The ruling sentenced Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa to an effective prison term of 5 years and one day, as the perpetrator “of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping, of a sexual nature, having been committed on the occasion of the kidnapping, including rape to the detriment of Ana María Campillo Bastidas and Patricia del Carmen Herrera Escobar.” Despite the sentence, the plaintiffs who initiated their legal actions nearly 10 years ago in search of truth, justice, and reparation, filed an appeal, since, “although the resolution by Judge Carroza is a tremendous step, the sentences defined for those responsible are very low and are not consistent with the gravity of the crimes committed.” The Court of Appeals, Mario Carroza, issued a sentence for the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Patricia del Carmen Herrera and Ana María Campillo, who were detained and tortured during the dictatorship by agents of the Carabineros Intelligence Service (SICAR) in the basements of the Plaza de la Constitución, where they remained illegally detained. The crime, which occurred in June 1974, included interrogations with torture, rape, and sexual abuse against both victims, who were kept blindfolded, handcuffed, and subjected to conditions of extreme helplessness for several days.

THE SENTENCE OF JUDGE CARROZA

The ruling sentenced Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa to an effective prison term of 5 years and one day, as the perpetrator “of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping, of a sexual nature, having been committed on the occasion of the kidnapping, including rape to the detriment of Ana María Campillo Bastidas and Patricia del Carmen Herrera Escobar between the months of June and July 1974, in Santiago.” Meanwhile, Francisco Segundo Illanes Miranda, José Luis Contreras Valenzuela, Wiston Humberto Cruces Martínez, Ernesto Arturo Lobos Gálvez, Sabino Adán Roco Olguín, Alejandro Segundo Sáez Mardones, and José Hernando Alvarado Alvarado were sentenced to 3 years and one day as accomplices, being granted the benefit of supervised release; and José Edgar Hoffmann Oyarzún, also considered an accomplice, was sentenced to 541 days of commuted imprisonment. Regarding the results of the ruling, the President of Corporación Humanas stated that “this sentence represents, without a doubt, an advance in the recognition of sexual violence committed during the dictatorship, especially against women, because the events were classified as aggravated kidnapping due to the serious damage caused by the rapes and sexual abuse on one hand, and on the other, it recognizes the need to repair the damage caused to the victims by the State, through the corresponding compensation.”

APPEAL

Despite the sentence, the plaintiffs who initiated their legal actions nearly 10 years ago in search of truth, justice, and reparation, filed an appeal, since, “although the resolution by Judge Carroza is a tremendous step, the sentences defined for those responsible are very low and are not consistent with the gravity of the crimes committed.” “We value this ruling for what it represents as a recognition of the crime committed, but we consider it a duty to demand full justice, with sentences commensurate with the gravity of these crimes,” the plaintiffs declared. “It is also about continuing on a path that can open spaces for other women, who also suffered torture and sexual violence during the dictatorship and who have not yet initiated legal action, to trust that it is possible to achieve truth and justice. That is why it is important to appeal; we seek justice not just to the extent possible, but full truth and justice,” they pointed out.

Source: elmostrador.cl, May 16, 2019

Seven former Comando Conjunto agents sentenced for qualified kidnapping and illicit association

The San Miguel Court of Appeals sentenced seven agents of the clandestine organization for the kidnapping of Communist Youth leader Ulises Merino Varas, who became a forcibly disappeared person in February 1976.

The San Miguel Court of Appeals sentenced seven former agents of the Comando Conjunto for their responsibility in the crimes of illicit association and the qualified kidnapping of Ulises Merino Varas, a leader of the Communist Youth, who became a forcibly disappeared person in February 1976 following his detention in the La Granja commune.

The Second Chamber of the appellate court sentenced Antonio Benedicto Quirós Reyes and Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola to effective prison terms of 10 years and 5 years and one day, as perpetrators of the crimes of qualified kidnapping and illicit association, respectively.

For their part, former agents Daniel Luis Guimpert Corvalán and Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa must serve effective sentences of 8 years and 5 years as perpetrators of qualified kidnapping and illicit association.

In the case of Francisco Segundo Illanes Miranda and Ernesto Arturo Lobos Gálvez, they were sentenced to 6 years and 541 days in prison, as perpetrators of the crimes of qualified kidnapping and illicit association, respectively.

Finally, Alejandro Segundo Sáez Mardones must serve 6 years in prison for the crime of qualified kidnapping. The court also explained that “among others, the mission of the so-called Comando Conjunto was the dismantling of the Communist Party and its Youth.” The ruling determined that “the participation of the accused, as perpetrators of the crime of qualified kidnapping, has been established in the nineteenth to forty-second foundations of the appealed sentence.” It adds that although the accused “denied their participation in the facts of the case, they acknowledged, in some cases with nuances, their participation in the so-called ‘Comando Conjunto’.” In parallel, the ruling that accepted the claims for compensation for damages filed and ordered the treasury to pay the total sum of $180,000,000 for moral damages to the victims' relatives was confirmed. Judge Cifuentes Alarcón noted that the investigation managed to establish that Ulises Merino Varas was detained in February 1976 by agents of the Comando Conjunto in the vicinity of the La Granja Municipality. Subsequently, Merino was deprived of liberty at ‘Remo Cero’, ‘La Firma’, the 24th Carabineros Precinct of Las Condes, and the ‘Casa de Solteros’. At the end of April 1976, he was transferred again to ‘La Firma’, and his whereabouts have been unknown since that date.

Source: lared.cl, December 16, 2021

Supreme Court rejects cassation appeals and confirms convictions of former Comando Conjunto agents for qualified kidnappings and illicit association

The Second Chamber confirmed the sentence that convicted Juan Saavedra Loyola, Daniel Guimpert Corvalán, Raúl González Fernández, Juan Aravena Hurtuvia, Manuel Muñoz Gamboa, and Ernesto Lobos Gálvez to 20 years in prison, as perpetrators of the crimes of qualified kidnapping and illicit association.

Meanwhile, Viviana Ugarte Sandoval must serve 10 years in prison as an accomplice to the crimes. The Supreme Court rejected the cassation appeals and convicted seven members of the so-called Comando Conjunto for their responsibility in the crimes of illicit association and qualified kidnapping of Aníbal Riquelme Pino, Francisco González Ortiz, and Alfonso Araya Castillo.

These crimes were perpetrated starting in 1975 and 1976, respectively. In a split decision (case file 36.977-2019), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of judges Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Arturo Prado, and judge María Teresa Letelier—ruled out any violation of the law in the challenged sentence, issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals, which ratified the resolution of the visiting judge Leopoldo Llanos Sagristá.

Thus, the sentence that convicted Juan Saavedra Loyola, Daniel Guimpert Corvalán, Raúl González Fernández, Juan Aravena Hurtuvia, Manuel Muñoz Gamboa, and Ernesto Lobos Gálvez to 20 years in prison, as perpetrators of the crimes of qualified kidnapping and illicit association, remains final.

Meanwhile, Viviana Ugarte Sandoval must serve 10 years in prison as an accomplice to the crimes. “That for the aforementioned reasons, upon dismissing the infringement of a rule regulating evidence, the participation as affirmed by the first-instance sentence in its 36th foundation—reproduced in the second-instance one—remains immovable and, consequently, the ruling has not erred in the application of the other substantive rules whose infringement the appeal accuses,” the ruling maintains.

The resolution adds: “That the questions regarding the classification as an illicit association of a military organization or of the Armed Forces constitute a matter that cannot be studied and resolved through the deduced cause, which is limited to the correct establishment of the facts and not to their legal classification.” “That for the reasons stated, the cassation appeal in the merits by the counsel for González Fernández cannot prosper,” it adds.

Likewise, the Supreme Court ruled out any error in the sentence that refused to apply the measure of prescription in this case, as it is a crime against humanity. “That in this regard, and without prejudice to what was reasoned by the first-instance sentence in its 84th to 86th foundations—which are maintained by the second-instance judges—which this Court shares, it is necessary to take a stance on the understanding of partial prescription as a ‘species’ of total prescription—and not a mere special rule for determining the sentence—since both have the same foundation, that is, the need for the sentence diminishes over time until it disappears. In other words, both are the same thing, but at different stages,” the ruling states. For the Criminal Chamber: “The above entails that all the institutions and prohibitions that regulate total prescription are consequentially applicable to partial prescription and, in what is of interest here, in those crimes where there cannot be total prescription because the need for the sentence does not diminish with the passage of time, such as the crimes against humanity in this case, partial prescription cannot operate either.” “That, in effect—it deepens—the classification of a crime against humanity given in the 5th reasoning of the same ruling to the illicit acts committed, forces the consideration of International Human Rights Law regulations, which exclude the application of both total prescription and so-called partial prescription, understanding such institutes as closely linked in their foundations and, consequently, contrary to the ius cogens regulations coming from that sphere of International Criminal Law, which reject impunity and the imposition of sentences not proportional to the intrinsic gravity of the crimes, based on the passage of time.” “That, together with all of the above, it must be emphasized that whatever interpretation may be made of the foundation of the legal provision in question, the truth is that the rules to which Article 103 under study refers grant a mere power to the judge and do not impose the obligation to reduce the amount of the sentence even if several mitigating factors concur, so the denounced vices lack substantial influence on the operative part of the challenged ruling (among others, SSCS File 35.788-2017, of March 20, 2018; 39.732-2017, of May 14, 2018; and, 36.731-2017, of September 25, 2018),” it concludes. Decision adopted with the dissenting vote of Judge Prado, who was in favor of applying partial prescription. Comando Conjunto In the first-instance resolution, Judge Llanos Sagristá established the following facts: “a) That during the years 1975 and 1976, a repressive organization functioned—called the ‘Intelligence Community’ and known subsequently as the ‘Comando Conjunto’—formed by members of different branches of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, and also by some civilians who were former members of the anti-Marxist group called ‘Patria y Libertad’. Said repressive organization was constituted by the decision of the Intelligence Directorates of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, whose headquarters were installed in a building located at Juan Antonio Ríos St. No. 6 in Downtown Santiago (JAR 6), where the Intelligence Directorates of the Air Force (DIFA), the Army (DINE), the Navy (SIN), and the Carabineros (DICOMCAR) were located. Operationally, the aforementioned repressive organization functioned in clandestine detention and torture centers, called ‘Nido 20’ (located in the sector of Paradero 20 of Gran Avenida) and ‘Nido 18’ (located in the sector of Paradero 18 of Vicuña Mackenna); and subsequently, from October or November 1975, in ‘Remo 0’, located inside the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment of Colina of the Chilean Air Force (hereinafter, FACH). Finally, the operational agents moved from this last place—with the exclusion of the Army members, who at that time distanced themselves from the organization—at the beginning of 1976, to the ‘La Firma’ barracks, located at 18 de Septiembre St. in Downtown Santiago, at the height of 200, in the building of the former newspaper ‘El Clarín’. In all the clandestine detention centers indicated above, torture was carried out on the detainees, some of whom died as a result of the same; or they were executed by the agents, who made their bodies disappear. b) The ‘La Firma’ barracks functioned until December 1976, and corresponds to an old building with several dependencies, some of which were offices, others interrogation rooms, and others, dungeons. Some of these dependencies had black and white tiled floors. In addition, the operational agents who were there used several vehicles to go out to detain people, including a yellow Chevy Nova car. The heads of said barracks were Navy Lieutenant Daniel Luis Guimpert Corvalán, who in turn depended on Commander Sergio Barra Von Kretschman, director of the SIN; FACH Lieutenant Roberto Fuentes Morrison, who depended on FACH Commander Juan Saavedra Loyola, and he in turn, on the director of the DIFA, Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger; and Carabineros Lieutenant Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa, who in turn was a subordinate of the Captain of that corps Germán Esquivel Caballero, with Colonel Rubén Romero Gormaz being the head of the Carabineros intelligence area. Both Guimpert Corvalán, Fuentes Morrison, and Muñoz Gamboa directed separate groups of subordinates who performed operational duties, detaining people to take them to the aforementioned facility, where they were interrogated under torture, as noted above. c) Consequently, the so-called ‘Comando Conjunto’ was formed by a plurality of individuals, with a distribution of functions and hierarchical levels, permanently and continuously concerted for the purpose of executing crimes or simple offenses against certain legal interests, in particular, the life and physical and psychic integrity of persons. Thus, members of said criminal group committed, among other crimes against persons, the homicide of Carlos Contreras Maluje, who remained detained in the aforementioned ‘La Firma’ barracks; a crime for which members of the aforementioned organization were convicted as perpetrators (Sentence File No. 6188-06 of the Hon. Supreme Court, of November 13, 2007). d) From the end of 1975, and throughout the year 1976, the repressive activity of the aforementioned organization was directed especially against the clandestine structure of the Communist Youth (hereinafter, JJ.CC), using information provided by militants of that political entity who, after being detained, became collaborators and in some cases agents, such as Carol Flores Castillo, Miguel Estay Reyno, and René Basoa Alarcón. In this way, and starting from the detention of leader José Weibel Navarrete on March 29, 1976—General Secretary of the Interior of the JJ.CC. until a few months before his detention—who was taken by his captors to the ‘La Firma’ barracks, being tortured and whose trail has been lost since then, numerous leaders of the aforementioned political organization began to be detained, who were performing or had assumed leadership tasks of the same in replacement of those who were detained, or who were ‘frozen’ (hidden in safe houses) as a preventive measure against the wave of repression unleashed against the organization. e) In September 1976, the JJ.CC. had an internal leadership (within the country) that was constituted by a Secretariat of four members, and an Executive Commission. Both the members of the Secretariat and the Executive Commission—with the exception of the General Secretary—directed different Commissions, such as Organization, Finance, Control and Cadres, Solidarity, Students, Political Relations, and Union. Part of this last Commission were militants Aníbal Raimundo Riquelme Pino (28 years old, married, one child, plumber at the company ‘Martín Michel y Cía. Ltda.’, member of the Professional Union of Plumbers, Heating Engineers and Sanitary Works of Santiago and the Construction Federation); Francisco Juan González Ortiz (27 years old, married, two children, sanitary installer, company ‘Martín Michel y Cía. Ltda.’, National Leader of the Construction Federation); and Alfonso del Carmen Araya Castillo (27 years old, married, one daughter, furniture maker). The Union Commission was directed by militant Juan Orellana Catalán, detained in June 1976 and transferred to the ‘La Firma’ barracks, where he was seen alive for the last time. f) On September 9, 1976, Riquelme Pino (who in July 1976 had left his home because security agents were looking for him, living since then in the house of a family with the surname Soto Urbina) headed towards the Plaza Pedro de Valdivia sector, as he was to meet Araya Castillo there at 2:00 PM, an appointment that had been previously arranged by telephone by Madelina Ester Araneda Gallardo, spouse of Araya Castillo, also a militant of the JJ.CC. and member of one of its Commissions; Araya Castillo, for his part, left his home in the Pudahuel commune for said appointment. The trail of both is lost when they were heading to the mentioned meeting point. g) For his part, González Ortiz, on the same September 9, 1976, was seen in the afternoon at a meeting at the premises of the Construction Federation, at Vergara St. No. 74 upon reaching Alameda Bernardo O’Higgins, which concluded at approximately 9:00 PM. He left the premises with other participants in the meeting, who saw him for the last time when he was crossing the Alameda heading north. h) That Eliana Fernández Aguirre, who worked at the company ‘Martín Michel y Cía. Ltda.’ (for which both Riquelme Pino and González Ortiz had provided services), at the request of the first of those named made about three months before his disappearance, kept correspondence for him that he would later pick up, and which consisted of an envelope that in mid-September 1976 was picked up by a young individual 20 to 22 years old, who previously called her on behalf of ‘maestro Castro’ (a code to deliver a letter he had received). On September 21, 1976, in the morning hours, upon arriving at her work at Echaurren St. with Alameda, the previous individual appeared again, accompanied by two other subjects, who identified themselves as police, forcing her to get into a large yellow car with a brown roof, and who subsequently placed tape over her eyes to prevent her from seeing, taking her to a house. In said place, she says they undressed her, handcuffed her, and interrogated her in the presence of another person who was detained; the captors or agents asked this person if he knew the named Eliana Fernández and if she had cooperated with him, with the latter recognizing the voice of the detainee as belonging to Riquelme Pino; who, upon denying that Fernández cooperated with him, was beaten. Then Eliana Fernández asked to go to a bathroom, where she was taken; and since the tape under her eyes had come off, she could see that the floor was black and white tiled. Later they forced her to sign a statement, being released at approximately 8:00 PM at a roundabout in an unknown place, where she was able to take a bus and then a taxi to go to her house. Since the moment of the disappearances of Aníbal Raimundo Riquelme Pino, Alfonso del Carmen Araya Castillo, and Francisco Juan González Ortiz, they have not contacted their relatives, they do not have records of leaving the country, nor is their death proven.”

Source: pjud.cl, April 19, 2022

Supreme Court confirms convictions of 27 former Comando Conjunto agents for crimes against five communist militants committed between 1975 and 1976

The Supreme Court rejected the cassation appeals in the merits 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 qualified homicide of Ignacio Orlando González Espinoza and Juan René Orellana Catalán; and in the qualified 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 fascist civilians, which operated mainly between the years 1975 to 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 judges Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, judge María Teresa Letelier, and judge 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 sentenced to two terms of 10 years and one day in prison, and 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.

Fascist civilian Otto Silvio Trujillo Miranda was sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison. Agent Lenin Figueroa Sánchez was sentenced to two terms 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.

Fascist civilians 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 sentenced to 4 years, plus 60 days in prison each. The also convicted Antonio Benedicto Quiros Reyes and Miguel Arturo Estay Reyno died during the course of the proceedings.

In the judicial investigation and first-instance ruling, Judge Miguel Vásquez Plaza established that there existed a de facto group that operated clandestinely between the years 1975 and 1976, formed mainly by agents who belonged to the Air Force Intelligence Directorate, in addition to Carabineros 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 center located at Santa Teresa St. No. 037, Paradero 20 of Gran Avenida; Nido 18, a secret center located at Perú St.

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 the year 1976, said group moved its operations to the rear of the property in charge of Carabineros de Chile, located at Dieciocho St., in front of No. 229, which belonged to the former newspaper Clarín, calling it La Firma.

The operational action of the group consisted of detaining people with the modality of kidnapping, keeping them captive in secret centers, 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 made to disappear; of some of them, over the years, part of their remains were found.

On November 7, 1975, at approximately 10:00 PM, Ricardo Manuel Weibel Navarrete was detained at his home on Río Maule St. in the 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.

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

On December 4, 1975, in the early morning hours, Ignacio Orlando González Espinoza was detained at his home on Soberanía St. in the Santiago 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 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.

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 subjected to, with the purpose of giving party money to Orellana Catalán 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 that moment they were detained by operational agents of the aforementioned Comando Conjunto, keeping them detained in the center called La Firma, from where their trail is lost.

Subsequently, Orellana Catalán was executed at Cuesta Barriga, where his remains were found.

Source: resumen.cl, April 26, 2024

Supreme Court confirms conviction of former Comando Conjunto members for the 1976 crime of a municipal worker in La Granja

The Supreme Court rejected the cassation appeals in the merits, filed by the defenses against the sentence that convicted members of the repressive organization known as Comando Conjunto, for their responsibility in the consummated crime of qualified kidnapping of municipal employee Ulises Jorge Merino Varas, perpetrated starting on February 2, 1976, in the La Granja commune.

Ulises Merino Varas, 33 years old, married, one child, was a militant of the Communist Party and worked as an inspector in the Traffic Directorate of the La Granja municipality. On February 2, 1976, around 2:30 PM, he was detained by repressive agents of the Comando Conjunto in the vicinity of the aforementioned municipality.

Then, the detainee was taken to the detention and torture centers of this organization known as 'Remo Cero', 'La Firma', the 24th Carabineros Precinct of Las Condes, and the 'Casa de Solteros'. At the end of April 1976, Merino Varas was transferred again to 'La Firma', and his whereabouts have been unknown since that date.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 3.989-2022), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of judge Manuel Antonio Valderrama, judges María Teresa Letelier, María Cristina Gajardo, and ad hoc lawyers Leonor Etcheberry and Andrea Ruiz—confirmed the sentence that convicted Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola to 10 years in prison; Daniel Luis Enrique Guimpert Corvalán and Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa to 8 years in prison; and Francisco Segundo Illanes Miranda, Ernesto Lobos Gálvez, and Alejandro Segundo Sáez Mardones to 6 years of effective prison, as perpetrators of the crime.

Other implicated persons, some prosecuted and convicted, died during the course of the proceedings. In the resolution, the Criminal Chamber invalidated the challenged sentence ex officio and, in a replacement sentence, revoked it in the part that convicted Saavedra Loyola, Guimpert Corvalán, Muñoz Gamboa, Illanes Miranda, Lobos Gálvez, and Sáez Mardones as perpetrators of the crime of illicit association.

Comando Conjunto The so-called Comando Conjunto was a military-style intelligence group, hierarchical and disciplined, conceived by the Air Force commands as a way to maintain the dispute with the DINA for the monopoly and authorship of the repressive actions intended to destroy the organizations of the left and the resistance to the dictatorship.

Since the military coup at the end of 1974, this dispute with the DINA was represented by the Fach Intelligence Service (SIFA) and its criminal actions at the Air War Academy (AGA), which was converted into a detention and torture barracks for political prisoners.

Later, the Fach invented this Comando Conjunto which operated between the years 1975 and 1976, formed by agents belonging to the intelligence groups of the Air Force, Carabineros, the Navy, and the Army, plus civilian individuals coming from the fascist ultra-right.

The main objective of this entity was the repression of the Communist Youth and the Communist Party, for which they proceeded to detain people linked to said party, who were kidnapped, interrogated, and physically and psychologically tortured to obtain information.

Subsequently, the detained persons could be released, or transferred to some concentration camp for prisoners, or transferred to an unknown destination to make them disappear, or murdered. At the time of the events, the repressive entity operated under the command of Air Brigadier General Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger and commanders Antonio Benedicto Quirós Reyes (both deceased), and Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, and had, among others, the mission of dismantling the Communist Party and its Youth.

For the commission of its crimes, this repressive apparatus had its headquarters in the building located at Juan Antonio Ríos St. No. 6 of the Santiago commune, called 'JAR-6', and used as detention and torture centers the facilities 'Remo Cero', situated in the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment of Colina with the name 'La Prevención Prison'; 'La Firma', located at Dieciocho St. in front of No. 229 of the Santiago commune, which corresponded to the place where the former newspaper El Clarín operated, which was seized by Carabineros, calling it La Firma, until the end of the year 1976.

To these are added the 'Casa de Solteros', located at Bellavista St. No. 125 of the Providencia commune, and the 24th Carabineros Precinct, situated at Las Tranqueras St. No. 840 of the Las Condes commune; the Casa de Apoquindo, the Hangar at the Cerrillos Airport, Nido 18, and Nido 20, which were properties that had been seized from militants of persecuted political parties. by Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl, May 20, 2025