Political Affiliation: Member of the Revolutionary Peasant Movement (M.C.R.) Date of Detention: October 10, 1973

ALBERTO SEGUNDO REINANTE RAIPAN

Name: ALBERTO SEGUNDO REINANTE RAIPAN ID: No information DOB: 39 years old at the time of his detention Address: Fundo Trafún, Liquiñe, Valdivia Marital Status: Married, 4 children Occupation: Lumber worker Political Affiliation: Member of the Revolutionary Peasant Movement (M.C.R.) Date of Detention: October 10, 1973

JOSE HECTOR BORQUEZ LEVICAN

Name: JOSE HECTOR BORQUEZ LEVICAN ID: No information DOB: 01-22-31, 42 years old at the time of his detention Address: Panguipulli Lumber and Forestry Complex Marital Status: Married, four children Occupation: Lumber worker and administrator at the Panguipulli Lumber and Forestry Complex Political Affiliation: No known political affiliation Date of Detention: October 10, 1973

ALEJANDRO ANTONIO TRACANAO PINCHEIRA

Name: ALEJANDRO ANTONIO TRACANAO PINCHEIRA ID: No information DOB: 22 years old at the time of his detention Address: Panguipulli Lumber and Forestry Complex Marital Status: Widower, two children Occupation: Lumber worker Political Affiliation: Linked to the Revolutionary Peasant Movement (M.C.R.) Date of Detention: October 10, 1973

MIGUEL JOSE TRACANAO PINCHEIRA

Name: MIGUEL JOSE TRACANAO PINCHEIRA ID: No information DOB: 25 years old at the time of his detention Address: Panguipulli Lumber and Forestry Complex Marital Status: Single Occupation: Lumber worker Political Affiliation: Linked to the Revolutionary Peasant Movement (M.C.R.) Date of Detention: October 10, 1973

ELISEO MAXIMILIANO TRACANAO PINCHEIRA

Name: ELISEO MAXIMILIANO TRACANAO PINCHEIRA ID: No information DOB: 10-22-55, 17 years old at the time of his detention Address: Panguipulli Lumber and Forestry Complex Marital Status: Single Occupation: Lumber worker Political Affiliation: Linked to the Revolutionary Peasant Movement (M.C.R.) Date of Detention: October 10, 1973

LUIS ALFREDO RIVERA CATRICHEO

Name: LUIS ALFREDO RIVERA CATRICHEO ID: No information DOB: 54 years old at the time of his detention Address: Panguipulli Lumber and Forestry Complex Marital Status: Single Occupation: Lumber worker at the Panguipulli Lumber and Forestry Complex Political Affiliation: No known political affiliation Date of Detention: October 10, 1973

SALVADOR ALAMOS RUBILAR

Name: SALVADOR ALAMOS RUBILAR ID: No information DOB: 45 years old at the time of his detention Address: Liquiñe, Valdivia Marital Status: Married, 9 children Occupation: Lumber industrialist Political Affiliation: Socialist Party Date of Detention: October 10, 1973

MODESTO JUAN REINANTE RAIPAN

Name: MODESTO JUAN REINANTE RAIPAN ID: No information DOB: 18 years old at the time of his detention Address: Fundo Trafún, Liquiñe, Valdivia Marital Status: Single Occupation: Lumber worker Political Affiliation: Member of the Revolutionary Peasant Movement (M.C.R.) Date of Detention: October 10, 1973

LUIS ARMANDO LAGOS TORRES

Name: LUIS ARMANDO LAGOS TORRES ID: No information DOB: 50 years old at the time of his detention Address: Liquiñe, Valdivia Marital Status: Widower, 9 children Occupation: Lumber worker Political Affiliation: Socialist Party Date of Detention: October 10, 1973

CARLOS SEGUNDO FIGUEROA ZAPATA

Name: CARLOS SEGUNDO FIGUEROA ZAPATA ID: 25.911 of Curacautín DOB: 07-25-26, 47 years old at the time of his detention Address: Fundo Paimún, Liquiñe, Valdivia Marital Status: Married, 6 children Occupation: Lumber worker Political Affiliation: Advisor to the Panguipulli Lumber and Forestry Complex Union representing Fundo Raimún. Socialist Party. Date of Detention: October 10, 1973

MAURICIO SEGUNDO CURIÑANCO REYES

Name: MAURICIO SEGUNDO CURIÑANCO REYES ID: No information DOB: 38 years old at the time of his detention Address: Liquiñe, Valdivia Marital Status: Single Occupation: Artisan carpenter Political Affiliation: Socialist Party Date of Detention: October 10, 1973

ISAIAS JOSE FUENTEALBA CALDERON

Name: ISAIAS JOSE FUENTEALBA CALDERON ID: 25.220 of Villarrica DOB: 04-07-44, 29 years old at the time of his detention Address: Fundo Trafún, Liquiñe Marital Status: Married Occupation: Area Chief, Panguipulli Lumber and Forestry Complex, Fundo Trafún Political Affiliation: Member of the Revolutionary Peasant Movement (M.C.R.) Date of Detention: October 10, 1973

DANIEL ANTONIO CASTRO LOPEZ

Name: DANIEL ANTONIO CASTRO LOPEZ ID: No information DOB: 68 years old at the time of his detention Address: Liquiñe, Valdivia Marital Status: Married, 7 children Occupation: Merchant, correspondent for the newspaper "El Clarín" in Temuco. Political Affiliation: Socialist Party Date of Detention: October 10, 1973

On October 10, 1973, between 9:00 PM and 11:00 PM, the following individuals were detained in the Liquiñe sector, within the Panguipulli Lumber and Forestry Complex: Luis Alfredo Rivera Catricheo, lumber worker, no known political affiliation; Eliseo Maximiliano Tracanao Pincheira, lumber worker, linked to the Revolutionary Peasant Movement (M.C.R.); Miguel José Tracanao Pincheira, lumber worker, linked to the Revolutionary Peasant Movement (M.C.R.); Alejandro Antonio Tracanao Pincheira, lumber worker, linked to the Revolutionary Peasant Movement (M.C.R.); Salvador Alamos Rubilar, lumber industrialist, member of the Socialist Party; José Héctor Bórquez Levicán, lumber worker, work foreman at Fundo Trafún, member of the Revolutionary Peasant Movement (M.C.R.); Alberto Segundo Reinante Raipán, lumber worker, member of the Revolutionary Peasant Movement (M.C.R.); Ernesto Reinante Raipán, lumber worker, member of the Revolutionary Peasant Movement; Modesto Juan Reinante Raipán, lumber worker, member of the Revolutionary Peasant Movement (M.C.R.); Luis Armando Lagos Torres, lumber worker, member of the Socialist Party; Carlos Segundo Figueroa Zapata, lumber worker, advisor for Fundo Paimún to the Panguipulli Lumber and Forestry Complex Union, member of the Socialist Party; Mauricio Segundo Curiñanco Reyes, artisan carpenter, member of the Socialist Party; Isaías José Fuentealba Calderón, Area Chief at Fundo Trafún, of the Panguipulli Lumber and Forestry Complex, member of the Revolutionary Peasant Movement (M.C.R.); Daniel Antonio Castro López, merchant, correspondent for the newspaper "El Clarín" in Temuco, member of the Socialist Party.

For its part, the report of the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation includes the names of the following victims as part of this same repressive situation: Carlos Alberto Cayumán Cayumán; and the teacher from Puerto Fuy, 27 years old, member of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR), Bernarda Rosalba Vera Contardo.

The detentions were carried out by uniformed personnel who carried a list with the names of the detainees. The apprehending group was composed of military personnel wearing combat uniforms who belonged to the No. 3 Maquehua Helicopter Group of the city of Temuco, of the Chilean Air Force; some Carabineros officials from the Liquiñe station, and civilians from the area.

They traveled in private vehicles, a pickup truck from the Agriculture and Livestock Service (S.A.G.), a police vehicle, an ambulance from the Liquiñe station, and also had the support of a Chilean Air Force (FACH) helicopter.

The captors acted in several groups, which met at the Coñaripe junction, close to all the locations where the detentions were carried out. There, they took the road to Villarrica, and around 2:00 AM on October 11, 1973, at the bridge over the Toltén River, they proceeded to kill them and throw their bodies into the water.

Some of the bodies were found days later by a group of people working on the banks of the Toltén River. The bodies were placed in sacks with stones so they would not float; however, some bodies surfaced. This situation was immediately reported to the Carabineros, who, by order of the officer on duty, proceeded to push the bodies back into the river's current.

Among the testimonies obtained is that of Honorinda Lagos Sepúlveda, spouse of Isaías Fuentealba Calderón, Area Chief of the Panguipulli Lumber and Forestry Complex, who points out regarding her husband that he left early on the morning of October 10, 1973, after his driver picked him up, and they traveled from Trafún to Liquiñe, about 14 km away.

Upon returning in the afternoon, at a place called Los Canelales, the victim was detained by Carabineros, who left Isaías Fuentealba's briefcase, which contained documentation from the Lumber Complex, in the driver's possession so that he could deliver it to his spouse.

Part of this testimony indicates that the detainees were taken to the Liquiñe Inn, owned by Tulio García, where they were beaten and kept in a cabin. After that, they were taken out tied up and blindfolded, being transported in vehicles.

For its part, the family of Salvador Alamos Rubilar pointed out that the victim had been detained previously, remaining in that condition from September 18 to 28, 1973, for alleged links to a failed ambush on the Neltume station.

His captors on that occasion were Carabineros; they detained him along with his 17-year-old son, Salvador. Alamos Rubilar was tortured. His arrest on October 10, 1973, was carried out by military personnel in the presence of his daughter, Mirta Alamos, who pointed out that in the vehicle where they loaded her father, tied by his hands and feet, there were more detainees.

The victim's spouse, Mrs. Elcira Figueroa, immediately began searching for him in different places such as: the Logistics Battalion of Valdivia, the Public Jail, the Military Prosecutor's Office of Temuco, etc.

On one occasion, while interviewing the Military Prosecutor, a high-ranking officer who was present intervened, telling her that the operation was carried out by "Black Beret" Commandos from Colina, so the local military authorities had nothing to do with it, adding: "you had better mourn and grieve for the dead."

All the aforementioned victims, executed outside of any legal process by State agents who violated their right to life and then hid their bodies, preventing their families from giving them a dignified burial, remain in the status of forcibly disappeared.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

There is no knowledge that any judicial actions have been taken.

Eliseo Maximiliano Tracanao Pincheira appears in the report of the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, and in a sworn statement by his mother, Mrs. Margarita del Carmen Valenzuela González, as Eliseo Maximiliano Tracanao Valenzuela.

This surname had to be rectified, because the young man is actually registered in the Civil Registry by his grandmother with the surnames Tracanao Pincheira.

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity

Hello family, I hope you have been able to find your place in heaven. I know we didn't meet in person, but I want you to know that I would have loved to. I know we would have had a lot in common. My mom says you loved music, sports, and joy in general.

It's a shame that because you thought differently, they took your lives... I will tell you that we have never stopped shouting your names, nor carrying the only photo we have of you, Alberto, with the hope that one day they will tell us where you are.

When I was a girl, they made fun of me a lot for participating in marches and rallies that remembered you. There were people who told us that you were well dead for being communists. I never accepted that thinking differently was a cause to be murdered and disappeared, but well, this Chile you knew has been changing, and it changed more deeply on October 18 of last year.

A boy in Santiago jumped the subway barrier and didn't pay his fare, which had gone up 30 pesos, and all hell broke loose. Literally, all of Chile started to organize spontaneously. We started to meet in the squares of every city with simple pots and spoons to make noise and shout about the inequalities we have.

I went to the first rally here in the square in Valdivia; I went with my husband and my 3-year-old daughter. Truly, no one was doing anything bad, when out of nowhere the police arrived and threw tear gas bombs at us, without caring about the children or the elderly who were in the place.

I felt so much rage, I couldn't believe it, so much abuse. But that was just the first display I could see, and without being afraid of the water cannon, the armored vehicle, or a detention, I went out to the streets with more strength, and I wasn't the only one.

Every day there were more of us; it was so beautiful to see us united like that. The attacks by the Carabineros started to get harder every day; they took students prisoner for shouting. What is going on?

It was like they took whoever crossed their path, and people started to disappear again, and some appeared dead, but according to forensic reports, they killed themselves... No one believed their setups.

They tried to point to all of us as vandals, criminals, who only sought to destroy, or at least that's what the television broadcast. I remembered you so much, that you didn't even go out to protest and they took you; they lifted you from your beds to take you to be tortured and then killed, without you causing any harm, just for being workers who hoped for something better in your futures.

Ah, but if you had been rich, the story would be different. In Temuco, there is a rapist, and because he has money, they wouldn't even send him to prison, but we started to apply pressure, and there he is now behind bars in Valdivia.

Social pressure does work; the bad thing is that it has very high costs for the most vulnerable. I think of each one of you. Modesto, the youngest, you were just 18 years old, and they didn't let you live, know, or enjoy.

Alberto, you already had your family, your children, and they left you without being able to see your youngest daughter born, nor raise any of them. Ernesto, you were just getting to know love, just beginning to feel, and they took everything from you, from one minute to the next...

My mom has never stopped fighting; she is already 84 years old and still cries when she tells her stories. She loves you with her soul, and she has transmitted to me all that love, and those strengths to fight for you, for all those they killed, and so that never again in Chile are these aberrations silenced or hidden. I love you very much, and I promise you that we will never forget you.

Nadia Reinante (28 years old) signs off. Great-niece of Alberto Reinante Raipan, Ernesto Reinante Raipan, Modesto Reinante Raipan.

Source: epistolariodelamemoria.cl 09/11/2020

Date: 09-11-2020

The Santiago Court of Appeals confirmed this Friday the 18-year prison sentence against retired Colonel Hugo Alberto Guerra Jorquera for the kidnapping of 11 peasants who were executed in 1973 but whose bodies were never found, judicial sources reported.

The peasants were from the town of Liquiñe and worked at a lumber complex in the area. The appeals court rejected an appeal filed by Guerra Jorquera to invalidate the sentence imposed by Judge Alejandro Solís in January 2006, which is currently the harshest sentence handed down for human rights violations.

The retired Army colonel was also ordered to pay 250 million pesos (about 480,000 dollars) as compensation, by virtue of a civil lawsuit filed against him by five relatives of the victims. According to the Rettig Report, which documented human rights violations during the regime of the late dictator Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), the agricultural workers were detained in a joint operation by the Carabineros police of the Liquiñe station, Army personnel, and civilians.

The peasants were taken to the Villarrica bridge, over the Toltén River, where they were executed and their bodies were never found. Among the executed are the brothers Modesto, Ernesto, and Alberto Reinante Raipán, all three workers and members of the Panguipulli lumber complex union.

The plaintiff lawyer, Nelson Caucoto, welcomed the ruling because, as he said, it confirms the crimes and establishes exemplary punishments against the accused.

Source: August 03, 2007 El Mostrador

Date: 08-03-2007

Judge Solís handed down the highest penalty to date in human rights cases

The magistrate sentenced a retired Army lieutenant colonel to 18 years of major imprisonment in its maximum degree for the qualified kidnapping of 11 peasants in Liquiñe. Minister Alejandro Solís handed down this Thursday the highest penalty known for a case linked to human rights violations during the military regime headed by General (R) Augusto Pinochet.

The magistrate sentenced retired Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Alberto Guerra Jorquera to 18 years of major imprisonment in its maximum degree as the author of repeated crimes of qualified kidnapping, in the so-called "Liquiñe episode." The ruling is based on the repression suffered starting October 10, 1973, by a group of 11 peasants who sympathized with the Popular Unity (UP), in the foothills sector of the Tenth Region of Los Lagos.

Among the victims are Salvador Álamos Rubilar, José Héctor Bórquez Levican, Daniel Antonio Castro López, Carlos Alberto Cayuman Cayuman, Mauricio Segundo Curiñanco Reyes, Carlos Figueroa Zapata, Isaías José Fuentealba Calderón, Luis Armando Lagos Torres, Ernesto Juan Reinante Raipan, Modesto Juan Reinante Raipan, and Luis Alfredo Rivera Catricheo.

The retired Army officer was also ordered to pay a total sum of $250 million as compensation, by virtue of a civil lawsuit filed against him by five relatives of the victims. The beneficiaries, with $50 million each, will be Miguel Ángel and Isaías Julián Fuentealba Lagos, as well as Héctor Hernán, Hugo Raúl, and Didier Antonio Figueroa Arraigada.

Additionally, the owner of the Liquiñe Hot Springs, a civilian identified as Luis Osvaldo García Guzmán, was convicted, who in his capacity as the author of the qualified kidnapping of Luis Armando Lagos Torres received a sentence of five years and one day.

Source: January 26, 2006 El Mostrador

Date: 01-26-2006

Chilean military officer sentenced to 18 years in prison for human rights violation

A Chilean judge sentenced retired Colonel Hugo Alberto Guerra for the kidnapping and disappearance of 11 peasants in October 1973. 18 years in prison. It is one of the longest sentences known in Chile for human rights violations.

It was received today by the retired Army colonel of that country, Hugo Alberto Guerra, for his responsibility in the kidnapping and disappearance of 11 peasants in October 1973. The disappeared were natives of the town of Liquiñe, more than 700 kilometers south of Santiago, and were part of a group of 15 peasants and agricultural workers from the Panguipulli lumber complex, executed on October 10, 1973.

The magistrate also convicted the civilian Luis Osvaldo García, owner of the Liquiñe Hot Springs, whom he sentenced to five years and one day in prison for the kidnapping of one of the victims on the same date.

García was charged as the author of the kidnapping of some peasants and of having provided the means for the operation that ended with the detention of the farmers, most of whom were taken by force from their homes.

In his resolution, Judge Alejandro Solís also ordered the retired colonel to pay 50 million Chilean pesos (about 92,000 dollars) to each of the five families who filed the lawsuits and appear as plaintiffs in the trial.

According to the Rettig Report, which documented human rights violations during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), the agricultural workers were detained in a joint operation by the Carabineros of Liquiñe and Army personnel.

The peasants were taken to the Villarrica bridge, on the Toltén River, where they were executed and their bodies were never found, according to the Rettig Report. Among the executed are the brothers Modesto, Ernesto, and Alberto Reinante Raipán, workers and members of the Panguipulli lumber complex union.

According to the plaintiff lawyer in the case, Nelson Caucoto, the sentence imposed on Colonel Guerra is one of the most severe that has been handed down for the crime of kidnapping, a figure that Chilean courts use for the disappearances of political prisoners during the Pinochet dictatorship.

Caucoto was satisfied with the resolution, which in his opinion brings peace of mind to all the families of peasants in that southern region who suffered from crimes during the military regime. "It seems to me that the issue of the amount of the sentence, which is probably the highest to date, makes it clear that we are starting 2006 as the year of sentences in human rights cases," said the lawyer. "The amount is the least of it.

There are more benign sentences and others less benign. The important thing is that the courts are finally reaching sentences, because through them, future generations are being shown what can be done and what cannot be done," added Caucoto.

Source: clarin.cl 01/26/2006

Date: 01-26-2006

Military personnel prosecuted for massacres of peasants in 1973 in Chile

Santiago de Chile, March 17 (EFE).- Four retired military officers and one civilian have been prosecuted today in Chile for the murder of peasants in two towns in the south of the country in 1973, judicial sources reported today.

Judge Alejandro Solís reported today that he prosecuted and ordered the detention of Army Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Guerra Jorquera for the kidnapping of 11 peasants in the town of Liquiñe, more than 700 kilometers south of Santiago.

The 11 detainees, who remain disappeared, were part of a group of 15 peasants and agricultural workers from the Panguipulli lumber complex, executed on October 10, 1973. Guerra Jorquera is the second person prosecuted in this case and has been detained since last Friday.

The first person prosecuted in the Liquiñe case is the civilian Luis Osvaldo García Tapia, as the direct author of the kidnapping of some peasants and of having provided the means for the operation that ended with the detention of the peasants, most of whom were taken from their homes.

According to the Rettig Report, which documented human rights violations during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), the agricultural workers were detained in a joint operation by the Carabineros police of Liquiñe and Army personnel.

The peasants were taken to the Villarrica bridge, on the Toltén River, where they were executed and their bodies were never found, the Rettig report establishes. Among the executed are the brothers Modesto, Ernesto, and Alberto Reinante Raipán, all three workers and members of the Panguipulli lumber complex union.

Magistrate Solís also prosecuted three former military officers for the massacre of another 18 peasants in the town of Chihuío, in the foothills of the Valdivia region, 900 kilometers south of Santiago and near the border with Argentina.

They are retired General Héctor Bravo Muñoz, former head of the Zone in the Valdivia Region; the then-Lieutenant Colonel Jerónimo Pantoja Hernández, deputy commander of the "Maturana" Regiment of Valdivia; and former Captain Luis Osorio Gavardazanic.

These three officers are the first to be prosecuted in the Chihuío case, which occurred one day before the murders in Liquiñe, two of the three massacres that occurred in Chile under the dictatorship. These murders are in addition to those perpetrated by the "Caravan of Death," which traveled through several cities and executed 75 political prisoners without trial in October 1973.

For this case, Augusto Pinochet was stripped of his immunity and prosecuted, but he was exonerated of all charges on July 1st due to "incurable dementia." The disappeared from Chihuío were detained by soldiers from the "Cazadores" and "Maturana" regiments of Valdivia on the night of October 9, 1973, in their homes and taken to the Baños de Chihuío sector, where they were executed and buried clandestinely.

At the end of 1978, according to the Rettig Report, civilian personnel exhumed the bodies and made them disappear. EFE

Source: lanacion.cl 03/17/2003

Date: 03-17-2003

Individual involved in Liquiñe case prosecuted

The investigating judge, Juan Guzmán Tapia, decided tonight to prosecute Luis Osvaldo García Tapia as the author of qualified kidnapping in the case of Luis Armando Lagos Torres, 50 years old—a worker at the Panguipulli lumber complex—a socialist militant detained in Curranco in 1973.

Luis Lagos was detained in 1973 along with 15 other people in the south, in the so-called "Caravanita Chica," in the Ninth Region.

The 16 disappeared

Salvador Alamos Rubilar José Héctor Bórquez Livican Daniel Antonio Castro López Carlos Alberto Callumán Callumán Mauricio Segundo Curiñaco Reyes Carlos Figueroa Zapata Isaías José Fuentealba Calderón Luis Armando Lagos Torres Alberto Segundo Reinante Raipán Ernesto Juan Reinante Raipán Modesto Juan Reinante Raipán Luis Rivera Catricheo Alejandro Antonio Tracanao Pincheira José Miguel Tracanao Pincheira Eliseo Maximiliano Tracanao Valenzuela Bernarda Rosalba Vera Contardo

Source: El Mostrador – May 23, 2001

Date: 05-23-2001

Witnesses testify in Panguipulli and Temuco regarding human rights violations during the dictatorship

The Judiciary reported that the minister on special assignment for human rights violation cases for the jurisdictions of Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Coyhaique, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, appeared at the Valdivia Court of Appeals to take statements from witnesses in three cases he is investigating, for crimes perpetrated in Panguipulli and Temuco between September and October 1973. "Case file 15.213, titled Alberto Reinante Raipán, relates to an event that occurred on October 10, 1973.

Reinante Raipán was detained at his home, located at Fundo Trafún, in the Liquiñe sector, inside the Panguipulli Forestry lumber complex. Later, this person disappeared and was eventually executed. Here, a statement is being taken from a member of the Carabineros staff from that time," reported Minister Mesa Latorre.

Furthermore, he explained, "(...) statements are being taken from witnesses in case 21.820 of the Panguipulli Court, regarding Juan Ávila Velásquez, who was detained around September 18, 1973, inside Liquiñe, at the moment he was looking for his sister, Yolanda Ávila Velásquez, and his brother-in-law, José Gregorio Liendo Vera, known as Commander Pepe." Avila Velásquez Juan Bautista "In case 5.215 of the Valdivia Court of Appeals regarding José Sofanor Saldivia Saldivia, the victim was a CONAF worker who was detained by soldiers from the Tucapel Regiment on September 28, 1973, and taken to that military unit. Witnesses indicate that he had participated in the assault on the Neltume station of the Carabineros of Chile and that he had been executed on the Villarrica bridge, over the Toltén River," concluded the minister on special assignment.

Source: elsoberano.org 5/30/2024