Date of Birth : 29-05-40, Quilpué. 33 years of age at the time of his detention Address : Ramón Sotomayor 2951, Santiago Marital Status : Married, 2 children Occupation : Sociologist Political Affiliation : Advisor to the General Secretariat of Government. Member of the Socialist Party Date of Detention : September 11, 1973

Claudio Raúl Jimeno Grendi, married, father of two, a sociologist and member of the Socialist Party, was detained on September 11, 1973, as the last group of people inside the La Moneda Palace was leaving.

He was taken to the Tacna Regiment, where he remained until September 13, the date on which he was driven away in a military truck to an unknown destination; he remains forcibly disappeared to this day.

Claudio Jimeno was an advisor to the Undersecretariat of Government. On the morning of September 11, he was performing his professional duties at the La Moneda Presidential Palace, the seat of government, which was seized by Army infantry and tank units led by General Javier Palacios, later joined by Carabineros forces.

At 11:00 a.m., the Chilean Air Force began the bombardment that destroyed a large part of La Moneda.

The members of the Presidential Guard, better known as the GAP (Group of Personal Friends—alluding to an expression used by the President of the Republic himself) and other individuals remained in the Palace until they received the order from President Salvador Allende to leave.

They exited through a door on Calle Morandé 80 of the La Moneda Palace. There, they were held at gunpoint and beaten by the military and ordered to lie on the ground with their hands behind their necks, under constant threat, including being crushed by a tank that moved toward them.

These events were extensively recorded in graphic material published in the national press. A special report featuring this photographic material was published by the magazine QUE PASA.

Two members of the Presidential Guard, Antonio Aguirre Vásquez and Osvaldo Ramos Rivera, were taken prisoner inside La Moneda and sent to the Public Assistance Emergency Hospital because they were wounded.

A few days later, these two individuals were removed from said medical center by military personnel and have since been classified as forcibly disappeared. Other members of the GAP who were coming from the presidential residences of El Cañaveral and Tomás Moro did not manage to enter La Moneda and were detained in the vicinity by Carabineros.

Among them were Gonzalo Jorquera Leyton, Williams Osvaldo Ramírez Barría, Carlos Cruz Zavala, and Domingo Blanco Tarrés, who were part of a group of approximately 13 people, some of whom were subsequently executed, while the others remain classified as forcibly disappeared.

The people detained at La Moneda remained on Calle Morandé until 6:00 p.m. At that hour, these prisoners were taken in two military vehicles to the Tacna Regiment, located about 12 blocks from the La Moneda Palace. The aforementioned military unit was under the command of Colonel Joaquín Ramírez Pineda.

Survivors of these events have provided information that allows for the reconstruction of the facts: the prisoners remained in the aforementioned Regiment until September 13. While detained in that Regiment, they were forced to crawl on their knees, lie down with their arms behind their necks, or stand with their arms raised.

For nearly 48 hours, they were forced to remain in painful positions on rough ground or gravel, being trampled by soldiers who ran over them, struck them with the butts of their weapons, or inflicted wounds with their bayonets, all under the constant surveillance of guards armed with machine guns who threatened them and asked the officers to execute them immediately.

Later, they were held in a sector known as the "boxes" or former stables; from there, the prisoners were taken to an office located on the second floor of the Regiment, where they were tortured and interrogated by personnel from the Military Intelligence Service (SIM).

Afterward, they were returned in poor physical condition to rejoin the other prisoners and continue in the painful positions assigned to them. Each change of guard began with a beating of the prisoners with rifle butts.

There were 49 such prisoners. The following day, the order was given to release the 17 Investigative Police officers who were part of the presidential protection team, and some other prisoners were separated.

Finally, a group of people remained as prisoners, 21 of whom have been identified: ten advisors to the President of the Republic or government officials, ten members of the Presidential Guard, and one laborer.

The President's advisors were Jaime Barrios Meza, commercial engineer, presidential advisor, and General Manager of the Central Bank of Chile; Sergio Contreras, public relations officer for the Intendancy and journalist; Daniel Escobar Cruz, Chief of Cabinet for the Undersecretary of the Interior; Enrique Huerta Corvalán, Palace Intendant; Claudio Jimeno Grendi, sociologist, presidential advisor; Georges Klein Pipper, doctor, presidential advisor; Eduardo Paredes Barrientos, doctor, presidential advisor, and former Director of Investigations; Enrique París Roa, psychiatrist, presidential advisor, and member of the Superior Council of the University of Chile; Héctor Ricardo Pincheira Núñez, medical student, presidential advisor; and Arsenio Poupin Oissel, lawyer, Undersecretary General of Government, and presidential advisor. The members of the Presidential Guard who have been identified are as follows: José Freire Medina, Daniel Gutiérrez Ayala, Oscar Lagos Ríos, Juan Montiglio Murúa, Julio Hernán Moreno Pulgar, Luis Rodríguez Riquelme, Jaime Sotelo Ojeda, Julio Tapia Martínez, Oscar Valladares Caroca, and Juan Vargas Contreras. Additionally, there was the laborer Oscar Luis Avilés Jofré, who had gone to La Moneda to support the government.

Detective Juan Seoane remembers Claudio Jimeno among the detainees, whom he saw while they were being held in a stable at the Tacna Regiment.

Around 2:00 p.m. on September 13, 1973, these prisoners, with their hands and feet tied, were thrown into a military truck, piled on top of one another, and driven out of the Regiment to an unknown destination.

Almost all members of the Presidential Guard who were at La Moneda on September 11, 1973, were executed or disappeared. However, one who managed to survive and has contributed to reconstructing these events is Juan Bautista Osses Beltrán, who was taken prisoner to the Tacna Regiment but was incorporated into another group of prisoners, which allowed him to leave alive after being imprisoned at the Estadio Chile and the National Stadium.

Osses states in his extensive testimony that a group of 13 members of the Presidential Guard accompanied Allende to La Moneda and were detained inside. Subsequently, along with the other prisoners, he was taken to the Tacna Regiment, where they were informed that they would be executed by firing squad at midnight, later that the execution would be at 3:00 a.m., and later still, at 6:00 a.m.

Osses has confirmed that among those detained at the Tacna were Héctor Daniel Urrutia, Daniel Gutiérrez, Enrique Huerta, Oscar Lagos Ríos, Juan Montiglio, Julio Moreno, Eduardo Paredes, Enrique París, Georges Klein, Héctor Pincheira, Arsenio Poupin, Luis Rodríguez Riquelme, and Oscar Valladares.

The witness was removed from the Tacna Regiment in the early hours of September 13, 1973, and taken along with other detainees to the Estadio Chile.

Beatriz Celsa Parrau Tejos, who was detained at the Tacna Regiment, has been able to provide some important background information. She was at INDUMETAL, where she was attending to a wounded person in her capacity as a nurse.

At 6:00 p.m. on September 11, this company was occupied by Carabineros, and everyone there was detained and taken to a police station; that same day, they were transferred to the Tacna Regiment. There, she learned that those who had been captured at La Moneda were being held.

Despite being separated from that group, she had the opportunity to see them when they went to the bathroom or when they were being taken for interrogation. She saw several doctors she knew from their professional activities and government officials, among them Claudio Jimeno.

She also observed numerous groups of other prisoners entering or leaving. On September 13, at midday, through the cracks of the shed where about 90 women were locked up, Celsa Parrau was able to see a truck leaving the Regiment carrying bundles that looked like human bodies.

When they were taken out of the aforementioned shed at 2:30 p.m., she observed that the La Moneda prisoners were no longer there.

For his part, the Chief of Investigations at La Moneda, detective Juan Seoane, remained among the La Moneda detainees until after midday on September 13, at which time he was able to witness the prisoners being taken away in a military truck.

According to the testimonies of survivors, they heard from the soldiers who participated in the operation that they had been taken to the Peldehue military camps, located in Colina, where they were allegedly executed and buried.

A soldier from the Tacna Regiment who was able to witness part of the events recounted that the prisoners were tied with wire and thrown into an Army Pegaso truck that was part of a convoy that left the barracks at approximately 2:00 p.m., while all conscripts were ordered to remain confined to their quarters and not to walk through the courtyards.

In the afternoon, the contingent that had been part of the convoy returned, and word spread among the soldiers that the prisoners had been taken to the property used as a shooting range by the Tacna Regiment in the Peldehue military camps in Colina.

There, they were allegedly killed in front of a hole or pit, about five to six meters in diameter and several meters deep, which existed a short distance from the dwelling used by the property's guard staff.

The prisoners were placed in groups of four at the edge of the pit and shot. Once executed and thrown to the bottom of the pit, grenades were allegedly thrown inside, and the executions continued in this manner, four by four.

The soldier adds that he had to go to the aforementioned property at the end of September 1973 and found the aforementioned pit covered over. There, it was confirmed to him that the executed had been buried in that place and that there were 26 or 27 of them, who, before being murdered, shouted slogans alluding to the Unidad Popular government.

Claudio Jimeno's home was raided at the end of September 1973.

However, this massacre of prisoners has never been officially acknowledged, nor have the bodies been returned, and the aforementioned individuals, including Claudio Jimeno Grendi, have been missing since September 13, 1973.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On September 14, 1973, a collective recurso de amparo (writ of habeas corpus) was filed, which included Claudio Jimeno, with the sponsorship of the former Vice-President of the Republic, Bernardo Leighton. This amparo was filed under No. 516-73. That same day, the Santiago Court of Appeals rejected it.

On March 29, 1974, a recurso de amparo was filed for 131 people who had disappeared since September 11, 1973, which included the victim. This appeal was rejected by the Court on December 28, 1974, on the grounds that, in the opinion of the judges, there was insufficient evidence regarding their current whereabouts and the circumstances of their detention.

This resolution was confirmed by the Supreme Court on January 31, 1975, which recommended the appointment of a Ministro en Visita (special investigating judge). On February 20, 1975, magistrate Enrique Zurita was appointed as Ministro en Visita Extraordinaria, who established himself at the First Criminal Court of Santiago and initiated case file No. 106.657.

On September 29 of the same year, this magistrate declared himself incompetent, basing his resolution on the fact that members of the Armed Forces and Order were involved as the apprehending parties in the various cases investigated.

The Military Judge of Santiago accepted jurisdiction in these cases, and on July 1, 1976, case file No. 1.382-76 was initiated. On August 9 of the same year, the Military Prosecutor appointed for the investigation declared the summary closed, and on September 14, he temporarily dismissed the case.

On February 2, 1990, the Second Military Court definitively and totally dismissed case file 1.382-76, by virtue of the provisions of Decree Law 2191 of 1978, which establishes amnesty for persons who committed certain criminal acts during the period between September 11, 1973, and March 10, 1978.

The lawyer for the injured party filed an appeal against this dismissal, arguing that this resolution was improper, offensive, and abusive because it paralyzed the search for the truth of the events forever, granted amnesty to unknown persons, and left the reported events in impunity.

On February 22, 1990, this Court granted the appeal and elevated the case to the Court Martial.

In April 1979, another recurso de amparo was filed, which was not accepted for processing because it originated from abroad.

On December 31, 1990, the spouse of Claudio Jimeno Grendi filed a complaint for "presumed misfortune" (disappearance). In the document, she states that she felt compelled to initiate this judicial action and ensure that it is the Justice system that provides a satisfactory answer to what happened, because one cannot live eternally based on unconfirmed information.

This case was entered under No. 126465-6 and is being processed in the Fifth Criminal Court of Santiago; at the end of 1992, it was in the summary stage.

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity

Claudio and Orlando, his older brother, had an economically privileged childhood in the Recreo Alto area. They lived in a 1930s chalet with a view of the sea and went to the English school, The Mackay School.

Under the care of their mother and with the ample provisions of their father, they were able to receive a good education, in which they learned English and practiced sports. In the morning, they did not take "the micro" (local bus), but rather took the number three bus to school.

On weekends, they usually went to the cinema with their mother or to see their maternal uncles, who worked in activities related to the port of Valparaíso. Their father arrived from time to time for a few days, and on some visits, he would take them for walks to the beach or the surroundings of Viña.

The father's absence gave them a certain freedom, because their mother was not really an authority figure. Mercedes Grendi was a fragile woman. With an elegant bearing and delicate features, she dedicated herself to the home and raising her children.

She did not have the world of her husband, who traveled constantly abroad; he had lived in Paris for a few years and even attended the inauguration of the famous restaurant "La Coupole" in the Montparnasse neighborhood.

Source: Fragment from the book "La Búsqueda"

The Government commemorates 49 years since the coup d'état by filling the La Moneda Palace with carnations, alluding to the message of maintaining the dream of a better country to advance "toward a future with memory, justice, reparation, and guarantees of non-repetition." President Gabriel Boric, along with his ministerial cabinet and the Allende Foundation, participated in a day of reflection on this significant day for the country.

Source: cooperativa.cl 11/09/2022 Date: 09-11-2022

Court of Appeals issues ruling in La Moneda case

The Second Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced seven members of the Army as co-perpetrators of the crimes of homicide and aggravated kidnapping of 23 victims, all direct collaborators of President Salvador Allende.

The Santiago Court of Appeals issued a sentence against seven Army personnel who participated as co-perpetrators in the homicide and kidnapping of 23 collaborators of President Salvador Allende who were detained on September 11, 1973, from the La Moneda Palace after the military coup and taken to the Tacna Regiment and "Fuerte Arteaga" in Peldehue, where they were executed by firing squad and blown up with grenades.

Among the victims were political advisors, members of President Allende's security detail (GAP), doctors, economists, and officials of the Chilean Investigative Police, among others.

The Chamber, which was composed of ministers María Soledad Melo, Gloria Maria Solis, and Inelie Durán, confirmed the ruling made in May 2018 by investigating judge Miguel Vázquez Plaza and sentenced the then-Army officer Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo to twenty years of presidio mayor in its maximum degree as a co-perpetrator of the aggravated homicide of 15 of the 23 victims.

These are Jaime Antonio Barrios Meza, economist and former General Manager of the Central Bank; Egidio Enrique Paris Roa, former Secretary General of the University of Chile; Georges Klein Pipper, doctor and advisor to the General Secretariat of Government; Claudio Raúl Jimeno Grendi and Héctor Ricardo Pincheira Núñez, also presidential advisors; and Luis Avilés Jofré, Manuel Ramón Castro Zamorano, Oscar Reinaldo Lagos Ríos, Julio Hernán Moreno Pulgar, Luis Fernando Rodríguez Riquelme, Jaime Gilson Sotelo Ojeda, Luis Fernando Tapia Martínez, Héctor Daniel Urrutia Molina, Juan Alejandro Vargas Contreras, and Juan José Montiglio Murúa, all members of the GAP.

The ruling sentenced Teobaldo Segundo Mendoza Vicencio, Eliseo Antonio Cornejo Escobedo, Bernardo Eusebio Soto Segura, and Jorge Ismael Gamboa Álvarez to seven years of presidio mayor in its minimum degree as co-perpetrators of the aggravated homicide of the same people.

Meanwhile, Servando Elías Maureira Roa and Jorge Iván Herrera López, currently deceased, were sentenced to nine years of presidio mayor for the same crime.

Maureira Roa and Herrera López were also sentenced as authors of presidio menor in its maximum degree as co-perpetrators of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of eight of the 23 victims. These are Juan Eduardo Paredes Barrientos, former head of the Investigative Police; Arsenio Poupin Oissel, former Secretary General of Government; Sergio Contreras; Enrique Huerta Corvalán, former Palace Intendant; Daniel Escobar Cruz, Chief of Cabinet for the Undersecretary of the Interior; and former GAP members José Freire Medina, Daniel Gutiérrez Ayala, and Oscar Enrique Valladares Caroca.

"Bittersweet," is how plaintiff lawyer Nelson Caucoto described the sentence in this case. "Sweet because 48 years later, a trial of historical significance is coming to an end. These are the events that occurred in the La Moneda Palace, that is, in the heart of the political and republican institutionalism of Chile, which was razed by blood and fire by the coup-plotting military."

The lawyer added that "there are 23 victims, collaborators of President Allende who were with him until the last moment on that crucial day. Taken to the Tacna Regiment, tortured, and finally executed by firing squad in Peldehue by their captors.

Of those 23 victims, whose remains were removed five years later, 15 were successfully identified, which led to the legal classification of aggravated homicide. The remaining eight led to aggravated kidnappings."

The bitter side of the judicial decision lies, in Caucoto's opinion, "because it is in these last eight crimes where we disagree with the penalty and determined participation, both in the first and second instance. We trust that the Honorable Supreme Court can rectify this part of the sentence so that we may have full justice."

According to the investigation substantiated by judge Miguel Vázquez, it was established that the victims were inside La Moneda on September 11, 1973, and that they exited through the Morandé No. 80 door, were detained, and taken to the Tacna Regiment, where they remained until September 13 of the same year, the date on which they were taken out of the facility with their hands and feet tied with wire in a Pegaso truck.

They were then taken to the "Fuerte Arteaga" military facility in Peldehue, a locality where the victims were executed by firing squad and blown up with grenades.

Five years after being executed, their bodies were exhumed and disappeared again. However, bone splinters and other skeletal remains were left at the site, which allowed for the identification of 15 of the 23 victims.

The remaining eight were not found, and the whereabouts of Sergio Contreras, Daniel Escobar Cruz, José Freire Medina, Daniel Gutiérrez Ayala, Enrique Huerta Corvalán, Juan Eduardo Paredes Barrientos, Arsenio Poupin Oissel, and Oscar Enrique Valladares Caroca remain unknown to this day.

Source: radio.uchile.cl 11/04/2021 Date: 11-04-2021

Santiago Court sentences retired Army officers for kidnappings and homicides of detainees at La Moneda Palace on September 11

In the sentence, the Second Chamber of the appellate court confirmed the ruling that sentenced 6 officers for the kidnappings and homicides of 23 collaborators of President Salvador Allende's government and members of the GAP detained at the La Moneda Palace and taken to the Tacna Regiment and Fuerte Arteaga.

The Santiago Court of Appeals confirmed the sentence that condemned six retired Army officers for their responsibility in the crimes of kidnapping and homicide of 23 collaborators of President Salvador Allende, detained at the La Moneda Palace on September 11, 1973.

In the sentence (file 3.452-2018), the Second Chamber of the appellate court—composed of ministers María Soledad Melo, Gloria Solís, and Inelie Durán—confirmed the sentence of Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo to 20 years in prison as a co-perpetrator of the crimes of aggravated homicide of: Óscar Luis Avilés Jofré, Jaime Antonio Barrios Meza, Manuel Ramón Castro Zamorano, Claudio Raúl Jimeno Grendi, Georges Klein Pipper, Óscar Reinaldo Lagos Ríos, Julio Hernán Moreno Pulgar, Egidio Enrique Paris Roa, Héctor Ricardo Pincheira Núñez, Luis Fernando Rodríguez Riquelme, Jaime Gilson Sotelo Ojeda, Julio Fernando Tapia Martínez, Héctor Daniel Urrutia Molina, Juan Alejandro Vargas Contreras, and Juan José Montiglio Murúa.

Meanwhile, Servando Elías Maureira Roa and Jorge Iván Herrera López must serve 9 years in prison; and former military personnel Teobaldo Segundo Mendoza Vicencio, Eliseo Antonio Cornejo Escobedo, and Jorge Ismael Gamboa Álvarez must serve 7 years in prison as co-perpetrators of the crimes of aggravated homicide.

Additionally, in the case of Servando Elías Maureira Roa and Jorge Iván Herrera López, the sentence of 5 years of presidio menor in its maximum degree as co-perpetrators of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Sergio Contreras, Daniel Francisco Escobar Cruz, José Freire Medina, Daniel Antonio Gutiérrez Ayala, Enrique Lelio Huerta Corvalán, Juan Eduardo Paredes Barrientos, Arsenio Poupin Oissel, and Óscar Enrique Valladares Caroca is ratified.

"That this court shares the establishment of the facts and the legal classification of the factual background described in the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth motives of the appealed sentence, in the terms stated in the first-instance ruling, in that they find an adequate classification in the crime of aggravated kidnapping described and sanctioned in Article 141 of the Penal Code, in accordance with the wording in force at the time of the events, when referring to victims who were inside the La Moneda Palace on September 11, 1973, exited through the Morandé No. 80 door, were detained and taken to the Tacna Regiment, where they remained until September 13 of the same year, the date on which they were taken out of the Tacna Regiment, tied hand and foot with wire, in a Pegaso truck, with the whereabouts of Sergio Contreras, Daniel Escobar Cruz, José Freire Medina, Daniel Gutiérrez Ayala, Enrique Huerta Corvalán, Juan Eduardo Paredes Barrientos, Arsenio Poupin Oissel, and Oscar Enrique Valladares Caroca remaining unknown to this day.

"On the other hand, regarding aggravated homicide, it is also agreed with the investigating judge that said illicit act, contemplated in Article 391 No. 1 of the Penal Code, is proven with respect to Oscar Luis Avilés Jofré, Jaime Antonio Barrios Meza, Manuel Ramón Castro Zamorano, Claudio Raúl Jimeno Grendi, Georges Klein Pipper, Oscar Reinaldo Lagos Ríos, Julio Hernán Moreno Pulgar, Egidio Enrique Paris Roa, Héctor Ricardo Pincheira Núñez, Luis Fernando Rodríguez Riquelme, Jaime Gilson Sotelo Ojeda, Luis Fernando Tapia Martínez, Héctor Daniel Urrutia Molina, Juan Alejandro Vargas Contreras, and Juan José Montiglio Murúa," the ruling states.

It adds: "That, on the other hand, as the judge correctly points out, this is a crime against humanity, since aggravated kidnappings—termed by International Human Rights Law as 'forced disappearances'—and aggravated homicide are part of a generalized and systematic attack against a specific group of the civilian population, composed, in this case, by professionals who worked in the La Moneda Palace as advisors to the ousted President Salvador Allende Gossens, a condition the victims held at that time; on the other hand, it is a common requirement to conceive the crime as one against humanity that the authors or accomplices be agents of the State, a status the accused held at that time.

"Among the characteristics that distinguish this type of transgression are imprescriptibility, the impossibility of granting amnesty, and the impossibility of establishing grounds for exclusion of responsibility that attempt to prevent the investigation and punishment of those responsible for such serious violations of essential rights such as torture, summary, extra-legal or arbitrary executions, forced disappearances, and homicide, as in the case at hand, all of which are prohibited by international human rights law."

In the civil aspect, the compensation to the victims' families was reduced.

"That, by applying rules of experience, those that allow confirming that pain or suffering is especially related to the kinship and affective bond that one has or has had with the direct victim of the crime(s) committed against their person, it is considered adequate and reasonable to carry out the regulations indicated below to determine the quantum, in addition to the aspects commonly applied, that is, degree of kinship, closeness, and relationship with the victim, which is why these judges differentiate, of course analyzing case by case, what is granted to spouses, mothers, children, siblings, and grandchildren.

"The foregoing, considering the circumstance that the general rule is that the greatest pain suffered is configured at the moment of detention and presence at the time of the occurrence of the events, which is generally suffered by the mother or spouse of the victim, who must continue with her life caring for and protecting her children, carrying on her shoulders the pain and anguish of not knowing the whereabouts of her loved one.

"In the case of the children, of course, there is damage that must be repaired, but its monetary quantification is considered to be less than that which corresponds to their mother. The same analysis applies to establishing the amount of compensation that favors siblings and grandchildren."

"That, in accordance with the above, and considering the parameters established in the first-instance sentence and what was stated previously, the compensation corresponding to each of the spouses and mothers of the victims is set at $100,000,000 (one hundred million pesos).

"Regarding the children, the amount to be paid to each of them is regulated at the sum of $80,000,000 (eighty million pesos); and to the siblings, in the amount of $50,000,000 (fifty million pesos).

"Regarding the granddaughter of Mr. Juan José Montiglio Murúa, the amount of compensation is regulated at the sum of $5,000,000 (five million pesos).

"In this way, the claim of the Chilean Treasury is partially accepted regarding the reduction of the sums set in the appealed sentence," the ruling states.

Source: pjud.cl 11/04/2021 Date: 11-04-2021

At 48 years, Court issues convictions for Allende collaborators detained on the 11th at La Moneda

In one of the most emblematic cases of human rights violations during the dictatorship, the Second Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced seven retired members of the Army as co-perpetrators of the crimes of homicide and aggravated kidnapping of 23 detainees at the La Moneda Palace on September 11, 1973.

All the victims were direct collaborators of former President Salvador Allende, and they were detained from the seat of government and taken to the Tacna Regiment and "Fuerte Arteaga" in Peldehue, where they were executed by firing squad and blown up with grenades.

Among the victims were political advisors, members of President Allende's security detail (GAP), doctors, economists, and officials of the Chilean Investigative Police, among others.

The chamber, composed of ministers María Soledad Melo, Gloria María Solís, and Inelie Durán, confirmed the ruling made in May 2018 by investigating judge Miguel Vázquez Plaza and sentenced the then-Army officer Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo to the penalty of twenty years of presidio mayor in its maximum degree as a co-perpetrator of the crimes of aggravated homicide of 15 of the 23 victims.

These are Jaime Antonio Barrios Meza, economist and former military administrator of the Central Bank; Egidio Enrique Paris Roa, former Secretary General of the University of Chile; Georges Klein Pipper, doctor and advisor to the General Secretariat of Government; Claudio Raúl Jimeno Grendi and Héctor Ricardo Pincheira Núñez, also presidential advisors; and Luis Avilés Jofré, Manuel Ramón Castro Zamorano, Oscar Reinaldo Lagos Ríos, Julio Hernán Moreno Pulgar, Luis Fernando Rodríguez Riquelme, Jaime Gilson Sotelo Ojeda, Luis Fernando Tapia Martínez, Héctor Daniel Urrutia Molina, Juan Alejandro Vargas Contreras, and Juan José Montiglio Murúa, all members of the GAP.

Additionally, Teobaldo Segundo Mendoza Vicencio, Eliseo Antonio Cornejo Escobedo, Bernardo Eusebio Soto Segura, and Jorge Ismael Gamboa Álvarez were sentenced to the penalty of 7 years of presidio mayor in its minimum degree as co-perpetrators of the crimes of aggravated homicide of the same people.

Meanwhile, Servando Elías Maureira Roa and Jorge Iván Herrera López, currently deceased, were sentenced to 9 years of presidio mayor for the same crime.

Maureira Roa and Herrera López were also sentenced as authors of presidio menor in its maximum degree as co-perpetrators of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of 8 of the 23 victims. These are Juan Eduardo Paredes Barrientos, former director of the Investigative Police; Arsenio Poupin Oissel, former Secretary General of Government; Sergio Contreras; Enrique Huerta Corvalán, former Palace Intendant; Daniel Escobar Cruz, Chief of Cabinet for the Undersecretary of the Interior; and former GAP members José Freire Medina, Daniel Gutiérrez Ayala, and Oscar Enrique Valladares Caroca.

For plaintiff lawyer Nelson Caucoto, the sentence in this case is "bittersweet." "Sweet because 48 years later, a trial of historical significance is coming to an end. These are the events that occurred in the La Moneda Palace, that is, in the heart of the political and republican institutionalism of Chile, which was razed by blood and fire by the coup-plotting military," he indicated.

He points out that "there are 23 victims, collaborators of President Allende who were with him until the last moment on that crucial day. Taken to the Tacna Regiment, tortured, and finally executed by firing squad in Peldehue by their captors.

Of those 23 victims, whose remains were removed 5 years later, 15 were successfully identified, which led to the legal classification of aggravated homicide. The 8 remaining led to aggravated kidnappings."

"And bitter," the lawyer explains, "because it is in these last 8 crimes where we disagree with the penalty and determined participation, both in the first and second instance. We trust that the Honorable Supreme Court can rectify this part of the sentence so that we may have full justice," he explained.

Source: tvyfarandula.com 11/03/2021 Date: 11-03-2021

Thirteen sets of remains of forcibly disappeared persons were found in Colina on June 25, 2002; five have already been identified. Attempts were made to conceal them as remains from an indigenous cemetery, a claim that was discarded over the years.

Chile

On December 23, 1978, personnel from the Department II of Intelligence, belonging to the No. 1 Tacna Motorized Artillery Regiment, together with permanent staff officials, arrived at the Fuerte Arteaga in Peldehue.

Equipped with heavy machinery, they proceeded to clear out a clandestine grave located in an old dry well, where a group of advisors and members of the GAP (Group of Friends of the President) of President Salvador Allende, who had been detained at the Palacio de La Moneda, had been buried on September 13, 1973.

To locate the well, one of the participants (the former retired sub-officer Eliseo Cornejo Escobar), who five years earlier had witnessed the execution of the detainees at the Tacna Regiment and their subsequent transport and burial on the grounds of Fuerte Arteaga, pointed out the exact site where said bodies were located.

Once at the site, they proceeded to dig, and with the help of a mechanical shovel, they reached a depth of about six meters, finding bodies that were practically intact, having been preserved in good condition by the clay soil, which prevented their decomposition.

Once the remains were extracted, they were placed in sacks, one by one, so they would not fall apart. In total, between 12 and 15 sacks were used and loaded onto a Unimog truck. This operation was carried out between 10:00 and 22:00, under the supervision of the regiment's commander at the time, Hernán Canales Varas.

The truck transported the sacks to a parking area located on the eastern side of the Carretera San Martín in the Colina commune.

Around 22:00, an Army Puma helicopter arrived and landed in the park, where the sacks containing the human remains were loaded onto the aircraft, and were then, presumably, thrown into the sea. The identity of the 12 disappeared persons who, according to the Dialogue Table, were allegedly thrown into the sea, includes the advisors.

In January 2001, following the Armed Forces' report on the fate of 200 forcibly disappeared persons, Judge Amanda Valdovinos was appointed as a visiting minister to investigate one of the most concrete pieces of information provided by the military: the existence of a cavern containing 20 skulls of forcibly disappeared persons in Colina.

More than two months passed without any findings. But in March, her inquiries confirmed one of the greatest errors in the information provided by the Dialogue Table, when the skeleton of the PC (Communist Party) union leader Luis Rivera Matus was found at the Fuerte Arteaga in Peldehue, Colina commune.

His body was almost complete, despite the military report claiming he had been thrown into the sea off the coast of San Antonio. The event led to the prosecution of former officer Freddy Ruiz Bunger for qualified kidnapping.

Juan Luis Rivera Matus

Four months later, the investigations yielded new results. While excavating the large grave located north of the campaign zone, the judge recovered nearly 500 bone fragments (skull fragments, limb fragments, and teeth) that correspond to 12 of the 21 prisoners machine-gunned from La Moneda.

She also found remains of grenades and ballistic material. To locate the well, one of the participants (the retired sub-officer Eliseo Cornejo Escobar), who five years earlier had witnessed the execution of the detainees at the Tacna Regiment and their subsequent transport and burial on the grounds of Fuerte Arteaga, pointed out the exact site where said bodies were located.

Once at the site, they proceeded to dig, and with the help of a mechanical shovel, they reached a depth of about six meters, finding bodies that were practically intact, having been preserved in good condition by the clay soil, which prevented their decomposition.

During the year and a half that she presided over the case, Magistrate Valdovinos determined that in 1973 the bodies had been detonated with grenades after being thrown into a well, and that five years later they were removed. Although the Armed Forces' report states that they were thrown into the sea, the judge considers that some were buried in a new location.

According to the report sent by the magistrate to the Supreme Court in May 2002, "the careful observation of remains found throughout the area of the grave and in the aforementioned well, in whose walls these are embedded, allows us to categorically conclude the use of grenade-type explosives for the destruction of the bodies." The minister adds that "there are indications that the site was cleared with heavy machinery and its contents extracted by hand with relative thoroughness."

The minister focused on the El Talhuenal hill range in the Colina commune, located within the same military compound. In another document sent to the Supreme Court, Valdovinos points out that "these places appear today as a probable final destination or secondary burial sites for remains extracted from the removal of the first graves.

It is known that the remains were removed and subsequently there was a secondary burial," she added.

The penalty for illegal exhumation is low (from 61 days to 540 days plus a fine, according to Article 322 of the Penal Code), but the fact adds another front of conflict because it expands the number and spectrum of those prosecuted.

For this reason, Judge Urrutia prosecuted the former commander of the Tacna Regiment in 1978, Colonel (R) Hernán Ricardo Canales Varas; the former head of Intelligence, Major (R) Luis Antonio Fuenzalida Rojas; and the retired sub-officers Eliseo Cornejo Escobedo, José Canarios Santibáñez, and Darío Gutiérrez de la Torre.

The minister of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vásquez Plaza, and the national director of the Legal Medical Service (SML), Patricio Bustos, informed the families of the confirmation of the identities via DNA of Jaime Barrios Meza and Claudio Jimeno Grendi, victims of human rights violations whose remains had remained buried in the Fuerte in the Colina commune, where they had arrived following the "Operation Television Removal."

Background of the case

After the bombing of the Palacio La Moneda on September 11, 1973, a group of advisors to President Salvador Allende and members of the Group of Friends of the President (GAP) who were accompanying him were detained and taken to the Army's Tacna Regiment. On September 13, some detainees were loaded onto a military truck bound for an unknown destination.

In 2001, an archaeological excavation was carried out in the mountainous ravines of the Peldehue sector in the Colina commune, northeast of Santiago, at the Fuerte Arteaga military compound, where bone remains were found that had been the object of the "Operation Television Removal," which was carried out during the military regime and in which the remains of dozens of forcibly disappeared persons were exhumed and reburied in other places to prevent their whereabouts from being discovered.

Jaime Antonio Barrios Meza

He was 47 years old at the time of his detention, married, with two children, and a socialist militant. He was an advisor to the President of the Republic on economic matters and a former General Manager of the Central Bank of Chile.

He was detained at the Palacio de La Moneda on September 11, taken to the Tacna Regiment, and on September 13 he was transferred to the special forces unit of Peldehue, Colina commune, where he was executed.

Claudio Raúl Jimeno Grendi

He was 33 years old at the time of his detention on September 11 at the Palacio de La Moneda. Married, with two children, this sociologist was an advisor to the General Secretariat of Government and a militant of the Socialist Party. He was detained for a few days at the Tacna Regiment, and was later taken to the special forces unit of Peldehue, Colina commune, where he was executed.

June 11, 2008 Court issues sentence against nine retired military officers for the "Operation Television Removal" case (EXCERPT)

Source: radiodelpueblo.cl 09/10/2020

Date: 09-10-2020

Minister Miguel Vásquez sentences retired Army members for the kidnapping and homicide of detainees at La Moneda in 1973.

The visiting minister for human rights violation cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vásquez Plaza, sentenced seven retired Army officers for their responsibility in the crimes of kidnapping and homicide of 23 collaborators of President Salvador Allende, who were detained at the Palacio de La Moneda on September 11, 1973.

The visiting minister sentenced Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo to 20 years in prison as a co-author of the qualified homicide of: Óscar Luis Avilés Jofré, Jaime Antonio Barrios Meza, Manuel Ramón Castro Zamorano, Claudio Raúl Jimeno Grendi, Georges Klein Pipper, Óscar Reinaldo Lagos Ríos, Julio Hernán Moreno Pulgar, Egidio Enrique Paris Roa, Héctor Ricardo Pincheira Núñez, Luis Fernando Rodríguez Riquelme, Jaime Gilson Sotelo Ojeda, Luis Fernando Tapia Martínez, Héctor Daniel Urrutia Molina, Juan Alejandro Vargas Contreras, and Juan José Montiglio Murúa.

Meanwhile, Servando Elías Maureira Roa and Jorge Iván Herrera López must serve 9 years in prison; and former military officers Teobaldo Segundo Mendoza Vicencio, Eliseo Antonio Cornejo Escobedo, Bernardo Eusebio Soto Segura, and Jorge Ismael Gamboa Álvarez were sentenced by Minister Vásquez Plaza to 7 years in prison as co-authors of the crimes of qualified homicide.

In the case of former military officers Servando Elías Maureira Roa and Jorge Iván Herrera López, they were sentenced to 5 years of minor imprisonment in its maximum degree as co-authors of the crimes of qualified kidnapping of Sergio Contreras, Daniel Francisco Escobar Cruz, José Freire Medina, Daniel Antonio Gutiérrez Ayala, Enrique Lelio Huerta Corvalán, Juan Eduardo Paredes Barrientos, Arsenio Poupin Oissel, and Óscar Enrique Valladares Caroca.

During the investigation phase of the case, Minister Vásquez Plaza established the following facts:

a.- That, on September 11, 1973, the Armed Forces and Order carried out a previously planned coup d'état, through which the government of the time was overthrown, accompanied by a handful of political advisors, GAP members, and officials of the Investigation Service, for political, economic, and social reasons that are not for analysis in this judicial venue.

To achieve this, they seized power and, to carry out the uprising, the Government Palace where the former President of the Republic Salvador Allende Gossens was located was surrounded by military forces.

After warnings for the occupants of La Moneda to abandon the site, and upon their failure to do so, the seat of government was bombed by Hawker Hunter aircraft, although no deaths resulted from that specific act. Later, the occupants of La Moneda exited with their hands raised and were taken by military forces to the exterior.

b.- That, on the occasion of the events that occurred on September 11, 1973, military troops that entered the Palacio de La Moneda proceeded to detain a group of about 50 people, consisting of direct political advisors, members of President Allende's security detail (GAP), doctors, and officials of the Chilean Investigative Police, who surrendered to the military forces occupying the Palacio de La Moneda.

Some were released, while others were detained and transferred, for the most part, to the Tacna Regiment of the Chilean Army, being entered as such into said Regiment without any formal charge, other than the fact that they performed various functions in the recently overthrown government. The following day, the Investigative Police officials who worked inside La Moneda were released.

c.- That, on September 13, 1973, the detainees Sergio Contreras, Daniel Francisco Escobar Cruz, José Freire Medina, Daniel Antonio Gutiérrez Ayala, Enrique Lelio Huerta Corvalán, Juan José Montiglio Murúa, Juan Eduardo Paredes Barrientos, Arsenio Poupin Oissel, Óscar Enrique Valladares Caroca, Óscar Luis Avilés Jofré, Jaime Antonio Barrios Meza, Manuel Ramón Castro Zamorano, Claudio Raúl Jimeno Grendi, Georges Klein Pipper, Óscar Reinaldo Lagos Ríos, Julio Hernán Moreno Pulgar, Egidio Enrique Paris Roa, Héctor Ricardo Pincheira Núñez, Luis Fernando Rodríguez Riquelme, Jaime Gilson Sotelo Ojeda, Julio Fernando Tapia Martínez, Héctor Daniel Urrutia Molina, and Juan Alejandro Vargas Contreras, who still remained in the Tacna Regiment and who came from the group of prisoners captured at the Palacio de La Moneda, had their feet and hands tied with wire, were loaded onto a military truck, guarded by officers and military personnel, and immediately transported to a predetermined location, located on the property assigned to the Tacna Regiment that was in the Peldehue military compound, adjacent to the San Martín highway, in the Colina sector. This was carried out by virtue of an order that emanated directly from the Commander of the Tacna Regiment, who in turn requested or received such instructions from a higher-ranking military officer who at that time served as Commander of the Santiago Military Garrison, Commander of the Second Army Division, and Military Judge of Santiago.

d.- That, upon arriving at said place in Peldehue, the aforementioned detainees were taken off the military truck and, according to the evidence gathered in the investigation, the installation of a machine gun was ordered, with which they fired upon said prisoners, who were tied by their hands and feet with wire and positioned at the edge of a well or empty pit previously excavated on said property.

Upon receiving the bullet impacts, they fell into the interior of said pit. Once the executions were concluded, the military personnel threw grenades into the pit, which exploded at the site, subsequently covering them with earth and thus burying the bodies of such prisoners; actions that were controlled and verified by an officer of the Army Intelligence Directorate who witnessed the executions from a distance close to the site of the events.

e.- That, once the execution of the detainees and the subsequent burial of their bodies in the aforementioned pit were concluded, the group of military personnel who had participated in the operation, composed of officers and lower-ranking military personnel, returned in the same vehicles used for the initial transport to the Tacna Regiment, reporting such events to the Unit Commander, who in turn had to communicate them to the superior hierarchical officer, the Commander of the Santiago Military Garrison.

f.- That, due to the discovery of clandestinely buried bodies in other cases, an order was issued by the Army high command to remove the remains from the place where they had been executed, transporting them to an unknown destination (apparently thrown into the sea or in the high mountain range).

However, after excavations were carried out at the site where the execution took place, remains were found that were positively identified as belonging to: Óscar Luis Avilés Jofré, Jaime Antonio Barrios Meza, Manuel Ramón Castro Zamorano, Claudio Raúl Jimeno Grendi, Jorge Klein Pipper, Óscar Reinaldo Lagos Ríos, Julio Hernán Moreno Pulgar, Egidio Enrique Paris Roa, Héctor Ricardo Pincheira Núñez, Luis Fernando Rodríguez Riquelme, Jaime Gilson Sotelo Ojeda, Julio Fernando Tapia Martínez, Héctor Daniel Urrutia Molina, Juan Alejandro Vargas Contreras, and Juan José Montiglio Murúa.

This is accounted for by the integrated expert reports submitted by the Legal Medical Service, on pages 7960 and following, 8762 and following, 9666 and following, 9701 and following, and 12383 and following, regarding the forensic medical examinations performed on the bone evidence recovered from the "Fuerte Arteaga" military compound located in the town of Peldehue in the Colina commune, and the human remains associated with Protocol No. 1561-01 of the Legal Medical Service linked to this case, in which it is also stated that the most probable immediate medical cause of death for these people was hemorrhagic shock as a consequence of firearm injuries, making the medico-legal etiology of death violent and homicidal.

g.- That the rest of the people who were detained at La Moneda on September 11, 1973, and taken from the Tacna Regiment, namely: Sergio Contreras, Daniel Francisco Escobar Cruz, José Freire Medina, Daniel Antonio Gutiérrez Ayala, Enrique Lelio Huerta Corvalán, Juan Eduardo Paredes Barrientos, Arsenio Poupin Oissel, and Óscar Enrique Valladares Caroca, were not identified among the bone remains found there, and their whereabouts remain unknown since that date.

In the civil aspect, most of the lawsuits filed were accepted, ordering the payment of compensation to the victims' families in amounts detailed in the attached sentence.

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl 05/06/2018

Date: 05-06-2018

SML identifies two victims of the dictatorship whose remains were at Fuerte Arteaga

The minister of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vásquez Plaza, and the national director of the Legal Medical Service (SML), Patricio Bustos, informed the families this Thursday of the confirmation of the identities via DNA of Jaime Barrios Meza and Claudio Jimeno Grendi, victims of human rights violations whose remains had remained buried in Fuerte Arteaga, where they had arrived following the "Operation Television Removal."

In a meeting held at the Palace of Tribunals, the authorities, together with members of the Human Rights Program of the Ministry of the Interior, plus a psychologist from the forensic agency, explained the results obtained by the multidisciplinary team of the SML and the genetic analyses performed by the Laboratory of the Institute of Legal Medicine, Innsbruck Medical University (GMI) of Austria, which allowed for the confirmation of their identities.

Background of the case

After the bombing of the Palacio La Moneda on September 11, 1973, a group of advisors to President Salvador Allende and members of the Group of Friends of the President (GAP) who were accompanying him were detained and taken to the Army's Tacna Regiment. On September 13, some detainees were loaded onto a military truck bound for an unknown destination.

In 2001, an archaeological excavation was carried out in the mountainous ravines of the Peldehue sector, northeast of Santiago, at the Fuerte Arteaga military compound, where bone remains were found that had been the object of the "Operation Television Removal," which was carried out during the military regime and in which the remains of dozens of forcibly disappeared persons were exhumed and reburied in other places to prevent their whereabouts from being discovered.

Jaime Antonio Barrios Meza

He was 47 years old at the time of his detention, married, with two children, and a socialist militant. He was an advisor to the President of the Republic on economic matters and a former General Manager of the Central Bank of Chile.

He was detained at the Palacio de La Moneda on September 11, taken to the Tacna Regiment, and on September 13 he was transferred to the special forces unit of Peldehue, where he was murdered.

Claudio Raúl Jimeno Grendi

He was 33 years old at the time of his detention on September 11 at the Palacio de La Moneda. Married, with two children, this sociologist was an advisor to the General Secretariat of Government and a militant of the Socialist Party. He was detained for a few days at the Tacna Regiment, only to be taken to another detention site where his trail was lost.

Source: elmostrador.cl 10/24/2014

Date: 10-24-2014

SOCIALISTS EXPRESS SOLIDARITY WITH FAMILIES AND VALUE THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE REMAINS OF TWO OF THEIR FORCIBLY DISAPPEARED MILITANTS

“A hug for the families, a satisfaction for the Socialist Party that some of our own are beginning to appear so we can give them an honorable burial. There is much left to do, and we call on those who have information to provide it, because only in this way will these wounds begin to close,” said the President of the PS.

Following the information provided by the minister of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vásquez Plaza, and the national director of the Legal Medical Service (SML), Patricio Bustos, confirming the identities of the socialist comrades and forcibly disappeared persons Jaime Antonio Barrios Meza and Claudio Raúl Jimeno Grendi, the President of the PS, Deputy Osvaldo Andrade, expressed his solidarity with the families of both advisors to President Salvador Allende.

He highlighted the work of the Legal Medical Service in this task, considering that—furthermore—the victims' remains were part of the also abominable “television set removal” operation.

“First, to express our solidarity with the family of our comrades Jaime Antonio Barrios Meza and Claudio Raúl Jimeno Grendi, both forcibly disappeared since September 11, 1973, when they were taken from La Moneda by Army personnel; they were subsequently transported to Peldehue and murdered there,” said the PS leader.

Andrade expressed his recognition of the Legal Medical Service because—in his view—despite the “television set removal” operation,

“which meant trying to hide the remains of our comrades by moving them to other, until now unknown, locations—information that someone must have—it was not possible to move everything, and consequently, small remains were left that allowed for their identification.

We want to recognize the SML for being able to investigate and find the identity of at least two of our forcibly disappeared comrades.”

“These are two socialist comrades who were active collaborators of President Allende who worked in La Moneda alongside him; one of them a prominent Commercial Engineer, the other a sociologist, 47 and 33 years old respectively.

A hug for the families, a satisfaction for the Socialist Party that some of our own are beginning to appear so we can give them an honorable burial. There is much left to do, and we call on those who have information to provide it, because only in this way will these wounds begin to close,” concluded the socialist leader.

It should be remembered that after the bombing of the La Moneda Palace on September 11, 1973, a group of advisors to President Salvador Allende and members of the Friends of the President group (GAP) who were accompanying him were detained and taken to the Army’s Tacna Regiment. On September 13, some of the detainees were loaded onto a military truck bound for an unknown destination.

In 2001, an archaeological excavation was carried out in the mountain ravines of the Peldehue sector, northeast of Santiago, at the Fuerte Arteaga military facility, where skeletal remains that had been the object of the “Television Set Removal Operation” were found.

Among those remains, the identity of the socialists Jimeno and Barrios is confirmed today.

Source: cronicadigital 24/10/2014

Date: 24-10-2014

Court approves extradition expansion for General (ret.) Joaquín Ramírez Pineda

The commander of the Tacna Regiment in 1973 is under prosecution in Chile for qualified kidnapping in the so-called La Moneda Palace case.

The Supreme Court expanded the extradition request to Argentina for Luis Joaquín Ramírez Pineda, commander of the Tacna Regiment in 1973, who is currently detained in Buenos Aires.

Ramírez Pineda is being prosecuted in our country by Minister Juan Eduardo Fuentes Belmar in the investigation into qualified kidnappings in the so-called La Moneda Palace case.

In a unanimous ruling, the ministers of the Second Chamber—Nibaldo Segura, Rubén Ballesteros, Jaime Rodríguez, Hugo Dolmestch, and Carlos Künsemüller—accepted the request filed by Minister Fuentes Belmar in the case of 9 victims who have been forcibly disappeared since September 11, 1973.

They are Jaime Gilson Sotelo Ojeda, Sergio Contreras, Héctor Ricardo Pincheira Núñez, José Freire Medina, Juan Eduardo Paredes Barrientos, Egidio Enrique Paris Roa, Manuel Ramón Castro Zamorano, Daniel Antonio Gutiérrez Ayala, and Fernando Rodríguez Riquelme.

In 2003, the Supreme Court decided to send an extradition request for the accused regarding the kidnapping cases of Jaime Antonio Barrios Meza, Daniel Francisco Escobar Cruz, Enrique Lelio Huerta Corvalán, Claudio Raúl Jimeno Grendi, Jorge Klein Pipper, Óscar Reinaldo Lagos Ríos, Juan José Montiglio Murúa, Julio Hernán Moreno Pulgar, Arsenio Poupin Oissel, Julio Fernando Tapia Martínez, Óscar Enrique Valladares Caroca, and Juan Alejandro Vargas Contreras, which also occurred starting in 1973 at the La Moneda Palace.

The background information for the expansion of the extradition request has already been sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be forwarded to Argentina for processing in that country.

Source: El Mercurio March 20, 2009

Date: 20-03-2009

Supreme Court declared the action presented by the children of Claudio Jimeno Grendi time-barred

Sociologist Claudio Jimeno Grendi was a close collaborator of President Salvador Allende and, as such, was part of the last group of people to leave La Moneda after the military coup of September 11, 1973.

That day, around six in the evening, he was apprehended and taken to the Tacna Regiment, where he remained for a couple of days before being assigned to another detention facility, where his trail was lost. His name was added to the list of disappeared persons who were classified as victims of human rights violations committed under the dictatorship.

Despite this, the Supreme Court declared the lawsuit filed by his children, Diego and Cristóbal Jimeno Chadwick, time-barred a few days ago. This means that the high court determined that the civil action, which sought compensation for the damages suffered by the family of the disappeared socialist militant, exceeded the legal deadlines for processing.

For the judges, this action should have been presented up to four years after the disappearance occurred (until 1977), or four years from when the children reached the age of majority (until 1987), or, failing that, four years after “the country returned to democratic normality,” a deadline that would have expired in 1994.

According to the case file, the lawsuit was processed in 1999, which, in the opinion of the majority of the magistrates who made up the chamber, exceeded all deadlines and ultimately dismissed the compensation action.

Dissenting vote

This resolution included the dissenting vote of Minister Haroldo Brito, who was in favor of accepting the compensation payment to the children of Jimeno Grendi, as in his view, this is not an action that falls within a contractual relationship or of a patrimonial nature, since the motivations for filing the lawsuit are “simply humanitarian.” The judge adds that the plaintiffs are seeking compensation for “the detention and subsequent disappearance of their father while in a state of complete defenselessness by military personnel who possessed great power of coercion.”

Likewise, he points out that denying this compensation violates international treaties which indicate that “the right to reparation is a fundamental right; that is, one of those that states declare to ensure and make democratic coexistence possible.” Therefore, compensatory actions in this case “by their nature are imprescriptible,” he concludes.

Disregard for the Commission

The argument accepted by the Supreme Court regarding the statute of limitations was presented by the State Defense Council (CDE), the defendants in this judicial action. Previously, the Santiago Court of Appeals had also accepted the statute of limitations argument to reject the lawsuit; however, on that occasion, it rejected another thesis presented by the state.

In its response, the CDE indicated that the Rettig Report “does not constitute judicial evidence” because it was not achieved as a result of a specific trial, and therefore denied it “value to prove the detention and subsequent disappearance of Claudio Jimeno Grendi by the action of State agents.”

In this regard, the appellate court drew attention to the fact that it was not possible for the body in charge of defending the interests of the State to deny or disassociate itself from a commission created by the State itself, more precisely because it was an initiative of the Executive Branch.

Following this resolution, the hope of Claudio Jimeno’s family lies in the criminal investigation, still underway, which seeks to determine who was responsible for the disappearance of the collaborator of “Chicho.”

Source: La Nación January 26, 2009

Date: 26-01-2009

Minister declares case of removal of bodies of forcibly disappeared persons time-barred

Minister Juan Eduardo Fuentes, in charge of investigating the removal of bodies from the Peldehue Regiment in 1978, declared the judicial action against retired members of the Army time-barred, considering that they are not connected to the main crime of the case, permanent kidnapping.

The judge’s decision was applied to the case that occurred in 1978 involving the bodies of the former advisors to President Salvador Allende who were detained at the La Moneda Palace on September 11, 1973.

As reported by Radio Cooperativa, the ruling annuls the prosecutions that were pending against retired non-commissioned officers Fernando Remigio Burgos Díaz, Sergio Antonio Medina Salazar, Isidro Custodio Durán Muñoz, and retired officer José Jaime Darrigrandi Marques.

The ruling maintains that the act constitutes an infringement of Article 144 of the Sanitary Code and does not have the character of a “crime against humanity.”

The prosecutions that were annulled corresponded to the alleged removal of the remains of former Central Bank manager Jaime Barrios Meza, Palace Intendant Enrique Huerta Corvalán, PS leader Claudio Jimeno Grendi, communist leader Georges Klein Pipper, former Deputy Secretary General of Government Arsenio Poupin Oissel, and former Chief of Staff of the Undersecretariat of the Interior Daniel Escobar Cruz.

Added to them are Oscar Lagos Ríos, Juan Montiglio Murúa, Julio Moreno Pulgar, Julio Tapia Martínez, Oscar Valladares, and Juan Vargas Contreras, all members of the Friends of the President group and militants of the Socialist Party.

Source: El Mercurio September 1, 2005

Date: 01-09-2005

Correspond to forcibly disappeared persons from La Moneda

Visiting Minister Amanda Valdovinos, in charge of verifying information from the Dialogue Table regarding the location of the remains of some 20 forcibly disappeared persons inside the Justo Arteaga Regiment in Colina, discovered the exact place where the bodies were clandestinely buried after the military coup of September 11, 1973.

An exclusive source confirmed to La Voz that the remains are in a 15-meter-deep pit.

Last January, excavation work on the land—which was donated by the Catholic Church to the Army for war practice before the military coup—focused on a 15 by 13-meter pit, from which, to date, more than 400 bone fragments scattered at a depth of about three meters have been extracted.

However, soil studies carried out by a botanist and by the National Geology and Mining Service (Sernageomin) made it possible to specify that the fragments correspond to the remains left by the removal of the bones at the end of the 1970s.

The precision of the specialists is such that it was determined that, due to their location, they were dragged from one of the ends of the excavation site using a backhoe, whose characteristics (make, model, and ownership) are proven in the proceedings.

Pit equivalent to six stories

The fragments, which include skulls, phalanges, vertebrae, teeth, and dental arches, come from a pit about five meters in diameter and about 15 meters deep—equivalent to a six-story building—where the bodies were thrown after the detainees were executed by firing squad and dynamited (using grenades) inside.

In the coming days, excavations will focus on that location, and it is not ruled out that findings of great magnitude of bones will be verified.

So far, with the collections made, the Legal Medical Service has been able to approximate about a dozen people whose remains were at the site. However, with the dental pieces and the background information available in the case, five identities have been confirmed, which will only be made official once the proceedings are exhausted.

The relatives of the alleged victims have been informed periodically by Judge Valdovinos. The latest report delivered by the minister to the Supreme Court also confirms the errors in the report delivered by the Army to the Dialogue Table, since the location has been found thanks to testimonies from locals and former uniformed personnel who have voluntarily approached the court.

All the background information gathered by Minister Amanda Valdovinos will be referred to the corresponding criminal or military courts to determine those responsible for the homicides and the illegal inhumations and exhumations proven in the investigation.

Who are they? According to the Rettig Report, 21 were the detainees from La Moneda who ended tragically in Colina. President Allende’s advisors: Eduardo Paredes Barrientos, former director of Investigations; Enrique París Roa; Jaime Barrios Meza, general manager of the Central Bank; Sergio Contreras; Daniel Escobar Cruz; Enrique Huerta Corvalán; Claudio Jimeno Grendi; Dr.

Georges Klein Pipper; Héctor Pincheira Núñez; and Arsenio Poupin Oissel, Deputy Secretary General of Government. The members of the GAP: José Freire Medina, Daniel Gutiérrez Ayala, Oscar Lagos Ríos, Juan Montiglio Murúa, Julio Moreno Pulgar, Luis Rodríguez Riquelme, Jaime Sotelo Ojeda, Julio Tapia Martínez, Héctor Urrutia Molina, Oscar Valladares Caroca, Juan Vargas Contreras, and Oscar Luis Avilés Jofré.

Source: Primera Linea April 4, 2002

Date: 04-04-2002

Complaint 127 against Pinochet was filed in secret

The family of Claudio Jimeno, who was an advisor to President Salvador Allende, preferred anonymity. In the strictest secrecy, complaint 127 against Augusto Pinochet was filed yesterday. The family of Claudio Jimeno Grendi, who was an advisor to President Salvador Allende at the time of the coup d'état, preferred to do so without the presence of cameras and to avoid press inquiries.

Complaint 127 against Pinochet was filed in secret

The family of Claudio Jimeno, who was an advisor to President Salvador Allende, preferred anonymity. In the strictest secrecy, complaint 127 against Augusto Pinochet was filed yesterday. The family of Claudio Jimeno Grendi, who was an advisor to President Salvador Allende at the time of the coup d'état, preferred to do so without the presence of cameras and to avoid press inquiries.

Source: EL MOSTRADOR, June 30, 2000

Date: 30-06-2000

Supreme Court reviews cassation appeals of six retired military officers convicted of 23 homicides

In November 2021, the Santiago Court of Appeals ratified the sentence that convicted six retired Army officers for their participation in the crimes of kidnapping and homicide of 23 collaborators of then-president Salvador Allende. And currently, the Supreme Court is reviewing the cassation appeals filed by the defense of the six retired military officers.

The appellate court in the Chilean capital confirmed the sentences handed down for the six involved.

Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, considered a co-author of qualified homicide, faces a 20-year prison sentence.

This sentence was applied for the qualified homicide of Óscar Luis Avilés Jofré, Jaime Antonio Barrios Meza, Manuel Ramón Castro Zamorano, Claudio Raúl Jimeno Grendi, Georges Klein Pipper, Óscar Reinaldo Lagos Ríos, Julio Hernán Moreno Pulgar, Egidio Enrique Paris Roa, Héctor Ricardo Pincheira Núñez, Luis Fernando Rodríguez Riquelme, Jaime Gilson Sotelo Ojeda, Julio Fernando Tapia Martínez, Héctor Daniel Urrutia Molina, Juan Alejandro Vargas Contreras, and Juan José Montiglio Murúa.

Servando Elías Maureira Roa and Jorge Iván Herrera López, as co-authors of the crimes of qualified homicide, were sentenced to 9 years in prison. For their part, retired military officers Teobaldo Segundo Mendoza Vicencio, Eliseo Antonio Cornejo Escobedo, and Jorge Ismael Gamboa Álvarez, also co-authors of qualified homicide, face a 7-year prison sentence.

In the specific case of Servando Elías Maureira Roa and Jorge Iván Herrera López, the Court of Appeals ratified an additional sentence. This is 5 years of minor imprisonment in its maximum degree. This decision was made as a result of their participation in the qualified kidnappings of Sergio Contreras, Daniel Francisco Escobar Cruz, José Freire Medina, Daniel Antonio Gutiérrez Ayala, Enrique Lelio Huerta Corvalán, Juan Eduardo Paredes Barrientos, Arsenio Poupin Oissel, and Óscar Enrique Valladares Caroca.

Supreme Court reviews cassation appeals

Attention is now focused on the second chamber of the Supreme Court, because they are currently evaluating the cassation appeals filed by the defenses of the six convicted military officers.

This review will determine whether the sentence is confirmed or if, on the contrary, the accused are acquitted of the charges brought against them.

No further information is yet known about the review of these cassation appeals.

All this, within the framework of crimes against humanity and human rights violations committed against members of the Personal Friends of the President (GAP) group and others close to then-president Salvador Allende.

Among the 23 victims are Eduardo “Coco” Paredes, former director of investigations, and Arsenio Poupin, deputy secretary general of government of the Unidad Popular.

In addition, there is the physician Enrique Paris Roa, an advisor to Allende, who is not related to the former Minister of Health. And Claudio Jimeno Grendi, a sociologist and advisor to Allende, father of lawyer Cristóbal Jimeno Chadwick, who wrote the book La Búsqueda (The Search) about his father’s case.

Source: adnradio.cl 17/8/2023

Account: Handover of the remains of Claudio Jimeno Grendi

On November 29, 2014, my mom, Diego, and I arrived at the SML along with Jorge (stepfather), my sister Isabel, Daniela, and my brother-in-law Edgar Kause.

The site was horrible. An old, impersonal, cold building; your bones would freeze. It was Saturday morning, and I thought I should have been somewhere else. We went up to the third floor, and they made us all enter a special room.

A staff member, very kindly, asked us who would be present for the handover of the remains. I was not expecting that question. My mother answered for me. Only she, Diego, and I would enter. At that moment, perhaps for the first time in my life, the feeling of having been part of a previous family, in which there were only four of us, reappeared.

For at least a few minutes, my mother, Diego, and some physical remains of my father’s humanity would be alone.

We entered a room where there was only a table. On it, a small urn, a flower, and a Chilean flag. The staff member entered and brought my father’s remains in a very simple box. She placed them on the table and left in silence. My mother opened the box. The three of us surrounded the table, without speaking. We looked at the contents of the box.

Claudio, until that moment, had only been a thought. Now he was a material reality that could be touched. And I touched him. In that cold, old room, on a rainy day in 2014, even though my father’s remains were just that—small remains—my brother, my mother, I, and he were together again.

I have never seen my mother cry. And she did not cry at that moment either. Diego and I hugged her, and the three of us stayed together, huddled, for a long time. I had brought a photo of my three daughters. I put it inside the box, and we closed it. We placed the flag over the chest and a red flower on top of it.

Upon leaving, Jorge, my sister, Daniela, and my brother-in-law were waiting for us. Those moments were like going into the past and returning.

We took the remains to the Parque del Recuerdo cemetery, where my uncle Tomás and aunt Mariana Chadwick Weinstein, their spouses, and Jorge’s sister, Jacqueline Garreaud Spencer, were waiting for us. Together we walked along the paths full of trees, while it rained torrentially.

My grandparents’ grave was already open. My uncle Tomás said a few words; not much more was needed. Claudio is present in our lives every day. Very present. We were not saying goodbye to him; it was not a funeral. We were receiving his few remains and leaving them with our own. Diego played some tangos and Peruvian waltzes, Claudio’s favorite music. My mom read verses from a poem by Neruda:

Under the tombs, under the ashes, under the frozen snails, under the last terrestrial waters, you come flying, over your cemetery without walls where sailors go astray, while the rain of your death falls, you come flying.

Over the stones in which you melt, running, down the winter, down the time, while your heart descends in drops, you come flying. I hear your wings and your slow flight, and the water of the dead strikes me like blind and wet doves: you come flying.

I kept the flag that covered him.

Source: "La búsqueda" (book by Cristóbal Jimeno)