Sergio Adrián Maureira Lillo, married, father of 11, agricultural worker, with no political affiliation, was detained on October 7, 1973, at approximately 10:00 PM at his home by a Carabineros patrol from the Isla de Maipo station, commanded by Sergeant Pablo Ñancupil Raquileo and composed of Carabineros Jacinto Torres, Manuel Muñoz, Héctor Vargas, and David Coliqueo.

He was violently removed from his home and placed into a pickup truck belonging to the Fundo Naguayán, where he worked. His detention occurred in the presence of his spouse and nine of his children. Sergio Maureira Lillo was the first of eleven peasants who would be apprehended that night in the same operation, four of whom were his own sons.

Shortly thereafter, his sons Sergio Miguel Maureira Muñoz, 27, married, 1 child, agricultural worker, and Rodolfo Antonio, 22, married, 1 child, agricultural worker, were detained in their respective homes.

Finally, the same patrol returned to the family home where they arrested two more sons: Segundo Armando, 24, single, agricultural worker, and José Manuel, 26, single, agricultural worker. All detentions were carried out with great violence, and the homes were raided by the apprehending Carabineros.

The other six peasants arrested that night were: Enrique Astudillo Alvarez and his sons Ramón and Omar Astudillo Rojas, and the three Hernández Flores brothers: Carlos, Nelson, and Oscar. According to witnesses, the detainees were tied up and lying face down on the floor of the vehicle, with the Carabineros standing over them, beating them constantly and hurling insults and death threats at them.

The spouse of Sergio Maureira and mother of four of the detainees visited various locations inquiring about the whereabouts of her husband and four sons: the Isla de Maipo station and other police stations, prisons, facilities used as detention centers (Estadio Nacional, Estadio Chile), SENDET, the Legal Medical Institute, and the Ministry of Defense.

She also sent letters to detention centers in other cities, without receiving a positive response. On the morning of October 7, four young men had been detained in the Plaza of Isla de Maipo by Carabineros from the local station; these young men were: Iván Ordóñez Lama, 17; Miguel Brant Bustamante, 19; José Herrera Villegas, 17; and Manuel Jesús Navarro Salinas, 20.

The fifteen detainees remained at the station during the day of October 7; this was the last place they were seen alive. On November 7, 1975, the Chilean delegate to the United Nations, Sergio Diez, stated in his presentation before the Third Committee of the General Assembly that "many of the alleged disappeared do not have a legal existence," while others "were located in the records of the Legal Medical Institute of Santiago." Of the fifteen detained in Isla de Maipo, eight appear on the lists: among them the 4 Maureira brothers; Sergio Maureira Muñoz, as having no legal existence, and the other seven as deceased: 1) Enrique Astudillo Alvarez, entry 3166, date of death: October 7, 1973, at 2:00 PM. 2) Nelson Hernández Flores, entry 3238, date of death: October 11, 1973, at 2:30 PM. 3) Oscar Humberto Hernández Flores, entry 3201, date of death: October 9, 1973, at 12:30 PM. 4) José Manuel Herrera Villegas, entry 3130, date of death: October 6, 1973, at 11:30 AM. 5) José Manuel Maureira Muñoz, entry 3263, date of death: October 11, 1973, at 8:30 PM. 6) Rodolfo Antonio Maureira Muñoz, entry 3332, date of death: October 15, 1973, at 1:00 PM. 7) Segundo Armando Maureira Muñoz, entry 3335, date of death: October 15, 1973, at 4:00 PM. The origin and those responsible for creating these lists could never be established; neither the Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the Legal Medical Institute acknowledged responsibility for them. During the month of November 1978, a Catholic priest received information, under the seal of confession, about a place where numerous human remains were located. Considering the gravity of the matter, a commission was formed to verify its accuracy before filing a formal judicial complaint. This commission was composed of Monsignor Enrique Alvear, Auxiliary Bishop of Santiago; Monsignor Cristián Precht, Vicar of Solidarity; Jaime Martínez, Director of the weekly "Qué Pasa"; Abraham Santibáñez, Sub-Director of the magazine "Hoy"; and lawyers Alejandro González and Máximo Pacheco. The commission met on November 30, 1978, at the site of the discovery, an abandoned lime mine located in the town of Lonquén, a small village 14 kilometers from the city of Talagante and near the town of Isla de Maipo. There, they confirmed the existence of two kilns, approximately nine meters high, in one of which a large number of human remains were found. Once the information was verified, Bishop Alvear and lawyers Pacheco and González filed the respective complaint the following day, December 1, with the President of the Supreme Court, Mr. Israel Bórquez, requesting that he report it to the full court. This initiated the judicial investigation that determined the remains found belonged to the fifteen locals from Isla de Maipo detained on October 7, 1973, who had been executed by Carabineros and their remains illegally buried in the kilns. The victims' families requested the return of the bodies to provide them with a proper burial. The Court Martial ordered the Military Prosecutor to hand over the remains to whoever could legally prove kinship. The Prosecutor ordered "strict compliance with that order," but later, on the very day of the funeral, he ordered that, due to the impossibility of identifying the remains—except for those of Sergio Maureira Lillo—they be buried in the town of Isla de Maipo. On the same day this order was issued, the families had gathered at the Recoleta Franciscana Church awaiting the remains to hold a funeral mass, only to learn at that moment that the bodies had been buried by Legal Medical Service officials in the Municipal Cemetery of Isla de Maipo in a common grave, with the exception of Sergio Maureira Lillo, who was buried in an individual grave. The Military Prosecutor also refused to authorize the registration of the deaths in the Civil Registry and Identification Service. Days later, a religious ceremony for the eternal rest of these victims was held at the Santiago Cathedral, without the presence of the remains. Years later, the Lonquén Kilns, which by then had become a place of pilgrimage, were dynamited.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On March 29, 1974, the Committee for Cooperation for Peace in Chile filed a mass writ of amparo (habeas corpus), case file 289-74, before the Santiago Court of Appeals on behalf of 131 people who were disappeared at that date and whose information had been verified by said organization.

Among these 131 protected persons were Sergio Maureira Lillo, his four sons, and the other six peasants detained in the same operation. On November 28 of that same year, the 6th Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals dismissed the writ.

An appeal was filed with the Supreme Court, which confirmed the denial on January 31, 1975, ordering the initiation of a summary proceeding to investigate the commission of possible crimes. In the same resolution, it recommended that the Court of Appeals appoint a Visiting Minister (Ministro en Visita), an appointment that fell to Mr.

Enrique Zurita Camps. On February 24, 1975, the Investigating Minister appeared at the First Criminal Court of Santiago, initiating case file 106.657. During the investigation, the Maureira family members were summoned to testify by the Visiting Minister, once again documenting the circumstances of the detention.

On September 25, 1975, without any progress having been made in any of the cases of the forcibly disappeared, the summary was closed because "no further progress could be made in the investigation." On September 29 of the same year, the Visiting Minister declared himself incompetent, considering that the proceedings allowed for the establishment that Sergio Maureira Lillo, his four sons, Enrique Astudillo Alvarez and his two sons, and the three Hernández Flores brothers had been detained on October 7, 1973, by Carabineros of Talagante and handed over the following day at the Estadio Nacional to the charge of SENDET, an organization that provided no information to either confirm or deny this fact. The Minister's resolution states verbatim that "consequently, the Carabineros of Talagante or SENDET must answer for the disappearance of the named persons, as this Court lacks jurisdiction in both cases." He added an order to remit the records to the Second Military Court of Santiago. On July 1, 1976, the Military Court appointed the Third Military Prosecutor's Office to continue the investigation under case file 1382-76. On August 9, one month later, the summary was declared closed, and the following day a temporary dismissal was proposed, which was approved on September 14 by the Military Judge, who ordered the case to be archived. In parallel, on June 17, 1974, the spouse of Sergio Maureira and mother of the Maureira Muñoz brothers, Purísima Elena Muñoz Contreras, filed a writ of amparo, case file 613-74, before the Santiago Court of Appeals. In the filing, she also mentioned the detention and subsequent disappearance of six other peasants from the same area. A report issued by the Ministry of the Interior stated that the persons in question were not being held and that the Ministry was unaware of their whereabouts. The Auditor of the Combat Command for Aviation Tribunals in Wartime reported that they were not being held or prosecuted by the Aviation Tribunals under that Command. The Military Court of Santiago and the Chief of the State of Siege Zone of the Province of Santiago, Brigadier General Sergio Arellano Stark, reported the same. Regarding the reports received from the Carabineros, the Acting Chief of the Isla de Maipo station, Luis Acevedo Vargas, sent two official letters. In the first, dated December 10, 1974, he states verbatim that "they were indeed detained in the month of October of last year by personnel of this Unit, and were sent with an unnumbered memo, dated the 8th of the same month, for the reasons indicated therein, to the Prisoner Camp at the Estadio Nacional, where they were received in good order, as evidenced by the signature on the back of the copy of the memo, which appears to say Sergeant 2nd Class González." The aforementioned memo contains the personal data (name, age, marital status, education, occupation, ID number, and address), political affiliation, and the charges against each of the eleven detained peasants. In the case of Sergio Maureira Lillo, it says: "47 years old, married, agricultural worker, basic education, ID No. 16.455 from the Talagante office, residing at Calle La Ballica s/n; with the same charges and activities as detainee No. 5." "Detainee No. 5" is one of his sons, listed as César Manuel, and refers to Sergio, of whom it is stated that "he participated, along with his father and brothers, in extremist activities in the area; they are all of Mapucista affiliation. Yesterday, they arrived at the Lo Díaz plot, where Carabinero Jacinto Torres González and his family—a member of this station—live, and broke the padlock on the entrance gate to enter a field they work, insulting his spouse and threatening her, her children, and her husband with death." At the end of the text, it is requested that they be interrogated by specialized personnel at that facility, as it is presumed that the detainees are extremists who are gathering to reorganize, which has been verified by their own statements and by the initial inquiries made by station personnel. This document is signed by Carabineros Lieutenant Lautaro Castro Mendoza, Chief of the Station. In the second official letter, sent two days after the previous one, the Carabineros reiterated the detention of the individuals carried out on October 7, 1973, by station personnel, on the grounds that they were caught in a clandestine meeting at the home of Sergio Maureira Lillo. It adds that they all "are of recognized extremist left-wing affiliation" and were planning to attack officials of that station and their families, one of whom they had already threatened. It further states that they were sent to the Estadio Nacional where "they were received in good order" and that it is unknown if they were subsequently placed at the disposal of any court. The Court repeatedly requested information from SENDET regarding this fact provided by the Carabineros, without receiving a response. In March 1975, nine months after the amparo was filed, the petitioner requested that the Court appoint a Visiting Minister. On March 10 of that year, the 1st Chamber of the Court of Appeals dismissed the amparo and ordered the records sent to the corresponding Criminal Court. Furthermore, on October 1, 1974, a complaint for "presumed misfortune" (disappearance) of the eleven peasants of Isla de Maipo was filed, case file 22826-1, before the Talagante Court of Letters. The filing states that, while carrying out some of the detentions, the Carabineros caused bodily injuries to the relatives of the arrested; it adds that the police officers were in a manifest state of intoxication and that they stole items from some of the raided homes, such as wool, jugs of wine, and money. There is no further information on the processing of this complaint. On December 1, 1978, the Vicariate of Solidarity, represented by the Auxiliary Bishop of Santiago, Monsignor Enrique Alvear Urrutia, and the Episcopal Vicar, Monsignor Cristián Precht Bañados, filed a complaint with the Supreme Court regarding the discovery of human remains inside two old mineral processing kilns on the slopes of the Lonquén hills, in the Department of Talagante. This information had been provided days earlier by a person to a priest, under the seal of confession. Prior to the presentation to the Supreme Court, ecclesiastical authorities formed a commission that went to the indicated location, verifying the truth of the report. In the filing, signed by Bishop Monsignor Enrique Alvear, Vicar Monsignor Cristián Precht, and lawyers Máximo Pacheco and Alejandro González, they requested that the Supreme Court "adopt measures to ensure a rapid and exhaustive investigation." The Supreme Court sent the records to the Talagante Criminal Court to conduct the summary proceeding, initiating case file 27.123-3. As a first step, the magistrate went to the site on December 1, located about 3.5 km from the town of Lonquén, confirming the existence of a stone structure, approximately 9 meters high by 16 meters wide, containing two kilns, each with an entrance opening of 1 meter by 80 cm, and with two pits at the top that showed a large accumulation of dirt and stones. Upon inspecting one of the entrances and removing some debris, remains, pieces of fabric, and hair were extracted; observation inside revealed the presence of other human remains. In subsequent excavations, human remains were extracted and sent to the Legal Medical Institute for analysis. Some shell casings were also found. On December 6, the full Supreme Court appointed the Minister of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Mr. Adolfo Bañados Cuadra, as Extraordinary Visiting Minister to continue the investigation into the discovery of the Lonquén remains. Several peasants residing near the kilns were summoned to testify; they stated that a few days after September 11, 1973, Carabineros from the Isla de Maipo station informed them of an order prohibiting passage to the area where the kilns are located, as it was an "extremist hideout." Other peasants said they had seen military vehicles and heard gunfire. Regarding the construction of the kilns themselves, a report from the Investigations Department of Infrastructure indicated that part of it was old, over 60 years, while inside one of the kilns there was an iron platform upon which a slab made of stone and brick joined with lime or plaster had been executed, which was no older than 8 years. The report concludes by stating that "apparently, this work was executed by throwing the mixture and then the rest of the material from the upper opening of the kiln, as there is no orderly placement of the elements, which suggests it was executed by non-specialized personnel." Regarding the ballistic analysis of three shell casings found, the Forensic Ballistics section of the Investigations Criminalistics Laboratory reported that the 7.62 NATO casings had been fired by a Swiss-made SIG automatic rifle, caliber 7.62 NATO SG 510-4; all were fired by the same weapon of the indicated characteristics. When the Tribunal appeared at the Isla de Maipo station, it was found that the 1973 record books had been sent to the Third Police Station of Talagante for incineration, and regarding the weaponry, the records list three SIG SG.510-4 automatic rifles, cal. 7.62 mm. At the Third Police Station of Talagante, information was obtained regarding the personnel at the Isla de Maipo station and the Lonquén outpost, which amounted to 21 officials. The Lieutenant was Lautaro Castro Mendoza. During the process, the list of 63 "allegedly disappeared persons who were located in the records of the Legal Medical Institute of Santiago," which had been presented along with another list of "alleged disappeared persons with no legal existence" by the Chilean government to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in 1975, was reviewed. The Tribunal requested the autopsy protocols from the Legal Medical Institute that, according to the list, corresponded to Segundo, Rodolfo, and José Maureira Muñoz. Regarding this, Dr. Claudio Molina, Director of the Institute, declared that "the inaccuracy of the list of 'presumably disappeared persons' is evident, at least regarding protocol No. 3332, since the study of the body revealed that it was a woman." He added that he had seen this list in a 1975 publication and that, together with another doctor, he identified the signature as belonging to Dr. Vargas (former Director of the Institute), "but I do not know on what basis this professional endorsed that entry." The Judge of the 7th Criminal Court of Santiago appeared at the Legal Medical Institute at the request of Minister Bañados, and it was verified that none of the people on the list appeared in the Institute's Index Book. The only thing that coincided between the two lists was the data appearing in the "date of death" column with the date of entry in the Registry book. At the time of this proceeding, Dr. Vargas had passed away. In the processing of case 240005-1 of the Maipo-Buin Court, which investigates the disappearances in Paine, it was established that the signature of Dr. Vargas was not the one known to be his. Regarding this, the Minister of the Interior, Sergio Fernández Fernández, reported that there was no record that the list of persons corresponded to any official communication issued or sent by that Ministry. Meanwhile, the Acting Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Army Colonel Roberto Soto Mackenney, reported that the aforementioned list appeared in Volume No. 2 of "The Current Situation of Human Rights in Chile," published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in October 1975. "The source of the data contained in said list corresponds to information provided by the Legal Medical Institute of Santiago in 1975." Ultimately, it was not possible to establish responsibility for the creation of the list. In February 1979, following the discovery of evidence that the remains belonged to the detainees from Isla de Maipo, proceedings began to identify the clothing found in the kilns. The victims' relatives appeared, and most were able to recognize the clothing their relatives were wearing at the time of their detention. Previously, the anthropometric data of these 15 victims had been submitted to the Tribunal. When the Carabineros who belonged to the Isla de Maipo station in September 1973 were summoned to testify, Carabineros Captain Lautaro Eugenio Castro Mendoza appeared and stated that he gave the order to detain "several subjects of the Maureira family" for being dangerous people linked to the interests of the previous government who were planning to attack the barracks; furthermore, "other individuals from the area with the surname Hernández and others I do not recall, until reaching eleven people," were detained. He himself led the picket and defined the detentions by following a list attached to a map found in the house of one of the sons of the Maureira family. Once the arrests were completed, they were taken to the barracks where they were interrogated, confirming his suspicions "regarding their dangerousness." Castro adds that, after the interrogation, he himself ordered their transfer to the Estadio Nacional, but before that, one of the detainees informed him in private that there were weapons hidden in an abandoned mine. For this reason, they went to the abandoned mines in Lonquén, in a municipal truck and a private pickup, with 8 to 10 Carabineros and the detainees. Upon arriving at the area, they were suddenly attacked with firearms from the hills, to which they responded by firing back, a situation that lasted ten to fifteen minutes. Upon searching for the detainees, they found that all of them were dead. All the Carabineros remained unharmed. Subsequently, he decided, after consulting with the personnel, to bury the bodies in the kilns to avoid reprisals against them and their families; thus, "the bodies were thrown inside, and immediately afterward I ordered that dirt and debris be thrown over them." When asked about the statements he gave in other proceedings, asserting that the detainees had been transferred to the Estadio Nacional, he stated that he lied out of fear, since "upon being arrested, all these subjects had a threatening attitude that seemed very serious to me, in the sense that they could take revenge in any way against our own persons and families." Regarding the memo, he declares that it was signed by him but he does not recognize the signature and handwriting at the bottom. He reiterates that there were eleven detainees and that he does not know the minors who supposedly also died that day. He was referring to Iván Ordóñez, Miguel Brant, José Herrera, and Manuel Navarro. All the Carabineros who participated in the events were armed with SIG rifles and NATO ammunition. Other Carabineros from the unit also appeared; several of them confirmed Captain Castro's version, adding that the detainees were tied with trintrollas (a type of string), that they were lying on the platform of the truck, and that they used their hands and feet to throw stones and material from the hillsides into the kilns. On March 15, 1979, the relatives of the disappeared from the Maureira, Astudillo, and Hernández families filed a criminal complaint for kidnapping against the Carabineros who participated in the arrest, for forgery of a public document against Lieutenant Castro, and for qualified homicide against those who might be responsible. The following day, Minister Bañados rejected the processing of the complaint, as there was insufficient evidence to state that they were indeed the people found in the kilns and that, in the event that the Carabineros were responsible, that Tribunal would lack the jurisdiction to substantiate the process. On April 4, 1979, the Visiting Minister declared himself incompetent. In the resolution, the Minister points out the following conclusions: -He establishes that the identity of the bodies found corresponds to the 15 detained on October 7, 1973, in Isla de Maipo. -He presumes that "multiple crimes of homicide were committed, apparently in a single act." -He considers it established that the information given by the Carabineros that the victims were taken as detainees to the Estadio Nacional is false. -He likewise considers the official information that the bodies entered the Legal Medical Institute during the years 1973 and 1974 to be false. -He establishes as "intrinsically implausible" the version of Captain Lautaro Castro, who explains the death of the detainees as the result of an armed attack caused by unknown persons at night, because "it is impossible to imagine that the opposing projectiles would have impacted, under the conditions already expressed, only the prisoners and not their captors; that from the shootout that occurred there, no trace remained, in any respect; and that, in all cases, the injuries were of such a condition that they caused the instantaneous death of the victims." -He points out that "in none of the fifteen skeletal remains, studied by the Legal Medical Institute, were signs of perforations, fractures, or other types of traces that could be related to firearm projectiles impacting a living organism found, so the death of the fifteen people must be attributed to other causes." -He considers that the Carabineros acted in the line of duty and that in the events "the Chief of the Station had direct interference and responsibility, without prejudice to that which may affect those who acted under his command." The records were sent to the Military Justice system on April 10, and in the Second Military Prosecutor's Office, case file 200-79 was initiated, under the charge of Prosecutor Gonzalo Salazar Swett. From this stage of the process, it is worth highlighting the statement of a witness—a brother-in-law of the Hernández brothers—who was also arrested on October 7, 1973, along with them at their home. He maintains that he was with the eleven detainees during the trip to the station, and upon arriving at that facility, he only remained for about half an hour and was then taken to his home by a Carabinero. Former Carabinero official Pablo Ñancupil Raquileo, discharged in 1977, who served at the Isla de Maipo station between 1971 and 1975, also appeared. He points out that he was in charge of the detention of the Maureiras and the Astudillos, ordered personally by Lieutenant Castro; he does not remember apprehending the Hernández brothers. He adds that in the respective searches of the homes, they did not find weapons or documents that would allow them to be classified as "dangerous." In relation to this, Lieutenant Castro had previously stated that he had been guided by a list and a map of the barracks found in the house of one of Sergio Maureira's sons to carry out the other detentions. Former Carabinero Ñancupil adds that about two days after the arrest, he saw, in a room at the police facility used as a storage room, "more than 10 and fewer than 25 people," lying on the floor with their hands tied behind their backs, among whom he recognized the detainees he had apprehended, as well as three of the young men apprehended in the plaza, whom he names by their surnames: Brant, Ordóñez, and Navarro. He also states that he did not participate in the transfer of the detainees from the station and does not know the fate that befell them, although he says that, following comments from people that the detainees had not appeared, he heard a Carabinero say: "How are they going to appear... if we killed them." On July 2, 1979, the Military Prosecutor issued an indictment against Lautaro Castro Mendoza, Juan J. Villegas Navarro, Félix Sagredo Aravena, Manuel Muñoz Rencoret, Jacinto R. Torres González, David Coliqueo Fuentealba, José Belmar Sepúlveda, and Justo Romo Peralta, as authors of the crime of unnecessary violence causing the death of all those detained on October 7, 1973. On August 16, a sentence was issued that totally and definitively dismissed the case in favor of the defendants, by virtue of the 1978 Amnesty Decree Law; this resolution was appealed and confirmed by the Court Martial on October 22, 1979. Furthermore, the Military Prosecutor's Office did not return the remains, and in 1980 they were buried for a second time, apart from their families. Despite the evidence existing in the process, the deaths of Sergio Maureira Lillo and his four sons José Manuel, Rodolfo Antonio, Segundo Armando, and Sergio Miguel were not registered in the Civil Registry.

Source: Corporation report

On October 7, 1973, at 9:45 p.m., a group of eleven peasants from the town of Isla de Maipo was detained by Carabineros officers. The police officers did not carry arrest or search warrants for the homes of these individuals.

Numerous witnesses saw them being beaten and loaded into a white pickup truck owned by the proprietor of the Fundo Naguayán—where the homes of the three families were located—and saw them being tied up and laid face down on the floor of the vehicle.

The victims were the agricultural workers: Enrique Astudillo Álvarez (51), Omar Astudillo Rojas (20), Ramón Astudillo Rojas (27), Carlos Hernández Flores (39), Nelson Hernández Flores (32), Oscar Hernández Flores (30), Sergio Maureira Lillo (46), José Maureira Muñoz (26), Rodolfo Maureira Muñoz (22), Segundo Maureira Muñoz (24), and Sergio Maureira Muñoz (27).

The Carabineros officers stood on their backs. They were paraded through the streets of the town to intimidate the entire population. Finally, they were taken to the police station.

The same fate befell four young men who had been detained that same day in the town square: Miguel Brant Bustamante (22), Manuel Navarro Salinas (20), Iván Ordóñez Lama (17), and José Herrera Villegas (17).

The families were deceived by government authorities. They were informed that the detainees had been transferred to the Estadio Nacional in the capital. In 1974, the relatives filed a writ of amparo. When questioned by the courts, local authorities merely stated that "all had been transferred on October 8, 1973, to the Estadio Nacional." This was completely false.

The SENDET (National Service for Detainees) contradictorily indicated that it "did not have, and had never had, information about them."

Sergio Diez—today a senator for Renovación Nacional—who was then a delegate of the Augusto Pinochet Ugarte dictatorship to the OAS, lied to the entire world in 1975, stating: "these people had no legal existence," while other "Lonquén detainees had been admitted to the Legal Medical Institute in October 1973."

On November 29, 1978, an informant provided the Catholic Church with the exact location where the ill-fated remains of the peasants and young men were located: some lime kilns in the town of Lonquén, 14 kilometers from the town of Talagante.

The Vicar of Solidarity, Cristián Precht, and the Bishop of Santiago, Enrique Alvear, decided to verify the information by going to the site along with journalists—Jaime Martínez (Qué Pasa) and Abraham Santibáñez (Revista Hoy)—and lawyers Máximo Pacheco (PDC) and Alejandro González.

The press reported: "In an old stone structure, about twelve meters high, attached to the slope of a hill, inside which there are two silos of two and a half meters, were the corpses (...) In the other, covered with stones from above and with an exit in its lower part, also walled up, were human remains, a skull, torn clothes (...)".

It was a precise and painful blow to the conscience of thousands of Chileans. A wound open to this day, unspeakable. An image of pain and human misery, of horror without limit and brutality that human history will remember forever.

Pinochet and his lackeys could do nothing to hide the horrendous crime. The bishop informed Israel Bórquez, president of the Supreme Court and collaborator of the regime, who referred the background information to the Talagante Court. Judge Juana Godoy was appointed to initiate the investigation.

In December 1978, the remains were sent to the Legal Medical Institute. The plenary of the Supreme Court appointed Judge Adolfo Bañados as a visiting minister, who ordered autopsies and ballistic examinations and consolidated the cases in which the disappearance of persons or alleged misfortune had been reported. He interrogated the relatives of the "forcibly disappeared" peasants.

The police officers involved: Lautaro Castro Mendoza—head of the Isla de Maipo police station—and Carabineros Juan Villegas Navarro, Félix Sagredo Aravena, Manuel Muñoz Rencoret, Jacinto Torres González, David Coliqueo Fuentealba, José Belmar Sepúlveda, and Justo Romo Peralta, provided the courts with the version that they had "taken the detainees, who were highly dangerous, to the Lonquén kilns in order to unearth weapons they had hidden, and that later—at the site—they had suffered an armed attack by unknown persons, with the peasants being killed in the shootout.

Fearing reprisals, they had decided to hide the bodies in the abandoned kilns."

In April 1979, Minister Bañados had to declare himself incompetent due to the prevailing legislation that grants immunity to uniformed personnel and hands over criminal cases in which they are involved to the Military Justice system.

However, before leaving the case, he established the responsibility of these police officers for the events. His resolution states: "The version (...) to try to explain the death of their prisoners, not only contradicts the merits of the case in multiple aspects and details, in particular, of course, regarding the number of victims, but is intrinsically implausible (...) in none of the remains were signs of perforations, fractures, or other types of traces that could be related to firearm projectiles impacting a living organism found, so the death of the fifteen people must be attributed to other causes."

The case then passed into the hands of the "Second Military Court," which charged the Carabineros officers as "authors of the crime of unnecessary violence causing death." After a short procedure, the case was definitively dismissed by means of the Amnesty Law issued by Pinochet, legislation to which the eight Carabineros had requested to be subject.

Subsequently, the "Court Martial" confirmed that resolution.

The murderer Lautaro Castro was promoted to the rank of Captain.

One year after the bodies of the peasants and young men were found, the remains were handed over to their families. The bodies were transported by officials of the Legal Medical Institute to Isla de Maipo and buried immediately—except for Sergio Maureira Lillo—to avoid the presence of their relatives, depositing them in a common grave.

The relatives, aggrieved once again by the military authorities, filed a complaint with the Court Martial—which was obliged to accept it—against military prosecutor Gonzalo Salazar Sweet for "lack and abuse committed by not complying with the order to hand over the corpses." He was given a written censure.

In January 1980, the Supreme Court decided to annul it, considering that the prosecutor "did not commit any fault. It was the judges themselves who imposed it on him who indicated the procedure he used."

A complaint was filed again with the justice system for the death of the Isla de Maipo peasants. This case was handled by visiting minister Héctor Solís, who could not continue his investigation. The minister of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes, continued the investigation, concluding it on September 12, 2016, when she issued a first-instance sentence.

The minister convicted the 7 Carabineros who detained the fifteen peasants; the former Carabineros were convicted of the crime of aggravated kidnapping: Lautaro Castro Mendoza, head of the patrol, to a sentence of 20 years in prison for his responsibility as an author.

David Coliqueo Fuentealba, Justo Ignacio Romo Peralta, Félix Héctor Sagredo Aravena, Jacinto Torres González, and Juan José Villegas Navarro were sentenced to 15 years in prison. Pablo Ñancupil Raguileo was sentenced to 900 days in prison.

The case went to the second instance, the San Miguel Court of Appeals, which confirmed the sentence on May 16, 2017. On June 16, 2018, the Supreme Court confirmed the sentence that convicted 6 former Carabineros, given that the head of the Carabineros, Lautaro Castro, died before the conviction.

On February 18, 2010, the acting judge of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Héctor Solís, announced the identification of 13 of the 15 bodies, whose remains were found in 1978, finally allowing for their burial, with the remains being removed from the Legal Medical Service on March 26.

On March 27, a public wake was held in the Civic Courtyard of the Isla de Maipo Municipality, and on Sunday the 28th, the solemn burial of the victims took place in the Isla de Maipo Parish Cemetery.

The Lonquén Kilns were demolished to erase all traces and footprints of memory, to impose oblivion definitively.

By Arnaldo Pérez Guerra

Source: prensaopal.cl, October 7, 2020

Date: 10-07-2020