The untold story of the 36 civilians who caused the deaths of hundreds of peasants.

An LND team traveled 2,500 kilometers across three regions in southern Chile to scrutinize the secrets of the most ferocious massacres of peasants that occurred during the dictatorship. Behind these crimes were landowners, merchants, and neighbors who waged a dirty war in alliance with the military and the Carabineros.

Thirty-five years after these crimes, and despite the fact that justice has been served in some cases, the majority remain free and still roam the country's fields, towns, and hamlets like masters and lords.

It was a vengeance that terrorized entire villages, sheltered each time by the darkness of night. The perpetrators of the crimes against peasants and workers of other trades were civilians who were masters of the area; after the military coup, and allied with the military and the uniformed police, they decided the life and death of the victims they chose.

Some acted disguised in war attire, prepared and determined to exterminate those who had defended their rights against the exploitation that had always been installed in the fields. Sometimes, even before the coup, they carried out paramilitary tasks alongside the far-right movement Patria y Libertad.

Others acted linked to various fascist-leaning groups organized to oppose the workers' achievements during the years of the socialist dream through violence. But all responded with the hatred of witnessing how their eternal subjects and servants of their wealth-reproducing desires were gaining ground, countering humiliations and abuses of their dignity and that of their families.

Especially inside the fundos (estates) where the law was the boss. These are dramatic stories where, on some occasions, the parents or relatives themselves blamed their own for getting involved in union struggles for better working conditions, justifying their bosses, these civilian activists, and the military for having hunted them down and made them disappear.

In every city, in every town or mountain hamlet where death arrived dressed in civilian clothes or disguised in olive green, the terror instilled by the hand of these powerful men remains to this day. Their inhabitants are hostile to questions about those times.

They invoke oblivion due to the passage of time, or simply confess while looking around that they still fear the return of the scourge that filled the streets and rural paths with blood. Some of these civilian perpetrators of the massacres still walk the same paths frequented by the relatives of the fallen to buy their daily bread.

Sometimes they spit on them as they pass, insulting them for having brought them to sit in the defendants' benches in a court. The mothers or brothers who dared early on to overcome the fear of constant threats by judicially pursuing these perpetrators suffered the double punishment of losing their loved ones and receiving the contempt of their neighbors.

And even from the very comrades-in-arms of their kin, who crossed to the other side of the road to avoid those sad and helpless eyes that, to this day, have never stopped searching for their forcibly disappeared.

La Nación Domingo compiled the list of the 51 civilians prosecuted or convicted for the kidnapping and disappearance, or for the homicides, of field workers and others who practiced multiple trades. Of the total, 15 correspond to Germans from Colonia Dignidad, who are not addressed in this report because their actions are well known.

However, for the vast majority of the other 36, their identities and events remain publicly unknown. The team of three LND journalists traveled 2,500 kilometers and crossed three regions between Osorno and Los Ángeles, including mountain areas, to retrace the route of vengeance.

Everything happened in the midst of the biggest storm of the last 30 years, which left 17,000 people affected, navigating their vehicle through flooded highways and interior roads. Miguel Ángel Fuentealba was five years old when, on October 10, 1973, the black of night was stained red in the hamlet of Liquiñe, 150 kilometers east of Valdivia, near the border with Argentina.

They took his father along with ten other peasants to the Toltén River bridge in Villarrica, shot him several times, and opened his belly with a corvo (knife) so that his body would not float and would disappear into the current.

Miguel, now in his forties, for many years did not know what happened to his father, Isaías. In the afternoons, he would comb his hair well, put on his best clothes, "and all polished up, I would sit in an armchair outside the house to wait for my old man to return on the estate bus he always arrived on." He stutters a little, which has afflicted him since then; he looks you in the eyes, and suddenly his voice becomes softer due to the emotion of the memory.

Outside, in the streets of Villarrica, where we found him in a café, the rain is imposing.

Luis García Guzmán was the son of Julián, owner of the Termas de Liquiñe, both rabid anti-communists. The inn and cabins of the complex served as headquarters for the hunt. There, Luis García and his father, now deceased, made the list of who had to be hunted for Captain Hugo Guerra Jonquera, who arrived with military forces from Valdivia.

The Garcías also provided the vehicles to transport the detainees to their final destination. Eleven peasants from the Paimún, Trafún, and Carranco estates suffered the sentence imposed on them by these masters and lords of the small town.

The Panguipulli Forestry and Timber Complex, to which the three properties belonged—the largest timber area in hectares and peasant power in the history of Chile, strengthened during the Allende government with José Liendo Vera, "Commander Pepe," as its main leader—was feared then by the landowners of the foothills of the X Region.

Now it was time for the reversal, when it was time to collect in lives. But that night, Luis García's wife, María Hernández Calderón, saw everything. Twenty years later, García abandoned her and their two children for another woman, and it was she who now took revenge and denounced what she witnessed that October night: the eleven peasants tied up and blindfolded in the back of the Garcías' vehicles, and her husband driving, one of them dressed as a soldier.

She saw the convoy of death leave the inn bound for the Toltén River. Sheltered from the rain under the eaves of the building where she lives in Villarrica, María spoke with LND to tell of her misfortune.

But after her confession to the justice system in 2005, García visited her and, with threats, forced her to sign a letter retracting her statements where she recounted what happened. "I signed the letter for him so he would leave me alone, because he was arrogant; nobody likes him anymore because of that." But months later, the woman struck back and again ratified her statements in the process being instructed for this episode.

Her integrity and courage, and her clear ideas, are surprising. We fled the cold and rain, and she accompanied us to have hot chocolate to warm up the bitter memories. As a trick of fate, Luis García, who was also a "constable" for the Carabineros, baptized his current native wood business with the name of one of the estates of the tragedy: "Maderas Nativas Paimún S.A.," on the highway between Villarrica and Lican Ray.

We looked for him there without luck. His wife says he is in Santiago. Miguel Ángel, one of the five children his father, Isaías, left behind, does not hide that for a long time he thought about killing the Garcías when he learned the truth years later.

As a teenager, he had to work at the hot springs because they were the only ones in the village who provided work. His mother, Honorinda, also served the masters. And the Garcías, with their military cronies, continued to come to celebrate and sing with the guitar at his grandmother's tavern in Liquiñe. "There is still a hope that he will return, although I know it is irrational.

My daughter sometimes says to me: 'What if Grandpa is alive in another country?' The mind is so strange," Miguel Ángel muses, looking out the café window at the wet street. In October 1994, the Garcías sold the tourist complex to the Navy, which acquired it for 196 million pesos, under the scrutiny of Panguipulli notary Leonardo Calderara.

When asked, the Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Rodolfo Codina, claimed to be unaware of the tragic past of what is now a recreation site for officers and sailors. "I am unaware if these hot springs had any link to human rights violations," the admiral replied to LND.

In Liquiñe, Miguel Ángel's aunts, Gloria and Marta, are surprised by our arrival to ask about that past that they and the whole town would like to bury forever. The expressions of affection toward "Grandpa Julián" and "Don Lucho," the Garcías who helped kill their brother-in-law Isaías, sound violent.

Marta is direct: "He brought it on himself, why did he get involved in nonsense?" she sentences in defense of the masters of the hamlet. And she completes the sentiment by warning that it was Isaías who was the true culprit of his own death and not the Garcías.

The woman's words seem like her own sentence in the store where we found her. Her daughter also speaks familiarly of "Grandpa Julián" as if he were her own. A couple of years ago, the small town of Liquiñe took to the streets with flags and banners to support Luis García, after he was convicted in the first instance to five years and one day as the perpetrator of the kidnappings and disappearance of the peasants. "Don Lucho" arrived asking for signatures of support in his favor, and almost all of the 1,200 inhabitants of the place backed him and hugged him.

It is the real and contradictory life of these villages where sometimes it seems that not even Christ himself has arrived yet. As contradictory as the stormy sky that suddenly opens in a break in the deluge, and in the midst of the darkness, the solitude, and the most complete silence, reveals its mantle of stars and constellations that are overwhelming and that we contemplate, numb, with respect for the immensity and mystery of that southern universe.

Heading north, in the VIII Region, is Santa Bárbara. From there, more than 30 kilometers toward the mountains, an endless winding road, full of mud and plagued by forestry plantations, ends at the imposing El Huachi estate.

It is preceded only by the hamlet of the same name, humble in its surroundings, which seems like a haphazard extension of the field owned by the Barrueto Barting family. It is no coincidence that everyone knows them, since many of the locals work their lands and settled there looking for a way to survive.

To get to the estate where the brothers Manuel and Ricardo Barrueto live, it is enough to pronounce their surname, and arms are always raised in the same direction, deep into the forests. Once inside the property, one of the house employees with an impressive view of the Huequecura River tells us that "the boss" left in the morning, because he has another residence in Los Ángeles and alternates his stay between both places. "He is somewhat ill, he left to get some tests done, it is most likely that he will arrive tomorrow or the day after," she says kindly.

After the discouraging response, the return to Santa Bárbara became inevitable. After advancing through steep hills, the road indicating the exit of the estate appeared. But the gate is blocked by an all-terrain motorcycle that is lying across it, as if it were just another pine tree among the thousands that the Barruetos have on their property ready for logging.

To one side of the vehicle, a tall man waits in a threatening attitude. He has gray hair, dry eyes, and a face wrapped in a pair of pale cheeks. He wears a red jockey cap and, with his gaze lowered, approaches inquisitively.

In one hand he carries a digital camera; the other rests on a bulge located at his waist. After scrutinizing the car and its occupants, his small mouth states briefly that he is Ricardo Barrueto Barting.

He does not admit it, but he is one of the two brothers who are currently being prosecuted for the kidnapping of six peasants, which occurred just after the coup, all of them employees on his estate. Without further ado, he expels us from the property; there are no more questions. "You don't enter here without my permission," he sentences.

He takes a photograph of our car and the license plate, while we immortalize him back with our camera. Twenty-four hours later, we would find out that a supposed detective from the Investigative Police called the company Seellmann Rent a Car, where the vehicle was rented, to ask for the data of the renters, arguing that it had been used "by Mapuche activists to cause disturbances." Doña Norma Panes knows Ricardo Barrueto's tricks well.

In 2006, after the minister of the Concepción Court of Appeals, Carlos Aldana, took on several human rights cases in the Biobío area, she had a confrontation with him. It took place in the midst of the reconstruction of the scene for the 20 kidnappings of workers and peasants that the town of Santa Bárbara suffered between September and October 1973, and which to this day have left many families without knowing the whereabouts of their fathers, husbands, sons, or brothers.

There, facing his face, Ricardo pointed out to her that the night her husband, Miguel Cuevas Pincheira, "was taken from the house in his underwear by uniformed men," he was not there. But she asserts that the Barruetos were part of the group of civilians who, disguised as soldiers, took her husband in the middle of the night on September 20.

Norma Panes says she saw them clearly, and so did her daughter. Upon showing her the updated photo (see image) that we obtained of Ricardo Barrueto, Norma does not hesitate: "It's him." His face, like Manuel's, remained engraved in her memory with as much force as those years when her husband was just another worker on the El Huachi estate, a job he alternated with his trade as a shoemaker.

The testimonies of the families of six more peasants who worked at El Huachi, kidnapped on the same day and at similar hours, allowed the Barruetos and the civilians Sergio Fuentes Valenzuela, Jorge Domínguez Larenas, and the brothers Jorge and José Valdivia Dames, who formed a true mini-Caravan of Death, to be prosecuted in 2002.

Norma illustrates it in the following way: "That day, what the group of civilians, all of them members of Patria y Libertad, did together with the Carabineros was, literally, to clean the field for the Barruetos." Then, a memory of the years following her husband's disappearance comes to her mind: "They were all friends with each other.

On one occasion, in the middle of the dictatorship, I ran into a couple of them on a corner. Since they knew I was still looking for my husband, they spat in my face," she says. The attitude of the Barruetos, apparently, is not very different.

After moving the motorcycle to clear the way, minutes later, one of the peasants hitchhiked with us to get to the road that connects Ralco with Los Ángeles. On the way, he said that Barrueto had asked him if he knew whose white vehicle had entered the estate without permission.

And he warned us about Ricardo: "When he saw you enter, he said that you weren't leaving here." The young man, a simple forestry worker, lucidly added that "he is a bad, arrogant man, a jerk as a boss, who pays just enough to survive.

He takes advantage of the suffering and need of the worker." Currently, the civilians responsible for the massacre remain prosecuted. After executing them, most were thrown into the Biobío River from the Santa Bárbara bridge.

A few kilometers south of Santa Bárbara, in Mulchén, another wave of kidnappings was carried out thanks to the coordinated work of civilians and Carabineros. Organized in the same way, but on this occasion dressed in their own clothes, they arrived at night to seek their vengeance.

One of them fell upon the worker and leader of a peasant union, José Orellana Gatica. His captors: Rolf During Pohler and Samuel Arriagada Domínguez, plus the police contingent at their service. The motive was clear: the worker worked inside the Verdún estate (a name that alludes to the bloody World War I battle fought by Germans and French), whose owners were During's parents.

José Orellana's wife, Sara Mendoza, remembers that on the night of September 28, '73, the picket arrived outside the house they had inside the employer's property. Without asking, they opened fire, and after a few moments, they kicked down the door.

They took her husband and dragged him out by force. It was not difficult for her to recognize During and Arriagada, since she always saw them together inside the estate. Desperate, she went out with a candelabra, but a gunshot blew it from her hand.

José's father, who also lived there and worked for the Durings, did not get up. His wife begged him to intercede on behalf of their son, but the man, faithful to his boss, told her to shut up and keep sleeping.

A few days later, the man kicked Sara out of the estate and continued working for the Durings for the rest of his life. At that moment, she was 21 years old and six months pregnant. For the LND team, it was impossible to find Rolf During, as he moves between several properties he maintains between the VIII, IX, and X Regions.

However, we found his hitherto inseparable friend, Samuel Arriagada, with whom he traveled in the same vehicle to testify for this case at the Concepción Court of Appeals. Also the son of latifundists, but today fallen on hard times, Arriagada does not appear in any public registry.

Only the house in his sister's name alerts us to his possible presence. It is an old wooden mansion located on the corner of Soto and Villagrán streets. In a small store located to one side, they confirm to us that Samuel Arriagada lives in that house and that, although he is an unfriendly character, they do not know that he is involved in crimes committed during the dictatorship.

In the presence of a camera, of all the people who passed by the place, the only one who gave a suspicious look and was annoyed when the front of the house was being photographed was a guy of about 65 years old, wearing a jacket and blue jeans.

A few seconds later, he enters the house, and there is no doubt: it is Samuel Arriagada. When asked about his procedural situation, at first he denied being involved in any trial. Upon reminding him that he was detained for several weeks in 2003, he says he has nothing to do with it and that he does not trust the press.

He did not accept any more questions; he just kept his gaze fixed until we disappeared from his corner. His silent hermeticism contrasts with the image Sara took with her when she confronted him. "He only lacked hitting me," she remembers.

But she never shrank. "Every time I found them at the bank or somewhere, I would arrive with my son in my arms and say to him, especially to Rolf: 'Kill me too.' He always limited himself to lowering his face.

His mother even offered me money so that I would stop accusing them. I wasn't interested in that. I didn't accept a single peso from them," says the woman with black eyes and a tender smile. Sara's combative attitude is isolated.

José's brothers, for example, refused to undergo DNA tests at the Legal Medical Service to determine if any of the bone remains found in various parts of Chile could match. "They are afraid that the coup will return and they will wipe everything out again," warns Sara.

In any case, for her, the longing to find her husband again was always stronger. Although she lived for 20 years with another man and had a son with him, she does not hesitate to show her cards. "I choose José a hundred times.

My best moments are when I dream of him. I am by his side and he tells me to stop looking for him. There I listen to him and I am happy. When I wake up, everything changes," she says. Although neither of the two confessed to the kidnapping, Samuel Arriagada is currently convicted in the first instance to five years and one day in prison for the qualified kidnapping of José Orellana.

Rolf During, meanwhile, was sentenced to 10 years. The reason is that the descendant of Germans keeps another dead body under the table. In this last case, he does acknowledge that he was one of those who pulled the trigger.

In his judicial statement before the minister with exclusive dedication Carlos Aldana, Rolf During acknowledged that on September 28, while he was on guard duty supporting the Carabineros, he received Jorge N

Narváez Salamanca, who arrived in custody in the company of "a group of people." He does not remember who they were. Later, During recounts, he got into a car and sat next to Narváez until they arrived at the Quilaco police station, a small town located a few kilometers from Mulchén.

Waiting for them there was Carabineros Lieutenant Jorge Maturana (also convicted). After an hour of waiting, they took him to the Quilaco bridge, located over the Biobío River, sat him on one of the railings, and then proceeded to execute him.

The other civilian who was present at the crime scene, José Horacio Pacheco Padilla, also testified that During was one of the three who fired. Regarding his own participation, he stated that he took part in the detention and that, as he was not armed, he was only an eyewitness.

However, Pacheco Padilla was a schoolmate of Jorge Narváez at the Liceo de Hombres in the city (he was one grade ahead), belonged to the Patria y Libertad group, and also to the civilian support group for the Carabineros.

On the other hand, Narváez was 15 years old at the time and a member of the MIR. Hence, judicial evidence points to him as the one who provided the name of his classmate. When asking about José Pacheco in Mulchén, his name sounds familiar. "He drives one of those yellow-signed collective taxis," a neighbor comments.

The description adds that he works for "line number 2," which has its booth at the end of Calle Victoria, almost at the urban limit of the small city. It is a small green wooden shack, surrounded by the classic black vehicles that arrive and depart.

The rest of the taxi drivers say that Pacheco drives a Chevrolet Corsa, the only one on the line. Furthermore, they all say he is an affable and friendly guy. None of them claim to know that he has any kind of trouble with the law.

They consider him a quiet man who lives with his family. After a few minutes of waiting, the vehicle appears. From its interior descends a guy of about 52 years old, robust, pot-bellied, gray-haired, and with a mustache.

He rushes to inquire about the reason for our presence. "A short ride to Los Ángeles," we answer as an excuse to see how he handles himself despite his past. He decides to pose next to his vehicle, with absolute relaxation.

In more than 32 years, no one, except for one or two relatives of the victims, reminded him of his crime: having been part of a group of volunteers who illegally detained Jorge Narváez Salamanca and participated in his execution.

Like Rolf During, for years Pacheco denied his participation in the death of Narváez. Only in recent years has his memory been refreshed. He is currently sentenced to five years and one day. If his first-instance sentence is confirmed, he will have to go to prison. During as well.

The shrapnel and the hum of bullets broke the silence of the southern night. Today, at midnight, in the corners of the X Region, one can still hear the beating of the trees resisting the wind, the drops of water falling from the branches, and the murmur of the nocturnal fauna.

The night of September 16, 1973, was one of those where it was not the thunder that tore through nature, but the bursts of weapons from uniformed men and civilians discharged against peasants, who were a generational part of that nature.

On that same date, at the same time, the Valderas family was preparing to sleep. Although they had heard about the coup in Santiago, they did not think that the death caravans unleashed in the country could reach them.

Moreover, the 16 siblings who made up the family were beginning to arrive to gather for the Fiestas Patrias holidays. All this until the footsteps of several men were heard approaching the humble dwelling, located 200 meters from the road that bordered Lake Puyehue.

Flavio, the eldest son, accidentally ran into the group halfway when he was heading to the latrine. "Halt there, we are looking for Flavio Heriberto Valderas, don't move, you son of a bitch; we are going to kill you, asshole," said a Carabineros officer.

A blow with a rifle butt broke the young man's right supraorbital arch and detached part of his skin. "My mother said that his eye had popped out from the blow," recounts his sister Luz Marina. In her simple house, located on Calle Diego de Almagro, she told LND that "my brother was a quiet, hardworking kid, who a couple of weeks earlier had fought with a Carabineros officer, and the latter had threatened him.

That night, Barrientos accompanied the Carabineros patrol, guided them, and provided them with vehicles. He also indicated where 'Cantarito' lived and entered with the detachment to point him out, because he also thought that my brother had locked his door to annoy him." It is stated in the case file that Flavio Heriberto never had any political activity and that his death, rather, corresponded to a personal vendetta.

But Luz Marina Valderas has not forgotten any of the numerous occasions she has had to encounter Jorge Barrientos Camadro in Osorno. Justice says he was one of those responsible for the kidnapping and subsequent forced disappearance of her brother Flavio Heriberto, whom they nicknamed "Cantarito." Currently, Barrientos is a guy who always wears a jacket, blue jeans, and boots.

He wears a huaso hat and gets around in an all-terrain vehicle. He has two ranches: one in Puerto Octay and another in Puyehue. His life, in the last 35 years, has been quiet, except for his constant violent outbursts and his well-known bad temper.

The former owner of Radio Sago, Pedro Burgos, told his close associates about a meeting at the local hunting and fishing club, where the subject attended. The elderly man recounted how Barrientos pulled a pistol from his waistband to fire into the air because he did not agree with a decision.

That is how he has spent his life, between the ranches, the Tattersall livestock fair, and, recently, parading through courts and spending some time in jail. Luz Marina has worked for Senator Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle for many years.

She takes care of the apartment that the legislator maintains in a downtown building. But she has also worked for years as a waitress at events. "Once I had to work the inauguration cocktail for a Soprole drying plant.

I was serving from a tray and had to pass by his side. He recognized me and knocked the tray out of my hand with a slap," the woman recalled. She also says she does not forget the hatred with which he looked at her the morning when, again by chance, she was passing by to leave the keys to her truck at a flower stall, before leaving for Concepción, where several days of pretrial detention awaited her, the only time he has been deprived of liberty for the forced disappearance of the peasant.

After the tour, we confirmed that 35 years after the massacres, these "gentlemen" continue to be the masters of their small kingdoms, whose subjects continue to fear them, as if that same fateful night that many would have preferred not to live through were today.

Source: La Nación, September 7, 2008

The Caucoto Abogados firm, an office specializing in human rights, released a new updated list with a total of 18 former uniformed officers who are fugitives from justice, convicted of various crimes against humanity, some involved in the crime of Víctor Jara and Littré Quiroga, in the execution of 38 peasants in the main Paine Case, the assassination of the Spanish diplomat Carmelo Soria, Operation Condor, the Caravan of Death, and the "Quemados" Case, among other investigations.

According to the list released by said office in November 2023, out of a total of 14 fugitives, about half have been captured. However, 10 new former uniformed officers are now added to the list who, having been convicted by a final sentence, are in the status of fugitives from justice.

The list is composed of former military personnel, Carabineros, former Navy officials, and civilians who were members of the repressive apparatuses of the dictatorship such as the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), the National Intelligence Center (CNI), naval intelligence, and the Joint Command, accused as authors and co-authors of qualified kidnapping, qualified homicide, illicit association, and the application of torture, among other crimes.

These are the sentenced individuals

1) Rubén Aroldo Morales López (Carabineros officer ®), sentenced to 10 years and one day of presidio mayor as the author of the qualified homicide of Jorge Vásquez Matamala. 2) Luis Enrique Barrueto Bartning (businessman), sentenced to 10 years and one day as a co-author of seven qualified kidnappings (forced disappearances) perpetrated in the commune of Santa Bárbara. 3) One person convicted in the Conferencia II episode (there were previously four).

Federico Humberto Chaigneau Sepúlveda (Army officer ®, DINA). Chaigneau also has convictions in the Operation Condor process. He is sentenced to two terms of 18 years of presidio mayor in its maximum degree, for the crimes of repeated qualified kidnapping of Alexei Jaccard Siegler and Héctor Velázquez Mardones; and as a co-author of the repeated crimes of qualified homicide of Ricardo Ignacio Ramírez Herrera, Jacobo Stoulman Bortnik, Matilde Pessa Mois, Hernán Soto Gálvez, and Ruiter Enrique Correa Arce. 4) Alberto Roque del Sagrado Corazón Badilla Grillo (Navy officer ®), sentenced as the author of the crime of qualified homicide and application of torture against Enrique López Olmedo, to sentences of 12 years and 541 days respectively. 5) Nelson Edgardo Hasse Mazzei (Army officer ®), – Convicted as a co-author of the qualified kidnappings and qualified homicides of Víctor Jara Martínez and Littré Quiroga Carvajal. A sentence of 10 years and one day was imposed for the kidnappings and 15 years of imprisonment for the homicides.

6) Guillermo Salinas Torres (Army officer ®),

7) Pablo Belmar Labbé (Army officer ®),

8) René Patricio Quilhot Palma (Army officer ®), – Convicted as co-authors of the crimes of qualified homicide of Carmelo Soria Espinoza and authors of illicit association. For the first charge, a sentence of 15 years and one day was imposed on Salinas Torres, and 10 years and one day on the other two.

For the crime of illicit association, a sentence of 541 days of imprisonment was imposed on all. To these are now added the new fugitives: 9) Juan de Dios Higueras Álvarez (Carabineros non-commissioned officer ®), convicted in the Mulchén Episode, as a co-author of the qualified homicides perpetrated in (i) Fundo Carmen and Maitenes: Florencio Rubilar Gutiérrez, José Liborio Rubilar Gutiérrez, José Lorenzo Rubilar Gutiérrez, Alejandro Albornoz González, Luis Alberto Godoy Sandoval, Miguel del Carmen Albornoz Acuña, Daniel Alfonso Albornoz González; ii) Fundo Pemehue: Alberto Albornoz González, Felidor Exequiel Albornoz González, Jerónimo Humberto Sandoval Medina, Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme, and José Fernando Gutiérrez Ascencio, which occurred on October 6 and 7, 1973; to the sentence of 15 years and one day of presidio mayor in its maximum degree, plus accessories; Also in the same episode, he was convicted as a co-author of the crimes of qualified kidnapping of the following persons from (ii) Fundo El Morro: 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, perpetrated starting on October 5, 6, and 7, 1973, in the commune of Mulchén, to the sentence of ten years and one day of presidio mayor in its medium degree, plus legal accessories. 10) René Riveros Valderrama (Army officer ®) sentenced in the Operation Condor process, to two sentences of 18 years of presidio mayor in its maximum degree, for the crimes of repeated qualified kidnapping of Alexei Jaccard Siegler and Héctor Velázquez Mardones; and as a co-author of the repeated crimes of qualified homicide of Ricardo Ignacio Ramírez Herrera, Jacobo Stoulman Bortnik, Matilde Pessa Mois, Hernán Soto Gálvez, and Ruiter Enrique Correa Arce. 11) Jaime Ojeda Torrent (Army officer ®), convicted in the Caravan of Death process, La Serena episode, convicted as an accomplice to 15 qualified homicides, to the sentence of 10 years and one day of presidio mayor in its medium degree. The victims are Óscar Aedo Herrera, Marcos Barrantes Alcayaga, Mario Ramírez Sepúlveda, Hipólito Cortés Álvarez, Jorge Contreras Godoy, Roberto Santa Cruz, Jorge Jordán Domic, Gabriel Vergara Muñoz, Carlos Alcayaga Varela, Jorge Osorio Zamora, José Araya González, Óscar Cortés Cortés, Manuel Marcarian Jamett, Víctor Escobar Astudillo, and Jorge Peña Hen. 12) Ricardo Lillo Morandé (Carabineros officer ®), convicted to the sentence of 15 years and one day of presidio mayor in its maximum degree, for the qualified homicides of Héctor Marín Álvarez, José Luque Schurman, and Benjamín Garzón Morillo, on September 23, 1973, in the Salar del Carmen sector, located in the commune of Antofagasta. 13) Iván Humberto Figueroa Canobra (Army officer ®), convicted to the sentence of 20 years of presidio mayor in its maximum degree, plus legal accessories, for the crimes of consummated qualified homicide of Rodrigo Rojas De Negri, and frustrated qualified homicide of Carmen Gloria Quintana Arancibia. 14) Juan Daniel Marambio López (Army non-commissioned officer ®) Convicted as a co-author of the qualified homicide of Francisco Javier Santoni Díaz, to the sentence of 5 years and one day of presidio mayor in its minimum degree, plus accessories.

Two from the Janequeo Episode

15) Miguel Fernando Gajardo Quijada (civilian employee of the Army ® – CNI) Convicted as an accomplice to the crimes of qualified homicide of Hugo Ratier Noguera and Alejandro Salgado Troquian, to the sentence of 10 years and 1 day of presidio mayor in its medium degree plus legal accessories. 16) José Isaías Vidal Veloso (commissioner of the Chilean Investigative Police ® – CNI) Convicted as a co-author of the crimes of qualified homicide of Hugo Ratier Noguera and Alejandro Salgado Troquian, to the sentence of 20 years of presidio mayor in its maximum degree plus legal accessories. 17) Luis Raimundo Quezada Chandía (former conscript) convicted as a co-author of the qualified homicides of Hernán Henríquez Aravena and Alejandro Flores Rivera, to the sentence of 17 years of presidio mayor in its maximum degree. 18) Andrés Pablo Potin Lailhacar (civil engineer – Patria y Libertad – Joint Command). Convicted as a co-author of the crime of qualified kidnapping of Luis Emilio Maturana González, to the sentence of 5 years and one day of presidio mayor in its minimum degree, and as a co-author of the crime of kidnapping of Juan René Orellana Catalán, to the sentence of 400 days of presidio menor in its minimum degree.

Fugitives captured

Manfredo Enrique Jurgensen Caesar (physician, CNI) sentenced as a co-author of the qualified homicide of Federico Álvarez Santibáñez, to the sentence of 8 years of imprisonment. He was a fugitive since January, arrested in Argentina in June 2023 when he was trying to board a flight to Germany; his extradition was requested, but he passed away days later while deprived of liberty; Olegario Enrique González Moreno (Army ®, DINA), convicted as a co-author of 9 qualified kidnappings (forced disappearances), to the sentence of 10 years and one day, beginning to serve his sentence in July 2023; Héctor Fernando Osses Yáñez (Carabineros officer ®, union leader of retired uniformed personnel), convicted as an author in almost a dozen cases for murders in the San Gregorio neighborhood, who was a fugitive between 2021 and 2023. José Miguel Meza Serrano (Navy ®, DINA), and Eduardo Alejandro Oyarce Riquelme (Army non-commissioned officer ®, DINA), sentenced as co-authors of the crimes of qualified kidnapping of Fernando Navarro Allendes and Héctor Véliz Ramírez, to the sentence of 12 years of imprisonment each, and for the crimes of simple kidnapping of Juan Fernando Ortiz Letelier, Horacio Cepeda Marinkovic, and Lincoyán Berríos, for which they were sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment respectively; Víctor Álvarez Droguett (Army ®, DINA), – convicted as a co-author of the crimes of qualified homicide of Juan Fernando Ortiz Letelier, Horacio Cepeda Marinkovic, and Lincoyán Yalú Berríos Cataldo, to the sentence of 15 years and 1 day of presidio mayor in its maximum degree; – convicted as a co-author of the crimes of qualified kidnapping of Fernando Alfredo Navarro Allendes and Héctor Véliz Ramírez, to the sentence of 12 years of presidio mayor in its medium degree; – convicted as an author of the crimes of simple kidnapping of Juan Fernando Ortiz Letelier, Horacio Cepeda Marinkovic, and Lincoyán Yalú Berríos Cataldo, to the sentence of 3 years of presidio menor in its medium degree; – convicted to 10 years of imprisonment for the qualified kidnapping of Marta Ugarte Román.

• Juan Dionisio Opazo Vera (former conscript) sentenced as a co-author of 38 qualified homicides to the sentence of 10 years and one day, in the Paine Case, Main Episode.
• Juan Renán Jara Quintana (Army officer ®), convicted as a co-author of the qualified kidnappings and qualified homicides of Víctor Jara Martínez and Littré Quiroga Carvajal. A sentence of 10 years and one day was imposed for the kidnappings and 15 years of imprisonment for the homicides.

Fugitives as a form of impunity

For lawyer Francisco Bustos, of the Caucoto Abogados firm, "we think it is important to alert about this phenomenon, which has a double dimension of analysis. On one hand, it shows us that the Chilean State, and in particular the Judiciary, is fulfilling its obligation to investigate, judge, and punish crimes against humanity.

For that reason, dozens of sentences have been issued, and here it is enough to remember that last year 96 processes for crimes against humanity concluded with a final sentence." He adds that "the second dimension shows a deficit.

The groups of relatives, civil society organizations like Londres 38, have been denouncing the existence of fugitives as a form of impunity. The fact that the number of evaders has increased since this was warned is indicative that the criminal prosecution system can take more measures to prevent it, especially in terms of improving control or imposing more burdensome precautionary measures." Bustos reported that "for our part, as plaintiffs, we have requested the corresponding precautionary measures in each case." Despite this, there is also some good news, the lawyer points out, "such as the fact that several of these repressors have been arrested, and today they are serving their sentences, which also speaks of good police work," he concluded.

Source: radionuevomundo.cl, July 13, 2024

Date: Jorge Vargas Bories, Army officer ® and agent of the National Intelligence Center (CNI), for which he was transferred to the Colina I prison. The former uniformed officer was convicted as a co-author of the assassination under torture of the high school teacher and former MIR militant, Federico Álvarez Santibáñez, which occurred on August 21, 1979.

The judge with special dedication for human rights cases, Miguel Salgado, indicted nine people for the crime of qualified kidnapping, including four former Carabineros officials and five farmers, who are held responsible for the disappearance of 24 people in the Alto Biobío sector between September and November 1973.

Magistrate Salgado said that the investigation "for qualified kidnapping" has not been easy, due to the scarce cooperation that has been provided to him, without ruling out indicting two other former uniformed officers.

However, the magistrate valued the preliminary investigation initiated starting in 2000 by the head of the Santa Bárbara Criminal Court, Waldemar Koch. Salgado assumed the role of special judge by resolution of the Supreme Court, following the agreements of the Dialogue Table.

After being notified of the resolution against them by Judge Salgado, the nine defendants were held in the Los Ángeles prison. Four of them are former Carabineros officials who, in 1973, were serving in the Santa Bárbara Carabineros station.

These are Planté Aravena González, José Godoy Godoy, José Pulgar Riquelme, and Héctor Echeverría Beltrán. The civilians, mostly farmers in the area, are: José Valdivia Dames, Luis Barrueto Barnting, Manuel Barrueto Barnting, Jorge Domínguez Larenas, and Bernardo Larenas Larenas.

Source: El Mostrador, Monday, November 4, 2002

Santa Bárbara and Quilaco in 1973

The Concepción Court of Appeals issued a ruling in the investigation into the kidnapping of 29 people between September and November 1973, within the framework of the military dictatorship.

The visiting judge Carlos Aldana of the Concepción Court of Appeals issued a first-instance sentence in the investigation into the kidnappings of 29 people, which occurred in the towns of Quilaco and Santa Bárbara, Bío-Bío Region, between September and November 1973.

The magistrate issued convictions against the individuals who participated in the aggravated kidnappings that occurred in Santa Bárbara of: José Rafael Zúñiga Aceldini, José Secundino Zúñiga Aceldini, José Gilberto Araneda, Juan de Dios Rubio Llancao, Julio Rubio Llancao, José María Tranamil Pereira, José Guillermo Purrán Treca, José Domingo Godoy Acuña, Julio César Godoy Godoy, Desiderio Aguilera Solís, José Nazario Godoy Acuña, Manuel Salamanca Mella, José Mariano Godoy Acuña, Miguel Cuevas Pincheira, Juan de Dios Fuentes Lizama, Juan Francisco Fuentes Lizama, Elba Burgos Sáez, Sebastián Hernaldo Campos Díaz, Aliro Oporto Durán, and Sergio D'Apollonio Petermann. Meanwhile, the sentence also covers the kidnappings that occurred in Quilaco of: Cristino Humberto Cid Fuentealba, José Félido Pinto, Luis Alberto Cid, Luis Alberto Bastas Sandoval, Raimundo Salazar Muñoz, Gabriel José Viveros Flores, Segundo Marcial Soto Quejón, and José Roberto Molina Quezada.

Those sentenced for the Santa Bárbara kidnappings are:

Planté Euclide Aravena Sáez: 10 years and 1 day. Without benefits. Héctor Isaías Echeverría Beltrán: 7 and a half years. Without benefits. José Jaime Godoy Godoy: 7 years. Without benefits. José Heraldo Pulgar Riquelme: 7 years.

Without benefits. Jorge Denis Domínguez Larenas: 6 and a half years. Without benefits. Sergio Amado Fuentes Valenzuela: 6 and a half years. Without benefits. Jorge Eduardo Valdivia Dames: 6 and a half years.

Without benefits. José Roberto Valdivia Dames: 6 and a half years. Without benefits. Luis Enrique Ricardo Barrueto Barting: 6 and a half years. Without benefits. Manuel Dario Barrueto Barting: 6 and a half years. Without benefits. Pedro Segundo Ruiz Pardo: 541 days. Granted the benefit of conditional remission.

Meanwhile, those convicted for the Quilaco kidnappings are: Eugenio Villa Urrutia: 7 years. Without benefits. José Eleodoro Burgos Sandoval: 7 years. Without benefits. Juan Carlos Burgos Belauzarán: 7 years.

Without benefits. Carlos Santiago Sepúlveda Rivera: 7 years. Without benefits. José Feliciano Gutiérrez Ortiz: 7 years. Without benefits. Exequiel del Carmen Celedón Barrera: 7 years. Without benefits.

Furthermore, the civil lawsuit filed against the State was upheld, determining that 60 million pesos must be paid to Gretel del Carmen Godoy Acuña for the kidnapping of her brother Sebastián Campos Díaz; 80 million pesos to Jacinta Godoy Acuña for the kidnapping of her spouse Manuel Salamanca Mella, and 15 million pesos for the kidnapping of her brothers José Domingo, José Nazario, and José Mariano Godoy Acuña; 70 million pesos to Ana María D'Apollonio Zapata for the kidnapping of her father Sergio D'Apollonio Petermann; 70 million pesos to Ana María Zúñiga Beroiza for the kidnapping of her father José Zúñiga Aceldini, and 10 million pesos for the kidnapping of her uncle José Secundino Zúñiga Aceldini. Additionally, those convicted must jointly pay 80 million pesos to Norma Panes Panes, spouse of Miguel Cuevas Pincheira, and 40 million pesos to Maritza Pilar, Fabiola del Carmen, Víctor Hugo, Dorian Inés, and Miguel Ángel Cuevas Panes (children of Miguel Cuevas Pincheira), as this family group did not file an action against the State.

Source: La Nación, June 15, 2011

Case reopened for forcibly disappeared persons from Mulchén

The special judge for Human Rights cases, Carlos Aldana Fuentes, reopened the summary proceedings this week regarding the disappearance of 18 peasants from the commune of Mulchén that occurred in 1973.

Six months after having decreed the closure of the summary, the judge decided to reopen it ex officio to investigate the participation of uniformed personnel, particularly from the Los Ángeles Regiment, in "Operation Television Removal" (Operación Retiro de Televisores) carried out at the beginning of 1979.

This operation consisted of performing illegal exhumations of victims who had been executed and clandestinely buried (forcibly disappeared) during the reprisal and punishment actions carried out by uniformed personnel and right-wing civilians in grim repressive raids; in the fields of the area, these raids were massive and bloody.

Years later, following the discovery of the bodies of the disappeared from Buin and Paine in the Llonquén kilns, near Santiago, the tyrant ordered the territory to be cleared of clandestine graves and for the remains of the already disappeared victims to be made to disappear.

This perverse operation was led, organized, and coordinated by the recently deceased (by suicide) former head of the CNI, Odlanier Mena Salinas. At the time of the closure of the summary in April of this year, Judge Aldana had only prosecuted five retired carabineros for the crimes of kidnapping and aggravated homicide of the victims, but had not prosecuted anyone for the 1979 operation.

In decreeing the reopening, he indicated that he has noted the need to issue new proceedings to close the case. Lawyer Patricia Parra, of the Human Rights Program, welcomed the reopening, as she hopes that five other civilians and former uniformed personnel will be prosecuted for the commission of the crime of aggravated homicide of the victims.

Furthermore, she points out that there is clear and sufficient evidence regarding those who participated in the illegal exhumations and the incineration of the remains in kilns inside the Los Ángeles regiment. In the investigation, the names of nine former soldiers from the Los Ángeles regiment and intelligence service agents from that unit have emerged.

The crimes The murders were committed in punitive operations carried out in October 1973. The peasants were taken prisoner and executed in three different places in the mountainous area of Mulchén. The executions by firing squad were recorded at the El Morro estate, located 50 kilometers inside Mulchén; at the El Carmen-Maitenes estate, located 80 kilometers away; and at the Pemehue estate, situated in the high mountains, more than 100 kilometers from the city.

On June 6 and 7, 2009, Judge Aldana conducted intense scene reconstructions with the aim of establishing responsibilities in the detentions, executions, illegal burials, and illegal exhumations of the peasants.

The sequence of events and the participation of the perpetrators in the crimes were accredited in the proceedings, as well as the subsequent operation to erase traces that they carried out in 1979. The 18 peasants murdered between October 5 and 7, 1973, were the brothers Alejandro Albornoz González (48 years old), Alberto Albornoz González (41), Felidor Exequiel Albornoz González (33), Guillermo José Albornoz González (32), Daniel Alfonso Albornoz González (28), and a son of Alejandro named Miguel del Carmen Albornoz Acuña (20); Luis Alberto Godoy Sandoval (23); José Fernando Gutiérrez Asencio (25); Juan de Dios Laubra Brevis (26); Juan de Dios Roa Riquelme (35); the brothers José Lorenzo Rubilar Gutiérrez (33), José Liborio Rubilar Gutiérrez (28), Florencio Rubilar Gutiérrez (24); Gerónimo Humberto Sandoval Medina (22); Domingo Sepúlveda Castillo (29); Edmundo José Vidal Aedo (20); Celsio Nicasio Vivanco Carrasco (26); and José Florencio Yáñez Durán (34).

The criminals The repressive units were composed of army personnel from the Los Ángeles Regiment, carabineros who operated under an express order from the Mulchén captain Sergio Neira Tapia, and a horde of right-wing civilians commanded by the landowner Romualdo Guzmán Saavedra.

The carabineros were commanded by the then-lieutenant Jorge Maturana Concha, and the carabineros Osvaldo Díaz Díaz and Héctor Armando Guzmán Saldaña; among the civilians, in addition to the right-winger Guzmán Saavedra, notable figures included Aquiles Guzmán Fritz, Francisco Urrizola Elías, Ramón Elías Abella, Rofh Düring Pohler, Raúl Tirapeguy, Carlos Lehman, and Samuel Arriagada Domínguez.

The criminal group began acting at the El Morro estate on October 5. There, they detained, tortured, and murdered Juan Laubra Brevis, Domingo Sepúlveda, Edmundo Vidal, Celsio Vivanco, and José Yáñez. On the 6th, they continued to the El Carmen-Maitenes estate, where they acted in the same manner against Alejandro, Guillermo, Daniel, and Miguel Albornoz, José Liborio, José Lorenzo, and Florencio Rubilar, and Luis Godoy.

On the 7th, they arrived at the Pemehue estate, where they executed Alberto and Felidor Albornoz, Juan Gutiérrez, Juan Roa, and Gerónimo Sandoval. The murdered peasants were buried or semi-buried in clandestine graves in the same places where they were executed.

Erasing traces Six years after the crimes, the same perpetrators, accompanied by other army personnel and civilian agents, proceeded to exhume the clandestine graves in which the victims had been buried.

Then, the exhumed remains were taken to the Los Ángeles regiment, where they proceeded to burn them in kilns and drums conditioned for incineration. The crematoria were under the control of Section II (as the intelligence department is called in army units) and were installed next to where this section had its offices.

Judge Aldana focused his proceedings on that same area when carrying out the aforementioned reconstruction of the site in 2009. On that same occasion, he proceeded to interrogate a series of former soldiers and former carabineros linked to the executions, exhumations, and illegal incinerations.

About 14 former soldiers, including officers and enlisted men, were interrogated by Judge Aldana on that occasion. However, he did not prosecute any of them; apparently, new evidence has now emerged that led him to decree the reopening of the summary. "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" Mena, and executed with criminal zeal by the hordes of agents who reveled in the terror they provoked and caused among their victims, the victims' families, and the population in general. Acts such as these cannot continue to go unpunished.

Source: Resumen.cl, November 2, 2013

Supreme Court convicts former carabineros and civilians for aggravated kidnappings in Santa Bárbara and Quilaco in 1973

The Second Chamber overturned the appealed judgment ex officio in the part that considered the civilians as accomplices to the crimes and, in a replacement judgment, convicted them as perpetrators for having had direct participation in the detentions and kidnappings.

The Supreme Court accepted the filed appeals for annulment and issued a final judgment in the investigation into the aggravated kidnappings of José Domingo Godoy Acuña, Julio Godoy Godoy, Desiderio Aguilera Solís, José Nazario Godoy Acuña, Manuel Salamanca Mella, José Mariano Godoy Acuña, Miguel Cuevas Pincheira, Sebastián Hernaldo Campos Díaz, José Rafael Zúñiga Aceldine, José Secundino Zúñiga Aceldine, José Gilberto Araneda Riquelme, Juan de Dios Rubio Llancao, Julio Rubio Llancao, José María Tranamil Pereira, José Guillermo Purrán Treca, Elba Burgos Sáez, Juan de Dios Fuentes Lizama, Juan Francisco Fuentes Lizama, Sergio D’Apollonio Petermann, and Aliro Oporto Durán; and of Cristino Humberto Cid Fuentealba, José Felidor Pinto Pinto, Luis Alberto Cid Cid, Luis Alberto Bastías Sandoval, Raimundo Salazar Muñoz, Gabriel José Viveros Flores, Segundo Marcial Soto Quijón, and José Roberto Molina Quezada. These illicit acts were perpetrated in the communes of Santa Bárbara and Quilaco, respectively, between September and December 1973.

In a split decision (case file 24.143-2019), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, and minister María Teresa Letelier—overturned the appealed judgment, issued by the Court of Appeals of Concepción, ex officio in the part that considered the civilians as accomplices to the crimes and, in a replacement judgment, convicted them as perpetrators for having had direct participation in the detentions and kidnappings.

In the final judgment, the following were convicted as perpetrators of the crimes: Planté Euclide Aravena Sáez to a sentence of 14 years in prison; Héctor Isaías Echeverría Beltrán and José Heraldo Pulgar Riquelme must serve 11 years in prison; Carlos Santiago Sepúlveda Rivera and Exequiel del Carmen Celedón Barrera, 10 years and one day; Sergio Amado Fuentes Valenzuela, Luis Enrique Ricardo Antonio Barrueto Bartning, and Manuel Darío Barrueto Bartning to 10 years and one day of imprisonment; meanwhile, Jorge Denis Domínguez Larenas, Jorge Eduardo Valdivia Dames, and José Roberto Valdivia Dames must serve 5 years and one day in prison. Finally, the convicted individuals Eugenio Villa Urrutia, Juan Carlos Burgos Belauzarán, and José Feliciano Gutiérrez Ortiz were sentenced to 4 years in prison, with the benefit of supervised release for the same period.

“Regarding the alleged defect, it should be noted that in order to analyze the degree of participation that—among others—corresponded to the accused Luis Barrueto Bartning, Manuel Barrueto Bartning, and Sergio Fuentes Valenzuela in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Manuel Salamanca, José Domingo Godoy Acuña, José Nazario Godoy Acuña, and José Mariano Godoy Acuña; and to the defendant Jorge Domínguez Larenas in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Sergio D’Apollonio Petermann, the second-instance judgment, in its 57th finding, referred to the functional theory of the act and analyzed the requirements of co-perpetration, after which it concluded in reasoning 59 that the conduct of all the civilians who intervened in the events could only be considered as complicity,” the ruling states.

The resolution adds: “To reach such a conclusion, the trial judges considered that although the defendants collaborated with the detention of each of the victims, ‘the control of the act of kidnapping always remained with the police officers, since the collaborative action of these subjects lasted only until the detainees were in the hands of the public official, police authority, or at the police station or precinct to which the detainees were taken.

Therefore, what was acted and decided by said Carabineros officials, in terms of causing their disappearance to this day, is not an action over which these accused could have had control. This factual circumstance is even recognized in the thirty-sixth consideration of the first-instance judgment when, analyzing the participation of Planté Euclide Aravena Sáez, it mentions that ‘he organized a group of civilians to provide collaboration to the officials of his unit and that he had the most complete and absolute authority over these and the civilians under his command…’”

For the Penal Chamber, in this case: “However, from a careful reading of the sixty-sixth, sixty-seventh, sixty-eighth, sixty-ninth, seventy-first, seventy-second, fifty-fourth, fifty-fifth, fifty-sixth, forty-sixth, and forty-seventh findings of the first-instance judgment, it is inferred that the accused Luis Barrueto Bartning, Manuel Barrueto Bartning, Sergio Fuentes Valenzuela, and Jorge Domínguez Larenas carried out a series of actions that constitute the immediate and direct execution of the criminal type at hand.”

“Indeed,” it elaborates, “as stated in the sixty-sixth finding, the accused Luis Barrueto Bartning stated that after September 11, 1973, he was called by the Chief of the Military Garrison of Los Ángeles to collaborate with the Army in transport and patrol tasks, as a report had been received at the garrison that there were extremist elements in the sector, so he placed himself at the disposal of the Chief of the Santa Bárbara police station to help identify those people.

He added that upon presenting himself, they left for the El Huachi estate in two vehicles, one of which was a pickup truck he owned, which he was driving. He added that together with his brother Manuel, they collaborated in the identification of several people, who were detained by Carabineros, loaded into the vehicles, and transported.

He stated that on the way, other people were detained—whom he lists—and that subsequently, upon realizing one was missing, they went with his brother and Carabineros to look for him in his truck. These acknowledgments of responsibility are also corroborated—among others—by the testimonies of Julio Erices Cid on page 412, Jacinta Godoy Acuña on page 388 vta, and Juan Salamanca Godoy on page 414.”

“For his part, Manuel Barrueto Bartning, as appears from reasoning seventy, acknowledged having been part of a voluntary collaboration force of the Carabineros de Chile and that he was authorized to carry weapons,” it highlights.

“He added that he took officials to his estate called ‘El Huachi,’ although he attributes it to a different purpose, acknowledging that 8 to 9 people were detained at the location and that on the way back, after stopping a bus, others were apprehended.

Likewise, he accepted that in the particular case of Salamanca Mella, as he resisted the detention, he struggled with him and hit him on the head with a weapon. All these background facts are also complemented by the assertions of Julio Erices Cid on page 412, who pointed out that Manuel Barrueto was driving the truck where several detainees were lying face down in the cargo area, also corroborated by the statements of witnesses Sylvia Cerda Rodríguez, Jacinta Godoy Acuña, and Juan Salamanca Godoy,” the ruling records.

Likewise, the highest court reproduces “(…) the fifty-fourth finding, which states that the accused Sergio Fuentes Valenzuela acknowledged having served as an assistant at the Santa Bárbara Carabineros station at the request of Planté Aravena, although he limited his actions to domestic chores at the location.

However, the above was refuted by the testimony of José Aguilera Godoy, who identified him as the person who detained his uncle Nazario Godoy and hit him on the forehead; by the statements of Jacinta Godoy, who incriminates him as one of the subjects who detained her husband Manuel Salamanca; by the assertions of Julio Erices on page 412, who mentions him as one of the subjects who was armed with the Barrueto brothers during the detentions; by the testimony of José Aguilera on page 440, who points him out as one of the civilians who intervened in the detention of Desiderio Aguilera; and by the testimony of Maritza Cuevas on page 2078 and Dorian Cuevas on page 1031, who identify him as the subject who was at their house on the day of their father’s detention.”

“Finally,” it continues, “regarding Jorge Domínguez Larenas, the forty-fifth finding states that he acknowledged having provided collaboration to the Carabineros of the Santa Bárbara station, having been recruited by Lieutenant Planté Aravena, from whom he obeyed direct orders; however, he limits his actions to domestic chores inside the station.

Notwithstanding the above, said exculpation was refuted by the statements of Juana D’Apollonio, who in the scene reconstruction proceeding identified him as one of the subjects who entered her house, detaining her relatives, also corroborated by the testimony of Juana D’Apollonio on page 1215, who points him out as one of the individuals who entered her home, taking out her father, whom they loaded into a red pickup truck owned by the defendant Domínguez, and the statement of Catalina Zapata on page 2755, who points him out as one of the subjects who participated in the detention of her husband.”

For the Penal Chamber of the Supreme Court: “All of the above constitute factual circumstances that account for the performance of actions that cannot be considered as mere cooperation—in the terms of Article 16 of the Penal Code—but must be classified as executive, as they demonstrate the performance of acts that constitute the unlawful confinement and detention of another, depriving them of liberty; that is, the facts that the law describes to typify the crime of kidnapping, so their participation corresponds to that of direct perpetrators for having taken part in the execution of the act.”

“Consequently, the second-instance court errs in stating that their conduct could only be considered as complicity, since their actions were not limited to performing acts of assistance or collaboration but of execution in the punishable act, an error of law that has had a substantial influence on the operative part of the challenged ruling, since it is evident that if the cited provisions had been applied correctly, Luis Barrueto Bartning, Manuel Barrueto Bartning, Sergio Fuentes Valenzuela, and Jorge Domínguez Larenas would have been convicted as perpetrators of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping referred to in the preceding findings,” the ruling concludes.

The highest court also addressed: “That, on the other hand, and notwithstanding the rejection of the appeal for annulment filed by the Program for the Continuation of Law 19.123, on page 9807, due to defects in its formalization, during the deliberation stage, it was noted that the second-instance judgment also revoked that of the lower court, by considering that the actions performed by the accused Luis Barrueto Bartning and Manuel Barrueto Bartning in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Julio Godoy Godoy, Desiderio Aguilera Aguilera, and Miguel Cuevas Pincheira; the accused Jorge Valdivia Dames and José Valdivia Dames in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Miguel Cuevas Pincheira; the accused Sergio Fuentes Valenzuela in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Julio Godoy Godoy, Desiderio Aguilera Aguilera, and Miguel Cuevas Pincheira; the accused Eugenio Villa Urrutia and José Gutiérrez Ortiz in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Cristino Cid Fuentealba, José Pinto Pinto, Luis Cid Cid, Luis Bastías Sandoval, Raimundo Salazar Muñoz, Gabriel Viveros Flores, and José Molina Quezada; the accused Juan Carlos Burgos Belauzarán in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Cristino Cid Fuentealba, José Pinto Pinto, Luis Cid Cid, Luis Bastías Sandoval, and Raimundo Salazar Muñoz; and the defendant Exequiel Celedón Barrera in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Cristino Cid Fuentealba and José Pinto Pinto, could only be considered as complicity, notwithstanding that as seen in findings 65, 66, 67, 70, 71, 58, 59, 62, 63, 54, 55, 80, 84, 82, 85, and 86 of the first-instance ruling, all of them intervened together with the police officials in the unlawful detention of the aforementioned victims, to then take them to the Santa Bárbara police station, with their whereabouts remaining unknown to this date.”

“Under these conditions, each of the mentioned accused executed part of the conduct described by the penal type; that is, they intervene in their own action and are not limited to cooperating in that of another, thereby incurring the trial judges in the ground for annulment contemplated in Article 546 N°1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure—by attributing participation to them as accomplices, an error of law that has had a substantial influence on the operative part of the challenged ruling, since the correct application of Article 15 of the Penal Code would have led to convicting them as perpetrators in the crimes indicated regarding each of them, which is important for the purposes of making use of the power to act ex officio, since it is permitted only when the appeal has been rejected due to formalization defects, as provided by Article 785 of the Code of Civil Procedure,” it concludes.

Executions and disappearances

In the first-instance ruling, visiting judge Raquel Lermanda established the following facts:

“1.- That on September 23, 1973, around 3:10 hours, while Sergio D’Apollonio Petermann was in his house located at the ‘La Palma’ smallholding, Santa Bárbara commune, a group mobilized with 4 to 5 Carabineros and civilians arrived, proceeding to detain him without a competent judicial or administrative order, being subsequently transferred to an unknown location, from which moment all news of his whereabouts or existence is unknown to this date. 2.- That on September 23, 1973, while Carlos Jacinto D’Apollonio Zapata was in his house located at the La Palma smallholding in the Santa Bárbara commune, a mobilized group of approximately 4 or 5 people arrived, among whom were Carabineros and civilians, proceeding to detain him without a competent legal order, taking him out of his home and transferring him to the bridge that connects the communes of Santa Bárbara and Quilaco over the Bío Bío River, where he was placed on one of the railings and shot with a firearm, his body falling into the river and being dragged to one of its banks, where the next day he was found by relatives and acquaintances, wounded by gunfire, being taken to his home for a wake. Around 15:30 hours that same day, the same people who apprehended him, against the authorization of the family and without a legal administrative order, removed said apparently lifeless body and took it to an unknown destination. 3.- That around 14:30 hours on September 17, 1973, Elba Burgos Sáez was detained on Camilo Henríquez Street between Rosas and Manuel Rodríguez streets in Santa Bárbara by Carabineros officials, without a legal arrest warrant against her, and they were traveling in a pickup truck into which they loaded her, with all news of her whereabouts or existence being unknown from that date to this date. 4.- That, around 16:00 hours on November 7, 1973, while Aliro Segundo Oporto Durán, 17 years of age, was in a house located in the Raleo sector of the town of Alto Bío Bío, Carabineros personnel arrived to detain him without a competent legal order, with him running toward the bank of the Bío Bío River, being pursued by the police, one of whom shot him, managing to apprehend him, from which moment all news of his whereabouts or existence is unknown. 5.- That, in the afternoon of September 17, 1973, José Rafael Zúñiga Aceldine, José Secundino Zúñiga Aceldine, and José Gilberto Araneda Riquelme voluntarily appeared at the Santa Bárbara Carabineros station, complying with a summons that Carabineros of the aforementioned Police Unit had made to them through Juan Albornoz Lagos, being entered into said station as detainees, without a competent legal order, with all news regarding their whereabouts or destination being unknown from that date. 6.- That, on September 14, 1973, Juan de Dios Fuentes Lizama and Juan Francisco Fuentes Lizama were detained at their home located in a hut on the Corcovado estate, on the road to Villacura, in the Santa Bárbara commune, by Carabineros personnel and civilians, without a legal detention order and without any knowledge of their destination or whereabouts to this date. 7.- That, on September 16, 1973, Juan de Dios and Julio Alberto Rubio Llancao were detained and transferred to the Santa Bárbara Carabineros station in charge of the Unit Chief, Lieutenant Planté Aravena Sáez. The same day, Guillermo Purrán Treca resorted to the indicated police unit in search of protection because he could not return to his home, as the bus had left him and the start time of the curfew was approaching, remaining detained. At night, the three, plus José María Tranamil Pereira, who was also detained without a competent order, were taken out of the station and transferred to the Quilaco bridge where the Carabineros shot them, with all news regarding the destination or whereabouts of Juan de Dios Rubio Llancao, Julio Rubio Llancao, José María Tranamil Pereira, and José Guillermo Purrán Treca being unknown from that date. 8.- a) That, in the morning of September 20, 1973, in the Santa Bárbara commune, a group of Carabineros and civilians, armed with firearms, who were traveling in motorized vehicles and without having a legitimate order, arrived at the ‘El Huachi’ estate, located 8 kilometers from that commune, and detained José Domingo Godoy Acuña, Julio César Godoy Godoy, and Desiderio Aguilera Solís, transferring them to the Santa Bárbara Carabineros station, from where they were taken out at night to an unknown destination and have not been seen again or had news of their whereabouts to this date; b) That, after the above occurred and at approximately 14:00 hours on the same day, September 20, 1973, the same group, without a legitimate order, detained José Nazario Godoy Acuña in the Los Junquillos sector of the Santa Bárbara commune, in the presence of José Gilberto Aguilera Godoy, who was subsequently transferred to the Santa Bárbara Carabineros station and from there, all trace of him was lost, without any news of his whereabouts to this date; c) That around 22:30 hours on September 20, 1973, in the Santa Bárbara commune, a group of Carabineros and civilians, armed with firearms who were traveling in motorized vehicles and without having a legitimate order, arrived at the home of Manuel Salamanca Mella, located on Avenida La Feria without number in Santa Bárbara, where they proceeded to detain him in the presence of his relatives, to then take him to the Santa Bárbara Carabineros station, where he was last seen, without him having been seen again or having news of his whereabouts to this date; and d) That, after that, on the same date, the same group went to the boarding house located at 343 Rosas Street in the Santa Bárbara commune, where, without a legitimate order, they proceeded to detain José Mariano Godoy Acuña, who was transferred to the Santa Bárbara Carabineros station, where he was last seen, without him having been seen again or having news of his whereabouts to this date. 9.- That on the night of September 20, 1973, an armed group of Carabineros and civilians arrived at the home of Miguel Cuevas Pincheira located at 371 Rosas Street in Santa Bárbara and, without a legitimate order, proceeded to detain him in the presence of his relatives, spouse, and children, taking him out of his house and transferring him to an unknown location without him having been seen again or having news of his whereabouts to this date. 10.- That, around 16:30 hours on September 16, 1973, Sebastián Hernaldo Campos Díaz voluntarily appeared at the Santa Bárbara Carabineros station, as he had been summoned previously, remaining detained without being shown a legitimate order and without any news of his whereabouts to this date. 11.- a) That in the Quilaco commune, in the days following September 11, 1973, a group of civilians and Carabineros, all armed with firearms and traveling in motorized vehicles, without having a legitimate order, arrived at the home of Cristino Humberto Cid Fuentealba, located on the El Rodal plot, on the outskirts of Quilaco, proceeding to detain him in the presence of his relatives, to then take him walking from that location to an unknown destination, without him having been seen again or having news of his whereabouts to this date; b) That, in the early morning of September 20, 1973, a group of Carabineros and civilians arrived at the home of José Felidor Pinto Pinto, leader of the Campo Lindo peasant settlement, located on the old Huinquén estate, whom they detained, taking him out of his house and taking him in vehicles from that location, with the same group traveling with him to an unknown destination, from which moment there was never any news or knowledge, his trace disappearing to this date; c) That after the above occurred, and being more or less noon on September 20, 1973, the same group went to the Loncopangue villa and also to the vicinity of the Rañiguel estate in the same sector, proceeding to detain Luis Alberto Cid Cid, Luis Bastías Sandoval, and Raimundo Salazar Muñoz, being loaded into a truck of the Quilaco Municipality driven by José Feliciano Gutiérrez Ortiz, known as ‘El Chamo,’ to then be taken along the public road that leads to Quilaco to a path that leads to the confluence of the Bío Bío and Quilmes rivers, where they were taken off the vehicle and watched by their captors, they were taken walking to the banks of the indicated watercourses, at which moment their apprehenders allegedly shot them with firearms, their bodies falling into the channel of the mentioned rivers, with their whereabouts being unknown to this date; d) That, that same day, in the afternoon, Segundo Marcial Soto Quijón was detained in Quilaco without a legitimate order by a group made up of Carabineros and civilians, a date from which there has been no news of his whereabouts; e) That, in the morning of November 3, 1973, at approximately 11:00 hours, a group of Carabineros and civilians arrived at Plot N° 112 of the Piñiquihue sector of the Quilaco commune, the home of José Roberto Molina Quezada, whom they detained without a legitimate order, took him out of his house, and took him away in a vehicle to an unknown destination, from which moment there was never any news or knowledge of his whereabouts; f) That on the night of Saturday, November 3, 1973, an armed group of Carabineros and civilians arrived at the home of Gabriel José Viveros Flores located on the outskirts of Loncopangue, proceeding to detain him in the presence of his relatives, taking him out of his house and transferring him to an unknown location without him having returned or having news of his whereabouts to this date.”

Decision to overturn the judgment ex officio with the dissenting vote of minister Letelier, who considered it inappropriate regarding the brothers Jorge Eduardo and José Roberto Valdivia Dames.

Source: pdju.cl, October 20, 2022

The top ten human rights violators still on the run from justice

Among those who have not been found are not only individuals who were officials of the DINA, CNI, Carabineros, or the Armed Forces, but also one of the few civilians who has been convicted for his participation in crimes against humanity during the dictatorship.

This is Luis Enrique Barrueto Bartning, convicted for the crimes committed against peasants of Santa Bárbara, in which he and his brother acted as a sort of paramilitary force that operated together with Carabineros.

A list containing 10 former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) and its successor, the National Information Center (CNI), Carabineros, and naval intelligence, as well as one civilian, fugitives from justice who are convicted of various crimes against humanity, was released by the office of lawyer Nelson Caucoto, who specializes in human rights.

These are subjects who are accused as perpetrators and co-perpetrators of crimes such as aggravated kidnapping, aggravated homicide, and the application of torture, among others.

The first of them is the former Carabineros officer (and union leader of the retired uniformed personnel) Héctor Fernando Osses Yáñez, who was convicted as a perpetrator in at least six cases for murders in the San Gregorio neighborhood. He is the one who has been escaping justice the longest, as he has not been found since October 2021.

He is followed by the former CNI agent and Army officer Jorge Vargas Bories, sentenced as a co-perpetrator of the murder of MIR militant Federico Álvarez Santibáñez to a sentence of 10 years and one day.

In third place is Rubén Aroldo Morales López, a retired Carabineros officer, sentenced to 10 years and one day of major imprisonment as a perpetrator of the aggravated homicide of Jorge Vásquez Matamala.

Another of the fugitives (and the only civilian on the list) is Luis Enrique Barrueto Bartning, a farmer sentenced to 10 years and one day as a co-perpetrator of seven aggravated kidnappings (forcible disappearances) perpetrated in the Santa Bárbara commune, in which he and his brother acted as paramilitaries who, together with Carabineros personnel, kidnapped and made several peasants disappear.

The three former agents who are fugitives are all subjects convicted in the framework of the Conferencia II case, which was recently ruled on by the Supreme Court of Justice. They are the former Army officer Federico Humberto Chaigneau Sepúlveda, the former Navy officer José Miguel Meza Serrano, and the former Army non-commissioned officer Eduardo Alejandro Oyarce Riquelme.

All of them were sentenced to 12 years in prison as co-perpetrators of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Fernando Navarro Allendes and Héctor Véliz Ramírez; and to three years in prison for the crimes of simple kidnapping of Juan Fernando Ortiz Letelier, Horacio Cepeda Marinkovic, and Lincoyán Berríos.

Víctor Álvarez Droguett, a former member of the Army and the DINA, is sentenced to 15 years and one day as a co-perpetrator of the crimes of aggravated homicide against Juan Fernando Ortiz Letelier, Horacio Cepeda Marinkovic, and Lincoyán Yalú Berríos Cataldo. In the same case, he was also sentenced to three years as a perpetrator of a simple crime.

He was also sentenced to 12 years as a co-perpetrator of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Fernando Alfredo Navarro Allendes and Héctor Véliz Ramírez. It should be mentioned that Álvarez additionally has a 10-year prison sentence for the aggravated kidnapping of Marta Ugarte Román.

The ninth on the list is Alberto Roque del Sagrado Corazón Badilla Grillo, a retired Navy officer, sentenced to 12 years and 541 days, as a perpetrator of the crime of aggravated homicide and application of torture, respectively.

The top ten human rights violators who are fugitives is closed by Juan Dionisio Opazo Vera, a former conscript who was sentenced to 10 years and one day as a co-perpetrator of 38 aggravated homicides, for the murders committed against the peasants of Paine in 1973.

Those who appeared

In this regard, lawyer Francisco Bustos points out that “a few months ago we had warned about fugitives for crimes against humanity, especially some since 2021 or 2022, which should be a priority for the authorities,” adding that “we must especially consider that these have been sentences pronounced much later due to the obstacles of impunity and that the duties that the Chilean State has regarding this type of crime are not exhausted by the duty to judge and eventually sanction.

They must be sanctioned with proportionate penalties and, along with that, the State must also ensure the effective compliance with said sanctions.”

However, he indicates that “there is also some good news, such as the detention of two fugitives this year, in addition to the fact that those sentenced in a dozen other recent proceedings are serving their sentences.” With the first two, he was referring to Manfredo Enrique Jurgensen Caesar, a CNI doctor, sentenced to 8 years and one day in prison as a co-perpetrator of the aggravated homicide of Federico Álvarez Santibáñez.

Jurgensen was a fugitive since January of this year but was detained in June in Buenos Aires when he was trying to board a flight to Germany. However, he passed away days later while deprived of liberty, without being able to be extradited to Chile.

The other fugitive found was Olegario Enrique González Moreno, a former military man and part of the DINA, who was convicted as a co-perpetrator of nine aggravated kidnappings to a sentence of 10 years and one day. He began serving his sentence just last month.

Source: elmostrador.cl, August 24, 2023

Updated list of human rights violators on the run from justice made official

This is a list prepared by the Caucoto Abogados Law Firm, which includes 14 criminals, among whom stand out people linked to the murder of Víctor Jara, the execution of 38 peasants in the main Paine Case, and the murder of the Spanish diplomat Carmelo Soria.

This Friday, the Caucoto Abogados Law Firm made official the updated list of former uniformed personnel on the run from justice convicted of various crimes against humanity.

These are 14 people, some of them involved in the crime of Víctor Jara and Littré Quiroga, in the execution of 38 peasants in the main Paine Case, and the murder of the Spanish diplomat Carmelo Soria, among other investigations, details a statement from the office specializing in human rights.

Regarding the list, it is made up of former military personnel, Carabineros, former Navy officials, and civilians who were members of the dictatorship’s repressive apparatuses, such as the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), the National Information Center (CNI), and naval intelligence, who are accused as perpetrators and co-perpetrators of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated homicide, illicit association, and application of torture, among other illicit acts.

Specifically, it is made up of

1. Jorge Octavio Vargas Bories (retired Army officer, CNI), sentenced as a co-perpetrator of the murder of Federico Álvarez Santibáñez to 10 years and one day. 2. Rubén Aroldo Morales López (retired Carabineros officer), sentenced to 10 years and one day of major imprisonment as a perpetrator of the aggravated homicide of Jorge Vásquez Matamala. 3.

Luis Enrique Barrueto Bartning, a businessman sentenced to 10 years and one day as a co-perpetrator of seven aggravated kidnappings (forcible disappearances) perpetrated in the Santa Bárbara commune.

To them are added four convicted in the Conferencia II episode:

4. Federico Humberto Chaigneau Sepúlveda (retired Army officer, DINA) 5. José Miguel Meza Serrano (retired Navy official, DINA) 6. Eduardo Alejandro Oyarce Riquelme (retired Army non-commissioned officer, DINA)

All of them are sentenced as co-perpetrators of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Fernando Navarro Allendes and Héctor Véliz Ramírez, to a sentence of 12 years in prison each, to which are added the crimes of simple kidnapping of Juan Fernando Ortiz Letelier, Horacio Cepeda Marinkovic, and Lincoyán Berríos, for which they were sentenced to three years in prison, respectively.

7. Víctor Álvarez Droguett (retired Army official, DINA), sentenced as a co-perpetrator of the crimes of aggravated homicide of Juan Fernando Ortiz Letelier, Horacio Cepeda Marinkovic, and Lincoyán Yalú Berríos Cataldo, to a sentence of 15 years and one day of major imprisonment in its maximum degree.

In addition, he is sentenced as a co-perpetrator of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Fernando Alfredo Navarro Allendes and Héctor Véliz Ramírez, to a sentence of 12 years of major imprisonment in its medium degree.

Additionally, he was convicted as a perpetrator of the crimes of simple kidnapping of Juan Fernando Ortiz Letelier, Horacio Cepeda Marinkovic, and Lincoyán Yalú Berríos Cataldo, to a sentence of three years of minor imprisonment in its medium degree. Finally, Álvarez Droguett faces a 10-year prison sentence for the aggravated kidnapping of Marta Ugarte Román.

8. Alberto Roque del Sagrado Corazón Badilla Grillo, retired Navy officer, who was sentenced as a perpetrator of the aggravated homicide and the application of torture against Enrique López Olmedo, to sentences of 12 years and 541 days respectively.

9. Juan Dionisio Opazo Vera (former conscript) sentenced as a co-perpetrator of 38 aggravated homicides to a sentence of 10 years and one day, in the Paine Case, Main Episode.

10. Nelson Edgardo Hasse Mazzei (retired Army officer) 11. Juan Renán Jara Quintana (retired Army officer), who together with Hasse Mazzei is convicted as a co-perpetrator of the aggravated kidnappings and aggravated homicides of Víctor Jara Martínez and Littré Quiroga Carvajal.

For these crimes, a sentence of 10 years and one day was established for the kidnappings, in addition to 15 years in prison for the crimes.

12. Guillermo Salinas Torres (retired Army officer) 13. Pablo Belmar Labbé (retired Army officer) 14. René Patricio Quilhot Palma (retired Army officer)

In the case of these three fugitives from justice, they were convicted as co-perpetrators of the crimes of aggravated homicide of Carmelo Soria Espinoza, and as perpetrators of an illicit association. For the first charge, a sentence of 15 years and one day was imposed on Salinas Torres, and 10 years and one day on the other two, while for the crime of illicit association, all were sentenced to 541 days in prison.

“Sentences must be fulfilled” Regarding this list, lawyer Francisco Bustos asserts that it is a worrying situation that should be a priority for the authorities. “States have the duty to investigate, judge, and sanction crimes against humanity,” he maintains. “This duty is not exhausted by the mere issuance of a conviction; these sentences must be fulfilled, and in that sense, that there are fugitives for any crime, and especially 14 fugitives for crimes against humanity, represents a serious failure of state duties,” he adds.

Finally, he stressed that “the judiciary and the plaintiffs in proceedings for crimes against humanity must take extreme measures, including the imposition of precautionary measures, in order to avoid this form of impunity.”

Source: eldesconcierto.cl, November 24, 2023