Occupation : Primary school teacher. Director of School 45 in San Rosendo. Political Affiliation : No known political militancy Date of Detention : September 15, 1973

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

Oscar Omar Sanhueza Contreras, father of 1 child and a primary school teacher, was detained on September 15, 1973, at his home—where he lived with his mother and her husband—at approximately 5:00 PM by Carabineros officers from Laja, commanded by Lieutenant Alberto Fernández Mitchel and Sergeant Pedro Rodríguez.

Among the members of the patrol, Oscar's mother recognized the Carabinero Florencio Olivares Dades, as he had been a classmate of her son at the Liceo. However, he denied his participation in the detention.

The patrol also included an officer with the surname Otárola and Juan Oviedo, accompanied by another officer with the surname Castillo from the San Rosendo detachment, who pointed out the homes of the individuals to be detained.

Subsequently, Oscar Sanhueza was transported by the same Carabinero patrol to the Laja police station (Tenencia) along with Mario Jara Jara, Juan Antonio Acuña Concha, Luis Araneda Reyes, Dagoberto Garfias Gatica, and Jorge Zorrilla Rubio—who were detained in San Rosendo—as well as Manuel Becerra Avello, Rubén Campos López, Fernando Grandón Gálvez, Jack Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Juan Jara Herrera, Jorge Lamana Abarzúa, Alfonso Macaya Barrales, Heraldo Muñoz Muñoz, Wuilzon Muñoz Rodríguez, Federico Riquelme Concha, Luis Sáez Espinoza, Luis Ulloa Valenzuela, Raúl Urra Parada, and Juan Villarroel, all of whom shared the same fate as Oscar Omar Sanhueza.

The detainees were taken on foot, as the only means of communication between San Rosendo and Laja was a pedestrian bridge adjacent to the railway bridge. According to a witness to the transfer of the detainees, their hair was cut off with scissors as they crossed the bridge. Their relatives were later able to verify this at the detention facility.

Once at the Laja Carabineros station, Oscar Omar was visited by his relatives daily until September 17, who brought him food and clothing. During these visits, they were able to confirm that Sanhueza, like other detainees, presented dog bite wounds, resulting from the police officers inciting dogs to attack them.

On the morning of September 18, while his mother was bringing him breakfast, she was informed that her son and the other detainees who remained at the station had been transferred in the early hours of the morning to the Los Angeles Regiment.

As was later proven, they never arrived there, as all the prisoners were executed by their captors at the Fundo San Juan, located on the road between Laja and Yumbel, and their bodies were clandestinely buried at the same site.

Because locals from the Fundo discovered the clandestine burial and notified the judicial authority, the Carabineros proceeded to move them and bury them a second time, outside of all regulations, in the local cemetery of Yumbel.

The remains of Oscar Sanhueza Contreras were only returned to his family in November 1979 by order of the Visiting Judge (Ministro en Visita) who, as a result of his investigation, determined the facts as related.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

A writ of amparo (habeas corpus) was filed on behalf of Oscar Omar Sanhueza Contreras before the Court of Appeals of Concepción, registered under No. 3971-76. It was rejected on June 2, 1977, because "he was not found to be detained and there was no record that his detention had been ordered." On the 30th of that same month, the Supreme Court confirmed the resolution and ordered the records to be sent to the corresponding court to initiate the respective summary proceedings.

On July 20, 1977, Case No. 22.794 was opened at the Yumbel Court of Major Quantities for the Presumed Disappearance of Oscar Omar Sanhueza Contreras. It was temporarily dismissed on October 12 of the same year, and the ruling was confirmed by the Court of Appeals of Concepción on December 15, 1977, without succeeding in establishing the fate of the affected party.

However, on July 24, 1979, a criminal complaint was filed before the Laja Court for the crimes of "kidnapping and homicide of Fernando Grandón and others"—among whom is Oscar Omar Sanhueza Contreras—against Lieutenant Juan Alberto Fernández Mitchel and Sergeant Pedro Rodríguez Ceballos (who later became part of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) in Los Angeles) and other officers who served at the Laja Carabineros station as of September 1973.

As a result of this complaint, Mr. José Martínez Gaensly was appointed as Visiting Judge, who, through his investigation, was able to establish that Oscar Omar Sanhueza Contreras was executed along with 19 other detainees at the Fundo San Juan, located about 200 meters from the road connecting Laja with Los Angeles.

The bodies were illegally exhumed by the perpetrators themselves (Carabineros from the Laja station). Subsequently, they were clandestinely transported to the Yumbel Cemetery by Carabineros officers from that city.

This occurred despite the fact that the discovery of the bodies had been duly reported by the Yumbel Carabineros to the judge of the Court of Major Quantities of that city, who ordered the court secretary to keep the report in the safe without initiating due process.

On October 2, 1979, the remains of the 19 people whose detention and subsequent disappearance had been reported were exhumed at the Yumbel Cemetery. After some procedures, body No. 20 was found at the same site of the homicide, at the Fundo San Juan.

On November 27, 1979, the remains were handed over to their families, and the funerals were held that same day. On March 18, 1980, the Visiting Judge declared his incompetence and ordered the records to be sent to the Military Justice system, where they were registered under No. 323-80 at the Ad Hoc Military Prosecutor's Office of Concepción.

The case was definitively dismissed on June 9, 1980, by the Judge of the 3rd Military Court, and the ruling was approved by the Supreme Court on December 3, 1981. Those responsible for the crimes of kidnapping and homicide were granted amnesty based on Decree Law 2191 of 1978.

Source: Corporation report

Laja-San Rosendo Case: Concepción Court issues conviction for the homicide of 19 forestry workers and peasants in 1973.

The Court of Concepción accepted the appeals filed by the plaintiffs against the resolution that convicted nine retired Carabineros and one civilian for their responsibility in the crime of qualified homicide of 19 forestry workers and peasants. These crimes were perpetrated in September 1973, within the framework of the case known as "Laja-San Rosendo."

In the resolution, the appellate court confirmed the sentence that condemned Alberto Juan Fernández Michell to life imprisonment as the perpetrator of the qualified homicides of Fernando Grandón Gálvez, Jorge Andrés Lamana Abarzúa, Rubén Antonio Campos López, Juan Carlos Jara Herrera, Raúl Urra Parada, Luis Armando Ulloa Valenzuela, Óscar 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.

In the case of José Jacinto Otárola Sanhueza, Mario Sebastián Montoya Burgos, and Manuel Enrique Cerda Robledo, the Court of Concepción considered that they participated as perpetrators in the 19 homicides, and not as accessories, and therefore increased their sentences from 5 years of imprisonment to 15 years and one day of incarceration.

Likewise, it ratified the convictions issued against Gerson Nilo Saavedra Reinike, Pedro del Carmen Parra Utreras, Víctor Manuel Campos Dávila, and Nelson Casanova Salgado, increasing their sentences from 5 years and one day to 15 years and one day of incarceration, as perpetrators of the 19 qualified homicides.

Meanwhile, in the case of Anselmo del Carmen San Martín Navarrete, the Concepción court set the sentence he must serve as an accessory to the crimes at 5 years and one day of imprisonment, with the benefit of intensive supervised release.

Regarding the official of the Compañía Manufacturera de Papeles y Cartones (CMPC) of Laja, Pedro Luis Jarpa Foerster, the Third Chamber revoked the sentence that acquitted him of responsibility, sentencing him instead to 5 years and one day of imprisonment as an accomplice in the crimes of qualified homicide of the victims: Fernando Grandón Gálvez, Jack Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Heraldo Muñoz Muñoz, Raúl Urra Parada, Federico Riquelme Concha, Juan Villarroel Espinoza, and Wilson Muñoz Rodríguez.

Finally, the Court of Concepción confirmed the acquittal of Alejandro Lionel Aguilera Covarrubias, as his responsibility for the events as an accomplice was not proven; and confirmed the acquittal of the former police officer René Luis Alberto Urrutia Elgueta, as his participation in the crime of illegal inhumation, committed at the end of October 1973 in a mass grave at the Yumbel Parish Cemetery, was not proven.

The Facts During the investigation stage of the case, Judge Carlos Aldana was able to establish the following facts: 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 of the Laja Carabineros station—without a competent judicial or administrative order and transported to the aforementioned Police Unit located at Calle Las Viñas No. 104 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, Óscar 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 of 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. That on the same dates and until September 17, 1973, the other persons indicated above were detained and transported in vehicles of the CMPC paper company, which had been provided by heads of said company for the transport of the detainees and driven by a CMPC employee to the Laja station.

B.- The aforementioned persons 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 Company, to be supposedly transported to the Regiment in the city of Los Angeles; however, while traveling along Route Q-90, at the height of the Perales Bridge, the convoy entered a side road about 500 meters to the south, entering the so-called Fundo San Juan, 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, with the police officers proceeding to position themselves behind them. At that moment, the officer in charge stood to one side and, armed with his revolver, gave the order to shoot them, which was carried out by the Carabineros present, positioned in a firing line, impacting the bodies of the detainees with bullets, causing injuries that resulted in their deaths. Immediately thereafter, the same police officers, using shovels they had brought for that purpose, dug a 60-centimeter-deep grave where they threw the bodies, which they covered with a layer of earth. Once this operation was finished, they returned to the Laja station, remaining silent regarding what had happened. Days later, Carabineros officers returned to the sector to cover the bodies with lime, of the type used at the CMPC, which had been provided by officials 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 that place, who reported it to the Carabineros of Yumbel.

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

After verifying the validity of the report, he communicated the finding 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, where he took it 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 mass grave, which the aforementioned Order Officer 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 inhumed without obtaining the corresponding sanitary authorization, nor the competent judicial order.

In the civil aspect, the Court increased the compensation granted by Judge Aldana Fuentes to the victims' families, ordering the State of Chile to pay a total compensation of $5,440,000,000 (five billion four hundred and forty million pesos).

Resolution agreed upon with the dissenting vote of Judge Bluck Bahamondes, in the following aspects:

1.- Regarding the acquittal of the accused Pedro Jarpa Foerster, the dissenter is of the opinion to confirm the first-instance decision, estimating that although it is proven that he facilitated the identification of the seven workers who were detained at the exit of the CMPC Plant, there is not enough evidence to consider that said accused could have anticipated that the Carabineros officers were going to kill them.

On this point, the dissenter keeps especially in mind that the detentions were verified on September 11, 1973, just after the coup d'état had been perpetrated, when there was still no news of deaths or disappearances, so Jarpa Foerster could surely have imagined and accepted that the detained workers whose identification he cooperated with could be beaten or kept deprived of liberty for their supposed political ideology, but he had no way of anticipating the commission of the homicides and much less did he have any control over the treachery or premeditation with which they were committed.

2.- Regarding the first-degree decision to convict Anselmo San Martín as an accessory to 19 crimes of qualified homicide, the dissenter was in favor of revoking the judgment under review and instead acquitting him of the charges formulated against him, keeping in mind that the first-degree judge considers the participation proven while ignoring the contradictions that exist in this regard among the various elements of the charge.

Indeed, Vidal Riquelme maintained various versions during the investigation, stating that he does not remember that San Martín was in the convoy (page 1693); that he dug the grave (page 1561); that he did not see him at the Fundo San Juan (page 1700).

Parra Urra declared that he does not know if San Martín was covering the barracks (page 1699) and on page 3125 states that he did participate in the executions; León Godoy points out on page 1691 that he does not remember if San Martín stayed at the station and on page 1697 vta, states that he did; Fernández Michell affirms on page 1695 vta, that he did stay at the station; Saavedra maintains on page 1698 that he does not remember having seen him at the Fundo; Parra Utreras indicates on page 1699 that he did not see San Martín in the operation; in a similar sense, Campos Dávila declares on page 1700 vta. For the dissenter, these contradictions prevent forming a conviction that the accused San Martín participated in the convoy that transported the detainees to the Fundo San Juan and compel the issuance of an acquittal.

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl 15/8/2021 Date: 08-15-2021

Supreme Court confirms convictions of nine former Carabineros for crimes against 19 forestry workers in Laja and San Rosendo in 1973

The Supreme Court convicted nine former Carabineros for their responsibility in the crimes of qualified homicide of the forestry workers 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, Wuilzon Gamadiel Muñoz Rodríguez, and Alfonso Segundo Macaya Barrales, perpetrated in September 1973 in the communes of Laja and San Rosendo, in the Biobío province.

In a unanimous ruling (case roll 82.317-2021), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of Judge Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Judges María Soledad Melo, María Loreto Gutiérrez, and lawyers (i) Pía Tavolari and Ricardo Abuauad—partially invalidated the challenged sentence, issued by the Court of Appeals of Concepción in August 2021, only in the part that sentenced the civilian Pedro Luis Jarpa Foerster, a former executive official of the CMPC, to 5 years and one day of imprisonment as an accomplice to the homicides of seven workers and, in its place, decreed his acquittal as the responsibility attributed in the crimes was not proven. In addition, it rejected the cassation appeals in form and substance filed by the other convicted persons.

In all other respects, the highest court confirmed the sentence of the Concepción court that sentenced the former Carabinero officer Alberto Juan Fernández Mitchell to the penalty of life imprisonment as the perpetrator of the qualified homicides of the 19 victims.

Meanwhile, the former Carabineros José Jacinto Otárola Sanhueza, Mario Sebastián Montoya Burgos, Manuel Enrique Cerda Robledo, Gerson Nilo Saavedra Reinike, Pedro del Carmen Parra Utreras, Víctor Manuel Campos Dávila, and Nelson Casanova Salgado remain sentenced to 15 years and one day of imprisonment as perpetrators of the 19 qualified homicides.

While the former Carabinero Anselmo del Carmen San Martín Navarrete was sentenced to 5 years of incarceration, with the benefit of intensive supervised release, as an accessory to the crimes.

The sentence established an error of law in establishing the responsibility of Jarpa Forester. In this regard, the resolution states: "In this case, as an initial question, it should be indicated that the sentenced Jarpa, in the first instance, was acquitted of his participation in the mournful events, a decision that was reversed by one of the chambers of the Court of Appeals of Concepción, who considered the existence of testimonies that allow him to be visualized in acts of cooperation... which allowed them to conclude that he executed cooperation actions prior to the perpetration of the homicides of the seven people he details, facilitating their identification and detention, acting at least with eventual intent, keeping in mind the context in which these detentions occurred, carried out by police officers who acted without any judicial order, with the country being in a state of siege after the military coup of September 11, 1973, which led them to conclude that he could not help but project or imagine that the identification he made of the workers, supposedly contrary to the new de facto regime, would end in their death."

Executions and illegal inhumation

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 workers were detained—by personnel of the Laja Carabineros station—and transported to the aforementioned police unit: 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.

The Compañía Manufacturera de Papeles y Cartones (CMPC) workers Grandón, Gutiérrez, Muñoz, Urra, Riquelme, Villarroel, and Muñoz Rodríguez were detained by Carabineros at the entrance-exit gate of their workplace, the CMPC Laja Paper Plant, where a superior official held a list with each of the names, pointing out to the Carabineros who each of them was, thereby facilitating their identification and detention.

Likewise, the other persons indicated above were detained and transported in CMPC paper company vehicles, which had been provided by heads of said company for the transport of the detainees and driven by a CMPC employee to the Laja station.

The detainees were placed in the cells, remaining in that facility until the night of September 17, 1973. That night they were taken out by uniformed personnel and loaded into vehicles that belonged to the CMPC Paper Company, to be supposedly transported to the Regiment in the city of Los Angeles.

However, while traveling along Route Q-90, at the height of the Perales Bridge, the convoy entered a side road about 500 meters to the South, entering the so-called Fundo San Juan, in the commune of Yumbel, where the aforementioned Carabineros, who were armed with rifles and carbines, made them get out of the vehicles.

Immediately, they forced them to lie on the ground, side by side, face down and with their hands tied, with the Carabineros proceeding to position themselves behind them. At that moment, the officer in charge stood to one side and, armed with his revolver, gave the order to shoot them to murder them.

Immediately thereafter, the same Carabineros, using shovels they had brought for that purpose, dug a 60 cm deep grave where they threw the bodies, which they covered with a layer of earth. Once this operation was finished, they returned to the Laja station, remaining silent regarding what had happened.

Days later, Carabineros officers returned to the sector to cover the bodies with lime, of the type used at the CMPC, which had been provided by officials of the same company.

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

Faced with this report, the commissioner of the aforementioned barracks ordered a subordinate to go to the site. He verified the validity of the report and informed the commissioner of it, who ordered the corresponding report to be drawn up by the Salto del Laja Carabineros station and sent to the Yumbel Court of Letters, where he took it, accompanied by the chief physician of the Yumbel Hospital.

The aforementioned physician stated to the then Judge of Letters of that locality, Corina Mera, the impossibility of receiving the bodies at the hospital facility for health reasons. Faced with that, the judge ordered that they be moved directly to the parish cemetery for burial in a mass grave, which the police officer carried out using a trailer pulled by a tractor, during the night and during the hours when the curfew was in effect.

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

by Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl, March 2, 2024