Jorge Manuel Araya Mandujano and Juan Santiago Vilches Yañez died on approximately October 6, 1973, while attempting to cross the Andes Mountains on foot via the Paso Pehuenche, at the altitude of the Talca province.

On September 11, 1973, Jorge Araya, an official of the Agricultural and Livestock Service (SAG), and Juan Vilches, a former member of the Presidential Guard (GAP), were part of a group of Socialist Party militants led by the former Intendant of Talca, Germán Castro Rojas.

On two occasions, this group engaged in armed confrontations with Carabineros and military personnel in the Andean foothills near Talca. In these clashes, one Carabinero and one Socialist militant were killed, and twelve other members of the group were detained, including the former Intendant Castro, who was executed by firing squad days later.

The Rettig Report of the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation records him as a victim of human rights violations. Under these circumstances, Jorge Araya, Juan Vilches, and seven other members of the group, after remaining in hiding for several weeks and despite having scarce food, inadequate clothing, and no knowledge of the route, decided to flee toward Argentina by crossing the Andes Mountains.

On approximately October 6, 1973, they were caught in a violent storm that caused both men to become separated from the group and fall into a ravine. The others managed to cross the border and reach Argentina.

While staying in that country, they learned through the Argentine Gendarmerie that the bodies of Jorge Araya and Juan Vilches had been found by Argentine muleteers and had been buried in a difficult-to-access location deep in the mountains.

These facts only became known in 1990, through the testimonies of some members of the surviving group. A judicial investigation was initiated to establish the location where the burial took place, with no results as of the date the Council reviewed this case.

For this reason, their deaths have not been duly registered. Considering the evidence gathered and the Corporation's investigation, the Superior Council formed the conviction that Jorge Manuel Araya Mandujano and Juan Santiago Vilches Yañez died while fleeing their captors, and consequently declared them victims of the political violence prevailing at the time of their deaths.

Source: Corporation

Experts and detectives accompany Judge Gerardo Bernales Rojas to locate the whereabouts of Jorge Araya and Juan Vilches, former escorts of the assassinated Intendant of Talca, Germán Castro. On Saturday morning, a mission led by Judge Gerardo Bernales Rojas departed for a ravine in the Sixth Region, located on the border with Argentina, with the goal of finding the whereabouts of two Socialist militants who reportedly perished from hypothermia while escaping from repressive forces after the 1973 coup.

Magistrate Bernales, who has exclusive dedication to investigating 17 human rights cases, is accompanied by forensic experts and members of the Investigative Police, who will attempt to find the bodies of Jorge Araya Mandujano and Juan Santiago Vilches Yánez, who were escorts to the assassinated Intendant of Talca, Germán Castro Rojas.

The mission will travel by horseback to the area where the remains of the Socialist militants are presumed to be—whose cases were classified as forcibly disappeared—in a ravine near the Paso Internacional El Pehuenche.

Inspection work in the area will last for about a week and will include the presence of three other Socialist militants who did manage to survive the snowstorm that affected the area after the coup and escape the four military patrols that were conducting the pursuit.

The identities of the witnesses are being kept confidential, but it was reported that they currently reside in Argentina, the Netherlands, and Germany.

Source: cooperativa.cl, Saturday, January 8, 2005

Date: 08-01-2005

Socialist Party filed a lawsuit for seven political executions in 1973

The Socialist Party (PS) filed a lawsuit against those responsible for the deaths of seven people in the Seventh Region following the coup d'état of September 11, 1973. The legal action relates to the case of university professor Héctor Valenzuela Salazar, murdered by Carabineros personnel along with his wife, Hilda Velásquez Calderón, and their six-year-old daughter, Claudia.

As a result of this crime, the couple's other two children, Paula and Gonzalo, aged four and two respectively, were also wounded. According to the Rettig Report, which in 1991 documented human rights violations during the military dictatorship (1973-1990), the police arrived at the professor's home during investigations they were conducting following an incident in Paso Nevado, about 350 kilometers south of Santiago, which is also the focus of the legal action.

In that incident, a confrontation occurred between Carabineros and a group of 20 people led by the former Intendant of the Maule Region, Germán Castro, as they attempted to cross into Argentina through a pass located in the Andes Mountains.

According to the judicial investigation, when the group arrived at the Paso Nevado police station, they were prevented from continuing their journey, leading to a confrontation in which Carabinero Corporal Orlando Espinoza Faúndez was killed.

The group managed to continue their journey, but later encountered military personnel. Civilian Hugo Zacarías Miños Garrido lost his life, and Jorge Araya Mandujano and Juan Vilches Yáñez were seriously wounded; they died subsequently, and their bodies were never found.

For his part, Germán Castro was executed on September 27, 1973, in retaliation for these events, but according to the Rettig Report, there was never a war council to sentence him to death. The Rettig Report records that during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, 3,197 victims were registered in Chile, of whom 1,192 were forcibly disappeared.

Human rights organizations have denounced that during the 17 years of the military regime, at least 800,000 Chileans suffered political imprisonment, torture, or exile. To date, there are 287 former repressors prosecuted or convicted for human rights violations, most of them retired military personnel. (EFE)

Source: cooperativa.cl 14/7/2003

Date: 14-07-2003