The individuals involved were prosecuted for the crime of kidnapping resulting in death.

The Mulchén court of law prosecuted five Carabineros officers yesterday for the crime of kidnapping resulting in death, perpetrated against 18 peasants at the end of 1973. On that date, Jorge Maturana Concha, Osvaldo Enrique Díaz Díaz, Jacob del Carmen Ortiz Palma, Juan de Dios Higuera Álvarez, and Héctor Armando Guzmán Saldaña detained the 18 peasants, among whom were brothers José and Manuel Rubilar Gutiérrez, in the foothills sectors of Carmen and Maitenes.

Subsequently, they were taken to the administration houses of the estates, where they were interrogated, beaten, and forced to fight among themselves. They were then taken 50 meters from those houses, where they were forced to dig graves. Finally, their hands were tied with wire and they were shot with SIG rifle fire.

Source: Emol, July 31, 2002

Court of Appeals modified prosecutions of 5 former Carabineros for the Mulchén massacre

The massacre of 18 peasants on three estates in the commune of Mulchén, Bío Bío region, in October 1973, is one of the cruelest acts committed during the dictatorship. Visiting judge Carlos Aldana prosecuted five former Carabineros officers as responsible for qualified kidnapping and homicide, charges that were modified by the Concepción Court of Appeals.

The Fifth Chamber of the Concepción Court of Appeals introduced modifications to the indictment orders issued by visiting judge Carlos Aldana against five former Carabineros for the massacre of 18 peasants in Mulchén in October 1973, after resolving the appeal filed by the defense of the accused.

In June of last year, the special judge for human rights cases, Carlos Aldana, had prosecuted Jorge Maturana Concha, Jacob del Carmen Ortiz Concha, Juan de Dios Higueras Alvarez, Osvaldo Enrique Díaz Díaz, and Héctor Armando Guzmán Saldaña as perpetrators of the crimes of kidnapping and qualified homicide, to the detriment of Juan Laubra Brevis, José Yañez Durán, Celsio Vivanco Carrasco, Edmundo Vidal Aedo, Domingo Sepúlveda, José Liborio Rubilar Gutiérrez, Florencio Rubilar Gutiérrez, José Lorenzo Rubilar Gutiérrez, Alejandro Albornoz Acuña, Luis Alberto Godoy Sandoval, Miguel del Carmen Albornoz Acuña, Daniel Alfonso Albornoz González, Alberto Albornoz González, Felidor Exequiel Albornoz, Jerónimo Humberto Sandoval Medina, Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme, Fernando Gutiérrez Ascencio, and José Guillermo Albornoz González. All of them were detained by a patrol composed of military personnel, civilians, and Carabineros at the Pemehue, Carmen Maitenes, and El Morro estates, located in the commune of Mulchén, on October 5, 6, and 7, 1973. This long-standing case had been investigated in depth by visiting judge Carlos Cerda in 1981, but the case was dismissed in 1996 by the Military Court after the Amnesty Law was applied. But years later, the investigation was resumed, and in March of last year, it reached the hands of Judge Aldana, who, after several proceedings, determined to prosecute five former Carabineros officers. On January 30, the Fifth Chamber of the Concepción court issued its ruling, drafted by judge Irma Bavestrello, which substantially modifies the charges for which Aldana had prosecuted the former uniformed officers. Thus, the resolution states that although "regarding the crimes of kidnapping, these judges consider that the detentions without judicial or administrative order of Juan Laubra Brevis, Edmundo Vidal Aedo, Domingo Sepúlveda, José Liborio Rubilar Gutiérrez, Florencio Rubilar Gutiérrez, José Lorenzo Rubilar Gutiérrez, Alejandro Albornoz Acuña, Luis Alberto Godoy Sandoval, Miguel del Carmen Albornoz Acuña, Daniel Alfonso Albornoz González, Alberto Albornoz González, Jerónimo Humberto Sandoval Medina, and José Guillermo Albornoz González are proven," their whereabouts or the death of these individuals have not been legally verified to date. On the other hand, they indicate that it is proven in the proceedings that José Yáñez Durán and Celsio Vivanco Carrasco were victims of kidnapping and were later executed in the "playita" sector of the El Morro estate in Mulchén, on the banks of the Renaico River, on October 5, 1973. Likewise, it is proven that those illegally detained on October 7, 1973, Felidor Exequiel Albornoz González and José Fernando Gutiérrez Ascencio, were killed at the Pemehue estate in Mulchén, deaths which are attested to by the certificates incorporated into the file. Taking these grounds into consideration, the Court determined that "Jorge Maturana Concha, Jacob del Carmen Ortiz Palma, Juan de Dios Higueras Alvarez, Osvaldo Enrique Díaz Díaz, and Héctor Armando Guzmán Saldaña are prosecuted as co-perpetrators of the crimes of kidnapping of Juan Laubra Brevis, Edmundo Vidal Aedo, Domingo Sepúlveda, José Liborio Rubilar Gutiérrez, Florencio Rubilar Gutiérrez, José Lorenzo Rubilar Gutiérrez, Alejandro Albornoz Acuña, Luis Alberto Godoy Sandoval, Miguel del Carmen Albornoz Acuña, Daniel Alfonso Albornoz González, Alberto Albornoz González, Jerónimo Humberto Sandoval Medina, and José Guillermo Albornoz González, illicit acts perpetrated between October 5 and 7, 1973." Likewise, Maturana Concha, Ortiz Concha, Higueras Alvarez, Díaz Díaz, and Guzmán Saldaña remain prosecuted as co-perpetrators of the crimes of kidnapping resulting in death of Celsio Nicasio Vivanco Carrasco, José Florencio Yáñez Durán, Felidor Exequiel Albornoz González, and José Fernando Gutiérrez Ascencio, crimes committed between October 5 and 7, 1973. In the same way, the appellate court rejected considering the arguments of res judicata and the statute of limitations for the crimes, arguments put forward by the defense of some of the accused. With the appeal resolved, it will now be up to Judge Aldana to issue a sentence in this case, in which this modification made by the appellate court will undoubtedly influence the sentence determined for those responsible for one of the most brutal human rights violations committed in the area during the military dictatorship.

Source: tribunadelbiobio.cl, February 10, 2009

Indictment issued against military and Carabineros for crimes against 18 Mulchén peasants

The visiting judge for human rights violation cases of the Concepción Court of Appeals, Carlos Aldana, issued an indictment against former members of the Carabineros and the Army for their responsibility in the crimes of qualified kidnapping, qualified homicide, illegal burial, and illegal exhumation of 18 workers from the El Morro, El Carmen-Maitenes, and Pemehue estates, located in the foothills sector of the town of Mulchén.

In the resolution (case file 30.2007), Judge Aldana indicted former Carabineros members: Jacob del Carmen Ortiz Palma, Juan de Dios Higueras Álvarez, Osvaldo Enrique Díaz Díaz, and Héctor Armando Guzmán Saldaña, as perpetrators of the qualified homicides of José Florencio Rubilar Gutiérrez, José Liborio Rubilar Gutiérrez, José Lorenzo Rubilar Gutiérrez, Alejandro Albornoz Acuña, Luis Alberto Godoy Sandoval, Miguel del Carmen Albornoz Acuña, Daniel Alfonso Albornoz González, Alberto Albornoz González, Felidor Exequiel Albornoz González, Jerónimo Humberto Sandoval Medina, Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme, and José Fernando Gutiérrez Ascencio, illicit acts perpetrated on October 6 and 7, 1973. The former Carabineros were also indicted as perpetrators of the crimes of qualified kidnapping of: Juan de Dios Laura Brevis, José Florencio Yáñez Durán, Celsio Nicasio Vivanco Carrasco, Edmundo José Vidal Aedo, Domingo Sepúlveda Castillo, and Guillermo José Albornoz González, perpetrated starting on October 5, 1973. These State agents were also indicted as perpetrators of the crime of illegal burial of the 12 victims of the homicide crime. Meanwhile, former Army officers Jaime García Zamorano and Julio Reyes Garrido, and former non-commissioned officers José Puga Pascua, José Iturriaga Valenzuela, Jaime Muller Avilés, Julio Fuentes Chavarriga, Luis Palacios Torres, Juan Cares Molina, and Juan Carlos Balboa Ortega were indicted as accessories to 11 counts of homicide—except for that of Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme—and the crime of illegal exhumation of said victims. During the investigation stage, the visiting judge was able to determine that the 18 victims were detained by personnel from the Army's Regiment No. 13 of Los Ángeles and the Mulchén Carabineros Station between October 5 and 7, 1973, at the El Morro, El Carmen-Maitenes, and Pemehue estates in the area, shot, and buried in those places, others in the Mulchén Cemetery or on the banks of the Renaico River, places where the remains remained for more than 5 years. Between the end of 1978 and the beginning of 1979, personnel from the "Húsares" Regiment of Angol, in compliance with a cryptogram from the Army General Command of the time, removed the remains of those who were executed in October 1973 and took them to an unknown destination, carrying out the "Operation Retiro de Televisores" (Operation Television Set Removal), which was ordered by the dictator to make the remains of the murdered forcibly disappeared persons disappear. The "Operation Retiro de Televisores" is one of the most bestial actions committed by the military dictatorship, by express order of the tyrant, organized with promptness by the "impeccable" CNI chief, Odlanier Mena, and executed with criminal zeal by the hordes of agents who reveled in the terror they provoked and caused among their victims, the victims' families, and the population in general. Acts like these cannot continue to go unpunished. It only remains to hope that Aldana and the courts take charge of administering justice.

Source: resumen.cl, July 15, 2016

Ridiculous sentences against former Carabineros and military for crimes and illegal burials in Mulchén

The ruling issued this Monday the 30th by the visiting judge for human rights violation cases of the Concepción Court of Appeals, Carlos Aldana, has caused indignation among the families of the victims of the Mulchén case.

He sentenced 11 former members of the Army and Carabineros for their responsibility in the crimes of qualified kidnapping, qualified homicide, illegal burial, and illegal exhumation of 18 victims executed in Mulchén in October 1973, whose remains were subsequently illegally exhumed to make them disappear.

Aldana sentenced all the accused to ridiculous penalties given the gravity and magnitude of the criminal offenses investigated and given the fact that these are crimes against humanity; furthermore, the ruling grants seven of the convicted individuals the benefit of supervised release, which translates into disguised impunity.

Families of the victims and plaintiff lawyers have already expressed their willingness to appeal the ruling, seeking sentences in accordance with the crimes committed and the sense of justice. In the ruling (case file 30-2007 and accumulated cases), Judge Aldana sentenced former Carabineros Jacob del Carmen Ortiz Palma, Juan de Dios Higueras Álvarez, Osvaldo Enrique Díaz Díaz, and Héctor Armando Guzmán Saldaña to sentences of 10 years and one day in prison, as co-perpetrators of the crimes of qualified homicide of Florencio Rubilar Gutiérrez, José Liborio Rubilar Gutiérrez, José Lorenzo Rubilar Gutiérrez, Alejandro Albornoz González, Luis Godoy Sandoval, Miguel Albornoz Acuña, Daniel Albornoz González, Alberto Albornoz González, Felidor Albornoz González, Jerónimo Sandoval Medina, Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme, and José Gutiérrez Ascencio, 12 crimes committed in October 1973 at the Carmen, Maitenes, and Pemehue estates in the commune of Mulchén. These four convicted individuals are the only ones who, in Aldana's judgment, must serve effective prison time. Likewise, Ortiz Palma, Higueras Álvarez, Díaz Díaz, and Guzmán Saldaña must serve 5 years and one day in prison for their responsibility in the qualified kidnappings of 6 other victims: Juan de Dios Laubra Brevis, José Yañez Durán, Celsio Vivanco Carrasco, Edmundo Vidal Aedo, Domingo Sepúlveda Castillo, and Guillermo Albornoz González. These crimes were committed in October 1973 at the El Morro estate. In addition to 541 days in prison for the illegal burial of the 12 homicide victims. Meanwhile, the executors of "Operation Retiro de Televisores," former Army officer Jaime Oscar García Zamorano and former non-commissioned officers José María Iturriaga Valenzuela, Jaime Jorge Muller Avilés, Julio Hernán Fuentes Chavarriga, Luis Alberto Palacios Torres, and Juan Carlos Balboa Ortega were sentenced to only 3 years and one day in prison, only as accessories to the crime of simple homicide of 11 victims from the Carmen, Maitenes, and Pemehue estates, plus 541 days in prison for their responsibility in the illegal exhumation of said victims. In the case of former Army officer Julio Guillermo Humberto Reyes Garrido, also implicated in the operation to disappear the victims, the ruling sentenced him to serve a 3-year prison sentence as an accessory to 11 simple homicides, and a 300-day prison sentence for his responsibility in the illegal exhumation of those victims. In addition, Judge Aldana acquitted former non-commissioned officer José Francisco Puga Pascua, and Juan Luis Cares Molina was acquitted due to death. The "Operation Retiro de Televisores" is one of the most bestial actions committed by the military dictatorship, by express order of the tyrant, organized with promptness by the CNI and executed with criminal zeal by the hordes of agents who reveled in the terror they provoked and caused among their victims, the victims' families, and the population in general. Between the end of 1978 and the beginning of 1979, personnel from the "Húsares" Regiment of Angol, in compliance with a cryptogram from the Army General Command of the time, removed the remains of those who were executed in October 1973 and took them to an unknown destination, carrying out the "Operation Retiro de Televisores" which was ordered to make the remains of the forcibly disappeared persons who had been murdered disappear. Acts like these cannot continue to go unpunished. The convicted Jaime García Zamorano has remained in prison at the Punta Peuco Penal facility for a couple of years, where he is serving an effective seven-year prison sentence for two counts of homicide in other human rights cases. The facts During the investigation stage, the visiting judge was able to establish that on October 4, 1973, a corporal from the Chilean Army's Regiment No. 13 based in the city of Los Ángeles, along with 3 conscripts from the same unit, was commissioned to report to the city's Carabineros Station. That commission, accompanied by a Carabineros lieutenant and 4 officers from that unit, left for the foothills sector of the town to search for a list of people opposed to the government of the time. On October 5, the group arrived at the "El Morro" estate in the foothills sector of Mulchén and detained, without a legitimate administrative or judicial order, 5 people who were interrogated at a temporary checkpoint and taken to the "La Playita" sector of the Renaico River, where they were executed and their bodies made to disappear. On October 6, the delegation arrived at the Carmen and Maitenes estates, where 7 workers were detained and forced to dig a 6 by 4-meter grave, only to be shot on the spot and illegally buried. Hours later, another prisoner was detained at the location and taken by the group to the main house of the Pemehue estate, where they arrived the following day. On October 7, 5 people were detained at the Pemehue estate, who were executed on the spot and their bodies left in clandestine graves, where they were found by their families. Meanwhile, between the end of 1978 and the beginning of 1979, a section of the "Húsares" Regiment of Angol, after receiving a cryptogram from the Army General Command of the time, went to the sites of the illegal burials, exhumed the remains, and made them disappear, even though a visiting judge from the Concepción Court of Appeals was investigating the facts.

Source: resumen.cl, October 31, 2017

50 years after the Coup: these are the CONAF workers murdered during the dictatorship

The National Forestry Corporation (CONAF) is an entity dependent on the Ministry of Agriculture, which was born from the former Reforestation Corporation through a decree signed by the government of Salvador Allende on April 19, 1973, and published in the Official Gazette on May 10 of the same year.

The origin of the institution has historical roots in the beginning of the 20th century and has as its first important milestone the creation of the Malleco Forest Reserve in 1907, located in the commune of Collipulli.

CONAF had only been created for a few months by the time of the coup d'état on September 11, 1973; however, it was one of the institutions most affected after the overthrow of the popular government, as 19 of its workers were murdered by the coup plotters in the weeks following the bombing of La Moneda.

The dictator himself appointed his own son-in-law, Julio Ponce Lerou, as executive director of this Corporation. Until then, Ponce was a former employee of the Matte family at the Biobio Paper Mill in Concepción.

The Matte family would also place one of their former employees, Fernando Léniz Cerda, as Minister of Economy for the Military Junta. CONAF workers murdered in Mulchén It was very close to the Malleco Forest Reserve where the greatest crime against CONAF workers was committed after the coup d'état.

Between October 5 and 7, 1973, on the mountain estates of the Mulchén commune—called El Morro, Carmen, Maitenes, and Pemehue—18 people from the sector were killed: 13 of them were workers of the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF).

A patrol of approximately thirty people, composed of Carabineros from Mulchén, soldiers from the Mountain Infantry Regiment No. 17 of Los Ángeles, and a group of civilians among whom the courts managed to identify the farmer Romualdo "Mayo" Guzmán Saavedra, the industrialist and sawmill owner Francisco Urrizola Elías, the timber industrialist Ramón Elías Abella, the farmer Aquiles Guzmán Fritz, and the estate administrator Carlos Lehman.

This "patrol" traveled through the estates and properties of the Mulchén mountain area, carrying a previously prepared list of the people who were to be detained and who were subsequently murdered. The "patrol" began its journey at the El Morro estate on the afternoon of October 5.

They proceeded to detain five peasants at their homes, who were taken to the banks of the Renaico River: Juan de Dios Laubra Brevis (26 years old), Domingo Sepulveda Castillo (29 years old), Edmundo José Vidal Aedo (20 years old), Celsio Nicasio Vivanco Carrasco (26 years old), and José Florencio Yañez Duran (34 years old).

Neighbors in the riverbank sector heard gunshots; a few months later, during the search for their loved ones, neighbors and family members of the victims found the bodies of the murdered workers in the La Playita sector with bullet impacts and their hands tied behind their backs with wire.

The following day, October 6, the "patrol" arrived at the Carmen and Maitenes estates, detaining 8 CONAF workers: Miguel del Carmen Albornoz Acuña (20 years old), Daniel Alfonso Albornoz Gonzalez (28 years old), Alejandro Albornoz Gonzalez (48 years old), Luis Alberto Godoy Sandoval (23 years old), Florencio Rubilar Gutierrez (25 years old), José Liborio Rubilar Gutierrez (28 years old), and José Lorenzo Rubilar Gutierrez (33 years old), who were taken to the main house.

Around 11:00 PM, peasant witnesses heard bursts of machine-gun fire. The following day, the members of the "patrol" buried seven bodies in a grave dug in a field near the house sector, covering them with grass.

That same day, October 7, the "patrol" moved toward the Pemehue estate, to the very CONAF office in the Malleco Forest Reserve, taking Guillermo José Albornoz González (32 years old) into custody, who was brutally beaten and, in very poor physical condition, taken to the Renaico River, where his body appeared floating.

At the Pemehue estate, the criminal "patrol" proceeded to detain and execute 5 other CONAF workers: Alberto Albornoz González (41 years old), Felidor Exequiel Albornoz González (33 years old), José Fernando Gutiérrez Ascencio (25 years old), Gerónimo Humberto Sandoval Medina (22 years old), and Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme (35 years old).

During the night, repeated bursts of rifle fire were heard. All of them were buried in the same places where they were murdered. Family members later found their bodies with their hands tied, their faces destroyed, and numerous bullet impacts.

Due to these criminal acts, a judicial case was initiated in the courts of justice, specifically before the Concepción Court of Appeals. In October 2017, Judge Carlos Aldana issued a first-instance sentence in which he only sentenced former Carabineros Jacob del Carmen Ortiz Palma, Juan de Dios Higueras Álvarez, Osvaldo Enrique Díaz Díaz, and Héctor Armando Guzmán Saldaña to sentences of 10 years and one day in prison, as co-perpetrators of the crimes of qualified homicide of the victims Florencio Rubilar Gutiérrez, José Liborio Rubilar Gutiérrez, José Lorenzo Rubilar Gutiérrez, Alejandro Albornoz González, Luis Godoy Sandoval, Miguel Albornoz Acuña, Daniel Albornoz González, Alberto Albornoz González, Felidor Albornoz González, Jerónimo Sandoval Medina, Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme, and José Gutiérrez Ascencio. The same four former Carabineros must serve 5 years and one day in prison for their responsibility in the qualified kidnappings of 6 other victims: Juan de Dios Laubra Brevis, José Yáñez Durán, Celsio Vivanco Carrasco, Edmundo Vidal Aedo, Domingo Sepúlveda Castillo, and Guillermo Albornoz González. The judicial case continues with pending appeal procedures before the Concepción Court, so none of these criminals is serving a prison sentence for these crimes. At the end of 1978, the Pinochet tyranny organized and executed the so-called "Operation Retiro de Televisores," one of the most bestial actions of the military dictatorship, which sought to erase the traces of the murders committed up to that point by the uniformed and civilian hordes. The operation consisted of exhuming the bodies of those murdered and illegally buried throughout the country and making those remains disappear so as not to leave any indication of the crimes. It was, in short, a matter of making the remains of the forcibly disappeared persons disappear. The disastrous action was organized with promptness by the CNI and executed with criminal zeal by the military troops and civilian agents who reveled in the terror they provoked among their victims, the victims' families, and the population in general. In the case of the Mulchén victims, probably in March 1979, personnel from the "Húsares" Regiment of Angol, in compliance with a cryptogram from the Army General Command of the time, illegally exhumed the clandestine graves, removed the remains of those who were executed in October 1973, and took them to an unknown destination, consummating the purposes of the operation. CONAF worker shot in La Serena In the same days that the Mulchén crimes were being committed in the south, in the north, the forestry technician and CONAF worker Oscar Gastón Aedo Herrera (23 years old) was detained by Carabineros in Salamanca, Choapa Province, Coquimbo Region. He was held incommunicado at the local police station, and then taken on October 12 to the Illapel Jail, to later be transferred to the "Arica" Regiment of La Serena, where he was executed in the early hours of October 16, 1973, along with 14 other political prisoners murdered by the "Caravana de la Muerte" (Caravan of Death) during its passage through that region. Judicially, in October 2022, the Sixth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced eight former officers and two former non-commissioned officers of the Army for their responsibility in the crimes of qualified homicide of the 15 victims of the "Caravan of Death" in the city of La Serena. The group of criminals is composed of a former General and Commander-in-Chief of that institution, two former brigadiers, five former lieutenant colonels, and two non-commissioned officers. CONAF workers murdered in Truful Truful Melipeuco On October 14, 1973, CONAF workers José Alejandro Ramos Jaramillo (46 years old), Gerardo Alejandro Ramos Huina (21 years old), and José Moisés Ramos Huina (22 years old)—father and sons respectively—were detained in the Truful Truful sector, Melipeuco commune. The following day, Mario Rubén Morales Bañares (23 years old), a tractor driver and CONAF worker, was detained at his home in Melipeuco. Witnesses report having seen their corpses, tied up next to the Allipen River. However, they were not the first CONAF workers murdered in the Melipeuco commune, as on the very day of the military coup, the tractor driver Luis Alberto Soto Chandía (25 years old) was detained, becoming the first CONAF worker murdered just hours after the overthrow of Salvador Allende. Judicially, only in the case of the victim Luis Alberto Soto Chandía is a procedural case known, with only one former Carabinero prosecuted for this act. Forcibly disappeared CONAF worker On January 29, 1975, the forestry technician Juan René Molina Mogollones (29 years old), a former CONAF official in the Curicó province and former union leader for the corporation's workers, was detained in Santiago by DINA agents. Immediately after the military coup occurred, he began to be persecuted and sought by uniformed troops, so he continued living in hiding and moved to Santiago. Some time later, he was detained and taken as a kidnapped person to the clandestine detention and torture center Villa Grimaldi, and from that facility, he was made to disappear.

Source: resumen.cl, April 28, 2023

The “Retiro de Televisores” (Television Removal) operation was the solution provided by Augusto Pinochet to cover up the massacres that occurred throughout Chile following the coup d'état. This cruel decision was made by him and the Military Junta after the discovery of the bodies of 11 peasants and 4 youths from Isla de Maipo in the lime kilns of Lonquén.

It was the second-to-last day of November 1978, when horror emerged from abandoned lime kilns in the town of Lonquén, a few kilometers from Santiago. The report had reached the Vicaría de la Solidaridad from a peasant who was scouring the earth in search of his forcibly disappeared son.

At first, it was a secret known only to Cardinal Silva Enríquez, the Vicar of the Vicaría de la Solidaridad Cristián Precht, and a small group of collaborators, but it soon became a stark reality regarding the fate of 15 detained individuals who had been missing until that moment.

The news of this discovery unsettled Pinochet; it was not on his agenda. He was clear that the disappeared had not fled the country, nor were they wandering the world discrediting the military dictatorship.

He knew that behind every forcibly disappeared person was his own hand, so he called an emergency meeting of the Military Junta to seek a quick solution and prevent possible accidental discoveries of burials throughout the country.

It was a hot summer for the dictatorship. The discovery of clandestinely buried bodies and their rapid dissemination in the international press was compounded by strong pressure from the U.S. government to extradite Manuel Contreras and Pedro Espinoza for the terrorist attack in Washington against Orlando Letelier, further weakening his position on the international stage at a time when he was facing a serious border crisis with Argentina.

That year, pressure from the White House regarding the Washington attack had forced Pinochet to make the decision to end the DINA, but he could not remain without an intelligence service that answered to his interests.

Thus, on August 12, he promulgated two Decree Laws: 1876, which ended the DINA, and 1878, which created the Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI). To ensure everything was in order, he promoted Manuel Contreras to General of the Republic, completing the requirements demanded by the position of director of the nascent CNI.

U.S. pressure continued, as did the investigations, which led Pinochet to decide to remove his loyal servant and seek a general who would provide guarantees to both him and the Americans. The chosen one was retired General Odlanier Mena.

Odlanier Mena was a man of Military Intelligence who had retired after intense fights with the director of the DINA, Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda. Pinochet, to appease him, had given him the position of ambassador to Uruguay, a not insignificant post for a retired general, as it was close to home and there were no conflicts or shocks with the civil-military dictatorship of José María Bordaberry, an ally of the Chilean military dictatorship.

On November 3, 1977, Contreras was called to retirement and replaced by General Odlanier Mena. The change was not easy. Contreras had accumulated significant power and influence over his people, who, thanks to the prevailing impunity, had earned a reputation for being unscrupulous among their peers.

Mena was reticent when requested for the position and expressed this to Pinochet. The most compelling argument was that he could not assume it as a retired general, and the law created expressly stated that its director must be a general in active service.

Pinochet, demonstrating his power, replied that there was no problem, that he would immediately order a change stating that the director could be a general in active service or retired.

He was in this position in December 1978, when he went to Pinochet's office to have several documents signed. At the entrance, he came face-to-face with General Mendoza, who was leaving the office very disturbed.

They did not have time to greet each other; he only heard, “Odlanier, we are discussing the Lonquén discovery and the enormous public commotion this event has produced in the country. I have been ordered to present a detailed report because I myself was unaware of this situation.”

Surprised, he opened the door slightly and saw Admiral Merino, General Leigh, and Pinochet arguing. At that moment, an aide-de-camp had him enter. They greeted him without paying much attention to his presence and continued making comments, analyzing possible scenarios, and looking for ways to cover up the crimes.

Mena listened attentively from a corner of the table. At some point, the idea arose of using the institutions to carry out “the search for clandestine cemeteries throughout the country” in order to erase all traces of criminal activity. The idea contained a terrifying vision; it was a double crime: after death, disappearance.

The Operation

Despite the detailed description that Mena gave to the justice system of that meeting, he claimed to have no further information regarding the fate of the idea of searching for “clandestine cemeteries.” It was Judge Juan Guzmán who managed to clarify the course that meeting took and how the removal of graves had been ordered through “Operation Retiro de Televisores.”

In 2004, Judge Guzmán and the Fifth Department of the Investigative Police received the testimony of an intelligence non-commissioned officer who indicated having received an A-1 category cryptogram—a nomenclature that determines the level of urgency and secrecy of the mission—while he was at the Húsares Regiment in Angol in 1979.

The uninterrupted account detailed data and situations that spoke of the context of the era and began to give substance to a series of gaps that had remained after the opening of graves in Liquiñe and other parts of the country.

According to his statement, due to the category of the cryptogram, he had run to the decoding machine to decipher it. When he was able to read it, seeing that it came from General Pinochet himself, he took it immediately to the office of the regiment commander.

His impression was so great that he did not forget its text, and as if he were reading it just then, he told the Judge that it “ordered the exhumation of all bodies of political prisoners executed within the regiment's jurisdiction and to make them disappear.”

The text of the cryptogram added that if any body were found after that cleanup operation in the area, the officers in charge of the mission would be forced into retirement.

Mulchén Massacre

The order began to be executed in the Húsares Regiment, but its commander remembered that the massacre of 18 peasants near the Termas de Pemehue was not in his jurisdiction and called the 17th Reinforced Mountain Infantry Regiment of Los Ángeles to communicate the order they had received.

The next day, three non-commissioned officers from the Department II of the III Army Division, based in Concepción, arrived at the 17th Mountain Infantry Regiment. All had taken courses at the School of the Americas and had specialties in counterinsurgency warfare.

They organized an eight-person team made up of officers and non-commissioned officers who headed to the Termas de Pemehue area. They went in two vehicles, equipped with pickaxes, shovels, crowbars, and black bags. They had previously established contact with a relative of a soldier to guide them to the place where the bodies were supposed to be.

The task was easy; the damp earth allowed them to reach the bodies, which were only 50 centimeters deep. Some still had the remains of their humble clothes, which were torn apart as they were pulled out, leaving small traces of the crime in the pieces of fabric and buttons that remained in the earth.

In total, 12 bodies were exhumed. The bags were loaded into the vehicles and they headed toward Concepción. The place chosen to finish the task was a brick kiln of Department II. One by one, they threw the bodies in to be incinerated, just as the Nazis had done during World War II.

Among the accounts is the reference to an officer who commented to them, while they were digging in the earth in search of the bodies, that he had learned to incinerate corpses in a course he had taken in Germany.

He gave them gruesome details, such as that a large grill had to be prepared to place the bodies on and that abundant firewood should be lit beneath it, adding petroleum constantly. He advised them that they had to burn them until they turned to ashes.

The Mulchén massacre occurred between October 5, 6, and 7, 1973, at the El Morro, Carmen y Maitenes, and Pemehue estates. On the evening of October 5, 1973, the patrol arrived at the Los Morros estate.

They brought a list with the names of peasants. They called them out loud, and they surrendered without complaint: Juan de Dios Laubra Brevis, 26; Domingo Antonio Sepúlveda Castillo, 29; José Edmundo Vidal Aedo, 20; Celsio Nicasio Vivanco Carrasco, 26; and José Florencio Yáñez Durán, 34. All were tied with wire, beaten, tortured, and taken to the banks of the Renaico River to be executed.

The next day, they went up to the Carmen y Maitenes estate looking for 8 peasants: Miguel del Carmen Albornoz Acuña, 20; Daniel Alfonso Albornoz González, 28; Alejandro Albornoz González, 48; José Guillermo Albornoz González, 32; Luis Alberto Godoy Sandoval, 23; Manuel Florencio Rubilar Gutiérrez, 25; José Liborio Rubilar Gutiérrez, 28; and José Lorenzo Rubilar Gutiérrez, 33.

All were taken to the main house. There, they were subjected to violent beatings until, amidst taunts and laughter, Lieutenant Concha Maturana made them play "Roman circus," where they would beat each other and the losers would fall under the bullets.

Seven were coldly executed, forced to dig their own graves and lie face down inside them so they could be shot in the back. The only one not executed that day was José Guillermo Albornoz González, whom they tied to a farm wagon.

The last stop was at the Pemehue estate. There, they took Felidor Exequiel Albornoz González, 33; Alberto Albornoz González, 41; José Fernando Gutiérrez Ascencio, 25; Jerónimo Humberto Sandoval Medina, 22; and Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme, 35, from their homes. Here, they repeated the same sadism they had displayed at the Carmen y Maitenes estate.

The next morning, Army Sergeant Luis Díaz Quintana realized that José Guillermo Albornoz González was still tied to the wagon. He approached and saw that he was alive, despite his bleeding wounds, a fractured jaw, having not eaten for two days, swollen from the sleet that had fallen, and without water.

Together with Carabineros officer Jacob del Carmen Ortiz Palma, they took him to the banks of the Renaico River and murdered him.

As in all the massacres that occurred in rural areas, terror took hold of the community; the law of the strongest was imposed, and the victims' relatives were left exposed to arbitrariness. Some managed to bury their dead; others did not dare to look for the bodies for fear.

Hindered by the fear inspired by the estate owners, they did not dare to rescue the bodies, nor did they think that the evil would go so far as to eliminate any trace of their relatives' lives.

The people responsible for these atrocious crimes are the Mulchén Carabineros Lieutenant, Jorge Maturana Concha, and the Carabineros Osvaldo Díaz Díaz, alias “Alicate,” and Héctor Guzmán Saldaña. Several civilians participated alongside them, including Romualdo Guzmán Saavedra, Francisco Urrizola Elías, Ramón Elías Abella, Aquiles Guzmán Fritz, Carlos Lehman, and a sergeant from the 17th Reinforced Mountain Regiment.

Buin Regiment

Just as in the Húsares Regiment of Angol, in December 1978, Department II of the Buin Regiment received an encrypted message from the Commander-in-Chief. More than 20 years later, Lieutenant Pedro Andrés Rodríguez Bustos declared before Judge Juan Guzmán that the message was signed by Augusto Pinochet and had precise orders “to gather the officers and non-commissioned officers who had been serving in those units between the years 1973 and 1974.

Said meeting should try to obtain from that personnel the information they had regarding the whereabouts of the bodies of people executed and buried inside military units or, in this specific case, in the Peldehue military camp, given that this camp was going to transfer part of its land to the Compañía Minera Andina and, for that reason, it had to be known if there were clandestine burials on said land, since if so, the exact locations were required to proceed with the exhumation and elimination of the corpses.”

Later, he would ratify his statements, noting that the order came from the Second Army Division, led by General Enrique Morel Donoso, and that it was sent to all garrisons in the country. He detailed the way in which the information was delivered by those who knew about the burials of political executions and emphasized the secret nature of the entire process, mentioning two officers who came forward to provide information to Commander Mario Navarrete Barriga: Juan Ibáñez and Jorge Aguilar.

Despite the conclusiveness of his statement, it was dismissed at the time because it was considered that it could be an intelligence operation. Only in 2004 would it be concluded that “Operation Retiro de Televisores” was a decision thought out and decided at the highest levels in order to hide the massacres after the 1973 coup d'état.

Fuerte Arteaga

In 1999, while Augusto Pinochet was detained in London, the government of Eduardo Frei called on different sectors to participate in a Dialogue Table that would allow for information to be gathered on the fate of the victims of the military regime who were forcibly disappeared.

Human rights lawyers, representatives of the Armed Forces and Order, representatives of the different religions existing in the country, academics, and government representatives participated in it. The organizations of relatives of the forcibly disappeared and human rights organizations refused to participate, considering that this instance was a lifeline for Augusto Pinochet.

The work ended on June 13, 2000, with the delivery of the document of the agreements reached to President Ricardo Lagos. In it, the human rights violations that occurred during the military dictatorship were recognized by all who participated in the Table; an absolute rejection of the use of violence as a method of political action was established, as well as a commitment as a society to generate the conditions that would lead to reconciliation, thereby facilitating the delivery of information on the fate of the forcibly disappeared.

In January 2001, the Armed Forces delivered a report that provided data on the fate of 200 forcibly disappeared persons supposedly thrown into the sea, rivers, or the high mountains. Of these, 180 appeared with names, surnames, and the date of their death.

President Lagos was given a report containing 45 cases of forcibly disappeared persons whose data contained coordinates and maps of their location, which led to the presumption that those remains would be found quickly.

This complex situation caused public commotion, as it was the recognition of the existence of information on the fate of the forcibly disappeared within the Armed Forces; added to this was the anxiety of many relatives who hoped to have answers about their loved ones.

Faced with this situation, the president of the Supreme Court, Hernán Álvarez, decided to appoint visiting judges to clarify the fate of the forcibly disappeared.

In this framework, Judge Amanda Valdovinos was designated to investigate the information on the existence of a cave with 20 skulls of forcibly disappeared persons in Fuerte Arteaga and areas adjacent to the property surrounding this military facility.

The accounts that emerged spoke of exhumations and transfers of remains to the slopes of the El Talhuenal mountain range. There, the minister focused her investigative work, together with a team of forensic anthropologists.

The information that recurrently mentioned the “corner of the deceased” to refer to a specific area of the military facility, where remains taken from other places had been buried, led her to determine that not all the exhumed remains had been thrown into the sea, and she reported this to the Supreme Court.

In March of that same year, the investigations on the grounds of the Fuerte Arteaga in Peldehue yielded results. In the Quebrada de los Ratones, the remains of Luis Rivera Matus were found, a communist union leader detained outside the Chilectra building on November 6, 1975, by men in civilian clothes who belonged to the Comando Conjunto Antisubversivo.

His name appeared in the Armed Forces report as having been thrown into the sea off the coast of the central zone.

This meant a new discrediting of the Armed Forces; they were pointed out for delivering a list loaded with inaccuracies, provoking new wounds among the relatives of the forcibly disappeared.

The minister's findings gave rise to more information that ended with the prosecution of Air Force generals (ret.) Freddy Ruiz Bunger and Carlos Madrid Hayden, Army major (ret.) Álvaro Corbalán Castilla, and DINE (Army Intelligence Directorate) officer (ret.) Sergio López Díaz.

In 2004, the Minister of the Court of Appeals with special dedication to human rights cases, Joaquín Billard, sentenced General (ret.) Freddy Ruiz Bunger and Carlos Madrid Hayden to 600 days in prison as accessories to the qualified kidnapping of Luis Rivera Matus.

He sentenced Army major (ret.) Álvaro Corbalán Castilla and Army Intelligence officer (ret.) Sergio López Díaz to 10 years in prison as authors of the qualified kidnapping of Luis Rivera Matus. Three years later, the Supreme Court reduced the sentences, leaving only Álvaro Corbalán Castilla with an effective prison sentence.

La Moneda

Four months after the search began at Fuerte Arteaga, the investigations began to reveal what had happened more than twenty-five years earlier with those detained on September 11, 1973, at La Moneda.

A large pit was excavated in the northern area of the field zone, and more than 500 bone pieces were recovered, which corresponded to fragments of limbs, teeth, pieces of skulls, and other parts of human bodies, in addition to war material and pieces of clothing. Among these remains was the last piece of history of 12 of the 20 people detained on September 11, 1973, at La Moneda.

Judge Valdovinos issued a conclusive report to the Supreme Court. In it, she spoke of the violence and irrationality that had dominated these deaths. She indicated that upon observing the remains found in the pit area, one could “categorically conclude the use of explosives of the grenade type to destroy the bodies,” due to the embedded fragments of...

bone fragments that had remained on the walls of the pit. It also referred to heavy machinery tracks found during the exhumation of bodies.

In June 2002, the Supreme Court decided to restructure investigations into human rights violations and appointed Judge Juan Carlos Urrutia, of the Fifth Criminal Court, to be in charge of the Fuerte Arteaga case. The investigation into illegal exhumation was initiated based on the bone fragments.

One of the fundamental witnesses in this investigation was non-commissioned officer Eliseo Cornejo Escobar, who participated in the executions of the detainees from La Moneda and, five years later, guided the search during the excavations to exhume the remains, as part of "Operation Television Removal" (Operación Retiro de Televisores).

On that December 23, 1978, the supervision of the work was in charge of the commander of the Tacna Regiment, Hernán Canales Varas. According to the accounts, it was around 10:00 hours when Eliseo Cornejo marked the exact place where the detainees had been buried on September 13, 1973.

A mechanical shovel began to dig into the dry pit until reaching a depth of six meters, where an iron bar appeared that Cornejo immediately identified. The shovel began to work slowly until the first body appeared.

The bodies were almost intact, thanks to the clay soil that prevented the penetration of oxygen and the subsequent process of organic decomposition. The bodies were removed manually so they would not fall apart; despite this, small fragments remained in the earth, as if refusing to disappear completely.

Then they removed the remains and loaded them onto a Unimog truck. In total, there were 12 sacks, and all were transported to some parking lots in front of the San Martín highway.

Around 22:00 hours, the helicopter of the Army Aviation Command arrived, in charge of the then-colonel Fernando Darrigrandi. It was piloted by Emilio de la Mahotiere González, Luis Felipe Polanco, and Antonio Palomo Contreras, the same trio that flew the Puma helicopter in the Caravan of Death. The aircraft landed near where the sacks were; they were quickly loaded, and the helicopter departed.

As in previous cases, "Operation Television Removal" had been carried out silently and in a timely manner. The order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Army was being fulfilled.

It was the execution of one crime to hide another, which had begun on September 12, 1973, with the arrival of Pedro Espinoza at the Tacna Regiment. The Intelligence officer carried an envelope containing precise orders from the Army General Command to the commander of the Tacna Regiment, Luis Ramírez Pineda.

In them, the people detained at La Moneda were sentenced to death, and it was ordered that they be transferred to Peldehue to carry out the order.

Ramírez Pineda had given orders to apply maximum brutality against the detainees who arrived that afternoon of September 11. In those tied-up and exhausted men, he deposited all his hatred against the Marxists. There were 49 detainees; the next day, it was ordered to release 17 officials from the Investigations police, and others were separated, reducing the La Moneda group to 21 people.

On the 13th, first thing in the morning, a truck was parked in front of the barracks where the prisoners were. List in hand, they were taken out of the stables, tied with wire, and violently thrown into the truck.

Among the 21 were Jaime Barrios Meza, Sergio Contreras, Daniel Escobar Cruz, Enrique Huerta Corvalán, Claudio Jimeno Grendi, Jorge Klein Pipper, Oscar Lagos Ríos, Juan Montiglio Murúa, Enrique Paris Roa, Eduardo Paredes Barrientos, Julio Moreno Pulgar, Héctor Pincheira Núñez, Arsenio Poupin Oissel, Julio Tapia Martínez, Héctor Urrutia Molina, Oscar Valladares Caroca, Juan Vargas Contreras, Luis Rodríguez Riquelme, José Freire Medina, and Luis Avilés Jofré, who had arrived at the La Moneda Palace to support the government.

The truck headed north, guarded by military vehicles and followed by the watchful gaze of the then-colonel Pedro Espinoza Bravo, who was traveling in one of the vehicles in the column. Espinoza was a high-ranking Army Intelligence officer whose role in the post-coup repression was decisive.

He was in charge of supervising the main extermination operations committed throughout the country, by order of the Intelligence General Staff.

Upon arrival, they went immediately to a dry pit next to a building. There, they set up a machine gun operated by Lieutenant Jorge Herrera López and began to bring the detainees down, calling them by their names.

Without complaint and looking straight ahead, the 21 men faced death standing on the edge of the pit. They faced the muffled sounds of the bullets that echoed in the solitude of the hills alone. When the last detainee fell, the order was given to throw grenades so that the walls of the pit would collapse, thus covering up the crime.

The Process

The case has had a long journey through the justice system. From the time Judge Amanda Valdovinos initiated the investigation into illegal burials until the present, the investigation has been in the hands of the judge of the Fifth Criminal Court, Juan Carlos Urrutia; the Minister of the Court of Appeals Alejandro Madrid Crohare; the Special Minister for human rights cases Juan Fuentes Belmar; and it is currently in the hands of the Minister of the Court of Appeals Miguel Vásquez Plaza.

Of the 21 victims, only 11 forcibly disappeared persons have been identified through the work of identifying remains and genetic analyses carried out by the University of North Texas Laboratory, United States, which included forensic examinations of the victims' bone samples and comparative tests on blood samples donated by the families.

Currently, retired General Luis Ramírez Pineda is being prosecuted as the perpetrator of the qualified homicide of 11 people detained at La Moneda on September 11, 1973, and transferred to the Tacna Regiment, where he was commander.

The expansion of the extradition is also being processed in the Argentine justice system, because it was initially requested for the charges of qualified kidnapping of 11 people, and he is currently being prosecuted for qualified homicide; since the legal classification has changed, it is necessary to request a change of extradition from the country that granted it.

The resolution affected eight other retired members of the Army who confessed to having participated in the kidnappings of Jaime Barrios Meza, Daniel Escobar Cruz, Enrique Huerta Corvalán, Claudio Jimeno Grendi, Oscar Lagos Ríos, Juan Montiglio Murúa, Julio Moreno Pulgar, Arsenio Poupin Oissel, Julio Tapia Martínez, Oscar Valladares Caroca, and Juan Vargas Contreras.

The eight prosecuted as perpetrators of the crime of qualified kidnapping were retired Army Colonel Servando Maureira Roa, retired Army Major Jorge Iván Herrera López, retired Army Brigadier Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, and retired Army non-commissioned officers Eliseo Antonio Cornejo Escobedo, Jorge Ismael Gamboa Álvarez, Teobaldo Segundo Mendoza Vicencio, Juan de la Cruz Riquelme Silva, and Bernardo Eusebio Soto Segura.

Linares Artillery School

The same secret document that circulated through the barracks at the beginning of 1979 reached the Linares Artillery School. Without hesitation, the director of the Linares Artillery School, Lieutenant Colonel Patricio Gualda Tiffani, ordered the formation of a special team to exhume the bodies and placed Captain Mario Gianotti Hidalgo in charge of this mission.

He chose two officers, among whom was Lieutenant Hernán Véjar Sinning, and two non-commissioned officers to carry out the mission. To them was added an Intelligence non-commissioned officer from the III Army Division who had arrived along with two other members of that department to supervise the fulfillment of the order.

Equipped with shovels and pickaxes, they dug in different places inside the Regiment, finally finding two bodies that were without clothes. After putting them in bags, they kept them safe inside the Regiment and left for the city of Constitución to look for a clandestine burial that was in a cave at the mouth of the Maule River.

The constant rising of the river and the tides had changed the appearance of the terrain a little, so it was difficult for them to find the exact spot. Finally, they found three skulls, concluding that it was the place they were looking for. They dug them up, put them in bags, and returned to the Artillery School.

With the first stage of the mission accomplished, they went to look for a metal drum, put oil in it, then put the five bodies inside, doused them with oil again, and set them on fire. The remains of five forcibly disappeared persons were turned into ashes, and the double crime was finalized.

In April 2003, Minister Alejandro Solís had initiated investigations in the General Bari Polygon area, where, according to data provided by a former conscript, there had been a mass grave with the bodies of the forcibly disappeared persons from the area. The proceedings did not yield results, and only some traces of possible burials were found at the site.

In 2008, the Minister of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Alejandro Solís, issued a sentence and set sentences of 15 years and one day for five defendants, and 10 years and one day for a sixth defendant for the disappearances of María Isabel Beltrán Sánchez, José Gabriel Campos Morales, Anselmo Cancino Aravena, Héctor Hernán Contreras Cabrera, Alejandro Róbinson Mella Flores, Arturo Enrique Riveros Blanco, Jaime Bernardo Torres Salazar, José Alfonso Saavedra Betancourt, and Jorge Bernabé Yáñez Olave, detained between September 1973 and February 1974.

On April 27, 2011, the Supreme Court reduced the sentences issued by Minister Solís, acquitting retired General Gabriel del Río Espinoza, who had been convicted for the disappearance of five people, and sentencing retired Army Colonel Juan Hernán Morales Salgado and Army Lieutenant Colonel Claudio Abdón Lecaros Carrasco to five years and one day in prison with the benefit of supervised release for the disappearance of María Isabel Beltrán, José Gabriel Campos, Anselmo Antonio Cancino, and Alejandro Róbinson Mella.

Retired Army non-commissioned officer Antonio Aguilar Barrientos was sentenced to five years and one day in prison with the benefit of supervised release for four counts of qualified kidnapping, and retired Army Colonel Antonio Cabezas Salazar for three counts of qualified kidnapping.

Retired General Humberto Lautaro Julio Reyes, who was Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs during the military dictatorship, was sentenced to three years in prison with the benefit of conditional remission, remaining on supervised release.

This was one of the most conclusive pieces of evidence available to demonstrate that Pinochet knew about the atrocities that occurred during his mandate. No one creates such a perverse mechanism to hide crimes if they are not directly involved.

Chihuío

On October 9, 1973, the locals of Chihuío thought that the worst of the period had passed. News of the arrests of workers in Neltume and the violence that the Carabineros of Llifén had unleashed among the peasants of Chabranco, Arquilme, and Curriñe had spread like wildfire.

That day, a patrol consisting of 90 well-armed and equipped soldiers in seven vehicles set out for the Andean foothills area, where only poor workers of the Panguipulli Lumber Company lived. They were from the No. 2 Cazadores Armored Cavalry Regiment of Valdivia, commanded by retired General Santiago Sinclair, who was later a member of the Military Junta and a designated senator at the beginning of the transition to democracy.

In charge was squadron commander Luis Osorio Gardasanich, and officers Patricio Keller, Lautaro Ortega, Marcos Rodríguez Olivares, and Luis Rodríguez Rogorrichi. In charge of the special unit was Lieutenant Cristián Labbé Galilea.

The patrol toured the towns and hamlets of the area, read lists of names, and proceeded to arrest them. The owner of the Chihuío estate, Américo González Torres, participated actively and enthusiastically in this journey of death.

Without any shame, they asked the locals for wire and ox teams to drag the vehicles that had gotten stuck in the mud.

In the Curriñe administration office of the Panguipulli Lumber Complex, they tortured some detainees, while a patrol went up to arrest workers at the Folilco sawmill. Their last stop was in Chabranco, where they arrested the last workers.

With their cargo, they left for the main house of the Chihuío estate, where they brutalized the workers. According to testimony received by the Rettig Report, at first glance, there were no bullet impacts, but rather signs of cuts, throat-slitting, dismemberment of limbs, and other traces of torment impossible to describe.

The next morning, a local saw that there were some bodies covered with branches and logs, recognizing some of the victims as workers from the area. The corpses remained in the open for about 15 days and were then buried.

There were 17 workers from the area: Carlos Maximiliano Acuña Inostroza, José Orlando Barriga Soto, José Rosamel Cortés Díaz, Rubén Neftalí Durán Zúñiga, Luis Arnaldo Ferrada Sandoval, Eliecer Sigisfredo Freire Caamaño, Narciso Segundo García Cancino, Juan Walter González Delgado, Daniel Méndez Méndez, Sebastián Mora Osses, Pedro Segundo Pedreros Ferreira, Rosendo Rebolledo Méndez, Ricardo Segundo Ruiz Rodríguez, Carlos Vicente Salinas Flores, Manuel Jesús Sepúlveda Rebolledo, Rubén Vargas Quezada, and the minor Fernando Adrián Mora Gutiérrez, who, upon helping to pull a military vehicle out of the mud, saw that his father was among the detainees and asked the soldiers where they were taking him. They replied that if he wanted to go with his father, he should get into the vehicle, and so he did. At the end of 1978, a military operation returned to Chihuío and exhumed the bodies of the 17 peasants to throw them into the sea. The grave with the bone remains from the exhumation was found on June 17, 1990, by a group of relatives and friends of forcibly disappeared persons.

In the first days of July 2011, the director of the Legal Medical Institute, Patricio Bustos, announced the names of the first five people identified: Carlos Maximiliano Acuña Inostroza, 46 years old at the time of his death, agricultural worker; Luis Arnaldo Ferrada Sandoval, 42 years old at the time of his death, agricultural worker; Daniel Méndez Méndez, 42 years old, agricultural worker and peasant leader; Ricardo Segundo Ruiz Rodríguez, 24 years old, factory manager and member of the Socialist Party; and Manuel Jesús Sepúlveda Rebolledo, 28 years old, lumber worker.

On July 15, the director of the Valdivia Legal Medical Service, Patricia Benhe, handed over the few bone remains to the families so they could bury them.

The identifications were carried out with the fragments found in the clandestine grave, where the bodies were thrown and later removed to be thrown into the sea, as part of the so-called "Operation Television Removal."

In January 2011, the Supreme Court sentenced retired Army Colonel Luis Osorio Gardasanich to 10 years and one day as the perpetrator of the qualified homicide of 17 people, including a minor.

Retired Carabineros officer Luis Eduardo Osses Chavarría was sentenced to 3 years and one day in prison for his role as an accomplice in 4 kidnappings. The civilian Bruno Esteban Obando Cárdenas was acquitted for having no participation in the events.

General Santiago Sinclair, who gave the orders, was acquitted. Meanwhile, retired Colonel Jerónimo Pantoja Henríquez died before the Supreme Court sentence.

The 17 workers belonged to the Esperanza del Obrero Peasant Union of the Panguipulli Lumber Complex. Most of them were evangelical believers who had organized to participate in the construction of a fairer life.

Cuesta Barriga

Enrique Erasmo Sandoval Arancibia was an Army lieutenant when he was called to the DINA in 1976. Although he does not say much about his role in the repressive organization that year, he hints at his time at the Intelligence School in Rinconada de Maipú, which served to instruct Argentine, Uruguayan, and Chilean agents.

He also claims to have been part of the security for the VI OAS General Assembly held in Santiago, which Henry Kissinger attended. Disjointedly, he says that at the end of 1976, he became part of the Caupolicán Brigade, which was under the command of Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, assigned to the Cóndor group.

He claims not to remember names, nor the activity he carried out; he only remembers that he spoke a lot with the former MIR member who collaborated with the DINA, named "Joel," Emilio Iribarren.

But "Pete el Negro," as he was known in the DINA, had a whole criminal history behind his apparent innocence before the courts. After the coup d'état and the indiscriminate repression, this man murdered the boy Carlos Fariña with a shot in the back and burned the corpse. In the 80s, he participated in the murder of Lisandro Sandoval.

In 1978, he joined the Red Brigade of the National Intelligence Center (CNI), in charge of the repression against the MIR. During his time there, he reported directly to Álvaro Corbalán.

He remembers that at the beginning of 1979, Jerónimo Pantoja, deputy director of the CNI, received information that a rabbit hunter had discovered an abandoned mine with bodies in Cuesta Barriga, and the information had been delivered to the Vicariate of Solidarity.

Faced with the alarm, Pantoja sent him to check the place, "which was a mine shaft, and I verified that it was true. It was full of rodents, bats, putrefied remains, and there was a smell consistent with the remains. This smell would have alerted and disturbed the hunter's dogs, and that is how he would have arrived at the place."

With a photograph in hand, Lieutenant Sandoval arrived before Pantoja, who ordered him not to dynamite the mine and ordered him to use acid. Given the difficulty he had due to his ignorance of the use of chemicals, he called General Odlanier Mena at his vacation home in Mehuín to inform him of the situation.

The delicate information caused Mena to suspend his vacation, return to Santiago, and take charge of the removal of the bodies. For that, he entrusted Sandoval to remove the bodies with a trusted team. "My team was made up of 9 people, and we went to the mine for three days." He claims to have no idea how many bodies there were, but calculates that there were about 20, which were put into 50 potato sacks.

Some of the bodies were skeletonized; others still retained soft tissues.

When they finished removing the bodies, they took some dogs, killed them, and threw them inside to justify the presence of bones. Then they loaded the sacks onto a truck and took them to the Malloco plot that had belonged to the Political Commission of the MIR. Finally, the remains were transported to Peldehue and possibly thrown into the sea.

Operation Television Removal covered the entire national territory and is the clearest example of the policy of concealing human rights violations that prevailed during the military dictatorship.

Source: elmostrador.cl, September 2013