On October 16, 1973, 23 people were detained at the Campo Lindo, 24 de Abril, and Nuevo Sendero settlements. 22 of them remain forcibly disappeared to this day, while the body of the last one was recently found and identified.

In the early hours of that day, an operation was carried out in the three aforementioned settlements in the town of Paine by personnel from the San Bernardo Infantry Regiment, accompanied by Carabineros and civilians from the area, who were armed and some with their faces painted.

They traveled in a red truck, a military jeep, and other civilian vehicles. The personnel proceeded to detain twenty-three people, raiding homes and acting with unnecessary violence in some instances. They did not allow lights to be turned on, operating by the light of flashlights.

Twelve of these individuals belonged to peasant families living in the "24 de Abril" settlement; two belonged to peasant families living in the "El Tránsito" settlement, but who also worked as laborers at the "24 de Abril" settlement; seven belonged to the "Nuevo Sendero" settlement; one was a merchant and another an industrialist from the area:

José Domingo ADASME NUÑEZ, 37 years old, married;

Pedro Antonio CABEZAS VILLEGAS, 37 years old, married;

Patricio Loreto DUQUE ORELLANA, 25 years old, married;

Carlos GAETE LOPEZ, 29 years old, married;

Luis Alberto GAETE BALMACEDA, 21 years old, married;

José Germán FREDES GARCIA, 29 years old, married;

Rosalindo Delfin HERRERA MUÑOZ, 22 years old;

Luis Rodolfo LAZO MALDONADO, 20 years old, single, Socialist Party militant;

Samuel del Tránsito LAZO MALDONADO, 24 years old, married, Socialist Party militant;

Carlos Enrique LAZO QUINTEROS, 41 years old, married;

Samuel Altamiro LAZO QUINTEROS, 49 years old, married, Socialist Party militant;

René del Rosario MAUREIRA GAJARDO, 41 years old, married, Socialist Party militant;

Jorge Hernán MUÑOZ PEÑALOZA, 28 years old;

Mario Enrique MUÑOZ PEÑALOZA, 24 years old, married, Vice President of the "24 de Abril" settlement;

Ramiro Antonio MUÑOZ PEÑALOZA, 32 years old, married;

Silvestre René MUÑOZ PEÑALOZA, 33 years old, married;

Carlos Alberto NIETO DUARTE, 20 years old, single;

Laureano QUIROZ PEZOA, 42 years old, married;

Andrés PEREIRA SALSBERG, 54 years old, married, industrialist;

Roberto Estevan SERRANO GALAZ, 34 years old, married;

Luis SILVA CARREÑO, 43 years old, married;

Basilio Antonio VALENZUELA ALVAREZ, 35 years old, married;

José Ignacio CASTRO MALDONADO, 52 years old, married, Socialist Party militant;

The detainees were taken to the Paine Sub-Station, where some of them were seen by their relatives. From there, they were transferred to the San Bernardo Infantry Regiment, and their whereabouts have remained unknown since then, despite the multiple administrative and judicial efforts made by their families.

Currently, the investigation into all the events that occurred in Paine in 1973 is under the jurisdiction of the Visiting Judge Germán Hermosilla, with all previously initiated cases being consolidated.

The Government of Chile informed the United Nations, in a document presented in 1975, that Carlos Gaete López appeared in the records of the Legal Medical Institute as having been admitted deceased to that agency on October 18, 1973, at 12:20 PM, having undergone autopsy protocol No. 3393, and that his identity card number was 5,338,566 from Santiago.

This information proved to be false, as Gaete López's identity card was from Buin and bore the number 53,491. For his part, Visiting Judge Juan Rivas Larraín determined that "autopsy protocol No. 3393 corresponds to an unidentified (NN) male person sent by the Prosecutor's Office to that agency, who died in the town of Quilicura on October 13, 1973, at 8:00 PM."

Of the 23 people detained on October 16, 1973, 22 remain forcibly disappeared to this day.

Considering that all the victims were detained by State agents, which has been proven, and were transferred to facilities under their control, from where they disappeared, the Commission is convinced that their disappearances are the responsibility of State agents, constituting violations of their human rights.

Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda, 20 years old at the time of the events, married, with one posthumous child, an agricultural laborer with no political affiliation, residing at the Asentamiento Nuevo Sendero in Paine, was detained at 04:00 on the morning of October 16, 1973, at his home and in the presence of his family.

His captors were soldiers from the San Bernardo Infantry School who arrived at Gaete Balmaceda’s home kicking the door and calling his name aloud. They broke into the home, raided the premises, and demanded to know where weapons were hidden.

He was taken by the soldiers, who claimed he needed to provide a statement. No warrant for the procedure was shown. At dawn, his wife went to the San Bernardo Infantry School, where his detention was denied. Since his arrest, his whereabouts have remained unknown. Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda remains a forcibly disappeared person.

That night, 22 people were detained in the town of Paine during a vast operation carried out by soldiers under the orders of Lieutenant Andrés Magaña. In none of these cases was there authorization for the raids and detentions.

The military personnel who participated in the detentions wore field uniforms or gray uniforms with a cape of the same color; they wore armbands and either black berets or helmets. Their faces were in some cases smeared with soot, and in others covered with balaclavas.

They moved in at least one red truck with side rails and a jeep. All were heavily armed and illuminated the rooms with flashlights, preventing the residents from turning on the lights. The operation began in the early hours of October 16 and lasted until 04:00 in the morning.

The people who were detained, all sympathizers of the deposed government and mostly settlers who were part of the Agrarian Reform process, were listed on a roll carried by the soldiers. Their homes were raided and the detainees were taken from their houses, with the warning to their families that they would return during the day after giving a statement in San Bernardo.

Everyone was loaded onto a truck waiting on the main road. The operation was carried out silently, and the victims' families were forbidden from looking out of their houses.

The actions began with the detention of Andrés Pereira Salsberg, an industrialist and owner of a machine shop; then René del Rosario Maureira Gajardo, a merchant, was detained. Immediately after, the soldiers headed toward the sector corresponding to the Asentamiento 24 de Abril, where they detained Patricio Loreto Duque Orellana, the brothers Raúl Antonio, Silvestre René, and Jorge Hernán Muñoz Peñaloza, their brother-in-law Basilio Antonio Valenzuela Alvarez, Germán Fredes García, Carlos Enrique Gaete López, Carlos Alberto Nieto Duarte, Laureano Quiroz Pezoa, Rosalindo Delfín Hernán Muñoz, and Ramón Luis Silva Carreño. Next, they went to the Asentamiento El Tránsito, where Pedro Antonio Cabezas Villegas and Roberto Servando Galaz were detained. Finally, they went to the Asentamiento Nuevo Sendero, where they detained Enrique Lazo Quintero, his brother Samuel Altamiro Lazo Quinteros and his sons Luis Rodolfo and Samuel Lazo Maldonado, José Domingo Adasme Núñez, Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda, and José Ignacio Gaete Maldonado.

On October 10, Carabineros from the Paine Sub-precinct had detained Samuel Altamiro Lazo Quinteros at his home in the Asentamiento El Tránsito, who had been released after 24 hours of confinement at said Sub-precinct.

This farmer was arrested again in the early hours of October 16, 1973. Subsequent to his first detention, he informed his fellow settlers that he had been warned by the Carabineros that in the following days, soldiers from the San Bernardo Infantry School would come to detain the settlers.

The farmers of said settlement had received identical information after approaching the Sub-precinct, where they had spoken with Sergeant Reyes about their situation.

The whereabouts of all the people detained on October 16, 1973, in any detention center remain unknown. To date, there are no witnesses regarding this. Judicial records indicate that they were taken that morning toward the hills of Codegua, near Melipilla, where they were executed. Their remains have not been found.

The detention and subsequent disappearance of these cases are part of the repression in Paine in 1973. (Further information in the case of José Domingo Adasme Núñez).

Judicial and/or Administrative Proceedings

On March 24, 1974, a mass writ of amparo for 131 people was filed before the Santiago Court of Appeals, which was registered under No. 289-74. Luis Roberto Gaete Balmaceda was included in it.

Authorities were consulted without being able to establish the specific situation of each of the individuals. On November 28, 1974, the amparo was rejected. The resolution was appealed. The Plenary of the Supreme Court confirmed the ruling on January 31, 1975, agreeing to appoint a Special Visiting Judge to conduct the corresponding investigation.

The appointment fell to Judge Enrique Zurita Camps, who on February 24 of that year initiated case No. 106657 in the First Criminal Court of Santiago. Gaete Balmaceda’s family members were summoned to testify by Judge Zurita, creating a new record of the circumstances of his detention.

On September 25, 1975, without having delved into any of the reported cases, the summary was closed because "no further progress could be made in the investigation." On September 29 of the same year, the Judge issued a ruling; in the case of Gaete Balmaceda, as well as in 27 other cases of detainees from Paine, he temporarily dismissed the case because the existence of a criminal act was not fully justified.

On May 10, 1976, the Santiago Court of Appeals approved Judge Zurita Camps' resolution.

On March 21, 1975, a complaint for alleged disappearance was filed before the Maipo-Buin Court, registered under No. 24005-1, following the detention and subsequent disappearance of 23 locals from Paine, the vast majority of whom were farmers detained by soldiers, except for one detained by Carabineros, and which included the case of Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda.

In July of that year, the first investigative steps of the summary were decreed. The National Executive Secretariat for Detainees (SENDET) and the San Bernardo Infantry School were officially requested for information.

Both responded in their official letters that they had no records regarding the people consulted. The Legal Medical Institute, for its part, replied that the names of those 23 people did not appear in the index book of bodies admitted to that establishment.

The Court issued a broad order to investigate to the Carabineros and the Investigations police. The Carabineros limited themselves to taking statements from the complainants, while the Investigations police, in addition to carrying out similar steps to those of the Carabineros, informed the Court that they had made inquiries to "locate and identify the people who apparently wore military uniforms on the day of the events, without favorable results." Without having decreed other measures, in November 1975, the Court closed the summary and definitively dismissed the case, as "presumptions that the reported events occurred" appeared from the summary. On January 20, 1976, the Rancagua Court of Appeals confirmed the dismissal, establishing that it should be temporary. On March 23, 1977, the case was reopened after a request from the complainant party was accepted. The request for reopening was based on the fact that 10 cases included in case 24005-1 appeared on a list of 63 people whom the Chilean government, at the 30th session of the UN in 1975, claimed were not "forcibly disappeared"—as their families reported—but were dead people whose bodies were recorded in the index books of the Legal Medical Institute. This list of 63 names was included in the document titled "Current Situation of Human Rights in Chile" (Volume II, pp. 381-383). The information contained in the report—the complainants added—was contradictory to what that Court had received from the same Legal Medical Institute when consulted. Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda was part of the list and was assigned protocol No. 3368.

On April 3, 1979, Judge Juan Rivas Larraín of the Rancagua Court of Appeals was appointed to continue hearing the case, in response to a request made by the Catholic Church for Visiting Judges to take up cases of forcibly disappeared persons throughout the national territory.

Thus, two years after the reopening of the case, upon assuming the case, Judge Rivas ordered the first steps aimed at clarifying the contradiction between the information the Court possessed regarding the 10 people and that which the Chilean government provided to the UN.

In April, he sent an official letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, requesting information on the background and procedures that allowed for the compilation of the list of "presumably disappeared persons" who had been located in the records of the Legal Medical Institute.

In May 1979, the Judge visited the Legal Medical Institute and conducted an ocular inspection; he requested and was presented with the general index of body admissions from the second semester of 1973 to the date of the proceeding, verifying that the people whose disappearance was being investigated did not appear.

He also reviewed the "General Index of Autopsy Records." Upon examining the autopsy protocol numbers that the Chilean Government's report assigned to the people it indicated as having been admitted to the Legal Medical Institute, he verified that said protocols referred to unidentified persons assigned as "NN." None of those protocols recorded a subsequent identification.

These were bodies that lacked epidermis on their hands. He also verified that all those "NN" were people who had died after September 11, 1973, due to gunshot wounds, and whose deaths had occurred in Santiago and its surroundings.

On that occasion, Dr. Claudio Molina Fraga, Director of the Institute, informed the Court that during the investigation conducted by the Visiting Judge of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Adolfo Bañados, regarding the discovery of bodies in the town of Lonquén, a report had been issued addressed to that Judge regarding the identity of the signature and stamp that appeared at the end of the referenced list, and regarding which there were many doubts as to whether the former belonged to Dr.

Alfredo Vargas Baeza (RIP) and the latter to the Institute. The official letter in question contained information on the possible origin of the discrepancies between the Institute's records and those recorded in the list used by the government.

On that occasion, the Visiting Judge requested a copy of that official letter (Off. No. 36 of February 12, 1979), a request that was objected to by the establishment's legal advisor, stating that the original document had been sent as confidential to the Court, whose file was in the Military Prosecutor's Office due to the incompetence of Visiting Judge Adolfo Bañados.

Visiting Judge Rivas sent an official letter to the Military Prosecutor's Office (May 1979) to authorize the Legal Medical Institute to provide a copy of Official Letter No. 36. In June of the same year, the Military Prosecutor, Gonzalo Salazar Swett, responded negatively to the Visiting Judge, stating verbatim: "I inform you that it is not possible to grant the request of your Honor for now, given the state of the case." Faced with such a response, the Visiting Judge sent an official letter to the Santiago Court of Appeals to have an authorized copy of Official Letter No. 36 sent to him, receiving a response signed by its President, Mr. Enrique Paillás P., refusing the request and stating verbatim: "The full Court agreed not to grant your request, given that the report referred to belongs to the confidential records of this presidency. Without prejudice to what Judge Bañados may decide."

Thus, he had to write directly to Judge Adolfo Bañados, who provided a copy of the mentioned official letter. In August 1979, the Commander-in-Chief of the II Army Division and the Military Court sent their authorization to the Court for the Legal Medical Institute to provide a copy of Official Letter 36 to the Special Visiting Judge, Mr.

Juan Rivas. A few days earlier, he had declared himself incompetent to continue investigating case 24005, due to the recent creation of the Presidente Aguirre Cerda Court of Appeals, to whose jurisdiction the Buin-Maipo Court belonged.

At the time of his declaration of incompetence, he established the falsity of the list used by the Chilean agency in its report on the "Current Situation of Human Rights." The investigation was continued from August 13, 1979, by Visiting Judge Humberto Espejo C., under case number 1-79.

During the investigation into the irregularities contained in reports issued under the responsibility of the Legal Medical Institute, the Director of said Institute had expressed to the Court an interest in initiating an internal summary to clarify such an irregularity.

When requested for information in November 1979 regarding the result of said summary, its director, Claudio Molina Fraga, responded in April 1980, stating verbatim in one of its parts: "No summary was carried out, nor did anyone request it, and if it had been done, the same conclusions contained in the official letter sent to Judge Adolfo Bañados Cuadra would have been reached, who did not deem it necessary to request further information in relation to this process."

In May 1980, Special Visiting Judge Humberto Espejo, by instruction of the Presidente Aguirre Cerda Court of Appeals, sent official letters to the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court communicating that the various records in the process suggested the existence of a possible irregularity in the compilation of "a list of disappeared persons"; he brought this to his attention as it corresponded to his supervision of the Legal Medical Institute's services.

The relevant pages of case 24005-1 were attached to the official letter.

On May 4, 1977, a new complaint had been filed for the detention and subsequent disappearance of Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda before the Maipo-Buin Court. The case was joined from its inception to case 24005-1 of the same Court. The complaint included a detailed account of the circumstances of the arrest and identified the captors as soldiers.

On June 13, 1979, a criminal complaint against the personnel of the San Bernardo Infantry School for the crime of kidnapping Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda, filed by his spouse on that date, was joined to case 24005-1.

By December 1979, nine criminal complaints were joined to case 1-79 against the staff of the San Bernardo Infantry School for the crimes of kidnapping in the cases of Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda, José Germán Fredes García, Pedro Hernán Pinto Caroca, Ramón Luis Silva Carreño, Laureano Quiroz Pezoa, Ramiro Antonio Muñoz Peñaloza, Silvestre René Muñoz Peñaloza, José Ignacio Castro Maldonado, Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda, and Carlos Gaete López.

Five complaints against Colonel Jorge Dawling Santa María for the cover-up of the crime of illegal arrest in the cases of Jorge Hernán Muñoz Peñaloza, Carlos Enrique Lazo Quinteros, Carlos Alberto Nieto Duarte, José Domingo Adasme Núñez, Samuel Altamiro Lazo Quinteros, Samuel del Tránsito Lazo Maldonado, and Luis Rodolfo Lazo Maldonado.

A complaint for the kidnapping and qualified homicide of Juan Guillermo Cuadra Espinoza and Ignacio del Tránsito Santander Albornoz, perpetrated by personnel of the San Bernardo Infantry School. A complaint against Lieutenant Andrés Magaña Bau for the crime of illegal arrest of René del Rosario Maureira Gajardo; a complaint for the kidnapping of Andrés Pereira Salsberg; and a complaint for the crime of kidnapping against Carabineros Sergeant Manuel Reyes, of the Paine Sub-precinct, for the kidnapping of Mario E.

Núñez Peñaloza. (Further information regarding this last complaint in the case of Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza).

Regarding the accused Colonel Jorge Dawling Santa María, who in 1979 served as Director of the San Bernardo Infantry School, on September 26, 1978, an official letter was sent requesting all information he had from his department regarding the personnel of that unit who served in the months of September and October 1973.

The response did not arrive. The Court reported such behavior to the Court of Appeals, which, on November 14, 1978, resolved in Plenary that the mentioned Colonel should comply with the provisions of current legal norms. (That is to say, depending on his rank, whether he appears or not).

The response letter finally arrived signed by the new Director of the Infantry School, Carlos Meirelles Müller, in which he limited himself to stating that there was no intention to hide information, that there were documents with the requested information, and added that Colonel Dawling Santa María had handed over command and was no longer part of the institution.

On February 7, 1979, in a new official letter, Colonel Meirelles was requested to provide the list of the institution's personnel as of October 1973, responding that he did not have the authority to provide that information and that it must be requested from the Minister of National Defense.

From April 1979, with Judge Humberto Espejo in charge of the investigation after the creation of the Presidente Aguirre Cerda Court of Appeals, to which the case territorially corresponded, official letters were diversified in order to establish the identification of those who participated in the operations that occurred in Paine and its surroundings.

An official letter was sent to the Minister of National Defense, not only to inquire about the personnel already indicated but also to request the appearance of Colonel Dawling Santa María, Lieutenant Andrés Magaña Bau—identified by the victims' families as the person in charge of the October 16, 1973, operation—and Colonel Pedro Montalva Calvo, Sub-director of the Infantry School as of October 1973.

In April 1979, Lieutenant Andrés Magaña Bau appeared before the Court, at which time he denied his participation in the October 16, 1973, operation, as well as any other that might have been carried out in Paine.

When confronted with family members of one of the forcibly disappeared persons from October 16, René del R. Maureira Gajardo, he denied knowing the members of that family, despite the fact that they affirmed having been together on more than one occasion at social events prior to September 11, 1973.

Regarding Colonel Jorge Dawling Santa María, the Court had been informed in a response letter that since August 1978 he had been appointed Military Attaché at the Embassy of Uruguay, a position that would last for more than a year.

For his part, Colonel Pedro Montalva Calvo, upon appearing before the Court on December 10, 1979, declared and affirmed the existence of a Detention Camp at Cerro Chena dependent on the Infantry School, which, according to his statement, ceased to function in December 1973, at the time he assumed the Directorship of the School.

Prior to that, its Director had been Colonel Leonel Koning Altterman, who gave written orders regarding who was admitted as a detainee. When the then-Director of the School, Colonel Koning, was summoned to testify, the Court was notified that he had committed suicide on June 21, 1979.

On December 12, 1979, Judge Espejo declared himself incompetent and sent the records to the Military Prosecutor's Office, given that all the complaints and lawsuits contained in this case (roll 1-79) attributed the authorship of the arrests to personnel of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, both from the San Bernardo Infantry School and the Paine Sub-precinct.

On March 6, 1980, the Court revoked the incompetence and ordered steps to advance the investigation. As a result, Colonel Jorge Dawling Santa María was summoned to testify again. On April 2, 1980, the Minister of Defense, Lieutenant General Raúl Benavides E., informed the Court that Mr.

Dawling Santa María held the rank of Brigadier General and, in accordance with current regulations, must testify in writing. The Judge sent a wrongly formulated questionnaire, which gave General Dawling the opportunity to respond: "In relation to questions 2 through 13, I have no information to provide."

On June 5, 1980, Judge Espejo declared himself incompetent for the second time. There was an appeal, and on July 25, 1980, the resolution was revoked, and the Court of Appeals ordered the Visiting Judge to prepare a new questionnaire addressed to General Dawling, based on the accusations made against him that are part of the process.

In July 1980, the Court received a response letter from the Brigadier General, the content of which provided no information, arguing that in 1977 there were no longer written records at the Infantry School regarding military maneuvers and operations.

His letter concluded by stating that he had brought the records of case 1-79 to the attention of the Army Command, since he was accused in the transcribed complaints of participating as a cover-up in "alleged crimes" that he would have committed "in the line of duty."

On October 17, 1980, the records were definitively sent to the II Military Prosecutor's Office, at which point the jurisdictional inhibition took effect.

On May 24, 1982, the case was totally and temporarily dismissed: "notwithstanding that the investigation is exhausted, the perpetration of the events reported on page 1, which imputes personnel of the Armed Forces and Order subject to military jurisdiction, is not fully proven."

Such resolution was appealed and revoked in March 1984 by the Martial Court, which ordered steps aimed at completing the investigation. During 1985, at least 26 officers and non-commissioned officers who served in September and October 1973 at the Infantry School testified.

All of them denied their participation in operations in Paine and its surroundings, denied knowing about the presence of detainees in the Chena detention camp, and denied knowing of its existence.

On November 22, the Military Prosecutor of the II Military Prosecutor's Office, Enrique Ibarra Chamorro, intervened on behalf of the Military Public Ministry and requested the application of the Amnesty Law D.L. 2991-78.

The Military Judge dismissed the case totally and definitively, as the criminal liability of the persons allegedly accused of the reported events was extinguished. Such resolution was revoked in February 1992 by the Martial Court; this Court instructed that the case return to the summary stage and ordered the exhumation of the six graves in Patio 29.

Said exhumation could not be carried out by order of this Court, since in September 1991, in case 4449-AF of the 22nd Criminal Court of Santiago, the exhumation of all the remains of unidentified persons buried between September and December 1973 in the aforementioned patio in the General Cemetery had been carried out. As of December 1992, the case was still in process.

It should be noted that in this case, investigations were also carried out regarding Patio 29 of the General Cemetery starting in November 1979, when Monsignor Ignacio Ortúzar R.—in his capacity as Vicar General and Acting Vicar of the Vicariate of Solidarity—reported to the Court the existence of mass and irregular burials of people in Patio 29 of the mentioned cemetery, which would affect nearly 200 graves.

From the investigation, the Court was able to conclude that at least 6 graves could yield information regarding forcibly disappeared persons included in the process. Between 1981 and 1987, the exhumation of those six graves was requested from the Court on five occasions, with the request being denied on the grounds that it was inconclusive given the time elapsed.

In August 1990, case 2-90-E was initiated in the Maipo-Buin Court with the appointment of Visiting Judge Germán Hermosilla by the Presidente Aguirre Cerda Court of Appeals. Said appointment was due to a request to that effect from the Vicariate of Solidarity of the Archbishopric of Santiago, given the existence of illegal burials of people in the town of Paine that affected forcibly disappeared persons.

The records of Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda were delivered to the Court.

On March 15, 1991, Mrs. María del Tránsito Venegas Cortés testified before Visiting Judge Germán Hermosilla, in her capacity as the mother of Jorge Reyes Cortés, who in 1973 had to perform his military service at the San Bernardo Infantry School.

Her words were recorded in the file, accounting for the fate of the 22 people detained on October 16, 1973. Verbatim, in one of her parts, she said: "A few days after they took my cousin Luisa's husband, Roberto Serrano, I went to visit my aunt Rosa's house and I saw that she was very desperate and crying over her husband's fate.

Then I told her 'don't cry anymore, Lucha, because the soldiers took your husband, Jorge was with them.' I was referring to the fact that my son had to carry out this detention. My son Jorge had told me about this a few months later; I don't remember exactly when; I found out a few days later as I said before.

They had them for months without leaving after the Coup, so when he went to the house, he told me. He wasn't calm; he was like scared, desperate, and not only him but his companions too. My son didn't know Roberto Serrano; when they went to their house, Jorge met Luisa.

He told me that these detentions were done at night. Yes, it is true that my son told me that he had to shoot at Serrano, but that he asked a companion to change places with him. He also told me that if he said he wouldn't shoot, they would kill him.

It is true that I told Luisa this, since she was taking clothes to her husband at Cerro Chena and they received them there, when Serrano was already dead." Jorge Reyes Cortés currently serves in the Los Andes Regiment.

in what military rank. Although Mrs. María Venegas Cortez stated that she did not remember having indicated the hills near Codegua and Melipilla as the place of execution, Serrano Galaz's wife did remember it, as was recorded in her statements before the Visiting Judge Humberto Espejo.

On April 22, 1980, Jorge Reyes Cortez appeared before the Court in case file 1-79. In his statement, he denied any participation in the events; in one part, he stated verbatim: "I never participated in any operation in Paine, I never knew there were detainees at Cerro Chena, nor did I recognize any of the detainees in the few times I had to be on guard duty when they arrived." The Visiting Judge has carried out various ocular inspections in rural sectors in the surroundings of Paine, without positive results for the case of the forcibly disappeared of October 16, 1973.

On August 22, 1991, case 4449-AF was initiated in the 22nd Criminal Court of Santiago, upon the commencement of the judicial investigation into the crime of illegal burial of persons who currently, and since 1973, remain buried as unidentified persons (NN) in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery, information contained in the criminal complaint filed by the Vicariate of Solidarity of the Archbishopric of Santiago.

The anthropometric information of Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda was provided in that case. In the month of September 1991, the exhumation of 108 graves in Patio 29 was carried out; in December 1992, the remains extracted were at the Legal Medical Institute undergoing the identification process.

Source: (Corporation Report)

Press

CONAF provides trees for life and memory in Paine

There are 70 native trees in tribute to the disappeared and executed, whose memory endures in the Paine Memorial. "These little trees can shelter us, to have a more joyful view of life." This is how the president of the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared and Executed of Paine, Flor Lazo, summarized and expressed her gratitude for the delivery of native trees carried out by the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF) through the Paine Memorial.

In total, there are 70 native trees, under the concept of "Trees for Life and Memory," which CONAF donated in tribute to the same number of disappeared and executed persons from Paine, during a ceremony charged with symbolism held at the Paine Memorial, as part of the commemoration of World Tree Day and the Arborization Program promoted by the Corporation.

The manager of Forests and Climate Change at CONAF, Constanza Troppa, highlighted on the occasion that this is an initiative with which, in addition to guaranteeing sustainability, it is also a way to deliver justice. "What we seek is to also deliver justice.

And through a tree, to deliver life despite all the pain that existed here at some point. It is so symbolic that, through the arborization program, we manage to connect with what happened. The Corporation also had victims of the dictatorship, executed persons, and through these actions, we are calling not to forget," said the CONAF executive.

The delivery ceremony was also attended by the Presidential Delegate of the Maipo Province, Miguel Ángel Rojas; the director of CONAF for the Metropolitan Region, Rodrigo Illesca; regional councilor Camila Navarro; the executive director of the Paine Memorial, Juan Leonardo Maureira; and relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared and Executed of Paine.

It was Flor Lazo, president of the AFDDyE, who valued this tribute to the 70 of Paine and thanked CONAF for the gesture, noting that "these little trees have life and will help us to better shelter this struggle that we have waged for 49 years for truth and justice. (...) to look at life with a different air, with an air of joy." In turn, the executive director of the Paine Memorial, Juan Leonardo Maureira, highlighted the CONAF initiative, indicating that "it is a very important initiative, because the tree has a lot of symbolism.

Placing these trees in the Memorial and in the places of execution allows us to have a much more important memory of our relatives, because the tree is life and memory." It should be remembered that CONAF, in its history, also counts workers murdered within the framework of the political repression exercised by the military dictatorship.

In total, there are 19 workers, who are remembered in the Malleco National Reserve, where 13 of them were executed, and in whose location the "Path of Memory" was inaugurated in 2016, in which, through different milestones, the journey they had to travel from the detention zone to where they were murdered is commemorated.

Within the framework of the Arborization Program, the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF) seeks to promote the increase of tree cover through the creation of wooded spaces built jointly with the community throughout the country, in spaces of public and private use, through the production and delivery of plants to the community and technical assistance and environmental education, considering species with ornamental, heritage, and cultural value, in addition to climatic conditions.

For this year, the goal for the delivery of trees nationwide is 394,000 plants, a quantity that is expected to continue increasing in the coming years, since the production in the 30 nurseries or conditioning centers of CONAF is 2,344,000 plants.

From 2014 to date, a little more than 20 million trees have been delivered to the national community, already completing many urban parks. It should be remembered that CONAF, in its history, also counts workers murdered within the framework of the political repression exercised by the military dictatorship.

Source: conaf.cl 7/6/2022 Date: 07-06-2022

Alejandro Bustos: 45 years ago he was executed by firing squad by the Kasts, in Paine, and survived

Chilling account of a firing squad execution that occurred exactly 45 years ago in Paine. Sole survivor: The Kast family was involved. Watch Video "I saw how they cut his tongue and took out his eyes": Alejandro Bustos, survivor of a firing squad execution in Paine. "Colorín" Bustos, as they call him, tells us a raw account of how 4 peasants were murdered at the hands of truck drivers, members of the Kast family, Francisco Luzoro, and other right-wing businessmen.

These criminal acts took place in the early hours of September 20, 1973. At that time, the carabineros who murdered more than 22 peasants in that area were called "The Jackals of Paine." They were declared guilty of having participated in the disappearance of 22 residents or peasants from the area in what was called "The Paine Massacre," when these peasants, detained by carabineros and civilians, were murdered without any charge or trial and thrown into the river or an irrigation canal.

Paine, in proportion to its people, is the commune in Chile where the greatest number of civilians participated in that dark and sinister era, among them the relatives of the former far-right candidate and former UDI member, José Antonio Kast, owners of the Bavaria food company, who from September 11, 1973, supported the Carabineros and groups of civilians with food and drinks, many of whom were part of the fascist group Patria y Libertad.

Among those murdered is the father of human rights lawyer Pamela Pereira. The testimony of the sole survivor, Alejandro Bustos, 'the Colorín of Paine', is chilling: "They took me to the police station.

Another carabinero came with a wire and tied my hands behind my neck, then they pushed me off the bench to leave me dumped on the floor. When it started to get dark, they took out some jugs of wine and started to light a fire for a barbecue.

There were carabineros and civilians, almost all truck drivers. There were the Carrascos, Tito and Toño Ruiz Tagle, the barber Aguilera, Pato Meza, Miguel González, Carlos Sánchez, Jara, Cristián Kast, Larraín, Suazo.

There were about fifteen civilians and about eighteen carabineros; I watched them from my corner as they laughed and got drunk, but I was very quiet, because when they remembered me, civilians or 'pacos' (cops) would come over to kick me in the ribs.

After a while, they came to make me swallow more wine and one said 'this guy has to be taken inside, so he knows what's coming,' so Retamal took the wire off me and they started pushing me into the cell.

It was very dark and there seemed to be many people. As soon as they closed the door, the people inside started asking me if I was okay. 'It's Colorín,' said one in a low voice that I couldn't recognize because the 'pacos' entered almost immediately and took me to the hallway. 'You have to tell the whole truth, are the ones inside communists or not?' Since I told them no, they slapped me around and Moya shouted that if we were involved in the 'JAP', we were involved in politics, 'and what training were you involved in, you idiot, you're good at lying.' They got tired of hitting me. 'Let's go eat, it'll be better,' said one and they pushed me back into the cell. A while later I started to recognize the comrades, they were all very good people, Carlos Chávez, Luis Ramírez, Orlando Pereira, Raúl Lazo, also Calderón from El Escorial. We started talking among ourselves, about who we were and if we were wounded; several asked me if I had seen their wives. It must have been, I think, one in the morning, when the 'paco' Retamal opened the cell door; Leiva and Manuel Reyes, also carabineros, entered with him. They made us go out behind the guardhouse while Claudio Obregón and Carrasco called us out from a list. When it was Calderón's turn to go out, Carrasco told him 'you stay for now,' and they sent him back inside, closing the door on him. Behind the guardhouse, a green van and the cream-colored car of the Carrascos were waiting for us; there was also the green pickup truck of Mr. Jorge Sepúlveda, the yellow pickup truck of Obregón, and González's car. They put us in the van and the cars started; the owners themselves were driving them. The van was at the end of the line and was driven by the carabinero Juan Valenzuela. We were wondering meanwhile if they were taking us to the National Stadium or the Chile Stadium or the Chena Regiment; only those types of places we imagined, but, despite the tremendous suspicion, it didn't occur to any of us to mention that they were taking us to some hideout to kill us. Much further on, when the late Ramírez, who was evangelical, started to pray, my skin crawled; I suppose the same thing happened to everyone because they started to commend themselves to God, to the saints; I also prayed because I am Catholic, a devotee of the Virgin. There came a moment when no one talked about anything with anyone anymore; we didn't dare, I suppose, because it was evident. Just past Champa, the late Chávez said it; we were all praying and he interrupted us, 'they are going to kill us,' he said hoarsely, then in a low voice he added, 'whoever stays alive, be a man and tell where they are going to dump us.' A moment later, as if he had had a revelation, he told me, 'you Alejo, who are going to be saved, warn them that we are dead.' When they took us out of the van and we saw the cars in a line with their headlights on, we had no doubt. Up to that point, I still believed that they might only be threatening us, but they started to brandish the submachine guns, all of them, civilians and carabineros, no more talk. Sergeant Reyes led us with shoves to the edge of the river, and mocking us, he made us raise our arms, 'we are going to kill you for not agreeing on your lies!' It all happened in a second, tongues of fire came out of the barrels and the bursts began to roar. The night seemed to light up with demons and a burning sensation in my arm threw me to the ground; I fell writhing, Orlando Pereira fell on top of me, his blood ran over my body. I ended up on my ribs next to Sergeant Reyes and Pancho Luzoro shouted 'this one is already dead!', then with Daniel Carrasco they grabbed me by the legs to throw me into the water. But I didn't manage to fall; some blackberry bushes stopped me. From there I managed to see how they were finishing off the others, or I don't know if they were still alive because there were thousands of bullets and they kept shooting at them. I think almost all of them were already dead, but still, they stopped shooting and started to torture them. I saw how they took out Raúl Lazo's eyes and tongue, but at least he was screaming; the others had their heads crushed with boulders, with sticks. It seems they had no bullets left, everything was now with stones and knives, and then they started pushing them into the water like me. They threw Orlando Pereira down and he fell on top of me, and that's when I went under; the blackberry bushes gave way, the current was strong. I started to drown and in my desperation I grabbed onto a willow root and a whirlpool started spinning me around. A person next to me was also drowning, sinking and coming up at times; it was Orlando Pereira himself, 'it's me Colorín,' he told me; with the number of cuts and wounds he had, he managed to recognize me. Then he asked me to try to pull him out of the water, but I couldn't because my arm was numb, I couldn't even feel it; he, however, I don't know how he managed to take off a sweater he was wearing and crossed it around his waist; he wanted to tie himself to the root but I couldn't keep holding on and the water dragged us to another whirlpool that started spinning us around, sinking us. I tried to breathe the times we surfaced, it was the only thing that mattered to me; it occurs to me that I had abandoned myself, although with my good arm I continued to hold onto Orlando, I don't know if to save myself or to save him. I saw everything black and only shadows that spun and spun. In one of those turns, the whirlpool pushed us to a sandbank and, helping myself a little, I managed to beach there, but I couldn't reach Pereira anymore. Suddenly the whirlpool refloated him and that's when I could; I had him by the sweater barely, but little by little I pulled him until he also beached next to me. At that moment the moon cleared and I could see him clearly, then he told me 'that's as far as it goes Rucio, I'm going to die,' and he threw himself onto my legs shivering and shivering until he didn't move anymore. I had to get him off me. He died next to me without me being able to do anything, nothing; he left me there alone and I didn't see any of the others, but I did see the glow of the cars of our executioners as they retreated; the engines kept ringing in my brain, then nothing more. I had to react to see at least where I was and I managed to do it at a curve a little further on, where I managed to see those large cliffs where they threw the bad oranges; right there they had dumped us, like rotten fruit. I would try to get out somehow; besides, there was nothing more to do with poor Orlando, he remained there stranded on the sandbank. I put his sweater on my wound and crawled through the blackberry bushes." Alejandro was able to survive to tell this terrible story that today marks exactly 45 years since the revenge of right-wing civilians and uniformed men against defenseless people. (Excerpt from "The Colorín of Paine, Employer Revenge", by Martín Faunes Amigo)

Source: elporteño.cl 7/26/2019 Date: 07-26-2019

Minister Marianela Cifuentes orders the entry of a man convicted of the murder of peasants in Paine into the Colina I prison

The Minister on extraordinary assignment for human rights violation cases of the Court of Appeals of San Miguel, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, ordered today – Thursday, December 14 – the entry of Juan Dionisio Opazo Vera, a conscript soldier at the time of the events, into the Colina I Penitentiary Compliance Center, to serve a single sentence of 10 years of effective imprisonment, as the perpetrator of 38 consummated crimes of qualified homicide.

Crimes perpetrated between September and October 1973, in the commune of Paine. Opazo Vera was placed at the disposal of the court by Carabineros, in compliance with the arrest warrant issued on June 16 of last year.

In the early hours of today, the fugitive was arrested by an OS9 team of Carabineros, created especially for the capture of those prosecuted and convicted for human rights violations. A team that, in September, managed to locate and arrest the retired Carabinero officer Héctor Osses Yáñez, who was also a fugitive.

In the resolution (case file 4-2002 "Paine Episode"), Minister Cifuentes Alarcón convicted Opazo Vera as the perpetrator of the consummated crimes of qualified homicide of José Ángel Cabezas Bueno, Francisco Javier Calderón Nilo, Héctor Guillermo Castro Sáez, Domingo Octavio Galaz Salas, José Emilio González Espinoza, Juan Rosendo González Pérez, Aurelio Enrique Hidalgo Mella, Bernabé del Carmen López López, Juan Bautista Núñez Vargas, Héctor Santiago Pinto Caroca, Hernán Pinto Caroca, Aliro del Carmen Valdivia Valdivia, Hugo Alfredo Vidal Arenas, Víctor Manuel Zamorano González, José Domingo Adasme Núñez, Pedro Antonio Cabezas Villegas, Ramón Alfredo Capetillo Mora, José Ignacio Castro Maldonado, Patricio Loreto Duque Orellana, José Germán Fredes García, Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda, Carlos Enrique Gaete López, Rosalindo Delfín Herrera Muñoz, Luis Rodolfo Lazo Maldonado, Samuel del Tránsito Lazo Maldonado, Carlos Enrique Lazo Quinteros, Samuel Altamiro Lazo Quinteros, René del Rosario Maureira Gajardo, Jorge Hernán Muñoz Peñaloza, Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, Ramiro Antonio Muñoz Peñaloza, Silvestre René Muñoz Peñaloza, Carlos Alberto Nieto Duarte, Andrés Pereira Salsberg, Laureano Quiroz Pezoa, Roberto Estevan Serrano Galaz, Luis Silva Carreño, and Basilio Antonio Valenzuela Álvarez. Crimes perpetrated between September and October 1973.

Source: pjud.cl 12/14/2023

Nine political executions from Paine found in El Arrayán identified

The names of nine people executed on October 16, 1973, in Paine were released by Minister Héctor Solís at the Legal Medical Service (SML). The identities of the political executions of the dictatorship, who appeared as forcibly disappeared, are: José Ignacio Castro Maldonado, Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda, Carlos Enrique Gaete López, Rosalindo Herrera Muñoz, Samuel Lazo Maldonado, Carlos Lazo Quinteros, Silvestre Muñoz Peñaloza, Andrés Pereira Salsberg, father of human rights lawyer Pamela Pereira, and Luis Silva Carreño.

The director of the SML, Patricio Bustos, indicated that there is one hundred percent certainty in the names of the nine people, since their identification was carried out "with the highest standards existing in the world." The identifications were achieved after the SML, through the Austrian institute Innsbruck, analyzed remains found in the El Arrayán ravine.

The remains had been moved there, but later removed in the midst of the "television set removal" operation to make them disappear; however, some vestiges of the bodies remained. For this case, the retired military personnel of the Army, Andrés Magaña Bau, José Vásquez Silva, and the civilian Juan Quintanilla Jerez are being prosecuted.

Source: radio.uchile.cl 6/11/2010

Testimony of the daughter of Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda (EXCERPT)

Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda is one of the seventy forcibly disappeared and executed men of Paine. He was 21 years old at the time of his detention and disappearance; he worked as an agricultural laborer, with no known political affiliation.

He was married, and he and his wife were awaiting the imminent birth of their daughter, Amparo. At his home, in the Nuevo Sendero settlement of Paine, and in the presence of his family, Luis Alberto was detained in the early hours of October 16, 1973, by military personnel from the Infantry School of San Bernardo.

In 2010, and after a long investigation process carried out by Judge Héctor Solís, it was determined that the people detained in the operation of October 16 were executed that same day in the Los Arrayanes ravine, located in Litueche in the surroundings of Lake Rapel, 141 kilometers from Paine.

Below, we present the testimony of Amparo Gaete Becerra, daughter of Luis Alberto. This testimony is based on conversations held between Amparo and the researchers of Germina, knowledge for action.

Testimony of Amparo Gaete Becerra

My name is Amparo Gaete Becerra, I am the daughter of Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda. My mom, Rosa Becerra, has eleven living siblings, and on my dad's side there are three; there are two sisters, aunts Ana Álvarez and Ediviges Román, and my dad, Luis Gaete.

My aunt Ana is married to Mario Muñoz (1) and they say it was he who took him when they were giving out food from the JAP (2). (1) Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, 24 years old, was detained and disappeared in the operation of October 16, 1973, in Paine. (2) The Supply and Price Board (JAP) was created during the government of Salvador Allende with the aim that local power organizations would manage the provision of food and supplies.

To join the JAP, one had to be registered. My dad went out twice to meetings, there and back, 15 minutes, it was no more than that; there they asked them to sign something, they think that because of that signature they came for my dad.

My mom thinks that's why they took him. My grandmother worked in a landlord's house and my mom helped my grandmother raise the children because there were many; my mom was able to study until 3rd grade, at that time it was called humanities; my dad, I don't know until what age he studied, but they studied very little because they dedicated themselves to working and then they got married.

They lived in a little shack, it was a little house where they looked after a piece of land; my mom says it was just one room where they lived, they made a fire outside, so they didn't have many means, they were poor people.

I think my dad was taken just out of ignorance, out of ignorance of the subject because he didn't understand anything; people always said it was because they belonged to some political party; my mom says he never militated, she thinks they took him for being registered in the JAP.

My parents have always been from Paine; before, where they lived was called the Nuevo Sendero settlement, and they met when they were little. They were friends since they were kids and at 12 years old they started dating.

My dad was the only boyfriend my mom ever had. They dated for six years and decided to get married, but they were always close; my grandparents are 'compadres' with each other, my mom's parents with my dad's mom.

So, they knew each other and shared a lot, so I think the love grew over time because my mom was a girl when they started dating. The detention of my dad: When they detained my dad, they were recently married to my mom; he was 21 years old and she was 19, I think, I'm not sure of the age.

He belonged to the Nuevo Sendero settlement (3); I think his stepfather was involved in the settlement, which was like a union they had formed, but my dad had nothing to do with it, besides, my dad was so young too. (3) The Agrarian Reform process, carried out from 1965 to 1973, contemplated the delivery of land in the form of a Settlement, which refers to a partnership between peasants who would provide the labor, experience, tools, and equipment, and the CORA (Agrarian Reform Corporation) which would provide the use and enjoyment of the land and water, seeds, fertilizers, and money so that the settlement could start functioning. My parents' life was a life with all the ups and downs of the poverty in which they lived, but it was good. These days we were talking with my mom and I asked her, "Did you realize before if this was going to happen to my dad?" She never suspected that it could happen to them; even a couple of weeks before, they believed that a helicopter had come to drop bodies here, to dump them, because they were coming to dump them here; they say they found a man who had fallen tangled in the wires, with half his body on the side of the wire, hurt, wounded, so she went to see him and since she was so chubby from the pregnancy they didn't let her see him; she told me she didn't understand, she didn't understand why they were doing it, why those things were happening, and I said to her, "At that moment didn't you suspect anything?" "Never, I never imagined that in another week they were going to go look for Lucho and they were going to take him, never, I never imagined," so it was a surprise. My mom says that they had gone to bed a short while before, my dad had been singing, because he played the guitar. A 'compadre' of theirs had arrived, they made embers and were singing by the fire. They went to bed, they had fallen asleep, and about half an hour later they arrived banging, kicking the doors and hitting, and they didn't even have space. They were looking for weapons, they asked them for the weapons and nothing; my mom had a paring knife, one of those tiny ones, that my grandfather had made for her to cook with. "A toy gun that Lucho had," she said, "the toy that Lucho had that they thought was a real weapon and it was a toy, but he never had anything, we didn't even have knives to show them as weapons." (EXCERPT)

Source: germina.cl 2014

The mosaic in memory of my father

We all participated; a nephew of my dad, Juan Luis, who was always closer to us, participated; my stepfather participated, who was the one who transported the mosaic and helped glue pieces, and my siblings who spent a long time gluing pieces too, and us within what we could.

For a time we brought it to the house and we participated here, later we took it to my mom's house and they finished it: my mom, my little sister, and my stepfather because they lived together; they were the ones who worked the most on the mosaic.

Later they brought it, they glued it there. My stepfather, wherever he can, accompanies my mom; my siblings were cooperating in everything, always attentive, and they have always been supporting us, and my dad is always attentive to what one does; he is very cooperative with everything that has to do with the Memorial, if something has to be done or if my mom has to go somewhere, he takes care of it.

We all decided what we were going to put on the mosaic; they always told us it was something that represented them, so I said, "Mom, what is it that represented him?" "The land," she told me, "because he was a peasant, the guitar that he loved, he played the guitar very well, he loved the guitar, and his hobby was playing soccer," those were the hobbies he had and his family, there were no people from outside.

His core was his wife, his mom, his son; in this case, me, who was in the belly; the guitar because it was what made him happiest; even until the last minute he was playing the guitar and singing; my mom said that the last song he sang to her was one by Sandro, "Una muchacha y una guitarra" (A girl and a guitar), that was the last song he sang; it was engraved in her, she hasn't forgotten it since.

In the mosaic are the little hands of my two children, who are the new ones. It was from the past to the present; my children represent my dad, they are his inheritance, his heirs. The mosaic has black and white around the edges which symbolizes the mourning and the peace of my mom, the bad days and the good days, and the field because he appears in the middle with the guitar and with a shovel working the land; we made the mountains because he lives here and you can always see the mountains; we made my grandmother's house where she was waiting for him; we made my mom with a shovel, the road of what is San Rafael, and my mom with a shovel, chubby, pregnant, because she was always waiting for him, and since I wasn't there we made the image of a pregnant woman who is waiting. In the end, it's everything that happened to all the moms; they all remained waiting. It was very strenuous work; it helped us to unite and tell there, in the mosaic, their story.

Source: germina.cl 2014 (excerpt)