Representative Position: Vice President of the El Tránsito Settlement and the San Bernardo Peasant Federation. Member of the Socialist Party Date of Detention: October 16, 1973

Name: PEDRO ANTONIO CABEZAS VILLEGAS

Date of Birth: 01 01 37, 36 years old at the time of detention Address: El Tránsito Settlement, Paine Marital Status: Married Occupation: Agricultural Worker Representative Position: No known political affiliation Date of Detention: October 16, 1973

Pedro Antonio Cabezas Villegas, 36 years old at the time of the events, married, 7 children, agricultural worker, with no political affiliation, and Roberto Esteban Serrano Galaz, 34 years old at the time of the events, married, no children, agricultural worker, Vice President of the Nuevo Sendero Settlement and holding a similar position in the San Bernardo Peasant Federation, and a member of the Socialist Party, were detained from their respective homes located in the El Tránsito Settlement in the commune of Paine in the early hours of October 16, 1973, by soldiers belonging to the San Bernardo Infantry School. Their homes were raided without the discovery of any objects of interest to the uniformed men. Their names were checked against a list carried by their captors, and they were immediately taken from their rooms.

Both the raids and the arrests of these two peasants were carried out outside of all legality. Their family members—witnesses to the events—saw how both men were loaded onto a truck that remained parked on the road and was guarded by a military contingent.

Pedro Antonio Cabezas Villegas and Roberto Esteban Serrano Galaz remain forcibly disappeared to this day, despite the countless search efforts carried out by their families.

That night and into the early morning, in a vast operation carried out by soldiers under the orders of Army Lieutenant Andrés Magaña, 22 people were detained from their homes. In none of the cases was there the corresponding authorization to raid and detain.

These soldiers, dressed in field gear or gray uniforms with a cape of the same color over them, wore armbands and had black berets or helmets on their heads. Their faces were in some cases smeared with soot, and in others covered with balaclavas.

They moved in at least one red truck with side rails and a jeep. They were all heavily armed and illuminated the rooms with flashlights, preventing the residents from turning on the lights. The operation began at the first hour of October 16 and lasted until 04:00 in the morning.

The people who were detained—all sympathizers of the deposed government and mostly settlers who had participated in the agrarian reform process during the governments of Presidents Frei and Allende—were listed on a document carried by the soldiers.

Their homes were raided, and the detainees were taken from their houses, with the families warned that they would return during the day after giving statements in San Bernardo. Everyone was loaded onto a truck waiting on the main road.

The operation was carried out silently, and the victims' families were forbidden from leaving their homes. The operation began with the detention of Andrés Pereira Salsberg, an industrialist and owner of a machine shop, followed by the detention of René del Rosario Maureira Gajardo, a merchant; immediately after, the soldiers headed toward the sector corresponding to the 24 de Abril Settlement, where they detained Patricio Loreto Duque Orellana, the brothers Raúl Antonio, Silvestre René, and Jorge Hernán Muñoz Peñaloza, their brother-in-law Basilio Antonio Valenzuela Alvarez, Germán Fredes García, Carlos Enrique Gaete López, Carlos Alberto Nieto Duarte, Laureano Quiroz Pezoa, Rosalindo Delfín Hernán Muñoz, and Ramón Luis Silva Carreño. Next, they headed to the El Tránsito Settlement, where Pedro Antonio Cabezas Villegas and Roberto Serrano Galaz were detained. Finally, they headed to the Nuevo Sendero Settlement, where they detained Enrique Lazo Quintero, his brother Samuel Altamiro Lazo Quinteros and his sons Luis Rodolfo and Samuel Lazo Maldonado, José Domingo Adasme Núñez, Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda, and José Ignacio Gaete Maldonado.

On October 10, Carabineros from the Paine Sub-precinct had detained Samuel Altamiro Lazo Quinteros from his home in the El Tránsito Settlement, who had been released after 24 hours of detention at said Sub-precinct.

This peasant was detained again in the early hours of October 16, 1973. Subsequent to his first detention, he made it known to his fellow settlers that he had been warned by the Carabineros that in the following days, soldiers from the San Bernardo Infantry School would come and proceed to detain the settlers.

The peasants of said settlement who had approached the Sub-precinct, where they engaged in a conversation with Sergeant Reyes regarding their situation, had received identical information. None of them thought to abandon the place.

The places of detention for all the people detained on October 16, 1973, remain unknown. Judicial records indicate that the detainees were likely taken that early morning in the direction of the hills of Codegua, near Melipilla, where they were executed.

Their remains have not been found. The detention and subsequent disappearance of these cases are framed within the repression in Paine in 1973. (Further details in the case of José Domingo Adasme Núñez).

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On March 24, 1974, a mass recurso de amparo (writ of habeas corpus) was filed for 131 people before the Santiago Court of Appeals, which was registered under No. 289-74. Pedro Antonio Cabezas Villegas and Roberto Esteban Serrano Galaz were included in it.

Authorities were consulted without being able to establish the particular situation of each of the individuals covered by the writ. On November 28, 1974, the amparo was rejected. The resolution was appealed.

The Plenary of the Supreme Court confirmed the ruling on January 31, 1975, agreeing to appoint a Ministro en Visita Extraordinaria (Special Investigating Judge) to focus on the corresponding investigation.

The appointment fell to Judge Enrique Zurita Camps, who on February 24 of that year initiated case No. 106657 in the First Criminal Court of Santiago. The families of Cabezas Villegas and Serrano Galaz were summoned to testify by Judge Zurita, leaving a new record of the circumstances of their detention.

On September 25, 1975, without having delved into any of the reported cases, the summary was closed because "no further progress could be made in the investigation." On September 29 of the same year, the Judge issued a ruling in the cases of Cabezas Villegas and Serrano Galaz, as well as in 26 other cases of detainees from Paine, temporarily dismissing the case because the existence of any criminal act was not fully justified.

On May 10, 1976, the Santiago Court of Appeals approved the resolution of Judge Zurita Camps.

On March 21, 1975, a complaint for "presumed misfortune" (disappearance) was filed before the Maipo-Buin Court of Letters, following the detention and subsequent disappearance of 23 locals from Paine, the vast majority of whom were peasants detained on October 16, 1973.

The cases of Pedro Antonio Cabezas Villegas and Roberto Esteban Serrano Galaz were included among them. The case for the group of affected individuals was registered under No. 24005-1 and was in charge of Judge Javier Torres.

The first investigative steps were ordered three months later, once María Inés López Alvarado and Teresa Celinda López Moya—the complainants—appeared before the Court to ratify their statements.

Starting in July, the first investigative steps were decreed; the National Executive Secretariat for Detainees and the San Bernardo Infantry School were officially requested for information. Both organizations, in their official responses, stated they had no records regarding the people inquired about.

The Legal Medical Institute, for its part, replied that the names of those 23 people did not appear in the index book of bodies admitted to that establishment. The Court, in turn, issued a broad order to investigate to the Carabineros and the Investigations police.

The Carabineros limited themselves to taking statements from the 2 complainants, while the Investigations police, in addition to carrying out similar steps to those performed by the Carabineros, informed the Court that they had made inquiries in order to "locate and identify the people who apparently dressed as soldiers on the day of the events, without favorable results." Without having decreed other steps, on November 26, 1975, the Court decided to close the summary and definitively dismiss the case, as "no presumptions appeared from the summary that the reported events had occurred." On January 20, 1976, the Rancagua Court of Appeals confirmed the dismissal. The case was archived. On January 18, 1977, the complaining party requested the reopening of the case on the grounds that the 23 people whose arrests had been reported in case 24005-1 were still missing. Furthermore, the emergence of new evidence that would allow for the enrichment of the investigation was presented to the Court. The case was reopened. On March 22 of the same year, a complaint for the illegal arrest of Roberto Serrano Galaz and another similar one for Pedro Antonio Cabezas Villegas were consolidated. Both complaints were accompanied by a list containing 63 names of people whose bodies had allegedly been admitted to the Legal Medical Institute and subjected to autopsy during the year 1973. In this list, 10 cases included in case 24005-1 appeared, who were still missing according to the information held by the Court. This list had been annexed to the report that the Chilean government delivered at the 30th session held at the UN in October 1975 under the title "Current Situation of Human Rights in Chile" (Volume II, pages 381, 382, 383). The document presented by the Chilean government maintained that those 63 people were dead, and not disappeared as their families claimed. Thus, the information contained in the Chilean government's report, at least in 10 cases, was contradictory to what that Court had received from the Legal Medical Institute itself when consulted by official letter.

On March 23, 1977, the case was reopened. On September 14 of the same year, a complaint for the illegal arrest of Pedro Antonio Cabezas Villegas was filed before the Maipo-Buin Court of Letters, which was consolidated from its inception into case file 24005-1.

On April 3, 1979, the Judge of the Rancagua Court of Appeals, Mr. Juan Rivas Larraín, was appointed to continue hearing the case, in response to a request presented by the Catholic Church to the Supreme Court, so that Special Investigating Judges could focus on the cases of forcibly disappeared persons throughout the national territory.

Thus, two years after the reopening of the case—upon Judge Rivas assuming the role—the first investigative steps were ordered to clarify the information regarding 10 forcibly disappeared persons, the subject of the process, who appeared with contradictory information as already noted.

Judge Rivas officially requested the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile to provide information regarding the background and procedures that allowed them to compile the list of "Presumably disappeared persons," which had been located in records of the Legal Medical Institute of Santiago.

The response was received on October 30, 1979, by the recently appointed Special Investigating Judge, Mr. Humberto Espejo Zúñiga, after the creation of the Presidente Aguirre Cerda Court of Appeals, which, for jurisdictional reasons, was responsible for continuing the investigation, and whose new case number was 1-79.

The official response signed by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs stated verbatim in one of its parts: "I requested such information from Your Honor in view of the fact that the Legal Medical Institute, when requested on the same matter, has not found official letters from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Legal Medical Institute regarding said list.

In this regard, I inform Your Honor that the list contained on pages 381, 382, and 383 of the aforementioned Volume 2 appears with an illegible signature and a stamp that this Ministry understands corresponds to authorities of the Legal Medical Institute; otherwise, such a document would not have been circulated to international organizations.

Regarding how the list came into the possession of this Secretariat of State, it should be noted that there is no official documentation sent to the aforementioned Institute, so it must be concluded that it was requested verbally and delivered by memo to officials of this Ministry." Judge Rivas Larraín, at the moment he left his visit in case 24005-1, established that said list was false and that the autopsy protocols assigned to the forcibly disappeared persons corresponded to unidentified (NN) bodies, whose identification had been impossible due to the lack of epidermis on their hands.

On November 7, 1979, the plaintiff presented a document to the Court requesting the appearance of soldier Jorge Reyes Cortés. The document informed the Court that Luisa Valdés, wife of the peasant leader Serrano Galaz, had been informed that her nephew Jorge Reyes Cortés had admitted to his family that he had participated in the operation of October 16, 1973, and even in the arrest of Serrano Galaz, adding that they had all been taken to some ravines in the hills near Codegua-Melipilla where they were executed, and that he was part of the firing squad.

On April 22, 1980, Jorge Reyes appeared to testify; at that time, he was serving in the Guardia Vieja Regiment of Los Andes. On that occasion, he denied all the facts, even going so far as to claim he had not participated in any operation in Paine. The Court did not order further steps in this regard.

As of December 1979, nine criminal complaints were consolidated into case 1-79 against the personnel of the San Bernardo Infantry School for the crime of kidnapping in the cases of Pedro Hernán Pinto Caroca, Ramón Luis Silva Carreño, Laureano Quiroz Pezoa, Ramiro Antonio Muñoz Peñaloza, Silvestre René Muñoz Peñaloza, José Ignacio Castro Maldonado, Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda, José Germán Fredes García, and Carlos Gaete López.

Five complaints against Colonel Jorge Dawling Santa María for the cover-up of the crime of illegal arrest in the cases of Jorge Hernán Muñoz Peñaloza, Carlos Enrique Lazo Quinteros, Carlos Alberto Nieto Duarte, José Domingo Adasme Núñez, Samuel Altamira Lazo Quinteros, Samuel del Tránsito Lazo Maldonado, and Luis Rodolfo Lazo Maldonado.

A complaint for the kidnapping and qualified homicide of Juan Guillermo Cuadra Espinoza and Ignacio del Tránsito Santander Albornoz, perpetrated by members of the San Bernardo Infantry School.

A complaint against Lieutenant Andrés Magaña Bau for the crime of illegal arrest of René del Rosario Maureira Gajardo; a complaint for the kidnapping of Andrés Pereira Salsberg; and a complaint for the crime of kidnapping of Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza against Carabineros Sergeant Manuel Reyes (further details regarding this last complaint in the account of Mario E.

Muñoz Peñaloza). Regarding the accused Colonel Jorge Dawling Santa María, who in 1979 served as Director of the San Bernardo Infantry School, an official letter was sent to him on September 26, 1978, requesting all information he had from his department regarding the personnel of that unit who served in the months of September and October 1973.

The response did not arrive. The Court reported such behavior to the Court of Appeals, which on November 14, 1978, resolved in Plenary that the aforementioned Colonel should comply with the provisions of Art. 191 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (that is, depending on his rank, whether he appears or not).

The official response finally arrived signed by the new Director of the Infantry School, Carlos Meirelles Müller, in which he limited himself to stating that there was no intention to hide information, that there were documents with the requested information, and added that Colonel Dawling Santa María had handed over command and was no longer part of the institution.

On February 7, 1979, in a new official letter, Colonel Meirelles was requested for the list of the institution's personnel as of October 1973, responding that he did not have the authority to provide that information and that it must be requested from the Minister of National Defense.

Starting in April 1979, and with Judge Humberto Espejo in charge of the investigation after the creation of the Presidente Aguirre Cerda Court of Appeals, which was territorially responsible for continuing the case, the official letters were diversified in order to establish the identification of those who participated in the operations that occurred in Paine and its surroundings.

The Minister of National Defense was officially requested not only to inquire about the aforementioned personnel but also to request the appearance of Colonel Dawling Santa María, Lieutenant Andrés Magaña Bau—identified by the victims' families as the person in charge of the October 16, 1973, operation—and Colonel Pedro Montalva Calvo, Sub-director of the Infantry School as of October 1973.

In April 1979, Lieutenant Andrés Magaña Bau appeared before the Court, at which time he denied his participation in the October 16, 1973, operation as well as in any other that might have been carried out in Paine.

When confronted with family members of one of the forcibly disappeared persons from October 16, René del R. Maureira Gajardo, he denied knowing the members of that family, despite the fact that they claimed to have been together on more than one occasion at social events prior to September 11, 1973.

Regarding Colonel Jorge Dawling Santa María, the Court had been informed in an official response that since August 1978, he had been appointed Military Attaché at the Embassy of Uruguay, a position that would last for more than a year.

For his part, Colonel Pedro Montalva Calvo, upon appearing before the Court on December 10, 1979, testified, affirming the existence of a Detention Camp at Cerro Chena dependent on the Infantry School, which, according to his statement, ceased to function in December 1973 at the time he assumed the Directorate of the School.

Prior to that, its Director had been Colonel Leonel Koning Altterman, who gave written orders regarding who entered as detainees. When the then-Director of the School, Colonel Koning, was summoned to testify, the Court was notified that he had committed suicide on June 21, 1979.

On December 12, 1979, Judge Espejo declared himself incompetent and sent the records to the Military Prosecutor's Office, given that all the complaints and lawsuits contained in this case (file 1-79) attributed the authorship of the arrests to personnel of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, both from the San Bernardo Infantry School and the Paine Sub-precinct.

On March 6, 1980, the Court revoked the incompetence and ordered investigative steps to advance the investigation. As a result, Colonel Jorge Dawling Santa María was summoned to testify again. On April 2, 1980, the Minister of Defense, Lieutenant General Raúl Benavides E., informed the Court that Mr.

Dawling Santa María held the rank of Brigadier General and, in accordance with Art. 191 and 192 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, must testify in writing. The Minister sent a wrongly formulated questionnaire, which would give rise to the Brigadier General responding: "In relation to questions 2 through 13, I have no information to provide."

It should be noted that in this case, investigations were also carried out regarding Patio 29 of the General Cemetery starting in November 1979, at which time Monsignor Ignacio Ortúzar R., in his capacity as Vicar General and Acting Vicar of the Vicariate of Solidarity, reported to the Court the existence of mass and irregular burials of people in Patio 29 of the aforementioned cemetery, which would affect nearly 200 graves.

From the investigation, the Court was able to conclude that at least 6 graves could yield information relative to forcibly disappeared persons included in the process. On September 1, 1980, Judge Humberto Espejo summoned Mrs.

Teresa Jesús Farías Olguín, wife of Cabezas Villegas, and proceeded to inform her that the information on Cabezas Villegas was consistent with that contained in autopsy protocol No. 3570, which corresponded to an unidentified (NN) body buried in grave 2342.

On that occasion, the Judge also asked her if she would be willing to attend the exhumation of that body, to which she agreed. A month later, and without the exhumation order being issued, Judge Espejo had to declare himself incompetent and send the records to the Military Court.

Between 1981 and 1987, the exhumation of those six graves was requested from the Court on five occasions, including 2342, which could yield data on Cabezas Villegas according to the approach of the Visiting Judge, but the request was denied, with the Military Court arguing it was inconclusive given the time elapsed.

In November 1982, the Military Prosecutor declared the dismissal under Decree Law 2191-78 (Amnesty Law). Such a resolution was revoked by the Martial Court in February 1992, instructing the return of the case to the summary stage and ordering the exhumation, which could not be carried out because in 1991 another Court had already done so. As of December 1992, the case remained in process.

In August 1990, case 2-90-E was initiated in the Buin-Maipo Court of Letters with the appointment of the Special Investigating Judge, Mr. Germán Hermosilla, by the Presidente Aguirre Cerda Court of Appeals.

Said appointment was due to a request to that effect from the Vicariate of Solidarity of the Archbishopric of Santiago, given the existence of illegal burials of people in the town of Paine that affected forcibly disappeared persons. The information on Pedro Antonio Cabezas Villegas and Roberto Esteban Serrano Galaz was delivered to the Court.

On March 15, 1991, Mrs. María del Tránsito Venegas Cortés testified before the Special Investigating Judge, Mr. Germán Hermosilla, in her capacity as the mother of Jorge Reyes Cortés, who, as already mentioned, in 1973 had to perform his military service at the San Bernardo Infantry School.

Her words, which account for the fate of the 22 people detained on October 16, 1973, were recorded in the file. Verbatim, in one of its parts, she said: "A few days after they took the husband of my cousin Luisa, Roberto Serrano, I went to visit my aunt Rosa's house and I saw that she was very desperate and crying for the fate of her husband.

So I said to her, 'Don't cry anymore, Lucha, your husband was taken by the soldiers, Jorge was with them.' I was referring to the fact that my son had to carry out this detention. My son Jorge had told me about this a few months later; I don't remember exactly when; I knew about it a few days later as I said before.

They had them for months without going out after the Coup, so when he went to the house, he told me. He wasn't calm; he was like scared, desperate, and not only him but also his companions. My son didn't know Roberto Serrano; when they went to their house, Jorge met Luisa.

He told me that these detentions were done at night. Yes, it is true that my son told me that it was his turn to shoot at Serrano, but that he asked a companion to change places with him. He also told me that if he said he wouldn't shoot, they would kill him.

It is true that I told Luisa this, since she was taking clothes to her husband at Cerro Chena and they would receive them there, when Serrano was already dead." Jorge Reyes Cortés currently serves in the Los Andes Regiment, with his military rank unknown.

Although Mrs. María Venegas Cortez declared that she did not remember having indicated the hills near Codegua and Melipilla as the place of execution, the wife of Serrano Galaz did remember it, as recorded in her statements before the Special Investigating Judge Humberto Espejo.

On April 22, 1980, Jorge Reyes Cortez appeared before the Court in case file 1-79. In his statement, as already stated, he denied any participation in the events; verbatim, in one of its parts, he said: "I never participated in any operation in Paine, I never knew there were detainees at Cerro Chena, nor did I recognize any of the detainees in the few times I had to be on guard when they arrived." The Special Investigating Judge has carried out various ocular inspections in rural sectors around Paine, without positive results for the case of the forcibly disappeared persons of October 16, 1973.

On August 22, 1991, case 4449-AF was initiated in the 22nd Criminal Court of Santiago, upon launching the judicial investigation into the crime of illegal burial of people who currently remain buried as NN in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery, information contained in a criminal complaint presented by the Vicariate of Solidarity of the Archbishopric of Santiago.

Anthropomorphic information on Pedro Antonio Cabezas Villegas and Roberto Esteban Serrano Galaz was delivered in that case. In the month of September 1991, the exhumation of 108 graves in Patio 29 was carried out; currently, the extracted remains are at the Legal Medical Institute undergoing the identification process.

cation, preliminary information indicated that the remains of Pedro Antonio Cabezas Villegas had been identified as one of the NN [unidentified persons] exhumed. As of December 1992, confirmation was awaited so that his family could proceed with his final burial.

Source: Corporación report

Memoriaviva had access to the birth certificate of Mr. Roberto Esteban Serrano Galaz, and was able to verify that the name Esteban is spelled with a "v," Estevan. Folio: 600021731944 Civil Registry and Identification Service.

Source: registrocivil.cl

In an interview with Interferencia, the journalist and author of A la Sombra de Los Cuervos [In the Shadow of the Ravens] reviews the full picture of what is known about the Kast family's participation in the brutal repression that took place in the town during the dictatorship, where this family had their home and main businesses.

This Wednesday, June 15, the Supreme Court, in an unprecedented ruling, dismissed the statute of limitations requested for the case of the murder of 38 people in Paine during the dictatorship, and increased the sentences for members of the Army and the Carabineros for their responsibility in the crimes that occurred during September and October 1973.

Finally, seven retired military officers were sentenced to 10 years in prison, another former military officer was sentenced to seven years in prison, while three other Carabineros also received prison sentences.

The murders that occurred in Paine are emblematic cases among the crimes against humanity committed during the dictatorship, as they demonstrate the complicity between uniformed personnel and civilians in the planning and execution of these crimes.

Also, because a key testimony to elucidate these events was provided by Alejandro Bustos, a peasant who managed to survive a firing squad by hiding among the bodies of the victims who were next to him.

His statement was key to reaching the truth in these cases. Journalist Javier Rebolledo investigated in depth the relationship between uniformed personnel and civilians in the human rights violations that occurred during the dictatorship, and especially the Paine murders, which involve nearly 70 victims, most of them peasants who benefited from the agrarian reform implemented during the Unidad Popular.

One of these crimes is the “Paine Massacre,” as the execution where Bustos survived is known. Rebolledo's investigation was captured in his 2015 book, A la Sombra de los Cuervos, Los Cómplices Civiles de la Dictadura [In the Shadow of the Ravens, The Civilian Accomplices of the Dictatorship]. "I would tell you that the civilians, to a large extent—without taking responsibility away from the Carabineros or the military—provided information to the uniformed personnel; they worked together with them with an impressive hatred." In this interview, Rebolledo comments to Interferencia on the impact the level of violence and hatred from the civilians who participated in these murders and disappearances had on him, and the role the Kast family—especially the father and brother of former presidential candidate José Antonio Kast—played in these crimes.

• The case of the Paine murders, which you investigated, is shocking; it even involves a person who survived a firing squad, and thanks to his testimony, it was possible to know what happened. You have already investigated other cases of human rights violations. What in particular caught your attention about the Paine murders?
• What caught my attention was that this was a revenge by civilians, in conjunction with uniformed personnel, both with Carabineros and with the military in different operations and on different days. I would tell you that the civilians, to a large extent—without taking responsibility away from the Carabineros or the military—provided information to the uniformed personnel; they worked together with them with an impressive hatred, a hatred rarely seen. The level of cruelty, of viciousness, even after the crimes, is something that at least I don't know if I had seen before, with as much viciousness as in these cases.

In the case of Paine, as a commune, it has the highest number of forcibly disappeared and executed persons of the dictatorship by population density. There are 70 victims in a small population, which gives a high percentage of those who were murdered.

An example of this is that there is a place in Paine that was called “the widows' alley,” and that place was called that because a military unit went to look for almost all the men on that street, where the women were practically left alone to this day.

The case you mention, where there is a survivor of a firing squad, Alejandro Bustos, known as “el colorín,” is important because he can identify civilians who participated in these crimes, and among others, Christian Kast, who is the former president of Cecinas Bavaria, and also the brother of José Antonio Kast and Miguel Kast—the ideologue of the dictatorship's economic changes, as acknowledged by Joaquín Lavín. "Michael Kast himself acknowledged that he provided a truck with a driver to the Carabineros to 'carry out their work,' and the work at that time was the detention of people, although he did not acknowledge it in that way." In that case, known as the “Paine massacre,” the victims, after being executed, had their eyes gouged out and their tongues cut off with corvos [military knives]. And of course, the level of violence, the level of cruelty that these civilians had, in conjunction with the military and Carabineros, in the detentions, torture, crimes, and forced disappearances that were carried out, is impressive.

• How did the Kast family participate in these murders and executions? What role did they have in these crimes?
• There is, among several testimonies, that of the sister of Pedro Vargas Barrientos—currently a forcibly disappeared person—Silvia, who says that her brother Pedro, along with his entire family, worked at Cecinas Bavaria and helped generate wealth for the company, when the Kast family had just started with their first sandwich shop on the side of the North-South highway, in the Buin sector. And this young man, Pedro Vargas, continued working there and over the years organized a union, which was his “biggest mistake,” because they moved him to be a night watchman, gave him a weapon, and later he had to leave his job. Pedro was one of the first people to be detained at the Paine barracks.

His sister went to plead for Pedro's life to Michael Kast—who was the father of José Antonio, Christian, and Miguel Kast, and grandfather of Felipe Kast—and Michael Kast did not provide her with any help; he told her to go home, and on the contrary...

In these cases, it has never been determined, judicially, exactly which vehicles participated in the detentions that ended in each of the executions and forced disappearances. But the concrete case is that Michael Kast himself acknowledged that he provided a truck with a driver to the Carabineros to “carry out their work,” and the work at that time was the detention of people, although he did not acknowledge it in that way.

And he died as an accused person in the eyes of the justice system for this case. That is why his final responsibility for the events could not be pursued, because he died. There is the testimony of a Carabinero, Osvaldo Dominguez Muller, who points out that at the Paine police station—which, by the way, was the place from where people disappeared—he saw Michael Kast's car parked there on the days when there were murders and disappearances.

And there is the testimony of Christian Kast himself, who acknowledges that he went out “to patrol,” together with other civilians, with the military and Carabineros. "And Christian Kast was not prosecuted because the justice system determined that at the time of these crimes he was a minor, that is why his responsibility was not pursued, for that reason.

And he himself acknowledged, when he was interrogated, that he was at the police station." Added to all this is the testimony of Alejandro Bustos, who says that he was beaten at the Carabineros police station, and that Christian Kast was present.

And when they executed him—where he survived—although those who fired were uniformed, several civilians were present with their vehicles, among them Christian Kast. And Christian Kast was not prosecuted because the justice system determined that at the time of these crimes he was a minor, that is why his responsibility was not pursued, for that reason.

And he himself acknowledged, when he was interrogated, that he was at the police station, where barbecues were held with Carabineros and civilians, and that there he saw a person detained who was nicknamed “el harina seca,” Luis Nelson Cádiz Molina, and he says he saw him leave with his hair shaved, bald.

And well, Cádiz is a forcibly disappeared person; I wonder if one knows that a person is a forcibly disappeared person, and Christian Kast says he saw him, shouldn't he have reported the fact? He was probably one of the last people to see him alive, who could provide a clue about the whereabouts of this person, and he did not approach the justice system to collaborate; it was the other way around, the justice system had to go looking for him, many years after the events occurred.

• Is it possible that José Antonio Kast did not know about these events?
• I cannot work with conjectures. I know what Christian Kast declared and what his father Michael Kast declared; I know Michael Kast's past, the work Miguel Kast had during the dictatorship, and I know what Alejandro Bustos declared regarding Christian Kast. One knows what political stance José Antonio Kast has, and I cannot know if he knew or did not know. What I can say is that he cannot say “my family had nothing to do with it,” that they did not patrol, that they did not support the repression, nor provide vehicles, nor that someone from his family was not identified at a firing squad; he cannot say that.

"José Antonio Kast has said that there is nothing judicial against his family, but he does not say the reasons, and one reason is that his father died as an accused person; he died before he had a conviction." And that is what he has said; he has said that there is nothing judicial against his family, but he does not say the reasons, and one reason is that his father died as an accused person; he died before he had a conviction; and secondly, his brother Christian Kast did not have his criminal responsibility pursued because it was determined that he was a minor at the time the crimes occurred.

• What you are telling is also relevant because among those convicted for dictatorship crimes in Paine is a civilian, who was the first civilian convicted for human rights cases during the dictatorship in Chile, the businessman Francisco Luzoro, in 2017. In matters of memory, civilians and companies that participated in these crimes are spoken of as “third-party actors.” Do you think it is possible to continue advancing in justice in these cases that involve “third-party actors”?
• It should be that way. But we know that a lot of time has passed; the complainants, the family members, the perpetrators are dying, and this case has been left to languish... I don't have much hope, honestly; I see it as difficult. I think the Luzoro case is an isolated example; there are a couple more civilians convicted, but I don't see that the path is heading that way.

Whenever a conviction comes out, at least it is a bit of justice. In this case, they are convictions; perhaps they are not the highest sentences, as one might expect, but it is a bit of justice. One celebrates that there is some justice, but on the other hand, there is also criticism, because one expects more to be done.

One sees a positive side and a negative side, since the sentence is low and one thinks about how the family members and society in general take it.

Source: interferencia.cl 6/17/2022

Date: 06-17-2022

Paine case comes to an end: Supreme Court issues historic ruling and convicts 11 former uniformed officers for the homicide of 38 peasants

The highest court convicted 10 Army officials as authors of the qualified homicide of 38 people and one Carabinero for the qualified kidnapping of two victims. The Court reclassified the crimes from qualified kidnapping to qualified homicide, rendering the statute of limitations ineffective and increasing the sentences of those convicted.

After 49 years since the events occurred, the Supreme Court issued a final ruling in one of the most emblematic cases perpetrated by the military dictatorship; through its Second Criminal Chamber, it convicted former uniformed officers for the qualified homicide of 36 agricultural workers and 2 businessmen, all from the town of Paine, who were executed at the Cuesta Chada and the Los Quillayes ravine, on October 3 and 16, 1973, respectively, at the hands of officials from the San Bernardo Infantry School.

The ministers Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, María Teresa Letelier, and the acting lawyers Diego Murita and Leonor Etchebery, in a historic ruling, sentenced Jorge Romero Campos and Arturo Fernández Rodríguez, Army captain and second lieutenant, respectively, to 20 years of major imprisonment in its maximum degree as authors of the qualified kidnapping of the victims.

In this case, the highest court increased their sentences in relation to the second-instance ruling issued by the San Miguel Court of Appeals, in which Romero had been sentenced to 15 years and Fernández to 10.

Similarly, the Court increased the sentences for Corporal José Vásquez Silva and conscripts Carlos Lazo Santibañez, Juan Opazo Vera, and Carlos Durán Rodríguez from 5 to 10 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree, also as authors of qualified homicide.

The same sentence was received by conscripts Roberto Pinto Labordarie, Jorge Saavedra Meza, and Víctor Sandoval Muñoz. In the case of conscript Raúl Francisco Areyte Valdenegro, the Court increased his sentence from 5 to 6 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree as the author of 14 qualified homicides.

It should be noted that for all the aforementioned convicts, the highest court reclassified the crimes in relation to the second-instance ruling, from qualified kidnapping to qualified homicide. Likewise, the ministers recognized the collaboration that the conscripts provided through their statements, which would have contributed to the identifications, and applied the special mitigating factor of substantial collaboration and irreproachable prior conduct.

Meanwhile, Carabineros Captain Nelson Bravo Espinoza was sentenced to 10 years of major imprisonment in its medium degree, whose sentence was increased by 5 years and his crime was reclassified from author of simple kidnapping to qualified kidnapping of Ramón Capetillo Mora and Mario Muñoz Peñaloza, which occurred between October 8 and 10, 1973.

Meanwhile, Osvaldo Magaña Bau, Juan Guillermo Quintanilla, and Carlos Kylling Schmidt, who had been convicted during the process, were dismissed due to being deceased, as was Víctor Pinto Pérez. The plaintiff lawyer Nelson Caucoto, who represents family members of 37 victims, was satisfied as the Court accepted all the cassation appeals they presented and celebrated the ruling, stating that “tomorrow will be a brighter day for the family members of the victims of Paine, executed by soldiers of the San Bernardo Infantry School, a day full of new sensations and hopes.” Caucoto, who has been handling the case since its inception, pointed out that “The highest court of the Republic has issued a final sentence in this case, which speaks of a massacre that occurred 49 years ago in that rural town. Impunity, indolence, and barbarity have been overcome. What the Supreme Court has done is an act of healing for those family members and for Chilean society in general. One of the unforgivable crimes of the civil-military dictatorship has been resolved by the Chilean justice system in a civilized manner. Despite the long time that has passed, Justice is possible.” It should be mentioned that the Human Rights Program of the Ministry of the Interior, the Association of Relatives of Political Executed Persons (AFEP), the Federation of Students of the Catholic University (FEUC), and lawyer Luciano Fouillioux, as representative of the father of lawyer Pamela Pereira, Andrés Pereira Salsberg, also acted as plaintiffs in the arguments. In civil matters, the res judicata that had been decreed by the San Miguel Court of Appeals, which prevented some family members of the victims from accessing reparations, was rendered ineffective.

THE FACTS

Cuesta Chada According to the investigation led by the minister on special assignment for human rights cases of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes, it was established that on September 24, 1973, in the afternoon, soldiers of the Second Rifle Company of the San Bernardo Infantry School appeared at the 'El Escorial' settlement in the commune of Paine and detained, without legal basis, Héctor Guillermo Castro Sáez and Juan Bautista Núñez Vargas, among others.

After their detention, Héctor Castro Sáez and Juan Núñez Vargas were transferred to the Cerro Chena prisoner camp of the San Bernardo Infantry School, a place where they were kept illegally imprisoned.

On October 2, 1973, soldiers of the San Bernardo Infantry School appeared at the 'El Escorial' settlement in the commune of Paine and detained José Ángel Cabezas Bueno, who, immediately thereafter, was transferred to the Cerro Chena prisoner camp.

On October 3, 1973, in the early morning, soldiers commanded by Captain Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos left the Cerro Chena prisoner camp, in charge of Lieutenant Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau and Second Lieutenants Carlos Walter Kyling Schmidt and Arturo Guillermo Fernández Rodríguez, with the detainees José Ángel Cabezas Bueno, Héctor Guillermo Castro Sáez, and Juan Bautista Núñez Vargas, in a red Dodge truck driven by Juan Guillermo Quintanilla Jerez, headed to the 'El Escorial' settlement of the commune of Paine and detained Francisco Javier Calderón Nilo, Domingo Octavio Galaz Salas, José Emilio González Espinoza, Juan Rosendo González Pérez, Aurelio Enrique Hidalgo Mella, Bernabé del Carmen López López, Héctor Santiago Pinto Caroca, Hernán Pinto Caroca, Aliro del Carmen Valdivia Valdivia, Hugo Alfredo Vidal Arenas, and Víctor Manuel Zamorano González. Subsequently, in the same truck, they transported all the detainees to a ravine in the Cuesta de Chada and executed them, shooting them with the firearms they were carrying, their bodies being found abandoned in the aforementioned place some time later. The remains of the bodies were found by the family members themselves some time later and were collected in a disorderly manner by the Carabineros and taken to the Legal Medical Service, a place where they remained for 20 years piled up in a warehouse without being examined for identification, which was only obtained in the 90s. Los Quillayes Ravine On October 8, 1973, officials of the Paine Carabineros Sub-station appeared at the 'Campo Lindo' settlement of the same commune and detained, without legal basis, Ramón Alfredo Capetillo Mora, who, immediately thereafter, was locked up in the aforementioned police unit. In the following days, Ramón Capetillo Mora was transferred to the Cerro Chena prisoner camp of the San Bernardo Infantry School. Two days later, on October 10, 1973, officials of the Paine Carabineros Sub-station appeared at the '24 de Abril' settlement of the same commune and detained, without legal basis, Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, who, immediately thereafter, was locked up in the aforementioned police unit and transferred to the Cerro Chena prisoner camp of the San Bernardo Infantry School. At the time of the events, the Paine Carabineros Sub-station was in charge of Captain Nelson Iván Bravo Espinoza. Meanwhile, on October 16, 1973, in the early morning, soldiers of the same San Bernardo Infantry School, commanded by Captain Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos, left the Cerro Chena prisoner camp, in charge of Lieutenant Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau and Second Lieutenants Carlos Walter Kyling Schmidt and Arturo Guillermo Fernández Rodríguez, with the detainees Ramón Alfredo Capetillo Mora and Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, in a red Dodge truck driven by Juan Guillermo Quintanilla Jerez, with the purpose of detaining twenty-two people in the town of Paine. Thus, in their respective homes, located in the urban area of the commune of Paine, they detained, without legal basis, René del Rosario Maureira Gajardo and Andrés Pereira Salsberg. While at the '24 de Abril' settlement, they detained Patricio Loreto Duque Orellana, José Germán Fredes García, Carlos Enrique Gaete López, Rosalindo Delfín Herrera Muñoz, Jorge Hernán Muñoz Peñaloza, Ramiro Antonio Muñoz Peñaloza, Silvestre René Muñoz Peñaloza, Carlos Alberto Nieto Duarte, Laureano Quiroz Pezoa, Luis Ramón Silva Carreño, and Basilio Antonio Valenzuela Álvarez. At the 'Nuevo Sendero' settlement, they detained José Domingo Adasme Núñez, José Ignacio Castro Maldonado, Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda, Luis Rodolfo Lazo Maldonado, Samuel del Tránsito Lazo Maldonado, Carlos Enrique Lazo Quinteros, and Samuel Altamiro Lazo Quinteros; and finally, at the 'El Tránsito' settlement, Pedro Antonio Cabezas Villegas and Roberto Esteban Serrano Galaz. Subsequently, the aforementioned detainees were transported to the Los Arrayanes ravine, Los Quillayes sector, in the vicinity of Lake Rapel, a place where they were executed by firing squad by the aforementioned soldiers and the civilian who accompanied them, who, immediately thereafter, buried their bodies at the same site, with only bone and dental fragments of eleven of the twenty-four victims being found years later, due to the fact that their bodies were removed and transported to an unknown location to this date, within the framework of the "Operation TV Set Removal" [Operación retiro de televisores] in 1978.

Source: adprensa.cl 6/15/2022

Date: 06-15-2022

Testimony of María Luisa Valdés Cortés (excerpt)

I am María Luisa Valdés Cortés, widow of the forcibly disappeared person Roberto Serrano Galaz. When they detained him on October 16, 1973, at the El Tránsito settlement, of which he was a union leader and vice president.

That same day they took more people detained from El Tránsito and 24 de Abril. Roberto was 34 years old and I was 26. To this day, nothing is known about him; his body has not appeared, nor his remains, only some of his clothes.

Roberto and I met in El Tránsito, where his family was from, so when we got married I went to live there, although I have always been from 24 de Abril. We had been married for three years and had been dating for almost a year.

In total, we managed to be together for four years, and we did not have children. Around six in the morning, they arrived to look for Roberto, so we were still in bed. They knocked on the door asking for him. “Who could it be?” he said; I replied, “The soldiers,” and then he opened the door.

They grabbed him by the arm and took him to the room upstairs. I got up right away. They let him get dressed and told him to bundle up well, because they were going far, but later they said they would set him free at seven in the morning, and even that they would bring him back.

Everyone who was there were soldiers in their trucks, and among them was a cousin, Jorge Reyes Cortés, also a soldier. I recognized him even though they all had their faces painted and were wearing different clothing.

My cousin didn't say anything to me. Four months later, we met and he approached to say hello, while I gave him a kick in the shins and nothing more. I was left alone. I was living alone for almost a month.

I went out every day to look for Roberto, and in the afternoon, when I arrived home, the only thing I did was lie down, I turned the radio down very low, and I brought a coffee to the room. A month after they had taken Roberto, my father, Javier Gustavo, and Rosa, the mother, came to look for me.

I came to live with them here in 24 de Abril. In this place, all my siblings lived, there were thirteen of us. After two years of being alone, I took charge of a niece, María Florentina, daughter of a brother, Francisco.

I raised her since she was 13 days old because her parents abandoned her. The social worker from the Buin Hospital gave her to me in guardianship until she was 18 years old. That's how she grew up, she got married while living with me, and we are still together here, although she has her house next to mine.

And I am still alive!, although now I am very sick in my lungs. I clung to life for her and it was good because things calmed down more. I didn't have other children, but I raised another newborn nephew, Emilio, son of my sister, Clara.

No one from Roberto's family looked for him, and he had siblings. They didn't help me continue living either; I even had a lot of groceries stored that Roberto had left me, and while I was in Santiago looking for him, the younger brother came and took all the groceries.

I looked for him for more than ten years. My cousin Jorge's mother came the day after they took Roberto, she came to say “They are dead at the tip of Codegua” and that we shouldn't look for him, but we kept looking, and with Ángela, the social worker from the Vicariate, we went by vehicle to San Francisco de Mostazal, looking for the place my aunt had mentioned; it was a road of pure stone and there was nothing.

I never spoke to that aunt again. Supposedly the information had been given to her by her son, but they were all lies because Roberto was found in Los Quillayes. That's where the shirt appeared, the sweater that was with a thick braid of Chilote wool, the pants, the socks, the shoes.

Only clothes, nothing of his body. Before going to Codegua, I went to the National Stadium and the Chile Stadium with a whole group of people from here; we always went in a group. I knew my way around Santiago well, so I only needed to have money for the fare.

I would have a single coffee in the morning and from then until I arrived in the afternoon I didn't consume anything else. I looked for him for more than ten years, I looked for him every day, I didn't miss a single day.

All the time the information they gave us in Santiago was false; they even told us he was at the National Stadium of Chile, on Quiriquina Island, on Dawson Island. We even sent letters to these places, and they came back to us. (excerpt)

Source: germina.cl 2014 (excerpt)