“Small towns are like small Chiles. A scaled-down version that hides what everyone knows and no one dares to say,” one of the people I interviewed in San Carlos told me—a small city in the Eighth Region that I fled as soon as I was old enough for university.

Nine years have passed, and for the umpteenth time, this summer, I broke the promise I made to myself, Cinema Paradiso-style, never to return. García Márquez says that “life is not what one lived, but what one remembers and how one remembers it to tell it.” I remember a tornado that devastated the Plaza de Armas in San Carlos and lifted a car in 1981; I also remember Nicanor Parra when he told the mayor of San Fabián that he could shove the title of illustrious son they wanted to give him; I remember the kids from Osorno who arrived with a Pixies cassette under their arm and who would later call themselves Glup! I also remember my encounter with “el Pescao,” a pickup soccer teammate who later became a professional criminal and left several people in his wake, or the burning afternoons with high school girls in an empty apartment for which I had the key from ‘Chico’ Uribe. Or the night I became friends with María Paz, the queen of a brothel with more wisdom than beauties to embrace. Stories without much significance. Of small-town adolescence. The B-side of a period of Authoritarian class, in which other stories were written in blood and which to this day remain in limbo. With a couple of ideas and García Márquez in mind, I got off the train at the old station. I was looking for lives I didn't live and enough memories to tell them.

ANY GIVEN TOWN

San Carlos is one of those towns adjacent to Route 5 where few stop. Its characteristic is being a small city, perhaps like yours: a plaza de armas as a meeting point, a long commercial street, a couple of nightclubs and radio stations, young huasos who park their 4x4s or enduro motorcycles in the middle of the street, shouting at the top of their lungs, farmers whose money goes from their hands to the shop, from the shopkeeper to the supermarket, and from the supermarket to the butcher shop, moving the annual economy.

There is no cinema or theater, but there is a university campus and plenty of transport: 400 collective taxis and cabs for streets that can be walked in less than 30 minutes. In the video stores, porn and Kung-fu movies abound, and the hits are by the “Llanero Solitario,” a ranchera singer with ten cassettes and two CDs to his credit.

The chauvinistic pride asserts that the local medialuna is “the largest in Chile” and that the sausages are better than those in Chillán. The family that makes them—the Pincheiras—is known as “The Sausage Empire.” Reminiscences of Star Wars?

Maybe. The average San Carlos resident is proud, and as in all towns, a line—the train tracks in this case—divides the social classes between the old town and the “Once” and “Araucanía,” the two neighborhoods where more than half of the 50,000 San Carlos residents live.

Here, the two massive farmers' protests called “Sancarlazos” took place in 1995 and 2001; here, the Virgin of the Álamos appeared in 1962, and the following year, ‘el Canaca,’ Jorge del Carmen Valenzuela Torres, better known as the Jackal of Nahueltoro, was executed by firing squad...

On October 2, 1973, Manuel Humberto Crisóstomo Toro , ‘el Chilenito,’ the only forcibly disappeared person from San Carlos, was detained by carabineros and military personnel. He was 24 years old. As in every small town, the hell and the boredom are great, and for that reason, anonymous and fantastic stories are woven, of forgotten heroes and executioners, of former subversives and neighborhood poets who see each other's faces every day.

They are fragments and memories of a town that no one forgets, but that more than a few prefer not to remember.

OUR GRAY MILITARY YEARS

On September 11, 1973, the businesses and many houses in the center woke up decked out in flags. From a house on Calle Serrano, a white one emerged with a black spider in the center. The message from Patria y Libertad and the Romero Godoy family was clear.

There were four brothers. Highly linked to the agrarian guild, Opus Dei, and the military world, that family was and is one of the most recognized in San Carlos. In fact, in 1999, the local newspaper El Esfuerzo gave Raúl Romero Godoy its annual award.

Pete, his son, and I were childhood friends. Later, we drifted apart. On the other side of the train tracks, however, in the 8 de Octubre settlement (later renamed 11 de Septiembre), no flag was flying.

At that time, the Romero Godoys owned a supermarket, a hardware store, and agricultural lands. One of them, Mario Romero Godoy , was a lawyer. He was quickly appointed military prosecutor of the Ñuble province, recalls an interviewee who, for fear, asks for his identity to be kept confidential and adds: “The disappearance of ‘el Chilenito’ and all the repression was in charge of Romero.

He personally tortured friends and people very close to me. They recognize him as one of the torturers, along with the current municipal secretary ( Florencio Rodríguez Orellana ), who witnessed the tortures, which amounts to the same thing,” he confirms.

As in other cities after the coup, civilians participated in raids, and municipal officials arrived at work in uniform. “ Rodríguez Orellana was one of them ,” the interviewee recalls. But there were others.

Ramiro Grez is a deacon of a parish. After the coup, he did not arrive at the municipality in uniform, but former officials say he did so “ with a pistol. He would keep it in a drawer and place an image of the Virgin of Carmen on the desk.

When he finished, he would put the revolver in his belt and kiss the image of the Virgin .” Grez is now the Director of Traffic and “ is a very respected guy there ,” says the source. Between the end of 1973 and all of 1974, there were arrests and torture, for which the prosecutor Romero Godoy , the then-colonel and commander of the 9th Mountain Infantry Regiment of Chillán, Guillermo Toro Dávila ; the agricultural businessman Pedro Guzmán Álvarez , and Florencio Rodríguez Orellana —among others—appear indicated for crimes of kidnapping, application of torture, and illicit association, in a lawsuit that seven people will file, sponsored by lawyer Eduardo Contreras. Mile Mavrosky Mileva, a Yugoslav immigrant who owned a funeral home and arrived in the town in 1955, had a very hard time. In January 1974, he was accused of being the leader of an armed combat group that used coffins to hide machine guns to carry out—the following Christmas—a counter-coup operation called “Black Christmas.” Mavrosky was forcibly disappeared for more than a year and kept blindfolded. He is certain he was in Colonia Dignidad . Romero Godoy no longer lives in San Carlos, but he is the one most remembered. The same source who accuses him of torture portrays him crudely: “ There is a legend that the helicopter that brought General Arellano Stark to Cauquenes did not arrive in San Carlos because Romero was here, who gave full guarantees of repression to the Military Junta .” In 1985, almost simultaneously, the Romero Godoy supermarket, another in Los Angeles, and the Casa Rabié in Chillán were set on fire. The source asserts that at least the Romero case was an attack. “ The guy who did it was here for a while and some towers were blown up .” He never heard from him again. The 1988 plebiscite arrived. The YES won, thanks in part to the pressures of the agrarian employers and the legs of Magaly Acevedo in the closing campaign show. The Romero Godoys were protagonists again. The YES had shock forces, commanded by Manuel Antonio Sepúlveda, ‘El Pájaro Loco’ (The Woodpecker). “ When Matthei had not yet recognized the victory of the NO, he left the D-99 school and patrolled in a Romero van, brandishing a rifle in plain sight of the people ,” recalls the confidential source. On the previous September 11, ‘El Pájaro Loco’ shot at everything that moved in the plaza de armas. “ They were untouchable gentlemen ,” says the interviewee. The last September 11 under the dictatorship was surreal. The plaza was full of people celebrating the imminent end of the regime. Around eight o'clock at night, San Carlos carabineros began firing tear gas. I was 13 years old and watched everything from the balcony of my house. The interviewee recalls: “ I approached the major in charge of the carabineros with a lawyer, who was personally bombing the plaza. The lawyer told him the action was excessive, and the major, in a derogatory way, told him: ‘I cannot attend to you because I am working,’ and continued throwing bombs.” When I ask him if he knows the problems this interview might bring him, the source says that “ these are things that are not said because people are still afraid. These are small towns where our families meet at the same social events or, as Silvio Rodríguez says, ‘on Sunday at mass.’ It is that thing where it is better to sweep everything under the rug, and the procession goes on inside. I think it is time to lose the fear ,” he says.

WILL YOU EVER TELL MY STORY?

In the provinces, the tradition of the brothel does not die. They are places of lanterns, of humid and jolting sex, where one also goes to drink and talk. In San Carlos, the best-known houses were “Las Malvinas” and “Casablanca.” On weekends, fathers and workers would hide there.

Also 15-year-old kids wanting a piscola or a fuck. I was one of the former when we entered for the first time. I approached the bar to talk to María Paz, the “madam.” A bottle of pisco and four sodas later, the woman had unraveled her life.

Her son was studying at La Sorbonne in France, and this job was the only one that could pay for a French education bill. María Paz counted the days until her offspring's graduation. Then she would retire and join him in Europe.

Years passed, and visits to Casablanca became frequent. I was even at a birthday party for María Paz. If people had half the love and companionship I saw in those butterfly eyes, the world would be different.

But the day came, and I left. One weekend, already in my second year of Journalism, I showed up at the door of my friend's brothel. She was happy, and we drank and danced until very late. -Will you ever tell my story?- she asked, giving me her cell phone number.

I nodded. Leaving almost at dawn, I took a taxi and promised that next time I would bring a recorder. Just like Humphrey Bogart, I never kept it. Over time, I learned that her son had graduated and that she had hung up her boots.

She lived in Paris. Now, almost out of nostalgia and already graduated in Journalism, I crossed the threshold of the place again. I recognized her immediately and approached. She had returned! Blonde, rounder, older, but the same.

I don't remember how many hours we talked, but I do remember the photos: María Paz in front of the Eiffel Tower, María Paz boarding a ship, María Paz with her son, her French daughter-in-law, and her grandson, happy.

• How did you think of coming back?, I asked.
• It's just that I didn't feel at home, she said simply.

In France, her family was there, but she didn't feel at home. In San Carlos, the girls... and she did feel at home. I left her with a smile and walked away. Before sitting down to write this article, I called her.

She was still sleepy and didn't recognize my voice. The phone cut off. I wanted to tell her that I am finally keeping my promise. That her story and others not so beautiful would be published in La Nación Domingo.

That now I understand everything. I wanted to tell her that “the clues in this matter—as Heredia said—must be sought with the eye of the soul.” That, María Paz, now I know that I am not coming back.

Source: La Nación, March 2, 2003

According to the death certificate, on January 11, at 05:45 hours, the former military prosecutor Mario Romero Godoy passed away; his death occurred at the Clínica Las Condes, Santiago. Apparently, his funeral was held “privately” on January 12, and the place where he was buried was not reported, as published in the obituary of the printed newspaper El Mercurio.

The former prosecutor was under indictment for human rights violations, events that occurred in the Ñuble Region. Relatives of Rolando Angulo Matamala stated the following: Mario Romero Godoy, former military prosecutor of Chillán, miserable genocidal, you took the lives of young fighters in Chillán, San Carlos, and the surrounding areas.

You were the primary person responsible for the torture, disappearance, and death in the Ñuble Region, an accomplice and active member of Colonia Dignidad, and responsible for the atrocities that occurred there; torments, kidnapping, torture, disappearance, executions.

Your cowardice has led you to deny your responsibilities and attempt to evade Justice by declaring yourself insane and having yourself declared incapacitated. Coward, you crossed every limit with defenseless young people, you were an incapable psychopath as they called you in Colonia Dignidad.

We deeply regret, as Relatives of the victims, that initially in complicity with the Courts of Justice and for more than 46 years, silent, inefficient, Judges, Ministers on duty, insensitive to Human Rights and crimes against humanity, negligent, inoperative, who handled the case initially in the Court of Chillán, Claudio Arias, then Court of Appeals of Concepción, Carlos Aldana, we could not obtain a timely conviction for the crime of "kidnapping and qualified homicide" of the victims Ogan Lagos Marín, Ambrosio Bartolomé Salazar Veliz, and Rolando Gastón Angulo Matamala.

Mario Romero Godoy is the third genocidal perpetrator to die, along with Lincoyán Lagos Tortella and Sergio Gómez Vera, who will not go to prison for crimes against humanity.

Source: diarioelitihue.blogspot.com, January 17, 2021

A new lawsuit against Augusto Pinochet Ugarte has opened a new judicial front in Chillán regarding human rights violations. It is an action that seeks to sanction the regional commanders of the Armed Forces and police.

The action was filed by lawyer Hiram Villagra before the Court of Appeals of Chillán against the former dictator and a series of retired officers for the crimes of qualified kidnapping, illicit association, deprivation of liberty, and torture in the VIII Region.

In addition to General (R) Pinochet, these crimes are imputed to the Lieutenant (R) of Carabineros Patricio Marabolí Orellana; the former commander of the Regiment and intendant of the Ñuble province, Guillermo Toro Dávila; the Army Captain (R) and prosecutor Mario Romero Godoy, and the Army Lieutenant and head of the Military Intelligence Service (SIM) Andrés Morales Pereira, along with twelve other former uniformed personnel.

Villagra maintained that the relevance of the judicial action lies in the fact that “until now, judicial reproach has been concentrated on Pinochet and the DINA leadership, without important operational agents being held accountable.

We are in a new stage where civilians and local leadership will have to answer.” To carry out the persecution of opponents in the Biobío Region, the uniformed personnel counted on the collaboration of civilians such as Alex Etchevers, a militant of the Patria y Libertad movement.

The professional pointed out that Lieutenant Marabolí was “the spearhead of the repressive acts in the area, being ‘rewarded’ by the high command by being promoted to general.” The lawsuit maintains that there was coordination between the branches in neutralizing the regional opposition.

The detainees were transferred from various police stations to the 9th Mountain Infantry Regiment of Chillán, where they were interrogated under torture. There were executions, after which police personnel transported the bodies to the Ñuble bridge, throwing them into the river.

On September 16, 1973, several carabineros entered the Regiment and revealed how, after raiding the home of the mayor of Chillán, Ricardo Lagos Reyes (PS), they murdered him along with his family.

Source: La Nación, July 1, 2006

San Carlos: Mr. Mile Mavroski, one of the emblematic survivors of #ColoniaDignidad, has passed away

In the last few hours, the Illustrious citizen Mile Mavrosky Mileva (1933 - 2020) has passed away due to a prolonged illness. He is being waked at 236 Bilbao Street in San Carlos. The following is part of the information that had been disseminated via WhatsApp before his death by the Association of Relatives of Forcibly Disappeared Detainees of Maule. "We want to inform about a regrettable situation that involves the @inddhh and affects one of the emblematic survivors of #ColoniaDignidad, Mile Mavroski, a former prisoner, victim of torture, living witness to the horror of that criminal organization and the DINA. Mile Mavrosky was born in Macedonia and arrived in Chile in 1961. He settled in San Carlos in 1968 with a funeral home where he gained great prestige for his generosity. He provided free services to humble people. After the 1973 coup, Mile Mavrosky was detained, tortured, and imprisoned by order of the military prosecutor of Chillán, Mario Romero Godoy. He accused him of being a member of the #MIR, hiding weapons and bombs in coffins and graves, supposedly without evidence. The Germans of #ColoniaDignidad had him filed within their intelligence archive of 46,500 documents. They thought he was a Soviet Russian, a dangerous spy who had to be interrogated. In January 1974, Mile Mavrosky was taken by the DINA from the Chillán prison and brought to #ColoniaDignidad in Parral. There, he was tortured for 11 months by the Germans and Chilean agents. A prisoner from Chillán, a friend of Mavroski, recounted to a journalist: "Mile was no longer a person when they brought him; he looked like a skeleton, he was thin, he had long hair and a beard, all his clothes were filthy, dirty. We carried him between us because he didn't have the strength to stand." The Valech Commission classified him as one of the 30,000 victims of torture. A year ago, he gave his testimony to the oral history archive that the University of Berlin is preparing about #ColoniaDignidad. Despite his painful history, he had never claimed reparation from the Chilean State, and to file a claim, he asked the @inddhh for a copy of his Valech Commission file. But to this day, there is no response or explanation. Despite the pandemic, the @inddhh informed that on May 12, it would deliver the documents requested by Mr. Mile Mavroski. To this day, there are no explanations or apologies. We demand that Sergio Micco, the director, take action and provide an answer."

Source: diarioelitihue.blogspot.com, June 10, 2020

Fernando Gómez Segovia in the Prison and Torture House located on Plot 31 of the Pomuyeto Estate, owned by Lincoyan Lagos Tortella

Former DINA agent Fernando Gómez Segovia has died. He was an associate of the San Carlos residents Mario Romero Godoy (deceased), Lincoyan Lagos (deceased), Héctor Soto Hermosilla, and Sergio Bustos Baquedano. All were prosecuted for human rights violations.

The news was released by the Multigremial FACIR via their Twitter account: “We announce the sensitive passing of Army Colonel (R) Don Fernando Gómez Segovia, R.I.P. We express our condolences to the Chilean Army, his comrades at Punta Peuco, and his family. May the Lord receive him in His holy kingdom and may he receive the justice that this world denied him,” the statement concluded.

On December 20, 2017, Fernando Gómez Segovia was transported from Punta Peuco Prison to a house in the commune of San Carlos, located at Parcela 31 del Fundo Pomuyeto, which served as a center for political imprisonment and torture and was owned by Lincoyan Lagos Tortella (deceased), to participate in a reconstruction of events to clarify the deaths of three young members of the MIR.

The proceedings were directed by the minister on extraordinary assignment for human rights violation cases of the Court of Appeals of Concepción, Carlos Aldana.

Gómez Segovia’s death follows the passing of former military prosecutor Mario Romero Godoy, which occurred on January 11 at 05:45 at the Clínica Las Condes. His funeral was held "privately" on January 12 of this year, and the location of his burial was not disclosed, according to the obituary published in the printed newspaper El Mercurio.

Also noted is the death of Lincoyan Lagos Tortella in May 2017, following a battle with biliary cancer. In the 1970s, he was an active militant of the Frente Nacionalista Patria y Libertad, a Chilean far-right paramilitary movement with a nationalist ideology.

Lagos Tortella was prosecuted for the death of Rolando Angulo Matamala, a young militant of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionario (MIR), who was murdered on April 27, 1974.

In the investigation led by Investigating Judge Claudio Arias of the Court of Appeals of Chillán, Lincoyan admitted to having provided his house “to be able to keep the political prisoners that Mario Romero wanted to be interrogated” at the request of his “friends from Patria y Libertad,” he stated.

Biological Impunity

Regarding the death of Fernando Gómez Segovia, it is worth recalling the statements made by the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared of Ñuble after learning of the death of former military prosecutor Mario Romero Godoy: "We have been witnesses to how they have limited justice through the Court of Appeals of Chillán and currently the Court of Appeals of Concepción when it comes to clarifying the kidnapping and homicide of so many victims, and how the justice system has conspired against substantive progress that would allow us to know what happened to our relatives and who is responsible for their disappearance and execution."

"The so-called justice system in this country has led to perpetrators being declared incompetent due to dementia or, in this case, biological impunity. All rights of the relatives are being violated."

Among these cases is the crime against three young MIR members, which occurred on April 27, 1974. "They were members of the Regional Committee of the MIR, they were detained by this group of torturers, who are being confronted with Gómez Segovia, and were taken to San Carlos to the Pomuyeto sector, owned by Lincoyan Lagos, to then be murdered, and their bodies were dumped in different parts of the province," according to Jorge Vera, a member of the Truth and Justice Committee of Chillán, speaking to Diario El Itihue in April 2015.

APRIL 2015 - COURT OF APPEALS OF CHILLÁN

Froilán Aguilera Domínguez, Army corporal (DINA); Pedro Vergara Mieres, Army corporal (DINA); Luís Troncoso Verdugo, Army corporal (DINA Linares); Luis Toledo Espinoza, Army corporal (DINA Linares); and Héctor Soto Hermosilla were confronted in the Court of Appeals of Chillán.

According to information provided by Jorge Vera, a member of the Truth and Justice Committee of Chillán, the confrontation held that morning at the Court of Appeals of Chillán was to "clarify the death of three comrades from the MIR who were detained on April 7, 1974, by this group of six torturers along with Fernando Gómez," and subsequently murdered.

"These young people were detained by the SIC of San Carlos (Civil Intelligence Service). The function that this repressive body fulfilled in the first days of the coup d'état was: to detain, persecute, and raid the homes of Unidad Popular officials and, primarily, members of the MIR."

SIC - DINA

Once the DINA was established in Chillán, the SIC and the DINA formed the Brigada Michimalongo (DINA Center-South Brigade), commanded by Fernando Gómez Segovia and a Carabineros sergeant named Espinoza (currently deceased).

The prosecutor, Mario Romero Godoy, called on the SIC to collaborate with the DINA and provide all their support and cooperation in terms of infrastructure; this means that the SIC provided vehicles, properties, and estates so that the DINA could begin to operate between Linares and Chillán.

Héctor Soto Hermosilla, a resident of San Carlos, was the head of the SIC. He constantly visited the detention and torture center located at the Pomuyeto estate of Lincoyan Lagos in the city of San Carlos.

Soto Hermosilla received reports from the executioners who were there: Army corporal Vergara, Army corporal Troncoso, and the Army corporals from the Linares artillery regiment, Toledo and Olmedo.

Jorge Vera highlights that all of them "are being confronted with their supreme chief; they all implicate Fernando Gómez Segovia, who had seen the three MIR comrades alive before they were murdered: Ogan Lagos Marín, 22, an agronomy student from Chillán; Rolando Angulo Matamala, 26, a social worker at the Chillán Governorate; and Bartolomé Salazar Veloso, a teacher at the Liceo de Niñas in Chillán.

All were executed on April 27, 1974."

Héctor Soto Hermosilla was head of the SIC from 1973 to 1974, along with Sergio Gómez Vera, and the rest of the SIC members, Lincoyan Lagos and Sergio Bustos Baquedano.

Source: diarioelitihue.blogspot.com, March 28, 2021

Mario Romero Godoy, former Military Prosecutor of Ñuble, has died: "We have been witnesses to how they have limited justice through the Court of Appeals of Chillán and..."

According to the death certificate, former military prosecutor Mario Romero Godoy passed away on January 11 at 05:45 at the Clínica Las Condes in Santiago. It appears his funeral was held "privately" on January 12, and the location of his burial was not disclosed, as published in the obituary of the printed newspaper El Mercurio.

The former prosecutor was being prosecuted for human rights violations that occurred in the Ñuble Region.

The Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared of Chillán declares:

Regarding the death of Mario Romero Godoy, former military prosecutor of Ñuble who served between 1973-1985 and was a member of Patria y Libertad, who was prosecuted for the disappearance and execution of Rolando Angulo Matamala, Ogan Lagos Marín, and Bartolomé Salazar Veliz:

We have been witnesses to how they have limited justice through the Court of Appeals of Chillán and currently the Court of Appeals of Concepción when it comes to clarifying the kidnapping and homicide of so many victims, and how the justice system has conspired against substantive progress that would allow us to know what happened to our relatives and who is responsible for their disappearance and execution.

The so-called justice system in this country has led to perpetrators being declared incompetent due to dementia or, in this case, biological impunity. All rights of the relatives are being violated.

We hear the names of those we know are responsible for their disappearance or death over and over again in the courts. The perpetrators are always the same in Ñuble; we know this from the proceedings, and we have asked that they be held responsible for their crimes, but the judiciary does not accept the requests... It is never enough, and impunity continues to prevail.

We reject that constitutional justice is used to protect the perpetrators of serious crimes against humanity.

Source: diarioelitihue.blogspot.com, January 17, 2021

In Chillán, 15 repressive agents are prosecuted for the homicides of three people in April 1974

This Tuesday, August 4, the minister on assignment for human rights cases of the Court of Appeals of Chillán, Claudio Arias Córdova, indicted 16 former repressive agents, both civilian and military, as authors of the crimes of qualified homicide of Rolando Gastón Angulo Matamala, Ogán Esteban Lagos Marín, and Bartolomé Ambrosio Salazar Veloz, crimes perpetrated between April 27 and 28, 1974, in the province of Ñuble.

The three victims were MIR militants in the region. Rolando Angulo was 26 years old and a social worker; Bartolomé Salazar was 31 and a high school teacher; Ogán Lagos was 20 and an agronomy student at the University of Concepción (Chillán campus); he was the first of three brothers murdered by the dictatorship.

Those prosecuted are former DINA agents and former Army officers: Fernando Gómez Segovia, head of the DINA South Brigade; Mario César Romero Godoy, military prosecutor at the time of the events; Osvaldo Enrique Ortega Echeverría; and DINA agents Froilán Enrique Aguilera Domínguez, Luis Enrique Troncoso Verdugo, Pedro Blas Vergara Mieres, Hugo Enrique Villamán Salazar, Patricio Orlando Marabolí Orellana, Humberto Artemio Olmedo Álvarez, Arturo Manuel Alarcón Navarrete, Fanor Eduardo Aguilera Pizarro, Luis Alberto Toledo Espinoza, and civilian employees Sergio Francisco Bustos Baquedano, Lincoyán Lagos Tortella, and Héctor Soto Hermosilla.

According to the information gathered during the investigation stage, Minister Arias established that:

«On April 19, 1974, through a minor who arrived at the home of Rolando Gastón Angulo Matamala, a militant of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionario (MIR), where he lived with his spouse on Isabel Riquelme Street in this city, near the Municipal Market, and who delivered a message for him to go to a person who knew him, he was detained by State Agents and subsequently transferred to a detention center located in the vicinity of San Carlos and from there to the Infantry Mountain Regiment No. 9 of Chillán, from where he was taken on April 27 of the same year to an unknown destination.

His body was found on April 28, 1974, in the Camilo Bravo Canal of the Mutupín estate, located 7 kilometers east of San Carlos, with bullet impacts in his body caused by third parties, thus configuring the crime of qualified homicide.»

In relation to this event and according to the ruling, «there are sufficient and well-founded presumptions to estimate that the accused Mario César Romero Godoy, who served at the time of the commission of the crime as the Military Prosecutor of Chillán and from whom the orders to detain persons linked to the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR) emanated; Osvaldo Enrique Ortega Echeverría, in his capacity as an official of the Infantry Regiment No. 9 of Chillán, in charge of the 'Registry and Control Office'; Fernando Gómez Segovia, Froilán Enrique Aguilera Domínguez, Luis Enrique Troncoso Verdugo, Pedro Blas Vergara Mieres, Hugo Enrique Villamán Salazar, Patricio Orlando Marabolí Orellana, Humberto Artemio Olmedo Álvarez, Arturo Manuel Alarcón Navarrete, Fanor Eduardo Aguilera Pizarro, Luis Alberto Toledo Espinoza, all of whom served at the time of the investigated events as State Agents belonging to the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) and the Central de Inteligencia Regional (CIRE); and Sergio Francisco Bustos Baquedano, Lincoyán Lagos Tortella, and Héctor Soto Hermosilla, who were part of the Civil Intelligence Service (SIC) in the city of San Carlos, who collaborated directly with the person in charge of the DINA in the Region, providing information and the means for the detention of persons linked to the MIR, bear culpable participation as authors of the crime of qualified homicide of Rolando Gastón Angulo Matamala.»

Regarding the homicide of Bartolomé Salazar, Minister Arias also established that:

«On April 17, 1974, around 19:00, Bartolomé Ambrosio Salazar Veloz, a militant of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionario (MIR), met briefly with his spouse in the Plaza de Armas of this city, to whom he stated that he was going to meet with a person to carry out an errand, for which he waited, but he never returned.

Subsequently, on April 27, 1974, his body was found lifeless in the vicinity of Quinchamalí, Chillán commune, on the banks of a river, dead from bullet impacts caused by third parties, thus configuring the crime of qualified homicide of Bartolomé Ambrosio Salazar Veloz, provided for and sanctioned in article 391 No. 1 of the Penal Code, perpetrated in this jurisdiction.»

For this event, the document adds, «that from these same facts and from the statements of the accused Mario César Romero Godoy, who belonged to the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) and held the leadership of said entity for the Seventh and Eighth Regions; and Patricio Orlando Marabolí Orellana, who served at the time of the investigated events as head of the Central de Inteligencia Regional (CIRE) in this city; there are sufficient and well-founded presumptions to estimate that they bear culpable participation as authors of the crime specified in article 15 No. 1 and 3 of the Penal Code.»

Finally, in relation to the homicide of Ogán Lagos, the minister on assignment established that: «in the early hours of March 15, 1974, from the house of a sister of Ogan Esteban Lagos Marín's partner, located in Chillán Viejo, around 02:30, a commando of approximately eight people, agents of the Carabineros and the Army, all in civilian clothes, raided the home and detained him along with a brother, putting them in a green pickup truck.

They were taken to the Investigations Barracks of Chillán and from there they were taken blindfolded to the Regiment where they were interrogated and subsequently transferred to the Public Jail of this city; from there he was taken on April 25, 1974, to an unknown destination by a group of agents, and his body was found near a house on the La Dehesa de Tanilvoro estate, as a result of bullet impacts caused by third parties on the 27th of the same month and year, thus configuring the crime of qualified homicide of Ogán Esteban Lagos Marín, provided for and sanctioned in article 391 No. 1 of the Penal Code.» For this crime, an indictment was issued against «Fernando Gómez Segovia, Mario César Romero Godoy, Arturo Manuel Alarcón Navarrete, and Patricio Orlando Marabolí Orellana, as authors of the crime of qualified homicide of Ogán Esteban Lagos Marín, provided for and sanctioned in article 391 No. 1 of the Penal Code, perpetrated in this jurisdiction on April 27, 1974.»

Minister Arias ordered the preventive detention of the 15 prosecuted individuals, for which he issued an order to the Investigative Brigade of Crimes Against Human Rights of the Santiago Investigative Police and the Prefecture of Investigations of this city.

In this regard, it should be noted that Fernando Gómez Segovia is serving a sentence at the Punta Peuco Prison for other human rights crimes.

Source: resumen.cl, August 7, 2015

San Carlos: Former Military Prosecutor Mario Romero Godoy detained for human rights violations

The former military prosecutor was transferred to the Reinforced Regiment No. 9 of Chillán after being detained by personnel from the Investigative Brigade of Crimes Against Human Rights of the Investigative Police.

Mario Romero Godoy is being prosecuted for the deaths of three young MIR members: Rolando Gastón Angulo Matamala, Ogán Esteban Lagos Marín, and Bartolomé Ambrosio Salazar Veloz.

The detention of the former military prosecutor is in response to the investigation led by Judge Claudio Arias into the deaths of the three young men, who were members of the MIR Regional Committee until April 1974. "The young men were detained by a group of torturers and taken to San Carlos to the Pomuyeto sector, owned by Lincoyan Lagos, to then be murdered, and their bodies were dumped in different parts of the province," stated Jorge Vera, a member of the Truth and Justice Committee of Chillán.

Source: diarioelitihue.blogspot.com, August 5, 2015