Fabián Ibarra Córdova, single, auditor, a member of the MIR, and Sonia Ríos Pacheco, single, a Chemistry student at the University of Concepción, who lived together, were detained on January 17, 1975, around 9:00 PM, at the home of Rina Mónica Medina Bravo, located at Jackson 870, Chorrillos, Viña del Mar.

They were detained by agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), who had traveled specifically from Santiago to suppress the activities of the regional MIR.

Hours earlier—at noon—Rina Mónica Medina had also been detained, but in Santiago, by DINA agents who had set up a "trap" at an apartment in the Torres de San Borja. She had been taken to Villa Grimaldi, from where she was removed around 6:00 PM to be transferred to Valparaíso and admitted to the No. 2 "Maipo" Regiment in Playa Ancha.

About half an hour later, the agents put her into a camouflaged vehicle and took her to her home on Calle Jackson, where Fabián Ibarra and Sonia Ríos were located. Both were detained. Everyone was taken to the "Maipo" Regiment.

The following day—according to the testimony of Reinaldo Antonio Erick Zott—Sonia Ríos was taken out of the Regiment and brought to her home. Zott saw her there on January 18, when he was brought to that address along with Alfredo García (forcibly disappeared), who had just been detained by Army Lieutenant and Chief of the DINA operational group Fernando Adrián Laureani Maturana, alias "Lieutenant Pablo." Sonia Ríos showed visible signs of having been tortured.

Army Major Marcelo Moren Brito forced her to answer the phone and summon the authors of the calls. In that house, Alfredo García and Zott were confronted, interrogated, and tortured by DINA agents in the presence of Laureani and Moren.

The next day, January 19, MIR militant Alejandro Villalobos Díaz, "el Mickey," arrived at the home of Sonia and Fabián Ibarra and was immediately executed by the agents who were there. For his part, Fabián Ibarra was taken out of the Regiment on January 21 to witness the detention of Horacio Carabantes.

At the Regiment, both Fabián and Sonia were seen by witnesses. Rina Mónica Medina declared that on January 21 of that year, she was transferred to Santiago along with Sonia Ríos, and both were admitted to Villa Grimaldi.

This fact was corroborated by the testimonies of 12 other people who remained detained in that military facility, all of whom declared in the legal proceedings that they had seen Fabián. Liliana Castillo—detained on January 21 and wife of Horacio Carabantes, also forcibly disappeared—said that upon arriving at the "Maipo" Regiment, Ibarra was already there.

The same was stated by Sergio Alejandro Vesely and Hernán Brain Pizarro, among others.

On January 28, 1975, the detainees who remained at the Regiment were loaded into a refrigerated truck and taken to Villa Grimaldi in Santiago, a secret DINA detention center located in Peñalolén. Fabián Ibarra Córdova was among them.

Upon arriving at this detention center, the victims were locked four to a room in small wooden cells called "casas-corvi." Reinaldo Antonio Erick Zott was placed with Fabián Ibarra, Alfredo García (forcibly disappeared), and Horacio Carabantes (also forcibly disappeared).

For her part, Sonia Ríos shared a room with 20 other female detainees—who slept three to a bunk—including Alicia Hinojosa, María Teresa Villalobos, Marta Adriana Muñoz, Nubia Becker, and others. María Teresa Villalobos declared that Sonia Ríos told her she had been detained in Valparaíso along with Fabián Ibarra.

According to the witness, she appeared psychologically unwell and nervous because a person had been killed at her house (referring to the execution of Alejandro Villalobos).

Fabián Ibarra and Sonia Ríos used to see each other at Villa Grimaldi. According to the 21 witnesses of their detention, he was in charge of distributing food, an occasion they both used to look at each other.

At the same time, when the roll was called and Fabián's name was read, she would lift her blindfold slightly, managing to see him. Ariel Sanzana Reyes, who was also in a room with Fabián Ibarra and Carlos Rioseco (forcibly disappeared), said that they used to see Sonia every time they went to the bathroom.

Subsequently, around February 12, Fabián Ibarra, Sonia Ríos, and other detainees were taken to the sector of Villa Grimaldi known as "La Torre," where they were also seen by witnesses until February 20, 1975, the date on which both, along with other detainees, were removed from the DINA facility to an unknown destination.

In that same month of February 1975, four MIR leaders who remained detained by the DINA were forced to give a press conference at the Diego Portales Building ("Balance of the MIR," acknowledging their defeat), and among the information provided, Fabián Ibarra appeared as one of the detained militants. This conference was broadcast on a national radio and television network.

In January 1975, a group of DINA agents traveled to the Valparaíso and Viña del Mar area to suppress MIR activities. The result of this action was the detention of about twenty people—among them Fabián Ibarra and Sonia Ríos—linked to the MIR, of whom 8 remain forcibly disappeared and one was killed, Alejandro Villalobos Díaz. (Further background in the case of Horacio Neftalí Carabantes Olivares).

Judicial and/or Administrative Actions

Amparo (habeas corpus) petitions were filed for both Fabián Ibarra and Sonia Ríos. In February 1975, an amparo petition (docket 62-75) was filed in the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, in which Enrique Ibarra (Fabián's father) stated that he had learned of his son's detention through the national television broadcast given by the 4 detained MIR militants.

From that moment on, the father added in the petition, he carried out a series of efforts that led him to interview Reinaldo Antonio Erick Zott and Rina Mónica Medina, who confirmed the detention of Fabián and Sonia.

However, in response to the Court's inquiries, the authorities of the time reported having no information regarding both victims. This was stated on March 7, 1975, by the Intendant of Valparaíso, Vice Admiral Horacio Justiniano Aguirre. This petition was rejected on March 12, 1975, a ruling that was confirmed by the Supreme Court on May 14 of the same year.

On March 3, 1975, a new amparo petition was filed before the Santiago Court of Appeals for both victims (docket 320-75), to which the press information regarding the press conference given by the 4 MIR detainees was attached, reporting that Fabián Ibarra was imprisoned.

Despite this being official information provided from the Diego Portales Building, the Minister of the Interior and Division General Raúl Benavides Escobar stated to the Court that neither Fabián Ibarra nor Sonia Ríos were being held by order of that Ministry (March 6, 1975).

On April 17, General Benavides insisted that both victims had no records in the Secretariat he presided over. On June 16 and July 7, Benavides would report exactly the same. Based on this information, the Court rejected the amparo on July 11, 1975, and ordered the corresponding summary investigation to be initiated.

The aforementioned information was then sent to the Fourth Criminal Court of Valparaíso, where the case for the alleged disappearance of Fabián Ibarra and Sonia Ríos (docket No. 93.299) was opened, which would be consolidated with docket No. 11.226 of the same Court, covering the situation of the 8 forcibly disappeared persons from Valparaíso in January 1975.

Subsequently, different amparo petitions were filed for the 8 people forcibly disappeared in January 1975 in Valparaíso. During the processing of one of them, Docket No. 1-77, the DINA, through its Director Manuel Contreras, would recognize for the first time the detention of the victims.

In an official letter to the Court, Contreras acknowledged the detention of the 8 disappeared persons from Valparaíso, as a result of a "confrontation with the second-in-command of that MIR Regional, Alejandro Villalobos Díaz (a) 'Mickey,' who was killed." Carabantes and subsequently the rest of the regional group, which according to Contreras consisted of María Isabel Gutiérrez, Elías Villar, Abel Vilches, Carlos Rioseco, Alfredo García, Fabián Ibarra, and Sonia Ríos, were released immediately in Valparaíso, while Horacio Carabantes was released in Santiago.

Despite the evident contradictions between this information and that provided by high-ranking authorities, the Supreme Court confirmed the Valparaíso Court's ruling, rejecting the petition.

In August 1975, a complaint for alleged disappearance was initiated in the 4th Criminal Court of Valparaíso, covering the detention and disappearance of Fabián Ibarra, Sonia Ríos, Horacio Carabantes, Abel Vilches, Alfredo García, María Isabel Gutiérrez, Elías Villar, and Carlos Rioseco.

In September 1976, at the request of the families, the Supreme Court ordered the Valparaíso Court of Appeals to appoint a Visiting Judge, René Clavería Lisboa, to continue the investigation into the 8 people.

Ultimately, the judge declared himself incompetent (January 1977), sending the records to the Military Justice system, which dismissed the case totally and definitively, citing Decree Law 2.191 of 1978 (Amnesty Law).

Six years later, on November 15, 1989, and following the corresponding appeals, the Martial Court confirmed that ruling. This resolution was appealed, and the case is currently before the Supreme Court. (Further background in the case of Horacio Neftalí Carabantes Olivares).

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity

Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda for: Jacqueline Drouilly, César Negrete Peña, Marta Neira, Alfredo Rojas Castañeda, Jaime Vásquez Sáenz, Juan Molina Mogollones, Alejandro Avalos Davidson, Sonia Ríos Pacheco, Elías Villar Quijón, María Isabel Gutiérrez Martínez, Horacio Carabantes, Fabián Ibarra Córdova, Carlos Rioseco Espinoza, Alfredo García Vega, Abel Vilches Figueroa, René Acuña Reyes, Carrasco Matus, Hugo Ríos Videla, Martín Elgueta Pinto, Agustín Martínez Meza, Juan MacLeod, Julieta Ramírez Castro, and Luis Palominos Rojas.

Marcelo Moren Brito for all of the above except Elgueta, Negrete, and Neira. Miguel Krassnoff for Negrete, Neira, Drouilly, Rojas, Vásquez, Molina, Avalos, Acuña, Carrasco, Ríos, Elgueta, Martínez, and Palominos.

Pedro René Alfaro Fernández for: Ríos, Villar, Gutiérrez, Carabantes, Ibarra, Rioseco, García, and Vilches. Basclay Zapata for: Rojas, Vásquez, Molina, Acuña, Carrasco, Ríos, Elgueta, and Palominos. Conrado Pacheco Cárdenas for: MacLeod and Ramírez.

Source: Note from memoriaviva.com: Human rights lawyer provided the following details:

Academics, staff, and representatives of the Student Federation remembered part of the history that occurred 48 years ago. With the aim of remembering the members of the Los Ángeles Campus community of the University of Concepción who were forcibly disappeared during the civil-military dictatorship, a floral offering was placed at the memorial that remembers: Jaime Araya Palominos, Luis Cornejo Fernández, Fabián Ibarra Córdova, Eduardo Miranda Lobos, and Professor Pedro Ríos Castillo.

On this occasion, academics, staff, and representatives of the Student Federation remembered part of the history that occurred 48 years ago. The activity, organized by the General Directorate, aims to remember the history of the Campus. "These are processes that were very dramatic for an entire society, and in this particular case, we remember them with our educational community.

Rather than giving it an ideologized context, what we seek is for these processes to serve to understand the present and to be able to project ourselves toward a society that is more just and more tolerant.

It is necessary not to forget the events that followed a completely different orientation; these are dates that have a connection with the protection of human rights, which is something fundamental and declared in the Universal Declaration," highlighted the General Director, Helen Díaz.

Likewise, academic Lorena Segura referred to this commemoration and what it means for the university community. "It has to do with not forgetting, with creating memory, in the face of these acts that have marked not only the history of our country but also the history of the University of Concepción, in the city of Los Ángeles.

Every September 11, we have not failed to remember our students, young dreamers of the 70s who bet on a different society, two topography students and two auditing students, together with the professor and Campus Director, Pedro Castillo." "The case of Luis Cornejo is emblematic; just this week we learned of the sentence that was finally handed down to the person responsible for his detention, death, and disappearance, with a three-year sentence, so in a way, it is a history that one could say is much of the past, but also of the present," added the academic.

Source: noticias.udec.cl 09/11/2021 Date: 09-11-2021

Disappearance of the "Valparaíso Eight": Supreme Court confirms almost all convictions

The sentence against Pedro Herrera Henríquez was reduced to 541 days in prison. The sentences against Rolf Wenderoth (10 years and one day in prison), Daniel Cancino and Rubén Fiedler (5 years and one day as accomplices), and 3 years and one day for Fernando Lauriani as a perpetrator were ratified.

The victims were detained in the Fifth Region, tortured first at the Maipo Regiment, and transferred to Villa Grimaldi, from where they disappeared on February 20, 1975. By Carlos Antonio Vergara The Second Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice—composed of ministers Milton Juica, Hugo Dolmestch, Carlos Künsemüller, Haroldo Brito, and Lamberto Cisternas—issued a final judgment in the case titled the "Valparaíso Eight." The investigation was conducted by former visiting judge Alejandro Solís regarding the aggravated kidnappings of: Horacio Neftalí Carabantes Olivares, Alfredo Gabriel García Vega, María Isabel Gutiérrez Martínez, Fabián Ibarra Córdova, Sonia del Tránsito Ríos Pacheco, Carlos Ramón Rioseco Espinoza, Abel Alfredo Vilches Figueroa, and Elías Ricardo Villar Guijón, crimes perpetrated in January 1975 in various parts of the V Region. In a split decision, with dissenting votes from ministers Dolmestch and Cisternas, the Penal Chamber accepted the cassation appeal filed against the ruling of the Santiago Court of Appeals, reducing the sentence handed down against Pedro Herrera Henríquez to 541 days in prison, in his capacity as an accomplice in two of the cases. In other words, he will not go to prison, as with that penalty, he can serve the sentence with a monthly signature. Meanwhile, it confirmed the sentences of 10 years and one day in prison against Rolf Wenderoth and Daniel Cancino Varas as perpetrators. Likewise, it ratified 5 years and one day in prison for Rubén Fiedler Alvarado as an accomplice, and 3 years and one day in prison for Fernando Lauriani. Thus, the former officer of the Investigative Police, who has been a fugitive since February of this year for failing to appear to be notified in the torture case of 30 survivors of Villa Grimaldi, must enter Punta Peuco as soon as he is captured by the PDI. Manzo Durán, 5 more years in prison; Lauriani and Herrera free The convicted Manuel Contreras (15 years and one day in prison), Marcelo Moren Brito (10 years and one day), Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko (10 years and one day), Orlando Manzo Durán (5 years and one day), and Pedro Alfaro Fernández (3 years and one day) did not file a cassation appeal. Pedro Herrera's sentence was reduced for having contributed to the clarification of the facts. For the same reason, Fernando Lauriani's sentence had been reduced, despite being one of the perpetrators of the 8 disappearances. The magistrates, when ruling, considered that the benefit had not been applied to Herrera, as it had been granted to Lauriani. On January 17, 1975, the couple formed by Sonia Ríos Pacheco and Fabián Ibarra Córdova were detained in Viña del Mar. One day later, Carlos Rioseco Espinoza and Alfredo García Vega were detained. On January 21, 1975, Horacio Carabantes Olivares was detained in the same city; on January 24, in Quilpué, María Isabel Gutiérrez Martínez; on January 25, Abel Vilches Figueroa, also in Viña del Mar; and on January 27, 1975, in Valparaíso, Elías Villar Quijón. All were transferred to the Maipo Regiment and, on January 28, 1975, taken to Villa Grimaldi.

Torture at the Maipo Regiment and Villa Grimaldi

Judge Solís established that the "Valparaíso Eight" group was taken inside Villa Grimaldi to the place called "La Torre." On February 20, most of them were removed from the detention center, and no news has been heard of any of them since.

Lilian Castillo Rojas, spouse of Horacio Carabantes, who was pregnant and declared that on January 21, 1975, "DINA agents appeared at her home in the commune of Quilpué, who were holding her husband in detention.

She was apprehended along with her two-year-and-three-month-old daughter. They were taken to the Maipo Regiment and locked in a basement where Fabián Ibarra was already being held." At the location, she saw Fernando Lauriani and Marcia Merino (la Flaca Alejandra).

They transferred her to the infirmary, as she was eight months pregnant. They induced labor. She recounted that her two-year-old daughter was taken to another place. Twins were born. She was visited by her husband, whom she saw in terrible physical condition, with wounds on his heels and feet and cigarette burns on his chest.

There, her husband told her that "Erick Zott, Mónica Medina, Hernán Brain, Alfredo García, Carlos Rioseco, Abel Vilches, María Isabel Gutiérrez, and Sergio Vásquez were also detained." She then added to the magistrate that "on January 28, 1975, at 6:00 PM, her spouse visited her again and indicated that she would be released and that he would be taken to Santiago.

Around midnight on January 28, they transferred her along with her three daughters; Carabantes accompanied them to his uncle's house in Quilpué, where she was released and her husband was taken away."

Transported in a Pesquera Arauco vehicle

Sergio Antonio Vásquez Malebrán, a MIR militant in Viña del Mar, was detained on January 23, 1975. Horacio Carabantes was his political supervisor, who had direct connection with the regional supervisor of the MIR.

Upon being arrested inside a Chevrolet C-10 pickup truck, he saw that Carabantes was there, who was in poor physical condition due to the beatings. They transferred him to the Maipo Regiment; there he heard Sergio Vesely and was tortured with electricity, the ruling states. "Around one in the morning on January 29, 1975," he told the magistrate, "they put us in a three-quarter-ton truck from a fishing company, completely closed, it was a refrigerated truck, along with Mónica Medina, Fabián Ibarra, Sergio Vesely, Erick Zott, Walkiria Jorquera, Julio Torres, Gerardo Hernández, Lilian Jorge, Abel Vilches, Frida Klimplen, María Isabel Gutiérrez, Hernán Brain, Ricardo Villar, Carlos Rioseco, Horacio Carabantes, and others. In total, we were about twenty detainees. In the early morning of January 29, 1975, we arrived at Villa Grimaldi." The vehicle belonged to Pesquera Arauco. According to Vásquez's testimony, it is deduced that they were transferred to the center where the DINA trained in repression and torture techniques: Rocas de Santo Domingo. This occurred between February 3 or 4, 1975, along with Abel Vilches, Alfredo García, Carlos Rioseco, Lilian Jorge, Elías Villar, and Horacio Carabantes. This time in a Chevrolet C-10, the fleet of vehicles used by the DINA to detain and disappear people. "We arrived at a place located near the sea. They take us out of the truck, and since I was wearing sandals, I feel sand on the floor and the wound burns; they line us up, we walk touching each other's shoulders, and they put us in some cabins; I am locked up with Abel Vilches and Lilian Jorge. They were summer cabins. They tie us to the cots, by the feet, hands, and neck, which prevented our mobility. The rest of the detainees were in the adjacent cabins. They leave us in those conditions for several hours. Abel Vilches unties himself and unties Lilian and me; Abel offers us bread he had in his pockets, and when we started to discover where we were, we heard a guard, at which point we tied ourselves back up," he told Judge Alejandro Solís. On the afternoon of the second day, Horacio Carabantes, Alfredo García, and Abel Vilches were taken out of the cells and put into a truck. Since Vásquez was wounded and had a fever, he began to vomit. "My companions start hitting the truck; they stop, go to see what was happening, and let us get some air. At that moment, one of the guards calls on the radio and says, 'This is Rocas Santo Domingo, permission to enter.' They continue the journey. I think we were in Valparaíso, this because of the turns the truck was making, as if it were driving through the hills. I think they took us to the Silva Palma Regiment."

Disappeared on February 20, 1975

"After about two hours, they make us go down the stairs and put us in the truck, returning to the cabins. Four days later, perhaps February 7 or 8, all the detainees returned to Villa Grimaldi, except for Horacio Carabantes and Alfredo García," Vásquez specifies.

Vásquez continues in his account that at the former Cuartel Terranova, "on February 20, 1975, in the morning, they went to look for the eight detainees from Valparaíso. We said goodbye because we thought they were being released, and I asked Abel and Horacio to let my partner know that I was at 'Villa Grimaldi'." In addition, others were taken and kept in prison at the Cuatro Álamos barracks.

From this detention center, located in the commune of San Joaquín, the detainees were not recognized as such by the dictatorship's authorities, and they were often taken out to continue being interrogated by the DINA.

This happened with María Isabel Gutiérrez Martínez, Fabián Ibarra Córdova, Sonia Ríos Pacheco, Alfredo García, and Carlos Rioseco Espinoza. Orlando José Manzo Durán was in charge of Cuatro Álamos. The justice system convicted him as an accomplice to aggravated kidnapping.

Judge Solís's ruling points out that from that detention facility, "they were removed, without their entry as detainees having been registered in the respective books, by DINA agents, coming from the clandestine detention center of Villa Grimaldi, without their exit being stamped either, and much less the place of their destination, as happened." Manzo Durán is currently serving a sentence of 5 years and one day at the Punta Peuco Prison for the disappearance of Mónica Llanca Iturra and Héctor Vergara Doxrud.

He was supposed to be released on September 14, 2017. With this conviction, 5 more years are added.

Former agent Samuel Enrique Fuenzalida Devia recounts the horrors

Numerous testimonies incorporated into the process confirm that the "Valparaíso Eight" were seen at Villa Grimaldi, including that of Amelia Odette Negrón Larré, detained on February 10, 1975, by the DINA.

Negrón specified to the Justice system that on the night of February 20, 1975, she saw that in the courtyard of Villa Grimaldi, "they had a group of detainees whom they loaded into a white truck, among them Horacio Carabantes, Alfredo García, María Isabel Gutiérrez, Fabián Ibarra, Juan Molina Mogollones, Sonia Ríos Pacheco, Carlos Rioseco, Alfredo Vilches, and Elías Villar Quijón, who were taken out of La Torre." Hugo Ernesto Salinas Farfán, detained on January 3, 1975, recounted that "at the end of January 1975, about 12 detainees arrived from Valparaíso, among whom he recognized Horacio Carabantes. 'He, like the rest of the Valparaíso detainees, was in terrible physical condition. Also, in that group were María Isabel Gutiérrez and Sonia Ríos'." Rosa Elvira Lizama Leiva indicated that "one night she was taken out of the facility along with María Isabel Gutiérrez, Horacio Carabantes, and other Valparaíso detainees and taken to Cuatro Álamos." She relates that one morning María Isabel Gutiérrez, Graciela Álvarez, and Horacio Carabantes were taken back to Villa Grimaldi. "They lock them in La Torre," she continued, "where Luis Costa, Alfredo García, Sonia Ríos, Fabián Ibarra, and Vilches were already, among others. One morning, about 10 detainees were taken out of La Torre, among them María Isabel Gutiérrez, Horacio Carabantes, Sonia Ríos, Fabián Ibarra, Vilches, and others, whom she never saw again." Former DINA agent Samuel Enrique Fuenzalida Devia, who as a conscript was assigned to the DINA and belonged to the Caupolicán group, specified that at the Cuartel Terranova or "Villa Grimaldi, the detainees were subjected to intense interrogations during which torture was applied, such as burning them with cigarettes, throwing them into a water pit, pulling out their teeth, and applying electric current."

Fugitive Daniel Cancino, detained and interrogated

Luis Germán Gutiérrez Uribe, a former DINA agent assigned to the Vampiro group, under the command of Fernando Lauriani, declared that "among the officials was Pedro Juan Herrera Henríquez and a woman nicknamed 'Pinina.' Lauriani was in charge of the 'Vampiro' group for a short time, moving on to serve as an assistant to Marcelo Moren.

Daniel Cancino was 'second in command' in the 'Vampiro' group; as he knew more than Fernando Lauriani, he was the one who ultimately guided the group, and when Lauriani left, Cancino took charge." In January 1975, by order of Marcelo Moren Brito, Eduardo Lauriani moved with his people to the V Region in order to suppress a MIR cell. "We all moved as members of the group in the two vehicles," adds Gutiérrez, "I was in the Chevrolet C-10 pickup truck driven by Hoyos, Ortiz Mora, and Muñoz, in addition to myself; in another vehicle went Fernando Lauriani, Daniel Cancino, in addition to all the others mentioned, among them Alfaro, Gangas." They presented themselves at the No. 2 Maipo Infantry Regiment; they were assigned some facilities and men to collaborate with them. He participated in several detentions; the first occurred in the "El Belloto" sector; Lauriani was in charge of the operation, the detainee was interrogated by Lauriani, Daniel Cancino, and an Army Captain from the Regiment. All the detainees were subsequently transferred to "Villa Grimaldi." Leonidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, a DINA agent from the Caupolicán brigade, served as a guard for detainees at Villa Grimaldi and asserted that Daniel Cancino Varas "worked at Villa Grimaldi, in the leadership of the Vampiro group, along with Eduardo Lauriani. In addition, he participated in the interrogations of the detainees."

Compensation for families: conviction of the State ratified

In the civil aspect, the ruling of the Santiago Court of Appeals was ratified, ordering the State to pay, for moral damages, compensation of 30 million pesos to Josefa Martínez Ruiz, mother of María Isabel Gutiérrez Martínez; Liliana María Castillo Rojas, spouse of Horacio Neftalí Carabantes Olivares; and Hilda Elena Espinoza Figueroa, spouse of Carlos Ramón Rioseco Espinoza; 20 million pesos to Claudio Abel Vílchez Gutiérrez, Abel Alberto Vilches Gutiérrez, María José Martínez Saavedra, and Cristián Ernesto Vilches Gutiérrez, all children of Abel Alfredo Vilches Figueroa; to Esteban Rodolfo Rioseco Espinoza, son of Carlos Rioseco Espinoza; and 10 million pesos to Nibaldo Humberto Ríos Pacheco, brother of Sonia del Tránsito Ríos Pacheco; and Olga Adriana Sánchez Martínez, Cecilia Elvira Sánchez Martínez, and Irene Gloria Sánchez Martínez, sisters of María Isabel Gutiérrez Martínez. The ruling dismissed the filing of the State Defense Council. It based its opinion on the fact that, as it is a crime against humanity "whose criminal prosecution action is imprescriptible, it is not coherent to understand that the civil indemnification action is subject to the rules on prescription established in internal civil law, since this contradicts the express will manifested by international Human Rights regulations, which are part of the national legal order by provision of the second paragraph of Article 5 of the Fundamental Charter."

Source: villagrimaldi.cl 07/09/2015 Date: 07-09-2015

Minister Guzmán prosecuted seven retired military officers

The investigating judge, Juan Guzmán Tapia, prosecuted seven retired military officers for the crime of aggravated kidnapping, for the disappearance of 23 people at the Villa Grimaldi torture facility during the military government.

The former uniformed officers are the former director of the DINA, Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda; Colonel Marcelo Moren Brito; Brigadier Miguel Krasnoff; Sub-officer Basclay Zapata; agent Osvaldo Romo; retired Carabineros officer Conrado Pacheco; and agent Pedro Alfaro.

Source: La Tercera July 22, 2002 Date: 07-22-2002

Those who disappeared in Valparaíso

Let us write their stories; any aspect of their lives that we can rescue will be important: grimaldi@xoommail.com. On January 17, 1975, the couple formed by Sonia del Tránsito Ríos Pacheco and Fabián Enrique Ibarra Córdoba were detained in Viña del Mar.

On January 18, 1975, also in Viña del Mar, Carlos Ramón Rioseco Espinoza and Alfredo Gabriel García Vega were detained. On January 21, 1975, Horacio Neftalí Carabantes Olivares was detained in Viña del Mar.

On January 24, 1975, María Isabel Gutiérrez Martínez was detained in Quilpué. The following day in Viña del Mar, Abel Alfredo Vilches Figueroa was detained. On January 27, 1975, the last of these detentions occurred in Valparaíso, affecting Elías Ricardo Villar Quijón.

All these detainees, and others who were released, were transferred to the Maipo Regiment, where torture was practiced according to the usual DINA methods. On January 28, 1975, a group of about 20 people from those who remained at the Maipo Regiment, among whom are the eight mentioned, were transferred to Villa Grimaldi, where they were seen by numerous witnesses.

Initially, according to the usual methods, the detention was denied by the authorities. However, amidst multiple contradictions and faced with the large amount of evidence presented to the courts of justice, the Director of the DINA himself, in response to an inquiry from the Santiago Court of Appeals in July 1977, acknowledged the operation carried out in the Valparaíso and Viña del Mar area as well as the detention of the eight disappeared persons.

However, he states that all of them were released immediately, except for Horacio Carabantes, who was released in Santiago at his own request. Later, the version that the detainees were released immediately and that they never remained at Villa Grimaldi is maintained by the authorities.

Thus, in response to inquiries made by the courts of justice, the Undersecretary of the Interior reported in February 1978 that there was no record that a place called Villa Grimaldi had been a military facility or a detention camp.

In March of the same year, the former director of the DINA reported that the eight disappeared persons were not detained but only held while they gave statements and that none of them were detained in any DINA barracks, "including Villa Grimaldi." In that same month, the Chief of the General Staff of the CNI reported that Villa Grimaldi was a military facility but had never been a detention camp.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission considers that the version provided by the DINA regarding the eight disappeared persons from Valparaíso is false, because the official responses are not consistent, because there are numerous witnesses to the victims' stay at Villa Grimaldi, because the DINA's responses regarding many other detentions have been proven false, and because nothing has been heard of any of the victims since.

The detainees disappeared while in the custody of the DINA. The testimonies coincide that the group of the "Valparaíso Eight" were transferred within Villa Grimaldi to a place called "La Torre," as well as that on February 20, all or most of them were removed from the Villa without any news of any of them being heard again.

The Commission is convinced that the disappearance of these eight people was the work of State agents, who thus violated their human rights.

HORACIO CARABANTES OLIVARES - MIR MILITANT

ALFREDO GARCIA VEGA - MIR MILITANT

MARIA ISABEL GUTIERREZ MARTINEZ - MIR MILITANT

FABIAN IBARRA CORDOBA - MIR MILITANT

SONIA RIOS PACHECO - MIR MILITANT

CARLOS RIOSECO ESPINOZA - MIR MILITANT

ABEL VILCHES FIGUEROA - MIR MILITANT

ELIAS VILLAR QUIJON - MIR MILITANT

Source: archivoschile.com