The individuals in question are former officers of the Chilean Investigative Police (PDI): Florencio Renato Vásquez Olivera, Abdón Hernán Navarro Garrido, Héctor Félix Domke Foitzick, and Carlos Aliro Bello Sepúlveda.

They were indicted and placed in preventive detention as perpetrators of the crime of qualified homicide against Jorge Arturo Toy Vergara, committed in the commune of Victoria on December 22, 1973, in case file number 57.071, which is being investigated by Álvaro Mesa Latorre, the minister for extraordinary visits for human rights cases of the Temuco Court of Appeals.

According to the evidence gathered during the investigation, the magistrate was able to determine “that Jorge Arturo Toy Vergara, an 18-year-old merchant from the city of Victoria, was detained by personnel from the Victoria Investigative Police on the night of December 21, 1973, following a raid in that city.” The report adds “that the head of the Victoria Investigative Police, for reasons still being investigated in this case, ordered the personnel under his command to accompany him and the detainee, Toy Vergara, to the ‘Puente Traiguén’ overpass area, on the banks of the Colo River.

At that location, the detectives began to drink alcohol until they were intoxicated, after which they fired their service weapons at the detainee, Jorge Arturo Toy Vergara, causing his death. Immediately afterward, they threw him into the waters of the Colo River and left the scene.” Finally, the investigation concludes that “the following day, the lifeless body of Toy Vergara was found by locals, and the respective investigation, which was led by the same detectives from Victoria, was initiated without results.

The death certificate for Toy Vergara indicates the cause of death as: ‘Acute anemia, cerebral hemorrhage, homicide by multiple gunshot wounds, penetrating thoracic, cranial, and abdominal wounds.’”

Source: tiempo21.cl, October 27, 2014

Minister Álvaro Mesa sentences former PDI members for homicide on the banks of the Colo River in Victoria

Álvaro Mesa Latorre sentenced four former PDI officers for their responsibility in the qualified homicide of Jorge Arturo Toy Vergara, a crime committed on December 21, 1973, in the commune of Victoria.

In the ruling (case file 57.071), Minister Mesa sentenced Florencio Vásquez Olivera and Héctor Domke Foitzick to 10 years and one day of imprisonment as perpetrators of the crime; meanwhile, Abdón Navarro Garrido and Carlos Bello Sepúlveda were sentenced to 541 days of imprisonment, with the benefit of conditional remission of the sentence, as accessories after the fact.

During the investigation phase, the minister for extraordinary visits was able to establish the following facts: That Jorge Arturo Toy Vergara, an 18-year-old merchant from the city of Victoria, was detained by personnel from the Victoria Investigative Police on the night of December 21, 1973, following a raid in that city.

That the head of the Victoria Investigative Police, Héctor Félix Domke Foitzick, ordered the personnel under his command to accompany him and the detainee, Toy Vergara, to the “Puente Traiguén” overpass area, on the banks of the Colo River.

For this, he was accompanied by Carlos Aliro Bello Sepúlveda, Florencio Renato Vásquez Olivera, and Abdón Hernán Navarro Garrido, detectives who were part of the Victoria staff. At that location, the detectives began to drink alcohol until they were intoxicated, after which they fired their service weapons at the detainee, Jorge Arturo Toy Vergara, causing his death.

Immediately afterward, they threw him into the waters of the Colo River and left the scene. The following day, the lifeless body of Toy Vergara was found by locals, and the respective investigation, which was led by the same detectives from Victoria, was initiated without results.

The death certificate for Toy Vergara, on page 41, indicates the cause of death as follows: “Acute anemia, cerebral hemorrhage, homicide by multiple gunshot wounds, penetrating thoracic, cranial, and abdominal wounds.” Regarding civil damages, the ruling ordered the state to pay a total compensation of $70,000,000 (seventy million pesos) for moral damages to two of the victim's siblings.

Source: canaldenoticias.cl, November 18, 2017

Supreme Court confirms sentences for retired PDI officers for the execution of an adolescent in a Victoria river in 1973

In a unanimous ruling, the Second Chamber of the high court confirmed the sentence that condemned Florencio Renato Vásquez Olivares and Héctor Félix Domke Foitzick to 10 years and one day of imprisonment as perpetrators of the homicide.

The Supreme Court rejected the appeals in cassation filed by the defense and confirmed the sentence that condemned four detectives of the Investigative Police (PDI) for their responsibility in the consummated crime of qualified homicide of 18-year-old Jorge Arturo Toy Vergara, a crime committed in the city of Victoria on September 21, 1973.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 26,739-2018), the Second Chamber of the high court—composed of ministers Carlos Künsemüller, Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Leopoldo Llanos, and Jorge Zepeda—confirmed the sentence that condemned Florencio Renato Vásquez Olivares and Héctor Félix Domke Foitzick to 10 years and one day of imprisonment as perpetrators of the homicide.

Meanwhile, Abdón Hernán Navarro Garrido and Carlos Aliro Bello Sepúlveda must serve 541 days of imprisonment, with the benefit of conditional remission of the sentence, for their responsibility as accessories after the fact.

The Supreme Court ruled out any breach of law in the challenged ruling, issued by the Temuco Court of Appeals, which confirmed the first-instance sentence that condemned the former police officers. “The purpose of the appeal in cassation is to ensure the correct interpretation and application of the rules intended to resolve the controversy, so that this court may fulfill the function of standardizing the law assigned to it by the law.

To achieve this purpose, the law has indicated that the legal errors committed in the decision must be made explicit, and these must have a substantial influence on the operative part of the ruling. This requirement translates into the need to demonstrate the concurrence of the invoked hypotheses, with a transcendent, concrete effect specifically linked to the alleged defect, so that its verification grants this court the competence to determine the appropriate action within the private scope of this substantive appeal,” the ruling explains.

The resolution adds: “Having in view the above, from reading the appeals filed by the defense of Florencio Renato Vásquez Olivera and Héctor Domke Foitzick, it is evident that they contain incompatible and subsidiary arguments.” “Indeed, the vices that constitute the invoked grounds cannot be proposed simultaneously, as this would mean that, in the face of plurality, it would be this Court that chooses one of the grounds for nullity, a function that unequivocally does not correspond to the Court,” it adds.

For the high court: “(…) indeed, the initial segment of the appeals extends to the error of law committed by considering the conviction decision mistaken, as the accused would not have had the intervention attributed to them in the crime.

Next, they argue that the act cannot be classified as a crime against humanity and, therefore, the statute of limitations for criminal action should apply, only to subsequently allege the concurrence of the mitigating circumstance of responsibility—Article 103 of the Penal Code—which would entail the imposition of a lesser penalty, but which certainly implies an acceptance of guilt.” “As can be seen, each postulate implies the abandonment of the previous thesis, conditions under which the request cannot be granted, because the effectiveness of some vices cannot be subordinated to the existence or non-existence of others, disregarding the formality that is proper to this strict-law appeal; therefore, the appeals will be rejected,” the ministers of the Penal Chamber reasoned. Executed and thrown into the Colo River During the investigation phase of the case, the minister for extraordinary visits, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, established the following facts: “A.- That Jorge Arturo Toy Vergara, an 18-year-old merchant from the city of Victoria, was detained by personnel from the Victoria Investigative Police on the night of December 21, 1973, following a raid in that city. B.- That the head of the Victoria Investigative Police, Héctor Félix Domke Foitzick, ordered the personnel under his command to accompany him and the detainee, Toy Vergara, to the ‘Puente Traiguén’ overpass area, on the banks of the Colo River. For this, he was accompanied by Carlos Aliro Bello Sepúlveda, Florencio Renato Vásquez Olivera, and Abdón Hernán Navarro Garrido, detectives who were part of the Victoria staff. C.- At that location, the detectives began to drink alcohol until they were intoxicated, after which they fired their service weapons at the detainee, Jorge Arturo Toy Vergara, causing his death. Immediately afterward, they threw him into the waters of the Colo River and left the scene. D.- The following day, the lifeless body of Toy Vergara was found by locals, and the respective investigation, which was led by the same detectives from Victoria, was initiated without results. The death certificate for Toy Vergara, on page 41, indicates the cause of death as follows: ‘Acute anemia, cerebral hemorrhage, homicide by multiple gunshot wounds, penetrating thoracic, cranial, and abdominal wounds.’” Regarding civil damages, the sentence condemning the state to pay a total compensation of $70,000,000 (seventy million pesos) for moral damages to two of the victim's siblings was confirmed.

Source: pdju.cl, April 12, 2021

An end to impunity: Former PDI chief Héctor Domke Foitzick enters Colina 1 for extrajudicial execution in 1973

The former agent had evaded the fulfillment of the sentence set at ten years and one day of major imprisonment. For the extrajudicial execution of 18-year-old Jorge Arturo Toy Vergara on December 22, 1973, in the city of Victoria.

Radio Kurruf reported today that Héctor Domke and Florencio Renato Vásquez Olivera were the ones who fired at Jorge Toy, while Abdón Hernán Navarro Garrido and Carlos Aliro Bello Sepúlveda acted as accessories after the fact.

The first two were sentenced in 2017 in a double instance by Temuco courts to ten years and one day, while the latter were sentenced to 541 days in prison with conditional remission of the sentence. Renato Vásquez is deceased as of 2022, while Domke Foitzick had evaded the fulfillment of the sentence set at ten years and one day of major imprisonment in its medium degree, “presumably through protection networks,” the radio station noted.

Domke remained a fugitive until October 22, 2022, when his grandson, the “controversial” prosecutor Sergio Moya Domke, took him to the PDI Human Rights Brigade facilities in Santiago to surrender, entering Colina 1 on the same date.

Sebastián Saavedra, a private lawyer representing the plaintiffs in the case of Jorge A. Toy Vergara, stated in communication with Radio Kurruf that the family members are satisfied with the latest developments, in which Domke Foitzick has begun serving his sentence.

The lawyer also refers to prosecutor Sergio Moya Domke, who was investigated in Operation Huracán as a collaborator with Carabineros intelligence in Araucanía for planting false evidence against Mapuche leaders, and who was also a prosecutor in the Tur Bus and Quino toll booth cases against Mapuche community members, having a direct link with the infiltrated informant Raul Castro Antipan. “All these facts would have motivated the opening of an investigation in August of this year, 2022, for the possible participation of accessories after the fact in the qualified homicide of Jorge Toy Vergara, for harboring, concealing, or facilitating the flight of Héctor Félix Domke Foitzick,” the media outlet points out. Almost a month later, the convicted man surrendered; however, the results of these investigations that could involve the grandson, Moya Domke, are pending, Saavedra indicates. Jorge Arturo Toy Vergara died on December 22 at 5:00 a.m. on a public road from acute anemia and cerebral hemorrhage, caused by “homicide by multiple gunshot wounds, penetrating thoracic, cranial, and abdominal wounds” (sic), according to the Medical Death Certificate signed by a forensic doctor. According to the statement of one of Jorge Toy’s sisters, officials from the Victoria Investigative Police had repeatedly gone to her home in search of her brother. They claimed to be investigating the commission of several alleged crimes. On December 24 of that year, officials from the local Investigative Police returned to her home, this time to notify her of Jorge Toy’s death. When she went to the local morgue to collect him, she noticed that his body had more than twenty gunshot wounds. Considering the evidence gathered by this Corporation, the Superior Council, keeping in mind the time and cause of death of Jorge Arturo Toy Vergara, reached the conviction that he was executed by State agents outside of any legal process. For this reason, he was declared a victim of human rights violations. Meanwhile, the minister for human rights violations and crimes against humanity cases, Álvaro Mesa, who began the investigation in 2016, accredited the following order of events that led to the death of Arturo Alexander Toy Vergara: “A.- That Jorge Arturo Toy Vergara, an 18-year-old merchant from the city of Victoria, was detained by personnel from the Victoria Investigative Police on the night of December 21, 1973, following a raid in that city. B.- That the head of the Victoria Investigative Police, Héctor Félix Domke Foitzick, ordered the personnel under his command to accompany him and the detainee, Toy Vergara, to the ‘Puente Traiguén’ overpass area, on the banks of the Colo River. For this, he was accompanied by Carlos Aliro Bello Sepúlveda, Florencio Renato Vásquez Olivera, and Abdón Hernán Navarro Garrido, detectives who were part of the Victoria staff. C.- At that location, the detectives began to drink alcohol until they were intoxicated, after which they fired their service weapons at the detainee, Jorge Arturo Toy Vergara, causing his death. Immediately afterward, they threw him into the waters of the Colo River and left the scene. D.- The following day, the lifeless body of Toy Vergara was found by locals, and the respective investigation, which was led by the same detectives from Victoria, was initiated without results.” by Alfredo Seguel

Source: El Ciudadano, November 10, 2022