On October 16, 1973, 23 people were detained at the Campo Lindo, 24 de Abril, and Nuevo Sendero settlements. Twenty-two of them remain forcibly disappeared to this day, while the body of the last one was recently found and identified.

In the early hours of that day, an operation was carried out in the three aforementioned settlements in the town of Paine, led by troops from the San Bernardo Infantry School, accompanied by Carabineros and civilians from the area, who were armed and some with their faces painted.

They traveled in a red truck, a military jeep, and other civilian vehicles. The troops proceeded to detain twenty-three people, raiding homes and acting with unnecessary violence in some instances. They did not allow lights to be turned on, operating by the light of flashlights.

Twelve of these people belonged to peasant families living in the “24 de Abril” settlement; two belonged to peasant families living in the “El Tránsito” settlement, but who also worked as laborers in the “24 de Abril” settlement; seven belonged to the “Nuevo Sendero” settlement; one was a merchant and another an industrialist from the area: José Domingo ADASME NUÑEZ, 37, married; Pedro Antonio CABEZAS VILLEGAS, 37, married; Patricio Loreto DUQUE ORELLANA, 25, married; Carlos GAETE LOPEZ, 29, married; Luis Alberto GAETE BALMACEDA, 21, married; José Germán FREDES GARCIA, 29, married; Rosalindo Delfin HERRERA MUÑOZ, 22; Luis Rodolfo LAZO MALDONADO, 20, single, Socialist Party militant; Samuel del Tránsito LAZO MALDONADO, 24, married, Socialist Party militant; Carlos Enrique LAZO QUINTEROS, 41, married; Samuel Altamiro LAZO QUINTEROS, 49, married, Socialist Party militant; René del Rosario MAUREIRA GAJARDO, 41, married, Socialist Party militant; Jorge Hernán MUÑOZ PEÑALOZA, 28; Mario Enrique MUÑOZ PEÑALOZA, 24, married, Vice President of the “24 de Abril” settlement; Ramiro Antonio MUÑOZ PEÑALOZA, 32, married; Silvestre René MUÑOZ PEÑALOZA, 33, married; Carlos Alberto NIETO DUARTE, 20, single; Laureano QUIROZ PEZOA, 42, married; Andrés PEREIRA SALSBERG, 54, married, industrialist; Roberto Estevan SERRANO GALAZ, 34, married; Luis SILVA CARREÑO, 43, married; Basilio Antonio VALENZUELA ALVAREZ, 35, married; José Ignacio CASTRO MALDONADO, 52, married, Socialist Party militant. The detainees were taken to the Paine Sub-station, where some of them were seen by their relatives. From there, they were transferred to the San Bernardo Infantry School, and their whereabouts have been unknown since then, despite the multiple administrative and judicial efforts made by their families. Currently, the knowledge of all the events that occurred in Paine in 1973 is under the jurisdiction of the Visiting Judge Germán Hermosilla, with all previously initiated cases being consolidated. The Government of Chile informed the United Nations, in a document presented in 1975, that Carlos Gaete López appeared in the records of the Legal Medical Institute as having been admitted deceased to that agency on October 18, 1973, at 12:20 p.m., having undergone autopsy protocol No. 3393, and his identity card being No. 5,338,566 from Santiago. This information proved to be false, as Gaete López's identity card is from Buin and is No. 53,491. For his part, the Visiting Judge, Juan Rivas Larraín, determined that “autopsy protocol No. 3393 corresponds to an unidentified (NN) male person sent by the Prosecutor's Office to that agency, who died in the town of Quilicura on October 13, 1973, at 8:00 p.m.” Of the 23 people detained on October 16, 1973, 22 remain in the status of forcibly disappeared. Considering that all the victims were detained by State agents, which is proven, and transferred to facilities under their control, from where they disappeared, the Commission is convinced that their disappearances are the responsibility of State agents, constituting violations of their human rights. (Rettig Report)

Source: Rettig Report

José Domingo Adasme Núñez, 37 years old at the time of the events, married, father of 6 children, a settler of the Nuevo Sendero property in Paine, with no political affiliation, was detained on October 16, 1973, at his home, in the presence of his family, by heavily armed military personnel in field uniforms with blackened faces, coming from the San Bernardo Infantry School.

His home was raided without the corresponding authorization being shown to the residents. They took him away and told his family he would be back at 6 a.m. after testifying in San Bernardo. When he did not return as they had been told, his relatives went to the Chena and Infantry School military facilities, both in San Bernardo, where the detainee's presence in those facilities was denied.

They received the same response when inquiring at the Paine Sub-station. From that day on, his whereabouts have been unknown. That night and early morning, in a vast operation carried out by the military under the orders of Lieutenant Jorge Andrés Magaña, 22 people were detained from their homes; in none of the cases was there the corresponding authorization to raid and detain.

These soldiers, dressed in field uniforms or gray uniforms with a cape of the same color over them, wore armbands and had black berets or helmets on their heads. Their faces were in some cases blackened, in others covered with balaclavas.

They moved in at least one red truck with railings and a jeep. Everyone was heavily armed, lighting up the rooms with flashlights and preventing the residents from turning on the lights. The operation began at the first hour of October 16 and lasted until 4:00 a.m.

The people who were detained—all sympathizers of the deposed government and mostly settlers—were listed on a list carried by the soldiers. Their homes were raided and the detainees taken from their houses, with the families warned that they would return during the day after giving a statement in San Bernardo.

Everyone was loaded onto a truck waiting on the main road. The operation was carried out silently, and the victims' relatives were forbidden from leaving their homes. The operation began with the detention of Andrés Pereira Salsberg, an industrialist and owner of a machine shop, then René del Rosario Maureira Gajardo, a merchant, was detained, and immediately the soldiers headed toward the sector corresponding to the "24 de Abril" settlement, where Patricio Loreto Duque Orellana, the brothers Raúl Antonio, Silvestre René, and Jorge Hernán Muñoz Peñaloza, their brother-in-law Basilio Antonio Valenzuela Alvarez, Germán Fredes García, Carlos Enrique Gaete López, Carlos Alberto Nieto Duarte, Laureano Quiroz Pezoa, Rosalindo Delfín Hernán Muñoz, and Ramón Luis Silva Carreño were detained. Next, they went to the El Tránsito settlement, where Pedro Antonio Cabezas Villegas and Roberto Servando Galaz were detained. Finally, they went to the Nuevo Sendero settlement, where Enrique Lazo Quintero, his brother Samuel Altamiro Lazo Quinteros and his sons Luis Rodolfo and Samuel Lazo Maldonado, José Domingo Adasme Núñez, Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda, and José Ignacio Gaete Maldonado were detained. On October 10, Carabineros from the Paine Sub-station had detained Samuel Altamiro Lazo Quinteros from his home in the El Tránsito settlement, who had been released after 24 hours of detention at said Sub-station. This peasant was detained again in the early hours of October 16, 1973. Subsequent to his first detention, he told his fellow settlers that he had been warned by the Carabineros that in the following days, soldiers from the San Bernardo Infantry School would come and proceed to detain the settlers. The peasants of said settlement who had approached the Sub-station, where they had a conversation with Sergeant Reyes about their situation, had received identical information. Of all the people detained on October 16, 1973, their presence in any detention facility is unknown. To date, there are no witnesses in this regard. Judicial records indicate that the detainees were taken that early morning in the direction of the Codegua hills, near Melipilla, where they were executed. Their remains have not been found. The case of José Domingo Adasme Núñez is one of the many forcibly disappeared persons registered in the town of Paine, as a result of the repression that was felt in the months of September to November 1973. In this context, there were at least 100 people detained, 20 of whom were executed and their deaths registered in the Civil Registry; another 30 regained their freedom or survived acts of extermination carried out in the open field. Their subsequent testimonies have allowed for the outlining of the fate of the remaining 50. Of the latter, the majority remain forcibly disappeared, and only in some cases have their mortal remains been successfully located and identified (14 cases). The vast majority of the detainees were relatives of former peasants in the sector who worked on the estates when the settlements began under the Agrarian Reform. The change was conflictive, among other things because several of these settlements arose as a result of previous land seizures, supported, among others, by political groups with an affinity for the Popular Unity government. Thus, in 1973, there was a confrontational situation in Paine, fueled by the animosity toward the settlers on the part of the former expropriated owners and their allies, in particular, truck drivers organized in the Professional Union of Truck Owners (SIPRODUCAM). On the other hand, due to its geographical location, the Paine area was closely watched by military forces from San Bernardo. On September 11, 1973, all Carabinero units in the sector were evacuated and their forces concentrated at the Paine Sub-station. Although their personnel were easy to identify by the locals, there were no changes in the staffing. The detentions were carried out either by soldiers from the San Bernardo Infantry School or by Carabineros, who tried to hide their identities as much as possible through facial makeup or balaclavas. In the case of the military, trucks identified with logos of the Chilean Army, or belonging to private individuals, as well as other light vehicles, were used. In the case of the Carabineros, they were accompanied by civilians from the area, who provided their private vehicles for the transport of the prisoners. The first detention occurred on the public road on 09-13-73 in the center of the town. All others occurred at the detainees' respective workplaces if it was during the day, in the presence of their coworkers; or in their homes, in the presence of their direct relatives if they were carried out at night. The detainees were required to carry their identity cards, and their relatives were told that they would be interrogated later. The facilities used to hold the detainees were the Paine Sub-station, the San Bernardo Infantry School, and the Cerro Chena Detention Camp. It is established that, at least in the Paine Sub-station, the treatment given to the detainees was very harsh. Upon entry, they were stripped of their belongings and forced to remain in dungeons in terrible sanitary conditions. They were frequently taken out to be interrogated and/or beaten. However, the overcrowding conditions made it easier for them to recognize each other and for survivors to provide data on the fate of the others. As part of the cruelty in the treatment, some detainees were incited to flee during the night while being shot at in the darkness. Others were handed over blindfolded to military personnel, who transported them from the San Bernardo Infantry School. There, they were registered and sent to the Cerro Chena facility, where they were kept in two detention areas: the school building, 3 km from the highway, or in a red-roofed house, previously used for shooting practice, which also housed detainees from other places. Different, however, was the situation that affected the 23 peasants arrested in the early hours of October 16, 1973. Apparently, they were never taken to any facility, and in fact, they were never seen in them by third parties. They were taken in the "operation" that covered the "24 de Abril," "Nuevo Sendero," and "El Tránsito" settlements and two homes in the center of Paine, led by a military contingent from the San Bernardo Infantry School under the command of Lieutenant Andrés Magaña Bau. Some time later, a conscript would inform his relatives that he had participated in such an operation that resulted in the detention of his uncle. He stated that the detainees had been transported in a truck toward the hills in the vicinity of Melipilla. In his judicial statements, later, however, he denied participation in the events. In the same sense, both the Carabineros of the Paine Sub-station and the personnel of the San Bernardo Infantry School testified. Moreover, the Carabineros claimed to have performed only surveillance duties, pointing out that it was the Infantry School that acted in the area. The search for the 50 forcibly disappeared persons began after their arrests. Although their relatives never obtained a certificate of detention, it is proven to them as they were eyewitnesses. To this is added the information obtained through relatives, military members of the San Bernardo Infantry School unit, as well as the testimonies of those who regained their freedom. In their efforts, the relatives had to endure the indifference of the authorities, who denied the veracity of the complaints. For example, the names of 12 of the forcibly disappeared from Paine were included in a list of 63 names presented by the Chilean government to the UN in 1975, in an attempt to refute the accusations made against it before that institution for human rights violations. That list, intended to undermine the seriousness of the complaints, was prepared based on false documentation, as the Visiting Judge, Mr. Juan Rivas, was later able to verify. In its preparation, autopsy protocol numbers corresponding to unidentified (NN) bodies, whose identification had not been carried out, had been assigned to the forcibly disappeared. These were people who died during 1973, after September 11, 1973, all killed by gunshot wounds, events that occurred in Santiago or its surroundings, and whose bodies had been taken to the Legal Medical Institute by military or Carabinero patrols after having been found on the public road. The search extended to the Paine Sub-station, the San Bernardo Regiment, the Chena military facility, prisons and detention centers in Santiago and Rancagua, and the Legal Medical Institute. From the information contained in the files relating to the 20 detained peasants, whose death was recognized and registered in the Civil Registry, it is concluded that these people were killed by gunshot wounds, and their remains hidden. In four cases, it was established that the events took place at the San Bernardo Infantry School or the Chena Detention Camp. The other 16 correspond to people whose bodies were found on the banks of the Maipo River, the Panama irrigation canal, and in the Pirque hills, places where their relatives had traveled in their search, which extended to canals, ravines, and dumps. The relatives also arrived at the Cuesta de Chada, where 14 mutilated bodies were located. The remains were recovered by order of the judge of Buin. The Legal Medical Institute, however, stated that it was technically impossible to identify the remains, and consequently, they were denied to their possible relatives. The situation was only resolved in January 1991, when the Visiting Judge, Mr. Germán Hermosilla, ordered and achieved the full identification of the bones, and they were handed over to their relatives for burial. Through these proceedings, the violent death of fourteen of the peasants apprehended by the military forces of the San Bernardo Infantry School was determined. As part of other judicial actions, in 1991, the exhumation of 108 graves in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery was carried out, where bones belonging to 125 people buried as NN between September and December 1973 were found, after having died from gunshot wounds. At the time of this writing, the expert work on these bones has not yet concluded. José Segundo Adasme Núñez has been missing since October 16, 1973, the day he was detained by soldiers from the San Bernardo Infantry School.

Alberto Nieto Duarte, José Domingo Adasme Núñez, Samuel Altamira Lazo Quinteros, Samuel del Tránsito Lazo Maldonado, and Luis Rodolfo Lazo Maldonado. A lawsuit for the kidnapping and qualified homicide of Juan Guillermo Cuadra Espinoza and Ignacio del Tránsito Santander Albornoz, perpetrated by personnel from the San Bernardo Infantry School.

A lawsuit against Lieutenant Andrés Magaña Bau for the crime of illegal arrest of René del Rosario Maureira Gajardo; a lawsuit for the kidnapping of Andrés Pereira Salsberg; and a lawsuit for the crime of kidnapping of Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza against Carabineros Sergeant Manuel Reyes (further details regarding this last lawsuit can be found in the account provided by Mario E.

Muñoz Peñaloza). On December 12, 1979, Judge Espejo declared himself incompetent and referred the records to the Military Prosecutor's Office, noting that all complaints and lawsuits contained in this case (docket 1-79) attributed the authorship of the arrests to personnel from the Armed Forces and Carabineros, both from the San Bernardo Infantry School and the Paine Sub-prefecture.

On March 6, 1980, the Court revoked the declaration of incompetence and ordered proceedings to advance the investigation. As a result, Colonel Jorge Dawling Santa María was summoned to testify again. On April 2, 1980, the Minister of Defense, Lieutenant General Raúl Benavides E., informed the Court that Mr.

Dawling Santa María held the rank of Brigadier General and, in accordance with Articles 191 and 192 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, must testify in writing. The Minister sent a poorly formulated questionnaire, which provided the Brigadier General the opportunity to respond: "in relation to questions 2 through 13, I have no information to provide." On June 5, 1980, Judge Espejo declared himself incompetent for a second time, basing his resolution on exactly the same terms as the previous one.

An appeal was filed, and on July 25, 1980, the Court of Appeals revoked the resolution and ordered the Visiting Judge to draft a new questionnaire to be answered by Brigadier General Dawling Santa María, based on the accusations made in the lawsuits against him that are part of the proceedings.

In July 1980, the Court received an official response from the Brigadier General, the content of which provided no information, arguing that by 1977 there were no longer written records at the Infantry School regarding military maneuvers and operations.

His official letter concluded by stating that he had brought the information regarding case 1-79 to the attention of the Army General Command, since the transcribed lawsuits imputed him with participation as a cover-up for "alleged crimes" that would have been committed "in the line of duty." On October 17, 1980, the records were definitively sent to the II Military Prosecutor's Office; at that time, the jurisdictional inhibition took effect.

On May 24, 1982, the case was totally and temporarily dismissed, "notwithstanding the fact that the investigation was exhausted, the perpetration of the acts denounced on page 1, which impute personnel of the Armed Forces and Order subject to military jurisdiction, has not been completely proven." This resolution was appealed and revoked in March 1984 by the Court Martial, which ordered proceedings aimed at completing the investigation.

During 1985, at least 26 officers and non-commissioned officers who were serving at the Infantry School in September and October 1973 testified. All of them denied their participation in operations in Paine and its surroundings, and denied knowing about the presence of detainees at the Chena detention camp or even the existence of said camp.

On November 22, the Military Prosecutor of the II Military Prosecutor's Office, Enrique Ibarra Chamorro, appeared on behalf of the Military Public Ministry and requested the application of the Amnesty Law (D.L. 2991-78).

The Military Judge dismissed the case totally and definitively, as the criminal liability of the persons allegedly involved in the reported acts had been extinguished. This resolution was revoked in February 1992 by the Court Martial, which instructed that the case be returned to the summary stage and ordered the exhumation of the 6 aforementioned graves in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery.

This procedure was not carried out because, in September 1991, in case 4449-AF of the 22nd Criminal Court, the exhumation of all unidentified remains located in that area had already been ordered. As of December 1992, the case was still in progress.

It should be noted that in this case, investigations were also carried out regarding Patio 29 of the General Cemetery, starting in November 1979, when Monsignor Ignacio Ortúzar R.—in his capacity as Vicar General and Acting Vicar of the Vicariate of Solidarity—reported to the Court the existence of mass and irregular burials of people in Patio 29 of the aforementioned cemetery, affecting nearly 200 graves.

From the investigation, the Court was able to conclude that at least 6 graves could yield information regarding forcibly disappeared persons included in the proceedings. Between 1981 and 1987, the exhumation of those six graves was requested from the Court on five occasions, with the request being denied on the grounds that it was inconclusive given the time elapsed.

In August 1990, case 2-90-E was initiated in the Buin-Maipo Court of Letters with the appointment of Visiting Judge Germán Hermosilla by the President Aguirre Cerda Court of Appeals. This appointment followed a request from the Vicariate of Solidarity of the Archbishopric of Santiago, given the existence of illegal burials of people in the town of Paine that affected forcibly disappeared persons.

Information regarding José Domingo Adasme Núñez was provided to the Court. On March 15, 1991, Ms. María del Tránsito Venegas Cortés testified before Visiting Judge Germán Hermosilla in her capacity as the mother of Jorge Reyes Cortés, who was required to perform his military service at the San Bernardo Infantry School in 1973.

Her words were recorded in the file, accounting for the fate of the 22 detainees on October 16, 1973. In one part, she stated verbatim: "a few days after they took the husband of my cousin Luisa, Roberto Serrano, I went to visit my aunt Rosa's house and I saw that she was very desperate and crying over her husband's fate.

So I told her 'don't cry anymore Lucha, the military took your husband, Jorge was with them.' I meant that my son had to carry out this detention. My son Jorge had told me about this a few months later, I don't remember exactly when; I found out a few days later, as I said before.

They kept them for months without leaving after the Coup, so when he went to the house he told me. He wasn't calm, he was like scared, desperate, and not only him but his companions too. My son didn't know Roberto Serrano, when they went to their house Jorge met Luisa.

He told me that these detentions were done at night. Yes, it is true that my son told me that it was his turn to shoot at Serrano, but that he asked a companion to change places with him. He also told me that if he said he wouldn't shoot, they would kill him.

It is true that I told Luisa this, since she was taking clothes to her husband at Cerro Chena and they would receive them there, when Serrano was already dead." Jorge Reyes Cortés currently serves in the Los Andes Regiment; his military rank is unknown.

Although Ms. María Venegas Cortez stated that she did not remember indicating the hills near Codegua and Melipilla as the place of execution, Serrano Galaz's wife did remember it, as recorded in her statements before Visiting Judge Humberto Espejo.

On April 22, 1980, Jorge Reyes Cortez appeared before the Court in case docket 1-79. In his statement, he denied any participation in the events, stating verbatim in one part: "I never participated in any Paine operation, I never knew there were detainees at Cerro Chena, nor did I recognize any of the detainees in the few times I had to be on guard when they arrived." The Visiting Judge has carried out various ocular inspections in rural sectors in the surroundings of Paine, without positive results for the case of the forcibly disappeared persons of October 16, 1973.

On August 22, 1991, case 4449-AF was initiated in the 22nd Criminal Court of Santiago, proceeding with the judicial investigation of the crime of illegal burial of persons who currently remain buried as unidentified in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery, based on information contained in a criminal complaint filed by the Vicariate of Solidarity of the Archbishopric of Santiago.

Anthropomorphic information on José Domingo Adasme Núñez was provided in that case. In September 1991, the exhumation of 108 graves in Patio 29 was carried out; currently (December 1992), the extracted remains are at the Legal Medical Institute undergoing the identification process.

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity

Chile's Business Elite: Sentences reduced for military murderers in the 1973 Paine case. (And the Kasts are still missing). Part I

Court reduces sentences for 13 retired Army personnel for the murder of 38 peasants.

The San Miguel Court of Appeals reduced the sentences to be served by 13 retired members of the Army for their responsibility in the crime of qualified homicide of 38 peasants from settlements in the Paine commune, executed at Cuesta Chada and the Los Quillayes ravine in 1973.

In the ruling, the Fourth Chamber of the appellate court reclassified the qualified kidnappings as qualified homicides and reduced the criminal sanction to be served by the convicted Jorge Romero Campos, Osvaldo Magaña Bau, and Juan Quintanilla Jerez to 15 years in prison, as authors of the crimes.

Meanwhile, Carlos Kyling Schmidt and Arturo Fernández Rodríguez were sentenced to 10 years in prison; and José Vásquez Silva, Carlos Lazo Santibáñez, Juan Opazo Vera, Rodrigo Pinto Labordarie, Jorge Saavedra Mesa, Víctor Sandoval Muñoz, Carlos Durán Rodríguez, and Raúl Areyte Valdenegro must serve 5 years and one day in prison.

In the case of former Carabineros officer Nelson Iván Bravo Espinoza, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison, with the benefit of intensive supervised release for the same period, as the author of two crimes of simple kidnapping. "Although the Court's accusation indicates that crimes of qualified kidnapping were committed, at the time the events investigated in this case occurred, that typical figure, contained in Article 141 of the Penal Code, could not be configured, since the victims, as established in the thirteenth and thirty-first considerations, were detained and subsequently executed by the perpetrators," the ruling states. Regarding the victims for whom it was established that they were executed, and in some cases the respective death certificate is also attached: José Domingo Adasme Núñez, Pedro Antonio Cabezas Villegas, Ramón Alfredo Capetillo Mora, José Ignacio Castro Maldonado, Patricio Loreto Duque Orellana, José Germán Fredes García, Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda, Carlos Enrique Gaete López, Rosalindo Delfín Herrera Muñoz, Luis Rodolfo Lazo Maldonado, Samuel del Tránsito Lazo Maldonado, Carlos Enrique Lazo Quinteros, Samuel Altamiro Lazo Quinteros, René del Rosario Maureira Gajardo, Jorge Hernán Muñoz Peñaloza, Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, Ramiro Antonio Muñoz Peñaloza, Silvestre René Muñoz Peñaloza, Carlos Alberto Nieto Duarte, Andrés Pereira Salsberg, Laureano Quiroz Pezoa, Roberto Estevan Serrano Galaz, Luis Silva Carreño, and Basilio Antonio Valenzuela Álvarez." It continues that, in effect, Article 141, final paragraph, of the Penal Code, in force at the time the events occurred, provided that 'If the confinement or detention lasts for more than ninety days, or if it results in serious harm to the person or interests of the confined or detained person, the penalty shall be major imprisonment in any of its degrees,' so it did not contemplate the figure of kidnapping causing the death of the victim. Therefore, the facts do not correspond to the figure of qualified kidnapping, but, in this way, without altering the facts contained in the accusation, nor those established in the first-instance sentence, the illicit act that was committed was that of qualified homicide, regarding which treachery intervened." Cristian Le Dantec Gallardo, an Army general who has not been prosecuted despite numerous complaints against him as a participant in the murder of 22 peasants from Paine in 1973. This officer, trained at the School of the Americas in 1974, was appointed by Michelle Bachelet in February 2010 as Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces, despite complaints from the AFDD. The San Miguel Court explained that "in accordance with the established facts, although we could be in the presence of some figure of kidnapping and/or illegitimate coercion, according to the principle of consumption, the illicit conducts committed as antecedents, means, stages of development, or consequences, must be considered absorbed by the qualified homicide, since it is a figure of greater harm due to affecting the legal good of the right to life." For these reasons, qualified homicide subsumes the other criminal figures that could concur in the present case." "Treachery, the respective requirements concur in the present case, so it is concluded that the qualified homicide was committed with this qualifying circumstance. Indeed, the victims were detained by a group of soldiers, being led in absolute defenselessness to sectors where no other people were found and were executed by a group of riflemen, members of the Chilean Army, under the command of Lieutenant Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau. In this way, the objective and subjective requirements that make the aforementioned circumstance applicable concur, since the agents acted on sure ground, pursuing impunity and the defenselessness of the victims, and, prior to the illegitimate act, there exists an intellectual pre-ordination of means with the purpose of ensuring the result and avoiding the risks of a defense." The ruling was adopted with the dissenting vote of Minister Simpértigue, regarding the application of the partial prescription alleged in the case. The participation of civilians in the regime of Augusto Pinochet. The Kast family in Paine In the book, the civilian accomplices are named and identified with the due support of ongoing judicial processes, or with established convictions. Several of them participated directly in the kidnapping, murder, and concealment of bodies. Not in symbolic terms, not by omission, but directly. Javier Rebolledo (1976) is a journalist specializing in the investigation and publication of topics related to systematic human rights violations in Chile, child abuse, and reports of corporate and political malpractice. His book "La danza de los cuervos" (Ceibo Ediciones, 2012), which has a 5th edition, was the winner of the 2013 Santiago Municipal Award, becoming an editorial phenomenon and a reference in its genre. His second work, "El despertar de los cuervos" (Ceibo Ediciones, 2013), which addresses the birth of the DINA and torture in the country, reiterated the editorial impact, becoming a new classic of investigative journalism. "A la sombra de los cuervos. Los cómplices civiles de la dictadura" (Ceibo Ediciones, 2015) is his third book.

Source: cctt.cl

Date: 13-11-2020

Chile's Business Elite: Sentences reduced for military murderers in the 1973 Paine case. (And the Kasts are still missing). Part II

"The Kasts in the crimes of Paine." The development of the right-wing political family at the expense of the dictatorship. The participation of civilians in the regime of Augusto Pinochet is a fact that has been demonstrated on several occasions.

This time, the writer and journalist Javier Rebolledo, in his latest text, tells how that collaboration came about and, in doing so, recounts unknown facts such as that of the Kast family in Paine, a place where the highest number of forcibly disappeared persons in relation to its population is found: 70 people died violently at the hands of soldiers and civilians. "A la sombra de los cuervos" is the third and final part of the investigation carried out by journalists Javier Rebolledo and Nancy Guzmán, who have stood out in revealing the facts that meant human rights violations in Chile during the military dictatorship. The last part of this saga will go on sale in 2015, as it is still in the process of investigation; however, a chapter referring to the participation of the Kast family in the crimes committed in the town of Paine after the 1973 coup d'état was released. The members involved in these events include the patriarch Michael Kast and his sons Christian and Miguel (deceased), the latter being the father of deputy Felipe Kast (Evópoli) and Pinochet's Minister of Labor and Mideplan, and brother of UDI deputy José Antonio Kast. The investigation aims to reveal the participation of civilians in the dictatorship, who were passive and active accomplices to the crimes committed during this era. It is in this context that the chapter "The Kasts in the crimes of Paine" appears. In an interview with Cambio21, the journalist and author of "A la sombra de los cuervos," Javier Rebolledo, commented on how this project was carried out, what he discovered during the investigation, and the impression he had of this family. How did the idea of doing this part of your book's investigation come about? I had the intention of doing the third part of "Los Cuervos" and it closed for me with "El Despertar de los Cuervos," in which many civilians involved at different levels appear, and I realized that it was necessary to make a book about the people who were behind the military, because this was a civil-military dictatorship and we have all focused on what the military did, but there is a strong civilian component that has not been touched. How would you say the relationship the Kasts had with their employees was? It was a good paternalistic relationship, to the extent that the employees accepted what their boss offered and gave them. When Pedro León Vargas Barrientos discovered that there were a series of issues that were unpaid in his salary, it cost him that Michael Kast punished him and demoted him to a night watchman and he ended up leaving that job. They also built a neighborhood next to the factory with a church and, in addition, there were the family's large houses, so there was a kind of feudalism, where the workers were influenced to enter the religion with this church that everyone attended mass at every day. What were the Carabineros and civilians celebrating at the Paine police station? According to Christian Kast's statements, he says that they were celebrating the military coup and that later they went to patrol with members of the Carabineros and other civilians to different locations. How was the participation that Christian and Michael Kast had in the crimes of Paine? Christian Kast's actions I consider serious, first because he was part of these civic-police patrols and with vehicles, second, he was celebrating barbecues at times when people were detained at the police station. It is there where he was celebrating barbecues with people who are confessed and prosecuted for crimes and together with detainees who are today forcibly disappeared. He also brought food to these Carabineros who had a communal pot. Christian Kast says he saw detainees enter that place and leave with shaved heads in trucks. He also says he heard that there was a detainee known as "Harina Seca" who is a forcibly disappeared person, and Christian Kast never went to confess that to the justice system. Christian Kast signed a certificate of honorability in 2008 in favor of Rubén Darío González, who is a civilian from Paine who has confessed to his participation in the crime of Cristián Víctor Cartagena Pérez, a teacher from the Communist Party, whom they took from his house, tied to a car, and dragged to the police station along a dirt road. There is a criminal part properly speaking and a moral part where this gentleman Christian Kast fails. In Michael's case, one of the things that has not been determined in the case is exactly which vehicles were used in which episode in these death caravans that the civilians formed. This gentleman admitted to the justice system that he had lent one of his trucks to the Carabineros, which according to him was used to transport the agents, but one of the leaders of this group, Francisco Luzoro, acknowledged that the vehicles were used for night patrols. How was the case of Alejandro del Carmen Bustos González against Christian Kast? Alejandro del Carmen Bustos González (who survived the execution), told that they gave him a beating among civilians and that they threw bones on the floor and left him lying in the courtyard of the police station. One of the people who made up this group of civilians who beat him was Christian Kast. These Carabineros are prosecuted for having committed the crimes of Paine, which has the highest concentration of forcibly disappeared persons by population density in all of Chile. How has this "Paine" case advanced in the justice system? Michael Kast died with the status of an accused person. Christian Kast argued that at that time he was a minor, but it was requested by the lawyer Luciano Fouillioux that psychological discernment exams be performed on him to determine if at that age he was or was not aware of the facts, but I understand that the justice system did not agree to those exams. How would you say this political family is perceived? They are a very respected family, the founders in part of the first dynasty and the origins of the Independent Democratic Union (UDI). They are part of the ideological foundations of the political arm that the dictatorship created under the wing of Jaime Guzmán and Miguel Kast to give validity to this system. They are the heart of the UDI, as we have seen in cases like Penta. As far as the Kast family is concerned regarding the human rights violations in Paine, I have the impression that the responsibilities that the justice system was pursuing stopped there.

Source: cctt.cl 20/06/2020

Date: 20-06-2020

Paine Case: Judge Marianela Cifuentes sentences four former Army officers to life imprisonment.

Judge Cifuentes sentenced former Army officers Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos, Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau, Carlos Walter Kyling Schmidt, and Arturo Guillermo Fernández Rodríguez to life imprisonment, as authors of 38 crimes of qualified kidnapping.

The extraordinary visiting judge for human rights violation cases of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, sentenced 13 retired members of the Army and Carabineros and one civilian for their responsibility in the consummated crimes of 14 qualified kidnappings of peasants from the El Escorial sector of Paine, victims who were finally executed at Cuesta Chada on October 3, 1973; and 24 peasants from settlements in the area, who were executed in the Los Quillayes sector, near Lake Rapel, on October 16, 1973.

In the ruling, Judge Cifuentes sentenced former Army officers Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos, Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau, Carlos Walter Kyling Schmidt, and Arturo Guillermo Fernández Rodríguez to life imprisonment, as authors of 38 crimes of qualified kidnapping.

Meanwhile, former members of the military branch José Hugo Vásquez Silva, Carlos del Tránsito Lazo Santibáñez, Juan Dionisio Opazo Vera, Roberto Mauricio Pinto Laborderie, Jorge Segundo Saavedra Meza, Víctor Reinaldo Sandoval Muñoz, and the civilian Juan Guillermo Quintanilla Jerez must serve 20 years in prison.

In the case of the conscript soldier at the time of the events, Raúl Francisco Areyte Valdenegro, the magistrate sentenced him to 15 years in prison as the author of 14 crimes of qualified kidnapping; and the conscript soldier Carlos Enrique Durán Rodríguez to 15 years and one day in prison, as the author of 38 crimes of qualified kidnapping.

Finally, the judge sentenced former Carabineros captain Nelson Iván Bravo Espinoza to the penalty of 10 years and one day in prison, as the author of 2 crimes of qualified kidnapping. In the civil aspect, the state was ordered to pay the total sum of $15,928,000,000 to the victims' families.

The facts In the investigation stage, the visiting judge established the following facts: "Regarding the victims José Cabezas Bueno, Francisco Calderón Nilo, Héctor Castro Sáez, Domingo Galaz Salas, José González Espinoza, Juan González Pérez, Aurelio Hidalgo Mella, Bernabé López López, Juan Núñez Vargas, Héctor Pinto Caroca, Hernán Pinto Caroca, Aliro Valdivia Valdivia, Hugo Alfredo Arenas, and Víctor Zamorano González: 1st That on September 24, 1973, in the afternoon, soldiers of the Second Rifle Company of the San Bernardo Infantry School appeared at the 'El Escorial' settlement of the Paine commune and illegally detained Héctor Guillermo Castro Sáez and Juan Bautista Núñez Vargas, among others. 2nd That, after their detention, Héctor Castro Sáez and Juan Núñez Vargas were transferred to the Cerro Chena prisoner camp of the San Bernardo Infantry School, where they were kept illegally imprisoned. 3rd That, on October 2, 1973, soldiers of the San Bernardo Infantry School appeared at the 'El Escorial' settlement of the Paine commune and illegally detained José Ángel Cabezas Bueno, who, immediately afterward, was transferred to the Cerro Chena prisoner camp. 4th That, on October 3, 1973, at dawn, soldiers of the Second Rifle Company of the San Bernardo Infantry School, commanded by Captain Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos, left the Cerro Chena prisoner camp, under the charge of Lieutenant Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau and Sub-lieutenants Carlos Walter Kyling Schmidt and Arturo Guillermo Fernández Rodríguez, with the detainees José Ángel Cabezas Bueno, Héctor Guillermo Castro Sáez, and Juan Bautista Núñez Vargas, in a red Dodge truck driven by Juan Guillermo Quintanilla Jerez, headed to the 'El Escorial' settlement of the Paine commune and illegally detained Francisco Javier Calderón Nilo, Domingo Octavio Galaz Salas, José Emilio González Espinoza, Juan Rosendo González Pérez, Aurelio Enrique Hidalgo Mella, Bernabé del Carmen López López, Héctor Santiago Pinto Caroca, Hernán Pinto Caroca, Aliro del Carmen Valdivia Valdivia, Hugo Alfredo Vidal Arenas, and Víctor Manuel Zamorano González. 5th That, subsequently, in the same truck, they transferred all the detainees to a ravine in Cuesta de Chada and executed them, shooting them with the firearms they were carrying, their bodies being found abandoned in the aforementioned place some time later." Settlements Meanwhile, regarding the victims José Adasme Núñez, Pedro Cabezas Villegas, Ramón Capetillo Mora, José Castro Maldonado, Patricio Duque Orellana, José Fredes García, Luis Gaete Balmaceda, Carlos Gaete López, Luis Lazo Maldonado, Samuel Lazo Maldonado, Carlos Lazo Quinteros, Samuel Lazo Quinteros, René Maureira Gajardo, Rosalindo Herrera Muñoz, Jorge Muñoz Peñaloza, Mario Muñoz Peñaloza, Ramiro Muñoz Peñaloza, Silvestre Muñoz Peñaloza, Carlos Nieto Duarte, Andrés Pereira Salsberg, Laureano Quiroz Pezoa, Roberto Serrano Galaz, Luis Silva Carreño, and Basilio Valenzuela Álvarez, the investigation established the following sequence: 1st That, on October 8, 1973, officials of the Paine Carabineros Sub-prefecture appeared at the 'Campo Lindo' settlement of the same commune and illegally detained Ramón Alfredo Capetillo Mora, who, immediately afterward, was imprisoned in the aforementioned police unit. 2nd That, in the following days, Ramón Capetillo Mora was transferred to the Cerro Chena prisoner camp of the San Bernardo Infantry School. 3rd That, on October 10, 1973, officials of the Paine Carabineros Sub-prefecture appeared at the '24 de Abril' settlement of the same commune and illegally detained Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, who, immediately afterward, was imprisoned in the aforementioned police unit. 4th That, in the following days, Mario Muñoz Peñaloza was transferred to the Cerro Chena prisoner camp of the San Bernardo Infantry School. 5th That, at the time of the events, the Paine Carabineros Sub-prefecture was under the charge of Captain Nelson Iván Bravo Espinoza. 6th That, on October 16, 1973, at dawn, soldiers of the Second Rifle Company of the San Bernardo Infantry School, commanded by Captain Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos, left the Cerro Chena prisoner camp, under the charge of Lieutenant Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau and Sub-lieutenants Carlos Walter Kyling Schmidt and Arturo Guillermo Fernández Rodríguez, with the detainees Ramón Alfredo Capetillo Mora and Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, in a red Dodge truck driven by Juan Guillermo Quintanilla Jerez, with the purpose of detaining twenty-two people in the town of Paine. Thus, in their respective homes, located in the urban area of the Paine commune, they illegally detained René del Rosario Maureira Gajardo and Andrés Pereira Salsberg. In the '24 de Abril' settlement, Patricio Loreto Duque Orellana, José Germán Fredes García, Carlos Enrique Gaete López, Rosalindo Delfín Herrera Muñoz, Jorge Hernán Muñoz Peñaloza, Ramiro Antonio Muñoz Peñaloza, Silvestre René Muñoz Peñaloza, Carlos Alberto Nieto Duarte, Laureano Quiroz Pezoa, Luis Ramón Silva Carreño, and Basilio Antonio Valenzuela Álvarez. In the 'Nuevo Sendero' settlement, José Domingo Adasme Núñez, José Ignacio Castro Maldonado, Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda, Luis Rodolfo Lazo Maldonado, Samuel del Tránsito Lazo Maldonado, Carlos Enrique Lazo Quinteros, and Samuel Altamiro Lazo Quinteros and, finally, in the 'El Tránsito' settlement, Pedro Antonio Cabezas Villegas and Roberto Esteban Serrano Galaz. 7th That, subsequently, the aforementioned detainees were transferred to the Los Arrayanes ravine, Los Quillayes sector, in the vicinity of Lake Rapel, where they were executed by the aforementioned soldiers and the civilian who accompanied them, who, immediately afterward, buried their bodies in the same place, with only bone and dental fragments of eleven of the twenty-four victims being found years later, because their bodies were removed and transferred to an unknown location to this date.

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl

Date: 06-11-2019

Three new errors identified in Armed Forces report

The remains of three new forcibly disappeared persons from Paine, whose remains, according to the Armed Forces report, had been thrown into the sea, could be identified soon by the Legal Medical Service (SML), less than 48 hours after the case of Samuel Lazo Quinteros was made known.

According to sources linked to human rights organizations, the cases would involve José Domingo Adasme Núñez, Silvestre Muñoz Peñaloza, and, with less certainty, Rosalindo Herrera Muñoz. All of them were detained on October 16, 1973, along with 24 other people, including Samuel Lazo and Andrés Pereira Salsberg, father of the human rights lawyer and former member of the dialogue table, Pamela Pereira, whose fate, according to the uniformed officers, was the sea of Pichilemu.

Source: La Tercera

Date: 23-05-2001