This case file, 27-2010, originating in the first instance from the Honorable Court of Appeals of Concepción, has been instructed, along with accumulated files 2,770, 2,776, and 2,760 from the Laja Criminal Court; 359-2010, 103-2011, 116-2011, 329-2011, 347-2011, 462-2011, 465-2011, 600-2011, 644-2011, 722-2011, and 791-2011, all from the 34th Criminal Court of Santiago, and file 323-80 from the 3rd Military Court of Concepción.

The purpose is to investigate the facts presented in the complaints on pages 71, 112, 134, 631, 1018, 1283, 1848, 1793, 2980, 3284, 3768, 3862, 3921, and 4366, filed by relatives of 19 victims against those found responsible for the crimes of kidnapping and qualified homicide of: Fernando Grandón Gálvez, Jorge Andrés Lamana Abarzúa, Rubén Antonio Campos López, Juan Carlos Jara Herrera, Raúl Urra Parada, Luis Armando Ulloa Valenzuela, Oscar Omar Sanhueza Contreras, Dagoberto Enrique Gárfias Gatica, Luis Alberto del Carmen Araneda Reyes, Juan Antonio Acuña Concha, Juan de Dios Villarroel Espinoza, Heraldo del Carmen Muñoz Muñoz, Federico Riquelme Concha, Jorge Lautaro Zorrilla Rubio, Manuel Mario Becerra Avello, Jack Eduardo Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Mario Jara Jara, Wilson Gamadiel Muñoz Rodríguez, and Alfonso Segundo Macaya Barrales (19 victims).

These individuals were detained between September 13 and 17, 1973, by Carabineros officers in Laja without legal or judicial warrants and were taken to the local police station. There, they were visited by their relatives, who brought them food and clothing during their stay at the aforementioned police facility until September 17, 1973, the last day they were seen alive as of the date these criminal actions were filed.

It was later learned that they were executed by their captors on the night of September 17, 1973, at the San Juan estate in the commune of Laja, and their bodies were buried in pits dug in the open field at that location.

46.- Statement of Nancy Victoria Riquelme Pardo On page 128 verso, she states that she is the niece of Federico Riquelme Concha and that she knows for a fact he was detained by Carabineros and was imprisoned at the Laja Police Station.

Her uncle worked at Transportes Cóndor and was detained while on his way to work on September 13, 1973. He remained in Carabineros custody until September 17, as she went to see him daily, bringing him breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

On the 16th of that same month, the Carabineros guard, Mario Montoya, was drunk, and as there were only 60 [minutes] left, her mother, Florinda Riquelme, accompanied by Mrs. Selva Valdebenito Bris, the detainee's wife, was told by the officer Montoya: "you come in too to see your uncle because it is the last time you are going to see him." She was very worried by what the officer said and told her mother the next day.

When they went on the 17th, he was no longer at the police station, and they were told he had been taken to the Los Ángeles Regiment. Her mother and the detainee's wife carried out all the procedures, but to no avail to this date.

Source: Judiciary, January 7, 2020

Concepción Court issues a second conviction against former CMPC employee and Carabineros for participation in the Laja-San Rosendo Massacre

On Friday, August 13, the Concepción Court of Appeals issued a ruling of high public significance, as it established convictions for individuals considered authors and accomplices of the so-called Laja-San Rosendo Massacre, in which 19 workers were murdered days after the 1973 coup d'état.

Some of the most relevant resolutions included the conviction of Pedro Jarpa Forester, a former employee of the CMPC paper mill, as an accomplice to the crimes of qualified homicide, in addition to increased sentences for the Carabineros who were the material authors of the murders.

The sentence for these three Carabineros (José Jacinto Otárola Sanhueza, Mario Sebastián Montoya Burgos, and Manuel Enrique Cerda Robledo) was life imprisonment, as it was for Lieutenant Alberto Juan Fernández Michel, who was allegedly in charge of this massacre.

However, on Saturday, a second version of the ruling was published, which differs from the first in that a sentence of fifteen years and one day of imprisonment was established for the three police officers. Thus, the ruling continues to contain resolutions closer to the pursuit of justice by the victims' families.

During the investigation phase of the case, the following facts were established:

"A.- That between September 13 and 17, 1973, a date when the country was under a state of siege, in the communes of Laja and San Rosendo, the following people were detained by personnel from the Laja Carabineros Station, without a competent judicial or administrative warrant, and taken to the aforementioned police unit located at 104 Las Viñas Street in the same city: Fernando Grandón Gálvez, Jorge Andrés Lamana Abarzúa, Rubén Antonio Campos López, Juan Carlos Jara Herrera, Raúl Urra Parada, Luis Armando Ulloa Valenzuela, Oscar Omar Sanhueza Contreras, Dagoberto Enrique Garfias Gatica, Luis Alberto del Carmen Araneda Reyes, Juan Antonio Acuña Concha, Juan de Dios Villarroel Espinoza, Heraldo del Carmen Muñoz Muñoz, Federico Riquelme Concha, Jorge Lautaro Zorrilla Rubio, Manuel Mario Becerra Avello, Jack Eduardo Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Mario Jara Jara, Wilson Gamadiel Muñoz Rodríguez, and Alfonso Segundo Macaya Barrales. It is specified that the victims Grandón, Gutiérrez, Muñoz, Urra, Riquelme, Villarroel, and Muñoz Rodríguez, workers at CMPC, were detained by Carabineros between September 13 and 14, 1973, at the entrance/exit gate of their workplace, the CMPC Laja Paper Plant, where an individual (Jarpa Foerster) held a list with each of their names, pointing out to the Carabineros who each of them was, thereby facilitating their identification and detention. On the same dates and until September 17, 1973, the other individuals mentioned above were detained and transported in CMPC paper mill vehicles, which had been provided by the heads of said company for the transport of the detainees and driven by a CMPC employee to the Laja Police Station.

B.- The aforementioned individuals were placed in the cells of the indicated police unit, remaining there until the night of September 17, 1973, at which time they were taken out by uniformed personnel and loaded into vehicles that belonged to the CMPC paper mill, to be supposedly transported to the Los Ángeles Regiment.

However, while traveling along Route Q-90, at the height of the Perales Bridge, the convoy turned onto a side road for about 500 meters heading south, entering the so-called San Juan estate in the commune of Yumbel, where the Carabineros personnel from the Laja Station, who were armed with rifles and carbines, made them get out of the vehicles, forcing them to lie on the ground, side by side, face down, and with their hands tied.

The police officers proceeded to position themselves behind them, at which moment the officer in charge stood to one side and, armed with his revolver, gave the order to fire, which was carried out by the Carabineros present, who were positioned in a firing line, striking the bodies of the detainees with bullets and causing injuries that resulted in their deaths.

Immediately thereafter, the same police officers, using shovels they had brought for the purpose, dug a 60-centimeter-deep pit where they threw the bodies, which they covered with a layer of earth. Once this operation was finished, they returned to the Laja Police Station, remaining silent about what had occurred.

Days later, Carabineros officers returned to the area to cover the bodies with lime, the kind used at CMPC, which had allegedly been provided by employees of the same company.

C.- Approximately one month after these events occurred, at the end of October 1973, dogs in the area found human remains, a fact noticed by a person passing through the place, who reported it to the Yumbel Carabineros.

Faced with this report, the commissioner of the aforementioned barracks, Major Héctor Orlando Rivera Rojas, ordered the then-Officer of Orders, Lieutenant René Luis Alberto Urrutia Elgueta, to go to the site.

Upon verifying the validity of the report, he communicated the discovery to the commissioner, who ordered the corresponding report to be drawn up by the Salto del Laja Carabineros Station and sent to the Yumbel Court of Letters.

He took it there personally, accompanied by the chief physician of the Yumbel Hospital, who stated to the then-Judge of Letters of that locality, Corina Mera, the impossibility of receiving the bodies at the aforementioned facility for health reasons.

She agreed that they should be moved directly to the parish cemetery for burial in a common grave, which the aforementioned Officer of Orders carried out using a trailer pulled by a tractor, during the night, during the hours when the curfew was in effect.

D.- This procedure was carried out without performing the required autopsies on the bodies found, and they were buried without obtaining the corresponding sanitary authorization, nor the competent judicial order."

Regarding the participation of Pedro Jarpa Forester, a former CMPC employee, the Court of Appeals ruling established: "That the evidence gathered in the process allows for the conviction that Jarpa Forester participated, in the capacity of an accomplice, in the homicides of Fernando Grandón Galvez, Jack Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Heraldo Muñoz Muñoz, Raúl Urra Parada, Federico Riquelme Concha, Juan Villarroel Espinoza, and Wilson Muñoz Rodríguez, because from his position as Head of Security at the Paper Mill, he facilitated the detention of these workers from the same company, providing their names, pointing them out, and identifying them as they left the plant in front of the Carabineros..."

At the close of this note, the Concepción Court of Appeals has not issued any explanatory communication regarding the replacement of the first version of the ruling, which was suppressed, with the one currently available to the public.

Source: resumen.cl, August 16, 2021

Relatives of the San Rosendo massacre value the Supreme Court ruling that confirmed the convictions of the responsible Carabineros

"It is said and sometimes repeated that delayed justice is not justice, but we, always looking toward the future, sincere and without a spirit of vengeance, can say that 'justice, even if late, is still justice when it arrives,'" the families of the 19 people executed at the hands of Carabineros de Chile officers one week after the 1973 coup d'état stated in a press release.

On March 1, 2024, the Supreme Court released the final ruling regarding the cassation appeals filed by both the plaintiffs and the defendants against the August 2021 ruling of the Concepción Court of Appeals.

In summary, the Supreme Court maintained almost in its entirety what was resolved at the time by the Concepción Court, upholding the convictions of the direct material executors of the 19 homicides of Laja and San Rosendo residents that occurred in the early hours of September 18, 1973, for which former uniformed officers of the Laja Carabineros station at that time were responsible.

Indeed, it was resolved to maintain: the sentence of life imprisonment for former Carabineros Lieutenant Alberto Juan Fernández Michell; the sentence of 15 years and one day of major imprisonment in its maximum degree for former Carabineros Gerson Nilo Saavedra Reinike, Pedro del Carmen Parra Utreras, Víctor Manuel Campos Dávila, Nelson Casanova Salgado, José Jacinto Otárola Sanhueza, Mario Sebastián Montoya Burgos, and Manuel Enrique Cerda Robledo, all named as authors of the 19 qualified homicides.

Finally, the sentence of 5 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree was maintained for former Carabinero Anselmo del Carmen San Martin Navarrete.

It should also be considered that, regarding four other former Carabineros—Luis León Godoy, Lisandro Martínez García, Gabriel González Salazar, and Samuel Vidal Riquelme—who had been temporarily dismissed by the investigating judge of the case, Carlos Aldana Fuentes, due to alleged dementia, the resolution of the Concepción Court in its August 2021 ruling stands, in that it was not appropriate to favor them with that procedural decision and, instead, it was ordered to continue the trial against them by a non-disqualified judge, with the expectation of convictions for each with sentences similar to those mentioned above.

In turn, the Supreme Court ruling ended up acquitting Pedro Jarpa Foester of criminal responsibility regarding the homicides, considering that the mentioned crimes were not imputable to him because there was no intent or eventual intent in his actions.

Nevertheless, the same Court acknowledges the criminal reproach deserved by the conduct displayed by him regarding the detentions and kidnappings of former CMPC Laja Plant workers, mainly his actions consisting of the direct identification of the people who were being detained and kidnapped by Carabineros at the exit of CMPC shifts.

Finally, regarding the CMPC company and its relationship and link to the investigated criminal acts, the relatives pointed out that "our conviction is reinforced that said paper company and its agents effectively permitted, encouraged, and facilitated the consummation of the criminal design, as irrefutably stated in the investigation by Minister Carlos Aldana, in the considerations taken into account by the Concepción Court, and in the reflections and considerations adopted in the Supreme Court ruling—supply of vehicles, lime to cover the victims' bodies, ownership or possession of the property where the victims were sacrificed, provision of drivers from the company itself, etc."

In summary, the Supreme Court maintained almost in its entirety what was resolved at the time by the Concepción Court, upholding the convictions of the direct material executors of the 19 homicides of Laja and San Rosendo residents that occurred in the early hours of September 18, 1973, for which former uniformed officers of the Laja Carabineros station at that time were responsible.

In that sense, they point out that "we must remember in this regard that, at the time, a definitive dismissal was issued for CMPC executive Carlos Ferrer Gómez and management driver Rodolfo Román Román, due to their deaths, considering that they had previously been prosecuted.

Regarding Lionel Alejandro Aguilera Covarrubias, the Supreme Court ruling did not innovate what was ruled by the Concepción Court."

Conclusions In their statement, the relatives maintain that "we are putting an end to a long and, why not say it, often exhausting, fatiguing, cruel, and certainly painful path that since its beginning saw practically 51 years pass in waiting for this final moment from a judicial and human point of view. This is the reality and the time we had to face."

In this regard, they stated that "it is said and sometimes repeated that delayed justice is not justice, but we, always looking toward the future, sincere and without a spirit of vengeance, can say that 'justice, even if late, is still justice when it arrives.' This path, initiated before the Courts immediately after the detention and disappearance of our relatives in September 1973, began with the filing of the first writs of amparo in search of knowing their whereabouts, the 'Where are they?'.

All of which, as happened in similar cases throughout the country, were rejected by the Courts of Justice."

"Subsequently, in 1979, and with the extraordinary and invaluable support of the Social Department of the Archbishopric of Concepción, the first criminal complaints were filed against those responsible for these mournful events, with the investigation assumed by the courageous Minister of the Concepción Court of Appeals, an example of human and legal strength, Mr.

José Martínez Gaensly. To him and the lawyers Martita Worner, Jorge Barudi, Fernando Saldaña, among others, our eternal recognition and respect," they recounted.

"Having finished this path, in legal and human terms, we can express our peace of mind for what we did, for the paths we opened, for the truths we denounced, for the relevance we gave to this cause at the national level, which has been and will be the best tribute of memory and dignity for our parents, spouses, siblings, and children, who saw their lives vilely cut short in the early hours of September 18, 1973."

Regarding this, they described that "the brief and valuable investigation by Minister Martínez Gaensly would conclude with the location of our relatives' bodies, their identification and delivery for their dignified burial, and with his declaration of incompetence, given that the responsibility of the Carabineros of the former Laja station clearly appeared in the facts, which is why he had to transfer the process to the Military justice system, which, practically immediately and without any investigation, proceeded to apply the Amnesty Law, dismissing the case without making any of the uniformed authors of the acts effective."

Thus, "once democracy was recovered in our country, an tireless process began to obtain justice for so many human rights violations that occurred during the dictatorial stage. This is how cases like ours, in 2010, were reopened, with the responsibility for their investigation given to the Minister of the Concepción Court of Appeals, Mr.

Carlos Aldana Fuentes, who only in 2018 issued a conviction in the first instance regarding the uniformed officers involved."

"Subsequently, the final sentence issued by Minister Mr. Aldana was appealed, with the Concepción Court of Appeals accepting a large part of our claims, substantially increasing the sentences imposed on the former uniformed officers, also convicting Pedro Jarpa Foester, a former employee of the CMPC Laja Plant, and also substantially increasing the civil indemnity reparations granted to the relatives," they assert.

"Having finished this path, in legal and human terms, we can express our peace of mind for what we did, for the paths we opened, for the truths we denounced, for the relevance we gave to this cause at the national level, which has been and will be the best tribute of memory and dignity for our Parents, Spouses, Siblings, and Children, who saw their lives vilely cut short in the early hours of September 18, 1973," they recounted.

Source: interferencia.cl, March 4, 2024

Carabinero (r) convicted of human rights violations in the Laja and San Rosendo massacre case captured

The PDI (Investigations Police) managed to arrest one of the four fugitives for human rights violations during the dictatorship, a retired Carabinero who had been sentenced to 15 years in prison for the Laja-San Rosendo crimes. The victims' relatives expressed their satisfaction with the police work, which put an end to a flight that lasted for a year.

It was in March of last year when the Supreme Court issued the final convictions in one of the most emblematic cases of crimes against humanity during the dictatorial regime of Augusto Pinochet.

Since then, the former Carabinero corporal, Mario Montoya Burgos, had been a fugitive. His arrest was achieved this Thursday afternoon by PDI personnel in the Araucanía Region, as confirmed by Emilio Araneda, son of one of the victims of the so-called Laja-San Rosendo Massacre.

The information has not been made official by the Judiciary, as the new visiting minister, Waldemar Koch, indicated—through the Human Rights Office of the Concepción Court of Appeals—that he had no information to provide.

However, another spokesperson for the group of relatives of the Laja-San Rosendo victims, Gloria Urra, also admitted to knowing about Montoya's arrest, noting that it was a satisfaction to advance toward justice, but hoping that the apprehension of the retired lieutenant Alberto Fernández Mitchell would soon be achieved.

Fernández Mitchell is also a fugitive, avoiding a life sentence for the murders of the 19 workers from the Laja paper mill and the State Railways. Mario Montoya, meanwhile, is already behind bars at the Bío Bío Penitentiary Complex to serve his 15-year effective prison sentence.

Source: biobiochile.cl, March 7, 2025