The victim, a member of the Communist Party, according to a complaint filed by his spouse, Mrs. Julia Galvez Bascuñán, to the IACHR of the OAS, "was detained on August 22, 1974, during an operation carried out by uniformed personnel in the area of the aforementioned's residence." The complaint for alleged disappearance adds: "the detention was carried out by 10 military personnel in a blue pickup truck.

They did not show a detention or search warrant. They left destruction behind, and removed the floor of the bathroom and the kitchen." The complaint to the OAS further adds: "Along with the victim, several neighbors were detained, a Mr. surnamed Aranda, the Carter brothers, Mrs.

Idilia de Allende, and Modesto Espinoza Pozo, who is also forcibly disappeared. Mrs. Allende is currently at liberty. According to her statements, all the detainees were taken that day to the Escuela Militar." Direct witnesses include Idilia de Allende and numerous neighbors from the area, who have not dared to testify for fear of reprisals.

The victim remains forcibly disappeared to this day. According to a recent report from the Government to the International Red Cross, the disappeared person was supposedly living in Antofagasta. However, it was proven that this was a different José Segundo Flores Rojas. This individual is single and is 78 years old.

LEGAL ACTIONS

A Writ of Amparo was filed on September 26, 1974, Case File 1.145-74. This writ was dismissed following a negative report from the Minister of the Interior and was sent to the 6th Criminal Court with an order to investigate.

There, it received Case File 92.460, for the alleged disappearance of José Segundo Flores Rojas. The spouse appeared to ratify the complaint on March 18, 1976. The case was temporarily dismissed on September 9, 1976.

On October 11, 1977, a request was made to reopen the summary proceedings and conduct new investigations. On October 21, 1977, the request was granted. Official letters were dispatched, among others, to the CNI and other security agencies, obtaining only negative responses.

The case was temporarily dismissed again in May 1978, and the dismissal was upheld by the Court. To date, he remains forcibly disappeared.

Source: Rettig Report

In a unanimous ruling, the Second Chamber of the appellate court confirmed the sentence that convicted five agents of the dissolved Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) for their responsibility in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of construction worker Manuel Filamir Cartes Lara and barber José Segundo Flores Rojas.

These crimes were perpetrated in August 1974, in the Metropolitan Region. In a unanimous ruling (case file 4.352-2022), the Second Chamber of the appellate court—composed of ministers Jessica González, Carolina Bustamante, and lawyer (i) Euclides Ortega—confirmed the sentence that convicted agents Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, César Manríquez Bravo, and Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo to 15 years of effective imprisonment as authors of the crimes.

Meanwhile, Alejandro Astudillo Adonis and Pedro Araneda Araneda must serve 10 years and one day of imprisonment each, as co-authors. Regarding civil matters, the Santiago Court of Appeals rejected the exception of res judicata in relation to the lawsuit filed by Julia Eliana Gálvez Bascuñán and Carlos Antonio Flores Gálvez, spouse and son, respectively, of the victim Flores Rojas, and therefore ordered the State to pay them compensation for damages of $75,000,000 for moral injury to each. "That, in the context described, it is the duty of all State bodies—including the Judiciary—to respect and promote the essential rights that emanate from human nature, guaranteed by the Political Constitution of the Republic, as well as by international treaties ratified by Chile that are in force. Consequently, the right to full reparation claimed must be accepted, and by applying the interpretation most favorable to the enforcement of Human Rights, it is appropriate to apply domestic regulations but in accordance and harmony with the aforementioned international norms, as this fulfills the obligation to perform the appropriate conventionality control in respect of full reparation for human rights victims," the ruling states. The resolution adds: "That in accordance with the provisions of Article 27 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, it is a general principle of international law that States are obliged to fulfill treaties in good faith, so the State cannot rely on the impossibility of fulfilling its international obligations because its national legislation prevents it from doing so." For the appellate court: "In the context described and considering that the plaintiffs' claim is based on facts constituting crimes against humanity, proven and criminally sanctioned in this ruling, once they have been so declared, it is appropriate to compensate the victims, whether direct or indirect, in addition to guaranteeing non-repetition, as this must be based on international standards on full reparation, conditions that are satisfied in the present case." "That being the case," it continues, "and as reasoned in the aforementioned sentence, 'having performed the conventionality control that, as a member of the State, is evident to this court, the exception of res judicata in relation to the civil action seeking full reparation for damages derived from the execution of this category of illicit acts lacks relevance, as it does not respect the imperative provisions inherent to International Human Rights Law, so the defense raised, sheltered under Article 177 of the Code of Civil Procedure, cannot be accepted, and the cited international regulations must prevail, which impose on the State of Chile the duty to fully repair the serious human rights violations demanded by the plaintiff in this case.'" "That, this has also been resolved in various Supreme Court rulings (Case No. 36.319-19, No. 14.4348-22, and No. 104.558-20) by maintaining that 'the validity and legality of previous rulings declaring the statute of limitations on the indemnification action against the State of Chile is not denied here, but it is only recognized that the exception of res judicata derived from those pronouncements, enshrined in the cited Article 177, a domestic rule of a merely legal nature, must yield to the right to full reparation derived from the international human rights treaties already referred to, which, by provision of the second paragraph of Article 5 of our Fundamental Charter, have a higher hierarchy.'" "Consequently, the exception of res judicata raised by the defendant will be rejected," it concludes. Neighborhood leaders In the first-instance sentence, the visiting minister for human rights violation cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Paola Plaza González, established the following facts: "In the month of August 1974, the military government maintained an operational political repression agency called the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional, also known as DINA, which had an organized structure that possessed its own resources and clandestine detention centers, and which was in charge of a general director who exercised national command and to whom all its members were subordinate. The operations of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional in the Metropolitan Region were in charge of the so-called Metropolitan Intelligence Brigade (BIM), which was under the command of an Army officer who had a general staff that advised him on intelligence work. This level of structure maintained contact and information channels with its superiors, to whom it reported its work. The operations were carried out by groups, brigades, or work teams, composed of members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Carabineros, and the Chilean Investigative Police, who used facilities or detention centers to carry out their restrictive and rights-suppressing tasks, which were guarded by members of the DINA. One of these groups was the Caupolicán Brigade, on which the Halcón operational group depended, tasked with repressing and suppressing militants of parties opposed to the military regime, led at that time by an Army lieutenant. Under these conditions, Manuel Filamir Cartes Lara—35 years old, construction worker—and José Segundo Flores Rojas—40 years old, barber—both militants of the Communist Party and neighborhood representatives of the current Peñalolén area, were detained in the early hours of August 23, 1974, from their respective homes located on Las Parcelas and Ictinos streets, both in the commune of Peñalolén, as a result of an operation carried out in the sector by the DINA, assisted by members of the Armed Forces and Order, a day that included the raiding of other neighbors' homes in the area. According to testimonies from survivors of the events that occurred starting that day, the victims Manuel Filamir Cartes Lara and José Segundo Flores Rojas were seen at an undetermined date inside the Villa Grimaldi barracks, also known as Terranova, and subsequently at the Cuatro Álamos detention center, facilities recognized as part of those where people were held deprived of liberty by the actions of members of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), the latter being the last of these places where their trail is lost, with their whereabouts and the fate of their physical and mental health and personal integrity remaining unknown since then, despite all efforts made to locate them."

Source: pujd.cl 7/14/2023

Supreme Court ratifies new conviction for Krassnoff and other DINA agents: total reaches 1,047 years in prison

The Supreme Court dismissed an appeal and confirmed the 15-year prison sentence for Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, César Manríquez Bravo, and Pedro Espinoza Bravo, three of the main officials of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), the branch in charge of political assassinations, torture, and general repression during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

In a unanimous ruling, the Second Chamber of the highest court ruled out any error of law in the sentence that convicted them as authors of the aggravated kidnapping of Manuel Filamir Cartes Jara and José Segundo Flores Rojas, and also confirmed the 10-year and one-day prison sentence for former agents Alejandro Astudillo Adonis and Pedro Araneda Araneda as co-authors. "It should be noted that, both international and national regulations regarding the matter under study, especially the Statute of the International Criminal Court and Law No. 20.357 of 2009, which defines crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes, make it accurate to conclude that this investigation concerns crimes against humanity, since the illicit acts investigated occurred in a context of serious, massive, and systematic human rights violations verified by State agents," the sentence explains. "The victims constituted an instrument within a policy on a general scale of exclusion, harassment, persecution, or extermination of a group of numerous compatriots who, in the period immediately following September 11, 1973, were labeled as ideologically belonging to the deposed political regime or who, for any circumstance, were considered suspicious of opposing or hindering the realization of the social and political construction envisioned by those holding power," it adds. In the first-instance ruling, the visiting minister for human rights violation cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Paola Plaza González, already established as proven that "in the month of August 1974, the Military Government maintained an operational political repression agency called the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional, also known as DINA, which had an organized structure that possessed its own resources and clandestine detention centers." And that "Manuel Filamir Cartes Jara—35 years old, construction worker—and José Segundo Flores Rojas—40 years old, barber, both militants of the Communist Party and neighborhood representatives of the current Peñalolén area, were detained in the early hours of August 23, 1974, from their own homes as a result of an operation carried out in the sector by the DINA, assisted by members of the Armed Forces and Order." Both detainees were sent to the Villa Grimaldi barracks, also known as Terranova, and later to the Cuatro Álamos detention center, two of the harshest and most famous torture centers of the military regime, "the latter being the last of these places where their trail is lost, with their whereabouts and the fate of their physical and mental health and personal integrity remaining unknown since then, despite all efforts made to locate them," the ruling indicates. With this conviction, former brigadier Miguel Krassnoff reaches 1,047 years in prison, accused in a series of cases for Human Rights violations. Meanwhile, César Manríquez Bravo and Pedro Espinoza Bravo are also serving a dozen sentences at the Punta Peuco prison, a special facility where military personnel are held deprived of liberty for human rights violations during the dictatorship. Espinoza Bravo was accused, along with Manuel Contreras, head of the DINA, of the 1976 assassination in Washington of Orlando Letelier, who was foreign minister during the overthrown democratic government of socialist President Salvador Allende (1970-1973), the assassination of former Army chief General Arturo Prat, and Spanish diplomat Carmelo Soria.

Source: biobiochile.cl, February 14, 2025

Now totaling 1,047 years in prison: Supreme Court again convicts Miguel Krasnoff for the kidnapping of residents

The highest court confirmed the first-instance sentence in which penalties were imposed on five former DINA agents for the disappearance of Manuel Cartes Jara and José Flores Rojas. Both were militants of the Communist Party.

In a unanimous ruling, the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of minister Leopoldo Llanos, ministers María Cristina Gajardo, María Teresa Letelier, and lawyers (i) Eduardo Gandulfo and Carlos Urquieta—dismissed the appeal for cassation filed by the accused, as it considered that there was no error of law in the first-instance sentence.

Thus, Miguel Krasnoff Martchenko, Cesar Manríquez Bravo, and Pedro Espinoza Bravo were sentenced to 15 years in prison; and Alejandro Astudillo Adonis and Pedro Araneda Araneda to 10 years, for their status as co-authors.

The victims of forced disappearance are Manuel Cartes Jara and José Flores Rojas, two men 35 and 40 years of age respectively, who were detained in the early hours of August 23, 1974, within the framework of a DINA operation in which members of the Armed Forces also participated.

Cartes and Rojas were militants of the Communist Party and neighborhood representatives of the current Peñalolén area. After their detention, they were taken to the Villa Grimaldi barracks and later to Cuatro Álamos, "the latter being the last of these places where their trail is lost, with their whereabouts and the fate of their physical and mental health and personal integrity remaining unknown since then, despite all efforts made to locate them," states the first-instance ruling of the Santiago Court of Appeals minister, Paola Plaza.

With the Supreme Court's decision, former brigadier Miguel Krasnoff reaches 1,047 years of imprisonment in a series of convictions for human rights violations during the dictatorship.

Source: radio.uchile.cl, February 14, 2025