The resolution by Judge Vásquez concerns the cases of "Jota" (Communist Youth) militants Luis Maturana González and Juan Orellana Catalán. Both were detained in June 1976 and taken to "La Firma." Their bodies were illegally buried at Cuesta Barriga.

A massive indictment against 31 former agents of the so-called Comando Conjunto was issued by the minister in extraordinary visit for human rights cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vázquez Plaza.

The resolutions correspond to the aggravated kidnappings of Communist Youth militants Luis Maturana González and Juan Orellana Catalán, which occurred beginning on June 8, 1976, in the Metropolitan Region.

Maturana and Orellana were detained on a public street in the Estación Central commune and taken to the clandestine detention center known as "La Firma." Their bodies were illegally buried at Cuesta Barriga.

The magistrate's resolution notes that "the remains of Maturana González have not been found, while in the case of Orellana Catalán, osseous evidence of his person was found, consisting of dental pieces and a removable prosthesis, which allowed for his identification."

LIST OF THE INDICTED

For the kidnapping of Luis Maturana González, the minister indicted the following agents:

• Enrique Ruiz Bunger - Juan Saavedra Loyola - Antonio Quiroz Reyes - Manuel Muñoz Gamboa
• César Palma Ramírez - Daniel Guimpert Corvalán - Raúl González Fernández - Viviana Ugarte Sandoval
• Ernesto Lobos Gálvez - Alejandro Sáez Mardones - Andrés Potin Lailhacar - Emilio Mahias del Río
• Miguel Estay Reyno - Luis López López - Eduardo Cartagena Maldonado - Roberto Flores Cisternas
• Andrés Valenzuela Morales - Robinson Suazo Jaque - Pedro Caamaño Medina - Pedro Zambrano Uribe
• Álex Carrasco Olivos - Sergio Valenzuela Morales - Carlos Rodrigo Villarreal - Juan Aravena Hurtuvia
• José Rojas Alruiz - Lenin Figueroa Sánchez
• José Vera Reyes - Humberto Villegas
• Francisco Illanes Miranda - José Alvarado Alvarado - Juan Huaiquimilla Coñuepán - Víctor Zúñiga Zúñiga.

Meanwhile, for the case of Juan Orellana Catalán, he indicted:

• Enrique Ruiz Bunger - Juan Saavedra Loyola - Antonio Quiroz Reyes - Andrés Potin Lailhacar
• Emilio Mahias del Río - Luis López López - Eduardo Cartagena Maldonado - Roberto Flores Cisternas
• Pedro Caamaño Medina - Pedro Zambrano Uribe - Álex Carrasco Olivos - Sergio Valenzuela Morales
• Carlos Rodrigo Villarreal - Juan Aravena Hurtuvia - José Rojas Alruiz - Lenin Figueroa Sánchez
• José Vera Reyes - Francisco Illanes Miranda - José Alvarado Alvarado - Juan Huaiquimilla Coñuepán, and
• Víctor Zúñiga Zúñiga

Likewise, Minister Miguel Vázquez reclassified the participation of:

• Viviana Ugarte Sandoval
• Ernesto Lobos Gálvez
• Alejandro Sáez Mardones.

Source: La Nación, December 24, 2013

Nearly a record: 31 DINA criminals indicted for the cold-blooded murder of two young men during the dictatorship

The resolution of the Court of Appeals judge corresponds to the cases of young Communist militants Luis Maturana González and Juan Orellana Catalán. Both were detained in June 1976 and taken to the place called "La Firma" on Calle Dieciocho in downtown Santiago. They were later executed at Cuesta Barriga and their bodies were illegally buried in that area.

A massive indictment against 31 former agents of the so-called Comando Conjunto was issued by the minister in extraordinary visit for human rights cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vázquez Plaza.

The resolutions correspond to the aggravated kidnappings of Communist Youth militants Luis Maturana González and Juan Orellana Catalán, which occurred beginning on June 8, 1976, in the Metropolitan Region.

Maturana and Orellana were detained on a public street in the Estación Central commune and taken to the clandestine detention center known as "La Firma." Their bodies were illegally buried at Cuesta Barriga.

The magistrate's resolution notes that "the remains of Maturana González have not been found, while in the case of Orellana Catalán, osseous evidence of his person was found, consisting of dental pieces and a removable prosthesis, which allowed for his identification."

How the detention and crime occurred

Luis Emilio Gerardo Maturana González, married, one child, a teacher, was detained under the following circumstances: On June 8, 1976, he left his house at approximately 08:45 in the morning because he was going to meet his friend Juan Orellana Catalán.

After the meeting, he was going to go, as he did every day, to his job at Basic School No. 3 in the Santiago Center sector, where he began his shift at 13:30. However, he never arrived at the school.

Luis Maturana was detained during that morning along with Juan Orellana in the Estación Central sector, at the corner of Alameda and Bascuñan, by agents of the so-called "Comando Conjunto Antisubversivo," comprised of the Navy, Carabineros, and the Air Force, whose objective during those days was to repress Communist Party militants.

This information was confirmed by agent Andrés Valenzuela Morales, a member of the aforementioned Command, who stated in a sworn declaration in October 1984 that: "Likewise, I can say that Juan René Orellana Catalán and Luis Emilio Maturana González were also detained by our group, since I remember that Guerrero, whom I mentioned earlier, was interrogated and electric current was applied to the bullet wound he had, regarding them and one of the Weibels."

On July 14, 1976, Communist leader Manuel Leonidas Guerrero Ceballos was detained (who was later kidnapped and had his throat slit at the end of March 1985 by a Command comprised of state agents who used the facilities of the Carabineros Communications Directorate, DICOMCAR, to hold their victims).

In a sworn declaration, he stated that his captors, while interrogating him about his political activities, mentioned to him that they had detained and were holding Luis Emilio Maturana González.

Agent Valenzuela says that Juan Orellana Catalán, detained along with Luis Emilio Maturana, was held at the facility called "La Firma," located on Calle Dieciocho. He adds that it is very likely that Juan Orellana, along with other detainees, was blindfolded, drugged, and transported to Cuesta Barriga, where they were executed with bursts of machine-gun fire in cold blood.

Source: Cambio21, December 24, 2013

Supreme Court confirms convictions of 27 former Comando Conjunto agents for crimes against five Communist militants committed between 1975 and 1976

The Supreme Court rejected the appeals in cassation filed by the defense teams of the former agents of the so-called Comando Conjunto against the sentence that convicted 27 of them for their responsibility in the crimes of simple kidnapping and aggravated homicide of Ignacio Orlando González Espinoza and Juan René Orellana Catalán; and in the aggravated kidnappings of Ricardo Manuel Weibel Navarrete, Luis Desiderio Moraga Cruz, and Luis Emilio Gerardo Maturana González, all militants of the Communist Party.

The crimes were perpetrated between October 1975 and June 1976 in the city of Santiago.

The so-called Comando Conjunto was a repressive apparatus created by the dictatorship under the tutelage of the Air Force (FACh) and with the participation of agents from the Army, Navy, Carabineros, and civilian collaborators.

It operated mainly between 1975 and 1977, and its reason for being was to compete in repressive and criminal tasks with the absolute power held by the DINA under the tutelage of the Army and the leadership of Pinochet and Contreras.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 32.012-2022), the Second Chamber of the high court—composed of ministers Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, minister María Teresa Letelier, and minister Jean Pierre Matus—confirmed the challenged sentence, issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals, which sentenced former FACh officer Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola and former Carabineros officer Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa to terms of 18 years in prison, plus 13 years, and plus 3 years in prison each.

Former Navy officer Daniel Luis Enrique Guimpert Corvalán was sentenced to terms of 18 years, plus 12, and plus 3 years in prison.

Former Army officers Álvaro Julio Federico Corbalán Castilla and Sergio Antonio Díaz López, and former Navy officer Jorge Aníbal Osses Novoa, were sentenced to terms of 12 years in prison, plus 10 years and one day, plus 400 days in prison each.

Agents Raúl Horacio González Fernández and Alejandro Julio Segundo Sáez Mardones were given two sentences of 10 years and one day in prison, plus 400 days in prison each.

Agents Roberto Alfonso Flores Cisterna and Juan Carlos Hernán Rodrigo Villarreal were sentenced to terms of 10 years and one day, plus 5 years and one day, plus 400 days in prison each.

Civilian collaborator Otto Silvio Trujillo Miranda was sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison. Agent Lenin Figueroa Sánchez was given two sentences of 5 years and one day, plus 400 days in prison.

Agents Sergio Daniel Valenzuela Morales and Juan Atilio Aravena Hurtuvia were sentenced to terms of 5 years and one day in prison, plus 5 years, plus 400 days in prison.

Civilian collaborators Andrés Pablo Potín Lailhacar, Viviana Lucinda Ugarte Sandoval, and Emilio Mahias del Río, and agents Juan Luis Fernando López López, José Evaristo Rojas Alruiz, and Francisco Segundo Illanes Miranda were sentenced to terms of 5 years and one day in prison, plus 400 days in prison.

Ernesto Arturo Lobos Gálvez and Alejandro Jorge Forero Álvarez were sentenced to terms of 5 years and one day in prison, plus 60 days in prison.

Roberto Francisco Serón Cárdenas was sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison. Robinson Alfonso Suazo Jaque, Pedro Ernesto Caamaño Medina, Pedro Juan Zambrano Uribe, and José Hernando Alvarado Alvarado were each sentenced to 4 years, plus 60 days in prison.

The convicted individuals Antonio Benedicto Quiros Reyes and Miguel Arturo Estay Reyno died during the course of the trial.

In the judicial investigation and first-instance ruling, Minister Miguel Vásquez Plaza established that there was a de facto group that operated clandestinely between 1975 and 1976, comprised mainly of agents who belonged to the Air Force Intelligence Directorate, in addition to Carabineros de Chile, the Navy, and the Army, with the collaboration of civilians.

Its main objective was the repression of the Communist Party Youth, for which they proceeded to detain several of them.

This group, called the Comando Conjunto, used various facilities for detentions and torture: the Cerrillos Hangar; Nido 20, a secret detention and torture center located at Calle Santa Teresa No. 037, at the 20th stop of Gran Avenida; Nido 18, a secret facility located at Calle Perú No. 9053, La Florida, Santiago, which was used exclusively for torture; La Prevención or Remo Cero, which were cells located inside the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina, all during 1975; and La Firma, at the beginning of 1976, when the group moved its operations to the rear of the property managed by Carabineros de Chile, located on Calle Dieciocho, across from No. 229, which belonged to the former newspaper Clarín, naming it La Firma.

The operational conduct of the group consisted of detaining people through kidnapping, keeping them captive in secret facilities, and subjecting them to interrogation and physical and psychological torture to obtain information and break their will, achieving the collaboration of some of them to the point that some were assimilated as operational agents of the group, which provided greater effectiveness in the chain detention of Communist militants, who were then forcibly disappeared; for some of them, parts of their remains were found over the years.

On November 7, 1975, at approximately 22:00, Ricardo Manuel Weibel Navarrete was detained at his home on Calle Río Maule in the Recoleta commune by individuals wearing civilian clothes; he was kept deprived of liberty at the facility called La Prevención or Remo Cero, located inside the Anti-Aircraft Regiment in Colina, the last place he was seen alive.

Subsequently, his bones were found on the grounds of Fuerte Arteaga, Peldehue.

On October 20, 1975, in the early morning hours, Luis Desiderio Moraga Cruz was detained at his home on Pasaje Tokio in the Juanita Aguirre neighborhood, Conchalí commune, Santiago, by individuals wearing civilian clothes; he was held at the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina, inside which was the facility called La Prevención or Remo Cero, this being the last place he was seen alive.

On December 4, 1975, in the early morning hours, Ignacio Orlando González Espinoza was detained at his home on Calle Soberanía in the Santiago commune by individuals wearing civilian clothes; he was kept deprived of liberty at the facility called La Prevención or Remo Cero, located inside the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina, the last place he was seen alive.

Subsequently, he was executed on the grounds of Fuerte Arteaga, Peldehue, where his bones were found.

On June 8, 1976, in the Estación Central sector, Luis Emilio Gerardo Maturana González met with Juan René Orellana Catalán, both militants of the Communist Youth in hiding due to the political persecution they were subject to, with the purpose of delivering party money to Orellana Catalán for himself and to be delivered to other party militants, as Maturana González was in charge of distributing it.

At that moment, they were detained by operational agents of the aforementioned Comando Conjunto and held at the facility called La Firma, from where their trail was lost. Subsequently, Orellana Catalán was executed at Cuesta Barriga, where remains of his person were found.

Source: resumen.cl, April 26, 2024