Manuel Contreras, Pedro Espinoza, and Miguel Krassnoff are among those identified as responsible for the human rights case. Miguel Vásquez, a visiting judge of the Santiago Court of Appeals, determined the responsibility of 79 former members of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) in the aggravated kidnapping of seven people and the aggravated homicide of Víctor Díaz López, events that occurred between May 1976 and January 1977 and which constitute the so-called Conferencia Case.

The eight crimes were perpetrated during operations carried out by the secret police of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship at Conferencia 1587, in the commune of Santiago; Gaspar de Orense 993, in the commune of Quinta Normal; Bello Horizonte 979, in the commune of Las Condes; and the Simón Bolívar 8800 barracks, in the commune of La Reina.

Those identified as responsible for the disappearance of Mario Zamorano Donoso, Jorge Muñoz Poutays, Uldarico Donaire Cortés, Jaime Donato Avendaño, Elisa Escobar Zepeda, Lenin Díaz Silva, and Eliana Espinoza Fernández, and the death of Víctor Díaz López are: Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Carlos López Tapia, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Ricardo Lawrence Mires, Jorge Madariaga Acevedo, Eugenio Fieldhouse Chávez, José Fuentealba Saldías, Hugo Clavería Leiva, José Soto Torres, Raúl Soto Pérez, Juan Carlos Escobar Valenzuela, Jerónimo Neira Méndez, Héctor Briones Burgos, Pedro Mora Villanueva, Roberto Rodríguez Manquel, Leonidas Méndez Moreno, Jorge Andrade Gómez, Nelson Herrera Lagos, Juan Morales Salgado, Jorge Sagardía Monje, Héctor Valdebenito Araya, Federico Chaigneau Sepúlveda, Bernardo Daza Navarro, Sergio Escalona Acuña, Guillermo Ferrán Martínez, Gladys Calderón Carreño, Elisa Magna Astudillo, Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo, Emilio Troncoso Vivallos, Claudio Pacheco Fernández, Jorge Díaz Radulovich, Orlando Altamirano Sanhueza, Eduardo Cabezas Mardones, Jorge Escobar Fuentes, René Riveros Valderrama, Jorge Pichunmán Curiqueo, Orfa Saavedra Vásquez, Celinda Aspe Rojas, Teresa Navarro Navarro, Berta Jiménez Escobar, Adriana Rivas González, Jorge Arriagada Mora, Pedro Bitterlich Jaramillo, Eduardo Oyarce Riquelme, Guillermo Díaz Ramírez, Ana Vilches Muñoz, Italia Vacarella Gilio, Jorge Manríquez Manterola, Orlando Torrejón Gatica, José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, Manuel Obreque Henríquez, Gustavo Guerrero Aguilera, Eduardo Garea Guzmán, Juvenal Piña Garrido, Rufino Jaime Astorga, Luis Lagos Yáñez, María Angélica Guerrero Soto, Sergio Castro Andrade, Manuel Montre Méndez, Pedro Gutiérrez Valdés, Claudio Orellana de la Pinta, Joyce Ahumada Despouy, Hiro Álvarez Vega, José Miguel Meza Serrano, José Ojeda Obando, Carlos Bermúdez Méndez, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, Eduardo Reyes Lagos, Marilin Silva Vergara, Hernán Sovino Maturana, José Friz Esparza, Carlos Miranda Mesa, Camilo Torres Negrier, Orlando Inostroza Lagos, Carlos López Inostroza, José Seco Alarcón, Lionel Medrano Rivas, Juan Suazo Saldaña. The plaintiffs in the Conferencia case, the State Defense Council (CDE) and the Human Rights Program of the Ministry of the Interior, were notified to either adhere to Vásquez's indictment or present their own. Once these are defined, the defense teams of the accused will be notified for the plenary stage prior to the first-instance sentence.

JUDGE CARROZA'S PROCEEDINGS

Meanwhile, Santiago Court of Appeals visiting judge Mario Carroza indicted former lieutenant Kenny Aravena Sepúlveda for his responsibility in the homicides of Jorge Pacheco Durán, Denrio Álvarez Olivares, and Ernesto Mardones, which occurred on December 19, 1973.

According to the document, a military patrol removed the deceased from the Santiago Public Prison to transport them to the Buin No. 1 Regiment under Aravena's command, and one hour later, the officer left the bodies of the three detainees at the Legal Medical Service (SML).

Carroza also issued an indictment for the homicides of Luis Herrera González and Mario Parra Guzmán, which occurred in September 1973, holding Pedro Silva Jiménez, Jaime García Zamorano, Jorge Muñoz Pontony, and Pedro Rivera Piña responsible for the crimes. "On September 27, 1973, a military patrol went to the company Chilean Autos and proceeded to arrest two of its workers, union leaders, Luis Ricardo Herrera González and Mario Parra Guzmán; immediately thereafter, they transported them to the facilities of the Army War Academy (...) subsequently, without any justification, Major Jorge Muñoz Pontony and Captain Benjamín Araya Pérez ordered Captain Jaime García Zamorano and second soldiers Pedro Rivera Piña and Pedro Silva Jiménez to execute the detainees," the investigation indicates.

Source: 24horas.cl, October 22, 2013

"Mamo's" secretary among 53 accused in Conferencia case

Adriana Rivas, sought for extradition from Australia, appears alongside other women, such as the so-called "Doctor Hoffman," among those indicted for the extermination of the Communist Party leadership at the hands of DINA brigades.

A raw account that includes the action of military personnel in the exhumation of bodies from Cuesta Barriga under the protection of the Carabineros, and the active participation of, among others, the extraditable Adriana Rivas, former secretary to Manuel Contreras, is included in Judge Miguel Vásquez's indictment against 53 former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) in the "Calle Conferencia Two" case.

Rivas remains in Australia, and her extradition has been requested since Thursday, January 16, by the Supreme Court at the request of the visiting judge, who has included her among those indicted in these proceedings for the extermination of the second Communist Party leadership in 1976.

In September 2013, the woman who formally served as secretary to the director of the DINA made statements to the Australian broadcaster SBS that caused a stir when she said she defended torture and, furthermore, pointed out that those years she belonged to the repressive apparatus were the best of her youth.

Considered an agent of the Lautaro Brigade, the woman indicated in that conversation that torture in her country during the Augusto Pinochet regime was "an open secret" and described it as a "necessary" technique to "break people."

DOCTOR HOFFMAN IS ALSO AMONG THE ACCUSED

The resolution considers 10 other women, all identified as participants in the torture of political prisoners—who were later murdered and forcibly disappeared—including Berta Jiménez, Celinda Aspe, and Gladys Calderón, who allegedly acted by inoculating toxic elements and was known as "Doctor Hoffman." Part of the document highlights one of the testimonies that established that "Adriana Rivas and Berta Jiménez were operatives" and that although "on paper all the women were secretaries," it is noted that "the truth is that they were operatives" and that "Celinda Aspe was the most operative of the female agents."

ON THE VERGE OF SENTENCING

The process, which is advancing at a rapid pace toward sentencing, indicates that starting on December 13, 1976, DINA brigades captured Fernando Navarro Allendes, Lincoyán Berríos Cataldo, Horacio Cepeda Marinkovic, Fernando Ortiz Letelier, Héctor Véliz Ramírez, and Waldo Ulises Pizarro Molina in various operations.

The construction of the case by the magistrate indicates that they were all taken to the Simón Bolívar barracks in La Reina, where they were interrogated under torture, then forcibly disappeared, and that minimal remains of some of them were found at illegal burial sites.

DETAILS OF THE LIST OF THE ACCUSED

"I. To (1) Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda, (2) Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, (3) Juan Hernán Morales Salgado, (4) Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, (5) Federico Humberto Chaigneau Sepúlveda, (6) Hernán Luis Sovino Maturana, (7) Gladys de las Mercedes Calderón Carreño, (8) Eduardo Antonio Reyes Lagos, (9) Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, (10) José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, (11) Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, (12) Jorge Laureano Sagardía Monje, (13) Héctor Raúl Valdebenito Araya, (14) Bernardo del Rosario Daza Navarro, (15) Sergio Orlando Escalona Acuña, (16) Jorge Lientur Manríquez Manterola, (17) José Miguel Meza Serrano, (18) Luis Alberto Lagos Yáñez, (19) María Angélica Guerrero Soto, (20) Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich, (21) Guillermo Jesús Ferrán Martínez, (22) Jorge Segundo Pichunmán Curiqueo, (23) Orfa Yolanda Saavedra Vásquez, (24) Elisa del Carmen Magna Astudillo, (25) Claudio Orlando Orellana de la Pinta, (26) Eduardo Alejandro Oyarce Riquelme, (27) Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo, (28) Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, (29) Emilio Hernán Troncoso Vivallos, (30) Sergio Hernán Castro Andrade, (31) Teresa del Carmen Navarro Navarro, (32) Juan Edmundo Suazo Saldaña, (33) Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, (34) José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, (35) Carlos Enrique Miranda Mesa, (36) Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, (37) Orlando del Tránsito Altamirano Sanhueza, (38) Gustavo Enrique Guerrero Aguilera, (39) Manuel Antonio Montre Méndez, (40) Guillermo Eduardo Díaz Ramírez, (41) Hiro Álvarez Vega, (42) Celinda Angélica Aspe Rojas, (43) Jorge Hugo Arriagada Mora, (44) Berta Yolanda del Carmen Jiménez Escobar, (45) Carlos Justo Bermúdez Méndez, (46) Eduardo Patricio Cabezas Mardones, (47) Adriana Elcira Rivas González, (48) Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza, (49) Italia Donata Vaccarella Gilio, Camilo Torres Negrier, Joyce Ana Ahumada Despouy, Marilín Melahani Silva Vergara, and José Domingo Seco Alarcón, as co-perpetrators of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Fernando Alfredo Navarro Allendes, committed starting December 13, 1976, and Lincoyán Yalú Berríos Cataldo, Horacio Cepeda Marinkovic, Juan Fernando Ortíz Letelier, Héctor Véliz Ramírez, committed starting December 15, 1976. II: To Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Juan Hernán Morales Salgado, and Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, as co-perpetrators of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Waldo Ulises Pizarro Molina, committed starting December 15, 1976. III. To Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Juan Hernán Morales Salgado, Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, Eduardo Antonio Reyes Lagos, Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich, Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, Emilio Hernán Troncoso Vivallos, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Orlando del Tránsito Altamirano Sanhueza, Carlos Enrique Miranda Mesa, Guillermo Eduardo Díaz Ramírez, Eduardo Patricio Cabezas Mardones, Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza, and José Domingo Seco Alarcón, as co-perpetrators of three crimes of aggravated homicide of Juan Fernando Ortiz Letelier, Horacio Cepeda Marinkovic, and Lincoyán Yalú Berríos Cataldo, perpetrated between December 15, 1976, and December 25, 1976, in the city of Santiago."

Source: La Nación, February 7, 2014

Santiago Court confirms ruling sentencing 30 DINA agents for the aggravated kidnapping of a pregnant young woman

The appellate court confirmed the sentence convicting 30 agents of the defunct National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Reinalda del Carmen Pereira Plaza.

A 29-year-old woman, five months pregnant, she was detained on December 15, 1976, in the current commune of Macul and taken to the clandestine detention center located at Calle Simón Bolívar Nº 8800, in the commune of La Reina, from where her trail was lost.

In the ruling (case file 3.023-2019), the Sixth Chamber of the appellate court—composed of justices María Rosa Kittsteiner, María Paula Merino, and Paula Rodríguez—ratified the sentence convicting Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Juan Morales Salgado, and Ricardo Lawrence Mires to 10 years of imprisonment as authors of the crime.

Meanwhile, in their capacity as co-authors, Gladys Calderón Carreño, Juvenal Piña Garrido, Héctor Valdebenito Araya, Sergio Escalona Acuña, Jorge Manríquez Manterola, María Angélica Guerrero Soto, Orfa Saavedra Vásquez, Elisa Magna Astudillo, Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo, Claudio Pacheco Fernández, Emilio Troncoso Vivallos, Teresa Navarro Navarro, José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, Gustavo Guerrero Aguilera, and Jorge Arriagada Mora must serve 7 years of imprisonment.

In the case of José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, José Miguel Meza Serrano, Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich, Jorge Segundo Pichunmán Curiqueo, Sergio Hernán Castro Andrade, Carlos Enrique Miranda Mesa, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, Orlando del Tránsito Altamirano Sanhueza, Guillermo Eduardo Díaz Ramírez, Bertha Yolanda del Carmen Jiménez Escobar, Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza, and Joyce Ana Ahumada Despouy, they must serve 4-year sentences as accomplices.

The appellate court adopted the findings that allowed the visiting judge Miguel Vázquez Plaza to establish the responsibility and participation of the then-state agents convicted in the kidnapping and disappearance of the medical technologist.

“That, in this course of action, the reasoning in the reviewed sentence is shared for the purpose of establishing the participation of the convicted persons, insofar as the evidentiary background outlined in the appealed sentence, in the grounds fourteen against Espinoza Bravo, seventeen against Morales Salgado, twenty against Lawrence Mires, twenty-nine against Calderón Carreño, thirty-two against Piña Garrido, forty-one against Valdebenito Araya, forty-four against Escalona Acuña, forty-seven against Manríquez Manterola, sixty-five against Saavedra Vásquez, sixty-eight against Magna Astudillo, seventy-one against Oyarce Riquelme, seventy-four against Acevedo, seventy-seven against Pacheco Fernández, eighty against Troncoso Vivallos, eighty-six against Navarro Navarro, ninety-five against Sarmiento Sotelo, one hundred seven against Guerrero Aguilera, and one hundred twenty-two against Arriagada Mora, constitute a set of judicial presumptions which, given their multiplicity, gravity, precision, and concordance, and for meeting the legal requirements provided in Article 488 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, allow for the accreditation of the participation attributed to them as co-authors, in the terms provided in Article 15 No. 1 of the Penal Code, in accordance with the reasoning in grounds fifteen, eighteen, twenty-one, thirty, thirty-three, forty-two, forty-five, forty-eight, sixty-six, sixty-nine against Magna Astudillo, seventy-two, seventy-five, seventy-seven, eighty-one, eighty-seven, ninety-five, one hundred seven, and one hundred twenty-three respectively, and which is complemented by the reasoning in grounds one hundred seventy-three, one hundred seventy-eight, one hundred eighty-two, one hundred eighty-six, one hundred eighty-nine, one hundred ninety-five, one hundred ninety-seven, two hundred three, two hundred six, and two hundred ten,” it is detailed.

The resolution adds: “At this point, it should be specified that the participation as a co-author attributed to Juan Morales Salgado fits fully into the provisions of Article 15 No. 1 of the Penal Code, since he acted under the direct orders of Manuel Contreras and was in charge of the Simón Bolívar barracks at the time of the events, corresponding to him in said capacity to coordinate the operational work of the brigades acting under his command, especially in relation to the dismantling of the Communist Party, assigning personnel under his charge for this purpose, directing investigation efforts and receiving the corresponding reports, ordering the entry and detention of those held at the unit, as well as the interrogations and torture to which they were subjected and, where applicable, their death and disappearance, establishing that he was present during the interrogation and torture of the victim in these proceedings, which determines that he intervened in an immediate and direct manner in the events, so his conduct implies a functional contribution to the global result, maintaining, together with the other perpetrators, the co-dominion of the act.”

“For its part, the attribution of responsibility as a co-author, in the terms provided in Article 15 No. 1 of the Penal Code, imputed to the accused María Angélica Guerrero Soto, is established by virtue of her confession in accordance with the provisions of Article 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which is corroborated by the merit of the background information indicated in ground fifty-seven of the appealed sentence, to which is added the reasoning in motivation one hundred ninety-three,” the ruling adds.

“That, in the same sense,” it continues, “it adheres to what is indicated in the sentence under study, insofar as the indications pointed out in grounds thirty-five against Ojeda Obando, fifty against Meza Serrano, fifty-three against Lagos Yáñez, fifty-nine against Díaz Radulovich, sixty-two against Pichunmán Curiqueo, eighty-three against Castro Andrade, ninety-eight against Miranda Mesa, one hundred one against Álvarez Droguett, one hundred four against Altamirano Sanhueza, one hundred thirteen against Díaz Ramírez, one hundred twenty-five against Jiménez Escobar, one hundred thirty-four against López Inostroza, and one hundred forty-three against Ahumada Despouy, gather the necessary force to configure judicial presumptions, which, given their multiplicity, gravity, precision, and concordance, allow for the accreditation of the participation attributed to them as accomplices, in accordance with the provisions of Article 16 of the Penal Code, according to the reasoning in grounds thirty-six, fifty-one, fifty-four, sixty, sixty-three, eighty-four, ninety-nine, one hundred two, one hundred five, one hundred fourteen, one hundred twenty-six, one hundred thirty-five, and one hundred forty-four, respectively, to which are added the reasonings one hundred seventy-one, one hundred seventy-nine, one hundred eighty-seven, one hundred ninety-eight, two hundred, two hundred four, and two hundred eight of the ruling.”

For the appellate court, in this instance: “(…) as noted, it has been sufficiently demonstrated that all the accused were part of an organized structure under subordination and dependency, in which coexisted those who exercised management duties and operational personnel, dedicated to investigation as well as to the detention, custody, interrogation, torture, and, where applicable, death and disappearance of the detainees, in which is observed, on one hand, the division of roles typical of co-authorship, since all of them made a functional contribution to the execution of the crime, each of them having co-dominion of the act and, on the other, a facilitation of the means with which the crime is committed, thus cooperating in the act of another, by prior or simultaneous acts, which is what characterizes complicity.”

“With that understanding, contrary to what the defenses argued in court in support of their appeals, it is convenient to specify that the convicted persons are not punished merely for belonging to the institution, but for the conduct displayed by each one in relation to the events concerning the victim of these proceedings, Ms.

Reinalda Pereira Plaza, which also leads to ruling out the intervention of those accused with respect to whom, despite having been established that they were part of the same institution and performed functions at the property located at Simón Bolívar N° 8.800 in La Reina, their punishable participation in any of the forms provided for by law has not been proven.” It concludes.

Detention and disappearance

In the appealed ruling, visiting judge Miguel Vázquez Plaza established the following facts:

a) That the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), on an unspecified date, but during the first semester of 1976, occupied and enabled a property at Calle Simón Bolívar Nº 8800, in the commune of La Reina, consisting of a country house, which was conditioned for its purpose of confinement.

It had a single access gate, a guard booth to its right where door duty was performed, a house at the back, a small soccer field, parking lots, and on the left side of the property a kind of gym where there was a canteen, kitchen, and changing rooms and bathrooms, which were conditioned to be used as dungeons, a property in which the Lautaro brigade operated under the command of Major Juan Morales Salgado and which was used as a secret and clandestine place of confinement; people were brought to said facility as detainees to be interrogated under the use of various physical coercion techniques, especially regarding those who had or had had political militancy adhering to the Communist Party.

b) That likewise, in the second semester of 1976, the DINA groups under the command of officers Germán Barriga and Ricardo Lawrence moved to said facility, together with their operational agents, who were primarily concerned with investigating, locating, raiding, pursuing, repressing, and dismantling members of the Communist Party, especially its leadership, for which provisional facilities were enabled for their installation; consisting of offices, a gym, and changing rooms that were confinement dungeons, where interrogations and torture were carried out, using coercion with various methods.

c) That Reinalda del Carmen Pereira Plaza, pregnant with her first child, 5 months into her pregnancy, a medical technologist and communist militant, who worked sheltering people and as a liaison between Eliana Ahumada and Fernando Navarro, although also related to the communist militant Fernando Ortiz, was detained at 29 years of age, at approximately 8:30 PM, while waiting for public transport, by security agents on December 15, 1976, at the corner of Calle Exequiel Fernández and Rodrigo de Araya, in the commune of Ñuñoa, currently the commune of Macul.

The agents who detained her were traveling in two Peugeot brand cars; one of them with license plate HLN-55, from which a subject got out and grabbed her violently; upon her screaming for help, a second subject got out with whom she was forcibly subdued and taken inside the vehicle.

The detention was carried out in the presence of witnesses who were in the various surrounding commercial premises, who report that once the victim was subdued and the detention carried out, the car headed along Rodrigo de Araya in a northerly direction.

d) That Reinalda del Carmen Pereira Plaza was taken to the secret detention center Simón Bolívar, where she was seen together with other prisoners who, in turn, had been detained by the same brigades under the same operational policy between December 13 and 15, 1976; that is, Héctor Véliz Ramírez, Fernando Navarro Allendes, Lincoyán Yalu Berríos Cataldo, Juan Fernando Ortiz Letelier, and Horacio Cepeda Marincovich.

In this place, Reinalda was severely beaten, tortured, illegitimately coerced, and then forcibly disappeared, with no news of her whereabouts to this date.

e) That the Chilean government of the time, given the search efforts made by her relatives, reported that the affected person had registered an exit "on foot" through the Chile-Argentina border crossing Los Libertadores on December 21, 1976, an official version that was judicially established as false, as stated in the case file viewed, Rol 2-77, in which it was verified that the route sheet that recorded said circumstances had been falsified.

f) That the victim in these proceedings was detained on public roads just like thirteen other people in similar circumstances; eleven belonging to the Communist Party and two to the MIR, and where the information provided by the Military Government was similar and erroneous, demonstrating a large-scale operation that obeyed a policy of investigation, persecution, and dismantling of the Communist Party and not an isolated event.

g) That all the people mentioned above, including the victim, were detained to be interrogated and tortured due to their political militancy and in order to obtain information about their party activities and the identification of other members of the Communist Party in hiding; coercion that did not cease until the required information was obtained or until the victims lost consciousness.

Source: pjud.cl, March 4, 2022

Among those implicated in the crime is the former Army Brigadier, Pedro Espinoza, deputy director of Augusto Pinochet's repression agency in the 70s. The list includes agents linked to the Lautaro Brigade, one of the most feared of the era.

Indignation was caused in some people by the ruling of the Santiago Court of Appeals that acquitted and reduced the sentence of 17 former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) of the dictatorship, which operated between 1973 and 1977.

Specifically, the body composed of justices Juan Cristóbal Mera Muñoz, Mireya López Miranda, and the lawyer member Cristián Lepín Molina, acquitted seven DINA agents for the case of the disappearance of 16 people and the murder of a 17th, events that occurred in 1976, who were last seen at the Villa Grimaldi detention center.

The victims are the following militants and leaders of the Communist Party: Luis Emilio Recabarren González, Manuel Guillermo Recabarren González, Nalvia Mena Alvarado, Manuel Segundo Recabarren Rojas, Clara Canteros Torres, Alejandro Rodríguez Urzúa, Daniel Palma Robledo, Carlos Enrique Godoy Lagarrigue, Iván Sergio Insunza Bascuñán, José Eduardo Santander Miranda, Mario Jesús Juica Vega, Víctor Hugo Morales Mazuela, Carlos Mario Vizcarra Cofré, Miguel Nazal Quiroz, Juan Aurelio Villarroel Zárate, Julio Roberto Vega Vega, and Eduardo Canteros Prado (the only one not disappeared).

In view of this controversy, INTERFERENCIA investigated the criminal curriculum of these state agents who at the time were part of the machine of torture, disappearance, and homicide, which systematically violated human rights fundamentally in the 70s. Most of those benefited are involved in other cases of similar characteristics, so they will remain in prison.

The acquitted

1. Pedro Espinoza Bravo. Former Army Brigadier and former deputy director of DINA. He was convicted for the murder of former Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier, the former Commander-in-Chief of the Army, General Carlos Prats, and the Spanish diplomat Carmelo Soria.

He was part of the Caravan of Death and a material author of the murders of American journalists Charles Horman Lazar and Frank Randall Teruggi Bombatch. He also received convictions in France for "kidnapping accompanied by torture and acts of barbarism," in the cases of French citizens Jorge Klein, Etienne Pesle, Alfonso Chanfreau, and Jean Yves Claudet.

The Santiago Court of Appeals acquitted Espinoza exclusively of the crimes committed at the detention and torture center, Villa Grimaldi. "There is no evidence that he led any brigade that operated in Villa Grimaldi, much less the Delfín group, during the year 1976, which is what matters for these purposes," the ruling reads.

Specifically, he is exempted from responsibility in the kidnapping and disappearance of 17 victims, carried out through the so-called Delfín group in 1976.

2. Rolf Wenderoth Pozo. Former Army Colonel and deputy director of Internal Intelligence of DINA. He was part of the Mulchén Brigade, known for the use of sarin gas in several murders and for being responsible for the murder of Carmelo Soria.

Wenderoth was the liaison agent for Luz Arce, a member of the GAP of President Salvador Allende, who was "turned" under torture to become a DINA agent, and was part of the teams in charge of the Villa Grimaldi and Belgrano detention and torture centers.

3. Hermón Alfaro Mundaca. Former PDI commissioner, DINA agent. He was part of Villa Grimaldi from 1975 and was prosecuted along with 97 other agents for the disappearance of 41 people, in the context of the Operation Colombo Case and the Case of the 119, an information poisoning operation of the dictatorship in collusion with El Mercurio and La Tercera to hide disappearances.

To this case corresponds the famous headline of La Segunda on July 24: "Exterminated like rats."

4. Pedro Bitterlich Jaramillo. Former Army non-commissioned officer, DINA agent. He was part of the Lautaro Brigade, which—among other criminal missions—was in charge of the Death Flights, through which DINA disposed of the bodies of its victims using Army Puma helicopters.

To this operation corresponds the case of Marta Lidia Ugarte Román, a victim of a death flight, but whose body was returned by the sea, a case for which Bitterlich was convicted as one of the authors of aggravated kidnapping, along with Pedro Espinoza and several other agents.

He was also implicated in the cases known as Operation Colombo, Calle Conferencia I and II (aimed at the extermination of the Communist Party leadership), and Operation Condor (in which the repressive agencies of several Southern Cone dictatorships colluded to commit and cover up crimes beyond their borders).

5. Claudio Pacheco Fernández. Former Carabineros non-commissioned officer, DINA agent. He was also part of the Lautaro Brigade. He was implicated in Operation Colombo.

6. Orlando Torrejón Gatica. Former Army non-commissioned officer, DINA and CNI agent. He was part of the Lautaro Brigade and became part of the Green and Blue Brigades of the CNI, the repressive organization that succeeded DINA. He was prosecuted in the Calle Conferencia II case.

7. Orlando Altamirano Sanhueza. Former Navy non-commissioned officer, DINA agent. He was also part of the Lautaro Brigade.

8. Carlos López Inostroza. DINA agent. Implicated in the Calle Conferencia I cases and the Marta Ugarte case.

Those who received sentence reductions

9. Ricardo Lawrence Mires. Former Carabineros lieutenant colonel, DINA agent. According to Memoria Viva, he is one of the main and cruelest torturers of the agency, having been the one who coerced Luz Arce before her conversion.

He was assigned to the torture centers Londres 38, José Domingo Cañas, and Villa Grimaldi. Lawrence is known lately for having been a fugitive and being one of the most wanted by the PDI for the homicide of Alfonso Chanfreau, having turned himself in to the OS-9 of Carabineros on January 10.

10. Jorge Andrade Gómez. Former Army lieutenant colonel, DINA and CNI agent. He was part of the School of the Americas, an entity created by the United States to teach techniques of repression and torture that would be used in the dictatorships of the 70s in Latin America.

He was a lieutenant to Miguel Krassnoff after his time at Villa Grimaldi and was implicated in the Calle Conferencia and Condor operations, and in numerous kidnappings. In the CNI, he was part of Operation Alfa Carbón I, in which the CNI killed seven MIR militants, and he was convicted for the murder of Paulina Alejandra Aguirre Tobar, 20, of the MIR in 1985.

11. Juan Morales Salgado. Former Army colonel and director of the DINA Lautaro Brigade. Also known for his participation in the homicide of Prats and his wife, Sofía Cuthbert, in 1974 in the city of Buenos Aires.

For this crime, he was sentenced to 15 years and 1 day of major imprisonment in its maximum degree, as well as for illicit association. This retired Armed Forces officer only entered prison in 2010. Likewise, another conviction weighs on him for the kidnapping of five young people in an episode known as the Linares Case, for which Morales Salgado received a sentence reduction from the Supreme Court in 2011.

12. Gladys Calderón Carreño. Former Army lieutenant, nurse, and agent of the DINA Lautaro Brigade. She was convicted in 2018 by visiting judge Mario Carroza for her actions in the events involving Operation Condor, for her authorship in the aggravated homicides of Ricardo Ignacio Ramírez Herrera, Jacobo Stoulman Bortnik, Matilde Pessa Mois, Hernán Soto Gálvez, and Ruiter Enrique Correa Arce.

Also, according to El Mostrador, she participated in the Calle Conferencia operation and the detention of Víctor Díaz López, of the Communist Party.

13. Ciro Torré Sáez. Former Carabineros captain and administrative chief of DINA. According to the Memoria Viva site, Judge Llanos sentenced him in 2017 to 15 years and 1 day of imprisonment in its maximum degree, as an author of the aggravated kidnapping of Luis Emilio Recabarren González, Carlos Enrique Godoy Lagarrigue, and Iván Sergio Insunza Bascuñán.

Previously, Torré had been convicted by the Supreme Court in the aggravated homicide of Lumi Videla Moya, a member of the MIR, who was kidnapped along with her husband by DINA in 1974, dying in the José Domingo Cañas detention center. The highest court sentenced him to 5 years and 1 day in 2009.

14. Orlando Escalona Acuña. Former Navy non-commissioned officer and member of the DINA Lautaro Brigade. He was previously convicted as a co-author of the 1976 kidnapping and aggravated homicide of Víctor Díaz López, a Communist Party militant who reached a leadership position in the Central Workers' Union of Chile (CUT) in 1973.

In addition, the Supreme Court issued a sentence against him for the kidnapping of former communist deputy Bernardo Araya Zulueta and his wife María Olga Flores Araya in 1976.

15. Juvenal Piña Garrido. Army non-commissioned officer and member of the DINA Lautaro Brigade. He had the same sentence reduction as Sergio Orlando Escalona Acuña, both involved in the kidnapping of Daniel Palma Robledo.

Piña is also serving a sentence for the aggravated kidnapping of Alfredo Rojas Castañeda, Michelle Marguerite Peña Herreros, Ricardo Ernesto Lagos Salinas, Mireya Herminia Rodríguez Díaz, and Exequiel Ponce Vicencio.

16. Jorge Díaz Radulovich. Air Force non-commissioned officer and member of the DINA Lautaro Brigade. The Supreme Court convicted him for the kidnapping of former deputy Bernardo Araya Zulueta and his wife María Olga Flores Araya in 1976 to 5 years and 1 day of imprisonment, as a co-author of the crime.

According to Memoria Viva, Díaz was mentioned in the book La Danza de los Cuervos as a member of the Martyrs' Avengers Command.

17. Gustavo Guerrero Aguilera. Carabineros non-commissioned officer and member of the Lautaro Brigade. He was implicated in the Calle Conferencia operation. He originally received a ten-year sentence for the kidnapping of Daniel Palma Robledo, but his sentence was reduced to three years and one day of minor imprisonment in its maximum degree.

Source: interferencia.cl, April 13, 2020

The Supreme Court convicted 14 agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Luis Emilio Recabarren González, Manuel Guillermo Recabarren González, Nalvia Rosa Mena Alvarado, Manuel Segundo Recabarren Rojas, Clara Elena Canteros Torres, Alejandro Rodríguez Urzúa, Daniel Palma Robledo, Carlos Enrique Godoy Lagarrigue, Iván Sergio Insunza Bascuñán, José Eduardo Santander Miranda, Mario Jesús Juica Vega, Víctor Hugo Morales Mazuela, Carlos Mario Vizcarra Cofré, Miguel Nazal Quiroz, Juan Aurelio Villarroel Zárate, and Julio Roberto Vega Vega; and the aggravated homicide of Eduardo Canteros Prado. The crimes were committed between April and August 1976, in the province of Santiago.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 71.900-2020), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of justices Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, María Cristina Gajardo, María Soledad Melo, and Eliana Quezada—revoked the sentence issued by the Eighth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals in April 2020, which applied the "half-prescription" (gradual statute of limitations) to the accused.

In a replacement sentence, the Supreme Court sentenced former DINA leaders and former Army officers Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo and Jorge Claudio Andrade Gómez to 15 years and 1 day of imprisonment as authors of 16 aggravated kidnappings and 10 years and 1 day as authors of one aggravated homicide.

Meanwhile, Rolf Arnold Wenderoth Pozo was sentenced to two terms of 10 years and 1 day of imprisonment as an author of three aggravated kidnappings and one aggravated homicide; Juan Hernán Morales Salgado and Gladys de las Mercedes Calderón Carreño to 10 years and 1 day of imprisonment as authors of six aggravated kidnappings.

In the case of former agents Sergio Orlando Escalona Acuña, Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich, and Gustavo Enrique Guerrero Aguilera, they were sentenced to 5 years and 1 day of imprisonment as authors of a single case of aggravated kidnapping.

Likewise, former agents Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, Orlando del Tránsito Altamirano Sanhueza, and Carlos Eugenio López Inostroza must serve 7 years as accomplices to the 16 aggravated kidnappings and 5 years and 1 day of imprisonment as accomplices to the aggravated homicide.

Finally, Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca must serve 7 years as an accomplice to 15 aggravated kidnappings and 5 years and 1 day of imprisonment as an accomplice to the aggravated homicide.

The criminals Carlos José Leonardo López Tapia and Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, who had been convicted in the first-instance ruling issued by Judge Leopoldo Llanos in July 2017 to 20-year prison terms, died during the course of the process. Also deceased are those convicted in the first instance Ciro Ernesto Torré Sáez, Orlando José Manzo Durán, and Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo.

In dismissing the half-prescription, the Supreme Court establishes that: "(...) it is necessary to take into consideration that the matter under discussion must also be analyzed in accordance with international Human Rights regulations contained mainly in the Geneva Conventions, which prevent prescription, total or gradual, regarding crimes committed in cases of armed conflicts without an international character."

The resolution adds: "The same conclusion is reached considering both the norms of the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons, and those of the Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, since in accordance with that regulation, gradual prescription has the same nature as total prescription."

"From another perspective, the doctrine on this matter has expressed that its foundations are found in the same considerations of social stability and legal certainty that gave rise to Article 93 of the Penal Code, but that it is intended to produce its effects in those cases in which the realization of the ends provided for prescription does not occur naturally but after a gradual process, that is, when the time necessary to prescribe is about to be fulfilled, which would justify the mitigation of the penalty," it adds.

"However," it continues, "it is evident that that conclusion is for cases that do not present the characteristics of crimes against humanity, since these are imprescriptible. Consequently, for such mitigation to be appropriate, it is necessary that it be a crime in the process of prescribing, which does not happen in this case, so the passage of time does not produce any effect, because social reproach does not diminish with time, which only occurs in cases of common crimes."

The facts

In the first-instance ruling, the visiting judge Leopoldo Llanos Sagristá established that within the framework of the systematic repression of opponents of the military regime, between the months of April and August 1976, the detentions of a series of people occurred, all militants of the Communist Party.

On April 29, 1976, in the sector of Santa Rosa and Sebastopol streets in the commune of San Miguel, the brothers Manuel Guillermo, 22, and Luis Emilio Recabarren González, 29, were detained by DINA agents, along with Nalvia Rosa Mena Alvarado, 20, and her two-year-old son. The minor was abandoned near his home at night.

The following day, April 30, at 7:00 AM, Manuel Segundo Recabarren Rojas, 50, was detained shortly after leaving his home in the same sector and when he was preparing to board a public bus.

All the detainees were taken to the clandestine detention and torture center 'Villa Grimaldi'; Manuel Guillermo Recabarren González and Manuel Segundo Recabarren Rojas were also seen at the 'Simón Bolívar' facility, and Luis Emilio Recabarren González at 'Cuatro Álamos'. From those facilities, DINA made them disappear.

On July 23, 1976, around 8:00 PM, at the intersection of Rojas Magallanes and Panamá streets in the commune of La Florida, the young Clara Elena Canteros Torres, 21, was detained by DINA agents. She was subdued while getting off public transport.

She was taken to 'Villa Grimaldi' where she was seen by witnesses, and on August 20, 1976, she was taken out of that facility along with fellow detainees Mario Juica Vega and Óscar Ramos. Since then, they were made to disappear.

At 9:40 PM, Eduardo Canteros Prado, 48, Clara Elena's uncle, a civil engineer, was detained on a public road by DINA agents, in front of his home located on Panamá street, in the commune of La Florida. He was taken to 'Villa Grimaldi'. In 1990, his remains were found at the Las Tórtolas farm in Colina, a facility that belonged to the Army until 1980.

On July 27, 1976, around 5:15 PM, Alejandro Rodríguez Urzúa, 49, was detained by DINA agents from his office located at Mallinkrodt 70, Barrio Bellavista. They took him to the 'Villa Grimaldi' facility.

On August 4, 1976, Daniel Palma Robledo, 61, a businessman, was detained in the morning on Avenida Matta, between San Diego and Arturo Prat streets; after picking up his mail, he bought a newspaper and at the moment of leaving, he was detained and taken to an unknown destination, but he was seen at the 'Simón Bolívar' extermination barracks.

On that same August 4, at 3:00 PM, the doctor Carlos Enrique Godoy Lagarrigue, 39, was detained. They captured him during his commute between the Parochial Hospital of San Bernardo and his private practice, located at the corner of Barros Arana and Arturo Prat. He was taken to 'Villa Grimaldi' and, subsequently, to 'Cuatro Álamos', from where he was made to disappear.

On the night of August 4, the surgeon Iván Sergio Insunza Bascuñán, 43, was detained by DINA agents while driving his vehicle. He was taken to 'Villa Grimaldi' and then to 'Cuatro Álamos'.

On August 6, 1976, shortly after leaving his home, around 9:30 AM, the student leader and member of the Central Workers' Union, José Eduardo Santander Miranda, 29, was detained by DINA agents; surviving witnesses saw him at the 'Villa Grimaldi' facility.

On August 9, Víctor Hugo Morales Mazuela, 45, a carpenter and construction worker, union leader, and organization head of a regional branch of the Communist Party, was detained in the morning in the vicinity of the 'Villa México' neighborhood in the commune of Maipú and was taken to 'Villa Grimaldi'. Subsequently, he was seen at the 'Simón Bolívar' barracks.

On that same August 9, Mario Jesús Juica Vega, 34, a merchant, was detained around noon in the vicinity of Plaza Egaña, in the commune of Ñuñoa, and taken to 'Villa Grimaldi', a place where he was seen by numerous witnesses. On August 20, he was taken out of that facility along with two other detainees and since then DINA has made them disappear.

On August 11, 1976, at 9:00 AM, while leaving his home located on Chiloé street, between Santa Rosa and Gran Avenida, in the commune of San Miguel, the merchant Miguel Nazal Quiroz, 44, was detained by DINA agents. He was taken to 'Villa Grimaldi'.

On the night of the same August 11, Carlos Mario Vizcarra Cofré, 31, a bodywork repairman, was detained at his home in Quinta Normal by agents who took him to 'Villa Grimaldi', a facility where witnesses saw him until August 25 of the same year. Subsequently, he was seen at the 'Simón Bolívar' facility.

On August 13, Juan Aurelio Villarroel Zárate, 55, a union leader and photoengraver, was detained around noon by DINA agents near the Mapocho Station while traveling from his home in Conchalí. He was taken to Villa Grimaldi.

On August 16, 1976, at 11:30 AM, the worker Julio Roberto Vega Vega was detained by DINA agents on Avenida Presidente Balmaceda, between Cueto and Libertad, in the commune of Santiago. Several witnesses saw him held in both 'Villa Grimaldi' and the 'Simón Bolívar' barracks.

by Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl, July 30, 2023