Case Rol 113.969: Aggravated homicide of Hernán Henríquez Aravena and Alejandro Flores Rivera and unlawful coercion of Jorge Silhi Zarzar and others

José Daniel Cifuentes López

In a police statement from pp. 1.713 to 1.715 (Volume V) dated June 29, 2012, he states that in 1971 he was assigned to the No. 3 Helicopter Group at the Maquehue Air Base, where he remained until 1974, when he was arrested and discharged for treason, and subsequently sentenced by a court-martial for failure to perform military duties.

He adds that two years before September 11, 1973, the conspiracy against the government of President Salvador Allende began to take shape.

On the day of the coup, Andrés Pacheco informed them that the Chilean Armed Forces had decided to overthrow the prevailing government and that anyone who opposed it should step forward; despite his disagreement, he did not do so because of what might have happened to him.

At that moment, the occupation of the city was ordered, and he was given an automatic rifle and 600 rounds of ammunition to go to his home and monitor the population. About 20 days later, it became very frequent for shots to be fired at them from a vehicle; because of this, he and his partner managed to clarify who was shooting at them and established that the driver of said vehicle was Captain Volante, who berated them violently.

He explains that at the base, he observed many detainees, who were sometimes lying in the guardhouse cells and others in the hallways with their hands up and blindfolded. He also saw people who were taken to the back of the administrative building, in the water tower, where they were tortured.

This was evident due to the screams that could be heard and how they were left in the same hallways and cells after the torture.

Regarding his own detention, he notes that on one occasion he observed 15 people in the guardhouse cell showing signs of torture. Due to his condition, he decided to feed them, taking them outside for two hours, but asking them not to speak about it for their own safety.

The fact is that the next day he was called by the second-in-command, Benjamín Fernández, who made him wait for six hours. Upon entering his office, Fernández confronted him about what had happened with the detainees, stating that they should contribute to the fatherland, labeling him a leftist militant, pointing his weapon at him at all times, and indicating that the command had withdrawn its confidence in him.

The truth is that on January 4, while he was vacationing in the town of Quintero, a lieutenant and a conscript arrived at his house with the mission of taking him to see a radio sent by the command. Upon arriving at the base, he was notified by a lieutenant that he was under arrest by order of the command.

They handcuffed him, blindfolded him, placed a hood over his head, and he was transported by plane to the 2nd Carabineros Precinct of Temuco. He remained blindfolded for 11 days, with his torture beginning at that location.

During the day, they transferred him to the Tucapel Regiment, where he was tortured by his peers in a room by Lieutenant Jorge Freygang, 2nd Corporal Enrique Rebolledo, Corporal Pereira, 2nd Corporal Valdebenito, 2nd Corporal Marín, 2nd Corporal Ubilla, 2nd Corporal Charnay, 2nd Corporal Solís, 2nd Corporal Soto Pinto, 2nd Corporal Soto Herrera, 2nd Corporal Yañez (Pato), and 2nd Sergeant Orlando Garrido, with Pereira being the most savage.

After several transfers, he was tried for failure to perform military duties in a court-martial, serving a 300-day sentence and being released in January 1975. He adds that the personnel who participated in the detentions were those mentioned above, under the command of Captain Leonardo Reyes and reserve officers Cantarutti and Carotti.

However, he indicates that, according to comments from his subordinates, Cantarutti had detained, tortured, and murdered people during raids. Regarding the other detainees at the air base, based on information obtained, the bodies of those murdered were thrown into the Cautín River in the sector called La Isla.

Regarding the victims of the events, Hernán Henríquez Aravena and Alejandro Flores Rivera, he does not remember having known them nor does he remember them as detainees at the base, but he does know that at the time, three doctors whom he does not know were being held.

Source: Judiciary, January 2, 2020

Judge Fernando Carreño sentenced seven former officials of the Chilean Air Force to eight years in prison for the aggravated kidnapping of two people after 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 aggravated kidnapping of teacher María Arriagada Jerez—a forcibly disappeared person in the Cautín province—and Jorge Aillón Lara, both 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 sub-precinct. The following day, she was taken to Curacautín and then to the Maquehue air base in Temuco.

Her whereabouts have been unknown since then. Aillón, an employee of the Agricultural Trade Company, had been arrested by Lonquimay Carabineros on the day of the military coup (September 11).

Source: La Nación, June 7, 2008

Brother of Minister of Justice implicated in murders of 4 leftist 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.

They are Hernán Henríquez, Eduardo González Galeno, Alejandro Flores, and Nelson Curiñir. Eduardo González was the Director of the Cunco Hospital; he was arrested 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 is a forcibly disappeared person. Meanwhile, 22-year-old Nelson Curiñir was arrested 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 the No. 3 group 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 victims of torture identified the Justice Minister's brother as their torturer. This information was investigated together with 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 from September 11 was enabled for the indicated purposes, and on some occasions, they were also moved 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, including 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

Former FACH officer and civilian prosecuted for crime against political prisoner in Temuco in 1973

The minister on extraordinary visit for human rights violation cases for the jurisdictions of Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Coyhaique, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, initiated proceedings against former Air Force officer Leonardo Reyes Herrera and Crisóstomo Hugo Ferrada Carrasco, a former civilian employee of the same institution, for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Jorge Eduardo Calderón Otaíza, perpetrated starting September 30, 1973, at the Maquehue Air Base in the commune of Temuco.

The victim, 28-year-old Jorge Eduardo Calderón Otaíza, was an employee of the National Public Employees Fund, a Commercial Engineering student at the University of Temuco, and a militant of the Socialist Youth.

He was arrested by Carabineros from the Padre Las Casas Precinct on September 30, 1973, at his home in the Padre Las Casas sector, where he lived with his family on Sarmiento Street. After his arrest, he was taken to the Maquehue Air Base of the Chilean Air Force, a facility used as a center for political imprisonment and torture, where he was seen by witnesses in deteriorated physical condition.

According to the judicial investigation, immediately after the military coup, the commander of the No. 3 Helicopter Group of the Maquehue Air Base, Colonel Andrés Pacheco Cárdenas (now deceased), assumed command of the so-called CAJSI (Jurisdictional Action Command for Internal Situation), whose office was located at the No. 8 'Tucapel' Infantry Regiment in the city of Temuco.

For this reason, he delegated the operational command of the Air Base to the second-in-command, Benjamín Fernández Hernández (now deceased); however, he never formally relinquished command of the unit, going there daily to determine the actions to be followed.

To lead and control repressive activities, as well as interrogations and the management of political prisoners held at the Air Base, Fernández Hernández organized a special group to handle intelligence and political detainee matters.

This group, under the command of this officer, included then-Captain Leonardo Reyes Herrera, Lieutenants Ángel Hernán Campos Quiroga and Jorge Humberto Freygang Campaña (both deceased), Sergeant Orlando Garrido Riquelme (deceased), and several members of the permanent staff, including Luis Alberto Soto Pinto, Heriberto Pereira Rojas, Luis Osmán Yáñez Silva, Jorge Aliro Valdebenito Isler, Jorge Eduardo Soto Herrera, and Enrique Rebolledo Sotelo, among others, as well as civilian employee Crisóstomo Hugo Ferrada Carrasco, who had a nursing specialty.

From that date on, this group ceased to perform the functions of their specialty to focus on the tasks assigned to them by the high command of the Maquehue base, acquiring a special status, as they did not wear uniforms and appeared on daily duty rosters as being on institutional service commission.

The special group received the alternating and sporadic collaboration of line and reserve officers who, out of self-interest or by superior order, on some occasions joined patrols intended to raid homes and arrest people, or witnessed and collaborated in the interrogations of detainees held inside the base.

People arrested in the various operations were kept in the guardhouse facilities, the infirmary, two offices located in the Administrative or Command building, in an old wooden tower that previously served to store unused material and which, after September 11, was enabled as a detention center; on some occasions, they were also moved to a hangar located inside the base.

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, in addition to being administered drugs in certain cases to force them to confess to their alleged crimes.

Said drugs were administered by the base nurse. Also during that time, detainees were taken out to the unit's courtyard during the day to rest a little or were taken to the bathrooms, an opportunity during which they were seen and attended to by conscript soldiers who were able to verify the deteriorated physical state in which these people were found.

Some of these conscripts knew the prisoners from before and had to perform sentry duties to guard the place where those detainees were held.

Some of these officials and conscripts knew Jorge Calderón Otaíza well, as they were neighbors, schoolmates, members of the same soccer club, or had various family relationships, so some of them tried to intercede for him and asked Reyes Herrera about the possibility of his friend being released, only to receive a threat from the officer.

Another conscript saw two members of the so-called intelligence group taking his friend, who was in a calamitous state, to the infirmary, where Ferrada Carrasco received them. From that moment on, nothing more was known about Jorge Eduardo Calderón Otaíza.

In the resolution (case rol 114.033), the minister on extraordinary visit resolved that, since the defendants are currently serving sentences in a different case, preventive detention will not be ordered against them for now.

Regarding this, it states: "(...) given the merits from which it is clear that the freedom of the defendants constitutes a danger to the safety of society; also taking into account the probable legal sanction for the crime in which they are attributed participation, and having seen the provisions of article 363 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the benefit of provisional release will not be granted to them.

Given the fact that defendants Leonardo Reyes Herrera and Crisóstomo Hugo Ferrada Carrasco are serving sentences at the Colina I Penitentiary Compliance Center of the Chilean Gendarmerie, the application of the preventive detention precautionary measure is suspended for now," the resolution states.

By Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl, December 22, 2022

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 aggravated homicide of Hernán Henríquez Aravena and Alejandro Flores Rivera, both Communist Party militants; and the crimes of unlawful 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 rol 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 a penalty of 20 years in prison for their responsibility as authors of the crimes.

Meanwhile, the civilian individual Luis Raimundo Quezada Chandía must serve a 17-year prison sentence for his responsibility as an author of both aggravated homicides. Likewise, the civilian lawyer and former Military Prosecutor Óscar Alfonso Ernesto Podlech Michaud was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his responsibility as an author of the homicide of Hernán Henríquez Aravena.

Meanwhile, former Air Force officer Pablo Aquiles Alister Contreras will serve a 4-year prison sentence as an accomplice to simple homicide and a cover-up of the unlawful 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 3-year and one-day prison sentences 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 substitute these custodial sentences with intensive supervised release ex officio 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 at the Maquehue Air Base, an operational group of Air Force members was established, to which reserve officers of the institution were also invited.

This group carried out arrests of opponents of the military regime to then take them to the facility where they remained prisoners and were subjected to unlawful coercion. In parallel, various judicial proceedings were carried out at the Military Prosecutor's Office against the detainees, who were subjected to unlawful coercion and other inhuman, cruel, and degrading treatment.

The victims, 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 No. 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, arrested him, and took 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 first thing on September 25 before the military tribunal.

However, on the night of September 24, Henríquez Aravena's house was raided again, this time by personnel from the Investigative Police 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 place. Later, another patrol appeared, this time from the 2nd Carabineros 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 via Communiqué No. 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 Communiqué No. 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 communiqué stated: "Given the escape attempt planned by Alejandro Flores Rivera in complicity with Hernán Henríquez Aravena while they were detained at the No. 3 Helicopter Group barracks, 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