New indictments were issued by the minister visiting for human rights cases of the Concepción Court of Appeals, Carlos Aldana, in the case of the massacre of 18 peasants in Mulchén, which occurred on October 5, 6, and 7, 1973.

The resolution involves 5 former Carabineros and 9 former military personnel and also considers the crimes of illegal burial and illegal exhumation. All of this took place within the framework of the so-called "Operation Television Removal."

To the five former Carabineros who were already indicted as co-perpetrators for the crimes of kidnapping and kidnapping resulting in death of 13 people, three more crimes were added: qualified homicide, qualified kidnapping, and illegal burial.

Added to them are nine former military personnel from the 17th Reinforced Mountain Infantry Regiment of Los Ángeles, who were indicted as perpetrators of the crime of covering up the crimes of qualified homicide of 11 people and for co-perpetration of the crimes of illegal burial of 11 people.

Minister Carlos Aldana notified seven of the involved former military personnel of the indictment order; they were taken to the courts by PDI personnel from the facilities of the Chacabuco Regiment, where they were being held.

What is interesting about this ruling is that it also points to the crimes of illegal burial committed within the framework of the so-called "Operation Television Removal," ordered by General Pinochet, which mandated the exhumation of all the bodies of political executions to make them disappear permanently.

On October 5, 6, and 7, 1973, as part of a concerted operation, a Carabineros patrol under the command of Lieutenant Jorge Maturana Concha, list in hand, arrived at the "El Morro," "Carmen y Maitenes," and "Pemehue" estates, detaining a total of 18 peasants, who were riddled with bullets by their captors and whose bodies were clandestinely buried on the banks of the Renaico River.

The investigation, carried out first by visiting minister Carlos Cerda in 1980 and subsequently by judge Rosa Giacaman and minister Carlos Gajardo, who investigated "Operation Television Removal," reached the hands of minister Carlos Aldana in March 2008.

Since then, it has been deepened, also covering the episode of illegal burial.

Making all evidence disappear

It was thus established that "between the end of 1978 and the beginning of 1979, a cryptogram from the Army General Command was received in Section 2 of the 'Húsares' Regiment of Angol by the Intelligence officer, Sergeant 1st Class Juan Carlos Balboa Ortega, in which all commanders of military units in the country were ordered to carry out the pertinent measures to prevent third parties from finding the burials derived from illegal executions carried out in each military jurisdiction.

This document was delivered to the Commander of the aforementioned Regiment, Colonel Patricio Escudero Troncoso, who asked him if there were any cases in the jurisdiction, to which Balboa replied no, filing the records."

Subsequently, in the summer of 1979, the aforementioned Sergeant 1st Class Balboa Ortega, while on vacation in the foothills sector between Mulchén and Angol, learned in a casual conversation with a son of the victims that his father had been killed by Carabineros of Mulchén in 1973 and that his body, along with those of other people, had been buried in the sector.

He reported this fact to the Commander of his Regiment, who ordered the cryptogram to be unfiled and brought to the attention, through the same Balboa Ortega, of the Commander of the 17th Reinforced Mountain Infantry Regiment "Los Ángeles," Colonel Jaime García Zamorano, who had jurisdiction over the place where the victims' remains were supposedly located.

Thus, García ordered an operation to be carried out with military personnel from that Regiment under the charge of the Chief of Section II, Lieutenant Julio Reyes Garrido, composed of non-commissioned officers José Puga Pascua, José Iturriaga Valenzuela, Jaime Muller Áviles, Julio Fuentes Chavarriga, Luis Palacios Torres, and Juan Cares Molina, and from Department II of the 3rd Army Division of Concepción, under the charge of Sergeant Major Eduardo Paredes Bustamante (currently deceased), who in 1973 had served in Section II of the Los Ángeles Regiment.

All of them headed to the site of the burials. They started along the southern bank of the Renaico River via Collipulli and from there they went into the road to Curaco, arriving at the "El Amargo" sector.

They crossed to the northern bank of the river, where, after inquiries with locals, they arrived at the Carmen y Maitenes sector, specifically to a site where a cross was located. There, they excavated with shovels and pickaxes, removing human remains, as well as clothing and identity cards, which they placed in potato sacks, differentiating the human remains from the other items removed.

Once the excavation was concluded, in which Puga Pascua, Iturriaga Valenzuela, Muller Áviles, Fuentes Chavarriga, Palacios Torres, Cares Molina, and Paredes Bustamante participated, they crossed the river and put the potato sacks in the back of the pickup truck in which they were traveling.

Balboa Ortega was waiting for them there, and according to his testimony, upon seeing that Müller dropped the sack he was carrying into the river, he entered the water and rescued it, as he knew its contents. To finish the operation, they covered the grave from which they extracted the bones or other items, simulating that nothing had happened in the sector.

Subsequently, they moved to the Termas de Pemehue area, in the interior of the Cordillera, also under the jurisdiction of the Los Ángeles Regiment, where they again excavated and unearthed four other bodies that were buried on the northern bank of the Renaico River, under some stones.

They covered the graves to hide the exhumation and then loaded the remains into the pickup truck in which they were traveling.

The members of the patrol that exhumed the aforementioned bodies had information that they corresponded to locals who, in October 1973, had been executed by Carabineros personnel from Mulchén.

The exhumed skeletal remains, clothing, and identity documents were taken to the 17th Reinforced Mountain Infantry Regiment of Los Ángeles, where Lieutenant Reyes, in charge of the operation, reported to Commander García, who ordered them to be disposed of, for which their incineration was arranged in a brick oven located adjacent to Section 2 inside the Regiment.

"The facts described above constitute the last link in the episode that began on October 6, 1973, already referred to in the first consideration, regarding the victims of Carmen y Maitenes and Pemehue, intended to achieve the elimination of the victims' remains in order to hide or render useless the body of the crimes to prevent their discovery," reads the resolution of Minister Aldana.

The indicted

With the facts clear, three crimes were configured: qualified kidnapping, qualified homicide, and illegal burial.

Thus, Jorge Maturana Concha, Jacob del Carmen Ortiz Palma, Juan de Dios Higueras Álvarez, Osvaldo Enrique Díaz Díaz, and Héctor Armando Guzmán Saldaña are indicted as co-perpetrators of the following crimes:

a) Qualified homicide of the following 12 people: From the Carmen y Maitenes estate: José Florencio, José Liborio, and José Lorenzo, surnamed Rubilar Gutiérrez; Alejandro Albornoz Acuña, Luis Alberto Godoy Sandoval, Miguel del Carmen Albornoz Acuña, Daniel Alfonso Albornoz González; and from the Pemehue estate: Alberto Albornoz González, Felidor Exequiel Albornoz González, Jerónimo Humberto Sandoval Medina, Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme, and José Fernando Gutiérrez Ascencio; b) Qualified kidnapping of the following 6 people: From the El Morro estate: Juan de Dios Laubra Brevis, José Florencio Yáñez Durán, Celsio Nicasio Vivanco Carrasco, Edmundo José Vidal Aedo, Domingo Sepúlveda Castillo; and Guillermo José Albornoz González, at the Carmen y Maitenes estate; c) Illegal burial of 12 corpses corresponding to José Florencio, José Liborio, and José Lorenzo, all surnamed Rubilar Gutiérrez, as well as Alejandro Albornoz Acuña, Luis Alberto Godoy Sandoval, Miguel del Carmen Albornoz Acuña, Daniel Alfonso Albornoz González (from the Carmen y Maitenes estate) and Alberto Albornoz González, Felidor Exequiel Albornoz González, Jerónimo Humberto Sandoval Medina, Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme, and José Fernando Gutiérrez Ascencio (from the Pemehue estate).

Likewise, Julio Reyes Garrido, José Puga Pascua, José Iturriaga Valenzuela, Jaime Muller Áviles, Julio Fuentes Chavarriga, Luis Palacios Torres, Juan Cares Molina, Juan Carlos Balboa Ortega, and Jaime García Zamorano are indicted as:

a. Cover-ups, in the terms of Article 17 No. 2 of the Penal Code, regarding the crimes of qualified homicide of the following 11 people: José Florencio, José Liborio, and José Lorenzo, surnamed Rubilar Gutiérrez, as well as Alejandro Albornoz Acuña, Luis Alberto Godoy Sandoval, Miguel del Carmen Albornoz Acuña, Daniel Alfonso Albornoz González (from the Carmen y Maitenes estate) and Alberto Albornoz González, Felidor Exequiel Albornoz González, Jerónimo Humberto Sandoval Medina, and José Fernando Gutiérrez Ascencio (from the Pemehue estate).

b. Co-perpetration, in the terms of Article 15 No. 1 of the Penal Code, of the crimes of illegal exhumation of the remains of the following 11 people: José Florencio, José Liborio, and José Lorenzo, surnamed Rubilar Gutiérrez, as well as Alejandro Albornoz Acuña, Luis Alberto Godoy Sandoval, Miguel del Carmen Albornoz Acuña, Daniel Alfonso Albornoz González (from the Carmen y Maitenes estate) and Alberto Albornoz González, Felidor Exequiel Albornoz González, Jerónimo Humberto Sandoval Medina, and José Fernando Gutiérrez Ascencio (from the Pemehue estate).

Because the indicted Jorge Maturana Concha, Jacob del Carmen Ortiz Palma, Juan de Dios Higueras Álvarez, Osvaldo Enrique Díaz Díaz, and Héctor Armando Guzmán Saldaña are on provisional release, they were summoned for January 29 in order to notify them of the resolution.

Regarding the indicted Julio Reyes Garrido, José Puga Pascua, José Iturriaga Valenzuela, Jaime Muller Áviles, Julio Fuentes Chavarriga, Luis Palacios Torres, Juan Cares Molina, Juan Carlos Balboa Ortega, and Jaime García Zamorano, given the penalty assigned to the crimes for which they are being prosecuted and the degree of participation, an arrest warrant was issued against them by the Homicide Brigade of Concepción of the Investigative Police of Chile.

They remained detained at the Chacabuco Regiment of Concepción to be notified.

Source: agenciadenoticias.org, January 30, 2014

Indictment issued against military and Carabineros for crimes against 18 peasants from Mulchén

The minister visiting for human rights violation cases of the Concepción Court of Appeals, Carlos Aldana, issued an indictment against former members of the Carabineros and the Army for their responsibility in the crimes of qualified kidnapping, qualified homicide, illegal burial, and illegal exhumation of 18 workers from the El Morro, El Carmen-Maitenes, and Pemehue estates, located in the foothills sector of the town of Mulchén.

In the resolution (case file 30.2007), Minister Aldana indicted former Carabineros members: Jacob del Carmen Ortiz Palma, Juan de Dios Higueras Álvarez, Osvaldo Enrique Díaz Díaz, and Héctor Armando Guzmán Saldaña, as perpetrators of the qualified homicides of José Florencio Rubilar Gutiérrez, José Liborio Rubilar Gutiérrez, José Lorenzo Rubilar Gutiérrez, Alejandro Albornoz Acuña, Luis Alberto Godoy Sandoval, Miguel del Carmen Albornoz Acuña, Daniel Alfonso Albornoz González, Alberto Albornoz González, Felidor Exequiel Albornoz González, Jerónimo Humberto Sandoval Medina, Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme, and José Fernando Gutiérrez Ascencio, illicit acts perpetrated on October 6 and 7, 1973.

Former Carabineros who were also indicted as perpetrators of the crimes of qualified kidnapping of: Juan de Dios Laura Brevis, José Florencio Yáñez Durán, Celsio Nicasio Vivanco Carrasco, Edmundo José Vidal Aedo, Domingo Sepúlveda Castillo, and Guillermo José Albornoz González, perpetrated starting October 5, 1973.

State agents who were also indicted as perpetrators of the crime of illegal burial of the 12 victims of the homicide crime.

Meanwhile, former Army officers Jaime García Zamorano and Julio Reyes Garrido, and former non-commissioned officers José Puga Pascua, José Iturriaga Valenzuela, Jaime Muller Avilés, Julio Fuentes Chavarriga, Luis Palacios Torres, Juan Cares Molina, and Juan Carlos Balboa Ortega were indicted as cover-ups for 11 crimes of homicide—except for that of Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme—and for the crime of illegal exhumation of said victims.

In the investigation stage, the visiting minister managed to determine that the 18 victims were detained by Army personnel from the 13th Regiment of Los Ángeles and the Carabineros Police Station of Mulchén between October 5 and 7, 1973, at the El Morro, El Carmen-Maitenes, and Pemehue estates in the area, executed and buried in those places, others in the Mulchén Cemetery or on the banks of the Renaico River, places where the remains remained for more than 5 years.

Between the end of 1978 and the beginning of 1979, personnel from the "Húsares" Regiment of Angol, in compliance with a cryptogram from the Army General Command of the time, removed the remains of those who were executed in October 1973, and taken to an unknown destination, carrying out "Operation Television Removal," which was ordered by the dictator to make the remains of the murdered disappeared disappear.

"Operation Television Removal" is one of the most bestial actions committed by the military dictatorship, by express order of the tyrant, organized with promptness by the "impeccable" CNI chief, Odlanier Mena, and executed with criminal zeal by the hordes of agents who reveled in the terror they provoked and caused among their victims, the families of the victims, and the population in general.

Facts like these cannot continue to go unpunished. It only remains to hope that Aldana and the courts take care of applying justice.

Source: resumen.cl, July 15, 2016

Derisory sentences against former Carabineros and military for crimes and illegal burials in Mulchén

The ruling issued this Monday, the 30th, by the visiting judge for human rights violation cases of the Concepción Court of Appeals, Carlos Aldana, has sparked outrage among the relatives of the victims of the Mulchén case.

The judge sentenced 11 former members of the Army and Carabineros for their responsibility in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated homicide, illegal burial, and illegal exhumation of 18 victims executed in Mulchén in October 1973, whose remains were subsequently illegally exhumed to make them disappear.

Aldana sentenced all of the defendants to derisory penalties given the gravity and magnitude of the criminal offenses investigated and the fact that these are crimes against humanity; furthermore, the ruling grants seven of the convicted individuals the benefit of supervised release, which translates into disguised impunity.

Relatives of the victims and plaintiff lawyers have already expressed their intention to appeal the ruling, seeking sentences commensurate with the crimes committed and the sense of justice.

In the ruling (case file 30-2007 and accumulated cases), Judge Aldana sentenced former Carabineros Jacob del Carmen Ortiz Palma, Juan de Dios Higueras Álvarez, Osvaldo Enrique Díaz Díaz, and Héctor Armando Guzmán Saldaña to 10 years and one day of imprisonment as co-perpetrators of the aggravated homicide of Florencio Rubilar Gutiérrez, José Liborio Rubilar Gutiérrez, José Lorenzo Rubilar Gutiérrez, Alejandro Albornoz González, Luis Godoy Sandoval, Miguel Albornoz Acuña, Daniel Albornoz González, Alberto Albornoz González, Felidor Albornoz González, Jerónimo Sandoval Medina, Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme, and José Gutiérrez Ascencio—12 crimes committed in October 1973 at the Carmen, Maitenes, and Pemehue estates in the commune of Mulchén. These four convicted individuals are the only ones who, in Aldana's judgment, must serve effective prison time.

Likewise, Ortiz Palma, Higueras Álvarez, Díaz Díaz, and Guzmán Saldaña must serve 5 years and one day of imprisonment for their responsibility in the aggravated kidnapping of 6 other victims: Juan de Dios Laubra Brevis, José Yañez Durán, Celsio Vivanco Carrasco, Edmundo Vidal Aedo, Domingo Sepúlveda Castillo, and Guillermo Albornoz González.

These crimes were committed in October 1973 at the El Morro estate. They were also sentenced to 541 days of imprisonment for the illegal burial of the 12 homicide victims.

Meanwhile, the perpetrators of "Operation Television Removal" (Operación Retiro de Televisores)—former Army officer Jaime Oscar García Zamorano and former non-commissioned officers José María Iturriaga Valenzuela, Jaime Jorge Muller Avilés, Julio Hernán Fuentes Chavarriga, Luis Alberto Palacios Torres, and Juan Carlos Balboa Ortega—were sentenced to only 3 years and one day of imprisonment, solely as accessories to the simple homicide of 11 victims from the Carmen, Maitenes, and Pemehue estates, plus 541 days of imprisonment for their responsibility in the illegal exhumation of said victims.

In the case of former Army officer Julio Guillermo Humberto Reyes Garrido, also implicated in the operation to disappear the victims, the ruling sentenced him to serve 3 years of imprisonment as an accessory to 11 simple homicides, and to a penalty of 300 days of imprisonment for his responsibility in the illegal exhumation of those victims.

Additionally, Judge Aldana acquitted former non-commissioned officer José Francisco Puga Pascua, and Juan Luis Cares Molina was acquitted due to his death.

"Operation Television Removal" is one of the most bestial actions committed by the military dictatorship, by express order of the tyrant, organized with promptness by the CNI and executed with criminal zeal by the hordes of agents who reveled in the terror they provoked and caused among their victims, the victims' relatives, and the population in general.

Between the end of 1978 and the beginning of 1979, personnel from the "Húsares" Regiment of Angol, in compliance with a cryptogram from the Army General Command of the time, removed the remains of those who had been executed in October 1973 and taken to an unknown destination, carrying out "Operation Television Removal," which was ordered to make the remains of the forcibly disappeared who had been murdered vanish.

Acts like these cannot continue to go unpunished.

The convicted Jaime García Zamorano has remained in prison at the Punta Peuco Penitentiary for a couple of years, where he is serving an effective seven-year prison sentence for two counts of homicide in other human rights cases.

The Facts

During the investigation stage, the visiting judge managed to establish that on October 4, 1973, a corporal from the No. 13 Regiment of the Chilean Army based in the city of Los Ángeles, together with 3 conscripts from the same unit, was commissioned to report to the Carabineros Station of the city.

That commission, accompanied by a Carabineros lieutenant and 4 officers from that unit, departed for the mountainous sector of the locality to search for a list of people opposed to the government of the time.

On October 5, the group arrived at the "El Morro" estate in the foothills of Mulchén and detained, without a legitimate administrative or judicial order, 5 people who were interrogated at a temporary checkpoint and transported to the "La Playita" sector of the Renaico River, where they were executed and their bodies made to disappear.

On October 6, the group arrived at the Carmen and Maitenes estates, where 7 people were detained and forced to dig a 6-by-4-meter pit before being shot on the spot and illegally buried. Hours later, another prisoner was detained at the site and taken by the group to the main house of the Pemehue estate, where they arrived the following day.

On October 7, 5 people were detained at the Pemehue estate; they were executed on the spot and their bodies left in clandestine graves, where they were found by their relatives.

Meanwhile, between the end of 1978 and the beginning of 1979, a section of the "Húsares" Regiment of Angol, after receiving a cryptogram from the Army General Command of the time, went to the sites of the illegal burials, exhumed the remains, and made them disappear, despite the fact that a visiting judge from the Concepción Court of Appeals was investigating the events.

Source: resumen.cl, October 31, 2017

Judge Álvaro Mesa prosecutes retired military officer for the aggravated kidnapping of a former Investigative Police officer

The extraordinary visiting judge for human rights violation cases for the jurisdictions of Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Coyhaique, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, prosecuted the retired Army non-commissioned officer as the perpetrator of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Patricio Fernando Rivas Sepúlveda. The illicit act was perpetrated in the commune of Angol on August 31, 1975.

In the resolution, the visiting judge subjected former sergeant Juan Carlos Balboa Ortega to prosecution, who was placed under the personal precautionary measure of total house arrest, a measure that must be monitored by Carabineros.

"Given the merit of the background information, the nature of the crime, the assigned penalty, the age of the defendant, and the health situation in which the country finds itself, it is—for now—more appropriate for the purposes of the proceedings to decree the personal precautionary measure of total house arrest," the ruling states.

The resolution adds that, from the same background information, "it is clear that the freedom of the defendant constitutes a danger to the security of society; taking into account, also, the probable legal sanction for the crimes in which participation is attributed to him; and in view of the provisions of Article 363 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the benefit of provisional release will not be granted."

During the investigation stage of the case, Judge Mesa Latorre managed to establish the following facts:

A.- That by the year 1975, the Armed Forces and Order and Security institutions of the commune of Angol were constantly interacting for the purpose of sharing information gathered on the political ties of the people of that commune or events of that nature, as these did not correspond to common crimes.

In each of them, there were officials specifically designated to perform these functions, who were also characterized by wearing civilian clothes to carry out their duties, that is, without the institutional uniform.

Thus, in the case of the Carabineros of Chile, there was Sergeant Juan Torres Rivas; in the Chilean Investigative Police, Sub-commissioner Pedro Ibarra; in the Húsares Regiment of Angol, Sergeants Edmundo Sandoval and Juan Carlos Balboa Ortega, among other members of each of them.

These officials met mainly in the offices of the Angol Governorate and the city's Investigative Police, and on some occasions, they even carried out arrests together and conducted interrogations or interviews with different people who were being investigated.

B.- That Patricio Fernando Rivas Sepúlveda, 31 years old, married, three children, was an official of the Chilean Investigative Police until December 17, 1973, the date on which he was discharged from the institution for being a sympathizer of the government of Salvador Allende Gossens and, furthermore, was accused of belonging to the Socialist Party of Chile and the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR).

As a result of the above and having worked for several years in the commune of Angol, Patricio Rivas continued to visit the locality, as he maintained a fur business in the city of Santiago together with his mother, traveling constantly to buy hides in the area.

With this purpose, he set off for the commune of Angol on August 28, 1975, also attending social gatherings, among them the baptism of one of the children of Sergio Rozas Espinoza, with whom he had formed a friendship while he worked at the Investigative Police and Rozas at the Angol Court of Letters.

C.- That on August 31, 1975, Patricio Rivas Sepúlveda went to catch a bus that would take him to the commune of Collipulli to purchase supplies, being accompanied by his friend Sergio Rozas, who saw him board the vehicle, but a few moments later he was taken off it by State agents, among them Juan Torres Rivas, Juan Carlos Balboa Ortega, and another official of the Chilean Army, put into a pickup truck, and this was the last time he saw Rivas Sepúlveda.

Even the bus driver, Ramón Hunter Abarzúa, remembers to this day the detention of Rivas Sepúlveda by State agents, whom he identified as an official of the Chilean Investigative Police and his frequent trips on the buses of the company where he worked.

D.- That on September 2, 1975, Sergio Rozas called Mrs. Clara Sepúlveda Ponce, mother of Patricio Rivas Sepúlveda, by telephone to inform her that her son had been detained in Angol by SIRE personnel (among other background information), traveling immediately to said commune, touring different places to find out Rivas's whereabouts, obtaining no information, with some people recommending that she do nothing, due to possible arrests against her.

E.- That regarding the detention and disappearance of Patricio Rivas Sepúlveda, Sergio Rozas Espinoza not only commented on it to the mother of the victim, but also to his spouse and sister. In the same way, to an official of the Chilean Investigative Police of the time, Mrs.

María Fuentes Cabezas, who, through conversations she had on several occasions with Rozas, learned the circumstances of the apprehension and those responsible for it, mentioning Juan Torres Rivas, Juan Carlos Balboa Ortega, and another official of the Chilean Army.

In the same vein, David Muñoz Flores, an Investigative Police official, years later in the city of Temuco, learned from another member of the same institution that Patricio Rivas was taken off a bus by State agents and had then been executed in the city of Angol, a comment similar to the one that had been made to him by a judicial official with the surname Fonseca who worked in the same commune in those years.

Finally, on this point, the lawyer Ángel Napoleón Rubilar Pérez, who at that time served as a lawyer for the Angol Governorate, also learned through comments about the disappearance of Patricio Rivas Sepúlveda, whom he also identified as an official of the Chilean Investigative Police.

F.- That both his mother and Rivas Sepúlveda's spouse, Mrs. Gladys Morales Molina, did not cease in their search, carrying out efforts in different administrative and judicial instances, sending communications to the Ministry of National Defense, whose authorities at the time insisted on having no knowledge of the detention.

As a result of all the inquiries made by his relatives, Patricio Rivas's home located in the city of Santiago was constantly watched by State Security Agents, being even threatened and harassed by telephone for several years afterward.

G.- That to this date, no public official of the Chilean Army, Carabineros of Chile, or the Chilean Investigative Police who served at the time of the events has provided any information to the respective authority in relation to what happened to Patricio Fernando Rivas Sepúlveda, maintaining to this day the concealment of all types of information regarding the events that have been mentioned in the preceding paragraphs.

Source: temucotelevision.cl, August 31, 2020

Supreme Court confirms conviction of retired Army non-commissioned officer for kidnapping of detective in Angol in 1975

In a unanimous ruling, the Second Chamber of the highest court declared inadmissible the appeal for cassation on the merits filed against the sentence that convicted a retired Army non-commissioned officer for his responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of detective Patricio Fernando Rivas Sepúlveda. The illicit act was committed in August 1975 in the commune of Angol.

The Supreme Court declared inadmissible the appeal for cassation on the merits filed against the sentence that convicted a retired Army non-commissioned officer for his responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of detective Patricio Fernando Rivas Sepúlveda. The illicit act was committed in August 1975 in the commune of Angol.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 152.443-2023), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of justices Jean Pierre Matus, María Soledad Melo, Hernán Crisosto, and ad hoc lawyers Ricardo Abuauad and Pía Tavolari—ruled out error in the determination of the 8-year effective prison sentence that the Army sergeant first class at the time of the events, Juan Carlos Balboa Ortega, must serve as the perpetrator of the crime, which is classified as a crime against humanity.

"That the alleged error relates to the determination of penalties, asserting that the compensation made by the trial judges produced an error regarding the setting of the sanction since, in their view, by having only one mitigating circumstance, the judge should have imposed a penalty lower than the one applied.

In this case, such an assertion is not effective since, as expressed in considering paragraph 24 of the first-instance ruling, the penalty assigned to the crime of aggravated kidnapping corresponds to major imprisonment in any of its degrees; that is, Article 68 of the Penal Code applies, which, in the scenario on which the appellant bases his protest, having only one mitigating circumstance, the judge will not apply the maximum degree, which is, in this case, the upper range of the three degrees.

Instead, in this instance, a penalty of 8 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree was applied; that is, the sanction is adjusted to the legal and lower range, therefore, even accepting the appellant's position, the alleged error has not had an influence on the dispositive part of the ruling, which leads to its declaration of inadmissibility," the ruling maintains.

The resolution adds: "That what was noted above allows us to maintain that the refuted ruling has not incurred in any of the hypotheses indicated in the first literal of Article 546 of the criminal procedural system, which make the invalidation of the ruling appropriate, and even so, even if the appellant's allegations were accepted, such error has not had an influence on the dispositive part of the ruling, which necessarily leads to the path already anticipated."

Therefore, it is resolved that: "the appeal for cassation on the merits filed by the lawyer, Mr. Juan Carlos Manns Giglio, on behalf of Juan Carlos Balboa Ortega, deduced against the sentence of the Temuco Court of Appeals of October 13, 2023, is declared INADMISSIBLE."

Forcibly Disappeared

In the first-instance sentence, the extraordinary visiting judge of the Temuco Court, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, established the following facts:

A.- That by the year 1975, the Armed Forces and Order and Security institutions of the commune of Angol were constantly interacting for the purpose of sharing information gathered on the political ties of the people of that commune or events of that nature, as these did not correspond to common crimes.

In each of them, there were officials specifically designated to perform these functions, who were also characterized by wearing civilian clothes to carry out their duties, that is, without the institutional uniform [fs. 260 (vol.

I), fs. 748, fs. 900 (vol. III) among other background information]. Thus, in the case of the Carabineros of Chile, there was Sergeant Juan Torres Rivas (deceased according to fs. 931, vol. III); in the Chilean Investigative Police, Sub-commissioner Pedro Ibarra (deceased, according to fs. 936, vol.

III); in the Húsares Regiment of Angol, Sergeants Edmundo Sandoval and Juan Carlos Balboa Ortega, among other members of each of them [fs. 252, fs. 256, fs. 259 (vol. I); fs. 640 (vol. II), fs. 746, fs. 748, fs. 900 (vol.

III), among other background information]. These officials met mainly in the offices of the Angol Governorate and the city's Investigative Police [fs. 257 (vol. I), fs. 584 (vol. II among other background information)] and on some occasions, they even carried out arrests together and conducted interrogations or interviews with different people who were being investigated [fs. 598 (vol.

II), fs. 748, fs. 900 (vol. III) among other background information].

B.- That Patricio Fernando Rivas Sepúlveda, 31 years old, married, three children, was an official of the Chilean Investigative Police until December 17, 1973, the date on which he was discharged from the institution for being a sympathizer of the government of Salvador Allende Gossens and, furthermore, was accused of belonging to the Socialist Party of Chile and the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) [as stated in fs. 368, fs. 376, fs. 374, fs. 378 (vol.

II) among other background information]. As a result of the above and having worked for several years in the commune of Angol, Patricio Rivas continued to visit the locality, as he maintained a fur business in the city of Santiago together with his mother, traveling constantly to buy hides in the area [fs. 17 (vol.

I), among other background information]. With this purpose, he set off for the commune of Angol on August 28, 1975, also attending social gatherings, among them the baptism of one of the children of Sergio Rozas Espinoza, with whom he had formed a friendship while he worked at the Investigative Police and at the Angol Court of Letters [fs. 712, fs. 734 (vol.

III), among other background information].

C.- That on August 31, 1975, Patricio Rivas Sepúlveda went to catch a bus that would take him to the commune of Collipulli for the purchase of supplies, being accompanied by his friend Sergio Rozas, who saw him board the vehicle, but a few moments later he was taken off it by State agents, among them Juan Torres Rivas, Juan Carlos Balboa Ortega, and another official of the Chilean Army, put into a pickup truck, and this was the last time he saw Rivas Sepúlveda [fs. 17 (vol.

I), fs. 460, fs. 476, (vol. II), among other background information]. Even the bus driver, Ramón Hunter Abarzúa, remembers to this day the detention of Rivas Sepúlveda by State agents, whom he identified as an official of the Chilean Investigative Police and his frequent trips on the buses of the company where he worked [fs. 128 and fs. 230 (vol. I)].

D.- That on September 2, 1975, Sergio Rozas called Mrs. Clara Sepúlveda Ponce, mother of Patricio Rivas Sepúlveda, by telephone to inform her that her son had been detained in Angol by SIRE personnel [fs. 17 (vol.

I) among other background information], traveling immediately to said commune, touring different places to find out Rivas's whereabouts, obtaining no information, with some people recommending that she do nothing, due to possible arrests against her.

E.- That regarding the detention and disappearance of Patricio Rivas Sepúlveda, Sergio Rozas Espinoza not only commented on it to the mother of the victim, but also to his spouse and sister [fs. 712, fs. 734, fs. 766, fs. 787 (vol.

III) among other background information]. In the same way, to an official of the Chilean Investigative Police of the time, Mrs. María Fuentes Cabezas, who, through conversations she had on several occasions with Rozas, learned the circumstances of the apprehension and those responsible for it, mentioning Juan Torres Rivas, Juan Carlos Balboa Ortega, and another official of the Chilean Army (fs. 460 and fs. 476).

In the same vein, David Muñoz Flores, an Investigative Police official, years later in the city of Temuco, learned from another member of the same institution that Patricio Rivas was taken off a bus by State agents and had then been executed in the city of Angol, a comment similar to the one that had been made to him by a judicial official with the surname Fonseca who worked in the same commune in those years [fs. 458 and fs. 598 (vol.

II) among other background information]. Finally, on this point, the lawyer Ángel Napoleón Rubilar Pérez, who at that time served as a lawyer for the Angol Governorate, also learned through comments about the disappearance of Patricio Rivas Sepúlveda, whom he also identified as an official of the Chilean Investigative Police [fs. 640 (vol. II)].

F.- That both his mother and Rivas Sepúlveda's spouse, Mrs. Gladys Morales Molina, did not cease in their search, carrying out efforts in different administrative and judicial instances, sending communications to the Ministry of National Defense, whose authorities at the time insisted on having no knowledge of the detention [fs. 21, fs. 25, fs. 26, fs. 146, fs. 147, fs. 148, fs. 149, fs. 150, fs. 151 (vol.

I) among other background information]. As a result of all the inquiries made by his relatives, Patricio Rivas's home located in the city of Santiago was constantly watched by State Security Agents [fs. 16 (vol. I)], being even threatened and harassed by telephone for several years afterward [fs. 151 (vol. I)].

G.- That to this date, no public official of the Chilean Army, Carabineros of Chile, or the Chilean Investigative Police who served at the time of the events has provided any information to the respective authority in relation to what happened to Patricio Fernando Rivas Sepúlveda, maintaining to this day the concealment of all types of information regarding the events that have been mentioned in the preceding paragraphs.

In the civil sphere, the sentence that ordered the State to pay a total compensation of $300,000,000 for moral damages to the victim's daughters remained unchanged.

Source: pdju.cl, January 5, 2024