Clara Elena Canteros Torres, married, mother of two daughters—one 18 months old and the other 8 months old—21 years of age, an employee and Communist Party militant, was detained by agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) on July 23, 1976, at approximately 8:00 PM, on a public street near her home, after getting off a public bus at the intersection of Panamá and Rojas Magallanes streets in the commune of La Florida.

That same day, in the same area, hours later, her uncle Eduardo Canteros Prado was detained; his remains were found by chance on March 21, 1990, in a clandestine grave located at the Fundo Las Tórtolas in Colina, a property that belonged to the Army until 1980.

However, regarding Clara Elena, there has been no news of her whereabouts since the day of her detention. That same day, as previously noted, the captors of Clara’s uncle, Mr. Eduardo Canteros Prado, transported him to the clandestine detention center known as "Villa Grimaldi," located in the commune of La Reina in the city of Santiago, where he was held and tortured.

There, the victim was seen by detainee Isaac Godoy Castillo, who testified that on August 26, 1976, while being held at Villa Grimaldi, he saw Eduardo Canteros, Pedro Silva Bustos, Lenín Díaz Silva, Darío Miranda Godoy, and Jorge Solovera Gallardo, among others, as they were being returned to their respective cells after having cleaned the area. All of them remain among the forcibly disappeared.

It should be noted that, although the military government denied the detention of Clara Canteros and her uncle Eduardo Canteros, the same government acknowledged the detention of Communist militants. On July 14 and 17, 1976, the government's National Directorate of Social Communication issued statements informing the public that, following operations carried out by security services, 32 "mailbox" houses of the Communist Party—which served as links between the party's National Directorate and its Regional Committees—had been dismantled; it also reported the detention of militants from that organization. It added that no further information could be provided so as not to hinder the ongoing investigations.

Another piece of evidence regarding the actions of security agencies in the disappearance of Communist militants appeared in the August 12, 1976, edition of the weekly magazine "Que Pasa," in an article titled "From the MIR to the PC," which stated that militants and leaders of the Communist Party had been detained following operations carried out by security agencies.

It even provided the names of some of those detained.

Evidence that Clara Canteros was held at the secret detention center of Villa Grimaldi was provided by former detainee Rosa Elsa Leiva Muñoz in a sworn statement dated July 18, 1991, in which she states that she was detained by the DINA on August 20, 1976, and taken to the Villa Grimaldi facility.

The day after she was held there, she saw Marta Ugarte Román, who told her days later that on the day she had arrived at the facility, three detainees (who remain disappeared) were being taken out: Clara Canteros, Oscar Ramos, and Mario Juica. Rosa Leiva knew the Canteros family, as she had been the secretary to former parliamentarian Manuel Canteros, Clara Elena’s uncle.

It is worth noting that Clara Elena Canteros belonged to a family that had been the victim of various repressive actions since 1973; they were known for their prominent Communist militancy, including her father, Víctor, and her uncle, Manuel, who had also been a parliamentarian.

Her father was being sought during the same days she was detained, forcing him to seek asylum. Her parents, two of her siblings, and an uncle spent years in exile.

Her family has carried out countless administrative actions and filed complaints with national and international organizations, without having succeeded in learning the fate or whereabouts of Clara Elena Canteros Torres to this date.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On July 26, 1976, an Amparo appeal (Habeas Corpus), Case No. 646-76, was filed before the Santiago Court of Appeals on behalf of Eduardo Canteros Prado and Clara Elena Canteros Torres. It was rejected on August 6, 1976, based solely on a report from the Ministry of the Interior, which denied that the detention had been ordered by that State Secretariat.

Later, on the 18th of the same month, a criminal complaint was filed before the 11th Criminal Court of Santiago for the kidnapping of Clara Elena Canteros Torres and Eduardo Canteros Prado against security agents; the case was registered under No. 7.438-9 and was dismissed on May 3, 1978, by virtue of the Amnesty Law (Decree Law No. 2.191), and the summary proceedings were reopened on June 21, 1978.

The case was temporarily dismissed on October 2, 1979, and this resolution was confirmed by the Santiago Court of Appeals on December 18, 1979.

Furthermore, on August 1, 1978, relatives of 70 disappeared persons, including those of Clara Canteros Torres, filed a criminal complaint before the 10th Criminal Court of Santiago for the crime of aggravated kidnapping against General (Ret.) Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, Army Colonel Marcelo Luis Moren Brito, and Army Lieutenant Colonel Rolf Gonzalo Wenderoth Pozo.

The identities of other agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), information regarding the secret detention centers of said organization, and other data related to the structure and resources available to the DINA were also provided to the Court.

Without conducting any investigation, on August 10 of that year, the judge of the 10th Court declared herself incompetent and referred the case to the Military Justice system; after several appeals, in May 1979, the case was reopened in the 2nd Military Prosecutor's Office of Santiago, under case No. 553-78.

In 1983, the Court reviewed the four volumes of the Extraordinary Visit for cases of forcibly disappeared persons in the Metropolitan Region, conducted by Minister Servando Jordán, which contained important information regarding the actions of the DINA and the responsibility of that security agency for hundreds of forcibly disappeared persons.

Without any investigative steps being taken for four years, on November 20, 1989, Army Lieutenant Colonel Enrique Ibarra Chamorro, Military Prosecutor General, requested the application of the Amnesty Decree Law (D.L. 2.191) for this case, arguing that the process had the exclusive purpose of investigating alleged crimes that occurred between September 11, 1973, and March 10, 1978, and that, during the 10 years of proceedings, it had not been possible to "determine the responsibility of any person." On November 30, 1989, the request was accepted by the 2nd Military Court, which dismissed the case totally and definitively—even though it was still in the summary stage—on the grounds that "the criminal responsibility of the persons allegedly accused of the reported acts has been extinguished." The plaintiffs appealed this resolution to the Court Martial, which confirmed the ruling in January 1992. A complaint appeal was then filed before the Supreme Court of Justice, which, as of December 1992, had not yet issued its resolution.

Complete details of the complaint against Manuel Contreras can be found in the case of Eduardo Alarcón Jara, July 30, 1974.

On August 23, 1991, her father, Víctor Canteros, and her sister, Lucía Canteros, filed a criminal complaint before the 11th Criminal Court of Santiago for the crimes of aggravated kidnapping and illicit association against those responsible for the crimes committed against Clara Elena Canteros Torres.

The filing states that the kidnapping of Clara Canteros is linked to the kidnapping and subsequent homicide of her uncle, Eduardo Canteros Prado, as there is testimony that both were held at Villa Grimaldi. This case was consolidated with the one filed by Eduardo Canteros and entered into processing under case No. 7438. As of December 1992, it was still in the summary stage of processing.

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity

The Supreme Court sentenced 14 agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Luis Emilio Recabarren González, Manuel Guillermo Recabarren González, Nalvia Rosa Mena Alvarado, Manuel Segundo Recabarren Rojas, Clara Elena Canteros Torres, Alejandro Rodríguez Urzúa, Daniel Palma Robledo, Carlos Enrique Godoy Lagarrigue, Iván Sergio Insunza Bascuñán, José Eduardo Santander Miranda, Mario Jesús Juica Vega, Víctor Hugo Morales Mazuela, Carlos Mario Vizcarra Cofré, Miguel Nazal Quiroz, Juan Aurelio Villarroel Zárate, and Julio Roberto Vega Vega; and the aggravated homicide of Eduardo Canteros Prado. The crimes were committed between April and August 1976 in the province of Santiago.

In a unanimous ruling (case No. 71.900-2020), the Second Chamber of the high court—composed of ministers Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, María Cristina Gajardo, María Soledad Melo, and Eliana Quezada—revoked the sentence issued by the Eighth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals in April 2020, which had applied the "half-prescription" (statute of limitations reduction) to the accused.

In a replacement sentence, the Supreme Court sentenced former DINA leaders and former Army officers Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo and Jorge Claudio Andrade Gómez to 15 years and one day in prison as authors of 16 counts of aggravated kidnapping, and 10 years and one day as authors of one count of aggravated homicide.

Meanwhile, Rolf Arnold Wenderoth Pozo was sentenced to two terms of 10 years and one day in prison as the author of three counts of aggravated kidnapping and one count of aggravated homicide; Juan Hernán Morales Salgado and Gladys de las Mercedes Calderón Carreño were sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison as authors of six counts of aggravated kidnapping.

In the case of former agents Sergio Orlando Escalona Acuña, Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich, and Gustavo Enrique Guerrero Aguilera, a sentence of 5 years and one day in prison was applied as authors of a single case of aggravated kidnapping.

Likewise, former agents Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, Orlando del Tránsito Altamirano Sanhueza, and Carlos Eugenio López Inostroza must serve 7 years as accomplices to the 16 counts of aggravated kidnapping and 5 years and one day in prison as accomplices to the aggravated homicide.

Finally, Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca must serve 7 years as an accomplice to 15 counts of aggravated kidnapping and 5 years and one day in prison as an accomplice to the aggravated homicide.

The criminals Carlos José Leonardo López Tapia and Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, who had been sentenced in the first-instance ruling issued by Minister Leopoldo Llanos in July 2017 to 20 years in prison, died during the course of the proceedings. Also deceased are those sentenced in the first instance: Ciro Ernesto Torré Sáez, Orlando José Manzo Durán, and Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo.

In dismissing the "half-prescription," the Supreme Court establishes that: "(...) it is necessary to take into consideration that the matter under discussion must also be analyzed in accordance with international Human Rights regulations, contained mainly in the Geneva Conventions, which prevent prescription, whether total or gradual, regarding crimes committed in cases of non-international armed conflicts."

The resolution adds: "The same conclusion is reached by considering both the norms of the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons and those of the Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, since, in accordance with those regulations, gradual prescription has the same nature as total prescription."

"From another perspective, legal doctrine on this matter has expressed that its foundations are found in the same considerations of social stability and legal certainty that gave rise to Article 93 of the Penal Code, but that it is intended to produce its effects in those cases where the realization of the ends provided for prescription does not occur naturally but rather at the end of a gradual process—that is, when the time necessary to prescribe is about to be fulfilled, which would justify the mitigation of the sentence," it adds.

"However," it continues, "it is evident that this conclusion applies to cases that do not present the characteristics of crimes against humanity, as these are imprescriptible. Consequently, for such mitigation to be appropriate, it is necessary that it be a crime in the process of prescribing, which is not the case here, so the passage of time produces no effect, because social reproach does not diminish with time, which only occurs in cases of common crimes."

The Facts

In the first-instance ruling, presiding minister Leopoldo Llanos Sagristá established that, within the framework of the systematic repression of opponents of the military regime, between the months of April and August 1976, a series of detentions of individuals, all militants of the Communist Party, took place.

On April 29, 1976, in the area of Santa Rosa and Sebastopol streets in the commune of San Miguel, brothers Manuel Guillermo, 22, and Luis Emilio Recabarren González, 29, were detained by DINA agents, along with Nalvia Rosa Mena Alvarado, 20, and her two-year-old son. The child was abandoned near his home during the night.

The following day, April 30, at 7:00 AM, Manuel Segundo Recabarren Rojas, 50, was detained shortly after leaving his home in the same sector while preparing to board a public bus.

All the detainees were taken to the clandestine detention and torture center 'Villa Grimaldi'; Manuel Guillermo Recabarren González and Manuel Segundo Recabarren Rojas were also seen at the 'Simón Bolívar' facility, and Luis Emilio Recabarren González at 'Cuatro Álamos'. From those facilities, the DINA made them disappear.

On July 23, 1976, around 8:00 PM, at the intersection of Rojas Magallanes and Panamá streets in the commune of La Florida, the young Clara Elena Canteros Torres, 21, was detained by DINA agents. She was subdued while getting off a public bus.

She was taken to 'Villa Grimaldi', where she was seen by witnesses, and on August 20, 1976, she was taken out of that facility along with fellow detainees Mario Juica Vega and Oscar Ramos. Since then, they have been disappeared.

At 9:40 PM, Eduardo Canteros Prado, 48, Clara Elena's uncle, a civil engineer, was detained on a public street by DINA agents in front of his home located on Panamá street, in the commune of La Florida. He was taken to 'Villa Grimaldi'. In 1990, his remains were found at the Las Tórtolas estate in Colina, a facility that belonged to the Army until 1980.

On July 27, 1976, around 5:15 PM, Alejandro Rodríguez Urzúa, 49, was detained by DINA agents from his office located at Mallinkrodt 70, Barrio Bellavista. They took him to the 'Villa Grimaldi' facility.

On August 4, 1976, Daniel Palma Robledo, 61, a businessman, was detained in the morning on Avenida Matta, between San Diego and Arturo Prat streets; after picking up his mail, he bought a newspaper and was detained as he was leaving. He was taken to an unknown destination, but was seen at the 'Simón Bolívar' extermination barracks.

On the same day, August 4, at 3:00 PM, the physician Carlos Enrique Godoy Lagarrigue, 39, was detained. He was captured during his commute between the Parroquial Hospital of San Bernardo and his private practice, located at Barros Arana and Arturo Prat streets. He was taken to 'Villa Grimaldi' and, subsequently, to 'Cuatro Álamos', from where he was made to disappear.

On the night of August 4, the surgeon Iván Sergio Insunza Bascuñán, 43, was detained by DINA agents while driving his vehicle. He was taken to 'Villa Grimaldi' and then to 'Cuatro Álamos'.

On August 6, 1976, shortly after leaving his home, around 9:30 AM, student leader and Central Workers' Union (CUT) member José Eduardo Santander Miranda, 29, was detained by DINA agents; surviving witnesses saw him at the 'Villa Grimaldi' facility.

On August 9, Víctor Hugo Morales Mazuela, 45, a carpenter and construction worker, union leader, and organizational head of a Communist Party regional branch, was detained in the morning in the vicinity of the 'Villa México' neighborhood in the commune of Maipú and was taken to 'Villa Grimaldi'. Subsequently, he was seen at the 'Simón Bolívar' barracks.

On the same day, August 9, Mario Jesús Juica Vega, 34, a merchant, was detained around noon in the vicinity of Plaza Egaña, in the commune of Ñuñoa, and taken to 'Villa Grimaldi', where he was seen by numerous witnesses. On August 20, he was taken out of that facility along with two other detainees, and since then, the DINA has kept them disappeared.

On August 11, 1976, at 9:00 AM, while leaving his home located on Chiloé street, between Santa Rosa and Gran Avenida, in the commune of San Miguel, merchant Miguel Nazal Quiroz, 44, was detained by DINA agents. He was taken to 'Villa Grimaldi'.

On the night of the same day, August 11, Carlos Mario Vizcarra Cofré, 31, an auto body repairman, was detained at his home in Quinta Normal by agents who took him to 'Villa Grimaldi', a facility where witnesses saw him until August 25 of the same year. Subsequently, he was seen at the 'Simón Bolívar' facility.

On August 13, Juan Aurelio Villarroel Zárate, 55, a union leader and photoengraver, was detained by DINA agents around noon near the Estación Mapocho while traveling from his home in Conchalí. He was taken to Villa Grimaldi.

On August 16, 1976, at 11:30 AM, the worker Julio Roberto Vega Vega was detained by DINA agents on Avenida Presidente Balmaceda, between Cueto and Libertad, in the commune of Santiago. Several witnesses saw him held at both 'Villa Grimaldi' and the 'Simón Bolívar' barracks.

by Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl, July 30, 2023

Date: 07-30-2023

Abhorrent: Court Acquits Authors of 18 Murders and Disappearances

The Eighth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals resolved to acquit eight individuals convicted of Human Rights violations, in addition to reducing the sentence of nine others by three years and one day, who were also granted the benefit of supervised release.

The crimes for which they were serving sentences refer to the kidnapping and disappearance of Manuel Guillermo Recabarren González, Luis Emilio Recabarren González, Nalvia Mena Alvarado, Manuel Segundo Recabarren Rojas, CLARA ELENA CANTEROS TORRES, Alejandro Rodríguez Urzúa, Daniel Palma Robledo, Carlos Enrique Godoy Lagarrigue, Iván Sergio Insunza Bascuñán, José Eduardo Santander Miranda, Víctor Hugo Morales Valenzuela, Mario Jesús Juica Vega, Miguel Nazal Quiroz, Carlos Mario Vizcarra Cofré, Julio Roberto Vega Vega, and Juan Aurelio Villarroel Zárate, and the detention and homicide of Eduardo Canteros Prado.

The ruling was issued by ministers Juan Cristóbal Mera, Mireya López, and Cristian Lepin.

This decision was harshly criticized by the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared of Chile, who questioned the measure through their official Twitter account.

"The Eighth Criminal Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals resolved to leave 17 human rights violators, responsible for the disappearance and murder of 17 of our relatives, unpunished. Just as in the dictatorship, today they once again demonstrate their misery and side with the murderers," the message reads.

The Chilean Commission of Human Rights (CCHDH) indicated that "through this ruling, the Court of Appeals once again fails to fulfill the Chilean State's international obligation to establish the Truth and achieve Justice, shielding the Impunity of criminals against humanity."

One of the relatives of the victims of these repressors, journalist Lorena Díaz Ramírez, posted on social media:

"A dark day for Human Rights. Today the Eighth Criminal Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals resolved to leave 17 human rights violators, responsible for the disappearance and murder of 17 of our relatives, unpunished..."

The General Secretary of the Communist Party, Lautaro Carmona, recalled in a post on his Twitter account that crimes against humanity "do not prescribe nor can they have benefits" and lamented the situation, stating: "As in the worst times of the Dictatorship, human rights violators are shielded."

The ruling details that the Court acquitted: Pedro Espinoza Bravo Rolf Wenderoth Pozo Pedro Bitterlich Jaramillo Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica Orlando Altamirano Sanhueza Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca

The document also indicates that the reduction to 3 years and 1 day was granted to: Ricardo Lawrence Mires Jorge Andrade Gómez Juan Morales Salgado Ciro Torré Sáez Sergio Orlando Escalona Acuña Juvenal Piña Gallardo Jorge Díaz Radulovich Gustavo Guerrero Aguilera Gladys Calderón Carreño

Most of these individuals are currently serving their sentences at the Punta Peuco prison, having been sentenced on July 21, 2017, by presiding minister Leopoldo Llanos. Collectively, they were accused of 16 kidnappings and one aggravated homicide at Villa Grimaldi.

This does not mean they will be set free, as they are serving sentences for other homicides and kidnappings with disappearance, which speaks clearly to the impropriety of the ruling.

The arguments invoked by the ruling are manifestly favorable to impunity:

"It is not a group of soldiers who proceeded on their own initiative, arbitrarily detaining a person and killing them once deprived of liberty; it is a process of State policy established by the new order of things prevailing from the events of September 11, 1973, in which the Armed Forces and Order overthrew the constituted government and began a persecution of the militants and sympathizers of the previous government, such that the agents who caused the death of the victims of this process did not personally seek the situation of armed superiority that their status as soldiers gave them, but rather that it was inherent in a regime controlled precisely by the Armed Forces and Order for more than two years before the events occurred."

Reasoning otherwise, the ruling alleges, would imply "judging the authors for their status as soldiers in an authoritarian political regime and not for their acts."

The same can be said of the individual reviews of each case:

"That, regarding Pedro Espinoza Bravo, there is no evidence that he led any brigade that operated in Villa Grimaldi, much less the Delfín group, during the year 1976, which is what matters for these purposes."

Further on, it maintains, regarding another convicted person:

"The fact that Wenderoth Pozo belonged to the DINA and that he reached the position of head of the Sub-directorate of Internal Intelligence starting in December 1975 does not..."

This ruling is not an isolated event. It is part of a major operation of impunity by the party of order, which takes advantage of social immobilization to free human rights violators. In fact, next week Congress must vote on pardons for people over 75 years of age with terminal illnesses, including human rights violators.

On the other hand, due to the nature of its rulings, it is clear that the Judiciary is regressing to the standards of the dictatorship in matters of human rights.

Source: reddigital.cl, 12/04/2020

Date: 12-04-2020

Between 1975 and 1977, the DINA sought the dollars that were arriving to the PC from abroad

By the end of May 1976, DINA agents already knew that the PC (Communist Party) did not have weapons, but they insisted on identifying and capturing the members of the Party's finance team. Since mid-1975, in the midst of a repressive onslaught against the Communist Party, the DINA leadership sought to identify and capture the party's finance officers in order to seize funds arriving from abroad.

Some of these funds were managed in Santiago by financial operators linked to the Jewish community. The PC was also anxiously trying to hide its investments in certain businesses. Many of the nearly 150 communists detained, murdered, and forcibly disappeared in 1975 and 1976 were savagely tortured to extract information that would allow DINA chiefs to get closer to the party's money, which was used to maintain their structures and initiate a faltering resistance to the dictatorship.

By the end of May 1976, DINA agents already knew that the PC did not have weapons, but they insisted on identifying and capturing the members of the Party's finance team. In one of the operations, on July 22, they captured the brothers Julio and Eduardo Budnik, one of whom collaborated on these matters with the communists.

One of them provided enough information to further whet the appetites of the repressive squads, who were convinced that Víctor Canteros Prado was in charge of finances. Although they could not capture their target, they did capture two of his closest relatives.

Clara Elena Canteros Torres was 21 years old at the time of her detention. She was married, had two daughters, was a former Chemical Engineering student at the Universidad de Chile, and worked as a laboratory technician.

She was a militant of the Communist Youth, worked in a dry cleaner owned by the PC, and collaborated with her father, Víctor Canteros Prado, with Crifé Cid, and with Julio Irazzoky on the Party's finance team.

She was detained by DINA agents on July 23, 1976, around 8:00 PM, on a public street near her home, after getting off a public bus at the intersection of Panamá and Rojas Magallanes streets in La Florida.

That same day, in the same area, shortly thereafter, her uncle Eduardo Canteros Prado was detained. Evidence that Clara Canteros was held at Villa Grimaldi was provided by former detainee Rosa Elsa Leiva Muñoz in a sworn statement dated July 18, 1991, in which she recounted that she was detained by the DINA on August 20, 1976, and taken to Villa Grimaldi.

The day after arriving there, she saw Marta Ugarte Román, who told her days later that on the day she had arrived at that facility, three detainees were being taken out: CLARA CANTEROS, Oscar Ramos, and Mario Juica.

Rosa Leiva knew the Canteros family, as she had been the secretary to former parliamentarian Manuel Canteros, Clara Elena's uncle. Eduardo Canteros Prado was 48 years old at the time of his disappearance.

He was married to María Enolfa Gormaz Vera, had five children and five others from a previous marriage, was a civil engineer, and was a former executive at Corhabit, residing in La Florida. He was detained on July 23, 1976, around 9:40 PM, on a public street in front of his house as he was returning home after his workday.

He was called over by the occupants of a blue car parked on the road, who turned out to be DINA agents who proceeded to apprehend him, forcing him into one of the three vehicles they were using. Eyewitnesses to the detention included Jorge Antonio Muñoz Muñoz, his nephew by marriage; José Desiderio Muñoz Muñoz, the brother of the former; and María Enolfa Gormaz Vera.

All of them were able to observe the circumstances of the detention. The Muñoz brothers even established a brief dialogue with Eduardo prior to his apprehension. Meanwhile, minutes before her husband's detention, María Gormaz received a visit at her home from one of the agents, who asked to speak with him under the pretext of a supposed accident that had befallen his niece, CLARA ELENA CANTEROS TORRES, who was also detained that same day and who, like her uncle Eduardo, is listed as a forcibly disappeared person.

From that location, the captors took the detainee to Villa Grimaldi, where he was held and tortured. There, Eduardo Canteros Prado was seen by Isaac Godoy Castillo, who declared that on August 26, 1976, while being held at Villa Grimaldi, he was able to see Eduardo Canteros; he was part of a group of detainees, among whom he remembers Pedro Silva Bustos, Lenin Díaz Silva, Darío Miranda Godoy, and Jorge Solovera Gallardo, when they were being returned to their respective cells after having cleaned the area.

All of them remain forcibly disappeared to this day. On March 21, 1990, while excavation work was being carried out on the grounds of the Las Tórtolas estate in Colina, which had belonged to the Army until 1980, the remains of three people were found in two clandestine graves, one of which corresponded to Eduardo Canteros Prado.

Another of the remains belonged to the former parliamentarian and member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Vicente Atencio Cortés, who was detained on August 11, 1976, and who was seen by witnesses at the DINA facility of Villa Grimaldi.

Between January and September of that year, 1976, more than 70 communists were detained and disappeared in DINA barracks. Seventeen of them were murdered by agents of that DINA secret police. Recently convicted by the justice system, their sentences were reduced by a chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals this past April 9.

The Eighth Chamber of the court was presided over by Justice Juan Cristóbal Mera and included Justice Mireya López and attorney Cristián Lepín. Several of those murdered communists were important cadres of the Party's main structures, linked by family and with access to the top leaders who still remained free.

Iván Insunza Bascuñán, Carlos Godoy Lagarrigue, Alejandro Rodríguez Urzúa, Miguel Nazal Quiroz, Daniel Palma Robledo, and others belonged to traditional families among the ideological heirs of Recabarren.

An almost forgotten angle of the investigation into their deaths led to Colonia Dignidad, in the vicinity of Parral, where some of the cars of the disappeared communists appeared—vehicles that were hidden in Villa Baviera by the German colonists who followed Paul Schaefer.

A key clue Interrogators from the DINA's Lautaro Brigade, installed in the barracks on Simón Bolívar Street in the La Reina commune in Santiago, obtained, through prolonged and brutal torture, some key data that allowed the analysts of that repressive apparatus to identify one of the main fund operators of the PC in Santiago: the currency exchanger Jacobo Stoulman Bortnik.

Thus, in the final months of 1976, the DINA managed to infiltrate one of the international networks that the PC had to transport funds to Chile in France and Switzerland. Jacobo Stoulman traveled to France on November 18.

On the same plane was Major Raúl Iturriaga Neumann, one of the officers closest to Colonel Manuel Contreras, head of the DINA. Iturriaga, dressed in civilian clothes, traveled a few seats away from Stoulman under the false identity of Eduardo José Rodríguez Pérez.

At the beginning of 1977, the men of "Mamo" Contreras learned that a courier from Europe would travel to Buenos Aires. In Argentina, a new structure awaited him, preparing to assume the leadership of the PC in Chile, replacing the second leadership that had fallen into the hands of the DINA in December 1976.

It included Horacio Cepeda Marinkovich, Lincoyán Berríos, Fernando Navarro Allendes, Fernando Ortiz Letelier, Héctor Véliz Ramírez, Reinalda Pereira Plaza, and Waldo Pizarro Molin. On May 16, 1977, a Chilean with a Swiss passport named Alexis Jaccard Siegler landed in Buenos Aires; he was the PC courier carrying a briefcase with a large amount of dollars.

He stayed at the Hotel Bristol and, in the following hours, was kidnapped by a Condor network commando, composed of Chilean and Argentine agents. That same day, they detained the Chilean Ricardo Ramírez Herrera, an Argentine merchant who was hosting him, Marcos Leder, 70 years old, and his son Mauricio. All three disappeared.

Source: interferencia.cl 18/04/2020

Date: 18-04-2020

In times of pandemic, Santiago Court of Appeals releases human rights violators

This past Thursday, April 9, the Eighth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals released 17 former DINA agents convicted in 2017 for acts of "qualified kidnapping" and "qualified homicide" committed between 1974 and 1977.

The court, presided over by Justice Juan Cristóbal Mera Muñoz and also composed of Justice Mireya López Miranda and attorney Cristián Lepín Molina, released the human rights violators who had spent only three years in prison by reducing or revoking their sentences, in most cases to 3 years, and in others to lesser sentences, so that having already served that period, they were released.

In detail, former DINA agents Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Rolf Wenderoth Pozo, Pedro Bitterlich Jaramillo, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Orlando Altamirano Sanhueza, Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza, and Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca were released after their sentences were revoked, while Gladys Calderón Carreño, Sergio Orlando Escalona Acuña, Juvenal Piña Garrido, Jorge Díaz Radulovich, Gustavo Guerrero Aguilera, Ciro Torré Sáez, Juan Morales Salgado, Ricardo Lawrence Mires, and Jorge Andrade Gómez had their sentences reduced, with most of them being released.

It should be noted that the aforementioned crimes refer to the kidnapping and disappearance of Manuel Guillermo Recabarren González, Luis Emilio Recabarren González, Nalvia Mena Alvarado, Manuel Segundo Recabarren Rojas, Clara Elena Canteros Torres, Alejandro Rodríguez Urzúa, Daniel Palma Robledo, Carlos Enrique Godoy Lagarrigue, Iván Sergio Insunza Bascuñán, José Eduardo Santander Miranda, Víctor Hugo Morales Valenzuela, Mario Jesús Juica Vega, Miguel Nazal Quiroz, Carlos Mario Vizcarra Cofré, Julio Roberto Vega Vega, and Juan Aurelio Villarroel Zárate, and the detention and homicide of Eduardo Canteros Prado.

Source: elrodriguista.cl 12/04/2020

Date: 12-04-2020

UNIVERSIDAD DE CHILE AWARDED 11 NEW POSTHUMOUS DEGREES TO EXECUTED AND FORCIBLY DISAPPEARED STUDENTS

As part of the official commemoration of a new anniversary of the Coup d'État, the Casa de Bello continued with the presentation of this recognition. Led by Rector Ennio Vivaldi, the ceremony ratified the institutional commitment to memory, reparation, truth, and justice that has been developed in recent years, and from which another 101 students were already distinguished in April of this year, in a process that remains open.

Emotion and joy were part of the feelings of people of different generations who met this Tuesday, September 11, in a packed Main Hall of the Casa Central of the U. de Chile, which, as part of the official ceremony commemorating a new anniversary of the Coup d'État, held the second presentation of the "Posthumous and Symbolic Degree" and the "Posthumous and Symbolic Academic Degree" to forcibly disappeared and politically executed students.

Those distinguished on this occasion were the political executions of José Modesto Amigo Latorre, Tatiana Valentina Fariña Concha, Sócrates Augusto Ponce Pacheco, and Frank Randall Teruggi Bombatch; and the forcibly disappeared CLARA ELENA CANTEROS TORRES, Bernardo de Castro López, Jorge Humberto D’Orival Briceño, Jorge Enrique Espinosa Méndez, Néstor Alfonso Gallardo Agüero, José Fernando Romero Lagos, and Eduardo Humberto Ziede Gómez.

These 11 students from the University join the 101 who received the distinction last April, as part of an institutional memory exercise described as "indispensable" in light of recent events related to justice and human rights violations.

In the ceremony, three students whose families could not attend the first presentation of degrees were also honored. These are Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo, Juan Aniceto Meneses Reyes, and Carmen Margarita Díaz Derricarrere. "This University today experiences a moment of unusual commotion in this act, but we would like to think that beyond this moment, there will remain in us and in you this spirit of shaping a country in which those we are honoring today would have been happy," said Rector Ennio Vivaldi regarding this process, which is in charge of the Posthumous Degrees Committee, composed of the Human Rights Chair and the Andrés Bello Central Archive of the Vice-Rectorate of Extension and Communications, the Legal Directorate, and the Vice-Rectorate of Academic Affairs. Along with highlighting the importance of the names "because behind them there are stories, there are friends and families who have never stopped fighting for their recognition, for fighting against oblivion in a country that insists on burying the past," the Vice-Rector of Extension and Communications, Faride Zeran, explained that "faced with our country's debts in these matters, the Universidad de Chile has decided, as it has so many times in its history, to act in accordance with its historical memory, with the ethical debt that an institution like this has to the country and to the victims of human rights violations," which is why, she stressed, the process remains open, overcoming the difficulties of the lack of an archive policy and the destruction of such archives. For her part, the president of the FECh, Karla Toro, while remembering the Engineering student murdered during the dictatorship, Patricio Manzano, emphasized that this act of reparation "cannot be a point of arrival. On the contrary, it must be a starting point to be able to advance decisively in a true memory policy by our University," a task in which, she said, students must play a leading role. A living memory "A day like today, 45 years ago, we learned to wait, and we continue to wait for truth and justice. We deserve nothing less than that. That is why these acts are extremely important, because they vindicate us," said Alejandra Parra, representative of the Association of Relatives of Politically Executed Persons, adding that "it is important that we leave this legacy to the new generations." Parra also had words regarding the role of society in matters of memory and human rights, since "it depends on us that the impunity to which we have been subjected, especially this year, does not continue. We can continue the fight, ask for truth and justice, and fight against impunity." For her part, Mireya García, representative of the Association of Relatives of Forcibly Disappeared Persons (AFDD), thanked the Universidad de Chile for this act of memory "because symbolic acts have an enormous value for us; they go beyond the symbolic and become acts of vindication of what their lives were, and they were also students." García also highlighted the need for "society as a whole to be part of this fight because the disappeared belong to everyone, they belong to all of us, because the executed belong to all of us, because we are all the tortured." Participating in this ceremony were Pro-Rector Rafael Epstein; Vice-Rector of Academic Affairs Rosa Devés; Vice-Rector of Extension and Communications Faride Zeran; Vice-Rector of Research and Development Flavio Salazar; Vice-Rector of Economic Affairs and Institutional Management Daniel Hojman; Vice-Rector of Student and Community Affairs Juan Cortés, along with the acting Legal Director, Ignacio Maturana. Along with them attended the Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Humanities, Carlos Ruiz Schneider; the Dean of the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Francisco Martínez; the Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mario Maino; the Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, Manuel Amaya; the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Roberto Aceituno; the Dean of the Faculty of Agronomic Sciences, Roberto Neira; the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Luis Orlandini; the Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business, José De Gregorio; the Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry, Irene Morales; and the Director of the Institute of Public Affairs, Hugo Frühling; in addition to the president of the FECh, Karla Toro, and representatives of the University Senate and the Evaluation Council, among others. Also participating in this meeting, which was open to the entire university community and the public, were musician Roberto Márquez—vocalist of Illapu—and actors Paulina Urrutia and Daniel Muñoz, who were the masters of ceremony; in addition to Joan Turner and Amanda Jara, the National Human Rights Award recipient Fabiola Letelier, architect Miguel Lawner, musician Fernando García, and university and diplomatic corps authorities.

Source: radiojgm.uchile.cl 12/09/2018

Date: 12-09-2018

HUMAN RIGHTS: Justice Llanos issues ruling in 16 cases of kidnapping and 1 homicide of Villa Grimaldi victims (excerpt)

The extraordinary visiting judge for human rights violation cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Leopoldo Llanos Sagristá, convicted 19 former members of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the crimes of qualified kidnapping of Iván Sergio Insunza Bascuñán, Carlos Enrique Godoy Lagarrigue, Daniel Palma Robledo, Manuel Segundo Recabarren Rojas, Manuel Guillermo Recabarren González, Luis Emilio Recabarren González, Nalvia Rosa Mena Alvarado, José Eduardo Santander Miranda, Mario Jesús Juica Vega, Miguel Nazal Quiroz, Clara Canteros Torres, Juan Aurelio Villarroel Zárate, Víctor Hugo Morales Mazuela, Julio Roberto Vega Vega, Carlos Mario Vizcarra Cofré, and Alejandro Rodríguez Urzúa; and the qualified homicide of Eduardo Canteros Prado. These crimes were perpetrated at Villa Grimaldi in 1976. In the ruling (case file 2182-1998), the visiting judge sentenced Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Carlos López Tapia, Ricardo Lawrence Mires, and Jorge Andrade Gómez to 20 years in prison as perpetrators of the 16 qualified kidnappings; and to 20 years in prison for the qualified homicide of Canteros Pardo. Meanwhile, agents Juan Morales Salgado and Gladys Calderón Carreño must serve 18 years and 15 years and one day in prison, respectively, for their responsibility as perpetrators of six qualified kidnappings. Agents Rolf Wenderoth Pozo, Ciro Torré Sáez, and Orlando Manzo Durán were sentenced to 15 years and one day in prison as perpetrators of three qualified kidnappings. For agents Sergio Escalona Acuña, Juvenal Piña Garrido, Jorge Díaz Radulovich, and Gustavo Guerrero Aguilera, Justice Llanos determined sentences of 10 years and one day in prison for their responsibility as perpetrators of one qualified kidnapping. As accomplices in the 16 cases of qualified kidnapping, agents Pedro Bitterlich Jaramillo, Claudio Pacheco Fernández, Orlando Torrejón Gatica, Orlando Altamirano Sanhueza, Carlos López Inostroza, and Hermon Hellec Mundaca were sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison, and 7 years for the homicide of Eduardo Canteros Pardo, respectively. The facts During the investigation stage, the visiting judge was able to establish the following facts: "The DINA maintained, from the end of 1975 and at least throughout the year 1977, the 'Simón Bolívar' Barracks, located at 8630 Simón Bolívar Street, La Reina commune, a facility where the brigade called 'Lautaro' operated, whose main function, in addition to repressive tasks of detaining political dissidents, was the protection of the Director of the DINA, Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, and his family. This brigade was directed by Army Major Juan Morales Salgado, who was also the head of the barracks and who was under the strict supervision of the Director of the DINA, who was also his direct supervisor; In 1975, a restructuring of the Brigades and operational groups that had 'Villa Grimaldi' as their barracks took place, merging the groups in charge of Army Captain Germán Barriga Muñoz and Carabineros Captain Ricardo Lawrence Mires, and integrated by numerous agents belonging to different branches of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, and whose designation was the 'Delfín' (or 'Mehuín', according to other versions) brigade or group. The purpose of this brigade was the repression of the Communist Party, carrying out tracking and detention work of leaders and militants of that Party, which took place throughout 1976; In this way, during that period, dozens of Communist Party militants were captured, many of them members of successive leaderships that were constituted as the previous ones were dismantled by the aforementioned repressive organization. The detainees were taken to the 'Terranova' or 'Villa Grimaldi' barracks, where they were interrogated under torture. Some of them were subsequently taken, while still deprived of liberty, to the 'Simón Bolívar' barracks—to which the 'Delfín' or 'Mehuín' brigade moved in May or June 1976—which became the main operations center of the aforementioned brigade, and from where operational groups went out to carry out detentions, in addition to transferring the Communist Party detainees who were at 'Villa Grimaldi'; To fulfill the functions described above, the so-called 'Delfín' or 'Mehuín' brigade incorporated members of the 'Lautaro' brigade, directed by Juan Morales Salgado, into its repressive activities. In said barracks, the detainees were interrogated under torture, their trail was lost, and their current whereabouts remain unknown; however, there is evidence that several of these people were killed, their bodies being removed and buried clandestinely; and others were thrown into the sea from helicopters; their remains have yet to be recovered; Under these circumstances, the detentions of the following people, all Communist Party militants, occurred: a. MANUEL GUILLERMO RECABARREN GONZÁLEZ, 22 years old, and LUIS EMILIO RECABARREN GONZÁLEZ, 29 years old, were detained, along with NALVIA MENA ALVARADO and her two-year-old son, Luis Emilio Recabarren Mena, by DINA agents in an operation carried out on April 29, 1976, in the area of Sebastopol and Santa Rosa streets. The minor was left abandoned near his home in the evening hours. The following day, the father of the first two, MANUEL SEGUNDO RECABARREN ROJAS, 50 years old, was apprehended at 7:10 AM, when he was leaving his home at 6271 Cantares de Chile Street, stop 16 of Santa Rosa, San Miguel commune, as he was preparing to board a bus. All the detainees were taken to 'Villa Grimaldi'; Manuel Guillermo Recabarren González and Manuel Segundo Recabarren Rojas were also seen at the 'Simón Bolívar' facility, and Luis Emilio Recabarren González at 'Cuatro Álamos', with the current whereabouts of the victims remaining unknown. b. CLARA ELENA CANTEROS TORRES, 21 years old, a militant of the Communist Youth, detained on July 23, 1976, around 8:00 PM on a public street at the intersection of Panamá and Rojas Magallanes streets in the La Florida commune, after getting off public transport. Hours later, her uncle Eduardo Canteros Prado was detained. She was taken to 'Villa Grimaldi' where she was seen by witnesses, and on August 20, 1976, she was taken out of that facility along with fellow detainees Mario Juica Vega and Óscar Ramos. Her whereabouts remain unknown to this date. c. EDUARDO CANTEROS PRADO, 48 years old, civil engineer, detained on July 23, 1976, around 9:40 PM, on a public street in front of his home located at 8807 Panamá Street, in the La Florida commune, by DINA agents who were traveling in three cars, and was taken to 'Villa Grimaldi'. In 1990, his remains were found on the Las Tórtolas estate in Colina, a facility that belonged to the Army until 1980. (excerpt)

Source: adprensa.cl 28/07/2017

Date: 28-07-2017

DINA agents prosecuted for qualified kidnappings

They are accused of the qualified kidnappings of Juan Aurelio Villarroel Zárate and Clara Canteros Torres and the qualified homicide of Eduardo Canteros Prado in 1976. The visiting judge of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Leopoldo Llanos, issued indictments against a group of agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for the qualified kidnappings of Juan Aurelio Villarroel Zárate and Clara Canteros Torres and the qualified homicide of Eduardo Canteros Prado, crimes perpetrated in July and August 1976, respectively.

The magistrate indicted, as perpetrators of the crimes, Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, Carlos López Tapia, Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Juan Morales Salgado, Marcelo Moren Brito, Rolf Wenderoth Pozo, Eugenio Fieldehouse Chávez, Ricardo Lawrence Mires, and Jorge Andrade Gómez.

Meanwhile, accused as accomplices were Gladys Calderón Carreño, Rufino Jaime Astorga, José Friz Esparza, Hermon Alfaro Mundaca, Orlando Inostroza Lagos, Pedro Bitterlich Jaramillo, Claudio Pacheco Fernández, Eduardo Reyes Lagos, Orlando Torrejón Gatica, Orlando Altamirano Sanhueza, and Carlos López Inostroza.

According to the investigation, Juan Aurelio Villarroel Zárate was detained on August 13, 1976, in the vicinity of the Mapocho station. Since that date, his trail was lost. Meanwhile, CLARA ELENA CANTEROS TORRES and her uncle Eduardo Canteros Prado were detained on July 23 of that same year on Panamá Street, in the La Florida commune.

Since that day, their trail was also lost. The remains of Eduardo Canteros Prado were identified on July 3 by the Legal Medical Service among the victims who were illegally buried on an Army property located in the Las Tórtolas sector, Colina commune. The remains were found in 1990.

Source: 24horas.cl 30/08/2013

Date: 30-08-2013