1) Assertions by Jaime Alejandro del Pozo Hoppe (606) stating that between 1980 - 1981 he joined the CNI, at the Borgoño barracks; he was not aware of the agents' names, but there was a detachment that worked on "subversive political parties..." On page 622, he reiterates his statements and adds that his boss was Colonel Schmied and the deponent was the third in seniority; his tasks were related to logistics.

The Anti-Subversive Brigade operated on the first floor of the barracks, under the command of Álvaro Corbalán; he had no contact with it, except as the person in charge of logistics; in that capacity, he saw detainees arriving under the charge of the brigade's personnel.

Source: Judiciary, October 14, 2013

The Achilles' heel of Judge Romy Rutherford

While the institutions and bodies of the State Administration seem to be falling short, with a Judiciary that, in the opinion of civil society, is increasingly weakened and does not seem to be regaining the trust of the citizenry, one case stands out in this scenario, almost like "a beacon in the darkness," which seems to restore credibility to the magistrates and their independence when it comes to investigating.

By: Rodolfo Novakovic Cerda | Investigation Department, El Minuto.

This concerns the well-known minister of the Chilean Court Martial, Romy Rutherford Parentti, better known as the "Iron Judge," whose hand did not tremble when investigating the possible embezzlement of funds within the Army and its ramifications, which today have former generals in the dock.

However, a confusing and mysterious case that has been ventilated in the courts since 2017 could become a "thorn in her side," or worse, her "Achilles' heel," especially now that the so-called "Rutherford Law" has been successfully processed, with its final approval pending at this Monday's meeting to be held at the Plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice.

The exemplary and systematic investigation of the Army Fraud Case has a name and surname. No one can deny that the patient, measured, and tenacious inquiry to determine the destination and justification of the funds used by Army generals has been the exclusive merit of Judge Romy Rutherford, who—moving in a complex scenario that until before her was occupied by men—has bravely prosecuted once-powerful men of arms, such as the case of former generals Juan Miguel Fuente-Alba and Humberto Oviedo.

Her performance in the prosecution of potential irregularities in the foreign service commissions of officers and non-commissioned officers has opened new avenues in her initial investigation, to such an extent that, thanks to a motion by the Chamber of Deputies (led by RN's Ximena Ossandón, DC's Pablo Lorenzini and Matías Walker, and PS's Leonardo Soto, among seven other parliamentarians), the enactment of the regulation known as the "Rutherford Law" was processed without observations or indications.

In principle, this will allow the magistrate to extend the term of her management by up to two additional years, especially for those cases of high complexity, duration, and public impact.

Having the Constitutional Court (TC) ruled in favor of the modification introduced to the Code of Military Justice (CJM) to increase the current three-year term for ministers handling these types of cases, it is now the turn of the Plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice, which must decide this Monday whether to apply the criteria of this rule to the case of Romy Rutherford, now that said legal text has been published in the Official Gazette.

However, the meteoric judicial career of the "Iron Judge" has not been exempt from difficulties and stumbling blocks, the most emblematic and curious being the judicial libel known in civil courts that relates to one of her brothers, Luis Guillermo (born from the first marriage of her father, the well-known lawyer and criminalist Edmundo Rutherford), who, according to what is commented in the libel, has been missing, with no known whereabouts, since the end of 2009 (according to Interpol, and in accordance with the main text of the voluntary action, to which El Minuto had access, he has been outside the national territory since April 2008).

According to the statements of witnesses and the parties that have been incorporated into the case (which is being processed in a court where Romy Rutherford is also the Visiting Minister), Luis Guillermo Rutherford was last seen between the middle and end of 2009, with no news of him since then.

Nora Figueroa (Luis's former partner), representing her son Diego Rutherford, after filing a complaint for Presumed Misfortune with the Carabineros and another with the Public Prosecutor's Office towards the end of 2009, and faced with the impossibility of obtaining hopeful news that would lead to the location of her son's father, filed a voluntary action for Presumed Death before the civil courts of Santiago in 2017.

The text was authorized and published in the Official Gazette, on the three occasions provided by law, in which the disappeared person is summoned to appear before the court under penalty of being declared deceased for all legal purposes.

But starting in September of last year, the case took a turn after it became known that—thanks to documents provided by a key witness and friend of the disappeared person—according to CAPREDENA, the presumed missing person still appears to be collecting his retirement pension month by month, as a former Army official, and that furthermore, according to an Equifax Physical Address Report, Luis Rutherford appears with recent addresses (October 2017 and February 2018) in the city of Arica; all of which would prove that the former Army lieutenant is still alive and that, therefore, he could not be declared dead.

What at first glance might seem like a mere police case, typical of the "missing persons" press column, acquires other nuances, even political ones, because from the documentation that was contributed to the civil case, and to which El Minuto had access, the Chilean Army itself recognizes and attaches a copy of the Service Record of the magistrate's brother, when he was part of the dissolved National Intelligence Center (CNI), as an operational member, standing out in a military action against subversives that occurred in 1984, substituting for the Unit Commander with optimal results, which earned him ONE POINT on his service record; all accredited in a brief summary dated September 14 of that same year by his direct boss, Major Jaime del Pozo Hoppe.

Source: elminuto.cl, November 9, 2022