The Supreme Court rejected the appeals of cassation on form and substance filed against the sentence that convicts three former Carabineros officers for their responsibility in the consummated crime of aggravated kidnapping of a minor committed on September 22, 1973, in the commune of La Granja.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 22.962-2019), the Second Chamber of the high court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, and acting lawyers Diego Munita and Pía Tavolari—confirmed the resolution issued by the Court of Appeals of San Miguel.

This resolution upheld the first-instance sentence, which convicted former Carabineros officers Héctor Fernando Osses Yáñez and Aquiles Bustamante Oliva to 10 years and one day of effective imprisonment as authors of the aggravated abduction of the adolescent Víctor Fernando Maldonado Núñez, who was 17 years old at the time.

Meanwhile, former Carabinero Segundo Baldomero Llanos Amariles must serve 3 years of imprisonment as an accomplice to the crime.

The high court's ruling dismissed any error in the sentence that established the responsibility of the convicted individuals, who were part of the staff of the La Granja Carabineros Sub-station, based in the San Gregorio neighborhood, a police unit that collaborated in the repression in the southern sector of Santiago.

At the time of the events, Osses Yáñez was a captain in charge of the aforementioned police unit, and he was assisted in his duties by the then-lieutenant Bustamante Oliva.

Both Osses Yáñez and Bustamante Oliva carried out "operational activities aimed at repressing the civilian population of the working-class sectors of the southern zone of Santiago," in the commune where the Sub-station was located and its surroundings.

To that end, Osses Yáñez formed "a special patrol that acted with a free hand and a quick trigger," turning the execution of detained persons into a repeated practice.

In other judicial cases, convictions have already been handed down against these same former officers for the kidnapping and homicide of Joaquín Montecinos Rojas, which occurred on October 8, 1973, and against Osses Yáñez for the kidnapping of Jeremías Jara Valenzuela, starting on October 19, 1973.

Likewise, on the night of September 22, 1973, Víctor Fernando Maldonado Núñez, 17, was detained by the aforementioned special patrol of the La Granja Carabineros Sub-station, which included, among others, 2nd Sergeant Armando Sáez Pérez (currently deceased) and Carabinero Segundo Baldomero Llanos Amariles.

Subsequently, the aforementioned patrol transported the adolescent Maldonado Núñez in a white Chevrolet C-10 pickup truck, driven by Segundo Llanos Amariles, to a vacant lot on Avenida Américo Vespucio and fired upon him, causing his death due to a gunshot wound.

The adolescent's body was abandoned at the site and was found the following day due to reports from neighbors.

This criminal episode was investigated by Minister Marianela Cifuentes of the Court of Appeals of San Miguel, who issued a first-instance ruling in January 2019; a sentence that was subsequently ratified in July of the same year by the aforementioned Court.

Finally, reaffirming the classification of the act as a crime against humanity, the Supreme Court confirmed the previous resolutions and rejected the appeals filed by the former officers convicted in this case.

In this regard, the Supreme Court stated in its ruling, among other things, "that in our country, from September 11, 1973, and for several years thereafter, various state agencies and institutions were at the service of, or acted as part of, arms or auxiliaries of a structure destined for the generalized repression of thousands of compatriots, mainly due to their political thinking adverse to the prevailing military regime, but also for various other incomprehensible reasons."

The resolution adds: "That said state agencies and institutions mentioned above, given their presence throughout the country, allowed their agents to carry out that general policy of repression at the local level against flesh-and-blood people, contributing to their identification as opponents of the regime, their location, detention, torture, and death, as the case may be."

"That in part of the southern sector of the city of Santiago, the implementation of that general policy in said territory corresponded, among other institutions, to the La Granja Carabineros Sub-station," the resolution affirms.

"Indeed," it continues, "the abduction and death of Maldonado Núñez and other persons investigated in separate files occurred days after the coup d'état of September 11, 1973, with the country in a state of siege and under curfew, and with hundreds of executions and disappearances of persons opposed to the established military regime being carried out throughout the territory by members of the armed forces and order and security forces."

Source: resumen.cl, July 1, 2022

Minister Marianela Cifuentes convicts retired Carabineros for the kidnapping and qualified homicide of a La Granja resident.

In the resolution, the magistrate sentenced Héctor Fernando Osses Yáñez to 13 years in prison as the author of qualified homicide and 541 days in prison for simple kidnapping.

The minister on special assignment for human rights violation cases of the Court of Appeals of San Miguel, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, convicted 3 retired members of the Carabineros for the simple kidnapping and qualified homicide of Joaquín Segundo Montecinos Rojas, events that occurred between October 8 and 11, 1973, in the commune of La Granja.

In the resolution (30-2009), the magistrate sentenced Héctor Fernando Osses Yáñez to 13 years in prison as the author of qualified homicide and 541 days in prison for simple kidnapping; Aquiles Bustamante Oliva to a sentence of 12 years as the author of qualified homicide and 541 days in prison for simple kidnapping; and Segundo Baldomero Llanos Amariles to a sentence of 2 years in prison as an accomplice to qualified homicide and 20 days as an accomplice to simple kidnapping, for whom the benefit of conditional remission was granted.

During the investigation stage, the visiting minister was able to establish the following facts:

1° That on October 8, 1973, while Joaquín Segundo Montecinos Rojas was at the property located at Calle La Granja No. 8.450 in the San Ramón neighborhood, La Granja commune, he was detained without legal justification by a patrol of Carabineros from the La Granja Sub-station, composed of 2nd Sergeant Armando Sáez Pérez (deceased) and Carabinero Segundo Baldomero Llanos Amariles, among others.

2° That, immediately thereafter, Joaquín Montecinos Rojas, instead of being placed at the disposal of the corresponding police or administrative authority, was transported by the aforementioned police officers to a crossroads in the Cerrillos sector, where some of them fired upon him, abandoning him on the public road.

3° That the victim's body was found on October 11, 1973, at 06:00 hours, in the Cerrillos sector, at which time his death was confirmed.

4° That, at that time, the La Granja Carabineros Sub-station was under the charge of Captain Héctor Fernando Osses Yáñez and Lieutenant Aquiles Bustamante Oliva.

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl, October 24, 2018