Investigating judge Víctor Montiglio issued indictments this Wednesday against 17 former agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) in the so-called Calle Conferencia case, in a resolution covering crimes committed by the repressive agency between April 2 and September 9, 1976.

The magistrate, who is investigating the repression of the leadership of the Communist Party (PC) during the military dictatorship, charged members of the DINA's Lautaro Brigade for the kidnappings of the married couple Bernardo Araya Zuleta and María Flores Barraza, which occurred on April 2 of that year.

Among those charged are Pedro Vitternich Jaramillo, Eduardo Cabezas Mardones, Jorge Díaz Radulovich, Guillermo Díaz Ramírez, and Orlando Torrejón Gatica. Another group was accused of the disappearances of Jorge Muñoz (husband of the late PC General Secretary Gladys Marín), Mario Zamorano, Uldarico Donaire, Jaime Donato, Elisa Escobar, Lenin Díaz, Eliana Espinoza, and Marta Ugarte, for events that occurred between May 4 and August 9, 1976.

For these events, the judge charged Eduardo Reyes Lagos, José Ojeda Obando, Juvenal Piña Garrido, Carlos Rinaldi Suárez, Heriberto Acevedo, Emilio Troncoso Vivallos, Claudio Pacheco Fernández, Víctor Álvarez Droguett, José Friz Esparza, Eduardo Garea Guzmán, and Rufino Jaime Astorga.

In the case of Marta Ugarte, three former agents were indicted for the crime of qualified homicide, as her body appeared on Los Molles beach after being thrown from a helicopter to dispose of it. Those affected by the judicial decision were Heriberto Acevedo, Emilio Troncoso Vivallos, and Claudio Pacheco Fernández.

Until now, Montiglio had only kept more than 70 DINA agents indicted for the kidnapping of Víctor Díaz, father of the leader of the Association of Relatives of Forcibly Disappeared Detainees (AFDD) Viviana Díaz, so with these indictments, he expands the scope of his investigation.

Source: El Mostrador, May 30, 2007

Indictment issued against Manuel Contreras and the DINA’s "VIP Red" for the disappearance of a couple in Quintero

The investigating judge of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vázquez Plaza, issued an indictment in the investigation into the qualified kidnapping of the married couple Bernardo Araya Zuleta and María Flores Barraza, which occurred starting on April 2, 1976, in the Quintero commune, Valparaíso Region.

The magistrate determined to hold 13 agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) responsible for the qualified kidnapping of the couple, a process that is part of the case known as Conferencia 1.

The agents accused as co-perpetrators are the former director of the DINA, retired general Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, and retired brigadiers Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Carlos López Tapia, and Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko.

Also included are former agents Ricardo Lawrence Mires, Eduardo Garea Guzmán, Pedro Bitterlich Jaramillo, Orlando Altamirano Sanhueza, Eduardo Cabezas Mardones, Jorge Díaz Radulovich, Guillermo Díaz Ramírez, Orlando Torrejón Gatica, and Clara Barros Rojas.

Judge Vásquez points out that according to the case records, “the analyzed evidence establishes that it is legally proven that on April 2, 1976, between 10:30 PM and 11:00 PM, the married couple composed of Bernardo José Araya Zuleta, a former deputy of the Communist Party of Chile, and María Olga Flores Barraza, 64 and 60 years of age respectively, were detained by agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) without an order from a competent authority at their home located at 1220 Barros Luco Street, Quintero commune.

They were taken to the clandestine barracks of that agency, located at 1722 Venecia Street in the Independencia commune, Santiago, a place where they were seen alive by several detainees, with no knowledge of where they were subsequently taken, nor of their current whereabouts,” says the resolution that definitively closes the investigation initiated in 1998 by Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia.

Source: The Clinic, May 7, 2013

Agent alleges that Ricardo Claro financed the DINA

Clues emerge that could link important national businessmen to the financing of Pinochet's political police. A former repressor reveals meetings between the businessman and Manuel Contreras. By Jorge Escalante and Javier Rebolledo.

A new area of human rights investigation promises to reveal the links between important businessmen and the DINA, the political police with which Pinochet devastated the country during the seventies. According to the testimony of an agent who has worked with various investigating judges on political assassination cases, in 1976 the leadership of the repressive agency held meetings with various businessmen seeking financing.

According to a May 2007 judicial statement by former agent Eduardo Cabezas Mardones before judges Víctor Montiglio and Alejandro Madrid, at the beginning of 1977, a meeting took place between Manuel Contreras, Ricardo Claro, and Air Force officer Arturo Ramírez Labbé.

The meeting, according to Cabezas, occurred at the Enoteca on San Cristóbal Hill and the reason was “no longer political, but purely economic.” The agent refers to the hard years of the DINA, when funds to carry out operations began to run low.

Manuel Contreras was being questioned by some members of the general staff and even by the regime's ideologue, Jaime Guzmán. Furthermore, he was having a fight with the head of the Army Intelligence Directorate, General Odlanier Mena, who ended up being the first director of the DINA's successor, the National Information Center (CNI).

According to Cabezas' statement, Contreras created a special brigade that operated in an apartment on Avenida Bulnes in the center of the capital, whose main objective was to raise funds for the organization.

This was directed by the retired Air Force officer, Arturo Ramírez. “The work consisted of Ramírez Labbé having to make contact with important people, such as businessmen. For example, Ricardo Claro. I believe the brigade's job was to have contact with economically powerful people; I was only the driver,” says former agent Cabezas.

The Clinic followed the trail of the DINA's financing networks. "El Mamo" refused to be interviewed about his history alongside Ricardo Claro; Cabezas Mardones did as well. In his current offices on Alcántara, in Las Condes, Arturo Ramírez Labbé also did not want to refer to the subject.

Ramírez Labbé has been a sales manager for the National Aeronautical Enterprise (ENAER) of the Chilean Air Force for El Salvador, Panama, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic, and has held the same role for the Navy's Shipyards and Arsenals (ASMAR) since the beginning of the 2000s.

In 2000, representing ENAER for Central America, he was involved in a controversy over issues of overpricing and payment disputes between the government of the Dominican Republic and this company regarding the purchase of eight Pillán aircraft in 1998.

AT THE “STONE HOUSE”

Another former agent who requested anonymity but is willing to declare what he knows before a judge, and who has provided the most valuable testimonies in recent times to some magistrates, recounted that in the winter of 1976, Colonel Manuel Contreras, along with Miguel Krassnoff, Alejandro Burgos de Beer (Contreras' aide), the deputy director of intelligence Rolf Wenderoth, and the then-head of the Santiago military garrison, General Enrique Morel Donoso, met with the recently deceased Ricardo Claro at the house that the DINA seized from Darío Saint Marie, owner of the newspaper Clarín, in the Cajón del Maipo. According to his testimony to The Clinic, during the meeting, Contreras gave Claro an AK rifle loaded with tracer bullets so he could go out and shoot in the surroundings of the house known as “Casa de Piedra” (Stone House), where a secret DINA barracks operated. “They went up a small hill, and Ricardo Claro amused himself by shooting at pine trunks, watching how the entire trees caught fire. The idea was to demonstrate to the businessman the effectiveness of this type of bullet,” the former agent maintains. The former agent states that he arrived at the location a day earlier along with other members of the Lautaro Brigade to prepare for the meeting. He says that Claro was escorted from Santiago by Contreras' bodyguards, whose surnames and nicknames were Betancourt, "El Loco" Olmedo, "El Negro" Ortega, "El Abuelo" Aedo, and "El Flaco" Leiva. Contreras received the businessman along with his wife, María Teresa Valdebenito, and their children. “Some of the topics Contreras discussed with Claro that evening were about the businessmen who supported leftists against Pinochet. I remember he told him, ‘keep an eye on them,’” the former agent says.

THE MONEY TRAIL

This same former agent who requests protection of his name states that the relationship between "El Mamo" Contreras and Ricardo Claro was deeper. “When our salaries were delayed in the Lautaro Brigade, we were informed that, to pay us, money would be requested from Ricardo Claro.

The DINA paid our remuneration through the front companies Boxer and Asper Limitada. And the businessman deposited the money there,” he says. The requests for money to Claro, the former DINA agent adds, “were made through official letters that were initially signed by Manuel Contreras or Pedro Espinoza (the former second-in-command at DINA), and during the CNI, Álvaro Corbalán continued to do so.” The former agent says that a large part of the monetary support for the DINA was arranged through frequent telephone conversations between Ricardo Claro and Manuel Contreras, via a special line that did not go through the Telephone Company. Furthermore, the former DINA agent continues, Contreras—with the businessman's approval—infiltrated many agents into Claro's companies to detect opponents. This was not the only financing line for the DINA. The agency created front companies to maintain its activities: Pedro Diet Lobos (the most important of all, in charge of a businessman friend of Contreras and in which the group's top brass participated), Elissalde y Poblete, Procin, Complejo Terranova, Panandina de Inversiones, Umansol, and Omega.

Source: The Clinic, December 12, 2008

Judicial testimonies of former agents recall their link to the DINA - Ricardo Claro: the visitor of Paseo Bulnes

He was one of the first businessmen to become a frequent visitor to Paseo Bulnes, although he was already linked to the agency. Many years later, indicted and arrested for the crimes of the Simón Bolívar barracks, Cabezas Mardones recalled in his judicial statements his visits to meet with Manuel Contreras and Ramírez Labbé. “The work consisted of Ramírez Labbé having to make contact with important people from universities and businessmen.

For example, I remember Ricardo Claro (...) On Bulnes, on repeated occasions, I noticed the presence of Mr. Claro, the rector of the University of Chile, and Manuel Contreras. (...) The work was no longer political; it was purely economic.” The new brigade was installed on Paseo Bulnes, near Alonso Ovalle Street.

The final months of 1976 were passing. The DINA still reigned. But dark clouds were appearing on the horizon for its chief, then-Colonel Manuel Contreras. He had managed to triumph in his stark dispute with the head of the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE), General Odlanier Mena.

Mena considered that Contreras was turning the orthodoxy of intelligence into a band of thieves and ruthless murderers. He told Augusto Pinochet more than once. Other members of the general staff held opinions similar to Mena's.

The murder of Orlando Letelier on September 21, 1976, in Washington, authored by Contreras' men, had sealed the fate of the DINA. The United States, one of the main orchestrators of the Military Coup, was this time demanding that Pinochet put an end to his star agency of repression.

Then, for Contreras and his brigades, money began to run low. Pinochet took care to slowly begin cutting their budget with the intention of suffocating them. In that scenario, the last brigade of the DINA was born, and perhaps the least known of the entire period of the four letters with an iron fist: the Economic Brigade.

Contreras spoke with the retired Air Force officer, his personal friend Arturo Ramírez Labbé. He asked him to be the chief. Objective? To connect powerful businessmen and influential people who, from their companies and institutions, would contribute the former and divert the latter—funds for the still-unfinished patriotic mission.

Despite his worries, the head of the DINA still retained the honor of being the most powerful and feared man in Chile after Pinochet. As his aide for all services, including his personal protection and driver, Contreras assigned to Ramírez Labbé a member of the feared Lautaro Brigade: Eduardo Cabezas Mardones, alias "José Luis Ibarra." Mardones came from the Air Force and had stood out for his cunning and brutality from the beginning.

Because of his qualities, he became the bodyguard and "all-terrain" man for Carabineros officer Ricardo Lawrence, the second-in-command of the Delfín Group at the Simón Bolívar extermination barracks. One of the first businessmen to become a frequent visitor to Paseo Bulnes was Ricardo Claro Valdés, who was already linked to the agency.

Many years later, indicted and arrested for the crimes of the Simón Bolívar barracks, the same Cabezas Mardones recalled in his judicial statements Ricardo Claro's visits to Bulnes to meet with Manuel Contreras and Ramírez Labbé. “The work consisted of Ramírez Labbé having to make contact with important people from universities and businessmen.

For example, I remember Ricardo Claro. (...) On Bulnes, on repeated occasions, I noticed the presence of Mr. Claro, the rector of the University of Chile, and Manuel Contreras. (...) The work was no longer political; it was purely economic.” The rector of the University of Chile mentioned corresponds to another of Contreras' trusted men, the legal advisor to the Military Junta, Julio Tapia Falk. “He thanked God for the fact of having some fortune because it enabled him to help certain causes and works ‘until it hurts.’ There are many who can attest to that,” wrote historian Patricia Arancibia Clavel about Claro for Capital magazine, shortly after the businessman's death in 2008.

A THREATENING AGENT

When we called Cabezas Mardones by phone to provide more information about Claro's relationship with the Economic Brigade and to provide names of other collaborating businessmen, he responded threateningly. “I have nothing to talk to you about.

Where did you get my phone number? Don't call me ever again,” and hung up. We dialed the number again and politely asked for a conversation. After a long silence, we heard, “I already told you. Watch yourself with me!” Given the diplomatic farewell, we did not call again.

But Claro's debut in supporting the DINA's cause had occurred quite some time before, when the agency was growing and growing and more and more money was required that could not be covered by the budget granted by the central government.

In a relaxed conversation with former agent Jorgelino Vergara, better known as El Mocito, he reminded us that when he worked as a waiter at Manuel Contreras' house on Pocuro Street at Antonio Varas between 1974 and 1975, Ricardo Claro would come “to have dinner at that house with 'El Mamo.' I learned to know him because I was the one who served him.” In journalist Javier Rebolledo's book La Danza de los Cuervos (The Dance of the Crows), El Mocito recounts that Ricardo Claro not only sometimes paid the salaries of the Lautaro agents, but also, accompanied by the main men of the DINA, fired incendiary bullets from large-caliber rifles in the forests of the Cajón del Maipo. He was invited by Contreras to the Casa de Piedra, which the dictatorship had confiscated from the owner of the newspaper Clarín, Darío Saint Marie, and transferred to the DINA to be used as a place of rest and a temporary prison for detainees.

THE DEPARTURE TO “EXILE”

Time passed and Pinochet was under strong pressure and had to decide the fate of the DINA. By the end of 1976, he simply did not answer the personal official letters that Contreras sent him asking for more money urgently.

In their daily breakfasts, Pinochet explained to him that it was no longer possible. He realized that the detractors of the DINA, who were growing in number, had some reason. But Contreras and his hungry monster kept the country in order for him.

For the dictator, this was of immense value. Finally, Pinochet removed Mena from the DINE. The detractor lost the battle. “But I offer you the embassy in Brazil, Negro, you will be calm there,” he told him.

And Mena left for “exile.” El Negro, as his closest associates affectionately called him, bit the defeat. Although in his thoughts, the spirit of revenge nested. Contreras became convinced that the moment had arrived when they had to start surviving.

The glory days were behind them. The United States continued to pressure with threats to cut off the sale of military equipment if the regime did not put an end to the DINA, which had dared to kill on U.S. soil.

El Mamo knew that they had managed to strike mortal blows to the MIR, the Communist Party, and the socialists. But the repressive appetite was very great. Only three years had passed since the “anti-Marxist war.” The DINA urgently needed more money.

The tentacles of the beast were growing fearsomely. It caused concern and fear within sectors of the Army itself and the other branches of the Armed Forces.

THREE PLANS

Then, Contreras designed three plans that would operate in parallel. One would lead to obtaining their own resources to continue striking the “enemy.” He had to demonstrate to everyone, and especially to Pinochet, that the DINA remained valid and necessary.

For this, he ventured into the formation of front companies, several of them with links in Panama, through the Panamanian lawyer Guillermo Endara, who would later be president of that country between 1989 and 1994.

They were to provide what was necessary to cover part of the expenses of the operational brigades and the payment of informants. Another part would arise from some robberies that the most seasoned agents would have to carry out.

The second plan was the formation of the Economic Brigade, which he achieved successfully. The third was the most Machiavellian. Faced with critics of his organization's brutal methods demanding a return to the classic orthodoxy of military intelligence advocated by General Mena and others, the DINA would demonstrate that they were wrong.

How? By generating the “Marxist subversion” themselves, through nightly bombings in the country's main cities. Then they would have to recognize that the DINA was irreplaceable. That the “subversive” danger still pulsed.

The plans worked as Contreras wanted. The paper companies operated, which engaged in lucrative dark and fraudulent business. Some were Entrecostera Panatlántica, Edice Investment Inc., and South Fishing Corporation.

The bombings bore fruit, at least for a time. They were not very powerful. Some bank branches, public offices, and utility poles were the targets. Criticism appeared against the Investigative Police directed by retired General Ernesto Baeza, another of the enemies of the DINA's methods.

The same doubts of efficiency fell upon the intelligence networks of the Armed Forces and Carabineros. Contreras managed for now to justify the continuity of the iron fist. Of course, at any price. Even acting as bandits and terrorists.

Among the contributions made by businessman friends to “the cause,” there was one that, although modest in material value, had a great effect in supporting Contreras' plans to remain on the throne. A few months before Pinochet finally decided to put an end to the DINA in August 1977 and replace it with the CNI, a “small accident” made it evident that the “Marxist subversion” was maliciously induced.

By order of Contreras, Cabezas Mardones traveled to Concepción to pick up a printing job packed in 50 cardboard boxes. “I loaded the truck and left. But on the road back, a truck sideswiped the van and some boxes flew out.

There I saw that they contained pamphlets with slogans against the military government. It was the dirty politics,” the agent recalled in one of his judicial statements in 2007. The now-deceased judge Víctor Montiglio had indicted him for the crimes of the Simón Bolívar barracks.

By those twists of fate, General Odlanier Mena received a call from Pinochet at the end of July 1977 at the embassy in Brazil. By decree 1878, on August 13 of that year, Pinochet created the National Information Center (CNI).

The DINA disappeared into the storm. With Manuel Contreras arrested in the Military Hospital. The United States was requesting his extradition for the crime of Orlando Letelier. Mena returned to Santiago in glory and majesty to assume the direction of the CNI. The revenge was fulfilled.

Source: El Mostrador, August 1, 2012

“EL MAMO’S” SECRETARY AMONG 53 ACCUSED IN CONFERENCIA CASE

Adriana Rivas, who is sought for extradition from Australia, appears alongside other women, such as the so-called “Doctor Hoffman,” among those charged for the extermination of the leadership of the Communist Party at the hands of DINA brigades.

A stark account, which includes the actions of military personnel in the exhumation of bodies from Cuesta Barriga under the protection of the Carabineros, and the active participation of, among others, the extraditable Adriana Rivas—a former secretary to Manuel Contreras—is included in the indictment by Judge Miguel Vásquez against 53 former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) in the “Calle Conferencia Dos” case.

Rivas remains in Australia and has been subject to an extradition request since Thursday, January 16, by the Supreme Court at the request of the visiting judge who has included her among those charged in these proceedings for the extermination of the second leadership of the Communist Party in 1976.

In September 2013, the woman who formally served as secretary to the director of the DINA made statements to the Australian broadcaster SBS that caused a stir when she said she defended torture and, furthermore, noted that those years when she belonged to the repressive apparatus were the best of her youth.

Considered an agent of the Lautaro Brigade, the woman indicated in that conversation that torture in her country during the regime of Augusto Pinochet was “an open secret” and described it as a “necessary” technique to “break people.”

DOCTOR HOFFMAN IS ALSO AMONG THE ACCUSED

The resolution considers 10 other women, all identified as participants in the torture of political prisoners who were subsequently murdered and forcibly disappeared, including Berta Jiménez, Celinda Aspe, and Gladys Calderón, who allegedly acted by inoculating toxic elements and was known as “Doctor Hoffman.”

Part of the document highlights one of the testimonies which established that “Adriana Rivas and Berta Jiménez were operatives” and that although “on paper all the women were secretaries,” it is noted that “the truth is that they were operatives” and that “Celinda Aspe was the most operative of the female agents.”

ON THE VERGE OF SENTENCING

The process, which is advancing at a rapid pace toward the issuance of sentences, notes that starting on December 13, 1976, DINA brigades captured Fernando Navarro Allendes, Lincoyán Berríos Cataldo, Horacio Cepeda Marinkovic, Fernando Ortiz Letelier, Héctor Véliz Ramírez, and Waldo Ulises Pizarro Molina in various operations.

The construction of the case by the magistrate indicates that all were taken to the Simón Bolívar barracks in La Reina, where they were interrogated under torture and subsequently forcibly disappeared, and that minimal remains of some of these individuals were found at sites of illegal burial.

THE DETAIL WITH THE LIST OF THE ACCUSED

"I. To (1) Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda, (2) Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, (3) Juan Hernán Morales Salgado, (4) Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, (5) Federico Humberto Chaigneau Sepúlveda, (6) Hernán Luis Sovino Maturana, (7) Gladys de las Mercedes Calderón Carreño, (8) Eduardo Antonio Reyes Lagos, (9) Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, (10) José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, (11) Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, (12) Jorge Laureano Sagardía Monje, (13) Héctor Raúl Valdebenito Araya, (14) Bernardo del Rosario Daza Navarro, (15) Sergio Orlando Escalona Acuña, (16) Jorge Lientur Manríquez Manterola, (17) José Miguel Meza Serrano, (18) Luis Alberto Lagos Yáñez, (19) María Angélica Guerrero Soto, (20) Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich, (21) Guillermo Jesús Ferrán Martínez, (22) Jorge Segundo Pichunmán Curiqueo, (23) Orfa Yolanda Saavedra Vásquez, (24) Elisa del Carmen Magna Astudillo, (25) Claudio Orlando Orellana de la Pinta, (26) Eduardo Alejandro Oyarce Riquelme, (27) Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo, (28) Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, (29) Emilio Hernán Troncoso Vivallos, (30) Sergio Hernán Castro Andrade, (31) Teresa del Carmen Navarro Navarro, (32) Juan Edmundo Suazo Saldaña, (33) Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, (34) José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, (35) Carlos Enrique Miranda Mesa, (36) Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, (37) Orlando del Tránsito Altamirano Sanhueza, (38) Gustavo Enrique Guerrero Aguilera, (39) Manuel Antonio Montre Méndez, (40) Guillermo Eduardo Díaz Ramírez, (41) Hiro Álvarez Vega, (42) Celinda Angélica Aspe Rojas, (43) Jorge Hugo Arriagada Mora, (44) Berta Yolanda del Carmen Jiménez Escobar, (45) Carlos Justo Bermúdez Méndez, (46) Eduardo Patricio Cabezas Mardones, (47) Adriana Elcira Rivas González, (48) Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza, (49) Italia Donata Vaccarella Gilio, Camilo Torres Negrier, Joyce Ana Ahumada Despouy, Marilín Melahani Silva Vergara, and José Domingo Seco Alarcón, as co-authors of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Fernando Alfredo Navarro Allendes, committed starting on December 13, 1976, and Lincoyán Yalú Berríos Cataldo, Horacio Cepeda Marinkovic, Juan Fernando Ortíz Letelier, Héctor Véliz Ramírez, committed starting on December 15, 1976.

II: To Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Juan Hernán Morales Salgado, and Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, as co-authors of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Waldo Ulises Pizarro Molina, committed starting on December 15, 1976.

III. To Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Juan Hernán Morales Salgado, Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, Eduardo Antonio Reyes Lagos, Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich, Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, Emilio Hernán Troncoso Vivallos, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Orlando del Tránsito Altamirano Sanhueza, Carlos Enrique Miranda Mesa, Guillermo Eduardo Díaz Ramírez, Eduardo Patricio Cabezas Mardones, Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza, and José Domingo Seco Alarcón, as co-authors of three crimes of aggravated homicide of Juan Fernando Ortiz Letelier, Horacio Cepeda Marinkovic, and Lincoyán Yalú Berríos Cataldo, perpetrated between December 15, 1976, and December 25, 1976, in the city of Santiago."

Source: La Nación, February 7, 2014

Sentence handed down against 28 repressive agents of the dictatorship for the crime of Marta Ugarte

The minister for extraordinary cases of human rights violations of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vázquez Plaza, handed down a first-instance sentence in the investigation into the kidnapping and aggravated homicide of teacher Marta Lidia Ugarte Román, whose body appeared on La Ballena beach, in the Los Molles sector, on September 12, 1976.

In the resolution (case file 2182-1998), Minister Vázquez handed down sentences against the following 28 state agents for their responsibility in the crimes perpetrated between August and September 1976.

The majority of those convicted were agents and leaders of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), and the others were members of the army's aviation command, the body responsible for the execution of the so-called "death flights."

Carlos José Leonardo López Tapia, former army colonel, chief of the Villa Grimaldi torture center at the time of the events, sentenced to 12 years in prison, in addition to the legal accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification from public office and political rights, and absolute disqualification from holding professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and to the payment of court costs, in his capacity as author of the crime of aggravated homicide.

Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, former lieutenant colonel of the Carabineros, chief of the Águila Group of the DINA's Caupolicán Brigade (currently a fugitive from justice), sentenced to 12 years in prison, in addition to the legal accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification from public office and political rights, and absolute disqualification from holding professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and to the payment of court costs, as author of the crime of aggravated homicide.

He must also serve 4 years in prison as author of the crime of simple kidnapping.

Carlos Oscar Gregorio Evaristo Mardones Díaz, former army colonel, chief of the aviation command that carried out the "death flights": 8 years in prison, in addition to the legal accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification from public office and political rights, and absolute disqualification from holding professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and to the payment of court costs, as an accomplice to the crime of aggravated homicide.

Antonio Palomo Contreras, former army brigadier, and Luis Felipe Polanco Gallardo, former army major, members of the aviation command, both sentenced to 5 years in prison, in addition to the legal accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification from public office and political rights, and absolute disqualification from holding professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and to the payment of court costs, as accessories to the crime of aggravated homicide.

Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, former army brigadier, imprisoned in Punta Peuco for countless other convictions for crimes against humanity, sentenced to 4 years in prison, in addition to the legal accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification from political rights and absolute disqualification from public office for the duration of the sentence; and to the payment of court costs, as author of the crime of simple kidnapping.

Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo and Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, former Carabineros non-commissioned officers, both sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison, in addition to the legal accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification from public office and political rights, and absolute disqualification from holding professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and to the payment of court costs, as co-authors of the crime of aggravated homicide.

In addition, they must serve 2 years in prison as authors of the crime of simple kidnapping.

Emilio Hernán Troncoso Vivallos, former Carabineros non-commissioned officer, sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison, in addition to the legal accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification from public office and political rights, and absolute disqualification from holding professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and to the payment of court costs, as co-author of the crime of aggravated homicide.

In addition, one year in prison as author of the crime of simple kidnapping.

For their part, agents Eugenio Jesús Fieldhouse Chávez, Pedro Mora Villanueva, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, José Mario Friz Esparza, Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, Orlando del Tránsito Altamirano Sanhueza, Eduardo Patricio Cabezas Mardones, Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich, Guillermo Eduardo Díaz Ramírez, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Carlos Enrique Miranda Mesa, and Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza were sentenced to one year in prison, in addition to the legal accessory penalties of suspension from public office for the duration of the sentence; and to the payment of court costs, as co-authors of the crime of simple kidnapping.

In addition, agents José Javier Soto Torres, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, and José Domingo Seco Alarcón were sentenced to 61 days in prison, in addition to the legal accessory penalties of suspension from public office for the duration of the sentence; and to the payment of court costs, as accomplices to the crime of simple kidnapping.

Meanwhile, agents Jorge Segundo Madariaga Acevedo, José Nelson Fuentealba Saldías, Hugo Hernán Clavería Leiva, Raúl Alberto Soto Pérez, and Juan Carlos Escobar Valenzuela were acquitted due to a lack of participation in the events.

During the investigation stage, Minister Vázquez managed to prove the following facts:

1.- That Marta Lidia Ugarte Román was a militant of the Communist Party of Chile and a member of the Central Committee of that group, working in the Party's organization during 1976.

2.- That, as a consequence of the military coup of September 11, 1973, she went into hiding because she was sought by intelligence services, living with Elvira Solari Ahumada at the address Callejón Lo Ovalle No. 908 in the commune of La Cisterna, where she had been residing since the aforementioned month of September 1973 for security reasons, given her political militancy.

3.- That, on August 9, 1976, Marta Ugarte Román left the Callejón Lo Ovalle address around 3:00 PM, heading to the office of Dr. Iván Insunza, located on Vicuña Mackenna, to be treated for an infection in her leg caused by a dog bite.

On the way, she met Héctor Acela, now deceased, with whom she walked along Avenida Vicuña Mackenna in the direction of Avenida Matta. He warned her that something strange was happening in the area and that it seemed to be under surveillance, but she insisted on continuing her journey, not knowing that Dr. Iván Insunza had already been detained by intelligence services.

4.- That agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), belonging to the Purén Brigade, whose immediate objective was the tracking, location, and detention of Communist Party militants, proceeded to arrest her without any warrant at the office of Dr.

Insunza, who had been detained previously due to his communist affiliation, an office that was being monitored by security agencies. She was then taken to the clandestine detention center of that agency, known as Villa Grimaldi or Terranova, where she was kept deprived of liberty, interrogated, and subjected to physical duress, being recognized and identified by other detainees who were in the same place at that time.

5.- That the political authorities of the time, belonging to the Ministry of the Interior and the DINA itself, officially denied the detention of Marta Ugarte Román and any knowledge of her whereabouts.

6.- That, while deprived of liberty, she was taken out into the street by agents in order to identify other militants and supporters of the Communist Party, being seen in one of those operations at a residence on Calle Constitución in the commune of Santiago, a place where party meetings were held.

7.- That, approximately on September 9, 1976, Marta Ugarte Román was transferred along with other detainees from the Villa Grimaldi facility to the town of Peldehue by DINA operational agents, where she was killed.

Her body was covered with a sack and tied with wire around her neck, then loaded onto a Puma helicopter of the Army Aviation Command, whose crew consisted of a pilot, co-pilot, a mechanic, and a DINA operational agent. The aircraft took off for the coast, headed out to sea, and then, from a high altitude, dropped her body into the open ocean.

8.- That, on September 12, 1976, on La Ballena beach in the town of Los Molles, the body of Marta Lidia Ugarte Román was found lifeless by Marcel Dupré David, presenting only a piece of cloth and a wire tied around her neck, which was severed, with clear signs of having been subjected to physical duress.

Additionally, she showed signs of needle marks on her arms. The body was taken to the hospital in La Ligua and then to the Legal Medical Service in Santiago for the corresponding autopsies. The first report, dated September 14, 1976, concluded a violent death under homicidal circumstances, where the direct cause of death was polytraumatism and luxofracture of the spine on September 9, 1976; the second expert report, dated October 22, 1976, concluded that the cause of death was thoraco-abdomino-pelvic trauma, and an expansion dated February 22, 2010, determined that the final event that led to her death was asphyxiation by strangulation with wire.

9.- That the Army Aviation Command had its center of operations at the Tobalaba airfield, among others, for the flight of Puma helicopters, which had greater flight and transport capacity, for which the authorization of the highest Army authorities was required, as it was necessary to assign pilots, co-pilots, and mechanics to form the flight crew in advance.

These vessels were used institutionally and regularly, in conjunction with the DINA, for several years to dispose of the bodies of people detained in the various detention centers of that agency, who were taken directly to the Tobalaba airfield or taken to the Peldehue Regiment, to then take flight to the open sea, where they were thrown into the ocean.

Source: resumen.cl, July 1, 2016

Santiago Court sentences 47 former DINA agents for kidnappings and aggravated homicide in Case Conferencia 1

In the sentence (file 2.545-2019), the Sixth Chamber of the appellate court—composed of ministers Graciela Gómez, Andrea Díaz-Muñoz, and minister Matías de la Noi—confirmed the sentence of visiting minister Miguel Vázquez Plaza against those convicted, but modified the sentences by changing the participation of some convicted individuals from complicity to authorship.

The Court of Appeals sentenced 47 former agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for the aggravated kidnappings of Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, Uldarico Donaire Cortez, Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, Lenin Adán Díaz Silva, Víctor Manuel Díaz López, and Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández, and the aggravated homicide of Víctor Díaz López, victims of the so-called Conferencia 1 case.

The ruling sentences Pedro Espinoza Bravo and Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko to 20 years in prison for their responsibility as authors of aggravated kidnappings.

Meanwhile, Emilio Troncoso Vivallos, Claudio Pacheco Fernández, Jorge Díaz Radulovich, Orlando Altamirano Sanhueza, Eduardo Cabezas Mardones, Guillermo Díaz Ramírez, Orlando Torrejón Gatica, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, Carlos Miranda Mesa, Carlos López Inostroza, Lionel Medrano Rivas, Juvenal Piña Garrido, José Ojeda Obando, José Seco Alarcón, Roberto Rodríguez Manquel, and Leonidas Méndez Moreno were sentenced to 15 years in prison as authors of aggravated kidnappings.

Meanwhile, Sergio Escalona Acuña, Gladys Calderón Carreño, and Sergio Pichunmán Cariqueo must serve a sentence of 12 years in prison for the aggravated homicide of Víctor Díaz López and a sentence of 5 years and one day in prison for their responsibility in the aggravated kidnapping of the same victim.

Agent Juan Morales Salgado will serve a sentence of 8 years in prison for his responsibility in the aggravated kidnapping of the victim Díaz López.

Agents Jorge Andrade Gómez and Federico Chaigneau Sepúlveda must serve a sentence of 6 years in prison for their responsibility in the aggravated kidnapping of Víctor Díaz López.

Finally, Elisa Magna Astudillo, Orfa Saavedra Vásquez, Celinda Aspe Rojas, Teresa Navarro Navarro, Berta Jiménez Escobar, Jorge Arriagada Mora, Eduardo Oyarce Riquelme, Ana Vilches Muñoz, Italia Vaccarella Gilio, Jorge Manríquez Manterola, Gustavo Guerrero Aguilera, Luis Lagos Yáñez, María Angélica Guerrero Soto, Sergio Castro Andrade, Pedro Gutiérrez Valdés, Joyce Ahumada Despouy, Hiro Álvarez Vega, José Miguel Meza Serrano, Carlos Bermúdez Mendez, Marilin Silva Vergara, Camilo Torres Negrier, and Juan Suazo Saldaña were sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison as authors of the aggravated kidnapping of Víctor Díaz López.

The appellate court's ruling considers the following facts to increase the sentence and change the participation:

“That for the purpose of determining the quantum of the sentence, the following will be kept in mind:

1.- That in this instance, 8 crimes of aggravated kidnapping have been considered proven, committed against the persons of Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, Uldarico Donaire Cortez, Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, Lenin Adán Díaz Silva, Víctor Manuel Díaz López, and Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández, and the aggravated homicide of Víctor Díaz López.

2.- That Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Emilio Troncoso Vivallos, Claudio Pacheco Fernández, Jorge Díaz Radulovich, Orlando Altamirano Sanhueza, Eduardo Cabezas Mardones, Guillermo Díaz Ramírez, Orlando Torrejon Gatica, Víctor Manuel Alvarez Droguett, Carlos Miranda Mesa, Carlos López Inostroza, Lionel Medrano Rivas, Juvenal Piña Garrido, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, José Domingo Seco Alarcón, Roberto Rodríguez Manquel, and Leonidas Méndez Moreno will be sanctioned as authors of the 8 kidnapping crimes indicated above.

3.- That in turn, Juan Hernán Morales Salgado, Jorge Andrade Gómez, Sergio Escalona Acuña, Gladys Calderón Carreño, Jorge Pichunman Curiqueo, Nelson Herrera Lagos, Federico Chaigneau Sepúlveda, Elisa Magna Astudillo, Orfa Saavedra Vásquez, Celinda Angélica Aspe Rojas, Teresa Navarro Navarro, Berta Jiménez Escobar, Jorge Arriagada Mora, Eduardo Oyarce Riquelme, Ana Vilches Muñoz, Italia Vaccarella Gilio, José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, Gustavo Guerrero Aguilera, Luis Lagos Yáñez, María Angélica Guerrero Soto, Sergio Castro Andrade, Pedro Gutiérrez Valdés, Joyce Ahumada Despouy, Hiro Alvarez Vega, José Miguel Meza Serrano, Carlos Bermúdez Méndez, Marilin Silva Vergara, Camilo Torres Negrier, and Juan Edmundo Suazo Saldaña will be sentenced as co-authors of the aggravated kidnapping of Víctor Díaz Lopez.

4.- That, in addition, the responsibility of Juan Hernán Morales Salgado, Juvenal Piña Garrido, Sergio Escalona Acuña, Gladys Calderón Carreño, and Jorge Pichunman has been established as authors of the aggravated homicide of Víctor Díaz López.

5.- That the crime of aggravated kidnapping, at the date of the events, had assigned the penalty of major imprisonment in any of its degrees, while aggravated homicide had that of major imprisonment in its medium degree to life imprisonment.

6.- That the mitigating circumstance of criminal responsibility of their irreproachable previous conduct favors all the accused,” the ruling states.

It adds: “That for the purposes of regulating the sanction applicable to the accused indicated in No. 1 of the preceding motive, for the 8 crimes of aggravated kidnapping established, in the determination of the penalty to be imposed, the provisions of article 509 of the Code of Criminal Procedure will be applied, regulating a single one for all of them, applying the rule of the second paragraph of the cited article 509, as it is more favorable than the rule of article 74 of the Penal Code, and considering any of the kidnappings for the increase in degree due to reiteration, since all the infractions considered in isolation and with the circumstances of the case have the same punishment assigned by law.”

The sentence also reasons: “That, as previously pointed out, the accused indicated in point 1 of motive 36° benefit from a mitigating circumstance and are not harmed by aggravating circumstances, so that in accordance with the second paragraph of article 68 of the Penal Code, the maximum degree of the penalty indicated in the abstract by the law for each of the kidnapping crimes will not be applied, excluding major imprisonment in its maximum degree.

Subsequently, the entire penal framework will be increased by one degree due to the reiteration, leaving it definitively in major imprisonment in its medium to maximum degrees, regulating the specific amount of the custodial sanction decided regarding each one in consideration of the extent of the harm caused by the illicit acts—disappearance of persons for almost forty-seven years—in accordance with the provisions of article 69 of the Penal Code, and the participation that specifically fell to all those convicted in them, attending to their institutional and operational position.

Consequently, regarding Espinoza Bravo and Krassnoff Martchenko, the sanction to be imposed will be maintained at the quantum established by the first-instance sentencer, attentive to the roles played by both in the planning and perpetration of the cited crimes, to the entity of the harm caused by such conduct, and their rank at the time, elements that allow a more energetic reproach to be directed at them, without the consideration of the recognized mitigating circumstance being able to alter the regulated quantum, given that the criteria enunciated previously allow it to be determined in this way.

In relation to Emilio Troncoso Vivallos, Claudio Pacheco Fernández, Jorge Díaz Radulovich, Orlando Altamirano Sanhueza, Eduardo Cabezas Mardones, Guillermo Díaz Ramírez, Orlando Torrejón Gatica, Víctor Manuel Alvarez Droguett, Carlos Miranda Mesa, Carlos López Inostroza, Lionel Medrano Rivas, Juvenal Piña Garrido, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, José Domingo Seco Alarcón, Roberto Rodríguez Manquel, and Leonidas Méndez Moreno, the penalty to be imposed as co-authors of the eight aggravated kidnappings will be regulated in the high part of the lower degree resulting from the increment operation due to the reiteration of crimes, that is, in the segment of major imprisonment in its medium degree, taking into account for this the gravity of the events, the protection and impunity they enjoyed for all the time elapsed since the commission of the illicit acts, their number, and the extent of the harm caused.”

“That in the case of Juan Hernán Morales Salgado, Jorge Andrade Gómez, Sergio Escalona Acuña, Gladys Calderón Carreño, Jorge Pichunman Curiqueo, Nelson Herrera Lagos, Federico Chaigneau Sepúlveda, Elisa Magna Astudillo, Orfa Saavedra Vásquez, Celinda Angélica Aspe Rojas, Teresa Navarro Navarro, Berta Jiménez Escobar, Jorge Arriagada Mora, Eduardo Oyarce Riquelme, Ana Vilches Muñoz, Italia Vaccarella Gilio, José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, Gustavo Guerrero Aguilera, Luis Lagos Yáñez, María Angélica Guerrero Soto, Sergio Castro Andrade, Pedro Gutiérrez Valdés, Joyce Ahumada Despouy, Hiro Alvarez Vega, José Miguel Meza Serrano, Carlos Bermúdez Méndez, Marilin Silva Vergara, Camilo Torres Negrier, and Juan Edmundo Suazo Saldaña, the sanction to be applied as co-authors of the aggravated kidnapping of Víctor Díaz Lopez will also take into consideration the gravity of the crime, the institutional protection that the accused enjoyed and which prevented both the timely clarification of the event and the establishment of their responsibilities at the time, in addition to the extent of the harm caused, so the sanction to be imposed—excluding the high part of the range, in attention to the concurrence of the modification of criminal responsibility recognized in favor of all of them—will be determined in the high part of the minimum range for the leadership (Morales Salgado), proceeding to regulate the sanction of the remaining ones in reason of their respective responsibilities and institutional positions, which allows for the ratification of what was decided regarding Andrade Gómez and the adjustment of Chaigneau Sepúlveda's situation to that parameter,” the sentence substantiates.

The Court's ruling continues: “That, finally, the sanction to be imposed on Juan Hernán Morales Salgado, Juvenal Piña Garrido, Sergio Escalona Acuña, Gladys Calderón Carreño, and Jorge Pichunman, as authors of the aggravated homicide of Víctor Díaz López, must be individualized separately, as indicated by the judge of the degree, given the impossibility of applying article 509 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in this case, as it is not a crime of the same species as the aggravated kidnapping of said victim, and for which their criminal responsibility has also been made effective.

For its regulation and attending to the consideration of the gravity and cruelty of the event, the time elapsed in their favor and to the detriment of the clarification of the truth, the extent of the harm caused, the rank that Morales Salgado held at the time of the events, the functions executed by him and those deployed by his subordinates, the determination made in the appealed sentence regarding this is shared, without the consideration of the recognized mitigating circumstance being able to alter the regulated quantum, given the factors enunciated previously and which have presided over the determination process carried out, which is why what was resolved in this part will be ratified.”

In the civil aspect, the State was ordered to pay compensation to the victims' families in the amounts detailed in the ruling.

Source: pjud.cl, April 25, 2023