They may be the southernmost victims of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship: three men executed by firing squad in the frozen pampas of Porvenir, XII Region, by troops from the No. 11 Caupolicán Regiment. Yesterday, special presiding judge Joaquín Billard indicted and imprisoned the three non-commissioned officers who opened fire on Ramón González (a fiscal employee), Carlos Baigorri (a teacher), and Hernán Cárcamo (a fishing worker) for qualified homicide in the early hours of a forgotten October 30, 1973.

The Special Affairs and Human Rights Brigade confirmed that the three prisoners were removed from the military unit, being the only detainees at the facility who were not from the area. It was established that non-commissioned officers Miguel Muñoz, Luis Arata, and Juan Ortiz drove them to a remote point in Tierra del Fuego, executing them by order of the regiment commander, Augusto Reijer Rago (deceased).

The three bodies were buried at the same location, with their deaths certified by a doctor from the same military unit, who confirmed that they died from bullet wounds. Reijer Rago was a friend of Sergio Arellano Stark, head of the feared Caravan of Death. According to testimonies, the executions took place after a call from Arellano in which he asked Reijer "how many dead they had."

Source: August 9, 2006, La Nación

Porvenir Case: Judge Billard sentences three retired military officers for homicide

On Monday, special presiding judge Joaquín Billard sentenced three retired military officers accused of qualified homicide against Ramón Domingo González Ortega, Germán Simón Cárcamo Carrasco, and Carlos Raúl Baigorri Hernández, in events that occurred in the town of Porvenir on October 29, 1973.

The magistrate sentenced Juan Antonio Ortiz Toledo and Miguel Pablo Muñoz Uribe to three years and one day in prison, and José Rafael Aguirre Aguirre to five years and one day in prison. The judge also stipulated that "as the requirements of Article 15 of Law 18.216 are met regarding the convicted Ortiz Toledo and Muñoz Uribe, they are granted the benefit of supervised release" and that "as the requirements of Law 18.216 are not met regarding the convicted Aguirre Aguirre, he is not granted any of the benefits established therein." The special presiding judge also rejected, in its entirety, the civil lawsuit for damages filed against the Chilean Treasury. According to the arrest warrant issued by the special presiding judge regarding the crimes that occurred in Magallanes: "Ramón González, Germán Cárcamo, and Carlos Baigorri, while being held prisoner inside a container located inside the No. 11 'Caupolicán' Infantry Regiment of Porvenir, were removed from their confinement by four soldiers from the same unit and loaded into a pickup truck to be transported several kilometers outside the regiment." The case records establish that "once the vehicle stopped, the soldiers made the prisoners get out and immediately fired at them with SIG rifles, killing them instantly. After their deaths were confirmed by a doctor from the same military unit, the uniformed men proceeded to bury the bodies at the site of their execution." The following day, according to the case file, "the commander of the unit gave as the official version that the prisoners had been killed while attempting to escape, informing the rest of the regiment and the media that they had fled the unit, that they were surprised about 20 kilometers away, and upon failing to heed the order to halt, they were fired upon and killed, an act that constitutes the crime of qualified homicide committed against the persons of Ramón González Ortega, Germán Cárcamo Carrasco, and Carlos Baigorri Hernández, an offense provided for and punished under Article 391 No. 1 of the Penal Code."

Source: January 28, 2008, La Nación

Sentences increased for executions at the Caupolicán Regiment in Porvenir

In the early hours of October 30, the three were taken from the place where they were sleeping and brought to the regiment's firing range, where they were made to run and were shot until they were dead.

The Santiago Court of Appeals ratified two convictions for three political executions in the XII Region in 1973, but acquitted one of the defendants in the so-called Porvenir case. Ramón González Ortega, Germán Cárcamo Carrasco, and Carlos Baigorri Hernández were murdered on October 30, 1973, in the vicinity of the Caupolicán Infantry Regiment in Porvenir.

The official version claimed that the detainees had escaped and, upon being located, did not obey the order to halt, which led the soldiers to fire and kill them. In the first instance, Judge Joaquín Billard sentenced the then-second lieutenant José Aguirre Aguirre to 5 years and one day in prison, and corporal Miguel Muñoz Uribe and sergeant Juan Ortiz Toledo to 3 years and one day, with the benefit of supervised release.

However, the appellate court determined the acquittal of Aguirre, considering that he did not participate in the events, and increased the sentences for Muñoz and Ortiz to seven years in prison. Likewise, the ruling orders the Treasury to pay compensation of $50,000,000 to each of the parents of Carlos Baigorri Hernández: Dieter Baigorri Kuvacic and Georgina Hernández Ponce.

Carlos Baigorri, 31 years old at the time of his death, had one child and was a teacher and regional secretary of the Communist Party. Meanwhile, Ramón González was 37 years old, an employee of the Internal Revenue Service, and had no known political affiliation.

Finally, Germán Cárcamo was 24 years old and was an employee of Socoagro and a socialist militant. These three individuals had been detained separately at their respective homes and, after passing through other facilities, were taken to the Caupolicán regiment.

In the early hours of October 30, the three were taken from the place where they were sleeping and brought to the regiment's firing range, where they were made to run and were shot until they were dead. According to reliable testimonies presented to the Rettig Report, the detainees were executed by firing squad at 04:00 on the 30th, with the objective of carrying out an "exemplary measure."

Source: Tuesday, November 18, 2008, La Nación

Repressors of the military dictatorship sentenced

The ruling was issued by four votes to one by the Second Penal Chamber of the supreme court, with the dissenting vote being that of judge Nibaldo Segura, who was in favor of acquitting the defendants on the basis of the statute of limitations.

However, international law maintains that crimes against humanity are imprescriptible, a principle that Chile has adopted. The Supreme Court sentenced three repressors of the military dictatorship who murdered three political prisoners in the Magallanes region in October 1973 to seven years in prison in a final ruling this Tuesday, judicial sources reported.

The convicted, who according to the ruling will not have prison benefits until they serve their sentences, are Miguel Pablo Muñoz Uribe, Juan Antonio Ortiz Toledo, and José Aguirre Aguirre, the sources specified.

The three were prosecuted and convicted for the homicides of Ramón González Ortega, Germán Cárcamo Carrasco, and Carlos Baigorri Hernández, which occurred on the night of October 29, 1973, in the town of Porvenir, 2,600 kilometers south of Santiago, in the Magallanes region.

According to the evidence gathered in the case, the three were murdered that night, and the following day military authorities published that they had been killed during an escape attempt 20 kilometers from the city.

Carlos Baigorri was 31 years old, a teacher and regional leader of the Communist Party; Germán Cárcamo was 24 years old, an employee and militant of the Socialist Party; and Ramón González, 37 years old, had no political affiliation and was an official of the Internal Revenue Service.

The ruling was issued by four votes to one by the Second Penal Chamber of the Chilean supreme court, with the dissenting vote of judge Nibaldo Segura, who was in favor of acquitting the defendants on the basis of the statute of limitations.

According to international law, adopted in Chilean legislation, crimes against humanity are imprescriptible. In the civil part of the trial, the court determined that the Treasury must pay compensation of 50 million pesos to the family of each of the victims.

Source: March 16, 2010, El Mostrador