Pedro Hugo Pérez Godoy, 15 years old, a student with no political affiliation, was detained by Carabineros (uniformed police) traveling in a grey police vehicle on October 15, 1973, at the corner of Calle Oriental and Ictinos in the Ñuñoa commune, Peñalolén sector.

The detention occurred at 3:00 PM. Along with Pedro Pérez, two other minors were detained; one of them, José Ramírez Díaz, is also forcibly disappeared, while the third was released the same day. The latter notified the families of his companions about the detention that had taken place.

The detention was carried out by officers from the 13th Carabineros Precinct, including Carabineros Bernardo Pérez Arriagada and Carlos Contreras Guzmán, who were later identified.

Pedro Pérez’s mother went to the aforementioned precinct, where she was attended to by a Major who informed her that her son was not listed as a detainee at that facility and that he had likely been taken to the Estadio Nacional.

At that location, she was informed that her son was indeed there but that she could not see him. The Estadio Nacional was a detention camp for political prisoners. At that camp, his mother saw him from a distance, and Red Cross personnel took charge of delivering the packages of clothing and food she brought for him that day and on subsequent days.

However, the minor did not appear on the official list of detainees for that facility.

The detention was initially denied by the Carabineros, who later acknowledged it, claiming that the minor had been released that night, on October 16 at 1:00 AM, during the curfew period that strictly prohibited circulation on the streets. He had been detained on October 17.

The minor Pedro Pérez had been detained a few days earlier for a curfew violation and had been released after his hair was cut in an irregular manner. Upon arriving home, he had to cut his hair completely so that it would grow back evenly (at that time, military authorities forced young men who wore long hair to cut it, and simultaneously, the police shaved some criminals and/or suspects of common crimes, such that a shaved young man could be immediately considered a criminal).

Since his detention was acknowledged by the Carabineros and he had been seen at the Estadio Nacional, the minor Pedro Pérez disappeared.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On February 27, 1974, a recurso de amparo (writ of habeas corpus) was filed before the Santiago Court of Appeals, registered under case number 171-74, setting forth the circumstances of the detention and disappearance of Pedro Pérez and requesting the immediate release of the minor, or, if applicable, compliance with the protective measures of the Juvenile Law.

It was also requested that information regarding this detention be sought from the Minister of the Interior, the General Directorate of Carabineros, and the person in charge of the National Executive Secretariat for Detainees.

Furthermore, it was requested that the Special Juvenile Court be officially notified to provide the names of minors placed at the disposal of the Military or Aviation Prosecutor's Offices.

In an official letter sent to the Court, the Carabineros acknowledged the detention of the minor Pedro Pérez, adding that he had been released at 1:00 AM on October 18, 1974.

Subsequently, a new document was filed informing the Court that Pedro Pérez’s mother, Juana Godoy Palma, had identified Carabinero Carlos Contreras of the 13th Precinct as one of those who carried out the apprehension, and it was also reported that the other disappeared minor was named José Ramírez Díaz.

The Court rejected the recurso de amparo.

On October 10, 1974, a complaint for alleged disappearance was filed before the Eighth Criminal Court of Santiago, and the information regarding the rejected recurso de amparo was submitted, requesting that investigative steps be taken.

Ms. Juana Godoy presented a document to the Court in which she stated that on May 5, 1974, "I spoke with the aforementioned Carabinero (Carlos Contreras) at his home. He acknowledged there that he had detained my son and that 'he had outstanding accounts with the police'." Based on this information, she requested that the aforementioned Carabinero be summoned to testify.

During the course of the proceedings, the Carabineros who intervened in the detention were identified and summoned to testify. Several of the statements were contradictory.

It was requested that the Red Cross be officially contacted to obtain information on the affected parties, especially regarding Pedro Pérez.

Furthermore, it was requested that inquiries be sent to the Legal Medical Institute, the city's cemeteries, and the General Directorate of the Civil Registry to report whether there was any information regarding the affected party.

On March 10, 1977, the Judge ordered the case to be dismissed. The plaintiff's defense requested that the dismissal not be approved by the Court of Appeals, noting that there were important pending investigative steps, such as summoning Carabinero Corporal Manuel Trujillo Ramos to testify, which had been requested without response.

New requests were also made to authorities and Military Prosecutor's Offices. On October 6, 1977, another document was filed reiterating the request to summon the aforementioned Carabinero to testify. It was also requested that Ministries, Courts, and the Military and Carabineros Hospitals be officially contacted.

The Military Hospital reported that its records included a person named Pedro Pérez Godoy, who had been treated in 1975. The plaintiff requested that further information be sought.

It was requested that the case be definitively dismissed by virtue of the provisions of Decree Law 2191 of 1978, which establishes amnesty for persons who committed criminal acts during the period between September 11, 1973, and March 10, 1978.

The plaintiff argued that this law was not applicable in this case because the crime is continuous, and while its effects may be erased, the crime itself does not disappear.

In May 1978, the proceedings were temporarily dismissed and were reopened in June of the same year. In September 1978, the case was dismissed again.

On March 30, 1979, the file was transferred to the Visiting Minister Servando Jordán, who had been appointed to investigate cases of the forcibly disappeared.

It was requested that the involved Carabineros, Carlos Contreras and Manuel Trujillo Ramos, be summoned. It was also requested that the Third Precinct be officially contacted to provide details of the detention, times, personnel involved, etc.

On December 13, 1979, the Visiting Minister, Servando Jordán, declared himself incompetent, and the records were sent to the Second Military Court, where the case was entered in January 1980. The investigation was expanded to include the other disappeared child, José Ramírez, who was detained along with Pedro Pérez.

This case was processed in the 3rd Military Prosecutor's Office under case number 13-80, filed against "NN" (John Doe) for the alleged disappearance of Pedro Pérez Godoy and José Ramírez Díaz.

By May 1980, the third person detained along with the two disappeared individuals had been identified: José Romilio Sepúlveda Merino, who was not found and was reported to have a criminal record for petty theft.

It was requested that Ambrosio Rodríguez be summoned for the information he possessed regarding the forcibly disappeared.

It was requested that the Carabineros' logbook be examined, but it was reported that it had been incinerated, in accordance with service regulations.

By this date, December 14, 1981, the plaintiff's lawyer summarized what had been established up to that moment: a) That the detention effectively occurred on October 17, 1973. The detainees were Pedro Hugo Pérez Godoy, José Ramírez Díaz, and José Romilio Sepúlveda Merino.

The apprehenders were Carabineros Carlos Contreras Guzmán and Bernardo Pérez Arriagada. Contreras and Pérez Arriagada maintain that they detained the minors on suspicion of extremism, but there is no evidence to support this. b) The minors were taken to the 13th Precinct, with Sepúlveda Merino being released.

The aforementioned Carabineros claim not to know what happened afterward. However, the Guard Logbook of the Macul Outpost indicates that at 1:00 AM, the detainee Pedro Pérez left with Carabinero Bernardo Pérez A. "There is a signature, Pedro H.

Pérez Godoy, with very irregular handwriting." c) There is a statement from Carabinero Gabriel Maturana Concha testifying that the detainee was removed by Pérez at 1:00 AM.

The five Carabineros from the 13th Precinct staff whose names are known were summoned to testify. Not all of them agreed in their accounts, leading to confrontations, but none provided new information regarding the final fate of the victim.

With nearly a year of delay, the Criminalistics Laboratory sent information regarding the logbook corresponding to the first third of folio 276, where the signature of Pedro Pérez Godoy appears. The mother testified that it was not her son's signature. This document had been ready since December 1981, but the Investigations police had not sent it due to a lack of photographic paper.

On December 12, 1982, the summary investigation was closed. The case was then dismissed, and on February 9, 1983, an appeal was filed before the Court Martial. The subsequent status of this case is unknown.

The mother of the affected party has presented the case to the International Red Cross, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, and has requested information from the Ministry of Defense, General Bonilla (in November 1973), and other authorities. All these efforts have been fruitless.

The anthropometric data of Pedro Hugo Pérez Godoy were attached to case 4449-AF of the 22nd Criminal Court of Santiago, regarding the crime of illegal burial in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery of unidentified persons who died between September and December 1973.

The Investigating Judge of the case ordered the excavation of 108 graves in September 1991. From there, 125 bodies were exhumed and sent to the Legal Medical Institute. Currently (late 1992), the forensic identification reports are pending.

Source: Corporation report

Testimonies, photographs, letters, and other documents that families and friends provided or wrote specifically for publication are incorporated into the book "Breaking the Silence of Children and Adolescents Who Were Political Executions During the Civil-Military Dictatorship 1973-1990," which was produced by the Association of Relatives of Political Executions (AFEP) with the support of the Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage, through the Culture, Memory, and Human Rights Unit, and the Human Rights Chair of the University of Chile.

The publication, based primarily on the Report of the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation (1991) and the Report of the National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation (1996), seeks to reconstruct in a comprehensive and careful manner each of the lives and stories of the victims.

During the research, access was granted to the archive of the Association of Relatives of Political Executions, where documents that families have preserved over the years are kept. Illustrations by Álvaro Gómez were also included.

The creation process was a complex challenge that involved combining delicacy, respect, and methodological rigor to state a painful and inescapable truth in this work.

Source: cultura.gob.cl 20/4/2023

Date: 04-20-2023

The soccer match that ended with four forcibly disappeared persons and one homicide in 1973

A few weeks after the coup, a group of Carabineros sought revenge for a fight during a soccer match in the Población La Faena. On International Human Rights Day, we share this story, which is part of the podcast Ñuñoa tiene memoria (Ñuñoa Has Memory), which narrates stories of places where crimes of the dictatorship occurred in the commune.

In September 1973, two soccer teams from the Población La Faena faced each other on the San Carlos field. The pichanga (informal match) was between neighbors of the barrio: on one side was the Unión Victoria team, made up of residents from the west side of Calle Ictinos; on the other, the Club Deportivo Cordillera, made up of those living to the east.

The ball rolling across the dirt field kept the eight players per side distracted from the enormous crisis the country was experiencing at that time. None of them yet knew that the country's cruel destiny would intersect with the outcome of that match.

On International Human Rights Day, at El Desconcierto, we remember this story, which is part of the Ñuñoa tiene Memoria podcast by Ñuñoa tu Radio in co-production with the Corporación Estadio Nacional, Memoria Nacional. The podcast tells the stories of places in the commune where human rights violations occurred during the dictatorship, but which in many cases are not recognized today.

What happens on the field does not stay on the field

There were only a few days left until the coup d'état led by Augusto Pinochet. However, in this sector of the capital, which at that time belonged to Ñuñoa, the concern was how Unión Victoria could overcome the goal difference against Deportivo Cordillera. The enthusiastic soccer players were young. The youngest was 15 years old, the oldest 22.

A kick or simply a taunt—time has made these details fuzzy—strained the atmosphere, and insults led to punches. Héctor Vásquez Sepúlveda, a resident of La Faena who had switched from Unión Victoria to Cordillera, got into a fistfight with Francisco Contreras Torres, who belonged to his former team and was a Carabinero at the 13° Comisaría “Los Guindos” (currently the 18° Comisaría de Ñuñoa).

The intensity of the fight escalated. Juan Manuel Veloso Ortiz, also a Carabinero from the 13° Comisaría, a coworker and teammate of Francisco Contreras, joined the brawl to support him. On the rival side, Hernán Peña Catalán, Luis Vergara González, José Ramírez Díaz, and Pedro Pérez Godoy got involved.

The San Carlos field was the scene of a pitched battle, though nothing different from what happens in hundreds of matches that occur every weekend in the poblaciones of Santiago.

“What happens on the field stays on the field,” some commented after the fight, but that was not the case. “The match was between them, two teams, a normal pichanga. My dad’s team was winning and, I don’t know, they got annoyed and started throwing punches.

My dad hit him, because he was good with his fists. Then the coup d'état happened, and the paco (cop) took it upon himself to go look for him. I think that was an abuse of power,” recalls José Barahona Ulloa, son of Héctor Vásquez.

Abuse of power

The laborer Luis Vergara González was heading to his home in Villa Lautaro a few minutes after 9:00 p.m., the time set by the Military Junta for the curfew that day, October 15, 1973. A little over a month had passed since the bombing of La Moneda and with it the seizure of power by the Armed Forces.

Luis was a few blocks from his house when a red pickup truck approached him, which until a few weeks prior had belonged to Miria Contreras Bell, personal secretary to the late President Salvador Allende.

But the 22-year-old worker did not know that and only saw a vehicle from which Francisco Contreras, the police officer with whom he had fought on the San Carlos field, stepped out. Together with another Carabinero, they subdued him to take him into custody. The vehicle quickly set off: he would not be the only one.

A couple of streets away, in Villa El Duraznal, was the home of Hernán Peña, a 20-year-old driver who had also participated in the pichanga. At his home, they only found his two children and other relatives, so the police decided to "sweep" the neighborhood until they found him. They took him as well. Their destination was the “Los Guindos” police station.

“They were detained in a civilian vehicle, which curiously had been taken, confiscated, from President Allende’s secretary. It belonged to ‘La Payita’,” relates Alejandro Ancalao, a doctor in history and head of the Heritage Department of the Municipality of Ñuñoa, an organization that is investigating the victims of the dictatorship in the commune.

“Is Beto there?”

Ancalao narrates that two days later, the police repeated the routine with “Pedro Pérez Godoy, who was a 15-year-old boy, and José Adrián Ramírez Díaz, who was a 20-year-old young man, a seventh-grade student who worked as a fair assistant. They were detained on Calle Ictinos.”

These two young men were taken to the same place as their teammates from Deportivo Cordillera; however, it was already overwhelmed by the number of detainees, so they were transferred to the Retén Quilín, which reported to the 13° Comisaría de Carabineros.

At 1:00 a.m., they were taken out of the police facility and transported in “La Payita’s” red pickup truck to the premises of the Viña Cousiño Macul.

The vehicle stopped before a panoramic view of Santiago under curfew. Carabineros, under the instructions of Lieutenant Pedro Herrera Mossuto, made the amateur soccer players from the Población La Faena get out and forced them to walk to the banks of the San Carlos canal.

At that location, the officers drew their firearms and shot them. The wounds caused the death of José Ramírez, while Pedro Pérez’s whereabouts remain unknown to this day.

“Is Beto there?” was heard just hours later on October 18, 1973, in front of Héctor Vásquez’s house. The young man from Deportivo Cordillera was bathing, and his siblings greeted the two Carabineros dressed in civilian clothes who were asking for him: Francisco Contreras and Juan Manuel Veloso.

The officers were known to the family because they lived in the neighborhood. It seemed like a simple visit from neighbors.

When Héctor came out of the bathroom, they asked him to accompany them because he had to provide a statement at the police station regarding the fight at the soccer match. The police took him away on a public bus, where they coincidentally ran into the young man’s mother, who became worried upon seeing the scene.

The Carabineros told her not to worry, that they only needed to take his testimony and he would be back home soon. Since that day, Beto has been a forcibly disappeared person, just like Luis Vergara and Hernán Peña, of whom there was also no further information since their abduction.

Héctor Vásquez’s girlfriend at the time, Mercedes Ulloa Almonacid, who was expecting a child with him at the moment of his abduction, recalls: “I found out because his sister told me he had gone missing, that some people had taken him, but they didn’t know if they were Carabineros because they weren’t dressed as Carabineros; that he had gone missing and then two, three, or four days passed (...) His sister started looking for him later.

A week passed and he didn’t appear. They had told us that his mother had seen him.”

13° Comisaría de Carabineros during the dictatorship

Historian Alejandro Ancalao explains that the case of the young men from the Población La Faena brings to light that the crimes of the dictatorship were against the entire population and not just directed at a political sector. “The objective was not only political people, with political participation, but the entire society.

To implant terror, fear, in the whole society, and that was done indiscriminately,” he argues.

The head of the Heritage Department of the Municipality of Ñuñoa adds that many of these abuses were carried out thanks to “the henchmen, those who accuse or denounce neighbors due to problems between them, and we end up with cases of forcibly disappeared persons who had absolutely no political relationship, but were simply due to the arbitrariness of public officials.”

“Between 1973 and 1990, all the police stations in the country were places of detention. All of them. There is not one that did not have detainees, that did not have forcibly disappeared persons within them, or where there was no torture within one.

All are recognized, and some were destroyed in the final days of the dictatorship to be able to erase some cases,” the expert concludes based on official reports.

In 2017, the Supreme Court sentenced former Carabineros Francisco Contreras Torres and Pedro Herrera Mossuto to seven years in prison for the disappearance of Héctor Vásquez. Furthermore, in 2021, the highest court determined a sentence of 10 years and one day in prison for official Juan Paredes Rodríguez for the qualified homicide of José Ramírez Díaz and the abduction of the minor Pedro Pérez Godoy; another 10 years and one day for Francisco Contreras Torres for the qualified kidnapping of Hernán Peña and Luis Vergara, the same crime for which it sentenced Pedro Herrera Mossuto to 7 years in prison.

Likewise, Bernardo Pérez Arriagada was sentenced to 7 years in prison for the murder of José Ramírez Díaz.

Héctor Vásquez’s son, José Barahona, maintains that “they gave the paco very little” and says, nearly 50 years after the event: “I have little hope that he is alive; what I do have hope for is that his bones might appear.”

Despite the sentences, those close to the victims and neighbors of the police station know very little information about the case. For example, Mercedes Ulloa states that she knew the other victims besides Héctor Vásquez, her boyfriend at the time. “But I didn’t know that the same thing had happened to them, that they had taken them, that they had killed them,” she says.

Ñuñoa tiene memoria is a work by Edgar Pfennings de la Vega on the script and research, Felipe Zenteno on the music, and Rodrigo Montanter and Fernando Pereira on sound.

Other sites in the commune remembered in this podcast are the current 18° Comisaría “Los Guindos,” the former Campus Oriente of the Universidad de Chile, and the Investigative Headquarters at Obispo Orrego N°241, in addition to the partially recognized Estadio Nacional and José Domingo Cañas.

Source: eldesconcierto.cl, December 11, 2022

Date: 12-11-2022

Supreme Court confirms ruling sentencing former Carabineros for abduction of a minor, kidnapping, and homicide

The events occurred in Peñalolén in 1973. The repressors moved in a pickup truck that had been illicitly requisitioned from Miriam Contreras Bell, personal secretary to former President Salvador Allende.

The Supreme Court rejected the appeals in substance filed against the sentence that convicted four retired Carabineros officials from the staff of the then 13th Comisaría de Los Guindos for their responsibility in the crimes of abduction of a minor, qualified kidnapping, and homicide, illicit acts perpetrated in October 1973 in the current commune of Peñalolén.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 20.937-2018), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Carlos Künsemüller, Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, and lawyer (i) María Cristina Gajardo—confirmed the challenged sentence, issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals, which sentenced Juan Gregorio Paredes Rodríguez to 10 years and one day in prison as the perpetrator of the qualified homicide of José Adrián Ramírez Díaz; plus 3 years and one day in prison for the abduction of the minor Pedro Hugo Pérez Godoy.

Meanwhile, Francisco Fernando Contreras Torres must serve a single sentence of 10 years and one day in prison as the perpetrator of the crimes of qualified kidnapping of Héctor Manuel Peña Catalán and Luis Armando Vergara González; Pedro Alejandro Lorenzo Herrera Mossuto must serve a single sentence of 7 years as the perpetrator of the crimes of qualified kidnapping of Héctor Manuel Peña Catalán and Luis Armando Vergara González; and Bernardo Segundo Pérez Arriagada was sentenced to 7 years in prison as the perpetrator of the crime of qualified homicide of José Adrián Ramírez Díaz.

In the investigation of the case, substantiated by visiting minister Leopoldo Llanos, the following facts were established:

«Pedro Hugo Pérez Godoy, single, 15 years of age, primary school student, with no political affiliation, whose address was located at Manzana 10, Sitio 20, Villa Los Guindos in the commune of Ñuñoa; and José Adrián Ramírez Díaz, single, 20 years of age, assistant to a street market merchant, with no political affiliation, illiterate, member of a family of eleven siblings, residing at Manzana 17, Pasaje 152, house 6882, Villa Pedro Lagos in the commune of Peñalolén, on October 17, 1973, were walking along a street near their homes, together with a friend, José Romilio Sepúlveda Merino.

At the moment they reached the intersection of Los Orientales and Ictinos streets, commune of Ñuñoa, current Peñalolén, at approximately 3:00 p.m., they were detained, without cause, nor any administrative or judicial order, by officials belonging to the 13th Comisaría de Carabineros de Ñuñoa (...) The young men were forced to climb into the back of the pickup truck.

The pickup truck where José Ramírez Díaz and Pedro Hugo Pérez Godoy remained deprived of liberty was driven from the police post to the premises of the Viña Cousiño Macul, where the march stopped and they made the detainees get out, who were forced to walk to the banks of the San Carlos canal. It was at this site that, a few meters away, they shot them with firearms.»

In the case of Vergara and Peña, it was established that «on October 15, 1973, Luis Armando Vergara González, married, father of one child, 22 years of age, laborer, with no political affiliation and whose address was located in Villa Lautaro, Manzana E, Sitio 18, Población Lo Hermida in the commune of Ñuñoa, was apprehended without legal cause in its vicinity, at approximately 9:15 p.m., by two Carabineros officials belonging to the 13th Comisaría de Los Guindos de Ñuñoa, who were moving in a red pickup truck that had been illicitly requisitioned from Miriam Contreras Bell, personal secretary to the former President of the Republic Salvador Allende.

Immediately, the apprehenders, together with the detainee, went to the home of Hernán Manuel Peña Catalán, married, father of two children, 20 years of age, who worked as a driver, with no political affiliation whatsoever.

Although his address was located in Villa El Duraznal, Manzana 7, Sitio 5, Población Lo Hermida in the commune of Ñuñoa, he could not be found by the police at that location. However, after a search deployed in the vicinity of his home, Peña Catalán was detained and, together with Vergara González, they were taken to the premises of the aforementioned police station.»

Source: elciudadano.cl, November 25, 2021

Date: 11-25-2021

Former Carabineros prosecuted for case of victims illegally buried in Patio 29

The prosecuted individuals remained in preventive detention, a measure they must serve in one of the Carabineros detention centers determined by the police institution.

Visiting minister Alejandro Solís Muñoz issued indictments in four cases of forcibly disappeared persons and political executions, whose remains were found illegally buried in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery.

The magistrate indicted seven retired members of the Carabineros de Chile for events that occurred in October 1973 and which led to the disappearance of a 15-year-old minor and three adults—between 18 and 22 years old—in the south-eastern area of Santiago (current commune of Peñalolén).

Minister Solís brought charges for the abduction of the minor Pedro Pérez Godoy and the qualified kidnapping of José Ramírez Díaz against former members of the police unit Carlos Contreras Guzmán, Bernardo Pérez Arriagada, Juan Paredes Rodríguez, Pedro Herrera Mossuto, and José Tito Alveal.

According to the background information that exists so far in the process, “Pedro Hugo Pérez Godoy, single, born on September 3, 1958, as of October 17, 1973, was 15 years, one month, and 22 days old, primary school student, with no political affiliation, whose address was located at Manzana 10, Sitio 20, Villa Los Guindos in the commune of Ñuñoa, and José Adrián Ramírez Díaz, single, 20 years of age, assistant to a street market merchant, with no political affiliation, illiterate, member of a family of eleven siblings, residing at Manzana 17, Pasaje 152, house 6882, Villa Pedro Lagos in the commune of Peñalolén, on October 17, 1973, were walking along a street near their homes, together with a friend, José Romilio Sepúlveda Merino. At the moment they reached the intersection of Los Orientales and Ictinos streets, commune of Ñuñoa, current Peñalolén, at approximately 3:00 p.m., they were detained, without cause, nor any administrative or judicial order, by Bernardo Pérez Arriagada and Carlos Contreras Guzmán, officials belonging to the 13th Comisaría de Carabineros de Ñuñoa, who were moving in a gray vehicle and were dressed in civilian clothes. They were taken to the premises of said police station but could not be admitted because the cells were full, for which reason they were transferred to the Retén Quilín, a unit reporting to the 13th Comisaría. However, in said police unit, there is no record of the victims’ entry but there is of the exit of Pedro Hugo Pérez Godoy, who was removed, together with José Ramírez, from the police post at 1:00 a.m., during the curfew, by Carabinero Bernardo Pérez Arriagada, to a red pickup truck that was parked outside the police facility where Carabineros Juan Paredes Rodríguez and the aforementioned Contreras Torres were waiting. The latter had received the order to accompany Pérez Arriagada in this procedure from Suboficial Mayor José Tito Alveal, who in turn was under the command of Herrera Mossuto. The young men were forced to climb into the back of the pickup truck. The pickup truck where José Ramírez Díaz and Pedro Hugo Pérez Godoy remained deprived of liberty was driven from the police post to the premises of the Viña Cousiño Macul, where the march stopped and they made the detainees get out, who were forced to walk to the banks of the San Carlos canal. It was at this site that, a few meters away, they shot them with firearms, as a result of which the multiple wounds received caused their death; immediately their bodies were thrown into the canal’s current, a maneuver that according to witness Sepúlveda had been suggested from the very moment of the detention, which had had no motive whatsoever to be carried out, Corporal Contreras [said]: ‘Let’s kill them and throw them into the canal!’ Nevertheless, the victims’ remains were found illegally buried in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery and, due to the lack of accurate scientific methods of the time, could not be correctly identified in the process based in the 22nd Criminal Court; in effect, although some of the recovered bones were attributed to the young Pérez Godoy, finally with the DNA genetic method it was verified that they corresponded to another person, and regarding Ramírez Díaz, the recognition of his remains is pending. Consequently, the death of none of the detainees has been legally and reliably verified; we only know that those deprived of liberty have not made contact with their relatives, nor carried out administrative procedures before State agencies, without registering entries or exits from the country,” the ruling states.

Meanwhile, for the qualified homicides of Hernán Peña Catalán and Luis Vergara González, Minister Alejandro Solís indicted former police officers Juan Veloso Ortiz, Francisco Contreras Torres, and Pedro Herrera Mossuto.

Regarding this case, in the process, the magistrate has managed to determine that: “On October 15, 1973, Luis Armando Vergara González, married, father of one child, was 22 years of age, laborer, with no political affiliation, and his address was located in Villa Lautaro, Manzana E, Sitio 18, Población Lo Hermida in the commune of Ñuñoa, upon being detained in its vicinity, at approximately 9:15 p.m., since without legal cause, he was apprehended by Carabineros officials belonging to the 13th Comisaría de Los Guindos de Ñuñoa, Francisco Contreras Torres and Manuel Veloso Ortiz, who were moving in a red pickup truck that had been illicitly requisitioned from Miriam Contreras Bell, personal secretary to former President Salvador Allende. Immediately, the apprehenders, together with the detainee, went to the home of Hernán Manuel Peña Catalán, married, father of two children, 20 years of age, who worked as a driver, with no political affiliation whatsoever. Although his address was located in Villa El Duraznal, Manzana 7, Sitio 5, Población Lo Hermida in the commune of Ñuñoa, he could not be found by the police at that location. However, after a search deployed in the vicinity of his home, Peña Catalán was detained and, together with Vergara González, they were taken to the premises of the aforementioned police station.”

Both victims were definitively identified by DNA tests carried out at the Legal Medical Service after 2003.

The prosecuted individuals remained in preventive detention, a measure they must serve in one of the Carabineros detention centers determined by the police institution.

Furthermore, Magistrate Solís determined that: “Given the significance of the statements provided by Francisco Fernando Contreras Torres (on October 31, 2003, from fs. 658 to 660 of Volume II Case File 15.607); Luis Arturo Mora Vera (fs. 880 to 881 dated April 21, 2004, Case File 15.607); Bernardo Segundo Pérez Arriagada (fs. 202 to 203 vta. dated September 9, 2003, fs. 878 to 880 dated November 23, 2010, both Case File 9.731); Juan Gregorio Paredes Rodríguez (fs. 294 dated May 17, 2004, and 236 dated January 5, 2004, both from Case File 9.731); Carlos Alfredo Contreras Guzmán (fs. 883 to 885 dated November 24, 2010, fs. 567 dated March 7, 1980, and fs. 557 dated December 10, 1979, all from Case File 9.731); Pedro Alejandro Lorenzo Mossuto (fs. 709 dated November 13, 2003, fs. 881 dated November 23, 2010, both from Case File 9.731), Juan Manuel Veloso Ortiz (fs. 1059 dated August 18, 2006, from Case File 15.607) and the confrontation proceedings of fs. 283, 284 (without prejudice to ‘exhorting them to tell the truth’ in a new statement), fs. 269, fs. 304, fs. 305; 306; 329; 727 of Case File 9.731 and 839 of Case File 15.607, leave an authorized photocopy of them and keep them in a Separate File, in custody.”

Likewise, it is ordered, “Without prejudice to what has been resolved, continue the investigation regarding the repressive situation that affected Sergio Alberto Gajardo Hidalgo during the same period in which the illicit acts that are the subject of this resolution were committed.”

Source: elmostrador.cl, December 7, 2012

Date: 12-07-2012

Patio 29: Behind the Iron Cross (BOOK)

Patio 29 used to be destined for the burial of indigents, psychiatric patients, and people who died without being identified (NN). However, between September 1973 and January 1974, its graves were used to hide victims of the repression as NN.

Javiera Bustamante and Stephan Ruderer reconstruct the painful history of the place, using testimonies from the relatives of forcibly disappeared persons, letters, documents, and other sources. The book also accounts for the arduous process of identification and delivery of the bodies, as well as the irregularities that characterized these proceedings.

The powerful photographs that illustrate the volume were taken by visual artist Mara Daruich.

Bustamante, Javiera; Ruderer, Stephan

Source: ocholibros.cl, no date