The minister on extraordinary assignment for human rights violation cases for the Courts of Appeal of Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Coyhaique, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, sentenced retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Marco Augusto Aguirre Mendiboure as the perpetrator of the qualified homicide of Víctor Carreño Zúñiga.

The crime was perpetrated in the Aeródromo Las Marías sector in October 1973. In the ruling (case file 4-2010), the visiting minister also sentenced Aguirre Mendiboure to the accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification from public office and political rights, and absolute disqualification from holding professional titles for the duration of the sentence.

Regarding civil liability, the ruling ordered the State of Chile to pay, as compensation for moral damages resulting from the qualified homicide of Carreño Zúñiga, the sum of $45,000,000 (forty-five million pesos) to each of the victim's 7 siblings, totaling $315,000,000 (three hundred fifteen million pesos).

According to the evidence gathered during the investigation phase, Minister Mesa established that:

«On October 5, 1973, a patrol consisting of two officers, Marco Augusto Aguirre Mendiboure and Alejandro Héctor Kraemer Pinochet, and about 5 conscripts, went to the home of Víctor Carreño Zúñiga. They placed him in the back of a pickup truck in which the aforementioned soldiers were traveling, and after carrying out other patrols, Carreño Zúñiga was taken to the Las Marías airport in the city of Valdivia.

There, they made him get out, and military officer Marco Augusto Aguirre Mendiboure fired several shots at him that caused his death, specifically as a result of multiple transfixing bodily gunshot wounds complicated by the rupture of organs, viscera, and skeleton; the shots were fired by third parties with a large-caliber weapon at close range, and he was subsequently taken to the local morgue.

The facts described above constitute the crime of Qualified Homicide of Víctor Carreño Zúñiga, committed in Valdivia on October 5, 1973, provided for and sanctioned in Article 391 No. 1 of the Penal Code,» the ruling states.

Source: amigafm.cl, April 19, 2018

Supreme Court sentences retired Army officer for the homicide of a student in Valdivia

The Supreme Court rejected the appeal in cassation filed against the sentence that convicted a retired Army officer for his responsibility in the consummated crime of qualified homicide of student Víctor Carreño Zúñiga.

The crime was perpetrated on October 5, 1973, in the city of Valdivia. In a unanimous ruling, the Second Chamber of the high court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, and acting lawyer Diego Munita—ruled out any error of law in the sentence that condemned Marco Augusto Aguirre Mendiboure to 10 years and one day in prison as the perpetrator of the crime. “Given the above, from reading the appeal in cassation filed by the defense of the convicted Aguirre Mendiboure, it is evident that it involves incompatible and subsidiary arguments.

Indeed, the flaws that constitute the invoked grounds cannot be proposed simultaneously, as this would imply that, in the face of plurality, it would be this Court that chooses one of the grounds for nullity, a function that unequivocally does not correspond to the Court.

This becomes more evident when requesting, in a single ground, alternatively acquittal and the application of mitigating factors for criminal responsibility,” the ruling states. The resolution adds: “Indeed, the initial segment of the appeal extends to the error of law committed by considering the conviction decision mistaken, as the accused would not have had the intervention attributed to him in the crime.” “Next, and in the alternative, it argues that the mitigating circumstances of responsibility under Article 11, numerals 1, 6, and 9 of the Penal Code should be considered in his favor, which would entail the imposition of a lesser penalty, but which certainly implies an acceptance of guilt,” it adds. For the Criminal Chamber: “As can be observed, each postulate assumes the abandonment of the previous thesis, conditions under which the request cannot be addressed, because the effectiveness of some flaws cannot be made subordinate to the existence or non-existence of others, disregarding the formality that is inherent to this strict-law appeal.” “The above is replicated when developing the other two grounds contemplated in the appeal, with the appellant moving between acquittal and the reduction of the reproach possible to be made against his client,” the resolution affirms. “Furthermore, and in relation to the third ground contemplated in the filed appeal in cassation, although an infringement of the rules governing evidence is invoked, Article 488 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is not mentioned as having been violated, a rule that, according to the repeated jurisprudence of this Court, constitutes the standard governing evidence required by the ground, which in this case has not been specified. It is also noted, from reading the appeal, that the appellant ultimately imputes that such provision was violated, as it only raises a discrepancy regarding the assessment that the ruling gives to the elements of conviction gathered and related in the sentence, according to which Aguirre Mendiboure's participation as a perpetrator in the events was deemed proven, disagreeing with its conclusions, a matter foreign to this appeal of a substantive nature,” it concludes. In the first-instance ruling, the visiting minister Álvaro Mesa Latorre established the following facts: “On October 5, 1973, a patrol consisting of two officers, Marco Augusto Aguirre Mendiboure and Alejandro Héctor Kraemer Pinochet, and about 5 conscripts, went to the home of Víctor Carreño Zúñiga. They placed him in the back of a pickup truck in which the aforementioned soldiers were traveling, and after carrying out other patrols, Carreño Zúñiga was taken to the Las Marías airport in the city of Valdivia. There, they made him get out, and military officer Marco Augusto Aguirre Mendiboure fired several shots at him that caused his death, specifically as a result of multiple transfixing bodily gunshot wounds complicated by the rupture of organs, viscera, and skeleton; the shots were fired by third parties with a large-caliber weapon at close range, and he was subsequently taken to the local morgue.” Regarding civil liability, the state treasury was ordered to pay a total compensation of $415,000,000 (four hundred fifteen million pesos) to the victim's relatives.

Source: fortinmapocho.cl, October 16, 2021