D.O.B.: 11 10 54, 18 years old at the time of detention Address: Caupolicán 1855, Villarrica Marital Status: Single Occupation: Student Political Affiliation: Militant of the Socialist Youth Date of Detention: September 13, 1973

Name: HUGO ARNER GONZALEZ ORTEGA ID: No information D.O.B.: 06 06 50, 23 years old at the time of detention Address: Gerónimo de Alderete 1059, Villarrica Marital Status: Single Occupation: Head of Roads and Works for the Municipality of Villarrica Political Affiliation: Militant of the Socialist Party, local P.S. Secretary in Villarrica Date of Detention: September 13, 1973

Name: ELIAS DAGOBERTO GONZALEZ ORTEGA ID: No information D.O.B.: 28 12 48, 24 years old at the time of detention Address: Gerónimo de Alderete 1059, Villarrica Marital Status: Single Occupation: Head of Warehouses for the Banco del Estado Resort in Villarrica Political Affiliation: Militant of the Socialist Party. Propaganda Officer for Villarrica Date of Detention: September 13, 1973

Name: JUAN DE DIOS CABRERA FIGUEROA ID: No information D.O.B.: 27 10 53; 20 years old at the time of detention Address: Villarrica Marital Status: Single Occupation: Student Political Affiliation: Militant of the Socialist Youth Date of Detention: September 13, 1973

Name: JUAN CARLOS SCHMIDT ARRIAGADA ID: No information D.O.B.: 24 10 1951, 21 years old at the time of detention Address: Villarrica Marital Status: Married, no children Occupation: Employee of the Housing Corporation (CORVI) Political Affiliation: Militant of the Socialist Party Date of Detention: September 13, 1973

Name: RICARDO AUGUSTO SCHMIDT ARRIAGADA ID: No information D.O.B.: 18 10 1954, 18 years old at the time of detention Address: Villarrica Marital Status: Single Occupation: Student Political Affiliation: Militant of the Socialist Party Date of Detention: September 13, 1973

Name: HECTOR DOMINGO AGUAYO OLAVARRIA ID: No information D.O.B.: 10 06 56, 17 years old at the time of detention Address: Pedro Montt 967, Villarrica Marital Status: Single Occupation: Student Political Affiliation: Militant of the Socialist Youth Date of Detention: September 13, 1973

Hugo Arner González Ortega, 23, his brother Elías Dagoberto González Ortega, 24, the brothers Juan Carlos and Ricardo Schmidt Arriagada, 21 and 20 years old respectively, Juan de Dios Cabrera Figueroa, 20, Alejandro Escobar Vásquez, 18, and Héctor Domingo Aguayo Olavarría, 17, all militants of the Socialist Party, have been forcibly disappeared since September 13, 1973, after their homes in the city of Villarrica were raided by Carabineros personnel, leading them to decide to cross the border through a mountain pass in the Curarrehue sector.

Some time later, Investigations personnel appeared at the home of the Schmidt Arriagada brothers and informed their relatives that the young men had been detained.

Information obtained by Héctor Aguayo's family indicates that the group of young men was detained in the area of the Río Turbio bridge, eight kilometers toward Pichares, while they were attempting to cross on foot into Argentina.

The apprehension was reportedly carried out by Carabineros personnel traveling in a private pickup truck owned by a resident of the city of Pucón. Initially, the detainees were taken to the Pucón police station, subsequently to Villarrica, and from there sent to the Tucapel Regiment in Temuco, from where they disappeared. Unofficial versions indicate that they were executed at that location.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

The victims' families conducted inquiries in the area in search of them, without any positive result.

On August 24, 1990, the family of Alejandro Escobar Vásquez filed a complaint for alleged disappearance before the Villarrica Court of Letters, registered under No. 28451. On August 27, the Judge of Villarrica declared himself incompetent, referring the case files to the Pucón Court of Letters for its cognizance and processing.

The declination of jurisdiction was accepted by the Criminal Judge of Pucón, who ordered a broad investigation and issued an official letter to the Cautín Carabineros Prefecture requesting a list of the personnel serving in the Pucón, Curarrehue, and Villarrica units between September and December 1973. The case was registered under No. 2.596.

The Carabineros stations contacted responded that they had no records regarding Alejandro Escobar Vásquez and stated that the Daily Logs or Guard Books have a "validity period of between 3 or 4 months," after which they are kept in the archives of each unit for one year, and subsequently incinerated.

The investigating judge, not having been informed by the corresponding police units of their staffing at the time of the events, requested from the General Director of Carabineros the list of personnel serving in the Curarrehue, Pucón, and Catripulli units as of September 1973.

On April 11, 1991, General Director of Carabineros Rodolfo Stange Oelckers responded in Official Letter No. 229, stating "that it is not possible to grant the request by virtue of the fact that the required information is classified as 'secret' in accordance with Article 436 No. 1 of the Code of Military Justice."

On July 23, 1991, the court ordered an official letter to be sent to the Commander-in-Chief of the Army requesting the list of officers and non-commissioned officers serving in the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, given that there are "facts that lead to the presumption that Army personnel from the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco had intervention in or at least knowledge of the detention in 1973 of several residents of this jurisdiction and nearby areas, some of whom have not been found to date, and with the object of attempting to establish the definitive fate of said citizens."

In August 1991, in a classified Official Letter, the Chief of the Army General Staff, Rodrigo Sánchez Casillas, responded that in his opinion the requested information falls under the final paragraph of Article 144 of the Code of Military Justice, for which reason, as they are "secret documents that could affect the security of national defense in general and the institution in particular, it is not possible to grant the request."

On August 30, 1991, the investigating judge declared the summary closed and temporarily dismissed the case "until new or better investigative data are presented."

On September 26, 1991, the Temuco Court of Appeals approved the aforementioned resolution upon consultation.

For its part, the family of Héctor Domingo Aguayo Olavarría filed a complaint for alleged disappearance on January 21, 1991, before the Pucón Court of Letters, registered under No. 2726, which was still in process at the time of this report.

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity

Testimonies, photographs, letters, and other documents that families and friends provided or wrote specifically for publication are incorporated into the book "Breaking the silence of children and adolescents who were political executions during the civil-military dictatorship 1973-1990," which was produced by the Association of Relatives of Political Executions (AFEP) with the support of the Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage, through the Culture, Memory, and Human Rights Unit, and the Human Rights Chair of the University of Chile.

The publication, based mainly on the Report of the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation (1991) and the Report of the National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation (1996), seeks to reconstruct in a comprehensive and careful manner each of the lives and stories of the victims.

During the investigation, access was granted to the archive of the Association of Relatives of Political Executions, where documents that families have preserved over the years are kept. Illustrations by Álvaro Gómez were also included.

The creation process was a complex challenge that involved combining delicacy, respect, and methodological rigor to state a painful and inescapable truth in this work.

Source: cultura.gobierno.cl, April 20, 2023

Date: 04-20-2023

Minister Álvaro Mesa issues indictment against (retired) State agents for kidnapping with serious injury and illegal detention in Pucón

The extraordinary visiting minister Álvaro Mesa Latorre issued indictment No. 84 and filed charges against Óscar Alfonso Ernesto Podlech Michaud, Pedro Guillermo Manuel Tichauer Salcedo, Raimundo Ignacio García Covarrubias, and Romilio Osvaldo Lavín Muñoz, for their responsibility as accomplices in the crime against humanity of kidnapping with serious injury of 8 young men.

The extraordinary visiting minister for human rights violation cases in the jurisdictions of Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Coyhaique, Álvaro Claudio Mesa Latorre, issued indictment No. 84 in the cases he is processing and filed charges against the military prosecutor at the time of the events, Óscar Alfonso Ernesto Podlech Michaud, and retired Army officers Pedro Guillermo Manuel Tichauer Salcedo, Raimundo Ignacio García Covarrubias, and Romilio Osvaldo Lavín Muñoz, for their responsibility as accomplices in the crime against humanity of kidnapping with serious injury of Hugo Arner González Ortega, Elías Dagoberto González Ortega, Carlos Schmidt Arriagada, Ricardo Schmidt Arriagada, Juan de Dios Cabrera Figueroa, Alejandro Escobar Vásquez, Héctor Domingo Aguayo Olavarría, and Raúl Marcial Figueroa Burckhardt. These crimes were perpetrated between the end of September and the beginning of October 1973, in the commune of Pucón.

In the resolution (case file 4.473), Minister Mesa Latorre identified retired Carabineros officer Luis Robinson Bustos Letelier as the perpetrator of the crime of illegal detention of the González Ortega brothers, the Schmidt Arriagada brothers, Cabrera Figueroa, Escobar Vásquez, Aguayo Olavarría, and Figueroa Burckhardt.

The facts

In the investigative stage of the case, the visiting minister managed to gather sufficient evidence to establish the following facts:

"A.-

That immediately after the military coup of September 11, 1973, the new authorities of the country ordered the systematic persecution and detention of militants and sympathizers of the Unidad Popular parties, especially those who held positions in the deposed public administration, as evidenced, among other proofs, in the statements of Luis Robinson Bustos Letelier, from fs. 413 to fs. 414 vta. (volume II); of Ricardo Virginio Aguayo Olavarría, from fs. 2.055 to fs. 2057 (volume VI) and from fs. 2.061 to fs. 2.062 (volume VI); and military decrees published in the press of the time, from fs. 2.979 to fs. 2.998 (volume IX).

B.-

That in Temuco, the armed forces and order forces took control of the city, with Colonel Pablo Iturriaga Marchesse (deceased, as stated on fs. 3.898 volume XI), Commander of Infantry Regiment No. 8 'Tucapel' of this city, establishing himself as Governor of Temuco, who also remained as Chief of the Temuco Garrison, as evidenced, for example, in the statement of Óscar Alfonso Podlech Michaud, from fs. 3.788 to fs. 3.796 (volume XI).

C.-

That in this sense, on the same day, September 11, 1973, the lawyer Óscar Alfonso Ernesto Podlech Michaud was called to collaborate with the new regime. He was also a Reserve Lieutenant of the Chilean Army, who presented himself at the 'Tucapel' Regiment to support the management of the Military Prosecutor's Office that operated inside the unit, and which was in charge of the Second Commander, Major Luis Jofré Soto (deceased, as stated on fs. 3.899 volume XI).

This officer, however, had to assume greater functions as Second Commander of the Tucapel Regiment shortly thereafter; from that day forward, civilians began to arrive at the Regiment who were called to appear before the Military Prosecutor's Office through decrees published in the written press and on the radio, or who were brought in as detainees by patrols of Carabineros and/or military personnel from different points in the region, mainly from police stations and outposts, as evidenced, among other proofs, in the military decrees published in the press of the time (…).

D.-

That given the high number of detainees and people called to provide statements, the Military Prosecutor's Office was reinforced to carry out its work with officials of the Judiciary who were requested from the Illustrious Court of Appeals of Temuco by the aforementioned lawyer, who, acting as Ad-hoc Prosecutor, made a presentation to the Plenary of the Appellate Court, after which some clerks from different courts and a Rapporteur of the Court were assigned on special service, as evidenced in the statement of Adrián Segundo González Maldonado, from fs. 70 vta. to fs. 71 (volume I); and a copy of the minutes of the Plenary of the Illustrious Court of Appeals of Temuco, from fs. 3.786 to fs. 3.787 (volume XI), among other proofs.

E.-

That due to the lack of knowledge in criminal procedural matters, added to the weak character he possessed and his work as Second Commander of the Regiment, Major Luis Jofré Soto delegated functions as Military Prosecutor to the legal advisor of the Prosecutor's Office, Mr.

Óscar Alfonso Ernesto Podlech Michaud, who began to hold the position of de facto Prosecutor, to the point that he conducted jail visits and lawyers, relatives, and even ecclesiastical dignitaries consulted him regarding the destination of the detainees; however, Major Jofré Soto continued to sign the administrative dispatches most of the time and participated in some interrogations of detainees (…).

F.-

That the people called to appear before the Military Prosecutor's Office and those who were brought in as detainees from different points in the region were kept in facilities located next to the guardhouse and in the large gymnasium.

Once interrogated by personnel of the Military Prosecutor's Office, by detectives attached to the Regiment, or by the officers themselves who participated in these activities, among whom were Raimundo Ignacio García Covarrubias, Pedro Guillermo Manuel Tichahuer Salcedo, and Romilio Osvaldo Lavín Muñoz, among other members of the army, some were released, only to be apprehended again later as will be detailed in point 44, others were sent to their homes under house arrest, and others were taken to the public jail where they remained while their procedural situation was resolved (…).

G.-

That also in September 1973, in the Infantry Regiment No. 8 'Tucapel' of Temuco, there existed the Second Section of Information and Intelligence, which was in charge of Captain Nelson Manuel Uldaricio Ubilla Toledo (deceased as stated on fs. 3500 volume X), who also exercised a duality of functions by also being the Commander of the Headquarters and Services Company of said Regiment.

In whose Second Section, and under the dependency of, some non-commissioned officers of that institution also carried out functions, a task that was reinforced after September 11, 1973, with the addition of officials from Investigations and Carabineros, who provided political information to the aforementioned officer regarding all those persons subject to an investigation by the Military Prosecutor's Office.

Likewise, some officers, enlisted men, and conscripts of the Regiment joined the intelligence tasks (…).

H.-

That as the days went by, the Military Prosecutor's Office and the Second Intelligence Section began to work together to interrogate the detainees, who remained imprisoned in the jail or in some facility of the Tucapel Regiment.

To articulate this work, two locations were enabled in the military unit, one located between the Headquarters Company and the Mortar Company, and another in an old, disused gymnasium located to the side of the conscript soldiers' 'mess hall.' In this way, the detainees were interrogated in the Military Prosecutor's Office and physically pressured in one of the aforementioned facilities to 'soften them up' before or after these interrogations (…).

I.-

That in both interrogation and torture rooms there were implements to tie up the detainees and apply electricity to different parts of their bodies, in addition to applying other types of torment such as kicks and punches.

Conscript soldiers, who collaborated with Captain Nelson Ubilla Toledo, participated in this task. Some officers of the 'Tucapel' Regiment and some non-commissioned soldiers from the Headquarters and Services Companies also participated in the interrogation and/or torture sessions of detainees in those places (…).

J.-

That, added to all the above, within the aforementioned military unit, a special group called the 'Patrulla Brava' or 'Patrulla Chacal' was formed, integrated by non-commissioned soldiers and conscripts of the Second Hunter Company, who in turn received orders from an officer.

This group was in charge, among other functions, of guarding the detainees who were kept in the facilities of the 'Tucapel' Regiment of Temuco (…).

K.-

That at the regional level, in the commune of Villarrica, the Forces of Order and Security, headed by Carabineros, proceeded to raid the homes of people who were known supporters of the recently overthrown government, with the object of proceeding to their detention, and in many cases, subsequent transfer by land or air to the facilities of the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, in order to be placed at the disposal of the Military Prosecutor's Office (…).

L.-

That after the dynamic of detentions and subsequent transfer, in many cases, to the facilities of the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco during the days following September 11, 1973, a significant number of people in the IX region resulted dead or disappeared, with several of these deaths being explained by the regional military authorities through the publication of decrees issued either from the Intendancy or from the Temuco Military Garrison.

In other cases, the victims were released only to be immediately apprehended and re-entered as detainees into the facilities of the same Regiment or another institution, in order to be physically pressured to such an extent that many of them died as a result of the torture received.

Finally, in other cases, such as the one at hand, there has been a total and permanent concealment regarding the whereabouts of the victims after they remained imprisoned inside the same Regiment.

M.-

That Hugo Arner González Ortega, 23, Head of Roads and Works of the Municipality of Villarrica and militant of the Socialist Party; Elías Dagoberto González Ortega, 24, Head of Warehouses of the Banco del Estado Resort of Villarrica, militant of the Socialist Party and Propaganda Officer in Villarrica; Juan de Dios Cabrera Figueroa, 20, student and militant of the Socialist Youth; Carlos Schmidt Arriagada, 21, employee of the Housing Corporation (CORVI) and militant of the Socialist Party; Ricardo Augusto Schmidt Arriagada, 18, student and militant of the Socialist Party; Alejandro Escobar Vásquez, 18, student and militant of the Socialist Party; Héctor Domingo Aguayo Olavarría, 17, student and militant of the Socialist Youth; and Raúl Marcial Figueroa Burckhardt, 22, militant of the Socialist Youth, decided to leave the country because they estimated that their lives or at least their physical integrity were in serious danger, because the homes of some of them had already been raided by Carabineros of Villarrica who were searching for them intensely (…).

N.-

That on September 13, 1973, the eight young men identified above took a minibus that would take them toward Curarrehue where they would attempt to cross into Argentina through some border pass. However, one of the young men regretted it and cried, which is why they all decided to get off the public transport vehicle in the Río Turbio bridge sector, near the fork in the road that leads toward the town of Caburgua and the commune of Curarrehue, respectively.

Immediately afterward, they began the march toward Caburgua, taking care not to encounter military or Carabineros patrols so as not to be detected (…).

O.-

That after having walked about eight kilometers, they spotted a vehicle approaching from Pucón. Héctor Domingo Aguayo Olavarría recognized the vehicle as the pickup truck that had belonged to his father and which some time ago had been sold to a well-known merchant from Pucón, so they did not suspect that it could be a patrol.

However, in said vehicle were traveling Luis Robinson Bustos Letelier, Captain of Carabineros, chief of the Pucón Sub-station (prosecuted at fs. 2.071 and following of this case), and other uniformed officers from the same unit, who, upon seeing the group of young men on the road, stopped their march next to them (…).

P.-

That Luis Robinson Bustos Letelier, chief of the patrol, after a brief interrogation, ordered the detention of the eight young men without apparently carrying an order or legal authority for such an act, ordering their transfer to the facilities of the Pucón Sub-station.

For such purposes, the Captain of Carabineros, the aforementioned officer, and some of his companions stayed at the scene, while Corporal Monsalve, the driver of the vehicle, and another officer took the detainees to the Sub-station, as evidenced in the statement of Diógenes Segundo Bravo Bernales, from fs. 60 to fs. 61 (volume I) and from fs. 72 vta. to fs. 73 (volume I).

In that place, there were also other people in the same status, all detained for political reasons, among them, Juan Luis Díaz Cortés, a sympathizer of the government of Salvador Allende, detained for the first time on September 14, 1973, in the commune of Curarrehue and transferred to that police facility, a place where he observed Héctor Aguayo Olavarría, whom he had known since he was a child, being able to notice that he was very physically mistreated, presented an inflamed testicle, and had his hair shaved on the top of his head. 'Chachi' commented to him where they had been detained and the reasons why they decided to return to Villarrica, moments in which they were intercepted by a patrol that detained them. He added that they were interrogated regarding the possession of weapons and the place where they hid them, at the same time that they were subjected to endless beatings. Subsequently, Juan Luis Díaz Cortés, along with other detainees, were removed from that police facility (…).

Q.-

That when Bustos Letelier returned to the unit, he was informed by the duty Non-Commissioned Officer Diógenes Bravo Bernales that the detainees had been transferred to the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, as evidenced in the statement of Luis Robinson Bustos Letelier, at fs. 58 (volume I).

R.-

That the victims were effectively admitted to the facilities of the Infantry Regiment No. 8 Tucapel of Temuco, a place where, as stated, starting on September 11, 1973, a large number of people from different points in the region were kept as detainees solely for their political affiliation.

After that, they were momentarily released (…) only to finally return as detainees again to the facilities of the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco.

S.-

That in the aforementioned Regiment, the victims were seen by other people who were in the same status, such is the case of the Spanish citizen Francisco Jerónimo Matta Aro, detained between Pucón and Curarrehue approximately on September 13, 1973, who confessed to his son that he knew Héctor Aguayo Olavarría given that the latter's father was from the Socialist Party and a friend of his family, that both were transferred as detainees to the facilities of the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, and were left at the disposal of the Military Prosecutor Alfonso Podlech Michaud, who ordered the expulsion of his father from the national territory for supposedly being a financier of the MIR guerrilla and the Socialist Party, and ordered Héctor Aguayo, along with another person, to remain in the Prosecutor's Office given that they would be interrogated, as evidenced at fs. 626 to fs. 627 (volume II) and from fs. 786 to fs. 787 (volume III). For his part, Manuel Antonio Humaña Jiménez, Director at that time of school No. 17 of Curarrehue and Secretary of the Christian Assembly of that commune, detained there on September 17, 1973, and transferred to the facilities of the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, not only saw Héctor Aguayo Olavarría, his student from that school, in said facility, but also, the latter approached him, hugged him, and cried in his arms, telling him that he had been detained the day before along with a group of friends in the El Turbio sector of Pucón, to finally be transferred to that place; facts that are evidenced from fs. 478 to fs. 479 (volume II), from fs. 501 to fs. 506 (volume II), from fs. 559 (volume II), and from fs. 3.854 to fs. 3.857 (volume XI). Likewise, in the Regiment's gymnasium, but in the bathrooms of this facility, Renato Arturo Santana Dubreuil, a militant of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), was able to exchange words with Héctor Aguayo Olavarría, whom he knew by the nickname 'el Chachi' and knew that he was only 16 years old, as evidenced from fs. 581 to fs. 583 (volume II), and from fs. 799 (volume III). The same occurs with René Esteban Díaz Cortés, a sympathizer of the government of Salvador Allende at that time, detained on September 17, 1973, in the commune of Curarrehue, and transferred to the gymnasium of the aforementioned Regiment, a place where he observed an indeterminate number of detained people and particularly a group of 8 young men, among whom was Héctor Aguayo Olavarría, whom he also recognized by the nickname 'el Chachi' from years ago in Curarrehue, being able to notice that all the young men were sitting on the floor with their legs crossed, gagged, and with their hands tied behind their backs, as evidenced from fs. 474 to fs. 475 (volume II), and from fs. 800 (volume III). In this same sense, Juan Luis Díaz Cortés, a sympathizer of the same government, who as stated, in his first detention had seen Héctor Aguayo in the Carabineros Sub-station of Pucón, was detained a second time in the commune of Curarrehue along with his brother René Díaz on September 17, 1973, to subsequently be transferred to the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, a place where Héctor Aguayo Olavarría directly told him that he knew that the military of that place would kill him, given that they had already told him so. After that episode and in the afternoon, they were ordered to form up in the Regiment's courtyard, a place where an officer, whose identity Mr. Díaz does not know, read a document, naming some detainees, among whom was his brother, René Díaz Cortés, Héctor Aguayo Olavarría, and the Schmidt brothers, prisoners who were transferred to the Regiment's guardhouse, pointing out that only his brother returned and that he never saw the other detainees again, as evidenced at fs. 476 to fs. 477 (volume II) and from fs. 666 (volume II). That as can be observed, the dynamic regarding the 8 young men detained and kidnapped corresponded to a habitual way that the armed forces and order forces of that time had regarding opponents of the military regime, which consisted of the fact that once detained for a couple of days or weeks, they were released (false freedom) only to be detained again when they left the facility and taken to that dependency. The facts described so far account for this situation. Without prejudice to what will be exposed below.

T.-

That during those days, inside the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, a conscript with the initials M.J.C.S was serving in the Headquarters and Services Company, who, after observing the photographs of Héctor Aguayo Olavarría, Elías González Ortega, and Hugo González Ortega, which are on fs. 5 to fs. 7 of the secret case file, was able to recognize them perfectly when they were being tortured in a room located in the Headquarters and Services Company of the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, a place where two officers and a group of detectives were present; stating that the detainees were transferred to this facility in the sight of everyone who was in the Company, given that everyone had knowledge about the existence of the same. This conscript was located 10 meters from that room and was an eyewitness to when nylon bags were introduced to the detainees and current was applied to different parts of their bodies, as well as being able to hear the screams of pain resulting from the same. That although he states that at that time it was difficult to memorize the faces of the detainees due to the fact that they shaved them, he memorized the faces of the indicated victims because upon entering the torture room they were blindfolded, but upon leaving they did so without a blindfold, which is why he was able to recognize them perfectly, as evidenced in his statements from fs. 3 to fs. 4, from fs. 35 to fs. 38, from fs. 93 to fs. 95, all from the secret case file of this case.

U.-

That days after the events described in the preceding paragraph, the conscript with the initials M.J.C.S had to load a military truck twice with bodies of deceased people from the shooting range of Isla Cautín.

On the first occasion, he loaded 10 bodies, all male, whose ages fluctuated between 25 and 30 years old; while on the second occasion, he loaded 8 bodies, also male, but on this occasion, they were younger people than in the previous case.

That present at the scene, among others, were some conscripts from his company, among whom he remembers José Chávez Etchepare and Luis Valeria Candia (deceased as stated on fs. 3.505 volume X and fs. 3.502 volume X). That although it was night, with the light of the vehicles he could observe that...

Indeed, they were young people who presented multiple gunshot wounds; one of them even had a gunshot wound to the head. It was added that almost all of them had their hands tied and their faces uncovered.

Based on the photographs from pages 5 to 7 of the secret file, it was possible to recognize that of these 8 bodies, 3 corresponded to Héctor Aguayo Olavarría and the brothers Hugo and Elías González Ortega, as stated in their testimonies from pages 3 to 4, 35 to 38, and 93 to 95, all from the secret file of this case.

It is noted that this protected witness, with the initials M.J.C.S., underwent an expert assessment of his mental faculties, which indicated that he is a lucid person, oriented in time and space; with normal psychomotricity; without productive symptomatology at the time of the assessment; and without alterations in the course or content of thought or language.

His language was communicative and of good quality; he was euthymic, with adequate affective resonance. No anxious or depressive symptomatology was noted; performance tests confirmed preserved memory. He possesses a good capacity for abstraction.

In short, the expert report concluded that he is a man without impairment of his judgment of reality, with an intellectual level that, clinically, is in the normal range, and he has all his higher cortical functions preserved. This psychiatric report is found on pages 180 to 183 of the secret file of the case.

V.-

Following this, and on both occasions, the truck left in the direction of the Allipén bridge, while he remained with the conscripts of his company at the Regiment, and the personnel of the Second Cazadores took charge of transporting the corpses to the aforementioned river.

This conscript was later able to confirm that the Allipén bridge was the final destination for these bodies, where they were thrown into the waters, as the conscript Luis Valeria Candia (deceased, page 3,502, Volume X), boasting of these events, told him about the situation, as stated on pages 3 to 4 and 35 to 37 of the secret file.

W.-

In this sense, days after September 11, 1973, under circumstances in which Rubén Ernesto Sandoval Muñoz, a civilian who engaged in recreational fishing on the Toltén River, between the Pitrufquén - Faja Maisan stretch, was carrying out this activity together with José Tomás Palazuelos, he found around 12 bodies in different sectors, all male.

He recalled that 4 of these corpses were older people and the rest were very young. Among the bodies he saw in the river, the one that drew his special attention was that of a young man, who was stranded in a river gorge between the Bajada de Piedra and Chesta sector, and presented a perforation on the right side of his skull; giving him the impression that it was the result of a gunshot.

He remembers that on his body, in the sand, were his identity documents, which indicated the word "Villarrica," though he could not distinguish his name. The young man's clothing consisted of a jacket, jeans, and sneakers.

He did not notice if he had other wounds, as he preferred to leave the place out of fear; however, he reported the discovery of the bodies to the Carabineros officer Lukowiak (a Suboficial Mayor who at that time belonged to the staff of the 5th Carabineros Station of Pitrufquén), but he threatened him, which is why he did not report the fact at the time.

Upon being shown photographs by this court, Rubén Sandoval Muñoz stated that the young man he saw in the river was indeed Héctor Aguayo Olavarría, since his image remained very marked in his mind, mainly due to the shape of his nose, which was very wide, making him look like a boxer; these facts are recorded on page 2,156 (Volume VII), page 2,645 (Volume VIII), and page 2,305 (Volume VII).

X.-

Likewise, Juan Esteban Ortiz Parra, a boatman at that time, states that days after September 11, 1973, he found a large number of bodies floating in the waters of the Toltén River, and others stranded on the riverbank near the Galpones sector of the commune of Pitrufquén, focusing particularly on one of them.

This was because he was a very young person and he thought it might be someone he knew, which is why he proceeded to check him, immediately realizing that this was not the case, as among his clothing he found a paper from a school in Villarrica and managed to distinguish that his surname was Aguayo.

He noted that the young man's body had a perforation in the back of his skull, his hands were tied with barbed wire, and he was wearing blue jeans and a sweater. Regarding his physical characteristics, apparently, he was no older than 15 or 16 years of age, he was of short stature, and he could not specify further characteristics because the body was very battered due to the action of the rocks.

Other boatmen also saw the bodies, mentioning among them, precisely, Rubén Sandoval, as stated on page 2,154, Volume VI.

Y.-

Finally, after the detention on September 13, 1973, the families of the victims never again received news about Hugo Arner González Ortega, Elías Dagoberto González Ortega, Carlos Schmidt Arriagada, Ricardo Augusto Schmidt Arriagada, Juan de Dios Cabrera Figueroa, Alejandro Escobar Vásquez, Héctor Domingo Aguayo Olavarría, and Raúl Marcial Figueroa Burckhardt, which is why they began a fruitless search in the various detention centers that housed political prisoners at that time.

For example, the family of Héctor Aguayo Olavarría, after learning from Luis Díaz and Esteban Díaz that Héctor was being held inside the Tucapel Regiment in Temuco, went immediately to this place, where his detention was denied.

The same happened when they inquired about him at the Villarrica Police Station. Later, and due to the political persecution the family was suffering, Héctor Aguayo Olavarría's mother, along with his brothers and sisters, decided to emigrate to Argentina; however, Héctor's father remained in Curarrehue in search of his son, where he passed away without finding him.

Z.-

At present, only the account existing in the Museum of Memory and Human Rights remains, which gives an account of the disappearance of these young people after their detention on September 13, 1973. It has been possible to verify until now, as has been said, that according to the account, the victims were detained, outside of any judicial process, in the area of the Río Turbio bridge, near the fork in the road that leads to the town of Caburgua and the commune of Curarrehue, by Luis Robinson Bustos Letelier, a Carabineros Captain and head of the Pucón Sub-station, to be immediately transferred to said police unit, then taken as detainees to the facilities of the Tucapel Regiment in Temuco, released momentarily, and then apprehended again. On this occasion, they were pressured and tortured inside the same Regiment. And as stated, for reasons not clarified in the case files, they were transferred to the public jail of the city of Temuco, to finally return in the same status to the facilities of the Tucapel Regiment in Temuco, since, as the witness with the initials M.J.C.S. describes, when it was his turn to load 8 bodies of deceased persons from the Cautín Island shooting range, he recognized Héctor Aguayo Olavarría, Hugo Arner González Ortega, and Elías Dagoberto González Ortega, at least 3 of the 8 victims in the case. The dynamic of detaining, granting freedom, and then re-apprehending the same people to re-enter them as political prisoners was a common practice used by state agents.

Fiscal ad-hoc Likewise, the resolution states: “The aforementioned facts must have been known by the officers in command of the Headquarters and Services Company of the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, among them, Raimundo Ignacio García Covarrubias, Pedro Guillermo Manuel Tichauer Salcedo, and Romilio Osvaldo Lavín Muñoz, to which this conscript with the initials M.J.C.S. belonged.

And as detailed in numeral 37 of this resolution, Mr. Alfonso Podlech Michaud acted from September 11, 1973, as legal advisor and ad-hoc Military Prosecutor of the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, interrogating the detainees and deciding the fate of the people deprived of liberty, having at that date the decision-making and command powers within the facilities of the aforementioned Regiment.

Likewise, and as detailed in numeral 51, in relation to what was stated by the Spanish citizen Francisco Jerónimo Matta Aro, the facts were known by the lawyer Alfonso Podlech Michaud, since according to what Mr.

Matta stated to his son, it was Mr. Podlech who ordered Héctor Aguayo, along with another person, to remain in the Prosecutor's Office as they were to be interrogated. In this sense, in his capacity as ad-hoc Prosecutor and Legal Advisor to the Military Prosecutor's Office, he did not report or inform the military superiority or any other authority of the investigated illicit acts, nor is there any record that an investigation was carried out, nor the existence of a registry as a consequence of the commission of these facts.”

“Such were the powers,” it continues, “that this lawyer had, that the very statements of the Guard Chief of the Temuco public jail, for October 1973, in his declaration on pages 4,195 to 4,196 (Volume XII), stated that, given the overcrowding after September 11, 1973, he went to speak with the person in charge of the military prosecutor's office, alluding to the aforementioned lawyer, who ‘normalized the situation.’ A consequence of the above is the multiple assertions made by members who served within the Regiment at the time of the investigated events, namely: statements by Aquiles Poblete Muller (deceased, as stated on page 4,147, Volume XII), a retired Commissioner of the Chilean Investigative Police, who in his declaration on page 3,665 (Volume X) expressed that ‘the person largely responsible for all this and who decided the fate of the detainees is the lawyer Alfonso Podlech, who was in charge of the military prosecutor's office.’ In this same vein, it is relevant to keep in mind what was stated by the First Sergeant of the Tucapel Regiment, José Heriberto Mansilla Gatica, who in his judicial declaration on page 3,809 (Volume XI) pointed out: ‘… as of September 1973, the second commander of the Regiment, surnamed Jofré, did not take statements. Iturriaga Marchesse only dealt with general matters. The daily work of the prosecutor's office, such as interrogating and making decisions regarding the detainees, was Alfonso Podlech’s.’”

For the visiting judge, in this instance: “Likewise, and to reinforce what was stated above, it is of utmost importance to mention the document on page 4,156 (Volume XII) which gives an account of a release order for two people, dated September 28, 1973, issued by the Military Prosecutor's Office of Temuco and signed by the lawyer and ad-hoc military prosecutor in question.

This is in relation to what is concluded in the documentary expert report on pages 4,157 to 4,185 (Volume XII), issued by the Central Criminalistics Laboratory of the Chilean Investigative Police, which among other things expresses the following: ‘the evidence examined on this occasion allows us to establish that the impugned signature traced over the text indicating FISCAL, on the ‘LIBERTAT’ [sic] order No.

S/N, of the Cautín-Temuco Military Prosecutor's Office, dated September 28, 1973, addressed to the Carabineros of Chile, Pucón Sub-station, which orders the release of Mario Fernando Cortés Bornard and Ubildo Antonio Jiménez Vargas, is genuine of Óscar Alfonso Podlech Michaud,’ which is also directly linked to the documentary expert report prepared by the Central Criminalistics Laboratory of the Chilean Investigative Police, on pages 4,186 to 4,192 (Volume XII), in that it concludes the following: ‘the evaluation of the evidence examined on this occasion allows us to establish that the impugned signature, subscribed over the text Luis A. Jofré Soto Mayor Fiscal, on the copy of the authorization dated in Temuco on December 18, 1973, addressed to Dr. Wolfgang Reuter, Regional Hospital, issued by the Cautín-Temuco Military Prosecutor's Office of the Chilean Army, is genuine of Óscar Alfonso Podlech Michaud.’ The above corroborates the responsibility in these events of the legal advisor and ad-hoc Military Prosecutor mentioned above.”

“To date, no public official of the Chilean Army or any other branch of the Armed Forces and/or Order and Security who served at the time of the events has provided any information to the respective authority in relation to what happened to Hugo Arner González Ortega, Elías Dagoberto González Ortega, Juan Carlos Schmidt Arriagada, Ricardo Schmidt Arriagada, Juan de Dios Cabrera Figueroa, Alejandro Escobar Vásquez, Héctor Domingo Aguayo Olavarría, and Raúl Marcial Figueroa Burckhardt, maintaining to this day the concealment of all types of information about their whereabouts,” it concludes.

Source: pjud.cl, November 8, 2022

Date: 11-08-2022

Judge Álvaro Mesa issues indictment for kidnapping with serious injury at the Temuco Regiment in 1973

The extraordinary visiting judge for human rights violation cases in the jurisdictions of Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Coyhaique, Álvaro Claudio Mesa Latorre, issued indictment 130 in the matter, for the crime of kidnapping with serious injury of eight young people. The illicit act was committed in September 1973, at the No. 8 “Tucapel” Infantry Regiment of Temuco.

In the resolution (case file 4,473), the visiting judge indicted the then ad hoc military prosecutor Óscar Alfonso Ernesto Podlech Michaud and the retired Army officers Pedro Guillermo Manuel Tichauer Salcedo, Raimundo Ignacio García Covarrubias, and Romilio Osvaldo Lavín Muñoz, as accomplices to the crime of kidnapping with serious injury, as a crime against humanity, of the victims Hugo Arner González Ortega, Elías Dagoberto González Ortega, Carlos Schmidt Arriagada, Ricardo Augusto Schmidt Arriagada, Juan de Dios Cabrera Figueroa, Alejandro Escobar Vásquez, Héctor Domingo Aguayo Olavarría, and Raúl Marcial Figueroa Burckhardt. The illicit act was perpetrated starting on September 13, 1973.

During the investigation stage of the case, Judge Mesa Latorre managed to gather sufficient evidence to consider the following facts proven:

“Hugo Arner González Ortega, 23 years old, Head of Roads and Works of the Municipality of Villarrica and a militant of the Socialist Party; Elías Dagoberto González Ortega, 24 years old, Head of Warehouses of the Banco del Estado Resort in Villarrica, a militant of the Socialist Party and Propaganda Officer in Villarrica; Juan de Dios Cabrera Figueroa, 20 years old, student and militant of the Socialist Youth; Carlos Schmidt Arriagada, 21 years old, employee of the Housing Corporation (CORVI) and militant of the Socialist Party; Ricardo Augusto Schmidt Arriagada, 18 years old, student and militant of the Socialist Party; Alejandro Escobar Vásquez, 18 years old, student and militant of the Socialist Party; Héctor Domingo Aguayo Olavarría, 17 years old, student and militant of the Socialist Youth; and Raúl Marcial Figueroa Burckhardt, 22 years old, militant of the Socialist Youth, decided to leave the country because they believed that their lives or at least their physical integrity were in serious danger, because the homes of some of them had already been raided by the Carabineros of Villarrica, who were searching for them intensely.

On September 13, 1973, the eight young people identified above took a minibus that would take them toward Curarrehue, where they would attempt to cross into Argentina through a border pass. However, one of the young men regretted it and cried, which is why they all decided to get off the public transport vehicle in the area of the Río Turbio bridge, near the fork in the road that leads to the town of Caburgua and the commune of Curarrehue, respectively.

Immediately afterward, they began their march toward Caburgua, taking care not to encounter military or Carabineros patrols so as not to be detected.

After having walked about eight kilometers, they spotted a vehicle approaching from Pucón. Héctor Domingo Aguayo Olavarría recognized the vehicle as the pickup truck that had belonged to his father and which had been sold some time ago to a well-known merchant from Pucón, so they did not suspect that it could be a patrol.

However, in that vehicle were Luis Robinson Bustos Letelier, a Carabineros Captain and head of the Pucón Sub-station, and other uniformed officers from the same unit, who, upon seeing the group of young people on the road, stopped their march next to them.

Luis Robinson Bustos Letelier, the head of the patrol, after a brief interrogation, ordered the detention of the eight young people without apparently carrying an order or having legal authority for such an act, ordering their transfer to the facilities of the Pucón Sub-station.

For this purpose, the Carabineros Captain, the aforementioned officer, and some of his companions remained at the scene, while Corporal Monsalve, the driver of the vehicle, and another officer took the detainees to the Sub-station, as stated in the declaration of Diógenes Segundo Bravo Bernales (…).

When Bustos Letelier returned to the unit, he was informed by the duty Sub-officer Diógenes Bravo Bernales that the detainees had been transferred to the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco.

The victims were indeed admitted to the facilities of the No. 8 Tucapel Infantry Regiment of Temuco, a place where, as stated, starting on September 11, 1973, a large number of people from different parts of the region were held as detainees solely for their political affiliation.

After that, they were momentarily released, only to be detained again, and on this occasion, pressured and tortured inside the same Regiment. And for reasons not clarified in the case files, they were transferred to the public jail of the city of Temuco, to finally return as detainees again to the facilities of the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco.

In the aforementioned Regiment, the victims were seen by other people who were in the same status, such as the case of the Spanish citizen Francisco Jerónimo Matta Aro, detained between Pucón and Curarrehue approximately on September 13, 1973, who confessed to his son that he knew Héctor Aguayo Olavarría because the latter's father was from the Socialist Party and a friend of his family, that both were transferred as detainees to the facilities of the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, and were placed at the disposal of the Military Prosecutor Alfonso Podlech Michaud, who ordered the expulsion of his father from the national territory for supposedly being a financier of the MIR guerrilla and the Socialist Party, and ordered Héctor Aguayo, along with another person, to remain in the Prosecutor's Office as they were to be interrogated (…).

During those days, inside the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, a conscript with the initials M.J.C.S. was serving in the Headquarters and Services Company, who, after observing the photographs of Héctor Aguayo Olavarría, Elías González Ortega, and Hugo González Ortega, which are on pages 5 to 7 of the secret file of the case, was able to recognize them perfectly when they were being tortured in a room located in the Headquarters and Services Company of the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, a place where two officers and a group of detectives were present; stating that the detainees were transferred to this facility in view of everyone who was in the Company, since everyone was aware of its existence. This conscript was located 10 meters from that room and was an eyewitness to when nylon bags were placed on the detainees and electricity was applied to different parts of their bodies, and he could also hear the screams of pain resulting from it. Although he states that at that time it was difficult to memorize the faces of the detainees because they were shaved, he memorized the faces of the indicated victims because upon entering the torture room they were blindfolded, but when they left they did so without a blindfold, which is why he was able to recognize them perfectly.

Days after the events described in the preceding paragraph, the conscript with the initials M.J.C.S. was tasked on two occasions with loading a military truck with the bodies of deceased persons from the Cautín Island shooting range.

On the first occasion, he loaded 10 bodies, all male, whose ages fluctuated between 25 and 30 years old; while on the second occasion he loaded 8 bodies, also male, but on this occasion, they were younger people than in the previous case.

Present at the scene, among others, were some conscripts from his company, among whom he remembers José Chávez Etchepare and Luis Valeria Candia (deceased, as stated on page 3,505, Volume X and page 3,502, Volume X).

Although it was night, with the light of the vehicles he could observe that they were indeed young people, who presented multiple gunshot wounds; one of them even had a gunshot wound to the head, adding that almost all of them had their hands tied and their faces uncovered.

He was able to recognize, according to the photographs on pages 5 to 7 of the secret file, that of these 8 bodies, 3 corresponded to Héctor Aguayo Olavarría and the brothers Hugo and Elías González Ortega, all from the secret file of this case (…).

Following this, and on both occasions, the truck left in the direction of the Allipén bridge, while he remained with the conscripts of his company at the Regiment, and the personnel of the Second Cazadores took charge of transporting the corpses to the aforementioned river.

This conscript was later able to confirm that the Allipén bridge was the final destination for these bodies, where they were thrown into the waters, as the conscript Luis Valeria Candia (deceased, page 3,502, Volume X), boasting of these events, told him about the situation.

Finally, after the detention on September 13, 1973, the families of the victims never again received news about Hugo Arner González Ortega, Elías Dagoberto González Ortega, Carlos Schmidt Arriagada, Ricardo Augusto Schmidt Arriagada, Juan de Dios Cabrera Figueroa, Alejandro Escobar Vásquez, Héctor Domingo Aguayo Olavarría, and Raúl Marcial Figueroa Burckhardt, which is why they began a fruitless search in the various detention centers that housed political prisoners at that time.

For example, the family of Héctor Aguayo Olavarría, after learning from Luis Díaz and Esteban Díaz that Héctor was being held inside the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, went immediately to this place, where his detention was denied.

The same happened when they inquired about him at the Villarrica Police Station. Later, and due to the political persecution the family was suffering, Héctor Aguayo Olavarría's mother, along with his brothers and sisters, decided to emigrate to Argentina; however, Héctor's father remained in Curarrehue in search of his son, where he passed away without finding him.

The aforementioned facts must have been known by the officers in command of the Headquarters and Services Company of the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, among them, RAIMUNDO IGNACIO GARCÍA COVARRUBIAS, PEDRO GUILLERMO MANUEL TICHAUER SALCEDO, AND ROMILIO OSVALDO LAVÍN MUÑOZ, to which this conscript with the initials M.J.C.S. belonged.

And as detailed in numeral 37 of this resolution, Mr. ALFONSO PODLECH MICHAUD acted from September 11, 1973, as legal advisor and ad-hoc Military Prosecutor of the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco, interrogating the detainees and deciding the fate of the people deprived of liberty, having at that date the decision-making and command powers within the facilities of the aforementioned Regiment.

Likewise, and as detailed in numeral 51, in relation to what was stated by the Spanish citizen Francisco Jerónimo Matta Aro, the facts were known by the lawyer Alfonso Podlech Michaud, since according to what Mr.

Matta stated to his son, it was Mr. Podlech who ordered Héctor Aguayo, along with another person, to remain in the Prosecutor's Office as they were to be interrogated. In this sense, in his capacity as ad-hoc Prosecutor and Legal Advisor to the Military Prosecutor's Office, he did not report or inform the military superiority or any other authority of the investigated illicit acts, nor is there any record that an investigation was carried out, nor the existence of a registry as a consequence of the commission of these facts (…).”

“Given the merit of the evidence, the nature of the crime, the assigned penalty, the age of the accused, and the health situation in which the country finds itself, it is more appropriate for the purposes of the procedure –for now– to decree the personal precautionary measure of total house arrest,” the indictment adds.

Likewise, it adds: “Given the merit of the evidence, from which it is clear that the freedom of the accused constitutes a danger to the security of society; also taking into account the probable legal sanction for the crimes in which they are attributed participation; and having seen the provisions of article 363 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, they will not be granted the benefit of provisional release.”

Source: pjud.cl, July 11, 2022

Date: 07-11-2022

Three former Army officers and one civilian condemned for the crime of eight people in Villarrica in 1973

The extraordinary visiting judge for human rights violation cases in the jurisdictions of Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Coyhaique, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, issued a sentence in which he condemned three former Army officers and one civilian who served as a military prosecutor, for their responsibility in the consummated crime of kidnapping with serious injury of eight people who were militants of the Socialist Party.

The crimes were perpetrated in the commune of Villarrica, between September and October 1973.

In the ruling (case file 4,473), Judge Mesa Latorre condemned the civilian, then ad hoc military prosecutor, Óscar Alfonso Ernesto Podlech Michaud, and the former officers Pedro Guillermo Manuel Tichauer Salcedo, Raimundo Ignacio García Covarrubias, and Romilio Osvaldo Lavín Muñoz to single sentences of 15 years of effective imprisonment and the accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and positions and political rights, and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentences, as accomplices to the crimes against humanity against four workers and four students at that time.

The group of 8 young people, composed of four workers and four students, were detained under circumstances in which they were attempting to leave the country to escape the uniformed persecution that was being unleashed against them, given their militancy and commitment to the overthrown government of Salvador Allende.

Hugo Arner González Ortega, 23 years old, was Head of Roads and Works of the Municipality of Villarrica; Elías Dagoberto González Ortega, 24 years old, was Head of Warehouses of the Banco del Estado Resort in Villarrica; Juan de Dios Cabrera Figueroa, 20 years old, was a student; Carlos Schmidt Arriagada, 21 years old, was an employee of the Housing Corporation (CORVI); Raúl Marcial Figueroa Burckhardt, 22 years old; and the minors Ricardo Augusto Schmidt Arriagada, 18 years old, was a student; Alejandro Escobar Vásquez, 18 years old, student; Héctor Domingo Aguayo Olavarría, 17 years old, student; decided to leave the country because they believed that their physical integrity and their lives were in serious danger; the homes of some of them had already been raided by the Carabineros of Villarrica, who were searching for them intensely.

On September 13, 1973, the eight young people took a minibus that would take them toward Curarrehue, from where they would attempt to cross into Argentina through a border pass. However, one of the young men regretted attempting the crossing, which is why they all got off the public transport vehicle in the area of the Río Turbio bridge, near the fork in the road toward Caburgua and Curarrehue.

Then they began their march toward Caburgua, taking care not to encounter military or Carabineros patrols so as not to be detected.

However, kilometers later they were detained by Carabineros from the Pucón Sub-station who were traveling in a civilian pickup truck, so the young people did not suspect that it could be a patrol.

The eight detainees were transferred to that police facility and from there were referred to the Tucapel Regiment of Temuco. The victims were admitted to the facilities of the No. 8 Tucapel Infantry Regiment of Temuco, a place where, starting on September 11, 1973, a large number of people from different parts of the region were held as political prisoners.

In that military facility, they were placed at the disposal of the then Military Prosecutor, the lawyer Alfonso Podlech Michaud, and subjected to torture by officers and uniformed personnel belonging to the contingent of that Regiment.

The 8 young people were allegedly executed by military personnel of the Tucapel Regiment and then their bodies were made to disappear; according to some versions from former conscripts of the time, the murdered people were loaded onto a military truck and transported to the Allipén bridge to be thrown into the waters at that location.

Source: resumen.cl, 8/30/2024