The appellate court sentenced former Army officer Jaime García Covarrubias and lawyer Óscar Alfonso Ernesto Podlech Michaud to 7 years in prison as co-authors of the crime; meanwhile, former detectives Orlando Moreno Vásquez and Raúl Binaldo Schonherr Frías must serve 5 years and one day in prison.

The Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced retired members of the Army, the Investigative Police, and a civilian for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of lawyer Jaime Emilio Eltit Spielmann, who was detained in Santiago on September 13, 1973, and transferred to Temuco one month later, after which his trail was lost.

Thus, the appellate court sentenced former Army officer Jaime García Covarrubias and lawyer Óscar Alfonso Ernesto Podlech Michaud to 7 years in prison as co-authors of the crime; meanwhile, former detectives Orlando Moreno Vásquez and Raúl Binaldo Schonherr Frías must serve 5 years and one day in prison.

In the same case, former conscript soldier Libardo Schwartenski Rubio and former Investigative Police members Hernán Quiroz Barra and Daniel San Juan Clavería were sentenced to 3 years and one day in prison as accomplices.

In its resolution, the Santiago Court of Appeals revoked the first-instance sentence regarding the part that had decreed the acquittal of García Covarrubias, considering that his participation in the crime is proven.

The ruling indicates that the evidence outlined in the previous section, combined with other background information, such as police reports—especially the one on page 711 and following, which confirm the commission of the illicit act and the participants in it—allows for the conviction of Jaime García Covarrubias's participation in the aggravated kidnapping of Jaime Eltit Spielmann, just as the Judicial Prosecutor's Office maintains in its relevant report.

The resolution adds that, in effect, it has been established that at the time of the events, García Covarrubias held the rank of lieutenant in the Chilean Army and served as an aide to the Regimental Commander, Pablo Iturriaga Marchese; in that capacity, he served within the N° 8 ‘Tucapel’ Regiment of Temuco, a place where, after September 11, 1973, political prisoners began to arrive and an apparatus was organized within, in which the Military Prosecutor's Office and Investigative Police officials also participated, for the custody of these political prisoners, where they were interrogated and subjected to illegitimate coercion and then transferred to the Military Prosecutor's Office, which was located in the same military compound, to provide statements. In this context—it continues—Jaime García Covarrubias not only knew of the existence of political prisoners inside the regiment, but sufficient data has also been gathered to determine that he was linked to the functions of detention, conducting interrogations, and torturing the detainees, among whom was Jaime Eltit Spielmann, who was taken to the military compound and there subjected to illegitimate coercion according to the background information that accounts for his presence inside the regiment in poor physical condition, with evident signs of having been tortured. It adds that all of this allows for the conclusion, without a doubt, of Jaime García Covarrubias's participation in the aggravated kidnapping of Jaime Eltit Spielmann, as an author, in accordance with the provisions of Article 15 N° 1 of the Penal Code, in view of the position he held, the rank he possessed at the time, and the direct link to the maintenance of the deprivation of liberty of the detainees inside the regiment and the application of torture and mistreatment to them, having control over that deprivation and absolute awareness of what that control implied, participating in a direct manner so that the victim would have the status of a detainee inside the Tucapel Regiment. The ruling affirms that, finally, the circumstance alleged in court by his defense regarding a confusion of identity with a brother who also served within the aforementioned Regiment did not provide any evidence for it, and from the analysis of the proceedings, no data appears in that direction. Co-authors and accomplices Regarding the requests for acquittal and appeals from the defenses of the other convicted individuals in the case, the appellate court rejected them, considering that the first-instance sentence, issued by the visiting judge Alejandro Madrid, sufficiently proved their participation in the events. The aforementioned request for acquittal will be dismissed, given that the participation of the convicted Podlech Michaud, as an author, in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Jaime Eltit Spielmann is sufficiently accredited, as expressed in the appealed ruling, since sufficient evidentiary background was gathered accounting for the fact that the convicted individual was designated on September 11, 1973, to act as legal advisor to the Wartime Military Prosecutor's Office, a matter endorsed by the accused himself and confirmed by other means of proof and, according to the evidence added to the proceedings, it was considered proven that he, in fact, assumed the position of legal advisor, performing de facto functions proper to the investiture of Military Prosecutor, as expressed in finding 37° of the appealed ruling, and which is confirmed by the statements of Víctor Maturana Burgos on pages 32, 82, 119, 470, 827, and the confrontation with the convicted individual on page 44; of Alfredo García Díaz on pages 39 and 1022; of Herman Carrasco Paul on pages 128 and 1152; of Raúl Schonherr Frías on pages 209 and 867; of Orlando Moreno Vásquez on pages 256 and 883; of Gonzalo Arias González on page 301, Óscar Seguel Jofré on page 825; of Andrés Pacheco Cárdenas on page 1070,” the ruling states regarding the responsibility of Podlech Michaud. The resolution asserts that, in effect, such witnesses, who were officials of the N° 8 ‘Tucapel’ Regiment, the Gendarmerie, the Air Force, the Carabineros, and detainees of the investigated era, are consistent in affirming that Alfonso Podlech Michaud wore a uniform and was in practice the one who made the decisions in the Military Prosecutor's Office, despite the fact that at that time, Luis Jofré Soto was the prosecutor (…). Thus, all the deponents place him inside the Tucapel Regiment when the victim was imprisoned, having decision-making power and control over the fate of the detainees. To the above, one must add the testimony of Óscar Seguel Jofré on page 825, who indicates that he was detained on September 23, 1973, and that the convicted individual was a lawyer for Patria y Libertad, but after the military coup, he appeared wearing a uniform; he even hit him with his feet and fists while he was tied with wires in the Prosecutor's Office inside the Regiment; he acted as an advisor to the Prosecutor, who had no idea about these matters; Jofré was a career military man, so Podlech was like the Prosecutor in practice and was the one in charge. Likewise, the Court considered that the case file contains a copy of the minutes of the extraordinary agreement of the Plenary of the Temuco Court of Appeals dated September 17, 1973, which reveals the status of ad hoc prosecutor of the convicted individual, a matter he insists on denying, indicating that this designation was made in accordance with Article 29 of the Code of Military Justice, only for the purpose of achieving the appointment of Judiciary officials to exercise functions on commission of service in the Military Prosecutor's Office, and thus be able to strengthen its organization for the holding of War Councils. The Court reasons that the truth is that the documents provided by the defense and by the convicted individual, which in his opinion prove that he was only a legal advisor, do not manage to refute the conviction that the convicted Podlech Michaud exercised the functions of military prosecutor immediately after the military government was installed, and thereby made decisions regarding the detainees who were in the regiment. It adds that, as determined in finding 37° of the sentence, he issued release orders, as expressed by witness Irma Felber Minder on page 2667; he ordered the release of ‘Patria y Libertad’ militants who were detained in the Temuco jail; he was permanently at the N° 8 ‘Tucapel’ Regiment, where the victim Jaime Eltit Spielmann remained deprived of liberty, due to his status as a former cadet of the Military School and reserve officer, so the fate suffered by the victim could not have been unknown to him, taking into consideration Eltit Spielmann's status as a law graduate and that he was part of a well-known family in the city. Likewise, the statement made by Teodoro Ribera Beneit in a police interview on page 59 was valued; he was the lawyer for the Eltit family and inquired about Jaime Eltit Spielmann at the regiment, speaking with Colonel Iturriaga Marchese and his legal advisor Alfonso Podlech Michaud, as well as with the Military Prosecutor, conversations in which he was able to confirm that Jaime was detained in that military compound and one only had to wait. “From everything said, it is possible, based on the referred evidentiary data, to construct judicial presumptions, as the lower court judge did, in order to consider proven the active participation that the convicted individual had inside the Tucapel Regiment, with the power of command and decision to keep the victim deprived of liberty, regarding whom he had direct knowledge of his presence, which makes him a participant, as an author of the typical figure of aggravated kidnapping in the terms of Article 15 N° 3 of the Penal Code. A set of presumptions that meet the requirements of gravity, multiplicity, and seriousness required by the aforementioned Article 488 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which allows for the acquisition of the conviction proposed by Article 456 of the same procedural text,” the court concludes regarding the participation of the lawyer Podlech Michaud. “Finally, it is necessary to record that judicial presumptions constitute a legal means of proof to acquire a conviction,” it adds. Regarding the participation of the detectives and the conscript soldier at the time of the events, the Santiago Court ratified it in the terms that Minister Madrid considered proven. “Regarding the participation of the convicted Quiroz Barra in the aggravated kidnapping of the victim, it is proven, just as the first-instance ruling maintained in its findings 30° and 31°. And, complementing the arguments given on that occasion, one can specify the statements of Raúl Schonherr Frías on pages 209 and 868, in that the interrogations in the regiment were in charge of Captain Ubilla, who worked with Investigative personnel, among whom was the convicted Quiroz Barra; of Orlando Moreno Vásquez on page 256, by which he places the convicted individual as part of a team attached to the Military Prosecutor's Office, composed of Investigative personnel, and which was coordinated by Captain Nelson Ubilla; of Carlos Luco Astroza, who on pages 662 and 890 relates an episode in which a former detective named Ríos was detained in the N° 8 ‘Tucapel’ Regiment, who was confined in a kind of clinic inside the compound, sitting on a stretcher with his eyes blindfolded and was interrogated by several Investigative officials, among them Hernán Quiroz, and was subjected to electric current with an electricity-generating machine called ‘la lora’; of José Jara Leal on page 669, a conscript who indicates that a gymnasium was enabled to keep the detained persons and an interrogation room, in charge of Captain Ubilla, noting that the interrogators were Investigative personnel; of Mario Arias Díaz on pages 698 and 708, in which he relates that inside the regiment there was a group dedicated to interrogating the detainees who were placed at the disposal of the Temuco Military Prosecutor's Office, composed of Army and Investigative Police officers, remembering among them one named Quiroz, and that these interrogations were also carried out in a facility called the ‘instruction room,’ where the official named Quiroz also participated; of Libardo Schwartenski Rubio on pages 748, 792, and 861, in that he points out that there was a group of detectives, among them Hernán Quiroz Barra, who carried out interrogations and he witnessed how the detainees were tortured, who were naked, blindfolded, and on a metal bed frame, together with their torturers who were the detectives Quiroz and Morales, indicating that the aforementioned Quiroz had recognized the interrogations in a confrontation; of Víctor Terán Vásquez on page 858, in that he confirms that the detainees were kept in the regiment's gymnasium, where they tortured them, which he knows because on occasions he had to clean those facilities, and Investigative Police personnel participated in the tortures with the application of electric current generated by a manual dynamo; one of the detectives was named Quiroz,” the ruling details. It asserts that this does nothing but endorse the conviction regarding this sentenced individual, insofar as it is proven that he served at the N° 8 ‘Tucapel’ Regiment of Temuco at the time Jaime Eltit Spielmann was detained, his participation in interrogations under torture, with which he cooperated in the maintenance of the victim's deprivation of liberty, as an accomplice in accordance with the provisions of Article 16 of the Penal Code. The appeal of Orlando Moreno Vásquez—it continues—will be dismissed because his participation in the illicit act for which he was sentenced as an author is sufficiently proven, as established in the appealed sentence. His membership in the second intelligence section that was under the command of Captain Nelson Ubilla Toledo is proven with the testimonies of Juan Labraña Luvecce on pages 755 and 794 and of Eduardo Ehijos Ehijos on page 776; his participation in interrogations and the application of torture inside the regiment with the statements of Víctor Maturana Burgos on pages 32, 82, 119, 495, and 827, of Herman Carrasco Paul on pages 128, 1152, and his testimonies in case Rol N° 113.089-A of December 11, 2003, and December 29, 2008, which were added from page 1244 to 1361, of Natacha Carrion Osorio on page 517, of Mario Arias Díaz on page 698, of Libardo Schwartenski Rubio on pages 748, 792, and 861, and of Jorge Godoy Valdebenito on page 1182; the transport of detainees from the Temuco jail to the regiment and back, by the statements of Alfredo García Díaz on page 39, Armando Maldonado Barría on pages 97 and 1022, and Raúl Schonherr Frías on page 209, in addition to the recognition of the convicted individual in his statements; his work together with the Investigative Police officials attached to the Prosecutor's Office, according to what was stated by Hernán Quiroz Barra on page 652 and Daniel San Juan Clavería on page 659. The chamber applied similar reasoning regarding the convicted Schonherr Frías, whose link, as an author, is based on the numerous background facts gathered in the case, “(…) among which are the statements of Orlando Moreno Vásquez on pages 201 and 256, in that they worked together and both transported detainees from and to the public jail; of Hernán Quiroz Barra on page 652 and Daniel San Juan Clavería on page 659, in which they mention the convicted individual working with them; of Mario Arias Díaz on page 698, in that he mentions that Schonherr Frías was part of the group dedicated to interrogating detainees inside the regiment and was a member of the second section, a statement that is confirmed by what was stated by Libardo Schwartenski Rubio on pages 748, 792, and 861, who adds that it was known that the detainees were tortured, he saw them naked, blindfolded, and on a metal bed frame, and in that place he saw, among others, Raúl Schonherr Frías; and of María Antonieta Meza Mondaca on pages 750 and 864, in which she reports that the convicted individual took her by the arm and took her to the gymnasium where she was tortured.” “Regarding the convicted Schwartenski Rubio, the background facts brought to the process prove his participation in the illicit act as an accomplice, insofar as it has been established that, as a conscript within the regiment, he worked together with Captain Nelson Ubilla Toledo, in charge of the Intelligence section and the custody of the political prisoners who were inside the military compound. Furthermore, in testimonies on pages 745 and 858, Víctor Terán Vásquez identifies the convicted individual as one of the conscripts who helped the officers in the tortures; on occasions, he wore civilian clothes and worked with the detectives; Hugo Candia Pinilla on pages 786 and 873 expresses that Captain Ubilla Toledo, in charge of regiment intelligence and the detainees, was always accompanied by a blond, thin conscript whom he remembers as Libardo Schwartenski Rubio; José González Yáñez on page 790 names the convicted individual as the right-hand man of Captain Ubilla and that for this reason he had preferential treatment, being exempt from guard duties and other obligations of the conscripts; Jorge Godoy Valdebenito on page 1182 indicates that Schwartenski was seen in the torture room; and Ernesto García Isla on page 1853 states that Captain Ubilla began working in an intelligence unit and recruited trusted military personnel, among whom was one named Schwartenski, who began to wear civilian clothes,” it is sentenced. Regarding the appeal filed by the defense of San Juan Clavería, “it will also be dismissed, given that he participated in the aggravated kidnapping of Jaime Eltit Spielmann as an accomplice, just as was reasoned in the first-instance sentence.” For the First Chamber: “It is duly proven that he performed functions within the N° 8 ‘Tucapel’ Regiment, within a group coordinated by the person in charge of intelligence of the military compound, whose purpose was the custody, interrogation, and torture of political prisoners. Furthermore, the statements of Orlando Moreno Vásquez on page 256 place San Juan as a member of a team attached to the Military Prosecutor's Office, composed of Investigative personnel, and which was coordinated by Captain Nelson Ubilla; and Carlos Luco Astroza, on pages 662 and 890, narrates an episode in which a former detective named Ríos was detained in the N° 8 ‘Tucapel’ Regiment, who was confined in a kind of clinic inside the compound, sitting on a stretcher with his eyes blindfolded and was interrogated by several Investigative officials, among them the detective Daniel San Juan Clavería, and was subjected to electric current with an electricity-generating machine called ‘la lora’. In addition, various testimonies account for the functions of Investigative personnel within the N° 8 ‘Tucapel’ Regiment, such as José Jara Leal, who on page 669 states that a gymnasium was enabled to keep the detained persons and an interrogation room, in charge of Captain Ubilla, noting that the interrogators were Investigative personnel; Mario Arias Díaz on pages 698 and 708, in which he relates that inside the regiment there was a group dedicated to interrogating the detainees who were placed at the disposal of the Temuco Military Prosecutor's Office, composed of Army and Investigative Police officers; Libardo Schwartenski Rubio on pages 748, 792, and 861, points out that there was a group of detectives who carried out interrogations and he witnessed how the detainees were tortured, who were naked, blindfolded, and on a metal bed frame; of Víctor Terán Vásquez on page 858, in that he confirms that the detainees were kept in the regiment's gymnasium, where they tortured them, which he knows because on occasions he had to clean those facilities, and Investigative Police personnel participated in the tortures with the application of electric current generated by a manual dynamo.” In the civil aspect, the sentence that ordered the state to pay a total compensation of $300,000,000 to the victim's family members was confirmed.

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl, November 13, 2020

Former PDI officer from Temuco prosecuted for the disappearance of a young children's basketball coach in 1974

The extraordinary visiting judge for human rights violation cases in the jurisdictions of Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Coyhaique, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, issued an indictment for the crime of aggravated kidnapping of the children's basketball team coach Osvaldo del Carmen Cerna Huard, perpetrated starting November 15, 1974, in the city of Temuco.

In the resolution (case roll 114.050), the visiting judge indicted the then-detective of the Investigative Police (PDI) Hernán Raúl Quiroz Barra, as an author of the crime of aggravated kidnapping, as a crime against humanity.

The accused Quiroz Barra, a former PDI inspector, was part of the staff of Investigative officials who, immediately after the military coup, were attached to perform repressive functions at the N° 8 "Tucapel" Infantry Regiment of Temuco.

This military unit, which acted as the operational center of the uniformed repression over the Cautín province, was under the command of the then-Army Colonel Pablo Iturriaga Marchesse, who also served as the Garrison Chief of Temuco.

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Four former Army officers and a former military prosecutor prosecuted for crimes against humanity committed in Temuco in 1973 and 1974 To carry out the repressive work selectively against people of the left and popular organizations affiliated with the overthrown Allende government, the uniformed Iturriaga Marchesse organized a command under the tutelage of Section Two of the "Tucapel" Regiment, to which officials from the Air Force, Carabineros, and the Temuco Investigative Police were to be added.

This operational center inside the aforementioned regiment was in charge of the then-Army major and second-in-command of the unit, Luis Armando Jofré Soto. This repressive command was in charge of pursuing and detaining hundreds of people who were entered into various detention centers to then be derived to the "Tucapel" Regiment or taken directly to the prisoner center in this military unit, where their fate was decided; many were murdered, and many others disappeared due to the criminal action of this entity of terror.

Those attached by the Investigative Police to this centralized repressive body were Hernán Raúl Quiroz Barra, Daniel San Juan Clavería, Aquiles Poblete Müller, Rigoberto Ortiz Lara, Luis Morales Toledo, Carlos Zurita Panguilef, and Carlos Luco Astroza, among others.

As part of these repressive actions, on November 15, 1974, the young Osvaldo del Carmen Cerna Huard, 22 years old, an accountant by profession, coach of the Children's Basketball Team of the Tucapel Sports Club, and a militant of the Communist Youth, was detained.

In 1973, he had performed his mandatory military service at the N° 8 "Tucapel" Regiment itself, and by 1974, he was working as a sales manager at the Socoagro Company. On the day he was detained, after returning from work and stopping by his home, Osvaldo Cerna went to visit one of his friends and to a meeting he had with leaders of the Basketball Team.

After the meeting, at approximately 8:00 PM, he was talking with an acquaintance in front of the Gymnasium of the Estándar N° 5 School, located on Pasaje Rebolledo, where he was preparing to direct the children's team training, at which moment he was detained by two people dressed in civilian clothes, who were Investigative Police officials attached to the "Tucapel" Regiment, among them Hernán Raúl Quiroz Barra, who transported him to the Investigative Police Barracks of Temuco.

In the judicial investigation, it is established that, on that occasion, Néstor Araneda Cabezas, an Inspector of that Police Unit and a friend of Osvaldo, was at said barracks; in a free and voluntary statement given before the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, he stated that “while he was in the Unit's casino, he saw that Mr.

Quiroz was bringing in a hooded detainee whom he recognized by his clothing and height as Osvaldo del Carmen Cerna Huard; subsequently, he went to the Guard to ask about Osvaldo, and the Officer indicated to him that the aforementioned was in ‘jail,’ handing him the Tucapel Sports Club cards.” Araneda then relates that “that same night he went down to talk to Osvaldo in the cell, who expressed to him ‘that he was scared,’ to which Araneda indicated to him ‘that as long as he was there, he would have no problems.’” Araneda adds that “the next morning he verified that Osvaldo was no longer in the Police Unit's facilities and that in the early hours of the morning he had been taken out by Hernán Raúl Quiroz Barra, to an unknown destination.” Since then, Osvaldo Cerna Huard remains a forcibly disappeared person. by Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl, July 21, 2022

23 former members of the Army, Carabineros, PDI, and civilians sentenced for crimes committed in Temuco in 1973 in the Polvorín Case

The extraordinary visiting judge for human rights violation cases in the jurisdictions of the Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Coyhaique Courts of Appeals, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, sentenced 23 retired military personnel and Army collaborators for their responsibility in the aggravated homicides and illegitimate coercion against Florentino Alberto Molina Ruiz, Juan Antonio Chávez Rivas, Víctor Hugo Valenzuela Velásquez, Juan Carlos Ruiz Mancilla, Amador Francisco Montero Mosquera, Pedro Juan Mardones Jofré, and Carlos Aillañir Huenchual, perpetrated in the commune of Temuco in November 1973.

In the sentence (roll 113.089), Judge Mesa Latorre sentenced the civilian Óscar Alfonso Ernesto Podlech Michaud, a former military prosecutor of the dictatorship, to life imprisonment for his responsibility as an author of the 7 aggravated homicides and 10 years in prison for his responsibility as an author of 7 crimes of illegitimate coercion against the seven victims.

Meanwhile, former PDI members Daniel San Juan Clavería and Hernán Raúl Quiroz Barra, former Army non-commissioned officers Orlando Moreno Vásquez and Raúl Binaldo Schonherr Frías, and former Carabineros non-commissioned officer Omar Burgos Dejean must serve a life sentence as accomplices to the 7 aggravated homicides and a 10-year prison sentence as authors of illegitimate coercion.

The accused former Army officers Jaime Guillermo García Covarrubias, Pablo Domingo Gran López, Romilio Osvaldo Lavín Muñoz, Carlos Eduardo Oviedo Arriagada, Raimundo Ignacio García Covarrubias, Norberto Francisco Uribe Moroni, Pedro Guillermo Manuel Tichahuer Salcedo, and non-commissioned officer Juan Bautista Labraña Luvecce will serve life sentences as accomplices to the 7 aggravated homicides and 427 days in prison as accomplices to the 7 acts of illegitimate coercion.

Former Army officer Manuel Abraham Vásquez Chahuán will serve a life sentence as an author of the 7 aggravated homicides. In addition, former conscript soldiers Gabriel Alfonso Dittus Marín, Héctor Mauricio Villablanca Huenulao, Sergio Orlando Vallejos Garcés, Juan Carlos Concha Belmar, and Manuel Rafael Campos Ceballos will serve a life sentence as accomplices to the 7 aggravated homicides.

Arnoldo Aedo Matus will serve 20 years in prison as an accomplice to the 7 homicides. Libardo Hernán Schwartenski Rubio will serve 10 years in prison as an author of 7 crimes of illegitimate coercion. Finally, José Raúl Inzunza Reyes was sentenced to 427 days in prison as an author of 7 crimes of illegitimate coercion.

In the judicial investigation, it is established that after the military coup of September 1973, the armed and police forces took control of the city of Temuco, with the Colonel Commander of the "La Concepción" Regiment of Lautaro, Hernán Jerónimo Ramírez Ramírez (deceased), becoming Intendant, and the Colonel Pablo Iturriaga Marchesse (deceased), Commander of the N° 8 "Tucapel" Infantry Regiment of this city, becoming Governor of Temuco, who also remained as the Garrison Chief of Temuco.

On the same date, the lawyer Óscar Alfonso Ernesto Podlech Michaud, who was also a reserve lieutenant, was called to collaborate with the new regime to support the management of the Military Prosecutor's Office that operated inside the unit and was in charge of the Second-in-Command, Major Luis Jofré Soto (deceased).

Under the orders of that command and the Prosecutor's Office, the repressive work was concentrated in the "Tucapel" Regiment of Temuco. In that compound, the Second Section of Information and Intelligence operated, which was in charge of Captain Nelson Manuel Uldaricio Ubilla Toledo (deceased), under whose dependency some non-commissioned officers performed functions, among whom were Juan Bautista Labraña Luvecce, Orlando Moreno Vásquez, and Raúl Binaldo Schonherr Frías.

After the coup, the repressive work of the Regiment was reinforced with the addition of Investigative officials Aquiles Alfonso Poblete Müller (deceased), Daniel San Juan Clavería, and Hernán Raúl Quiroz Barra, and of Carabineros, among whom was Omar Burgos Dejean.

Likewise, some officers joined the intelligence tasks, among whom was Manuel Abraham Vásquez Chahuán, in addition to enlisted personnel and conscripts of the regiment. Within the aforementioned military unit, a special group called the "Patrulla Brava" (Brave Patrol) or "Patrulla Chacal" (Jackal Patrol) was formed, integrated by enlisted soldiers and conscripts of the Second Hunters Company, among whom were Manuel Rafael Campos Ceballos, Juan Carlos Concha Belmar, Sergio Orlando Vallejos Garcés, Gabriel Alfonso Dittus Marín, Héctor Mauricio Villablanca Huenulao, Juan Humberto Carrillo Rebolledo, and Libardo Schwartenski Rubio, under the orders of Second Lieutenant Manuel Espinoza Ponce (deceased), who in turn received orders from Lieutenant Manuel Abraham Vásquez Chahuán, who was in command of the Company. This group was in charge, among other functions, of guarding the detainees who were kept in the facilities of the "Tucapel" Regiment of Temuco. Among the repressive actions that were executed inside the Regiment were the illegitimate coercion and torture to which the male and female prisoners who were detained and confined in the facilities of that unit were subjected. As a result of those criminal activities, a significant number of people in the IX region were killed or disappeared, which were explained by means of military communiqués. A communiqué from November 10, 1973, reported that an attempted assault on the "Tucapel" Regiment's ammunition dump had occurred, resulting in a confrontation in which the victims of this case were killed: Florentino Alberto Molina Ruiz, Juan Antonio Chávez Rivas, Víctor Hugo Valenzuela Velásquez, Juan Carlos Ruiz Mancilla, Amador Francisco Montero Mosquera, Pedro Juan Mardones Jofré, and Carlos Aillañir Huenchual, all of them militants and leaders of the Communist Party in the area. In fact, these were murders or executions of political prisoners committed at the Regiment's shooting range. Florentino Alberto Molina Ruiz, 44 years old, a member of the Central Committee and Regional Secretary of the Communist Party, was detained and taken from his home on Monday, November 5, 1973, by two Carabineros members of the Civil Commission, who transported him to the Second Carabineros Precinct of Temuco. In the early hours of the following day, he was transferred to the "Tucapel" Regiment of Temuco by order of the Temuco Military Prosecutor's Office. Juan Antonio Chávez Rivas, 26 years old, a student at the State Technical University, Regional Secretary, and member of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth, was detained on November 6, 1973, by two Carabineros members of the Civil Commission, who transported him to the Second Carabineros Precinct of Temuco; the following day, he was transferred to the "Tucapel" Regiment of Temuco. Víctor Hugo Valenzuela Velásquez, 22 years old, a public employee and Propaganda Secretary of the Communist Youth of Cautín, was detained on November 7, 1973, around 10:00 AM, at the Real Estate Registrar of Temuco, where he worked. The arresting personnel, who were dressed in civilian clothes, belonged to the Army Intelligence Service, one of them being a Sergeant of the "Tucapel" Regiment of Temuco. Juan Carlos Ruiz Mancilla, 21 years old, a Civil Construction student at the State Technical University and a member of the Communist Youth, traveled to the city of Punta Arenas, where his parents lived, after September 11, 1973. In that place, he was detained on November 7 of that same year and transported by plane to Temuco, where he was taken to the "Tucapel" Regiment. Amador Francisco Montero Mosquera, 21 years old, an Electrical Engineering student at the State Technical University and a member of the Communist Youth, was detained at his home on November 7, 1973, by personnel of the Carabineros Civil Commission and transported to the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco. Pedro Juan Mardones Jofré, 22 years old, a student at the State Technical University, was detained at his home and transported to the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco. Meanwhile, Carlos Aillañir Huenchual, 57 years old, a farmer and sympathizer of the Popular Unity government, was detained in the rural sector of Pelales, in the town of Quepe, on November 6, 1973, by a military patrol from the "Tucapel" Regiment that was moving in an institutional truck. At the end of the day on November 10, 1973, the aforementioned detainees were loaded into a military vehicle and, under the command of Manuel Abraham Vásquez Chahuán, were transported to the shooting range sector, called "Isla Cautín," by the officers and their companions. In that place, the victims were tied to stakes that were arranged there in a row. A short time later, Captain Rodolfo Vargas Campos (deceased), Sergeant Hernán Rodrigo Santiesteban Domínguez (deceased), Sergeant Anacleto Aguirre Rivera (deceased), all from the 1st Hunters Company, plus Sergeant José Gajardo Gajardo (deceased) and Sergeant Arnoldo Aedo Matus from the 2nd Hunters Company, joined the group of military personnel present in that sector. Once the patrol commanded by Captain Vargas arrived at the place, he ordered its members to position themselves behind the detainees who were tied to the stakes, with the exception of Arnoldo Aedo Matus, whom he told to locate himself in a distant place and proceed to fire shots toward the trees located in another sector. Aedo Matus was able to see that the Regiment Commander, Colonel Pablo Iturriaga Marchesse (deceased), was present at the place, accompanied by another officer, and that two civilians were also witnessing the execution maneuvers, one of them being the legal advisor to the Temuco Military Prosecutor's Office, Óscar Alfonso Ernesto Podlech Michaud. Under these conditions, the detainees were executed on the spot one by one and finished off with bursts of gunfire, after which their bodies were sent to the morgue of the regional hospital of Temuco, where the required autopsy was performed. Finally, a military communiqué was drafted to be published in the press the following day, in which an attempted assault on the Isla Cautín ammunition dump by a group of extremists was reported. by Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl, September 22, 2023