On October 16, 1973, 23 people were detained at the Campo Lindo, 24 de Abril, and Nuevo Sendero settlements. 22 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-Commissariat, 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.

The Government of Chile informed the United Nations, in a document presented in 1975, that Carlos Gaete López appeared in the records of the Legal Medical Institute as having been admitted to that agency as a deceased person on October 18, 1973, at 12:20 PM, having undergone autopsy protocol No. 3393, and citing his identity card number as No. 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 taken 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: 28-07-42, 31 years old at the time of detention. Address: Asentamiento 24 de abril, Paine Marital Status: Married Occupation: Agricultural worker Political Affiliation: No known political affiliation Date of Detention: October 16, 1973 * Name: RAMIRO ANTONIO MUÑOZ PEÑALOZA Date of Birth: 05-10-40, 32 years old at the time of detention.

Address: Asentamiento 24 de Abril, Paine Marital Status: Married, 3 children Occupation: Agricultural worker Political Affiliation: No known political affiliation. Date of Detention: October 16, 1973

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

Ramiro Antonio and Silvestre René Muñoz Peñaloza, 32 and 31 years old respectively at the time of the events, both married, agricultural workers, and without political affiliation, were detained on October 16, 1973, at approximately 02:00 in the morning, at their respective homes in the Asentamiento 24 de abril in Paine.

The detentions took place in the presence of their wives and children, carried out by military personnel from the San Bernardo Infantry School. The events unfolded in a similar manner at both homes. Armed soldiers, with their faces blackened and wearing various institutional uniforms, pounded on the doors while calling out for Ramiro Antonio and Silvestre René by name.

Once inside, they demanded to see their identity cards. Immediately afterward, while searching the houses, they ordered the men to dress warmly, stating they would be taken to Paine to provide "some statements." The operation was carried out without the corresponding warrants.

Since that day, both brothers have been forcibly disappeared. It should be noted that minutes later, another brother, Jorge Hernán Muñoz Peñaloza, was detained, and a fourth brother, Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, along with their brother-in-law Basilio Valenzuela Alvarez, had been detained since October 10; all are forcibly disappeared.

That night and into the early morning, in a vast operation carried out by soldiers under the orders of Lieutenant Magaña, 22 people were detained from their homes. In none of these cases was there authorization to search or detain.

The military personnel participating in the operation wore field uniforms or gray uniforms with a cape of the same color; they wore armbands and either black berets or helmets. Their faces were in some cases blackened and in others covered with balaclavas.

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

The operation began at the first hour of October 16 and lasted until 04:00 in the morning. The detainees, mostly settlers who had participated in the agrarian reform process, were listed on a document carried by the soldiers.

Their homes were searched, and the detainees were taken away, with the families warned that they would return during the day after providing statements in San Bernardo. Everyone was loaded onto a truck waiting on the main road.

The operation was carried out silently, and the victims' relatives were forbidden from leaving their homes. 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 soldiers headed toward the sector corresponding to the Asentamiento 24 de abril, where they detained 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.

They then proceeded to the Asentamiento El Tránsito, where Pedro Antonio Cabezas Villegas and Roberto Servando Galaz were detained. Finally, they went to the Asentamiento Nuevo Sendero, where they detained Enrique Lazo Quintero, his brother Samuel Altamiro Lazo Quinteros, and his sons Luis Rodolfo and Samuel Lazo Maldonado, as well as José Domingo Adasme Núñez, Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda, and José Ignacio Gaete Maldonado.

On October 10, Carabineros from the Paine Sub-precinct had detained Samuel Altamiro Lazo Quinteros at his home in the Asentamiento El Tránsito, but he was released after 24 hours of detention at said Sub-precinct.

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

The farmers of that settlement who had approached the Sub-precinct to speak with Sergeant Reyes about their situation had received identical information.

The whereabouts of all those detained on October 16, 1973, remain unknown, and there is no record of them being held in any detention center. To date, there are no witnesses to their fate. Judicial records indicate that they were taken that morning toward the hills of Codegua, near Melipilla, where they were executed. Their remains have not been found.

The detention and subsequent disappearance of the brothers Ramiro and Silvestre Muñoz Peñaloza are part of the repression that took place in Paine in 1973. (Further details can be found in the entry for José Domingo Adasme Núñez).

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On December 7, 1973, a writ of amparo (habeas corpus) was filed before the Santiago Court of Appeals on behalf of the brothers Jorge Hernán, Silvestre René, and Ramiro Antonio Muñoz Peñaloza, their brother-in-law Basilio Delfín Valenzuela Alvarez, Roselindo Delfín Herrera Núñez, Patricio Duque Orellana, and Carlos Gaete López.

The filing was handled by lawyer Andrés Aylwin A. at the request of the victims' families. The case file number was 687-73. The writ was denied on January 8, 1974, as was the appeal to the Supreme Court on January 30, 1974.

The resolutions denying the petition were based on reports provided by military and administrative authorities, which indicated that the detention of the affected individuals was not registered.

On March 24, 1974, a mass writ of amparo for 131 people was filed before the Santiago Court of Appeals, registered under number 289-74. Ramiro Antonio and Silvestre René Muñoz Peñaloza were included in this filing.

Authorities were consulted, but the specific situation of each of the individuals could not be established. 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, and agreed to appoint a Visiting Judge (Ministro en Visita Extraordinaria) to conduct the corresponding investigation.

The appointment fell to Judge Enrique Zurita Camps, who on February 24 of that year initiated case No. 106657 in the First Criminal Court of Santiago. The relatives of Ramiro Antonio and Silvestre René were summoned to testify by Judge Zurita, providing a new record of the circumstances of their detention.

On September 25, 1975, without having delved into any of the reported cases, the summary was closed on the grounds that "no further progress could be made in the investigation." On September 29 of the same year, the Judge issued a ruling, provisionally dismissing the case for the Muñoz Peñaloza brothers as well as 26 other cases of detainees from Paine, on the grounds that the existence of a criminal act had not been fully justified.

On May 10, 1976, the Santiago Court of Appeals approved Judge Zurita Camps' resolution.

On March 21, 1975, a complaint for alleged disappearance was filed before the Maipo-Buin Court of Letters, following the detention and subsequent disappearance of 23 locals from Paine, most of them farmers detained on October 16, 1973.

The cases of Ramiro Antonio and Silvestre René Muñoz Peñaloza were included among them. The case for the group of victims was assigned number 24005, 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 before the court to ratify their statements.

Starting in June, the first investigative measures were decreed; official letters were sent to the National Executive Secretariat for Detainees (SENDET) and the San Bernardo Infantry School. Both agencies responded in their official letters that they had no information regarding the individuals in question.

The Legal Medical Institute, for its part, replied that the names of those 23 people did not appear in the registry of corpses admitted to that establishment. The Court also issued a broad order to investigate to the Carabineros and the Investigations Police (Investigaciones).

The Carabineros limited themselves to taking statements from the two 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 measures, on November 26, 1975, the Court decided to close the summary and definitively dismiss the case, stating that "no presumptions appear from the summary that the reported events took place." On January 20, 1976, the Rancagua Court of Appeals confirmed the dismissal, establishing that it would be temporary and not definitive. The case was archived. On March 23, 1977, the case was reopened after a petition to that effect, presented by the complainants, was accepted. The request for reopening was based on the fact that 10 cases included in case 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 instead deceased persons whose corpses were recorded in the admission 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" (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 June 13, 1979, criminal complaints were filed against the personnel of the San Bernardo Infantry School who might be responsible for the arrest and subsequent disappearance of Ramiro Antonio and Silvestre René Muñoz Peñaloza. Both complaints were consolidated from their inception into case file 24005-1.

It should be noted that on April 3, Judge Juan Rivas Larraín of the Rancagua Court of Appeals had been appointed to continue presiding over the case, in response to a request presented by the Catholic Church to the Supreme Court so that Visiting Judges would take charge of cases of forcibly disappeared persons throughout the national territory.

Thus, two years after the reopening of the case—upon Judge Rivas assuming the case—the first investigative steps were ordered to clarify information regarding 10 forcibly disappeared persons—the subject of the process—who appeared with contradictory information as previously noted.

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

The response was received on October 30, 1979, by the recently appointed Visiting Judge, Humberto Espejo Zúñiga, after the creation of the Presidente Aguirre Cerda Court of Appeals, which, for jurisdictional reasons, was tasked with continuing the investigation under the new case number 1-79.

The response letter, signed by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, stated in one of its parts: "Your Honor requests such information because the Legal Medical Institute, when asked about 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, and 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." Judge 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 persons corresponded to unidentified (NN) corpses whose identification had been impossible due to the lack of epidermis on their hands.

As of December 1979, nine criminal complaints were consolidated into case 1-79 against the personnel of the San Bernardo Infantry School for the crimes of kidnapping 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 were filed against Colonel Jorge Dawling Santa María for the cover-up of the crime of illegal arrest 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 was filed for the kidnapping and qualified homicide of Juan Guillermo Cuadra Espinoza and Ignacio del Tránsito Santander Albornoz, perpetrated by personnel of the San Bernardo Infantry School.

A complaint was filed against 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 kidnapping of Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza against Carabineros Sergeant Manuel Reyes (further details regarding this last complaint can be found 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 served in the months of September and October 1973.

The response did not arrive. The Court reported this behavior to the Court of Appeals, which on November 14, 1978, resolved in Plenary that the aforementioned Colonel should comply with the provisions of Article 191 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (that is, appear or not depending on his rank).

The response letter 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, in a new official letter, Colonel Meirelles was requested to provide the list of the institution's personnel as of October 1973; 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 Judge 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 inquire about the aforementioned personnel but also to request the appearance of Colonel Dawling Santa María, Army 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, sub-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 any other that might have been carried out in Paine.

When confronted with relatives of one of the forcibly disappeared persons from October 16, René del R. Maureira Gajardo, he denied knowing the members of that family, despite the fact that they affirmed having been together on more than one occasion at social events prior to September 11, 1973.

Regarding Colonel Jorge Dawling Santa María, the Court had been informed in a response letter that since August 1978 he had been appointed Military Attaché at the Embassy of 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 and affirmed 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 Directorship of the 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, Judge Espejo declared himself incompetent and referred the case 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-precinct.

On March 6, 1980, the Court revoked the incompetence and ordered investigative steps to advance the investigation. As a result, Colonel Jorge Dawling Santa María was summoned to testify again. 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 in writing. The Minister sent a poorly formulated questionnaire, which gave the Brigadier General grounds to respond: "in relation to questions 2 through 13, I have no information to provide."

On June 5, 1980, Judge Espejo declared himself incompetent for the second time, basing his resolution on exactly the same terms as the previous one. The resolution was appealed, and on July 25, 1980, the resolution was revoked by the Court of Appeals, which ordered the Visiting Judge 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 a response letter from the Brigadier General, the content of which provided no information, arguing that in 1977 there were no longer written records at the Infantry School regarding military maneuvers and operations.

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

On October 17, 1980, the case files were definitively referred to the II Military Prosecutor's Office; at that point, the jurisdictional inhibition took effect.

On May 24, 1982, the case was totally and provisionally dismissed: "notwithstanding that the investigation is exhausted, the perpetration of the acts reported at page 1, which impute 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 Martial Court, which ordered investigative steps aimed at completing the investigation. During 1985, at least 26 Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers who served in September and October 1973 at the Infantry School testified.

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

On November 22, the Military Prosecutor of the II Military Prosecutor's Office, Enrique Ibarra Chamorro, appeared on behalf of the Military Public Ministry and requested the application of the Amnesty Law (D.L. 2191-78).

The Military Judge dismissed the case totally and definitively because the criminal responsibility of the persons allegedly accused of the reported acts had been extinguished. That resolution was revoked in February 1992 by the Martial Court; 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 of the General Cemetery had been carried out. As of December 1992, the case remained in process.

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 Vicariate of Solidarity—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 related to 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 2-90-E was initiated in the Buin-Maipo Court of Letters with the appointment of Visiting Judge Germán Hermosilla by the Presidente Aguirre Cerda Court of Appeals. Said appointment was due to a request to that effect from the Vicariate of Solidarity 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 Ramiro Antonio and Silvestre René Muñoz Peñaloza was delivered to the Court.

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

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

So I said to her 'don't cry anymore Lucha, your husband was taken by the soldiers, 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 earlier.

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 stated 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 Judge Humberto Espejo.

On April 22, 1980, Jorge Reyes Cortez appeared before the Court in case file 1-79. In his statement, he denied any participation in the events, stating verbatim in one of his parts: "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 Judge has carried out various ocular inspections in rural sectors around Paine, without positive results for the case of the forcibly disappeared persons of October 16, 1973.

On August 22, 1991, case 4449-AF was initiated in the 22nd Criminal Court of Santiago, upon proceeding with the judicial investigation of the crime of illegal burial of persons who currently remain buried as NN (unidentified) in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery, information contained in a criminal complaint filed by the Vicariate of Solidarity of the Archbishopric of Santiago.

Anthropomorphic data of Ramiro Antonio and Silvestre René Muñoz Peñaloza 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 at the Legal Medical Institute undergoing an identification process.

Source: Corporation Report