Miguel Krassnoff, Marcelo Moren Brito, and Raúl Iturriaga Neumann are among those implicated.

The minister for extraordinary causes regarding human rights violations at the Santiago Court of Appeals, Hernán Crisosto, sentenced 77 agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) this Monday for their responsibility in the kidnapping of Héctor Garay Hermosilla in 1974.

Garay Hermosilla, a member of the Revolutionary Student Front (FER), was 19 years old when he was detained near his home on July 8, 1974. Days later, his name appeared in the national press on a false list of 119 people killed due to alleged internal disputes within the MIR, in what was termed "Operation Colombo." According to the judge's findings, "the publications that declared the victim Garay Hermosilla dead originated from disinformation maneuvers carried out by DINA agents abroad."

According to the reconstruction of events carried out by the visiting minister, the DINA agents who captured Garay "forced him into the back of a gray Chevrolet C-10 pickup truck and took him to the home of a friend of the victim, who was also forced into the aforementioned truck, to be driven to an unknown destination."

"Subsequently, it was established through testimonies that Héctor Marcial Garay Hermosilla passed through the clandestine detention center known as 'Londres 38,' which was guarded by armed guards and to which only DINA agents had access," the ruling continues, establishing that to date, there is no further information regarding Garay's whereabouts.

The convicted In the resolution, the presiding judge sentenced the following to 13 years in prison as authors of the crime perpetrated in 1974: César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Marcelo Luis Moren Brito, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann.

Meanwhile, the following former agents must serve 10 years in prison, also as authors: Gerardo Ernesto Urrich González, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, Ciro Ernesto Torré Sáez, Sergio Hernán Castillo González, Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, José Nelson Fuentealba Saldías, Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes, José Enrique Fuentes Torres, José Mario Friz Esparza, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, Claudio Orlando Orellana de la Pinta, Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar, Gustavo Galvarino Caruman Soto, Hiro Álvarez Vega, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Olegario Enrique González Moreno, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Rudeslindo Urrutia Jorquera, Alfredo Orlando Moya Tejeda, Carlos Alfonso Sáez Sanhueza, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Hernán Patricio Valenzuela Salas, Hugo Rubén Delgado Carrasco, Juan Alfredo Villanueva Alvear, Juan Evaristo Duarte Gallegos, Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Máximo Ramón Aliaga Soto, Manuel Rivas Díaz, Juan Ángel Urbina Cáceres, Risiere del Prado Altez España, Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte, Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca, and Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle.

As accomplices to the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Garay Hermosilla, the presiding judge sentenced the following to 4 years in prison: Luis Eduardo Mora Cerda, José Jaime Mora Diocares, Camilo Torres Negrier, Carlos Justo Bermúdez Méndez, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, Fernando Adrián Roa Montaña, Gerardo Meza Acuña, Héctor Raúl Valdebenito Araya, Jaime Humberto Paris Ramos, Jorge Laureano Sagardia Monje, José Dorohi Hormazábal Rodríguez, José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, José Stalin Muñoz Leal, Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, Luis René Torres Méndez, Manuel Antonio Montre Méndez; Moisés Paulino Campos Figueroa, Nelson Aquiles Ortiz Vignolo, Nelson Eduardo Iturriaga Cortés, Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, Reinaldo Alfonso Concha Orellana, Sergio Hernán Castro Andrade, Víctor Manuel de la Cruz San Martín Jiménez, Gustavo Humberto Apablaza Meneses, Héctor Carlos Díaz Cabezas, Jorge Antonio Lepileo Barrios, Óscar Belarmino la Flor Flores; Rufino Espinoza Espinoza, Héctor Manuel Lira Aravena, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, Sergio Iván Díaz Lara, Juan Miguel Troncoso Soto, and Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel.

Meanwhile, Rodolfo Valentino Cocha Rodríguez and Armando Segundo Cofre Correa were acquitted due to a lack of participation in the events.

Source: t13.cl, August 31, 2015

Among the accused, all retired, are eight colonels and 23 non-commissioned officers of the Army, 40 officers and non-commissioned officers of the Carabineros, two former FACH agents, one former Navy agent, and seven former agents of the Investigative Police.

The biggest blow to the repression of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship was dealt yesterday by Minister Víctor Montiglio, who indicted 98 former agents from different branches of the Armed Forces, Carabineros, and the Investigative Police for 42 victims of Operation Colombo.

This is the largest resolution issued among the nearly 400 cases of human rights violations currently being investigated in the country. It even surpassed the 67 former agents indicted by Judge Montiglio himself in 2007 for the crimes of the Brigada Lautaro and its Grupo Delfín at the Simón Bolívar barracks.

Among those indicted for Colombo are eight Army colonels (R), six of whom had not been indicted in any previous case. Also declared defendants were 23 Army non-commissioned officers (R), of whom at least 50 percent appear for the first time in such cases.

Among these non-commissioned officers is Juvenal Piña, alias "El Elefante," a former agent of the Brigada Lautaro, who was the one who suffocated the communist leader in hiding (1976) Víctor Díaz with a plastic bag over his head, prior to injecting him with cyanide.

Furthermore, the magistrate indicted 40 former officers and non-commissioned officers of the Carabineros, including Ricardo Lawrence, Heriberto Acevedo, Claudio Pacheco, and José Mora, all former members of the same Brigade. Among those indicted are also former agents who belonged to the Investigative Police. The only civilian (Army) is Juan Suárez.

Of the total list, at least thirteen are already serving sentences for other cases (see list).

As of the closing of this edition, the accused were still being detained to be interned in various locations, such as the Peñalolén Military Police Battalion.

Among the 42 victims for whom the minister issued his resolution are María Angélica Andreolli, Miguel Acuña Castillo, Juan Carlos Perelmann Ide, Juan Chacón Olivares, Jorge Müller Silva, Luis Guendelmann Wisniak, Mario Calderón Tapia, and Carmen Bueno Cifuentes.

Operation Colombo and the media

The list of 119 was published in the magazine Lea (Buenos Aires) and the newspaper O Dia (Brazil) in 1975, information that was also false. Both publications were created by DINA agents.

Operation Colombo was part of Operation Condor and consisted of a setup by the dictatorship to make the population believe that 119 detainees who were forcibly disappeared had clandestinely left for Argentina and died there in confrontations with police and Army forces during the phase prior to the 1976 military coup in Argentina.

Some of those names appeared as militants "assassinated" in Buenos Aires and its surroundings, with signs on their bodies stating they had been executed by their own comrades as a settling of scores for internal disputes. However, this also turned out to be a setup.

The list of 119 was published in the magazine Lea (Buenos Aires) and the newspaper O Dia (Brazil) in 1975, information that was also false. Both publications were created by DINA agents abroad and had only one edition.

In Chile, the pro-dictatorship press, such as the newspapers El Mercurio, La Tercera, Las Ultimas Noticias, and La Segunda, reproduced the intelligence services' setup. The headline of the evening paper that reported "Exterminated like rats: 59 Chilean MIR members fall in military operation in Argentina" remains in memory. They were part of the list of the 119 disappeared of Colombo.

The former fugitive Raúl Iturriaga, who was one of the heads of the DINA's foreign department, was the one who first shed light on this operation in Buenos Aires.

According to former civilian agent Enrique Arancibia Clavel, convicted in Buenos Aires for the crime of General Carlos Prat and his wife, it was Iturriaga who met with him at the beginning of 1975 to ask him to prepare what was necessary because "we have to make some dead people from Operation Colombo appear."

It was about preparing the appearance of the supposed bodies of Jaime Robotham and Luis Guendelmann as part of the setup.

List of indicted

Army (all retired)

Víctor Molina Astete (colonel); Sergio Castillo González (col); Eduardo Guerra Guajardo (col); Víctor San Martín Jiménez (col); José Fuentes Torres (col); Manuel Carevic Cubillos (col); Jaime Paris Ramos (col); César Manríquez Bravo (col); Raúl Toro Montes (non-commissioned officer); Eduardo Reyes Lagos (NCO); Orlando Torrejón Gatica (NCO); Osvaldo Tapia Alvarez (NCO; committed suicide); Juvenal Piña Garrido (NCO; "El Elefante"); Juan Suárez Delgado (civilian); Nelson Paz Bustamante (NCO); José Aravena Ruiz (NCO); Luis Torres Méndez (NCO); Raúl Soto Pérez (NCO); Jorge Andrade Gómez (NCO); Juan Escobar Valenzuela (NCO); Rolando Concha Rodríguez (NCO); Gustavo Apablaza Meneses (NCO); Hiro Alvarez Vega (NCO); Víctor Alvarez Droguett (NCO); Jorge Venegas Silva (NCO); Carlos Rinaldi Suazo (NCO); Carlos Letelier Verdugo (NCO); Reinaldo Concha Orellana (NCO); Máximo Aliaga Soto (NCO); Hugo Clavería Leiva (NCO); Samuel Fuenzalida Devia (NCO)

Investigative Police

Juan Urbina Cáceres; Hugo Hernández; Manuel Rivas Díaz; Herman Alfaro; Eugenio Fieldhouse; Osvaldo Castillo

Carabineros (officers and non-commissioned officers, all retired)

Gerardo Godoy García; Ciro Torres Sáez, Alejandro Molina Cisternas; Camilo Torres Negrier; Héctor Lira Aravena; José Fritz Esparza; Claudio Pacheco Fernández; Jorge Sagardia Monge; Sergio Castro Andrade; Luis Villarroel Gutiérrez; Armando Cofré Gómez; Fernando Roa Montaña; Gerardo Meza Acuña; Enrique Gutiérrez Rubilar; Luis Mora Cerda; José Muñoz Leal; Juan Duarte Gallegos; Carlos Miranda Meza; Rufino Jaime Astorga; Luis Urrutia Acuña; Luis Zúñiga Ovalle; Pedro Alfaro Hernández; Orlando Inostroza Lagos; Rosa Ramos Hernández; Gustavo Caruvan Soto; Héctor Valdebenito Araya; Manuel Avendaño González; José Mora Diocares; Guido Jara Brevis; Nelson Ortiz Vignolo; Ruderlindo Urrutia Jorquera; Héctor Flores Vergara; Jerónimo Neira Méndez; Manuel Montré Méndez; Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo; Claudio Orerllana de la Pinta; Nelson Iturriaga Cortés; Luis Gutiérrez Uribe; José Ojeda Obando

Air Force Delia Gajardo Cortés; Hernán Avalos Muñoz

Navy Teresa Navarro Osorio;

Indicted who are already serving sentences

Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda; Pedro Espinoza Bravo; Raúl Iturriaga Neumann; Marcelo Moren Brito; Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko; Ricardo Lawrence Mires; Basclay Zapata Reyes; Conrado Pacheco; Francisco Ferrer Lima; Gerardo Urrich; Orlando Manzo Durán; Rizier Altez España; Fernando Lauriani Maturana

Source: La Nación, May 27, 2008

Cruel repressors are among the more than 150 former agents indicted

Cruel repressors are among the more than 150 former DINA agents, all retired, who were indicted last Tuesday by Minister Víctor Montiglio in the Operation Colombo, Condor, and Calle Conferencia 1587 cases.

Among them is Army officer Gladys Calderón Carreño, who injected cyanide to kill detainees at the Simón Bolívar barracks in the La Reina commune, where the Brigada Lautaro operated.

Also appearing is Marine Infantry non-commissioned officer Sergio Escalona Acuña, who used pliers to extract gold dental pieces from the bodies of prisoners who were already dead.

He performed this operation before the bodies were bagged to be thrown into the sea.

In the same way, other indicted individuals are Carabineros non-commissioned officers Jorge Pichunmán Curiqueo and Claudio Pacheco Fernández, who were in charge at that clandestine barracks of disfiguring the faces of the detainees and burning their fingerprints using a blowtorch.

Among the 150 former agents indicted for the Colombo and Conferencia cases, there is a total of 21 officers. (See list).

To this, we must add the nearly 50 indicted for victims of Operation Condor, which could increase the total number of indicted to over 165, given that the majority of these nearly 50 names are repeated in the resolutions issued for Colombo and Conferencia.

The majority of the indicted belong to the Army, but there are also members of the Air Force, Navy, Carabineros, Investigative Police, and the Gendarmerie.

Today, Friday, the marathon operation to ensure all the indicted are arrested and admitted to the various places of preventive detention, according to the institution to which they belong, must conclude.

In the case of the Army, all must be detained at the Military Police Battalion on Avenida José Arrieta, in the Peñalolén commune.

List of officers (R)

1.- César Manríquez Bravo (Army colonel) 2.- Ciro Torré Sáez (Carabineros col.) 3.- Fernando Lauriani Maturana (Army brigadier) 4.- Gerardo Godoy García (Carabineros lt. col.) 5.- Gerardo Urrich González (Army col.) 6.- Jaime Paris Ramos (Army col.) 7.- José Fuentes Torres (Army col.) 8.- Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda (Army gen.) 9.- Manuel Carevic Cubillos (Army col.) 10.- Marcelo Moren Brito (Army col.) 11.- Miguel Krassnoff (Army brig.) 12.- Orlando Manzo Durán (Gendarmerie col.) 13.- Pedro Espinoza Bravo (Army brig.) 14.- Raúl Iturriaga Neumann (Army gen.) 15.- Ricardo Lawrence Mires (Carabineros col.) 16.- Sergio Castillo González (Army col.) 17.- Víctor Molina Astete (Army col.) 18.- Víctor San Martín Jiménez (Army col.) 19.- Gladys Calderón Carreño (Army capt.) 20.- Federico Chaigneau Sepúlveda (Army lt. col.) 21.- Juan Morales Salgado (Army col.)

Source: La Nación, September 4, 2009

Former DINA agents convicted for kidnapping during the dictatorship

The Santiago Court of Appeals issued a second-instance sentence against the former head of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), General (r) Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, and other former agents of the repressive organization, for the aggravated kidnapping of Mireya de Lourdes Pérez Vargas, which occurred starting February 24, 1976, in the Metropolitan Region.

In a unanimous ruling, the ministers of the Second Chamber of the appellate court, Emilio Elgueta, María Rosa Kittsteiner, and Patricia González (substitute), confirmed the ruling of Minister Alejandro Solís.

The harshest sentences are against Miguel Krassnoff Martcheko and Basclay Zapata, who must serve 15 years in prison for the crime of aggravated kidnapping.

Contreras, meanwhile, was sentenced to 3 years in prison without benefits, while Carlos López Tapia and José Fuentes Torres received the same sentence, with the benefit of conditional remission.

Mireya Pérez was a militant of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR). She was wounded in a confrontation, after which she was taken to Villa Grimaldi, where she was killed, according to the Rettig Report.

Source: La Nación, May 11, 2011

Court issues new sentences against DINA leadership for human rights case

The former head of the organization, General (r) Manuel Contreras, was sentenced to three years in prison for the kidnapping of MIR militant Mireya Pérez Vargas, which occurred in 1976.

SANTIAGO.- The Santiago Court of Appeals issued sentences against the leadership of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for the aggravated kidnapping of MIR militant Mireya de Lourdes Pérez Vargas, which occurred starting February 24, 1976, in the capital.

In a unanimous ruling, the Second Chamber of the appellate court—composed of Emilio Elgueta, María Rosa Kittsteiner, and Patricia González—confirmed the first-instance ruling issued by Minister Alejandro Solís in March 2010.

According to the resolution, the former head of the DINA, General (r) Manuel Contreras, was sentenced to three years of effective prison time for the crime of kidnapping.

However, the harshest sentences in this case were received by Miguel Krassnoff Martcheko and Basclay Zapata Reyes, who were sentenced to 15 years of effective prison time for the crime of aggravated kidnapping.

Meanwhile, Carlos López Tapia and José Fuentes Torres received three years in prison, but were granted the benefit of conditional remission.

According to the records, after being wounded during a confrontation on February 24, 1976, Mireya Pérez Vargas was taken to Villa Grimaldi.

Source: Emol.com, May 11, 2011

Miguel Angel Acuña Castillo: The disappearance of the 19-year-old in Londres 38

He was detained in July 1974 in the Macul commune. Numerous witnesses saw him at the torture and extermination center of Londres 38. He is one of the victims of "Operation Colombo." The justice system convicted 78 former DINA agents for this crime against humanity.

The minister of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Hernán Crisosto, issued a first-instance sentence for the kidnapping and disappearance of Miguel Angel Acuña Castillo.

The magistrate established that the young man, a militant of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), was detained in the vicinity of his home located at Pasaje Talca No. 2033 in the Macul commune by State agents belonging to the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), among them Osvaldo Romo Mena, alias "El Guatón Romo."

His sister, Rosa Acuña Castillo, declared that her father tried to climb into the back of the covered pickup truck as they were taking him away, but he was struck in the mouth by one of the subjects, falling to the ground.

A week after the kidnapping, Romo went to their home again and told them that her brother was in good condition along with Héctor Garay Hermosilla, who was also disappeared. Both were members of the Revolutionary Student Front (FER) at the Liceo 7 in Ñuñoa.

Judge Crisosto determined that the DINA agents "took him to the clandestine detention center known as 'Yucatán' or 'Londres 38'."

Acuña Castillo belonged to the secondary student structure of the MIR's Political-Military Group 3 (GPM3), an organization that grouped militants from the eastern part of the capital and was led by Agustín Reyes González, whose trail was lost forever in Londres 38.

There, he "remained without contact with the outside world, blindfolded and tied up, being continuously subjected to interrogations under torture by DINA agents" and, the last time he was seen alive, "occurred on an undetermined day in the month of July or August 1974, remaining disappeared to this day," the first-instance ruling states.

Laughing in Londres 38 with Héctor Garay Hermosilla

In the "Yucatán" barracks, he was seen by Erika Hennings, detained on July 30, 1974. "I can say that he was very young, I think they called him 'El Pampa'," she asserted in the process. She heard that the detainees were called to roll call twice a day.

On July 31, 1974, she heard the name of Miguel Angel Acuña Castillo, who answered "present." Later, she did not hear him called again. "They took them out of Londres 38 just like other detainees, among whom she remembers María Inés Alvarado," a 21-year-old forcibly disappeared person.

Hugo Chacaltana Silva, detained on May 4, 1974, a former student of the Liceo Manuel de Salas and member of the Revolutionary Student Front (FER), also saw him in Londres 38. He related that in the early hours of July 8 to 9, 1974, Miguel Angel Acuña arrived along with Héctor Garay, whom they called "Titín"; he was able to see them through a gap that formed between his nose and cheekbones under the blindfold.

Chacaltana pointed out that he met Castillo in 1971, when both were secondary students. Both coincided in meetings that were held at the time between members of the FER, the judicial ruling notes. He remembers "Miguel Ángel as a young man of great leadership capacity and great physical resistance."

He stopped seeing him on September 11, 1973. He met him again in Londres 38. He arrived along with Héctor Garay to the same room where he remained lying on the floor. "At that moment, I did not address Miguel Ángel," on the contrary, he pretended to be unaware of his presence. "The next day, when the mattresses on which we detainees lay were removed and replaced by chairs, I sat down and, to one side, I observed that they were still sitting.

It struck me that both were talking and laughing, which made me think that they were unaware of the magnitude of what awaited them. Miguel Ángel approached me in Londres 38, telling me 'I know you'."

His mother found out at the hair salon that her son was in Londres 38

León Gómez, detained on July 15, 1974, and taken to Londres 38, saw Miguel Angel along with Héctor Garay, whom he knew. Someone commented to him that "Pampino" was among the detainees, which he corroborated upon hearing him "with his typical jokes that he made to the guards, as if giving the impression that what was happening in the place was of no importance.

Even Titín and Pampino would drive the guards crazy. They were very irreverent."

David Cuevas Sharon, detained on May 4, 1974, also testified to having seen him. "Despite the fact that 'El Pampino' showed signs of mistreatment, he seemed to have a lot of presence of mind; he was very physically strong." He shared space with him for at least five days.

When Cuevas was released, Acuña Castillo remained a prisoner. His maternal grandmother had a hair salon in Ñuñoa, and one of her clients was Miguel Angel's mother. In a conversation, "she found out about the problem she had with a disappeared son.

Given this, my grandmother made her go to the hair salon where she met Pampino's mother and told her what she knew about him, specifically the place where he had been imprisoned with him."

Regarding the torments applied to the detainees in Londres 38, among them Miguel Angel, Minister Crisosto incorporated statements from Osvaldo Romo, who stated that among other tortures, the detainees were subjected to "the dry submarine, which was covering their breathing with a plastic bag placed on their heads; the detainees' eyes would look like 'fried eggs,' and blood would come out of their noses and eardrums.

After the interrogations and duress, the detainees would be exhausted."

Another former agent, Samuel Fuenzalida Devia, specified in this regard that "the general treatment of the prisoners was to keep them blindfolded, they were not allowed to wash, there were no beds for them to sleep, the food was scarce, and they were subjected to intense interrogations in which electricity was applied to them, especially on the genitals and breasts.

Another form of torture consisted of keeping the detainees sitting in chairs, tied by their hands and feet, while current was applied to them with magnets, although common electric current was also applied, which burned those people, a procedure in which many people died."

Eugenio Fieldhouse Chávez maintains that as an official of the Investigative Police, he was assigned to that repressive organization in mid-June 1974 and indicated that the same DINA agents who intervened in the detention and interrogation of the detainees, once the information sought was obtained, were in charge of making them disappear, upon the order of DINA's superiors.

The name of Miguel Ángel Acuña Castillo appeared among the 119 Chileans of Operation Colombo, on a list disseminated in the national press, after it appeared in publications that appeared only once in Brazil and Argentina, "in which it was reported that Miguel Ángel Acuña Castillo had died in Argentina, along with 58 other people belonging to the MIR, due to internal disputes."

The convictions

"The publications that declared the victim Acuña Castillo dead originated from disinformation maneuvers carried out by DINA agents abroad," determined Judge Crisosto, who convicted 78 former DINA agents for his disappearance.

The magistrate issued a sentence of 13 years of major imprisonment in its medium degree to Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda; César Manríquez Bravo; Pedro Espinoza; Marcelo Luis Moren Brito; Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko; and Raúl Iturriaga Neumann.

Likewise, he sentenced the following to 10 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree: Gerardo Ernesto Urrich González; Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García; Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires; Ciro Ernesto Torré Sáez; Sergio Hernán Castillo González; Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos; José Nelson Fuentealba Saldías; Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes; José Enrique Fuentes Torres; José Mario Friz Esparza; Julio José Hoyos Zegarra; Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante; Claudio Orlando Orellana de la Pinta; Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar; Gustavo Galvarino Caruman Soto; Hiro Álvarez Vega; José Alfonso Ojeda Obando; Luis Salvador Villarroel Gutiérrez; Olegario Enrique González Moreno; Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica; Rudeslindo Urrutia Jorquera; Alfredo Orlando Moya Tejeda; Carlos Alfonso Sáez Sanhueza; Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo; Hernán Patricio Valenzuela Salas; Hugo Rubén Delgado Carrasco; Juan Alfredo Villanueva Alvear; Juan Evaristo Duarte Gallegos; Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza; Leónides Emiliano Méndez Moreno; Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda; Rafael De Jesús Riveros Frost; Víctor Manuel Molina Astete; Manuel Rivas Díaz; Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle; Juan Ángel Urbina Cáceres; Risiere del Prado Altez España; Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca; and Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte.

As accomplices to the kidnapping and disappearance of the 19-year-old, he sentenced the following to 4 years of minor imprisonment in its maximum degree: Luis Eduardo Mora Cerda; José Jaime Mora Diocares; Camilo Torres Negrier; Carlos Justo Bermúdez Méndez; Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández; Fernando Adrián Roa Montaña; Gerardo Meza Acuña; Héctor Raúl Valdebenito Araya; Jaime Humberto Paris Ramos; Jorge Laureano Sagardia Monje; José Dorohi Hormazabal Rodríguez; José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo; José Stalin Muñoz Leal; Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido; Luis René Torres Méndez; Manuel Antonio Montre Méndez; Máximo Ramón Aliaga Soto; Moisés Paulino Campos Figueroa; Nelson Aquiles Ortiz Vignolo; Nelson Eduardo Iturriaga Cortes; Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo; Reinaldo Alfonso Concha Orellana; Sergio Hernán Castro Andrade; Víctor Manuel de la Cruz San Martin Jiménez; Gustavo Humberto Apablaza Meneses; Héctor Carlos Díaz Cabezas; Jorge Antonio Lepileo Barrios; Oscar Belarmino La Flor Flores; Rufino Espinoza Espinoza; Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel; Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett; Héctor Manuel Lira Aravena; and Sergio Iván Díaz Lara.

Regarding Víctor Manuel De la Cruz San Martín Jiménez, due to having fallen into dementia, the fulfillment of the sentence is suspended, and he must be handed over under custody bail to a family member when appropriate.

Source: Villa Grimaldi.cl, February 3, 2015

Supreme Court increases sentences for three former DINA agents for aggravated homicide in Estación Central

The Second Chamber of the Supreme Court sentenced Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko to 15 years and one day in prison as the perpetrator of the crime. Meanwhile, José Fuentes Torres and Teresa Osorio Navarro must serve 5 years and one day in prison as accomplices.

The Supreme Court accepted an appeal in cassation and increased the sentences of three agents of the dissolved Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) for their responsibility in the consummated crime of qualified homicide of Eulogio del Carmen Fritz Monsalvez. The crime was committed in February 1975 in the commune of Estación Central.

In the ruling (case file 10.662-2019), the Second Chamber of the high court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Leopoldo Llanos, Rodrigo Biel, and Miguel Vázquez—sentenced Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko to 15 years and one day in prison as the perpetrator of the crime.

Meanwhile, José Fuentes Torres and Teresa Osorio Navarro must serve 5 years and one day in prison as accomplices.

In the sentence, the Penal Chamber established an error of law in the resolution issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals, which had qualified the crime as simple homicide rather than qualified homicide.

"Furthermore, it is useful to keep in mind that in order to be in the presence of the qualifying circumstance of treachery (alevosía), what is relevant is that at the moment of committing the act, the perpetrator is at no risk to themselves, since the decisive factor is the exploitation or creation of a state of defenselessness in the victim.

That is to say, we must be in the presence of a state lacking any defense that has been generated or exploited by the accused in order to avoid any risk to their person, it not being sufficient that said advantageous situation was produced by mere chance," the ruling maintains.

The resolution adds: "From what has been stated above, it is manifest that in this case the requirements demanded to configure the qualifying circumstance of treachery, in its modality of acting on sure ground, are met, insofar as it was established that the accused acted by taking advantage of the helpless situation of the victim—who was on a public street to meet someone he trusted—prevailed upon by their greater numerical superiority and the power of the weapons they carried, with one of them firing a burst at the victim from behind at the moment he was attempting to flee, while the other agents provided cover for the first, thereby wounding a vital area of the victim's body, with the offended party being in no condition to react to defend himself or frustrate the action and, therefore, without any danger to the perpetrators."

"Consequently, the injuries caused to the victim, when he was attempting to flee, as a result of a burst of gunfire discharged against him from behind by Basclay Zapata Reyes [deceased], while Teresa del Carmen Osorio Navarro and José Enrique Fuentes Torres provided cover, necessarily imply the exploitation by the sentenced parties of the disadvantageous position in which the offended party found himself, which was created by the perpetrators in order to avoid any risk to their person; circumstances that were known and consented to by the agents, lead to the necessary conclusion that the acts attributed to the accused constitute the crime of qualified homicide—committed with treachery—and not the crime of simple homicide as the second-instance judges erroneously determined," the chamber concludes.

"Under the conditions described, it appears that the second-instance judges, by revoking the first-instance ruling that sentenced Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko as the perpetrator of the qualified homicide of Eulogio Fritz Monsalvez and Teresa del Carmen Osorio Navarro and José Enrique Fuentes Torres as accomplices to the same crime, establishing instead that said crime was rather a simple homicide, incurred an error of law that substantially influences the dispositive part of the sentence, since by not correctly qualifying the facts, it meant that the convicted parties were imposed a lesser sentence than that provided for by law, which is why the appeal in cassation filed by the Human Rights Program, the AFEP, and the plaintiffs in this section will be accepted," it concludes.

Burst from behind

In the first-instance sentence, Minister Mario Carroza established the following facts:

• 1°. That Eulogio del Carmen Fritz Monsalvez, known as "Duro Pablo" and also as "Víctor Hugo," was a militant of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR), and on that date, February 21, 1975, was 30 years old, having remained in hiding since September 11, 1973, as he was intensely sought by security agents, without this being an obstacle to the fulfillment of the obligations that the movement demanded of him and to which he had committed himself;
• 2°. That, on that occasion, he decided to leave his temporary residence in the commune of El Bosque and headed to the Estación Central sector in order to meet with another militant on Bascuñán street. However, agents of the DINA's Agrupación Caupolicán, particularly the "El Halcón" group, which was in charge of the repression of the MIR at that time, warned of the situation through information obtained under duress from another militant of the same movement, arrived at the meeting place accompanied by other militants, Claudio Alfredo Zaror Zaror and José Hernán Carrasco Vásquez, to verify his identity;
• 3°. That the victim, Eulogio Fritz Monsalvez, was at the meeting place when the agents arrived, and upon noticing their presence, he decided to flee and ran along the public street, for which he was followed by his captors, among them agent Basclay Zapata Reyes, who, armed with a long-range firearm, fired a burst at him from behind, with one of the bullets impacting his body and causing a thoraco-cardio-pulmonary wound with an exit wound, which is what finally caused his death due to acute anemia;
• 4°. That the aforementioned action by the security agents was witnessed by the detainees Zaror Zaror and Carrasco Vásquez, and in it participated, in addition to Basclay Zapata, the agents Teresa del Carmen Osorio Navarro and José Enrique Fuentes Torres, who were his companions in the vehicle driven by the perpetrator of the shooting;
• 5°. That given the way the events unfolded and the prior planning of his detention by the agents of the operational group led by the then-Army officer Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, it is estimated that the death of the victim could have been avoided, given the means and personnel deployed for the operation;
• 6°. That the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) was an organization in charge of political repression against opponents of the Military Government in 1975, which had its own means, financing, and an organized structure, directed by its National Director, Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda, currently deceased. In the Metropolitan Region, it relied for operational aspects on the Brigada de Inteligencia Metropolitana, which was in charge of an Army Officer, and acted with two groups, one of them being the so-called "Caupolicán," which was under the command of Marcelo Moren Brito, also deceased, and which had two groups of agents, "Halcón" and "Águila"; the former, which is the one that participated in these events, had two teams and was commanded by Lieutenant Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, with its members including the agent who shot the victim, Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes, and those who provided cover, Teresa del Carmen Osorio Navarro and José Enrique Fuentes Torres, known as "Cara de Santo."

In the civil aspect, the sentence that ordered the state to pay a total compensation of $200,000,000 (two hundred million pesos) for moral damages to the spouse and children of the victim was confirmed; plus the sum of $80,000,000 for the four siblings of Fritz Monsalvez, as ordered in the base ruling.

Source: poderjudicial.cl, March 25, 2022

Supreme Court increases sentences for former DINA agents for the 1975 crime of Eulogio Fritz in Santiago

The Supreme Court accepted the appeal in cassation presented by the plaintiffs and, in a replacement sentence, increased the sentences of three agents of the dissolved Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) for their responsibility in the consummated crime of qualified homicide of Eulogio del Carmen Fritz Monsalvez.

The crime was committed in February 1975 in the commune of Estación Central, Santiago, the city where the militant of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR) was in hiding, carrying out resistance activities against the dictatorship.

Eulogio Fritz Monsalvez, 30 years old, was a mining technician, originally from the commune of Coronel and a member of the Concepción Regional of the MIR, but after the coup, due to the repressive situations occurring in the Penquista region, he moved to the capital to continue his political work.

On February 21, 1975, Eulogio, known in the Penquista area and in the MIR as "Duro Pablo," went to a clandestine meeting with another militant he trusted who was also in hiding in Santiago. The meeting was arranged in the vicinity of the Central Railway Station in the central sector of the capital city.

However, he and other members of the clandestine organization who knew him had been detained by the DINA and contributed to the repressive entity preparing an ambush to eliminate "Duro Pablo."

In the judicial investigation, substantiated by Minister Mario Carroza, he established the sequence of events that ended with the murder of Eulogio Fritz and the subsequent disappearance of his mortal remains.

In a first-instance ruling issued in June 2017, Carroza sentenced former Army officer Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko and former non-commissioned officer Basclay Zapata Reyes to 7 years in prison; meanwhile, agents José Enrique Fuentes Torres and Teresa del Carmen Osorio Navarro were sentenced to 4 years with the benefit of supervised release.

Later, in March 2019, the Fifth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals ratified this sentence with the exception that it increased Krassnoff's sentence to 10 years in prison, maintaining the resolution regarding Fuentes Torres and Teresa Osorio. Meanwhile, by then, Basclay Zapata had already died in prison while serving sentences for countless other crimes against humanity.

On this occasion, the Supreme Court, in a ruling issued this March 24 (case file 10.662-2019), the Second Chamber of the high court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Leopoldo Llanos, Rodrigo Biel, and Miguel Vázquez—accepted the appeal in cassation presented by the plaintiffs challenging the ruling of the Court of Appeals and, in a replacement sentence, sentenced Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko to 15 years and one day in prison as the perpetrator of the crime.

Meanwhile, José Enrique Fuentes Torres and Teresa Osorio Navarro must serve 5 years and one day in prison as accomplices to this crime. All those convicted must serve effective prison time, without benefits.

In the sentence, the Second Penal Chamber established an error of law in the resolution issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals, by qualifying the crime as simple homicide and not as qualified homicide.

In this regard, the ruling points out: "Furthermore, it is useful to keep in mind that in order to be in the presence of the qualifying circumstance of treachery, what is relevant is that at the moment of committing the act, the perpetrator is at no risk to themselves, since the decisive factor is the exploitation or creation of a state of defenselessness in the victim.

That is to say, we must be in the presence of a state lacking any defense that has been generated or exploited by the accused in order to avoid any risk to their person, it not being sufficient that said advantageous situation was produced by mere chance," the ruling maintains.

The resolution adds: "From what has been stated above, it is manifest that in this case the requirements demanded to configure the qualifying circumstance of treachery, in its modality of acting on sure ground, are met, insofar as it was established that the accused acted by taking advantage of the helpless situation of the victim—who was on a public street to meet someone he trusted—prevailed upon by their greater numerical superiority and the power of the weapons they carried, with one of them firing a burst at the victim from behind at the moment he was attempting to flee, while the other agents provided cover for the first, thereby wounding a vital area of the victim's body, with the offended party being in no condition to react to defend himself or frustrate the action and, therefore, without any danger to the perpetrators."

"Consequently, the injuries caused to the victim, when he was attempting to flee, as a result of a burst of gunfire discharged against him from behind by Basclay Zapata Reyes [deceased], while Teresa del Carmen Osorio Navarro and José Enrique Fuentes Torres provided cover, necessarily imply the exploitation by the sentenced parties of the disadvantageous position in which the offended party found himself, which was created by the perpetrators in order to avoid any risk to their person; circumstances that were known and consented to by the agents, lead to the necessary conclusion that the acts attributed to the accused constitute the crime of qualified homicide—committed with treachery—and not the crime of simple homicide as the second-instance judges erroneously determined," the chamber concludes.

"Under the conditions described, it appears that the second-instance judges, by revoking the first-instance ruling that sentenced Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko as the perpetrator of the qualified homicide of Eulogio Fritz Monsalvez and Teresa del Carmen Osorio Navarro and José Enrique Fuentes Torres as accomplices to the same crime, establishing instead that said crime was rather a simple homicide, incurred an error of law that substantially influences the dispositive part of the sentence, since by not correctly qualifying the facts, it meant that the convicted parties were imposed a lesser sentence than that provided for by law, which is why the appeal in cassation filed by the Human Rights Program, the AFEP, and the plaintiffs in this section will be accepted," it concludes.

Executed from behind

In the first-instance sentence, Minister Mario Carroza established the following facts:

• 1°. That Eulogio del Carmen Fritz Monsalvez, known as "Duro Pablo" and also as "Víctor Hugo," was a militant of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR), and on that date, February 21, 1975, was 30 years old, having remained in hiding since September 11, 1973, as he was intensely sought by security agents, without this being an obstacle to the fulfillment of the obligations that the movement demanded of him and to which he had committed himself;
• 2°. That, thus, on that occasion he decided to leave his temporary residence in the commune of El Bosque and headed to the Estación Central sector in order to meet with another militant on Bascuñán street. However, agents of the DINA's Agrupación Caupolicán, particularly the "Halcón" group, which was in charge of the repression of the MIR at that time, warned of the situation through information obtained under duress from another militant of the same movement, arrived at the meeting place accompanied by other militants, Claudio Alfredo Zaror Zaror and José Hernán Carrasco Vásquez, to verify his identity;
• 3°. That the victim, Eulogio Fritz Monsalvez, was at the meeting place when the agents arrived, and upon noticing their presence, he decided to flee and ran along the public street, for which he was followed by his captors, among them agent Basclay Zapata Reyes, who, armed with a long-range firearm, fired a burst at him from behind, with one of the bullets impacting his body and causing a thoraco-cardio-pulmonary wound with an exit wound, which is what finally caused his death due to acute anemia;
• 4°. That the aforementioned action by the security agents was witnessed by the detainee Zaror Zaror and by Carrasco Vásquez, and in it participated, in addition to Basclay Zapata, the agents Teresa del Carmen Osorio Navarro and José Enrique Fuentes Torres, who were his companions in the vehicle driven by the perpetrator of the shooting;
• 5°. That given the way the events unfolded and the prior planning of his detention by the agents of the operational group led by the then-Army officer Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, it is estimated that the death of the victim could have been avoided, given the means and personnel deployed for the operation;
• 6°. That the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) was an organization in charge of political repression against opponents of the Military Government in 1975, which had its own means, financing, and an organized structure, directed by its National Director, Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda, currently deceased. In the Metropolitan Region, it relied for operational aspects on the Brigada de Inteligencia Metropolitana, which was in charge of an Army Officer, and acted with two groups, one of them being the so-called "Caupolicán," which was under the command of Marcelo Moren Brito, also deceased, and which had two groups of agents, "Halcón" and "Águila"; the former, which is the one that participated in these events, had two teams and was commanded by Lieutenant Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, with its members including the agent who shot the victim, Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes, and those who provided cover, Teresa del Carmen Osorio Navarro and José Enrique Fuentes Torres, known as "Cara de Santo."

Source: resumen.cl, March 26, 2022

Supreme Court sends 59 former DINA agents to prison for Operation Colombo

Operation Colombo was a major intelligence operation and a media setup by the DINA that attempted to make 119 people kidnapped in Chile appear as having been killed abroad.

The Second Penal Chamber of the Supreme Court revoked a sentence that had acquitted more than 60 former agents of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) and convicted them as responsible for the disappearance of 16 left-wing militants, mostly from the MIR, in the process known as Operation Colombo, which in this case was perpetrated between June 17, 1974, and January 6, 1975, during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

The ruling was issued by ministers Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, María Teresa Letelier, and Diego Simpertigue, who revoked the sentence issued by the Court of Appeals and sentenced former DINA chiefs and officers César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff, and Raúl Iturriaga Neumann to 15 years and one day in prison as perpetrators of the crimes of qualified kidnapping of the victims.

Similarly, the court sentenced 53 former agents to an effective prison term of 10 years and one day, as perpetrators of the same crime, who had previously been acquitted by the capital's appellate court, despite having been convicted in the first instance as accomplices and perpetrators.

Furthermore, this time all must enter prison, with some of them already in prison for other crimes against humanity.

These are former DINA agents Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Manuel Andrés Carevic, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, Jose Abel Aravena Ruiz, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, Nelson Aquiles Ortiz Vignolo, Rudeslindo Urrutia Jorquera, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Manuel Heriberto Avendaño Gonzalez, Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte, Alejandro Francisco Astudillo Adonis, Daniel Alberto Galaz Orellana, Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, Leoncio Enrique Velásquez Guala, José Enrique Fuentes Torres, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, Luis René Torres Méndez, Rodolfo Valentino Concha Rodríguez, Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar, Hugo Del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Manuel Rivas Diaz, Daniel Valentín Cancino Varas, Juan Evangelista Duarte Gallegos, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Jorge Antonio Lepileo Barrios, Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza, Pedro Ariel Aravena Aravena, Carlos Alfonso Sáez Sanhueza, Juan Carlos Villanueva Alvear, Alfredo Orlando Moya Tejeda, Rafael De Jesús Riveros Frost, Silvio Antonio Concha González, Luis Fernando Espinace Contreras, Hernán Patricio Valenzuela Salas, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, Sylvia Teresa Oyarce Pinto, Osvaldo Pulgar Gallardo, José Avelino Yévenes Vergara, Olegario Enrique González Moreno, Werner Zanghellini, and Hector Flores Vergara.

Jaime Alfonso Fernández Garrido received a sentence of 5 years and one day in prison as a perpetrator of the crime of qualified kidnapping of Ida Vera Almarza. Meanwhile, Samuel Fuenzalida Devia was sentenced to 541 days for the same crime, but will not serve time in prison.

This is an extensive process that had its first first-instance sentence in 2017 at the hands of Minister Hernán Crisosto Greisse. In the course of the investigation, some agents have died, such as Basclay Zapata, Ciro Torré, Manzo Duran, Ricardo Lawrence, among others.

For Nelson Caucoto, a plaintiff lawyer representing 13 of the 16 victims, this is "a transcendent ruling in Chilean judicial history, since the Supreme Court has restored the sense of justice for crimes of this nature, which had been left literally in a situation of unacceptable impunity.

The high court has once again rejected the partial statute of limitations and the appeals of the defense of the convicted, and has accepted the appeals of the plaintiffs," he noted.

Caucoto adds that "it is a modern ruling based on international law and domestic legislation. It is undeniable that justice operates in this case as a healing for so many relatives of victims who still survive, and it is a pity that others did not live to see this end."

Operation Colombo was a major intelligence operation and a media setup by the DINA, which attempted to make 119 people kidnapped in Chile by the DINA appear as having been killed abroad, claiming they had perished after fighting among themselves.

This process investigated the fate of 16 of those 119 victims. They are Francisco Aedo Carrasco, Jorge Elías Andrónicos Antequera, Juan Carlos Andrónicos Antequera, Jaime Buzio Lorca, Mario Calderón Tapia, Cecilia Castro Salvadores, Rodolfo Espejo Gómez, Agustín Fioraso Chau, Gregorio Gaete Farías, Mauricio Jorquera Encina, Isidro Pizarro Meniconi, Marcos Quiñones Lembach, Sergio Reyes Navarrete, Ida Vera Almarza, Juan Carlos Rodríguez Araya, and Jilberto Urbina Pizarro.

Source: radio.uchile.cl, March 3, 2023

Operation Colombo: Supreme Court issues sentences against 32 DINA agents in cases of two victims

The Supreme Court issued separate replacement sentences convicting 32 former agents of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) for their responsibility in the qualified kidnapping of two victims of the so-called Operation Colombo.

In separate cases and rulings, the high court issued a resolution on the cases of Ismael Darío Chávez Lobos, detained on July 26, 1974, and Jorge Alejandro Olivares Graindorge, detained on July 27, 1974, both in the commune of Quinta Normal, in Santiago.

In the first case, referring to the case of Ismael Chávez Lobos, in a unanimous ruling (case file 79.461-2020), the Second Chamber of the high court—composed of ministers Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, minister María Teresa Letelier, and acting lawyers Pía Tavolari and Gonzalo Ruz—established an error of law in the sentence issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals in June 2020, by acquitting the agents who performed operational functions and served as guards at the Londres 38 facility of responsibility for the proven facts.

For this reason, in the replacement sentence, it qualifies them as guilty and convicts them for the crime, while increasing the sentences of the other convicted parties.

At the same time, it accepted the appeals in cassation on the merits filed by the plaintiffs and, issuing a replacement sentence, sentenced former DINA leaders and former Army officers César Raúl Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann to 10 years and one day in prison, as perpetrators of the crime.

Meanwhile, also sentenced as perpetrators of the crime to 10 years in prison were former Carabineros officer Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García and Army officer Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, and former agent José Enrique Fuentes Torres.

Meanwhile, former agents Juan Evaristo Duarte Gallegos, Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Manuel de la Cruz Rivas Díaz, Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte, Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca, Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Rudeslindo Urrutia Jorquera, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar, Hiro Álvarez Vega, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Olegario Enrique González Moreno, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Alfredo Orlando Moya Tejeda, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Hernán Patricio Valenzuela Salas, Juan Alfredo Villanueva Alvear, Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, Carlos Alfonso Sáez Sanhueza, Máximo Ramón Aliaga Soto, and José Avelino Yévenes Vergara must serve 5 years and one day in prison as perpetrators of the crime.

In the second case, referring to Jorge Olivares Graindorge, in a unanimous ruling (case file 122.171.2020), the Second Chamber, composed of the same ministers as the previous case, established an error of law in the sentence issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals in July 2020, by mistakenly acquitting agents who performed operational functions and served as guards at the Londres 38 facility.

For which reason, in the replacement sentence, it qualifies and convicts them as guilty of the crime.

Likewise, it increases the sentences of the other convicted parties and sentenced former DINA leaders and former Army officers César Raúl Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann to 10 years and one day in prison, as perpetrators of the crime.

Meanwhile, also sentenced as perpetrators of the crime to 10 years in prison were former officers Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García and Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, and former agent José Enrique Fuentes Torres.

Similarly, for this crime, former agents Juan Evaristo Duarte Gallegos, Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Manuel de la Cruz Rivas Díaz, Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte, Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca, Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Rudeslindo Urrutia Jorquera, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar, Hiro Álvarez Vega, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Olegario Enrique González Moreno, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Alfredo Orlando Moya Tejeda, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Hernán Patricio Valenzuela Salas, Juan Alfredo Villanueva Alvear, Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, Carlos Alfonso Sáez Sanhueza, Máximo Ramón Aliaga Soto, and Osvaldo Enrique Pulgar Gallardo must serve 5 years and one day in prison as perpetrators of the crime.

In both cases, twelve other agents convicted in the first instance died during the course of the process, among them former officers Gerardo Urrich González, Ricardo Lawrence Mires, Ciro Torré Sáez, and Sergio Castillo González, and agents Basclay Zapata Reyes, Risiere del Altez España, Juan Ángel Urbina Cáceres, José Nelson Fuentealba Saldías, Hugo Rubén Delgado Carrasco, José Mario Friz Esparza, Claudio Orlando Orellana de la Pinta, and Gustavo Galvarino Carumán Soto, remaining acquitted of these crimes.

The victims

Ismael Darío Chávez Lobos, 22 years old, was a Social Sciences student at the Universidad de Chile and a militant of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR). He was detained during the night of July 26, 1974, at his home located at Calle Los Copihues N° 1977 in the commune of Quinta Normal, by agents belonging to the DINA, who transferred him to the clandestine detention center "Londres 38," located at that address in the city of Santiago.

Jorge Alejandro Olivares Graindorge, 23 years old, a gardener by trade, also a militant of the MIR, was detained by DINA agents on the public street during the afternoon of July 27, 1974, in the vicinity of his home located at Pasaje Salta 2258, in the commune of Quinta Normal. He was also transferred by the agents to the clandestine detention center "Londres 38."

From this place of detention and torture, the trail of both detainees is lost. Subsequently, in July 1975, they appeared mentioned in the lists of the international disinformation maneuver known as "Operation Colombo," carried out by the DINA, which included 119 forcibly disappeared persons.

by Darío Nuñez

Source: resumen.cl, December 4, 2023