The minister for extraordinary causes regarding human rights violations of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Mario Carroza, sentenced three retired Carabineros for the qualified homicides of two people, perpetrated in September 1973, in Santiago.

The sentence applies to Humberto Quiñones Marín, Carlos Córdova Salinas, and Alfonso Silva Ramírez, with effective prison terms of 10 years and one day , as perpetrators of the homicides of Ángel Espinoza Valenzuela and Miguel Díaz León.

According to the evidence gathered during the investigation phase, it was established that the victims were being held in the cells of the Zelada Carabineros station , located in the commune of Quinta Normal. They were removed from the facility on September 14, 1973, by police personnel who transported them to the vicinity of the Bulnes bridge, executing them on the banks of the Mapocho River .

Source: biobiochile.cl, April 8, 2016

Santiago Court convicts Carabineros officer who had been acquitted for crimes during the dictatorship

In a resolution adopted on January 15, the Santiago Court of Appeals reversed an acquittal and sentenced retired Carabineros officer Carlos Alfredo Córdova Salinas to 15 years and one day in prison for his responsibility in the qualified homicides of: Carlos Humberto Astudillo Monsalve, Juan José Manuel Morales Herrera, Gabriel Ricardo Nelson Martínez Leyton, Sergio Wenceslao Rojas González, and Hernán Sergio González Nicolau, crimes perpetrated on September 26, 1973, in the commune of Quinta Normal.

The five victims, who had no known political affiliation or activity, had been previously detained by Carabineros from the Zelada station in Quinta Normal and were removed from the unit by the convicted officer and another Carabinero (Manuel Segundo Martínez, now deceased) to be executed at the Parque Residencial Alameda.

On the way to the execution site, Córdova Salinas murdered Carlos Astudillo Monsalve, a 38-year-old printer. Then, once on the grounds of the Park, the pair of uniformed officers executed the remaining 4 prisoners: Hernán González Nicolau, 28; Juan Morales Herrera, a 24-year-old teacher; Sergio Rojas González, an 18-year-old junior clerk; and Gabriel Martínez Leyton, a 15-year-old student.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 2144-2015), the Fifth Chamber of the capital's appellate court—composed of ministers Juan Manuel Muñoz Pardo, Mario Gómez, and lawyer (member) José Luis López Reitze—revoked the sentence issued on September 16, 2015, by minister Mario Carroza, which had acquitted Córdova Salinas by applying the principle of "res judicata" due to the existence of a process regarding the events, handled by the Second Military Court in 1973.

The appellate court's resolution reversed the first-instance ruling upon finding that there is no evidence to ensure that the military justice system had applied any penalty to the officer, as there is no record of a sentence. "That, for the time being, the alleged sentencing judgment in case file No. 511-1973 added to page 476 is incomplete because it does not contain its operative part, and the Civil Registry and Identification Service, the Security Department of the Gendarmería de Chile, and the Chief of the General Staff of the Army indicate that there is no record of a final judgment having been issued in said case. Likewise, the affiliation and background certificate of Córdova Salinas—on page 496—indicates that the sentence imposed in case file No. 511-1973 is 15 years and one day of imprisonment in its maximum degree, but the sentence was remitted, information that is clearly erroneous both regarding the fixing of the sentence itself and the extra-prison benefit. The Chief of Security of the Gendarmería de Chile reports that Córdova Salinas did not appear to serve the alternative measure," the ruling states. The resolution adds that "(...) added to the above, the accused has never mentioned that there was a prior trial, much less a sentence that he had to serve (page 582). Nor did his defense raise such a situation when answering the accusation. The accused claims to have signed in for two years at offices that would have corresponded to the Civil Registry, which is implausible, but he does not remember if that case is related to any of the victims of this investigation." Consequently—it continues—"(...) there is no data to prove the existence of a sentence, much less its fulfillment, issued by the Military Justice, and from this perspective, the acquittal based on that factor is not effective. It should be noted that the existence of a previous sentence regarding the same facts of this process cannot be inferred from other evidence that is not suitable for such a purpose: the original or an authorized copy of the judgment, and such requirement has not been met in this instance. Furthermore, from reading the incomplete copy of the judgment on page 476, it is verified that it concerns a different crime than the one that is the subject of this process, without the investigation of the same having determined the facts and the classification of the crimes, configuring a mere formality without the will to 'discover the truth of what happened to the victims'."

Source: resumen.cl, January 19, 2016

Case No. 185-2011: Homicide case of Ángel Daniel Espinosa Valenzuela and Miguel Antonio Díaz León

13.- Police Report, from page 135 and following, signed with number 4030/00702, issued by the Investigative Brigade of Crimes Against Human Rights of the Investigative Police of Chile, which concludes that it can be established that the victims of the present case, Ángel Daniel Espinosa Valenzuela and Miguel Antonio Díaz León , were detained on September 13, 1973, by Carabineros personnel assigned to a station located at Plaza Chile-España, specifically at the intersection of Buzo Sobenes and Abtao streets , dependent on the 22nd Precinct of Estación Central ; that, Miguel Antonio Díaz León , upon leaving his home to make some purchases and verify the end of the curfew hours, was pursued and detained from inside his home by Carabineros personnel wearing institutional uniforms, helmets, and submachine guns; that, later, the friend of said victim, Ángel Espinosa Valenzuela , was detained from his private residence, an event witnessed from the street by his partner, Blanca Díaz Valenzuela; that, both victims allegedly had police records for robbery and theft, but with their respective sentences served; that, likewise, the officials who participated in the detention were nicknamed in the victims' residential area as "Área 12," "El Cuchuflí," and one with the surname "Quiñones"; that, the first two allegedly held the rank of Carabinero, and " Quiñones" was allegedly a Sergeant at the time of the detentions; that, the victims were allegedly taken to the aforementioned station, a place where Magdalena Flores Pareja heard the screams of both detainees due to the beatings the Carabineros officials were inflicting upon them, an instant from which she has no further knowledge of the events that caused the death of both friends, until their bodies were found at the Legal Medical Service; that, likewise, there would be an eyewitness to the detention of the victims, who allegedly saw them inside the indicated station, being subjected to beatings and torture, who would also have been detained, and would correspond to Manuel or Pedro Valderrama.

Source: Judiciary, April 7, 2017