This process, file No. 2.182-98, the "Coelemu" episode, was instructed to investigate the existence of the crimes of kidnapping committed against the persons of Luis Bernardo Acevedo Andrade, Omar Lautaro Henríquez López, and Arturo Segundo Villegas Villagrán, for which the following were charged on page 2888: 1) José René Jara Caro 2) Heriberto Osvaldo Rojas Jiménez 3) Beniamino Antonio Bozzo Basso 4) Juan Lorenzo Abello Vildósola 5) Carlos Alberto Aguillón Henríquez 6) Sergio Arévalo Cid 7) Renato Guillermo Rodríguez Sullivan and 8) Maximino Cares Lara.

65) Declaration of Francisco Vera Vargas, who on page 1999 (a copy of his statements made on June 18, 2006, before the Minister of the Illustrious Court of Appeals of Concepción, Mr. Carlos Aldana) indicates that, in 1974, while he was serving in the Departamento de Inteligencia de Concepción (Concepción Intelligence Department), around 100 to 120 detainees arrived, whom he was responsible for identifying.

Once identified, they were interrogated by a special team led by Carabineros Captain Graff, who also decided who remained detained, who was transferred to the Navy, and who was released; he did not participate in the interrogations but was called by guard personnel to see a detainee who had fainted and looked unwell.

He removed the blindfolds and realized it was the person who had been identified as the Mayor of Coelemu. He told his superior, Captain Arévalo Cid, that he had to be taken to the hospital, but the latter told him no, and to take him to a changing room to recover, under the charge of Sergeant Cares.

Several days had passed while the interrogations were being conducted. Captain Arévalo told him that they had to ask the Headquarters for authorization to remove a person who had passed away, and that he knew it was the Mayor of Coelemu.

A group of 6 officials led by a 1st Sergeant left for the Headquarters to ask for instructions on what to do with the body; in that group were "Cazuela" Muñoz, Venegas, and Captains Graff and Arévalo. They traveled at night to the 1st Police Station and removed the Mayor's body; Lieutenant Rodríguez was on guard duty, who inked the corpse's thumb and entered it into the Logbook as if he had been released, and even made a photocopy of that page.

The Logbook was subsequently destroyed. The body was transported in a funeral home car. Everyone went in the same vehicle. They arrived at a sector of the road to Santa Juana and buried the person on the banks of the Bío-Bío.

Graff, Arévalo, and Muñoz dug with a shovel, and he stayed on guard with the driver. He was buried naked, about a meter and a half deep, and Captain Arévalo handed him the clothes with instructions to destroy them.

They finished and left an hour and a half later. He adds that in 1980, he received orders from Captain Vallejos, the new head of Intelligence in Concepción, stating that by government orders, the forcibly disappeared had to be moved to another location or burned.

Among the personnel who participated were himself, "Cazuela Muñoz," Sergeant Zambrano, and another from the OS 7, but he and "Cazuela" "agreed not to go to the exact location so as not to be involved again"...

On page 2089, in a statement made to the Investigative Police, he states "...the Mayor of Coelemu was detained by Carabineros of that commune and transported by bus, along with other detainees, to the 4th Police Station of Concepción." He does not know who those officials were.

He points out that at the beginning of May 1974, around 5:00 PM, he was in the courtyard of the building located at Salas and San Martín, along with officials Venegas, Cares, "Cazuela" Muñoz, "Loco" Jara, and Jorge Yévenes, guarding around 50 blindfolded detainees.

At one point, a detainee fell to the ground, and he was able to identify him as the Mayor of Coelemu, as he was already aware of his presence. He approached him and saw he was in poor health, giving him the impression that he had been tortured, so he went to Captain Arévalo to report it and with the intention of taking him to a hospital, but Arévalo told him to "just leave him like that, so he would die." Later, he ordered Cares and Jara to move him to a special room for detainees where Special Forces equipment was kept.

Then, around 8:00 PM, Cares informed him that a detainee had died; he went to see and confirmed it was the Mayor. He went to Arévalo again, who told him to leave him as he was, because they were going to bury him. Later, Arévalo held a meeting with the SICAR personnel to report the death, a meeting attended by Graff, Venegas, Cerna, Hermosilla, and Mardones.

Then they moved the body to the guardroom of the 4th Police Station, where the Officer of the Guard, Second Lieutenant Rodríguez Sullivan, inked the dead man's thumb and stamped it in the Guard Logbook.

Around 12:00 AM, by order of Arévalo, the body was taken out in a hearse-type vehicle that was under the charge of the SICAR, driven by a Carabinero whose name he does not remember, from the 4th Police Station staff.

They traveled toward the road to Santa Juana for the burial. Arévalo, Graff, Hermosilla, "Cazuela" Muñoz, Venegas, Cerna, Mardones, Jara, and he attended. On the banks of the Bío-Bío, Muñoz, Hermosilla, and Jara proceeded to dig a hole, completely undressed the corpse—who, he remembers, was wearing a burgundy sweater—put the body into the one-meter hole, and covered it.

Arévalo ordered him to destroy the clothes. The next day, together with "Cazuela," in his private vehicle, a white Subaru van, he went to the mouth of the river, where he threw away the clothing. He points out that Arévalo dealt directly with Major Pinares, although SICAR depended on the Prefecture, but that, nevertheless, the orders were entrusted by the Zone.

As far as he understands, the Prefecture of Concepción was not informed about the proceedings and results of the SICAR operations. Subsequently, in 1980, he received an order from the head of SICAR at that time to look for the Mayor's remains, a task he went on with "Cazuela" Muñoz, Pedro Zambrano, and an OS 7 official, but he and "Cazuela" Muñoz decided to "dig in another place so as not to find the body." On page 2111, in a compelled statement made on September 7, 2006, before Minister Carlos Aldana, he indicates that on the day of the events, he saw the Mayor blindfolded and tied, standing in line, and that he was not tortured at the 4th Police Station. At one point, he collapsed and fell to the ground, and he ran to lift him up, but he could not revive him and called Cares to help him, and they took him to a small office where there was weaponry and left him there. Cares told him he was dead about half an hour later. He told Arévalo about the situation and that he had to be taken to the hospital, but he told him to leave him there. He says that Graff did not know about the situation because he was interrogating. This happened around noon. He estimates that the Mayor was not in the 4th Police Station for more than 24 hours, from the time he arrived until they took the body out. Arévalo spoke with the (Zonal, according to him) headquarters, and they told him the body had to be buried. At night, what he calls a "combat group" was formed, consisting of "Cazuela" Muñoz, Venegas, "Loco" (Jara)—who killed himself some time later—Arévalo, and "Pato" Cerna. To take the body out, someone brought a funeral home car, "just for show," since they put the body in without a coffin. Before taking him out, the head of the guard, Rodríguez Sullivan, inked his thumb to perform the "filpol" (fingerprinting), to justify his detention as if he had been released. They went toward the road to Santa Juana. "Cazuela" and "Chico" Arévalo dug. After burying him, they left the place without saying anything about it. On page 2413, he judicially ratifies his police statements.

Source: Judiciary, April 21, 2011

Sentence handed down in cases of forcibly disappeared persons from Coelemu and Penco

Investigating judge Alejandro Solís handed down a first-instance sentence in the investigation into the qualified kidnappings of Luis Acevedo Andrade, Omar Henríquez López, and Arturo Villegas Villagrán, which occurred, for the first two, in the commune of Coelemu, and for the last, in Penco, Eighth Region, starting in October 1974.

The investigation into the Coelemu cases, which correspond to the former mayor Luis Acevedo Andrade, detained on April 30, 1974, and Omar Henríquez López, a socialist militant, detained on September 6, 1974, were also investigated by judge Juan Guzmán Tapia, within the framework of more than 200 complaints he was processing against Augusto Pinochet.

In the course of those investigations, the then-judge Guzmán carried out a series of proceedings, including excavations in search of the remains of possible victims. One of them took place on March 14, 2011, in the Maitenco Bajo sector, on the banks of the Itata River, in the commune of Trehuaco, where, thanks to information provided by a witness, it was possible to exhume the remains of a body.

However, subsequent forensic examinations ruled out that it corresponded to either of the two cases of forcibly disappeared persons from Coelemu.

In May 2001, judge Guzmán carried out other inquiries in the Las Nieves sector, about 20 kilometers from Coelemu, where it was indicated that in 1977 the body of a man who had been found floating in the waters of the Itata River had been buried.

Subsequently, bones were found in the vicinity of the Comisaría de Coelemu (Coelemu Police Station), without their identity having been established to date.

After Guzmán's resignation from the Judiciary, the case returned to the hands of Judge Alejandro Solís, who was initially investigating it, and who, on August 24, indicted four retired Carabineros as accessories to the qualified kidnapping of the former mayor of Coelemu, Luis Acevedo Andrade.

The former communist councilman was last seen alive at the current central police station in Concepción, after being detained by the uniformed police.

The resolution affected retired generals Sergio Arévalo Cid and Renato González Sullivan, and former non-commissioned officers Máximo Cares Lara and Francisco Vera Vargas, who were prosecuted for concealment.

The sentence More than three years later and after new proceedings, Judge Solís handed down a first-instance sentence in the case of Acevedo and Henríquez, and also in the situation that affected Arturo Villegas Villagrán, a taxi driver and former union leader of Fanaloza, of socialist militancy, who was detained on September 18, 1973, by a Carabineros patrol under the command of Lieutenant Juan Avello, and composed of Sergeant Luis Alberto Benítez Venegas and Corporals Franklin Crisosto Maldonado and Carlos Burdiles Pedreros, all belonging to the Comisaría de Penco (Penco Police Station).

Thus, Solís ruled a sentence of 10 years and one day in prison, without benefits, for Juan Avello Vildósola, as the perpetrator of the qualified kidnapping of Arturo Villegas. And for Carlos Aguillón Henríquez, three years in prison as an accomplice to the qualified kidnapping of Arturo Villegas.

In the case of Luis Acevedo, Heriberto Rojas Jiménez and José Jara Caro were sentenced to ten years and one day in prison, without benefits, as perpetrators of the qualified kidnapping of the former mayor of Coelemu.

Meanwhile, retired generals Sergio Arévalo Cid and Renato González Rodríguez Sullivan and former non-commissioned officer Maximino Cares Lara were sentenced to 541 days in prison each, as accessories to the kidnapping of Luis Acevedo, but all three were granted the benefit of conditional remission of the sentence.

Regarding the situation of Omar Henríquez, Judge Solís sentenced Beniamino Bozzo Basso to 3 years in prison as an accomplice to the crime of kidnapping, with the benefit of conditional remission. Now, these sentences must be reviewed by the Supreme Court.

Source: Tribuna del Bio-Bio, May 4, 2011