Case Roll 113.969: Qualified homicide of Hernán Henríquez Aravena and Alejandro Flores Rivera and unlawful coercion of Jorge Silhi Zarzar and others

José Daniel Cifuentes López

In a police statement from pp. 1,713 to 1,715 (Volume V) dated June 29, 2012, he states that in 1971 he was assigned to Helicopter Group No. 3 at the Maquehue Air Base, where he remained until 1974, when he was arrested and discharged for treason, and subsequently sentenced by a court-martial for failure to perform military duties.

He adds that two years before September 11, 1973, the conspiracy against the government of President Salvador Allende began to take shape.

On the day of the coup, Andrés Pacheco informed them that the Chilean Armed Forces had decided to overthrow the incumbent government and that anyone who opposed it should step forward; however, despite his disagreement, he did not do so due to fear of what might happen to him.

At that moment, the occupation of the city was ordered, and he was given an automatic rifle and 600 rounds of ammunition with orders to go to his home and monitor the population. About 20 days later, it became very common for shots to be fired at them from a vehicle.

Because of this, he and his partner managed to identify who was shooting at them and established that the driver of the vehicle was Captain Volante, who confronted them violently.

He explains that at the base, he observed many detainees, who were sometimes left lying in the guardhouse cells and others in the hallways with their hands up and blindfolded. He also saw people who were taken to the back of the administrative building, in the water tower, where they were tortured.

This was evident due to the screams that could be heard and how they were left in the same hallways and cells after the torture.

Regarding his own detention, he notes that on one occasion he observed 15 people in the guardhouse cell showing signs of torture. Due to his condition, he decided to feed them, taking them outside for two hours, but asking them not to speak about it for their own safety.

The fact is that the next day he was summoned by the second-in-command, Benjamín Fernández, who made him wait for six hours. Upon entering his office, Fernández confronted him about what had happened with the detainees, stating that they should contribute to the fatherland, labeling him a leftist militant, pointing his weapon at him the entire time, and informing him that the command had withdrawn its confidence in him.

The truth is that on January 4, while he was vacationing in the town of Quintero, a lieutenant and a conscript arrived at his house with the mission of taking him to see a radio sent by the command. Upon arriving at the base, he was notified by a lieutenant that he was under arrest by order of the command.

They handcuffed him, blindfolded him, placed a hood over his head, and transported him by plane to the Second Carabineros Precinct of Temuco. He remained blindfolded for 11 days, with his torture beginning at that location.

During the day, they transferred him to the Tucapel Regiment, where he was tortured by his peers in a room by Lieutenant Jorge Freygan, Corporal 2nd Class Enrique Rebolledo, Corporal Pereira, Corporal 2nd Class Valdebenito, Corporal 2nd Class Marín, Corporal 2nd Class Ubilla, Corporal 2nd Class Charnay, Corporal 2nd Class Solís, Corporal 2nd Class Soto Pinto, Corporal 2nd Class Soto Herrera, Corporal 2nd Class Yañez (Pato), and Sergeant 2nd Class Orlando Garrido, with Pereira being the most savage.

After several transfers, he was tried for failure to perform military duties in a court-martial, serving a 300-day sentence and being released in January 1975. He adds that the personnel who participated in the arrests were those mentioned above, under the command of Captain Leonardo Reyes and reserve officers Cantarutti and Carotti.

However, he indicates that, according to comments from his subordinates, Cantarutti had detained, tortured, and murdered people during raids. Regarding the other detainees at the air base, based on information obtained, the bodies of those murdered were thrown into the Cautín River in the sector called "La Isla." Regarding the victims of these events, Hernán Henríquez Aravena and Alejandro Flores Rivera, he does not recall having known them, nor does he remember them as detainees at the base, but he does know that at the time, three doctors were being held, whom he does not know.

Source: Judiciary, January 2, 2020

Case Roll 113.969: Qualified homicide of Hernán Henríquez Aravena and Alejandro Flores Rivera and unlawful coercion of Jorge Silhi Zarzar and others

9) Virginio Cárdenas León

In an extrajudicial statement on p. 195 (Volume I), accompanied by witness Víctor Maturana Burgos according to p. 198 (Volume I), he indicates that he is a retired non-commissioned officer of the Air Force.

He states that on September 11, 1973, he was serving in the Air Force at the Maquehue Air Base in Temuco and was in charge of the unit's kitchen. He remembers that on one occasion, not long after the coup d'état, he learned from Air Force official Jorge Guillermo Salgado Salgado that on a day he was on guard duty, health official Alejandro Flores had arrived as a detainee along with Dr.

Hernán Henríquez. What he was told verbatim was: "two boarders have arrived, Flores and Dr. Henríquez." He also learned from comments made later by the same Salgado that both detainees had been taken out of the Air Base in a pickup truck driven by non-commissioned officer Orlando Garrido.

He did not comment on whether Dr. Henríquez and the health official Flores had been brought back to the base. As additional information, Mr. Cárdenas adds in his account that the group of torturers was composed of, among others, the following officials, all now retired: Orlando Garrido (deceased); Luis Alberto Soto Pinto, who has a business near the Temuco cold storage plant; Rubén Marín, now an official at the Labor Inspectorate in Santiago; Pedro Espinoza, who works at a fumigation company near Carahue; Francisco Salazar Echeverría, who lives in the Millaray neighborhood in Temuco; and Enrique Rebolledo. Regarding Jorge Guillermo Salgado Salgado, he states that he is retired and lives in Arica. Additionally, he points out that the following civilians, who were Air Force Reserve Officers and who live in Temuco today, participated in the operations to arrest people, in guard duty at the base, and even in torture: Camilo Zirotti, Emilio Sandoval Poo, Pedro Molina, Espinoza Mandel (from the hardware store), and Frindt (from the hardware store).

In a judicial statement from pp. 200 to 201 (Volume I) dated June 13, 2003, he ratifies the account shown to him, affirming that he spoke with Mr. Víctor Maturana and a woman whose name he does not remember approximately one month ago, and that the account corresponds to what he told them.

Indeed, on September 11, 1973, he held the rank of Corporal 1st Class and served as the mess manager of the Maquehue Air Base, specifically for the Non-Commissioned Officers' club. Regarding the facts of this investigation, he says that one day—he does not remember the exact date, but it was shortly after the military pronouncement—a colleague named Jorge Guillermo Salgado Salgado, who currently lives in Iquique, came to the kitchen and told him verbatim: "you have two new boarders, Flores and Dr.

Henríquez" ("boarders" was the term used for detainees). The deponent remembers that the news had a great impact on him because he knew Flores personally, as the deponent was a great boxing fan and Flores fought as an amateur, so he had seen him fight several times and had even struck up more than one conversation with him, as his wife had been an employee at the hospital.

After approximately one day—the truth is he does not remember well if a full day passed or if it was the same night they arrived—this same Salgado told him that they had taken Flores and Henríquez (Dr.

Hernán Henríquez) from the Air Base, without telling him who had taken them or where, because he went off guard duty at 08:00 hours and this happened at night during the curfew, and they were never spoken of again.

In any case, he adds that in his opinion, Salgado had no way of knowing where Dr. Henríquez and Flores were taken, because within the Maquehue Air Base, what had been the control tower was set up as a place for the detention and torture of detainees, and absolutely no one outside of the work performed there—that is, the detention and torture of political prisoners—could enter that sector.

It is for this reason that he can provide the names of officers and enlisted men who participated in the detention, torture, and in many cases, the execution and disappearance of people, as they entered and worked in that sector, which was off-limits to all other personnel.

Among the officers, he can mention Squadron Commander Fernández, who was the second-in-command of the group; this gentleman did as he pleased in the unit, taking advantage of the fact that the Commander of the unit, Group Commander Andrés Pacheco, gave him his full confidence after the military pronouncement and practically left him in charge of the base, as he began to attend the Tucapel Regiment assiduously, where he worked alongside Pablo Iturriaga.

He also remembers Squadron Commanders Luis Puebla Leiva and Enrique Isaac Casacuberta, and Lieutenants Ángel Campos Quiroga and Jorge Freyggang (currently deceased). Regarding the non-commissioned officers and enlisted men, he remembers Enrique Rebolledo, Rubén Marín, Luis Soto Pinto, Orlando "Huaso" Garrido, Pedro Espinoza, and Francisco Salazar Echeverría.

He also mentions the soldier Hugo Ferrada, who was hired as a nurse at the Maquehue Air Base and who participated actively in both the arrests and the torture of political prisoners. He further adds that to this group of officers and enlisted men, one must add several civilian pilots who, after September 11, 1973, arrived wearing reserve officer uniforms, among whom he remembers Miguel Manríquez, who was from Galvarino, Emilio Sandoval Poo, Camilo Zirotti, Pedro Molina, Espinoza, Germán Cantarutti, and two people with the surnames Mandel and Frindt; they also worked in the control tower sector, and it was known that they participated in politically motivated arrests. He would not know how to say whether or not they were members of Patria y Libertad before September 11, 1973, but he has the distinct impression that they were. Furthermore, he remembers that once, a woman who worked with Emilio Sandoval Poo (whose name he has forgotten) told him that while talking about human rights violations, he had told her that if what happened were to be repeated, he would have no problem doing everything he had done again, adding, "anyway, I have no problem killing assholes." Regarding the French citizen Etienne Pesle de Menil, he says he has no knowledge of what happened to him; that name is not familiar to him, and he would even dare to say that it is the first time he has heard it.

Source: Judiciary, January 2, 2020