Minister Mario Carroza convicts former Army members for the kidnapping of a victim who was illegally buried in Pisagua.

The presiding judge sentenced former officer Luis Guillermo Carrera Bravo and former non-commissioned officer Manuel Gregorio Caballero Villanueva to 541 days in prison as perpetrators of the crime. The minister in charge of human rights violation cases at the Santiago Court of Appeals, Mario Carroza, convicted two retired Army members as perpetrators of the kidnapping of Manuel Sanhueza Mellado, who was illegally detained on July 10, 1974, in Arica, and whose remains were found in a mass grave in Pisagua in 1990.

The presiding judge sentenced former officer Luis Guillermo Carrera Bravo and former non-commissioned officer Manuel Gregorio Caballero Villanueva to 541 days in prison as perpetrators of the crime. In the case of Carrera Bravo, the sentence was considered served due to the time he spent in pretrial detention; meanwhile, Caballero Villanueva was granted the benefit of a conditional suspension of the sentence, with an observation period of 540 days.

During the investigation phase of the case, Minister Carroza established the following facts: That the victim in the case, Manuel Sanhueza Mellado, was detained on July 10, 1974, at his home located in the "Venceremos" neighborhood of the city of Arica, along with his spouse Cecilia Linoska Rojas Orellana, by plainclothes agents, one of whom identified himself as Luis Carrera, claiming to belong to the Military Intelligence Service.

Subsequently, the couple was transported in a jeep to the Rancagua Regiment of that city, where they were separated. On that same date, his father-in-law, Orlando Rojas Vergara, and his sister-in-law, Nieves Berta Rojas Orellana, were also detained after being accused of being communists and were likewise taken to the Regiment.

On the 12th, they were placed at the disposal of the Military Prosecutor; That, subsequently, on July 27, 1974, Sanhueza Mellado, his father-in-law Orlando Rojas, and Raúl Patricio Poblete were transported in a vehicle from the Rancagua Regiment in Arica to the Pisagua Prisoner of War Camp, under the guard of a military patrol commanded by an officer.

Once in the town of Pisagua, at the Carabineros station, before being transferred to the Prisoner Camp, the three detainees were locked in separate cells. That, around 09:00 hours the following day, military personnel removed Orlando Rojas Vergara and Raúl Patricio Poblete from their confinement, loaded them onto a truck, and just as they were preparing to continue the march toward the prisoner camp, their relatives noticed the absence of Manuel Sanhueza Mellado and alerted the officer.

The officer then returned to the police unit to inquire, but upon returning, he stated that the order only referred to the other two. That, consequently, the aforementioned Pisagua Carabineros station was the last place where there was news of the victim, Sanhueza Mellado, until June 1990, when his remains were found in a clandestine mass grave near the cemetery of the town of Pisagua, where he was identified and it was determined that the cause of his death, according to Autopsy Protocol No. 059/90, was gunshot wounds to the thorax.

In the civil aspect, the ruling ordered the State to pay a total indemnity of $150,000,000 to the victim's relatives.

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl, December 30, 2018

Chile Human Rights: Impunity dressed in endless trials and pardons.

The Fifth Chamber of the appellate court sentenced retired Army officer Manuel Caballero Villanueva to a penalty of 5 years and one day in prison as the perpetrator of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Manuel Sanhueza Mellado , who was illegally detained on July 10, 1974, in the city of Arica, and whose remains were found in a mass grave in Pisagua in 1990.

The Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced retired Army officer Manuel Caballero Villanueva to a penalty of 5 years and one day in prison as the perpetrator of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Manuel Sanhueza Mellado, who was illegally detained on July 10, 1974, in the city of Arica, and whose remains were found in a mass grave in Pisagua in 1990.

In the judgment (case file 1,860-2019), the Fifth Chamber of the appellate court—composed of ministers Marisol Rojas, Mireya López, and Alejandro Rivera—increased the sentence that had been issued by the visiting minister Mario Carroza, by reclassifying the crime from simple kidnapping to aggravated kidnapping. " a.

That the victim in the case, Manuel Sanhueza Mellado, was detained on July 10, 1974, at his home located in the 'Venceremos' neighborhood of the city of Arica, along with his spouse Cecilia Linoska Rojas Orellana, by plainclothes agents, one of whom identified himself as Luis Carrera, claiming to belong to the Military Intelligence Service.

Subsequently, the couple was transported in a jeep to the Rancagua Regiment of that city, where they were separated. On that same date, his father-in-law, Orlando Rojas Vergara, and his sister-in-law, Nieves Berta Rojas Orellana, were also detained after being accused of being communists and were likewise taken to the Regiment.

On the 12th, they were placed at the disposal of the Military Prosecutor; b. That, subsequently, on July 27, 1974, Sanhueza Mellado, his father-in-law Orlando Rojas, and Raúl Patricio Poblete were transported in a vehicle from the Rancagua Regiment in Arica to the Pisagua prisoner of war camp, under the guard of a military patrol commanded by an officer.

Once in the town of Pisagua, at the Carabineros station, before being transferred to the Prisoner Camp, the three detainees were locked in separate cells; c. That, around 09:00 hours the following day, military personnel removed Orlando Rojas Vergara and Raúl Patricio Poblete from their confinement, loaded them onto a truck, and just as they were preparing to continue the march toward the prisoner camp, their relatives noticed the absence of Manuel Sanhueza Mellado and alerted the officer.

The officer then returned to the police unit to inquire, but upon returning, he stated that the order only referred to the other two; d. That the aforementioned Pisagua Carabineros station was the last place where there was news of the victim, Sanhueza Mellado, until June 1990, when his remains were found in a clandestine mass grave near the cemetery of the town of Pisagua, where he was identified and it was determined that the cause of his death, according to Autopsy Protocol No. 059/90, was gunshot wounds to the thorax," the ruling details.

The resolution adds: "That, in direct relation to what has been expressed, regarding the allegations of the appellants, opposed in the instance and reiterated in the hearing of the case, these judges keep in mind that the legal classification of the facts described in the previous motive does not conform to that indicated by the judge in the seventh motive of his sentence, in which he considered them characteristic of the figure of simple kidnapping under Article 141 of the Penal Code of the time of the events." For the appellate court: "(...) the truth is that these same facts find a better classification in the crime of aggravated kidnapping, an illicit act described and sanctioned in Article 141 of the Penal Code, in the wording in force at the time of the events, when referring to a victim who was illicitly deprived of their liberty, without a judicial order to justify it, confinement that lasted for more than ninety days and due to the serious damage caused to the person of the kidnapped individual, since for a long time there were no signs of their whereabouts, and only in 1990 were their remains located in a clandestine mass grave in the vicinity of Pisagua."

Source: Piensaprensa.cl, August 2, 2020

Supreme Court increases indemnity to the spouse of a victim executed and illegally buried in Pisagua

In a unanimous ruling, the Second Chamber of the high court set at $100,000,000 the amount of the indemnity that the State must pay to the spouse of Manuel Eduardo Sanhueza Mellado, who was illegally detained on July 10, 1974, in Arica and whose remains were found in a clandestine grave in Pisagua in 1990.

The Supreme Court set at $100,000,000 the amount of the indemnity that the State must pay to the spouse of Manuel Eduardo Sanhueza Mellado, who was illegally detained on July 10, 1974, in Arica and whose remains were found in a clandestine grave in Pisagua in 1990.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 125.650-2020), the Second Chamber of the high court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, minister María Teresa Letelier, and acting lawyer Eduardo Morales—confirmed the challenged sentence issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals, with the declaration that the indemnity amount for the victim's spouse is increased in proportion to the proven damage. "That the nature of the moral damage in question requires that the determination of the monetary amount that allows in some way to repair, mitigate, or help bear the pain caused by the established illicit act, necessarily leads to its determination being carried out prudently. Faced with the need to fix with exactitude and certainty the sum that serves those objectives, this does not mean that such evaluation is arbitrary or capricious, but, on the contrary, that given the lack of norms that provide formulas, guidelines, or uniform and universal methods for all types of situations, the court must analyze each case based on its specificities and particularities, weighing them with caution and moderation, based on the principles of equity, to which numeral 5 of Article 170 of the Code of Civil Procedure alludes, which undoubtedly gives it greater flexibility for said determination, without such exercise implying in any way releasing it from the duty to express the reasons that led to that decision, since in that way what is ordered to be paid by the ruling is justified," the ruling states. "That it is not disputed in the process that Mrs. Cecilia Linoska Rojas Orellana was the spouse of the victim Manuel Sanhueza Mellado and that Mrs. Gladys Sanhueza Mellado and Mrs. Olivia Rosa Sanhueza Mellado were his sisters," it adds. The resolution adds: "That although the first-instance ruling partially granted the indemnity requested regarding each of the plaintiffs, the spiritual affliction caused to the victim's spouse cannot be equated or compared with that experienced by his sisters, given that with the former, a life project was formed that was cut short on the occasion of the crime of aggravated kidnapping and subsequent disappearance until the discovery of his mortal remains in 1990. In this understanding, its amount must be regulated at a considerably higher sum than that established in favor of his sisters." "That, however, and in relation to the victim's sisters, the amount set by the second-instance judges is appropriate and consistent with others set by this Court, so they will be maintained at the same figure decreed in the appealed sentence," the ruling concludes regarding the civil aspect. In the criminal sphere, the high court rejected the appeals filed against the resolution that acquitted one of the accused and, furthermore, did not issue a pronouncement regarding the sentenced individual Manuel Gregorio Caballero Villanueva, who passed away in August 2022, while the appeal was being processed before the Supreme Court. Mass grave In the first-instance ruling, the visiting minister Mario Carroza established the following facts: " a. That the victim in the case, Manuel Sanhueza Mellado, was detained on July 10, 1974, at his home located in the 'Venceremos' neighborhood of the city of Arica, along with his spouse Cecilia Linoska Rojas Orellana, by plainclothes agents, one of whom identified himself as Luis Carrera, claiming to belong to the Military Intelligence Service. Subsequently, the couple was transported in a jeep to the Rancagua Regiment of that city, where they were separated. On that same date, his father-in-law, Orlando Rojas Vergara, and his sister-in-law, Nieves Berta Rojas Orellana, were also detained after being accused of being communists and were likewise taken to the regiment. On the 12th, they were placed at the disposal of the military prosecutor; b. That, subsequently, on July 27, 1974, Sanhueza Mellado, his father-in-law Orlando Rojas, and Raúl Patricio Poblete were transported in a vehicle from the Rancagua Regiment in Arica to the Pisagua prisoner of war camp, under the guard of a military patrol commanded by an officer. Once in the town of Pisagua, at the Carabineros station, before being transferred to the prisoner camp, the three detainees were locked in separate cells; c. That, around 09:00 hours the following day, military personnel removed Orlando Rojas Vergara and Raúl Patricio Poblete from their confinement, loaded them onto a truck, and just as they were preparing to continue the march toward the prisoner camp, their relatives noticed the absence of Manuel Sanhueza Mellado and alerted the officer. The officer then returned to the police unit to inquire, but upon returning, he stated that the order only referred to the other two; and, d. That the aforementioned Pisagua Carabineros station was the last place where there was news of the victim, Sanhueza Mellado, until June 1990, when his remains were found in a clandestine mass grave near the cemetery of the town of Pisagua, where he was identified and it was determined that the cause of his death, according to Autopsy Protocol No. 059/90, is gunshot wounds to the thorax ."

Source: pdju.cl, December 6, 2023