in potential opponents as well as to ensure the loyalty to the new assembly of military staff outside the capital: Beside the summary executions of scores of opponents, Arellano punished several military officers for not being "harsh enough" on prisoners, including the constitutionalist officer Lieutenant Colonel Efrain Jaña Giron in Talca and Army Major Fernando Reveco Valenzuela in Calama. Jaña, in charge of Mountain Regiment N 16, was dismissed on September 30, 1973, for "failure to fulfill military duties" and replaced by his second in command, Olaguer Benaventes Bustos. He was then imprisoned two years in Santiago. Reveco, who presided over the first court martial of Calama, was forced to resign on October 2, 1973, as he was considered too lenient. Transported to Santiago, he was also judged guilty of "failure to fulfill military duties" and subsequently tortured at the Air Force War Academy in Talca and imprisoned for 15 months. On October 19, 1973, General Joaquin Lagos, commander of the Army 1st Division and zone chief in State of Siege, designated as governor of the Province of Antofagasta after the coup, presented his resignation to Pinochet. The day before, the leader of the squad, Arellano, had arrived in his district and executed 56 persons behind Lagos' back. In some cases, prisoners were sliced with machetes before being shot. When Lagos learnt of these murders, he requested a meeting with Pinochet and offered him his resignation. Years later, he explained that he did not return the corpses to the victims' families for burial because he was too "ashamed" of the barbarous slaughter of the men. According to the NGO Memoria y Justicia, "it is believed that Lagos' denunciation brought a halt to the spiral of murders." Indictment of Pinochet and others In 1993, Contreas and Espinoza were convicted for their participation in the Caravan of Death. Contreas received a seven-year sentence and Espinoza received a six-year sentence. Following failed attempts to overturn the convictions, Contreas and Espinoza began serving their sentences in 1995 at a prison outside Santiago specially constructed to house former military officials. In June 1999, the magistrate Juan Guzmán Tapia, who had indicted Augusto Pinochet on his return from London, ordered the arrest of five retired military officers for their part in the Caravan of Death. Pinochet himself had been indicted by the Spanish magistrate Baltasar Garzón in 1998 after complaints presented by Victoria Saavedra and the