Santiago Court of Appeals sentences former DINA agents for the homicide of a high school teacher.

In a unanimous ruling, the Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced three former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the crime of qualified homicide of high school teacher Guillermo Hernán Herrera Manríquez, perpetrated on May 5, 1975, in the city.

The Court sentenced Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Luisa Durandín Villaseca, and Fernando Lauriani Maturana to 10 years and one day of imprisonment as perpetrators of the crime; meanwhile, former agents Manuel Flores Opazo and Pedro Alfaro Fernández were acquitted.

During the investigation phase of the case, presiding judge Mario Carroza established the following facts: I.- That the National Intelligence Directorate was created in June 1974, by Decree Law No. 521, and was under the command of the late Lieutenant Colonel Manuel Contreras.

Its powers included detaining, extracting information under torture, and depriving people of their liberty in clandestine centers, all by virtue of living in a state of exception at the time that justified the persecution of alleged enemies of the State, that is, leftist political groups, including members of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR); II.- That, under these circumstances, Guillermo Hernán Herrera Manríquez, 28 years old, a high school teacher and member of the MIR, was detained on Friday, May 3, 1975, around 2:00 PM, by DINA agents in the vicinity of the Estación Central commune and taken to a detention center belonging to said organization; III.- That once locked up without rights or any judicial order in the clandestine DINA center located in Villa Grimaldi, Herrera Manríquez was interrogated under torture and informed his captors that he was to receive a phone call from a "contact at his father's home." For this reason, the agents took him during the night to the property located on Calle General 1 in the Estación Central commune in Santiago, where his father, Ramón Herrera Sepúlveda, his spouse, Ruth Orieta Aedo Cañón, and his cousin, Carlos Alberto Jara Gómez, were located; IV.- That Ramón Herrera Sepúlveda, Ruth Orieta Aedo Cañón, and Carlos Alberto Jara Gómez were witnesses to the deplorable physical state in which Herrera Manríquez was found, undoubtedly due to the torture he had received, and how the agents then handcuffed him to a bed in the home, without being able to speak to him, as the officials informed them that he was being held incommunicado. V.- That he was kept in this situation of illegal confinement and permanent surveillance throughout Saturday and Sunday, during which time, when they interacted, he communicated through gestures that the agents had tortured him; VI.- That on Monday, May 5, 1975, around 7:00 AM, his health deteriorated, and the family realized this upon seeing him vomit blood and being unable to communicate through signs, as he could not move, although he presented no external injuries. This led his father to inform the guarding agents, who, given the obvious worsening of his condition, decided to remove him from the home along with all belongings that could implicate them, and also proceeded to remove all weaponry, taking him from the house to an unknown destination. Consequently, the family began making inquiries and finally found him at the Legal Medical Service. In the civil aspect, the state was ordered to pay total compensation of $225,000,000 to the victim's spouse, children, and sister.

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl, December 3, 2019

Supreme Court confirms sentences of three DINA agents for the 1975 murder of a teacher

The Supreme Court confirmed the sentence convicting three agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the consummated crime of qualified homicide of high school teacher Guillermo Hernán Herrera Manríquez, perpetrated on May 5, 1975, in the city of Santiago.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 41.287-2019), the Second Chamber of the high court—composed of justices Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Leopoldo Llanos, and justice María Teresa Letelier—rejected the appeals for cassation on form and substance filed against the sentence issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals.

It ruled out any violation of the law in the sentence that condemned DINA leaders and former Army officers Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko and Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, and former Carabineros official Luisa Durandín Villaseca, to 10 years and one day of imprisonment, all as perpetrators of the crime.

The teacher and member of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), Guillermo Herrera Manríquez, 28 years old, was detained on the street by DINA agents on May 3, 1975, around 2:00 PM, in the vicinity of Estación Central in Santiago.

They immediately transferred him to a clandestine detention and torture center, which was later established to be Villa Grimaldi. In that secret DINA barracks, the detainee was subjected to interrogations and torture, as was the habitual practice of that criminal organ.

Under these conditions, Herrera Manríquez informed his captors and torturers that he had a phone contact he was to receive at his father's home; for this reason, during the night, the capturing agents took him to his father's residence located on Calle General Gana in the Estación Central commune.

The parents of Herrera Manríquez and a cousin were at the property and were witnesses to the deplorable physical conditions in which the detainee arrived at the home as a result of the scourges to which he had been subjected during those hours of imprisonment.

The agents handcuffed him to a bed in the home and stated that the detainee was incommunicado, so the family members could not speak to him; they could only observe him from afar and try to communicate through signs.

This state of kidnapping remained unchanged on Saturday and Sunday, under the control and permanent surveillance of a group of DINA agents, among whom were those now convicted. On Monday, May 5, around 7:00 AM, Herrera Manríquez's health deteriorated; the family members realized this as they saw him vomit blood and unable to move.

The detainee's father, faced with the calamitous situation of his son, pointed out this fact and demanded help from the guards, who, given the evident worsening of the detainee's health, decided to remove him from the home to an unknown destination and withdraw, taking all their weapons and agents with them.

Faced with the lack of response from the repressive agents regarding where they were taking him, Herrera Manríquez's family began searching for him in various medical centers, finally finding him deceased at the Legal Medical Service.

The SML autopsy report from that time records the cause of death as a suicidal-type sharp force injury and notes the time of death at 7:15 AM on May 5, 1975. All these antecedents led the justice system to establish that: "consequently, what admits no doubt and is held as certain is that the victim, Guillermo Hernán Herrera Manríquez, was detained by State agents, who interrogated and tortured him, and as a result of his injuries, he died while deprived of liberty and under the custody of DINA agents." For these considerations, among others, the Supreme Court rejected the appeals filed by the convicted parties, who sought the annulment of the trial or aimed to obtain acquittals, benefits, and reductions that have no place due to the classification of the crime as a crime against humanity. by Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl, July 2, 2022

A record in the history of Chile: Never has a prisoner accumulated 900 years of prison time with their sentences and grave crimes. Brigadier (Ret.) Miguel Krassnoff adds more.

The Supreme Court issued sentences against three members of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for the death of Guillermo Hernán Herrera Manríquez, a teacher and MIR militant, in 1975. The Second Chamber of the high court sentenced three retired Army officers, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Fernando Lauriani Maturana, and Luisa Durandin Villaseca, to 10 years and one day of major imprisonment in its medium degree as perpetrators of the crime of qualified homicide.

Thus, the appeals for cassation presented by the military defense were rejected, and the ruling of the Santiago Court of Appeals from December 2019 was confirmed. Guillermo Herrera Manríquez was detained on May 3, 1975, in the Estación Central commune and was taken to a DINA center located in Villa Grimaldi.

The 28-year-old was tortured at that location and was subsequently taken to his father's home, where he was to receive a call from a "contact." Finally, he was removed from the location to an unknown destination, until his father found his body at the Legal Medical Service.

The plaintiff's lawyer in this case, Francisco Bustos, who is part of the Caucoto Abogados Law Firm, noted that "agent Luisa Durandin is being sentenced for the first time, having not been sanctioned until now." "It is an appropriate decision by the Supreme Court, considering that these are crimes against humanity that require repression with sanctions that reflect the gravity of these acts and that imply the deprivation of liberty for the perpetrators of these crimes," he added.

Krassnoff imprisoned in Punta Peuco With this new ruling, the 76-year-old former Army Brigadier Miguel Krassnoff adds more than 80 convictions for crimes against humanity and nearly 900 years of prison time.

It is a true record in Chile for a prisoner to have so many years of sentencing. Krassnoff is a retired former military officer of the Army who was born in Tyrol, Austria, with the name Mikhail Semyónovich Krasnov, and his parents were Russian Cossacks.

He came to Chile as a very young child, where he entered the Military School. He participated in the assault on the Tomás Moro presidential residence during the 1973 coup d'état that overthrew former President Salvador Allende and, subsequently, in various bloody missions as a member of the dictatorship's secret police, the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA).

Later, he was an agent of the National Intelligence Center (CNI), an organ similar to the DINA. For previous crimes, he was accused and convicted in numerous cases of grave human rights violations, specifically kidnappings, torture, murders, and the disappearance of defenseless people, occurring mainly between 1974 and 1978.

This includes young women such as journalism student Diana Aarón, who was pregnant; witnesses indicate that he tortured her in an extermination house in La Reina until she died. Krassnoff is the military officer with the most convictions in Chile and Latin America, totaling 38 ratified by the Supreme Court of Chile, which, as of October 2021, amounted to more than 880 years of prison time.

Many others are still being investigated in the country's Courts of Appeals.

Source: cambio21.cl, June 30, 2022