Role 113.075: case of unlawful coercion against students of Temuco

39.- Statement by Eduardo Javier Valdebenito Bugmann, on page 536, Major (ret.) of the Chilean Army, who indicated that he was assigned to the CNI to the Ongolmo brigade, under the command of Army Captain Pooley Echeverría, in the second semester of 1980.

His operational name was "Pablo Parra" and his combat name was "Tucán 27". In mid-1980, together with Carlos Acuña Morelli, he was sent on a service commission and subsequently assigned to the Cuartel Borgoño, where the Anti-subversive Brigade operated under the command of Julio Corbalán Castilla.

He was in that place for six months, after which he was transferred to Osorno as head of the CNI. He asserted that he had been in Temuco on two occasions as head of the CNI. The first of these was in 1982, an occasion on which he replaced Captain Ricardo Sepúlveda in command.

The second was Oscar Boemhwald Soto. In January 1983, he was assigned to the Army Intelligence School in Santiago. Subsequently, in April or May 1986, he returned to Temuco as head of the CNI. The command was handed over to him by Jorge Palacios Mery, but due to health reasons, he could not assume the position that year, so this officer continued in the post.

As CNI personnel in Temuco, he remembers Isaías Rubilar, the Sub-officer in charge of the General Staff; a Sub-officer with the surname Moraga, who was an alcoholic; Benito Rapimán, Juan Caro Baeza, Segundo Bravo, José Diocares Mendoza, Carlos Lagos, Bernardo Quinchaleo, Nelson Parada, who was the driver for "Cachete" Godoy in Santiago, and Armando Vallejos Hazeldine.

Source: Judiciary, October 30, 2009

Role No. 114.039: case of Qualified Homicide of Diego Celso Saldías Cid

A.20

EDUARDO VALDEBENITO BUGMANN

(23 years old at the time of the events), declares on pages 672 to 673 (Volume II); and on pages 734 to 735 (Volume III). In an extrajudicial statement dated December 9, 2016, found on pages 672 to 673 (Volume II), he reports that he served 20 years in the Army, retiring with the rank of Major in 1990.

In March 1973, he arrived as a Second Lieutenant at the Tucapel Regiment in Temuco, being assigned to the Andean Company under the command of Captain Mario Alvarado Verdugo, Lieutenant Carlos Oviedo Arriagada, and the Reserve Second Lieutenant (ORASA) with the surname Araya.

In March of that year, while visiting the sick in the Regiment's infirmary, he observed an armored truck from the Army Health Directorate parked in the courtyard conducting field examinations, subjecting them to said tests, and was informed the following month that he had been diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis (TB).

He was immediately transferred to Santiago to begin treatment for the disease, for which an uncle named Carlos Bugmann Spielmann, currently deceased, offered to transport him in a private vehicle. He was under treatment at the Guayacán Military Sanatorium, located in the town of San José de Maipo, a facility where he was treated by nurses, remaining for nearly a year, and then spending three months resting at his parents' house.

Subsequently, and after having attended several check-ups, he was discharged with restrictions, returning to the Tucapel Regiment in the month of June 1974, days before the oath to the flag. He highlights that upon his return, he was assigned to the 2nd Hunters Company, replacing Lieutenant Manuel Espinoza Ponce, as the latter had moved to form the Counter-guerrilla Company.

The 2nd Hunters was under the command of Captain Manuel Vásquez Chahuán. He remained in this place until 1977, when he was assigned to the Extra-institutional Commission to the Central Nacional de Informaciones in Santiago, specifically to a Cuartel Bilbao.

Source: Judiciary, September 21, 2022