Jorge Antonio Herrera Cofré, 18 years old at the time of his detention, a secondary student and member of the MIR, was detained on December 13, 1974. Although there are no direct witnesses to his detention and the circumstances remain unknown, it has been possible to confirm the fact of his arrest and the places where he was held through witness testimony.

His family states that on that same day, December 13, 1974, around 10:00 PM, while they were at their home at Calle La Victoria 0356, house 12, five armed men dressed in civilian clothes arrived. They claimed to be from Investigaciones (the Investigations Police) and displayed a credential that no one was able to read.

They immediately asked for Jorge Antonio, who had left moments earlier. They asked questions about his studies, his friends, and his activities. They entered his room and raided it, searching it thoroughly and leaving everything in complete disarray.

They even attempted to break some of the furniture in the house, which was prevented by the family's protests. After half an hour, they left the scene in a late-model Chevrolet pickup truck with a cream-colored canopy and cabin.

Among the agents who arrived at his home on the night of December 13, 1974, in search of Jorge Herrera Cofré, Osvaldo Romo Mena, alias "el guatón Raúl," was identified as one of the agents who participated in that operation.

In a statement given to the Second Criminal Court of the Presidente Aguirre Cerda Department (case file 28.029), Bernardita Núñez Herrera reports that while she was being held at the illegal detention center known as "Venda Sexy," located at the corner of Calle Irán and Los Plátanos in the Macul commune, she was taken to the bathroom on December 13 and was able to see Jorge Antonio Herrera Cofré, who was at the entrance to the men's restroom, blindfolded.

Bernardita states that she knew the young Herrera from before, as they both belonged to the same school group in the area and because of their shared political militancy. She approached him, and he asked her that, if she were released, she should notify his family of his arrest.

The witness also notes that the victim was wearing a Nile green short-sleeved shirt and blue jeans on that occasion, which coincides with the description of the clothing the family provided for when they last saw him.

Also significant is the statement made by Héctor Hernán González Osorio. Speaking about his own detention and the consequences it had for the MIR's militancy, he relates that on December 7, 1974, he was taken to an office where, during a raid, DINA agents found the contact points that González was supposed to use in the coming days.

Thus, a week after this event, this witness reports that "...comrade Jorge Antonio Herrera Cofré or 'Jaime,' a very young secondary student..." was arrested. Manuel Elías Padilla Ballesteros, for his part, says that although he did not see the victim himself, he learned from other detainees that the young Herrera was at Venda Sexy and that he was taken from that place along with Félix de la Jara Goyeneche and Isidro Pizarro Meniconi between December 15 and 18, 1974.

He knew Jorge Herrera Cofré perfectly well, as they had been secondary school classmates at Liceo de Hombres N°6. On July 24, 1975, the newspaper La Segunda published a list of 59 people, including Herrera Cofré, who were supposedly killed in the town of Salta, Argentina, as a result of an alleged confrontation with that country's police.

This version was provided by a wire service report citing information from the newspaper O'Dia of Curitiba, Brazil. It was later proven that the publication in question corresponded to the newspaper Novo Dia, which was the successor to O'Dia (which had closed 14 years earlier) and which published only one issue: the one that printed the list of alleged Chilean extremists killed.

The 59 names on the O'Dia list, plus a second list of 60 names with similar characteristics published by the Argentine magazine LEA, correspond to 119 forcibly disappeared persons who had been detained by security services between June 1974 and February 1975.

In a sworn statement before a notary, Elena Cofré Jofré relates that on July 29, 1977, two detectives who identified themselves and were traveling in an Investigaciones vehicle appeared at her home at Avda.

Fraternal 3833, J.M. Caro housing project, saying they were sent by the Government to assist in clarifying the cases of disappeared persons. What they were actually interested in was knowing how the initiative to submit a petition to the Government on behalf of several forcibly disappeared persons had been organized.

On March 26, 1987, the victim's mother placed on record in a sworn statement that she had received numerous anonymous phone calls, especially during that month, intended to intimidate her in her search for her son Jorge. To this date, Jorge Herrera Cofré remains forcibly disappeared.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On December 20, 1974, an amparo (habeas corpus) petition, case file 1626-74, was filed with the Santiago Court of Appeals. This petition was filed by the victim's mother, Elena Cofré Jofré. On that same day, December 20, the Court made a telephone inquiry to Investigaciones to find out if the young Herrera was being held in any of their facilities.

The response was negative. On December 21, official letters were sent to the Minister of the Interior, the Minister of Defense, and the Chief of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA). On December 30, the Director of the DINA responded, requesting that the Court "be kind enough to address the Ministry of the Interior (Confidential Department) or the National Executive Secretariat for Detainees, which has the mission of providing this type of information." On January 16, the Minister of the Interior at the time, General Raúl Benavides Escobar, responded, stating that he was not being held by order of that Ministry. For her part, the petitioner in the amparo case, the mother of the disappeared, requested the Court on three occasions during the processing of the amparo to reiterate the official requests so that the authorities would provide an answer regarding her son's whereabouts. On February 18, 1975, Colonel Hernán Ramírez Ramírez, Chief of the State of Siege Zone, responded that the victim was not being held by order of that Command. On February 19, the Aviation Combat Command did the same, stating that he was not being held or prosecuted by the Aviation Courts. Based on these reports, on May 28, 1975, the Court dismissed the amparo petition and ordered the records to be transferred to the corresponding Major Criminal Court. On July 3, 1975, the Second Major Criminal Court of La Granja ordered the opening of case file 18.280 on behalf of Jorge Herrera Cofré. The victim's mother appeared to ratify what she had stated in the amparo petition and added that, on May 28 of that year, she had filed a complaint for illegal arrest in the same Court, which was registered under file 18.263; therefore, on June 11, 1975, it was ordered that case file 18.280 be consolidated with 18.263. Once the summary investigation was initiated, several measures were ordered: requests for reports from the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Defense, and the Chief of the State of Siege Zone. All of them responded negatively regarding the whereabouts of Herrera Cofré. On June 6, Minister of the Interior General Raúl Benavides Escobar responded; on June 8, Colonel Oscar Coddou Vivanco (Undersecretary of War); and on June 18, Brigadier General and Chief of the State of Emergency Zone, Rolando Garay Cifuentes. Between June 3 and 5, the victim's parents and siblings testified before the Court, informing the Judge of the information they had regarding the detention and the raid on their home on December 13, 1974. However, based on the evidence, and because in the Court's judgment the commission of a crime in connection with the disappearance of Jorge A. Herrera Cofré had not been fully established, the case was temporarily dismissed on July 11, 1975, a resolution that was approved by the Court of Appeals on August 19, 1975. On August 22, 1980, the mother once again turned to the justice system in search of her son. This time, she filed a criminal complaint against Osvaldo Romo Mena for the crime of kidnapping in the Second Major Criminal Court of La Granja, registered under number 28.029. In the main brief, she stated that both she and her son Robinson, through the photograph they attached to the complaint, were able to recognize Romo as part of the operational group that carried out the raid on their home on December 13, 1974. They provided a description of the agent: he was a former community activist from the Lo Hermida sector, who later became a prominent DINA agent, a member of an operational group of that organization, and specialized in the apprehension of militants of the outlawed MIR. His last known address until September 1975 was Calle Los Molineros N°1308, Ñuñoa. They added that he was seen in two vehicles during the period of the young Herrera's detention: a red Chevrolet C-10 pickup truck, license plate EM-965 of Las Condes (1974), and a white Chevrolet C-10 pickup truck, license plate LZ-142 of Las Condes (1974), both new vehicles. A series of measures were requested to locate Osvaldo Romo, which were accepted by the Court. On October 23, 1980, a photocopy of a Chilean publication, the magazine Qué Pasa, was submitted, which reported in a box: "The 'guatón' Romo, former commander Raúl of the MIR, former DINA, and a man difficult to locate and interrogate in the cases of forcibly disappeared persons, is reportedly back in security functions, which he presents as high-level and official." A request was made to summon the magazine's director to inform the Court about the information that led to the publication of that report. The Court decided not to grant that request. On October 1, 1980, the Traffic Department of the Las Condes Municipality reported on the license plates mentioned in the complaint; regarding plate LZ-142, it stated that it did not correspond to that Municipality. In September 1981, a document clarified that the plate was not from 1974 but from 1975. It was also stated that, due to the age of the license plate, there were no records of it in the Municipality. Regarding plate EM-965, the same department also responded in October 1980 that it corresponded to an Austin MG-1300 car from 1974, owned by a private individual. Investigaciones was tasked with finding the whereabouts of Osvaldo Romo. In an official letter dated September 27, 1980, it reported having gone to the address at Los Molineros 1308, La Faena housing project, where the current residents stated they did not know this individual. However, a neighbor knew that he had lived there between 1974 and 1975 and had left with his entire family, without anyone knowing where. Upon consulting the Central Identification Cabinet, he appeared to be living at Los Corteses 5696 in Ñuñoa. Upon arriving at the location, it was found that the house number did not exist, although through references from a neighbor, it was determined that the correct number was 5690, and that house had been demolished due to road remodeling. Investigaciones was unable to locate Romo's whereabouts. On November 12, 1980, the then-Minister of the Interior, Sergio Fernández Fernández, responded to an official letter sent by the Judge asking the CNI to report on this individual. He responded: "1971: Candidate for councilman for the Popular Socialist Union Party (USOPO) for the commune of Ñuñoa. 1972: Candidate for Deputy for the XXIV Departmental Group (not elected). 1972: President of the 'Campamento Lulo Pinochet' Neighborhood Council. 1974: Wanted by the Army, Navy, and Air Force for being a paramilitary cell leader under the alias 'El Raúl'. 1980: Arrest warrant issued to the Civil Police by the Illustrious Court of Appeals of Santiago. This individual was known during the previous presidential regime by the nickname 'Commander Raúl' (source of information: La Segunda newspaper, April 1, 1980)." Finally, the Minister added that: "...in the State Department under his charge, there are no records of the aforementioned Romo Mena." For its part, the Department of Immigration and International Police responded on October 31, 1980, that Romo had no travel records. On November 10, 1980, Lieutenant General Raúl Benavides Escobar, Minister of National Defense, responded that Romo had no records in any of the National Defense institutions under that Ministry. The lawyer for the plaintiff provided more information about this subject. On November 11, he delivered to the Court a photocopy of a note from the newspaper El Mercurio dated November 1, 1980, which reported that in a kidnapping case, the investigating judge Alberto Echavarría had issued an order to locate him. The publication also added that, according to information obtained, he had undergone plastic surgery to re-enter Chile without problems, and that police sources, while maintaining the strictest secrecy regarding the investigation to locate him, indicated that the search was well-directed, establishing with certainty that Osvaldo Romo was in Chile. On September 25, 1981, he provided another piece of information; this time it was a note addressed by the former president of the Supreme Court, José María Eyzaguirre, dated July 5, 1976, to Mrs. Yolanda Pinto, mother of another forcibly disappeared person—Martín Elgueta Pinto—who was also a victim of Romo. It states verbatim: "With reference to your letter of July 23 last, I can inform you that in a conversation held with Mr. Manuel Contreras, Chief of the National Intelligence Directorate, he expressed to me that Mr. Osvaldo Romo worked for the organization he directs until November 1975 and that, subsequently, he left the country." On March 7, 1980, the investigating judge of this case, Mr. Javier Torres Vera, issued an arrest warrant for Osvaldo Romo Mena under penalty of being declared in contempt and ordered his criminal record to be attached. It shows that his identity card number is 3.674.948 and his criminal record number is 576.363. He was declared a defendant for theft on January 27, 1958, in case 67.521 of the 1st Major Criminal Court of Santiago. As of July 28, 1981, Investigaciones had not been able to locate Romo to arrest him, so he was declared a fugitive for all legal purposes. On June 16, 1981, Bernardita de Lourdes Núñez Rivera testified before the Court, stating that she was with Jorge Antonio Herrera Cofré on December 13, 1974, at the DINA facility known as "Venda Sexy" at the corner of Calle Irán and Los Plátanos. On July 18, 1981, Ricardo González González, a retired member of the Armed Forces and current occupant of the house at Calle Los Molineros 1308, where Romo lived, also testified in the proceedings. He stated that in 1978 he was looking for a house with a promise of sale for his daughter when he learned through a real estate agent that a woman named Ester de Romo was selling hers because she was traveling abroad. He made the necessary arrangements and says he even had the approval of the Neighborhood Council, who told him that the former owner, a Mr. Romo, had left many problems, that he had apparently participated in land seizures and assaults, and that he had been missing since the Military Junta took power. He concluded by reiterating that he does not know Romo or his wife, and that all arrangements were made through a real estate agent. At the request of the plaintiffs, on June 23, 1981, the Judge ordered the summoning of Carabineros officer Héctor Leblanc Quilodrán Alfaro, who had gone with a summons to Romo's house on Calle Los Molineros. After three reiterations of the summons, the officer appeared on March 22, 1982. In his statement, he explained that: he did indeed have to carry out a judicial order in 1975 to summon Osvaldo Romo, who lived at Calle Los Molineros 1308, to appear before a Santiago Court. He relates that Romo attended to him personally and told him that he would not accept the order because he should be summoned by the Military Intelligence Service, as he belonged to that organization. This Carabineros officer also says that when he went to the address, he saw 4 military personnel in civilian clothes guarding the front yard of that house. He concluded by saying that he reported this fact to the Santiago Court of Appeals, where he was questioned by a Minister. Without having managed to locate the whereabouts of Osvaldo Romo Mena, the case was temporarily dismissed on April 2, 1982, because, according to the Judge, based on the evidence gathered, the existence of the reported crime was not fully justified. This resolution was approved by the Santiago Court of Appeals on November 22, 1982. Agent Romo, who was summoned on several occasions during the processing of case 28.029 in the 2nd Court of La Granja regarding the disappearance of Jorge Herrera Cofré, was arrested on November 16, 1992, as a result of a series of measures decreed in the case regarding the disappearance of Alfonso Chanfreau Oyarce. Osvaldo Romo Mena had left the country at the end of 1975 to evade judicial summons from courts handling cases of forcibly disappeared persons. The DINA had provided him with false identity documents for himself and his family. In Brazil, he was living under the name Osvaldo Andrés Henríquez Mena; upon being discovered, Brazilian authorities arrested him and then expelled him from the country. As of December 1992, he had been charged as a defendant in six cases of forcibly disappeared persons and had several pending summons in other similar proceedings.

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity

Testimonies, photographs, letters, and other documents that families and friends provided or wrote especially for publication are incorporated into the book "Breaking the Silence of Children and Adolescents Who Were Political Executions Victims During the Civil-Military Dictatorship 1973-1990," which was produced by the Association of Relatives of Political Executions Victims (AFEP) with the support of the Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage, through the Unit of Culture, Memory, and Human Rights, and the Human Rights Chair of the University of Chile.

The publication, based mainly on the Report of the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation (1991) and the Report of the National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation (1996), seeks to reconstruct in a comprehensive and careful manner each of the lives and stories of the victims.

During the research, the archive of the Association of Relatives of Political Executions Victims was accessed, where documents that families have preserved over the years are kept. Illustrations by Álvaro Gómez were also included. The creation process was a complex challenge that involved combining delicacy, respect, and methodological rigor to state a painful and inescapable truth in this work.

Source: cultura.gobierno.cl 20/4/2023 Date: 04-20-2023

Another Sentence for Krassnoff: He Now Totals More Than 800 Years in Prison

Human Rights. Agent was sentenced along with six other military officers for the death of an 18-year-old youth in 1974. The Second Chamber of the San Miguel Court of Appeals sentenced Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko and six other retired military officers and former DINA members for the qualified kidnapping of the minor Jorge Antonio Herrera Cofré in the middle of the dictatorship.

The new ruling sentenced the group for the disappearance of Herrera, a 18-year-old secondary student who at that time was a member of the MIR, and who currently appears as a forcibly disappeared person.

Krassnoff was sentenced to eight years in prison, adding to his "record" of convictions for human rights violations, which now exceed 800 years. The other sentenced individuals are Pedro Espinoza, [Roth], Raúl Iturriaga Neumann, Manuel Carevic, Manuel Rivas, and Hugo Hernández. ATON Miguel Krassnoff, one of the cruelest criminals of the dictatorship.

SUMMARY

The Second Chamber of the San Miguel Court of Appeals sentenced Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko and six other retired military officers and former DINA members for the qualified kidnapping of the minor Jorge Antonio Herrera Cofré in the middle of the dictatorship.

The new ruling sentenced the group for the disappearance of Herrera, an 18-year-old secondary student who at that time was a member of the MIR, and who currently appears as a forcibly disappeared person. The other sentenced individuals are Pedro Espinoza, [Roth], Raúl Iturriaga Neumann, Manuel Carevic, Manuel Rivas, and Hugo Hernández.

Source: litoralpress.cl 18/11/2021 Date: 11-18-2021

SPECIAL ON THE 44TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MILITARY COUP. 307 children and youth forcibly disappeared during the Dictatorship (excerpt)

Around 307 children and young people under the age of 21 were forcibly disappeared by the Pinochet dictatorship. The Rettig Report, from the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation (1991), certifies 307 cases of minors under 20 years of age executed by agents of the Pinochet dictatorship, including children as young as six months old up to adolescents.

The report presents 75 cases of infants who were forcibly disappeared, of which 26 cases are recognized as children killed by military personnel during the Dictatorship. Furthermore, the lack of identity card documentation for infants is a setback in the search for truth and justice, while testimonies indicate that the minors were in the proximity of their parents and were arrested by military personnel who were providing security in public places.

According to the source RadioUchile, the disclosure of the child victims of the Dictatorship came to the fore in the context of Pinochet's arrest in London. Cases of minors such as Rodrigo Anfruns came to light; his body was found a few meters from the place of his disappearance in June 1979, under circumstances that have yet to be clarified.

Or the case of Carlos Fariña Oyarce, a 13-year-old minor arrested in the La Pincoya neighborhood, whose body was found in the year 2000, burned and with multiple gunshot wounds. Days before the 44th anniversary of the Military Coup and the subsequent Pinochet regime, we are publishing a list of minors and young people who were forcibly disappeared (excerpt).

AMONG THESE VICTIMS IS JORGE ANTONIO HERRERA COFRE, 18 YEARS OLD, FORCIBLY DISAPPEARED ON 13/12/1974 IN SANTIAGO.

Source: laizquierdadiario.cl 5/9/2017

Date: 05-09-2017

Dictatorship henchmen accused and prosecuted for crimes against MIR combatants

In recent days, the official justice system issued three rulings regarding crimes against comrades who resisted the civic-military dictatorship with arms. For the homicide of two comrades, the Supreme Court confirmed sentences for CNI criminals.

Then, for the disappearance of an adolescent, some DINA criminals are being prosecuted. Finally, for the assassination of another comrade, more heartless members of the infamous DINA were sentenced in the first instance. We present the cases in chronological order of their occurrence.

Jorge Antonio Herrera Cofré, "El Flaco" from Liceo de Hombres Nº 6

For the crime of qualified kidnapping (detention and subsequent disappearance) of comrade JORGE ANTONIO HERRERA COFRE, "Jaime," which occurred starting on December 13, 1974, the visiting minister of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes, issued an indictment for three jackals of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA).

According to the background information gathered during the investigation stage, the visiting minister established the following facts: "On the afternoon of December 13, 1974, Jorge Antonio Herrera Cofré, 17 years old, a high school student, student leader, and militant of the Revolutionary Left Movement (M.I.R.), after leaving his home located on Calle Victoria in the commune of La Granja, heading toward Liceo N° 6 'Andrés Bello,' was illegally detained by agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), directed by the former Colonel Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, currently deceased, and under the command of Rolf Gonzalo Wenderoth Pozo at the Metropolitan level. Later, Herrera Cofré was taken to the detention center known as 'Venda Sexy,' located at Calle Irán N° 3.037 in the commune of Ñuñoa, under the command of Manuel Carevic Cubillos, and subsequently to Villa Grimaldi, located at José Arrieta N° 8.200 in the commune of Peñalolén, under the command of Pedro Espinoza Bravo, places where he was kept deprived of his liberty, according to testimonies from other detainees who managed to survive, among them Bernardita de Lourdes Núñez Rivera, Héctor Hernán González Osorio, and María Alicia Salinas Farfán, with his whereabouts remaining unknown to this day." The individuals prosecuted for this crime are Wenderoth, Carevic, and Espinoza. Comrade Jorge Herrera Cofré, 18 years old at the time of his detention and disappearance, was a high school student and a militant of the MIR. Although there are no direct witnesses to his detention and therefore the circumstances of it are unknown, it has been possible to determine through witnesses the fact of his arrest and the places where he remained detained. His family points out that on that fateful day, December 13, 1974, around 10:00 PM, while they were at their home at Calle La Victoria 0356, house 12, five men dressed in civilian clothes arrived at the scene. They were armed, claimed to be from the Investigations police, and showed a credential that no one managed to read. They immediately asked for Jorge Antonio, who had left moments earlier. They asked questions about his studies, his friends, and his activities. They entered his room and raided it, searching it entirely and leaving everything in complete disarray. They even tried to break some furniture in the house, which was prevented by the family's protests. After half an hour, they left the scene in a late-model Chevrolet pickup truck with a cream-colored canopy and cabin. Among the agents who went to his home on the night of December 13, 1974, in search of Jorge Herrera Cofré, Osvaldo Romo Mena, alias "el guatón Raúl," was identified as one of the agents who participated in that operation. Bernardita Núñez Herrera, in a statement given before the Second Criminal Court of the Presidente Aguirre Cerda Department, case file 28.029, reports that while she was detained at the illegal detention center of "Venda Sexy," located at Calle Irán and Los Plátanos in the commune of Macul, on December 13 she was taken to the bathroom and was able to see Jorge Antonio Herrera Cofré, who was at the entrance to the men's bathrooms, blindfolded. Bernardita says she knew the young Herrera from before because they both belonged to the same school group in the sector and because of their shared party militancy. She approached him, and he asked her that if she were released, she should notify his family of his arrest. The witness also notes that the victim was wearing a Nile green short-sleeved shirt and blue jeans on that occasion, which coincides with the description of the clothing the family gave when they saw him for the last time. Also important is the statement made by Héctor Hernán González Osorio. Speaking about his detention and the consequences it had for the MIR's militancy, he relates that on December 7, 1974, he was taken to an office where, upon raiding it, DINA agents found the contact points that González was supposed to have in the coming days. That is how, a week after this event, this witness relates that "...comrade Jorge Antonio Herrera Cofré or 'Jaime,' a high school student, very young..." was arrested. On July 24, 1975, the newspaper La Segunda published a list of 59 people—among whom Jorge appeared—supposedly killed in the town of Salta, Argentina, as a result of an alleged confrontation with the police of that country. This version was provided by a cable that sent information given by the newspaper O'Dia of Curitiba, Brazil. Subsequently, it was verified that the publication alluded to corresponded to the newspaper "Novo Dia," which was the successor to O'Dia, which had been closed 14 years earlier, and which published only one issue, precisely the one that published the list of the alleged dead Chilean extremists. The 59 names on the O'DIA newspaper list, plus a second list with 60 names of similar characteristics published by the Argentine magazine LEA, correspond to 119 disappeared people who had been detained by security services between June 1974 and February 1975. Such montages corresponded to the infamous Operation Colombo, concocted between the repressive apparatuses of the military dictatorships of the Latin American Southern Cone. Jorge's mother, Mrs. Elena Cofré Jofré, in a sworn statement before a notary, relates that on July 29, 1977, two detectives who identified themselves and were traveling in an Investigations vehicle appeared at her home at Avda. Fraternal 3833, J. M. Caro neighborhood, saying they were there on behalf of the military government to collaborate in clarifying the cases of disappeared persons. What they were actually interested in was knowing how the initiative to submit a petition for several forcibly disappeared persons to the Government had been organized.

Source: acciondirectachile.blogspot.com, December 8, 2016

Date: 08-12-2016

Impunity by administrative decree: reports of fake dementia for Punta Peuco prisoners

Through medical reports of dubious technical quality, those accused of crimes against humanity seek to evade sentences by alleging mental or physical illness. A "medical expert report" carried out on former agent Raúl Iturriaga Neumann by Hugo Lara Silva—a former leader of Chilean Nazism—states that the sentence is "revenge." On March 3, 2000, at 10:25 in the morning, a plane arriving from London landed at the airport of the Chilean Air Force's Group 10 in Pudahuel.

From the aircraft descended, in a wheelchair, the then-designated senator Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, after spending 503 days detained in London. To the surprise of those present—and the entire world—the former dictator, released for not being fit to face trial, stood up and walked toward the Commanders-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. "Dead man walking," the weekly The Clinic ironically headlined.

Indeed, the sudden "resurrection" of the sick man raised serious doubts regarding his real state of health, paving the way for a legal strategy that would be used in the future by other military personnel convicted of human rights violations in Chile.

The concept today has a name and points to all those accused of crimes against humanity who seek to escape the reach of Justice by simulating physical or psychological pathologies through reports of dubious technical quality.

The term is biological impunity, and it also applies to cases that have not been able to be resolved judicially, despite long years—in some cases decades—passing, due to the death of witnesses and perpetrators.

The latter, following the same idea, prevents ensuring due process and ends up guaranteeing impunity, especially in those cases where high-ranking officials were involved, who are the most elderly. Figures on this indicate that, as of April 2024, according to the latest UDP Human Rights Report, 457 former agents have died at some stage of the judicial process.

Although the passage of time continues to be a determining factor in burying cases without those responsible, the preparation of reports that allude to incipient dementia or some other psychiatric or mental health pathology has grown exponentially over the last three years. "The fever of reports," is what human rights lawyers who have to deal with these strategies call it.

Simulation Apart from Pinochet, another paradigmatic case is that of Edwin Dimter Bianchi, a retired Army colonel known as "El Príncipe"—accused of the homicide of Víctor Jara and the director of the Prison Service during the Popular Unity, Littré Quiroga Carvajal—who remained out of prison due to a series of reports that diagnosed him with mental alienation.

The Investigative Unit of El Mostrador accessed one of the expert reports that confirm the diagnosis made of the former Army officer. The document indicates that the methodology used includes an interview, reading of the case file, and case analysis "for one hour." The report concludes that Dimter suffers from a major neurocognitive disorder of a progressive and irreversible course. "Such cognitive deficits interfere with autonomy and daily activities," the report explains.

Despite the damning conclusions of the document, the proceedings requested by visiting minister Paola Plaza verified that Dimter not only frequently went to the supermarket to do his household shopping, but that he traveled to the location driving his own vehicle.

The investigation, in short, allowed for the dismissal of the reports prepared by the Legal Medical Service and the Dr. José Horwitz Psychiatric Institute. "El Príncipe" (as they called him at the National Stadium), sentenced to 25 years in prison, entered Punta Peuco on October 17 of last year.

Regarding the former uniformed officer's entry into prison, this media outlet published a note reporting the fact, requesting a statement from the Judiciary, from where they responded that "special care will be taken in these matters, arranging corroboration measures in the face of any diagnosis that deserves doubts, in order to provide certainty that the judicial decisions adopted are based on irrefutable evaluations." Despite the good intentions of those in charge of administering justice, the ability of former intelligence agents to simulate is a subject that still worries human rights lawyers. "If the person effectively has a mental health situation, there is nothing to be done. Justice cannot complain, but if the person is simulating, that would imply getting out of prison by administrative decree and constitutes a form of impunity due to fraudulent motivation," explains lawyer Francisco Bustos. The former executive secretary of the Human Rights Program of the Ministry of the Interior and former INDH councilor Francisco Ugás expressed the same point of view in a recent opinion column published in this media outlet. "The measures directed toward a correct examination must be extreme and rigorous, taking into consideration, first, that a large part of the agents have specialization in intelligence and have been trained to simulate... they seek to evade and abstract themselves from the action of Justice, simply by lying regarding their state of health," he noted. Multidisciplinary teams There are judicial sentences that also delve into the analysis of reports presented by perpetrators. In the case of the homicide of agricultural worker Pedro Curihual Paillán, committed in September 1973 in the commune of Pitrufquén, Carlos Moreno Mena was sentenced to 12 years in prison, despite the fact that examinations by the Legal Medical Service pointed to the existence of a diagnosis of dementia in the first outpatient care of the former Carabineros lieutenant. The problem, the document adds, is that "it does not appear in the following evaluations, nor is it consistent with the current clinical examination." This type of inconsistency in expert reports, according to psychologist and lawyer Natalia Roa, is due to the inaccuracy of the diagnoses. "To diagnose, one must perform the minimum examinations; it is not enough to say that the person suffers from some pathology based on a couple of interviews or impressions. There are cases in which not even one test is performed to certify a diagnosis. That is why the concern we have is that there should be a minimum standard to justify a legal consequence as relevant as a dismissal or alternative fulfillment of a sentence," she asserts. Another of the deficits detected in the reports is the participation of only one doctor in the diagnosis. In the case of César Manríquez Bravo, head of the DINA's Metropolitan Intelligence Brigade, convicted as one of the perpetrators of the disappearance of social worker Jacqueline Binfa and veterinarian Jorge D’Orival in 1974, one of the reports that diagnosed him with mental alienation, on January 10 of this year, was signed by only one psychiatrist from the Legal Medical Service. For neuropsychiatrist Luis Fornazzari—consultant to the Memory Clinic and the Geriatric Psychiatry Program of St. Michael's Hospital in Canada and one of those in charge of the expert reports on former dictator Augusto Pinochet—expert reports in these cases must be multidisciplinary. "Currently, all the care centers where we evaluate patients with any type of dementia do so with multiprofessional teams with the objective of having a multiple view of the cognitive disorder and analyzing it from several angles," he explains. Regarding the diagnoses, some specialists assert, there is another factor not always well-weighted: not every cognitive disorder is synonymous with a change in precautionary measures, nor does it correspond to an incurable disease. "There are cases where delirium is diagnosed, but since the conclusion is not based on examinations, a distinction that is very relevant is not made: the disease can be treated with medication and it passes. Dementia, on the other hand, by definition, is not reversible. So, being able to differentiate both conditions is very important," explains Natalia Roa. Fornazzari even goes beyond the inaccuracy of the diagnosis. "Guilt does not expire because they are older. We must not forget that these are crimes against humanity that have two sides: respect for the victims, on one hand, and that patients can be treated inside prisons, with a good quality of life, even if they have dementia. This is not about revenge, it is about justice. And crimes against humanity do not prescribe," he states. The report of the former neo-Nazi leader There are reports for all tastes and some—without fear of exaggeration—are truly unclassifiable. This is the case of the neurological expert report carried out on Raúl Iturriaga Neumann at the Military Hospital, in the middle of this year, by the doctor and judicial expert Hugo Lara Silva, in the context of the investigation into the qualified kidnapping of Jorge Herrera Cofré, which is being investigated in the Santiago Court of Appeals. The conclusions of the document rule out any type of mental disability, asserting that from a neurological point of view, the former military officer—sentenced to a total of 515 years in prison for various crimes—can be charged normally in any criminal case. However, the report extends into a series of sociopolitical reasonings foreign to the tenor of this type of expert report. One of these points concludes that Iturriaga Neumann is essentially a victim: "An 87-year-old senior citizen, a pensioner, who does not represent any danger to society or to the left, because 11/09/73 became history a long time ago (more than 50 years), now he is not a soldier, he is an elderly former soldier, with the current sentence being clear revenge." Then, the report continues to delve into the role the former officer had in the country's sociopolitical history. "He is not a criminal, he is a former soldier of the fatherland... who complied with the regulations in force in his time and place, for his institution and for the Republic, within the context of his work as a specialized military officer and in a period of irregular war (typical of international Marxism), based on a clear break in the rule of law by the Marxist government of Salvador Allende," the neurological report explains verbatim. Next, the document raises some concerns that the doctor tries to highlight: "Is it that the Military and Carabineros who saved Chile from a Marxist assault on power through a flagrant violation of the constitution and who avoided a Civil War, are objects of Hatred and Revenge and the Red murderers of Military and Carabineros are deserving of Pardons and Benefits by these 8 governments including that of 'PIÑERA and BORIC'?" (sic). Hugo Lara Silva also explains that "international legislation on deconstruction, of the so-called 'crimes against humanity'" should not be applied with retroactive effects and that "for equal justice applied by the United Nations, it would have to be done with retroactive effect also in the former USSR, China, Cuba, Cambodia, North Korea, Viet-Nam, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, etc." (sic). All these strategies, according to Lara Silva, have condemned Iturriaga Neumann to an "odious death by imprisonment." "It is a political and medical problem that involves a military political prisoner, whether or not he participated in a detention of Marxist subversives, something that it is not my place to judge as a neurologist expert. A detention that does not have any evidence or witnesses according to the Major General, because he never detained anyone and that is what is stated in his service record which for the Armed Forces is of essential veracity," he states verbatim. Before finishing the report, the expert assures that the document written was done "without hatred of any kind, without hatred of Marxist revenge, which examines not a criminal with mild to moderate medical disability but a Major General (r) who acted in special times of Irregular War against International Marxism by order of the legitimate Government of the Republic, which restored the Rule of Law" (sic), he concludes. It is worth mentioning that Hugo Lara Silva took over in 1997 as leader of what was one of the main neo-Nazi groups in Chile, the National Socialist Workers' Movement (MNSO), and that in the trial against the neo-Nazis who in 2006 murdered the young Tomás Vilches at the Persa Bío Bío, one of the defendants, Héctor Herrera, recounted the conversation they had that day with Lara, whom they met in a store: "Esteban greeted him and asked about his daughter, commenting that they hadn't seen each other for a long time, since the National Socialist meetings [sic]. They also talked about other neo-Nazi meetings. Dr. Lara gave him a business card, indicating that if they wanted they could go to the Lili Marlen restaurant, which important people, like powerful businessmen, went to. The greeting between Esteban and Dr. Lara was very particular, they held hands and greeted each other with a kiss," said Herrera (who received a six-year sentence), in reference to Esteban González, better known as "Tito van Damme." El Mostrador contacted the Legal Medical Service, seeking to clarify the concerns raised in this report, but the agency assured that they would not make statements on the matter. by Claudio Pizarro Sanguesa

Source: elmostrador.cl, September 15, 2025