Gerardo Antonio Encina Pérez, married, 1 child, farmer, and militant of the Socialist Party, was detained on October 2, 1973, when he reported to the San Javier Police Station, a facility to which he had been summoned by personnel of that police unit days earlier. At that time, he was accompanied by his wife, María Inés Samur Garrido, who in 1990 stated in a sworn affidavit before a Notary:

"In the month of September, I do not remember the day but it was after September 11, 1973, they took my husband, Gerardo Antonio Encina Pérez, 33 years old, into custody due to a denunciation by my mother, because he had an old carbine that had no bullets because they were not sold for that type of weapon.

They wanted him to hand over the weapons he had, which was impossible because it was not true, and he also did not want to hand over the one he did have. I saw in my house when they had him face down, lying on the floor, and 5 or 6 Carabineros climbed on top of him so that he would say he had weapons.

Later he was transferred to the Linares Jail, where he was detained for several days, I do not remember how many, until I got him out on bail of one thousand escudos that I paid at the Military Prosecutor's Office of Linares on September 17.

Days later, Carabineros went to the house and left him a summons for October 2. Before going to the San Javier Police Station, they could not take him that day, even though a patrol was there, because he had gone fishing with our son, Gerardo Patricio.

On October 2, before going to San Javier, I accompanied him to Linares, to the Prosecutor's Office, to ask for a certificate that, according to him, could help him; I did not read it, I do not know what it said, and then we went to the San Javier Police Station so he could present himself.

I waited for him outside because he shouted to me through a gate to wait for him, which I did until 5:00 PM, the time the bus was leaving.

The next day I returned to the San Javier Police Station to ask about him; I met with the Carabinero Cáceres, who told me he had not seen him. Cáceres was the Chief of the Station before the Coup, and with whom my husband had had a problem at a school party where they sold alcoholic beverages and everyone ended up drunk, including the Station Chief, who had him beaten; they had a trial that my husband won, and it cost Cáceres his transfer.

The day after my husband was detained at the San Javier Police Station, I went to the Military Prosecutor's Office in Linares; I told them that if they had killed him, they should let me bury him. From there, they called the San Javier Police Station on the phone and said that they had released him in the morning. I returned to my house, but he never returned."

She also points out that in an interview with the Military Commander (Jefe de Plaza) of the Linares area, he indicated to her that he had been released. However, she continued the search: "I kept trying to find him; one day on the bus to Linares, people were commenting that he was dead in the Loncomilla River; I stayed silent..."

The death and disappearance of Gerardo Antonio Encina Pérez is associated with other similar cases in the San Javier area that occurred in the months of September and October. In this locality, during those days, four people were forcibly disappeared, one of whose remains was identified and another recovered subsequently.

On September 15, before witnesses, the following people presented themselves voluntarily and were detained at the Melozal station: Cesáreo Soto, 60 years old, with no political affiliation; Vidal del Carmen Riquelme Ibáñez, 45 years old, animal trader and sympathizer of the Unidad Popular, all of whom remain disappeared to this day; Rubén Acevedo Gutiérrez, 22 years old, agricultural worker and peasant leader in Melozal, who was subsequently executed.

The Rettig Report states that Gerardo Antonio Encina Pérez was transferred from the San Javier Police Station to the Melozal Carabineros Station.

His relatives searched for him intensely and fruitlessly from that date on. They heard rumors indicating the existence of corpses in the Loncomilla River. On a bridge over this river, there were evident signs of blood, which is why the search began with the support of local firefighters.

The corpse of Rubén Acevedo was found, with bullet marks. Other corpses could not be recovered; among them, some people believed they recognized Gerardo Antonio Encina Pérez.

According to information, these four people were taken by their captors to the bridge over the Loncomilla River, where they were executed and their bodies thrown into the riverbed.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDINGS

There is no record of this case before the courts.

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity

Claudio Lecaros Carrasco was sentenced to five years in prison, but with benefits, for the qualified kidnapping of Gerardo Encina. The event occurred on October 2, 1973, in the commune of San Javier. The Supreme Court issued a final judgment in the investigation into the qualified kidnapping of Socialist militant Gerardo Antonio Encina Pérez, which occurred beginning on October 2, 1973, in the commune of San Javier.

In a split decision, the ministers of the Criminal Chamber of the country's highest court, Nibaldo Segura, Jaime Rodríguez, Rubén Ballesteros, Hugo Dolmestch, and Carlos Künsemüller, sentenced Claudio Lecaros Carrasco to five years in prison, with the benefit of supervised release.

The ruling was adopted with the dissenting votes of ministers Segura and Ballesteros, who were of the opinion that the statute of limitations for criminal action should be applied. The minister of the Talca Court of Appeals, Juana Venegas Ilabaca, had initially determined the acquittal of Lecaros Carrasco in the first instance.

Meanwhile, the appellate court had granted him a sentence of five years and one day in prison without benefits. Encina Pérez, 33, was detained after presenting himself at the San Javier police station, where he had been summoned by the dictatorship's authorities.

Source: cooperativa.cl 04/15/2010 Date: 04-15-2010

Talca Court of Appeals convicts former Army colonel for 1973 crime

The Second Chamber of the Talca Court of Appeals sentenced former Army colonel Claudio Lecaros to five years in prison for the qualified homicide of the peasant and Socialist Party militant Gerardo Antonio Encina, which occurred on October 2, 1973, local press reports.

The ruling maintains that the murder occurred while the country was "in a state of war" following the military uprising of dictator Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), and therefore the Geneva Conventions, which classify the crime as a crime against humanity, can be applied.

The Court also confirmed the acquittal of Carabineros (militarized police) officer Rolando Rivera in the case, considering that he did not participate in the crime against the Socialist militant. In August 2008, visiting judge Juana Venegas determined the acquittal of the two prosecuted officials in the first instance.

However, the case reached the Talca Court of Appeals, 258 kilometers south of Santiago, where the events took place, after the Ministry of the Interior appealed the judge's ruling.

Source: Saturday, July 11, 2009 El Mostrador Date: 07-11-2009

Former police officers plead senile dementia

Two former Carabineros officers who are being prosecuted for the serious crimes of qualified kidnapping of forcibly disappeared persons demanded that the judges of San Javier and Parral grant them the benefit of permanent dismissal of their cases due to "senile dementia," as both accused presented medical reports through their lawyers indicating that, for health reasons, they are not in a condition to face trial.

However, the magistrates instructing the criminal proceedings—Eric Sepúlveda of San Javier and Walter Morales as substitute in Parral—flatly refused to grant the requests presented respectively by retired Carabineros officer Rolando Rivera Tuca and the former senior non-commissioned officer of the same uniformed institution, Pablo Luarte Valleros, both of whom are currently out on bail.

In the San Javier case, the prosecution of Rivera Tuca refers to the disappearance of Gerardo Antonio Encina Pérez, which occurred on October 2, 1973, when this person was detained by personnel of the Fifth Police Station of San Javier and transferred to the police unit's cells, with his whereabouts remaining unknown to this day.

For these events, along with Rivera Tuca, retired Army colonel Claudio Lecaros Carrasco and former senior non-commissioned officer of the same military institution, José Basilio Muñoz Pozo, are also accused as perpetrators of the same crime.

Even after prosecuting these three former uniformed officers on August 29, 2003, and by order of the Talca Court of Appeals, Judge Sepúlveda kept them in preventive detention until October of the same year.

On behalf of Rivera Tuca, his lawyer Omar Valdés presented the request for dismissal, citing a medical report revealing that he allegedly suffers from senile organic psychic distortion, consequently demanding that he be excluded from the criminal case.

Faced with the request, the San Javier judge—with preferential attention to human rights cases—refused outright, maintaining that the defendant is not classified as mentally insane and has the capacity for discernment, a resolution that was appealed and confirmed by the Talca Court.

The second case under debate corresponds to another trial for the qualified kidnapping of two victims recorded in Parral in 1973, where the defendants are Hugo Cardemil, Pablo Coulier, César Hidalgo, and Pablo Luarte Vallejos, all out on bail.

The request regarding Luarte Vallejos is also based on the fact that the retired senior non-commissioned officer of the Carabineros allegedly presents advanced cognitive deterioration, visual impairment, hypertension, and "diabetes mellitus," for which dismissal due to senile dementia was requested.

The request was rejected by the substitute judge of Parral, Walter Morales, leading to an appeal that is pending in the Talca Court. In this voluminous case, there is evidence that Cardemil, Coulier, and Hidalgo were sentenced last January to prison terms ranging from 7 to 17 years by the special minister of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Alejandro Solís, also in cases of forcibly disappeared persons.

Source: June 24, 2004 Diario El Centro Date: 06-24-2004