Four agricultural workers, this time from the town of Melipeuco, were also deprived of their liberty and forcibly disappeared by Carabineros officers. On September 11, 1973, Luis Alberto SOTO CHANDIA, 25 years old, a tractor driver, was detained at his home by Carabineros officers from Melipeuco who, in front of witnesses, beat him near the river.

His relatives state that his detention was not acknowledged at the police station (Retén). His whereabouts have remained unknown since that date. On October 14, in the Trufultruful sector of the town of Melipeuco, José Alejandro RAMOS JARAMILLO, 46 years old, and his two sons, Gerardo Alejandro RAMOS HUINA, 21 years old, and José Moisés RAMOS HUINA, 22 years old, were detained at their home by Carabineros officers.

Despite the efforts made by their relatives, they state that their detention was never acknowledged. Credible testimonies presented to this Commission indicate that their bodies, with their hands tied, were floating in the Allipen River.

To date, they have not been found. With the detentions at the hands of uniformed personnel being established, and with no news of any of the affected individuals reaching their families or the State of Chile, this Commission has formed the conviction that Luis Soto, Alejandro Ramos, Gerardo Ramos, and José Ramos were victims of human rights violations by State agents, who detained them and caused them to be forcibly disappeared.

Source: (Rettig Report)

The National Forest Corporation (CONAF) is an entity dependent on the Ministry of Agriculture, born from the former Reforestation Corporation through a decree signed by the government of Salvador Allende on April 19, 1973, and published in the Official Gazette on May 10 of the same year.

The institution's origin has historical roots in the early 20th century, with its first major milestone being the creation of the Malleco Forest Reserve in 1907, located in the commune of Collipulli. CONAF had been created only months before the coup d'état of September 11, 1973; however, it was one of the institutions most severely affected after the overthrow of the popular government. 19 of its workers were murdered by the coup plotters in the weeks following the bombing of La Moneda.

The dictator himself appointed his own son-in-law, Julio Ponce Lerou, as executive director of this Corporation. Until then, Ponce was a former employee of the Matte family at the Biobio Paper Mill in Concepción.

The Matte family would also place one of their former employees, Fernando Léniz Cerda, as Minister of Economy for the Military Junta. CONAF workers murdered in Mulchén It was very close to the Malleco Forest Reserve where the greatest crime against CONAF workers was committed after the coup d'état.

Between October 5 and 7, 1973, in the mountain estates of the Mulchén commune—called El Morro, Carmen, Maitenes, and Pemehue—18 people from the area were killed: 13 of them were workers of the National Forest Corporation (CONAF).

A patrol of approximately thirty people, composed of Carabineros from Mulchén, soldiers from the No. 17 Mountain Infantry Regiment of Los Ángeles, and a group of civilians—among whom the courts managed to identify the farmer Romualdo "Mayo" Guzmán Saavedra, the industrialist and sawmill owner Francisco Urrizola Elías, the timber industrialist Ramón Elías Abella, the farmer Aquiles Guzmán Fritz, and the estate administrator Carlos Lehman.

This "patrol" traveled through the estates and properties of the mountain area of Mulchén, carrying a pre-prepared list of the people who were to be detained and who were subsequently murdered. The "patrol" began its journey at the El Morro estate on the afternoon of October 5.

They proceeded to detain five peasants at their homes, who were taken to the banks of the Renaico River: Juan de Dios Laubra Brevis (26 years old), Domingo Sepulveda Castillo (29 years old), Edmundo José Vidal Aedo (20 years old), Celsio Nicasio Vivanco Carrasco (26 years old), and José Florencio Yañez Duran (34 years old).

Neighbors in the area along the river heard gunshots; a few months later, during the search for their own, neighbors and relatives of the victims found the bodies of the murdered workers in the La Playita sector, with bullet wounds and their hands tied behind their backs with wire.

The following day, October 6, the "patrol" arrived at the Carmen and Maitenes estates, detaining 8 CONAF workers: Miguel del Carmen Albornoz Acuña (20 years old), Daniel Alfonso Albornoz Gonzalez (28 years old), Alejandro Albornoz Gonzalez (48 years old), Luis Alberto Godoy Sandoval (23 years old), Florencio Rubilar Gutierrez (25 years old), José Liborio Rubilar Gutierrez (28 years old), and José Lorenzo Rubilar Gutierrez (33 years old), who were taken to the main house.

Around 11:00 PM, peasant witnesses heard bursts of machine-gun fire. The next day, members of the "patrol" buried seven bodies in a pit dug in a field near the houses, covering them with grass. That same day, October 7, the "patrol" moved toward the Pemehue estate, to the very CONAF office in the Malleco Forest Reserve, taking Guillermo José Albornoz González (32 years old) into custody.

He was brutally beaten and, in very poor physical condition, taken to the Renaico River, where his body later appeared floating. At the Pemehue estate, the criminal "patrol" proceeded to detain and execute 5 other CONAF workers: Alberto Albornoz González (41 years old), Felidor Exequiel Albornoz González (33 years old), José Fernando Gutiérrez Ascencio (25 years old), Gerónimo Humberto Sandoval Medina (22 years old), and Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme (35 years old).

During the night, repeated bursts of rifle fire were heard. All of them were buried in the same places where they were murdered. Relatives later found their bodies with their hands tied, their faces destroyed, and numerous bullet wounds.

Because of these criminal acts, a judicial case was initiated in the courts of justice, specifically before the Court of Appeals of Concepción. In October 2017, Judge Carlos Aldana issued a first-instance sentence in which he only convicted the former Carabineros: Jacob del Carmen Ortiz Palma, Juan de Dios Higueras Álvarez, Osvaldo Enrique Díaz Díaz, and Héctor Armando Guzmán Saldaña to sentences of 10 years and one day in prison, as co-perpetrators of the crimes of qualified homicide of the victims Florencio Rubilar Gutiérrez, José Liborio Rubilar Gutiérrez, José Lorenzo Rubilar Gutiérrez, Alejandro Albornoz González, Luis Godoy Sandoval, Miguel Albornoz Acuña, Daniel Albornoz González, Alberto Albornoz González, Felidor Albornoz González, Jerónimo Sandoval Medina, Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme, and José Gutiérrez Ascencio. The same four former Carabineros must serve 5 years and one day in prison for their responsibility in the qualified kidnapping of 6 other victims: Juan de Dios Laubra Brevis, José Yáñez Durán, Celsio Vivanco Carrasco, Edmundo Vidal Aedo, Domingo Sepúlveda Castillo, and Guillermo Albornoz González. The judicial case continues with pending appeal procedures before the Court of Concepción, so none of these criminals is serving a prison sentence for these crimes. At the end of 1978, the Pinochet tyranny organized and executed the so-called "Operation TV Set Removal" (Operación Retiro de Televisores), one of the most bestial actions of the military dictatorship, which sought to erase the traces of the murders committed up to that point by the uniformed and civilian hordes. The operation consisted of exhuming the bodies of those murdered and illegally buried throughout the country and making those remains disappear so as not to leave any indication of the crimes. It was, in short, to make the remains of the forcibly disappeared persons disappear. The nefarious action was promptly organized by the CNI and executed with criminal diligence by military troops and civilian agents who reveled in the terror they provoked among their victims, the victims' relatives, and the population in general. In the case of the Mulchén victims, probably in March 1979, personnel from the "Húsares" Regiment of Angol, in compliance with a cryptogram from the Army General Command of the time, illegally exhumed the clandestine graves, removed the remains of those who were executed in October 1973, and took them to an unknown destination, fulfilling the purposes of the operation. CONAF worker executed in La Serena In the same days that the crimes of Mulchén were being committed in the south, in the north, the forestry technician and CONAF worker Oscar Gastón Aedo Herrera (23 years old) was detained by Carabineros in Salamanca, Choapa Province, Coquimbo Region. He was held incommunicado at the local police station, and then taken on October 12 to the Illapel Prison, only to be transferred to the "Arica" Regiment of La Serena, where he was executed in the early hours of October 16, 1973, along with 14 other political prisoners murdered during the passage of the "Caravan of Death" through that region. On the judicial level, in October 2022, the Sixth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced eight former officers and two former non-commissioned officers of the Army for their responsibility in the crimes of qualified homicide of the 15 victims of the "Caravan of Death" in the city of La Serena. The group of criminals is composed of a former General and Commander-in-Chief of that institution, two former brigadiers, five former lieutenant colonels, and two non-commissioned officers. CONAF workers murdered in Truful Truful, Melipeuco On October 14, 1973, the following CONAF workers were detained in the Truful Truful sector, Melipeuco commune: José Alejandro Ramos Jaramillo (46 years old), Gerardo Alejandro Ramos Huina (21 years old), and José Moisés Ramos Huina (22 years old), father and sons respectively. The following day, Mario Rubén Morales Bañares (23 years old), a tractor driver and CONAF worker, was detained at his home in Melipeuco. Witnesses report having seen their corpses, with their hands tied, next to the Allipen River. However, they were not the first CONAF workers murdered in the Melipeuco commune, as on the very day of the military coup, the tractor driver Luis Alberto Soto Chandía (25 years old) was detained, becoming the first CONAF worker murdered just hours after the overthrow of Salvador Allende. Judicially, only in the case of the victim Luis Alberto Soto Chandía is there a known procedural case, with only one former Carabinero prosecuted for this act. Forcibly disappeared CONAF worker On January 29, 1975, the forestry technician Juan René Molina Mogollones (29 years old), a former CONAF official in the Curicó province and a former union leader for the corporation's workers, was detained in Santiago by DINA agents. Immediately after the military coup, he began to be pursued and sought by uniformed troops, so he lived in hiding and moved to Santiago. Some time later, he was detained and taken as a prisoner to the clandestine detention and torture center Villa Grimaldi, and from that facility, he was forcibly disappeared.

Source: resumen.cl April 28, 2023

Date: 04-28-2023

19 CONAF Workers Who Were Victims of the Dictatorship Are Remembered

"Tree of Memory" is the name of the institutional project that seeks to rescue the history of those who died after the Military Coup. The recognition that the National Forest Corporation and the Museum of Memory and Human Rights gave to the 19 CONAF workers who were executed after the 1973 Military Coup was as emotional as it was just.

The initiative is framed within the institutional project "Tree of Memory: recognition of CONAF officials who were victims of the dictatorship," which seeks to rescue the history of the Corporation in this matter.

For this purpose, the executive director of CONAF, Aarón Cavieres, and the executive director of the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, Francisco Estévez, signed a cooperation agreement aimed at compiling the records of those murdered workers, information that will subsequently be captured in a book.

Present at the ceremony were relatives of the victims (Claudia Gutiérrez, granddaughter of Malleco Forest Reserve worker José Gutiérrez Ascencio; Marina Rubilar, daughter of Malleco Forest Reserve worker José Rubilar Gutiérrez; and Óscar Aedo, first cousin of Óscar Aedo Herrera), as well as the lawyer for the Human Rights Program of the Ministry of the Interior, Rodrigo Cortés; the Doctor of History and member of the NGO Eco-Comunicaciones, Mario Garcés; and the human rights lawyer María Raquel Mejías, among other representatives of agricultural services.

During his speech, a very emotional Aarón Cavieres indicated that "42 years ago, just with the birth of CONAF, these 19 officials lost their lives when they were dedicated to the conservation of nature.

Today the institution, whose main objective is the well-being and development of people, opens this new path destined for the conservation of people... I also want to thank Homero Altamirano, former executive director of CONAF until 1973, who lived through those hard times, for his presence at this event." The project, unprecedented among State services, is aimed at disseminating the value of Human Rights, and thereby keeping alive the memory of those who were part of the institution and who lost their lives due to military action.

In this context, meetings will be held throughout the country, starting in the Coquimbo, Biobío, La Araucanía, and Los Ríos regions. Francisco Estévez, executive director of the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, upon taking the floor, pointed out that "for us, it is of vital importance to collaborate with the 'Tree of Memory' project of the National Forest Corporation, which comes to rescue the memory of the workers of this institution who were victims of the dictatorship.

It is their lives and work histories that we have dignified today in part by initiating a joint collaboration work between CONAF and the museum, as a contribution to the investigation of cases such as the murder of the workers of the Malleco National Reserve." In accordance with the spirit of the project, the idea is to emphasize respect for Human Rights, thus promoting social coexistence without discrimination and with respect for the dignity of people.

In this sense, education acquires a relevant dimension as a tool for dissemination at different levels of society. The 19 CONAF officials who were victims of the dictatorship are:

1) Oscar Gastón Aedo Herrera

2) Miguel del Carmen Albornoz Acuña

3) Daniel Alfonso Albornoz González

4) Alejandro Albornoz González

5) Guillermo José Albornoz González

6) Alberto Albornoz González

7) Felidor Exequiel Albornoz González

8) Luis Alberto Godoy Sandoval

9) Manuel Florencio Rubilar Gutiérrez

10) José Liborio Rubilar Gutiérrez

11) José Lorenzo Rubilar Gutiérrez

12) José Fernando Gutiérrez Ascencio

13) Gerónimo Humberto Sandoval Medina

14) Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme

15) Mario Rubén Morales Bañares

16) José Alejandro Ramos Jaramillo

17) Gerardo Alejandro Ramos Huina

18) José Moisés Ramos Huina

19) Luis Alberto Soto Chandía

Source: conaf.cl 10/6/2016

Date: 10-06-2016

19 CONAF Workers Who Were Victims of the Dictatorship Are Remembered

"Tree of Memory" is the name of the institutional project that seeks to rescue the history of those who died after the Military Coup. The recognition that the National Forest Corporation and the Museum of Memory and Human Rights gave to the 19 CONAF workers who were executed after the 1973 Military Coup was as emotional as it was just.

The initiative is framed within the institutional project "Tree of Memory: recognition of CONAF officials who were victims of the dictatorship," which seeks to rescue the history of the Corporation in this matter.

For this purpose, the executive director of CONAF, Aarón Cavieres, and the executive director of the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, Francisco Estévez, signed a cooperation agreement aimed at compiling the records of those murdered workers, information that will subsequently be captured in a book.

Present at the ceremony were relatives of the victims (Claudia Gutiérrez, granddaughter of Malleco Forest Reserve worker José Gutiérrez Ascencio; Marina Rubilar, daughter of Malleco Forest Reserve worker José Rubilar Gutiérrez; and Óscar Aedo, first cousin of Óscar Aedo Herrera), as well as the lawyer for the Human Rights Program of the Ministry of the Interior, Rodrigo Cortés; the Doctor of History and member of the NGO Eco-Comunicaciones, Mario Garcés; and the human rights lawyer María Raquel Mejías, among other representatives of agricultural services.

During his speech, a very emotional Aarón Cavieres indicated that "42 years ago, just with the birth of CONAF, these 19 officials lost their lives when they were dedicated to the conservation of nature.

Today the institution, whose main objective is the well-being and development of people, opens this new path destined for the conservation of people... I also want to thank Homero Altamirano, former executive director of CONAF until 1973, who lived through those hard times, for his presence at this event." The project, unprecedented among State services, is aimed at disseminating the value of Human Rights, and thereby keeping alive the memory of those who were part of the institution and who lost their lives due to military action.

In this context, meetings will be held throughout the country, starting in the Coquimbo, Biobío, La Araucanía, and Los Ríos regions. Francisco Estévez, executive director of the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, upon taking the floor, pointed out that "for us, it is of vital importance to collaborate with the 'Tree of Memory' project of the National Forest Corporation, which comes to rescue the memory of the workers of this institution who were victims of the dictatorship.

It is their lives and work histories that we have dignified today in part by initiating a joint collaboration work between CONAF and the museum, as a contribution to the investigation of cases such as the murder of the workers of the Malleco National Reserve." In accordance with the spirit of the project, the idea is to emphasize respect for Human Rights, thus promoting social coexistence without discrimination and with respect for the dignity of people.

In this sense, education acquires a relevant dimension as a tool for dissemination at different levels of society. The 19 CONAF officials who were victims of the dictatorship are:

1) Oscar Gastón Aedo Herrera

2) Miguel del Carmen Albornoz Acuña

3) Daniel Alfonso Albornoz González

4) Alejandro Albornoz González

5) Guillermo José Albornoz González

6) Alberto Albornoz González

7) Felidor Exequiel Albornoz González

8) Luis Alberto Godoy Sandoval

9) Manuel Florencio Rubilar Gutiérrez

10) José Liborio Rubilar Gutiérrez

11) José Lorenzo Rubilar Gutiérrez

12) José Fernando Gutiérrez Ascencio

13) Gerónimo Humberto Sandoval Medina

14) Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme

15) Mario Rubén Morales Bañares

16) José Alejandro Ramos Jaramillo

17) Gerardo Alejandro Ramos Huina

18) José Moisés Ramos Huina

19) Luis Alberto Soto Chandía

Source: conaf.cl 8/9/2016

Date: 08-09-2016