Between September 24 and October 3, 1973, at the Fundo El Escorial in Paine, various arrests were carried out, followed by the execution of those affected.

On September 24, 1973, at approximately 16:00 hours, personnel belonging to the San Bernardo Infantry Regiment arrived at the Viña El Escorial in Paine, mobilized in a truck and a jeep, and proceeded to arrest five agricultural workers, who were led to a soccer field where they were forced to lie on the ground.

From there, they were taken to the Infantry Regiment, where they remained until nearly 22:00 hours, when they were blindfolded and loaded onto a truck bound for the Cerro Chena Detention Center. The arrested individuals were:

Héctor CASTRO SAEZ, 18 years old, single, no political affiliation;

Juan Guillermo CUADRA ESPINOZA, 26 years old, married, Socialist Party militant;

Gustavo Hernán MARTINEZ VERA, married, no political affiliation;

Juan Bautista NUÑEZ VARGAS, 33 years old, married, Socialist Party militant; and

Ignacio del Tránsito SANTANDER ALBORNOZ, 17 years old, single.

On the morning of October 3, an operation was carried out in which thirteen other agricultural workers from the town of Paine were arrested. On this occasion, the personnel belonging to the San Bernardo Infantry Regiment arrived in a red truck, with their faces painted black.

They entered the homes and removed the detainees, taking them to San Bernardo and from there to the Cerro Chena Detention Center. These thirteen people were arrested that night, along with others who were subsequently released:

José Angel CABEZAS BUENO, 21 years old, single;

Francisco Javier CALDERON NILO, 19 years old, single;

Domingo Antonio GALAZ SALAS, 23 years old, single;

José Emilio GONZALEZ ESPINOZA, 32 years old, married;

Juan Rosendo GONZALEZ PEREZ, 23 years old;

Aurelio Enrique HIDALGO MELLA, 22 years old, single;

Bernabé del Carmen LOPEZ LOPEZ, 23 years old, single;

Carlos Manuel ORTIZ ORTIZ, 18 years old, single;

Héctor Santiago PINTO CAROCA, 34 years old, married;

Hernán PINTO CAROCA, 42 years old, married;

Aliro del Carmen VALDIVIA VALDIVIA, 39 years old, married;

Hugo Alfredo VIDAL ARENAS, 27 years old, married; and

Víctor Manuel ZAMORANO GONZALEZ, single.

Several people who were detained at the Cerro Chena Detention Center report having been transported there along with the aforementioned detainees. In that place, they were generally kept blindfolded and subjected to torture and interrogation. Subsequently, some of them were released.

The relatives of the forcibly disappeared went on several occasions to that Detention Center, where the detention was not officially acknowledged. However, in the Writ of Amparo 283 79 filed on behalf of Ignacio Santander Albornoz and Juan Cuadra Espinoza, it was reported on April 16, 1974, by the Chief of the Interior Zone of the Departments of San Bernardo and Maipo that "the detainees Ignacio Santander Albornoz and Juan Cuadra Espinoza were discharged by the sentries of the Chena Prisoner Camp on October 4, 1973."

In the month of December, relatives were informed at the Legal Medical Service that there was a record of the entry of the remains of all these detainees and that they had been buried in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery.

Around the same time, locals discovered human remains in the Cuesta de Chada area. The relatives went there and were able to recognize, in most cases, remnants of the clothing that the detainees were wearing when they were taken from their homes.

The remains, which were scattered at the site, were collected by Carabineros personnel and sent to the Legal Medical Service, where the corresponding forensic examinations were performed, but the identities of the individuals were not determined.

In the month of September 1990, the Minister of the Court of Appeals, Germán Hermosilla, appeared at that Medical Service with the purpose of identifying the remains that had remained unidentified since 1974.

The bodies finally recognized correspond to the following individuals: José Cabezas Bueno; Francisco Calderón Nilo; Domingo Galaz Salas; Emilio González Espinoza; Juan González Pérez; Aurelio Hidalgo; Bernabé López; Héctor and Pedro Pinto Caroca; Aliro Valdivia Valdivia; Hugo Vidal Arenas, Manuel Zamorano González, Hector Castro Saez, and Juan Nuñez Vargas.

In accordance with the evidence indicated and gathered, the direct responsibility of State agents and civilians from Paine in the detention and death of the detainees on September 24 and October 3, 1973, is proven.

Therefore, this Commission has formed the conviction that all of them are victims of a violation of their right to life, with the remains of sixteen of them having been identified: fourteen whose bones were recognized in 1990 and two whose execution was acknowledged by the authorities of the time.

José Angel Cabeza Bueno, 21 years old at the time of the events, single, the eldest of six siblings, and an agricultural worker, was detained at his home in the El Escorial Settlement in Paine in the presence of his family on October 2, 1973, by soldiers belonging to the San Bernardo Infantry School.

On the same occasion, the peasant Carlos Manuel Ortiz Ortiz was detained from the warehouses of the aforementioned settlement. The latter remained at the Chena Detention Camp and was subsequently executed at the San Bernardo Infantry School and buried in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery, without his body ever being returned to his family.

The situation of José Angel Cabeza Bueno was different, as his body and those of 13 other peasants detained at the Liguay Estate and the El Escorial Settlement during military operations carried out on September 24 and October 2 and 3, 1973, were found in March 1974 in a ravine at Cerro Redondo, located on the Cuesta de Chada, 4 kilometers from the site of the arrests.

At the time, the Legal Medical Institute informed the court in case file 23643 of the Maipo-Buin Court of First Instance of the impossibility of identifying the victims and establishing the cause of death.

However, the same Institute informed the Visiting Judge, Mr. Germán Hermosilla, in case 2-90-E in 1991, and after having carried out a new forensic examination, provided the identity of each of the sets of remains.

Furthermore, it was established that their deaths were caused by multiple gunshot wounds. Out of a total of 20 detainees in this series of operations, three peasants regained their freedom after being held at the Chena Camp, three others were executed (two at the same camp and one at the San Bernardo Infantry School), and 14 were exterminated with their bodies concealed.

At approximately 10:00 a.m. on October 2, military personnel traveling in a jeep, dressed in field uniforms and with their faces uncovered, arrived at the Cabeza Bueno family home, entered it, and immediately demanded the presence of José Angel, who was performing agricultural tasks.

He was immediately detained by the soldiers, and Carlos Manuel Ortiz Ortiz was also arrested shortly thereafter; both were taken to a destination unknown to their families. The arrests were carried out outside of any legality.

It should be noted that since September 24, 7 other peasants from the El Escorial Settlement had been in the hands of the military, and their whereabouts remained unknown at that date. On October 3, the soldiers returned with Cabeza Bueno and proceeded to detain eleven more peasants.

Witnesses testified in case 2-90-E that at 6:00 a.m. on October 3, they saw a red truck with a white canvas cover, which had a fiscal stamp on one of its doors, heading toward the Cuesta de Chada carrying the detainees inside.

There, the detainees were allegedly forced to climb a hill blindfolded and with their hands tied behind their backs until they reached the top, near a quillay tree, where they were placed in front of a firing squad that discharged their weapons at the detainees.

In March 1974, their bodies, in an advanced state of decomposition, were found by locals, and some of them were recognized by family members.

Information provided to the court by José Luis Marchant Raba in case file 2-90-E, presided over by Judge Germán Hermosilla, accounts for his arrest from the El Escorial Settlement by soldiers on September 24, 1973, and the presence of José Angel Cabeza Bueno at the Chena Detention Camp on October 2.

That night—Marchant Raba states—Cabeza Bueno, Juan Bautista Núñez Vargas, and Héctor Guillermo Castro Sáez were taken from the shed where they were being held. Some time later, these three peasants appeared dead at the Cuesta de Chada along with all the peasants detained on October 3 from El Escorial.

His case is part of the repression that took place in Paine in 1973. (For more information, see the case of José Domingo Adasme Núñez).

In January 1991, the remains corresponding to José Angel Cabeza Bueno were handed over to his next of kin and buried in the Huelquén Cemetery. Death certificate No. 102 s/2 of 1991 recorded the date of death as October 3, 1973, the place of death as the Cuesta de Chada, and the cause of death as craniofacial trauma and trauma to the right lower extremity caused by a bullet.

The remains of the Paine peasants found at the Cuesta de Chada were located by their families in early 1974, months after the execution; many of them were already destroyed and scattered, which made their identification difficult.

Furthermore, only some of the family members were able to reach the site at the Cuesta. A lack of information and security problems prevented them from traveling to the site en masse. This, combined with false information provided by authorities and members of the Armed Forces to the effect that they had not been detained or executed, led the families to search for them for years.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On March 8, 1974, case file 23643 was opened regarding the discovery of remains at the Cuesta de Chada in the Maipo-Buin Court of First Instance, based on Report No. 48 issued by the Paine Sub-police station, which reported the discovery of "human remains corresponding to 12 bodies." At that time, the remains were found by verbal order of the judge and sent to the Legal Medical Institute with official letter No. 18 dated March 7, 1974.

The court ordered an investigation to establish the origin and identification of the remains, the cause of death, their probable age, and to apprehend those found responsible. It also ordered the corresponding autopsies aimed at their identification. Finally, it indicated that the deaths should be registered in a timely manner.

In the same month of March, Margarita del Carmen Nilo Suazo, Genoveva del C. Bozo Pardo, Susana del C. Vidal Arenas, Iris Magdalena Hernández Martínez, Felicinda Pinto Sepúlveda, María Beatriz Salas Vásquez, María del C.

Soto Garrido, and Angel Custodio Cabeza Lizama—all wives, mothers, or sisters of the peasants from El Escorial whose bodies had been found by them at the Cuesta de Chada—appeared to testify before the court. They provided the court with a detailed account of the apprehension by the military and the subsequent discovery.

On May 23, 1974, the Legal Medical Institute submitted autopsy reports Nos. 519 to 530 to the court. The document initially stated that the remains, upon arrival at the Institute, were disorganized in 3 burlap sacks, of the type habitually used to package agricultural products.

After providing a detailed report of their examination, it concluded that: a) they were a collection of human remains, mostly reduced to skeletons, fragmented and disarticulated, incomplete, and in a state of decomposition; b) they exhibited characteristics typical of the male sex; c) they corresponded to approximately 14 incomplete bodies; d) they were adult subjects, whose ages fluctuated between approximately 20 and 50 years; e) the date of death went back 5 or 6 months from the date the examination began (March 12); f) it was not possible to determine the cause of death; and g) among the remains, highly destroyed fragments of male clothing and a projectile remnant were found. It concluded by handing over the projectile to the court. On August 21 of the same year, the forensic ballistics section of the Investigations Directorate informed the court, after having studied the projectile, that it was a 7 mm caliber round fired by a Mauser model 19/2 Steyr rifle or carbine.

On April 30, 1975, without having carried out new proceedings, the court closed the summary investigation, stating that "the investigation is exhausted," and dismissed the case, noting that "it is not fully justified in the case files that the death of the individuals whose remains were placed at the disposal of the court in folio 1 are or have been the consequence of the perpetration of a crime." The Court Prosecutor was in favor of approving the dismissal, but the Full Court revoked the resolution because the investigation was not exhausted, and in order to properly establish the reported facts, their causes, and determine to whom they corresponded. Without prejudice to the above, the Court also resolved that the judge should study the possibility of declaring his incompetence and sending the records to the Military Prosecutor (June 30, 1975).

On July 4, 1975, the court declared itself incompetent and sent the file to the Military Prosecutor's Office, given that the evidence suggested that military officials had participated in the deaths of those persons.

On July 21, 1975, the 1st Military Prosecutor's Office assumed the investigation under case file 561-75. However, by October 27 of the same year, the military prosecutor temporarily dismissed the case, stating that "notwithstanding that the investigation has been exhausted and it results from the summary that a crime was committed, there is insufficient evidence to accuse specific persons as author, accomplice, or accessory." Two days earlier, a response had arrived from the director of the San Bernardo Infantry School, Colonel Pedro Montalba Raleo, in which he stated that there were no records regarding the matter. On November 4, 1975, the II Military Court confirmed the temporary dismissal.

This file was requested on May 15, 1979, by Judge Rivas in case 24005-1, which concerned 23 complaints of alleged disappearances of Paine locals and included Héctor Santiago Pinto Caroca, who was detained at the El Escorial Settlement, in order to review it.

On June 18, 1979, the II Military Court resolved that the request was denied, given that "it has been processed in accordance with wartime military penal procedure."

On April 27, 1979, the Legal Medical Institute requested the corresponding judicial order from the II Military Court in order to proceed with their burial. Such an order was never received by the Institute, and the remains remained unburied at the facilities of the Legal Medical Institute for a period of 17 years.

In August 1990, following a complaint of irregular burials that occurred in Paine and which allegedly affected forcibly disappeared persons from the area, the President Aguirre Cerda Court of Appeals appointed Mr.

Germán Hermosilla as Visiting Judge. The Visiting Judge summoned the relatives of the 70 victims of arrests followed by execution and disappearance to testify and then decreed proceedings related to exhumations in four different places in Paine.

Regarding the cases of arrests at the El Escorial settlement that were subsequently located at the Cuesta de Chada, he ordered the following proceedings: a) locate the destination of the remains; b) carry out a new forensic examination of the remains; c) search the area of the discovery and, if evidence was found, subject it to forensic analysis.

This is how it was established that the remains were still at the facilities of the Legal Medical Institute. Initiating a new forensic examination that was studied for 3 months, each of the victims was clearly identified. When searching the area of the Cerro Redondo ravine, 2 spent shell casings, 25 deformed projectiles, and 18 in good condition were found.

For its part, the Criminalistics Laboratory of the Investigations Police, in its Forensic Ballistics section, established that "the majority of the projectiles were designed to be fired by automatic machine gun-type firearms, the caliber of which corresponds to 7.62 mm NATO, which is war ammunition.

As for the other 2 projectiles, one corresponds to the .32 long caliber, designed to be fired by revolver-type firearms, and the other corresponds to the 7.9 mm caliber, designed to be fired by rifles or carbines of that caliber." Regarding the service that used this type of weapon during the last 4 months of 1973, the report concluded: "Armed Forces, order and security forces (police), as well as any person who has access to this type of weaponry, such as paramilitary groups."

In January 1991, the court ordered the release of the remains of José Angel Cabeza Bueno; his death was registered, and his relatives gave him a burial.

For more information on the reported proceedings, see the cases of Bernabé del Carmen López López and/or Víctor Manuel Zamorano González.