Within the framework of the investigation known as the Torres San Borja Case, in which 6 people were detained on October 17, 1973, and later executed near the Lo Prado tunnel, visiting judge Jorge Zepeda handed down a 10-year sentence to three former uniformed officers.

The convicted individuals were identified as former members of the Army's Non-Commissioned Officers School: Gerardo Urrich, Juan Ramón Fernández, and René Cardemil, who, once the ruling becomes final, must serve the sentence with effective imprisonment.

The former agents are responsible for the qualified homicides of Ricardo Montecinos Slaughter, an official of the International Monetary Fund (IMF); the Argentine tourist couple Carlos Adler Zulueta and Beatriz Elena Díaz Agüero; Víctor Garretón Romero, an importer and member of the Partido Nacional; Jorge Salas Pararadisi, a university student; and Julio Saa Pizarro, a dental surgeon.

This case caused a major stir in 1976, as the IMF considered the event a violation of human rights and requested that the UN investigate the facts. The international organization recommended that Chile initiate an investigation and find those responsible; however, at the time, the proceedings were closed without identifying any culprits.

According to the sentence, the victims were detained while sleeping in their apartments in Tower 12 of the San Borja remodeling project on October 16, 1973, by members of the Army's Non-Commissioned Officers School and were taken to the detention facility set up at the Casa de la Cultura de Barrancas in Pudahuel.

On October 17, 1973, they were taken from that location to the vicinity of the Lo Prado tunnel, where each was ordered to run to simulate an escape, and despite pleas for mercy, they were murdered by machine-gun fire.

Source: La Nación, April 6, 2011

Sentence handed down for six qualified homicides in Torres San Borja during the dictatorship

Visiting judge Jorge Zepeda handed down a sentence against three former uniformed officers who murdered two Argentine tourists and four Chileans, simulating an escape in the vicinity of the Lo Prado tunnel.

The six people were detained in Tower 12 of the San Borja Remodeling and executed in the vicinity of the Lo Prado Tunnel on October 17, 1973. For this reason, the magistrate handed down 10 years of imprisonment without benefits to former uniformed officers Gerardo Urrich González, Juan Ramón Fernández Berardi, and René Cardemil Figueroa.

The three are responsible for the deaths of Ricardo Montecinos Slaughter (27), an official of the International Monetary Fund (IMF); Carlos Adler Zulueta (25), an Argentine tourist; Beatriz Elena Díaz Agüero (26), an Argentine tourist and spouse of the former; Víctor Garretón Romero (60), an importer and member of the Partido Nacional; Jorge Salas Pararadisi (25), a university student; and Julio Saa Pizarro (35), a dental surgeon.

According to the sentence, the victims were detained while sleeping in their apartments in Tower 12 of the San Borja Remodeling on October 16, 1973, by members of the Army's Non-Commissioned Officers School, who took them to the detention facility set up at the Casa de la Cultura de Barrancas, Pudahuel.

The following day, the detainees were taken to the vicinity of the Lo Prado tunnel, where—according to the investigation—they were ordered to flee the site to simulate an escape and, despite begging for mercy, were murdered with machine guns.

The United Nations (UN) requested information regarding the homicides because an IMF official was among the victims, and on June 2, 1976, through Resolution No. 1810, it determined that the events constituted serious violations of the right to life, recognized in Article I of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, and recommended that the Government of Chile establish authorship and punish those responsible.

That complaint initiated a judicial process by order of the Minister of the Interior at the time, led by military prosecutor Rolando Melo Silva, from which no results were obtained.

Source: The Clinic, April 6, 2011

Sentence confirmed for crime that forced the Junta to apologize

One of the six victims murdered in the Lo Prado tunnel, denounced "by mistake" in October 1973 by a neighbor in Tower 12 of the San Borja Remodeling, was a member of the then-Partido Nacional. His father protested, and the Government Junta expressed its "condolences for this great military error." The Santiago Court of Appeals confirmed the sentence in the investigation into the homicides of 6 people in the Lo Prado tunnel sector, committed on October 17, 1973.

The victims had been previously detained in Tower 12 of the San Borja Remodeling. The detention of these individuals, who did not know each other, except for a married couple, occurred as a result of a denunciation made by telephone by a neighbor in the tower, apparently "by mistake." Among the victims was a member of the then-Partido Nacional.

His father protested to the new military regime, an internal summary was conducted in the Army, and it was concluded that it was "a military error." The Government Junta expressed its "condolences for this great military error." Another of the victims was an official of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which caused a diplomatic impasse with the United Nations (UN), which also protested to the country's new authorities.

In a unanimous ruling, the ministers of the Eighth Chamber, Leopoldo Llanos, Adelita Ravanales, and Jenny Book (substitute), ratified in all its parts the sentence of visiting judge Jorge Zepeda Arancibia, who on April 6, 2011, sentenced the following former Army personnel:

• Gerardo Urrich González, 10 years of imprisonment, without benefits.
• Juan Ramón Fernández Berardi, 10 years of imprisonment, without benefits.
• René Cardemil Figueroa, 10 years of imprisonment, without benefits.

THE SIX VICTIMS

According to the case records, the three former uniformed officers are responsible for the qualified homicides of the following people:

• Ricardo Montecinos Slaughter (27), official of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
• Carlos Adler Zulueta (25), Argentine tourist.
• Beatriz Elena Díaz Agüero (26), Argentine tourist, spouse of the former.
• Víctor Garretón Romero (60), importer and member of the Partido Nacional.
• Jorge Salas Pararadisi (25), university student.
• Julio Saa Pizarro (35), dental surgeon.

According to the sentence, it is established that the victims were detained while sleeping in their apartments in Tower 12 of the San Borja remodeling, on October 16, 1973, by members of the Army's Non-Commissioned Officers School and were taken to the detention facility set up at the Casa de la Cultura de Barrancas, Pudahuel.

THEY APPLIED THE "LAW OF FLIGHT"

On October 17, 1973, they were taken from that place and brought to the vicinity of the Lo Prado tunnel, where each was ordered to flee to simulate an escape, after which they were murdered by machine-gun fire.

Because an IMF official was among the victims, the United Nations (UN) requested information on the homicides and, on June 2, 1976, determined that the events constituted serious violations of the right to life, recognized in Article I of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, and recommended that the Government of Chile establish authorship and punish those responsible.

In civil matters, the conviction of the State was ratified, ordering it to pay compensation of $100,000,000 to each of the 9 relatives of the victims who were plaintiffs in the case.

Source: La Nación, March 25, 2013

Supreme Court sentenced three soldiers for the murder of six people in 1973

The highest court ratified 10-year prison sentences for former officers Gerardo Urrich, Juan Ramón Fernández, and René Cardemil. Additionally, the State must pay 100 million pesos to each of the families of the nine victims.

The Supreme Court ratified the sentence that convicted three soldiers for the murder, on October 17, 1973, of six people, including a high-ranking official of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), two Argentine tourists, and a right-wing militant.

The Second Criminal Chamber of the highest court sentenced former Army officers Gerardo Urrich González, Juan Ramón Fernández Berardi, and René Cardemil Figueroa to 10 years in prison as co-perpetrators of repeated crimes of qualified homicide.

With its resolution, the Court rejected an appeal filed by the defense of the former State agents and ratified the ruling in the first instance by investigating judge Jorge Zepeda regarding the crime. According to the file, in the early hours of October 16, 1973, members of the Army Infantry School detained six people in one of the buildings of the central San Borja Remodeling in Santiago, whom they killed the following day at a clandestine detention center called the Casa de la Cultura de Barrancas, in the current commune of Pudahuel.

Details of the crimes The victims of the crime were Ricardo Montecinos Slaughter, a high-ranking IMF official; Argentine tourists Carlos Adler Zulueta and his wife Beatriz Elena Díaz Agüero; merchant Víctor Garretón Romero, a member of the right-wing Partido Nacional, which supported the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

University student Jorge Salas Paradisi and dental surgeon Julio Saa Pizarro were also murdered; all of them, after being taken to the execution site, were ordered to run to simulate an escape, and despite their pleas for mercy, they were riddled with machine-gun fire.

The case had international repercussions in 1976, when the IMF classified it as a human rights violation and requested an investigation from the United Nations, which in turn recommended that the State of Chile initiate an investigation and find those responsible, although the process opened at that time was closed some time later without identifying those responsible.

In civil matters, the Court ordered the State to pay compensation of 100 million pesos to each of the families of the nine victims for moral damages, considering that there is no statute of limitations for crimes against humanity.

Source: Cooperativa.cl, January 7, 2014

Minister Mario Carroza sentences retired Army officers for kidnappings and homicides at the Casa de la Cultura de Barrancas.

The Minister sentenced Donato Alejandro López Almarza and Gerardo Ernesto Urrich González to effective sentences of 10 years and one day in prison as indirect perpetrators of the consummated crimes of qualified homicide.

The visiting judge for human rights violation cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Mario Carroza Espinosa, sentenced four retired Army members for their responsibility in 14 cases of kidnapping and qualified homicide, committed between September and October 1973, in Barrancas, the current commune of Pudahuel.

The Minister sentenced Donato Alejandro López Almarza to an effective sentence of 10 years and one day in prison as an indirect perpetrator of the consummated crimes of qualified homicide of: Raúl Eliseo Moscoso Quiroz, Víctor Manuel Barrales González, Sergio Osvaldo de la Barra de la Barra, Mario Gabriel Salas Riquelme, and José Eusebio Villavicencio Medel; and of the frustrated crime of qualified homicide of Luis Sergio Gutiérrez Rivas.

Gerardo Ernesto Urrich González must serve the same sentence as an indirect perpetrator of the qualified homicides of: Rafael Antonio Madrid Gálvez, Exequiel Segundo Contreras Carrasco, Carlos Leonardo Ibarra Echeverría, Alberto Toribio Soto Valdés, José Elías Quezada Núñez, and Rosalindo del Carmen Retamal; of the frustrated crime of qualified homicide of: Gastón Alberto González Rojas; and of the qualified kidnapping followed by homicide of: Daniel Hernández Orrego.

Meanwhile, Juan Ramón Gerardo Fernández Berardi was sentenced to 5 years in prison—a sentence that is suspended, leaving him subject to a probation regime subject to a program of activities—as an accomplice to the qualified homicides of: Rafael Antonio Madrid Gálvez, Exequiel Segundo Contreras Carrasco, Carlos Leonardo Ibarra Echeverría, Alberto Toribio Soto Valdés, José Elías Quezada Núñez, and Rosalindo del Carmen Retamal; of the frustrated crimes of qualified homicide of: Gastón Alberto González Rojas; and of qualified kidnapping followed by homicide of Daniel Hernández Orrego.

In the case of Carlos Rodolfo Silva Pérez, Minister Carroza imposed 541 days in prison, with the benefit of conditional remission of the sentence for the same period, as an accomplice to the frustrated crimes of qualified homicide of Raúl Eliseo Moscoso Quiroz, Víctor Manuel Barrales González, Sergio Osvaldo de la Barra de la Barra, Mario Gabriel Salas Riquelme, and José Eusebio Villavicencio Medel; and of frustrated crimes of qualified homicide of Luis Sergio Gutiérrez Rivas.

During the investigation stage, Minister Carroza established that starting on September 11, 1973, a battalion of the No. 3 "Yungay" Mountain Infantry Regiment of San Felipe settled in the commune of Quinta Normal and in the Casa de la Cultura of the commune of Barrancas, places where different raids were carried out on population sectors of camps and neighborhoods of Quinta Normal and Barrancas (current Pudahuel), who were executed by firing squad at the Casa de la Cultura or sectors near the Lo Prado tunnel, with their remains left at the Legal Medical Service or on public roads.

In civil matters, the ruling accepted the claims for moral damages, ordering the State to pay a total sum of $470,000,000 to the victims' relatives.

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl, May 20, 2018

Human Rights: Court sentences retired soldiers for the homicide of fourteen political and community leaders in the "Casa de la Cultura de Barrancas" episode

For lawyer Francisco Ugás, of the Caucoto Abogados Law Firm and a plaintiff in the case, "this resolution must be highlighted because it corrected some of the errors we had identified in the final first-instance sentence," as the participation of several of those involved was reclassified.

The convicted individuals belonged to the battalion of the No. 3 "Yungay" Mountain Infantry Regiment of San Felipe, commanded by Major Donato López Almarza, who after the coup settled in the communes of Quinta Normal and Barrancas (current commune of Pudahuel), where different raids were carried out on camps and neighborhoods.

The Fifth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals issued a final second-instance sentence in the episode known as "Casa de la Cultura de Barrancas" and sentenced five retired members of the Army for their participation in the homicides of fourteen political and community leaders, events committed between September and October 1973.

The sentence was issued by ministers Alejandro Rivera, Mireya López, and Paulina Gallardo, and in it, the acquittals issued in his first-instance ruling by minister Mario Carroza were revoked, sentencing former soldiers Jorge Reyes Morel and Pedro Lovera Betancourt to 15 years and 1 day as perpetrators of the qualified and consummated homicides of Raúl Eliseo Moscoso Quiroz, Víctor Manuel Barrales González, Sergio Osvaldo de la Barra, Mario Gabriel Salas Riquelme, and José Eusebio Villavicencio Medel; in addition to the frustrated qualified homicide of Luis Sergio Gutiérrez Rivas.

Similarly, the ruling of the chamber composed of ministers Mireya López Miranda and Alejandro Rivera increased the sentence imposed on Donato López to 15 years and 1 day as a perpetrator of the aforementioned crimes, perpetrated to the detriment of the aforementioned victims.

Likewise, the sentence in question reclassified the participation of former soldier Juan Ramón Gerardo Fernández Berardi from accomplice to perpetrator, sentencing him to 15 years and 1 day in prison as a perpetrator of the qualified homicide of Rafael Antonio Madrid Gálvez, Exequiel Segundo Contreras Carrasco, Carlos Leonardo Ibarra Echeverría, Alberto Toribio Soto Valdés, José Elías Quezada Núñez, Rosalino del Carmen Retamal, and Daniel Hernández Orrego.

He was also charged with the frustrated homicide of Gastón Alberto González Rojas. In addition, the ministers confirmed what was decided by minister Mario Carroza, ratifying the sentence of 541 days in prison, with the benefit of supervised release, for Carlos Rodolfo Silva Pérez, as an accomplice to the crimes of frustrated qualified homicide committed to the detriment of the victims.

Meanwhile, the ruling acquitted Jorge Reyes Morel, Jorge Turres Mery, Pedro Lovera Betancourt, Donato López Almarza, and Carlos Silva Pérez of the crimes committed in the month of October 1973. The same was determined for Juan Fernández Berardi regarding the crimes committed on September 30 of the same year; and Sergio Amade Gómez was acquitted of all charges filed against him.

The Court also decreed the definitive and partial dismissal of the case of Jorge Turres Mery, for which it was considered that, after the crime was committed and during this trial, he fell into mental alienation, his illness being incurable, as detailed in medical reports from the Legal Medical Service.

According to the investigation led by minister Mario Carroza, it was established that, starting on September 11, 1973, a battalion of the No. 3 "Yungay" Mountain Infantry Regiment of San Felipe, commanded by Major Donato López Almarza, settled in the commune of Quinta Normal and in Barrancas (current commune of Pudahuel), where different raids were carried out on camps and neighborhoods.

In said procedures, the victims were detained, then subjected to torture, and subsequently executed by firing squad at the Casa de la Cultura de Barrancas or sectors near the Lo Prado tunnel. Some of the victims' bodies were left at the then-Legal Medical Institute and on public roads.

While others had their traces lost and their remains were only found years later in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery. For lawyer Francisco Ugás, of the Caucoto Abogados Law Firm and a plaintiff in the case, "this resolution must be highlighted because it corrected some of the errors we had identified in the final first-instance sentence," adding that it is "in accordance with the merits of the process, the jurisprudential criteria currently existing and applied, and also with international human rights law, which imposes on our State the duty to punish those responsible who have intervened in crimes against humanity and war crimes, with fair, proportional, and adequate penalties, given the gravity of the crimes; and, in the same way, to provide reparations to the victims."

Source: elmostrador.cl, December 28, 2020

The appellate court sentenced Jorge Reyes Morel, Pedro Lovera Betancourt, Donato López Almarza, and Juan Fernández Berardi to 15 years and one day in prison for their responsibility as perpetrators of homicide.

The Santiago Court of Appeals convicted five retired Army members for their responsibility in the homicides of Raúl Moscoso Quiroz, Víctor Barrales González, Sergio de la Barra de la Barra, Mario Salinas Riquelme, José Villavicencio Medel, Luis Gutiérrez Rivas, Rafael Madrid Gálvez, Gastón González Rojas, Exequiel Contreras Carrasco, Carlos Ibarra Echeverría, Alberto Soto Valdés, José Quezada Núñez, Rosalindo del Carmen Retamal, and Daniel Hernández Orrego, committed between September and October 1973 in Barrancas, the current commune of Pudahuel.

In the ruling, the Fifth Chamber of the appellate court—composed of justices Alejandro Rivera, Mireya López, and Paulina Gallardo—sentenced Jorge Reyes Morel, Pedro Lovera Betancourt, Donato López Almarza, and Juan Fernández Berardi to 15 years and one day in prison for their responsibility as perpetrators of homicide.

Meanwhile, Carlos Silva Pérez was sentenced to 541 days in prison, with the benefit of supervised release, for his responsibility as an accomplice to homicide.

The ruling modified the sentence of the visiting judge Mario Carroza, who had acquitted Jorge Reyes Morel and Pedro Lovera Betancourt, and convicted them for crimes committed on September 30, 1973.

"That being the case, there is sufficient incriminating evidence to consider that these three defendants participated as perpetrators in the crimes that occurred on September 30, 1973, since both Turres and Reyes describe an execution episode that is entirely consistent with the one investigated here, and it cannot be confused with the Puente Bulnes case, as these are different locations, different participants, and different victims.

And regarding the defendant Lovera, it should be considered that he is identified as a person who, together with Caraves (now deceased), participated in all the executions he carried out, that he was also part of the Andina Company, and was identified from the beginning by Reyes as a participant in these events," the ruling states in this regard.

It adds that the circumstance that the defendant Turres was not part of the Andina Company but rather the Mortar Company is not sufficient exculpation, since his description of the event coincides with the one investigated here, and the version he provides—that he was in a truck and did not get out of the vehicle due to a knee problem and only assumed an execution had taken place—finds no corroboration in the case.

Furthermore, Silva's statements demonstrate that people who arrived in two trucks, which he assumes were from Quinta Normal, participated in the execution.

Furthermore, it is considered that the retraction made by the defendant Reyes after many statements cannot be heard under the provisions of Article 483 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, as it does not meet the conditions or requirements provided by the rule, and because it is difficult to believe that he invented everything he said when his statements coincide with the circumstances described regarding these executions by the defendant Silva.

Likewise, the criminal responsibility of González Berardi was modified from accomplice to perpetrator, which raised the first-instance sentence from 5 years in prison to 15 years and one day in prison.

"That regarding the participation of Fernández described in considerations 21 and 23 of the appealed sentence, it does not correspond to the status of accomplice but rather of perpetrator under the terms of Article 15 No. 1 of the Penal Code, because, at the very least, he took part in the execution of the acts, preventing or attempting to prevent them from being avoided, as he was the second in command of the Casa de la Cultura, after Captain Urrich, and therefore had full control over the illicit acts being carried out," the appellate court's ruling asserts.

The Court also ordered a partial and definitive dismissal of the case against the convicted Héctor Turres Mery, considering that he had fallen into a state of mental incapacity, as evidenced by medical reports from the Legal Medical Service (SML).

It adds that according to the aforementioned medical reports, it is possible to conclude that the convicted Turres Mery has fallen into a state of mental incapacity, and since there is no final sentence, it is appropriate to order his definitive dismissal in accordance with the provisions of Articles 686 and 408 No. 6 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, with his release under custody and treatment bond, as the reports do not state that in his current state he poses a degree of danger to himself or third parties.

In the civil aspect, the State was ordered to pay a total compensation of $1,210,000,000 to the victims' families.

The Facts

The investigation by Judge Mario Carroza established that:

1) That as a result of the events that took place in the country on September 11, 1973, the Military Government ordered the takeover of the city of Santiago and, to carry it out, distributed its military units within the jurisdiction with specific missions to perform;

2) That being the case, a Battalion of the No. 3 Yungay Mountain Infantry Regiment traveled on September 11, 1973, from the city of San Felipe and settled in the commune of Quinta Normal, under the command of Major Donato López Almarza, who was supported by Captains Jorge Armando Turres Mery, Jorge Alberto Reyes Morel, and Mario Caraves Silva, currently deceased, who in turn was the officer in command of the Andina Company, which received instructions to be quartered at the Casa de la Cultura in the commune of Barrancas, where it remained throughout the month of September and was relieved on October 1, 1973, by the First Company of the Army Non-Commissioned Officers School, which was in charge of Captain Gerardo Ernesto Urrich González (now deceased), followed by his subordinate, Lieutenant Juan Ramón Gerardo Fernández Berardi, with whom he fulfilled the purpose of controlling the western sector of the capital, in the case at hand, the old commune of Barrancas, today Pudahuel;

3) That the contingent of the Andina Company of the No. 3 Yungay Mountain Infantry Regiment of San Felipe, headed by the late Captain Mario Caraves, was stationed at the premises of the so-called Casa de la Cultura, located at the 8,000 block of San Pablo Street, from September 21, 1973, until the end of that month, being relieved starting October 1 by the Army Non-Commissioned Officers School;

4) That both Army units, for which no coordination between them could be proven, during their stay in the area, carried out military operations against the civilian population of the commune, consisting of raids, deprivation of liberty, interrogations, torture, and summary executions, as in the cases indicated below:

A.- A raid on the Santiago Pino Camp, carried out on September 30, 1973, in the early hours of the morning, during which six community leaders were detained: Raúl Eliseo Moscoso Quiroz, Víctor Manuel Barrales González, Sergio Osvaldo de la Barra de la Barra, Mario Gabriel Salas Riquelme, José Eusebio Villavicencio Medel, and Luis Sergio Gutiérrez Rivas.

They were taken to the Casa de la Cultura, interrogated under torture, and their families were told by military personnel that they would be sent to the Estadio Nacional. However, the next morning, they were summarily executed, as reported by the newspapers and learned by their families, under the heading "Executed for firing on uniformed personnel."

The lifeless bodies of the victims were found at the Legal Medical Service on October 1, 1973, at 01:00 hours, with the exception of the one corresponding to leader Luis Sergio Gutiérrez Rivas, who, despite being among the bodies of his companions, was still alive.

He was therefore rushed to the José Joaquín Aguirre Hospital, where he underwent surgery on October 2, 1973, and received visits from his partner, overcoming his critical state. But before he could be discharged, he was removed from the medical facility by military personnel under the pretext of taking him to the Military Hospital; however, from that moment on, his trail was lost, and over time, in 1991, his family managed to find his remains in Patio 29.

The bodies of the other victims of the execution were removed from the Legal Medical Institute by their families and record September 30, 1973, as their common date of death, while the aforementioned Luis Sergio Gutiérrez Rivas records October 13 of that year as his date of death;

B.- On October 3, 1973, Rafael Antonio Madrid Gálvez and Gastón Alberto González Rojas were detained and deprived of their liberty while at the home of relatives of the former, located in the commune of Quinta Normal, by military personnel, who took them to the Casa de la Cultura in the commune of Barrancas.

In this place, they were interrogated and then taken in a truck to the vicinity of the Lo Prado Tunnel, where the military patrol proceeded to execute them without any trial. Rafael Antonio died immediately as a result of gunshot wounds, but Gastón Alberto González survived, managing to deceive them, and the military did not notice this situation, so they left both of them on the side of the road.

Gastón Alberto González Rojas was later found by Carabineros personnel, who picked him up and took him to Emergency Post No. 3, where he was treated and sent to the Traumatology Hospital, and finally hospitalized at the San Borja Hospital, managing to survive his injuries;

C.- On October 4, 1973, the Socialist Party militant and member of the President Allende Personal Security Group (GAP), Exequiel Segundo Contreras Carrasco, was detained by military personnel when he was at the property located in Villa Los Maitenes in the commune of Barrancas.

The uniformed men took him to the Casa de la Cultura, but the next day he was found lifeless by third parties on the Pudahuel highway at San Pablo Street in the commune of Barrancas. They took him to a relative's house, and from there his family transported him to the Legal Medical Service;

D.- On October 5, 1973, military personnel detained the pedagogy student at the University of Chile, Carlos Leonardo Ibarra Echeverría, a student leader and Socialist Party militant, at the property located at Avenida Victoria No. 1127 in the Manuel Larraín neighborhood of the commune of Barrancas.

Just as was done with the other victims, he was taken by these State agents to the Casa de la Cultura of the same commune. Later, on October 11, his family found him at the Medical Service, establishing that the cause of his death was craniocerebral trauma due to a gunshot;

E.- On October 7, 1973, Alberto Toribio Soto Valdés, a participant in union activities and linked to the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), was detained by military personnel from his home in the Manuel Larraín neighborhood and taken to the Casa de la Cultura, where he disappeared, until his family was notified in November of that year that his remains were at the Legal Medical Service.

They went to see him, and he had been buried in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery, with his autopsy establishing the cause of death as a cervicocranial gunshot wound;

F.- On October 8, 1973, José Elías Quezada Núñez, a member of the JAP in the Manuel Larraín neighborhood and a Socialist Party militant, was detained and taken to the Casa de la Cultura, as was Rosalindo del Carmen Retamal, who was detained on that same date in the San Pablo neighborhood of the commune of Barrancas.

Both disappeared, and their remains were found on Route 70 by Carabineros officers, who sent their bodies to the Legal Medical Service, where the cause of death for Quezada was established as a craniocerebral gunshot wound and for Rosalindo Retamal as a thoraco-abdominal gunshot wound;

G.- Finally, on October 15, 1973, at midnight, military personnel arrived at the property located in Villa Manuel Rodríguez in search of Daniel Hernández Orrego, and upon not finding him, they summoned him to the Casa de la Cultura.

When he complied, he was deprived of his liberty and locked in the facility, remaining in the status of a forcibly disappeared person until 1993, when his remains were identified during the exhumations of Patio 29, establishing the cause of death as faciocranial and cervical and dorsal spinal trauma due to bullets.

However, subsequently, through Ordinary Official Letter No. 0640 of January 12, 2016, from Dr. Patricio Bustos Streeter, National Director of the Legal Medical Service (page 5186), he reported in relation to the identification process of Mr.

José Daniel Hernández Orrego that in 1991 a total of 126 bodies of human rights violation victims were exhumed from Patio 29 of the General Cemetery of Santiago, with 96 of them being identified by anthropological means between 1992 and 2002.

From this process, Mr. Hernández Orrego was identified with Protocol No. 3014-91. Subsequently, in 2004 and 2005, based on requests made by Judge Sergio Muñoz to review the identification process, the Service was instructed to perform mitochondrial DNA studies, and a sample was taken from Mr.

Hernández Orrego's remains under protocol 47-05 UE, a piece that showed the same polymorphism pattern as Mr. Hernández Orrego's relatives, making it impossible to exclude a genetic relationship on the maternal line, and therefore the result of the analyses was inconclusive.

In 2007, a new sampling process was carried out, this time to perform nuclear DNA analysis, a technique that not only allows for defining compatibility or exclusion relationships between a person and a specific family group but also for establishing positive identifications.

Based on this, the remains previously identified as Mr. Hernández Orrego were exhumed from the Memorial for the Forcibly Disappeared at the General Cemetery on July 3, 2013, and two bone segments were extracted, corresponding to the humerus and right tibia, in a procedure coded with field number RM-UEIF-T-47-13 and protocol MDH-3014-91-13.

It is indicated that this procedure is accounted for in the Exhumation and Sampling Act report, Field RM-UEIF-T-47-13, Protocol MDH-3014-91-13 of October 1, 2013. In accordance with this, it is reported that to date, it has not been possible to positively identify Mr.

Hernández Orrego, so he continues in the status of a forcibly disappeared person. It is also reported that the remains associated with protocols 3014-91 and 47-05 UE previously identified as Mr. Hernández Orrego have not been able to be identified with any other victim of human rights violations.

Source: pjud.cl, December 16, 2020

Supreme Court confirms conviction of former Army military personnel for the homicides of 14 leaders in the Casa de la Cultura de Barrancas case

The Second Chamber of the Supreme Court, in a split decision, issued a final ruling in the episode known as "Casa de la Cultura de Barrancas" and convicted retired members of the Army for their participation in the homicides of fourteen political and community leaders, acts committed between September and October 1973 in the then-commune of Barrancas, current commune of Pudahuel.

The Chamber, presided over by Justice Leopoldo Llanos and composed of substitute justices Eliana Quezada, María Carolina Catepillán, and Juan Cristóbal Mera, and the acting lawyer Eduardo Gandulfo, decided by majority to reject the appeals filed by the defense of the accused and confirmed the ruling of the Santiago Court of Appeals in December 2020, sentencing former military personnel Jorge Reyes Morel and Pedro Lovera Betancourt to 15 years and 1 day each as perpetrators of the qualified and consummated homicides of Raúl Eliseo Moscoso Quiroz, Víctor Manuel Barrales González, Sergio Osvaldo de la Barra, Mario Gabriel Salas Riquelme, and José Eusebio Villavicencio Medel; in addition to the frustrated qualified homicide of Luis Sergio Gutiérrez Rivas.

Regarding Donato López Almarza, who had also been sentenced in the second-instance ruling to 15 years and 1 day for the same crimes perpetrated against the same victims, on this occasion, the highest court omitted a ruling on the cassation appeals filed against said sentence, as López Almarza is in a state of mental incapacity.

Likewise, former military member Juan Ramón Gerardo Fernández Berardi was sentenced to 15 years and one day in prison as the perpetrator of the qualified homicide of Rafael Antonio Madrid Gálvez, Exequiel Segundo Contreras Carrasco, Carlos Leonardo Ibarra Echeverría, Alberto Toribio Soto Valdés, José Elías Quezada Núñez, and Rosalino del Carmen Retamal, and for the crimes of frustrated qualified homicide against Mr.

Gastón Alberto González Rojas, and qualified kidnapping followed by homicide in the case of Mr. Daniel Hernández Orrego.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court omitted a ruling on the convictions against Carlos Rodolfo Silva Pérez and Jorge Turres Mery, as both are deceased.

For lawyer Francisco Ugás, legal head of the Caucoto Abogados firm and plaintiff representing the families of 7 of the 14 victims, "It is valuable and noteworthy that our Supreme Court has rejected, by majority, the appeals filed by the defenses of the perpetrators in this case, validating the second-instance decision issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals."

In that sense, Ugás pointed out that "the definitive and effective convictions of the former agents Lovera, Reyes, and Fernández, all of the Chilean Army, are an expression of the firm fulfillment of the duty to punish or sanction that the State must fulfill for the crimes against humanity that were committed in our country almost 52 years ago, as is the case here.

This is in the context of what the United Nations has conceptualized as the fight against impunity. Unfortunately, I cannot ignore that some agents died during the substantiation of the case (Urrich, Silva, and Turres, for example), which, in some way, leaves us with a certain bitterness and a feeling of justice that was not full."

The lawyer also highlighted the arguments put forward by the highest court: "I would like to highlight the reasoning, the arguments of what was ultimately resolved by the Supreme Court to dismiss the appeals of the defendants' defenses, which were poorly presented, suffering from legal flaws that made it impossible for them to prosper.

Finally, the victims' families have received a response from our Justice system regarding these horrendous and bloody crimes perpetrated by State agents against them."

According to the investigation led by Judge Mario Carroza, it was confirmed that, starting September 11, 1973, a battalion of the No. 3 "Yungay" Mountain Infantry Regiment of San Felipe, under the command of Major Donato López Almarza, was installed in the commune of Quinta Normal and in Barrancas (current commune of Pudahuel), where various raids on camps and neighborhoods were carried out.

Said battalion remained throughout the month of September and was then relieved on October 1, 1973, by the First Company of the Army Non-Commissioned Officers School, which was in charge of Captain Gerardo Ernesto Urrich González (now deceased), followed by his subordinate, Lieutenant Juan Ramón Gerardo Fernández Berardi, who also carried out raids.

In said procedures, the victims were detained, subjected to torture, and subsequently executed at the Casa de la Cultura de Barrancas or in areas near the Lo Prado tunnel.

Some of the victims' bodies were abandoned at the then-Legal Medical Institute and on public roads, while the trail of others was lost, and their remains were only found years later in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery.

by Daniela Caucoto

Source: resumen.cl, April 24, 2025