On October 19, 1973, the following 26 individuals were executed by military personnel on the road between Calama and Antofagasta:

Mario ARGUELLES TORO […]

Carlos BERGER GURALNIK […] Haroldo CABRERA ABARZUA […] Carlos Alfredo ESCOBEDO CARIS[…] Daniel GARRIDO MUÑOZ […] Luis Alberto HERNANDEZ NEIRA […] Hernán Elizardo MORENO VILLARROEL […] Luis Alfonso MORENO VILLARROEL […] David MIRANDA LUNA […] Rafael Enrique PINEDA IBACACHE, 24 years old, a worker at Chuquicamata and a socialist militant; he was detained by the military on September 17 at the Calama Airport while boarding a plane bound for Santiago.

After interrogating him, they took him to the Calama Jail. There, he informed his parents that he was to be relegated (internal exile), although it is unknown if he had actually been subjected to legal proceedings and sentenced.

Carlos Alfonso PIÑERO LUCERO[…] Fernando Roberto RAMIREZ SANCHEZ[…] Sergio Moisés RAMIREZ ESPINOZA […] Alejandro RODRIGUEZ RODRIGUEZ […] José Gregorio SAAVEDRA GONZALEZ[…] Domingo MAMANI LOPEZ […] Jerónimo CARPANCHI CHOQUE […] Bernardino CAYO CAYO […] Luis Alberto GAHONA OCHOA […] Manuel HIDALGO RIVAS […] José Rolando HOYOS SALAZAR […] Rosario Aguid MUÑOZ CASTILLO […] Milton Alfredo MUÑOZ MUÑOZ[…] Víctor Alfredo ORTEGA CUEVAS […] Roberto Segundo ROJAS ALCAYAGA[…] Jorge Rubén YUENG ROJAS[…]

The last ten individuals mentioned provided services at the Dupont Explosives plant of the ENAEX company and were detained on the company premises on October 12, 1973, at midday, by Carabineros personnel.

They were immediately taken to the police station located in the Dupont sector. On the same day, the detainees were transferred to the Calama Police Station, where they remained held incommunicado for approximately five days.

During their detention at that facility, they were taken on several occasions to other locations to be subjected to interrogation and torture. On October 17, they were admitted to the Public Jail. There are no precise records regarding the charges brought against them, nor regarding their legal status at the time of their executions.

On October 20, 1973, an official statement issued by the Military Commander (Jefe de Plaza) was released through the press, stating that 26 detainees from the Calama Jail had been killed by the military personnel transporting them to the Antofagasta Jail, after they allegedly attempted to escape during an electrical failure in the vehicle in which they were being transported.

An identical version was given to the direct relatives of the executed, who were also not given their remains, but only death certificates that indicated Calama as the place of death and "execution by firing squad" as the cause.

Regarding the bodies, there was a commitment from the military authority of the time to hand them over after one year; a commitment that, despite being recorded in documents given to the families, was never fulfilled.

Despite successive investigations to locate the bodies, it was only in 1990 that the place where they had been illegally buried for at least some time was found, from where they had been removed or destroyed by explosives on some occasion. Despite this, it was possible to identify the remains of Haroldo Cabrera through forensic analysis.

Regarding the events that led to the execution of the 26 detainees from Calama, the Commission formed the conviction that all of them were executed outside the law, with cruelty and malice, an illicit act for which State agents are responsible. This conviction is based on the following circumstances:

– The authorities' version that a transfer of the prisoners took place is implausible, especially when a delegation from Santiago was present at the location precisely to review the legal status of the detainees.

It is even maintained—though this could not be proven—that when the detainees were taken out of the jail, a War Council (Consejo de Guerra) was in session concerning them, which makes it even more absurd that they would be taken elsewhere.

The transfer also makes no sense if one considers that a significant number of the detainees had already been sentenced by that date, others were being prosecuted, others were to be relegated, and some did not even have a case initiated, which contributes to discrediting the existence of any motive or reason that explains the need to transfer all of them together to the city of Antofagasta;

– It is improbable that there was an escape attempt, among other reasons, because there were people among the detainees who had been sentenced to relatively very light sentences; because others were in precarious physical condition as a result of the torture received; and finally, because of the extreme difficulty of escaping while being guarded by a large military detachment;

– Even more important than the above is that in the public statements of the various authorities and officers who participated in the events, there has been debate over who gave the order to proceed with the executions, without claiming that it was actually an escape attempt, with all of them refuting the initial explanation;

– Various reliable testimonies lead to the conclusion that officers from the Calama Regiment and the delegation from Santiago participated in the executions;

– In relation to these events, there was no institutional investigation ordered by the competent authorities to achieve the proper clarification of the facts and to define the appropriate responsibilities, as was required. Likewise, the judicial proceedings, which ended up falling under the jurisdiction of the Military Courts, were dismissed through the application of the Amnesty Decree Law;

– The fact that their bodies were not returned to their families suggests a desire to conceal the events.