On June 8, 1976, the regional leader of the PC (Communist Party), Luis Emilio Gerardo MATURANA GONZALEZ, and Juan René ORELLANA CATALÁN, a member of the Central Committee of the JJCC (Communist Youth), were detained together in the vicinity of the Estación Central and transferred to La Firma.

According to information received by this Commission, the victims were subsequently taken from that location blindfolded, handcuffed, and drugged, and were driven to Cuesta Barriga. Upon arriving at that location, they were reportedly shot and buried in a grave that had been excavated the day before.

The Commission is convinced that their disappearances were the work of State agents, who thereby violated their human rights.

Source: Rettig Report

In a ruling that had been anticipated, the plenary of ministers of the Supreme Court determined that only four of the eight judges with exclusive dedication will remain in this status, and the others will move to form a court with preferential dedication.

Based on the information compiled by the high court, it was determined that the First Civil Court of San Bernardo, headed by Judge Cecilia Flores; the Eighth Criminal Court of Santiago, with María Ines Collins; the Ninth Criminal Court of Santiago with Raquel Lermanda; and the Tenth Criminal Court with Juan Antonio Poblete will continue as exclusive judges.

In addition, the Fourth Criminal Court of San Miguel, headed by María Teresa Díaz, will remain in the same status, although only for a period of one month. In the case of the First Criminal Court of Santiago, the Fifth Criminal Court of Santiago, the First Criminal Court of Arica, the Court of Letters of María Elena, the First and Second Criminal Courts of Valparaíso, the First Civil Court of Chillán, the First Criminal Court of Chillán, the First Criminal Court of Talcahuano, the Court of Letters of Pucón, and the Second Criminal Court of Valdivia, they will join the existing group of preferential judges. The most difficult situation is faced by the judges of the Third Criminal Court of Santiago, Mario Carroza; the Third Criminal Court of San Miguel, María Teresa Díaz; and the Court of Letters of Santa Barbara, Loreto Jara, who will henceforth become preferential judges. But the Supreme Court also ordered the Tenth Criminal Court to annex the proceedings that correspond to the cases it is processing in order to advance the investigation; however, it does not provide further details in this regard. All exclusive and preferential judges must report on their management after one month and will again be evaluated by the higher court. In the detail of the cases, the proceedings for the death of Juan Luis Rivera Matus, case file 107.716-9, will begin to be handled on a preferential basis by the incumbent of the First Criminal Court of Santiago, Joaquín Billard, who will also process case file 107.254. In the case of the Fifth Criminal Court, it will hear case file 167.716-16, titled as the disappeared from La Moneda, which was already in preferential status. In the First of Arica and the Fourth of that same city, case files 51925 and 13.322-A will be heard, respectively. In María Elena, case file 31-91 will be investigated on a preferential basis, while in the First Criminal Court of Valparaíso, the case of the British priest Michael Woodward, case file 140.454, will be heard. In the Second Criminal Court of Valparaíso, case file 127.298-1 will be heard. In Chillán, meanwhile, the First Civil Court will hear case 11.599, which, according to FASIC, does not correspond to a human rights case; instead, in the First Criminal Court of that same city, the disappearance of Ernesto Torres Guzmán, case file 70.927-6, will be investigated. In the case of Talcahuano, case file 24.776 is added as preferential; in Pucón, case file 4.473; and in Valdivia, case file 75.858. Conversely, the cases regarding the disappearance of Daniel Reyes Piña, Leopoldo Muñoz Andrade, Víctor Morales Mazuela, and Víctor Cárdenas Valderrama, which were being processed by the Third Criminal Court of San Miguel, will be disadvantaged by the Supreme Court's ruling, as they will now have preferential status. In any case, it works in their favor that indictments have already been issued in the cases of Morales and Cárdenas. In the Third Criminal Court of Santiago, the disappearance at the hands of the DINA of Iván Carreño Aguilero, and the deaths of Luis Moraga Cruz, Juan Orellana Catalán, and Ricardo Weibel Navarrete, who perished at the hands of the Comando Conjunto, will now be preferential cases. This court also hears the proceedings for the disappearance of former GAP member Domingo Blanco Tarres. In the case of Santa Bárbara, the investigation into the cases of Luis Bastias Sandoval, Luis Cid Cid, Cristino Cid Fuentealba, José Molina Quezada, José Pinto, Raimundo Salaza, Segundo Soto, and Gabriel Viveros, who disappeared in the first days of the Military Coup, is disadvantaged. In the Tenth Criminal Court of Santiago, four cases reported to the Dialogue Table by the Armed Forces are being investigated; these concern the 1975 disappearance of Ricardo Lagos Salinas, Carlos Lorca Tobar, Michelle Peña Herreros, and Exequiel Ponce Vicencio.

Source: primeralinea.cl, April 23, 2002

Date: 04-23-2002

In a unanimous ruling (case file 1.237-2020), the Fifth Chamber of the Court of Appeals—composed of ministers Fernando Carreño Ortega, Ricardo Soto Muñoz, and minister Lidia Poza Matus—confirmed the sentence issued by the minister for extraordinary visits, Miguel Vásquez Plaza, in October 2019.

The sentence convicted former FACH (Chilean Air Force) officer Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola and former Carabineros officer Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa to 18 years in prison as co-perpetrators of the qualified homicide of González Espinoza and Orellana Catalán; plus 13 years in prison as co-perpetrators of the qualified kidnapping of Moraga Cruz, Weibel Navarrete, and Maturana González; and 3 years in prison each as co-perpetrators of the simple kidnapping of González Espinoza and Orellana Catalán.

Meanwhile, former Navy officer Daniel Luis Enrique Guimpert Corvalán was sentenced to 18 years in prison as a co-perpetrator of the qualified homicide of González Espinoza and Orellana Catalán; plus 12 years in prison as a co-perpetrator of the qualified kidnapping of Moraga Cruz and Maturana González; and 3 years in prison as a co-perpetrator of the simple kidnapping of González Espinoza and Orellana Catalán.

Likewise, the Fifth Chamber ratified the sentences to be served by: Former Navy officer Jorge Aníbal Osses Novoa, and former Army officers Sergio Antonio Díaz López and Álvaro Julio Federico Corbalán Castilla, to 12 years in prison as co-perpetrators of the qualified homicide of González Espinoza; plus 10 years and one day in prison as co-perpetrators of the qualified kidnapping of Moraga Cruz and Weibel Navarrete, and 400 days in prison as co-perpetrators of the kidnapping of González Espinoza.

Meanwhile, former agents Roberto Alfonso Flores Cisterna and Carlos Hernán Rodrigo Villarreal must serve 10 years and one day in prison as co-perpetrators of the qualified homicide of Orellana Catalán; plus 5 years and one day in prison as co-perpetrators of the qualified kidnapping of Maturana González, and 400 days in prison as co-perpetrators of the kidnapping of Orellana Catalán.

Former agent Raúl Horacio González Fernández must serve two sentences of 10 years and one day in prison as a co-perpetrator of the qualified homicide of Orellana Catalán and the qualified kidnapping of Moraga Cruz and Maturana González; plus 400 days in prison as a co-perpetrator of the simple kidnapping of Orellana Catalán.

Former agent Alejandro Segundo Sáez Mardones must serve two sentences of 10 years and one day in prison as a co-perpetrator of the qualified homicide of Orellana Catalán and a co-perpetrator of the qualified kidnapping of Maturana González, plus 400 days in prison as a co-perpetrator of the kidnapping of Orellana Catalán.

For his part, former SIFA civil agent Otto Silvio Trujillo Miranda was sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison as a co-perpetrator of the qualified kidnapping of Weibel Navarrete and as an accomplice to the qualified kidnapping of Moraga Cruz.

Former agent Lenin Figueroa Sánchez was sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison as an accomplice to the qualified homicide of Orellana Catalán; plus 5 years and one day in prison as a co-perpetrator of the qualified kidnapping of Maturana González and 400 days as a co-perpetrator of the kidnapping of Orellana Catalán.

Former agents Sergio Daniel Valenzuela Morales and Juan Atilio Aravena Hurtuvia must serve 5 years in prison as accessories to the qualified homicide of Orellana Catalán; plus 5 years and one day as co-perpetrators of the qualified kidnapping of Maturana González and 400 days in prison as co-perpetrators of the kidnapping of Orellana Catalán.

Former agent Ernesto Arturo Lobos Gálvez must serve 5 years and one day in prison as an accomplice to the kidnappings of Weibel Navarrete and Maturana González, and 60 days in prison as an accomplice to the simple kidnapping of Orellana Catalán.

Former agent Alejandro Jorge Forero Álvarez must serve 5 years and one day in prison as an accomplice to the qualified kidnappings of Moraga Cruz and Weibel Navarrete; 60 days in prison as an accomplice to the simple kidnapping of González Espinoza.

In addition, former civil agents Viviana Lucinda Ugarte Sandoval, Andrés Pablo Potin Lailhacar, and Emilio Mahias del Río, along with former agents Juan Luis Fernando López López, José Evaristo Rojas Alruiz, and Francisco Segundo Illanes Miranda, must serve 5 years and one day in prison as co-perpetrators of the qualified kidnapping of Maturana González; 400 days in prison as co-perpetrators of the simple kidnapping of Orellana Catalán.

Former agent Roberto Francisco Serón Cárdenas was sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison as a co-perpetrator of the qualified kidnapping of Moraga Cruz. Finally, former agents Robinson Alfonso Suazo Jaque, Pedro Ernesto Caamaño Medina, Pedro Juan Zambrano Uribe, and José Hernando Alvarado Alvarado were sentenced to 4 years in prison as accomplices to the qualified kidnapping of Maturana González; and 60 days in prison as accomplices to the simple kidnapping of Orellana Catalán.

Those also convicted in the first-instance ruling by the investigating minister Miguel Vásquez Plaza, former FACH officer Antonio Benedicto Quiroz Reyes and the converted civil agent Miguel Arturo Estay Reyno, passed away during the time that elapsed between that ruling and this one.

Regarding the substance of the Court's resolution, the Fifth Chamber states: "This Court therefore agrees with the assessment of the sentencing judge and the Judicial Prosecutor, for the reasons expressed in the ruling and those previously stated, that the facts, held as certain in the appealed sentence, are punishable by virtue of the predominance of International Human Rights Law over the provisions of domestic or national law.

This recognition is of vital importance because it grants crimes against humanity the relevance they deserve, since their perpetration affects all of humanity, the legal interests concerning international peace, security, and well-being, which International Criminal Law seeks to protect," the confirming ruling states.

In the judicial investigation, Minister Vásquez Plaza established that: a) That there existed a de facto group that operated clandestinely between the years 1975 and 1976, composed mainly of agents who belonged to the Air Force Intelligence Directorate, in addition to the Carabineros of Chile, the Navy, and the Army, with the collaboration of civilians, whose main objective was the repression of the Communist Party Youth, for which they proceeded to detain several of them. b) That the aforementioned group used for detentions and torture: Hangar de Cerrillos; Nido 20, a secret detention and torture center located at Calle Santa Teresa No. 037, at the 20th stop of Gran Avenida; Nido 18, a secret center located at Calle Perú No. 9053, La Florida, Santiago, which was used exclusively for torture; La Prevención or Remo Cero, which were dungeons located inside the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina, all this during the year 1975; La Firma, at the beginning of 1976, said group moved its operations to the rear of the property under the charge of the Carabineros of Chile, located on Calle Dieciocho, opposite No. 229, which belonged to the former newspaper Clarín, calling it La Firma. c) That the operational action of the group, regarding the persons illegitimately deprived of their liberty, keeping them in secret centers, was to obtain information from them under psychological and physical torture, achieving the collaboration of some of them, to the point that some were assimilated as operational agents of the group, which provided greater effectiveness in the chain detention of communist militants, who were made to disappear, with it occurring that for some of them, in the course of the years, part of their remains were found. d) That on November 7, 1975, at approximately 10:00 PM, Ricardo Manuel Weibel Navarrete was detained at his home at Río Maule No. 1893, Recoleta Commune, by subjects wearing civilian clothes; he was kept deprived of liberty in the center called La Prevención or Remo Cero, located inside the Anti-Aircraft Regiment in Colina, the last place where he was seen alive and, subsequently, his bones were found on the grounds of Fuerte Arteaga, Peldehue. e) On June 8, 1976, in the Estación Central sector, Juan René Orellana Catalán met with Luis Emilio Gerardo Maturana González, both militants of the Communist Youth in hiding due to the political persecution they were subject to, with the purpose of receiving money from the party from the hands of Maturana González, the latter in charge of distributing it; at which moment he was detained by agents of the group described in letter a), being kept imprisoned in the center called La Firma, and was subsequently executed at Cuesta Barriga, where remains of his person were found consisting of dental pieces and a removable prosthesis. f) That, on October 20, 1975, in the early hours of the morning, Luis Desiderio Moraga Cruz was detained at his home at Pasaje Tokio No. 5862, Población Juanita Aguirre, Conchalí commune, Santiago, by subjects wearing civilian clothes; he was kept imprisoned in the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina, inside which was the center called La Prevención or Remo Cero, where he gave the statement that appears on page 5532, this being the last place where he was seen alive. g) That, on December 4, 1975, in the early hours of the morning, Ignacio Orlando González Espinoza was detained at his home at Calle Soberanía No. 1220, Santiago, by subjects wearing civilian clothes; he was kept deprived of liberty in the center called La Prevención or Remo Cero, located inside the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina, the last place where he was seen alive and, subsequently, he was executed on the grounds of Fuerte Arteaga, Peldehue, where his bones were found. h) On June 8, 1976, in the Estación Central sector, Luis Emilio Gerardo Maturana González met with Juan René Orellana Catalán, both militants of the Communist Youth in hiding due to the political persecution they were subject to, with the purpose of giving him party money for himself and so that he in turn could give it to other party militants since Maturana González was in charge of distributing it; at which moment he was detained by operational agents of the group described in letter a), being kept imprisoned in the center called La Firma, from where his trail is lost.

Source: resumen.cl, April 12, 2022

Date: 04-12-2022

29 former agents of the Comando Conjunto sentenced for kidnappings and homicides during the dictatorship

In the context of the repression against the Communist Youth

The minister for human rights cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vázquez Plaza, sentenced 29 former agents of the Comando Conjunto for their responsibility in the kidnappings and qualified homicides of Ricardo Weibel Navarrete, Juan Orellana Catalán, Luis Moraga Cruz, Ignacio González Espinoza, and Luis Maturana González, crimes that occurred between October 1975 and June 1976 in Santiago.

The magistrate sentenced Juan Saavedra Loyola (18 years in prison, 13 years in prison, and 3 years in prison), Manuel Muñoz Gamboa (18 years in prison, 13 years in prison, and 3 years in prison), Daniel Guimpert Corvalán (18 years in prison, 12 years in prison, and 3 years in prison), Antonio Quiros Reyes (18 years in prison, 6 years in prison, and 540 days in prison), Raúl González Fernández (10 years and one day in prison, 10 years and one day in prison, and 400 days in prison), Roberto Flores Cisterna (10 years and one day in prison, 5 years and one day in prison, and 400 days in prison), Carlos Rodrigo Villarreal (10 years and one day in prison, 5 years and one day in prison, and 400 days in prison), Alejandro Sáez Mardones (10 years and one day in prison, 10 years and one day in prison, and 400 days in prison), Jorge Osses Novoa (12 years in prison, 10 years and one day in prison, and 400 days in prison), Sergio Díaz López (12 years in prison, 10 years and one day in prison, and 400 days in prison), Álvaro Corbalán Castilla (12 years in prison, 10 years and one day in prison, and 400 days in prison), Lenin Figueroa Sánchez (5 years and one day in prison, 5 years and one day in prison, and 400 days in prison), Miguel Estay Reyno (5 years in prison, 5 years and one day in prison, and 400 days in prison), Sergio Valenzuela Morales (5 years in prison, 5 years and one day in prison, and 400 days in prison), Juan Aravena Hurtuvia (5 years in prison, 5 years and one day in prison, 400 days in prison), Ernesto Lobos Gálvez (5 years and one day in prison and 60 days in prison), Alejandro Forero Álvarez (5 years and one day in prison, and 60 days in prison), Viviana Ugarte Sandoval (5 years and one day in prison, and 400 days in prison), Andrés Potin Laihacar (5 years and one day in prison, and 400 days in prison), Emilio Mahias del Río (5 years and one day in prison, and 400 days in prison), Juan López López (5 years and one day in prison, and 400 days in prison), Evaristo Rojas Alruiz (5 years and one day in prison, and 400 days in prison), Francisco Illanes Saavedra (5 years and one day in prison, and 400 days in prison), Roberto Serón Contreras (5 years and one day), Otto Trujillo Miranda (10 years and one day in prison), Robinson Suazo Jaque (4 years in prison and 60 days in prison), Pedro Caamaño Medina (4 years in prison and 60 days in prison), Pedro Zambrano Uribe (4 years in prison and 60 days in prison), and José Alvarado Alvarado (4 years in prison and 60 days in prison). Meanwhile, agents Eduardo Cartagena Maldonado, Alex Carrasco Olivos, José Vera Reyes, Juan Huaiquimilla Coñuepan, and Víctor Zuñiga Zuñiga were acquitted.

Source: elciudadano.cl, September 10, 2019

Date: 09-10-2019

Human Rights: Massive indictment against 31 former agents of the Comando Conjunto

The resolution by Judge Vásquez concerns the cases of the "Jota" (Communist Youth) militants, Luis Maturana González and Juan Orellana Catalán. Both were detained in June 1976 and taken to "La Firma." Their bodies were illegally buried at Cuesta Barriga.

A massive indictment against 31 former agents of the so-called Comando Conjunto was issued by Miguel Vázquez Plaza, the minister for extraordinary causes regarding human rights at the Santiago Court of Appeals.

The resolutions correspond to the aggravated kidnappings of Communist Youth militants Luis Maturana González and Juan Orellana Catalán, which occurred beginning on June 8, 1976, in the Metropolitan Region.

Maturana and Orellana were detained on a public street in the Estación Central commune and taken to the clandestine detention center known as "La Firma." Their bodies were illegally buried at Cuesta Barriga.

The magistrate's resolution notes that "the remains of Maturana González have not been found, while in the case of Orellana Catalán, skeletal evidence belonging to him was found, consisting of dental pieces and a removable prosthesis, which allowed for his identification."

LIST OF THE INDICTED

For the kidnapping of Luis Maturana González, the minister indicted the following agents:

Enrique Ruiz Bunger

Juan Saavedra Loyola Antonio Quiroz Reyes Manuel Muñoz Gamboa César Palma Ramírez Daniel Guimpert Corvalán Raúl González Fernández Viviana Ugarte Sandoval Ernesto Lobos Gálvez Alejandro Sáez Mardones Andrés Potin Lailhacar Emilio Mahias del Río Miguel Estay Reyno Luis López López Eduardo Cartagena Maldonado Roberto Flores Cisternas Andrés Valenzuela Morales Robinson Suazo Jaque Pedro Caamaño Medina Pedro Zambrano Uribe Álex Carrasco Olivos Sergio Valenzuela Morales Carlos Rodrigo Villarreal Juan Aravena Hurtuvia José Rojas Alruiz Lenin Figueroa Sánchez José Vera Reyes Humberto Villegas Francisco Illanes Miranda José Alvarado Alvarado Juan Huaiquimilla Coñuepán Víctor Zúñiga Zúñiga

For the case of Juan Orellana Catalán, he indicted:

Enrique Ruiz Bunger

Juan Saavedra Loyola Antonio Quiroz Reyes Andrés Potin Lailhacar Emilio Mahias del Río Luis López López Eduardo Cartagena Maldonado Roberto Flores Cisternas Pedro Caamaño Medina Pedro Zambrano Uribe Álex Carrasco Olivos Sergio Valenzuela Morales Carlos Rodrigo Villarreal Juan Aravena Hurtuvia José Rojas Alruiz Lenin Figueroa Sánchez José Vera Reyes Francisco Illanes Miranda José Alvarado Alvarado Juan Huaiquimilla Coñuepán Víctor Zúñiga Zúñiga

Likewise, Minister Miguel Vázquez reclassified the participation of:

Viviana Ugarte Sandoval Ernesto Lobos Gálvez Alejandro Sáez Mardones

Source: lanacion.cl, December 24, 2013

Date: 12-24-2013

Seven Agents of the Former Comando Conjunto Indicted

In a new blow to the structure of the intelligence service that rivaled the DINA, the head of the Third Criminal Court of Santiago, Mario Carroza, adopted this resolution in the case he is investigating regarding the detention and kidnapping of communist leaders Ricardo Weibel and Juan Orellana Catalán.

Once again, the leadership of the defunct Comando Conjunto faces the progress of the courts, after the judge with exclusive dedication indicted seven members of the group today for the detention and kidnapping of communist leaders Ricardo Weibel and Juan Orellana Catalán.

The ruling, to which Primera Línea had access, reveals how personnel belonging to the Army, Navy, and Air Force tortured, kidnapped, and killed the leaders, whose bodies were later found at Fuerte Arteaga (Weibel) and at Cuesta Barriga (Orellana).

The judge still has to advance the case of Luis Moraga Cruz, who, according to the report from the Armed Forces—delivered within the framework of the Dialogue Table—was thrown into the sea off the coast of San Antonio, and his death would be the responsibility of the same anti-subversive command.

For the crimes of aggravated kidnapping against the two leaders, the magistrate indicted as perpetrators the agents César Luis Palma Ramírez, alias "El Fifo," and the retired Carabineros Major Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa, alias "El Lolo." Indicted as perpetrators of the kidnapping of Orellana were Alex Damián Carrasco Olivos, who used the alias "Loco Alex"; the retired Navy officer Daniel Luis Enrique Guimpert Corvalán, who used the alias "Horacio"; the retired FACh (Air Force) official Raúl Horacio González Fernández, alias "Rodrigo" or "Wally Chico"; and Roberto Flores Cisterna, known as "El Huaso."

Meanwhile, Otto Silvio Trujillo Miranda, a civilian employee of the FACh who worked at the DIFA, was charged as a perpetrator of the kidnapping of Weibel.

Likewise, the ruling indicts Palma, Muñoz, and Trujillo as co-perpetrators of the crime of kidnapping against Ricardo Weibel; and under the same charge, but in the case of Juan Orellana, Palma, Muñoz, Carrasco, González Fernández, Carrasco Olivos, and Guimpert were indicted.

All these agents have faced other trials: "El Lolo" was convicted in the "degollados" (slit-throats) case; "El Fifo," a member of Patria y Libertad, was arrested in August 1973 for his participation in the homicide of presidential aide Arturo Araya and was amnestied; "Loco Alex" was a FACh official and former bodyguard to the Commanders-in-Chief of that military branch, Gustavo Leigh, Fernando Matthei, and Ramón Vega Hidalgo.

Judge Carroza's ruling is a new blow to the structure of the Comando Conjunto, which had already faced the legendary trial of Minister Carlos Cerda during the dictatorship, which meant revealing, for the first time, the existence of the group that operated in parallel with the DINA.

A more recent precedent is also found in the ruling of the judge with preferential dedication and head of the 25th Criminal Court, Carlos Hazbún, who indicted 21 members of the Comando Conjunto for the crime of illicit association.

Concurring with Carroza, he indicted for the crime of kidnapping the retired Aviation General Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger (perpetrator); General (ret.) Mario Vivero (accessory); and the superior FACh officer (ret.) Carlos Madrid Hayden (accomplice).

He judged as perpetrators the former officers César Luis Palma Ramírez, Miguel Estay Reyno alias "El Fanta," Otto Trujillo Miranda, Raúl Horacio González, Manuel Muñoz Gamboa, Pedro Camaño Medina, Alejandro Forero Alvarez, Andrés Potin Laihacar, Robinson Suazo Jaque, Fernando Zúñiga Canales, Eduardo Cartagena Maldonado, Carlos Pascua Riquelme, Juan Chavez Sandoval, Daniel Guimpert Corvalán, Jorge Cobos Manríquez, Guillermo Urra Carrasco, Pedro Zambrano Uribe, and Alejandro Segundo Sáez Mardones.

For procedural purposes, an arrest warrant has already been dispatched to the Fifth Department of the Investigative Police to apprehend Guimpert, Flores, and Carrasco. Meanwhile, the Gendarmerie will be informed of the new indictment against Palma, González, Muñoz, and Trujillo, who are currently deprived of liberty.

The official version regarding Weibel and Orellana

Ricardo Manuel Weibel Navarrete was married, a father of three, a public transport driver, and a communist militant. In short, he had a normal life that changed suddenly on October 26, 1975, when around 2:00 a.m., a group of ten young subjects, dressed in civilian clothes, heavily armed with machine guns and wearing military boots, violently broke into his home and, without identification, proceeded to raid the property and detain the victim.

The leader was taken to the Colina Air Base, known in the command's jargon as "Remo Cero." He remained there until November 6 of the same year, when he was released for only 33 hours. Then, the story repeated itself, although this time without return.

The case caused such a commotion that, following a report of a missing person filed by the victim's family, the Air Force Intelligence Directorate (DIFA) reported via an official letter dated December 18, 1975, signed by Aviation General Enrique Ruiz Bunger, that "Ricardo Weibel Navarrete was detained by personnel of this directorate on November 25, 1975, for his participation in the preparation of writings intended for communist infiltration in the FACh.

After a detention of more than 12 hours approximately, he was released and left at his own home, with his wife and son as witnesses to this fact. After more than fifteen days, he was visited at his respective home by personnel of this Directorate, confirming that he had abandoned it, and it is presumed, based on what was stated by his relatives, that he would be in the Temuco area."

Curiously, another report from the same intelligence service specifies that "there is no record of the time at which the victim was released."

But the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is much clearer on the matter and maintains that "on November 7, 1975, members of the Comando Conjunto detained Ricardo Weibel Navarrete, and he was taken to the Colina Air Base, from where he would have been taken, along with other detainees, to be killed on the military grounds of Peldehue."

Similar was the sad end of Juan Orellana Catalán, detained on June 8, 1976, who was found in 1993 at Cuesta Barriga.

According to the Rettig Report, he was detained together with the regional PC (Communist Party) leader, Luis Emilio Gerardo Maturana González, and taken to the clandestine detention center known as "La Firma," located on Calle Dieciocho across from No. 229, a facility that had previously been occupied by the newspaper El Clarín and which passed into the hands of the Carabineros.

The Carabineros Intelligence School was installed in this place, some of whose professors were members of the DICAR and the Comando Conjunto. Adjacent to this building was another property connected internally, and in the back of which the Comando Conjunto operated.

PC leaders Carlos Contreras Maluje, Juan René Orellana, Luis Emilio Maturana, and Juan Antonio Gianelli were detained there. The Commission maintains that they were "taken from La Firma blindfolded, handcuffed, and drugged, and driven to Cuesta Barriga. Upon arriving at that place, they were allegedly shot and buried in a grave that had been dug the day before."

Meanwhile, in the case of Luis Desiderio Moraga Cruz, the only process of the group that Carroza is handling in which he has not been able to advance as quickly, he is mentioned as having been thrown into the sea off the coast of San Antonio.

The only explanation for the delay in case file 120.133-6 is the non-existence of the body; however, as a point in favor of judicial progress, there is the certainty that the culprits of the crime were once again the Comando Conjunto.

Judge Carroza's investigation has been able to verify with precision these data that were captured in the seven-page ruling to which Primera Línea had access, and in which, along with describing the coordination of the intelligence services of the military branches, it addresses the existence of the clandestine detention centers of Remo Cero (Colina), La Firma, Nido 20, and Nido 18.

Source: primeralinea.cl, February 25, 2002

Date: 02-25-2002

New Remains Found at Fuerte Arteaga

The visiting minister Amanda Valdovinos confirmed that human skeletal remains, corresponding to three people, were found inside the Justo Arteaga Army Regiment in Colina. The proceeding corresponds to what was ordered by the Supreme Court after receiving the report from the Dialogue Table, which concluded in January and which, according to the information provided by the Armed Forces, stated that the remains of some 20 people were buried in that military facility.

Caucoto: "They belong to the Comando Conjunto"

Lawyer Nelson Caucoto told La Voz that all the remains that may be located in the Colina sector correspond to victims of the so-called Comando Conjunto.

According to the Rettig Report, some of the disappeared persons are Humberto Fuentes Rodríguez, Luis Moraga Cruz, Ricardo Weibel Navarrete (identified), Ignacio González Espinoza (identified), Miguel Rodríguez Gallardo, Nicomedes Toro Bravo, José Sagredo Pacheco, Carlos Contreras Maluje, Juan René Orellana, Luis Emilio Maturana, and Juan Gianelli Company, Fernando Navarro Allendes, Horacio Cepeda Marinkovic, Lincoyán Berrios Cataldo, Juan Fernando Ortiz Letelier, Waldo Pizarro Molina, Héctor Veliz Ramírez, Luis Lazo Santander, and Reinalda Pereira Plaza, among others.

For this reason, the professional considers the system of designating special judges carried out by the Supreme Court at the government's request to be "inefficient." "The system has caused confusion, because without a doubt, more progress is made with a minister in charge of specific cases."

Source: primeralinea.cl, July 19, 2001

Date: 07-19-2001

The Difficult Search for Evidence Against the Former Dictator

The president of the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared, Viviana Díaz, is certain of the existence of the operation to remove the corpses from the original places where they were buried, although she does not know who did it.

Díaz recalls the case of the victims buried at Cuesta Barriga, a hill located 60 kilometers from Santiago, reported by a former agent of the dictatorship. When justice arrived at the exact place where the bodies of political prisoners were buried, "we found that they had already taken them out." Those who carried out this macabre task were not very scrupulous: they forgot to remove a jawbone.

And that allowed for the identification of Juan Orellana Catalán.

In the case of the member of the political commission of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), Bautista van Schouwen, detained and murdered in 1973, when a judge ordered an excavation in an unidentified grave in the General Cemetery of Santiago, with the legend "NN" on the tombstone, to remove the body and hand it over to his family, she did not find remains: DINA agents had taken him out and incinerated him.

Van Schouwen was murdered along with Patricio Munita. Munita's parents were relatives of General Ernesto Baeza, the head of the civil police in the first period of the dictatorship. They asked him for help and managed to exhume Munita.

Informed by Manuel Contreras, the head of the DINA, Pinochet was indignant and summoned Baeza to his office and snapped at him: "So you're out looking for dead people, huh!" Baeza denied it, and Pinochet replied furiously: "Watch yourself and stop stirring up the earth to dig up dead people."

Source: El Pais, May 1, 2000

Date: 05-01-2000

Supreme Court Confirms Convictions of 27 Former Agents of the Comando Conjunto for Crimes Against Five Communist Militants Committed Between 1975 and 1976 in Santiago

The Supreme Court rejected the cassation appeals filed by the defenses of the former agents of the so-called Comando Conjunto against the sentence that convicted 27 of them for their responsibility in the crimes of simple kidnapping and aggravated homicide of Ignacio Orlando González Espinoza and Juan René Orellana Catalán; and in the aggravated kidnappings of Ricardo Manuel Weibel Navarrete, Luis Desiderio Moraga Cruz, and Luis Emilio Gerardo Maturana González, all militants of the Communist Party.

The crimes were perpetrated between October 1975 and June 1976 in the city of Santiago.

The so-called Comando Conjunto was a repressive apparatus created by the dictatorship under the tutelage of the Air Force (FACh) and the participation of agents from the Army, the Navy, the Carabineros, and civilian fascists, which operated mainly between the years 1975 and 1977, and whose reason for being was to compete in repressive and criminal tasks with the absolute power held by the DINA under the tutelage of the Army and the direction of Pinochet and Contreras.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 32.012-2022), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, minister María Teresa Letelier, and minister Jean Pierre Matus—confirmed the challenged sentence, issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals, which sentenced former FACh officer Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola and former Carabineros officer Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa to prison terms of 18 years, plus 13 years, and plus 3 years each.

Former Navy officer Daniel Luis Enrique Guimpert Corvalán was sentenced to 18 years, plus 12, and plus 3 years in prison.

Former Army officers Álvaro Julio Federico Corbalán Castilla and Sergio Antonio Díaz López, and former Navy officer Jorge Aníbal Osses Novoa, were sentenced to 12 years in prison, plus 10 years and one day, plus 400 days in prison each.

Agents Raúl Horacio González Fernández and Alejandro Julio Segundo Sáez Mardones were given two sentences of 10 years and one day in prison, plus 400 days in prison each.

Agents Roberto Alfonso Flores Cisterna and Juan Carlos Hernán Rodrigo Villarreal were sentenced to 10 years and one day, plus 5 years and one day, plus 400 days in prison each.

Civilian fascist Otto Silvio Trujillo Miranda was sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison. Agent Lenin Figueroa Sánchez was given two sentences of 5 years and one day, plus 400 days in prison.

Agents Sergio Daniel Valenzuela Morales and Juan Atilio Aravena Hurtuvia were sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison, plus 5 years, plus 400 days in prison.

Civilian fascists Andrés Pablo Potín Lailhacar, Viviana Lucinda Ugarte Sandoval, Emilio Mahias del Río, and agents Juan Luis Fernando López López, José Evaristo Rojas Alruiz, and Francisco Segundo Illanes Miranda were sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison, plus 400 days in prison.

Ernesto Arturo Lobos Gálvez and Alejandro Jorge Forero Álvarez were sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison, plus 60 days in prison.

Roberto Francisco Serón Cárdenas was sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison. Robinson Alfonso Suazo Jaque, Pedro Ernesto Caamaño Medina, Pedro Juan Zambrano Uribe, and José Hernando Alvarado Alvarado were each sentenced to 4 years, plus 60 days in prison.

Those also convicted, Antonio Benedicto Quiros Reyes and Miguel Arturo Estay Reyno, died during the course of the trial.

In the judicial investigation and first-instance ruling, Minister Miguel Vásquez Plaza established that there existed a de facto group that operated clandestinely between the years 1975 and 1976, composed mainly of agents who belonged to the Air Force Intelligence Directorate, as well as Carabineros de Chile, the Navy, and the Army, with the collaboration of civilians, whose main objective was the repression of the Communist Party Youth, for which they proceeded to detain several of them.

This group, called Comando Conjunto, used various facilities for detentions and torture: the Cerrillos Hangar; Nido 20, a secret detention and torture facility located at Calle Santa Teresa No. 037, at the 20th stop of Gran Avenida; Nido 18, a secret facility located at Calle Perú No. 9053, La Florida, Santiago, which was used exclusively for torture; La Prevención or Remo Cero, which were cells located inside the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina, all this during the year 1975; La Firma, at the beginning of 1976, when said group moved its operations to the back of the property in charge of Carabineros de Chile, located on Calle Dieciocho, across from No. 229, which belonged to the former newspaper El Clarín, naming it La Firma.

The operational action of the group consisted of detaining people with the modality of kidnapping, keeping them captive in secret facilities, and subjecting them to interrogations and physical and psychological torture to obtain information and break their will, achieving the collaboration of some of them, to the point that some were assimilated as operational agents of the group, which provided greater effectiveness in the chain detention of communist militants, who were then forcibly disappeared; of some of them, in the course of the years, part of their remains were found.

On November 7, 1975, at approximately 10:00 p.m., Ricardo Manuel Weibel Navarrete was detained at his home on Calle Río Maule in the Recoleta commune by subjects wearing civilian clothes; he was kept deprived of liberty in the facility called La Prevención or Remo Cero, located inside the Anti-Aircraft Regiment in Colina, the last place where he was seen alive, and subsequently, his skeletal remains were found on the grounds of Fuerte Arteaga, Peldehue.

On October 20, 1975, in the early hours of the morning, Luis Desiderio Moraga Cruz was detained at his home on Pasaje Tokio in the Juanita Aguirre housing project, Conchalí commune, Santiago, by subjects wearing civilian clothes; he was kept confined in the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina, inside which was the facility called La Prevención or Remo Cero, this being the last place where he was seen alive.

On December 4, 1975, in the early hours of the morning, Ignacio Orlando González Espinoza was detained at his home on Calle Soberanía in the Santiago commune by subjects wearing civilian clothes; he was kept deprived of liberty in the facility called La Prevención or Remo Cero, located inside the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina, the last place where he was seen alive, and subsequently, he was executed on the grounds of Fuerte Arteaga, Peldehue, where his skeletal remains were found.

On June 8, 1976, in the Estación Central sector, Luis Emilio Gerardo Maturana González met with Juan René Orellana Catalán, both militants of the Communist Youth in hiding due to the political persecution they were subject to, with the purpose of delivering party money to Orellana Catalán for himself and for him to in turn deliver it to other party militants, since Maturana González was in charge of distributing it; at that moment, they were detained by operational agents of the aforementioned Comando Conjunto, keeping them confined in the facility called La Firma, from where their trail was lost. Subsequently, Orellana Catalán was executed at Cuesta Barriga, where remains belonging to him were found.

Source: resumen.cl, April 26, 2024