The detainees Luis Caro Bastías, Antonio González Rojas, Ricardo Ortega Alvarado, Carlos Hidalgo Retamal, Vicente Vásquez Castañeda, and Enrique Vásquez Castañeda were taken from the Fifth Police Station to be massacred from behind in a parking lot of the State Collective Transport Company located in the Irene Frei neighborhood of Conchalí.

The minister for extraordinary cases of human rights violations of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Mario Carroza, issued a first-instance sentence in the investigation of this crime against humanity perpetrated in September 1973.

In the resolution, the magistrate sentenced retired Carabineros officer Andrés Flores Sabelle to 10 years and one day in prison as the perpetrator of six crimes of qualified homicide. Regarding civil matters, the ruling accepted the claims for compensation for moral damages, ordering the State of Chile to pay 30 million pesos each to: Silvia Ramírez Suazo, Eliana Mena Suazo, and Fresia de las Mercedes Hidalgo Retamal.

According to the background information gathered during the investigative stage, the visiting minister was able to determine the following sequence of events: “That on September 14 or 15, 1973, around noon, in a camp adjacent to the Irene Frei neighborhood of Conchalí, police officers from the Fifth Carabineros Station of Conchalí, who were traveling in a bus of the State Collective Transport Company, proceeded to detain Luis Humberto Caro Bastías, Antonio Segundo González Rojas, Ricardo Hernán Ortega Alvarado, Carlos Hidalgo Retamal, and Vicente Vásquez Castañeda.” “That the police officers, once the detention was carried out, transferred them to the police unit and kept them confined in one of its facilities until the early hours of the following day, when one of their officers, accompanied by carabineros armed with firearms, took them out of the police station and brought them to the intersection of Guanaco and Dorsal streets, in the commune of Conchalí, four or five blocks from the station,” states the court ruling.

Source: villagrimaldi.cl, June 4, 2015

Demands that criminals against humanity who are fugitives from justice be imprisoned

Although they have been convicted of crimes against humanity and are fugitives from justice, the criminals Andrés Leopoldo Flores Sabella and Ricardo Lawrence Mires continue to collect their pensions, and the latter has even communicated with his family without being arrested by the police, states the Londres 38 Group.

In the context of the impunity enjoyed by criminals against humanity, brought to the fore by the Court of Appeals ruling that authorized the parole of Raul Iturriaga Newmann, one of the ringleaders of the DINA, the Londres 38 group made a call to the authorities of the Ministry of the Interior in the government, to the judges and courts of the Judiciary, and to police agencies "to put an end to the flagrant impunity that occurs by not enforcing the Supreme Court sentences that have convicted former Carabineros officers for serious and multiple crimes, who remain fugitives." The convicts referred to by the group are Andrés Leopoldo Flores Sabella and Ricardo Lawrence Mires. Flores Sabella "has been a fugitive from justice since last June 15, when Judge Mario Carroza ordered the execution of the fifteen-year prison sentence for his participation in the murders of six people in Conchalí in 1973. This former Carabineros officer has not been notified of his sentence because he remains in hiding to this day." Flores Sabella commanded a platoon that, on September 14, 1973, detained and gunned down under his orders, in the Irene Frei neighborhood of Conchalí, Luis Caro Bastías, Antonio González Rojas, Ricardo Ortega Alvarado, Carlos Hidalgo Retamal, and the brothers Vicente and Enrique Vásquez Castañeda. As for Ricardo Lawrence Mires, this individual is a former Carabineros officer who was head of the Águila operational group, which depended on the DINA's Caupolicán Brigade. He was at the secret centers of Londres 38, Venda Sexy, José Domingo Cañas, Villa Grimaldi, and Simón Bolívar. Lawrence Mires was convicted for the forced disappearance of Alfonso Chanfreau; "the former DINA agent was sentenced to 10 years in prison, while for the crimes of Puga and de la Barra he was sentenced to 15 years and one day. He is also convicted in a case involving the political imprisonment and torture of former political prisoners at Villa Grimaldi." Despite the severity of the crimes, "Lawrence Mires has been a fugitive for almost two years, after Judge Jorge Zepeda ordered the execution of a sentence by which he was to enter prison." The unusual aspect of the latter criminal's situation is that there is evidence that he is in Chile, as he continues to collect his pension from DIPRECA and has had contact with his family, despite which he has not been imprisoned. "The slowness with which police forces operate to capture sentenced criminals partly explains why some of them, like those named above, decide not to turn themselves in and remain as fugitives. But it is also possible because they have protection networks, which are facilitated if—despite their convictions and crimes—they continue to be subjects who receive their pensions and have access to resources and assets that facilitate their flight," criticizes Londres 38 regarding the police. But their criticisms also point to the government, as they allude to the lack of firmness with which it acts to cut off the criminals' protection networks. "The former head of Police Intelligence, Daniel Cancino Varas, who was on active duty until 2000 despite his active participation in the DINA since 1974, was a fugitive for more than a year after being sentenced to 15 years in prison for crimes committed at Villa Grimaldi," they state. Regarding this criminal, a lawyer linked to the Human Rights Program of the Ministry of the Interior pointed out at the time: "The daughter-in-law of DINA agent Daniel Cancino, convicted for the disappearance of 8 clandestine MIR militants—Elías Villar Guijón, Sonia Ríos Pacheco, María Isabel Gutiérrez, Horacio Carabante, Fabián Ibarra, Alfredo García, Carlos Rioseco, and Abel Vilches—is the Chief of Advisors to the Interior Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior and Security, Lucía Dammert, who until recently was sought by the press to refer to the issue of Security. Is it possible for a progressive government to have in charge of such a sensitive issue a person related to a former agent of the civic-military dictatorship's security services? Who has been hiding Daniel Cancino for so long?" To this, one must add the case of José Avelino Yévenes Vergara, who works as a civilian employee at the Carabineros Hospital (Dipreca), "despite the fact that he is on trial for crimes against humanity and, particularly, in episodes of the Operation Colombo case." This individual was part of the "Halcón II" repressive group, led by the beast Krassnoff Martchenko, and thus participated in capture and kidnapping operations "in the interrogations of detained persons, as well as in the transfers of those who later disappeared from the repressive centers. Yévenes performed similar duties later at Villa Grimaldi, José Domingo Cañas, and, it is estimated, also at the Simón Bolívar barracks," the group states. But these two fugitive criminals are not the only ones in this condition. Although the exact number of fugitive convicts is unknown, some of those added to the two mentioned are retired army officer Ricardo Agustín Enrique Fiedler Alvarado, sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison for the crimes against 8 people in Valparaíso in January 1975, who allegedly left the country, violating the ridiculous travel bans issued by the courts. Another fugitive convicted by the country's highest court is retired army officer Walter Klug Rivera, sentenced to 10 years and 1 day in prison for the disappearances and qualified homicides of 23 workers from the El Toro and El Abanico hydroelectric plants in 1973, in the Bío-Bío province, linked to the beastly repressive network that operated bloodily in the rural communes of the current Bío-Bío province. On the other hand, Adriana Elcira Rivas González, a former civilian official of the FACh and DINA agent, where she was part of the terrible Lautaro Brigade that operated at the Simón Bolívar barracks, accused of the disappearance of the General Secretary of the Communist Party, Víctor Díaz, fled the country and is in Australia after receiving the benefit of parole with a national travel ban. The absurd, the ridiculous, the unacceptable, the infamous mockery is that these criminals are retired officers or retired officials of uniformed or police institutions who receive their monthly salaries as convicted criminals from the State, and that same State justifies itself by claiming that they could not be found or that they have not presented themselves to be notified of their sentences. Everything seems to indicate that these criminals are fugitives because they are deliberately not sought by the police, or because certain judges have deliberately not issued arrest warrants, or because they have protection circles that extend through various spheres of power.

Source: resumen.cl, October 6, 2016

Andrés Flores Sabella, former Carabineros officer and fugitive for crimes against humanity, arrested in Temuco

Andrés Leopoldo Flores Sabella, a former Carabineros officer, had been a fugitive for more than a year, with a pending 15-year prison sentence for various murders committed during the dictatorship. The Association of Relatives of Political Executions (AFEP) announced the capture of one of the dictatorship's agents who had remained a fugitive from justice.

Just a few weeks ago, the organization launched a social media campaign to locate five individuals convicted of human rights violations. This time, it is Andrés Leopoldo Flores Sabella, a former Carabineros officer, who had been a fugitive since June 15, 2016—more than a year—and was arrested in Temuco by personnel from the Investigative Police (PDI).

According to the sentence issued by the court, he must serve a 15-year prison sentence for various murders committed during the dictatorship. Flores Sabella was found guilty of the deaths of Luis Caro Bastías, Antonio González Rojas, Ricardo Ortega Alvarado, Carlos Hidalgo Retamal, and the brothers Vicente and Enrique Vásquez Castañeda.

For now, the capture of Pedro Javier Guzmán Olivares, Ricardo Lawrence Mires, Juan Carlos Orellana Morales, and Juan Eduardo Rubilar Ottone—three former military personnel and one former carabinero who have evaded the action of justice—remains pending. The Association of Relatives of Political Executions called for any information regarding this to be provided.

Source: eldesconcierto.cl, June 23, 2017