José Alfonso Saavedra Betancourt, married, a union leader, worked at the company CELCO (Celulosa Constitución). On September 11, an assembly was held at his workplace, followed by a march toward the Governor's Office, led by the Governor himself, Arturo Riveros Blanco, and by union and political leaders.

This demonstration dispersed after the Governor and Carabineros Major Abdón García held a meeting that resulted in the suspension of the march. The following morning, the industrial plant was surrounded by military personnel who had arrived the previous night from the Linares Artillery School, under the command of Captain Juan Morales Salgado.

Accompanying the military was a Carabineros clerk, who identified specific individuals who were then detained, among them José Saavedra Betancourt. The Governor, the majority of the union leaders, and some CELCO workers were also detained. All the detainees were loaded onto a public transport bus and taken to the Carabineros police station.

According to the local prison's logbook, on September 14 at 10:00 PM, Captain Morales interrogated some detainees at that facility and then left, taking José Saavedra and Arturo Riveros with him. The latter had entered the prison only three hours earlier, by order of the same military officer.

After this date, he was never seen again. Saavedra's family lived in Santiago. Due to the situation in the country, his spouse traveled to Constitución on September 18, where she learned of his detention.

At the CELCO company, they handed her her husband's insurance booklet and his salary for the month of September. She then began searching for him in various places. On one occasion, while she had gone to Linares to make inquiries, military personnel in black berets raided her home in the presence of her younger sister, Amelia Lorca.

The uniformed men told her that José had "escaped by jumping over a prison wall."

Hernán Castillo, a CELCO worker who was detained at the Constitución Investigations Barracks in October 1973, states that he learned through comments from Captain Juan Morales—who directed the interrogations—and from detectives, that José Saavedra was dead, as were Arturo Riveros, Jorge Yáñez, and Jaime Torres; the latter two were MIR leaders in the area.

Furthermore, the former official of the Municipality of Constitución, Hamilton Oliva, states that at a social reception held at the end of September 1973, Captain Morales—in response to a question from him—admitted to having given the order to execute five detainees on September 16 of that year and that their bodies had been left in the area of the beach known as "Potrerillos." This witness remembers only the names of Arturo Riveros, Jorge Yáñez, and Jaime Torres.

He adds that on that day in Constitución, the curfew was at 5:30 PM and that the officer told him the pretext was the arrival of a boat of extremists in the city.

His spouse made inquiries at the Governor's Office and the Constitución Prison, where his detention was denied. At the beginning of October 1973, she went to the Linares Prison, where the warden indicated that her husband had appeared on the list of people admitted, but he refused to inform her of his whereabouts.

At the Military Prosecutor's Office in that same city, she was told that there was no case against him, nor was he being held by order of that court. She also went to Talca and Linares, but all searches were fruitless, and no one could inform her about the fate of her spouse. José Alfonso Saavedra remains forcibly disappeared.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE BACKGROUND

In the case regarding the alleged disappearance of Arturo Riveros Blanco, file 20617 of the Constitución Court of Letters, it is reported that the prison logbook records that on September 14, José Saavedra Betancourt and Arturo Riveros Blanco were taken out after 10:00 PM by Captain Juan Morales Salgado.

The officer testified in this proceeding but said nothing about this information, stating instead that Riveros was sent to Linares and that he did not know what happened to him. He said nothing about Saavedra. These facts were investigated by the court.

This case was temporarily dismissed on two occasions because the crime could not be proven; both resolutions were approved by the Talca Court of Appeals. The first time was in 1981, after Officer Morales testified and the Investigations department submitted its report, which indicated the record of his entry into the prison and his subsequent removal by Officer Morales.

The second dismissal occurred in June 1987, after a reopening had been requested with the filing of a complaint.

The leaders of the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared of Linares did not rule out appealing to the International Court of that body, with the aim of denouncing the Supreme Court's final ruling regarding the disappearance of militants and leftist sympathizers during the government of Augusto Pinochet.

The spokesperson for said entity, Juana Soto, indicated that "we are very disappointed to learn of the justice system's resolution, and while we highlight the diligent work of Minister Solís, who we believe got to the bottom of the investigation, we do not think the same of the judges."

Soto harshly criticized the position of President Piñera's government, stating that "we are in a right-wing government, and for that same reason, what more could we expect regarding such a delicate issue as Human Rights; on the other hand, today, although the Judiciary is independent of the Government, through connections, things are often achieved, even impunity."

On the other hand, the daughter of María Isabel Beltrán, whose case is one of the most emblematic in the southern Maule region, Tamara Callejas, stated: "there is a bias of impunity in these decisions; my hope remains alive to know what really happened to my mother, but I believe that just as there are people who I am sure have collaborated in these houses that Minister Solís investigated, I cannot rule out that there are those who did not tell everything they know."

In a split decision, the ministers of the Second Chamber of the highest court determined to acquit Gabriel Del Río Espinoza due to a lack of responsibility; while they sentenced Juan Hernán Morales Salgado, Claudio Abdón Lecaros Carrasco, Antonio Aguilar Barrientos, and Félix Renato Cabezas Salazar to 5 years in prison for their responsibility as perpetrators of kidnapping, granting them the benefit of supervised release; and three years in prison with the benefit of conditional remission to Humberto Lautaro Julio Reyes.

It must be remembered that the Supreme Court issued a final sentence in the investigation into the qualified kidnappings of Arturo Enrique Riveros Blanco, Jaime Bernardo Torres Salazar, Jorge Bernabé Yáñez Olave, José Saavedra Betancourt, José Gabriel Campos Morales, Anselmo Antonio Cancino Aravena, Alejandro Robinson Mella Flores, María Isabel Beltrán Sánchez, and Héctor Hernán Contreras Cabrera, which occurred starting in September and December 1973, in the city of Linares.

Source: Tuesday, May 3, 2011, La Tercera Date: 05-03-2011

Five military officers and two detectives prosecuted for kidnappings in Linares

Visiting Minister Alejandro Solís prosecuted five retired members of the Army and two former detectives as perpetrators of the qualified kidnapping of three MIR militants and one union leader, who were last seen alive at the Linares Artillery School between September 12, 1973, and January 2, 1974.

The ruling becomes an expansion of the resolution issued on July 6, 2003, when he charged six former uniformed officers for other cases of forcibly disappeared persons contained in the same episode.

The magistrate decided to charge retired Colonel Gabriel del Río Espinoza, who was the commander of the aforementioned facility and—at the same time—regional intendant at the time; retired Colonel Claudio Abdón Lecaros Carrasco; former Investigations commissioner Héctor Torres Guajardo; retired Sergeant Major Antonio Aguilar Barrientos; and retired Investigations commissioner Nelson Volta Rosas, as perpetrators of the crime of qualified kidnapping of Guillermo del Canto Ramírez, a MIR leader.

According to the investigation substantiated by Solís, at 12:30 AM on January 2, 1974, Del Canto was detained while he was with his spouse, Marianela Méndez Soto, at the home of his cousin, Félix Ignacio Valenzuela Ferrer, located at 560 Santa Clara Street in the commune of La Cisterna.

In effect, several officials entered the premises claiming to belong to the Linares city Regiment, and they detained del Canto Ramírez and his cousin, because he was an "accomplice"—according to what the captors stated.

Both detainees were taken in a truck to the Santiago Military School, where they were interrogated. The following morning, Valenzuela Ferrer was released, while Guillermo del Canto was transferred to the Linares Artillery Regiment, where he remained detained for several days, being interrogated and tortured, to later, on an undetermined date, be taken to the Tejas Verdes prisoner camp in San Antonio, where his trail was lost until today.

Other three victims

On the other hand, Minister Solís prosecuted retired General Carlos Edmundo Morales Retamal, then director of the Linares Artillery School, in his capacity as perpetrator of the crime of qualified kidnapping against university student and former MIR militant María Isabel Beltrán Sánchez, committed starting September 18, 1973.

He also prosecuted former Investigations commissioner Héctor Armando Torres Guajardo and retired Sergeant Major Antonio Aguilar Barrientos as perpetrators of the crime of qualified kidnapping against former MIR militant Héctor Hernán Contreras Cabrera, committed starting December 8, 1973.

Finally, the judge charged retired Colonel Juan Hernán Morales Salgado in his capacity as perpetrator of the crime of qualified kidnapping of José Alfonso Saavedra Betancourt, a former union leader of the Celco company, perpetrated from September 12, 1973.

The magistrate granted provisional release to all those prosecuted, and only in the case of Morales Salgado, who is being charged in this case for the first time, was the benefit granted with consultation to the Court of Appeals.

The First Chamber of the appellate court confirmed this Tuesday the release of the former military officer, with the favorable votes of ministers Juan Cristóbal Mera and Amanda Valdovinos, in addition to the participating lawyer Benito Mauriz.

Mery's colleagues

In the prosecution, which consists of more than 60 pages, Minister Solís left recorded the various allusions that exist in these cases regarding the participation of the former director of Investigations in the detention of these opponents of the military regime.

In fact, several witnesses identify him as part of the group of agents that detained María Isabel Beltrán. Likewise, one of the detectives who provided services at the Artillery School, Armando Torres Guajardo, maintained that in that unit "there was a Security Department, in charge of Captain Lecaros, and it had other officials, such as Nelson Mery, under the command of Jorge Zincke."

"He participated in the interrogations, and regarding María Isabel Beltrán, a MIR militant arrested in Santiago, he witnessed about 3 interrogations led by Captain Lecaros, who, to intimidate her, would hit her on the back with a rubber 'churro' (baton)."

Meanwhile, one of the survivors of the Linares Artillery School, Osvaldo Efraín Salazar Saavedra, who was detained on December 19, 1973, by a platoon of military and detectives who took him to the Military School and later transferred him to the Linares Artillery School, affirms that Nelson Mery participated in that group.

For his part, the former director of the civil police, who left his position due to his alleged link to human rights violations, declared in the prosecution that "on September 12, 1973, being a detective, he was designated as a liaison officer at the Linares Artillery School, and on one occasion he was called by the 'Intelligence Office' and Aguilar asked him if he knew Patricia Contreras, whom he knew because he was a friend of her sister, Elena."

"He answered yes, and they ordered him to go to Santiago because she was allegedly involved in hiding weapons in Panimávida. They arrived at a house on Cienfuegos Street in a military jeep, in charge of Captain Humberto Julio; Sergeant Aguilar and Detective Volta also went; they detained her and took her to the Military School; the next day, on the way back, he got out of the jeep and looked into the truck in which she was being transported and also found María Isabel Beltrán, who had been detained by military personnel," he added.

"He always considered that María Isabel Beltrán was a military intelligence target, as stated in writing by Colonel Morales Retamal, who points out that she belonged to a MIR cell, maintained extremist activities in Parral, and was involved in the infiltration of people into the Armed Forces, the main charge for which she was detained," Mery assured the court.

Source: April 19, 2006, El Mostrador.cl Date: 04-19-2006

The old province of Maule (excerpt)

At the beginning of 1970, its population was around 15,000 inhabitants. The timber industry, its two processing plants, Celco and Copihue, as well as the progressive fishing industry, caused its population to increase considerably from that time on. Peasants migrated to Constitución to look for work in that city.

Precisely because of this social and labor situation, starting in 1971, growing political activity began to develop on the part of the leftist parties: Socialist, Christian Left, and, especially, the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR).

Faced with the lack of housing, the MIR devised and carried out, together with numerous homeless workers, the seizure of land to build a settlement. It was installed on a small hill facing the sea.

The leftist parties, a few months before the Coup d'État, began a pressure movement before the national authorities and demonstrated in the streets demanding the resignation of the Christian Democratic Governor, which was finally achieved in May 1973. He was replaced by Arturo Riveros Blanco, a young militant of the Christian Left.

Coup d'État Lucía Valenzuela described it as follows: "In the first hours of the Military Coup of September 11, 1973, Arturo Riveros—in his capacity as the highest local authority—addressed the population by radio and later installed himself in the Celco offices, where an assembly was held with the presence of local leaders of the leftist parties.

After some speeches, a march was held toward the Governor's Office, led by Riveros himself carrying a Chilean flag. The Governor's Office building was occupied by Carabineros personnel under the command of their highest authority, Major Abdón García, with whom Riveros and the MIR leader, Jorge Yáñez, held a closed-door meeting.

Then there was another meeting between the political leaders, and finally, they spoke to the demonstrators, and everyone retired to their homes. That night, around 11:00 PM, the Governor's Office facilities were occupied by military personnel from the Artillery School who had arrived from Linares, under the command of Captain Juan Morales Salgado.

In this same building was the Governor's residence, where Arturo Riveros and his family lived, the only place where the uniformed men did not install themselves, although that same night Captain Morales announced that he was assuming the position."

"Also part of this group were Lieutenant Leonardo Marchant Rocha and Sub-lieutenants Mauricio Salas Coccolo and Alejandro Herrera López. Captain Morales assumed the position of Governor of Constitución, and they installed themselves in these offices and in the Investigations building, whose personnel were all sent to the city of Talca."

"At the first hour of the following day, Riveros went to Celco, where he participated in a meeting with union leaders. Before it ended, the military surrounded the industry and began to detain the majority of the unionists and workers, all of whom were identified by a Carabineros clerk who accompanied them.

Under these circumstances, Riveros was detained and transported, along with the rest, in a public transport bus to the Carabineros police station, located next to the Governor's Office."

According to several witnesses, the repression in Constitución began on September 12. Fernando Garrido Jaque (1), a laborer who at that time worked at the Celco cellulose plant, told us that: "Carabineros and military personnel began surveillance and detention rounds in the city and on nearby rural roads of those they were looking for or believed to be suspicious.

Several civilians accompanied the operations."

"The director of the Constitución Hospital, Dr. Gustavo Rayo, was detained by the military that same day, along with Dr. Nelson Luna Vera and other officials."

"That night, the military entered Celco to evict it. From the houses, you could hear the shooting; we didn't know what was happening. The plant remained stopped for more than a week."

Another witness assured that

"In truth, after the Military Coup, the repression in this city was focused fundamentally against the workers of the Celulosa Celco and Copihue plants and against the numerous peasants who had arrived from different localities to work in the timber industry."

Hernán Peña Jeldrez, Port Captain of Constitución until 1970, who was also detained in the Governor's Office itself in the days following the Coup, told us about the detention of two of his four children: Hernán and León: "They were horribly tortured in the Constitución Public Prison.

I also remember the names of other people who suffered inhuman treatment: Denis Henríquez, philosophy professor; Boris Arellano, local radio announcer; César Orellana, some doctors, and so many others..."

Several former prisoners reported that there were more than 60 people imprisoned in the Constitución Prison in the days that followed the Coup. "They were overcrowded because it was a tiny prison, for more or less 20 inmates.

All of them were flogged. The doctors were in a separate cell, along with Osvaldo Zamorano, the Vásquez brothers, and others I don't remember. In another cell, they had six held incommunicado, including me," noted Fernando Garrido.

"The doctors, perhaps, were not tortured as much, but every day they were taken out in chains to do gardening tasks, even at the Hospital itself, where they had previously been chiefs. Everyone could see them there sweeping, cutting the grass, totally humiliated," recall several inhabitants of Constitución.

The right-wing people "who here were very arrogant during the Popular Unity government, immediately after the Coup became collaborators and informants for Morales Salgado," they especially recalled one with the surname Bernal and also Nibaldo Garrido.

According to what the person in charge of the Human Rights Commission of Constitución told us:

"...in this city, there were executions of laborers and peasants inside the Celco plant itself, in a place near the mouth of the river, on the Mutrún hill, and in the Las Cañas sector, on the road to Cauquenes."

Although several witnesses speak of a higher number of forcibly disappeared or executed persons, and although more than a year ago a mass grave with more than eight human skeletons was discovered on Mutrún Hill and two others in the city's cemetery, the Associations, ourselves, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission have registered only four people so far, which we will describe below.

The four forcibly disappeared: Their detentions, their lives

Four men disappeared in Constitución between September 11 and 16, 1973. The youngest was 21 years old and the oldest 37. Two were MIR militants, one was from the Christian Left, and another, who had no political affiliation, was a union leader at the Celco company.

Arturo Enrique Riveros Blanco

He was 22 years old, married, and had 1 child. A technical draftsman for the Celco company, he was the Acting Governor of the city of Constitución from May to September 1973. He was a militant of the Christian Left.

He was detained on the morning of September 12. At three in the afternoon of that same day, he was released but placed under house arrest. On September 14, at 7:00 PM, he was again taken to the local prison. There he met numerous people who were already detained, among them JOSÉ ALFONSO SAAVEDRA BETANCOURT, 37 years old, a steel fixer and union leader at the Celco company.

According to the Logbook of the Constitución Prison, both detainees were transported by Captain Morales Salgado at ten o'clock at night on the 14th to the Linares Artillery School. In response to subsequent inquiries made to Captain Morales by the detainees' relatives, he stated that on September 15 they had been transferred to the aforementioned facility in Linares.

On September 22, Catherine Delgado, Arturo Riveros's wife, appeared at the Constitución Prison, where they handed her her husband's personal effects. Then, she went to Linares. At the Artillery School, she was attended to by an Army Major with the surname Pérez, who informed her that her husband had been released after giving a written statement on the same day, September 15, on the condition that he had to report to sign in periodically.

Subsequently, this same military officer changed his statement, reporting that Riveros Blanco had been released by mistake and that he was being sought through Military Edicts to report to the Linares Artillery School.

From that moment on, no new information is known about the whereabouts and situation of Arturo Riveros and JOSÉ SAAVEDRA... (continued)

Source: http://www.derechos.org/