José Ignacio Castro Maldonado, married, father of 9, agricultural worker and leader of the Nuevo Sendero Settlement, a Socialist militant, was detained by a military contingent from the San Bernardo Infantry School on October 16, 1973, at his home and in the presence of his family.

He remains a forcibly disappeared person to this day. That night and into the early morning, during a vast operation carried out by military personnel under the orders of Army Lieutenant Andrés Magaña, 22 people were detained in their homes.

The military personnel acted while wearing field gear or gray uniforms, with a cape of the same color over them; they wore armbands and either black berets or helmets. In some cases, their faces were smeared with soot; in others, they were covered with balaclavas.

They moved in several vehicles, including a red truck with side railings and a jeep. They were all heavily armed and illuminated the rooms with flashlights, preventing the residents from turning on the lights.

The operation began at 01:00 a.m. on October 16 and lasted approximately 4 hours. The people who were detained—all sympathizers of the deposed government and mostly settlers who had participated in the agrarian reform process—were listed on a document carried by the captors.

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' families were forbidden from leaving their homes. The repressive actions 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 military 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 went 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 the brothers Enrique and Samuel Altamiro Lazo Quinteros, the latter's 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, located in the "El Tránsito" Settlement; he had been released after 24 hours of confinement at said Sub-precinct.

This farmer was arrested 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, military personnel from the San Bernardo Infantry School would come to detain the settlers.

The farmers of said settlement who had approached the Sub-precinct and spoken with Sergeant Reyes about their situation had received identical information. Of all the people detained on October 16, 1973, their presence in any detention center remains unknown.

To date, there are no witnesses regarding this. Judicial records indicate that the detainees 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 individuals is part of the repression that took place in Paine after September 11, 1973. (Further information in the case of José Domingo Adasme Núñez).

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

The first efforts made by his wife were aimed at locating his whereabouts in various detention centers. She inquired at the Carabineros stations in Paine and Buin, and visited the prisons in Rancagua, Santiago, Talagante, Melipilla, and Cartagena.

She also inquired at the detention centers of Tejas Verdes, in Valparaíso, and the Estadio Nacional, Estadio Chile, and the Cerro Chena Prisoner Camp. She went to the International Red Cross and the National Secretariat for Detainees (SENDET).

In all these places, the responses were negative. There was no record of his detention, and his body was not registered at the Legal Medical Institute. On March 24, 1974, a mass writ of amparo (habeas corpus) for 131 people was filed before the Santiago Court of Appeals, registered under No. 289-74.

José Ignacio Castro Maldonado was included in it. Authorities were consulted, but it was not possible to establish the specific 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, agreeing to appoint a Visiting Judge (Ministro en Visita Extraordinaria) to conduct 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. Castro Maldonado's relatives were summoned to testify by the Visiting Judge, creating a new record of the circumstances of his 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 Investigating Judge provisionally 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 provisional dismissal.

On March 21, 1975, a complaint for "Presumed Misfortune" (disappearance) was filed before the Maipo-Buin Court for 23 people detained in Paine in October 1973 whose whereabouts were unknown. Among them was José Ignacio Castro Maldonado.

Three months later, María Inés López Ahumada and Teresa Celinda López Moya went to the Court to ratify the complaint. In July, the first investigative steps were ordered, with official requests sent to the National Executive Secretariat for Detainees (SENDET) and the San Bernardo Infantry School, where they stated they had no information regarding the people in question.

The Legal Medical Institute, when consulted, replied that the names of the 23 people did not appear in the index book of incoming corpses. The Court issued a broad order to investigate to the Carabineros and the Investigations police.

The Carabineros limited themselves to taking statements from the two complainants, while the Investigations police, in addition to carrying out a similar procedure to that of the Carabineros, informed the Court that they had made inquiries to "locate and identify the people who apparently wore military uniforms on the day of the events, without favorable results." Without any other measures being ordered, in November 1975, the Court decided to close the summary and definitively dismiss the case: "As no presumptions appear in the summary that the reported facts have been verified." On January 20, 1976, the Rancagua Court of Appeals confirmed the dismissal, establishing that it should be provisional. On March 23, 1977, the case was reopened after a request to that effect presented by the complainants was accepted. 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" (Vol. II, pp. 381-383). The information contained in the Chilean government's report—the complainants added—was contradictory to what that Court had received from the same Legal Medical Institute when consulted. José Ignacio Castro Maldonado was part of the list and was assigned autopsy protocol No. 3348. On March 22, 1977, a complaint for the illegal arrest of Castro Maldonado was filed, and the case was consolidated into file 24005-1. 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 made by high-ranking dignitaries of the Catholic Church to the Supreme Court, so that the Visiting Judge could focus on the cases of forcibly disappeared persons throughout the national territory. Thus, two years after the reopening of the case, upon taking office, Judge Rivas ordered forensic examinations aimed at clarifying this contradiction. In April, he sent an official letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, requesting that he inform the Court regarding 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 Santiago Legal Medical Institute. In May 1979, the Visiting Judge conducted an on-site inspection at the Legal Medical Institute; he requested to be shown the general index of incoming corpses from the second semester of 1973 to the date of the proceeding, verifying that the people whose presumed disappearance was being investigated did not appear in such an index. He also reviewed the book titled "General Index of Autopsy Records," and upon examining the autopsy protocol numbers—which, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs report, were assigned to the people indicated there as having been admitted to the Legal Medical Institute—he found that those protocol numbers referred to unidentified persons, remaining under the designation of "N.N." (John/Jane Doe) due to the lack of epidermis on their hands, and that none of these autopsy protocols appeared as having been identified subsequently. Furthermore, he verified that the "N.N." cases were people who had died after September 11, 1973, due to gunshot wounds, whose deaths had occurred in Santiago and its surroundings. During his inspection at the Legal Medical Institute, its Director, Dr. Claudio Molina Fraga, informed him that, on the occasion of the investigation conducted by the Santiago Court Judge, Mr. Adolfo Bañados, regarding the discovery of bodies in the town of Lonquén, a report had been issued to that Judge regarding the identity of the signature and stamp that appeared at the end of the aforementioned list, and regarding which there were many doubts as to whether the former belonged to Dr. Alfredo Vargas Baeza (R.I.P.) and the latter to the Institute. In that same official letter, information had been provided regarding the possible origin of the discrepancies between the Institute's records and the data contained in the list used by the Chilean government. On that occasion, the Visiting Judge requested a copy of that official letter (Official Letter No. 36 of February 19, 1979), a request that was objected to by the establishment's legal advisor, who stated that the original had been verified as confidential for the other Court, whose file was at that date in the Military Prosecutor's Office, due to the lack of jurisdiction of Visiting Judge Alfredo Bañados. The Visiting Judge, Mr. Juan Rivas C., sent an official letter to the Military Prosecutor's Office (May 1979) to authorize the Legal Medical Institute to provide 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: "I inform you that it is not possible to grant your request for the time being, given the status of the case." Faced with such a response, the Visiting Judge sent an official letter to the Santiago Court of Appeals to have an authorized copy of Official Letter No. 36 sent to him, receiving a negative response that stated: "The full Court of this Tribunal agreed not to grant your request, given that the report referred to belongs to the confidential records of this presidency. Without prejudice to what Judge Bañados may decide." Thus, he had to send an official letter directly to Judge Adolfo Bañados, who would provide a copy of the aforementioned letter. In August 1979, the Commander-in-Chief of the II Army Division and Military Court sent its authorization to the Court for the Legal Medical Institute to deliver a copy of Official Letter 36 to the Visiting Judge, Mr. Juan Rivas. A few days earlier, he had declared himself incompetent to continue investigating case 24005-1, due to the recent creation of the Presidente Aguirre Cerda Court of Appeals, to whose jurisdiction the Buin-Maipo Court belonged. At the moment of his declaration of incompetence, he had established the falsity of the list used by the Chilean agency in its report on the "Current Situation of Human Rights." The investigation continued from August 13, 1979, with Visiting Judge Humberto Espejo, under file 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, would have been reached, who did not deem it necessary to request further information in relation to this process." In May 1980, the Visiting Judge, Mr. Humberto Espejo, by instruction of the Presidente Aguirre Cerda Court of Appeals, sent official letters to the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, communicating that the various records in the process suggested the existence of a possible irregularity in the preparation of a "list of disappeared persons"; he brought this to his attention as it fell under his supervision of the Legal Medical Institute's services. It is necessary to specify that in case file 24005-1 (later 1-79 and 952-80), nine criminal complaints were consolidated against the staff of the San Bernardo Infantry School for the crimes of kidnapping in the cases of José Ignacio Castro Maldonado, Ramón Luis Silva Carreño, Laureano Muñoz Pezoa, Ramiro Antonio Muñoz Peñaloza, Pedro Hernán Pinto Caroca Maldonado, Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda, José Germán Fredes García, and Carlos Gaete López. Five complaints against Colonel Jorge Dawling Santa María for the cover-up of the crime of illegal arrest in the cases of Jorge Hernán Muñoz Peñaloza, Carlos Enrique Lazo Quinteros, 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 members of the San Bernardo Infantry School. A complaint against 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. (Further information regarding this last complaint in the case of Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza). Regarding the accused Colonel Jorge Dawling Santa María, who in 1979 served as Director of the San Bernardo Infantry School, an official letter was sent to him on September 26, 1978, requesting all information he had from his department regarding the personnel of that unit who served in the months of September and October 1973. The response did not arrive. The Court reported such behavior to the Court of Appeals, which on November 14, 1978, resolved in Plenary that the aforementioned Colonel should abide by what is prescribed in Article 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 was no longer part of the institution. On February 7, 1979, in a new official letter, Colonel Meirelles was requested to provide 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 Presidente Aguirre Cerda Court of Appeals to whose territory the case belonged, the official letters were diversified in order to identify those who participated in the operations that occurred in Paine and its surroundings. An official letter was sent to the Minister of National Defense, not only to inquire about the aforementioned personnel but also to request the appearance of Colonel Dawling Santa María, Army 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 from October 16, René del R. Maureira Gajardo, he denied knowing the members of that family, despite the fact that they affirmed having 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 and affirmed 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 Directorship of the School. Prior to that, its Director had been Colonel Leonel Köning Altterman, who gave written orders regarding who was admitted as a detainee. 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 (file 1-79) attributed the authorship of the arrests to personnel of the Armed Forces and Carabineros from both the San Bernardo Infantry School and the Paine Sub-precinct. On March 6, 1980, the Court revoked the incompetence and ordered measures 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 held the rank of Brigadier General and, in accordance with current regulations, must testify in writing. The Minister sent a wrongly formulated questionnaire, which gave the Brigadier General the opportunity to respond: "in relation to questions 2 through 13, I have no information to provide." On June 5, 1980, Judge Espejo declared himself incompetent for the second time, basing his resolution on exactly the...

in the same terms as the previous one. There was an appeal, and on July 25, 1980, the Court of Appeals revoked the resolution and ordered the Visiting Minister to draft a new questionnaire to be answered by General Dawling Santa María, based on the accusations made in the complaints filed against him, which are part of the proceedings.

In July 1980, the Court received an official response from Brigadier General Dawling Santa María, the content of which provided no background information, arguing that by 1977 there were no longer any written records at the Infantry School regarding military maneuvers and operations.

His official letter concluded by stating that the background information for case 1-79 had been brought to the attention of the Army General Command, since the transcribed complaints imputed to him participation as an accessory to "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, a jurisdictional challenge was invoked.

On May 24, 1982, the case was totally and temporarily dismissed, "notwithstanding that the investigation is exhausted, the perpetration of the facts denounced on page 1, which imputes personnel of the Armed Forces and Order subject to military jurisdiction, is not fully proven."

That resolution was appealed and revoked in March 1984 by the Court Martial, which ordered proceedings aimed at completing the investigation. During 1985, at least 26 officers and non-commissioned officers who were serving 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 at the Chena detention camp, as well as knowing of its existence.

On November 22, the Military Prosecutor of the II Military Prosecutor's Office, Enrique Ibarra Chamorro, intervened on behalf of the Military Public Ministry and requested the application of the Amnesty Law, D.L. 2191-78.

The Military Judge dismissed the case totally and definitively on the grounds that the criminal liability of the persons allegedly accused of the denounced acts had been extinguished. That resolution was revoked in February 1992 by the Court Martial; this Tribunal 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 Tribunal, since in September 1991, in case 4449-AF of the 22nd Criminal Court of Santiago, the exhumation of all remains of unidentified persons buried between September and December 1973 in the aforementioned patio at the General Cemetery had already been carried out. As of December 1992, the case remained in process.

It should be noted that in this case, investigations were also carried out regarding Patio 29 of the General Cemetery starting in November 1979, an occasion on which Monsignor Ignacio Ortúzar R.—in his capacity as Vicar General and Acting Vicar of the Vicariate of Solidarity—denounced 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 case. Between the years 1981-1987, the exhumation of those six graves was requested from the Court on five occasions, with the request being denied on the grounds that it was inconclusive given the time elapsed.

In August 1990, case 2-90-E was initiated in the Buin-Maipo Court of Letters with the appointment of the Visiting Minister, Mr. Germán Hermosilla, by the President Aguirre Cerda Court of Appeals. Said appointment was in response 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 background information on José Ignacio Castro Maldonado was delivered to the Court.

On March 15, 1991, Mrs. María del Tránsito Venegas Cortés testified before the Visiting Minister Mr. Germán Hermosilla, in her capacity as the mother of Jorge Reyes Cortés, who in 1973 was serving his 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. In one part, she stated verbatim: "a few days after they took my cousin Luisa's husband, Roberto Serrano, prisoner, I went to visit my aunt Rosa's house and I saw that she was very desperate and crying over her husband's fate.

So I told her 'don't cry anymore Lucha, your husband was taken by the military, 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 kept them for months without leaving after the Coup, so when he went to the house he told me. He wasn't calm, he was like 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.

This is true, I told Luisa, since she was taking clothes to her husband at Cerro Chena and they would receive them there, when Serrano was already dead." Jorge Reyes Cortés currently serves in the Los Andes Regiment; his military rank is unknown.

Although Mrs. María Venegas Cortez stated she did not remember indicating 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 Minister Humberto Espejo.

On April 22, 1980, Jorge Reyes Cortez appeared before the Court in case file 1-79. In his statement, he denied any participation in the events; in one part, he stated verbatim: "I never participated in any Paine operation, 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 Minister has carried out various ocular inspections in rural sectors in the surroundings of 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 when the judicial investigation into the crime of illegal burial of persons who currently, and since 1973, remain buried as John Does (NN) in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery was set in motion, based on information contained in a criminal complaint filed by the Vicariate of Solidarity of the Archbishopric of Santiago.

Anthropometric information on José Ignacio Castro Maldonado was provided in that case. In the month of September 1991, the exhumation of 108 graves in Patio 29 was carried out (December 1992); the extracted remains are at the Legal Medical Institute undergoing the identification process.

The Supreme Court dismissed the application of the "half-prescription" (statute of limitations reduction) that the Fourth Chamber of the San Miguel Court of Appeals had resolved in November 2020 and increased the sentences for 10 former members of the Army and one former Carabineros officer for their responsibility in the qualified homicides of 38 peasants from various settlements in the commune of Paine.

The criminal acts were committed between September 24 and October 16, 1973, in different settlements and localities of Paine. In the "El Escorial" settlement, the peasants Héctor Guillermo Castro Sáez, Juan Bautista Núñez Vargas, José Ángel Cabezas Bueno, 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 were detained and then murdered.

In the "Campo Lindo" settlement, Ramón Alfredo Capetillo Mora was detained and then executed; in the "24 de Abril" settlement, the peasants Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, 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 were detained and then murdered.

In the "Nuevo Sendero" settlement, the peasants 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 were detained and then executed.

Finally, in the "El Tránsito" settlement, they detained and then murdered Pedro Antonio Cabezas Villegas and Roberto Estevan Serrano Galaz; meanwhile, in the urban area of the commune of Paine, René del Rosario Maureira Gajardo and Andrés Pereira Salsberg were detained and then murdered.

In the sentence (file 149.250-2020), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, minister María Teresa Letelier, lawyer (i) Diego Munita, and lawyer (i) Leonor Etcheberry—sentenced former Army officers Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos (retired with the rank of Brigadier) and Arturo Guillermo Fernández Rodríguez (retired with the rank of Colonel) to 20 years in prison for their responsibility in the 38 cases of qualified homicide, the first 14 of which occurred between September 24 and October 3, 1973, in the "El Escorial" sector, and the last 24 between October 8 and October 16, 1973, in the "Campo Lindo" and "24 de Abril" settlements.

Meanwhile, former Army non-commissioned officer José Hugo Vásquez Silva, and former conscript soldiers (at the time of the events) Carlos del Tránsito Lazo Santibáñez, Juan Dionisio Opazo Vera, Roberto Mauricio Pinto Labordarie, Jorge Segundo Saavedra Meza, Víctor Reinaldo Sandoval Muñoz, and Carlos Enrique Durán Rodríguez were sentenced to 10 years in prison for their responsibility in the 38 crimes mentioned above.

Meanwhile, former conscript Raúl Francisco Areyte Valdenegro must serve a sentence of 7 years and 6 months in prison for his responsibility in the 14 homicides in the "El Escorial" sector.

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

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

Other criminals involved and convicted in the first-instance sentence were dismissed because they died during the course of the process; such is the case of former Army officers Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau, Carlos Walter Kyling Schmidt, and the civilian criminal Juan Guillermo Quintanilla Jérez.

The investigation by the Visiting Minister of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, established 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 commune of Paine 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 commune of Paine 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, in the early morning, soldiers of the Second Rifle Company of the San Bernardo Infantry School, commanded by Captain Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos, left from the Cerro Chena prisoner camp, in charge of Lieutenant Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau and Sub-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 brand truck driven by Juan Guillermo Quintanilla Jerez, headed to the "El Escorial" settlement of the commune of Paine 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 on 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 of 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 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 of 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 in charge of Captain Nelson Iván Bravo Espinoza. 6th.

That, on October 16, 1973, in the early morning, soldiers of the Second Rifle Company of the San Bernardo Infantry School, commanded by Captain Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos, left from the Cerro Chena prisoner camp, in charge of Lieutenant Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau and Sub-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 brand 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 commune of Paine, 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 in the same site, with only bone and dental fragments of eleven of the twenty-four victims being found years later, because their bodies were removed and transported to an unknown site to this date."

Source: 6/15/2022

Date: 06-15-2022

Paine Case: SML delivers bone remains and cultural evidence to victims' families

The families of José Ignacio Castro Maldonado, Luís Gaete Balmaceda, Samuel Lazo Maldonado, and Carlos Lazo Quinteros were present at the event.

The Legal Medical Service (SML), by order of the visiting minister Héctor Solís Montiel, delivered this Saturday to the families of the victims of the so-called Paine case the fragmented bone remains and cultural evidence identified in the expert reports developed by the forensic agency.

This ceremony, held at the SML facilities on Avenida La Paz, took place on the same date that the kidnapping and disappearance of 22 people in said town located south of the capital is commemorated.

The families of José Ignacio Castro Maldonado, Luís Gaete Balmaceda, Samuel Lazo Maldonado, and Carlos Lazo Quinteros were present on this occasion.

Regarding the victims René Maureira Gajardo and Samuel Lazo Quinteros, for whom there are no associated bone fragments, the cultural objects (pieces of buttons, glasses, crucifixes, remains of fabric and fiber, among others) recognized during the proceeding carried out by Magistrate Solís during 2009 were returned to the relatives.

Along with these six deliveries today, there are those already made for Carlos Enrique Gaete López, Luis Silva Carreño, Rosalindo Herrera Muñoz, Silvestre René Muñoz Peñaloza, and Andrés Pereira Salsberg.

The bone fragments of the Paine case were recovered in the discovery produced in 2007 in the Los Arrayanes ravine in the Rapel locality, and remained under forensic medical examination until June of this year, when the families of the victims were informed regarding the identifications obtained through genetic analyses carried out at the GMI laboratory in Innsbruck, Austria.

The multidisciplinary team of the Human Rights Unit of the SML worked on the exhumation of this case, using archaeological, anthropological, and forensic dentistry methods, among others, for the recovery of evidence. Likewise, the institution's Sample Collection Center took blood samples from the families of all the victims of the case.

Source: elmostrador.cl 10/16/2010

Date: 10-16-2010

José Castro Maldonado (Luz Castro Córdova)

The mosaic of dad. In the mosaic, we, the Castro Córdova and Castro López families, participated, my dad's wife. At the beginning, they were days of many mixed emotions, much sadness and confusion, much crying, and at the same time happy because we were going to do something for dad since we were empty-handed.

The only thing we had of our dad were the memories in our minds. We worked in great heat, in the full sun, but we did it with great enthusiasm for dad. In the mosaic, part of the life of José Ignacio Castro Maldonado is captured.

He appears working on the tractor as he did every day. The passage of the day to night is shown, from dawn to dusk because he even worked at night and the sky in the mosaic indicates this. Some products of the planting are also represented, such as corn, beans, squash, onion, wheat, and chard.

Dad dedicated his free time to the family and to resting; he liked to read Pablo Neruda, which is why we put an open book that has the verse about the queltehues, birds of the field. There is a small square that has a pitchfork, a straw hat, and wheat, with the last phrase of his that I remember: "I'm still here!" The natural colors of the countryside are highlighted, and the red is for the blood that was spilled here, in the fields of Paine in October 1973.

Luz Castro Córdova

Source: germina.cl 2014