On October 3, 1973, in the early morning, an operation was carried out in which thirteen other agricultural workers from the town of Paine were detained. On this occasion, the troops belonging to the San Bernardo Infantry Regiment arrived in a red truck, with their faces painted black.

They entered the homes from which they removed the detainees, in order to transport them to San Bernardo and from there to the Cerro Chena Detention Center. These thirteen people were detained that night, along with others who were subsequently released:

• José Angel CABEZAS BUENO, 21 years old, single;
• Francisco Javier CALDERON NILO, 19 years old, single;
• Domingo Antonio GALAZ SALAS, 23 years old, single;
• José Emilio GONZALEZ ESPINOZA, 32 years old, married;
• Juan Rosendo GONZALEZ PEREZ, 23 years old;
• Aurelio Enrique HIDALGO MELLA, 22 years old, single;
• Bernabé del Carmen LOPEZ LOPEZ, 23 years old, single;
• Carlos Manuel ORTIZ ORTIZ, 18 years old, single;
• Héctor Santiago PINTO CAROCA, 34 years old, married;
• Hernán PINTO CAROCA, 42 years old, married;
• Aliro del Carmen VALDIVIA VALDIVIA, 39 years old, married;
• Hugo Alfredo VIDAL ARENAS, 27 years old, married; and
• Víctor Manuel ZAMORANO GONZALEZ, single.

Several people who were detained at the Cerro Chena Detention Center report having been transported there together with the aforementioned detainees. In that place, they were generally kept blindfolded and were subjected to torture and interrogations.

Subsequently, some of them were released. The relatives of the forcibly disappeared went on several occasions to that Detention Center, where the detention was not officially acknowledged. However, in the Amparo Appeal 283-79 filed on behalf of Ignacio Santander Albornoz and Juan Cuadra Espinoza, it was reported on April 16, 1974, by the Interior Zone Chief of the Departments of San Bernardo and Maipo that “the detainees Ignacio Santander Albornoz and Juan Cuadra Espinoza were discharged by the sentries of the Chena Prison Camp on October 4, 1973.” In the month of December, the relatives were informed at the Legal Medical Service that there was a record of the entry of the remains of all these detainees and that they had been buried in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery. Around the same date, locals discovered human remains in the Cuesta de Chada area. The relatives went there and were able to recognize, in most cases, remnants of the clothing that the detainees were wearing when they were taken from their homes. The remains, which were scattered at the site, were collected by Carabineros personnel and sent to the Legal Medical Service, where the corresponding forensic examinations were carried out, but the identity of the persons was not determined. In the month of September 1990, the Minister of the Court of Appeals, Germán Hermosilla, visited that Medical Service with the objective of identifying the remains that had remained unidentified since 1974. The bodies finally recognized correspond to the following people: José Cabezas Bueno; Francisco Calderón Nilo; Domingo Galaz Salas; Emilio González Espinoza; Juan González Pérez; Aurelio Hidalgo; Bernabé López; Héctor and Pedro Pinto Caroca; Aliro Valdivia Valdivia; Hugo Vidal Arenas, Manuel Zamorano González, Hector Castro Saez, and Juan Nuñez Vargas. According to the indicated and gathered background information, the direct responsibility of State agents and civilians from Paine in the detention and death of the detainees on September 24 and October 3, 1973, is proven. Therefore, this Commission has formed the conviction that all of them are victims of a violation of their right to life, with the remains of sixteen of them having been identified: fourteen whose bones were recognized in 1990 and two whose execution was acknowledged by the authorities of the time.

Source: Rettig Report

At least two survivors of the torture and executions committed by civilians and uniformed personnel during the dictatorship recognize Michael Kast and his son Christian—father and brother of José Antonio Kast, respectively—as collaborators and participants in the repression against peasants.

Controversy has been generated by a heated discussion that took place on the debate program Sin Filtros, where the Republican Party convention member, Teresa Marinovic, accused the leader of the Revolutionary Workers' Party (PTR), Dauno Tótoro, of having defamed José Antonio Kast's family by stating that they participated in the dictatorship's crimes that occurred in Paine.

The debate took place in the context of the Supreme Court's conviction of 11 retired members of the Army and Carabineros for the qualified homicides of 38 residents of different settlements in that commune of the Metropolitan Region, which took place in September and October 1973.

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Paine Case: Supreme Court convicts 11 retired members of the Army and Carabineros for 38 murders during the dictatorship During the discussion, Tótoro invited Marinovic to read the book A la sombra de los cuervos (Ceibo Ediciones, 2015) by journalist Javier Rebolledo, which addresses the role of civilian accomplices of the civil-military dictatorship.

Indeed, after the part where the role of the Matte Clan in the regime's crimes is mentioned, practically half of the book from page 199 onwards is dedicated to the Kast Clan. As general background provided in the journalistic investigation, it is mentioned, for example, that “in Paine, many knew that Michael Kast (father of José Antonio Kast) provided food to the Carabineros, as well as a red truck with a driver, in which peasants were possibly detained.

His son Christian shared barbecues with civilians and uniformed personnel who are currently being prosecuted, in the same place where the detainees were being tortured at those moments and from where they later disappeared.” One of the testimonies collected by the book is that of Alejandro Bustos, who on September 18, 1973, decided to report to the Carabineros station after being summoned along with other residents of the Paula Jaraquemada settlement.

Upon arriving at the facility and after being received with a blow from a police officer's rifle butt, he “saw a group of civilians who, drunk, were sharing a barbecue with the Carabineros. Among them, he recognized Christian Kast,” Rebolledo notes, later quoting Bustos: “Kast looked a bit more dapper.

Young, well-groomed, sort of blond.” Bustos was interrogated by a group of uniformed personnel and armed civilians. “Kast was also asking questions,” Alejandro recalls in the book. “Suddenly, a blow to the head with a rifle butt, which left me stunned.

They hit me in the brain,” he narrates. In his police statement, Alejandro Bustos indicated that after the torture sessions that involved the application of electric shocks, one night he was taken out to the street, where he observed several civilians and vehicles parked, among them Christian Kast.

Together with other detainees, he was taken to an open field. There, they shot them to kill them. In an interview with the media outlet Piensa Prensa, Bustos again mentioned Christian Kast as one of the civilians who participated in these “operations” against the peasants of Paine.

Alejandro remained alive and played dead; his companions, dying, screaming in pain. “With a yatagan, they took the eyes out of one of them, still alive, and cut off his tongue,” he recounted in A la sombra de los cuervos.

Thinking he was lifeless, the uniformed personnel and civilians took Bustos and threw him along with the rest of the bodies into the so-called Panamá River in Paine. He survived and lived to tell the tale.

Alejandro pointed out to journalist Javier Rebolledo that at the time of the mass execution “there were civilians, several, but with the lights, the fear, and the darkness, I didn't identify them all. I don't remember seeing Kast, but he could have been there too.” Christian Kast is also placed at the Paine police station where the militant of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR), Pedro Vargas Barrientos, was taken, who worked at the main company of the clan of German origin, the Bavaria meat processing factory.

In his statement before the minister of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes, Kast acknowledged that on September 12, 1973—when Barrientos was already being held at the police facility—“a barbecue was held,” and added: “Every time I went, I saw Carabineros and civilians sharing barbecues in the courtyard.

On those occasions, I found out that there were detainees in the barracks.” What happened to Pedro Vargas Barrientos, who was being tortured inside the police facility while Christian Kast was eating barbecue with the uniformed personnel and other civilians?: Today, he is a forcibly disappeared person.

In his statement before Minister Cifuentes, José Antonio Kast's brother mentioned something else: “I only remember having heard talk of a person they nicknamed ‘dry flour’.” He was referring to Luis Nelson Cádiz Molina, also a forcibly disappeared person, until 1994, when his remains were found in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery in Santiago. “Michael Kast gave orders and hit people” In 2013, the patriarch of the clan, Michael Kast, had to testify as an accused before the Justice system, and there he responded regarding his collaboration with the repression in Paine. “I lent (to the Carabineros) my truck with the driver named Carlos Silva Silva, now deceased. The truck was requested from me on more than one occasion. It was returned to me later by the driver,” he stated. In a report by CHV carried out by journalist Alejandro Vega, he interviewed another of the prisoners and tortured victims of Paine, Luis Martínez, who recognized among those who participated in the sessions of illegal coercion the father of the Kasts, Michael, because he knew him from before because at that time he sold him animals for his company, Bavaria. “When they opened the dungeon in the morning (…) and he entered, I recognized him right away. That old man was number one. He gave orders, he hit people too. He slapped them, and he called everyone communists, Marxists: ‘We have to kill all these Marxists!’” Martínez recounted. Until his death in May 2014, Michael Kast, father of José Antonio Kast, maintained the status of an accused in the investigation into the crimes of Paine.

Source: lavozdelosquesobran.cl 17/6/2022

Date: 06-17-2022

After almost 50 years, the Supreme Court ratified the convictions against eleven genocidaires responsible for the crimes of homicide and qualified kidnapping, respectively, for the events that ended in the execution and disappearance of 38 inhabitants of the Paine commune, committed after the civil-military coup of 1973.

This is the episode called 'Paine Principal' of the investigation into the serial murders committed by military personnel, police, and civilians—all mandated by the landowning employer class—crimes that resulted in the execution and subsequent disappearance of 38 workers, students, and peasants from that rural commune south of Santiago.

The ruling of the Second Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court thus finalized the convictions for the crime of qualified homicide that the Fourth Chamber of the San Miguel Court of Appeals resolved in November 2020, after applying "half-prescription" and thus reducing the criminal sanction.

The Supreme Court thus dismissed the application of half-prescription and increased the sentences for the retired members of the Army and Carabineros of Chile for their responsibility in the qualified homicides of José Cabezas Bueno, Francisco Calderón Nilo, Héctor Castro Sáez, Domingo Galaz Salas, José González Espinoza, Juan González Pérez, Aurelio Hidalgo Mella, Bernabé López López, Juan Núñez Vargas, Héctor Pinto Caroca, Hernán Pinto Caroca, Aliro Valdivia Valdivia, Hugo Alfredo Arenas, and Víctor Zamorano González and José Adasme Núñez, Pedro Cabezas Villegas, Ramón Capetillo Mora, José Castro Maldonado, Patricio Duque Orellana, José Fredes García, Luis Gaete Balmaceda, Carlos Gaete López, Luis Lazo Maldonado, Samuel Lazo Maldonado, Carlos Lazo Quinteros, Samuel Lazo Quinteros, René Maureira Gajardo, Rosalindo Herrera Muñoz, Jorge Muñoz Peñaloza, Mario Muñoz Peñaloza, Ramiro Muñoz Peñaloza, Silvestre Muñoz Peñaloza, Carlos Nieto Duarte, Andrés Pereira Salsberg, Laureano Quiroz Pezoa, Roberto Serrano Galaz, Luis Silva Carreño, and Basilio Valenzuela Álvarez, which occurred between September 24 and October 16, 1973, in different settlements of the Paine commune. In the sentence (roll 149.250-2020), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, minister María Teresa Letelier, and acting lawyers Diego Munita and Leonor Etcheberry—sentenced retired Army members Jorge Romero Campos and Arturo Fernández Rodríguez to a penalty of 20 years in prison for their responsibility in the 38 cases of qualified homicide, the first 14 of which occurred between September 24 and October 3, 1973, in the "El Escorial" sector, and the last 24 between October 8 and October 16, 1973, in the "Campo Lindo" and "24 de abril" settlements. In its ruling, the second criminal chamber of the highest court of justice, composed of ministers Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, María Teresa Letelier, and acting lawyers Diego Munita and Leonor Etcheberry, sentenced the criminals against humanity Jorge Romero Campos and Arturo Fernández Rodríguez to a penalty of 20 years of major imprisonment in its maximum degree, as authors of qualified homicide. At the same time, the repressor Raúl Francisco Areyte Valdenegro was sentenced to a penalty of seven years and six months of major imprisonment in its minimum degree, as author of qualified homicide, while Nelson Iván Bravo Espinoza was sentenced to 10 years and one day of major imprisonment in its medium degree, as author of the crime of qualified kidnapping of Ramón Capetillo Mora and Mario Muñoz Peñaloza, committed on October 8 and 10, 1973. The ruling of the Second Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court was received with some satisfaction by the relatives. Also with the serenity that, despite the long wait for justice, they made their own on this "long and painful road," according to Flor Lazo, president of the Association of Relatives of Forcibly Disappeared and Executed Political Prisoners of Paine.

Source: radionuevomundo.cl 06/16/2022

Date: 06-16-2022

Paine Case comes to an end: Supreme Court issues historic ruling and convicts 11 former uniformed personnel for the homicide of 38 peasants

The highest court convicted 10 Army officials as authors of the qualified homicide of 38 people and one Carabinero for the qualified kidnapping of two victims. The Court reclassified the crimes from qualified kidnapping to qualified homicide, rendering the half-prescription ineffective and increasing the sentences of the convicted. 49 years after the events occurred, the Supreme Court issued a final ruling in one of the most emblematic cases perpetrated by the military dictatorship; through its Second Criminal Chamber, it convicted former uniformed personnel for the qualified homicide of 36 agricultural workers and 2 businessmen, all from the town of Paine, who were executed at Cuesta Chada and the Los Quillayes ravine on October 3 and 16, 1973, respectively, at the hands of officials of the San Bernardo Infantry School. Ministers Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, María Teresa Letelier, and acting lawyers Diego Murita and Leonor Etchebery, in a historic ruling, sentenced Jorge Romero Campos and Arturo Fernández Rodríguez, Army captain and second lieutenant, respectively, to 20 years of major imprisonment in its maximum degree as authors of the qualified kidnapping of the victims. In this case, the highest court increased their sentences in relation to the second-instance ruling issued by the San Miguel Court of Appeals, in which Romero had been sentenced to 15 years and Fernández to 10. Similarly, the Court increased the sentences for Corporal José Vásquez Silva and conscripts Carlos Lazo Santibañez, Juan Opazo Vera, and Carlos Durán Rodríguez from 5 to 10 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree, also as authors of qualified homicide. The same sentence was received by conscripts Roberto Pinto Labordarie, Jorge Saavedra Meza, and Víctor Sandoval Muñoz. In the case of conscript Raúl Francisco Areyte Valdenegro, the Court increased his sentence from 5 to 6 years of major imprisonment in the minimum degree as author of 14 qualified homicides. It should be noted that for all the aforementioned convicted persons, the highest court reclassified the crimes in relation to the second-instance ruling, from qualified kidnapping to qualified homicide. Likewise, the ministers recognized the collaboration that the conscripts provided through their statements, which reportedly contributed to the identifications, and applied the special mitigating factor of substantial collaboration and irreproachable prior conduct. Meanwhile, Carabineros Captain Nelson Bravo Espinoza was sentenced to 10 years of major imprisonment in its medium degree, whose sentence was increased by 5 years and his crime was reclassified from simple kidnapping to qualified kidnapping of Ramón Capetillo Mora and Mario Muñoz Peñaloza, which occurred between October 8 and 10, 1973. Meanwhile, Osvaldo Magaña Bau, Juan Guillermo Quintanilla, and Carlos Kylling Schmidt, who had been convicted during the process, were dismissed due to being deceased, as was Víctor Pinto Pérez. The plaintiff lawyer Nelson Caucoto, who represents the relatives of 37 victims, was satisfied as the Court accepted all the cassation appeals they presented and celebrated the ruling, stating that "tomorrow there will be a brighter day for the relatives of the victims of Paine, executed by soldiers of the San Bernardo Infantry School, a day full of new sensations and hopes." Caucoto, who has been handling the case since its inception, stated that "The highest court of the Republic has issued a final sentence in this case, which speaks of a massacre that occurred 49 years ago in that rural town. Impunity, indifference, and barbarity have been overcome. What the Supreme Court has done is an act of healing for those relatives and for Chilean society in general. One of the unforgivable crimes of the civil-military dictatorship has been resolved by the Chilean justice system in a civilized manner. Despite the long time that has passed, Justice is possible." It should be mentioned that the Human Rights Program of the Ministry of the Interior, the Association of Relatives of Executed Political Prisoners (AFEP), the Student Federation of the Catholic University (FEUC), and lawyer Luciano Fouillioux, as representative of lawyer Pamela Pereira's father, Andrés Pereira Salsberg, also acted as plaintiffs in the arguments. In civil matters, the res judicata that had been decreed by the San Miguel Court of Appeals and which prevented some relatives of the victims from accessing reparation was rendered ineffective.

THE FACTS

Cuesta Chada According to the investigation led by the minister on extraordinary visit for human rights cases of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes, it was established that on September 24, 1973, in the afternoon, soldiers of the Second Rifle Company of the San Bernardo Infantry School appeared at the 'El Escorial' settlement in the Paine commune and detained, without legal basis, Héctor Guillermo Castro Sáez and Juan Bautista Núñez Vargas, among others.

After their detention, Héctor Castro Sáez and Juan Núñez Vargas were taken to the Cerro Chena prison camp of the San Bernardo Infantry School, a place where they were kept illegally imprisoned. On October 2, 1973, soldiers of the San Bernardo Infantry School appeared at the 'El Escorial' settlement in the Paine commune and detained José Ángel Cabezas Bueno, who, immediately thereafter, was taken to the Cerro Chena prison camp.

On October 3, 1973, in the early morning, soldiers commanded by Captain Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos left the Cerro Chena prison camp, in charge of Lieutenant Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau and Second Lieutenants Carlos Walter Kyling Schmidt and Arturo Guillermo Fernández Rodríguez, with the detainees José Ángel Cabezas Bueno, Héctor Guillermo Castro Sáez, and Juan Bautista Núñez Vargas, in a red Dodge truck driven by Juan Guillermo Quintanilla Jerez, headed to the 'El Escorial' settlement in the Paine commune and detained Francisco Javier Calderón Nilo, Domingo Octavio Galaz Salas, José Emilio González Espinoza, Juan Rosendo González Pérez, Aurelio Enrique Hidalgo Mella, Bernabé del Carmen López López, Héctor Santiago Pinto Caroca, Hernán Pinto Caroca, Aliro del Carmen Valdivia Valdivia, Hugo Alfredo Vidal Arenas, and Víctor Manuel Zamorano González. Subsequently, in the same truck, they transported all the detainees to a ravine in Cuesta de Chada and executed them, shooting them with the firearms they were carrying, their bodies being found abandoned at the cited location some time later. The bones of the bodies were found by the relatives themselves some time later and were collected in a disorderly manner by Carabineros and taken to the Legal Medical Service, a place where they remained for 20 years piled up in a warehouse without being examined for identification, which was only obtained in the 90s. Quebrada los Quillayes On October 8, 1973, officials of the Paine Carabineros Sub-station appeared at the 'Campo Lindo' settlement in the same commune and detained, without legal basis, Ramón Alfredo Capetillo Mora, who, immediately thereafter, was locked up in the aforementioned police unit. In the following days, Ramón Alfredo Capetillo Mora was taken to the Cerro Chena prison camp of the San Bernardo Infantry School. Two days later, on October 10, 1973, officials of the Paine Carabineros Sub-station appeared at the '24 de Abril' settlement in the same commune and detained, without legal basis, Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, who, immediately thereafter, was locked up in the aforementioned police unit and taken to the Cerro Chena prison camp of the San Bernardo Infantry School. At the time of the events, the Paine Carabineros Sub-station was in charge of Captain Nelson Iván Bravo Espinoza. Meanwhile, on October 16, 1973, in the early morning, soldiers of the same San Bernardo Infantry School, commanded by Captain Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos, left the Cerro Chena prison camp, in charge of Lieutenant Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau and Second Lieutenants Carlos Walter Kyling Schmidt and Arturo Guillermo Fernández Rodríguez, with the detainees Ramón Alfredo Capetillo Mora and Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, in a red Dodge truck driven by Juan Guillermo Quintanilla Jerez, with the objective of detaining twenty-two people in the town of Paine. Thus, in their respective homes, located in the urban area of the Paine commune, they detained, without legal basis, René del Rosario Maureira Gajardo and Andrés Pereira Salsberg. While at the '24 de Abril' settlement, they detained Patricio Loreto Duque Orellana, José Germán Fredes García, Carlos Enrique Gaete López, Rosalindo Delfín Herrera Muñoz, Jorge Hernán Muñoz Peñaloza, Ramiro Antonio Muñoz Peñaloza, Silvestre René Muñoz Peñaloza, Carlos Alberto Nieto Duarte, Laureano Quiroz Pezoa, Luis Ramón Silva Carreño, and Basilio Antonio Valenzuela Álvarez. At the 'Nuevo Sendero' settlement, José Domingo Adasme Núñez, José Ignacio Castro Maldonado, Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda, Luis Rodolfo Lazo Maldonado, Samuel del Tránsito Lazo Maldonado, Carlos Enrique Lazo Quinteros, and Samuel Altamiro Lazo Quinteros and, finally, at the 'El Tránsito' settlement, Pedro Antonio Cabezas Villegas and Roberto Esteban Serrano Galaz. Subsequently, the aforementioned detainees were taken to the Los Arrayanes ravine, Los Quillayes sector, in the vicinity of Lake Rapel, a place where they were executed by firing squad by the aforementioned soldiers and the civilian who accompanied them, who, immediately thereafter, buried their bodies at the same site, with only bone and dental fragments of eleven of the twenty-four victims being found years later, due to the fact that their bodies were removed and taken to an unknown location to date, in the framework of the "Operation TV Set Removal" in 1978.

Source: caucoto.cl 06/15/2022

Date: 06-15-2022

Bodies of 14 peasants were collected in sacks by their families: New stage in the investigations into executions in Paine

The minister for human rights violation cases of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes, who is leading new proceedings in the investigation, highlighted that the bodies of the peasants remained for 16 years in cold storage at the SML, without being handed over to their relatives.

A new stage has begun in the investigations into the case of 14 peasants from the Viña El Escorial Settlement of Paine, who were detained and executed in 1973 by agents of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship.

The minister on extraordinary visit for human rights violation cases of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, led last Monday, November 25, a series of proceedings together with personnel from the Investigative Brigade of Crimes against Human Rights of the Investigative Police (Bridehu) and personnel from the Legal Medical Service (SML) to carry out an exhaustive analysis of the terrain where soldiers of the San Bernardo Infantry School executed, in October 1973, the 14 peasants.

The proceedings will last for a week and include the use of a drone, metal detectors, and excavation, both of the property and of the settling ponds located at the foot of a ravine. "We are at Cuesta Chada, kilometer 38, to begin the proceedings decreed in case 14-2024 for illegal inhumation.

In this place, in 1973, precisely on October 3, soldiers of the San Bernardo Infantry School executed 14 peasants from the El Escorial sector," indicated the visiting minister. A new stage has begun in the investigations into the case of 14 peasants from the Viña El Escorial Settlement of Paine. "That day, after their execution, the bodies were abandoned and only in January 1974 were relatives able to find them.

On that occasion, no work was done at the crime scene, but rather the bodies were collected by the relatives themselves and after the Carabineros of the sector were notified, they were placed in three burlap sacks.

The bones were disarticulated, fragmented, and were taken to the Legal Medical Service," she explained. "Subsequently, in the month of March of that year, at the Legal Medical Service, a study of these bones was carried out, managing to determine that they were approximately 14 people," she added.

Cifuentes highlighted that the bodies of the victims remained for 16 years in cold storage without being handed over to their relatives. "After that, the bodies were not handed over to their relatives, but were placed in cold storage at the Legal Medical Service and remained there for 16 years until 1990, the date on which Minister Germán Hermosilla of the San Miguel Court of Appeals ordered that a study of those bones be made and visited this place," she recounted, according to a press release from the Judiciary. "On that occasion, he visited on October 16 and 17, 1990, managing to find bone evidence, ballistic evidence, and even cultural evidence again. But it was not done with the latest technology either and therefore, although the case related to these events, which is Paine Principal, has been finalized, a complaint was filed by the Human Rights Program within the framework of the National Search Plan with the aim of carrying out an exhaustive study of the terrain, which is what is going to be done on this occasion," she concluded. Kidnapping and homicide of 14 peasants of Paine According to the background information gathered in the investigation stage, the visiting minister established the following facts: "That, on October 3, 1973, in the early morning, at the El Escorial Settlement of Paine, soldiers of the Second Rifle Company of the San Bernardo Infantry School, in charge of Second Lieutenant Osvaldo Andrés Magaña, detained, without legal basis, Francisco Javier Calderon Nilo, Domingo Octavio Galaz Salas, José Emilio González Espinoza, Juan Rosendo González Pérez, Aurelio Enrique Hidalgo Mella, Bernabé del Carmen López López, Héctor Santiago Pinto Caroca, Hernán Pinto Caroca, Aliro del Carmen Valdivia Valdivia, Hugo Alfredo Vidal Arenas, and Víctor Manuel Zamorano González, to then execute them together with Juan Bautista Núñez Vargas, Héctor Castro Sáez, and José Cabeza Bueno, in the Cuesta Chada sector, to which they were transported in the aforementioned red Dodge truck, driven by Juan Guillermo Quintanilla Jerez, shooting them with the firearms they were carrying, their bodies being found, some time later, abandoned at the cited location."

Source: elciudadano.cl, November 27, 2024

Testimony of Ada Pinto Caroca and Rosal Vidal Pinto.

Below, we present the testimony of Ada Pinto Caroca and Rosal Vidal Pinto. Ada is the wife of Hugo Alfredo Vidal Arenas and sister of Héctor Santiago and Pedro Hernán Pinto Caroca. Rosa Vidal is the daughter of Ada and Hugo, and niece of Héctor and Pedro.

This testimony is based on conversations held between Ada, Rosa, and the researcher from Germina, knowledge for action. I am Ada Pinto Caroca, wife of Hugo Vidal, sister of Santiago Pinto Caroca and Hernán Pinto Caroca.

All three were taken as detainees on the same day. My husband was 27 years old when they detained him, and I was a year older than him. We had two children, and today I have six grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.

I am Rosa Vidal Pinto, daughter of Hugo Vidal Arenas, niece of Héctor Santiago Pinto Caroca and Pedro Hernán Pinto Caroca. I don't really have many memories. We were two siblings, I was one year and nine months old and my brother Hugo was 5 years old when they took my dad and my uncles as detainees.

My family and my husband's were from Paine, but his family went to San Francisco de Mostazal. Hugo was a vineyard farmer and also a baker, one of those who made bread and cookies for people, and during the harvest time he also made food for the people who came from outside to work.

In my family, we are six siblings in total. Héctor Santiago and Hernán were the only men. Héctor Santiago, the single one, was younger. Hernán was the oldest of all and had only one daughter, Clarita, who didn't know him either, as she was nine months old when they took her dad.

Later my sister-in-law, Iris Hernández, left, she didn't want to stay to work and went to Buin. That's why I came to take care of my mom, who was already very old, she was 70 years old. My brother Hernán, the oldest, was the caretaker of the estate, but there was an envious neighbor who took his job away, so later he worked in the vineyards plowing or whatever he was told to do.

Héctor also worked in the fields. This was a settlement, but neither my husband nor Héctor had positions or were involved in anything. Hernán was a settler, but on the side of the bosses. He had an education and was in a bosses' union.

There were a few here who were also in that group, but they didn't take them. My husband was a soccer player and they sent him to look for people to play soccer championships. My single brother also liked soccer, going to the field, going to soccer games; Héctor didn't know how to read or write because he started working at ten years old.

He never wanted to go to school, never! And he started working for the estate, his first job was as a mailman there in Huelquén. That's what I thought, "Why him, if he didn't understand a thing, he wasn't involved in anything, he was from home to work and nothing more?" They took my husband first.

My husband and my brothers were detained on the same day: October 3, 1973. But they took my husband first, at three in the morning about three soldiers arrived at my house and outside there was a truck.

They took my husband out of the house, brought him back in, took him out again, about five times, they couldn't decide whether to take him or not because they didn't know if he was involved in something or not.

My oldest son, Hugo, realized they took him out of the house. There was a soldier, Magaña, who I don't know how he knew my child's name and he told him, "Calm down Huguito, we'll bring your dad back soon." And my brother has always suffered more than I have, because he saw when they took our dad, he has that memory.

In the same early morning, after they took Hugo, they took my brothers. The soldiers came from the top to the bottom of the estate picking up people. I saw them coming from above. My neighbor, Carlos Farías, was taken before, but they let him go after what happened at Chena, and many of the men they took before my husband and brothers were released, they were allowed to return to their homes.

I had the hope of meeting my brothers on the way here, where my mom, Rosa Caroca, lived, about a ten-minute walk away. At my house, I told the soldiers that I didn't want to stay alone in my house because I was scared.

They told me, "No, you stay here, we're going to protect you," until it got light and they left me alone and then I came to my mom's house. I got up with the children and came to see my brothers and my mom, with the hope of meeting them and thinking they were going to support me regarding my husband's detention.

When I arrived, I met my niece Rosa Pérez Pinto who was going to warn me and she says to me, "No, they took the uncles too." So I just came back to my mom's. Since they took him, I didn't go back to my house, I closed it, I handed it over, and I stayed with my mom, because she wasn't going to have workers so they wouldn't take the house away, so I started working.

Source: germina.cl 2014 (excerpt)