PART THREE
Chapter One (A.2)

September through December 1973 (continued)

1. HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS COMMITTED BY GOVERNMENT AGENTS OR PERSONS WORKING FOR THEM (continued)
   
   
   2. CASES (continued)
      
      
      13. Twelfth Region-Magallanes and the Artártica Chilena
          
          
          1. Overview
             
             This section deals with five cases of human rights violations which occurred in the Magallanes and the Artártica Chilena Region between September 11 and the end of 1973. All of these cases ended in death, and in all of them the Commission came to the conviction that the government was responsible due to the actions of its agents or persons at their service.
             
             All branches of the armed forces jointly assumed maximum authority over the Twelfth Region, which currently encompasses the provinces of Ultima Esperanza, Magallanes, Tierra del Fuego, and Antártica Chilena. They were subordinated to a military structure unique in the country, called the Southern Military Region; its command structure was identical to that of the Fifth Army Division. On September 11 a region-wide Provincial Military Junta, including the army, navy, and air force representatives, was established. The police were included in this structure. This provincial junta was terminated September 20, 1973 by means of Decree No. 42, issued by the junta itself. The intelligence services in the region were also coordinated under a single structure called SIRMA (Intelligence Service of the Southern Military Region).
             
             All killings were explained as resulting from attacks on official troops or from escape attempts. Some of the victims were members of left political parties, while others were not known to be politically active.
             
             The main detention sites in the region were:
             
             
             • The former naval hospital in Punta Arenas, known as the "Palace of Smiles." The military intelligence service operated here, interrogating prisoners brought in after being arrested elsewhere.
               
               
             • Motorized Infantry Regiment No. 10-Pudeto, in Punta Arenas. According to International Red Cross Reports, on September 28, 1973 there were 119 prisoners at this location. The prisoners were housed in the gymnasium, which measures 25 by 40 meters and is four meters high, and they had to sleep on the steps which were only 80 cm. [31 inches] wide. There was not enough heat, and prisoners each had two blankets. Hygienic conditions were acceptable, and the treatment of prisoners and prison discipline were normal. At the time of the report five prisoners were being held in solitary confinement.
               
               
             • Dawson Island, one hundred kilometers south of Punta Arenas, on the other side of the straits of Magellan. The prison camp was located between the airfield and Puerto Harris navy base, and had been prepared a few days before September 11, 1973. This camp was divided into two sections, Compingin, which operated from September 11-December 20, 1973, and Río Chico which was used from September 21, 1973-December 30, 1974. According to the International Red Cross report, 99 people were being held prisoner on September 29, 1973, all for political reasons. The four barracks reserved for prisoners were separated from the rest of the camp by barbed wire. Prisoners from Santiago, all of whom were prominent figures from the deposed government, were held in Section S, which was separated from other sections by sheets of metal and wire fencing. Prisoners from Magallanes were held in Sections A, E and F. Heating and ventilation were insufficient. Each prisoner had only two blankets. Medical attention was inadequate. Prisoners were forced to work in the fields. On Dawson Island cells were divided into three levels of punishment: prisoners on level one were allowed clothing and blankets; on level two they had no blankets, and on level three they had neither clothing nor blankets.
               
               
             • Armored Batallion No. 5-General René Schneider (now Armored Batallion No. 6-Dragones). On September 30, five people, four women and one man, were being held prisoner here. More prisoners, primarily women, arrived later. According to the Red Cross, conditions at this facility were good.
               
               
             • Marine Detachment No. 4-Cochrane. On December 13 there were 85 prisoners at this site, including 20 who were minors. They were housed in a barracks that measured 25 by 15 meters and was four meters high. They had 42 bunk beds (84 beds) and little defense against the cold. Inside the barracks there was a barrel for urinating; the latrines were outside. This place was wet and cold. The food was good and sufficient, but prisoners had to eat while standing. As elsewhere, the prisoners complained of mistreatment, and the evidence of such mistreatment was evident to the eye, according to competent witnesses. People were treated roughly while they were under interrogation. Members of the military intelligence service conducted the interrogation.
               
               
             • The Punta Arenas stadium, which was run by the air force. On December 13 there were 38 prisoners who were housed in a pavilion near the back gate. There were four rooms of four and a half by five meters. The International Red Cross regarded the general conditions as good.
               
               
             • Bahía Catalina, which was also run by the air force, held only a few prisoners, those regarded as most dangerous.
               
               
             In the Magallanes Region the use of torture was routine. It is estimated that in 1973 around one thousand persons were imprisoned and subjected to such treatment. In some places prisoners had to pay for their food.
             
             
          2. Cases of grave human rights violations in the Region of Magallanes and Antártica Chilena
             
             On September 30, 1973, José Orlando ALVAREZ BARRIA, 28, a worker who was not known to be politically active, was killed in Punta Arenas. The previous day close to the curfew hour he left his house to go to the store. Witnesses observed him being halted in the street by an army patrol. Shortly afterward a shot was heard. The next day the body of José Alvarez was found in the local morgue. The death certificate says that the place of death was the armed forces hospital, and as the cause of death it lists: acute loss of blood, irreversible shock; bleeding peritoneum; ruptured colon and bladder; penetrating abdominal bullet wound with complications. The official report says he was shot when he offered resistance to a military patrol and physically attacked an officer; it states that he was participating in an underground meeting with six other people who were also arrested
             
             Since it is unlikely that José Alvarez, alone, unarmed and in the custody of an armed patrol, would have made such an attack; since there is no proof that there was any such alleged meeting, or that any other people were arrested with him; and since shortly before the fatal shot was fired he was seen against a wall with his hands in the air, this Commission has come to the conviction that he was executed by the government agents who arrested him.
             
             On October 24, 1973, Jorge Manuel PARRA ALARCON, 38, the foreman of the repair shop of the National Petroleum Company in Cerro Sombrero who was active in the Socialist party, died of bullet wounds. Soldiers had come to arrest him at work on October 15 and had taken him to a house that the army had prepared to serve as a detention and interrogation center in Cerro Sombrero. At that house his captors continually mistreated and humiliated him. According to credible testimony, on October 24, as an official was abusing him, Jorge Parra tried to defend himself by hitting back. The officer shot him and left him very seriously wounded. He was taken to Porvenir, but was dead upon arrival. The death certificate states that the cause of death was shock due to hemorrhage and penetrating bullet wounds damaging vital organs. His body was never turned over to his family. Military Decree No. 24 issued by the joint military command stated that he had been killed for attacking an officer while he was undergoing interrogation.
             
             It is this Commission's conviction that Jorge Parra suffered a grave assault against his human rights, and specifically his right to life insofar as the officer's action was unjustified, given the obvious lack of proportion between the action of an unarmed prisoner whose physical capacities had been lessened by mistreatment and the reaction of the government agent who shot at him. There are more rational and appropriate means for subduing an unarmed prisoner than shooting him to death. Finally, the Commission is aware that his remains were not returned to his relatives for burial, suggesting that the aim was to conceal matters.
             
             On October 30, 1973,
             
             Carlos Raúñl BAIGORRI HERNANDEZ, 31, a teacher at the local school who was an active Communist,
             
             Germán Simón CARCAMO CARRASCO, 24, a Socoagro employee who was an active Socialist, and
             
             Ramón Domingo GONZALEZ ORTEGA, 37, an employee of the income tax service who was not known to be politically active,
             
             were executed at the Caupolicán Regiment in Porvenir. These three people were arrested separately at their homes on previous days and after being taken to other prison sites were brought to the Caupolicán Regiment in Porvenir. Early on the morning of October 30 they were taken from the place where they slept and led by some junior officers to the artillery range. There they were forced to run and were then shot down and killed. According to reliable testimony, presented before this Commission, they were shot on the artillery range at 4:00 a.m. October 30, in order to make an object lesson of them.
             
             The official account of the event published in the October 31 edition of La Prensa Austral claimed that the prisoners had escaped at midnight on October 29, and that the patrols that went out pursuing them found them about twenty kilometers from Porvenir. It went on to say that when the prisoners failed to heed the order to halt, the soldiers shot and killed them. The bodies were returned to the relatives several days after these events.
             
             The Commission came to the conviction that the deaths of Baigorri, Cárcamo and González were actually extrajudicial executions and constituted grave human rights violations. That conviction was supported by the following considerations:
             
             
             • Reliable witnesses have given testimony on these events; specifically they have testified that three junior officers took the prisoners from the barracks.
               
               
             • It is unlikely that in such a short time and under such conditions those who had escaped could have gone twenty kilometers.
               
               
             • It is not very plausible that prisoners could escape from a facility like a regiment which is normally well guarded, and even more so when prisoners are under arrest there.
               
               
             • Trustworthy testimony taken by the Commission indicates that these people had been told they were going to be released the following day, thus making an escape attempt even more unlikely.
               
               
             • Under no circumstances does it seem that in order to recapture unarmed fugitives it should be necessary to kill them.
               
               

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Posted by USIP Library on: October 4 2002
Source: Report of the Chilean National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation
(Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1993), vol. I/II, Part Three, Chapter One (A.2.m), 449-453.
Note: Digitized and posted by permission of the University of Notre Dame Press, February 22, 2000.