Juan Antonio Acuña Concha, married, father of 3, a railway machinist for the State Railways (FF.CC. del Estado), union leader, and member of the Socialist Party, was detained at his home in the town of San Rosendo on September 15, 1973, at approximately 5:00 PM, by a Carabineros patrol under the command of Lieutenant Alberto Fernández Mitchel and Sergeant Pedro Rodríguez Ceballos.

The patrol consisted of six other officers, among whom Acuña’s family was able to identify a Carabineros officer with the surname Olivares. The detention was carried out in the presence of Juan Antonio’s spouse, parents, a sister, and his children, all of whom were at the victim's home.

All the Carabineros belonged to the Laja Sub-precinct, except for the officer Castillo, who was from the San Rosendo unit and was responsible for pointing out the addresses of local individuals who appeared on a list carried by the patrol.

These officers traveled on foot, as the only means of communication between San Rosendo and Laja was a pedestrian bridge. That same day, they detained 5 other people in San Rosendo who, along with Juan Acuña, were taken to the Laja Precinct, where they remained detained until September 17, 1973.

At that facility, Acuña Concha was visited by his spouse, who provided him with food, clothing, and first-aid supplies to treat the wounds he had received at the precinct as a result of torture and dog bites.

According to the authorities of the time, there is no record of his arrest warrant or his detention. On the morning of September 18, when Juan Antonio’s spouse arrived at the Laja Precinct to bring him breakfast, she was informed by Sergeant Pedro Rodríguez that the detainee had been transferred—along with Luis Araneda Reyes, Manuel Becerra Avello, Rubén Campos López, Dagoberto Garfias Gatica, Fernando Grandón Gálvez, Jack Gutiérrez Rodríguez, José Jara Herrera, Mario Jara Jara, Jorge Lamana Abarzúa, Alfonso Macaya Barrales, Heraldo Muñoz Muñoz, Wuilzon Muñoz Rodríguez, Federico Riquelme Concha, Luis Sáez Espinoza, Oscar Sanhueza Contreras, Luis Ulloa Valenzuela, Raúl Urra Parada, Juan Villarroel Espinoza, and Jorge Zorrilla Rubio, who were also held at the Laja Precinct—to the Los Angeles Regiment. They never arrived at that location, as all the detainees were executed by their captors that same day at the Fundo San Juan, located on the road between Laja and Yumbel, and were buried clandestinely at the same site. The burial was discovered by locals, who notified the authorities. Carabineros from Yumbel exhumed the bodies and, bypassing all legal procedures, buried them in a common grave at the local cemetery. Their relatives searched for them intensely, and the Carabineros consistently maintained the version that they had been transferred to Los Angeles. Only in 1979, as a result of a judicial investigation, were the bodies returned to their families for burial.

Judicial or Administrative Actions

On April 13, 1977, a writ of Amparo (habeas corpus) was filed before the Court of Appeals of Concepción, registered under No. 3.964. It was dismissed on June 2, 1977, on the grounds that all administrative authorities of the time denied the victim's detention and that no arrest warrant existed against him.

Along with rejecting the Amparo, the Court of Appeals ordered the Yumbel Court of Letters to investigate the facts. This led to case No. 22791, initiated on June 22, 1977, which was dismissed on May 17, 1978.

On July 24, 1979, a criminal complaint was filed for the crimes of kidnapping and homicide of Fernando Grandón Gálvez and others—including Juan Acuña—against the Carabineros officers belonging to the Laja Precinct in September 1973.

The case was registered under No. 2770. As a result of this complaint, Mr. José Martínez Gaensly was appointed as a Visiting Judge (Ministro en Visita), who, through his investigation, was able to establish that Juan Antonio Acuña Concha was executed along with 19 other detainees at the Fundo San Juan, located on the highway connecting Laja and Los Angeles.

The deceased were illegally buried by the perpetrators themselves (Carabineros from the Laja Precinct). Subsequently, they were clandestinely transferred to the Yumbel Cemetery by Carabineros officers from that city.

This occurred despite the fact that the discovery had been reported by the Yumbel Carabineros to the judge of the Criminal Court of that same city, who ordered the court secretary to store the report in the safe without initiating due process.

On October 2, 1979, the remains of the 19 individuals whose detention and subsequent disappearance had been reported were exhumed at the Yumbel Cemetery. After further investigative steps, body No. 20 was found at the same site of the homicide, the Fundo San Juan.

On November 27, 1979, the remains were handed over to their families, and their funerals were held that same day. On March 18, 1980, the Visiting Judge declared his lack of jurisdiction and ordered the files to be sent to the Military Justice system, where they were registered under No. 323-80 at the Ad Hoc Military Prosecutor's Office of Concepción.

The case was definitively dismissed on June 9, 1980, by the Judge of the 3rd Military Court, and the ruling was approved by the Supreme Court on December 3, 1981. Those responsible for the crimes of kidnapping and homicide were granted amnesty based on Decree Law 2.191 of 1978.

Source: Vicaría de la Solidaridad

Juan Antonio Acuña Concha, married, father of 3, a railway machinist for the State Railways, union leader, and member of the Socialist Party, was detained at his home in the town of San Rosendo on September 15, 1973, at approximately 5:00 PM, by a Carabineros patrol under the command of Lieutenant Alberto Fernández Mitchel and Sergeant Pedro Rodríguez Ceballos.

The patrol consisted of six other officers, among whom Acuña’s family was able to identify a Carabineros officer with the surname Olivares. The detention was carried out in the presence of Juan Antonio’s spouse, parents, a sister, and his children, all of whom were at the victim's home.

All the Carabineros belonged to the Laja Sub-precinct, except for the officer Castillo, who was from the San Rosendo unit and was responsible for pointing out the addresses of local individuals who appeared on a list carried by the patrol.

These officers traveled on foot, as the only means of communication between San Rosendo and Laja was a pedestrian bridge. That same day, they detained 5 other people in San Rosendo who, along with Juan Acuña, were taken to the Laja Precinct, where they remained detained until September 17, 1973.

At that facility, Acuña Concha was visited by his spouse, who provided him with food, clothing, and first-aid supplies to treat the wounds he had received at the precinct as a result of torture and dog bites.

According to the authorities of the time, there is no record of his arrest warrant or his detention. On the morning of September 18, when Juan Antonio’s spouse arrived at the Laja Precinct to bring him breakfast, she was informed by Sergeant Pedro Rodríguez that the detainee had been transferred—along with Luis Araneda Reyes, Manuel Becerra Avello, Rubén Campos López, Dagoberto Garfias Gatica, Fernando Grandón Gálvez, Jack Gutiérrez Rodríguez, José Jara Herrera, Mario Jara Jara, Jorge Lamana Abarzúa, Alfonso Macaya Barrales, Heraldo Muñoz Muñoz, Wuilzon Muñoz Rodríguez, Federico Riquelme Concha, Luis Sáez Espinoza, Oscar Sanhueza Contreras, Luis Ulloa Valenzuela, Raúl Urra Parada, Juan Villarroel Espinoza, and Jorge Zorrilla Rubio, who were also held at the Laja Precinct—to the Los Angeles Regiment. They never arrived at that location, as all the detainees were executed by their captors that same day at the Fundo San Juan, located on the road between Laja and Yumbel, and were buried clandestinely at the same site. The burial was discovered by locals, who notified the authorities. Carabineros from Yumbel exhumed the bodies and, bypassing all legal procedures, buried them in a common grave at the local cemetery. Their relatives searched for them intensely, and the Carabineros consistently maintained the version that they had been transferred to Los Angeles. Only in 1979, as a result of a judicial investigation, were the bodies returned to their families for burial.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On April 13, 1977, a writ of Amparo was filed before the Court of Appeals of Concepción, registered under No. 3.964. It was dismissed on June 2, 1977, on the grounds that all administrative authorities of the time denied the victim's detention and that no arrest warrant existed against him.

Along with rejecting the Amparo, the Court of Appeals ordered the Yumbel Court of Letters to investigate the facts. This led to case No. 22791, initiated on June 22, 1977, which was dismissed on May 17, 1978.

On July 24, 1979, a criminal complaint was filed for the crimes of kidnapping and homicide of Fernando Grandón Gálvez and others—including Juan Acuña—against the Carabineros officers belonging to the Laja Precinct in September 1973.

The case was registered under No. 2770. As a result of this complaint, Mr. José Martínez Gaensly was appointed as a Visiting Judge, who, through his investigation, was able to establish that Juan Antonio Acuña Concha was executed along with 19 other detainees at the Fundo San Juan, located on the highway connecting Laja and Los Angeles.

The deceased were illegally buried by the perpetrators themselves (Carabineros from the Laja Precinct). Subsequently, they were clandestinely transferred to the Yumbel Cemetery by Carabineros officers from that city.

This occurred despite the fact that the discovery had been reported by the Yumbel Carabineros to the judge of the Criminal Court of that same city, who ordered the court secretary to store the report in the safe without initiating due process.

On October 2, 1979, the remains of the 19 individuals whose detention and subsequent disappearance had been reported were exhumed at the Yumbel Cemetery. After further investigative steps, body No. 20 was found at the same site of the homicide, the Fundo San Juan.

On November 27, 1979, the remains were handed over to their families, and their funerals were held that same day. On March 18, 1980, the Visiting Judge declared his lack of jurisdiction and ordered the files to be sent to the Military Justice system, where they were registered under No. 323-80 at the Ad Hoc Military Prosecutor's Office of Concepción.

The case was definitively dismissed on June 9, 1980, by the Judge of the 3rd Military Court, and the ruling was approved by the Supreme Court on December 3, 1981. Those responsible for the crimes of kidnapping and homicide were granted amnesty based on Decree Law 2.191 of 1978. (Rettig Report)

Source: Rettig Report

The Supreme Court convicted nine former Carabineros for their responsibility in the qualified homicide of forestry workers Fernando Grandón Gálvez, Jorge Andrés Lamana Abarzúa, Rubén Antonio Campos López, Juan Carlos Jara Herrera, Raúl Urra Parada, Luis Armando Ulloa Valenzuela, Oscar Omar Sanhueza Contreras, Dagoberto Enrique Garfias Gatica, Luis Alberto del Carmen Araneda Reyes, Juan Antonio Acuña Concha, Juan de Dios Villarroel Espinoza, Heraldo del Carmen Muñoz Muñoz, Federico Riquelme Concha, Jorge Lautaro Zorrilla Rubio, Manuel Mario Becerra Avello, Jack Eduardo Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Mario Jara Jara, Wuilzon Gamadiel Muñoz Rodríguez, and Alfonso Segundo Macaya Barrales, perpetrated in September 1973 in the communes of Laja and San Rosendo, in the Biobío province. In a unanimous ruling (case file 82.317-2021), the Second Chamber of the high court—composed of Justice Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Justices María Soledad Melo and María Loreto Gutiérrez, and ad hoc attorneys Pía Tavolari and Ricardo Abuauad—partially invalidated the challenged sentence, issued by the Court of Appeals of Concepción in August 2021, only regarding the part that sentenced civilian Pedro Luis Jarpa Foerster, a former executive official of CMPC, to 5 years and one day in prison as an accomplice to the homicides of seven workers; instead, it decreed his acquittal as the attributed responsibility for the crimes was not proven. Furthermore, it rejected the cassation appeals filed by the other convicted individuals. In all other respects, the high court confirmed the sentence of the Concepción court, which sentenced former Carabineros officer Alberto Juan Fernández Mitchell to life imprisonment as the perpetrator of the qualified homicides of the 19 victims. Meanwhile, former Carabineros José Jacinto Otárola Sanhueza, Mario Sebastián Montoya Burgos, Manuel Enrique Cerda Robledo, Gerson Nilo Saavedra Reinike, Pedro del Carmen Parra Utreras, Víctor Manuel Campos Dávila, and Nelson Casanova Salgado were sentenced to 15 years and one day in prison as perpetrators of the 19 qualified homicides. Former Carabineros officer Anselmo del Carmen San Martín Navarrete was sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment, with the benefit of intensive supervised release, as an accessory after the fact. The sentence established an error of law in determining the responsibility of Jarpa Foerster. Regarding this, the resolution states: "In this case, as an initial matter, it should be noted that the convicted Jarpa was acquitted in the first instance of his participation in the tragic events, a decision that was reversed by one of the chambers of the Court of Appeals of Concepción, which considered the existence of testimonies that allow him to be visualized in acts of cooperation... which allowed them to conclude that he carried out acts of cooperation prior to the perpetration of the homicides of the seven people detailed, facilitating their identification and detention, acting at least with eventual intent, keeping in mind the context in which these detentions occurred, carried out by police officers acting without any judicial order, with the country in a state of siege following the military coup of September 11, 1973, which led them to conclude that he could not have failed to project or represent to himself that the identification he made of the workers, supposedly opposed to the new de facto regime, would end in their death."

Executions and illegal burial

Between September 13 and 17, 1973, when the country was under a state of siege, the following workers were detained by personnel from the Laja Carabineros Precinct and taken to that police unit: Fernando Grandón Gálvez, Jorge Andrés Lamana Abarzúa, Rubén Antonio Campos López, Juan Carlos Jara Herrera, Raúl Urra Parada, Luis Armando Ulloa Valenzuela, Oscar Omar Sanhueza Contreras, Dagoberto Enrique Garfias Gatica, Luis Alberto del Carmen Araneda Reyes, Juan Antonio Acuña Concha, Juan de Dios Villarroel Espinoza, Heraldo del Carmen Muñoz Muñoz, Federico Riquelme Concha, Jorge Lautaro Zorrilla Rubio, Manuel Mario Becerra Avello, Jack Eduardo Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Mario Jara Jara, Wilson Gamadiel Muñoz Rodríguez, and Alfonso Segundo Macaya Barrales. The workers of the Compañía Manufacturera de Papeles y Cartones (CMPC) Grandón, Gutiérrez, Muñoz, Urra, Riquelme, Villarroel, and Muñoz Rodríguez were detained by Carabineros at the entrance-exit gate of their workplace, the CMPC Laja Paper Mill, where a senior official held a list with each of their names, pointing out to the Carabineros who each of them was, thereby facilitating their identification and detention. Likewise, the other individuals indicated above were detained and transported in CMPC paper mill vehicles, which had allegedly been provided by the company's managers for the transport of the detainees and driven by a CMPC employee to the Laja Precinct. The detainees were placed in the cells, remaining in that facility until the night of September 17, 1973. That night, they were taken out by uniformed personnel and loaded into vehicles belonging to the CMPC Paper Mill, supposedly to be transferred to the Regiment in the city of Los Ángeles. However, while traveling along Route Q-90, near the Perales Bridge, the convoy turned onto a side road for about 500 meters in a southerly direction, entering the so-called Fundo San Juan, in the commune of Yumbel, where the aforementioned Carabineros, who were armed with rifles and carbines, forced them to get out of the vehicles. They were immediately forced to lie on the ground, side by side, face down and with their hands tied, while the Carabineros positioned themselves behind them. At that moment, the officer in charge stood to one side and, armed with his revolver, gave the order to fire and murder them. Immediately afterward, the same Carabineros, using shovels they had brought for that purpose, dug a 60 cm deep trench where they threw the bodies, covering them with a layer of dirt. Having finished this operation, they returned to the Laja Precinct, remaining silent about what had occurred. Days later, Carabineros officers returned to the area to cover the bodies with lime, of the type used at CMPC, which had allegedly been provided by employees of the same company. A month after these crimes occurred, at the end of October 1973, dogs in the area found human remains, a fact noticed by a person passing through the area, who reported it to the Yumbel Carabineros. Following this report, the commissioner of the aforementioned station ordered a subordinate to go to the site. The subordinate verified the report and informed the commissioner, who ordered the corresponding report to be prepared by the Salto del Laja Carabineros Precinct and sent to the Yumbel Court of Letters, where he took it, accompanied by the chief physician of the Yumbel Hospital. The aforementioned physician informed the then-Judge of Letters of that town, Corina Mera, of the impossibility of receiving the bodies at the hospital facility for health reasons. Given this, the judge ordered them to be transferred directly to the parish cemetery for burial in a common grave, which the police officer carried out using a trailer pulled by a tractor, during the night and during curfew hours. This procedure was carried out without performing the required autopsies on the bodies found, and they were buried without obtaining the corresponding health authorization, nor a competent judicial order. by Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl Date: 03-02-2024

Laja-San Rosendo Massacre: Justice sentences retired Carabineros 47 years after the slaughter

HISTORY

The events occurred between September 13 and 17, 1973, when 19 people were detained in the towns of Laja and San Rosendo. All were men, two of them minors who were in high school at the time. The group included two teachers, and the rest worked for either the Railways or the Compañía Manufacturera de Papeles y Cartones (CMPC).

During the first days of detention, several of them were visited by their relatives, who arrived at the Laja Carabineros Sub-precinct. However, on the 18th, when parts of Chile were celebrating Independence Day, the slaughter took place, which determined forever that their relatives would never see them again.

THE RULING, 47 YEARS LATER

Almost half a century after the slaughter, last Tuesday, Judge Carlos Aldana sentenced nine retired Carabineros for the qualified homicide of the 19 men. Within the sentence, what drew the most attention, due to the severity of the ruling, was the penalty for Alberto Juan Fernández Michell, a retired Carabineros lieutenant who was forced into retirement from the institution in 1979, citing "lack of vocation." He participated as the officer in charge of the Laja Precinct that day and was also identified as the person responsible for carrying out orders that came from Los Ángeles.

It was precisely Fernández Michell who ordered and participated in each of the detentions and who was also present at the execution that took place at the Fundo San Juan. For these acts, he was prosecuted as the perpetrator of the qualified homicide of the 19 people and sentenced to life imprisonment.

In addition, Gerson Nilo Saavedra Reinike, Pedro del Carmen Parra Utreras, Víctor Manuel Campos Dávila, and Nelson Casanova Salgado were all sentenced to an effective term of five years and one day in prison as perpetrators of the qualified homicide of the same 19 victims.

Anselmo del Carmen San Martín Navarrete was also sentenced to an effective term of five years and one day in prison as an accessory after the fact. The group of convicted individuals is completed by José Jacinto Otárola Sanhueza, Mario Sebastián Montoya Burgos, and Manuel Enrique Cerda Robledo, who, in their capacity as accessories, received 5-year prison sentences, and were granted the benefit of supervised release.

During this process, police officer René Luis Alberto Urrutia Elgueta was acquitted of his alleged participation as a perpetrator in the crime of illegal burial in the month of October. Pedro Luis Jarpa Foerster was also acquitted of the accusation against him regarding his alleged responsibility as an accomplice to the qualified homicides of seven people.

Journalist Patricia Acuña, daughter of Juan Acuña, also a railway worker, commented on the ruling in a telephone conversation yesterday with the newspaper La Tribuna: "The important thing is that finally, after so many years, so much struggle, so much knocking on doors, and after 3 scene reconstructions where I had to see how they were massacred and executed in cold blood," she noted.

She also reflected with a certain tranquility after so many years because, as she said, "we, within all the pain, at least with this sentence, even if it is final, I think it makes us close the cycle, and I think they (the deceased) are also finally resting in peace." She also shared a memory of Luis, her father, and confessed that after so much suffering, something of them remained thanks to the fact that they were able to have a future regardless.

Regarding this, she comments: "I studied thanks to the Rettig scholarship, and my father always spoke in his speeches as a leader of the Socialist Party in San Rosendo about wanting food, free education, and free health for the people, and by the paradoxes of life, he lost his own, and I was able to study thanks to the scholarship for being the daughter of a political execution victim." EXTRACT

Source: latribuna.cl Date: 02-02-2023

Daughter of victim in 'Laja-San Rosendo' case: "Only for their ideals were they cruelly executed"

The Court of Concepción sentenced nine retired Carabineros and one civilian for their responsibility in the crime of qualified homicide of 19 forestry and rural workers; crimes perpetrated in September 1973, within the framework of the case known as "Laja-San Rosendo." Among the 19 victims was Juan Antonio Acuña Concha, a CMPC worker, detained by personnel from the Laja Carabineros Precinct.

In conversation with the press, Patricia Acuña, daughter of Juan Acuña, maintained that "for us, the most important and relevant thing is that it became known that our relatives were executed and massacred only for having political ideals." "The families of the murderers, in this case, learned that their fathers, grandfathers, or great-grandfathers will go down in history as murderers; ruthless murderers of innocent people who were executed only for fighting for ideals," she added.

In the civil aspect, the Concepción court increased the compensation granted by Judge Aldana Fuentes to the victims' families, ordering the State of Chile to pay a total compensation of 5.44 billion pesos.

Source: sabes.cl Date: 15-08-2021

Former Carabineros prosecuted for illegal burial of political execution victims

The bodies were discovered in October 1973 in Yumbel and buried without a judicial order.

The detainees were murdered by gunfire. Subsequently, they were buried in a 60-centimeter deep trench, covered with a layer of lime and dirt. A group of former Carabineros who served at the Laja precinct were prosecuted as co-perpetrators of the crime of illegal burial of 19 political execution victims after September 11, 1973.

The investigation is part of the Laja-San Rosendo case, investigated by the Visiting Judge for Human Rights of the Court of Appeals of Concepción, Carlos Aldana Fuentes, as indicated in a statement by the Judiciary.

Evidence from the investigation proved that between September 13 and 17 of that year, officers from that unit arrested 19 people in both communes located in the current Biobío Region. The detainees were murdered by gunfire, face down and with their hands tied, at the Fundo San Juan in Yumbel.

Subsequently, they were buried in a 60-centimeter deep trench, covered with a layer of lime and dirt. For the qualified homicides, Samuel Francisco Vidal Riquelme, Florencio Osvaldo Olivares Dade, Pedro del Carmen Parra Utrera, Gerson Nilo Saavedra Reinike, Alberto Juan Fernández Michell, Anselmo del Carmen San Martín Navarrete, Víctor Manuel Campos Dávila, Lisandro Alberto Martínez García, Juan de Dios Oviedo Riquelme, Luis Antonio León Godoy, Gabriel Washington González Salazar, and Nelson Casanova Salgado are already being prosecuted.

The former officers were now prosecuted for the illegal burial of the 19 victims, along with Héctor Orlando Rivera Rojas and René Luis Alberto Urrutia Elgueta. The political execution victims in this case are Fernando Grandón Gálvez, Jorge Andrés Lamana Abarzúa, Rubén Antonio Campos López, Juan Carlos Jara Herrera, Raúl Urra Parada, Luis Armando Ulloa Valenzuela, Oscar Omar Sanhueza Contreras, Dagoberto Enrique Garfias Gatica, Luis Alberto del Carmen Araneda Reyes, Juan Antonio Acuña Concha, Juan de Dios Villarroel Espinoza, Heraldo del Carmen Muñoz Muñoz, Federico Riquelme Concha, Jorge Lautaro Zorrilla Rubio, Manuel Mario Becerra Avello, Jack Eduardo Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Mario Jara Jara, Wilson Gamadiel Muñoz Rodríguez, and Alfonso Segundo Macaya Barrales. The victims' remains were found in October 1973 and buried in a common grave at the Yumbel Parish Cemetery, without autopsies being performed and without the corresponding health authorization and judicial order.

Source: elmercurio.com 21/1/2014 Date: 21-01-2014