Former police officer acknowledges torture of Mapuches

By Pedro Cayuqueo, "Lientur" collective - 12 September 2003.

On the 13th August the Immigration Court of London accepted a claim for political asylum by a former Chilean carabinero (police officer) who has been named as a deserter by the Chilean police force since he left the country after denouncing alleged acts of corruption and torture against Mapuche leaders from the South.

Former chief carabinero Julio Cesar Pino Ubilla (JCPU), aged 29, today declared that he has received death threats and could face a 20 year prison sentence from a Chilean Court Martial. The asylum offered him by the English court could also be extended to his wife, Myriam Alejandra Solas Fernandez, aged 30, who also works for the police force. The judge C.J Hubbal is aware of her case.

A judge from the English Immigration court made a surprising decision a few weeks ago when he offered asylum to the former carabinero JCPU, because of the alleged persecution he has suffered from his former force. The resolution, spelt out by the special judge C J Hubbal confirms a series of serious charges made by JCPU who left his force at the end of last year and who arrived in Britain on a tourist visa (incidently flouting the strict security checks that Carabineros de Chile carry out on their employees when leaving the service).

The former officer, who could face a court martial sentence of 20 years imprisonment for deserting the police, claims that he fled the country fearing he would be killed as both he and his wife had received death threats from his superiors. According to his testimony, he was accused of being a "communist" because of his objections to the mistreatment and unnecessary violence which some officers carried out, with the full knowledge of their commanders, both against their juniors and against civilian prisoners, amongst them members of the Mapuche community from the South of the country.

In his presentation to the court, the former police officer recounted a series of abuses against the lower ranks of Carabineros de Chile as well as behaviour contrary to the International Human Rights treaties to which Chile is a signatory, which are normally committed by members of the police against members of low-income groups, the gay and lesbian community, and the Mapuche people.

The former corporal also accused the Chilean authorities of having little political will and not doing enough to put a stop to this sort of situation. It appears that the authorities are either unwilling or unable to offer protection to victims of human rights violations that continue to take place in this democracy. JCPU alleges in his request for political asylum that when he spoke out against the abuse that he witnessed in person or heard about, he was subjected to aggression and harassment including psychological torture and death threats, followed by psychological exams.

The lawyer defending Pino Ubilla in the UK, Vicente Alegria, stated that they are waiting for the Home Office to pass judgement (in the next few days). The Home Office is against offering asylum and has questioned whether the former police officer is telling the truth, instead taking on the argument of Carabineros de Chile that JCPU is suffering from "psychiatric problems", behaving the way he does because he wants to get a British Visa. "No one, in the history of the country and certainly not from Carabineros, has said the things that these people are now telling the British government in order to get asylum seeker status and obtain a residency permit for Britain", stated the High Commander of the force in a press release (yesterday, 11th of September.)

He went on: "On the 30th December 2002, while on prolonged sick leave for psychiatric problems, JCPU presented himself at the Chilean Consulate in London where he identified himself as a carabinero and declared that he was deserting the force. This information was passed on to Carabineros by the Chilean ministry for foreign affairs." It is worth mentioning here that at the same the immigration services in Britain also currently has a claim for political asylum made by Chilean citizen Myriam Solas Fernandez, wife of JCPU who also worked for this armed force.

The reasons given by the court

One of the aspects considered by the adjudicator in this case, which is mentioned in the judicial summary, is the likelihood that, if he were deported, the former carabinero could face a 20 year gaol sentence for the military crime of "desertion". In addition, Hubbal believes that the appellant would not have a fair trial in Chile, and that as a result of his accusations his physical integrity would be in danger should he return to the country. He considered that according to the information in the appeal, just the abuse of [lower ranking] police in Santiago was sufficiently harsh to warrant using the term "persecution". According to the judgement of 13 August, Hubbal did not believe that the Chilean state had any system in place to protect JCPU.

Furthermore, the former carabinero maintained before the immigration court that the uniformed police had on several occasions labelled him a communist, and that consequently his accusations always went unheard because of his supposed politico-ideological links. For this reason the adjudicator felt that the 1951 Convention on Political Refugees should be applied because of the political opinion attributed to the former carabinero. In essence, the security forces were calling him a communist because he spoke out against human rights abuses. The judgement states that the court was convinced that according to the Convention, the appellant had a legitimate reason to fear persecution.

The judgement also goes into some detail with regard to JCPUs accusations of torture. It states that the Chilean police could be classed as agents of persecution and that there is no legal protection that exists for victims of human rights abuses carried out by the Chilean uniformed police. The judgement states that no action is being taken to detect, process and punish anyone for this type of behaviour, and in the next line it adds that the police appear to have impunity when they carry out this kind of abuse.

It observed that according to a report by the State Department of the USA, in 1995 and 1996 the Corporation for Legal Assistance of Santiago received 195 accusations of abuse by police at the point of arrest. In 1997 there were 400 complaints; 815 in 1998; 1179 in 1999 and 1074 in 2000. The text adds that the cases which involved police violence tended to be archived or sent to a military court.

Serious accusations

JCPU's account to the court when he was claiming political asylum, described in precise detail a series of abuse carried out by certain employees of Carabineros against specific social groups, gays, young people with low incomes, and in particular Mapuches from the south of the country, according to the text of the court summary.

The written account which he presented in Britain consisted of 38 pages in which he denounces in detail the torture techniques applied today by the uniformed police, principally against young people from the lowest income groups, gays, street sellers, political activists (anyone who holds protests), prostitutes and immigrants. He also claims to have witnessed the repression of some young people from Pao Nono. In addition, he denounces current employees who carried out work on behalf of repressive forces under Augusto Pinochet's government, mistreatment of lower ranks such as forcing them to pay for services to which only higher ranking officers had access, and stealing funds donated to the directorate of Police Protection for the Family, amongst other serious complaints.

On the matter of maltreatment of Mapuche communities, he said that in general it was done by police from Santiago who came to work in the south, while police who came from the region tended to be opposed to treating the Mapuche badly as they lived in the same area and knew them. In addition, the majority of these police are discriminated against by racist officials and posted a long way from home. Pino recalls how he was often called upon to help in Temuco, but always refused: "because of this I faced many problems, such as being arrested and held by the unit without leave to return home. In any case one hears about the atrocities committed by certain officials."

The text presented to the Immigration Court reports: "one day I heard people talking about the torture of seven Mapuche people from Truf Truf, in the Padre Las Casas quarter. These people had come down from Santiago especially to do this job - they were 12 Carabineros, including several officials, and they went to the houses of Juan Colianir, Alberto Colianir Painemil, Ruperto Colianir Painemil, Bernardino Parra Nela, Manuel Parra Catrilaf, Juan and Aurelio Catrilaf Parra. Their excuse was that they were carrying out a judicial order, but this was only for three people and not seven. They burst violently into the houses, dragging the men out practically naked, and in front of their wives and children they beat them up."

The Truf Truf Case

The case of the torture of members of the Truf Truf Mapuche community, as made by JCPU was widely discussed throughout Wallmapu in 1999, due to the severity of the acts and because it was one of the first cases which totally exposed the use of police facilities for the torture of Mapuche militants. It took place on the morning of Thursday 16 October 1999, when police arbitrarily arrested Juan Colianir and his sons Alberto and Ruperto Colianir Painemil; Bernardino Parra Nela and his son Manuel Parra Catrilaf; and the brothers Aurelio and Juan Catrilaf Parra, in a raid on the Mapuche communities of Quefquehuenu and Aniqueleo by a heavily armed contingent from the Third Commissariat of Carabineros from Padre Las Casas, 9th Region.

As is noted in the text of the complaint made on the 23 December by the victims to the Military Prosecutor's Office in Temuco, whilst the police were carrying out this act, at no point did they produce any kind of legal warrant authorising the violent operation in the communities and the subsequent arrest of the seven Mapuches. Neither were the detainees read their rights nor given a reason for their arrest or told why they had been taken to the police station in a nearby town. Later, it was established that there had been orders for arrest given by a Criminal Law Judge , but that these orders only applied to Aurelio and Juan Catrilaf Parra, and Alberto Painemil, and not to all seven who had been arrested on that morning.

According to the testimonies given by the men, during their detention they were violently beaten and interrogated about their involvement in the mobilisation [of activists] and occupation on 1 December of developed land in the area by the organisation "Ayllarehue Wenteche de Truf Truf". Several members of the group, such as the brothers Alberto and Ruperto Colianir Painemal also complained that they had been systematically subjected to torture sessions for a large part of their detention, including blows to various parts of the body and the so-called "dry submarine", where the head of the detainee is covered with a plastic bag until they pass-out. Three days after their arbitrary detention, four of the seven Mapuche farmers were allowed to go free without charge, however they had been unable to speak to anyone throughout their detention and had not been brought before a judge as the law demands.

On 23 December the most important leaders of the Mapuche communities affected by the night raids brought a case before the Military Prosecutor's Office in Temuco where they accused the police who took part in the operation of crimes of "stealing, unnecessary violence, torture and other cruel and degrading treatment. It has to be said that at present not one of these police officers has been tried for their role in these serious incidents, the same one that Julio Cesar Pino Ubilla has spoken of before the British courts.

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Translated by

Kitty McCarthy
Mapuche Interntional Link

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