On Tuesday, November 20, 1973, the city of San Fernando awoke with the apparent tranquility of those sunny provincial days, where everything seemed normal, but it was not. The jail was already crowded with political prisoners.

Like every workday, the teacher Justino Vásquez Muñoz got up at the break of dawn to take the 7:30 a.m. railcar, traveling about seven kilometers to reach the public school in Polonia where he taught. He balanced his teaching work with politics: he was a councilman for San Fernando elected by the Socialist Party; provincial secretary of the Central Unica de Trabajadores; and had been the regional secretary of the PS during the tumultuous months when President Allende required the support of the UP parties more than ever—parties that, by that point, were already irremediably divided into two irreconcilable strategic options.

That same morning at the

Infantería de Montaña Nº19 “Colchagua” (19th Mountain Infantry Regiment) in San Fernando, Captain Ricardo Manríquez Pearson had been alternating his duties since very early in the morning between the Sección II de Inteligencia del Ejército (Army Intelligence Section II) in the area and his position as the new head of the Policía Civil de Investigaciones (Civil Investigative Police) barracks in the city.

The Army had intervened in that institution and installed Captain Manríquez there to direct the repression and order the arrests of those considered dangerous or subversive.

That day, Professor Vásquez did not arrive at the school in Polonia and disappeared forever. The Investigaciones de San Fernando official Carlos Yánez Campos told the wife of teacher Vásquez , Tania González, that same morning that the arrest order had been issued by Captain Manríquez .

He explained to her that on that day, November 20, he had the order to arrest him to take him “to the Servicio de Inteligencia Militar (Military Intelligence Service) at 11:00 a.m. The SIM is in charge of Captain Manríquez Pearson ,” he informed the wife.

But Yánez apologized to her, telling her that when they arrived at the house that morning, her husband was already gone, and they did not manage to arrest him at the train station before he boarded the train. He told her they never found him again.

Captain Manríquez

, who has been retired from the Army for years, is today an official of the Chilean Foreign Ministry, a “career” diplomat as he defines himself, and is currently the Consul General of Chile in Honduras, based in the capital, Tegucigalpa.

His position is confirmed on the Foreign Ministry’s website. In a photograph from November 20, 2003, published in the Tegucigalpa newspaper El Heraldo, which accompanies this chronicle, Captain (R) Manríquez appears posing next to the new Chilean ambassador to Honduras, the former intendant and governor Silvia Correa (DC).

Ordered arrests A few days ago, Captain (R) Manríquez had to travel to Chile to testify for the second time before Judge Sofía Adaros Riveros of the First Court of Letters of San Fernando, where the lawsuit for kidnapping and disappearance filed in 1979 by the former councilman’s wife is being investigated.

In the proceedings, several civil police officials identified Captain Manríquez as being in charge of ordering arrests in the city and nearby areas at that time, which Manríquez himself did not hide from Judge Adaros. “Within my military duties, I was in charge of Intelligence Section II (...) A few days after September 11, 1973, it could have been September 15, I received the order from the Garrison Commander to take charge of the Comisaría de la Policía de Investigaciones de San Fernando (...) Regarding the person I am being asked about, named Luis Justino Vásquez Muñoz , I must state that I do not remember any circumstances linked to this person. But it is possible that in the fulfillment of my duties as head of Investigaciones, I signed an executive order for Investigaciones personnel to arrest the aforementioned person (...) During my tenure, I signed a considerable number of such orders,” the captain-consul admitted to the magistrate.

Figures According to consolidated information from the Documentation and Archive Foundation of the Vicariate of Solidarity, based on the Rettig Report and its supplement, Justino Vásquez appears, until now, as the only forcibly disappeared person from the VI Region, but nine political executions are recorded.

“Captain Manríquez sent me to be tortured” But beyond the dozens of Policía Civil officials who admitted in the proceedings that they worked under the orders of Captain Manríquez —among them, in addition to Carlos Yánez , Mario Ubilla Muñoz ; Sub-commissioner (R) Muñoz Cartes ; José Valladares Salazar ; and Commissioner Plutarco Garrido , who added in his statement that “ Manríquez was in charge of anti-subversive matters”—it is the Army Sub-officer (R) Francisco Marín González , who worked under the command of Manríquez in Intelligence Section II in San Fernando , who provides the clearest description of his captain.

The sub-officer (R) told the judge that “I found out about the Vásquez matter when, at the guard post, police officer Yánez and another informed Captain Manríquez Pearson that they could not find him to arrest him.” However, there are witnesses who saw “four individuals in civilian clothes” that morning who “intercepted Professor Vásquez and forced him into a white car.”

The sub-officer (R) adds: “My captain Manríquez was violent, he was an expert karateka. When Castro Souriten (another officer) arrived, he set limits for my captain.”

The former prisoner in San Fernando, José Madariaga Céspedes, is more direct: in his book “ Tal como soy ” (As I Am), he accuses Captain Manríquez of ordering that he be tortured after speaking with him while he was detained.

The former San Fernando detainee Pedro Videla Hormazábal testified in the trial that the carabineer from that city, Carlos Becerra Herrera , told him one day that Professor Vásquez “was thrown into the sea in Pichilemu.”

Having reviewed the Armed Forces’ report on the fate of 200 forcibly disappeared persons resulting from the Human Rights Dialogue Table, although Professor Vásquez does not appear among the 151 detainees thrown into the sea, 17 are listed as having been thrown into the “Pichilemu sea.”

Source: La Nación, April 12, 2004

Retired Army officer sentenced for death of radio announcer in San Fernando in 1973

The minister visiting for human rights cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Mario Carroza Espinosa, sentenced a retired Army officer for his responsibility in the homicide of radio announcer Archibaldo Morales Villanueva, which occurred in October 1973 after he was subjected to torture at the “Colchagua” regiment in San Fernando.

The magistrate sentenced retired Army Brigadier Eduardo Arriagada Rehren to 7 years in prison for his responsibility in the homicide of the man, who was also the owner of a local newspaper and was arrested in Santiago in September 1973 and taken to San Fernando, a city where he remained detained in incommunicado status while being tortured.

Minister Carroza Espinosa acquitted the retired members of the Chilean Investigative Police, Hernán Guzmán Allende and José Valladares Salazar.

Minister Carroza’s investigation established that:

“That subsequent to September 11, 1973, Department II, which acted as the Intelligence Unit in the 19th “Colchagua” Regiment of the city of San Fernando, established a planned, organized, and hierarchical work system intended to identify, arrest, and physically and morally destroy persons considered to be of high political connotation, participants and/or sympathizers of the deposed Government of Salvador Allende Gossens;

This Department II only reported daily on its activities to Colonel Hernán Brantes Martínez, who was in command of the 19th “Colchagua” Regiment and is currently deceased, who, in order to achieve the proposed ends, decided to intervene in the Investigaciones barracks and hand over command to Army Captain Manríquez Pearson, also deceased, who would ultimately be the one to use the material and human resources of said police force to collaborate in the arrests and interrogations, applying the rules of a state of war to civilians, and for this purpose, the Regiment’s facilities were enabled as a place of confinement and interrogation, along with the units of the Public Jail and the Investigaciones Barracks, from where prisoners were taken into the presence of the Judicial Prosecutor of the time.

That being the case, on September 26, 1973, Archibaldo Morales Villanueva, an announcer for Radio San Fernando, was arrested along with his friend Eva Valiente Espinoza at her home, located at Calle Curicó N° 33, second floor, apartment A, in the city of Santiago, by the Mobile Prefecture of Special Services of the Investigative Police, following an order issued by the then Army Captain Ricardo David Manríquez Pearson, the intervening officer and person in charge of the San Fernando Investigative Police Barracks, who answered to the command of Colonel Brantes.

That both detainees remained in Santiago at the Investigaciones Barracks until they were transferred to the city of San Fernando on September 29 of the same year, at which time they entered the guard post of said VI Region barracks at around 1:00 p.m.

The detainee Archibaldo Morales, known in the area as “Chito Morales,” once interrogated, was transferred to the Public Jail of San Fernando, where he remained incommunicado for about 43 days, suffering in the meantime duress, torture, and interrogations at the Military Prosecutor’s Office, which for those purposes had been established at the 19th “Colchagua” Regiment, under the charge of Military Prosecutor Juan Ramírez Rojas.

One day in the month of October, around noon, a group of detainees was waiting to be interrogated by Prosecutor Ramírez, and Archibaldo Morales was being held at the Regiment’s guard post, with clear signs of having been tortured.

When he tried to join the line of detainees to be interrogated, he fainted and had to be taken to the military facility’s infirmary, where he was attended to by the Regiment’s doctor, the Health Officer and member of the Army Intelligence Corps (CIE), Dr.

Eduardo Adolfo Arriagada Rehren, who, after examining him, made the decision to inject him intravenously with a medication composed of dipyridamole, with the purpose of provoking a reaction to the myocardial infarction he was feeling.

However, Morales Villanueva’s condition worsened as a result of that drug, and he died moments later while being transported to the San Fernando Hospital, just as was maintained in the forensic medical report, that is:

“Considering the result of the toxicological examination that established the presence of barbiturates and persantin (dipyridamole) in the bone samples of Archibaldo Morales Villanueva, the participation of third parties in the events that determined the victim’s death cannot be ruled out, since the affected party was inside a penitentiary facility for at least 43 days prior to his death.

That the death of Archibaldo Morales Villanueva occurred while he was in the status of a detainee and under the custody of State agents, so his death corresponds to be classified—from a forensic medical point of view—as a death in custody.” The death certificate indicates the cause of death as Cardiac Arrest and Myocardial Infarction on November 12, 1973, at 1:10 p.m.”

In the civil aspect, the convicted person and the State Treasury were sentenced to pay a total compensation of $192,000,000 (one hundred and ninety-two million pesos) to the victims’ family members.

Source: elrancaguino.cl, September 23, 2019

Santiago Court confirms conviction for torture at PDI barracks in San Fernando in 1974

The Eighth Chamber of the appellate court—composed of ministers Mario Rojas, Rafael Andrade, and the acting lawyer Jorge Benítez—confirmed the sentence that convicted former detective José Eduardo Valladares Salazar to 3 years in prison, with the benefit of conditional remission of the sentence.

The Santiago Court of Appeals confirmed the sentence that convicted a former official of the Investigative Police and a retired Army second sergeant for their responsibility in the crime of applying torture to 26 detainees at a police barracks in San Fernando in July 1974.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 3.115-2019), the Eighth Chamber of the appellate court—composed of ministers Mario Rojas, Rafael Andrade, and the acting lawyer Jorge Benítez—confirmed the sentence that convicted former detective José Eduardo Valladares Salazar to 3 years in prison, with the benefit of conditional remission of the sentence, suspension of public offices and duties during the time of the sentence, and payment of court costs, as the perpetrator of the crimes of applying torture to the detainees Teodoro Ricardo Valdés Ramírez, Manuel Guillermo Muñoz Fernández, Jorge Arturo Cornejo Zúñiga, Juan Efraín Segundo Cornejo Navarro, Guillermo Alberto Toro Arancibia, Pedro Nolberto Campos Carrasco, Bernardo Antonio Rebolledo Silva, Romualdo Ernesto Pino Bava, José Patricio Daza Caro, Claudio Enrique Guajardo Carrizo, María Angélica Moya Arriagada, José Luis Contreras Moreno, Arnaldo Ibor Contreras Moreno, Archivaldo Alejandro Morales Flores, Francisco Osvaldo González Allende, Sergio René Aguilar Valenzuela, Victorino Humberto Bozo Pérez, Juan Gabriel Llanos Mella, Héctor Fernando Bozo, Ernesto Enrique Bustos Lizama, Iris Elena Martínez González, and Patricio Eduardo Díaz Menares.

Meanwhile, the Army second sergeant at the time of the events, Víctor Budiony del Carmen Barrera Faune, was sentenced to 2 years in prison, with the benefit of conditional remission of the sentence, suspension of public offices and duties during the time of the sentence, and payment of court costs, as the perpetrator of the crimes of applying torture to the victims Teodoro Ricardo Valdés Ramírez, Juan Efraín Segundo Cornejo Navarro, Bernardo Antonio Rebolledo Silva, María Angélica Moya Arriagada, Archivaldo Alejandro Morales Flores, Sergio René Aguilar Valenzuela, Juan Gabriel Llanos Mella, and Patricio Eduardo Díaz Menares.

Likewise, the acquittal of Lautaro Salvador Silva Ramos and Carlos Romelio Yáñez Campos was ratified.

“Because we share in their entirety the foundations of the sentence under appeal and because the arguments put forward by the appellants do not succeed in undermining what was resolved in relation to the matters reproached therein, having, in addition, taken into consideration what was stated by the Judicial Prosecutor in his report on page 2199, the sentence is confirmed in what was appealed and approved in what was consulted, the final judgment dated April 12, 2019, written on page 2050 and following, issued by the visiting minister Mr.

Mario Carroza Espinosa,” the ruling states.

In the ratified ruling, the visiting minister managed to establish the following facts:

“1.- That starting on September 11, 1973, a State of Siege was declared throughout the territory of the Republic of Chile and, likewise, a State of Emergency in the provinces and departments of the country, and in this case, an Army Colonel and Commander of the 19th Colchagua Regiment, located in the city of San Fernando, was designated as Head of the Province of Colchagua;

2.- That in the days following the institutional breakdown, between September 12 and 13, 1973, the then Army Captain Ricardo David Marcelo Manríquez Pearson (who died on April 2, 2008), intervened in the San Fernando Investigaciones Barracks and organized an Information Office intended to identify, arrest, and interrogate under torture persons with political affinities to the deposed Government of the Unidad Popular, thereby remaining in charge of all Investigaciones personnel and dividing the Barracks into two main units: the judicial unit and the information or intelligence unit;

3.- That the aforementioned Captain Manríquez Pearson, in his capacity as Head of the Provincial Intelligence Committee, installed and organized an intelligence service in said Barracks, made up of his assistant, Second Sergeant Francisco Ramón Marín González (currently deceased), and Second Sergeant Víctor Budiony del Carmen Barrera Faune, who coordinated with the Investigaciones official José Eduardo Valladares Salazar and had the cooperation of the entire staff of the Judicial Police Station;

4.- That among the activities and operations carried out, there is the one that began on July 14, 1974, where 35 people were arrested, including teachers, workers, and high school students—the latter being minors—who were identified as Teodoro Ricardo Valdés Ramírez, Héctor Hernán Flores Donoso, Manuel Guillermo Muñoz Fernández, Jorge Arturo Cornejo Zúñiga, Juan Efraín Segundo Cornejo Navarro, Guillermo Alberto Toro Arancibia, Pedro Nolberto Campos Carrasco, Bernardo Antonio Rebolledo Silva, Romualdo Ernesto Pino Bava, José Patricio Daza Caro, Claudio Enrique Guajardo Carrizo, María Angélica Moya Arriagada, José Luis Contreras Moreno, Arnaldo Ibor Contreras Moreno, Archivaldo Alejandro Morales Flores, Francisco Osvaldo González Allende, Sergio René Aguilar Valenzuela, Victorino Humberto Bozzo Pérez, Juan Gabriel Llanos Mella, Héctor Fernando Bozzo Bozzo, Jaime Raúl Osorio Gálvez, Ernesto Enrique Bustos Lizama, Víctor Manuel Huerta Arriagada, Iris Elena Martínez González, Patricio Eduardo Díaz Menares, and Marcelo Eugenio Muñoz Gutiérrez;

5.- That once arrested, either immediately or the following day, they were transferred to the San Fernando Investigaciones Barracks, where they were kept isolated and incommunicado for prolonged periods, crowded into small cells, with scarce food and liquids, without normal access to sanitary facilities, and subjected in most cases to intense and repeated interrogations under psychological and physical coercion; during these sessions, they were kept blindfolded, subjected to permanent threats, punches, and the application of electric shocks to the most sensitive parts of the body, receiving in this way degrading and inhumane treatment;

6.- That following their time at the San Fernando Investigaciones Police Station, the detainees were sent incommunicado to the Public Jail of that same city, where for the space of a month they continued in overcrowding and incommunicado status, since it was only on September 6, 1974, that they were transferred to the Rancagua Jail, and from there on several occasions on foot and in shackles to provide testimony to the Court of Appeals of that city, a Tribunal that finally assumed jurisdiction of the case under the State Internal Security Law and issued a conviction for its infringement, setting them free.”

In the civil aspect, the sentence that ordered the State Treasury and the convicted persons to pay a total compensation of $300,000,000 (three hundred million pesos) for moral damages to the plaintiffs was ratified.

Source: radio.uchile.cl, March 1, 2021

Court confirms conviction against former PDI official and retired Army sergeant for torture at police barracks in 1974

The court confirmed the sentence that convicted former detective José Valladares to three years in prison, while retired Army second sergeant Víctor Barrera was sentenced to two years in prison for the events that occurred in San Fernando.

This Monday, the Santiago Court of Appeals confirmed the sentence that convicted a former PDI official and a retired Army second sergeant for their responsibility in the crime of applying torture to 26 detainees at a police barracks in San Fernando in July 1974.

In a unanimous ruling, the Eighth Chamber of the appellate court confirmed the sentence that convicted former detective José Eduardo Valladares Salazar to three years in prison, with the benefit of conditional remission of the sentence, suspension of public offices and duties during the time of the sentence, and payment of court costs, as the perpetrator of the crimes of applying torture.

Meanwhile, the Army second sergeant at the time of the events, Víctor Budiony del Carmen Barrera Faune, was sentenced to two years in prison, with the benefit of conditional remission of the sentence, suspension of public offices and duties during the time of the sentence, and payment of court costs, also as the perpetrator of the crimes of applying torture.

Likewise, the acquittal of Lautaro Salvador Silva Ramos and Carlos Romelio Yáñez Campos was ratified.

The ruling states that “because we share in their entirety the foundations of the sentence under appeal and because the arguments put forward by the appellants do not succeed in undermining what was resolved in relation to the matters reproached therein, having, in addition, taken into consideration what was stated by the Judicial Prosecutor in his report on page 2199, the sentence is confirmed in what was appealed and approved in what was consulted, the final judgment dated April 12, 2019, written on page 2050 and following, issued by the visiting minister Mr.

Mario Carroza Espinosa.” It should be noted that Minister Mario Carroza managed to establish in the ruling the following facts related to the case:

1. That starting on September 11, 1973, a State of Siege was declared throughout the territory of the Republic of Chile and, likewise, a State of Emergency in the provinces and departments of the country, and in this case, an Army Colonel and Commander of the 19th Colchagua Regiment, located in the city of San Fernando, was designated as Head of the Province of Colchagua.

2. That in the days following the institutional breakdown, between September 12 and 13, 1973, the then Army Captain Ricardo David Marcelo Manríquez Pearson (who died on April 2, 2008), intervened in the San Fernando Investigaciones Barracks and organized an Information Office intended to identify, arrest, and interrogate under torture persons with political affinities to the deposed Government of the Unidad Popular, thereby remaining in charge of all Investigaciones personnel and dividing the Barracks into two main units: the judicial unit and the information or intelligence unit.

3. That the aforementioned Captain Manríquez Pearson, in his capacity as Head of the Provincial Intelligence Committee, installed and organized an intelligence service in said Barracks, made up of his assistant, Second Sergeant Francisco Ramón Marín González (currently deceased), and Second Sergeant Víctor Budiony del Carmen Barrera Faune, who coordinated with the Investigaciones official José Eduardo Valladares Salazar and had the cooperation of the entire staff of the Judicial Police Station.

4. That among the activities and operations carried out, there is the one that began on July 14, 1974, where 35 people were arrested, including teachers, workers, and high school students—the latter being minors—who were identified as Teodoro Ricardo Valdés Ramírez, Héctor Hernán Flores Donoso, Manuel Guillermo Muñoz Fernández, Jorge Arturo Cornejo Zúñiga, Juan Efraín Segundo Cornejo Navarro, Guillermo Alberto Toro Arancibia, Pedro Nolberto Campos Carrasco, Bernardo Antonio Rebolledo Silva, Romualdo Ernesto Pino Bava, José Patricio Daza Caro, Claudio Enrique Guajardo Carrizo, María Angélica Moya Arriagada, José Luis Contreras Moreno, Arnaldo Ibor Contreras Moreno, Archivaldo Alejandro Morales Flores, Francisco Osvaldo González Allende, Sergio René Aguilar Valenzuela, Victorino Humberto Bozzo Pérez, Juan Gabriel Llanos Mella, Héctor Fernando Bozzo Bozzo, Jaime Raúl Osorio Gálvez, Ernesto Enrique Bustos Lizama, Víctor Manuel Huerta Arriagada, Iris Elena Martínez González, Patricio Eduardo Díaz Menares, and Marcelo Eugenio Muñoz Gutiérrez.

5. That once arrested, either immediately or the following day, they were transferred to the San Fernando Investigaciones Barracks, where they were kept isolated and incommunicado for prolonged periods, crowded into small cells, with scarce food and liquids, without normal access to sanitary facilities, and subjected in most cases to intense and repeated interrogations under psychological and physical coercion; during these sessions, they were kept blindfolded, subjected to permanent threats, punches, and the application of electric shocks to the most sensitive parts of the body, receiving in this way degrading and inhumane treatment.

6. That following their time at the San Fernando Investigaciones Police Station, the detainees were sent incommunicado to the Public Jail of that same city, where for the space of a month they continued in overcrowding and incommunicado status, since it was only on September 6, 1974, that they were transferred to the Rancagua Jail, and from there on several occasions on foot and in shackles to provide testimony to the Court of Appeals of that city, a Tribunal that finally assumed jurisdiction of the case under the State Internal Security Law and issued a conviction for its infringement, setting them free.

Source: theclinic.cl, March 1, 2021