Former Army officer Eduardo Rafael Mancilla Martínez, prosecuted for the homicide of Jorge Parra Alarcón, a worker at the Empresa Nacional del Petróleo (ENAP), 36 years ago in Cerro Sombrero, Tierra del Fuego, is being held at a military unit in Punta Arenas.

Mancilla arrived at the Court of Appeals of the regional capital to place himself at the disposal of the justice system. After meeting with the judge in charge of the investigation, he was transferred to a regiment in Punta Arenas, where he will remain for an as-yet undetermined period, as he may file an appeal.

The event for which the former officer is accused occurred in October 1973, when the former head of the ENAP workshops and Communist militant, 38-year-old Jorge Parra, was being transported from Cerro Sombrero to Porvenir, the journey during which he died.

Source: radio.uchile.cl, September 16, 2009

Former Army officer accused of the qualified homicide of Jorge Parra

The investigating judge of the Court of Appeals, Beatriz Ortiz, filed an indictment against retired Army officer Eduardo Rafael Mancilla Martínez as the perpetrator of the crime of qualified homicide against Jorge Parra Alarcón.

The crime was perpetrated on October 24, 1973, during the military dictatorship. The evidence upon which the judge bases her indictment is contained in the case file, recently elevated to the plenary stage, where the judge indicates in her document that "it is legally established that on October 24, 1973, a third party, who was serving as an active-duty Infantry lieutenant in the Army, acting on orders from his hierarchical superior, transported Jorge Manuel Parra Alarcón—who was detained at a detention center in the town of Cerro Sombrero—in the bed of a pickup truck owned by ENAP (Empresa Nacional del Petróleo). Parra, who had a gunshot wound, was being transported toward Porvenir, and during the journey, upon noticing movements by Parra in the bed of the vehicle, Lieutenant Eduardo Mancilla, who was sitting in the vehicle next to the driver, ordered the vehicle to stop, immediately got out, and proceeded to fire at least two shots at him, which caused his death. This act constitutes the crime of qualified homicide against the person of Parra Alarcón, as provided for and sanctioned in Article 391 No. 1 of the Penal Code." Support for the indictment Recently, the lawyer for the Program for the Continuation of Law No. 19.123 of the Ministry of the Interior, Magdalena Garcés Fuentes, joined the indictment filed by Judge Ortiz. She took this action on behalf of the aforementioned program and requested that "the maximum penalties established in the legislation be applied, taking special consideration of the concurrent aggravating circumstances that were proven." She recalled that "the victim was detained, wounded, and tied up, with no possibility of defending himself." The crime "was executed at night and in an unpopulated area to ensure impunity," and a firearm was used. The lawyer is requesting the maximum penalty established under current legislation for the perpetrator of Jorge Parra's homicide. After the then-judge Solón Vigueras issued the indictment against the former officer of the Regimiento Caupolicán, he ordered his arrest. Thus, he arrived in Punta Arenas and remained detained for a few days at the Regimiento Pudeto, until his defense attorney requested his release. The most complex part was proving that the skeletal remains exhumed in Porvenir belonged to Parra, then 38 years old, head of the mechanical workshops of the Empresa Nacional del Petróleo (ENAP) in Cerro Sombrero, which was only achieved through DNA testing conducted in the United States. On December 20, 2005, the exhumation of Parra's remains, which were located in the Municipal Cemetery of Porvenir, Tierra del Fuego, was carried out.

Source: elpinguino.com, January 24, 2011

Case No. 2-2005: Homicide case of Jorge Manuel Parra Alarcón

II.- That the accused, Eduardo Rafael Mancilla Martínez, already identified, is sentenced as the perpetrator of the crime of qualified homicide against the person of Jorge Manuel Parra Alarcón, perpetrated in the town of Cerro Sombrero on the twenty-fourth day of October, nineteen hundred and seventy-three, to the single penalty of five years of minor imprisonment in its maximum degree, and to the accessory penalty of absolute perpetual disqualification from public offices and positions and political rights, and absolute disqualification from holding professional titles for the duration of the sentence, as well as the payment of the costs of the case. III.- That, as the requirements established in Article 15 of Law 18.216 are met regarding the sentenced individual Eduardo Rafael Mancilla Martínez, the benefit of serving the sentence through supervised release is granted, remaining subject to the permanent supervision and guidance of a delegate for a term of five years, and he must also comply with the other requirements established in Article 17 of the aforementioned Law. In the event that the previously granted benefit is revoked or he must serve the sentence for any reason, it is appropriate to recognize the days credited for the time he was deprived of liberty, having entered the Regimiento de Infantería Motorizado N° 10 Pudeto of the Chilean Army on September 14, 2009, in his capacity as a prosecuted individual, in accordance with the provisions of Article 137 of the Code of Military Justice. (fs. 1041 vta.).

Source: Judiciary, October 5, 2011