On October 19, 1973, the following 26 individuals were executed by military personnel on the road between Calama and Antofagasta:

Mario ARGUELLES TORO […]

Carlos BERGER GURALNIK[…] Haroldo CABRERA ABARZUA […] Carlos Alfredo ESCOBEDO CARIS[…] Daniel GARRIDO MUÑOZ […] Luis Alberto HERNANDEZ NEIRA […] Hernán Elizardo MORENO VILLARROEL […] Luis Alfonso MORENO VILLARROEL […] David MIRANDA LUNA […] Rafael Enrique PINEDA IBACACHE[…] Carlos Alfonso PIÑERO LUCERO[…] Fernando Roberto RAMIREZ SANCHEZ[…] Sergio Moisés RAMIREZ ESPINOZA […] Alejandro RODRIGUEZ RODRIGUEZ, 47 years old, a union leader in Chuquicamata, former President of the Copper Workers Confederation, Councilman of Calama, and a socialist militant; he was detained on September 17 when he voluntarily presented himself at the Investigaciones barracks following an official summons and was sent to the Calama Jail. The charges against him and his legal status remain unknown, although his relatives indicate that he had allegedly been sentenced to 6 months in prison by a War Council. José Gregorio SAAVEDRA GONZALEZ[…] Domingo MAMANI LOPEZ […] Jerónimo CARPANCHI CHOQUE […] Bernardino CAYO CAYO[…] Luis Alberto GAHONA OCHOA […] Manuel HIDALGO RIVAS […] José Rolando HOYOS SALAZAR[…] Rosario Aguid MUÑOZ CASTILLO […] Milton Alfredo MUÑOZ MUÑOZ[…] Víctor Alfredo ORTEGA CUEVAS […] Roberto Segundo ROJAS ALCAYAGA[…] Jorge Rubén YUENG ROJAS[…]

The last ten individuals mentioned provided services at the Dupont explosives plant of the ENAEX company and were detained on the premises of the company on October 12, 1973, at midday, by Carabineros personnel, being taken immediately to the police station located in the Dupont sector.

On the same day, the detainees were transferred to the Calama police station, where they remained incommunicado for about five days.

During their detention at that facility, they were taken on several occasions to other locations to be subjected to interrogation and torture. On October 17, they were admitted to the Public Jail. There are no precise records regarding the charges brought against them, nor regarding their legal status at the time of their executions.

On October 20, 1973, an official statement issued by the Military Commander (Jefe de Plaza) was released through the press, stating that 26 detainees from the Calama Jail had been killed by the military personnel transporting them to the Antofagasta Jail, when they attempted to escape by taking advantage of an electrical failure in the vehicle in which they were being transported.

An identical version was given to the direct relatives of the executed, who were also not given their remains, but only death certificates that indicated Calama as the place of death and execution by firing squad as the cause.

Regarding the bodies, there was a commitment from the military authority of the time to hand them over after one year, a commitment that, despite being recorded in documents given to the families, was never fulfilled.

Despite successive investigations to locate the whereabouts of the bodies, it was only during 1990 that the place where they had been illegally buried for at least some time was found, and from where they had been removed or destroyed by explosives on some occasion. Despite this, the remains of Haroldo Cabrera were able to be identified through forensic analysis.

Regarding the events that led to the execution of the 26 detainees from Calama, the Commission formed the conviction that all of them were executed outside the law, with cruelty and malice, an illicit act for which State agents are responsible. This conviction is based on the following circumstances:

– The version provided by the authorities regarding the existence of a prisoner transfer is implausible, especially when a delegation from Santiago was present at the location precisely to review the legal status of the detainees.

It is even maintained, although this could not be proven, that when the detainees were taken out of the jail, a War Council affecting them was in session, which makes it even more absurd that they were being taken to another location.

The transfer also makes no sense if one considers that a significant number of the detainees had a conviction sentence against them at that date, others were being prosecuted, others were to be relegated, and some did not even have a case initiated, which contributes to undermining the existence of any motive or reason that explains the need to transfer all of them, as a group, to the city of Antofagasta;

– It is improbable that there was an escape attempt, among other reasons, because among the detainees were people who had been sentenced to relatively very light penalties; because others were in precarious physical condition as a result of the torture received; and finally, due to the extreme difficulty of escaping while being guarded by a large military detachment;

– Even more important than the above is that in the public statements of the various authorities and officers who participated in the events, there has been debate over who gave the order to proceed with the executions, without claiming that it had actually been an escape attempt, with all of them refuting the initial explanation;

– Various reliable testimonies lead to the conclusion that officers from the Calama Regiment and the delegation that came from Santiago participated in the executions;

– In relation to these events, there was no institutional investigation ordered by the competent authorities to achieve the proper clarification of the facts and to define the appropriate responsibilities, as was appropriate.

Likewise, the judicial proceedings, which ended up falling under the jurisdiction of the Military Justice system, were dismissed through the application of the Amnesty Decree Law;

– The fact that their bodies were not handed over to their relatives suggests a desire to conceal the events.