For his responsibility in the qualified homicide of Tucapel Jiménez, General (ret.) Arturo Ramsés Alvarez Sgolia was sentenced to 10 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree as a perpetrator, without benefits.

Following an exhaustive investigation of just over three years, the first-instance ruling by the extraordinary visiting judge, Sergio Muñoz, was released regarding the case of the crime against Tucapel Jiménez on February 25, 1982.

The ruling, delayed during the morning due to computer problems, acquitted Major (ret.) Alvaro Corbalán Castilla, Brigadier (ret.) Roberto Urbano Schmied Zanzi, civilian Julio Olivares Silva, and Carabineros Captain Miguel Hernández Oyarzo, who had been prosecuted as accomplices.

For his responsibility in the qualified homicide of Tucapel Jiménez, Muñoz sentenced General (ret.) Arturo Ramsés Alvarez Sgolia to 10 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree as a perpetrator, without benefits.

As the perpetrator of qualified homicide against the former president of the ANEF and the carpenter Juan Alegría Mundaca, Major (ret.) Carlos Herrera Jiménez was sentenced to life imprisonment without benefits.

Meanwhile, Brigadier (ret.) Víctor Pinto Pérez and Lieutenant Colonel (ret.) Maximiliano Ferrer Lima were sentenced to 8 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree as perpetrators, without benefits.

As perpetrators, Miguel Letelier Verdugo and Sub-officer Manuel Contreras Donaire were sentenced to 6 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree, without benefits. Major Juan Carlos Arriagada Echeverría and Jorge León Alessandrini (civilian) were sentenced by Magistrate Sergio Muñoz to 3 years of minor imprisonment in its medium degree as accomplices (remitted sentence).

General (ret.) Fernando Torres Silva (former Army auditor), General (ret.) Hernán Ramírez Hald, and General (ret.) Hernán Ramírez Rurange were sentenced to 800 days of minor imprisonment in its medium degree (remitted sentence) as accomplices.

As a cover-up agent, Colonel (ret.) Enrique Ibarra was sentenced to 541 days of minor imprisonment in its medium degree. Finally, the weapon used in the crime was confiscated: a Smith & Wesson .22 caliber revolver, serial number 22547, which is registered under the name of the General Directorate of National Mobilization.

Judicial process In three years of investigation, Judge Sergio Muñoz shook the Army. In 1999, he prosecuted the former director of the CNI, the now-deceased Humberto Gordon, and in June of that year, he preempted Juan Guzmán by sending a request to Pinochet during his detention in London.

However, his most daring step was prosecuting Hernán Ramírez Hald, the first general in active service to be charged in a human rights case. Ramírez Hald was charged on November 22, but one day earlier, President Ricardo Lagos received him in his office for an hour to support the general's gesture of retiring from the Army and facing the process as a civilian.

The former officer remained detained at the Telecommunications Command until he was released on bail in mid-2000. It should be recalled that Judge Muñoz took over the investigation in April 1999, after 17 years of fruitless work by Judge Sergio Valenzuela Patiño, who was removed from the case by the Supreme Court.

Source: La Tercera, August 5

Those convicted in the Tucapel case sent to Punta Peuco

After the Second Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court finalized the sentences against those responsible for the death of the former president of the National Association of Fiscal Employees (ANEF), Tucapel Jiménez Alfaro, which occurred on February 25, 1982, judicial sources informed La Nación that they will be transferred today to the Punta Peuco prison, the facility where they will serve their custodial sentences.

With this change of prison, they will leave the Military Police Battalion (BPM) at the Peñalolén Telecommunications Regiment, where the Army built facilities for former officers and active-duty military personnel under prosecution to serve preventive detention until a sentence was issued against them.

Thus, they will be held at Punta Peuco, a prison with joint custody by the Gendarmerie and the Army. This includes the former director of the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE), General (ret.) Arturo Alvarez Scoglia; Brigadiers (ret.) Víctor Pinto Pérez and Maximiliano Ferrer Lima; and Sub-officers (ret.) Manuel Contreras Donaire and Miguel Letelier Verdugo, all of whom were sentenced to eight years in prison.

The latter two were convicted as material perpetrators. In addition to them is Major (ret.) Carlos Herrera Jiménez, sentenced to a unified sentence of simple life imprisonment for the death of Jiménez and his participation in the murder of the carpenter Juan Alegría Mundaca in July 1983.

The same sources indicated that the transfer of the former officers was originally scheduled for the weekend; however, it had to be postponed due to a lack of space to receive the new inmates. Furthermore, the security agencies in charge of the operation have the authority to halt the procedure until the last moment.

Source: La Nación, March 23, 2004

Major (ret.) Carlos Herrera asked Pinochet to acknowledge his errors

According to the former agent of the National Information Center (CNI), the former dictator must "take a step of honesty, of military honor." Retired Army Major Carlos Herrera Jiménez, sentenced to life imprisonment in the Tucapel Jiménez case, asked that Augusto Pinochet, "sick, healthy, or imprisoned," admit his errors regarding human rights for the sake of his "soldier's honor." Herrera Jiménez made these statements to Televisión Nacional on Thursday night, having begun to serve the life sentence imposed on him as the material perpetrator of the murder of the union leader and the carpenter Juan Alegría. In his view, a "mea culpa" from the former Chilean dictator (1973-1990)—who was dismissed from several human rights violation cases because the Supreme Court ruled he suffers from "irreversible vascular dementia"—would be the first step toward national reconciliation. "The one who was commander-in-chief of the Army at that time, General Augusto Pinochet, sick or not sick, healthy or not healthy, imprisoned or not imprisoned, as a soldier should have taken a step of honesty, of military honor," said the retired major. Carlos Herrera Jiménez, who was an agent of the National Information Center (CNI), has cancer and confessed to the justice system his authorship of the crimes for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment, which he began serving on the night of March 31 at the special prison of Punta Peuco, 30 kilometers north of Santiago. "For the successes of the military government to be recognized, we must also, of course, take responsibility for the errors of one side and the other," the former agent stressed. Herrera Jiménez also reiterated his remorse for his participation in the crimes and repeated that he obeyed the orders of his superiors, who convinced him that he was eliminating enemies of the fatherland. During the trial, the former agent accused the Army leadership of the time and the Intelligence Directorate (DINE) on several occasions of having abandoned their subordinates in these proceedings. Tucapel Jiménez was kidnapped and murdered in February 1982, when he was working to reorganize the Chilean union movement and, in particular, the civil resistance against the dictatorship. Herrera Jiménez was also convicted for the homicide, on September 12, 1983, of the carpenter Juan Alegría Mundaca, whom CNI and DINE agents killed to try to cover up the assassination of the union leader. The carpenter was found dead in his home with his wrists slashed, and next to him was a letter in which the man explained that he was committing suicide due to the remorse he felt for having killed the unionist. The setup was exposed almost immediately. For these crimes, in addition to Herrera Jiménez, the former head of DINE, Arturo Alvarez Sgolia, and four other military personnel were sentenced to eight years in prison.

Source: cooperativa.cl, April 2, 2004

Human Rights judge sentences former head of Army intelligence

Visiting Judge Mario Carroza sentenced the former director of Army Intelligence, Rámses Arturo Álvarez Sgolia, and six other former officers for their responsibilities in the permanent kidnapping of a political opponent while he was in command of the Atacama emergency zone in 1975.

Judge Carroza issued a first-instance sentence in the investigation into the qualified kidnapping of Alonso Lazo Rojas, which occurred starting November 14, 1975, in the city of Copiapó. The magistrate determined that General (ret.) Ramsés Arturo Álvarez Sgolia must serve 10 years and one day of imprisonment, without benefits, for being the highest military authority at the time of the events and the Commander-in-Chief of the State of Emergency Zone and Intendant of Atacama.

Meanwhile, former officers Patricio Román Herrera, Pedro Vivian Guaita, Felipe González Astorga, Hernán Portillo Aranda, José Quintanilla Fernández, and Erasmo Vega Sobarzo were sentenced to 6 years of imprisonment, also without benefits.

Former sub-officers Juan Valderrama Molina, Cristóbal Marihual Suazo, Sergio Sánchez Parra, and Adolfo Lapostol Sprovera were acquitted due to a lack of participation in this crime. In the civil aspect, it was determined to accept the lawsuit filed against the Chilean State for sixty million pesos, ordering the payment of $40,000,000 to Nicza Báez Mondaca, the victim's spouse, and $20,000,000 to Venancio Lazo Rojas, the brother of the forcibly disappeared person.

Alonso Lazo Rojas was a university student and a member of the MIR. He was detained on November 14, 1975, along with his wife, Nicza Estrella Báez Mondaca, by officials of the Military Intelligence Service (SIM) at their home located at Calle Juan Martínez No. 321 in Copiapó.

The couple was renting a room on Calle Chañarcillo 171, a place that was raided in the early morning by 9 civilians who claimed to be looking for someone named "Rosario." After leaving Zulema Tham's house, the victim and his wife requested lodging from Carolina Quezada Nievas at Calle Juan Martínez No. 321 in Copiapó, who accepted them.

When the couple had been there for two days, on November 14, 1975, 6 civilians arrived carrying laminated cards from the "Military Intelligence Service" and took them to the 23rd Motorized Infantry Regiment "Copiapó," whose commander was the then-Lieutenant Colonel Álvarez Sgolia.

On November 21, 1975, the high-ranking officer assured Alvaro Lazo's brother in a letter that "on November 18, 1975, while he was detained on the military premises and Álvaro was being given his food, he attacked a sentry and fled."

Source: Terra.cl, December 7, 2012

General (ret.) convicted in Tucapel Jiménez case declared insane and will not return to prison

The ruling acquits him of his responsibility for the kidnapping of Alonso Lazo Rojas, a member of the MIR, in November 1975. The Sixth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals dismissed the case against General (ret.) Ramsés Álvarez Sgolia for his responsibility as a perpetrator of the qualified kidnapping of MIR member Alonso Lazo Rojas, which occurred starting in November 1975.

The court's decision considered the results issued by the Legal Medical Service. Psychiatric examinations indicate that the convicted man presents "moderate to severe cognitive impairment due to a mixed dementia condition of vascular origin," meaning he would be incapable of rehabilitation and incapable of determining which behaviors from his past were lawful or unlawful.

Álvarez Sgolia served an 8-year prison sentence as one of the intellectual authors of the murder of the union leader and former ANEF president Tucapel Jiménez, which occurred on February 25, 1982. Based on this new ruling, which "exempts from criminal responsibility those who, due to a cause independent of their will, are totally deprived of reason," the man recently declared "insane" will not have to return to prison.

Source: radio.uchile.cl, October 15, 2014