First War Council: October 11, 1973.

Through Edict No. 82, dated October 11, 1973, the Chief of the State of Siege Zone of the Province of Tarapacá and Commander-in-Chief of the Sixth Division of the Army reported the execution of five individuals at the Pisagua Prisoner Camp.

The aforementioned document states that a War Council was convened in that locality on October 10, 1973, for the purpose of judging various prisoners, sentencing five of them to death. The condemned individuals were:

Julio CABEZAS GACITUA, 45 years old, lawyer, Fiscal Prosecutor for the State Defense Council in Iquique, with no known political affiliation. In the exercise of his duties, he coordinated actions aimed at suppressing and controlling drug trafficking and the smuggling of goods in the area.

On September 14, 1973, he presented himself voluntarily to the authorities after being summoned by an Edict.

José CORDOVA CROXATTO, 35 years old, Administrator of the Port Company of Chile (EMPORCHI) in Iquique, and a member of the Movement of Unitary Popular Action (MAPU). Detained at his workplace on September 11, 1973.

Humberto LIZARDI FLORES, 26 years old, English teacher at the University of Chile, Iquique campus, and a member of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR). Detained on September 11, 1973, at the Commercial Institute of Iquique.

Mario MORRIS BARRIOS, 27 years old, official of the Customs Investigations Department, with no political affiliation. Having recently been assigned to the city of Iquique, he was detained on September 11, 1973, at the hotel where he was staying.

Juan VALENCIA HINOJOSA, 51 years old, Provincial Chief of the Agricultural Trade Company (ECA) in Iquique, a member of the Communist Party. He presented himself voluntarily on September 11, 1973, at the Intendancy.

A new Edict referring to the aforementioned individuals was published in the newspaper El Tarapacá on October 26, 1973, which reported that all of them "were convicted for being confessed and being authors of the crimes of treason against the fatherland and espionage... and, for violation of the State Security Law, by actively participating in subversive and infiltration plans within the Armed Forces, carrying out missions that were assigned to them."

Regarding the charged crime of treason against the fatherland, it is not legally applicable to civilians, but only to military personnel, provided that a state of war exists and there is an enemy in a belligerent state.

In the case of Mario Morris Barrios, the same publication states: "he was convicted for being confessed and being the author of the crime of Uprising of the Armed Forces...; for attempted homicide against various fiscal officials and violation of the Law on Arms Control." When consulted by this Commission, the National Director of Customs indicated that the officials of that institution, in accordance with the provisions of the 1972 Law on Firearms Control, could use said weapons and equipment in the manner indicated by the respective institutional regulations.

For its part, this Commission harbors serious doubts regarding the holding of this War Council. In this case, no copy of the proceedings, or even the sentence, was provided or could be located. Furthermore, according to the accounts of people who were detained at the Pisagua Prisoner Camp at that time, the procedures that were subsequently observed each time a Council was held were not carried out on this occasion: in general, prisoners were made to go out to the field located in front of the prison, and they were informed of the fact that the Council had been constituted, the accused were named, and they were grouped according to the penalty requested for each of them. Then, the lawyer who would defend them was presented to them. None of these procedures occurred on this date. Furthermore, there has been no knowledge of any defense provided by any lawyer in this supposed first War Council.

A witness, also detained at that Camp, was able to observe the moment when the five prisoners were brought to the end of the Pisagua cemetery, were executed, placed in sacks, and put into a grave.

The bodies of the victims were never returned to their families. All of them were found this year, 1990, in the Pisagua grave.

Presented with the facts in this manner, the Commission cannot help but reasonably presume that this War Council did not take place, having formed the moral conviction that Julio Cabezas, José Córdova, Humberto Lizardi, Mario Morris, and Juan Valencia were executed by State agents.

There is an indication that in the death of the lawyer Mr. Cabezas, his work as an official investigator of drug trafficking and smuggling may have been significant.