translated from Spanish: Former Providencia mayor Cristián Labbé convicted of torture in Panguipulli

His past in dictatorship continues to haunt former Army “black beret” and former mayor of Providencia Cristián Labbé Galilea, who was convicted by the visiting minister Alvaro Mesa Latorre, for torture against the prison Panguipulli politician Harry Edwards Cohen Vera in November 1973.
The events occurred in the town of the Los Ríos region, when Cohen was stopped by a patrol, in the so-called “Operation Peineta”, carried out by military personnel in the mountain range between Concepción and Valdivia, and whose objective was to capture people opposed to dictatorship. According to the victim’s testimony, Labbé threatened him with a hamstring that he would cut his throat and led the torture sessions where he was subjected to electric shocks, among other victims. According to the ruling, Minister Mesa sentenced the former Officer of the Army to the effective sentence of three years and the legal ancillary corresponding to the suspension of public office or office during the time of the sentence. In addition, the magistrate ordered the Fisco of Chile to pay compensation of $30 million to Cohen Vera, for moral damage resulting from the unlawful constraints suffered in his person.
During the military dictatorship, Labbé was a bodyguard for Augusto Pinochet and an agent of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) and since 2003 has been investigated for cases of torture and human rights violations. In fact, in 2014, he was already remanded in custody for another case, the disappearance of 13 people in the Green Gables regiment of the Valparaiso region, where he is investigated by illicit association. In 2017 he was detained for a month in the Tucapel Infantry Regiment of Temuco on the orders of Minister Mesa himself, who investigates human rights violations of the Court of Appeals of Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Montt and Coyhaique.
Labbé is retired from political life after serving as mayor of Providence. from 1996 to 2012, when he lost the election at the hands of Josefa Errázuriz. Four years later he declined to attempt a new application, and in passing he renounced his militancy at the UDI.
The facts
The affected Harry Edwards Cohen Vera, 26 at the time of the events, was a 2nd year student of the “Electronics” career of the New World Professional Institute of Santiago. According to the resolution, on 6 November 1973 he traveled to the town of Futrono and the next day, while at his relatives’ house, a group of “black berets” stormed the home, who stormed the site and stopped it Jaime Rozas González.
Both were immediately transferred to the Carabineros de Futrono retainer, and were subsequently driven by military personnel to a helicopter that was perched in the city square, at which point it was possible to notice in addition to the presence of others as detainees, the resolution states.
“On the flight, they were threatened with throwing them into Lake Riñihue but later landed a place they recognize as a school located in the city of Panguipulli,” the inquiry adds. That’s when Cohen first met Labbé, who “heavily armed and in camouflage clothing threatened him, with a white gun (corvo), which would cut his throat,” the process notes.
Labbé is mentioned again by the victim when recounting other torments. “He was removed from his cell blindfolded and wearing a hooded sack over his head, strapped to his feet and hands, being transported in a truck to a place that could apparently correspond to a cellar. That in these circumstances he was hung with his hands tied behind his back, allowing him to lean only with the tip of his fingers to the ground. That at that time he is questioned by three military personnel, in respect of whom he was able to identify the voice of that burly officer described in the preceding point, who in burlesque form repeatedly made scopes to his Semitic origin. In this interrogation they connected electrodes on his ankle and wrists, which systematically produced increasingly intense electric shocks, at the same time that he was questioned,” the resolution describes.

Original source in Spanish