There were no direct witnesses to the detention of Juan Apolinario Mamani. Based on available information, it is deduced that it occurred between November 18 and 20, 1973, while the victim was traveling from Iquique toward the mountains, transporting a load in his truck. The apprehension likely took place at the Carabineros and Customs checkpoint that existed in the town of Alto Hospicio.

His family only learned of Juan Mamani’s situation when he was already being held at the Telecommunications Regiment of Iquique, where they sent him some clothing and food, but where they were never able to see him.

About 15 days later—they cannot specify the date—they learned he had been transferred to Pisagua, and on January 31, 1974, they learned through the press that he had been released.

He never returned home, even though, around January 21, 1974, Army Major Enrique Cid Coubles showed lawyer Hugo Onetto several release decrees signed by Brigadier General Carlos Forestier Haensgen. Among these, lawyer Onetto saw the one for Juan Mamani.

Upon arriving at the Pisagua Detention Camp, Juan Apolinario Mamani was locked in the incommunicado cells where those accused of drug trafficking were kept. In that facility, he was subjected to various forms of mistreatment and disappeared from the prison in mid-January 1974, after the Camp Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Ramón Larraín Larraín, reported that he had been released.

However, a former prisoner of Pisagua saw when the victim was taken from the Carabineros guard post. Blindfolded and with his hands tied behind his back, Mamani was loaded into an ambulance. The vehicle headed toward the northern sector of the prison and returned approximately half an hour later with the victim.

Immediately, other detainees who were also linked to drug trafficking—Hugo Tomás Martínez, Tomás Orlando Cabello, Luis Aníbal Manríquez, and Nicolás Chánez—were taken out and placed into the ambulance, which was escorted by a jeep and a military truck.

At approximately the same date—witnesses speak of January 1974, without specifying the day—a detainee who was performing carpentry work at the non-commissioned officers' club, located on the old railway platform, witnessed the passage of a Mercedes Benz army truck.

Inside were detainees accused of drug trafficking, blindfolded and with a red circle on their chests. The vehicle headed north, 2 or 3 kilometers away from Pisagua. About an hour later, it returned alone.

Other witnesses stated before the Visiting Judge that they also saw the military truck with the "coqueros"—as the prisoners called the alleged traffickers. Alongside the truck, they said, there was also a jeep with military personnel. All testimonies coincide that these events took place in mid-January 1974 and that the convoy of vehicles was heading toward the Pisagua cemetery.

In June 1990, his body, along with 19 others, was found in the vicinity of the Pisagua Cemetery and was handed over to his family, who gave him a final burial.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On May 31, 1990, a complaint for Illegal Burial was filed in the Criminal Court of Pozo Almonte. It stated that in the town of Pisagua, in a place near the Cemetery but outside of it, approximately 11 bodies had been buried, outside the current legality.

Those bodies—it added—were interred in a pit dug especially for that purpose, located on the western side of the cemetery, in an area with uneven terrain.

Judge Nelson Muñoz Morales accepted the complaint, assigning it case number 3805, and began excavations in the Pisagua pit on June 1, 1990. These resulted in the discovery of 20 bodies that had remained buried there for sixteen years, among which was that of Juan Apolinario Mamani.

On June 6, 1990—two days after Juan Mamani's body emerged—the Supreme Court appointed Hernán Sánchez Marré as Visiting Judge to continue overseeing the proceedings. The Judge, in the course of his investigation and through countless testimonies provided both by former Pisagua prisoners and by people who even formed part of the firing squads, was able to judicially reconstruct the reality experienced in that Detention Camp, which, starting on September 11, 1973, was a military zone under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Ramón Caupolicán Larraín Larraín.

There, the War Councils emerged, the files of which have still not been made available; the constant harassment, threats, interrogations, and violent torture suffered by the prisoners, some of whom still show the marks of the torments to which they were subjected; the overcrowding in the cells, about twelve detainees crammed into a space no larger than 2 by 4 meters; the uncertainty and fear of the victims regarding their possible fate; the shows that were staged at the Pisagua Theater for Commander Larraín and his team; the executions of about 35 people, with or without a prior trial; the actions of the riflemen who were chosen by Commander Larraín and who, in addition to shooting at the heart, had to recover the shell casings and bag the dead, while the conscripts arranged the bundles in the mass grave; the "law of flight" applied to detainees; the false releases. The reality of the Pisagua Camp, along with the bagged bodies, also emerged in the Visiting Judge's investigation.

On June 26, 1990, Juan Mamani's spouse, Claudina Challapa, filed a lawsuit before Judge Hernán Sánchez Marré for kidnapping with homicide and illegal burial of the victim. But five days later, Major General Luis Patricio Serre Ochsenius, judge of the VI Military Court of Arica, requested that the Judge decline his jurisdiction to continue overseeing the case because there was military personnel apparently involved in the events (June 31, 1990).

Hernán Sánchez Marré did not grant the request, elevating the records to the Supreme Court so that it could resolve the jurisdictional dispute that had arisen. On November 15 of the same year, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Military Justice, leaving the case in the hands of the Iquique Prosecutor's Office, which assigned it case number 321-90.

The lawyers for the plaintiffs then requested a series of procedural steps, none of which were granted. Rather, the course the investigations were taking was abruptly interrupted. This situation was crowned by the request made by the former Prosecutor of Pisagua, Mario Sergio Acuña Riquelme, to the Military Prosecutor's Office of Iquique on February 5, 1991.

That day, Mario Acuña, who was testifying as a witness, requested that the Military Tribunal apply Decree Law 2.191 of April 1978, through which almost all crimes committed between September 11, 1973, and April 1978 were amnestied.

Military Prosecutor Juan Romo Aravena ordered—that same day—the closure of the summary proceedings, dismissing the case totally and definitively on February 26, 1990, through the application of Decree Law 2.191. The Court Martial confirmed the dismissal.

Currently, the records are in the Supreme Court awaiting a response to the appeals filed by the lawyers of the families of those whose bodies remained illegally buried for sixteen long years in the Pisagua pit.

The Supreme Court sentenced three retired military officers for their responsibility in the consummated and repeated crimes of qualified homicide and aggravated kidnapping. These crimes were perpetrated in the town of Pisagua between November 1973 and January 1974.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 36.319-2020), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, minister María Teresa Letelier, and lawyer (i) Leonor Etcheberry—confirmed the challenged sentence, issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals, which sentenced retired Army officer Carlos Fernando Herrera Jiménez to 20 years of effective imprisonment as the author of the consummated and repeated crime of qualified homicide of Tomás Orlando Cabello Cabello, Nicolás Chanez Chanez, Juan Apolinario Mamani García, Luis Aníbal Manríquez Wilden, Hugo Tomás Martínez Guillén, Juan Orlando Rojas Osega, and Nelson José Márquez Agusto. These crimes were perpetrated in January 1974 in the town of Pisagua.

Meanwhile, Miguel Chile Aguirre Álvarez must serve 15 years of imprisonment as the author of the repeated crime of aggravated kidnapping of Rodolfo Jacinto Fuenzalida Fernández, Juan Antonio Ruz Díaz, José Demóstenes Rosier Sampson Ocaranza, and Freddy Marcelo Taberna Gallegos, committed in October 1973 in the town of Pisagua.

Finally, the highest court revoked the sentence in the part that acquitted Manuel Rogelio del Carmen Vega Collao and, in its place, sentenced him to 20 years in prison, with the accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence, as the author of the crimes of qualified homicide of Cabello Cabello, Chanez Chanez, Mamani García, Manríquez Wilden, Martínez Guillén, and Rojas Osega.

Proven Facts In the first-instance sentence, Minister Mario Carroza established the following facts: “a.- That the illicit acts that occurred after September 11, 1973, in the city of Iquique, began at the General Headquarters of the Sixth Army Division, at that time commanded by General Ernesto Carlos Joaquín Forestier Haensgen, who, once the Military Coup occurred, created a repressive body for militants or sympathizers of left-wing parties and/or those opposed to the Military Government, and included in that group people whom the Military Prosecutor and former Criminal Judge of Iquique, Mario Acuña Riquelme, for personal reasons, decided to hold responsible for alleged illicit acts committed in the area prior to the establishment of the Military Government. In the fulfillment of this task of mutilating individual guarantees, this Army officer and the Military Prosecutor of the time created the Regional Intelligence Body (CIRE), with personnel from the Intelligence Department of the Sixth Army Division and the Civil Commission of the First Police Station of Iquique; b.- That all operations carried out by CIRE agents in the city of Iquique, which were arbitrary and restrictive of rights, were carried out with evident transgression of fundamental rights and were not limited to raids and detentions of civilians and military personnel, but also intimidated numerous people in the area to present themselves at the General Headquarters of the Sixth Division, under threat of being shot if they did not present themselves and were found on public roads; for this, military edicts were used and publicized through the media; c.- That, as a consequence of these actions, an indeterminate number of people were deprived of liberty, transferred to the Telecommunications Regiment of the city of Iquique, subjected to intense interrogations under torture, and some of them, as happened with the victims of this process, were sent to the Prisoner of War Camp that was located in the town of Pisagua, transformed at that time into a military unit under the command of Army Officer Major Ramón Ibarra Ibarra, which also received nearly 270 detainees transferred by sea by the Chilean Navy on the Merchant Ship Maipo; d.- That in the Pisagua Prisoner Camp, the detainees were locked in shared cells and, from time to time, taken from their place of confinement to be interrogated and/or on occasions subjected to beatings to "soften them up," thus forcing them to sign blank documents, which subsequently constituted a confession of crimes of treason against the country, with which Military Prosecutor Acuña justified fallacious accusations before spurious War Councils, which were no obstacle for this Military Prosecutor to request, on occasions, the death penalty for prisoners whose only crime was their ideology, and which, once imposed, was executed within twenty-four hours with firing squads in the northern area of the town of Pisagua. These rulings were ratified by Regional Commander Forestier and executed by personnel of the Army and other institutions; e.- That these procedures, which were essentially arbitrary and unjust, and included kidnappings, confinement, interrogations, torture, and on occasions summary executions, were directed by Military Prosecutor and Former Criminal Judge Mario Acuña Riquelme, by virtue of crimes admitted under torture; despite this, they constituted the basis for sham War Councils and endorsed the despotic defenselessness to which the prisoners were subjected by the military hierarchy, in a framework lacking impartiality and with absolute contempt for the norms of due process. The foregoing is evidenced by the fact that in the case files there is no record or evidence of any kind that proves that the victims were allowed a timely and effective defense, much less in those cases where the death penalty was applied, which was not even applied with strict adherence to the law of the time, but on the contrary, it was applied with open violation of the requirements that the law demanded for these cases, as in the one that concerns us today, where the capital penalty is applied without the unanimity of its members, but for others, that was not even taken into consideration, but rather it was arbitrarily decided that they should be executed without a War Council, only supported by considerations that only their captors knew or by the so-called ‘Law of Flight’; By virtue of what was expressed above, it is possible to infer three illicit acts; I.-) That Tomás Orlando Cabello Cabello, Nicolás Chanez Chanez, Juan Apolinario Mamani García, Luis Aníbal Manríquez Wilden, Hugo Tomás Martínez Guillén, and Juan Rojas Osega were detained in the city of Iquique in the month of November 1973 and taken to the Telecommunications Regiment of the same city, and after some time transferred to the Pisagua Political Prisoner Camp, both units dependent on the General Command of the VI Army Division, under the command of Army General Carlos Forestier Haensgen, currently deceased. The detainees had no political affiliation nor did they carry out any type of subversive activity, but they were accused by the military authorities of being authors of crimes of smuggling of goods and/or drug trafficking, without any basis that had proven it. One day in the month of January 1974, it was informed to the citizenry and their relatives, through a military edict, that the aforementioned prisoners had been released at the intersection of the Pisagua Road and the Pan-American Highway. However, on the occasion of the discovery and exhumation of human remains found in a clandestine pit found on the side of the Pisagua cemetery in the year 1990, their bodies were found in a pit, all with their hands tied, their eyes blindfolded, and a red circle adhered to their clothing at the level of the heart; each of them was wrapped in burlap sacks and they were buried with other prisoners who received the same punitive sanction. The forensic medical examinations that were carried out on these human remains determined that the cause of their deaths was multiple gunshot wounds resulting from an execution, prior to their bodies being bagged and buried in the pit; II.-) That Nelson José Márquez Agusto, a militant of the Communist Party, was detained in Iquique after September 11, 1973, and transferred to the Pisagua Prisoner of War Camp, where he was kept for about four months with repeated physical punishments, which increased with the visit of General Óscar Bonilla, a military authority to whom he denounced mistreatment by the military personnel guarding him. In view of this violence against his person, Márquez's mental state deteriorated, so his captors decided to leave him without custody in a field located in front of the Public Jail, a matter that allowed him to make an attempt to go down to the pier to flee, but he was discovered and despite orders, he did not stop, so a search was initiated under the law of flight and he was successfully detained; subsequently, he was given a beating as a lesson and was transferred back to the Jail; later they went to look for him and on the beach adjacent to the Pisagua theater it was decided to execute him as a lesson and example for the other prisoners, without there being any reason that made it necessary, only to prevent other detainees from deciding to follow his example and attempt to escape; III.-) That on October 29, 1973, in the town of Pisagua, Tarapacá Region, a War Council was held and it was decided to sentence to death Freddy Marcelo Taberna Gallegos, José Demóstenes Rosier Sampson Ocaranza, Juan Antonio Ruz Díaz, and Rodolfo Jacinto Fuenzalida Fernández, who at the time were deprived of liberty in the prisoner camp existing in said town; as a consequence of this, they were executed on the north side of the Cemetery of that place, without the whereabouts of their remains being known to date, for which reason it has not been possible to verify their deaths, a situation that persists to this date.”

Res Judicata In the civil aspect, the highest court revoked the sentence in the part that accepted the exception of res judicata filed by the state regarding the actions filed by the plaintiffs Sonia Margarita Ulloa Rodríguez, Mónica del Carmen Manríquez Ulloa, Silvia de Lourdes Manríquez Ulloa, Luis Aníbal Manríquez Ulloa, and Manuel Fernando Martínez Rodríguez, deciding, in its place, that said exception is rejected and that, consequently, the civil lawsuits filed by the identified interveners are accepted, “fixing in favor of Mónica del Carmen Manríquez Ulloa, Silvia de Lourdes Manríquez Ulloa, Luis Aníbal Manríquez Ulloa, and Manuel Fernando Martínez Rodríguez an indemnity for moral damages of $50,000,000, which must be paid to each of them by the State of Chile and; for the benefit of Mrs. Sonia Margarita Ulloa Rodríguez, compensation for moral damages amounting to the sum of $100,000,000, an amount that must also be paid by the State of Chile.” Likewise, “(…) the same sentence is confirmed, with the declaration that the State of Chile is condemned to pay the following sums: 1.- One hundred million pesos ($100,000,000) to Jinny Arancibia Alfaro, Natalia Vargas Solís, Patricia Covarrubias Barrientos, Juana Trujillo Devia, Olga Alarcón Vásquez, and Claudia Challapa García; 2.- Fifty million pesos ($50,000,000) to Ignacio Taberna Arancibia, Daniela Taberna Arancibia, Nelda Chanez Vargas, María Soledad Fuenzalida Covarrubias, Jorge Chanez Vargas, Jaime Chanez Vargas, Yamir Chanez Vargas, Iván Chanez Vargas, Hernán Chanez Vargas, Sonia Chanez Vargas, Luis Orlando Cabello Álvarez, Sandra Sampson Trujillo, Demetrio Sampson Trujillo, Luisa Mamani Challapa, Delia Mamani Challapa, Juan Mamani Challapa, and Justina Mamani Challapa; and 3.- Thirty million pesos ($30,000,000) to Héctor Taberna Gallegos and Marjorie Taberna Gallegos. Said amounts will be increased with the adjustments and interest indicated in the first-instance ruling,” it orders. “That the importance of the reasoning carried out is that they allow us to assert that, when applying the conventionality control, without any doubt, the irrelevance of any exception of res judicata in relation to the civil action that seeks full reparation for the damages and losses derived from the execution of this category of illicit acts is confirmed, for not respecting the imperative provisions inherent to international human rights law,” the ruling maintains. The resolution adds: “That everything reflected upon evidences the error of law incurred by the sentence under examination, as it makes the provisions of article 177 of the Code of Civil Procedure prevail over the international regulations examined, which impose on the State of Chile the duty to fully repair the serious human rights violations demanded by the relatives of the victims and whose existence has not been disputed. That error has had an influence on the dispositive part of the ruling as it prevented the court from ruling on the lawsuits filed against the State of Chile and, consequently, establishing its extracontractual liability for the actions and omissions of its agents established in the ruling under examination.” “That, in summary, the validity and legality of previous rulings are not ignored here, even those issued by this very Court that declare the statute of limitations on the indemnity action against the State of Chile, but it is only recognized that the exception of res judicata derived from those pronouncements enshrined in the cited article 177, an internal norm of a merely legal nature, must yield to the right to full reparation derived from the international human rights treaties already referred to, which by provision of the second paragraph of article 5 of our Fundamental Charter have a superior hierarchy,” it concludes.

Source: adprensa.cl 24/9/2022 Date: 24-09-2022

Two former military officers sentenced for homicides and kidnappings in Pisagua during the dictatorship

The visiting minister for human rights violation cases, Mario Carroza, issued a sentence against two former military officers for the crimes of kidnapping and qualified homicide, perpetrated in October 1973 and January 1974, respectively, in the town of Pisagua.

In the ruling, the special minister sentenced retired Army officer Carlos Herrera Jiménez to a single penalty of 12 years in prison for his responsibility in the qualified homicides of Orlando Tomás Cabello Cabello, Nicolás Chanez Chanez, Juan Apolinario Mamani García, Luis Aníbal Manríquez Wilden, Hugo Tomás Martínez Guillén, and Juan Rojas Osega, perpetrated on January 29, 1974; and of Nelson José Márquez Agusto, executed on January 18, 1974.

Meanwhile, Miguel Aguirre Álvarez must serve 10 years and one day for the repeated crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Rodolfo Jacinto Fuenzalida Fernández, Juan Antonio Ruz Díaz, José Demóstenes Rosier Sampson Ocaranza, and Freddy Marcelo Taberna Gallegos, perpetrated on October 29, 1973.

Likewise, he decreed the acquittal of Manuel Vega Collao for lack of evidence of participation in the crimes.

In the civil aspect, the ruling condemns the State of Chile to pay a total indemnity of 940 million pesos to the victims' relatives.

Source: biobio.cl 24/11/2016 Date: 24-11-2016

JUSTICE ISSUED INDICTMENT FOR KIDNAPPINGS AND HOMICIDES IN PISAGUA IN 1973

Visiting Minister Mario Carroza issued an indictment in the investigation into kidnappings and qualified homicides perpetrated in the Pisagua political prisoner camp between the months of September 1973 and November 1974, where the remains of some of the victims were found in a mass grave in June 1990.

The magistrate held retired Army non-commissioned officer Miguel Chile Aguirre Álvarez responsible for the aggravated kidnappings of Freddy Taberna Gallegos, José Sampson Ocaranza, Juan Antonio Ruz Díaz, and Rodolfo Fuenzalida Fernández, executions that occurred on October 29, 1973, in Pisagua.

The background information on this case determined that: "On October 29, 1973, in the town of Pisagua, Tarapacá region, a War Council was held, by which Freddy Marcelo Taberna Gallegos, José Demóstenes Sampson Ocaranza, Juan Antonio Ruiz Díaz, and Rodolfo Jacinto Fuenzalida Fernández were sentenced to death, who were deprived of liberty in the prisoner camp existing in said town, without the whereabouts of their remains being known to date, for which it has not been possible to verify their execution and that they had died, a situation that persists to this day."

Meanwhile, in the homicides of Orlando Cabello Cabello, Nicolás Chanez Chanez, Juan Mamani García, Luis Manríquez Wilden, Hugo Martínez Guillén, and Juan Rojas Osega, Manuel del Carmen Vega Collao was held responsible.

For this case, the following was judicially determined: "Orlando Tomás Cabello Cabello, Nicolás Chanez Chanez, Juan Apolinario Mamani García, Luis Aníbal Manríquez Wilden, Hugo Tomás Martínez Guillén, and Juan Rojas Osega were detained in Iquique during the month of November 1973, then transferred to the Telecommunications regiment of the same city and subsequently to the Pisagua Political Prisoner Camp, both units dependent at that time on the General Command of the Army Division, a position held by Army General Carlos Forestier Haensgen; in circumstances where none of them had political affiliation or carried out any kind of political activity, but were accused by the military authority as authors of the crimes of smuggling of goods and/or drug trafficking, without any evidence existing to support said statement (...) at the end of the month of January 1974, through a military edict of the VI Army Division, it was made known to the citizenry that on the 29th of the same month, the detainees Cabello, Chanez, Mamani, Manríquez, Martínez, and Rojas had been released (...) on the occasion of the exhumation of the bodies carried out from the pit located on the side of the Pisagua Cemetery in the month of June 1990, the bodies of the prisoners Orlando Cabello, Nicolás Chanez, Juan Mamani, Luis Manríquez, Hugo Martínez, and Juan Rojas were found, all with their hands tied, eyes blindfolded, a red circle adhered to their clothing at the level of the heart, each of them being found inside burlap sacks, buried together with thirteen other prisoners who were equally interred in the same pit between the month of September 1973 and July 1974, having been established by the forensic medical examinations carried out at the time as the cause of their deaths multiple gunshot wounds, an execution that was carried out, among others, by the Army officers who made up the surveillance guard of the Prisoner Camp and under whose custody these detainees were, plus the Carabineros personnel of the Pisagua guard post."

Source: cronicadigital.cl 3/7/2014 Date: 03-07-2014

Judge dismisses case against former aide-de-camp of the Chamber in Pisagua case

Visiting Minister Joaquín Billard dismissed the case against Colonel (R) Jaime Krauss Rusque, former aide-de-camp of the Chamber of Deputies and brother of the current Chilean ambassador to Spain, Enrique Krauss, due to "lack of merit."

The former uniformed officer had been prosecuted since July of last year as a material author of the homicide of seven political prisoners in the Pisagua area, First Region, in 1974.

The decision of Judge Carmen Garay—who was handling the case at the time—forced Krauss Rusque to leave his position as aide-de-camp of the lower house, a job he had held since 1990.

This is because the Statute of Personnel of the Chamber of Deputies established that no official who is convicted or prosecuted by the courts of justice could remain in their position.

"Like any military man, I submitted to the rules of the game and collaborated with justice, but the presumption of innocence did not operate for me. That right, which should govern in Chile from the President of the Republic downwards, was denied to me," said the former aide-de-camp to the newspaper La Segunda.

Krauss Rusque highlighted the testimonies of "a dozen" detainees who testified in his favor during the course of the process. "That one is defended by military personnel is natural. But it is truly comforting that those who have been on the other side of the fence do so," the former uniformed officer pointed out.

The former uniformed officer was charged with the murders of Nelson Márquez Agurto, Luis Manríquez Wilden, Juan Rojas Osega, Hugo Martínez Guillén, Tomás Cabello Cabello, Juan Mamani García, and Nicolás Chánes Chánes.

For these cases, General (R) Carlos Forestier, the late father-in-law of the current head of the Army, Juan Emilio Cheyre, and Major (R) Carlos Herrera Jiménez and Bernardo Martínez Téllez were also prosecuted. The latter were not favored by the resolution known this Tuesday.

Source: September 13, 2005 El Mostrador Date: 13-09-2005

Judge prosecutes aide-de-camp of the Chamber of Deputies

The board of directors of the Chamber of Deputies requested the resignation of the aide-de-camp, Colonel (R) Jaime Krauss Rusque, and he accepted to leave. The resignation was demanded only hours after special minister Carmen Garay prosecuted him and ordered his arrest as a material author of seven homicides that occurred in the Pisagua prisoner camp, while Krauss served in 1974 as a captain in charge of the Company of Guards of the detainees.

The information about the resignation requested from the aide-de-camp, who is the brother of the current ambassador of Chile in Madrid, Enrique Krauss, was delivered yesterday after 6:30 PM at the Palacio Ariztía in Santiago by the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Pablo Lorenzini (DC).

He expressed that the board of the Chamber agreed to ask for his resignation because, having been prosecuted, he fell into the "supervening disqualification" indicated by the institution's personnel statute in its article No. 23 letter c), which establishes that "the person who performs official duties may not be prosecuted or convicted."

The aide-de-camp had declared himself "innocent" in his statements in the Pisagua process, and he also expressed this to La Nación Domingo, which in its edition last Sunday published the chronicle "The Ghost of the Aide-de-Camp."

The prosecution of Colonel (R) Krauss was requested by the plaintiff lawyer in the Pisagua case, Adil Brkovic. He said yesterday that "we are very satisfied with this resolution because the truth is that in the process there is sufficient evidence to prove the participation of Mr. Krauss in the homicides of seven prisoners."

The lawyer said that although Krauss "is not accused of shooting the prisoners himself, there are those who point to him as the one who gave the orders as the second commander of the Pisagua prisoner camp. This investigation has already taken six years and the facts are fully proven," said Brkovic.

The Facts The now former aide-de-camp of the Chamber will be notified today first thing in the morning at the Palace of Tribunals in Santiago, and then he will be transferred as a detainee to the Military Police Battalion located inside the Army Telecommunications Command in the Peñalolén commune.

Minister Garay maintained in her resolution that the seven homicides that occurred between January 18, 1974, and January 30 of that year, happened in Pisagua while "Captain Jaime Krauss Rusque was in charge of the military personnel whose mission was to guard the political prisoners of the Pisagua Camp, a military unit that ultimately depended on the commander-in-chief of the VI Army Division (in Iquique), General Carlos Forestier Haensgen."

Colonel (R) Krauss acknowledged in the process that these seven homicides did indeed occur while he served in Pisagua between January 14, 1974, and at least, according to him, January 30 of that month. But he denied that he ordered the executions and also denied that his function was that of commander of the Company of Guards of the prisoners.

He said his task was "administrative," inventorying and storing "saws, hammers, shovels, heaters, cheese, ham, and sugar," coming from Red Cross aid for the prisoners.

However, according to lawyer Brkovic, the judge "did not believe" that argument, since it "does not fit" with what really happened.

In Pisagua, between September 1973 and July 1974, a rotating calendar of officer personnel who made up the Company of Guards of prisoners operated like clockwork, each time under the command of an officer with the rank of captain.

In turn, he had under his command four or five lieutenants and second lieutenants. The company was responsible for what happened to the prisoners, and it was its members who always participated in the extrajudicial executions, as established in the investigation.

For these same functions, other officers (R) who, at the date of their duties in Pisagua, according to the shift calendar, also held the ranks of captain and lieutenants or second lieutenants, have been prosecuted for other homicides.

The first to affirm that Krauss ordered the execution of prisoners in Pisagua was Major (R) Carlos Herrera Jiménez, who is serving a life sentence in the Punta Peuco prison. Herrera admitted that Krauss ordered him to kill the prisoner Nelson Márquez Agurto, one of the seven victims of the indictment, because he had tried to escape to avoid further torture.

Krauss denies it, but confronted, Herrera maintained his statements.

Colonel (R) Krauss was also prosecuted for the homicides of Luis Manríquez, Nicolás Chánez, Tomás Cabello, Juan Rojas, Hugo Martínez, and Juan Mamani. All of them were declared "released" by General Forestier; however, their bodies appeared, along with Márquez's, in the clandestine pit discovered in Pisagua in June 1990 with 19 bodies.

The other prosecuted individuals

For the seven homicides, General (R) Carlos Forestier was also prosecuted as an intellectual author; Major (R) Carlos Herrera Jiménez as a material author; Colonel (R) Bernardo Martínez Téllez as a cover-up; and Carabineros non-commissioned officer (R) Manuel Vega Collao, also as a material author. Vega was part of the firing squad of the six prisoners executed at the end of January 1974.

Against Colonel (R) Krauss's arguments of innocence regarding the fact that he only performed administrative duties are the statements of some former prisoners, who affirm, coincidentally, that the then-captain Krauss entered the jail the night of Márquez's escape attempt, threatening that if he did not appear in half an hour, prisoners would be killed.

One of them, Luis González Vivas, said that "when they killed Márquez, Major Krauss was there, for whom I had made a piece of furniture. And he warned that if Márquez did not appear by four in the morning, they were going to take prisoners out of the cells to be shot." Freddy Alonso affirmed the same. Both versions contradict the "administrative" tasks of the then-captain Krauss.

Source: July 23, 2004 La Nacion Date: 23-07-2004