Repressive Status: Vice President of the Asentamiento 24 de Abril. Member of the Socialist Party. Date of Detention: October 10, 1973

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, 24 years old, married, father of 2 children, an agricultural worker and Vice President of the Asentamiento 24 de Abril, and a member of the Socialist Party, was detained on October 10, 1973, near his home by a group of Carabineros under the command of Sergeant Manuel Reyes Alvarez from the Paine Sub-prefecture.

His relatives last saw him the day after his detention inside the Paine Sub-prefecture. Since that date, he has remained forcibly disappeared.

The events began at approximately 18:00 on October 10, 1973. Personnel from the Paine Sub-prefecture arrived at his home, where there were no occupants; Mario Enrique was at his mother's house, located near his own, and was quickly informed that he was being sought, so he decided to return home.

Upon arriving in front of his house, he was intercepted by Sergeant Manuel Reyes Alvarez, who was accompanied by five other Carabineros, including one with the surname Sagredo. He was immediately detained, placed in a jeep, and thrown onto the floor of the vehicle.

Witnesses to these events were his mother, Mrs. Mercedes Peñaloza, his sister Silvia Muñoz P., and his neighbor Amanda Duarte Soriano. His wife, Ana María Alvarez Balmaceda, was informed of the events hours later, as she was not at home at the time of the detention.

The following day, his spouse went to the Paine Sub-prefecture accompanied by her mother and mother-in-law; there, she insistently requested to see him, and the Carabineros eventually agreed to bring him out to a courtyard and show him from a distance. His wife saw that he was severely mistreated and clearly disoriented.

The next morning, when his spouse returned to the Sub-prefecture, she was told that Mario Enrique had been transferred to the San Bernardo Infantry School. Upon going to that school, she was informed that he was not there. Despite continuing to make inquiries to determine his whereabouts, she was never able to learn anything about him.

Judicial records state that Mario E. Muñoz Peñaloza was taken into custody as a result of an operation carried out by soldiers from the San Bernardo Infantry School on October 16 in Paine, which resulted in 22 detainees—all of whom remain forcibly disappeared—including his two brothers, Ramiro Antonio, Silvestre René, and Jorge Hernán Muñoz Peñaloza.

It should be noted that on that same day, October 10, the mechanic José Gumercindo González Sepúlveda, also a member of the Socialist Party, was detained at his workplace. According to his coworkers who witnessed the arrest, the detention was carried out by Carabineros from the Paine Sub-prefecture, under the command of Sergeant Manuel Reyes.

González Sepúlveda was transferred from the police station to the San Bernardo Infantry School. His detention was not officially acknowledged. Later, in December 1973, his family found his name on lists from the Legal Medical Institute, where his death was confirmed, as well as his subsequent burial in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery.

The death certificate issued by the Civil Registry for González Sepúlveda lists the place of death as Canal Viluco, Fundo El Carmen de Linderos, and the cause of death as: "cranial vault explosion due to projectile exit."

Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza remains to this day a forcibly disappeared person, as do his brothers Jorge Hernán, Ramiro Antonio, and Silvestre René, who were detained 6 days after him. Their detentions and subsequent disappearances are part of the repression that took place in Paine in 1973. (Further details can be found in the account of José Domingo Adasme Núñez).

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On March 24, 1974, a mass recurso de amparo (habeas corpus petition) for 131 people was filed before the Santiago Court of Appeals, registered under No. 289-74. The case of Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza was included in that filing.

Authorities were consulted, but the specific situation of each of the individuals could not be established. 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, and agreed to appoint a Ministro en Visita Extraordinaria (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 file No. 106.657 in the First Criminal Court of Santiago. On May 25, 1975, the records of an amparo petition on behalf of Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza and José Germán Fredes García (file 216-74, filed in March 1974) and a report of "presumed misfortune" (disappearance) for both individuals (file 23847, from the Maipo-Buin Court, initiated on December 9, 1974) were consolidated into this case.

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 Muñoz Peñaloza, as well as 27 other cases of detainees from Paine, he temporarily dismissed the case on the grounds that the existence of a criminal act had not been fully justified.

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

Judicial proceedings on behalf of Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza continued with the filing of a report of "presumed misfortune" on behalf of 23 people detained in Paine. This case was initiated on March 21, 1975, before the Buin-Maipo Court and was assigned file No. 24005-1.

On January 30, 1979, a criminal complaint for the kidnapping of Mario E. Muñoz Peñaloza against Sergeant Antonio Reyes Alvarez of the Paine Sub-prefecture (file 25059-3), which had been initiated on October 4, 1977, was consolidated into this case.

In case file 25059-3, the Investigations Prefecture took a statement from the retired Carabinero Manuel Antonio Reyes Alvarez, following an investigation order issued by the investigating judge, Mr. Montenegro.

In the report that the Investigations Prefecture submitted to the Court, it reproduced the words of the (retired) Carabinero Antonio Reyes Alvarez verbatim: "I do not remember knowing or having detained Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza on October 10, 1973.

I am very well known in the Paine area for having worked as a Carabinero officer for many years, which in turn means that anyone can name me or locate me. In 1973, I participated in actions against guerrilla schools in the sector, which has caused many people to be resentful of me."

When Sergeant Reyes appeared to testify before the Court, he reiterated what he had already stated to the Investigations police. On that occasion, he was also ordered to provide a list of the uniformed personnel who made up the staff of the Sub-prefecture as of October 1973.

In the same case, Amanda Duarte Soriano, a neighbor of Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, was confronted with Sergeant Manuel Antonio Reyes Alvarez on February 7, 1978. She stated verbatim: "I effectively saw Sergeant Reyes, who is present here, when on October 10, 1973, together with other Carabineros, he detained Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, and they made him get into a green jeep or small truck..." Sergeant Reyes stood by his statements.

On March 9, 1978, the Court exhorted the 1st Military Prosecutor's Office to go to the Paine Sub-prefecture and investigate the "probable" arrest of Muñoz Peñaloza. The Military Court requested the file and held it for three months, effectively stalling the proceedings.

On July 19, 1978, the Court was able to verify—upon visiting the Sub-prefecture—that the detainee entry logs had been incinerated in 1977, after having been sent to the 7th Carabinero Precinct of Buin.

On July 19 of the same year, the Court visited the police station a second time and proceeded to take a statement from First Sergeant Víctor Sagredo Aravena, the only officer who had continued working at the Sub-prefecture since 1973, who stated that he had no knowledge of any information regarding a possible detention of Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza.

On that occasion, the Court compiled a list of the personnel who were serving in the Paine Sub-prefecture in September 1973 and proceeded to summon them.

When the officers appeared to testify, all of them denied having detained and/or seen Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza held at the police station. From their statements, it was concluded that in many cases, political prisoners were subsequently handed over to the military.

First Sergeant Lucas Humberto Pacheco Barrera stated: "The times I took detainees, I would enter them into the Sub-prefecture, and some of them were released right there, and others, if they had charges, were passed on to the military." For his part, Sub-officer Raúl del Carmen Ortiz Maluenda stated: "Regarding the detainees who arrived at that unit, some were handed over to the military and others were released the same day; all of them were entered into the corresponding guard log."

With this information, the plaintiff requested that the then-Director of the San Bernardo Infantry School, Colonel Leonel Koening Alterman, be summoned to testify. The request was granted. The Court later noted in the file that said military officer committed suicide on June 21, 1979.

Regarding case file 24005-1, which, as noted, began on March 21, 1975, after 8 months of proceedings, it was definitively dismissed by the investigating judge. In the case, official responses were received denying the detention of the 23 people in question from the National Executive Secretariat for Detainees (SENDET), the San Bernardo Infantry School, the Investigations Prefecture, and the Paine Sub-prefecture.

In addition, the Legal Medical Institute informed the Court that there was no record of the entry of the bodies corresponding to the people in question. On January 20, 1976, the Rancagua Court of Appeals approved the temporary dismissal.

On March 23, 1977, the case was reopened. The plaintiffs requested this, considering that 10 cases included in case file 24005-1 appeared on a list that the Chilean government attached to its report on "the current situation of human rights in Chile" at the 30th Session of the United Nations (UN) in October 1975.

The list in question—according to the Chilean government—referred to people who appeared as dead at the Legal Medical Institute and whose relatives were claiming them as "forcibly disappeared." It is necessary to remember that in this case, an official response was received from the Legal Medical Institute in which it stated exactly the opposite.

The case was reopened to continue the investigation of all the cases. It should be noted that Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza did not appear on that list.

At the time of the consolidation of the complaint (file 25059-3) into case file 24005-1, no significant steps had been taken in the latter regarding the detention of Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza; rather, these were carried out during the processing of the complaint before its consolidation.

Regarding the processing of case file 24005-1, it should be noted that on April 3, 1979, by instruction of the Supreme Court, the Rancagua Court of Appeals appointed Mr. Juan Rivas Larraín as Ministro en Visita Extraordinario to oversee it.

This appointment was made following a presentation by the Church of Santiago in which they requested "the appointment of Visiting Judges to investigate the cases of forcibly disappeared persons (March 31, 1979)."

The judicial investigation focused on two issues: a) clarifying the contradiction between information on the forcibly disappeared persons contained in the file issued by the Legal Medical Institute and that contained in the Chilean Government's report to the UN; b) investigating the fate of these people after their arrest.

Regarding the first point, Judge Rivas officially requested the Minister of Foreign Affairs to provide information regarding the background and procedures that allowed for the creation of said list, since, when requested, the Legal Medical Institute had responded that it had not found official correspondence between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Legal Medical Institute regarding that list.

On May 17, 1979, Judge Rivas visited the Legal Medical Institute and verified, after reviewing the General Index Book of Body Entries for the second semester of 1973, that none of the names of the people whose disappearance was being investigated appeared in that Index.

On the other hand, in the Autopsy Protocol Index, he verified that all the protocols listed in the government's report to the UN indeed corresponded to people who had died from gunshot wounds in different parts of Santiago and its surroundings after September 11, 1973.

However, all of them had been recorded as "NN" (unidentified) because their identification could not be achieved due to the lack of epidermis on their hands. None of the bodies had been identified subsequently.

On that occasion, the Director of the Institute informed the Judge regarding an investigation that the Institute had carried out at the request of Visiting Judge Adolfo Bañados—who was in charge of the case regarding the discovery of bodies in Lonquén—which had found that some victims of Lonquén also appeared included in that list.

In this report, the Institute had specified that there were doubts regarding the authenticity of the signature and stamp that appeared added to the list, in which the signature was attributed to Dr. Alfredo Vargas B. (R.I.P.) and the stamp to the Institute.

On that occasion, the Judge did not have access to the report in question—contained in official letter No. 36 dated February 19, 1979, which the Institute sent to Judge Bañados—given that the Institute had not left a copy in the service due to the summary state of the case.

After having received reports from the Central Identification Office, dependent on the Civil Registry, and having personally studied each of the 10 autopsy protocols assigned to the cases of disappeared persons that were the subject of his investigation, Judge Rivas concluded, at the time he ended his visit, that the list used by the Chilean government in its report to the United Nations was false in its creation and content. (August 1979).

For its part, the response from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not arrive until October 30, 1979; in it, it stated verbatim: "regarding the way in which the list came into the possession of this Secretariat of State, it should be noted that there is no official documentation sent to the aforementioned institute, so it must be concluded that it was requested verbally and delivered by hand to officials of this Ministry." The official letter was signed by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Brigadier General Enrique Valdés Puga.

Regarding the second point, the subject of his investigation, namely, to establish the fate of these people after their arrest, complaints were consolidated into the case against Lieutenant Andrés Magaña, who is identified as the military officer in charge of the operation on October 16 in Paine, which resulted in 22 disappeared persons, and 5 complaints against Colonel Jorge Dawling Santa María for the crime of covering up illegal arrests, since he had refused in 1977 to provide information regarding military units that operated in the area when consulted by the Court.

On April 19, 1979, Lieutenant Magaña testified before the court and was confronted with the direct relatives of René del Rosario Maureira Gajardo, who had recognized him at the time of the detention that occurred at Maureira's home in the early hours of October 16, 1973.

In the judicial proceeding, he denied having participated in any operation carried out in the Paine area, and also denied knowing Maureira's children, who claimed to have socialized with him at meetings held in locals' homes prior to September 11, 1973, a period during which Andrés Magaña performed patrol duties on high-voltage towers adjacent to the Paine Railway Station.

When the Court requested the appearance of Colonel Jorge Dawling Santa María, it was informed that since August 1978, he had been appointed Military Attaché at the Chilean Embassy in Uruguay, a position that would last for more than a year.

On the other hand, at the request of the plaintiffs, Judge Rivas in May 1979 officially requested the 1st Military Prosecutor's Office to provide case file 23643, in which the discovery of skeletal remains in March 1974 on the Cuesta de Chada was being investigated, which could correspond to the disappeared persons who were the subject of his investigation.

In June 1979, the Commander-in-Chief of the II Army Division, Brigadier General Enrique Morel Donoso, responded by refusing to send the file, arguing that it was a process handled in accordance with military criminal procedure in Wartime, and added that on November 4, 1975, a temporary dismissal had been issued in that case.

During his visit, on June 27, 1979, he received a response to an official letter he had sent to the National Intelligence Center (CNI); in it, he was told that after reviewing the relevant documentation, it was verified that none of the 24 people in question had records as "extremist or political activist" from September 1973 onwards.

On August 13, 1979, Judge Rivas declared himself incompetent to continue hearing the case, following the creation of the Presidente Aguirre Cerda Court of Appeals, to which, by territorial distribution, the matters of Maipo-Buin fell. The investigation under the new file 1-79 was in charge of the Visiting Judge, Humberto Espejo Z.

By December 1979, nine criminal complaints against the staff of the San Bernardo Infantry School were consolidated into case 1-79 for the crimes of kidnapping of 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, José Germán Fredes García, and Carlos Gaete López.

Another complaint, also against personnel of the Infantry School, for the crimes of kidnapping and qualified homicide of Juan Guillermo Cuadra Espinoza and Ignacio Santander Albornoz. A complaint against Lieutenant Magaña for the illegal detention of René del Rosario Maureira Gajardo.

A complaint against Colonel Jorge Dawling Santa María as an accessory to the illegal arrests of Jorge Hernán Muñoz Peñaloza, Carlos Enrique Lazo Quintero, Carlos Alberto Nieto Duarte, José Domingo Adasme Núñez, Samuel Altamiro Lazo Quintero, Samuel del Tránsito Lazo Maldonado, and Luis Rodolfo Lazo Maldonado.

A complaint for the kidnapping of Andrés Pereira Salsberg and, finally, a complaint against Sergeant Reyes for the crime of kidnapping of Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza.

A month earlier, on November 13, 1979, the Vicar General and acting Vicar of the Vicariate of Solidarity, Monsignor Ignacio Ortúzar Rojas, informed Judge Espejo of information in the possession of the Catholic Church regarding massive and irregular burials in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery of Santiago.

These burials refer to nearly 200 graves exclusively in Patio 29. In them were buried bodies recorded as "NN," as well as bodies corresponding to identified people, which in some cases appeared buried alone, and in others, it would be more than one burial per grave.

Among the remains that appeared buried with their identification were several cases of people detained in Paine in the months of September and October 1973, in some of which the place of death was recorded as the Cerro Chena Detention Camp, dependent on the San Bernardo Infantry School.

Such was the case of Juan Guillermo Cuadra Espinoza and Ignacio del Tránsito Santander Albornoz. This allowed for the deduction that the forcibly disappeared persons from Paine could be found in those graves.

The Court visited the General Cemetery and verified the existence of graves in which more than one person was buried, as well as the existence of more than 100 graves with "NN" annotations. The Court requested a complete list of graves with "NN" in Patio 29 with their attached data.

On November 19, 1979, it officially notified the Director of the General Cemetery that until further order from that Court, the remains of the people buried as "NN" in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery could not be incinerated, exhumed, or moved.

On December 12, 1979, Judge Espejo declared himself incompetent and sent the records to the Military Prosecutor's Office, given that all the reports and complaints contained in this case (file 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-prefecture.

The plaintiffs appealed such a resolution, arguing that the appointment of the Visiting Judge had been decided in order to determine the circumstances of the detention, the places where they were taken, the place where the detainees still remained, and, ultimately, to establish the "fate of the forcibly disappeared persons," and in no case did it allude to the other problem of the "responsibility of the alleged perpetrators." On the other hand, the appeal stated that there still remained to be investigated the irregularities reported by the Catholic Church regarding Patio 29 of the General Cemetery. On March 6, 1980, the Presidente Aguirre Cerda Court of Appeals resolved to revoke the incompetence and ordered the Visiting Judge to resume the investigation in two directions: to interrogate the accused Colonel Jorge Dawling Santa María and to establish whether a summary investigation was carried out at the Legal Medical Institute for the irregularities detected in the Institute's report, presented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the UN. If applicable, the Court had to inform the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of these facts in his capacity as a supervisory body. During the development of the process, it was established that the summary investigation was not carried out, and on March 12, 1980, the Judge officially notified the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court.

On April 2, 1980, the Minister of National Defense, Lieutenant General Raúl Benavides E., reported regarding the appearance of Dawling Santa María verbatim: "...the cited Officer has the rank of Brigadier General and, in accordance with the provisions of art. 101 No. 1 and 192 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, it is requested of Your Honor that the cited Court require from Brigadier General Mr.

Jorge Dawling Santa María his statement in writing." The Court officially requested and attached a memorandum to the Brigadier General, which was erroneously formulated, which gave rise to his response being limited to saying: "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, basing his resolution on exactly the same terms as the previous incompetence. The appealed resolution was revoked on June 25, 1980, with the Court itself ordering the Visiting Judge to officially request Brigadier General Dawling Santa María again, attaching a memorandum prepared according to the tenor of the citations made of him in the complaints consolidated in case 1-79, in which he was attributed participation in the cover-up of the events being investigated.

He also ordered specific measures aimed at the study of the irregularities of Patio 29.

In July 1980, the Court received a response from Brigadier General Dawling Santa María. In it, he reiterated his inability to provide the information requested because there were no written reports in 1977 at the Infantry School of military maneuvers or operations that might have been carried out in Paine or its surroundings; the same lack of information was referred to regarding the names of military personnel who might have participated in operations in Paine on October 16, 1973.

His official letter concluded by stating that he had brought the background of case 1-79 to the attention of the Army General Command for the purposes of the jurisdiction that, in his opinion, would correspond to the Military Courts, since he was accused in the transcribed complaints of participation as an accessory in "alleged crimes" that he would have committed in the line of duty.

On October 17, 1980, the records of the process were definitively sent to the II Military Prosecutor's Office by Judge Espejo after declaring himself incompetent for the third time to continue hearing the case.

On that occasion, he appealed the jurisdictional inhibition when the file was requested by the II Military Court. At the time of ending his visit, Judge Espejo had made significant progress in the investigation regarding the irregularities of Patio 29; he had requested and obtained the autopsy protocols after October 16, 1973, had carried out a visual inspection of the graves of Patio 29 corresponding to those protocols, had prepared anthropometric files of the forcibly disappeared persons, had obtained dactyloscopic files of the investigated protocols, and had carried out, based on this information, a comparative study of the various data accumulated.

Judge Espejo concluded, finally, that 6 graves registered as "NN" could provide information regarding forcibly disappeared persons from Paine. These are graves 2342, 2365, 2468, 2481, 2665, and 2526.

During the processing of this case in the II Military Prosecutor's Office...

Military Prosecutor under case file 952-80, between the years 81 and 87, on five occasions, the exhumation of these 6 graves was requested from the Military Court, being denied in all instances as the proceeding was considered inconclusive given the time elapsed.

After the plaintiff filed a complaint, the appellate court rejected the complaint on January 22, 1982, as there was no fault or abuse susceptible to being considered through disciplinary channels. The complaint had also raised the Military Court's refusal to consolidate the case regarding the discovery at Cuesta de Chada (case file 23643), with the same result.

On May 24, 1982, the case was totally and temporarily dismissed by the military judge, "notwithstanding that the investigation is exhausted, the perpetration of the acts denounced on page 1 and attributed to personnel of the Armed Forces and Order, subject to military jurisdiction, is not fully proven."

Such resolution was appealed, being revoked in March 1984 by the Court Martial, which ordered the Court itself to carry out proceedings aimed at completing the investigation. As a result, during 1985, the appearance of Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers who made up the staff of the Infantry School as of September/October 1973 was achieved.

At least 26 Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers testified. All of them claimed to be in absolute ignorance of the investigated facts; not having participated in nor having had knowledge of operations in Paine; likewise, all the uniformed personnel indicated they had no knowledge of the presence of detainees at the Cerro Chena Camp.

In January 1987, the case for Presumed Misfortune of Francisco Baltazar Godoy Román, case file 25245-3 (Prosecutor's Office file 46-80), was consolidated, in whose arrest Carabineros from the Paine Sub-precinct participated.

On November 22, 1989, the Military Prosecutor of the II Military Prosecutor's Office, Enrique Ibarra Chamorro, became a party representing the Military Public Ministry, requesting the application of Amnesty Decree Law No. 2191 of 1978.

The Military Judge resolved to totally and definitively dismiss the case as the criminal responsibility of the persons allegedly accused of the denounced acts was extinguished. Such resolution was revoked in February 1992 by the Court Martial; 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 remains of unidentified persons buried between September and December 1973 in the aforementioned patio at the General Cemetery had been carried out. As of December 1992, the case remained in process.

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

The background information on Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza was delivered by his spouse to the Court, with no clarifying results in his case by the end of 1992.

On August 22, 1991, case file 4449-AF was initiated in the 22nd Criminal Court of Santiago when the judicial investigation into the crimes of illegal burials was set in motion, regarding corpses that currently remain buried as NN in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery, based on information contained in a criminal complaint filed by the Vicariate of Solidarity of the Archbishopric of Santiago.

The anthropomorphic data of Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza were attached to said case. In September 1991, the exhumation of 108 graves in Patio 29 was carried out. At the end of 1992, the extracted remains were in the process of identification by the Legal Medical Institute of Santiago.

Source: Corporation report

The highest court convicted 10 Army officials as authors of the qualified homicide of 38 people and one Carabinero for the qualified kidnapping of two victims. The Court reclassified the crimes from qualified kidnapping to qualified homicide, nullifying the statute of limitations and increasing the sentences of the convicted.

After 49 years since the events occurred, the Supreme Court issued a final ruling in one of the most emblematic cases perpetrated by the military dictatorship, through its Second Criminal Chamber, convicting former uniformed officers for the qualified homicide of 36 agricultural workers and 2 businessmen, all from the town of Paine, who were executed at Cuesta Chada and the Los Quillayes ravine, on October 3 and 16, 1973, respectively, at the hands of officials from the San Bernardo Infantry School.

Ministers Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, María Teresa Letelier, and the participating lawyers Diego Murita and Leonor Etchebery, in a historic ruling, sentenced Jorge Romero Campos and Arturo Fernández Rodríguez, Army captain and second lieutenant, respectively, to 20 years of major imprisonment in its maximum degree as authors of the qualified kidnapping of the victims.

In this case, the highest court increased their sentences in relation to the second-instance ruling issued by the San Miguel Court of Appeals, in which Romero had been sentenced to 15 years and Fernández to 10.

Similarly, the Court increased the sentences for Corporal José Vásquez Silva and conscripts Carlos Lazo Santibañez, Juan Opazo Vera, and Carlos Durán Rodríguez from 5 to 10 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree, also as authors of qualified homicide.

The same sentence was received by conscripts Roberto Pinto Labordarie, Jorge Saavedra Meza, and Víctor Sandoval Muñoz.

In the case of conscript Raúl Francisco Areyte Valdenegro, the Court increased his sentence from 5 to 6 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree as the author of 14 qualified homicides.

It should be noted that for all the aforementioned convicts, the highest court reclassified the crimes in relation to the second-instance ruling, from qualified kidnapping to qualified homicide. Likewise, the ministers recognized the collaboration provided by the conscripts through their statements, which contributed to the identifications, and applied the special mitigating factor of substantial collaboration and irreproachable prior conduct.

Meanwhile, Carabineros Captain Nelson Bravo Espinoza was sentenced to 10 years of major imprisonment in its medium degree, a sentence that was increased by 5 years, and his crime was reclassified from author of simple kidnapping to qualified kidnapping of Ramón Capetillo Mora and Mario Muñoz Peñaloza, which occurred between October 8 and 10, 1973.

Meanwhile, Osvaldo Magaña Bau, Juan Guillermo Quintanilla, and Carlos Kylling Schmidt, who had been convicted during the process, were dismissed due to their deaths, as was Víctor Pinto Pérez.

Plaintiff lawyer Nelson Caucoto, who represents the families of 37 victims, was satisfied as the Court accepted all the cassation appeals they presented and celebrated the ruling, stating that "tomorrow will be a brighter day for the families of the victims of Paine, executed by soldiers from the San Bernardo Infantry School, a day filled with new sensations and hopes."

Caucoto, who has handled the case since its inception, stated that "The highest court of the Republic has issued a final sentence in this case, which speaks of a massacre that occurred 49 years ago in that rural town.

Impunity, indifference, and barbarity have been overcome. What the Supreme Court has done is an act of healing for those families and for Chilean society in general. One of the unforgivable crimes of the civil-military dictatorship has been resolved by the Chilean justice system in a civilized manner. Despite the long time that has passed, Justice is possible."

It should be mentioned that the Human Rights Program of the Ministry of the Interior, the Association of Families of Politically Executed Persons (AFEP), the Federation of Students of the Catholic University (FEUC), and lawyer Luciano Fouillioux, as representative of the father of lawyer Pamela Pereira, Andrés Pereira Salsberng, also acted as plaintiffs in the arguments.

In civil matters, the res judicata that had been decreed by the San Miguel Court of Appeals and which prevented some of the victims' families from accessing reparations was set aside.

THE FACTS

Cuesta Chada According to the investigation led by the extraordinary visiting minister for human rights cases of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes, it was established that on the afternoon of September 24, 1973, soldiers from the Second Rifle Company of the San Bernardo Infantry School appeared at the 'El Escorial' settlement in the commune of Paine and detained, without legal right, Héctor Guillermo Castro Sáez and Juan Bautista Núñez Vargas, among others.

After their detention, Héctor Castro Sáez and Juan Núñez Vargas were transferred to the Cerro Chena prisoner camp of the San Bernardo Infantry School, a place where they were kept illegally imprisoned.

On October 2, 1973, soldiers from the San Bernardo Infantry School appeared at the 'El Escorial' settlement in the commune of Paine and detained José Ángel Cabezas Bueno, who was immediately transferred to the Cerro Chena prisoner camp.

On October 3, 1973, in the early morning, soldiers commanded by Captain Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos left the Cerro Chena prisoner camp, under the charge of Lieutenant Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau and Second Lieutenants Carlos Walter Kyling Schmidt and Arturo Guillermo Fernández Rodríguez, with the detainees José Ángel Cabezas Bueno, Héctor Guillermo Castro Sáez, and Juan Bautista Núñez Vargas, in a red Dodge truck driven by Juan Guillermo Quintanilla Jerez, headed to the 'El Escorial' settlement in the commune of Paine and detained Francisco Javier Calderón Nilo, Domingo Octavio Galaz Salas, José Emilio González Espinoza, Juan Rosendo González Pérez, Aurelio Enrique Hidalgo Mella, Bernabé del Carmen López López, Héctor Santiago Pinto Caroca, Hernán Pinto Caroca, Aliro del Carmen Valdivia Valdivia, Hugo Alfredo Vidal Arenas, and Víctor Manuel Zamorano González.

Subsequently, in the same truck, they transported all the detainees to a ravine in the Cuesta de Chada and executed them, shooting them with the firearms they were carrying, their bodies being found abandoned in the aforementioned place some time later.

The remains of the bodies were found by the families themselves some time later and were collected in a disorderly manner by Carabineros and taken to the Legal Medical Service, a place where they remained for 20 years piled up in a warehouse without being examined for identification, which was only obtained in the 90s.

Los Quillayes Ravine On October 8, 1973, officials from the Paine Carabineros Sub-precinct appeared at the 'Campo Lindo' settlement in the same commune and detained, without legal right, Ramón Alfredo Capetillo Mora, who was immediately locked up in the aforementioned police unit.

In the following days, Ramón Capetillo Mora was transferred to the Cerro Chena prisoner camp of the San Bernardo Infantry School.

Two days later, on October 10, 1973, officials from the Paine Carabineros Sub-precinct appeared at the '24 de Abril' settlement in the same commune and detained, without legal right, Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, who was immediately locked up in the aforementioned police unit and transferred to the Cerro Chena prisoner camp of the San Bernardo Infantry School.

At the time of the events, the Paine Carabineros Sub-precinct was in charge of Captain Nelson Iván Bravo Espinoza.

Meanwhile, on October 16, 1973, in the early morning, soldiers from the same San Bernardo Infantry School, commanded by Captain Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos, left the Cerro Chena prisoner camp, under the charge of Lieutenant Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau and Second Lieutenants Carlos Walter Kyling Schmidt and Arturo Guillermo Fernández Rodríguez, with the detainees Ramón Alfredo Capetillo Mora and Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, in a red Dodge truck driven by Juan Guillermo Quintanilla Jerez, with the purpose of detaining twenty-two people in the town of Paine.

Thus, in their respective homes, located in the urban area of the commune of Paine, they detained, without legal right, René del Rosario Maureira Gajardo and Andrés Pereira Salsberg.

While in the '24 de Abril' settlement, they detained Patricio Loreto Duque Orellana, José Germán Fredes García, Carlos Enrique Gaete López, Rosalindo Delfín Herrera Muñoz, Jorge Hernán Muñoz Peñaloza, Ramiro Antonio Muñoz Peñaloza, Silvestre René Muñoz Peñaloza, Carlos Alberto Nieto Duarte, Laureano Quiroz Pezoa, Luis Ramón Silva Carreño, and Basilio Antonio Valenzuela Álvarez.

In the 'Nuevo Sendero' settlement, they detained José Domingo Adasme Núñez, José Ignacio Castro Maldonado, Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda, Luis Rodolfo Lazo Maldonado, Samuel del Tránsito Lazo Maldonado, Carlos Enrique Lazo Quinteros, and Samuel Altamiro Lazo Quinteros; and finally, in the 'El Tránsito' settlement, Pedro Antonio Cabezas Villegas and Roberto Esteban Serrano Galaz.

Subsequently, the aforementioned detainees were transported to the Los Arrayanes ravine, in the Los Quillayes sector, in the vicinity of Lake Rapel, where they were executed by firing squad by the aforementioned soldiers and the civilian who accompanied them, who immediately buried their bodies in the same place.

Years later, only bone and dental fragments of eleven of the twenty-four victims were found, because their bodies were removed and moved to an unknown location to this date, within the framework of the "Operation TV set removal" in 1978.

Source: caucoto.cl 15/6/2022

Date: 06-15-2022

MINISTER ISSUES NEW PROSECUTIONS FOR KIDNAPPING AND HOMICIDE IN PAINE

The investigating minister of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes, issued new prosecutions in the investigation into the kidnapping and homicide of Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, a forcibly disappeared person since October 16, 1973, and one of the victims of human rights violations in the town of Paine, as reported by the Judiciary portal.

In the case, Minister Cifuentes subjected Andrés Magaña Bau, Juan Guillermo Quintanilla Jerez, and José Vásquez to prosecution as authors of the crime of qualified homicide of Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, and modified the indictment issued against Nelson Bravo Espinoza, charging him as the author of the crime of kidnapping.

According to the information gathered in the process, the following facts were established:

"It is justified in the case files that on October 10, 1973, around 18:00 hours, Carabineros officials arrived at the home of Mario Muñoz Peñaloza, located at site 93 of the '24 de Abril' settlement, detained him without legal right, and transferred him to the Paine Sub-precinct.

The next day, Mario Muñoz Peñaloza was seen in that place by his mother Mercedes Peñaloza Escobar and his spouse Ana María Álvarez Balmaceda, who confirmed that he was very mistreated. The day after that, said women went again to the sub-precinct where they were informed that he had been transferred to Cerro Chena, a place dependent on the San Bernardo Infantry School.

Finally, on October 16, 1973, personnel from the San Bernardo Infantry School, commanded by a Lieutenant, carried out an operation that included, among others, the '24 de Abril' settlement, where twenty-two people were detained, and some of the eyewitnesses to the detention saw that Mario Muñoz Peñaloza was with the soldiers.

The twenty-two detainees, together with Muñoz Peñaloza and a third person, were transported to the El Arrayán ravine, in the vicinity of Lake Rapel, where they were executed. Subsequently, after the recovery of numerous bone remains in that place, it was established that the thoracic vertebra sample identified with the nomenclature TVT3E10 belongs to Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, with an identification probability of 99.99999%," the resolution states.

Source: cronicadigital.cl 19/9/2014

Date: 09-19-2014

Justice identifies man murdered by the military regime in 1973

The investigating minister of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Héctor Solís, identified as Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza the remains found between September and November 2007 in the El Arrayán ravine, near Lake Rapel.

He is one of the 22 peasants murdered by the repressive bodies of the military dictatorship on October 16, 1973, in what the justice system would later call "the Paine case."

The identification was facilitated by DNA tests performed on relatives of Muñoz Peñaloza and after a careful scientific process carried out by the Legal Medical Service.

Source: radio.uchile.cl 1/7/2010

Date: 07-01-2010

Justice identifies man murdered by the military regime in 1973

The investigating minister of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Héctor Solís, identified as Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza the remains found between September and November 2007 in the El Arrayán ravine, near Lake Rapel.

He is one of the 22 peasants murdered by the repressive bodies of the military dictatorship on October 16, 1973, in what the justice system would later call "the Paine case."

The identification was facilitated by DNA tests performed on relatives of Muñoz Peñaloza and after a careful scientific process carried out by the Legal Medical Service.

Source: radio.uchile.cl 1/7/2010

Testimony of Ana María Álvarez Balmaceda (excerpt)

Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza is one of the seventy forcibly disappeared and executed men of Paine. He was 24 years old at the time of his detention and disappearance, married, two daughters, and worked as an agricultural laborer.

According to the Rettig Report, he was a member of the Socialist Party and vice president of the 24 de Abril settlement. He was detained on October 10, 1973, at his home by Carabineros from Paine. Mario Enrique was part of the Muñoz Peñaloza family, of which a total of six members were detained: the brothers Silvestre René, Mario Enrique, Jorge Hernán, and Ramiro Antonio Muñoz Peñaloza, in addition to their brother-in-law Basilio Valenzuela, and the husband of a niece, Rosalindo Herrera, who, except for Mario Enrique, were detained on October 16, 1973.

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 Ana María Álvarez Balmaceda, wife of Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza. This testimony is based on conversations held between Ana and the researcher from Germina, knowledge for action.

I am Ana María Álvarez Balmaceda, wife of Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, detained on October 10, 1973. We had been married for four years at the time of his detention and had two daughters, Mónica, four years old, and Magaly, one year and two months old.

Mario was 24 and I was 18 when they took him away. My family was from Nuevo Sendero, on the way to Padre Hurtado, just like Mario's family. I was raised by my stepfather, Guillermo González, and my mother, Mercedes Balmaceda.

My mother suffered the loss of a son at the same time they took Mario, my brother, Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda. Mario and I got married in 1969, and we went to live at my mother-in-law's house, which was further up, at the El Tránsito estate; 24 de Abril did not exist yet.

My husband really liked a song and liked me to sing it. He would say to me, "Come on, old girl" – he called me that, even though we were both young – "sing me the song I like so much." It was a song by Antonio Aguilar, "El hijo desobediente" (The Disobedient Son), which my father-in-law also liked. 24 de Abril was a large estate, so one day the peasants, including the Muñoz Peñaloza brothers, raised the flag outside and took over the whole place, more or less in the year '70; they took over this whole sector and fought for all of this.

Later they hired a construction company to build the houses. That is why people live in 24 de Abril now. Mario was an agricultural worker; at that time this sector was just pastures with animals, but there were no houses, there was nothing, nothing.

In this estate, no work was being done in those years, that's why they took it over, to work it. Once they started building and handing over the houses, we came to live here.

He was vice president of the settlement at that time and I don't know well if he belonged to any party, because I was 18 and I remember little of those things, for example, what politics was like in those times.

I doubt that he belonged to the Socialist Party, as it appears in the Rettig Report; I think he was a person who thought differently, so I don't know, I doubt it. What I know is that he was vice president of the settlement, but I don't think he belonged to anything else because he didn't know how to read or write, nothing.

We sensed that at any minute it was going to happen... He was taken by Carabineros from Paine. I was not there at the time of his detention, but I did see him the next day. The day they detained him, I was just arriving from Buin, and well, everyone knows each other here, so there in Paine a gentleman got on the bus, I ran into him and he says to me, "Anita, did you hear what happened?" "No, I don't know, I'm coming from Buin, I don't know." "They took Mario away," he tells me.

I couldn't believe it, I knew he was in Paine doing some paperwork. I arrived and found that they had taken him away. Mario had gone with his mother, Mrs. Mercedes, and his sister to her house, and Carabineros arrived to look for him at our house, banging, with submachine guns and all that, but there was no one there, because my daughters were small so they stayed with my mother.

On the 24 de Abril field, they were playing a pickup soccer game and one of them warned Mario that the Carabineros had arrived at the house, and he came to meet them. Halfway, between my mother-in-law's house and our house, they met, they took him and threw him into one of those open jeeps that existed before; he was big, I think his feet were even hanging out of the jeep.

With a blow from a rifle butt, they threw him into the jeep and took him away. I had to go get the girls, I had them at my mother's in Nuevo Sendero and there my father was waiting for me. "They took Mario away," he told me.

I was already crying because of that, because we were sensing that at any minute it was going to happen; so many people had already disappeared, they had killed people, we had seen dead people, right here outside.

So, my husband had already been saying, "They are going to kill us," he slept with fear. He was very afraid. Those who took over first went on talking about the others, so in those days Capetillo was taken, Samuel Lazo, Flor's father, but later they sent him home.

My husband remained detained, and supposedly he was in the truck the day they came to look for all the others, when they took Samuel Lazo away again and for good, on October 16, 1973. My husband always said that he was not going to escape, because he could not put us at risk, me and my daughters.

He would tell me, "Suppose I leave and they take you for me." He had somewhere to go, but he didn't do it because he had a family behind him. (excerpt)

Source: germina.cl 2017

I am... Women relatives of forcibly disappeared and executed persons of Paine

The book addresses the experience of the women relatives of the detained and executed persons of that commune and the change that the detention of their relative meant in their lives and in those of their families.

This book is the result of 4 years of work and seeks to recognize not only who the 70 men recognized by the institutionality as forcibly disappeared and executed after the 1973 military coup were, but the history of these women, mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, who from that minute saw their lives completely disrupted.

Carolina Maillard Mancilla, Gloria Ochoa Sotomayor

Source: academia.edu 2009

Reconstitution of the scene in Los Quillayes

With my daughter Mónica, we went to the reconstitution of the scene in Los Quillayes. She couldn't believe that they had killed him in that way, because they, the murderers, you could say, recounted everything and how they had done it.

We go there every October 16, and she once took her husband, her son, and her future daughter-in-law so they would know the place where they had killed her father. She cannot believe how they killed them, the conditions in which they did it.

That day it was scary; I am very patient, I am very peaceful, and there were people who went out of all bounds there, they ran, they threw stones at them, they threw sticks. I ran in the group but I didn't do anything, I was like I wasn't even capable of screaming.

Pablo Duque said, "You wretch, such and such! You killed my father, I was still in my mother's womb!" Most of those who were screaming were children. My daughter is just like me, she also kind of keeps it inside, so she wasn't capable of screaming, the way the others were screaming.

Mario's mosaic. We made the mosaic with my daughters. My daughters worked more than I did. My husband really liked playing soccer, his loves were soccer and his daughters, so in the mosaic we made him dressed as a soccer player, and he appears with his two daughters, one on each side, and with one foot placed on top of a ball.

It was something beautiful because the whole family would gather to do things there, people would come, one would talk, stick a little bit of mosaic, and all that. But it was tiring, yes, because the work is heavy.

Source: germina.cl 2017