Unprecedented high command order to "eliminate" Marxist elements revealed.

Chillán, Chile. A security order issued from the Second Police Station (Segunda Comisaría) of Chillán, shortly after the military coup of September 11, 1973, could represent fundamental evidence for those who maintain that the detentions and disappearances that occurred were ordered by the Army high command and were not due to isolated actions.

The circular, drafted on September 26, 1973, by the then-chief of the Second Police Station of Chillán, Major Cecilio Soto Pacheco, instructs the Carabineros, the Investigations police, and the Army on how to proceed during the State of Siege.

The three-page document begins by stating that it is the duty of the police and the Army to maintain their good name before the citizenry, and therefore calls for maximum care in detentions, "since not all supporters of the Marxist government are extremists." Subsequently, however, the report clearly establishes that Marxism must be eliminated. "The action of the public force must have as a general rule the fulfillment of various basic objectives such as definitively neutralizing or eliminating extremist elements and eradicating Marxism forever," the report states in points a and c on page 1.

On page 3, it establishes, "carry out the information cycle in order to obtain information that allows for the annihilation of extremists in the shortest possible time."

Request to Reopen Summary Proceedings

The report immediately motivated a reactivation of human rights cases. "The content strikes me as very significant; things are said like 'eradicating Marxism forever,' as if ideas could be killed by decree," explained lawyer Eduardo Contreras Mella, who, based on this background information, asked Minister Joaquín Billard to reopen the summary proceedings for the execution of the former mayor of Chillán, Ricardo Lagos Reyes, his wife Sonia Ojeda, and their son, Carlos, which occurred on September 16, 1973, outside their home in Chillán Viejo.

Contreras indicated that in the report, Major Soto certifies under his signature that said order was also signed by Juan Guillermo Toro Dávila, Colonel and Chief of the Zone under State of Siege, and Lutgardo Fuentes Contreras, Captain and Aide, which is why he asked Minister Billard to summon retired General Guillermo Toro Dávila to testify, along with the officers who made up the Internal Security Office in Chillán, Nelson Robledo Romero and Andrés Morales Pereira, in addition to former Carabineros Major Cecilio Soto Pacheco.

He also requested that those named be confronted with former Lieutenant Patricio Jeldres and former Carabinero Juan Francisco Opazo Guerrero, two of those prosecuted in the case, along with former Carabineros Pedro Loyola Osorio and Arturo Alarcón Navarrete.

Source: mqh.blogia.com, July 21, 2007

Judge Carlos Flores, who is exclusively dedicated to human rights violation cases, prosecuted four retired Carabineros for the murder of the former mayor of Chillán and his family in September 1973. The individuals subjected to prosecution are retired officer Patricio Jéldrez Rodríguez and former Carabineros Juan Francisco Opazo Guerrero, Pedro Loyola Osorio, and Arturo Alarcón Navarrete.

All are accused of the crime of qualified homicide. According to El Mostrador, the events occurred on September 16, 1973, in Chillán, when police officers broke into the home of former mayor Ricardo Lagos Reyes, his wife Alba Ojeda Grandón, who was six months pregnant, and their son, Carlos Eduardo.

According to the investigation, the uniformed officers took the victims to a terrace of the home, where they ordered them to sit on a staircase and gunned them down. Two years after the mayor's death, his son Ricardo Lagos Salinas was detained by a military patrol in Santiago, and his name now appears on the list of forcibly disappeared persons known to the Dialogue Roundtable.

Source: La Tercera, March 13, 2003

Ricardo Lagos Reyes, wife, and son

On March 11, 2003, special judge (ministro de fuero) Daniel Calvo prosecuted four retired Carabineros for the crime of qualified homicide of the man who was Mayor of Chillán until September 11, 1973, Ricardo Raúl Lagos Reyes, his wife Sonia Ojeda Grandón, who was six months pregnant, and their son Carlos Eduardo Lagos Salinas, who were executed on September 16, 1973.

Those prosecuted as authors of the crime of qualified homicide are: retired Carabineros General Patricio Enrique Jeldres Rodríguez; and retired Carabineros non-commissioned officers Juan Francisco Opazo Guerrero, Pedro Ernesto Loyola Osorio, and Manuel Arturo Alarcón Navarrete.

On May 21, 2003, Minister Calvo directed the exhumations, in Patio Number 1 of the Chillán Cemetery, of the bodies of Ricardo Raúl Lagos Reyes, his wife Sonia Ojeda Grandón, and one of their sons, Carlos Eduardo Lagos Salinas.

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity Archive

1973 Events: Judge exhumes three bodies in Chillán

The murder of former mayor Ricardo Lagos Reyes, his pregnant wife, and his 18-year-old son is being investigated. The minister of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Daniel Calvo Flores, directed the exhumation yesterday in Patio No. 1 of the Chillán Cemetery of the bodies of the city's former mayor, Ricardo Lagos Reyes, his spouse Sonia Ojeda Grandón, who was six months pregnant, and one of their sons, Carlos Lagos Salinas, 18.

The remains were transported to Santiago, where they will undergo forensic analysis. The procedure lasted nearly two hours and was carried out by medical experts, who were supported by officials from the Criminalistics division of the Santiago Investigations police and the Chillán Homicide Brigade.

Minister Calvo is one of the four judges to whom the Supreme Court assigned, in mid-October of last year, 90 of the human rights cases that were being investigated by special judge Juan Guzmán Tapia. Among the 66 cases assumed by Calvo is that of Lagos Reyes and his family, for which he ordered the detention and prosecution of four uniformed officers, in addition to the investigations of Lago Ranco, Tocopilla, Pisagua, and that of the former mayor of Coelemu, Luis Acevedo.

Meanwhile, in Santiago, and as alleged perpetrators of the death of the former mayor of Chillán, his wife, and his son, which occurred on September 16, 1973, former police officers Juan Francisco Opazo Guerrero, Pedro Loyola Osorio, Arturo Alarcón Navarrete, and Patricio Jeldres Rodríguez, all retired, are being held in the Pudahuel Norte police sub-station and the Norambuena building.

The exhumation of the remains was witnessed by Patricia Paredes, the mayor's daughter-in-law and secretary of the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared of Chillán, who acknowledged the progress in the trial since Minister Calvo took over the investigation.

The plaintiff lawyer Tirso Figueroa, a personal friend of the disappeared former mayor and his family, did not hide his emotion, noting that "it was a harrowing reunion." The detainees are prosecuted for the crime of qualified homicide and illicit acts defined and sanctioned in Article 391 of the Penal Code.

During his stay in Chillán, the judge also took statements in the case regarding the disappearance of Mario Fernando Moreno Castro, from his wife Rosa Salinas and his daughter Carol Moreno at the Court of Appeals.

Source: El Mercurio, March 22, 2003

Harsh criticism of Judge Billard for low sentences in triple crime

Plaintiff lawyer Eduardo Contreras stated that he will appeal the sentence because "this is not doing justice." Lawyer Hugo Gutiérrez described the minister's resolution as "shameful and aberrant." Human rights lawyers formulated harsh criticisms of Santiago Court of Appeals minister Joaquín Billard, who yesterday handed down low sentences and granted the benefit of "supervised release" to those who, on September 16, 1973, murdered the Socialist mayor of Chillán, Ricardo Lagos Reyes, his wife Alba Ojeda Grandón—who was seven months pregnant—and their 19-year-old son Carlos Lagos Salinas.

In a resolution—described by lawyer Hugo Gutiérrez as "shameful and aberrant" and which the plaintiff in the case, Eduardo Contreras, considered as "not doing justice and promoting impunity"—Billard sentenced retired Carabineros Colonel Luis Gajardo Arenas to five years in prison as the author of the triple homicide, granting him the right to serve the sentence under a "supervised release" regime due to his "unblemished conduct." The judge also sentenced retired Carabineros Lieutenant Colonel Patricio Jeldres Rodríguez to three years in prison as an accessory, granting him the same benefit.

The lawyers also considered the acquittal issued by Billard for those who appear, according to plaintiff Contreras, as the material authors of the triple crime—retired Carabineros non-commissioned officers Juan Opazo Guerrero, Pedro Loyola Osorio, and Arturo Alarcón Navarrete—to be a "legal aberration." Eduardo Contreras declared to La Nación that "we will certainly appeal this first-instance sentence because we consider it unjust and because these rulings do not do justice to the victims and their families." The appeal must be heard by a chamber of the Santiago Court, which has the authority to modify Billard's ruling. The matter will then reach the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court, which has also stood out in the last two years for substantially reducing sentences and granting benefits for "unblemished conduct" to military personnel who committed crimes during the past dictatorship. At noon on Sunday, September 16, 1973, about 30 Carabineros and Army personnel entered Mayor Lagos's house in Chillán, taking him along with his wife and son to the backyard of the house where they killed them with multiple gunshots, despite the mayor's pleas not to kill his wife due to her advanced state of pregnancy. Two workers who happened to be in the house because they had delivered merchandise ordered by the mayor were locked in a storage room by the military and testified in the proceedings regarding Lagos Reyes's pleas not to kill his wife and son. They were also witnesses to the cruelty with which the perpetrators treated the family and the mockery in response to the mayor's pleas. Subsequently, the chief of the zone under a state of emergency in Chillán, Army Colonel Juan Guillermo Toro Dávila, disguised the murder as a "confrontation." Lawyer Contreras, who was a Communist deputy for Chillán at the time, extended his criticisms to Billard "because he also left Toro Dávila unpunished, who clearly has full criminal responsibility for this triple crime." The mayor was the father of Ricardo Lagos Salinas, a member of the PS Central Committee who is currently forcibly disappeared.

Indemnification In any case, the lawyers said that "at least" the judge did not apply the amnesty or the statute of limitations for the crime due to the passage of time, declaring that the crime is one of those considered a "crime against humanity," and in this regard, international criminal legislation that protects human rights must be applied.

At the same time, in the sentence, Billard partially accepted a civil lawsuit and ordered the state treasury and the two retired Carabineros officers to pay the family the sum of 30 million pesos for moral damages.

Source: La Nación, August 21, 2008

40 years later, Chillán has the lowest number of convictions for human rights cases

Out of nearly a hundred disappearances, only 5 cases have ended in convictions.

Of the 71 forcibly disappeared persons in Ñuble, no more than 11 cases have turned into open files. The figure has cast upon the justice system, in this case the Chillán Court of Appeals, the sad label of being the court with the fewest sentences in relation to the number of victims in the entire country—the region is second in disappearances and executions after the Metropolitan Region—according to plaintiff lawyers in the region.

Many of the cases have been dismissed, and in only five are there convictions, but with sentences that do not exceed five years, because they benefited from the statute of limitations, a legal figure known as the "Dolmestch Doctrine" which translates into a reduction of sentences.

Regarding the perpetrators, the names of the patrols that participated in the detentions become repetitive. According to the account of witnesses, which abounds in the files, the bulk of the detentions of most of the forcibly disappeared persons were carried out by a Carabineros patrol known as the "Repressive Group of the Second Police Station of Chillán," headed by former Lieutenant Patricio Jeldres Rodríguez, sentenced on August 13, 2008, by the Supreme Court to three years of minor imprisonment in its medium degree as an accessory to the qualified homicide of the former mayor of Chillán, Ricardo Lagos Reyes, his wife Alba Sonia Ojeda Grandón, and a son, Carlos Eduardo Lagos Salinas, perpetrated on September 16, 1973, in their home in Chillán Viejo. For this case, former Carabinero Luis Gajardo Arenas was sentenced as the author of the homicide of the mayor and his family to five years of minor imprisonment in its maximum degree. Jeldres, meanwhile, was sentenced for the disappearance of Gilberto Pino and Sergio Cádiz, agricultural workers kidnapped and killed in October 1973, even though a resolution on a cassation appeal is still pending. For this case, relatives filed a complaint with the Supreme Court against the Chillán Court of Appeals, which authorized the former Carabineros officer to travel to Europe with his family. Also prosecuted in the case of the former Chillán mayor, Ricardo Lagos, were other recurring members of the aforementioned Second Police Station patrol, such as former Carabineros sergeants Juan Francisco Opazo Guerrero, Pedro Ernesto Loyola Osorio, and Arturo Manuel Alarcón Navarrete, all three of whom were finally acquitted by the court. Added to this group was Márquez Riquelme, who was later murdered and whose crime remains unsolved. The name of former Carabineros Lieutenant Patricio Marabolí, who arrived in Chillán in 1974 and who, as clarified in the files, was one of the DINA's links in the area, also recurs in cases. The acquittal of former Carabineros, and the fact that despite being identified in several detentions they have not been convicted, maintains the disappointment of the relatives and lawyers with the justice system in Chillán. "Here, the contradiction exists that the repressors walk free on the street," states a member of the Association of Forcibly Disappeared Persons. For jurists, unfortunately, in Chillán, only one chamber handles human rights violation cases. "It is the same judges who see the cases, unlike in larger courts," judicial sources point out.

Military Patrol

Not only are the names of the Second Police Station patrol repetitive in the detentions of dozens of Chillán residents after the coup. Army personnel (from the "Chillán" Regiment) also participated in the detentions.

One name is repeated, that of former Captain Andrés Morales, sentenced to five years for the disappearance of the former regional secretary of the Socialist Party, Reinaldo Poseck, then head of INDAP in Chillán, and to five years for the disappearance of the INDAP official, the socialist and former student leader, Cecil Patricio Alarcón Valenzuela.

Many human rights lawyers agree that Morales "acted on his own," while others maintain that he communicated with the DINA envoy, Patricio Marabolí. Lawyer Eduardo Contreras Mella also holds former General Guillermo Toro Dávila, then commander of the "Chillán" Regiment in 1973, responsible for his command, although he has never been convicted for the disappearances.

Few convictions and low sentences

In addition to those mentioned, the judicial path of convictions for disappearances in Ñuble is limited to the case of the former Communist councilman of Coihueco, Carlos Montecinos Urra, for which former Lieutenant Luis Fernando Romo was sentenced to five years (a sentence already served); that of the peasant Félix Iturra Lillo, for which the former lieutenant of the General Cruz de Bulnes police outpost, Orlando Sepúlveda Tapia, was sentenced; and that of the worker from the Luis Cruz Martínez neighborhood, Jaime Espinoza Durán, for which former Lieutenant Aldo Leiva was sentenced to four years.

Source: La Discusión, September 7, 2013

Finally, only one person remained convicted for the qualified homicide of the former mayor of Chillán, his wife, and son

This week, the final sentence issued by the Supreme Court for the qualified homicides of the former mayor of Chillán, Ricardo Lagos Reyes, his spouse, and one of his sons, which occurred on September 16, 1973, at the victims' home, was made known.

The victims were Ricardo Raúl Lagos Reyes, 47, Mayor of Chillán, a member of the Socialist Party and father of Ricardo Lagos Salinas, a Socialist Party leader who was detained and forcibly disappeared in 1974 in Santiago; his spouse Alba Ojeda Grandón, 29, who was pregnant; and their son Carlos Eduardo Lagos Salinas, 20, a university student.

Of the two convicted individuals remaining in this process, the Supreme Court finally left only one: Luis Gajardo Arenas, sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison for his participation as an author in the three homicides.

Without benefits. Meanwhile, Patricio Jeldres Rodríguez was acquitted of the accusation as an accessory to the three homicides for having no participation, as estimated by the members of the Second Criminal Chamber, ministers Nibaldo Segura, Jaime Rodríguez, Rubén Ballesteros, Hugo Dolmestch, and the member lawyer Nelson Pozo.

Regarding what happened to the victims, the information provided by the local authority indicated that the affected parties had confronted Carabineros personnel when they arrived at their home with the intention of detaining them.

However, witnesses to the events have pointed out that when the group of Carabineros and military personnel arrived, the home was raided, the Lagos family was then executed, and there was no confrontation with the public force.

Other testimonies add that the operation had begun hours earlier, with the access points to the Lagos family's home being closed. The death certificate of Lagos Reyes states the cause of death as: "Multiple gunshot wounds." The bodies of the three executed individuals were removed from the Chillán morgue by two doctors who were friends of the family, who took charge of burying them.

The Process In August 1990, the case was reopened; however, it was only in March 2003 that the then-special judge Daniel Calvo issued the first prosecutions against former Carabineros Juan Francisco Opazo Guerrero, Pedro Ernesto Loyola Osorio, and Arturo Manuel Alarcón Navarrete, along with former Lieutenant Patricio Enrique Jeldres Rodríguez, all retired.

The latter eventually became Chief of the Metropolitan Zone with the rank of general. Subsequently, Calvo was removed from the human rights cases, and this process was assumed by Minister Joaquín Billard, who in August 2008 issued a sentence, sentencing Carabinero Luis Gajardo Arenas to a penalty of five years and one day, while Jeldres Rodríguez was sentenced to three years and one day with the benefit of supervised release for the qualified homicide of Lagos, his wife, and his son.

He dismissed the charges against Pedro Loyola and Arturo Alarcón. Along with that, he determined that the two convicted individuals and the Chilean State Treasury had to pay an indemnity of 30 million pesos to Patricia Paredes Parra, a plaintiff in the case.

Thus, after several years of processing, the highest court issued its sentence with the dissenting vote of ministers Segura and Ballesteros, who were in favor of accepting the exception of the statute of limitations for criminal action.

In the civil aspect, the exception of absolute incompetence of the court was accepted, and the indemnity for damages to which the Chilean State Treasury had been sentenced was annulled. In this area, the decision was adopted with the dissenting vote of Minister Dolmestch and lawyer Pozo, who were in favor of declaring that the court is competent to grant the indemnity.

Source: tribunadelbiobio.cl, July 26, 2010

Indemnification requested for the 1973 crime of the mayor of Chillán

The lawsuit was filed against four former Carabineros officers prosecuted for the homicide of the former mayor, Ricardo Lagos Reyes, which occurred on September 16 of that year outside his home.

A compensation claim for one hundred million pesos for the family was filed against the four former Carabineros officers prosecuted for the homicide of the former mayor of Chillán, Ricardo Lagos Reyes, which occurred on September 16, 1973, outside his home in Chillán Viejo, where his wife, Sonia Ojeda, who was 8 months pregnant, and Carlos Lagos, the mayor's son, were also murdered.

The legal action was filed earlier this week in Santiago by the plaintiff lawyer Eduardo Contreras, representative of the mayor's family, and is in addition to the criminal action currently underway in the case, which is being investigated by the visiting judge Joaquín Billard.

The four former Carabineros officers prosecuted as perpetrators of the crime of aggravated homicide belong to the patrol that participated in the bloody execution of the socialist mayor.

They are Juan Francisco Opazo Guerrero, Pedro Ernesto Loyola Osorio, and Arturo Manuel Alarcón Navarrete, as well as former lieutenant Patricio Enrique Jeldres Rodríguez, all of whom are retired. The latter rose to become Chief of the Metropolitan Zone with the rank of general.

The former uniformed officers were detained two years ago, after which they were released while awaiting the verdict which, according to judicial sources, could materialize before the end of the year. "It is an important step because it is taking place in parallel to the criminal action, so they could also be sentenced to pay both with prison time and compensation," indicated Contreras.

For the Lagos family, although this civil action is important to reactivate the case, it does not soothe the pain caused by the impunity surrounding the case after 33 years of waiting. "It is important, but what we are really waiting for is for those who committed such a brutal act and who have walked the streets with impunity to pay," stated Patricia Paredes, daughter-in-law of Mayor Lagos Reyes, as reported by the newspaper La Discusión.

Source: emol.cl, September 3, 2006

Commemoration of the Mayor of Chillán and his family executed during the dictatorship

The home of the man who served as mayor until September 16, 1973, the socialist Ricardo Lagos Reyes, was located at the intersection of Avenida O’Higgins and Erasmo Escala. It was on that day that a Carabineros patrol arrived at the location and killed the mayor, his wife Alba Ojeda Grandón, who was 8 months pregnant, and his son Carlos Eduardo Lagos Salinas, a 20-year-old student.

Although the official version spoke of a confrontation, it soon became clear that they had all been murdered in the patio of the house.

Forty-five years later, on that same corner, nearly a hundred socialist militants, friends, representatives of human rights organizations, and authorities gathered to remember Ricardo Lagos and his family.

It was an emotional day on Sunday, September 16, in Chillán Viejo. With photos of the riddled family, plus the image of the son, Ricardo Lagos Salinas, who was detained on June 17, 1975—the date since which he has been forcibly disappeared—red carnations, and Socialist Party flags, the attendees listened to those who spoke on the occasion.

A moving account was given by Patricia Paredes, widow of Ricardo Lagos Salinas, as she recalled what she and the family had experienced during these years of pain and searching.

Socialist councilwoman Alejandra Martínez, president of the Chillán Viejo commune, also spoke to remember the man who was mayor of Chillán between 1972 and 1973, commenting that those who worked alongside him in the Municipality "remember him as a fraternal man, especially in moments when for various reasons there were no funds to pay the employees' salaries, an emergency that the mayor overcame by putting money from his own pocket."

There were other interventions and music, ending with the symbolic gesture of placing red carnations at the foot of a tree, next to the photo of Ricardo Lagos. A new act of memory, 45 years after the military coup of September 11, 1973.

The judicial process

In August 1990, the case investigating what happened to Ricardo Lagos and his family was reopened; however, it was only in March 2003 that the then-special judge Daniel Calvo issued the first indictments against former Carabineros officers Juan Francisco Opazo Guerrero, Pedro Ernesto Loyola Osorio, and Arturo Manuel Alarcón Navarrete, along with former lieutenant Patricio Enrique Jeldres Rodríguez, all of whom are retired.

The latter rose to become Chief of the Metropolitan Zone with the rank of general.

Subsequently, Calvo was removed from human rights cases and this process was assumed by judge Joaquín Billard, who in August 2008 issued a sentence, sentencing Carabineros officer Luis Gajardo Arenas to five years and one day, while sentencing Jeldres Rodríguez to three years and one day with the benefit of supervised release, for the aggravated homicide of Lagos, his wife, and his son.

He dismissed the charges against Pedro Loyola and Arturo Alarcón. Along with that, he determined that the two convicted men and the Chilean Treasury had to pay compensation of 30 million pesos to Patricia Paredes Parra, a plaintiff in the case.

After several years of proceedings, in July 2010, the Supreme Court issued its ruling with the dissenting vote of ministers Segura and Ballesteros, who were in favor of accepting the statute of limitations for the criminal action.

Of the two convicted men remaining in this process, the highest court finally left only one: Luis Gajardo Arenas, sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison for his participation as a perpetrator in the three homicides. Without benefits.

Meanwhile, Patricio Jeldres Rodríguez was acquitted of the accusation as an accessory to the three homicides for having no participation, according to the members of the Second Criminal Chamber, ministers Nibaldo Segura, Jaime Rodríguez, Rubén Ballesteros, Hugo Dolmestch, and the participating lawyer Nelson Pozo.

Regarding what happened to the victims, the information provided by the local authority indicated that the affected parties had allegedly confronted Carabineros personnel when they arrived at their home with the intention of detaining them.

However, witnesses to the events have pointed out that at the moment the group of Carabineros and military personnel arrived, the home was raided, the Lagos family was then executed, and there was no confrontation with the public force.

Other testimonies add that the operation had begun hours earlier, with the access points to the Lagos family home being closed off. The death certificate of Lagos Reyes indicates the cause of death as: "Multiple gunshot wounds."

The bodies of the three executed victims were removed from the Chillán morgue by two doctors who were friends of the family, who took charge of burying them.

Source: sancarlosonline.cl, September 24, 2018

Human Rights: Indictments issued for crimes in Penco and Chillán in 1973

The visiting judge for human rights violation cases in the jurisdictions of Concepción and Chillán, Carlos Aldana, issued four indictments for crimes of kidnapping and homicide perpetrated in 1973 in various communes of the Bío Bío Region.

In the first resolution (case file 1-2014), the visiting judge indicted former Penco Precinct Carabineros officer Héctor José Santiago Aburto Muñoz as a direct perpetrator of the crime of illegal detention or kidnapping with serious consequences against Mario Alberto Ávila Maldonado. This crime was perpetrated in the commune of Penco, starting on October 9, 1973.

Meanwhile, former Carabineros non-commissioned officer of the Penco Precinct, Franklin Demetrio del Carmen Crisosto Maldonado, was indicted as a perpetrator of the crime of aggravated homicide of Ávila Maldonado, committed between October 12 and November 25, 1973.

During the investigation stage, it was established that: "On the morning of October 9, 1973, Mario Alberto Ávila Maldonado was taken from his workplace at the social development department, located in the public services building at Calle Serrano No. 1055 in the city of Tomé, through deception, by a police officer and then transferred to the Penco Carabineros police station, where he was detained in an arbitrary and illegal manner, as there was no competent legal, administrative, or judicial order, being subjected to interrogations and illegitimate duress by police officers assigned to said unit, resulting in serious harm to his person."

"Days after his detention, he was taken from the aforementioned police station by police officers and transferred to a rural and unpopulated area called 'Quebrada Honda,' located near the public road that connects Lirquén with Tomé, being executed by gunshots from firearms handled by Carabineros, with his remains being found in said area on November 25, 1973."

The name of Mario Alberto Ávila Maldonado is remembered at the Memorial existing in Quebrada Honda, a place where, in addition to the victim of this case, other political prisoners were executed at the time.

Chillán In the second case (case file 6-2017), Judge Aldana indicted former Carabineros officer Patricio Enrique Jeldres Rodríguez for his responsibility in the crime of aggravated homicide of Gabriel Marcelo Cortez Luna, a crime committed on September 19, 1973, in the commune of Chillán.

During the investigation stage of the case, it was established that: "At 5:00 PM on September 18, 1973, a Carabineros patrol arrived at the home of Gabriel Marcelo Cortez Luna, located at Pabellón Manuel Rodríguez No. 107, commune of Chillán, composed of Herminio Fernández Mercado (deceased), Juan Francisco Opazo Guerrero (deceased), Márquez Rodolfo Riquelme Echeverría (deceased), and Pedro Ernesto Loyola Osorio (deceased), who entered without a competent judicial or administrative order, violently searching the home in search of Jorge Cortez Luna (the victim's older brother), who was not at the location, proceeding to detain the brothers Gabriel Marcelo and Pedro Eduardo Cortez Luna, whom they transferred to the Second Carabineros Police Station of Chillán, where Pedro Cortez Luna was released by order of Lieutenant Patricio Jeldres Rodríguez because they had been fellow students at the Liceo de Hombres de Chillán, with Gabriel Marcelo Cortez Luna remaining detained in said police unit."

"After much searching by the family, his mother learned on October 18, 1973, that a body remained in the facilities of the Chillán Legal Medical Service, which presented as the cause of death: 'Craniocerebral perforation, ballistic projectile, action of uniformed contingent,' according to the medical death certificate issued on September 20, 1973, which was buried in a common grave at the Chillán cemetery.

Upon exhuming the body, it was verified that it corresponded to the victim Gabriel Marcelo Cortez Luna, who had died on September 19 of the same year, at the Maipón street overpass upon arriving at the Chillán railway station."

Normalistas (Normal School Students)

In the third resolution (case file 9-2017), the extraordinary visiting judge indicted Patricio Enrique Jeldres Rodríguez as the perpetrator of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Arturo Prat Martí and José Retamal Velásquez, and the homicide of Patricio Lautaro Weitzel Pérez.

According to the information gathered in the investigation of the case: "At 10:00 PM on October 1, 1973, a Carabineros patrol arrived at the home of Patricio Lautaro Weitzel Pérez, located at Pabellones Pizarro, street six, house four, commune of Chillán, composed of Herminio Fernández Mercado (deceased), Juan Francisco Opazo Guerrero (deceased), and Márquez Rodolfo Riquelme Echeverría (deceased), who entered without a competent judicial or administrative order, detaining him together with his fellow students at the Escuela Normal de Chillán, Arturo Lorenzo Prat Martí and José Gregorio Retamal Velásquez, transferring them to the Second Carabineros Police Station of Chillán, where they were subjected to interrogations and torture by an operational group of Carabineros, led by Lieutenant Patricio Jeldres Rodríguez."

Meanwhile, on December 24, 1973, "a young woman arrived at the watchmaking shop of Mario Weitzel Trincado to repair a wristwatch that belonged to her son Patricio Lautaro Weitzel Pérez, immediately proceeding to make inquiries about his whereabouts, arriving at the El Ala bridge sector over the Ñuble river, on whose bank she found the bodies of six people floating in the water, among them that of her son Patricio, leaving him half-buried in the same place, to report it to the court on December 26, 1973, forming a criminal case and the judge constituting himself at the aforementioned place the following day, ordering the removal of the body and its transfer to the morgue for the corresponding autopsy and, later, ordering its delivery to the family members, who buried him. (...) regarding Arturo Lorenzo Prat Martí and José Gregorio Retamal Velásquez, from the date of their detention—October 1, 1973—at the Second Carabineros Police Station of Chillán, all whereabouts or news are unknown."

Leaders In the last resolution (case file 11-2017), Judge Carlos Aldana indicted Jeldres Rodríguez as a direct perpetrator of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Robinson Enrique Ramírez del Prado and Leopoldo López Rivas. Crimes perpetrated in the commune of Chillán, on September 25 and 26, 1973, respectively.

During the investigative stage, it was established that: "Around 10:00 AM on September 25, 1973, Robinson Enrique Ramírez del Prado, president of the Central Única de Trabajadores (CUT) of Chillán, was detained by a group of Carabineros, without a competent judicial or administrative order, in the presence of his boss (Juan León Bernier) and coworkers, at his workplace: 'El Cóndor' Tannery, located at Av.

Collin No. 866, Chillán, and transferred to the 2nd Carabineros Police Station of Chillán."

Meanwhile: "At 1:00 PM on September 26, 1973, at his shoe repair shop located at Av. Brasil and Av. Libertad, in the city of Chillán, Leopoldo López Rivas, a member of the Communist Party, was detained by a group of Carabineros, without a competent judicial or administrative order, in the presence of his assistant (Vicente Vidal Méndez), and was transferred to the 2nd Carabineros Police Station of Chillán."

"Both detainees, Robinson Ramírez del Prado and Leopoldo López Rivas, were subjected to intense and cruel torture, both being left in poor physical condition and in that state were taken out of the police unit (...) all whereabouts or news are unknown."

Source: resumen.cl, August 10, 2017

With an emotional act, the Mayor of Chillán and his family executed during the dictatorship were remembered

The home of the man who served as mayor of Chillán until September 16, 1973, the socialist Ricardo Lagos Reyes, was located at the intersection of Avenida O’Higgins and Erasmo Escala. It was on that day that a Carabineros patrol arrived at the location and killed the mayor, his wife Alba Ojeda Grandón, who was 8 months pregnant, and his son Carlos Eduardo Lagos Salinas, a 20-year-old student.

Although the official version spoke of a confrontation, it soon became clear that they had all been murdered in the patio of the house.

Forty-five years later, on that same corner, nearly a hundred socialist militants, friends, representatives of human rights organizations, and authorities gathered to remember Ricardo Lagos and his family.

It was an emotional day on Sunday, September 16, in Chillán Viejo. With photos of the riddled family, plus the image of the son, Ricardo Lagos Salinas, who was detained on June 17, 1975—the date since which he has been forcibly disappeared—red carnations, and Socialist Party flags, the attendees listened to those who spoke on the occasion.

A moving account was given by Patricia Paredes, widow of Ricardo Lagos Salinas, as she recalled what she and the family had experienced during these years of pain and searching.

Socialist councilwoman Alejandra Martínez, president of the Chillán Viejo commune, also spoke to remember the man who was mayor of Chillán between 1972 and 1973, commenting that those who worked alongside him in the Municipality "remember him as a fraternal man, especially in moments when for various reasons there were no funds to pay the employees' salaries, an emergency that the mayor overcame by putting money from his own pocket."

There were other interventions and music, ending with the symbolic gesture of placing red carnations at the foot of a tree, next to the photo of Ricardo Lagos. A new act of memory, 45 years after the military coup of September 11, 1973.

The judicial process

In August 1990, the case investigating what happened to Ricardo Lagos and his family was reopened; however, it was only in March 2003 that the then-special judge Daniel Calvo issued the first indictments against former Carabineros officers Juan Francisco Opazo Guerrero, Pedro Ernesto Loyola Osorio, and Arturo Manuel Alarcón Navarrete, along with former lieutenant Patricio Enrique Jeldres Rodríguez, all of whom are retired.

The latter rose to become Chief of the Metropolitan Zone with the rank of general.

Subsequently, Calvo was removed from human rights cases and this process was assumed by judge Joaquín Billard, who in August 2008 issued a sentence, sentencing Carabineros officer Luis Gajardo Arenas to five years and one day, while sentencing Jeldres Rodríguez to three years and one day with the benefit of supervised release, for the aggravated homicide of Lagos, his wife, and his son.

He dismissed the charges against Pedro Loyola and Arturo Alarcón. Along with that, he determined that the two convicted men and the Chilean Treasury had to pay compensation of 30 million pesos to Patricia Paredes Parra, a plaintiff in the case.

After several years of proceedings, in July 2010, the Supreme Court issued its ruling with the dissenting vote of ministers Segura and Ballesteros, who were in favor of accepting the statute of limitations for the criminal action.

Of the two convicted men remaining in this process, the highest court finally left only one: Luis Gajardo Arenas, sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison for his participation as a perpetrator in the three homicides. Without benefits.

Meanwhile, Patricio Jeldres Rodríguez was acquitted of the accusation as an accessory to the three homicides for having no participation, according to the members of the Second Criminal Chamber, ministers Nibaldo Segura, Jaime Rodríguez, Rubén Ballesteros, Hugo Dolmestch, and the participating lawyer Nelson Pozo.

Regarding what happened to the victims, the information provided by the local authority indicated that the affected parties had allegedly confronted Carabineros personnel when they arrived at their home with the intention of detaining them.

However, witnesses to the events have pointed out that at the moment the group of Carabineros and military personnel arrived, the home was raided, the Lagos family was then executed, and there was no confrontation with the public force.

Other testimonies add that the operation had begun hours earlier, with the access points to the Lagos family home being closed off. The death certificate of Lagos Reyes indicates the cause of death as: "Multiple gunshot wounds."

The bodies of the three executed victims were removed from the Chillán morgue by two doctors who were friends of the family, who took charge of burying them.

Source: tribunadelbiobio.cl, September 18, 2018

Discharged Carabineros officers sentenced for murdering former mayor of Chillán

Special judge Joaquín Billard Acuña issued a sentence to those involved in the homicide of Ricardo Lagos Reyes (former mayor of Chillán), Alba Ojeda Grandón, and Carlos Lagos Salinas, which occurred on September 16, 1973, in the capital of the Ñuble province.

The sanction was determined by the magistrate against the former members of Carabineros, Luis Gajardo Arenas (five years of imprisonment with the benefit of supervised release), Patricio Jeldres Rodríguez (three years and one day of imprisonment with the benefit of supervised release), Pedro Loyola Osorio (acquitted for lack of participation), and Arturo Alarcón Navarrete (released).

Likewise, the magistrate determined that the two convicted men and the Treasury must jointly pay compensation of thirty million pesos to Patricia Paredes Parra, a plaintiff in the case.

Source: latercera.cl, August 20, 2008

Human Rights: Judge Aldana indicts Patricio Jeldres for kidnappings and homicides in Chillán in 1973

Yesterday, the visiting judge for human rights violation cases also issued indictments for the same crimes that occurred in Penco.

The visiting judge for human rights violation cases in the jurisdictions of Concepción and Chillán, Carlos Aldana, issued four indictments for crimes of kidnapping and homicide perpetrated in 1973 in various communes of the Eighth Region.

In the first resolution, the visiting judge indicted Héctor José Santiago Aburto Muñoz as a direct perpetrator of the crime of illegal detention or kidnapping with serious consequences against Mario Alberto Ávila Maldonado, an act perpetrated in the commune of Penco, starting on October 9, 1973.

Meanwhile, Franklin Demetrio del Carmen Crisosto Maldonado was indicted as a perpetrator of the crime of aggravated homicide of Ávila Maldonado, committed between October 12 and November 25, 1973.

In the second case, Judge Aldana indicted Patricio Enrique Jeldres Rodríguez for his responsibility in the crime of aggravated homicide of Gabriel Marcelo Cortez Luna, which was committed on September 19, 1973, in the commune of Chillán.

During the investigation stage of the case, it was established that "at 5:00 PM on September 18, 1973, a Carabineros patrol arrived at the home of Gabriel Marcelo Cortez Luna, located at Pabellón Manuel Rodríguez No. 107, commune of Chillán, composed of Herminio Fernández Mercado (deceased), Juan Francisco Opazo Guerrero (deceased), Márquez Rodolfo Riquelme Echeverría (deceased), and Pedro Loyola Osorio (deceased), who entered without a competent judicial or administrative order, violently searching the home in search of Jorge Cortez Luna (the victim's older brother), who was not at the location, proceeding to detain the brothers Gabriel Marcelo and Pedro Eduardo Cortez Luna, whom they transferred to the Second Carabineros Police Station of Chillán, where Pedro Cortez Luna was released by order of Lieutenant Patricio Jeldres Rodríguez because they had been fellow students at the Liceo de Hombres de Chillán, with Gabriel Marcelo Cortez Luna remaining detained in said police unit."

"After much searching by the family, his mother learned on October 18, 1973, that a body remained in the facilities of the Chillán Legal Medical Service, which presented as the cause of death: 'Craniocerebral perforation, ballistic projectile, action of uniformed contingent,' according to the medical death certificate issued on September 20, 1973, which was buried in a common grave at the Chillán cemetery.

Upon exhuming the body, it was verified that it corresponded to the victim Gabriel Marcelo Cortez Luna, who had died on September 19 of the same year, at the Maipón street overpass upon arriving at the Chillán railway station."

Normalistas (Normal School Students)

In the third resolution, the extraordinary visiting judge indicted Patricio Enrique Jeldres Rodríguez as the perpetrator of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Arturo Prat Martí and José Retamal Velásquez, and the homicide of Patricio Lautaro Weitzel Pérez.

Leaders In the last resolution, Judge Carlos Aldana indicted Jeldres Rodríguez as a direct perpetrator of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Robinson Enrique Ramírez del Prado and Leopoldo López Rivas, crimes perpetrated in the commune of Chillán, on September 25 and 26, 1973, respectively.

Source: soychile.cl, August 11, 2017