The Rancagua Court also instructed the interrogation of the former director of the uniformed police and one-time senator Rodolfo Stange, as well as the senior staff of Dipolcar. The measure was adopted after indicting Julio Verne Acosta and Carlos Bezmalinovic for the qualified homicide of former FPMR militants Cecilia Magni and Raúl Pellegrin.

The head of criminal investigation support for the Southern Regional Prosecutor's Office must be investigated by the minister of the Rancagua Court of Appeals, Rafael Mera, for his alleged responsibility in the qualified homicide of the FPMR members Cecilia Magni and Raúl Pellegrin, which occurred in 1988 after the latter participated in the attack on the Los Queñes police station in the Seventh Region.

This was determined by the aforementioned appellate court, which reopened the proceedings conducted by Mera—following arguments from Ema Salinas and the lawyer for the State Defense Council (CDE), Marcelo Oyharçabal—and ordered a series of measures aimed at determining the responsibility of a series of other former Carabineros in various illicit acts.

This follows the indictment of Julio Verne Acosta, sub-prefect of Colchagua at the time of the events, and Carlos Bezmalinovic, a former lieutenant of the Special Operations Group (GOPE) of the uniformed police, as authors of the guerrillas' homicides.

Magni and Pellegrin, in addition to being two of the top leaders of the FPMR at the time, were the ones who led the Los Queñes attack, where police officers on duty died. Both were found in the Tinguiririca River with signs of torture.

On Tuesday, there was concern within the Southern Prosecutor's Office among some prosecutors regarding the fate of Espinoza, who is a close advisor for organized crime cases, especially because he is held in high esteem internally.

Sources from the entity indicated that there would be no official version regarding the matter, as it is an open investigation. Along with Espinoza, the appellate court deemed that the former general director of Carabineros and former senator Rodolfo Stange, who until now had remained unscathed in this judicial process, must be interrogated "in depth." The magistrates also instructed Mera to establish the criminal responsibility "of Walter Soto Medina (at the time a Colonel of Carabineros and prefect of Colchagua), [and] Juan Ernesto Rivera Iratchet (at the time a Major of the same institution and commissioner of San Fernando)," the resolution states. At the time of the crimes, Espinoza was the head of personnel for the OS-4 section of Carabineros, that is, the Intelligence Directorate (Dipolcar) that traveled to the area with the purpose of finding the FPMR members. For this reason, the judges deemed that the crimes of torture must be investigated, as well as the veracity of the police reports from that time. The resolution also orders the interrogation of the entire Dipolcar, especially the chief at that time, Colonel Óscar Tapia, and the deputy chief, Commander Hernán Soto. The ruling is a hard blow to the work carried out until now by Minister Raúl Mera, who had previously refused twice to reopen the summary proceedings and indict the uniformed officers. One of the central points of the indictment points to a contradiction between the then-captain of the GOPE, Lorenzo González Cabezas, and Juan Rivera Iratchet, regarding a roll of film that Magni was carrying before she died. Everything happened when the FPMR members realized they had been discovered. Thus, they fled in the opposite direction to the Tinguiririca River. Behind them was a massive police operation that included the GOPE, Dipolcar, and the personnel of the Seventh Region, among other units. According to the caretakers of the cabins where the FPMR members were staying, Félix Ugalde and his wife, Florentina Becerra, Magni and Pellegrin were only a few minutes ahead—about ten—of the police contingent, which even had the support of three helicopters and trained dogs. In total, a contingent of almost 100 people. It is there that the contradiction of the different officers who testified in the process begins to become implausible regarding investigative logic. If there was an action by third parties in the death of Magni and Pellegrin and only Carabineros teams were behind the search and pursuit with vast air and ground support; if there were only minutes of difference between the flight of the FPMR members and the arrival of the contingent, it is difficult for the subversives to have been able to escape, bypassing the police cordon. For this reason, the roll of film that Carabineros supposedly found hidden behind a bush in a bag that Magni was carrying when she was fleeing her captors aroused the suspicions of the CDE. Thus, González Cabezas, in a document that appears on pages 560 and 561 of the case file, asserts that this roll of film was obtained during the search of the house where the FPMR members were hiding, which contradicts Rivera Iratchet, who in a report sent to the Military Prosecutor's Office at the time asserts that it was found in a bag behind a bush. This was how González Cabezas, on page 1,358 of the file, gave a version that the plaintiffs and detectives did not believe. In his testimony, he asserted that due to the "administrative disorder" that existed in the area, he noted all the events that occurred in his own notebook and that the discrepancy with the aforementioned report was only generic. The theses regarding the flight of the FPMR members are unraveling in the file, leaving as the only explanation that they were detained by Carabineros and thrown into the Tinguiririca River in an area different from the one they fled through. This analysis is reinforced by the reports of pathologists María San Martín (page 156), Alberto Teke, and Carmen Cerda, which confirm that the injuries both presented were sustained while they were still alive. Finally, there is a socio-political report carried out by academic Ricardo Israel, who, through a description of the historical context of the time, makes it clear that the accused Carabineros have, until now, something to hide.

Source: La Nación, October 24, 2007.

Rancagua: Court orders indictment of former police officers for the Los Queñes case

The Rancagua Court of Appeals ordered the indictment of two former Carabineros as authors of the qualified homicide of two militants of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR) who had participated in the attack on the Los Queñes police station (VII Region) on October 21, 1988.

With the ruling, the court revoked the decision of Minister Raúl Mera, who had twice dismissed the case against Julio Acosta Chávez, sub-prefect of Colchagua, and Carlos Bezmalinovic Hidalgo, in charge of the Special Police Operations Group (GOPE) at the time of the crimes.

Yesterday, arrest warrants were issued for both. The bodies of Cecilia Magni Camino and Raúl Pellegrin Friedman were found in the Tinguiririca River seven days after the attack, in which Second Corporal Juvenal Vargas died.

According to the ruling, after the capture of Pellegrin and Magni, "they were brutally beaten in vital areas by police officers in charge of their custody and interrogation, while they were subdued and completely defenseless, as a result of which both persons received necessarily fatal injuries, their agonizing bodies being thrown into the Tinguiririca River, both to complete the homicidal purpose and to simulate death by immersion." The ruling indicates that Minister Mera should study the evidence accumulated in the case to determine "the feasibility of enforcing the criminal responsibility" of Walter Soto Medina, prefect of Colchagua at the time; Juan Ernesto Rivera Iratchet, former commissioner of San Fernando; and Manuel Osvaldo Espinoza Castro, in charge of the OS-4 Intelligence personnel. The ruling also orders that an investigative statement be taken from Rodolfo Stange, who was the general director of Carabineros at that time.

Source: El Mercurio, October 24, 2007.

FPMR Commander, Tamara and Jose Miguel were murdered by Carabineros

The Rancagua Appellate Court, in its judicial resolution, verified that "it is sufficiently proven that, within the last ten days of the month of October 1988, as a consequence of the operations carried out by Carabineros after the assault on the town of Los Queñes by a group of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, two of its leaders were captured while fleeing the sector, Raúl Alejandro Pellegrin Friedman and Cecilia Magni Camino, who were brutally beaten in vital areas by police officers in charge of their custody and interrogation, while they were subdued and completely defenseless." The ruling adds that "as a result of which both persons received necessarily fatal injuries, their agonizing bodies being thrown into the Tinguiririca River, both to complete the homicidal purpose and to simulate in this way a death by immersion." In this way, the Rancagua Court of Appeals verified the judicial truth regarding the death of the two FPMR commanders after being captured in the vicinity of the town of Los Queñes. In this sense, they point out that the actions of the Carabineros "constitute separate crimes of qualified homicide," illicit acts provided for and sanctioned in Article 391 No. 1 of the Penal Code. For these reasons, it indicted retired Carabineros Julio Verne Acosta Chávez and Carlos Mauricio Acosta Chávez as authors of the crimes of qualified homicide of "Commander José Miguel" and "Tamara," as the two FPMR leaders were known. In addition, the resolution recommends that the instructing minister, Raúl Mera, study the accumulated evidence to determine the feasibility of enforcing the criminal responsibility of Walter Soto Medina (at the time a Colonel of Carabineros and Prefect of Colchagua), Juan Ernesto Rivera Iratchet (then a Major of the same institution and commissioner of San Fernando), and Manuel Osvaldo Espinoza Castro (at the time a Lieutenant in charge of the OS 4 personnel deployed from Santiago). In this way, the truth regarding the deaths of the two FPMR commanders begins to be known, which, according to the Rettig Report, had a well-founded presumption of being murders, so the number of those indicted for this political homicide could increase.

COMMAND RESPONSIBILITY

A relevant fact suggested by the ruling of the Rancagua Court of Appeals is the figure of command responsibility, for which it requests that the instructing minister of the case summon the former general director of Carabineros of the time, Rodolfo Stange, to provide information regarding the murder of both insurgent commanders.

In addition to holding the position of General Director of Carabineros, Stange was a member of Augusto Pinochet's Military Junta between 1985 and 1990. Later, he maintained his position at the head of the police institution until October 1995, which caused a political crisis due to his refusal to leave the institution at the request of the government of President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle.

In 1997, he was elected senator for the Independent Democratic Union (UDI) for the Tenth Region, in the period that ended on March 11, 2006. Following the decision of the Court of Appeals, he must now face the courts of justice, the place that will define whether he bears responsibility for the qualified homicide of the FPMR leaders, Raúl Alejandro Pellegrin Friedman and Cecilia Magni Camino.

Source: CronicaDigital.cl, October 24, 2007.