Miguel Vázquez, the visiting judge of the Santiago Court of Appeals, determined the responsibility of 79 former members of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) in the aggravated kidnapping of seven people and the aggravated homicide of Víctor Díaz López. These events occurred between May 1976 and January 1977 and constitute what is known as the Conferencia Case.

The eight crimes were perpetrated during operations carried out by the secret police of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship at the following locations: Conferencia 1587, in the Santiago commune; Gaspar de Orense 993, in the Quinta Normal commune; Bello Horizonte 979, in the Las Condes commune; and the Simón Bolívar 8800 barracks, in the La Reina commune.

Those identified as responsible for the disappearance of Mario Zamorano Donoso, Jorge Muñoz Poutays, Uldarico Donaire Cortés, Jaime Donato Avendaño, Elisa Escobar Zepeda, Lenin Díaz Silva, and Eliana Espinoza Fernández, and the death of Víctor Díaz López, are: Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Carlos López Tapia, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Ricardo Lawrence Mires, Jorge Madariaga Acevedo, Eugenio Fieldhouse Chávez, José Fuentealba Saldías, Hugo Clavería Leiva, José Soto Torres, Raúl Soto Pérez, Juan Carlos Escobar Valenzuela, Jerónimo Neira Méndez, Héctor Briones Burgos, Pedro Mora Villanueva, Roberto Rodríguez Manquel, Leonidas Méndez Moreno, Jorge Andrade Gómez, Nelson Herrera Lagos, Juan Morales Salgado, Jorge Sagardía Monje, Héctor Valdebenito Araya, Federico Chaigneau Sepúlveda, Bernardo Daza Navarro, Sergio Escalona Acuña, Guillermo Ferrán Martínez, Gladys Calderón Carreño, Elisa Magna Astudillo, Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo, Emilio Troncoso Vivallos, Claudio Pacheco Fernández, Jorge Díaz Radulovich, Orlando Altamirano Sanhueza, Eduardo Cabezas Mardones, Jorge Escobar Fuentes, René Riveros Valderrama, Jorge Pichunmán Curiqueo, Orfa Saavedra Vásquez, Celinda Aspe Rojas, Teresa Navarro Navarro, Berta Jiménez Escobar, Adriana Rivas González, Jorge Arriagada Mora, Pedro Bitterlich Jaramillo, Eduardo Oyarce Riquelme, Guillermo Díaz Ramírez, Ana Vilches Muñoz, Italia Vacarella Gilio, Jorge Manríquez Manterola, Orlando Torrejón Gatica, José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, Manuel Obreque Henríquez, Gustavo Guerrero Aguilera, Eduardo Garea Guzmán, Juvenal Piña Garrido, Rufino Jaime Astorga, Luis Lagos Yáñez, María Angélica Guerrero Soto, Sergio Castro Andrade, Manuel Montre Méndez, Pedro Gutiérrez Valdés, Claudio Orellana de la Pinta, Joyce Ahumada Despouy, Hiro Álvarez Vega, José Miguel Meza Serrano, José Ojeda Obando, Carlos Bermúdez Méndez, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, Eduardo Reyes Lagos, Marilin Silva Vergara, Hernán Sovino Maturana, José Friz Esparza, Carlos Miranda Mesa, Camilo Torres Negrier, Orlando Inostroza Lagos, Carlos López Inostroza, José Seco Alarcón, Lionel Medrano Rivas, and Juan Suazo Saldaña.

The plaintiffs in the Conferencia case, the State Defense Council (CDE) and the Human Rights Program of the Ministry of the Interior, were notified to either adhere to Judge Vázquez's indictment or present their own.

Once these are defined, the defense teams for the accused will be notified for the plenary stage prior to the first-instance sentence.

PROCEEDINGS BY JUDGE CARROZA

Meanwhile, the visiting judge of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Mario Carroza, indicted former lieutenant Kenny Aravena Sepúlveda for his responsibility in the homicides of Jorge Pacheco Durán, Denrio Álvarez Olivares, and Ernesto Mardones, which occurred on December 19, 1973.

According to the document, a military patrol removed the deceased from the Santiago Public Jail to transfer them to the No. 1 Buin Regiment under Aravena's command, and one hour later, the officer left the bodies of the three detainees at the Legal Medical Service (SML).

Carroza also issued indictments for the homicides of Luis Herrera González and Mario Parra Guzmán, which occurred in September 1973, holding Pedro Silva Jiménez, Jaime García Zamorano, Jorge Muñoz Pontony, and Pedro Rivera Piña responsible for the crimes.

"On September 27, 1973, a military patrol went to the Chilean Autos company and proceeded to detain two of its workers, union leaders Luis Ricardo Herrera González and Mario Parra Guzmán. Immediately thereafter, they were transferred to the facilities of the Army War Academy (...) subsequently, without any justification, Major Jorge Muñoz Pontony and Captain Benjamín Araya Pérez ordered Captain Jaime García Zamorano and second soldiers Pedro Rivera Piña and Pedro Silva Jiménez to execute the detainees," the investigation states.

Source: 24horas.cl, October 22, 2013

DINA agents convicted for the kidnapping of leaders and the homicide of the Communist Party general secretary

The visiting judge for human rights violation cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vázquez Plaza, convicted 53 former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the consummated crimes of eight aggravated kidnappings and one aggravated homicide of Communist Party leaders, who were detained within the framework of the so-called "Calle Conferencia 1" case.

In the ruling (case file 2.182-1998), the judge issued a sentence against the former state agents for their responsibility, as authors or accomplices, in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, Uldarico Donaire Cortez, Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, Lenin Adán Díaz Silva, Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández, and Víctor Manuel Díaz López; and the homicide of Díaz López.

These crimes were perpetrated in 1976 in the Metropolitan Region.

In the resolution, the judge sentenced

• Carlos José Leonardo López Tapia and Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko to 20 years in prison as authors of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of: Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso and Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, perpetrated starting May 4, 1976; of Uldarico Donaire Cortez and Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, committed starting May 5, 1976; of Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, perpetrated starting May 6, 1976; of Lenin Adán Díaz Silva, committed starting May 9, 1976; of Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández, perpetrated starting May 12, 1976; and of Víctor Manuel Díaz López, perpetrated starting May 12, 1976.

• Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires must serve 20 years in prison as the author of the eight crimes of aggravated kidnapping; and 15 years in prison as a co-author of the aggravated homicide of Víctor Díaz López, perpetrated on an undetermined day in the first fortnight of January 1977.

• Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo, Emilio Hernán Troncoso Vivallos, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich, Orlando del Tránsito Altamirano Sanhueza, Eduardo Patricio Cabezas Mardones, Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, Guillermo Eduardo Díaz Ramírez, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, Carlos Enrique Miranda Mesa, Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza, and Lionel de la Cruz Medrano Rivas must serve 13 years in prison as co-authors of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, Uldarico Donaire Cortez, Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, and Víctor Manuel Díaz López; and as accomplices in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Lenin Adán Díaz Silva and Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández.

• Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido must serve a sentence of 13 years in prison as a co-author of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, Uldarico Donaire Cortez, Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, and Víctor Manuel Díaz López; and as an accomplice in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Lenin Adán Díaz Silva and Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández; in addition to 12 years in prison as a co-author of the aggravated homicide of Víctor Díaz López.

• José Alfonso Ojeda Obando was sentenced to 11 years in prison as a co-author of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Víctor Manuel Díaz López and Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández; and as an accomplice in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, Uldarico Donaire Cortez, Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, and Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda.

• José Domingo Seco Alarcón was sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison as a co-author of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Víctor Manuel Díaz López and as an accomplice in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, Uldarico Donaire Cortez, Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, and Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández.

• Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel and Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno must serve 7 years in prison as accomplices in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, Uldarico Donaire Cortez, Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, Víctor Manuel Díaz López, Lenin Adán Díaz Silva, and Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández.

• Juan Hernán Morales Salgado must serve sentences of 8 years and 15 years in prison as a co-author of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated homicide of Víctor Díaz López, respectively.

• Jorge Claudio Andrade Gómez was sentenced to 6 years in prison as a co-author of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Víctor Manuel Díaz López.

• Sergio Orlando Escalona Acuña, Gladys de las Mercedes Calderón Carreño, and Jorge Segundo Pichunmán Curiqueo were sentenced to 5 years and one day and 12 years in prison as co-authors of the aggravated kidnapping and aggravated homicide of Víctor Díaz López, respectively.

• Nelson René Herrera Lagos, Héctor Raúl Valdebenito Araya, Federico Humberto Chaigneau Sepúlveda, Elisa del Carmen Magna Astudillo, Orfa Yolanda Saavedra Vásquez, Celinda Angélica Aspe Rojas, Teresa del Carmen Navarro Navarro, Berta Yolanda del Carmen Jiménez Escobar, Jorge Hugo Arriagada Mora, Eduardo Oyarce Riquelme, Ana del Carmen Vilches Muñoz, Italia Donata Vaccarella Gilio, Jorge Lientur Manríquez Manterola, José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, Gustavo Enrique Guerrero Aguilera, Luis Alberto Lagos Yáñez, María Angélica Guerrero Soto, Sergio Hernán Castro Andrade, Pedro Antonio Gutiérrez Valdés, Joyce Ana Ahumada Despouy, Hiro Álvarez Vega, José Miguel Meza Serrano, Carlos Justo Bermúdez Méndez, Marilín Melahani Silva Vergara, Camilo Torres Negrier, and Juan Edmundo Suazo Saldaña were sentenced to 3 years and one day in prison as accomplices in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Víctor Díaz López.

Meanwhile, agents Jorge Segundo Madariaga Acevedo, Hugo Hernán Clavería Leiva, José Javier Soto Torres, Raúl Alberto Soto Pérez, Juan Carlos Escobar Valenzuela, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Pedro Mora Villanueva, and Jorge Marcelo Escobar Fuentes were acquitted.

The Facts

During the investigation stage of the case, Judge Miguel Vázquez established the following facts:

1.- That the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), at the end of 1975 or the beginning of 1976, underwent an operational evolution, resulting in a restructuring of its various groups, at which point the objective became the persecution and repression of the Communist Party.

The Barriga group, which was tasked with combating that party, operated at the Villa Grimaldi barracks, and the Lawrence group operated in parallel, in a first stage, at the Venecia barracks; without prejudice to the foregoing, the repressive operations were carried out in a coordinated and joint manner.

2.- That, within this context, agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), on April 30, 1976, around 03:00 hours, went to the residence at Conferencia Street No. 1587, Santiago commune, knowing that a meeting of the Communist Party leadership would take place, and detained its occupants, Juan Becerra Barrera, his spouse María Angélica Gutiérrez Gómez, and her cousin Eliana Vidal; they were taken to various secret DINA establishments, where they were intimidated and interrogated under duress in order to provide information regarding the people who were going to or were supposed to attend their home and, in particular, regarding Mario Zamorano Donoso and Víctor Díaz López, among other communist militants.

3.- That, once the information handled by the agents was corroborated, the occupants were returned to the Conferencia Street residence to be forced to appear to lead a normal daily life, under the supervision of security agents armed with submachine guns, who set up an operation called "Ratonera" (Mousetrap).

Five agents remained inside the place, taking turns in stealthy and covert wait for the arrival of each of the Communist Party members who would attend the meeting, with the aim of detaining them.

4.- That, in parallel, an operation with similar characteristics was also set up at the home of Juan Becerra Barrera's mother, Mrs. María de las Mercedes Barrera Pérez, who occasionally hosted Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso at her house located at Alejandro Fierro Street No. 5113, Quinta Normal commune; an operation that was carried out simultaneously and in coordination with the one on Conferencia Street, and in which at least 20 DINA officials participated together.

5.- That, in such a scenario, at approximately 19:00 hours on May 4, 1976, Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso arrived at the Conferencia Street property. A friend of the tenant and a leather worker, he belonged to the Communist Party, first as a member of the Communist Youth and later of the Communist Party, becoming the National Organization Manager of said party in 1973.

He was pursued by the security services and, upon entering the house and as a result of a struggle with DINA agents, he was wounded by a bullet in the thigh. As he was bleeding, he was taken to one of the rooms at the back of the house so as not to obstruct the operation, and was later taken out at night, wrapped in a blanket, and transported to the Villa Grimaldi or Terranova detention barracks, located at Avenida José Arrieta No. 8200, La Reina commune, where he remained and was seen deprived of liberty by other detainees at that time, such as Máximo Vásquez Garay (detained in Villa Grimaldi since August 11, 1976, who identified him physically and by his thigh wound), and data provided by Edwin Bustos Streter, DINA agents Carlos Ramón Rinaldi Suarez, Guido Arnoldo Jara Brevis, and Eduardo Antonio Reyes Lagos; police report No. 103 and reports on page 8286 and 8290, issued by the Documentation and Archive Foundation of the Vicaría de la Solidaridad. His current whereabouts are unknown.

6.- That, around 21:00 hours on the same day, May 4, 1976, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, a member of the Communist Party Central Committee, arrived at the Conferencia Street property. Upon being identified as the husband of Gladys Marín, he was detained, led inside the property, and finally transported to the Villa Grimaldi barracks, according to information provided by former security agents Carlos Ramón Rinaldi Suárez, Guido Arnoldo Jara Brevis, and data incorporated by the reports on pages 8286 and 8290, issued by the Documentation and Archive Foundation of the Vicaría de la Solidaridad.

His current whereabouts are unknown.

7.- That, the following day, May 5, 1976, Uldarico Donaire Cortez (also known as Rafael Cortez) arrived at the aforementioned Conferencia Street property around 09:00 hours, and Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño arrived around 09:30 hours; both members of the Communist Party Central Committee, who were immobilized and detained as soon as they entered; then taken out in vehicles, handcuffed, guarded by agents, and transported to the Villa Grimaldi barracks, according to information provided by former security agents Carlos Ramón Rinaldi Suárez, Eduardo Antonio Reyes Lagos, Guido Arnoldo Jara Brevis; and reports on pages 8290, 8297, and 8301, issued by the Documentation and Archive Foundation of the Vicaría de la Solidaridad. Their current whereabouts are unknown.

8.- That, in the same way, on May 6, 1976, between 13:00 and 14:00 hours, the liaison Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, known as "Marcela" or "La Chica Elisa," a member of the Communist Party Central Committee, was detained by DINA agents at the same property and using the same procedure.

She was also taken to the Villa Grimaldi barracks, according to information provided by former security agents Carlos Ramón Rinaldi Suárez and Guido Arnoldo Jara Brevis; witness Sergio Helio Ovalle Farias, and reports on pages 8290 and 8305, issued by the Documentation and Archive Foundation of the Vicaría de la Solidaridad. Her current whereabouts are unknown.

9.- That the Chilean government of the time, given the search efforts made by the victims' families, reported that Mario Zamorano Donoso and Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays had left the country for Argentina, false data that was not confirmed by the Argentine authorities; which is illustrative of a preparation and concertation that escapes the scope accessible to operational agents, evidencing the participation of the higher echelons of the DINA in the planning of the intelligence operation, which is corroborated by police report No. 907 in relation to reports No. 531 and No. 603 of the Interpol National Central Bureau of the Chilean Investigative Police.

10.- That, on May 9, 1976, around 09:00 hours, Lenin Adán Díaz Silva, a member of the Communist Party Technical Commission, responsible for contacts between members of the Central Committee and for finding houses for meetings or for the protection of Party members, was detained by DINA agents at the property owned by his father-in-law, José Apolonio Ramírez Ortega, located at Gaspar de Orense Street No. 993, Quinta Normal commune, from where he left for an unknown destination, together with the already detained Elisa Escobar and a DINA agent.

He was subsequently seen deprived of liberty at the Villa Grimaldi barracks by the also-detained Isaac Godoy Castillo (who shared a cell with Lenin Díaz on Tuesday the 24th, Wednesday the 25th, and Thursday the 26th of August 1976), which is corroborated by Humilde Apolonia Ramírez Caballero; report on page 8305 provided by the Documentation and Archive Foundation of the Vicaría de la Solidaridad, police report No. 103, and police records No. 117 and 973, among other data in the case.

His current whereabouts are unknown.

11.- That, on May 12, 1976, Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández, with the political names "Sara" and "Ana," a member of the Communist Party National Propaganda Commission and liaison between Mario Zamorano and Víctor Díaz (who had already been previously sought by Elisa Escobar), upon learning of the raid on the home of some architects, decided to take the risk and leave her refuge at Adorno Street No. 648 in order to warn Víctor Díaz López.

In that scenario, she left the house very nervous, around 17:00 hours, wearing her sister's clothes so as not to be recognized, and accompanied by her brother-in-law Hernán Rivera Delgado, who took her to the sector of Independencia and Nueva de Matte to take public transport to a destination she did not reveal.

On that occasion, she was detained at an undetermined point by DINA agents and taken to the Villa Grimaldi detention barracks, where she remained deprived of liberty, which is evidenced by the connection existing between her and the rest of the detained members of the same collective, as well as the modus operandi of that time, in accordance with the data provided by Ninfa Ana Espinoza Fernández, Juan Espinoza Vega, Humilde Apolonia Ramírez Caballero, and Sandra Eugenia Vila Macchiavello, and the report from the Investigations information department on page 4745.

Her current whereabouts are unknown.

12.- That, in the early hours of May 12, 1976, DINA agents, in an operation called "The Night of the Long Knives," raided the residence at Bello Horizonte Street No. 979, Las Condes commune, at which time its occupants and eyewitnesses to the events, Jorge Canto Fuenzalida, his wife Sandra Eugenia Vila Macchiavello, and their daughters, were abruptly awakened with the phrase "We are from the DINA," intimidated with submachine guns, and forced to show the interior of the home, where they discovered the General Secretary of the Communist Party, Víctor Manuel Díaz López, nicknamed "Chino Díaz" and using the assumed name "José Santos Garrido Retamal," who had been in hiding since September 11, 1973, and had been sought for a long time by the security services, as evidenced by the various raids his family was subjected to, and the testimonies of Viviana Elisa Díaz Caro, Héctor Aureliano Zúñiga Muñoz, and José Alejandro Cifuentes Calderón, among others.

13.- That, once Víctor Díaz López was discovered in one of the rooms of the property, he was forced to walk, revealing his limp, for which he was insulted and severely beaten with fists; he was detained, interrogated, and forced to leave the property under the pretext, as communicated to the owners of the house, that he would be taken to the "Cuatro Álamos" detention center and returned to the property, probably the following day.

14.- That, after his detention, Víctor Díaz López was taken to the Villa Grimaldi barracks, where he was interrogated and tortured in order to make him give up other members of the party, given the "Modus Operandi" of that time used to dismantle political parties, and the data provided by the detainees of that time, Isaac Godoy Castillo, Pedro Rolando Jara Alegría, Emilio Iribarren Ledermann, Horacio Renato Silva Balbontín, Rosa Elsa Leiva Muñoz, and Leonardo Alberto Scheneider Jordán; and DINA agents Eduardo Antonio Reyes Lagos and Carlos Ramón Rinaldi Suárez, among others.

15.- That the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), on an unspecified date, but from the end of 1975 or the beginning of 1976, occupied and enabled the property at Simón Bolívar Street No. 8800, La Reina commune, consisting of a country house, which was later conditioned for its purpose of confinement.

It had a single access gate, a guard booth to its right where the door guard was stationed, a house at the back, a five-a-side soccer field, parking lots, and on the left side of the property a kind of gymnasium where there was a canteen, kitchen, and some dressing rooms and bathrooms.

This property was where the Lautaro brigade, under the command of Major Juan Morales Salgado, operated, used as a secret and clandestine place of confinement, which in practice operated as an extermination barracks; a situation that is recognized by the DINA agents themselves.

16.- That, in said scenario, at the end of August or the beginning of September 1976, the DINA groups under the command of officers Germán Barriga and Ricardo Lawrence moved to the Simón Bolívar barracks, together with their operational agents, who continued the work of investigating, locating, raiding, pursuing, repressing, and dismantling the members of the Communist Party, especially its leadership, for which provisional facilities were set up for their installation, consisting of offices, a gymnasium, and dressing rooms that were confinement cells, where interrogations and duress were carried out; a facility to which Víctor Manuel Díaz López was transferred together with said brigades, remaining at least four months in that place, in a regime of confinement, permanently guarded, interrogated, and used by the agents who operated in said barracks to locate others in hiding; without prejudice to the privileges he obtained, such as television, a nightstand, and a radio, for collaborating at least apparently with the DINA agents, as a result of the duress he was subjected to; at which time the groups of Morales, Barriga, and Lawrence formed a single unit; which is why there are so many testimonies in the case file that account for his stay in such a barracks, among them Hugo Luis Castillo Ovalle, Jorgelino del Carmen Vergara Bravo, Carlos Segundo Marcos Muñoz, Jorge Laureano Sagardía Monje, Guillermo Jesús Ferrán Martínez, Claudio Orlando Orellana de la Pinta, and Eduardo Antonio Reyes Lagos.

17.- That all the victims in the process were detained to be interrogated and tortured by reason of their political militancy, with the aim of obtaining information about their party activities and, especially, the subsequent identification of other members of the Communist Party in hiding; duress that did not cease until the required information was obtained or until the victims lost consciousness.

18.- That, once it was considered that Víctor Díaz López had nothing more to contribute, DINA agents proceeded, in compliance with an execution order issued by the institution's hierarchical superior and transmitted by the head of the barracks to his subordinates, to kill Víctor Manuel Díaz López while he was inside a cell at the Simón Bolívar barracks, which was verified during an afternoon on an undetermined day in the first fortnight of January 1977.

19.- That, to kill him, the joint action of several agents of the barracks was used, who covered his head with a plastic bag and tied it around his neck, preventing him from breathing, which caused his death by asphyxiation, according to what was revealed by the eyewitness Eduardo Antonio Reyes Lagos; by hearsay witnesses Carlos Segundo Marcos Muñoz, Jorge Laureano Sagardía Monje, Claudio Orlando Orellana de la Pinta; data provided by the accused (exclusively for kidnapping crimes), Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich, Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, Eduardo Alejandro Oyarce Riquelme, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando; by what was reported through the newspaper "El Siglo," and even by the self-confessed author, Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, as will be reproduced in the corresponding opportunity of participation.

Once his death was confirmed, the perpetrators placed the corpse in two thick polyethylene bags, one for the head and another for the feet, which they tied with wires around his waist, attaching it to a piece of rail, as it was the method used so that the bodies in the sea would go to depth and not be found, by virtue of what was accused by Jorgelino del Carmen Vergara Bravo, Jorge Laureano Sagardía Monje, and data provided by Juan Carlos Molina Herrera and police report No. 1615, among other data in the case.

20.- That, immediately thereafter, the corpse was placed in two burlap sacks, one for the head and another for the extremities, joined with wires, loaded onto the trunk of a brigade vehicle, and transported to the Peldehue sector, where it was loaded onto a helicopter that departed for the high seas, being thrown from the heights at an undetermined point; a circumstance that is credited by the testimonies of Jorgelino del Carmen Vergara Bravo, Carlos Segundo Marcos Muñoz, Jorge Laureano Sagardía Monje, information provided by the newspaper "El Siglo," police records No. 973 and 242, police reports No. 907, statements of the accused (exclusively for kidnapping crimes) Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo, Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, and even by Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda himself on page 4343 when declaring: "...that there were more than 400 thrown into the sea, although not by the DINA."

21.- That the administrative government authority denied the detentions of all the victims in the case, informing the Department...

Confidential Department of the Ministry of the Interior that they were not being held by order of the Ministry, except for the peculiar situation of Víctor Díaz López, in which, by Exempt Decree No. 2052 of May 12, 1976, the arrest of "José Santos Garrido Retamal" at the Cuatro Álamos Camp was recorded, with his release being recorded by Exempt Decree No. 2054 of May 13, 1976.

This was clarified by official letter on page 4373, establishing that Víctor Díaz López and José Santos Garrido Retamal correspond to the same person, in accordance with the statement provided by his spouse.

22.- That the throwing of bodies into the sea was a systematic practice used by security agents from the beginning of 1974 until 1978, which is proven by the various accounts from personnel of the Army Aviation Command, among others, aviation mechanics and maintenance personnel, who give an account of those operations called "Military Secrets," in which they describe the way in which the bundles were loaded, preferably into Puma SA 330 models; the places from where the flights began, the coastal zones toward which they headed, and the way in which the bundles called "Packages" were thrown into the sea from the heights, either through a hatch in the center of the platform that was removed or through the side doors; a conclusion that is consistent with the joint reading of the accounts of Juan Carlos Molina Herrera, Bernardo de la Cruz Sepúlveda Lara, José Miguel Cabezas Flores, Ernesto Samuel Araneda Ortiz, Juan Jesús Pacheco Figueroa, Sergio del Carmen Castro Cano, Marcos Segundo Cáceres Rivera, Eufemio Segundo Pérez Vargas, Rigoberto Saavedra Navarro, Gabriel Enrique Saldaña Molina, Juan Domingo Pérez Collao, Juan Alfonso Díaz Morales, Julio Cesar Urbina Muñoz, and José Domingo Ávila; information provided by police report No. 1654; and testimonies of the Sub-commissioners of the Investigative Police Sandro Gonzalo Gaete Escobar and Abel Alfonso Lizama Pino.

In the civil aspect, the presiding judge ordered the State of Chile to pay total compensation of $3,460,000,000 (three billion four hundred sixty million pesos) to the victims' families.

Source: cronicadigital.cl, December 4, 2018

Conviction issued against 53 DINA agents for crimes against the Secretary General and leaders of the Communist Party committed in 1976.

The minister on special assignment for human rights violation cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vázquez Plaza, convicted 53 former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the consummated crimes of eight qualified kidnappings (forcibly disappeared) and one qualified homicide of Communist Party leaders, detained within the framework of the so-called "Calle Conferencia 1" case.

In the ruling (case file 2.182-1998), Judge Vásquez Plaza issued a sentence against the former repressive agents for their responsibility as authors or accomplices in the crime of qualified kidnapping of Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, Uldarico Donaire Cortez, Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, Lenin Adán Díaz Silva, Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández, and Víctor Manuel Díaz López; and for their responsibility in the homicide of the aforementioned Díaz López.

These crimes were perpetrated in 1976, in the Metropolitan Region.

In the resolution, the judge sentenced

Former army officers Carlos José Leonardo López Tapia (recently deceased) and Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko to 20 years in prison as authors of the crimes of qualified kidnapping of: Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso and Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, perpetrated starting May 4; of Uldarico Donaire Cortez and Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, committed starting May 5; of Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, perpetrated starting May 6; of Lenin Adán Díaz Silva, committed starting May 9; of Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández, perpetrated starting May 12; and of Víctor Manuel Díaz López, perpetrated starting May 12, all in the year 1976.

Former police officer and currently a fugitive from justice, Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, must serve 20 years in prison as an author of the eight crimes of qualified kidnapping; plus 15 years in prison as a co-author of the qualified homicide of Víctor Díaz López, perpetrated on an undetermined day in the first half of January 1977.

Meanwhile, agents Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo, Emilio Hernán Troncoso Vivallos, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich, Orlando del Tránsito Altamirano Sanhueza, Eduardo Patricio Cabezas Mardones, Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, Guillermo Eduardo Díaz Ramírez, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, Carlos Enrique Miranda Mesa, Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza, and Lionel de la Cruz Medrano Rivas must serve 13 years in prison as co-authors of the crimes of qualified kidnapping of Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, Uldarico Donaire Cortez, Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, and Víctor Manuel Díaz López; and as accomplices in the crime of qualified kidnapping of Lenin Adán Díaz Silva and Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández.

Agent Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido must serve a sentence of 13 years in prison as a co-author of the crimes of qualified kidnapping of Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, Uldarico Donaire Cortez, Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, and Víctor Manuel Díaz López; and as an accomplice in the crime of qualified kidnapping of Lenin Adán Díaz Silva and Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández; in addition to 12 years in prison as a co-author of the qualified homicide of Víctor Díaz López.

Agent José Alfonso Ojeda Obando was sentenced to 11 years in prison as a co-author of the crimes of qualified kidnapping of Víctor Manuel Díaz López and Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández; and as an accomplice in the crimes of qualified kidnapping of Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, Uldarico Donaire Cortez, Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, and Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda.

Agent José Domingo Seco Alarcón was sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison as a co-author of the crime of qualified kidnapping of Víctor Manuel Díaz López and as an accomplice in the crimes of qualified kidnapping of Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, Uldarico Donaire Cortez, Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, and Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández.

Agents Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel and Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno must serve 7 years in prison as accomplices in the crimes of qualified kidnapping of Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, Uldarico Donaire Cortez, Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, Víctor Manuel Díaz López, Lenin Adán Díaz Silva, and Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández.

Former army officer and former chief of the clandestine extermination center Cuartel Simón Bolívar, Juan Hernán Morales Salgado, must serve sentences of 8 years in prison as a co-author of the crimes of qualified kidnapping and 15 years in prison as a co-author of the qualified homicide of Víctor Díaz López.

Former army officer Jorge Claudio Andrade Gómez was sentenced to 6 years in prison as a co-author of the crime of qualified kidnapping of Víctor Manuel Díaz López.

Agents Sergio Orlando Escalona Acuña, Gladys de las Mercedes Calderón Carreño, and Jorge Segundo Pichunmán Curiqueo were sentenced to 5 years and one day as co-authors of the qualified kidnapping and 12 years in prison as co-authors of the qualified homicide of Víctor Díaz López.

Furthermore, the agents belonging to the groups that operated at the Cuartel Simón Bolívar, Nelson René Herrera Lagos, Héctor Raúl Valdebenito Araya, Federico Humberto Chaigneau Sepúlveda, Elisa del Carmen Magna Astudillo, Orfa Yolanda Saavedra Vásquez, Celinda Angélica Aspe Rojas, Teresa del Carmen Navarro Navarro, Berta Yolanda del Carmen Jiménez Escobar, Jorge Hugo Arriagada Mora, Eduardo Oyarce Riquelme, Ana del Carmen Vilches Muñoz, Italia Donata Vaccarella Gilio, Jorge Lientur Manríquez Manterola, José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, Gustavo Enrique Guerrero Aguilera, Luis Alberto Lagos Yáñez, María Angélica Guerrero Soto, Sergio Hernán Castro Andrade, Pedro Antonio Gutiérrez Valdés, Joyce Ana Ahumada Despouy, Hiro Álvarez Vega, José Miguel Meza Serrano, Carlos Justo Bermúdez Méndez, Marilín Melahani Silva Vergara, Camilo Torres Negrier, and Juan Edmundo Suazo Saldaña, were sentenced to 3 years and one day in prison as accomplices in the crime of qualified kidnapping of Víctor Díaz López.

Meanwhile, agents Jorge Segundo Madariaga Acevedo, Hugo Hernán Clavería Leiva, José Javier Soto Torres, Raúl Alberto Soto Pérez, Juan Carlos Escobar Valenzuela, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Pedro Mora Villanueva, and Jorge Marcelo Escobar Fuentes were acquitted.

The facts During the investigation stage of the case, Judge Miguel Vázquez managed to establish the following facts that reveal the criminal nature of the dictatorship's repressive organizations:

«1.- That the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), at the end of 1975 or the beginning of 1976, underwent an operational evolution, resulting in a restructuring of its various groups, at which point the objective became the persecution and repression of the Communist Party.

The Barriga group, which was tasked with combating that party, operated at the Villa Grimaldi barracks, and the Lawrence group operated in parallel, in a first stage, at the Venecia barracks; and, without prejudice to the foregoing, the repressive operations were carried out in a coordinated and joint manner.

2.- That, circumscribed within that context, agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), on April 30, 1976, around 03:00 hours, went to the residence at Calle Conferencia No. 1587, Santiago commune, aware that a meeting of the Communist Party's leadership would take place, and detained its occupants, Juan Becerra Barrera, his spouse María Angélica Gutiérrez Gómez, and her cousin Eliana Vidal; they were transferred to various secret DINA establishments, where they were intimidated and interrogated under duress in order to provide information regarding the people who were going to or were supposed to attend their home and, in particular, regarding Mario Zamorano Donoso and Víctor Díaz López, among other communist militants.

3.- That, once the information held by the agents was corroborated, the occupants were returned to the Calle Conferencia residence to be forced to feign a life of daily normality, under the supervision of security agents armed with submachine guns, who set up an operation called "Ratonera" (Mousetrap), with 5 agents remaining inside the place, who took turns in silent and covert wait for the arrival of each of the members of the Communist Party who would attend the meeting, in order to detain them.

4.- That, in parallel, an operation of similar characteristics was also set up at the home of Juan Becerra Barrera's mother, Mrs. María de las Mercedes Barrera Pérez, who on occasions hosted Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso at her house located at Calle Alejandro Fierro No. 5113, Quinta Normal commune; an operation that was carried out simultaneously and in coordination with the one at Calle Conferencia, and in which at least 20 DINA officials participated together.

5.- That, in such a scenario, at approximately 19:00 hours on May 4, 1976, Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso arrived at the Calle Conferencia property; he was a friend of the tenant and a leather worker who belonged to the Communist Party, first as a member of the Communist Youth and later of the Communist Party, becoming the National Organization Manager of said party in 1973, and was pursued by the security services.

Upon entering the house and as a result of a struggle with DINA agents, he was wounded by a bullet in his thigh. As he was bleeding, he was taken to one of the rooms at the back of the house so as not to obstruct the operation, and later taken out at night, wrapped in a blanket, and transported to the Villa Grimaldi or Terranova detention barracks, located at Avenida José Arrieta No. 8200, La Reina commune, where he remained and was seen deprived of liberty by other detainees at that time, such as Máximo Vásquez Garay (detained at Villa Grimaldi from August 11, 1976, who identified him physically and by his thigh wound), and data provided by Edwin Bustos Streter, DINA agents Carlos Ramón Rinaldi Suarez, Guido Arnoldo Jara Brevis, and Eduardo Antonio Reyes Lagos; police report No. 103 and reports on page 8286 and 8290, issued by the Documentation and Archive Foundation of the Vicaría de la Solidaridad. His current whereabouts are unknown.

6.- That, near 21:00 hours on the same May 4, 1976, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, arrived at the Calle Conferencia property; upon being identified as the husband of Gladys Marín, he was detained, led inside the property, and finally transported to the Villa Grimaldi barracks, according to the information provided by former security agents Carlos Ramón Rinaldi Suárez, Guido Arnoldo Jara Brevis, and data incorporated by the reports on pages 8286 and 8290, issued by the Documentation and Archive Foundation of the Vicaría de la Solidaridad.

His current whereabouts are unknown.

7.- That, the following day, that is, May 5, 1976, Uldarico Donaire Cortez (also known as Rafael Cortez) arrived at the aforementioned Calle Conferencia property around 09:00 hours, and Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño around 09:30 hours; both members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, who were immobilized and detained as soon as they entered; then taken out in vehicles, handcuffed, guarded by agents, and transferred to the Villa Grimaldi barracks, according to the information provided by former security agents Carlos Ramón Rinaldi Suárez, Eduardo Antonio Reyes Lagos, Guido Arnoldo Jara Brevis; and reports on pages 8290, 8297, and 8301, issued by the Documentation and Archive Foundation of the Vicaría de la Solidaridad. Their current whereabouts are unknown.

8.- That, in the same way, on May 6, 1976, between 13:00 and 14:00 hours, the liaison Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, known as "Marcela" or "La Chica Elisa," a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, was detained by DINA agents at the same property and using the same procedure; she was also taken to the Villa Grimaldi barracks, according to the information provided by former security agents Carlos Ramón Rinaldi Suárez and Guido Arnoldo Jara Brevis; witness Sergio Helio Ovalle Farias, and reports on pages 8290 and 8305, issued by the Documentation and Archive Foundation of the Vicaría de la Solidaridad. Her current whereabouts are unknown.

9.- That the Chilean government of the time, given the search efforts carried out by the victims' families, reported that Mario Zamorano Donoso and Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays had left the country for Argentina, false data that was not confirmed by the Argentine authorities; which is illustrative of a preparation and concertation that escapes the scope to which operational agents can access, evidencing a participation of the higher echelons of the DINA in the planning of the intelligence operation, which is corroborated by police report No. 907 in relation to reports No. 531 and No. 603 of the National Interpol Central of the Investigative Police of Chile.

10.- That, on May 9, 1976, around 09:00 hours, Lenin Adán Díaz Silva, a member of the Technical Commission of the Communist Party, in charge of contacts between members of the Central Committee and the search for houses for meetings or for the protection of Party members, was detained by DINA agents at the property owned by his father-in-law, José Apolonio Ramírez Ortega, located at Calle Gaspar de Orense No. 993, Quinta Normal commune, from where he left for an unknown destination, together with the already detained Elisa Escobar and a DINA agent, to be seen later deprived of liberty at the Villa Grimaldi barracks by the also detained Isaac Godoy Castillo (who shared a cell with Lenin Díaz on Tuesday the 24th, Wednesday the 25th, and Thursday the 26th of August 1976), which is corroborated by Humilde Apolonia Ramírez Caballero; report on page 8305 provided by the Documentation and Archive Foundation of the Vicaría de la Solidaridad, police report No. 103, police records No. 117 and 973, among other data from the process. His current whereabouts are unknown.

11.- That, on May 12, 1976, Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández, with the political names "Sara" and "Ana," a member of the National Propaganda Commission of the Communist Party and liaison between Mario Zamorano and Víctor Díaz (who had already been previously sought by Elisa Escobar), upon learning of the raid on the home of some architects, decided to take the risk and leave her refuge at Calle Adorno No. 648, in order to warn Víctor Díaz López.

In such a scenario, she left the house very nervous, around 17:00 hours, using her sister's clothes so as not to be recognized, and accompanied by her brother-in-law Hernán Rivera Delgado, who took her to the sector of Independencia and Nueva de Matte to take public transportation to a destination she did not reveal, at which time she was detained at an undetermined point by DINA agents and transferred to the Villa Grimaldi detention barracks, where she remained deprived of liberty, which is evidenced by the connection existing between her and the rest of the detained members of the same group, as well as by the modus operandi of that time, in accordance with the data provided by Ninfa Ana Espinoza Fernández, Juan Espinoza Vega, Humilde Apolonia Ramírez Caballero, and Sandra Eugenia Vila Macchiavello, and the report from the information department of the Investigative Police on page 4745. Her current whereabouts are unknown.

12.- That, in the early hours of May 12, 1976, DINA agents, in an operation called "The Night of the Long Knives," raided the home at Calle Bello Horizonte No. 979, Las Condes commune, at which time its occupants and eyewitnesses to the events, Jorge Canto Fuenzalida, his wife Sandra Eugenia Vila Macchiavello, and their daughters, were abruptly awakened with the phrase "We are from the DINA," intimidated with submachine guns, and forced to show the interior of the home, a place where they discovered the Secretary General of the Communist Party, Víctor Manuel Díaz López, nicknamed "Chino Díaz" and using the assumed name "José Santos Garrido Retamal," who had been in hiding since September 11, 1973, sought for a long time by the security services, as evidenced by the various raids to which his family was subjected and the testimonies of Viviana Elisa Díaz Caro, Héctor Aureliano Zúñiga Muñoz, and José Alejandro Cifuentes Calderón, among others.

13.- That, once Víctor Díaz López was discovered in one of the rooms of the property, he was forced to walk, revealing his limp, for which he was insulted and beaten severely with fists; he was detained and interrogated and forced to leave the property, under the pretext, as communicated to the owners of the house, that he would be taken to the "Cuatro Álamos" detention center and returned to the property, probably the following day.

14.- That, after his detention, Víctor Díaz López was taken to the Villa Grimaldi barracks, where he was interrogated and tortured in order to make him give up other members of the party, given the "Modus Operandi" of that time used to dismantle political parties, and the data provided by detainees of that time, Isaac Godoy Castillo, Pedro Rolando Jara Alegría, Emilio Iribarren Ledermann, Horacio Renato Silva Balbontín, Rosa Elsa Leiva Muñoz, and Leonardo Alberto Scheneider Jordán; and DINA agents Eduardo Antonio Reyes Lagos and Carlos Ramón Rinaldi Suárez, among others.

15.- That the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), on an unspecified date, but from the end of 1975 or the beginning of 1976, occupied and enabled the property at Calle Simón Bolívar No. 8800, La Reina commune, consisting of a country house, which was later conditioned for its purpose of confinement.

It had a single access gate, a guard booth to its right where the door guard was kept, a house at the back, a small soccer field, parking lots, and on the left side of the property a kind of gymnasium where there was a canteen, kitchen, and some locker rooms and bathrooms, a property in which the Lautaro brigade, in charge of Major Juan Morales Salgado, operated, used as a secret and clandestine place of confinement, which operated in practice as an extermination barracks; a situation that is recognized by the very agents who were members of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA).

16.- That, in said scenario, at the end of August or the beginning of September 1976, the DINA groups in charge of officers Germán Barriga and Ricardo Lawrence moved to the Simón Bolívar barracks, together with their operational agents, who continued with the work of investigating, locating, raiding, pursuing, repressing, and dismantling the members of the Communist Party, especially its leadership, for which provisional facilities were enabled for their installation, consisting of offices, a gymnasium, and locker rooms that were confinement cells, where interrogations and duress were carried out; a facility to which Víctor Manuel Díaz López was transferred together with said brigades, and who remained for at least four months in such a place, under a regime of confinement, permanently guarded, interrogated, and used by the agents who operated in said barracks to locate others in hiding; without prejudice to the privileges he obtained, such as television, a nightstand, and a radio, for collaborating at least apparently with the DINA agents, as a product of the duress to which he was subjected; at which time the groups of Morales, Barriga, and Lawrence formed a single unit; which is why there are so many testimonies in the case file that give an account of his stay in such a barracks, among these, Hugo Luis Castillo Ovalle, Jorgelino del Carmen Vergara Bravo, Carlos Segundo Marcos Muñoz, Jorge Laureano Sagardía Monje, Guillermo Jesús Ferrán Martínez, Claudio Orlando Orellana de la Pinta, and Eduardo Antonio Reyes Lagos.

17.- That all the victims of the process were detained to be interrogated and tortured by reason of their political militancy, with the aim of obtaining information about their party activities and, especially, the subsequent identification of other members of the Communist Party in hiding; duress that did not cease until the required information was obtained or until the victims became unconscious.

18.- That, once it was considered that Víctor Díaz López had nothing more to contribute, DINA agents proceeded, in compliance with an execution order issued by the hierarchical superior of the institution and transmitted by the barracks chief to his subordinates, to kill Víctor Manuel Díaz López while he was inside a cell at the Simón Bolívar barracks, which was verified during an afternoon of an undetermined day in the first half of January 1977.

19.- That, to kill him, the joint action of several agents of the barracks was used, who covered his head with a plastic bag and tied it to his neck, preventing him from breathing, which caused his death by asphyxiation, according to what was revealed by eyewitness Eduardo Antonio Reyes Lagos; by hearsay witnesses Carlos Segundo Marcos Muñoz, Jorge Laureano Sagardía Monje, Claudio Orlando Orellana de la Pinta; data provided by the accused (exclusively for kidnapping crimes), Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich, Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, Eduardo Alejandro Oyarce Riquelme, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando; by what was reported through the newspaper "El Siglo," and even by the self-confessed author, Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, as will be reproduced in the corresponding opportunity of participation. Once his death was confirmed, the perpetrators introduced the corpse into two thick polyethylene bags, one for the head and another for the feet, which they tied with wires around his waist, tying him to a piece of rail, as it was the method used so that the bodies in the sea would go to depth and not be found, by virtue of what was accused by Jorgelino del Carmen Vergara Bravo, Jorge Laureano Sagardía Monje, and data provided by Juan Carlos Molina Herrera and police report No. 1615, among other data from the process.

20.- That, immediately afterward, the corpse was introduced into two burlap sacks, one for the head and another for the extremities, joined with wires, loaded onto the trunk of a brigade vehicle, and transported to the Peldehue sector, where it was loaded onto a helicopter that departed for the high seas, being thrown from the heights at an undetermined point; a circumstance that is proven by the testimonies of Jorgelino del Carmen Vergara Bravo, Carlos Segundo Marcos Muñoz, Jorge Laureano Sagardía Monje, information provided by the newspaper "El Siglo," police records No. 973 and 242, police reports No. 907, statements of the accused (exclusively for kidnapping crimes) Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo, Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, and even by Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda himself on page 4343 when declaring: "...that there were more than 400 thrown into the sea, although not by the DINA."

21.- That the administrative government authority denied the detentions of all the victims of the case, with the Confidential Department of the Ministry of the Interior reporting that they were not being held by order of the Ministry, except for the peculiar situation of Víctor Díaz López, in which, by Exempt Decree No. 2052 of May 12, 1976, the arrest of "José Santos Garrido Retamal" at the Cuatro Álamos Camp was recorded, with his release being recorded by Exempt Decree No. 2054 of May 13, 1976.

This was clarified by official letter on page 4373, establishing that Víctor Díaz López and José Santos Garrido Retamal correspond to the same person, in accordance with the statement provided by his spouse.

22.- That the throwing of bodies into the sea was a systematic practice used by security agents from the beginning of 1974 until 1978, which is proven by the various accounts from personnel of the Army Aviation Command, among others, aviation mechanics and maintenance personnel, who give an account of those operations called "Military Secrets," in which they describe the way in which the bundles were loaded, preferably into Puma SA 330 models; the places from where the flights began, the coastal zones toward which they headed, and the way in which the bundles called "Packages" were thrown into the sea from the heights, either through a hatch in the center of the platform that was removed or through the side doors; a conclusion that is consistent with the joint reading of the accounts of Juan Carlos Molina Herrera, Bernardo de la Cruz Sepúlveda Lara, José Miguel Cabezas Flores, Ernesto Samuel Araneda Ortiz, Juan Jesús Pacheco Figueroa, Sergio del Carmen Castro Cano, Marcos Segundo Cáceres Rivera, Eufemio Segundo Pérez Vargas, Rigoberto Saavedra Navarro, Gabriel Enrique Saldaña Molina, Juan Domingo Pérez Collao, Juan Alfonso Díaz Morales, Julio Cesar Urbina Muñoz, and José Domingo Ávila; information provided by police report No. 1654; and testimonies of the Sub-commissioners of the Investigative Police Sandro Gonzalo Gaete Escobar and Abel Alfonso Lizama Pino».

Source: resumen.cl, December 4, 2018