Manuel Filamir Cartes Lara, 34 years old at the time of the events, father of three, construction worker, local leader of the Communist Party and the Manuel Rodríguez Homeless Committee of Peñalolén, was detained on August 23, 1974, around 06:30 hours, at his home by armed military personnel who entered his residence asking for him.

They made him get up, get dressed, and threatened his wife with a submachine gun. When asked where they were taking him, they said he would go to the Escuela Militar and then return. His apprehension was part of a mass detention and raids carried out in the sector by members of the Army, Air Force, Carabineros, Investigations, and security agents.

One of the latter was Osvaldo Romo Mena, a DINA agent, who appeared wearing an Air Force uniform. This individual had lived in that neighborhood and had been a community and political leader identifying with the Unidad Popular, which is why he knew the sector well and collaborated in denouncing the residents.

All those detained on that occasion were taken to a field in the sector and then transported in trucks and buses to the Escuela Militar, where they remained until the following day and were subsequently transferred to DINA facilities.

Among the residents arrested that same day, in addition to Manuel Cartes, five remain in the status of forcibly disappeared; they are: Stalin Arturo Aguilera Peñaloza, local leader of the Communist Party; Roberto Enrique Aranda Romero, militant of the Communist Party and Secretary of the Neighborhood Council No. 19 Villa Naciones Unidas; Modesto Segundo Espinoza Pozo, militant of the MIR, former President of the Villa Lo Arrieta Neighborhood Council and union leader of the Housing Corporation (CORVI); José Segundo Flores Rojas, militant of the Communist Party; and Eduardo Fernando Zúñiga Zúñiga, local leader of the Communist Party.

A former DINA detainee, Cristián Van Yurick, declared having been in room 13 of Cuatro Álamos with Manuel Cartes and Stalin Aguilera.

The victim's wife went to SENDET, the International Red Cross, the Directorate of Investigations, the Public Jail, the Penitentiary, and the "Tres Álamos" Detention Camp, without obtaining positive responses regarding the whereabouts of Manuel Cartes, who remains to this day in the status of forcibly disappeared.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

In April 1977, the Italian Federation of Construction Workers filed a writ of amparo on behalf of several Chilean construction workers who had been detained and subsequently disappeared, among them Manuel Cartes.

The Supreme Court determined to accept and order the processing of those cases in which no prior judicial actions had been taken, which was not the situation of Manuel Cartes.

On September 9, 1974, a writ of amparo was filed on his behalf, case file No. 1.072-74, before the Santiago Court of Appeals.

On March 7, 1975, considering the reports from the Commander-in-Chief of the Jurisdictional Area of the Second Army Division, the Ministry of Defense, the Commander-in-Chief of the Combat Aviation Command, and the Minister of the Interior, who indicated they had no record of detention or proceedings against Manuel Cartes Lara, the Court dismissed the amparo, ordering the records to be sent to the corresponding Criminal Judge in order to investigate the possible commission of a crime in relation to the disappearance of the victim.

On April 1, 1975, the case for alleged misfortune was initiated, assigned case file No. 1.870 in the 11th Criminal Court of Major Quantities.

Following the statement of the complainant, who ratified the circumstances in which her husband's detention occurred, having received a new report from the Ministry of the Interior, and having fulfilled the order to investigate—all proceedings that did not provide significant information for the investigation—the case was temporarily dismissed, a resolution that was approved by the Court of Appeals on June 27, 1975.

It should be noted that the Prosecutor of that Court, in an extensive report in which he first thanks the intervention of the Armed Forces for avoiding "civil war, hatred, and hopelessness," analyzes the proceedings carried out during the process and points out: "Justice is not capable, the Courts are not capable of providing an answer to those who wait for it with anxiety.

It is not possible to accept outright, with arms crossed, that one person today, another yesterday, a third the day before yesterday, and perhaps a fourth tomorrow, disappears, and what is more, that their relatives claim that they were detained and, after the detention, have not managed to know what their fate has been."

Osvaldo Romo Mena, a former DINA agent who participated in the victim's detention operation, after his appearance had been expected since 1974 in dozens of cases involving forcibly disappeared persons, was arrested in November 1992.

That year, he was located precisely during a series of proceedings decreed by the 3rd Criminal Court of Santiago in the case regarding the disappearance of Alfonso Chanfreau Oyarce. He had been living under a false identity in Brazil since the end of 1975. Since his arrest, he has appeared in several cases involving forcibly disappeared persons and has been indicted in 6 of them.

Source: (Corporation Report)

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 individuals responsible for the National Intelligence Directorate (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 legal error in the sentence that convicted them as authors of the qualified kidnapping of Manuel Filamir Cartes Lara and José Segundo Flores Rojas, and also confirmed the 10-year 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 typifies 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 general policy of exclusion, harassment, persecution, or extermination of a group of numerous compatriots who, in the period immediately following September 11, 1973, were labeled as belonging ideologically 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 devised 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, had already established that "in the month of August 1974, the Military Government maintained an operational political repression agency called the National Intelligence Directorate, also known as DINA, which had an organized structure that possessed its own resources and clandestine detention centers."

And that "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 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 place where their trail is lost, their whereabouts and the fate that has befallen their physical and mental health and personal integrity remaining unknown since then, despite all the efforts deployed 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 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 the Spanish diplomat Carmelo Soria.

Source: biobiochile.cl, February 14, 2025

Now totaling 1,047 years in prison: Supreme Court again convicts Miguel Krassnoff 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 Lara and José Flores Rojas. Both were militants of the Communist Party.

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

Thus, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, César 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 Lara 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 place where their trail is lost, their whereabouts and the fate that has befallen their physical and mental health and personal integrity remaining unknown since then, despite all the efforts deployed to locate them," states the first-instance ruling by the Santiago Court of Appeals minister, Paola Plaza.

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

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

Santiago Court convicts DINA agents for the qualified kidnapping of neighborhood leaders

In a unanimous ruling, the Second Chamber of the appellate court confirmed the sentence that convicted five agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the crimes of qualified 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 Justices Jessica González, Carolina Bustamante, and acting lawyer Euclides Ortega—confirmed the sentence that convicted agents Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, César Manríquez Bravo, and Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo to 15 years of effective prison as authors of the crimes.

Meanwhile, Alejandro Astudillo Adonis and Pedro Araneda Araneda must serve 10 years and one day in prison each as co-authors.

Regarding the civil aspect, 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 moral damages of $75,000,000 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 carry out the appropriate conventionality control in respect of the full reparation of human rights victims," the ruling states.

The resolution adds: "That according to what is provided in 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."

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 declared as such, it is appropriate to compensate the victims, whether direct or indirect, in addition to guaranteeing their non-repetition, as for this, one must adhere to international standards on full reparation, conditions that are satisfied in the case at hand."

"That being the case," it continues, "and as reasoned in the aforementioned sentence, 'having carried out 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 that seeks full reparation for damages derived from the execution of this category of illicit acts lacks relevance, for not respecting the imperative provisions inherent to International Human Rights Law, so the defense raised based on 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 compensatory action against the State of Chile are not ignored here, but it is only recognized that the exception of res judicata derived from those pronouncements, enshrined in the cited Article 177, an internal rule of a merely legal nature, must yield to the right to full reparation derived from the international treaties on human rights already referred to, which, by provision of the second paragraph of Article 5 of our Fundamental Charter, have a superior 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 National Intelligence Directorate, also known as DINA, which had an organized structure that possessed its own resources and clandestine detention centers, which was in charge of a general director who exercised national command and to whom all its members were subordinate.

The operations of the National Intelligence Directorate 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 duties, which were guarded by members of the DINA.

One of these groups was the Caupolicán Brigade, on which the Halcón operational group depended, in charge of repressing and suppressing militants of parties opposed to the military regime, directed 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 homes of neighbors in the area.

According to testimonies of survivors of the events that occurred starting from that day, the victims Manuel Filamir Cartes Lara and José Segundo Flores Rojas were seen on an indeterminate date inside the Villa Grimaldi barracks, also known as Terranova, and subsequently at the Cuatro Álamos detention center, facilities recognized as part of those in which people were kept deprived of liberty by the actions of members of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), the latter being the place where their trail is lost, their whereabouts and the fate that has befallen their physical and mental health and personal integrity remaining unknown since then, despite all the efforts deployed to locate them."

Source: pjud.cl, July 14, 2023