A sentence of 6 years and one day was received by the Carabineros officer Hugo Jesús Medina Leiva, accused as the perpetrator of the aggravated kidnapping of Víctor Valdivia Vásquez, who was 18 years old at the time of his detention on October 22, 1973.

The victim, who currently remains a forcibly disappeared person, is part of the list of more than 300 minors and young people murdered by the military dictatorship.

Convicted of aggravated kidnapping

The minister in extraordinary visit for human rights cases, Marianela Cifuentes, of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, issued a first-instance sentence and convicted the then-Carabineros captain Hugo Jesús Medina Leiva, of the San Bernardo Police Station, for the aggravated kidnapping of the worker Víctor Eduardo Valdivia.

In this way, the magistrate sentenced Medina Leiva to a penalty of 6 years and one day of major imprisonment in its minimum degree, as the perpetrator of the aggravated kidnapping, in its consummated degree, of Valdivia Vásquez, who to this date is listed as a forcibly disappeared person.

According to the sentence, Medina must serve an effective prison term, for which the time he was deprived of liberty, from December 6 to 15, 2016, will be added. For the plaintiff lawyer, Carolina Vega, of the law firm Caucoto Abogados, “this ruling is tremendously significant, since after 49 years of impunity, justice, represented by Minister Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, managed to overcome this scourge (…) ordering reparation for the family members who survive him, that is, his mother and his siblings.” Likewise, the lawyer maintains that “this is a ruling that adheres to domestic law and international law.” In that sense, Vega adds that “the penalty must be proportional to the gravity of the facts.”

He was detained along with his brothers

The investigation substantiated by Minister Cifuentes managed to prove that the victim was detained on October 21, 1973, along with two of his brothers, Segundo Fernando and Miguel Ángel, after an operation carried out by soldiers from the San Bernardo Infantry Regiment in the Cuatro Estrellas neighborhood of La Cisterna.

At the location, the detainees were tortured and taken to the Bajos de San Agustín dump, where they were forced to run while the uniformed officers fired at them. Víctor Eduardo was wounded and was able to hide and flee shortly after, while his two brothers died at the site as a result of gunshot wounds.

After obtaining help, Víctor Eduardo arrived at the Hospital Parroquial de San Bernardo, where he was operated on on October 22. That same day, Carabineros from the San Bernardo unit detained him and removed him from the hospital. Since that date, Víctor Eduardo remains a forcibly disappeared person.

Source: biobiochile.cl, November 3, 2022

Eight years in prison for former Carabineros captain for the crime against a young worker

Víctor Valdivia was 18 years old at the time of the events and is currently in the status of a forcibly disappeared person, forming part of the list of more than 300 minors and young victims of the military dictatorship.

The Second Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court issued a final sentence in the process investigating the kidnapping of Víctor Valdivia Vásquez, an 18-year-old worker, which occurred on October 21, 1973.

Ministers Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Leopoldo Llanos, María Teresa Letelier, María Cristina Gajardo, and the acting lawyer Pía Tavolari confirmed the second-instance sentence and sentenced former Carabineros captain Hugo Medina Leiva to 8 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree as the perpetrator of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of the victim.

The defense of the convicted man had filed a cassation appeal against the ruling issued by the San Miguel Court of Appeals in December 2023, which was dismissed by the highest court. Víctor Valdivia was detained along with his two brothers, but only he survived the operation at the hands of soldiers from the San Bernardo Infantry School, managing to escape badly wounded, with gunshot impacts, to the Hospital Parroquial de San Bernardo, from where he was detained by Carabineros officials and transferred to the Sixth Police Station of that commune, the place where his trail is lost.

The victim is currently listed as a forcibly disappeared person and is part of the list of more than 300 minors and young people murdered by the repressive apparatuses of the dictatorship. Lawyer Carolina Vega, of the firm Caucoto Abogados, who represents the victim's family, valued the sentence: "Today, after long years, the family has managed to access justice, truth, and reparation for the crime committed against their son and brother.

Together with the plaintiff lawyer from the Human Rights Program of the Ministry of Justice, Carolina Etcheberry, with whom we have worked for years on this case, we greatly value the work of the honorable Supreme Court of Justice," she noted.

Vega adds that "after 52 years, this sentence represents a significant milestone in terms of transitional justice." This is the first conviction received by Medina Leiva, who is currently under full house arrest while waiting to be notified of his sentence and to be transferred to prison.

The facts In the course of the investigation of this process, the following facts have been proven: 1st That on October 21, 1973, in the early hours of the morning, in the context of an operation carried out by soldiers from the San Bernardo Infantry School in a camp in the commune of La Cisterna, currently the Cuatro Estrellas neighborhood of the same commune, Segundo Fernando Valdivia Vásquez, Víctor Eduardo Valdivia Vásquez, Miguel Ángel Valdivia Vásquez, and Guillermo Enrique Abarca Leiva were detained, who, immediately afterward, were transported in a truck to the sector known as Bajos de San Agustín, a place where a military patrol fired against them, with Víctor Eduardo Valdivia Vásquez surviving, who subsequently managed to move to the home of relatives and, from there, to the Hospital Parroquial de San Bernardo in order to request medical attention for his wounds. 2nd That on October 22, 1973, in the afternoon, under circumstances in which Víctor Eduardo Valdivia Vásquez was admitted to the Hospital Parroquial de San Bernardo, due to the gunshot wounds he presented in his left thigh and the jagged wound in the Achilles region, he was detained, without legal right, by officials from the Sixth Carabineros Police Station of San Bernardo, who transferred him to the aforementioned police unit, with his whereabouts unknown since that date. 3rd That, on the aforementioned day, the Sixth Carabineros Police Station of San Bernardo was in charge of Captain Hugo Jesús Medina Leiva, in his capacity as Acting Commissioner. by Daniela Caucoto

Source: resumen.cl, August 8, 2025