Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández, single, a merchant and member of the Communist Party, left her home at approximately 5:30 p.m. on May 12, 1976, and was never heard from again. She was detained on the street by agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), who were carrying out an operation against the Communist Party during those days.

This was demonstrated by statements from the Social Communication Division (DINACOS) of the Military Junta published on July 14 and 17, 1976, which reported on operations carried out by security agencies that succeeded in dismantling, as stated, 32 "mailbox houses" of the Communist Party, which served as links between the Directorate and the regional branches of said party.

It was expressly stated that it was not possible to provide further details in order not to hinder the investigations.

The weekly magazine "Qué Pasa" published an article in its August 12 edition of that same year titled "From the MIR to the PC," which revealed that security agencies were conducting operations directed against the Communist Party, even indicating the names of some leaders detained in the operations carried out.

On May 12, 1976, moments before leaving, Eliana Espinoza handed an identity card to her sister, Ninfa, telling her that if she did not return, she should notify the Vicaría de la Solidaridad.

Four days before her detention by DINA agents, while the victim was not at home, Elisa Escobar arrived accompanied by a young man—the same one with whom she would go to Lenín Díaz's house on May 9—who was detained that day and is currently a forcibly disappeared person.

Elisa had been detained on May 6 at the "rat trap" (ratonera) on Calle Conferencia, along with 4 other leaders of the Communist Party, who also remain disappeared. On that day, May 8, she, who was extremely nervous and smoking heavily, left a message for Eliana Espinoza with her father, indicating that she should "go to her house on Santa Rosa three and something," as he could not quite understand the last number, as Mr.

Juan Espinoza would later state.

Some time after Eliana Espinoza's disappearance, her family was constantly "visited" and harassed by DINA agents, who on every occasion told them that the victim must be out of the country or that she could have been the victim of a "vendetta among communists." They also asked them if "the Vicaría was advising them on their procedures, since they only worry about blaming a single person for the disappearances, the President of the Republic or the DINA." On February 14, 1977, two young men arrived at the victim's house, claiming to belong to the Ministry of the Interior, and asked for her (Eliana Espinoza). They later told her father that if he wanted to request information about his disappeared daughter, he should call Manuel González Morales, providing a telephone number for the Social Communication Office of said Ministry.

Despite having carried out numerous efforts, Eliana Espinoza's family has not been able to learn her status; she currently remains in the status of a forcibly disappeared person.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On May 18, 1976, a Writ of Amparo (Habeas Corpus), case file 420-76, was filed before the Santiago Court of Appeals in favor of Eliana Espinoza. Subsequently, on May 28, the Minister of the Interior reported that the person under protection was not being held by order of his Secretariat.

This single report formed the basis for the Court's decision to reject the amparo on June 4, 1976, without ordering the initiation of a summary proceeding for alleged disappearance in the competent court.

On July 12, 1976, a complaint for the alleged disappearance of Eliana Espinoza Fernández was filed before the 3rd Criminal Court of Santiago; the case was registered under No. 121.766. The Minister of the Interior, Division General César R. Benavides E., reported on September 6, 1976, that the victim was not being held by order of his Ministry.

On September 27, 1976, Army Lieutenant Colonel Sergio Guarategua Peña, Executive Secretary of the National Secretariat of Detainees (SENDET), which reported to the Ministry of the Interior, stated that his agency had no records of the victim, nor was there any evidence of her detention by order of said Ministry.

International Police reported on November 10, 1976, that the victim had no record of leaving the country.

On March 1, 1977, the summary proceeding was declared closed, and since "a crime was not fully justified," the case was temporarily dismissed. On April 20, 1977, the Court of Appeals approved the resolution.

On June 9, 1977, Ninfa Espinoza requested the reopening of the summary proceeding, providing new information regarding her sister's communist militancy and the detention of leaders of that party by DINA agents during the period in which Eliana Espinoza disappeared.

On June 27, 1977, the Santiago Court of Appeals issued an order to the Third Criminal Court to instruct a summary proceeding for the alleged disappearance of Eliana Espinoza, in accordance with the provisions of the collective Writ of Amparo 525-76 in favor of "Carlos Lorca Tobar and Others," remitting the Writ of Amparo 420-76 filed in favor of the victim.

Thus, on June 29, 1977, the Judge of the Third Criminal Court registered said process under No. 124.608, ordering a series of investigative steps.

On July 5, she ordered the consolidation of case No. 124.608 with case No. 121.766 of the same Court and for the same facts. On July 6, the reopening of the summary proceeding and the consolidation of the cases were communicated to the complainant.

In July, the Minister of the Interior, Army Division General Raúl Benavides, reported through his Secretariat and on behalf of the DINA that the victim had not been detained by order of his department, adding that the DINA had no records of her.

On October 17, 1977, the Judge resolved, at the request of the complainant, to bring to view case file 16.455 of the 9th Criminal Court regarding the disappearance of Lenín Díaz and Elisa Escobar.

On May 25, 1978, the Legal Medical Institute reported that Eliana Espinoza did not appear as having been admitted to said establishment.

On July 24, 1978, the complainant brought to the Court's attention a resolution of the Supreme Court regarding the zeal that judges must employ in cases of disappearances of persons, dedicating preferential attention to them.

In December 1978, Cecilia Escobar Cepeda, sister of Elisa Escobar Cepeda, who is also disappeared, appeared before the Court. She was identified as the woman who went to Eliana Espinoza's house on May 8, 1976, in the company of a DINA agent, four days before the latter's disappearance.

On July 11, 1979, the processing of the case continued under the Visit of Minister Servando Jordán López, appointed by the Supreme Court to investigate cases of forcibly disappeared persons in Santiago.

According to a report from the Information Department of the Investigative Police, sent to Minister Jordán on August 16, 1979, Eliana Espinoza was a communist militant and, according to information provided by Cardinal Raúl Silva Henríquez, her detention is related to the events at 1587 Calle Conferencia.

On September 21, 1979, the case regarding the disappearance of Lenín Díaz and Elisa Escobar was brought to view. That same day, the Visiting Minister resolved to close the summary proceeding and, "given that the commission of a punishable act is not fully justified," the case was temporarily dismissed. On November 21, 1979, the Court of Appeals approved the resolution.

On August 18, 1982, the 2nd Military Prosecutor's Office of Santiago issued an order to the Third Criminal Court to remit case file 121.766. On September 3 of the same year, the case was sent to the Military Court.

On the other hand, on August 1, 1978, relatives of 70 disappeared persons, including those of Eliana Espinoza Fernández, filed a criminal complaint before the 10th Criminal Court of Santiago for the crime of aggravated kidnapping against General (Ret.) Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, Army Colonel Marcelo Luis Moren Brito, and Army Lieutenant Colonel Rolf Gonzalo Wenderoth Pozo.

The identities of other agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), information on the secret detention centers of said agency, and other data regarding the structure and means available to the DINA were also provided to the Court.

Without carrying out any investigative steps, on August 10 of that year, the Judge of the 10th Court declared herself incompetent and remitted the records to the Military Justice system; after several appeals in May 1979, the case was lodged in the 2nd Military Prosecutor's Office of Santiago, under file No. 553-78.

In 1983, the Court reviewed the four volumes of the Extraordinary Visit for cases of forcibly disappeared persons in the Metropolitan Region, which was substantiated by Minister Servando Jordán. They contained important information regarding the actions of the DINA and the responsibility of that security agency in the cases of hundreds of forcibly disappeared persons.

Without any investigative steps being taken for four years, on November 20, 1989, Army Lieutenant Colonel Enrique Ibarra Chamorro, Military Prosecutor General, requested the application of the Amnesty Decree Law (D.L. 2.191) for this case, because the process had the exclusive purpose of investigating alleged crimes that occurred during the period between September 11, 1973, and March 10, 1978, and because, during the 10 years of processing, it had not been possible to "determine the responsibility of any person." On November 30, 1989, the request was accepted by the 2nd Military Court, which dismissed the case totally and definitively, even though it was still in the summary stage, because "the criminal responsibility of the persons allegedly accused of the reported facts was extinguished." The complaining parties appealed said resolution to the Martial Court, which confirmed the ruling in January 1992. A Complaint Appeal was then filed before the Supreme Court of Justice, which, as of December 1992, had not yet issued its resolution.

(Complete background on the complaint against Manuel Contreras can be found in the case of Eduardo Alarcón Jara, July 30, 1974).

Among other efforts made by the family is a letter dated August 20, 1976, sent by Ninfa Espinoza to Mrs. Alicia Godoy (spouse of the member of the Military Junta, Carabineros General César Mendoza Durán), requesting help to find her sister Eliana.

In the response, General Mendoza's wife expressed her inability to provide a solution to the case presented. There is also a letter sent to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the O.A.S. in November 1976, in which the victim's situation is explained.

July 16, 2005 El Mostrador

Conferencia Case: Prosecution of General (Ret.) Benavides Confirmed The Fifth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals confirmed the indictment of Pinochet's former minister César Benavides Escobar, reducing his participation from accomplice to accessory after the fact in the crime of qualified kidnapping against 3 forcibly disappeared persons, victims of the so-called "Calle Conferencia." The retired general had been indicted by retired minister Juan Guzmán Tapia in the cases of Víctor Díaz López, Eliana Espinosa Sernádez, and Mario Zamorano Donoso.

Meanwhile, the court, composed of ministers Carlos Gajardo, Amanda Valdovinos, and lawyer member Roberto Mayorga, revoked the indictments of two other uniformed officers, identified as Juan González Dubó and Sergio Castro Cano, who had been indicted for the crime of obstruction of justice in the investigation into the kidnapping resulting in the homicide of Marta Ugarte Román.

September 2, 2005 La Nación

Calle Conferencia: Court of Appeals dismisses case against General (Ret.) Manuel Contreras The Second Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals dismissed the case and exonerated the former head of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), General (Ret.) Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, of all responsibility.

The retired officer, as reported by lawyer Juan Carlos Manss, was being investigated for the kidnappings suffered by the leadership of the Communist Party in 1976, a case known as "Calle Conferencia." According to ministers Dobra Lusic, Rosa María Maggi, and lawyer member Ángela Radovic, it is appropriate to apply the principle of res judicata.

In 2002, the summer chamber of the capital's appellate court dismissed the case against Contreras regarding his participation in the disappearances of Jorge Muñoz, Mario Zamorano, Jaime Donato, Víctor Díaz López, and Eliana Espinoza Fernández, who were detained in an operation deployed between April and August 1976, which was aimed at neutralizing PC militants in the underground.

Later, the resolution was confirmed by the Supreme Court, requiring the special minister Juan Guzmán Tapia to desist from investigating him. Lawyer Manns stated that with this ruling, it is clear that his client had no participation in the illicit acts being investigated.

Source: Vicaría de la Solidaridad

Minister Miguel Vázquez Plaza determined that the participation of Miguel Riveros Valderrama in the crime against eight Communist Party militants could not be proven. The minister on extraordinary visit for Human Rights violation cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vázquez Plaza, acquitted Miguel Riveros Valderrama, a former agent of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), this Monday within the framework of the so-called Calle Conferencia 1 case.

At the end of last November, the magistrate had sentenced 53 former members of the military dictatorship's secret police for their responsibility in the kidnapping and homicide of eight Communist Party (PC) militants.

The defense of Riveros Valderrama, however, had filed an appeal before the Constitutional Court (TC) and his sentence was pending. According to Minister Vázquez, "culpable participation punishable by law was not sufficiently proven." The Calle Conferencia 1 case refers to events that occurred in May 1976, which affected Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, Uldarico Donaire Cortez, Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, Lenín Adán Díaz Silva, ELIANA MARINA ESPINOZA FERNANDEZ, and Víctor Manuel Díaz López.

The latter was also a victim of qualified homicide in January of the following year.

Source: radio.uchile.cl 18/02/2019 Date: 02-18-2019

Santiago Court sentences 47 former DINA agents for kidnappings and qualified homicide in Conferencia 1 Case

In the sentence (file 2.545-2019), the Sixth Chamber of the appellate court—composed of ministers Graciela Gómez, Andrea Díaz-Muñoz, and minister Matías de la Noi—confirmed the sentence of the visiting minister Miguel Vázquez Plaza against the convicted, but modified the penalties by changing the participation of some convicted persons from complicity to authorship.

The Court of Appeals sentenced 47 former agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for the qualified kidnappings of Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, Uldarico Donaire Cortez, Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, Lenín Adán Díaz Silva, Víctor Manuel Díaz López, and Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández, and the qualified homicide of Víctor Díaz López, victims of the so-called Conferencia 1 case.

The ruling sentences Pedro Espinoza Bravo and Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko to 20 years in prison for their responsibility as authors of qualified kidnappings. Meanwhile, Emilio Troncoso Vivallos, Claudio Pacheco Fernández, Jorge Díaz Radulovich, Orlando Altamirano Sanhueza, Eduardo Cabezas Mardones, Guillermo Díaz Ramírez, Orlando Torrejón Gatica, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, Carlos Miranda Mesa, Carlos López Inostroza, Lionel Medrano Rivas, Juvenal Piña Garrido, José Ojeda Obando, José Seco Alarcón, Roberto Rodríguez Manquel, and Leonidas Méndez Moreno were sentenced to 15 years in prison as authors of qualified kidnappings. Meanwhile, Sergio Escalona Acuña, Gladys Calderón Carreño, and Sergio Pichunmán Cariqueo must serve a sentence of 12 years in prison for the qualified homicide of Víctor Díaz López and a sentence of 5 years and one day in prison for their responsibility in the qualified kidnapping of the same victim. Agent Juan Morales Salgado will serve a sentence of 8 years in prison for his responsibility in the qualified kidnapping of the victim Díaz López. Agents Jorge Andrade Gómez and Federico Chaigneau Sepúlveda must serve a sentence of 6 years in prison for their responsibility in the qualified kidnapping of Víctor Díaz López. Finally, Elisa Magna Astudillo, Orfa Saavedra Vásquez, Celinda Aspe Rojas, Teresa Navarro Navarro, Berta Jiménez Escobar, Jorge Arriagada Mora, Eduardo Oyarce Riquelme, Ana Vilches Muñoz, Italia Vaccarella Gilio, Jorge Manríquez Manterola Sotelo, Gustavo Guerrero Aguilera, Luis Lagos Yáñez, María Angélica Guerrero Soto, Sergio Castro Andrade, Pedro Gutiérrez Valdés, Joyce Ahumada Despouy, Hiro Álvarez Vega, José Miguel Meza Serrano, Carlos Bermúdez Mendez, Marilin Silva Vergara, Camilo Torres Negrier, and Juan Suazo Saldaña were sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison as authors of the qualified kidnapping of Víctor Díaz López.

Source: pjud.cl, April 25, 2023 Date: 04-25-2023

Calle Conferencia Case: Justice 42 years later

53 former DINA agents were convicted for the extermination of the Communist Party leadership between 1976 and 1977. In conversation with Radio Universidad de Chile, the relatives recall the details of this investigation and the wounds that "still do not heal." After more than four decades of waiting, those close to the victims relate that many succumbed while waiting for some sentence and their whereabouts.

The minister on visit for Human Rights violation cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vázquez Plaza, recently sentenced 53 former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the consummated crimes of kidnapping and homicide of Communist Party leaders, detained in the context of the so-called "Calle Conferencia 1" case.

The main sentence fell on the former DINA operational Chief, Ricardo Lawrence Mires, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison as the author of eight crimes of qualified kidnapping, and 15 years in prison as a co-author of the homicide of Víctor Díaz López.

He is followed by former agent Carlos López Tapia, sentenced to 20 years, as well as the former Army brigadier, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, who accumulates more than 700 years in prison for crimes against humanity committed during the civil-military dictatorship.

Despite the progress in the investigation and subsequent convictions, Álvaro Muñoz, son of the disappeared Onofre Jorge Muñoz, indicated that, 42 years after the events, it is still not fully known what happened, due to the concealment of information and false background information declared by the military and civilians involved.

The son of the late Communist Party leader, Gladys Marín, also recalled the difficult situation of many relatives of the victims who succumbed while waiting for a conviction. "Some of them I knew because they were the uncles who frequented the house.

Also, through this interview, I want to remember my grandfather, Jorge Muñoz Contreras, father of Jorge, who died in 1987 without knowing what happened to his son. My grandmother, with whom I was raised, and who prayed until her last day to know what happened and who died in 1999.

The same happened with my sister, who also passed away without knowing the whereabouts of her relatives. Like so many people who are no longer here, and who could not know what really happened. I believe this is an act of justice that they and so many social fighters who were murdered and made to disappear deserve," he affirmed.

The events date back to 1976, when members of the DINA detained the members of the family that lived at number 1587 of Calle Conferencia, in an action known as a "rat trap." After interrogations and torture, they were forced to return to their home and pretend to live a normal life, under close surveillance by the agents, to help in the detention of members and leaders of the PC, who met there clandestinely.

In addition to Onofre Muñoz, the victims include the former secretary general of the Communist Party, Víctor Díaz López, father of Viviana Díaz, founder of the Association of Relatives of Forcibly Disappeared Detainees.

Mario Zamorano Donoso, Uldarico Donaire Cortez, Jaime Donato Avendaño, Elisa Escobar Cepeda, Lenín Díaz Silva, and Eliana Espinoza Fernández were also made to disappear. Alexis Zamorano, nephew of Mario Zamorano Donoso, specified that, despite valuing the judicial resolution, the wounds still do not heal, mainly due to the lack of knowledge of the victims' whereabouts. "We cannot close the cycle, that is, it is different with those comrades whose body appears, and the family, regardless of the pain and trauma of knowing how they killed them and how much torture they did to them, here there is no mourning, that part is not closed, the wound remains open. Time might mitigate this a little, but where the hell am I going to leave a flower? The Army said some time ago that they had thrown them into the sea; however, some were found buried in military facilities. Justice was slow, but it was known that at that time the judges were bought by the dictatorship, although some progress has been made," he argued. According to the investigation, most of the victims of the Calle Conferencia case were detained and transferred to Villa Grimaldi, to be interrogated and tortured due to their political militancy, in order to obtain information about their party activities and, especially, the subsequent identification of other PC members. Lorena Díaz Ramírez, daughter of the disappeared economist and militant of the group, Lenín Díaz Silva, indicated that the ruling is considered an achievement; however, she asserted that these are low sentences in comparison to the magnitude of the crimes committed. "There are mixed feelings because when justice takes so long, it also hurts and becomes distant. Furthermore, this sentence does not take charge of determining or establishing the circumstances in which our relatives died. Part of the reparation, truth, justice, and the 'never again' has to do with that; the country has the right to know the whole truth no matter how painful it may be, and to walk the streets and find yourself with a free murderer," she stressed. In the file, it is noted that many of these opponents of the regime were placed in polyethylene bags, which were tied with wires around their waists, attaching them to a piece of rail to eventually be thrown into the sea. During the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, according to official figures, some 3,200 Chileans died at the hands of State agents, of whom 1,192 still appear as forcibly disappeared, while another 33,000 were tortured and imprisoned for political reasons.

Source: radio.uchile.cl 12/04/2018 Date: 12-04-2018

Calle Conferencia Case: tribute to all those who fell during the Chilean dictatorship May 08, 2018

On May 4, 1976, one of the vilest crimes committed by the Chilean dictatorship occurred in Chile: The "Calle Conferencia Case." The National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), one of the genocidal organizations derived directly from the dictatorship, within the framework of an anti-communist plan (and against every opponent), gestated one of the most horrible and inhumane exterminations that the Chilean historical process has recorded: Eliminating and murdering the leadership of the Communist Party.

In the "Calle Conferencia case," several of its members were detained in a house located at 1587 Calle Conferencia, in Santiago. 42 years after these tragic events, it is important to analyze the entire historical-social process from the human sphere and to recognize all the human beings who fought against the dictatorship with courage and heroism.

DINA agents tracked every act of the PC and, upon learning of their whereabouts, decided to set a trap for them: By way of violence and threat, they took a family of workers from the house as hostages and forced them to pretend a "supposedly normal" environment, so that the victims would not suspect their fatal danger and would arrive at the trap known as a "rat trap." Then, the first directive of the PC went to that meeting house to plan the fight against the dictatorship.

The moment the PC leaders entered the residence, DINA agents took them detained to the Villa Grimaldi barracks that the DINA had installed to murder and torture communists, beings with leftist ideology, and opponents of the dictatorship.

From that moment on, the fate of Jorge Muñoz Poutays (husband of Gladys Marín), Uldarico Donaire, Mario Zamorano, Jaime Donato, and Víctor Díaz López (first leadership of the PC) was tragically sealed: They were subjected to various kinds of abuse, torture, vile duress, and subsequently disappeared.

The most certain and real fact is the murder of Víctor Díaz López committed by a DINA agent, through the inhumane technique of putting a plastic bag over his head, tying a rope around his neck, and suffocating him.

Later, the criminal operation of the DINA eliminated the second (or the majority of the second) leadership of the PC and also the third directive. As is generally known, this criminal action was carried out with the determined purpose of "eliminating communism from Chile and the world," but in reality, these facts reflect unlimited cruelty and a total violation of Human Rights.

Let us remember that the normative-legal framework of Human Rights expressly states that "no human being may be subjected to any kind of abuse, duress, arbitrary detention, torture, or deprivation of liberty" and that, furthermore, "Any kind of state, Government, or dictatorship that practices human rights violations must be judged and penalized." As a human being, I pay tribute to everyone who fell during the dictatorial era and my total commitment to Human Rights.

Source: elquintopoder.cl, May 8, 2018 Date: 05-08-2018