, crimes that occurred between October 1975 and June 1976 in Santiago. The magistrate sentenced Juan Saavedra Loyola (18 years in prison, 13 years in prison, and 3 years in prison), Manuel Muñoz Gamboa (18 years in prison, 13 years in prison, and 3 years in prison), Daniel Guimpert Corvalán (18 years in prison, 12 years in prison, and 3 years in prison), Antonio Quiros Reyes (18 years in prison, 6 years in prison, and 540 days in prison), Raúl González Fernández (10 years and one day in prison, 10 years and one day in prison, and 400 days in prison), Roberto Flores Cisterna (10 years and one day in prison, 5 years and one day in prison, and 400 days in prison), Carlos Rodrigo Villarreal (10 years and one day in prison, 5 years and one day in prison, and 400 days in prison), Alejandro Sáez Mardones (10 years and one day in prison, 10 years and one day in prison, and 400 days in prison), Jorge Osses Novoa (12 years in prison, 10 years and one day in prison, and 400 days in prison), Sergio Díaz López (12 years in prison, 10 years and one day in prison, and 400 days in prison), Álvaro Corbalán Castilla (12 years in prison, 10 years and one day in prison, and 400 days in prison), Lenin Figueroa Sánchez (5 years and one day in prison, 5 years and one day in prison, and 400 days in prison), Miguel Estay Reyno (5 years in prison, 5 years and one day in prison, and 400 days in prison), Sergio Valenzuela Morales (5 years in prison, 5 years and one day in prison, and 400 days in prison), Juan Aravena Hurtuvia (5 years in prison, 5 years and one day in prison, 400 days in prison), Ernesto Lobos Gálvez (5 years and one day in prison and 60 days in prison), Alejandro Forero Álvarez (5 years and one day in prison and 60 days in prison), Viviana Ugarte Sandoval (5 years and one day in prison and 400 days in prison), Andrés Potin Laihacar (5 years and one day in prison and 400 days in prison), Emilio Mahias del Río (5 years and one day in prison and 400 days in prison), Juan López López (5 years and one day in prison and 400 days in prison), Evaristo Rojas Alruiz (5 years and one day in prison and 400 days in prison), Francisco Illanes Saavedra (5 years and one day in prison and 400 days in prison), Roberto Serón Contreras (5 years and one day), Otto Trujillo Miranda (10 years and one day in prison), Robinson Suazo Jaque (4 years in prison and 60 days in prison), Pedro Caamaño Medina (4 years in prison and 60 days in prison), Pedro Zambrano Uribe (4 years in prison and 60 days in prison), and José Alvarado Alvarado (4 years in prison and 60 days in prison). Meanwhile, agents Eduardo Cartagena Maldonado, Alex Carrasco Olivos, José Vera Reyes, Juan Huaiquimilla Coñuepan, and Víctor Zuñiga Zuñiga were acquitted.

Source: elciudadano.cl, September 10, 2019

Santiago Court sentences 27 former agents of the Comando Conjunto for crimes against communist militants in 1975 and 1976

In a unanimous ruling (case file 1.237-2020), the Fifth Chamber of the appellate court—composed of ministers Fernando Carreño Ortega, Ricardo Soto Muñoz, and minister Lidia Poza Matus—confirmed the sentence issued by the extraordinary visiting minister Miguel Vásquez Plaza in October 2019, which sentenced former FACH officer Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola and former Carabineros officer Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa to 18 years in prison as co-perpetrators of the qualified homicide of González Espinoza and Orellana Catalán; plus 13 years in prison as co-perpetrators of the qualified kidnapping of Moraga Cruz, Weibel Navarrete, and Maturana González; and 3 years in prison each as co-perpetrators of the simple kidnapping of González Espinoza and Orellana Catalán. Meanwhile, former Navy officer Daniel Luis Enrique Guimpert Corvalán was sentenced to 18 years in prison as a co-perpetrator of the qualified homicide of González Espinoza and Orellana Catalán; plus 12 years in prison as a co-perpetrator of the qualified kidnapping of Moraga Cruz and Maturana González; and 3 years in prison as a co-perpetrator of the simple kidnapping of González Espinoza and Orellana Catalán. Likewise, the Fifth Chamber ratified the sentences to be served by: former Navy officer Jorge Aníbal Osses Novoa, and former Army officers Sergio Antonio Díaz López and Álvaro Julio Federico Corbalán Castilla, to 12 years in prison as co-perpetrators of the qualified homicide of González Espinoza; plus 10 years and one day in prison as co-perpetrators of the qualified kidnapping of Moraga Cruz and Weibel Navarrete, and 400 days in prison as co-perpetrators of the kidnapping of González Espinoza. Meanwhile, former agents Roberto Alfonso Flores Cisterna and Carlos Hernán Rodrigo Villarreal must serve 10 years and one day in prison as co-perpetrators of the qualified homicide of Orellana Catalán; plus 5 years and one day in prison as co-perpetrators of the qualified kidnapping of Maturana González, and 400 days in prison as co-perpetrators of the kidnapping of Orellana Catalán. Former agent Raúl Horacio González Fernández must serve two sentences of 10 years and one day in prison as a co-perpetrator of the qualified homicide of Orellana Catalán and the qualified kidnapping of Moraga Cruz and Maturana González; plus 400 days in prison as a co-perpetrator of the simple kidnapping of Orellana Catalán. Former agent Alejandro Segundo Sáez Mardones must serve two sentences of 10 years and one day in prison as a co-perpetrator of the qualified homicide of Orellana Catalán and co-perpetrator of the qualified kidnapping of Maturana González, plus 400 days in prison as a co-perpetrator of the kidnapping of Orellana Catalán. For his part, former civilian SIFA agent Otto Silvio Trujillo Miranda was sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison as a co-perpetrator of the qualified kidnapping of Weibel Navarrete and as an accomplice to the qualified kidnapping of Moraga Cruz. Former agent Lenin Figueroa Sánchez was sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison as an accomplice to the qualified homicide of Orellana Catalán; plus 5 years and one day in prison as a co-perpetrator of the qualified kidnapping of Maturana González and 400 days as a co-perpetrator of the kidnapping of Orellana Catalán. Former agents Sergio Daniel Valenzuela Morales and Juan Atilio Aravena Hurtuvia must serve 5 years in prison as accessories after the fact to the qualified homicide of Orellana Catalán; plus 5 years and one day as co-perpetrators of the qualified kidnapping of Maturana González and 400 days in prison as co-perpetrators of the kidnapping of Orellana Catalán. Former agent Ernesto Arturo Lobos Gálvez must serve 5 years and one day in prison as an accomplice to the kidnappings of Weibel Navarrete and Maturana González, and 60 days in prison as an accomplice to the simple kidnapping of Orellana Catalán. Former agent Alejandro Jorge Forero Álvarez must serve 5 years and one day in prison as an accomplice to the qualified kidnappings of Moraga Cruz and Weibel Navarrete; 60 days in prison as an accomplice to the simple kidnapping of González Espinoza. Additionally, former civilian agents Viviana Lucinda Ugarte Sandoval, Andrés Pablo Potin Lailhacar, and Emilio Mahias del Río, along with former agents Juan Luis Fernando López López, José Evaristo Rojas Alruiz, and Francisco Segundo Illanes Miranda, must serve 5 years and one day in prison as co-perpetrators of the qualified kidnapping of Maturana González; 400 days in prison as co-perpetrators of the simple kidnapping of Orellana Catalán. Former agent Roberto Francisco Serón Cárdenas was sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison as a co-perpetrator of the qualified kidnapping of Moraga Cruz. Finally, former agents Robinson Alfonso Suazo Jaque, Pedro Ernesto Caamaño Medina, Pedro Juan Zambrano Uribe, and José Hernando Alvarado Alvarado were sentenced to 4 years in prison as accomplices to the qualified kidnapping of Maturana González; and 60 days in prison as accomplices to the simple kidnapping of Orellana Catalán. Those also sentenced in the first-instance ruling by the presiding minister Miguel Vásquez Plaza, former FACH officer Antonio Benedicto Quiroz Reyes and the converted civilian agent Miguel Arturo Estay Reyno, passed away during the time elapsed between that ruling and this one. Regarding the substance of the Court's resolution, the Fifth Chamber states: "This Court therefore agrees with the assessment of the sentencing judge and the Judicial Prosecutor, for the reasons expressed in the ruling and those previously stated, that the facts, held as proven in the appealed sentence, are punishable by virtue of the predominance of International Human Rights Law over the provisions of internal or national law. This recognition is of vital importance because it grants crimes against humanity the relevance they deserve, since their perpetration affects all of humanity, the legal interests concerning international peace, security, and well-being, which International Criminal Law seeks to protect," the confirming ruling states. In the judicial investigation, minister Vásquez Plaza established that: a) That there existed a de facto group that operated clandestinely between the years 1975 and 1976, composed mainly of agents who belonged to the Air Force Intelligence Directorate, in addition to Carabineros de Chile, the Navy, and the Army, with the collaboration of civilians, whose main objective was the repression of the Communist Party Youth, for which they proceeded to detain several of them. b) That the aforementioned group used for detentions and torture: Hangar de Cerrillos; Nido 20, a secret detention and torture center located at Calle Santa Teresa No. 037, stop 20 of Gran Avenida; Nido 18, a secret center located at Calle Perú No. 9053, La Florida, Santiago, which was used exclusively for torture; La Prevención or Remo Cero, which were cells located inside the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina, all this during the year 1975; La Firma, at the beginning of 1976, said group moved its operations to the rear of the property under the charge of Carabineros de Chile, located on Calle Dieciocho, opposite No. 229, which belonged to the former newspaper Clarín, naming it La Firma. c) That the operational conduct of the group, regarding the persons illegitimately deprived of their liberty, keeping them in secret centers, was to obtain information from them under psychological and physical torture, achieving the collaboration of some of them, to the point that some were assimilated as operational agents of the group, which provided greater effectiveness in the chain detention of communist militants, who were forcibly disappeared, with some of their remains being found over the years. d) That on November 7, 1975, at approximately 10:00 PM, Ricardo Manuel Weibel Navarrete was detained at his home at Río Maule No. 1893, Recoleta Commune, by subjects wearing civilian clothes; he was kept deprived of liberty in the center called La Prevención or Remo Cero, located inside the Anti-Aircraft Regiment in Colina, the last place he was seen alive, and subsequently, his skeletal remains were found on the grounds of Fuerte Arteaga, Peldehue. e) On June 8, 1976, in the Estación Central sector, Juan René Orellana Catalán met with Luis Emilio Gerardo Maturana González, both militants of the Communist Youth in hiding due to the political persecution they were subjected to, with the purpose of receiving money from the party from the hands of Maturana González, the latter in charge of distributing it; at which moment he was detained by agents of the group referred to in letter a), being kept recluse in the center called La Firma, and was subsequently executed at Cuesta Barriga, where remains of his person were found consisting of dental pieces and a removable prosthesis. f) That, on October 20, 1975, in the early morning hours, Luis Desiderio Moraga Cruz was detained at his home at Pasaje Tokio No. 5862, Población Juanita Aguirre, Conchalí commune, Santiago, by subjects wearing civilian clothes; he was kept recluse in the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina, inside which was the center called La Prevención or Remo Cero, where he gave the statement that appears on page 5532, this being the last place he was seen alive. g) That, on December 4, 1975, in the early morning hours, Ignacio Orlando González Espinoza was detained at his home at Calle Soberanía No. 1220, Santiago, by subjects wearing civilian clothes; he was kept deprived of liberty in the center called La Prevención or Remo Cero, located inside the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina, the last place he was seen alive, and subsequently, he was executed on the grounds of Fuerte Arteaga, Peldehue, where his skeletal remains were found. h) On June 8, 1976, in the Estación Central sector, Luis Emilio Gerardo Maturana González met with Juan René Orellana Catalán, both militants of the Communist Youth in hiding due to the political persecution they were subjected to, with the purpose of giving party money to Orellana Catalán for himself and so that he in turn would give it to other party militants since Maturana González was in charge of distributing it; at which moment he was detained by operational agents of the group described in letter a), being kept recluse in the center called La Firma, from where his trail is lost.

Source: resumen.cl, April 12, 2022

Supreme Court confirms sentences of 27 former agents of the Comando Conjunto for crimes against five communist militants committed between 1975 and 1976

The Supreme Court rejected the appeals in cassation filed by the defenses of the former agents of the so-called Comando Conjunto, against the sentence that convicted 27 of them for their responsibility in the crimes of simple kidnapping and qualified homicide of Ignacio Orlando González Espinoza and Juan René Orellana Catalán; and in the qualified kidnappings of Ricardo Manuel Weibel Navarrete, Luis Desiderio Moraga Cruz, and Luis Emilio Gerardo Maturana González, all militants of the Communist Party.

The crimes were perpetrated between October 1975 and June 1976, in the city of Santiago. The so-called Comando Conjunto was a repressive apparatus created by the dictatorship under the tutelage of the Air Force (FACH) and the participation of agents from the Army, the Navy, the Carabineros, and civilian fascists, which operated mainly between the years 1975 and 1977, and whose reason for being was to compete in repressive and criminal tasks with the absolute power held by the DINA under the tutelage of the Army and the direction of Pinochet and Contreras.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 32.012-2022), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, minister María Teresa Letelier, and minister Jean Pierre Matus—confirmed the challenged sentence, issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals, which sentenced former FACH officer Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola and former Carabineros officer Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa to 18 years in prison, plus 13 years and plus 3 years in prison, each.

Former Navy officer Daniel Luis Enrique Guimpert Corvalán to sentences of 18 years, plus 12 and plus 3 years in prison. Former Army officers Álvaro Julio Federico Corbalán Castilla and Sergio Antonio Díaz López, and former Navy officer Jorge Aníbal Osses Novoa, to sentences of 12 years in prison, plus 10 years and one day, plus 400 days in prison each.

Agents Raúl Horacio González Fernández and Alejandro Julio Segundo Sáez Mardones to two sentences of 10 years and one day in prison, and plus 400 days in prison each. Agents Roberto Alfonso Flores Cisterna and Juan Carlos Hernán Rodrigo Villarreal to sentences of 10 years and one day, plus 5 years and one day, plus 400 days in prison each.

Civilian fascist Otto Silvio Trujillo Miranda to the sentence of 10 years and one day in prison. Agent Lenin Figueroa Sánchez, two sentences of 5 years and one day, plus 400 days in prison. Agents Sergio Daniel Valenzuela Morales, Juan Atilio Aravena Hurtuvia, to sentences of 5 years and one day in prison, plus 5 years, plus 400 days in prison.

Civilian fascists Andrés Pablo Potín Lailhacar, Viviana Lucinda Ugarte Sandoval, Emilio Mahias del Río, and agents Juan Luis Fernando López López, José Evaristo Rojas Alruiz, Francisco Segundo Illanes Miranda, to sentences of 5 years and one day in prison, plus 400 days in prison.

Ernesto Arturo Lobos Gálvez, Alejandro Jorge Forero Álvarez, to sentences of 5 years and one day in prison, plus 60 days in prison. Roberto Francisco Serón Cárdenas, to the sentence of 5 years and one day in prison.

Robinson Alfonso Suazo Jaque, Pedro Ernesto Caamaño Medina, Pedro Juan Zambrano Uribe, and José Hernando Alvarado Alvarado, to the sentence of 4 years, plus 60 days in prison each. Those also convicted, Antonio Benedicto Quiros Reyes and Miguel Arturo Estay Reyno, passed away during the course of the process.

In the judicial investigation and first-instance ruling, minister Miguel Vásquez Plaza established that there existed a de facto group that operated clandestinely between the years 1975 and 1976, composed mainly of agents who belonged to the Air Force Intelligence Directorate, in addition to Carabineros de Chile, the Navy, and the Army, with the collaboration of civilians, whose main objective was the repression of the Communist Party Youth, for which they proceeded to detain several of them.

This group, called Comando Conjunto, used various facilities for detentions and torture: Hangar de Cerrillos; Nido 20, a secret detention and torture center located at Calle Santa Teresa No. 037, stop 20 of Gran Avenida; Nido 18, a secret center located at Calle Perú No. 9053, La Florida, Santiago, which was used exclusively for torture; La Prevención or Remo Cero, which were cells located inside the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina, all this during the year 1975; La Firma, at the beginning of 1976, said group moved its operations to the rear of the property under the charge of Carabineros de Chile, located on Calle Dieciocho, opposite No. 229, which belonged to the former newspaper Clarín, naming it La Firma. The operational conduct of the group consisted of detaining people using the kidnapping method, keeping them captive in secret centers, and subjecting them to interrogations and physical and psychological torture to obtain information and break their will, achieving the collaboration of some of them, to the point that some were assimilated as operational agents of the group, which provided greater effectiveness in the chain detention of communist militants, who were forcibly disappeared; for some of them, over the years, part of their remains were found. On November 7, 1975, at approximately 10:00 PM, Ricardo Manuel Weibel Navarrete was detained at his home on Calle Río Maule in the Recoleta Commune, by subjects wearing civilian clothes; he was kept deprived of liberty in the center called La Prevención or Remo Cero, located inside the Anti-Aircraft Regiment in Colina, the last place he was seen alive, and subsequently, his skeletal remains were found on the grounds of Fuerte Arteaga, Peldehue. On October 20, 1975, in the early morning hours, Luis Desiderio Moraga Cruz was detained at his home at Pasaje Tokio in the Población Juanita Aguirre, Conchalí commune, Santiago, by subjects wearing civilian clothes; he was kept recluse in the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina, inside which was the center called La Prevención or Remo Cero, this being the last place he was seen alive. On December 4, 1975, in the early morning hours, Ignacio Orlando González Espinoza was detained at his home on Calle Soberanía in the Santiago commune, by subjects wearing civilian clothes; he was kept deprived of liberty in the center called La Prevención or Remo Cero, located inside the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina, the last place he was seen alive, and subsequently, he was executed on the grounds of Fuerte Arteaga, Peldehue, where his skeletal remains were found. On June 8, 1976, in the Estación Central sector, Luis Emilio Gerardo Maturana González met with Juan René Orellana Catalán, both militants of the Communist Youth in hiding due to the political persecution they were subjected to, with the purpose of giving party money to Orellana Catalán for himself and so that he in turn would give it to other party militants since Maturana González was in charge of distributing it; at which moment they were detained by operational agents of the aforementioned Comando Conjunto, being kept recluse in the center called La Firma, from where their trail is lost. Subsequently, Orellana Catalán was executed at Cuesta Barriga, where remains of his person were found.

Source: resumen.cl, April 26, 2024