The Second Chamber of the Supreme Court convicted 20 members of the Air Force, the Army and civilians for their responsibility in the crimes of qualified homicide of health officials Hernán Henríquez Aravena and Alejandro Flores Rivera, and application of illegitimate coercion to Jorge Silhi Zarzar, Víctor Painemal Alegría and Sergio Riquelme Inostroza, crimes that occurred starting in September 1973 at the Maquehue Air Base, as well as in the Tucapel regiment and the military prosecutor’s office of Temuco.
In this way, the highest court rejected all the appeals presented by the defense of the convicted and left firm the second instance sentence handed down in December 2020 by the Court of Appeals of Temuco and sentenced Crisóstomo Hugo Ferrada, Carrasco, Enrique Alberto Rebolledo Sotelo, Heriberto Pereira Rojas, Jorge Aliro Valdebenito Isler, Jorge Eduardo Soto Herrera, Luis Osmán Yáñez Silva, Luis Alberto Soto Pinto and Leonardo Reyes Herrera to 20 years in prison, as perpetrators of the crimes of qualified homicide of Hernán Henríquez Aravena and Alejandro Flores Rivera, and the crimes of illegitimate coercion of Jorge Silhi Zarzar, Víctor Hugo Painemal Arriagada, Sergio Riquelme Inostroza and Hernán Henríquez Aravena.
Likewise, former military prosecutor Oscar Alfonso Ernesto Podlech Michaud was sentenced to twelve years in prison, as the author of the crime of qualified homicide of Hernán Henríquez Aravena, and Luis Raimundo Quezada Chandía was sentenced to 17 years, as the author of the same crime, against by Hernán Henríquez Aravena and Alejandro Flores Rivera. Podlech, by the way, has several other convictions for human rights reasons, among them those related to the “powder keg” case and the disappearance of Jaime Eltit. He was also accused in Italy of the disappearance of Omar Venturelli, but was acquitted in that case.
The highest court also sentenced Pablo Aquiles Alister Conteras to four years as an accessory to the crimes of simple homicide of Hernán Henríquez Aravena and Alejandro Flores Rivera, and as an accomplice to the crimes of illegitimate coercion against Jorge Silhi Zarzar, Víctor Hugo Painemal Arriagada and Sergio Riquelme Inostroza.
Also sentenced to three years and one day were Jaime Mauricio Echenique Seco, Berthold Erwin Bohn Sauterel, Aníbal Arturo Tejos Echeverría, Enrique Alcides Isaacs Casacuberta, Antonio Sergio Monserrat Mena, Rodolfo Ernesto Schmied Callejón, Víctor Manuel Volante Leonardi, Xavier Fernando Pérez Chávez and Rogelio Aníbal Olivares Torruella to 3 years and one day, as accessories to the crimes of simple homicide of Hernán Henríquez Aravena and Alejandro Flores Rivera and the illegitimate restraints against Jorge Silhi Zarzar, Víctor Hugo Painemal Arriagada and Sergio Riquelme Inostroza.
The plaintiff lawyer Nelson Caucoto, who represents Dr. Ruth Kries, wife of Hernán Henríquez, valued the sentence, pointing out that it is “a ruling that ratifies the excellent work that Minister Álvaro Meza has done in Temuco, in the human rights processes that he processes. This ruling has special importance for the region, since both soldiers and airmen spread terror in the area during the coup d’état. “Both the Tucapel Regiment and the Maquehue Air Base were centers of torture, extermination and suffering for many inhabitants of the towns of Araucanía.”
Caucoto adds that “to this day, no one has explained why Dr. Hernán Henríquez Aravena and his collaborators, including doctors and health teachers, were murdered. His progressive vision of the future of Chile and his objective of integrating the Mapuche people into urban health, respecting their uses, traditions and health customs, cost him his life. A great loss for Chile. Honoring his figure, the city hospital is named after him,” he noted.
The facts
Hernán Henríquez Aravena (38) was a surgeon, Head of the National Health Service of the Provinces of Malleco and Cautín, and Alejandro Flores Rivera (33) was an official at the Temuco Regional Hospital and Regional President of the National Federation of Health Workers (Fenats). Both were active in the Communist Party.
According to the investigation, after the military coup, both victims were summoned to appear voluntarily before the Military Prosecutor’s Office, an order issued by the then prosecutor Alfonso Podlech, who sent them to jail and then to house arrest, but they were later arrested again and transferred to the Maquehue Air Base, where they were brutally tortured.
On October 2, 1973, both were taken from that compound by members of the Air Force, this being the last time they were seen alive.
On October 5, the military authority of the time informed the citizens, through Band No. 9, that “in response to the escape attempt planned by Alejandro Flores Rivera, in complicity with Hernán Henríquez Aravena, while they were detained in the Group Barracks No. 3 of Helicopters and in connivance with individuals who tried to help them from the outside, they were eliminated by the guard. The other subjects fled without any casualties. These extremist elements were buried.”
Although the death certificates indicate the date of death of both victims as October 2, 1973, the official version delivered on that occasion did not report the date on which they were executed or the place where they were buried.
Read the Supreme Court ruling