Three new indictments were issued today by special judge Juan Guzmán Tapia within the framework of the Caravan of Death case. The resolution affects the former intendant of Antofagasta in 1974, General (ret.) Adrián Ortiz Cuttman, Colonel (ret.) Juan Chiminelli, and Carlos López Tapia.

The first two face charges for their responsibility in 14 qualified homicides of political prisoners perpetrated in the Second Region, who were executed in the Quebrada Way. As for López, he was accused of the death of four dissidents to the military regime in the area of Cauquenes, Seventh Region.

Among them were Claudio Lavín and Pablo Vera. One of the victims' relatives, Rosa Silva, daughter of Mario Silva Iriarte, who was the manager of CORFO in the Second Region at the time of the events, considered that the resolution establishes that the Caravan of Death "was not only Sergio Arellano Stark and other people, but a large delegation." The so-called Caravan of Death, aboard a Puma helicopter, arrived in Cauquenes on October 4, 1973.

Twelve days later it arrived in La Serena, where the 15 executed individuals were taken from the city's regiment. Special judge Juan Guzmán has investigated the responsibility of high-ranking Army officers in the executions and clandestine burial of nearly 70 political prisoners.

The magistrate has personally supervised the exhumation of mass graves, tasks that have allowed for the identification of 50 bodies.

Source: March 16, 2004 La Nacion