Pablo Gac Espinoza, married, father of 3, an INDAP official in Quillota, former Mayor of Quillota, and a member of the Socialist Party, was detained, as recounted by Rosa Eliana Becerra Flores, the victim's spouse.

On January 17, 1974, at 2:45 PM, a green jeep with a yellow stripe, canvas top, and benches in the back arrived at the home he shared with Pablo Gac. A civilian stepped out. He spoke with the victim—a councilman and Mayor of Quillota, as well as a socialist militant—telling him that he was coming to pick him up for a "small interrogation" to be held at the Engineers Regiment No. 2 of Quillota.

Pablo Gac asked for time to change his clothes, which was granted. The civilian said he would return later because he had to go pick up other people. Indeed, he left. Pablo Gac then reassured his wife, saying he knew the man and that she should not worry because he was a "good guy." He had time to bathe, shave, change his clothes, and even had to wait a while before the vehicle arrived again.

On this second occasion, the jeep was no longer empty; in addition to the person who apprehended the victim (a subject about 27 years old, 1.75 m tall, dark-skinned, straight hair, slender, wearing a beige shirt) and the driver, there were four detainees whom Rosa Eliana Becerra did not recognize.

Upon saying goodbye, Pablo Gac told his spouse that if he did not return, she should go to the Regiment the next day.

Thus, on January 18, 1974, at about 7:00 AM, Rosa Eliana Becerra went to the Engineers Regiment of Quillota, learning on the street that some political prisoners had died, whose bodies were lying, covered with paper, under the bridge leading to the Cavalry School.

During the rest of the day, Pablo Gac's wife managed to find out very little else. When she went to the Governorate of Quillota and asked to speak with the Governor, Colonel Angel Custodio Torres Rivera, he only told her that her husband was missing and that they were looking for him.

January 17, 1974, was not the first time the victim had problems. Two or three days after September 11, 1973, he was fired from his job at the National Institute for Agricultural Development (INDAP). Also on September 11, personnel from the Romanian Embassy offered him asylum.

He refused it. In the third week of September of that same year, his home was raided by Investigative Police (Investigaciones) personnel from Quillota, who detained him and took him to the facilities of that Service, where he remained for one day, being transferred later to the Carabineros Police Station of that city. There, he was mistreated and interrogated.

He was released the same day, with the obligation to sign in once a week and with the instruction not to leave the city. Subsequently, and on several occasions, civilians came to look for him and took him to testify at the Governorate or the Carabineros Police Station.

However, after a few hours, he was set free. When he returned home, Pablo Gac gave the impression of having suffered mistreatment, although he never told anyone anything and always asked not to be questioned about it.

Thus, when the jeep appeared on that January 17, 1974, it only seemed to be one more detention.

On January 18, 1974, Rosa Eliana Becerra learned that that day, at dawn, a military patrol from the Cavalry School of Quillota, commanded by Captain Francisco Pérez E., had executed six political prisoners from that city: Víctor Enrique Fuenzalida (Communist Party), Manuel Hernán Hurtado (Socialist Party), Osvaldo Mario Manzano (MIR), Julio Arturo Loo (Communist Party), Angel Mario Díaz (community leader), and Hugo Hernán Aranda (neighborhood leader), who had been detained in the Quillota Jail since the first days after the Military Coup.

Regarding her husband, she only obtained some information through the official statement given to the press by the Governor, Army Colonel Angel Custodio Torres Rivera, and through posters that appeared stuck to the trees in the Plaza de Armas of Quillota. These posters featured the names and photos of Pablo Gac and Rubén Cabezas Pares with the caption "wanted."

On January 19, 1974, the local press published the official version of the events, signed by Colonel Angel Custodio Torres. It stated that on January 18, 1974, at 1:00 AM, when eight detainees were being transferred from the Engineers Regiment to the Cavalry School, the military patrol transporting them (belonging to the Cavalry School) was "surprised and attacked by extremist elements." The official version of the events added that, in the confusion, Pablo Gac and Rubén Cabezas Pares (like the victim, he is also a forcibly disappeared person) fled, and Captain Francisco Pérez E., commander of the patrol, was wounded. Immediately, the names of the six detainees who had died were given, "killed for attempting to flee." In a subsequent official bulletin, the population was warned of the danger of "hosting in their homes people whose backgrounds are unknown, as they may be fugitives from Justice."

Around January 20, 1974, Rosa Eliana Becerra spoke with a detainee who was being released from the Carabineros Police Station, named Aliro, who informed her that he had seen the victim at that police facility on January 17 of that year. He saw him enter the interrogation sector and, around midnight, saw him being carried out by two people, in very poor physical condition.

The spouse visited jails, traveled to other places where there were detention camps, and went to the International Red Cross.

During those days, she lost a child she was expecting, when she was already three or four months pregnant. To this day, Pablo Gac Espinoza remains forcibly disappeared. His wife, given the absolute helplessness in which she was left along with her children, who were 4 and 8 years old at the time of the victim's detention, did not take legal action.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

In 1990, an investigation was initiated in the Second Court of Quillota for the crime of illegal burial on the grounds of the Quillota Cavalry School. During the processing of this case, on December 21, 1991, Judge Raúl Beltramí was prevented from entering said facility, for which he initiated proceedings for denial of assistance to justice.

The Commander of the Regiment, Colonel Francisco Javier Pérez Egbert, challenged the jurisdiction before the Valparaíso Court of Appeals and maintained that the alleged crime is subject to Law 2.191 of 1978 (Amnesty Law).

Finally, the Supreme Court decided to consolidate both cases in the Military Prosecutor's Office of Valparaíso. That court dismissed the case for denial of assistance to justice, and regarding the case for illegal burial, no progress had been made by the end of 1992. Pablo Gac Espinoza remains a forcibly disappeared person.

Source: Corporation report

In the summer of 1974, terror continued to prevail in the country. Four months after the military coup, group executions, detentions, and disappearances of people continued; imprisonment, public and clandestine detention and torture centers remained full; and thousands were going into exile or seeking refuge in embassies in Santiago.

Specifically, on January 18, events occurred such as the execution of 6 political and social leaders in the city of Quillota by members of the Cavalry School of the same city. The executed were Víctor Fuenzalida, 35, leader of the PC; Manuel Hurtado, 35, leader of the PS; Osvaldo Manzano, 32, President of the Rayon Said Union and member of the MIR; Julio Loo, 27, textile worker and communist militant; Ángel Díaz, 41, neighborhood leader and textile worker; and Hugo Aranda, 30, single, peasant and neighborhood leader.

The previous day, in the same city of Quillota, socialist militants Pablo Gac Espinoza, former mayor of Quillota, and Rubén Cabezas Pares, lawyer and prosecutor for the CORA of Quillota, were detained and forcibly disappeared by agents of the Military Intelligence Service (SIM).

That same January 18, 1974, but in Santiago, a group of young people returning from a birthday party in downtown Santiago were surprised by two Carabineros who requested reinforcements. On Calle San Diego, near 1255, Ramón Ortiz Orellana, 16, a student at Industrial School No. 3; Sergio Enrique Gutiérrez Seguel, 18, a worker; and Domingo Cubillos Guajardo, 19, a shoemaker, were detained in an operation that included military personnel, Carabineros, and armed civilians.

All were put into a police vehicle and remain disappeared to this day.

Source: resumen.cl, January 18, 2024

Date: 01-18-2024

The "assault on the patrol" case refers to a simulated extremist attack on October 17, 1974, which was in reality the execution of eight people and the subsequent disappearance of two of them.

The extraordinary visiting minister of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Julio Miranda Lillo, handed down a conviction against several individuals involved in the so-called "Assault on the military patrol" case, which occurred in Quillota on January 17, 1974.

The magistrate determined sanctions for the perpetrators of the crimes of kidnapping with grave damage committed against Rubén Guillermo Cabezas Pares, Pablo Gac Espinoza, Levy Segundo Arraño Sancho, Víctor Enrique Fuenzalida Fuenzalida, Manuel Hernán Hurtado Martínez, Hugo Hernán Aranda Bruna, Ángel Mario Díaz Castro, Osvaldo Mario Manzano Cortés, and Arturo Julio Loo Prado.

The sanctions are detailed below

-Angel Custodio Torres Rivera: 6 years, without benefits. -Sergio Carlos Arredondo González: 6 years, without benefits. -Francisco Javier Pérez Egert: 5 years. The benefit of supervised release was granted. -Leonardo Quilodrán Burgos: 5 years.

The benefit of supervised release was granted. -Daniel Javier Walker Ramos: 3 years and one day. The benefit of supervised release was granted. -Pedro Alberto Durcurdoy Montandón: acquitted for lack of participation. -Raúl Aurelio Muñoz Gutiérrez: acquitted for lack of participation. -Laureano Enrique Hernández Araya: acquitted for lack of participation.

Likewise, Minister Miranda Lillo determined to accept the civil lawsuits filed and to order, jointly and severally, the State Treasury and the convicted individuals Ángel Custodio Torres Rivera, Sergio Carlos Arredondo González, Francisco Javier Pérez Egert, Daniel Javier Walker Ramos, and Leonardo Quilodrán Burgos to pay the plaintiffs who acted on behalf of the nine victims of this investigation the amount of nine hundred million pesos ($900,000,000), corresponding, consequently, to the figure of one hundred million pesos ($100,000,000) for each of the victims.

This is the second conviction handed down by Minister Miranda Lillo in human rights violation cases under his charge.

Assault on the military patrol case

The "assault on the patrol" case refers to a simulated extremist attack on October 17, 1974, which was in reality the execution of eight people and the subsequent disappearance of two of them.

An official bulletin of the time reported that six prisoners died in a skirmish when extremist elements assaulted the patrol that was transporting them, commanded by the then-captain Francisco Pérez Egart.

The other two prisoners, former Quillota mayor Pablo Gac Espinoza and the CORA lawyer and prosecutor, Rubén Cabezas Parés, were taken to the Cavalry School. The military headquarters bulletin reported that both had escaped.

Source: afepchile.cl 3/1/2009

Date: 03-01-2009

Municipal Council and Cosoc support the tribute, which has already been communicated to the family of the former sports leader and municipal chief who was forcibly disappeared.

QUILLOTA.-

By majority vote, the Quillota Municipal Council approved naming the remodeled Corvi Gymnasium after former mayor Pablo Gac Espinoza, who was forcibly disappeared in the falsely named 1974 Patrol Assault. The measure had been unanimously backed, just a couple of days earlier, by the members of the Civil Society Council, Cosoc.

Born in Quillota in 1930 and a shoemaker by trade, Pablo Gac was a prominent union and political leader, as well as a recognized athlete, who came to preside over the city's Local Sports Council. He was an INDAP official, and his active social work led him to be elected councilman for the Socialist Party and later, in the 1971 Municipal Elections, mayor of Quillota.

However, after the 1973 Coup d'État, he was persecuted for his leftist militancy and detained several times. In one of those instances, in the early hours of January 18, 1974, while being transferred between the city's two regiments, the military simulated an assault on the patrol transporting them, near the San Isidro underpass.

Pablo Gac was made to disappear along with the Agrarian Reform Corporation lawyer Rubén Cabezas and the peasant leader Levi Arraño, and as judicial investigations established, their bodies were thrown into the sea. Six other leaders were murdered in the same event.

As stated by the mayor of Quillota, Luis Mella Gajardo, "We want to pay tribute to a former mayor, a simple man who gave his life, like all authorities, to serve those most in need. And having achieved the unanimous agreement of the COSOC, where all the members who participated in the meeting supported the idea, I feel that we are doing justice.

You will see it in the coming days, the beautiful gymnasium with a new floor, with some new seats, with new bathrooms, with special facilities for people with disabilities, will bear the name of Pablo Gac Espinoza, mayor of the commune of Quillota."

It is expected that the current Corvi Municipal Gymnasium will be renamed "Mayor Pablo Gac Espinoza" in the coming days, when it reopens its doors after undergoing its first major remodeling since its construction in the 1960s.

The works represented an investment of 90 million pesos and involved, in addition to the new court surface, the expansion, construction, and improvement of bathrooms, bleachers, and roof; adaptation of areas for people with disabilities; installation of LED lighting; and the opening of an access from Calle Escuti, among other works.

Source: observador.cl June 7, 2021

Date: 06-07-2021

Gac, Cabezas, and Arraño were thrown into the sea

The then-Army captain Daniel Walker allegedly delivered the "coup de grâce" to a prisoner who remained alive. The bodies of the nine victims had been taken from the site of the massacre to the Engineers Regiment.

According to an officer who provided his testimony, when Walker realized that one was still alive, he ordered him to be put into a jeep and taken to the place where they had staged the fake "patrol assault," and there, on a pile of dirt, he shot him to death.

Afterward, they returned with the body to the Regiment. To this day, it is not known which of the victims was so coldly executed by the uniformed officer.

These and other chilling details are established—thanks to witness statements—in the voluminous file of Case Roll No. 35.738, which is being investigated by visiting minister Gabriela Corti for kidnapping and qualified homicide, referring to the episode wrongly called the "patrol assault," which in the early hours of January 18, 1974, left a toll of nine leftist militants dead in Quillota.

The information flows from about thirty pages of the proceedings, a photocopy of which was provided to this media outlet by the son of one of the massacre's victims.

On that occasion, the military authority carried out a setup to kill the nine leaders and then maintain that the detainees were being transferred from the Engineers Regiment to the Cavalry School, and that on the way, the patrol had been assaulted by "extremist elements," leaving six prisoners dead.

The remaining three—former socialist mayor Pablo Gac Espinoza, lawyer and socialist leader Rubén Cabezas Parés, and peasant leader Levi Arraño Sancho, of the MAPU—had allegedly escaped, according to the bulletin issued at the time.

Everything was planned

According to the information gathered during the two years of inquiries led by Minister Corti, the order to detain the leftist militants and leaders Manuel Hurtado, Hugo Aranda, Arturo Loo, Eduardo Manzano, Ángel Díaz, and Víctor Fuenzalida (some of whom were already in prison), along with Pablo Gac and Rubén Cabezas, was allegedly given by Colonel Sergio Arredondo González, who had been the operational chief of the "Caravan of Death"—which left a hundred dead throughout Chile—and who at the time was director of the Cavalry School.

Levi Arraño had allegedly been detained earlier at the same School.

The massacre was allegedly planned in advance, with the participation—even—of civilians, who advised the military and collaborated by supporting the actions.

The nine prisoners were gathered on the night of January 17, 1974, at the Engineers Regiment, where the officers and non-commissioned officers summoned for those purposes also arrived. In charge of the entire operation was the then-captain Francisco Pérez Egert.

Some of the participants acknowledge that they were summoned "only to collaborate in the transfer" of the prisoners from one military unit to another.

Grenades and machine-gun bursts

What is established is that at the Regiment itself, the three detainees who would be declared fugitives were separated from the remaining six. Everyone left after midnight in a caravan of four vehicles that headed along Yungay to Freire and from there to the Camino a San Isidro, which leads to the Cavalry School.

But meters from the railway underpass, the caravan stopped, and Captain Pérez ordered all the detainees to get out, handcuffed as they were, placing them to the side of the vehicles. On each side of the road, about 80 meters from the site, military personnel were positioned to prevent the passage of vehicles.

Behind the scene of the massacre, a civilian watched from the house on his plot of land, with the mission of notifying the Cavalry School as soon as it had concluded.

At Captain Pérez's order, the explosion of grenades and bursts of machine-gun fire directed at the nine prisoners began. It was a few short seconds; enough to murder the nine leaders and set fire to one of the caravan's jeeps, with which they intended to make the massacre appear as an "extremist assault on the patrol" that was transporting detainees.

Removal of the bodies

Once the shooting was over, Captain Pérez ordered the bodies to be picked up and taken back to the Regiment. There, after realizing that one of the executed remained alive, the then-captain Daniel Walker ordered him to be put into a military vehicle to personally transport him to the place where the setup was carried out.

There, he had him placed on a pile of dirt and allegedly fired the coup de grâce.

Once the body was returned to the Engineers Regiment, it was ordered that the bodies of the three who would be declared fugitives be taken to the Cavalry School, from where, before ten o'clock the next morning, they were removed by a Navy helicopter to be thrown into the sea, off the coast of Quintero.

The remains of the other six murdered leaders were sent to the morgue of the Quillota Hospital, where doctors Jorge Abde (now deceased) and Orazio Bruzzone—who testified before the Minister—performed the autopsies. Subsequently, the bodies were handed over to the relatives in closed and sealed coffins by a funeral home chosen by the military themselves.

This entire procedure departed absolutely and arbitrarily from those that correspond legally, because the military picked up the bodies without waiting for the expertise of the Investigative Police (Investigaciones), which should have intervened immediately at the scene of the event.

Everyone denies their participation

From the parts of the file to which the victims' relatives and ZonaImpacto.cl had access, it flows that each of those involved and prosecuted in this case continues to systematically deny their participation, apparently respecting the already known "pact of silence." Colonel (ret.) Arredondo, who ordered the entire operation, claims to have arrived just that dawn, unaware of everything that happened.

The then-captain Walker says he had no knowledge of what happened, as does his colleague Pedro Durcodoy, while Captain Pérez Egert also asserts that he was just passing by the place when he was surprised by the explosion of a grenade, which sent his vehicle off the road and caused him a traumatic brain injury and serious injuries to an arm.

He lost consciousness—he maintains—and therefore knows nothing of what occurred.

However, Minister Corti has obtained overwhelming evidence that allowed her to establish participation "as perpetrators" of kidnappings and qualified homicides by the seven former military officers and one former Carabinero whom she indicted last July.

They are retired colonels Sergio Arredondo, Francisco Pérez, Pedro Durcodoy, and Daniel Walker; retired major Raúl Muñoz; and senior non-commissioned officers Leonardo Quilodrán and Sergio Placencia, all from the Army, and retired senior non-commissioned officer of the Carabineros Laureano Hernández. With the exception of Colonel Arredondo, all the accused obtained release on bail.

Thirty years later

On the thirtieth anniversary of the massacre that shocked—until now—life in the peaceful city of Quillota, the victims' relatives feel very distressed after learning the details of what happened, but also somewhat relieved because they perceive that the diligent work of the Visiting Minister is managing to move decisively toward establishing the whole truth, which will allow those responsible to be sanctioned.

Yesterday, Sunday, the day of the thirtieth anniversary of this cruel slaughter, the relatives and humanitarian organizations of Quillota remembered the date with an audiovisual exhibition next to the Monument to the Victims of Human Rights Violations, in the Plaza de Armas, and then a "candlelight vigil" in the same place.

Surprising encounter between the son of the murdered former Mayor and two of those prosecuted as perpetrators of crimes On the morning of last Wednesday, January 14, teacher Pedro Pablo Gac went to a business in Quillota to photocopy part of the file on the homicides of his father—former mayor Pablo Gac—and eight other leftist militants, perpetrated on January 18, 1974.

He had promised to deliver said photocopy to this journalist for the writing of reports for this and other media outlets, on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the massacre.

During the previous night and dawn, he had read the pages of the summary again and again, and he was still shocked by the chilling details described there.

While a clerk at the business was making his photocopies, he noticed with unusual surprise that at another machine, the official in charge was photocopying identical documents and parts of the same file.

After hesitating for a few minutes, he asked the customers who were carrying those documents who they were.

Moments later, still excited by the unusual encounter and in the calm of a café table, he tried to recover from the impression and organize his ideas.

"It was a short subject, with a mustache, about 65 years old, and another taller one, somewhat younger," he told ZonaImpacto.cl. "I asked them who they were, and they introduced themselves, shaking my hand: one was retired Army non-commissioned officer Sergio Placencia and the other, retired Carabineros non-commissioned officer Laureano Hernández."

Two of those prosecuted as perpetrators of the qualified kidnapping of his father, whose status as disappeared still remains. They are also being prosecuted for the kidnapping of Rubén Cabezas and Levi Arraño, along with the homicide of six other leftist militants.

They deny everything, everything... Pedro Pablo Gac was greatly impressed by the attitude of the two accused.

• They looked haggard, diminished. Nothing in them reflects the haughty and arrogant subjects of before, those who detained and tortured, as I understand it.

Did you know them before?

• Not at all. I had heard about them and seen their names in the indictment. Nothing more.

Did they seem humble?

• I would say so, although they were rather extremely kind to me. They told me about the functions they claim to have performed at the time of the massacre and assured me that they had absolutely nothing to do with the crimes.

What explanation do they have?

• I don't know, I didn't retain much, I was very impressed, and I also confess that I didn't believe what they were saying.

Didn't they seem sincere to you?

• In reality, they were striving to seem so; they told me they were at my service, that they would like to talk again... but Minister Corti has investigated meticulously for two years, has been connecting the dots, and prosecuted them as perpetrators. I have no doubts about the Magistrate's work, so I must suspect that they are not telling the truth.

Did they ask for forgiveness?

• No! If they claim they are innocent! So the only thing they did was justify themselves, argue that they had no participation, and put themselves at the service of us, the relatives, to "help us" discover the truth.

But they must know it...

• They maintain that they know nothing of what happened, that it never occurred to them to investigate, that they didn't hear anything, that it wasn't their job to investigate.

Don't they even acknowledge having had collateral participation?

• Former Carabinero Hernández says he only acted as a driver in several detentions, but he doesn't know who the detainees were and doesn't remember the names of the apprehenders.

What feeling are you left with after this experience?

• That they are cowardly people who do not want to assume their responsibilities and are not willing to pay with prison for their participation in the very serious crimes in which they participated. I think they were convinced that the hand of justice would never fall on them, and I fear that thirty years ago someone—or more than one—must have guaranteed them total and eternal impunity. It gives the impression that now they feel bewildered, fearful, and abandoned. I was left with the feeling that they are afraid... very afraid.

Process established participation of civilians in the planning of the homicides

An undetermined number of civilians participated in the planning and execution of the homicides perpetrated by the military on January 18, 1974. The file records interrogations of several of them, both in Chile and abroad; the former carried out directly by the investigating Minister and the others by personnel of the Fifth Department of Investigations.

The parts of the summary known to ZonaImpacto.cl demonstrate not only the meticulous and tireless work carried out by Magistrate Gabriela Corti but also by the civil police officers, who did not leave any investigative step unfulfilled.

Civilians An Army non-commissioned officer, in his testimony, mentions agricultural businessman Claudio Monreal Navarro, maintaining that "this person was an 'aide' to the Army, who witnessed these events; furthermore, he himself commented to me that he was aware in advance of the planning of how the 'patrol assault' was going to happen; they prepared him for this, and it was his job to make the phone call to the Cavalry School to inform them of what happened, just as he provided vehicles and even coordinated with the funeral home that transported the deceased.

This is an older person, and he has indicated to me that he is willing to collaborate, but he is scared."

Apparently, he had to overcome his fear, because he finally testified as a witness, as did Osvaldo "Guatón" Romo and Ismael Villavicencio Carrasco.

The same non-commissioned officer says he gathered a series of facts about this episode, "learning that it was not an assault but a 'show' carried out by military comrades of that time to eliminate a series of political people opposed to the military government, simulating a confrontation between a military patrol that was transporting political detainees and subversive elements."

He also mentions names of other military personnel who had participation: Eladio Lara Valenzuela, René Olivares Faúndez, Carlos Retamal Salazar, René Gutiérrez Herrera. Also a Carabinero: Orlando Tapia Tapia.

General Juan Arenas Franco, meanwhile, mentions a certain "Pepe" as another of the military's aides: "The only thing I remember from that night (the night of the massacre) is that I was on patrol accompanied by a civilian named Pepe, who was the owner of a plot of land located in front of the Cavalry School, who provided his pickup truck for these types of duties."

Did the "informers' dinner" exist?

Upon learning these details, along with the demonstration that the slaughter of Quillota leaders was coldly planned, the accusation made a few years ago by Pablo Cabezas Salamanca, son of lawyer Rubén Cabezas, gains strength.

Pablo Cabezas claimed to have knowledge of a "social" dinner that took place days before this episode, shortly after the arrival of the then-lieutenant colonel as Director of the Cavalry School.

The new military chief had allegedly selected a group of civilians who were businessmen—especially farmers—and right-wing political leaders or wealthy people who had harbored hatred toward the people of the overthrown Popular Unity.

On that occasion, the attendees had allegedly drawn up for Arredondo a fateful list of the "most dangerous" leftist political leaders in the area.

That would have been the death sentence for nine prominent social leaders of the city.

There are many names circulating about the attendees of this "social" meeting, but the versions highlight that of a farmer who was an executive of a state company during the Pinochet regime.

Other forcibly disappeared persons

In all the interrogations of military personnel, Magistrate Corti did not fail to ask them if they knew the fate of two forcibly disappeared persons whose final whereabouts she wishes to establish.

Invariably, all those interrogated claim to have no idea and to have never heard those names before.

They are Jorge Eduardo Villarroel Vilches, from Limache, then leader of MOPARE (an organization affiliated with Salvador Allende's government), who was detained on April 19, 1974, when he appeared at the San Pedro Carabineros Station, where he had been summoned.

The second disappeared person is Bernardino Rodríguez Cortez, a saddler who lived in Cerro Mayaca, a member of the Communist Party, detained on March 6, 1974, inside a leather shop on Calle O'Higgins in Quillota. The detention was carried out by Quillota Investigative Police officials, among whom were sub-inspector Omar Mercado and detectives Juan González and Hugo Olivari.

Former military governor

It has drawn attention that the then-Governor, Military Chief of Quillota, and commander of the Engineers Regiment, Ángel Custodio Torres, has not testified nor was he prosecuted. The authority may not have participated directly, but at the very least he would be an accessory, since he signed the bulletin deceiving the community with the version of the extremist assault.

The parts of the file known to this media outlet do not shed full light on the detail, but sources close to the process assured us that the former governor is affected by total dementia. In the file, there is a medical certificate that accuses partial memory loss due to his pronounced alcoholism.

Placencia's confusion

A curiosity of the process is the initial statement by retired senior non-commissioned officer Sergio Placencia to the effect that former captain Daniel Walker gave the "coup de grâce" to one of the victims who did not die instantly.

But when both were confronted, doubt entered Placencia's mind: "I maintain what was previously declared regarding the wounded man in the patrol assault who was subsequently finished off by an officer on the Camino Internacional.

But now, seeing my Major Walker, I cannot specify with certainty that this was said officer, maintaining in this regard the doubts I expressed previously; that is, whether it was him or it was Jaime Bachler..."

But then, faced with the latter officer, he "confuses" himself again: "I maintain my previous statements. Now that I have Officer Bachler in front of me, I cannot say that this was the officer who finished off the wounded man. I insist the doubt persists whether it was him or Major Walker, and to clear up said doubt, I refer to the confrontation that was carried out with the latter."

Source: January 21, 2004 Zonaimapcto.cl

Date: 01-21-2004

Chilling details of the 1974 massacre in Quillota

One of the six individuals executed in the staged event set up by Army personnel on January 18, 1974, did not die immediately at the scene of the massacre but was transported along with the five corpses of his companions to the Engineers Regiment, where he arrived dead.

The bodies were handed over to their relatives in coffins tied with barbed wire, and they were forced to bury them in consecutive niches at the El Mayaca Cemetery, where they remained guarded by armed soldiers who, for some time, prevented the mourners from approaching, even to leave flowers...

These are some of the chilling details contained in the Resolution issued by Judge Gabriela Corti upon indicting eight retired uniformed officers as perpetrators of the crimes of qualified homicide of six leftist militants and the repeated qualified kidnapping of three political leaders: former mayor Pablo Gac Espinoza (PS), lawyer and socialist leader Rubén Cabezas Parés, and peasant leader and MAPU militant Levi Arraño Sánchez.

Judge Corti appeared at the Second Criminal Court of Quillota to notify the plaintiff lawyers of the indictments issued last Saturday against eight former uniformed officers implicated in the slaughter.

Originally, there was talk of ten indicted individuals, because the judge only notified them one by one, sending them to be detained in Army and Carabineros units, but their names and ranks were not disclosed.

Visiting Judge The judge of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Gabriela Corti, no longer holds the status of "Ministra de Fuero" (Special Jurisdiction Judge) for this case, because with the former dictator and former senator-for-life Augusto Pinochet having been definitively dismissed from the case, there is no defendant or accused person with special immunity (in this case, parliamentary).

Under these circumstances, and as a Visiting Judge, Judge Corti established the Second Criminal Court of Quillota as the seat for her work, where the first complaints and lawsuits regarding this case were filed.

On this occasion, Judge Gabriela Corti met with all the lawyers representing the various lawsuits accumulated in her investigation: Héctor Salazar, Hugo Gutiérrez, Nelson Caucoto, Julia Urquieta, and Hiram Villagra. They were joined yesterday by Quillota lawyer Elmita Puebla, who sponsored the first lawsuits immediately after the events occurred, and CODEPU attorney Federico Aguirre.

The Indicted The indictment, only six pages long—a document of at least 15 was expected—does not abound in details about the facts established by the magistrate, limiting itself to a brief summary that, nevertheless, confirms many of the suspicions and background information held by both the victims' families and this journalist.

Following the details of the statements, confrontations, reports, and documents reviewed, she indicted Sergio Carlos Arredondo González (lieutenant colonel and director of the Cavalry School in 1974; he had arrived at the end of 1973 after having participated as an operational officer in the Caravan of Death), Francisco Javier Pérez Egert (then a captain, he personally directed the “operations” to murder the nine victims), Pedro Alberto Durcudoy Montandón, Daniel Javier Walker Ramos (both officers of the Cavalry School, with direct participation in the murders), Leonardo Quilodrán Burgos (non-commissioned officer, one of the cruelest repressors known in the area), Sergio Placencia Sepúlveda (non-commissioned officer, specialized in “intelligence,” participated in the planning and arrests), Raúl Aurelio Muñoz Gutiérrez (Army non-commissioned officer, participated actively), and Laureano Enrique Hernández Araya (Carabineros non-commissioned officer, also characterized by the cruelty of his repressive actions).

The document details that the aforementioned former uniformed officers are charged “as perpetrators of the crime of qualified homicide, in a repeated nature, of Hugo Hernán Aranda Bruna, Julio Arturo Loo Pardo, Manuel Hernán Hurtado Martínez, Eduardo Manzano Cortés, Ángel Mario Díaz Castro, and Víctor Enrique Fuenzalida Fuenzalida, provided for and sanctioned in Art. 391 of the Penal Code, and as perpetrators of the crime of qualified kidnapping, in a repeated nature, of Pablo Gac Espinoza, Rubén Guillermo Cabezas Parés, and Levi Segundo Arraño Sancho, provided for and sanctioned in Art. 141, Paragraph 4 of the same Code.”

In a first reading, the paragraphs described above make it clear that the six crimes perpetrated at the San Isidro underpass and the three executions committed inside the Cavalry School, from where the remains were made to disappear, were carried out by the same uniformed officers.

Interrogations and Confrontations

During her nearly two years of inquiries, Judge Corti interrogated more than thirty witnesses, defendants, suspects, accused persons, and relatives of the victims, many of whom are named in the indictment.

Great responsibility for the success of the inquiries lies with the detectives of the Investigations department, both from the Fifth Department and Interpol. While the former were in charge of a huge number of proceedings in the country, the latter located and interrogated witnesses in various cities in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

The participation of some of the indicted was until now unknown to the victims' families, such as officers Pedro Durcudoy and Daniel Walker and non-commissioned officer Raúl Muñoz.

Also, several of the people who provided statements both in the country and abroad are unknown to the families. Such are the cases of retired Army officer Mario René del Carmen Díaz Pérez, interrogated by Interpol in the United States, and Ángel Rafael Muñoz Pavez, interrogated in Amsterdam, Holland, whose statement remained protected in a separate volume of the main file.

The relationship of Marcelino Bugeño Bugueño, Segundo Aladino Jofré Morales, Ismael Enrique Villavicencio Carrasco, and José Arnoldo Escobar Ojeda, all of whom gave statements in the process, is also unknown; some of them are believed to be military personnel. As is the case of Carlos Varas Frederick, who was an officer at the Cavalry School, where he stood out as an equestrian.

On page 572, there is the statement of civilian Osvaldo Romo Mena, a former leftist militant who became one of the cruelest torturers in the operations and detention centers in Santiago, but whose relationship with the events in Quillota was unknown until now.

Succinct Account of the Facts

The account of the facts established by the judicial investigation is succinct in the document that indicts the eight former uniformed officers. For this reason, the plaintiff lawyers requested that the Visiting Judge grant them access to the summary, which they will only be able to do starting this Friday; that is, one day after the deadline for the indicted to appeal or file any legal recourse expires.

However, while omitting some background information, it reveals chilling details about what happened in the early hours of January 18, 1974.

The document specifies that based on the background information, interrogations, confrontations, and accumulated reports, “it can be established” that on January 17, 1974, “military personnel took six people, union leaders, all militants or sympathizers of the left, from the Quillota Public Jail, who were led by them to the Engineers Regiment No. 2 ‘Aconcagua’ of said city, where they remained detained; a place to which three others, also leftist militants, presented themselves voluntarily that same day following a summons made to their homes and workplaces by military personnel, this time dressed in civilian clothes, also remaining detained. The latter were the Mayor of the city, the Prosecutor of the Agrarian Reform Corporation (CORA) based in the city of Quillota, and the president of the Peasant Committee of the San Isidro sector.” The latter are Pablo Gac, Rubén Cabezas, and Levi Arraño, respectively.

“It Could Be Called an Ambush” The account of the established facts continues by pointing out that in the final hours of January 17 or the early hours of January 18, 1974, all the detainees were put into vehicles that, “in a number of four and heavily guarded by a military contingent, would transport them to the Armored Cavalry School of Quillota, which said military column did not reach.”

The trajectory was interrupted, according to the document, “due to the fact that upon crossing the underpass known as San Isidro, in what could be called an ambush, as ‘grenade explosions’ and ‘machine gun bursts’ occurred from both sides of the underpass, which reached the vehicles that composed it,” it was verified later that one of the jeeps had caught fire.

It was also verified that “of the military contingent, only one resulted in an injury whose nature was not accredited.”

Indeed, we recall that Captain Pérez Egert appeared with a bandaged hand and it was reported that he was the only soldier wounded in the “extremist assault” and “intense skirmish with terrorists.”

One Detainee Did Not Die Immediately

The account contained in the judicial Resolution adds that after the explosion of grenades and machine gun bursts, however, among the detainees, “one of them was wounded and five were found deceased as a consequence of the multiple injuries caused to their bodies by projectiles” (the words in bold have been highlighted as such in the judicial document).

In Quillota, it became known days later that the autopsy protocols—carried out by doctors Oracio Bruzzone and Jorge Abde—established that all of them presented dozens of bullet impacts fired from the back.

The Indictment Resolution details that after the attack with heavy fire by the military against the unarmed and handcuffed civilians, the bodies of the five murdered and the wounded one “were taken back in the same vehicles toward the Regiment from which they had left moments before, a place from which all were transported by military personnel toward the local morgue, because the detainee who had been wounded had also died.”

It is not detailed under what circumstances the sixth victim died, who could have been finished off with a coup de grâce or died during the journey from bleeding or the effects of the projectiles.

It is pointed out next that all these victims were handed over by the Military Governor (Colonel Ángel Torres) to their relatives “in closed coffins tied with barbed wire, leaving the face of each one of them exposed for their recognition, which were then buried in adjacent niches in the local Cemetery, said niches remaining open for a space of two or three days, always guarded by military personnel, so that the relatives could obtain authorization from the Governorate for their burial in family vaults.”

All of the above, according to the Magistrate, “constitutes the crime of qualified homicide, in a repeated nature” of the six leftist militants already listed.

Three Forcibly Disappeared

Regarding the forcibly disappeared, the document expresses that “the other three detainees, Pablo Gac Espinoza, Rubén Cabezas Parés, and Levi Arraño Sancho, were seen there—San Isidro underpass—for the last time, a situation that persists until today, so that, their current whereabouts being unknown, it is established that their detention has been prolonged for more than fifteen days, thus constituting the crime of qualified kidnapping, in a repeated nature.”

Source: July 18, 2003, Zonaimpacto.cl

Date: 07-18-2003

Excavations Continue at Military Installation in Quillota

The work carried out by experts from the Legal Medical Service (SML) seeks to determine the possible existence of remains of forcibly disappeared persons at that military facility. The proceedings are in charge of the special jurisdiction judge Gabriela Corti, and began yesterday on the land occupied by the Armored Cavalry School of Quillota.

The investigations are supported by an electronic tracking team capable of penetrating the ground to find anomalies. Nine experts from the SML are participating in the investigations. The search is centered on the remains of Mayor Pablo Gac Espinoza, the CORA prosecutor lawyer Rubén Cabezas Parés, and the peasant leader Levy Arraño Sancho.

All of them were executed in January 1974, and since then the whereabouts of their remains have not been located.

Source: EL Mostrador, June 14, 2002

Date: 06-14-2002

Aldoney Case: Proceedings Prolonged with New Enigmas

The failures recorded so far in the proceedings carried out by special jurisdiction judge Gabriela Corti at the disappeared Isla Riesco prisoner camp have not weakened the magistrate's conviction in the slightest, as she is determined to insist for about ten more days on the excavations in the area.

Preliminarily set for April 13, 14, and 15, the judge changed the date of the work at the last minute, moving—for fear of intruders—last Tuesday to the Matte family property in Colliguay. At the site, the experts were there until Thursday and resumed work on Monday, which will extend throughout this week, although now without the presence of the judge.

Taking advantage of the land route traced by the heavy machinery that the judge rented to carry out this crucial proceeding, the experts from the Legal Medical Service—archaeologists and anthropologists—arrived at the Island along with the experts from the Fifth Department of the Investigative Police who guard the access to the place, to prevent any information from leaking.

In absolute silence, the magistrate has checked the information provided by two secret witnesses—one civilian who was presumably detained at the facility and another belonging to the Navy—without it being possible so far to confirm the existence of bones in the various pits surrounding the clandestine detention center.

During the investigations, one of the two backhoes that the judge has for the work suffered a breakdown that temporarily stopped the tasks. This was not an obstacle to inspecting one of the points where it was claimed that human bones existed.

Having searched all the pits on Isla Riesco, only the presence of human feces was detected, a piece of information that destroys the thesis of the existence of bones at this point. However, it allows for progress on another of the testimonies that speak of the fact that within the torture practices of the facility, it was common to bury detainees in pits with excrement, where they remained for hours to then be rescued in a precarious state of health.

Delays in the Quillota Case It is estimated that only once the judge exhausts the proceedings at the Matte family facility will she move the teams to the Cavalry School of Quillota, an emblematic place where, since the beginning of 1990, the possible existence of mass graves with human bones has been presumed.

Despite the interest of human rights groups and judges instructing cases on the subject, the facility has never been investigated. But that is not all, because the judge will also carry out excavations at the Maipo Regiment, to find out if the bodies of the forcibly disappeared from Quillota and Limache lie there.

To date, the judge's investigations are advancing under the assumption of finding any of the 41 forcibly disappeared persons from the Fifth Region indicated by the Rettig Report. However, it is preferred not to provide names because, in the first place, there is no full certainty that the bones are in the abandoned facility, nor is it ruled out that the technique of removal was also applied there.

For this reason, sources linked to the case are clear in pointing out that at least as far as the former comptroller of the Compañía de Cervecerías Unidas (CCU) Jaime Aldoney is concerned—a process that triggered the series of proceedings on Isla Riesco—there is well-founded data that his remains were once at the facility, but this is not the case for the British priest Michael Woodward.

Regarding the Quillota case, which investigates the execution of six prisoners on January 18, 1974, it concerns the head of the technical department of the Agrarian Reform Corporation (Cora), Víctor Enríquez Fuenzalida; the treasury employee Manuel Hernán Hurtado; Osvaldo Mario Manzano Cortez (textile worker); Julio Arturo Loo Prado (textile worker); Ángel Mario Díaz Castro (community leader); and Hugo Hernán Aranda (community leader), who according to the official version had been killed after an escape attempt.

These bodies were handed over, without including the remains of the Cora prosecutors Pablo Gac Espinoza and Guillermo Cabezas Pares, who would still be buried in the regiment. In this process, the broad order to investigate decreed at the beginning of the year by the judge continues to be executed, and the taking of statements from alleged those implicated in the case still remains.

It is estimated that precisely for this reason the magistrate preferred to return to the activities of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, where, in addition to sitting on the bench, she must take the final interrogations in this process which—according to sources linked to the case—is police-cleared.

Source: PrimeraLinea, April 18, 2002

Date: 04-18-2002

Quillota Case: Judge Issues Broad Order to Investigate

In a parallel line within the investigations into human rights violations in the Fifth Region, special jurisdiction judge Gabriela Corti dispatched a broad order to investigate to the Fifth Department of the civil police.

The measure seeks to advance the processes for the disappearance of Jorge Eduardo Villarroel and Bernardino Rodríguez Cortés, detained in 1974, and of former mayor Pablo Gac, as well as the leaders Levi Segundo Arraño (PS) and Rubén Cabeza Pares (MAPU), a case that was in the hands of special jurisdiction judge Juan Guzmán Tapia, who declared himself incompetent to open a summary.

All of them were detained at the Cavalry School of Quillota, the last place where they were seen alive. Furthermore, within this same chapter, she is verifying the kidnapping experienced by Raúl Iván Cárcamo Aravena (August 31, 1977), Luis Geraldo Otarola Valdés (August 30, 1977), Sergio Jorge Hidalgo Orrego (August 31, 1977), and Hernán Quezada (October 9, 1977), former workers of the VEP Construction Company (formerly KPD) who were detained by SIN personnel and wandered through the El Belloto prisoner camp.

With this determination, the magistrate seeks to advance with a firm step in the cases for which she is carrying out excavations at the Maipo Number Two Regiment.

Source: Primera Linea, December 10, 2001

Date: 12-10-2001

Quillota Case: Conscripts Reveal Burials of Forcibly Disappeared

When the judge of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Gabriela Corti, receives the file of the case known as the "Quillota massacre" in the coming days, she will find significant progress, as the secret notebooks of the process contain the testimonies of two former Army conscripts who reveal that three forcibly disappeared persons were murdered and illegally buried inside the Infantry School on January 18, 1974, and confirm the participation in their kidnapping of a series of retired officers.

The conscripts, whose identity is kept in the strictest confidence, declared that the events that culminated in the death of the mayor of Quillota, Pablo Gac (PS), the peasant leader Levi Segundo Arraño (PS), and the Mapu militant and Cora prosecutor, Rubén Cabeza Pares, occurred near 12:00 hours that day.

Likewise, they attest that the remains were buried in the same military facility. However, the report that the Armed Forces delivered as a conclusion of the Dialogue Table establishes that these people were thrown into the sea off the coast of Con Con, so the magistrate will have to clarify if their remains were removed subsequently.

The testimonies of these two key witnesses, and the interrogation of the victims' relatives, hold responsible for their qualified kidnapping—the crime for which the process is labeled—the former Commander of the Garrison and Director of the Cavalry School, Fernando Paredes, who until December 1973 served as governor for the area.

Likewise, they incriminate the former commander of the School, Angel Custodio Torres Rivera, who then held the rank of colonel and served as Head of Intelligence; the patrol commander, Captain Francisco Pérez Egert; and the retired lieutenant colonel, Sergio Arredondo, indicted as one of the main defendants in the Caravan of Death case.

Judicial sources confirmed that these military personnel could be indicted in their capacity as accessories for the command responsibility they held at the time the arrests occurred. They clarify that in this case, the figure of qualified kidnapping again becomes valid and directly affects Arredondo, who, upon arriving in the area, immediately requested that the detainees be transferred to the School.

Judge Corti will have to assume the investigation of the case, after the period in which special jurisdiction judge Juan Guzmán was on medical leave, his substitute, Gabriela Pérez, determined that it should be seen by a court in the Fifth Region, declaring herself incompetent and handing over the background information to its jurisdiction.

Although this news was not well received at first by the victims' relatives, the plaintiff lawyers Julia Urquieta and Héctor Salazar pointed out that the investigation has greater possibilities of advancing in the hands of a judge who is less saturated with cases and recognized that the inquiries will allow for the prompt issuance of the first indictments.

For lawyer Héctor Salazar, representative of Rubén Cabeza's relatives, only Judge Corti's investigation will determine the truth of these new background details, although he does not rule out that the detainees were buried at the Cavalry School of Quillota and subsequently removed and thrown into the sea.

Different is the opinion of lawyer Julia Urquieta, who is categorical when ruling out that the bodies of the three forcibly disappeared persons are on the seabed. She maintains that the background information compiled by Judge Guzmán and that provided by a series of witnesses make it evident that these people were executed by firing squad at the military facility and their bodies have always remained there.

Along with these three disappearances, the process investigates the executions of six other people inside the Infantry School, whose remains were handed over to their families with evidence of having been subjected to illegal duress during their detention.

Inside the Cavalry regiment, the head of the Technical Department of the Cora, Víctor Fuenzalida Fuenzalida; the Treasury employee Manuel Hernán Hurtado Martínez; the textile workers Osvaldo Mario Manzano Cortés and Julio Arturo Loo Prado; and the community leaders Angel Mario Díaz Castro and Hugo Hernán Aranda Bruna were executed.

Quillota in the Hands of the Military The plaintiffs explain that after the Coup d'État, Quillota remained under the tutelage of the Garrison Commander and Director of the Cavalry School, Colonel Fernando Paredes Pizarro.

As in other areas of the country, the detainees presented themselves voluntarily to the police stations after hearing the military decrees ordering them to do so. In the case of Pablo Gac, the reconstruction of the events indicates that "he signed in periodically at the Military Prosecutor's Office of Quillota.

His home was raided on September 15 and he was detained for 24 hours at Investigations. He was regularly summoned for interrogations both to the Governorate and the Infantry Regiment, until on January 17, plainclothes personnel went to look for him at his home for a new interrogation." A witness who was detained at the military facility declares that he saw him descend from a military vehicle along with Rubén Cabezas Pares, who was deprived of his liberty at his workplace that same afternoon.

Hugo Hernán Aranda Bruna, 30 years old, a farmer, worked along with Levi Arraño on Plot No. 29 in San Isidro. Both were summoned on several occasions to provide statements both to the Governorate and to Investigations.

But it is not until after January 11, 1974, that they were detained. The first was taken to the Quillota Jail and the second to the regiment. Arraño is not mentioned in the official version of the crimes committed on January 18, and his wife was informed that he was released on January 17 in the afternoon.

However, a uniformed officer declared that he saw him that day inside the regiment and he was left along with Pablo Gac and Rubén Cabezas. The rest of the victims were summoned to the regional governorate and were detained immediately.

In this group were Manuel Hernán Hurtado Martínez (PS), a Treasury employee in Quillota; Julio Arturo Loo Prado (PC), a textile worker; Víctor Enrique Fuenzalida Fuenzalida (PC), head of the Technical Department of the CORA; Osvaldo Mario Manzano Cortés (FTR), a textile worker; and Angel Mario Díaz Castro (FTR), a community leader.

The group was transferred to the Public Jail of Quillota by order of the Second Department that operated in the local Governorate. Unconfirmed information indicates that at the beginning of October they were left in the hands of the Gendarmerie and were transferred to the naval facility "Silva Palma," but the excessive number of prisoners forced them to be transferred to the ship "Lebu," hold No. 3, in charge of the Navy.

The military chief of the time and Governor of Quillota, Angel C. Torres Rivera, reported that in the early hours of January 18, 1974, "extremist elements surprisingly attacked the Military Patrol of the Cavalry School that was taking detainees from the Engineers Battalion to that facility.

Faced with this emergency, the Patrol repelled the attack and in the midst of the confusion, Pablo Gac and Rubén Cabezas fled. As a consequence of the confrontation, the following detainees, who also tried to escape, were killed: Hugo Hernán Aranda Bruna, Julio Arturo Loo Pardo, Eduardo Manzano Cortes, Víctor Enrique Fuenzalida, Angel Mario Díaz Castro, Manuel Hernán Hurtado Martínez." This military governor ordered the corresponding summary investigation by the Military Prosecutor, but his version is categorically denied in other testimonies attached to the process.

Thus, Eva Hurtado, daughter of Manuel Hurtado, declared that an official document delivered in replacement of the autopsy protocol states that her father "died from multiple bullet wounds while trying to escape." But this version contrasts with that of a witness who saw in the local morgue the body of Manuel Hurtado himself with bullet impacts to the forehead and exposed brain matter, which demonstrate that he was shot at close range.

His hands were still tied with wire. The family of another executed person, who prefers not to be identified, points out that in the case of their relative, he had his throat slit and was missing the nails from his hands and feet.

For the plaintiffs, these background details make it evident that after September 11, 1973, intelligence service personnel assumed the direction of the Cavalry School. For unknown reasons, Angel Custodio Torres agreed to let a lower-ranking officer, the retired lieutenant colonel Sergio Arredondo, take charge of the nine mentioned detainees.

This is explained because Sergio Arellano Stark, delegate of General Pinochet, had allegedly entrusted Arredondo to travel to the area to "expedite processes." The hypothesis has not yet been confirmed, but the plaintiffs will ask Judge Corti to investigate it. They add that the background information they handle confirms that Arredondo ordered Pérez Egert to execute his strategy.

Source: Primera Linea, August 20, 2001

Date: 08-20-2001

Judge Pérez Declares Herself Incompetent in Disappeared Persons Case

Magistrate Gabriela Pérez, who replaces Judge Juan Guzmán, declared herself incompetent to hear the case of three disappeared persons presumably buried clandestinely at the facility of the Quillota cavalry regiment, in the Fifth Region.

The process refers to the disappearance of lawyer Rubén Cabezas, Levi Arraño, and Juan Carlos Gac, who were allegedly executed by firing squad by personnel of that military unit in 1974, according to testimonies compiled by the Rettig Commission. According to those same background details, one of the accused is the current retired general Francisco Pérez Eguert.

Source: El Mostrador, August 9, 2001

Date: 08-09-2001

Report on Three Executed by Firing Squad in Quillota

Background information on the execution by firing squad and the illegal burial of three forcibly disappeared persons, which occurred on January 18, 1974, four months after the military coup led by retired general Augusto Pinochet, was delivered to the bishop of Valparaíso, Gonzalo Duarte.

Silva said that a former uniformed officer, who maintains his anonymity, revealed that the three victims were executed by firing squad and then buried clandestinely inside the Army Cavalry School located in Quillota, 100 kilometers north of Santiago.

The victims were identified as the lawyer of the Provincial Governorate and militant of the Socialist Party, Rubén Cabezas; the former mayor of Quillota, Pablo Gac; and the peasant leader Levi Arraño.

Source: El Mercurio, August 5, 2000

Date: 08-05-2000

83rd Lawsuit Presented Against Pinochet

A new lawsuit against former dictator Augusto Pinochet was presented on Thursday, April 13, before special jurisdiction judge Juan Guzmán Tapia for the disappearance of three people and the execution of six others in the city of Quillota in January 1974.

Thus, the number of judicial actions against the senator-for-life already amounts to 83, since the Communist Party presented the first one in January 1998. On this occasion, the former dictator is accused of the crimes of qualified kidnapping, multiple homicides, genocide, illegal burial, and illicit association.

Along with Pinochet, retired general Sergio Arellano Stark was also indicted, who is pointed out as the person directly responsible for the executions that occurred in 1974. The cases of disappearance, of which the Rettig Report has left a record, refer to the former mayor of the city of Quillota, Pablo Gac Espinoza, the agricultural worker Levy Segundo Arraño, and the prosecutor of the Agrarian Reform Corporation (CORA), Rubén Cabezas Pares.

Source: News summary - April 14, 2000

Date: 04-14-2000

INDAP Paid Tribute to 13 Officials Executed and Disappeared After the 1973 Coup

A central act of recognition together with their relatives, a plaque that was firmly placed on a wall with their names, and posthumous inclusion as members of the National Association of INDAP Officials (ANFI) were received by the 13 workers of this institution who were political executions or forcibly disappeared after the 1973 Coup d'État, in the tribute in their memory held this Wednesday at the facilities of the National Directorate of this service of the Ministry of Agriculture.

They are 12 men and one woman between 21 and 49 years old, who worked as drivers, secretaries, journalists, administrative staff, technicians, and Area and Zone chiefs, of whom 4 were murdered by agents of the dictatorship and the other 9 remain disappeared, following arrests in different circumstances in various cities from Quillota to Quellón.

The widows of some of these victims, their children, a son-in-law, and even the great-grandson of one of them were the main guests at the ceremony, organized by ANFI and the INDAP directorate, in which they especially received the greeting of current officials, leaders, and Government authorities led by the Undersecretary of Agriculture, Claudio Ternicier, and the national director of INDAP, Octavio Sotomayor.

Fernando Moraga, national president of ANFI, the entity that promoted this act which also featured a presentation by folklorist Fernando Yáñez, pointed out in his message to those present that the honorees were executed or disappeared “for the sole fact of working in the institution.” The leader emphasized that “there was no one here who was a danger to society; people were killed here because they could be killed.

The dictatorship killed for the sake of killing, for a whim, because someone told them to. Our colleagues were taken from their offices to be executed; they were coming to return a vehicle and they were executed.

We can never forget what happened in that era, and God willing, the damage caused to all Chileans will be paid for on this earth.” On behalf of the Government, Undersecretary Ternicier delivered a message in which he thanked “this great initiative to fulfill the duty of remembering our fallen colleagues and not forgetting what happened in Chile” and highlighted “the solidarity, the condolences, and the commitment to help justice and truth in Chile.” “The only way to build Chile in the future is on the basis of justice and truth,” he emphasized.

Director Octavio Sotomayor, who also gave a greeting to the relatives and guests at the act, noted after it his satisfaction because it was, he said, “a very beautiful and solemn ceremony as we wanted.

We had also lost contact with the relatives. These are 13 colleagues who died for a commitment to the country; that could have happened to any of us. We wanted to commemorate this so that it does not happen again.” The act was also attended by authorities from other agricultural services such as Loreto Mery (National Irrigation Commission) and Michel Leporati (Achipia), in addition to the IICA representative in Chile, Jaime Flores, and the metropolitan regional director of INDAP, Christian Suarez.

Grateful Relatives The most emotional moment of the activity was when the relatives were invited to the central hall of the building to unveil a plaque made by ANFI with the name and main data of each of these thirteen officials who were victims of the Coup d'État.

Among those attending this act, Martín Hassler Jeldres, 11 years old, great-grandson of Reinaldo Jeldres, referred to this moment and what the memory of his great-grandfather meant: “I feel a bit of sadness, emotion, and I also felt important (...) I only know that they killed him and threw him into the river and that they already indicted those who killed him; that is the only information I have.” Eduardo Cifuentes, son-in-law of Reinaldo Poseck, commented that it was “super strong, but it seems to me that it was necessary and very important that many people from INDAP came.

Unfortunately, his wife passed away, his children are outside of Chile and could not be here.” He described his father-in-law as “a person with a very strong character, but in private, at lunches at home, he was a very funny guy.

He was also super hardworking and committed.” Mauricio Flores, son of Nelson Flores Zapata, said he was “happy that they did this; for me, it is very symbolic that they remember him.” Regarding the memory he has of his father, with whom he lived in the Robert Kennedy neighborhood of Maipú, he commented that he remembers “some games with which he made matchsticks disappear.

I was 4 years old when they executed him by firing squad.”

The Following is the List of Honorees

Enrique Ernesto Morales Melzer (D.D, driver, Santiago), Héctor Arturo Santana Gómez (D.D, Area Chief, Quellón), Cecil Patricio Alarcón Valenzuela (E.P, official, Chillán), Luis Eduardo Vergara Corso (D.D, official, Polcura), Reinaldo Luis Jeldres Riveros (E.P, official, Chillán), Etienne Marie Louis Pesle de Menil (D.D, cooperative technician, Temuco), Nelson Jorge Flores Zapata (E.P, official, Maipú), Reinaldo Salvador Poseck Pedreros (E.P, Zonal Chief, Chillán), Eliseo Segundo Jara Ríos (D.D, Area Chief, Victoria), Rebeca María Espinoza Sepúlveda (D.D, secretary, Santiago), José Leonardo Pérez Hermosilla (D.D, journalist, Santiago), José Miguel Rivas Rachitoff (D.D, journalist, Santiago), Pablo Gac Espinoza (D.D, administrative official, Quillota). Details of this period and each of the cases can be reviewed in the book "TODA UNA VIDA: HISTORIA DE INDAP Y LOS CAMPESINOS (1962-2017)"

Source: indap.gob.cl, November 29, 2017

Date: 11-29-2017