Common elements in the massacres of Santa Bárbara, Mulchén, Laja-San Rosendo, Lonquén, and Chihuio. Sites of Memory. Common elements in the selective massacres of peasants in various parts of the country during the dictatorship.

A threat, a warning that announced the paths to be followed by Pinochet, uniformed personnel, representatives of Patria y Libertad, and owners of factories or large estates, who joined forces to systematically eliminate hundreds of workers and peasants in the first days after the Civic-Military Coup.

Chronology of horror: Executions by firing squad in the first days of the coup, September and October 1973. Laja and San Rosendo . 19 people who presented themselves at the Laja Carabineros Station were taken to the outskirts of the city and executed, buried clandestinely in the middle of a field at the “Fundo San Juan”; it was September of the year 1973.

Workers from the Paper Mill and State Railways, students, and two teachers were riddled with bullets, tied with wire, defenseless and innocent, executed by firing squad and buried after receiving instructions, food, and alcohol provided by executives of the paper company.

The Visiting Judge of the Concepción Court of Appeals has handed down sentences against 14 retired Carabineros and three former civilian employees of the CMPC. According to the unanimous ruling of March 15, 2018, the Concepción Court of Appeals prosecuted three bosses and one driver from the paper company belonging to the Matte Group as accomplices to homicide; the company tipped off and provided vehicles and drivers under the charge of a civilian, the farmer Peter Wilkens.

Civilians and Carabineros united in a brutal extermination. The former Carabineros accused as co-perpetrators of aggravated homicide: Alberto Juan Fernández Michell, Lisandro Alberto Martínez García, Luis Antonio León Godoy, Gerson Nilo Saavedra Reinike, Pedro del Carmen Parra Utrera, Gabriel Washington González Salazar, Samuel Francisco Vidal Riquelme, Víctor Manuel Campos Dávila, Nelson Casanova Salgado, and the officer (R) René Urrutia, identified as the author of the crime of illegal inhumation of the 19 people.

Civilians: Pedro Jarpa, former head of security at CMPC, accomplice to homicide, and Alejandro Aguilera, former executive of the CMPC. Santa Bárbara. The disappearance and subsequent execution of 28 peasants from the towns of Santa Bárbara and Quilaco in the Biobío Region, in the year 1973, follows the same patterns of executions in the area, denunciations by landowners and support from Carabineros, ending the lives of locals.

The proceedings carried out by Judge Raquel Lermanda until May 2013 have sentences for 17 former uniformed personnel and 11 civilians who appear as responsible for the detentions and disappearances. Among the victims are: José Rafael Zúñiga Aceldini, José Secundino Zúñiga Aceldini, José Gilberto Araneda, Juan de Dios Rubio Llancao, Julio Rubio Llancao, José María Tranamil Pereira, José Guillermo Purrán Treca, José Domingo Godoy Acuña, Julio César Godoy Godoy, Desiderio Aguilera Solís, José Nazario Godoy Acuña, Manuel Salamanca Mella, José Mariano Godoy Acuña, Miguel Cuevas Pincheira, Juan de Dios Fuentes Lizama, Juan Francisco Fuentes Lizama, Elba Burgos Sáez, Sebastián Hernaldo Campos Díaz, Aliro Oporto Durán, Sergio D’Apollonio Petermann. Mulchén Disappearance of 18 peasants from the commune, an event that occurred in the first days of October 1973, during the reprisal and punishment actions carried out by uniformed personnel and civilians in the area. The murders were committed in operations carried out during that month. The peasants were taken prisoner and executed in three different places in the mountain area of Mulchén. The executions by firing squad were recorded at the El Morro estate, located 50 kilometers inland from Mulchén, at the El Carmen-Maitenes estate, located 80 kilometers away, and at the Pemehue estate, situated in the high mountains, more than 100 kilometers from the city. The 18 murdered peasants were: the brothers Alejandro Albornoz González (48 years old), Alberto Albornoz González (41), Felidor Exequiel Albornoz González (33), Guillermo José Albornoz González (32), Daniel Alfonso Albornoz González (28), and a son of Alejandro named Miguel del Carmen Albornoz Acuña (20); Luis Alberto Godoy Sandoval (23); José Fernando Gutiérrez Asencio (25); Juan de Dios Laubra Brevis (26); Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme (35); the brothers José Lorenzo Rubilar Gutiérrez (33), José Liborio Rubilar Gutiérrez (28), Florencio Rubilar Gutiérrez (24); Gerónimo Humberto Sandoval Medina (22); Domingo Sepúlveda Castillo (29); Edmundo José Vidal Aedo (20); Celsio Nicasio Vivanco Carrasco (26) and José Florencio Yáñez Durán (34). Judge Carlos Aldana of the Concepción Court of Appeals has notified nine former military personnel prosecuted for crimes of homicide and cover-up of 18 peasants executed in 1973. The prosecuted are: Julio Reyes Garrido, José Puga Pascual, José Iturriaga Valenzuela, Jaime Müller Aviles, Julio Fuentes Chavarriga, Luis Palacios Torres, Juan Cares Molina, Juan Carlos Balboa Ortega and Jaime García Zamorano. Chihuio On October 9, 1973, army groups from the Cazadores and Maturana regiments of Valdivia, in the “Baños de Chihuio” sector, executed 18 peasants in the southern sector of the Panguipulli timber complex. In the days following the Coup d'État, the administration house of the “Chihuio” Estate (Valdivia), owned by Américo González, became an extermination center. The estate is located in the foothills, almost 300 km from Valdivia. Peasants from Futrono, Llifén, Curriño, Arquilhue, and Chabranco were taken from their homes or workplaces to this location, after being detained by soldiers belonging to the Fourth Army Division, under the command of General Héctor Bravo Muñoz, and supported by civilians from the locality. The soldiers had arrived at the different locations with lists in hand. The 18 peasants remained forcibly disappeared for more than 17 years. It is known that their bodies were illegally exhumed in 1979 (probably by members of the army or the CNI). Subsequently, in 1990 and after long work by Human Rights groups, only part of their remains were found. Victims

Carlos Acuña Inostroza; Orlando Barriga Soto; José Cortez Díaz; Rubén Durán Zúñiga; Luis Ferrada Sandoval; Eliecer Freire Caamaño; Narciso García Cancino; Juan González Delgado; Daniel Méndez Méndez; Fernando Mora Gutiérrez; Sebastián Mora Osses; Segundo Pedreros Ferreira; Rosendo Rebolledo Méndez; Ricardo Ruiz Rodríguez; Carlos Salinas Flores; Manuel Sepúlveda Rebolledo; Rubén Vargas Quezada; Andrés Silva Silva.

Lonquén A shocking discovery was made in 1978 at the Lonquén kilns; the remains of 15 peasants from Isla de Maipo had been found, locals who had disappeared on October 7, 1973. It is the case with the greatest media impact where the Vicaría de la Solidaridad played an important role in making the case known, under the direction of Cardinal Raúl Silva Henríquez.

Proceedings: In 2018, the Supreme Court handed down a sentence against 6 Carabineros for aggravated kidnapping and simple kidnapping in the case known as the “Lonquén Kilns.” Tour of the memorials Activity organized by the PRAIS Users Council and the Human Rights Department, Municipality of Concepción.

The memorials of Mulchén, Santa Bárbara, Laja, and San Rosendo emerge silently in the middle of the cities to remember and commemorate the forcibly disappeared during the dictatorship.

Source: laventanaciudadana.cl, November 26, 2018