Visiting judge of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Jaime Arancibia, also ordered the preventive detention of the uniformed officers. The visiting judge of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Jaime Arancibia, prosecuted four members of the Navy for their responsibility in the death of a food service worker, committed in Viña del Mar in 1974.

The individuals are Navy members Ramón Humberto Neira Rodríguez, Sergio Alejandro González Quiroz, Luis Nibaldo Pizarro Díaz, and Gabriel Gonzalo Baeza Ceballos, who were prosecuted as authors of the crime of qualified homicide of Óscar Eduardo Marchant Céspedes.

Marchant Céspedes, 27 years old at the time of his death, worked as a waiter at a restaurant in the beach resort of Reñaca and died after being wounded by gunfire from members of a Navy ground patrol that intercepted him while he was walking along Calle 12 Norte in the "Garden City," while a curfew was in effect.

Judge Arancibia ordered the preventive detention of the four uniformed officers prosecuted, and issued an official request to the Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Navy to determine a location where they will serve the precautionary measure.

Source: puranoticia.pnt.cl, August 4, 2015

Visiting judge issues homicide indictment against four former Navy officials

The event occurred in February 1974 in Viña del Mar, in the midst of the military dictatorship.

VIÑA DEL MAR.-

This morning, the extraordinary visiting judge for Human Rights cases of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Jaime Arancibia Pinto, issued an indictment against four retired Navy officials for the qualified homicide of Oscar Eduardo Marchant Céspedes, an event recorded on February 19, 1974, in Viña del Mar.

The magistrate held Ramón Humberto Neira Rodríguez, Gabriel Gonzalo Baeza Ceballos, Luis Nibaldo Pizarro Díaz, and Sergio Alejandro González Quiroz responsible for their participation in the illicit act.

During the investigation of the case, it was established that the victim worked as a waiter at a restaurant in the Reñaca sector, in the commune of Viña del Mar, and that, in the early hours of February 19, 1974, he was allegedly murdered by this group of uniformed officers.

According to the case details, "after sharing time with a friend in a house located on Calle 12 Norte in the aforementioned city, he decides to return to his home, for which he walks to Calle 15 Norte, taking Calle Calera to reach a staircase, without realizing that a patrol with naval personnel is arriving in a Chevrolet C-10 pickup truck.

Upon advancing a few steps, he receives a gunshot wound to his left thigh that causes severe hemorrhaging, subsequently dying from acute anemia."

Source: observador.cl, December 3, 2018

Judge Jaime Arancibia sentences retired Navy non-commissioned officers for the 1974 homicide of a waiter

The extraordinary visiting judge for human rights violation cases of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Jaime Arancibia Pinto, sentenced three retired Navy non-commissioned officers as authors of the consummated crime of simple homicide of Óscar Eduardo Marchant Céspedes.

The illicit act was perpetrated on February 19, 1974, in the city of Viña del Mar. In the ruling (case file 110.209-2011), Judge Arancibia Pinto sentenced former naval non-commissioned officers Ramón Humberto Neira Rodríguez, Sergio Alejandro González Quiroz, and Luis Nibaldo Pizarro Díaz to 5 years and one day of effective imprisonment, legal accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification from public offices and political rights, and absolute disqualification from professions for the duration of the sentences, plus the payment of court costs.

In the case, the visiting judge decreed the acquittal of Gabriel Gonzalo Baeza Ceballos, as his participation as an author of the crime was not proven. With the evidence gathered in the case, the visiting judge considered the following facts proven: "That Oscar Marchant Céspedes, who worked as a waiter at a restaurant in the Reñaca sector, commune of Viña del Mar, went at the end of his workday on February 18, 1974, together with a coworker, to a restaurant/nightclub known as 'El Submarino,' located at the corner of Calle Calera and Rojas Trigo, in the same commune.

After 00:00 hours on February 19, 1974, with the curfew already in effect, while the victim was still at the location, he went out to the street and became involved in a fight with other people who were outside the establishment.

Despite the incident outside the establishment having ended, the people who were there, including Marchant Céspedes, were warned of the arrival of a Navy patrol moving in a Chevrolet brand pickup truck, model C-10, in charge of Sergeant 1st Class Aniceto Gómez (deceased) and composed of the accused Neira González, Baeza Ceballos, González Quiroz, and Pizarro Díaz, and others (already deceased), who were returning from their patrol in the Canal Beagle neighborhood and were heading back to their base at the Naval Engineering School, located in the same commune.

These people began to flee in different directions to avoid being detained for violating the curfew; in the case of the victim, he headed toward the staircase that connects Calle Calera with Av. Concón.

While Marchant was climbing the stairs, he was ordered by Sergeant Gómez to stop, an order that was allegedly disobeyed by Marchant, who continued climbing. Therefore, Sergeant Gómez himself gave the order to fire shots, which were allegedly carried out by officials Pizarro and Robles, first into the air and then one at the victim's body, striking him in his left thigh, causing him to fall wounded on one of the landings of the staircase.

By order of the Sergeant, Marchant Céspedes was grabbed by two of the patrol officials and dragged down the stairs to then be loaded into the back of the pickup truck. After 20 minutes, the victim was transported to the Viña del Mar Hospital, dying in that medical facility at 1:55 hours on the same day, February 19."

Source: diariolaquinta.cl, February 27, 2021