On October 17, 1973, in the early hours of the morning, thirteen people who were being held in detention were executed: Winston Dwight CABELLO BRAVO, 28 years old, commercial engineer, Provincial Head of the National Planning Office (ODEPLAN) and a militant of the Partido Socialista.

He was arrested on September 12 at the Intendencia and transferred to the Regimiento de Copiapó, currently the Regimiento Capitán Rafael Torreblanca. Agapito del Carmen CARVAJAL GONZALEZ […] Fernando CARVAJAL GONZALEZ […] Manuel Roberto CORTAZAR HERNANDEZ […] Alfonso Ambrosio GAMBOA FARIAS […] Raúl del Carmen GUARDIA OLIVARES […] Raúl Leopoldo de Jesús LARRAVIDE LOPEZ […] Edwin Ricardo MANCILLA HESS […] Adolfo Mario PALLERAS NORAMBUENA […] Jaime Iván SIERRA CASTILLO […] Atilio Ernesto UGARTE GUTIERREZ […] Néctor Leonelo VICENTI CARTAGENA […] Pedro Emilio PEREZ FLORES […] Regarding several of the aforementioned individuals, the Commission has been able to verify that they were subjected to torture and other illegitimate duress.

Through an official statement published in the newspaper Atacama on October 18, 1973, the Head of the Zone under State of Siege reported the death of the thirteen individuals identified above, claiming that an escape plan had been detected among the prisoners of the Presidio de Copiapó.

The Military Prosecutor's Office had proceeded, due to the lack of security and the existing prison overcrowding, to "transfer a group of the most dangerous defendants under Military Justice to the Cárcel presidio de La Serena." The official statement continued by relating that they had been transported in a truck from the Regimiento, which had suffered an electrical failure almost upon reaching the summit of the Cuesta Cardones. "Taking advantage of the fact that the driver and assistant were busy fixing the malfunction, the detainees surprisingly took advantage of the carelessness of one of the sentries, jumped to the ground, and fled toward the pampa. Although the sentries shouted 'halt!' at them several times and even fired into the air to intimidate them, they did not stop. In view of this situation, the same report continues, they proceeded to fire upon the fugitives, wounding thirteen of them, who died at the scene."

The date and time of their deaths have been corroborated by various documents, such as death certificates and cemetery records. Their departures from the prison are also duly documented.

After they were killed, their bodies remained inside a truck at the Regimiento de Copiapó, only to be buried later in the local cemetery by military personnel in a single grave, between the final hours of the 17th and the early hours of the 18th.

The precise location of the burial was not disclosed, not even to their families. Only on July 31, 1990, by virtue of a judicial filing made by the Commission, were the remains of these 13 people exhumed and, after their identification, handed over to their families for final burial.

This Commission rejects the official version that it was necessary to kill the aforementioned individuals to prevent their escape, in consideration of the following circumstances: – The thirteen victims had been selected to be transferred to La Serena due to their dangerousness, according to the official version itself, which leads to the presumption that they were guarded by a large military contingent in a previously organized operation; all of which leads one to think that, even if the vehicle malfunction had occurred, the surveillance was sufficient to have prevented their escape attempt before they began to run across the pampa; – It also seems implausible to this Commission that a heavily armed military patrol would have needed to kill thirteen prisoners fleeing through the desert as the only means to recapture them. This point is reaffirmed by the consideration of the physical condition in which some of the detainees were, after several days of confinement. The Commission also learned of several detailed and consistent testimonies that account for the torture to which many of them were subjected; – It seems unlikely that, in order to suppress an escape attempt by thirteen prisoners, it would have been necessary to execute all of them on the spot; – The fact that their lifeless bodies could not be seen by their families suggests an intent to conceal; – The state in which the remains were found upon exhumation indicates that these people were executed while they were under the total control and at the mercy of military personnel, which is absolutely inconsistent with the official version. The remains of several of them were found mutilated, without bullet impacts, and with clear signs of cutting with a bladed weapon.

In view of the above, the Commission formed the conviction that these thirteen people were executed by State agents without any justification, which constitutes a grave violation of their human rights.

The Commission has learned of diverse and qualified testimonies regarding who may have participated in the planning and execution of these grave events, but it has not been able to form a conviction, nor is it within its mandate to establish personal responsibilities, regarding which, consequently, it does not pronounce itself.