Sergio Francisco Jara Arancibia had been a fugitive from the Chilean justice system since last year and was located by the Argentine Federal Police in Mar del Plata. This Sunday, in Mar del Plata, the Argentine Federal Police arrested Sergio Francisco Jara Arancibia, who was a colonel in the Chilean Army during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

Jara had been a fugitive from Chilean justice for a year and was subject to an international arrest warrant. The former colonel is accused of a series of homicides committed in 1973 and is considered “one of the most wanted fugitives in Chile,” according to a press release from the Argentine Ministry of Security.

Furthermore, the same note reports that “the detainee will be extradited to Chile and placed at the disposal of the Justice system for due process,” as in 2017, the Supreme Court confirmed a prison sentence for the murder of a doctor and a public official, both opponents of the dictatorship.

Regarding the arrest, it was carried out through the Federal Court of Mar del Plata and the General Directorate of International Coordination of the Interpol Department. To achieve this, they identified one of his children, which served to locate the fugitive from justice. Jara Arancibia was found at the intersection of San Juan and 25 de Mayo streets, in Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Source: t13.cl, July 15, 2018

How Sergio Jara Arancibia’s Downfall Occurred in Argentina

In the last two years, eight people who were fugitives from justice after being convicted of human rights crimes during the military government have been found. A new unit of the PDI (Investigations Police) has led the search.

The last to fall was Sergio Jara Arancibia, whom they followed for several days until they found his whereabouts in Mar del Plata, Argentina. The last time the entire Jara Arancibia family was together was for Easter this year.

They are a large clan, but some members were outside of Chile, making it difficult for them to see each other. They only gathered for special occasions. In this case, they were brought together by the death of María Ester Arancibia.

At 90 years old, she was the sister, mother, and grandmother of the entire clan. Nearly one hundred people attended the funeral held in Santiago. Family and friends came to pay their respects. Everyone close to the family noticed the absence of one particularly close person.

The one missing was Sergio Jara Arancibia, one of María Ester’s eldest sons. Only a few had news about his whereabouts, but no one could say it publicly. Former Army Colonel Sergio Jara Arancibia had been a fugitive from justice since August 2017, after being sentenced by the Supreme Court to 18 years in prison for the homicide of Socialist Party leader Rigoberto Achú Liendo and Communist militant Absalón Wegner Milla in a San Felipe prison on December 13, 1973.

The same sentence was given to General (Ret.) Héctor Orozco (who managed to remain a fugitive for two weeks) and former officer Pedro Lovera Bentacur. During those days, Jara Arancibia was in hiding, watching from afar what was happening with his family and planning his next steps.

It is now known that he was in Argentina and that he was only a few days away from returning to Chile to face his sentence. * The main difficulty the PDI has encountered in tracking and finding fugitives for human rights crimes during the military government is the training of the fugitives themselves.

All members of the Armed Forces, the DINA, and the CNI underwent intelligence and counterintelligence training. Therefore, they know perfectly well what search strategies are, how to evade police surveillance, and what they must do to go unnoticed.

Those who have worked on these types of cases say that searching for these individuals is much more complicated than searching for a common criminal. They know how to detect when their phones are being tapped and avoid any type of procedure that involves providing personal data, a common mistake among other types of fugitives.

The existence of a protection network among former members of these groups is a proven factor, state those who have led the investigations. Otherwise, it would be impossible for so many former military personnel to evade justice for so long.

Especially considering that most are elderly. The problem is that the origin of a single network is impossible to determine. In some cases, it is former military personnel providing support, but there is also suspicion of lawyers, activists, and family members, the same sources explain.

The protection involves the provision of economic and material resources. For this reason, fugitives can continuously change their address and car. Many of the former military personnel still receive pensions from the Armed Forces, but none withdraw that money for fear of being located.

The support network is important for generating economic resources. Equally vital is the transfer of information regarding security gaps at unofficial border crossings, which is precisely where Jara Arancibia is believed to have escaped.

To achieve better results, two years ago a group of 12 detectives from the PDI’s Location of Persons Brigade was formed with the mission of supporting the Human Rights Brigade, which until that moment had been dedicated to searching for fugitives from justice in these types of cases.

The change originated from a suggestion by the visiting ministers, who saw that requests to locate those convicted were taking too long to resolve. The difference is that these new detectives are focused entirely on the search for fugitives, while the Human Rights Brigade, in addition to that task, had to investigate the rest of the cases assigned by the justice system. “Silent, very professional, and very arduous work has been done over time to be able to gather information regarding people who are fugitives from justice and who, obviously, at the express request of the visiting ministers, have been subject to these proceedings in different parts of Chile,” comments the brigade’s commissioner, Óscar Garrido. This new group was asked to search for 10 fugitives in complete secrecy. With two years of work, the brigade has already managed to locate eight people: Andrés Flores Sabelle (Temuco), Leonidas Bustos San Juan (Conchalí), Luis Sanhueza Ross (Melipilla), Pedro Guzmán Olivares (Puerto Montt), Luis Albornoz Costa (Providencia), Otto Trujillo Miranda (Santiago), Juan Rubilar Ottone (Pucón), and Sergio Jara Arancibia (Mar del Plata, Argentina). Almost all were found living in plots of land or cabins far from the city. The towns in the south of the country have been ideal for that purpose. Former CNI Colonel Rubilar Ottone was arrested this year while shopping at a supermarket in Pucón. He was dressed in a large hat and a multi-day beard to try to mislead. His residence was kilometers away from the location, in a house with difficult access for those who did not know the area. Luis Sanhueza Ross, “El Huiro,” was captured by the PDI on August 28, 2017, the day of his 61st birthday. Despite versions that placed him in Argentina, the detectives ended up finding him on a plot of land in Melipilla after tracking several of his relatives, who had been seen in previous days buying gifts at retail stores. He had escaped from justice after being convicted for the kidnapping of five members of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez in the days following Operation Albania. Currently, the brigade is focused on the search for the last two fugitives to close the list they were initially entrusted with. Two years after the start of their work, the results have been well-rated by the visiting ministers and human rights groups. One of the emblematic cases is that of former Carabineros officer and head of a DINA operational group, Ricardo Lawrence, who has been missing since 2015 and has been convicted for his participation in several cases of torture and disappearance. Some reports indicate that “Cachete Grande” is in very poor health and that is why he almost never goes out into the public sphere. His search has been a priority for years in the Supreme Court and the Human Rights Brigade, as he was one of the most influential agents among the repressive groups. * One brother was a lieutenant in a regiment in San Felipe, and the other was a militant of the Socialist Party in the midst of the military dictatorship. A merchant father who, through his work, met Salvador Allende, who was right-wing and never belonged to a political party, and who let his children freely take very different paths. That was the Jara Arancibia family in the 80s: a middle-class group living in a house on Marín Street, in the heart of Santiago. In total, there were five children, four men and one woman. The eldest brother was Francisco Ramón, an English teacher who had to leave the country in 1973 shortly after the military coup because he was not safe under the government of Augusto Pinochet. Around the same time, Sergio Jara Arancibia was beginning his career in the Army. In 1973, he was a lieutenant in the Yungay Regiment in San Felipe. That is where the murder of the two leftist leaders occurred. The official version indicated that the homicide had occurred when they were being transferred to the San Felipe prison and the car they were in broke down. At that moment, one of the prisoners took the opportunity to “wrest” the weapon from one of the conscripts, and the other had taken the opportunity to escape. That is why, the Army’s version stated, the confrontation had occurred. After that, Jara Arancibia taught at the War Academy and became an Army colonel. The justice system, however, ruled years later—thanks to the testimony of witnesses—that the leftist leaders had been riddled with bullets in the back a few meters from the prison. One of them was in very poor physical condition because he had been previously tortured. Jara Arancibia was one of the shooters. At that time, Jara Arancibia took advantage of his connections in the military world to communicate with his exiled brother and send him some gifts. They talked about politics, but they never fought over those reasons. Both understood that they had been assigned to different sides. What the soldier had done in the Yungay Regiment was never a secret. Those close to him knew that he had killed two people on the left during a procedure. His defenders say that Jara Arancibia had no option to refuse the orders of his superiors. In 1973, he was 22 years old and was barely a lieutenant just taking his first steps in the Army. Despite the evidence that clearly points to him in a homicide, they say it is unfair that he was given the same 18 years that were given to the generals who were in charge of the procedure. After those events, Jara Arancibia continued his military career: teaching at the War Academy and becoming an Army colonel. The PDI found Jara Arancibia after following the unusual movements of one of his sons, who is a theater actor, who traveled to Argentina in July. He went from Buenos Aires to Salta and then to Jujuy. From there, he returned to the Federal Capital and left again, this time heading to Mar del Plata. When the investigators realized this, they alerted Interpol and the Argentine Federal Police. A group of detectives traveled to the trans-Andean country to participate in the operation. Jara Arancibia and his son planned to meet on July 17 in a plaza. The colonel arrived with a red parka, a scarf, and a beret to try to mislead. It didn’t work. The Argentine Federal Police surprised them when the family reunion had barely begun. Jara Arancibia just looked at them resignedly and did not resist when being arrested. Meeting his son was a risk he had assumed. No one was surprised by the amount of time the colonel managed to evade justice. Due to his rigid military training, the possibility of surrendering to justice was synonymous with defeat. And that defeat was never in his plans.

Source: cosecharoja.cl, July 31, 2018

Former Colonel Sergio Jara, Convicted of Murders of Pinochet Opponents, Arrested in Argentina

The Argentine Ministry of Security declared that the former high-ranking officer will be “extradited to Chile” and will be “placed at the disposal of the Justice system for due process.” The former soldier had been a fugitive for a year.

This Sunday, Sergio Jara Arancibia, a former Army colonel during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, was arrested in Mar del Plata by the Argentine Federal Police. The former high-ranking officer had been a fugitive from justice for a year and had an active international arrest warrant.

The former soldier was considered one of “the most wanted fugitives in Chile” and is currently accused of a large number of homicides that occurred during the dictatorship. So far, the Supreme Court has only confirmed the conviction for two of his murders: a doctor and a government official, both opponents of the regime.

The Argentine Ministry of Security reported that the detainee will be “extradited to Chile and placed at the disposal of the Justice system for due process.” Argentine media report that the discovery of the fugitive was possible after investigating his son. “The information collected allowed for the identification of his son and the controlled monitoring of his movements,” the ministry explained.

Jara was found at the intersection of 25 de Mayo and San Juan streets, in Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires. Both the Federal Court of Mar del Plata and the General Directorate of International Coordination of the Interpol Department participated in the investigation to search for the former colonel.

Source: eldesconcierto.cl, July 15, 2018

Argentina Approves Extradition of Former Colonel Sergio Francisco Jara Arancibia for Dictatorship Crimes

According to legal sources, Santiago Inchausti, a federal judge in the coastal town of Mar del Plata, declared the extradition of the 67-year-old former soldier appropriate this Wednesday, following a request received from the Chilean justice system, which seeks to have him serve the sentence handed down in January 2016.

The Argentine justice system ordered the extradition of former Chilean colonel Sergio Francisco Jara Arancibia, who had been arrested last year for being sentenced in his country to 10 years in prison for two homicides committed in 1973, during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

According to legal sources, Santiago Inchausti, a federal judge in the coastal town of Mar del Plata, declared the extradition of the 67-year-old former soldier appropriate this Wednesday, following a request received from the Chilean justice system, which seeks to have him serve the sentence handed down in January 2016.

At the time the sentence was to be executed, the convicted man fled, which led to the issuance of an international arrest warrant, and he was finally arrested in July of last year in Mar del Plata, 400 kilometers south of Buenos Aires.

On February 27, in a hearing, Jara Arancibia’s defense requested the annulment of the arrest, which was rejected due to the validity of the active Interpol red notice, and maintained that his client was a “political refugee.” Faced with another argument from the defense, which clung to the “statute of limitations” of the crime, the judge remarked that these are crimes against humanity, which are imprescriptible.

After his arrest, Jara Arancibia had requested recognition of his refugee status from the National Commission for Refugees. Although this was denied, an administrative appeal is still pending. Jara Arancibia was considered one of the most wanted fugitives in Chile.

The former colonel was identified in 2018 after Argentine authorities found him by investigating his son. “The information collected allowed for the identification of his son and the controlled monitoring of his movements from the City of Buenos Aires to Salta and Jujuy (northern Argentina) and again to the Federal Capital, to then move to Mar del Plata, where the investigation culminated with the capture of Jara Arancibia,” judicial sources clarified at the time.

The Supreme Court of Chile confirmed his prison sentence in 2017 for the murder of a doctor and a public official who were opponents of the dictatorship. During Pinochet’s mandate, according to official data, some 3,200 Chileans died at the hands of State agents, of whom 1,192 are still listed as forcibly disappeared, while another 33,000 were tortured and imprisoned for political reasons.

Source: elmostrador.cl, March 7, 2019

Regime Lamented Death in Prison of Dictatorship Murderer, Héctor Orozco.

Former General Héctor Orozco died at age 93 in the Punta Peuco prison, where he was serving a ten-year sentence for his responsibility in the murder during the civil-military dictatorship of Rigoberto del Carmen Achú Liendo and Absalón del Carmen Wegner Millar, on December 13, 1973, in the commune of San Felipe, an event that the regime lamented, noting that they will insist on projects to pardon these criminals.

The criminal served as director of the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE) during the civil-military dictatorship and was convicted for his responsibility in the murder on December 13, 1973, of Rigoberto del Carmen Achú Liendo and Absalón del Carmen Wegner Millar.

The facts established in the case for which he was convicted indicate that the human rights violator of the dictatorship was in charge of a patrol from the then-Infantry Regiment No. 3 Yungay of San Felipe, taking the victims—a Socialist Party leader and a Communist Party member—from the prison on the day of the crime, only to have them riddled with bullets on a public road by Orozco’s order.

In principle, the former general was sentenced to serve an 18-year prison sentence for the crime by Minister Arancibia, a sentence that was reduced by the Valparaíso Court of Appeals to only 10 years, the same sentence shared by former military personnel Sergio Francisco Jara Arancibia and Pedro Luis Lovera Betancourt, as perpetrators.

For their part, former uniformed officers Raúl Orlando Pascual Navarro Quintana and Milton René Núñez Hidalgo were sentenced to 5 years. Orozco made news in 2018 when he tried to get Piñera to pardon him, citing “humanitarian reasons,” which was denied.

Upon learning of the death of the human rights violator, the regime, represented by the UDI’s Víctor Pérez, lamented the death of the soldier in prison, noting that they are pushing for bills to manage to pardon more people responsible for crimes against humanity during the civil-military dictatorship: “We deeply regret that a person passes away in any prison, as a result of an illness and also as a result of their advanced state, and that is why the government presented a humanitarian law that has not been able to advance in Congress,” and recalled how Piñera pardoned two human rights violators a few weeks ago. In that line of impunity, Pérez stressed that they seek to include human rights violators of the civil-military dictatorship in pardon bills for those over 70 years old, noting that the regime “presented initiatives that were unfortunately rejected in Congress, so that people over 70 years old at risk of Covid, when it was possible to release them or ensure that people went to serve the rest of their sentences in prison, were not allowed by the majority of Congress, that this could also be applied to those who had been Carabineros or military personnel in the past.” Finally, he concluded by lamenting not having the mechanisms for it: “we very much regret not having had those legal instruments that the Government presented at the time to protect those who are in a condition of risk, but that is the institutional framework and we are going to continue, as the President has done, seeing the policy of individual pardons, which is the instrument he has at his hand.”

Source: ruil.cl, August 26, 2020