The Supreme Court rejected the application of the statute of limitations (media prescripción) and confirmed the conviction of four former members of the Carabineros for their responsibility in the simple kidnapping and qualified homicide of 19-year-old agricultural worker Segundo Hernán Muñoz Rojas, committed in October 1973 in the commune of Curacaví. by Darío Núñez

In the ruling (case file 33.452-2019), the Second Chamber of the high court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, and lawyer (i) Diego Munita—accepted an appeal for cassation filed by the plaintiffs, rejected the cassation filed by the convicted parties, and, in a replacement sentence, ratified the first-instance ruling that sentenced former Carabineros officer Gerardo Alejandro Aravena Longa to 15 years in prison for his responsibility as the perpetrator of the qualified homicide and three years in prison for his responsibility as the perpetrator of the kidnapping.

Meanwhile, former Carabinero Carlos Patricio Donoso Figueroa must serve a sentence of 5 years and one day in prison as an accomplice to the homicide and 541 days in prison as an accomplice to the kidnapping.

Finally, former Carabineros Eduardo Matías Cabello Villena and Ciro del Carmen González Hernández must serve a sentence of 541 days in prison as perpetrators of the simple kidnapping of the victim.

The Supreme Court considered that a Chamber of the San Miguel Court of Appeals had committed an error in October 2019 by applying the statute of limitations to reduce Aravena Longa's sentence, as it omitted the nature of the crime against humanity committed by the offender, a matter upon which the first-instance ruling by judge Marianela Cifuentes had already pronounced.

In this regard, the Supreme Court's resolution states: "in accordance with international human rights law contained primarily in the Geneva Conventions, the statute of limitations, whether total or gradual, is prohibited regarding crimes committed in cases of non-international armed conflicts.

The same conclusion is reached by collating the norms of the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons with those of the Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, because, in accordance with that regulation, the gradual statute of limitations has the same nature as the total one."

It adds: "For the aforementioned reasons, this court takes into consideration that the estimation of the gradual statute of limitations regarding those responsible for the commission of crimes against humanity affects the principle of proportionality of the sentence, since the gravity of the acts perpetrated with the intervention of State agents determines that the response to the author of the transgression must be consistent with the impairment of the legal interest and the culpability with which they acted."

In March 2019, the judge in charge of human rights cases, Marianela Cifuentes, issued a sentence in which she condemned Aravena Longa, Donoso Figueroa, Cabello Villena, and González Hernández to the same sentences now reinstated by the Supreme Court's ruling.

Regarding this criminal act, the investigation by judge Cifuentes established that on the night of October 11, 1973, Segundo Hernán Antonio Muñoz Rojas was unlawfully detained at his home, located in the Laura Allende camp in the commune of Curacaví, by Lieutenant Gerardo Alejandro Aravena Longa and personnel under his command, including Sergeants Elíseo Santander Ramírez, Manuel del Carmen Espinoza Aguilera, and Benjamín Seguel Ortiz—currently deceased—and Carabinero Ciro del Carmen González Hernández, all assigned to the Curacaví Carabineros Station.

The detainee, Muñoz Rojas, was taken to the Curacaví Station, a police unit under the command of Lieutenant Gerardo Alejandro Aravena Longa, where he was kept locked up and subjected to physical abuse until the early hours of October 14, 1973.

At that time, Lieutenant Aravena Longa, accompanied by 2nd Sergeant Benjamín Seguel Ortiz and police officer Carlos Patricio Donoso Figueroa, transported Muñoz Rojas from the aforementioned police unit to the Esperanza bridge, at Km 4 of the G 68 route, in the commune of Padre Hurtado, where he was executed; by order of Aravena Longa, Carabinero Benjamín Seguel Ortiz fired at him, causing the victim's body to fall into the riverbed.

Subsequently, the corpse was found by third parties at that location and later sent as an unidentified person (NN) to the Legal Medical Service and buried in that condition in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery of Santiago.

Source: resumen.cl, June 17, 2022