Judge Cecilia Flores Sanhueza, who is investigating human rights violations that occurred within Cerro Chena, San Bernardo, issued the first indictments yesterday afternoon as a result of her work as a judge with exclusive dedication to cases of the forcibly disappeared.

Flores, head of the First Court of Letters of San Bernardo, charged a total of 10 people with the crimes of illicit association and kidnapping. Four are retired officers from the Infantry School of Cerro Chena: Magaña Bau, Alfonso Faúndez, Víctor Pinto, and Sergio Rodríguez.

A fifth, Sergio Ávila Quiroga, was an officer of the Sixth Precinct of the Carabineros of San Bernardo. The other five are former members of the Joint Command, most of whom are already being prosecuted by the judge of the 25th Criminal Court of Santiago, Carlos Hasbún.

They are Otto Trujillo, Manuel Muñoz Gamboa, Eduardo Cartagena Maldonado, César Palma Riquelme, and Fernando Zúñiga Canales. The indictments issued by Judge Flores—reported by the newspaper La Hora—correspond to the investigation she is conducting into the disappearance of the young communist militant David Edison Urrutia Galaz.

They also concern the kidnapping of union leader Manuel Ahumada Lillo and the son of the governor of San Bernardo at the time, Fernando Ávila Alarcón.

Source: elmostrador.cl, March 27, 2002

The Communist Conscript of the Infantry

Camilo Balbontín was 18 years old when he entered the Infantry School of San Bernardo. He remembers who the cruelest officers were. After they released him, they forced him to join the DINA, but he refused.

In January 1973, he went to fulfill his mandatory military service at the Infantry School of San Bernardo. His decision was, in part, because he liked military matters. But also because his family pushed him "so that I would forget about the communism thing," he recalls after nearly 35 years.

But after a few months, he felt the rigor. While on guard duty, he was arrested one day. They slashed his hands with a corvo (curved knife), tore the nails off one hand, burned his arms with cigarettes, and tied him to a metal cot without a mattress, where he slept.

At night, they would sometimes wake him up with a bucket of water and take him out to jog. So that he would never forget that he was a "traitorous communist," and always remember that "Allende was a son of a bitch." Camilo Balbontín is a pseudonym.

He says that in the Paine and Cerro Chena cases, the threats from the criminals of that time still linger. That is why he is careful and provides his testimony under that alias. He lived through the horror after the military coup at that school and at the Cerro Chena prisoner camp, the "Cuartel Dos" (Barracks Two) of that regiment.

He was 18, had a rifle that they later took from him, and firm ideas that accompanied him in his martyrdom. A militant of the Communist Youth and a secondary education leader, he rubbed shoulders with Gladys Marín at party meetings.

The "Chilean Pasionaria," considerably more vibrant than the Spanish Dolores Ibárruri, encouraged him to keep moving forward on the proletarian path. When he put on the conscript uniform, he froze his militancy in agreement with his political structure. "There were several of us Jota (Communist Youth) militants who entered the Infantry School that year.

We didn't want to infiltrate anyone, just fulfill our duty to the country, but someone denounced us," he told LND in front of his wife, who follows his every word, transporting her back to those difficult times.

AN ENCOUNTER

The day he was set free due to family contacts with the Carabineros officer corps, and while his torture wounds had not yet healed well, Captain Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena called him. "Look, you asshole, you didn't die because the pacos (cops) saved you, but now you have to work for us in the DINA," he roared threateningly.

Camilo refused and replied: "I wish that one day we would meet in the street, both of us in civilian clothes and face to face." He already felt saved, but he was also stubborn. Time passed and the encounter happened. "About ten years ago, I found him in one of those semi-sinister passages on Calle Zenteno and I told him everything.

I don't know if he was still in the Army, but Faúndez was in civilian clothes," he recounts with pride. Faúndez was the head of Section II (Intelligence) of the Infantry School and moved between it and the Cerro Chena camp, not far from each other.

He was one of the most feared by the prisoners. His partner was Captain Víctor Pinto Pérez, who is identified in the Paine and Cerro Chena crimes as Sub-lieutenant Andrés Magaña. "They killed many people in Cerro Chena, and then they hid their bodies in a lime mine nearby.

I lived with the prisoners, tied hand and foot all day, thrown on the ground," he recalls. At times it seems he is going to burst into tears looking at his hands marked by the edge of the corvo, but he continues speaking with integrity.

BURNING MEMORIES

He remembers Lieutenant Juan Carlos Salgado Brocal. "He later became a general and went to lie to the Dialogue Table in the year 2000, because he was the commander of a rifle company at Cerro Chena and knew everything that happened to the prisoners who disappeared from there," he states with a dismissive tone.

He places the current active-duty generals Guillermo Castro, Cristián Le Dantec, Eduardo Aldunate, and Julio Baeza arriving at the Infantry School in August 1973, having just graduated as sub-lieutenants from the Military School. "They were also at Cerro Chena, but I cannot say if they committed acts that violated human rights.

Nor do I know if any of them accompanied Magaña on the operations. What is clear is that Magaña was accompanied by other officers less senior than him, because in the Army, such delicate operations as killing prisoners are not commanded by a single officer who was still a sub-lieutenant," he reflects. "But the cruelest ones I remember, besides Faúndez, were the officers Julio Cerda Carrasco and Juan Carlos Nielsen Stambuck (both retired)," he asserts, providing their full names.

Both reached the Army high command, and Cerda, a former DINA and CNI agent and former head of the Army Intelligence Battalion, is being prosecuted as a co-author of the murder of five FPMR militants in September 1987.

Faúndez, alias "Don Pedro," later became head of the Purén Brigade in the DINA and faces two indictments. Reviewing a list of officers assigned to the Infantry School of San Bernardo in September-October 1973 that exists in the Paine case, surprises emerge.

Not a few moved on to the DINA and then continued their careers in the CNI. And several reached the rank of Army general. Camilo raises a finger to signal he wants to add something. "It's about some illustrious visitors I met at Cerro Chena," he comments with a smile. "None other than the aces of the Caravan of Death, General Sergio Arellano, Brigadier Pedro Espinoza, and Lieutenant Fernández Larios, who also served at the Infantry School." "They arrived one day when I was on guard duty, before my detention; it must have been November 1973.

They went in where the prisoners were. After their visit, the torture and murders intensified. I don't know if it was the last episode of the Caravan of Death," states the man who was a conscript 35 years ago. Today he is no longer a member of the PC (Communist Party).

Source: La Nación, February 16, 2008

Indictment issued against former military officer as author of the qualified kidnapping of Juan Domingo Martínez Aldana

Minister Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón charged former Army Lieutenant Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena as the author of the crime. The minister on extraordinary assignment for human rights violation cases of the Court of Appeals of San Miguel, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, issued the indictment against former Lieutenant Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena as the author of the crime of qualified kidnapping of Juan Domingo Martínez Aldana.

According to the background information collected during the investigation, it was established that "on December 3, 1973, at night, military personnel from the Infantry School of San Bernardo illegally detained Juan Domingo Martínez Aldana, a militant of the Socialist Party, at his home, located at Avenida Central No. 452, Población Santa Laura, San Bernardo commune." After this, Martínez was taken to the Prisoner Camp that the Infantry School of San Bernardo maintained inside Cerro Chena, where he was held illegally, along with his son René Máximo Martínez Aliste, a 2nd Corporal of the Reserve of the Chilean Army, and other Reserve soldiers. It was also proven that at that time, "the Cerro Chena Prisoner Camp was in charge of Army Lieutenant Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena." Furthermore, it was established that inside the Prisoner Camp, "Juan Domingo Martínez Aldana, instead of being placed at the disposal of the corresponding administrative or judicial authority, was executed, outside the legal framework, by means of multiple firearm shots."

Source: eldesconcierto.cl, March 27, 2019

Minister Marianela Cifuentes issues indictment in the investigation into the qualified kidnapping of Juan Domingo Martínez Aldana

The minister on extraordinary assignment for human rights violation cases of the Court of Appeals of San Miguel, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, issued an indictment in the investigation into the qualified kidnapping of Juan Domingo Martínez Aldana, an event that occurred starting December 3, 1973, in the San Bernardo commune.

In the resolution, the magistrate ordered the preventive detention of Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena as the author of the crime. According to the background information collected during the investigation stage, the minister on assignment established the following facts: a) That, on December 3, 1973, at night, military personnel from the Infantry School of San Bernardo illegally detained Juan Domingo Martínez Aldana, a militant of the Socialist Party, at his home, located at Avenida Central No. 452, Población Santa Laura, San Bernardo commune. b) That, subsequently, the victim Juan Domingo Martínez Aldana was taken to the Prisoner Camp that the Infantry School of San Bernardo maintained inside Cerro Chena, where he was held illegally, along with his son René Máximo Martínez Aliste, a 2nd Corporal of the Reserve of the Chilean Army, and other Reserve soldiers, among them Patricio Antonio Vargas Carvallo, Héctor Rafael Armijo Herrera, Raúl Alfredo Zúñiga Soto, Daniel Orlando Sánchez Álvarez, Feliciano Iván Pavez Andrade, and Fernando Octavio Zúñiga Gonzalez, who managed to survive, being subjected to interrogations and mistreatment. c) That, at that time, the Cerro Chena Prisoner Camp was in charge of Army Lieutenant Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena. d) That, on December 7, 1973, inside the aforementioned Prisoner Camp, Juan Domingo Martínez Aldana, instead of being placed at the disposal of the corresponding administrative or judicial authority, was executed, outside the legal framework, by means of multiple firearm shots.

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl, June 29, 2018

Justice issues indictment against military personnel for kidnapping and abduction of minors. They were murdered

Justice is slow but it arrives, even if, due to the passage of time, it is no longer very just.

The minister on extraordinary assignment for human rights violation cases of the Court of Appeals of San Miguel, Marianela Cifuentes, issued an indictment in two investigations she is conducting for the crimes of qualified kidnapping and abduction of minors, illicit acts perpetrated by members of the Army who were acting as State agents between September and October 1973, in the communes of Pirque and San Bernardo.

In the first case (case file 62-2011), Minister Cifuentes presented an indictment against Eduardo Octavio Silva Bravo, Juan Carlos Nielsen Stambuk, Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos, Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena, Osvaldo Andrés Magaña Bau, Óscar Hernán Vergara Cruces, Roberto Arcángel Rozas Aguilera, and Sergio Heriberto Ávila Quiroga as authors of the crimes of qualified kidnapping of Francisco Eugenio Viera Ovalle and aggravated abduction of a minor, Héctor Enrique Hernández Garcés.

According to the background information collected during the investigation stage, the minister on assignment managed to establish the following facts: a) That, on September 27, 1973, in the afternoon, military personnel from the Infantry School of San Bernardo illegally detained Héctor Enrique Hernández Garcés, 17 years old, a student at DUOC, at his home located at Calle Alfonso Donoso No. 401, Población Sur, San Bernardo commune. b) That, immediately afterward, Hernández Garcés was taken to the Prisoner Camp that the Infantry School of San Bernardo maintained inside Cerro Chena, where he was held illegally and subjected to mistreatment (torture). c) That, likewise, at the end of September 1973, inside the "Principal" estate in the Pirque commune, military personnel from the Infantry School of San Bernardo illegally detained Francisco Eugenio Viera Ovalle, a student at the State Technical University. d) That, immediately afterward, Viera Ovalle was also taken to the Prisoner Camp that the Infantry School of San Bernardo maintained inside Cerro Chena, where he was held illegally and subjected to mistreatment. e) That, at the time of the events, the aforementioned Prisoner Camp was in charge of Army Captains Eduardo Octavio Silva Bravo, Juan Carlos Nielsen Stambuk, and Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos, and Army Lieutenant Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena. f) That, in the temporal context indicated above, Sub-lieutenant Osvaldo Andrés Magaña Bau and officers of the Carabineros of Chile and the Investigative Police, including Sergio Heriberto Ávila Quiroga, Oscar Hernán Vergara Cruces, and Roberto Arcángel Rozas Aguilera, performed duties in the aforementioned Prisoner Camp as interrogators. g) That, finally, between October 6 and 11, 1973, inside the aforementioned Prisoner Camp, Héctor Enrique Hernández Garcés and Francisco Eugenio Viera Ovalle, instead of being placed at the disposal of the corresponding administrative or judicial authority, were executed, outside the legal framework, by means of multiple firearm shots. In the second resolution (case file 11-2012), the minister held Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena, Osvaldo Andrés Magaña Bau, Óscar Hernán Vergara Cruces, Roberto Arcángel Rozas Aguilera, and Sergio Heriberto Ávila Quiroga responsible as authors of the crime of qualified kidnapping of Luis Heriberto Contreras Escanilla and abduction of a minor, Luis Heriberto Contreras Peñaloza. According to the background information collected during the investigation stage, the minister on assignment managed to establish the following facts: a) That, on November 10, 1973, at night, military personnel from the Infantry School of San Bernardo illegally detained Luis Heriberto Contreras Escanilla at his home, located at Pasaje Porto Alegre No. 5742 in the Población Brasilia of the San Miguel commune. b) That, immediately afterward, the aforementioned military patrol illegally detained Contreras Escanilla's son, Luis Heriberto Contreras Peñaloza, 16 years old, at a property in the Población Carbomet, Nos sector, San Bernardo commune. c) That, subsequently, both detainees were taken to the Prisoner Camp that the Infantry School of San Bernardo maintained inside Cerro Chena, where they were held illegally and subjected to interrogations and mistreatment. d) That, at that time, the Cerro Chena Prisoner Camp was in charge of Army Lieutenant Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena. e) That, likewise, in the temporal context indicated above, Army Sub-lieutenant Osvaldo Andrés Magaña Bau, Carabineros Lieutenant Sergio Heriberto Ávila Quiroga, and Investigative Police officers Oscar Hernán Vergara Cruces and Roberto Arcángel Rozas Aguilera performed duties in the aforementioned Prisoner Camp as interrogators. f) That, on November 15, 1973, inside the aforementioned Prisoner Camp, Luis Contreras Escanilla, instead of being placed at the disposal of the corresponding administrative or judicial authority, was executed, outside the legal framework, by means of multiple firearm shots. The criminals will have the right to a defense, the one they denied their victims, and if they are convicted, they should swell the list of criminals imprisoned in Punta Peuco or Colina I, provided that the current government does not pardon them, because now that they are "elderly," they do not know what they did to those children.

Source: cambio21.cl, July 24, 2018

46 years ago, 18 comrades were massacred at Cerro Chena

The crime occurred on October 6, where 500 people were also detained. Several of the criminals have been identified. After the 1973 coup d'état, Cerro Chena was converted into a center for detention, torture, and extermination. 46 years ago, on October 6, 1973, eighteen political prisoners were massacred by genocidaires.

Around 500 of us were detained in that place, including a hundred women. The best-known torturers and criminals were the Army officers: Andrés Magaña Bau (who admits to only 36 crimes in Cuesta Chada, Nuevo Sendero, and El Transito), Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena (who participated in the DINA), Víctor Pino Pérez (a member of the DINA, currently deceased), and Sergio Rodríguez Rautcher (who denies being a criminal), and Carabineros Lieutenant Sergio Ávila Quiroga (who was part of the Joint Command and continued murdering detainees).

Furthermore, through various testimonies, the minister on extraordinary assignment for human rights violation cases, Marianela Cifuentes, identified other torturers: Army Captains Eduardo Octavio Silva Bravo, Juan Carlos Nielsen Stambuk, Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos, Carlos Kyling Schmidt, Luis Cortez Villa, Marcial Cobos Farías, Luis Villarroel Contreras, Héctor Maturana Zúñiga, Luis Garfia Cabrera, and Julio Cerda Carrasco.

Lieutenants Víctor Sandoval Muñoz, Jorge Saavedra Meza, and Carlos Duran Rodríguez. Majors Iván de La Fuente, Hernán Pizarro Collarte, and Ciro Ahumada Miranda. Directed by Colonel Pedro Montalva Calvo.

Added to this are the Carabineros and Investigative police: Oscar Hernán Vergara Cruces, Roberto Arcángel Rozas Aguilera, and Mario Jesús Campos Ripley, among other State terrorists. Some of these criminals have died.

Several were members of the DINA, the CNI, and the Joint Command. Some are convicted and prosecuted, others imprisoned. In judicial statements, it is reported that the workers and prominent communist militants of the San Bernardo Railway Workshops were detained on September 28, 1973: Pastor Roberto Ávila, Arturo Koyk Fredes, Alfredo Acevedo Pereira, Raúl Castro Caldera, Hernán Chamorro Monarde, Manuel González Vargas, Ariel Monsalve Martínez, José Morales Álvarez, Pedro Oyarzún Zamorano, José Silva Oliva, and Ramón Vivanco Díaz.

Also, young socialist students were detained on September 27: Francisco Viera Ovalle, 19, and Héctor Hernández Garcés, 17. Also Javier Antonio Pacheco Monsalve, a furniture maker, former GAP (Presidential Security Group), detained on October 5.

His death was tormentous and his body was destroyed by beatings. Ricardo Solar Miranda, who worked as a night watchman, a MIR militant. The peasant MIR militants from Linderos and Paine, Juan Cuadra Espinoza, Gustavo Martínez Vera, and Carlos Ortiz Ortiz, were also there.

On October 6, the two young socialists, the three MIR peasants from Paine, a young man from the MIR of San Bernardo, and the communist militants from the Workshops, as well as the GAP escort Javier Pacheco—who died under torture and was dragged away—were called out by the torturers.

None of them returned to the wooden manger with the red roof, fenced with barbed wire, located 250 meters from the Pan-American Highway. Currently, it is a destroyed surface. Most of the prisoners appeared massacred at the Legal Medical Institute.

At Cerro Chena, around a hundred comrades were massacred. Human rights organizations have demanded that a place of historical memory be built. October 6 is considered "Railway Worker Day" in recognition of the martyred.

It is added that the Ministry of Education declared the Access Portico, the Little School, and the Hill of the Red-Roofed House as a National Monument in the "Historical Monument" category. In 1973 and 1974, family members arrived at the access portico and were humiliated when requesting information.

The modest classrooms of the little school were used as prisoner cells. There was a stone wall and a shed where torture took place during September 1973. The Hill of the Red-Roofed House operated from October 1973.

Today, where the government promotes impunity and oblivion, annulling the National Human Rights Plan that contained 634 actions. It will not promote the investigation, sanction, and reparation of crimes against humanity.

It will not assist the survivors of torture. It will not annul the Self-Amnesty Decree Law. It will not form any qualification commission for victims of torture during the dictatorship. It will only prepare self-reports and monitor internal drafts to continue protecting murderers.

Every year, on October 6, family members and comrades hold tribute acts, pilgrimages, and candlelight vigils demanding no oblivion, truth, justice, memory, and reparation. Ricardo Klapp Santa Cruz. Former Political Prisoner at Cerro Chena.

Source: elsiglo.cl, October 6, 2019

Inquiry into the 70 victims of the Paine case ends with 9 more indicted

The minister on assignment for the Court of Appeals of San Miguel, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, issued new indictments against 9 retired members of the Carabineros and the Army for the qualified kidnappings of 11 peasants in October 1973, thereby concluding the investigation into the 70 victims of the emblematic Paine case.

In her resolution, the magistrate indicted Iván de la Fuente Sáez, Francisco José Rojas Martínez, Julio Cerda Carrasco, Alejandro Emilio Valdés Visintainer, Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena, Osvaldo Andrés Magaña Bau, Sergio Heriberto Ávila Quiroga, Óscar Hernán Vergara Cruces, and Roberto Arcángel Rozas Aguilera as authors of the crimes of qualified kidnapping.

The victims are José Manuel Díaz Inostroza, Francisco Javier Lizama Irarrázaval, Jorge Manuel Pavez Henríquez, Juan Manuel Ortiz Acevedo, and Luis Celerino Ortiz Acevedo, who disappeared starting October 13, 1973, and Pedro Juan Meneses Brito, Luis Osvaldo González Mondaca, Santos Pascual Calderón Saldaña, Benjamín Adolfo Camus Silva, Rolando Anastasio Donaire Rodríguez, and Bautista Segundo Oyarzo Torres, starting October 20, 1973.

According to the background information collected during the investigation stage, the minister on assignment established that on October 13 and 20, 1973, personnel from the Infantry School of San Bernardo carried out raids and selective detentions in various peasant settlements of the Agrarian Reform in the Paine commune.

Then, the detainees were taken to the prisoner camp that the Infantry School of San Bernardo maintained inside Cerro Chena, where they were also held illegally and subjected to interrogations and mistreatment.

Instead of being placed at the disposal of the corresponding administrative or judicial authority, the detainees were executed by means of firearm shots and their bodies were abandoned on different properties in the area.

Source: fortinmapocho.cl, March 6, 2018

"I was raped, they applied electricity to me, they burned me with cigarettes, they performed ‘chupones’ [hickey-like suction marks], they put rats on me. I think I was at Venda Sexy (a secret DINA facility); they tied me to a stretcher where trained dogs raped me.

I was always covered with scotch tape, then a blindfold, and then a hood. They would laugh, offer us food, and give us orange peels. They would wake us up at night to make us lose track of time." (Testimony of a 16-year-old girl, kidnapped in the Metropolitan Region, who was later expelled from the country without her family.)

Horror became a reality for all Chileans. Some will continue to say it is a lie, that the survivors "were paid to speak against the Armed Forces," or ultimately that "they deserved it." But the country has now learned the truth, and even a model-television host wants to "know the names of the torturers." That is the idea of this special: to deliver a part of the truth that does not have to wait 50 years to be known.

That is one of the many criticisms leveled at the Report on Political Imprisonment and Torture presented by Ricardo Lagos on the night of Sunday, November 28, through a pre-recorded speech for the national broadcast aired before the television channels' news programs began.

Alone, with no victims or family members to look in the eye, the President of the Republic fulfilled the ritual of informing his fellow citizens. There was no symbolic delivery of the text, there was no possibility of asking questions, there was no recognition of the motives that led so many men and women to torture their compatriots, there was no accurate criticism, there were no names of victims or perpetrators, and the background information was not handed over to the Justice system, as had been done after the Rettig Report and even the Dialogue Table.

Reactions from hatred

Appointed senators and former uniformed officers reacted by dismissing any participation in the crimes. Former Admiral Jorge Martínez Bush demanded a "final point" to end the "lies" against his institution.

The other former admiral, Jorge Arancibia, flatly denied the possibility of "decommissioning" the La Esmeralda, "which can only be decommissioned in combat," and threatened: "I cannot commit myself, nor can anyone else, to ensuring that something never happens again if I do not know what causes it." Many insisted on Hermógenes Pérez de Arce's thesis regarding the baseless slanders against the uniformed officers and the "military government," repeated by retired generals and admirals.

Appointed senator and former commander-in-chief of the FACH (Chilean Air Force) Ramón Vega supported his institution's official statement and added: "We are lamenting the consequences today and we are investigating them, but a plan for torture—at least I never heard of it, it was never analyzed, nor in the War Academy, nor in the Aviation School, nor in any training school was the word torture ever heard."

Senators Rodolfo Stange and Fernando Cordero, former general directors of the Carabineros, did not accept institutional responsibility for the torture and asserted that "there are no reasons for the uniformed police to apologize."

Stange criticized the report on torture "because it borders on the unconstitutional, calling institutions into question rather than individuals. I participated in the government junta, but I do not offer a mea culpa because I do not feel responsible for any extreme situation as is being indicated in Bishop Valech's commission," he noted.

Cordero, for his part, said that one would have to "complete the third leg of the table, because at this moment the table is wobbly; a mea culpa must be made for what occurred before September 11, 1973, which was the cause of all the situations that occurred subsequently."

The current General Director, Alberto Cienfuegos, also appeared distant from the possibility of apologizing or assuming institutional responsibility, although he should answer regarding what his role was, starting March 25, 1974, when as a lieutenant he was appointed on a service commission to serve as Head of the Information Office of the National Executive Secretariat for Detainees, remembered by many people by its acronym: SENDET.

The UDI, National Renewal, and Lavín opted to downplay the profile, to appear in deep shock, even asserting that their participation in the dictatorship was, precisely, to prevent further abuses from being committed and to pave the way for democracy.

No one believed them. Sergio Fernández continued trying to dismiss his participation in human rights violations, but his cabinet colleague Mónica Madariaga asserted that in the clandestine torture centers, agents knew him as "el car’e jote" [the vulture-face].

Soon he will have to begin continuous visits to the courts, along with Sergio Onofre Jarpa, Sergio Diez, Ambrosio Rodríguez, among so many others, to answer the many questions that arise regarding their responsibilities as civil authorities.

A new avalanche of lawsuits for torture, like those already filed by hundreds of former political prisoners, is expected following the delivery of the report. Fernández Fernández will have to answer, for example, for why he denied to the Justice system the existence of Villa Grimaldi, as demonstrated by the confidential official letter in which he responds on May 18, 1978, to the inquiry from the Third Major Criminal Court of Santiago.

Demands from organizations

The coalition of organizations of former political prisoners reacted in unison (see page 2), and the groups of victims' relatives joined the denunciation. The Communist Party announced new lawsuits and added that "the main reparation the country expected is that which relates to it being proportional to the damage caused.

This implies truth and full justice for all victims. We demand that for the sake of those principles, the Report be made public in its entirety; that the names of the torturers be handed over to the courts of justice and that all judicial proceedings that are required be initiated; that their archives be declassified immediately and not in 50 years; that all those responsible for torture and abuse be immediately removed from the armed and police forces; that an end be put to the military doctrine whose matrix is established by North American imperialism, and in which Chilean military and police cadres are and have been systematically instructed to repress their own people."

The issue of monetary reparation was not the center of the controversy, except for Ricardo Lagos's attempt to blackmail the tortured with the threat of having to take money from social programs to pay their compensation.

From CODEPU, another demand was made: "Just as new deadlines are going to be opened to reconsider the status of victims for people who did not qualify, we propose that because it is a crime against humanity, there cannot be an exclusionary deadline for qualification.

In this sense, the State must open a new deadline for new submissions from people who, for various reasons, did not attend the initial call, especially when the Report itself points out that the testimonies collected 'only represent a partial sample of the total universe of people affected by such human rights violations during the military regime'."

Thus, neither the mea culpa that some media outlets, such as Canal 13, attempted to make, nor the "astonishment" of some dictatorship officials like Jorge Hevia, have managed to remove the main issue from the center: torture took place in Chile.

Torture was systematic and organized, supported by the entire infrastructure of a State turned terrorist; hundreds of men and women were trained to subject other men and women to the most terrible abuses.

The use of rats and dogs to sexually assault prisoners, electricity on the most delicate corners of their bodies, mock executions, food deprivation for long periods, and many other aberrations were committed against those they considered "enemies," "humanoids" in the words of one of the members of the Military Junta.

The other thing that has been clear is that the survivors have had the courage and dignity to recount what they suffered, to transform it into hope and the desire to continue insisting on the need to transform this country, to continue fighting to make the dreams of those who could not come to give their testimony a reality: the executed and the forcibly disappeared.

DINA: Pinochet's hand

"I always complied (...) in accordance with the orders that the President of the Republic gave me. Only he, as the Superior Authority of the DINA, could arrange and order the missions to be executed, and always, in my capacity as Delegate of the President and Executive Director of the DINA, I strictly complied with what was ordered of me." (Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, director of the DINA).

In the trials against the DINA, looking at the list of the accused and convicted, it would seem that the only ones who made it up were a few commanders headed by its director Juan Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, alias "Mamo" and "Mojón." Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, alias "Don Rodrigo"; Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann, alias "Don Elías" and "Luis Gutiérrez"; Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, alias "caballo loco"; and the operatives Gerardo Godoy García, Basclay Zapata Reyes, and Osvaldo Romo Mena always appear.

But the torturers were many more.

Caupolicán Brigade

Major Marcelo Luis Manuel Moren Brito,

Head of the Caupolicán Brigade. Alias "coronta," "ronco," and "oso."

Lieutenant Colonel Vianel Valdivieso Cervantes, alias "Víctor." Head of the Psychological Operations Department. He maintained contact with journalists who performed services for the DINA, such as Roberto Araya, Julio López Blanco, Claudio Sánchez, Pablo Honorato, Ricardo Coya, and Beatriz Undurraga, and the publicist Manfredo Mayol. He retired in 1987 and set up a private company in Temuco.

Corvette Captain Sergio José Peñaloza Marusic, operative agent.

Corvette Captain Alejandro Paulino Campos Rehbein, alias "Antolín." ID 3.704.573-K. Operative agent. Later joined the Sub-directorate of Foreign Intelligence.

Captain Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima. Alias "Max Lenoux." Head of the clandestine torture center known as José Domingo Cañas, replacing Ciro Torré. Partner of "Pedro Diet Lobos" and instructor at the National Intelligence School, teaching courses on "secret service and observation." He continued his work in the CNI and remained in active service at least until the early 90s with the rank of colonel.

Lieutenant Fernando Eduardo Laureani Maturana, alias "Lieutenant Pablo." Agent of the Caupolicán Brigade and head of the Aguila group, known as "los guatones." Until the early 90s, he remained in active service, with the rank of colonel, as Chief of Staff of the 3rd Army Division in Concepción.

Carabinero Lieutenant Jaime Gustavo López Abarca, agent of Londres 38 and Cuatro Alamos. ID 1.822.793-2. Involved in the disappearance of María Cecilia Labrín Sazo.

Carabinero Corporal Emilio Hernán Troncoso Vivallos. ID 4.236.940-3. Involved in the disappearances of Juan Bautista and Washington Maturana Pérez, Mario Juica Vega, Gabriel Castillo, and Daniel Palma Robledo.

Carabinero Corporal Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo Acevedo.

Army Lieutenant Jorge Claudio Andrade Gómez, ID 5.293.833-3. In the first days of the coup, he participated in the massacre at the Panguipulli timber complex. He acted under the direct command of Krassnoff at the Terranova barracks (Villa Grimaldi).

In August 1979, already in the CNI, he participated in the application of the torture that caused the death of teacher Federico Alvarez Santibáñez. In 1991, he was a major in the Metropolitan General Garrison and a member of the DINE.

Carabinero Corporal José Aravena Ruiz, alias "muñeca del diablo" and "cucharita"; the latter nickname was given to him by prisoners because he used to hit their knuckles with a spoon after torture. He was "funado" [publicly exposed] in December 1999 at his home at Alfonso Leng 5569-0, in the Villa Santa Elena de Macul, a site he abandoned shortly after.

Army Conscript Samuel Enrique Fuenzalida Devia, alias "gato."

Emilio Iribarren Ledermann, alias "Joel." Went from being a MIR militant to a DINA agent.

Leonardo Alberto Schneider Jordán, alias "Barba." Went from being a MIR militant to an agent, first of the Joint Command and then of the DINA. These days he is being prosecuted in several cases of torture and disappearances.

Carabinero Captain Egladio Salgado Torres, agent assigned to the Belgrano General Headquarters, but also with operative functions in kidnappings and torture at Villa Grimaldi. In 1980, he returned to his institution, joining the DICAR. He retired with the rank of colonel.

Sergio Bernardino Ortega Parada, alias "gil culiao."

Corvette Captain Sergio José Peñaloza Marusic. ID 4.782.486-9. Operative agent of the DINA until its dissolution.

Carabinero Corporal José Avelino Yévenes Vergara, alias "Quico" or "Daniel Cáceres." Member of the Halcón II group, with duties as a torturer at Londres 38, José Domingo Cañas, and Villa Grimaldi. At the end of the DINA, he moved to the CNI and then to the DINE. He was "funado" at his home at Calle B 5266, Villa San Luis de Macul, Peñalolén commune.

Purén Brigade

Army Captain Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena,

Head of the Purén Brigade. ID 5.454.077-1. On September 11, he was serving at the San Bernardo Infantry School, participating in the executions and disappearances in Paine and Cerro Chena. He continued his work in the CNI. After the end of the dictatorship, he settled in Talca, where he has a company that supplies forage and grain to the Army.

Army Colonel Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, alias "Raúl" and "Claudio." Second in command of the Purén Brigade. He continued his work in the CNI and, in 1989, was appointed Plaza Chief in the district of La Pintana, Puente Alto, Pirque, and San José de Maipú. Until the early 90s, he was part of the DINE with the rank of colonel.

Carabinero Major Eduardo Víctor Espinoza Paiella. ID 3.662.969-K. Agent of the Economics Department. He retired along with Manuel Contreras.

Carabinero Captain Germán Jorge Barriga Muñoz, alias "Don Jaime." ID 5.060.938-3. Member of the Purén Brigade and later of the CNI. With the rank of colonel, Barriga performed duties in 1991 at the National Mobilization Directorate. He was "funado" at his residence at Irarrázaval 2061, apartment 105, a place he abandoned hastily. Today he is head of security for Lider supermarkets.

Lieutenant Manuel Abraham Vásquez Chahuán, alias "Lieutenant Manuel." ID 5.090.309-K. Responsible for the disappearances and executions in Paine and Cerro Chena. He continued in the CNI and in 1989 was appointed commander of the Logistics Battalion of Concepción.

Army Corporal Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes,

alias "el troglo." Known for being very cruel in torture and raping detained women. Prosecuted for multiple cases of disappearance, executions, and torture. Until the early 90s, he remained as an instructor at the "Daniel Rebolledo" Non-Commissioned Officers School and with operative duties in the DINE.

Carabinero Officer Gerardo Urrich González, alias "mano negra." Instructor at Tejas Verdes. Responsible for a series of executions in the sector known as Barrancas, today mostly the Pudahuel commune. He was "funado" at his office of "Servicios de Seguridad Alcázar," located at Ahumada 236, office 408.

Army Lieutenant Manuel Jorge Provis Carrasco. As a member of the San Bernardo Infantry School, he participated in the crimes of Paine and Cerro Chena. He continued in repressive tasks and was commander of the CNI barracks on Calle Borgoño, participating in Operation Albania.

At the end of 1989, he returned from a professional trip he made to Israel. Until 1991, he was a lieutenant colonel in the Army Intelligence Brigade.

Army Lieutenant Marco Antonio Sáez Saavedra. ID 5.795.624-0. Specialist in the repression of the Communist Party and Socialist Party. In 1991, he was a lieutenant colonel and performed his duties in the Army Operations Directorate. Brother-in-law of CNI major Joaquín Molina, murdered by Manuel Contreras Valdebenito.

Army Lieutenant Manuel Rolando Mosqueira Jarpa.

Detective Manuel Gregorio Chirinos Ramírez.

Detective Jorge Lander Cabezas.

Detective Francisco Aladino Caamaño Díaz.

Detective Arturo Patricio Vargas Cid.

Investigative Inspector Juan Saldías Valdés, alias "Harry el sucio."

Investigative Inspector Risiere del Prado Altes España, alias "Pedro."

Other commanders and agents

Army Lieutenant Colonel Jerónimo Luzberto Pantoja Hernández, Sub-director of the DINA and the CNI. ID 2.095.044-7. Responsible for the Chihuío massacre as vice-commander of the Maturana Regiment of Valdivia. In 1990, he was arrested for his participation in the illegal financial firm known as "La Cutufa."

Army Lieutenant Colonel Alberto Elissalde Muller, Head of the Economics Department. ID 3.118.465-7. As head of the Personnel Sub-directorate, he paid the agents' salaries through the front companies "Villar y Reyes" and "Elissalde y Poblete." At least until f at the end of the 90s, he lived on one of his extensive properties in the southern part of the country.

Major Carlos Rafael Parera Silva, Alias "Luis Gutiérrez", ID 3.090.193-2. Chief of the Foreign Department (successor to Iturriaga Neumann). In 1973, he was the Second Commander of the Boinas Negras in Peldehue.

When the DINA was dissolved, he rejoined the Army and was assigned as Commander of the Dolores Regiment, Director of the Paratrooper and Special Forces School, and in 1985, military attaché in France. During the government of Patricio Aylwin, he was a Military Attaché at the Chilean embassy in South Africa.

Andrés Terrise Castro. Agent of the Psychological Operations Department, where he performed duties involving the cover-up of crimes and the preparation of propaganda campaigns. He continued in the CNI and the DINE as a civilian agent.

Today, he appears as a businessman for an advertising firm based in the Ciudad Empresarial of Huechuraba. Major Rolf Gonzalo Wenderoth Pozo, chief of Villa Grimaldi. ID 3.870.222-K. He was the chief and lover of Luz Arce.

In 1985, he was a military attaché in the Federal Republic of Germany, retiring in 1987 to move to the south, where many high-ranking DINA officials own extensive tracts of land. Major Julio Cerda Carrasco, Chief of Security of the Central Headquarters (Belgrano).

Responsible for disappearances and political executions at Cerro Chena. He retired in December 2002 as Commander-in-Chief of the IV Army Division. Army Captain Eugenio Armando Videla Valdebenito, operative agent.

ID 4.209.466-8. He participated in the courses at Tejas Verdes before joining the DINA. He was director of the Tejas Verdes School of Engineers and governor of San Antonio. In active service until the early 90s, he eventually joined the Army General Staff.

Army Lieutenant Juan Viterbo Chiminelli Fullerton, ID 3.704.546-2. Agent of the Foreign Department. In 1973, he served in the aviation command and was one of the pilots who accompanied General Arellano Stark to the south and north of the country in the "Caravan of Death".

In 1974, he became part of the DINA. He was "funado" (publicly denounced) at his home on Avenida El Bosque Norte and at his workplace at the Dutch-owned mining company Kvaerner-Chile. Lieutenant Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, 5.392.869-2, Chief of the Halcón 1 Brigade.

Alias "cachete grande". Prosecuted for numerous cases of kidnapping, political executions, and torture, including the disappearance of María Cecilia Labrín Sazo, who was in an advanced state of pregnancy.

He was "funado" at Tabancura 1382, his workplace at the shrimp distribution company "Kamaron Bay," where he uses the alias "Ricardo Flores" in his contact with the owners of numerous restaurants in Santiago.

Carabineros Lieutenant Emilio Patricio Sajuria Alvear, partner in the front company Pedro Diet Lobos. ID 5.122.525-2. "Funado" at Telefónica, where he worked in their Legal Department. Today he works as a lawyer for tourism companies.

Carabineros Second Lieutenant Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Chief of the Tucán Support Group and Chief of Venda Sexy. Alias "cachete chico". Until March 1991, with the rank of major, he was chief of the Ancud police station.

After that date, he was transferred to Santiago. Today he is convicted for the kidnapping of Miguel Angel Sandoval and is required to be transferred to Punta Peuco II, although he is still seen around his house in La Reina.

Carabineros Officer Gerardo Alejandro Aravena Longa, operative agent. ID 4.567.685-4. Involved in the political execution of five political prisoners at Cuesta Barriga and in the disappearance of José Guillermo Barrera.

When the DINA ended, he moved to the CNI, and in 1985 he returned to the Carabineros, retiring as a commander. Today he is the General Manager of Radio Santiago. Army Officer Mario Alejandro Jara Seguel.

ID 3.319.824-8. Chief of the DINA headquarters in the IV Region, based in Coquimbo. At another time, he was in command of the brigade that operated in Rocas de Santo Domingo. A personal friend of Manuel Contreras. He acquired a plot of land between Coquimbo and La Serena where he would live with his former secretary, named Nancy.

Comando Conjunto: Terrorism from the FACH

The so-called Comando Conjunto (CC) was an intelligence group that operated approximately between late 1975 and 1976, and whose main objective was the repression of the so-called Central Force of the MIR, and the central committees of the Communist Party and the Communist Youth.

During this period, according to the Rettig Report, it was responsible for the disappearance of nearly 30 people. Other sources cite more than 70. The CC was formed mainly by agents belonging to the Air Force Intelligence Directorate (DIFA) and later with significant participation from personnel of the Carabineros Intelligence Directorate (DICAR).

It also counted, to a lesser extent, on the participation of agents from the Naval Intelligence Service (SIN) and some personnel from the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE). In addition, members of the Chilean Investigative Police and civilians from the far-right group Patria y Libertad collaborated in that Command.

The beginnings at the AGA

Witnesses who survived the torture at the Air War Academy (Academia de Guerra Aérea) remember their torturers as including, among others, Generals Orlando Gutiérrez Bravo and Juan Soler Manfredini; Commanders Sergio Lizasoaín Mitrano, Edgar Cevallos Jones, Jaime Lavín Fariña, Carlos Godoy Avendaño, Juan Bautista González, Ramón Cáceres Jorquera, and Humberto Velásquez Estay; FACH Colonel and doctor Humberto Berg Fontecilla; Colonels Sergio Sanhueza López and Javier Lopetegui Torres; Captains León Duffey Treskoff (who reached the rank of general within the FACH), Alberto Waschtendorf, Juan Carlos Sandoval, Alvaro Gutiérrez (currently residing in Melipilla), Jaime Lemus, Víctor Mattig Guzmán, Florencio Dublé, Contreras, and Hernán Fucshlogher (chief of the permanent guard); lawyer Julio Tapia Falk (mastermind of the war council and main advisor to General Leigh. Appointed Rector at the U. de Chile, lawyer for Manuel Contreras when he attempted to take refuge in the Talcahuano Naval Hospital, and, lately, a plaintiff against the play "Arturo Prat." He works in his private law firm in the Providencia commune, on Santa Magdalena street), legal advisors Cristián Rodríguez, Jaime Cruzat Corvera (who has his office in the middle of Paseo Huérfanos), and Víctor Barahona; Lieutenants Juan Carlos Sandoval, Luis Campos, José García Huidobro, Franklin Bello, and Gonzalo Pérez Canto; Sergeant Hugo "chuncho" Lizana, Sub-officer Juan Normabuena, Corporal Eduardo Cartagena, and 2nd Corporal Gabriel Cortés (who changed his name).

The most sinister

Sergio Manuel Barra Von Kretschmann (ID 1.614.559-9), chief of the Naval Intelligence Service in the Intelligence Community (José Antonio Ríos 6). Frigate captain at the time of the coup d'état, part of the DINA leadership in 1974 and deputy director in 1975.

In 1976, he became part of the CNI. He was prosecuted as an accomplice to criminal conspiracy and the kidnapping of Edrás Pinto and Reinalda Pereira by Judge Cerda. Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger, General (ret.) of the FACH.

Chief of the DIFA at J.A.R. 6. Prosecuted as the perpetrator of criminal conspiracy and accomplice to the kidnapping of Edrás Pinto and Reinalda Pereira, for the kidnapping of Víctor Vega, and the disappearance and death of Juan Luis Rivera Matus.

Also for the crime of qualified kidnapping of Víctor Vega, David Urrutia, Juan Carlos Orellana, Ricardo Weibel, Alonso Gahona Chávez, and Miguel Rodríguez Gallardo, and the illegal detention of survivors Isabel Stange, Jaime Estay, and Amanda Velasco.

Mario H. Vivero Avila, General (ret.) of the FACH, Aviation judge, and commander of the Santiago garrison in 1976. Prosecuted as a cover-up for criminal conspiracy and the disappearance of Víctor Vega.

Edgar Benjamín Cevallos Jones, Colonel (ret.) of the FACH. Director of the DIFA and later of the SIFA, torturer at the Air War Academy, and chief of Roberto Fuentes Morrison in the CC. Alias "Inspector Cabezas".

ID 2.895.236-8. Prosecuted as the perpetrator of criminal conspiracy and accomplice to the kidnapping of Edrás Pinto and Reinalda Pereira, and for the disappearance of Luis Baeza Cruces and the murder of Alfonso Carreño Diaz in 1974.

Carlos Arturo Madrid Hayden, Commander (ret.) of the FACH. Vice-commander of the Colina Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment where the "Remo Cero" torture center operated. Prosecuted as the perpetrator of criminal conspiracy, and the kidnapping of Víctor Vega and Juan Luis Rivera Matus.

Daniel Luis Enrique Guimpert Corvalán, Navy Lieutenant (ret.) (ID 4.638.149-1). Prosecuted as the perpetrator of criminal conspiracy and accomplice to the kidnapping of Edrás Pinto, Reinalda Pereira, and Víctor Vega.

Eduardo Enrique Cartagena Maldonado, alias "Lalo". ID 5.083.760. Sub-officer (ret.) of the FACH. Agent of the CC since 1975, participating in kidnappings, torture, and disappearances of numerous communist leaders between that year and 1976.

After the dissolution of this organization, he joined the Air Force Intelligence Service (SIFA). His last known address is Del Rey 394, Maipú, where he was denounced by the FUNA Commission. It is most likely that he is living in the central coastal area.

Miguel Arturo Estay Reyno, alias "El Fanta". ID 6.446.545-7. Former communist militant, he went from informant to agent after being detained in 1975 by members of the Comando Conjunto. Prosecuted by Judge Cerda and amnestied by Silva Ibáñez, he is currently serving a life sentence in Colina for the murder of the three communist professionals and is being prosecuted for the disappearance of Víctor Vega.

César Luis Palma Ramírez, alias "El Fifo". ID 6.387.372-1. As a militant of Patria y Libertad, he participated in numerous terrorist attacks against the UP government; he was detained in August 1973 for his participation in the homicide of presidential aide Arturo Araya, and amnestied after the coup d'état by Admiral Adolfo Waulbaum.

A friend of Fuentes Morrison, who brought him to the CC, he became his right-hand man in the execution of repressive tasks. His last known address is El Quilo 5535, Quinta Normal, where the cooling equipment factory FRIGOMET LTDA. operates; they claim not to know him, however, his phone-fax 7738010 remains in the name of Palma Ramírez.

Leonardo Alberto Schneider Jordán, alias "El Barba". ID 5.521.250-3. Former MIR militant, agent. Accused by numerous survivors of having participated in their detention and torture at the Air War Academy.

He would later join the brigade dedicated to repressing the MIR within the DINA. Prosecuted for torture and permanent kidnapping in at least two Santiago courts. His last known address is Las Hualtatas 4966, phone 2633546, Vitacura.

Roberto Alfonso Flores Cisterna, alias "El Huaso". ID 7.767.975-8. Soldier (ret.) of the FACH. On September 11, 1973, as a FACH soldier at the El Bosque Air Base, he participated in interrogations and torture of detainees.

In 1975, he became part of the CC, being responsible for the kidnapping, torture, and disappearance of dozens of communist militants. Until the mid-90s, he remained in active service in the SIFA; today he appears to be working in the commercial sector.

His last known address is Villa Tantauco, Block 10282, apt. 31, San Bernardo. Otto Silvio Trujillo Miranda, civilian agent, alias "Colmillo Blanco" in a report by La Nación. ID 5.684.434-1. A DC militant in his youth, he later joined Patria y Libertad where he met "Wally," who would take him to the CC.

He participated in the kidnapping, torture, and disappearance of dozens of leftist militants until his expulsion due to an incident with the DINA. After a long stay in the Penitentiary Hospital, he has been seen circulating in the La Florida commune.

Guillermo Antonio Urra Carrasco, alias "Willy". ID 6.687.227-0. Second Corporal (ret.) of the FACH. Operative agent of the CC since its formalization in 1975. He was prosecuted by Judge Carlos Cerda for his participation in the kidnapping, torture, and disappearance of dozens of leftist militants.

According to direct witnesses, he is responsible for the execution of prisoners in the Cajón del Maipo (among them José Weibel and agents Carol Flores and Guillermo Bratti), in Cuesta Barriga (among others Horacio Cepeda, Fernando Ortiz, and Reinalda Pereira), and for throwing others into the sea off the coast of Quinteros.

His last known address is Santa Blanca 1990, Las Condes. Fernando Patricio Zúñiga Canales, Alias "Chirola". ID 5.974.807-6. Sub-officer (ret.) of the FACH. As a soldier at the El Bosque Air Base, on September 11, 1973, he participated in the torture of his comrades-in-arms.

He was then transferred to the Air War Academy to perform the same duties and from there went on to be part of the DIFA. In 1975, he joined the CC, where he participated in the kidnapping, torture, and disappearance of dozens of leftist militants.

He belonged to the FACH Intelligence Service (SIFA) at least until the early 90s. His last known address is Pasaje Simón Bolívar 1298, San Bernardo. Jorge Rodrigo Cobos Manríquez, FACH reserve lieutenant, from Patria y Libertad.

Alias "Kiko" or "Elefantito" (ID 5.890.505-4). Prosecuted as the perpetrator of criminal conspiracy and accomplice to the kidnapping of Edrás Pinto, Reinalda Pereira, and Víctor Vega. Jorge Arnoldo Barraza Riveros, Commissioner (ret.) of the Investigative Police.

Alias "El Zambra". Prosecuted as an accomplice to criminal conspiracy. Pedro Ernesto Caamaño Medina, Sub-officer (ret.) of the FACH. Alias "Peter" (ID 7.024.319-9). Operative agent at the "La Firma" torture center.

Prosecuted by Judge Carlos Hazbún for the kidnapping of Víctor Vega. He participated in the kidnapping of José Weibel and dozens of militants of the Communist Youth. His last known address is José Miguel Carrera 424, apartment 702, Santiago Centro, where he was denounced to his neighbors by the FUNA Commission.

Alejandro Fígari Verdugo, alias Luty, from Patria y Libertad, second in command of the detention team, after "Fifo" Palma (according to Otto Trujillo). ID 6.693.227-3. Alex Damián Carrasco Olivos, FACH official, bodyguard for Leigh, Fernando Matthei, and Ramón Vega.

Alias "Loco Alex" (ID 6.243.426-7). Operative agent of the Comando Conjunto. Juan Arturo Chávez Sandoval, Corporal (ret.) of the FACH. Alias "Peque", "Rucio", or "Pol". ID 6.476.141-2. Torturer at the AGA and operative of the CC.

Prosecuted for the kidnapping of Víctor Vega. Raúl Horacio González Fernández, official (ret.) of the FACH. Alias "Rodrigo" or "Wally Chico". ID 6.519.815-0. Witnesses state that he participated in the detention of José Weibel. "Funado" in Puerto Montt, in October 2002, in front of the radio taxi company Volcanes located at 459 Doctor Marín street, phones 313131 and 313989, from which he offered services to the newspapers El Mercurio and El Llanquihue, and to the local Coca-Cola branch.

Prosecuted as an accomplice to the illegal detention of Amanda Velasco Pedersen in the 25th Criminal Court. Antonio Benedicto Quiros Reyes, ID 3.189.349-6. Colonel (ret.) of the FACH and chief of the Counterintelligence Department during the years of the CC.

Prosecuted by Carlos Cerda as the perpetrator of criminal conspiracy. Andrés Pablo Potin Lailhacar, civilian agent of the CC. Alias "Yerko". ID 5.390.709-1. Militant of Patria y Libertad detained in August 1973 for his participation in the homicide of presidential aide Arturo Araya.

Prosecuted by Judge Hazbún as a participant in the kidnapping of Víctor Vega. He is listed as a businessman in the computer sector with an office at Américo Vespucio Norte 2506. Robinson Alfonso Suazo Jaque, soldier (ret.) of the FACH.

Alias "Jonathan". ID 7.641.894-2. Torturer at the AGA. Prosecuted in the 25th Criminal Court for the kidnapping and disappearance of Víctor Vega. Pedro Juan Zambrano Uribe, FACH official. Alias "Chino".

ID 6.969.320-2. Prosecuted by Minister Hazbún as the perpetrator of the kidnapping of Víctor Vega. Franklin Bello Calderón, Lieutenant (ret.) of the FACH, prosecuted in the Ninth Criminal Court of Santiago for the disappearance of Luis Baeza Cruces and the murder of Alfonso Carreño Diaz in 1974.

Other torturers of the Comando Conjunto

Miguel Angel Perucca López, FACH reservist. Víctor Misael Robles Mella, officer (ret.) of the FACH. Luis Eduardo Rojas Campillay, FACH official. Patricio Eugenio Saavedra Rojas, commander (ret.) of the FACH.

Ramón Eduardo Valenzuela Cuevas, 5.934.129-4. Alberto Roque Badilla Grillo, ID 5.164.080-2. Tito Alejandro Figarí Verdugo, ID 6.693.227-3. Angel Gabriel Valdivia Pérez, ID 3.277.893-3. Lénin Figueroa Sánchez, ID 4.633.329-2.

Enrique Augusto Werner Haase, 4.086.322-2. Santiago Segundo San Martín Riquelme, ID 4.530.448-5. Angel Segundo Valdivia Pérez, ID 3.996.083-4. José Florentino Fuentes Castro, ID 5.340.552-5. Francisco Hidalgo García, 2.633.797-6. Francisco Segundo Illanes Miranda, ID 4.294.918-3. Ernesto Arturo Lobos Gálvez, ID 5.082.345-8. Jorge Aníbal Osses Novoa, ID 4.818.025-6. By Julio Oliva García |

Source: elsiglo.cl, December 10, 2004

Army opposes declaration of extermination center at Cerro Chena as a national monument

Unlike other memorial sites, it includes a building that is practically intact, according to survivors. This coming October 6 marks 44 years since the execution by firing squad of 18 people at that location, including a 17-year-old boy, at the hands of soldiers from the Escuela de Infantería de San Bernardo.

The Army, through a document sent in March and another in August, points out that the declaration process not only had legal flaws, but also notes that the memorial site would interfere with its military activities.

There is indignation among human rights groups regarding the Army's opposition to the declaration as a national monument—specifically as a memorial site—of the "Cuartel N° II" of the Intelligence Section of the Escuela de Infantería de San Bernardo (Casas Viejas de Chena), on Cerro Chena, in the commune of San Bernardo, decided in June by the National Monuments Council (CMN).

The declaration, which took place on June 28, was initiated by the Corporación Memorial Cerro Chena following a formal application in July 2016, given that after the coup d'état, numerous people were tortured and murdered there.

Their executioners were soldiers from the Escuela de Infantería, to which the property belongs, and which includes the infamous "Escuelita," a building that remains practically intact according to survivors' testimonies.

Around a hundred people died at the site over the course of several days. One of the most resonant events was the execution of 18 men, including 11 railway workers, on October 6, 1973—a massacre for which 44 years will have passed next week and which will include a traditional pilgrimage in the commune.

The only person convicted for these events, a former Army officer, died without serving his sentence for this case.

The Army, through a document sent in March and another in August, points out that the declaration process not only had legal flaws—among others, that the entity was allegedly unable to express its points of view during the process—but also notes that the memorial site would interfere with its military activities and could even affect its security against enemy countries.

It is worth mentioning that the institution previously ceded several plots of land to be part of the Parque Metropolitano Sur.

"I assure you that if they wanted to install a statue there in homage to the dictator or to human rights violators, the Chilean Army would never raise its voice," lamented Lorena Pizarro, president of the Agrupación de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos (AFDD).

Union leader Manuel Ahumada, one of the survivors of the facility who was a high school student and communist militant, and who was held there at 17 years of age, stated: "It is a shame that the Army stubbornly insists on wanting to cover up that enormous, bloody stain, but I believe they will not succeed.

They are ashamed that in those facilities, which were supposed to fulfill a role in what they define as the defense of the homeland, compatriots were detained, abused, tortured, and murdered."

The declaration has been backed by the Ministry of National Assets and the Metropolitan Regional Government. It has also received letters of support from the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, several councilors from Paine and San Bernardo, the NGO Crea Conciencia, and various survivors.

Now, the Minister of Education, Adriana Delpiano, on whom the CMN depends and who must sign the declaration decree, will have to decide in October whether or not to accept the objection.

The murders

The Cerro Chena massacre commemorated on October 6 affected 18 students, peasants, and workers, as well as militants of the PS, the PC, and the MIR. In part, it was due to revenge for the Agrarian Reform, which had been very active in the sector and bothered several landowners.

About 450 people, both men and women, were detained at the site. The troops of the Escuela de Infantería had also been key in the siege of La Moneda on the day of the coup.

Eleven of those murdered were workers from the Maestranza San Bernardo of the Railways, all of them communists. Another of those executed, Héctor Hernández Garcés, a socialist sympathizer and student at a high school in Puente Alto, was just 17 years old. There were also three peasants from Paine and a former GAP member. They were accused of wanting to blow up the railway workshop's gas pipeline.

After several days of torture, these prisoners were gathered and apparently forced to run up the hill while they were shot in the back. The same hill where, until 1973, the powerful local labor movement used to celebrate the "18 chico" during the first days of October each month.

Some of their bodies were recovered by relatives at the Legal Medical Service, while others were buried in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery. The military reported that they were shot in an attempted escape. Before this, the prisoners had been hidden during a visit by the Red Cross.

The Rettig Report "reached the conviction that all the victims were executed outside of any legal process by State agents."

According to the judicial process, the primary individuals responsible were the director of the School, Colonel Leonel Koenig, who committed suicide years later; his second-in-command, Pedro Montalva Calvo, who the following year was rewarded by being appointed director of the Gendarmería and later passed away; and the then-captain Víctor Pinto, who in 2002 was convicted for the murder of union leader Tucapel Jiménez and imprisoned in Punta Peuco, and in 2011 sentenced for the crimes of Paine to only five years of supervised release.

Pinto died in 2014.

In total, there were 94 fatal victims who passed through the Escuela de Infantería, specifically the Intelligence Battalion that managed "Cuartel 2" together with the Carabineros of Paine. Of these, 37 remain forcibly disappeared, 56 are political executions, and one died due to torture.

According to judicial sources, former Army officers Andrés Magaña Bau, Jorge Romero Campos, and Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena are also accused in these cases; the latter was also later a member of the DINA and a chief at Villa Grimaldi.

According to official documents, Cerro Chena was part of a large estate owned by the García de La Huerta family, which, in the context of the Agrarian Reform and to avoid its expropriation, was donated to the Chilean Army.

It was registered in favor of the treasury in 1971 and formally assigned in 1976 to the Army, which had already been using it since the beginning of 1970, installing the Cuartel N° II of the Escuela de Infantería de San Bernardo.

The declaration

The declaration as a national monument is just one more milestone in the struggle of the Corporación Memorial Cerro Chena to preserve the memory of what happened. After the Army agreed to cede part of the land for the creation of the Parque Metropolitano Sur, in 2014 the Corporation filed a protection appeal so that the agreement would include a memorial and protect a sector of mass graves, which was affected by an expansion of Route 5 Sur.

In 2015, with the Army's authorization, a cross was installed at the site, but it was later removed by the military, as denounced by socialist deputy Leopoldo Soto.

Another milestone occurred in 2016, when for the first time members of the Corporation met with the officers in charge of the Escuela de Infantería. There, they requested permission to enter the facility and pay tribute to their murdered relatives, to which the Army agreed for the first time.

For last year's commemoration, a hundred people entered, although due to pending authorization, it is uncertain whether it will be repeated this year.

In a June 2017 session of the CMN, Mónica Monsalvez, Laura González, and Andrea García, of the Corporación Memorial Cerro Chena, formed by relatives and survivors of the detention center, formally requested the declaration "to be able to preserve historical memory and protect its material vestiges."

On that occasion, they expressed that Cerro Chena, which in the 1960s was a place "of meeting and life," after the coup d'état was transformed "into a symbol of impunity and death."

They also said that, despite the effort to obtain truth and justice, to date they have only been able to obtain truth, as noted by the investigating judge Héctor Solís Montiel. For the case of the execution of the 11 railway workers, the only person convicted obtained the benefit of parole, leaving the events in impunity.

They added that in the year 2000, they began efforts to build a memorial at the site that would account for the events, in accordance with the guidelines provided by the reports of the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions.

And they pointed out that "it is a duty of the State and of society as a whole to protect this site as a symbol of effective guarantees of non-repetition and as a testimony of life."

The request was accepted unanimously. The CMN only noted that, for security reasons, it would be the Army that determines access to the "Escuelita" facility.

On that occasion, the CMN justified the declaration by pointing out, among other things, that "the site constitutes a symbol of the struggle for the clarification of the truth and the search for justice by human rights groups and relatives of the victims of repression, being identified as the main memorial site of the commune of San Bernardo."

Likewise, "it is an expression of the country's recent history and of the memory of the victims of repression as a State policy. Its preservation constitutes a contribution to education in the promotion of Human Rights for society as a whole and a public recognition of the victims of human rights violations in the region."

It should be remembered that the existence of the "Escuelita" was initially denied by the Army and its existence was only accredited in 2015, thanks to a judicial statement by Ahumada, the son of a railway worker.

"Nobody spoke of the 'Escuelita' as a detention site. We have managed to find out with the daughters of those executed that there are no survivors who passed through the 'Escuelita'," he says.

The "red-roofed house," another torture facility, was located here. It is currently part of the Parque Metropolitano Sur.

Army objection

The Army opposed the declaration from the beginning, always with the same arguments. First, through an official letter in March 2017 from the Army Engineers Command. Then, through a second document dated August 21, signed by the commander-in-chief, Humberto Oviedo.

In the second, Oviedo points out that although his entity "has acquired a leading role" in human rights matters and recognizes as "legitimate" the aspiration of the victims' relatives to have memorials to remember them, the declaration "must recognize limits that are related to the institutional function" as an "armed body," in addition to pointing out alleged legal flaws in it, among others, that it did not have the possibility to present its defense.

Among other things, he argues that turning the site into a national monument "generates an unavoidable interference with the development of the institution's own activities (for example, through continuous visits by civilian personnel)."

He also alludes to "the exercise of basic military operations, all of which are essential activities for the Army to adequately fulfill its missions," such as shooting and detonations, as well as the fact that a large part of the combat units of the Metropolitan Region are concentrated at the site.

Civilian access would even facilitate the entry of "undercover agents" of "adversary intelligence" who could "film or photograph" military activities in the vicinity.

Criticism from organizations

This attitude was harshly criticized by human rights groups. The president of the AFDD pointed out that "this has been a permanent conduct that boycotts any action of memory."

She recalled that at one point a cross was installed at the site, which was removed by the military, and was replaced after strong criticism.

"I think it is a reflection of what the Chilean Armed Forces are, specifically the Chilean Army. We have said it on repeated occasions: the Armed Forces must have memorial sites in the places where they committed extermination, and in general in their institutions, that show the truth of what happened and do not highlight for new generations the figure of Augusto Pinochet or those involved in crimes against humanity," said Pizarro.

The fact shows "how captured the Armed Forces remain by the logic of the National Security Doctrine that allowed the civil-military coup of 1973."

Source: elmostraor.cl, September 28, 2017

Former PDI officials prosecuted for kidnapping and abduction of a minor in 1973

The minister in extraordinary visit for human rights violation cases of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes, issued an indictment in the investigation into the qualified kidnapping of Francisco Viera Ovalle and the abduction of a minor identified as Héctor Hernández Garcés, events that occurred starting September 27, 1973, in the commune of San Bernardo.

The magistrate ordered the pretrial detention of Sergio Ávila Quiroga and Roberto Rozas Aguilera as authors of the aforementioned crimes.

In the investigation, it was established that on September 27, 1973, soldiers from the Escuela de Infantería de San Bernardo detained Héctor Hernández Garcés, 17, a student at DUOC, in the commune of San Bernardo, transferring him to the Prisoner Camp that the Escuela de Infantería de San Bernardo maintained inside Cerro Chena.

At the end of September 1973, inside the "Principal" estate in the commune of Pirque, soldiers from the same unit detained Francisco Viera Ovalle, a student at the Universidad Técnica del Estado, who was also transferred to Cerro Chena.

The Prisoner Camp was in charge of Army captains Eduardo Silva Bravo, Juan Carlos Nielsen Stambuk, and Jorge Romero Campos, and Army lieutenant Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena. Sub-lieutenant Osvaldo Magaña Bau and officers of the Carabineros and the Police of Investigations (PDI), among them the aforementioned Sergio Ávila and Roberto Rozas, as well as Oscar Vergara Cruces, also served as interrogators.

Between October 6 and 11, 1973, inside the aforementioned Prisoner Camp, Héctor Hernández and Francisco Viera, instead of being placed at the disposal of the corresponding administrative or judicial authority, were executed, outside the legal framework, by multiple gunshots, according to the judicial ruling.

Source: elciudadano.cl, May 15, 2018

Minister Marianela Cifuentes sentences military personnel for the qualified kidnapping of three peasants from Paine

The minister in extraordinary visit for human rights cases of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes, issued a first-instance sentence in the case investigating the qualified kidnapping of agricultural workers Manuel Ortiz Ortiz (18) and Juan Guillermo Cuadra Espinoza (26), and the abduction of the minor Ignacio del Transito Santander Albornoz (17), events that occurred between September 24 and October 2, 1973, in the El Escorial sector, in Paine, commune of San Bernardo.

Thus, the magistrate sentenced Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos, Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena, Carlos Walter Kyling Schmidt, and José Hugo Vázquez Silva to 15 years and one day of major imprisonment in its maximum degree, as authors of the qualified kidnapping of Manuel Ortiz and the abduction of the minor.

Meanwhile, Escipón Pedro Cesar Escobar Norambuena was sentenced to 10 years of major imprisonment in its medium degree for said crimes. And she acquitted Roberto Rozas Aguilera.

For their part, Sergio Ávila Quiroga and Jorge Reyes Cortés were sentenced to 15 years and one day as authors of the qualified kidnapping of Ortiz and Guillermo Cuadra Espinoza; as well as for the abduction of the minor Tránsito Santander. And a sentence of 10 years and one day was given to Carlos Durán Rodríguez, Carlos del Tránsito Lazo Santibáñez, Jorge Saavedra Meza, and Víctor Sandoval Muñoz.

All those convicted were members of the Army, soldiers of the Second Rifle Company of the Escuela de Infantería de San Bernardo. The sub-lieutenant of said military facility, retired Army Colonel Andrés Magaña Bau, passed away during the investigation in July 2021.

Lawyer Nelson Caucoto, a plaintiff in the case, valued the ruling and indicated that "this case refers to the martyrdom of 3 young Chileans against whom the military acted with cruelty. They are symbols of the brutality unleashed in Paine by the Dictatorship."

Caucoto, along with valuing the ruling, highlighted the work carried out by the magistrate: "The task of the Minister in Visit Marianela Cifuentes is commendable and vindicates judicial activity. The relatives of the peasants of Paine cry out to heaven for justice for all their victims, and with this ruling, a transcendent step is taken in that immense task, which has not yet concluded, but advances without faltering."

The facts

According to the information gathered by the minister, it has been established: a) That, on September 24, 1973, in the El Escorial sector of Paine, soldiers of the Second Rifle Company of the Escuela de Infantería de San Bernardo, commanded by Captain Jorge Romero Campos, in charge of Sub-lieutenant Osvaldo Andrés Magaña Bau, detained, without legal right, Juan Guillermo Cuadra Espinoza and Ignacio del Tránsito Santander Albornoz, among others. b) That, after their detention, Cuadra Espinoza and Santander Albornoz were transferred to the Prisoner Camp that the Escuela de Infantería de San Bernardo maintained inside Cerro Chena, in charge of Lieutenant Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena, a place where Sub-lieutenant Carlos Walter Kyling Schmidt also served, along with personnel from Investigations and Carabineros, among them Mario Jesús Campos Ripley, Oscar Hernán Vergara Cruces, Roberto Arcángel Rozas Aguilera, and Sergio Heriberto Ávila Quiroga, where they were kept locked up. c) That, subsequently, on October 2, 1973, in the El Escorial sector of Paine, soldiers of the Second Rifle Company of the Escuela de Infantería de San Bernardo, commanded by Captain Jorge Romero Campos, in charge of Sub-lieutenant Osvaldo Andrés Magaña Bau, detained, without legal right, Carlos Manuel Ortiz Ortiz. d) That, likewise after his detention, Ortiz Ortiz was transferred to the aforementioned Prisoner Camp, in charge of Lieutenant Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena, a place where he was kept locked up, without legal right. e) That, finally, and inside the aforementioned place, Juan Guillermo Cuadra Espinoza and Carlos Manuel Ortiz Ortiz were executed by firing squad on October 5 and 6, 1973, respectively, with the whereabouts of Ignacio del Tránsito Santander Albornoz remaining unknown to this date.

by Daniela Caucoto T.

Source: piensachile.com, February 8, 2022

The appellate court ratified the challenged sentence in the part that convicted the then-Army Captain Jorge Romero Campos, Army Lieutenant Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena, and Carabineros officer Sergio Heriberto Ávila Quiroga as authors of both illicit acts.

The San Miguel Court of Appeals sentenced two retired members of the Army and one retired Carabineros official to a single penalty of 15 years and one day of imprisonment as authors of the consummated crimes of aggravated abduction of a minor and qualified kidnapping. These crimes were perpetrated in September 1973, in the communes of San Bernardo and Pirque, respectively.

The appellate court ratified the challenged sentence in the part that convicted the then-Army Captain Jorge Romero Campos, Army Lieutenant Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena, and Carabineros officer Sergio Heriberto Ávila Quiroga as authors of both illicit acts; and revoked it regarding the accused, Juan Carlos Nielsen Stambuk, Army Captain, and Roberto Arcángel Rozas Aguilera, a detective.

The ruling states that, as shown by his service record and the background of the case, Nielsen was not performing duties at the Cerro Chena facilities at the time of the victims' arrests and their deaths, and therefore could not have participated in the kidnapping and abduction investigated in the case.

The resolution adds that regarding the accused Rozas, he, like Sergio Ávila, acknowledges having been assigned to the Cerro Chena facilities, but claims that his only role was to cooperate by providing information on the people who were detained, verifying their criminal and police records by filling out forms with pre-established questions.

He maintains that he was not responsible for interrogating the detainees; based on a template, he would ask for their name and address, whether they had military training, their political affiliation, whether they held union or political positions, etc., and that the detainees were blindfolded.

In the civil aspect, the ruling was confirmed with the declaration that it reduced the awarded damages and ordered the state to pay a total sum of $250,000,000 for moral damages to the victims' relatives.

The decision to acquit Roberto Rozas Aguilera was reached with the dissenting vote of Justice Vásquez Acevedo, who was in favor of maintaining the conviction imposed in the first-instance ruling.

In the first-instance ruling, Justice Cifuentes Alarcón established the following facts:

On September 27, 1973, at nightfall, soldiers from the San Bernardo Infantry School unlawfully detained 17-year-old Héctor Enrique Hernández Garcés at his home, located on Calle Alfonso Donoso in the Población Sur, San Bernardo commune.

Hernández Garcés was taken to the prisoner camp located inside the San Bernardo Infantry School at Cerro Chena, where he was held illegally and subjected to physical abuse.

Likewise, at the end of September 1973, inside the ‘Principal’ estate in the Pirque commune, soldiers from the San Bernardo Infantry School unlawfully detained Francisco Eugenio Viera Ovalle, a student at the Universidad Técnica del Estado and a militant of the Juventud Socialista.

Viera Ovalle was also taken to the prisoner camp located inside the San Bernardo Infantry School at Cerro Chena, where he was held illegally and subjected to physical abuse.

At that time, the Cerro Chena prisoner camp was under the command of Army Captains Juan Carlos Nielsen Stambuk, Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos, and Eduardo Octavio Silva Bravo –now deceased– and Army Lieutenant Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena.

In the aforementioned time frame, Army Second Lieutenant Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau and officers from the Carabineros and the Policía de Investigaciones served as interrogators at the prisoner camp, among them Sergio Heriberto Ávila Quiroga, Roberto Arcángel Rozas Aguilera, and Óscar Hernán Vergara Cruces –now deceased–.

Instead of being placed at the disposal of the corresponding administrative or judicial authority, students Héctor Enrique Hernández Garcés and Francisco Eugenio Viera Ovalle were executed, outside the legal framework, by multiple firearm shots inside the aforementioned prisoner camp, between October 6 and October 11, 1973.

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl, April 25, 2022

San Miguel Court sentences nine military personnel for abduction of minors and kidnapping in the Paine case

The victims were 17, 18, and 26 years old. They were kidnapped and then executed by firing squad, but the body of the youngest was never found. The former uniformed personnel received sentences ranging from 10 years and one day to 15 years and one day.

The Fourth Chamber of the San Miguel Court of Appeals issued a second-instance ruling in the so-called Paine case, Escorial Cerro Chena episode, which investigates the crimes committed against Juan Guillermo Cuadra Espinoza (26, agricultural worker), Ignacio Santander Albornoz (17, high school student), and Carlos Manuel Ortiz Ortiz (18, agricultural worker), which occurred between September and October 1973 at the hands of soldiers from the Second Rifle Company of the San Bernardo Infantry School.

Justices María Soledad Espina Otero, María Alejandra Pizarro Soto, and Celia Catalán Romero confirmed the convictions against Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos, Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena, José Hugo Vásquez Silva, and Jorge Fernando Reyes Cortés to 15 years and one day of major imprisonment in its maximum degree; and against Escipión Pedro Escobar Norambuena, Carlos Enrique Durán Rodríguez, Carlos del Tránsito Lazo Santibáñez, Jorge Segundo Saavedra Meza, and Víctor Reinaldo Sandoval Muñoz to 10 years and one day of major imprisonment in its medium degree, all as authors of the aggravated abduction of a minor regarding Ignacio Santander Albornoz and qualified kidnapping in the case of Juan Guillermo Cuadra Espinoza and Carlos Manuel Ortiz.

According to the investigation of the case, the three victims were detained at their homes and taken to the military unit, where they were executed by firing squad on October 5 and 6, 1973. The bodies of Cuadra Espinoza and Ortiz Ortiz were taken to the Legal Medical Service and later buried in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery.

Meanwhile, to date, the whereabouts of the body of the minor Ignacio del Tránsito Santander Albornoz remain unknown.

“That the convictions of these criminals have been confirmed is a relief for the families of the victims, who have waited for justice with such effort and patience. The three victims were very young, they had their whole lives ahead of them, and it will never be understood why they were treated this way.

We are satisfied with this good news regarding the last cause of the Paine case that was pending before the San Miguel Court of Appeals, and we hope that the criteria expressed in the ruling will be maintained if the case continues to the Supreme Court,” notes lawyer Andrea Gattini of the Caucoto Abogados law firm, a plaintiff in the case.

Last June, relatives of the forcibly disappeared and executed victims of Paine requested the president of the Supreme Court to expedite the processing of the cases still pending from the different episodes of the Paine case, on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the events that brought mourning to that locality, this being the last case remaining in the second instance.

Currently, all pending episodes of said case are awaiting resolution by the Supreme Court.

Source: elmostrador.cl, October 6, 2023

San Miguel Court confirms conviction of former Army officer for the crime of three rural teachers from Linderos in October 1973

The San Miguel Court of Appeals confirmed the sentence that convicted a former Army officer for his responsibility in the consummated crimes of simple kidnapping and qualified homicide of teachers Hugolino Humberto Arias Navarrete, Víctor Omar Gálvez Norambuena, and Nelson Joaquín Medina Letelier, perpetrated in October 1973 in the commune of San Bernardo.

In a unanimous ruling (case roll 440-2023), the Second Chamber of the appellate court—composed of Justices María Carolina Catepillán Lobos, Liliana Mera Muñoz, and Justice Patricio Martínez Benavides—ratified the sentence issued by the extraordinary visiting judge Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, which convicted former Army Brigadier Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos to 15 years and one day of effective imprisonment as the author of the qualified homicide of the victims, and to 3 years and one day of effective imprisonment as the author of the crime of kidnapping the teachers.

Meanwhile, the criminal former officer Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena, who in the first instance was also sentenced to the same prison terms as Romero Campos, was dismissed due to having fallen into dementia or mental alienation before the Court's ruling was issued.

In the judicial investigation by Justice Cifuentes, it was established that, following the restrictions imposed by the coup d'état, and in compliance with an order issued by the military that had seized power, on Monday, October 1, 1973, teachers Hugolino Humberto Arias Navarrete (35), Víctor Omar Gálvez Norambuena (21), and Nelson Joaquín Medina Letelier (23) left their respective homes for the rural technical school where they worked, located in the town of Linderos, Buin commune, in order to resume classes that had been suspended since September 11, 1973.

However, the three teachers were detained by personnel from the Buin Carabineros Station, who took them to the aforementioned police unit, directed at the time by Major Héctor Ubilla Castillo (now deceased), and later handed them over to a military patrol from the San Bernardo Infantry School, led by Captain Víctor Raúl Pinto Pérez, also deceased.

Subsequently, the detained teachers were taken to the San Bernardo Infantry School prisoner camp, located at Cerro Chena, a military facility under the command of officers Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos (who rose to the rank of Army Brigadier), Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena (now "demented," who reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel), and Osvaldo Andrés Magaña Bau (former Colonel, now deceased), among others, all from the Second Rifle Company of the San Bernardo Infantry School.

On October 2, 1973, teachers Hugolino Humberto Arias Navarrete, Víctor Omar Gálvez Norambuena, and Nelson Joaquín Medina Letelier were executed inside the San Bernardo Infantry School, outside all legality, by multiple firearm shots.

Regarding the conviction of the criminal Jorge Romero Campos, the resolution of the San Miguel Court states:

"Regarding the participation of the accused in the crimes of qualified homicide for which he was convicted, the truth is that it is an established fact in the case... that the victims, Hugolino Humberto Arias Navarrete, Víctor Omar Gálvez Norambuena, and Nelson Joaquín Medina Letelier were detained on October 1, 1973, and subsequently taken from the Buin Carabineros Station to the San Bernardo Infantry School, where they were executed the following day," the ruling maintains.

"The homicides for which Jorge Eduardo Romero Campos was convicted are part of a generalized and systematic attack against a specific group of the civilian population, composed, in this case, of people whom State agents—the capacity held by the accused—labeled as 'extremists'."

by Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl, October 28, 2023

San Miguel Court dismisses former DINA agent due to dementia for the crime of three Linderos teachers in 1973

Former Army officer Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena had been sentenced in the first instance to 15 years and one day, and 3 years and one day for the kidnappings and homicides of teachers Hugolino Arias Navarrete, Víctor Gálvez Norambuena, and Nelson Medina Letelier.

The Second Chamber of the San Miguel Court of Appeals issued a second-instance ruling in the process regarding the kidnappings and homicides of teachers Hugolino Arias Navarrete, Víctor Gálvez Norambuena, and Nelson Medina Letelier, events that occurred starting October 1, 1973, in the town of Linderos, Buin commune.

Justices María Carolina Catepillán and Liliana Mera San Miguel, and Justice Patricio Martínez Benavides confirmed the first-instance sentence and convicted former Army officer of the San Bernardo Infantry School Jorge Romero Campos to 15 years and one day of major imprisonment in its maximum degree as author of the crimes of qualified homicide of the three professionals; and to three years and one day of minor imprisonment in its maximum degree as author of the crimes of simple kidnapping, in consummated degree.

In an annexed resolution, the Court partially and definitively dismissed the case against former Army officer Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena due to dementia, who had been sentenced in the first instance to 15 years and one day, and 3 years and one day for the same crimes.

Faúndez Norambuena, a former DINA agent, was head of Section II of Intelligence of the San Bernardo Infantry School and later joined the DINA, becoming one of the heads of the Purén Brigade, an entity responsible for the disappearance of a significant number of people.

Furthermore, the ruling approved the dismissals due to the death of military personnel Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau, Leonel Walterio Konig Altermatt, Pedro Eduardo Gustavo Montalba Calvo, Víctor Raúl Pinto Pérez, and Héctor Ubilla Castillo, all members of the San Bernardo Infantry School and investigated in these events.

The plaintiff side described said sentence as irregular and announced that they will file a cassation appeal in the coming days: “In the criminal aspect, we are concerned about the dismissal of Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena, and we will urge that this be reviewed through cassation appeals on the form and on the merits before the Supreme Court.

There are investigative steps that have been omitted on one hand, and in this aspect, as plaintiffs, we want to exhaust any possibility of doubt, because a wrongly granted dismissal means impunity; and sadly, there have been “errors” in determining the health of other defendants for crimes against humanity—thinking of Augusto Pinochet and Sergio Arellano Stark, to name a few,” pointed out lawyer Francisco Bustos of the Caucoto Abogados law firm.

Likewise, he reported that they will file another cassation appeal in the civil aspect, since in his opinion “the court lowered the indemnities without addressing the damage caused, the irreparable damage caused to these three families, and without providing sufficient arguments for such a determination.”

Bustos recalled that this case began to be heard in the San Miguel Court just as the 50th anniversary of the crime of the three teachers was being reached, which speaks to the time elapsed and demonstrates that “this sentence, which presents objections that could mean impunity, shows us that unfortunately there is still a stretch to discuss and that there is some time left, much less, but there is still time for these families who have waited so long.”

Hugolino Arias Navarrete (35), Víctor Omar Gálvez Norambuena (21), and Nelson Medina Letelier (23) were detained on October 1, 1973, once classes resumed after the military coup. Their detention was carried out by Carabineros personnel from the Buin station, who led the procedure at the school where the teachers worked, in the Linderos area, taking them to said station, from where they were removed by soldiers from the San Bernardo Infantry School.

Subsequently, they were taken to the Cerro Chena prisoner camp, where they were tortured and executed the following day.

According to the autopsy, their bodies showed multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and head, while only the remains of Hugolino Arias and Víctor Gálvez were exhumed, allowing their identities to be confirmed.

Source: elciudadano.cl, October 28, 2023

Supreme Court convicts military officer and retired detective for qualified kidnapping and abduction of a minor

In a unanimous ruling, the Second Chamber of the highest court confirmed the first-instance sentence that convicted the then-Army Lieutenant Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena to sentences of 6 and 4 years of effective imprisonment, as author of the qualified kidnapping and the abduction, respectively.

The Supreme Court convicted a retired Army officer and a retired member of the Policía de Investigaciones for their responsibility in the consummated crimes of qualified kidnapping of Luis Heriberto Contreras Escamilla and the abduction of his son, Luis Heriberto Contreras Peñaloza, 16 years old at the time of the events.

These illicit acts were committed in November 1973, in the communes of San Miguel and San Bernardo, respectively.

In a unanimous ruling (case roll 5.540-2022), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of Justices Haroldo Brito, Jorge Dahm, Diego Simpértigue, and ad hoc lawyers Leonor Etcheberry and Carolina Coppo—confirmed the first-instance sentence that convicted the then-Army Lieutenant Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena to sentences of 6 and 4 years of effective imprisonment, as author of the qualified kidnapping and the abduction, respectively.

Likewise, the sentence issued by the extraordinary visiting judge of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, was confirmed, which convicted the former officer of the Policía de Investigaciones Roberto Arcángel Rozas Aguilera to 3 years and one day and 541 days of imprisonment, with the benefit of supervised release for a term of 5 years, as co-author of the crimes.

In the ruling, the Supreme Court established an error of law in the challenged sentence, issued by the San Miguel Court of Appeals, in acquitting the accused Rozas Aguilera and regarding the participation attributed to Faúndez Norambuena in the events.

“Under those circumstances, it is clear that the second-instance judiciary, when resolving the controversy submitted to its knowledge and acquitting the accused Roberto Arcángel Rozas Aguilera, has incurred in the infractions of the rules governing evidence denounced by the plaintiff, by estimating, in summary, as evidenced by the reasoning transcribed above, that the prosecution's evidence was insufficient to consider his significant participation in the events established, through an incomplete reproduction of the evidence analyzed and weighed by the first-instance court,” the ruling maintains.

The resolution adds that: “Thus, the sentence does not explain, despite the fact that criminal responsibility is personal and not collective, how and why this accused lacks the participation attributed to him in the crimes subject to the case, nor does it express the considerations taken into account to omit the analysis of those evidentiary antecedents on which the first-instance judge based his determination of conviction, the same ones that—as noted—the appellate judges considered useful and credible to prove the illicit acts, deciding his acquittal, thus incurring in the denounced vice.”

“On the contrary, despite the fact that from the tenor of the facts that were established and in accordance with a correct application of Article 488 N°1 and N°2, first part, of the Code of Criminal Procedure, it was proven that Rozas Aguilera, in his capacity as an officer of the Policía de Investigaciones assigned to work at that military facility, carried out interrogations of the detainees at the clandestine detention center of Cerro Chena, facts from which it follows that Rozas Aguilera voluntarily took part in the execution of the criminal acts, in decisive terms and with functional control of the act, thereby allowing the captivity of the victims to be prolonged, for which he has had participation as a co-author, in the terms provided for in Article 15 N°1 of the Penal Code, by having taken part in the execution of the acts, through his functional contribution to it,” the ruling affirms.

“Consequently, and regarding the acquittal of the accused Roberto Arcángel Rozas Aguilera, the challenged sentence incurs in the infractions denounced in the cassation appeal under examination—based on the cause provided for in Article 546 N° 7 of the Code of Criminal Procedure—since from the merit of what was narrated by the accused himself and the other elements of evidence in the case, mentioned in finding 24° ut supra, not valued by the second-instance judiciary, it has been possible to determine that by having been assigned as an officer of the Policía de Investigaciones to interrogate detainees at the clandestine facility located inside the San Bernardo Infantry School, situated at Cerro Chena, he materially executed the illicit acts, in compliance with the directives given by the superior command, for which Rozas Aguilera had co-control of the act, contributing functionally to the execution of the same in its entirety, collaborating in that way and in a decisive form to maintain the deprivation of liberty of the victims Luis Heriberto Contreras Escamilla and Luis Heriberto Contreras Espinoza,” it highlights.

Likewise, the ruling records that: “(…) regarding the participation of the accused Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena, the challenged sentence incurs in an error of law with influence on the dispositive part of the ruling, since from the facts established, mentioned in finding 18° and 26° of the first-instance sentence, it has been possible to determine that by having served as an Army Lieutenant, in charge of the Cerro Chena prisoner camp, interrogating the detainees and exercising direct command over the soldiers who were in charge of the feeding and custody of the detainees, he had co-control of the act, contributing functionally to the execution of the act in its entirety, forming part of the repressive group that devised and decided the deprivation of liberty of the victim, collaborating in that way and in a decisive form to maintain his confinement.”

For the Criminal Chamber: “It is not, then, a matter of an intervention typical of mediate authorship of the crime of qualified homicide perpetrated against the victim Luis Contreras Escamilla, but rather the performance of executive acts, contributing functionally to the joint or collective realization of the plan as a whole, accepted expressly or tacitly, with knowledge and will to participate in them, which under the principle of reciprocal imputation, are constitutive of co-authorship, in the terms provided for in Article 15 N°3 of the Penal Code.”

“Departing from the reflections noted above, the second-instance judiciary qualifies the participation of Faúndez Norambuena as mediate authorship, while framing his criminal participation in Article 15 N°3 of the Penal Code, noting a first error of law, but which has no influence on the dispositive part of the ruling, since both forms of intervention in the criminal acts are sanctioned in the same way,” it adds.

“However,” it deepens, “a second error of law is incurred that directly affects the dispositive part of that determination, since departing from the facts that were established by the first-instance judiciary, contained in finding 18° and 26°, as noted, and which the second-instance sentence declares to reproduce; it establishes that ‘Faúndez Norambuena acted as head of the executing agents in the materialization of the investigated facts, taking advantage of his competence or ascendancy over the rest of the personnel so that crimes were committed,’ a conclusion devoid of the elements of conviction on which it is based, taking for certain that the soldiers of the San Bernardo Infantry School who detained Luis Contreras Escamilla and kept him deprived of liberty in the detention center located at Cerro Chena were those who executed him by means of multiple firearm shots and that in such criminal events, Faúndez Norambuena took advantage of his competence or ascendancy over them to commit the crime, facts that were not considered proven by the trial judges, after the assessment of the prosecution's evidence.”

“The sentence does not explain, then, how and why this accused took advantage of the command he held to perpetrate the illicit act of qualified homicide, nor does it express the considerations taken into account to conclude that the soldiers under his command were the ones who finally killed the victim, omitting the analysis of those evidentiary antecedents in support of its determination of conviction, thus incurring in infringement of Articles 15 N° 3 and 391 N°1 of the Penal Code, by omitting the requirements of reasoning of the sentences, provided for in Article 500 N° 4 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which led to imposing on this defendant a penalty greater than that which was appropriate, for which reason, in accordance with what is provided for in Article 785 of the Code of Civil Procedure, this Court will act ex officio to correct the incorrect application of the law, quashing the challenged sentence in this area, as will be provided in the resolution,” it concludes.

In the ratified first-instance sentence, the extraordinary visiting judge of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, established the following facts:

“1° That on November 10, 1973, at night, soldiers from the San Bernardo Infantry School unlawfully detained Luis Heriberto Contreras Escamilla, a militant of the Partido Socialista, at his home, located at Pasaje Porto Alegre N° 5.742, Población Brasilia, in the commune of San Miguel.

2° That, immediately after, the aforementioned military patrol unlawfully detained Luis Heriberto Contreras Peñaloza, 16 years old, a member of the Frente de Estudiantes Revolucionarios of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria, son of Contreras Escamilla, in a property in the Población Carbomet of the commune of San Bernardo.

3° That, subsequently, both detainees were taken to the prisoner camp of the San Bernardo Infantry School, situated at Cerro Chena, where they were held unlawfully and subjected to interrogations and physical and psychological abuse.

4° That, at that time, the Cerro Chena prisoner camp was under the command of Captain Víctor Raúl Pinto Pérez –now deceased– and Lieutenant Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena, both of the Chilean Army.

5° That, likewise, in the temporal context indicated above, Army Second Lieutenant Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau, Carabineros Lieutenant Sergio Heriberto Ávila Quiroga, and Policía de Investigaciones officers Óscar Hernán Vergara Cruces –now deceased– and Roberto Arcángel Rozas Aguilera served as interrogators at the aforementioned prisoner camp.

6° That on November 15, 1973, inside the aforementioned prisoner camp, Luis Contreras Escamilla was executed, outside the legal framework, by multiple firearm shots.”

In the civil aspect, the sentence that ordered the state to pay a total indemnity of $420,000,000 for moral damages to the plaintiffs was maintained. The amount is broken down into $140,000,000 to the spouse and mother of the victims; $100,000,000 to the daughter and sister, and $180,000,000 to the son and surviving victim.

Source: pjud.cl, February 28, 2024