Two former Navy officials were convicted in a human rights case involving political execution that took place at the Talcahuano Naval Base, in the Bío Bío region. Judge Carlos Aldana convicted former uniformed officer and Navy member Julio Alarcón Saavedra for the political execution of MIR member Hugo Candia, an event that occurred in 1973.

Alarcón was sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison for this crime and must also serve 61 days in prison for the torture inflicted upon another MIR member, Máximo Neira. Meanwhile, retired Navy officer Ary Acuña Figueroa was convicted as an accessory to Alarcón’s homicide and the torture of Neira.

Figueroa must serve a sentence of 4 years and 61 days, with the benefit of supervised release. In the civil sphere, and due to the participation of the former State agents in crimes against humanity, Judge Aldana ordered the State—jointly and severally with the two convicted men—to pay 250 million pesos to the widow and children of Máximo Neira. by Claudia Miño

Source: biobiochile.cl, August 9, 2016

Court confirms conviction of retired Navy members for homicide and torture in Talcahuano

The Concepción Court of Appeals confirmed the sentence of Julio Alarcón Saavedra and Ary Acuña Figueroa. The events occurred at Fuerte Borgoño in October 1973. In the civil aspect, the ruling ordered the State and the convicted individuals to pay a total indemnity of 250 million pesos to the relatives of Neira Salas.

The Concepción Court of Appeals confirmed the sentence that convicted two retired members of the Navy for their responsibility in the political execution of Hugo del Rosario Candia Núñez and the application of torture to Máximo Segundo Neira Salas in October 1973 in Talcahuano, Bío Bío Region.

The unanimous ruling ratified the 10-year and one-day sentence for Julio Alarcón Saavedra as the perpetrator of the political execution of Hugo Candia Núñez and 61 days for the unlawful coercion against Máximo Neira Salas.

It also confirmed the conviction of Ary Acuña Figueroa to 4 years in prison as an accessory to the homicide of Candia and 61 days for the application of torture to Neira, with the benefit of supervised release for a period of five years. "It is especially possible to hold as certain that the victims were apprehended by personnel of the Chilean Navy, that they were taken by order of the authority of that time to the facilities of Fuerte Borgoño in Talcahuano and held and interrogated there, specifically in the sector known as 'La Ciudadela'," the ruling asserts. "The victims were perfectly known to the apprehending officials and recognized by those who performed guard duties. In that context, furthermore, it is possible to presume that the victims were subjected to torture and that they lost their lives while they were being held by personnel of the Chilean Navy," the resolution adds. In the civil aspect, the ruling ordered the State and the convicted individuals to pay a total indemnity of 250 million pesos to the relatives of Neira Salas.

Source: cooperativa.cl, October 16, 2018

Supreme Court convicts two former Navy officers for the homicide of two CAP workers in Talcahuano in 1973

The Supreme Court sentenced two former high-ranking Navy officers to 10 years and one day in prison as perpetrators of political execution and 3 years and one day in prison as perpetrators of the crime of application of torture against union leaders Hugo del Rosario Candia Núñez, 22 years old, and Máximo Segundo Neira Salas, 34 years old.

The crimes were perpetrated between September 11 and October 11, 1973, at the Navy facility Fuerte Borgoño, located in Talcahuano. Both victims were originally from the town of Hualqui, union leaders at the Compañía de Aceros del Pacífico (CAP), and members of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR).

Hugo Candia Núñez was executed on October 11, 1973, at Fuerte Borgoño of the Talcahuano Naval Base, specifically in the sector known as La Ciudadela; Navy personnel had detained him shortly after September 11, 1973, inside the Compañía de Aceros del Pacífico (CAP).

At the same fort, Máximo Neira Salas was subjected to various abuses that caused his death. Both were leaders of the Sigdo Kopper S.A. union, which provided services inside CAP. In a unanimous ruling (case file 28.310-2018), the Second Chamber of the high court—composed of judges Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Leopoldo Llanos, Jorge Zepeda, and lawyer Leonor Etcheberry—accepted the cassation appeal filed by the plaintiffs regarding the classification of the crime and the length of the sentences, and convicted former officers Julio Humberto Salvador Alarcón Saavedra and Ary Antonio Acuña Figueroa as perpetrators of both crimes. In the first instance, in a ruling issued in August 2016, Judge Carlos Aldana Fuentes had sentenced the former frigate captain, and at the time of the events an operational officer of "Ancla Dos," Julio Humberto Alarcón Saavedra, to effective sentences of 10 years and one day in prison as the direct perpetrator of the political execution of Hugo Candia Núñez, and 61 days in prison as the perpetrator of the crime of unlawful coercion against Máximo Neira Salas. Meanwhile, the former Navy rear admiral, and at the time of the events head of the repressive apparatus "Ancla Dos" of the Talcahuano Naval Base, Ary Antonio Acuña Figueroa, had been sentenced to 4 years in prison as an accessory to the homicide of Hugo Candia Núñez and 61 days in prison as the perpetrator of the coercion against Máximo Neira Salas, with the benefit of supervised release for a period of 5 years. The Concepción Court of Appeals, in October 2018, had ratified the first-instance resolution. On this occasion, the Second Chamber of the high court reclassified the crime and increased the sentence of former marine Ary Acuña Figueroa for the political executions and increased the sentences of both convicted men for the crime of torture. Regarding the considerations of the ruling and sentence, the Supreme Court states: "That the challenged ruling, after weighing the elements of judgment gathered in the case files regarding the application of torture and the death of Máximo Segundo Neira Salas, concluded that the perpetrators acted deliberately and inhumanely by inflicting pain through torture, which is demonstrated by his mortal remains having suffered bindings with wires on his body, which necessarily produced wounds caused by the ruthless action of the victimizers, which coincides with the versions given by witnesses regarding the grave mistreatment suffered through the application of torture."

And it then concludes

Therefore, it is resolved that: "the appealed sentence of August 8, 2016, written on page 2104 and following, is confirmed, with the following declarations: I.- Ary Antonio Acuña Figueroa is convicted to the sentence of ten years and one day of major imprisonment in its medium degree, with the accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence, and the payment of court costs, as the perpetrator of the crime of political execution of Hugo del Rosario Candía Núñez, provided for and sanctioned in article 391 N° 1 of the Penal Code, which occurred on September 11, 1973, in the commune of Talcahuano. II.- Julio Humberto Salvador Alarcón Saavedra and Ary Antonio Acuña Figueroa are convicted to the sentence of three years and one day of minor imprisonment in its maximum degree, with the accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification for political rights and absolute disqualification for public offices for the duration of the sentence, and the payment of court costs, as perpetrators of the crime of application of torture or unnecessary rigor provided for in article 150 N°1, second paragraph, of the Penal Code, to the detriment of Máximo Segundo Neira Salas, which occurred from September 11, 1973, in the commune of Talcahuano."

Source: resumen.cl, September 24, 2021

Judge Yolanda Méndez prosecutes retired Navy officials for the application of torture to a high school student

In the resolution (case file 3-2018), Judge Méndez Mardones identifies the former Navy personnel José Raúl Cáceres González, Víctor Ernesto Donoso Barrera, Luis Eduardo Kohler Herrera, Ary Antonio Acuña Figueroa, and Julio Humberto Salvador Alarcón Saavedra as perpetrators of the torture applied to Carvallo Ospital, a high school student at the time of the events.

The visiting judge for human rights violation cases of the Concepción Court of Appeals, Yolanda Méndez Mardones, issued an indictment against five retired Navy officials for their responsibility in the crime of application of torture to Héctor Wladimir Carvallo Ospital.

The crime was perpetrated in October 1973, in the city of Talcahuano. In the resolution (case file 3-2018), Judge Méndez Mardones identifies the former Navy personnel José Raúl Cáceres González, Víctor Ernesto Donoso Barrera, Luis Eduardo Kohler Herrera, Ary Antonio Acuña Figueroa, and Julio Humberto Salvador Alarcón Saavedra as perpetrators of the torture applied to Carvallo Ospital, a high school student at the time of the events.

During the investigation stage of the case, the visiting judge gathered sufficient evidence to consider the following facts proven: “On October 6, 1973, Mr. Héctor Wladimir Carvallo Ospital, then 18 years old, a third-year high school student and member of the MIR, was detained at the home he shared with his parents, located on Calle Cañerías s/n, Hualpencillo sector, commune of Talcahuano, by Carabineros officials, who did not exhibit any competent order authorizing his apprehension, and immediately transported him to a police station in that commune, beating him repeatedly from the moment they left the house and asking about grenades that he had supposedly given in a box to Rodrigo Leiva Canales; taken to a cell, he was subjected to more beatings and the application of electric current while naked, in order to obtain information about the contents of the box, which his captors insisted were grenades. The following day he was handed over to a group of marines, who took him to the Francisco Acosta Stadium, a place where the Navy Intelligence Service was operating at that time, whose head was Ary Acuña Figueroa; after remaining about 20 days in that place, he was transferred along with a group of prisoners belonging to the MIR to the covered gymnasium of the Talcahuano Naval Base; subsequently, he was taken to the Navy facilities known as Fuerte Borgoño, since a detainee named Tulio Gáez broke during torture and confessed that he (Carvallo Ospital) had weapons hidden in his house; they were confronted, and after confessing that this was so, Navy personnel went to his house and found some weapons, so the torture continued for having deceived his captors, being subjected to intense interrogations about the weapons, by people who belonged to the Navy according to the victim, under physical coercion, such as making him go down a staircase sitting down with his feet tied so that he would hit himself on the steps; they also performed 'the submarine' on him, which consisted of submerging his head in a drum of sewage water while holding him by the hair; and, likewise, 'the bell or the telephone,' which consisted of striking him with open hands on his ears, as a result of which one of his eardrums burst, resulting in damage to the eardrum, injuries that lasted over time since upon arriving in Norway once he went into exile, he had to undergo treatment because he was still losing blood; another form of torture consisted of running a knife over his body, causing many wounds and leaving scars, so that due to the deplorable physical state he was in, he was never granted visits.”

Source: Judiciary, April 13, 2022