Statement by his co-defendant Iturra Orrego, who states that in the first months of 1976, Minoletti indicated to him that, by order of General Urzúa, he had to locate the burial site of those executed in Calama.

He went with Minoletti, Commander Aracena, and non-commissioned officers Ramírez and Pardo to wait for General Urzúa and his entourage next to the grave. He recalls that photographs were taken at said location.

He adds that the removal of the bodies was carried out on the night of that same day; 3.- Héctor José Iturra Orrego , to serve a sentence of five hundred and forty (540) days of minor imprisonment in its minimum degree and legal accessories, as an accomplice to the aforementioned illicit acts.

Source: Judicial Branch, September 20, 2022

Supreme Court confirms convictions of former Army officers for crimes committed in Calama by the Caravan of Death in 1973

Through two successive rulings, the Supreme Court issued final sentences against eight former Army officers for their responsibility in the crimes of kidnapping and qualified homicide of 26 victims who were illegally executed; and against eight other former uniformed personnel for the subsequent illegal inhumation and exhumation of their bodies.

The crimes were perpetrated in October 1973 and the exhumations in early 1976, respectively, within the framework of the extermination operation known as the "Caravan of Death." In the first sentence (case file 104.259-2020), the Second Chamber of the high court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, minister María Teresa Letelier, and lawyer (i) Diego Munita—confirmed the single sentence of simple life imprisonment imposed on former Army officers Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo and Juan Viterbo Chiminelli Fullerton for their responsibility as authors of 21 qualified homicides and 5 qualified kidnappings of victims who were ultimately shot in the Cerro Topater sector, in the commune of Calama. Meanwhile, former officers Carlos George Max Langer von Furstenberg, Hernán Rómulo Núñez Manríquez, and Víctor Ramón Santander Véliz must serve 15 years and one day in prison as authors of the consummated and repeated crime of qualified homicide.

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From the Caravan of Death to the Milicogate: Juan Emilio Cheyre summoned to testify as an accused for embezzlement of public funds In the case of former officers Emilio Robert de la Mahotiere González and Luis Felipe Polanco Gallardo, they were sentenced to 12 years in prison as authors of the repeated crime of qualified homicide.

Finally, the sentence that revoked the acquittal and convicted Oscar Figueroa Márquez to a 16-year prison sentence as the author of the repeated crime of qualified homicide was confirmed; this individual had been acquitted in the first-instance ruling.

The criminal Sergio Carlos Arredondo González, also convicted in the first-instance ruling to a 20-year prison sentence for the homicides and 13 years for the qualified kidnappings, passed away during the course of the proceedings and the case against him was dismissed due to death.

In the first-instance sentence, issued in April 2018 by visiting minister Hernán Crisosto Greisse, it was established that on October 19, 1973, a "Puma" helicopter arrived at the N°15 Infantry Regiment of Calama from Santiago with an entourage on board commanded by former General Sergio Arellano Stark, who acted as the Delegate Officer of Pinochet, the coup-plotting Commander-in-Chief of the Military Junta.

Once at the aforementioned regiment, together with other personnel from said unit, they proceeded to remove and kidnap 26 people from the Calama Public Jail who were being held by the uniformed troops.

The detainees were taken to a desert sector called 'Topater,' where they were executed with firearms by the same officials who arrived in the helicopter along with personnel from the Regiment. In 1990, the skeletal remains of the victims Mario Argüelles Toro, Carlos Alfredo Escobedo Cariz, Luis Alberto Hernández Neira, Hernán Elizardo Moreno Villarroel, Fernando Roberto Ramírez Sánchez, Alejandro Rodríguez Rodríguez, José Gregorio Saavedra González, Jorge Jerónimo Carpanchay Choque, Luis Alberto Gaona Ochoa, José Rolando Hoyos Salazar, Roberto Segundo Rojas Alcayaga, Carlos Berger Guralnik, Bernardino Cayo Cayo, Daniel Jacinto Garrido Muñoz, Domingo Mamani López, Jorge Rubén Yueng Rojas, Manuel Segundo Hidalgo Rivas, Luis Moreno Villarroel, Rosario Aguid Muñoz Castillo, Sergio Moisés Ramírez Espinoza, and Víctor Alfredo Ortega Cuevas were found and identified. Meanwhile, the victims Haroldo Cabrera Abarzúa, David Ernesto Miranda Luna, Rafael Pineda Ibacache, Carlos Alfonso Piñero Lucero, and Milton Alfredo Muñoz Muñoz disappeared, and their whereabouts remain unknown to this day. Quebrada del Buitre In a second ruling (case file 24.061-2019), the Second Chamber of the high court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, minister María Teresa Letelier, and lawyer (i) Diego Munita—confirmed the appealed sentence, with the declaration that the accused former Army officers Carlos Humberto Minoletti Arriagada, Julio Fernando Salazar Lanterhy, and Luis Mario Aracena Romo are sentenced to 3 years and one day of imprisonment, with the benefit of intensive supervised release for the same period, as authors of the repeated crimes of illegal exhumation of the bodies of the victims shot in Calama on October 19, 1973. Meanwhile, Manuel Segundo Aguirre Cortés, Juan Carlos González Reyes, Sergio Orlando López Maldonado, Emilio Gerardo Pardo Pardo, Hugo Luciano Carrasco Pérez, Wilson Rubén Pacheco Obreque, and Pedro León Gutiérrez Ruiz received a sentence of 720 days of imprisonment, with the benefit of conditional remission of the sentence, as co-authors of the repeated crime of illegal exhumation. These illicit acts were perpetrated in the city of Calama in the first days of 1976, in the sector known as Quebrada del Buitre. Finally, Héctor José Iturra Orrego was sentenced to 230 days of imprisonment, with the benefit of conditional remission, as an accomplice to the exhumations. In this case, minister Leopoldo Llanos established that, on October 19, 1973, after the 26 people were removed from the Calama jail by the Caravan entourage to be executed in the vicinity of Cerro Topater, the victims were buried that same night in a grave opened for that purpose in a place about 16 kilometers from the site of the executions. This clandestine inhumation was carried out in the sector called "Quebrada del Buitre" on the route that connects Calama with San Pedro de Atacama. The grave was covered to prevent its location. This illegal inhumation was directed by an Army officer belonging to the Engineering Section of the N° 15 Regiment of Calama. Subsequently, at the end of 1975 or the beginning of 1976, the same uniformed personnel from the aforementioned Regiment were instructed to dig up the corpses, put the remains of the executed in bags, place the bags in a military vehicle, and transport them to another sector (called 'Moctezuma'), about 1,000 meters to the east of the initial burial site, where they were buried again in a grave already prepared for that purpose, which was also covered with earth and stones. All of this occurred while a military exercise was being carried out, which allowed for the road mentioned above to be closed off so the task could be carried out. The exhumation operation was in charge of the same officer who had carried out the illegal burial; the new grave and the old one were covered with earth and stones to hide their location. However, the exhumation was not as meticulous as the uniformed criminals intended, leaving small skeletal remains of the victims scattered in the grave. Fifteen days later, the same personnel from the Calama Regiment returned to dig up the remains corresponding to the aforementioned victims, which had been placed in the new grave, and proceeded to deposit them in sacks that were placed in a military truck, to then be transported in the early hours of the morning to the El Loa Airport, where they were loaded onto a Chilean Air Force plane, which headed out to sea to dispose of the remains. Almost 49 years after these crimes were committed, justice appears, late and slow, once again. And the families of the victims continue the search for the remains of their loved ones. by Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl, September 27, 2022