Judge Carlos Aldana used the classification of aggravated kidnapping.

CONCEPCIÓN.- The minister in charge of exclusive investigations into cases of the forcibly disappeared in the Biobío Region, Carlos Aldana, has initiated prosecution for aggravated kidnapping against two former members of the Navy intelligence group Ancla Dos, a former Carabineros colonel, and a former detective for the detention and disappearance of MIR member Ruy Cárcamo, which occurred in 1974 in Talcahuano.

The resolution affects former corvette captain Hugo González D'Arcageli, former Navy lieutenant Víctor Donoso Barrera, former Carabineros colonel Conrado Cesnic Guerricabeitia, and former detective Osvaldo Harnish Salazar, all of whom were detained. A fifth defendant, former detective Eugenio Garay González, remains at liberty. The decision was received with joy by family members and lawyers.

Source: El Mercurio, September 16, 2005

Four former repressors prosecuted for disappearance of MIR member

In Concepción, Judge Carlos Aldana initiated prosecution and ordered the preventive detention of four former security agents of the military regime involved in the forced disappearance of the worker from Concepción, Rudy Cárcamo Ruiz, a militant of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR).

The accused are José Cáceres González, retired Navy captain; Hugo González Dangeli, retired Navy captain; Conrado Cesnic Guerricabeitia, retired Carabineros colonel; and Osvaldo Harnich Salazar, retired detective.

The four individuals accused of the aggravated kidnapping of the opponent of the military dictatorship were detained, by order of Aldana, in the barracks of their respective institutions. Rudy Cárcamo Ruiz was detained by armed civilians in November 1974, who transported him to a naval base in Talcahuano where he was last seen, according to the accounts of other prisoners who survived.

After Cárcamo's detention, his family filed a writ of amparo, but his arrest was denied by local military authorities, leading to a legal battle that concluded on May 30, 1979, when the Santiago Court of Appeals dismissed the case on the grounds that the existence of a crime had not been proven.

Lawyer Nelly Navarro, of the Ministry of the Interior's Human Rights Program, indicated that the priority now is to determine the whereabouts of the MIR member, as there are "contradictory indications" regarding his fate.

The jurist explained that while some testimonies indicate he was murdered and illegally buried in the Eighth Region, according to a list released by General (ret.) Manuel Contreras, former head of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), Cárcamo was thrown into the sea.

Source: TVN.cl, September 5, 2005

Former Navy captain prosecuted for kidnapping of MIR member

The minister in charge of the Concepción Court of Appeals, Carlos Aldana, initiated prosecution against retired Navy captain José Cáceres Gonzalez as the perpetrator of the aggravated kidnapping of MIR leader and former member of President Salvador Allende's Personal Security Group (GAP), Rudy Cárcamo.

Last Tuesday, Judge Aldana led the reconstruction of the scene of Cárcamo's imprisonment inside the Talcahuano Naval Base, which was decisive in the decision formalized today. Cárcamo was a MIR leader and was captured on November 27, 1974.

He was then taken to the Navy facility, where his trail was lost. For this same case, Minister Aldana interrogated the former head of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), General (ret.) Manuel Contreras, last week, along with seven other high-ranking retired Army and Carabineros officers implicated in various human rights cases currently under investigation in the Eighth Region.

Source: La Nación, February 23, 2006

Appeal regarding light sentences for authors of aggravated kidnapping

Although it was on the docket for the Fourth Chamber of the Concepción Court of Appeals for this Tuesday, the case regarding the aggravated kidnapping of Rudy Cárcamo Ruiz—in which five State agents were sentenced to a suspended 541-day prison term—was ultimately postponed until next week.

This process is one of those that, since 2005, has been handled by the special minister for human rights violation cases, Carlos Aldana, who, after conducting a series of investigations and proceedings, initiated prosecution against the operational command of the Regional Intelligence Center (CIRE).

This command was composed of Navy Captain (ret.) Hugo Nelson González D’Arcangeli, Navy Captain (ret.) José Luis Cáceres González, Petty Officer (ret.) Víctor Ernesto Donoso Barrera, Carabineros Colonel (ret.) Conrado Alfredo Cesnic Guerricabeitia, and Inspector Prefect (ret.) of the Chilean Investigative Police, Osvaldo Francisco Harnish Salazar, as the perpetrators of the aggravated kidnapping of MIR leader Rudy Cárcamo Ruiz on November 27, 1974.

Even though it was established that this was an aggravated kidnapping, as Rudy Cárcamo's body has not been found, Minister Aldana chose to apply what is known as the "half-prescription" of the sentence, which in practice is a substantial reduction of the sentences that, ultimately, are not served in prison, but rather through conditional remission and signing in.

Rudy Cárcamo Ruiz was a community leader in Talcahuano in the period prior to the 1973 coup d'état; he was a prisoner of the Chilean Navy on Quiriquina Island from November 1973 to July 1974, at which time he was released.

Subsequently, on November 27, 1974, he was detained again from his home in the Leonor Mascayano neighborhood in Talcahuano, in the presence of his wife, son, and parents-in-law. Since then, his whereabouts have never been known.

Responsibility for this detention lies with the CIRE Operational Command, directed by Navy Captain Hugo González D’Arcangeli. Cárcamo was interned in the prisoner camp at the Talcahuano Naval Base, where he was tortured, which caused his death.

His body was made to disappear after being illegally buried at the Hualpén Museum. The National Navy acknowledged during the Dialogue Table on Human Rights the execution of Rudy Cárcamo at the Talcahuano Naval Base, indicating that his body had been thrown into the Itata River.

The plaintiff lawyers, representing both the family and the Ministry of the Interior's Human Rights Program, appealed Minister Aldana's ruling, considering that the sentences applied do not correspond to the crime committed.

For the Concepción Human Rights Assembly, this also constitutes a failure by the State of Chile to uphold international conventions signed by the country, which oblige it to prosecute and punish those responsible for crimes against humanity committed by military forces against the civilian population.

Source: Agenciadenoticias.org, September 6, 2011

Sentence confirmed against those responsible for the aggravated kidnapping of Rudy Cárcamo

The Concepción Court of Appeals confirmed the sentence handed down in the first instance by the special minister for human rights cases, Carlos Aldana, against five State agents for the aggravated kidnapping of Rudy Cárcamo, which began on November 27, 1974, in Talcahuano.

On January 15, 2011, Aldana had sentenced the operational command of the Regional Intelligence Center (CIRE)—composed of Navy Captain (ret.) Hugo Nelson González D'Arcangeli, Navy Captain (ret.) José Luis Cáceres González, Petty Officer (ret.) Víctor Ernesto Donoso Barrera, Carabineros Colonel (ret.) Conrado Alfredo Cesnic Guerricabeitia, and Inspector Prefect (ret.) of the Chilean Investigative Police, Osvaldo Francisco Harnish Salazar—to 541 days of imprisonment with conditional remission of the sentence, as perpetrators of the aggravated kidnapping of MIR leader Rudy Cárcamo Ruiz.

Through the judicial investigation, it was established that "Rudy Cárcamo Ruiz was detained during the night of November 27, 1974, without any corresponding judicial or administrative order, at his home located at Calle 6, N° 262, Leonor Mascayano neighborhood, Talcahuano, by civilian personnel belonging to the Armed Forces and transferred to the Intelligence Department of the Second Naval Zone General Staff, an intelligence unit called Ancla 2 or A 2, which operated on the premises of the Talcahuano Naval Base, where the detainee was subjected to interrogations and illegal duress by personnel of the aforementioned intelligence unit, with all news regarding his whereabouts or existence being unknown since that date." During the appeal of the sentence, the lawyers for the convicted requested acquittal and, in the alternative, that all mitigating factors invoked be recognized, and that they be sentenced to 61 days of minor imprisonment with the benefit of conditional remission of the sentence. Meanwhile, the lawyer for the Human Rights Program, Patricia Parra, requested that the gradual prescription not be applied in the manner indicated in the sentence, and that the sanction imposed on the convicted be raised to the maximum penalty contemplated by the legislator. Meanwhile, the Judicial Prosecutor, Gladys Lagos Carrasco, stated that "it is not appropriate to apply the gradual prescription of Article 103 of the Penal Code to the convicted, as it does not favor them, since there is no date from which its temporal start can be calculated." Therefore, she requested that the sentence be confirmed and that the penalties corresponding by law be applied to the convicted. After the rigorous analysis, ministers Freddy Vásquez and Hadolf Ascencio, along with the participating lawyer Jorge Bécar, decided to confirm the sentence handed down by Minister Aldana, considering "that it is adjusted to the merits of the process and has been issued in accordance with the law." However, Minister Hadolf Ascencio was in favor of increasing the custodial sentence imposed on each of the convicted to twenty years of major imprisonment in its maximum degree, plus the corresponding legal accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights, and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence. The imposition of the payment of court costs was also maintained. To justify his opinion, Minister Ascencio based his reasoning on the fact that the convicted do not exhibit an irreproachable prior conduct, as this "is equivalent to having had a life prior without any blemish, which goes beyond the mere absence of a criminal record." Regarding the half-prescription of the sentence, Minister Ascencio points out that "it is not possible to apply it, given that the crime of kidnapping has been proven in the case files, without the victim having appeared, so the effects of the illicit act must be considered permanent over time. Due to the foregoing, it is not possible to calculate the period from which the start of the prescription is to be counted. For the same reason, if there is no certainty regarding the date on which the period for the prescription to begin running is to be counted, one cannot speak of the fact that half of the period required for the institution in question to operate has elapsed."

Source: Tribunadelbiobio.cl, November 29, 2011