Miguel Krassnoff, Marcelo Moren Brito, and Raúl Iturriaga Neumann are among those implicated.

The minister for extraordinary causes regarding human rights violations at the Santiago Court of Appeals, Hernán Crisosto, sentenced 77 agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) this Monday for their responsibility in the kidnapping of Héctor Garay Hermosilla in 1974.

Garay Hermosilla, a member of the Revolutionary Student Front (FER), was 19 years old when he was detained near his home on July 8, 1974. Days later, his name appeared in the national press on a false list of 119 people killed due to alleged internal disputes within the MIR, in what was termed "Operation Colombo." According to the evidence gathered by the judge, "the publications that declared the victim Garay Hermosilla dead had their origin in disinformation maneuvers carried out by DINA agents abroad."

According to the reconstruction of events carried out by the presiding judge, the DINA agents who captured Garay "forced him into the back of a gray Chevrolet C-10 pickup truck and took him to the home of a friend of the victim, who was also forced into the aforementioned truck, to be driven to an unknown destination."

"Subsequently, it was established through testimonies that Héctor Marcial Garay Hermosilla passed through the clandestine detention center known as 'Londres 38,' which was guarded by armed guards and to which only DINA agents had access," the ruling continues, establishing that to date, there is no further information regarding Garay's whereabouts.

The convicted In the resolution, the presiding judge sentenced the following to 13 years in prison as authors of the crime perpetrated in 1974: César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Marcelo Luis Moren Brito, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann.

Meanwhile, the following former agents must serve 10 years in prison, also as authors: Gerardo Ernesto Urrich González, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, Ciro Ernesto Torré Sáez, Sergio Hernán Castillo González, Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, José Nelson Fuentealba Saldías, Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes, José Enrique Fuentes Torres, José Mario Friz Esparza, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, Claudio Orlando Orellana de la Pinta, Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar, Gustavo Galvarino Caruman Soto, Hiro Álvarez Vega, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Olegario Enrique González Moreno, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Rudeslindo Urrutia Jorquera, Alfredo Orlando Moya Tejeda, Carlos Alfonso Sáez Sanhueza, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Hernán Patricio Valenzuela Salas, Hugo Rubén Delgado Carrasco, Juan Alfredo Villanueva Alvear, Juan Evaristo Duarte Gallegos, Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Máximo Ramón Aliaga Soto, Manuel Rivas Díaz, Juan Ángel Urbina Cáceres, Risiere del Prado Altez España, Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte, Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca, and Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle.

As accomplices to the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Garay Hermosilla, the presiding judge sentenced the following to 4 years in prison: Luis Eduardo Mora Cerda, José Jaime Mora Diocares, Camilo Torres Negrier, Carlos Justo Bermúdez Méndez, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, Fernando Adrián Roa Montaña, Gerardo Meza Acuña, Héctor Raúl Valdebenito Araya, Jaime Humberto Paris Ramos, Jorge Laureano Sagardia Monje, José Dorohi Hormazábal Rodríguez, José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, José Stalin Muñoz Leal, Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, Luis René Torres Méndez, Manuel Antonio Montre Méndez, Moisés Paulino Campos Figueroa, Nelson Aquiles Ortiz Vignolo, Nelson Eduardo Iturriaga Cortés, Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, Reinaldo Alfonso Concha Orellana, Sergio Hernán Castro Andrade, Víctor Manuel de la Cruz San Martín Jiménez, Gustavo Humberto Apablaza Meneses, Héctor Carlos Díaz Cabezas, Jorge Antonio Lepileo Barrios, Óscar Belarmino la Flor Flores, Rufino Espinoza Espinoza, Héctor Manuel Lira Aravena, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, Sergio Iván Díaz Lara, Juan Miguel Troncoso Soto, and Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel.

Meanwhile, Rodolfo Valentino Cocha Rodríguez and Armando Segundo Cofre Correa were acquitted due to a lack of participation in the events.

Source: t13.cl, August 31, 2015

On sale starting today in Santiago bookstores, the book by journalist Javier Rebolledo narrates the life of Jorgelino Vergara, "El Mocito" (The Young Servant) of the DINA, and with it, the rawest episode in Chilean history: the crimes of the Lautaro Brigade at the Simón Bolívar barracks, the only extermination center known to date.

This time, the revelations come from the mouths of the former agents of the dictatorship themselves. Exclusively, textual episodes from the account.

Jorgelino Vergara Bravo, known for his participation in the documentary El Mocito, remained silent for thirty years. In 2007, he revealed to the justice system his participation in the Simón Bolívar barracks, where the Lautaro Brigade—the operational group most trusted by Manuel Contreras—operated.

In this book, built upon thirty hours of interviews, journalist Javier Rebolledo unveils, through Vergara's eyes, his youth in the home of the DINA director as a waiter's assistant, his rise within the structure to reach the Lautaro Brigade, and his fall, becoming an outcast.

Along with the confessions of his former comrades in the Calle Conferencia case (still under investigative summary), Jorgelino reveals the most violent episode recorded in the history of Chile: the extermination of an indeterminate number of human beings, many of them Communist Party militants, but also many citizens without political involvement.

Furthermore, the account provides a detailed report of the day-to-day life inside the only extermination center known to date, in the purest Nazi style. Here, unlike other narratives, it is the vision of the perpetrators, the confession of their crimes, that constructs the history.

Although it is on sale today in Santiago bookstores, the official launch will be next Monday, June 25, at 7:30 PM in the Master Room of Radio Universidad de Chile.

Below are selected quotes from La Danza de los Cuervos:

THE BONES OF THE SHINS

"After Jorgelino, Eduardo Oyarce described the crime of Fernando Ortiz near the gym. Army non-commissioned officer Hiro Álvarez Vega and one other amused themselves by beating him all night long. I only knew his 'alias': 'Pato Lucas.' 'He was brutally beaten with sticks on his shins, to the point where you could see the bones, and they left him dying.

That was taken advantage of by the torturers to stomp on his chest at the level of the heart, supposedly to revive him.'"

Héctor Valdebenito, "Viejo Valde," admitted to having seen him die while interrogating him. According to him, that was when he told him his name and that they had detained him on Calle Pedro de Valdivia. "I approached, stood in front of him, asked him a question, and realized that the man was speaking in a broken, low voice as a result of the blows he had received from 'El Elefante' [Juvenal Piña] and 'Mario Primero' [Eduardo Reyes Lagos].

From there he began to lose his voice, he leaned to the right side, and upon seeing that he had fainted, I called Morales, Barriga, and Lawrence, and they confirmed he was dead."

He was left lying on the side of the gym next to other detainees, tied up and sitting on the floor, still alive.

That same day, the cook Carlos Marcos Muñoz saw the group of detainees still alive in the gym, in poor physical condition. One, whom he later identified as Horacio Cepeda Marinkovic, a member of the clandestine leadership of Fernando Ortiz, asked him for a glass of water.

He brought it to him, and instantly the man began to vomit blood. He fell to the floor, apparently dead. "That same day, while I was in the kitchen, I observed that the Carabineros official with the surname Pichunman burned his fingerprints and face with a blowtorch."

He also remembered that this detainee was put in a sack by "Chancho" Daza, who loaded him into the barracks' Chevrolet C-10 pickup truck.

Eduardo Oyarce declared having seen the moment of Horacio Cepeda Marinkovic's death. "He was detained for about five days before being eliminated with blows from sticks to the head given by 'El Elefante' [Juvenal Piña, murderer of Víctor Díaz], who also squeezed his trachea. I saw it and could hear the screams the old man was letting out."

Several agents agree that during that day and the next, there was a more or less numerous group of detainees at the Simón Bolívar barracks. The versions range from six to fifteen.

They were likely the bodies of the eleven members of the clandestine leadership of the Communist Party headed by Fernando Ortiz: Armando Portilla, Fernando Navarro, Lincoyán Berríos, Horacio Cepeda, Waldo Pizarro, Reinalda Pereira, Luis Lazo, Héctor Véliz, Lisandro Cruz, and Edras Pinto, along with MIR militants Edmundo Araya and Carlos Durán who, at that time, were coordinated with the Communist Party. (Chapter 27, Pidiendo huevadas).

NECK BROKEN

"We dragged the detainee to the car and set off with Daza, Escalona, and apparently Meza, toward Cuesta Barriga. Upon arriving at the cave, we went into the entrance, and I told the others to carry out the order.

At that moment, Daza grabbed the detainee from behind, passing his arm around his neck, and the detainee, despite how bad he was, reacted and began to kick, until I grabbed his feet while others secured him from above, and that was when Daza gave a very abrupt twist to the detainee's neck to one side and broke it.

The detainee remained motionless, dead. The body was carried by two others, I shone a flashlight, they took him to the back, and he was thrown into the pit. I never told this before, not even to my family." (Chapter 24, La limpieza mecánica. Police statement by agent Héctor Valdebenito regarding the crime of MIR militant Ángel Guerrero Carrillo).

THE GOOD SERVANT

"Within that environment, he also had to fit in, to be up to the task. If he passed by, he looked at the detainee with contempt; that was well regarded. Or a kick, also. Thus, within that system, no one could fail.

Neither could he. All dogs. All crazy. Do not show a single feeling of compassion. Inside, obviously, he felt something, but he wanted to be within that group to advance and make his military career. If they saw him as weak, even if they didn't say anything, they would realize it. 'The kid is no good, he's not tough, he's not a dog like us.' That, no, he didn't want to be left out."

"Did he have the freedom to leave and abandon all that? He thought about it many times, but nothing. Unacceptable. It was returning to the street, leaving the world in which he was learning, where he received his daily food and teachings. Or perhaps it could be worse; a simple 'eliminate him' was enough."

"So, when he showed himself like that, like them, mean, cold, when he gave kicks, when he looked at a detainee with hatred, with a word, a shout, he received a gesture of approval in return. 'You're doing well, you're on the right path.'" (Chapter 26, La presa mayor).

FRYING PAN BLOWS TO THE HEAD

"Germán Barriga Muñoz, the top boss of 'Delfín' and Army captain, never got angry; he always walked around with a smile, speaking slowly, calm and nervous at the same time. 'How to call him?... Unreliable, that.' A cynic."

"To her, to Reinalda, they were giving it to her between Barriga and Lawrence. Gladys Calderón and Teresa Navarro were also present."

"I didn't know her name at that moment. She was on the grill with her eyes covered by a blindfold. She was spinning the 'gigí' [torture device], on and on; Barriga and Lawrence observing, asking questions, hitting her with everything they had at hand."

"'Please, kill me,' she screamed. She was in pieces. That way she wouldn't be able to have her child; it wouldn't be able to be born with the damage she had all over her body. She was sure. So, 'please, kill me.' Meanwhile, he was organizing some books in the office.

And Barriga and Lawrence began to laugh loudly. 'She was asking for bullshit.' Lawrence went to a small kitchen next to the office. And he returned with a large frying pan. He began to hit her on the head, with violence, again and again. They were turning her into mush."

"Barriga had a pistol in his hand pointing at the temple of the bloodied woman, already half-gone. A second passed, another one, he promised her he was going to kill her... he pulled the trigger. And nothing, it was a fake execution. They laughed." (Chapter 27, Pidiendo Huevadas).

WITH A PLASTIC BAG

"He went to the dungeons. He entered Víctor Díaz's room and looked at him. He was in good health and wearing his clothes. Tied by his feet and hands. 'At that very moment, I told Díaz to forgive me for the action I was about to carry out, that is, his subsequent death.

At that instant, an agent, I don't remember who, handed me a supermarket nylon bag, which I used to cover Díaz's head, at which moment I pressed this bag to his neck in order to prevent the passage of oxygen to his body.

After about three minutes, I observed that he no longer had vital signs, at which moment I finished pressing the bag, to leave the bedroom immediately, as I was shocked by the action I had executed.'" (Chapter 26, La presa mayor. Police statement by agent Juvenal Piña regarding the crime of the Communist undersecretary, Víctor Díaz).

GUINEA PIGS

"That time, Colonel Contreras arrived at the barracks. He almost never went, but it was a special occasion. He was accompanied by 'Gringo' Michael Townley and Chiminelli. Juan Morales, Fernández Larios, Barriga, Lawrence, and several non-commissioned officers were waiting for them."

"He was in the mess hall, almost at the exit door that connected to the kitchen. Everyone arrived there together. And the Peruvians too, bare-chested, blindfolded, hands cuffed behind their backs. He began to heat the water just in case, prepared the tray with the cups and the coffee. Ready, willing."

"Two agents put the Peruvians against one of the walls of the place. Townley, the colonel, and the rest positioned themselves facing the foreigners, at a distance of about ten meters or so."

"The 'Gringo' Townley then took out a small device. It was like a remote control with some small antennas and began to show the colonel how to use it. The colonel grabbed it in his hands and aimed. In an instant, the dart flew out. Before even seeing it, it was already stuck on the pit of the stomach of one of the detainees."

"The colonel moved the little lever on the remote control and the Peruvian fell to the floor immediately, struck down, writhing in a million muscle contractions, from one side to the other for a while. Those present observed the new invention and the effects of the test. The colonel moved the lever back and the convulsions stopped. (...)" (Chapter 20, Oscuro plumaje).

Source: El Mostrador, June 23, 2012

Judge Montiglio processed 98 former agents for victims of Operation Colombo - The biggest blow to the repression

Among the accused, all of whom are retired, are eight colonels and 23 non-commissioned officers from the Army, 40 officers and non-commissioned officers from the Carabineros, two former agents from the FACH (Air Force), one former agent from the Navy, and seven former agents from the Investigations Police.

The biggest blow to the repression of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship was dealt yesterday by Judge Víctor Montiglio, who indicted 98 former agents from various branches of the Armed Forces, Carabineros, and Investigations for the 42 victims of Operation Colombo.

This is the largest resolution issued among the nearly 400 human rights violation cases currently being investigated in the country. It even surpassed the 67 former agents indicted by the same Judge Montiglio in 2007 for the crimes of the Brigada Lautaro and its Grupo Delfín at the Simón Bolívar barracks.

Among those indicted for Colombo are eight Army colonels (Ret.), six of whom had not been previously indicted in any case. Also declared defendants were 23 Army non-commissioned officers (Ret.), of whom at least 50 percent appear for the first time in this type of case.

Among these non-commissioned officers is Juvenal Piña, alias "El Elefante," a former agent of the Brigada Lautaro, who was the one who suffocated the clandestine communist leader Víctor Díaz (1976) with a plastic bag over his head, prior to injecting him with cyanide.

Furthermore, the magistrate indicted 40 former officer and non-commissioned officer agents of the Carabineros, among whom are Ricardo Lawrence, Heriberto Acevedo, Claudio Pacheco, and José Mora, all former members of the same Brigade. Among those prosecuted are also former agents who belonged to the Investigations Police. The only civilian (Army) is Juan Suárez.

Of the total list, at least thirteen are already serving sentences for other cases (see list).

As of the closing of this edition, the accused were still being detained to be interned in various locations, such as the Peñalolén Military Police Battalion.

Among the 42 victims for whom the judge issued his resolution are María Angélica Andreolli, Miguel Acuña Castillo, Juan Carlos Perelmann Ide, Juan Chacón Olivares, Jorge Müller Silva, Luis Guendelmann Wisniak, Mario Calderón Tapia, and Carmen Bueno Cifuentes.

Operation Colombo and the media

The list of the 119 was published in the magazine Lea (Buenos Aires) and the newspaper O Dia (Brazil) in 1975, information that was also false. Both publications were created by DINA agents.

Operation Colombo was part of Operation Condor and consisted of a setup by the dictatorship to make the population believe that 119 detainees who were forcibly disappeared had clandestinely left for Argentina and died there in clashes with police and Army forces during the phase prior to the 1976 military coup in Argentina.

Some of those names appeared as militants "assassinated" in Buenos Aires and its surroundings, with signs on their bodies stating that they had been executed by their own comrades as a settling of scores due to internal disputes. However, this also turned out to be a setup.

The list of the 119 was published in the magazine Lea (Buenos Aires) and the newspaper O Dia (Brazil) in 1975, information that was also false. Both publications were created by DINA agents abroad and had only one edition.

In Chile, the pro-dictatorship press, such as the newspapers El Mercurio, La Tercera, Las Ultimas Noticias, and La Segunda, reproduced the intelligence services' setup. The headline of the evening paper remains in memory: "Exterminated like rats: 59 Chilean MIR members fall in military operation in Argentina." They were part of the list of the 119 disappeared of Colombo.

The former fugitive Raúl Iturriaga, who was one of the heads of the DINA's foreign department, was the one who first shed light on this operation in Buenos Aires.

According to former civilian agent Enrique Arancibia Clavel, convicted in Buenos Aires for the crime of General Carlos Prats and his wife, it was Iturriaga who met with him at the beginning of 1975 to ask him to prepare what was necessary because "we have to make some dead people from Operation Colombo appear."

It was a matter of preparing the appearance of the supposed bodies of Jaime Robotham and Luis Guendelmann as part of the setup.

List of the accused

Army (all retired)

Víctor Molina Astete (colonel); Sergio Castillo González (col); Eduardo Guerra Guajardo (col); Víctor San Martín Jiménez (col); José Fuentes Torres (col); Manuel Carevic Cubillos (col); Jaime Paris Ramos (col); César Manríquez Bravo (col); Raúl Toro Montes (non-commissioned officer); Eduardo Reyes Lagos (NCO); Orlando Torrejón Gatica (NCO); Osvaldo Tapia Alvarez (NCO.

Committed suicide); Juvenal Piña Garrido (NCO. “El Elefante”); Juan Suárez Delgado (civilian); Nelson Paz Bustamante (NCO); José Aravena Ruiz (NCO); Luis Torres Méndez (NCO); Raúl Soto Pérez (NCO); Jorge Andrade Gómez (NCO); Juan Escobar Valenzuela (NCO); Rolando Concha Rodríguez (NCO); Gustavo Apablaza Meneses (NCO); Hiro Alvarez Vega (NCO); Víctor Alvarez Droguett (NCO); Jorge Venegas Silva (NCO); Carlos Rinaldi Suazo (NCO); Carlos Letelier Verdugo (NCO); Reinaldo Concha Orellana (NCO); Máximo Aliaga Soto (NCO); Hugo Clavería Leiva (NCO); Samuel Fuenzalida Devia (NCO);

Investigations Juan Urbina Cáceres; Hugo Hernández; Manuel Rivas Díaz; Herman Alfaro; Eugenio Fieldhouse; Osvaldo Castillo;

Carabineros (officers and non-commissioned officers all retired)

Gerardo Godoy García; Ciro Torres Sáez; Alejandro Molina Cisternas; Camilo Torres Negrier; Héctor Lira Aravena; José Fritz Esparza; Claudio Pacheco Fernández; Jorge Sagardia Monge; Sergio Castro Andrade; Luis Villarroel Gutiérrez; Armando Cofré Gómez; Fernando Roa Montaña; Gerardo Meza Acuña; Enrique Gutiérrez Rubilar; Luis Mora Cerda; José Muñoz Leal; Juan Duarte Gallegos; Carlos Miranda Meza; Rufino Jaime Astorga; Luis Urrutia Acuña; Luis Zúñiga Ovalle; Pedro Alfaro Hernández; Orlando Inostroza Lagos; Rosa Ramos Hernández; Gustavo Caruvan Soto; Héctor Valdebenito Araya; Manuel Avendaño González; José Mora Diocares; Guido Jara Brevis; Nelson Ortiz Vignolo; Ruderlindo Urrutia Jorquera; Héctor Flores Vergara; Jerónimo Neira Méndez; Manuel Montré Méndez; Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo; Claudio Orellana de la Pinta; Nelson Iturriaga Cortés; Luis Gutiérrez Uribe; José Ojeda Obando;

Air Force Delia Gajardo Cortés; Hernán Avalos Muñoz

Navy Teresa Navarro Osorio;

Accused already serving sentences

Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda; Pedro Espinoza Bravo; Raúl Iturriaga Neumann; Marcelo Moren Brito; Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko; Ricardo Lawrence Mires; Basclay Zapata Reyes; Conrado Pacheco; Francisco Ferrer Lima; Gerardo Urrich; Orlando Manzo Durán; Rizier Altez España; Fernando Lauriani Maturana

Source: La Nacion, May 27, 2008

Miguel Angel Acuña Castillo: The disappearance of the 19-year-old in Londres 38

He was detained in July 1974 in the commune of Macul. Numerous witnesses saw him at the torture and extermination center of Londres 38. He is one of the victims of "Operation Colombo." The Justice system convicted 78 former DINA agents for this crime against humanity.

The minister of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Hernán Crisosto, issued a first-instance sentence for the kidnapping and disappearance of Miguel Angel Acuña Castillo.

The magistrate established that the young man, a militant of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR), was detained in the vicinity of his home located at Pasaje Talca No. 2033 in the commune of Macul, by State agents belonging to the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), among them Osvaldo Romo Mena, alias "el Guatón Romo."

His sister, Rosa Acuña Castillo, declared that her father tried to climb onto the back of the covered pickup truck at the moment they were taking him away, but he was struck in the mouth by one of the subjects, falling to the ground.

A week after the kidnapping, Romo went to their home again and told her that her brother was in good condition along with Héctor Garay Hermosilla, who is also disappeared. Both were members of the Revolutionary Student Front (FER) at the Liceo 7 in Ñuñoa.

Judge Crisosto determined that the DINA agents "transferred him to the clandestine detention center known as 'Yucatán' or 'Londres 38'."

Acuña Castillo belonged to the secondary student structure of the MIR's Political-Military Group 3 (GPM3), an organization that grouped militants from the eastern part of the capital and which was led by Agustín Reyes González, whose trail was lost forever at Londres 38.

There, he "remained without contact with the outside, blindfolded and tied up, being continuously subjected to interrogations under torture by DINA agents," and the last time he was seen alive "occurred on an undetermined day in the month of July or August 1974, remaining disappeared to this date," the first-instance ruling states.

They laughed at Londres 38 along with Héctor Garay Hermosilla

At the "Yucatán" barracks, he was seen by Erika Hennings, detained on July 30, 1974. "I can say that he was very young, I think they called him 'El Pampa'," she asserted in the proceedings. She heard that they took roll call twice a day for the detainees.

On July 31, 1974, she heard the name of Miguel Angel Acuña Castillo, who answered "present." Later, she did not hear him called again. "They took them out of Londres 38 just like other detainees, among whom she remembers María Inés Alvarado," a 21-year-old forcibly disappeared person.

Hugo Chacaltana Silva, detained on May 4, 1974, a former student of the Liceo Manuel de Salas and a member of the Revolutionary Student Front (FER), also saw him at Londres 38. He related that in the early hours of July 8 to 9, 1974, Miguel Angel Acuña arrived along with Héctor Garay Hermosilla, whom they called "Titín"; he was able to see them through a gap that formed between his nose and cheekbones under the blindfold.

Chacaltana noted that he met Castillo in 1971, when both were secondary students. Both coincided in meetings held at the time between members of the FER, the judicial ruling notes. He remembers "Miguel Ángel as a young man of great leadership capacity and great physical resistance."

He stopped seeing him on September 11, 1973. He met him again at Londres 38. He arrived along with Héctor Garay to the same room where he remained lying on the floor. "At that moment, I did not address Miguel Ángel"; on the contrary, he feigned ignorance regarding his presence. "The next day, when the mattresses on which we detainees lay were removed and replaced by chairs, I sat down and, on one of the sides, I observed that they were still sitting.

It caught my attention that both were talking and laughing, which made me think that they were unaware of the magnitude of what awaited them. Miguel Ángel approached me at Londres 38, telling me, 'I know you'."

His mother learned at the hair salon that her son was at Londres 38

León Gómez, detained on July 15, 1974, and transferred to Londres 38, saw Miguel Angel along with Héctor Garay, whom he knew. Someone commented to him that among the detainees was "Pampino," which he corroborated upon hearing him "with his typical jokes that he made to the guards, as if giving the impression that what was happening in the place had no importance.

Even Titín and Pampino would drive the guards crazy. They were very irreverent."

David Cuevas Sharon, detained on May 4, 1974, also testified to having seen him. "Pampino, despite showing signs of mistreatment, seemed to have great presence of mind; he was very physically strong." He shared space with him for at least five days.

When Cuevas was released, Acuña Castillo remained a prisoner. His maternal grandmother had a hair salon in Ñuñoa, and one of her clients was Miguel Angel's mother. In a conversation, "she learned of the problem she had with a disappeared son.

Given this, my grandmother had her go to the hair salon, where she met Pampino's mother and told her what she knew about him, specifically the place where he had been imprisoned with him."

Regarding the torments applied to the detainees at Londres 38, among them Miguel Angel, Minister Crisosto incorporated statements from Osvaldo Romo, who stated that among other tortures, detainees were subjected to "the dry submarine, which was blocking their breathing with a plastic bag placed on their heads; the detainees' eyes would look like 'fried eggs,' blood would come out of their noses and eardrums.

After the interrogations and duress, the detainees would be exhausted."

Another former agent, Samuel Fuenzalida Devia, specified in this regard that "the general treatment of the prisoners was to keep them blindfolded, they were not allowed to wash, there were no beds for them to sleep, the food was scarce, and they were subjected to intense interrogations in which electricity was applied, especially to the genitals and breasts.

Another form of torture consisted of keeping the detainees sitting in chairs, tied by their feet and hands, while current was applied with magnets, although common electric current was also applied, which burned those people, a procedure in which many people died."

Eugenio Fieldhouse Chávez maintains that as an official of the Investigations Police, in mid-June 1974, he was assigned to that repressive body and indicated that the same DINA agents who intervened in the detention and interrogation of the detainees, once the information sought was obtained, were the ones in charge of making them disappear, upon the order of DINA superiors.

The name of Miguel Ángel Acuña Castillo appeared among the 119 Chileans of Operation Colombo, on a list disseminated in the national press, after appearing in publications that appeared only once in Brazil and Argentina, "in which it was reported that Miguel Ángel Acuña Castillo had died in Argentina, along with 58 other people belonging to the MIR, due to internal disputes."

The convictions

"The publications that declared the victim Acuña Castillo dead had their origin in disinformation maneuvers carried out by DINA agents abroad," determined Judge Crisosto, who convicted 78 former DINA agents for his disappearance.

The magistrate issued a sentence of 13 years of presidio mayor in its medium degree to Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda; César Manríquez Bravo; Pedro Espinoza; Marcelo Luis Moren Brito; Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko; and Raúl Iturriaga Neumann.

Likewise, he sentenced to 10 years of presidio mayor in its minimum degree Gerardo Ernesto Urrich González; Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García; Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires; Ciro Ernesto Torré Sáez; Sergio Hernán Castillo González; Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos; José Nelson Fuentealba Saldías; Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes; José Enrique Fuentes Torres; Julio José Hoyos Zegarra; Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante; Claudio Orlando Orellana de la Pinta; Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar; Gustavo Galvarino Caruman Soto; Hiro Álvarez Vega; José Alfonso Ojeda Obando; Luis Salvador Villarroel Gutiérrez; Olegario Enrique González Moreno; Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica; Alfredo Orlando Moya Tejeda; Carlos Alfonso Sáez Sanhueza; Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo; Hernán Patricio Valenzuela Salas; Hugo Rubén Delgado Carrasco; Juan Alfredo Villanueva Alvear; Juan Evaristo Duarte Gallegos; Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza; Leónides Emiliano Méndez Moreno; Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda; Rafael De Jesús Riveros Frost; Víctor Manuel Molina Astete; Manuel Rivas Díaz; Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle; Juan Ángel Urbina Cáceres; Risiere del Prado Altez España; Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca; and Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte.

As accomplices to the kidnapping and disappearance of the 19-year-old, he sentenced to 4 years of presidio menor in its maximum degree Luis Eduardo Mora Cerda; José Jaime Mora Diocares; Camilo Torres Negrier; Carlos Justo Bermúdez Méndez; Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández; Fernando Adrián Roa Montaña; Gerardo Meza Acuña; Héctor Raúl Valdebenito Araya; Jaime Humberto Paris Ramos; Jorge Laureano Sagardia Monge; José Dorohi Hormazabal Rodríguez; José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo; José Stalin Muñoz Leal; Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido; Luis René Torres Méndez; Manuel Antonio Montre Méndez; Máximo Ramón Aliaga Soto; Moisés Paulino Campos Figueroa; Nelson Aquiles Ortiz Vignolo; Nelson Eduardo Iturriaga Cortes; Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo; Reinaldo Alfonso Concha Orellana; Sergio Hernán Castro Andrade; Víctor Manuel de la Cruz San Martin Jiménez; Gustavo Humberto Apablaza Meneses; Héctor Carlos Díaz Cabezas; Jorge Antonio Lepileo Barrios; Oscar Belarmino La Flor Flores; Rufino Espinoza Espinoza; Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel; Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett; Héctor Manuel Lira Aravena; and Sergio Iván Díaz Lara.

Regarding Víctor Manuel De la Cruz San Martín Jiménez, due to having fallen into dementia, the fulfillment of the sentence is suspended, and he must, in due course, be handed over under custody bail to a family member.

Source: Villa Grimaldi.cl, February 3, 2015

Operation Colombo: Supreme Court issues convictions against 32 DINA agents in cases of two victims

The Supreme Court issued replacement sentences condemning 32 former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the qualified kidnapping of two victims of the so-called Operation Colombo.

In separate cases and rulings, the highest court issued a resolution on the cases of Ismael Darío Chávez Lobos, detained on July 26, 1974, and Jorge Alejandro Olivares Graindorge, detained on July 27, 1974, both in the commune of Quinta Normal, in Santiago.

In the first case, referring to the case of Ismael Chávez Lobos, in a unanimous ruling (case roll 79.461-2020), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, minister María Teresa Letelier, and acting lawyers Pía Tavolari and Gonzalo Ruz—established an error of law in the sentence issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals in June 2020, by absolving the agents who performed operational functions and served as guards at the Londres 38 facility of responsibility for the proven facts.

For this reason, in the replacement sentence, it classifies them as guilty and convicts them for the crime, while increasing the sentences of the other convicted individuals.

At the same time, it accepted the appeals for cassation on the merits filed by the plaintiffs and, issuing a replacement sentence, convicted former DINA leaders and former Army officers César Raúl Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann to sentences of 10 years and one day of imprisonment, in their capacity as perpetrators of the crime.

Meanwhile, also sentenced as perpetrators of the crime to 10 years of imprisonment were former Carabineros officer Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García and Army officer Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, and former agent José Enrique Fuentes Torres.

While former agents Juan Evaristo Duarte Gallegos, Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Manuel de la Cruz Rivas Díaz, Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte, Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca, Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Rudeslindo Urrutia Jorquera, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar, Hiro Álvarez Vega, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Olegario Enrique González Moreno, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Alfredo Orlando Moya Tejeda, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Hernán Patricio Valenzuela Salas, Juan Alfredo Villanueva Alvear, Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, Carlos Alfonso Sáez Sanhueza, Máximo Ramón Aliaga Soto, and José Avelino Yévenes Vergara must serve 5 years and one day of imprisonment as perpetrators of the crime.

In the second case, referring to Jorge Olivares Graindorge, in a unanimous ruling (case roll 122.171.2020), the Second Chamber, composed of the same ministers as in the previous case, established an error of law in the sentence issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals in July 2020, by mistakenly absolving agents who performed operational and guard functions at the Londres 38 facility.

For this reason, in the replacement sentence, it classifies and convicts them as guilty of the crime.

Likewise, it increases the sentences of the other convicted individuals and sentenced former DINA leaders and former Army officers César Raúl Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann to sentences of 10 years and one day of imprisonment, in their capacity as perpetrators of the crime.

Meanwhile, also sentenced as perpetrators of the crime to 10 years of imprisonment were former officers Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García and Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, and former agent José Enrique Fuentes Torres.

Similarly, for this crime, former agents Juan Evaristo Duarte Gallegos, Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Manuel de la Cruz Rivas Díaz, Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte, Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca, Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Rudeslindo Urrutia Jorquera, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar, Hiro Álvarez Vega, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Olegario Enrique González Moreno, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Alfredo Orlando Moya Tejeda, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Hernán Patricio Valenzuela Salas, Juan Alfredo Villanueva Alvear, Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, Carlos Alfonso Sáez Sanhueza, Máximo Ramón Aliaga Soto, and Osvaldo Enrique Pulgar Gallardo must serve sentences of 5 years and one day of imprisonment as perpetrators of the crime.

In both cases, twelve other agents convicted in the first instance died during the course of the process, among them former officers Gerardo Urrich González, Ricardo Lawrence Mires, Ciro Torré Sáez, and Sergio Castillo González, and agents Basclay Zapata Reyes, Risiere del Altez España, Juan Ángel Urbina Cáceres, José Nelson Fuentealba Saldías, Hugo Rubén Delgado Carrasco, José Mario Friz Esparza, Claudio Orlando Orellana de la Pinta, and Gustavo Galvarino Carumán Soto, who were acquitted of these crimes.

The victims

Ismael Darío Chávez Lobos, 22 years old, was a Social Sciences student at the University of Chile and a militant of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR). He was detained during the night of July 26, 1974, at his home located at Calle Los Copihues No. 1977 in the commune of Quinta Normal, by agents belonging to the DINA, who transferred him to the clandestine detention center 'Londres 38', located at that address in the city of Santiago.

Jorge Alejandro Olivares Graindorge, 23 years old, a gardener by trade, also a militant of the MIR, was detained by DINA agents on a public street during the afternoon of July 27, 1974, in the vicinity of his home located at Pasaje Salta 2258, in the commune of Quinta Normal. He was also transferred by the agents to the clandestine detention center "Londres 38."

From this place of detention and torture, the trail of both detainees was lost. Subsequently, in July 1975, they appeared mentioned in the rosters of the international disinformation maneuver known as "Operation Colombo," carried out by the DINA, which included 119 forcibly disappeared persons.

by Darío Nuñez

Source: resumen.cl, December 4, 2023