Minister Carroza sentences retired Carabineros for homicides committed in 1973.

The Minister on extraordinary mission for human rights violation cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Mario Carroza, handed down a sentence against three retired Carabineros. The Minister on extraordinary mission for human rights violation cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Mario Carroza, handed down a sentence against three retired Carabineros for their responsibility in the qualified homicides of Ramón Beltrán Sandoval, Abraham Romero Jeldres, Rodolfo Rojas González, Juan Inostroza Mallea, and Carlos Ibarra Espinoza, crimes committed in September 1973 in the Portezuelo sector of the Quilicura commune. To that effect, it should be recalled that in the ruling, Magistrate Carroza sentenced Juan Guzmán Valencia, Leonidas Bustos San Juan, and René Ortega Troncoso to 10 years and one day of effective imprisonment as co-authors of the homicides. Likewise, he acquitted Rolando Luengo Luengo due to a lack of participation. By virtue of the evidence recorded during the investigation stage, the Minister was able to prove that "on September 26, 1973, in the northern sector of the Metropolitan Region, Conchalí commune, Carabineros officials belonging to various units of the jurisdiction carried out several procedures without a judicial warrant, some jointly with personnel from the Army and Investigations, in sectors such as Villa Araucanía, the La Arboleda and Carlos Cortés Díaz camps, and the El Cortijo, Eneas Gonel, and Santa Mónica neighborhoods, and detained, without any legal justification, among others, the residents Ramón Bernardo Beltrán Sandoval, Abraham José Romero Jeldres, Rodolfo Ismael Rojas González, Juan Luis Inostroza Mallea, and Carlos Alejandro Ibarra Espinoza. In the early hours of September 27, 1973, officials from the Eneas Gonel Marín precinct, in compliance with orders issued by the head of the police unit, removed the detainees from the barracks and transported them in a pickup truck to the Portezuelo sector, Quilicura commune, where the officials and the detainees got out; they forced the detainees to kneel and executed them by shooting them in the cranial region."

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl, October 1, 2015

Sentences confirmed for homicide and kidnapping cases during the dictatorship

The Santiago Court of Appeals confirmed the sentences handed down in two cases of human rights violations, proceedings that were investigated—in the first instance—by visiting ministers Mario Carroza and Leopoldo Llanos, respectively.

In the first case, the First Chamber of the appellate court increased to 15 years and one day the sentences to be served by retired Carabineros Juan Guzmán Valencia, Leonidas Bustos San Juan, and René Ortega Troncoso for their responsibility in five counts of qualified homicide committed in September 1973 in the Portezuelo sector, Quilicura commune.

Likewise, the chamber confirmed the acquittal of Rolando Luengo Luengo due to a lack of participation in the events. In the first instance, visiting minister Mario Carroza sentenced the three former police officers to 10 years and one day of imprisonment as authors of the homicides of Ramón Beltrán Sandoval, Abraham Romero Jeldres, Rodolfo Rojas González, Juan Inostroza Mallea, and Carlos Ibarra Espinoza.

During the investigation stage, it was proven that: "On September 26, 1973, in the northern sector of the Metropolitan Region, Conchalí commune, Carabineros officials belonging to various units of the jurisdiction carried out several procedures without a judicial warrant, some jointly with personnel from the Army and Investigations, in sectors such as Villa Araucanía, the La Arboleda and Carlos Cortés Díaz camps, and the El Cortijo, Eneas Gonel, and Santa Mónica neighborhoods, and detained, without any legal justification, among others, the residents Ramón Bernardo Beltrán Sandoval, Abraham José Romero Jeldres, Rodolfo Ismael Rojas González, Juan Luis Inostroza Mallea, and Carlos Alejandro Ibarra Espinoza. In the early hours of September 27, 1973, officials from the Eneas Gonel Marín precinct, in compliance with orders issued by the head of the police unit, removed the detainees from the barracks and transported them in a pickup truck to the Portezuelo sector, Quilicura commune, where the officials and the detainees got out; they forced the detainees to kneel and executed them by shooting them in the cranial region." Londres 38 Case In the second case, the Fourth Chamber of the appellate court reduced to 3 years and one day of imprisonment—with the benefit of supervised release—the sentence for DINA agents Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko and Basclay Zapata Reyes for their responsibility in the crime of qualified kidnapping of José Ramírez Rosales, a crime committed starting on July 27, 1974. In the first instance, Minister Leopoldo Llanos sentenced the former State agents to 10 years and one day of imprisonment. In the civil aspect, the appellate court reduced to 50 million pesos the amount the treasury must pay as compensation for moral damages to Nelly Berenguer Rodríguez, the victim's spouse. According to the evidence gathered during the investigation stage, Minister Llanos was able to establish the following sequence of events: "Londres N°38" was a secret detention and torture center located in the center of Santiago that operated from late 1973 until approximately the last days of August 1974, and which held numerous detainees who were interrogated and tortured with different types of flagellation, including the application of electric current on the so-called "parrilla" (grill). They were also taken out of the place to cooperate in other detentions. "On July 27, 1974, around one in the morning, MIR militant José Manuel Ramírez Rosales, an artisan, married, with one child, was detained from his home located in the Villa Carlos Cortés in the La Granja commune. The detention was carried out in the presence of his spouse, Nelly Berenguer Rodríguez, by three individuals in civilian clothes who, posing as Investigations Police officials, indicated to the victim that they would take him to the La Cisterna Investigations Police Station to provide some statements." "Subsequently, Ramírez Rosales was seen by witnesses at the Londres 38 detention center, after which there has been no news of his whereabouts; to date, he has not made contact with his relatives, nor have any steps been taken before State agencies; there is no record of him entering or leaving the country, nor is there any record of his death."

Source: biobiochile.cl, May 5, 2016

First uniformed officer serving a sentence for human rights violations at Colina 1 passes away

During the morning of this Thursday, the first uniformed officer convicted of human rights violations who was serving a sentence at Colina 1, former Carabinero Leonidas Bustos San Juan (87), passed away.

In 2015, Bustos was sentenced to 10 years and 1 day of imprisonment along with Juan Guzmán Valencia and René Ortega Troncoso as co-authors of homicides, following an investigation conducted by visiting minister Mario Carroza that proved his participation as a material author in the detentions and executions of residents carried out in Quilicura on September 26, 1973.

In statements collected by La Tercera, the lawyer for the uniformed officers serving sentences for human rights violations, Raúl Meza, maintained that "following this new death of an inmate who was 87 years old and suffered from a deteriorated health condition due to his advanced age, we make an urgent and pleading humanitarian appeal to President Piñera to immediately grant a presidential pardon to those elderly inmates affected by chronic and terminal illnesses who wish to die with dignity alongside their loved ones." Along with this, he requested that the president "ensure no more inmates die in the country's prisons and that he make the decision to pardon General (R) Orozco (85) and former investigations inspector Altez España (92) while they are still alive, as they have already submitted their presidential pardon requests. The elderly and sick prisoners cannot continue waiting, as their lives are wasting away while waiting for his humanitarian gesture." The facts According to the investigation carried out by Carroza, "on September 26, 1973, in the northern sector of the Metropolitan Region, Conchalí commune, Carabineros officials belonging to various units of the jurisdiction carried out several procedures without a judicial warrant, some jointly with personnel from the Army and Investigations, in sectors such as Villa Araucanía, the La Arboleda and Carlos Cortés Díaz camps, and the El Cortijo, Eneas Gonel, and Santa Mónica neighborhoods, and detained, without any legal justification, among others, the residents Ramón Bernardo Beltrán Sandoval, Abraham José Romero Jeldres, Rodolfo Ismael Rojas González, Juan Luis Inostroza Mallea, and Carlos Alejandro Ibarra Espinoza. In the early hours of September 27, 1973, officials from the Eneas Gonel Marín precinct, in compliance with orders issued by the head of the police unit, removed the detainees from the barracks and transported them in a pickup truck to the Portezuelo sector, Quilicura commune, where the officials and the detainees got out; they forced the detainees to kneel and executed them by shooting them in the cranial region."

Source: theclinic.cl, July 12, 2018

The crime that imprisoned Leonidas Bustos, the uniformed officer convicted of human rights violations who died at Colina 1

The Carabinero (R) who passed away last Thursday participated in the detention and subsequent execution of five residents of the Conchalí commune in one of the many raids carried out in the area following the coup d'état.

In January 2016, the defense for Bustos (87), who was bid farewell with honors by his former comrades, filed an appeal against the sentence, arguing that "he should not be imprisoned" due to a "high risk of sudden death." On September 26, 1973, Carabineros officials—along with Army and Investigations personnel—carried out raids in the Conchalí commune.

In institutional vehicles, they burst through the streets of Villa Araucanía, the El Cortijo, Eneas Gonel, and Santa Mónica neighborhoods, and the La Arboleda and Carlos Cortés Díaz camps. Although the exact number of detainees is unknown, an investigation conducted by Judge Mario Carroza managed to identify five of them: Rodolfo Rojas González (24), Juan Luis Inostroza (19), Carlos Ibarra Espinoza (27), Abraham Romero Jeldres (29), and Ramón Beltrán Sandoval (24).

Without any legal justification, the five residents were arrested by a group of Carabineros belonging to the Eneas Gonel Marín precinct—then dependent on the 5th Precinct—led by Lieutenant René Ortega Troncoso and complemented, among others, by non-commissioned officers Juan Guzmán Valencia and Leonidas Bustos San Juan.

Carroza's investigation managed to prove that the detainees were taken to a soccer field located in the same neighborhood, then taken to the barracks where the uniformed officers worked, and finally removed from there by order of Ortega Troncoso during the early hours of September 27 in a white pickup truck.

The detainees got out of the vehicle at a vacant lot located in Portezuelo (Quilicura). Tied up and on their knees, they were counted by Guzmán Valencia and then shot with carbines in different parts of their bodies, in an act that the case's sentence, released 42 years and one day after the event, qualified with the aggravating circumstance of treachery, "since its authors acted on safe ground, by betrayal, using their weapons and the number of their members to prevent any hint of defense by the detainees." As he acknowledged in his statement, Bustos San Juan participated directly in the execution, specifically when a resident tried to flee after Guzmán Valencia opened fire on the skull of a detainee. At that moment, according to his version given in court, he fired at the instruction of his superior without the certainty of "having hit" the person who tried to escape. The bodies were found hours later by personnel from the Quilicura Outpost and taken to the Legal Medical Service around 5:00 PM. The death certificates established that Beltrán Sandoval died as a result of six bullet wounds received in the skull, gluteus, thigh, and abdomen; Inostroza Mallea from two projectiles that impacted his skull and one in his axillary artery; and Romero Jeldres, Ibarra Espinoza, and Rojas González from shots to the head. Due to this, Bustos San Juan, Valencia Guzmán, and Ortega Troncoso were sentenced to ten years and one day of major imprisonment as co-authors of qualified homicide, served in an unprecedented manner at the Colina 1 penitentiary facility. Meanwhile, a fourth defendant, Rolando Luengo, was acquitted due to a lack of evidence to prove his participation.

LETTER TO MY COMRADE

The death of the Carabinero (R)—which occurred last Thursday as a result of bronchopneumonia, inflammation of the bronchi and lungs—sparked the indignation of his family, the lawyer representing the inmates of Punta Peuco, Raúl Meza, and those who demand the release of those convicted of human rights violations of advanced age.

Bustos' family will even go to the Colina Guarantee Court next Tuesday to file a criminal complaint "for the crime of manslaughter by omission and for cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment against all those who are found guilty," as they consider that his death was marked by "irregularities" in the penal facility, such as the nurse on duty not being present when her intervention was requested or the alleged negligence of a paramedic who supposedly told Bustos "to go sleep" in his cell after examining him, as reported by La Tercera.

His family had already tried to avoid his imprisonment in 2016, when, through lawyer José Ricardi Romero, they filed an appeal against the sentence handed down by Carroza, in which they attached four medical certificates issued by the Carabineros de Chile Social Security Directorate, which warned that Bustos suffered from severe aortic stenosis, chronic arterial hypertension, and deafness, which increased his "possibility of suffering a sudden death." Bustos' former comrades-in-arms who were also convicted of human rights violations reacted to his death through a letter, in which they ask "political and judicial authorities (to) reconsider their partiality in dealing with the future of those of us who gave our lives for the country, when the state ordered us to do so to fulfill the mandate of our superiors, for the good of the country," and in which they lament that "our dear comrade died fighting and imploring for justice to serve, due to his age, his sentence alongside his family, in his home, which never happened." "The officers, non-commissioned officers, and civilian employees (R) of the Army, Air Force, Carabineros, and Investigations who are deprived of liberty are suffering like true soldiers because one of our own has departed without medical attention and far from his home," they added in the missive. According to information published in the press, the 48 prisoners convicted of cases similar to Bustos' paid tribute to him when his coffin left the facility, at which time they formed a unit and sang the song "I Had a Comrade" as a farewell. Among them were Guzmán Valencia and Ortega Troncoso, who tried to distance themselves from the execution of the residents when the former declared that he never fired at the civilians, and when the latter, in charge of the police unit, claimed he was not aware of the background of the case, for which reason he asked to reduce his sentence. However, the Justice system dismissed these versions when they were confronted with cross-examinations with Bustos, who contradicted them and identified them as the material and intellectual authors of the homicides.

Source: theclinic.cl, July 17, 2018