The visiting judge of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vázquez Plaza, issued an indictment in the investigation into the aggravated kidnapping of the married couple Bernardo Araya Zuleta and María Flores Barraza, which occurred beginning on April 2, 1976, in the Quintero commune, Valparaíso Region.

The magistrate determined that 13 agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) were responsible for the aggravated kidnapping of the couple, a case that is part of the proceedings known as "Conferencia 1." The agents accused as co-perpetrators are the former director of the DINA, retired general Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, and retired brigadiers Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Carlos López Tapia, and Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko.

Also included are former agents Ricardo Lawrence Mires, Eduardo Garea Guzmán, Pedro Bitterlich Jaramillo, Orlando Altamirano Sanhueza, Eduardo Cabezas Mardones, Jorge Díaz Radulovich, Guillermo Díaz Ramírez, Orlando Torrejón Gatica, and Clara Barros Rojas.

Judge Vásquez states that according to the case records, "the analyzed evidence allows for the legal establishment that on April 2, 1976, between 10:30 PM and 11:00 PM, the married couple composed of Bernardo José Araya Zuleta, a former deputy of the Communist Party of Chile, and María Olga Flores Barraza, 64 and 60 years of age respectively, were detained by agents of the National Intelligence Directorate, DINA, without an order from a competent authority, at their home located at 1220 Barros Luco Street, in the commune of Quintero.

They were taken to the clandestine barracks of that organization, located at 1722 Venecia Street in the Independencia commune, Santiago, a place where they were seen alive by several detainees, with no knowledge of where they were subsequently taken, nor of their current whereabouts," says the resolution that definitively closes the investigation initiated in 1998 by Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia.

Source: The Clinic, May 07, 2013

Indictments issued for aggravated kidnapping in the Villa Grimaldi case branch

Magistrate Alejandro Solís Muñoz issued an indictment for the aggravated kidnappings of Iván Insunza Bascuñan and others, which occurred beginning in August 1976, in one of the chapters of the macro-case known as Villa Grimaldi.

The magistrate indicted the former DINA agents for their responsibility as perpetrators of the aggravated kidnappings of: Manuel Recabarren González; Luis Recabarren González; Manuel Recabarren Rojas; Alejandro Rodríguez Urzúa; Daniel Palma Robledo; Carlos Godoy Lagarrigue; Iván Insunza Bascuñan; Mario Juica Vega; José Santander Miranda; Víctor Morales Mazuela; Miguel Nazal Quiroz; Carlos Vizcarra Cofré; and Julio Vega Vega.

Indicted as perpetrators

1.- Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda 2.- Carlos López Tapia 3.- Pedro Espinoza Bravo 4.- Juan Morales Salgado 5.- Eugenio Fieldehouse Chávez 6.- Marcelo Moren Brito 7.- Ricardo Lawrence Mires 8.- Orlando Manzo Durán 9.- Ciro Torré Sáez 10.- Claudio Andrade Gómez.

Meanwhile, he indicted the former agents (listed below) for their responsibility as accomplices in the aggravated kidnappings of: Manuel Recabarren González; Manuel Recabarren Rojas; Daniel Palma Robledo; Víctor Morales Mazuela; Carlos Vizcarra Cofré; and Julio Vega Vega.

Indicted as accomplices

1.- Gladys Calderón Carreño 2.- Rufino Jaime Astorga 3.- José Friz Esparza 4.- Hermon Alfaro Mundaca 5.- Orlando Inostroza Lagos 6.- Pedro Bitterlich Jaramillo 7.- Claudio Pacheco Fernández 8.- Eduardo Reyes Lagos 9.- Orlando Torrejón Gatica 10.- Orlando Altamirano Sanhueza 11.- Carlos López Inostroza.

In this regard, lawyer Eduardo Contreras, the first plaintiff in human rights violation cases against Augusto Pinochet, asserted that "this resolution contributes to the clarification of a specific case, that of doctors Insunza and Godoy, and also contributes to clarifying the issue of the annihilation of the Communist Party leadership in 1976." He added, "This demonstrates that all the pretenses to set dates for the courts to close human rights cases, or for judges to give deadlines to investigative police, have a certain 'stench' of impunity.

This shows that although years pass, justice finally arrives."

Source: Afepchile.cl, July 16, 2009

Conviction issued against 28 repressive agents of the dictatorship for the crime of Marta Ugarte

The minister for extraordinary cases of human rights violations of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vázquez Plaza, issued a first-instance sentence in the investigation into the kidnapping and aggravated homicide of the teacher Marta Lidia Ugarte Román, whose body appeared on La Ballena beach, in the Los Molles sector, on September 12, 1976.

In the resolution (case file 2182-1998), Minister Vázquez issued a conviction against the following 28 state agents for their responsibility in the crimes perpetrated between August and September 1976.

Most of those convicted were agents and leaders of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), and the others were members of the Army Aviation Command, the organization responsible for the execution of the so-called "death flights." Carlos José Leonardo López Tapia, former Army colonel, head of the Villa Grimaldi torture center at the time of the events, sentenced to 12 years in prison, in addition to the legal accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification from public office and political rights, and absolute disqualification from professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and payment of court costs, as a perpetrator of the crime of aggravated homicide. Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, former Carabineros lieutenant colonel, head of the Águila Group of the DINA's Caupolicán Brigade (currently a fugitive from justice), sentenced to 12 years in prison, in addition to the legal accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification from public office and political rights, and absolute disqualification from professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and payment of court costs, as a perpetrator of the crime of aggravated homicide. He must also serve 4 years in prison as a perpetrator of the crime of simple kidnapping. Carlos Oscar Gregorio Evaristo Mardones Díaz, former Army colonel, head of the aviation command that carried out "the death flights": 8 years in prison, in addition to the legal accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification from public office and political rights, and absolute disqualification from professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and payment of court costs, as an accomplice to the crime of aggravated homicide. Antonio Palomo Contreras, former Army brigadier, and Luis Felipe Polanco Gallardo, former Army major, members of the aviation command, both sentenced to 5 years in prison, in addition to the legal accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification from public office and political rights, and absolute disqualification from professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and payment of court costs, as accessories after the fact to the crime of aggravated homicide. Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, former Army brigadier, imprisoned in Punta Peuco for countless other convictions for crimes against humanity, sentenced to 4 years in prison, in addition to the legal accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification from political rights and absolute disqualification from public office for the duration of the sentence; and payment of court costs, as a perpetrator of the crime of simple kidnapping. Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo and Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, former Carabineros non-commissioned officers, both sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison, in addition to the legal accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification from public office and political rights, and absolute disqualification from professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and payment of court costs, as co-perpetrators of the crime of aggravated homicide. In addition, they must serve 2 years in prison as perpetrators of the crime of simple kidnapping. Emilio Hernán Troncoso Vivallos, former Carabineros non-commissioned officer, sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison, in addition to the legal accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification from public office and political rights, and absolute disqualification from professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and payment of court costs, as a co-perpetrator of the crime of aggravated homicide. In addition, one year in prison as a perpetrator of the crime of simple kidnapping. For their part, agents Eugenio Jesús Fieldhouse Chávez, Pedro Mora Villanueva, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, José Mario Friz Esparza, Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, Orlando del Tránsito Altamirano Sanhueza, Eduardo Patricio Cabezas Mardones, Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich, Guillermo Eduardo Díaz Ramírez, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Carlos Enrique Miranda Mesa, and Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza were sentenced to one year in prison, in addition to the legal accessories of suspension from public office for the duration of the sentence; and payment of court costs, as co-perpetrators of the crime of simple kidnapping. In addition, agents José Javier Soto Torres, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, and José Domingo Seco Alarcón were sentenced to 61 days in prison, in addition to the legal accessories of suspension from public office for the duration of the sentence; and payment of court costs, as accomplices to the crime of simple kidnapping. Meanwhile, agents Jorge Segundo Madariaga Acevedo, José Nelson Fuentealba Saldías, Hugo Hernán Clavería Leiva, Raúl Alberto Soto Pérez, and Juan Carlos Escobar Valenzuela were acquitted due to a lack of participation in the events. During the investigation stage, Minister Vázquez managed to establish the following facts: 1.- That Marta Lidia Ugarte Román was a militant of the Communist Party of Chile and a member of the Central Committee of that group, working in the Party's organization during 1976. 2.- That, as a consequence of the military coup of September 11, 1973, she went into hiding because she was sought by intelligence services, living with Elvira Solari Ahumada at the address 908 Lo Ovalle Alley in the La Cisterna commune, where she had been residing since the aforementioned month of September 1973 for security reasons, given her political militancy. 3.- That, on August 9, 1976, Marta Ugarte Román left the Lo Ovalle Alley address around 3:00 PM, heading to the office of Dr. Iván Insunza, located on Vicuña Mackenna, to be treated for an infection in her leg resulting from a dog bite. On the way, she met Héctor Acela (now deceased), with whom she walked along Vicuña Mackenna Avenue toward Matta Avenue. He warned her that something strange was visible in the area and that it seemed to be under surveillance, but she insisted on continuing her path, not knowing that Dr. Iván Insunza had already been detained by intelligence services. 4.- That agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), belonging to the Purén Brigade, whose immediate objective was the tracking, location, and detention of Communist Party militants, proceeded to detain her without any order at Dr. Insunza's office, as he had been detained previously due to his communist affiliation, and the office was being watched by security agencies. She was then taken to the clandestine detention center of that organization, known as Villa Grimaldi or Terranova, where she was kept deprived of liberty, interrogated, and subjected to physical duress, being recognized and identified by other detainees who were in the same place at that time. 5.- That the political authorities of the time, belonging to the Ministry of the Interior and the DINA itself, officially denied the detention of Marta Ugarte Román and any knowledge of her whereabouts. 6.- That, while deprived of liberty, she was taken out to the street by agents in order to identify other militants and supporters of the Communist Party, being seen in one of those operations at a residence on Constitución Street in the Santiago commune, where party meetings were held. 7.- That, approximately on September 9, 1976, Marta Ugarte Román was taken along with other detainees from the Villa Grimaldi facility to the town of Peldehue by DINA operational agents, where she was killed. Her body was covered with a sack and tied with wire around her neck, then loaded onto an Army Aviation Command Puma helicopter, whose crew consisted of a pilot, co-pilot, a mechanic, and a DINA operational agent. The aircraft took off toward the coast, heading out to sea, to then drop her body into the high seas from a height. 8.- That, on September 12, 1976, on La Ballena beach in the town of Los Molles, the body of Marta Lidia Ugarte Román was found lifeless by Marcel Dupré David, presenting only a piece of cloth and a piece of wire tied around her neck, which was severed, with clear signs of having received physical duress. Additionally, she showed signs of needle marks on her arms. The body was taken to the La Ligua hospital and then to the Legal Medical Service of Santiago for the corresponding autopsies. The first report, dated September 14, 1976, concluded a violent death under homicidal circumstances, where the direct cause of death was polytraumatism and spinal fracture on September 9, 1976; the second expert report, of October 22, 1976, concluded that the cause of death was thoraco-abdomino-pelvic trauma, and an expansion of that report on February 22, 2010, determined that the final event that led to her death was asphyxiation by strangulation with wire. 9.- That the Army Aviation Command had its operations center at the Tobalaba airfield, among others, for the flight of Puma helicopters, which had greater flight and transport capacity, for which movement required authorizations from the highest Army authorities, as it was necessary to assign pilots, co-pilots, and mechanics to form the flight crew in advance. These ships were used institutionally and regularly, in conjunction with the DINA, for several years to dispose of the bodies of people detained in the various detention centers of that organization, who were taken directly to the Tobalaba airfield or taken to the Peldehue Regiment, to then take flight to the high seas, where they were thrown into the ocean.

Source: resumen.cl, July 1, 2016

18 former agents of the dictatorship convicted for the murder of teacher Marta Ugarte

"It was sufficiently proven that state agents acted with the precise objective of detaining the victim, without a prior order and exclusively for political reasons, with the act being executed as part of a policy of repression and disappearance of a person for their thinking, with the state authority refusing to provide any information about the detention and the destination of that person, which is an attack against the human person," argues the judicial decision.

This Monday, the decision of the Supreme Court was made official, an entity that confirmed the conviction of 18 former agents of the dictatorship for the kidnapping and murder in 1976 of the teacher and PC militant Marta Ugarte Román, after the rejection of the appeals for annulment presented against the previous ruling, reports the Judiciary.

In the sentence, the Second Chamber of the highest court ruled out any error of law in the conviction of Ricardo Lawrence Mires, Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo, and Claudio Pacheco Fernández to 15 years in prison as perpetrators of aggravated homicide and 10 years in prison as perpetrators of aggravated kidnapping.

Regarding Pedro Espinoza Bravo, José Ojeda Obando, Juvenal Piña Garrido, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, Orlando Altamirano Sanhueza, Guillermo Díaz Ramírez, Jorge Díaz Radulovich, Orlando Torrejón Gatica, Carlos Miranda Mesa, and Carlos López Inostroza, they received a sentence of 10 years in prison as perpetrators of aggravated kidnapping.

For his part, Carlos Mardones Díaz was sentenced to eight years in prison as an accomplice, while Luis Polanco Gallardo was sentenced to five years in prison as an accessory after the fact to aggravated homicide.

Leónidas Méndez Romero and José Seco Alarcón must serve a sentence of five years in prison as accomplices to aggravated kidnapping, and Emilio Troncoso Vivallos was sentenced to four years in prison as an accomplice to aggravated kidnapping.

Details of the ruling The sentence ended by ruling out any error of law in the decision that established that Marta Ugarte Román was detained and murdered for political reasons, specifically for her militancy in the Communist Party. "It concerns the detention of a person and subsequent homicide, whose motivations were political, for the sole circumstance of belonging to a political conglomerate that had been decided to be fought drastically, by state agents in an organization—the National Intelligence Directorate—that had an entire structure, specifically for the persecution, location, and detention of Communist Party members and, in their case, making them disappear, as they were treated as enemies of the country," argues the court's decision. And it subsequently adds that "it was sufficiently proven that state agents acted with the precise objective of detaining the victim, without a prior order and exclusively for political reasons, with the act being executed as part of a policy of repression and disappearance of a person for their thinking, with the state authority refusing to provide any information about the detention and the destination of that person, which is an attack against the human person." In parallel, the national justice system established that the statute of limitations does not apply to reduce the sentence, as it is a crime against humanity. The case Regarding the case, the site Memoria Viva details that on August 9, 1976, DINA agents detained Marta Ugarte. According to the account of witnesses, the teacher was detained at Villa Grimaldi, where she subsequently died as a consequence of the torture she received. After the crime, those responsible threw her into the sea, where she was found semi-naked and inside a sack tied to her neck with a wire, on September 9 of that year on La Ballena beach, in Los Molles. The autopsy report confirms that while alive, Ugarte suffered a spinal fracture, thoracic-abdominal trauma with multiple rib fractures, rupture and bursting of the liver and spleen, dislocation of both shoulders and hips, and a double fracture in the right forearm. Her date of death corresponds to September 9 of that year.

Source: eldesconcierto.cl, November 29, 2021

Santiago Court confirms ruling that convicted 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 (DINA) for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Reinalda del Carmen Pereira Plaza.

A 29-year-old woman, five months pregnant, she was detained on December 15, 1976, in the current commune of Macul and taken to the clandestine detention center 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, she was detained on December 15, 1976, in the current commune of Macul and taken to the clandestine detention center 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 of imprisonment as perpetrators of the crime.

Meanwhile, in their capacity as co-perpetrators, 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 of imprisonment.

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 findings that allowed the visiting judge Miguel Vázquez Plaza to establish the responsibility and participation of the then-state agents 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 individuals, as the evidentiary records outlined in the appealed sentence—in points fourteen against Espinoza Bravo, seventeen against Morales Salgado, twenty against Lawrence Mires, twenty-nine against Calderón Carreño, thirty-two against Piña Garrido, forty-one against Valdebenito Araya, forty-four against Escalona Acuña, forty-seven against Manríquez Manterola, sixty-five against Saavedra Vásquez, sixty-eight against Magna Astudillo, seventy-one against Oyarce Riquelme, seventy-four against Acevedo, seventy-seven against Pacheco Fernández, eighty against Troncoso Vivallos, eighty-six against Navarro Navarro, ninety-five against Sarmiento Sotelo, one hundred and seven against Guerrero Aguilera, and one hundred and twenty-two against Arriagada Mora—constitute 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-perpetrators, in the terms provided in Article 15 No. 1 of the Penal Code, in accordance with the reasoning in points fifteen, eighteen, twenty-one, thirty, thirty-three, forty-two, forty-five, forty-eight, sixty-six, sixty-nine against Magna Astudillo, seventy-two, seventy-five, seventy-seven, eighty-one, eighty-seven, ninety-five, one hundred and seven, and one hundred and twenty-three respectively, and which is complemented by the reasoning in foundations one hundred and seventy-three, one hundred and seventy-eight, one hundred and eighty-two, one hundred and eighty-six, one hundred and eighty-nine, one hundred and ninety-five, one hundred and ninety-seven, two hundred and three, two hundred and six, and two hundred and ten,” the document details.

The resolution adds: “At this point, it should be specified that the participation as a co-perpetrator attributed to Juan Morales Salgado fits fully within 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.

In that capacity, it was his duty to coordinate the operational work of the brigades acting under his command, especially in relation to the dismantling of the Communist Party, assigning personnel under his charge for this purpose, directing investigation efforts, and receiving the corresponding reports, ordering the entry and detention of the prisoners at the unit, as well as the interrogations and torture to which they were subjected and, where applicable, their death and disappearance.

It was established 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-perpetrator, in the terms provided in Article 15 No. 1 of the Penal Code, imputed to the defendant María Angélica Guerrero Soto, is established by virtue of her confession in accordance with the provisions of Article 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which is corroborated by the merit of the records indicated in foundation fifty-seven of the appealed sentence, to which is added the reasoning in motivation one hundred and ninety-three,” the ruling adds.

“That, in the same sense,” it continues, “it adheres to what is indicated in the sentence under study, as the indications pointed out in points thirty-five against Ojeda Obando, fifty against Meza Serrano, fifty-three against Lagos Yáñez, fifty-nine against Díaz Radulovich, sixty-two against Pichunmán Curiqueo, eighty-three against Castro Andrade, ninety-eight against Miranda Mesa, one hundred and one against Álvarez Droguett, one hundred and four against Altamirano Sanhueza, one hundred and thirteen against Díaz Ramírez, one hundred and twenty-five against Jiménez Escobar, one hundred and thirty-four against López Inostroza, and one hundred and forty-three against Ahumada Despouy, gather the necessary force 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, according to the reasoning in foundations thirty-six, fifty-one, fifty-four, sixty, sixty-three, eighty-four, ninety-nine, one hundred and two, one hundred and five, one hundred and fourteen, one hundred and twenty-six, one hundred and thirty-five, and one hundred and forty-four, respectively, to which are added the reasonings one hundred and seventy-one, one hundred and seventy-nine, one hundred and eighty-seven, one hundred and ninety-eight, two hundred, two hundred and four, and two hundred and eight of the ruling.”

For the appellate court, in this instance: “(…) as noted, 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 applicable, the death and disappearance of the detainees, in which one observes, on one hand, the division of roles typical of co-perpetration, 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, by prior or simultaneous acts, which is what characterizes complicity.”

“With that understanding, contrary to what the defenses argue in court in support of their appeals, it is convenient to specify that the convicted individuals are not punished merely for belonging to the institution, but for the conduct displayed by each one in relation to the events concerning the victim of these proceedings, Ms.

Reinalda Pereira Plaza, which also leads to ruling out the intervention of those accused for whom, despite having been established that they were part of the same institution and performed functions at the property located at Simón Bolívar N° 8.800 in La Reina, their punishable participation in any of the forms provided 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 half of 1976, occupied and enabled a property at Calle Simón Bolívar Nº 8800, in the commune of La Reina, consisting of a country house, which was conditioned for its purpose of confinement. It had a single access gate, a guard booth to its right where gate duty was performed, a house at the back, a small soccer field, parking spaces, and on the left side of the property a type of gymnasium where there was a mess hall, kitchen, and changing rooms and bathrooms, which were conditioned to be used as dungeons. This property was where the Lautaro brigade, led by Major Juan Morales Salgado, operated and was used as a secret and clandestine place of confinement; people were brought to said facility 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 half of 1976, the DINA groups led by officers Germán Barriga and Ricardo Lawrence moved to said facility, together with their operational agents, who were primarily concerned with investigating, locating, raiding, pursuing, repressing, and dismantling members of the Communist Party, especially its leadership, for which provisional facilities were enabled for their installation; consisting of offices, a gymnasium, and changing rooms that were confinement dungeons, where interrogations and torture were carried out, using coercion with various methods.

• c) That Reinalda del Carmen Pereira Plaza, pregnant with her first child, 5 months into her pregnancy, a medical technologist and communist militant, who worked sheltering people and as a liaison between Eliana Ahumada and Fernando Navarro, although also related to the communist militant Fernando Ortiz, was detained at 29 years of age, at approximately 8:30 PM, while waiting for public transportation, by security agents on December 15, 1976, at the corner of Calle Exequiel Fernández and Rodrigo de Araya, in the commune of Ñuñoa, currently the commune of Macul. The agents who detained her were traveling in two Peugeot brand cars; one of them with license plate HLN-55, from which a subject got out and grabbed her violently. When she screamed for help, a second subject got out, with whom she was forcibly subdued and placed inside the vehicle. The detention was carried out in the presence of witnesses who were in the various surrounding commercial establishments, who report that once the victim was subdued and the detention carried out, the car headed along Rodrigo de Araya in a northerly direction.

• d) That Reinalda del Carmen Pereira Plaza was taken to the secret detention center 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; that is, Héctor Véliz Ramírez, Fernando Navarro Allendes, Lincoyán Yalu Berríos Cataldo, Juan Fernando Ortiz Letelier, and Horacio Cepeda Marincovich. In this place, Reinalda was severely beaten, tortured, illegitimately coerced, and then forcibly disappeared, with no news of her whereabouts to this date.

• e) That the Chilean government of the time, given the search efforts carried out by her relatives, reported that the affected person had registered an exit "on foot" through the Los Libertadores border crossing between Chile and Argentina on December 21, 1976, an official version that was judicially established as false, as stated in the case file, case Rol 2-77, in which it was verified that the route sheet that recorded said circumstances had been falsified.

• f) That the victim in these proceedings was detained on public roads just like thirteen other people under similar circumstances; eleven belonging to the Communist Party and two to the MIR, and where the information provided by the Military Government was similar and erroneous, demonstrating a large-scale operation that obeyed a policy of investigation, persecution, and dismantling of the Communist Party and not an isolated event.

• g) That all the aforementioned persons, including the victim, were detained to be interrogated and tortured due to 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 lost consciousness.

Source: pjud.cl, March 4, 2022