Political Affiliation: No known political affiliation or social representative position. Date of Detention: October 5, 1973

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

Juan de Dios Laubra Brevis, single, agricultural worker, with no known political affiliation, was detained on Friday, October 5, 1973, around 5:00 PM, when he reported to the "El Morro" Carabineros station, where he had been previously summoned.

He was detained by uniformed members of a patrol composed of military personnel, Carabineros, and civilians, who were heavily armed and had arrived moments earlier at the Hacienda "El Morro" in Mulchén. At that location, they proceeded to raid various homes, interrogate their residents, and summon several workers to the "El Morro" station.

Among the members of the operation, the inhabitants of the Hacienda were able to identify two Carabineros who had previously belonged to the staff of the El Morro station: Osvaldo Díaz Díaz (alias "El Alicate") and another with the surname Guzmán, as well as the then-Lieutenant of the Mulchén Carabineros station, Jorge Maturana Concha.

The civilians identified were: Romualdo ("Mayo") Guzmán Saavedra, a farmer; Francisco Urrizola Elías, an industrialist and owner of a lumber yard; Ramón Elías Abella, a lumber industrialist; Aquiles Guzmán Fritz, a farmer—all residing in Mulchén; Rolf Düring Pohler, son of the owners of Fundo Verdún; Samuel Arriagada Domínguez; and Raúl Tirapeguy.

Lieutenant Jorge Maturana Concha carried a notebook containing the names of various people from the property, notes he attempted to complete with information regarding political affiliation and/or union activities with the help of teacher Benjamín Elías Sandoval Pozas, who was the Director of the "El Morro" School.

They confiscated a vehicle belonging to him, which some members of the patrol used to locate the previously identified workers.

On that occasion, along with Juan Laubra Brevis, the workers José Florencio Yáñez, Celsio Vivanco Carrasco, Edmundo Vidal Aedo, and Domingo Sepúlveda Castillo were detained and held. After being tortured, they were taken by their captors to a site on the Renaico River known as "La Playita," where they were executed with their eyes blindfolded and their hands tied behind their backs with barbed wire.

At that location, the bodies were abandoned by the perpetrators. Days later, due to the river rising, the bodies appeared successively over the course of about twenty-eight days at different points along the banks of the aforementioned river.

Upon being found by family members and people from the area, they were interred in graves dug for that purpose, where they were given an improvised burial. These sites were fenced off and duly marked.

Following the execution, the patrol made other arrests, but all the remaining detainees were released at the time of their detention or in the morning hours, when the patrol was preparing to depart for the "El Carmen Maitenes" estate, without having coincided in the detention facility with those who were executed.

In 1978, three Carabineros in uniform interrogated the Hacienda's groundskeeper, surnamed Sandoval, about the exact burial sites of the victims, mentioning each of the five names to him. He specified the location where the remains of Domingo Sepúlveda and Edmundo Vidal Aedo were found.

He indicated, in a vague manner, where the remaining graves were said to be, as he did not know their exact location.

Days later, the same officials arrived by vehicle at the sector where the victims' graves were located; they remained there for a time and then left, without anyone suspecting that they had clandestinely removed the remains.

Between October 5, 6, and 7, 1973, in the mountain estates known as El Morro, Carmen Maitenes, and Pemehue, located east of Mulchén, 18 peasants from the area were executed, all of whom had no political affiliation.

A patrol of 30 people—military personnel, Carabineros, and civilians—traveling on horseback, arrived at Fundo El Morro on the afternoon of October 5. As noted, they proceeded to detain five peasants at their homes and took them to the banks of the Renaico River: -Juan de Dios Laubra Brevis, 26 years old, agricultural worker. -Domingo Antonio Sepúlveda Castillo, 29 years old, estate house servant. -José Edmundo Vidal Aedo, 20 years old, agricultural worker. -Celsio Nicasio Vivanco Carrasco, 26 years old, agricultural worker. -José Florencio Yáñez Durán, 34 years old, agricultural worker.

The group of uniformed men and civilians continued upward until they reached Fundo Carmen Maitenes, where they detained eight peasants at their homes, took them to the main house, and there beat them and forced them to beat each other: -Miguel del Carmen Albornoz Acuña, 20 years old, agricultural worker. -Daniel Alfonso Albornoz González, 28 years old, agricultural worker. -Alejandro Albornoz González, 48 years old, agricultural worker. -Guillermo José Albornoz González, 32 years old, agricultural worker. -Luis Alberto Godoy Sandoval, 23 years old, agricultural worker. -Manuel Florencio Rubilar Gutiérrez, 25 years old, agricultural worker. -José Liborio Rubilar Gutiérrez, 28 years old, agricultural worker. -José Lorenzo Rubilar Gutiérrez, 33 years old, agricultural worker.

Subsequently, they headed to the Pemehue estate, where they again proceeded to detain five peasants at their homes: -Alberto Albornoz González, 41 years old, agricultural worker. -Felidor Exequiel Albornoz González, 33 years old, agricultural worker. -José Fernando Gutiérrez Ascencio, 25 years old, agricultural worker. -Jerónimo Humberto Sandoval Medina, 22 years old, agricultural worker. -Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme, 35 years old, agricultural worker.

In 1980, it was judicially established that the 5 forcibly disappeared persons from Hacienda El Morro had been executed by their captors. Locals from the La Playita sector of the Renaico River found them and buried them.

In 1978, Carabineros returned to the site and clandestinely exhumed the bodies. Despite this, a proceeding ordered by the Visiting Judge (Ministro en Visita) managed to determine the location of the first burial and find almost complete remains of one of the 5 victims, plus clothing remains and bones of the others.

Forensic analysis allowed for the identification of the remains, establishing that one of them belonged to Juan de Dios Laubra Brevis.

The other 13 forcibly disappeared persons, in whose detention the aforementioned patrol participated, were also executed by their captors.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

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

On November 22, 1979, the appointment of a Visiting Judge was requested to investigate these events. On May 6, 1980, the Court of Appeals of Concepción appointed Judge Carlos Cerda Medina for such purposes.

On July 14, 1980, the Court of Appeals of Concepción, accepting a document presented by the Archbishopric of the same city, agreed to authorize Judge Cerda to investigate the events that occurred at Hacienda "El Morro," consolidating said records into case No. 20.595 of the Mulchén Court of Letters.

The judicial investigation established the responsibility of military and Carabinero personnel, accompanied by civilians, in the detention, imprisonment, execution, and illegal burial of five peasants from Hacienda "El Morro."

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

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

Source: corporación

The Visiting Judge for human rights violation cases of the Court of Appeals of Concepción, Carlos Aldana, issued an indictment against former members of the Carabineros and the army for their responsibility in the crimes of qualified kidnapping, qualified homicide, illegal burial, and illegal exhumation of 18 workers from the El Morro, El Carmen-Maitenes, and Pemehue estates, located in the foothills of the Mulchén locality.

In the resolution (case file 30.2007), Judge Aldana indicted former Carabineros members: Jacob del Carmen Ortiz Palma, Juan de Dios Higueras Álvarez, Osvaldo Enrique Díaz Díaz, and Héctor Armando Guzmán Saldaña, as authors of the qualified homicides of José Florencio Rubilar Gutiérrez, José Liborio Rubilar Gutiérrez, José Lorenzo Rubilar Gutiérrez, Alejandro Albornoz Acuña, Luis Alberto Godoy Sandoval, Miguel del Carmen Albornoz Acuña, Daniel Alfonso Albornoz González, Alberto Albornoz González, Felidor Exequiel Albornoz González, Jerónimo Humberto Sandoval Medina, Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme, and José Fernando Gutiérrez Ascencio, crimes perpetrated on October 6 and 7, 1973.

These former Carabineros were also indicted as authors of the crimes of qualified kidnapping of: Juan de Dios Laura Brevis, José Florencio Yáñez Durán, Celsio Nicasio Vivanco Carrasco, Edmundo José Vidal Aedo, Domingo Sepúlveda Castillo, and Guillermo José Albornoz González, perpetrated starting October 5, 1973.

These State agents were also indicted as authors of the crime of illegal burial of the 12 victims of the homicide charges.

Meanwhile, former army officers Jaime García Zamorano and Julio Reyes Garrido, and former non-commissioned officers José Puga Pascua, José Iturriaga Valenzuela, Jaime Muller Avilés, Julio Fuentes Chavarriga, Luis Palacios Torres, Juan Cares Molina, and Juan Carlos Balboa Ortega were indicted as accessories to 11 counts of homicide—except for that of Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme—and the crime of illegal exhumation of said victims.

During the investigation stage, the Visiting Judge determined that the 18 victims were detained by army personnel from the No. 13 Regiment of Los Ángeles and the Mulchén Carabineros station between October 5 and 7, 1973, at the El Morro, El Carmen-Maitenes, and Pemehue estates in the area, where they were executed and buried.

Others were buried in the Mulchén Cemetery or on the banks of the Renaico River, places where the remains remained for more than 5 years.

Between late 1978 and early 1979, personnel from the "Húsares" Regiment of Angol, in compliance with a cryptogram from the Army Commander-in-Chief of the time, removed the remains of those executed in October 1973 and took them to an unknown destination, carrying out the "Operation Television Removal" (Operación retiro de televisores), which was ordered by the dictator to make the remains of the murdered disappeared persons vanish.

"Operation Television Removal" is one of the most bestial actions committed by the military dictatorship, by express order of the tyrant, organized with promptness by the "impeccable" CNI chief, Odlanier Mena, and executed with criminal zeal by the hordes of agents who reveled in the terror they provoked and caused among their victims, the victims' families, and the population in general.

Events like these cannot continue to go unpunished. It only remains to hope that Aldana and the courts take charge of administering justice.

Source: resumen.cl 15/07/2016

Date: 15-07-2016