Miguel Krassnoff, Marcelo Moren Brito, and Raúl Iturriaga Neumann are among those implicated.

The minister for extraordinary causes regarding human rights violations at the Santiago Court of Appeals, Hernán Crisosto, sentenced 77 agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) this Monday for their responsibility in the kidnapping of Héctor Garay Hermosilla in 1974.

Garay Hermosilla, a member of the Revolutionary Student Front (FER), was 19 years old when he was detained near his home on July 8, 1974. Days later, his name appeared in the national press on a false list of 119 people killed due to alleged internal disputes within the MIR, in what was termed "Operation Colombo." According to the judge's findings, "the publications that declared the victim Garay Hermosilla dead had their origin in disinformation maneuvers carried out by DINA agents abroad."

According to the reconstruction of events carried out by the visiting minister, the DINA agents who captured Garay "forced him into the back of a gray Chevrolet C-10 pickup truck and took him to the home of a friend of the victim, who was also forced into the aforementioned truck, to be driven to an unknown destination."

"Subsequently, it was possible to establish, through testimonies, the passage of Héctor Marcial Garay Hermosilla through the clandestine detention center known as 'Londres 38,' which was guarded by armed guards and to which only DINA agents had access," the ruling continues, establishing that to date there is no further information regarding Garay's whereabouts.

The convicted In the resolution, the presiding judge sentenced the following to 13 years of imprisonment: César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Marcelo Luis Moren Brito, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann, as authors of the crime perpetrated in 1974.

Meanwhile, the following former agents must serve 10 years of imprisonment, also in their capacity as authors: Gerardo Ernesto Urrich González, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, Ciro Ernesto Torré Sáez, Sergio Hernán Castillo González, Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, José Nelson Fuentealba Saldías, Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes, José Enrique Fuentes Torres, José Mario Friz Esparza, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, Claudio Orlando Orellana de la Pinta, Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar, Gustavo Galvarino Caruman Soto, Hiro Álvarez Vega, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Olegario Enrique González Moreno, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Rudeslindo Urrutia Jorquera, Alfredo Orlando Moya Tejeda, Carlos Alfonso Sáez Sanhueza, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Hernán Patricio Valenzuela Salas, Hugo Rubén Delgado Carrasco, Juan Alfredo Villanueva Alvear, Juan Evaristo Duarte Gallegos, Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Máximo Ramón Aliaga Soto, Manuel Rivas Díaz, Juan Ángel Urbina Cáceres, Risiere del Prado Altez España, Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte, Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca, and Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle.

As accomplices to the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Garay Hermosilla, the presiding judge sentenced the following to 4 years of imprisonment: Luis Eduardo Mora Cerda, José Jaime Mora Diocares, Camilo Torres Negrier, Carlos Justo Bermúdez Méndez, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, Fernando Adrián Roa Montaña, Gerardo Meza Acuña, Héctor Raúl Valdebenito Araya, Jaime Humberto Paris Ramos, Jorge Laureano Sagardia Monje, José Dorohi Hormazábal Rodríguez, José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, José Stalin Muñoz Leal, Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, Luis René Torres Méndez, Manuel Antonio Montre Méndez; Moisés Paulino Campos Figueroa, Nelson Aquiles Ortiz Vignolo, Nelson Eduardo Iturriaga Cortés, Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, Reinaldo Alfonso Concha Orellana, Sergio Hernán Castro Andrade, Víctor Manuel de la Cruz San Martín Jiménez, Gustavo Humberto Apablaza Meneses, Héctor Carlos Díaz Cabezas, Jorge Antonio Lepileo Barrios, Óscar Belarmino la Flor Flores; Rufino Espinoza Espinoza, Héctor Manuel Lira Aravena, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, Sergio Iván Díaz Lara, Juan Miguel Troncoso Soto, and Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel.

Meanwhile, Rodolfo Valentino Cocha Rodríguez and Armando Segundo Cofre Correa were acquitted due to a lack of participation in the events.

Source: t13.cl, August 31, 2015

He was detained in July 1974 in the commune of Macul. Numerous witnesses saw him at the torture and extermination center of Londres 38. He is one of the victims of "Operation Colombo." The justice system sentenced 78 former DINA agents for this crime against humanity.

The minister of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Hernán Crisosto, issued a first-instance sentence for the kidnapping and disappearance of Miguel Angel Acuña Castillo. The magistrate established that the young man, a militant of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR), was detained near his home located at Pasaje Talca No. 2033 in the commune of Macul, by State agents belonging to the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), among them Osvaldo Romo Mena, alias "el Guatón Romo." His sister, Rosa Acuña Castillo, declared that her father tried to climb into the back of the covered pickup truck as they were taking him away, but he was struck in the mouth by one of the subjects, falling to the ground. A week after the kidnapping, Romo went to their home again and told her that her brother was in good condition along with Héctor Garay Hermosilla, who is also forcibly disappeared. Both were members of the Revolutionary Student Front (FER) at the Liceo 7 in Ñuñoa. Judge Crisosto determined that the DINA agents "took him to the clandestine detention center known as 'Yucatán' or 'Londres 38'." Acuña Castillo belonged to the secondary student structure of the MIR's Military Political Group 3 (GPM3), an organization that grouped militants from the eastern zone of the capital and which was led by Agustín Reyes González, whose trail was lost forever at Londres 38. There, "he remained without contact with the outside world, blindfolded and tied up, being continuously subjected to interrogations under torture by DINA agents," and the last time he was seen alive "occurred on an undetermined day in the month of July or August 1974, remaining forcibly disappeared to this day," the first-instance ruling states.

Laughing in Londres 38 alongside Héctor Garay Hermosilla

In the "Yucatán" barracks, he was seen by Erika Hennings, who was detained on July 30, 1974. "I can say that he was very young, I think they called him 'El Pampa'," she asserted during the process. She heard the guards take roll call twice a day for the detainees.

On July 31, 1974, she heard the name Miguel Angel Acuña Castillo, who answered "present." Afterward, she never heard him called again. "They took them out of Londres 38 just like other detainees, among whom she remembers María Inés Alvarado," a 21-year-old forcibly disappeared person.

Hugo Chacaltana Silva, detained on May 4, 1974, a former student of the Liceo Manuel de Salas and member of the Revolutionary Student Front (FER), also saw him at Londres 38. He recounted that in the early hours of July 8 to 9, 1974, Miguel Angel Acuña arrived along with Héctor Garay Hermosilla, whom they called "Titín"; he was able to see them through a gap that formed between his nose and cheekbones under the blindfold.

Chacaltana noted that he met Castillo in 1971, when both were secondary students. Both coincided in meetings held at the time between members of the FER, the judicial ruling notes. He remembers "Miguel Ángel as a young man of great leadership capacity and great physical resistance." He stopped seeing him on September 11, 1973.

He met him again at Londres 38. He arrived along with Héctor Garay to the same room where he was lying on the floor. "At that moment, I did not address Miguel Ángel"; on the contrary, he pretended not to notice his presence. "The next day, when the mattresses on which we detainees lay were removed and replaced by chairs, I sat down and, to one side, I observed that they were still sitting.

It struck me that both were talking and laughing, which made me think that they were unaware of the magnitude of what awaited them. Miguel Ángel approached me at Londres 38, saying 'I know you'."

His mother found out at the hair salon that her son was in Londres 38

León Gómez, detained on July 15, 1974, and transferred to Londres 38, saw Miguel Angel along with Héctor Garay, whom he knew. Someone commented to him that among the detainees was "Pampino," which he corroborated upon hearing him "with his typical jokes that he made to the guards, as if giving the impression that what was happening in the place was of no importance.

Even Titín and Pampino would drive the guards crazy. They were very irreverent." David Cuevas Sharon, detained on May 4, 1974, also testified to having seen him. "Despite showing signs of mistreatment, 'El Pampino' appeared to have great presence of mind; he was very physically strong." He shared space with him for at least five days.

When Cuevas was released, Acuña Castillo remained a prisoner. His maternal grandmother had a hair salon in Ñuñoa, and one of her clients was Miguel Angel's mother. In a conversation, "she found out about the problem she had with a disappeared son.

Given this, my grandmother made her go to the hair salon, where she met Pampino's mother and told her what she knew about him, specifically the place where he had been imprisoned with him." Regarding the torments applied to the detainees at Londres 38, among them Miguel Angel, Minister Crisosto incorporated statements from Osvaldo Romo, who stated that among other tortures, the detainees were subjected to "the dry submarine, which consisted of blocking their breathing with a plastic bag placed over their heads; the detainees' eyes would look like 'fried eggs,' and blood would come out of their noses and eardrums. After the interrogations and duress, the detainees were left exhausted." Another former agent, Samuel Fuenzalida Devia, specified in this regard that "the general treatment of the prisoners was to keep them blindfolded, they were not allowed to wash, there were no beds for them to sleep on, the food was scarce, and they were subjected to intense interrogations in which electricity was applied to them, especially to their genitals and breasts. Another form of torture consisted of keeping the detainees sitting in chairs, tied by their hands and feet, while current was applied to them with magnets, although common electric current was also applied, which burned those people, a procedure in which many people died." Eugenio Fieldhouse Chávez maintains that as an official of the Investigative Police, in mid-June 1974, he was assigned to that repressive agency and indicated that the same DINA agents who intervened in the detention and interrogation of the detainees, once the sought-after information was obtained, were the ones in charge of making them disappear, following an order from DINA superiors. The name of Miguel Ángel Acuña Castillo appeared among the 119 Chileans of Operation Colombo, on a list disseminated in the national press, after appearing in publications that appeared only once in Brazil and Argentina, "in which it was reported that Miguel Ángel Acuña Castillo had died in Argentina, along with 58 other people belonging to the MIR, due to internal disputes."

The convictions

"The publications that declared the victim Acuña Castillo dead had their origin in disinformation maneuvers carried out by DINA agents abroad," determined Judge Crisosto, who sentenced 78 former DINA agents for his disappearance.

The magistrate issued a sentence of 13 years of major imprisonment in its medium degree to Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda; César Manríquez Bravo; Pedro Espinoza; Marcelo Luis Moren Brito; Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko; and Raúl Iturriaga Neumann.

Likewise, he sentenced the following to 10 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree: Gerardo Ernesto Urrich González; Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García; Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires; Ciro Ernesto Torré Sáez; Sergio Hernán Castillo González; Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos; José Nelson Fuentealba Saldías; Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes; José Enrique Fuentes Torres; José Mario Friz Esparza; Julio José Hoyos Zegarra; Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante; Claudio Orlando Orellana de la Pinta; Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar; Gustavo Galvarino Caruman Soto; Hiro Álvarez Vega; José Alfonso Ojeda Obando; Luis Salvador Villarroel Gutiérrez; Olegario Enrique González Moreno; Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica; Rudeslindo Urrutia Jorquera; Alfredo Orlando Moya Tejeda; Carlos Alfonso Sáez Sanhueza; Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo; Hernán Patricio Valenzuela Salas; Hugo Rubén Delgado Carrasco; Juan Alfredo Villanueva Alvear; Juan Evaristo Duarte Gallegos; Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza; Leónides Emiliano Méndez Moreno; Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda; Rafael De Jesús Riveros Frost; Víctor Manuel Molina Astete; Manuel Rivas Díaz; Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle; Juan Ángel Urbina Cáceres; Risiere del Prado Altez España; Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca; and Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte. As accomplices to the kidnapping and disappearance of the 19-year-old, he sentenced the following to 4 years of minor imprisonment in its maximum degree: Luis Eduardo Mora Cerda; José Jaime Mora Diocares; Camilo Torres Negrier; Carlos Justo Bermúdez Méndez; Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández; Fernando Adrián Roa Montaña; Gerardo Meza Acuña; Héctor Raúl Valdebenito Araya; Jaime Humberto Paris Ramos; Jorge Laureano Sagardia Monje; José Dorohi Hormazabal Rodríguez; José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo; José Stalin Muñoz Leal; Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido; Luis René Torres Méndez; Manuel Antonio Montre Méndez; Máximo Ramón Aliaga Soto; Moisés Paulino Campos Figueroa; Nelson Aquiles Ortiz Vignolo; Nelson Eduardo Iturriaga Cortes; Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo; Reinaldo Alfonso Concha Orellana; Sergio Hernán Castro Andrade; Víctor Manuel de la Cruz San Martin Jiménez; Gustavo Humberto Apablaza Meneses; Héctor Carlos Díaz Cabezas; Jorge Antonio Lepileo Barrios; Oscar Belarmino La Flor Flores; Rufino Espinoza Espinoza; Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel; Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett; Héctor Manuel Lira Aravena; and Sergio Iván Díaz Lara. Regarding Víctor Manuel De la Cruz San Martín Jiménez, due to having fallen into dementia, the fulfillment of the sentence is suspended, and he must, in due course, be handed over under custody bail to a family member.

Source: Villa Grimaldi.cl, February 3, 2015

Sentence issued against 28 repressive agents of the dictatorship for the crime of Marta Ugarte

The minister for extraordinary causes regarding human rights violations at the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vázquez Plaza, issued a first-instance sentence in the investigation into the kidnapping and aggravated homicide of the teacher Marta Lidia Ugarte Román, whose body appeared on La Ballena beach, in the Los Molles sector, on September 12, 1976.

In the resolution (case file 2182-1998), Minister Vázquez issued a sentence against the following 28 State agents for their responsibility in the crimes perpetrated between August and September 1976. The majority of those convicted were agents and leaders of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), and the others were members of the army's aviation command, the agency responsible for the execution of the so-called "death flights." Carlos José Leonardo López Tapia, former army colonel, head of the Villa Grimaldi torture center at the time of the events, sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment, in addition to the legal accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights, and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and to pay the costs of the case, in his capacity as author of the crime of aggravated homicide. Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, former lieutenant colonel of the Carabineros, head of the Águila Group of the DINA's Caupolicán Brigade (currently a fugitive from justice), sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment, in addition to the legal accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights, and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and to pay the costs of the case, as author of the crime of aggravated homicide. He must also serve 4 years of imprisonment as author of the crime of simple kidnapping. Carlos Oscar Gregorio Evaristo Mardones Díaz, former army colonel, head of the aviation command that carried out "the death flights": 8 years of imprisonment, in addition to the legal accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights, and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and to pay the costs of the case, as an accomplice to the crime of aggravated homicide. Antonio Palomo Contreras, former army brigadier, and Luis Felipe Polanco Gallardo, former army major, members of the aviation command, both sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment, in addition to the legal accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights, and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and to pay the costs of the case, as accessories after the fact to the crime of aggravated homicide. Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, former army brigadier, imprisoned in Punta Peuco for countless other convictions for crimes against humanity, sentenced to 4 years of imprisonment, in addition to the legal accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification for political rights and absolute disqualification for public offices for the duration of the sentence; and to pay the costs of the case, as author of the crime of simple kidnapping. Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo and Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, former Carabineros non-commissioned officers, both sentenced to 10 years and one day of imprisonment, in addition to the legal accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights, and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and to pay the costs of the case, as co-authors of the crime of aggravated homicide. In addition, they must serve 2 years of imprisonment as authors of the crime of simple kidnapping. Emilio Hernán Troncoso Vivallos, former Carabineros non-commissioned officer, sentenced to 5 years and one day of imprisonment, in addition to the legal accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights, and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and to pay the costs of the case, as co-author of the crime of aggravated homicide. In addition, one year of imprisonment as author of the crime of simple kidnapping. For their part, the agents Eugenio Jesús Fieldhouse Chávez, Pedro Mora Villanueva, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, José Mario Friz Esparza, Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, Orlando del Tránsito Altamirano Sanhueza, Eduardo Patricio Cabezas Mardones, Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich, Guillermo Eduardo Díaz Ramírez, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Carlos Enrique Miranda Mesa, and Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza were sentenced to one year of imprisonment, in addition to the legal accessory penalties of suspension from public office for the duration of the sentence; and to pay the costs of the case, as co-authors of the crime of simple kidnapping. In addition, the agents José Javier Soto Torres, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, and José Domingo Seco Alarcón were sentenced to 61 days of imprisonment, in addition to the legal accessory penalties of suspension from public office for the duration of the sentence; and to pay the costs of the case, as accomplices to the crime of simple kidnapping. Meanwhile, the agents Jorge Segundo Madariaga Acevedo, José Nelson Fuentealba Saldías, Hugo Hernán Clavería Leiva, Raúl Alberto Soto Pérez, and Juan Carlos Escobar Valenzuela were acquitted due to a lack of participation in the events. During the investigation stage, Minister Vázquez managed to prove the following facts: 1.- That Marta Lidia Ugarte Román was a militant of the Communist Party of Chile and a member of the Central Committee of that group, working in the Party's organization during 1976. 2.- That, as a consequence of the military coup of September 11, 1973, she went into hiding because she was sought by intelligence services, living with Elvira Solari Ahumada at the address Callejón Lo Ovalle No. 908 in the commune of La Cisterna, where she had been residing since the aforementioned month of September 1973, for security reasons, given her political militancy. 3.- That, on August 9, 1976, Marta Ugarte Román left the Callejón Lo Ovalle address around 3:00 PM, heading to the office of Dr. Iván Insunza, located on Vicuña Mackenna, to be treated for an infection in her leg resulting from a dog bite, meeting on the way Héctor Acela, now deceased, with whom she walked along Avenida Vicuña Mackenna in the direction of Avenida Matta, who warned her that something strange was visible in the area and it seemed to be under surveillance, but she insisted on continuing her path, not knowing that Dr. Iván Insunza had already been detained by intelligence services. 4.- That agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), belonging to the Purén Brigade, whose immediate objective was the tracking, location, and detention of Communist Party militants, proceeded to detain her without any warrant at Dr. Insunza's office, who had been detained previously due to his communist affiliation, an office that was being monitored by security agencies; she was then transferred to the clandestine detention center of said agency, known as Villa Grimaldi or Terranova, where she was kept deprived of liberty, interrogated, and subjected to physical duress, being recognized and identified by other detainees who were in the same place at that time. 5.- That the political authorities of the time, belonging to the Ministry of the Interior and the DINA itself, officially denied the detention of Marta Ugarte Román and any knowledge of her whereabouts. 6.- That, while deprived of liberty, she was taken out into the street by agents in order to identify other militants and supporters of the Communist Party, being seen in one of those operations at a residence on Calle Constitución, in the commune of Santiago, a place where party meetings were held. 7.- That, approximately on September 9, 1976, Marta Ugarte Román was transferred along with other detainees from the Villa Grimaldi facility to the town of Peldehue by DINA operational agents, where she was killed, her body being covered with a sack and tied with wire around her neck; she was then loaded onto a Puma helicopter of the Army Aviation Command, whose crew consisted of a pilot, co-pilot, a flight mechanic, and a DINA operational agent, an aircraft that took off for the coast, heading out to sea, to then throw her body into the high seas from a height. 8.- That, on September 12, 1976, on La Ballena beach, in the town of Los Molles, the body of Marta Lidia Ugarte Román was found lifeless by Marcel Dupré David, presenting only a piece of cloth and a piece of wire tied around her neck, which was severed, and with clear signs of having received physical duress; she also presented signs of needle marks on her arms. The body was transferred to the La Ligua hospital and then to the Legal Medical Service of Santiago for the corresponding autopsies. The first report, dated September 14, 1976, concluded a violent death under homicidal circumstances, where the direct cause of death was polytrauma and spinal luxofracture on September 9, 1976; the second expert report, of October 22, 1976, concluded that the cause of death was thoraco-abdomino-pelvic trauma, whose expansion on February 22, 2010, determined that the final event that led to her death was asphyxiation by strangulation with wire. 9.- That the Army Aviation Command had its operations center at the Tobalaba airfield, among others, for the flight of Puma helicopters, which had greater flight and transport capacity, for whose movement authorizations from the highest authorities of the Army were required, since it was necessary to assign at least in advance the pilots, co-pilots, and mechanics who were to form the flight crew. These ships were used institutionally and regularly, in conjunction with the DINA, for several years, to eliminate the bodies of people detained in the various detention centers of said agency, who were taken directly to the Tobalaba airfield or taken to the Peldehue Regiment, to then undertake a flight to the high seas, where they were thrown into the ocean.

Source: resumen.cl, July 1, 2016

18 former agents of the dictatorship sentenced for the murder of teacher Marta Ugarte

"It was sufficiently proven that State agents acted with the precise objective of detaining the victim, without a prior warrant and exclusively for political reasons, with the act being executed as part of a policy of repression and disappearance of a person for their thinking, with the state authority refusing to provide any information about the detention and the destination of that person, which is an attack against the human person," the judicial decision argues.

This Monday, the decision of the Supreme Court was made official, an entity that confirmed the conviction of 18 former agents of the dictatorship for the kidnapping and murder in 1976 of the teacher and PC militant Marta Ugarte Román, after the rejection of the cassation appeals presented against the previous ruling, the Judiciary reports.

In the sentence, the Second Chamber of the highest court ruled out any error of law in the ruling that sentenced Ricardo Lawrence Mires, Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo, and Claudio Pacheco Fernández to 15 years of imprisonment as authors of aggravated homicide and to 10 years of imprisonment as authors of aggravated kidnapping.

Regarding Pedro Espinoza Bravo, José Ojeda Obando, Juvenal Piña Garrido, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, Orlando Altamirano Sanhueza, Guillermo Díaz Ramírez, Jorge Díaz Radulovich, Orlando Torrejón Gatica, Carlos Miranda Mesa, and Carlos López Inostroza, they received a sentence of 10 years of imprisonment as authors of aggravated kidnapping.

For his part, Carlos Mardones Díaz was sentenced to eight years of imprisonment as an accomplice, while Luis Polanco Gallardo was sentenced to five years of imprisonment as an accessory after the fact to aggravated homicide.

Leónidas Méndez Romero and José Seco Alarcón must serve a sentence of five years of imprisonment as accomplices to aggravated kidnapping, and Emilio Troncoso Vivallos was sentenced to four years of imprisonment as an accomplice to aggravated kidnapping.

The details of the ruling

The sentence ended up ruling out any error of law in the decision that established that Marta Ugarte Román was detained and murdered for political reasons, specifically for her militancy in the Communist Party. "It concerns the detention of a person and subsequent homicide, whose motivations were of a political order, for the sole circumstance of belonging to a political conglomerate that had been decided to be combated drastically, by State agents in an organization—the National Intelligence Directorate—that had an entire structure, specifically for the persecution, location, and detention of members of the Communist Party and, in their case, making them disappear, as they were treated as enemies of the country," the court's decision argues. And it subsequently adds that "it was sufficiently proven that State agents acted with the precise objective of detaining the victim, without a prior warrant and exclusively for political reasons, with the act being executed as part of a policy of repression and disappearance of a person for their thinking, with the state authority refusing to provide any information about the detention and the destination of that person, which is an attack against the human person." In parallel, the national justice system established that the partial statute of limitations does not apply to reduce the sentence as it is a crime against humanity.

The case Regarding the case, the site Memoria Viva details that on August 9, 1976, DINA agents detained Marta Ugarte. According to the account of witnesses, the teacher was detained at Villa Grimaldi, where she subsequently died as a consequence of the torture she received.

After the crime, those responsible threw her into the sea, where she was found semi-naked and inside a sack tied to her neck with a wire, on September 9 of that year on La Ballena beach, in Los Molles.

The autopsy report confirms that while alive, Ugarte suffered a spinal luxofracture, thoracic-abdominal trauma with multiple rib fractures, rupture and bursting of the liver and spleen, dislocation of both shoulders and hip, and a double fracture in the right forearm. Her date of death corresponds to September 9 of that year.

Source: eldesconcierto.cl, November 29, 2021

Operation Colombo: Supreme Court sentences 30 DINA agents for aggravated kidnappings in 1974

The high court confirmed the sentence that condemned César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Iturriaga Neumann to 15 years and one day of imprisonment as authors of the crimes.

The Supreme Court rejected the appeals in cassation filed against the sentence that condemned 30 agents of the defunct National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Enrique Segundo Toro Romero, Eduardo Enrique Lara Petrovich, and José Caupolicán Villagra Astudillo.

These illicit acts were perpetrated in July 1974, in the communes of Estación Central and San Joaquín, and are part of what is known as "Operation Colombo."

In a unanimous ruling (case file 3.739-2019), the Second Chamber of the high court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, and minister María Teresa Letelier—confirmed the challenged sentence, issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals, which condemned César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann to 15 years and one day of imprisonment as authors of the crimes.

Meanwhile, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca, José Enrique Fuentes Torres, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, Rudeslindo Urrutia Jorquera, Hiro Álvarez Vega, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar, Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Manuel Rivas Díaz, Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte, Juan Evaristo Duarte Gallegos, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Olegario Enrique González Moreno, Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza, Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda, Carlos Alfonso Sáez Sanhueza, Juan Alfredo Villanueva Alvear, Alfredo Orlando Moya Tejeda, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, Leonidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, and Hernán Patricio Valenzuela Salas must serve 10 years and one day of imprisonment.

The high court dismissed the errors of law argued by the defense of the convicted.

"In summary, this Court considers that there has been no erroneous application of the law that would have meant the imposition on any of the appellants of a penalty more severe than that designated by law; and that the allegations of the defense—all analyzed in light of the factual hypothesis contained in the ruling—are not admissible, as they do not constitute any grounds for nullity; therefore, all the appeals analyzed are dismissed in their entirety," the ruling states.

Disinformation maneuvers

In the first-instance sentence, visiting judge Hernán Crisosto Greisse established as proven that: "On the night of July 10, 1974, Enrique Segundo Toro Romero, affiliated with the Communist Party, was detained at his home located at Calle Guillermo Saavedra 5440, Villa Francia, in the commune of Estación Central, by agents belonging to the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), who placed him in the back of a van and transported him to the clandestine detention center known as 'Yucatán' or 'Londres 38,' located at that address in the city of Santiago.

Subsequently, he was transferred to the clandestine detention center known as 'Cuatro Álamos,' located at Calle Canadá N° 3000, in Santiago, facilities that were guarded by armed guards and to which only DINA agents had access;

That the victim, Toro Romero, during his stay at the Londres 38 and Cuatro Álamos barracks, remained without contact with the outside world, blindfolded and tied, being subjected to interrogations under torture by DINA agents operating in said barracks for the purpose of obtaining information, including information regarding members of his political group and the Christian community.

That the last time the victim, Toro Romero, was seen alive was on an undetermined day in the month of July or August 1974, and he remains forcibly disappeared to this day;

That the name of Enrique Segundo Toro Romero appeared on a list of 119 people, published in the national press after it appeared on a list published in the magazine Novo O’Día of Curitiba, Brazil, dated June 25, 1975, which reported that Enrique Segundo Toro Romero had died in Argentina, along with 58 other people belonging to leftist groups, due to internal disputes among those members; and that said publications that declared the victim, Toro Romero, dead had their origin in disinformation maneuvers carried out by DINA agents abroad."

Regarding the kidnapping of Eduardo Lara Petrovich, the ruling states that: "On the afternoon of July 15, 1974, Eduardo Enrique Lara Petrovich, affiliated with the Communist Party, was detained at his workplace, 'Industria IRT,' located at Av.

Vicuña Mackenna N° 3333, commune of San Joaquín, by agents belonging to the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), who placed him in the back of a Chevrolet C-10 van and transported him to the clandestine detention center known as 'Yucatán' or 'Londres 38,' located at that address in the city of Santiago and, at a later date, transferred him to the clandestine detention center known as 'Cuatro Álamos,' located at Calle Canadá N° 3000, in Santiago, facilities that were guarded by armed guards and to which only DINA agents had access;

That Lara Petrovich, during his stay at the Londres 38 and Cuatro Álamos barracks, remained without contact with the outside world, blindfolded and tied, being subjected to interrogations under torture by DINA agents operating in said barracks for the purpose of obtaining information, among other things, regarding members of his political groups and the Christian community.

That the last time the victim was seen alive was on an undetermined day in the month of August 1974, and he remains forcibly disappeared to this day;

That the name of Eduardo Enrique Lara appeared on a list of 119 people, published in the national press after it appeared on a list published in the magazine LEA of Argentina, dated July 15, 1975, and June 25, 1975, which reported that Eduardo Enrique Lara Petrovich, along with 59 others, belonging to leftist groups, had died due to internal disputes among those members; and that the publications that declared the victim, Lara Petrovich, dead had their origin in disinformation maneuvers carried out by DINA agents abroad."

Finally, in the case of José Villagra Astudillo, it was established that: "On the afternoon of July 15, 1974, José Caupolicán Villagra Astudillo, affiliated with the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR), was detained at his home located at Calle Luis Infante Cerda N° 5447, Villa Francia, in the commune of Estación Central, by agents belonging to the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), who placed him in the back of a Chevrolet C-10 van and transported him to the clandestine detention center known as 'Yucatán' or 'Londres 38,' located at that address in the city of Santiago and, at a later date, transferred him to the clandestine detention center known as 'Cuatro Álamos,' located at Calle Canadá N° 3000, in Santiago, facilities that were guarded by armed guards and to which only DINA agents had access;

That the victim, Villagra Astudillo, during his stay at the Londres 38 and Cuatro Álamos barracks, remained without contact with the outside world, blindfolded and tied, being continuously subjected to interrogations under torture by DINA agents operating in said barracks for the purpose of obtaining information regarding members of his political groups and the Christian community.

That the last time the victim, Villagra Astudillo, was seen alive was on an undetermined day in the month of August 1974, and he remains forcibly disappeared to this day;

That the name of José Caupolicán Villagra Astudillo appeared on a list of 119 people, published in the national press after it appeared on a list published in the magazine Novo O’Día of Curitiba, Brazil, dated June 25, 1975, which reported that José Caupolicán Villagra Astudillo had died in Argentina, along with 58 people belonging to leftist groups, due to internal disputes or clashes; and that the publications that declared the victim, Villagra Astudillo, dead had their origin in disinformation maneuvers carried out by DINA agents abroad."

In the civil aspect, the state was ordered to pay a total compensation of $540,000,000 (five hundred and forty million pesos) for moral damages to the victims' families.

Source: adprensa.cl, October 21, 2022

Supreme Court sends 59 former DINA agents to prison for Operation Colombo

Operation Colombo was a major intelligence operation and a communication setup by the DINA, which attempted to make 119 people kidnapped in Chile appear as having been killed abroad.

The Second Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court revoked the sentence that had acquitted more than 60 former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) and condemned them as responsible for the disappearance of 16 leftist militants, mostly from the MIR, in the process known as Operation Colombo, which in this case was perpetrated between June 17, 1974, and January 6, 1975, during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

The ruling was issued by ministers Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, María Teresa Letelier, and Diego Simpertigue, who revoked the sentence issued by the Court of Appeals and condemned former DINA chiefs and officers César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff, and Raúl Iturriaga Neumann to the penalty of 15 years and one day of major imprisonment in its maximum degree as authors of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of the victims.

Similarly, the court condemned 53 former agents to the effective penalty of 10 years and one day of major imprisonment in its medium degree, as authors of the same crime, who had been acquitted previously by the capital's appellate court, despite having been condemned in the first instance as accomplices and authors.

Furthermore, this time all must enter prison, with some of them already being in prison for other crimes against humanity.

These are former DINA agents Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Manuel Andrés Carevic, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, José Abel Aravena Ruiz, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, Nelson Aquiles Ortiz Vignolo, Rudeslindo Urrutia Jorquera, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Manuel Heriberto Avendaño Gonzalez, Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte, Alejandro Francisco Astudillo Adonis, Daniel Alberto Galaz Orellana, Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, Leoncio Enrique Velásquez Guala, José Enrique Fuentes Torres, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, Luis René Torres Méndez, Rodolfo Valentino Concha Rodríguez, Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar, Hugo Del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Manuel Rivas Diaz, Daniel Valentín Cancino Varas, Juan Evangelista Duarte Gallegos, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Jorge Antonio Lepileo Barrios, Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza, Pedro Ariel Aravena Aravena, Carlos Alfonso Sáez Sanhueza, Juan Carlos Villanueva Alvear, Alfredo Orlando Moya Tejeda, Rafael De Jesús Riveros Frost, Silvio Antonio Concha González, Luis Fernando Espinace Contreras, Hernán Patricio Valenzuela Salas, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, Sylvia Teresa Oyarce Pinto, Osvaldo Pulgar Gallardo, José Avelino Yévenes Vergara, Olegario Enrique González Moreno, Werner Zanghellini, and Hector Flores Vergara.

Jaime Alfonso Fernández Garrido received a sentence of 5 years and one day of major imprisonment in its minimum degree as author of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Ida Vera Almarza. Meanwhile, Samuel Fuenzalida Devia was condemned to 541 days and one day for the same crime, but will not serve time in prison.

This is an extensive process that had its first-instance sentence in 2017 at the hands of judge Hernán Crisosto Greisse. In the course of the investigation, some agents have died, such as Basclay Zapata, Ciro Torré, Manzo Duran, Ricardo Lawrence, among others.

For Nelson Caucoto, the plaintiff lawyer representing 13 of the 16 victims, this is "a transcendent ruling in Chilean judicial history, since the Supreme Court has restored the sense of justice for crimes of this nature, which had literally remained in a situation of unacceptable impunity.

The high court has once again rejected the statute of limitations and the appeals of the defense of the convicted, and has accepted the appeals of the plaintiffs," he noted.

Caucoto adds that "it is a modern ruling based on international law and domestic legislation. It is undoubted that justice operates in this case as a healing for so many relatives of victims who still survive, and it is a pity that others did not live to see this end."

Operation Colombo was a major intelligence operation and a communication setup by the DINA, which attempted to make 119 people kidnapped in Chile by the DINA appear as having been killed abroad, having allegedly perished after fighting among themselves.

This process investigated the fate of 16 of those 119 victims. They are Francisco Aedo Carrasco, Jorge Elías Andrónicos Antequera, Juan Carlos Andrónicos Antequera, Jaime Buzio Lorca, Mario Calderón Tapia, Cecilia Castro Salvadores, Rodolfo Espejo Gómez, Agustín Fioraso Chau, Gregorio Gaete Farías, Mauricio Jorquera Encina, Isidro Pizarro Meniconi, Marcos Quiñones Lembach, Sergio Reyes Navarrete, Ida Vera Almarza, Juan Carlos Rodríguez Araya, and Jilberto Urbina Pizarro.

Source: radio.uchile.cl, March 3, 2023

Operation Colombo: Supreme Court condemns 25 DINA agents for the crime of a MIR detective in 1974

The Supreme Court confirmed the sentence that condemned 25 former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the aggravated kidnapping of photographer Teobaldo Antonio Tello Garrido, who has been forcibly disappeared since August 22, 1974, and is one of the 119 victims who appeared on the lists of the international disinformation maneuver known as "Operation Colombo."

Teobaldo Tello, 25 years old, married, was a detective of the Investigative Police, a photographer, and a militant of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR). He was detained and kidnapped on the afternoon of August 22 on a public street when he was preparing to hold a clandestine meeting in downtown Santiago.

His detention was part of a repressive raid on members of the MIR linked to the Investigative Police and the Identification Cabinet.

In the sentence (file 36.979-2020), the Second Chamber of the high court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Leopoldo Llanos, and acting lawyers Eduardo Morales and Gonzalo Ruz—rejected the appeals in cassation filed by the convicted and ruled out any error in the challenged sentence.

The high court's ruling condemned former Army officers and DINA leaders César Raúl Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann to the penalty of 13 years of imprisonment for their responsibility as authors of the crime.

Meanwhile, also sentenced as authors of the crime to 10 years of imprisonment were former officers Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García and Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, and former agents Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Silvio Antonio Concha González, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Teresa del Carmen Osorio Navarro, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, José Abel Aravena Ruiz, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Luis René Torres Méndez, Rodolfo Valentino Concha Rodríguez, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, Leonidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca, Luis Rigoberto Videla Inzulza, and Jorge Segundo Madariaga Acevedo, the latter three being officials of the Investigative Police commissioned to the DINA.

Former agent Samuel Enrique Fuenzalida Devia must serve a penalty of 541 days of imprisonment, with the benefit of conditional remission, as author of the crime.

Finally, former agent Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett was sentenced to a penalty of 4 years of imprisonment, with the benefit of supervised release, as an accomplice to the crime.

The sentence dismissed any infringement regarding the facts established by the first-instance courts, as they are crimes against humanity.

"Regarding the grounds contained in Article 546 N°2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, given the nature of the proven events, which are unalterable for this Court since the grounds allowing for their modification were dismissed, there is no doubt that they were committed as crimes against humanity, since the investigated illicit act occurred in a context of grave, massive, and systematic human rights violations, verified by State agents, with the victim in this case constituting an instrument within a general policy of exclusion, harassment, persecution, or extermination of a group of numerous people 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 envisioned by those holding power, guaranteeing impunity for the executors of said program through non-interference in their methods, both by concealing the reality when requested for relevant reports by ordinary courts of justice, and by using state power to persuade local and foreign public opinion that the complaints formulated to that effect were false and responded to a campaign aimed at discrediting the authoritarian military regime."

It adds: "Crimes against humanity are those injustices that not only contravene the legal interests commonly guaranteed by criminal laws, but at the same time imply a denial of the moral personality of man, such that for the configuration of this illicit act, there is an intimate connection between common crimes and an added value that stems from the disregard and contempt for the dignity of the person, because the main characteristic of this figure is the cruel way in which various criminal acts are perpetrated, which clearly and manifestly contradict the most basic concept of humanity; also highlighting the presence of cruelty toward a special class of individuals, thus conjugating an eminent intentional element, as a specific inner tendency of the agent's will.

In short, they constitute an outrage to human dignity and represent a grave and manifest violation of the rights and freedoms proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, reaffirmed and developed in other relevant international instruments."

In the judicial investigation and first-instance ruling, visiting judge Hernán Crisosto Greisse established that the kidnapped Teobaldo Tello was taken by his captors to the clandestine detention center known as "Ollagüe," located at Calle José Domingo Cañas N° 1367, in the commune of Ñuñoa, and subsequently transferred to the clandestine detention centers of "Villa Grimaldi," located at Lo Arrieta N° 8200, in the commune of La Reina, and "Cuatro Álamos," located at Calle Canadá N° 3000, in Santiago, facilities that were controlled by the DINA.

During his stay at the José Domingo Cañas, Villa Grimaldi, and Cuatro Álamos barracks, he remained without contact with the outside world, blindfolded and tied, being continuously subjected to interrogations under torture by DINA agents for the purpose of obtaining information regarding members of the MIR, in order to proceed with the detention of members of that organization.

In these facilities, Tello Garrido was seen by other surviving detainees with his arms and legs broken as a result of the torture. The last time he was seen alive was on an undetermined day in the month of September 1974.

The name of Teobaldo Antonio Tello Garrido appeared on a list of 119 people, published in the national press after it appeared on a list published in the magazine LEA of Argentina, dated July 15, 1975, which stated that he had died in Argentina, along with 59 other people belonging to the MIR, due to internal disputes among those members.

The aforementioned publications were the product of disinformation maneuvers carried out by the DINA, in what has become known as "Operation Colombo."

Source: resumen.cl, September 22, 2023

Operation Colombo: Supreme Court issues sentences against 32 DINA agents in cases of two victims

The Supreme Court issued separate replacement sentences condemning 32 former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the aggravated kidnapping of two victims of the so-called Operation Colombo.

In separate cases and rulings, the high court issued resolutions on the cases of Ismael Darío Chávez Lobos, detained on July 26, 1974, and Jorge Alejandro Olivares Graindorge, detained on July 27, 1974, both in the commune of Quinta Normal, in Santiago.

In the first case, referring to Ismael Chávez Lobos, in a unanimous ruling (case file 79.461-2020), the Second Chamber of the high court—composed of ministers Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, minister María Teresa Letelier, and acting lawyers Pía Tavolari and Gonzalo Ruz—established an error of law in the sentence issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals in June 2020, by absolving the agents who performed operational functions and served as guards at the Londres 38 facility of responsibility for the proven facts.

For this reason, in the replacement sentence, it qualifies them as guilty and condemns them for the crime, while increasing the penalties of the other convicted individuals.

At the same time, it accepted the appeals in cassation filed by the plaintiffs and, issuing a replacement sentence, condemned former DINA leaders and former Army officers César Raúl Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann to penalties of 10 years and one day of imprisonment as authors of the crime.

Meanwhile, also sentenced as authors of the crime to 10 years of imprisonment were former Carabineros officer Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, former Army officer Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, and former agent José Enrique Fuentes Torres.

Meanwhile, former agents Juan Evaristo Duarte Gallegos, Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Manuel de la Cruz Rivas Díaz, Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte, Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca, Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Rudeslindo Urrutia Jorquera, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar, Hiro Álvarez Vega, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Olegario Enrique González Moreno, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Alfredo Orlando Moya Tejeda, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Hernán Patricio Valenzuela Salas, Juan Alfredo Villanueva Alvear, Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, Carlos Alfonso Sáez Sanhueza, Máximo Ramón Aliaga Soto, and José Avelino Yévenes Vergara must serve 5 years and one day of imprisonment as authors of the crime.

In the second case, referring to Jorge Olivares Graindorge, in a unanimous ruling (case file 122.171.2020), the Second Chamber, composed of the same ministers as the previous case, established an error of law in the sentence issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals in July 2020, by mistakenly absolving agents who performed operational functions and served as guards at the Londres 38 facility.

For this reason, in the replacement sentence, it qualifies and condemns them as guilty of the crime.

Similarly, it increases the penalties of the other sentenced individuals and condemned former DINA leaders and former Army officers César Raúl Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann to penalties of 10 years and one day of imprisonment as authors of the crime.

Meanwhile, also sentenced as authors of the crime to 10 years of imprisonment were former officers Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García and Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, and former agent José Enrique Fuentes Torres.

Likewise, for this crime, former agents Juan Evaristo Duarte Gallegos, Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Manuel de la Cruz Rivas Díaz, Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte, Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca, Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Rudeslindo Urrutia Jorquera, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar, Hiro Álvarez Vega, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Olegario Enrique González Moreno, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Alfredo Orlando Moya Tejeda, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Hernán Patricio Valenzuela Salas, Juan Alfredo Villanueva Alvear, Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, Carlos Alfonso Sáez Sanhueza, Máximo Ramón Aliaga Soto, and Osvaldo Enrique Pulgar Gallardo must serve penalties of 5 years and one day of imprisonment as authors of the crime.

In both cases, twelve other agents condemned in the first instance died in the course of the process, among them former officers Gerardo Urrich González, Ricardo Lawrence Mires, Ciro Torré Sáez, and Sergio Castillo González, and agents Basclay Zapata Reyes, Risiere del Altez España, Juan Ángel Urbina Cáceres, José Nelson Fuentealba Saldías, Hugo Rubén Delgado Carrasco, José Mario Friz Esparza, Claudio Orlando Orellana de la Pinta, and Gustavo Galvarino Carumán Soto, who were acquitted of these crimes.

The victims

Ismael Darío Chávez Lobos, 22 years old, was a Social Sciences student at the University of Chile and a militant of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR). He was detained on the night of July 26, 1974, at his home located at Calle Los Copihues N° 1977 in the commune of Quinta Normal, by agents belonging to the DINA, who transported him to the clandestine detention center 'Londres 38,' located at that address in the city of Santiago.

Jorge Alejandro Olivares Graindorge, 23 years old, a gardener by trade, also a militant of the MIR, was detained by DINA agents on a public street on the afternoon of July 27, 1974, in the vicinity of his home located at Pasaje Salta 2258, in the commune of Quinta Normal. He was also transported by the agents to the clandestine detention center "Londres 38."

From this place of detention and torture, the trail of both detainees is lost. Subsequently, in July 1975, they appeared mentioned on the lists of the international disinformation maneuver known as "Operation Colombo," carried out by the DINA, which included 119 forcibly disappeared people.

Source: resumen.cl, December 4, 2023

Operation Colombo: Supreme Court condemns 30 former DINA agents for aggravated kidnapping of a young MIR militant in 1975

The Supreme Court condemned agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the consummated crime of aggravated kidnapping of the student of the Higher Institute of Commerce of Talca, Francisco Eduardo Ugás Morales, 22 years old, a militant of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR), who was kidnapped starting February 7, 1975, in the commune of Estación Central, in Santiago.

The name of Rodrigo Ugás appeared, subsequently, on the list of 119 forcibly disappeared people included in the disinformation maneuver implemented by the DINA and the dictatorship known as "Operation Colombo."

In a unanimous ruling (case file 63-094-2020), the Second Chamber of the high court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, minister María Teresa Letelier, and acting lawyer Pía Tavolari—accepted the appeals in cassation filed by the plaintiffs and established an error of law in the challenged sentence, issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals in April 2020, annulling and replacing it.

In the replacement sentence, the Supreme Court confirmed the first-instance sentence issued by judge Hernán Crisosto Greisse in June 2015, which condemned former Army officers and former DINA leaders Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann to penalties of 13 years of imprisonment as authors of the crime.

Meanwhile, former officers Rolf Gonzalo Wenderoth Pozo, Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, and Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, and former agents Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Luis René Torres Méndez, Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Manuel Rivas Díaz, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza, Luis Rigoberto Videla Insunza, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Pedro Mora Villanueva, Osvaldo Octavio Castillo Arellano, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, José Abel Aravena Ruiz, Rodolfo Valentino Concha Rodríguez, Silvio Antonio Concha González, and Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel must serve 10 years and one day of imprisonment as co-authors of the aggravated kidnapping.

In the case of agent Samuel Enrique Fuenzalida Devia, the resolution of visiting judge Hernán Crisosto was confirmed, which condemned him to 541 days of imprisonment, with the benefit of conditional remission of the penalty. At least 11 other agents condemned in the first-instance ruling died in the course of the process.

In the resolution, the Second Chamber establishes that: "....it appears clear that the lower court judges, at the time of resolving the controversy submitted to their knowledge and absolving the accused Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Luis René Torres Méndez, Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Manuel Rivas Díaz, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Carlos López Inostroza, Luis Rigoberto Videla Insunza, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, Leonidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Pedro Mora Villanueva, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, and Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, have incurred in the errors of law denounced by the plaintiff, by estimating, in summary, as evidenced by the reasoning that precedes, .... artificially reducing the responsibility attributed to each of them to their condition as DINA agents, through an incomplete reproduction of the foundations put forward by the first-instance court…..," the ruling maintains.

"That on the other hand -it continues-, as has already been outlined, in addition to said legal qualification, the sentencers estimated...., that the facts were committed in a context of systematic or generalized attack against the civilian population, which determined that the established illicit act was, in addition, considered a crime against humanity, for violating jus cogens norms of International Humanitarian Law, and for the same reason, subjected to said international legal statute."

Villa Grimaldi

In the first-instance sentence, the visiting judge of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Hernán Crisosto Greisse, established that on the afternoon of February 7, 1975, members of the DINA detained Rodrigo Eduardo Ugás Morales, a militant of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR), on a public street in the Estación Central sector of Santiago, and transported him to the clandestine DINA detention center known as 'Cuartel Terranova' or 'Villa Grimaldi,' located at Lo Arrieta N° 8200, in the commune of La Reina, which was guarded by armed guards and to which only DINA agents had access.

The detainee, Ugás Morales, during his stay at the Villa Grimaldi barracks, according to testimonies of survivors, remained without contact with the outside world, blindfolded and tied, being continuously subjected to interrogations under torture by DINA agents operating in said barracks.

The last time Rodrigo Ugás Morales was seen by other detainees was on an undetermined day at the end of February 1975, and he has been disappeared since that date.

Source: resumen.cl, February 23, 2024