Before the death of President Allende and prior to the departure of Minister Flores and his two companions from the La Moneda Palace, the suicide of Augusto OLIVARES BECERRA occurred. He was a journalist, a member of the Partido Socialista, the Press Director of the National Television channel, and an advisor to President Allende.

He was on the first floor of the building, together with some civilians. According to the information gathered by the Commission, it can be established that he retreated to a bathroom located under a staircase, after which a gunshot was heard.

The bullet entered through his temple, leaving him in an agonizing state. One of the doctors who was inside the Palace recounted to this Commission the moment he placed Olivares's head on his lap, confirming his death moments later.

The situation of the siege on La Moneda during which Augusto Olivares took his own life leads the Commission to consider him a victim of the situation of political violence.

The group that left the Palace via Calle Morandé was detained by military forces, who forced them to lie face down on the ground. This group was composed of advisors to the President, members of the GAP, doctors who provided services at La Moneda, and officials from the Investigaciones Service.

Most of the doctors who were present (with the exception of some who served as advisors to the President and who will be mentioned later) were released at that time. The rest of the detainees were then moved to the sidewalk, where they remained lying down.

At 18:00 hours, this group was taken to the Regimiento Tacna in two military vehicles. They remained in that facility lying on the ground, face down, with their hands behind their necks, from the afternoon of September 11 until midday on September 13.

On September 12, the members of the Investigaciones Service were released, except for one who also remained in this facility until midday on the 13th, at which time he was released.

According to the information gathered, the Commission can affirm that the group that remained at the Regimiento Tacna until midday on the 13th was composed, on one hand, of nine advisors and members of the Presidency of the Republic and, on the other, of fifteen members of the GAP.

As indicated above, the information gathered allows for the affirmation that the former Director of Investigaciones, Eduardo Paredes, was also detained at the Regimiento Tacna until September 13. For this Commission, the version published in the press at that time, which maintained that Paredes had died in a confrontation, is implausible.

From this group, the advisors and members of the Presidency of the Republic were: Jaime BARRIOS MEZA […] Daniel ESCOBAR CRUZ […] Egidio Enrique HUERTA CORVALAN […] Claudio JIMENO GRENDI[…] Georges KLEIN PIPPER […] Eduardo PAREDES BARRIENTOS […] Egidio Enrique PARIS ROA […] Héctor PINCHEIRA NUÑEZ […] Arsenio POUPIN OSSIEL […] Manuel CASTRO ZAMORANO […] Sergio CONTRERAS […] José FREIRE MEDINA […] Daniel GUTIERREZ AYALA […] Oscar LAGOS RIOS […] Oscar MARAMBIO ARAYA […] Juan MONTIGLIO MURUA […] Julio MORENO PULGAR […] Jorge ORREGO GONZALEZ […] Oscar RAMIREZ BARRIA […] Luis RODRIGUEZ RIQUELME, 26 years old; Jaime SOTELO OJEDA […] Julio TAPIA MARTINEZ […] Oscar VALLADARES CAROCA […] Juan VARGAS CONTRERAS […] All of them were, in addition, members of the Partido Socialista.

The members of the group composed of the President's advisors and members of the GAP, with their hands and feet tied, were loaded onto military trucks and taken from the Regiment to an unknown destination.

Consistent testimonies indicate that the military vehicle headed to Peldehue, to the grounds assigned to the Regimiento Tacna, where they were allegedly executed and buried. Since that date, they have all remained in the status of forcibly disappeared.

The Commission learned that one of the members of the GAP managed to evade his captors by switching from his companions' group to another and was subsequently released. It is highly improbable that he is one of those just mentioned.

Considering that this group of the President's collaborators left the La Moneda Palace via Calle Morandé at approximately 14:00 hours, where they were detained by State agents, held in a military facility, and from there taken by them to an uncertain destination, this Commission is convinced of their status as victims, as their disappearance is the responsibility of the State agents who held them in detention.

Another situation, linked to the previous one, is that of a group of people who were detained outside the La Moneda Palace around 08:45 in the morning. They were all members of the GAP and arrived at that time in a pickup truck, being detained by Carabineros personnel.

The information gathered allows for the affirmation that at least the following people were detained under these circumstances: Domingo BLANCO TARRES […] Carlos Alfonso CRUZ ZAVALLA […] Gonzalo JORQUERA LEYTON, […]; all of them members of the Partido Socialista.

The same situation occurred with Enrique ROPERT CONTRERAS […]

All these detainees were taken to the Intendencia de Santiago and from there were taken out at approximately 11:00 hours that same day to be taken to the Sixth Carabineros Precinct.

Their lifeless bodies were found on the banks of the Mapocho River, under the Puente Bulnes, at the end of September 1973, with the exception of Domingo Blanco Tarrés. The latter was taken by Investigaciones personnel to the Santiago Preventive Detention Center, from where he was released on September 19, 1973, by order of the Second Military Prosecutor's Office of Santiago.

Since then, he has remained in the status of disappeared.

Considering that there is sufficient evidence to affirm that all these people were detained by State agents and that subsequently, three of them were found dead from gunshot wounds at the Puente Bulnes of the Mapocho River and one of them disappeared after having been taken from the Santiago Preventive Detention Center, also by State agents, this Commission is convinced of their status as victims of human rights violations attributable to those agents, in the persons of Domingo Blanco Tarrés, Carlos Cruz Zavalla, Gonzalo Jorquera Leyton, and Enrique Ropert Contreras.

On the other hand, on that same day, the 11th, while attempting to travel from Talca to Santiago to join the President's Security Detail group, two members of said group were detained by a military patrol on the Pan-American Highway, near Curicó: Francisco LARA RUIZ […] Wagner Herid SALINAS MUÑOZ […], both members of the Partido Socialista.

Both were in Talca and, upon learning of what had happened, decided to head to Santiago. On the outskirts of Curicó, they were intercepted by a military patrol, who, upon seeing documents proving their membership in the GAP, proceeded to detain them and transport them to the Curicó Prison.

The Gendarmerie Service reported that on September 30, 1973, they were released from that penal facility, but that they were handed over to State agents "with a short shackle and a padlock, both prisoners shackled." Their remains were handed over to their families at the Santiago Morgue, with their deaths certified on October 5, 1973, and gunshot wounds cited as the cause.

According to this information, the Commission is convinced of the responsibility held by State agents in the deaths of Francisco Lara Ruiz and Wagner Herid Salinas Muñoz.

Address: Villa Costanera Sur (formerly Población Violeta Parra), Block 4, Dept. 22, Barrancas, Santiago Marital Status: Married, 2 children Occupation: Photographer Repressive Status: Member of the Presidential Guard, GAP. Date of Detention: September 11, 1973

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

Luis Fernando Rodríguez Riquelme, a member of the Socialist Party, was detained on September 11, 1973, as the last group of people inside the La Moneda Palace were leaving. He was taken to the Tacna Regiment, where he remained until September 13, the date on which he was transported in a military truck to an unknown destination; he remains forcibly disappeared to this day.

Luis Rodríguez was a member of the Presidential Guard, better known by the acronym GAP, "Grupo de Amigos Personales" (Personal Friends Group), alluding to an expression used by the President of the Republic himself.

Luis Rodríguez was married and had 2 children. He was a photographer by profession, and among his security duties was photographing all the events and meetings in which President Salvador Allende participated.

On September 11, he was performing his duties as a member of the Presidential Guard when the La Moneda Presidential Palace, the seat of government, was seized by Army infantry and tank units led by General Javier Palacios, who were later joined by Carabineros forces.

At 11:00 a.m., the Chilean Air Force began the bombing, which destroyed a large part of La Moneda, although it did not cause casualties among the defenders.

Nursing assistant Hilda Rosa Varas Gaete, who was providing services at La Moneda that day and survived those events, stated in a sworn declaration that among the GAP members who were there, she remembers "Mauricio," whose real name was Luis Fernando Rodríguez Riquelme.

The members of the Presidential Guard and other individuals remained in the Palace until they received the order from President Salvador Allende to leave. They exited through the Morandé 80 street door of the La Moneda Palace, where they were held at gunpoint and beaten by the military and ordered to lie on the ground with their hands behind their necks, under constant threat, including being crushed by a tank that moved toward that location.

Two members of the Presidential Guard, Antonio Aguirre Vásquez and Osvaldo Ramos Rivera, were taken prisoner inside La Moneda and were sent to the Public Assistance Post because they were wounded. A few days later, these two individuals were removed from said medical center by military personnel and have since been in the status of forcibly disappeared.

Other GAP members who came from the El Cañaveral presidential residence did not manage to enter La Moneda and were detained in its vicinity by Carabineros. They were Gonzalo Jorquera Leyton, Williams Osvaldo Ramírez Barría, Carlos Cruz Zavala, and Domingo Blanco Tarrés; they were part of a group of approximately 13 people, some of whom were subsequently executed, while the others remain in the status of forcibly disappeared.

The people detained at La Moneda remained on Morandé Street until 6:00 p.m. At that time, these prisoners were taken in two military vehicles to the Tacna Regiment, located about 12 blocks from the La Moneda Palace, which was under the command of Colonel Joaquín Ramírez Pineda.

Survivors of these events have provided information that allows for the reconstruction of these facts: the prisoners remained in the aforementioned Regiment until September 13. While detained in that Regiment, they were forced to crawl on their knees, lie down with their arms behind their necks, or stand with their arms raised.

For nearly 48 hours, they had to remain in painful positions on rough ground or gravel, being trampled by soldiers who ran over them and beat them with the butts of their weapons or inflicted wounds with their bayonets, under the constant surveillance of guards armed with machine guns, who threatened them and asked the officers to execute them immediately.

Subsequently, they remained in a place called the "boxes" or old stables; from there, the prisoners were taken to an office located on the second floor of the Regiment, where they were tortured and interrogated by personnel from the Military Intelligence Service (SIM).

Afterward, they were returned, in poor physical condition, to rejoin the other prisoners and continue in the painful positions assigned to them. Each change of guard began with a beating of the prisoners with rifle butts.

There were 49 such prisoners. Of these, an order was given to release the 17 detectives who made up the presidential protection team, and some other prisoners were separated. Finally, a group of people remained as prisoners, 21 of whom have been identified: ten advisors to the President of the Republic or government officials, ten members of the Presidential Guard, and one laborer.

The President's advisors were Jaime Barrios Meza, presidential advisor and General Manager of the Central Bank of Chile; Sergio Contreras, public relations officer for the Intendancy and journalist; Daniel Escobar Cruz, Chief of Cabinet for the Undersecretary of the Interior; Enrique Huerta Corvalán, Palace Intendant; Claudio Jimeno Grendi, presidential advisor; Eduardo Paredes Barrientos, presidential advisor and former Director of Investigations; Enrique París Roa, psychiatrist, presidential advisor, and member of the Superior Council of the University of Chile; Héctor Ricardo Pincheira Núñez, presidential advisor; and Arsenio Poupin Oissel, Undersecretary General of Government and presidential advisor. The members of the Presidential Guard who have been identified are as follows: José Freire Medina, Daniel Gutiérrez Ayala, Oscar Lagos Ríos, Juan Montiglio Murúa, Julio Hernán Moreno Pulgar, Luis Rodríguez Riquelme, Jaime Sotelo Ojeda, Julio Tapia Martínez, Oscar Valladares Caroca, and Juan Vargas Contreras. There was also the laborer Oscar Luis Avilés Jofré, who had gone to La Moneda in support of the government.

Around 2:00 p.m. on September 13, 1973, these prisoners, with their hands and feet tied, were thrown into a military truck, one on top of the other, and were driven out of the Regiment to an unknown destination.

Almost all the members of the Presidential Guard who were at La Moneda on September 11, 1973, were executed or disappeared. However, one of those who managed to survive and has contributed to reconstructing these events is Juan Bautista Osses Beltrán, who was taken prisoner to the Tacna Regiment but was incorporated into another group of prisoners, which allowed him to leave alive after being imprisoned at the Estadio Chile and the Estadio Nacional.

Osses points out in his extensive statement that a group of 13 members of the Presidential Guard accompanied Allende to La Moneda and were detained inside. Subsequently, along with the other prisoners, he was taken to the Tacna Regiment, where they were informed that they would be executed by firing squad at midnight, later that the execution would be at 3:00 a.m., and later still, at 6:00 a.m.

Osses has recognized that among those detained at the Tacna were Héctor Daniel Urrutia, Daniel Gutiérrez, Enrique Huerta, Oscar Lagos Ríos, Juan Montiglio, Julio Moreno, Eduardo Paredes, Enrique París, Georges Klein, Héctor Pincheira, Arsenio Poupin, Luis Rodríguez Riquelme, and Oscar Valladares.

The witness was removed from the Tacna Regiment in the early hours of September 13, 1973, and taken along with other detainees to the Estadio Chile.

Beatriz Celsa Parrau Tejos, who was detained at the Tacna Regiment, is the one who has been able to provide some important background information. She was at INDUMETAL, where she was attending to a wounded person in her capacity as a nurse.

At 6:00 p.m. on September 11, this company was occupied by Carabineros, and everyone there was detained and taken to a police station and, on the same day, transferred to the Tacna Regiment. There, she learned that those who had been captured at La Moneda were being held, and despite being separated from that group, she had the opportunity to see them when they went to the bathroom or when they were taken for interrogation.

There, she saw several doctors she knew from her professional activities and government leaders. She also observed numerous groups of other prisoners entering or leaving. On September 13, at noon, through the cracks of the warehouse where about 90 women were locked up, Celsa Parrau was able to see a truck leave the Regiment carrying bundles that looked like human bodies.

When they were taken out of the aforementioned warehouse at 2:30 p.m., she observed that the La Moneda prisoners were no longer there.

For his part, the Chief of Investigations at La Moneda, detective Juan Seoane, remained among the La Moneda detainees until after noon on September 13, at which time he was able to witness how the prisoners were taken away in a military truck.

According to the testimonies of the survivors, they heard from the soldiers who participated in the operation that they had been taken to the Peldehue military camps, located in Colina, where they were allegedly executed by firing squad and buried.

A soldier from the Tacna Regiment, who was able to witness part of the events, recounted that the prisoners were tied with wire and thrown into an Army PEGASO truck that was part of a convoy that left the barracks at approximately 2:00 p.m., while all conscripts were ordered to remain confined to their quarters and not to walk through the courtyards.

In the afternoon, the contingent that had been part of the convoy returned, and word spread among the soldiers that the prisoners had been taken to the property that the Tacna Regiment has in the Peldehue military camps in Colina.

There, they were allegedly killed in front of a hole or pit, about five to six meters in diameter and several meters deep, which existed a short distance from the house used by the property's guard personnel.

The prisoners were placed in groups of four at the edge of the pit and shot. Once executed and thrown to the bottom of the pit, grenades were allegedly thrown inside, and the executions continued in this manner, four by four.

The soldier adds that he had to go to the aforementioned property at the end of September 1973 and found the cited pit covered. There, it was confirmed to him that the executed had been buried in that place and that there were 26 or 27 of them.

The family of Luis Rodríguez suffered severe persecution by the military authorities, and among other events, his home was taken away—a modest apartment in the Violeta Parra housing project, in the commune of Las Barrancas.

This massacre of prisoners has never been officially acknowledged, nor have the bodies been returned, and the individuals mentioned, among them Luis Fernando Rodríguez Riquelme, have been disappeared since September 13, 1973.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On November 20, 1975, a lawsuit for alleged disappearance was filed before the Ninth Major Criminal Court of Santiago, which was registered under case file 15.338-E. The document requested inquiries be made to the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Defense, SENDET (National Executive Secretariat for Detainees), and the Legal Medical Institute.

It also requested that a broad order to investigate be issued.

The substitute judge of the Ninth Court accepted the requests, and the corresponding official letters were issued.

On December 1, 1975, the Legal Medical Institute reported that no autopsy had been performed on Luis Fernando Rodríguez Riquelme, nor had he been admitted as a deceased person.

General Raúl Benavides Escobar, Minister of the Interior, reported in confidential letter 34-f-384 of November 28, 1975, that the affected person was not being held by order of that Ministry.

Colonel Jorge Espinoza, National Executive Secretary of SENDET, communicated on December 5, 1975, according to letter 3550/6647/1, that he had no records of Fernando Rodríguez Riquelme.

The investigation carried out by the Ninth Judicial Precinct of the Investigative Police was delivered to the Court in Report No. 14 of December 31, 1975, which states that Fernando Rodríguez's spouse was interrogated, who ratified the information provided, and that the security agencies of the Armed Forces were consulted regarding the possible detention, but no positive results were obtained.

The Civil Registry and Identification Service sent the affiliation and background extract of the affected person. This report confirms the identity and existence of the affected person and certifies that he has no criminal record.

On March 31, 1977, the judge of the Ninth Criminal Court closed the summary proceedings and declared the temporary dismissal of the case "until new and better investigative data are presented." This dismissal was approved by the Santiago Court of Appeals on June 21, 1975.

On July 7, 1991, a criminal complaint was filed for the crimes committed against the person of Luis Fernando Rodríguez Riquelme that led to his disappearance, requesting proceedings before the Civil Registry and Identification Service and International Police, and that an order to investigate be issued, case file No. 126465-6, which is in process as of the date of this report, in the summary stage (1992).

Luis Rodríguez's spouse took steps before SENDET and other institutions to inquire about her husband; however, none of these efforts were successful. She also reported the case to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States.

Source: (Corporation Report)