Chilean judge Víctor Montiglio has prosecuted Army non-commissioned officer Juvenal Piña Garrido, who confessed a few days ago to having murdered Víctor Díaz, the general secretary of the Chilean Communist Party while in hiding, in 1977, judicial sources confirmed today.

The father of Viviana Díaz, a historic leader of the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared, died of asphyxiation after Piña Garrido placed a plastic bag over his head, while simultaneously an Army lieutenant injected him with cyanide to accelerate his death, according to the non-commissioned officer's statement in court.

The individual, nicknamed "El Elefante" (The Elephant), said he asked his victim for forgiveness for having to murder him, "but those are the orders I was given," he told the judge. Piña Garrido was an agent of the "Lautaro" Brigade of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), the secret police of the dictatorship led by the late Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).

Montiglio also prosecuted in this case former agent Pedro Gutiérrez Valdés, former Carabineros non-commissioned officer Claudio Orellana de la Pinta, and Army non-commissioned officer Joyce Ana Ahumada Despouy.

All of them belonged to the "Lautaro" Brigade, tasked with exterminating the leadership of the Communist Party between 1976 and 1977, an operation known as "Calle Conferencia," the location where they were ambushed.

In said operation, the repressive agencies of the dictatorship detained and forcibly disappeared the members of two clandestine leaderships of the Communist Party, among them Jorge Muñoz, the husband of the late general secretary of that group, Gladys Marín.

Together with "El Elefante" and the other three former DINA agents, the number of those prosecuted in this case totals 51. The existence of the DINA's "Lautaro" brigade, unknown until now, was revealed by a former member of the group who testified in late 2006 before Judge Montiglio.

Source: Terra.cl, March 21, 2007

Murderer of Víctor Díaz prosecuted

The individual is Juvenal Piña Garrido, "El Elefante," a former agent of the DINA's Lautaro Brigade, who confessed to murdering the general secretary of the Communist Party while in hiding. With this, Judge Víctor Montiglio has now added 51 people prosecuted in the Calle Conferencia case.

The confessed murderer of the general secretary of the Communist Party while in hiding, Víctor Díaz, was prosecuted by Judge Víctor Montiglio along with three other former agents of the DINA's Lautaro brigade in the case known as Calle Conferencia.

Following his confession a few days ago of having suffocated the leader with a plastic bag over his head in early 1977 at the clandestine barracks at Calle Simón Bolívar 8630 in the commune of La Reina, while Army lieutenant Gladys Calderón Carreño of the same brigade injected him with cyanide to accelerate his death, the magistrate prosecuted Juvenal Piña Garrido, alias "El Elefante," a retired Army non-commissioned officer.

He declared that he asked Víctor Díaz for forgiveness for having to kill him, "but those are the orders I was given." Along with "El Elefante," the judge—who in this new investigative phase of the case regarding the disappearance of the first clandestine leadership of the Communist Party in May 1976 has now reached 51 defendants—also declared former agents Pedro Gutiérrez Valdés, Claudio Orellana de la Pinta (retired Carabineros non-commissioned officer), and Joyce Ahumada Despouy (retired Army non-commissioned officer) to be defendants.

All were part of the Lautaro Brigade, whose main mission was to murder Communist leaders at the Simón Bolívar barracks and then forcibly disappear their bodies during 1976, including their second clandestine leadership in December of that year.

The Lautaro Brigade was led by then-Army Major Juan Morales Salgado, who acted under the direct orders of DINA operations chief Manuel Contreras and with the supervision of dictator Augusto Pinochet. With the initial cooperation in late 2006 of a fundamental witness known by the nickname "Café para Dos" (Coffee for Two), Judge Montiglio and the Special Affairs and Human Rights Brigade of the Investigative Police uncovered an episode of 1970s repression by the Lautaro Brigade that was previously unknown.

It ultimately proved to be the most numerous, impersonal (due to the almost anonymous nature of most of its members), but also the most brutal due to its methods of extermination.

Source: La Nación, March 20, 2007

The complete list of DINA agents

The complete list of DINA agents (Document delivered by the Army to the Courts of Justice)

The following is the complete list of DINA agents, which was delivered a few years ago by the Army to the Courts of Justice. The text was kept under lock and key for a long period, but time leaked it to human rights lawyers and a journalist specializing in this matter.

This document, which has never been published in a printed medium, has reached Clarín from the desk of a journalist who has followed multiple cases of human rights violations during the dictatorship. The document, therefore, is completely authentic. It concerns more than a thousand agents, some prosecuted, others convicted, and not a few already deceased. [List of names omitted for brevity]

Source: elclarin.cl, July 8, 2013

Case No. 2.182-98 Episode "Conferencia C" or "Conferencia 1"

12.- On page 1679 of the separate volume "Conferencia 1," dated March 16, 2007, Pedro Antonio Gutiérrez Valdés, Claudio Orlando Orellana de la Pinta, and Joyce Ana Ahumada Despouy were prosecuted as co-authors of the crime of aggravated kidnapping committed against Víctor Manuel Díaz López; a crime provided for and sanctioned in Article 141 No. 3 of the Penal Code of the time. 17.- Testimony of Joyce Ana Ahumada Despouy on pages 1616 and 1622 of the separate volume "Conferencia 1," in which she names Orfa Saavedra as a member of the Lautaro brigade at the Simón Bolívar barracks; a place where there was a guard shift in which everyone participated, consisting of 3 or 4 people, for twenty-four hours, including the women. The Lautaro brigade, along with the Barriga and Lawrence groups, worked in joint, united facilities, cooperating with each other, lending personnel, and were seen mixed together in vehicles; they worked at night, were operational, and carried out patrols and detentions.

Source: Judiciary, November 30, 2018

Santiago Court confirms ruling convicting 30 DINA agents for the aggravated kidnapping of a pregnant young woman

The appellate court confirmed the sentence convicting 30 agents of the defunct National Intelligence Directorate for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Reinalda del Carmen Pereira Plaza.

A 29-year-old woman, five months pregnant, who was detained on December 15, 1976, in the current commune of Macul and taken to the clandestine detention barracks located at Calle Simón Bolívar No. 8800, in the commune of La Reina, from where her trail was lost.

The Santiago Court of Appeals confirmed the sentence convicting 30 agents of the defunct National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Reinalda del Carmen Pereira Plaza.

A 29-year-old woman, five months pregnant, who was detained on December 15, 1976, in the current commune of Macul and taken to the clandestine detention barracks located at Calle Simón Bolívar No. 8800, in the commune of La Reina, from where her trail was lost.

In the ruling (case file 3.023-2019), the Sixth Chamber of the appellate court—composed of justices María Rosa Kittsteiner, María Paula Merino, and Paula Rodríguez—ratified the sentence that condemned Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Juan Morales Salgado, and Ricardo Lawrence Mires to 10 years in prison as authors of the crime.

Meanwhile, as co-authors, Gladys Calderón Carreño, Juvenal Piña Garrido, Héctor Valdebenito Araya, Sergio Escalona Acuña, Jorge Manríquez Manterola, María Angélica Guerrero Soto, Orfa Saavedra Vásquez, Elisa Magna Astudillo, Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo, Claudio Pacheco Fernández, Emilio Troncoso Vivallos, Teresa Navarro Navarro, José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, Gustavo Guerrero Aguilera, and Jorge Arriagada Mora must serve 7 years in prison.

In the case of José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, José Miguel Meza Serrano, Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich, Jorge Segundo Pichunmán Curiqueo, Sergio Hernán Castro Andrade, Carlos Enrique Miranda Mesa, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, Orlando del Tránsito Altamirano Sanhueza, Guillermo Eduardo Díaz Ramírez, Bertha Yolanda del Carmen Jiménez Escobar, Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza, and Joyce Ana Ahumada Despouy, they must serve 4-year sentences as accomplices.

The appellate court adopted the evidence that allowed visiting judge Miguel Vázquez Plaza to establish the responsibility and participation of the then-State agents convicted in the kidnapping and disappearance of the medical technologist. "That, in this course of action, the reasoning in the reviewed sentence is shared, for the purpose of establishing the participation of the convicted persons, insofar as the evidentiary background outlined in the appealed sentence... constitutes a set of judicial presumptions which, given their multiplicity, gravity, precision, and consistency, and for meeting the legal requirements provided in Article 488 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, allow for the accreditation of the participation attributed to them as co-authors, in the terms provided in Article 15 No. 1 of the Penal Code..." the ruling details. The resolution adds: "At this point, it should be specified that the participation as co-author attributed to Juan Morales Salgado fits fully into the provisions of Article 15 No. 1 of the Penal Code, since he acted under the direct orders of Manuel Contreras and was in charge of the Simón Bolívar barracks at the time of the events, corresponding to him in said capacity to coordinate the operational work of the brigades that acted under his command, especially in relation to the dismantling of the Communist Party, assigning personnel under his charge for this, directing investigation efforts and receiving the corresponding reports, ordering the entry and detention of the detainees at the unit, as well as the interrogations and torture to which they were subjected and, where appropriate, their death and disappearance, establishing that he was present during the interrogation and torture of the victim in these proceedings, which determines that he intervened in an immediate and direct manner in the events, so his conduct implies a functional contribution to the global result, maintaining, together with the other perpetrators, the co-dominion of the act." "For its part, the attribution of responsibility as a co-author... imputed to the defendant María Angélica Guerrero Soto is established by virtue of her confession... which is corroborated by the merit of the background information indicated in the reasoning of the appealed sentence," the ruling adds. "That, in the same sense," it continues, "it adheres to what is indicated in the sentence under study, insofar as the indications... meet the necessary strength to configure judicial presumptions, which, given their multiplicity, gravity, precision, and consistency, allow for the accreditation of the participation attributed to them as accomplices, in accordance with the provisions of Article 16 of the Penal Code..." For the appellate court, in this instance: "(...) as indicated, it has been sufficiently demonstrated that all the defendants were part of an organized structure under subordination and dependency, in which those who exercised management duties and operational personnel coexisted, dedicated to investigation as well as the detention, custody, interrogation, torture, and, where appropriate, death and disappearance of the detainees, in which one observes, on one hand, the division of roles typical of co-authorship, since all of them made a functional contribution to the execution of the crime, each of them having co-dominion of the act and, on the other, a facilitation of the means with which the crime is committed, thus cooperating in the act of another, through prior or simultaneous acts, which is what characterizes complicity." "In that understanding, contrary to what the defenses indicate in their arguments in support of their appeals, it is convenient to specify that the convicted persons are not punished merely for belonging to the institution, but for the conduct displayed by each one in relation to the events that concern the victim of these proceedings, Ms. Reinalda Pereira Plaza, which also leads to discarding the intervention of those accused with respect to whom, despite having been established that they were part of the same institution and performed functions in the property located at Simón Bolívar No. 8800 in La Reina, their punishable participation in any of the forms provided for by law has not been proven." It concludes. Detention and disappearance In the appealed ruling, visiting judge Miguel Vázquez Plaza established the following facts: "a) That the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), on an unspecified date, but during the first semester of 1976, occupied and enabled a property at Calle Simón Bolívar No. 8800, commune of La Reina, consisting of a country house, which was conditioned for its purpose of confinement... in which the Lautaro brigade operated under the command of Major Juan Morales Salgado and which was occupied as a secret and clandestine place of confinement; to said facility, people were brought as detainees to be interrogated under the use of various physical coercion techniques, especially regarding those who had or had had political militancy adhering to the Communist Party. b) That likewise, in the second semester of 1976, the DINA groups under the command of officers Germán Barriga and Ricardo Lawrence moved to said facility, together with their operational agents, who were fundamentally concerned with investigating, locating, raiding, pursuing, repressing, and dismantling the members of the Communist Party... c) That Reinalda del Carmen Pereira Plaza, pregnant with her first child, 5 months into her pregnancy, a medical technologist and Communist militant... was detained at 29 years of age, at approximately 8:30 PM, while waiting for public transportation, by security agents on December 15, 1976... d) That Reinalda del Carmen Pereira Plaza was taken to the secret detention barracks of Simón Bolívar, where she was seen together with other prisoners who, in turn, had been detained by the same brigades under the same operational policy between December 13 and 15, 1976... In this place, Reinalda was severely beaten, tortured, illegitimately coerced, and then forcibly disappeared, without any news of her whereabouts to date. e) That the Chilean government of the time, given the search efforts made by her relatives, reported that the affected party registered an exit 'on foot' through the Chile-Argentina border crossing Los Libertadores on December 21, 1976, an official version that was judicially established as false... f) That the victim in these proceedings was detained on the public thoroughfare just like thirteen other people in similar circumstances... g) That all the aforementioned people, including the victim, were detained to be interrogated and tortured by reason of their political militancy, and in order to obtain information about their party activities and the identification of other members of the Communist Party in hiding; coercion that did not cease until the required information was obtained or until the victims became unconscious."

Source: pjud.cl, March 4, 2022

Supreme Court convicts DINA agents for the aggravated kidnapping of a pregnant medical technologist

In a unanimous ruling, the Second Chamber of the highest court convicted members of the defunct National Intelligence Directorate for their responsibility in the consummated crime of aggravated kidnapping of medical technologist Reinalda del Carmen Pereira Plaza, who was detained on December 15, 1976, and taken to the clandestine detention barracks of Simón Bolívar, from where her trail was lost.

The Supreme Court convicted members of the defunct National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the consummated crime of aggravated kidnapping of medical technologist Reinalda del Carmen Pereira Plaza, 29 years old and five months pregnant, who was detained on December 15, 1976, in the current commune of Macul, and taken to the clandestine detention barracks located at Calle Simón Bolívar No. 8800, in the commune of La Reina, from where her trail was lost.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 11.831-2022), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of justices Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Leopoldo Llanos, justice María Cristina Gajardo, and ad hoc lawyers Pía Tavolari and Álvaro Vidal—revoked the appealed sentence, issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals, only in the part that confirmed the acquittal of former agent Federico Humberto Chaigneau Sepúlveda, and sentenced him to an effective prison term of 7 years, plus the legal accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence, as a co-author of the crime. In the case, the sentence convicting the accused Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo and Juan Hernán Morales Salgado to 10 years in prison as co-authors of the crime was maintained. In the case of the former repressive agents Gladys de las Mercedes Calderón Carreño, Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, Héctor Raúl Valdebenito Araya, Sergio Orlando Escalona Acuña, Jorge Lientur Manríquez Manterola, María Angélica Guerrero Soto, Orfa Yolanda Saavedra Vásquez, Elisa del Carmen Magna Astudillo, Eduardo Alejandro Oyarce Riquelme, Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, Emilio Hernán Troncoso Vivallos, Teresa del Carmen Navarro Navarro, José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, Gustavo Enrique Guerrero Aguilera, Manuel Antonio Montre Méndez, and Jorge Hugo Arriagada Mora, they must serve 7 years in prison as co-authors of the illicit act. Meanwhile, the convicted Hernán Luis Sovino Maturana, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, José Miguel Meza Serrano, Luis Alberto Lagos Yáñez, Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich, Jorge Segundo Pichunmán Curiqueo, Sergio Hernán Castro Andrade, Carlos Enrique Miranda Mesa, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, Orlando del Tránsito Altamirano Sanhueza, Guillermo Eduardo Díaz Ramírez, Berta Yolanda del Carmen Jiménez Escobar, Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza, and Joyce Ana Ahumada Despouy must serve 4 years in prison as accomplices. "That, unlike the above, the situation of the accused Federico Chaigneau Sepúlveda has certain particularities that escape the foregoing. In this case, the questioned sentence... accepts that, even when he appears linked to the operational units that acted in the Simón Bolívar barracks and, even having an office in that place, this is not enough to place him in any procedure intended to obtain information relative to identifying the victim and neither in relation to the detention, confinement, interrogation, torture, disappearance, or concealment of the same," the ruling states. "That, in this regard... there are facts that appear indisputable and that lead to considering that, at the moment of determining the participation imputed to the defendant, a significant cassation error has been committed that must be analyzed," it highlights. The resolution adds: "The first, according to the evidence presented... it can be taken as real and proven facts that: [1] the victim, on December 15, 1976, was detained in an illegal and clandestine manner by State agents... [2] Subsequent to her detention, the affected party was taken to the Simón Bolívar barracks... [3] In that place of detention, the victim was subjected to cruel and inhuman treatment... being killed, with the location of her mortal remains unknown to date; [4] In the case of the accused Federico Humberto Chaigneau Sepúlveda, an Army lieutenant, he was part of the Lautaro Brigade and, at the time the victim was detained at the Simón Bolívar barracks, in his capacity as security officer for Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda and his family, he frequented that facility since he had an office there." For the highest court: "Thus, it can reasonably be concluded that Lieutenant Chaigneau had a position of relevance in the criminal enterprise... which was transmitted to all the members and which, certainly, could not have been unknown to the accused, who, due to his rank and membership in the Brigade that became a collaborator of the others, became aware of the objective and the actions that the units would perform... in such a way that there is clear knowledge regarding the collaboration that had to be provided in the objective that became common, which is the neutralization of the members of the referred political party." "In such sense," it delves, "the existence of knowledge remains clear, where the accused was aware of his task of collaborating in the execution of the criminal plan... in such a way that it is also possible to infer... the existence of the prior concert to which numeral 3 of Article 15 of the Penal Code alludes... In effect... presumptions flow regarding the criminal participation of the defendant in the aggravated kidnapping of the victim, who was detained, tortured, and murdered in the facility where Lieutenant Chaigneau was present, who, certainly, commanded a unit of which three of his subordinates were convicted for their criminal collaboration... in such a way that it is even entirely incongruous to impute criminal authorship or complicity to those who execute operational or custody tasks associated with the victim and, at the same time, absolve of all responsibility the one who had a command role in said actions." "That, in this order of considerations, this Court observes a cassation defect associated with the determination of the participation of the prosecuted Federico Humberto Chaigneau Sepúlveda... which translated into the acquittal of the defendant in the crime in question... reason that allows annulling the second-instance sentence, only in the part associated with the participation of Chaigneau Sepúlveda and issuing, in this regard, the replacement [ruling] that corresponds in law," it concludes. Simón Bolívar 8800 In the base sentence, the visiting judge for human rights violation cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vázquez Plaza, established the following facts: [Facts a through g are identical to the previous entry]

Source: pdju.cl, November 1, 2024