Between October 5, 6, and October 7, 1973, 18 peasants from the area, none of whom had any political affiliation, were executed at the mountain estates known as El Morro, Carmen y Maitenes, and Pemehue, located east of Mulchén.

A patrol of approximately thirty people, composed of carabineros, military personnel, and civilians from Mulchén, went to the aforementioned estates carrying a pre-prepared list of the individuals who were to be detained and subsequently executed.

The patrol, traveling on horseback, arrived at the El Morro estate on the afternoon of October 5. They proceeded to detain five peasants at their homes and led them to the banks of the Renaico River:

Juan de Dios LAUBRA BREVIS, 26 years old, agricultural worker.

Domingo SEPULVEDA CASTILLO, 29 years old, estate house servant.

Edmundo José VIDAL AEDO, 20 years old, agricultural worker.

Celsio Nicasio VIVANCO CARRASCO, 26 years old, agricultural worker.

José Florencio YAÑEZ DURAN, 34 years old, agricultural worker.

Witnesses heard gunshots. In the month of December, neighbors and family members found the bodies in the La Playita sector with bullet wounds and their hands tied behind their backs with wire.

The group of uniformed personnel and civilians continued upward until they reached the Carmen y Maitenes estate, where they detained eight peasants at their homes, took them to the main house, and beat them and forced them to beat one another:

Miguel del Carmen ALBORNOZ ACUÑA, 20 years old, agricultural worker.

Daniel Alfonso ALBORNOZ GONZALEZ, 28 years old, agricultural worker.

Alejandro ALBORNOZ GONZALEZ, 48 years old, agricultural worker.

Guillermo José ALBORNOZ GONZALEZ, 32 years old, agricultural worker.

Luis Alberto GODOY SANDOVAL, 23 years old, agricultural worker.

Florencio RUBILAR GUTIERREZ, 25 years old, agricultural worker.

José Liborio RUBILAR GUTIERREZ, 28 years old, agricultural worker.

José Lorenzo RUBILAR GUTIERREZ, 33 years old, agricultural worker.

Around 23:00 hours, witnesses heard bursts of machine-gun fire. The following day, members of the patrol buried seven bodies in a pit dug in a field near the houses, covering them with grass. That same day, October 7, they began their journey toward Pemehue, taking with them a detained and physically battered Guillermo Albornoz, whose body later appeared downstream in the Renaico River.

At the Pemehue estate, they again proceeded to detain five peasants at their homes:

Alberto ALBORNOZ GONZALEZ, 41 years old, agricultural worker.

Felidor Exequiel ALBORNOZ GONZALEZ, 33 years old, agricultural worker.

José Fernando GUTIERREZ ASCENCIO, 25 years old, agricultural worker.

Gerónimo Humberto SANDOVAL MEDINA, 22 years old, agricultural worker.

Juan de Dios ROA RIQUELME, 35 years old, agricultural worker.

During the night, repeated bursts of gunfire were heard. Family members later found their bodies with their hands tied, their faces destroyed, and numerous bullet wounds.

All of them were buried in the same places where they were found.

On November 21, 1979, a criminal complaint was filed in the Mulchén Court, case file No. 20.595, for the crimes of trespassing, kidnapping, unlawful coercion, bodily injury, and qualified homicide of 18 peasants from Mulchén.

The action was brought against the participants of the "patrol." The Illustrious Court of Appeals of Concepción appointed a Visiting Judge who proceeded to investigate the case.

After an exhaustive investigation, the Judge concluded that the patrol of military personnel, carabineros, and civilians who went to the aforementioned estates were the perpetrators of the victims' deaths and the subsequent burial or, in some cases, the disappearance of the bodies.

The bodies were illegally exhumed, presumably in the month of March 1979, before the judicial investigation was carried out; however, numerous forensic examinations were able to be performed to identify the corpses based on the remains that were left and because some of them were still buried.

The Judge declared himself incompetent to continue hearing the case and referred the files to the Military Prosecutor's Office of Concepción. On January 7, 1983, the Military Judge of the Third Military Court issued a definitive dismissal of the case and applied the amnesty law to the accused.

On December 18, 1983, the Court Martial annulled the application of the amnesty and changed the nature of the dismissal to temporary.

The evidence presented allows this Commission to form the conviction that the execution and subsequent concealment of the bodies of the 18 peasants from the El Morro, Carmen y Maitenes, and Pemehue estates constitutes a grave violation of human rights for which State agents and the civilians who participated with them are responsible.

Date of Birth: 07-23-45, 28 years old at the time of his detention. Address: "El Carmen Maitenes" Estate, Mulchén. Marital Status: Single. Occupation: Agricultural worker for the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF). Representative Position: Leader of the "El Carmen Maitenes" Estate Union. Date of Detention: October 6, 1973

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

José Liborio Rubilar Gutiérrez, single, agricultural worker for CONAF and union leader, was detained on Saturday, October 6, along with his brother Florencio, while both were heading to the fields to check on some animals.

Later, around 3:00 PM, combined forces of Carabineros, the Army, and civilians—numbering approximately 30, heavily armed and on horseback—passed in front of the Rubilar Gutiérrez family home, taking the brothers Florencio, José Liborio, and José Lorenzo Rubilar Gutiérrez into custody.

They were subsequently joined by other workers from the estate who had also been captured. These individuals were Alejandro Albornoz González, Luis Alberto Godoy Sandoval, Miguel del Carmen Albornoz Acuña, Daniel Alfonso Albornoz González, and Guillermo and Germán Albornoz Acuña.

The previous day, October 5, 1973, around 7:00 PM, Florencio and José Liborio had been intercepted by two armed civilians—Romualdo ("Mayo") Guzmán Saavedra, a farmer, and Francisco Urrizola Elías, an industrialist and owner of a lumber yard, both residing in Mulchén—as they were arriving home.

They held a conversation with them for about 15 minutes. Although this situation unsettled the family, the Rubilar brothers did not comment on what was discussed.

Among the captors was the then-Carabinero Lieutenant Jorge Maturana Concha; Carabineros Osvaldo Díaz Díaz (alias "El Alicate") and Héctor Armando Guzmán Saldaña—both former officials of the El Morro police station—and an Army Sergeant surnamed Díaz.

Among the civilians, in addition to the two already identified, it was possible to identify Ramón Elías Abella, a lumber industrialist; Aquiles Guzmán Fritz, a farmer—both residing in Mulchén—and Carlos Lehman, who lived on the estate. The latter was the son-in-law of Romualdo ("Mayo") Guzmán.

The detainees, as previously noted, were agricultural workers residing at the El Carmen Maitenes Estate, located in the commune of Mulchén, Bío-Bío Province. All were employed by the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF).

This estate had been in the process of expropriation by the Agrarian Reform Corporation (CORA), which had ceded it to CONAF for reforestation due to its virtual abandonment by its owners.

One of the civilians carried a document signed by Carabinero Captain Sergio Neira Tapia—who later held the position of Governor of Mulchén—authorizing them to act in the sector and to demand all types of facilities and cooperation.

Romualdo Guzmán stood out from the rest due to his arrogance, which is why the peasants, relatives of the victims, refer to a "Captain Guzmán" as the leader of the group. The military personnel belonged to the 17th Mountain Infantry Regiment "Los Ángeles," while the police were attached to the Second Carabinero Station of Mulchén.

The group carried a list of names of local residents, which they had apparently obtained during a raid on a peasant union headquarters in Mulchén.

The detainees were held in the estate's administration building, which was made available for that purpose by Carlos Lehman. In that place, the detainees were forced to lie face down with their hands on the back of their necks, while their captors walked over their backs, stomping on them and striking them with spurs and the butts of their weapons.

They were forced to beat each other severely—brothers against brothers and fathers against sons—under threat of death if they resisted; all of this was accompanied by insults and sarcasm. Subsequently, they were taken out of the administration building and forced to stand with their faces against the wall, where mock executions were carried out.

While this was happening in the administration building, another group was dedicated to raiding some of the victims' homes. Neighbors closest to the estate's administration buildings heard screams and lamentations.

Around 7:00 PM that day, the captors released the brothers José Nieves and Germán Albornoz Acuña, who recounted to their relatives what was happening. At approximately 11:00 PM, the inhabitants of the "El Carmen Maitenes" estate heard two long bursts of gunfire coming from the administration building, followed by absolute silence.

The following day, Sunday, October 7, two CONAF officials, Mr. Adolfo Martín Sánchez and the forest ranger Juan Leal, went to the home of the Rubilar Gutiérrez brothers and told their parents that their sons and the other detainees had been taken to a distant place and would be returned within two years.

That same morning, uniformed men appeared at the home of the Rubilar Gutiérrez brothers' parents to ask for shovels. They then went to a location about 500 meters east of the estate's main houses, where they dug a pit in a meadow at the foot of a hill, between a stream and a wire fence.

In that pit, they proceeded to bury seven corpses of the eight victims from the "El Carmen Maitenes" estate. The perpetrators prohibited the relatives, under threat of death, from approaching the site.

The eighth victim, José Guillermo Albornoz González, was executed on the morning of October 7 on a suspension bridge over the Renaico River, where, tied up, he was shot with several bursts of gunfire that caused his death. His body has not been found to this day.

In March 1979, coinciding with the date the Supreme Court ordered an investigation into the aforementioned events, unknown individuals who identified themselves as Carabineros proceeded to clandestinely exhume and conceal the remains.

Nevertheless, detectives from Angol recovered some human bones dating back to approximately the time the events occurred. The day before the detention of the peasants from the Carmen Maitenes Estate, the same group of captors detained Juan de Dios Laubra Brevis, Domingo Sepúlveda Castillo, Edmundo Vidal Aedo, Celsio Vivanco Carrasco, and José Yáñez Durán at the El Morro Hacienda.

On October 7, the repressive group moved to a third estate called Pemehue, where they detained another 5 people: Alberto and Felidor Albornoz González, José Gutiérrez Ascencio, Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme, and Gerónimo Sandoval Medina.

These 10 peasants were also executed by their captors and buried clandestinely; their families searched for them until 1980 as forcibly disappeared persons. (See files for Juan de Dios Laubra Brevis and Florencio Rubilar Gutiérrez).

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

Due to information provided by the Supreme Court through the Temuco Court of Appeals, summary case file No. 33.316 was initiated for the alleged disappearance of Florencio Rubilar Gutiérrez, José Liborio Rubilar Gutiérrez, and José Lorenzo Rubilar Gutiérrez in the Angol Court of Letters.

On July 10, 1979, the judge declared herself incompetent because the reported crime took place outside her jurisdiction, which is why the records were sent to the Mulchén Court of Letters, which began hearing the case on July 18, 1979, under file No. 20595.

While this process was underway, a criminal complaint was filed in the same Court of Letters on November 21, 1979, for the crimes of "illegal entry, kidnapping, illegitimate coercion, injuries, and qualified homicide committed against the persons of José Liborio, José Lorenzo, and Florencio Rubilar Gutiérrez; Alejandro, Daniel, José Guillermo, Alberto, and Felidor Albornoz González; Miguel Albornoz Acuña; Gerónimo Sandoval Medina, and Luis Alberto Godoy Sandoval." This complaint was consolidated with case 20.595 of the same court.

On November 22, 1979, the appointment of a Visiting Minister (Ministro en Visita) to hear these facts was requested. On May 6, 1980, the Concepción Court of Appeals appointed Minister Carlos Cerda Medina for that purpose.

The judicial investigation established the responsibility of military and Carabinero personnel, accompanied by civilians, in the detention, imprisonment, execution, and illegal burial of eight peasants from the El Carmen Maitenes estate.

On December 21, 1980, the Visiting Minister declared himself incompetent to continue hearing the case because uniformed personnel were accused; the case was transferred to the III Military Court of Concepción, under file No. 446-81.

On January 7, 1983, by virtue of Amnesty Decree Law 2191, the military courts dismissed the case completely and definitively. However, on December 18 of that same year, the Martial Court revoked the application of the amnesty and changed the nature of the dismissal from definitive to temporary.