Eleven former members of the Army and Carabineros were sentenced in the first instance by the minister for human rights violation cases, Carlos Aldana of the Court of Appeals of Concepción, for their responsibility in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated homicide, and illegal burial and exhumation of 18 victims executed in Mulchén in October 1973, whose remains were subsequently illegally removed.

In the ruling (case file 30-2007 and accumulated cases), Minister Aldana sentenced Jacob Ortiz Palma, Juan de Dios Higueras Álvarez, Osvaldo Díaz Díaz, and Héctor Guzmán Saldaña to 10 years and one day of imprisonment as co-perpetrators of the aggravated homicide of Florencio Rubilar Gutiérrez, José Liborio Rubilar Gutiérrez, José Lorenzo Rubilar Gutiérrez, Alejandro Albornoz González, Luis Godoy Sandoval, Miguel Albornoz Acuña, Daniel Albornoz González, Alberto Albornoz González, Felidor Albornoz González, Jerónimo Sandoval Medina, Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme, and José Gutiérrez Ascencio, committed in October 1973 at the Carmen, Maitenes, and Pemehue estates in the commune of Mulchén.

Likewise, Ortiz Palma, Higueras Álvarez, Díaz Díaz, and Guzmán Saldaña must serve 5 years and one day of imprisonment for their responsibility in the aggravated kidnappings of Juan de Dios Laubra Brevis, José Yañez Durán, Celsio Vivanco Carrasco, Edmundo Vidal Aedo, Domingo Sepúlveda Castillo, and Guillermo Albornoz González, crimes committed in October 1973 at the El Morro estate.

Additionally, they were sentenced to 541 days of imprisonment for the illegal burial of the 12 homicide victims.

Meanwhile, José Iturriaga Valenzuela, Jaime Muller Avilés, Julio Fuentes Chavarriga, Luis Patricio Torres, Juan Carlos Balboa Ortega, and Jaime García Zamorano were sentenced to 3 years and one day of imprisonment as accessories to the simple homicide of 11 victims from the Carmen, Maitenes, and Pemehue estates, plus 541 days of imprisonment for their responsibility in the illegal exhumation of said victims.

In the case of Julio Reyes Garrido, the ruling sentenced him to serve a 3-year prison term as an accessory to 11 simple homicides, and a 300-day prison term for his responsibility in the illegal exhumation of those victims. José Puga Pascua was acquitted.

During the investigation phase, the visiting minister established that on October 4, 1973, a corporal from the No. 13 Regiment of the Chilean Army based in the city of Los Ángeles, along with 3 conscripts from the same unit, was commissioned to report to the Carabineros station in the city.

This commission, accompanied by a Carabineros lieutenant and 4 officers from that unit, departed for the mountain sector of the locality to search for a list of people opposed to the government of the time.

On October 5, the group arrived at the "El Morro" estate in the Andean foothills of Mulchén and detained, without a legitimate administrative or judicial order, 5 people who were interrogated at a temporary checkpoint and transported to the "La Playita" sector of the Renaico River, where they were executed and their bodies forcibly disappeared.

On October 6, the group arrived at the Carmen and Maitenes estates, where 7 people were detained and forced to dig a 6 by 4-meter pit before being shot on-site and illegally buried. Hours later, another prisoner was detained at the location and taken by the group to the main house of the Pemehue estate, where they arrived the following day.

On October 7, 5 people were detained at the Pemehue estate; they were executed on-site and their bodies left in clandestine graves, where they were later found by their relatives.

Meanwhile, between late 1978 and early 1979, a section of the "Húsares" Regiment of Angol, after receiving a cryptogram from the Army General Command of the time, went to the sites of the illegal burials, exhumed the remains, and caused them to disappear, despite the fact that a visiting minister from the Court of Appeals of Concepción was investigating the events.

Regarding civil matters, the ruling ordered the state to pay compensation to the victims' relatives.

Source: Tribunadelbiobio.cl, October 3, 2017