Three new indictments were issued today by special judge Juan Guzmán Tapia within the framework of the Caravan of Death case. The resolution affects the former intendant of Antofagasta in 1974, General (ret.) Adrián Ortiz Cuttman, Colonel (ret.) Juan Chiminelli, and Carlos López Tapia.

The first two face charges for their responsibility in 14 political executions of political prisoners perpetrated in the Second Region, who were executed in the Way ravine. As for López, he was accused of the death of four dissidents to the military regime in the Cauquenes area, Seventh Region.

Among them were Claudio Lavín and Pablo Vera. One of the victims' relatives, Rosa Silva, daughter of Mario Silva Iriarte—who was the manager of CORFO in the Second Region at the time of the events—considered that the resolution establishes that the Caravan of Death "was not just Sergio Arellano Stark and other people, but a large delegation." The so-called Caravan of Death, aboard a Puma helicopter, arrived in Cauquenes on October 4, 1973.

Twelve days later, it arrived in La Serena, where the 15 executed individuals were taken from the city's regiment. The special judge, Juan Guzmán, has investigated the responsibility of high-ranking Army officers in the executions and clandestine burial of nearly 70 political prisoners.

The magistrate has personally supervised the exhumation of mass graves, tasks that have allowed for the identification of 50 bodies.

Source: La Nación, March 16, 2004

Caravan Case: Latest Indictments Foreshadow Closure of the Case

Special judge Juan Guzmán Tapia issued five new indictments in the so-called "Caravan of Death" case, which suggests that the summary of the case, which has been under investigation since 1998, is close to closing.

The magistrate charged—for the third time—his cousin, Colonel (ret.) Carlos López Tapia, for the victims of Valdivia and Cauquenes, as reported by the newspaper La Segunda. Likewise, he prosecuted the pilots of the Puma helicopters in which the military delegation traveled between September and October 1973, among whom are Commanders (ret.) Antonio Palomo and Emilio de la Mahotiere, and Major (ret.) Luis Felipe Polanco.

The former participated in the trips the caravan made to the north of Chile, while the latter were part of the delegation that moved to the south. The magistrate also indicted Juan Chiminelli Fullerton, who was the logistics officer for the military personnel led by General (ret.) Sergio Arellano Stark, in his capacity as a delegate of Augusto Pinochet.

The "Caravan of Death" was a military delegation that traveled across the country to both its extremes to "accelerate the war councils," which resulted in several executions, disappearances, and torture. It is attributed with the death of some 75 officials and supporters of the Salvador Allende government.

Source: El Mostrador, March 24, 2004

Members of the Caravan of Death Sentenced for Crimes Against 26 Victims

By DANIEL LABBÉ YÁÑEZ

The minister on extraordinary assignment for human rights violation cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Hernán Crisosto, sentenced eight members (ret.) of the Army for their responsibility in the qualified and consummated crimes of kidnapping and homicide of 26 victims who were executed by firing squad on October 19, 1973, within the framework of the so-called Caravan of Death, in its Calama episode.

In his investigation, Crisosto established that on that day, Army officials arriving from Santiago arrived in a "Puma" helicopter at the Infantry Regiment No. 15 of Calama, where, together with personnel from that facility, they removed 26 people who were being held by the military authority from the Public Jail.

After that, he adds, the prisoners were transported to a desert area called ‘Topater’. There—the ruling details—"the same officials who arrived in the helicopter, together with personnel from the Regiment, using firearms, executed them." In the resolution, the minister sentenced Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Juan Chiminelli Fullerton, and Sergio Arredondo González to 20 years of effective imprisonment as authors of the repeated crime of qualified homicide of 26 people.

In addition, Espinoza, Chiminelli, and Arredondo must serve 13 years of imprisonment as authors of the repeated crime of qualified kidnapping of 5 of the victims. Meanwhile, former military personnel Carlos Langer von Furstenberg and Hernán Núñez Manríquez were also sentenced to 5 years and one day, and 3 years and one day of imprisonment, as authors of the homicides and kidnappings, respectively.

For his part, Víctor Santander Véliz must serve a sentence of 5 years and one day as author of the repeated crime of qualified homicide. In the case of Emilio de la Mahotiere González and Luis Polanco Gallardo, the minister sentenced them to 10 years and one day of imprisonment as accomplices to the repeated crimes of qualified homicide; plus 5 years and one day of imprisonment as accomplices to the qualified kidnappings.

In the civil aspect, the minister ordered the State of Chile to compensate the victims' families.

Source: El Ciudadano, April 25, 2018

Caravan of Death: Santiago Court Sentenced Military Personnel (ret.) for 26 Qualified Homicides in Calama

In a unanimous ruling, the Sixth Chamber of the appellate court—composed of ministers Paola Plaza, Maritza Villadangos, and Guillermo de la Barra—sentenced Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo and Juan Viterbo Chiminelli Fullerton to the single penalty of life imprisonment, in their capacity as authors of the 26 homicides.

The Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced eight retired Army members for their responsibility in the crime of qualified homicide of 26 victims who were executed by firing squad by the so-called Caravan of Death during its passage through Calama on October 19, 1973.

In a unanimous ruling, the Sixth Chamber of the appellate court—composed of ministers Paola Plaza, Maritza Villadangos, and Guillermo de la Barra—sentenced Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo and Juan Viterbo Chiminelli Fullerton to the single penalty of life imprisonment, in their capacity as authors of the 26 homicides, the Judiciary maintained.

Meanwhile, former military personnel Carlos George Max Langer von Furstenberg, Hernán Rómulo Núñez, and Víctor Ramón Santander Véliz must serve a sentence of 15 years and one day of imprisonment as authors of the repeated crime of qualified homicide; and Óscar Figueroa Martínez must serve 16 years of imprisonment.

In the case of Emilio Robert de la Mahotiere González and Luis Felipe Polanco Gallardo, they must serve 12 years of imprisonment as accomplices to the crimes. Finally, the acquittal of Álvaro Romero Reyes was confirmed. "Since the final sentence is the instance to carry out the process of subsuming the proven facts into the corresponding typical figure, once the plenary phase is concluded, this Court considers that those described in the second motive of the ruling under review constitute only crimes of qualified homicide, repeated, committed on October 19, 1973, an illicit act provided for in article 391 No. 1 of the Penal Code, with the concurrence of circumstances 1 and 5 of the aforementioned precept, that is, committed with treachery and known premeditation," the ruling maintains. The resolution adds: "In relation to the first, in addition to what the ruling maintains, they acted on a sure thing, both because the prisoners were tied and blindfolded and because their captors carried automatic firearms, all of which was intended to ensure the execution of the crimes and eliminate the risk to the perpetrators arising from the defense that the victims might offer. The second, because the action that culminated in the death of the offended parties was planned in advance, which reveals the purpose of committing the crime adopted with a cold and calm spirit and which persisted in the spirit of the accused from the moment the decision was made until the instant of the execution of the criminal act." "In relation to this qualification—it continues—it should also be added that from the background information provided by the case, it is undeniable that all the victims were put to death, by firing squad, on the same occasion, in the Topater sector of the city of Calama, and although it has not been possible, to date, to find the remains of Haroldo Cabrera Abarzúa, David Ernesto Miranda Luna, and Rafael Pineda Ibacache, it is due exclusively to the ignominious actions subsequent to taking their lives, with the aim of trying to erase every trace of their existence, through the exhumations of their bodies—at least on two occasions—and, finally, by throwing their bones into the sea, so that these three people were also victims of homicide." "This conclusion is ratified by the statements of Victoria Saavedra Gonzalez, on pages 2,964, 6,079, 12,477, and 13,025 verso, who maintained having heard from the Army Chaplain Luis Jorquera and Sub-Officer Jerónimo Rojo Rojo that the 'Law of Flight' was applied to the detainees, putting them all to death," it adds. In the civil aspect, the sentence ordering the treasury to pay compensation of between $10,000,000 and $60,000,000 to the victims' families was confirmed.

Source: elmostrador.cl, May 19, 2020

Carmen Hertz After Sentencing of Her Partner's Killers: "Justice So Late Is Almost a Denial of Justice"

The Communist Party parliamentarian expressed her grievances on social media following the Supreme Court ruling that sentenced former agents of the Caravan of Death delegation for the murder of 26 political prisoners in 1973, among whom was her husband.

Human Rights lawyer and Communist Party deputy, Carmen Hertz, published her grievance on her Twitter account this Friday night regarding the late Supreme Court ruling against the former Army agents who murdered her partner, Carlos Berguer, in 1973. "Finally, after 49 years since the massacre of 26 political prisoners was executed, among them my husband, the lawyer and journalist Carlos Berguer Guralnik, in Calama by the Caravan of Death, the final ruling of the Supreme Court was issued," the parliamentarian wrote to begin her thread on social media.

In it, she details that General Pedro Espinoza Bravo and Colonel Juan Chiminelli Fullerton were sentenced to life imprisonment in their capacity as authors. "The only survivors of the criminal delegation, the others died in impunity, among them Arellano Stark," Hertz denounces.

Apart from these high commands, the justice system also ruled against officers Carlos Langer, Hernán Nuñez, and Víctor Santander, who were sentenced to 15 years and one day of major imprisonment for their participation in the events.

In addition, the pilots of the Puma helicopter that transported the former agents to the site of the massacre, Emilio Mahotiere and Luis Felipe Polanco, received a sentence of 12 years of major imprisonment. "Justice so late is almost a denial of justice," reflected Deputy Carmen Hertz in her last tweet, to which several users and party colleagues responded, among them Mayor Daniel Jadue.

Source: eldesconcierto.cl, September 24, 2022

Santiago Court Sentences 10 Former Army Members for Murders Committed in La Serena by "Caravan of Death"

The Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced eight former officers and two former sub-officers of the Army for their responsibility in the crimes of qualified homicide of 15 victims of the passage of the so-called "Caravan of Death" through the city of La Serena in 1973.

The group of criminals is composed of a former general and commander-in-chief of that institution, two former brigadiers, five former lieutenant colonels, in addition to the two sub-officers. In the episode, the uniformed delegation perpetrated on October 16 of that year the murders of Oscar Gastón Aedo Herrera, Marcos Enrique Barrantes Alcayaga, Mario Alberto Ramírez Sepúlveda, Hipólito Pedro Cortés Álvarez, Jorge Abel Contreras Godoy, Roberto Guzmán Santa Cruz, Jorge Mario Jordán Domic, Gabriel Gonzalo Vergara Muñoz, Carlos Enrique Alcayaga Varela, Jorge Ovidio Osorio Zamora, José Eduardo Araya González, Oscar Armando Cortés Cortés, Manuel Jachadur Marcarian Jamett, Víctor Fernando Escobar Astudillo, and Jorge Washington Peña Hen. In a unanimous ruling (case file 4.599-2019), the Sixth Chamber of the appellate court—composed of Minister Antonio Ulloa and ministers Gloria Solís and Verónica Sabaj—last Friday, October 28, modified the first-instance sentence, issued by Minister Mario Carroza in November 2018, regarding the participation they had in the events, for the convicted former Army officers Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo and Juan Viterbo Chiminelli Fullerton, who must serve 10 years and one day of imprisonment as co-authors of the crimes, instead of the 5 years as accomplices as Minister Carroza had qualified them. Another former officer and main accused, Ariosto Alberto Lapostol Orrego, who had been sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment, passed away during the course of the process, and is therefore dismissed. In addition, the court confirmed the criminal ruling in the part that sentenced former officers Jaime Manuel Ojeda Torrent and Emilio Robert de la Mahotiere González and former sub-officer Víctor Hugo Alegre Rodríguez to the penalty of 5 years and one day of imprisonment, as accomplices to the crimes; and former officers Hernán Emilio Valdebenito Bugmann, Guillermo Oscar Raby Arancibia, Juan Emilio del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Cheyre Espinoza, Mario Hernando Vargas Miguieles, and former sub-officer Luis Segundo Araos Flores to 3 years and one day, with the benefit of supervised release, as cover-ups. The Helicopter of Death In the judicial investigation, it was established that on October 16, 1973, the delegation led by former General Sergio Arellano Stark (deceased) arrived in the city of La Serena in an Army 'Puma' helicopter, with a group of military personnel among whom were officers Sergio Carlos Arredondo González, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Emilio Robert de la Mahotiere González, Luis Felipe Polanco Gallardo, Juan Viterbo Chiminelli Fullerton, Marcelo Luis Manuel Moren Brito (deceased), and Hugo Héctor Leiva González. After getting off the aircraft, the aforementioned Arellano Stark held a meeting with the then-Commander of the Artillery Regiment No. 2, "Arica" of La Serena, Ariosto Lapostol Orrego, and informed him of his mission entrusted by the tyrant Pinochet, consisting of the execution of selected left-wing individuals who remained detained by the coup-plotting uniformed personnel in various places and different cities of the country. Next, Arellano Stark selected the detainees who were to be executed. By his order, they removed 14 of the chosen victims from the Public Jail of La Serena, whom they transported to the Regiment, where they remained at the disposal of the aforementioned military authority. In parallel, another detainee was taken from the dungeons of the same Regiment and joined with the other prisoners, leading them to the shooting range of that military facility. Once at the range, the detainees were executed by means of shots fired by Army personnel. After the murders were committed, the Regiment's personnel proceeded to register the deaths of the victims without having performed the respective autopsies, much less recognition by their relatives. Immediately thereafter, military personnel proceeded to transport the bodies of the executed to the local cemetery and buried them in a mass grave, in a hidden manner, for which the Regiment's authorities had previously made the pertinent coordination with the administration of the Municipal Cemetery. Once the stage of disappearance of the victims' bodies was concluded, the Regiment's authorities, particularly the Zone Headquarters exercised by Lapostol Orrego, published a Military Proclamation in the media informing the citizenry of the execution of fifteen extremists in compliance with what was resolved by Military Tribunals in Times of War, a matter that never happened, since the execution occurred without a prior trial, based solely on the circumstance of their ideology. In 1998, the Legal Medical Service found human bones in the Municipal Cemetery of La Serena, so it carried out expert reports and recognition proceedings, managing to identify the 15 victims executed by firing squad on October 16, 1973, verifying that all of them presented multiple projectile impacts in different parts of their bodies.

Source: resumen.cl, November 4, 2022

Caravan of Death: Cheyre and 8 Other Military Personnel Sentenced for 15 Executions in La Serena

Juan Emilio Cheyre, former commander-in-chief of the Army, learned of his sentence for his participation in the so-called Caravan of Death, which occurred in the first months of the military dictatorship.

Check out more details here. During the afternoon of this Thursday, the Supreme Court issued its final ruling on the Caravan of Death case, which involved General (ret.) Juan Emilio Cheyre, commander-in-chief of the Army between 2002 and 2006.

In addition, the highest court increased the sentences that 8 retired military personnel will have to serve for their responsibility in the crimes of the aforementioned case. Juan Emilio Cheyre was sentenced, in his capacity as an accomplice, to 5 years of minor imprisonment for the murder of 15 people opposed to the military regime on October 16, 1973, in La Serena.

In addition, he received the benefit of supervised release, also as an accomplice. Let us remember that previously he was considered only as a cover-up. What does the sentence say about the rest of the accused?

The Second Chamber of the highest court sentenced Pedro Espinoza Bravo and Juan Chiminelli Fullerton to 15 years and one day of imprisonment, in their capacity as authors of the 15 qualified homicides.

While on the other hand, Víctor Hugo Alegría Rodríguez, Jaime Ojeda Torrent, and Emilio de la Mahotiere González must serve 10 years and one day of imprisonment, as accomplices to the 15 crimes. In addition, Hernán Valdebenito Buggman, Guillermo Raby Arancibia, and Luis Araos Flores were sentenced to 5 years and one day of imprisonment as cover-ups.

What does the Supreme Court ruling say? In the ruling, the highest court stated that “the meeting between the Delegation and a part of the personnel of the Artillery Regiment No. 2 Arica of La Serena corresponds to a moment prior to the crimes committed, and in it, the statistical background of those whose processes were sought to be accelerated was reviewed, affecting political prisoners, and in their case, to immediately proceed to execute them.” “Such a task was typical of those who formed the most select circle of the Military Unit that was visited by the Delegation (...) its main participants were, among others, Sergio Arellano Stark, Marcelo Moren Brito, Ariosto Lapostol Orrego, Manuel Cazanga Pereira, and, in addition, who was the aide to the first command of the Regiment, the sentenced Juan Emilio Cheyre Espinoza,” they added in the ruling.

Source: eldesconcierto.cl, December 28, 2023

In a unanimous ruling, the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court sentenced Pedro Espinoza Bravo and Juan Viterbo Chiminelli Fullerton to 20 years and 10 years and one day of effective imprisonment, respectively, as authors of the crimes; meanwhile, Emilio Robert de la Mahotiere González must serve 5 years of incarceration as an accessory.

The Supreme Court convicted four retired Army officers for their responsibility in the qualified homicide of Miguel Enrique Muñoz Flores, Manuel Benito Plaza Arellano, Pablo Renán Vera Torres, and Claudio Arturo Lavín Loyola. These crimes were perpetrated on October 4, 1974, in the commune of Cauquenes as part of the so-called "Caravan of Death."

In a unanimous ruling (case file 72.024-2020), the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, and lawyer (ad hoc) Diego Munita—sentenced Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo and Juan Viterbo Chiminelli Fullerton to 20 years and 10 years and one day of effective imprisonment, respectively, as authors of the crimes; meanwhile, Emilio Robert de la Mahotiere González must serve 5 years of incarceration as an accessory.

In the resolution, the Penal Chamber, having accepted the lower court's application of the mitigating factor of partial prescription or gradual prescription of the sentence regarding the accused, committed an error of law, which "(...) has substantially influenced the operative part of the ruling, insofar as its application allowed them to reduce the sentence to be imposed, in a case not permitted by law."

"That, in the same sense, it must be kept in mind that by Decree Law No. 3, of September 11, 1973, a state of siege was established due to 'internal commotion,' a concept that was subsequently defined by Decree Law No. 5, of September 12, 1973, which states that the state of siege due to internal commotion must be understood as a 'State or Time of War' for the application of penalties and all other effects; that these broad effects also encompass circumstances that exempt, mitigate, aggravate, or extinguish responsibility; that this state was maintained until September 11, 1974, when Decree Law No. 641 was issued, which deemed it unnecessary to maintain the declaration of internal war, stating that the entire territory of the Republic was in a State of Siege, in a degree of internal defense, for a period of six months, a period that was renewed for another six months by Decree Law No. 1.181, of September 10, 1975, which declared that the country was in a 'state of siege, in a degree of internal security'; that, consequently, the State or Time of War was in effect at least until September 10, 1975, a date that makes the 1949 Geneva Conventions, ratified by Chile and published in the Official Gazette on April 17, 1951, applicable; that, thus, with the 1949 Geneva Conventions being in force and fully valid, their Article 3, regarding the protection of civilians in time of war, becomes applicable, which obliges the contracting States, in the case of an armed conflict not of an international character occurring in their territory (which is precisely the situation of Chile during the period between September 12, 1973, and March 11, 1975), to provide humanitarian treatment, even to combatants who have laid down their arms, without any unfavorable distinction, prohibiting, for any time and place, among others: a) violence to life and bodily integrity, and b) outrages upon personal dignity," the ruling states.

The resolution adds that: "Likewise, that international instrument records, in its Article 146, the commitment of its signatories to take all necessary legislative measures to establish adequate penal sanctions to be applied to persons who commit, or order to be committed, any of the grave breaches defined in the Convention, as well as to search for such persons, having to bring them before their own courts and take the necessary measures to cease acts contrary to the provisions of the Agreement, which in its Article 147 describes what is understood by grave breaches, namely, among them, willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, unlawful deportation or transfer, and unlawful confinement."

For the Penal Chamber: "Consequently, the State of Chile imposed upon itself, by signing and ratifying the aforementioned Conventions, the obligation to guarantee the safety of persons who might participate in armed conflicts within its territory, especially if they are detained, prohibiting measures aimed at protecting grievances committed against specific persons or achieving impunity for their authors, keeping especially in mind that international agreements must be fulfilled in good faith and, insofar as the Pact seeks to guarantee essential rights that arise from human nature, it has preeminent application, since this Court, in repeated rulings, has recognized that the internal sovereignty of the State of Chile recognizes its limit in the rights that emanate from human nature, values that are superior to any norm that the authorities of the State may provide, including the Constituent Power itself, which prevents them from being ignored and, even less, violated."

"That, consequently, the application of the figure of partial prescription or gradual prescription of the sentence, contemplated by Article 103 of the Penal Code, is not admissible in the case of crimes against humanity, since the aforementioned classification obliges the consideration of International Human Rights Law, which excludes the use of both total prescription and so-called partial prescription, understanding such institutes as closely linked in their foundations and, consequently, contrary to the regulations of ius cogens originating from that sphere of International Criminal Law, which reject impunity and the imposition of sentences not proportional to the intrinsic gravity of the crimes, based on the passage of time," it affirms.

"That, such being the case, by having accepted the mitigating factor of partial prescription or gradual prescription of the sentence regarding the accused, the lower court judges committed an error of law that has substantially influenced the operative part of the ruling, insofar as its application allowed them to reduce the sentence to be imposed, in a case not permitted by law, for which reason the appeals for cassation on the merits under study will be accepted in relation to this ground," it concludes.

In the case, Jorge Godofredo Acuña Hahn was also sentenced to 3 years and one day of imprisonment, with the benefit of supervised release, as an accomplice to the crimes, and his defense did not file an appeal for cassation before the Supreme Court.

In the civil aspect, the Second Chamber revoked the challenged sentence, which had accepted the exception of res judicata filed by the defense, and instead ordered the State to pay compensation of $60,000,000 (sixty million pesos) for moral damages to José Manuel Lavín Benavente, son of the victim Lavín Loyola.

Puma Helicopter

In the first-instance ruling, the extraordinary visiting judge Patricia González Quiroz established the following facts: "That on October 4, 1973, a Puma helicopter landed in Cauquenes, at the Andalién Regiment of said city, with a group of military personnel under the command of the then Army General, Sergio Víctor Arellano Stark, delegated by the then Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, for the purpose of carrying out tasks of coordinating institutional criteria for internal government and judicial procedures, and of reviewing or accelerating ongoing processes.

That same day, some members of the delegation seized, without authority or right to do so, from the city's Investigations barracks, as they lacked any order or document authorizing them to do so, Miguel Enrique Muñoz Flores, Manuel Benito Plaza Arellano, Pablo Renán Vera Torres, and Claudio Arturo Lavín Loyola, whom they transported to the 'El Oriente' estate in that locality, where they killed them with firearms."

Source: Judiciary, March 30, 2023

Visiting Judge Vicente Hormazábal leads reconstruction of the scene of the former intendant's homicide

During the proceeding, Judge Hormazábal took statements from the surviving victim, three witnesses to the events, and the accused retired military personnel Gustavo Camilo Ahumada, Jerman Ocares Morales, and Luis Pavez Silva; as well as René Ojeda Caro, a civilian employee and Army reservist.

The extraordinary visiting judge for human rights violation cases of the La Serena Court of Appeals, Vicente Hormazábal Abarzúa, led the reconstruction of the scene of the qualified homicide of the former intendant of Antofagasta, Daniel Acuña Sepúlveda, and the frustrated homicide of his son, Roberto Acuña Araneda.

These crimes were perpetrated in August 1979 by agents of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) in the Tierras Blancas sector of the commune of Coquimbo.

In the proceeding (case file 2-2010), Judge Hormazábal took statements from the surviving victim, three witnesses to the events, and the accused retired military personnel Gustavo Camilo Ahumada, Jerman Ocares Morales, and Luis Pavez Silva; as well as René Ojeda Caro, a civilian employee and Army reservist.

"This is a case in which the qualified homicide of Mr. Daniel Acuña and the qualified homicide, but in a frustrated character, of his son Mr. Roberto Acuña are being investigated. We are already in the plenary stage, in the stage of measures for better resolution, and at that stage of the process, I decided to carry out the reconstruction of the scene for the purpose of ensuring the proper use of the right to defense that all the accused have," stated Judge Hormazábal.

With the information gathered in the case, the visiting judge has established that in the early hours of August 13, 1979, a group of CNI agents from La Serena arrived at the home of Daniel Acuña Sepúlveda.

At the property's gate, they fired at his son Roberto Acuña, who, wounded in the stomach, managed to flee the scene and survive. Three agents entered the home and, upon locating Acuña Sepúlveda, gunned him down and then destroyed his body with dynamite.

In the case, the former head of the National Intelligence Center for the regions, Juan Viterbo Chiminelli Fullerton, who gave the order to eliminate Acuña Sepúlveda, is also identified as the author of the crime of qualified homicide; and the lawyer Guido Poli Garaycochea is identified as an accessory, who, after the events, together with the local CNI chief Patricio Padilla Villén—who was definitively dismissed due to death in May 2013—instructed the agents who participated directly in the events on what they should declare before the justice system, a maneuver intended to cover up the crimes.

In the proceeding, Judge Hormazábal Abarzúa had the collaboration of officers from the Human Rights Brigade and experts from the Criminalistics Laboratory of the Investigative Police.

Source: Judiciary, February 22, 2023

CNI lawyer convicted for crime committed during dictatorship

Visiting Judge Sergio Troncoso issued a verdict that considered the responsibility as an accessory of the lawyer, who traveled from Santiago to La Serena to—the ruling indicates—instruct the agents on what they should say to evade their responsibilities.

For the first time since investigations into human rights violations during the dictatorship began in 1991, a visiting judge has convicted one of the lawyers who provided services to the defunct National Intelligence Center (CNI), the secret police of Augusto Pinochet, which only formally ceased to exist in 1990.

In previous rulings, different judges had prosecuted and convicted other lawyers linked to the repression unleashed after the 1973 coup, as was the case with the former Army auditor and former military prosecutor ad hoc, Fernando Torres Silva, convicted for the crimes of Eugenio Berríos and Tucapel Jiménez (and pardoned in 2021 due to a terminal illness), or with the former military prosecutor of Temuco, Alfonso Podlech, convicted for several crimes executed in La Araucanía.

However, various actors in the human rights world indicate that, before the convictions issued by the visiting judge of the La Serena Court of Appeals, Sergio Troncoso, for the homicide of former intendant Daniel Acuña and the frustrated homicide of his son, there were no precedents like the current one, due to the conviction as an accessory of the lawyer Guido Poli Garaycochea, 78.

The Ruling According to the investigation by the special judge, the events occurred during the early hours of August 13, 1979, in Coquimbo, when a CNI commando attacked Daniel Acuña Sepúlveda, a member of the Socialist Party and former intendant of Antofagasta, and his son Roberto Enrique Acuña Aravena, in their home.

The investigation determined that the operation was carried out by an "elimination order" issued against Acuña Sepúlveda by the Regional Division of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) in Santiago.

According to what was confessed many years later on his deathbed by Captain Patricio Padilla Villén (who died 13 years ago), the CNI agents under his command traveled to plot 222 in Tierras Blancas, Coquimbo, where, after falsely identifying themselves as carabineros, they fired at the victim's son, Roberto Enrique Acuña Aravena, who managed to survive, and then entered the home, where Padilla shot Daniel Acuña Sepúlveda in the skull.

Subsequently, in an attempt to cover up the murder and make it look like a suicide, the CNI agents placed dynamite on the victim's body and detonated it, destroying his corpse.

The survivor, meanwhile, was detained at the hospital and then subjected to pretrial detention for about six months, under the false accusation of crimes linked to the Arms Control Law and possession of explosives.

After the investigation, Judge Troncoso convicted Juan Viterbo Chiminelli Fullerton, head of the CNI Regional Division, for qualified homicide (15 years and one day); while Gustavo Adolfo Camilo Ahumada was sentenced to 10 years for the homicide and 540 days for the serious injuries caused to Acuña Aravena.

Regarding the accomplices, Manuel Humberto Catalán Arriola received 5 years and one day for the homicide and 41 days in prison as an accessory to the serious injuries, while René Hugo Ojeda Caro was sentenced to 5 years for the qualified homicide.

Finally, the lawyer Guido Poli was convicted as an accessory to both crimes, receiving sentences of 3 years of imprisonment for the qualified homicide and 40 days in prison for the serious injuries, obtaining the benefit of conditional release.

The Schneider Case

On October 10, 1970, at 23 years of age, Poli—who at that time was studying law at the Catholic University and was a member of the National Party—was arrested, accused along with two other defendants of having installed several explosive devices (some of which failed) in different areas of Santiago, amid the maneuvers prior to the homicide of General René Schneider, Commander-in-Chief of the Army at that time and a strict constitutionalist, who maintained that if Salvador Allende were elected by the Full Congress on October 24, 1970 (after having won the first round on September 4 of that year), the Army should remain attached to the Constitution and not participate in any military uprising.

This led to an absurd plan devised in Washington D.C. at the behest of Agustín Edwards, in which U.S. military intelligence agents (the CIA chief in Santiago, Henry Hecksher, was removed from the plot due to his criticisms of how poorly designed it was), retired and active-duty Chilean generals, common criminals, and young people belonging to far-right groups and others of pro-Nazi thought participated, as was the case with Guido Poli, who was part of several such movements.

On October 22, a clumsy attempt to kidnap Schneider culminated in his homicide, and in 1972 the implicated parties were sentenced to various penalties.

Poli was one of the 43 convicted in that case, although he had no responsibility in the homicide; rather, in the first instance, he received a sentence of 2 years of relegation in Caldera for violation of the State Internal Security Law, but later, after the 1973 coup, almost all the participants were pardoned.

The Legal Advisor

In 1979, as established by Judge Troncoso's ruling, Poli worked as a lawyer for the CNI, being second in the hierarchy of the staff of lawyers for that secret police. According to him, his role was "to provide legal advice on all requests made, analysis of legal bodies and bills, and to draft responses to the courts, according to the information provided to them." That team, as specified by former CNI agent Fernando Rojas Tapia, was composed, in addition to Poli, of several lawyers, among them Víctor Gálvez (who was the chief), René Alegría, Juan Carlos Manns, Fernando Dumay, and a certain "Iribarra."

Poli assured the Justice system that in August of that year, Chiminelli ordered him to travel to La Serena in order to "advise" Captain Padilla on the statement he would provide to the military prosecutor's office, for which he ordered another CNI agent, Captain Manuel Catalán, to accompany him.

Still according to Poli's statement, on the afternoon of August 13, 1979, Víctor Gálvez told him that "an event had occurred where CNI personnel were involved and a person had died as a result of an explosion in their home, managing to travel around 11:00 PM in a CNI vehicle.

They arrived in La Serena the following dawn, waiting for the time in the unit's facilities. Around 8:30 AM, Captain Padilla arrived at the unit, who was the chief and with whom he had to interview. At that moment, he explained his version of the events and that everything was reported to the Regional Government.

He indicated to Padilla that if there were requests from the court, he should satisfy them in a timely manner. Subsequently, he accompanied Captain Padilla to the Intendancy, then they returned to the unit, and shortly after, he returned to Santiago on August 14, never to know about the case again."

Likewise, he argued, "the legal department only knew the official version of the events."

Poli also asserted that he did not transmit any instruction to Captain Padilla regarding what to declare and that he only limited himself to telling him "to cooperate with the court." Likewise, he "stated he was unaware that the event was a setup, adding that Padilla never told him that there was a wounded person who fled the scene and was in prison" and asserted that it was "absurd that a lawyer would be given an order to go and check on the compliance with a military order." He also said that he "never worked with Chiminelli at that time (1979), and that they only had a social relationship."

The Doubts However, several pieces of evidence led the judge to doubt the version. For example, the version provided by the then-procurator Miguel Ángel Parra Vásquez, who, besides recounting that in the summer of 1980 he was sent to accompany Padilla to another statement, specified that the lawyers belonged to a unit called "legal intelligence," also explaining that Poli and Chiminelli had known each other from before and that between them "there was a very familiar treatment."

At the same time, one of the agents who participated in the event, Luis Pavez Silva, "pointed out having lied in court in his statement at the time and assured that they told him what he had to say, realizing that everything was a setup by the chiefs," states the ruling, which points out that Poli's version that he only traveled to La Serena to carry out "the delivery of a brief message, regarding the duty to cooperate with the courts" is "inadmissible, since it lacks logic to organize a trip from Santiago to deliver a simple message like that, when it could have been delivered directly to Padilla by phone, or by telex if it was deemed necessary to encrypt the message. It is certainly absurd that a message like cooperating with the investigation should be delivered in person, when Padilla himself confessed that he received an order as serious as killing Acuña by telex, which notoriously merited more reserved treatment."

Faced with this, among other arguments, Poli's defender, Maximiliano Murath, asserted that the elements against his client are not sufficient to be able to incriminate him, indicating that "it was not within his functions in the CNI Legal Department to prepare judicial aspects or similar things" and that "it is contradictory to think that the lawyer Poli would go to tell the agents or the head of the operation what to say, since they had already prepared the false facts and version" and that "in that sense, one cannot cover up what is already covered up."

However, the judge rejected the allegations and determined that the real motive for Poli's trip was "to meet with those involved in the execution operation of Daniel Acuña, to verify how the mission had been carried out and to impart guidelines for what would be the official version of the CNI before the courts," adding that "his trip was motivated by the need to protect the institution from the 'blunder' (in Chiminelli's words) that the existence of a surviving victim and eyewitness to the events implied, making the coordination of the statements of those involved necessary."

It should be noted that, before being a member of the CNI, Poli was a member of the DINA and in that capacity, according to the biography of Manuel Contreras written by journalist Manuel Salazar, he had close contact with the Italian neo-fascists of the terrorist group Avanguardia Nazionale and its leader, Stefano Delle Chiaie.

Poli eventually became the Army's auditor general, where he worked until 1999, and was subsequently one of the founders of the NGO Jure (Justice and Reconciliation), which defends military personnel accused of human rights violations.

By: Carlos Basso Prieto

Source: elmostrador.cl, September 27, 2025