The Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced 62 former DINA agents for the crime of aggravated kidnapping against a 25-year-old photographer and MIR militant who was detained in the context of the so-called Operation Colombo in 1974.

It should be noted that the events date back to August 22 of that year, when the victim, identified as Teobaldo Tello Garrido, who was also a former official of the Investigations police, left his home to deliver some photographic work, never to return home again.

During that time, he was detained and taken to the José Domingo Cañas detention center. Subsequently, he was transferred to the Villa Grimaldi detention center and then to Cuatro Álamos, being seen for the last time in September 1974.

The judicial determination was made by the minister on extraordinary visit for human rights violation cases of the capital's appellate court, Hernán Crisosto Greisse, who ordered 13-year sentences for the crime as perpetrators to agents César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann.

Meanwhile, the following agents must serve 10 years in prison, also as perpetrators: Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Hermón Helec Alfaro Mundaca, Gerardo Meza Acuña, Gerardo Ernesto Urrich González, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Manuel Heriberto Avendaño González, Silvio Antonio Concha González, José Ojeda Obando, José Mario Friz Esparza, Luis Rigoberto Videla Inzunza, Jorge Segundo Madariaga Acevedo, Teresa del Carmen Osorio Navarro, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, José Abel Aravena Ruiz, and Orlando Manzo Durán.

The same sentence applies to Alejandro Francisco Astudillo Adonis, Demóstenes Eugenio Cárdenas Saavedra, Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, Ciro Ernesto Torré Sáez, Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Luis René Torres Méndez, Rodolfo Valentino Concha Rodríguez, Juan Ángel Urbina Cáceres, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Luis Fernando Espinace Contreras, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, and Leonidas Emiliano Méndez.

Likewise, the following agents must serve 4-year prison sentences as accomplices: Juan Ignacio Suárez Delgado, Raúl Alberto Soto Pérez, José Mora Diocares, Armando Segundo Cofré Correa, Nelson Aquiles Ortiz Vignolo, Víctor Abraham González Salazar, Eugenio Jesús Fieldhouse Chávez, Daniel Valentín Cancino Varas, Jaime Humberto Paris Ramos, José Stalin Muñoz Leal, Juan Carlos Escobar Valenzuela, Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, and Luis Eduardo Mora Cerda.

The same sentence was applied to Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, Osvaldo Octavio Castillo Arellano, Víctor San Martín Jiménez, Reinaldo Alfonso Concha Orellana, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Guido Arnoldo Jara Brevis, Hugo Hernán Clavería Leiva, Carlos Enrique Miranda Mesa, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Olegario Enrique González Moreno, Miguel Ángel Yáñez Ugalde, and Héctor Carlos Díaz Cabezas.

Meanwhile, agent Samuel Enrique Fuenzalida Devia was sentenced to 541 days in prison with the benefit of conditional remission of the sentence. At the same time, the magistrate determined the acquittal due to lack of participation of agents Raúl Bernardo Toro Montes, Alejandro Francisco Molina Cisterna, Herman Eduardo Ávalos Muñoz, Máximo Ramón Aliaga Soto, Alfonso Humberto Quiroz Quintana, Rudeslindo Urrutia Jorquera, Gustavo Galvarino Carumán Soto, Carlos Enrique Letelier Verdugo, and Héctor Raúl Valdebenito Araya.

Disinformation in Argentina According to the court ruling, disinformation maneuvers were carried out by DINA agents abroad, in which they declared Tello Garrido dead in a supposed incident between members of the MIR.

This is according to a press report from the magazine “Lea” in Argentina in 1975, which stated that “Teobaldo Antonio Tello Garrido had died in Argentina, along with 59 other people belonging to the MIR, due to internal quarrels that arose between members of that group.” Regarding the civil aspect, Minister Hernán Crisosto Greisse ordered the State of Chile and the sentenced former DINA agent Pedro Espinoza Bravo to pay, jointly and severally, the sum of $80,000,000 (eighty million pesos) to Berta Valdebenito, the victim's spouse.

Source: Biobio.cl, Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Supreme Court sends 59 former DINA agents to prison for Operation Colombo

Operation Colombo was a major intelligence operation and a media setup by the DINA, which attempted to make 119 people kidnapped in Chile appear as having been killed abroad. The Second Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court revoked the sentence that had acquitted more than 60 former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) and convicted them as responsible for the disappearance of 16 left-wing militants, mostly from the MIR, in the process known as Operation Colombo, which in this case was perpetrated between June 17, 1974, and January 6, 1975, during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. The ruling was issued by ministers Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, María Teresa Letelier, and Diego Simpertigue, who revoked the sentence handed down by the Court of Appeals and sentenced former DINA chiefs and officers César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff, and Raúl Iturriaga Neumann to 15 years and one day of major imprisonment in its maximum degree as perpetrators of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of the victims. Similarly, the court sentenced 53 former agents to an effective penalty of 10 years and one day of major imprisonment in its medium degree as perpetrators of the same crime, who had previously been acquitted by the capital's appellate court, despite having been convicted in the first instance as accomplices and perpetrators. Furthermore, this time everyone must enter prison, with some of them already in prison for other crimes against humanity. These are former DINA agents Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Manuel Andrés Carevic, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, Jose Abel Aravena Ruiz, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, Nelson Aquiles Ortiz Vignolo, Rudeslindo Urrutia Jorquera, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Manuel Heriberto Avendaño Gonzalez, Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte, Alejandro Francisco Astudillo Adonis, Daniel Alberto Galaz Orellana, Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, Leoncio Enrique Velásquez Guala, José Enrique Fuentes Torres, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, Luis René Torres Méndez, Rodolfo Valentino Concha Rodríguez, Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar, Hugo Del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Manuel Rivas Diaz, Daniel Valentín Cancino Varas, Juan Evangelista Duarte Gallegos, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Jorge Antonio Lepileo Barrios, Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza, Pedro Ariel Aravena Aravena, Carlos Alfonso Sáez Sanhueza, Juan Carlos Villanueva Alvear, Alfredo Orlando Moya Tejeda, Rafael De Jesús Riveros Frost, Silvio Antonio Concha González, Luis Fernando Espinace Contreras, Hernán Patricio Valenzuela Salas, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, Sylvia Teresa Oyarce Pinto, Osvaldo Pulgar Gallardo, José Avelino Yévenes Vergara, Olegario Enrique González Moreno, Werner Zanghellini, and Hector Flores Vergara. Jaime Alfonso Fernández Garrido received a sentence of 5 years and one day of major imprisonment in its minimum degree as a perpetrator of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Ida Vera Almarza. Meanwhile, Samuel Fuenzalida Devia was sentenced to 541 days and one day for the same crime, but will not serve time in prison. This is an extensive process that had its first instance sentence in 2017 at the hands of Minister Hernán Crisosto Greisse. In the course of the investigation, some agents have died, such as Basclay Zapata, Ciro Torré, Manzo Duran, and Ricardo Lawrence, among others. For Nelson Caucoto, the plaintiff lawyer representing 13 of the 16 victims, this is “a transcendent ruling in Chilean judicial history, since the Supreme Court has restored the sense of justice for crimes of this nature, which had literally remained in an unacceptable situation of impunity. The highest court has once again rejected the statute of limitations and the appeals of the defense of the convicted, and has accepted the appeals of the plaintiffs,” he noted. Caucoto adds that “it is a modern ruling based on international law and domestic legislation. There is no doubt that justice operates in this case as a healing for so many relatives of victims who still survive, and it is a pity that others did not live to see this end.” Operation Colombo was a major intelligence operation and a media setup by the DINA, which attempted to make 119 people kidnapped in Chile by the DINA appear as having been killed abroad, having allegedly perished after fighting among themselves. This process investigated the fate of 16 of those 119 victims. These are Francisco Aedo Carrasco, Jorge Elías Andrónicos Antequera, Juan Carlos Andrónicos Antequera, Jaime Buzio Lorca, Mario Calderón Tapia, Cecilia Castro Salvadores, Rodolfo Espejo Gómez, Agustín Fioraso Chau, Gregorio Gaete Farías, Mauricio Jorquera Encina, Isidro Pizarro Meniconi, Marcos Quiñones Lembach, Sergio Reyes Navarrete, Ida Vera Almarza, Juan Carlos Rodríguez Araya, and Jilberto Urbina Pizarro.

Source: radio.uchile.cl, March 3, 2023

Operation Colombo: Supreme Court sentences 25 DINA agents for the crime of a MIR detective in 1974

The Supreme Court confirmed the sentence that convicted 25 former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the aggravated kidnapping of photographer Teobaldo Antonio Tello Garrido, who has been a forcibly disappeared person since August 22, 1974, and one of the 119 victims who appeared on the lists of the international disinformation maneuver known as "Operation Colombo." Teobaldo Tello, 25 years old, married, was a detective with the Investigations Police, a photographer, and a militant of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR).

He was detained and kidnapped in the afternoon of August 22 on a public street when he was preparing to hold a clandestine contact in the downtown area of Santiago. His detention was part of a repressive raid on members of the MIR linked to Investigations and the Identification Cabinet.

In the sentence (roll 36.979-2020), the Second Chamber of the highest court -composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Leopoldo Llanos, and lawyers (i) Eduardo Morales and Gonzalo Ruz- rejected the cassation appeals filed by the convicted and ruled out error in the challenged sentence.

The ruling of the highest court sentenced former Army officers and DINA hierarchs César Raúl Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann to 13 years in prison for their responsibility as perpetrators of the crime.

Meanwhile, also sentenced to 10 years in prison as perpetrators of the crime were former officers Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García and Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, and former agents Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Silvio Antonio Concha González, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Teresa del Carmen Osorio Navarro, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, José Abel Aravena Ruiz, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Luis René Torres Méndez, Rodolfo Valentino Concha Rodríguez, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, Leonidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca, Luis Rigoberto Videla Inzulza, and Jorge Segundo Madariaga Acevedo, the latter three being officials of the Investigations Police commissioned to the DINA. Former agent Samuel Enrique Fuenzalida Devia must serve a sentence of 541 days in prison, with the benefit of conditional remission, as a perpetrator of the crime. Finally, former agent Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett was sentenced to 4 years in prison, with the benefit of supervised release, as an accomplice to the crime. The sentence dismissed any infringement in the facts established by the first-instance courts as they are crimes against humanity. "That regarding the cause contained in article 546 N°2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, given the nature of the proven events, which are unalterable for this Court since the cause that allows their modification was dismissed, there is no doubt that they were committed as a crime against humanity, since the investigated illicit act occurred in a context of serious, massive, and systematic human rights violations, verified by State agents, with the victim in this case constituting an instrument within a general policy of exclusion, harassment, persecution, or extermination of a group of numerous people who, in the period immediately following September 11, 1973, were labeled as ideologically belonging to the deposed political regime or who for any circumstance were considered suspicious of opposing or hindering the realization of the social and political construction devised by those holding power, guaranteeing impunity to the executors of said program through non-interference in their methods, both by concealing the reality when ordinary courts of justice requested relevant reports, and by using state power to persuade local and foreign public opinion that the complaints formulated to that effect were false and responded to a campaign tending to discredit the authoritarian military regime." It adds: "That crimes against humanity are those injustices that not only contravene the legal interests commonly guaranteed by criminal laws, but at the same time imply a denial of the moral personality of man, such that for the configuration of this illicit act there is an intimate connection between common crimes and an added value that stems from the disregard and contempt for the dignity of the person, because the main characteristic of this figure is the cruel way in which various criminal acts are perpetrated, which clearly and manifestly contradict the most basic concept of humanity; also highlighting the presence of cruelty toward a special class of individuals, thus combining an eminent intentional element, as a specific inner tendency of the agent's will. In short, they constitute an outrage to human dignity and represent a serious and manifest violation of the rights and freedoms proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, reaffirmed and developed in other relevant international instruments." In the judicial investigation and first-instance ruling, the visiting minister Hernán Crisosto Greisse established that the kidnapped Teobaldo Tello was taken by his captors to the clandestine detention center called "Ollagüe," located at Calle José Domingo Cañas N° 1367, in the commune of Ñuñoa, and subsequently transferred to the clandestine detention centers of "Villa Grimaldi," located at Lo Arrieta N° 8200, in the commune of La Reina, and "Cuatro Álamos," located at Calle Canadá N° 3000, in Santiago, centers that were controlled by the DINA. During his stay in the barracks of José Domingo Cañas, Villa Grimaldi, and Cuatro Álamos, he remained without contact with the outside world, blindfolded and tied, being continuously subjected to interrogations under torture by DINA agents for the purpose of obtaining information regarding members of the MIR, to proceed with the detention of members of that organization. In these centers, Tello Garrido was seen by other surviving detainees with his arms and legs broken as a result of the torture. The last time he was seen alive was on an undetermined day in the month of September 1974. The name of Teobaldo Antonio Tello Garrido appeared on a list of 119 people, published in the national press after it appeared on a list published in the magazine "LEA" of Argentina, dated July 15, 1975, which stated that he had died in Argentina, along with 59 other people belonging to the MIR, due to internal quarrels between those members. The aforementioned publications were the product of disinformation maneuvers carried out by the DINA, in what has become known as "Operation Colombo." by Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl, September 22, 2023

Operation Colombo: Supreme Court sentences 30 former DINA agents for the aggravated kidnapping of a young MIR militant in 1975

The Supreme Court sentenced agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the consummated crime of aggravated kidnapping of the student of the Higher Institute of Commerce of Talca, Francisco Eduardo Ugás Morales, 22 years old, a militant of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR), who was kidnapped starting February 7, 1975, in the commune of Estación Central, in Santiago.

The name of Rodrigo Ugás appeared, subsequently, on the list of 119 forcibly disappeared people included in the disinformation maneuver implemented by the DINA and the dictatorship known as "Operation Colombo." In a unanimous ruling (case roll 63-094-2020), the Second Chamber of the highest court -composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, minister María Teresa Letelier, and lawyer (i) Pía Tavolari- accepted the cassation appeals in substance filed by the plaintiffs and established an error of law in the challenged sentence, issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals in April 2020, annulling and replacing it. In the replacement sentence, the Supreme Court confirmed the first-degree sentence issued by Minister Hernán Crisosto Greisse in June 2015, which sentenced former Army officers and former DINA hierarchs Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann to 13 years in prison, as perpetrators of the crime. Meanwhile, former officers Rolf Gonzalo Wenderoth Pozo, Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, and Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, and former agents Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Luis René Torres Méndez, Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Manuel Rivas Díaz, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza, Luis Rigoberto Videla Insunza, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Pedro Mora Villanueva, Osvaldo Octavio Castillo Arellano, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, José Abel Aravena Ruiz, Rodolfo Valentino Concha Rodríguez, Silvio Antonio Concha González, and Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel must serve 10 years and one day in prison, as co-perpetrators of the aggravated kidnapping. In the case of agent Samuel Enrique Fuenzalida Devia, the resolution of the visiting minister Hernán Crisosto was confirmed, sentencing him to 541 days in prison, with the benefit of conditional remission of the sentence. At least 11 other agents convicted in the first-instance ruling died during the course of the process. In the resolution, the Second Chamber establishes that: "....it is clear that the lower court judges, at the time of resolving the controversy submitted to their knowledge and acquitting the accused Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Luis René Torres Méndez, Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Manuel Rivas Díaz, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Carlos López Inostroza, Luis Rigoberto Videla Insunza, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, Leonidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Pedro Mora Villanueva, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, and Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, have incurred in the errors of law denounced by the plaintiff, by estimating, in summary, as evidenced by the reasoning that precedes, .... artificially reducing the responsibility attributed to each of them to their condition as DINA agents, through an incomplete reproduction of the grounds put forward by the first-instance court…..", the ruling maintains. "That on the other hand -it continues-, as has already been outlined, in addition to said legal qualification, the sentencers estimated...., that the facts were committed in a context of systematic or generalized attack against the civilian population, which determined that the established illicit act was, in addition, considered as crimes against humanity, for attacking against ius cogens norms of International Humanitarian Law, and for the same reason, subjected to said international legal statute." Villa Grimaldi In the first-instance sentence, the visiting minister of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Hernán Crisosto Greisse, established that in the afternoon of February 7, 1975, members of the DINA detained Rodrigo Eduardo Ugás Morales, a militant of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR), on a public street in the Estación Central sector in Santiago, and transferred him to the clandestine DINA detention center called 'Cuartel Terranova' or 'Villa Grimaldi,' located at Lo Arrieta N° 8200, in the commune of La Reina, which was guarded by armed guards and to which only DINA agents had access. During his stay at the Villa Grimaldi barracks, according to testimonies of survivors, the detainee Ugás Morales remained without contact with the outside world, blindfolded and tied, being continuously subjected to interrogations under torture by DINA agents operating in said barracks. The last time Rodrigo Ugás Morales was seen by other detainees occurred on an undetermined day at the end of February 1975, and he has been missing since that date.

Source: resumen.cl, February 23, 2024

Operation Colombo: Supreme Court confirms convictions of 24 former DINA agents for the aggravated kidnapping of a UdeC leader in Santiago in 1974

The Supreme Court rejected the cassation appeals in form and substance filed by the defenses against the sentence that convicted agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of sociology student Ariel Martín Salinas Argomedo, committed starting September 25, 1974, in Santiago.

The name of Ariel Salinas Argomedo appeared, subsequently, on the list of 119 forcibly disappeared people included in the disinformation maneuver implemented by the DINA and the dictatorship known as "Operation Colombo." In a unanimous ruling (case roll 135.568-2020), the Second Chamber of the highest court -composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, minister María Teresa Letelier, and lawyer (i) Pía Tavolari- accepted the cassation appeal in form filed by the plaintiff, the Human Rights Program of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, and, consequently, invalidated the challenged sentence, only in the part that acquitted the accused Manuel Heriberto Avendaño González and, in a replacement sentence, sentenced him to 10 years in prison, as a perpetrator of the crime. The Supreme Court ruling confirmed the sentences of former Army officers and former DINA hierarchs César Raúl Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann, who must serve 13 years in prison for their responsibility as perpetrators of the aggravated kidnapping. Meanwhile, in addition to the aforementioned Manuel Heriberto Avendaño González, former officers Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, and former agents Hermón Helec Alfaro Mundaca, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Silvio Antonio Concha González, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Luis Rigoberto Videla Inzunza, Teresa del Carmen Osorio Navarro, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, José Abel Aravena Ruiz, Alejandro Francisco Astudillo Adonis, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte, Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda, and Juan Evaristo Duarte Gallegos must serve 10 years of imprisonment, all convicted as perpetrators of the crime. Another 12 agents, also convicted in the first-instance ruling issued by Minister Hernán Crisosto Greisse in October 2015, died during the course of the process. Regarding the case of the accused Manuel Avendaño González, the Criminal Chamber points out: "(...) under such conditions, the appeal proposed by the Human Rights Program of the relevant Ministry must be accepted, since from the mere reading of the challenged sentence, grounds are evidenced that are completely contradictory, canceling each other out, making the decision that acquits the accused Avendaño González, which is declared in the resolution, devoid of any foundation, configuring the vice of invalidation denounced." "In effect, at the time of the events, these accused were part, as hierarchical superiors and operational agents, together with other defendants whose participation would be analyzed in the following considerations, of the groups belonging to the National Intelligence Directorate that materialized the kidnapping of the members of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left, among whose members was Salinas Argomedo, in such a way that, despite not remembering the specific name of this one, it is indisputable to conclude, just as the a quo does, that they took part in the illegitimate deprivation of liberty of this one in an immediate and direct manner in the way provided by the recently cited norm and that, for the same reason, they are punishable co-perpetrators of this illicit act." Operation Colombo Ariel Martín Salinas Argomedo was a former sociology student at the University of Concepción. The 26-year-old, married and father of a daughter, was a militant of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR), was part of the university leadership of the MIR in Concepción, and, until the military coup, was president of the student center of the sociology degree at the UdeC. After the coup, he had to go into hiding to avoid being captured. He moved to Santiago to continue his militant activity and a year later he was detained. In the first-instance ruling, the visiting minister Hernán Crisosto Greisse established that on the morning of September 25, 1974, Ariel Salinas was detained on a public street by agents belonging to the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), who transferred him to the clandestine DINA detention center called 'Ollagüe,' located at José Domingo Cañas N° 1367 in the commune of Ñuñoa. Subsequently, he was transferred to the clandestine detention centers called 'Villa Grimaldi,' located at Lo Arrieta N° 8200, in La Reina, and 'Cuatro Álamos,' located at Calle Canadá N° 3000, in the commune of Santiago, centers that were guarded by armed guards and to which only DINA agents had access. According to the testimony of surviving prisoners, during his stay at the barracks of José Domingo Cañas, Villa Grimaldi, and Cuatro Álamos, the detainee Ariel Salinas remained without contact with the outside world. In the first two places, he was blindfolded and tied, being continuously subjected to interrogations under torture by DINA agents operating in said barracks. The last time Ariel Salinas Argomedo was seen alive by other detainees occurred on an undetermined day in the month of November 1974, and he has been missing since that date.

Source: resumen.cl, February 26, 2024

Kidnapping of Jorge Müller and Carmen Bueno: DINA agents are convicted for the disappearance of the filmmakers

The members of the defunct National Intelligence Directorate, César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Raúl Iturriaga Neumann, and Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko will receive a 20-year prison sentence for their status as perpetrators.

In a unanimous ruling, the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court confirmed the sentence that convicted César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Raúl Iturriaga Neumann, and Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko to 20 years in prison as perpetrators of the crime.

The highest court rejected the cassation appeals in form and substance filed against the sentence that convicted agents of the defunct National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of the filmmaker couple Jorge Hernán Müller Silva and Carmen Cecilia Bueno Cifuentes.

Illicit acts committed starting November 29, 1974. In a unanimous ruling (case roll 43.971-2020), the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court –composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, minister María Teresa Letelier, and lawyer (i) Pía Tavolari– confirmed the challenged sentence, issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals, which sentenced César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann, and Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko to 20 years in prison, as perpetrators of the crime.

Meanwhile, Orlando Manzo Durán, Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, Alejandro Francisco Astudillo Adonis, Sylvia Teresa Oyarce Pinto, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Manuel Heriberto Avendaño González, Nelson Aquiles Ortiz Vignolo, Silvio Antonio Concha González, Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda, Luis Rigoberto Videla Inzunza, Jorge Segundo Madariaga Acevedo, Teresa del Carmen Osorio Navarro, José Abel Aravena Ruiz, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Luis René Torres Méndez, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, Carlos López Inostroza, Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, and Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana must serve 12 years in prison, as co-perpetrators. “That, in this way, the elements of the examined illicit act and the participation in them of these accused, was considered verified by the first-instance court, conclusions that the second-instance judiciary made its own, endorsed in consideration 7° of the challenged sentence,” states the ruling. The resolution adds: “That, consequently, and even ignoring the serious formal defects of the examined substantial nullity appeals, the infringements denounced by the defenses of Carlos López Inostroza, Jerónimo Neira Méndez, Luis Videla Inzunza, Pedro Alfaro Fernández, Raúl Iturriaga Neumann, Pedro Espinoza Bravo, and César Manríquez Bravo, have not been configured in the case, since the facts established in the challenged sentence and the participation in them of these accused, have adjusted to the laws regulating evidence, so that no reproach can be raised on the matter to the challenged sentence, so that the substantial nullity appeals under examination will be entirely dismissed.” Operation Colombo In the first-instance sentence, the visiting minister of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Hernán Crisosto Greisse, established the following facts: On November 29, 1974, Carmen Cecilia Bueno Cifuentes and her partner Jorge Hernán Müller Silva, militants of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR), were detained on a public street, at the corner of Calle Francisco Bilbao and Los Leones in Santiago, by agents belonging to the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) who put them into a C-10 van and transferred them to the clandestine DINA detention center called ‘Villa Grimaldi,’ located at Lo Arrieta N° 8200, in La Reina, and subsequently to the clandestine detention center called ‘Cuatro Álamos,’ located at Calle Canadá N° 3000, in Santiago, which were guarded by armed guards and to which only DINA agents had access. During their stay at the barracks of Villa Grimaldi and Cuatro Álamos, they remained without contact with the outside world, blindfolded and tied, being in the first of them continuously subjected to interrogations under torture by DINA agents operating in said barracks for the purpose of obtaining information regarding members of the MIR, to proceed with the detention of their members. The last time the victims Bueno Cifuentes and Müller Silva were seen alive occurred on an undetermined day in the middle of December 1974, and to date, there is no information on the whereabouts of both, and they are missing. The name of Carmen Cecilia Bueno Cifuentes appeared on a list of 119 people, published in the national press after it appeared on a list published in the magazine ‘LEA’ of Argentina, dated July 15, 1975, which reported that Bueno Cifuentes had died in Argentina, along with 59 other people belonging to the MIR, due to internal quarrels that arose between those members. The publications that declared the victim Bueno Cifuentes dead had their origin in disinformation maneuvers carried out by DINA agents abroad. Regarding the civil aspect, the sentence that ordered the treasury to pay compensation of $50 million for moral damages to the sister of the victim Bueno Cifuentes was confirmed.

Source: radio.uchile.cl, February 23, 2024