The accused were held in preventive detention, a measure they must serve in one of the detention centers for Carabineros determined by the police institution. Investigating judge Alejandro Solís Muñoz issued indictments in four cases of forcibly disappeared persons and political executions, whose remains were found illegally buried in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery.

The magistrate charged seven retired members of the Carabineros de Chile for events that occurred in October 1973, which led to the disappearance of a 15-year-old minor and three adults—aged between 18 and 22—in the southeastern area of Santiago (the current commune of Peñalolén).

Minister Solís ordered the prosecution of former members of the police unit Carlos Contreras Guzmán, Bernardo Pérez Arriagada, Juan Paredes Rodríguez, Pedro Herrera Mossuto, and José Tito Alveal for the abduction of the minor Pedro Pérez Godoy and the aggravated kidnapping of José Ramírez Díaz.

According to the evidence currently existing in the case, “Pedro Hugo Pérez Godoy, single, born on September 3, 1958, was 15 years, one month, and 22 days old as of October 17, 1973, a primary school student with no political affiliation, whose address was located at Manzana 10, Sitio 20, Villa Los Guindos in the commune of Ñuñoa; and José Adrián Ramírez Díaz, single, 20 years old, assistant to a street market vendor, with no political affiliation, illiterate, member of a family of eleven siblings, residing at Manzana 17, Pasaje 152, house 6882, Villa Pedro Lagos in the commune of Peñalolén, were walking on a street near their homes on October 17, 1973, together with a friend, José Romilio Sepúlveda Merino. At the moment they reached the intersection of Los Orientales and Ictinos streets, in the commune of Ñuñoa, now Peñalolén, at approximately 3:00 PM, they were detained without cause, nor any administrative or judicial order, by Bernardo Pérez Arriagada and Carlos Contreras Guzmán, officers belonging to the 13th Carabineros Precinct of Ñuñoa, who were traveling in a gray vehicle and were dressed in civilian clothes. They were taken to the premises of said precinct but could not be admitted because the cells were full, for which reason they were transferred to the Quilín Guard Post, a unit dependent on the 13th Precinct. However, there is no record of the victims' entry into said police unit, but there is a record of the departure of Pedro Hugo Pérez Godoy, who was removed, along with José Ramírez, from the Guard Post at 1:00 AM, during the curfew, by Carabinero Bernardo Pérez Arriagada, to a red pickup truck parked outside the police facility where Carabineros Juan Paredes Rodríguez and the aforementioned Contreras Torres were waiting. The latter had received the order to accompany Pérez Arriagada in this procedure from Sub-Officer Major José Tito Alveal, who in turn was under the command of Herrera Mossuto. The young men were forced to climb into the back of the pickup truck. The truck, where José Ramírez Díaz and Pedro Hugo Pérez Godoy remained deprived of their liberty, was driven from the Guard Post to the premises of the Viña Cousiño Macul, where the march stopped and the detainees were made to get out, and were forced to walk to the banks of the San Carlos canal. It was at this site that, from a few meters away, they were shot with firearms, as a result of which the multiple wounds received caused their death; immediately their bodies were thrown into the canal's current, a maneuver that, according to witness Sepúlveda, Corporal Contreras had suggested from the very moment of the detention, which had no reason to be carried out: 'Let's kill them and throw them into the canal!' Nevertheless, the victims' remains were found illegally buried in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery and, due to the lack of accurate scientific methods at the time, could not be correctly identified in the proceedings based in the 22nd Criminal Court; in fact, although some of the recovered bones were attributed to the young Pérez Godoy, it was finally confirmed through the genetic DNA method that they corresponded to another person, and regarding Ramírez Díaz, the identification of his remains is pending. Consequently, the death of none of the detainees has been legally and reliably confirmed; we only know that those deprived of their liberty have not made contact with their relatives, nor carried out administrative procedures before State agencies, without registering entries or exits from the country,” the ruling states. Meanwhile, for the aggravated homicides of Hernán Peña Catalán and Luis Vergara González, Minister Alejandro Solís charged former police officers Juan Veloso Ortiz, Francisco Contreras Torres, and Pedro Herrera Mossuto. Regarding this case, the magistrate has managed to determine that: “On October 15, 1973, Luis Armando Vergara González, married, father of one child, was 22 years old, a laborer, with no political affiliation, and his address was located in Villa Lautaro, Manzana E, Sitio 18, Población Lo Hermida of the commune of Ñuñoa, when he was detained in its vicinity, at approximately 9:15 PM, as he was apprehended without legal cause by Carabineros officers belonging to the 13th Precinct of Los Guindos in Ñuñoa, Francisco Contreras Torres and Manuel Veloso Ortiz, who were traveling in a red pickup truck that had been illicitly requisitioned from Miriam Contreras Bell, personal secretary to former President Salvador Allende. Immediately, the apprehenders, together with the detainee, went to the home of Hernán Manuel Peña Catalán, married, father of two children, 20 years old, who worked as a driver, with no political affiliation whatsoever. Although his address was located in Villa El Duraznal, Manzana 7, Sitio 5, Población Lo Hermida of the commune of Ñuñoa, he could not be found by the police in that place. However, after a search deployed in the vicinity of his home, Peña Catalán was detained and, together with Vergara González, they were taken to the premises of the aforementioned Precinct.” Both victims were definitively identified by DNA testing performed at the Legal Medical Service after 2003. The accused were held in preventive detention, a measure they must serve in one of the detention centers for Carabineros determined by the police institution. Furthermore, Magistrate Solís determined that: “Given the significance of the statements provided by Francisco Fernando Contreras Torres (on October 31, 2003, from pages 658 to 660 of Volume II, Case File 15.607); Luis Arturo Mora Vera (pages 880 to 881, dated April 21, 2004, Case File 15.607); Bernardo Segundo Pérez Arriagada (pages 202 to 203 verso, dated September 9, 2003, pages 878 to 880, dated November 23, 2010, both Case File 9.731); Juan Gregorio Paredes Rodríguez (page 294, dated May 17, 2004, and 236, dated January 5, 2004, both from Case File 9.731); Carlos Alfredo Contreras Guzmán (pages 883 to 885, dated November 24, 2010, page 567, dated March 7, 1980, and page 557, dated December 10, 1979, all from Case File 9.731); Pedro Alejandro Lorenzo Mossuto (page 709, dated November 13, 2003, page 881, dated November 23, 2010, both from Case File 9.731), Juan Manuel Veloso Ortiz (page 1059, dated August 18, 2006, from Case File 15.607) and the confrontation proceedings on pages 283, 284 (without prejudice to 'exhorting them to tell the truth' in a new statement), pages 269, 304, 305, 306, 329, 727 of Case File 9.731 and 839 of Case File 15.607, let an authorized photocopy of these be made and kept in a Separate File, in custody.” Likewise, it is ordered, “Without prejudice to what has been resolved, continue the investigation regarding the repressive situation that affected Sergio Alberto Gajardo Hidalgo in the same period in which the crimes subject to this resolution were committed.”

Source: elmostrador.cl, December 7, 2012

Family of young forcibly disappeared person won criminal and civil lawsuit against former Carabineros and the Chilean State

Héctor Vásquez Sepúlveda was detained by Carabineros from the 13th Precinct of Ñuñoa in October 1973 for his participation in a fight inside a soccer field in the Población La Faena. Since that day, the family still does not know his whereabouts; there is no death record, nor information about entries or exits from the country.

Two former Carabineros, Francisco Fernando Contreras Torres and Pedro Alejandro Lorenzo Herrera Mossuto, were sentenced to seven years in prison in February 2016, “for their participation as authors in the crime of aggravated kidnapping committed against Héctor Manuel Humberto Vásquez Sepúlveda, starting from October 18, 1973,” according to the Supreme Court ruling published today.

Pedro Herrera's defense requested a reduction of the sentence due to his previously unblemished conduct, but the Second Chamber of the Court dismissed the request last Thursday, December 29. The final document also confirms the compensation that the Chilean Treasury must pay to the victim's family: $500 million for moral damages.

The case dates back to October 7, 1973, when a soccer fight broke out on a field in the Población La Faena, which at the time corresponded to the commune of Ñuñoa and currently to Peñalolén. Days later, and without any judicial order, between the 15th and 18th of that same month, members of the Civil Commission—in charge was Pedro Herrera Mossuto, accompanied by subordinates Francisco Contreras Torres and Juan Manuel Veloso Ortiz—of said precinct, detained young people from the sector who participated in the fight.

Two of them were executed and thrown into the San Carlos Canal. Another detainee was Héctor Vásquez Sepúlveda, whom members of the commission came to look for at his home dressed in civilian clothes. As Judge Mario Carroza related during the investigation stage of the case, the visitors knew Vásquez as they were teammates in “pichangas” (informal soccer matches) at “Deportivo Cordillera,” and after a conversation, they left together for the police unit under the pretext that he had to provide a statement.

The Carabineros walked to one of the corners of the future disappeared person's house and flagged down a bus. There, they met by chance with Héctor Vásquez's mother and sister, to whom they explained that he only had to provide a statement regarding the fight from days earlier.

Hours later, seeing that he did not arrive, the detainee's mother went to the 13th Precinct, but there they told her that her son had never entered the unit: “Finally, despite all her efforts, they never find him, and from that moment on there is no more news of his person, just as there is no record of exits or entries to the country, and even less is his death recorded in the civil registry,” says the ruling pronounced by Ministers Milton Juica, Carlos Künsemüller, Haroldo Brito, Lamberto Cisternas, and Jorge Dahm.

Source: theclinic.cl, January 3, 2017

Supreme Court confirms ruling that convicted retired Carabineros for abduction of a minor, kidnapping, and homicide

Events occurred in Peñalolén in 1973. The repressors were traveling in a pickup truck that had been illicitly requisitioned from Miriam Contreras Bell, personal secretary to former President Salvador Allende.

The Supreme Court rejected the appeals in substance filed against the sentence that convicted four retired Carabineros officers from the staff of the then 13th Precinct of Los Guindos for their responsibility in the crimes of abduction of a minor, aggravated kidnapping, and homicide, crimes perpetrated in October 1973 in the current commune of Peñalolén.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 20.937-2018), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Carlos Künsemüller, Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, and the lawyer (i) María Cristina Gajardo—confirmed the challenged sentence, issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals, which sentenced Juan Gregorio Paredes Rodríguez to 10 years and one day in prison as the author of the crime of aggravated homicide of José Adrián Ramírez Díaz; plus 3 years and one day in prison for the abduction of the minor Pedro Hugo Pérez Godoy.

Meanwhile, Francisco Fernando Contreras Torres must serve a single sentence of 10 years and one day in prison as the author of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Héctor Manuel Peña Catalán and Luis Armando Vergara González; Pedro Alejandro Lorenzo Herrera Mossuto must serve a single sentence of 7 years as the author of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Héctor Manuel Peña Catalán and Luis Armando Vergara González; and Bernardo Segundo Pérez Arriagada was sentenced to 7 years in prison as the author of the crime of aggravated homicide of José Adrián Ramírez Díaz.

In the investigation of the case, substantiated by investigating judge Leopoldo Llanos, the following facts were established: “Pedro Hugo Pérez Godoy, single, 15 years old, primary school student, with no political affiliation, whose address was located at Manzana 10, Sitio 20, Villa Los Guindos of the commune of Ñuñoa; and José Adrián Ramírez Díaz, single, 20 years old, assistant to a street market vendor, with no political affiliation, illiterate, member of a family of eleven siblings, residing at Manzana 17, Pasaje 152, house 6882, Villa Pedro Lagos of the commune of Peñalolén, on October 17, 1973, were walking on a street near their homes, together with a friend, José Romilio Sepúlveda Merino. At the moment they reached the intersection of Los Orientales and Ictinos streets, in the commune of Ñuñoa, now Peñalolén, at approximately 3:00 PM, they were detained without cause, nor any administrative or judicial order, by officers belonging to the 13th Carabineros Precinct of Ñuñoa (…) The young men were forced to climb into the back of the pickup truck. The truck, where José Ramírez Díaz and Pedro Hugo Pérez Godoy remained deprived of their liberty, was driven from the Guard Post to the premises of the Viña Cousiño Macul, where the march stopped and the detainees were made to get out, and were forced to walk to the banks of the San Carlos canal. It was at this site that, from a few meters away, they were shot with firearms.” In the case of Vergara and Peña, it was established that “on October 15, 1973, Luis Armando Vergara González, married, father of one child, 22 years old, laborer, with no political affiliation and whose address was located in Villa Lautaro, Manzana E, Sitio 18, Población Lo Hermida of the commune of Ñuñoa, was apprehended without legal cause in its vicinity, at approximately 9:15 PM, by two Carabineros officers belonging to the 13th Precinct of Los Guindos in Ñuñoa, who were traveling in a red pickup truck that had been illicitly requisitioned from Miriam Contreras Bell, personal secretary to former President of the Republic Salvador Allende. Immediately, the apprehenders, together with the detainee, went to the home of Hernán Manuel Peña Catalán, married, father of two children, 20 years old, who worked as a driver, with no political affiliation whatsoever. Although his address was located in Villa El Duraznal, Manzana 7, Sitio 5, Población Lo Hermida of the commune of Ñuñoa, he could not be found by the police in that place. However, after a search deployed in the vicinity of his home, Peña Catalán was detained and, together with Vergara González, they were taken to the premises of the aforementioned Precinct.”

Source: elciudadano.cl, November 25, 2021

The informal soccer match that ended with four forcibly disappeared persons and one homicide in 1973

A few weeks after the coup, a group of Carabineros took revenge for a fight at a soccer match in the Población La Faena. On International Human Rights Day, we tell this story, which is part of the podcast Ñuñoa tiene memoria (Ñuñoa has memory), which narrates stories of places where dictatorship crimes occurred in the commune.

In September 1973, two soccer teams from the Población La Faena faced each other on the San Carlos field. The pichanga (informal match) was between neighbors of the neighborhood: on one side was the Unión Victoria team, made up of residents from the west of Ictinos Street; on the other, the Club Deportivo Cordillera, made up of those who lived to the east.

The ball rolling across the dirt ground kept the eight players per side distracted from the enormous crisis that was being experienced at that time. None of them yet knew that the country's cruel destiny would cross paths with the outcome of that match.

On International Human Rights Day, at El Desconcierto, we remember this story, which is part of the Podcast Ñuñoa tiene Memoria by Ñuñoa tu Radio in co-production with the Corporación Estadio Nacional, Memoria Nacional, which tells the stories of places in the commune where there were human rights violations during the dictatorship, but in many cases are not recognized today.

What happens on the field does not stay on the field There were few days left until the coup d'état led by Augusto Pinochet. However, in this sector of the capital, which at that time belonged to Ñuñoa, the concern was how Unión Victoria could overcome the difference with Deportivo Cordillera.

The enthusiastic soccer players were young. The youngest was 15 years old, the oldest 22. A kick or simply a mockery—time has made these details diffuse—strained the environment and the insults led to punches.

Héctor Vásquez Sepúlveda, a neighbor of La Faena who switched from Unión Victoria to Cordillera, got into a fight with Francisco Contreras Torres, who belonged to his former team and was a Carabinero of the 13th Precinct “Los Guindos” (current 18th Precinct of Ñuñoa).

The intensity of the fight rose. Juan Manuel Veloso Ortiz, also a Carabinero of the 13th Precinct, a coworker and teammate of Francisco Contreras, joined the fray to support him. On the rival side, Hernán Peña Catalán, Luis Vergara González, José Ramírez Díaz, and Pedro Pérez Godoy got involved.

The San Carlos field was the scene of a pitched battle, although nothing different from what happens in hundreds of matches that occur every weekend in the neighborhoods of Santiago. “What happens on the field, stays on the field,” some commented after the fight, but it was not so. “The match was between them, two teams, a normal pichanga.

My dad's team was winning and, I don't know, they got annoyed and started punching each other. My dad hit them, because he was good with his fists. Then the coup d'état happened and the paco (cop) took it upon himself to go look for him.

I think that was an abuse of power,” recalls José Barahona Ulloa, son of Héctor Vásquez. Abuse of power The laborer Luis Vergara González was heading to his house in Villa Lautaro a few minutes after 9:00 PM, the time defined by the Military Junta for the curfew that day, October 15, 1973.

A little over a month had passed since the bombing of La Moneda and with it the seizure of power by the Armed Forces. Luis was a few blocks from his house when a red pickup truck approached him, which until a few weeks earlier had belonged to Miria Contreras Bell, personal secretary to the late President Salvador Allende.

But the 22-year-old worker did not know that and only saw a vehicle from which Francisco Contreras, the police officer with whom he had fought on the San Carlos field, got out. Together with another Carabinero, they subdued him to take him into custody.

The car quickly set off: he would not be the only one. A couple of streets away, in Villa El Duraznal, was the house of Hernán Peña, a 20-year-old driver who had also participated in the pichanga. In his home, they only found his two children and other relatives, so the police decided to do a “sweep” of the neighborhood until they found him.

They took him too. The destination was the “Los Guindos” Precinct. “They were detained in a civilian car, which curiously had been taken from, had been confiscated from, the secretary of President Allende.

It belonged to ‘La Payita’,” relates Alejandro Ancalao, doctor in history and head of the Heritage Department of the Municipality of Ñuñoa, an agency that is investigating the victims of the dictatorship in the commune. “Is ‘Beto’ there?” Ancalao narrates that two days later the police repeated the routine with “Pedro Pérez Godoy, who was a 15-year-old boy, and José Adrián Ramírez Díaz, who was a 20-year-old young man, a seventh-grade student, who worked as an assistant at the street market.

They were detained on Ictinos Street.” These two young men were taken to the same place as their teammates from Deportivo Cordillera; however, it was already collapsed by the number of detainees, so they were transferred to the Quilín Guard Post, dependent on the 13th Carabineros Precinct.

At 1:00 AM they were taken out of the police facility and transported in “La Payita's” red pickup truck to the premises of the Viña Cousiño Macul. The vehicle stopped before a panoramic view of Santiago under curfew.

Carabineros, under the instructions of Lieutenant Pedro Herrera Mossuto, made the amateur soccer players from the Población La Faena get out and forced them to walk to the banks of the San Carlos canal.

In that place, the officers took out their firearms and shot them. The wounds caused the death of José Ramirez, while Pedro Pérez's whereabouts remain unknown to this day. “Is ‘Beto’ there?” was heard only hours later on October 18, 1973, in front of Héctor Vásquez's house.

The young man from Deportivo Cordillera was bathing, and his siblings received the two Carabineros dressed in civilian clothes who were asking for him, Francisco Contreras and Juan Manuel Veloso. The officers were known to the family because they lived in the neighborhood.

It seemed like a simple visit from some neighbors. When Héctor came out of the bathroom, they asked him to accompany them because he had to provide a statement at the precinct regarding the fight at the soccer match.

The police took him away on a public transport bus, where they casually met the young man's mother, who became worried when she saw the scene. The Carabineros told her not to worry, that they only had to take his testimony and he would be back home soon.

Since that day, Beto is a forcibly disappeared person, just like Luis Vergara and Hernán Peña, of whom there was also no more information since their kidnapping. Héctor Vásquez's girlfriend at that time, Mercedes Ulloa Almonacid, who at the time of his kidnapping was expecting a child with him, recalls: “I found out because his sister told me that he had been lost, that some people had taken him, but they didn't know if they were Carabineros either because they weren't dressed as Carabineros; that he had been lost and then two, three, or four days passed (…) His sister started looking for him later. A week passed and he didn't appear. They had told us that his mother had seen him.” 13th Carabineros Precinct during the dictatorship Historian Alejandro Ancalao explains that the case of the young people from the Población La Faena brings to light that the crimes of the dictatorship were against the entire population and not just directed at a political sector. “The objective was not only political people, with political participation, but it was the entire society. To implant terror, fear, in the entire society, and that was done indiscriminately,” he argues. The head of the Heritage Department of the Municipality of Ñuñoa adds that many of these abuses were carried out thanks to “the henchmen, those who accuse or denounce neighbors due to problems between them, and we end up with cases of forcibly disappeared persons who had absolutely no political relationship, but were simply due to the arbitrariness of public officials.” “Between 1973 and 1990, all the precincts in the country were places of detention. All of them. There is none that did not have detainees, that did not have forcibly disappeared persons within them, or that did not have torture within some. All are recognized, and some were destroyed in the final days of the dictatorship to be able to erase some cases,” the expert concludes based on official reports. In 2017, the Supreme Court sentenced former Carabineros Francisco Contreras Torres and Pedro Herrera Mossuto to seven years in prison for the disappearance of Héctor Vásquez. Furthermore, in 2021, the highest court determined 10 years and one day in prison for officer Juan Paredes Rodríguez for the aggravated homicide of José Ramírez Díaz and the abduction of the minor Pedro Pérez Godoy; another 10 years and one day for Francisco Contreras Torres for the aggravated kidnappings of Hernán Peña and Luis Vergara, the same crime for which it sentenced Pedro Herrera Mossuto to 7 years in prison. Likewise, Bernardo Pérez Arriagada was sentenced to 7 years in prison for the murder of José Ramírez Díaz. Héctor Vásquez's son, José Barahona, maintains that “it was little that they gave the paco” and says, almost 50 years after the event: “I have little hope that he is alive; what I have hope for is that his bones might appear.” Despite the sentences, those close to the victims and neighbors of the precinct know very little information about the case. For example, Mercedes Ulloa states that she knew the other victims besides Héctor Vásquez, her boyfriend at the time. “But I didn't know that the same thing had happened to them, that they had taken them, that they had killed them,” she says. Ñuñoa tiene memoria is a work by Edgar Pfennings de la Vega on the script and research, Felipe Zenteno on the music, and Rodrigo Montanter and Fernando Pereira on the sound. Other sites in the commune that are remembered in this podcast are the current 18th Precinct “Los Guindos,” the old East Campus of the University of Chile, and the Investigations Barracks at Obispo Orrego No. 241, in addition to the partially recognized National Stadium and José Domingo Cañas.

Source: eldesconcierto.cl, December 11, 2022