The investigation by Judge Víctor Montiglio and the Investigative Police’s Special Affairs and Human Rights Brigade determined that the house on Calle Simón Bolívar was the final destination for several Communist prisoners whose bodies were later thrown into the sea.

Marine Corps (IM) personnel who operated with the DINA in what was identified as the “Lautaro extermination brigade”—which functioned in a house on Calle Simón Bolívar at Ossandón in the commune of La Reina, commanded by then-Army Major Juan Morales Salgado—participated in the assassination of Communist leader Víctor Díaz López, father of the vice president of the Association of Relatives of Forcibly Disappeared Detainees, Viviana Díaz.

The participation of “Cossacks” (IM) Bernardo Daza and Sergio Escalona, Navy agents in the DINA who were still active in the months following May 1976—when Víctor Díaz was kidnapped as part of the “mousetrap” operation installed at Calle Conferencia 1587 in Santiago—is another of the new facts that emerged from the indictment issued on Friday by Judge Víctor Montiglio against seven members of the hitherto little-known Lautaro brigade.

This contradicts the claim that the Navy withdrew all its personnel from the DINA in 1975, as has been consistently reported by the institution. Daza and Escalona, who were a petty officer and an officer respectively, both now retired, are new names compared to the better-known Navy agents who collaborated with the DINA and later with the Joint Command.

Another new element arising from Judge Montiglio’s ruling is that the house that the “Lautaro extermination brigade”—as it is known in some judicial cases—occupied on Calle Simón Bolívar, which today borders a school, served as the final destination for several prisoners who are now forcibly disappeared, including several Communist leaders.

Until now, for example, it was unknown that Víctor Díaz was murdered in that location using cruel methods. It is clear from Montiglio’s ruling that the order to kill Víctor Díaz was given by the brigade chief, Morales Salgado.

Although the Lautaro Brigade was under the command of Major Morales, it obeyed the orders of DINA operations chief Manuel Contreras directly. It was a group dedicated to “special missions” and also operated as the security detail for Contreras.

In the investigations by Minister Montiglio, described by human rights organizations and lawyers as “one of the few judges who is truly continuing to investigate,” he managed to identify a new group of former agents linked to the tasks of prisoner extermination, thanks to the collaboration of the Investigative Police’s Special Affairs and Human Rights Brigade.

In this way, the judge and the Investigative Police officers were able to elucidate a series of aspects of the repression against the Communist Party in 1976 that had remained unknown until now.

One of these is the participation of two women from the ranks of the Army’s National Intelligence Directorate who had not been located until now: Gladys Calderón, who was a lieutenant in 1976, and the then-petty officer Elisa del Carmen Magna Astudillo.

One of them, presumably Calderón, participated in the kidnapping of Víctor Díaz and was identified by a witness as “a woman who gave orders” with “very violent” behavior. With the new evidence discovered, arrests could continue this week, and the number of those indicted could increase, including some former agents whose identities were not known until now.

The others indicted by Montiglio, all as perpetrators of the kidnapping and homicide of Víctor Díaz, are retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Guillermo Lawrence Mires and retired Army Petty Officer Guillermo Ferrán Martínez.

The judge also indicted them for the crime of homicide, in addition to kidnapping, despite the fact that Víctor Díaz’s body was never found, as it was allegedly thrown into the sea immediately after his execution.

In the Calle Conferencia operation, which accounted for the first clandestine leadership of the PC, Jorge Muñoz Poutays, husband of the late Communist leader Gladys Marín, among others, was also kidnapped. LN

Source: La Nación, January 29, 2007.

Justice system accuses 53 former DINA agents for the so-called “Conferencia Two Case”

The investigating judge of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vázquez, who is investigating the so-called “Conferencia 2” case, accused 53 former DINA agents of the crimes of qualified homicide and qualified kidnapping perpetrated against six victims—Fernando Navarro Allendes, Lincoyán Berríos Cataldo, Horacio Cepeda Marinkovic, Fernando Ortiz Letelier, Héctor Véliz Ramírez, and Waldo Ulises Pizarro Molina—all of whom were members of the Communist Party leadership.

As reported by Radio Cooperativa, the Communist leaders were taken to the secret DINA barracks located at Calle Simón Bolívar 8800, in La Reina. There, they were interrogated, subjected to torture, and subsequently forcibly disappeared.

Furthermore, Minister Vásquez requested that the Supreme Court ask the Australian government for the extradition of Adriana Rivas González—the secretary of Manuel Contreras—who is indicted in this case and is the subject of an international arrest warrant.

In this regard, plaintiff lawyer Eduardo Contreras described the magistrate’s request as historic. “This decision by Minister Vásquez shows how the courts are acting now. In this new situation, it seems to us to be a historic decision, since Adriana Rivas—who participated in the extermination of the entire leadership of the Communist Party in the fateful Simón Bolívar barracks—is a central figure, both for her own responsibility and for the information she possesses,” the lawyer maintained.

Among the accused are:

1.- Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda, 2.- Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, 3.- Juan Hernán Morales Salgado, 4.- Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, 5.- Federico Humberto Chaigneau Sepúlveda, 6.- Hernán Luis Sovino Maturana, 7.- Gladys de las Mercedes Calderón Carreño, 8.- Eduardo Antonio Reyes Lagos, 9.- Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, 10.- José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, 11.- Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, 12.- Jorge Laureano Sagardía Monje, 13.- Héctor Raúl Valdebenito Araya, 14.- Bernardo del Rosario Daza Navarro, 15.- Sergio Orlando Escalona Acuña, 16.- Jorge Lientur Manríquez Manterola, 17.- José Miguel Meza Serrano, 18.- Luis Alberto Lagos Yáñez, 19.- María Angélica Guerrero Soto, 20.- Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich, 21.- Guillermo Jesús Ferrán Martínez, 22.- Jorge Segundo Pichunmán Curiqueo, 23.- Orfa Yolanda Saavedra Vásquez, 24.- Elisa del Carmen Magna Astudillo, 25.- Claudio Orlando Orellana de la Pinta, 26.- Eduardo Alejandro Oyarce Riquelme, 27.- Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo, 28.- Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, 29.- Emilio Hernán Troncoso Vivallos, 30.- Sergio Hernán Castro Andrade, 31.- Teresa del Carmen Navarro Navarro, 32.- Juan Edmundo Suazo Saldaña, 33.- Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, 34.- José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, 35.- Carlos Enrique Miranda Mesa, 36.- Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, 37.- Orlando del Tránsito Altamirano Sanhueza, 38.- Gustavo Enrique Guerrero Aguilera, 39.- Manuel Antonio Montre Méndez, 40.- Guillermo Eduardo Díaz Ramírez, 41.- Hiro Álvarez Vega, 42.- Celinda Angélica Aspe Rojas, 43.- Jorge Hugo Arriagada Mora, 44.- Berta Yolanda del Carmen Jiménez Escobar, 45.- Carlos Justo Bermúdez Méndez, 46.- Eduardo Patricio Cabezas Mardones, 47.- Adriana Elcira Rivas González, La Chani 48.- Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza, 49.- Italia Donata Vaccarella Gilio, 50.- Camilo Torres Negrier, 51.- Joyce Ana Ahumada Despouy, 52.- Marilín Melahani Silva Vergara, 53.- José Domingo Seco Alarcón.

According to what was published by the Judiciary, the following facts were established in the proceedings:

a) On December 13, 1976, at the intersection of Grecia and Ramón Cruz streets, in the commune of Ñuñoa, Fernando Alfredo Navarro Allendes, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Chile, was detained by agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), who forced him into one of the vehicles they were using and transported him to a secret barracks located at Simón Bolívar No. 8800, in the commune of La Reina, where he was subsequently forcibly disappeared; b) On December 15, 1976, in the morning, in the area of the Lo Plaza roundabout, in the commune of Ñuñoa, Lincoyán Yalú Berríos Cataldo, 48 years old, a primary school teacher and Communist militant, was detained by DINA agents, who transported him to a secret barracks located at Simón Bolívar No. 8800, in the commune of La Reina, where he was interrogated under illegitimate duress and subsequently killed; c) On December 15, 1976, on a public street in the city of Santiago, Horacio Cepeda Marinkovic, 54 years old, a Communist militant, was detained by DINA agents and taken to a secret barracks located at Simón Bolívar No. 8800, in the commune of La Reina, where he was interrogated under illegitimate duress and subsequently killed; d) On December 15, 1976, on a public street in the city of Santiago, Juan Fernando Ortiz Letelier, 54 years old, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Chile, was detained by DINA agents, who transported him to a secret barracks located at Simón Bolívar No. 8800, in the commune of La Reina, where he was interrogated under illegitimate duress and subsequently killed; e) On December 15, 1976, on a public street in the city of Santiago, Héctor Véliz Ramírez, 43 years old, a coordinator or liaison between the regional and central leaderships of the Communist Party, was detained by DINA agents, who transported him to a secret barracks located at Simón Bolívar No. 8800, in the commune of La Reina, where he was interrogated under illegitimate duress and subsequently forcibly disappeared; f) Around 6:00 PM on December 15, 1976, Waldo Ulises Pizarro Molina, a militant of the Communist Party of Chile, was detained by agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), who transported him to a secret barracks located at Calle Simón Bolívar No. 8800, in the commune of La Reina, where he was interrogated under illegitimate duress and subsequently forcibly disappeared.

Source: El Dinamo, February 7, 2014.

Santiago Court confirms ruling sentencing 30 DINA agents for the qualified kidnapping of a pregnant young woman

The appellate court confirmed the sentence convicting 30 agents of the defunct National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Reinalda del Carmen Pereira Plaza.

A 29-year-old woman, five months pregnant, she was detained on December 15, 1976, in the current commune of Macul and taken to the clandestine detention center located at Calle Simón Bolívar Nº 8800, in the commune of La Reina, from where her trail was lost.

In the ruling (case file 3.023-2019), the Sixth Chamber of the appellate court—composed of justices María Rosa Kittsteiner, María Paula Merino, and Paula Rodríguez—ratified the sentence convicting Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Juan Morales Salgado, and Ricardo Lawrence Mires to 10 years of imprisonment as perpetrators of the crime.

Meanwhile, in their capacity as co-perpetrators, Gladys Calderón Carreño, Juvenal Piña Garrido, Héctor Valdebenito Araya, Sergio Escalona Acuña, Jorge Manríquez Manterola, María Angélica Guerrero Soto, Orfa Saavedra Vásquez, Elisa Magna Astudillo, Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo, Claudio Pacheco Fernández, Emilio Troncoso Vivallos, Teresa Navarro Navarro, José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, Gustavo Guerrero Aguilera, and Jorge Arriagada Mora must serve 7 years of imprisonment.

In the case of José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, José Miguel Meza Serrano, Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich, Jorge Segundo Pichunmán Curiqueo, Sergio Hernán Castro Andrade, Carlos Enrique Miranda Mesa, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, Orlando del Tránsito Altamirano Sanhueza, Guillermo Eduardo Díaz Ramírez, Bertha Yolanda del Carmen Jiménez Escobar, Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza, and Joyce Ana Ahumada Despouy, they must serve 4-year sentences as accomplices.

The appellate court adopted the findings that allowed the visiting judge Miguel Vázquez Plaza to establish the responsibility and participation of the then-state agents convicted in the kidnapping and disappearance of the medical technologist.

“That, in this course of action, the reasoning in the reviewed sentence is shared for the purpose of establishing the participation of the convicted individuals, as the evidentiary background outlined in the appealed sentence—in points fourteen against Espinoza Bravo, seventeen against Morales Salgado, twenty against Lawrence Mires, twenty-nine against Calderón Carreño, thirty-two against Piña Garrido, forty-one against Valdebenito Araya, forty-four against Escalona Acuña, forty-seven against Manríquez Manterola, sixty-five against Saavedra Vásquez, sixty-eight against Magna Astudillo, seventy-one against Oyarce Riquelme, seventy-four against Acevedo, seventy-seven against Pacheco Fernández, eighty against Troncoso Vivallos, eighty-six against Navarro Navarro, ninety-five against Sarmiento Sotelo, one hundred seven against Guerrero Aguilera, and one hundred twenty-two against Arriagada Mora—constitute a set of judicial presumptions which, given their multiplicity, gravity, precision, and consistency, and for meeting the legal requirements provided in Article 488 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, allow for the accreditation of the participation attributed to them as co-perpetrators, in the terms provided in Article 15 No. 1 of the Penal Code, in accordance with the reasoning in points fifteen, eighteen, twenty-one, thirty, thirty-three, forty-two, forty-five, forty-eight, sixty-six, sixty-nine against Magna Astudillo, seventy-two, seventy-five, seventy-seven, eighty-one, eighty-seven, ninety-five, one hundred seven, and one hundred twenty-three respectively, and which is complemented by the reasoning in foundations one hundred seventy-three, one hundred seventy-eight, one hundred eighty-two, one hundred eighty-six, one hundred eighty-nine, one hundred ninety-five, one hundred ninety-seven, two hundred three, two hundred six, and two hundred ten,” the ruling details.

The resolution adds: “At this point, it should be specified that the participation as a co-perpetrator attributed to Juan Morales Salgado fits fully within the provisions of Article 15 No. 1 of the Penal Code, since he acted under the direct orders of Manuel Contreras and was in charge of the Simón Bolívar barracks at the time of the events.

In that capacity, it was his duty to coordinate the operational work of the brigades acting under his command, especially in relation to the dismantling of the Communist Party, assigning personnel under his charge for this purpose, directing investigation efforts, and receiving the corresponding reports, ordering the entry and detention of those held at the unit, as well as the interrogations and torture to which they were subjected and, where applicable, their death and disappearance.

It was established that he was present during the interrogation and torture of the victim in these proceedings, which determines that he intervened in an immediate and direct manner in the events, so his conduct implies a functional contribution to the global result, maintaining, together with the other perpetrators, the co-dominion of the act.”

“For its part, the attribution of responsibility as a co-perpetrator, in the terms provided in Article 15 No. 1 of the Penal Code, imputed to the accused María Angélica Guerrero Soto, is established by virtue of her confession in accordance with the provisions of Article 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which is corroborated by the merit of the background information indicated in foundation fifty-seven of the appealed sentence, to which is added the reasoning in motivation one hundred ninety-three,” the ruling adds.

“That, in the same sense,” it continues, “it adheres to what is indicated in the sentence under study, as the indications pointed out in points thirty-five against Ojeda Obando, fifty against Meza Serrano, fifty-three against Lagos Yáñez, fifty-nine against Díaz Radulovich, sixty-two against Pichunmán Curiqueo, eighty-three against Castro Andrade, ninety-eight against Miranda Mesa, one hundred one against Álvarez Droguett, one hundred four against Altamirano Sanhueza, one hundred thirteen against Díaz Ramírez, one hundred twenty-five against Jiménez Escobar, one hundred thirty-four against López Inostroza, and one hundred forty-three against Ahumada Despouy, gather the necessary force to configure judicial presumptions, which, given their multiplicity, gravity, precision, and consistency, allow for the accreditation of the participation attributed to them as accomplices, in accordance with the provisions of Article 16 of the Penal Code, according to the reasoning in foundations thirty-six, fifty-one, fifty-four, sixty, sixty-three, eighty-four, ninety-nine, one hundred two, one hundred five, one hundred fourteen, one hundred twenty-six, one hundred thirty-five, and one hundred forty-four, respectively, to which are added the reasonings one hundred seventy-one, one hundred seventy-nine, one hundred eighty-seven, one hundred ninety-eight, two hundred, two hundred four, and two hundred eight of the ruling.”

For the appellate court, in this instance: “(…) as noted, it has been sufficiently demonstrated that all the defendants were part of an organized structure under subordination and dependency, in which those who exercised management duties and operational personnel coexisted, dedicated to investigation as well as the detention, custody, interrogation, torture, and, where applicable, death and disappearance of the detainees, in which one observes, on one hand, the division of roles typical of co-perpetration, since all of them made a functional contribution to the execution of the crime, each of them having co-dominion of the act and, on the other, a facilitation of the means with which the crime is committed, thus cooperating in the act of another, through prior or simultaneous acts, which is what characterizes complicity.”

“With that understanding, contrary to what the defenses argued in court in support of their appeals, it is convenient to specify that the convicted individuals are not punished merely for belonging to the institution, but for the conduct displayed by each one in relation to the events concerning the victim of these proceedings, Ms.

Reinalda Pereira Plaza, which also leads to ruling out the intervention of those accused regarding whom, despite having been established that they were part of the same institution and performed functions at the property located at Simón Bolívar N° 8.800 in La Reina, their punishable participation in any of the forms provided by law has not been proven,” it concludes.

Detention and disappearance

In the appealed ruling, visiting judge Miguel Vázquez Plaza established the following facts:

a) That the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), on an unspecified date, but during the first half of 1976, occupied and enabled a property at Calle Simón Bolívar Nº 8800, in the commune of La Reina, consisting of a country house, which was conditioned for its purpose of confinement.

It had a single access gate, a guard booth to its right where gate duty was performed, a house at the back, a small soccer field, parking spaces, and on the left side of the property a kind of gymnasium where there was a mess hall, kitchen, and changing rooms and bathrooms, which were conditioned to be used as dungeons.

This property was where the Lautaro Brigade, under the command of Major Juan Morales Salgado, operated, and it was used as a secret and clandestine place of confinement; people were brought to this facility as detainees to be interrogated under the use of various physical coercion techniques, especially regarding those who had or had had political militancy adhering to the Communist Party.

b) That likewise, in the second half of 1976, DINA groups under the command of officers Germán Barriga and Ricardo Lawrence moved to said facility, together with their operational agents, who were fundamentally concerned with investigating, locating, raiding, pursuing, repressing, and dismantling members of the Communist Party, especially its leadership, for which temporary facilities were enabled for their installation; consisting of offices, a gymnasium, and changing rooms that were confinement dungeons, where interrogations and torture were carried out, using coercion with various methods.

c) That Reinalda del Carmen Pereira Plaza, pregnant with her first child, 5 months into her pregnancy, a medical technologist and communist militant, who worked sheltering people and as a liaison between Eliana Ahumada and Fernando Navarro, although also related to the communist militant Fernando Ortiz, was detained at 29 years of age, at approximately 8:30 PM, while waiting for public transportation, by security agents on December 15, 1976, at the corner of Calle Exequiel Fernández and Rodrigo de Araya, in the commune of Ñuñoa, currently the commune of Macul.

The agents who detained her were traveling in two Peugeot brand cars; one of them with license plate HLN-55, from which a subject got out and grabbed her violently. When she screamed for help, a second subject got out, with whom she was forcibly subdued and placed inside the vehicle.

The detention was carried out in the presence of witnesses who were in the various surrounding commercial establishments, who report that once the victim was subdued and the detention materialized, the car headed along Rodrigo de Araya in a northerly direction.

d) That Reinalda del Carmen Pereira Plaza was taken to the secret detention center Simón Bolívar, where she was seen together with other prisoners who, in turn, had been detained by the same brigades under the same operational policy between December 13 and 15, 1976; that is, Héctor Véliz Ramírez, Fernando Navarro Allendes, Lincoyán Yalu Berríos Cataldo, Juan Fernando Ortiz Letelier, and Horacio Cepeda Marincovich.

In this place, Reinalda was severely beaten, tortured, illegitimately coerced, and then made to disappear, with no news of her whereabouts to this date.

e) That the Chilean government of the time, given the search efforts made by her relatives, reported that the affected person had registered an exit 'on foot' through the Chile-Argentina border crossing Los Libertadores on December 21, 1976, an official version that was judicially established as false, as stated in the case file seen, Case Rol 2-77, in which it was verified that the route sheet that recorded such circumstances had been falsified.

f) That the victim in these proceedings was detained on public roads just like thirteen other people in similar circumstances; eleven belonging to the Communist Party and two to the MIR, and where the information provided by the Military Government was similar and erroneous, demonstrating a large-scale operation that obeyed a policy of investigation, persecution, and dismantling of the Communist Party and not an isolated event.

g) That all the aforementioned people, including the victim, were detained to be interrogated and tortured by reason of their political militancy, and in order to obtain information about their party activities and the identification of other members of the Communist Party in hiding; coercion that did not cease until the required information was obtained or until the victims lost consciousness.

Source: pjud.cl, March 4, 2022

Among those implicated in the crime is the former Army Brigadier, Pedro Espinoza, deputy director of Augusto Pinochet's repression agency in the 70s. The list includes agents linked to the Lautaro Brigade, one of the most feared of the era.

Indignation was caused in some people by the ruling of the Santiago Court of Appeals that acquitted and reduced the sentence of 17 former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) of the dictatorship, which operated between 1973 and 1977.

Specifically, the body composed of justices Juan Cristóbal Mera Muñoz, Mireya López Miranda, and the acting lawyer Cristián Lepín Molina, acquitted seven DINA agents for the case of the disappearance of 16 people and the murder of a 17th, events that occurred in 1976, who were last seen at the Villa Grimaldi detention center.

The victims are the following militants and leaders of the Communist Party: Luis Emilio Recabarren González, Manuel Guillermo Recabarren González, Nalvia Mena Alvarado, Manuel Segundo Recabarren Rojas, Clara Canteros Torres, Alejandro Rodríguez Urzúa, Daniel Palma Robledo, Carlos Enrique Godoy Lagarrigue, Iván Sergio Insunza Bascuñán, José Eduardo Santander Miranda, Mario Jesús Juica Vega, Víctor Hugo Morales Mazuela, Carlos Mario Vizcarra Cofré, Miguel Nazal Quiroz, Juan Aurelio Villarroel Zárate, Julio Roberto Vega Vega, and Eduardo Canteros Prado (the only one not disappeared).

In view of this controversy, INTERFERENCIA investigated the criminal curriculum of these state agents who at the time were part of the machine of torture, disappearance, and homicide, which systematically violated human rights fundamentally in the 70s. Most of those benefited are involved in other cases of similar characteristics, so they will remain in prison.

The acquitted

1. Pedro Espinoza Bravo. Former Army Brigadier and former deputy director of DINA. He was convicted for the murder of former Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier, the former Commander-in-Chief of the Army, General Carlos Prats, and the Spanish diplomat Carmelo Soria.

He was part of the Caravan of Death and a material author of the murders of American journalists Charles Horman Lazar and Frank Randall Teruggi Bombatch. He also received convictions in France for "kidnapping accompanied by torture and acts of barbarism," in the cases of French citizens Jorge Klein, Etienne Pesle, Alfonso Chanfreau, and Jean Yves Claudet.

The Santiago Court of Appeals acquitted Espinoza exclusively of the crimes committed at the detention and torture center, Villa Grimaldi. “There is no evidence that he led any brigade that operated in Villa Grimaldi, much less the Delfín group, during the year 1976, which is what matters for these purposes,” the ruling reads.

Specifically, he is exempted from responsibility in the kidnapping and disappearance of 17 victims, carried out through the so-called Delfín group in 1976.

2. Rolf Wenderoth Pozo. Former Army Colonel and deputy director of Internal Intelligence of DINA. He was part of the Mulchén Brigade, known for the use of sarin gas in several murders and for being responsible for the murder of Carmelo Soria.

Wenderoth was the liaison agent for Luz Arce, a member of the GAP of President Salvador Allende, who was turned under torture to become a DINA agent, and was part of the teams in charge of the Villa Grimaldi and Belgrano detention and torture centers.

3. Hermón Alfaro Mundaca. Former PDI commissioner, DINA agent. He was part of Villa Grimaldi from 1975 and was prosecuted along with 97 other agents for the disappearance of 41 people, in the context of the Operation Colombo Case and the Case of the 119, an information poisoning operation of the dictatorship in collusion with El Mercurio and La Tercera, to hide disappearances.

The famous headline of La Segunda from July 24 corresponds to this case: "Exterminated like rats."

4. Pedro Bitterlich Jaramillo. Former Army non-commissioned officer, DINA agent. He was part of the Lautaro Brigade, which—among other criminal missions—was in charge of the Death Flights, through which DINA disposed of the bodies of its victims using Army Puma helicopters.

The case of Marta Lidia Ugarte Román corresponds to this operation, a victim of a death flight, but whose body was returned by the sea, a case for which Bitterlich was convicted as one of the authors of aggravated kidnapping, along with Pedro Espinoza and several other agents.

He was also implicated in the cases known as Operation Colombo, Calle Conferencia I and II (aimed at the extermination of the leadership of the Communist Party), and Operation Condor (in which the repressive agencies of several Southern Cone dictatorships colluded to commit and cover up crimes beyond their borders).

5. Claudio Pacheco Fernández. Former Carabineros non-commissioned officer, DINA agent. He was also part of the Lautaro Brigade. He was implicated in Operation Colombo.

6. Orlando Torrejón Gatica. Former Army non-commissioned officer, DINA and CNI agent. He was part of the Lautaro Brigade and became part of the Green and Blue Brigades of the CNI, the repressive organization that succeeded DINA. He was prosecuted in the Calle Conferencia II case.

7. Orlando Altamirano Sanhueza. Former Navy non-commissioned officer, DINA agent. He was also part of the Lautaro Brigade.

8. Carlos López Inostroza. DINA agent. Implicated in the Calle Conferencia I cases and that of Marta Ugarte.

Those who received sentence reductions

9. Ricardo Lawrence Mires. Former Carabineros lieutenant colonel, DINA agent. According to Memoria Viva, he is one of the main and cruelest torturers of the agency, having been the one who coerced Luz Arce before her conversion.

He was assigned to the torture centers Londres 38, José Domingo Cañas, and Villa Grimaldi. Lawrence is known lately for having been a fugitive and being one of the most wanted by the PDI for the homicide of Alfonso Chanfreau, having turned himself in to the OS-9 of Carabineros on January 10.

10. Jorge Andrade Gómez. Former Army lieutenant colonel, DINA and CNI agent. He was part of the School of the Americas, an entity created by the United States to teach techniques of repression and torture that would be used in the dictatorships of the 70s in Latin America.

He was a lieutenant to Miguel Krassnoff after his time at Villa Grimaldi and was implicated in the Calle Conferencia and Condor operations, and in numerous kidnappings. In the CNI, he was part of Operation Alfa Carbón I, in which the CNI killed seven MIR militants, and he was convicted for the murder of Paulina Alejandra Aguirre Tobar, 20, of the MIR in 1985.

11. Juan Morales Salgado. Former Army colonel and director of the Lautaro Brigade of DINA. Also known for his participation in the homicide of Prats and his wife, Sofía Cuthbert, in 1974 in the city of Buenos Aires.

For this crime, he was sentenced to 15 years and 1 day of major imprisonment in its maximum degree, as well as for illicit association. This retired officer of the Armed Forces only entered prison in 2010.

Likewise, another conviction weighs on him for the kidnapping of five young people in an episode known as the Linares Case, for which Morales Salgado received a sentence reduction from the Supreme Court in 2011.

12. Gladys Calderón Carreño. Former Army lieutenant, nurse, and agent of the Lautaro Brigade of DINA. She was convicted in 2018 by the visiting judge, Mario Carroza, for her actions in the events involving Operation Condor, for her authorship in the aggravated homicides of Ricardo Ignacio Ramírez Herrera, Jacobo Stoulman Bortnik, Matilde Pessa Mois, Hernán Soto Gálvez, and Ruiter Enrique Correa Arce.

Also, according to El Mostrador, she participated in the Calle Conferencia operation and the detention of Víctor Díaz López, of the Communist Party.

13. Ciro Torré Sáez. Former Carabineros captain and administrative chief of DINA. According to the Memoria Viva site, Judge Llanos sentenced him in 2017 to 15 years and 1 day of imprisonment in its maximum degree, as the author of the aggravated kidnapping of Luis Emilio Recabarren González, Carlos Enrique Godoy Lagarrigue, and Iván Sergio Insunza Bascuñán.

Previously, Torré had been convicted by the Supreme Court in the aggravated homicide of Lumi Videla Moya, a member of the MIR, who was kidnapped along with her husband by DINA in 1974, dying in the José Domingo Cañas detention center. The highest court sentenced him to 5 years and 1 day in 2009.

14. Orlando Escalona Acuña. Former Navy non-commissioned officer and member of the Lautaro Brigade of DINA. He was previously convicted as a co-perpetrator of the kidnapping and aggravated homicide in 1976 of Víctor Díaz López, a Communist Party militant who reached a leadership position in the Central Workers' Union of Chile (CUT) in 1973.

In addition, the Supreme Court issued a sentence against him for the kidnapping of former communist deputy Bernardo Araya Zulueta and his wife María Olga Flores Araya in 1976.

15. Juvenal Piña Garrido. Army non-commissioned officer and member of the Lautaro Brigade of DINA. He had the same sentence reduction as Sergio Orlando Escalona Acuña, both involved in the kidnapping of Daniel Palma Robledo.

Piña is also serving a sentence for the aggravated kidnapping of Alfredo Rojas Castañeda, Michelle Marguerite Peña Herreros, Ricardo Ernesto Lagos Salinas, Mireya Herminia Rodríguez Díaz, and Exequiel Ponce Vicencio.

16. Jorge Díaz Radulovich. Air Force non-commissioned officer and member of the Lautaro Brigade of DINA. The Supreme Court convicted him for the kidnapping of former deputy Bernardo Araya Zulueta and his wife María Olga Flores Araya in 1976 to 5 years and 1 day of imprisonment, as a co-perpetrator of the crime.

According to Memoria Viva, Díaz was mentioned in the book La Danza de los Cuervos as a member of the Martyrs' Avengers Command.

17. Gustavo Guerrero Aguilera. Carabineros non-commissioned officer and member of the Lautaro Brigade. He was implicated in the Calle Conferencia operation. He originally received a ten-year sentence for the kidnapping of Daniel Palma Robledo, but his sentence was reduced to three years and 1 day of minor imprisonment in its maximum degree.

Source: interferencia.cl, April 13, 2020

The Supreme Court convicted 14 agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Luis Emilio Recabarren González, Manuel Guillermo Recabarren González, Nalvia Rosa Mena Alvarado, Manuel Segundo Recabarren Rojas, Clara Elena Canteros Torres, Alejandro Rodríguez Urzúa, Daniel Palma Robledo, Carlos Enrique Godoy Lagarrigue, Iván Sergio Insunza Bascuñán, José Eduardo Santander Miranda, Mario Jesús Juica Vega, Víctor Hugo Morales Mazuela, Carlos Mario Vizcarra Cofré, Miguel Nazal Quiroz, Juan Aurelio Villarroel Zárate, and Julio Roberto Vega Vega; and the aggravated homicide of Eduardo Canteros Prado. The crimes were committed between April and August 1976, in the province of Santiago.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 71.900-2020), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of justices Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, María Cristina Gajardo, María Soledad Melo, and Eliana Quezada—revoked the sentence issued by the Eighth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals in April 2020, which applied the "half-prescription" (gradual statute of limitations) to the accused.

In a replacement sentence, the Supreme Court sentenced former DINA leaders and former Army officers Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo and Jorge Claudio Andrade Gómez to 15 years and 1 day of imprisonment as authors of 16 aggravated kidnappings and 10 years and 1 day as authors of one aggravated homicide.

Meanwhile, Rolf Arnold Wenderoth Pozo was sentenced to two separate terms of 10 years and 1 day of imprisonment as the author of three aggravated kidnappings and one aggravated homicide; Juan Hernán Morales Salgado and Gladys de las Mercedes Calderón Carreño to 10 years and 1 day of imprisonment as authors of six aggravated kidnappings.

In the case of former agents Sergio Orlando Escalona Acuña, Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich, and Gustavo Enrique Guerrero Aguilera, a sentence of 5 years and 1 day of imprisonment was applied as authors of a single case of aggravated kidnapping.

Likewise, former agents Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, Orlando del Tránsito Altamirano Sanhueza, and Carlos Eugenio López Inostroza must serve 7 years as accomplices to the 16 aggravated kidnappings and 5 years and 1 day of imprisonment as accomplices to the aggravated homicide.

Finally, Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca must serve 7 years as an accomplice to 15 aggravated kidnappings and 5 years and 1 day of imprisonment as an accomplice to the aggravated homicide.

The criminals Carlos José Leonardo López Tapia and Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, who had been convicted in the first-instance ruling issued by Judge Leopoldo Llanos in July 2017 to 20-year prison sentences, died during the course of the process. Also deceased are those convicted in the first instance, Ciro Ernesto Torré Sáez, Orlando José Manzo Durán, and Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo.

In dismissing the "half-prescription," the Supreme Court establishes that: "(...) it is necessary to take into consideration that the matter under discussion must also be analyzed in accordance with international Human Rights regulations contained mainly in the Geneva Conventions, which prevent prescription, total or gradual, regarding crimes committed in cases of armed conflicts without an international character."

The resolution adds: "The same conclusion is reached considering both the norms of the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons, and those of the Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, because in accordance with that regulation, gradual prescription has the same nature as total prescription."

"From another perspective, the doctrine on this matter has expressed that its foundations are found in the same considerations of social stability and legal certainty that gave rise to Article 93 of the Penal Code, but that it is intended to produce its effects in those cases in which the realization of the ends provided for prescription does not occur naturally but after a gradual process, that is, when the time necessary to prescribe is about to be fulfilled, which would justify the mitigation of the penalty," it adds.

"However," it continues, "it is evident that that conclusion is for cases that do not present the characteristics of crimes against humanity, as these are imprescriptible. Consequently, for such mitigation to be appropriate, it is necessary that it be a crime in the process of prescribing, which does not happen in this instance, so the passage of time does not produce any effect, because social reproach does not diminish with time, which only occurs in cases of common crimes."

The facts

In the first-instance ruling, the special judge Leopoldo Llanos Sagristá established that within the framework of the systematic repression of opponents of the military regime, in the months of April and August 1976, the detentions of a series of people occurred, all militants of the Communist Party.

On April 29, 1976, in the sector of Santa Rosa and Sebastopol streets in the commune of San Miguel, the brothers Manuel Guillermo, 22, and Luis Emilio Recabarren González, 29, were detained by DINA agents, along with Nalvia Rosa Mena Alvarado, 20, and her two-year-old son. The minor was abandoned near his home in the evening hours.

The following day, April 30, at 7:00 AM, Manuel Segundo Recabarren Rojas, 50, was detained shortly after leaving his home in the same sector and when he was preparing to board a public bus.

All the detainees were taken to the clandestine detention and torture center 'Villa Grimaldi'; Manuel Guillermo Recabarren González and Manuel Segundo Recabarren Rojas were also seen at the 'Simón Bolívar' facility, and Luis Emilio Recabarren González at 'Cuatro Álamos'. From those facilities, DINA made them disappear.

On July 23, 1976, around 8:00 PM, at the intersection of Rojas Magallanes and Panamá streets in the commune of La Florida, the young Clara Elena Canteros Torres, 21, was detained by DINA agents. She was subdued upon getting off public transportation.

She was taken to 'Villa Grimaldi' where she was seen by witnesses, and on August 20, 1976, she was taken out of that facility along with fellow detainees Mario Juica Vega and Óscar Ramos. Since then, they were made to disappear.

At 9:40 PM, Eduardo Canteros Prado, 48, Clara Elena's uncle, a civil engineer, was detained on a public road by DINA agents, in front of his home located on Panamá street, in the commune of La Florida. He was taken to 'Villa Grimaldi'. In 1990, his remains were found at the Las Tórtolas farm in Colina, a facility that belonged to the Army until 1980.

On July 27, 1976, around 5:15 PM, Alejandro Rodríguez Urzúa, 49, was detained by DINA agents from his office located at Mallinkrodt 70, Barrio Bellavista. They took him to the 'Villa Grimaldi' facility.

On August 4, 1976, Daniel Palma Robledo, 61, a businessman, was detained in the morning, on Avenida Matta, between San Diego and Arturo Prat streets; after picking up his mail, he bought a newspaper and at the moment of leaving, he was detained and taken to an unknown destination, but he was seen at the 'Simón Bolívar' extermination barracks.

On the same August 4, at 3:00 PM, the doctor Carlos Enrique Godoy Lagarrigue, 39, was detained. They captured him during the journey he was making between the San Bernardo Parochial Hospital and his private practice, located at Barros Arana and Arturo Prat streets. He was taken to 'Villa Grimaldi' and, subsequently, to 'Cuatro Álamos', from where he was made to disappear.

On the night of August 4, the surgeon Iván Sergio Insunza Bascuñán, 43, was detained by DINA agents while driving his vehicle. He was taken to 'Villa Grimaldi' and then to 'Cuatro Álamos'.

On August 6, 1976, shortly after leaving his home, around 9:30 AM, the student leader and member of the Central Workers' Union, José Eduardo Santander Miranda, 29, was detained by DINA agents; surviving witnesses saw him at the 'Villa Grimaldi' facility.

On August 9, Víctor Hugo Morales Mazuela, 45, a carpenter and construction worker, union leader, and organization manager for a regional branch of the Communist Party, was detained in the morning in the vicinity of the 'Villa México' neighborhood in the commune of Maipú and was taken to 'Villa Grimaldi'. Subsequently, he was seen at the 'Simón Bolívar' barracks.

On the same August 9, Mario Jesús Juica Vega, 34, a merchant, was detained around noon in the vicinity of Plaza Egaña, in the commune of Ñuñoa, and taken to 'Villa Grimaldi', a place where he was seen by numerous witnesses. On August 20, he was taken out of that facility along with two other detainees, and since then DINA has made them disappear.

On August 11, 1976, at 9:00 AM, while leaving his home, located on Chiloé street, between Santa Rosa and Gran Avenida, in the commune of San Miguel, the merchant Miguel Nazal Quiroz, 44, was detained by DINA agents. He was taken to 'Villa Grimaldi'.

On the night of the same August 11, Carlos Mario Vizcarra Cofré, 31, a body shop worker, was detained at his home in Quinta Normal by agents who took him to 'Villa Grimaldi', a facility where witnesses saw him until August 25 of the same year. Subsequently, he was seen at the 'Simón Bolívar' facility.

On August 13, Juan Aurelio Villarroel Zárate, 55, a union leader and photoengraver, was detained by DINA agents around noon while traveling from his home in Conchalí in the vicinity of the Mapocho Station. He was taken to Villa Grimaldi.

On August 16, 1976, at 11:30 AM, the worker Julio Roberto Vega Vega was detained by DINA agents on Avenida Presidente Balmaceda, between Cueto and Libertad, in the commune of Santiago. Several witnesses saw him held in both 'Villa Grimaldi' and the 'Simón Bolívar' barracks.

by Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl, July 30, 2023