso Ernesto Podlech Michaud, and the former officers Pedro Guillermo Manuel Tichauer Salcedo, Raimundo Ignacio García Covarrubias, and Romilio Osvaldo Lavín Muñoz to single sentences of 15 years of effective imprisonment and the accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights, and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentences, as accomplices to crimes against humanity against four workers and four students at that time. The group of 8 young men, composed of four workers and four students, were detained while they were attempting to leave the country to escape the uniformed persecution that was being unleashed against them, given their militancy and commitment to the overthrown government of Salvador Allende.

Hugo Arner González Ortega, 23 years old, was Head of Roads and Works of the Municipality of Villarrica; Elías Dagoberto González Ortega, 24 years old, was Head of Warehouses for the Banco del Estado Resort in Villarrica; Juan de Dios Cabrera Figueroa, 20 years old, was a student; Carlos Schmidt Arriagada, 21 years old, employee of the Housing Corporation (CORVI); Raúl Marcial Figueroa Burckhardt, 22 years old; and the minors Ricardo Augusto Schmidt Arriagada, 18 years old, was a student; Alejandro Escobar Vásquez, 18 years old, student; Héctor Domingo Aguayo Olavarría, 17 years old, student; decided to leave the country because they believed their physical integrity and lives were in serious danger; the homes of some of them had already been raided by the Carabineros of Villarrica, who were searching for them intensely.

On September 13, 1973, the eight young men took a minibus that would take them toward Curarrehue, from where they would attempt to cross into Argentina through some border crossing. However, one of the young men regretted attempting the crossing, which is why they all got off the public transport vehicle in the area of the Río Turbio bridge, near the fork in the road toward Caburgua and Curarrehue.

Then they began their march toward Caburgua, taking care not to encounter military or Carabinero patrols so as not to be detected.

However, kilometers later they were detained by Carabineros from the Pucón Sub-station who were traveling in a civilian pickup truck, so the young men did not suspect it could be a patrol.

The eight detainees were transferred to that police facility and from there derived to the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco. The victims were entered into the facilities of the No. 8 Tucapel Infantry Regiment of Temuco, a place where, starting September 11, 1973, a large number of people from different parts of the region were held as political prisoners.

In that military facility, they were placed at the disposal of the then Military Prosecutor, the lawyer Alfonso Podlech Michaud, and subjected to torture by officers and uniformed personnel belonging to the contingent of that Regiment.

The 8 young men were allegedly executed by military personnel of the Tucapel Regiment and then their corpses were forcibly disappeared; according to some versions from former conscripts of the time, the murdered people were loaded onto a military truck and transferred to the Allipén bridge to be thrown into the waters at that location.

Source: resumen.cl, August 30, 2024

Hugo and Elías González Ortega, brothers forcibly disappeared along with the group of socialists captured in Curarrehue, September 1973:

Hugo González Ortega (23 years old, single, head of roads and works of the municipality of Villarrica, militant of the Socialist Party, local secretary of the PS in Villarrica) and Elías González Ortega (24 years old, head of Warehouses for the Banco Estado Resort in Villarrica, militant of the PS, propaganda officer in Villarrica, single), both brothers from a family of 9 children, born and raised in the city of Villarrica, where part of their family continues to live today, a few blocks from their original home.

Upon graduating from high school, both brothers decided to look for work in their hometown, with fruitless results, which motivated them to travel to Santiago, a place where, despite not finding job opportunities, they had contact with the socialist ideal, which, upon returning to Villarrica, motivated them to join the ranks of the Socialist Party, while at the same time managing to find jobs in their hometown.

It is during their militancy that they generated a friendship with both the Schmidt brothers (who came to live between the two, for about 5 years in the house of the González Ortega family) and with Héctor Domingo Aguayo, Alejandro Escobar, Juan De Dios Cabrera, Raúl Marcial Figueroa Burckhardt, and other militants of the party in Villarrica.

Shortly after joining the party, the presidential campaign of comrade Salvador Allende began, so the González Ortega brothers began their campaign work for the Popular Unity, managing to obtain positions of importance in their locality, such as the case of Hugo, who became general secretary of the party in Villarrica, and Elías, who obtained the position of propaganda officer in the city.

According to testimonies from the González Ortega family, both brothers worked enormously on the campaign, going out to carry out propaganda day and night and with great emphasis on helping with agricultural work in the fields around the area, achieving significant support from the peasant sector for the campaign.

After the "Tanquetazo," the fears within the González Ortega family increased, until at the beginning of September, prior to the military coup, Hugo was arrested by Carabinero officials and released days later.

When September 11 arrived, Hugo and Elías told their family that the Popular Unity government had been struck by the military, and revealed their intention to flee to Argentina along with their companions Juan Carlos and Ricardo Schmidt, Alejandro Escobar, Héctor Domingo Aguayo, Raúl Marcial Figueroa Burckhardt, and Juan de Dios Cabrera; the 8 gathered and decided to leave in the direction of Argentina.

At the time of the flight, Elías González was in a romantic relationship that was to be finalized in December 1973 with his marriage; it never took place.

According to witness testimonies, the 8 passed through other places before finally heading to Curarrehue on September 13; near the border crossing, they were intercepted by a private pickup truck which, with Carabineros, took them to the Pucón station.

According to unofficial sources, the owner of this private vehicle was a right-wing sympathizer named Carlos Barra, who was in the area intercepting left-wing militants or Popular Unity sympathizers who were attempting to cross in the direction of Argentina; subsequently, Carlos Barra would become mayor of Pucón for his party, National Renewal; as of today, 2012, he plans to run again for mayor of Pucón.

In the first instance, they were taken as detainees to the Carabineros prefecture of Pucón, to then be taken to the prefecture of Villarrica, and finally to end up detained at the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, where, according to unofficial sources, the 8 were executed by firing squad.

The González Ortega family did not initially learn of the detention of their sons and received rumors that Hugo and Elías had been seen in Argentina. Luisa González Ortega, sister of both, went to look for them in the neighboring country without luck in March 1974, and the situation continued like this until a few months later, a sister of Héctor Domingo Aguayo informed them that the group was detained on September 13, 1973, in Curarrehue and also told them of the successive transfers they experienced until ending up at the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco; from then on, the fate of their brothers was an unknown for the González Ortega family.

After the brothers' flight, their house was raided by the military, a situation that would repeat for 5 years, including at the home to which they moved in 1978; during the raids, damage was caused to the property, interrogations of the family, and the theft of documents that belonged to Hugo and Elías.

Added to this situation, there was discrimination and a series of taunts from the community of neighbors of the González Ortega family, which continue to this day; the family denounces that neighbors adhering to the Christian Democrats and right-wing parties have made constant taunts since the moment of the detention, using pejorative terms such as “there go those communists” and others similar.

Due to the raids, the taunts the family suffered, the fear of reprisals, and the pain of not knowing the state of their sons and brothers, the González Ortega family abandoned the investigation to find out the fate of Hugo and Elías, until 1990, thanks to the actions of the Escobar Vázquez family, relatives of the 8 detainees managed to launch a lawsuit.

They were offered an indemnity of 5 million pesos, which was initially rejected by the mother, although she was pressured by her children to momentarily stabilize their economic situation, so she ended up accepting it reluctantly.

With the return to democracy, the party approached the family at the beginning of the 90s to provide help with the lawsuit; Mr. Alfredo Varas and other members of the party approached them; for a time, contact was maintained, but suddenly it ended, and the family also lost interest in approaching the party. Only Mrs. Rita González Ortega maintained contact with Mr. Alfredo Varas.

According to her testimony, at the SERVIU headquarters in Araucanía, located next to the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, a commemorative plaque was placed for her brother Hugo and another official, as both worked for the roads and works department of the municipality of Villarrica during the Popular Unity.

At the time of conducting this investigation, she affirms believing that the plaque was removed by officials of the administration of the current government of Sebastián Piñera; upon going to verify this, no plaque was found at the location.

Source: Written by the sister of Hugo and Elías, Received by Memoriaviva from the Socialist Youth of Temuco - 2012