On February 12, the Second Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals ordered the indictment of Enrique Fuenzalida Puelma, former military prosecutor of Arica between April 1974 and June 1976, for his alleged responsibility in the murder of Communist militant Manuel Sanhueza Mellado, which occurred in July 1974.

The uniformed lawyer is accused of the crimes of kidnapping and homicide of Sanhueza, whose remains were found in 1990 in Pisagua. The court ordered the arrest of the accused, who entered the Punta Peuco prison in the following days.

Manuel Sanhueza—the "Choño" Sanhueza—was a prominent leader of the Communist Youth from the mid-60s, a member of the central committee, national head of residents' affairs, and regional secretary in Arica at the time of his arrest by the Military Intelligence Service (SIM).

His body was found in a hidden grave in Pisagua, along with 19 other corpses, on June 2, 1990, following a report by the Vicaría de la Solidaridad. The discovery of "Choño's" body, preserved by the desert salt, was captured in a photograph widely circulated in Chile and the world, where he appeared blindfolded, shot in the chest, and with a rictus that shook not only the families of those executed and forcibly disappeared during the years of the military dictatorship.

"Choño," the son of Víctor Sanhueza and Margarita Mellado, was born in Concepción on November 22, 1943, very close to the Agüita de la Perdiz neighborhood, on the slopes of Cerro Caracol. From a young age, he was a furniture maker and a hardworking community leader, just like his father.

He was also a talented midfielder for the local soccer club La Toma, whose skill dazzled the directors of the Universidad de Chile, who tried to bring him into their honor team, the then-famous "Ballet Azul."

Manuel preferred to stay in the working-class neighborhoods of Concepción, organizing new sports clubs, working alongside his father, and helping his neighbors. In 1960, he joined the Communist Youth, and by 1966 he was already participating with enthusiasm in the Brigada Ramona Parra.

Very soon, the "old guard" took notice of him, and in 1967 he was sent to a cadre school in the Soviet Union. Upon his return in 1969, he was assigned to the regional committee of the "Jota" (Communist Youth) in Valdivia, and by 1970 he was already fulfilling duties on the central committee as the head of residents' affairs.

Manuel Guerrero Ceballos, also a member of the PC youth leadership, was his companion and friend. While imprisoned in Cuatro Alamos in 1976, he wrote a text remembering "Choño," which his son—Manuel Guerrero Antequera—shared years later through social media:

"In a revolutionary organization, no one is indispensable, but it is difficult to imagine a better head of residents' work than 'Choño,' a position he held during the final years before the fascist coup.

He was an indefatigable activist; he traveled through the neighborhoods encouraging the organization of cultural and youth centers, neighborhood councils, supply and price committees, and volunteer work days.

Before that, he had been a leader of several land occupations that homeless residents carried out by forcibly occupying vacant state or private sites, where they would raise a shack of cardboard or sheets, with no protection other than their organization and determination, as well as the inevitable Chilean flags they hoisted like a shield. 'Choño' knew that struggle like the back of his hand.

A man born and raised in the neighborhoods, a fighter for his livelihood, since he was a child he was the creator of his own life with more imagination than money; he was good at telling jokes, a friend to his friends, a conversationalist, a charmer, and a lover of good food and good wine."

Manuel Guerrero regained his freedom shortly after and continued working in the underground until March 1985, when he was kidnapped by agents of the Carabineros Communications Directorate (Dicomcar) and had his throat slit along with two other Communist leaders on the shoulder of a rural road in the western area of Santiago.

ALONGSIDE VÍCTOR JARA

With his colorful and clear language, "Choño" stood out among his peers. He spoke bluntly, without mincing words. When discussions became tangled, he used to say that the most important thing was to know that imperialism was the fundamental enemy; once that was clear, there were no problems with the rest.

Despite having completed only a few years of primary school, he possessed a broad culture, the product of his self-taught efforts. He was accustomed to carrying a book that he read with care and later discussed with anyone willing to listen.

With the same simplicity with which he spoke in the neighborhoods, he addressed university students who always invited him to their events, talks, and forums. With his characteristic countenance and figure, his bowed legs, and his unwavering enthusiasm, he was wherever he was needed. He was inexhaustible.

His contagious enthusiasm captivated Víctor Jara, who let himself be led by "Choño" through the country's marginalized shantytowns, getting to know the marrow of the working-class suburbs and the trembling flesh of poverty.

The vital rhythm of both amalgamated and grew, so it was common to see them coming and going, talking and arguing, sweeping everything along with their programs in various neighborhoods and communes of Santiago.

José Manuel Parada used to say that if the "Choño" and Víctor fever had infected all young Communists, they would have ended up dedicated exclusively to residents' work. From that relationship between the two innate activists was born the collection of songs by Víctor Jara that, gathered on a long-playing record, bore precisely the name La Población.

Since settling in Santiago, Manuel Sanhueza lived in Quinta Normal and regularly visited the PC local where he was a militant, at the base of the Paula Jaraquemada neighborhood, in the old Carrascal district, whose militants were quite undisciplined but among the most combative when it came to defending the popular government. The mere presence of "Choño" brought order to the most heated meetings.

Sanhueza would begin his intervention by taking off his watch, which he placed on the table, and with his characteristic voice, he would say: "Comrades, what the hell is going on?" And immediately, calmly, he would begin listing the difficulties until reaching the responsibilities; and there his voice would rise, he would strike his fist on the tabletop, and he would end by sentencing: "And now, comrades... enough of the bullshit!"

He always made time to teach the most diligent how to lead a meeting, how to write a political report, how to organize a march... In the end, with everyone more relaxed, he would invite them to talk over a bottle of red wine at "Don Rigo's," a tavern in the Tropezón square, by Walker Martínez and Mapocho, in a "diamond tip" where it was said that the brave died.

In mid-1972, he was sent to Arica to support the Communist youth work in the 1973 parliamentary campaign. His efforts and those of his comrades succeeded in the PC electing two deputies: Oriel Viciani in Arica and Vicente Atencio in Iquique. "Choño" had fallen in love with a "jotosa" (Communist Youth member)—Cecilia Rojas Orellana—and they decided to get married, settle in the city of eternal spring, and join the tasks of supporting the government of Salvador Allende.

In Arica, the coup caught him by surprise, but he did not lose heart. He assumed the role of clandestine regional secretary of the "Jota" and faced the problems head-on. He tried to reorganize the party, traveled through the towns in the area encouraging the militants, created a clandestine newspaper, and had the idea of calling for small meetings on the beaches.

It was too much, and his name was already on all the wanted lists carried by the agents of repression.

THE ARREST

At four in the morning on July 10, 1974, a military intelligence patrol violently broke into "Choño's" home in the Venceremos neighborhood—later 11 de Septiembre and today Cardenal Silva Henríquez—and along with his pregnant wife, his brother-in-law, and his father-in-law, he was taken to the Rancagua regiment, commanded by Colonel Odlanier Mena.

Manuel Sanhueza was subjected to savage torture for 17 days. He was even taken to a foothills sector where they continued to flagellate him for two more days, hanging him naked in the open air, enduring the high-altitude cold.

On July 27, the three men were taken out of the Rancagua regiment and led to Carabineros facilities in Pisagua. On the morning of the 28th, the brother-in-law and the father-in-law were taken to Arica and locked in the prisoner camp, from where they were taken to the Military Prosecutor's Office.

There, an official read them a telegram stating that Manuel Sanhueza had died in a fishing accident along with two other common prisoners, with only the guard who was watching them surviving, and that his body could not be recovered.

Cecilia, "Choño's" wife, lost the child she was expecting due to the torture she was subjected to. She, her brother, and her father searched for Manuel fruitlessly until they could no longer continue. The woman left for exile.

Only on June 18, 1990, at the Legal Medical Service of Iquique, did María Maluenda, mother of José Manuel Parada, identify the body of "Choño" found in the Pisagua grave. He had been tortured with cruelty and brutality.

Obviously, they did not manage to extract any denunciation from him. Had they done so, many people would have fallen, given the knowledge Sanhueza had of his organization, both locally and nationally. His remains were transferred to Concepción, where his family and the residents of Agüita de la Perdiz gave him a final burial.

THE PISAGUA CAMP

The first prisoner camp was built in the late 1940s, during the presidency of Gabriel González Videla, as a detention center for Communists. Located 192 kilometers north of Iquique, it was reopened in the first days of the 1973 military coup.

About 2,500 prisoners passed through there. The camp was under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Ramón Larraín Larraín. On May 6, 1974, the army moved the detainees to the second floor of a warehouse in the hamlet.

Ten days later, 126 common prisoners arrived; almost nothing has been known about them. Although there is no evidence of mass executions of common prisoners, as there are no reports, in 1998 Carlos Herrera Jiménez, a former military intelligence agent, admitted to having participated in the execution of criminals and minors.

In 1973, Pisagua was a town with a military base and a jail. Most of the prisoners were locked in the 26 cells of the jail, ten of them measuring two by four meters. The women remained captive in a building next to the theater.

In general, the prisoners came from different cities in the Norte Grande, while many others were former prisoners from the training ship Esmeralda and had been taken there on the freighter Maipo, of the Compañía Sudamericana de Vapores.

On the day of the coup, Colonel Odlanier Mena Salinas assumed the position of the highest military authority of the province in Arica, seconded by his aide, Captain Ricardo Gaete, and Captain Patricio Varela as public relations officer.

On that same date, a wartime military tribunal was established, composed of Mena himself plus civil judge Humberto Retamal and Lieutenant Colonel Mario Carrasco González. A war council was also formed, composed of Lieutenant Colonels Eduardo Oyarzún Sepúlveda and Walter Luther Melcher and Majors Julio Salazar Lanteri, Hugo Sepúlveda Fuentes, and Luis Aguayo Benard.

The Military Intelligence Service (SIM) was in charge of the interrogations and surveillance of the political prisoners. For this, Lieutenant Colonel Eduardo Oyarzún, second-in-command of the Rancagua regiment, formed two groups: an operational command, led by Major Julio Salazar, and an intelligence command, led by Major Luis Aguayo.

Among the detainees, word spread that the group led by Aguayo Benard, seconded by Captain Patricio Padilla and non-commissioned officers Juan Cereceda Lawson, José Luis Catalán, Luis Carrera Bravo, Pedro Fuentes Carrasco, Sergio Mercado Valenzuela, and René Bravo Llanos, was in charge of the "dirtiest" work, such as torture, rape, and executions.

In charge of the Norte Grande military zone was General Carlos Forestier.

In August 2015, Judge Carroza indicted retired non-commissioned officers Luis Carrera Bravo and Napoleón Ríos Carvajal for their responsibility in the kidnapping with homicide of Manuel Sanhueza. Both are in Punta Peuco.

Meanwhile, lawyer Adil Brkovic, a plaintiff in the case, is trying to find out what happened to Hugo Martínez Martínez and Henry Torres Flores, two alleged "criminals" alongside whom—according to the military—"Choño" had supposedly died.

Source: resumen.cl, March 14, 2016

Former Army officer sentenced for crime against Uruguayan citizen in Arica

The minister on extraordinary visit for human rights violation cases of the La Serena Court of Appeals, Vicente Hormazábal Abarzúa, sentenced former Army Colonel Juan Iván Vidal Ogueta to 10 years and one day of effective imprisonment as the author of the crime of qualified kidnapping of Uruguayan citizen Mónica Benaroyo Penco.

The crime was committed starting in September 1973 in the city of Arica.

In the ruling (case file 64.428), the visiting minister also applied to the former officer the legal accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights, and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence.

Mónica Cristina Benaroyo Penco, 48 years old, was a political refugee of Uruguayan nationality, of Romanian origin, and a militant of the Tupamaros Movement of Uruguay; she lived in Arica and worked in a local factory.

She was arrested in her home (a room she was renting) by officials of the Arica Investigations Police on September 14, 1973, and taken to the public jail of that city on the 20th. In the following days, she was taken from that prison facility by military personnel belonging to the Intelligence Service of the "Rancagua" Regiment of Arica.

These agents of the so-called Section II of that military unit carried out repeated incursions into the prison, at any time of the day or night, to interrogate political prisoners held there, or to take them from the place and lead them to the facilities of the aforementioned regiment.

Among these agents were the head of Section II, then-Major Luis Aguayo Benard (now deceased), then-Lieutenant Juan Vidal Ogueta, who seconded Aguayo, and Sergeants Luis Guillermo Carrera Bravo, Juan Cereceda Lawson, and Sergio Mercado Valenzuela (all deceased), among others, who walked in civilian clothes and dealt with the political detainees in the jail.

At the same time, it was ordered that a contingent of Carabineros come to reinforce the jail, assisting in the task of guarding detainees.

The Arica regiment was under the command of then-Colonel Odlanier Mena Salinas, who years later directed the National Intelligence Center (CNI), a repressive entity in which the now-convicted Juan Vidal Ogueta also held hierarchical functions, operating in Santiago as head of the anti-subversive division.

A report from the Investigations Police states that Mónica Benaroyo Penco was admitted to the Arica prison on September 20, at 15:20 hours. It also states that she was taken from that facility on September 25, at 20:50 hours, by the aforementioned military personnel.

This is in addition to statements from prison guards, Carabineros, and female detainees who saw and spent time with Mónica Benaroyo in the prison.

Statements from other surviving witnesses and former Army officials coincide in having seen her inside the "Rancagua" regiment, at least during the following two months, as a prisoner in facilities controlled by Section II of that unit.

In this regard, the judicial resolution states: "That the facts described in the preceding motives are constitutive of the crime of qualified kidnapping, in the consummated degree, provided for in article 141, paragraph 3 of the Penal Code, since from the detention and confinement of the victim Mónica Benaroyo Penco, which was initially carried out by officials of the Arica Investigations Police, being subsequently derived to the Public Jail of said city by order of the Arica Military Prosecutor's Office, and then to Department II of the 'Rancagua' Regiment, her death resulted possibly after December 1973, thus resulting in serious damage to the person or interests of the victim."

In this regard, it is useful to consider the fact that the mortal remains of the victim were found in July 2008 in the Pampa Chaca sector, an area where the army habitually conducted military exercises since before 1973. Furthermore, certain items discovered next to her mortal remains, such as a cigarette pack, a lighter, etc., place her death at a time close to her detention.

The ruling states that: "even existing indications as already established when analyzing the cause of death, that the victim must have been executed by her captors, the truth is that since it has not been scientifically determined in a thorough manner that her death was due to a deliberate act of the kidnappers, it can be stated that, as established by the Legal Medical Service, there are indications of criminality, but they are not sufficient to classify them as qualified homicide, which is the reason for establishing that we are in the presence of a qualified kidnapping."

Source: resumen.cl, November 4, 2023

Case No. 51.925-1: Illegal burial of Grober Hugo Venegas Islas w.- Testimony of Bernabé Ernesto Vega Velásquez, from pages 690 and 692, who states that he joined the CIRE (Regional Intelligence Center) in 1974, the year said unit was created.

Its chief was an Army Captain whom he mentions, and it included personnel from other branches such as Carabineros, the Army, the Investigations Police, and the Navy. He notes that upon starting at the CIRE, he and the other members had to take an oath, and if they did not comply, they would have to face the consequences.

He volunteered to run the General Staff, which consisted of maintaining a card index containing data related to investigation orders issued by the Army, such as political activists who needed to be investigated.

He never volunteered for work when asked because it was highly likely that it involved political executions or because there were always "shadowy" matters. He states that he did not know Grober Venegas Islas, whose photograph from page 341 was shown to him, and that he never went to the Valle de Azapa in the company of the person mentioned to carry out any covert operation.

However, he acknowledges having participated in 1975 in another operation regarding a homosexual man who was causing trouble at the El Morro Detachment, whom his chief—whom he names—ordered to be "taken out" ("piteárselo").

He acknowledges that in this operation, he killed the subject, along with others he mentions, including his chief and Mercado. These facts led to the separation of parts of the case file ordered on page 1,103 and its formation into a separate volume titled "Homosexual Episode."

z.- Statements by Héctor Arnoldo Rojas Mena from pages 588, 795, 831, and 981, who indicates that as a Carabineros officer, in approximately March 1974, he was assigned to the CIRE—Regional Intelligence Center—composed of personnel from the Army, Carabineros, the Navy, and the Investigations Police.

Its chief was a Major surnamed Araya; the second-in-command, who carried out operational duties, was a Lieutenant he mentions, followed by an Army Non-Commissioned Officer surnamed Mercado, and it included other officials he names.

He remained there until 1975. He notes that he did not participate in interrogations under illegal duress, but he knows that detainees were kept blindfolded and subjected to electricity, as well as beatings and threats of death or execution by firing squad.

One morning, upon reporting for duty at 08:00 hours, he saw in an unoccupied room with the door ajar a man of about 35 to 40 years of age, dark-skinned, with wavy hair, handcuffed with his hands behind his back, his eyes covered with a black blindfold, sitting on the floor.

He asked "Tucho," who was on guard duty that day, who the person was, and was told that the Lieutenant and Mercado had brought him in, without specifying the reason for the detention. The next morning, he met with the youngest detective of the Unit, who looked pale and was vomiting.

When asked why, the detective told him that the previous night he had gone out with the Lieutenant, Mercado, and a Corporal who was missing an eye, and they had "done away with" someone. This allegedly occurred on a deserted hill located to the East of the CIRE, though he did not clarify how they did it or who did it.

He assumes they shot him and buried him right there. He says he could not definitively state if the detainee he referred to corresponds to the photograph shown to him by the Investigations Police. He presumes that the person whose execution this detective mentioned to him was the same one he had seen the day before, as there were no other detainees between that day and the next when he spoke with the police officer who recounted the event.

He notes that there were not many detainees handled at the CIRE, very few, which leads him to think and presume what he has stated.

FIFTH: That on pages 254, 352 to 355, 436, 437, 648, 692, 696, 828, 964, 968, and 1,037, the accused Patricio Vicente Padilla Villén testified. In his police statement from pages 352 to 355, ratified on page 436, he stated that he entered the Military School in 1965, graduating as a Second Lieutenant in 1967.

His first assignment was the No. 4 "Rancagua" Infantry Regiment in Arica, where he served until 1970. He was then transferred to the "Calama" Regiment in that city, and subsequently, in 1972, returned to the Rancagua Regiment in Arica, where he remained until 1977.

That year, he was assigned to the Army General Command on an extra-institutional commission (DINA and CNI), where he remained until 1980. In 1980, he returned to the Army, being transferred to the "Lanceros" Regiment in Puerto Natales; in 1981, to the Caupolicán Regiment in Porvenir; and in 1988, he was transferred to the "Chorrillos" Regiment in Punta Arenas, retiring in 1990 with the rank of Major while at that last regiment.

He states that in 1975, he remembers being on duty at the Rancagua Regiment in Arica, in Section II of the Regiment, under the command of Major Benjamín Araya Pérez, when the CIRE (Regional Intelligence Center) was created.

The unit was composed of, among others, a civilian surnamed Mercado Valenzuela, who had been a Non-Commissioned Officer of the Regiment and was rehired after September 11, 1973; Carabineros personnel, apparently two non-commissioned officers; about three or four enlisted men from the Regiment; and two members of the Navy, one of them a Non-Commissioned Officer.

He adds that because conscripts linked to drug use were detected in the Regiment at the end of 1974, in 1975 Major Araya gave them the mission of searching for information regarding the suppliers of drugs to the soldiers.

Thus, on an unspecified date in 1975, Major Araya ordered him to go to the Investigations Police Barracks to retrieve a detainee linked to cocaine trafficking. Consequently, he went personally to the Investigations Unit in a car confiscated from Customs, accompanied by two men under his command, and proceeded to retrieve a detainee whose name he does not remember.

On that occasion, he signed a logbook at the guard post, where the retrieval of the aforementioned detainee was recorded. Once this procedure was completed, they took the subject to a barracks located on a road leading to a roundabout that connected to a road toward the Valle de Azapa.

There was an abandoned house there that was used as the CIRE barracks. He notes that upon arriving at that place, they notified Major Araya of the result of the operation, and he arrived at the barracks.

He does not remember how long the subject was in their custody, nor does he remember who interrogated him. He adds that after being subjected to an interrogation, Major Araya gave the order to kill him, verbally, to an intelligence specialist enlisted man who worked with him in Section II, whose name he does not remember.

He implied that every intelligence specialist would eventually have to execute or kill a subject. He ordered them to take him to the Valle de Azapa, find a deserted place, and bring entrenching tools to dig.

He gave them details on how to do it, stating that before carrying out the execution, no one should get emboldened by alcohol; the subject had to be stripped and shot in the head. He notes that at that time, due to what was happening in the country, one fulfilled any mission; therefore, this task entrusted to them by Major Araya was carried out exactly as he ordered in his instructions.

That is, at night, they traveled to the Alto Ramírez area in the Valle de Azapa, and the subject was forced to undress and dig a grave, which must have measured 1.80 meters by 50 centimeters, with a depth of approximately 1.20 meters.

Once the grave was finished, the enlisted man who executed him shot him in the head, in the nape of the neck, apparently with a "Rossi" brand revolver. The body then fell into the grave and was immediately covered with sand; he does not know if the clothing was buried or not.

Once the task was completed, they left the place and returned to the barracks to subsequently inform Major Araya by telephone that the mission had been accomplished. The next day, Major Araya went to the barracks to inquire about the details of the subject's execution and ordered him to go to the Investigations Barracks to report the subject's escape, which he did.

He adds that he later forgot about the case, but a year later he had to go to testify at a Court in Arica about this case, where he only stated that he had retrieved the detainee from Investigations and that he subsequently escaped in the Valle de Azapa sector.

Finally, he explains that to locate where the subject was buried in Alto Ramírez, in the Valle de Azapa, one would have to locate a restaurant that existed in those years, characterized by its popular pork dishes, a type of "picada." The grave would be located diagonally about 200 or 300 meters away, on a plain that later touched a dry branch of a creek.

He notes that despite the time elapsed and the fact that he has not visited the area since that time (he testified in December 2002), he could make an effort to locate the place if the court so determines, for the purpose of cooperating with the search for the body.

He points out that the Regiment Commander was General Jorge Dowling Santa María, who had a certain friendship with Major Araya. On March 5, 2003, at page 437, he stated that the previous day he was present at the scene, indicating different possible locations for the concealment of Grober Venegas's body, without success, as the place has been modified by earthworks and the accumulation of grass, so, due to the time elapsed, he still cannot pinpoint the exact location where the remains of the deceased would be.

In his statement on page 648, following the ratification of his police statement contained on page 597 as annex 66 of police report 43/51009 on page 515, he reiterates what was already said, adding data on the approximate location of the concealment of the remains of the aforementioned subject, aided by a map added on page 646.

On that occasion, he states that he was accompanied in such a task by the Non-Commissioned Officer Mercado, now deceased (sic), by an Army Corporal whose name he does not remember but whose physical characteristics he provides, and by a Navy Non-Commissioned Officer who could be Bernabé Vega Velásquez, whose name sounds familiar and whom he also describes physically.

He adds that the events occurred just as stated in the declaration he gave in Concepción on January 14, 2010, before the Investigations Police (page 597). In a confrontation on page 692 with Bernabé Vega Velásquez, a retired Navy official and also a member of the CIRE directed by Padilla Villén at the time of the events, he accuses Vega as one of the participants in the execution of the subject in the Valle de Azapa, then retracts his statement in light of what Vega said.

In his statement on page 696, given during a confrontation with Sergio Mercado Valenzuela, after also accusing him as one of his companions in the execution of the detainee Grober Venegas Islas in the Valle de Azapa, he reiterates what was already said regarding the retrieval of a detainee accused of drug trafficking from the Arica Investigations Police, as well as the modus operandi of the execution.

He adds that after arriving at a place that seemed correct for carrying out the order, they began digging a grave approximately 2 meters long by 70 centimeters wide. The detainee was blindfolded; he then had the detainee brought down and led to the place, made him undress, untied his hands, made him kneel in front of the grave, removed the blindfold, and proceeded to shoot him in the head with his service weapon.

He notes that it may have been a Rossi revolver; he fired the shot himself with said service weapon, and once dead, the body was positioned in the grave by the Corporals. He adds that once Major Araya was informed of the event, he commented that he was going to issue a statement indicating that the prisoner, at the moment he was going to indicate where the drugs were buried in the Valle de Azapa, had escaped due to the poor visibility in the area, and in parallel, he would issue a notice to all Armed Forces Units ordering the search and arrest of Grober Venegas Islas.

That event was never discussed again. Based on his testimony, he affirmed once more that Mercado was present at this event, a circumstance that the latter flatly denies. He reiterates in his statement on page 828, in a confrontation with José Luis Catalán Reyes, what was already stated regarding the investigated event, pointing to this person as one of those who accompanied him in the execution that took place in the Valle de Azapa, along with Mercado.

However, in his appearance on page 964, he rectifies the statement given on page 696, where he said that he proceeded to shoot the detainee with his service weapon, because it was not he who shot him but José Catalán, one of the members of the group, which also included himself, Mercado Valenzuela, José Catalán, and an Army Non-Commissioned Officer he does not remember.

He justifies his retraction by the fact that he was the only Officer in the group, and the others were of lower rank; therefore, he had no choice but to blame himself directly for the act, as no one would believe that in an event of that nature, a subordinate official, a Second Corporal like Catalán, would assume such a role rather than the Officer present.

He adds that Catalán was designated for that task by Major Araya, chief of Department II and also chief of the Arica CIRE, because he was the only one in the group with an approved Intelligence course.

This designation was made in a meeting held with all those who were going to carry out the order, where he even warned them that no one should consume liquor and that he should be informed once the mission was accomplished.

He states that the Investigations Police were lied to, telling them that they needed the detainee for a military operation and that they would return him after it was completed, although the purpose was to kill him in compliance with Major Araya's order.

He adds that the detainee spent that night at the CIRE barracks, and his execution took place the following night. Prior to this, the detainee was taken to Azapa in the trunk of a white Dodge vehicle, which they boarded with Mercado as the driver, himself as the co-pilot, and Corporal Catalán and the Non-Commissioned Officer he does not remember in the back.

He notes that he does not remember any Investigations Police official being present at this event. The detainee was placed in the trunk by his companions, by his order; he does not remember if the man was blindfolded and tied, although he notes it was possible given the nature of the operation.

He then briefly recounts the route taken to reach Alto Ramírez, to a place that is the same point where the first excavation with machinery was carried out and where, in practice, there was no result; this sector was chosen for the execution, as it was the safest to point out.

He adds that at the point of execution, they walked about 50 meters from where they parked the car to a soft spot, then ordered them to bring down the detainee, who personally dug the hole. He was made to undress, kneel on the ground, and, he adds, he told him to say a prayer of his belief, and the man began to cry, a prayer he said while kneeling.

He notes that, immediately afterward, Catalán approached and aimed at his head, at the nape of the neck, with his service weapon, possibly a .38 caliber Rossi revolver, and fired. He fell immediately, then was quickly positioned to abandon the site, an operation carried out by his companions.

Regarding the clothing, he points out that the logical thing would have been to bring it back and not leave it buried next to the detainee's body. He adds that once the task was completed, they returned to the barracks and then everyone went home.

He, for his part, met personally with Major Araya the next day in his office, gave him a detailed account of the execution, and the latter told him that cryptograms would be sent to all Units in Chile informing them that the detainee, at the moment he was indicating the place where he had drugs and weapons hidden, had escaped taking advantage of the darkness of the night, for their search, thereby implying an escape, which was not true.

It was added for this purpose that the detainee had fled to Bolivia, a country where he had relatives. In a confrontation with José Luis Catalán Reyes, on page 968, following the ratification of the statement given previously (page 964), he recognizes again his participation in the execution of Grober Venegas in the Valle de Azapa sector.

He insists that the one who fired the shot at the detainee Venegas was Corporal Catalán, which he affirms despite having blamed himself until the moment of his retraction in the appearance prior to the confrontation, for having been his executioner, a retraction that occurred for the reasons given for adopting that decision in the aforementioned appearance (page 964).

He adds that Catalán had the intelligence course and, as they understood from Major Araya's words, it was an "initiation" in which a person with those characteristics had the cold-bloodedness and the necessary quality to demonstrate to them how it was done.

He notes that prior to the execution, in a meeting they had with Major Benjamín Araya, which all those involved in this event attended, the latter decided that Mr. Catalán would be the executor of the shot, and he ordered it in the presence of the group.

He affirms that Catalán knew what the matter was about, was at the prior meeting held on the morning of that day, and was ready to comply with the order, such that he cannot claim ignorance of the mission.

So much so that at 20:30 hours, when they prepared to leave the Barracks for the execution, only those who were at the meeting remained for its fulfillment, as by that hour the personnel had already retired, and as he said in his statement, Mr.

Catalán and the other Non-Commissioned Officer surnamed Mercado, by his order, loaded the person into the vehicle. In his appearance on page 1,037, following the ratification of his statements given in the case in relation to these facts, he states that after Grober Venegas dug the grave and said a prayer of his creed, while inside it, he called Catalán and told him that "it was ready," and ordered him to shoot him after having provided him with an automatic pistol, the brand of which he does not remember, but he is sure it was a pistol because after the shot was fired by Catalán, they had to focus on looking for the shell casing of the fired bullet, something that would not have been necessary had it been a revolver, since in that case, the casing in that type of weapon remains in the cylinder. He then adds that, due to the time elapsed, 35 years to date, he has tried to remember the participants, and according to what he has discussed with Catalán and Vignolo about the subject, honestly, he has doubts about the involvement of Sergio Mercado Valenzuela; he notes that he has consulted both of them and they have told him that they cannot confirm the presence of Mercado in this event. He points out that he does not intend to save anyone, but that he cannot say with certainty that Mercado Valenzuela intervened. He ends his statement by noting that he is willing to collaborate in the search for the remains of Grober Venegas, that it has not been his intention to hinder the action of justice by distracting attention from the search with excavations in non-existent places; that he hopes that with the participation of Catalán and Vignolo, they will find the remains of the indicated person to end this episode once and for all. That during his stay at the CIRE, he only records participation in this case of the death of Grober Venegas Islas and in the case of the death of a homosexual brought to the CIRE, and no other; that the superior order emanated from the then-chief of Section II, Major Benjamín Araya Pérez, and in accordance with that order, the execution was carried out; that he does not intend to exculpate himself from responsibility for what he has said, but that is what happened.

Source: Judiciary, November 8, 2011