The minister for extraordinary cases of human rights violations for the jurisdictions of Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Coyhaique, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, has indicted retired Army Colonel Jorge Nibaldo Del Río Del Río as the perpetrator of the crimes of unlawful coercion and illegal detention of Guido Erwis Venegas Avilés, classified as crimes against humanity.

These illicit acts were perpetrated in September 1973 in the commune of Lautaro.

In the resolution (case file 45.373), the investigating minister also indicted retired Carabineros First Sergeant Domingo Antonio Campos Collao as an accomplice to the crime of unlawful coercion, classified as a crime against humanity, against the same victim.

During the investigation phase of the case, Minister Mesa Latorre gathered sufficient evidence to establish the following facts, which constitute crimes against humanity:

“

A.-

That on September 11, 1973, the Armed Forces and the Forces of Order and Public Security assumed the Supreme command of the Nation, consolidating the Constituent, Legislative, and Executive powers within the Government Junta, as established in Communiqué No. 5 of the same date, as well as in Decree Law No. 1, subsequently clarified and supplemented by Decree Laws Nos. 128, 527, and 788.

Among other measures, a State of Siege was declared throughout the national territory, and a level-one state of alert was ordered for the Armed Forces and the Forces of Order and Public Security.

B.-

That by September 11, 1973, as a result of the events occurring in the country, a special operational group called a “civil commission” was formed in all police stations. This group was dedicated to intelligence tasks consisting of investigating the whereabouts of specific individuals who were listed in military communiqués, among others; that is, these were tasks that fell outside standard police procedures [the foregoing is documented in case file 113.987 from the First Criminal Court of Temuco, case file 14-2013 from the Illustrious Court of Appeals of Valdivia, case file 45.359 from the Lautaro Civil Court, case file 45.362 from the Lautaro Civil Court, and case file 45.368 from the Lautaro Civil Court], among others, all of which were processed by this Tribunal and are of public knowledge.

C.-

That the 1st Carabineros Station of Lautaro was under the command of Carabineros Commissioner Major Jorge Enrique Schweizer Gómez (deceased), followed in command by Captain Marcial Edmundo Vera Ríos (deceased).

The special group was integrated and led by Lieutenant José Orlando Huerta Ávila (deceased), Enrique Ferrier Valeze (deceased), Mario Ponce Orellana (deceased), Egidio Manuel Sandoval Umaña (deceased), Juvenal Santiago Sanhueza Sanhueza (deceased), Santiago Millangir Hueche (deceased), and Domingo Antonio Campos Collao, among others.

This special group carried out patrols in rural and urban areas and collaborated with personnel from the La Concepción Regiment of Lautaro. This group was led by Captain Jorge Nibaldo Del Río Del Río, conducting joint patrols in the rural area under the jurisdiction of said police unit, proceeding to identify the names and addresses of individuals who were subsequently detained and taken to the station to be interrogated in different facilities, such as the Lautaro station itself and the La Concepción Regiment of Lautaro.

D.-

That the facilities of the 1st Carabineros Station of Lautaro were used to hold those detained by this special group and those detained by personnel from the La Concepción Regiment of Lautaro, who were subsequently transported by this special group to an unknown destination or removed by personnel from the La Concepción Regiment of Lautaro, according to testimonies, including those of Víctor Matus Vásquez (pp. 426–427, Vol.

II); José Domingo Segundo Llabulén Llabulén (p. 810, Vol. III); Francisca Llaulén Antilao (p. 811, Vol. III); Sergio Samuel Jara Sandoval (p. 814, Vol. III); Santiago Millangir Hueche (pp. 807–808, Vol.

III); Paicavi Lemolemo Painemal Morales (pp. 507–509, Vol. II); Hernán Patricio Mardones Díaz (pp. 495–497, Vol. II); Rafael García Ferlice (pp. 801–803, Vol. III); Mario Ponce Orellana (p. 804, Vol. III); Ida del Carmen Meliquén Quilodrán (p. 806, Vol.

III); and Carlos Antonio Navarro Schifferli (p. 807, Vol. III), a place where men and women were held indiscriminately. As indicated, the superior command composed of Jorge Enrique Schweizer Gómez (deceased), Marcial Edmundo Vera (deceased), and José Orlando Huerta Ávila (deceased) had knowledge of all these detentions of individuals brought to the Lautaro station.

E.-

That in 1973, Guido Erwis Venegas Avilés was 26 years old and worked as an executive for the agricultural company Magrimsa, while on that date he was on official duty at CORFO in the city of Concepción; he was also the communal secretary of the Socialist Party in the city of Lautaro. (As documented in, among other records, pp. 01, 14, 232, 312, 384, Vol. I).

F.-

That on September 13, 1973, Venegas Avilés was at the Calatayú Estate in the Quillem sector (Perquenco) with Luis Candia Figueroa, a leader of the Socialist Party and student leader at the University of Temuco.

Both were in hiding, intending to flee to Argentina, as they had been sought by the authorities, at which moment two trucks and a jeep arrived with personnel from the La Concepción Regiment of Lautaro, who detained them and loaded them onto one of the trucks, where a teacher named Norton Maza Ferreira and a merchant named Rodolfo Mencke were also being held.

Throughout the journey, the detainees were threatened by a military officer who struck them with his fists, breaking their noses.

G.-

That upon being detained, Guido Venegas and Luis Candia were taken to the La Concepción Regiment of Lautaro, where Venegas Avilés was taken into a room and interrogated by approximately three to four people, remaining blindfolded and held in that facility until midnight, before being taken to the First Carabineros Station of Lautaro, where he saw Carabineros Domingo Campos Collao, Sergeant Santiago Millanguir Hueche, and Víctor Matus Vásquez (as documented in, among other records, pp. 14, 15, Vol.

I), being able to recognize the first of these because he was a cousin of his ex-spouse. He arrived at said police unit at approximately one or two in the morning, where Venegas Avilés was struck with a police baton on his head and all over his body.

At the same time, one side of his head was shaved, and he was left in a cell with other detainees, where he told the others what had happened. Among them was the priest Wilfredo Alarcón, who recounts in his book Biografía sobre Juan Ansina that “…They were the ones who impressed me most that day, you saw them arrive that night, around two or three in the morning, Guido Venegas, soaking wet, dripping water, drenched… his face looked like a bag of bruised meat, his eyes had sunk in, his nose was broken, his lips impossible, his head broken, according to him his ribs were broken so he couldn't move, there wasn't a good part on him… and then Candia, I don't know if they hit him less or if he was more resistant, but he seemed less damaged… although his nose was also broken and the blows were visible on his face” (as documented in, among other records, pp. 01, 14, 32, 43, 59, 84, 85, 87, Vol. I; p. 543, Vol. II). That despite the aforementioned uniformed officers, including Domingo Campos Collao, being part of the group of people (Carabineros) present at the aforementioned station while Venegas Avilés was being beaten and tortured by a Carabineros officer (Badge 79, unidentified), they did not take any action to prevent the execution of the illicit act, nor did they report or inform the Carabineros superior command or any other authority of the event. Likewise, there is no record that an investigation was conducted into those illicit acts or that they were reported to the courts of justice at the time of the events, nor is there any record of an administrative investigation having been initiated as a result of the commission of this illicit act.

H.-

That the day after what is recounted in the previous paragraph, Guido Venegas was taken to the La Concepción Regiment of Lautaro and led to a room while blindfolded; they beat him with feet and fists, placed a bag of wet sand on his body, and tortured him by putting a plastic bag over his head, suffocating him until he almost lost consciousness, and interrogated him while threateningly showing him photographs of his wife and infant daughter.

This session was directed by Captain Jorge Nibaldo Del Río Del Río, a person whom Venegas Avilés was able to recognize, as he stated on p. 15: “…I recognized him by his voice since it had been he who had interrogated me the first time I was taken to the aforementioned regiment…”, while he received blows with an iron bar to his lips, which caused several of his teeth to be knocked out.

These facts coincide with the statement of Lidia del Carmen Torres Abarzúa, widow of retired Army non-commissioned officer Nelson Medina Caro, who details on p. 167 that “…three other people, Guido Venegas, Luis De la Maza, and Luis Candia, were detained and tortured by Jorge del Rio and Rafael García, after having been caught hiding in a well located in the field…” adding that her husband had received orders from Jorge Del Rio to execute the aforementioned individuals, which he did not carry out, and he was subsequently returned to the Carabineros Station of Lautaro, where he remained until the first days of October 1973. (As documented in, among other records, pp. 01, 09, 10, 14, 15, 16, 134, 150, 167, 175, Vol. I; pp. 674, 675, Vol. II).

I.-

That while detained at the Lautaro station, during the first days of October 1973, Guido Venegas Avilés was taken to the Temuco jail, being released at the end of October of that year without a prior trial. (As documented in, among other records, pp. 01, 366 bis, 368, Vol.

I). Subsequently, he continued to be sought by the Carabineros, a situation that ended in January 1975, after a process before the military prosecutor's office, being temporarily dismissed by Military Prosecutor Alfonso Podlech Michaud, subsequently obtaining his freedom.”

Regarding the accused Jorge Nibaldo del Río Río, house arrest was ordered due to his age, for which the 34th Criminal Court of Santiago was notified to enforce the decreed precautionary measure. Meanwhile, no precautionary measure was decreed for the accused Domingo Campos Collao, as he is currently serving a sentence at the Punta Peuco Prison for other human rights violation cases.

Source: pjud.cl, April 24, 2023