On September 25, 1973, José Eulalio MUÑOZ CONCHA, 21 years old, a laborer and neighborhood leader from the "Ampliación Amanecer" settlement, was forcibly disappeared. He had been detained in the presence of witnesses and taken to the Temuco Prison.

His family stated that they were informed he was being held incommunicado and would be transferred to the Tucapel Regiment before being released. They searched for him unsuccessfully at several facilities.

When consulted by this Commission, the authorities of the penal facility responded that Muñoz Concha "entered this prison on 09.24.1973 by order of the Temuco Army Prosecutor's Office; the crime is not mentioned. He was released on 09.25.73, by release order No. 24 from the Temuco Army Prosecutor's Office." To this date, José Muñoz remains forcibly disappeared.

Source: (Rettig Report)

In his ruling, Judge Mesa Latorre sentenced former officers Eduardo Orlando Riquelme Rodríguez and Gonzalo Enrique Arias González to 3 years and 12 years of effective prison time, respectively, as perpetrators of the crimes of unlawful coercion and aggravated kidnapping committed against the laborer and social leader, who was 21 years old at the time of the events, José Edulio Muñoz Concha.

The judge serving as a special investigator for human rights violation cases in the jurisdictions of Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Coyhaique, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, sentenced two retired Carabineros officers for their responsibility in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping and unlawful coercion, classified as crimes against humanity.

These illicit acts were perpetrated in the regional capital of La Araucanía in September 1973. In the ruling (case file 114.051), Judge Mesa Latorre sentenced former officers Eduardo Orlando Riquelme Rodríguez and Gonzalo Enrique Arias González to 3 years and 12 years of effective prison time, respectively, as perpetrators of the crimes of unlawful coercion and aggravated kidnapping committed against the laborer and social leader, who was 21 years old at the time of the events, José Edulio Muñoz Concha.

During the investigation phase of the case, the investigating judge established the following facts: “A.- That starting on September 11, 1973, as a result of the events occurring in the country, an operational group called a ‘civil commission’ was formed in all police stations, dedicated to intelligence tasks that consisted of gathering information regarding violent groups, detaining people who were listed in military edicts, among others; that is, these were tasks that fell outside of standard police procedures.

In the case of Temuco, said commission was composed of Lieutenant Eduardo Riquelme Rodríguez, in charge of directing the group; Juan Fritz Vega, Omar Burgos Dejean, and non-commissioned officers Hugo Opazo Inzunza and Ernesto Garrido Bravo from that same police unit.

Although the aforementioned uniformed officers were part of the staff of the 2nd Carabineros Precinct of Temuco, the orders given to them regarding intelligence matters were directed directly by Mr. Gonzalo Enrique Arias González, sub-prefect of Carabineros of Cautín, who also performed duties as a Carabineros prosecutor.

Furthermore, the information gathered on intelligence matters by the group led by Riquelme was communicated directly to the same Carabineros sub-prefect. B.- That said Carabineros sub-prefect and military prosecutor of Cautín, named Gonzalo Enrique Arias González, after September 11, 1973, was performing duties in the city of Temuco, as stated in his service record.

Except for November 26, 1973, according to what is indicated in the replacement sentence of the Supreme Court. C.- That the people detained by the aforementioned group were apprehended either at their homes, on public roads, or at torture sites, to then be taken to the common cells of the 2nd Carabineros Precinct of Temuco, and could only be interrogated or visited by members of this civil commission.

D.- That José Edulio Muñoz Concha, 21 years old, a laborer, neighborhood leader of the ‘Ampliación Amanecer’ settlement in Temuco, and a member of the Socialist Party in the same city, was detained after September 11, 1973, a date after which his mother searched for him unsuccessfully in the various facilities that housed political prisoners at that time, managing to find his whereabouts in the records of the public jail of the city of Temuco, an occasion on which she was also informed that her son would be released.

E.- That after the events described above and around the third week of September 1973, the political prisoners who were inside the Temuco public jail, including José Edulio Muñoz Concha, were subjected to a recognition round by two uniformed officers, including a Carabineros lieutenant named Eduardo Orlando Riquelme Rodríguez and another higher-ranking officer named Gonzalo Enrique Arias González, who, from an interior office of the aforementioned prison facility, proceeded to identify the detainees, to subsequently separate a specific group of them, among whom were José Edulio Muñoz Concha, Luis Almonacid Dumenez, Zbigniew Rubinek Mazur, and Mario San Martín Molina, who, after being separated from the general formation, were forced to remain against a wall with their hands raised to finally be taken to an incommunicado cell. F.- That a witness to all of the above was Mr. Víctor Maturana Burgos, who, although he was in that recognition round as a political prisoner, was not separated from the general formation; however, he was able to learn the identity of the police officials who were in charge of that instruction, since at the very moment the political prisoners were returned to the patio where they were originally located and those who were separated were taken to the incommunicado facility, he was called to go to that office, a place where he was able to notice that among the uniformed officers was Carabineros Lieutenant Eduardo Orlando Riquelme Rodríguez, whom he knew perfectly well because he had completed the instruction course with him at the Carabineros institution, at which moment this officer introduced him to his superior, Gonzalo Enrique Arias González, asking the latter to intercede for Mr. Maturana. That said authority and superior of Lieutenant Riquelme corresponds precisely to the one indicated in letter B of this presentation. G.- That in this context, and the following day, that is, September 25, 1973, and after remaining in an incommunicado cell, the political prisoners separated from the general formation, with the exception of Zbigniew Rubinek Mazur, were released by order No. 21 issued by the Military Prosecutor's Office of Temuco, as stated on page 672. However, upon leaving the guard area of the jail, they were forced to re-enter as detainees into a red Chevrolet van, inside which were about 4 Carabineros officials, the civil commission group that was in charge of the aforementioned recognition round, one of whom Mario Rafael San Martín Molina recognizes as a 2nd Precinct of Temuco official named Juan Fritz Vega, who had been his neighbor in the city of Nueva Imperial and also knew his father, at which moment said official took the opportunity to ask him about him. H.- That they were immediately taken to a police facility, which Mario San Martín Molina recognizes as the 2nd Carabineros Precinct of Temuco, a place where he shared a cell with José Edulio Muñoz Concha and Luis Almonacid Dumenez, being a witness to how personnel from the precinct moved them to another area of the same facility to be interrogated and tortured, hearing their cries of pain after the tortures; which consisted of the application of electric current to different parts of their bodies. He finally reports that both José Edulio Muñoz Concha and Luis Almonacid Dumenez arrived in very poor physical condition. He remains unaware of the whereabouts of both to this day, as he was the only survivor.” In the civil aspect, the judge ordered the state to pay total compensation of $900,000,000 (nine hundred million pesos) for moral damages to the victim's relatives.

Source: pjud.cl, May 5, 2021

Date: 05-05-2021