José Ignacio Beltrán Meliqueo, married, father of 6, agricultural worker, was detained on October 15, 1973, around 3:00 PM, by Carabineros in the town square of Lautaro. That day, he left his home heading to an office of INDAP (Institute for Agricultural Development) to pick up some wheat seeds.

While in the Lautaro town square, in front of the Regiment, he was apprehended by Carabineros Domingo Campos Collao and Enrique Ferrier Valeze and taken to the Lautaro Police Station. A witness to the detention was José Rafael Meliqueo Ancatén, who went to inform the victim's wife, Mrs.

María Celinda Melihuén Mellado, of what had happened. Upon learning of the events, the spouse went the following day to the Lautaro Police Station, where she was informed that he had indeed been held there, but after being interrogated, he had been released.

However, the victim never returned home, and his whereabouts remained unknown. It is necessary to note that on October 4, 1973, his cousin José Andrés Meliquén Aguilera and a friend, Sergio del Carmen Navarro Schifferli, were detained at their respective homes in the city of Lautaro by the same Carabineros who detained the victim.

José A. Meliquén Aguilera and Sergio Navarro Schifferli, along with José Ignacio Beltrán Meliqueo, remain forcibly disappeared.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On August 13, 1990, Mrs. Ida del Carmen Meliquén Quilodrán filed a complaint for alleged disappearance before the Criminal Court of Lautaro regarding her stepbrother José Andrés Meliquén Aguilera, her cousin José Ignacio Beltrán Meliquén, and Sergio Navarro Schifferli, registered under No. 37.507.

The Court dispatched a broad order to investigate to the Investigations Prefecture of the Lautaro Police Station. This request was answered by that agency on September 17, 1990, attaching the extrajudicial statements provided by the victims' relatives and the apprehenders.

Mrs. Ida Meliquén Aguilera, in addition to ratifying what was stated in the complaint for alleged disappearance, added that, according to her father, Mr. José Santos Meliquén Levinao, one week after the detention of José Andrés Meliquén Aguilera (deceased), he stated that he had recognized the pickup truck belonging to Elías Segundo Cuevas Aldea, which was being driven by the owner himself.

He also saw Carabineros Domingo Campos and Enrique Ferrier, as he was able to see them "with bare faces," without ski masks or hoods, and could recognize them because they had visited the Meliquén family home on repeated occasions.

Mrs. Hilda Teresa Morales Jaque, spouse of José Andrés Meliquén Aguilera, reports that on October 4, 1973, she was with her husband at their home when there was a knock at the door. When she asked who it was, they replied "the police" and said they needed to speak with her husband.

She opened the door and found an armed individual wearing a Carabinero uniform, covering his face with a ski mask. He forced the victim out of the house with his hands behind his neck, making him walk toward the road.

They then saw about twelve more individuals, all armed, wearing Carabinero uniforms and hoods. They took José Meliquén toward the road where a yellow pickup truck was waiting for them, the driver of which was recognized by Mrs.

Hilda Morales Jaque as Elías Segundo Jaque Cuevas. Years later, Mrs. Hilda Morales continues, she learned from neighbors that Carabineros Domingo Cuevas and Enrique Ferrier of the Tres Esquinas station in Lautaro had participated in the detention and subsequent disappearance of her spouse, "since whenever they got drunk, they would tell it as an anecdote, laughing at what happened." A witness to these events was also one of Meliquén Aguilera's children, Domingo Benedicto, only 12 years old at the time, who was intercepted by these hooded uniformed men while leaving for school and forced to return to his home. Carlos Antonio Navarro Schifferli also reiterates what was stated in the complaint for alleged disappearance, noting in his statement that, based on rumors, he suspected that the body of his brother, as well as those of the other people detained with him, had been buried on a farm owned by Mr. Pedro Roussel, located 19 kilometers from the city of Lautaro. He notes that on one occasion, at night, he entered the farm and found a water well, but lacking the proper tools, he could do nothing. He also learned, Carlos Navarro Schifferli continues, that the father of José Andrés, Meliquén Levinao, had gone to the same place and found bodies, but not that of his son, and returned them to the well. Domingo Antonio Campos Collao, for his part, only confirms that it was the Lautaro Police Station, but denies having had any participation in the detention and disappearance of these three victims. It was not possible to locate Carabinero Enrique Ferrier Valeze, as according to his daughter, he was in the Republic of Argentina and she did not know his return date. When consulted, the National Headquarters of Immigration and International Police reported that he had no record of leaving the country. The Investigations Prefecture of the Lautaro Police Station further states that they interviewed Mrs. Trinidad Gutiérrez Lastarria, spouse of Elías Segundo Cuevas Aldea, who passed away in March 1987. She confirmed that in 1973, he did own a light yellow Chevrolet C-10 pickup truck, but she had no knowledge regarding her husband's possible participation in the disappearance of the victims. The Investigating Officer in charge of the proceedings stated in the report that he had gone with Carlos Navarro Schifferli to the site where the latter assumed there were bodies, establishing that the place exists but without being able to materially verify the certainty of the location of any bodies. In a statement given before the Court on November 9, 1990, Mrs. María Celinda Melihuén Mellado, wife of José Ignacio Beltrán Meliqueo, ratified everything she knew regarding the detention of her spouse, adding that through comments from neighbors, she had learned that her husband's apprehenders were Carabineros Domingo Campos Collao and Enrique Ferrier Valeze, and that the victim had been killed and presumably buried in a pit located on Mr. Pedro Roussel's property. On November 20, 1990, Enrique Ferrier Valeze also appeared before the Court, acknowledging only that he was a Carabinero officer and that in 1973 he worked at the Lautaro Police Station as a driver, without having known any of the three victims and having had no participation in the investigated events. On November 7, 1990, the Regional Head of the Legal Medical Service of the Ninth Region informed the Court that José Andrés Meliquén Aguilera, José Ignacio Beltrán Meliqueo, and Sergio Navarro Schifferli did not appear in their records. The report notes that a large number of unidentified bodies had entered that Service and had undergone the corresponding autopsies, so it was suggested that physical details of each victim be provided to assist in their identification. On November 13, 1990, the Temuco Investigations Prefecture, Immigration and International Police Section, responded, reporting that none of these three victims had any travel records. On October 31, 1990, the Judge ordered the constitution of the Court at the Pedro Roussel property in order to inspect the pit and proceed with the excavation, appointing an expert anthropologist to analyze the materials extracted and report their nature to the Court. On December 6, 1990, the Court was constituted at the Santa Herminda farm to proceed with the excavations at the site. The work concluded on this date without yielding positive results; that is, the bodies of José A. Meliquén Aguilera, José I. Beltrán Meliqueo, and Sergio Navarro Schifferli were not found, nor were there any human remains there. On February 14, 1990, the summary was declared closed and a temporary dismissal was decreed, a resolution that was rejected on March 20 of the same year by the Court of Appeals of Temuco, as it considered the investigation incomplete, and it ordered the reopening of the summary. The Court ordered, among other measures, that "an authorized photocopy of the relevant sections referring to José A. Meliquén Aguilera, José I. Beltrán Meliqueo, and Sergio Navarro Schifferli from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report be added" to the case file, and that the Commission be officially requested to send any information they might have collected regarding the named individuals; to officially request the same from the Vicaría de la Solidaridad; to request a report from the General Directorate of Carabineros to provide the names of those who made up the staff of the Quillén, Dollinco, or Tres Esquinas stations and the Lautaro Police Station, as well as the service records of officers Domingo Campos Collao and Enrique Ferrier Valeze; and to conduct confrontations between Mrs. Hilda Teresa Morales Jaque, wife of José Andrés Meliquén Aguilera, and the aforementioned former Carabinero officers. This proceeding was carried out on June 7, 1991. The complainant ratified what she had previously stated before the Court, to the effect that her husband's apprehenders wore Carabinero uniforms and covered their faces with a mask, so she could not see their faces, and that through comments from various people, she learned that Carabineros Campos and Ferrier were in the group. For their part, both Domingo Campos Collao and Enrique Ferrier Valeze again denied having had any participation in the detention of the three victims. On June 21, 1991, the complainant Ida Meliquén Beltrán submitted a written request for proceedings and provided information to the Court. In it, she states that she was informed that a farmer residing in Lautaro had allegedly found her brother, José Meliquén Aguilera, dead and floating in the river in 1973, and that out of charity, he buried him somewhere in the vicinity of the same city, finding the body of another person whom he did not know, whom he also proceeded to bury. She notes in the same document that the Investigations Police Inspector was informed by a man named Emilio Campos that in 1973 he found three bodies of unknown persons, whom he had buried. Even though the complete file of this case is not available and it remains in process, the fact is that José Ignacio Beltrán Meliqueo remains to this day in the status of forcibly disappeared.

Source: Vicaría de la Solidaridad

In the indictment, the visiting minister identifies retired Carabineros Jorge Enrique Schweizer Gómez and Domingo Campos Collao as perpetrators of the crime, classified as a crime against humanity, committed against agricultural worker José Ignacio Beltrán Meliqueo.

The extraordinary visiting minister for human rights violation cases in the jurisdictions of Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Coyhaique, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, issued indictment number 79 of the cases he is processing and filed charges against two officials of the Lautaro Police Station at the time of the events for their responsibility in the crime of qualified kidnapping.

The illicit act was perpetrated starting October 15, 1973, in the commune of Lautaro. In the indictment (case file 45.355), the visiting minister identifies retired Carabineros Jorge Enrique Schweizer Gómez and Domingo Campos Collao as perpetrators of the crime, classified as a crime against humanity, committed against agricultural worker José Ignacio Beltrán Meliqueo.

To an unknown destination During the investigation stage of the case, Minister Mesa Latorre managed to gather evidence to establish: "That on October 15, 1973, José Ignacio Beltrán Meliqueo, 46 years old, married, father of 6, agricultural worker, with no political affiliation, left his home located in the Manuel Levinao Community, in the commune of Lautaro, toward the office of the Institute for Agricultural Development (INDAP) in the same city, to pick up some seeds.

A witness to this event was Segundo Meliqueo Levinao (deceased as recorded on p. 1.404, Vol. IV), the victim's uncle, who notified and informed the family through his son José Rafael Meliqueo Ancaten (deceased as recorded on p. 1.405, Vol.

IV) that in the afternoon of that day, while he was in the Plaza de Armas of Lautaro, José Ignacio Beltrán Meliqueo was detained by Carabinero officials Domingo Antonio Campos Collao and Enrique Ferrier Valeze, of the 1st Lautaro Police Station, and was taken to the police unit." The resolution adds that: "With this information, his spouse María Celinda Melihuen Mellado went the following day to the aforementioned police unit, where she was informed that José Ignacio Beltrán Meliqueo had indeed been detained, but had later been released.

On the third day, and due to the insistence of the family, officials at the station accepted some food, telling her 'this is the last thing your husband will eat' (as recorded in a simple copy of the report of the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, p. 6, Vol.

I)." "The widow of José Ignacio Beltrán Meliqueo was seen at the Lautaro Police Station asking for her spouse by Carabinero Domingo Antonio Campos Collao himself (as recorded in the statement on pp. 83-84, Vol.

I). In a conversation held after the events by the victim's spouse with José Manuel Beni Uribe (deceased as recorded on p. 1.199, Vol. IV), a Carabinero belonging to the jurisdiction of the Lautaro Police Station at the time (as recorded in the statement of Elizabeth Myriam Agurto Romero on p. 1.217, Vol.

IV), he told her that her husband had been detained for 6 days, after which he had been taken away by some Carabinero officials whom he did not identify, to an unknown destination, as recorded in the statements of María Celinda Melihuen Mellado, pp. 67-68 (Vol.

I); p. 85 (Vol. I); pp. 361-362 (Vol. II); p. 725 (Vol. II); p. 945 (Vol. III); and of Carlos Mariano Beltrán Melihuen, pp. 181-182 (Vol. I); p. 185 (Vol. I); pp. 1.032-1.033 (Vol. III)." "That in the year 1993 –it continues– as a result of an investigation, case file 25.989 of the Lautaro Civil Court, regarding the illegal burial of two bodies discovered in section 23 of the Lautaro cemetery, one of the bodies found there was identified as José Ignacio Beltrán Meliqueo.

After the identification at the time, the body was handed over to his relatives, an occasion on which the widow and two of her children went to the Lautaro Civil Court, where they met Carabinero Domingo Antonio Campos Collao.

Upon being confronted by the victim's relatives, he told them 'that he had killed their father' (as recorded in the testimony of Carlos Mariano Beltrán Meliqueo on p. 185, Vol. I), 'that he would kill him again if necessary' (as recorded in the statement of Luis Nicolás Beltrán Meliqueo, on p. 1.030, Vol.

III), after which they held a wake and buried José Ignacio Beltrán Meliqueo in the cemetery of the Manuel Levinao Community (as inferred from case file 39.717, the file of which was brought for review, copies of which were added to these records on pp. 642-803, Vol.

II)." "That in 2017, the Court ordered the exhumation (on p. 952, Vol. III) of the victim's remains. The Court constituted itself at the Manuel Levinao Community cemetery on August 2, 2017, with personnel from the Special Human Rights Unit of the Legal Medical Service of Santiago, personnel from the PRAIS Program of the Araucanía Sur Health Service, personnel from the Law 19.123 Continuation Program of the Ministry of the Interior, and relatives of the victim, in order to perform the exhumation of the remains of José Ignacio Beltrán Meliqueo, so that thanatological examinations could be performed as recorded on pp. 973-974 (Vol. III); the results of which were delivered on March 28, 2018, indicating the genetic incompatibility of the DNA of José Ignacio Beltrán Meliqueo's relatives and the exhumed remains, as recorded on pp. 1091-1105 (Vol. III). Therefore, since October 15, 1973 (the date he was detained by Carabineros), the whereabouts and what happened to José Ignacio Beltrán Meliqueo remain unknown to this day," it concludes.

Source: pjud.cl 12/17/2021 Date: 12-17-2021

Retired Carabinero prosecuted for kidnapping of agricultural worker in Lautaro in 1973

The extraordinary visiting minister for human rights violation cases in the jurisdictions of Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Coyhaique, Álvaro Claudio Mesa Latorre, issued indictment No. 125 in the cases he is processing and charged two retired Carabinero officers for their responsibility in the crime of qualified kidnapping of agricultural worker José Ignacio Beltrán Meliqueo.

The illicit act was perpetrated starting October 15, 1973, in the commune of Lautaro. In the resolution (case file 45.355), the extraordinary visiting minister issued an indictment against the former police officers Jorge Enrique Schweizer Gómez and Domingo Antonio Campos Collao , as perpetrators of the crime. "Given the merits, from which it is clear that the freedom of the accused constitutes a danger to the safety of society; given the merits of the background information, the nature of the crime, the assigned penalty, the age of the accused

JORGE ENRIQUE SCHWEIZER GÓMEZ

, that is, 96 years old, and the health situation in which the country finds itself, it is more appropriate for the purposes of the procedure –for now– to decree the personal precautionary measure of total house arrest , (...) a precautionary measure whose compliance will be monitored by the unit of the Carabineros de Chile closest to his home," the resolution states.

Likewise, Minister Mesa ordered that: "(...) given the merits of the background information, from which it is clear that the freedom of the accused DOMINGO ANTONIO CAMPOS COLLAO constitutes a danger to the safety of society; also taking into account the probable legal sanction for the crime in which he is attributed participation; and having seen the provisions of article 363 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, preventive detention is decreed, a decree that remains suspended in consideration of the fact that the accused is currently incarcerated in the Punta Peuco Penitentiary Center, serving a sentence in case file No. 45.363 of the Lautaro Civil Court." During the investigation stage of the case, Minister Mesa Latorre managed to establish the following facts: "José Ignacio Beltrán Meliqueo, 46 years old, married, agricultural worker, with no known political affiliation, was detained on October 15, 1973, while he was in the Lautaro town square, by officials of the Lautaro Police Station, including Domingo Antonio Campos Collao and Enrique Ferrier Valeze (deceased), and was subsequently taken to said police unit. A witness to the event was Mr. Segundo Meliqueo (deceased), the victim's uncle, who sent his son José Rafael Meliqueo Ancatén to inform his spouse María Celinda Melihuén Mellado about what had happened. The spouse went the following day to the Lautaro Police Station to ask about José Ignacio Beltrán Meliqueo, and was informed by an official of that unit that José Ignacio Beltrán had indeed been in the facilities, but that after being interrogated, he had been released. On the third day, due to the spouse's insistence, station officials accepted food for the victim, indicating that it was the last time her husband would eat. From that date until 1993, there was no news of him, the year in which, as a result of an investigation carried out by the Lautaro Civil Court in case file No. 25.989 regarding the illegal burial of two bodies found in section No. 23 of the Lautaro cemetery, it was possible to identify one of the bodies as José Beltrán Meliqueo. After his identification, his remains were handed over to his relatives and buried in the Manuel Levinao Community Cemetery. In 2018, following proceedings ordered by the Visiting Minister, DNA tests were performed on the remains and the relatives of José Ignacio Beltrán Meliqueo, which, after the results, were incompatible, meaning that from October 15, 1973, to date, the fate of José Ignacio Beltrán Meliqueo remains unknown."

Source: tiempo21.cl 01/16/2021 Date: 01-16-2021