The Court of Appeals of Rancagua also instructed the interrogation of former Director of the uniformed police and former senator Rodolfo Stange, as well as the senior staff of the Dipolcar. The measure was adopted after indicting Julio Verne Acosta and Carlos Bezmalinovic for the aggravated homicide of former FPMR militants Cecilia Magni and Raúl Pellegrin.

The head of criminal investigation support for the Southern Regional Prosecutor's Office, former Carabineros intelligence officer Manuel Espinoza, must be investigated by the minister of the Court of Appeals of Rancagua, Rafael Mera, for his alleged responsibility in the aggravated homicide of FPMR members Cecilia Magni and Raúl Pellegrin, which occurred in 1988 after the latter participated in the attack on the Los Queñes police station in the Seventh Region.

This was determined by the aforementioned appellate court, which reopened the proceedings conducted by Mera—following arguments by Ema Salinas and the lawyer for the State Defense Council (CDE), Marcelo Oyharçabal—and ordered a series of measures aimed at determining the responsibility of a series of other former Carabineros in various illicit acts.

This follows the indictment of Julio Verne Acosta, sub-prefect of Colchagua at the time of the events, and Carlos Bezmalinovic, a former lieutenant of the Special Operations Group (GOPE) of the uniformed police, as authors of the guerrillas' homicides.

Magni and Pellegrin, in addition to being two of the top leaders of the FPMR at the time, were the ones who led the attack on Los Queñes, where police officers on duty were killed. Both were found in the Tinguiririca River with signs of torture.

On Tuesday, there was concern within the Southern Prosecutor's Office among some prosecutors regarding the fate that might befall Espinoza, who is a close advisor for organized crime cases, especially because he is held in high esteem internally.

Sources from the entity indicated that there would be no official statement on the matter, as it is an open investigation.

Along with Espinoza, the appellate court deemed that the former General Director of Carabineros and former senator Rodolfo Stange, who until now had remained unscathed in this judicial process, must be interrogated "in depth."

The magistrates also instructed Mera to establish the criminal responsibility "of Walter Soto Medina (at the time a Carabineros colonel and prefect of Colchagua), and Juan Ernesto Rivera Iratchet (at the time a major in the same institution and commissioner of San Fernando)," the resolution states.

At the time of the crimes, Espinoza was the head of personnel for the OS-4 section of the Carabineros, that is, the Intelligence Directorate (Dipolcar) that traveled to the area with the goal of finding the FPMR members.

For this reason, the judges deemed that the crimes of torture must be investigated, as well as the veracity of the police reports from that period.

The resolution also orders the interrogation of the entire Dipolcar, especially the chief at that time, Colonel Óscar Tapia, and the deputy chief, Commander Hernán Soto.

The ruling is a heavy blow to the work carried out until now by Minister Raúl Mera, who had previously refused twice to reopen the summary proceedings and indict the uniformed officers.

One of the central points of the indictment points to a contradiction between the then-captain of the GOPE, Lorenzo González Cabezas, and Juan Rivera Iratchet, regarding a roll of film that Magni was carrying before she died.

Everything happened when the FPMR members realized they had been discovered. They fled in the opposite direction toward the Tinguiririca River. Behind them was a massive police operation that included the GOPE, Dipolcar, and the personnel of the Seventh Region, among other units.

According to the caretakers of the cabins where the FPMR members were staying, Félix Ugalde and his wife, Florentina Becerra, Magni and Pellegrin were only a few minutes—about ten—ahead of the police contingent, which even had the support of three helicopters and trained dogs. In total, a contingent of nearly 100 people.

It is there that the contradiction of the various officers testifying in the process begins to become implausible regarding investigative logic.

If there was action by third parties in the death of Magni and Pellegrin, and it was only Carabineros teams that were behind the search and pursuit with vast air and ground support; if there were only minutes of difference between the flight of the FPMR members and the arrival of the contingent, it is difficult for the subversives to have been able to escape, bypassing the police cordon.

For this reason, the roll of film that the Carabineros supposedly found hidden behind a bush in a bag that Magni was carrying when she was fleeing her captors aroused the suspicions of the CDE.

Thus, González Cabezas, in a document that appears on pages 560 and 561 of the case file, asserts that this roll of film was obtained during the search of the house where the FPMR members were hiding, which contradicts Rivera Iratchet, who in a report sent to the Military Prosecutor's Office at the time asserts that it was found in a bag behind a bush.

It was thus that González Cabezas, on page 1,358 of the file, provided a version that the plaintiffs and the detectives did not believe. In his testimony, he asserted that due to the "administrative disorder" that existed in the area, he noted all the events that happened in his own notebook and that the discrepancy with the aforementioned report was only generic.

The theses regarding the flight of the FPMR members are unraveling in the file, leaving as the only explanation that they were detained by the Carabineros and thrown into the Tinguiririca River in an area different from the one through which they fled.

This analysis is reinforced by the reports of forensic pathologists María San Martín (page 156), Alberto Teke, and Carmen Cerda, which confirm that the injuries both presented were sustained while they were still alive.

Finally, there is a socio-political report carried out by academic Ricardo Israel, who, through a description of the historical context of the time, makes it clear that the accused Carabineros have, until now, something to hide.

Source: La Nación, October 24, 2007

Former police officers linked to the crime of FPMR members indicted

The Court of Appeals of Rancagua indicted retired Carabineros officers Julio Verne Acosta Chávez and Carlos Mauricio Bezmalinovic Hidalgo for their involvement in the homicides of Raúl Pellegrin Friedmann and Cecilia Magni Camino, members of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR).

The ruling decreed by the appellate court also orders a series of measures in this case, which remained without results for nearly two decades. Among them is the statement of the former General Director of Carabineros, Rodolfo Stange. According to Minister Carlos Aranguiz, there are traces in the process indicating that Stange was aware, at least at a later date.

Magni and Pellegrin were the leaders of an FPMR group that attacked the Los Queñes police station on October 21, 1988, where a Carabineros officer was killed.

The bodies of both appeared in October in the Tinguiririca River, with clear signs of having been tortured before being executed.

Forensic examinations established that, in Magni's case, the dislocations of the 6th and 7th vertebrae, caused by blunt objects, prevent a body from moving, as it causes paraplegic general shock, where the body loses its motor functions.

Another detail is that the wounds on both bodies are similar, which indicates that the torture had been inflicted at the same time, before they were thrown dying into the waters of the Tinguiririca.

Members of the Pellegrin Friedmann and Walker Magni families expressed their satisfaction with the ruling, arguing that "we had already lost hope for something resembling justice, but the mere fact of the court's resolution allows us to breathe for our loved ones; we did everything to find the culprits."

They added that "now we are preparing to remember the year 2008, the 20 years since their death and the 50 years since their birth," a press note states.

With this resolution, the ruling issued by the visiting minister Raúl Mera, who had ordered the closure of the investigation for the nineteenth time and the temporary dismissal of the case, was revoked.

The measure means that the two former uniformed officers will remain in preventive detention in a police unit in Santiago.

MINISTER ARANGUIZ

The president of the Court of Appeals of Rancagua, Minister Carlos Aránguiz, explained that the former General Director of Carabineros, Rodolfo Stange, knew about the death of the two FPMR leaders, Raúl Pellegrin and Cecilia Magni, "Commander Tamara," an event that took place in October 1988 in the Tinguiririca River after the assault on the Los Queñes police station in the Seventh Region.

Minister Aránguiz reiterated his accusations today after it became known that former Carabineros Julio Acosta Chávez and Carlos Bezmalinovic Hidalgo were indicted for the crime of aggravated homicide.

With this resolution, the Rancagua court decided to revoke the resolution that had closed the summary proceedings without indictments. "The Court considered that there were merits to indict the former Carabineros officers that both the plaintiffs and the State Defense Council (CDE) were requesting," said Aránguiz.

Regarding the situation of former General Stange, Carlos Aránguiz indicated that the Rancagua court considered that "there were possibilities to expand this investigation toward other people, among them the former General Director of Carabineros at the date of the events, and that there are traces in the process that the high command was aware at least at a later date."

Regarding the investigation hypothesis, the minister specified that the Carabineros had ordered the operation in which the former FPMR leaders died, "but as it is a trial conducted according to the old system, it has secrecy of investigation."

El Mercurio October 24, 2007

Court orders indictment of former police officers for the Los Queñes case

For their participation in the assassination of two FPMR members.

The Court of Appeals of Rancagua ordered the indictment of two former Carabineros as authors of the aggravated homicide of two militants of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR) who had participated in the attack on the Los Queñes police station (VII Region) on October 21, 1988.

With the ruling, the court revoked the decision of Minister Raúl Mera, who had dismissed the case on two previous occasions against Julio Acosta Chávez, sub-prefect of Colchagua, and Carlos Bezmalinovic Hidalgo, in charge of the Special Police Operations Group (GOPE) at the time of the crimes. Yesterday, arrest warrants were issued for both.

The bodies of Cecilia Magni Camino and Raúl Pellegrin Friedman were found in the Tinguiririca River seven days after the attack, in which Second Corporal Juvenal Vargas died.

According to the ruling, after the capture of Pellegrin and Magni, "they were beaten rudely in vital areas by police officers in charge of their custody and interrogation, while they were subdued and completely defenseless, as a result of which both people received necessarily fatal injuries, with their dying bodies being thrown into the Tinguiririca River, both to complete the homicidal purpose and to simulate death by immersion."

The ruling instructs Minister Mera to study the background accumulated in the case to determine "the feasibility of making effective the criminal responsibility" of Walter Soto Medina, prefect of Colchagua at the time; Juan Ernesto Rivera Iratchet, former commissioner of San Fernando; and Manuel Osvaldo Espinoza Castro, in charge of the OS-4 Intelligence personnel.

The ruling also orders the taking of an investigative statement from Rodolfo Stange, at that time General Director of Carabineros.

El Mercurio November 8, 2007

Supreme Court admits amparo appeal from former Carabinero for the Los Queñes case

The Second Chamber of the Supreme Court declared admissible the amparo appeal presented in favor of one of the Carabineros indicted for the death of FPMR commanders Cecilia Magni and Raúl Pellegrín, which occurred in 1988, one week after the subversive group's attack on the Los Queñes police station, where a police officer died.

The appeal was presented by former Carabinero Carlos Bezmalinovic, indicted as the author of homicide along with former police officer Julio Acosta.

Previously, the Court of Rancagua had declared the amparo inadmissible, after revoking the resolution of Minister Raúl Mera, who had closed the summary proceedings without indictments. According to the appellate court, there was merit to indict the former police officers.

The Supreme Court considered that the facts must be known by other ministers who "are not disqualified." The problem is that the two chambers of the Court of Rancagua have already ruled on the process, so the one in Talca, the legal substitute, must resolve it.

Plenary analyzes Cerda's situation today. In an extraordinary meeting, the plenary of the Court of Appeals of Santiago will analyze today the resolution of Minister Cornelio Villaroel, who acquitted the judge of the Riggs case, Carlos Cerda, of possible disciplinary charges, regarding the criticisms of the Judiciary that he made in the United States after receiving an award from the Gruber Foundation.

The ministers of the appellate court can change the decision of Villarroel, who considered that Cerda's statements to "El Mercurio"—that the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court had caught up and the others had not—do not constitute an "attack" on the highest court, and that the judge has "full right to freedom of opinion."

State Attorney General of Spain with the CDE. In an unprecedented session held at the Diplomatic Academy, the State Defense Council (CDE) worked in conjunction with seven members of the Spanish State Attorney General's Office, their counterpart in that country, who are visiting Chile.

The President of the CDE, Carlos Mackenney, received the director of the Spanish State Attorney General's Office, Joaquín de Fuentes Bardají, on Monday. That day, the delegation also met with the president of the Supreme Court.

Yesterday, meanwhile, the Spaniards were received by the Chamber of Deputies. Tomorrow they will visit the Minister of Justice, Carlos Maldonado. And on Friday, they will hold a meeting with Minister José Antonio Viera-Gallo.

A Mantle of Green Impunity: Court Acquits the Assassins of Cecilia Magni and Raúl Pellegrin

The Court of Appeals of Rancagua ratified the acquittal of four retired Carabineros officials for the deaths of Raúl Pellegrin Friedmann and Cecilia Magni Camino, which occurred between October 25 and 27, 1988, in the mountain area of San Fernando.

These are former Carabineros officers and non-commissioned officers Julio Verne, Carlos Bezmalinovic, Juan Rivera, and Walther Soto, indicted and accused of the double crime.

The Court of Appeals of Rancagua ratified the acquittal of four former Carabineros accused of the death of Raúl Pellegrin Friedmann and Cecilia Magni Camino, which occurred on October 30, 1988, in the Tinguiririca River.

In a unanimous ruling, the ministers of the Second Chamber of the court, Ricardo Pairicán, Carlos Moreno, and the member lawyer Víctor Eberle, confirmed the first-instance resolution that acquitted Julio Verne Acosta, Carlos Bezmalinovic Hidalgo, Juan Rivera Iratchet, and Walther Soto Medina, who were indicted and accused in the case.

According to the ruling, "there is no background information that allows for the determination of the existence of the crime of homicide against Pellegrin Friedmann and Magni Camino, due to the impossibility of determining the participation of third parties in the death of the couple."

Both deceased belonged to the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front and participated in the takeover of the town of Los Queñes by their armed faction. After this incident, their bodies appeared in the Tinguiririca River, which they had allegedly tried to cross without success.

According to the resolution of the Rancagua court, the hypothesis of third-party participation raised by the plaintiff's side could not be proven after years of investigation. The Court's resolution indicates that all instances were exhausted, but it was impossible to reach another conclusion.

According to the ruling, "it could not be established that Raúl Pellegrin and Cecilia Magni were detained by police officers, who proceeded to beat them, only to be thrown into the Tinguiririca River while they were dying, with the object of making their deaths appear as an accident due to their flight," as the accusation stated.

The resolution added that "statements, both from other members of the Manuel Rodríguez Front and from officials pertinent to the police forces deployed in the sector, indeed account for a broad operation, but none of them states that they were able to witness any detention."

Source: Diarioreddigital.cl

Former officers indicted for the death of the top FPMR leader are acquitted

The visiting minister of the Court of Appeals of Rancagua, Raúl Mera, decided to acquit four former Carabineros officers who had been indicted for the homicides of the founder of the FPMR, Raúl Pellegrin Friedmann, and his partner, Cecilia Magni Camino, in the attack on the Los Queñes police station (VII Region) in October 1988.

The magistrate determined the acquittal of Julio Verne Acosta Chávez, Mauricio Bezmalinovic Hidalgo, Juan Ernesto Rivera Iratchet, and Walher Soto Medina, considering that there are no elements that allow for the establishment that the subversives were victims of homicide by the former uniformed officers.

"Article 456 bis of our Code of Penal Procedure requires for conviction, as a first issue, that the conviction that a punishable act has actually been committed has been acquired through legal means of proof.

That is, what has to be proven is the existence of the crime, and then, mere doubt is enough, or, in other words, it is enough that the conviction is not formed, for it to conclude only with acquittal due to the lack of this first requirement," the judge maintains in his ruling.

He adds that in the case of homicides, it is not enough that the death is suspicious or that some elements of the case point to the conclusion that it could have been caused, but rather a higher degree of certainty is required and that there are no insurmountable contradictions. "In sum, it is the caused quality of the death, and not the natural or accidental quality, that has to be proven," he points out.

He also points out that to demonstrate in this trial the existence of two homicides, the whole case rests on the expert reports, because there is no other direct evidence, that is, "there is no testimony whatsoever that refers to violence being exercised against Cecilia Magni and Raúl Pellegrin, that they were thrown into the river, or that they were introduced into it once dead or in a state of agony."

The former Carabineros had been indicted in 2007, when the Court of Appeals of Rancagua resolved that after being captured by the Carabineros, Pellegrin and Magni were beaten "rudely in vital areas by police officers in charge of their custody and interrogation, while they were subdued and completely defenseless, as a result of which both people received necessarily fatal injuries."

Cambio 21 July 23, 2013

Court of Appeals of Rancagua acquitted four retired Carabineros for the deaths of FPMR members

The Court of Appeals of Rancagua ratified the acquittal of four retired Carabineros for the deaths of Raúl Pellegrin Friedmann and Cecilia Magni Camino, which occurred between October 25 and 27, 1988, in the mountain area of San Fernando.

Both deceased belonged to the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front and participated in the takeover of the town of Los Queñes by their armed faction. After this incident, their bodies appeared in the Tinguiririca River, which they had allegedly tried to cross without success.

According to the resolution of the Rancagua court, the hypothesis of third-party participation raised by the plaintiff's side could not be proven after years of investigation. The Court's resolution indicates that all instances were exhausted, but it was impossible to reach another conclusion.

According to the ruling, "it could not be established that Raúl Pellegrin and Cecilia Magni were detained by police officers, who proceeded to beat them, only to be thrown into the Tinguiririca River while they were dying, with the object of making their deaths appear as an accident due to their flight," as the accusation stated.

The resolution added that "statements, both from other members of the Manuel Rodríguez Front and from officials pertinent to the police forces deployed in the sector, indeed account for a broad operation, but none of them states that they were able to witness any detention."

In this way, the judicial acquittal of Julio Verne Acosta Chávez, Mauricio Bezmalinovic Hidalgo, Juan Ernesto Rivera Iratchet, and Walher Soto Medina was confirmed, reported Radio Cooperativa.

July 25, 2013

Carla Pellegrin: “My brother was tortured and murdered along with Cecilia”

Carla Pellegrin Friedmann, younger sister of Raúl Pellegrin, expressed to the press her profound indignation at the recent resolution issued by the Second Chamber of the Court of Appeals of Rancagua. The court acquits of the crime of homicide the former Carabineros Julio Verne Acosta, Carlos Bezmalinovic Hidalgo, Juan Rivera Iratchet, and Walther Soto Medina, who were indicted as responsible for the detention, torture, and murder of the commanders of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR), Raúl Pellegrín and Cecilia Magni, which occurred in October 1988.

The sister of Commander “Rodrigo” stated: “My brother was tortured and murdered along with Cecilia by Mauricio Bezmalinovic, then a lieutenant of the GOPE of Santiago and currently retired. The latest expert report from the SML established scientific (histopathological) evidence of the torture.”

“The visiting minister Raúl Mera informed us that there was no doubt that they had been tortured. However, a sentence has been issued closing the trial, alleging a lack of merit and that they drowned while crossing the Tinguiririca River.

This year, the SML performed a histopathological analysis of samples that were still preserved from the autopsy, and where scientific certainty of the application of electric current is provided.”

Pellegrin expressed to Prensa OPAL her disappointment with this resolution, as the family has the certainty that Carabineros participated in the homicide, a situation that the Court of Appeals has not been able to establish: “Nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing will change the truth; we will now continue to the Supreme Court and if we do poorly there, to the Inter-American Court.

That is within the framework of institutionalized injustice. We lost count of the number of times the process was closed and we reopened it, the number of doors we knocked on, and the number of expert reports and counter-reports.

In October, it will be 25 years since the murder. I will continue shouting at the ‘pacos’ in the street that they have their hands and uniforms stained with blood! And let the whole world know that Mauricio Bezmalinovic is a torturer!”

“It is not possible to extract from all the medical expert reports carried out throughout the investigation, and even in the second instance, the certainty that the deaths of Cecilia Magni and Raúl Pellegrin Friedmann were the consequence of the action of third parties, but rather, only the alternative possibility of an accidental fall into the torrential waters of the river that are capable of producing the injuries found on both bodies,” the ruling states.

Cecilia Magni Camino and Raúl Pellegrin Friedmann, commanders of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR), were captured after the takeover and occupation of four towns: Aguas Grandes, La Mora, Pichipellahuén, and the Los Queñes barracks, in 1988.

Upon dying, Cecilia Magni (Commander Tamara) and Raúl Pellegrín (Commander Rodrigo or José Miguel) were members of the National Directorate of the FPMR.

Both were detained, brutally tortured, and thrown into the Tinguiririca River in an agonizing state so that they would die and disappear. Among the assassins are officers and non-commissioned officers of the Carabineros, some in active service.

Carabineros Special Forces developed a land and air operation, with more than 200 troops, combing the mountain area, looking for the guerrilla detachment that had taken the Los Queñes police station, where a Carabinero died in the confrontation.

In October 1988, Cecilia led, along with Raúl Pellegrin, who was her partner and the main Commander of the FPMR, the takeover of the town of Los Queñes, in the Maule Region. After a betrayal, an important part of the group was captured.

Carabineros combed the area looking for the “top leaders of the FPMR.” Cecilia's body was found lifeless in the Tinguiririca River, with signs of torture on her body and face. Raúl suffered the same fate. According to autopsy reports, Cecilia presented contused injuries and traces of the application of electricity.

Source: El Clarin.cl, October 24, 2007