Judge Fernando Carreño sentenced seven former officials of the Chilean Air Force to eight years in prison for the qualified kidnapping of two people following the 1973 military coup in the Curacautín area, east of Temuco in the foothills of the Araucanía Region.

Leonardo Reyes, Jorge Valdebenito, Luis Soto, Eriberto Pereira, Jorge Soto, Luis Yáñez, and Enrique Rebolledo were convicted for the qualified kidnapping of teacher María Arriagada Jerez—who remains forcibly disappeared in the Cautín province—and Jorge Aillón Lara, both of whom were Communist militants.

The woman was apprehended in front of witnesses at her workplace on September 27, 1973, by Air Force and Carabineros personnel, and taken along with another teacher in an Air Force helicopter to the Lonquimay police sub-station.

The following day, she was taken to Curacautín and then to the Maquehue air base in Temuco. Her whereabouts remain unknown since that time. Aillón, an employee of the Agricultural Trade Company (Empresa de Comercio Agrícola), had been detained by Lonquimay Carabineros on the very day of the military coup (September 11).

Source: La Nación, June 7, 2008

FACH officer (Ret.) sentenced for 1973 murder of Mapuche man

The appellate court overturned the ruling of the visiting judge Fernando Carreño and imposed a sentence of five years and one day in prison on Heriberto Pereira Rojas. The man who was identified as the leader of the "savage patrol"—a notorious group from the Maquehue air base in Temuco that carried out detentions, interrogations, and torture following the 1973 military coup—was convicted once again.

Air Force officer (Ret.) Heriberto Pereira Rojas was sentenced last Monday by the Court of Appeals of that city to serve five years and one day in prison as an accomplice to the murder of the young Mapuche man Nelson Curiñir Lincoqueo.

With this ruling, the appellate court of the IX Region overturned the decision of visiting judge Fernando Carreño, who had dismissed Pereira's authorship and participation in the case of the qualified homicide of the former Communist Youth (JJCC) militant, who was detained and taken from his home to torture centers on October 5, 1973.

However, the Court maintained that he had a degree of participation in the crime and also ordered compensation for the Curiñir family. Three months earlier, the same investigating judge sentenced Pereira as the perpetrator of other crimes committed at the Maquehue air base.

At that time, Judge Carreño sentenced the officer (Ret.)—along with other FACH non-commissioned officers—to serve eight years behind bars for the qualified kidnapping of two Communist Party (PC) militants: the laborer Jorge Aillón Lara and the teacher María Arriagada Jerez.

The ruling establishes that, at the time the events occurred, Pereira did not hold the status of a FACH conscript, as he was performing duties as a corporal second class at the aforementioned air base.

According to the ruling, he himself declared that he belonged to a special group that, with the collaboration of some civilians, had the mission of detaining and transferring opponents of the military regime to the Maquehue base.

Several witnesses declared in the case file that the man who arrested Curiñir had a horrific stain on his face, alluding to a severe burn, which corresponds to a characteristic of the accused. Other testimonies indicate that the repressive group to which Pereira belonged had the mission not only of detaining opponents but also of carrying out interrogations and applying torture.

For this reason and other evidence, judges Leopoldo Llanos and Álvaro Mesa reached the conviction that "the participation of the accused in the events that led to the qualified homicide of Curiñir was not accidental nor by virtue of mere compliance with orders." In the magistrates' opinion, the retired officer was fully aware that he was executing foreseeable acts that would "objectively" lead to the murder of the victim.

The ruling also established that the Curiñir family should be compensated for moral damages, as it was only in 1990 that they were able to learn the whereabouts of their son, who was found as a John Doe (NN) in the Nueva Imperial cemetery with two bullet wounds to the skull. The state treasury must pay $200 million, following the acceptance of the claim.

Source: Thursday, September 4, 2008, La Nación

Brother of Minister of Justice implicated in murders of 4 left-wing militants during the dictatorship

According to Deputy Hugo Gutiérrez, the brother of the current Minister was implicated in the case of the murder of three Communist militants and one MIR militant during the years of the dictatorship at the Maquehue air base in Temuco, IX Region.

The victims are Hernán Henríquez, Eduardo González Galeno, Alejandro Flores, and Nelson Curiñir. Eduardo González was the Director of the Cunco Hospital; he was detained on September 14, 1973, along with his wife Natacha María Carrión Osorio, a doctor who was in the third month of pregnancy with their second child.

To this day, he remains a forcibly disappeared person. Meanwhile, 22-year-old Nelson Curiñir was detained in Temuco, tortured, and murdered. According to Communist Party parliamentarian Hugo Gutiérrez: "We want to make it clear that Ángel Hernán Campos Quiroga, brother of the Minister of Justice, Jaime Campos Quiroga, was a member of Group 3 of the Maquehue air base in Temuco, with the rank of FACH Lieutenant, who was involved in the murder of three Communist Party militants and one from the MIR." According to the Communist Party parliamentarian, more than 30 torture victims identified the brother of the head of the Justice Ministry as their torturer. This information was investigated by lawyers Magdalena Garcés and Cristián Cruz, along with Herman Carrasco Paul, vice president of the Center for Research and Promotion of Human Rights (CINPROD). The name of the Minister's brother appears in the following judicial investigation (http://www.araucaniacuenta.cl/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Auto-Acusatorio-113969.pdf), which states: “Episode Hernán Henríquez Aravena and 8 others of September 11 was enabled for the indicated purposes, and on some occasions, they were also transferred to a hangar located inside the base. Many of these detainees remained held at the Maquehue base for a period of no less than a week, during which time they were interrogated and tortured by the officers and non-commissioned officers indicated above who were part of the intelligence group specially formed for such purposes, among whom are the Second Commander Benjamín Fernández Hernández (R.I.P.), Lieutenants Ángel Campos Quiroga (R.I.P.), Jorge Freygang Campaña (R.I.P.), Captain Leonardo Reyes Herrera, Sergeant Orlando Garrido Riquelme (R.I.P.), non-commissioned officers Luis Arturo Soto Pinto, Heriberto Pereira Rojas, Luis Osmán Yáñez Silva, Jorge Aliro Valdebenito Isler, Jorge Eduardo Soto Herrera, and Enrique Alberto Rebolledo Sotelo; and the civilian employee Crisóstomo Hugo Ferrada Carrasco”.

Source: laizquierdadiario.com, December 26, 2016

Supreme Court confirms sentences of 18 former uniformed personnel and 2 civilians for crimes and torture committed at Air Base in Temuco in 1973

The Supreme Court rejected the appeals in form and substance filed against the sentence that convicted former military personnel and civilian staff who served at the time of the events at the Maquehue Air Base in Temuco, for their responsibility in the crimes of qualified homicide of Hernán Henríquez Aravena and Alejandro Flores Rivera, both Communist Party militants; and the crimes of illegitimate coercion applied to Jorge Silhi Zarzar, Víctor Hugo Painemal Arriagada, and Sergio Riquelme Inostroza, committed between September and October 1973 at the FACH facility.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 14.483-2021), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jean Pierre Matus, minister María Cristina Gajardo, and lawyers (i) Eduardo Morales and Ricardo Abuauad—confirmed the sentence that convicted former Air Force officers Leonardo Reyes Herrera and Luis Alberto Soto Pinto, and former non-commissioned officers of the same institution Crisóstomo Hugo Ferrada Carrasco, Enrique Alberto Rebolledo Sotelo, Heriberto Pereira Rojas, Jorge Aliro Valdebenito Isler, Jorge Eduardo Soto Herrera, and Luis Osmán Yáñez Silva, all to the penalty of 20 years in prison for their responsibility as perpetrators of the crimes. Meanwhile, the civilian individual Luis Raimundo Quezada Chandía must serve a sentence of 17 years in prison for his responsibility as the perpetrator of both qualified homicides. Similarly, the civilian lawyer and former Military Prosecutor Óscar Alfonso Ernesto Podlech Michaud was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his responsibility as the perpetrator of the homicide of Hernán Henríquez Aravena. Meanwhile, former Air Force officer Pablo Aquiles Alister Contreras will serve a sentence of 4 years in prison as an accomplice to simple homicide and a cover-up of the illegitimate coercion. In addition, former FACH officers Jaime Mauricio del Corazón de Jesús Echenique Seco, Aníbal Arturo Tejos Echeverría, Enrique Alcides Isaacs Casacuberta, Antonio Sergio Montserrats Mena, and Xavier Fernando Pérez Chávez were sentenced to 3 years and one day in prison, with the benefit of supervised release, for their responsibility as cover-ups of the crimes. Finally, the highest court, acting ex officio, substituted the sentences of 3 years and one day in prison imposed on Berthold Bohn Sauterel, Rodolfo Ernesto Schmied Callejón, Víctor Manuel Volante Leonardi, and Rogelio Olivares Torruella with intensive supervised release for the same period, as cover-ups of the crimes. The decision to ex officio substitute these custodial sentences with intensive supervised release was agreed upon with the dissenting vote of Minister Matus. Maquehue Base Helicopters During the investigation stage of the case, Minister Álvaro Mesa Latorre managed to prove that immediately after the military coup, an operational group of Air Force members was established at the Maquehue Air Base, to which reserve officers of the institution were also invited. This group carried out detentions of opponents of the military regime to then take them to the facility where they remained prisoners and were subjected to illegitimate coercion. In parallel, various judicial proceedings were carried out at the Military Prosecutor's Office against the detainees, who were subjected to illegitimate coercion and other inhuman, cruel, and degrading treatment. The victim, Hernán Henríquez Aravena, 35 years old, a surgeon and Zonal Health Director of Temuco as of September 1973, was required by the military authority of the time to appear before the Military Prosecutor's Office, located inside the N°8 "Tucapel" Infantry Regiment. On September 12, Henríquez appeared before the prosecutor's office and was then sent to his home. However, that same night, Carabineros from the 2nd Precinct of Temuco raided Hernán Henríquez's home, detained him, and transferred him to the police unit. The following day, he was placed at the disposal of the Military Prosecutor's Office of Temuco, where his transfer to the city's jail was ordered, and subsequently, his total house arrest was ordered, with the express order to appear at the military court first thing on September 25. However, on the night of September 24, Henríquez Aravena's house was raided again, this time by personnel from the Investigative Police (PDI) who were attached to the Tucapel regiment and who worked interchangeably for the Military Prosecutor's Office and the Second Intelligence Section. After a while, the patrol left the scene. Later, another patrol appeared, this time from the Carabineros 2nd Precinct, who took Hernán Henríquez from his home, taking him away without giving any explanation. Alejandro Flores Rivera, 33 years old, a nursing assistant in the Psychiatry Department of the Temuco Regional Hospital and President of the National Federation of Health Workers (Fenats), was required by Edict N°11 of September 12 to appear before the Military Prosecutor's Office. That day, Flores appeared before the prosecutor's office and was sent to his home. On October 5, 1973, the local military authority issued Edict N°9, signed by the Commander of the Temuco Military Garrison, with which it intended to justify and cover up the murder of both detainees. The aforementioned edict stated: "Given the escape attempt planned by Alejandro Flores Rivera and in complicity with Hernán Henríquez Aravena while they were detained at the barracks of Helicopter Group N°3, and in collusion with individuals from the outside who tried to help them, they were eliminated by the Guard." by Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl, March 7, 2024