Occupation: Former student at the Universidad de Chile; in 1974, student of IBM Programming and employee at a radio and television repair shop. Political Affiliation: Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR), member of its Regional Secretariat, recent member of the Central Committee. Date of Detention: December 12, 1974

Repressive Situation

Anselmo Osvaldo Radrigán Plaza, a militant of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR) and member of its Central Committee, was detained on December 12, 1974, at approximately 18:30 hours, while walking along Calle García Reyes near the 800 block.

He was apprehended by three heavily armed agents of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), led by Osvaldo Romo Mena. The captors were traveling in a Chevrolet pickup truck, license plate EM 965 of Las Condes, the vehicle into which the victim was forced.

He was taken to Villa Grimaldi—a secret DINA detention and torture center—where he disappeared after being seen by witnesses on December 24 of that same year.

On December 13, 1974, at approximately 11:00 in the morning, four armed individuals in civilian clothes appeared at the home the victim shared with his parents and siblings. Among the subjects, witnesses recognized the presence of Osvaldo "Guatón Romo," who was accompanied by an individual about 30 years old, medium build, 1.70 meters tall, with dark hair and a dark complexion.

A third agent was about 25 years old, thin, fair-skinned, with brown hair, also approximately 1.70 meters tall. The fourth individual appeared slightly older than the latter, with very similar physical characteristics.

The civilians entered the home and proceeded to search it. One of them asked Lidia Plaza—the victim's mother—for the victim's spouse, Amelia Nadeau Caballero (who, in January 1975, due to threats received from the DINA, traveled out of the country with their 14-month-old son), who was not at home at the time.

Without showing any warrant, they searched the property and, in response to Lidia Plaza's questions, stated that they had detained the victim the previous day for being linked to a clandestine meeting. Faced with her insistence, the agents told her not to worry, that her son was fine even though they could not inform her of his whereabouts, but that he would soon be released.

Simultaneously, two of the agents demanded that Jorge Radrigán—Anselmo Osvaldo's brother—take them to the victim's bedroom, located on the second floor of the house. Along with this, one of the individuals took out a green-covered identification card from his jacket, of the type used in the past, and asked the witness, "Are you the brother of Anselmo Osvaldo Radrigán Plaza?" Upon going up to the second floor, the subjects first entered the room of Silvia Margarita—Radrigán Plaza's sister—staying there only for a few moments, and without asking any questions, they headed to the bedroom occupied by the victim. Once there, Jorge Radrigán heard them talking among themselves in low voices, and after a few moments, they said, "This isn't the room; it's the one where you keep the junk. This kid told us he had a light-colored jacket in there." Following this, the witness led them to a room at the back of the patio, which only the two agents entered. After about 5 minutes, the civilians came out carrying a light-colored jacket that indeed belonged to Anselmo Radrigán. They had unstitched the lining and showed some micro-photos of documents, while saying, "This is what we were looking for."

Before leaving, and in response to Lidia Plaza's nervousness, the younger subjects tried to calm her by telling her that if she wished, she could send clothes to her son and that they would commit to delivering them.

She handed them a thick sweater, and when she wanted to send him a jacket, they replied that it was not necessary because Anselmo Radrigán was "well-dressed" at the time of his arrest, which was true.

Subsequently, the mother received a series of anonymous calls confirming her son's detention and his presence at a DINA facility. This fact was confirmed by the testimonies of numerous people who were with him at Villa Grimaldi.

Ofelia Nistal and Iván García Guzmán saw him held at that location. Alejandra Holzapfel Picarte heard guards calling him for interrogation, while Luz Arce Sandoval—a socialist militant who became a DINA collaborator as a result of the threats and torture suffered during her imprisonment—declared that she knew for a fact that Radrigán Plaza's name appeared as a detainee in DINA reports.

Mario Francisco Venegas Jara—who remained incommunicado at Villa Grimaldi between December 9 and 28, 1974—declared that during that period he was locked in two cells: a small one where about 35 people were crowded, and then a larger one where there were about 50 detainees.

The witness was subjected to various interrogations and torture. A revolver was even placed against his temple, and his captors proceeded to pull the trigger several times, threatening to torture his wife and young son in front of him (neither of whom was actually detained).

The person leading the witness's interrogations was "Lieutenant Pablo" (Fernando Adrián Laureani Maturana). It was in this facility that Mario Francisco Venegas Jara saw Anselmo Osvaldo, tortured and battered.

For his part, Guillermo Segundo Cornejo Díaz—at that time held at Villa Grimaldi—was in the same cell as Anselmo Osvaldo Radrigán Plaza and other detainees. He remained with him until December 24, 1974, the date on which the victim was taken out by his captors in the company of Washington Cid Urrutia and Luis Palominos Rojas, with all three remaining in the status of forcibly disappeared.

This testimony is corroborated by that of Luis Alfredo Muñoz González, who was detained by DINA agents on December 10, 1974, and taken to Villa Grimaldi, where he remained until February 1, 1975. The witness remembers that on December 12, 1974, Anselmo Radrigán arrived at his cell; they had known each other since their university days.

Radrigán was taken on several occasions to interrogation and torture sessions. The declarant saw the victim at Villa Grimaldi until December 24, 1974, the date he was taken from the cell where both were held.

Also on that day, according to Luis Alfredo Muñoz, Washington Cid Urrutia, Luis Palominos Rojas, and Fernando Guillermo Silva Camus were taken from Villa Grimaldi. Furthermore, the witness heard Osvaldo Romo Mena say that he had detained Anselmo Radrigán Plaza.

Later, in February 1975, the victim's name appeared on a list—as a prisoner—provided by four MIR leaders who were held at Villa Grimaldi. Cristián Mallol Comandari, Héctor Hernán González Osorio, Humberto Menanteaux Aceituno, and José Hernán Carrasco Vásquez—all of whom were violently tortured, both physically and psychologically—were forced by DINA agents to participate in a press conference, reporting on the defeat of the MIR.

The statement was filmed in the offices of the then-Chief of Villa Grimaldi, current Brigadier General Pedro Espinoza, on a portable video camera and in the presence of this agent. The content was broadcast on the national Radio and Television network.

As for the press conference, it was held a couple of days later at the Edificio Diego Portales, the seat of the Government at the time. Among the journalists present, DINA agents mingled, including Marcelo Moren Brito and Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, who had previously threatened the four MIR leaders "so they wouldn't act like rascals." Menanteaux and Carrasco were released in September 1975, only to be detained again by DINA agents in November of that same year.

Their bodies were found by chance, semi-buried, in the vicinity of Buin in December 1975. Both had clear signs of having been tortured before being killed.

Cristián Mallol and Héctor Hernán González managed to survive these events and testified in 1990 regarding what actually happened.

Mallol was detained on December 7, 1974, and, suffering from a gunshot wound, was taken to Villa Grimaldi, where Brigadier Pedro Espinoza—known then as "Rodrigo Terranova"—gave immediate orders for him to be put on "the grill" (a metal cot to which the naked victim was tied to be subjected to electric shocks on different parts of the body).

The torture session was so intense that Cristián Mallol lost consciousness, only regaining it when he was in a cell where Miguel Krassnoff—"Captain Miguel"—and Luz Arce were also present; she was injecting him with something.

After being taken to the Clínica Santa Lucía—a DINA center—Mallol was admitted to a large room where, among others, Anselmo Radrigán Plaza arrived. The witness only then learned the victim's real name, having known him by his nicknames "Julián" and "Pedro." Krassnoff Martchenko and "Lieutenant Marcos," who used to dress as a doctor, often entered this room.

It was in this room that the public statement began to be drafted. However, on December 24—Cristián Mallol recalls—the agents took Anselmo Radrigán and Luis Palominos out of the room, and nothing more was ever heard of them.

Also on that occasion, they took Guillermo Beausire Alonso, who would later be seen in the sector known as "The Tower," and who opposed the drafting of the aforementioned document. Almost two months later—and following pressure and mistreatment—in February 1975, Miguel Krassnoff approached them and told them "the TV thing is on," adding that he had personally taken the text to General Pinochet.

The four MIR leaders had to put on clean jackets while their feet remained chained under the table. Two days later, and without further announcement, they were dressed in suits, cleaned up, and taken to the Edificio Diego Portales to "talk" to the journalists. Cristián Mallol was released in November 1976.

Héctor Hernán González Osorio was detained on December 6, 1974, and taken to Villa Grimaldi, where Miguel Krassnoff received him, saying, "You finally arrived, Nicolás"—the witness's political name—"we've been looking for you for a long time." After being threatened that he would "by any means" talk about whatever he was asked, he was subjected to violent torture during which, at one point, the agent Osvaldo Romo Mena was present.

He was placed in a room where there were about 30 detainees, among them Anselmo Osvaldo Radrigán, Cristián Mallol, Guillermo Beausire, and Ernesto Silva Saldívar. The witness remembers that in that room, the detainees remained on the floor day and night, and their only "activity" was waiting to be taken to be tortured or to witness the torture of others.

They remained blindfolded the entire time, and at night they were tied by their hands and feet behind their backs and had to sleep on the tiled floor. In the morning and at night, they were taken to the bathroom, which was on the other side of the room where "the grill" was, forcing them to listen to the screams of those being tortured.

Sometimes their hands were untied to eat, and other times they did so only for some of them, who then had to feed the person next to them. On certain occasions, their hands were kept tied behind their backs and they were forced to eat on the floor, licking the plates like dogs, which they found humiliating and desperate.

In December 1974, while in that same room, the detainees decided to organize a party cell and plan, as a first measure, an escape. However, the day after the topic was discussed, Pedro Espinoza entered the room violently, and with tremendous shouting, ordered a group of those prisoners to be chained and gave orders to the guards to beat them permanently.

One night, Héctor Hernán González was taken to Pedro Espinoza's offices, where they had the declarant's spouse, Ofelia Nistal Nistal, who looked at him with anguish and fear. Indeed, the witness, in addition to being dirty, had a swollen nose, fractured from beatings, and his face was bruised and bloodied.

It was in her presence that agent Espinoza proposed that they make a public appeal for the MIR, which was already defeated—Espinoza said—to abandon resistance to the Government. When he was returned to the cell, the declarant told his companions about this proposal; they replied that Miguel Krassnoff had come to the cell to ask them the same thing.

Anselmo Radrigán was in that cell. The drafting of the document then began under the direct supervision of Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko.

The witness remained incommunicado at Villa Grimaldi for a period of 6 months.

In July 1975, Anselmo Radrigán Plaza's name appeared on the list of 119 Chileans who had presumably died in clashes abroad. The victim was included in the list published by the magazine "LEA" of Buenos Aires, which appeared only once on that occasion, without a printer's imprint or a responsible director.

The veracity of this fact could never be proven. Moreover, no government, not even the Chilean one, officially ratified it, and time only proved its total falsehood. The names on the list corresponded to 119 people who had disappeared after being detained between June 1974 and February 1975 by the military government's security services.

Judicial and/or Administrative Proceedings

Various judicial proceedings were carried out on behalf of the victim. On June 27, 1975, a writ of amparo (habeas corpus), case file No. 796-75, was filed before the Santiago Court of Appeals. The filing recounted the circumstances surrounding the victim's detention and the fact that, on February 19, 1975, at the press conference "sponsored by the Supreme Government, through its General Secretariat," it was reported that "Julián Radrigán" was in detention.

When the authorities of the time were consulted, the Division General and Minister of the Interior, Raúl Benavides Escobar, notified the Court stating that the victim was not being held by order of that Secretariat of State (July 9, 1975). Based on this information, the writ of amparo was rejected on July 15, 1975.

Previously, in January of that year, a complaint for the presumed disappearance of the victim had been filed before the First Criminal Court of San Miguel, which was assigned case No. 41.982-5. The filing denounced the search carried out at the Radrigán Plaza family home on December 13, 1974; the search they had initiated in the various government agencies; and the information broadcast on the national Radio and Television network in which the victim's detention was acknowledged.

Among other measures, the summoning of Humberto Menanteaux, Cristián Mallol, José Hernán Carrasco, and Héctor González Osorio to testify was requested, which was granted by the Court. However, only Cristián Mallol appeared in February 1976.

In this first stage of the process, only a judicial investigation order was issued, which yielded no results; the National Executive Secretariat of Detainees (SENDET) was consulted, and its Deputy Secretary, Lieutenant Colonel Julio Fuenzalida Arancibia, responded in negative terms (May 7, 1975); the Ministry of the Interior was also consulted, whose response was also negative, signed by Division General Raúl Benavides (May 6, 1975).

On May 14, 1975, the summary was closed and the case was temporarily dismissed because "the existence of the reported crime" was not proven. The witnesses indicated by the plaintiff did not appear, and the Court's resolution was not submitted for review to the Court of Appeals.

This case was reopened on August 12, 1975, after the victim's family denounced the appearance of his name on the list of 119 Chileans presumably killed abroad. A subsequent document indicated that the agents who proceeded with the detention of Anselmo Radrigán were traveling in a Chevrolet C-10 pickup truck, license plate EM 965 of Las Condes, in which another detained person was also being held.

On September 11, 1975, Colonel Hernán Brantes Martínez, Secretary of the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE), communicated that he lacked information regarding the victim. For his part, Minister of the Interior Benavides reported, on September 25, 1975, that the Government had no official information regarding the publications that appeared abroad (List of the 119) "despite the inquiries that have been made and continue to be made to ratify or refute the published facts." Days earlier, on September 8 of that year, the same Minister Benavides had reported that the DINA had no record of Radrigán Plaza in its files. Furthermore, Lieutenant Colonel Julio Andrade Armijo, Deputy Secretary General of Government, notified the Court on October 2, 1975, stating that he had no information regarding the death of Anselmo Radrigán abroad.

Subsequently, on February 1, 1976, Cristián Mallol Comandari appeared before the Court; at the time, he was being held at the Tres Alamos Camp. The witness stated that he was indeed in a DINA house—which he did not identify—together with the victim, who was taken from the place on December 24, 1974.

Regarding Humberto Menanteaux and José Carrasco Vásquez (whose bodies had already been found in Buin), as well as Héctor González Osorio, Lieutenant Colonel Sergio Guarategua Peña, Executive Secretary of SENDET, reported on April 15, 1976, that they had been released on September 3, 1975, and their respective addresses were unknown.

On April 28, 1976, the summary was closed and the case was temporarily dismissed because "the existence of any crime" was not proven. On July 1, of the same year, the Santiago Court of Appeals approved the resolution.

We have left for last the first writ of amparo filed for the victim, as it gave rise to case file No. 106.761, which was also investigated by the Visiting Judge Servando Jordán, who declared himself incompetent and transferred it to the Military Justice system.

There, it was consolidated with the complaint filed against Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, which was definitively dismissed in November 1989, a resolution confirmed by the Martial Court in January 1992.

Indeed, on December 17, 1974, a writ of amparo for the victim was filed before the Santiago Court of Appeals, assigned No. 1599-74. During its processing, Gastón Radrigán Plaza—the victim's brother—stated in a document that an unidentified person had informed them that Anselmo Radrigán was being held at a facility located on Calle José Arrieta near the 9.600 block, where the former Hostería Tobalaba operated.

He stated that he had personally gone to that place and was able to observe that it was guarded by military personnel.

When the authorities were consulted, on January 8, 1975, the Minister of the Interior and Division General Raúl Benavides Escobar reported that the victim was not being held by order of that Secretariat of State.

The Court then issued an order—January 27, 1975—to the General Director of Carabineros to communicate whether Anselmo Radrigán was being held on Calle José Arrieta near the 9.600 block. The response came from Vice Admiral Patricio Carvajal Prado, Acting Minister of the Interior, on February 27, 1975. It stated that Anselmo Radrigán Plaza was not being held by order of that Ministry.

Simultaneously, Gastón Radrigán, in a new document, denounced to the Court of Appeals that in the press conference given by the four MIR leaders, it was indicated that Julián Radrigán (Pedro)—the victim's political names—was a prisoner.

The official nature of this information was noted. The complainant concluded that his brother must necessarily be in the hands of the DINA, requesting that this repressive agency be notified to report on the matter. On March 10, 1975, the DINA notified the Court saying that any inquiry should be directed to the Ministry of the Interior or SENDET.

On March 17, 1975—without deepening the investigation—by virtue of what was reported by the authorities, the writ of amparo was rejected and the records were sent to the First Criminal Court of Santiago to instruct a summary for the disappearance of Anselmo Radrigán.

On March 26 of the same year, case file No. 106.761 was opened in the First Criminal Court of Santiago, which began with the appearance of Gastón Radrigán. In his testimony, the declarant recounted, once again, the circumstances surrounding his brother's detention, the search of his home, the victim's stay at a detention center located on Calle José Arrieta, and the appearance of Anselmo Osvaldo's name on a list provided by the four MIR leaders.

Once again, the authorities, led by Minister Benavides, denied the victim's detention, and the judicial investigation order yielded no results. With only those records, on May 8, 1975, the summary was closed and the case was temporarily dismissed because "the existence of any crime" was not justified. The Santiago Court of Appeals confirmed the resolution on June 13, 1975.

However, a month later, the victim's name appeared on a list of 119 Chileans who had allegedly died abroad as a result of various clashes. This information resulted in the reopening of the process on August 29, 1975.

In this stage of the investigation, the first witness of the victim's imprisonment, Luis Alfredo Muñoz González, appeared and told the Court in September 1975 that he had been held at Villa Grimaldi, where he spoke with Radrigán for 11 days in December 1974.

He also denounced the presence of Osvaldo Romo Mena at that DINA detention center, who—the witness said—worked as a government official, dedicating himself "to detaining people." Cristián Mallol Comandari also testified, stating that he had remained detained with the victim until December 24, 1974, the date he was taken from there along "with a brother-in-law of mine" (Luis Palominos).

He noted that he had known Radrigán by the names "Julián" and "Pedro."

There were new inquiries to the authorities, and Minister Benavides insisted that there was no information regarding the victim (January 16, 1976). Lieutenant Colonel Sergio Guarategua Peña, Executive Secretary of SENDET, spoke in similar terms (January 20, 1976).

In addition, a report prepared by the Government Information Director, regarding the National Radio and Television Network, and the information related to the alleged deaths of 119 Chileans abroad, signed by Gastón Acuña Mac-Lean, was recorded.

Regarding the National Television Network, broadcast on February 19, 1975, it was said that it corresponded to statements by four members of the MIR—who were in detention—and whose concepts were expressed "freely and spontaneously." Regarding the list of Chileans presumably killed abroad, it was stated that it was "inappropriate to comment on its veracity," given that that agency had no involvement in publications made abroad.

Faced with a judicial order, the Investigations police interviewed Gastón Acuña Mac-Lean on the 4th floor of the Edificio Diego Portales, offices corresponding to the Information Directorate of the General Secretariat of Government, on May 20, 1976.

Gastón Acuña reported on that occasion that, according to information provided by the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), Anselmo Radrigán was not among the people who participated in the Press Conference in February 1975; that said act had taken place on the central plaza of the Edificio Diego Portales and that the detainees had been taken to that place by security personnel.

On June 8, 1976, the summary was closed and the case was temporarily dismissed because "the existence of any crime was not justified." On August 26 of the same year, the Santiago Court of Appeals approved said resolution.

In February 1977, the victim's family filed a complaint before the same Court for the crime of kidnapping committed against Anselmo Osvaldo Radrigán Plaza, attaching the sworn statements of witnesses Guillermo Segundo Cornejo Díaz and Luis Alfredo Muñoz González.

The Court did not grant the processing of the complaint, which led to the corresponding appeal. On May 11, 1977, the Santiago Court of Appeals accepted the appeal and ordered the reopening of the summary.

Once again, Minister Benavides, in June 1977, reported lacking information regarding the victim, while the International Police issued a statement saying that Anselmo Radrigán had no records of international travel (July 29, 1977).

In turn, the plaintiff requested that the Military Court on duty be exhorted to constitute itself at Villa Grimaldi in order to gather information concerning Anselmo Radrigán. On April 27, 1978, this measure had still not been carried out, and it was noted in the process that up to that date, the Military Court had been notified on three occasions "without receiving a response." Only on May 23 of that same year did Military Prosecutor Gonzalo Salazar Swett, of the 2nd Military Prosecutor's Office, inform the First Criminal Court that he had constituted himself at Villa Grimaldi, personally verifying that "at present, no person remains detained in that place, as well as the non-existence of books or documents that could record the entry of Radrigán Plaza to that site as a detainee or his current whereabouts."

At the same time, the Court received various official letters from authorities regarding Villa Grimaldi. The Minister of the Interior of the time, Sergio Fernández Fernández, communicated on May 24, 1978, that the property located at Lo Arrieta 8.400 "is a military facility and under the charge of the Central Nacional de Informaciones" (CNI).

For his part, Colonel Jerónimo Pantoja, Director of the CNI, issued an official letter on May 22, 1978, saying that Villa Grimaldi was under the charge of that agency and that, because they were military entities, it was subject to that jurisdiction.

An official letter that Minister Fernández had sent to the Court where the disappearance of José Santos Hinojosa was being investigated was also added to the process, in which it was reported that the CNI had received said facility unoccupied, without personnel in charge and without documentation, "the identity of those who occupied it being, therefore, unknown."

Subsequently, in September 1978, a witness appeared before the Court in relation to the license plate EM 965 of Las Condes, the plate carried by the Chevrolet pickup truck in which the victim was detained.

The witness, in general terms, stated that said plate indeed corresponded to his private car and that he had no explanation for why the same number had been seen on a different vehicle. The victim's siblings and mother also testified, denouncing the search of their home that occurred on December 13, 1974.

Jorge Radrigán Plaza reported that the agent acting as the group leader was Osvaldo Romo Mena; while Lidia Plaza (mother) placed on record the phone calls she had received in which she was informed that her son was at Villa Grimaldi.

In November 1978, the Court notified the Ministry of the Interior to report on Osvaldo Romo Mena. On November 27 of that same year, Minister of the Interior Sergio Fernández Fernández responded by saying that that Secretariat of State had no record of the staff of the Security Services because they depended on the Ministry of National Defense.

For its part, the Investigations police—in response to a judicial order—reported on October 3, 1978, that after consulting the Central Identification Cabinet, no results were obtained that would allow locating Osvaldo Romo, "as he is not registered." On May 24, 1979, Lieutenant General and Minister of Defense, Raúl Benavides Escobar, issued an official letter saying that, after consulting the competent agencies, it was established that Osvaldo Raúl Romo Mena did not belong to any of the institutions dependent on that Secretariat of State.

On August 7, 1979, the case began to be heard by the Extraordinary Visiting Judge, Servando Jordán López, who had been designated as such by the Supreme Court to investigate the numerous reports of detentions followed by disappearance, processed in the Courts of the Santiago jurisdiction (March 1979).

Regarding the victim, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Brigadier General Enrique Valdés Puga, issued an official letter reporting—on August 24, 1979—that there was no record that Anselmo Radrigán had left the country via asylum.

It was also established through an official letter from the Central Identification Cabinet, dated December 6, 1979, that no person with the name "Julián Radrigán Plaza" was registered.

On November 28, 1979, Judge Jordán notified the Minister of the Interior, seeking information regarding witness Guillermo Cornejo Díaz, and whether there was any record of the detentions of Humberto Menanteaux, Cristián Mallol Comandari, José Hernán Carrasco Vásquez, and Héctor González.

The response was received on December 17 of that same year, and in it, Minister Sergio Fernández stated that he lacked information regarding Humberto Menanteaux, was unable to provide an answer regarding Héctor González because "others with that same name and surname appear," and that Cornejo Díaz, Cristián Mallol, and José Carrasco Vásquez were at liberty.

The Court then requested the affiliation extract of Humberto Menanteaux.

In the meantime, the plaintiff attached the report of the visit made to Villa Grimaldi by the ad-hoc Working Group of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights on July 18, 1978, accompanied by the Director of the CNI—Colonel Jerónimo Pantoja—the Minister of Justice of the military government, Miguel Schweitzer, and two witnesses who had been held at said facility, Rodrigo Muñoz and Héctor Riffo.

One of the main results of the aforementioned visit was establishing that the place had indeed been used as a detention center and the recognition of the agent known as "El Troglo" by one of the witnesses.

Although the name of this agent was not provided in the report, it was later learned that it was Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes. Faced with this fact, Miguel Schweitzer stated that the identified person was a driver who had been assigned to him in the Letelier case and that, if he was at Villa Grimaldi at that time, it was because he had been transferred to the Secretariat of the Director of the CNI.

Regarding this, various measures were requested. Among them, asking the CNI for information on the official identified as "El Troglo," summoning him to testify, and gathering information from Miguel Schweitzer about his driver. The Visiting Judge did not grant them, deeming them "inconclusive."

On January 28, 1980, the Investigations police informed the Court that the bodies of Humberto Menanteaux and José Carrasco Vásquez had been found in 1975, in the vicinity of Buin.

During the processing of Judge Jordán's visit, General Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda appeared. He stated that he had served as Director of the DINA from 1974 until August 12, 1977, the date on which said agency was dissolved to give way to the CNI.

Regarding Osvaldo Romo, he said that after September 11, 1973, he became an informant for some DINA agents, but that he had disappeared. He spoke in similar terms regarding Marcia Alejandra Merino, known as "La Flaca Alejandra." Regarding Miguel Krassnoff, he declared that he was an official of the agency he directed, in charge of one of the Intelligence Units and that, therefore, it was his duty to act in detentions.

When asked about Villa Grimaldi, he said that it was only a transit place where detainees were interrogated, who were then released or placed at the disposal of the Ministry of the Interior.

Regarding the DINA archives, Contreras Sepúlveda stated that the dissolution of the DINA and the creation of the CNI constituted a single event, which is why those records were automatically transferred to said security agency.

He also affirmed that agents Marcelo Moren Brito, Miguel Krassnoff, and Rolf Wenderoth Pozo were not in charge of the archives, since their functions were specifically intelligence-related.

On August 6, 1980, the Extraordinary Visiting Judge Servando Jordán López declared himself incompetent to continue the investigation into the disappearance of Anselmo Radrigán, due to the existence of information "regarding the intervention of the former Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional" in his kidnapping.

The case was sent to the Military Justice system, which—on September 26 of the same year—assigned it to the 2nd Military Prosecutor's Office of Santiago, consolidating it with case file No. 553-78, followed against General Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda.

Case 553-78 had been initiated on August 1, 1978, before the Tenth Criminal Court of Santiago, when relatives of 70 forcibly disappeared persons filed a complaint for the crime of kidnapping against General Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, Marcelo Luis Manuel Moren Brito, and Rolf Gonzalo Wenderoth Pozo, Colonel and Lieutenant Colonel of the Army, respectively.

The identities of other agents of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional, information on secret detention centers of the aforementioned agency, and other data regarding its structure and the means available to the DINA were also provided to the Court.

Without carrying out any measures, on August 10 of the same year, the judge declared herself incompetent and sent the records to the Military Justice system; after several appeals, in May 1979, the case was reopened in the 2nd Military Prosecutor's Office of Santiago, under Case No. 553-78.

In 1983, the Court had before it the four installation notebooks of the Extraordinary Visit for cases of disappeared detainees of the Metropolitan Region that Judge Servando Jordán substantiated; they contained important information regarding the actions of the DINA and the responsibility of that security agency in hundreds of cases of forcibly disappeared persons.

Without any measures being carried out for four years, on November 20, 1989, the Army Lieutenant Colonel, Enrique Ibarra Chamorro, General Military Prosecutor, requested the application of the Amnesty Decree Law (D.L. 2.191) for this case because the process had had the exclusive purpose of investigating alleged crimes that occurred during the period between September 11, 1973, and March 10, 1978, and because, during the 10 years of processing, it had not been possible to "determine the responsibility of any person." On November 30, 1989, the request was accepted by the 2nd Military Court, which totally and definitively dismissed the case—which was still in the summary stage—because "the criminal responsibility of the persons presumably accused in the reported events was extinguished." The plaintiffs appealed said resolution to the Martial Court, which confirmed the ruling in January 1992. A Complaint Appeal was then filed with the Supreme Court of Justice, which, as of December 1992, had not yet issued its resolution. (Complete background on the lawsuit against Manuel Contreras can be found in the case of Eduardo Alarcón Jara, July 30, 1974). The former DINA agent, Osvaldo Romo Mena, was arrested in November 1992 when he was expelled from Brazil, a country where he had resided since late 1975 under a false identity. The former agent was located through proceedings ordered in the case regarding the disappearance of Alfonso Chanfreau Oyarce. In his first public statements, he acknowledged his status as a DINA agent and the support he had received from that security agency to leave the country when he was being sought in several cases of the forcibly disappeared. The DINA provided him with false identity documents for himself and his family. On December 5, 1992, before the 1st Court of the Presidente Aguirre Cerda Court, a new lawsuit was filed for the kidnapping of Anselmo Radrigán, this time specifically against Osvaldo Romo and others. Said case was registered under Roll 41982-5, and on December 15, the aforementioned agent was indicted. At the end of December, the case was in the summary stage. For its part, the family of Anselmo Radrigán Plaza carried out countless administrative efforts aimed at finding the whereabouts of the affected person. All of this without positive results.

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity

After three decades of denial of justice, the special judge Alejandro Solís issued first-instance sentences in May for those responsible for the kidnapping and disappearance of the MIR engineer Anselmo Osvaldo Radrigán (25 years old), which took place on December 12, 1974, in Santiago, Chile.

The Director of the DINA, Manuel Contreras, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, while his henchmen, retired brigadiers Pedro Espinoza (former head of Villa Grimaldi) and Miguel Krasnsnoff (former head of the Halcón group), as well as retired colonels Marcelo Moren Brito (former deputy head of Villa Grimaldi) and Rolf Wenderoth (from the management staff of Villa Grimaldi and DINA), along with retired sergeant major Basclay Zapata (from the Halcón group), each received a sentence of ten years and one day.

Contreras, Krassnoff, and Moren Brito are serving sentences issued by Solís and confirmed by the Supreme Court for the cases of Miguel Angel Sandoval, Diana Aron, and Manuel Cortez; Contreras and Krassnoff are also convicted for the kidnapping of Luis San Martín, while Espinoza and Wenderoth were convicted for a single case: the kidnappings of Diana Arón and Manuel Cortez Joo, respectively.

Wenderoth had only been sentenced to 5 years and one day for the kidnapping of Manuel Cortez. The former DINA officers are appealing dozens of other convictions. Except for Basclay Zapata, who is in Punta Peuco, the criminals remain in the Cordillera Prison, a "VIP" facility that has all kinds of comforts and privileges, authorized by the Chilean Army.

Pinochet and Osvaldo Romo were dismissed from the case due to death. The name of Anselmo Osvaldo Radrigán appeared on the list published by the Argentine weekly Lea, which reported on Chileans eliminated abroad "by their own comrades in struggle." El Mercurio reproduced the chronicle on July 23, 1975, under the title "60 murdered MIR members identified." The DINA devised this publicity stunt to cover up the kidnappings.

Osvaldo was married, a father of one child, and a member of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR). In the underground, they called him "Pedro" or "Julián," and he was the head of the Political-Military Group 8 ("GPM 8"), the territorial structure of that party that covered Renca, the northwestern zone, Recoleta, Huechuraba, and Conchalí, in addition to the Panamerica Norte industrial belt.

When agent Romo Mena and two other members of the DINA's Halcón group, heavily armed, kidnapped him, he was attending for the second time, on García Reyes street, a "contact point" with a comrade who had been arrested four days earlier.

It was around six-thirty in the evening. The morning after the arrest, four armed agents, again led by Romo, raided the house of Osvaldo's parents, where he lived with his wife, Amelia Caballero Nadeau.

One of the repressors informed Lidia Plaza, his mother, of her son's arrest. During the raid, the DINA took some micro-photos of documents, commenting: "this is what we were looking for." Then they asked about Amelia.

But she had left the place at five in the morning. The repression had already struck Amelia's family before. In May 1974, Agustín Reyes González, the husband of her sister Atenas Caballero, had been kidnapped.

Juan Caballero, her other brother, arrested in April 1974, remained in prison. In addition, Amelia herself had remained under house arrest for some time after being detained on September 11—six months pregnant—along with all the workers of the Caupolicán textile factory.

Under those circumstances, only Osvaldo's previous trajectory in the MIR and his personal characteristics explain his decision to remain in Chile, despite everything that had happened. "The Child" from Curimón The nine Radrigán Plaza siblings grew up in the rural town of Curimón, in the Aconcagua valley, where the colonial Franciscan convent is located.

Osvaldo was the youngest, and at home, they affectionately called him "the Child": he was the baby, born four years after the brother who preceded him. Mrs. Lidia, the mother, was of peasant origin, and the father was a socialist, originally from Valparaíso, and brother of the prominent author and theater director Juan Radrigán.

Cecilia Radrigán Plaza, the seventh sister, relates: "For Christmas, it was customary to set up the traditional nativity scene, and Mom once asked us all to leave some cherries for the Child (Jesus). Everyone did.

But at night, there were no cherries left in the nativity scene. Osvaldo immediately clarified what happened, protesting: 'Mom, you said they were for the Child!'" In 1954, when the older siblings began entering university, the family moved to Santiago.

At the school in Renca where Osvaldo studied primary education, he was once elected "prince." He stood out as a youth chess champion when he was a secondary school student at the Instituto Nacional. A generous little one Cecilia explains: "I think he became a militant because of the injustices he saw, and also because of the education and upbringing we received in the family.

We lived in Renca, in the middle of the Bulnes neighborhood and with Matucana on the other side, then considered a nest of criminals. Osvaldo was friends with them. He was always giving away clothes, shoes, even his watch.

He never had anything. He was super generous with his siblings and the other children who were in the house, because my mom always took in someone else, and in the summer, our cousins would come to see us.

He was a very loved child: every night my dad would go by the beds and give each child two regulation pats on the bottom. Osvaldo wouldn't fall asleep until it was his turn. My dad would also leave us a candy under the pillow, and with that, we would start the day." The sister also remembers that in the summers, their father, Head of Works in the Highway Department, would go with his sons to the camp where he had to work building bridges or roads.

It was an opportunity for training and coexistence with different realities, at a time when summer vacations were only for wealthy people. A home for everyone Cecilia maintains that Osvaldo inherited his mother's temperament. "She didn't ask anything; she was discretion itself.

Her son was the most important thing to her, and she let him know that she trusted him fully. She didn't know he was a militant in the MIR, but in her home, she welcomed all his comrades and friends. Among others, Isidro Pizarro Meniconi and José Ramírez Rosales, also disappeared, and 'Chico Feliciano' and 'Flaco Lucho,' survivors, passed through there.

My mom took care of them and made sure they ate. Everyone who worked with Osvaldo loved him very much; he was a person who received a lot of affection and who also gave a lot of love. He lived with us until he got married, in March 1973." Carlos, for Karl In Amelia's words, Osvaldo "was handsome, broad-shouldered, pale-skinned, with straight hair, thin, 1.75 m tall." Asked if they consciously decided to have a child, she responds somewhat surprised: "We had married in March '73, very much in love, and we wanted to have children; that was natural, we didn't analyze it politically.

It was such an intense time, we lacked more time for ourselves, we were always surrounded by comrades... the political situation monopolized our attention, and what was happening in the factories was also important." They named their son Carlos after Karl Marx, and he was a child "terribly desired" by both.

Osvaldo became very attached to the little one, who was born three months after the coup d'état, already in a country different from the Chile of when he was conceived. During the years of President Allende's government, Osvaldo was dedicated one hundred percent to political work, and he froze his studies when he was close to graduating as an engineer at the University of Chile.

Amelia shared her husband's passion for pushing forward the process that was being lived. The FTR of Caupolicán Political work at the Caupolicán textile factory in Renca was one of the various tasks that Osvaldo directed, since the Revolutionary Workers' Front (FTR), the trade union arm of the MIR, had a strong presence in that industry.

Amelia, for her part, was a social worker at the factory. Textile workers played an important role in the process that was being lived in those years, and those factories, which had been intervened by decision of the Ministry of Economy, were the protagonists of a conflict of powers between the government and the sectors opposed to the changes.

There, too, the opposing tactics of the MIR members clashed harshly with those of the supporters of what that organization, which gave critical support to the popular government, called "worker reformism," fundamentally the Communist Party.

The large textile companies of the so-called "Yarur economic clan" were Tejidos Caupolicán, Bellavista Tomé, Yarur, Textil Progreso, Paños Fiap Tomé, and Fabrilana, which, after their intervention by the Ministry of Economy, became part of the social property area.

Previously, these industries had been occupied by their workers, who denounced a boycott of production by the businessmen. For its part, the Comptroller's Office refused to process the intervention decree.

One of the shows of force in which the FTR of the Caupolicán factory participated at that time was a march from that industry to the manufacturing facilities of Química Industrial, asking for solidarity from their comrades at that company.

Tejidos Caupolicán Renca required rayon fiber for the spinning section from the company Química Industrial, linked to the former owners of Caupolicán, who refused to provide that input. That type of problem was the axis of the couple's conversations, also excited about the arrival of their son.

Amelia clarifies: "But after the coup, we talked about whether we would stay or leave the country, and we made the decision to remain in Chile together." Political realism The wife reveals: "After my brother-in-law Agustín fell (was arrested), Osvaldo and I had an adult political conversation.

Osvaldo interpreted very lucidly what was happening and told me that if they arrested him, they were going to kill him, and that I had to remarry. That certainty, that clarity of his, helped me to be able to face the situation and fulfill the only thing he asked of me: that the child and I be in a safe place, so that they wouldn't come to arrest us.

I left Chile in 1975, with the help of the French embassy, along with my sister Atenas, my nephew, and my son. We had previously taken French nationality, thanks to our maternal surname, Nadeau." At the time of the kidnapping, their little son Carlos Andrés was just ten months old.

Solidary and respectful After the coup, Osvaldo returned to take the university entrance exam and had started a second career as an IBM programmer. Considering that the MIR had instructed its militants to remain in the country, he refused to take French nationality when his wife did, considering that it was equivalent to seeking asylum.

However, the writer and poet Renard Betancourt, who was a militant alongside him at the time and has a visible physical disability, knows that his political boss, Osvaldo, did not mechanically apply the instructions received from his party.

Renard recalls: "I was without safe houses or anything, and they were looking for me because of my physical description. I didn't think about leaving the fight here unless this was the last resort, and to continue attending contact points, I asked that the possibility of getting me a vehicle be looked into." "Pedro" brought me the answer signed by Dagoberto Pérez, head of the Santiago Regional, arguing that the party was full of fat, thin, short, tall, lame, big-headed, ugly, pretty people, etc., and everyone had to stay to resist without special considerations.

His response outraged us. And "Pedro" told me that there was no longer any way to make the MIR leadership understand the real situation we were living in. 'But I authorize you to leave the country,' he added.

He gave me a laconic answer to my question of why I was going to leave and he wasn't: 'Someone has to stay,' he said." That dialogue portrays him fully. He was solidary and human, quiet and reflective, very discreet and respectful.

Amelia remembers: "He had a great capacity to listen and help his comrades; he didn't judge. He always sought perfection in what he did. He didn't get angry; he had a very stable character; he liked to laugh and had fun inventing names.

He liked reading about philosophy, politics, and history very much. He also enjoyed classical music. He was a humble person who shared his knowledge with others without crushing them with the greater education he had.

He was truly the ideal of how a militant should be, and that was not frequent; it shocked me to meet other comrades later who did not have those characteristics." Renard Betancourt, who shared political work with Osvaldo since the agitated years of President Allende's government, describes him this way: "'Pedro' was a comrade who was truly 'one of a kind.' I knew many prominent and notable cadres in the MIR, but he was objectively different: he had a deep, rooted, and wise vision of the work in the popular movement and especially in the vanguard working class.

Long before being head of the GPM 8, he was the intellectual and de facto leader of our structure. When in mid-1972 he was named a member of the Central Committee, by decision of that leadership, of which I was also a part, we had agreed to delay his incorporation into that national leadership body, because that was going to remove him from concrete practical work.

Pedro was personally responsible for the political and ideological education of the worker cadres of the industries of Renca and Conchalí, particularly the Hirmas textile factory, which in those years had more than 2,500 workers.

Thanks to his work, in less than a year, in 1972, we won the union leadership as the Revolutionary Workers' Front. And for him, it was unforgivable that they take him away from the work that he had taken years to crystallize." Years later, in exile, Renard and "Mateo," another comrade of Osvaldo's, traveled together to Paris to meet Osvaldo's son.

The poem that concludes this chronicle was born from that meeting. The search Cecilia undertook the search for her brother Osvaldo after the arrest, and she was one of the founders of the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared.

However, after the young man's name was included in the List of the 119, she and other young relatives of the disappeared left the Association to join the Popular Resistance militias. Cecilia was arrested in that task in 1981, remaining in prison until 1992.

She was one of the last prisoners to be released. In France, Amelia, her sister Atenas, and Erika Hennings de Chanfreau participated that same year in the hunger strike that took place in the church of Saint Germain des Prés to denounce what had happened.

Amelia testified about her husband's situation at the United Nations, and in '79, she was in another strike, which lasted eleven days. Amelia comments that her son looks a lot like Osvaldo, and that both are Pisces.

She was impressed to see Carlos Andrés one day pick up a pencil the same way his father did. On another occasion, overwhelmed, she observed that the boy was starting to play chess without anyone having taught him.

Carlos Andrés studied computer science, the second career his father wanted to pursue after taking the university entrance exam in 1974. For Pinochet's arrest in London in 1998, his son participated in the demonstrations that took place in Paris.

Judicial testimonies In the legal file of the case, published on the Memoria Viva website, one can read what was declared by Mario Francisco Venegas Jara, held incommunicado in Villa Grimaldi between December 9 and 28, 1974, who saw Osvaldo, tortured and battered.

He remained with him until December 24, the date on which the young man was taken out by his captors in the company of Washington Cid Urrutia and Luis Palominos Rojas. All three remain forcibly disappeared.

The testimony of Venegas coincides with that of Luis Alfredo Muñoz Eyraud, a former university classmate of Osvaldo, who was taken to Villa Grimaldi on December 10, 1974, where he remained until February 1, 1975.

The ruling of Judge Solís, of more than 150 pages, details the statements of all the witnesses in the case. They acknowledge the detention On February 19, 1975, on a national television broadcast, po

Through the testimony of four prisoners, the DINA publicly acknowledged the detention of Osvaldo Radrigán in February 1975. Four former leaders of the MIR released a report on the repression against that organization, including the name of Amelia's husband on the list of prisoners, although they called him "Julián Radrigán" instead of Osvaldo.

General (Ret.) Pedro Espinoza—sentenced in this ruling to ten years and one day—who was then the head of Villa Grimaldi, had devised this intelligence operation, which aimed to demoralize the MIR membership by combining lies and truths.

For example, Martín Elgueta and Bautista van Schouwen, who were forcibly disappeared, appeared on the list as exiles, and one of the detainees, Jaime Vásquez, was already listed as dead.

Two of the participants in this maneuver, Humberto Menanteau and Hernán Carrasco Vásquez, who were released some months later, managed to send information to the MIR regarding the DINA, and were subsequently recaptured and executed by the dictatorship in December 1975.

The other two members of the group (Cristián Mallol and Héctor González) survived, went into exile, and testified in court starting in 1990 about the development of this intelligence operation. The maneuver began to be prepared in December, the month in which Osvaldo was in that same facility.

It is likely that the disappearance of this leader of the MIR Central Committee is due to the fact that he did not cooperate with it.

Cristián Mallol declared that in the room he shared with Anselmo Radrigán, the detainees remained on the floor day and night, and their only "activity" was waiting to be taken to be tortured or to witness the torture of others.

They remained blindfolded the entire time, and at night they were tied by their feet and hands behind their backs and had to sleep on the tiles. Next to the bathroom, to which they were taken twice a day, was "the grill" (la parrilla), a place from which the screams of those being tortured could be heard.

He also remembers that they took Osvaldo Radrigán and Luis Jaime Palominos out of the room, and nothing more was ever heard of them. On the same occasion, they took Guillermo Beausire Alonso from there, who was also forcibly disappeared and who opposed the drafting of the document that was to be read at the press conference.

The calendar marked December 24, 1974, and in churches and homes, people were admiring the nativity scenes, when DINA agents took away the "Child" of the Pisces sign, who had so often represented Jesus in the living nativity scene of the Franciscans in Curimón.

(This chronicle—updated with data from the judicial ruling—is part of the book "119 of Us" [119 de nosotros], 2005, by Lucía Sepúlveda Ruiz.)

SON OF VICTORIA (by Renard Betancourt) Comrade. I thought they had finished you, that you were definitely gone, that they had strategically undone you. Comrade. It was an afternoon in Paris, in the time of exile.

Your partner waited for us at the station, we jumped off the train. Then we saw you. You were running, you already knew how to imagine the birds of the south, you spoke of Extremadura, of the green, of the fire of that land.

Comrade. It wasn't exactly you, you projected yourself from her eyes, you became independent from her gaze, you came to greet us, to reach out your hand to us. Later you returned to the depths of her smile, there it was hard for you to stay still, you called us, you confused us.

Late, we said goodbye in a subway tunnel. Your son looked at us and behind his wonderful eyes it was you who described hope. Comrade you have returned. Comrade.

Source: By Lucía Sepúlveda Ruiz

U. de Chile to award posthumous degrees to 104 victims of political execution and forced disappearance

Symbolic recognition will be directed at former students murdered during the military regime.

Through exempt decree number 0030766 of the University of Chile, authorized by the Comptroller General of the Republic on September 4 of this year, said institution was enabled, for the first time in its history, to award posthumous and symbolic degrees to students who were victims of political execution and those who became forcibly disappeared during the military regime.

The official ceremony, which will be led by Rector Ennio Vivaldi, will take place next Monday the 11th, in the Domeyko courtyard of the central campus, starting at 12:30. For Vivaldi, "this initiative has two very profound meanings.

On one hand, it is a gesture of reparation for the victims themselves and for their families, who also affectionately associate their loved ones with this great institution that is the U. de Chile. On the other hand, the U. de Chile feels it is fulfilling its moral duty by not granting the dictatorship the terrible objective of, in addition to having cut their lives short, erasing their achievements as students and future professionals for Chile." The list includes 104 former students of the university who were murdered by state agents between 1973 and 1989.

Among the most remembered cases is that of history student Jécar Nehgme, who also appears as the last victim of the Augusto Pinochet regime. This former leader of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) appeared dead on September 4, 1989, on Calle General Bulnes, a few days before the elections that would mark the return to democracy.

After a long judicial process, which was resolved in 2008, it was established that the perpetrators of the murder were the metropolitan head of the CNI, Brigadier (Ret.) Enrique Levy Araneda; Colonel (Ret.) Pedro Guzmán Olivares; and Captain (Ret.) Luis Sanhueza Ross.

Social organizations valued the gesture. The president of the Association of Families of Political Executed (AFEP), Alicia Lira, pointed out that "it is a great gesture, which we recognize enormously. With this, Rector Vivaldi fulfills a pending task that the University of Chile had, since similar gestures had already been carried out by other universities such as the U. de Santiago and the Austral de Valdivia.

But it is an enormous signal for democracy and for a true 'never again' to be fulfilled in Chile." Among the 104 former students is ANSELMO OSVALDO RADRIGAN PLAZA (excerpt).

Source: latercera.com 8/09/2017 Date: 08-09-2017

State must pay $185 million to family of forcibly disappeared person

The Santiago Court of Appeals ordered the treasury to pay compensation of 185 million pesos to the spouse and sister of ANSELMO OSVALDO RADRIGAN, who has been forcibly disappeared since December 12, 1974.

In a split decision, the Seventh Chamber of the appellate court—composed of judges María Rosa Kittsteiner, Juan Antonio Poblete, and lawyer Jaime Guerrero—determined that the State must compensate Amelia Caballero Nadeau, his wife, with $125 million, and Cecilia Radrigán Plaza, his sister, with $60 million.

The ruling revokes the decision of the 27th Civil Court of Santiago, which accepted the exception of lack of standing, considering that the pension received by the plaintiffs—which is part of those granted by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission—is sufficient as reparation.

Furthermore, the resolution rejects the application of the statute of limitations, considering that the crime is a crime against humanity, imprescriptible from both a criminal and civil point of view. Anselmo Radrigán Plaza was a member of the MIR and was detained at 6:30 PM on December 12, 1974, while walking along Calle García Reyes in the capital, by 3 DINA agents, according to Memoria Viva.

Witnesses saw him for the last time on December 24 of the same year, as detainees in Villa Grimaldi noted that he had been tortured and was in very poor condition. In criminal matters, on August 3, 2010, the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court issued a final sentence for the kidnapping of Anselmo Radrigán Plaza, sentencing Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda to 5 years in prison, and former DINA members Marcelo Moren Brito, Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Rolf Wenderoth Pozo, and Basclay Zapata Reyes to 4 years in prison, with all being granted the benefit of supervised release.

Source: BioBio.cl 4/08/2014 Date: 04-08-2014

Manuel Contreras adds 15 more years to his sentence

Once again, the former director of the DINA, Manuel Contreras, adds a sentence in a human rights case. This time it concerns the kidnapping of Anselmo Radrigán Plaza, which occurred on December 12, 1974, in the Metropolitan Region.

In this investigation, the Santiago Court of Appeals issued a second-instance conviction in a unanimous ruling signed by judges Lamberto Cisternas, Gloria Ana Chevesich, and lawyer Claudia Chaimovich. The judges ratified in the criminal aspect the sentence of the visiting judge Alejandro Solís, which established the following penalties:

• Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda: 15 years in prison.
• Marcelo Moren Brito: 10 years and one day in prison.
• Pedro Espinoza Bravo: 10 years and one day in prison.
• Rolf Wenderoth Pozo: 10 years and one day in prison.
• Miguel Krassnoff Martchentko: 10 years and one day in prison.
• Basclay Zapata Reyes: 10 years and one day in prison.

In civil matters, the judges were in favor of providing compensation to the victims' relatives, thus changing the first-instance ruling signed by judge Alejandro Solís: Amalia Caballero Nadeau: $40,000,000 Gastón Radrigán Plaza: $20,000,000 Cecilia Radrigán Plaza: $20,000,000 Jorge Radrigán Plaza: $20,000,000

Source: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 La Nación Date: 14-04-2009

Former head of the dissolved DINA added a new sentence

The magistrate issued the following sentences against former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA): Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, 15 years as the perpetrator of aggravated kidnapping. Visiting judge Alejandro Solís issued a new sentence this Monday against the former head of the defunct National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), General (Ret.) Manuel Contreras, for his involvement in the aggravated kidnapping of Anselmo Radrigán Plaza, which occurred starting December 12, 1974.

The magistrate issued the following sentences against former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA): Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, 15 years as the perpetrator of aggravated kidnapping; Marcelo Moren Brito, 10 years and one day as the perpetrator of aggravated kidnapping; Pedro Espinoza Bravo, 10 years and one day as the perpetrator of aggravated kidnapping; Rolf Wenderoth Pozo, 10 years and one day as the perpetrator of aggravated kidnapping; Miguel Krassnoff Martchentko, 10 years and one day as the perpetrator of aggravated kidnapping; and Basclay Zapata Reyes, 10 years and one day as the perpetrator of aggravated kidnapping. Likewise, the judge issued a series of indictments for four cases of aggravated kidnapping. Among those charged are Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Basclay Zapata Reyes, and Palmira Almuna Guzmán, linked to the disappearance of Claudio Silva Peralta, which occurred starting November 26, 1974. For the kidnapping of Mireya Pérez Vargas, kidnapped starting February 24, 1976, Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, Miguel Krassnoff Martchentko, Carlos López Tapia, Basclay Zapata Reyes, and José Fuentes Torres were indicted. For Jaime Robotham Bravo, kidnapped starting December 31, 1974, Solís filed charges against Contreras Sepúlveda, Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Rolf Wenderoth Pozo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchentko, Fernando Lauriani Maturana, and Daniel Cancino Varas. In the case of Claudio Thauby Pacheco, kidnapped starting December 31, 1974, Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Rolf Wenderoth Pozo, Fernando Lauriani Maturana, and Daniel Cancino Varas were indicted.

Source: May 20, 2008 UPI Date: 20-05-2008

Villa Grimaldi Case: Bail granted to four former military officers

The Fourth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals, in a unanimous vote, granted release, upon payment of 500,000 pesos, to four retired Army officers whom judge Alejandro Solís had indicted for the aggravated kidnapping of eight dissidents to the military regime, within the framework of the "Villa Grimaldi" case investigation.

These are former members of the dissolved DINA, retired Generals Hernán Ramírez Hald and César Manríquez, and retired Brigadiers Gerardo Urrich and Manuel Carevic, who have been held at the Peñalolén Military Police Battalion since last Monday.

The appellate court was composed of judges Alfredo Pfeiffer, Humberto Provoste, and lawyer Ángela Radovic. Judge Solís adopted the resolutions based on the disappearances of Rodolfo González Pérez (July 24, 1974); Fernando Silva Camus (November 27, 1974); Anselmo Radrigán Plaza (December 12, 1974); Marcelo Salinas Eitel (October 21, 1974); José Orlando Flores Araya (August 23, 1974); María Teresa Bustillos Cereceda (December 9, 1974); Jaime Robotham (December 31, 1974); and Rafael Araneda Yévenes (December 12, 1974).

Source: August 12, 2005 La Nación Date: 12-08-2005

Judge issues 14 indictments for aggravated kidnapping in Villa Grimaldi

A total of fourteen former agents of the military regime were indicted for the crime of aggravated kidnapping, within the framework of human rights violations committed at the Villa Grimaldi detention center, in the Metropolitan Region.

The resolution was adopted this Monday by visiting judge Alejandro Solís, within the framework of the investigation he is conducting into the disappearance of eight people inside Villa Grimaldi between July and December 1974.

The list of those indicted is headed by Generals (Ret.) Manuel Contreras, who was the head of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), Hernán Ramírez Hald, and César Manríquez, the latter a former Undersecretary of War of the military regime.

Also charged were Brigadiers (Ret.) Pedro Espinoza, Miguel Krassnoff, and Fernando Laureani; Colonels (Ret.) Marcelo Morén Brito, Haroldo Latorre, Rolf Wenderoth, and Gerardo Urrich; Captain (Ret.) Manuel Carevic; and Corporal (Ret.) Basclay Zapata, all from the Army.

Likewise, the magistrate brought charges against civilian Osvaldo Romo Mena and retired Gendarmerie sub-lieutenant Osvaldo Manzo. All were indicted for the disappearances of Rodolfo Valentín González Pérez, a former FACH conscript, Fernando Silva Camus, Anselmo Radrigán Plaza, Marcela Salinas Eithel [sic: should be Marcelo Salinas Eytel], José Flores Araya, María Teresa Bustillos Cereceda, Rafael Araneda Yévenes, and Jaime Robotham Bravo.

Judge Solís ordered that Carevic, Ramírez Hald, and Urrich remain in preventive detention at the Cordillera Prison, while no precautionary measures were decreed against the rest, by virtue of the fact that they were already enjoying conditional release or are serving sentences for other crimes.

According to the Rettig and Valech reports, which have documented the human rights violations committed in Chile, Villa Grimaldi—also known as Cuartel Terranova—was the most important secret detention and torture center of the DINA.

This Monday's resolution is the second of importance regarding the investigation into the abuses committed at Villa Grimaldi. Previously, judge Solís indicted eight former military officers for illegal coercion against 22 people who were held at said facility.

The aforementioned ruling had also affected Contreras, Morén Brito, Espinoza Bravo, Krassnoff Martchenko, Romo Mena, Zapata Reyes, and Laurani Maturana, to which Maximiliano Ferrer Lima and Gerardo Godoy García were also added.

The former head of the DINA, along with Krasnoff, Moren Brito, and Laureani, are serving sentences for the aggravated kidnapping of Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) militant Miguel Ángel Sandoval.

Source: August 8, 2005 – La Nación Date: 08-08-2005

Treasury ordered to pay compensation to relatives of forcibly disappeared person Anselmo Radrigán Plaza

The Santiago Court of Appeals determined that the State must pay compensation of 185 million pesos to the spouse and sister of Anselmo Radrigán Plaza, who was detained on December 12, 1974, and passed through Villa Grimaldi.

The Seventh Chamber of the appellate court—composed of judges María Rosa Kittsteiner, Juan Antonio Poblete, and lawyer Jaime Guerrero—determined that the State must compensate Amelia Caballero Nadeau (wife) with 125 million and his sister Cecilia Radrigán Plaza with 60 million.

The sentence revoked a ruling by the 27th Civil Court of Santiago, which considered that the pension the plaintiffs receive from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is sufficient as reparation. The judges considered it fully appropriate to compensate for the damages suffered even if "they are beneficiaries of other benefits from the State of Chile as a result of the same facts," such as a periodic monthly pension.

Furthermore, the resolution rejects the application of the statute of limitations, considering that the crime is a crime against humanity, imprescriptible from both a criminal and civil point of view. "The aforementioned imprescriptibility applies to both the criminal and civil spheres." "The imprescriptibility of civil actions for reparation of damages produced by the aforementioned crimes flows from international conventions on war crimes, first, and on human rights later; in particular, in the Americas, from the American Convention on Human Rights, called the Pact of San José, Costa Rica, and certainly from the numerous precedents issued by the Inter-American Court that it created, whose rulings have accepted compensation requests, considering them integral or inherent to the obligation of reparation that falls to the State in cases of serious violations of international human rights law, as is confirmed to have happened in the facts that support the lawsuit in the case files." In criminal matters, on August 3, 2010, the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court issued a final sentence for the kidnapping of Anselmo Radrigán Plaza, sentencing Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda to 5 years in prison, and former DINA members Marcelo Moren Brito, Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Rolf Wenderoth Pozo, and Basclay Zapata Reyes to 4 years in prison, with all being granted the benefit of supervised release.

Source: villagrimaldi.cl 27/5/2014