MARCELO DEL CARMEN GUTIERREZ GOMEZ

Date of Birth: 12/11/51, 21 years old at the time of detention Address: City of Osorno Marital Status: Married, 1 child Occupation: Construction worker Political Affiliation: Not recorded Date of Detention: October 5, 1973

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

On October 5, 1973, Marcelo del Carmen Gutiérrez Gómez, a construction worker, left his home in the city of Osorno bound for Bahía Mansa to bring food to his stepbrother, Edgar Eugenio Cárdenas Gómez, a socialist militant who was highly sought after in the area following September 11, 1973.

Eyewitnesses told the family that he was forced off the minibus in which he was traveling by Carabineros, who detained him and took him to an unknown destination. To this date, the fate of the victim remains unknown.

The victim's stepbrother, Edgar Cárdenas Gómez, was executed by Carabineros on October 5, 1973, along with Jorge Aguilar Cubillos, an official of the Agrarian Reform Corporation (CORA) and a radical militant, and María Ester Bustamante Llancamil, a socialist militant.

The three had taken refuge in a fisherman's hut when Carabineros from the 3rd Rahue Police Station and the Bahía Mansa Outpost broke into the place, killing them immediately.

The official version provided by the authorities at the time was that three extremists were killed when a group carried out a terrorist action against the Bahía Mansa Outpost. The same version added that there had been a confrontation, that the victims were involved in a subversive plan against the Armed Forces, and that a large quantity of weaponry and explosives had been found in their possession.

The National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation formed the conviction that the official version of the time was false and that these three victims were executed outside of any legal norm. It also formed the conviction that the disappearance of Marcelo Gutiérrez Gómez is the responsibility of personnel from the Rahue Police Station, who detained him between Osorno and Bahía Mansa while he was on his way to deliver food to his stepbrother.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

The family, having limited resources, was not in a position to take any action. In April 1990, the victim's only child, Edgar Marcelo Gutiérrez Bertini, 17 years old, reported his father's case.

Source: Corporation report

The minister on special assignment for human rights violation cases for the jurisdictions of Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Coyhaique, Álvaro Mesa, indicted the Carabineros captain at the time of the events, Adrián José Fernández Hernández, and officers Jorge Daniel Garcés Garcés and Rodolfo Segundo Cheuquelaf Lorenzo, as authors of the aggravated kidnapping of Marcelo del Carmen Gutiérrez Gómez.

According to the document accessed by Bío Bío in Osorno, the crime against the youth—who was barely 17 years old at the time and a member of the Revolutionary Student Front (FER)—was perpetrated on October 5, 1973, in the Bahía Mansa sector.

During the investigation phase of the case, the visiting minister managed to gather sufficient evidence to establish a series of facts, including:

"(That) during the state of siege that was in effect after the coup d'état, and with the aforementioned captain in command of the 3rd Carabineros Police Station of Osorno, he organized and coordinated a special group of Carabineros (...) a group that carried out patrols in the area under the aforementioned police unit, while simultaneously proceeding to detain people who were subsequently taken to the Police Station to be interrogated on the premises of that unit; or who were removed by this special group of Carabineros to be taken to places unknown to this date."

Among other points, the resolution maintains that the youth "left his home in the city of Osorno bound for Bahía Mansa to bring food to his stepbrother, Edgar Eugenio Cárdenas Gómez, a socialist militant and highly sought after in the area following September 11, 1973."

Kidnapping, Disappearance, and Executions

Eyewitnesses told the family that he was forced by Carabineros to get off the minibus in which he was traveling; they detained him and took him to an unknown destination, and the fate of the victim remains unknown to this day.

On the same day, the victim's stepbrother, Edgar Cárdenas, was executed by Carabineros along with two other militants, one radical and one socialist.

The three had gone to take refuge in a fisherman's hut when Carabineros from the 3rd Rahue Police Station of Osorno and the Bahía Mansa Outpost broke into the place, killing them immediately.

After an extensive analysis and presentation of evidence, the visiting minister concludes in his resolution "that on October 5, 1973, Marcelo del Carmen Gutiérrez Gómez was detained by a Carabineros patrol at the Pucatrihue junction that connects Osorno with Bahía Mansa, who were carrying out an order from Captain Adrián Fernández Hernández, commissioner of the 3rd Carabineros Police Station of Osorno, with jurisdiction over the Bahía Mansa Carabineros Outpost, a patrol that was composed, among others, by Carabinero Cheuquelaf Lorenzo."

He adds, "That prior to his detention on October 5, 1973, Marcelo del Carmen Gutiérrez Gómez had been detained on suspicion at the outpost in the aforementioned town and had been released, as indicated by Luis Humberto Pinol Carillanca, who was the head of the Bahía Mansa Outpost at the time the events occurred; that according to the merit of the described background, to this date the whereabouts of Marcelo del Carmen Gutiérrez Gómez remain unknown since the day he was detained by Carabineros belonging to the Third Carabineros Police Station of Osorno," concludes the document reported by Radio Bío Bío.

Source: cambio21.cl, January 1, 2022

Date: 01-01-2022

Minister Álvaro Mesa issues indictment against retired Carabineros for the aggravated kidnapping of a young worker in Osorno

The minister on special assignment for human rights violation cases for the jurisdictions of Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Coyhaique, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, presented an indictment against three retired Carabineros for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of construction worker Marcelo del Carmen Gutiérrez Gómez.

The crime was perpetrated starting on October 5, 1973, in the Bahía Mansa sector of Osorno.

In the resolution (case file 14-2013), Minister Mesa Latorre indicts the Carabineros captain at the time of the events, Adrián José Fernández Hernández, and officers Jorge Daniel Garcés Garcés and Rodolfo Segundo Cheuquelaf Lorenzo, as authors of the aggravated kidnapping of the 17-year-old youth and member of the Revolutionary Student Front (FER).

During the investigation phase of the case, the visiting minister managed to gather sufficient evidence to establish the following facts:

"A.- That the Armed Forces and Public Order and Security Forces on September 11, 1973, assumed the Supreme command of the Nation, gathering the Constituent, Legislative, and Executive powers in the Government Junta as established in Communiqué No. 5 of the same date, as well as in Decree Law No. 1, subsequently clarified and complemented by Decree Laws No. 128, 527, and 788, which ordered, among other measures, a State of Siege throughout the national territory, ordering level-one barracks confinement for the Armed Forces and Order and Security forces.

B.- That starting on September 11, 1973, the command of the 3rd Carabineros Police Station of Osorno was in charge of Captain Adrián Fernández Hernández, a unit to which, among others, the Bahía Mansa Outpost was added in consideration of the events occurring in the country.

He organized and coordinated a special group of Carabineros that included Mario Maragaño Oyarzún (deceased, as recorded on page 1042, Vol. III), Guillermo Antilef Quintul, Sergio Rozas Silva (deceased, as recorded on page 1040, Vol.

III), Gustavo del Carmen Muñoz Albornoz (deceased, as recorded on page 1041, Vol. III), Rafael Pérez Torres, Juan Canales, José Ríos Vergara (deceased, as recorded on page 1039, Vol. III), Eliseo Águila Salgado (deceased, as recorded on page 1036, Vol.

III), Juan Segundo Moreira Garcés, Vladimiro Fernández Rojas, Óscar Vargas Vargas, Rolando Vargas Vargas (deceased, as recorded on page 1037, Vol. III), and Francisco Inostroza Baeza (deceased, as recorded on page 1046, Vol.

IV), among others, according to the testimony of Rubén Molina González (pages 246-248, Vol. I; pages 288-289, Vol. I), José Oberto Santana Oyarzún (pages 162-164, Vol. I; pages 251-253, Vol. I; pages 292-293, Vol.

I), Ademar Catalán Aguilar (pages 169-171, Vol. I; pages 319-323, Vol. I), Leopoldo Arcos Rodríguez (pages 181-183, Vol. I), and Luis Humberto Pinol Carillanca (pages 173-176, Vol. I; pages 254-255, Vol.

I; pages 267-268, Vol. I; pages 324-329, Vol. I; pages 335-336, Vol. I; pages 347-348, Vol. I; pages 829-831, Vol. III; pages 837-838, Vol. III; pages 975-976, Vol. III). This group carried out patrols in the area under the aforementioned police unit, while simultaneously proceeding to detain people who were subsequently taken to the Police Station to be interrogated on the premises of that unit; or who were removed by this special group of Carabineros to be taken to places unknown to this date.

C.- That the facility used preferably for interrogations was the basement of the Third Carabineros Police Station of Osorno, according to testimonies, among others, of María Gladys Ávila Rosas (pages 657-658, Vol.

III), Antonio Ewaldo Molina López (pages 659-662, Vol. III), and María Eufemia Millaquipai Guichaquelen (pages 260-264, Vol. I; pages 297-299, Vol. I). In this place, men and women were detained indiscriminately, and the torture consisted of the application of electric current to various parts of the body, rapes or attempted rapes of detained women, the introduction of sticks into the anus of men, among other described tortures, with Captain Adrián Fernández Hernández, who was in charge of the Third Carabineros Police Station of Osorno, appearing as the one giving the orders, seconded by his trusted group.

D.- That after September 11, 1973, the Carabineros of Chile established a frequent checkpoint at the Pucatrihue junction, on the route connecting Osorno with Bahía Mansa, according to testimonies, among others, of Federrina del Rosario Barrientos Cancino (pages 567-569, Vol.

II), Héctor Vargas Soto (pages 367-369, Vol. II; pages 482-488, Vol. II), and María Judith Aucapán Ancapán (pages 535-537, Vol. II). At this place, vehicles passing through were checked, including the buses that made the daily route connecting these two destinations, which belonged to the Carrasco or Tuchie companies.

Carabineros, both from the Bahía Mansa Outpost and the Third Carabineros Police Station of Osorno, proceeded to identify and search the passengers, sometimes taking one or more of them off, sometimes detaining them, to subsequently indicate to the driver of the vehicles to continue their journey.

E.- That on October 5, 1973, Marcelo del Carmen Gutiérrez Gómez, 17 years old, a construction worker and member of the Revolutionary Student Front (FER), left his home in the city of Osorno bound for Bahía Mansa to bring food to his stepbrother, Edgar Eugenio Cárdenas Gómez, a socialist militant and highly sought after in the area following September 11, 1973.

Eyewitnesses told the family that he was forced off the minibus in which he was traveling by Carabineros, who detained him and took him to an unknown destination. To this date, the fate of the victim remains unknown.

The victim's stepbrother, Edgar Cárdenas Gómez, was executed by Carabineros on October 5, 1973, along with Jorge Aguilar Cubillos, an official of the Agrarian Reform Corporation (CORA) and a radical militant, and María Ester Bustamante Llancamil, a socialist militant.

The three had gone to take refuge in a fisherman's hut when Carabineros from the 3rd Rahue Police Station of Osorno and the Bahía Mansa Outpost broke into the place, killing them immediately, according to the testimony, among others, of Ana del Carmen López Barría (pages 188-192, Vol. I; pages 302-308, Vol. I; pages 356-361, Vol. I; page 466, Vol. II).

The official version of the authorities at the time was that the three extremists were killed when a group carried out a terrorist action against the Bahía Mansa Outpost; the same version added that there had been a confrontation, that the victims were involved in a subversive plan against the Armed Forces, and that a large quantity of weaponry and explosives had been found in their possession, according to the testimony, among others, of Ramón Plaza de los Reyes Bachmann (pages 312-316, Vol.

I).

F.- That days prior to his detention, that is, on October 5, 1973, Marcelo del Carmen Gutiérrez Gómez traveled to his stepfather's house in the Bahía Mansa area to leave food for his brother Edgar Cárdenas Gómez, according to the account of Inés Elena Bertín Yáñez (page 32, Vol.

I), who was hiding there along with Ester Bustamante Llancamil and Jorge Aguilar Cubillos, who were being intensely sought by the new authorities of the country, as per letter E) above. Likewise, on October 4, 1973, Gutiérrez Gómez traveled back to Osorno to buy food and medicine at the pharmacy where the wife of Jorge Aguilar Cubillos worked, returning on October 5 to Bahía Mansa, as has been indicated.

The press reported on October 6, 1973, that the brother of Gutiérrez and the other two people had been executed by firing squad when they tried to assault an outpost, which, according to the testimonies of Carabineros who served at the Bahía Mansa Outpost at the time, was false, since the assault on the Bahía Mansa Outpost never happened; rather, those detained by Carabineros from the same outpost were handed over to a Carabineros patrol from Osorno commanded by Captain Adrián Fernández Hernández, according to the account of Luis Humberto Pinol Carillanca (pages 173-176, Vol.

I; pages 254-255, Vol. I; pages 267-268, Vol. I; pages 324-329, Vol. I; pages 335-336, Vol. I; pages 347-348, Vol. I; pages 829-831, Vol. III; pages 837-838, Vol. III; pages 975-976, Vol. III) and Héctor Vargas Soto (pages 367-369, Vol. II; pages 482-488, Vol. II; pages 653-654, Vol. II).

G.- That according to the account of Rodolfo Segundo Cheuquelaf Lorenzo (pages 760-762, Vol. III; pages 772-773, Vol. III; pages 1017-1018, Vol. III), there was a day when a youth was detained on suspicion at the Bahía Mansa Outpost, who was then released.

He points out that the day before his detention, his colleagues had seen him in the surroundings and had apprehended him; that when the assault on the Bahía Mansa Outpost occurred, Captain Adrián Fernández Hernández arrived at the detachment along with Carabineros Rafael Pérez Torres, Muñoz Albornoz, and the deceased Juan Canales.

They proceeded with the operation, and at one point, Fernández called Osvaldo Nelson Rosas Cárdenas (deceased, as recorded on page 1045, Vol. III). Immediately thereafter, Rosas Cárdenas called Cheuquelaf along with another of his companions and told them that, by orders of Captain Fernández, they had to go and detain a person who was traveling on one of the buses going from Osorno to Bahía Mansa, which could be from the Tuchie or Carrasco company, a person who would be between 18 and 20 years old and who was carrying provisions.

They went to the Pucatrihue junction in a green double-cab pickup truck that had been provided by the Agricultural and Livestock Service (SAG), which was used at the time by Jorge Aguilar Cubillos in his capacity as an official of the Agricultural and Livestock Service (SAG), according to the testimony of Ana del Carmen López Barría (pages 188-192, Vol.

I; pages 302-308, Vol. I; pages 356-361, Vol. I; page 466, Vol. II). They stopped the bus, checked it, and encountered the same youth who had been released two or three days earlier. He was indeed carrying a bag with provisions, an action that Marcelo del Carmen Gutiérrez Gómez was carrying out at the same time by bringing food to his brother Edgar Cárdenas Gómez, who was hiding in Bahía Mansa, as narrated in letter E) above.

This youth was told to get off the bus, and the driver was ordered to continue his journey. Osvaldo Nelson Rosas Cárdenas identified the person, confirming the name that Captain Fernández had given him, which he had written down.

Rosas Cárdenas struck him in the stomach with a rifle butt, ordered him into the pickup truck, and they headed toward the outpost, where the youth was handed over to Captain Fernández. Subsequently, the detainees were loaded into the vehicles in which the Carabineros led by Captain Fernández were traveling—that is, those who were accused as attackers of the Bahía Mansa Outpost, along with the youth who was detained on the bus as indicated above.

Subsequently, the newspaper La Prensa of the time reported that three detainees accused of the assault on the outpost had died, according to the testimonies indicated above; Report of the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation (page 2, Vol. I); individual case information (pages 28-30, Vol. I); Report of the Museum of Memory and Human Rights (pages 68-76, Vol. I).

H.- That according to Héctor Vargas Soto, according to his statements (pages 367-369, Vol. II; pages 482-488, Vol. II; pages 653-654, Vol. II), he claims to have been a witness when Carabineros, including Sergeant Rosas Cárdenas (deceased, as recorded on page 1045, Vol.

III), forced a youth to get off an Osorno-Bahía Mansa bus, specifically at the Pucatrihue junction, to then strike him with rifle butts until his skull was destroyed. The Carabineros, numbering six or seven, arrived at that place in a vehicle belonging to the Agricultural and Livestock Service (SAG).

I.- That on the other hand, Mrs. Ana del Carmen López Barría, according to her account (pages 188-192, Vol. I; pages 302-308, Vol. I; pages 356-361, Vol. I; page 466, Vol. II), states that she was the partner of Jorge Aguilar Cubillos, one of the supposed extremists who assaulted the Bahía Mansa Outpost on October 5, 1973.

That once the coup d'état occurred, he fled to a rural sector along with Edgar Cárdenas Gómez and María Ester Bustamante, since his name had appeared in the communiqués issued by the new authorities. That she never heard from Jorge Aguilar Cubillos again until October 6, 1973, when she learned that he was deceased in the morgue of the Osorno hospital.

She went to the hospital together with the mother of Jorge Aguilar Cubillos, Mrs. Ema Cubillos, and her sister-in-law named Onorinda Aguilar Cubillos, where a nurse allowed them to see the body of Jorge Aguilar Cubillos, as well as the bodies of María Ester Bustamante and Edgar Cárdenas Gómez, all with ballistic impacts, with Jorge Aguilar Cubillos having 36 bullet wounds, one of them between the eyebrows with an exit wound, and the body of María Ester Bustamante with a large hole in her back, learning that the latter was pregnant.

J.- That continuing her account, Mrs. Ana del Carmen López Barría states that while at the Osorno hospital morgue, three Carabineros officials from the Third Osorno Police Station appeared with the order to take them before Captain Adrián Fernández Hernández.

Upon arrival at the police station, she was detained for 22 days, a period during which she was subjected to different types of interrogations, which included, among other tortures, the application of electric current to her breasts.

She also states that on the first occasion she was interrogated, they made her listen to a cassette with a recording of a youth who identified himself as Marcelo Gutiérrez Gómez, realizing that it was the brother of Edgar Cárdenas Gómez, who, as Fernández told her, had been detained by Carabineros of the Third Police Station under his command on October 5, 1973, whom they had subjected to intense interrogation and torture to obtain the whereabouts of Edgar, Jorge, and María Ester, and one could hear Marcelo Gutiérrez Gómez screaming and begging them not to continue subjecting him to torture; he was crying and indicating that he did not know where his brother was. She adds that during the time they made her listen to the recording, which was for about three minutes, Marcelo Gutiérrez Gómez never indicated the place where his brother was in the company of Jorge Aguilar Cubillos and María Ester Bustamante Llancamil. Immediately thereafter, Captain Adrián Fernández Hernández told her that if she did not cooperate, the same thing would happen to her.

K.- That in the same sense, Mrs. María Eufemia Millaquipai Guichaquelen declares (pages 260-264, Vol. I; pages 297-299, Vol. I), stating that she was detained along with Mrs. Ana del Carmen López Barría at the Third Carabineros Police Station of Rahue in Osorno, a place where she was also subjected to torture, which included the application of electric current, for long minutes, to her breasts, vagina, arms, elbows, temples, neck, legs, knees, and ankles; her torturers were men, recognizing among them, by his voice, Captain Adrián Fernández Hernández.

All the torture sessions were in the basement of the police station and with her eyes blindfolded. She also states that when she was able to talk to Mrs. Ana del Carmen López Barría, the latter commented to her, crying, that her husband Jorge Aguilar Cubillos had been killed and was already buried, and that she had been detained for having sent food to her husband with a youth, who was also detained, and that she did not know what had happened to him.

L.- That according to the statement of María Angélica Vergara Herrera (pages 352-355, Vol. I; pages 444-445, Vol. II), she states that she was the wife of Edgar Eugenio Cárdenas Gómez and that she learned of the death of Marcelo Gutiérrez Gómez from the mouth of his mother-in-law, Mrs.

Inés Bertín Yáñez (deceased, as recorded on page 1047, Vol. IV), who indicated to her that Marcelo Gutiérrez Gómez was detained by Carabineros of the Third Police Station of Osorno, who were in uniform and had forced Marcelo Gutiérrez Gómez off the bus that made the Osorno-Bahía Mansa route.

M.- That in accordance with what was established in letters E) through L) above, it is inferred that the person in question is Marcelo del Carmen Gutiérrez Gómez, 17 years old at the time of his detention, who traveled to Bahía Mansa, a coastal sector of Osorno, with the purpose of bringing food to his stepbrother Edgar Cárdenas Gómez, who was hiding in that place along with two other people; that on October 5, 1973, Marcelo del Carmen Gutiérrez Gómez was detained by a Carabineros patrol at the Pucatrihue junction that connects Osorno with Bahía Mansa, who were carrying out an order from Captain Adrián Fernández Hernández, commissioner of the Third Carabineros Police Station of Osorno, with jurisdiction over the Bahía Mansa Carabineros Outpost, a patrol that was composed, among others, by Carabinero Cheuquelaf Lorenzo. That prior to his detention on October 5, 1973, Marcelo del Carmen Gutiérrez Gómez had been detained on suspicion at the outpost in the aforementioned town and had been released, as indicated by Luis Humberto Pinol Carillanca, who was the head of the Bahía Mansa Outpost at the time the events occurred; that according to the merit of the described background, to this date the whereabouts of Marcelo del Carmen Gutiérrez Gómez remain unknown since the date he was detained by Carabineros belonging to the Third Carabineros Police Station of Osorno."

Source: pdju.cl, December 30, 2021

Date: 30-12-2021