Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo was the son of the prominent lawyer and politician Ramón Andrés Blanco Fernández. The dictator Augusto Pinochet, supported by the US government to overthrow President Salvador Allende.

Seven retired military officers from Chile were convicted for the kidnapping and the harm caused in 1973 to the Dominican national Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo, son of the politician and lawyer Ramón Andrés Blanco Fernández.

The military officers of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship were sentenced by the minister for extraordinary cases of human rights violations of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Max Cancino Cancino. The news portal of the University of Valparaíso, Chile, explained that the conviction of seven retired members of the Navy was due to their responsibility in the crime of "kidnapping with serious harm or aggravated kidnapping of the Dominican citizen Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo." The crime was committed in September 1973, in the city of Villa Alemana, following the coup d'état against President Salvador Allende, carried out on September 11 of that year, which paved the way for the imposition of a bloody right-wing dictatorship. "In the ruling (case file 53.046-2009), Minister Cancino Cancino sentenced Ernesto Leonardo Huber von Appen, Wilfredo Hernán Zepeda Iturriaga, Víctor Orlando Rey Ringele, Jaime Miguel Urdangarín Romero, Arístides Alejandro León Calffas, and German Patricio Valdivia Keller to 15 years in prison, with the legal accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification from public offices and political rights, and absolute disqualification from holding professional titles for the duration of the sentences," the portal indicates. Likewise, it explains that Jorge Benjamín Ginouvés Contreras was sentenced to 5 years in prison, with the benefit of supervised release, remaining subject to the permanent supervision and guidance of a delegate for the same period. This defendant was also sentenced to absolute perpetual disqualification from political rights and absolute disqualification from public offices for the duration of the sentence, as a co-author of the crime. In the same case, the court acquitted the accused José Abraham Gutiérrez Bello, Víctor Vicente Sepúlveda Cuevas, and Guillermo Samuel Aldoney Hansen, as their participation in the events could not be proven. In the resolution, the aforementioned portal reports, the visiting minister established the following facts as proven: “That there existed a hierarchical and disciplined military intelligence group, called the Ancla 2 Intelligence Service, belonging to the Naval Aviation Command, which operated actively starting on September 11, 1973, composed of agents belonging to the various departments of the El Belloto Naval Air Base and even including officials from other branches, such as the Marine Corps, whose main objective was the repression of persons opposed to the military regime, for which they proceeded to search for and detain them, subsequently depriving them of their liberty to obtain information through physical and psychological torture. To achieve the detention of individuals, the heads of the naval patrols maintained direct communication with the Naval Intelligence Service, who, once the civilian was apprehended, would take them to the Air Control Office (OICA) for confinement and interrogation." It adds that for operational repression, "the so-called Ancla 2 Naval Intelligence Service, dependent on the Naval Aviation Command, used various facilities at the El Belloto Naval Air Base, in particular the so-called Air Control Information Office (OICA or ARO), and made use of others, such as the Quilpué Investigative Police Barracks, sites where prisoners were interrogated under illegitimate duress." It narrates that, on an undetermined date in September 1973, after the 20th, Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo, a citizen of the Dominican Republic who had entered Chile in January of that year from the USSR, at 25 years of age, was ordered to be detained by the Ancla 2 Naval Intelligence Service of the Naval Aviation Command due to his political orientation. This was carried out by a naval patrol, led by 2nd Lieutenant Jorge Ginouvés Contreras, in the Barrio Norte sector of Villa Alemana, near the train station, and he was taken to the naval facility to be handed over to the personnel of said Intelligence Service. The aforementioned officer, in command of the naval patrol, as stated, acted in coordination with the personnel of the aforementioned Intelligence Service. Investigations confirmed that neither the military command of the Naval Aviation Command nor that of the Ancla 2 Naval Intelligence Service belonging to that Command took any measures to report the detention of Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo or any alleged illicit act committed by the Dominican national to the competent authority. Nor was any case or naval investigation formed in this regard. "On the contrary, officials of the Quilpué Investigative Police and the Quilpué Carabineros Sub-station were deliberately ordered not to register the entry of detainees brought to those facilities by Intelligence Service officials. The same occurred at the Naval Air Base, where the names of the detainees were not recorded in any official register," the information maintains. It narrates that the victim was initially held in a sector of the El Belloto Naval Air Base called ‘Acapulco’, ‘El Hoyo’, or ‘El Pozo’ together with other prisoners, a detention site that had been set up by the Naval Aviation Commander after September 11, 1973, for the confinement of civilians opposed to the military regime. In that place, prisoners had to remain permanently in a prone position, with their hands behind their backs, outdoors, and guarded by at least two armed officials assigned to the Naval Air Base. This sector was strictly restricted, with only officials from the Naval Intelligence Service of the Ancla 2 Unit belonging to the Naval Aviation Command authorized to approach. The confinement sector was strategically located in front of the Command Office and the Air Control Office (OICA or ARO)." It highlights that during the period he remained imprisoned, the Dominican national Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo, without any justifying motive, was taken on several occasions to the Air Control Information Office, where he was interrogated and physically pressured by officials of the Ancla 2 Naval Intelligence Service, with the presence of the military command and other officials who collaborated closely with that Service, all with the aim of having him answer about his activities and the location of alleged weaponry hidden in Santiago. Likewise, after Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo remained locked up at the El Belloto Naval Air Base, officials of the Ancla 2 Naval Intelligence Service, on an unspecified date in October 1973, transferred the victim and kept him deprived of his liberty in the cells of the Quilpué Investigative Police Barracks. It explains that in a room within this facility, officials from the intelligence group interrogated and severely tortured him, using techniques such as applying burning newspaper to his abdomen. "On an unspecified day in October 1973, Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo was removed from the Quilpué Investigative Police Barracks by the aforementioned intelligence group and transferred to the Quilpué Carabineros Sub-station, with the victim being seriously injured as a result of the burns caused to his body. Due to the complaint that the Chief of that Sub-station expressed to the Naval Command regarding the victim's state of health, he was removed from that place by officials of the intelligence group, taken to an unknown destination, and his whereabouts remain unknown to this date." In the civil aspect, the ruling accepted the lawsuit filed and ordered the state to pay compensation of $150,000,000 (one hundred and fifty million pesos) for moral damages to the victim's father (Ramón Andrés Blanco Fernández); and $75,000,000 (seventy-five million pesos) to a brother.

Source: acento.com.do, February 3, 2023