This Friday, Judge Sergio Muñoz, in addition to issuing arrest warrants, interrogated retired General Carlos Parera Silva regarding the execution of former commandos following the 1973 military coup. Magistrate Sergio Muñoz ordered the arrest and incommunicado detention of six retired military officers in the case concerning the disappearance and death of seven Army commandos after the coup of September 11, 1973.

Furthermore, the judge interrogated former General Carlos Parera Silva regarding this case, who will be joined next week by fellow retired officer Alejandro Medina Lois. The following were arrested at the Military Police Battalion: Rafael Sánchez, retired brigadier.

Renato Alarcón, retired colonel. Carlos Saravia, retired major. Domingo Cortés, retired sergeant major. Fidel Saravia, retired sergeant. Hernán Arancibia, retired sergeant. The case being investigated by Judge Muñoz is related to the disappearances and political executions of former Army commandos in 1973, due to their alleged ties to the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) and the Socialist Party (PS).

These are the former "Black Berets": Enrique Toledo Garay, Javier Enrique Sobarzo Sepúlveda, Mario Ramiro Melo Pradenas, and Luis Alberto Barraza Ruhl, who were forcibly disappeared; and Julio Antonio Martínez Lara, Alberto Ampuero Angel, and David González Venegas, who were victims of political executions.

Additionally, Muñoz interrogated retired General Carlos Parera Silva at the Military Hotel in Providencia. In September 1973, he held the rank of major and served as the second-in-command of the Paratrooper and Special Forces School in Peldehue.

Parera became famous in 1990 when, during the first Military Parade following the government of Augusto Pinochet, he refused to request the traditional authorization from the President of the Republic, then Patricio Aylwin, to begin the parade.

Judicial sources confirmed that for next week, the magistrate has summoned retired General Alejandro Medina Lois, who also belonged to the unit in the commune of Colina at that time and was assigned to various "anti-subversive" operations, mainly in the south of the country.

During the military dictatorship, Medina Lois also served as Minister of Health and as the appointed rector of the Universidad de Chile. He is currently the rector of the Universidad Bernardo O'Higgins.

Source: cooperativa.cl, November 26, 2004

Retired General Medina Lois prosecuted for kidnapping and homicide

The former officer was held at the Military Police Battalion for crimes against conscripts and soldiers opposed to the military regime who were members of the Paratrooper School. Retired General Alejandro Medina Lois will remain detained this Monday at the Army Telecommunications Command, having been prosecuted by Judge Carlos Gajardo for the aggravated kidnapping of two people and five homicides.

These were conscripts and soldiers opposed to the military regime who were members of the Paratrooper School of the institution's Peldehue Regiment, which the former officer directed in 1973. Medina Lois was detained at the Military Police Battalion, which is located at the Army Telecommunications Command.

His lawyer, Marcelo Cibié, announced that he will soon request his release, which could be reviewed by the Court of Appeals tomorrow or by next Wednesday at the latest. On January 11, Medina Lois was subjected to a confrontation in military facilities with retired General Luis Acevedo, who was already being prosecuted in the case that was reactivated in November 2005 by Judge Gajardo.

The victims belonged to the Army Paratrooper Command until 1970, the year they were discharged due to their ties to the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR). After the military coup in 1973, between September 12 and 15, the seven former paratroopers were apprehended by their former comrades-in-arms and executed at the Peldehue military camp, 30 kilometers north of Santiago, after being brutally tortured.

The bodies of five of the victims were found years later in the General Cemetery of Santiago, and the whereabouts of the others remain unknown. Medina Lois was the director of the Army Paratrooper School at the time the events occurred, but the officer has reiterated that he has no connection to those events.

During the military dictatorship, dozens of members of the three branches of the armed forces were victims of repression for opposing the coup d'état that overthrew President Salvador Allende (1970-1973), among them several generals.

In the so-called "Peldehue case," two other retired generals, three former officers, and one sergeant are also being prosecuted as perpetrators, in addition to two other retired sergeants charged as accomplices. Retired General Medina Lois was a military interventor at the Universidad de Chile during the dictatorship and is currently the rector of the private Universidad Bernardo O'Higgins.

Source: elmostrador.cl, January 16, 2006

Santiago Court grants bail to retired General Medina Lois

The former officer, prosecuted for kidnapping and homicide, had to pay a sum of $200,000 to leave his place of detention. The Third Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals granted release on a $200,000 bail to retired General Alejandro Medina Lois, who was prosecuted last Monday for the aggravated kidnapping of two people and five homicides.

The case investigated by Judge Carlos Gajardo is linked to conscripts and soldiers opposed to the military regime who were members of the Paratrooper School of the institution's Peldehue Regiment, which the former officer directed in 1973.

The appointed rector of the Universidad de Chile and later the highest authority of the Universidad Bernardo O'Higgins was detained at the Military Police Battalion, which is located at the Army Telecommunications Command in the commune of Peñalolén.

Source: elmostrador.cl, January 18, 2006

Controversial retired general who was rector of the Universidad de Chile and Pinochet's former Minister of Health, Alejandro Medina Lois, has died.

He was prosecuted for the crime against military personnel who opposed the 1973 coup.

After a long illness, retired General Alejandro Medina Lois has died at the age of 79. Medina Lois was prosecuted in January 2006 by Judge Carlos Gajardo as the perpetrator of two aggravated kidnappings and five homicides, corresponding to the repression ordered by Army commanders against uniformed personnel accused of having ties to leftist organizations, a few months after the military coup of September 1973.

Medina Lois was the commander of the Peldehue Paratrooper Regiment, the unit to which the murdered soldiers belonged. The retired general was detained at the Military Police Battalion in Peñalolén three decades after the events occurred, but after posting bail, he was released.

In 1979, he was promoted to Army General. Between March and December 1980, he held the ministerial portfolio for Health. He was later appointed rector of the Universidad de Chile. In 1984, he was named commander-in-chief of the V Division, based in Punta Arenas.

During that year, while he was serving in that position, a bomb attack occurred against the Catholic Church of Fátima in Punta Arenas, in which the individual placing the explosive device, Lieutenant Patricio Contreras Martínez, died.

A second man who was wounded and later died was not identified. Police investigations indicated that the military personnel—including the deceased—intended to place a bomb in the church to blame leftist groups.

In May 2001, the Bishop of Punta Arenas, Tomás González, stated that there was military participation in the 1984 attack on the church, which is why he appealed to the Court of Appeals of that city against the resolution made by Judge Renato Campos, who closed the case after Medina Lois testified.

The officer testified at the time that the institution bore no responsibility. He returned to public life during the first quarter of 1988 at a seminar of the South American Peace Commission. Months later, he created the Center for Nationality Studies. Medina Lois was buried this Monday at the Parque del Recuerdo Cemetery.

Source: cambio21.cl, June 22, 2010