5-year prison sentences granted to 13 Army members for the disappearance of two Uruguayan citizens.

The Supreme Court issued a final judgment against 13 retired Army members as co-perpetrators of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Nelsa Zulema Gadea Galán (29) and Julio César Fernández Fernández (27), who have been forcibly disappeared since late 1973.

In a split decision, the Second Chamber of the country's highest court—composed of ministers Milton Juica, Hugo Dolmestch, Haroldo Brito, Juan Eduardo Fuentes, and Lamberto Cisternas—revoked “(…) the appealed judgment of July 25, 2012, written on page 3,062, in the part that acquitted the following accused of the judicial charges: Ricardo Fortunato Judas Tadeo Soto Jerez, Jorge Rosendo Núñez Magallanes, Gladys de las Mercedes Calderón Carreño, Klaudio Erich Kosiel Hornig, Ramón Luis Carriel Espinoza, Fernando Armando Cerda Vargas Rodolfo Toribio Vargas Contreras It is declared in its place that all of them are convicted as co-perpetrators of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Nelsa Zulema Gadea Galán and Julio César Fernández Fernández, to a single penalty of five years of minor imprisonment in its maximum degree, with the accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification for political rights and absolute disqualification for public offices and positions during the term of the sentence, and the payment of court costs.” Likewise, the resolution adds: “The aforementioned judgment is confirmed in all other appealed aspects, with the declaration that the custodial sentence is reduced to five years of minor imprisonment in its maximum degree—for the same crimes indicated in the previous section—for the convicted: Valentín del Carmen Escobedo Azua Raúl Pablo Quintana Salazar Vittorio Orvieto Tiplizky Ramón Acuña Acuña Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda Nelson Patricio Valdés Cornejo David Adolfo Miranda Monardes “Since the requirements contemplated in Law No. 18.216 are met in this case,” it continues, “the alternative benefit of supervised release is granted to all the convicted, who must submit to control by the Gendarmerie for a term of five years and comply with the conditions established in Article 17 of the aforementioned law in the manner determined in the respective Regulation.” Decision agreed upon, regarding the sentence imposed on Gladys Calderón Carreño, with the dissenting votes of ministers Fuentes and Cisternas, who were in favor of acquitting her of the charges, ratifying the first-instance decision. Meanwhile, ministers Juica and Brito deemed it inappropriate to recognize the mitigating circumstance qualified under Article 103 of the Penal Code for the accused, and were therefore in favor of maintaining the appealed judgment in that chapter.

Source: vozciudadananoticias.com, September 10, 2015

Minister Marianela Cifuentes sentences retired military personnel to 10 years in prison for the aggravated kidnapping of an SML official

The minister on extraordinary assignment for human rights violation cases of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, sentenced three retired Army personnel and a doctor who provided services to the military branch for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Luis Alberto Sepúlveda Carvajal.

The illicit act was perpetrated starting September 26, 1973, at the Tejas Verdes School of Military Engineers, located in the commune of San Antonio. In the ruling (case file 28-2009 N), the visiting minister sentenced Raúl Pablo Quintana Salazar, a reserve second lieutenant at the time of the events; Ricardo Fortunato Judas Tadeo Soto Jerez, lieutenant; Ramón Luis Carriel Espinoza, first sergeant; and the then-Army doctor Vittorio Orvieto Tiplitzky to 10 years of effective imprisonment as perpetrators of the crime.

In the resolution, Minister Cifuentes Alarcón established the following facts: "1° That, on September 26, 1973, Luis Alberto Sepúlveda Carvajal, an official of the San Antonio Legal Medical Service (SML), was unlawfully detained by officers of the Chilean Investigative Police, who transported him to the Tejas Verdes School of Military Engineers, being taken at night to the prisoner camp of said military unit, under the charge of Major David Adolfo Miranda Monardes, reserve second lieutenant Raúl Pablo Quintana Salazar, and 1st Sergeant Ramón Luis Carriel Espinoza, all of the Chilean Army, where he remained locked up until the 29th of the same month and year. 2° That on September 29, 1973, at 11:00 PM, Luis Alberto Sepúlveda Carvajal was unlawfully detained at his home by military personnel, who took him back to the prisoner camp of the Tejas Verdes School of Military Engineers, where he remained deprived of liberty until October 13 of the same year, the date on which he was transferred to the San Antonio Prison. 3° That, on repeated occasions, Sepúlveda Carvajal was transferred from the aforementioned prisoner camp and from the San Antonio Prison to the basement of the officers' club at the Tejas Verdes School of Military Engineers, where he was interrogated and subjected to illegitimate coercion, specifically the application of electricity and physical mistreatment, leaving as a sequel severe psychological damage secondary to the traumatic experience lived during his confinement. 4° That the Tejas Verdes School of Military Engineers at that time was under the command of Army Lieutenant Colonel Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda, Major David Adolfo Miranda Monardes, Major Jorge Rosendo Núñez Magallanes, and Major Mario Alejandro Jara Seguel, all deceased. 5° That, on the other hand, the interrogations under illegitimate coercion carried out in the basement of the officers' club of the Tejas Verdes School of Military Engineers were in charge of Major Jorge Núñez Magallanes, Major Mario Jara Seguel, Captain Klaudio Erich Kosiel Hornig, Lieutenant Ricardo Fortunato Judas Tadeo Soto Jerez, 2nd Sergeant Ramón Acuña Acuña, the doctor Vittorio Orvieto Tiplitzky, and Investigative Police inspector Nelson Valdés Cornejo.”

Source: pdju.cl, August 9, 2023

Minister Marianela Cifuentes issues indictment against retired Army members for kidnapping, aggravated homicide, torture, and illicit association

Minister Marianela Cifuentes issued an indictment against former agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) and a doctor for their responsibilities in the crimes of kidnapping, aggravated homicide, torture, and illicit association.

These illicit acts were perpetrated between September 1973 and February 1974 at the Tejas Verdes prisoner camp, in the commune of San Antonio. The minister on extraordinary assignment for human rights violation cases of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes, issued an indictment against former agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) and a doctor who provided services to the military branch for their responsibilities in the crimes of kidnapping, aggravated homicide, torture, and illicit association.

These illicit acts were perpetrated between September 1973 and February 1974 at the Tejas Verdes prisoner camp, in the commune of San Antonio. In the resolution (case file 28-2009), Minister Cifuentes indicted Raúl Pablo Quintana Salazar, Vittorio Orvieto Tiplitzky, and Ramón Luis Carriel as co-perpetrators of the crimes of kidnapping, torture, and aggravated homicide of Oscar Armando Gómez Farías, Ceferino del Carmen Santis Quijada, Jorge Antonio Cornejo Carvajal, Jorge Luis Ojeda Jara, Víctor Fernando Mesina Araya, Florindo Alex Vidal Hinojosa, Carlos Aurelio Carrasco Cáceres, Carlos Alberto Galaz Vera, and Miguel Ángel Moyano Santander, and as perpetrators of the crime of illicit association. Meanwhile, she held Raúl Pablo Quintana Salazar, Vittorio Orvieto Tiplitzky, and Ramón Luis Carriel Espinoza responsible as co-perpetrators of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping and torture against Luis Fernando Norambuena Fernandois and Gustavo Manuel Farías Vargas, and as perpetrators of the crime of illicit association. In the case, Minister Cifuentes charged Bernardo Purto Yarcho as a perpetrator of the crimes of kidnapping and torture against Jorge Luis Ojeda Jara. The minister also issued an indictment against Carlos Óscar Gregorio Evaristo Mardones Díaz, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Richter Aliro Nuche Sepúlveda, and Emilio Robert de la Mahotiere González as perpetrators of the crimes of illicit association and aggravated kidnapping of Ceferino Santis Quijada, Luis Fernando Norambuena Fernandois, and Gustavo Manuel Farías Vargas. The minister directed charges against Ricardo Fortunato Judas Tadeo Soto Jerez as a perpetrator of the crime of illicit association and as a co-perpetrator of the crimes of kidnapping, torture, and aggravated homicide of Oscar Armando Gómez Farías, Jorge Antonio Cornejo Carvajal, Jorge Luis Ojeda Jara, Víctor Fernando Mesina Araya, Florindo Alex Vidal Hinojosa, Carlos Aurelio Carrasco Cáceres, Carlos Alberto Galaz Vera, and as a co-perpetrator of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping and torture against Luis Fernando Norambuena Fernandois, Ceferino del Carmen Santis Quijada, and Gustavo Manuel Farías Vargas. Meanwhile, the minister held Valentín del Carmen Escobedo Azúa responsible as a co-perpetrator of the crimes of kidnapping, torture, and aggravated homicide of Oscar Armando Gómez Farías, Jorge Antonio Cornejo Carvajal, Jorge Luis Ojeda Jara, Víctor Fernando Mesina Araya, and Miguel Ángel Moyano Santander, and as a co-perpetrator of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping and torture against Ceferino del Carmen Santis Quijada, Gustavo Manuel Farías Vargas, and Luis Fernando Norambuena Fernandois. In the resolution, the minister issued an indictment against Ramón Rodrigo de Jesús Capona Kurth, Manuel Jesús Zamorano Cortés, and Gladys de las Mercedes Calderón Carreño as perpetrators of the crime of illicit association and as co-perpetrators of the crimes of kidnapping, torture, and aggravated homicide of Oscar Armando Gómez Farías, Jorge Antonio Cornejo Carvajal, Jorge Luis Ojeda Jara, Víctor Fernando Mesina Araya, Florindo Alex Vidal Hinojosa, Carlos Aurelio Carrasco Cáceres, Carlos Alberto Galaz Vera, and Miguel Ángel Moyano Santander, and as perpetrators of the crimes against Ceferino del Carmen Santis Quijada, Luis Fernando Norambuena Fernandois, and Gustavo Manuel Farías Vargas. Finally, Minister Cifuentes issued an indictment against Eugenio Armando Videla Valdebenito and Cristian Labbé Galilea as perpetrators of the crime of illicit association.

Source: pdju.cl, September 11, 2023

Supreme Court convicts retired military personnel for the application of illegitimate coercion in Tejas Verdes

The Second Chamber rejected the appeals for cassation on the merits filed against the sentences that convicted Raúl Pablo Quintana Salazar, Ramón Luis Carriel Espinoza, Ricardo Fortunato Judas Tadeo Soto Jerez, and Vittorio Orvieto Tiplitzky for their responsibility in three consummated crimes of illegitimate coercion.

These illicit acts were committed between September 1973 and January 1974, at the facilities of the Army's Tejas Verdes School of Military Engineers, in the commune of San Antonio. The Supreme Court rejected the appeals for cassation on the merits filed against the sentences that convicted Raúl Pablo Quintana Salazar, Ramón Luis Carriel Espinoza, Ricardo Fortunato Judas Tadeo Soto Jerez, and Vittorio Orvieto Tiplitzky for their responsibility in three consummated crimes of illegitimate coercion.

These illicit acts were committed between September 1973 and January 1974, at the facilities of the Army's Tejas Verdes School of Military Engineers, in the commune of San Antonio. In split decisions (case files 51.761-2024, 5.963-2025, and 15.255-2025), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of Minister Manuel Antonio Valderrama, ministers María Cristina Gajardo and Eliana Quezada, and acting lawyers Leonor Etcheberry and Carlos Urquieta—confirmed the sentences that convicted Quintana Salazar, Carriel Espinoza, Soto Jerez, and Orvieto Tiplitzky to sentences of 5 years and 4 years of intensive supervised release as perpetrators of the illegitimate coercion applied to Mario López Cisternas and Gustavo del Carmen Flores Quinteros; and 4 years of effective imprisonment for the repeated illegitimate coercion of Hernán Becerra Madrid. In the case of Carriel Soto, the Penal Chamber granted the fulfillment of the sentences under the regime of total house arrest with telematic control (electronic ankle monitor), due to his advanced age and precarious health. In the civil aspect, the Penal Chamber maintained the sentence that ordered the state to pay compensation of $50,000,000 for moral damages to the victim and appellant, Flores Quinteros. “That, in order to dismiss the appeals under analysis, it should be noted that the first and seventh grounds of Article 546 of the Code of Criminal Procedure are argued—strictly speaking—in the same chapter and jointly. As can be observed, the infringement of No. 1 of the aforementioned rule necessarily assumes that the facts were correctly established and that they constitute a crime, in order to also support the ground provided for in 546 No. 7, that is, having violated the laws regulating evidence, disregarding the facts established by the judge, which—on the contrary—are accepted when arguing the first reason for invalidation,” the rulings state. The resolutions add that: “In this regard, it should be noted that the legal condition of this type of appeal does not allow them to be formalized on incompatible grounds, since, if based on them, the court of cassation would be unable to issue a pronouncement without this entailing accepting or rejecting contradictory background information at the same time, nor could it accept one ground in preference to the other, since to do so, it would have to disregard the form in which the appellant himself deduced it in his respective brief, which violates the doctrine supported by the provisions that regulate the appeal for cassation.” “For these reasons, the appeals filed by the defenses of the accused will not prosper,” they emphasize. Likewise, the rulings record: “That, for its part, the defense of Soto Jerez appeals for cassation on the merits, invoking only the seventh ground of Article 546 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, denouncing as violated articles 456 bis, 459, and 457 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, disputing the criminal participation that was considered established. It indicates that the sentence considered it proven that its represented party was part of the group of interrogators, basing this solely on a merit notation in his service record, dismissing the exculpatory evidence that proves that the convicted person did not participate in the events, altering the rules that regulate evidence, and carrying out a true collective objective imputation. For all these reasons, it requests that the appeal be accepted, invalidating the appealed sentence, and issuing in the same act and without a new hearing, but separately, a replacement sentence by which its represented party is acquitted.” For the Penal Chamber: “(…) to dismiss the appeal under study, it is sufficient to point out that, when requesting the acquittal of the convicted person, the formalization brief of the appeal suffers from fundamental defects that impose its rejection. Indeed, as has been stated, only the ground of the seventh numeral of Article 546 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is invoked, which refers only to the infringement of the laws regulating evidence, which alone is not enough to resolve, in the replacement sentence that would proceed to be issued if the appeal were accepted, the acquittal of the convicted person, it being necessary for this to link said ground with another of those established in the indicated precept, since the mere mutation of the facts does not allow this court of cassation to make use of its invalidating powers by determining, ex officio, which of those other grounds—taxatively indicated in the procedural statute of the branch—that denote an erroneous application of the law corresponds to make concurrent, which is sufficient to dismiss the appeals.” “With all this, it should be noted that the appellant questions the assessment executed by the judges, pointing out that it violates the laws regulating evidence and would not allow reaching the condemnatory conclusion arrived at. However, beyond this assertion, it does not denounce as violated any rule related to the assessment of evidence; furthermore, the writer only asserts the existence of an infringement, building the claim on assertions as general as those observed in the ruling and which, in reality, seek for this Court to perform an exercise forbidden in this venue, which is a new assessment of the evidentiary means which, moreover, were duly appraised by the instance judges,” the rulings conclude. The decision that granted the fulfillment of the sentences to Carriel Espinoza under the modality of house arrest was agreed upon with the dissenting votes of the acting lawyers. In the first-instance sentences, the minister on extraordinary assignment for human rights violation cases of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, established that the victims, after being detained, were referred to the Army's School of Military Engineers, located in the Tejas Verdes sector, commune of San Antonio. Once in said military unit, they were subjected to interrogations under torture in the basement of the officers' club. At the time of the events, September 1973 and February 1974, the Tejas Verdes School of Military Engineers was under the command of Army Lieutenant Colonel Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda, seconded by majors David Adolfo Miranda Monardes, Jorge Rosendo Núñez Magallanes, and Mario Alejandro Jara Seguel (all deceased). Meanwhile, in charge of the interrogations were majors Jorge Núñez Magallanes and Mario Jara Seguel, supported by Captain Klaudio Erich Kosiel Hornig, Lieutenant Ricardo Fortunato Judas Tadeo Soto Jerez, 2nd Sergeant Ramón Acuña Acuña, and the doctor Vittorio Orvieto Tiplitzky, among others.

Source: pdju.cl, November 19, 2025