The San Miguel Court of Appeals issued a ruling in two cases of aggravated kidnapping of detainees by personnel from the Paine Carabineros Sub-prefecture. The cases investigated by visiting judge Marianela Cifuentes occurred in September and October 1973, respectively.

In the first ruling, the sentence condemning Nelson Bravo Espinoza to 6 years in prison was confirmed, and José Retamal Burgos was acquitted of responsibility in the kidnapping of Pedro León Vargas Barrientos.

In the civil aspect, the state was ordered to pay $150 million to the victim's relatives. Vargas Barrientos was detained while standing in line to buy bread. "He was taken to the Paine Carabineros Sub-prefecture, where he was held without any record of an order authorizing his detention and subsequent confinement, much less the physical abuse to which he was subjected," the ruling details.

The second ruling increased the sentence that Nelson Bravo Espinoza must serve to 8 years in prison for his responsibility in the aggravated kidnapping of Jorge Orlando Valenzuela Valenzuela. In the civil aspect, the sentence ordering the state to pay $180 million to the victim's relatives was confirmed.

The victim was detained by police officers inside a stable at the "Campo Lindo" settlement in the commune of Paine, without any record of an order authorizing his detention.

Source: soychile.cl, July 24, 2018

The pain and hope of Paine

The town of Paine holds the sad record of having the highest number of political executions and forcibly disappeared persons in proportion to its inhabitants. After the military coup, bands of civilians, police, and military personnel operated there, leaving a trail of blood and pain, murdering peasants from "settlements" born from the Agrarian Reform.

In Paine, victims and perpetrators still live side by side, under the cloak of impunity and oblivion. In 1979, the Military Justice system oversaw the dismissal of the cases opened regarding the events in Paine by virtue of the 1978 Amnesty Law, approved by General Pinochet himself to cover up his crimes.

After 29 years, Judge María Estela Elgarrista is nearing the truth. The Agrarian Reform, initiated in the 1960s and accentuated under the government of Salvador Allende and the Unidad Popular, allowed many peasant families to benefit from the allocation of land that, until then, belonged to a handful of large landowners.

Thus, the peasants gave life to the "settlements," but in Paine, as in the rest of the Chilean countryside, everything was reversed on September 11, 1973. Bands of far-right civilians, police, and military personnel exacted "revenge," murdering union leaders and "settled" peasants.

The crimes, impunity, and fear spread through the small towns of Paine, Hospital, Huelquén, Culitrín, Chada, Rangue, El Vínculo, Pintué, and Laguna de Aculeo. Many peasants and their families witnessed how local civilians guided the uniformed men through the "settlements," providing names and, most of the time, participating directly in the repression and crimes.

Two weeks ago, and after 29 years, the judge of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, María Estela Elgarrista, summoned relatives and perpetrators to various face-to-face confrontations. Holanda Vidal, wife of the forcibly disappeared Cristian Cartagena Pérez, points out: "I was summoned for the lawsuit regarding the kidnapping and murder of my husband, who disappeared on September 18, 1973.

Our goal is for the culprits to be prosecuted: Carabineros from the Paine sub-prefecture staff and civilians who acted together. I identified several of them: Sergeant Retamal, Corporal Ortiz, Albornoz, and Víctor Sagredo; and civilians: Darío González Carrasco, now a merchant, member of Patria y Libertad, who admitted that he detained my husband at the Chada School House where we lived, taking him to the sub-prefecture at six in the morning." The former Carabineros have denied their participation in the crimes during the confrontations, arguing that they "were on guard duty." "That gave me a shock with paralysis of my arms, a crisis of crying and anguish. It is terrible to relive everything that happened, to see them so close, their cynicism, their audacity to deny the truth. To see them so arrogant, without accepting that what they did was atrocious. These are the first confrontations after 29 years of complaints, searches, and knocking on doors. This step was possible because of all our effort and work as an Association. We have not compromised on the trial and punishment of the culprits, and that they pay for their crimes with prison." After the confrontations, prosecutions should follow. The judge has a long list of civilians, Carabineros, and military personnel from the San Bernardo Infantry Regiment. "One of the murderers is Lieutenant Magaña Baum, and among the Carabineros, Sergeant Verdugo, a torturer who now presents himself as an old man who has done nothing," adds Holanda Vidal. "Everyone saw them" Juan Maureira is the son of René Maureira Gajardo, who was forcibly disappeared on October 16, 1973, along with 22 other peasants from the Campo Lindo, 24 de Abril, and Nuevo Sendero settlements. As president of the Paine AFDD (Association of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared), he recalls that military personnel from the San Bernardo Infantry School also participated in the repression and murders: "The judge is investigating nearly 40 complaints filed with Judge Guzmán. In Paine, there are more than 70 victims, of whom about 40 are still missing. These are the cases compiled in the Rettig Report, but others were never reported. We presume that around 100 were murdered in Paine, mostly peasants from settlements. The minister will eventually have to prosecute the Carabineros, civilians, and military personnel involved. It is what we expect and what we have asked for, that true justice be done and that we can find our relatives... We know that Lieutenant Magaña has information about what happened to my father and 22 other peasants, among other cases. He killed our relatives... The Carabineros have denied their participation, but they are the same ones who still live in the town. How can they deny it if everyone saw them? The same thing happens with the civilians who acted. Paine is a small town." According to the relatives, the judge has acted with rigor, caution, and intelligence. They trust the testimonies and statements she has managed to collect. For them, everything points to the fact that some of those involved will be prosecuted. "Many were even seen entering houses. There is a countless amount of information collected since that time." So far, they are satisfied with the investigation and the proceedings carried out by the judge. For them, it is the first investigation after 29 years without achieving justice. Up to this minute, civilians and Carabineros have been summoned, and some confrontations have taken place: "Which gives us a little satisfaction because it had never been achieved before. For the moment there are no prosecuted individuals, but the minister continues working. And we have been able to verify that," says Juan Maureira. Meanwhile, most of the civilians and Carabineros who murdered the peasants of Paine continue to live in the small rural town, in complete impunity. "As far as we have been able to see, for the first time there is an investigation as it should be. The criminals will have to provide information about what happened. They are the same Carabineros, civilians, and military personnel who are mentioned in most of the cases," he concludes. Murderers of Paine Carabineros Nelson Bravo Espinoza, Captain; Raúl Ortiz Maluenda, 2nd Sergeant; Carlos Aburto Jaramillo, 1st Corporal; José Retamal Burgos, 1st Corporal; Víctor Sagredo Aravena, 1st Corporal; Reyes, Sergeant; Luis Jara, Lieutenant of Pintué; and Carabineros Samuel Ahumada Cabello; Raúl Donoso Figueroa; Alamiro Garrido Ubal; Jorge González Quezada; Víctor Labarca Díaz; Eduardo Molina Armijo; José Piñaleo Pérez and Jorge Verdugo, among others. Civilians Hugo Aguilera, Fernando Aguilera, Francisco Luzoro, Jorge Sepúlveda, Tito Carrasco, Claudio Oregón, Darío González Carrasco, Luis Guerrero, Mario Tagle, Ricardo Tagle, Yule Tagle, Jorge Aguirre. Military - San Bernardo Infantry School Leonel Köening Alternatt, Director; Samuel Rojas Pérez, Lieutenant Colonel; Mario Morales Durán, Conscript; Andrés Magaña Baum, Lieutenant; Pedro Montalvo Calvo, Colonel; Iván de la Fuente Sáez, Major; Hernán Pizarro Collarte, Major; Ciro Ahumada Miranda, Major; Juan Carlos Nielsen Stambuck, Captain; Sergio Rodríguez Rautcher, Captain; Luis Cortés Villa, Captain; Víctor Pinto Pérez, Captain; Marcial Cobos Farías, Captain; Jorge Romero Campos, Captain; Luis Villarroel Contreras, Captain; Héctor Maturana Zúñiga, Captain; Luis Garfias Cabrera, Captain; Eduardo Silva Bravo, Captain; Sergio Valdivia M., Captain; and Julio Cerda Carrasco, Captain, among others.

Source: elsiglo.cl, February 25, 2003

San Miguel Court of Appeals confirms 15-year prison sentences for former Carabineros for the disappeared of Paine in 1973

The First Chamber of the San Miguel Court of Appeals issued a second-instance ruling in the case known as the "Paine Sub-prefecture Episode" and sentenced two former Carabineros to 15 years in prison for the aggravated kidnapping of merchant Luis Nelson Cádiz Molina and teacher Alberto Leiva Vargas, events that occurred starting September 14, 1973, in the commune of Paine.

Judges Patricio Esteban Martínez and Marcelo Ignacio Ovalle (s), along with acting lawyer Ignacio Castillo Val, confirmed the resolution made by Judge Marianela Cifuentes in July 2021 in her first-instance ruling, and finalized the sentences of 15 years and one day of major imprisonment in its maximum degree, as authors of the aggravated kidnapping of both victims, for Carabineros José Retamal Burgos and former Colonel Nelson Bravo Espinoza, who served as head of the Paine Carabineros station at that time and who is currently serving a sentence at the Punta Peuco prison for being linked to other crimes against humanity cases. It should be noted that there were four accused in this case for the aforementioned crimes. Two of them died before being sentenced, while Retamal Burgos died in October 2021, months after being sentenced in the first instance by Judge Cifuentes. For lawyer Nelson Caucoto, a plaintiff in this case, it is "good news for the relatives of these victims, who have waited 49 years for the State of Chile to bring justice to their loved ones," he noted. In that sense, Caucoto emphasizes that "the trial is ending, but the most important thing remains pending: apart from punishing those responsible, locating the bodies of these two disappeared Chileans. That is and continues to be a pending task that we must assume as a society." Luis Nelson Cádiz Molina and Alberto Leiva Vargas are two of the more than 70 victims who were executed and disappeared by the dictatorship in Paine, mostly peasants from the area, which experienced its own holocaust, becoming, in proportion to the country, one of the places most affected by the repression. The facts According to the investigation substantiated by Judge Marianela Cifuentes, it was established that "on September 14, 1973, after becoming aware of a warrant against him, Luis Nelson Cádiz Molina presented himself voluntarily at the Paine Carabineros Sub-prefecture, a place where he was kept locked up, without rights, and that, instead of being placed at the disposal of the judicial authority, his whereabouts remain unknown to this date." "That, on the same day, in the afternoon, Alberto Leiva Vargas, an auxiliary employee of Fundamental Education at the Rural Education Institute and a philosophy student at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, was detained at his home on Calle Baquedano 806, in the commune of Paine, and, immediately after, taken to the aforementioned police unit, where he was kept locked up and his whereabouts remain unknown to this date." "That at the time of the events, the Paine Carabineros Sub-prefecture was under the command of Captain Nelson Iván Bravo Espinoza, seconded by sub-officers José Floriano Verdugo Espinoza and Manuel Antonio Reyes Álvarez, currently deceased, who took turns in their duties every 24 hours." "That at that time, the guard of the aforementioned police unit was in charge of Carabineros José Retamal Burgos and Víctor Manuel Sagredo Arenas, who also took turns in their duties every 24 hours."

Source: resumen.cl, June 10, 2022