Former Colonel Osvaldo Magaña admits to 31 crimes in Paine. He could no longer bear it. It took 33 years for him to acknowledge having given the order to execute them. While the widows still weep, tomorrow marks 33 years since the largest operation in the area, which stands out at the national level for holding the proportional record with 70 victims.

There was a party at the Liceo Mixto in Parral. Sonia was 15 years old and dying to go. That Saturday night, September 21, 1951, René Maureira asked her to dance. "He swept me off my feet immediately. We even kissed that same night, something very rarely seen at that time," she recalls.

René studied in Talca and traveled to see her every weekend. For a year, they met in the park and walked hand-in-hand through the city streets, trying to keep their courtship a secret. But one day, they ran straight into Sonia’s father. "I wanted to die.

He took away my permission to even buy bread," she says. But her mother, in secret, let her meet René in the plaza. "Talk to your father," he told her, and convinced her. "I ended up doing whatever he asked.

He was a good influence," she says with a laugh. Her father listened to her attentively and declared: "That’s fine, but you stay at the house. What I don’t like is you two showing yourselves off on the street."

Two years later, René graduated as a teacher and left for a remote town in the middle of the countryside. His visits to Parral became more complicated. "He told me he missed me, especially when he was alone and watching the sunsets," Sonia says.

One of those afternoons, he arrived with a decision: "Do you want to marry me?" Sonia replied: "Yes, I do." They were never separated again. She at 18 and he at 21 would travel together to the rural school and return on horseback along a winding path.

At one part of the route, they had to cross on a raft. One time, the raft simply didn't arrive. René told Sonia they had to cross on the horse. "Don't worry, horses swim." She was terrified: "Finally, I listened to him and we set off until we touched land. Truly, I always listened to him," Sonia laughs.

Years later, René left his job as a rural teacher and invited his wife on a new adventure: settling in Paine with a supermarket, the first in the city. It worked. The store was packed and soon they had to expand.

When the Allende government arrived, René committed a sin that likely cost him his life: unlike his colleagues in the trade, he did not close his shop. Without political militancy, he sympathized with the doctor's government.

On September 13, they took him to the Estadio Nacional. They returned him on October 14. The next day, a squad of soldiers came to look for him again. He returned that night. "He was always warm, but when I snuggled up next to him, I felt him cold and trembling.

He didn't want to tell me anything." The next day, Sonia got up and on the back of his jacket, she saw the mark of a heavy footprint. This time, René told her that they had thrown him to the floor and that "one of the soldiers stepped on him while humiliating him," she remembers.

Without Life

At three in the morning on October 16, the soldiers returned. They needed René for "further interrogations." They never saw him again. It is documented in the legal proceedings that the soldiers belonged to the Second Rifle Company of the San Bernardo Infantry School and were commanded by the then-second lieutenant Osvaldo Andrés Magaña Bau.

It was also proven that the patrol moved in a Dodge truck and that, that night, they kidnapped 17 people in one sweep and five more in a second trip, in the largest operation that shocked Paine. Days earlier, between October 2 and 3, the same group had taken 14 people from their homes, most of them peasants.

Their bodies were found by relatives on May 12, 1974, on the outskirts of Paine, at the Cuesta Chada, the same place where they were executed by firing squad. On September 24, they had kidnapped and executed two peasants from the El Escorial sector of Paine.

Added to the kidnappings and executions carried out by the Carabineros of the Paine Sub-precinct between September and November of '73, the victims in this locality total 70, the highest number in Chile in relation to population density.

Some victims from Paine appeared dead in the days following their kidnapping along the beds of rivers and canals. Others, on the side of a road, and others remain forcibly disappeared to this day. As a result of these crimes, seven former Carabineros from the Paine Sub-precinct are currently being prosecuted for kidnapping and homicide; two civilians for the homicide of a peasant; and two soldiers from the San Bernardo Infantry School, Víctor Raúl Pinto Pérez and the aforementioned Osvaldo Andrés Magaña Bau, also for homicides and kidnappings.

Magaña, currently a retired colonel, kept a rigorous silence for years. In confrontations with relatives who had seen him during the operations, he flatly denied his participation. In '78, Sonia remembers that she filed a complaint for the disappearance of her husband and that Magaña told her to her face that he had never set foot in Paine. "I asked him to confess, so as not to leave such a dark future for his children," she says.

In 2003, thanks to the fact that numerous riflemen told the truth, an indictment was issued against Magaña for the homicide and disappearance of 36 people, but he still did not speak.

At the end of 2005, he confessed to his authorship in 31 crimes. LND spoke with him, but he declined to comment. However, in his June 2006 statement for the "Caravana de la Muerte" (Caravan of Death) case, almost everything he did is there: "I was given the order to be accompanied by a prisoner convicted by a war council, who would indicate the addresses of different people I had to detain.

That is how, on that occasion, a total of 14 people were detained (at the beginning of October), who, together with the prisoner, were executed by firing squad at the Cuesta Chada, being buried at the site."

Regarding the people kidnapped on October 16, among whom were René Maureira, Sonia's husband, and Andrés Pereira Salsberg, father of the lawyer Pamela Pereira, Magaña declared: "I was requested by the director and deputy director of the [San Bernardo Infantry] school, who gave me the order to detain 17 people, who also had to be executed by firing squad; they were executed in the vicinity of Lake Rapel, and I must point out that the bodies of the first deceased [at Cuesta Chada], after being buried, were handed over to their relatives, and the latter were exhumed and thrown into the sea." All in two weeks.

Without Justice

The crimes of Paine, accumulated in a single case, saw notable progress starting in 2001, when the judge of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, María Stella Elgarrista, initiated a renowned investigation that, for the first time, did not look for bodies, but for those responsible for the crimes.

The collaboration of relatives and the work that human rights lawyer Nelson Caucoto had been carrying out since 1980 were added to this. However, it subsequently experienced a series of setbacks. In 2004, Elgarrista recused herself after the San Miguel Court of Appeals revoked the amnesty she had decreed against one of those responsible for Paine.

It is one of the paradoxes of the judge, who on one hand was rigorous in the search for truth and on the other was in favor of amnesty. Recently, it reached the hands of Judge Olga Meurer. According to information received by this media outlet, she will recuse herself next week because she is a professor at the Carabineros School, which creates a conflict of interest.

Without Hope

A much more dramatic situation is being experienced in Paine. Many relatives no longer receive the press because, to date, there are no convictions in a case that is essentially solved. "It makes no sense to keep talking. So much time and nothing happens," a woman protests.

"This is slow. The hopelessness of the people of Paine is understandable, but I think we are a little past the halfway point of the process. We managed to prevent amnesty and then we filed all the complaints that are being investigated today.

But there is more to do. Paine lived through an internal holocaust and the people do not have a thirst for revenge, but for justice. Higher-level responsibilities are missing. While Magaña is fundamental, he has superiors," explains Nelson Caucoto.

It is added that 11 of the victims from this locality are part of the erroneous identifications of Patio 29 carried out by the Legal Medical Service, the scandal that still shakes these women. Rosa Becerra is one of them.

On the fateful October 16, her husband, Luis Gaete, was also kidnapped by Magaña's group. They returned him in 1994, coming from Patio 29, and last year they exhumed him again. Until now, she does not know to whom she left flowers for more than 10 years.

For all this, she excuses herself from receiving us at her home, located in the Callejón de las Viudas (Widows' Alley), famous because 12 peasants were taken from there.

"Luis was gone for so long, more than 30 years, and now they take him away again. I would have preferred that they had just left us like that, in ignorance, so as not to have to live through his disappearance again," Rosa gestures with a mix of emotions that do not let her stop talking. "My daughter is depressed and has two little ones.

I don't want to imagine them being left alone if she decides to stop living," she says, recalling that María Amparo had her first major breakdown when they handed her her father's body in '94. She had been born 24 days after his disappearance and grew up with Rosa's memories, longing to see him with her own eyes.

Finally, Rosa invites us into her house. She wants to show us a mosaic that is almost finished. It is part of 70 more, one for each victim, that will give life to the Memorial for the Victims of Paine, which will be inaugurated next Saturday, October 21. "They told us it is too heavy on white, that it lacks contrast," says Rosa with an artist's eye. "I like how it's turning out," observes her husband of 25 years.

They work hand-in-hand organizing the painting. In the heart of a large guitar, one can see her first husband, Luis, plowing the land. To one side, a pregnant woman. "That's me, pregnant and always waiting," says Rosa with shining eyes.

Without a Path

Mr. José Castro Maldonado lived in a rural settlement, granted by the government of Salvador Allende in 1972, a few kilometers from Paine. "There were no holidays and many times he spent the nights on the tractor plowing the land," recalls his daughter Luz.

In the days following the coup, things turned dark for the local farmers. Many were kidnapped by local Carabineros and returned in terrible conditions. Luz remembers that expropriated landowners accompanied the military in the operations. "The Tagles, Francisco Luzoro, Juan Balcázar, Claudio Oregón, and many others are known here because they pointed their fingers at people," she says.

In fact, both Balcázar and Oregón are being prosecuted as authors of the homicide of Ricardo Carrasco Barrios in September 1973. They shot him in the back.

On October 15, Mr. José Castro, 52, went to visit Luz. They had last seen each other a week ago and she feared the worst. "He arrived on his motorcycle and got off. We hugged, we cried, and he told me: 'Nothing has happened to me yet,'" she remembers.

The following night, Magaña's group passed by there. She saw the shine of the military helmets pass by her room. Seven more people were kidnapped that night.

From then on, the widows of Paine became known because they set out every day in search of their husbands. "Entire families were destroyed. I saw how the children were left alone, without upbringing, because the women went wherever they could to look for them.

Tres Álamos, Isla Quiriquina, etc.," says Luz. She herself was not convinced of the loss. For a long time, she dreamed that her father was alive. "Also during the day, I would see him appear along the path," the woman recalls.

Of her father's most valuable teachings, Luz highlights respect for life. When, for example, they had to make insectariums for some subject, the man preferred that they fail rather than kill. "Everyone has a right to life," she remembers him telling her.

Today Luz is 60 years old and calculates that Mr. Luis would be around 86. "One can be old, but one always needs one's parents," she says, moved. From a pocket, she takes out a handkerchief and dries the tears that appear behind her thick glasses. They slip out every time she tries to join the unfinished fragments of her story.

Source: lanacion.cl, October 15, 2006

After the 1973 coup d'état, more than seventy peasants were murdered or forcibly disappeared in the commune of Paine, 42 kilometers from Santiago. The victims were linked to the agrarian reform process that began under Eduardo Frei Montalva and was deepened during the government of Salvador Allende.

Civilians collaborated in these crimes against humanity: they placed vehicles and equipment at the disposal of the Army and Carabineros, and also acted using firearms. One of these episodes is that of Collipeumo, which featured the prominent involvement of truck drivers, who acted throughout the country to overthrow President Allende.

Juan Francisco Luzoro Montenegro, now 77 years old, a truck driver and agricultural businessman who at the time was president of the Paine Truck Owners' Union, was one of those who led defenseless peasants to a remote location and murdered them on the banks of a canal.

Luzoro Montenegro was sentenced to 20 years in prison by the minister of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes, as responsible for the qualified homicide of Carlos Chávez Reyes, Raúl del Carmen Lazo Quinteros, Orlando Enrique Pereira Cancino, and Pedro Luis Ramírez Torres, and for the frustrated qualified homicide of Alejandro del Carmen Bustos González, the sole survivor.

In addition to Luzoro, Rodolfo Rodrigo Gárate Gárate, a truck driver and member of the Partido Nacional; Ricardo Jorge Tagle Román, a truck driver; and the Carabinero Juan Aníbal Fernando Olguín Maturana were prosecuted, though they died during the course of the proceedings.

The magistrate did not apply the statute of limitations (media prescripción) that exists in the Penal Code, which extinguishes punishment due to the passage of time, as she considered that the non-applicability of statutes of limitations to crimes against humanity, in both their criminal and civil dimensions, has "the status of a peremptory norm of general international law that does not admit any derogation except by other norms of the same character, and cannot be disregarded by States under any circumstances."

A PIECE OF WORK

The victims were part of the Paula Jaraquemada settlement, the former San Francisco de Paine estate that was expropriated during the Frei Montalva administration. The events took place on September 18, 1973. That day, the Carabineros and truck drivers commemorated the national holidays with a banquet of blood at the Panamá canal, inside the Santa Filomena estate, in front of the Collipeumo hill.

The events originated at the Paine sub-precinct, under the command of Captain Nelson Iván Bravo Espinoza. Everything suggests that he was the one who ordered the massacre. However, he has an alibi: he was not there.

His participation could not be proven, and in criminal law, there is the maxim that it is better for a guilty person to go free than for an innocent person to be imprisoned. In the Collipeumo episode, Bravo shifted the responsibility onto a dead man: Carabinero Sergeant Manuel Reyes.

Bravo is not exactly a clean character. He was prosecuted in 2015, also by Minister Cifuentes, for the forced disappearance of Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, vice president of the 24 de Abril settlement and a PS militant.

PREPARATIONS FOR THE COUP IN PAINE

Bravo asserted that "on September 10, 1973, in the evening hours, he ordered the personnel of the aforementioned detachments to move to the Paine sub-precinct. The following day, after verifying that his orders had been carried out, he went to the Buin Precinct to inform the commissioner about the measures adopted." Later, by telephone, he was ordered to take charge of the Buin Precinct.

He remained as head of both units. For that reason, he entrusted the Paine sub-precinct to Sergeant Manuel Reyes Alvarez, he indicated to the justice system.

The defendant Ricardo Jorge Tagle Román, son of the owner of the San Francisco de Paine estate, lived on land corresponding to the reserve, which during the time of the Agrarian Reform were the lands adjacent to the houses of the expropriated estates that their former owners could keep and use.

Tagle was identified as one of the perpetrators of the four crimes. He pointed out to Minister Cifuentes that "on September 10, 1973, he witnessed soldiers from the San Bernardo Infantry School arrive at El Peñón, in San Bernardo, where truck drivers and farmers from Paine were gathered, and they requested Francisco Luzoro, president of the Paine truck drivers, for ten trucks in good condition to be used in an armed uprising." The person who made that request was General Luis Cortés Villa.

Regarding the arrests, Bravo added that "the majority of the detentions carried out in Paine after September 11, 1973, were ordered by the San Bernardo Infantry School." Few of those who were forcibly disappeared or executed had political militancy. They were eliminated for their support of President Allende's government.

THE DENUNCIATION

The businessmen drew up lists of peasant leaders they knew, sometimes with the help of informants. This was the case of the president of the Paula Jaraquemada settlement, Carlos del Carmen Pacheco Cornejo, who denounced his companions.

Pacheco informed the victims that they had to report to the Paine sub-precinct. However, he did not tell them that he had denounced them, as stated in his declarations during the process, in which he acknowledged that on September 17, 1973, he went to the Paine sub-precinct "with the purpose of informing that clandestine political meetings were being held at the Paula Jaraquemada settlement and that the settlers Chávez, Lazo, Pereira, and Ramírez were participating in them." That same day, in the afternoon, Pacheco cynically informed the victims that they had to report to the Paine sub-precinct.

Alejandro Bustos, the sole survivor, reported confidently. He had nothing to fear. He did not imagine the hell he would experience. He was carrying the money from the sale of several animals. At the police station, they stole it, confiscated his personal belongings, and sent him to a dungeon in his underwear; furthermore, along with the other peasants, his head was shaved.

Bustos declared to Minister Cifuentes that "he was interrogated about an alleged possession of weapons."

In the place were the others denounced by Pacheco: Carlos Chávez, Raúl Lazo Quinteros, Orlando Pereira Cancino, and Luis Ramírez. All of them had been tortured.

THE CARAVAN OF ARMED CIVILIANS AND CARABINEROS

On September 18, at about one in the morning, Bustos was taken out of the dungeon along with his companions and brought to a courtyard. They were given their clothes. "In the place were police officers and civilians. Francisco Luzoro, president of the Paine truck drivers' union, was there," he declared.

The defendant Tagle Román, who died of a heart attack before the sentence was handed down, told the court that on "September 11, 1973, he learned that a military pronouncement had taken place. That, subsequently, at the request of Sergeant Manuel Reyes, he helped the Carabinero unit with food for ten days.

On September 18, 1973, in the early hours of the morning—he continued in his judicial account—while he was outside the Paine sub-precinct, together with other truck drivers and farmers from Paine who were moving in their respective vehicles, among them Luzoro, he saw five people being taken out of the police unit, who were loaded by the Carabineros into a van and transported to the Collipeumo sector (...) The van began its march, escorted by several private vehicles," among them Luzoro's red Peugeot, Tagle specified.

He also stated "that he saw some civilians with firearms, among them Francisco Luzoro." Furthermore, the Carabinero Rogelio Lelan Villarroel Venegas, from the Chada outpost, declared to Minister Cifuentes that he saw him wearing the green castilla jacket used by the uniformed officers.

"Once at the site, the police officers asked them to turn on the lights—Tagle continued in his account—and, immediately after, a group of around forty people, made up of Carabinero officers and civilians, in compliance with what was ordered by Sergeant Reyes, fired at the detainees with revolvers and submachine guns, leaving the bodies in the river."

The survivor Bustos provided chilling details about his detention to the electronic portal Las Historias que Podemos Contar. "I shouted at them that I didn't know anything about anything and that I didn't have any weapons either, but one bigger one came in and lifted me by the hair, 'since when are you a red?' he asked in my ear, and I answered that I had always had red hair. 'Don't play the stupid one,' he shouted indignantly, 'the reds are the communists, you idiot.' From there, a whole series of beatings began.

They kept hitting me on the back and head; I managed to recognize among those who were hitting me the Carabineros Olguín, Reyes, and Leiva." He lost consciousness. "They woke me up with a bucket of water," he pointed out.

"THIS ONE IS ALREADY DEAD"

When Bustos opened his eyes, he expressed that he was thirsty. The civilians and Carabineros had liquor inside the station. They brought a pitcher of wine and forced him to drink. "I shouted at them no, but they kept pouring it even through my nose." They tied his hands with wire behind his neck. "When it started to get dark, they took out some jugs of wine and started to light a fire for a barbecue.

There were Carabineros and civilians, almost all of them truck drivers."

At one in the morning, they made them leave. A green van was waiting for them. The vehicles started, the owners themselves were driving them. The van was at the end of the line. "We were wondering if they were taking us to the Estadio Nacional or the Chile, or to the Chena regiment; we only imagined those types of places, but, despite the tremendous suspicion, it didn't occur to any of us to mention that they were taking us to kill us," he noted.

When they took them down, they saw the cars with their headlights on. "They started to grip their submachine guns, all of them, civilians and Carabineros," Bustos recorded.

In a chilling account, he added that "Sergeant Reyes led us by pushing us to the edge of the river, and mocking us, he made us raise our arms. 'We are going to kill you for not agreeing on your lies.' It all happened in a second, tongues of fire came out of the barrels and the bursts began to roar.

The night seemed to light up with demons and a burning sensation in my arm threw me to the ground; I fell, writhing. Orlando Pereira fell on top of me; his blood ran over my body. I was left on my ribs next to Sergeant Reyes, and Pancho Luzoro shouted: 'This one is already dead.' Then, with Daniel Carrasco, they grabbed me by the legs to throw me into the water.

But I didn't manage to fall; some blackberry bushes stopped me."

Next, "they started pushing them into the water like me. They threw Orlando Pereira and he fell on top of me, and that's when I went under; the blackberry bushes came loose, the current was strong. I started to drown and in my desperation, I grabbed a willow root and a whirlpool started spinning me around.

A person next to me was also drowning; he would sink and come up at times." It was Orlando Pereira. 'It's me, Colorín,' he told me. He asked me to try to pull him out of the water, but I couldn't because I had a wounded arm," he expressed.

The water dragged both bodies. "I tried to breathe the times we came to the surface (...) I was barely holding him by his sweater, but little by little I was pulling him until he also ran aground next to me.

At that moment, the moon cleared and I could see him clearly, then he told me 'that's as far as it goes, Rucio, I'm going to die,' and he threw himself onto my legs, shivering and shivering until he didn't move anymore.

I had to get him off me. He died next to me without me being able to do anything, nothing," Bustos assured. At the moments when Pereira was dying next to him, he heard the engines of the vehicles returning to the station.

Bustos managed to get out of the place and asked for help at two houses, but their terrified inhabitants refused to help him. That night he slept next to the warmth of some oxen among bales of straw. The animals licked his wound. Then he moved to the home of Cristián Acevedo, who with two boys of about 14 years old asked him what was happening to him. He didn't dare tell them, but they guessed it.

Bustos asked them to notify one of his uncles. "'In the meantime, we're going to leave you here, friend,' they said, and before leaving, they tried to hide me as best they could among some bushes. A group of people realized that I was hidden there. 'Don't be scared, they said, we saw the execution, we were watching from behind the cops,' they said." Terrified, he thought they would denounce him and crossed the river, moving away to leave no traces.

Then, he continued, "the Acevedos appeared with my uncle; they were also coming with another gentleman, and between the four of them, they helped me." They carried him on their shoulders for about four kilometers. "They bandaged my arm as best they could and put disinfectant on it. They forced me to eat bread and drink coffee with aguardiente. Afterward, they let me sleep."

Later, his brother Juan Bautista Bustos González arrived. "He had the idea of asking for help from his commander (Carlos Sergio) Ottone (Mestre). My brother was a cook for the FACh (Chilean Air Force). 'The commander is a very good guy and he likes what I cook a lot,' he said...

The commander sent Lieutenant Rosas to take charge of me, who arrived to look for me with four soldiers, all from the Air Force. They took me first to my house so I could see my mom because they thought I might die, and from there we continued to the Aviation School."

Ottone, a retired Air Force Brigadier General, corroborated the facts before the justice system and detailed that he ordered Bustos to be transferred to the School of Specialties to provide him with medical aid and, from there, to the Barros Luco hospital.

Bustos swore to his dead companions to testify about what happened. 43 years after the events, justice is approaching. Meanwhile, Luzoro, until a final sentence is handed down, will be able to continue dedicating himself to the rodeo and equestrian competitions, his current hobby.

Source: puntofinal.cl, April 29, 2016

The town of Paine holds the sad record of having the highest number of executed and forcibly disappeared persons in proportion to its inhabitants. After the military coup, bands of civilians, police, and military operated there, leaving a trail of blood and pain, murdering peasants from "settlements" born with the Agrarian Reform.

In Paine, victims and perpetrators still live together under the mantle of impunity and oblivion. In 1979, the Military Justice system took charge of dismissing the cases opened for the events in Paine by virtue of the 1978 Amnesty Law, approved by General Pinochet himself to cover up his crimes.

After 29 years, Judge María Estela Elgarrista is approaching the truth.

The Agrarian Reform initiated in the 1960s and accentuated under the government of Salvador Allende and the Unidad Popular allowed many peasant families to benefit from the allocation of lands that, until then, belonged to a handful of large landowners.

Thus, the peasants gave life to the "settlements," but in Paine, as in the rest of the Chilean countryside, September 11, 1973, turned everything back. Bands of far-right civilians, police, and military exacted "revenge," murdering union leaders and "settled" peasants.

The crimes, impunity, and fear spread through the small towns of Paine, Hospital, Huelquén, Culitrín, Chada, Rangue, El Vínculo, Pintué, and Laguna de Aculeo. Many peasants and their families witnessed how local civilians guided the uniformed officers through the "settlements," providing names and, most of the time, participating directly in the repression and crimes.

Two weeks ago, and after 29 years, the judge of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, María Estela Elgarrista, summoned family members and perpetrators to various confrontations. Holanda Vidal, wife of the forcibly disappeared Cristian Cartagena Pérez, points out: "I was summoned for the purpose of the lawsuit for the kidnapping and murder of my husband, who disappeared on September 18, 1973.

Our goal is for the culprits to be prosecuted: Carabineros from the Paine sub-precinct and civilians, who acted together. I identified several of them: Sergeant Retamal, Corporal Ortiz, Albornoz, and Víctor Sagredo; and civilians: Darío González Carrasco, now a merchant, a member of Patria y Libertad, who acknowledged that he detained my husband at the Casa Escuela de Chada where we lived, taking him to the sub-precinct at six in the morning."

The former Carabineros have denied their participation in the crimes during the confrontations, arguing that they "were on guard duty." "That caused me a shock with paralysis of my arms, a crisis of crying and anguish.

It is terrible to relive everything that happened, to see them so close, their cynicism, their audacity to deny the truth. To see them so arrogant, without accepting that what they did was atrocious. These are the first confrontations after 29 years of complaints, searches, and knocking on doors.

This step was possible because of all our effort and work as an Association. We have not compromised on the trial and punishment of the culprits, and that they pay for their crimes with prison."

After the confrontations, the prosecutions should come. The judge has a long list of civilians, Carabineros, and military personnel from the San Bernardo Infantry Regiment. "One of the murderers is Lieutenant Magaña Baum, and among the Carabineros, Sergeant Verdugo, a torturer who now presents himself as an old man who has done nothing," adds Holanda Vidal.

"Everyone saw them"

Juan Maureira is the son of René Maureira Gajardo, who was forcibly disappeared on October 16, 1973, along with 22 other peasants from the Campo Lindo, 24 de Abril, and Nuevo Sendero settlements. President of the AFDD (Association of Families of the Detained-Disappeared) of Paine, he recalls that military personnel from the San Bernardo Infantry School also participated in the repression and murders: "The judge is investigating nearly 40 lawsuits filed before Judge Guzmán.

In Paine, there are more than 70 victims, of whom about 40 are still disappeared. These are the cases compiled in the Rettig Report, but others were never reported. We presume that there are around 100 murdered in Paine, the majority peasants from settlements.

The minister is going to have to prosecute the Carabineros, civilians, and military personnel involved at some point. It is what we expect and what we have asked for, that true justice be done and that we can find our family members...

We know that Lieutenant Magaña has information about what happened to my father and 22 other peasants, among other cases. He killed our family members... The Carabineros have denied their participation, but they are the same ones who still live in the town. How are they going to deny it if everyone saw them? The same thing happens with the civilians who acted. Paine is a small town."

According to the family members, the judge has acted with rigor, caution, and intelligence. They trust in the testimonies and declarations she has managed to compile. For them, everything points to the fact that some of those involved will be prosecuted. "Many, even, were seen entering the houses. There is a countless number of records compiled since that time."

Up to now, they are satisfied with the investigation and the proceedings carried out by the judge. For them, it is the first investigation after 29 years without achieving justice. Up to the minute, civilians and Carabineros have been summoned, and some confrontations have been developed: "Which gives us a little satisfaction because it had never been achieved before.

For the moment, there are no prosecuted individuals, but the minister continues working. And we have been able to corroborate that," says Juan Maureira. Meanwhile, the majority of the civilians and Carabineros who murdered the peasants of Paine continue living in the small rural town, in complete impunity. "As far as we have been able to see, for the first time, an investigation is being conducted as it should be.

The criminals are going to have to provide information about what happened. They are the same Carabineros, civilians, and military personnel who appear mentioned in the majority of the cases," he concludes.

Murderers of Paine

Carabineros Nelson Bravo Espinoza, captain; Raúl Ortiz Maluenda, 2nd sergeant; Carlos Aburto Jaramillo, 1st corporal; José Retamal Burgos, 1st corporal; Víctor Sagredo Aravena, 1st corporal; Reyes, sergeant; Luis Jara, lieutenant of Pintué; and the Carabineros Samuel Ahumada Cabello; Raúl Donoso Figueroa; Alamiro Garrido Ubal; Jorge González Quezada; Víctor Labarca Díaz; Eduardo Molina Armijo; José Piñaleo Pérez; and Jorge Verdugo, among others.

Civilians Hugo Aguilera, Fernando Aguilera, Francisco Luzoro, Jorge Sepúlveda, Tito Carrasco, Claudio Oregón, Darío González Carrasco, Luis Guerrero, Mario Tagle, Ricardo Tagle, Yule Tagle, Jorge Aguirre.

Military - San Bernardo Infantry School

Leonel Köening Alternatt, Director; Samuel Rojas Pérez, lieutenant colonel; Mario Morales Durán, conscript; Andrés Magaña Baum, lieutenant; Pedro Montalvo Calvo, colonel; Iván de la Fuente Sáez, major; Hernán Pizarro Collarte, major; Ciro Ahumada Miranda, major; Juan Carlos Nielsen Stambuck, captain; Sergio Rodríguez Rautcher, captain; Luis Cortés Villa, captain; Víctor Pinto Pérez, captain; Marcial Cobos Farías, captain; Jorge Romero Campos, captain; Luis Villarroel Contreras, captain; Héctor Maturana Zúñiga, captain; Luis Garfias Cabrera, captain; Eduardo Silva Bravo, captain; Sergio Valdivia M., captain; and Julio Cerda Carrasco, captain, among others.

Source: elsiglo.cl, February 25, 2003

Paine Case: Minister Solís prosecutes six civilians and one military officer for kidnapping and homicide

The minister of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Héctor Solís, subjected a total of seven people—six civilians and one retired military officer—to prosecution for the kidnappings and homicides of a total of 26 opponents of the military regime, who were detained in Paine between September and October 1973 and whose fate is still being investigated.

In four different resolutions, the magistrate prosecuted civilians Rubén González Carrasco, Claudio Orregón Tudela, and Juan Francisco Luzoro as accomplices to the aggravated kidnapping of two victims. Later, Luzoro and Mario Tagle Román were charged as perpetrators of the qualified homicide of other victims.

In a third prosecution, Juan Francisco Luzoro and Ricardo Tagle Román were also prosecuted as perpetrators of qualified homicide. Finally, Minister Solís prosecuted civilian Juan Guillermo Quintanilla Jerez and retired military officer José Vásquez Silva as perpetrators of the qualified kidnapping of 22 people, among them Andrés Pereira, father of the human rights lawyer Pamela Pereira.

These 22 victims were detained in the town of Paine in October 1973; from there, they were transported to the Los Quillayes ravine in the vicinity of Lake Rapel, where they were allegedly executed. A few months ago, Minister Solís carried out a series of excavations in that area, where he found more than a hundred cultural remains—buttons, rings, etc.—that would have belonged to the disappeared, in addition to bone pieces, such as teeth and skull remains.

Source: emol.cl, January 7, 2008

Farmers imprisoned for Paine crimes

The prosecutions ordered by Minister Héctor Solís have convulsed the town of Paine and its surroundings, where some of them continue to live and threaten the victims' family members. They acted together with members of the Army and Carabineros.

Six civilian agricultural and transport businessmen were prosecuted and arrested for the murders of 29 peasants from Paine and its surroundings, south of Santiago, committed between September 16, 1973, and October 16 of that year. The landowners killed several of the victims with their own weapons, taking them from their homes, local estates, or from the Paine sub-precinct.

In the case of the mass crime of October 16, 1973 (22 dead, among whom is Andrés Pereira, father of lawyer Pamela Pereira), they themselves prepared the lists with their names, led the soldiers from the San Bernardo Infantry School to their homes, and collaborated with infrastructure for the transport to a ravine where they were riddled with bullets by the civilians and members of that regiment.

The resolution issued by the minister of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Héctor Solís Montiel, has revolutionized Paine and its surroundings, given that the criminals still remain living in those places.

According to neighbors in the sector, some still boast of their actions and continue to threaten the victims' family members. The crimes for which they were indicted as material perpetrators and accomplices correspond to a revenge against peasants and leaders who took part in the agrarian reform process during the Christian Democratic government of Eduardo Frei Montalva (1964-1970) and its subsequent deepening with Salvador Allende's Unidad Popular.

The magistrate also indicted the only military officer, retired Army non-commissioned officer José Vásquez Silva, as the perpetrator of the 22 deaths on October 16.

The indicted farmers are: Juan Francisco Luzoro, Rubén González Carrasco, Claudio Oregón Tudela, Juan Quintanilla Jerez, and the brothers Mario Emilio and Ricardo Jorge Tagle Román. The ravine and clandestine grave where they killed and hid the bodies of the 22 victims, which they later unearthed in 1978 to throw them into the sea, were discovered last year.

It is the Los Arrayanes Ravine, 1.5 km northeast of Lake Rapel, inside the Cerro Alto estate, in the commune of Las Cabras, in the O'Higgins Region.

Acting in the episodes prior to that of these 22 people, Luzoro, González, Oregón, and the Tagle Román brothers took Ricardo Carrasco Barrios, Cristián Cartagena Pérez, Carlos Chávez Reyes, Orlando Pereira Cancino, Pedro Ramírez Torres, Raúl Lazo Quinteros, and Alejandro Bustos González from local estates and the Paine sub-precinct in the first days after the military coup of September 1973 and killed them with their weapons in different places.

Carabineros from that sub-precinct also participated in these events, and it is expected that the magistrate will also subject them to prosecution.

The only one who survived the shots by pretending to be dead was Alejandro Bustos, who became the main witness against the executioners. In the Paine case, retired Colonel Andrés Magaña Bau was already indicted as a perpetrator, who, being a second lieutenant, commanded the platoon that murdered the 22 peasants.

Source: lanacion.cl, January 8, 2008

Miguel Krassnoff, Marcelo Moren, and Manuel Contreras have received new sentences. With this, the number of cases being closed and the convictions being handed down regarding grave human rights violations is increasing; and, undoubtedly, the question arises as to why this situation is occurring.

The Santiago Court of Appeals ratified a sentence for the crime of torture against Miguel Krassnoff, one of the former members of the DINA leadership, the Judiciary reported.

In a ruling published by the Judiciary on its website, the Court confirmed a sentence of 541 days in prison for Krassnoff for the torture to which Guacolda Raquel Rojas, a sympathizer of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) who was detained in September 1975 at the clandestine center Villa Grimaldi, was subjected.

However, he is not the only one. The Santiago Court of Appeals confirmed in the second instance a new conviction against the former leaders of the DINA, headed by General (ret.) Manuel Contreras. The ruling corresponds to the case regarding the murder of Luis Arias Pino, a mechanical turner and militant of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), in 1975.

Contreras was sentenced to 15 years in prison as the perpetrator of qualified homicide and an additional 3 years for illicit association. Former Colonel Marcelo Moren Brito and former Carabineros officer Gerardo Godoy García, all members of the DINA leadership, were sanctioned with the same sentences and for the same crimes.

With this, the number of cases being closed and the convictions being handed down regarding human rights violations is increasing; and, undoubtedly, the question arises as to why this situation is occurring.

Regarding the matter, human rights lawyer Héctor Salazar stated that "undoubtedly, new prosecutions can be produced as cases are investigated, and certainly some of these cases may affect new people."

"Each process has its own dynamic, and each judge acts according to their own criteria and information. Therefore, what happens can be very varied; in some cases, there may be no results, but there could also be a kind of hemorrhage of prosecutions," the professional mentioned.

On the other hand, he told Cambio21 that "one of the things we have been improving is the deepening of the cases. The work that has been carried out has been able to reveal a large part of the criminal situation that was experienced during the dictatorship."

Many pending cases that are about to close

Another person who had words to explain this situation was lawyer Eduardo Contreras, who said that "everything achieved is not to the credit of the government, it is to the credit of the groups that have pushed each case forward. The cases began in 1998 and are only now coming to light; we are very behind. It is not that the cases were presented just now and have come out now," the lawyer added.

Finally, he told Cambio21 that "now the lawsuit for the coup d'état is on trial, which is very important because for the first time we managed to put those who masterminded the coup in the dock."

For his part, fellow lawyer Nelson Caucoto has a different opinion and asserted that "although several convictions have been handed down, to have progress in human rights cases and a much more agile resolution of them, we would have to return to the appointment of judges with exclusive dedication."

"We raised this issue at one time, that this figure could be restored, which—in his judgment—has been one of the most successful in human rights, and now it could have been equally so because there is a high number of pending cases," the professional explained.

Furthermore, the defense attorney said that "judges also have a heavy workload as ministers. But if we really want to advance, we need judges who are 24 hours focused on the case."

The lawyer added to Cambio21, "We hope they dedicate time to it because it is truly exhausting to handle these types of cases. Although I recognize that it is a positive measure."

Cases to be reviewed

There are at least five cases soon to be closed with a sentence by the justice system. Most are emblematic and would lead to more than 100 new detainees in Punta Peuco.

Calle Conferencia Case

Between April 30 and May 6, 1976, the DINA carried out a detention and disappearance procedure that targeted the leadership of the Communist Party of Chile.

During these days, a group of agents from the military dictatorship's repressive forces were in two houses located on Calle Conferencia and in the house located at 5113 Alejandro del Fierro street, waiting for the 5 communist leaders who remain to this day as forcibly disappeared.

In that context, more than fifty former DINA agents have been prosecuted and remain detained in various military facilities, given that the Court of Appeals has rejected on several occasions granting them provisional release, arguing that the crimes for which they are being prosecuted constitute a danger to society.

Among the prosecuted officers, now retired from the Army, who carried out operational missions in the DINA, are at least César Manríquez Bravo, Manuel Carevic Cubillos, Hernán Sovino Novoa, Humberto Chaigneau Sepúlveda, and Sergio Castillo González. The latter is one of the former repressive agents who continues to receive a monthly salary from the Army, rehired as a civilian employee.

Torres San Borja Case

On March 25, the Santiago Court of Appeals, in case Rol 1520 2011, upheld the first-instance sentence of April 6, 2011, where Gerardo Urrich, Juan Ramón Fernández, and René Cardemil were each sentenced to 10 years in prison without benefits for six qualified homicides in the case known as Torres de San Borja.

The victims are Ricardo Montecinos Slaughter, Carlos Adler Zulueta, and Beatriz Elena Díaz Agüero (an Argentine tourist couple), Víctor Garretón Romero, Jorge Salas Pararadisi, and Julio Saa Pizarro. All were illegally detained by members of the Army on the night of October 16 at tower 12 of the San Borja housing complex in downtown Santiago and executed in the Lo Prado tunnel on October 17, 1973, simulating a flight situation to cover up the crime.

Already in 1976, the United Nations issued a resolution condemning the action, as one of the victims was an official of the International Monetary Fund (Ricardo Montecinos). Regarding the accompanying civil lawsuit, the State was ordered to pay 100,000,000 Chilean pesos (USD 210,000) to each of the family members filing the lawsuit.

Paine Case

The minister of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Héctor Solís, subjected a total of seven people—six civilians and one military (ret.)—to prosecution for the kidnappings and murders of a total of 26 opponents of the military regime, who were detained in Paine between September and October 1973 and whose fate is still being investigated.

In four separate resolutions, the magistrate prosecuted civilians Rubén González Carrasco, Claudio Orregón Tudela, and Juan Francisco Luzoro as accomplices to the aggravated kidnapping of two victims. Later, Luzoro and Mario Tagle Román were charged as perpetrators of the qualified homicide of other victims.

In a third prosecution, Juan Francisco Luzoro and Ricardo Tagle Román were also prosecuted as perpetrators of qualified homicide.

Finally, Minister Solís prosecuted civilian Juan Guillermo Quintanilla Jerez and military (ret.) José Vásquez Silva as perpetrators of the qualified kidnapping of 22 people, among them Andrés Pereira, father of human rights lawyer Pamela Pereira.

These 22 victims were detained in the town of Paine in October 1973, from where they were taken to the Los Quillayes ravine near Lake Rapel, where they were allegedly executed.

Comando Conjunto Case

• The Santiago Court of Appeals ratified the convictions for the qualified kidnappings of Alfredo Salinas Vásquez on November 3, 1975, and of José Sagredo Pacheco and Juan Antonio Gianelli Company on June 2, 1976, in the Metropolitan Region.

The sentence applied on February 4, 2011, against 6 former agents of the so-called Comando Conjunto, increased the penalty for three of them and dismissed the case against one due to death. According to the ruling, Freddy Ruiz Bunger is sentenced to 5 years and 1 day in prison, the same sentence being served by César Palma Ramírez, Juan Saavedra Loyola, and Manuel Muñoz Gamboa.

None can opt for benefits as they are co-perpetrators of the repeated crimes of qualified kidnapping.

Daniel Guimpert Corvalán, meanwhile, is on supervised release following a 4-year sentence as a co-perpetrator of qualified kidnapping in the person of Juan Antonio Gianelli Company.

The case against Jorge Cobos Manríquez was dismissed due to death; he had been sentenced in 2011 in the first instance to 3 years in prison, with the benefit of conditional remission.

Source: cambio21.cl, December 27, 2013

CHILE – The Kasts in the Paine crimes

El Mostrador publishes below an excerpt from a chapter of the book by journalists Javier Rebolledo and Nancy Guzmán, to be published in 2015, which will deal with the role of civilians who acted as "passive" and "non-passive" accomplices of the Pinochet dictatorship.

The chosen characters range from lawyers, doctors, engineers, politicians, journalists, and operators to large businessmen. The investigation focuses on unpublished episodes, such as the participation in the repression of some members of the Kast family, owners of the Bavaria chain, in the Paine area, where there was massive extermination of peasants favored by the agrarian reform.

Pedro León Vargas Barrientos thought he had nothing to worry about on the morning of September 13, 1973. He was only 23 years old, a member of the MIR, and had recently worked at the Bavaria establishments.

On September 11, he presented himself at the Paine Sub-police station, and the captain in charge, Nelson Bravo, who knew him well, told him that "everything was in order. So he returned just as he had arrived"[1], recalls Sylvia Vargas, Pedro's sister.

Despite that, on September 13, he was brutally pulled from the bread line and dragged to a vehicle that took him to the police station. Several neighbors tried to help him, some grabbed his clothes, but it was impossible.

Once in the cell, he commented to his cellmate, Armando Pereira Salas, that "his detention was 'heavy'"[2]. As the right arm of the Armed Forces and Carabineros were the civilians who walked triumphantly through the streets of the small town.

Christian Kast, son of the owner of the Bavaria establishments, was summoned to testify by the justice system in 2003. The case was reopened in 2002 by the minister of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, María Stella Elgarrista, accumulating them into a single one, called "Paine," because 70 citizens from localities such as Pintué, El Escorial, Chada, Culitrín, and Hospital, among others, had been murdered or remained disappeared.

On that occasion, he acknowledged: "We accompanied the Carabineros to the Aculeo sector to greet local farmers and to celebrate what happened that day"[3]. That same September 11, he drove his family's green Datsun 1500 to the Sub-police station, loaded with food from Bavaria for the carabineros. "Because the officers had a communal pot there.

I was invited to stay at the place until the next day"[4], he declared. In that place, a large part of the disappeared from Paine were seen for the last time.

A while later, during that same night, Kast saw a group of detainees arrive at the Sub-police station, "who on the morning of the 12th were removed by a military truck. They were shorn"[5]. Kast never reported this fact to the justice system.

Christian Kast is the current President of the cold cuts factory, restaurants, and delicatessen Bavaria, a well-known food company that has branches throughout a significant part of Chile, and brother of the current deputy and vice president of the Independent Democratic Union (UDI), José Antonio Kast. He is also the uncle of Felipe Kast, deputy and leader of Evópoli.

At noon on September 12, hours after Pedro Vargas's detention, "a barbecue was held at the indicated site (the Sub-police station patio) and I returned to my house, at which moment my mother forbade me from continuing to go to the sub-police station because of everything that had happened and that she had seen on television.

Despite this, in the following days, I returned to the sub-police station to leave cold cuts from our family business, the Bavaria establishments, on two or three occasions and in the afternoon hours. Every time I went, I saw the carabineros and civilians sharing barbecues in the patio I indicated.

On those occasions, I found out that there were detainees in the barracks, who were in some facilities located at the back of it. I only remember hearing about a person nicknamed 'Harina Seca' (Dry Flour); I don't remember other names or nicknames."[6]

When Minister Elgarrista summoned Michael Kast to testify as an accused in 2003, she was interested in knowing the ownership of the trucks that had participated in the transport of the forcibly disappeared prisoners of Paine.

She interrogated him as an accused. On September 11, 1973, he was the owner of a red Mercedes Benz truck, fire-truck type. Both Kast and other interrogated civilians agreed judicially that the objective of the loans was only for the transport of officials and their families to the Paine Sub-police station. "I don't remember if these transports were also done during the night; what I am sure of is that my vehicle was never left at the police station without the driver who worked for me.

Carlos, upon returning, would comment to me that they had indeed transported the families of the Paine officials."

The detainee to whom Christian Kast refers and for whom he never initiated any reporting procedure based on what he had heard at the Sub-police station is Luis Nelson Cádiz Molina, a 28-year-old merchant, detained on September 14, a sympathizer of the MIR.

Cádiz is one of the forcibly disappeared of Paine. The last time he was seen alive was in the cell of the Paine Sub-police station, together with Pedro Vargas, both with signs of having been tortured.

Questioned by the judge, Christian Kast declared that he only knew Pedro as an employee of his establishment, but that he did not know about his situation. "Only subsequently did I have knowledge that he was detained by Carabineros, but I did not see him at the Sub-police station, nor did I hear that he was there when I went to said establishment."[7]

According to the testimony of another detainee, Alejandro del Carmen Bustos González, around three in the morning on September 18, a carabinero came to take roll call in the cell and took him out to the patio.

He ordered him to get dressed, left him there for an instant, and left toward the cell. Bustos observed several civilian vehicles parked, "always from the patio, and upon approaching a hallway, through a window, I was again able to observe the people in civilian clothes.

I refer to Francisco Luzoro, Claudio Oregón, Antonio Carrasco, Luis Mondaca, Segundo Suazo, Miguel González, Cristián Kast, Patricio Meza, Tito Carrasco, Mario Tagle, Jorge Nazar, and Ruperto Jara."[8]

Minutes later, he, along with Carlos Chávez, Orlando Pereira, Luis Ramírez, and Raúl Lazo, were loaded by carabineros into civilian vehicles. They did not put hoods on them. The entourage took a road he recognized as the North-South highway.

Then they headed west, to a field. A winding dirt road, everyone in silence, and the hum of the engines. They were taken down, lined up in the middle of an open field, vehicle headlights illuminating them from the side, in front of them a platoon of civilians and carabineros, and the horror of death in the making.

To his right side, ten meters below, a black and foamy whirlpool of water, waiting for them to fall into it. "Raise your hands, Sergeant Reyes told us. We did it, and I looked up, at the hill. 'Damn, where are we, my holy God! My beautiful Virgin!', I said to myself. And I see an image of the virgin rising above a cloud"[9], said Bustos with tears.

When the roar sounded, a bullet hit his arm and a jet of blood splashed onto his face. It was Orlando Pereira, his companion in death. Some fell wounded, others screaming in pain and fear. "With a yatagan (dagger), one of them, still alive, had his eyes gouged out and his tongue cut off"[10].

When the work was done, they pushed him down the cliff toward the canal, and he rolled along with the rest of the group. Inside the water, while he was spinning in the whirlpool, he felt an arm grabbing his neck.

It was Orlando Pereira. "He begged me to help him, so I put him on my shoulder and swam. We came out together on the other side."[11] Pereira had several bullet wounds in his chest. "He told me he was dead and that I should take care of his wife and son. He handed me his sweater, completely perforated, and died."[12]

Bustos was the only one who survived to tell the tale. Confronted with Christian Kast[13], he reaffirmed that he saw him at the police station on the day of his detention, but clarified that he was not part of the caravan that shot him a while later.

Interviewed for this report, Bustos pointed out that he actually meant to say that he was not able to identify him. "There were more civilians, but with the lights and the darkness, I didn't identify them all. I don't remember seeing Kast there, but he could have been there too."[14]

Kast acknowledged to the justice system only having heard the story: "On one occasion, a priest told me about an event similar to the one my interlocutor points out, and relating them, I believe it is the same one. That was the first time I had news of what happened in Collipeumo."[15]

The betrayal and Sylvia's memories

Sylvia remembers that the only problem Pedro had with the Kasts was an altercation prior to September 11, at his workplace, Cecinas Bavaria. "My brother discovered that they were not paying their workers a percentage of the sales, which was their legal obligation.

So he organized a union, and Don Miguel punished him by demoting him to watchman of the cold cuts factory. He had to use a weapon. Pedro didn't like violence, so he resigned"[16], recalls Sylvia.

Despite that episode and her nine months of pregnancy, Sylvia decided to go to the Kast house in Buin to ask her boss for help. In her favor, she had that at the beginning of the 60s, her family and the Kasts had worked side by side to get the newly created Bavaria soda fountain off the ground, next to the North-South highway, at the height of Buin, where the Vargas family also lived: "Other bosses had helped their employees get free, so that's why I decided to go to him"[17], she recalled.

At the entrance of the house, Don Michael received her: "He was annoyed. He told me, 'How is it, Sylvia, that you don't know what a war is?' I told him: 'But what war, Don Miguel? Pedro was just carrying a bread bag and money, nothing more.' He insisted. 'No, Sylvia, this is serious, you have no idea.

This is life or death.' I answered him, but he told me curtly to go home quietly to have my child."[18]

Interrogated by the justice system, Michael Kast denied Sylvia's visit to ask for help: "I do not remember that relatives of Pedro came to my home on September 17, 1973, to ask me for help to find or free him, and I also don't think that if that had been the case, I would have answered them in the way that is pointed out to me, since I had affection for the family, as Sylvia and Pedro Vargas Barrientos worked for me, just like their father, Bernabé Vargas."[19]

Trucks

When Minister Elgarrista summoned Michael Kast to testify as an accused in 2003, she was interested in knowing the ownership of the trucks that had participated in the transport of the forcibly disappeared prisoners of Paine. She interrogated him as an accused. On September 11, 1973, he was the owner of a red Mercedes Benz truck, fire-truck type.

Both Kast and other interrogated civilians agreed judicially that the objective of the loans was only for the transport of officials and their families to the Paine Sub-police station. "I don't remember if these transports were also done during the night; what I am sure of is that my vehicle was never left at the police station without the driver who worked for me.

Carlos, upon returning, would comment to me that they had indeed transported the families of the Paine officials." [20]

Francisco Luzoro, owner of trucks and leader of the Truckers' Trade Association—prosecuted for several crimes in Paine—acknowledged that "the operations carried out by Carabineros personnel escorted by us [the civilians] were exclusively to detain people in different places, who were taken to the Paine Sub-police station, without knowing what their final destination was (...)"[21].

He did, however, take the opportunity to half-open the open secret about the participation of other civilians, without committing himself: "I want to point out that not only was I providing collaboration with vehicles to Carabineros personnel, but there were other civilian people and who also had other vehicles (...) but I don't remember who they were, just as there were other pickup trucks, but of different colors."[22]

Regarding his relationship with the leader of the Paine civilians and the other members of the brigades formed after the coup, Michael Kast was discreet: "[Luzoro] I only know him because he is a local freight forwarder, but we don't have a bond of friendship; the same thing happens with Ramón Huidobro (...).

The Carrascos because they have an agricultural plot in Paine, the Tagle brothers because they are children of a farm owner. We never visited each other with these people, since as I pointed out, I only know them."[23]

Most of the people Kast declared he "only knew" are currently prosecuted, and some of them have confessed to their participation in the crimes that have been elucidated in Paine.

To this day, in most cases, the justice system has not elucidated which trucks and vehicles were used in the various criminal episodes. It is known that, for example, a red truck transported detainees to and from the San Bernardo Infantry School.

Also, as an exception, it is known which vehicles and which drivers kidnapped the teacher Cristian Víctor Cartagena Pérez, a forcibly disappeared person, teacher at the Chada School and militant of the Communist Party.

This was not a problem for Christian Kast to protect Rubén Darío González in 2008, a merchant who collaborated by driving vehicles and who is a confessed participant in the crime of teacher Cartagena Pérez. Kast signed a "certificate of honorability" in his favor.

"I certify that I have known Mr. Rubén Darío González since his childhood. Likewise, I knew his parents and grandparents, who stood out as correct and respectable people, active participants in commerce, very beloved among the Paine community.

Don Rubén González has always been a normal and very orderly young man. He married and formed a very Christian family in Paine. As I have known, he participates in Christian movements of the commune (...)"[24]

The widow of teacher Cristián Víctor Cartagena Pérez, Holanda Vidal, recalled before the Investigative Police that, at the moment of being kidnapped, her husband was tied with a rope, and this to one of the pickup trucks of the caravan of civilians and military. He was lost on the way, "dragging him along the whole road until arriving at the police station (...)"[25]

Political networks

With the military coup, the Kast family strengthened its social and political position. Miguel, the eldest of the sons, an economist from the Catholic University with a postgraduate degree from the University of Chicago, became part of the civilians who worked for the dictatorship.

In 1978, he assumed the position of director of Odeplan[26]; in 1980, he was appointed by Augusto Pinochet as Minister of Labor, and in 1982, president of the Central Bank. In 1983, he was diagnosed with bone cancer and, finally, died that same year.

From that moment on, he became a legend within the extreme right, since together with Jaime Guzmán, he had integrated the foundation of Gremialismo, a political movement that laid the foundations of the Independent Democratic Union (UDI), a political party born to provide social and ideological support to the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

After his death, two of his direct relatives assumed the political representation of the family. His son, Felipe Kast Sommerhoff, an engineer from the Catholic University, was a member of the UDI and subsequently formed Evópoli[27].

During the government of Sebastián Piñera, he was Minister of Social Planning. In the presidential elections, he was campaign manager in the command of candidate Evelyn Matthei and is currently a deputy for Santiago.

Regarding the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, through Evópoli, he has marked a distancing from his father's generation. In an interview, he pointed out: "I have a very critical vision of human rights violations, as well as a less critical one of what was done in social policies"[28].

Explaining his value parameters to balance these issues, he pointed out that "since I didn't have to live through that, I have much less of a complex when valuing the good things."[29] Furthermore, he said that "academically" he supports what he calls a military "pronouncement" and that if he were in a dictatorship, he would have served as a Minister of State for Pinochet.[30]

José Antonio, the youngest son of the Kast Rist marriage, is known as a political and value-based bastion of the hardest right. In 2013, he pointed out to the press that the dictatorship's revenge operation for the attack on Augusto Pinochet, which occurred on September 7, 1986, was not dictated by the State, but that "there were people who took revenge for their comrades who fell in the attack on Pinochet and committed a crime"[31].

On the same occasion, he confused historical episodes, pointing out that said revenge was the "Degollados" (Throat-Slitting) crime, an occasion in which Santiago Nattino, José Manuel Parada, and Manuel Guerrero were murdered by Carabineros personnel, an event that occurred before the attack on Pinochet, in

March 1985, investigated and sanctioned by the justice system as a State crime.

Days later, Kast apologized for having confused the "Degollados" (Throat-Slitters) case with the attack on Pinochet. José Antonio has been characterized by his "protection of life" discourse when referring to the possibility of discussing abortion in Chile.

His opposition to the emergency contraceptive pill, the regulation of life for homosexual couples, the adoption of children by gay couples, and gay marriage have been his battle horses, establishing him as one of the most conservative men within the UDI.

From the beginning, the family company Bavaria has been present in the political careers of José Antonio and Felipe. On May 9, 2014, Michael Kast Schindele, the páter familias, died at 90 years old as a celebrated Christian businessman of the area and founder of an empire.

Few know it, but until his death, he maintained his status as an accused party for the crimes of Paine. Sylvia, without knowing the details of the summary proceedings currently being substantiated in the San Miguel Court of Appeals, always maintained doubt regarding the participation of Michael Kast and Christian Kast in the crime against Pedro.

Their absolute inhumanity and refusal to help her at times when her sole intervention meant the difference between life and death for her brother persist in her memory. 41 years have passed since these crimes occurred and there are still no convictions.

There are only seven carabineros prosecuted, two military personnel, and nine civilians for the different episodes[32]. A few vehicles that participated in the death caravans were able to be associated with their owners and specific criminal episodes. The rest remains in the nebula.

Sources

[1] Interview with Sylvia Vargas Barrientos [2] Police Statement of Armando Artemón, Police Statement of Armando Artemón Pereira Salas, November 4, 2002, case file 04-02-F, “Paine”, folio 2085, Volume X [3] Judicial statement of Christian Kast Rist, April 25, 2003.

Paine Case. Folio 5,979 of volume XVIII. [4] Ibid., 5979, Volume XVIII [5] Ibid., 5979, Volume XVIII [6] Ibid., 5979, Volume XVIII [7] Ibid., 5980, Volume XVIII [8] Police statement of Alejandro del Carmen Bustos González, October 22, 2001.

Paine Case. Folio 1726 of volume VII. [9] Interview with Alejandro del Carmen Bustos González [10] Ibid. [11] Ibid. [12] Ibid. [13] Judicial confrontation between Alejandro Bustos González and Christian Kast Rist, May 7, 2003.

Paine Case. Folio 6216 of volume XVIII. [14] Interview with Alejandro del Carmen Bustos González [15] Judicial confrontation between Alejandro Bustos González and Christian Kast Rist, May 7, 2003. Paine Case.

Folio 6216 of volume XVIII. [16] Interview with Sylvia Vargas Barrientos [17] Interview with Sylvia Vargas Barrientos [18] Interview with Sylvia Vargas Barrientos [19] Judicial Statement of Michael Martín Kast Schindele, January 15, 2003.

Case file 04-02-F “Paine”. Folio 3,733, Volume XIII [20] Judicial statement of Michael Martín Kast Schindele, January 15, 2003. Case file 04-02-F “Paine”. Folio 3,732, Volume XIII. [21] Police statement of Juan Francisco Luzoro Montenegro, January 10, 2003.

Paine Case. Folio 3,850 of volume XIII. [22] Police statement of Juan Francisco Luzoro Montenegro, January 10, 2003. Paine Case. Folio 3,806 of volume XIII [23] Ibid. Folio 6732 [24] Ibid. Folio 13,539, Volume XXXVI [25] Police statement of Holanda Aydee Vidal Caballero, December 23, 2003.

Paine Case. Folio 3,822 of volume XIII. [26] National Planning Office [27] Right-wing political party, whose acronym is Evópoli, meaning Political Evolution, which originated from the UDI and National Renewal. [28] Interview, Felipe Kast, Minister of Planning: “The left does not value social mobility.” The Clinic, October 24, 2010. [29] Ibid. [30] Interview, Felipe Kast: I would work in a dictatorship as a minister.

Radio ADN, November 2, 2010. The exact quote is: Minister Kast said that the role his father, Miguel Kast, played during the dictatorship does not mean any burden for him and that he himself would have assumed a position in the de facto government since, remembering the «social vocation» of his progenitor, he would have preferred to avoid «the cost of not having done so for all those who benefited.» [31] Interview, José Antonio Kast, UDI senatorial candidate for Santiago Oriente: “I have suffered the intolerance of homosexual movements.” The Clinic, June 17, 2010 [32] The carabineros are Nelson Iván Bravo Espinoza, Luis Enrique Jara Riquelme, José Floriano Verdugo Espinoza, Aníbal Fernando Olguín Maturana, José Osvaldo Retamal Burgos, Víctor Manuel Sagredo Aravena, Rogelio Lelan Villarroel Venegas. The military personnel are Brigadier General (ret.) Víctor Raúl Pérez Pinto and Lieutenant Colonel (ret.) Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau. The civilians are Juan Manuel Balcázar Soto, Rodolfo Rodrigo Gárate Gárate, Rubén Darío González Carrasco, Claudio Antonio Oregón Tudela, Juan Guillermo Quintanilla Jerez, Ricardo Jorge Tagle Román, Mario Emilio Tagle Román, José Hugo Vásquez Silva, and Juan Francisco Luzoro Montenegro.

Source: elmostrado.cl, November 6, 2014

New "Clients" for Punta Peuco: Perpetrators of Crimes Against Humanity Begin to Be Imprisoned

The Supreme Court unanimously approved the extradition request for Manuel Contreras's former Chilean secretary, Adriana Rivas González, identified as the perpetrator of the kidnapping of the former secretary of the Communist Party, Víctor Díaz López, which occurred in 1976.

She is currently residing in Australia after fleeing the country. However, several human rights trials are reaching their final stages. Since last September, and after the commemoration of 40 years since the coup d'état, the courts have issued dozens of convictions against those responsible for various emblematic cases related to human rights violations.

For lawyers, family members, and victims, this situation has been satisfactory, although while cases reported more than 20 years ago are being executed, there is still a lack of complaints and new convictions.

One of the latest actions by the justice system relates to the so-called "Calle Conferencia" case. The Supreme Court unanimously approved the extradition request for Manuel Contreras's former Chilean secretary, Adriana Rivas González, identified as the perpetrator of the kidnapping resulting in death of the former secretary of the Communist Party, Víctor Díaz López, which occurred in 1976, who is currently residing in Australia.

It was the Visiting Minister for the case, Miguel Vásquez, who made this request, which was accepted by the magistrates of the second chamber of the highest court, as it met all the formal requirements demanded by the extradition treaty between Chile and Australia.

Emblematic cases

For human rights lawyers, although those responsible are being sentenced, there is still much to be done in this area. Regarding the issue, lawyer Nelson Caucoto said that "the proceedings, especially in the last quarter, regarding cases of great significance like this one, for example (Conferencia case), have advanced a lot." "While these steps are important, such as the extradition, there is still work to be done in human rights; justice still needs to be served, especially in cases as old as the Calle Conferencia one," he pointed out.

To this, he added to Cambio21 that "that is why we hope that the cases continue to be sealed, and that justice continues to act as it should." For Deputy Fidel Espinoza (PS), "it will always be positive for a country and the strengthening of a democracy that cases remain open and that those responsible continue to be sought; therefore, it is a good sign for the world that even though 40 years have passed, the culprits are still being pursued." "One must have patience; all the crimes were committed with great meticulousness.

A clear example of that was the murder of my father, for which much is still missing in that investigation," stressed the legislator, who obtained the highest national vote in the last election. To this, the socialist parliamentarian pointed out that "we must not forget that all these crimes happened more than 20 years ago, and at that time several cases were statute-barred, and others had a series of obstacles that prevented further investigation, and it must be added that during this government there have not been many new cases being investigated," he told this media outlet.

For her part, Mireya García, vice president of the Association of Relatives of Forcibly Disappeared Detainees (AFDD), declared that "any judicial action we have is always taken positively, even if it is as late as this one." "It is madness that a judicial resolution comes out so many years later, but we take it as an enormous advance, and hopefully in this course, it will be taken in other cases," stressed the representative of the organization.

Contreras's right-hand woman

Adriana Elcira Rivas González entered the Ministry of Defense as a secretary. After taking military intelligence courses, she joined the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) in 1974, where she was a member of the feared Lautaro Brigade.

She was a little over 20 years old. She was Manuel Contreras's personal secretary and became a non-commissioned officer in the Navy; today she receives a pension and benefits as a member of the armed forces.

In 1978, Adriana Rivas settled in Australia. According to information obtained by human rights groups in that country, between 1994 and 2000, more than 400 former DINA, CNI, and other figures related to Pinochet's secret police entered.

Australia granted permanent visas to all of them, which for some suggests an agreement between the two governments. In 2006, Adriana Rivas returned to Chile and was arrested for her participation in the Conferencia Case, a DINA operation against the clandestine leadership of the Communist Party in 1976.

Prosecuted in February 2007 for her participation as a member of the Lautaro Brigade in the death of leader Víctor Díaz, she was detained for almost three months. When she was granted conditional release, but with a travel ban, she fled via Argentina to Australia, where she is currently located.

A niece of the former agent recently made a documentary video in which she tries to investigate what motivated her aunt to become a DINA agent in 1974 and why she justifies, without any shame, the use of torture on political opponents.

In an interview broadcast by the Australian radio station SBS, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the military coup in Chile, Adriana Rivas defended torture as a method to extract information and considered those years the best of her youth.

In the interview, Rivas indicated that the torture during the dictatorship was "an open secret" and described it as a technique "necessary to break people." When asked about the whereabouts of the more than 1,000 forcibly disappeared detainees, she replied that it is something that will never be known: "If he is dead, he is dead. Where are they? It is not known."

Cases to be reviewed

The cases that are soon to be closed with a sentence by the justice system are at least five. Most are emblematic and would lead to more than 100 new detainees in Punta Peuco. The three most relevant are:

Torres San Borja Case

On March 25, 2013, the Santiago Court of Appeals, in case file 1520 2011, upheld the first-instance sentence of April 6, 2011, where Gerardo Urrich, Juan Ramón Fernández, and René Cardemil were each sentenced to 10 years in prison without benefits for six qualified homicides in the case known as Torres de San Borja.

The victims are Ricardo Montecinos Slaughter, Carlos Adler Zulueta, and Beatriz Elena Díaz Agüero (a couple of Argentine tourists), Víctor Garretón Romero, Jorge Salas Pararadisi, and Julio Saa Pizarro.

All were illegally detained by members of the Army on the night of October 16 in tower 12 of the San Borja housing complex in downtown Santiago and executed in the Lo Prado tunnel on October 17, 1973, simulating an escape situation to cover up the crime.

Already in 1976, the United Nations issued a resolution condemning the action, as one of the victims was an official of the International Monetary Fund (Ricardo Montecinos). Regarding the accompanying civil lawsuit, the State was ordered to pay 100,000,000 Chilean pesos (USD 210,000) to each of the family members filing the lawsuit in the case.

Paine Case

The Minister of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Héctor Solís, subjected a total of seven people—six civilians and one military officer (ret.)—to prosecution for the kidnappings and homicides of a total of 26 opponents of the military regime, who were detained in Paine between September and October 1973 and whose fate is still being investigated.

In four different resolutions, the magistrate prosecuted civilians Rubén González Carrasco, Claudio Orregón Tudela, and Juan Francisco Luzoro as accomplices to the aggravated kidnapping of two victims.

Later, Luzoro and Mario Tagle Román were charged as perpetrators of the qualified homicide of other victims. In a third prosecution, Juan Francisco Luzoro and Ricardo Tagle Román were also prosecuted as perpetrators of qualified homicide.

Finally, Minister Solís prosecuted civilian Juan Guillermo Quintanilla Jerez and military officer (ret.) José Vásquez Silva as perpetrators of the qualified kidnapping of 22 people, among them Andrés Pereira, father of human rights lawyer Pamela Pereira.

These 22 victims were detained in the town of Paine in October 1973; from there, they were taken to the Los Quillayes ravine near Lake Rapel, where they were allegedly executed.

Comando Conjunto Case

The Santiago Court of Appeals ratified the convictions for the qualified kidnappings of Alfredo Salinas Vásquez on November 3, 1975, and of José Sagredo Pacheco and Juan Antonio Gianelli Company on June 2, 1976, in the Metropolitan Region.

The sentence applied on February 4, 2011, against 6 former agents of the so-called Comando Conjunto, increased the penalty for three of them and dismissed the case against one due to death. According to the ruling, Freddy Ruiz Bunger is sentenced to 5 years and 1 day in prison, the same penalty served by César Palma Ramírez, Juan Saavedra Loyola, and Manuel Muñoz Gamboa.

None can opt for benefits as they are co-perpetrators of the repeated crimes of qualified kidnapping. Daniel Guimpert Corvalán, meanwhile, is on supervised release after the 4-year sentence as a co-perpetrator of qualified kidnapping in the person of Juan Antonio Gianelli Company.

The case against Jorge Cobos Manríquez was dismissed due to death; he had been sentenced in 2011 in the first instance to 3 years in prison, with the benefit of conditional remission.

Source: reddigital.cl, October 22, 2015

The Savage Repression of the Peasants of Paine in 1973 and the Responsibility of Civilians in the Massacre

The Supreme Court confirmed the sentence that condemned Francisco Luzoro Montenegro to 20 years in prison as the perpetrator of the crimes of qualified homicide of peasants Carlos Chávez Reyes, Raúl del Carmen Lazo Quinteros, Orlando Enrique Pereira Cancino, and Pedro Luis Ramírez Torres; and of the frustrated crime of qualified homicide of Alejandro del Carmen Bustos González, crimes perpetrated on September 18, 1973, in the Colipeumo sector, in the commune of Paine.

In a split decision, the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of Milton Juica, Carlos Künsemüller, Lamberto Cisternas, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, and lawyer Jean Pierre Matus—confirmed the sentence issued by the San Miguel Court of Appeals, which ratified the resolution of Visiting Minister Marianela Cifuentes of March 31 of this year.

Judge Cisternas voted against it. Minister Cifuentes established that, after the military coup of September 11, 1973, carabineros from the police stations of Hospital, Champa, Chada, Pintué, and Huelquén were transferred to the Paine sub-precinct, under the command of Captain Nelson Iván Bravo Espinoza, who asked for help from several civilians, landowners in the area, to detain and punish peasants who were accused of being communist agitators.

Juan Francisco Luzoro Montenegro, president of the Paine Truckers Association, acted as the ringleader of several civilians who provided vehicles and logistics for the repressive work of carabineros and military personnel and participated in the executions of at least seventy peasants and agricultural workers of Paine, a town located 46 kilometers southwest of Santiago, in the current Maipo province.

THE PATRONAL REVENGE

On September 15, 1973, the carabineros and civilians who helped them—aboard several private vehicles—detained twelve peasants and took them to the Paine police station. There, they shaved them with a razor, made them strip, and kept them tied face down on the ground, being trampled by carabineros and civilians (Claudio Oregón, Antonio Carrasco, and Darío González).

Then they applied electric current to them and put them in drums with sewage. They released them at dusk wearing only their underwear. Two days later, on the eve of the National Holidays, several peasants from the "Paula Jaraquemada" settlement were notified to report to the Paine sub-precinct.

Agricultural workers Alejandro Bustos González, Carlos Chávez Reyes, Raúl del Carmen Lazo Quinteros, Orlando Pereira Cancino, and Pedro Luis Ramírez Torres arrived there. Sergeants Manuel Reyes Alvarez, Jorge Verdugo, Víctor Sagredo, and José Retamales were waiting for them, along with carabineros Juan Valenzuela, José González, Jorge Leiva, and Pío Moya.

Civilians Claudio Oregón, Darío González, Jorge Aguirre, and Francisco Luzoro were also there. After the five peasants entered the barracks, they were subjected to brutal beatings and torture with electricity.

At night, lying on the ground, semi-conscious in the stables, they heard the music and laughter coming from a barbecue shared by about fifteen civilians and twenty carabineros. After one in the morning, they were taken out of the stables.

At the entrance of the barracks, a caravan of pickup trucks was waiting—a yellow one belonging to Claudio Oregón; a red one belonging to Francisco Luzoro; a green one belonging to Jorge Sepúlveda; and a white one.

The detainees were loaded in, and the vehicles departed, driven by their owners, heading in an unknown direction. After an hour of travel, the convoy stopped, and they made the five peasants get out. They were next to a hill and beside a dirt road; far below, a wide and torrential river flowed.

They were ordered to stand with their backs to the abyss, with their arms raised, illuminated by the headlights of the trucks, against whose lights the shadows of police and civilians were silhouetted.

The machine guns roared, and the bodies of the executed shuddered. Alejandro Bustos felt a bullet shatter his left arm and fell backward. One of his companions fell on top of him, whose blood soaked his face and head.

Francisco Luzoro, Antonio Carrasco, and Sergeant Reyes approached to verify the death of their victims. Bustos played dead. Two of his executioners grabbed him by the feet and arms and threw him into the river.

He fell to the edge of the riverbed, onto some blackberry bushes. He could see how the other peasants had their throats cut before being thrown into the water. One of them had his eyes gouged out and his tongue severed.

Journalist Cherie Zalaquett, in her book Sobrevivir a un fusilamiento. Ocho historias reales (Surviving a Firing Squad: Eight True Stories), published by Aguilar Chilena de Ediciones in 2005, recounts the details of the ordeal lived by Alejandro Bustos, who managed to survive the massacre and in the last forty years became the main witness to incriminate those responsible for those crimes in the Colipeumo sector.

ANOTHER PROCEEDING

Minister Marianela Cifuentes has also been prosecuting Francisco Luzoro since the end of June of this year for the qualified homicide of Ricardo Eduardo Carrasco Barrios, committed in Paine on September 16, 1973.

That day, at dawn, a caravan of vehicles with carabineros and civilians under the command of Captain Nelson Iván Bravo Espinoza and Luzoro Montenegro arrived at the "Santa Rosa" settlement, where Carrasco Barrios and others were hiding.

They detained Carrasco and forced him to run toward a nearby canal, at which moment they shot him in the back, causing his death and throwing his corpse into the water. Marianela Cifuentes also closed the summary stage in April for the case called "Paine Case," which includes 38 victims and refers to two episodes: the detention and subsequent execution of the peasants of the "El Escorial" sector, executed at the Chada slope on October 3, 1973; and the detention and execution of the peasants of the "24 de abril," "El Transito," "Nuevo Sendero," and "Paine" settlements, murdered in the Los Quillayes sector near Lake Rapel on October 16, 1973. Along with those victims, Ramón Capetillo Mora and Mario Muñoz Peñaloza, detained on October 8 and 10 respectively, were also executed. In both cases, the military personnel responsible were members of the San Bernardo Infantry School. Francisco Luzoro, a former leader of the Paine truckers who is now dedicated to raising horses on his farm in Fresia, Araucanía Region, was arrested by detectives and taken to Santiago to be presented before the Court of Appeals, where he was notified of his sentence, which he must serve in the Colina prison. Unlike the landowner Juan Quintanilla, prosecuted by Judge Héctor Solís Montiel in 2008 for his participation alongside military personnel from the San Bernardo Infantry School in the October 16, 1973, episode in which 22 peasants were murdered, Luzoro always acted alongside Carabineros personnel. Paine, with a total of seventy victims, is the place that has the highest quota of executed and forcibly disappeared detainees in Chile, in proportion to its inhabitants. Other civilians prosecuted for the crimes against peasants in that area are Rubén González Carrasco, Claudio Oregón Tudela, and brothers Jorge and Mario Tagle Román. Judge Héctor Solís, who in an exceptional investigative work managed to locate in Litueche the ravine where 22 peasants from Paine were murdered, passed away in October 2013 and was replaced by Judge Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón. Part of Judge Solís's work was recorded in the documentary Ministros en visita en causas de derechos humanos. El caso Paine (Visiting Ministers in Human Rights Cases: The Paine Case), which can be seen on YouTube.

THE TRUTH APPROACHES

In 1979, the military justice system was in charge of dismissing the proceedings opened for the events in Paine by virtue of the 1978 Amnesty Law, approved by dictator Augusto Pinochet to cover up his crimes.

However, now, almost thirty years later, the judges seem to be approaching truth, justice, and reparation. The agrarian reform initiated in the 1960s and accentuated under the government of Salvador Allende and the Popular Unity made it possible for many peasant families throughout the country to benefit from the allocation of land that, until then, belonged to a small group of large landowners.

The peasants, then, gave life to the "settlements" and their productive development. But in Paine, as in the rest of the countryside, September 11, 1973, turned everything back. Gangs of far-right civilians, police, and military took revenge, murdering union leaders and settled peasants.

The crimes, impunity, and fear spread through the small towns of Paine, Hospital, Huelquén, Culitrín, Chada, Rangue, El Vínculo, Pintué, and Laguna de Aculeo. Many peasants and their families witnessed how civilians in the area guided the uniformed men through the settlements, providing names and participating in the repression.

Those civilians, for decades, had managed to evade justice and even found ways to continue threatening the relatives of their victims. Now, with Francisco Luzoro in prison, it seems that everything is starting to change.

CIVILIANS PROSECUTED

More than 50 civilians are being prosecuted in the cases handled by judges investigating human rights violations, according to court sources. In most cases, these are people linked to the repression of peasants, agricultural and forestry workers, many of them Mapuche, who actively participated in the agrarian reform undertaken by presidents Frei Montalva and Allende between 1967 and 1973.

Many of the prosecuted civilians were especially linked to Carabineros in rural areas who were in charge of the repression in the days following the military coup. They collaborated by providing lists of people they considered "dangerous extremists," and in not a few cases, they acted directly in the detentions and executions that are being investigated.

They also contributed with vehicles, supplies, and even money to support the work of searching for and detaining the peasants. Most of them were militants of right-wing parties, members of the terrorist group Patria y Libertad, or members of groups that tenaciously opposed the Popular Unity government.

Almost all of them were motivated by revenge against the advances of the popular movement achieved during the years of President Allende's government. Among the prosecuted civilians is Sergio Bustos Baquedano, author of the labor lawsuit against Natalia Compagnon for the so-called Caval case, who was subjected to prosecution by the Chillán Court of Appeals in August 2015, in the case investigating the 1974 homicides of Rolando Angulo, Ogan Lagos, and Bartolomé Salazar, members of the MIR in San Carlos, where Bustos Baquedano was a militant in Patria y Libertad.

In Valparaíso, several civilians are being investigated who allegedly joined the Navy as reserve officers after the coup and participated in interrogations and torture in secret barracks between September 1973 and the end of 1974. Some were students at the Catholic University of Valparaíso.

By MANUEL SALAZAR SALVO

Source: Punto Final, December 8, 2017