Winter is more present in the afternoon hours; the temperature begins to drop, and the body perceives it. The cloudy day increases the wintry sensation. Marcelo Barrios is wearing a t-shirt, a white shirt—with grey vertical stripes—a black wool vest, a blue denim jacket—with a red plaid lining—and blue denim pants.

He goes out with Paola, his partner, to run some errands. They return early, near noon; the clouds in the sky invite one to take shelter. Around four in the afternoon, Paola goes out shopping. Marcelo stays home reading; he wants to take advantage of the time to finish some pending work.

At approximately 18:25, the uniformed contingent arrives at the 18 de Septiembre neighborhood, located on Cerro Yungay in Valparaíso. They arrive in a green 3/4-ton truck with side rails, which transports 18 men dressed in blue pants and sweatshirts, covering their heads with caps; with them are two men dressed in green camouflage gear and three others, around 30 years old, dressed in street-style sportswear.

Witnesses state that this military force carried modern weaponry, consisting of rifles, long-magazine submachine guns, two rifles with telescopic sights, and long rifles. In addition, they carried radio equipment and, at least five of them, walkie-talkies.

The truck parks on Calle Aquiles Ramírez, at the intersection with Callejón 25. The troops get out onto the street, taking control of it and preventing residents from continuing to transit through the sector.

After receiving an order via walkie-talkie, they disperse through the neighborhood toward the ravine, with only two of them remaining at the site. A neighbor, who is walking down the hill to pick up her grandchildren from school, is intercepted by the naval personnel.

They tell her to be careful when she comes back up, because “supposedly there are going to be dead people.” Through the ravine, the uniformed men deploy in commando fashion toward the house of Marcelo and Paola.

The dwelling located on the second floor of Pasaje Leighton, Calle Latorre No. 5, was about to receive much more than an exercise in violence. Valparaíso has a geography that defies all logic; therefore, although the uniformed men try to prevent the movement or proximity of the residents, there are dozens of eyes that can observe the events.

And it is their memory that allows them to be reconstructed. The marines take up an attack position in front of the house. Some deploy in the ravine, others in the patio, and some on the exterior staircase, which connects the three floors of the dwelling.

At 18:30, the owner of the house, Pedro Montoya, looks out his bedroom window. The disjointed architecture of the port city allows this window, located on the third floor of the building, to become—at the same time—the first floor facing the main street.

At that moment, an absolutely abnormal deployment for the traditional tranquility of the sector appears before Montoya’s eyes: dozens of uniforms surround the entire area. The military action is initiated by the explosives team, installing a 200-gram charge of plastic explosives, “to trigger possible booby traps set by the enemy,” notes Captain Schiffelle.

We continue with his version: “After that, I personally urged the occupants of the house, in a loud voice, to come out. A man came out of the house shouting and with a weapon in his hand, which he fired once, without wounding anyone.

Given this, I gave the order to open fire. Then, continuing with the military action plan, the explosive charge was detonated and, before the assault brigade entered, grenades were thrown into the interior of the dwelling.

I personally verified the death of the man in the house.” However, this statement by Captain Schiffelle, made via deposition on March 23, 1990, does not match the only official version of the facts that was released.

Indeed, in Valparaíso, on September 1, 1989, the public relations section of the 2nd Zone of the Chilean Investigative Police issued an official statement, which only partially agrees with Schiffelle’s statement.

Said statement indicates that the “subversive delinquent” was “ordered to surrender, but responded by using firearms. Said individual, barricaded, upon being wounded in the exchange of gunfire, proceeded to detonate an explosive, which caused his death instantly, also causing damage to the property.” Thus, Marcelo’s family not only had to face a legal battle for the clarification of his death and the determination of responsibilities.

They also had to, through successive public statements, refute the official information repeatedly disseminated by the media, pointing out the information they obtained both from the autopsy protocol and from the testimonies of the residents of Cerro Yungay.

In fact, the reconstruction of the events that Marcelo’s relatives have managed to make over the years and with commendable patience is very different. At approximately 18:40, Marcelo Barrios, after opening the door of the house and presenting himself with his hands up, immediately receives projectile impacts in his legs and chest region.

This version from some witnesses is specified by his sister Gladys. She points out that it is feasible that Marcelo did not even manage to surrender: she saw traces of her brother’s blood at least a meter and a half inside the house.

In fact, by standing on the small balcony of the house, it is possible to verify that, both due to the width of said space and the height of the house (approximately 1.80 meters), it is very difficult to even manage to surrender; much less attempt any type of resistance.

At those moments, Pedro Montoya, the owner of the house who lives on the third floor, was on the exterior staircase. A marine threatens him, brandishing a rifle with a bayonet; he orders him to enter his dwelling.

He calls him by his name. Five minutes later, other witnesses point out that the uniformed men light fuses that extend toward the nearby grasslands. The thin but constant crackling of the flame concludes with an explosion at a window of the house, adjacent to the entrance door.

Immediately, the marines fire new bursts toward the house while entering it. They retreat promptly. They throw a grenade at the threshold between the living room and the interior of the house. They fire other bursts.

They throw another grenade, which explodes inside the house, in a small room located between the bathroom and the kitchen. It is 18:55. When it becomes clear to the uniformed men that the enemy was only a boy, and that no one is offering resistance, the operation is considered finished.

In the summary carried out by the Naval Prosecutor’s Office, it is noted that at 18:30, the head of the forces, Captain Pavez, communicated by telephone to report the death of Marcelo Barrios while resisting the raid.

At 19:10, a patrol car with two Carabineros arrives via Calle Progreso. After talking with the marines, the police withdraw from the site. Ten minutes pass; a group of civilians approaches the house and carries out some tasks inside and in the surroundings.

At 19:30, the sector begins to become a hive of uniforms. Carabineros and civilians arrive; the latter wear yellow armbands with the national coat of arms in the center. On Calle Etchegaray, 200 meters from the house, three Carabineros vans are positioned.

The uniformed men deploy in the sector, carrying rifles. On Calle Rocuant, and on the adjacent field, civilians with armbands are positioned. At Aquiles Ramírez and Callejón 25, there are more civilians; next to them, a yellow Kleimbus-type van, a black Investigative Police car, and a grey Suzuki are parked.

Between Calle Aquiles Ramírez and Juan Francisco Prieto, a Mercedes Benz minibus of the Carabineros is located. It is the eyes of those who dare not close them that allow us now to look through them. At approximately 20:15, a yellow American car arrives with four individuals inside.

They head to Marcelo’s house. They remain there for almost a quarter of an hour, then they leave. Then, three other civilians enter the dwelling, carrying briefcases in their hands. They spend another quarter of an hour in the riddled rooms.

A house, a police cordon around it; outside of it, approximately eighty residents who insist on watching, on collecting even the smallest detail of the events. At 21:30, the vehicles begin to withdraw, taking the personnel with them.

First, the cars of the civilians and the Investigative Police leave. Then the Carabineros withdraw. The yellow van remains at the site; at 22:05 it also withdraws. One of the witnesses points out: “how dirty this action must be that even the CNI is withdrawing.” The last to withdraw were the men dressed in blue uniforms, the marines.

They were possibly the ones who took the war materiel seized in the dwelling, namely: a complete wicker living room set (a sofa, two armchairs, three stools, and a coffee table); a black and white Kioto brand television; a mini-component stereo system; a programmable calculator; an automatic kerosene heater; a typewriter; a Phillips brand iron; an electric skillet; dishes and cutlery; bathroom items; texts and study supplies; clothing; underwear; bedding; a poncho; two rugs.

The Legal Medical Service ambulance, accompanied by two Carabineros, arrives at 22:30. It heads toward the house, which is guarded by two Carabineros from the Cerro Alegre Sub-station; one of them is a 1st Corporal named Ríos.

The officials are accustomed to this. They load Marcelo’s body onto a metal tray. He is naked; only his face is covered by a scarf. As they pass in front of Pedro Montoya’s house, he covers him with a nylon sheet.

It is of little use; it is winter: a gust of wind lifts the nylon; the residents see a complete body, with about five or six bullet wounds in the torso and legs. “They were carrying him naked, on a metal tray that they use, the body had four bullet impacts.

I took out a nylon sheet I had to cover some barrels and covered him. One of the infantrymen pushed me with the butt of his rifle; the sergeant in charge told him to cut it out,” states Montoya. The house became an eloquent testimony to the violence.

One of its windows was destroyed, including the iron frame and the brick and cement wall, within a three-meter radius. Two walls of the living room were destroyed by bullet impacts; its entire ceiling was destroyed; the floor was opened by bayonet blows; the back of that room received the shockwave of one of the grenades.

Another interior room suffered the impact of a grenade, and three of its walls were profusely riddled with bullets. In another room, a wall was completely shot up. A wooden partition shows a hole and bullet impacts.

The electrical installations, three automatic panels, and twenty sockets and light fixtures were rendered useless; 64 panes of glass, all the windows of the three-story dwelling, were destroyed. The street door and six interior doors were destroyed.

The iron balcony was in the same condition. Even the third-floor dwelling, inhabited by Pedro Montoya, received bullet impacts in the floor and in a closet. 45 ceiling beams of Marcelo’s house and 800 wooden boards were destroyed or damaged.

Subsequent investigations would count approximately 500 shots fired inside the dwelling. Sometimes, poetry can better express what the data of reality means. The verses of Luis Rodríguez, written in tribute to Alejandro Sosa Durán, murdered by Carabineros in 1994, are an example of this: The empty house trembles in its hair.

A bullet pierced the chest of the house, a bullet that was nailed into the center of the staircase, a bullet that mopped its steps with empty words, a bullet that tore from its handrail fingers and days, a bullet that fled as the odors flee that intimidate life.

Marcelo Barrios was murdered at 22 years of age. He was a militant of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez and a student at the Universidad de Playa Ancha, in Valparaíso. The immediate persons responsible for his death are the members of the assault brigade: Jorge Figueroa Castro, Marine Infantry Sergeant; Silverio Fierro Peña, 2nd Corporal; Óscar Aspé Aspé, 1st Corporal; Luis Ceballos Guerrero, 1st Corporal.

All of them, under the command of Corvette Captain Sergio Schiffelle Kirby, in charge of the combat patrol. To execute their action, the uniformed men used 12-gauge shotguns, Remington Colt .45 caliber pistols, HK 33 rifles, hand grenades, and plastic explosives.

Marcelo Barrios, for his part, was unarmed. Last year, Óscar Aspe Aspe made news again: he was in Honduras, along with other former Chilean uniformed men, preparing as a mercenary with a new destination: Iraq. He, like the other members of the brigade, was never tried.

Source: Received by Memoriaviva, November 28, 2008

A lawsuit against six members of the Chilean Navy was filed by the family of Marcelo Barrios Andrade, a young university student and militant of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez. The case dates back to August 31, 1989, when an infantry patrol of the Chilean Navy arrived at the doors of Marcelo Barrios’s house and riddled him with bullets.

He is considered one of the last political executions of the military dictatorship. The lawsuit is filed against six members of the Chilean Navy, according to their rank at the time: Corvette Captain Sergio Schifelle Kirby; Frigate Captain Francisco Pavez Puga; Sergeant Jorge Figueroa Castro; Second Sergeant Silverio Fierro Peña; First Corporal Luis Ceballos Guerrero; First Corporal Oscar Aspee Aspee.

The Barrios Andrade family has filed 4 lawsuits, one before the Naval Tribunals and three in the ordinary justice system, the last one in 2013, but all without results. One of the sponsoring lawyers, Julio Cortez, pointed out the importance of the case.

Among the background information to request a reopening, journalistic investigations in books and reports are presented, says another sponsoring lawyer, Rodrigo Lillo. Currently, the case must be substantiated by Judge Jaime Arancibia Reyes. The victim’s sister, Gladys Barrios, pointed out her expectations for justice.

Source: semillasdeagua.cl

Justice has its hour: former CNI agents prosecuted for the Calle Fuenteovejuna case

The judge of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Mario Carroza, prosecuted five former CNI agents as responsible for the murders of Arturo Vilavella Araujo, a member of the MIR political commission, Lucía Vergara Valenzuela, and Sergio Peña Díaz, militants of that party.

The three had clandestinely re-entered Chile and were living in a house located at 1330 Calle Fuenteovejuna, in Las Condes, which on September 7, 1983, was machine-gunned and set on fire by CNI agents.

Those prosecuted for the qualified homicides of the three MIR members are former Army Major Alvaro Corbalán Castilla (an executioner implicated in numerous CNI crimes), Aquiles González Cortés, Norman Jeldes Aguilar, Roberto Schmied Zanzi, and Sergio Canals Baldwin.

According to the investigation by Judge Carroza, the three MIR militants had been under surveillance by the CNI for at least three months. The judicial ruling dismantles the dictatorship’s version that it had been a "confrontation." The judge points out: "The development of this investigation allows us to argue that the confrontation in the terms as it was presented in the official version did not exist, since the preparation of the detention operation—both through the permanent tracking and surveillance of the victims, and through the advance notice with which they had been located, the knowledge that the brigade in charge of the investigation and repression of the MIR had about its members, the preparation of the place by surrounding it and emptying the neighboring houses, and the alteration that was subsequently made to the crime scene—makes it seem certain that their detention could have occurred without the need to seek their death as a result." The same night of the murder of Arturo Vilavella, Lucía Vergara, and René Peña, the CNI extermination commando moved to 5707 Calle Janequeo, in Quinta Normal, where they murdered Hugo Ratier Noguera (39 years old, Argentine, in charge of the MIR military structure in Santiago) and Alejandro Salgado Troquián, a militant of that structure.

NAVY OFFICERS PROSECUTED

On the other hand, 25 years after the death of Marcelo Barrios, a student at the Universidad de Playa Ancha, in Valparaíso, and a militant of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez, his relatives filed a criminal complaint against the former Navy officers who appear as responsible for that crime.

They are Corvette Captain Sergio Schifelle Kirby, Frigate Captain Francisco Pavez Puga, Sergeants Jorge Figueroa Castro and Silverio Fierro Peña, and Corporals Luis Ceballos Guerrero and Oscar Aspee Aspee.

The perpetrators, who belonged to the Marine Infantry in 1989, are identified, but the years pass and no sentences have yet been handed down against them. Gladys Barrios, sister of the murdered young man, who is filing the new lawsuit, stated that the judge of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Jaime Arancibia, "has already reopened cases that had been dismissed and the culprits have been prosecuted, which gives us a glimmer of hope to continue fighting for justice in Marcelo’s case." In Valparaíso, various acts were held in memory of Marcelo Barrios, including a tribute at the Universidad de Playa Ancha and at the 18 de Septiembre Neighborhood Council, on Cerro Yungay.

JUSTICE IS SLOW, BUT SOMETIMES IT ARRIVES

Meanwhile, the judge of the Concepción Court of Appeals, Carlos Aldana Fuentes, ordered the arrest and incommunicado detention at the Talcahuano Naval Base of retired Navy Captain Julio Alarcón Saavedra, accused of the murder of union leader Hugo Candia Núñez on October 11, 1973.

A former conscript of Marine Infantry Detachment No. 3, Patricio Salamanca, has declared in the proceedings that he witnessed the homicide of Hugo Candia at the hands of the then-Lieutenant Julio Alarcón Saavedra.

The murderer is currently a businessman, academic, business consultant, and analyst in security and defense. Hugo Candia was secretary of the Sigdo Koppers employees’ union in September of '73. The president of that union, Máximo Neira, was murdered on the same day and in the same place.

The Navy delivered their bodies to their relatives in sealed coffins. The plaintiff lawyer Nelson González Bustos pointed out that former Navy Captain Julio Alarcón is the same officer who killed the Huachipato worker, José Constanzo Vera.

Although Alarcón had confessed to that crime, the Supreme Court acquitted him due to the statute of limitations and amnesty, in contravention of the Geneva Conventions on crimes against humanity. Judge Carlos Aldana also ordered the arrest and incommunicado detention of retired Rear Admiral Ari Acuña Figueroa, former head of Department Two (Intelligence) of the II Naval Zone at the time of the homicides of Hugo Candia, José Constanzo Vera, Máximo Neira, and Ricardo Barra Martínez at the facility known as "La Ciudadela," of the Marine Infantry in Talcahuano.

The retired rear admiral is accused of being an accomplice or cover-up by Judge Aldana. The four murdered workers were MIR militants in the Concepción area.

Source: resumen.cl, September 20, 2014

Judge Jaime Arancibia issues indictments for the 1989 homicide of Marcelo Barrios Andrade

The extraordinary visiting judge for human rights violation cases of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Jaime Arancibia Pinto, issued seven indictments against those responsible for the death of Marcelo Barrios Andrade, an event that occurred in 1989 on Cerro Yungay, Valparaíso.

Carlos Fernando Schnaidt Parker, Francisco José Pavez Puga, Sergio Patricio Esteban Chiffelle Kirby, Jorge Segundo Figueroa Castro, Silverio Máximo Fierro Peña, and Oscar Arturo Aspée Aspée were prosecuted as authors of the crime of qualified homicide; while Fernando Benedicto Pereda Navarro was prosecuted as a cover-up.

According to the background information recorded in the case, "on the afternoon of August 31, 1989, a Marine Infantry detachment of the Chilean Navy carried out a raid on the property located at Pasaje Latorre, house 7, Cerro Yungay in Valparaíso, in compliance with an order issued by the Commander of the local Garrison of Valparaíso, and within the context of an investigation in which several homes in the region were raided and other people detained, an operation as a result of which the occupant of said place, Marcelo Esteban Barrios Andrade, died.

He was the object of numerous bullet impacts fired by Marine Infantry personnel who were carrying out the action, resulting in him being riddled with bullets, and along with that, they detonated explosive charges in the home, there being no relationship between the action that was deployed on that occasion, the weaponry used, and the result of the operation, with a possible reaction from the deceased, who allegedly defended himself with a pistol, with the aforementioned Barrios Andrade dying from 'skeletal and visceral trauma due to projectiles'." In addition, the indictment states that "an attempt was made to cover up the facts through a statement issued by the Investigative Police of Chile, linking these events to a robbery at the Valparaíso Stock Exchange that occurred on an earlier date, in which Barrios Andrade was allegedly accused of participating, which has not been legally established."

Source: cronicadigital.cl, July 13, 2015

Minister María Fierro Reyes convicts retired Marine Infantrymen for qualified homicide in Cerro Yungay

The extraordinary visiting judge for human rights violation cases of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, María Cruz Fierro Reyes, convicted three retired members of the Navy’s Marine Infantry for their responsibility in the crime of qualified homicide of Marcelo Barrios Andrade.

An illicit act committed on Cerro Yungay in August 1989. In the ruling (case roll 997-2010), Judge Fierro Reyes sentenced Sergio Patricio Esteban Chiffelle Kirby, Luis Osvaldo de Lourdes Ceballos Guerra, and Óscar Arturo Aspée Aspée to effective prison terms of 10 years and one day, plus the legal accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights and absolute disqualification for professional titles while the sentences last.

In the case, the acquittal of Fernando Benedicto Pereda Navarro from the accusation that identified him as a cover-up for the homicide of Barrios Andrade was decreed. In the resolution, the visiting judge considered it proven, beyond any reasonable doubt, that on August 31, 1989, "(...) a Marine Infantry detachment of the Chilean Navy carried out a raid on the property located at Pasaje Latorre, house 7, Cerro Yungay, Valparaíso, in compliance with an order issued by the commander of the Local Garrison of Valparaíso, within the context of an investigation in which several homes in the region were raided and other people detained, an operation as a result of which the occupant of said place, Marcelo Esteban Barrios Andrade, died. He was the object of numerous bullet impacts fired by Marine Infantry personnel who were carrying out the action, resulting in him being riddled with bullets, and along with that, they detonated explosive charges in the home, there being no relationship between the action that was deployed on that occasion, the weaponry used, and the result of the operation, with a possible reaction from the deceased, who allegedly defended himself with a pistol, with the aforementioned Barrios Andrade dying from 'skeletal and visceral trauma due to projectiles'." The established facts constitute, for the court, a crime of qualified homicide, in the context of crimes against humanity, "(...) provided for and sanctioned in article 391, No. 1, Fifth circumstance, that is, with known premeditation, since in light of the gathered background information there was a deliberation and planning over time of the military operation that culminated in the death of Marcelo Barrios Andrade, which inevitably flows from having been conceived beforehand, from its organization by determining in advance the work that each member had to perform at the scene of the event, each with a previously assigned task, carrying elements suitable for causing the death of a person, all of them also Marine Infantrymen, of recognized military training, acting with the assistance of personnel from the same branch who watched the property to report the movements that were noticed of its occupant, with armed personnel who kept third parties who intended to approach away from the sector, placing explosives at least in one of the windows of the property, located immediately next to the access door, using grenades when entering the dwelling and with an order to shoot as soon as they were ordered by the person directing the team, all of which reveals a planned and coordinated action that, given the war materiel used, could only conclude with the death of Marcelo Barrios Andrade." Likewise, Judge Fierro Reyes dismissed that the action was clothed in legality, having been ordered "(...) to detain the victim and raid his home, it not being justified that Marine Infantrymen, who make up a highly specialized combat force of the Chilean Navy, be commissioned for this, about which the accused Sergio Chiffelle Kirby stated that neither he nor the members of the operation belonged to any type of counter-subversive, counter-terrorist, intelligence, or counter-intelligence organization. They were members of Marine Infantry Special Forces Commandos, whose combat or reconnaissance missions were oriented toward Argentina and Peru, so each of those who participated in the armed action in question was in the North and South theaters of operations in the conflicts with said neighboring countries. He adds that the instruction and training they receive is intense and rigorous, oriented toward succeeding in their missions, and exceptionally, due to their preparation, they were called by the Command of the First Naval Zone to form the combat patrol in question, in which military and combat procedures were used, for which they were trained and knew what they had to do."

Source: Judiciary, September 2, 2023