On October 27, 1973, Néstor Hernán CASTILLO SEPULVEDA, 23, Regional Secretary of the Communist Youth; José Rosendo PEREZ RIOS, 24, employee and militant of the Movement of Unitary Popular Action (MAPU); and Juan VERA OYARZUN, 53, laborer, Regional Secretary of the Communist Party, union leader, and former councilman of Punta Arenas, were detained in the Argentine border town of Río Mayo.

On September 20, a group of four people, including Juan Vera, crossed the border into Argentina with the intention of requesting political asylum in that country. Two days later, they were handed over to the Argentine Gendarmerie by the owner of a local ranch and taken to Aldea Veleiros and subsequently to Río Mayo.

In this town, they remained under the custody of the Gendarmerie’s Squadron No. 38.

Furthermore, on September 28, José Rosendo Pérez and Néstor Castillo, who had also arrived from Chile days earlier, were detained at a boarding house in Río Mayo. The six arrested individuals, having entered Argentina irregularly, remained for nearly 15 days in the Gendarmerie facilities, after which they were separated into two groups to perform various assigned tasks.

The group composed of Juan Vera, Néstor Castillo, and José Rosendo Pérez worked at the Río Mayo Municipality and spent the night at Squadron 38, while the group composed of the other three slept at their place of work, a house under construction.

On October 27, Juan VERA, Néstor CASTILLO, and José Rosendo Pérez were handed over by the Gendarmerie to a group of Chilean military personnel and carabineros who were traveling in an ambulance from the Coyhaique Hospital, a fact supported by multiple precise and consistent testimonies. This is the last information available regarding the whereabouts and fate of the forcibly disappeared.

There was no official explanation from the Chilean authorities regarding these events, and the national press only reported on the asylum request of the six refugees. The Argentine press of the time, however, reported the handover of the disappeared to Chilean officials.

Investigations into the case conducted by Argentine parliamentarians reached the same conclusion, stating that "the three individuals were indeed apprehended by Carabineros and transferred to Chile."

The Commission formed the conviction that the disappearance of the three victims was the responsibility of agents of the State of Chile, based on the following elements:

• The political background of the victims and the validity of their asylum requests in Argentina;
• The circumstance of having remained detained for more than a month in the Argentine Republic, with multiple consistent testimonies regarding the circumstances under which they were handed over to agents of the Chilean State;
• The investigations conducted by Argentine parliamentarians, the complaints by union leaders of that same country, and the information provided by the press regarding this case;
• The fact, reported at the time, that Chilean military personnel and carabineros could operate on Argentine territory with the acceptance of that country's Gendarmerie; and
• Because since that date, there has been no information regarding the whereabouts of the victims.

Source: Rettig Report

On October 27, 1973, a group of Chilean military personnel and carabineros kidnapped three citizens of their country in the Argentine border town of Río Mayo, Chubut: Néstor Hernán Castillo Sepúlveda, regional secretary of the Communist Youth; José Rosendo Pérez Ríos, a militant of the Movement of Unitary Popular Action; and Juan Vera Oyarzún, regional secretary of the Communist Party, union leader, and former councilman of Punta Arenas.

The three had crossed the border in late September to request political asylum and had been detained by the Gendarmerie for having entered the country "irregularly." Later, they were all housed in the Gendarmerie Squadron, although they were free to go out to work. Despite having asylum status, one month later the Argentine Gendarmerie handed them over to the Chileans.

This is one of the cases of Operation Condor that is clearly identified in the National Memory Archive. Documentation provided by the province of Chubut includes the minutes of a secret session dedicated to these events held by the provincial Legislature on November 22, 1973.

The deputies had appointed a special commission to investigate the disappearances, as the Gendarmerie argued that on October 27, 1973, the three men had left the squadron and never returned. The legislators spoke with other refugees and with coworkers of Castillo, Pérez, and Vera, among other witnesses, and ratified the "visit" of the Chilean military to the town of Río Mayo on the same day the three men disappeared.

They concluded that it was a kidnapping that had the collaboration of the Argentine gendarmes. During the secret session, they discussed whether it was appropriate to file a judicial complaint, as several witnesses had indicated that they would not testify before any judge in Chubut because they distrusted the collusion with the Gendarmerie.

Finally, they resolved to inform the governor, the national Executive Branch, and the national Senate.

Source: pagina12.com.ar 3/27/2005

The Coyhaique Case shook the Aysén region. Records reveal that in October 1973, Juan Vera, regional secretary of the Communist Party and social leader; Néstor Castillo, general secretary of the Communist Youth; and José Rosendo, employee and MAPU militant, were detained in the town of Río Mayo. To this date, their whereabouts remain unknown.

The only certain information is that they were handed over to a group of Chilean military personnel traveling in an ambulance from the Coyhaique Hospital. In this context, the Coyhaique Human Rights Group, led by María Vera, in conjunction with the Aysén Regional Ministerial Secretariat of Cultures, held a memorial act by installing a plaque 50 kilometers from the border.

Source: 12/26/2023 @conmemoracion50

In the Aysén Region, 9 people remain as forcibly disappeared as a result of the military dictatorship. With a call to end the pact of silence, various Human Rights organizations and Families of the Forcibly Disappeared of Aysén gathered in the center of Coyhaique to remember the victims of the Military Dictatorship in the region.

Ninón Neira Vera, President of the Coyhaique Human Rights Group, recalled that 45 years after the Military Coup, there are still 9 people from Aysén who remain disappeared. Some are from localities such as Herminio Soto Gatica, sub-delegate of Tortel at that time, or José Orlando Vilugrón, executed by firing squad in Cisnes and thrown into the sea.

There are also victims of Operation Condor such as Juan Vera Oyarzún, José Rosendo Pérez Ríos, Néstor Castillo Sepúlveda, and Humberto Cordano López, which is why the call is to end the pact of silence to achieve the long-awaited truth and justice for the cases in Aysén.

The list of the Forcibly Disappeared of the Aysén Region continues with Flavio Arquímedes Oyarzún Soto and Luis Alejandro Largo Vera, both born in Puerto Aysén and detained in Santiago, and José Luis Appel de la Cruz, a native of the Huichas Islands detained in 1977 in Argentina.

The International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances is an achievement of the Latin American Federation of Associations of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared, supported by the United Nations, which is why in our country, every August 30, we remember the more than one thousand victims of forced disappearance by the civic-military dictatorship.

Source: elpatagondomingo.cl 8/31/2018 Date: 08-31-2018

PDI of Linares arrests former army non-commissioned officer for human rights case

By virtue of an arrest warrant issued by the Second Court of Letters of Linares, officials of the Homicide Brigade of this city proceeded to capture a former Army non-commissioned officer, who was convicted for the crime of repeated qualified kidnapping perpetrated in October 1973.

In accordance with the instructions of this court, the detainee was placed at the disposal of the Chilean Gendarmerie yesterday afternoon for the fulfillment of a sentence of 3 years and 1 day, in relation to the "Coyhaique case" regarding the repeated kidnapping of victims Juan Vera Oyarzun, regional secretary of the Communist Youth; José Pérez Ríos, militant of the Movement of Unitary Popular Action (MAPU); and Néstor Castillo Sepúlveda, Regional Secretary of the Communist Party.

The former uniformed officer, with the initials M.A.R., 77 years old, according to judicial resolutions, participated in the events that occurred after October 27, 1973, when the victims were detained in the Argentine border town of Río Mayo.

Source: enlineamaule.cl, July 16, 2015 Date: 07-16-2015

Coyhaique Court confirms prosecution of former Army doctor for human rights violations

By three votes to one, the Coyhaique Court of Appeals confirmed the prosecution of former Army official José María Fuentealba, implicated in the disappearance of three people in October 1973. The defense requested the release of the former doctor of the military institution last week, which was denied by the appellate court, and it has now also decided to prosecute him.

Fuentealba participated in the military delegation that, after the coup d'état, traveled to Río Mayo, Argentina, to capture Juan Vera, Néstor Castillo, and José Rosendo Pérez, who were being held by the Argentine Gendarmerie when they escaped to that country in search of political refuge.

The delegation was composed—in addition to Dr. Fuentealba—of Army Captain Joaquín Molina, a carabinero with the surname Salinas, and non-commissioned officer Evaldo Reidlich Hains, according to the website www.memoriaviva.cl.

The three prisoners were loaded into a vehicle with the markings of the Coyhaique Regional Hospital and transported in the direction of Chile, where their trail was lost. "The military personnel told them that their families were waiting for them at the border.

Once in Chilean territory, the military patrol forced the group to board a pickup truck and began the return trip to the Las Bandurrias prison camp. Hours later, the vehicle arrived at the military compound.

Only the two uniformed officers and the doctor were traveling inside," the report adds. This weekend, an ocular inspection was carried out at the Coihaique Forest Reserve of the El Claro Cemetery, with the presence of the accused Evaldo Reidlich and Fuentealba, to verify evidence related to the case.

Lawyer Rafael Alvarado, defense attorney for Juan Vera, one of the three who disappeared after being handed over to Chilean military personnel by Argentine gendarmes, announced that new proceedings would be ordered to identify the rest of the members of the army patrol that participated in the event.

Source: primeralinea.cl, May 14, 2002 Date: 05-14-2002

Scene reconstruction for disappearances in Coyhaique

The judicial proceeding was supervised by the magistrate of the First Criminal Court of Coyhaique, Luis Sepúlveda. Former uniformed officers José María San Martín and Evaldo Redlish participated in the reconstruction.

A strong contingent of police officers guarded the area. The area that served as the scene for the reconstruction is located in Las Bandurrias, about 20 kilometers from the city. The objective of the investigation is to clarify the circumstances of the disappearance of three people, Juan Vera Oyarzún, José Rosendo Pérez Ríos, and Néstor Castillo Sepúlveda, whose trail was lost after they crossed the border following the military coup and were returned to Chile by the Argentine Gendarmerie in October 1973.

The participants in the reconstruction were part of the military patrol that received the detainees. The case file is said to contain well-founded presumptions that the accused participated in the capacity of perpetrators.

Source: elmostrador.cl, May 10, 2002 Date: 05-10-2002

Aysén, Deaths in Dictatorship - Excerpt

On September 6, 1973, young Judith Aguilar gave birth to a robust and healthy baby girl at the Coyhaique Hospital, whom she named Patricia. The labor had been complicated, so the young mother and the newborn had to remain in the facility to receive further care.

The coup d'état caught them there. Her husband, José Rosendo Pérez Ríos, was a 24-year-old young man who worked as a receptionist and accounting assistant at the Honsa, a state-owned hotel located in the downtown area of Coyhaique.

Judith met José Rosendo when they were both studying at night school. He was a friendly, pleasant, and attentive young man. Judith liked his green eyes and his intelligence. They dated for 4 months, and when her father began to cause problems for them to see each other, José Rosendo asked her to marry him.

Judith dreamed of starting a family and felt in love, so she accepted the proposal. The young couple married on August 1, 1972; she was 19 and he was 22. José Rosendo was hardworking, determined, and protective, and he did not want his wife to continue working.

After celebrating the wedding ceremony, Judith left her duties as an employee and moved in with her husband at the home of her mother-in-law, María Pedrosa Ríos. José Rosendo's family was simple. His mother, of Chilote origin, worked as a laundress.

In 1973, María Pedrosa was already a mature woman and, until her daughter-in-law arrived, lived alone with José Rosendo, the youngest of her eight children and the one most attached to her. José Rosendo Pérez Ríos had been, from a very young age, fond of the ideas of social equality proposed by the Popular Unity government; he frequented circles of young people interested in politics and the social world.

In 1973, he joined the Movement of Unitary Popular Action (MAPU); he liked the party and its proposal. Furthermore, he thought that by meeting more people, new horizons could open up. The young man dreamed of improving himself, continuing his studies, and seeing the world.

He read and was concerned about preparing himself. For him, personal presentation was of utmost importance. He walked around impeccably dressed, in a suit or jacket, always neat and formal. With fair skin, light eyes, a round face, brown hair, and average height, José Rosendo Pérez dreamed of a fairer and more egalitarian world and was full of dreams and aspirations to improve his future and that of his family.

But it was not to be: he was only physically present for 14 days in the life of his daughter Patricia, as he did not live to see her grow up. On September 20, José Rosendo told his wife and mother that things were complicated, which is why he had decided to leave for Argentina in the company of his brother-in-law, José Miguel Gómez.

The women prepared bags with some clothes and food, and both men left that same day. A few hours later, José Rosendo and José Miguel arrived at the house of their relative Julia Pérez, in the vicinity of Lake Frío.

She was the daughter of one of his mother's older sisters. Despite being José Rosendo's niece, they were almost the same age, so the relationship was very close. That night they both slept there, and the next day, September 21, in the afternoon, they left for the border: they intended to cross into the neighboring country through the Lake Cástor sector.

After an arduous journey through the mountains and fields, both men arrived in Argentina. They stayed at a restaurant called El Cóndor, whose owner advised them to surrender to the Argentine Gendarmerie in order to request asylum.

On September 20, Juan Vera, Efraín Ruiz, Néstor Castillo Sepúlveda, and José Miguel Chacón Coliagüe left Coyhaique with the intention of requesting asylum in Argentina. All of them were leaders of political parties persecuted by the military regime.

Knowing they were being sought, some took refuge in safe houses. From there, they coordinated plans to leave the country. To throw people off the scent, Sara Solís, a communist militant, dyed Juan's graying hair the night before his departure; they also changed his clothes, giving him denim pants, since Juan was accustomed to dressing in a suit, albeit without a tie.

Vera, Ruiz, Castillo, and Chacón walked for 2 days until they reached Argentine territory, after crossing clandestinely through an unofficial border crossing near Lake Cástor. Once on the other side of the border, they arrived at the house of a settler with the surname Millar, in the sector called El Triana, where they asked for help, food, and a place to rest.

While the 4 Chileans rested, Millar notified them that he would go to Aldea Beleiro to report what had happened to the Argentine gendarmes. From there, they remained under the custody of the Gendarmerie for having entered the country irregularly.

The men had left Chile advised that it was better for them to surrender and request political asylum, so they all carried their identity documents. The next day, September 23, 1973, in the morning, they were transported from Aldea Beleiro to the town of Río Mayo in the back of a truck transporting wood, always guarded by armed gendarmes.

They arrived at the Alto Río Mayo Gendarmerie barracks, and on the first night, they were allowed to sleep there, for which they were given some mattresses. In this setting, they met the other 2 Chileans who had arrived under similar circumstances, requesting political asylum: the young José Rosendo Pérez and José Miguel Gómez, his brother-in-law.

During the morning of September 24, the gendarmes loaded the 6 Chileans into a military truck and took them to a Gendarmerie regiment in Comodoro Rivadavia to begin the political asylum procedures. However, they refused to receive them there, so they were sent to the Navy barracks in the same truck... but they were not admitted there either.

The Argentine authorities decided to return them to Alto Río Mayo, but not before passing through Sarmiento and other places that have not been possible to specify until now. The journey took place because no one knew the exact procedure for these cases.

That was how the 6 Chileans returned on September 28, 1973, to Squadron No. 38 of Río Mayo, where they remained as detainees for about a month. Once settled in this Argentine town, a Gendarmerie officer with the surname Oliva, married to the Chilean Ramona Barros Medina, proposed that they work on the restoration of a building that functioned as a restaurant.

José Miguel Chacón took charge of the work as a contractor, choosing José Gómez and Efraín Ruiz as collaborators, due to the experience both had; one as a construction worker and the other as a carpenter.

Thus, the 6 detainees were divided into 2 groups: Chacón, Gómez, and Ruiz ate and slept in the house being renovated. In contrast, Vera, Castillo, and Pérez spent the night at the Squadron No. 38 barracks, where they helped with internal tasks, such as cooking, cleaning, and chopping firewood.

They also worked on painting and beautification at the Río Mayo Municipality. The first person to extend a helping hand to the 6 Chilean refugees was Guillermo Ardao, a Spanish republican who, fleeing from Franco, had settled as a furniture maker in the town.

The neighbor Ardao, as the Chileans called him, had friends in the Gendarmerie and brought them underwear and toiletries. Despite being physically separated, the 6 Chileans made a commitment of mutual help and loyalty in any circumstance they might find themselves in.

They agreed that the money their work in Argentina brought in would be for everyone. This was fulfilled: the first payment they earned was used to buy underwear for the six of them. Soon, the Chilean citizens, waiting for their asylum papers, began to have more freedom of movement, but they never ceased to be under the custody of the Gendarmerie.

Since the 6 men left their respective homes with an uncertain destination, disobeying the military authority, the relatives of the refugees in Río Mayo anxiously awaited any message, sign, or indication that would confirm that they were safe and sound.

A few days after Juan Vera's departure, his daughter María walked around her mother's house, anxious for news. Erita had already told her several times: "I am sure your father will try to communicate with us." But the days passed, which seemed eternal to María, and they received no sign.

One morning, the girl, already exhausted from the confinement, asked her mother for permission to get some air. –Okay, but don't you dare go beyond the gate: it's very dangerous –Erita warned her. María went out to the front of the house and leaned on the fence to look toward Simpson Street.

Suddenly, she distinguished a familiar figure walking quickly toward her. The girl focused her eyes and was able to identify the person: it was Eduardo Vargas, a well-known member of the Communist Youth of Coyhaique. –Lalo! –the girl exclaimed with joy. –Hello, Maruja! –the young man replied without stopping his fast and determined pace.

In the blink of an eye, as he passed in front of the girl, Eduardo stretched out his arm and discreetly handed her a small piece of paper, continuing on his way without looking back. Maruja, with her heart pounding, looked at the paper and recognized her father's unmistakable and delineated handwriting.

She ran excitedly into the house. –Mom, mom! Dad wrote! Both read the brief message that said: "I am fine, don't worry." They reread it several times. Then Erita instinctively threw it into the fire of the stove.

On October 20, María and Erita received news again: it was a letter and 400 escudos that Juan sent through an acquaintance who was traveling through Argentina. She was heading to Comodoro Rivadavia in the taxi of the Chilean Lito Barría when she stopped in Río Mayo.

There, she visited Juan Vera and the others. Barría surely took the opportunity to visit the gendarme Oliva, as they were united by a strong friendship. It has always been suspected that this relationship is the first link that would end with the handover of the Chileans.

In the letter, dated October 12, 1973, Juan recounted some details of his days in Argentina, telling them that he was full of hope, working at the municipality. Soon his political asylum request would be finished being processed, and the only condition was that he would have to choose between 4 provinces that were not bordering Chile.

He wrote his best wishes for Erita, asked about his son José Luis and the situation of the house. Finally, he asked María to write to him. The woman who brought them the letter confirmed that she had seen Juan Vera personally, and in good condition, in Río Mayo.

They had been having lunch together, where Juan took the opportunity to finish writing the letter on the table they both shared while eating. She said that for this, he put on his thick-rimmed glasses with his name engraved in relief.

During the meeting, the woman noticed that suspicious vehicles, without license plates and of Chilean origin, were driving through the street. She commented to Juan about her apprehensions regarding this presence. –There is always movement, but there is no problem because we are safe here in Squadron No. 38 of the Gendarmerie –Juan replied, downplaying it.

The Chileans felt protected; their asylum request was in process, and they were counting the days to leave Río Mayo. However, it is probable that that day may have been the last one in Argentina. After reading her father's letter, María excitedly wrote a response, sending it again by hand.

The letter was never received by Juan, as upon returning, the person in charge of making contact in Argentina noticed that the communist leader had vanished. For fear of raids, Erita hid the letter sent by the father of her children in a tin under the planks of the old wooden floor of the house on Baquedano Street.

After many years, María and her mother tried to recover it, but it was impossible. Apparently, the passage of time destroyed it. Juan Vera was not the only one who contacted his loved ones. María Pedrosa Ríos, the elderly mother of José Rosendo Pérez, also received news of her son.

She told her granddaughter, Julia Pérez, the owner of the house on Lake Frío where they stayed the night before crossing the mountain range. Judith, the young wife of José Rosendo, also received a letter by hand in which her husband told her that he was fine and had work.

Furthermore, he informed her that he had requested political asylum and asked her not to worry about him. Likewise, in October 1973, the family of Néstor Castillo, the young travel and party companion of Juan Vera Oyarzún, received a mysterious telegram at their home.

In brief words, a certain Arturo Salas warned that he was fine: to go unnoticed, Néstor signed the message with his alias or "chapa." Néstor Castillo Sepúlveda was then 23 years old and was a disciplined and committed leader of the Communist Party who had arrived to live in Coyhaique only 3 months before the Coup, so he was little known among the people of the town.

Born in Victoria, after a series of moves due to his parents' work affairs, Néstor's family settled in Mulchén, where he began studying at School No. 1. From a young age, he stood out for being a very good student, the first in the class, and also for being a great reader...

Source: Aysén, Deaths in Dictatorship.

Testimony received by memoriaviva

Transcription of the statement sent to Judge Mr. Sepúlveda by an official of the Coyhaique Regional Hospital, whose Director at the time was Mr. Jorge Luis Montecinos Soto, current Director of the Aysén Health Service:

"I remember

It is very difficult for me to remember these moments, because the reason for this is very unpleasant, as it dirties or tarnishes the precious childhood that we all have or had one day. Unfortunately, I do not remember the exact date, because many years have passed, but I can tell you that, one night in the early morning (1, 2 in the morning) Dr.

Fuentealba ordered me to help unload from a Mercedes Benz truck (UNIMOG) some bodies that were wrapped in army blankets (there were about six corpses), then they were left in the Coyhaique Hospital morgue, and out of curiosity, with a colleague, we checked the bodies 1 by 1, in which I recognized a man with the surname Mansilla (in his personal statement he changes this name to Vera) and a classmate of mine for more than six years, José Rosendo Perez Azocar, if I remember correctly (40 years ago).

At that, Dr. Fuentealba appears, who puts his pistol to my colleague's chest and says: 'You didn't see anything here!' And we went to work. Subsequently, upon returning the next day, the bodies were no longer there.

It should be noted that Dr. Fuentealba was dressed in army clothing (camouflage clothing) and 1 CIG rifle plus the pistol, just like the other military personnel who accompanied him, all armed, except for the CNI officials.

That is all I remember, I hope these details are of some use. Thank you." This testimony, first provided in writing, was ratified by the witness before Judge Sepúlveda, specifying some background information.

The events occurred in the period when the current Service Director, Jorge Montecinos Soto, was Director of the Hospital, according to a curriculum vitae prepared by him, who avoids any relationship with both Fuentealba and the events in a statement prior to that of the witness.