Original article: Cavó su tumba y el Ejército ordenó el fusilamiento: conscriptos mataron a su compañero en 1973 y la Corte confirmó condenas

Army-Ordered Execution of Conscript in 1973: Court Confirms Sentences for Fellow Soldiers

The justice system has once again named and assigned responsibility for a crime committed within the Army just months after the coup. The Appeals Court of Temuco affirmed—through an official statement—the sentence against eight former conscripts for the completed crime of qualified homicide of José Gastón Buchhorsts Fernández, a fellow conscript of the Cazadores Regiment in Valdivia. This crime took place between September and November of 1973 in the municipality of Villarrica.

The ruling, initially handed down by extraordinary visiting judge Álvaro Mesa Latorre, was upheld in its essential elements: there was a command order, and a squad of conscripts fired the shots. The First Chamber of the appellate court maintained the convictions and imposed effective sentences of 7 years in prison for four of the convicted, as well as lifetime disqualification from public office and political rights. The remaining four received 5 years of detention, replaced by intensive supervised release for the same period, with accompanying legal consequences.

Army-Ordered Execution: From “Deserter” to Detained

According to the facts outlined in the ruling, Buchhorsts was 18 years old, worked as a porter in Villarrica, and was serving military duty. After September 11, 1973, he failed to report to his unit on time. He was classified as a “deserter”, prompting a patrol to organize and search for him, detaining him in Villarrica and transporting him back to the regiment. Fellow soldiers reported seeing him “in the condition of a detainee,” guarded by other soldiers, with his hands tied and lying on the floor of a military vehicle.

The ruling also establishes that within the unit, a trusted patrol operated under Lieutenant Luis Rodríguez Rigo-Richi (now deceased), dedicated to carrying out orders for patrolling, detaining, and conducting home searches “ordered by the regiment commander,” then Santiago Sinclair Oyaneder.

Army-Ordered Execution: “Digging His Own Grave”

In the days following the initial incident, the patrol moved Buchhorsts to areas near Villarrica under the pretense of searching for weapons. They found nothing. Then, according to the ruling, the lieutenant ordered the young man to dig a hole and made him enter the trench repeatedly: it was a case of “digging his own grave.” Finally, he issued the last order: the conscripts were commanded to fire. “All the soldiers present complied,” executing him and burying him at the same spot.

In civil matters, the Court confirmed that the State must pay $100,000,000 for moral damages to the victim’s brother.

The ruling also notes a pattern of concealment: the family was given evasive responses and, some time later, a military prosecutor mentioned a supposed “escape law” without providing a location or allowing searches. To this day, no official information has been released regarding the whereabouts of the body.