Political Affiliation: Militant of the Socialist Party, member of the Committee of the Unemployed of the Municipality of Parral. Date of Detention: September 13, 1973

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

Hugo Soto Campos, single, 18 years of age, a secondary school student and militant of the Socialist Party, was detained on September 13, 1973, on a public street in the city of Parral by military and Carabineros personnel.

Between September 13 and 20, these forces proceeded to arrest several members of that political party who were linked to one another. Among them were Oscar Saldías Daza, Luis Aguayo Fernández, Enrique Carreño González, Claudio Escanilla Escobar, and Guillermo Belmar Hernández. Of these, Saldías, Carreño, Escanilla, and Hugo Soto remain forcibly disappeared to this day.

All the detainees were held at the Parral Prison, from where they were periodically taken to the Investigations facility to be interrogated under torture. Hugo Soto's interrogations were witnessed by Guillermo Belmar, who was later released.

Belmar also witnessed the torture inflicted upon the victim. The interrogation was directed by an Army Lieutenant known as "Lieutenant Dog" (or Dodge), and also involved the Chief of Investigations of Parral, detective Eldo Avila, an enlisted soldier, and Carabineros Corporal Luis Hidalgo.

Hugo Soto had been detained shortly before the Military Coup, on August 11, 1973, along with Bernardino Fuentes Gatica, Oscar Saldías Daza, and José Félix Muñoz Parada, accused of participating in an arson attack on a property. After being detained for five days, he was released on bail along with Oscar Saldías, while the other two remained detained and prosecuted.

Following the Military Coup, Saldías Daza was detained once again and, like Soto Campos, has been forcibly disappeared ever since.

According to the testimony of Bernardino Fuentes, the detainees were taken from the Parral Prison to the Investigations facility during the day to be interrogated—a situation that also affected him—by patrols from both the Carabineros and the Army.

Among the military personnel, in addition to the aforementioned Lieutenant "Dog or Dodge," were another Lieutenant surnamed Sáenz and Corporals Raúl Ugalde and Manuel Moya, all from the Linares Artillery Regiment. Among the Carabineros, in addition to the previously identified Luis Hidalgo, were police officers Ramón Valenzuela and Germaín Morales.

Hugo Soto Campos has been forcibly disappeared since September 1973, after he was detained by security agents; he was last seen at the Investigations facility, where he was being interrogated under cruel torture.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

It is unknown if any judicial actions were taken on his behalf.

In the cases of other detainees related to the victim, judicial actions were taken, and several of the uniformed personnel who participated in the detention provided statements to the Court. With the exception of the Warden of the Parral Prison, who acknowledged the entry of Carreño, Saldías, and Escanilla, and the Mayor of Linares, the rest denied participation in and knowledge of the events.

In these cases, it was established that a Special Commission operated at the Parral Investigations Barracks, appointed by the then-Army Captain Hugo Cardemil and composed of the Chief of Investigations and an Army Lieutenant.

In this place, as certified by detainees who were later released, the victim and the four aforementioned forcibly disappeared detainees from the Socialist Party of Parral, including Hugo Soto Campos, were interrogated.

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity

The book "Breaking the Silence of Children and Adolescents Who Were Political Executions During the Civil-Military Dictatorship 1973-1990," produced by the Association of Families of Political Executions (AFEP) with the support of the Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage through the Culture, Memory, and Human Rights Unit, and the Human Rights Chair of the University of Chile, incorporates testimonies, photographs, letters, and other documents that families and friends provided or wrote specifically for publication.

The publication, based primarily on the Report of the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation (1991) and the Report of the National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation (1996), seeks to reconstruct each of the victims' lives and stories in a comprehensive and careful manner.

During the research, access was granted to the archive of the Association of Families of Political Executions, where documents that families have preserved over the years are kept. Illustrations by Álvaro Gómez were also included.

The creative process was a complex challenge that involved combining delicacy, respect, and methodological rigor to state a painful and inescapable truth in this work.

Source: cultura,gobierno.cl 20/4/2023

Date: 04-20-2023

THE PRIDE OF BEING FROM PARRAL.

"Callín" was sent to buy yeast and never returned. His mother waited for him at the door until she died. She would say, "But how? He just went to buy something, how could he take so long?" and she would sit on her doorstep waiting for him.

Callín was always a restless boy; he liked to hang out with the older ones. They would gather in the corner plaza, paint graffiti in favor of Allende, or hand out pamphlets. At sixteen, he believed in the revolution.

His family—eight or nine siblings, children of peasants—never got involved in politics, but Callín did. He worked shining shoes in the Plaza de Armas of Parral, where you can still see the shoeshine stands, although all of them have disappeared.

Claudio Jesús Escanilla Escobar was his name, but everyone in Parral called him "El Callín." On September 13, he was detained by a military patrol. He was with Nelson León and Emiliano Mena, but they would be released days later.

Mrs. Julia, his mother, was told by the shoeshine boys in the plaza that the military and Carabineros Sergeant Luis Hidalgo had detained him, and that, apparently, he was being held at the Parral Police Station. Indeed, on September 14, he was transferred to the prison, where Mrs. Julia was only allowed to leave clothes and food, as she was never permitted to see him.

Along with Callín, thirty-three other people were detained, most of them young people who were not yet twenty-two. Children of workers, peasants, and poor people who, for one reason or another, were detained, taken to the Parral Police Station, and then never heard from again.

Even then, the idea circulated that they had been taken to Colonia Dignidad, the German enclave that operated with total impunity for decades in Chile, led by former Hitler Youth member Paul Schäfer.

The first to be detained was Luis Evangelista Aguayo Fernández, twenty years old; he was followed by HUGO ENRIQUE SOTO CAMPOS, eighteen years old and a secondary student. Aurelio Clodomiro Peñailillo Sepúlveda, thirty-two years old and a disability pensioner, was also detained.

Also Oscar Eladio Saldías Daza, twenty years old, from a low-income family, who worked to support his mother and a five-year-old niece they were raising. Also Enrique Ángel Carreño González, the only university student, who was released and then arrested, never to be heard from again.

Also José Ignacio Bustos Fuentes, fifty-two years old, a peasant who lived with his mother, who searched the military barracks of Linares and Talca, but no one ever saw him again. Also Rafael Alonso Díaz Meza, twenty-three; Irineo Alberto Méndez Hernández, twenty-two; Manuel Eduardo Bascuñán Aravena, twenty-three; Óscar Abdón Retamal Pérez, nineteen and a student; Roberto del Carmen Romero Muñoz, twenty-three and an agricultural worker.

In October, the following people disappeared: Armando Edelmiro Morales Morales, nineteen and a secondary student. Luis Enrique Rivera Cofré, twenty-one, father of a nine-month-old child, Vladimir Rivera Órdenes, and an unborn child who would also be named Luis.

Also disappeared were Víctor Julio Vivanco Vásquez, nineteen; and José Hernán Riveros Chávez, twenty-three. In Catillo, a community near Parral, Miguel Rojas Rojas and Gilberto Rojas Vásquez, father and son, were detained.

Also Ruperto Oriol Torres Aravena, fifty-eight, a peasant and father of three children who were left orphaned. Also Ramiro Romero González, twenty-eight, a peasant, married, two children. And Alfredo Durán Durán, forty-eight, who worked at the Civil Registry.

The last cases of forcibly disappeared persons in Parral correspond to 1974, plus one woman murdered, Bella Aurora Sepúlveda Valenzuela. These involved twelve men, eight of whom were linked to a singular repressive event known as the "El Águila" case. Among them were Aroldo Vivían Laurie Luengo and Hernán Sarmiento Sabater.

The last detainees were José Luis Morales Ruiz, twenty-one, an artisan who had two children, and Juan Francisco Ponce González, for whom there is no record and who does not even appear in the Rettig Report.

For most of the detainees, except for those involved in the "El Águila" case, the name of Luis Hidalgo appears—a friendly gentleman who, until the day of his death, walked through the center of Parral with total impunity.

No one ever confronted him, out of fear, of course. He was not convicted, he did not set foot in prison, he did not repent, and it is most likely that for many, he is one of the most prominent figures in Parral.

When I asked Mrs. Julia why she went out every day to sit outside her house, she replied: "In case Callín appears, so he knows this is his home." No one could ever get her to leave that spot until she died, waiting for the son who, on that fateful day, went out to buy yeast.

Book: In the town there is a small and dark house.

Author: Vladimir Rivera Órdenes (Parral, 1973) is a screenwriter, narrator, and teacher. Chronicle: The pride of being from Parral.

Source: www.ruil.cl 30/8/2021

Date: 08-30-2021

The Clues That Could Reveal What Happened to the Forcibly Disappeared in Colonia Dignidad

"A German sect in Chile collaborated closely with the Pinochet regime. It committed sexual abuse against children and murdered opponents. Although the victims do not stop demanding justice, the investigation does not advance," says the summary of the report "Colonia Dignidad: A Dark Chapter of History," which was published over the weekend by the German channel Deutsche Welle.

The journalistic work focuses on the lack of progress in the investigations into Human Rights violations committed inside the German enclave and points out that the closeness of the Minister of Justice, Hernán Larraín, to the enclave located in the Maule region may have influenced this lack of progress.

In this context, the report describes a 2017 Chilean-German agreement to advance investigations into Human Rights violations that occurred in Colonia Dignidad. Within the framework of this collaboration, it is noted that Germany offered Chile laboratories to analyze samples of material extracted from graves found in the vicinity of the property; however, they claim that nothing has been sent from Chilean soil to be analyzed.

The clues that would reveal the extermination center

Given the slow progress of the case over these years, in 2018, associations of forcibly disappeared persons from Linares, Parral, and Talca requested a meeting with anthropologist Juan Cáceres, who was working on the property of the current Villa Baviera, investigating evidence found in an investigation led by Judge Mario Carroza since 2013 regarding torture inside the German enclave.

These are the clandestine graves where the bodies of the victims of repression during the dictatorship were allegedly dumped.

However, the concrete clue points to an exhumation of those bodies within the framework of the "Retiro de Televisores" (Television Removal) operation set up in 1978 by the regime to make the bodies of political executions disappear.

While the regime tried to cover up its crimes, the settlers in the German enclave were forced to dig up an undetermined number of bodies from the clandestine graves using heavy machinery.

According to testimonies from former settlers, once unearthed, the remains were moved to another point on the property to be burned on "grills" with kerosene and napalm, and then thrown into the Perquelauquén River.

These data are not new, since during the investigation carried out by Judge Jorge Zepeda between 2005 and 2009, surveys were conducted, finding vehicle engines that belonged to detainees and other indications that pointed to clandestine graves.

However, Zepeda stopped the forensic examinations, leaving the families of the forcibly disappeared in uncertainty, who then turned to Judge Carroza.

The latter obtained financial support from the Ministry of the Interior to manage the help of professionals such as Kenneth Jensen and Juan Cáceres, who found the graves described in the testimonies, despite the modifications ordered by Paul Schäfer in an attempt to hide the evidence.

In fact, the work was so well executed that, despite subsequent attempts by the former Nazi corporal to find it, there would still be one un-intervened clandestine grave where human remains could be.

To date, it has not been possible to find human bones. All that has been found is evidence of coal remains, confirming the testimony of former settler Willy Malessa, the driver of the backhoe with which they removed the remains.

Minister Larraín to be summoned to Congress

The president of the Senate Human Rights Commission, Alejandro Navarro, confirmed that he will summon Minister Larraín in March to explain these facts.

"There is more concern in Germany than in our country. In March, we are going to summon Minister Hernán Larraín, Undersecretary of Human Rights Lorena Recabarren, and Minister of the Interior Gonzalo Blumel to initiate a process that allows us to reach the truth," added the senator, regarding the information coming from the European country.

In that vein, congresswoman and member of the Chamber's Human Rights Commission, Claudia Mix, recalled the support that Hernán Larraín gave to the German leaders at the time, when he was a parliamentarian for the area.

"Colonia Dignidad and its history is a mark of pain for our country; it has been regrettable how for years it has received protection from conservative sectors. We cannot forget that Minister Larraín in the nineties, during his parliamentary era, gave them significant shows of support," highlighted Mix.

Government defends itself

After the publication by the German media outlet Deutsche Welle, the Ministry of Justice came out to explain its efforts and the investment committed to finding the truth.

The State secretariat assured, through a statement, that since 2017 there has been a commission with members from Chile and Germany working to propose the creation of a documentation center to remember its history, "with an emphasis on the abuses that were committed there."

It highlights that in 2019, a working group was established to coordinate all plaintiffs in the case.

Among the agreements of the body, which would be implemented through visiting judge Mario Carroza, is the request for new forensic examinations and to know if the German government would finance them, as well as which laboratories could be used to carry them out.

They also highlighted that the proceedings and forensic examinations of the ministry have meant an investment of 328 million pesos between 2017 and the current administration.

Source: biobio.cl 13/2/2020

Date: 02-13-2020

Sentences Reclassified for Former Military Personnel Involved in Parral Crimes

The Third Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals reclassified, in the second instance, the sentences handed down by special judge Alejandro Solís against three uniformed officers accused of the aggravated kidnapping of 21 dissidents of the military regime, in events that took place in Parral between September 1973 and January 1974, which include a case of child abduction.

On August 6, 2003, Judge Solís sentenced former governor and retired Carabineros Colonel Pablo Caullier Grant, retired Army Commander Hugo Cardemil Valenzuela, and retired Carabineros non-commissioned officer Luis Hidalgo to prison terms ranging from 10 to 15 years.

In a split vote (2-1), the capital's appellate court, composed of judges Alejandro Madrid, Juan Muñoz Pardo, and Humberto Provoste, resolved to increase the punishment imposed on Hidalgo from seven to ten years and one day; maintain the ten-year prison sentence for Caulier; and decrease the sentence for Cardemil Valenzuela from 17 years to 15 years and one day of major imprisonment.

The investigation initiated at the beginning of this decade by retired judge Juan Guzmán Tapia allowed for the determination of the responsibility of the accused in the disappearances of Enrique Carreño González, Rolando Ibarra Ortega, Edelmiro Valdés Sepúlveda, Haroldo Laurie Luengo, Hernán Sarmiento Sabater, Armando Morales Morales, José Luis Morales Ruiz, Aurelio Peñailillo Sepúlveda, Luis Pereira Hernández, Armando Pereira Merino, Oscar Retamal Pérez, José Riveros Chávez, Enrique Rivera Cofré, Hugo Soto Campos, and Víctor Vivanco Vásquez.

All were detained between September 11, 1973, and 1974 in Parral, taken to the police station and the city jail, but in several cases, their trail was lost after being placed at the disposal of the local Military Prosecutor's Office. In some of the cases, their relatives have stated that there is evidence that they were taken to Colonia Dignidad.

Of them, Carreño González, Morales Morales, Peñailillo Sepúlveda, Retamal Pérez, Riveros Chávez, and Soto Campos appear in the Armed Forces report issued by the Dialogue Table on human rights as having been thrown into the Putagán River.

Originally, this process began in Parral following the 1991 Rettig Report, then it was taken up by the judge of the Seventh Criminal Court of Santiago, Lientur Escobar, who was investigating the disappearance of MIR militant Álvaro Vallejos Villagrán at Villa Baviera.

Source: June 16, 2005 La Nacion

Date: 06-16-2005