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This Wednesday, and for more than three hours, declared before the Oral Criminal Court of Angol the former rabbi Carlos Alarcón, charged with the murder of Camilo Catrillanca in November 2018, in Temucuicui. Throughout his story, the ex-uniformed man broke down and cried on more than one occasion, while he was reconstructing the hours after the death of the Mapuche community member and how, according to his testimony, some superiors asked him to deliver a false version of what happened that late.
According to the former GOPE sergeant, once the events occurred, they were instructed to declare that there was a “confrontation” and that there were no audiovisual records of said police procedure.
In this case, it is investigated the participation of members of the Special Police Operations Group of the Carabineros de La Araucanía, who are accused of firing shots at Catrillanca, which caused the death of the 24-year-old, who was driving a tractor with the minor MPC, at which point he was shot and wounded.
Seven Carabineros officials and a lawyer from the police institution are accused by the Public Ministry in the context of the case as perpetrators of crimes consummated murder; frustrated homicide and unlawful coercion of a minor, obstruction of the investigation, forgery of public instrument, infidelity in the custody of documents and prevarication.
In recent weeks there have been a series of testimonies in court. The former Minister of the Interior, Andrés Chadwick, testified as a witness, and the General (r) of the Carabineros also testified, Mauro Victtoriano, The general (r) Christian franzani and the former general director of the Carabineros, Hermes Soto.
Next, part of the story of the ex-uniformed man.
According to Alarcón’s presentation, once the police procedure had taken place, all the police forces were ordered to leave the scene of the event and go to the Pailahueque Special Forces police station.
According to their version, there the legal advisor Cristián Inostroza (who was later formalized) together with members of the leadership. “From the beginning I said that I held myself responsible and that I would go with the truth at all times. (Later he maintained that from the first moment he was one of the uniformed men who shot). They tell me no, stay calm, the legal advisor was waiting for me “.
“I told him how the procedure had happened, everything we did, the whole thing, (Inostroza) left the office in the direction of the hall, after a few minutes he enters, they call him on the phone, I ignore it well, we kept telling him more details, as they arose, he went out again, went back in and told us: ‘Now guys, you are going to give a statement to the Prosecutor’s Office and have to say that you were attacked from the side of the road, that there was crossfire, that the tractor crossed the line of fire, which you never targeted ”, he expressed.
Alarcón assured that after listening to the legal advisor he stated: “That is not right, I am assuming my responsibility, but that is not right.”
The former rabbi said that the head of the GOPE in La Araucanía, Major Manuel Valdivieso, asked them who was carrying a camera at the time of the operation, to which Raúl Ávila (who was later in preventive detention) would have answered affirmatively. “Immediately my eldest Valdivieso says that they must be eliminated”, said Alarcón, adding that the legal advisor also instructed them that “it must be said that no one walks with a camera.”
“I took my head your honor, I said this is not right, it is not like that, it is not right, this is going to be known and it will be worse.” Upon hearing him, the ex-uniformed man recounted, Valdivieso told him: “Hey hueón, do what you’re being told, or do you want to go to jail?”.
Asked later by the Ombudsman for Children, Patricia Muñoz, about her reaction to hearing that message, she replied: “I was silent. We are a police institution with a military nature, so when we are given an order we must comply with it (…) The situation in which I found myself, all I did was keep silent and take my head “.
According to Alarcón’s version, on November 16 they were called from the GOPE unit where the advisor Inostroza was waiting for them again, who while “taking their heads” told them: “The shit was left. This, because images were already circulating in which Ávila was seen carrying cameras on his helmet. It is at that moment that Inostroza instructed Ávila to say that “He was walking with the camera but he didn’t have the card because he had intimate videos with his wife on the card”.
“How would the pressure we had that they were going to place even Sergeant Avila’s own wife for a lie? We couldn’t take it anymore. We went to the office of my eldest Valdivieso, the four of us (referring to those who made up the patrol) went in, and my eldest Valdivieso, a very kind and good person, told us: ‘They have to give a statement at the PDI but they have to stay in their version‘. I once again tell him: “My major, this is not right. This is going to go wrong, this is going to be worse”.
Alarcón assured that after insisting with his subsequent statements, Major Valdivieso told him: “Hey hueon, you are the weakest.” “My biggest Valdivieso fell from the sky”He added at the time of the statement where he was visibly excited.
“Weak for wanting to tell the truth? That is how your honor was treated and I am the one who is carrying the most, with the most terrible charges, your honor. I was treated as weak, the person who was facing the procedure, risking my life, I am very sorry for what happened. There is no time of day that I do not regret having used the firearm. I have never had anything against the Mapuche people. I’m sorry that Camilo Catrillanca has died, since that day my life died ”, said the former criminal accused of the murder of Camilo Catrillanca.
In his account, and about the first versions delivered, the former sergeant would also assure: “I have been questioned a lot due to that decision to comply with the order to testify falsely. Put yourself in the situation we are living in. One person was injured and subsequently passed away. Being told: ‘declare this or you want to go to jail’ is hard. No one on the patrol agreed to make a false statement. What’s more, I was the one who said “not my oldest” the rest of the patrol was silent “.
“If we see a person who was a civilian, who is a civil advisor (referring to the legal advisor), it will be good to say that to lessen the aggravation of the situation and if later my own boss comes and reiterates and reiterates it to me in this blunt way ‘say, declare this’, where am I? I think that in my point of view I made a forced declaration because it was not my intention. From the beginning I assumed my responsibility in the procedure ”.
This is not the first time Former Sergeant Carlos Alarcón testifies in the Catrillanca case. In December 2018 he assured that his intention was never to kill the Mapuche community member.
“The adrenaline, the police zeal made me go beyond what was necessary … I also remember having seen very clearly the young man who was on the tractor and I never wanted to shoot him, much less injure or kill him”.
In that instance he also assured that “from the first moment I had the intention of clarifying what had happened.” In that version, he recounted events similar to those reported on this day.
“When we left the procedure we had to go to the Collipulli prosecutor’s office by order of the Prosecutor, however, they sent us to Pailahueque where we held a meeting with my Major Valdivieso and the legal advisor Cristian Inostroza. In this meeting, I told the lawyer Inostroza and my Major what had happened “, he expressed at the time.
Regarding the legal advisor Cristián Inostroza said that “the lawyer spoke permanently with someone on the phone, I don’t know with whom, but after hearing my version he left the office and returned. After hearing the versions of what had happened, the lawyer told us that we had to say that we had fired warning or deterrent shots and that we did not shoot the tractor. I want to make it clear that when we met the tractor I felt shots in the distance, but there was no confrontational situation ”, emphasizes the exGOPE.
