On October 16, 1973, 23 people were detained at the Campo Lindo, 24 de Abril, and Nuevo Sendero settlements. Twenty-two of them remain forcibly disappeared to this day, while the body of the last individual was recently found and identified.

In the early hours of that day, an operation was carried out in the three aforementioned settlements in the Paine area by troops from the San Bernardo Infantry Regiment, accompanied by Carabineros and civilians from the area, who were armed and some with their faces painted.

They traveled in a red truck, a military jeep, and other civilian vehicles. The troops proceeded to detain twenty-three people, raiding homes and acting with unnecessary violence in some instances. They did not allow lights to be turned on, operating by the light of flashlights.

Twelve of these individuals belonged to peasant families living in the "24 de Abril" settlement; two belonged to peasant families living in the "El Tránsito" settlement, but who also worked as laborers at the "24 de Abril" settlement; seven belonged to the "Nuevo Sendero" settlement; one was a merchant and another an industrialist from the area:

José Domingo ADASME NUÑEZ, 37 years old, married;

Pedro Antonio CABEZAS VILLEGAS, 37 years old, married;

Patricio Loreto DUQUE ORELLANA, 25 years old, married;

Carlos GAETE LOPEZ, 29 years old, married;

Luis Alberto GAETE BALMACEDA, 21 years old, married;

José Germán FREDES GARCIA, 29 years old, married;

Rosalindo Delfin HERRERA MUÑOZ, 22 years old;

Luis Rodolfo LAZO MALDONADO, 20 years old, single, Socialist Party militant;

Samuel del Tránsito LAZO MALDONADO, 24 years old, married, Socialist Party militant;

Carlos Enrique LAZO QUINTEROS, 41 years old, married;

Samuel Altamiro LAZO QUINTEROS, 49 years old, married, Socialist Party militant;

René del Rosario MAUREIRA GAJARDO, 41 years old, married, Socialist Party militant;

Jorge Hernán MUÑOZ PEÑALOZA, 28 years old;

Mario Enrique MUÑOZ PEÑALOZA, 24 years old, married, Vice President of the "24 de Abril" settlement;

Ramiro Antonio MUÑOZ PEÑALOZA, 32 years old, married;

Silvestre René MUÑOZ PEÑALOZA, 33 years old, married;

Carlos Alberto NIETO DUARTE, 20 years old, single;

Laureano QUIROZ PEZOA, 42 years old, married;

Andrés PEREIRA SALSBERG, 54 years old, married, industrialist;

Roberto Estevan SERRANO GALAZ, 34 years old, married;

Luis SILVA CARREÑO, 43 years old, married;

Basilio Antonio VALENZUELA ALVAREZ, 35 years old, married;

José Ignacio CASTRO MALDONADO, 52 years old, married, Socialist Party militant;

The detainees were taken to the Paine Sub-Station, where some of them were seen by their relatives. From there, they were transferred to the San Bernardo Infantry Regiment, and their whereabouts have remained unknown since, despite the multiple administrative and judicial efforts made by their families.

Currently, the investigation into all the events that occurred in Paine in 1973 is under the jurisdiction of the Visiting Judge Germán Hermosilla, with all previously initiated cases being consolidated.

In a document presented in 1975, the Government of Chile informed the United Nations that Carlos Gaete López appeared in the records of the Legal Medical Institute as having been admitted to that agency as deceased on October 18, 1973, at 12:20 PM, having undergone autopsy protocol No. 3393, and that his identity card number was 5,338,566 from Santiago.

This information proved to be false, as Gaete López's identity card was from Buin and bore the number 53,491. For his part, the Visiting Judge, Juan Rivas Larraín, determined that "autopsy protocol No. 3393 corresponds to an unidentified (NN) male person sent by the Prosecutor's Office to that agency, who died in the town of Quilicura on October 13, 1973, at 8:00 PM."

Of the 23 people detained on October 16, 1973, 22 remain forcibly disappeared to this day.

Considering that all the victims were detained by State agents, which has been proven, and were transferred to facilities under their control, from where they disappeared, the Commission is convinced that their disappearances are the responsibility of State agents, constituting violations of their human rights.

Date of Birth: 02-15-1919, 54 years of age at the time of his detention. Address: O'Higgins 590, Paine Marital Status: Married, 4 children Occupation: Industrialist Political Affiliation: Militant of the Partido Radical Cenista Date of Detention: October 16, 1973

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

Andrés Pereira Salsberg, 54 years old at the time of the events, married, with 4 children, a mechanical technician who worked in a machine shop he owned, was a militant of the Partido Radical Cenista, in which he held the position of President of the Radical Assembly.

He also served as President of the Unidad Popular Committee of Paine and was involved in extensive social work. He was detained on October 16, 1973, at approximately 1:00 a.m. from his home, in the presence of his wife and a son, by military personnel wearing field uniforms with armbands, their faces painted black, and commanded by a military officer with the rank of Lieutenant.

In the operation—which was carried out outside of any legal framework—a group of 20 soldiers participated, surrounding the house while 6 of them entered the premises. They requested the identity cards of the three people present, stating that they were taking Andrés Pereira into custody without providing further explanation.

He was removed from his home and loaded onto a red truck with a white body, a 1970 Ford model with a sign that read "FF.AA." (Armed Forces).

Andrés Pereira had been detained for the first time on the night of September 11 to 12, 1973, by a group of Carabineros and civilians without any legal grounds. On that occasion, his home was violently raided, and all its rooms were searched without finding any evidence of a crime.

The uniformed personnel proceeded to steal a tape recorder and music cassettes. The victim was taken to the Paine Sub-prefecture. It should be noted that some locals, who held a rivalry with Pereira Salsberg due to his sympathy for the Unidad Popular government, had broken the windows of his home days before his arrest.

His release took place on September 15 and was ordered by an Army Commander who claimed to be from the San Bernardo Infantry School. After interrogating Pereira Salsberg at the Carabineros facility, he ordered his unconditional release. Andrés Pereira returned to his home and resumed his normal life, even restarting the operations of his business.

On October 10, 1973, the worker José Gumercindo González Sepúlveda, a socialist militant, was detained by Carabineros from the Paine Sub-prefecture at Pereira Salsberg's machine shop. His lifeless body was later found in the Viluco Canal, inside the El Carmen de Linderos estate, and was subsequently buried in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery of Santiago, without his family being notified.

Following Pereira Salsberg's second detention, all contact with him was lost. His detention and presence in any facility have been systematically denied, and he remains to this day in the status of forcibly disappeared.

On the night and early morning of October 16, 1973, in a vast operation carried out by military personnel under the orders of Army Lieutenant Andrés Magaña Bau, 22 people were detained in their homes; in none of these cases was there authorization to raid or detain.

The uniformed personnel wore field uniforms or gray uniforms with a cape of the same color, wore armbands, and used black berets or helmets. Some had their faces blackened, and others covered themselves with ski masks.

They moved in several vehicles, including a red truck with side railings and a jeep. The captors were heavily armed and illuminated the rooms with flashlights, preventing the residents from turning on the lights.

The operation began in the early hours of October 16, 1973, and lasted until 4:00 a.m. The people who were detained, all supporters 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 military.

The operation began with the detention of Andrés Pereira Salsberg, an industrialist and owner of a machine shop; then René del Rosario Maureira Gajardo, a merchant, was detained; immediately after, the military headed toward the sector corresponding to the "24 de Abril Settlement," where 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 were detained. Next, they headed to the El Tránsito Settlement, where Pedro Antonio Cabezas Villegas and Roberto Servando Galaz were detained. Finally, they went to the Nuevo Sendero Settlement, where 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 were detained.

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

This peasant was detained again in the early hours of October 16, 1973. After his first detention, he had informed his fellow settlers that he had been warned by the Carabineros that in the following days, military personnel from the San Bernardo Infantry School would come to detain the settlers.

The peasants of that settlement had received identical information after approaching the Sub-prefecture, where they had a conversation with Sergeant Reyes regarding their situation.

The whereabouts of all the people detained on October 16, 1973, remain unknown. To date, there are no witnesses regarding their fate. Judicial records indicate that they were taken that early morning toward the hills of Codegua, near Melipilla, where they were executed. Their remains have not been found.

The detention and subsequent disappearance of Andrés Pereira Salsberg are framed within the repression that took place in the town of Paine in 1973. (Further details in the entry for José Domingo Adasme Núñez).

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

The efforts to obtain news of Andrés Pereira Salsberg's whereabouts were initiated by his family the day after his detention. When consulted, the Captain of the Carabineros, Nelson Iván Bravo Espinoza of the Paine Sub-prefecture, stated that he was not even aware that an operation involving the detention of a large group of people had taken place that night.

Inquiries at the Infantry School were made by retired officer Jorge Muñoz Ricci, Pereira Salsberg's brother-in-law. He attempted to interview his friend, Colonel Leonel Köening, Director of the School, who refused to receive him and, upon his insistence, merely sent a messenger to inform him that Pereira Salsberg was not being held by the military.

Similar responses were obtained after interviewing Colonel Jorge Espinoza Ulloa, in charge of the detainees at the National Stadium, and the National Executive Secretariat for Detainees (SENDET). The last interview held by the retired officer Ricci was with General Cristián Aeckerneck, who served as Commander at the Lautaro Regiment in Rancagua, who also did not provide information on Pereira Salsberg's whereabouts (this series of interviews was reported to the Court in June 1979 by Ricci himself when he was summoned to testify in case file 24005-1).

The search continued in every detention facility in both the Metropolitan Region and remote areas of the country. The Legal Medical Institute also failed to provide clarifying information on the fate of Pereira Salsberg.

His case was reported to the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States.

On November 5, 1973, a Recurso de Amparo (writ of habeas corpus) was filed before the Santiago Court of Appeals, stating that he "has been arbitrarily deprived of his liberty by the Chilean Army and his whereabouts are currently unknown." The filing provided detailed information on the circumstances of the arrest, as well as that of 21 other people.

The Court resolved the Amparo request (file 598-73) by referring the records to the Court Martial, as it fell under its jurisdiction (November 6, 1973).

Eighteen months after the filing of the Amparo, on June 2, 1975, the Military Court declared itself incompetent to hear it (file 355-73 Court Martial), stating: "even if Andrés Pereira Salsberg had been detained by the military, as expressed in the filing on page 1, there is no evidence that his alleged arrest was carried out in compliance with an order issued by a military authority." For this resolution, the Court took into account official responses denying his detention from the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of the Interior, and the Command of the II Army Division.

On June 13, 1975, the Court of Appeals accepted the jurisdiction and immediately recorded the rejection of the Recurso de Amparo.

On November 28, 1973, a criminal complaint for the kidnapping of Andrés Pereira Salsberg was filed before the Buin-Maipo Court of Letters (Case No. 23548). It provided a detailed account of all administrative and judicial filings made to clarify his whereabouts after his arrest.

Despite this, and having only taken into consideration the investigations carried out by the Investigations Prefecture, the Court resolved on June 27, 1974, to temporarily dismiss the case "until better investigative data is presented." On August 14, 1974, Court Prosecutor Hernán Matus Valencia estimated that the investigation of case file 23548 was not exhausted, adding that "it is essential to know beforehand if Andrés Pereira S. has not been subject to any restrictive measure of liberty by military authorities, in which case the reported crime would not exist." Despite the Prosecutor's assessment, the Rancagua Court of Appeals approved the dismissal issued by the judge on September 3, 1974. The file was sent to its original court and archived.

On March 24, 1974, a mass Recurso de Amparo for 131 people was filed before the Santiago Court of Appeals (No. 289-74). Andrés Pereira Salsberg was included in it.

Authorities were consulted without being able to establish the particular situation of each of the individuals. 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 Visiting Minister (Ministro en Visita Extraordinaria) to conduct the corresponding investigation.

The appointment fell to Minister Enrique Zurita Camps, who on February 24 of that year initiated the process (file No. 106657) in the First Criminal Court of Santiago. Pereira Salsberg's family members were summoned to testify by Minister Zurita, leaving a new record of the circumstances of his detention.

On September 25, 1975, without having delved into any of the reported cases, the summary was closed because "it was impossible to advance further in the investigation." On September 29 of the same year, the Minister issued a ruling; in the case of Pereira Salsberg, as well as in 27 other cases of detainees from Paine, he temporarily dismissed 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 Minister Zurita Camps.

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

Andrés Pereira Salsberg's case was included among them. The case for the group of victims was assigned file No. 24005-1, under Judge Javier Torres. The first investigative steps were ordered three months later, once María Inés López Ahumada and Teresa Celinda López Moya—the complainants—appeared to ratify their statements before the Court.

Starting in June, the first investigative steps were decreed, and the National Executive Secretariat for Detainees and the San Bernardo Infantry School were notified. Both organizations, in their official responses, stated they had no information regarding the people consulted.

The Legal Medical Institute, for its part, responded 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, informed the Court that they had made inquiries to "locate and identify the people who apparently wore military uniforms 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, establishing it as temporary and not definitive. The case was archived. On March 23, 1977, the case was reopened after a request to that effect was accepted by the complainant party. The request for reopening was based on the fact that 10 cases included in file 24005-1 appeared on a list of 63 people whom the Chilean government, at the 30th session of the UN in 1975, claimed were not "forcibly disappeared"—as their families denounced—but were dead people whose bodies were recorded in the index books of the Legal Medical Institute. This list of 63 names was included in the document titled "Current Situation of Human Rights in Chile" 1975 (Volume II, pp. 381, 382, 383). The information contained in the report, the complainants added, was contradictory to what that Court had received from the Legal Medical Institute itself when consulted by official letter.

On May 16, 1979, the process file 23548, which had been archived since September 9, 1974, was reopened and consolidated with case file 24005-1. On April 3, 1979, the Minister 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 Visiting Ministers could address the cases of forcibly disappeared persons throughout the national territory.

Thus, two years after the reopening of the case, when Minister Rivas took office, the first 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.

Minister Rivas sent an official letter to the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, requesting information regarding the background and procedures that allowed it to compile the list of "Presumably disappeared persons" who had been located in the records of the Legal Medical Institute of Santiago.

The response was received on October 30, 1979, by the recently appointed Visiting Minister, 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 (new file No. 1-79).

The official response, signed by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, stated in one of its parts: "Such information was requested by 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, 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." Minister 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 corresponded to unidentified (NN) bodies, whose identification had been impossible due to the lack of epidermis on their hands.

By December 1979, nine criminal complaints were consolidated into case file 1-79 against the staff of the San Bernardo Infantry School for the crimes 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 Army 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 Altamiro 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 Army 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 Rojas (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 on September 26, 1978, requesting all information he had from his department regarding the personnel of that unit who performed duties in the months of September and October 1973.

The response did not arrive. The Court reported this contempt to the Court of Appeals, which on November 14, 1978, resolved in Plenary that the aforementioned Colonel should abide by the provisions of Article 191 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (that is, depending on his rank, he must inform the Court 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, a new official letter requested Colonel Meirelles for the list of the institution's personnel as of October 1973, to which he responded that he did not have the authority to provide that information and that it should be requested from the Minister of National Defense.

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

An official letter was sent to the Minister of National Defense, not only to consult about the personnel already mentioned 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, deputy 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 the forcibly disappeared René del R. Maureira Gajardo, he denied knowing them, despite the fact that they claimed to have shared social events together on more than one occasion 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 Chilean Embassy in 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, declared 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 said School.

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

On December 12, 1979, Minister Espejo declared himself incompetent and referred 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-prefecture.

On March 6, 1980, the Court revoked the incompetence and ordered some steps to advance the investigation. As a result, Colonel Jorge Dawling Santa María was summoned again to testify. 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 Articles 191 and 192 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, must testify by official letter. The Minister sent an incorrectly formulated questionnaire, which gave the Brigadier General the opportunity to respond: "in relation to questions 2 through 13, I have no information to provide."

On June 5, 1980, Minister Espejo declared himself incompetent for the second time, basing his resolution on exactly the same terms as the previous one. There was an appeal, and on July 25, 1980, the Court of Appeals revoked the resolution and ordered the Visiting Minister to prepare a new questionnaire to be answered by the Brigadier General, based on the accusations made in the complaints against him that are part of the process.

In July 1980, the Court received an official response from the Brigadier General whose content provided no information, arguing that in 1974 there were no written reports in the Infantry School regarding military maneuvers and operations.

His official letter concluded by stating that he had brought the information of case file 1-79 to the attention of the Army Command, since he was accused in the transcribed complaints of participation as a cover-up in "alleged crimes" that he would have committed in the line of duty.

On October 17, 1980, the records were definitively referred to the II Military Prosecutor's Office, at which point the jurisdictional inhibition took effect.

On May 24, 1982, the case was totally and temporarily dismissed, "notwithstanding that the investigation is exhausted, the perpetration of the facts reported on page 1 and attributed to personnel of the Armed Forces and Order, subject to military jurisdiction, is not completely proven."

That resolution was appealed and revoked in March 1984 by the Court Martial, which ordered steps aimed at completing the investigation. During 1985, at least 26 Officers and Non-commissioned Officers who performed duties in September and October 1973 at the Infantry School testified.

All of them denied their participation in operations in Paine and its surroundings, denied knowing about the presence of detainees in the Chena detention camp, as well as knowing about the existence of said camp.

On November 22, 1979, the Military Prosecutor of the II Military Prosecutor's Office, Enrique Ibarra Chamorro, became a party on behalf of the Military Public Ministry and requested the application of the Amnesty Decree Law 2191-78.

The Military Judge dismissed the case totally and definitively because the criminal responsibility of the persons allegedly accused of the reported facts was extinguished. That resolution was revoked in February 1992 by the Court Martial; this Court instructed that the case return to the summary stage and ordered the exhumation of the six graves in Patio 29.

Said exhumation could not be carried out by order of this Court, since in September 1991, in case 4449-AF of the 22nd Criminal Court of Santiago, the exhumation of all the remains of unidentified persons buried between September and December 1973 in the aforementioned patio in the General Cemetery had been carried out. The case continued to be processed as of December 1992.

It should be noted that in this case, investigations were also carried out regarding Patio 29 of the General Cemetery starting in November 1979, when Monsignor Ignacio Ortúzar R.—in his capacity as Vicar General and Acting Vicar of the Vicaría de la Solidaridad—reported to the Court the existence of massive 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 regarding forcibly disappeared persons included in the process. Between 1981 and 1987, the exhumation of those six graves was requested from the Court on five occasions, with the request being denied on the grounds that it was inconclusive given the time elapsed.

In August 1990, case file 2-90-E was initiated in the Buin-Maipo Court of Letters with the appointment of the Visiting Minister Mr. Germán Hermosilla by the Presidente Aguirre Cerda Court of Appeals. Said appointment was due to a request to that effect from the Vicaría de la Solidaridad of the Archbishopric of Santiago, given the existence of illegal burials of people in the town of Paine that affected forcibly disappeared persons.

The background information on Andrés Pereira Salsberg was delivered to the Court.

On March 15, 1991, Mrs. María del Tránsito Venegas Cortés declared before the Visiting Minister Mr. Germán Hermosilla, in her capacity as the mother of Jorge Reyes Cortés, who in 1973 performed his military service at the San Bernardo Infantry School.

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

So I told her 'don't cry anymore Lucha, your husband was taken by the military, 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 found out a few days later as I said before.

They had them for months without leaving 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 received them there, when Serrano was already dead." Jorge Reyes Cortés currently serves in the Los Andes Regiment, and his military rank is 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 Visiting Minister Humberto Espejo.

On April 22, 1980, Jorge Reyes Cortés appeared before the Court in case file 1-79. In his statement, he denied any participation in the events; textually, 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 Visiting Minister has carried out various ocular inspections in rural sectors in the surroundings of Paine, without positive results for the case of the forcibly disappeared persons of October 16, 1973.

On August 22, 1991, case file 4449-AF was initiated in the 22nd Criminal Court of Santiago, upon initiating the judicial investigation of the crime of illegal burial of persons who currently remain buried as NN in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery, information contained in a criminal complaint presented by the Vicaría de la Solidaridad of the Archbishopric of Santiago.

The anthropometric data of Andrés Pereira Salsberg were delivered in that case. In September 1991, the exhumation of 108 graves in Patio 29 was carried out; as of December 1992, the extracted remains are in the Legal Medical Institute undergoing the identification process.

Source: Vicaría de la Solidaridad