The Supreme Court issued rulings this Wednesday in two human rights violation cases, which were investigated in the first instance by visiting ministers of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vázquez Plaza and Mario Carroza Espinosa, respectively.

In the first case (docket 89.690-2016), the Second Chamber—composed of ministers Milton Juica, Carlos Künsemüller, Haroldo Brito, Lamberto Cisternas, and Jorge Dahm—rejected the appeals for cassation and confirmed the sentence convicting 14 former agents of the so-called "Comando Conjunto" for their responsibility in the crimes of illicit association and the kidnappings of Víctor Vega Riquelme, Isabel Stange Espínola, Jaime Estay Reyno, Amanda Velasco Pedersen, and María Eugenia Calvo Vega, crimes perpetrated between 1975 and 1976.

The sentence sentenced former FACh (Chilean Air Force) General César Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger to 7 years in prison for the aggravated kidnapping of Vega Riquelme; four 100-day prison sentences for the simple kidnappings of Stange Espínola, Estay Reyno, Velasco Pedersen, and Calvo Vega; and 5 years and one day for illicit association.

Former FACh officer Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, alias "El Mono," must serve 7 years in prison for the aggravated kidnapping of Vega Riquelme and four 100-day prison sentences for the simple kidnappings of Stange Espínola, Estay Reyno, Velasco Pedersen, and Calvo Vega.

Former FACh civilian employee César Luis Adolfo Palma Ramírez, alias "Fifo," must serve 6 years in prison for the aggravated kidnapping of Víctor Vega Riquelme and two 100-day prison sentences for the simple kidnappings of Estay Reyno and Stange Espínola.

Army officers Sergio Antonio Díaz López, Álvaro Julio Federico Corbalán Castilla, and Raúl Ernesto Rojas Nieto were sentenced to 7 years in prison for their responsibility in the aggravated kidnapping of Víctor Vega Riquelme.

For his part, former FACh civilian employee Otto Silvio Trujillo Miranda was sentenced to 300 days in prison for the simple kidnapping of María Eugenia Calvo Vega; and former FACh non-commissioned officer Raúl Horacio González Fernández, alias "El Wally Chico," must serve 60 days in prison for his responsibility as an accomplice to the simple kidnapping of Amanda Velasco Pedersen, and 541 days in prison for illicit association.

In both convictions, he was granted the benefit of conditional remission of the sentence.

Meanwhile, former FACh non-commissioned officers Pedro Ernesto Caamaño Medina, Robinson Alfonso Suazo Jaque, Eduardo Enrique Cartagena Maldonado, Juan Arturo Chávez Sandoval, Carabineros officer Alejandro Julio Segundo Sáez Mardones, and civilian FACh collaborator Andrés Pablo Potín Lailhacar were sentenced to 541 days in prison—with the benefit of conditional remission—for their responsibility in the crime of illicit association.

Likewise, agents and former FACh non-commissioned officers Guillermo Antonio Urra Carrasco and Pedro Juan Zambrano Uribe were acquitted.

According to the evidence gathered during the investigation stage, Minister Vázquez Plaza was able to establish the following sequence of events:

"a) That a group of officers from the Chilean Air Force, the Carabineros de Chile, the Navy, the Army, and civilians related to members of the Air Force joined together in the last quarter of 1975 and part of the first quarter of 1976, forming a group outside the frameworks of institutionality and legality, which developed strategies and actions to detect, detain, and in some cases, eliminate or forcibly disappear militants of the Communist Youth, for which purpose they carried out surveillance based on data obtained in that activity and acted outside of all administrative and judicial procedures.

b) That in this context, in the early hours of December 22, 1975, inside the home located at Calle Estados Unidos No. 9214, at the 19th stop of Villa Kodak, in the commune of La Florida, two members of the Communist Party of Chile were detained, one of whom, named Miguel Estay Reyno, began to collaborate after his detention to fulfill the goals proposed by the aforementioned 'Comando Conjunto' group.

This subject made contact with Eliana Graciela Espínola Bradley to locate Isabel del Rosario Stange Espínola and, through her, Víctor Humberto Vega Riquelme, whom he knew from his militancy in the same party.

Vega Riquelme was sought by the aforementioned group, and it was thus agreed that the meeting point would be at the intersection of Avenida Libertad Bernardo O’Higgins and General Velásquez. On January 3, 1976, at 9:30 PM, the aforementioned Isabel del Rosario Stange Espínola and Víctor Humberto Vega Riquelme arrived, together with Jaime Eduardo Estay Reyno.

The two men remained half a block away from the meeting point while Isabel del Rosario Stange Espínola spoke with the subject who had arranged the meeting, who was accompanied by operational members of the group.

At that moment, they were apprehended by force by several of the agents and forced into several vehicles, one of which was a white Fiat 600, without any judicial or administrative order authorizing their detention.

c) That, immediately thereafter, the three detainees were taken to the premises of a facility that turned out to be the base of the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment of the Chilean Air Force, located in Colina, inside which a clandestine detention center operated, called 'La Prevención,' which was also known as 'Remo Cero,' a place where they were interrogated and tortured with the application of electric current to their bodies and other torments.

d) That Vega Riquelme remained locked up and detained in the indicated facility until it was closed at the end of January 1976, at which time he was handed over to Army personnel belonging to the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE), which until that time participated in the group.

Since that date, the whereabouts of Víctor Humberto Vega Riquelme have been unknown, as has the fate of his physical and mental health and personal integrity, despite searches carried out through both judicial and administrative channels, and he remains in the status of forcibly disappeared to this day.

e) That the other two detainees, namely Stange Espínola and Estay Reyno, were also transferred to the facility called 'La Prevención' or 'Remo Cero' referred to in letter c) above, and interrogated under torture. Subsequently, Isabel del Rosario Stange Espínola and Jaime Eduardo Estay Reyno were released on January 29, 1976, without any charges being filed against them."

Homicide at Puente Bulnes

In the second case (docket 49.929-2016), the same Chamber and with the same composition sentenced former Army non-commissioned officer Roberto del Carmen Abarca Lara to 5 years and one day in prison for his responsibility in the homicide of Rafael Poblete Carrasco, who died at the Posta Central in Santiago after being shot in the back by Army personnel on a public street in July 1974.

Likewise, former Army members Roberto Fernando Román Reyes, Néstor Elías Poblete Bustos, and Pedro Washington Aliaga Chávez were acquitted.

According to the evidence gathered during the investigation stage, Minister Carroza was able to establish that on the night of July 12, 1974, Rafael Poblete Carrasco, along with two other people, was traveling in a vehicle along Calle Bulnes during curfew hours. They were ordered to stop by a military patrol in the area of the Bulnes bridge.

After being removed from the vehicle, the three occupants were placed with their hands up against a wall, searched, and beaten by the uniformed officers, with Poblete Carrasco receiving a gunshot to the back.

A Carabineros patrol arrived at the scene, and the unit received the three detainees from the military for violating the curfew. Upon being transferred to the Seventh Precinct, police personnel noticed that one of the detainees was seriously wounded, so they transferred him to Posta 3, from where he was referred to the Posta Central, a medical facility where he died the following day.

Source: resumen.cl, May 12, 2017