Héctor Ernaldo Velásquez Mardones, single, furniture maker, and communist militant, was detained at his home in the city of Villarrica on November 3, 1973, around 3:00 a.m. by two military officials accompanied by a civilian named Eithel Thilimann, a local pharmacist.

Eyewitnesses to the arrest were his parents, who could do nothing to prevent the illegal and arbitrary detention. Outside the house, his captors beat him and shot him in the legs, then forced him into a white pickup truck owned by the civilian accompanying the captors, taking him to an unknown destination.

The victim's mother, Mrs. María Audelina Mardones Castro, went to the Villarrica Carabineros Police Station once the curfew was lifted to inquire about her son's whereabouts. Upon heading to that location, she was able to verify that there were fresh bloodstains on the Toltén River bridge, which she attributed to her son's wounds caused by the actions of the military captors.

At the police unit, they recorded her statements regarding the events that occurred that early morning and sent the information to the Military Prosecutor's Office of Temuco. However, to this date, the victim remains in the status of forcibly disappeared, with the fate he met at the hands of the state agents who detained him remaining unknown.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On November 4, 1974, the victim's mother reported the events that occurred the previous day at her home, which resulted in the detention and shooting of Héctor Ernaldo Velásquez, to the Villarrica Carabineros Police Station.

The information was sent to the Military Prosecutor's Office of Temuco, which instructed a summary proceeding under case number 1638 for alleged unnecessary violence. The investigation lasted 48 hours and the case was totally and temporarily dismissed in accordance with Article 409 No. 1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, that is, because "the perpetration of a crime was not justified."

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity

In a unanimous ruling, the Sixth Chamber of the appellate court confirmed the sentence ordering the State to pay compensation of $80,000,000 to the daughter of Héctor Velásquez Mardones, who was detained on May 16, 1977, in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, within the framework of the so-called Operation Condor.

The Santiago Court of Appeals confirmed the sentence ordering the State to pay compensation of $80,000,000 (eighty million pesos) to the daughter of Héctor Velásquez Mardones, who was detained on May 16, 1977, in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, within the framework of the so-called Operation Condor.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 2.782-2022), the Sixth Chamber of the appellate court—composed of ministers Jenny Book, Lidia Poza, and acting lawyer Cristián Lepín—confirmed the first-instance ruling in its entirety.

“Given the merit of the records, the appealed sentence dated January 21, 2022, issued by the Sixth Civil Court of Santiago in case File No. 6945-2021, is confirmed,” the ruling states.

The ratified first-instance ruling rejected the statute of limitations defense and established the moral damage caused to the plaintiff.

“That, in addition to what has been stated, it is contrary to logic and far from a principle of reasonableness to establish that, if the imprescriptibility of crimes against humanity has been estimated by International Law, as previously asserted, it can be concluded that the civil action arising from the same should be treated differently, since the previously transcribed norms have established the opposite,” the ruling states.

The resolution adds: “That, furthermore, it is necessary to add that subjecting the statute of limitations of the action in question to the norms provided in this regard by the national common law would entail establishing an arbitrary and incoherent distinction with the international regulation of war crimes and crimes against humanity, as it is not reasonable to grant the action in question a treatment dissimilar to the criminal action derived from behaviors described in the law as crimes against humanity, given that international regulations have not done so, but on the contrary, have advocated the opposite, as has been said; to make a distinction such as the one described where the international regulation itself has not done so, applying, for this purpose, private law norms not relevant to a case like the one in question, would mean sliding into the terrain of the arbitrary or making a decision, at the very least, capricious regarding the case, which cannot be endorsed by the undersigned.”

“That—it continues—in correlation with what was reflected previously and the considerations pertaining to the application of International Law and its guiding principles in accordance with the situation of the case, and considering that the application of the statute of limitations contemplated by private law would imply the violation of those [principles] and leave the State's responsibility without application as provided by Article 38, second paragraph of the Fundamental Charter and Article 4 of the Organic Law of General Bases of State Administration, it only remains to reject the statute of limitations exception raised by the State in its entirety.”

“That, consequently, with the commission of the crime against humanity committed by State agents against Héctor Velásquez Mardones having been proven, the circumstance of the moral damages that the plaintiff, his daughter, has suffered due to the commission of said illicit act, and taking into consideration the provisions of Article 38, second paragraph of the Political Constitution of the Republic and Article 4 of the Organic Law of General Bases of State Administration, the State's obligation to compensate for the aforementioned damages has arisen,” it concludes.

Source: pjud.cl 05/13/2022 Date: 05-13-2022

Supreme Court confirms conviction of lieutenant (R) for qualified kidnapping

Highest court rejected the cassation appeal presented by a former member of the Army accused of the disappearance of Héctor Velásquez in 1973.

The Second Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court unanimously confirmed the application of the charge of qualified kidnapping filed against a military officer prosecuted for the disappearance of Héctor Arnaldo Velásquez Mardones, which occurred on November 3, 1973.

The court, composed of its permanent members, rejected the appeal in cassation on the merits presented by Army Lieutenant (R) Nelson Thielemann Rodríguez, who was sentenced to 10 years and one day by the Minister of the Temuco Court of Appeals, Fernando Carreño, whose sentence was confirmed by the same appellate court.

The highest court rejected this filing due to formal grounds regarding the document submitted by the defense, since although the defendant's participation in a crime is recognized, it is argued that this illicit act is different from the one determined by the investigation, and the appellant's arguments point to the fact that the crime has not been proven, without indicating which one should be considered established, nor has participation been established.

The Supreme Court chamber was composed of Alberto Chaigneau, acting as president, his colleagues Enrique Curi, Jaime Rodríguez, and Rubén Ballesteros, as well as acting lawyer Fernando Castro.

Juan Enrique Inzunza Poblete also received a conviction, corresponding to three years of minor imprisonment in its medium degree as a co-author of the aforementioned crime.

Source: El Mostrador - April 5, 2006 Date: 04-05-2006

Reserve officer convicted for death of PC militant

A new human rights violation case has been judicially clarified and ended in a conviction for the authors of the events recorded in Villarrica in 1973.

This is a first-instance sentence issued against the former reserve officer of the Tucapel Regiment, Nelson Thielemann, and against the civilian Juan Insunza Poblete. The former was sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison as the author of qualified kidnapping, while the latter was sentenced as a co-author.

The justice system imposed a sentence of three years and one day on the latter for the same crime.

Furniture Maker

The furniture maker Héctor Velásquez Mardones was a militant in the Communist Party, was single, and was 29 years old at the time of his detention. The events that led to his disappearance occurred at three in the afternoon on November 3, 1973, outside his house and in front of his parents.

The investigation carried out by the Special Cases and Human Rights Brigade of the Investigative Police proved that after the detention, those now convicted proceeded to take Velásquez Mardones to the Rodrigo Bastidas bridge in Villarrica and, after shooting him twice, threw him into the waters of the Toltén River, in the Ninth Region.

The importance of this sentence is that the circumstances of Velásquez Mardones's death were able to be clarified 32 years after the events occurred, and after the case had been dismissed by the military justice system, which closed the investigation 25 years ago, 48 hours after the complaint was filed.

Source: La Nación - May 18, 2005 Date: 05-18-2005

Where are the “Héctors” (Elizabeth Velásquez Mardones).... excerpt

Villarrica, three in the morning on November 4, 1973. Loud banging on the door woke the Velásquez Mardones family. The mother, María Audelina, ran to see what was happening. It was the town pharmacist, along with his son, an Army reservist, and other neighbors. “We’re looking for your kid, the ‘minino’,” they said.

That was the nickname of Héctor Ernaldo Velásquez Mardones (29), the second of the homeowners' six children. “As soon as they let him put on his pants, they grabbed him, and immediately began to beat him; they would make him walk a little, and then beat him again,” recalls his sister, Elizabeth.

They took him away in a white pickup truck. They never found him again. They allegedly threw him from the Rodrigo de Bastidas bridge into the Toltén River. In 2005, the former reserve officer of the Tucapel Regiment, Nelson Thielemann, and the civilian Juan Insunza Poblete were convicted as author and co-author of the qualified kidnapping of Héctor Ernaldo.

In 2006, the Second Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court unanimously confirmed that sentence. “My brother was in the Communist Youth, like me. He had taken charge of the family furniture workshop when my dad became bedridden.

That militancy was his death sentence,” says Elizabeth. But their hardships did not end with that tragedy; they learned of the second one four years later, when the older brother, Héctor Heraldo (34), married with four children, was detained in Buenos Aires on May 16, 1977, along with Alexei Jaccard and Ricardo Ramírez.

All of them were communists and were participating in an operation to bring funds to the PC in Chile. Their apprehension occurred within the framework of Operation Condor. “It wasn't until 2015 that we confirmed he had been handed over to DINA agents and that they brought him to Chile, to the Simón Bolívar barracks.” There, he was interrogated under torture, and on an undetermined date, he disappeared.

Source: revistanos.cl, no date, excerpt