The minister in charge of human rights cases at the Santiago Court of Appeals, Mario Carroza, sentenced 5 former Carabineros for the homicide of 17-year-old student Patricio Manríquez Norambuena, which occurred on September 21, 1973, in the commune of Santiago.

The former officers Teodoro Vogelsang Martínez, Manuel Duarte Becerra, and Mario Villagrán Vasconsuelo were sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison for their responsibility as perpetrators of qualified homicide.

Additionally, Miguel Ángel Urra Concha was sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison, and Osvaldo González García was sentenced to 301 days in prison—a sentence considered served—for their responsibility as accomplices to the same crime.

According to Carroza’s investigation, the 17-year-old student was kidnapped by Carabineros on September 20 without a prior judicial warrant. On September 21, "Captain Teodoro Enrique José Vogelsang Martínez, acting outside of all institutional norms and in an arbitrary and capricious manner, ordered the elimination of the minor Manríquez Norambuena to the subordinate officers of the same police unit, at that time, Sub-lieutenant Osvaldo René González García, 1st Corporal Manuel Jesús Duarte Becerra, 1st Corporal Mario Juan Villagrán Vasconsuelo, and Carabinero Miguel Ángel Urra Concha," the ruling details. Patricio Manríquez was a member of the Communist Youth and was murdered following the order of former Captain Vogelsang Martínez. His body was left in a public thoroughfare. After removing him from the police unit, "they walked him to the Lira street underpass, near the railway line, where one of the aforementioned police officers, the one with the surname Duarte Becerra, drew a firearm and shot him repeatedly, killing him on the spot, leaving the body abandoned, and then returned to the unit," states Carroza’s investigation.

Source: resumen.cl, June 7, 2017

Justice sentences retired Carabineros for the homicide of a communist student

The Santiago Court of Appeals confirmed the sentence convicting retired members of the Carabineros for the qualified homicide of 17-year-old student Patricio Enrique Manríquez Norambuena. The crime was perpetrated on September 21, 1973, in the commune.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 1464-2017), the Third Chamber of the capital's appellate court—composed of ministers Mauricio Silva Cancino, Carlos Gajardo, and Elsa Barrientos—ratified the challenged resolution, which sentenced Teodoro Enrique José Vogelsang Martínez, Manuel Jesús Duarte Becerra, and Mario Juan Villagrán Vasconsuelo to 10 years and one day in prison as perpetrators of the crime.

Meanwhile, it increased the sentence for Miguel Ángel Urra Concha to 10 years and one day in prison, modifying his participation from accomplice to co-perpetrator of the crime. During the investigation phase of the case, the minister in charge, Mario Carroza, established the following facts: Patricio Enrique Manríquez Norambuena was a 17-year-old youth, a student and member of the Communist Youth, who lived with his mother, stepfather, sister, and underage step-siblings at the property located at 1598 Pedro León Ugalde Street, in the commune of Santiago.

On September 20, 1973, around 8:00 PM, the commissioner of the Rogelio Ugarte Sub-station, also known as "la Cuarta Chica," located at 1712 Rogelio Ugarte Street, commune of Santiago, Captain Teodoro Vogelsang Martínez, together with González García, Villagrán Vasconsuelo, Urra Concha, and Duarte Becerra, broke into the aforementioned property, raiding it and searching the belongings found there, without a judicial warrant; Once the illicit act was carried out, the youth Patricio Enrique Manríquez Norambuena was detained at the property and taken, while being held at gunpoint, to the Rogelio Ugarte Sub-station, located two blocks from his home, where he was kept in detention without any prior judicial warrant. The officers who participated in the procedure seized a Che Guevara poster and some books of literature considered contrary to the military regime of that time from the property; In the early hours of September 21 of that same year, the aforementioned Captain Teodoro Enrique José Vogelsang Martínez, acting outside of all institutional norms and in an arbitrary and capricious manner, ordered the elimination of the minor Manríquez Norambuena to the subordinate officers of the same police unit, at that time, Sub-lieutenant Osvaldo René González García, 1st Corporal Manuel Jesús Duarte Becerra, 1st Corporal Mario Juan Villagrán Vasconsuelo, and Carabinero Miguel Ángel Urra Concha, who then took him out of the unit and walked him to the Lira street underpass, near the railway line, where one of the aforementioned police officers, the one with the surname Duarte Becerra, drew a firearm and shot him repeatedly, killing him on the spot, leaving the body abandoned, and then returned to the unit. Regarding civil matters, the resolution ordering the state treasury and the convicted parties to pay compensation of $40,000,000 (forty million pesos) for moral damages to the victim's sister was confirmed.

Source: cronicadigital.cl, July 31, 2018

Murdered after a raid on his home: Supreme Court sentences four retired Carabineros to 10 years in prison for the homicide of a high school student

The Supreme Court rejected the appeals for annulment and substantive review presented against the sentence that convicted five retired Carabineros from the staff of the then-Rogelio Ugarte Sub-station for their responsibility in the crime of qualified homicide of 17-year-old student Patricio Enrique Martínez Norambuena.

The crime was perpetrated in the early hours of September 21, 1973, in the commune of Santiago, the day state agents arrived at his home, where they seized books and a Che Guevara poster. The Judiciary reported that the Second Chamber of the High Court—composed of ministers Carlos Künsemüller, Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Leopoldo Llanos, and Jorge Zepeda—ratified the challenged sentence, issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals, which sentenced Teodoro Enrique Vogelsang Martínez, Manuel Jesús Duarte Becerra, Mario Juan Villagrán Vasconsuelo, and Miguel Ángel Urra Concha to 10 years in prison as perpetrators of the qualified homicide of the high school student. Meanwhile, Osvaldo René González García was sentenced to 301 days in prison as an accomplice to the crime, a sentence considered served. Regarding civil matters, the ruling ordering the convicted parties and the State of Chile to pay compensation of $40,000,000 for moral damages to the plaintiff was confirmed. Arguments The Supreme Court's sentence rules out any legal error in the challenged resolution and confirmed that the convicted police officers committed a crime against humanity against the adolescent. "That, from the analysis of the challenged ruling, it follows that said obligations are fully met. Such a sentence not only adopts the reasoning of the appealed pronouncement in its ninth and tenth foundations, which contain the considerations by virtue of which the facts attributed to the accused were proven, and which emanated not only from the testimony of Osvaldo René González García, but also from the confrontations with the other defendants and from the extrajudicial statements, all of which appeared plausible, so that, with the crime being proven by other means, its circumstances and details were consistent with such statements, all of which was analyzed by the challenged sentence in its second foundation," the ruling states. Regarding the argument of the appeal consisting of the contravention of Article 103 of the Penal Code, "(...) the first-instance sentence in its nineteenth motivation, reproduced by the sentence under study, declares that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been elevated by International Law to the status of a principle of non-prescriptibility and, therefore, the impropriety of applying total prescription also reaches partial prescription, because there is no reason to recognize the effect of reducing the sanction over time, given that both institutions are based on the same element that is rejected by International Human Rights Law," the Second Chamber reasons. "That, without prejudice to what is indicated by the ruling, the constant jurisprudence of this Criminal Chamber has used two arguments to dismiss this ground of the appeal, insofar as it is based on Article 103 of the Penal Code. On one hand, the classification of the illicit act committed as a crime against humanity compels the consideration of International Human Rights Law regulations, which exclude the application of both total prescription and so-called partial prescription, understanding such institutions to be closely linked in their foundations and, consequently, contrary to the ius cogens regulations originating from that sphere of International Criminal Law, which reject impunity and the imposition of penalties not proportional to the intrinsic gravity of the crimes, based on the passage of time," it details. The Homicide The investigation conducted in the first instance by Minister Mario Carroza established the following facts: -"On September 20, 1973, around 8:00 PM, the Commissioner of the Rogelio Ugarte Sub-station, also known as 'la Cuarta Chica' located at 1712 Rogelio Ugarte Street, commune of Santiago, Captain Teodoro Vogelsang Martínez, together with subordinates from the same unit González García, Villagrán Vasconsuelo, Urra Concha, and Duarte Becerra, broke into the aforementioned property, raiding it and searching the belongings found there, without a judicial warrant. Once the illicit act was carried out, the youth Patricio Enrique Manríquez Norambuena was detained at the property and taken, while being held at gunpoint, to the Rogelio Ugarte Sub-station, located two blocks from his home, where he was kept in detention without any prior judicial warrant. The officers who participated in the procedure seized a Che Guevara poster and some books of literature considered contrary to the military regime prevailing at that time." -"Immediately thereafter, in the early hours of September 21 of that same year, the aforementioned Captain Teodoro Enrique José Vogelsang Martínez, acting outside of all institutional norms and in an arbitrary and capricious manner, ordered the elimination of the minor Manríquez Norambuena to the subordinate officers of the same police unit, at that time Sub-lieutenant Osvaldo René González García, 1st Corporal Manuel Jesús Duarte Becerra, 1st Corporal Mario Juan Villagrán Vasconsuelo, and Carabinero Miguel Ángel Urra Concha, who then took him out of the unit and walked him to the Lira street underpass, near the railway line, where one of the aforementioned police officers, the one with the surname Duarte Becerra, drew a firearm and shot him repeatedly, killing him on the spot, leaving the body abandoned, and then returned to the unit." -"According to what is recorded in the death certificate of Patricio Enrique Martínez Norambuena, he died at 6:00 AM on that day, September 21, 1973, due to multiple gunshot wounds, and in Autopsy Report No. 2.837/73, it is recorded that his remains were transferred to the Legal Medical Institute from the Lira street underpass and that they showed that the cause of his death was due to multiple gunshot wounds with projectile exit, injuries that were necessarily fatal."

Source: enestrado.com, January 20, 2021