Case File No. 28.291 – B Qualified kidnapping of Gastón Lobos Barrientos

30.- Statement by Juan de Dios Aliro Verdugo Jara, on p. 484, who stated that the SICAR began operating immediately after September 11, 1973, and had a red double-cab pickup truck at their disposal. He adds that he witnessed interrogations of detainees, which were carried out in a facility located next to the so-called internal ward, by Sergeant Fritz, Lieutenant Riquelme, and Colonel Arias.

The link between the Prefecture and them was Riquelme, who dealt with Arias. The chain of command was headed by Arias, who gave orders to Riquelme, who then communicated them to Fritz. He also acknowledged having carried out arrests together with Fritz, Burgos, and Riquelme. Finally, he explained that Prefect José San Martín Venegas never participated in the matters entrusted to the commission.

33.- Statement by Ismael Lupertino González Pasmiño, on p. 503, who points out that he was a Carabineros Corporal in September 1973 at the Second Police Station of Temuco. He indicates that one of the four cells in the barracks was reserved for the detainees handled by the Civil Commission, which was composed of Sergeant Juan de Dios Fritz Vega, Omar Burgos Dejean, Juan Aliro Verdugo Jara, Hernán Navarrete, and Ernesto Garrido Bravo.

37.- Deposition of Leonel Rivera Alarcón on p. 526, who recounts that in September 1973 he was serving at the Second Police Station of Temuco with the rank of Second Corporal. He adds that political detainees were not registered in the guard books, but were passed directly into the hands of the members of the Civil Commission, which was in charge of political matters.

Its members were Lieutenant Riquelme and Carabineros Juan Fritz, Aliro Verdugo, Hugo Opazo, and Ernesto Garrido. All received orders from Enrique Arias González, Sub-prefect of Services. He concludes by narrating that the detainees were blindfolded and kept in a cell designated for that purpose.

On one occasion, he heard Fritz and Burgos interrogating, and the detainees were taken out through a false door in a closed green van that was at the disposal of the Civil Commission. He ends by narrating that on one occasion Burgos commented that he had to shoot people so they would let go of the bars of a bridge, which caused Fritz to laugh.

He remembers having seen Gastón Lobos Barrientos detained at the Police Station.

Source: Judiciary, August 29, 2008

Supreme Court confirms sentences for crimes against MIR members and a doctor in Temuco

This week, the Supreme Court ratified the sentences appealed in two human rights violation cases investigated, in the first instance, by visiting judges Leopoldo Llanos Sagristá and Alejandro Madrid Crohare.

In the first ruling (case file 11198-2015), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Milton Juica, Carlos Künsemüller, Haroldo Brito, Juan Eduardo Fuentes, and Jorge Dahm—rejected the cassation appeal filed against the sentence handed down on October 24, 2014, which convicted two agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) as authors of the repeated crimes of qualified kidnapping of Artemio Gutiérrez Ávila, Javier Fuentealba Fuentealba, and Abundio Contreras González, illicit acts perpetrated starting on July 13 (the first two) and July 14, 1974 (the last), in the Metropolitan Region.

The highest court's sentence ratified the convictions handed down by Judge Llanos: 20 years of imprisonment for former army officer Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and 15 years and one day of imprisonment for agent Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes.

During the investigation stage, Judge Leopoldo Llanos managed to establish the following facts:

a) That "Londres N°38" was a secret detention and torture center of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA). It was located in downtown Santiago and operated from late 1973 until approximately the last days of August 1974.

It held numerous detainees, who were interrogated and tortured with different types of flagellation. They were also taken out of the location to cooperate in other arrests. b) That Artemio Segundo Gutiérrez Ávila, 23 years old, jeweler, single, a member of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), was arrested together with Francisco Javier Eduardo Fuentealba Fuentealba, 26 years old, jeweler, a member of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), by DINA agents on July 13, 1974, while they were at the "Platinol" jewelry store located at Calle Santo Domingo N° 573, Apartment 33, Santiago commune, to be taken to the clandestine detention center known as "Londres 38," where they were seen by witnesses, with all credible traces of them being lost to date, without them having made contact with their relatives, nor having carried out procedures before State agencies; without registering entries or exits from the country, and with no record of their death. c) That Abundio Alejandro Contreras González, 28 years old, married, father of two children, employee of the Agrarian Reform Corporation (CORA) and a member of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), was arrested on July 14, 1974, at his home in the La Cisterna commune by members of the National Intelligence Directorate. He was seen at "Londres 38" and "Cuatro Álamos" by various witnesses, and from there all traces of him are lost to date, without him having made contact with his relatives, nor having carried out procedures before State agencies, without registering entries or exits from the country, and with no record of his death (...) the facts described above constitute separate crimes of qualified kidnapping, as contemplated in Article 141, paragraphs 1 and 4 of the Penal Code; and are qualified by the time the action was prolonged, that is, more than 90 days, and by the consequences thereof, resulting in serious damage to the person or interests of the victims. Such a situation occurs in the case files, as the whereabouts of Artemio Segundo Gutiérrez Ávila, Francisco Fuentealba Fuentealba, and Abundio Contreras González remain unknown, it having been established in the case that the aforementioned victims were held against their will starting on July 13, 1974 (regarding the first two) and July 14 of the same year (regarding the last), depriving them of their freedom of movement, a state that continues to this day, as the whereabouts of the kidnapped persons remain unknown.

Temuco Doctor In the second ruling (case file 173-2016), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of the same ministers mentioned above—rejected the cassation appeal filed against the sentence that convicted retired members of the Carabineros for the qualified kidnapping of doctor Arturo Hillerns Larrañaga, an illicit act perpetrated starting on September 15, 1973, in Temuco.

The confirmed sentence, handed down on April 15, 2014, sentenced former Carabineros officers Francisco Neftalí Ferrada González and Osvaldo Muñoz Mondaca to 10 years of imprisonment as authors of the crime. Meanwhile, former uniformed police officers Eduardo Orlando Riquelme Rodríguez, Omar Burgos Dejean, and Hugo Opazo Insunza must each serve 3 years and one day of imprisonment as accomplices.

Likewise, former Carabineros officer Gonzalo Enrique Arias González and former police officials Ernesto Idelfonso Garrido Bravo and Juan de Dios Aliro Verdugo Jara were acquitted because their participation in the events could not be proven.

In the first instance, Judge Alejandro Madrid managed to establish that:

"Starting on September 11, 1973, a civil commission was organized at the 2nd Carabineros Police Station of Temuco, which was 'composed of officials of this police force, under the command of Lieutenant Eduardo Riquelme Rodríguez and reporting directly to Commander Gonzalo Arias González, head of services and second-in-command of the Cautín Carabineros Prefecture.

The personnel of this unit operated independently of the functions of the 2nd Police Station and generally wore civilian clothes. Although it operated in a building located at the corner of General Cruz and Antonio Varas streets, the detainees were physically kept in the back of the 2nd Police Station, located at Calle Claro Solar N° 1248, in an office that had an entrance, a false door (rear entrance toward the railway line), and an independent cell.

Political detainees were not entered into the Guard Books and were passed directly to these facilities. This unit moved in 'Chevrolet' C-10 model pickup trucks with a canopy. This Unit was created with the purpose of working on political matters that were ordered to be investigated to comply with orders issued by the Military Prosecutor's Office of Temuco and, therefore, was in charge of political detainees, regarding their apprehension and interrogations as the case may be, and once their situation was decided, they were handed over, indiscriminately, to Department II of the Chilean Air Force, at the Maquehue Air Base in Temuco, to the Infantry Regiment N° 8, Tucapel, or to the Public Jail of the city. In all these detention centers, officials operated who, holding various levels of hierarchy in the command, ordered some and executed others, the capture of people who were militants or sympathizers of political parties or left-wing movements, whom they illegally imprisoned in the places they had designated for that purpose, breaking them under physical torment of various kinds with the object of making them provide information about other people of the political left in order to apprehend them."

Under these circumstances, it continues, "(...) on September 15, 1973, around 02:00 in the morning, officials of the 2nd Carabineros Police Station of Temuco violently broke into the property at Calle Lynch N° 161, carrying out an illegal raid and destroying clothes and belongings.

Among the police, the family was able to recognize the then-Lieutenant Osvaldo Muñoz Mondaca, who loudly asked for Jaime Eltit Spielmann, brother-in-law of Arturo Hillerns Larrañaga, who was later arrested by military personnel in the city of Santiago on October 6, 1973, and has been disappeared since then.

The occupants of the house were interrogated about Jaime's friends, the addresses they had, warning that they knew who the Marxists were. When the officials were proceeding to leave, another group composed of five Carabineros officials appeared from the backyard, different from those who were interrogating, who entered through the back of the property; they had raided some rooms, seizing some boxes with books and documents that belonged to Arturo Hillerns Larrañaga.

They were dressed differently from the previous ones, as one was wearing riding boots, another a helmet and overcoat (which his spouse recognized as the members of the so-called Civil Commission of the 2nd Carabineros Police Station); at that moment Arturo Hillerns Larrañaga asked 'why were they taking those boxes of books?', as they were his property and consisted of Medicine texts.

The official in charge asked for his name and upon being given it, indicated: 'We were looking for you!'. Arturo Hillerns asked him to show the corresponding arrest warrant, to which the Officer, pointing his firearm at him, expressed: 'This is my order...!'.

In that way, Hillerns was put into a white pickup truck with a canopy, without license plates, and the family was informed that he would be taken to the 2nd Carabineros Police Station of Temuco."

Source: resumen.cl, June 25, 2016

Judge Álvaro Mesa sentences two retired Carabineros for illegal coercion and qualified kidnapping of a forcibly disappeared person

In the ruling, Judge Mesa Latorre sentenced former officers Eduardo Orlando Riquelme Rodríguez and Gonzalo Enrique Arias González to 3 years and 12 years of effective imprisonment, respectively, as authors of the crimes of illegal coercion and qualified kidnapping, committed against the worker and social leader who was 21 years old at the time of the events, José Edulio Muñoz Concha.

The extraordinary visiting judge for human rights violation cases in the jurisdictions of Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Coyhaique, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, sentenced two retired Carabineros officers for their responsibility in the crimes of qualified kidnapping and illegal coercion, as crimes against humanity.

These illicit acts were perpetrated in the regional capital of La Araucanía in September 1973.

In the ruling (case file 114.051), Judge Mesa Latorre sentenced former officers Eduardo Orlando Riquelme Rodríguez and Gonzalo Enrique Arias González to 3 years and 12 years of effective imprisonment, respectively, as authors of the crimes of illegal coercion and qualified kidnapping, committed against the worker and social leader who was 21 years old at the time of the events, José Edulio Muñoz Concha.

During the investigation stage of the case, the visiting judge managed to establish the following facts: "A.- That starting on September 11, 1973, as a result of the events that occurred in the country, an operational group called a 'civil commission' was formed in all police stations, dedicated to intelligence tasks that consisted of finding out information regarding violent groups, the arrest of people who were considered in military decrees, among others; that is, they were tasks that escaped common police procedures.

In the case of Temuco, said commission was composed of Lieutenant Eduardo Riquelme Rodríguez, in charge of directing the group; Juan Fritz Vega, Omar Burgos Dejean, and non-commissioned officers Hugo Opazo Inzunza and Ernesto Garrido Bravo from that same police unit.

Although the uniformed officers mentioned were part of the staff of the Second Carabineros Police Station of Temuco, the orders given to them on intelligence matters were directed directly by Mr. Gonzalo Enrique Arias González, Sub-prefect of the Cautín Carabineros and who also performed functions as a Carabineros prosecutor.

In addition, the information gathered on intelligence matters by the group led by Riquelme was communicated directly to the same Sub-prefect of Carabineros. B.- That said Sub-prefect of Carabineros and military prosecutor of Cautín named Gonzalo Enrique Arias González, after September 11, 1973, was performing functions in the city of Temuco, as stated in his service record.

Except for November 26, 1973, according to what was indicated in the replacement sentence of the Supreme Court. C.- That the people arrested by the aforementioned group were apprehended either at their home, on public roads, or at a torture center, to then be taken to the common cells of the Second Carabineros Police Station of Temuco, and could only be interrogated or visited by the members of this civil commission.

D.- That José Edulio Muñoz Concha, 21 years old, worker, neighborhood leader of the 'Ampliación Amanecer' neighborhood of Temuco and a member of the Socialist Party of the same city, was arrested after September 11, 1973, a date on which he was searched for unsuccessfully by his mother in the different facilities that housed political prisoners at that time, managing to find his whereabouts in the records of the public jail of the city of Temuco, an occasion on which she was also informed that her son would be released.

E.- That after the events described above and around the third week of September 1973, the political detainees who were inside the public jail of Temuco, among them José Edulio Muñoz Concha, were subjected to a recognition round by two uniformed officers, among them a Carabineros lieutenant named Eduardo Orlando Riquelme Rodríguez and another higher-ranking officer named Gonzalo Enrique Arias González, who from an interior office of the aforementioned prison facility proceeded to recognize the detainees, to subsequently separate a specific group of them among which were José Edulio Muñoz Concha, Luis Almonacid Dumenez, Zbigniew Rubinek Mazur, and Mario San Martín Molina, who after being separated from the general formation, were forced to remain against a wall with their hands raised to finally be taken to an incommunicado cell. F.- That a witness to all of the above was Mr. Víctor Maturana Burgos, who although he was in that recognition round as a political detainee, was not separated from the general formation; however, he was able to know the identity of the police officials who were in charge of that instruction, since at the very moment the political detainees were returned to the patio where they were originally, and those separated were taken to the incommunicado facility, he was called to go to that office, a place where he could notice that among the uniformed officers was Carabineros Lieutenant Eduardo Orlando Riquelme Rodríguez, whom he knew perfectly well because he had taken the instruction course with him at the Carabineros institution, at which moment this officer introduces him to his superior, Gonzalo Enrique Arias González, asking the latter to intercede for Mr. Maturana. That said authority and superior of Lieutenant Riquelme corresponded precisely to the one indicated in letter B of this presentation. G.- That in this context, and the following day, that is, September 25, 1973, and after remaining in an incommunicado cell, the political detainees separated from the general formation, with the exception of Zbigniew Rubinek Mazur, were released by order N° 21 issued by the Military Prosecutor's Office of Temuco, as stated on p. 672. However, upon leaving the guard facility of the jail, they were forced again to enter as detainees into a red Chevrolet pickup truck, inside which were around 4 Carabineros officials, the civil commission group that was in charge of the recognition round mentioned above, one of whom Mario Rafael San Martín Molina recognizes as an official of the 2nd Police Station of Temuco named Juan Fritz Vega, who had been his neighbor in the city of Nueva Imperial and also knew his father, at which moment said official took the opportunity to ask him about him. H.- That they were immediately taken to a police facility, which Mario San Martín Molina recognizes as the 2nd Carabineros Police Station of Temuco, a place where he shared a cell with José Edulio Muñoz Concha and Luis Almonacid Dumenez, being a witness to how personnel of the Police Station moved them to another facility of the same to be interrogated and tortured, hearing their screams of pain after the tortures; which consisted of the application of current to different parts of their bodies. He finally reports that both José Edulio Muñoz Concha and Luis Almonacid Dumenez arrived in very poor physical condition. Their whereabouts remain unknown to date, as he was the only survivor."

In the civil aspect, the judge ordered the treasury to pay a total compensation of $900,000,000 (nine hundred million pesos), for moral damages, to the victim's relatives.

Source: pjud.cl, May 5, 2021

Temuco: 5 retired Carabineros and one civilian are accused of kidnapping a UTE student in 1973

A general and four retired Carabineros non-commissioned officers, in addition to a civilian, were accused of the qualified kidnapping of a student from the former State Technical University (UTE), which occurred in Temuco in September 1973.

The visiting judge for Human Rights cases of the Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Coyhaique courts of appeal, Álvaro Mesa, accused the retired Carabineros general, Gonzalo Enrique Arias González, and the retired non-commissioned officer Omar Burgos Dejean, in addition to Jorge Nibaldo Chovar Aguilera, as authors of the qualified kidnapping of Luis Bernardo Maldonado Ávila, perpetrated in Temuco starting on September 22, 1973.

Likewise, retired Carabineros non-commissioned officers were held responsible. Eduardo Orlando Riquelme Rodríguez as an accomplice for the same illicit act, and Ernesto Ildefonso Garrido Bravo and Hugo Opazo Inzunza as accessories after the fact.

The investigation details that the victim was intercepted in the vicinity of the Temuco campus of the UTE by Carabineros of the Civil Commission of the Second Police Station, who were traveling in a Chevrolet pickup truck.

This was allegedly driven by the civilian Jorge Chovar Aguilera, a known sympathizer of the National Party and the Patria y Libertad group.

Due to his closeness to uniformed personnel of different armed institutions, he was seen on repeated occasions with them on the streets of Temuco.

The investigating judge established that to this date, no public official of the Carabineros de Chile or any other branch of the Armed Forces or of Order and Security who served at the time of the events has provided any information to the respective authority regarding what happened to Luis Bernardo Maldonado Ávila, thereby keeping the information about his whereabouts hidden.

Source: biobio.cl, May 8, 2018

Supreme Court confirms conviction of civilian subject for crime against student in Temuco in 1973

The Supreme Court rejected the cassation appeal in form and substance filed against the sentence that convicted the right-wing civilian subject Jorge Nibaldo Chovar Aguilera for his responsibility in the crime of qualified kidnapping of the then-university student Luis Bernardo Maldonado Ávila, committed starting on September 22, 1973, in the city of Temuco.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 201.561-2023), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of Judge Manuel Antonio Valderrama, judges María Teresa Letelier, María Cristina Gajardo, ad hoc lawyer Pía Tavolari, and ad hoc lawyer Eduardo Gandulfo—confirmed the sentence that convicted the former member of the fascist group Patria y Libertad and subsequent gastronomic entrepreneur, Jorge Chovar Aguilera, to the penalty of 12 years of effective imprisonment, as author of the crime, as a crime against humanity.

Thus, the Supreme Court rejects the appeal filed against the sentence of the Temuco Court of Appeals of June 2023, which, in turn, fully ratified the first-instance ruling issued by Judge Álvaro Mesa Latorre in September 2022.

Likewise, regarding the also sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment, former Carabineros officer Gonzalo Enrique Arias González, in whose favor a cassation appeal in substance had also been filed, the Court omits to rule on it, due to the death of the criminal, which occurred in July 2023.

Other sentenced individuals did not file appeals before the Supreme Court; former Carabineros 2nd Sergeant Omar Burgos Dejean was sentenced to 12 years of effective imprisonment as author of the crime.

In addition, former Carabineros officer Eduardo Orlando Riquelme Rodríguez was sentenced to serve 5 years of imprisonment as an accomplice; while former non-commissioned officers Hugo Opazo Inzunza and Ernesto Ildefonso Garrido Bravo must serve 3 years of imprisonment as accessories after the fact to the qualified kidnapping.

In the sentence, the legal accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and positions and political rights, and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentences, were applied to the convicted.

The convicted and implicated in this case were part of the staff of the Second Carabineros Police Station of Temuco and were members of an operational group called the "civil commission" whose function, after the military coup, was destined for repressive or intelligence tasks that consisted of the search and arrest of people who were considered dangerous to the dictatorial regime.

In repressive and intelligence matters, they received orders issued by the Sub-prefect of the Cautín Carabineros, Gonzalo Enrique Arias González, who also performed functions as a Carabineros Prosecutor.

The aforementioned civil commission was composed of the then-Lieutenant Eduardo Riquelme Rodríguez in charge of directing the group; Juan Fritz Vega (deceased), Omar Burgos Dejean, and non-commissioned officers Hugo Opazo Inzunza and Ernesto Garrido Bravo, all from the same police unit.

The information gathered by the group led by Riquelme Rodríguez was communicated directly to the same Sub-prefect Arias González.

The people arrested by the aforementioned group were taken to the common cells of the Second Carabineros Police Station of Temuco, which could only be interrogated or visited by the members of this civil commission, with the rest of the unit's staff unable to have contact with them.

On September 22, 1973, Luis Bernardo Maldonado Ávila, 24 years old, a student of Mechanical Execution Engineering at the State Technical University, was arrested by the members of this "civil commission" who were accompanied by the civilian collaborator Jorge Nibaldo Chovar Aguilera, a known sympathizer of the National Party and member of the Patria y Libertad group of the time, and due to his closeness to uniformed personnel of different armed institutions, he was seen on repeated occasions with them on the streets of Temuco.

The civilian snitch acted as the driver of the private vehicle in which the repressive group moved.

Since that date, the whereabouts of the detainee Maldonado Ávila remain unknown. Various testimonies account for the student's presence in the cells of the Second Police Station. In the following days, Claudina Ávila, the detainee's mother, was arrested and taken gagged and blindfolded to the same police unit, with the purpose of intimidating her and preventing search actions for her son.

The mother passed away without being able to find an answer regarding the whereabouts of her son Luis Maldonado Ávila.

Source: resumen.cl, July 11, 2025