Case File 113.075: case of illegitimate coercion against students from Temuco

35.- Statement by Nelson Arturo Parada Torres , from pages 372 and 478, a former civilian employee of the Chilean Air Force, who stated that he belonged to the CNI in Temuco from 1980 until 1989, after which he continued working at the Maquehue Air Base.

He stated that his operational name was "Herman Bassauri" and that he worked under the orders of Ricardo Sepúlveda, Oscar Boehmwald, Ricardo Vásquez Arias, Cristian Ovalle Lyon, Carlos Acuña Morelli, Jorge Palacios Mery, and Juan Pérez Cadenasso, all of whom were army officers.

Regarding the events that occurred in Lautaro in January 1986, when several young people belonging to a guerrilla school were detained, he recalls that Erasmo Bravo Huaiquiñir arrived at the barracks and told him that he had recognized and identified a subject who was suspected of subversion and who was going to take a bus bound for Lautaro.

Based on this discovery, an operation was set up that consisted of the surveillance and capture of this person and the other members of the guerrilla group.

He recalls that the person who took the bus was detained along with other individuals, both men and women, and they were taken to the barracks. The following day he traveled to Santiago and returned on the day the detainees were handed over to the prosecutor's office.

He said that they called a colleague with the surname Román "Huaso," or perhaps the Head of the Unit, Jorge Palacios Mery, who liked to wear a "Huaso" hat when he accompanied them on an operation. He does not remember if Palacios Mery participated in the operation that detained the members of the guerrilla school.

He also does not remember having seen the officer Morales Tresckow, nor does he recall that Pedro Guzmán came from Santiago to take charge of the detainees.

Of the CNI officials who participated in the detention, he only remembers Servando Voisier , currently deceased, and Segundo Erasmo Bravo.

Source: Judiciary, October 30, 2009