Activity : Former Engineering student, Technical University of the State, Santiago.

Repressive Category : Militant of the Communist Party. Member of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR) Date of Detention : September 9, 1987

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

José Julián Peña Maltés, married, former student of the Technical University of the State, militant of the Communist Party, and member of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR), was detained in Santiago on September 9, 1987, by the security agencies of the military regime, remaining since then in the status of forcibly disappeared.

Peña Maltés had returned to national territory after remaining for several years as a political exile. In January 1974, he traveled abroad via asylum in the French Embassy. Once in Santiago, in the month of August 1986, he met Mrs.

Mara Peñaloza Oyarzún at a downtown establishment, where he identified himself as Daniel Merino. A friendship emerged between them that allowed them to jointly rent a property in the commune of Renca in October of that same year.

They only had the opportunity to spend time at said residence on a few occasions, as their arrival and departure times did not coincide due to both performing different jobs. Starting in March 1987, they began a romantic relationship that led to cohabitation.

Mara Peñaloza recalls that the affected party, among other things, told her "that he had not seen his family for years, that he had studied at the Technical University of the State and had not finished his studies, that he was his mother's favorite, who passed away while he was in exile, and that he had left the country in 1974 bound for France."

In August 1987, the affected party decided to move to downtown Santiago; for this purpose, he rented a room for a boarder, located on Ismael Valdés Vergara street, belonging to the Valderrama Urrutia family.

His romantic relationship with Mara Peñaloza continued, visiting her regularly on a weekly basis. Thus, as the month of September 1987 progressed, the affected party arrived at the Renca residence on the 1st, leaving the following day; subsequently, he returned on the night of September 8, leaving the residence on September 9, 1987.

According to Mara Peñaloza's testimony, she left for work that day; it was the last time she saw the affected party, who remained in the house and reportedly left after 1:00 PM. She only heard from him again on September 22, 1987, when she received a phone call at her work, in which a woman's voice asked her if she had seen her partner, then informed her that he had been detained in downtown Santiago by the National Intelligence Center (CNI) under circumstances in which he was heading to meet a person who was also detained; she indicated that she should look at the newspaper La Tercera of that day to be informed about it. After the phone call, Mara Peñaloza bought the aforementioned newspaper, which contained information about some detainees in Osorno and Valparaíso, whose names meant nothing to her. She continued buying the newspapers and was unable to find information, until Saturday, September 26, when photos of some disappeared persons were published in the newspaper La Epoca, among whom was José Julián Peña Maltés, whose photograph corresponded exactly to the person with whom she maintained a romantic relationship under the name Daniel Merino.

For her part, Mrs. Lucila Urrutia Morales, owner of the apartment on Ismael Valdés Vergara street, pointed out among other things, in her sworn statement before a notary, that the affected party "was a person who had a normal life, correct, he was approx. 1.60 to 1.63 meters tall, slender, not thin, dark-matte skin, wavy hair, not straight; important detail: he was left-handed, as he wrote with that hand.

Sometimes he would be absent, but he always gave notice when he would not arrive. His life was normal until September 8, 1987; he got up around 07:00 hours, did not have breakfast and left... he did not return that day and in reality, to this date, he still has not returned, having left almost all his belongings in my home."

After his disappearance, on September 15, 1987, upon returning to her apartment, Mrs. Lucila, in the company of the spouse, around 17:00 hours, noticed that the door was not locked but closed; upon entering and proceeding to check the premises, a subject about 26 years old, dark-skinned, athletic build, 1.68 meters tall, with a mustache, straight black hair, eyelashes pointing downward, came out of the room the affected party occupied, who stated "I am a friend of Juanito, he had an accident and needs a briefcase that has documents and money," adding that the affected party had drawn him a floor plan of the apartment indicating his room. The subject carried the keys to the property that were used by Peña Maltés, adding that "Juanito" (the name by which they knew the affected party) had suffered a car accident and was being treated at a residence in Valparaíso. The address turned out to be non-existent. Upon not finding the aforementioned document holder, the individual left, taking a leather jacket, a brown sheepskin coat, and a radio, all property of the affected party, which the landlady deemed necessary for her boarder in Valparaíso at that time. At 20:30 hours that same day, the subject returned, now without the bag he was carrying previously, leaving after being informed that the briefcase did not appear. The following day, Wednesday, September 16, 1987, around 20:20 hours, Mrs. Lucila Urrutia received a phone call from the subject described above, asking her to go to the Capitán Prat Plaza, located near the apartment. She did not do so, but her husband went down, to whom the subject—who was accompanied on that occasion—insisted on the briefcase, arguing that it contained money that Juan needed to pay. Given this, Mr. Valderrama told him to tell Juanito not to worry about anything, as all his things would be there when he arrived, and he also gave the subject the sum of $2,000 so that he could get it to him. Before leaving, the individual proceeded to return the apartment keys to Mr. Valderrama.

On September 27, 1987, the Valderrama Urrutia family, through the newspaper La Epoca in which a photo of the affected party appeared, became aware of the detention and identity of José Julián Peña Maltés.

The detention and subsequent forced disappearance of Peña Maltés by agents of the National Intelligence Center (CNI), as well as that of four other young militants of the Communist Party who appear linked to the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front: Julio Orlando Muñoz Otárola, detained on public roads on September 9, 1987; likewise the lathe operator Manuel Jesús Sepúlveda Sánchez, detained after 19:00 hours on September 9, 1987, after leaving his home in the city of Santiago; the automotive technician Alejandro Alberto Pinochet Arenas, detained on public roads, before witnesses, in a vast operation on September 10, 1987; and the furniture maker Gonzalo Iván Fuenzalida Navarrete, detained between September 7 and 10, 1987, occurred in conjunction with a series of sweep-type operations carried out by the CNI and security forces, who acted jointly and in coordination with police personnel, in order to find the whereabouts of Army Colonel Carlos Carreño, an engineer at the Army's Armaments and Maintenance Factory (FAMAE), kidnapped on September 1, 1987, from his private residence located in the commune of La Reina, Santiago, by a group of the FPMR, who later released him in the city of São Paulo, Brazil.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On September 22, 1987, a writ of amparo (habeas corpus), case file 1082-87, was filed before the Santiago Court of Appeals in favor of José Julián Peña Maltés, Manuel Jesús Sepúlveda Sánchez, Alejandro Alberto Pinochet Arenas, and Gonzalo Iván Fuenzalida Navarrete, informing the Court that their detentions occurred in the week of September 7 to 11, 1987, and that in relation to one of the protected persons—Pinochet Arenas—there is a witness who accounts for his apprehension, which occurred on September 10, 1987, at the intersection of Catedral and San Martín streets in this capital, by individuals in civilian clothes who were traveling in a light blue Daihatsu utility vehicle, year 80-83, whose license plate was reportedly EG-2102 or EG-1202. Consulted on the matter, various agencies reported: The CNI, through a telephone response dated September 22, 1987, and subsequently by Confidential Official Letter No. A-4/212-011 of September 29, 1987, signed by its National Director, Brigadier General Hugo Salas Wenzel, stated that the affected parties had not been detained by said agency. The Metropolitan Zone Headquarters of the Carabineros, the Headquarters of the III Police Investigation Zone, and the Gendarmerie responded in similar terms. For his part, the Minister of the Interior at the time, Sergio Fernández Fernández, informed the Court that "no order or resolution has been issued that affects the protected persons." The Chief of the National Registry of Motor Vehicles attached to the case the registration certificates of the vehicles corresponding to the license plates mentioned in the filing of the appeal, none of which matched the descriptions given by the witness of the vehicle in which the apprehenders were traveling.

On October 13 of that year, the Court of Appeals, at the request of the appellant party, resolved to issue an official letter to the then-Undersecretary of the Interior, Alberto Cardemil, who in a publication in the newspaper La Tercera dated October 7, 1987, stated: "...that the government had learned through the social media of the alleged disappearance of those four subjects... that it had immediately requested the order and security services to make the corresponding inquiries," in order for him to inform the Court of those antecedents gathered in said investigation.

In another part of Alberto Cardemil's statement, he indicated that "this situation should not be overly surprising. Communist action mixes spectacularity and publicity with clandestinity. That is their way of working and acting, so it is very probable that this is due to a 'submergence' of this nature."

On November 18, 1987, and with the response from the aforementioned Undersecretary of the Interior of the military government still pending, the Santiago Court of Appeals rejected the writ of amparo, ordering the antecedents to be sent to the corresponding Criminal Court. Upon appeal of said resolution, it was confirmed on November 26, 1987, by the Supreme Court of Justice.

On October 2, 1987, Mr. José Julián Peña Torres, father of the victim, filed the case for alleged misfortune, case file No. 132.628-6, before the First Criminal Court of Santiago. The testimonies of Mrs.

Lucila Urrutia Morales and Mrs. Mara Peñaloza Oyarzún were attached, who, along with ratifying what was declared, expanded their statements. On October 20, 1987, in response to an Official Letter from the Court, the Chief of the Police Services Department, Colonel of Carabineros Eleazar Arce Gangas, reported that the affected party had not been detained by said Institution, that: "he does not have a pending arrest warrant against him and has no police or political records," adding furthermore that Peña Maltés does not appear on the Civil Registry screen as a Chilean citizen.

For his part, the National Vice Director of the CNI, Brigadier Humberto Leiva Gutiérrez, reported that the affected party had not been detained by that agency nor does he have a pending arrest warrant; he adds, "the cited person has the following records: July 10, 1975: he appears in the list of safe-conducts granted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile from September 11, 1973, to July 1, 1975; December 26, 1985, by Exempt Supreme Decree No. 11 of the Ministry of the Interior, he is authorized to re-enter the country." Investigations of Chile, along with reporting that Peña Maltés had not been detained by said institution, attached a memo with the political background of the affected party, in which the following stands out: "on January 11, 1982, through Exempt Decree No. 3557 of the Ministry of the Interior, his entry into national territory is prohibited, for constituting a danger to the internal peace of the country." This case was taken into account in the files of case 148.956-H of the Third Criminal Court of Santiago, for the kidnapping of Alejandro Pinochet Arenas (more details in the account of this latter affected party).

The National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, in its final report of February 1991, states that "he was detained on September 9, 1987, by agents of the National Intelligence Center (CNI)..."

Source: (Corporation Report)

For Catholics, "Corpus Christi" is a religious holiday. However, for twelve Chilean families, this ceremony is only the memory of a period filled with pain and death. The so-called Operation Albania, also known as the "Corpus Christi massacre," was one of the last acts of state terrorism committed by agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Center (CNI) in the twilight of the military regime.

After fourteen years of investigation and countless judicial ups and downs, the case could be closed in the coming weeks by Minister Hugo Dolmestch. The judge resumed the case after his peer, Milton Juica, was appointed as a new member of the Supreme Court.

Currently, 12 former CNI agents, including their top chiefs, are being prosecuted for these crimes. Of them, only the agency's operational chief, Alvaro Corvalán, is detained in an Army unit, while the rest enjoy release on bail and await sentencing for these murders.

On June 15 and 16, 1987, another bloody page was written in the history of our country. Twelve young people, members of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, were shot to death by CNI personnel. The official versions of the time reported clashes between the agents and the Front members, but this and other information were diluted by the investigations initiated by the victims' relatives, lawyers, and human rights organizations, which have demonstrated that such clashes never existed.

On four streets of Santiago

At number 582 of Pedro Donoso street, in the commune of Recoleta, Ricardo Rivera Silva, José Valenzuela Levy, Manuel Valencia Calderón, Ester Cabrera Hinojosa, Ricardo Silva Soto, Elizabeth Escobar Mondaca, and Patricia Quiroz Nilo died.

At Varas Mena 417, the riddled bodies of Juan and Wilson Henríquez were found; past midnight on June 15, 1987, Julio Guerra Olivares was executed in the Villa Olímpica, while Ignacio Valenzuela was murdered on Alhué street in the commune of Las Condes.

The versions of clashes vanished with the appearance of important statements, such as that of a police officer who toured those four streets of Santiago after the events and who declared in the process that the points of the massacre were deeply altered.

All the victims carried their weapons in their left hand, and the revolver found next to Julio Guerra's body, in block 33 of the Villa Olímpica, had the inscription "Carabineros de Chile."

Furthermore, the process notes other antecedents: the witnesses who were able to see some of the Front members before they were riddled with bullets indicate that they were not carrying weapons, and in the case of the deaths on Pedro Donoso street, the statements in the process agree that the victims were detained and transported to the place where they were murdered.

In 1998, the Supreme Court appointed Dolmestch for the investigation of these events, who, after the cessation of his functions as a judge of the Martial Court, resumed the case that had passed into the hands of Minister Juica.

Upon initiating his investigation, Dolmestch interrogated members of the CNI linked to the Navy, the uniformed police, and the Air Force; however, he ruled out their participation in the events. The same did not happen with the agents who belonged to the Army, whom he interrogated for holding high positions in that intelligence agency.

Soon, the progress developed by the judge in this case was seen. On July 27, 1998, in a historic event, he subjected five former CNI agents to prosecution, two of them in active service. The hand of justice had reached one of the repressive agencies of Augusto Pinochet's government.

Key moments

On July 15, 1993, the martial court determined that this case should continue to be investigated by the military justice system. That same year, but on October 7, the prohibition on reporting on the case was lifted.

On November 8, 1995, the martial court modified the classification of the crime. This is because it considers that in Operation Albania there were no clashes, but that they were aggravated homicides. On January 5, the second military court attempted to close the inquiries, but suffered a setback as the Supreme Court ordered new proceedings in the case.

On April 1, 1998, Judge Hugo Dolmestch was appointed as visiting minister for the Albania case. That same year, the magistrate requested the commander-in-chief of the Army to identify the members of the institution who served in the CNI.

On June 1, 2000, the Operation Albania case passed into the hands of the civil justice system, according to a decision of the second chamber of the Supreme Court. On April 10, 2001, Juica, who had taken the case when it passed to the civil justice system, decided to prosecute retired General Hugo Salas Wenzel as the author of the crimes committed by Operation Albania.

He was the national director of the CNI at the time the murders of the Front members were perpetrated.

Bloody similarities

An investigation developed by the fifth department of the Investigative Police, and the statement of two former CNI agents, allowed for the clarification of the last crimes committed by the National Intelligence Center.

This concerns the disappearance of five young members of the FPMR: Alejandro Pinochet Arenas, Gonzalo Valenzuela Navarrete, José Peña Maltés, Manuel Sepúlveda Sánchez, and Julio Muñoz Otárola. This event took place between September 6 and 13, 1987, in response to the kidnapping of the then-Colonel Carlos Carreño, who appeared in Brazil safe and sound.

On this path is also the death of the MIR spokesperson, Jecar Neghme, an event that occurred in September 1989. These cases begin to intertwine based on the statements that the former CNI agents make to Minister Juica within the framework of the investigations of Operation Albania. Later, the judge hands over these antecedents to Minister Alfredo Pfeiffer, who is investigating the death of Neghme.

These cases, together with the Corpus Christi massacre, must be considered as the blows that ended up tearing down the structure and impunity of the CNI. This is because not only are they being prosecuted, or detained in the case of Corvalán, but it was also proven with the confessions of witnesses and former CNI agents how this agency prepared and executed the operations destined to eliminate dissidents to the Pinochet regime.

Through the statements, ballistic reports, and specialized studies, it became clear that the deaths that occurred in June 1987 were aggravated homicides and that there were no clashes.

In this way, now it only remains to establish what type of responsibility falls to each of the agents who participated in these bloody events.

The prosecuted After 14 years of judicial investigation and a couple of weeks before magistrate Hugo Dolmestch closes the case to issue a sentence, the main individuals prosecuted for their responsibility in "Operation Albania" are: The retired General, Hugo Salas Wenzel The retired Captain, Alvaro Corvalán Castilla The retired Lieutenant Colonel, Krantz Johans Bauer Donoso The retired Lieutenant Colonel, Iván Leopoldo Cifuentes Martínez The retired Major, Rodrigo Pérez Martínez

Source: PRIMERA LÍNEA - June 11, 2001 Date: 11-06-2001

The Julio Guerra Foundation held an act this Sunday, September 12, 2021, in homage to the five combatants of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front who were kidnapped between September 5 and 10, 1987, and from that time on became part of the voluminous list of Forcibly Disappeared Persons, a crime against humanity that constitutes one of the most sinister forms of state terrorism implemented by the civil-military dictatorship in our country.

Agents of the National Intelligence Center (CNI), the Army Intelligence Brigade (BIE), and the Army Aviation Command participated in this operation in a coordinated manner.

This activity is part of work that different human rights organizations have been carrying out in the V Region, but in this specific case, it is an activity carried out by the Julio Guerra Foundation of Viña del Mar, with the support of the Valparaíso Human Rights Commission, whose objective is to begin forming a Route of Memory through the installation of Plaques and Memorials that remember the popular fighters who were murdered, executed, or made to disappear during the period of the dictatorship headed by Augusto Pinochet.

Julio Guerra is one of the 12 combatants of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front murdered in the so-called "Operation Albania" on June 15 and 16, 1987.

The call made by the

"Julio Guerra Olivares Foundation, For the Art of Living with Dignity," a popular organization of a cultural and social nature, named this activity "CRIES FROM THE SEA: THE 5 IN MEMORY," stating that nothing is forgotten, no one is forgotten.

This ceremony took place today at noon at the "Plaza de Los Loros," located next to the Faculty of Dentistry, below a Navy facility and in front of Playa Carvallo in Valparaíso, a place where relatives and dozens of comrades attended, who gave life to an emotional political-cultural act that began with the striking dance of the cueca sola performed by Olga Jeria, sister of a Forcibly Disappeared Person, a choreography that was created by the Association of Relatives of Forcibly Disappeared Persons (AFDD) precisely to symbolize the absence of loved ones.

After this powerful and emotional dance, María Antonieta Vega, host of the event, read one by one the names of the five disappeared comrades: MANUEL JESÚS SEPÚLVEDA SÁNCHEZ – JOSÉ JULIÁN PEÑA MALTÉS – GONZALO IVÁN FUENZALIDA NAVARRETE – JULIO ORLANDO MUÑOZ OTÁROLA – ALEJANDRO ALBERTO PINOCHET ARENAS, and as she named them, the participants chanted with their fists held high: "Present!"

Source: elclarin.cl 13/9/2021 Date: 13-09-2021

Detention ordered for three convicted fugitives for the case of the disappearance of 5 members of the FPMR in 1987

The minister visiting for Human Rights cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Mario Carroza, issued arrest warrants for "el Huiro," "el Jote," and "el Sandwich," three operational agents of the CNI who are currently fugitives.

The order was issued after the judge ordered the execution of sentences and the entry into custody of 34 agents from the National Intelligence Center (CNI), the Army Intelligence Battalion (BIE), and the Army Aviation Command, for their responsibility in the aggravated kidnapping of five members of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez (FPMR): Julián Peña Maltés, Alejandro Pinochet Arenas, Manuel Sepúlveda Sánchez, Gonzalo Fuenzalida Navarrete, and Julio Muñoz Otárola, crimes perpetrated starting in September 1987.

The magistrate notified Hugo Barría Rogers of his acquittal and Mario Campos Valladares of his sentence of 3 years and one day in prison, with the benefit of supervised release.

Regarding the 32 agents sentenced to effective prison time, the situation is currently as follows:

• 8 convicts entered the Punta Peuco Penitentiary Compliance Center.
• 13 convicts entered the special module of the Colina I Penitentiary Compliance Center.
• 1 convict entered the Women's Orientation Center.
• A total of 7 convicts were already serving sentences at the Punta Peuco Penitentiary Compliance Center, and were notified of this new conviction.

This ruling also has the characteristic that, for the first time, it assigns some of the convicted individuals to serve their sentences in common penal facilities, ending or beginning to mark the end of the arbitrary privilege enjoyed by criminals who committed crimes against humanity, who previously had exclusive and segregated facilities for their use.

There remain 3 agents who are fugitives and have not been notified of their conviction. In this regard, the respective arrest warrants were issued to the PDI to place them at the magistrate's disposal.

The fugitives are former army officer Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ross, alias "el Huiro"; former air force non-commissioned officer Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel, "el Jote"; and former army non-commissioned officer Juan Carlos Orellana Morales, "el Sandwich," all of whom were agents of the CNI's anti-subversive division.

"El Huiro" is an obscure criminal who began his career under the orders of Rosauro Martínez Labbé in the No. 8 Commando Company of Valdivia, repressing peasants and murdering MIR militants in the Valdivian mountain range in 1981, as part of anti-guerrilla operations carried out by the dictatorship's main repressive bodies.

Due to the criminal "merits" demonstrated in these operations in the mountainous area of Panguipulli, "el Huiro" Sanhueza Ross was promoted to the CNI, where he was assigned as a team leader in the Blue Brigade, which was in charge of the repression of the MIR.

Over the years and through his constant participation in criminal acts, "el Huiro" became the head of the Blue Brigade and the head of the Combined Blue-Green Brigade, which also pursued the FPMR.

"El Jote" is an air force agent who belonged to the repressive forces (DINA-CNI) from late 1973 until the end of the dictatorship. He remained active in the FACh until 2006. For his part, "El Sandwich" Orellana Morales belonged to the repressive ranks from 1975 onwards.

It should be recalled that on March 21, the Supreme Court sentenced 33 former agents of the National Intelligence Center (CNI), the Army Intelligence Battalion (BIE), and the Army Aviation Command for their responsibility in the aggravated kidnapping of the five FPMR militants.

In that resolution, the Supreme Court sentenced former army officers and CNI leaders Hugo Iván Salas Wenzel and Álvaro Federico Julio Corbalán Castilla to 15 years in prison as authors of the aggravated kidnappings.

Meanwhile, former carabineros officer Iván Raúl Belarmino Quiroz Ruiz, and agents Gonzalo Fernando Maas del Valle, Raúl del Carmen Durán Martínez, Luis Alberto Santibáñez Aguilera, Víctor Eulogio Ruiz Godoy, Juan Alejandro Jorquera Abarzúa, Hernán Antonio Vásquez Villegas, Sergio Agustín Mateluna Pino, José Arturo Fuentes Pastenes, Juan Carlos Orellana Morales, Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel, Alejandro Francisco Astudillo Adonis, José Guillermo Salas Fuentes, Heraldo Velozo Gallegos, Marco Antonio Pincheira Ubilla, Jorge Raimundo Ahumada Molina, José Miguel Morales Morales, Ema Verónica Ceballos Núñez, Patricio Leonidas González Cortés, César Luis Acuña Luengo, and René Armando Valdovinos Morales, all agents of the former CNI, must serve 10 years and one day in prison for their responsibility as authors of the five crimes.

Additionally, former CNI agents Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ross, Manuel Ángel Morales Acevedo, and Manuel Rigoberto Ramírez Montoya must serve a sentence of 5 years and one day in prison as authors of the aggravated kidnappings.

Former Aviation Command officers Aquiles Navarrete Izarnótegui, BIE officer Julio Cerda Carrasco, Hugo Aquiles Prado Contreras, and former CNI officers Fernando Rafael Mauricio Rojas Tapia, Marco Antonio Bustos Carrasco, and Rodrigo Pérez Martínez were sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison as accomplices to the crimes.

Meanwhile, former officer Víctor Mario Campos Valladares, of the Aviation Command, must serve 3 years and one day in prison, with the benefit of supervised release.

Finally, agent Hugo Barría Rogers was acquitted of the charges.

Thrown into the sea

During the investigation phase of the case, visiting minister Mario Carroza established that the five victims were kidnapped by State agents in retaliation for the kidnapping of Army Colonel Carlos Carreño, and were forcibly disappeared in a joint operation between the CNI, the Army Intelligence Battalion (BIE), and the Army Aviation Command, with their remains thrown into the sea off the coast of Quintay.

"On the occasion of the kidnapping of Army Colonel Carlos Carreño Barrera, which occurred in Santiago on September 1, 1987, officials of the National Intelligence Center participated in a previously planned operation with the purpose of monitoring and following certain individuals.

Between September 9 and 10 of the same year, they received instructions to detain, without a judicial warrant, five members of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez, chosen from institutional files, to eventually exchange them for said officer.

They acted through teams organized and concerted by a general command, communicating via codes to hide their authorship and avoid being discovered by third parties.

The detained individuals were interrogated and kept hidden under custody at the Borgoño barracks of the aforementioned entity, with no intention whatsoever of placing them at the disposal of the respective judiciary.

During the period they remained at the Borgoño Barracks, operational teams commanded by officers and personnel of the Army Intelligence Battalion, a unit belonging to the Army's National Intelligence Directorate, commissioned to participate in the investigation aimed at clarifying the kidnapping of Colonel Carreño, established official coordination with the National Intelligence Center, allowing some of their agents to frequent and remain for several days in the immediate vicinity of the cells, with full knowledge that people were being held in those facilities for prolonged periods in an illicit manner, and thereby obtaining intelligence information.

Before the release of Colonel Carreño in Brazil and it not being possible to carry out an exchange, these security agencies decided on the elimination of the detainees and, for this purpose, organized an operation that allowed the 5 bodies to be removed as bundles from the facility where they were being held, apparently lifeless or previously drugged, and they were transported in an Army Aviation Command helicopter from Fort Peldehue to the coast of Quintay, where their bodies were finally thrown into the sea tied to railroad ties.

From the above, one can only conclude, due to the scale of the operation, which had different stages, such as the detention, subsequent confinement in the Borgoño barracks, the interrogation to which they were subjected, the search for railroad ties, the request for a helicopter, and subsequently the transfer of the bodies to the coast of Quintay in order to throw them into the sea, that not only agents who made up the CNI participated in such operations, but also members of the Intelligence Battalion belonging to the Army Intelligence Directorate and the Aviation Command of the same institution, operations that the military chain of command of the aforementioned organizations could not have been unaware of nor failed to control, since it is an institution with a hierarchical power structure, in which there is a vertical and direct line of command.

For the same reason, it is entirely reasonable to think, based on the information gathered in the case, that these bodies correspond to the kidnapped persons, who, having been thrown into the sea, were neither located nor identified," the high court's ruling details.

Source: resumen.cl 5/4/2017

Date: 05-04-2017

University grants 39 honorary degrees to political executions and forcibly disappeared victims from the institution

The ceremony, which will take place in the Aula Magna this Friday (6th), is one of the most symbolic activities that our University will carry out within the framework of the program commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Coup d'État.

After this first presentation of diplomas, a commemorative plaque will be unveiled in the courtyard of the former School of Arts and Crafts, bearing the names of the victims.

This Friday, September 6, at 11:30 a.m., in a solemn ceremony, our University will grant, by grace and in a posthumous and symbolic manner, professional university degrees to 39 students who were forcibly disappeared or victims of political executions during the military dictatorship.

Emilio Daroch, president of the UTE-Usach Solidarity Corporation and organizer of this initiative, explained that this University was a place where the dictatorship applied violence most forcefully over the years, especially at its inception on September 11, 1973, and until the end of the 1980s.

This initiative makes sense as a way to redress people who, during their participation as students in the university community, suffered the consequences of the dictatorship, such as the emblematic cases of Gregorio Mimica in 1973 and the student leader Mario Martínez, murdered in the late 80s.

Mimica was detained in September 1973 along with more than a thousand people during the raid on the UTE. They were taken to the former Estadio Chile (now Víctor Jara) and shortly after he was released, but when he arrived home, he was immediately detained again by a military patrol that took him back to the School of Arts and Crafts, where he was interrogated.

His whereabouts were unknown for 37 years until his remains were found in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery in April 2011.

The story of Mario Martínez's death, on the other hand, happened 13 years after the Coup d'État, when he was Secretary of Finance of the University of Santiago Student Federation and was investigating the presence of dictatorship security agents infiltrated on campus. On August 4, 1986, his body was found on the coast of Santo Domingo.

"Without a doubt, a wound is reopened," maintains Daroch, but "there remains a feeling that a little justice is being done. We feel deeply moved to present these symbolic degrees and show that this dream could be fulfilled."

At the ceremony, it will be their family members who receive the diplomas. "We were in constant contact with the families of some disappeared comrades, but there were two or three cases where we could not find anyone," lamented Emilio Daroch, who explained that this Friday's will be the first presentation of degrees, as there are records of more victims of execution or disappearance during the period. "This process has not closed; these are the cases that could be accredited, but there is still a need to look closely and search for information that in many cases was not found at the University. We hope to carry out another graduation like this one later on."

The list of students who will receive their degrees posthumously is composed of Rafael Araneda Yévenes, Jorge Aravena Mardones, Jaime Buzzio Lorca, Ricardo Campos Cáceres, Claudio Contreras Hernández, Renzo Contreras Jorquera, Juan Elías Cortés Alruiz, Manuel Cortéz Joo, Alfonso Díaz Briones, Antonio Elizondo Ormaechea, Óscar Fuentes Fernández, Luis González Mella, Francisco González Ortiz, Patricio Guarategua Quinteros, René Lucero Muñoz, Zacarías Machuca Muñoz, Rafael Madrid Gálvez, Juan Bosco Maino Canales, Adolfo Mancilla Ramírez, Agustín Martínez Meza, Mario Martínez Rodríguez, Gregorio Mimiça Argote, Eugenio Montti Cordero, Leopoldo Muñoz Andrade, Ramón Núñez Espinoza, Eduardo Ojeda Disselkoen, Fernando Olivares Mori, Pedro Oyarzún Zamorano, Michelle Peña Herreros, José Peña Maltés, José Manuel Ramírez Rosales, Enrique Reyes Manríquez, Hugo Ríos Videla, Ricardo Rioseco Montoya, Carlos Santibáñez Romero, Carlos Terán de la Jara, Jaime Vásquez Sáenz, Jecas Nehgme Cristi, and Francisco Viera Ovalle.

The event, which will be presided over by Rector Juan Manuel Zolezzi, will take place in the University's Aula Magna on Friday the 6th at 11:30 a.m. Subsequently, a commemorative plaque will be unveiled in the courtyard of the former School of Arts and Crafts.

Source: usach.cl 3/16/2017

Date: 03-16-2017

Convictions against 33 CNI agents for the case of five forcibly disappeared persons from 1987

The Santiago Court of Appeals ratified the sentence against 33 former agents of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) as responsible for the aggravated kidnappings of Julián Peña Maltés, Alejandro Pinochet Arenas, Manuel Sepúlveda Sánchez, Gonzalo Fuenzalida Navarrete, and Julio Muñoz Otárola, crimes perpetrated in September 1987.

In a unanimous ruling (case roll 2015-2014), the Eleventh Chamber of the capital's appellate court—composed of ministers Mario Gómez Montoya, Alejandro Rivera, and Carlos Carrillo—confirmed the sentence handed down in October 2013 by the minister visiting for human rights cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Mario Carroza.

However, the appellate court modified the amount of some sentences applied and the degrees of participation of some of those sentenced for the kidnappings of the five members of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez (FPMR), which corresponds to the last case of forcibly disappeared persons from the period between September 11, 1973, and March 10, 1990.

In the resolution, the appellate court ratified the sentences of 15 years in prison for former army officers Hugo Iván Salas Wenzel, National Director of the CNI, and Álvaro Julio Federico Corbalán Castilla, head of the anti-subversive division at the time of the events, both as authors of the crimes.

Likewise, the sentences of 10 years and one day in prison were confirmed for former carabineros officer Iván Raúl Belarmino Quiroz Ruiz and for former Investigations official Gonzalo Fernando Maass del Valle, for their responsibility as authors of the crimes.

In the case of agents Raúl del Carmen Durán Martínez (alias "Quepo"), Luis Alberto Santibáñez Aguilera (alias "Pablote"), Víctor Eulogio Ruiz Godoy (alias "Telele"), Juan Alejandro Jorquera Abarzúa (alias "El Muerto"), Hernán Antonio Vásquez Villegas (alias "Pablito"), Sergio Agustín Mateluna Pino (alias "Guatón Órdenes"), José Arturo Fuentes Pastenes (alias "Paja"), Juan Carlos Orellana Morales (alias "El Montón de Letras"), Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel (alias "El Jote"), Alejandro Francisco Astudillo Adonis (alias "Cordero Chico"), José Guillermo Salas Fuentes (alias "Loco Mauri"), Heraldo Velozo Gallegos (alias "Chorombo"), Marco Antonio Pincheira Ubilla (alias "Zapatilla"), Jorge Raimundo Ahumada Molina (alias "Macho"), José Miguel Morales Morales (alias "El Curro de La Cruz"), Ema Verónica Ceballos Núñez (alias "Flaca Cecilia"), Patricio Leonidas González Cortez (alias "Quico"), César Luis Acuña Luengo (alias "Paco Correa"), and René Armando Valdovinos Morales (alias "Catanga"), the sentence was increased from 5 years and one day to 10 years and one day in prison, also as authors.

Meanwhile, for former army officer Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ross (alias "El Guiro"), the court maintained the sentence of 5 years and one day in prison for his responsibility as an author of the crimes. For agents Manuel Ángel Morales Acevedo (alias "Bareta") and Manuel Rigoberto Ramírez Montoya (alias "Olafo"), the sentence was increased from 3 years and one day to 5 years and one day, as authors of the crimes.

For the other former army officers: Aquiles Navarrete Izarnotegui, of the Aviation Command; Julio Cerda Carrasco, head of the BIE; and Hugo Aquiles Prado Contreras, head of the DINE; and Fernando Rafael Mauricio Rojas Tapia (alias "El Piscola Barata"), and agent Marco Antonio Bustos Carrasco, of the CNI, a sentence of 5 years and one day in prison was handed down for their responsibility as accomplices to the crimes, modifying their initial participation as cover-ups and, consequently, increasing their initial sentence of 3 years and one day in prison.

In the case of former army officers Rodrigo Pérez Martínez, head of the anti-terrorist unit, and Víctor Mario Campos Valladares, of the Aviation Command, a sentence of 3 years and one day in prison—with the benefit of supervised release—was handed down for their responsibility as accomplices, changing their initial participation as cover-ups and increasing the initial sentence of 541 days in prison.

Finally, Hugo Rodrigo Barría Roger, of the Aviation Command, was acquitted in this case; he had been initially sentenced—as a cover-up—to 541 days in prison.

Source: resumen.cl 6/13/2015

Date: 06-13-2015

Magistrate Carroza charges five former CNI members for cases of forcibly disappeared persons

There were five accusations issued by visiting minister Mario Carroza against former CNI agents for the disappearance of a group of militants from the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez, the last one to occur during the dictatorship headed by Augusto Pinochet.

Among those accused are former Army General Hugo Salas Wenzel, as well as the former CNI operational chief, Álvaro Corbalán Castilla, and agents Kranz Bauer, Arturo Sanhueza Ross, and Iván Quiroz Ruz.

The disappeared FPMR militants are Gonzalo Fuenzalida Navarrete, Julio Muñoz Otárola, Manuel Sepúlveda Sánchez, Alejandro Pinochet Arenas, and Julián Peña Maltés.

In the accusation presented by Minister Carroza, he states that the five frentistas were detained to carry out an exchange for the then-kidnapped Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Carreño.

Source: RADIO UNIVERSIDAD DE CHILE - October 8, 2010

Date: 10-08-2010

Ruling establishes institutional responsibility of army commanders

Minister Mario Carroza also indicted active Colonel Marco Antonio Bustos as an author of the kidnapping of the five FPMR militants. The crime was coordinated between the Army leadership, its Intelligence Directorate, and the CNI.

The Aviation Command of this military branch also participated in the operation. There are now 27 retired officers and non-commissioned officers declared defendants for this crime.

A coordinated action between the Army's commander-in-chief, the Army's National Intelligence Directorate (DINE), and the National Intelligence Center (CNI), in addition to the institution's Aviation Command, was the operation to eliminate five militants of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez (FPMR) in September 1987.

The coordination at the highest level was established in the judicial investigation by ministers Hugo Dolmetsch, Haroldo Brito, and Mario Carroza, who have had the case in their hands.

The current magistrate in charge of the inquiry, Carroza, processed yesterday the former vice-commander-in-chief of the Army and former member of the Military Junta, General (R) Santiago Sinclair Oyaneder; General (R) and former head of the DINE, Hugo Prado Contreras; and the former member of the Military Intelligence Battalion (BIE), current active-duty Colonel Marco Antonio Bustos Carrasco, who is the head of the Army's Logistics Division Planning Department.

The three were indicted as co-authors of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of the five FPMR militants.

The two general officers and the senior officer were arrested and interned in the Military Police Battalion in the commune of Peñalolén.

With these three indicted, the number of retired officers and non-commissioned officers declared defendants for this crime reached 27.

Within the framework of this coordinated operation, on September 21, 2006, Judge Haroldo Brito processed the then-director of the CNI, General (R) Hugo Salas Wenzel, and ten other former agents of that organization, among them operational chief Álvaro Corbalán and the head of the Anti-Subversive Brigade, Kranz Bauer Donoso.

In the investigation, it was established that the five frentistas, Julián Peña Maltés, Alejandro Pinochet Arenas, Manuel Sepúlveda Sánchez, Gonzalo Fuenzalida Navarrete, and Julio Muñoz Otárola, were kidnapped between September 9 and 10, 1987, as potential exchange hostages for Army Colonel Carlos Carreño Barrera, who was kidnapped on September 1, 1987, by the FPMR.

Carreño finally appeared on December 3, 1987, in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, after 93 days of captivity.

Judge Carroza maintains in his indictment that the five militants were killed "once Colonel Carreño appeared." The fact is relevant, as it has never been possible to pinpoint the exact date they were murdered.

That information adds coherence to the legal thesis that the dictatorship kept the five frentistas alive for the potential exchange until the very last moment and that their death was decided only after Carreño was released by his captors.

It is at this moment that, according to the process's background, General Santiago Sinclair enters the case, in his position as vice-commander-in-chief of the Army, or rather, as acting or executive commander-in-chief, given that Augusto Pinochet served as self-appointed President of the Republic.

Once Carreño was released, a meeting took place between Sinclair, who carried the voice of the dictator Pinochet there, the head of the DINE, Prado, and the director of the CNI, Salas Wenzel. In that meeting, Sinclair ordered that the five prisoners had to be disappeared.

The reason was that by that date and due to the restructuring that had been carried out, the CNI could not keep prisoners in its barracks. The five militants had been kidnapped, interrogated, and tortured for three months, and the case could become another weapon against Pinochet one year before the 1988 plebiscite.

When Carreño was kidnapped, the DINE, through its operational body, the Army Intelligence Battalion (BIE), formed a team in charge of the investigation into the colonel's kidnapping.

The officers of that team, among whom was the current active-duty Colonel Marco Antonio Bustos and the then-head of the BIE, current General (R) Julio Cerda Carrasco, also indicted, maintained a close link with the CNI throughout Carreño's captivity. Its members were even at the Borgoño barracks several times.

Sinclair's imprisonment

"My General, your Army is ready for whatever you need it for," General Santiago Sinclair told General Augusto Pinochet on the night of October 5, 1988, when it was already known internally that the dictator had lost the plebiscite and would have to leave power.

That episode accounts for Sinclair's close loyalty to his superior. At that time, as when the death and disappearance of the five frentistas—for which he is now processed and detained—was decided, Sinclair was formally the vice-commander-in-chief of the Army, but in practice, he was its highest authority, because Pinochet occupied the national magistracy by the grace of his Constitution.

Hence, his processing and detention are received in the human rights world as a signal that paves the way for other prosecutions of high-ranking commanders of that time. The news also has another institutional edge.

Another of those processed is still in the service of the institution. This is Colonel Marco Antonio Bustos, head of the Army's Logistics Division Planning Department. Minister Mario Carroza, in charge of the investigation, also indicted the then-director of the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE), Hugo Prado Contreras, as an author of the kidnapping of the five FPMR militants.

The magistrate established that the crime was coordinated between the Army leadership, the DINE, and the CNI and that the Aviation Command of this military branch also participated in the operation.

Aboard the Puma

The method chosen to disappear the five militants was the same one used by the DINA to disappear its victims: kill them and throw the bodies into the sea. In this way, through Sinclair and with Pinochet's knowledge, the operation was authorized for a helicopter of the Army Aviation Command (CAE) to be used to throw the bodies into the sea.

They were murdered in Borgoño and their bodies, properly bagged and tied to pieces of rails, were taken to the Peldehue military property, north of Santiago, where they were loaded aboard the CAE Puma helicopter commanded by officers Víctor Campo Valladares and Hugo Barría Rogers. The commander of the CAE in 1987 was Colonel Aquiles Navarrete Izarnótegui, who is also indicted in the process.

The last disappeared

José Julián Peña Maltés: Single, 36 years old at the time of his kidnapping. He went into exile in France in January 1974. In 1985, his ban on entering the country was lifted. The exact date of his return to Chile is unknown, but it is known that he was in hiding at the time of his kidnapping.

He was last seen alive on September 9. His family learned of his disappearance on September 15, 1987, through a phone call from a woman who did not identify herself. In November of that year, Investigations reported that he had no record of entry into the country "so it is reasonable to assume that he has not yet returned." His writ of amparo was rejected.

Julio Muñoz Otárola: Separated, 27 years old at the time of his disappearance. He was married to Cecilia Magni, Commander Tamara, a member of the commando that attempted to assassinate Pinochet in September 1986, later murdered in Los Queñes along with Commander José Miguel, both of the FPMR.

According to Investigations, when he disappeared, he had two outstanding arrest warrants against him, "so it is presumable that he is in hiding trying to evade the action of justice." The writ of amparo in his favor was rejected.

Manuel Jesús Sepúlveda Sánchez: Married, 27 years old at the time of his detention. He lived in the Ñuñoa commune, but his family resided in Valparaíso, where they last saw him on September 8. His friends saw him in Santiago on the morning of the 9th and agreed to meet him in the afternoon; he never arrived.

According to the CChDH at the time, some witnesses reported that he was detained on September 10 at Catedral and San Martín by civilians who forced him into a utility van. His writ of amparo was rejected.

Alejandro Pinochet Arenas: Single, 23 years old at the time of his disappearance. Also domiciled in Valparaíso and passing through Santiago, he was supposed to return home on September 18, but that did not happen.

According to witnesses, he was kidnapped on September 10 while traveling on a public bus, from which he was forcibly removed by civilians at the corner of Compañía and Amunátegui. In 1986, he had been sought at his home in the port by order of Prosecutor Torres in relation to the attack against General Pinochet that occurred on September 7, 1986, in the Cajón del Maipo.

Gonzalo Iván Fuenzalida: Single, 25 years old at the time of his disappearance. His girlfriend was the last person to see him, on September 8, when he stopped by to see her at a hardware store where she worked.

They agreed to meet later at a restaurant in Estación Central, but they never saw each other again. In those days, the girlfriend was also detained for a "case about which there is a prohibition to inform," maintained El Mercurio. Later it was learned that it was Patricia Cancino, detained on October 4. His writ of amparo was also rejected.

Source: LA NACIÓN - July 18, 2008

Date: 07-18-2008

New proceedings reactivate Jecar Neghme case

Magistrate Alfredo Pfeiffer's bet is that the Fifth Department of the Investigative Police will provide him with the information from the inquiries to configure the CNI team that participated in the crime against the MIR leader in the late 80s, a group different from the one that committed the murder of twelve frentistas in Operation Albania, the four professionals, and the disappearance of five communist leaders.

The series of delays that the process for the death of MIR leader Jecar Neghme has experienced could suffer a drastic change in the coming days after the minister instructing the case, Alfredo Pfeiffer, incentivized the inquiries of the Fifth Department of the civil police with a new broad order to investigate directed in this case directly toward the structure of the CNI between 1988 and 1989.

The death of Neghme, spokesperson for the political faction of the MIR, occurred on the night of the day that Patricio Aylwin's presidential candidacy was proclaimed and constituted the last political assassination of the final days of the military regime.

The case, which has experienced several setbacks after the closing of the summary in February '90, December '91, October '94, and August '95 "due to the lack of pending proceedings or suspects in the case," now attempts to take on new strength and finally approach the information that the Police have gathered during the investigation.

Although police-wise the case is resolved, in practice what the file says is the opposite, with a series of proceedings remaining—most requested by the plaintiff lawyer in the case, Nelson Caucoto—that should be carried out within the next few weeks with maximum speed.

The influence caused by the progress in crucial human rights processes, sources linked to the court maintain, has also generated a positive attitude from the instructing minister who in recent days has turned his eyes toward the forgotten file, looking for the information that is still up in the air.

For example, the inquiries are directed fundamentally to corroborating the information coming from the Fifth Department which, with the passage of time, has configured practically the entire organizational chart of the dissolved CNI that had participation in the case.

In this picture, a vital piece is the new interrogation that the magistrate would carry out toward Enrique Leady, head of the Metropolitan Brigade of the repressive organization, and Hugo Acevedo, who served as operational chief after the departure of Álvaro Corbalán.

In light of the information gathered in the process, it has been established beyond doubt that the team that participated in the treacherous crime has no relation to the previous CNI group that carried out the murder of twelve members of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez, known as Operation Albania in 1987; the homicide of the professionals José "Pepe" Carrasco (journalist), Gastón Vidaurrázaga, Felipe Rivera, and Abraham Muskatblit; and the last case of disappeared persons of the dictatorship: José Julián Peña Maltés, Manuel Jesús Sepúlveda Sánchez, Alejandro Alberto Pinochet Arenas, Gonzalo Iván Valenzuela Navarrete, and Julio Orlando Muñoz Otárola.

In these three processes in the hands of visiting minister Hugo Dolmetsch, the inquiries are directed toward the team commanded by Corbalán and Colonel Krantz Bauer Donoso.

Precisely after this string of attacks, the CNI carried out a deep introspection after which the leaderships changed, with Leady and Acevedo assuming privileged positions, who are the two main objectives of the new phase of Minister Pfeiffer's investigation.

The magistrate's previous inquiries have also been directed toward the weapon that caused the death of the MIR spokesperson. To date, the main leads investigated in the Neghme case—which must now be re-investigated by the judicial order—include a projectile and a shell casing presumably used in the assassination of the gastronomic businessman Silvio Aurelio Sichel, which correspond to the "Sig Sauer" weapon registered under the name of CNI agent Luis Sanhueza Ross.

Source: PRIMERA LÍNEA - July 29, 2002

Date: 07-29-2002

Two new confessions from former CNI agents

A police report submitted yesterday to the Third Criminal Court of Santiago contains two new confessions from former CNI agents that establish the facts of the last case of forcibly disappeared persons during the military regime, with terrifying details of their captures, deaths, and being thrown into the sea.

The indicted Lieutenant Colonel (R) of the Army, Krantz Bauer Donoso, appears as the head of the CNI command that in September 1987 captured five young communists, in the last detention with forced disappearance recorded in the repressive history of the dictatorship.

This is established by a police report submitted yesterday to the Third Criminal Court of Santiago, which clarifies the facts of the latest case of disappeared persons and details the death of its victims: José Julián Peña Maltés, Manuel Jesús Sepúlveda Sánchez, Alejandro Alberto Pinochet Arenas, Gonzalo Iván Valenzuela Navarrete, and Julio Orlando Muñoz Otárola.

Through separate confessions of two of the agents who participated in the kidnappings, the V Department of Investigations managed to establish the identity of a dozen members of the CNI brigade that was in charge of the operation.

Source: PRIMERA LÍNEA – May 7, 2001

Date: 05-07-2001

Colonel Carreño provided "alarming information"

Reports from the North American security agency indicate that the officer left Chile on a regular flight to Brazil, but dressed as a woman. He cooperated with his captors without major pressure, providing valuable information, which cost him the wrath of Pinochet, who later tried to involve him in drug trafficking. "This would not be the first time that the government of Chile proceeds to distort the image of an officer who does not count on its favor, alleging that he was involved in illegal activities," the authors of the report point out by way of commentary.

A total of 11 documents declassified by the CIA correspond to intelligence reports on the kidnapping of Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Carreño Barrera, plagiarized by the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez (FPMR) on September 1, 1987, and released in Brazil on December 3 of the same year.

Six of them are dated during his captivity. One of the most interesting points out that "the FPMR had three basic reasons for kidnapping Carreño." However, for now, it will not be possible to know them, because they are completely redacted.

In subsequent paragraphs, without explaining how, the intelligence report includes the description of the victim's behavior during the kidnapping. "Carreño was extremely terrified and offered information in exchange for his life even before the interrogation began.

Carreño told the FPMR that FAMAE sold weapons to the 11th of September extreme right-wing commando, in which former DINA, Army, and Carabineros officers, and officials of the security firm Alfa Omega, headed by General Manuel Contreras, are involved. Carreño also told the FPMR where the Army's weapons depots are located," can be read.

Another one, dated days later, adds that Carreño had also provided his captors with information about "shady business" of the Army's commander-in-chief Augusto Pinochet and "past actions of the DINA" in which he had participated.

Another of these CIA intelligence reports states that the five young communists who disappeared during the first days of September of that year had been kidnapped by the Chilean Anti-Communist Association (ACHA).

The document adds that the actions of that extreme right-wing group, to which former security agents are also related, had intensified in recent times, including death threats to four leftist leaders and their families.

The informant, whose name appears redacted, "believes that the five students who have disappeared are kidnapped by ACHA and are being held as ransom until Carreño is released," it adds. The JJ.CC. militants who disappeared between September 7 and 11 are Manuel Jesús Sepúlveda, Alejandro Pinochet, Julio Muñoz Otárola, José Julián Peña Maltés, and Gonzalo Fuenzalida Navarrete.

None of them have been found so far and are considered forcibly disappeared by their families and party comrades. On November 13, when Carreño was still being held captive, a report indicates that "the Communist Party of Chile has recovered direct contact with the members of the FPMR who kidnapped and are holding Army Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Carreño.

The PC has told the FPMR that it is ready to help it find a way to resolve the matter as soon as possible."

Source: PRIMERA LÍNEA – November 16, 2000

Date: 11-16-2000