The minister for extraordinary causes regarding human rights violations for the jurisdictions of Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Coyhaique, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, has initiated proceedings against four former members of the Army, Carabineros, and the Investigations Police (PDI) for their responsibility in the consummated crimes of kidnapping, kidnapping with grave injury, illegal detention, and the application of torture against 31 victims of such illicit acts, which were perpetrated starting September 11, 1973, in the city of Puerto Montt.

In the resolution (case file 10.858-P), Minister Mesa Latorre indicted former Army General Eugenio Adrián Covarrubias Valenzuela, former Carabineros officer Carlos Segundo Tapia Galleguillos, former PDI inspector Roberto Javier Díaz Moya, and former PDI officer Javier Armando Olavarría Díaz as authors of crimes against humanity.

The defendants Covarrubias Valenzuela and Tapia Galleguillos must be notified at the Punta Peuco Prison, where they are serving sentences for other human rights violations in various cases. Regarding the defendants Díaz Moya and Olavarría Díaz, their entry into pretrial detention was ordered.

The defendants were members of the Jurisdictional Area Command for Internal Security (CAJSI) based in the city of Puerto Montt, which included the provinces of Llanquihue, Chiloé, and Palena. This organization operated under the command of Air Force Brigadier General Sergio Hiram Rodolfo Leigh Guzmán (deceased), then Commander of the Third Air Brigade and Wing No. 5 (El Tepual Air Base), and operated out of the offices of the Provincial Intendancy at the time.

The aforementioned CAJSI included the now-deceased Army Colonel and commander of the No. 12 'Sangra' Infantry Regiment of Puerto Montt, Rubén Rojas Román; the Frigate Captain and commander of the Naval Station and Maritime Governor of Puerto Montt, Osvaldo Federico Pablo Schwarzenberg Stegmaier, representing the Navy; the Carabineros Lieutenant Colonel and Prefect of the Province of Llanquihue, Eduardo Partarrieu Navarrete (deceased); and the Prefect of Puerto Montt, Vicente Leonel Hormazábal Rojas (deceased), representing the Investigations Police.

To transmit his instructions and directives, General Sergio Leigh Guzmán established an operational group of liaison officers with each of the Armed Forces and Order institutions existing in the territory under his command.

For the Army, the operational liaison was the then-captain Eugenio Adrián Covarrubias Valenzuela, who was in charge of the Second Intelligence Section of the No. 12 'Sangra' Infantry Regiment; for the Air Force, it was Colonel Mario Ernesto Jahn Barrera (deceased); for the Carabineros, it was the then-lieutenant Carlos Segundo Tapia Galleguillos, of the Second Carabineros Precinct of Puerto Montt; and for the PDI, it was detective Roberto Javier Díaz Moya, of the Information Department of the Puerto Montt Prefecture; the name of the officer who performed this liaison function for the Navy is not known with certainty.

All 31 victims were illegally detained by military and police units; several of the detained persons surrendered voluntarily, complying with calls to that effect made by the de facto authority in the area. In that condition as prisoners of the uniformed personnel, they were subjected to abuse and torture, which correspond to crimes against humanity.

Source: resumen.cl, November 11, 2022

Minister Álvaro Mesa sentences former FACH officer to life imprisonment for homicides at Fundo El Toro

The minister for extraordinary causes regarding human rights violations for the jurisdictions of Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Coyhaique, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, sentenced the squadron commander and ad-hoc auditor of the Air Force at the time of the events, Patricio Rodríguez Encalada, to life imprisonment as the author of the consummated crimes of qualified homicide, in the nature of crimes against humanity, against Mario César Torres Velásquez, José Mario Cárcamo Garay, Francisco del Carmen Avendaño Bórquez, Óscar Arismendi Medina, José Luis Felmer Klenner, and José Antonio Barría Barría.

These illicit acts were perpetrated in September 1973 at the Fundo El Toro, in the commune of Fresia.

In the ruling (case file 10.819), the visiting minister also sentenced retired Army personnel Eugenio Adrián Covarrubias Valenzuela, Fernando Luis Concha Giordano, and Francisco Javier Alarcón Castro; and the then-members of the Carabineros René Isidro Villarroel Sobarzo, José Harnoldo Ule Guineo, Gabriel Osvaldo Mejías Leyton, and Carlos Berríos Rodríguez to two 10-year prison terms as authors of the kidnappings and illegal coercion applied to the six victims.

In the civil sphere, the court accepted the filed claim and ordered the state to pay a total indemnity of $2,750,000,000 for moral damages to the victims' families.

War Council In the sentence, Minister Mesa Latorre deemed the following facts proven:

“A.- That on September 20, 1973, in the morning hours, a military contingent composed of members of the Army, Air Force, and Carabineros of Chile entered a property located in the commune of Fresia, known as ‘Fundo El Toro,’ proceeding to violently detain all the men who were there, keeping them held for several hours, during which time they were subjected to illegal coercion (torture) and interrogations, all of which is evidenced, among other proofs, in the statements of Patricio Arismendi Añazco (at fs. 61 and fs. 93 of Volume I), Miriam Arismendi Añazco (at fs. 64 and fs. 102 of Volume I), Juvenal Sánchez Guarda (at fs. 131, Volume I), Pablo Carrillo Aburto (at fs. 134 and fs. 2492, Volumes I and V respectively), Guido Negrón Aburto (at fs. 136, fs. 2263, and fs. 312, Volumes I, V, and VIII respectively), Jorge Ovando Agüero (at fs. 138, fs. 775, and fs. 1391, Volumes I, II, and III respectively), Sergio Angulo Cárdenas (at fs. 142 and fs. 581, Volumes I and II), Luis Lopetegui Santana (at fs. 423 and fs. 1975, Volumes I and IV respectively), Graciela Vegas Soto (at fs. 1224 of Volume V), who were witnesses, direct and/or hearsay, of what happened there. Furthermore, these facts were already described in the indictment of page 1293 and following (Volume III) dated February 26, 2016, issued by Minister Leopoldo Vera Muñoz and confirmed by the Illustrious Court of Appeals of Puerto Montt at page 1507 (Volume IV).

B.- That in the facts described above, the following participated as apprehenders: René Villarroel Sobarzo, Osvaldo Mejías Leyton, Fernando Concha Giordano, Edinson Chávez Gallardo, Francisco Alarcón Castro, Jaime Serra García, Carlos Berríos Rodríguez, José Ule Guinero, as indicated in the report prepared by Captain Eugenio Covarrubias, found at page 2 of military file No. 11/73, a report where José Luis Felmer Klenner, Óscar Arismendi Medina, Francisco del Carmen Avendaño Bórquez, Mario César Torres Velásquez, and José Mario Cárcamo Garay are also mentioned as guerrillas captured in this operation, along with the list of weapons supposedly found on that occasion.

C.- That subsequent to what is related in letter A, a group of the detainees was transferred to the Fresia Precinct, while Mario César Torres Velásquez, José Mario Cárcamo Garay, Francisco del Carmen Avendaño Bórquez, Óscar Arismendi Medina, José Luis Felmer Klenner, and José Antonio Barría Barría (persons executed by order of the War Council) were transferred to the city of Puerto Montt, where they remained detained in the Investigations Police barracks for approximately one month, as can be inferred, among other proofs, from statements provided by Gladys Arismendi Añazco (at pages 62, 99, and 563, of Volumes I and II), Miriam Arismendi Añazco (at pages 101, 1961, and 2291 of Volumes I, IV, and V respectively), Blanca Cárcamo Garay (at pages 86 and 72, of Volumes I and II), Luis Gallardo (at page 3145 of Volume VIII), and Jaime Benítez Sepúlveda (at page 3289 of Volume VIII). In such statements, the poor condition in which these men were found, as a result of the torture suffered, is also noted.

D.- That continuing with what happened, the 6 men mentioned above, along with other civilians, were placed at the disposal of the Military Prosecutor's Office in wartime in Puerto Montt, initiating case file No. 11/73 (added to this process and viewed at page 72, Volume I), on September 23, 1973.

Later, on October 11, 1973, a War Council was convened, which was composed of Colonel Rubén Rojas (Deceased. Death certificate at page 3364 of Volume VIII), Group Commander Renato Valenzuela (Deceased.

Death certificate at page 3368 of Volume VIII), Lieutenant Colonel Eduardo Partarrieu Navarrete (Deceased. Death certificate at page 3363 of Volume VIII), Frigate Captain Osvaldo Schwarzenberg, Major Patricio Lira Atkinson (Deceased.

Death certificate at page 3367 of Volume VIII), and Squadron Commander Fernando Roca Meroz (Deceased. Death certificate at page 3366 of Volume VIII) as members, and integrated as ad-hoc auditor of the Air Force, Squadron Commander Patricio Rodríguez Encalada, all of which is recorded at page 84 of the aforementioned military file.

E.- That the previous War Council issued a conviction against Mario César Torres Velásquez, José Mario Cárcamo Garay, Francisco del Carmen Avendaño Bórquez, Óscar Arismendi Medina, José Luis Felmer Klenner, and José Antonio Barría Barría, sentencing them to the death penalty for the responsibility they bore as authors of the crime of treason contemplated in article 248 No. 2 of the Code of Military Justice (Pages 92 to 97 of military file 11-73).

Such sentence was executed on October 19, 1973, at 9:00 AM, in facilities of the Chilean Air Force located in the Chamiza sector of the city of Puerto Montt (Page 101 of military file 11-73), with the 6 aforementioned convicts dying at the scene, as recorded in the death certificates on pages 14, 17, 19, 22, 54, 187, 758, and in the statements of Carlos Humberto Ovando Méndez (page 424 of Volume I) who transported the lifeless bodies to a FACH van, of Juan Carlos Poloni (page 966 of Volume II) who was responsible for verifying the death of the convicts on the day of the execution, and of Luis Eduardo Garrido Quiroz (page 146 of Volume I) who examined the bodies and issued the respective death certificates.

F.- That the aforementioned sentence refers to the vague statements of the prisoners, statements which, due to the mistreatment received by them, make their words implausible due to the conditions in which the detainees were found, the War Council thus being a predetermined act without foundation to end the lives of these detainees, since as recorded, among other proofs, in the statements of José Purralef (pages 95, 2518, and 2719, Volumes I, V, and VI, respectively), Juvenal Sánchez Guarda (pages 131, 224, all Volume I), Eugenio Covarrubias (page 338 Volume I), María Langenbech (page 2289, Volume V), Carlos Berríos Rodríguez (pages 3405 to 3407 and 3420 to 3421 vta., all of Volume IX), the prisoners did not possess the quantity and types of weapons detailed in the file, nor is it true that they were guerrillas.

G.- That according to the statements of the defendants' defense attorney, Mr. Hugo Ocampo Paniagua (pages 105, 569, 572 of Volumes I and III respectively), an adequate defense could not be developed in the case as he was not allowed the necessary time for it (2 days), nor could he become familiar with the facts since he could never have direct contact with the defendants for an interview, adding that he could perceive a series of contradictions in the statements of the detainees, so the defense by a single lawyer was laughable.

To this, he adds that they were sentenced by making an aberrant retroactive application of D.L. No. 5 (Declares that the State of Siege decreed due to internal commotion must be understood as 'State or time of War'), as this significantly increased the penalties of Law 17.798 on arms control, since in its art. 3, this Decree Law adds the death penalty to crimes that were only sanctioned with imprisonment, all with the flagrant contradiction of the norm contained in article 11 of the Political Constitution in force at that time, which states ‘No one can be condemned unless they are legally tried and by virtue of a law promulgated before the act on which the trial falls,’ and that contained in the first paragraph of article 18 of the Penal Code, which in its text in force at the time of the investigated events states ‘No crime shall be punished with any penalty other than that indicated by a law promulgated prior to its perpetration.’ This defense attorney indicated that there was a preconceived determination to appear to have a formal process, without granting the defendants an effective and real opportunity for defense, despite the severity of the proposed penalties. Regarding the latter, it is necessary to remember what was declared by Ernesto Jhan Barrera at page 1388 (Volume III), where he testifies to having received the order to prepare personnel for the execution of the victims before the War Council was held.

H.- That it should be noted that from reading file 11-73, it was initiated for the crime of infringement of the arms control law and article 248 of the Code of Military Justice. In relation to the facts that have the beginning of execution on September 15, 1973, according to consideration 2 of the sentence.

Now, the Government Junta issued D.L. No. 3 on September 11, which declared a state of siege for the entire country, published on September 18 of that year. Subsequently, D.L. No. 5 was issued on September 12, but its validity is from September 22, 1973.

This D.L. established that the State of Siege decreed due to internal commotion must be understood as ‘State or time of War’ and also increased the penalties of the arms control law. Without prejudice to what has already been stated in the preceding letters regarding the simulation of the War Council for the purpose of executing the aforementioned victims, the sentence of the military file in the 5th motive classifies the acts against those prosecuted at that time under the criminal type of art. 248 No. 2 (which stated ‘Shall incur the penalty of major imprisonment in its maximum degree to death: 2° He who, in case of war and with the purpose of favoring the enemy or harming Chilean troops, commits an action or omission that is not included in the preceding articles nor constitutes another crime expressly punished by the laws’) and for this, it indicates ‘That although it is true that the accused formed a militia or militarily organized group, it is no less true that their purpose and resolution are constituted by acts that had the precise purpose of harming Chilean troops in wartime as can be inferred from the invoked statements...’. More specific is the sentence in motive 2 which expressed ‘That according to the merit of considerations 10 and 11 and especially to what is provided in articles 418 and 419 of the Code of Military Justice already cited, it is evident that the Republic being in a state of war and Chilean troops being in front of the enemy from the very moment or instant in which they undertook security services against those guerrilla organizations and even more the very actions of subjection and reduction of those same adversaries paramilitarily prepared in order to avoid greater damages than those already caused by the action of these, it is sufficiently demonstrated that the Chilean troops are in front of the enemy.’

I.- That given what was described above by normative hierarchy article 11 of the 1925 Political Constitution cited above and by specialty of article 18 of the Penal Code, a law pronounced subsequently that allows applying a type or a higher penalty cannot be applied to the detriment of the prosecuted or sentenced person.

In this case, as the state of war was declared, the criminal type of article 248 cited above was applied to the detriment of the sentenced persons. If the state of war had not been declared, this criminal type could not have been applied.

It is in that sense that a violation of the principle of non-retroactivity of criminal law occurs insofar as it harms the prosecuted person and violates the superior norm of the order of the time, which was article 11 of the Political Constitution. In any case, as has been said in the previous letters, the War Council was only a form or a bad example of what is due process.

J.- That in the same line of reasoning, one must also keep in mind what was declared by Carlos Ebensperger at page 1290 (Volume III), in that he pointed out to the general that since the commission of this crime was prior to the date on which the state of war was decreed, the norms of this state could not be applied to it, much less the firing squad, relating that because of said comment, the general was extremely annoyed and at the end of September, he exonerated him for treason to the fatherland, professional ineptitude, and lack of military courage.

K.- That the participants of this War Council, despite having been pointed out by the defense attorney the violation of the Political Constitution of the Republic that was being incurred and the physical, procedural, and psychic condition of the accused being manifest, obvious, and serious, acted in a predetermined manner and without analyzing the merit of the procedure nor the constitutional and legal norms described above, nor what Prosecutor Ebensperger (a person specialized in the matter) had pointed out to the general, approving the death penalty for the accused without making any objection, so it can only be classified as homicide.

L.- That having performed the preceding analyses, there is no doubt that everything done there was only a staging to fulfill their objective, which was to execute the detainees identified above, which happened, as recorded in the certification on page 101 of file 11-7.

M.- That in addition to what was stated above, one must consider the tendency of the time, which relates to using military courts in wartime to justify repressive actions without foundation. In this aspect, the report of the National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture, the ‘War Councils’ (added at pages 3307 to 3313 of Volume VIII) concluded that in them, the character and rights of the prisoners were not respected, nor were any of the precepts established in international conventions on war considered. ‘In effect, they limited themselves to receiving and recording information contrary to the accused, omitting any action or diligence that could benefit and exonerate them, even though it was their duty to investigate the truth of the facts and gather the information that would serve to prove them.’

N.- That also based on what was previously indicated, the Most Excellent Supreme Court has ruled regarding War Councils held at the time of the investigated events, invalidating them through the appeal for review, in cases file No. 27.543-16, No. 1488-20, No. 4176-2019, and No. 6889-2019, whose simple copies are attached to this process from fs. 2104 to 2171 (Volume V), from page 3166 to fs. 3185 (Volume VIII), from page 3475 to fs. 3487 (Volume IX), and from page 3488 to fs. 3500 (Volume IX), respectively.”

Source: pjud.cl, December 13, 2023

Eight former uniformed personnel sentenced for crimes against six detainees in Puerto Montt in 1973

The minister for extraordinary causes regarding human rights violations for the jurisdictions of Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Coyhaique, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, sentenced eight former uniformed personnel as authors of the crimes of qualified homicide, kidnapping, and torture, in the nature of crimes against humanity, against Mario César Torres Velásquez, José Mario Cárcamo Garay, Francisco del Carmen Avendaño Bórquez, Óscar Arismendi Medina, José Luis Felmer Klenner, and José Antonio Barría Barría, perpetrated in September and October 1973, at the Fundo El Toro, in the commune of Fresia, and in Puerto Montt.

In the ruling (case file 10.819), the visiting minister sentenced the former Air Force officer, squadron commander, and ad-hoc auditor of the FACH at the time of the events, Patricio Eugenio Rodríguez Encalada, to life imprisonment as the author of the consummated crimes of qualified homicide of the six victims.

He also sentenced former Army personnel Eugenio Adrián Covarrubias Valenzuela (captain at the time of the events, retired as a general, serving a sentence in Punta Peuco for other convictions for crimes against humanity), Fernando Luis Concha Giordano, and Francisco Javier Alarcón Castro; and former Carabineros members René Isidro Villarroel Sobarzo (Carabineros lieutenant at the time of the events, serving a sentence in Punta Peuco for other crimes against humanity), José Harnoldo Ule Guineo (Carabineros lieutenant at the time of the events), Gabriel Osvaldo Mejías Leyton, and Carlos Berríos Rodríguez to two 10-year prison terms as authors of the kidnappings and illegal coercion applied to the six victims.

The victims Mario César Torres Velásquez was 32 years old, a linotype worker, and a militant of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR); Francisco Avendaño Bórquez, 20 years old, was a normal school teacher and a militant of the MIR; José Luis Felmer Klenner, 20 years old, an employee, agronomy student, and militant of the MIR; José Antonio Barría Barría, 23 years old, an agricultural worker and militant of the MIR; José Cárcamo Garay, 26 years old, an agricultural technician and militant of the MIR; Oscar Arismendi Medina, 46 years old, was an agricultural worker, a socialist militant.

War Council In the judicial investigation and first-instance sentence, Minister Mesa Latorre established that on the morning of September 20, 1973, a large military contingent composed of members of the Army, Air Force, and Carabineros of Chile entered a property located in the commune of Fresia, known as 'Fundo El Toro,' proceeding to violently detain all the men who were there.

They were kept held in the same place for several hours, during which time they were subjected to torture and interrogations.

The uniformed personnel René Villarroel Sobarzo, Osvaldo Mejías Leyton, Fernando Concha Giordano, Edinson Chávez Gallardo, Francisco Alarcón Castro, Jaime Serra García, Carlos Berríos Rodríguez, and José Ule Guinero participated in these events, as recorded in the report of the then-captain Eugenio Covarrubias, in charge of Section II of the No. 12 Sangra Regiment of Puerto Montt.

Said report also points to six of the detainees (and subsequent victims), labeling them as guerrillas captured in the aforementioned operation, along with the list of weapons supposedly found on that occasion.

After the mass detention of the men from Fundo El Toro, a group of the detainees was transferred to the Fresia Precinct, while Mario César Torres Velásquez, José Mario Cárcamo Garay, Francisco del Carmen Avendaño Bórquez, Óscar Arismendi Medina, José Luis Felmer Klenner, and José Antonio Barría Barría were transferred to the city of Puerto Montt, where they remained detained in the Investigations Police barracks for approximately one month.

On September 23, the 6 men mentioned above, along with other civilians, were placed at the disposal of the Military Prosecutor's Office in wartime in Puerto Montt. Then, on October 11, a War Council was convened to sanction the detainees.

This Council was composed of the then-colonel and commander of the Sangra Regiment Rubén Rojas Román (deceased), Air Group Commander Renato Valenzuela (deceased), Carabineros Lieutenant Colonel Eduardo Partarrieu Navarrete (deceased), Frigate Captain Osvaldo Federico Schwarzenberg Stegmaier, Major Patricio Lira Atkinson (deceased), Squadron Commander Fernando Roca Meroz (deceased), and integrated as ad-hoc auditor of the Air Force, Squadron Commander Patricio Rodríguez Encalada.

The spurious War Council issued a sentence condemning the detainees Mario César Torres Velásquez, José Mario Cárcamo Garay, Francisco del Carmen Avendaño Bórquez, Óscar Arismendi Medina, José Luis Felmer Klenner, and José Antonio Barría Barría to the death penalty, accusing them of the absurd crime of treason.

Everything done there was only a staging to fulfill their objective, which was to execute the detainees.

The unheard-of sentence was executed on October 19, 1973, at 9:00 AM. The six convicts were executed by firing squad at Air Force facilities located in the Chamiza sector of the city of Puerto Montt.

by Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl, December 17, 2023