In a first-instance ruling, a court determined that the retired police officers participated in the 1973 murder of a union leader in the Los Lagos Region. The Chaitén Court, Tenth Region, sentenced four retired Carabineros to 10 years in prison for their responsibility in the disappearance and death of unionist Nelson Llanquilef in 1973, a few days after the coup d'état.

Furthermore, the first-instance ruling determined that Colonel (ret.) Hernán Escobar Inostroza and the also retired Carabineros Víctor Retamal, Joel Osorio Morales, and José Barría Vargas must pay 60 million pesos in compensation to the victim's family.

The court acquitted Belarmino Sánchez, Jorge Veloso Bastidas, and businessman Raúl Becker, although Llanquilef's family announced they will appeal these acquittals before the Puerto Montt Court of Appeals.

The Rettig Report, which in 1991 documented human rights violations during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, indicates that Llanquilef, 25, was detained on October 8, 1973, by Carabineros officials from Futaleufú.

The detainee, who worked on the Emergency Plan of the Ministry of Public Works in Puerto Ramírez, was transported to the local police station, after which "he was executed by his captors, with his body being abandoned in the waters of Lake Yelcho." At the time of his detention, Llanquilef was the secretary of the Socialist Youth of Chaitén and president of the Central Unica de Trabajadores (CUT) of the province.

For this case, the justice system prosecuted the former minister of the Pinochet regime, retired Carabineros General Jorge Veloso Bastías, in 2002, who held the portfolio of National Assets in 1987 and 1988.

Source: cooperativa.cl, October 15, 2005

Puerto Montt and Talca Courts of Appeals ratify rulings

Courts of appeals in Maule and Los Lagos sentenced former Carabineros for two cases of qualified homicide perpetrated during the military dictatorship. In two rulings that reflect the Supreme Court's policy of fully embracing international human rights treaties, the courts of appeals of Talca and Puerto Montt sentenced Carabineros for the murders of opponents of the military dictatorship.

In a unanimous ruling, the Maule Court of Appeals sentenced former uniformed police officer Primitivo José Castro Campos to five years and one day of imprisonment as responsible for the homicide of Carlos Roberto Fuentealba Herrera, an event that occurred on June 22, 1974, in the capital of the Seventh Region.

The ruling makes express mention that the Geneva International Conventions must be applied in Chile, as the highest court recognized their full validity in Chile, despite the fact that they are not incorporated into our legislation. "It has been the Honorable Supreme Court in the case regarding the qualified homicide of the students and members of the MIR, Hugo Rivol Vásquez Marínez and Mario Edmundo Superby Jeldres [...] that has pointed out that at the time these events occurred, the national territory was legally in a state of internal war, which makes the regulations of International Humanitarian Law applicable," states the resolution drafted by Justice Eduardo Meins Olivares. The ruling is noteworthy, as previously the Talca appellate court had refused to apply the Geneva Conventions in two other human rights cases, applying the statute of limitations to those responsible for the crimes. Sentences in the Los Lagos Region Meanwhile, the Puerto Montt Court of Appeals ratified the sentences against former Carabineros Hernán Escobar Hinostroza, Víctor del Carmen Retamal Carrasco, Joel Osorio Morales, and Desiderio García Vargas for the homicide of Nelson Llanquilef Velásquez, which occurred on October 8, 1973, in Puerto Ramírez, Los Lagos Region. The former uniformed officers were sentenced to 5 years and one day of imprisonment, reducing the 10-year prison sentence that had been handed down in the first instance by the Chaitén judge in October 2005. "Although the perpetrators of the illicit act were agents of the State, their way of acting and the circumstances do not fall within the framework of their public functions, nor are they for the benefit of the collective legal good, which as such they were supposed to protect; rather, on the contrary, they acted by clearly departing from their duty as Carabineros de Chile, proceeding to execute the forced disappearance and kidnapping of a person," the resolution states.

Source: El Mostrador, May 8, 2007

Conviction confirmed against four Carabineros for disappeared person in Chaitén

In a split decision, the Criminal Chamber of the highest court sentenced the former uniformed officers to three years and one day, with the benefit of supervised release, for the permanent kidnapping of Nelson Llanquilef, which occurred on October 8, 1973.

The Supreme Court confirmed this Thursday the sentences against four retired Carabineros who were convicted of the crime of permanent kidnapping of Nelson Llanquilef Velásquez, who has remained in the status of forcibly disappeared since October 8, 1973, in the town of Puerto Ramírez, Los Lagos Region.

As reported by the Judiciary's Communications Department, in a split decision, the Criminal Chamber of the highest court sentenced Hernán Escobar Inostroza, Víctor del Carmen Retamal Carrasco, Joel de Jesús Osorio Morales, and José Desiderio Barría Vargas to the penalty of three years and one day of minor imprisonment in its maximum degree for the aforementioned crime, granting the convicted individuals the benefit of Supervised Release.

Justices Alberto Chaigneau, Nibaldo Segura, Jaime Rodríguez, and member lawyer Domingo Hernández were in favor of applying the conviction; while Magistrate Rubén Ballesteros was in favor of applying the principle of the statute of limitations.

The magistrates also confirmed the first-instance ruling that acquitted Jorge Hernán Veloso Bastías, Belarmino Sánchez Triviño, and Raúl Becker Álvarez of the same crime. Nelson Nolberto Llanquilef Velásquez, a socialist militant, worked as a laborer for the Ministry of Public Works' emergency plan and was detained by police officers in the Puerto Ramírez sector.

According to articles published at the time by the local press, the worker was apprehended along with two other people after being accused of participating in an attack on the local police station. According to that same version, when they were being led to a police facility, Llanquilef supposedly threw himself unexpectedly "into the stormy waters of the Futaleufú River," disappearing immediately.

However, the Rettig Commission stated years later that the victim was executed and his body thrown into the waters of Lake Yelcho while he was being transported to the Futaleufú Police Station, and his body has never been found.

Source: El Mostrador, October 11, 2007