Case File 113.969: Qualified homicide of Hernán Henríquez Aravena, Alejandro Flores Rivera, and unlawful coercion of Jorge Silhi Zarzar and others

9) Virginio Cárdenas León. In an extrajudicial statement on page 195 (Volume I). In a judicial statement from page 200 to page 201 (Volume I) dated June 13, 2003, he ratifies the account shown to him, stating that he spoke with Mr.

Víctor Maturana and a woman whose name he does not recall approximately one month ago, and that this account corresponds to what he told them. Indeed, on September 11, 1973, he held the rank of 1st Corporal and served as a mess steward at the Maquehue Air Base, specifically at the Non-Commissioned Officers' mess.

Regarding the events that are the subject of this investigation, he says that one day—he does not recall the exact date, but it was shortly after the military coup occurred—a colleague named Jorge Guillermo Salgado Salgado, who currently lives in Iquique, came to the kitchen and told him verbatim, "you have two new boarders, Flores and Doctor Henríquez" ("boarders" was the term used for detainees).

The deponent recalls that the news shocked him greatly, as he knew Flores personally; the deponent was a great boxing fan and Flores fought as an amateur, so he had seen him fight several times and had even struck up more than one conversation with him, as his wife had been a staff member at the Hospital.

After approximately one day—the truth is he does not remember well if a full day passed or if it was the same night they arrived—this same Salgado told him that they had taken Flores and Henríquez (Doctor Hernán Henríquez) from the Air Base, without telling him who had taken them or where, as he had gone off duty at 08:00 hours and this occurred at night during the curfew, and they were never spoken of again.

In any case, he adds that in his opinion, Salgado had no way of knowing where Doctor Henríquez and Flores were taken, because within the Maquehue Air Base, what had been the control tower was set up as a place for the detention and torture of detainees, and absolutely no one who was not involved in the work carried out there—that is, the detention and torture of political prisoners—could enter that sector.

It is for this reason that he can provide the names of officers and enlisted personnel who participated in the detention, torture, and in many cases, the executions and forced disappearance of people, since they entered and worked in that sector which was off-limits to all other personnel.

Among the officers, he can mention Squadron Commander Fernández, who was the second-in-command of the group; this gentleman did as he pleased in the unit, taking advantage of the fact that the Commander of the unit, Group Commander Andrés Pacheco, gave him his full confidence after the military coup and practically left him in charge of the base, as he began to attend the Tucapel Regiment assiduously, where he worked alongside Pablo Iturriaga.

He also remembers Squadron Commanders Luis Puebla Leiva and Enrique Isaac Casacuberta, and Lieutenants Ángel Campos Quiroga and Jorge Freyggang (currently deceased). Regarding the non-commissioned officers and enlisted personnel, he remembers Enrique Rebolledo, Rubén Marín, Luis Soto Pinto, Orlando "Huaso" Garrido, Pedro Espinoza, and Francisco Salazar Echeverría.

Furthermore, he mentions soldier Hugo Ferrada, who was hired as a nurse at the Maquehue Air Base and who participated actively in both the detention and torture of political prisoners. He also adds that to this group of officers and enlisted personnel, one must add several civilian pilots who, after September 11, 1973, arrived wearing reserve officer uniforms, among whom he remembers Miguel Manríquez, who was from Galvarino, Emilio Sandoval Poo, Camilo Zirotti, Pedro Molina Espinoza, Germán Cantarutti, and two people with the surnames Mandel and Frindt; they also worked in the control tower sector and it was known that they participated in politically motivated detentions. He would not be able to say whether or not they were members of Patria y Libertad before September 11, 1973, but he has the distinct impression that they were. Moreover, he recalls that once, a woman who worked with Emilio Sandoval Poo (whose name he has forgotten) told him that while they were talking about human rights violations, he had told her that if what happened were to be repeated, he would have no problem doing everything he had done again, adding, "after all, I have no problem killing assholes." Regarding the French citizen Etienne Pesle de Menil, he says that he has no knowledge of what happened to him; that name is not familiar to him, and he would even dare to say that it is the first time he has heard it.

Source: Judiciary, January 2, 2020