Judge Daniel Calvo, with exclusive dedication to investigating human rights cases, prosecuted two former Carabineros as perpetrators of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of an Ecuadorian student who disappeared in the south of the country following the 1973 military coup.

The resolution affects former Carabineros Major Juan Miguel Bustamante León and former non-commissioned officer Omar Burgos. The investigation determined that they were the ones who arrested university student José García Franco at his home in the city of Temuco on the afternoon of September 13, 1973, two days after the military coup.

According to the Rettig Report, which documented human rights violations during the military government, 31-year-old José García Franco was in his seventh year of medical school at the Temuco branch of the Universidad de Chile and was completing his internship at the local hospital.

According to the case files, the university student remained for several days at the Second Carabineros Precinct of Temuco, from which he disappeared between the early hours of September 18 and the following day.

The precinct chiefs assured his wife that her husband had been taken to the border with Argentina. Along with prosecuting the former Carabineros, Judge Calvo ordered their preventive detention, which they will serve in police facilities in Santiago.

The case regarding the Ecuadorian student was opened through a complaint filed by his family on April 14, 2000, directed against General (ret.) Augusto Pinochet and all those found responsible.

Source: emol.cl, June 5, 2003

Judge Billard sentences (ret.) Carabinero for disappearance of Ecuadorian doctor

Trial judge Joaquín Billard sentenced Juan de Dios Fritz Vega, First Sergeant (ret.) of the Carabineros; Omar Burgos Dejean, who held the same rank; and Juan Miguel Bustamante León, Major (ret.) of the Carabineros, to eight years and one day of major imprisonment in its minimum degree, as perpetrators of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of the Ecuadorian doctor Félix García Franco.

Additionally, Hugo Opazo Inzunza, non-commissioned officer (ret.) of the Carabineros, was sentenced to ten years and one day of major imprisonment in its medium degree for his participation in the disappearance of the health professional on September 13, 1973.

Judge Billard also accepted the joint civil lawsuit for compensation for damages and moral injury filed against the retired Carabineros, sentencing them to the joint payment of 30 million pesos.

Source: lanacion.cl, February 8, 2008

Supreme Court issues final ruling in the kidnapping case of Félix García Franco

The Supreme Court issued a final ruling in the investigation into the aggravated kidnapping of José Félix García Franco, which occurred beginning on September 19, 1973, in the city of Temuco. In a split decision (case file 2335-2009), the ministers of the Second Chamber, Rubén Ballesteros, Jaime Rodríguez, Hugo Dolmestch, Carlos Künsemüller, and the acting lawyer Benito Mauriz, determined the following sanctions: -Juan de Dios Fritz Vega: 4 years of imprisonment.

The benefit of supervised release was granted. -Omar Burgos Dejean: 4 years of imprisonment. The benefit of supervised release was granted. -José Miguel Bustamante León: 4 years of imprisonment. The benefit of supervised release was granted. -Hugo Opazo Insunza: 4 years of imprisonment.

The benefit of supervised release was granted. Meanwhile, regarding the civil aspect, the court accepted the exception of incompetence raised by the State Treasury and annulled the 30,000,000 peso (thirty million pesos) compensation for moral injury that had been granted to the victim's relatives.

In the criminal sphere, the decision was adopted against the opinion of Minister Ballesteros, who was of the opinion to accept the statute of limitations for criminal action. In the civil sphere, the decision was adopted with the unfavorable opinion of Ministers Dolmestch and Künsemüller, who were in favor of dismissing the exception of incompetence and ruling on the merits of the matter.

Source: Afepchile.cl, December 3, 2009

Temuco Court issues conviction for kidnapping of former Radical deputy

The Temuco Court of Appeals confirmed the sentence for the aggravated kidnapping of former Radical deputy Luis Lobos Barrientos, which occurred after the military coup in the town of Pitrufquén, Araucanía Region.

In a unanimous ruling, ministers Héctor Toro, Víctor Reyes, and Julio César Grandón ratified the ruling of Minister Fernando Carreño, who on August 29 sentenced Gonzalo Arias González, Eduardo Riquelme Olivares, and Juan Fritz Vega to eight years in prison.

This is the eleventh conviction issued by the Temuco Court of Appeals in a human rights violation case and the 13th since 2004. Lobos Barrientos was arrested for the first time on September 13, 1973, by Carabineros officers from the Pitrufquén precinct at his home.

He was taken directly to that police unit, from where he was transferred to Temuco, and from there to the Tucapel Regiment. On that occasion, the former military prosecutor Alfonso Podlech—currently imprisoned in Europe—authorized him to be taken to his home in Pitrufquén under house arrest.

He remained in that condition until October 5, the date on which Carabineros officials, under the command of then-Lieutenant Carlos Moreno, appeared at his home, transferring him to the Second Carabineros Precinct of Temuco and later, by order of Carabineros prosecutor Gonzalo Arias González, he was taken to the Public Jail of the regional capital.

He remained in that prison until October 11, the day he was taken to the Carabineros prosecutor's office, where he was granted unconditional release due to lack of evidence. He was released at 7:40 PM, and the curfew began at 8:00 PM, so he had 20 minutes to reach Pitrufquén, 30 kilometers from Temuco, without money, documents, or a watch.

However, his release was only an administrative formality, as witness accounts state that the victim was put on a helicopter bound for an unknown destination.

Source: lanacion.cl, December 5, 2008

Supreme Court sentences former Carabinero to three years in prison for case of forcibly disappeared person

The Second Chamber of the Supreme Court sentenced former Carabinero Juan de Dios Fritz Vega to three years and one day in prison without benefits for the aggravated kidnapping (and disappearance) of Luis Lobos Barrientos, which occurred on October 11, 1973, in Pitrufquén.

In the same case, the court acquitted former Carabineros Gonzalo Arias González and Eduardo Riquelme Rodríguez. The visiting minister of the Temuco Court of Appeals, Fernando Carreño, had sentenced the three defendants to eight years in prison in the first instance, which was ratified by the Temuco Court of Appeals.

Source: radio.uchile.cl, August 11, 2010

The final hours of the life of deputy and former intendant Gastón Lobos

The family, exhausted by the tortuous steps of the Chilean justice system, lost hope of receiving justice for the disappearance of the head of the household. A civil sentence from a Temuco court, subsequently backed by the Temuco Court of Appeals, was annulled by a ruling of the Supreme Court, which accepted an appeal filed by the State Defense Council.

A strange situation surrounds the final hours of deputy Luis Gastón Lobos Barrientos, which shows how the dictatorship carried out murders and disappearances of people through its State agents. 48 years have passed since then, and there is still no justice in Chile.

On October 13, 2014, under Case File No. 25,921, a Cassation Appeal on the Merits was filed with the Supreme Court of Justice by the State Defense Council against the civil sentence of the Temuco Court of Appeals, which confirmed the sentence of the 3rd Civil Court of Temuco, which had accepted the lawsuit filed by the widow and children of the Radical deputy Gastón Lobos Barrientos, currently a forcibly disappeared person.

The ruling of the Temuco Court of Appeals confirmed the first-instance sentence that ordered the Chilean State to pay the sum of 375 million pesos to his relatives for moral injury. In the criminal aspect (with the family represented by lawyer Jaime Madariaga), previously, on August 10, 2010, the Supreme Court, hearing a cassation appeal, had issued a conviction against Juan de Dios Fritz Vega, a Carabineros official, who in the exercise of his duties committed the crime of permanent aggravated kidnapping against Gastón Lobos Barrientos, events that occurred during the months of September and October 1973, investigated by Fernando Carreño Ortega in his capacity as visiting minister. The regrettable part is that said conviction, regarding the only judicially established perpetrator, could not be executed because the convicted person in this case, Fritz Vega, had died one month earlier, on July 1, 2010, increasing the harmful consequences for the relatives of Gastón Lobos Barrientos by provoking a sense of impunity and a lack of timely justice. Because of this, in 2011, the family filed a civil lawsuit against the Chilean State to obtain reparation in the context of what was established by the norms of Jus Cogens or International Humanitarian Law and regarding Human Rights Treaties duly ratified by Chile, and the pertinent constitutional provisions. In that context, the Third Civil Court of Temuco finally issued a conviction against the Chilean State, which was confirmed by the Illustrious Court of Appeals of Temuco, and which, at that date, was before the Supreme Court to hear a Cassation Appeal filed by the State Defense Council. On behalf of the family, lawyer Cristian Dulansky and the prominent human rights lawyer Héctor Salazar appeared in said Cassation Appeal. The case was effectively argued in the Supreme Court on November 24, 2014, remaining in a state of agreement, that is, with the decision made. In parallel, the Court ordered the suspension of the agreement and summoned the parties to a conciliation on December 15, 2014. Considering that the president of the Supreme Court also met on these issues with the president and vice president of the Chamber of Deputies. The intention of this party was to attempt, through the Chamber of Deputies and its members and/or representatives, or the instances deemed appropriate, an attitude from the State Defense Council, just as has been done in other cases of public importance such as the assassination of Tucapel Jiménez Alfaro, or the case of Chancellor Orlando Letelier, and surely also the case of Carlos Prats and others, in which we understand that the case of Deputy Gastón Lobos Barrientos—the only active deputy who is a forcibly disappeared person from the dictatorship—is "equalized" by reason of investiture, in which a conciliation process was finally produced between the parties to put an end to the judicial proceedings. On December 15, 2014, a daughter of the forcibly disappeared deputy, Marcela Lobos, along with her lawyers, met with the State Defense Council. The result of the conciliation process was that no agreement was reached; there was no opportunity for dialogue because "everything was already defined, only a messenger was presented to communicate what was determined by the State Defense Council," she told Tiempo21. Subsequent to that, the Supreme Court announced its ruling, which was against the family's lawsuit. The family realized that the ruling had already been decided and they reserved it for after the conciliation process. The sentence was pronounced on January 30, 2015, by the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court, composed of ministers Héctor Carreño, Pedro Pierry, Rosa Egnem, and María Eugenia Sandoval. The acting lawyer, Jorge Lagos, did not sign due to being absent, despite having attended the hearing and the agreement of the case. Today, in the year 2021, years later and in the midst of a pandemic, with hopes of finding the truth and achieving justice lost, a new light appears for the wife and family of the forcibly disappeared deputy. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights reported that it declares admissible the petition made by the family and their lawyers regarding judicial guarantees, judicial protection, life, liberty, security, and integrity of the person, protection against arbitrary detention, and the obligations that the State of Chile has given the investiture that Gastón Luis Lobos Barrientos held at the time of his detention, kidnapping, and subsequent disappearance. The family has received this news with hope and serenity; it is known that it is one more step taken, and that the possibilities of finding truth and justice are possible. The fact that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights considers that the case of Gastón Lobos Barrientos, former Intendant and Deputy of the Republic in office (1973), must be given the importance it deserves, provides confidence, security, and conviction that things will now be done well. Put on a helicopter: According to a document from the Radical Party, on October 5 (1973), Luis Gastón Lobos Barrientos was arrested again at his home by the same Carabineros personnel, "being transferred to the Temuco Jail. The authorities of the facility reported that Gastón Lobos was released from that detention center on October 1 at 6:50 PM, by order of the Cautín Carabineros Prosecutor's Office. Subsequently, the family claims to have been informed by that Prosecutor's Office that Lobos was released on October 1 at 7:40 PM (the curfew was in effect from 7:00 PM), being granted a safe-conduct to return to his home. Witness accounts that are credible state that Gastón Lobos was put on a helicopter. Testimonies that reached the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation indicate that his body was found at the mouth of the Imperial River and buried in a place not yet identified, by the same person who found him and who knew him personally. A strange situation surrounds the final hours of deputy Luis Gastón Lobos Barrientos, which shows how the dictatorship carried out murders and disappearances of people through its State agents, because of his work as a public servant, disappearing a Deputy and trying to eliminate the highest Republican values that were represented by human beings like Don Gastón, some such as socialism, secular humanism, and democracy.

Source: litoralpress.cl, April 9, 2021