Magistrate Christian Carvajal has indicted retired Colonel Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, former operational chief of the organization, and retired General Enrique Ruiz Bunger, as perpetrators of the kidnappings of Luis Moraga Cruz and Humberto Fuentes Rodríguez, both occurring in 1975.

SANTIAGO.— The interim judge of the Third Criminal Court of Santiago, Christian Carvajal, submitted nine former agents of the Comando Conjunto (CC) to prosecution this morning for the aggravated kidnapping of Luis Moraga Cruz, which occurred on October 20, 1975, and of Humberto Fuentes Rodríguez, which occurred on November 4 of the same year.

Following a long day of interrogations held yesterday, the magistrate, who is investigating the crimes allegedly committed by members of the intelligence organization with exclusive dedication, decided to indict retired Colonel Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, former operational chief of the organization, and retired General Enrique Ruiz Bunger as perpetrators of the aforementioned crimes.

Both had previously been prosecuted as perpetrators of the aggravated kidnapping of Communist militants Juan Orellana Catalán and Ricardo Weibel Navarrete. The magistrate also indicted today, as perpetrators of the kidnappings of Moraga and Fuentes, retired Carabineros Major César Palma Ramírez; Manuel Muñoz Gamboa; retired Carabineros Major Daniel Enrique Guimpert; Raúl González Fernández; retired FACh Major Eduardo Cartagena Maldonado; and retired Carabineros Major Roberto Flores Cisternas.

Former CC agent Otto Trujillo Miranda was prosecuted today as an accomplice to the same kidnappings. Carvajal also issued the first indictment against five former agents, among whom are also Saavedra Loyola and Ruiz Bunger, in addition to retired Carabineros Major César Palma Ramírez, Fernando Zúñiga Canales, and Eduardo Cartagena Miranda, accused of the kidnapping of Edison Urrutia Galaz, an event that occurred on December 24, 1975.

The case now moves to the plenary stage, meaning the evidentiary stage must begin before the first-instance sentences are handed down.

Source: Emol.com, January 29, 2003

Indictments issued in Comando Conjunto case

Judge Cristián Carvajal issued two prosecution orders in the investigation of the Comando Conjunto Case, which he is substantiating in the Third Criminal Court, for the kidnapping of Luis Moraga Cruz, an event that occurred on October 20, 1975, and for Humberto Fuentes Rodríguez, a kidnapping recorded on November 4, 1975.

In both cases, the eight names of those prosecuted as perpetrators are repeated and are as follows: César Luis Ramírez, Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa, Daniel Luis Enríquez Guimper Corbalán, Raúl Horacio González Fernández, Eduardo Enrique Cartagena Maldonado, Roberto Alfonso Flores Cisternas, retired FACh Colonel Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, and retired FACh General Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunge.

In both cases, Otto Trujillo is being prosecuted; he was known as "Colmillo blanco" ("White Fang") when he denounced the re-articulation of the Comando Conjunto in September. Additionally, the magistrate issued an indictment against five people, names that are repeated in the capacity of perpetrators: Carlos Saavedra Loyola, Eduardo Cartagena, César Ruiz Palma, and Fernando Zúñiga Canales.

Source: ORBE, January 29, 2003

Comando Conjunto: Santiago Court sentences former agents to effective prison terms as perpetrators of five aggravated kidnappings.

The appellate court confirmed the challenged sentence, which sentenced Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger, Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, and Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa to 18 years in prison, plus legal accessories, in their capacity as perpetrators of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping.

In a split decision, the Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced former agents of the "Comando Conjunto" to effective prison terms for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of José Arturo Weibel Navarrete, Mariano León Turiel Palomera, Francisco Hernán Ortiz Valladares, José Santos Rocha Álvarez, and Carlos Enrique Sánchez Cornejo.

These crimes were committed between October 15, 1975, and July 15, 1976. The appellate court confirmed the challenged sentence, issued by the visiting minister Miguel Vázquez Plaza, which sentenced Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger, Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, and Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa to 18 years in prison, plus legal accessories, in their capacity as perpetrators of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Francisco Hernán Ortiz Valladares, José Santos Rocha Álvarez, Carlos Enrique Sánchez Cornejo, José Arturo Weibel Navarrete, and Mariano León Turiel Palomera.

Meanwhile, Antonio Benedicto Quirós Reyes must serve a sentence of 6 years in prison, plus legal accessories, as a perpetrator of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Mariano León Turiel Palomera. Finally, agents Alejandro Segundo Sáez Mardones, Roberto Alfonso Flores Cisterna, and Carlos Hernán Rodrigo Villarreal must serve 5 years and one day in prison, plus legal accessories, as perpetrators of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of José Arturo Weibel Navarrete.

Likewise, due to death, partial and definitive dismissals were approved regarding Jorge Rodrigo Cobos Manríquez, César Luis Palma Ramírez, and Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunguer. The sentence maintains that regarding the statute of limitations and amnesty alleged by all the defendants, it should be specified that these chapters are duly addressed in the thirty-fifth and forty-first grounds of the appealed sentence, and given the repeated jurisprudence of the highest court that kidnapping is a permanent crime, the application of such institutes is not appropriate.

Amnesty has only a delimited temporal space of application, and for the statute of limitations, it is not yet possible to begin counting the period given the permanent nature of the crime and its status as a crime against humanity, which prevents its application.

It also states that the mitigating factors of criminal responsibility alleged are analyzed in the ruling under review and that this court agrees with their application. In the civil aspect, the sentence that ordered the state treasury to pay a total compensation of $1,520,000,000 to the victims' families was ratified.

The decision was adopted with the dissenting vote of lawyer Herrera Fuenzalida, who points out: A) Regarding the criminal sanction, she was of the opinion to accept what was referred to regarding the partial statute of limitations of the criminal action and consequently reduce the imposed sentence, making its effects applicable to all those convicted, since gradual prescription constitutes a qualified mitigating factor of criminal responsibility, the effects of which influence the determination of the quantum of the corporal sanction, independent of the statute of limitations, with different foundations and consequences. Thus, this is also explained thanks to humanitarian regulations that find their reason for being in how senseless such a high penalty is for events that occurred more than 40 years ago. The foregoing does not imply that the crime is left unpunished, but rather that an attenuated penalty is imposed. Likewise, as it is a rule of public order, the judge must apply it, as it is favorable to the defendant. B) Regarding civil actions, she was in favor of rejecting them and accepting the exception of payment deduced by the Fisco de Chile (State Treasury of Chile), understanding that these had already been paid, due to the reparatory nature of the compensation given by the State of Chile, which was taken into account for the enactment of Law No. 19.123, which created the "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" or "Rettig Commission," where reference is made to the moral and patrimonial reparation that said project sought, so the sums of money agreed upon are to address its non-contractual liability, establishing within the functions of the Commission the promotion of reparation for the moral damage of the victims referred to in its article 18. That, due to such ends, the mentioned law, together with Law No. 19.980, contemplates direct payment in money to human rights victims, such as the children of the same, which is the case in these proceedings, along with other reparations, such as those through the assignment of rights over state benefits and symbolic reparations, all with the same reparatory object. Therefore, it is evident that all those legal benefits have the same foundation and the same reparatory purpose for moral damage as the compensation claimed in these proceedings.

Source: pjud.cl, April 11, 2019

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

The Supreme Court rejected the appeals in cassation filed by the defenses 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 the participation of agents from the army, the navy, the carabineros, and civilian collaborators, which operated mainly between the years 1975 and 1977, and whose 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 direction of Pinochet and Contreras.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 32.012-2022), the Second Chamber of the highest 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 sentences of 18 years in prison, plus 13 years, and plus 3 years in prison, each.

Former Navy officer Daniel Luis Enrique Guimpert Corbalán was sentenced to 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 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 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 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, Emilio Mahias del Río, and agents Juan Luis Fernando López López, José Evaristo Rojas Alruiz, and Francisco Segundo Illanes Miranda were sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison, plus 400 days in prison.

Ernesto Arturo Lobos Gálvez and Alejandro Jorge Forero Álvarez were sentenced to 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 sentenced to 4 years, plus 60 days in prison each. The also convicted Antonio Benedicto Quiros Reyes and Miguel Arturo Estay Reyno died during the course of the process.

In the judicial investigation and first-instance ruling, minister Miguel Vásquez Plaza established that there existed a de facto group that operated clandestinely between the years 1975 and 1976, formed mainly by agents who belonged to the Air Force Intelligence Directorate, in addition to the Carabineros of Chile, the Navy, and the Army, with the collaboration of civilians, whose main objective was the repression of the Communist Party Youth, for which they proceeded to detain several of them.

This group, called Comando Conjunto, used various facilities for detentions and torture: Hangar de Cerrillos; 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 center located at Calle Perú No. 9053, La Florida, Santiago, which was used exclusively for torture; La Prevención or Remo Cero, which were dungeons located inside the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina, all this during the year 1975; La Firma, at the beginning of 1976, said group moved its operations to the back of the property in charge of the Carabineros of Chile, located on Calle Dieciocho, across from No. 229, which belonged to the former newspaper Clarín, being named La Firma. The operational action of the group consisted of detaining people with the modality of kidnapping, keeping them captive in secret centers, and subjecting them to interrogations and torture, physical and psychological, 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; of some of them, in the course of the years, part of their remains were found. On November 7, 1975, at approximately 10:00 PM, Ricardo Manuel Weibel Navarrete was detained at his home on Calle Río Maule in the Recoleta commune by subjects wearing civilian clothes; he was kept deprived of liberty in the center called La Prevención or Remo Cero, located inside the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina, the last place he was seen alive, and subsequently, his skeletal remains were found on the grounds of Fuerte Arteaga, Peldehue. On October 20, 1975, in the early hours of the morning, Luis Desiderio Moraga Cruz was detained at his home on Pasaje Tokio in the Juanita Aguirre neighborhood, Conchalí commune, Santiago, by subjects wearing civilian clothes; he was kept confined in the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina, inside which was the center called La Prevención or Remo Cero, this being the last place he was seen alive. On December 4, 1975, in the early hours of the morning, Ignacio Orlando González Espinoza was detained at his home on Calle Soberanía in the Santiago commune by subjects wearing civilian clothes; he was kept deprived of liberty in the center called La Prevención or Remo Cero, located inside the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina, the last place he was seen alive, and subsequently, he was executed on the grounds of Fuerte Arteaga, Peldehue, where his skeletal remains 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 subjected to, with the purpose of handing over party money to Orellana Catalán for himself and so that he, in turn, could hand it over 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, keeping them confined in the center called La Firma, from where their trail is lost. Subsequently, Orellana Catalán was executed at Cuesta Barriga, where his remains were found.

Source: resumen.cl, April 26, 2024