Occupation: Laborer. Director of the Professional Union of Truck Loader Workers at the Empresa de Transportes Cóndor Political Affiliation: None Date of Detention: September 13, 1973

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

Federico Riquelme Concha, married, father of 3 children, union leader of the Truck Loader Workers at the Empresa de Transportes Cóndor, was detained on September 13, 1973, around 07:00, as he was preparing to start his shift as a crane assistant at the company where he worked in Laja.

The detention was carried out by a Carabineros patrol from the Laja station under the command of Sergeant Pedro Rodríguez Ceballos, and included officers from the same institution: José San Martín, Juan Muñoz, one with the surname González, and another with the surname Montoya.

The detention was communicated to his spouse around 17:00 by a young man with the surname Zambrano—a civilian who assisted at the Carabineros station—who also informed her that Sergeant Rodríguez said she needed to bring him warm clothing and food.

She immediately went to the Carabineros station, where she was able to confirm his detention. In the following days, she visited him daily, and on each occasion, she was allowed to personally hand him warm clothing and food, as well as speak with him.

During the visits she made to her husband during his imprisonment, she was able to recognize Jorge Lamana and Fernando Grandón among the detainees, both of whom have also been forcibly disappeared since that time.

On September 16, 1973, Sergeant Pedro Rodríguez handed Federico Riquelme’s spouse the victim's belt, documents, and shoelaces, indicating that he would likely be transferred to the Los Angeles Regiment along with the other detainees.

Subsequently, on September 18, 1973, just as she had done every day since Riquelme’s detention, his spouse arrived early in the morning to bring him breakfast. On this occasion, she was informed that all the detainees had been sent to the Los Angeles Regiment, a place they never reached.

According to witness accounts, the detainees were taken from the station to an unknown destination around 04:00 on September 18, 1973, in a minibus and a pickup truck. It was later established that all of the detainees (20) were executed that day, September 18, at the Fundo San Juan, located on the road between Laja and Yumbel.

The other detainees executed alongside the victim are: Juan Acuña Concha, Luis Araneda Reyes, Manuel Becerra Avello, Rubén Campos López, Dagoberto Garfias Gatica, Fernando Grandón Gálvez, Jack Gutiérrez Rodríguez, José Jara Herrera, Mario Jara Jara, Jorge Lamana Abarzúa, Alfonso Macaya Barrales, Heraldo Muñoz Muñoz, Wuilzon Muñoz Rodríguez, Luis Sáez Espinoza, Oscar Sanhueza Contreras, Luis Ulloa Valenzuela, Raúl Urra Parada, Juan Villarroel Espinoza, and Jorge Zorrilla Rubio.

All of them were executed by Laja Carabineros on that same day, September 13, 1973, when they were removed from the public place of detention. They were taken to the grounds of the Fundo San Juan, where, after being killed, they were clandestinely buried in a sand pit.

Local residents noticed the events and notified the Yumbel Court, which did not conduct any investigation. Carabineros from that area exhumed the bodies, and they were buried a second time in a clandestine manner, this time in a mass grave at the Yumbel Cemetery.

Part of this information reached the families' ears over the years; every time they tried to verify it with the authorities, and especially with the Laja Carabineros, they insisted on the version of the transfer to Los Angeles.

It was not until 1979, as a result of a judicial investigation, that the bodies were exhumed, identified, and handed over to their families. (For further background, see the case of Jack Eduardo Gutiérrez Rodríguez).

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

Due to fear, Riquelme Concha’s family did not take legal action until July 24, 1979, the date on which a complaint was filed before the Laja Court of Greater Jurisdiction, registered under No. 2770, for the crimes of kidnapping and homicide of Fernando Grandón Gálvez and others—including Federico Riquelme Concha—against Lieutenant Alberto Fernández Mitchel, Sergeant Pedro Rodríguez, and other Carabineros officers stationed at the Laja precinct in September 1973.

Following this complaint, Mr. José Martínez Gaensly was appointed as a Visiting Judge, who, through the investigation, was able to establish that Federico Riquelme Concha was executed along with 19 other detainees at the Fundo San Juan, located about 200 meters from the highway connecting Laja and Los Angeles.

The bodies were illegally exhumed by the perpetrators themselves (Carabineros from the Laja station). Subsequently, they were clandestinely transported to the Yumbel Cemetery by Carabineros officers from that city.

This occurred despite the fact that the discovery of the bodies had been duly reported by the Yumbel Carabineros to the judge of the Court of Greater Jurisdiction in the same city, who ordered the court secretary to keep the report in the safe without initiating due process.

On October 2, 1979, the remains of the 19 people whose detention and subsequent disappearance had been reported were exhumed at the Yumbel Cemetery. After further proceedings, the 20th body was found at the same site of the homicide, at the Fundo San Juan.

On November 27, 1979, the remains were handed over to their families, and the funerals were held that same day. On March 18, 1980, the Visiting Judge declared his lack of jurisdiction and ordered the files to be sent to the Military Justice system, where they were registered under No. 323-80 at the Ad Hoc Military Prosecutor's Office of Concepción.

The case was definitively dismissed on June 9, 1980, by the Judge of the 3rd Military Court, and the ruling was approved by the Supreme Court on December 3, 1981. Those responsible for the crimes of kidnapping and homicide were granted amnesty based on Decree Law 2191 of 1978.

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity

The award-winning documentary about the 19 people murdered in 1973 in Laja invites reflection on the banality of evil, pacts of silence, and the active participation of civilians and the Compañía Manufacturera de Papeles y Cartones (CMPC) in human rights violations.

After 46 years, there are still no convictions, although there are 20 defendants, including 3 employees of CMPC, owned by the Matte family.

A few days after the coup d'état of September 11, 1973, 19 men were murdered in the vicinity of San Rosendo (famous for "La pérgola de las flores"), most of them workers at the Compañía Manufacturera de Papeles y Cartones (CMPC), detained based on a list that the company had allegedly provided.

These are stories that everyone knows halfway, that few spoke about, because the lumber company is the one that provides jobs and, as everyone knew, it had provided every facility to the Carabineros so they could do what they did: murder people detained at their workplaces without trial or, even less, a conviction.

CMPC provided lists of people it considered dangerous, and provided vehicles and food. All in exchange for getting rid of those they deemed undesirable.

Days after their detentions, CMPC sent a letter to the families regarding their absence from work, and a month later, their severance pay and final settlement checks for missing work.

"They had to be eliminated because there was no capacity to hold so many detainees" is one of the reasons used to justify the massacre and explain the clumsiness with which it was carried out.

"Las cruces," by Teresa Arredondo (Sibila-2012-, Días con Matilde -2011-) and Carlos Vásquez Méndez ([Pewen] Araucaria, 2016), investigates this case based on court documents and the Legal Medical Service, as well as some testimonies, in a case that began to be investigated in 1979 thanks to the persistence of the families of the forcibly disappeared before the justice system.

But it was only almost 40 years later, thanks to some Carabineros breaking the pact of silence, that the truth began to be known.

"Las cruces" shows the brutality, that senseless, banal kind, built on fears and unsubstantiated claims. The kind that seeks to gain advantages regardless of the lives of others. It also shows the solidity of the pacts of silence.

And a massacre that is still full of contradictions and has no convicted culprits, even though almost everyone involved, both uniformed and civilian, has been identified.

List of the murdered

Juan Antonio Acuña Concha Luis Alberto Araneda Reyes Mario Manuel Becerra Avello Rubén Antonio Campos López Dagoberto Enrique Garfias Gatica Fernando Grandón Gálvez Jack Eduardo Gutiérrez Rodríguez Juan Carlos Jara Herrera Mario Jara Jara Jorge Andrés Lamana Abarzúa Alfonso Segundo Macaya Barrales Heraldo del Carmen Muñoz Muñoz Wilson Gamaniel Muñoz Rodríguez Federico Riquelme Concha Oscar Omar Sanhueza Ortiz Luis Armando Ulloa Valenzuela Raúl Urra Parada Juan de Dios Villarroel Espinoza Jorge Lautaro Zorrilla Rubio

Las cruces will premiere in theaters on November 7.

Las cruces Direction and screenplay: Teresa Arredondo and Carlos Vásquez Méndez Director of photography: Carlos Vásquez Méndez Editing: Martín Sappia and Carlos Vásquez Méndez Theatrical release: November 7

Source: BIOBIOCHILE.CL 19/10/2019 Date: 19-10-2019

"Aproximaciones al olvido" (Approaching Oblivion) is a documentary theater play about the memories of the families of the political victims murdered in Laja and San Rosendo in September 1973. It draws on Isidora Aguirre's work "Retablo de Yumbel" and pays homage to the El Rostro theater company of Concepción (1986).

From this September 11 to the 19th, the recording of the play can be seen on the social networks, YouTube and Facebook, of the La Insistencia company. By Daniel Erbo

Following a new commemoration of the civil-military coup and as a way to make visible the ruling of the Court of Appeals that convicted uniformed officers and a civilian, a former employee of the CMPC company of the Matte Group, the company decided to release the audiovisual adaptation of the play made during the pandemic.

"September 11 marks a before and after for the country's history, an after that was consensually pushed into oblivion. It is in relation to this oblivion that the play is founded, seeking to reflect on those omissions, for a 'never again.' In this sense, as a company, it seemed logical and necessary to us that the play be seen during these dates, especially because on September 18, 1973, the people who would later be found murdered as a result of the Laja and San Rosendo Massacre disappeared, to whom tribute is paid in this production," relates Nora Fuentealba, director of the play.

Among the actresses, María Riquelme, daughter of the union leader of the Truck Loader Workers at the Empresa de Transportes Cóndor, Federico Riquelme Concha, who was murdered, remembers with affection the process of creating a play "full of love." And following the judicial result, she reflects: "It feels good to have carried on the fight for so many years; I was only 3 years old when I lost my father, and since his body was found, I have pursued justice, from the age of nine onwards, going through hunger, cold, and pain."

Source: resumen.cl 11/09/2021 Date: 11-09-2021

Laja-San Rosendo Massacre: Concepción Court issues conviction for the homicide of 19 forestry workers in 1973

On Saturday, August 14, the Court of Concepción upheld the appeals filed by the plaintiffs against the resolution that sentenced nine retired Carabineros and one civilian for their responsibility in the crime of qualified homicide of 19 forestry workers. These crimes were perpetrated in September 1973, within the framework of the case known as "Laja-San Rosendo."

In a split decision, the Third Chamber of the appellate court—composed of ministers Juan Villa Sanhueza, Carola Rivas Vargas, and Nancy Bluck Bahamonde—partially revoked the contested resolution issued by Carlos Aldana Fuentes, the minister on extraordinary assignment for human rights violation cases at the Court of Appeals of Concepción.

In its resolution, the appellate court confirmed the sentence condemning Alberto Juan Fernández Michell to life imprisonment as the perpetrator of the qualified homicides of Fernando Grandón Gálvez, Jorge Andrés Lamana Abarzúa, Rubén Antonio Campos López, Juan Carlos Jara Herrera, Raúl Urra Parada, Luis Armando Ulloa Valenzuela, Óscar Omar Sanhueza Contreras, Dagoberto Enrique Garfias Gatica, Luis Alberto del Carmen Araneda Reyes, Juan Antonio Acuña Concha, Juan de Dios Villarroel Espinoza, Heraldo del Carmen Muñoz Muñoz, Federico Riquelme Concha, Jorge Lautaro Zorrilla Rubio, Manuel Mario Becerra Avello, Jack Eduardo Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Mario Jara Jara, Wilson Gamadiel Muñoz Rodríguez, and Alfonso Segundo Macaya Barrales.

Regarding José Jacinto Otárola Sanhueza, Mario Sebastián Montoya Burgos, and Manuel Enrique Cerda Robledo, the Court of Concepción determined that they participated in the 19 homicides as perpetrators, rather than as accessories, and consequently increased their sentences from 5 years of imprisonment to 15 years and one day of incarceration.

Furthermore, it ratified the sentences issued against Gerson Nilo Saavedra Reinike, Pedro del Carmen Parra Utreras, Víctor Manuel Campos Dávila, and Nelson Casanova Salgado, increasing their sentences from 5 years and one day to 15 years and one day of incarceration as perpetrators of the 19 qualified homicides.

In the case of Anselmo del Carmen San Martín Navarrete, the Concepción court set his sentence at 5 years and one day of imprisonment, with the benefit of intensive supervised release, to be served in his capacity as an accessory to the crimes.

Regarding Pedro Luis Jarpa Foerster, an employee of the Compañía Manufacturera de Papeles y Cartones (CMPC) in Laja, the Third Chamber revoked the ruling that had acquitted him, sentencing him instead to 5 years and one day of imprisonment as an accomplice to the qualified homicides of the following victims: Fernando Grandón Gálvez, Jack Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Heraldo Muñoz Muñoz, Raúl Urra Parada, Federico Riquelme Concha, Juan Villarroel Espinoza, and Wilson Muñoz Rodríguez.

Finally, the Court of Concepción confirmed the acquittal of Alejandro Lionel Aguilera Covarrubias, as his responsibility as an accomplice was not proven; it also confirmed the acquittal of former police officer René Luis Alberto Urrutia Elgueta, as his participation in the crime of illegal inhumation, committed at the end of October 1973 in a mass grave at the Yumbel Parish Cemetery, was not proven.

The Facts During the investigation phase of the case, Minister Carlos Aldana established the following facts:

"A.- That between September 13 and 17, 1973, while the country was under a state of siege, the following individuals were detained in the communes of Laja and San Rosendo by personnel from the Laja Carabineros Station, without a competent judicial or administrative order, and taken to the aforementioned police unit located at Calle Las Viñas N° 104 in the same city: Fernando Grandón Gálvez, Jorge Andrés Lamana Abarzúa, Rubén Antonio Campos López, Juan Carlos Jara Herrera, Raúl Urra Parada, Luis Armando Ulloa Valenzuela, Óscar Omar Sanhueza Contreras, Dagoberto Enrique Garfias Gatica, Luis Alberto del Carmen Araneda Reyes, Juan Antonio Acuña Concha, Juan de Dios Villarroel Espinoza, Heraldo del Carmen Muñoz Muñoz, Federico Riquelme Concha, Jorge Lautaro Zorrilla Rubio, Manuel Mario Becerra Avello, Jack Eduardo Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Mario Jara Jara, Wilson Gamadiel Muñoz Rodríguez, and Alfonso Segundo Macaya Barrales. It is specified that the victims Grandón, Gutiérrez, Muñoz, Urra, Riquelme, Villarroel, and Muñoz Rodríguez, all CMPC workers, were detained by Carabineros between September 13 and 14, 1973, at the entrance/exit gate of their workplace, the CMPC Laja Paper Plant, where an individual (Jarpa Foerster) held a list with each of their names, pointing out to the Carabineros who each person was, thereby facilitating their identification and detention. During the same dates and until September 17, 1973, the other individuals mentioned were detained and transported in CMPC paper mill vehicles, which had been provided by the company's managers for the transport of the detainees and driven by a CMPC employee to the Laja Station.

The aforementioned individuals were placed in the cells of the indicated police unit, remaining there until the night of September 17, 1973, when they were removed by uniformed personnel and loaded into vehicles belonging to the CMPC paper mill, supposedly to be transported to the Regiment in the city of Los Ángeles.

However, while traveling along Route Q-90, near the Perales Bridge, the convoy turned onto a side road for about 500 meters in a southerly direction, entering the so-called Fundo San Juan in the commune of Yumbel.

There, the Carabineros personnel from the Laja Station, armed with rifles and carbines, forced them out of the vehicles, ordering them to lie on the ground, side by side, face down and with their hands tied.

The police officers positioned themselves behind them, at which point the officer in charge stood to one side and, armed with his revolver, gave the order to fire. This order was carried out by the Carabineros present, who were positioned in a firing line, striking the bodies of the detainees with bullets and causing injuries that resulted in their deaths.

Immediately thereafter, the same police officers, using shovels brought for that purpose, dug a 60-centimeter-deep grave where they threw the bodies, covering them with a layer of earth. Once this operation was completed, they returned to the Laja Station, remaining silent about what had occurred.

Days later, Carabineros personnel returned to the area to cover the bodies with lime, the type used at the CMPC, which had allegedly been provided by employees of the same company.

C.- That approximately one month after these events, at the end of October 1973, dogs in the area found human remains, a fact noticed by a person passing through the area, who reported it to the Carabineros of Yumbel.

Following this report, the commissioner of that station, Major Héctor Orlando Rivera Rojas, ordered the then-Orderly Officer, Lieutenant René Luis Alberto Urrutia Elgueta, to go to the site. Upon verifying the report, he informed the commissioner, who ordered the corresponding report to be drawn up by the Salto del Laja Carabineros Station and sent to the Yumbel Court of Letters.

He took it there personally, accompanied by the chief physician of the Yumbel Hospital, who informed the then-Judge of Letters of that locality, Corina Mera, of the impossibility of receiving the bodies at the hospital due to health regulations.

She agreed that they should be transported directly to the parish cemetery for burial in a mass grave, which the aforementioned Orderly Officer carried out using a trailer pulled by a tractor, during the night, during curfew hours.

This procedure was carried out without performing the required autopsies on the bodies found, and they were buried without obtaining the corresponding sanitary authorization, nor a competent judicial order."

In civil matters, the Court of Concepción increased the compensation granted by Minister Aldana Fuentes to the victims' families, ordering the State of Chile to pay a total compensation of $5,440,000,000 (five billion four hundred and forty million pesos).

The resolution was reached with a dissenting vote from Minister Bluck Bahamondes on the following points: 1. Regarding the acquittal of the accused Pedro Jarpa Foerster, the dissenting judge is of the opinion that the first-instance decision should be confirmed, estimating that while it is proven that he facilitated the identification of the seven workers detained at the exit of the CMPC plant, there is insufficient evidence to conclude that the accused could have anticipated that the Carabineros officers were going to kill them.

On this point, the dissenting judge specifically notes that the detentions took place on September 11, 1973, just after the coup d'état, when there was no news of deaths or disappearances, so Jarpa Foerster could surely have imagined and accepted that the detained workers whose identification he cooperated with might be beaten or kept deprived of liberty for their alleged political ideology, but he had no way of anticipating the commission of the homicides, much less did he have any control over the treachery or premeditation with which they were committed. 2.

Regarding the first-instance decision to convict Anselmo San Martín as an accessory to 19 crimes of qualified homicide, the dissenting judge was in favor of revoking the judgment under review and instead acquitting him of the charges, noting that the first-instance judge considered his participation proven while ignoring the contradictions that exist in this regard among the various pieces of evidence.

Indeed, Vidal Riquelme maintained various versions during the investigation, stating that he did not remember San Martín being in the convoy (page 1693); that he dug the grave (page 1561); and that he did not see him at Fundo San Juan (page 1700).

Parra Urra declared that he did not know if San Martín was guarding the station (page 1699) and on page 3125 stated that he did participate in the executions; León Godoy stated on page 1691 that he did not remember if San Martín stayed at the station and on page 1697 vta, stated that he did; Fernández Michell stated on page 1695 vta that he did stay at the station; Saavedra maintained on page 1698 that he did not remember seeing him at the Fundo; Parra Utreras indicated on page 1699 that he did not see San Martín in the operation; Campos Dávila declared in a similar sense on page 1700 vta.

For the dissenting judge, these contradictions prevent the formation of a conviction that the accused San Martín participated in the convoy that transported the detainees to Fundo San Juan and necessitate an acquittal.

Source: elclarin.cl 16/08/2021 Date: 16-08-2021