2.- Bahía Catalina Concentration Camp.- It is stated that Bahía Catalina began operating as a clandestine center for the kidnapping of political prisoners on September 11, 1973, in Punta Arenas. This kidnapping center was established at the military base under the FACH, IV Air Brigade.

Bahía Catalina is located at the end of Avenida Bulnes, heading northeast from Punta Arenas. The commander-in-chief of the Air Brigade was Air General José Berdichewsky Scher. The Bahía Catalina air base was under the authority of FACH Group No. 6, led by Group Commander Carlos Castro Sauritain.

Members of the intelligence services command of Group No. 6 included Lieutenants Héctor Barrientos, Juan de Dios Peralta, and Eduardo Alliende. These individuals bear the superior hierarchical responsibility for the design, implementation, and command of the clandestine Bahía Catalina concentration camp between September and December 1973.

This concentration camp consisted of an old house and two containers, one metal and the other wooden. The house was an old wooden structure with 4 or 5 offices and a small bathroom. This house was the operational center for the command of torturers.

The wooden container was initially used to house all the detainees (50 to 60 people until the end of September 1973). This shed had wooden floors and walls, no windows, and an access door facing the strait, and was externally lined with sheet metal.

It was about 60 square meters. The guards gave it the name "Sheraton." The other unit used as a prison was a sheet metal container (maritime transport type), in poor condition, with rusted walls and retrofitted with fixed windows with glass and bars that allowed a field of vision toward the back of the air base hangars and a very small section of the strait.

It was about 30 square meters and began to be used as a prison in the first days of October 1973. This container was given the name "Tupahue." It states that the daily operation of the concentration camp was in charge of Lieutenant Eduardo Alliende, who was assisted by non-commissioned officers Sergio Sotomayor, Stoward, and Marmaduque Núñez.

In addition, it had a section of 8 to 10 guards, mostly soldiers with the rank of corporal, belonging to the elite group of air commandos called "grupo tigre." There were also guard corporals, with Luis Ortega, nicknamed "El Palomo," being the one who carried out the most brutal duress and punishments against prisoners.

The daily regime began at 06:30 in the morning, when they would turn on the only light bulb available in the container, accompanied by the shouts of the airmen on guard. From 07:00 to 07:30, personal hygiene was allowed, when permitted, in the bathroom of the house, which had a toilet and a sink.

At 07:55, they had to be formed up for the raising of the flag while singing the national anthem. After the ceremony, the prisoners were locked up again or forced to perform grueling gymnastics sessions or beatings.

Between 13:00 and 14:00, lunch arrived, which consisted of the leftovers from the airmen's meals. In the afternoon, the prisoners were locked up until 17:45, when they were formed up to lower the flag, perform songs, execute marches, turns, and military-style positions.

Activities that, if not done well, meant punishments for the prisoners. The daily regime was always sustained by threats, intimidation, punishments, beatings, insults, and forced feeding; not even the act of defecating was exempt from a minimum of respect. At 20:00, the last meal was provided. At 22:00, they turned off the only light that existed in the containers.

Source: Judiciary, June 2019