The Curanilahue Court judge, Mauricio Leyton, issued indictments against Guillermo Arturo Cofré Silva, Luis Hernán Zúñiga Guzmán, José Arnoldo Bustos Vivanco, and René Orlando Rodríguez Salgado as material authors of the aggravated kidnapping of Marta Edith Vásquez Fredes, a merchant and member of the Communist Party who was detained on October 23, 1973.

The magistrate of the Eighth Region determined that the four defendants, retired officers and non-commissioned officers of the Carabineros, had direct participation in the events that took place shortly after the military coup.

The judge, based on the expert reports and investigations of the case, established that the woman was detained on October 23, 1973, when she voluntarily presented herself at the Curanilahue police station, as she was being sought, just like her siblings.

At the moment she presented herself at the police station, Marta Edith Vásquez, then 25 years old, disappeared, and her whereabouts remain unknown to this day. This led the magistrate to invoke Article 141 of the Penal Code to charge them as defendants and order their immediate imprisonment, without the right to provisional release.

The victim is remembered in the area as a person who always worked to help her siblings. Over time, she set up a fruit and vegetable stand at the local market, which helped to supplement the family income.

Source: La Nación, Thursday, May 19, 2005

Court ratifies ruling for the 1973 kidnapping of a woman

The sentence was ratified yesterday by the Court of Appeals of the Biobío Region, which in a unanimous ruling—signed by ministers Guillermo Silva, Irma Bavestrello, and Claudio Gutiérrez—upheld the resolution of the visiting judge Carlos Aldana.

Retired Carabineros officer Guillermo Cofré Silva was sentenced to five years and one day in prison and ordered to pay 50 million pesos for the aggravated kidnapping of María Edith Vásquez Fredes, an event that occurred in October 1973 in the city of Curanilahue, VIII Region.

In July 2007, the magistrate acquitted José Bustos Vivanco, René Rodríguez Salgado, and Luis Hernán Zúñiga Guzmán due to a "lack of participation" in the events, but sentenced Cofré Silva to the prison term and the payment of fifty million pesos to the victim's six siblings.

María Edith Vásquez Fredes, a merchant and member of the Communist Party, was detained on October 23, 1973, after voluntarily presenting herself at the city's police station upon learning that one of her siblings had been detained and was being tortured during police efforts to locate her.

Her trail was lost after she entered the police facility, but there are two witnesses who saw her at the moment she presented herself at the station.

Source: La Nación, September 5, 2008

Former Carabinero sentenced for kidnapping following Pinochet's coup

The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court sentenced retired Carabineros officer Guillermo Cofré Silva to five years and one day in prison for the aggravated kidnapping of Communist Party member María Edith Vásquez Fredes, which occurred in October 1973 in the city of Curanilahue, Bío Bío Region.

In a split decision, the ministers of the highest court, Nibaldo Segura, Jaime Rodríguez, Rubén Ballesteros, Hugo Dolmestch, and the acting lawyer Luis Bates, determined that the former officer bears responsibility as an author of the crime.

Furthermore, the magistrates ratified that the convicted man must pay compensation of 50 million pesos to each of the victim's six siblings for the moral damages caused.

Despite the evidence presented by the plaintiffs, the ruling included the dissenting votes of ministers Segura and Ballesteros, who were in favor of accepting the statute of limitations for the criminal action.

According to the case file, Vásquez Fredes was detained on October 23, 1973, after she voluntarily presented herself at the city's police station upon learning that the police had detained and tortured her siblings in order to capture her.

Source: La Nación, September 9, 2009

Supreme Court ratifies final judgment for the aggravated kidnapping of a Curanilahue merchant

By three votes to two, the Second Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court rejected the appeal that sought to annul the ruling of the Concepción Court of Appeals, which had acquitted three defendants of the aggravated kidnapping of Edith Vásquez Fredes, which occurred in October 1973, and only sentenced one individual to five years and one day in prison.

Thus, the sentence against Guillermo Cofré Silva was confirmed as the author of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of María Vásquez, which began on October 23, 1973, in Curanilahue, Bío Bío Region.

In a split decision (docket 6308-2008), the ministers of the Second Chamber of the highest court, Nibaldo Segura, Jaime Rodríguez, Rubén Ballesteros, Hugo Dolmestch, and the acting lawyer Luis Bates, adopted their decision, which also ratified that the convicted man must pay compensation of $50,000,000 (fifty million pesos) to each of the victim's six siblings for the moral damages caused.

The ruling was adopted with the minority decision of ministers Segura and Ballesteros, who were in favor of accepting the statute of limitations for the criminal action.

Part of the ruling indicates that Luis Hernán Zúñiga Guzmán, José Arnoldo Bustos Vivanco, and René Orlando Rodríguez Salgado were acquitted of the charges brought against them during the investigation, while "the defendant Guillermo Arturo Cofré Silva was sentenced to five years and one day of major imprisonment in its minimum degree, relevant legal accessories, and the payment of court costs, for his responsibility as an author of the aforementioned crime of aggravated kidnapping of María Edith Vásquez Fredes, provided for and sanctioned in Article 141 of the Penal Code, perpetrated on October 23, 1973, in the commune of Curanilahue."

On that date, María Edith Vásquez Fredes, a street vendor, was detained by Carabineros personnel at the Curanilahue Police Station, without a competent judicial order, and her whereabouts have remained unknown since that date.

The resolution adopted by the Concepción Court of Appeals on September 3, 2008, justifies the decision to release Bustos, Rodríguez, and Zúñiga from charges "because they only participated in a subsequent raid on the Vásquez Fredes family home, and Cofré Silva is the only one who indicates that they were also present at the site where the victim was interrogated, which leads the court to conclude that there is insufficient evidence to prove that the three named individuals had material and direct participation in the illegal detention of the woman, nor in the subsequent interrogation, such that the standard of incriminating conviction to demonstrate their culpable participation was not reached."

Likewise, "it is asserted that no intellectual or material convergence was proven between the author (Cofré Silva) and the three acquitted individuals in the commission of the injustice that could lead to studying potential co-authorship, since the group leader and hierarchical superior was Cofré Silva, who, moreover, confessed to his intervention and acknowledged that it was two military personnel who submerged the detainee's head in water, and her whereabouts have been unknown since that date."

At the same time, it is stated that "the mere circumstance of accompanying Cofré Silva six years after the events occurred, in search of the kidnapped woman's remains, is not sufficient to consider the participation of Zúñiga, as it was not established that she had effectively died on that occasion, nor were any remains found."

For these and other considerations, "the appeals in form and substance filed by lawyer Patricia Parra Poblete, representing the Program for the Continuation of Law No. 19.123, against the ruling of the Concepción Court of Appeals of September 3, 2008, are rejected, and therefore, it is not null."

It is added that the criminal conviction was agreed upon against the votes of Ministers Segura and Ballesteros, who were in favor of acting ex officio to annul the higher court's ruling and proceed to issue a replacement sentence that would revoke the first-instance ruling regarding the rejection of the statute of limitations for the criminal action.

Source: Tribunadelbiobio.cl, September 10, 2009