The extraordinary visiting minister of the Court of Appeals, Alejandro Madrid, convicted five retired members of the Army for their responsibility in two completed homicides and five attempted homicides that occurred in December 1981 at the former Public Jail (Ex Cárcel Pública).

Eduardo Arriagada and Sergio Rosende were sentenced to twenty years in prison for the homicides of Víctor Hugo Corvalán and Héctor Walter Pacheco, and for the attempted homicides of Guillermo Rodríguez Morales, Ricardo Antonio Aguilera, Elizardo Enrique Aguilera, and Adalberto Muñoz.

Meanwhile, officers Joaquín Larraín, Jaime Fuenzalida, and Ronald Bennet must serve ten years and one day in prison as accomplices to these acts. The case is known for the chemical elements brought from abroad and used by a secret laboratory under the charge of the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE) against political prisoners who were militants of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR).

This substance caused them "botulinum intoxication," resulting in the deaths of two common prisoners who were exposed to the poisoning by regularly sharing food with the political prisoners. The lawyer representing Guillermo Rodríguez, Cristóbal Díaz, expressed satisfaction with the measure, which, in his view, sets a precedent for the victims and for historical truth.

Following the announcement of this sentence, the defense for those convicted may appeal the ruling or file a cassation appeal to revoke the measure, which also determines the payment of compensation to the victims.

Likewise, the State must pay a total of nine hundred and fifty million pesos under these terms. However, the lawyer said he hopes that "the sentence is confirmed because the civilian culprits who supported the intelligence operation developed by the Dictatorship were also punished.

That is to say, this link that existed between civil society and the Armed Forces for the physical elimination of the regime's opponents is ratified," he noted. The professional, also a member of the Committee for the Defense of the People, highlighted the proceedings that were carried out in this case. "An investigation that is not only testimonial but also scientific.

The minister ordered the summoning of intelligence agents, Gendarmerie officials, and Army personnel; he sought technical advice on the use of the chemical, and forensic examinations of this substance were carried out abroad," he explained.

Furthermore, he added that "it is the State of Chile that must provide reparations to the victims, in accordance with international human rights treaties, because through its agents, the life plans of these people were damaged, and they now suffer from irreparable health damage such as respiratory, stomach, and neurological problems, among others." "Acute gastritis" In the month of December 1981, the following individuals were held in Gallery No. 2 of the former Public Jail of Santiago: Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) militant Guillermo Rodríguez Morales, and sympathizers of said political group Adalberto Muñoz Jara, Ricardo Antonio Aguilera Morales, and Elizardo Enrique Aguilera Morales. They shared food brought by their families in the so-called "carreta" (communal area) with prisoners charged with common crimes, Víctor Hugo Corvalán Castillo and Héctor Walter Pacheco Díaz. On December 7, 1981, the six people began to experience serious health problems. At around 15:30, they were admitted to the infirmary, where they were not treated, with the argument that they were suffering from "acute gastritis," and they were returned to their cells. However, the inmates' families requested, through allegations made via the Vicariate of Solidarity, the presence of a private doctor, which was denied by the Warden, who informed the prosecutor of the First Military Prosecutor's Office that none of the inmates required medical attention, as their state of health was not serious. Despite this, and attending to the severity of their condition, the transfer of all the poisoned individuals to the Hospital of the Santiago Social Readaptation Center (CERESO) was ordered. On December 10, the competent Court was informed that Víctor Hugo Corvalán Castillo had died during the transfer and that the doctor in charge stated the diagnosis was "Botulinum Intoxication," with the patients being transferred to the Intensive Care unit of the Santiago Public Assistance center. On December 20, 1981, the death of Héctor Walter Pacheco Díaz at the Posta Central was reported. "The substance that caused the poisoning of the aforementioned inmates was obtained by the Bacteriological Institute, having been requested by the director from the corresponding laboratory in Brazil, then sent via diplomatic pouch to Chile, received at the Foreign Ministry, and subsequently received in a secret Army laboratory located at Calle Carmen No. 339, which depended on the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE), and was introduced into the former Public Jail of Santiago, located on Calle General Mackenna, in this city," the case sentence reads. It adds: "The facts described above allow for the legal establishment that, with the purpose of proceeding to the physical and imperceptible elimination of opponents of the military regime, a 'special intelligence operation' was carried out that ended with the deaths of inmates Víctor Hugo Corvalán Castillo and Héctor Walter Pacheco Díaz, who were being tried for common crimes and were held in Gallery No. 2 of the former Public Jail, resulting in their deaths from the ingestion of food contaminated with the so-called 'botulinum toxin,' which was brought into the country by the public service in charge of overseeing the health of the population and, previously, delivered to those in charge of a secret laboratory under the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE)." The other poisoned individuals and original targets of the poisoning, Guillermo Rodríguez Morales, Ricardo Aguilera Morales, Elizardo Aguilera Morales, Adalberto Muñoz Jara, and Rafael Enrique Garrido Ceballos, suffered serious injuries caused by the ingestion of the contaminated food, managing to survive—despite the delay in aid—due to the timely and accurate diagnosis of the cause of the poisoning, the treatments provided to them, and the application of the respective antitoxin.

Source: radio.uchile.cl, February 20, 2017

Military (ret.) convicted for homicides with chemical weapons during the dictatorship

In December 1981, seven inmates were poisoned in a gallery of the Public Jail of Santiago. Two died and the remaining five were left with lasting effects. After more than ten years of investigation, the visiting minister of the Court of Appeals, Alejandro Madrid, was able to determine that the victims were poisoned with botulinum toxin by State agents.

In its edition this Tuesday, February 21, El Mercurio reported that Judge Madrid issued a conviction against five former members of the Army for these acts: the doctor Eduardo Arriagada Rehren, the veterinarian Sergio Rosende Ollarzú, the colonel (ret.) Joaquín Larraín Gana, the lieutenant colonel (ret.) Jaime Fuenzalida Bravo, and the former warden of the public jail, Ronald Bennett Ramírez.

The first two were sentenced to 20 years in prison as perpetrators, and the others to 10 years in prison as accomplices. The information was supplemented by Radio Biobio, which indicated that a "bacteriological substance" (botulinum toxin) was brought into Chile from Brazil to then be placed in the food of the seven people who were poisoned.

Of them, five were militants or sympathizers of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) (Guillermo Rodríguez, Adalberto Muñoz, Rafael Garrido, and brothers Ricardo and Elizardo Aguilera), and two were common prisoners, Víctor Hugo Corvalán and Héctor Pacheco Díaz.

The latter shared a gallery with the MIR members and were murdered by the actions of State agents. After the poisoning, those affected did not receive adequate care, as after being transferred to a medical facility, they were told they were suffering from "acute gastritis," which aggravated the consequences.

The ruling noted that after the toxin entered the country through a diplomatic pouch, it was received by a clandestine laboratory of the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE), which was located at Calle Carmen No. 339, in downtown Santiago.

A note published by El Desconcierto cites statements made in 2012 by the former director of the Public Health Institute (ISP), Ingrid Heitmann, who recounted how in 2008, by chance, boxes containing chemical weapons were discovered in the basement of the facility: "They were two boxes full of ampoules (...) One could kill many, but I don't know how many (...) There was a large amount of material, including botulinum toxins," the professional noted.

This inquiry by Minister Alejandro Madrid was part of a larger investigation seeking to clarify the causes of the death of former president Eduardo Frei Montalva (see the CIPER report "The traces left by the assassination of Eduardo Frei Montalva").

The history of chemical weapons manufactured and used by the military dictatorship—such as sarin gas and botulinum toxin—was widely documented by an investigative report published by CIPER in August 2013 (see that report).

Guillermo Rodríguez, one of those affected by the actions of the dictatorship's agents, published on his Facebook profile: "There are still legal instances to which the sentenced can turn, among them doctors, veterinarians, and the prison warden.

I want to tell you that it is a small triumph of a long, years-long effort carried out by lawyers, the investigation by Judge Madrid, and many comrades who came forward to testify in this case. The civil lawsuits for damages for all of us who filed complaints were accepted." Judge Madrid's ruling ordered the State to compensate the victims' families with a sum of $950 million.

Source: ciperchile.cl, February 22, 2017

The dictatorship poisoned political prisoners (EXCERPT)

During the dictatorship, numerous methods of physical annihilation and psychological destruction of opponents were employed, among them poisoning with chemical weapons, which are prohibited by the UN. Eugenio Berríos, a DINA chemist, knew that mechanism for killing, but he was murdered by the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE) in Uruguay.

His body appeared in April 1995. DINA agent Michael Townley also knows too much and lives in the United States, a country that has not granted extradition for the crimes in which he participated. Now another link has been revealed.

The minister of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Alejandro Madrid, sentenced military officers Eduardo Arriagada Rehren and Sergio Rosende Ollarzú to 20 years in prison as perpetrators of the qualified homicide of common prisoners Víctor Hugo Corvalán Castillo and Héctor Walter Pacheco Díaz, and in the frustrated degree for former political prisoners Guillermo Rodríguez Morales, Ricardo Aguilera Morales, Elizardo Aguilera Morales, Adalberto Muñoz Jara, and Rafael Garrido Ceballos.

Additionally, Joaquín Larraín Gana, Jaime Fuenzalida Bravo, and Ronald Bennett Ramírez must serve 10 years and one day in prison if Minister Madrid's ruling is ratified. Everything began on December 7, 1981, in Gallery No. 2 of the former Public Jail.

Eight prisoners presented symptoms of a gastrointestinal illness. The sanitary conditions in that prison were deplorable. "Sewage water dripped from the upper gallery," Ricardo Aguilera recalled to Punto Final.

Elizardo Aguilera was the first to suffer from vomiting and diarrhea. They continued the following day. Then he lost his speech, had double vision, and paralysis of the body. Despite the severity, "they were not attended to in the prison infirmary, nor in the cell itself," noted Judge Madrid in his ruling.

The person responsible for the Public Jail was Colonel Ronald Bennett. Elizardo Aguilera's health worsened, and the ordeal of his other companions began. On December 9, seven of them were taken to the prison infirmary.

THEY INJECTED THE BACTERIA INTO THE TOMATOES

The Aguilera brothers had arrived a few days earlier, in preventive detention. "I still had my knee joints shattered, the product of being hung at the PDI's Investigative Brigade for Assaults," Ricardo pointed out.

In the cell, they met Guillermo Rodríguez, sentenced to life imprisonment by a War Council. At 19:03 on December 9, they were transferred to the former Penitentiary hospital. It was reported that common prisoner Víctor Hugo Corvalán Castillo died on the way.

However, Ricardo felt the dull thud of his body falling from the stretcher at the former Public Jail infirmary. He did not hear his groans or movements again, and "minutes later we were transferred." Common prisoner Héctor Walter Pacheco Díaz died on December 10.

The next day, a doctor from the International Red Cross arrived. In the prison hospital, they did not understand the clinical picture of the poisoned men. The Gendarmerie said "that we had ingested 'green bird'(*).

The Red Cross professional said immediately that it was most likely botulism," added Ricardo. Elizardo suffered respiratory arrest. They resuscitated him and sent him to the Posta Central. Guillermo Rodríguez, due to his severity, was sent on December 10 to the San Juan de Dios Hospital.

He required mechanical ventilation and developed acute pneumopathy. He was transferred to the Clinical Hospital of the Catholic University. A corneal ulcer appeared in his right eye. In April 1982, his vocal cords became paralyzed.

Adalberto Muñoz Jara remembers that they received supplies in jail. "Guillermo prepared lunch, which consisted of meat, potatoes, tomatoes, and canned papayas. He remembers that there was leftover tomato salad and they shared it with the four common prisoners who were in the adjacent cell." Muñoz did not feel bad on the same day as his companions, but on the next.

It coincided with the day of visits. He was the only one who could receive them. He told his wife what was happening and asked her to notify the Vicariate of Solidarity. "Someone must have injected something into the tomatoes, since that was the only food that was shared with the common prisoners," he asserted.

The Gendarmerie checked all the food that entered the prison. "It was their responsibility the delay in medical attention," Muñoz stated to the court.

THE TOXIN REACHED THE FOREIGN MINISTRY

Days earlier, a Gendarmerie official, Juan Segura, in charge of Gallery 2 of the Public Jail, advised Muñoz not to continue sharing with the other prisoners in the cell. "Muñoz, change your carreta, don't eat anything with them because you are not a political prisoner," and he told me to eat alone.

When he returned to Gallery 2, he realized that official Segura was no longer there. Despite the pact of silence, Judge Madrid managed to unravel how chemical weapons were produced. The process began with a complaint filed by the Aguilera brothers, to which the other victims and their families adhered.

They stated that they were "chosen as guinea pigs to test the effectiveness of a toxic agent used as a chemical weapon." In the investigation into the murder of DINA chemist Eugenio Berrios, a detective went to the Public Health Institute (ISP) and interviewed numerous officials, "among whom was the pharmaceutical chemist Marcos Poduje Frugone, who worked in the lyophilization department," the ruling notes.

Poduje revealed that colonels Joaquín Larraín Gana, then director of the Public Health Institute (ISP), and Jaime Fuenzalida Bravo, director and head of security, collaborated with DINA and CNI "to manufacture chemical weapons in the complex that the army had in Talagante," the ruling stated. "In 1981, between July 22 and August 7, Commander Fuenzalida telephoned him to go pick up an order at the Foreign Ministry, which at the time was in La Moneda.

He was made to sign a document and was given a small package (...) Upon arriving at the Bacteriological Institute (current ISP), he opened it and extracted a tube with the legend clostridium botulinum." He kept it in a refrigerator because it was a very dangerous bacterium, he declared.

The following Monday, he took the tube to the office of the Department head, Hernán Lobos, believing that he had requested it. However, Lobos was unaware of the fact, so he asked Colonel Joaquín Larraín. "The colonel kept the toxin and he never knew what happened to it," Poduje pointed out.

Months later, Poduje put the picture together: he related it "by reading the press, with the poisoning of some MIR militants," Poduje expressed.

SECRET LABORATORY

Meanwhile, Colonel Larraín confessed to the PDI that he delivered the clostridium botulinum toxin at Arriagada's request. He added that since the strains did not exist at the ISP, they were requested "from Brazil from one of the three institutes that were in the city of Sao Paulo, apparently, one named Butantan (...) Such strains cannot be ordered privately; it is necessary to do so through an organization like the Bacteriological Institute," he detailed.

Poduje explained that an old lyophilizer was refurbished by Larraín's order. "They fixed it and then took it to the Carabineros Vicariate, a church located on Calle San Isidro, and left the apparatus behind the altar." (EXCERPT)

Source: resumen.cl, April 29, 2017

Santiago Court of Appeals convicted four retired Army members and one former Gendarmerie official for their responsibility in two crimes

The Santiago Court of Appeals convicted four retired members of the Army and one former Gendarmerie official for their responsibility in two completed crimes of homicide and five attempted homicides of prisoners from the former Public Jail, who were poisoned, "in a special intelligence operation," with botulinum toxin in December 1981.

In the sentence, the Eleventh Chamber of the appellate court—composed of ministers Juan Manuel Muñoz Pardo, Jorge Zepeda, and Fernando Carreño—confirmed the challenged sentence, with the declaration that retired Army members Eduardo Adolfo Arriagada Rheren, Sergio Rosende Ollarzú, Joaquín Larraín Gana, and Jaime Fuenzalida Bravo are sentenced to 15 years and one day in prison as perpetrators of the qualified and completed homicides of Víctor Hugo Corvalán Castillo and Héctor Walter Pacheco Díaz; and of the frustrated qualified homicides of Guillermo Rodríguez Morales, Ricardo Antonio Aguilera Morales, Elizardo Enrique Aguilera Morales, Adalberto Muñoz Jara, and Rafael Enrique Garrido Ceballos. Meanwhile, the then-warden of the penal facility, Ronald Bennett Ramírez, must serve 10 years and one day in prison as an accomplice to the illicit acts. "That, consequently, the conduct attributed to the accused falls within the so-called crimes against humanity, and therefore, are imprescriptible and non-amnestiable in accordance with International Human Rights Criminal Law, and this classification is not altered by the fact that two of the victims did not belong to the MIR, since the actions of the accused were part of a State policy practiced by its agents, of a systematic and generalized nature against part of the civilian population, which is inherently inhumane in its nature and character, and which caused serious detriment to the victims, two of whom died and five others were saved as a result of the adoption of timely therapeutic measures," the ruling maintains. The resolution adds that on this particular matter, our Supreme Court, in ruling roll 13.097-18, issued on July 27, 2020, resolved that 'by application of the norms of International Law and given that both the half-prescription and the cause for the extinction of criminal responsibility are based on the passage of time as a justifying element for their application, the impropriety of applying total prescription necessarily reaches partial prescription, since no reason is seen to recognize the elapsed time as having the effect of reducing the sanction, given that both institutions are based on the same element that is rejected by the international criminal order of Human Rights, so that neither of such institutes is appropriate in illicit acts like the one in question.' That—it continues—likewise, Professor Humberto Nogueira Alcalá, referring to the impropriety of half-prescription in crimes of this nature, points out: '... the half-prescription which is a species of prescription, which corresponds to the same nature as the first and which implies applying the temporal dimension to a crime to which by definition such a variable of time cannot be applied and which has the same objectives of objective security, which ius cogens denies to crimes against humanity... A court when applying half-prescription to a crime against humanity is ignoring the obligation to proportionally sanction said crime against humanity and affects the imperative principle of international law of imprescriptibility... ... half-prescription as an institution of domestic law is only applicable to common crimes with respect to which the accused (in the context of the old criminal process) present themselves or are found during the process and not in the case that they are present during the entire criminal process, as happens with the criminals to whom said institute has been applied...'. ('Legal Report'. Humberto Nogueira Alcalá. Doctor of Constitutional Law. Tenured Professor of Constitutional Law). It adds that this court, like the a quo, will reject the exception of res judicata deduced by the defense of the accused Rosende Ollarzu, for sharing the foundations of the ruling under appeal, contained in its eighth motive, since such a petition is based on a temporary dismissal, which does not produce the effect of res judicata, like a definitive dismissal. "That in relation to the accused Joaquín Larraín Gana and Jaime Fuenzalida Bravo, from the seventeenth and nineteenth considerations, respectively, it is clear that the first-instance judge, for the reasoning contained in such motives relative to the participation that both defendants had in the investigated facts, and which this Court shares, was of the opinion to consider them as authors of the investigated crimes, in the hypothesis of article 15 No. 3 of the Penal Code, notwithstanding that in the resolving part of this ruling, he convicted them as accomplices in the commission of such illicit acts, so the mentioned error of fact will be corrected, as will be stated in the decision part of this sentence," the resolution affirms. Likewise, the appellate court ordered Minister Alejandro Madrid Crohare to issue the resolution that corresponds in law regarding the convicted Joaquín Larraín Gana, who died during the processing of the case in the second instance. Diplomatic pouch In the investigation stage of the case, Minister Madrid managed to establish the following facts: "In the month of December 1981, the following were held in Gallery No. 2 of the former Public Jail of Santiago: Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) militant Guillermo Rodríguez Morales, and sympathizers of said political group Adalberto Muñoz Jara, Ricardo Antonio Aguilera Morales, and Elizardo Enrique Aguilera Morales, who shared in the so-called 'carreta' the food that was brought to them by their families with common prisoners Víctor Hugo Corvalán Castillo and Héctor Walter Pacheco Díaz, resulting in them beginning to present serious health problems starting on December 7, 1981, for which, at 15:30 on the aforementioned day, the aforementioned inmates were admitted to the prison infirmary; Subsequently, and attending to the severity of the symptoms experienced by the aforementioned inmates, the facility's leadership ordered the transfer of all the poisoned prisoners to the Hospital of the Santiago Social Readaptation Center (CERESO), a situation that was reported to the Judge of the Third Criminal Court of this city via ordinary official letter No. 4484 dated December 10, 1981, noting that it was known that inmate Víctor Hugo Corvalán Castillo had died during the transfer from the Santiago Penitentiary; That once the inmates were received at the aforementioned Hospital, they were attended to by doctor Jorge Mery Silva, who proposed the diagnosis of 'Botulinum intoxication,' with the referred inmates being transferred to the Intensive Care unit of the Santiago Public Assistance center, and through report No. 799 of the Internal Guard of the former Public Jail dated December 20, 1981, the death of inmate Héctor Walter Pacheco Díaz at the Posta Central was reported, as a consequence of his severity; The substance that produced the poisoning of the aforementioned inmates was obtained by the Bacteriological Institute, having been requested by the director from the corresponding laboratory in Brazil, then sent via diplomatic pouch to Chile, received at the Foreign Ministry, and subsequently received in a secret Army laboratory located at Calle Carmen No. 339, which depended on the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE), and was introduced into the former Public Jail of Santiago, located on Calle General Mackenna, in this city; That, although it is true that the poisoned inmates were taken to the infirmary of the indicated penal facility on December 8, 1981, with the purpose of being examined and treated for their ailments, the prisoners were not attended to as it was indicated that they were suffering from 'acute gastritis,' and they were returned to their cells. However, due to pressure from the inmates' families, they requested through allegations from the Vicariate of Solidarity the presence of a private doctor, which was denied by the Warden, who informed the prosecutor of the First Military Prosecutor's Office that none of the inmates required medical attention, as their state of health was not serious. The facts described above allow for the legal establishment that, with the purpose of proceeding to the physical and imperceptible elimination of opponents of the military regime, a 'special intelligence operation' was carried out that ended with the deaths of inmates Víctor Hugo Corvalán Castillo and Héctor Walter Pacheco Díaz, who were being tried for common crimes and were held in Gallery No. 2 of the former Public Jail, resulting in their deaths from the ingestion of food contaminated with the so-called 'botulinum toxin,' which was brought into the country by the public service in charge of overseeing the health of the population and, previously, delivered to those in charge of a secret laboratory under the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE); On the other hand, the affected inmates Guillermo Rodríguez Morales, Ricardo Aguilera Morales, Elizardo Aguilera Morales, Adalberto Muñoz Jara, and Rafael Enrique Garrido Ceballos suffered serious injuries produced by the ingestion of said contaminated food, managing to survive—despite the delay in aid—due to the timely and accurate diagnosis of the cause of the poisoning, the treatments provided to them, and the application of the respective antitoxin; in this way, the result desired by the participants did not occur, regarding the aforementioned crimes, avoiding consummation for reasons independent of the agents' will; That the fact of not adopting the necessary measures to avoid the introduction of highly toxic substances, as well as the delay in the transfer of the aforementioned inmates from the prison hospital, constitutes an infringement of their rights and evidences a serious willful omission of the duty of care which fell upon the Warden of the former Public Jail. In the civil aspect, the ruling ratified the sentence that ordered the State of Chile to pay a total compensation of $950,000,000, an amount broken down as follows:

a) PETER WALTER PACHECO CASTRO, in the sum of one hundred and fifty million pesos (150,000,000);

b) RICARDO ANTONIO AGUILERA MORALES, in the sum of one hundred million pesos ($100,000,000);

c) ELIZARDO ENRIQUE AGUILERA MORALES, in the sum of one hundred million pesos ($100,000,000);

d) PATRICIA ISABEL CASTILLO JOFRÉ, in the sum of two hundred million pesos ($200,000,000);

e) PATRICIA ISABEL CORVALÁN CASTILLO, in the sum of one hundred million pesos ($100,000,000), and

f) GUILLERMO RODRÍGUEZ MORALES, in the sum of three hundred million pesos ($300,000,000).

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl, February 1, 2021

Supreme Court confirms convictions of former DINE agents for poisoning political prisoners in the Public Jail of Santiago in 1981

The Supreme Court rejected the cassation appeals in form and substance filed against the sentence that convicted former Army officers and members of the DINE for their responsibility in the completed crimes of qualified homicide of Víctor Hugo Corvalán Castillo and Héctor Walter Pacheco Díaz; and in the frustrated crimes of qualified homicide of Guillermo Rodríguez Morales, Ricardo Antonio Aguilera Morales, Elizardo Enrique Aguilera Morales, Adalberto Muñoz Jara, and Rafael Enrique Garrido Ceballos, prisoners of the former Public Jail of Santiago, who were poisoned by DINE agents in December 1981. In a unanimous ruling (case roll 36.753-2021), the Second Chamber of the high court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Andrea Muñoz, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, María Teresa Letelier, and lawyer (i) Pía Tavolari—ruled out error in the challenged sentence, issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals, which sentenced the surgeon and former Army general Eduardo Adolfo Arriagada Rehren; the veterinarian and former Army colonel Sergio Eduardo Rosende Ollarzú; former Army lieutenant colonel Jaime Fuenzalida Bravo; and former colonel Joaquín Larraín Gana to 15 years and one day in prison each, as perpetrators of the seven crimes, in the character of crimes against humanity. Meanwhile, the then-warden of the penal facility, Ronald Carlos Nemesio Bennett Ramírez, was sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison as an accomplice to the illicit acts. Botulinum toxin In the judicial investigation and in the first-instance ruling, the visiting minister of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Alejandro Madrid Crohare, shows with certainty the actions and the purpose pursued by the dictatorship's agents. Among them are the following background facts: In the month of December 1981, the following were held in Gallery No. 2 of the former Public Jail of Santiago: Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) militant Guillermo Rodríguez Morales, and sympathizers of said political group Adalberto Muñoz Jara, Ricardo Antonio Aguilera Morales, and Elizardo Enrique Aguilera Morales, who shared in the so-called 'carreta' the food that was brought to them by their families with common prisoners Víctor Hugo Corvalán Castillo and Héctor Walter Pacheco Díaz, resulting in them beginning to present serious health problems starting on December 7, 1981, for which, at 15:30 on the aforementioned day, the aforementioned inmates were admitted to the prison infirmary. The substance that produced the poisoning of the aforementioned inmates was obtained by the Bacteriological Institute, having been requested by the director of that institute from the corresponding laboratory in Brazil, then sent via diplomatic pouch to Chile, received at the Foreign Ministry, and subsequently received in a secret Army laboratory located at Calle Carmen No. 339, which depended on the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE); the substance was then introduced into the former Public Jail of Santiago, located on Calle General Mackenna, in that city. The facts described allow for the legal establishment that, with the purpose of proceeding to the physical and imperceptible elimination of opponents of the military regime, a 'special intelligence operation' was carried out that ended with the deaths of inmates Víctor Hugo Corvalán Castillo and Héctor Walter Pacheco Díaz, who were being tried for common crimes and were held in Gallery No. 2 of the former Public Jail, resulting in their deaths from the ingestion of food contaminated with the so-called 'botulinum toxin.' This toxin was brought into the country by the public service in charge of overseeing the health of the population and, previously, delivered to those in charge of a secret laboratory under the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE). On the other hand, the inmates affected by the ingestion of food contaminated with the toxin, Guillermo Rodríguez Morales, Ricardo Aguilera Morales, Elizardo Aguilera Morales, Adalberto Muñoz Jara, and Rafael Enrique Garrido Ceballos, suffered serious injuries produced by the toxin, managing to survive—despite the delay in aid—due to the timely and accurate diagnosis of the cause of the poisoning. This aid was followed by the treatments provided to them and the application of the respective antitoxin; in this way, the result sought by the criminal agents did not occur, avoiding the consummation of the murder for reasons independent of the agents' will. The fact of not adopting the necessary measures to avoid the introduction of highly toxic substances, as well as the delay in the transfer of the aforementioned inmates from the prison hospital to an adequate hospital center, constitutes an infringement of their rights and evidences a serious willful omission of the duty of care which fell upon the Warden of the former Public Jail. Subsequently, the transfer of all the poisoned individuals to the Hospital of the Santiago Social Readaptation Center (CERESO) was ordered, a situation that was reported to the Third Criminal Court of that city on December 10, 1981, noting that inmate Víctor Hugo Corvalán Castillo had died during the transfer from the Santiago Penitentiary. Once the inmates were received at the aforementioned Hospital, they were attended to by a specialist doctor who diagnosed "Botulinum intoxication," with the poisoned inmates having to be transferred to the Intensive Care unit of the Santiago Public Assistance center. However, on December 20, 1981, the death of detainee Héctor Walter Pacheco Díaz at the Posta Central was reported, as a consequence of his severity. The other poisoned prisoners managed to survive the assassination attempt but were left with lasting effects of varying consideration for life. by Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl, January 3, 2024