The former Commander-in-Chief of the Army was detained by order of Judge Mario Carroza as the perpetrator of 15 homicides in La Serena in 1973. The former Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Juan Emilio Cheyre, is being held along with eight other people at the No. 1 Military Police Regiment in Santiago, in the context of the Caravan of Death.

The retired general is being investigated as an accomplice to 15 homicides in La Serena in 1973. The events follow an instruction from Judge Mario Carroza. The presiding minister indicted Ariosto Lapostol Orrego, Víctor Hugo Alegre Rodríguez, and Armando Fernández Larios as perpetrators of the crimes.

Meanwhile, Jaime Ojeda Torrente, Hernán Valdebenito Bugmann, Guillermo Raby Arancibia, Hugo Leiva González, and Mario Vargas Migueles were prosecuted as accomplices. Communist deputy Hugo Gutiérrez stated to CNN that "he is a relevant person, one of those in charge of intelligence.

Survivors said they saw him present on the day these fifteen people were executed by firing squad. Cheyre was in that regiment. There are categorical testimonies." Lorena Pizarro indicated on ADN that "there were always abundant witnesses who pointed him out in La Serena.

The most painful thing is that we are talking about a Commander-in-Chief of the Army during the transition who is responsible for crimes against humanity." Last June, the Human Rights Program of the Ministry of the Interior requested Cheyre's prosecution, to which his defense, led by lawyer Jorge Bofill, stated that the former Commander-in-Chief of the Army "has always been available, but it is strange that one is pursued for 16 years; that is completely extraordinary.

Fortunately, we are reaching the end of the road because the investigation is, in my opinion, limited and there is not much left to find out."

Source: latercera, July 7, 2016

The man who survived the Caravan of Death

"That day the military began summoning people to the Arica regiment. The commander was Colonel Ariosto Lapóstol Orrego and his secretary, Lieutenant Emilio Cheyre." Armando Gatica Barahona graduated as a pharmaceutical chemist from the Universidad de Chile in 1961 and began working at the Bacteriological Institute in the food control department.

From there, he moved to a tuberculosis research laboratory at the San José hospital, next to the General Cemetery of Santiago. At the beginning of November 1966, he went with his wife to La Serena to create a Bromatology laboratory for the Second Health Zone and to collaborate in the implementation of a food control system for the entire norte chico region.

Additionally, he was appointed as an expert witness to report to the courts whenever there were drug seizures. A communist militant from a very young age, he also had to serve several times as acting intendant during the government of the Unidad Popular.

September 11, 1973, passed in La Serena with almost complete normality, as did Wednesday the 12th and Thursday the 13th. On Friday the 14th, however, things began to change. Armando Gatica, at 80 years of age, recalls: That day the military began summoning people to the Arica regiment.

The commander was Colonel Ariosto Lapóstol Orrego and his secretary, Lieutenant Emilio Cheyre. In most cases, they returned people to their workplaces or homes. I, however, was arrested in the morning on a public street during a dramatic police operation, even though I was still working as usual and my address was known to all the authorities.

They took me to the regiment and confronted me with Colonel Lapóstol, who ordered that I be investigated. Then, they took me aside, pushed me against a wall, and began to beat me in the testicles. At noon, they put me in a room where they kept me until night, when they transferred me to the jail incommunicado.

I was there in the minors' classroom for almost two weeks. At the end of September, they called me again from the regiment, took me to the place where the prosecutor's offices were, and after being interrogated by a Carabineros prosecutor, I was left in open communication in the jail.

I remained there quite calmly until Tuesday, October 16, when the Caravan of Death appeared, commanded by General Sergio Arellano Stark. The caravan arrived on the 16th around 11 in the morning aboard a Puma helicopter.

It was composed of Brigadier General Sergio Arellano Stark; Lieutenant Colonel Sergio Arredondo González; Major Pedro Espinoza Bravo; Captain Marcelo Morén Brito; Captain Emilio Robert de la Mahotiere González, pilot; Captain Luis Felipe Polanco, co-pilot; and Lieutenants Juan Viterbo Chiminelli Fullerton and Armando Fernández Larios.

Two soldiers from the Infantry School also descended from the aircraft. All were in combat gear and heavily armed. On the tarmac, Colonel Ariosto Lapóstol was waiting for them; he was surprised to see Marcelo Morén, his second-in-command at the Arica regiment, of whom he had known nothing since he left for Santiago to reinforce the military coup.

General Arellano informed Lapóstol of his status as a delegate officer of General Pinochet with the mission of reviewing the cases of political prisoners, and they went to the office of the military prosecutor, Major Carlos Casanga, to review the detainees' records.

Then, in Lapóstol's office, Arellano chose 15 detainees to be subjected to a court-martial. Morén Brito wrote the names in a separate notebook, while Lieutenant Emilio Cheyre observed. Lapóstol explained to Arellano that three of those selected – Roberto Guzmán, Manuel Marcarian, and Carlos Alcayaga – had already been subjected to a court-martial and were serving their sentences in the La Serena jail.

Arellano replied that the sentences were too light and that they should be subjected to a second court-martial. Lapóstol, who had presided over the previous court-martial, opposed it tenaciously, but finally, faced with Arellano's iron will, he left the regiment, remaining in the outer gardens.

About 20 minutes later, Arellano arrived where Lapóstol was to insist on the need to carry out the court-martial. At one point, Captain Mario Vargas Miqueles approached them, having just arrived from a mission in Vallenar, and requested permission from Arellano to report to his commander.

Immediately, Arellano and Lapóstol continued talking. Captain Vargas remained a few meters away. Suddenly, shots were heard. Lapóstol asked Captain Vargas to find out what was happening. He returned a few minutes later and reported that there were 15 people dead on the pistol shooting range.

At that very instant, isolated shots were heard again coming from the same direction. At the pistol range, located on the slope of the hill next to the regiment, near the band room, the 15 prisoners whom Lieutenant Marcelo Morén Brito had taken from the local jail shortly before were murdered by members of General Arellano's entourage in front of the regiment's officers.

Then, the same local officers were ordered to fire the tiros de gracia (mercy shots) using their service Staver pistols. At that moment, Captain Mario Vargas Miqueles arrived at the scene and refused to carry out the order.

The officers Emilio Cheyre, Jaime Ojeda Torrent, Hernán Valdebenito Bugman, Mario Larenas Carmona, Guillermo Raby Arancibia, Julio Lafourcade Jiménez, and military doctor Guido Díaz Pacci did comply. After five in the afternoon, Colonel Arredondo, in front of Lapóstol, reported to Arellano that everything was finished, and then the entourage left the regiment heading for the airport.

Lapóstol asked Arellano for the court-martial record that ordered the execution of the prisoners, but it was not given to him. The executed prisoners were the following:

• Roberto Guzmán Santa Cruz, lawyer, married, three children, legal advisor to the workers of the Compañía Minera Santa Fe. MIR militant.
• Carlos Enrique Alcayaga Varela, 38 years old, bricklayer. Regional secretary of the Central Única de Trabajadores (CUT) and governor of Vicuña. MAPU militant.
• Manuel Marcarían Jamett, 31 years old, farmer, Communist Party militant. He was arrested by Carabineros in Los Vilos, five days after the military coup.
• Jorge Peña Hen, 45 years old, director of the Music School of the local branch of the Universidad de Chile and director of the city's Children's Symphony Orchestra. Socialist Party militant.
• Mario Ramírez Sepúlveda, 44 years old, married, two daughters, academic at the Universidad de Chile, administrator of the state tire factory, Manesa, and regional secretary of the Socialist Party.
• Óscar Aedo Herrera, 23 years old, forestry technician, Communist Party militant. He was arrested by Carabineros in Salamanca on October 6, 1973.
• José Araya González, 23 years old, peasant, Communist Party militant. He was arrested in Salamanca on the eve of his homicide.
• Marcos Barrantes Alcayaga, 26 years old, supervisor at Manesa, Socialist Party militant. He was arrested at his workplace, five days after the military coup.
• Jorge Contreras Godoy, 31 years old, peasant, no political affiliation. Arrested by Carabineros in Salamanca.
• Hipólito Cortés Álvarez, 43 years old, municipal official, leader of the Construction Union, and Communist Party militant. Arrested by Carabineros in Ovalle.
• Óscar Cortés Cortés, 48 years old, peasant, Communist Party militant. He was arrested at his home in Ovalle by Carabineros.
• Víctor Escobar Astudillo, 22 years old, agricultural technician, official of the state-owned Empresa de Comercio Agrícola (ECA), and communal secretary of the Communist Party. He was arrested by Carabineros in Salamanca.
• Jorge Jordán Domic, 29 years old, doctor and Communist Party militant. After hearing his name on a military broadcast, he voluntarily presented himself at the Ovalle police station the day after the military coup.
• Jorge Osorio Zamora, 35 years old, university professor, official at Manesa, Socialist Party militant. He was arrested at his workplace, one week after the military coup, by Investigaciones officials.
• Gabriel Vergara Muñoz, 22 years old, peasant, MAPU militant. He was arrested on October 12, 1973, in Ovalle.

Colonel Lapóstol asked the military doctor to examine the bodies and issue death certificates. He then ordered the bodies to be taken to the local cemetery and placed in a mass grave. Afterward, he sent Lieutenant Cheyre to publish a statement in the newspaper El Día of La Serena on October 17, 1973, informing that the 15 prisoners died "executed in accordance with the provisions of the Military Courts in time of war." When the bodies were found and exhumed from the clandestine grave in the La Serena cemetery on November 11, 1998, in addition to multiple gunshot wounds to the body, all presented a bullet hole in the skull, directed from top to bottom. It was scientific proof that they had been finished off on the ground.

Armando Gatica continues his story

On October 19, they called me to the prosecutor's office, and upon arriving at the regiment, they made me go to the guard area, where soldiers arrived who blindfolded me, hooded me, and tied my hands behind my back.

There were other prisoners, and they took us to a hill where they hung us and began to beat us with feet, fists, and sticks on our buttocks. I lost consciousness. They took me down, and I couldn't sit, in addition to having my wrists shattered.

I was transferred again to the jail, to Colectivo 2, where I arrived in very bad condition. On Saturday the 20th, they transferred me again to the prosecutor's office, where they subjected me to the same duress, but in an open field.

They made me kneel on the ground and began hitting me with rifle butts on my back and chest. They asked me about people who had weapons. An officer told me that if I didn't answer, they would execute me in ten minutes.

Back to jail, and on Monday the 22nd, I returned to the prosecutor's office. They put me in a room where classical music could be heard. I was there for a long time until I felt a fierce blow to both ears, and someone told me that now I was going to talk.

They put me on a grill and began applying electricity to various parts of my body. The next day they continued at the regiment, where they made me run blindfolded until I crashed into various walls. I would fall, and they would lift me up with rifle butts.

They kept hitting me like that for several more days. They then initiated a process against the alleged clandestine hospitals, and on November 19, a significant number of officials from the National Health Service who worked in various departments of the Second Health Zone were summoned to the prosecutor's office.

They took us blindfolded and hooded to the regiment's hill and made us lie on the ground. Someone said: "Here you are again, Gatica. You won't survive this one!" They kicked me and broke four of my ribs.

Then they took us to a shed where they hung us and continued beating us while asking about the clandestine hospitals. They applied electricity to my nipples while throwing water on me. Then they pulled down my pants and applied electricity to my genitals.

Later, immobilized on the ground, they inserted electrodes into my anus and continued with the electricity until I lost consciousness. They threw me into a dungeon in the regiment and left me there all night.

The others were returned to the jail. In the early morning, I heard the shots with which they executed a common prisoner they called "El paco santón." In the jail, they thought it was me and notified my wife, who went to the regiment and spoke with Major Casanga and Lieutenant Cheyre.

The latter told her that my situation was very compromised because I was a communist. My wife spoke with Bishop Francisco Fresno, and he was surprised because Colonel Lapóstol had assured him that there was no torture in the regiment.

Fresno called Lapóstol, who received my wife and guaranteed that they would not torture me anymore. The process for the clandestine hospitals was taken over by the FACh. In the end, all those involved were released. None of it was true. (Taken from the book “La lista del Schindler chileno”; LOM Ediciones)

Source: interferencia.cl, November 10, 2018

Court confirms conviction against Cheyre as accessory to homicides of the ‘Caravan of Death’

The Santiago Court of Appeals convicted 10 retired military personnel this Friday for their responsibility in the consummated crimes of homicide of 15 people carried out on October 16, 1973, in the city of La Serena, in the context of the so-called "Caravan of Death." The victims are Óscar Gastón Aedo Herrera, Marcos Enrique Barrantes Alcayaga, Mario Alberto Ramírez Sepúlveda, Hipólito Pedro Cortés Álvarez, Jorge Abel Contreras Godoy, Roberto Guzmán Santa Cruz, Jorge Mario Jordán Domic, Gabriel Gonzalo Vergara Muñoz, Carlos Enrique Alcayaga Varela, Jorge Ovidio Osorio Zamora, José Eduardo Araya González, Óscar Armando Cortés Cortés, Manuel Jachadur Marcarian Jamett, Víctor Fernando Escobar Astudillo, and Jorge Washington Peña Hen. In this sense, in a unanimous ruling, the Sixth Chamber of the appellate court modified the base sentence, issued by Minister Mario Carroza, regarding the participation of the convicted Pedro Espinoza Bravo and Juan Chiminelli Fullerton, who must serve 10 years and one day in prison as co-perpetrators of the crimes. On the other hand, the Court confirmed the resolution in the part that convicted Víctor Hugo Alegre Rodríguez, Jaime Ojeda Torrent, and Emilio de la Mahotiere González to 5 years and one day in prison as accomplices to the crimes; and Hernán Valdebenito Bugmann, Guillermo Raby Arancibia, Juan Emilio Cheyre Espinoza, Mario Vargas Miguieles, and Luis Araos Flores to 3 years and one day, with the benefit of supervised release, as accessories. In the civil aspect, the sentence ordering the state to pay compensation of $80,000,000 to each spouse of the plaintiff victims, $70,000,000 to each child, and $40,000,000 to the siblings was confirmed. It should be remembered that Cheyre - former Commander-in-Chief of the Army - was recently prosecuted for the crime of embezzlement of public funds of around 130 million pesos, with the minister of the Court Martial, Romy Rutherford, ordering his entry into the Peñalolén military police battalion as a precautionary measure of preventive detention against him.

Source: lavozdelosquesobran.cl, October 8, 2022

Santiago Court convicts 10 former Army members for murders committed in La Serena by the “Caravan of Death”

The Santiago Court of Appeals convicted eight former officers and two former non-commissioned officers of the Army for their responsibility in the crimes of qualified homicide of 15 people, victims of the passage of the so-called "Caravan of Death" through the city of La Serena in 1973.

The group of criminals is composed of a former general and Commander-in-Chief of that institution, two former brigadiers, five former lieutenant colonels, in addition to the two non-commissioned officers.

In the episode, the uniformed entourage perpetrated the murders of Oscar Gastón Aedo Herrera, Marcos Enrique Barrantes Alcayaga, Mario Alberto Ramírez Sepúlveda, Hipólito Pedro Cortés Álvarez, Jorge Abel Contreras Godoy, Roberto Guzmán Santa Cruz, Jorge Mario Jordán Domic, Gabriel Gonzalo Vergara Muñoz, Carlos Enrique Alcayaga Varela, Jorge Ovidio Osorio Zamora, José Eduardo Araya González, Oscar Armando Cortés Cortés, Manuel Jachadur Marcarian Jamett, Víctor Fernando Escobar Astudillo, and Jorge Washington Peña Hen on October 16 of that year.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 4.599-2019), the Sixth Chamber of the appellate court - composed of Minister Antonio Ulloa and ministers Gloria Solís and Verónica Sabaj - modified the first-instance sentence on Friday, October 28, issued by Minister Mario Carroza in November 2018, regarding the participation of the convicted former Army officers Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo and Juan Viterbo Chiminelli Fullerton, who must serve 10 years and one day in prison as co-perpetrators of the crimes, instead of the 5 years as accomplices as Minister Carroza had classified them.

Another former officer and main accused, Ariosto Alberto Lapostol Orrego, who had been sentenced to 15 years in prison, passed away during the process, resulting in his dismissal. In addition, the court confirmed the criminal ruling in the part that sentenced former officers Jaime Manuel Ojeda Torrent and Emilio Robert de la Mahotiere González and former non-commissioned officer Víctor Hugo Alegre Rodríguez to the penalty of 5 years and one day in prison as accomplices to the crimes; and former officers Hernán Emilio Valdebenito Bugmann, Guillermo Oscar Raby Arancibia, Juan Emilio del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Cheyre Espinoza, Mario Hernando Vargas Miguieles, and former non-commissioned officer Luis Segundo Araos Flores to 3 years and one day, with the benefit of supervised release, as accessories. The helicopter of death In the judicial investigation, it was established that on October 16, 1973, the entourage led by former General Sergio Arellano Stark (deceased) arrived in the city of La Serena in an Army 'Puma' helicopter, with a group of military personnel including officers Sergio Carlos Arredondo González, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Emilio Robert de la Mahotiere González, Luis Felipe Polanco Gallardo, Juan Viterbo Chiminelli Fullerton, Marcelo Luis Manuel Moren Brito (deceased), and Hugo Héctor Leiva González. After getting off the aircraft, the aforementioned Arellano Stark held a meeting with the then-Commander of the No. 2 Artillery Regiment, "Arica" of La Serena, Ariosto Lapostol Orrego, and informed him of his mission entrusted by the tyrant Pinochet, consisting of the execution of selected people of the left who remained detained by the coup-plotting uniformed personnel in various places and different cities of the country. Next, Arellano Stark selected the detainees who were to be executed. By his order, 14 of the chosen victims were removed from the Public Jail of La Serena, transferred to the Regiment, and placed at the disposal of the aforementioned military authority. In parallel, another detainee was taken from the dungeons of the same Regiment and joined with the other prisoners, leading them to the shooting range of that military facility. Once at the range, the detainees were executed by means of shots fired by Army personnel. After the murders were committed, the Regiment's personnel proceeded to register the deaths of the victims without having performed the respective autopsies, nor recognition by their relatives. Immediately afterward, military personnel proceeded to transport the bodies of the executed to the local cemetery and buried them in a mass grave, in a hidden manner, for which the Regiment's authorities had previously made the pertinent arrangements with the administration of the Municipal Cemetery. Once the stage of disappearance of the victims' bodies was concluded, the Regiment's authorities, particularly the Zone Command exercised by Lapostol Orrego, published a Military Broadcast in the media informing the citizenry of the execution of fifteen extremists in compliance with what was resolved by Military Courts in Times of War, a matter that never happened since the execution occurred without a prior trial, based solely on the circumstance of their ideology. In 1998, the Legal Medical Service found human remains in the Municipal Cemetery of La Serena, so it carried out expert reports and recognition proceedings, managing to identify the 15 victims executed by firing squad on October 16, 1973, verifying that all of them presented multiple projectile impacts in different parts of their bodies. by Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl, November 4, 2022

Caravan of Death: Cheyre and 8 other military personnel convicted for 15 executions in La Serena

Juan Emilio Cheyre, former Commander-in-Chief of the Army, learned of his conviction for his participation in the so-called Caravan of Death, which occurred in the first months of the military dictatorship.

Check out more details here. During this Thursday afternoon, the Supreme Court issued its final ruling on the Caravan of Death case, which involved General (R) Juan Emilio Cheyre, Commander-in-Chief of the Army between 2002 and 2006.

In addition, the highest court increased the sentences that 8 retired military personnel will have to serve for their responsibility in the crimes of the aforementioned case. Juan Emilio Cheyre was sentenced, as an accomplice, to 5 years of minor prison for the murder of 15 people opposed to the military regime on October 16, 1973, in La Serena.

In addition, he received the benefit of supervised release, also as an accomplice. Let us remember that he was previously considered only as an accessory. What does the sentence say about the rest of the defendants?

The Second Chamber of the highest court sentenced Pedro Espinoza Bravo and Juan Chiminelli Fullerton to 15 years and one day in prison, as perpetrators of the 15 qualified homicides. While on the other hand, Víctor Hugo Alegre Rodríguez, Jaime Ojeda Torrent, and Emilio de la Mahotiere González must serve 10 years and one day in prison, as accomplices to the 15 crimes.

In addition, Hernán Valdebenito Buggman, Guillermo Raby Arancibia, and Luis Araos Flores were sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison as accessories. What does the Supreme Court ruling say? In the ruling, the highest court stated that “the meeting between the Entourage and a part of the personnel of the No. 2 Arica Artillery Regiment of La Serena corresponds to a moment prior to the crimes committed, and in it, the statistical records of those whose processes were sought to be accelerated were reviewed, and in their case, to immediately proceed to execute them.” “Such a task was typical of those who made up the most select circle of the Military Unit that was visited by the Entourage (...) its main participants were, among others, Sergio Arellano Stark, Marcelo Moren Brito, Ariosto Lapostol Orrego, Manuel Cazanga Pereira, and, in addition, the one who was the aide to the first command of the Regiment, the sentenced Juan Emilio Cheyre Espinoza,” they added in the ruling.

Source: eldesconcierto.cl, December 28, 2023