Minister Héctor Solís now has the list of officers from the Army Aviation Command (CAE) that the institution initially denied him. He is searching for those who, in 1978, piloted the helicopters from which bodies were thrown into the sea.

Two still well-kept secrets continue to haunt the dramatic events in Paine. Until now, they resemble the pact of silence that for 34 years kept the numerous Lautaro Brigade and its Delfín Group—exterminators of clandestine communists starting in 1976—hidden from justice.

That pact was finally broken in January 2007 by Jorgelino Vergara, a former agent and former waiter for former DINA chief Manuel Contreras. In Paine, however, there is still no one to provide that type of collaboration to Minister Héctor Solís, and the silence has become a shield to hide two young officers with the rank of second lieutenant who, according to several witnesses accused or prosecuted in the trial, took part in the massacre of 22 peasants in October 1973.

The other great mystery in this case remains who unearthed the bodies in 1978 to throw them into the sea. This coming week, and without abandoning the investigations to learn the identity of the two second lieutenants who accompanied Second Lieutenant Andrés Magaña Bau on that occasion, Judge Solís begins a marathon task to try to identify the authors of the Paine version of "Operation TV Set Removal." Although the Army initially denied the magistrate the information he requested to learn the identity of the officers and flight logs of the Army Aviation Command (CAE) from that time, citing "national security secrecy," the information finally reached the magistrate's hands.

THE "STARS"

At the beginning of 1978, the commander of the CAE operating at the fateful Tobalaba airfield was Colonel Carlos Mardones Díaz. According to Andrés Magaña, that was the year of the exhumation, which he himself guided because he knew the location of the clandestine grave where the bodies were hidden.

Around that same time, Colonel Hernán Podestá Gómez was his commander. Mardones and Podestá were the ones who gave the order for any flight to take off from that runway, in this case, the Puma helicopters.

Mardones has pending judicial accounts, as he is prosecuted for the case of communist leader Marta Ugarte, who was thrown into the sea from a Puma off the coast of the V Region and was the only one to surface because the piece of rail tied to her corpse came loose.

Among the list of officers who were part of that Aviation Command and were pilots of the CAE Pumas are those who piloted the Caravan of Death helicopter through cities in the south and north of the country: Captain (ranks in the 1970s) Antonio Palomo Contreras, personal pilot to Augusto Pinochet, and Majors Luis Felipe Polanco and Emilio de la Mahotiere González.

All are prosecuted in cases of forcibly disappeared persons, except for De la Mahotiere, whose indictment, issued at the time by Judge Juan Guzmán, was revoked by the Court of Appeals in the investigation of the Marta Ugarte case. Palomo was later, with the rank of colonel, commander of the CAE between February 1982 and December 1986.

THE PELDEHUE TRAIL

Another officer on the list of CAE helicopter pilots is Lieutenant Colonel José Darrigrandi Márquez, prosecuted for the exhumation of the bodies of the forcibly disappeared persons from La Moneda in Peldehue and their disposal at sea on December 23, 1978.

The date of this episode would be close to the Paine exhumation, so Darrigrandi might know the authors Minister Solís is looking for. Darrigrandi was also commander of the CAE from late 1978 until July 1981.

In January 2007, he was acquitted by Judge Patricio Villarroel, benefiting from the statute of limitations after the magistrate rejected that it was a crime against humanity. The identity of the authors of the different episodes of "Operation TV Set Removal" is the least public part of these cases and, at the same time, one of the most complex facts for judges to investigate, as all the officers involved persist in denying their participation.

Although they have been identified several times by the mechanics who traveled with them on these flights. The work of the Human Rights Brigade of the Investigative Police has been a fundamental contribution to learning about these operations.

List of CAE pilots Colonel: Óscar Mardones Díaz (PP = Puma Pilot). Lieutenant Colonel: José Jaime Darrigrandi Márquez (PP). Major: Luis Isaac Contreras Prieto. Major: Emilio de la Mahotiere González (PP).

Major: Luis Felipe Polanco Gallardo (PP). Captain: Enrique Fernando Aguilera Acevedo. Captain: José Javier Carmona Bennet. Captain: Raúl Adolfo Moyano Vatel (PP, CAE commander, April 1991-December 1992).

Captain: Aquiles Navarrete Izanortegui (CAE commander, December 1986-April 1991). Captain: Richter Aliro Nuche Sepúlveda (PP). Captain: Antonio Alberto Palomo Contreras (PP, CAE commander, February 1982-December 1986).

Captain: Juan Miguel Reveco Bravo. Captain: Rodolfo Enrique Sánchez Rubio (PP and flight course commander). Lieutenant: Gastón Rodolfo García Miranda (PP). Lieutenant: José María Marinello Kairath. Lieutenant: Juan Carlos Stolzenbach Fahrner (PP).

Lieutenant: Luis Walterio Riedel Martínez. Second Lieutenant: Juan Pablo Bascur Gaete. Second Lieutenant: Óscar Carlos Medel Olavaria. Second Lieutenant: Luis Ramón Menare Rowe. Second Lieutenant: Dantón Iván Venegas Quiñones (PP). Second Lieutenant: Óscar Alfonso Vicuña Hesse (prosecuted for the Marta Ugarte case).

Source: lanacion.cl, March 10, 2008

Testimony revealed showing how the dictatorship threw people alive into the sea

The violation of human rights committed by the dictatorship in Chile (1973-1990) included procedures in which they threw people alive into the sea from helicopters, revealed the digital newspaper El Dínamo.

The digital media outlet published a testimony that Orellana gave to the justice system in May 2012, in which he said that three people who were forcibly disappeared during the Chilean dictatorship had been thrown alive from a helicopter into the Pacific Ocean.

Orellana worked as a mechanic for military helicopters during the dictatorship and was part of the flight in which Ceferino Santis, Luis Norambuena, and Gustavo Farías were pushed alive into the sea in October 1973. "The captain pushed one of the subjects downward and he rested his feet on the landing gear fairing; a struggle ensued, a scuffle, and, seeing this, he pulled him again by the armpits, detached him from the landing gear, and threw him into the sea," Orellana detailed.

The retired soldier recounted that the situation began when the victims were transported in a pickup truck from a detention center to the Tobalaba airfield in Santiago, where the helicopter was stationed. "Upon boarding the aircraft, I found three people alive on the floor, who were tied hand and foot and blindfolded," said Orellana.

In August 2014, Orellana gave another statement to the justice system and added that "the people were tied up, blindfolded, and had a piece of iron tied to their feet, and I never heard their voices." The former mechanic recounted that the officers in charge warned before takeoff that if they did not accept the mission, they would be taken prisoner and executed by firing squad as "traitors to the fatherland."

LAUNCHES

Orellana stated that all the crew members accepted the mission and took off toward the Chilean coast, near the town of Santo Domingo (center), and recounted how one of the former agents in charge threw the victims into the sea. "The captain took the oldest person by the feet, turned him toward the door, and pushed him with his hands downward, toward the sea," he noted.

Due to the characteristics, it is believed that the victim was Ceferino Santis, a worker and militant of the Revolutionary Left Movement who was married and had two children. "He took the second subject by the armpits, brought him to the door, and took him by the feet, pushing him in the same way as the first," he said, likely referring to Luis Norambuena, regional secretary of the Central Workers' Union.

The third subject, the one who fought not to fall, was likely Gustavo Farías, a militant of the Revolutionary Left Movement and the youngest of the three victims. Finally, he noted that the identity of the former agents in charge "would probably be": Major Emilio de la Mahotiere, Captain Richter Nuche Sepúlveda, and former agent Miguel Krassnoff.

Due to this testimony, these three former agents were prosecuted on May 9 for these crimes, as reported. This form of extermination called the Death Flight was carried out during the regime of Augusto Pinochet and also in other Latin American dictatorships, with the goal of making the victims' bodies disappear.

In Chile, the Pinochet regime used the code term "Operation TV Set Removal" to refer to this practice.

Source: radiosanjoaquin.cl, May 19, 2018

Retired Army non-commissioned officer revealed that Miguel Krassnoff threw three people alive into the sea

It is the first time that a testimony has confirmed the so-called "death flights" during the dictatorship. Retired Army non-commissioned officer Juan Guillermo Orellana Bustamante is the author of the only testimony that confirms the so-called "death flights" during the military dictatorship, a practice where prisoners were thrown alive into the sea.

As revealed by El Dínamo, it was Miguel Krassnoff himself who, from a Puma H225 helicopter, threw three detainees from the Tejas Verdes Regiment of San Antonio into the ocean: Ceferino del Carmen Santis Quijada (MIR), Luis Fernando Norambuena Fernandois (PS), and Gustavo Manuel Farías Vargas (MIR).

The event occurred in October 1973. Orellana worked as a mechanic for the military helicopter and was part of a crew that took off at dawn from the Tobalaba airfield to the Rocas de Santo Domingo. There, they were met by an Army captain dressed in civilian clothes. "I found three people alive on the floor, who were tied hand and foot and blindfolded." In addition, they had "a piece of iron tied to their feet, so I never heard their voices," he says.

From that place, the three prisoners, Orellana himself, the mysterious Army captain in civilian clothes, Major Emilio Robert de la Mahotiere, and Captain Richter Nuche Sepúlveda, who served as co-pilot, set off toward the ocean.

The first of them gathered them and warned that "in this mission to be accomplished, we have two paths to follow. First, that we accomplish the mission, and second, that we reject it." "In this second instance, we will be taken prisoner, transported to Tobalaba, a War Council will be held, and we will be executed by firing squad as traitors to the fatherland," he added.

Orellana acknowledged that he was in charge of opening the door while the Army captain threw the three left-wing militants into the Pacific. He remembers that the third one, Farías, resisted despite being totally tied up. "I want to point out that the Army officer who threw the people who were tied, blindfolded, and alive inside the helicopter, it seems to me, would correspond to Miguel Krassnoff," the non-commissioned officer explains in his testimony.

Krassnoff was indeed a captain at that time. Years later, he joined the first contingent of the DINA and commanded the Halcón Brigade, in charge of the extermination of all MIR militants in the country.

The retired non-commissioned officer, who at that time held the rank of second corporal, testified for the first time on May 29, 2012. But his second statement in 2014 allowed Judge Jaime Arancibia to add Krassnoff, De la Mahotiere, and Nuche as authors of qualified kidnapping.

Source: adnradio.cl, 2018

Minister Marianela Cifuentes issues indictment against retired Army members for kidnapping, qualified homicide, application of torture, and

Minister Marianela Cifuentes issued an indictment against former agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) and a doctor for their responsibilities in the crimes of kidnapping, qualified homicide, application of torture, and illicit association.

These crimes were perpetrated between September 1973 and February 1974 at the Tejas Verdes prison camp, in the commune of San Antonio. The minister on extraordinary assignment for human rights violation cases of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes, issued an indictment against former agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) and a doctor who provided services in the military branch for their responsibilities in the crimes of kidnapping, qualified homicide, application of torture, and illicit association.

These crimes were perpetrated between September 1973 and February 1974 at the Tejas Verdes prison camp, in the commune of San Antonio. In the resolution (case file 28-2009), Minister Cifuentes accused Raúl Pablo Quintana Salazar, Vittorio Orvieto Tiplitzky, and Ramón Luis Carriel as co-authors of the crimes of kidnapping, application of torture, and qualified homicide of Oscar Armando Gómez Farías, Ceferino del Carmen Santis Quijada, Jorge Antonio Cornejo Carvajal, Jorge Luis Ojeda Jara, Víctor Fernando Mesina Araya, Florindo Alex Vidal Hinojosa, Carlos Aurelio Carrasco Cáceres, Carlos Alberto Galaz Vera, and Miguel Ángel Moyano Santander, and as authors of the crime of illicit association. Meanwhile, she held Raúl Pablo Quintana Salazar, Vittorio Orvieto Tiplitzky, and Ramón Luis Carriel Espinoza responsible as co-authors of the crimes of qualified kidnapping and application of torture against Luis Fernando Norambuena Fernandois and Gustavo Manuel Farías Vargas, and as authors of the crime of illicit association. In the case, Minister Cifuentes charged Bernardo Purto Yarcho, as an author, with the crimes of kidnapping and application of torture against Jorge Luis Ojeda Jara. The minister also issued an indictment against Carlos Óscar Gregorio Evaristo Mardones Díaz, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Richter Aliro Nuche Sepúlveda, and Emilio Robert de la Mahotiere González, as authors of the crimes of illicit association and qualified kidnapping of Ceferino Santis Quijada, Luis Fernando Norambuena Fernandois, and Gustavo Manuel Farías Vargas. The minister directed charges against Ricardo Fortunato Judas Tadeo Soto Jerez as an author of the crime of illicit association and as a co-author of the crimes of kidnapping, application of torture, and qualified homicide of Oscar Armando Gómez Farías, Jorge Antonio Cornejo Carvajal, Jorge Luis Ojeda Jara, Víctor Fernando Mesina Araya, Florindo Alex Vidal Hinojosa, Carlos Aurelio Carrasco Cáceres, Carlos Alberto Galaz Vera, and as a co-author of the crimes of qualified kidnapping and application of torture against Luis Fernando Norambuena Fernandois, Ceferino del Carmen Santis Quijada, and Gustavo Manuel Farías Vargas. Meanwhile, the minister held Valentín del Carmen Escobedo Azúa responsible as a co-author of the crimes of kidnapping, application of torture, and qualified homicide of Oscar Armando Gómez Farías, Jorge Antonio Cornejo Carvajal, Jorge Luis Ojeda Jara, Víctor Fernando Mesina Araya, and Miguel Ángel Moyano Santander, and as a co-author of the crimes of qualified kidnapping and application of torture against Ceferino del Carmen Santis Quijada, Gustavo Manuel Farías Vargas, and Luis Fernando Norambuena Fernandois. In the resolution, the minister issued an indictment against Ramón Rodrigo de Jesús Capona Kurth, Manuel Jesús Zamorano Cortés, and Gladys de las Mercedes Calderón Carreño as authors of the crime of illicit association and as co-authors of the crimes of kidnapping, application of torture, and qualified homicide of Oscar Armando Gómez Farías, Jorge Antonio Cornejo Carvajal, Jorge Luis Ojeda Jara, Víctor Fernando Mesina Araya, Florindo Alex Vidal Hinojosa, Carlos Aurelio Carrasco Cáceres, Carlos Alberto Galaz Vera, and Miguel Ángel Moyano Santander, and as authors of the crimes against Ceferino del Carmen Santis Quijada, Luis Fernando Norambuena Fernandois, and Gustavo Manuel Farías Vargas. Finally, Minister Cifuentes issued an indictment against Eugenio Armando Videla Valdebenito and Cristian Labbé Galilea as authors of the crime of illicit association.

Source: pdju.cl, September 11, 2023