Case No. 39.122 (formerly 950-87 of the 2nd Military Court) - "Operation Albania" case

At page 10,876, the Honorable Court of Appeals, hearing an appeal, indicted Sergio Mateluna Pino and Víctor Ruiz Godoy as perpetrators of the illegal detention of José Valenzuela Levy, Ricardo Rivera Silva, and Ricardo Silva Soto; Juan Jorquera Abarzúa as a perpetrator of the crime of illegal detention of José Valenzuela Levy, Ricardo Rivera Silva, and Patricia Quiroz Nilo, and as an accessory after the fact to the crime of homicide of Patricio Acosta Castro; Luis Santibáñez Aguilera, Mauricio Figueroa Lobos, Carlos Pino Soto, and Manuel Ramírez Montoya as perpetrators of the illegal detention of Esther Cabrera Hinojosa; Fernando Burgos Díaz as a perpetrator of the crime of illegal detention of Esther Cabrera Hinojosa and perpetrator of the homicide of Julio Guerra Olivares; and Heraldo Velozo Gallegos as an accomplice to the illegal detention of Elizabeth Escobar Cabrera.

23°.- Mauricio Eugenio Figueroa Lobos 55°.- That at pages 7000 and 9.264, there are investigative statements from the aforementioned defendant, in which he indicates that at the time the events occurred, they had been assigned to the UAT, whose chief was Captain Pérez, who ordered them to report to Borgoño to join one of the teams of the Brigades of that barracks.

Complying with this, he says, he was designated as the driver of a van and joined a team with Burgos and Soto Pino ("Old Horacio"), and they were ordered to join Lieutenant Sanhueza's team to assist him in a procedure of detention and raiding of a person who was under investigation and whom they referred to as the "M16." He notes that they arrived early in the Carlos Valdovinos sector and, after waiting, the woman left the house and was followed to the Villa Portales sector, where, upon her departure, the detention was ordered, which was carried out by Lieutenant Sanhueza and "Old Horacio." He recalls that she was a young, short woman who was transported in the van to the barracks and handed over there to the guards, after which he disassociated himself from the procedure, since he was only a driver and was always aware that all of this was being done under the protection of legality.

Source: Judiciary, January 28, 2005

Mauricio Eugenio Figueroa Lobos, his name appears on the list of DINA agents published by Cambio 21 in April 2012. As has been established, at the end of 2007, the Army undertook the task of compiling, for the first time, a list of officers and non-commissioned officers who were part of the DINA.

The task was recorded in a "secret" document, dated August 28, 2008, signed by the then Chief of the Army General Staff, General Alfredo Ewing Pinochet (also a member of the CNI). This document contains the list of officers and non-commissioned officers who "carried out an extra-institutional mission in the Army General Command, assigned to the DINA, between September 11, 1973, and December 1977." The list of agents also reveals that the DINA existed from September 11, 1973.

The document remained hidden until 2012.

Mauricio Eugenio Figueroa Lobos entered the Non-Commissioned Officers School in 1975 and graduated on January 1, 1976, when he was attached to the DINA. He was in the brigade in charge of the security of the Military Junta until 1979.

In the CNI, he participated in a group in charge of peripheral patrols for bank security, in the unit that investigated the Socialist Party, and in the escort of Álvaro Corbalán. In 1986, he was transferred to the Anti-Terrorist Unit (UAT) and provided support in the detentions carried out in Operation Albania, where he participated in the illegal detention of Esther Cabrera Hinojosa.

In his statement, he indicated that: "at the time the events occurred, they had been assigned to the UAT, whose chief was Captain Pérez, who ordered them to report to [Cuartel] Borgoño to join one of the teams of the Brigades of that barracks.

Complying with this, he says, he was designated as the driver of a van and joined a team with Burgos and Soto Pino ('Old Horacio'), and they were ordered to join Lieutenant Sanhueza's team to assist him in a procedure of detention and raiding of a person who was under investigation and whom they referred to as the 'M16.'

He notes that they arrived early in the Carlos Valdovinos sector and, after waiting, the woman left the house and was followed to the Villa Portales sector, where, upon her departure, the detention was ordered, which was carried out by Lieutenant Sanhueza and 'Old Horacio.' He recalls that she was a young, short woman who was transported in the van to the barracks and handed over there to the guards, after which he disassociated himself from the procedure, since he was only a driver and was always aware that all of this was being done under the protection of legality."

Source: Book: "La Trampa", 2018