After a year of investigation, special judge Gabriela Corti yesterday ordered the prosecution of five retired Navy officers and one civilian as alleged perpetrators of the aggravated kidnapping of engineer Jaime Aldoney (PS), who has been forcibly disappeared since September 12, 1973.

The case is emblematic for human rights groups in the Fifth Region, as it is one of the few crimes in which Navy personnel are linked to the execution. It also impacts the Navy because, unlike the Army and the Air Force (FACh), it had only a couple of retired officers prosecuted for human rights violations, related to actions of the Joint Command.

Those charged yesterday are retired Rear Admiral Ernesto Huber Von Appen, retired Lieutenants Sergio Iván Mendoza Rojas, Patricio Maximiliano Villalobos Lobos, Pedro Pablo Arancibia Solar, and Jaime Ondargarín Romero, and former corporal Manuel Buch López, currently an official at the Quilpué Municipality.

The former uniformed officers were transported yesterday under the custody of Navy officials and in a vehicle belonging to that institution to the Limache Criminal Court, where they were notified by the magistrate of the indictment.

Also present at the location were deputies and plaintiff lawyers Laura Soto (PPD) and Juan Bustos (PS), and the victim's brother, Gabriel Aldoney, director of the Port Company of Valparaíso, who criticized the Navy for providing "institutional support" to the accused and called on them to collaborate in the case. "We ask that it be the Navy that, in a real gesture toward the country, recognizes the truth and finally tells the family where the remains of Jaime Aldoney are," stated Laura Soto.

Within the military branch, there was no desire to comment on the matter yesterday. However, the Commander-in-Chief, Miguel Angel Vergara—who is currently in Korea—noted last September regarding the eventual prosecution of the officers that "if it is concluded that they must be convicted, we regret it, but justice must be served."

Support from Senator Arancibia

Former Navy Commander-in-Chief and UDI Senator Jorge Arancibia stated yesterday that the retired officers "as long as they are not found guilty, will have my sympathy, my backing, and my support if necessary." The parliamentarian noted that Rear Admiral Huber "is a friend of mine; I have mixed feelings seeing a person of that stature in this situation.

I trust that justice will manage to clear up the doubts." Arancibia added that when he was in the Navy, he did everything possible to find more information about Aldoney, but without success.

Jaime Aldoney was a journalism student and an interventor at the CCU when he was detained by Carabineros in 1973. According to testimonies from the time, he was taken from the Limache police station by Navy personnel to the El Belloto naval air base—which was under Huber's command—where he was tortured and his trail was lost.

Witnesses claim to have seen his corpse on September 26 at the morgue of the Deforme Hospital in Valparaíso. In search of his remains, Judge Corti conducted fruitless excavations in Colliguay last year.

Source: La Tercera, June 12, 2003

Five former Navy officers to be prosecuted

In a matter of days, or perhaps only hours, special judge Gabriela Corti is expected to decree the prosecution of four former Navy officers as responsible for the "aggravated kidnapping" of the former CCU interventor, Limache councilman, civil engineer, and journalist Jaime Aldoney Vargas, brother of the former intendant of Valparaíso, Gabriel Aldoney.

The indictments were requested on October 25 by lawyer and parliamentarian Juan Bustos, one of the plaintiffs in this case, and are based on a large amount of evidence that establishes full conviction of responsibility in the kidnapping of the now retired Navy officers Ernesto Huber von Hapen, Patricio Villalobos Lobos, Manuel Buch López, and Pedro Pablo Arancibia.

In his request, lawyer Bustos asks to prosecute the five retired officers for violation of Article 274 of the Penal Code; that is, for the aggravated kidnapping of Jaime Aldoney, an event recorded on September 12, 1973, in Limache and El Belloto, in the commune of Quilpué.

Aldoney was detained by Carabineros of Limache at the CCU Plant on September 12, 1973, the day after the military coup. He was tortured at the local police station and then sent to the El Belloto Naval Air Base, where he was also subjected to torment by Navy personnel who are fully identified.

At the naval facility, he was seen by numerous detained witnesses and Navy personnel who have testified to having seen him severely injured, in a state of near-agony.

Witnesses and sources close to the case have maintained to this news site that on September 14, 1973, Aldoney was not only in serious condition due to the effects of torture but also suffering from pneumonitis, a product of his long stay in the open without shelter.

Under such circumstances, and with a medical report declaring him terminal, he was loaded onto a small plane (some claim it was a helicopter) while he was still alive.

He allegedly passed away during the journey from Quilpué to the coast, off the coast of Concón, where he was allegedly thrown into the sea.

Source: Piensachile.com, November 22, 2002

Freedom granted to four prosecuted in Aldoney case

The First Chamber of the Court of Appeals, in a unanimous ruling, granted provisional release to four of the six individuals prosecuted for the disappearance of the former CCU interventor in the Fifth Region, Jaime Aldoney Vargas.

Those benefiting from the judicial resolution are retired Rear Admiral Ernesto Huber Von Appen; retired Navy captains Sergio Mendoza and Patricio Villalobos; and retired non-commissioned officer Manuel Buch López.

Meanwhile, civilian Jaime Undargarín and retired Navy captain Pedro Pablo Arancibia Soler remain in detention.

Jaime Aldoney, a socialist militant and civil engineer, was detained on September 12, 1973, in Limache and transferred to the El Belloto naval air base by Navy personnel. There, he was subjected to torture and his trail was lost.

La Nacion Thursday, May 5, 2011

Supreme Court convicts 6 Navy members in Aldoney case

The Supreme Court issued a final sentence in the investigation into the aggravated kidnapping of Jaime Aldoney Vargas, a journalist and former Limache councilman, who was executed starting September 12, 1973, from the El Belloto naval air base.

In a split decision, Second Chamber ministers Nibaldo Segura, Jaime Rodríguez, Rubén Ballesteros, Hugo Dolmestch, and Carlos Künsemüller determined the sentences, accepting the investigation conducted by Valparaíso Court of Appeals minister Julio Miranda Lillo.

The conviction was issued with the dissenting vote of ministers Segura and Ballesteros, who were in favor of accepting the statute of limitations for the criminal action.

The ruling acquitted two of the eight accused in the case due to lack of participation in the events: retired Rear Admiral Ernesto Huber Von Appen and retired officer Manuel Buch López.

Five of the other accused were sentenced to 5 years in prison with the benefit of supervised release. They are Navy captains Patricio Villalobos Lobos, Pedro Arancibia Solar, Jaime Urdangarín Romero, and Germán Valdivia Keller.

Captain Guillermo Vidal Hurtado was sentenced to the same term as an accessory, while retired captain Sergio Mendoza Rojas was given only 4 years, also with supervised release.

In the civil aspect, it was determined that the convicted individuals Valdivia Keller, Arancibia Solar, Urdangarín Romero, and Mendoza Rojas must pay joint compensation of $30,000,000 to Gabriel and Iván Aldoney Vargas, the victim's brothers.

Likewise, the lawsuit against the Chilean Treasury was dismissed, accepting the plea of absolute incompetence of the court.

In the civil aspect, the decision to accept the exception in favor of the Chilean Treasury was adopted with the dissenting vote of ministers Dolmestch and Künsemüller.

The Clinic November 28, 2012

Caribbean country joins human rights trial

Five Navy men prosecuted for murder of Dominican student during dictatorship

The minister of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Julio Miranda, ordered the prosecution of five Navy officials for the aggravated homicide of Dominican citizen Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo, son of politician and academic Ramón Blanco.

The magistrate's decision affects Navy captain Patricio Villalobos Lobos, sergeant major Osvaldo Rey Vergara, first sergeant Víctor Rey Ringele, first corporal Manuel Busch López, and civilian employee Wilfredo Zepeda Iturriaga, all belonging to the naval intelligence unit known as "Ancla 2."

All were charged as perpetrators of the death that occurred in October 1973, following torture on the Navy ship, the Lebu. The body of this Economics student from the University of Chile was found in the vicinity of Colliguay almost a year later by a local resident.

According to the investigation conducted by the magistrate of the port city's appellate court, the naval personnel also took Blanco to a Police Investigations barracks, where they again subjected him to torture.

In the Rettig Report, Blanco appears as a "disappeared person without conviction," which reveals that there was no apparent motive for the naval personnel to end his life.

According to information gathered by this newspaper, the five former Navy men remained in preventive detention after being notified by Minister Miranda.

The investigation carried out by this judge is also part of the crimes and torture committed on the training ship Esmeralda, among which those committed against the English priest Miguel Woodward stand out, for which 14 Navy personnel were also charged in 2010.

Investigations into human rights violations committed by the Navy in the months following the 1973 military coup took longer to begin, unlike others against the DINA, the SIFA, and the CNI.

As of the closing of this edition, Miranda had also reportedly notified two former detectives, but the information could not be officially confirmed by this newspaper.

November 28, 2012

Prosecutions ordered for human rights cases against former Navy officials

The visiting minister of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Julio Miranda Lillo, ordered the prosecution of former Chilean Navy officials as perpetrators of the crime of kidnapping with serious injury in two human rights cases he is currently processing.

In one of the cases, concerning Dominican Republic citizen Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo, the magistrate ordered the prosecution of: Patricio Maximiliano Horacio Valentín Villalobos Lobos, Manuel Alejandro Buch López, Wilfredo Hernán Zepeda Iturriaga, Osvaldo Francisco Rey Vergara, and Víctor Orlando Rey Ringele.

According to the evidence existing in the case, "during the month of September 1973, Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo, a citizen of the Dominican Republic, born on March 15, 1948, an economics student, was detained by a patrol of Navy personnel assigned to the El Belloto Naval Air Base, under the command of 2nd Lieutenant Jorge Ginouves Contreras, in the Barrio Norte sector of the commune of Villa Alemana, near the train station, and was taken to the naval facility to be handed over to personnel of the Intelligence Service of the Naval Aviation Command (COMAVNAV)."

"The victim was initially held in a sector that had been enabled for the detention of civilians inside the Base, where he was subjected to various interrogations at the Air Control Information Office (OICA) by personnel of the Intelligence Service of the Naval Aviation Command (COMANAV)."

"After remaining detained at the El Belloto Naval Air Base, Juan Blanco Castillo was taken to the Quilpué Police Investigations Barracks to remain held in the dungeons of said facility, which are located in the basement, where he was subjected to interrogations and illegitimate coercion by his captors."

"After some time, the victim was taken out of the aforementioned facility with evident signs of physical and psychological abuse in an unknown direction. After a period of 6 months, the Police Investigations of the commune of Quilpué had to go to a sector called curve 'M' in the town of Colliguay, where the discovery of a male corpse (N.N.) took place.

According to the characteristics of the clothing and examination of the corpse, police personnel presumed it to be the Dominican Juan Blanco Castillo, whose autopsy was not located, and the remains were sent to a common grave in the Quilpué Cemetery, thus configuring the crime of kidnapping with serious injury to the person of Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo, a figure provided for and sanctioned in Art. 141 of the Penal Code, in force at the time of the events."

On the other hand, for the kidnapping of the Chilean citizen Ramón Donato Navia Martínez, Guillermo Retamales Ruz and Patricio Villalobos Lobos were charged.

According to the evidence in the case, "it was established that on October 14, 1973, at approximately 9:30 PM, at the residence located at 1557 Antonio Varas Street, Victoria Oriente neighborhood of the commune of Quilpué, Ramón Donato Navia Martínez was detained by Navy personnel assigned to the El Belloto Naval Air Base, who transported him in a red pickup truck to said facility, where he was held, specifically in a patio that had been enabled for the detention of civilians required by the military authority, which was delimited and surrounded by mounds of sand."

"Ramón Donato Navia Martínez was entered into the detention facility just at the moment when there were no detainees, because they were being held in the classroom facilities (CIAN); he was interrogated in the 'well' (a place designated for detainees at the Naval Base) by an official who identified himself with the rank of Lieutenant, regarding the location of weapons he allegedly had in his possession and the names of all his companions and members of the political leadership he belonged to," the resolution adds.

To conclude, it mentions: "regarding the causes of the death of the victim Ramón Donato Navia Martínez, it was established that on October 15, 1973, in the early morning hours, the sentry who was on guard at the Air Reports Office, upon hearing the screams coming from a detainee in the detention facility, immediately left his office carrying an M-1 rifle, noticing at that instant that a person was running from said facility toward the landing strip, ignoring the warnings to stop, upon which the sentry used his weapon, firing only once at the victim."

EFE

November 29, 2012

Retired Navy members prosecuted for death of Dominican in 1973

The victim, Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo, 25, was the son of Dominican politician and academic Ramón Blanco, and was detained and transferred to the "El Belloto" naval air base in Quilpué, a town located about 130 kilometers northwest of Santiago, then taken to the ship Lebu where he was tortured and where he was allegedly killed.

Five retired members of the Navy were prosecuted as perpetrators of the "crime of kidnapping with serious injury" of a young Dominican, which occurred on October 14, 1973, one month after the coup d'état of the late General Augusto Pinochet, judicial sources confirmed to EFE today.

The victim, Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo, 25, was the son of Dominican politician and academic Ramón Blanco, and was detained and transferred to the "El Belloto" naval air base in Quilpué, a town located about 130 kilometers northwest of Santiago.

Subsequently, he was taken to a police barracks and, finally, to the Chilean Navy ship "Lebu," where he was a victim of repeated torture.

After some time, the victim was taken out of the facility in an unknown direction. Six months later, the police found his body in the vicinity of the town of Colliguay and his remains were buried in a common grave in the Quilpué cemetery.

It was lawyer Nelson Morales Chávez who filed two lawsuits in July before the Limache Local Court for these events, one representing the Blanco Castillo family and another on behalf of the Government of the Dominican Republic.

The prosecutions were issued on Tuesday by the judge of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Julio Miranda Lillo.

Those involved are Navy captain Patricio Villalobos Lobos, sergeant major Osvaldo Rey Vergara, 1st sergeant Víctor Rey Ringele, 1st corporal Manuel Busch López, and Wilfredo Zepeda Iturriaga, who worked as a civilian employee of the institution.

The father of the disappeared young man, Blanco Fernández, was a founder of the clandestine "14th of June" movement against the dictator Rafael L. Trujillo (1930-61) and a member of the central committee of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD).

Source: El Mostrador, August 25, 2003

6 military men convicted for crime of Jaime Aldoney in 1973

The longest sentences were four years in prison as perpetrators of the crime, although with the benefit of supervised release.

The Chilean justice system today convicted six retired military men for the aggravated kidnapping of Jaime Aldoney, committed on September 12, 1973, one day after the coup d'état led by Augusto Pinochet (1915-2006).

The special judge of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Julio Miranda, sentenced Patricio Villalobos, Pedro Arancibia, Jaime Urdangarín, and Patricio Valdivia to four years in prison as perpetrators of the crime, although with the benefit of supervised release. In addition, he sentenced Guillermo Vidal and Sergio Mendoza to 320 and 75 days in prison as accessories to the same crime.

Vidal was granted the benefit of conditional remission of the sentence with a one-year observation period of signing in with the Gendarmerie, the entity in charge of the custody of prisoners. Mendoza, for his part, was considered to have served his sentence for the time he spent in preventive detention in 2003.

Finally, Ernesto Huber and Manuel Buch López were acquitted. The magistrate also ordered the prosecuted individuals and the Treasury to pay jointly the equivalent of about 200,000 dollars to each of the plaintiffs in the process.

Source: El Mercurio, November 29, 2007

Caribbean country joins human rights trial

Five Navy men prosecuted for murder of Dominican student during dictatorship

The minister of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Julio Miranda, ordered the prosecution of five Navy officials for the aggravated homicide of Dominican citizen Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo, son of politician and academic Ramón Blanco.

The magistrate's decision affects Navy captain Patricio Villalobos Lobos, sergeant major Osvaldo Rey Vergara, first sergeant Víctor Rey Ringele, first corporal Manuel Busch López, and civilian employee Wilfredo Zepeda Iturriaga, all belonging to the naval intelligence unit known as "Ancla 2."

All were charged as perpetrators of the death that occurred in October 1973, following torture on the Navy ship, the Lebu. The body of this Economics student from the University of Chile was found in the vicinity of Colliguay almost a year later by a local resident.

According to the investigation conducted by the magistrate of the port city's appellate court, the naval personnel also took Blanco to a Police Investigations barracks, where they again subjected him to torture.

In the Rettig Report, Blanco appears as a "disappeared person without conviction," which reveals that there was no apparent motive for the naval personnel to end his life.

According to information gathered by this newspaper, the five former Navy men remained in preventive detention after being notified by Minister Miranda.

The investigation carried out by this judge is also part of the crimes and torture committed on the training ship Esmeralda, among which those committed against the English priest Miguel Woodward stand out, for which 14 Navy personnel were also charged in 2010.

Investigations into human rights violations committed by the Navy in the months following the 1973 military coup took longer to begin, unlike others against the DINA, the SIFA, and the CNI.

As of the closing of this edition, Miranda had also reportedly notified two former detectives, but the information could not be officially confirmed by this newspaper.

Source: The Clinic, November 28, 2012

Prosecutions ordered for human rights cases against former Navy officials

The visiting minister of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Julio Miranda Lillo, ordered the prosecution of former Chilean Navy officials as perpetrators of the crime of kidnapping with serious injury in two human rights cases he is currently processing.

In one of the cases, concerning Dominican Republic citizen Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo, the magistrate ordered the prosecution of: Patricio Maximiliano Horacio Valentín Villalobos Lobos, Manuel Alejandro Buch López, Wilfredo Hernán Zepeda Iturriaga, Osvaldo Francisco Rey Vergara, and Víctor Orlando Rey Ringele.

According to the evidence existing in the case, "during the month of September 1973, Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo, a citizen of the Dominican Republic, born on March 15, 1948, an economics student, was detained by a patrol of Navy personnel assigned to the El Belloto Naval Air Base, under the command of 2nd Lieutenant Jorge Ginouves Contreras, in the Barrio Norte sector of the commune of Villa Alemana, near the train station, and was taken to the naval facility to be handed over to personnel of the Intelligence Service of the Naval Aviation Command (COMAVNAV)."

"The victim was initially held in a sector that had been enabled for the detention of civilians inside the Base, where he was subjected to various interrogations at the Air Control Information Office (OICA) by personnel of the Intelligence Service of the Naval Aviation Command (COMANAV)."

"After remaining detained at the El Belloto Naval Air Base, Juan Blanco Castillo was taken to the Quilpué Police Investigations Barracks to remain held in the dungeons of said facility, which are located in the basement, where he was subjected to interrogations and illegitimate coercion by his captors."

"After some time, the victim was taken out of the aforementioned facility with evident signs of physical and psychological abuse in an unknown direction. After a period of 6 months, the Police Investigations of the commune of Quilpué had to go to a sector called curve 'M' in the town of Colliguay, where the discovery of a male corpse (N.N.) took place.

According to the characteristics of the clothing and examination of the corpse, police personnel presumed it to be the Dominican Juan Blanco Castillo, whose autopsy was not located, and the remains were sent to a common grave in the Quilpué Cemetery, thus configuring the crime of kidnapping with serious injury to the person of Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo, a figure provided for and sanctioned in Art. 141 of the Penal Code, in force at the time of the events."

On the other hand, for the kidnapping of the Chilean citizen Ramón Donato Navia Martínez, Guillermo Retamales Ruz and Patricio Villalobos Lobos were charged.

According to the evidence in the case, "it was established that on October 14, 1973, at approximately 9:30 PM, at the residence located at 1557 Antonio Varas Street, Victoria Oriente neighborhood of the commune of Quilpué, Ramón Donato Navia Martínez was detained by Navy personnel assigned to the El Belloto Naval Air Base, who transported him in a red pickup truck to said facility, where he was held, specifically in a patio that had been enabled for the detention of civilians required by the military authority, which was delimited and surrounded by mounds of sand."

"Ramón Donato Navia Martínez was entered into the detention facility just at the moment when there were no detainees, because they were being held in the classroom facilities (CIAN); he was interrogated in the 'well' (a place designated for detainees at the Naval Base) by an official who identified himself with the rank of Lieutenant, regarding the location of weapons he allegedly had in his possession and the names of all his companions and members of the political leadership he belonged to," the resolution adds.

To conclude, it mentions: "regarding the causes of the death of the victim Ramón Donato Navia Martínez, it was established that on October 15, 1973, in the early morning hours, the sentry who was on guard at the Air Reports Office, upon hearing the screams coming from a detainee in the detention facility, immediately left his office carrying an M-1 rifle, noticing at that instant that a person was running from said facility toward the landing strip, ignoring the warnings to stop, upon which the sentry used his weapon, firing only once at the victim."

Source: MyValparaiso.cl, November 28, 2012

Retired Navy members prosecuted for death of Dominican in 1973

The victim, Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo, 25, was the son of Dominican politician and academic Ramón Blanco, and was detained and transferred to the "El Belloto" naval air base in Quilpué, a town located about 130 kilometers northwest of Santiago, then taken to the ship Lebu where he was tortured and where he was allegedly killed.

Five retired members of the Navy were prosecuted as perpetrators of the "crime of kidnapping with serious injury" of a young Dominican, which occurred on October 14, 1973, one month after the coup d'état of the late General Augusto Pinochet, judicial sources confirmed to EFE today.

The victim, Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo, 25, was the son of Dominican politician and academic Ramón Blanco, and was detained and transferred to the "El Belloto" naval air base in Quilpué, a town located about 130 kilometers northwest of Santiago.

Subsequently, he was taken to a police barracks and, finally, to the Chilean Navy ship "Lebu," where he was a victim of repeated torture.

After some time, the victim was taken out of the facility in an unknown direction. Six months later, the police found his body in the vicinity of the town of Colliguay and his remains were buried in a common grave in the Quilpué cemetery.

It was lawyer Nelson Morales Chávez who filed two lawsuits in July before the Limache Local Court for these events, one representing the Blanco Castillo family and another on behalf of the Government of the Dominican Republic.

The prosecutions were issued on Tuesday by the judge of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Julio Miranda Lillo.

Those involved are Navy captain Patricio Villalobos Lobos, sergeant major Osvaldo Rey Vergara, 1st sergeant Víctor Rey Ringele, 1st corporal Manuel Busch López, and Wilfredo Zepeda Iturriaga, who worked as a civilian employee of the institution.

The father of the disappeared young man, Blanco Fernández, was a founder of the clandestine "14th of June" movement against the dictator Rafael L. Trujillo (1930-61) and a member of the central committee of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD).

Source: EFE, November 29, 2012

Juan Blanco Castillo, the Dominican student murdered in Valparaíso days after the Coup

Dictatorship: In 1972, Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo returned from the former Soviet Union to the Dominican Republic, after studying at the Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow. Upon his arrival at "Las Américas" airport in Santo Domingo, the young Juan Blanco was expelled from the country by Dominican authorities for coming from a communist country, as stated by his father Ramón Blanco, a Dominican politician and academic who had been one of the founders of the "Clandestine 14th of June Movement" that fought against the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo (1930-1961) and was subsequently a member of the central committee of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD).

Juan Blanco thus began a journey through Latin America, arriving first in Venezuela, then in Uruguay, and finally landing in Chile at the beginning of 1973, where he began to militate in the MIR.

On October 14, 1973, at 25 years of age, Juan was detained at his home and transferred to the "El Belloto" naval air base in Quilpué. The detention and torture center was also called Acapulc, El Hoyo, or El Pozo.

Subsequently, he was taken to a Quilpué Police Investigations barracks, where intelligence group officials interrogated and tortured him, using techniques such as applying burning newspaper to his abdomen.

According to the judicial file, Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo was removed from the Quilpué Police Investigations Barracks by the aforementioned intelligence group and transferred to the Quilpué Carabineros Sub-station, being in serious condition as a result of the burns caused to his body. "Due to the complaint that the Chief of that Sub-station expressed to the command of the Naval Command regarding the state of health of Juan Blanco, he was removed from that place by officials of the intelligence group, in an unknown direction, and there has been no news of his whereabouts to date," the document stated.

Witnesses claim he was transferred to the Chilean Navy ship "Lebu," although there is no certainty of that. What is known is that six months after his detention, the police found his body in the vicinity of the town of Colliguay and his remains were buried in a common grave in the Quilpué cemetery.

His family and the Embassy of the Dominican Republic in Chile took legal action for his case, which ended in the prosecution and conviction by the judge of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Julio Miranda Lillo, in November 2022, of Navy captain Patricio Villalobos Lobos, sergeant major Osvaldo Rey Vergara, first sergeant Víctor Rey Ringele, first corporal Manuel Busch López, and Wilfredo Zepeda Iturriaga, who worked as a civilian employee of the institution, to 15 years in prison.

All of them were part of the Navy's intelligence services (Ancla 2).

Source: resumen.cl, August 19, 2023

Supreme Court convicts retired Navy members for kidnapping of minors in 1974

In a unanimous ruling, the Second Chamber of the highest court sentenced Pedro Frioli Otonel, Manuel Buch López, Arístides León Calffas, Guillermo Retamales Ruiz, and Germán Valdivia Keller to 541 days in prison, with the benefit of supervised release, for their responsibility in the crime of simple kidnapping of siblings José Miguel and Isabel Verónica Sánchez Larraín (children at the time of the events).

The crime was committed in August 1974, in the El Belloto sector of the commune of Quilpué.

The Supreme Court sentenced retired Navy members Pedro Victorio Frioli Otonel, Manuel Alejandro Buch López, Arístides León Calffas, Guillermo Retamales Ruiz, and Germán Patricio Valdivia Keller to 541 days in prison, with the benefit of supervised release, for their responsibility in the crime of simple kidnapping of siblings José Miguel and Isabel Verónica Sánchez Larraín (children at the time of the events).

The crime was committed in August 1974, in the El Belloto sector of the commune of Quilpué.

In a unanimous ruling (case roll 21.037-2020), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, and minister María Teresa Letelier—partially accepted the appeal for cassation on the merits filed by the common defense of the convicted Retamales Ruz and Valdivia Keller and, in a replacement sentence, recognized only the mitigating circumstance of the irreproachable prior conduct of the convicted Valdivia Keller.

"That, regarding the protest of the defense that, with respect to the convicted Valdivia Keller, not only was the mitigating circumstance of Article 11 No. 6 of the Penal Code not recognized, but the aggravating circumstance of Article 12 No. 16 of the same body of law was considered configured, despite the fact that at the date of the occurrence of the events his criminal record extract was free of blemishes, it must be pointed out that the justification given by the lower court judges to proceed in such a way is erroneous in that it cites, as a basis for dismissing his irreproachable prior conduct—and incidentally for having the aggravating circumstance of specific recidivism configured—a conviction dating from the year 2014, that is, a criminal reproach determined forty years after the event that has been judged in these records," the ruling maintains.

The resolution adds: "That, such being the case, it arises that the reasons put forward by the court to discard the modifying circumstance of criminal responsibility of irreproachable prior conduct—provided for in Article 11 No. 6 of the Penal Code—and, consequently, to have the aggravating circumstance of Article 12 No. 16 of the Penal Code configured, result contrary to law, since from the reading of the precepts in question it is inferred that the requirement of maintaining an irreproachable prior conduct—as well as that of having been previously convicted by the culprit for a crime of the same species—relates to the behavior prior to the commission of the punishable act that is currently under judgment, so that by having proceeded the lower court judges in the way they did, they incurred in an infringement of the law that has substantially influenced the dispositive part of the ruling, in that they configured with respect to the defendant Valdivia Keller an aggravating circumstance of criminal responsibility that did not apply, denying him in the process the mitigating circumstance of irreproachable prior conduct, which was fully applicable, and incurring in an erroneous and more burdensome determination of the penalty attributed to said defendant," concludes the cassation ruling.

Therefore, it is resolved in the replacement sentence:

"I.- The appealed sentence of December 5, 2017, is confirmed, with the declaration that the accused Germán Patricio Valdivia Keller, Pedro Victorio Frioli Otonel, Manuel Alejandro Buch López, Arístides León Calffas, and Guillermo Retamales Ruz are convicted as perpetrators of the consummated crime of simple kidnapping, described and punished in Article 141, paragraph 1, of the Penal Code, which occurred in the month of August 1974, in the town of El Belloto, commune of Quilpué, to suffer each of them a penalty of five hundred and forty-one (541) days of minor imprisonment in its degree, plus legal accessories.

II.- Meeting with respect to the defendants Germán Patricio Valdivia Keller, Pedro Victorio Frioli Otonel, Manuel Alejandro Buch López, Arístides León Calffas, and Guillermo Retamales Ruz, the requirements provided for in Article 4 of Law No. 18.216, modified by Law No. 20.603, the fulfillment of the corporal sanction imposed is substituted by the penalty of conditional remission for the same term as that of the custodial sanction imposed—five hundred and forty-one days—, with the convicted remaining subject to the discreet observation and assistance before the administrative authority during said period of time."

Kidnapping In the first-instance sentence, the visiting minister of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Jaime Arancibia Pinto, established the following facts:

"That during the month of August 1974, around 12:00 AM, the house of the victims, minors at that time, located in the Seventh Sector of Belloto Sur, was raided by a large number of officials of the Chilean Navy, coming from the El Belloto Naval Air Base.

That the purpose of the raid was to search for and detain the older sister of the victims, who was said to belong to the Communist Youth. At the time the events occurred, the victims were in the care of their older sister, because their mother was working as a private nurse in the city of Viña del Mar.

Despite this, she was taken by the uniformed men to the El Belloto Naval Air Base. That at the moment the naval patrol entered the residence, it caused various damages to the home, in addition to stealing the valuables that were found there.

On several occasions, during the detention of the victims, they were struck with the weapon carried by the uniformed men, while they searched and registered the rooms looking for weapons. The naval patrol was stationed inside the home until the following day, after having slept and consumed all the food that was in the house, thereby keeping the victims kidnapped inside their own home."

Source: pdju.cl, March 3, 2023