The visiting judge for human rights cases of the Temuco Court of Appeals, Alvaro Mesa, ordered the prosecution and pretrial detention of six retired Army personnel, accused of illegal detentions, illegitimate coercion, and homicides perpetrated in Curarrehue in 1973.

The case stems from the aggravated homicides of Alberto Colpihueque Navarrete and his son Eleuterio, and the illegal detention and illegitimate coercion of Abel Colpihueque Licán, events that occurred in the commune of Curarrehue after September 1973, carried out by the Second Hunters Company of the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, which had moved to the border sector of the region.

Currently, Gabriel Antonio Sandoval Catalán, Ismael Alberto Llancafilo Cayufilo, Sergio Orlando Vallejos Garcés, Ricardo Jesús Vásquez Estrada, Héctor Mauricio Villablanca Huenulao, and Sergio Enrique Poblete Poblete are undergoing prosecution and are in pretrial detention as perpetrators of the crimes of illegal detention, illegitimate coercion, and aggravated homicide.

According to the investigation led by Judge Mesa, it is detailed that the military personnel under the command of Army Lieutenant Manuel Espinoza Ponce, who led the "Chacal" patrol, after several days of detention, allegedly transported Alberto Colpihueque Navarrete and his son Eleuterio in a Conaf pickup truck, with their hands tied behind their backs and a sack over their heads covering them down to their torsos, headed toward the border zone.

In the vicinity of the Quillelhue lagoon, the vehicle stopped; the detainees were taken out and ordered to walk a few meters to an area where Lieutenant Espinoza forced them to dig a pit. At that moment, the two men pleaded for their lives, which caused the military officer to jump into the pit and slit their throats with his corvo (military knife), after which he shot them at point-blank range, ordering the conscript soldiers accompanying him to cover the bodies with dirt.

Judge Álvaro Mesa Latorre is currently presiding over 110 cases comprising a total of 244 volumes, of which 4 are in the plenary stage; 3 have been adjudicated and 4 dismissed, with 57 indictments registered and 139 individuals currently undergoing prosecution.

Source: BioBio.cl, July 18, 2015

Five retired military personnel were accused of torturing and murdering a man and his son in Curarrehue

The military personnel were accused of the crimes of illegal detention, illegitimate coercion, and aggravated homicide of Alberto Colpihueque Navarrete and his son Eleuterio. Another son, Abel Colpihueque, was tortured in Curarrehue after September 1973.

The visiting judge for human rights violation cases of the Temuco Court of Appeals, Álvaro Mesa, accused five retired military personnel of the crimes of illegal detention, illegitimate coercion, and aggravated homicide of Alberto Colpihueque Navarrete and his sons Eleuterio and Abel Colpihueque Licán, which occurred in Curarrehue after September 1973.

The magistrate held Gabriel Sandoval Catalán responsible as the perpetrator of the illegal detention of Alberto Colpihueque, Eleuterio Colpihueque Licán, and Abel Colpihueque Licán, and as the perpetrator of the crimes of illegitimate coercion against Alberto Colpihueque and Eleuterio Colpihueque Licán.

Álvaro Mesa also accused Sergio Vallejos Garcés and Ricardo Vásquez Estrada as co-perpetrators of the crimes of illegitimate coercion and aggravated homicide of Alberto Colpihueque Navarrete and Eleuterio Colpihueque Licán.

Héctor Mauricio Villablanca Huenulao was held responsible as the perpetrator of the crimes of aggravated homicide of Alberto Colpihueque Navarrete and Eleuterio Colpihueque Licán, perpetrated in Curarrehue.

Sergio Enrique Poblete Poblete was accused as an accomplice to the crimes of illegitimate coercion and aggravated homicide of the same individuals. According to the magistrate's investigation, the two men were accused without foundation and motivated by previous grudges by a man identified as Ismael Llancafilo Cayufilo, who claimed they were communists, thieves, and even accused them of incest.

The Chacal patrol of the Tucapel Regiment transported Alberto Colpihueque Navarrete and Eleuterio Colpihueque Licán to a vacant lot in the vicinity of Puesco, where Lieutenant Manuel Espinoza Ponce forced them to dig a pit, entered the pit with them, slit their throats with his corvo, and finished them off with shots from his service weapon, subsequently ordering the conscript soldiers accompanying him to cover the bodies with dirt.

Source: soychile.cl, December 6, 2016