On May 26, 1976, Elizabeth Mercedes REKAS URRA, who was four months pregnant, was detained along with her spouse, Antonio ELIZONDO ORMAECHEA, a militant of the MAPU. According to the testimony of Andrés Constantino Rekas Urra, Elizabeth Mercedes' brother, he himself was detained on a public street on May 24 and immediately taken to a location he identified as Villa Grimaldi.

There, he was interrogated regarding the activities and whereabouts of his sister Elizabeth, his brother-in-law Antonio, and their friend, Juan Bosco MAINO CANALES, and was told that he would only be released once they were detained.

The following day, he was taken by his captors from Villa Grimaldi and brought to his sister’s and brother-in-law’s workplaces so that he could identify them. He was subsequently returned to the aforementioned place of detention.

On the 26th, while still detained at Villa Grimaldi, Andrés Rekas heard the characteristic sound of the Citroneta driven by his brother-in-law, Antonio Elizondo. A few moments later, he heard the screams of a woman, whom he recognized as his sister, Elizabeth Mercedes.

He was released that same day. A few days later, he went to his sister and brother-in-law's home, confirming that they were not there and that the apartment was in complete disarray, clear evidence that it had been raided.

Public Notary Rafael Zaldívar Díaz drew up a report on the state of the apartment occupied by the Elizondo-Rekas couple, further verifying that on the dining room table were the eyeglasses, watch, and a magazine belonging to Juan Maino, a leader of the MAPU, who was detained that same day inside the apartment.

Furthermore, on December 30, 1980, Carlos Montes was detained by agents of the CNI. During the interrogations to which he was subjected, he was shown a document handwritten by him that had been in the possession of Juan Maino at the time of his detention.

On the occasion of Carlos Montes' detention, the Ministry of the Interior informed the court that he was a high-ranking leader of the MAPU and that "with the detention of one of his most important collaborators, Juan Maino," he had gone into hiding to avoid being apprehended.

The Commission is convinced that Elizabeth Rekas, Antonio Elizondo, and Juan Maino were all detained and forcibly disappeared by State agents, in grave violation of their human rights.

Occupation : Engineering graduate from the Universidad Técnica del Estado. Photographer Political Affiliation : Militant of the Movimiento de Acción Popular Unitaria (MAPU) Date of Detention : May 26, 1976

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

Juan Bosco Maino Canales, single, an engineering graduate from the Universidad Técnica del Estado and a militant of the MAPU, was detained by agents of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) on May 26, 1976, at approximately 10:00 PM.

The detention took place at the home of Elizabeth de las Mercedes Rekas Urra and Antonio Elizondo Ormaechea (both forcibly disappeared), located at Avenida Diagonal, Los Presidentes Nº143-B, apartment 2, in the commune of Ñuñoa, Santiago.

Juan Bosco was a militant and leader of the MAPU party and a fellow student of Antonio, with whom he was working on his thesis to obtain a degree in Mechanical Engineering. For this reason, Maino Canales visited the Elizondo Rekas family home regularly and very often stayed there, where he even kept some of his belongings.

At least one vehicle and three agents participated in the operation that culminated in Juan Bosco's detention. They were seen by neighbors in the area when, around 10:00 PM, they entered the Elizondo Rekas apartment, remaining there until nearly 4:00 AM.

Instead of three people, four left the residence. Subsequently, it was confirmed with the presence of Notary Public Rafael Zaldívar Díaz that there were clear signs of a search and raid in the apartment. Juan Bosco Maino Canales disappeared from that date, along with a Citroën vehicle he owned. That vehicle has not been found to this day.

The arrival at the property of Notary Public Rafael Zaldívar Díaz, assisted by the apartment owner, Luis Bravo Vásquez, and the mother of Juan Bosco Maino Canales, took place because the respective court (Eighth Criminal Court of Santiago) investigating the disappearance of Maino Canales refused to go to the site.

Elizabeth de las Mercedes Rekas Urra, who was pregnant, and her husband, Antonio Elizondo Ormaechea, had been detained that same day, around 6:30 PM, at the intersection of Alameda and Lord Cochrane streets, while in a Citroën owned by the construction company Raúl Varela S.A., where Elizondo had worked as an executive engineer since January 29, 1975.

Two days before the detention of the Elizondo Rekas couple, on May 24, 1976, around 3:00 PM, Andrés Constantino Rekas Urra, Elizabeth's brother, was detained. He was apprehended by DINA agents on a public street, at the corner of Alameda and Amunátegui streets, just as he was getting off a public bus, after having been subjected to notorious surveillance.

His captors forced him into a gray FIAT 125 automobile and transported him to the DINA's clandestine torture and detention center known as Villa Grimaldi. There, he was interrogated about the activities of his sister, his brother-in-law, and Juan Maino Canales.

Once the interrogation concluded, Andrés was taken by his captors to his sister's workplace so that he could identify her. They used the same vehicle in which they had detained Andrés Constantino. Once in the city center, they removed his blindfold and parked the vehicle on Lord Cochrane street, in front of Elizabeth's workplace.

At approximately 6:30 PM, Antonio Elizondo arrived, driving the Citroën in which he would later be detained along with his wife. He picked her up and they left the area, followed by the agents' car. Several blocks later, the agents lost sight of the vehicle Antonio and Elizabeth were in, which is why they returned Andrés to Villa Grimaldi.

However, while the latter was in that facility on the 26th, around 7:00 PM, he was able to distinguish the characteristic sound of the engine of the Citroën that Antonio used and the screams of his sister. That same day, Andrés was released by his captors. Since that date, all traces of Antonio Elizondo, Elizabeth Rekas, and Juan Maino Canales have been lost.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On June 2, 1976, a writ of amparo (habeas corpus), file Nº481-76, was filed before the Santiago Court of Appeals in favor of Juan Bosco Maino Canales. It was rejected on July 1, 1976, based solely on the report from the Minister of the Interior, which indicated that the person in question was not being held by order of that Ministry.

This occurred despite the fact that: 1) The Minister of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Mr. Galecio, was in favor of ordering the Commander of the Cuatro Alamos Detention Camp and the Director of the DINA to report on the detention of the individual, which was dismissed by the Court itself, ultimately rejecting the appeal. 2) The amparo filing explicitly requested that reports be required not only from said Ministry but also from the DINA, the Ministry of Justice, and the Chief of the "Cuatro Alamos" Detention Camp, as there was conclusive evidence regarding the imprisonment of Elizabeth and Antonio at the Villa Grimaldi facility and a direct link between their detention and that of Juan Maino. Furthermore, the Spanish Consul in Santiago was informed by Chilean authorities that Antonio Elizondo and Elizabeth Rekas were being held at the "Cuatro Alamos" Detention Camp, and he was therefore requested not to take any further action on the matter.

Furthermore, the Court of Appeals was requested to appoint one of its Ministers to visit Villa Grimaldi, a request that was also rejected by said Court.

Subsequently, the resolution not to accept the writ of amparo was confirmed by the Supreme Court on July 29, 1976, relying solely on the report from the Ministry of the Interior. It also ordered compliance with the Court of Appeals' resolution to remit the records to the corresponding Criminal Court in order to investigate the possible commission of a crime in the reported incident.

On August 13, 1976, the Court of Appeals remitted the file on amparo Nº481-76 to the Eighth Criminal Court of Santiago. During the proceedings, the Court was able to inspect photos authorized by Notary Zaldívar, corresponding to the state of the apartment and the items contained within it following Juan Maino's detention.

In particular, one of them provides evidence that Maino Canales was detained at that location, as the graphic testimony shows on a table: optical glasses, a wristwatch, a cup of coffee (already dried), and a photography magazine, all of which were the victim's property.

The Court committed a grave error by refusing to visit the scene of the events and failing to order an inspection, which meant that no fingerprints were taken, and traces and signals left by the perpetrators were lost.

On June 23, 1976, a complaint for "presumed misfortune" (disappearance) of Juan Bosco Maino Canales was filed before the Sixth Criminal Court of Santiago, which was accepted for processing under file Nº94.167.

On July 21, 1976, the complaint was expanded to include the kidnapping of Elizabeth de las Mercedes Rekas Urra and Antonio Elizondo Ormaechea. On October 28, 1976, the judge declared himself incompetent to continue hearing the case and, taking into account that case file Nº13.979 was being processed in the Eighth Court for the same events, ordered the records to be sent to that Tribunal, as it had jurisdiction.

On November 16, 1976, the judge of the Eighth Court accepted jurisdiction and ordered the consolidation of case file Nº94.167 with case file Nº13.979-6, which relates to the same investigated events. On November 7, 1977, the summary phase was closed and the case was temporarily dismissed, a resolution that was approved by the Court of Appeals on December 13, 1977.

Subsequently, on August 1, 1978, a collective lawsuit was filed before the Tenth Criminal Court of Santiago for the crime of kidnapping seventy forcibly disappeared persons, among whom was Juan Bosco Maino Canales, against: Army General Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda; Army Colonel Marcelo Luis Moren Brito; and Army Lieutenant Colonel Rolf Gonzalo Wenderoth Pozo.

It was assigned file Nº9022-1. Without performing any investigative steps, on August 10, 1978, the judge declared himself incompetent to continue hearing the case on the grounds that it involved military personnel.

On August 12, 1978, the plaintiffs appealed the declaration of incompetence. On November 24, the Court of Appeals declared the appeal inadmissible, which motivated the filing of a complaint against the ministers of that Court before the Supreme Court, which issued an order to stay proceedings.

It was not until March 8, 1979, that the Supreme Court accepted the complaint, ordering the Court of Appeals to hear the appeal and rule on it. However, on May 8, the Court of Appeals confirmed the appealed resolution, which allowed the 2nd Military Court to accept jurisdiction on November 19, 1979, and decree that the case continue to be heard, as previously ordered, in the 2nd Military Prosecutor's Office under file Nº 553-78.

In 1983, the Court reviewed the four volumes of the Extraordinary Visit for cases of forcibly disappeared persons in the Metropolitan Region, conducted by Minister Servando Jordán, which contained important information regarding the actions of the DINA and that security agency's responsibility for hundreds of forcibly disappeared persons.

On September 10, 1985, the Court Martial resolved positively on the Military Prosecutor General's request that General Manuel Contreras should testify only by written statement. Without any investigative steps being taken for four years, on November 20, 1989, Army Lieutenant Colonel Enrique Ibarra Chamorro, Military Prosecutor General, requested the application of the Amnesty Decree Law (D.L. 2.191) for this case, because the process had the exclusive purpose of investigating alleged crimes that occurred between September 11, 1973, and March 10, 1978, and because, during the 10 years of processing, it had not been possible to "determine the responsibility of any person." On November 30, 1989, the request was accepted by the 2nd Military Court, which dismissed the case totally and definitively—even though it was still in the summary stage—on the grounds that "the criminal responsibility of the persons allegedly implicated in the reported events had been extinguished." The plaintiffs appealed this resolution to the Court Martial, which confirmed the ruling in January 1992. A complaint was then filed before the Supreme Court of Justice, which, as of December 1992, had not yet issued its resolution.

(Complete records of the lawsuit against Manuel Contreras can be found in the case of Eduardo Alarcón Jara, July 30, 1974).

On September 24, 1981, following the detention of Carlos Eduardo Montes Cisterna, a MAPU leader and friend of Maino, which occurred on December 30, 1980—for whom case file 4-81 was followed—a request was made to the Visiting Minister, Mr.

Servando Jordán, to reopen the summary, taking into account that: While he was detained at the Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI), he was interrogated regarding his activities with Juan Maino Canales, and was even shown political documentation that Montes had given to Maino before the latter was detained.

Montes acknowledged this fact before Minister Servando Jordán, who investigated the disappearance of persons in Santiago. It should be noted that, within the process, the Ministry of the Interior itself acknowledges the detention of Juan Maino, by pointing out that Montes Cisternas is a high-ranking militant of the MAPU, who in 1974, while in hiding, began a reorganization process for that party.

It adds verbatim: "with the detention of one of his most important collaborators—Juan Maino—he went definitively into hiding to avoid being apprehended." In turn, Montes Cisternas declared before the Visiting Minister that Maino was his main collaborator from the beginning of 1975 until he disappeared.

He adds that the last day he saw him was April 25, 1976, when Maino accompanied him to the Central Station for a trip Montes was taking to the South. On May 28 of that same year, he learned that Maino had been detained by the DINA, because he did not arrive at a meeting they had scheduled, nor at an alternative one the following day.

When consulted, the Ministry of the Interior responded that what was asserted by that Ministry in a document corresponded to a literal transcription of a statement given by the prisoner Carlos Montes, in the process followed against him for violation of the State Internal Security Law.

On July 5, 1982, the Visiting Minister closed the summary and temporarily dismissed the case, a resolution that was approved by the Court of Appeals on October 14, 1982.

Source: (Corporation Report)

Unanimously, the First Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals decided this afternoon to grant bail to Rolf Wenderoths, one of the five former DINA members prosecuted for the kidnapping and disappearance of Mapu militant Juan Maino, which occurred in 1976.

The court, composed of ministers Gabriela Pérez, Rubén Ballesteros and the standing lawyer Benito Mauriz, resolved to set the bail at 100,000 pesos. Juan Maino was detained by DINA agents while he was at a house in the commune of Ñuñoa.

He was then taken to Villa Grimaldi, where his trail was lost. Witnesses in the case declared having seen at Colonia Dignidad a vehicle similar to the one Maino had parked in front of the residence on the day of his detention: a Citroën AX 330 model.

For the kidnapping of Maino, the special judge Jorge Zepeda prosecuted, on March 21st, the former leader of the German enclave, Paul Schaefer, as an accomplice, and five former members of the DINA as perpetrators. These are the former uniformed officers Manuel Contreras, Carlos López Tapia, Osvaldo Pincetti, Eugenio Fieldhouse, and Rolf Wenderoths.

Source: April 22, 2005 El Mercurio

Date: 04-22-2005

Judge prosecutes Schäfer for kidnapping of Mapu militant

Minister Jorge Zepeda prosecuted Paul Schäfer as an accomplice to the aggravated kidnapping of the photographer and Mapu militant Juan Maino Canales. In his resolution, the magistrate also charged as perpetrators of the kidnapping the former head of the DINA, Manuel Contreras, and the former uniformed officers Rolf Wenderoth, Carlos López Tapia, Juan Osvaldo Pinchetti, and Eugenio Fishhouse.

The minister had interrogated the former leader last Thursday, the day on which he had denied any connection to the crime. A Citroën used in the detention operation, carried out by the DINA on May 26, 1976, and another car of the same model that was owned by Maino, were the clue that linked the disappearance of the photographer to Colonia Dignidad.

Both were seen at the compound and, according to various testimonies, were used by the colonists. Sergio Concha, lawyer for the Maino family, valued the detention that made the prosecution of Schäfer possible. "It was known that there was a link to Colonia Dignidad, that possibly Maino or at least his vehicle had arrived at Colonia Dignidad, but having Schäfer at the disposal of the court to be interrogated certainly made the indictments possible." In this way, the prosecution of the former leader is added to the one dictated by judge Joaquín Billard for the aggravated kidnapping of the MIR member Alvaro Vallejos Villagrán and to that of the case handled by magistrate Hernán González for sexual abuse against minors. Lawyer assumes defense of Schäfer Likewise, it was reported that the lawyer María Eugenia Correa decided to accept the defense of the German citizen in the case handled by judge Billard. This, after she admitted publicly last Friday that having been designated by rotation for this case was not entirely to her liking. "I did not find sufficient arguments not to accept," said the young professional, who acknowledged, however, that "I would have preferred not to assume the defense, but it is what there is. It is what fell to me and I am going to assume it in the best way." Regarding her future proceedings, she indicated that "I am just studying the case and I hope to interview the accused in the coming days and, based on that, I will see the line of defense. It is a difficult and very complex case, both for the volume and for how controversial it is."

Source: La Tercera March 21, 2005

Date: 03-21-2005

Exclusive: Italian prosecutor investigates Pinochet's footprint in disappearances in Chile

Since Sunday, the Italian prosecutor Giancarlo Capalbo has been in the country to advance the investigation into the forced disappearance of four Italian-Chilean citizens detained during the dictatorship.

Although it is a process initiated in Italy that is still in its investigative stage, the case has already been the subject of a request to Chile asking for the designation of a lawyer for Augusto Pinochet.

The trip of the investigator aims to collect information on the cases of Juan Bosco Maino Canales, Omar Roberto Venturelli Leonelli, Juan Montiglio Murúa, and Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño. The latter two appear in the Armed Forces report as having been thrown into the sea off the coast of San Antonio.

Capalbo has already met with the families of the victims, the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared, and, this morning, he will hold a meeting with human rights lawyers Hugo Gutiérrez, Fabiola Letelier, and Julia Urquieta.

On the prosecutor's agenda for Thursday is the interrogation of some witnesses and a meeting with the judge in charge of the Caravan of Death process, Juan Guzmán, still without a set time. Although the process is still in its preliminary stage, Italian sources assured Primera Línea that, at least in the Venturelli case, the prosecuted General Augusto Pinochet, Colonel (ret.) Marcelo Moren Brito, lawyer Alfonso Pollec Michaaud, as well as civilians Máximo Vivanco, Pablo Márquez, Pedro Calderón, and Nelson Ubilla would be involved.

The investigation of the case was triggered in 1998, after Green Party Senator Stefano Boco requested the clarification of Venturelli's disappearance. One of the peculiarities of the Italian judicial system is that the trial can be held "by right of blood," which implies the initiation of proceedings in absentia for crimes committed anywhere in the world against citizens of the peninsula.

In fact, the former director of the DINA, Manuel Contreras, and former agent Raúl Iturriaga Neumann were prosecuted and sentenced to 20 and 18 years in prison, respectively, for the attack against Bernardo Leighton and his wife Anita Fresno, perpetrated in Rome in October 1975.

Once the criminal complaint is filed, a prosecutor is appointed to act as a public accuser (in this case, Capalbo), in a process similar to the designation of a judge of first instance. When he concludes his investigation, and if he deems that the necessary evidence exists, the investigator can initiate a formal accusation, which must be resolved by the Court of Assizes, a tribunal composed of two magistrates and six other people.

In August of last year, the prosecutor sent a request to Chile for the disappearance of the four aforementioned cases, all listed in the Rettig Report. However, Italian sources assured that on that occasion it was only a notification for Augusto Pinochet to designate a lawyer in Rome in charge of his defense in the trial.

In addition, other sources assured that at this stage of the process several Chileans have already testified as witnesses, including Socialist deputies Carlos Montes and Isabel Allende, writer Luis Sepúlveda, and the vice president of the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared, Mireya García.

Source: Primera Linea June 13, 2001

Date: 06-13-2001

Italy: Relatives of the disappeared hopeful about process against Pinochet

The vice president of the Association of Relatives of the Disappeared during the Chilean military dictatorship, Mirella García, expressed in Rome her hope that Italy will open a process against General (ret.) Augusto Pinochet for the detention and subsequent disappearance of five Italian-Chileans under his regime (1973-90).

Mirella García testified before prosecutor Giancarlo Capaldo, who is in charge of the preliminary investigation to determine if the conditions exist to initiate a process not only against Pinochet, but also against the head of his secret services, Manuel Contreras.

Capaldo is leading the investigation into the disappearance of Juan Montillo, Omar Venturelli, Giovanni Maino, Jaime Donato, and Dignaldo Pizzini.

Source: la tercera.cl, July 6, 2000

Date: 07-06-2000

"La mirada de Juan" exhibition at the Museum of Memory

"La mirada de Juan" exhibition at the Museum of Memory Museum of Memory, Matucana 501, Quinta Normal Metro. From August 30 to October 9. During the 70s, Juan Bosco Maino Canales recorded with his camera what was happening in the streets, in rural schools, children's soup kitchens, and peasant settlements.

This exhibition, inaugurated within the framework of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, exhibits his photographs for the first time in the country, a look at the Chile of the 70s and the years immediately following the coup d'état.

Maino was a young militant of the MAPU; he graduated from the School of Engineering at the then State Technical University and worked as a professional photographer during the Popular Unity. With this profession, he worked at the Center for Research and Development of Education (CIDE), collaborated with the Committee for Cooperation for Peace, the predecessor of the Vicariate of Solidarity, and with the Christian Evangelical Association (AEC).

In these spaces, he photographed with special attention the girls and boys who inhabited small towns and camps in the country. During the dictatorship, he was a key actor in the clandestine operation of the MAPU.

He was detained on May 26, 1976, together with the couple formed by Antonio Elizondo and Elizabeth Rekas, who was 4 months pregnant. His trail was lost in the former Colonia Dignidad, where the engine of his Citroën was found.

His sisters, relatives, and friends have kept his memory alive for these 46 years through various actions and activities that take place every May 26. In 2017, with decades of delay, Italian courts convicted those involved in his disappearance through the emblematic Condor Trial.

At that time, an exhibition of Juan Maino's photographs was held in Rome and Bologna (Italy). Today, for the first time, these images will be exhibited in Chile, in the Memory Gallery of the Museum of Memory and Human Rights.

The exhibition is part of a project that seeks to disseminate his artistic legacy and his memory and which also contemplates the publication of a book through the LOM publishing house. "Rescuing and disseminating those photographs not only contributes to dignifying Juan, one of the victims of the dictatorship, but also the impoverished childhood, which is still invisible today," noted the team in charge of the production and curation of the exhibition.

Source: elmostrador.cl 8/31/2022

Colonia Dignidad: man in charge of making cars of kidnapped persons disappear is convicted

Willi Malessa was accused as an accessory to three kidnappings carried out by the DINA in Santiago in 1976. Both the victims and their vehicles (two "Citronetas") had their trails lost inside the main property of the sect, in the foothills of Parral.

Although nearly 50 years have passed since the events, the minister visiting for human rights violation cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Paola Plaza, sentenced one of the last remaining leaders of Colonia Dignidad, Willi Malessa, to six years in prison, accused of covering up the kidnapping of three MAPU militants, whose trail was lost inside Colonia Dignidad in May 1976.

They are the photographer Juan Maino Canales, Antonio Elizondo Ormaechea, and his wife, Elizabeth Rekas Urra, who was four months pregnant at the time she was kidnapped by members of the defunct DINA. One of the peculiarities of this case is that Maino and the Elizondo-Rekas couple had their cars stolen, two Citroën AX-330s, better known as "Citronetas." Maino Canales was a close collaborator of the current Minister of Housing and Urbanism, Carlos Montes.

In fact, Pablo Adriasola Maino, a cousin of the first victim, declared in 2004 that "the day before his detention (Juan) was with me, telling me that he had to meet with Carlos Montes." However, Montes, a high-ranking leader of the MAPU at the time, could not make it to the meeting they were to hold at Estación Central, for which reason Maino, who resided in Rancagua, went to spend the night at a friend's house in Santiago, being subsequently kidnapped.

As journalist Mónica González revealed in 1987 in the magazine Análisis, in the mass graves that were excavated in the Chenco sector, inside the neo-Nazi-inspired sect settled in the foothills of Parral, they not only buried the bodies of political opponents but also vehicles, which were handed over to the enclave as a sort of "payment" for the use of the site's facilities as a concentration and disappearance camp for opponents.

Cars as "payment" This was corroborated at the beginning of 2005, when the civil police found parts of two buried engines, both of the Renault brand, which were at a depth of approximately 135 cm, with their serial numbers erased.

This was consistent with the testimonies that began to be provided at that time by different colonists, who related that in the mid-70s at least eight vehicles appeared inside the property that did not belong to the initial fleet they had (formed only by Mercedes Benz, Magirus, or Volkswagen cars and trucks), including two or three "Citronetas." However, judicial investigations carried out to date indicate that in at least 15 cases of forced disappearances, DINA agents also stole the vehicles of their victims.

The half-brother of the doctor Hartmutt Hopp, Ulrich Schmidtke Miottel, said, also in 2005, that some 30 years earlier Schäfer had called him, along with Willi Malessa, Artur Gerlach, and apparently Johann Van Den Berg, telling them that "the military government had given them a task," which consisted of repairing and painting those vehicles (among which he said there were two or three "Citronetas"), to then sell them and, with the proceeds, obtain money to buy new filming equipment.

However, shortly after that, the instruction changed, as Malessa "approached me and indicated that Paul Schäfer had ordered the aforementioned vehicles to be made to disappear and that I should help him dismantle them and bury them underground," which is believed to have happened in 1978, when the bodies initially buried in Chenco were removed from there within the framework of the so-called "Operation Television Removal," as the instruction given by Augusto Pinochet that year was known, in order to hide all evidence of human rights violations.

Schmidtke also pointed out that "once these were dismantled, we loaded them onto a Magirus Deutz truck (which is currently in the workshops). These vehicles were buried in a part of the valley inside the Colony (where the police found part of them).

For these purposes, Willi chose the places and proceeded to make a hole with a Caterpillar brand backhoe, with tracks." In his testimony, he explained that an Austin Mini car, which was made of fiberglass, was burned and, in the case of the other vehicles, "Willi proceeded to crush these cars with the backhoe shovel and subsequently covered them with dirt.

In the following days, we continued dismantling and burying vehicles, but I do not remember the exact places, since as I pointed out earlier, Willi always chose the places." The witness also said that a couple of years earlier (around 2003), another of the sect's leaders, Hans Jurgen Riesland, had approached him saying "that he had knowledge that I and Willi had made vehicles disappear or, rather, buried them, and that this was very dangerous if they were discovered or if Willi betrayed us." Certainly, in his statement, Schmidtke did not hold anything back.

He also related, among other things, that "effectively inside Colonia Dignidad firearms were built, such as submachine guns, grenades, and part of these (were) sold to the Army." A long process Two of the enclave's leaders, Gerhard Mücke and Johann Van Den Berg, ended up being sentenced in the first instance to a penalty of 5 years and one day in prison, as accomplices to the aggravated kidnapping of Juan Maino, Elizabeth Rekas, and Antonio Elizondo.

Likewise, the former director of the DINA Manuel Contreras, as well as former DINA agent Carlos López, were sentenced to 10 years and one day, as perpetrators of the same crimes. Another agent, the former detective Eugenio Fieldhouse, was sentenced to 5 years and one day as an accomplice.

However, the Santiago Court of Appeals subsequently acquitted Mücke and Van Den Berg, which was later confirmed by the Supreme Court. The Italian Justice system, however, sentenced 14 Chilean military officers to life imprisonment for their participation in "Operation Condor" and for the disappearance of Italian citizens within that framework, including the case of Juan Maino, who held Italian nationality.

Now, in a new ruling, Minister Plaza determined that Malessa (76 years old at present) be sentenced to six years as an accessory, which was notified to him at the Colina 1 prison, where the former leader has been incarcerated for two years already. by Carlos Basso Prieto

Source: elmostrador.cl, June 19, 2025

The structure measures nearly 20 meters in length and features a type of arm approximately 5 meters long. It was examined by the minister in charge of human rights cases, Paola Plaza, and officers from the Investigative Police (PDI).

The minister in charge of human rights violation cases at the Santiago Court of Appeals, Paola Plaza, is close to issuing a sentence against the last leader of Colonia Dignidad who remains in Chile, Willi Malessa Boll, as El Mostrador was able to confirm through judicial sources.

This comes amid a series of proceedings led by the magistrate, which include forensic examinations carried out in recent weeks at a new bunker found at the entrance to the former sect, on land that was alienated and sold to private individuals.

It should be noted that for many years, Willi Malessa was able to evade justice. The previous minister in charge of cases linked to Colonia Dignidad (Jorge Zepeda) never charged him with any crime, which is why Malessa, who was residing in Los Ángeles, boasted of being untouchable.

However, things changed for him with the arrival of Minister Plaza, who in May of last year indicted him as the perpetrator in one of the most emblematic cases of forced disappearance during the dictatorship, in which MAPU militants Juan Maino Canales, Elizabeth Rekas (four months pregnant at the time of her disappearance), and her husband Antonio Elizondo were kidnapped.

All were abducted in Santiago in May 1976 by agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA).

The original investigation culminated in a conviction against the entire DINA leadership and two leaders of Colonia Dignidad, Gerhard Mücke, Paul Schäfer's former bodyguard, and Johan Van Den Berg, who were, however, ultimately acquitted.

According to the investigation, after the three kidnapped individuals were taken to Villa Grimaldi, they were transported from there to the Parral property, where they disappeared along with two cars that had been stolen from them at the time of their arrest.

The existence of several pits in which the cars stolen from the forcibly disappeared were hidden had been known for more than 20 years, after journalist Mónica González made it public in Análisis magazine. Following multiple proceedings inside the property, physical evidence of this was found when the engines of two buried cars were recovered.

Before his flight to Germany, where he remains to this day, the doctor Hartmut Hopp acknowledged knowing about the existence of the cars, one of which was the one he used.

His half-brother, Ulrich Schmidtke Miottel, testified in 2005 that 25 or 30 years earlier, the sect leader, Paul Schäfer, called him, Willi Malessa, Artur Gerlach, and apparently Johan Van Den Berg, telling them that “the military government had given them a task,” which consisted of repairing and painting several vehicles, and then selling them to use the proceeds to buy new filming equipment.

However, some years later, “Malessa told him that it was necessary to dismantle all those vehicles and bury them.”

The dismantling, Schmidtke explained, “consisted of removing engines, axles, and larger parts. Once the vehicles were disassembled, we would load the parts, cabins, onto a Magirus Deutz truck, and it is very likely that the engines had been left separate for later burial in another place.

These vehicles were buried in a part of the valley inside the Colony (where the police found part of them). For these purposes, Willi would choose the locations and proceed to dig a hole with a Caterpillar brand backhoe with tracks.”

As he detailed, they threw an Austin Mini into one of the holes made by the machine and, after spraying it with gasoline, set it on fire, which consumed it completely, given that the car was made of fiberglass. In the case of the other cars, “Malessa crushed them with the shovel.” The engines, meanwhile, were buried in other places, using a smaller backhoe for that purpose.

With these and other background information, including several forensic examinations of the vehicle parts found buried on the property, the indictment against Malessa was issued.

One of these proceedings was carried out shortly before the death of Gerhard Mücke, who passed away in September 2022 in the Cauquenes prison. The visiting minister, along with her team, went there and interrogated the former security man of the enclave.

He, in a weakened state, acknowledged that they had buried the bodies of several forcibly disappeared persons in several mass graves located on the road to Chenco (still within the colony), where excavations have been carried out for years as part of a process regarding illegal burials and exhumations.

The latter is due to the fact that, according to the testimonies of the colonists themselves, it is known that the bodies buried there in 1973 were removed five years later, burned, crushed, and thrown into the Perquilauquén River, as part of Operation “Retiro de Televisores” (Removal of Televisions), which sought to eliminate evidence related to people murdered after the coup d'état.

With the new data provided by Mücke, which coincides with other information derived from the investigation against Malessa, the civil police are currently working in the sector, a place that—as Margarita Romero, president of the Association for Memory and Human Rights Colonia Dignidad, says—coincides with what was pointed out by several peasants who lived in the area and worked for the enclave, who “state that on the road to Chenco, which was the place where they lived, they had already dug pits by September 11, which were located on both sides of the road and caused them great fear, as they thought they were for them.” In this regard, she recalls that many of those peasants “were terribly repressed, mistreated, and many of them tortured, before being expelled from their lands by the colony.”

The Bunker

In addition to the cases related to Malessa and the illegal burials, Minister Plaza is also investigating an administrative file related to Colonia Dignidad, which is part of the National Search Plan.

The week before last, the magistrate, along with officers and experts from the PDI, went to a property that until recently belonged to Colonia Dignidad, located very close to its main access, carrying out an initial reconnaissance of a bunker that was unknown until now, despite the fact that it must be nearly 50 years old.

In this regard, Romero explained to El Mostrador that around last July they received information regarding said construction, and that “our association went to verify its existence, thanks to which we realized that it was a space that had not been explored, that had not been examined, and that it was important that we inform the minister in charge of the Colonia Dignidad case, who accepted the information and not only that, but also went to the site.”

It is “a bunker that is camouflaged in the middle of a forest, which has a very heavy metal door and consists of at least one corridor about 20 meters long and one meter wide, on average. Furthermore, a few meters from the beginning of the bunker, whose walls are made of concrete, it branches off diagonally, with an arm about five meters long.”

The entire construction, which passes under the main road, “possesses a significant amount of wiring, electrical circuit boxes, and what appears to be a hydraulic mechanism.” In this regard, Romero indicates that she tends to think that “it is a construction that has to do with the surveillance systems that the colony implemented, especially regarding the cameras and audio systems with which they prevented people from entering the place and, above all, prevented colonists from fleeing.

There is also a hydraulic system, and it is possible, from what I have discussed with some people, that it served to lift a bridge or part of the road, in order to block access to the colony if they deemed it necessary.”

For this reason, the leader specified, “we think that it is a very important discovery and, furthermore, we tend to think that it is probably connected to other tunnels, which is why it is very important that the minister continues with the investigations and forensic examinations she has already ordered.” by Carlos Basso Prieto

Source: elmostrador.cl, October 9, 2024

Willy Malessa, the brutal statements of the Colonia Dignidad exhumator

He was the person in charge of exhuming the bodies of dozens of forcibly disappeared persons, by express order of Paul Schäfer, in various pits located in the German enclave. His statements to the justice system, 50 years after the military coup, are part of the horrific memories of the dictatorship.

Two weeks after his arrest for aggravated kidnapping, El Desconcierto had exclusive access to them.

Talking about Willy Malessa is necessary. Not because he was arrested two weeks ago by order of Minister Paola Plaza, accused of being an accomplice to the aggravated kidnapping of three members of the MAPU—Juan Maino, Elizabeth Rekas, and Antonio Elizondo, detained by the DINA in 1976—but because he is one of the key figures in the so-called Operation “Retiro de Televisores.”

Hearing about Malessa again is a reminder that orders always have executors and that the exhumations requested by Augusto Pinochet, through cryptograms sent to different regiments in the country at the end of 1978, were also carried out outside military facilities, such as on the more than 14,000-hectare property of the Sociedad Benefactora Dignidad located in Parral.

More than four decades later, an indemnity from the German government, and a leading role in a Netflix documentary series, Malessa returns to embody what he has always been: a witness who pretends to cooperate. A man whose clues have been insufficient to locate the nearly 100 forcibly disappeared persons who passed through the German enclave.

“Malessa’s is a pseudo-collaboration,” says plaintiff lawyer Mariela Santana. Although this is the first time he has been indicted, based on information that had been present since 2005, he has never provided precise data on the location where the exhumations were carried out.

Until now, it is known that at least 10 pits were dug in Colonia Dignidad, that only one has been examined without finding remains, and that there would be another that has never been disturbed, the existence of which was revealed by Malessa himself to the visiting minister Mario Carroza in August 2017, which at the time provoked Paul Schäfer's anger.

Other—more pointed—versions suggest that the member of the German leader's security staff negotiated “his impunity in exchange for providing information on sites where evidence was hidden or making denunciations of third parties.” This is a thesis maintained by Herman Schwember in his book Delirios e indignidad: El estéril mundo de Paul Schäfer.

In any case, the importance of Malessa is that there is no one else who can reach that last lost pit, perhaps the only place in Chile where there could be concrete remains of forcibly disappeared persons. And it is for an elementary reason: he was tasked with digging up the bodies of the forcibly disappeared with a mechanical shovel.

El Desconcierto had exclusive access to two judicial statements by Schäfer’s former bodyguard, where details of Operation “Retiro de Televisores” in Colonia Dignidad are revealed, planned after the discovery of 18 bodies of peasants in Lonquén in December 1978.

The dictator's order did not allow for double interpretations: the dead had to be dug up and thrown into the sea. Without bodies, there would be no evidence. Malessa, in essence, was the one in charge of guaranteeing that impunity.

The man with the backhoe.

“Between bushes and blackberries”

Minister Plaza has ordered a series of proceedings in Colonia Dignidad: geomagnetism surveys funded by Germany and a set of aerial photographs provided by the FACH (Chilean Air Force). Both efforts allowed her to identify five areas of interest that could be subject to new proceedings.

They are probably the same places that Malessa visited, guided by Schäfer, and that he had to “clean up” with two other colonists from the German sect: Karl Van den Berg Schuurmann and Gerhard Mucke Koschitzke.

In a statement by Willy Malessa before Minister Jorge Zepeda in 2005, he recounts that he arrived in Chile on July 26, 1961, from a home in Germany that was a kind of headquarters for Colonia Dignidad in Europe. Here he says that he studied to be a mechanical turner and then went on to “perform tasks with heavy machinery, backhoes, and bulldozers.”

“At first, I worked on clearing the field, to get a place suitable for building so that when the rest of the people (colonists) arrived on ships, they would have somewhere to arrive,” he says in the statement.

Next, he comments that vehicles began to arrive that did not belong to the colonists and that he later learned were from the DINA.

He also remembers Pinochet's visit in a Puma helicopter, and on other occasions, Manuel Contreras and Brigadier Pedro Espinoza. Another person who visited the place, he adds, was the son of “Mamo” (Contreras), who taught martial arts to the colonists.

Malessa asserts that Paul Schäfer, a pedophile who also tried to abuse him, taught them that it was better “not to know anything, so the real names of those who visited the colony were not mentioned. What Paul ordered was carried out; otherwise, one was exposed to punishment, even physical... In the colony, nothing was done without Schäfer's knowledge.”

Regarding the exhumation work, the former colonist says that the remains found were left in a bucket, first, and then transported in sacks to a truck.

“White sacks where the Germans packaged urea.” From there, they took them to “a hidden place, between bushes and blackberries, to incinerate them.”

Days later, they would return with rakes to the cremation site to identify if any bone remains had been left.

“The last fragments were thrown into the Perquilauquén River,” just as Malessa commented in the documentary about Colonia Dignidad shown on Netflix. “Based on what I saw, I could say that I dug up around 30 human bodies,” he confessed.

In another statement from 2017 given to Minister Mario Carroza, the turner of German origin says that one of the first “cleaning” tasks he performed was near the house of a tenant with the surname Constanzo, and that Gerhard Mucke indicated exactly where to dig.

At about three meters deep, Malessa says, “I realized that not only dirt came out on the machine's shovel, clearly observing a body, from which details could not be seen... I do not remember exactly how many bodies I took out of that excavation, but there were several.”

The former colonist asserts that he performed the same operation in two or three more sectors, “where upon digging, more bodies and remains came out.” Then they ordered him to “prepare a flat piece of land, where they arranged a kind of grill, a place where the sacks were unloaded.”

“They tried to burn the sacks and their contents with wood and thick fuel made of gasoline, to set them on fire,” he added, noting that he did not know if they finally succeeded, since according to what they talked about, it was very difficult for them to achieve their goal.

He also remembers the transport of the last remains in a truck to the riverbank and seeing how the “vehicle's hopper unloaded its cargo.” “The fact of seeing the bodies on the shovel was a very big shock for me, since I never imagined that cleaning the properties meant taking out buried corpses.”

Willy Malessa has been in prison for a little over 15 days. His defense requested his release, but it was rejected last Thursday, and he was denied provisional release for being considered a danger to society.

Today he remains incarcerated in the Colina 1 prison.

by Claudio Pizarro

Source: eldesconcierto.cl, May 22, 2023

MMDH inaugurates “La mirada de Juan,” a photographic exhibition by Juan Maino, disappeared during the dictatorship

This exhibition, inaugurated within the framework of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, exhibits for the first time in Chile the photographs of Maino and his view of Chile in the 70s and the years immediately following the coup d'état.

Juan Bosco Maino Canales was a young militant of the Movement of Unitary Popular Action (MAPU); he graduated from the School of Engineering at the then Technical University of the State and worked as a professional photographer during the Popular Unity government.

During the 70s, Juan Maino recorded with his camera what was happening in the streets, in rural schools, soup kitchens, and peasant settlements.

With this profession, he worked at the Center for Educational Research and Development (CIDE), collaborated with the Committee for Cooperation for Peace—a precursor to the Vicariate of Solidarity—and the Christian Evangelical Association (AEC).

Maino photographed with special attention the children who lived in small towns and camps in the country.

During the dictatorship, he was a key actor in the clandestine operation of the MAPU. He was detained on May 26, 1976, along with the couple formed by Antonio Elizondo and Elizabeth Rekas, who was four months pregnant.

His trail was lost in the former Colonia Dignidad, where the engine of his Citroneta (Citroën 2CV) was found. His sisters, family, and friends have kept his memory alive for these 46 years through various actions and activities that take place every May 26.

In 2017, with decades of delay, Italian courts convicted those involved in his disappearance through the emblematic Condor Trial.

At that time, an exhibition of Juan Maino's photographs was held in Rome and Bologna (Italy). Today, for the first time, these images will be exhibited in Chile, in the Memory Gallery of the Museum of Memory and Human Rights.

The exhibition is part of a project that seeks to disseminate his artistic legacy and his memory, which also includes the publication of a book through the LOM publishing house.

“Rescuing and disseminating those photographs not only contributes to dignifying Juan, one of the victims of the dictatorship, but also the impoverished childhood, which is still invisible today,” noted the team in charge of the production and curation of the exhibition.

“La mirada de Juan” will be open to the public until October 9 at the Memory Gallery of the Museum of Memory and Human Rights.

The story of “La mirada de Juan”

At the end of August 2014, journalist Marcela Jiménez, in charge of communications at the Center for Educational Research and Development (CIDE), found four metal suitcases in the building's storage rooms that stood out from the rest of the items.

When she opened them, she found a huge treasure: they were 250 unpublished slides, organized by topic, by the photographer and militant Juan Maino.

At first, Jiménez did not know who these images belonged to, which, according to her, “are very beautiful.”

She scanned a couple and began to circulate them around CIDE to try her luck. It was educator Juan Zuleta who, with tears in his eyes, after seeing some images, said: “They are Juanito's.”

The images found portrayed children in different situations and contexts. Some studying, others playing, all of them residents of shantytowns.

Despite their poverty, the little ones looked at Maino's camera with a glimmer of hope in their eyes, letting a discreet joy show through their smiles.

Those photos were taken between 1973 and 1976 for the popular education project “Padres e Hijos.”

CIDE, a space of resistance

CIDE was the emblem of Jesuit educational proposals during the educational reform of former President Frei Montalva (predecessor of Salvador Allende). After the coup that defeated the socialist president in 1973, CIDE became an intellectual reservoir of the left and a refuge for militants who were being persecuted.

The Jesuit priest Gerardo Whelan, expelled from Saint George’s after implementing an Allende project that contemplated shared education between children from upper classes and those from the shantytowns, hid there.

Numerous members of the Movement of Unitary Popular Action (MAPU) also took refuge there, among whom was Juan Maino.

Maino's secret mission was to provide security to the MAPU leadership and serve as a human courier for Carlos Montes, the top leader in hiding.

If someone wanted to reach Montes, they had to go through him. He also printed and distributed the micro-newspaper Venceremos, the size of a large stamp, which militants read in secret.

Juan's family never knew about his political activism. He was a militant in the MAPU along with his girlfriend at the time, Gloria Torres, a law student at the University of Chile.

In total, the Maino-Canales family had five siblings. The youngest of all, Bernardita, says that a few days before disappearing, Juan left a letter for his mother in case something happened to him.

If that were the case, someone was going to call the house and inform them: “Juan is sick.”

Finally, a few days later, someone called.

In the letter, Maino asked that the negatives and other things be removed from his apartment in Villa Portales, and he quoted Antoine de Saint-Exupéry:

“To be a man is, precisely, to be responsible. It is to feel shame at the sight of a misery that does not seem to depend on oneself. It is to be proud of the victory that the comrades have obtained. It is to feel, in laying one's stone, that one is contributing to building the world.”

Finally, he asked that the letter be burned. Against his wishes, Filma lit it with a match right on the sidewalk.

Disappearance and vestiges

Juan was detained on the night of May 26, 1976, in an apartment in Villa Los Presidentes, in Ñuñoa. His car, a white Citroneta, disappeared with him.

“Around 1985, a former collaborator of Colonia Dignidad approached us, saying that they had buried some cars of forcibly disappeared persons there,” recalls Margarita Maino, another of Juan's sisters.

At first, the judges did not believe them. However, in 2003, the case was placed in the hands of Minister Jorge Zepeda, who ordered raids on the colony. In 2005, the engine of Juan's white Citroneta appeared.

The discovery of the engine allowed for the conviction of Manuel Contreras and another member of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) as perpetrators of Maino's disappearance, and three members of Colonia Dignidad as accomplices.

It even allowed for Maino's case to be added in 2014 to the so-called Condor Trial, which the government of Italy initiated against military and civilian personnel from Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile for the disappearance of 33 Italians during the dictatorial regimes in Latin America.

Because of their dual Italian-Chilean nationality, the MIR member Omar Venturelli, the socialist Juan José Montiglio, and Juan Maino are the three disappeared persons with dual nationality who appear in the case.

Source: impuremag.com, August 26, 2022