Political Affiliation: No political affiliation. Member of the CONAF Workers' Union. Date of Detention: October 7, 1973

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

José Fernando Gutiérrez Ascencio, married, father of 3, agricultural laborer, with no political affiliation, was detained in the vicinity of the home of Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme on Sunday, October 7, 1973, around 6:30 p.m., by an individual in civilian clothes accompanied by four uniformed men who forcibly removed him from his home, handcuffed him with his hands behind his back, and took him to the administration houses of the Fundo Pemehue in Mulchén.

The captors, numbering approximately thirty, were part of a group composed of Carabineros, military personnel, and armed civilians who, that Sunday, shortly before 5:00 p.m., arrived at the "Pemehue" estate, coming from the "El Carmen Maitenes" property.

Among them, the peasants were able to identify the then-Carabinero Lieutenant Jorge Maturana Concha; the Carabineros Osvaldo Díaz Díaz (alias "El Alicate") and Héctor Armando Guzmán Saldaña, both former officers of the El Morro station.

Among the civilians were Romualdo ("Mallo") Guzmán Saavedra, a farmer; Francisco Urrizola Elías, an industrialist and owner of a lumber yard; Ramón Elías Abella, a timber industrialist; Aquiles Guzmán Fritz, a farmer, all residing in Mulchén; Rolf Düring Pohler, son of the owners of the Fundo Verdún; Samuel Arriagada Domínguez and his brother; and Raúl Tirapeguy.

The patrol carried a list of names of local residents that had apparently been obtained during a raid on a peasant union headquarters in Mulchén. In this manner, they proceeded to violently detain the following individuals from their respective homes at Fundo Pemehue: Alberto and Felidor Exequiel Albornoz González, Gerónimo Humberto Sandoval Medina, Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme, and Fernando Gutiérrez, all of whom are now forcibly disappeared.

The 5 detainees were held in the estate's administration house, where they were tortured and subsequently taken to the Renaico River, where they were executed. This transfer was witnessed by Mr. Juan Angel Segura, a local resident of the Los Guindos subdivision, who saw the uniformed men heading east along the riverbank with the five victims.

Upon noticing his presence, the perpetrators forced him to cover his eyes, and minutes later, Mr. Segura heard a loud volley of gunfire. Shortly after, he saw the military men return, but this time, without the victims. Fearing similar consequences, he did not dare to go to the place where the shots had come from.

The agents remained at Fundo Pemehue for three days. On one of those days, three of them appeared at the plot of land belonging to Mr. Juan Angel Segura and demanded a heifer and a lamb, which he had to slaughter and hand over to them.

For this, the Carabinero Osvaldo Díaz Díaz (alias "El Alicate") made use of his prior acquaintance with the smallholder, dating back to when "El Alicate" served in the unit at the "El Morro" estate, where Segura had dealt with him.

Only days later, once they were certain that the perpetrators had left the area, the relatives dared to leave their homes in search of their loved ones. Participating in this search were María Carrasco Rosales, spouse of Alberto Albornoz González; Mrs. Gloria, spouse of Fernando Gutiérrez; María Medina Bustamante, mother of Humberto Sandoval Medina; and the wife and children of Juan Roa Riquelme.

The bodies of Gerónimo Humberto Sandoval Medina, Alberto and Felidor Albornoz González, and Fernando Gutiérrez were located in a sector on the bank of the Renaico River; they were semi-covered with heavy stones and showed clear signs of torture and numerous bullet impacts.

Due to the time elapsed, they were partially destroyed and eaten by dogs and rodents in the area. The trees in the sector showed numerous bullet impacts on their trunks.

The relatives dug a grave about one meter deep in the same place, where they placed the four bodies, covering them with earth and marking the site with stones.

Venturing a little further into the forest and onto the plain of a small hill, the body of Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme was found. However, the remains found corresponded only to the lower part of the body and a piece of the upper spine.

The body could be identified because some pieces of his clothing remained, and his identity card was found a few meters away. A son of the victim and Mrs. María Medina dug a small grave and buried him, marking the place with a wooden fence.

On April 12, 1979, at approximately 5:30 a.m., Mrs. María Medina Bustamante saw two vehicles with several individuals inside heading toward Fundo Pemehue. One was a light-colored pickup truck, and the other was a station wagon or high-bodied van, which had two stripes painted along its length, one orange and one brown, respectively.

She saw them return around 10:30 a.m., and this time, the pickup truck had its cargo area covered with sticks and branches. That same day, the smallholder Juan Angel Segura saw these vehicles from his plot.

The same group that had detained and executed the 5 peasants from Fundo Pemehue in the preceding days had also detained and executed 13 other peasants from nearby properties. On October 5, they arrived at the Hacienda El Morro, detaining Juan de Dios Laubra Brevis, Domingo Sepúlveda Castillo, José Vidal Aedo, Celsio Vivanco Carrasco, and José Florencio Yáñez Durán.

A day later, the same group at the Fundo Carmen Maitenes detained 8 other peasants: Miguel Albornoz Acuña, Alejandro, Daniel, and Guillermo Albornoz González, Luis Alberto Godoy Sandoval, and the brothers Florencio, José Liborio, and José Lorenzo Rubilar Gutiérrez.

All of them were also executed by their captors on the banks of the Renaico River. (See files for Juan de Dios Laubra Brevis and Florencio Rubilar Gutiérrez).

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On November 21, 1979, a criminal complaint was filed in the Mulchén Court of Letters for the crimes of "illegal home invasion, kidnapping, unlawful coercion, bodily harm, and qualified homicide committed against the persons of José Liborio, José Lorenzo, and Florencio Rubilar Gutiérrez; Alejandro, Daniel, José Guillermo, Alberto, and Felidor Albornoz González; Miguel Albornoz Acuña; Gerónimo Sandoval Medina; and Luis Alberto Godoy Sandoval." This complaint was consolidated into case 20.595 of the same court.

On November 22, 1979, the appointment of a Visiting Judge (Ministro en Visita) was requested to investigate these events. On May 6, 1980, the Concepción Court of Appeals appointed Judge Carlos Cerda Medina for this purpose.

On July 14, 1980, the Concepción Court of Appeals, accepting a brief filed by the Archbishopric of the same city, agreed to authorize Judge Cerda to investigate the events that occurred at the Hacienda "El Morro," consolidating those records into case No. 20.595 of the Mulchén Court of Letters.

The judicial investigation established the responsibility of military and Carabinero personnel, accompanied by civilians, in the detention, imprisonment, execution, and illegal burial of five peasants from the Hacienda "El Morro."

On December 21, 1980, the Visiting Judge declared himself incompetent to continue hearing the case because uniformed personnel were implicated; the case was transferred to the III Military Court of Concepción, being registered under No. 446-81.

On January 7, 1983, by virtue of Amnesty Decree Law 2191 of 1978, the military courts dismissed the case completely and definitively. However, on December 18 of that same year, the Martial Court nullified the application of the amnesty and changed the status of the dismissal from definitive to temporary.

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

The institution's origin has historical roots in the early 20th century, with its first major milestone being the creation of the Malleco Forest Reserve in 1907, located in the commune of Collipulli.

CONAF had been created only months before the coup d'état of September 11, 1973; however, it was one of the institutions most heavily struck after the overthrow of the popular government. 19 of its workers were murdered by the coup plotters in the weeks following the bombing of La Moneda.

The dictator himself appointed his own son-in-law, Julio Ponce Lerou, as executive director of this Corporation. Until then, Ponce was a former employee of the Matte family at the Biobio Paper Mill in Concepción. The Matte family would also place one of their former employees, Fernando Léniz Cerda, as Minister of Economy for the Military Junta.

CONAF Workers Murdered in Mulchén

It was very close to the Malleco Forest Reserve where the greatest crime against CONAF workers was committed after the coup d'état. Between October 5 and 7, 1973, in the mountain estates of the Mulchén commune—called El Morro, Carmen, Maitenes, and Pemehue—18 people from the sector were killed: 13 of them were workers of the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF).

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

This "patrol" traveled through the estates and properties of the mountain area of Mulchén, carrying a pre-prepared list of people who were to be detained and who were subsequently murdered.

The "patrol" began its route at the El Morro estate on the afternoon of October 5. They proceeded to detain five peasants in their homes, who were taken to the banks of the Renaico River: Juan de Dios Laubra Brevis (26 years old), Domingo Sepúlveda Castillo (29 years old), Edmundo José Vidal Aedo (20 years old), Celsio Nicasio Vivanco Carrasco (26 years old), and José Florencio Yáñez Durán (34 years old).

Neighbors in the riverbank sector heard shots; a few months later, during search efforts for their own, neighbors and relatives of the victims found the bodies of the murdered workers in the La Playita sector with bullet impacts and their hands tied behind their backs with wire.

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

Around 11:00 p.m., peasant witnesses heard bursts of machine-gun fire. The next day, the members of the "patrol" buried seven bodies in a grave dug in a field near the house area, covering them with grass.

That same day, October 7, the "patrol" moved toward the Pemehue estate, to the very CONAF office in the Malleco Forest Reserve, taking Guillermo José Albornoz González (32 years old) into custody. He was brutally beaten and, in very poor physical condition, taken to the Renaico River, where his body appeared floating.

At the Pemehue estate, the criminal "patrol" proceeded to detain and execute 5 other CONAF workers: Alberto Albornoz González (41 years old), Felidor Exequiel Albornoz González (33 years old), José Fernando Gutiérrez Ascencio (25 years old), Gerónimo Humberto Sandoval Medina (22 years old), and Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme (35 years old).

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

For these criminal acts, a judicial case was initiated in the courts of justice, specifically before the Concepción Court of Appeals. In October 2017, Judge Carlos Aldana issued a first-instance sentence in which he only convicted the former Carabineros: Jacob del Carmen Ortiz Palma, Juan de Dios Higueras Álvarez, Osvaldo Enrique Díaz Díaz, and Héctor Armando Guzmán Saldaña to sentences of 10 years and one day in prison, as co-authors of the crimes of qualified homicide of the victims Florencio Rubilar Gutiérrez, José Liborio Rubilar Gutiérrez, José Lorenzo Rubilar Gutiérrez, Alejandro Albornoz González, Luis Godoy Sandoval, Miguel Albornoz Acuña, Daniel Albornoz González, Alberto Albornoz González, Felidor Albornoz González, Jerónimo Sandoval Medina, Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme, and José Gutiérrez Ascencio.

The same four former Carabineros must serve 5 years and one day in prison for their responsibility in the qualified kidnappings of 6 other victims: Juan de Dios Laubra Brevis, José Yáñez Durán, Celsio Vivanco Carrasco, Edmundo Vidal Aedo, Domingo Sepúlveda Castillo, and Guillermo Albornoz González.

The judicial case continues with pending appeal procedures before the Concepción Court, so none of these criminals is currently serving a prison sentence for these crimes.

At the end of 1978, the Pinochet tyranny organized and executed the so-called "Operation Television Removal" (Operación Retiro de Televisores), one of the most bestial actions of the military dictatorship, which sought to erase the traces of the murders committed up to that point by the uniformed and civilian hordes.

The operation consisted of exhuming the bodies of those murdered and illegally buried throughout the country and making those remains disappear so as not to leave any indication of the crimes. It was, in short, to make the remains of the forcibly disappeared persons disappear.

The nefarious action was organized promptly by the CNI and executed with criminal zeal by the military troops and civilian agents who reveled in the terror they provoked among their victims, the relatives of the victims, and the population in general.

In the case of the Mulchén victims, probably in March 1979, personnel from the "Húsares" Regiment of Angol, in compliance with a cryptogram from the Army General Command of the time, illegally exhumed the clandestine graves, removed the remains of those who were executed in October 1973, and took them to an unknown destination, fulfilling the purposes of the operation.

CONAF Worker Executed in La Serena

In the same days that the Mulchén crimes were being committed in the south, in the north, the forestry technician and CONAF worker Oscar Gastón Aedo Herrera (23 years old) was detained by Carabineros in Salamanca, Choapa Province, Coquimbo Region.

He was held incommunicado at the local police station and then taken on October 12 to the Illapel Jail, to later be transferred to the "Arica" Regiment of La Serena, where he was executed in the early hours of October 16, 1973, along with 14 other political prisoners murdered during the passage of the "Caravan of Death" through that region.

Judicially, in October 2022, the Sixth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals convicted eight former officers and two former non-commissioned officers of the Army for their responsibility in the crimes of qualified homicide of the 15 victims of the "Caravan of Death" in the city of La Serena.

The group of criminals is composed of a former General and Commander-in-Chief of that institution, two former brigadiers, five former lieutenant colonels, and two non-commissioned officers.

CONAF Workers Murdered in Truful Truful, Melipeuco

On October 14, 1973, CONAF workers José Alejandro Ramos Jaramillo (46 years old), Gerardo Alejandro Ramos Huina (21 years old), and José Moisés Ramos Huina (22 years old)—father and sons, respectively—were detained in the Truful Truful sector, Melipeuco commune.

The following day, Mario Rubén Morales Bañares (23 years old), a tractor operator and CONAF worker, was detained at his home in Melipeuco. Witnesses report having seen their bodies, bound, next to the Allipen River.

However, they were not the first CONAF workers murdered in the Melipeuco commune, as on the very day of the military coup, tractor operator Luis Alberto Soto Chandía (25 years old) was detained, becoming the first CONAF worker murdered just hours after the overthrow of Salvador Allende.

Judicially, only in the case of the victim Luis Alberto Soto Chandía is there a known procedural case, with only one former Carabinero prosecuted for this act.

CONAF Worker Forcibly Disappeared

On January 29, 1975, forestry technician Juan René Molina Mogollones (29 years old), a former CONAF official in the Curicó province and former union leader for the corporation's workers, was detained in Santiago by DINA agents.

Immediately after the military coup, he began to be pursued and sought by uniformed troops, so he lived in hiding and moved to Santiago. Some time later, he was detained and taken as a kidnapped prisoner to the clandestine detention and torture center Villa Grimaldi, and from that facility, he was made to disappear.

Source: resumen.cl April 28, 2023 Date: 04-28-2023

19 CONAF Workers Who Were Victims of the Dictatorship Remembered

"Tree of Memory" is the name of the institutional project that seeks to rescue the history of those who died after the Military Coup.

The recognition that the National Forestry Corporation and the Museum of Memory and Human Rights gave to the 19 CONAF workers who were executed after the 1973 Military Coup was as emotional as it was just.

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

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

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

During his speech, Aarón Cavieres, very moved, indicated that "42 years ago, just with the birth of CONAF, these 19 officials lost their lives when they were dedicated to the conservation of nature. Today, the institution, whose main objective is the well-being and development of people, opens this new path destined for the conservation of people...

I also want to thank for the presence at this act of Homero Altamirano, former executive director of CONAF until 1973, who lived through those hard moments."

The project, unprecedented among state services, is aimed at disseminating the value of Human Rights, and thereby keeping alive the memory of those who were part of the institution and who lost their lives due to military action. In this context, meetings will be held throughout the country, starting in the Coquimbo, Biobío, La Araucanía, and Los Ríos regions.

Francisco Estévez, executive director of the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, upon taking the floor, pointed out that "for us, it is of vital importance to collaborate with the 'Tree of Memory' project of the National Forestry Corporation, which comes to rescue the memory of the workers of this institution who were victims of the dictatorship.

It is their lives and work histories that we have dignified today in part by initiating a joint collaboration work between CONAF and the museum, as a contribution to the investigation of cases such as the murder of the workers of the Malleco National Reserve."

In accordance with the spirit of the project, the idea is to emphasize respect for Human Rights, thus promoting social coexistence without discrimination and with respect for the dignity of people. In this sense, education acquires a relevant dimension as a tool for dissemination at different levels of society.

The 19 CONAF officials who were victims of the dictatorship are:

1) Oscar Gastón Aedo Herrera

2) Miguel del Carmen Albornoz Acuña

3) Daniel Alfonso Albornoz González

4) Alejandro Albornoz González

5) Guillermo José Albornoz González

6) Alberto Albornoz González

7) Felidor Exequiel Albornoz González

8) Luis Alberto Godoy Sandoval

9) Manuel Florencio Rubilar Gutiérrez

10) José Liborio Rubilar Gutiérrez

11) José Lorenzo Rubilar Gutiérrez

12) José Fernando Gutiérrez Ascencio

13) Gerónimo Humberto Sandoval Medina

14) Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme

15) Mario Rubén Morales Bañares

16) José Alejandro Ramos Jaramillo

17) Gerardo Alejandro Ramos Huina

18) José Moisés Ramos Huina

19) Luis Alberto Soto Chandía

Source: conaf.cl 10/6/2016 Date: 10-06-2016

CONAF Advances with 'Tree of Memory' Project

The project seeks to highlight the importance of the culture of human rights in all its areas, and especially from the perspective that public services must have.

With the presentation of the "Path of Memory" at the Malleco National Reserve in the Araucanía Region on October 29, the work of highlighting within the Corporation the importance of living in a civic culture of respect for human rights will continue, while simultaneously rescuing the daily and emotional memory by remembering the institution's workers who were victims of the political repression exercised by the Military Dictatorship.

The objective of this new initiative, framed within the institutional project "Tree of Memory," is that within this protected unit, the 13 workers murdered between October 6, 7, and 8, 1973, be remembered by creating a path through the place they traveled daily to go from their homes to their work tasks, highlighting both them and the need for unrestricted respect for human rights.

It should be remembered that on August 9, in an emotional ceremony held at the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, our Executive Director, Aarón Cavieres, formalized this institutional project, work that originates from a proposal made by a group of workers of the Corporation, which has allowed to date the collection of information regarding 19 CONAF workers who were murdered in the months of September and October 1973.

One of them was Oscar Gastón Aedo Herrera, a forestry practitioner from the Contulmo School, a technician for COREF (Reforestation Corporation, current CONAF) in the city of Salamanca, today Choapa Province, Coquimbo Region, who was executed on October 16, 1973, along with 14 other people at the Arica Regiment in the city of La Serena, by order of General Arellano Stark and his bloodthirsty "Caravan of Death."

Then there are the 13 workers of the Malleco National Reserve (in those years Malleco Forest Reserve), at the hands of a patrol of approximately 30 people composed of military personnel, Carabineros, and civilians.

The victims were: Miguel del Carmen Albornoz Acuña; the brothers Daniel Alfonso, Alejandro, Guillermo José, Alberto, and Felidor Exequiel Albornoz González; Luis Alberto Godoy Sandoval; the brothers Manuel Florencio, José Liborio, and José Lorenzo Rubilar Gutiérrez; José Fernando Gutiérrez Ascencio; Gerónimo Humberto Sandoval Medina; and Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme.

There are also 5 CONAF workers who worked in the Melipeuco Mountain Range, murdered between September and October 1973: Mario Rubén Morales Bañares; José Alejandro Ramos Jaramillo; the brothers Gerardo Alejandro and José Moisés Ramos Huina; and Luis Alberto Soto Chandía.

The "Tree of Memory" project seeks to rescue the daily and emotional memories of these workers. Along with this, it aims to promote within the institution the exercise and respect for basic principles of social coexistence: Human Rights, solidarity, tolerance, and coherence.

In this framework, the work also contemplates, in addition to the "Path of Memory," the design and production of an "Tree of Memory" book, prepared by a team of CONAF professionals who will act as an editorial team, and "Memory and Human Rights Workshops" in the Coquimbo and Araucanía regions during this year.

The project will be executed by regional CONAF teams, with two working teams constituted to date: one in the Coquimbo Region, formed in a meeting held on July 22 in the city of Coquimbo, and the team that groups the Biobío, Araucanía, and Los Ríos regions, formed in a meeting held on August 23 and 24 in the city of Temuco.

Source: conaf.cl, October 6, 2016 Date: 10-06-2016

Indictment Issued Against Military and Carabineros for Crimes Against 18 Peasants from Mulchén

The Visiting Judge for human rights violation cases of the Concepción Court of Appeals, Carlos Aldana, issued an indictment against former members of the Carabineros and the Army for their responsibility in the crimes of qualified kidnapping, qualified homicide, illegal burial, and illegal exhumation of 18 workers from the El Morro, El Carmen-Maitenes, and Pemehue estates, located in the foothills sector of the town of Mulchén.

In the resolution (case file 30.2007), Judge Aldana indicted the former members of the Carabineros: Jacob del Carmen Ortiz Palma, Juan de Dios Higueras Álvarez, Osvaldo Enrique Díaz Díaz, and Héctor Armando Guzmán Saldaña, as authors of the qualified homicides of José Florencio Rubilar Gutiérrez, José Liborio Rubilar Gutiérrez, José Lorenzo Rubilar Gutiérrez, Alejandro Albornoz Acuña, Luis Alberto Godoy Sandoval, Miguel del Carmen Albornoz Acuña, Daniel Alfonso Albornoz González, Alberto Albornoz González, Felidor Exequiel Albornoz González, Jerónimo Humberto Sandoval Medina, Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme, and José Fernando Gutiérrez Ascencio, crimes perpetrated on October 6 and 7, 1973.

These former Carabineros were also indicted as authors of the crimes of qualified kidnapping of: Juan de Dios Laura Brevis, José Florencio Yáñez Durán, Celsio Nicasio Vivanco Carrasco, Edmundo José Vidal Aedo, Domingo Sepúlveda Castillo, and Guillermo José Albornoz González, perpetrated starting on October 5, 1973.

State agents who were also indicted as authors of the crime of illegal burial of the 12 victims of the homicide crime.

Meanwhile, former Army officers Jaime García Zamorano and Julio Reyes Garrido, and former non-commissioned officers José Puga Pascua, José Iturriaga Valenzuela, Jaime Muller Avilés, Julio Fuentes Chavarriga, Luis Palacios Torres, Juan Cares Molina, and Juan Carlos Balboa Ortega were indicted as accessories to 11 crimes of homicide—except for that of Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme—and the crime of illegal exhumation of said victims.

During the investigation stage, the Visiting Judge managed to determine that the 18 victims were detained by personnel of the Army's No. 13 Regiment of Los Ángeles and the Mulchén Carabinero Station between October 5 and 7, 1973, at the El Morro, El Carmen-Maitenes, and Pemehue estates in the area, executed and buried in those places, others in the Mulchén Cemetery or on the banks of the Renaico River, places where the remains remained for more than 5 years.

Between the end of 1978 and the beginning of 1979, personnel from the "Húsares" Regiment of Angol, in compliance with a cryptogram from the Army General Command of the time, removed the remains of those who were executed in October 1973, and they were taken to an unknown destination, carrying out the "Operation Television Removal," which was ordered by the dictator to make the remains of the murdered disappeared persons disappear.

"Operation Television Removal" is one of the most bestial actions committed by the military dictatorship, by express order of the tyrant, organized promptly by the "impeccable" head of the CNI, Odlanier Mena, and executed with criminal zeal by the hordes of agents who reveled in the terror they provoked and caused among their victims, the relatives of the victims, and the population in general.

Acts like these cannot continue to go unpunished. It only remains to hope that Aldana and the courts take care of applying justice.

Source: resumen.cl 7/15/2016 Date: 07-15-2016