27 years old, single, forcibly disappeared on November 26, 1973, in La Serena. Francisco Javier Santoni Díaz disappeared that day after being removed from the La Serena Penitentiary Center, where he was being held, by soldiers from the "Arica" Regiment of that city.

In November 1973, Francisco Santoni was serving a sentence for a common crime at the La Serena prison. In that place, he played a leadership role in the activities carried out by the prisoners. As certified by the National Directorate of the Gendarmerie of Chile, on November 26, 1973, he left that prison facility by "order of the Arica Regiment." He has been missing since that moment.

According to the statements of witnesses who were detained for political reasons in said Regiment, in the days prior to his disappearance, they were repeatedly interrogated about an escape attempt that Francisco Santoni was allegedly planning to carry out.

Considering the background information gathered and the investigations carried out by this Corporation, the Superior Council reached the conviction that Francisco Javier Santoni Díaz, while being held by State agents, was made to disappear. For this reason, it declared him a victim of human rights violations.

Source: (Corporation Report)

For the crime of qualified homicide of Francisco Javier Santoni, which occurred at that time in the "Arica" regiment of La Serena. The La Serena Court of Appeals confirmed, with a declaration, the sentence issued by the minister on extraordinary visit for human rights violation cases, Vicente Hormazábal Abarzúa, in the part that sentenced seven retired members of the Army for their responsibility in the crime of qualified homicide of Francisco Javier Santoni Díaz.

An illicit act perpetrated on November 26, 1973, in the "Arica" regiment of the city. In a unanimous ruling (case file 828-2022), the First Chamber of the appellate court—composed of ministers Sergio Troncoso Espinoza, Iván Corona Albornoz, and the acting lawyer Carolina Salas Salazar—increased from 5 to 15 years of effective prison time the sentence that Luis Humberto Fernández Monjes must serve as the perpetrator of the crime.

Furthermore, it imposed the legal accessory penalties of absolute and perpetual disqualification for public offices and positions and political rights, and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence; plus the payment of court costs.

In resolving the increase in the sentence, the appellate court noted that: "(...) it is established by the records of the process that those who got out of the vehicle and accessed the facilities of the public jail in order to remove Francisco Santoni Díaz were the non-commissioned officers Vallejos (deceased) and Fernández Monjes, and the rest of the members of the patrol waited in the pickup truck." "In accordance with the reasoning provided, these judges consider that this evidence is sufficient to determine that these two military officials acted by taking advantage of their status as such, since when requesting the presence of a prisoner, the personnel of the Gendarmerie of Chile—in the context the country was experiencing at that time—had no possibility of refusing, which conferred upon them an advantage that facilitated the perpetration of illicit acts such as the one that affected Francisco Santoni Díaz. Furthermore, there is no evidence that they were executing an order from the Military Prosecutor's Office of La Serena, as there is no record of his departure in the records sent by the Gendarmerie of Chile," it adds. "In accordance with the above, the aggravating circumstance established in Article 12 No. 8 of the Penal Code will be applied, thereby modifying the sentence in the operative part of this ruling regarding the convicted Luis Fernández Monjes," the resolution explains. Meanwhile, Milton Leonardo Torres Rojas, René Patricio Orchard Díaz, and José Electo Flores Gallardo must serve 7 years of effective prison time, with accessory penalties of absolute and perpetual disqualification for public offices and positions and political rights, absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentences, and the payment of court costs, in their capacity as accomplices to the consummated crime of qualified homicide. In the case of the reserve soldier at the time of the events, Juan Daniel Marambio López, the appellate court imposed, with costs, a sentence of 5 years of imprisonment, with the benefit of intensive supervised release for the same period, accessory penalties of absolute and perpetual disqualification for political rights, and absolute disqualification for public offices and positions for the duration of the sentence, in his capacity as an accomplice to the illicit act. "(...) it is possible to establish that the convicted Milton Torres, Juan Marambio, and José Flores were serving as reserve soldiers of the Arica Regiment at the time the events occurred; that they were part of the operational unit of Section II and that on the twenty-sixth of November nineteen seventy-three, they were part of the patrol that removed Santoni Díaz from the jail and transported him to the site where he was put to death. However, in the opinion of these judges, the functional distribution or the convergence of wills described in the preceding motive is not entirely evident in the facts that have been described regarding their participation, since it is established that they were serving as reserve soldiers and therefore lacked real power of influence in the development of the illicit act, so it is not possible to charge them with participation as co-perpetrators of the crime of qualified homicide, but only as accomplices for having cooperated with acts prior to and simultaneous to the execution of the investigated event," the ruling states. In the resolution, the court decreed the acquittal of Fernando Guillermo Santiago Polanco Gallardo, due to the lack of evidence of his participation in the events, who was serving at the time of the events as head of Section II and was in charge of planning the activities of the operational unit. "Because of this, he was aware that a patrol from his unit went to remove the victim from the public jail of La Serena. However, there is no evidence to indicate that this convicted person gave an order to kill him or that he intervened directly in the qualified homicide that is the subject of these proceedings or after it was committed, which will lead to accepting the appellant's allegation since the participation of Fernando Polanco Gallardo in the qualified homicide of Francisco Santoni Díaz is not proven," the court reasoned. Likewise, the partial and definitive dismissal of Ariosto Francisco Lapostol Orrego was confirmed, "(...) taking into consideration the death certificate issued by the Civil Registry and Identification Service that accounts for the death of the convicted person in these proceedings (...), registered under number five hundred twenty-six on the twenty-first of July two thousand twenty-one in the commune of La Reina, Metropolitan Region, which was elevated for consultation before this Court," it concludes.

Source: elobservador.cl, September 14, 2022

Date: 09-14-2022

After 47 years: Seven former military personnel convicted for murder during the dictatorship

Former Army military personnel Fernando Polanco, Milton Flores, Ariosto Lapostol, René Orchard, and José Flores were sentenced by Vicente Hormazábal (minister on extraordinary visit for human rights violation cases of the La Serena Court of Appeals) to 10 years and one day in prison, and Luis Fernández and Juan Marambio were sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison for the qualified homicide of FRANCISCO JAVIER SANTONI DIAZ. "The evidence gathered in the process managed to determine that the victim was in the facilities of or under the charge of a public agency, which was the penitentiary, in preventive detention, that is, he was under the protection of the State," explained the minister. Hormazábal added, "In that condition, they went to take him out to execute him, and that is recorded in the discharge record, in the statements of witnesses who heard the gunshots, and also Gendarmerie officials who mention that they received communication that he had been executed in the regiment." The difference between the sentences given to these murderers and those risked by the political prisoners of the uprising, such as Matías Rojas or Jesús Zenteno, students who are being threatened with 25 years of imprisonment, is shocking. It is urgent to end all the legacy of the dictatorship and that, with the strength of our organization and mobilization, we achieve trial and punishment for all those politically and materially responsible for the human rights violations of yesterday and today, and freedom for all political prisoners of the uprising and the Mapuche people. We will only be able to carry this out by promoting great unity among workers, students, retirees, women, and other sectors, unifying our demands and preparing a plan of struggle, starting by affecting the pockets of the big businessmen who have looted our country over the last 4 decades, through a general strike, so that it is the capitalists and not the working class who pay the costs of this crisis.

Source: izquierdadiario.cl, 11/05/2020

Date: 11-05-2020

Sentences against the authors of the death of "Milico" Santoni in the Arica Regiment

The minister on extraordinary visit for human rights violation cases of the La Serena Court of Appeals, Vicente Hormazábal Abarzúa, sentenced seven retired members of the Army for their role in the qualified homicide of Francisco Javier Santoni Díaz, "Milico" Santoni, as he was known by the political prisoners of the time; an illicit act perpetrated in November 1973 in the "Arica Regiment" of the city.

In the case, the seven retired military personnel were sentenced to the legal accessory penalties of absolute and perpetual disqualification for public offices and positions and political rights, and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentences; plus the payment of court costs. "The evidence gathered in the process managed to determine that the victim was in the facilities of or under the charge of a public agency, which was the penitentiary, in preventive detention, that is, he was under the protection of the State, and in that condition, they went to take him out to execute him, and that is recorded in the discharge record, in the statements of witnesses who heard the gunshots, and also Gendarmerie officials who mention that they received communication that he had been executed in the regiment," the minister reported. The Facts: The background information collected during the investigation stage, which served as the foundation for the accusation, allowed Minister Hormazábal Abarzúa to establish the following facts: "(...) it was demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that on November 26, 1973, Francisco Javier Santoni Díaz was serving a sentence, was processed, and was being investigated for a common crime in the former Public Jail of the city of La Serena; and that due to information that emerged in the prison on November 23, 1973, inquiries began regarding a plan for a massive escape from said facility. Section II of the Arica Regiment, of the city of La Serena, directed by Guillermo Santiago Polanco Gallardo, which acted under the orders of the then-Colonel Ariosto Lapostol Orrego, Commander of the Regiment. Thus, during the afternoon and night of November 26, they were interrogating, through torture, the political prisoner Juan Eliseo González Herrera, whom they threatened with execution by firing squad, and the next day an Army official referred to the detainees, and particularly to González Herrera, that during the night they had 'discharged' him, alluding to what they considered an organization for the escape. On the night of that day, November 26, 1973, a military patrol in charge of non-commissioned officer Héctor Omar Vallejos Birtiola (deceased) along with members of said Section II, among them, non-commissioned officer Luis Humberto Fernández Monjes and reserve soldiers Juan Daniel Marambio López, Milton Leonardo Torres Rojas, René Patricio Orchard Díaz, and José Electo Flores Gallardo, removed Francisco Santoni Díaz from the Public Jail. They transported him in a vehicle used by that Section II to the facilities of the Arica Regiment of this city, proceeding to shoot him, causing his death around 00:30 hours on November 27, 1973. The commander of the regiment, Ariosto Lapostol Orrego, through a document called 'Discharge Record', dated November 27, 1973, communicated the death of the victim to the Military Prosecutor's Office of the Province of Coquimbo, which was processing the case against several subjects, among them Francisco Javier Santoni Díaz, for the crime of assault on a police officer on duty (...). Finally, it should be taken into account that (...) it was not possible to find background information related to the existence of any process instructed to investigate the death of Francisco Aquiles Santoni Díaz; the General Staff of the Army of Chile communicated the same, (...) it was verified that no background or case titled with the name of Santoni Díaz appears."

Source: litoralpress.cl, 11/05/2020

Date: 11-05-2020

La Serena: Georadar used to search for remains of Francisco Santoni, disappeared during the dictatorship

The minister for Human Rights cases of the Court of Appeals, Vicente Hormazábal, is conducting an inspection of the terrain study work at the Las Compañías cemetery, the place where the remains of Francisco Santoni Díaz are being sought.

At noon today, the minister conducted an inspection of the terrain study work at the cemetery in La Serena, which seeks to find the whereabouts of the remains of Francisco Javier Santoni Díaz, executed in November 1973.

The victim was transported, according to the minister's own information, from the La Serena jail, where he was serving a sentence for a common crime, to the cemetery. It should be noted that the diligence began with the clearing of the terrain using a backhoe, and starting this Tuesday, a team with georadar is analyzing the place, which could lead to an eventual exhumation of Santoni.

The instance, which will extend until Friday the 23rd, has the participation of experts from the Legal Medical Service, officials from the Human Rights Brigade, and experts from the Criminalistics Laboratory of the Investigative Police. "One of those processed in the case modified his statement regarding the place where the body could have been buried, and therefore that place is being probed to determine if that statement has any basis or not," explained Minister Hormazábal.

First diligences The first task that was carried out was the clearing of the terrain of the rear exterior part of the cemetery and, subsequently, the study of the sector with a georadar will be carried out, in order to verify if the remains of Santoni are found in the place. "Fundamentally, an observation and analysis of the terrain will be done using a georadar, to eventually later carry out excavations according to concrete and certain background information that exists regarding where the victim's body would be," stated the PDI prefect, Abel Lizama Pino.

According to the background information collected during the investigation stage, it was established that Santoni Díaz was transported in November 1973, from the La Serena jail, where he was serving a sentence for a common crime, to the Las Compañías cemetery, the place where they allegedly put him to death.

In the case, 7 retired Army officials are processed as authors of the crime of qualified homicide: Ariosto Lapostol Orrego, Luis Fernández Monjes, Fernando Polanco Gallardo, René Orchard Díaz, Milton Torres Rojas, Juan Marambio López, and José Flores Gallardo.

Source: biobio.cl, 12/20/2016

Date: 12-20-2016

Four retired military personnel processed for the murder of a common prisoner in La Serena in 1973

According to the judge's resolution, the victim was transported "presumably to the Arica regiment of the city or one of its facilities, proceeding to shoot him, causing his death around 00:30 hours." The minister on extraordinary visit for human rights violation cases of the La Serena Court of Appeals, Vicente Hormazábal Abarzúa, issued new processing orders in the investigation of the homicide of the common prisoner Francisco Javier Santoni Díaz, perpetrated on November 27, 1973, in that city.

The magistrate indicted and ordered the preventive detention of four retired Army officials, Juan Daniel Marambio López, Milton Leonardo Torres Rojas, Patricio René Orchard Díaz, and José Electo Flores Gallardo, as authors of the crime of qualified homicide.

According to the background information collected during the investigation stage, the minister on visit established that Francisco Javier Santoni Díaz, 27, was serving a sentence for a common crime in the La Serena jail.

Due to suspicions of planning a massive escape, he was investigated by Section II of the Arica regiment of La Serena, directed by Fernando Polanco Gallardo, also processed in this case. On the night of November 26, 1973, a military patrol in charge of non-commissioned officer Héctor Omar Vallejos Birtiola (deceased), along with four members of said Section II, the reserve soldiers Marambio López, Torres Rojas, Orchard Díaz, and Flores Gallardo, removed Santoni Díaz from the jail.

According to the judge's resolution, they transported him "presumably to the Arica regiment of the city or one of its facilities, proceeding to shoot him, causing his death around 00:30 hours on November 27, 1973." As part of the process, Minister Hormazábal has carried out various diligences, such as the exhumation in the La Foresta cemetery of the city, intended to scientifically determine if the remains correspond to the victim Santoni Díaz; and the ocular inspection in the Las Compañías cemetery, where he was accompanied by retired non-commissioned officer Luis Fernández Monjes, processed in the case.

Source: publimetro.cl, March 31, 2016

Date: 03-31-2016

Supreme Court sentences five former Army members for the crime of a detainee in La Serena in 1973

The Supreme Court sentenced five former Army members, who at the time of the events were part of Section II of the "Arica" Regiment of La Serena, for their responsibility in the crime of qualified homicide of Francisco Javier Santoni Díaz, 27 years old, who was removed on September 26, 1973, from the public jail of La Serena and executed in the military unit.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 134.116-2022), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Leopoldo Llanos Sagristá, minister María Teresa Letelier, and acting lawyers Diego Munita and Ricardo Abuauad—sentenced Milton Leonardo Torres Rojas, René Patricio Orchard Díaz, and José Electo Flores Gallardo to 10 years and one day in prison, in their capacity as authors of the crime.

Meanwhile, Luis Humberto Fernández Monjes and Juan Daniel Marambio López must serve 5 years and one day in prison, as co-authors. The Supreme Court established an error in the sentence issued by the La Serena Court of Appeals in September 2022, in the part that sentenced Torres Rojas, Orchard Díaz, Flores Gallardo, and Marambio López only as accomplices to the crime and, in a replacement sentence, sentences them as authors.

The then-commander of the aforementioned regiment, Ariosto Francisco Alberto Lapostol Orrego, also convicted in the first-instance ruling, died during the course of the process. The then-head of Section II of that military unit, former officer Fernando Guillermo Polanco Gallardo, was acquitted in this case.

Regarding the judicial error of the appellate court, the Criminal Chamber points out: "(...) in consideration of the reflections made above, and regarding the participation of the accused Milton Leonardo Torres Rojas, René Patricio Orchard Díaz, José Electo Flores Gallardo, and Juan Daniel Marambio López, the impugned sentence incurs in the legal error denounced in the cassation appeal under examination, since from the established facts, mentioned in foundation 5° ut supra, it has been possible to determine that by having served as reserve soldiers of the Army, performing operational tasks in the Intelligence Section II, in the 'Arica' Regiment of La Serena, in compliance with the directives given by the officers, with knowledge that people detained by them were kept there, subjected to interrogations under torture, and having formed the patrol that on the night of November 26, 1973, transported the inmate Francisco Javier Santoni Díaz from the public jail of the city where he was being held, to the facilities of the aforementioned military compound, the place where he was put to death by the same agents, they had co-dominion of the act, contributing functionally to the execution of the act in its entirety, forming part of the repressive group that devised and decided the execution of the victim, as an operational agent of the same, collaborating in that way and in a determining manner with his death, since those tasks allowed the victim to be subdued and the homicide to be perpetrated." "It is not, then, a peripheral intervention in the illicit act or cooperation in the illicit act of another, typical of complicity, but rather the performance of executive acts, with each of these accused contributing functionally to the joint or collective realization of the plan as a whole, accepted expressly or tacitly, with knowledge and will to participate in them, which under the principle of reciprocal imputation, are constitutive of co-authorship," it concludes. Alleged escape plan In the first-instance sentence, the minister on extraordinary visit of the La Serena Court of Appeals, Vicente Hormazábal, established that on November 26, 1973, Francisco Javier Santoni Díaz was serving a sentence and was processed and being investigated for a common crime in the former Public Jail of the city of La Serena. Based on information about an alleged escape plan that emerged in the prison, members of Section II of the "Arica" Regiment of the city of La Serena, directed by Fernando Guillermo Santiago Polanco Gallardo, which acted under the orders of the then-Colonel Ariosto Lapostol Orrego, Commander of the Regiment, began to make inquiries inside the prison facility. Thus, during the afternoon and night of November 26, they were interrogating, through torture, a political prisoner whom they threatened with execution by firing squad. On the night of that day, a military patrol in charge of non-commissioned officer Héctor Omar Vallejos Birtiola (deceased) along with members of said Section II, among them, non-commissioned officer Luis Humberto Fernández Monjes and reserve soldiers Juan Daniel Marambio López, Milton Leonardo Torres Rojas, René Patricio Orchard Díaz, and José Electo Flores Gallardo, removed Francisco Santoni Díaz from the Public Jail. They transported him in a vehicle used by that Section II to the facilities of the "Arica" Regiment of La Serena, proceeding to execute him, causing his death around 00:30 hours on November 27, 1973. The then-commander of the regiment, Ariosto Lapostol Orrego, through a document called 'Discharge Record', communicated the death of the victim to the Military Prosecutor's Office of the Province of Coquimbo, which was processing the case against several detainees, among them Francisco Javier Santoni Díaz, for the crime of assault on a police officer on duty, but there was no investigation or judicial case regarding the consummated execution. by Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl, March 6, 2024

Supreme Court sentences retired military personnel for homicide of victim removed from La Serena jail.

The Supreme Court sentenced five retired military personnel who, at the time of the events, served in the Arica Regiment of La Serena, for their responsibility in the crime of qualified homicide of Francisco Javier Santoni Díaz, who was removed on September 26, 1973, from the public jail of La Serena and executed in the military unit.

It should be noted that in November 1973, Francisco Santoni was serving a sentence for a common crime in the La Serena prison. In that place, he played a leadership role in the activities carried out by the prisoners.

As certified by the National Directorate of the Gendarmerie of Chile, on November 26, 1973, he left that prison facility by "order of the Arica Regiment." He has been missing since that moment. According to the statements of witnesses who were detained for political reasons in said Regiment, in the days prior to his disappearance, they were repeatedly interrogated about an escape attempt that Francisco Santoni was allegedly planning to carry out.

The Second Chamber of the highest court sentenced Milton Torres Rojas, René Patricio Orchard Díaz, and José Electo Flores Gallardo to 10 years and one day in prison, in their capacity as authors of the crime.

Meanwhile, Luis Fernández Monjes and Juan Marambio López must serve 5 years and one day in prison, as co-authors. The Supreme Court established an error in the sentence issued by the La Serena Court of Appeals, in the part that sentenced Torres Rojas, Orchard Díaz, Flores Gallardo, and Marambio López as accomplices to the crime.

The ruling points out that it is under this context that the first-instance ruling attributed participation to the aforementioned accused as co-authors, because they were Army Reserve personnel who became part of the Intelligence Section II as operational agents, who were destined to carry out repressive functions against those people who were contrary to the established regime and who participated in the patrol that transported the victim from the Public Jail of La Serena where he was being held, to the military compound where he was put to death, an event in which they were present.

The resolution adds that, to analyze the special form of authorship in which these crimes can be committed, it is relevant to analyze whether the participants had dominion of the act: a. In the conduct of the immediate author who performs and controls objectively and subjectively the act by their own hand; b.

In the dominion of the will as happens in cases of mediate authorship; c. In cases of functional dominion as occurs in the case of co-authorship. It adds that the immediate or direct author will be the one who performs directly, materially, or by their own hand, in whole or in part, the conduct described in the penal type, with the punishable act being objectively and subjectively imputable to them.

The immediate author is the master of the act, because they retain the power to decide autonomously about the continuation of the criminal event until its consummation. Then, the resolution says that, in every intentional commissive crime as in the one investigated in these proceedings, the person who materially performs all the requirements contained in the description of the penal type must be considered as the immediate or direct author, as well as the person who materially executes the order of another, if all the requirements of the typical act concur in said execution.

It highlights that, on the other hand, the mediate author is the one who executes their own act through another whose conduct they instrumentalize. It is the one who, dominating the act and possessing the other special characteristics of authorship, uses another person called an instrument to execute the typical conduct.

In mediate authorship, the dominion of the act presupposes that the global event is presented as the work of the directive will of the person behind it and that this person controls the conduct of the executor through their influence over them.

It adds that co-authors will be those who execute jointly and by mutual agreement (express or tacit) the act, dividing the realization of the plan, in such terms that they have co-dominion of the act, on whose consummation they decide together, because each of the contributions considered separately is functional to the execution of the act in its entirety.

In co-authorship, there is functional dominion, because the authors divide the realization of the act, they 'divide the work', so that none of them has total realization, but rather they commit it among all.

In the words of Bacigalupo: 'the essential element of co-authorship is the co-dominion of the act. This element has been characterized by Roxin as a functional dominion of the perpetrator in the sense that each of the co-authors has in their hands the dominion of the act through the part that corresponds to them in the division of labor' (Bacigalupo, Enrique.

Criminal Law, General Part. 2nd, renewed and expanded edition, Hammurabi, Buenos Aires, p. 501). For the Criminal Chamber, in consideration of the reflections made above, and regarding the participation of the accused Milton Leonardo Torres Rojas, René Patricio Orchard Díaz, José Electo Flores Gallardo, and Juan Daniel Marambio López, the impugned sentence incurs in the legal error denounced in the cassation appeal under examination—based on the cause provided for in Article 546 No. 1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure—since from the established facts, mentioned in foundation 5° ut supra, it has been possible to determine that by having served as reserve soldiers of the Army, performing operational tasks in the Intelligence Section II, in the 'Arica' Regiment of La Serena, in compliance with the directives given by the officers, with knowledge that people detained by them were kept there, subjected to interrogations under torture, and having formed the patrol that on the night of November 26, 1973, transported the inmate Francisco Javier Santoni Díaz from the public jail of the city where he was being held, to the facilities of the aforementioned military compound, the place where he was put to death by the same agents, they had co-dominion of the act, contributing functionally to the execution of the act in its entirety, forming part of the repressive group that devised and decided the execution of the victim, as an operational agent of the same, collaborating in that way and in a determining manner with his death, since those tasks allowed the victim to be subdued and the homicide to be perpetrated. The ruling concludes that it is not, then, a peripheral intervention in the illicit act or cooperation in the illicit act of another, typical of complicity, but rather the performance of executive acts, with each of these accused contributing functionally to the joint or collective realization of the plan as a whole, accepted expressly or tacitly, with knowledge and will to participate in them, which under the principle of reciprocal imputation, are constitutive of co-authorship, in the terms provided for in Article 15 No. 1 of the Penal Code.

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl, 03/05/2024

Minister Vicente Hormazábal sentences retired military personnel for qualified homicide in the regiment

The minister on extraordinary visit for human rights violation cases of the La Serena Court of Appeals, Vicente Hormazábal Abarzúa, sentenced seven retired members of the Army for their responsibility in the crime of qualified homicide of Francisco Javier Santoni Díaz. An illicit act perpetrated in November 1973, in the "Arica" regiment of the city.

Source: April 15, 2020