The minister on extraordinary visit Marianela Cifuentes, of the Court of San Miguel, condemned seven former soldiers as perpetrators of the kidnapping of eleven peasants, events that occurred in October 1973, in what is known as the Paine Aculeo episode.
In her ruling of more than two hundred pages, the judge condemned retired Army Colonels Osvaldo Andrés Magaña Bau, Iván de la Fuente, Alejandro Emilio Valdés Visintainer, and Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena; the former carabinero Sergio Heriberto Ávila Quiroga and prefect of Investigations Roberto Arcángel Rozas Aguilera to the penalty of 18 years of major prison in its maximum degree as authors of the qualified kidnapping of the eleven victims. Meanwhile, former Army Major General Julio Cerda Carrasco received a 15-year sentence for the same crime.
According to the investigation, the convicts arrested, tortured and executed agricultural workers Santo Calderón Saldaño, Benjamín Camus Silva, José Manuel Díaz Inostroza, Rolando Donaire Rodríguez, Luis González Mondaca, Francisco Lizama Irarrázaval, Pedro Meneses Brito, Juan Manuel Ortiz Acevedo, Luis Ortiz Acevedo, Bautista Oyarzo Torres and Jorge Pavez Henríquez, between 13 and 20 October 1973 in the rural area of Aculeo.
For the plaintiff lawyer Andrea Gattini, of the Law Firm Caucoto Abogados, “this ruling, after so many years of processing, signifies a new light of hope for those who have waited so patiently for truth, justice and reparation for the atrocities committed in Paine, a town especially hit by the dictatorship. It is a ruling that we received very satisfied, with penalties commensurate with the seriousness of the crimes committed, and that grants reparation to all the relatives who sued. I believe that we are on the right track, and we hope that what has been resolved will be confirmed in the remaining instances.”
On 13 October 1973, soldiers from the San Bernardo Infantry School, together with a police officer and a civilian from the sector, carried out raids and arrests in various peasant settlements of the Agrarian Reform, located in the vicinity of the Aculeo lagoon, in the commune of Paine.
On that occasion, the peasant leaders were arrested, including: José Manuel Díaz Inostroza, president of the Mansel Alto settlement; Francisco Javier Lizama Irarrázaval and Jorge Manuel Pavez Henríquez, president and treasurer, respectively, of the El Patagual settlement and the brothers Juan Manuel Ortiz Acevedo and Luis Celerino Ortiz Acevedo, president and vice president of the Rangue settlement.
They did the same on October 20 of that year, this time in the sector of El Vínculo, Huiticalán and El Patagual, arresting Pedro Juan Meneses Brito, president of the El Vínculo settlement and Luis Osvaldo González Mondaca, president of the Huiticalán settlement and the agricultural workers Santos Pascual Calderón Saldaña, Benjamín Adolfo Camus Silva, Rolando Anastasio Donaire Rodríguez and Bautista Segundo Oyarzo Torres.
The victims were then transferred to the prisoner camp of the San Bernardo Infantry School, on Chena Hill, where they were subjected to interrogations under torture, and then executed with a firearm and their bodies illegally buried and abandoned.
This prison camp was headed by Army Captain Victor Raul Pinto Perez, now deceased, and Army Lieutenant Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena. Army Lieutenant Osvaldo Andres Alonso Magana Bau, Carabineros Lieutenant Sergio Heriberto Avila Quiroga, and Investigative Police officers Oscar Hernan Vergara Cruces and Roberto Arcángel Rozas Aguilera were also in charge of the interrogations.
According to the investigation, on October 23, 1973, the bodies of José Manuel Díaz Inostroza and Santos Pascual Calderón Saldaña, Benjamín Adolfo Camus Silva, Luis Osvaldo González Mondaca and Pedro Juan Meneses Brito were found on the banks of the Maipo River, at the height of the Maipo Bridge.
On November 13, 1973, the bodies of Francisco Javier Lizama Irarrázaval, Juan Manuel Ortiz Acevedo, Luis Celerino Ortiz Acevedo, Rolando Anastasio Donaire Rodríguez and Bautista Segundo Oyarzo Torres were found half buried and in a state of rot, all inside the San Vicente de Lo Arcaya estate, pirque commune
Finally the remains of Jorge Manuel Pavez Henríquez were found in tomb No. 2.476 of pauncle 29 of the General Cemetery.
