In October 1973, 38 people were forcibly disappeared by the actions of State agents.

The minister for extraordinary visits for human rights violation cases of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, sentenced 13 retired members of the Army and Carabineros and one civilian for their responsibility in the consummated crimes of 14 qualified kidnappings of peasants from the El Escorial sector of Paine (executed at Cuesta Chada on October 3, 1973); and of 24 peasants from settlements in the area (executed in the Los Quillayes sector, near Lago Rapel, on October 16, 1973).

In the ruling, the minister sentenced former Army officers Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos, Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau, Carlos Walter Kyling Schmidt, and Arturo Guillermo Fernández Rodríguez to life imprisonment as authors of 38 crimes of qualified kidnapping.

Meanwhile, former members of the military branch José Hugo Vásquez Silva, Carlos del Tránsito Lazo Santibáñez, Juan Dionisio Opazo Vera, Roberto Mauricio Pinto Laborderie, Jorge Segundo Saavedra Meza, Víctor Reinaldo Sandoval Muñoz, and the civilian Juan Guillermo Quintanilla Jerez must serve 20 years in prison.

In the case of the conscript soldier at the time of the events, Raúl Francisco Areyte Valdenegro, the magistrate sentenced him to 15 years in prison as the author of 14 crimes of qualified kidnapping; and conscript soldier Carlos Enrique Durán Rodríguez to 15 years and one day in prison as the author of 38 crimes of qualified kidnapping.

Finally, the minister sentenced former Carabineros captain Nelson Iván Bravo Espinoza to 10 years and one day in prison as the author of 2 crimes of qualified kidnapping. In civil matters, the State was ordered to pay a total sum of $15,928,000,000 to the victims' families.

Source: futuro.cl, November 7, 2019

Four former Army officers sentenced to life imprisonment for the disappearance of peasants in Paine

In October 1973, 38 people were forcibly disappeared by the actions of State agents.

The minister for extraordinary visits for human rights violation cases of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, sentenced 13 retired members of the Army and Carabineros and one civilian for their responsibility in the consummated crimes of 14 qualified kidnappings of peasants from the El Escorial sector of Paine (executed at Cuesta Chada on October 3, 1973); and of 24 peasants from settlements in the area (executed in the Los Quillayes sector, near Lago Rapel, on October 16, 1973).

In the ruling, the minister sentenced former Army officers Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos, Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau, Carlos Walter Kyling Schmidt, and Arturo Guillermo Fernández Rodríguez to life imprisonment as authors of 38 crimes of qualified kidnapping.

Meanwhile, former members of the military branch José Hugo Vásquez Silva, Carlos del Tránsito Lazo Santibáñez, Juan Dionisio Opazo Vera, Roberto Mauricio Pinto Laborderie, Jorge Segundo Saavedra Meza, Víctor Reinaldo Sandoval Muñoz, and the civilian Juan Guillermo Quintanilla Jerez must serve 20 years in prison.

In the case of the conscript soldier at the time of the events, Raúl Francisco Areyte Valdenegro, the magistrate sentenced him to 15 years in prison as the author of 14 crimes of qualified kidnapping; and conscript soldier Carlos Enrique Durán Rodríguez to 15 years and one day in prison as the author of 38 crimes of qualified kidnapping.

Finally, the minister sentenced former Carabineros captain Nelson Iván Bravo Espinoza to 10 years and one day in prison as the author of 2 crimes of qualified kidnapping. In civil matters, the State was ordered to pay a total sum of $15,928,000,000 to the victims' families.

Source: adnradio.cl, November 7, 2019

San Miguel Court reduces sentences for uniformed personnel convicted of crimes against 38 peasants from Paine in 1973

The San Miguel Court of Appeals reduced the sentences to be served by 13 former members of the Army, one former Carabinero, and one civilian for their responsibility in the crime of qualified homicide of 38 peasants from settlements in the commune of Paine, executed at Cuesta Chada and in the Los Quillayes ravine in 1973.

The 38 peasants were kidnapped, tortured, and forcibly disappeared. In practice, they were murdered, executed by the uniformed criminals, and their bodies were made to disappear through illegal burial.

Years later, their remains were recovered and, after decades of scientific analysis, were identified. A crime against humanity that has yet to achieve justice. In the sentence (case file 3.221-2019), the Fourth Chamber of the appellate court—composed of ministers Diego Simpértigue Limare, Ana Cienfuegos Barros, and Dora Mondaca Rosales—reclassified the kidnappings as qualified homicides and reduced the criminal sanction to be served by former Army officers Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos, Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau, and the civilian executioner Juan Guillermo Quintanilla Jerez, who were sentenced to 15 years in prison as authors of the crimes. Meanwhile, former Army officers Carlos Walter Kyling Schmidt and Arturo Guillermo Fernández Rodríguez were sentenced to 10 years in prison; while former Army members José Hugo Vásquez Silva, Carlos del Tránsito Lazo Santibáñez, Juan Dionisio Opazo Vera, Roberto Mauricio Pinto Labordarie, Jorge Segundo Saavedra Mesa, Víctor Reinaldo Sandoval Muñoz, Carlos Enrique Durán Rodríguez, and Raúl Francisco Areyte Valdenegro must serve 5 years and one day in prison. In the case of former Carabineros officer Nelson Iván Bravo Espinoza, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison, with the benefit of intensive supervised release for the same period, after being found guilty as the author of two crimes of simple kidnapping. The decision was adopted with the dissenting vote of Minister Simpértigue, who rejected the reduction of the sentence imposed in the first-instance ruling and, as these were crimes against humanity, opposed applying the figure of "half-prescription" (partial statute of limitations) requested by the convicted parties. The first-instance ruling was issued in October 2019 by the extraordinary minister for human rights cases, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón. This sentence condemned Romero Campos, Magaña Bau, Kyling Schmidt, and Fernández Rodríguez to life imprisonment; Quintanilla Jérez, Vásquez Silva, Lazo Santibañez, Opazo Vera, Pinto Labordarie, Saavedra Mesa, and Sandoval Muñoz to 20 years in prison; Areyte Valdenegro and Durán Rodríguez to 15 years; and Bravo Espinoza to 10 years in prison. For the Fourth Chamber of the San Miguel Court: "(...) in any case, it is worth expressing that, in accordance with the established facts, although we could be in the presence of some form of kidnapping and/or illegitimate coercion, according to the principle of consumption, the illicit acts committed as background, means, stages of development, or consequences must be considered absorbed by the qualified homicide, since it is a figure of greater harm by affecting the legal good of the right to life. For these reasons, qualified homicide subsumes the other criminal figures that could concur in the present case." Making use of a flawed subterfuge, the Fourth Chamber subsumes the crimes and, despite their gravity, rewards the convicted parties by reducing their sentences following the crimes against the 38 peasants.

Source: resumen.cl, November 13, 2020

Paine Case comes to an end: Supreme Court convicts 11 former uniformed personnel for the homicide of 38 peasants

The highest court convicted 10 Army officials as authors of the qualified homicide of 38 people and one Carabinero for the qualified kidnapping of two victims. The Court reclassified the crimes, increasing the sentences of the convicted parties. 49 years after the events occurred, the Supreme Court issued a final ruling in one of the most emblematic cases perpetrated by the military dictatorship.

Through its Second Criminal Chamber, it convicted former uniformed personnel for the qualified homicide of 36 agricultural workers and 2 businessmen, all from the town of Paine, who were executed at Cuesta Chada and the Los Quillayes ravine on October 3 and 16, 1973, respectively, at the hands of officials from the San Bernardo Infantry School.

Ministers Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, María Teresa Letelier, and acting lawyers Diego Murita and Leonor Etchebery, in a historic ruling, sentenced Jorge Romero Campos and Arturo Fernández Rodríguez, Army captain and second lieutenant respectively, to 20 years of major imprisonment in its maximum degree as authors of the qualified kidnapping of the victims.

In this case, the highest court increased their sentences in relation to the second-instance ruling issued by the San Miguel Court of Appeals, in which Romero had been sentenced to 15 years and Fernández to 10.

Similarly, the Court increased the sentences for Corporal José Vásquez Silva and conscripts Carlos Lazo Santibáñez, Juan Opazo Vera, and Carlos Durán Rodríguez from 5 to 10 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree, also as authors of qualified homicide.

The same sentence was received by conscripts Roberto Pinto Labordarie, Jorge Saavedra Meza, and Víctor Sandoval Muñoz. In the case of conscript Raúl Francisco Areyte Valdenegro, the Court increased his sentence from 5 to 6 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree as the author of 14 qualified homicides.

It should be noted that for all the aforementioned convicted parties, the highest court reclassified the crimes in relation to the second-instance ruling, from qualified kidnapping to qualified homicide.

Likewise, the ministers recognized the collaboration provided by the conscripts through their statements, which reportedly contributed to the identifications, and applied the special mitigating factor of substantial collaboration and irreproachable prior conduct.

Meanwhile, Carabineros captain Nelson Iván Bravo Espinoza was sentenced to 10 years of major imprisonment in its medium degree, whose sentence was increased by 5 years and his crime was reclassified from simple kidnapping to qualified kidnapping of Ramón Capetillo Mora and Mario Muñoz Peñaloza, which occurred between October 8 and 10, 1973.

Meanwhile, Osvaldo Magaña Bau, Juan Guillermo Quintanilla, and Carlos Kylling Schmidt, who had been convicted during the process, were dismissed due to death, as was Víctor Pinto Pérez. Plaintiff lawyer Nelson Caucoto, who represents the families of 37 victims, expressed satisfaction as the Court accepted all the cassation appeals they presented and celebrated the ruling, stating that "tomorrow will be a brighter day for the families of the victims of Paine, executed by soldiers of the San Bernardo Infantry School, a day full of new sensations and hopes." Caucoto, who has handled the case since its inception, stated that "The highest court of the Republic has issued a final sentence in this case, which speaks of a massacre that occurred 49 years ago in that rural town. Impunity, indifference, and barbarity have been overcome. What the Supreme Court has done is an act of healing for those families and for Chilean society in general. One of the unforgivable crimes of the civil-military dictatorship has been resolved by Chilean justice in a civilized manner. Despite the long time that has passed, Justice is possible." It should be mentioned that the Human Rights Program of the Ministry of the Interior, the Association of Families of Political Executions (AFEP), the Student Federation of the Catholic University (FEUC), and lawyer Luciano Fouillioux, as representative of lawyer Pamela Pereira's father, Andrés Pereira Salsberng, also acted as plaintiffs in the arguments. In civil matters, the res judicata that had been decreed by the San Miguel Court of Appeals, which prevented some victims' families from accessing reparations, was set aside.

Source: radio.uchile.cl, June 15, 2022

Supreme Court rejects application of "half-prescription" and convicts retired Army and Carabineros members for 38 homicides in settlements

In the sentence (file 149.250-2020), the Second Chamber of the highest court sentenced retired Army members Jorge Romero Campos and Arturo Fernández Rodríguez to 20 years in prison for their responsibility in the 38 cases of qualified homicide.

The Supreme Court dismissed the application of "half-prescription" (partial statute of limitations) and increased the sentences for retired members of the Army and Carabineros de Chile for their responsibility in the qualified homicides of José Cabezas Bueno, Francisco Calderón Nilo, Héctor Castro Sáez, Domingo Galaz Salas, José González Espinoza, Juan González Pérez, Aurelio Hidalgo Mella, Bernabé López López, Juan Núñez Vargas, Héctor Pinto Caroca, Hernán Pinto Caroca, Aliro Valdivia Valdivia, Hugo Alfredo Arenas, Víctor Zamorano González, José Adasme Núñez, Pedro Cabezas Villegas, Ramón Capetillo Mora, José Castro Maldonado, Patricio Duque Orellana, José Fredes García, Luis Gaete Balmaceda, Carlos Gaete López, Luis Lazo Maldonado, Samuel Lazo Maldonado, Carlos Lazo Quinteros, Samuel Lazo Quinteros, René Maureira Gajardo, Rosalindo Herrera Muñoz, Jorge Muñoz Peñaloza, Mario Muñoz Peñaloza, Ramiro Muñoz Peñaloza, Silvestre Muñoz Peñaloza, Carlos Nieto Duarte, Andrés Pereira Salsberg, Laureano Quiroz Pezoa, Roberto Serrano Galaz, Luis Silva Carreño, and Basilio Valenzuela Álvarez, which occurred between September 24 and October 16, 1973, in various settlements in the commune of Paine. In the sentence (file 149.250-2020), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, minister María Teresa Letelier, acting lawyer Diego Munita, and acting lawyer Leonor Etcheberry—sentenced retired Army members Jorge Romero Campos and Arturo Fernández Rodríguez to 20 years in prison for their responsibility in the 38 cases of qualified homicide, with the first 14 occurring between September 24 and October 3, 1973, in the "El Escorial" sector, and the last 24 between October 8 and October 16, 1973, in the "Campo Lindo" and "24 de abril" settlements. Meanwhile, retired Army members José Vásquez Silva, Carlos Lazo Santibáñez, Juan Opazo Vera, Roberto Pinto Labordarie, Jorge Saavedra Meza, Víctor Sandoval Muñoz, and Carlos Durán Rodríguez were sentenced to 10 years in prison for their responsibility in the 38 aforementioned crimes. Raúl Francisco Areyte Valdenegro must serve a sentence of 7 years and 6 months in prison for his responsibility in the 14 homicides in the "El Escorial" sector. Finally, retired Carabineros officer Nelson Iván Bravo Espinoza is sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison for his responsibility in the qualified kidnappings of Ramón Capetillo Mora and Mario Muñoz Peñaloza, committed on October 8 and 10, 1973. The highest court accepted the cassation appeals presented by the plaintiffs against the sentence of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, which had applied the figure of "half-prescription," considering that the figure should not be accepted in cases of crimes against humanity. "That the so-called 'half-prescription' is a 'species' of total prescription and not a mere special rule for determining the sentence, since both have the same foundation, that is, the need for the sentence diminishes over time until it disappears. In other words, both are the same thing, but at different stages. The foregoing entails that all the institutions and prohibitions that regulate total prescription are applicable to half-prescription, and, in what concerns us here, in those crimes where there cannot be total prescription because the need for the sentence does not diminish with the passage of time, such as the crimes against humanity in these proceedings, half-prescription cannot operate either. That from what has been reflected, it is undoubted that both complete prescription, and half-prescription or gradual prescription, share characteristics that are common to them; thus, both are located under the same Title of the Penal Code, that is, Title V of Book I, entitled 'On the Extinction of Criminal Responsibility,' and both are likewise nested in the succession or passage of time. Finally, sharing the same nature as total prescription and gradual prescription, their recognition in the present case must be dismissed, since, in the case of an imprescriptible crime, it is not possible to begin the calculation of the period required by gradual prescription," the ruling states. It adds: "That, in effect, the classification of crime against humanity that corresponds to the crimes that are the object of this process, as established in the 34th motive of the first-instance ruling, obliges us to consider the regulations of International Human Rights Law, which excludes the application of both total prescription and the so-called half-prescription, understanding such institutes as closely linked in their foundations and, consequently, contrary to the regulations of ius cogens coming from that sphere of International Criminal Law, which reject impunity and the imposition of sentences not proportional to the intrinsic gravity of the crimes, based on the passage of time." It is also considered: "That by resolving in the opposite sense, the challenged sentence has incurred in the invoked cause of article 546 N° 1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, because, although it classifies the crime in accordance with the law, it imposes on the defendants a less severe sentence than that designated in it, committing an error of law by agreeing to a reduction that, according to international human rights regulations, is inappropriate, an error that, furthermore, has had a substantial influence on the dispositive part of the ruling, because with respect to almost all of the accused—favored with only one mitigating factor—it enabled a reduction of the sentence that could not have been reached otherwise." The investigation by the minister for visits of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, established with respect to the events in "El Escorial": "1° That on September 24, 1973, in the afternoon, soldiers of the Second Rifle Company of the San Bernardo Infantry School appeared at the 'El Escorial' settlement in the commune of Paine and detained, without legal right, Héctor Guillermo Castro Sáez and Juan Bautista Núñez Vargas, among others. 2° That, after their detention, Héctor Castro Sáez and Juan Núñez Vargas were transferred to the Cerro Chena prisoner camp of the San Bernardo Infantry School, a place where they were kept illegally imprisoned. 3° That, on October 2, 1973, soldiers of the San Bernardo Infantry School appeared at the 'El Escorial' settlement in the commune of Paine and detained, without legal right, José Ángel Cabezas Bueno, who, immediately thereafter, was transferred to the Cerro Chena prisoner camp. 4° That, on October 3, 1973, at dawn, soldiers of the Second Rifle Company of the San Bernardo Infantry School, commanded by Captain Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos, left from the Cerro Chena prisoner camp, in charge of Lieutenant Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau and Second Lieutenants Carlos Walter Kyling Schmidt and Arturo Guillermo Fernández Rodríguez, with the detainees José Ángel Cabezas Bueno, Héctor Guillermo Castro Sáez, and Juan Bautista Núñez Vargas, in a red Dodge brand truck driven by Juan Guillermo Quintanilla Jerez, headed to the 'El Escorial' settlement of the commune of Paine and detained, without legal right, Francisco Javier Calderón Nilo, Domingo Octavio Galaz Salas, José Emilio González Espinoza, Juan Rosendo González Pérez, Aurelio Enrique Hidalgo Mella, Bernabé del Carmen López López, Héctor Santiago Pinto Caroca, Hernán Pinto Caroca, Aliro del Carmen Valdivia Valdivia, Hugo Alfredo Vidal Arenas, and Víctor Manuel Zamorano González. 5° That, subsequently, in the same truck, they transferred all the detainees to a ravine in Cuesta de Chada and executed them, shooting them with the firearms they were carrying, their bodies being found abandoned in the aforementioned place some time later." Meanwhile, with respect to the illicit acts in the "Campo Lindo" and "24 de abril" settlements, it was proven that: "1° That, on October 8, 1973, officials of the Paine Carabineros Sub-precinct appeared at the 'Campo Lindo' settlement of the same commune and detained, without legal right, Ramón Alfredo Capetillo Mora, who, immediately thereafter, was locked up in the aforementioned police unit. 2° That, in the following days, Ramón Alfredo Capetillo Mora was transferred to the Cerro Chena prisoner camp of the San Bernardo Infantry School. 3° That, on October 10, 1973, officials of the Paine Carabineros Sub-precinct appeared at the '24 de Abril' settlement of the same commune and detained, without legal right, Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, who, immediately thereafter, was locked up in the aforementioned police unit. 4° That, in the following days, Mario Muñoz Peñaloza was transferred to the Cerro Chena prisoner camp of the San Bernardo Infantry School. 5° That, at the time of the events, the Paine Carabineros Sub-precinct was in charge of Captain Nelson Iván Bravo Espinoza. 6° That, on October 16, 1973, at dawn, soldiers of the Second Rifle Company of the San Bernardo Infantry School, commanded by Captain Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos, left from the Cerro Chena prisoner camp, in charge of Lieutenant Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau and Second Lieutenants Carlos Walter Kyling Schmidt and Arturo Guillermo Fernández Rodríguez, with the detainees Ramón Alfredo Capetillo Mora and Mario Enrique Muñoz Peñaloza, in a red Dodge brand truck driven by Juan Guillermo Quintanilla Jerez, with the purpose of detaining twenty-two people in the town of Paine. Thus, in their respective homes, located in the urban area of the commune of Paine, they detained, without legal right, René del Rosario Maureira Gajardo and Andrés Pereira Salsberg. In the '24 de Abril' settlement, Patricio Loreto Duque Orellana, José Germán Fredes García, Carlos Enrique Gaete López, Rosalindo Delfín Herrera Muñoz, Jorge Hernán Muñoz Peñaloza, Ramiro Antonio Muñoz Peñaloza, Silvestre René Muñoz Peñaloza, Carlos Alberto Nieto Duarte, Laureano Quiroz Pezoa, Luis Ramón Silva Carreño, and Basilio Antonio Valenzuela Álvarez. In the 'Nuevo Sendero' settlement, José Domingo Adasme Núñez, José Ignacio Castro Maldonado, Luis Alberto Gaete Balmaceda, Luis Rodolfo Lazo Maldonado, Samuel del Tránsito Lazo Maldonado, Carlos Enrique Lazo Quinteros, and Samuel Altamiro Lazo Quinteros and, finally, in the 'El Tránsito' settlement, Pedro Antonio Cabezas Villegas and Roberto Estevan Serrano Galaz. 7° That, subsequently, the aforementioned detainees were transferred to the Los Arrayanes ravine, Los Quillayes sector, in the vicinity of Lago Rapel, where they were executed by firing squad by the aforementioned soldiers and the civilian who accompanied them, who, immediately thereafter, buried their bodies in the same place, with only bone and dental fragments of eleven of the twenty-four victims being found years later, because their bodies were removed and transferred to a site unknown to date." In civil matters, the State was ordered to pay compensation to the victims' families.

Source: pdju.cl, June 15, 2022