Retired General Hernán Ramírez Rurange testified this morning before the investigating judge Sergio Muñoz, as part of the evidentiary stage of the investigation into the death of labor leader Tucapel Jiménez, which occurred on February 25, 1982.

On this occasion, General Ramírez Rurange, who is accused of helping the confessed perpetrator of the crime, Carlos Herrera Jiménez, flee the country in September 1991, reiterated his "absolute innocence" and maintained that he never gave an order for Herrera Jiménez to leave Chile.

General Ramírez Rurange, who was director of the DINE in 1991, is accused of being an accessory in the case, and appeared to testify as a witness for retired General Fernando Torres Silva, a former military prosecutor.

Ramírez Rurange also stated that he only learned that Carlos Herrera Jiménez had killed Tucapel Jiménez through the press last year. Retired General Hernán Ramírez Hald also attended today's session to provide a statement; however, he did not intervene before Judge Muñoz because the defense for retired Brigadier Víctor Pinto Pérez called him as a witness.

Crime recounted The case of the labor leader's death took a new turn after retired Major Carlos Herrera Jiménez provided details of the homicide of Tucapel Jiménez during a public judicial hearing on April 12.

Although he stated that, out of honor, he would not name those who accompanied him at the crime scene, he had a slip of the tongue and said that one of the non-commissioned officers was Letelier, an identity that corresponds to another of the individuals prosecuted in the case.

The confessed perpetrator of the crime against the president of the National Association of Fiscal Employees (ANEF) said he received the order to eliminate the union leader from his superiors in the Army Intelligence Corps, retired Brigadier Víctor Pinto Pérez and the former commander of the organization, retired Lieutenant Colonel Francisco Ferrer Lima.

He maintained that the person who was the top chief of the Army Intelligence Directorate in 1982, General Ramsés Álvarez Sgolia, was identified by Pinto Pérez as someone who was aware of the criminal plan when he communicated the order to eliminate the union leader.

According to Herrera's statement, he carried out the crime together with two non-commissioned officers who were placed under his command. He added that after the homicide, recorded on February 25, 1982, Brigadier Pinto took him to General Álvarez's office, where the director of the DINE congratulated him for the mission.

Source: El Mercurio, April 19, 2002

Exclusive judge indicts Maximiliano Ferrer Lima

The head of the Fourth Criminal Court of San Miguel, María Teresa Díaz, indicted retired Brigadier and former DINA agent Maximiliano Ferrer Lima as the alleged perpetrator of the kidnapping of the couple Cecilia Bojanic Abad and Flavio Oyarzún Soto, militants of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR).

The indictment against Ferrer Lima issued by Judge Díaz is the first the former officer has had to face in cases handled by exclusive judges, although he had previously been accused as a perpetrator in the crime against labor leader Tucapel Jiménez Alfaro.

Flavio Oyarzún and Cecilia Bojanic were detained on October 2, 1974, and taken to the DINA detention center located at José Domingo Cañas. The woman, who was 23 years old at the time of her detention, was five months pregnant when she disappeared after being arrested at her home, located in the commune of La Granja.

The couple had a one-and-a-half-year-old son. In recent days, the judge of the Fourth Criminal Court of San Miguel also indicted former Joint Command agent Otto Trujillo Miranda in the case regarding the disappearance of Miguel Rodríguez Gallardo, who was detained on August 28, 1975. Trujillo had already been indicted by other judges with exclusive jurisdiction.

Source: El Mostrador, June 7, 2002

Chilean justice system issues first indictments in Llidó Case

For the first time, the Chilean justice system has issued indictments against individuals who participated in the aggravated kidnapping of the Spanish priest Antonio Llidó. The priest's case was one of those that led to the detention of retired General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte in England, following the investigation conducted by Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón.

This morning, nine former members of the DINA, including its senior staff, were indicted as perpetrators of the aggravated kidnapping. The accused are Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, Marcelo Moren Brito, Miguel Krasnov Marchenco, Osvaldo Romo Mena, Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, Fernando Lauriani Maturana, Orlando Manzo Durán, Ciro Torré Sáez, and Brazclay Zapata Reyes.

Father Llidó was illegally detained in October 1974 and last seen at the clandestine detention center of Cuatro Álamos. DINA agents tortured him for helping and providing protection to MIR militants.

Source: May 15, 2003, El Mostrador

First-instance ruling issued 20 years after the crime TUCAPEL CASE: Life imprisonment for Herrera; Corbalán acquitted

For his responsibility in the aggravated homicide of Tucapel Jiménez, retired General Arturo Ramsés Alvarez Sgolia was sentenced to 10 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree as a perpetrator, without benefits.

After an exhaustive investigation of a little over three years, the first-instance ruling by the extraordinary investigating judge, Sergio Muñoz, was announced in the case of the crime against Tucapel Jiménez on February 25, 1982.

The ruling, delayed during the morning due to computer problems, acquitted retired Major Alvaro Corbalán Castilla, retired Brigadier Roberto Urbano Schmied Zanzi, civilian Julio Olivares Silva, and Carabineros Captain Miguel Hernández Oyarzo, who were prosecuted as accomplices.

For his responsibility in the aggravated homicide of Tucapel Jiménez, Muñoz sentenced retired General Arturo Ramsés Alvarez Sgolia to 10 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree as a perpetrator, without benefits.

Retired Major Carlos Herrera Jiménez was sentenced to life imprisonment without benefits as the perpetrator of aggravated homicide against the former president of the ANEF and the carpenter Juan Alegría Mundaca.

Meanwhile, retired Brigadier Víctor Pinto Pérez and retired Lieutenant Colonel Maximiliano Ferrer Lima were sentenced to 8 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree, without benefits, as perpetrators of aggravated homicide.

Miguel Letelier Verdugo and non-commissioned officer Manuel Contreras Donaire were sentenced to 6 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree, without benefits, as perpetrators. Major Juan Carlos Arriagada Echeverría and Jorge León Alessandrini (civilian) were sentenced by Judge Sergio Muñoz to 3 years of minor imprisonment in its medium degree, as accomplices (remitted sentence).

Retired General Fernando Torres Silva (former Army auditor), retired General Hernán Ramírez Hald, and retired General Hernán Ramírez Rurange were sentenced to 800 days of minor imprisonment in its medium degree (remitted sentence), as accomplices.

As an accessory, retired Colonel Enrique Ibarra was sentenced to 541 days of minor imprisonment in its medium degree. Finally, the weapon used in the crime was confiscated: a Smith & Wesson .22 caliber revolver, serial number 22547, which is registered under the name of the General Directorate of National Mobilization.

Judicial process In three years of investigation, Judge Sergio Muñoz shook the Army. In 1999, he indicted the former director of the CNI, the now-deceased Humberto Gordon, and in June of that year, he preempted Juan Guzmán by sending a request to Pinochet during his detention in London.

However, his most daring step was to indict Hernán Ramírez Hald, the first general on active duty to be charged in a human rights case. Ramírez Hald was charged on November 22, but one day earlier, President Ricardo Lagos received him in his office for an hour to support the general's gesture of retiring from the Army and facing the process as a civilian.

The former officer remained detained at the Telecommunications Command until he was released on bail in mid-2000. It should be remembered that Judge Muñoz took over the investigation in April 1999, after 17 years of fruitless work by judge Sergio Valenzuela Patiño, who was removed from the case by the Supreme Court.

Source: La Tercera, August 5, 2003

Those convicted in the Tucapel case sent to Punta Peuco

After the Second Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court upheld the convictions against those responsible for the death of the former president of the National Association of Fiscal Employees (ANEF), Tucapel Jiménez Alfaro, which occurred on February 25, 1982, judicial sources informed La Nación that they will be transferred today to the Punta Peuco prison, the facility where they will serve their custodial sentences.

With the change of prison, they will leave the Military Police Battalion (BPM) at the Peñalolén Telecommunications Regiment, where the Army built facilities for former officers and active military personnel under indictment to serve preventive detention until a sentence was issued against them.

Thus, they will be held at Punta Peuco, a prison that has joint custody by the Gendarmería and the Army. These include the former director of the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE), retired General Arturo Alvarez Scoglia; retired Brigadiers Víctor Pinto Pérez and Maximiliano Ferrer Lima; and retired non-commissioned officers Manuel Contreras Donaire and Miguel Letelier Verdugo, all of whom were sentenced to eight years in prison.

The latter two as material perpetrators. In addition to them is retired Major Carlos Herrera Jiménez, sentenced to a unified life sentence: for the death of Jiménez and his participation in the murder of the carpenter Juan Alegría Mundaca in July 1983.

The same sources indicated that the transfer of the former officers was originally scheduled for the weekend; however, it had to be postponed due to a lack of space to receive the new inmates. Furthermore, the security agencies in charge of the operation must give their approval, and they have the authority to stop the procedure until the last moment.

Source: March 23, 2004, La Nación

Judge Guzmán strikes another blow to the DINA

In one of the indictments that ended up dismantling one of the main fabrications of the past dictatorship, investigating judge Juan Guzmán charged ten former DINA agents, several of them from its senior staff, including former chief Manuel Contreras, for eight victims who disappeared in what is known as Operation Colombo.

This is the second indictment issued by Judge Guzmán for this fabrication that took place in 1975, the first being the one decreed on September 2, when the magistrate indicted 16 former agents for 37 victims of Colombo.

The resolutions adopted by Judge Guzmán in this episode constitute, as a whole, the most massive indictment issued so far by this judge, and one of those covering the largest number of victims and defendants in the trials being conducted for human rights violations.

The accused, all retired and declared defendants as perpetrators of aggravated kidnapping, are, in addition to Contreras: the former chief of the DINA Metropolitan Intelligence Brigade, General César Manríquez Bravo, brother of Mario, a retired colonel charged as the intellectual author of the crime against Víctor Jara; the former second-in-command of the DINA, Brigadier Pedro Espinoza Bravo; the former chief of Villa Grimaldi, Colonel Marcelo Moren Brito; the former chief of the DINA facility Cuatro Álamos, Gendarmería officer Orlando Manzo Durán; the former chief of the DINA Halcón group, Brigadier Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko; the former chief of the Army Intelligence Directorate's Secret Service and former member of the DINA senior staff, Colonel Francisco Ferrer Lima, who is serving a sentence in Punta Peuco for the crime against labor leader Tucapel Jiménez; the former chief of the DINA facility Tres Álamos, Carabineros officer Conrado Pacheco Cárdenas; Army non-commissioned officer Basclay Zapata Reyes; and former civilian agent Osvaldo Romo Mena. The eight new Colombo victims are: Aldo Pérez Vargas, Roberto Aranda Romero, Jorge Müller Silva, Modesto Espinoza Pozo, Carlos Pérez Vargas, Carmen Bueno Cifuentes, Rodrigo Ugas Morales, and Carlos Gajardo Wolf. The last five appear on the list of the 119 disappeared by this operation, but the first three do not. The fabrication The so-called Operation Colombo was born in the first months of 1975, when the DINA and former dictator Augusto Pinochet himself, as well as other military ministers, began to disseminate information that the MIR was training "guerrillas" in different Argentine cities to have them enter Chile clandestinely through border crossings to fight the military regime. The newspapers El Mercurio, La Tercera, Las Últimas Noticias, and the evening paper La Segunda were in charge of publishing them. The peak of the fabrication occurred between July 17 and 19, 1975, when the Brazilian newspaper O Dia, which had a short circulation, reported that 59 Chileans had been executed in Argentina by their own leftist comrades, attributing the deaths to political "settling of scores." On the 19th, the Argentine magazine Lea published in its only issue that the same had happened to another 60 Chileans, most of them from the MIR. In April 1975, a body destroyed by an explosion appeared in a Buenos Aires basement with a sign that read "discharged by the MIR." It was said to be the forcibly disappeared communist David Silberman. However, it was not him. On July 12, 1975, two other bodies appeared in Buenos Aires, shot and burned with a similar legend. The dictatorship reported that they were those who had been reported as disappeared in Chile, Jaime Robotham Bravo and Luis Guendelman Wisnik. This also turned out to be false. On July 24, 1975, La Segunda published on its front page perhaps the most representative headline of the invention: "Exterminated like rats: 59 Chilean MIR members fall in military operation in Argentina." Objective and origin of the action The objective of Operation Colombo was to make people believe that dozens of people, whom their families, lawyers, and churches in Chile considered to be forcibly disappeared, had actually left clandestinely for Argentina to prepare in guerrilla groups to return to Chile to fight. And that in the meantime, they had settled political scores abroad by killing each other or falling in military operations in Argentina, a country that was experiencing political and military turmoil in the final months before the coup d'état of March 1976. Regarding the origin of the name Operation Colombo, it refers to statements by former DINA civilian agent Enrique Arancibia Clavel, who admitted in Buenos Aires in 1978—accused of "espionage"—that in 1975, agent Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann (former chief of the DINA Exterior Department and current retired general) arrived in that capital to make a "Chilean subversive" named "Simelman or something similar" appear dead in Argentina. It was Silberman. According to Arancibia Clavel, Iturriaga told him that it was Operation Colombo, in which they had the collaboration of, among others, the Argentine civilian and member of the Triple A (Argentine Anticommunist Alliance) Martín Ciga Correa.

Source: La Nación, January 4, 2004

DINA senior staff indicted for torture

Investigating judge Alejandro Solís indicted nine former members of the senior staff of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) as perpetrators of torture and illegal coercion: the former director, retired General Manuel Contreras; retired Brigadier Pedro Espinoza; retired Major Miguel Krassnoff; retired Colonel Marcelo Moren Brito; and former agents Osvaldo Romo, Basclay Zapata, Gerardo Godoy, Fernando Laureani, and Francisco Ferrer Lima.

Solís held all of them responsible for having tortured about twenty political prisoners who were illegally detained at Villa Grimaldi—a clandestine prison located in the commune of Peñalolén, from which about 400 political prisoners disappeared—during the years 1974 and 1975.

In the 50-page indictment, it is noted that in that place, "a group of DINA agents operated (who) applied torture (to) gather information on the whereabouts of other opponents" of Pinochet. Most of those indicted are currently held at the Cordillera prison, installed inside the Army Telecommunications School, where they are serving sentences for other human rights violation cases.

Source: June 21, 2005, La Nación

Judge indicts former DINA leadership for aggravated kidnappings

Investigating judge Alejandro Solís charged nine former members of the military dictatorship's repressive organization as perpetrators of the disappearance of social worker Jackeline Binfa and veterinarian Jorge D'Orival, both occurring in 1974.

The judge ordered the arrest of two of the accused. Investigating judge Alejandro Solís indicted the leadership of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) as perpetrators of the aggravated kidnappings of dictatorship victims Jacqueline Binfa Contreras and Jorge Humberto D'Orival Briceño.

The list of those indicted is headed by retired General Manuel Contreras, former director of the repressive organization, and the chief of the Intelligence Brigade, César Manríquez Bravo. Also charged were retired Brigadiers Miguel Krassnoff, chief of the Halcón Group of the former DINA, and retired Brigadier Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, former director of the Army Secret Service.

Likewise, retired Colonels Marcelo Morén Brito and Orlando Manso, former chief of the Cuatro Álamos detention center, and Ciro Torré Sáez, husband of San Miguel Court minister Gabriela Hernández, face charges.

Meanwhile, retired non-commissioned officer Basclay Zapata Reyes was indicted by Judge Solís only for the kidnapping of D’Orival Briceño. The judge also ordered the immediate arrest of Ciro Torré and Orlando Manso, as all other defendants are already in prison, convicted or indicted in other human rights violation cases.

Binfa Contreras and D'Orival Briceño were arrested in 1974 by members of the repressive organization and passed through various political prisoner centers of the dictatorship until their trail was lost.

In the case of D'Orival Briceño, who was accused of an alleged closeness to the then-secretary general of the MIR, Pascal Allende, he was transferred at different times to "Cuatro Álamos," "José Domingo Cañas," and "La Venda Sexy." However, his trail was lost at the "Cuatro Álamos" detention center, and there was no information on his whereabouts until he appeared on the list of 119 Chileans who were members of the MIR reported dead in Argentina and Brazil through fictitious publications.

Source: El Mostrador.cl, January 9, 2006

Judge Solís indicted 12 former DINA agents

Investigating judge Alejandro Solís indicted 12 former agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for the crimes of kidnapping and homicide, including its former chief, retired General Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda.

The indictments were issued for the kidnapping and disappearance of eight people and the execution of six others, whose bodies were later handed over to their families or abandoned on public roads. In addition to Contreras, the others indicted are the former second-in-command of the DINA, Pedro Espinoza; the former chief of the operational groups of that organization, Miguel Krassnoff; the former chief of some DINA facilities, retired Carabineros officer Ciro Torré; the former chief of the DINA exterior department, Christoph Willikie; former DINA and Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE) agent Francisco Ferrer; the former chief of the Villa Grimaldi facility and former chief of the DINA Metropolitan Intelligence Brigade, Marcelo Moren Brito; former member of the DINA Halcón group, Basclay Zapata; former chief of the DINA Vampiro group, Fernando Lauriani; former civilian agent Osvaldo Romo; former chief of the Cuatro Álamos facility and retired Gendarmería officer, Orlando Manzo Durán; and retired Carabineros officer and member of DINA operational groups, Gerardo Godoy. The former agents were indicted for their responsibility in the final fate of the following victims: Sergio Pérez Molina, Iván Olivares Coronel, Jaime Ossa Galdames, Gustavo Ramírez Calderón, Julio Flores Pérez, Herbit Ríos Soto, Iván Monti Cordero, and Sergio Lagos Marín, all of whom were kidnapped and forcibly disappeared, with no exact knowledge to date of what happened to their bodies. Italian Embassy Furthermore, the indictments were issued for the aggravated homicides of Lumi Videla Moya, Pedro Labra Saure, Alberto Gallardo Pacheco, Catalina Gallardo Moreno, Mónica Pacheco Sánchez, and Luis Ganga Torres. The repressive situation suffered by Lumi Videla, a MIR militant, became known to public opinion because on October 4, 1974, her corpse was thrown over the wall into the Italian Embassy. Although the press of the time attributed the death to rivalries among those seeking asylum in the diplomatic facility, the truth is that Lumi Videla had died the previous day due to the torture to which she was subjected in the clandestine prison on José Domingo Cañas street in Ñuñoa. Likewise, Alberto and Catalina Gallardo, Mónica Pacheco, and Luis Ganga were made to appear as dead in a confrontation with security forces supposedly occurring in Rinconada de Maipú at noon on November 19, 1975. But judicial investigation in recent years established that they were murdered by DINA agents, and their bodies were moved to the place where they were found. Former DINA agent Amador Fuentes Salas, alias "Hernán Galleguillos," interviewed by La Nación in 2003, stated that these people were taken out of Villa Grimaldi already dead, and that the fake confrontation was filmed exclusively for Televisión Nacional by journalist Julio López Blanco. The resolution of judge Alejandro Solís must now be reviewed by a chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals, after the respective defenses of the former agents appeal the indictments. Several of those indicted, including Contreras, Moren, Krassnoff, and Ferrer, are already serving prison sentences for their responsibility in the death or disappearance of other victims.

Source: La Nación, March 1, 2006

Human rights: Judge sentences Contreras to 10 years in prison

Investigating judge Juan Eduardo Fuentes issued a new conviction yesterday against retired General Manuel Contreras as the perpetrator of the aggravated kidnapping of MIR militants Cecilia Bojanic Abad and Flavio Oyarzún Soto, who were detained in Santiago on October 2, 1974.

For the same crime, the judge issued an equal sentence against former DINA civilian agent Osvaldo Romo; and sentenced former officers Francisco Ferrer Lima, Marcelo Moren Brito, Miguel Krassnoff, and Fernando Laureani to four years without benefits.

The only former DINA member who obtained supervised release was Orlando Manzo, who received a 3-year sentence as an accomplice. Meanwhile, in a split decision, the Sixth Chamber of the Court sentenced nine former members of the Joint Command for "genocidal illicit association," for having organized themselves to persecute and exterminate people who might "uphold Marxist ideology," whom they held at the Air War Academy.

The court also indicted three members of the organization as co-perpetrators of the crime of illegitimate deprivation of liberty of CUT leader José Luis Baeza Cruces.

Source: La Nación, December 20, 2006

The presiding judge Alejandro Solís issued a new sentence of up to fifteen years and one day against the leadership of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the aggravated kidnapping of Herbit Guillermo Ríos Soto, which occurred on January 3, 1975.

The maximum sentences handed down by the magistrate were against retired General Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, former director of the repressive agency, and retired Brigadier Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko.

Meanwhile, Brigadier (R) Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Lieutenant (R) Fernando Lauriani Maturana, Colonel (R) Marcelo Morén Brito, Major (R) Rolf Wenderoth Pozo, Sub-officer (R) Basclay Zapata Reyes, and civilian agent Osvaldo Romo Mena were sentenced to ten years and one day in prison.

Solís also sentenced retired Lieutenant Colonel Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima to five years in prison and acquitted retired Carabineros officer Orlando Manzo Durán. Ríos Soto, a pedagogy student in History and a militant of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR), was detained on January 3, 1975, at the home of a comrade, after which he was transferred to the Villa Grimaldi detention center.

Source: El Mostrador, March 30, 2007

Manuel Contreras sentenced to 25 years in prison

The DINA leadership was convicted for the crime of Lumi Videla in a first-instance ruling that involves, in addition to Contreras, Miguel Krassnoff, Cristoph Willike, Marcelo Moren Brito, among others.

Two magistrates issued separate sentences in well-known human rights cases, rulings that once again complicate the DINA leadership and, with particular force, the leader of the repressive agency, General (R) Manuel Contreras.

On one hand, Judge Alejandro Solís issued a sentence in the case regarding the homicide of Lumi Videla Moya and the aggravated kidnapping of her husband, Sergio Pérez Molina, events that occurred on November 3, 1974, and September 22, 1974, respectively.

In the ruling, he sentenced General (R) Manuel Contreras to ten years and one day of major imprisonment in its medium degree as the perpetrator of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Sergio Pérez. He also sanctioned Miguel Krassnoff for the same offense, but in this case, the sentence is five years and one day of major imprisonment in its minimum degree, a case that is repeated for Ciro Ernesto Torré Sáez.

In the crime of Lumi Videla, the sanction for "Mamo" Contreras reaches fifteen years and one day of major imprisonment in its maximum degree. For Krassnoff Martchenko, it is ten years and one day of major imprisonment in its maximum degree, and the same sentence will be served by Cristoph Georg Paul Willeke Floel, Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, and Marcelo Luis Moren Brito.

Meanwhile, Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes receives a sanction of five years and one day of major imprisonment in its maximum degree. And after the conviction yesterday against the former Army auditor, General (R) Fernando Torres Silva, and Colonel (J) Enrique Ibarra, as perpetrators of illicit association in the death of DINA chemist Eugenio Berrios, today Judge Alejandro Madrid expanded the convictions for another offense.

The judge's ruling refers to the kidnapping and homicide of Army corporal and DINA agent Manuel Leyton Robles, murdered with toxic gas in 1977. This case is of special importance as it is a crime connected to the death of former President Eduardo Frei, because the officer died at the London clinic where the DINA operated.

For the crime of illicit association, he convicted Hernán Taricco Lavin, Pedro Valdivia Soto, Osvaldo Leyton Bahamondes, Carlota Bolumburu Tabeada, Ricardo Lawrence Mires, Vianel Valdivieso Cervantes, Hernán Sovino Maturana, Santiago Matteo Galleguillos, Juan Morales Salgado, Lorenzo Toro Olivares, Vittorio Orvietto Teplisky, Federico Chaigneau Sepúlveda, and Gladys Calderón Carreño.

For the crime of kidnapping, the sanction involves Hernán Taricco Lavin, Osvaldo Leyton Bahamondes, Carlota Bolumburu Tabeada, Vianel Valdivieso Cervantes, Hernán Sovino Maturana, Juan Morales Salgado, Lorenzo Toro Olivares, and Ricardo Lawrence Mires.

And furthermore, for the charge of homicide affecting Manuel Leyton himself, Judge Madrid convicted Hernán Taricco Lavin, Ricardo Lawrence Mires, and Juan Morales Salgado. He sanctioned Hernán Sovino Maturana and Lorenzo Toro Olivares as accomplices; and as accessories after the fact, he convicted Osvaldo Leyton Bahamondes, Carlota Bolumburu Tabeada, Pedro Valdivia Soto, Santiago Matteo Galleguillos, Federico Chaigneau Sepúlveda, and Gladys Calderón Carreño.

Finally, for the crime of co-perpetrators in the falsification of a public document, he sanctioned Osvaldo Leyton Bahamondes and Carlota Bolumburu Tabeada.

Source: La Nación, July 24, 2007

Court sentences Contreras to 15 years in prison for kidnapping of MIR militant

The court also sentenced retired colonels Marcelo Moren Brito, Rolf Wenderoth, and Francisco Ferrer Lima, former Army brigadiers Miguel Krassnoff and Pedro Espinoza, and sub-officer Basclay Zapata to ten years and one day.

The Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced retired General Manuel Contreras, former head of the DINA, the secret police of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship, to fifteen years and one day in prison this Friday for the disappearance of a MIR militant in 1975.

The court also sentenced retired colonels Marcelo Moren Brito, Rolf Wenderoth, and Francisco Ferrer Lima, former Army brigadiers Miguel Krassnoff and Pedro Espinoza, and sub-officer Basclay Zapata to ten years and one day.

The ruling, agreed upon unanimously by the Ninth Chamber of the Court of Appeals, ratified the first-instance resolution issued by Judge Alejandro Solís on January 18 of this year. The court, however, rejected the civil lawsuit filed by the victim's relatives against the Chilean State, who were requesting monetary compensation.

The case refers to the kidnapping of 22-year-old Julio Flores, who was a student at the State Technical University and a militant in the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR). The young man was detained by DINA agents on January 10, 1975, at his home in Santiago and was last seen at the Villa Grimaldi torture center, from where he disappeared, as recorded in the Rettig Report.

With this Friday's ruling, Contreras has accumulated fifteen convictions against him, totaling more than 200 years in prison, although at least half are still pending review by the Supreme Court. With these sentences, the Court of Appeals completes 21 rulings in human rights violation cases so far this year.

According to the Rettig Report, during the Pinochet dictatorship, more than 3,200 people died at the hands of State agents, 1,192 of whom are listed as forcibly disappeared.

Source: El Mostrador, December 28, 2007

Judge issues 100th conviction against DINA leadership

The usual convicts: Brigadier (R) Pedro Espinoza, General (R) César Manríquez Bravo, Lieutenant Colonel (R) Francisco Ferrer Lima, and Colonel (R) Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko. The 100th conviction against the leaders of the former National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) was issued yesterday by the presiding judge of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Alejandro Solís.

This time it was for the aggravated kidnapping of MIR militant Marcelo Salinas Eytel, who disappeared in 1974. The former director of the DINA, General (R) Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, which was added to the 57 he is already serving for other cases.

However, Contreras is awaiting final sentences in 15 other cases that would raise his imprisonment to 197 years. Another of those convicted by Judge Solís is Army Brigadier (R) Pedro Espinoza Bravo, second in the DINA hierarchy, sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison.

The same sentence was received by Army General (R) César Manríquez Bravo, former head of the DINA metropolitan brigade; Lieutenant Colonel (R) Francisco Ferrer Lima, the "intellectual" of the repressive agency, because he asked for more "intelligence and less blood"; and Colonel (R) Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, alias "The Russian," head of the MIR extermination brigade at Villa Grimaldi.

José Manzo Durán, former head of the Cuatro Álamos detention center, was acquitted. Judge Solís's ruling is part of a process that began in January 1998, parallel to the trials against former dictator Augusto Pinochet that were in the hands of Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia.

That year, relatives of the forcibly disappeared filed complaints against Pinochet and other former Armed Forces and Carabineros officers, but Judge Guzmán decided to open another process for the aggravated kidnappings that originated at Villa Grimaldi.

On October 14, 2002, the Santiago Court of Appeals decided to reorganize Judge Guzmán's investigations due to the large volume of this process. Four ministers were appointed, including Alejandro Solís, who has issued 20 of the 100 convictions affecting the DINA leadership.

Marcelo Salinas Eytel, a radio and television technician, was 31 years old at the time of his detention on October 31, 1974, in front of his home on Alberto Decombe Street in Providencia. He was a member of the MIR.

Days earlier, his wife Jacqueline Drouilly Yurich, a Social Work student and also a forcibly disappeared person to this day, had been kidnapped by the DINA to keep her as a hostage until Salinas Eytel appeared.

A "mousetrap" was set up at their home, and the agents forced Salinas Eytel's sister to tell him that everything was fine and that he could arrive at the house without problems. The technician arrived in a taxi, but upon seeing something suspicious, he told the driver to continue, at which point the agents fired at the vehicle's tires.

Beaten, Salinas Eytel was taken first to Cuatro Álamos and then to Villa Grimaldi, from where he disappeared. According to witnesses, both Salinas Eytel and his wife were brutally tortured by Osvaldo Romo Mena.

Source: La Nación, April 18, 2008

Judge Montiglio prosecutes 98 former agents for Operation Colombo victims - The biggest blow to repression

Among the accused, all retired, are eight colonels and 23 Army sub-officers, 40 Carabineros officers and sub-officers, two former FACH agents, one former Navy agent, and seven former Investigative Police agents.

The biggest blow to the repression of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship was dealt yesterday by Judge Víctor Montiglio, by prosecuting 98 former agents from different branches of the Armed Forces, Carabineros, and Investigations for 42 victims of Operation Colombo.

This is the most numerous resolution issued among the nearly 400 human rights violation cases being investigated in the country. It even surpassed the 67 former agents prosecuted by the same Judge Montiglio in 2007 for the crimes of the Lautaro Brigade and its Delfín Group at the Simón Bolívar barracks.

Among those prosecuted for Colombo are eight Army colonels (R), six of whom had not been prosecuted before in any case. Also declared defendants were 23 Army sub-officers (R), of whom at least 50 percent appear for the first time in this type of case.

Among these sub-officers is Juvenal Piña, alias "The Elephant," a former agent of the Lautaro Brigade, who was the one who suffocated the clandestine communist leader (1976) Víctor Díaz with a plastic bag over his head before injecting him with cyanide.

In addition, the magistrate prosecuted 40 former Carabineros officers and sub-officers, among whom are Ricardo Lawrence, Heriberto Acevedo, Claudio Pacheco, and José Mora, all former members of the same Brigade.

Among those prosecuted are also former agents who belonged to the Investigative Police. The only civilian (Army) is Juan Suárez. Of the total list, at least thirteen are already serving sentences for other cases (see list).

As of the closing of this edition, the accused were still being detained to be interned in different places, such as the Peñalolén Military Police Battalion. Among the 42 victims for whom the judge issued his resolution are María Angélica Andreolli, Miguel Acuña Castillo, Juan Carlos Perelmann Ide, Juan Chacón Olivares, Jorge Müller Silva, Luis Guendelmann Wisniak, Mario Calderón Tapia, and Carmen Bueno Cifuentes.

Operation Colombo and the media The list of the 119 was published in the magazine Lea (Buenos Aires) and the newspaper O Dia (Brazil) in 1975, information that was also false. Both publications were created by DINA agents.

Operation Colombo was part of Operation Condor and consisted of a montage by the dictatorship to make the population believe that 119 detainees who were missing had clandestinely left for Argentina and died there in clashes with police and Army forces during the phase prior to the 1976 military coup in Argentina.

Some of those names appeared as militants "murdered" in Buenos Aires and its surroundings, with signs on their bodies stating they had been executed by their own comrades due to internal disputes. However, this also turned out to be a montage.

The list of the 119 was published in the magazine Lea (Buenos Aires) and the newspaper O Dia (Brazil) in 1975, information that was also false. Both publications were created by DINA agents abroad and had only one edition.

In Chile, the pro-dictatorship press such as the newspapers El Mercurio, La Tercera, Las Últimas Noticias, and La Segunda reproduced the intelligence services' montage. The headline of the evening paper that reported "Exterminated like rats: 59 Chilean MIR militants fall in military operation in Argentina" remains in memory.

They were part of the list of the 119 disappeared from Colombo. The former fugitive Raúl Iturriaga, who was one of those in charge of the DINA's foreign department, was the one who first gave clues in Buenos Aires about this operation.

According to former civilian agent Enrique Arancibia Clavel, convicted in Buenos Aires for the crime of General Carlos Prat and his wife, it was Iturriaga who met with him at the beginning of 1975 to ask him to prepare what was necessary because "we have to make some dead people from Operation Colombo appear." It was about preparing the appearance of the supposed bodies of Jaime Robotham and Luis Guendelmann as part of the montage.

List of prosecuted

Army (all retired)

Víctor Molina Astete (colonel); Sergio Castillo González (col); Eduardo Guerra Guajardo (col); Víctor San Martín Jiménez (col); José Fuentes Torres (col); Manuel Carevic Cubillos (col); Jaime Paris Ramos (col); César Manríquez Bravo (col); Raúl Toro Montes (sub-officer); Eduardo Reyes Lagos (sub); Orlando Torrejón Gatica (sub); Osvaldo Tapia Alvarez (sub.

Committed suicide); Juvenal Piña Garrido (sub. "The Elephant"); Juan Suárez Delgado (civilian); Nelson Paz Bustamante (sub); José Aravena Ruiz (sub); Luis Torres Méndez (sub); Raúl Soto Pérez (sub); Jorge Andrade Gómez (sub); Juan Escobar Valenzuela (sub); Rolando Concha Rodríguez (sub); Gustavo Apablaza Meneses (sub); Hiro Alvarez Vega (sub); Víctor Alvarez Droguett (sub); Jorge Venegas Silva (sub); Carlos Rinaldi Suazo (sub); Carlos Letelier Verdugo (sub); Reinaldo Concha Orellana (sub); Máximo Aliaga Soto (sub); Hugo Clavería Leiva (sub); Samuel Fuenzalida Devia (sub); Investigations Juan Urbina Cáceres; Hugo Hernández; Manuel Rivas Díaz; Herman Alfaro; Eugenio Fieldhouse; Osvaldo Castillo; Carabineros (officers and sub-officers all retired) Gerardo Godoy García; Ciro Torres Sáez, Alejandro Molina Cisternas; Camilo Torres Negrier; Héctor Lira Aravena; José Fritz Esparza; Claudio Pacheco Fernández; Jorge Sagardia Monge; Sergio Castro Andrade; Luis Villarroel Gutiérrez; Armando Cofré Gómez; Fernando Roa Montaña; Gerardo Meza Acuña; Enrique Gutiérrez Rubilar; Luis Mora Cerda; José Muñoz Leal; Juan Duarte Gallegos; Carlos Miranda Meza; Rufino Jaime Astorga; Luis Urrutia Acuña; Luis Zúñiga Ovalle; Pedro Alfaro Hernández; Orlando Inostroza Lagos; Rosa Ramos Hernández; Gustavo Caruvan Soto; Héctor Valdebenito Araya; Manuel Avendaño González; José Mora Diocares; Guido Jara Brevis; Nelson Ortiz Vignolo; Ruderlindo Urrutia Jorquera; Héctor Flores Vergara; Jerónimo Neira Méndez; Manuel Montré Méndez; Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo; Claudio Orerllana de la Pinta; Nelson Iturriaga Cortés; Luis Gutiérrez Uribe; José Ojeda Obando; Air Force Delia Gajardo Cortés; Hernán Avalos Muñoz Navy Teresa Navarro Osorio; Prosecuted who are already serving sentences Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda; Pedro Espinoza Bravo; Raúl Iturriaga Neumann; Marcelo Moren Brito; Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko; Ricardo Lawrence Mires; Basclay Zapata Reyes; Conrado Pacheco; Francisco Ferrer Lima; Gerardo Urrich; Orlando Manzo Durán; Rizier Altez España; Fernando Lauriani Maturana

Source: La Nación, May 27, 2008

Manuel Contreras adds two new convictions in human rights case

The imprisoned former repressor was sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison for the kidnapping of Sergio Pérez Molina and 10 years and one day as the perpetrator for the homicide of Lumi Videla Moya.

The former head of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), retired General Manuel Contreras, added two new convictions this Friday after the Santiago Court of Appeals issued a second-instance sentence in the process for the aggravated kidnapping of Sergio Pérez Molina, which occurred starting September 22, 1974, and the aggravated homicide of Lumi Videla Moya, recorded on November 3 of that same year.

The imprisoned former repressor was sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison for the kidnapping of Pérez Molina and 10 years and one day as the perpetrator for the homicide of Videla Moya. In a split decision (in case file 5157-2007), the Eighth Chamber of the capital's appellate court—composed of judges Cornelio Villarroel, Mario Carroza, and member lawyer Carlos López—ratified most of the convictions issued by visiting judge Alejandro Solís Muñoz against 7 former members of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA).

However, it modified the quantum of the penalties applied by the first-instance magistrate. The second-instance ruling establishes the following sanctions:

• Ciro Torré Saéz: acquitted due to lack of participation.
• Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda: 5 years and one day in prison for the kidnapping of Pérez Molina and 10 years and one day for the homicide of Videla Moya (perpetrator).
• Miguel Krassnoff Martchentko: 5 years and one day for the kidnapping of Pérez Molina and 10 years and one day for the homicide of Videla Moya (perpetrator).
• Cristoph Willike Floel: 10 years and one day for the homicide of Videla Moya (perpetrator).
• Francisco Ferrer Lima: 10 years and one day for the homicide of Videla Moya (perpetrator).
• Marcelo Moren Brito: 10 years and one day for the homicide of Videla Moya (perpetrator).
• Basclay Zapata Reyes: 5 years and one day for his participation as an accomplice in the homicide of Lumi Videla Moya.

In the civil aspect, the lawsuit that had convicted Krassnoff Martchenko, Willike Floel, and Ferrer Lima to pay compensation of $50,000,000 (fifty million pesos) to each plaintiff—Lautaro Videla Moya and Eduardo Pérez Molina—was rejected.

The decision regarding the convictions was adopted with the dissenting vote of Judge Cornelio Villarroel, who was in favor of acquitting all those sentenced, applying Decree Law No. 2191 of 1978, known as the Amnesty Law.

Meanwhile, member lawyer López spoke out against the decision that acquitted Ciro Torré and the rejection of the civil lawsuit. In the first instance, on July 23, 2007, Judge Alejandro Solís Muñoz had established the following convictions:

• Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda: 10 years and one day for the kidnapping of Sergio Pérez and 15 years and one day for the homicide of Lumi Videla.
• Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko: 5 years and one day for the kidnapping of Sergio Pérez and 10 years and one day for the homicide of Lumi Videla.
• Ciro Torré Saez, Cristoph Willike Floel, Francisco Ferrer Lima, and Marcelo Moren Brito: 10 years and one day for the homicide of Lumi Videla Moya.
• Basclay Zapata Reyes: 5 years and one day as an accomplice to the homicide of Lumi Videla Moya.

This is the fifteenth sentence of the Santiago Court of Appeals in 2008 in a human rights case, and the 56th since 2004. On November 3, 1974, Lumi Videla died in a torture session to which she was being subjected at the José Domingo Cañas facility.

According to the autopsy report, the precise cause of death was asphyxia due to an obstruction of the mouth and nose while the body was in a prone position. Her husband, Sergio Pérez, disappeared from that same facility.

On November 4, 1974, Lumi Videla's body was found on the inner side of a wall in the garden of the Italian embassy, in the Providencia commune. The press of the time reported that she had been a victim of the asylum seekers who were in the embassy, in the context of an orgy. The embassy, for its part, denied that Lumi Videla had been seeking asylum on the premises.

Source: El Mostrador, November 14, 2008

Conviction ratified for aggravated kidnapping of MIR militant

Jorge Humberto D'Orival Briceño, father of one child, a veterinary medicine graduate, and a MIR militant, was detained on October 31, 1974. The Santiago Court of Appeals ratified the sentence of visiting judge Alejandro Solís Muñoz in the investigation into the aggravated kidnapping of Jorge D’Orival Briceño, which occurred starting October 31, 1974, in Santiago.

In a split decision, the judges of the Eighth Chamber of the appellate court, Juan Escobar Zepeda, Cornelio Villarroel Ramírez, and member lawyer Roberto González Maldonado, ratified the sentence of October 22, 2007, which established: 15 years for Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda; 10 years and one day for Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Marcelo Moren Brito, and Francisco Ferrer Lima; and 5 years for Basclay Zapata Reyes and Orlando Manzo Durán.

Meanwhile, the ruling acquitted César Manríquez Bravo for not having participated in the events. Judge Escobar and member lawyer González were in favor of ratifying the sentence and rejecting the appeals filed by the convicted; meanwhile, Judge Villarroel was in favor of acquitting all those sentenced, accepting the exception of the statute of limitations for criminal action and applying the 1978 Amnesty Decree Law.

Jorge Humberto D'Orival Briceño, father of one child, a veterinary medicine graduate, and a MIR militant, was detained on October 31, 1974, at 10:30 PM, by a group of approximately five to eight individuals dressed in civilian clothes, armed with machine guns, who verbally stated they belonged to the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA).

The aforementioned subjects were traveling in 2 vehicles: a gray 1958 Ford pickup truck and another, a red Chevrolet with an olive green canopy, on which the license plate EM 965 of Las Condes could be read.

Source: El Mostrador, November 28, 2008

Court of Appeals ratifies conviction for kidnapping of Marcelo Salinas Eytel

The ministers ratified the first-instance conviction issued by judge Alejandro Solís, who on April 17, 2008, determined: 15 years and one day of imprisonment for General (ret.) Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda.

The Santiago Court of Appeals ratified the conviction for the aggravated kidnapping of Marcelo Salinas Eytel, which began on October 31, 1974, in the Metropolitan Region. In a unanimous ruling, the ministers ratified the first-instance conviction issued by judge Alejandro Solís, who on April 17, 2008, determined: 15 years and one day of imprisonment for General (ret.) Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda; and 10 years and one day for the former head of the DINA Metropolitan Intelligence Brigade, General (ret.) César Manríquez Bravo.

The same sentence was applied to Brigadier (ret.) Pedro Espinoza Bravo, and former DINA agents Maximiliano Ferrer Lima and Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko. Meanwhile, Orlando Manzo Durán was acquitted due to a lack of participation.

History Marcelo Salinas Eytel, a radio and television technician, was 31 years old at the time of his detention on October 31, 1974, in front of his home on Calle Alberto Decombe, in Providencia. He was a member of the MIR.

Days earlier, his wife, Jacqueline Drouilly Yrich, a Social Work student and also a forcibly disappeared person to this day, had been kidnapped by the DINA to be held as a hostage until Salinas Eytel appeared.

A "trap" was set up at their home, and the agents forced Salinas Eytel's sister to tell him that everything was fine and that he could arrive at the house without problems. The technician arrived in a taxi, but upon seeing something suspicious, he told the driver to continue, at which point the agents fired at the vehicle's tires.

Salinas Eytel was beaten and taken first to Cuatro Álamos and then to Villa Grimaldi, from where he disappeared. According to witnesses, both Salinas Eytel and his wife were brutally tortured by Osvaldo Romo Mena.

Source: El Mostrador, January 6, 2009

Countless conviction against "el Mamo": For the disappearances of two MIR members

The Santiago Court of Appeals issued yet another ruling against General (ret.) Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, alias "el Mamo," this time for the aggravated kidnappings of Cecilia Bojanic Abad and Flavio Oyarzún Soto, which occurred beginning on October 2, 1974, in the commune of La Granja, Metropolitan Region.

Contreras Sepúlveda, former director of the DINA, was sentenced to 10 years and one day for the detentions and subsequent disappearances of Bojanic and Oyarzún, both militants of the MIR. The woman was five months pregnant at the time of her detention.

Four other members of the former DINA, Marcelo Moren Brito, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Fernando Lauriani Maturana, and Francisco Ferrer Lima, were sentenced to 4 years of imprisonment each.

Source: La Nación, March 14, 2009

Supreme Court issued a new conviction against the DINA leadership

The Supreme Court issued a new conviction against the DINA leadership for the aggravated kidnapping of one of the victims of the so-called Operation Condor, identified as Jorge D'Orival Briceño, who was detained and disappeared from the illegal detention center José Domingo Cañas.

For this case, the then-head of the DINA, Manuel Contreras, received a 15-year sentence, while his former agents Marcelo Moren Brito, Maximiliano Ferrer, and Miguel Krassnoff were sentenced to 10 years.

For Orlando Manzo and Basclay Zapata, the supreme court determined a five-year sentence. Furthermore, the State's responsibility for the crime against humanity was established, meaning the victim's family will be able to appeal to request compensation. With this new conviction, Manuel Contreras has accumulated nearly 300 years of imprisonment for human rights violations.

Source: Cooperativa.cl, July 21, 2009

DINA leadership received a harsh sentence for the murder of a MIR member

The Supreme Court imposed a 15-year prison sentence on General (ret.) Manuel Contreras. This was for the aggravated kidnapping of Sergio Pérez Molina and the aggravated homicide of Lumi Videla. The criminal chamber of the Supreme Court convicted the DINA leadership, headed by General (ret.) Manuel Contreras, for the aggravated kidnapping of Sergio Pérez Molina and the aggravated homicide of Lumi Videla Moya, events that occurred in 1974.

In a split decision, the former head of the secret police of the late dictator Augusto Pinochet received 15 years and one day in prison, without benefits, for both crimes, as did Brigadier (ret.) Miguel Krassnoff.

For their part, Brigadiers (ret.) Cristoph Willike, Francisco Ferrer, and Marcelo Morén Brito were sentenced to 10 years and one day for their responsibility in the homicide of Videla. At the same time, former agent Basclay Zapata Reyes received five years of imprisonment as an accomplice to the murder of the MIR member, and Colonel (ret.) of the Carabineros Ciro Torré was sentenced to five years in prison for the kidnapping of Sergio Pérez Molina, with the benefit of supervised release.

On November 4, 1974, Lumi Videla's body was found in a garden at the Italian embassy in Providencia. The press at the time reported that her death occurred after participating in an orgy with other asylum seekers at the diplomatic mission.

Source: Cooperativa.cl, September 8, 2009

Sentences of up to 7 years for the crime against priest Llidó

The Santiago Court of Appeals issued a sentence in the kidnapping case of priest Antonio Llidó Mengual, which occurred beginning in late September or early October 1973 in Santiago. The Third Chamber of the appellate court, composed of ministers Lamberto Cisternas, Gloria Ana Chevesich, and lawyer member Claudia Chaimovich, ratified the first-instance ruling of judge Jorge Zepeda Arancibia, which established the following sanctions: Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda: 7 years of imprisonment for his responsibility as an author.

Marcelo Moren Brito: 7 years of imprisonment for his responsibility as an author. Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko: 7 years of imprisonment for his responsibility as an author. Basclay Zapata Reyes: 7 years of imprisonment for his responsibility as an author.

Francisco Ferrer Lima: Acquitted. Fernando Lauriani Maturana: Acquitted. Orlando Manzo Durán: Acquitted. In the case of Manzo Durán, the decision was adopted with the dissenting vote of lawyer member Chaimovich, who was in favor of convicting this officer.

In the civil aspect of the case, the conviction of the State to pay compensation of 100 million pesos to the priest's sister, Josefina Llidó Mengual, was ratified.

Source: La Nación, October 15, 2009

Scandalous reduction of sentences for the authors of the kidnapping and disappearance of Father Llidó

The authors of the aggravated kidnapping, homicide, and disappearance of the remains of the Spanish priest Antonio Llidó, who carried out a fruitful pastoral, social, and political mission in Quillota, will serve their sentences in freedom.

The Valencian priest, loved and remembered in this city, was detained and forcibly disappeared by dictatorship agents in late September 1974 in the Metropolitan Region, where he had taken refuge after the military coup.

There are multiple testimonies that he was kept detained in clandestine detention centers, where he was cruelly tortured until his death, after which the repressors made his body disappear. In September 2008, investigating judge Jorge Zepeda determined sentences of 7 years of imprisonment, without benefits, for the authors of the crime: Manuel Contreras, Marcelo Moren, Miguel Krassnoff, and Basclay Zapata.

But now, in a split decision, the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court issued a final sentence. Ministers Nibaldo Segura, Jaime Rodríguez, Rubén Ballesteros, Hugo Dolmestch, and Carlos Künsemüller sentenced the former members of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) Contreras Sepúlveda, Moren Brito, Krassnoff Martchenko, and Zapata Reyes to five years of imprisonment, reducing their sentences to five years but granting them the benefit of supervised release; that is, they can stay in their homes or walk free through the streets, even though they are all imprisoned (in VIP prisons, of course) for other crimes against humanity. In its resolution, the ministers also acquitted former agents Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, Fernando Lauriani Maturana, and Orlando Manzo Durán due to a lack of participation. Likewise, demonstrating absolute contempt for the suffering that the family has endured for 36 years, the Supreme Court rejected the lawsuit for damages against the State of Chile filed by the victim's sister, Josefa "Pepa" Llidó, who had previously been granted compensation. The highest court accepted the exception of absolute incompetence of the first-instance court and rendered it void. In its ruling, the Supreme Court applied the mitigating factor of "half-prescription" or "incomplete prescription"—which other ministers have rejected—with the favorable votes of ministers Segura, Ballesteros, and Dolmestch, and the contrary opinion of magistrates Rodríguez and Künsemüller. Scandalous decision The final ruling of the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court is perceived by the family and friends of Father Llidó as a truly scandalous determination, as it highlights the indifference of the Chilean justice system toward a case as cruel as it is emblematic of human rights violations. It is on record in the proceedings that during the decades of investigation, none of the intellectual or material authors of the kidnapping, torture, homicide, and disappearance of the remains of "Cura Toño"—as we knew him in Quillota—collaborated with the inquiries. For decades, they not only denied their participation but also deceived the judges with false data, distorted the facts, concealed information, and acted before the courts with disgusting cynicism. The partial clarification of what happened to Father Llidó was only possible thanks to the tenacity and professionalism of magistrates like judge Zepeda, who did not give up until he got closer to the truth... ...Only closer, because they continue to hide the total truth. The confessions were only achieved because they kept falling into absurd contradictions. But they have never wanted to reveal why they kidnapped and tortured him with such cruelty, who killed him, what they did with his remains, or where they hid them until now. Scant local repercussions The scandalous reduction of sentences and the refusal to compensate the still-grieving family have had little impact in the national media. Only the newspaper La Tercera provided relatively extensive information, of 278 words. Stations such as Cooperativa, Bio Bio, and Universidad de Chile also dedicated some space to it, without major significance. "El Observador" of Quillota—which before 1973 was a great critic of the activities of "Cura Toño"—published a chronicle of 291 words. As we close this note (night of Wednesday the 22nd), we discovered a note published by El Mercurio, of 261 words, reporting on the event. In contrast, at the international level, the shameful ruling had great repercussions. The Google search engine shows publications in written media such as El País, El Periódico, El Diario de Levante, and El Diario Vasco in Spain, La Jornada in Mexico, and the agencies Ansa Latina and Xinhua in China, among many others. The lawyer The lawyer for the Llidó family in Chile, Héctor Salazar, criticized the resolution of the highest court, considering that it is "too soft a hand for a crime of this nature, in a case where even all those who appear involved and convicted never provided information, not even to know where the remains of Father Llidó ended up." In addition, lawyer Salazar lamented the rejection of the compensation initially set for the relatives of the Spanish citizen, because "it leaves the Chilean State, from the point of view of its international commitments, in a bad position," since it did not resolve the "reparation that is involved in this kind of crime."

Source: ZonaImpacto.cl, September 27, 2010

Human Rights: New indictments against the imprisoned DINA leadership

Judge Solís's ruling corresponds to the cases of the aggravated kidnapping of Juan Aniceto Meneses Reyes, Eduardo Zúñiga Zúñiga, and Carlos Terán de la Jara. Investigating judge Alejandro Solís issued 3 new indictments against the leadership of the dissolved DINA in investigations into cases of forcibly disappeared persons, which occurred starting in 1974 during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

In his resolution, the magistrate ordered the preventive detention of all those indicted, considering them a "danger to society," despite the fact that they are already behind bars serving sentences for other human rights violations.

For the aggravated kidnapping of Juan Aniceto Meneses Reyes, which occurred beginning on August 3, 1974, the magistrate indicted the former director of the DINA, Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, along with former agents Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Marcelo Moren Brito, Basclay Zapata Reyes, Gerardo Godoy García, and Maximiliano Ferrer Lima.

Regarding the kidnapping of Eduardo Zúñiga Zúñiga, which occurred beginning on August 23, 1974, Contreras, Krassnoff, Moren Brito, and Zapata were indicted. For the case of Carlos Terán de la Jara, which occurred beginning on December 11, 1974, judge Solís indicted Contreras, Krassnoff, Moren Brito, Zapata, and Rolf Wenderoth Pozo.

Source: La Nación, March 16, 2011

Tucapel Jiménez Case: Colonel (ret.) Ferrer accuses DINE superior commands

He admitted to having thrown the murder weapon into the San Carlos canal.

Retired Colonel Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima accused the superior commands of the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE) of ordering the crime against union leader Tucapel Jiménez, but asserted that he was not involved in the homicide.

Ferrer is accused as an author of the crime, as the superior of retired Major Carlos Herrera Jiménez, who has confessed to having committed the murder. However, during the public testimony session held yesterday, the retired Army officer stated that he was not Herrera's superior, and that his only action regarding the homicide was throwing the firearm and the knife used in the crime into the San Carlos Canal, as well as the taximeter from the labor leader's vehicle. "On February 25, 1982, while I was in my office, I felt a great commotion in the main hall of the CIE (Army Intelligence Corps).

I went out to see what had happened. I met the second-in-command again and asked him what had happened. He told me that Mr. Herrera had reported to Brigadier Pinto that he had carried out his order to assassinate Mr.

Tucapel Jiménez," the former officer recounted. In yesterday's session, Major Herrera Jiménez participated as a member of the public; days earlier, he testified, pointing out that Ferrer Lima and Brigadier Víctor Pinto Pérez gave him the order to assassinate the president of the public employees' union in 1982.

Although he did not admit to having been Herrera's superior, Ferrer Lima acknowledged that in 1982 he filled out the service record of the confessed author of the crime. Ferrer accused Colonel Pinto Pérez of wanting to involve him in the crime.

Urgent meeting The accused said that after the assassination, the director of the DINE, General Ramsés Álvarez Sgolia, summoned him to a meeting. "General Álvarez says he does not want to hear that people are still saying that the death of Tucapel Jiménez Alfaro was ordered by General Pinochet, that he does not want there to be any more comments about that death, and that he assumes full responsibility," he declared.

According to his version, Álvarez told them that anyone who mentioned the matter would be sanctioned. He asserted that Brigadier Pinto Pérez and the then-major and current retired General Hernán Ramírez Hald intervened in that meeting.

Retired Major Arturo Silva Valdés also testified yesterday, maintaining that he intervened in 1991 in the departure of Major Herrera Jiménez from the country. He maintained that he did so by order of General (ret.) Hernán Ramírez Rurange, then director of the DINE.

Source: El Mercurio, April 26, 2002

The Punta Peuco reality show: the "face-to-face" meetings coming between the military officers convicted of human rights violations

When Manuel "Mamo" Contreras gave an interview to CNN on September 10, he never thought that his classic lies about the actions of the DINA—disappearances, torture, and murders—would lead to two things: the closure of the Cordillera prison and the transfer to Punta Peuco, and the suicide of his arch-enemy, General (ret.) and former director of the CNI, Odlanier Mena.

With the facts accomplished and the entire DINA high command in the prison located in Til Til, the internal relations of the prison will begin to be reorganized. It happens that in Punta Peuco, things are separated between "The Pharaohs," the police officers from the "Degollados" case, and the former DINA member and former head of the Army Secret Service, Maximiliano Ferrer Lima.

They almost never mix, except for activities specific to the prison. Among the "Pharaohs" are, for example, the former operational head of the CNI Álvaro Corbalán, and former DINA members Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann and Fernando Laureani Maturana, among others.

And although the ranks among these human rights violators are still maintained (only among themselves), the new visitors will not necessarily be welcome, since the facilities will become smaller and the visits will pay the price.

Even more so because Contreras and company were assigned a special zone, although without the comforts of the Cordillera prison. Be that as it may, the face-to-face meetings will not be long in coming.

Grievances, accounts It is known that Contreras and Mena hated each other with everything. But now that the latter shot himself last week, the differences will be present with Brigadier (ret.) Pedro Espinoza, who was his right-hand man in the DINA.

This deep-seated hatred between the two began during the investigation of the Letelier case in mid-1991 and became even stronger in 1995 when they were sentenced—7 and 6 years, respectively. The animosity returned a few years ago when Espinoza, within the framework of the process investigated by former judge Alejandro Solís for the homicide of General Carlos Prats, handed over a document that showed that Contreras knew everything about the operation.

The paper in question was a report signed by the then-head of the DINA's Lautaro Brigade, Colonel Juan Morales Salgado, where all the surveillance activity carried out on Prats in Buenos Aires was recorded, a matter that allowed the bomb to be installed in his Fiat, which also killed his wife, Sofía Cuthbert.

Thus, Espinoza and Morales will also have time to continue smoothing over their differences. A second reunion will be between two former DINA members: Marcelo Moren Brito (or "Moren Bruto") and Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima.

The latter had to be transferred from Cordillera to Punta Peuco in 2008. The reason? A fistfight that ended with Ferrer Lima handcuffed by the guards and sent to Til Til as punishment. The whole thing started as a mere exchange of words and escalated to blows, when Ferrer Lima, the former head of the Army's Secret Espionage Service, accused him of murdering his nephew Alan Bruce by strangling him with a wire and a plastic bag while he was detained at the Villa Grimaldi torture center.

To this day, Bruce is missing. Playing the fool Álvaro Corbalán will also have his own issues, because among the 9 military officers sent to Punta Peuco is his former boss in the CNI: General (ret.) Hugo Salas Wenzel.

The latter, while the investigation into the so-called Operation Albania was taking place, where twelve FPMR militants were murdered in fictitious confrontations, tried to shift responsibilities onto Corbalán, literally playing the fool, despite the fact that he gave the order and even congratulated the personnel who participated in the executions by drinking whiskey.

This fact led to the fact that in Corbalán's statements, it was enough for him to mention who the head of the repressive organization was and the knowledge he had, for the Supreme Court to impose a life sentence on him in 2007.

And only 20 for Corbalán. Krassnoff, meanwhile, will have his part with Fernando Laureani Maturana, both former DINA members. Military sources assure that the mutual aversion comes from long ago, from their days in the repressive organization, and that on more than one occasion they had strong exchanges of words.

Laureani will also be able to collect on an old disagreement with Espinoza. It happens that when a prison was chosen to send him to, Espinoza went to Cordillera, occupying Laureani's spot, who was transferred to Punta Peuco without prior notice. In any case, all this happened thanks to Contreras's interview on CNN, so, at the very least, he is already condemned by his peers for coexistence.

Source: The Clinic, September 30, 2013

Former DINA agents convicted for the application of torture to 37 victims of Villa Grimaldi

Investigating judge Leopoldo Llanos sentenced former members of the repressive group Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Marcelo Luis Moren Brito, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Rolf Gonzalo Wenderoth Pozo, Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, and Ricardo Lawrence Mires to unique and effective 7-year prison sentences; meanwhile, Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes and Orlando Manzo Durán must serve 5 years and one day in prison, without benefits.

The extraordinary investigating judge of the Santiago Court of Appeals for human rights violation cases, Leopoldo Llanos Sagristá, issued a first-instance sentence in the investigation into the application of torments (torture) to 37 victims of the case titled: "Villa Grimaldi," episode "María Cristina Chacaltana and others," who were detained and taken to the clandestine facility in 1975.

In the resolution, issued last Monday, January 12, judge Llanos convicted the former DINA agents as authors: Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Marcelo Luis Moren Brito, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Rolf Gonzalo Wenderoth Pozo, Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, and Ricardo Lawrence Mires, to unique and effective 7-year prison sentences; meanwhile, Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes and Orlando Manzo Durán must serve 5 years and one day in prison, without benefits.

In the civil aspect, judge Leopoldo Llanos accepted, "with costs, the lawsuits filed by 36 of the plaintiffs against the State of Chile, ordering it to pay each of them compensation for damages, for moral harm, amounting to the sum of 50 million pesos." Likewise, he ordered "Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda and Marcelo Luis Manuel Moren Brito to pay, jointly and severally with the State, 50 million pesos to each of the 23 plaintiffs who requested it; and Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes, Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Ricardo Lawrence Mires, Orlando Manzo Durán, and Rolf Gonzalo Wenderoth Pozo and Francisco Ferrer to pay the same amount regarding 21 plaintiffs."

Source: El Mostrador, January 16, 2015

Operation Colombo was a major intelligence operation and a media fabrication by the DINA, which attempted to portray 119 people kidnapped in Chile as having been killed abroad.

The Second Penal Chamber of the Supreme Court revoked a sentence that had acquitted more than 60 former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) and convicted them as responsible for the disappearance of 16 leftist militants, mostly from the MIR, in the process known as Operation Colombo, which in this case was perpetrated between June 17, 1974, and January 6, 1975, during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

The ruling was issued by ministers Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, María Teresa Letelier, and Diego Simpertigue. They revoked the sentence handed down by the Court of Appeals and sentenced former DINA chiefs and officers César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff, and Raúl Iturriaga Neumann to 15 years and one day of major imprisonment in its maximum degree as authors of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of the victims.

Similarly, the court sentenced 53 former agents to an effective term of 10 years and one day of major imprisonment in its medium degree as authors of the same crime, after they had previously been acquitted by the capital's appellate court, despite having been convicted in the first instance as accomplices and authors.

Furthermore, this time all must enter prison, with some of them already incarcerated for other crimes against humanity.

These are former DINA agents Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Manuel Andrés Carevic, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, Jose Abel Aravena Ruiz, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, Nelson Aquiles Ortiz Vignolo, Rudeslindo Urrutia Jorquera, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Manuel Heriberto Avendaño Gonzalez, Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte, Alejandro Francisco Astudillo Adonis, Daniel Alberto Galaz Orellana, Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, Leoncio Enrique Velásquez Guala, José Enrique Fuentes Torres, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, Luis René Torres Méndez, Rodolfo Valentino Concha Rodríguez, Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar, Hugo Del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Manuel Rivas Diaz, Daniel Valentín Cancino Varas, Juan Evangelista Duarte Gallegos, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Jorge Antonio Lepileo Barrios, Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza, Pedro Ariel Aravena Aravena, Carlos Alfonso Sáez Sanhueza, Juan Carlos Villanueva Alvear, Alfredo Orlando Moya Tejeda, Rafael De Jesús Riveros Frost, Silvio Antonio Concha González, Luis Fernando Espinace Contreras, Hernán Patricio Valenzuela Salas, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, Sylvia Teresa Oyarce Pinto, Osvaldo Pulgar Gallardo, José Avelino Yévenes Vergara, Olegario Enrique González Moreno, Werner Zanghellini, and Hector Flores Vergara.

Jaime Alfonso Fernández Garrido received a sentence of 5 years and one day of major imprisonment in its minimum degree as author of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Ida Vera Almarza. Meanwhile, Samuel Fuenzalida Devia was sentenced to 541 days and one day for the same crime, but he will not serve time in prison.

This is an extensive process that had its first sentence in the first instance in 2017 at the hands of minister Hernán Crisosto Greisse. In the course of the investigation, some agents have died, such as Basclay Zapata, Ciro Torré, Manzo Duran, and Ricardo Lawrence, among others.

For Nelson Caucoto, the plaintiff lawyer representing 13 of the 16 victims, this is “a transcendent ruling in Chilean judicial history, since the Supreme Court has restored the sense of justice for crimes of this nature, which had literally remained in an unacceptable situation of impunity.

The highest court has once again rejected the half-prescription and the appeals of the defense of the convicted, and has accepted the appeals of the plaintiffs,” he noted.

Caucoto adds that “it is a modern ruling based on international law and domestic legislation. It is undoubtedly the case that justice operates here as a healing process for so many relatives of victims who still survive, and it is a pity that others did not live to see this end.”

Operation Colombo was a major intelligence operation and a media fabrication by the DINA, which attempted to portray 119 people kidnapped in Chile by the DINA as having been killed abroad, claiming they had perished after fighting among themselves.

This process investigated the fate of 16 of those 119 victims. They are Francisco Aedo Carrasco, Jorge Elías Andrónicos Antequera, Juan Carlos Andrónicos Antequera, Jaime Buzio Lorca, Mario Calderón Tapia, Cecilia Castro Salvadores, Rodolfo Espejo Gómez, Agustín Fioraso Chau, Gregorio Gaete Farías, Mauricio Jorquera Encina, Isidro Pizarro Meniconi, Marcos Quiñones Lembach, Sergio Reyes Navarrete, Ida Vera Almarza, Juan Carlos Rodríguez Araya, and Jilberto Urbina Pizarro.

Source: radio.uchile.cl, March 3, 2023

Operation Colombo: Supreme Court sentences 30 former DINA agents for the aggravated kidnapping of a young MIR militant in 1975

The Supreme Court sentenced agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the consummated crime of aggravated kidnapping of the student of the Instituto Superior de Comercio de Talca, Francisco Eduardo Ugás Morales, 22 years old, a militant of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), who was kidnapped starting February 7, 1975, in the Estación Central commune, in Santiago.

The name of Rodrigo Ugás appeared, subsequently, in the list of 119 forcibly disappeared persons included in the disinformation maneuver implemented by the DINA and the dictatorship known as "Operation Colombo."

In a unanimous ruling (case roll 63-094-2020), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, minister María Teresa Letelier, and lawyer (i) Pía Tavolari—accepted the cassation appeals on the merits filed by the plaintiffs and established an error of law in the challenged sentence, issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals in April 2020, annulling it and replacing it.

In the replacement sentence, the Supreme Court confirmed the first-instance sentence issued by minister Hernán Crisosto Greisse in June 2015, which sentenced former Army officers and former DINA leaders Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann to 13 years of imprisonment as authors of the crime.

Meanwhile, former officers Rolf Gonzalo Wenderoth Pozo, Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, and Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, and former agents Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Luis René Torres Méndez, Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Manuel Rivas Díaz, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza, Luis Rigoberto Videla Insunza, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Pedro Mora Villanueva, Osvaldo Octavio Castillo Arellano, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, José Abel Aravena Ruiz, Rodolfo Valentino Concha Rodríguez, Silvio Antonio Concha González, and Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel must serve 10 years and one day of imprisonment as co-authors of the aggravated kidnapping.

In the case of agent Samuel Enrique Fuenzalida Devia, the resolution of visiting minister Hernán Crisosto was confirmed, sentencing him to 541 days of imprisonment, with the benefit of conditional remission of the sentence. At least 11 other agents convicted in the first-instance ruling died during the course of the process.

In the resolution, the Second Chamber establishes that: "....it appears clear that the lower court judges, at the moment of resolving the controversy submitted to their knowledge and acquitting the accused Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Luis René Torres Méndez, Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Manuel Rivas Díaz, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Carlos López Inostroza, Luis Rigoberto Videla Insunza, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, Leonidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Pedro Mora Villanueva, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, and Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, have incurred in the errors of law denounced by the plaintiff, by estimating, in summary, as evidenced by the reasoning that precedes, .... artificially reducing the responsibility attributed to each of them to their condition as DINA agents, through an incomplete reproduction of the foundations put forward by the first-instance court…..", the ruling maintains.

"That on the other hand -it continues-, as has already been outlined, in addition to said legal qualification, the sentencers estimated...., that the facts were committed in a context of systematic or generalized attack against the civilian population, which determined that the illicit act established was, additionally, considered as crimes against humanity, for violating ius cogens norms of International Humanitarian Law, and for the same reason, subjected to said international legal statute."

Villa Grimaldi

In the first-instance sentence, the visiting minister of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Hernán Crisosto Greisse, established that on the afternoon of February 7, 1975, members of the DINA detained Rodrigo Eduardo Ugás Morales, a militant of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), on a public street in the Estación Central sector in Santiago, and transported him to the clandestine DINA detention center called 'Cuartel Terranova' or 'Villa Grimaldi', located at Lo Arrieta No. 8200, in the La Reina commune, which was guarded by armed guards and to which only DINA agents had access.

During his stay at the Villa Grimaldi barracks, according to testimonies from survivors, the detainee Ugás Morales remained without contact with the outside world, blindfolded and tied, being continuously subjected to interrogations under torture by DINA agents operating in said barracks.

The last time Rodrigo Ugás Morales was seen by other detainees occurred on an undetermined day in late February 1975, and he has been disappeared since that date.

Source: resumen.cl, February 23, 2024

Operation Colombo: Supreme Court confirms convictions of 24 former DINA agents for the aggravated kidnapping of a UdeC leader in Santiago in 1974

The Supreme Court rejected the cassation appeals in form and on the merits filed by the defenses against the sentence that convicted agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of sociology student Ariel Martín Salinas Argomedo, committed starting September 25, 1974, in Santiago.

The name of Ariel Salinas Argomedo appeared, subsequently, in the list of 119 forcibly disappeared persons included in the disinformation maneuver implemented by the DINA and the dictatorship known as "Operation Colombo."

In a unanimous ruling (case roll 135.568-2020), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, minister María Teresa Letelier, and lawyer (i) Pía Tavolari—accepted the cassation appeal in form filed by the plaintiff, the Human Rights Program of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, and consequently invalidated the challenged sentence only in the part that acquitted the accused Manuel Heriberto Avendaño González and, in a replacement sentence, sentenced him to 10 years of imprisonment as author of the crime.

The Supreme Court ruling confirmed the sentences of former Army officers and former DINA leaders César Raúl Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann, who must serve 13 years of imprisonment for their responsibility as authors of the aggravated kidnapping.

Meanwhile, in addition to the aforementioned Manuel Heriberto Avendaño González, former officers Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, and former agents Hermón Helec Alfaro Mundaca, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Silvio Antonio Concha González, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Luis Rigoberto Videla Inzunza, Teresa del Carmen Osorio Navarro, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, José Abel Aravena Ruiz, Alejandro Francisco Astudillo Adonis, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte, Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda, and Juan Evaristo Duarte Gallegos must serve 10 years of imprisonment, all convicted as authors of the crime.

Another 12 agents, also convicted in the first-instance ruling issued by minister Hernán Crisosto Greisse in October 2015, died during the course of the process.

Regarding the case of the accused Manuel Avendaño González, the Penal Chamber points out: "(...) under such conditions, the appeal proposed by the Human Rights Program of the relevant Ministry must be accepted, since from the mere reading of the challenged sentence, foundations are evidenced that are completely contradictory, canceling each other out, making the decision that acquits the accused Avendaño González, which is declared in the operative part, devoid of all foundation, configuring the vice of invalidation denounced."

"In effect, at the time of the events, these accused were part, as hierarchical superiors and operational agents, jointly with other defendants whose participation would be analyzed in the following considerations, of the groups belonging to the National Intelligence Directorate that materialized the kidnapping of the members of the Revolutionary Left Movement, among whose members was Salinas Argomedo, in such a way that, despite not remembering the specific name of this person, it is indisputable to conclude, just as the a quo does, that they took part in the illegitimate deprivation of liberty of this person in an immediate and direct manner as provided by the aforementioned norm and that, for the same reason, they are punishable co-authors of this illicit act."

Operation Colombo

Ariel Martín Salinas Argomedo was a former sociology student at the University of Concepción. The young man, 26 years old, married and father of a daughter, was a militant of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), was part of the university leadership of the MIR in Concepción, and, until the military coup, was president of the student center of the sociology program at UdeC.

After the coup, he had to go into hiding to avoid being captured. He moved to Santiago to continue his militant activity and a year later was detained.

In the first-instance ruling, the visiting minister Hernán Crisosto Greisse established that on the morning of September 25, 1974, Ariel Salinas was detained on a public street by agents belonging to the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), who transported him to the clandestine DINA detention center called 'Ollagüe', located at José Domingo Cañas No. 1367 in the Ñuñoa commune.

Subsequently, he was transferred to the clandestine detention centers called 'Villa Grimaldi', located at Lo Arrieta No. 8200, in La Reina, and 'Cuatro Álamos', located at Canadá Street No. 3000, in the Santiago commune, centers that were guarded by armed guards and to which only DINA agents had access.

According to the testimony of surviving prisoners, during his stay at the José Domingo Cañas, Villa Grimaldi, and Cuatro Álamos barracks, the detainee Ariel Salinas remained without contact with the outside world. In the first two places, he was blindfolded and tied, being continuously subjected to interrogations under torture by DINA agents operating in said barracks.

The last time Ariel Salinas Argomedo was seen alive by other detainees occurred on an undetermined day in November 1974, and he has been disappeared since that date.

by Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl, February 26, 2024

Kidnapping of Jorge Müller and Carmen Bueno: DINA agents are convicted for the disappearance of the filmmakers

The members of the defunct National Intelligence Directorate, César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Raúl Iturriaga Neumann, and Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko will receive a sentence of 20 years of imprisonment for their status as authors.

In a unanimous ruling, the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court confirmed the sentence that convicted César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Raúl Iturriaga Neumann, and Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko to 20 years of imprisonment as authors of the crime.

The highest court rejected the cassation appeals in form and on the merits filed against the sentence that convicted agents of the defunct National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of the couple of filmmakers Jorge Hernán Müller Silva and Carmen Cecilia Bueno Cifuentes. These illicit acts were committed starting November 29, 1974.

In a unanimous ruling (case roll 43.971-2020), the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, minister María Teresa Letelier, and lawyer (i) Pía Tavolari—confirmed the challenged sentence, issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals, which sentenced César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann, and Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko to 20 years of imprisonment as authors of the crime.

Meanwhile, Orlando Manzo Durán, Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, Alejandro Francisco Astudillo Adonis, Sylvia Teresa Oyarce Pinto, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Manuel Heriberto Avendaño González, Nelson Aquiles Ortiz Vignolo, Silvio Antonio Concha González, Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda, Luis Rigoberto Videla Insunza, Jorge Segundo Madariaga Acevedo, Teresa del Carmen Osorio Navarro, José Abel Aravena Ruiz, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Luis René Torres Méndez, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, Carlos López Inostroza, Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, and Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana must serve 12 years of imprisonment as co-authors.

“That, in this way, the elements of the examined illicit act and the participation in them of these accused were considered verified by the first-instance court, conclusions that the second-instance judiciary made its own, endorsed in consideration 7 of the challenged sentence,” the ruling states.

The resolution adds: “That, consequently, and even ignoring the serious formal defects of the examined nullity appeals, the infractions denounced by the defenses of Carlos López Inostroza, Jerónimo Neira Méndez, Luis Videla Inzunza, Pedro Alfaro Fernández, Raúl Iturriaga Neumann, Pedro Espinoza Bravo, and César Manríquez Bravo have not been configured in this case, since the facts established in the challenged sentence and the participation in them of these accused have been adjusted to the laws regulating evidence, so that no reproach can be raised on the matter to the challenged sentence, so that the nullity appeals under examination will be entirely dismissed.”

Operation Colombo

In the first-instance sentence, the visiting minister of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Hernán Crisosto Greisse, established the following facts:

On November 29, 1974, Carmen Cecilia Bueno Cifuentes and her partner Jorge Hernán Müller Silva, militants of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), were detained on a public street at the corner of Francisco Bilbao and Los Leones in Santiago by agents belonging to the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), who put them into a C-10 pickup truck and transported them to the clandestine DINA detention center called ‘Villa Grimaldi’, located at Lo Arrieta No. 8200, in La Reina, and subsequently to the clandestine detention center called ‘Cuatro Álamos’, located at Canadá Street No. 3000, in Santiago, which were guarded by armed guards and to which only DINA agents had access.

During their stay at the Villa Grimaldi and Cuatro Álamos barracks, they remained without contact with the outside world, blindfolded and tied, being in the first of them continuously subjected to interrogations under torture by DINA agents operating in said barracks with the purpose of obtaining information regarding members of the MIR, to proceed with the detention of its members.

The last time the victims Bueno Cifuentes and Müller Silva were seen alive occurred on an undetermined day in mid-December 1974, and to date, there is no information on the whereabouts of both, and they remain disappeared.

The name of Carmen Cecilia Bueno Cifuentes appeared on a list of 119 people, published in the national press after it appeared in a list published in the magazine ‘LEA’ of Argentina, dated July 15, 1975, which reported that Bueno Cifuentes had died in Argentina, along with 59 other people belonging to the MIR, due to internal quarrels that arose among those members.

The publications that declared the victim Bueno Cifuentes dead had their origin in disinformation maneuvers carried out by DINA agents abroad.

In the civil aspect, the sentence that ordered the state to pay compensation of $50 million for moral damages to the sister of the victim Bueno Cifuentes was confirmed.

Source: radio.uchile.cl, February 23, 2024

Conviction issued against six former DINA agents for the aggravated kidnapping of a MIR liaison woman in 1974

The visiting minister for human rights violation cases of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, convicted six agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the consummated crime of aggravated kidnapping of medical technologist Cecilia Orieta Jarpa Zúñiga, perpetrated in Santiago starting in October 1974.

In the ruling (case roll 3-2020), the visiting minister convicted former DINA leaders and former Army officers Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, former Carabineros officer Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, and former agent Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández as authors of the crimes to a sentence of 6 years of effective imprisonment, plus the legal accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentences. Other agents involved in these events died or were declared insane during the course of the process.

In the investigation stage of the case and in the sentence, minister Cifuentes Alarcón managed to collect sufficient evidence to establish that on October 2, 1974, in the morning, inside the Sótero del Río Hospital in the Puente Alto commune, medical technologist and militant of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), Cecilia Orieta Jarpa Zúñiga, was detained by four DINA agents, among them Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández.

At that time, the DINA was headed by the then Army colonel Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda and had a Metropolitan Intelligence Brigade (BIM), under the command of Army lieutenant colonel César Manríquez Bravo, who held that position until December 2, 1974, the date on which Army lieutenant colonel Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo assumed that position.

Operational brigades depended on the BIM, among them the Caupolicán Brigade, and clandestine detention centers, among them the "Ollagüe" barracks, located at José Domingo Cañas No. 1367 in the Ñuñoa commune, and the clandestine center "Cuatro Álamos", located inside the "Tres Álamos" prisoner camp, in the San Miguel commune.

In turn, the Caupolicán Brigade was in charge of the then Army major Marcelo Luis Manuel Moren Brito and had several operational groups, among them 'Halcón', under the command of Army captain Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and 'Águila', in charge of Carabineros lieutenant Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, whose main function, at that time, was the dismantling of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) and the capture of its Secretary General, Miguel Enríquez Espinosa, which led to multiple detentions of MIR militants in order to obtain information about his whereabouts.

In that context, after being detained at the Sótero del Río Hospital, the MIR militant Cecilia Jarpa Zúñiga, who operated in clandestinity as a liaison for Miguel Enríquez, was transported to the clandestine DINA detention center on José Domingo Cañas Street.

In that facility, she was subjected to intense interrogations and torture by agents Marcelo Moren Brito, Francisco Ferrer Lima, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Fernando Lauriani Maturana, Gerardo Godoy García, Osvaldo Enrique Romo Mena, and Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes.

Cruel and degrading treatment, such as stripping, application of electricity, beatings on different parts of the body, and threats of being subjected to sexual abuse, were intensified in order to obtain information about her political activities and in particular the whereabouts of the MIR leader Miguel Enríquez, as well as other militants.

On October 4, 1974, the detainee Cecilia Jarpa led the agents to a meeting point she was to have with the sought-after MIR leader on Avenida Grecia, in the vicinity of the Mund pool. In pursuit of his capture, the DINA set up an operation to cover the sector of the eventual meeting.

In the event, the prisoner managed to warn Miguel Enríquez that she was detained and of the danger that was looming, which made it possible—at least that day—for the MIR leader to manage to avoid his assassination.

After the frustrated operation, the detainee Cecilia Jarpa was brutally beaten by Marcelo Moren Brito and Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, who could not accept that the woman had deceived them and that the revolutionary leader had escaped them.

Due to other circumstances typical of the terror of the era, the following day, October 5, 1974, the MIR leader was located in the house where he lived in the San Miguel commune and was killed during the attack that the DINA carried out on the property.

Weeks later, in late October, Cecilia Jarpa was transferred to the 'Cuatro Álamos' prisoner camp, in charge of Gendarmería officer Orlando José Manzo Durán. She was kidnapped at this site until December of the same year; on that date, she was taken to 'Tres Álamos', where she was kept locked up until April 1975.

by: Darío Nuñez

Source: resumen.cl, July 1, 2025