Chilean justice system issues final sentence against 15 military and police officers for the disappearance of two Uruguayans in 1973.

The Chilean Supreme Court convicted 15 military and police officers for the aggravated kidnapping of Uruguayans Nelsa Gadea and Julio César Fernández, leftist militants who were in Chile and disappeared in that country.

Nelsa was from Paysandú, studied law, and in 1971 traveled to Chile to work for the government of Salvador Allende. She was a militant of the Partido Obrero Revolucionario, and the dictatorship included her on its blacklists.

She was detained in December 1973 and was last seen at the clandestine detention center known as Tejas Verdes, the Regimiento Escuela de Ingenieros Militares in Santo Domingo. She was 30 years old. Julio was from Montevideo, a textile worker, and a member of the Movimiento de Liberación Nacional.

In 1972, he traveled to Chile and became linked to the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR). On September 11, 1973, he was detained and also taken to Tejas Verdes. Two other prisoners stated that they had given him a map to plan an escape from the site, but he was discovered by the military, who, according to information from the Secretaría de Derechos Humanos para el Pasado Reciente, took him out of the center one night.

He was 24 years old, and nothing more was heard of him since then. The sentence is against military and police officers Valentín del Carmen Escobedo Azua, Raúl Pablo Quintana Salazar, Vittorio Orvieto Tiplizky, Ramón Acuña Acuña, Ricardo Fortunato Judas Tadeo Soto Jerez, Gladys de las Mercedes Calderón Carreño, Klaudio Erich Kosiel Hornig, Ramón Luis Carriel Espinoza, Fernando Armando Cerda Vargas, Rodolfo Toribio Vargas Contreras, Nelson Patricio Valdés Cornejo, the former head of the secret police, the now-deceased Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda, and the also-deceased David Adolfo Miranda Monardes and Jorge Rosendo Núñez Magallanes. The ruling, which is final and therefore unappealable, establishes a five-year prison sentence for all those convicted as authors and co-authors of both forced disappearances. However, they were granted the benefit of supervised release, meaning they will not go to prison.

Source: La Diaria, September 10, 2015

Judge Marianela Cifuentes issues indictment against members of the Army (ret.) for kidnapping, aggravated homicide, application of torture, and

Judge Marianela Cifuentes issued an indictment against former agents of the dissolved Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) and a doctor for their responsibility in the crimes of kidnapping, aggravated homicide, application of torture, and illicit association.

These crimes were perpetrated between September 1973 and February 1974 at the Tejas Verdes prison camp, in the commune of San Antonio. The judge serving as an extraordinary visitor for human rights violation cases at the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes, issued an indictment against former agents of the dissolved Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) and a doctor who provided services to the military branch, for their responsibility in the crimes of kidnapping, aggravated homicide, application of torture, and illicit association.

These crimes were perpetrated between September 1973 and February 1974 at the Tejas Verdes prison camp, in the commune of San Antonio. In the resolution (case file 28-2009), Judge Cifuentes charged Raúl Pablo Quintana Salazar, Vittorio Orvieto Tiplitzky, and Ramón Luis Carriel as co-authors of the crimes of kidnapping, application of torture, and aggravated homicide of Oscar Armando Gómez Farías, Ceferino del Carmen Santis Quijada, Jorge Antonio Cornejo Carvajal, Jorge Luis Ojeda Jara, Víctor Fernando Mesina Araya, Florindo Alex Vidal Hinojosa, Carlos Aurelio Carrasco Cáceres, Carlos Alberto Galaz Vera, and Miguel Ángel Moyano Santander, and as authors of the crime of illicit association. Meanwhile, she held Raúl Pablo Quintana Salazar, Vittorio Orvieto Tiplitzky, and Ramón Luis Carriel Espinoza responsible as co-authors of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping and application of torture against Luis Fernando Norambuena Fernandois and Gustavo Manuel Farías Vargas, and as authors of the crime of illicit association. In the same case, Judge Cifuentes charged Bernardo Purto Yarcho as an author of the crimes of kidnapping and application of torture against Jorge Luis Ojeda Jara. The judge also issued an indictment against Carlos Óscar Gregorio Evaristo Mardones Díaz, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Richter Aliro Nuche Sepúlveda, and Emilio Robert de la Mahotiere González as authors of the crimes of illicit association and aggravated kidnapping of Ceferino Santis Quijada, Luis Fernando Norambuena Fernandois, and Gustavo Manuel Farías Vargas. The judge directed the charges against Ricardo Fortunato Judas Tadeo Soto Jerez as an author of the crime of illicit association and as a co-author of the crimes of kidnapping, application of torture, and aggravated homicide of Oscar Armando Gómez Farías, Jorge Antonio Cornejo Carvajal, Jorge Luis Ojeda Jara, Víctor Fernando Mesina Araya, Florindo Alex Vidal Hinojosa, Carlos Aurelio Carrasco Cáceres, Carlos Alberto Galaz Vera, and as a co-author of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping and application of torture against Luis Fernando Norambuena Fernandois, Ceferino del Carmen Santis Quijada, and Gustavo Manuel Farías Vargas. Meanwhile, the judge held Valentín del Carmen Escobedo Azúa responsible as a co-author of the crimes of kidnapping, application of torture, and aggravated homicide of Oscar Armando Gómez Farías, Jorge Antonio Cornejo Carvajal, Jorge Luis Ojeda Jara, Víctor Fernando Mesina Araya, and Miguel Ángel Moyano Santander, and as a co-author of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping and application of torture against Ceferino del Carmen Santis Quijada, Gustavo Manuel Farías Vargas, and Luis Fernando Norambuena Fernandois. In the resolution, the judge issued an indictment against Ramón Rodrigo de Jesús Capona Kurth, Manuel Jesús Zamorano Cortés, and Gladys de las Mercedes Calderón Carreño as authors of the crime of illicit association and as co-authors of the crimes of kidnapping, application of torture, and aggravated homicide of Oscar Armando Gómez Farías, Jorge Antonio Cornejo Carvajal, Jorge Luis Ojeda Jara, Víctor Fernando Mesina Araya, Florindo Alex Vidal Hinojosa, Carlos Aurelio Carrasco Cáceres, Carlos Alberto Galaz Vera, and Miguel Ángel Moyano Santander, and as authors of the crimes against Ceferino del Carmen Santis Quijada, Luis Fernando Norambuena Fernandois, and Gustavo Manuel Farías Vargas. Finally, Judge Cifuentes issued an indictment against Eugenio Armando Videla Valdebenito and Cristian Labbé Galilea as authors of the crime of illicit association.

Source: pdju.cl, September 11, 2023