José Germán Fredes García, 29 years old at the time of the events, married, one child, an agricultural laborer with no political affiliation, was detained on October 16, 1973, along with Basilio Antonio Valenzuela Alvarez, from the latter’s home located in the "24 de Abril" Settlement in Paine, where he had lived for three years.

The arrest was carried out by soldiers from the San Bernardo Infantry School at 03:00 in the morning. The relatives of both detainees were witnesses to the events.

That night and into the early morning, in a vast operation carried out by soldiers under the orders of Army Lieutenant Andrés Magaña, 22 people were detained in their homes. In none of the cases was there the corresponding authorization to conduct raids and arrests.

The military personnel wore field gear or gray uniforms with a cape of the same color; they wore armbands and had black berets or helmets on their heads. Their faces were in some cases smeared with soot, in others covered with balaclavas.

They moved in at least one red truck with side railings and a jeep. All were heavily armed, illuminating the rooms with flashlights and preventing the residents from turning on the lights. The operation began at one in the morning on October 16 and lasted until 04:00 in the morning.

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

Everyone was loaded onto a truck that was 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.

Immediately after, the soldiers headed toward the sector corresponding to the 24 de Abril Settlement, where they detained 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.

Next, they headed 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 they detained 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.

On October 10, Carabineros from the Paine Sub-precinct had detained Samuel Altamiro Lazo Quinteros at his home in the El Tránsito Settlement; he had been released after 24 hours of detention at said Sub-precinct.

This peasant was detained again in the early hours of October 16, 1973. Following his first detention, he informed 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-precinct, where they had a conversation with Sergeant Reyes regarding their situation, had received identical information.

The whereabouts of all the people detained on October 16, 1973, in any detention center remain unknown. To date, there are no witnesses regarding this. Judicial records indicate that they were taken that early morning in the direction of the hills of Codegua, near Melipilla, where they were executed.

Their remains have not been found. The detention and subsequent disappearance of these peasants are framed within the repression in Paine after September 11, 1973. (Further information in the case of José Domingo Adasme Núñez).

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On March 24, 1974, a mass recurso de amparo (writ of habeas corpus) for 131 people was filed before the Santiago Court of Appeals, which was registered under No. 289-74. José Germán Fredes García was included in it.

Authorities were consulted without being able to establish the particular situation of each of the individuals covered by the writ. On November 28, 1974, the amparo was rejected. The resolution was appealed.

The Plenary of the Supreme Court confirmed the ruling on January 31, 1975, appointing a Special Visiting Judge (Ministro en Visita Extraordinaria) to focus on the corresponding investigation. The appointment fell to Judge Enrique Zurita Camps, who on February 24 of that year initiated case No. 106657 in the First Criminal Court of Santiago.

On May 25, 1975, a writ of amparo in favor of Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza and José Germán Fredes García (docket 216-74), filed in March 1974, and a complaint for alleged disappearance for both (docket 23847), which had begun in the Maipo-Buin Court on December 9, 1974, after having received their records for that purpose from the Court of Appeals when it ruled against the requested writ, were joined to it.

Subsequently, the relatives of Muñoz Peñaloza and Fredes García were summoned to testify by Judge Zurita, leaving a new record of the circumstances of their detention.

On September 25, 1975, without having delved into any of the reported cases, the summary was closed because "no further progress could be made in the investigation." On September 29 of the same year, the Judge issued a ruling; in the cases of Muñoz Peñaloza and Fredes García, as well as in 26 other cases of detainees from Paine, he temporarily dismissed the case because the existence of any criminal act was not fully justified.

On May 10, 1976, the Santiago Court of Appeals approved the resolution of Judge Zurita Camps.

On March 21, 1975, a complaint for alleged disappearance was filed before the Maipo-Buin Judge following the detention and subsequent disappearance of 23 locals from Paine, the vast majority of whom were peasants detained by the military, except for one detained by Carabineros, and among whom the case of José Ramón Fredes García was included.

The case for the group of affected persons was assigned docket No. 24005-1, under Judge Javier Torres.

Three months later, María Inés López Ahumada and Teresa Celinda López Meza appeared before the Court to ratify the complaint. Starting in July, the first investigative steps were decreed. The National Executive Secretariat for Detainees and the San Bernardo Infantry School were officially notified.

Both, in their response letters, stated they had no information regarding the persons consulted. The Legal Medical Institute, for its part, replied that the names of those 23 people did not appear in the index book of bodies admitted to that establishment.

The Court issued a broad order to investigate to the Carabineros and the Investigations Police. The Carabineros took statements from the two complainants, while the Investigations Police, in addition to carrying out similar steps to those taken by the Carabineros, informed the Court that they had made inquiries in order to "locate and identify the people who apparently dressed as military personnel on the day of the events, without favorable results." Without having decreed other steps, in November 1975, the Court decided to close the summary and definitively dismiss the case, as "no presumptions appeared from the summary that the reported facts had occurred." On January 20, 1976, the Rancagua Court of Appeals confirmed the dismissal, establishing that it should be temporary. The case was archived. On March 23, 1977, the case was reopened at the request of the complainant. The request for reopening was based on the fact that 10 cases included in case 24005-1 appeared as part of a list of 63 people whom the Chilean government, at the 30th session of the UN in 1975, claimed were not "forcibly disappeared," as their relatives denounced, but rather were dead people whose bodies were recorded in the index books of the Legal Medical Institute. This list of 63 names was included in the document titled "Current Situation of Human Rights in Chile" (Volume II, pp. 381-383). The information contained in the report, the complainants added, was contradictory to that which that Court had received from the same Legal Medical Institute when consulted. José Germán Fredes García was part of the list and was assigned protocol No. 3497.

On April 3, 1979, Judge Juan Rivas Larraín of the Rancagua Court of Appeals was appointed to continue hearing the case, in response to a request presented to the Supreme Court by the Catholic Church so that Visiting Judges could focus on the cases of forcibly disappeared persons throughout the national territory.

Thus, two years after the reopening of the case, upon assuming the case, Judge Rivas ordered the first steps aimed at clarifying the contradiction between the information the Court possessed regarding the 10 people and that which the Chilean Government provided to the UN.

In April, he officially requested the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to inform him of the background and procedures that allowed for the compilation of the list of "presumably disappeared persons" who had been located in the records of the Legal Medical Institute.

In May 1979, the Judge visited the Legal Medical Institute and conducted an ocular inspection; he requested and was presented with the General Index of body admissions from the 2nd semester of 1973 to the date of the proceeding, verifying that the people whose alleged disappearance was being investigated did not appear.

He also reviewed the "General Index of Autopsy Records." Upon examining especially the autopsy protocol numbers, which the Chilean Government's report assigned to the people it indicated as admitted to the Legal Medical Institute, he verified that said protocols referred to unidentified persons assigned as NN.

None of those protocols recorded a subsequent identification. These were bodies that lacked epidermis on their hands. He also verified that all those NNs were people who died after September 11, 1973, due to gunshot wounds, whose deaths had occurred in Santiago and its surroundings.

On that occasion, Dr. Claudio Molina Fraga, Director of the Institute, informed the Court that, on the occasion of the investigation carried out by the Visiting Judge of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Adolfo Bañados, regarding the discovery of bodies in the town of Lonquén, a report had been issued addressed to that Judge regarding the identity of the signature and stamp that appeared at the end of the referenced list, and regarding which there were many doubts as to whether the first corresponded to Dr.

Alfredo Vargas Baeza (RIP) and the second to the Institute. The official letter in question contained information on the possible origin of the discrepancies between the Institute's records and those consigned in the list used by the government.

On that occasion, the Visiting Judge requested a copy of that official letter (Off. No. 36 of February 12, 1979), a request that was objected to by the establishment's legal advisor, stating that the original document had been sent as confidential to the Court, with the file being in the Military Prosecutor's Office due to the incompetence of Visiting Judge Adolfo Bañados.

Visiting Judge Rivas officially requested the Military Prosecutor's Office (May 1979) to authorize the Legal Medical Institute to deliver a copy of Official Letter No. 36. In June of the same year, the Military Prosecutor, Gonzalo Salazar Swett, responded negatively to the Visiting Judge, stating verbatim: "I inform you that it is not possible to grant the request of your Honor for now, given the state of the case." Faced with such a response, the Visiting Judge officially requested the Santiago Court of Appeals to send him an authorized copy of Official Letter No. 36, receiving as a response a refusal to such request, stating verbatim: "The full Court of this Court agreed not to grant your request, given that the referenced report belongs to confidential records of this presidency. Without prejudice to what Judge Bañados may decide."

In August 1979, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army's II Division and Military Court sent the Court its authorization for the Legal Medical Institute to deliver a copy of Official Letter 36 to the Special Visiting Judge, Mr.

Juan Rivas, who had declared himself incompetent to continue investigating case 24005 because the President Aguirre Cerda Court of Appeals had recently been created, to whose jurisdiction the Buin-Maipo Court belonged.

At the time of his declaration of incompetence, he established the falsity of the list used by the Chilean agency in its report on the "Current Situation of Human Rights." The investigation was continued starting August 13, 1979, by Visiting Judge Humberto Espejo C., under docket 1-79.

During the investigation into the irregularities contained in reports issued under the responsibility of the Legal Medical Institute, the Director of said Institute had expressed to the Court his interest in initiating an internal summary to clarify such an irregularity.

When requested for information in November 1979 regarding the result of said summary, its director Claudio Molina Fraga responded in April 1980, stating verbatim in one of its parts: "no summary was carried out, nor did anyone request it, and, if it had been done, the same conclusions contained in the official letter sent to the Visiting Judge Mr.

Adolfo Bañados Cuadra, who did not deem it necessary to request further information in relation to this process, would have been reached."

In May 1980, Special Visiting Judge Humberto Espejo, by instruction of the President Aguirre Cerda Court of Appeals, sent official letters to the Supreme Court Prosecutor communicating that the various records in the process suggested the existence of a possible irregularity in the compilation of "a list of disappeared persons"; he brought this to his attention as it corresponded to his supervision of the services of the Legal Medical Institute.

On July 11, 1979, a complaint against the personnel of the San Bernardo Infantry School for the crime of kidnapping José Germán Fredes García, which his spouse had filed on that date, had been joined to case docket 24005-1.

In December 1979, nine criminal complaints were joined to case 1-79 against the staff of the San Bernardo Infantry School for the crimes of kidnapping of José Germán Fredes García, Pedro Hernán Pinto Caroca, Ramón Luis Silva Carreño, Laureano Quiroz Pezoa, Ramiro Antonio Muñoz Peñaloza, Silvestre René Muñoz Peñaloza, José Ignacio Castro Maldonado, Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda, and Carlos Gaete López.

Five complaints against Colonel Jorge Dawling Santa María for the cover-up of the crime of illegal arrest of Jorge Hernán Muñoz Peñaloza, Carlos Enrique Lazo Quintana, Carlos Alberto Nieto Duarte, José Domingo Adasme Núñez, Samuel Altamiro Lazo Quinteros, Samuel del Tránsito Lazo Maldonado, and Luis Rodolfo Lazo Maldonado.

A complaint for the kidnapping and qualified homicide of Juan Guillermo Cuadra Espinoza and Ignacio del Tránsito Santander Albornoz, perpetrated by personnel of the San Bernardo Infantry School. A complaint against Army Lieutenant Andrés Magaña Bau for the crime of illegal arrest of René del Rosario Maureira Gajardo; a complaint for the kidnapping of Andrés Pereira Salsberg; and a complaint for the crime of kidnapping of Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza against Carabineros Sergeant Manuel Reyes of the Paine Sub-precinct. (Further information on the last complaint in the case of Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza).

Regarding the accused Colonel Jorge Dawling Santa María, who in 1979 served as Director of the San Bernardo Infantry School, on September 26, 1978, an official letter was sent to him requesting all the information he had from his department regarding the personnel of that unit who performed duties in the months of September and October 1973.

The response did not arrive. Of such behavior, the Court informed the Court of Appeals, which on November 14, 1978, resolved in Plenary that the aforementioned Colonel should abide by what is prescribed in Art. 191 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (that is, depending on his rank, whether he appears or not).

The response letter finally arrived signed by the new Director of the Infantry School, Carlos Meirelles Müller, in which he limited himself to stating that there was no intention to hide information, that there were documents with the requested information, and added that Colonel Dawling Santa María had handed over command and ceased to belong to the institution.

On February 7, 1979, in a new official letter, Colonel Meirelles was requested for the list of the institution's personnel as of October 1973, responding that he did not have the authority to provide that information and that it must be requested from the Minister of National Defense.

Starting in April 1979, and with Judge Humberto Espejo in charge of the investigation after the creation of the President Aguirre Cerda Court of Appeals, the official letters were diversified in order to establish the identification of those who participated in the operations that occurred in Paine and its surroundings.

The Minister of National Defense was officially notified, not only to consult about the personnel already indicated but also to request the appearance of Colonel Dawling Santa María, Lieutenant Andrés Magaña Bau, identified by the victims' families as the person in charge of the October 16, 1973, operation, and Colonel Pedro Montalva Calvo, Sub-director of the Infantry School as of October 1973.

In April 1979, Lieutenant Andrés Magaña Bau appeared before the Court, at which time he denied his participation in the October 16, 1973, operation, as well as in any other that might have been carried out in Paine.

When confronted with relatives of one of the forcibly disappeared persons of October 16, René del R. Maureira Gajardo, he denied knowing the members of that family, despite the fact that they claimed to have been together on more than one occasion at social events prior to September 11, 1973.

Regarding Colonel Jorge Dawling Santa María, the Court had been informed in a response letter that since August 1978 he had been appointed Military Attaché at the Embassy of Uruguay, a position that would last for more than a year.

For his part, Colonel Pedro Montalva Calvo, upon appearing before the Court on December 10, 1979, declared affirming the existence of a Detention Camp at Cerro Chena dependent on the Infantry School, which, according to his statement, ceased to function in December 1973 at the time he assumed the Directorate of the School.

Prior to that, its Director had been Colonel Leonel Köning Altterman, who gave written orders regarding who entered as detainees. When the then-Director of the School, Colonel Koning, was summoned to testify, the Court was notified that he had committed suicide on June 21, 1979.

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

On March 6, 1980, the Court revoked the incompetence and ordered steps 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 holds the rank of Brigadier General and therefore must testify in writing. The Minister sent an erroneously formulated guideline, which gave rise to the Brigadier General responding: "in relation to questions 2 through 13, I have no information whatsoever to point out."

On June 5, 1980, Judge Espejo declared himself incompetent for the second time. Said resolution was appealed on July 25, 1980, and revoked by the Court of Appeals, which ordered the Visiting Judge to prepare a new questionnaire addressed to General Jorge Dowling based on the accusations made against him.

In July 1980, the Court received a response letter from Brigadier General Jorge Dowling, the content of which did not provide information, arguing that in 1977 there were no longer written records at the Infantry School regarding military maneuvers and operations.

His letter concluded by stating that he had brought the records of case 1-79 to the attention of the Army Command, since he was accused in the transcribed complaints of participation as a cover-up in "alleged crimes" that he would have 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 operated.

On May 24, 1982, the case was totally and temporarily dismissed: "notwithstanding that the investigation is exhausted, the perpetration of the facts reported at page 1 and attributed to personnel of the Armed Forces and Order, subject to military jurisdiction, is not completely proven."

Such resolution was appealed and revoked in March 1984 by the Court Martial, ordering steps aimed at completing the investigation. During 1985, at least 26 Officers and Non-commissioned officers who performed duties in September-October 1973 at the Infantry School testified.

All of them denied their participation in operations in Paine and its surroundings, and denied knowing about the presence of detainees in the Chena detention camp as well as its existence.

On November 22, the Military Prosecutor of the II Military Prosecutor's Office, Enrique Ibarra Chamorro, became a party representing 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 because the criminal responsibility of the persons allegedly accused of the reported facts was extinguished. Such resolution was revoked in February 1992 by the Court Martial; this Court instructed that the case return to the summary stage and ordered the exhumation of the six graves in Patio 29.

Said exhumation could not be carried out by order of this Court, since in September 1991, in case 4449 AF of the 22nd Criminal Court of Santiago, the exhumation of all the remains of unidentified persons buried between September and December 1973 in the aforementioned patio in the General Cemetery had been carried out. The case, as of December 1992, continued in process.

It should be noted that in this case, investigations were also carried out regarding the graves of Patio 29 of the General Cemetery starting in November 1979, when Monsignor Ignacio Ortúzar R., in his capacity as Vicar General and Substitute Vicar of the Vicariate of Solidarity, reported to the Court the existence of massive and irregular burials of people in Patio 29 of the aforementioned cemetery, which would affect 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 process. Between the years 1981-1987, the exhumation of those six graves was requested from the Court on five occasions, with the request being denied, arguing that it was inconclusive given the time elapsed.

In August 1990, case 2-90 E was initiated in the Buin-Maipo Court with the appointment of the Visiting Judge, Mr. Germán Hermosilla, by the President Aguirre Cerda Court of Appeals. Said appointment was due to a request to that effect 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.

The records of José Germán Fredes García were delivered to the Court.

On March 15, 1991, Mrs. María del Tránsito Venegas Cortés testified before Visiting Judge Germán Hermosilla, in her capacity as the mother of Jorge Reyes Cortés, who in 1973 had to perform military service at the San Bernardo Infantry School. Her words, which account for the fate of the 22 detainees on October 16, 1973, were recorded in the file.

Verbatim, in one of its parts, she said: "a few days after they took my cousin Luisa's husband, Roberto Serrano, I went to visit my aunt Rosa's house and I saw that she was very desperate and crying for the fate of her husband.

So I told her 'don't cry anymore Lucha, your husband was taken by the soldiers, Jorge was with them.' I was referring to the fact 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 had them for months without going out after the Coup, so when he went to the house, he told me. He wasn't calm, he was scared, desperate, and not only him but also his companions. 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 received them there, when Serrano was already dead." Jorge Reyes Cortés currently serves in the Los Andes Regiment, with his military rank unknown.

Although Mrs. María Venegas Cortez declared that she did not remember having indicated the hills near Codegua and Melipilla as the place of execution, the wife of Serrano Galaz 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; verbatim, in one of its parts, he said: "I never participated in any operation in Paine, 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 around 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, upon proceeding with the judicial investigation of the crime of illegal burial of persons who currently and since 1973 remain buried as NN in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery.

Anthropomorphic records of José Germán Fredes García were delivered in that case. In September 1991, the exhumation of 108 graves in Patio 29 was carried out; as of December 1992, the extracted remains are at the Legal Medical Institute undergoing an identification process.

José Germán Fredes García, according to the Rettig Report, was 29 years old at the time of his detention and disappearance, married, father of one child, and worked as an agricultural laborer. He was detained on October 16, 1973, at his home by military personnel from the San Bernardo Infantry Regiment, accompanied by Carabineros and armed civilians from the sector.

He was taken to the Paine police station, then to the Infantry Regiment; since that date, his whereabouts are unknown. For its part, the Memoria Viva web archive reports that José Germán Fredes García was detained "(...) along with Basilio Antonio Valenzuela Álvarez, from the latter’s home located in the '24 de Abril' settlement in Paine, with whom he lived for three years.

The arrest was carried out by soldiers from the San Bernardo Infantry School at 03:00 in the morning. The relatives of both detainees were witnesses to the events." In the framework of the conversations held with Sonia Valenzuela Muñoz, daughter of Basilio Valenzuela, wife of Rosalindo Herrera, and niece of Ramiro, Silvestre, Mario, and Jorge Muñoz Peñaloza, all forcibly disappeared in Paine, the following account about José Germán Fredes García emerges: "José Germán Fredes García, my dad's worker.

Once we went as a family to the beach in Bucalemu, where my family was from, and Germán was also at the beach, as he was a friend of my uncles. On the way back to Paine, he got on the bus and came with us.

My dad gave him work and he lived with us. Later, even when he started working at the settlement and had gotten married, he continued living in our house. Not even a year had passed when he was also taken away.

Shortly after, his wife took her own life. They had had a child, but it died. So he was left without anyone to worry about searching for him. For that same reason, wherever I went to ask about my relatives, I also asked about him, and we didn't find him either. In his mosaic, some people who came especially from Santiago to collaborate helped me."

Source: germina.cl 2014

In the ruling (docket 149.250-2020), the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court sentenced retired Army members Jorge Romero Campos and Arturo Fernández Rodríguez to 20 years of imprisonment for their responsibility in 38 cases of qualified homicide.

The Supreme Court dismissed the application of the "half-prescription" (a partial statute of limitations) and increased the sentences for the retired members of the Army and the Carabineros de Chile for their responsibility in the qualified homicides of 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, Víctor Zamorano González, 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, which occurred between September 24 and October 16, 1973, in various settlements in the Paine commune.

In the ruling (docket 149.250-2020), the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court—composed of ministers Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, minister María Teresa Letelier, and acting lawyers Diego Munita and Leonor Etcheberry—sentenced retired Army members Jorge Romero Campos and Arturo Fernández Rodríguez to a penalty of 20 years of imprisonment for their responsibility in the 38 cases of qualified homicide, with the first 14 occurring between September 24 and October 3, 1973, in the "El Escorial" sector, and the final 24 occurring between October 8 and October 16, 1973, in the "Campo Lindo" and "24 de abril" settlements.

Meanwhile, retired Army members

José Vásquez Silva, Carlos Lazo Santibáñez, Juan Opazo Vera, Roberto Pinto Labordarie, Jorge Saavedra Meza, Víctor Sandoval Muñoz, and Carlos Durán Rodríguez were sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment for their responsibility in the 38 aforementioned crimes.

Raúl Francisco Areyte Valdenegro

must serve a sentence of 7 years and 6 months of imprisonment for his responsibility in the 14 homicides in the "El Escorial" sector.

Finally, retired Carabineros officer Nelson Iván Bravo Espinoza is sentenced to ten years and one day of imprisonment for his responsibility in the qualified kidnappings of Ramón Capetillo Mora and Mario Muñoz Peñaloza, committed on October 8 and 10, 1973.

The Supreme Court upheld the cassation appeals presented by the plaintiffs against the ruling of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, which had applied the "half-prescription" figure, considering that this figure should not be applied in cases of crimes against humanity.

"That the so-called 'half-prescription' is a 'species' of total prescription and not a mere special rule for determining the penalty, since both have the same foundation, that is, the need for the penalty diminishes over time until it disappears. In other words, both are the same thing, but at different stages.

The foregoing entails that all institutions and prohibitions that govern total prescription are consequentially applicable to the half-prescription and, in what is of interest here, in those crimes where total prescription cannot exist because the need for a penalty does not diminish with the passage of time, such as the crimes against humanity in this case, the half-prescription cannot operate either.

That from what has been reflected upon, it is undoubted that both full prescription and half-prescription or gradual prescription share common characteristics; thus, both are located under the same Title of the Penal Code, that is, Title V of Book I, entitled 'On the Extinction of Criminal Responsibility,' and both are likewise rooted in the succession or passage of time.

Finally, since total prescription and gradual prescription share the same nature, their recognition in the present case must be dismissed, since, in the case of an imprescriptible crime, it is not possible to begin the computation of the period required by gradual prescription," the ruling states.

It adds: "That, in effect, the classification of a crime against humanity that corresponds to the crimes subject to this process, as established in point 34 of the first-instance ruling, requires considering the regulations of International Human Rights Law, which excludes the application of both total prescription and the so-called half-prescription, understanding such institutes to be closely linked in their foundations and, consequently, contrary to the regulations of ius cogens originating from that sphere of International Criminal Law, which reject impunity and the imposition of penalties not proportional to the intrinsic gravity of the crimes, based on the passage of time."

Furthermore, it is considered: "That by resolving in the opposite sense, the challenged ruling has incurred the invoked cause of Article 546 No. 1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, because, although it classifies the crime in accordance with the law, it imposes on the defendants a less severe penalty than that designated by it, committing an error of law by granting a reduction that, according to international human rights precepts, is inappropriate, an error that, moreover, has had a substantial influence on the operative part of the ruling, because with respect to almost all of the accused—favored with only one mitigating factor—it enabled a reduction of the penalty that could not have been reached otherwise."

The investigation by the visiting minister of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, established the following regarding the events in "El Escorial":

"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 in the Paine commune and detained, without legal right, 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, a place 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 in the Paine commune and detained, without legal right, José Ángel Cabezas Bueno, who, immediately thereafter, 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 Second 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 in the Paine commune and detained, without legal right, 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 transported all the detainees to a ravine in the 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."

Meanwhile, regarding the illicit acts in the "Campo Lindo" and "24 de abril" settlements, it was proven that:

"1st. That, on October 8, 1973, officials of the Paine Carabineros Sub-station appeared at the 'Campo Lindo' settlement in the same commune and detained, without legal right, Ramón Alfredo Capetillo Mora, who, immediately thereafter, was locked up in the aforementioned police unit. 2nd.

That, in the following days, Ramón Alfredo 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-station appeared at the '24 de Abril' settlement in the same commune and detained, without legal right, Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, who, immediately thereafter, was locked up 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-station 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 Second 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 detained, without legal right, 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 Estevan Serrano Galaz. 7th.

That, subsequently, the aforementioned detainees were transported to the Los Arrayanes ravine, Los Quillayes sector, in the vicinity of Lake Rapel, a place where they were executed by firing squad by the aforementioned soldiers and the civilian who accompanied them, who, immediately thereafter, buried their bodies at the same site, with only bone and dental fragments of eleven of the twenty-four victims being found years later, due to the fact that their bodies were removed and transported to a site unknown to this date."

In the civil aspect, the State was ordered to pay compensation to the victims' families.

Source: pjud.cl 06/16/2021

Date: 06-16-2021

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

The extraordinary visiting minister 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 of 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, Minister 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 of imprisonment.

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

Finally, the minister sentenced former Carabineros captain Nelson Iván Bravo Espinoza to a penalty of 10 years and one day of imprisonment as the author of 2 crimes of qualified kidnapping.

In the civil aspect, the State was ordered to pay a total sum of $15,928,000,000 to the victims' families.

The facts In the investigation stage, the visiting minister 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 in the Paine commune and detained, without legal right, 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, a place 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 in the Paine commune and detained, without legal right, José Ángel Cabezas Bueno, who, immediately thereafter, 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 Second 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 in the Paine commune and detained, without legal right, 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 transported all the detainees to a ravine in the 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-station appeared at the 'Campo Lindo' settlement in the same commune and detained, without legal right, Ramón Alfredo Capetillo Mora, who, immediately thereafter, was locked up in the aforementioned police unit. 2nd.

That, in the following days, Ramón Alfredo 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-station appeared at the '24 de Abril' settlement in the same commune and detained, without legal right, Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, who, immediately thereafter, was locked up 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-station 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 Second 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 detained, without legal right, 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 transported to the Los Arrayanes ravine, Los Quillayes sector, in the vicinity of Lake Rapel, a place where they were executed by firing squad by the aforementioned soldiers and the civilian who accompanied them, who, immediately thereafter, buried their bodies at the same site, with only bone and dental fragments of eleven of the twenty-four victims being found years later, due to the fact that their bodies were removed and transported to a site unknown to this date.

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl 11/06/2019

Date: 11-06-2019

The Kasts in the Paine crimes

El Mostrador publishes below an excerpt from a chapter of a book by journalists Javier Rebolledo and Nancy Guzmán, to be published in 2015, which will address the role of civilians who acted as "passive" and "non-passive" accomplices to the Pinochet dictatorship.

The individuals chosen range from lawyers, doctors, engineers, politicians, journalists, and operators to major businessmen. The investigation focuses on previously unpublished episodes, such as the participation in the repression by some members of the Kast family, owners of the Bavaria chain, in the Paine area, where there was a massive extermination of peasants who had benefited from agrarian reform.

Pedro León Vargas Barrientos thought he had nothing to worry about on the morning of September 13, 1973. He was only 23 years old, a member of the MIR, and had recently worked at the Bavaria establishments.

On September 11, he presented himself to the Paine Sub-police station, and the captain in charge, Nelson Bravo, who knew him well, told him that "everything was in order. So he returned just as he had arrived,"[1] recalls Sylvia Vargas, Pedro's sister.

Despite this, on September 13, he was brutally pulled from the bread line and dragged to a vehicle that took him to the police station. Several neighbors tried to help him; some grabbed his clothes, but it was impossible.

Once in the dungeon, he commented to his cellmate, Armando Pereira Salas, that "his detention was 'heavy'."[2] As the right arm of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, there were the civilians who walked triumphantly through the streets of the small town.

Christian Kast, son of the owner of the Bavaria establishments, was summoned to testify by the justice system in 2003. The case was reopened in 2002 by the minister of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, María Stella Elgarrista, who consolidated them into a single case, named "Paine," because 70 citizens from localities such as Pintué, El Escorial, Chada, Culitrín, and Hospital, among others, had been murdered or remained forcibly disappeared.

On that occasion, he acknowledged: "We accompanied the Carabineros to the Aculeo sector to greet local farmers and to celebrate what happened that day."[3] That same September 11, he drove his family's green Datsun 1,500 to the Sub-police station, loaded with food from Bavaria for the Carabineros. "For the officials had a communal pot there.

I was invited to stay at the place until the next day,"[4] he declared. It was there that a large part of the disappeared from Paine were last seen.

A while later, during that same night, Kast saw a group of detainees arrive at the Sub-police station, "who on the morning of the 12th were taken away by a military truck. They were shaven."[5] Kast never reported this fact to the justice system.

Christian Kast is the current President of the cold cuts factory, restaurants, and delicatessen Bavaria, a well-known food company that has branches throughout a significant part of Chile, and brother of the current deputy and vice president of the Independent Democratic Union (UDI), José Antonio Kast. He is also the uncle of Felipe Kast, deputy and leader of Evópoli.

At noon on September 12, hours after Pedro Vargas's detention, "a barbecue was held at the indicated site (the courtyard of the Sub-police station) and I returned home, at which point my mother forbade me from continuing to go to the sub-police station because of everything that had happened and what she had seen on television.

Despite this, in the following days, I returned to the sub-police station to drop off cold cuts from our family business, the Bavaria establishments, on two or three occasions in the afternoon. Each time I went, I saw Carabineros and civilians sharing barbecues in the courtyard I indicated.

On those occasions, I learned that there were detainees in the barracks, who were in some rooms located at the back of it. I only remember having heard of a person nicknamed 'Harina Seca' [Dry Flour]; I do not remember other names or nicknames."[6]

When Minister Elgarrista summoned Michael Kast to testify as an accused in 2003, she was interested in knowing the ownership of the trucks that had participated in the transport of the forcibly disappeared prisoners of Paine.

She interrogated him as an accused. On September 11, 1973, he was the owner of a red Mercedes Benz truck, fire-truck type. Both Kast and other interrogated civilians agreed judicially that the purpose of the loans was only for the transport of officials and their families to the Paine Sub-police station. "I do not remember if these transfers were also made during the night; what I am sure of is that my vehicle was never left at the police station without the driver who worked for me.

Carlos, upon returning, would tell me that they had indeed transported the families of the Paine officials."

The detainee to whom Christian Kast refers, and for whom he never initiated any reporting procedure based on what he had heard at the Sub-police station, is Luis Nelson Cádiz Molina, a 28-year-old merchant, detained on September 14, a sympathizer of the MIR.

Cádiz is one of the forcibly disappeared of Paine. The last time he was seen alive was in the dungeon of the Paine Sub-police station, together with Pedro Vargas, both with signs of having been tortured.

Questioned by the judge, Christian Kast declared that he only knew Pedro as an employee of his establishment, but that he did not know about his situation. "Only later did I become aware that he was detained by Carabineros, but I did not see him at the Sub-police station, nor did I hear that he was there when I went to said establishment."[7]

According to the testimony of the also-detained Alejandro del Carmen Bustos González, around three in the morning on September 18, a Carabinero came to take roll call in the dungeon and took him out to the courtyard.

He ordered him to get dressed, left him there for a moment, and left toward the dungeon. Bustos observed several civilian vehicles parked, "always from the courtyard, and upon approaching a hallway, through a window, I was again able to observe the civilians.

I refer to Francisco Luzoro, Claudio Oregón, Antonio Carrasco, Luis Mondaca, Segundo Suazo, Miguel González, Cristián Kast, Patricio Meza, Tito Carrasco, Mario Tagle, Jorge Nazar, and Ruperto Jara."[8]

Minutes later, he, along with Carlos Chávez, Orlando Pereira, Luis Ramírez, and Raúl Lazo, were loaded by Carabineros into civilian vehicles. They were not hooded. The procession took a road he recognized as the North-South highway.

Then they headed west, to a field. A winding dirt road, everyone in silence, and the hum of the engines. They were taken down, lined up in the middle of an open field, vehicle headlights shining on them from the side, in front of them a platoon of civilians and Carabineros, and the horror of death in the making.

To his right, ten meters below, a black and foamy whirlpool of water, waiting for them to fall into it. "Raise your hands, Sergeant Reyes told us. We did, and I looked up, at the hill. 'Damn, where are we, my holy God! My beautiful Virgin!', I said to myself. And I see an image of the Virgin rising above a cloud,"[9] said Bustos with tears.

When the roar sounded, a bullet hit his arm and a jet of blood splashed on his face. It was from Orlando Pereira, his companion in death. Some fell wounded, others screaming in pain and fear. "With a yatagan [dagger], they took the eyes out of one of them, still alive, and cut off his tongue."[10] When the work was done, they pushed him over the cliff toward the canal, and he rolled along with the rest of the group.

Inside the water, while spinning in the whirlpool, he felt an arm grabbing his neck. It was Orlando Pereira. "He begged me to help him, so I put him on my shoulder and swam. We came out together on the other side."[11] Pereira had several bullet wounds in his chest. "He told me he was dead and that I should look after his wife and son.

He handed me his sweater, completely perforated, and died."[12]

Bustos was the only one who survived to tell the tale. Confronted with Christian Kast,[13] he reaffirmed that he saw him at the police station on the day of his detention, but clarified that he was not part of the caravan that shot him a while later.

Interviewed for this report, Bustos pointed out that he actually meant he was not able to identify him. "There were more civilians, but with the lights and the darkness, I didn't identify them all. I don't remember having seen Kast there, but he could have been there too."[14]

Kast acknowledged to the justice system only having heard the story: "On one occasion, a priest told me about an event similar to the one my interlocutor points out, and relating them, I think it is the same one. That was the first time I had news of what happened in Collipeumo."[15]

The betrayal and Sylvia's memories

Sylvia remembers that the only problem Pedro had with the Kasts was an altercation prior to September 11, at his workplace, Cecinas Bavaria. "My brother discovered that they were not paying their workers a percentage of sales, which was their legal obligation.

So he organized a union, and Don Miguel punished him by demoting him to night watchman at the cold cuts factory. He had to use a weapon. Pedro didn't like violence, so he resigned,"[16] recalls Sylvia.

Despite that episode and her nine months of pregnancy, Sylvia decided to go to the Kast house in Buin to ask her boss for help. In her favor was the fact that in the early 60s, her family and the Kasts had worked side by side to get the newly created Bavaria soda fountain off the ground, next to the North-South highway, near Buin, where the Vargas family also lived: "Other bosses had helped their employees go free, so that's why I decided to go to him,"[17] she recalled.

At the entrance of the house, Don Michael received her: "He was annoyed. He told me, 'It shows, Sylvia, that you don't know what a war is.' I said: 'But what war, Don Miguel? Pedro was carrying a bread bag and money, nothing more.' He insisted. 'No, Sylvia, this is serious, you have no idea. This is life or death.' I answered him, but he told me curtly to go home quietly to have my child."[18]

Interrogated by the justice system, Michael Kast denied Sylvia's visit to ask for help: "I do not remember that relatives of Pedro came to my home on September 17, 1973, to ask me for help to find or free him, and I also do not believe that if that had been the case, I would have answered them in the way I am accused of, since I had affection for the family, as Sylvia and Pedro Vargas Barrientos worked for me, as did their father, Bernabé Vargas."[19]

Trucks

When Minister Elgarrista summoned Michael Kast to testify as an accused in 2003, she was interested in knowing the ownership of the trucks that had participated in the transport of the forcibly disappeared prisoners of Paine. She interrogated him as an accused. On September 11, 1973, he was the owner of a red Mercedes Benz truck, fire-truck type.

Both Kast and other interrogated civilians agreed judicially that the purpose of the loans was only for the transport of officials and their families to the Paine Sub-police station. "I do not remember if these transfers were also made during the night; what I am sure of is that my vehicle was never left at the police station without the driver who worked for me.

Carlos, upon returning, would tell me that they had indeed transported the families of the Paine officials."[20]

Francisco Luzoro, owner of trucks and leader of the Truckers' Trade Association – prosecuted for several crimes in Paine – acknowledged that "the operations carried out by Carabinero personnel escorted by us [the civilians] were exclusively to detain people in different places, who were then transported to the Paine Sub-police station, without knowing what their final destination was (...)"[21].

He did, however, take the opportunity to partially open the open secret about the participation of other civilians, without compromising himself: "I want to point out that not only was I providing collaboration with vehicles to Carabinero personnel, but there were other civilian people who also had other vehicles (...) but I do not remember who they were, just as there were other pickup trucks, but of different colors."[22]

Regarding his relationship with the leader of the Paine civilians and the other members of the brigades formed after the coup, Michael Kast was discreet: "[Luzoro] I only know him because he is a local hauler, but we do not have a bond of friendship; the same thing happens with Ramón Huidobro (...).

The Carrascos because they have an agricultural plot in Paine, the Tagle brothers because they are sons of a farm owner. We never visited each other with these people, as I pointed out, I only know them."[23]

Most of the people whom Kast declared he "only knew" are currently being prosecuted, and some of them have confessed to their participation in the crimes that have been elucidated in Paine.

To this day, in most cases, the justice system has not elucidated which trucks and vehicles were used in the various criminal episodes. It is known, for example, that a red truck transported detainees to and from the San Bernardo Infantry School.

Also, as an exception, it is known which vehicles and which drivers kidnapped the teacher Cristian Víctor Cartagena Pérez, a forcibly disappeared person, a teacher at the Chada School and a member of the Communist Party.

This was not a problem for Christian Kast to protect Rubén Darío González in 2008, a merchant who collaborated by driving vehicles and who has confessed to his participation in the crime of the teacher Cartagena Pérez. Kast signed a "certificate of honorability" in his favor.

"I certify that I have known Mr. Rubén Darío González since his childhood. Likewise, I knew his parents and grandparents, who stood out as correct and respectable people, active participants in commerce, very beloved in the Paine community.

Don Rubén González has always been a normal and very orderly young man. He married and formed a very Christian family in Paine. As I have known, he participates in Christian movements in the commune (...)"[24]

The widow of the teacher Cristián Víctor Cartagena Pérez, Holanda Vidal, recalled before the Investigative Police that, at the moment of being kidnapped, her husband was tied with a rope to one of the pickup trucks of the caravan of civilians and military personnel. He was lost on the road, "dragging him along the whole road until reaching the police station (...)"[25]

Political networks

With the military coup, the Kast family strengthened its social and political position. Miguel, the eldest of the sons, an economist from the Catholic University with a postgraduate degree from the University of Chicago, became part of the civilians who worked for the dictatorship.

In 1978, he assumed the position of director of ODEPLAN[26]; in 1980, he was appointed by Augusto Pinochet as Minister of Labor, and in 1982, president of the Central Bank. In 1983, he was diagnosed with bone cancer and finally died that same year.

From that moment on, he became a legend within the extreme right, as he had joined Jaime Guzmán in the founding of Gremialismo, a political movement that laid the foundations for the Independent Democratic Union (UDI), a political party born to provide social and ideological support to the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

After his death, two of his direct relatives assumed the political representation of the family. His son, Felipe Kast Sommerhoff, an engineer from the Catholic University, was a member of the UDI and later formed Evópoli[27].

During the government of Sebastián Piñera, he was Minister of Social Planning. In the presidential elections, he was the campaign manager for the candidate Evelyn Matthei and is currently a deputy for Santiago.

Regarding the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, through Evópoli, he has marked a distance from his father's generation. In an interview, he noted: "I have a very critical view of human rights violations, as well as a less critical one of what was done in social policies."[28] Explaining his value parameters for balancing these issues, he noted that "since I didn't have to live through that, I have much less of a complex when valuing the good."[29] Furthermore, he said that "academically" he supports what he calls the military "pronouncement" and that if he were in a dictatorship, he would have served as a Minister of State for Pinochet.[30]

José Antonio, the youngest son of the Kast Rist marriage, is known as a political and value-based bastion of the hard right. In 2013, he told the press that the dictatorship's revenge operation for the attack on Augusto Pinochet, which occurred on September 7, 1986, was not directed by the State, but that "there were people who took revenge for their comrades who fell in the attack on Pinochet and committed a crime."[31] On the same occasion, he confused historical episodes, pointing out that said revenge was the "Degollados" [Throat-Slitting] crime, an occasion in which Santiago Nattino, José Manuel Parada, and Manuel Guerrero were murdered by Carabinero personnel, an event that occurred before the attack on Pinochet, in March 1985, and which was investigated and sanctioned by the justice system as a State crime.

Days later, Kast apologized for having confused the Degollados case with the attack on Pinochet.

José Antonio has been characterized by his discourse of "protection of life" when referring to the possibility of discussing abortion in Chile. His opposition to the emergency contraceptive pill, the regulation of life for homosexual couples, the adoption of children by gay couples, and gay marriage have been his battle horses, establishing himself as one of the most conservative men within the UDI.

From the beginning, the family business Bavaria has been present in the political careers of José Antonio and Felipe.

On May 9, 2014, Michael Kast Schindele, the pater familias, died at 90 years old as a celebrated and Christian businessman of the area and founder of an empire. Few know it, but until his death, he maintained his status as an accused for the crimes of Paine.

Sylvia, without knowing the background of the summary that is currently being substantiated in the San Miguel Court of Appeals, always maintained doubt regarding the participation of Michael Kast and Christian Kast in Pedro's crime. Their absolute inhumanity and the refusal to help her at times when her mere intervention meant the life or death of her brother persist in her memory.

41 years have passed since these crimes occurred, and there are still no convictions. There are only seven Carabineros prosecuted, two military personnel, and nine civilians for the different episodes[32]. A few vehicles that participated in the death caravans were able to be associated with their owners and specific criminal episodes. The rest remain in the nebula.

Source: elmostrador.cl 6/11/2014

Date: 06-11-2014

PAINE Exhibition "Portraits of Memory" 70 faces to not forget the murders of Paine

The works, painted by local artist Lorenzo Moya, will be exhibited at the commune's Cultural Center until November 12. "It's as if they were alive again," said the executive director of the Paine Memorial Corporation, Juan Leonardo Maureira.

PAINE.- It is moving. Not only because of the quality of the work, but because of the penetrating gazes that receive you when you cross the threshold of the Paine Cultural Center gallery. Wanting to tell you every detail of their lives are the painted faces of the 70 Paininos murdered in 1973 by the dictatorship, which give life to the exhibition "Portraits of Memory, 70 reasons not to forget."

The works, painted by local artist Lorenzo Moya, are made public for the first time after two years of work. House by house and family by family, the artist got to know stories and reconstructed lives, to capture them on fiber cement with fine oil and the thick brush of injustice.

Open until November 12, the exhibition was mounted by the Paine Memorial Corporation, whose executive director, Juan Leonardo Maureira, commented to El Amanecer de Lo Herrera that "what is being done here is very important, where the municipality opened its doors to us for this very symbolic activity, where we remember the 70 victims of human rights violations of '73.

That they are back here is as if they were alive again, so it is truly moving." The 70 portraits, 70 x 40 cm, are the originals of those that can be seen on the "Walk of Memory," located at Prieto street with Gilda Díaz. "It was quite impactful for the relatives to be here, since for the first time these works are coming out for an exhibition.

The paintings, once the exhibition is concluded, will return to the corporation, and we will see what the conversations with the Museum of Memory result in. We also do not rule out taking them to other communes of the Maipo Province," added Maureira.

Source: delh.cl (no date)