40 years old, married, farmer, forcibly disappeared on December 30, 1973, in Pilmaiquén, Osorno province.

JOSE JILBERTO GONZALEZ DE LA TORRE

44 years old, agricultural worker, forcibly disappeared in January 1974 in Pilmaiquén, Osorno province.

MARIA DEL CARMEN RUIZ OJEDA

48 years old, married, domestic worker, victim of political execution on December 31, 1973, in Pilmaiquén, Osorno province. According to witness statements, on that day, Carabineros officers from the Central Pilmaiquén station, accompanied by a group of civilians, entered Marcelino Cárdenas's home located at Fundo Pilmaiquén while firing their weapons.

María Ruiz, who worked as a domestic helper in his home, was shot by the Carabineros inside the house after she refused to answer an interrogation. She died the following day due to acute anemia from a complicated open wound in her right leg, as recorded in her Death Certificate.

Marcelino Cárdenas was detained on that occasion by the Carabineros and taken to a machine room of the National Electricity Company (ENDESA) located near the house. His relatives heard gunshots and went to the site, where they found traces of blood.

In their search, they combed the Pilmaiquén River, but only found the jacket and scarf he was wearing when he was detained. Two days before his detention, Marcelino Cárdenas had been released on bail from the Valdivia prison.

He had been under prosecution by the Military Prosecutor's Office of that city since October 1973, accused of violating the Arms Control Law. The following week, the same Carabineros raided the house again and detained José Gilberto González de la Torre, a boarder and friend of the family.

According to what witnesses told the family, eight days later, his body was spotted floating in the Pilmaiquén River; the Carabineros retrieved it and buried it in a mass grave at the Río Bueno Cemetery.

However, despite efforts made, his remains have not yet been located by his relatives. Considering the information received and the investigation conducted by this Corporation, the Superior Council reached the conviction that María del Carmen Ruiz Ojeda was executed by State agents outside of any legal process while she was in detention; and that Marcelino Cárdenas Villegas and José Gilberto González de la Torre were detained by State agents and disappeared while in that status.

For this reason, it declared them victims of human rights violations.

Source: (Corporation Report)

Valdivia Court orders the State to indemnify children of man executed at hydroelectric plant in 1973.

The Court of Appeals rejected the appeal filed by the State Defense Council, which sought to overturn the first-instance ruling. In a unanimous ruling, the Valdivia Court of Appeals ordered the State of Chile to pay a total indemnity of $240,000,000 to the four children of Marcelino Cárdenas Villegas, who was executed in December 1973 by Carabineros from the Salto del Pilmaiquén station.

The Court of Appeals rejected the appeal filed by the State Defense Council, which sought to overturn the first-instance resolution (case file 3.777-2016), issued in December of last year by the First Civil Court of Valdivia.

The first-instance judgment maintains that, as stated in the Report of the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, better known as the Rettig Report, in Volume II, page 1164, and as established in case file ROL 1.673-2003 of the Illustrious Court of Appeals of Valdivia—a sentence ratified by the Supreme Court in case ROL 1686-2013, which is currently final—on December 30 or 31, 1973, Carabineros from the Salto del Pilmaiquén station arrived at the home of Marcelino Cárdenas Villegas, firing at his house and at a woman who was caring for his children named María del Carmen Ruiz Ojeda, who later died at the same location from blood loss. They then proceeded to detain the aforementioned Cárdenas Villegas without legal cause, transporting him to a place near the machine room of the Hydroelectric Plant, where he was killed (seventy-seventh consideration, page 10796, ROL 1673-2003). The resolution adds that, in accordance with the testimonial evidence referred to above, the documentary evidence provided—especially the psychiatric reports conducted by the forensic expert and psychiatrist Mauricio Jeldres Vargas—reaches the same conclusion: all the plaintiffs suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome and recurrent depressive disorder. All of this is a consequence of the detention and disappearance of their father in the days immediately following the 1973 military coup. Therefore, the experience of suffering and irreparable loss is comparable to the concept of moral damages. Therefore, it concludes that the civil lawsuit for compensation for damages due to moral injury is accepted and, consequently, the STATE OF CHILE is ordered to pay the sum of $60,000,000 to each of the plaintiffs, and since there are four plaintiffs, the total amount the defendant is ordered to pay is the sum of $240,000,000.

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl 4/3/2019

Date: 04-03-2019

Eight police officers prosecuted for human rights violations

Eight police officers and the wife of one of them were prosecuted by an Osorno judge for their responsibility in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping, homicide, and concealment committed after the military coup.

The eight defendants, one officer and seven non-commissioned officers—all of whom are retired—remain in custody as a preventive measure in the facilities of a Carabineros barracks in Osorno. The prosecution was ordered by Judge Raúl Ramírez, a magistrate with exclusive dedication to investigating human rights violation cases.

Ramírez has now prosecuted Lieutenant Colonel Baros Muñoz and former non-commissioned officers Mario Cabello, Sergio Jaramillo, René Bórquez, and Orozimbo Sepúlveda, charged with the aggravated kidnapping of Francisco Martínez and Reinaldo Huentequeo, who were detained on October 6, 1973.

Last Friday, he had decided to prosecute former non-commissioned officers Raúl Zapata and Carlos Ovando as authors of the aggravated homicide of the communist militant Gilberto González de la Torre, an event that occurred in January 1974.

For the same crime, in the capacity of accessories after the fact, former non-commissioned officer Camilo Astete and Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Baros were prosecuted. These four police officers were also prosecuted for the aggravated kidnapping of brothers Eduardo and Alfredo Pacheco, and of Juan Mancilla, Teobaldo Paillacheo, Valentín Cárdenas, and Enrique González, all communist militants opposed to Pinochet who were forcibly disappeared since October 1973, when they were taken to the Pilmaiquén police station.

Meanwhile, non-commissioned officer Astete and his wife, Elsa Vilugrón, were subjected to prosecution as alleged authors of the aggravated kidnapping of Marcelino Cárdenas, who was detained on December 30, 1973, and sent to the same Pilmaiquén barracks in Osorno.

Source: January 16, 2004, La Nacion

Date: 01-16-2004