José Guillermo Barrera Barrera, married, father of 2, truck driver, union leader, and socialist sympathizer, was detained at his home by hooded Carabineros and military personnel on the night of March 14, 1974, and taken from there to an unknown destination.

Previously, the victim had been detained on September 14, 1973, also at his home in the town of Curacaví. On that occasion, the Carabineros patrol was under the command of Lieutenant Gerardo Aravena Langa of the Curacaví Tenencia. From there, police officers transported the detainee to the aforementioned Carabineros facility.

Subsequently, on the night of September 16, 1973, six detainees were removed from the aforementioned police station: Jorge Toro Toro, 30 years old, newspaper vendor; Jorge Yáñez; Justo Joaquín Mendoza Santibáñez, 23 years old, single, worker and Communist militant; Segundo Nicolás Gárate Torres, 27 years old, single, militant of the Christian Left; Jaime Cabrera; Enrique Patricio Venegas Santibáñez; and José Barrera.

They were told they would be "transferred to the Estadio Nacional in Santiago," a sports facility repurposed by the Military Junta as a prison camp.

According to the victim's own account to his family, before leaving, they were lined up and Jaime Cabrera—a photographer from Curacaví—photographed them. Afterward, they were loaded into two vehicles: a gray pickup truck and a green jeep (requisitioned from a local company).

Guarded by armed police, they were driven to "Cuesta Barriga." Once there, they were forced out with great brutality, then made to walk up to the remains of a house. In what had been the kitchen, the 7 detainees were placed with their backs to the wall while their faces were illuminated by flashlights.

Five Carabineros stood before them, led by Lieutenant Gerardo Aravena, who gave the order to fire. All the detainees fell under the bursts of machine-gun fire; however, Enrique Venegas, one of the survivors who was only wounded in the leg, recounts: "The others fell executed beside me.

After emptying the machine guns, the group of executioners approached us and we were illuminated by the flashlights again. I felt someone clutching my jacket; I realized it was 'Ñico Gárate,' who was in agony... the Lieutenant approached and emptied his revolver into Gárate's head..." finally, they proceeded to fire a burst at the executed men and withdrew.

After a while, José Guillermo Barrera and Enrique Venegas realized that both had remained alive, despite being wounded by gunfire in their legs. Knowing they were in danger if they stayed there, they left as soon as they each grabbed a blanket and headed through the hills toward the Rinconada sector in Maipú.

They walked for several days through different places and houses of people who helped them until they managed to secure support from their families.

José Barrera then moved to Huasco, along with his spouse and children, to the home of some relatives. There, he found work and even used his own name without encountering difficulties.

After about 6 months, he decided to return to his home. To do so, his brother Víctor spoke with the secretary of the President of the Military Junta, General Augusto Pinochet. The secretary, Mrs. Rebeca Valdebenito, gave him a letter to contact Army Colonel Francisco Saavedra at the Ministry of Defense.

The Colonel, in turn, put Víctor Barrera in contact with the Acting War Auditor and FACh Commander, Luis Marín. Marín took him to Talagante to discuss the case with Carabineros Major Hernández, who requested that Juan Barrera present himself to him to clarify the case.

Thus, the victim decided to travel to Santiago in order to resolve his situation and live without fear. He arrived in Santiago with his family on March 10, 1974, and on March 13, he presented himself to Major Hernández.

Upon learning what had happened to José Barrera, the Major communicated by telephone with Carabineros Lieutenant Gerardo Aravena of Curacaví. He then told him that there were no charges against him and that he should be calm, as he could live without problems.

He arrived at his house around 8:30 p.m. that night, greeted his mother, spent time with his family, and went to bed, stating that he would go to the local Tenencia early in the morning. At approximately 2:00 a.m. on March 14, 1974, a contingent of Carabineros and military personnel arrived at the house, all hooded and heavily armed.

Without showing an arrest warrant and treating the family and the victim violently, and in the presence of his two minor children, they loaded him into a van and took him in the direction of the Curacaví Tenencia.

In the morning, his brother, Víctor Barrera, contacted Major Hernández in Talagante and told him what had happened, to which the officer replied that "it has not been a bad move on my part."

Numerous efforts were made before the same military officials who had been consulted previously, but they told the family that the case was closed. The victim's father went to the Minister of the Interior, General Oscar Bonilla, who assured him of his son's safety.

Also, through the Committee for Cooperation for Peace, contact was made with Major Hernández, who claimed that the victim had no charges against him in the Carabineros and that his arrest was an action by the Army. The truth is that from that moment on, his family never heard anything more about José Barrera, who remains in the status of forcibly disappeared.

Of the five executed at Cuesta Barriga on September 16, 1973, the body of Nicolás Gárate was not found, nor was his death certified, and he remains in the status of forcibly disappeared, just like Barrera Barrera.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On March 16, 1974, an Amparo appeal was filed before the Santiago Court of Appeals.

On August 17, 1976, a complaint was filed for the kidnapping of José Barrera, which was entered into the Casablanca Criminal Court under case file 17.844. On August 24, 1976, the judge declared himself incompetent to hear the case and referred the records to the II Military Court, which necessitated the filing of a new complaint before the 1st Military Prosecutor's Office, which was entered under case file N°246-78 on September 9, 1977.

On October 11, 1978, the case was definitively dismissed by virtue of the Amnesty Law of April 1978 (D.L. N°2.191). The resolution could not be appealed because the case proceedings were carried out in "times of war," therefore the Ordinary Courts lacked jurisdiction, according to the Military Judge.

Subsequently, on March 14, 1979, a criminal complaint for kidnapping and attempted homicide of José Barrera Barrera was filed before the Casablanca Criminal Court; case file N°19.991, for which there are no records of its processing.

Mr. Juan Antonio Barrera Barrera states in the criminal complaint filed for the attempted homicide and subsequent kidnapping of his son, José Barrera Barrera, that he was detained on September 14, 1973, by 4 Carabineros commanded by Lieutenant Gerardo Aravena Longa, of the Curacaví Tenencia, to whose facilities he was taken.

On the night of September 16, José Barrera was removed from the barracks along with other detainees and transported to Cuesta Barriga. There, at the place called "Agua del Peumo," all the prisoners, including Nicolás Gárate and Enrique Venegas, were forced to descend from the vehicle transporting them and were led toward the side of the hill that borders the road, where an abandoned and semi-destroyed shed exists.

Once at the indicated shed, the detainees were placed with their backs to the wall and their faces illuminated with flashlights, as there was absolute darkness in the area, and the Carabineros proceeded to machine-gun the detainees.

Miraculously, the two detainees who were at both ends, José Guillermo Barrera Barrera and Patricio Venegas Santibáñez, did not die. Nicolás Gárate did not die instantly either, but because he complained aloud about the wounds received, he was "finished off" by the officer or chief who commanded the "firing squad." Once the police withdrew from the place, the two survivors were able to get up and flee, heading toward the Rinconada de Maipú sector and then to a sector called "Casas Viejas," where they were assisted by different people, and José Guillermo was able to notify one of his brothers of his situation, who assisted him and took him to Santiago. Subsequently, once José Barrera had recovered from his wounds, in the month of February 1974, his family spoke with Colonel Saavedra at the Ministry of Defense and explained what had happened. This officer put him in contact with another man named Marín, who worked at the Ministry of Defense, who personally took Víctor Barrera, José Guillermo's brother, to Talagante, where the Carabineros Superiority with jurisdiction over Curacaví apparently operated, where he interviewed a Major named Hernández, who in turn requested that José Guillermo Barrera present himself to him as soon as possible. On March 13, 1974, José Guillermo appeared before Major Hernández in Talagante in the company of his parents and his brother Víctor. After hearing the account, the officer called Curacaví by telephone, where he spoke with Lieutenant Aravena Longa in the presence of José Guillermo and his family, asking him if there were any charges against the survivor, assuring those present after the conversation that there were no charges and that Barrera Barrera could return safely and calmly to his home, presenting himself to the Curacaví Tenencia to report his arrival. That same day, the entire family group moved to their home in Curacaví. However, in the early hours of March 14, 5 hooded people, wearing Carabineros and military uniforms, carrying war helmets and armed with machine guns, appeared at the home and took José Guillermo Barrera Barrera away to an unknown destination; he has been missing ever since.

The other survivor of "Cuesta Barriga," Mr. Enrique Patricio Venegas Santibáñez, had better luck. In a criminal complaint filed for the crimes of attempted homicide and serious injuries, he states that he was detained on September 12 by police officers from the Curacaví Tenencia, to where he was taken after receiving a violent beating.

In that facility, he was intensely interrogated and tortured, and finally, with his hands and feet tied, he was thrown into a room that was used at that time to store barley and fodder for animals, remaining there for two days, at the end of which he was taken from his confinement and several Carabineros proceeded to cut his hair with a kitchen knife.

At that moment, he was able to verify that numerous residents of the town of Curacaví were being held as detainees in the police unit, among whom he remembers Justo Joaquín Mendoza Santibáñez, the witness's half-brother; Mr.

Jorge Toro; a person named Manzo; Guillermo Barrera Barrera; and Nicolás Gárate. On September 16, after being forced to clean the police facility, all the detainees were forced to line up and pose to be photographed, a task entrusted to the Curacaví photographer, Jaime Cabrera.

The people photographed on that occasion were 18 (the witness attaches a copy to the Court). Subsequently, that same day, September 16, at 11:30 p.m., along with six other detainees—his stepbrother Justo Joaquín Mendoza Santibáñez, who suffered from mental retardation, Nicolás Gárate, José Guillermo Barrera Barrera, Edmundo Manzo, Jorge Toro, and Jorge Yáñez—they were removed from the facility to be transferred, as they were informed, to the "Estadio Nacional," a place that at that time was used as a camp for political prisoners.

For the transfer, they were distributed in two vehicles, a gray pickup truck and a green jeep owned by a local company, and guarded by police officers, they departed in the direction of Santiago. Upon passing in front of the Carabineros highway control, the officers in charge of that place asked their guards "if they were carrying meat for the slaughterhouse," to which the jailers answered affirmatively amidst jokes and laughter.

Upon reaching the summit of Cuesta Barriga, they were forced to descend from the vehicles amidst insults, shouts, and fierce punishment; they climbed up to the ruins of a house where the 7 prisoners were placed with their backs to the wall, being illuminated with flashlights at the moment that 5 police officers positioned themselves in front and, at an order from the Lieutenant, fired their machine guns at the group.

The complainant recounts in the document: "I did not feel fear at any time. I felt something hot burning me, entering through my right leg, a little above the ankle, causing me great pain and forcing me to double over until I fell to the ground. The others fell executed beside me.

When the roar of the gunfire ended, our executioners approached and illuminated our faces with a flashlight again, since the place was completely dark. I felt someone clutching my jacket, and I was able to verify that it was 'Ñico' Gárate.

One of the murderers said aloud that there was one left alive, while he illuminated Gárate. The Lieutenant approached and proceeded to empty his revolver into the head of the dying man, which exploded with the impacts, blood spraying in various directions and a large part of it falling on my face.

Subsequently, to say goodbye, they emptied their machine guns again into the bodies, considering their macabre task fulfilled and finished.

When I had the conviction that the police had withdrawn from the place (I heard the vehicles leave and before that their voices fading away), I slowly felt my body to check the wounds they had inflicted on me, verifying with no small surprise and gratitude to God that I only had a wound in my right leg.

I understood that my salvation was due exclusively to a miracle. I thought that all the remaining prisoners were dead. By touch, I found the body of my brother Justo Joaquín Mendoza Santibáñez, verified his death, and closed his eyes.

At the same time, I thought that I had to survive my situation and seek protection to report the crime of which we had been victims." The way in which the witness managed to leave the place has already been described in the previous testimony.

His spouse, Ofelia Rojas Maturana, along with judicial actions, carried out countless procedures in regular detention centers and inquiries to authorities. In 1975, she was threatened not to continue the search; faced with the possibility that her minor children would be left without a mother, she was absent from Curacaví for more than 10 years. She traveled north to the home of relatives.

Source: Corporation report

The Human Rights Committee of this city and other groups, among which is the Sociology of the Body Research Nucleus of the Department of Sociology of the Faculty of Social Sciences, inaugurated the stone that will keep alive the memory of the day when seven residents of Curacaví were murdered against a wall with point-blank shots.

On September 16, 1973, Segundo Nicolás Garate Torres (28), Jorge Gustavo Gómez Retamales (28), Justo Joaquín Mendoza Santibáñez (23), Gastón Reimundo Manzo Santibáñez (34), Juan Manuel Toro Toro (30), and Juan Guillermo Barrera Barrera were detained in Curacaví as political prisoners.

On April 2, 2011, the Memorial for the Forcibly Disappeared and Political Executions was erected, located at the former Curacaví Carabineros Tenencia, so that the Chilean people do not forget what happened that day.

The initiative was carried out by the Human Rights Committee of this city and the Sociology of the Body Research Nucleus of the Department of Sociology of the Faculty of Social Sciences, among other groups.

The former Carabineros Tenencia was a place of political imprisonment and torture where several citizens were deprived of their freedom and the majority were executed. Therefore, the installation of this memorial is a historical symbol since it "seeks not to forget what happened to those who were kidnapped and killed in that place," commented Kerly Fuentes Mucherl, a member of the Sociology of the Body Nucleus of the Department of Sociology of FACSO, University of Chile.

She added: "In the place where the Tenencia was located, it is intended to carry out activities for the Curacaví community, such as: educational and interactive workshops, the installation of a community library, and providing medical and judicial attention." The implementation of the set of educational and cultural activities at the former Carabineros Tenencia will be in charge of the Curacaví Human Rights Committee and the Leftist Youth Movement of this city (MOJIC).

Simultaneously—commented the sociologist—the research line "Memories/Punished Bodies" of the Sociology of the Body Nucleus will carry out a study on the logics of punishment practiced on those who were kidnapped in this Tenencia during the years 1973-1977. "This differentiates this place from others," she noted.

In fact, Leopoldo Montenegro, of the Londres 38 Corporation, considered the possibility of thinking about recognition for other buildings where Chilean citizens were also tortured and killed during the dictatorship era.

Around 60 people were present at the site, among whom were relatives of the forcibly disappeared, who inaugurated the memorial, on which the names of their loved ones were inscribed. Also present was former political prisoner Juana Aguilera Jaramillo, who currently is part of the Ethics Commission Against Torture.

Source: uchile.cl 11/4/2011

Date: 04-11-2011

16-Year Prison Sentences Given to Former Military Personnel for Crimes in Cuesta Barriga

Ruling by visiting minister Joaquín Billard affects retired Army Lieutenant Carlos Figueroa Silva and retired Carabineros Colonel Gerardo Aravena Longa.

Retired Army Lieutenant Carlos Figueroa Silva and retired Carabineros Colonel Gerardo Aravena Longa were sentenced to 16 years in prison as authors of the crime of qualified homicide against five opponents of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship at Cuesta Barriga, in Curacaví.

In his ruling, visiting minister Joaquín Billard establishes that the crimes were carried out between September 1973 and March 1974, when the military personnel kidnapped and executed by firing squad José Barrera Barrera, Segundo Gárate Torres, Jorge Toro Toro, Justo Mendoza Santibáñez, and Jorge Yáñez.

The judge also decreed compensation of $30 million, a sum that the Treasury must pay to Víctor Barrera, brother of one of the victims, based on the moral damage the family has suffered, which "must be compensated and regulated," the ruling states.

The resolution was reached after "30 years of impunity," highlighted the plaintiff lawyer Nelson Caucoto. "(The ruling) comes to establish justice; this is an emblematic case of the Curacaví area, where five residents of that sector were kidnapped and murdered," he added.

On September 14, 1973, a group of Carabineros detained the four victims, telling them they would be transferred to the Estadio Nacional, a situation that never occurred, as they were driven to "Cuesta Barriga," where they were executed by firing squad.

Despite the shots, Barrera was the only one who survived and managed to remain hidden for some months, after which he contacted his brother to tell him what had happened. The brother went to the Ministry of Defense to clarify the situation.

The authorities communicated with Colonel Aravena, who indicated that there were no charges against him, so he could go home calmly, which materialized on the night of March 14, 1974.

However, at two in the morning, while he was sleeping in his room, a group of uniformed men arrived at the property to detain him and take him to the Curacaví Carabineros Tenencia, where his trail was lost.

Source: July 17, 2007 El Mostrador

Date: 07-17-2007

Supreme Court Sets Hearing for Next Wednesday. Pinochet's Family and Defense Oppose Exams if He Is Stripped of Immunity

Conducting exams after the retired general is stripped of immunity—the scenario that most suits the Government—is unfeasible for the lifetime senator's lawyers, because it would maintain suspicions against him and prevent proving his innocence.

The defense for lifetime senator Augusto Pinochet presented a document yesterday to suspend the hearing of the appeal regarding the stripping of immunity in the Supreme Court, so the case proceedings will begin next week.

At the same time, today the plenary will analyze the request of the plaintiff party to have two files and a secret notebook that visiting minister Juan Guzmán Tapia possesses, which were not seen in the Santiago Court of Appeals, annexed to the process in the highest court.

Meanwhile, yesterday, the number of complaints against Pinochet reached 130 with the presentation of three new libels for the disappearances of José Guillermo Barrera and César Negrete Peña and another for the execution of Guillermo Vallejos.

Sources close to the defense assured La Tercera yesterday that the strategy will be to insist on conducting physical and mental exams for their client, but only before the Supreme Court rules on the stripping of immunity "as a measure to better resolve." What the defense wants to avoid at all costs is for Pinochet to be declared insane or demented, the only condition established by the penal procedure code for a defendant to avoid his responsibilities.

The Government, however, believes that the court could avoid this point by reinterpreting the law to accept physical exams—and not just mental ones—in accordance with the concept of "due process."

Source: TERCERA - July 5, 2000

Date: 07-05-2000

CARLOS ZELAYA: REMAINS OF FORCIBLY DISAPPEARED IDENTIFIED AFTER 47 YEARS WITHOUT KNOWING HIS LOCATION

The skeletal remains of Carlos were found on March 25, 2018, in the "Hacienda San José" condominium, Curacaví commune. After a genetic examination in an Austrian laboratory, it was determined that the remain—a left tibia—corresponded to Zelaya.

This Friday, the minister in extraordinary visitation for human rights violation cases of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes, confirmed the identification of the remains of a forcibly disappeared person. It is Carlos Hugo Zelaya Suazo, detained on February 7, 1974, at his workplace, a warehouse at the Carafi vineyard.

Via telematics, Cifuentes informed the fact to Zelaya's children: Beatriz, María, Orlanda, Mario, José, Carlos, Juan, Erasmo, and Luis Zelaya López. The skeletal remains—a tibia—were found on March 25, 2018, in the "Hacienda San José" condominium, Curacaví commune.

In the first instance, the remains were taken to a laboratory in the United States. There, they identified that the skeletal remain corresponded to a fragment of a left tibia, which belonged to a subject of indeterminate sex who died between the years 1965 and 2014, reports Radio Bío Bío.

In a second instance, two bone samples were sent to the laboratory of the Institute of Legal Medicine of the Medical University of Innsbruck (GMI), in Austria. After a genetic examination, it was possible to determine, with a probability of 99.99999%, that the bone fragment belonged to Carlos Hugo Zelaya Suazo.

Zelaya was detained by a military patrol led by Lieutenant Carlos Dionisio Figueroa Silva (deceased). Some of his other members were soldiers Luis Armando Elgueta Rivas and Eugenio Humberto Vásquez Miranda, of the "Coraceros" regiment of Viña del Mar.

On the night of the day of his detention, Carlos was executed, along with two other people, with rifle shots fired by the three soldiers mentioned above.

Currently, Elgueta and Vásquez are in the status of accused. They are awaiting the first-instance sentence.

JOSÉ GUILLERMO BARRERA BARRERA

On March 14, 1974, José Guillermo BARRERA BARRERA, 30 years old, who was a leader of the Patriotic Movement of Transport (Mopare) in Curacaví, disappeared. He had been detained in the month of September 1973 along with other people by members of the Curacaví Carabineros Tenencia, being taken to Cuesta de Barriga, where all the detainees died executed by firing squad, except for José Barrera and another person, who were only wounded and managed to flee the place once their executioners moved away.

After that, the victim went with his spouse and two children to the north of the country. While working in the north, his brother called him to tell him that he had spoken with various Government authorities who assured him that there was no problem for him to return.

In order to have more security, José Barrera interviewed the Commissioner of the area in Talagante, who reiterated that there was no inconvenience for him to return to Curacaví with his entire family. In view of this, he returned on the date initially indicated, but that same night, Carabineros from the Curacaví Tenencia and Army personnel detained him at his home.

Since then, nothing more has been known about the whereabouts of José Barrera.

The Commission is convinced that his disappearance was the work of State agents, who thus violated his human rights.

Source: memoriacuracavi.cl, September 16, 2018

POSSIBLE HR VICTIM: DISCOVERY OF BONES IN CURACAVÍ COULD PUT AN END TO A MYSTERIOUS CRIME

José Guillermo Barrera Barrera was sentenced to death twice. First, he received bursts of machine-gun fire from a firing squad led by the then-lieutenant Gerardo Alejandro Aravena Longa at Cuesta Barriga, but he survived.

He played dead and remained hidden for a time in the north of Chile, but when he returned to his home in Curacaví in March 1974, he was detained again and they made him disappear. A story that 45 years later could have its final chapter.

Source: curacavidigital.cl, December 12, 2018