Humberto Salas Salas, married, father of two, a farmer and MIR militant, presented himself voluntarily at the 3rd Carabineros Precinct of Rahue, in the city of Osorno, on Monday, September 24, 1973, around 14:00 hours.

He arrived at the police station accompanied by his wife, Blanca Mella. Their home had been violently raided on several occasions by Carabineros following the coup d'état of September 11, 1973, which motivated the victim to go to the station to resolve the situation affecting his family.

According to the sworn statement of Blanca Mella: "Among the Carabineros officers of the Third Precinct of Rahue who carried out the raids, I recognized Sergeant Eliseo Aguilar, Sergeant Nelson Rosas, the carabinero José Melián Carrasco, and the retired carabinero Sergio Conejeros, who was dressed in civilian clothes.

On one of those occasions when the home was raided, members of the Army from the Arauco Regiment of Osorno intervened, and among them, I only recognized one uniformed man they called 'Colipán,' who held the rank of Sergeant."

When the victim presented himself at the precinct, the guard station was closed, and his wife was forced to remain on the street. Two hours passed, and the victim did not emerge from the facility. According to Blanca Mella's statement: "Given the delay, I asked the carabinero at the door again, and he told me to go to the Regiment the next day, as they had transferred him there and there were no political prisoners at the precinct." She went to the precinct for five consecutive days, receiving the same response from the guards on duty.

At the aforementioned Regiment, the response was "there are no political prisoners here." She was also told that her husband might be at the Public Jail, the Estadio Español, or the FELCO premises, which served as detention centers after September 11, 1973. Blanca Mella went to all the indicated locations without being able to obtain information about her husband.

She then went to the Military Prosecutor's Office of Osorno, where some Carabineros officers promised her they would make inquiries. One week after the victim's detention, an Army Lieutenant named Pérez told Blanca Mella that he had called the 3rd Carabineros Precinct of Rahue, where they told him, as he reported, that Humberto Salas had indeed presented himself at that facility on September 24, 1973, and had been released on September 25, 1973—the following day—"for lack of evidence." The truth is that the victim never returned home.

A few days later, around September 30, 1973, Blanca Mella met a neighbor from Bahía Mansa. In her sworn statement, she recounts her meeting with Agustín Segundo Oliva: "who had also presented himself to the Rahue Carabineros on the same day as Humberto Salas.

Oliva told me that he was detained at that precinct in the same cell as my husband (Humberto Salas) and many other people; that on Friday, September 28, 1973, around 5:00 a.m., the Carabineros took the victim and two other individuals out of the cell and took them away to an unknown location; he adds that when they took him out, he was in very poor physical condition due to the beatings and torture he had been subjected to." The witness to the victim's imprisonment was released that same day by the Carabineros.

Subsequently, the victim's wife continued to take steps to find him; she even filed a complaint with the Investigations police, which reportedly led to a case in the 1st Criminal Court of Osorno, though the results of that investigation are not on record.

Humberto Salas Salas remains to this day a forcibly disappeared person, with neither the administrative authorities of the time nor the Carabineros Corps taking responsibility for his detention and subsequent disappearance.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

A request for an Extraordinary Visiting Judge before the Court of Appeals of Valdivia to investigate the situation of forcibly disappeared persons in the region included the case of Humberto Salas Salas.

The request originated from a petition made by the Episcopal Vicars of the Archdiocese of Santiago on November 3, 1978, before the Supreme Court to appoint Extraordinary Visiting Judges in various Courts of Appeals in the country to investigate the situation of forcibly disappeared persons.

On March 21, 1979, by resolution of an agreement from an Extraordinary Plenary meeting of the Supreme Court of Justice, it was decided to issue writs to 5 Courts of Appeals in the country, including Valdivia, to proceed with the ecclesiastical request.

On February 6, 1991, through official letter No. 2086, the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation filed a complaint with the 1st Criminal Court of Osorno regarding the detention and subsequent disappearance of several people in the town of Rahue, Osorno, which occurred after the coup d'état carried out by the Armed Forces and Police on September 11, 1973, in Chile.

The complaint was based on the powers granted by Supreme Decree 355 of May 9, 1990.

On February 18, 1991, the judge of the aforementioned court decided to open a summary proceeding for the reported facts. The case was registered under No. 39.911-3. At that time, the judge summoned the relatives of the victims to testify.

On March 27, 1991, the judge, considering that "it is necessary and convenient to separate the present case in order to conduct a separate summary proceeding for each of the persons identified in the complaint" filed on February 6.

On March 28, 1991, a summary proceeding was opened for the detention and disappearance of Venancio García Ovando, José Rosario Panguinamún Ailef, and Humberto Salas Salas; the case was registered under No. 40.062-2.

At the same time, the magistrate ordered a series of measures, issuing writs to the Carabineros Prefecture of Osorno and the General Directorate of Carabineros Personnel to report on the personnel who served at the Rahue Precinct and the Puerto Octay Station between September and October 1973.

On April 11, 1991, Carabineros Lieutenant Colonel Luis Sueyras Moore, Prefect of Carabineros of Osorno, informed the Court that it was not possible to provide the requested information regarding the officials of the mentioned units because no records existed. The officer recommended in his letter to contact the General Directorate of Carabineros.

On April 24, 1991, General Director of Carabineros Rodolfo Stange Oelckers informed the Court that, regarding the request for information on the police officers linked to the detention and disappearance of the victim, "it is not possible to grant it by virtue of the fact that the required information is classified as 'secret,' in accordance with Article 436 No. 1 of the Code of Military Justice."

On May 8, 1991, the Investigating Judge of the case stated in his resolution that, given the refusal of General Director of Carabineros Rodolfo Stange to provide information on the Carabineros Corps personnel linked to the investigated facts: "the omission in providing such background information to the undersigned Judge will cause a notorious delay in the proper processing of the case, forcing him to carry out lengthy procedures aimed not at overcoming the various stages of the summary, but specifically at identifying the officials mentioned so many times." He adds in his resolution that, according to the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Code of Military Justice, every authority must comply with judicial orders, and that the proper protection of information regarding the Armed Forces and Police is ensured: "Issue a writ to the General Director of Carabineros, Mr. Rodolfo Stange Oelckers, to remit to this court the names, ID numbers (RUN), addresses, ranks, and whether they are in active service or retired, of the Carabineros officials who served at the 3rd Precinct of Rahue-Osorno and the Puerto Octay Station between September 11, 1973, and October 31, 1973."

On May 22, 1991, General Director of Carabineros Rodolfo Stange sent a letter to the Judge of the First Criminal Court of Osorno stating that he could not comply with his request given the secret nature of said information, and therefore the background information must be elevated to the Supreme Court of Justice for resolution.

On May 30, 1991, the Judge decided to elevate the case files to the Supreme Court so that it could resolve the situation.

On July 5, 1991, the Supreme Court's resolution of June 28, 1991, was sent to the Court, stating: That in accordance with the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, before continuing the judicial action, it must be established whether the criminal liability of the accused has been extinguished. "That given the date of the occurrence of the reported facts, the Judge of the case should have applied this last legal provision, so the measure ordered in the aforementioned resolution is not appropriate."

"For these considerations, it is declared that the request to obtain the information referred to is not granted."

"...(the Court)... To concur with this decision, Ministers Faúndez, Araya, Beraud, Valenzuela, and Alvarez also take into account that the facts in question are also covered by the provisions of Decree Law No. 2.191 (known as the Amnesty Decree Law, issued by the Military Junta)."

"It is noted that Minister Jordán concurs with the refusal of the request, considering only: That the competence of this Court in the matter is reduced to determining whether or not to proceed with the petition of the Criminal Court regarding the specific request it formulates...

That regarding the above, it is worth mentioning that in the respective letter to the Carabineros, there is no mention of the rank of the officials..., there is no record in the case file that links the alleged disappearance of the three persons referred to in said files with the Carabineros of the Puerto Octay Station; and, finally, the only officials indicated in the process are Captain Adrián Fernández Hernández, Sergeant Eliseo Aguila, and carabinero Francisco Inostroza, all from the Rahue Precinct, with respect to whom the judge should have and must decree the corresponding measures for their location and summons, as was imperative according to his powers."

"Agreed with the dissenting votes of Ministers Retamal and Bañados, and with the caveat of Ministers Aburto and Perales, who were in favor of ordering a writ to the General Director of Carabineros to provide the Judge of the case with the information concerning... the three Carabineros officials accused in the case, considering the decreed measure 'indispensable'..."

The Supreme Court's resolution was sent to the 1st Criminal Court of Osorno.

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity

In separate rulings by the Second Criminal Chamber, convictions were issued against three people who participated in different cases of qualified kidnapping that occurred in the cities of Los Ángeles and Osorno.

The Supreme Court issued two new convictions in cases linked to investigations into human rights violations that occurred between September 11, 1973, and March 10, 1990. In separate rulings by the Second Criminal Chamber, convictions were issued against three people who participated in different cases of qualified kidnapping that occurred in the cities of Los Ángeles and Osorno.

In the first ruling, a sentence was handed down for the kidnappings of Nelson Almendras Almendras, José López López, Juan Briones Pérez, and Victoriano Lagos Lagos, committed starting September 17 and October 1, 1973, in Los Ángeles, and it was determined to sentence Óscar Humberto Medina to four years in prison, granting the benefit of supervised release.

The decision was adopted in a split ruling, where Ministers Jaime Rodríguez, Hugo Dolmestch, and the participating lawyer Hernán Álvarez were in favor of applying the sanction; while Ministers Nibaldo Segura and Rubén Ballesteros were in favor of acquittal, accepting the statute of limitations on criminal action.

In the second ruling, a conviction was issued for the kidnapping of Humberto Salas Salas, which occurred starting September 24, 1973, in Osorno, determining 5 and 4 years of prison for Adrián Fernández and Rolando Becker Soliz, to whom the benefit of supervised release was granted. With these sentences, 14 Supreme Court rulings on this matter have been completed in the year 2008 and 42 since 2005.

Source: Friday, December 12, 2008, El Mostrador

Date: 12-12-2008

Carabineros prosecuted for kidnapping of farmer

Officer (Ret.) Adrián Fernández Hernández and Sub-officer (Ret.) Rolando Becker Soliz were indicted as authors of the qualified kidnapping of Humberto Salas Salas. Judge Joaquín Billard, who investigates human rights violations, prosecuted two former Carabineros officials as authors of qualified kidnapping for their responsibility in the disappearance of a farmer from the Los Lagos Region.

The magistrate indicted Officer (Ret.) Adrián Fernández Hernández and Sub-officer (Ret.) Rolando Becker Soliz for the qualified kidnapping of Humberto Salas Salas, who was a militant of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR).

The victim appeared voluntarily at the Rahue precinct, which was under the command of Fernández Hernández, on September 24, 1973, responding to a decree issued by the military authorities of the time. Although his wife, Blanca Mella, who also presented herself to the Carabineros, was released, Salas Salas remained detained, and his whereabouts have been unknown since then.

Source: March 22, 2006, El Mostrador

Date: 22-03-2006