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 "Operación 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 conducted by the presiding 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 established through testimonies that Héctor Marcial Garay Hermosilla passed through the clandestine detention center known as 'Londres 38', which was guarded by armed sentries 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 individuals to 13 years in prison as authors of the crime committed in 1974: César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Marcelo Luis Moren Brito, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann.

Meanwhile, the following former agents must serve 10 years in prison, also 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 in prison: 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

Among the accused, all retired, are eight colonels and 23 Army non-commissioned officers, 40 Carabineros officers and non-commissioned officers, two former FACH agents, one former Navy agent, and seven former Investigative Police agents.

The biggest blow to the repression of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship was dealt yesterday by Minister Víctor Montiglio, who indicted 98 former agents from various branches of the Armed Forces, Carabineros, and the Investigative Police for 42 victims of Operación Colombo.

This is the largest resolution issued among the nearly 400 cases of human rights violations currently being investigated in the country. It even surpassed the 67 former agents indicted by Judge Montiglio himself in 2007 for the crimes of the Brigada Lautaro and its Grupo Delfín at the Simón Bolívar barracks.

Among those indicted for Colombo are eight Army colonels (Ret.), six of whom had not been indicted in any previous case. Also declared defendants were 23 Army non-commissioned officers (Ret.), of whom at least 50 percent appear for the first time in such cases.

Among these non-commissioned officers is Juvenal Piña, alias "El Elefante," a former agent of the Brigada Lautaro, who was the one who suffocated the communist leader in hiding (1976) Víctor Díaz with a plastic bag over his head, prior to injecting him with cyanide.

Furthermore, the magistrate indicted 40 former Carabineros officers and non-commissioned officers, including Ricardo Lawrence, Heriberto Acevedo, Claudio Pacheco, and José Mora, all former members of the same Brigade. Among those indicted are also former agents who belonged to the Investigative Police. The only civilian (Army) is Juan Suárez.

Of the total list, at least thirteen are already serving sentences for other cases (see list).

As of the closing of this edition, the accused continued to be detained to be held in various locations, such as the Peñalolén Military Police Battalion.

Among the 42 victims for whom the minister issued his resolution are María Angélica Andreolli, Miguel Acuña Castillo, Juan Carlos Perelmann Ide, Juan Chacón Olivares, Jorge Müller Silva, Luis Guendelmann Wisniak, Mario Calderón Tapia, and Carmen Bueno Cifuentes.

Operación Colombo and the media

The list of the 119 was published in the magazine Lea (Buenos Aires) and the newspaper O Dia (Brazil) in 1975; this information was also false. Both publications were created by DINA agents.

Operación Colombo was part of Operación Cóndor and consisted of a setup by the dictatorship to make the population believe that 119 detainees who were forcibly disappeared had clandestinely left for Argentina and died there in clashes with police and Army forces during the phase prior to the 1976 military coup in Argentina.

Some of those names appeared as militants "assassinated" in Buenos Aires and its surroundings, with signs on their bodies stating they had been executed by their own comrades due to settling scores over internal disputes. However, this also turned out to be a setup.

The list of the 119 was published in the magazine Lea (Buenos Aires) and the newspaper O Dia (Brazil) in 1975; this information was also false. Both publications were created by DINA agents abroad and had only one edition.

In Chile, the pro-dictatorship press, such as the newspapers El Mercurio, La Tercera, Las Ultimas Noticias, and La Segunda, reproduced the intelligence services' setup. The headline of the evening paper remains in memory, which reported: "Exterminated like rats: 59 Chilean MIR members fall in military operation in Argentina." They were part of the list of the 119 disappeared of Colombo.

The former fugitive Raúl Iturriaga, who was one of those in charge of the DINA's foreign department, was the one who first gave light to this operation in Buenos Aires.

According to former civilian agent Enrique Arancibia Clavel, convicted in Buenos Aires for the crime of General Carlos Prats and his wife, it was Iturriaga who met with him at the beginning of 1975 to ask him to prepare what was necessary because "we have to make some dead people from Operación Colombo appear."

It was about preparing the appearance of the supposed bodies of Jaime Robotham and Luis Guendelmann as part of the setup.

List of the indicted

Army (all retired)

Víctor Molina Astete (colonel); Sergio Castillo González (col); Eduardo Guerra Guajardo (col); Víctor San Martín Jiménez (col); José Fuentes Torres (col); Manuel Carevic Cubillos (col); Jaime Paris Ramos (col); César Manríquez Bravo (col); Raúl Toro Montes (non-commissioned officer); Eduardo Reyes Lagos (NCO); Orlando Torrejón Gatica (NCO); Osvaldo Tapia Alvarez (NCO; committed suicide); Juvenal Piña Garrido (NCO; "El Elefante"); Juan Suárez Delgado (civilian); Nelson Paz Bustamante (NCO); José Aravena Ruiz (NCO); Luis Torres Méndez (NCO); Raúl Soto Pérez (NCO); Jorge Andrade Gómez (NCO); Juan Escobar Valenzuela (NCO); Rolando Concha Rodríguez (NCO); Gustavo Apablaza Meneses (NCO); Hiro Alvarez Vega (NCO); Víctor Alvarez Droguett (NCO); Jorge Venegas Silva (NCO); Carlos Rinaldi Suazo (NCO); Carlos Letelier Verdugo (NCO); Reinaldo Concha Orellana (NCO); Máximo Aliaga Soto (NCO); Hugo Clavería Leiva (NCO); Samuel Fuenzalida Devia (NCO)

Investigative Police

Juan Urbina Cáceres; Hugo Hernández; Manuel Rivas Díaz; Herman Alfaro; Eugenio Fieldhouse; Osvaldo Castillo

Carabineros (officers and non-commissioned officers, all retired)

Gerardo Godoy García; Ciro Torres Sáez; Alejandro Molina Cisternas; Camilo Torres Negrier; Héctor Lira Aravena; José Fritz Esparza; Claudio Pacheco Fernández; Jorge Sagardia Monge; Sergio Castro Andrade; Luis Villarroel Gutiérrez; Armando Cofré Gómez; Fernando Roa Montaña; Gerardo Meza Acuña; Enrique Gutiérrez Rubilar; Luis Mora Cerda; José Muñoz Leal; Juan Duarte Gallegos; Carlos Miranda Meza; Rufino Jaime Astorga; Luis Urrutia Acuña; Luis Zúñiga Ovalle; Pedro Alfaro Hernández; Orlando Inostroza Lagos; Rosa Ramos Hernández; Gustavo Caruvan Soto; Héctor Valdebenito Araya; Manuel Avendaño González; José Mora Diocares; Guido Jara Brevis; Nelson Ortiz Vignolo; Ruderlindo Urrutia Jorquera; Héctor Flores Vergara; Jerónimo Neira Méndez; Manuel Montré Méndez; Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo; Claudio Orerllana de la Pinta; Nelson Iturriaga Cortés; Luis Gutiérrez Uribe; José Ojeda Obando

Air Force Delia Gajardo Cortés; Hernán Avalos Muñoz

Navy Teresa Navarro Osorio

Indicted individuals already serving sentences

Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda; Pedro Espinoza Bravo; Raúl Iturriaga Neumann; Marcelo Moren Brito; Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko; Ricardo Lawrence Mires; Basclay Zapata Reyes; Conrado Pacheco; Francisco Ferrer Lima; Gerardo Urrich; Orlando Manzo Durán; Rizier Altez España; Fernando Lauriani Maturana

Source: La Nación, May 27, 2008

On the 14th and 15th of this month, the Minister of the Concepción Court of Appeals, Mr. Carlos Aldana, carried out a reconstruction of the scene of the crimes committed in the city of Valdivia during Operación Alfa Carbón, carried out by the CNI in August 1984.

As will be recalled, on August 23 and 24, 1984, the CNI carried out a broad operation against the MIR in the southern part of the country, covering the cities of Concepción, Los Ángeles, Temuco, and Valdivia. The repressive operation, which in our area is known as "The events of Vega Monumental," ended with 7 MIR leaders executed.

Judge Aldana, a minister with exclusive dedication to cases of human rights violations and state crimes, is investigating all aspects of this process. In Valdivia, Rogelio Tapia and Raúl Barrientos were assassinated in an open field on the road between Valdivia and Niebla on August 23; the following day, Juan Boncompte Andreu was assassinated in the Rubén Darío neighborhood.

As a result of the scene reconstruction proceedings in Valdivia, Judge Aldana ordered the detention and indictment of 5 CNI agents who had direct participation in the criminal operation. Without prejudice to the fact that new indictments may arise in this aspect of the case, for now, the following were detained: former Army officers Patricio Castro Muñoz, head of the operation in Valdivia; Juan Moraga, head of the Valdivia Regional Brigade; and Oscar Bombaur, head of the Puerto Montt Regional Brigade.

In addition, Gerardo Meza Acuña, a former Carabineros non-commissioned officer, and Ema Verónica Ceballos Núñez, a former Navy civilian agent, were detained, both as material executors.

It is expected that proceedings in this case will continue next week. Judge Aldana estimates that he will be in a position to close the process before the end of the year.

Source: Resumen.cl, September 17, 2010

Major (Ret.) Patricio Castro Muñoz was indicted on Monday as a co-author of the homicide of two MIR militants.

Since last Tuesday, the creator of "La Cutufa" and former member of the National Information Center (CNI), Captain (Ret.) Patricio Castro Muñoz, has been detained at the Chacabuco Regiment in Concepción. The reason: Judge Carlos Aldana indicted him along with another former agent of the organization as a co-author of the aggravated homicide of two members of the MIR in 1984.

This is the latest case that Castro must face in court after he was sentenced to three years and one day in prison in the early 90s for the case of the illegal financial firm known as "La Cutufa." In 2005, the former officer was also indicted for fraud related to an alleged inheritance from abroad.

The case The Concepción Court of Appeals adopted the decision after Castro was interrogated and participated in the reconstruction of the scene—in the middle of the month—of the homicides of Rogelio Tapia de la Puente and Jaime Barrientos Matamala, which occurred in the Puente Estancilla sector, in Niebla.

According to judicial sources, Magistrate Aldana decided to keep him in prison to carry out a series of proceedings related to the event and the material authors.

The text of the indictment maintains that Castro and Gerardo Meza Acuña were part of "Operación Alfa Carbón," an operation orchestrated by the leadership of the organization created in 1984 to eliminate the top leaders of the MIR hiding in the southern zone.

The magistrate indicates that on August 24 of that year, a CNI team from Santiago arrived in the town and detained both MIR members in the city of Valdivia.

"After tying their hands and blindfolding them, they were taken to Estancilla, where they were taken out and stood up. The operational chief gave the order to shoot them, which was carried out, causing their death," the text of the resolution indicates.

Source: La Tercera, September 24, 2010

The minister for extraordinary causes at the Santiago Court of Appeals, Hernán Crisosto, described the so-called "Operación Colombo" as a "crude and failed setup" after announcing the sentence that convicts 75 former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for the kidnapping and forced disappearance of Jorge Grez Aburto, who was detained on May 23, 1974, when he was 28 years old.

Jorge Grez was a militant of the Socialist Party and one of the founders of the MIR; he studied Philosophy and Medicine at the University of Concepción, where he stood out as a student leader and for his organizational work in the shantytowns.

After the 1973 coup, "El Conejo" —as he was known among his comrades— decided to remain in Chile and join the tasks and actions of the resistance, while working as an artisan. He was detained in downtown Santiago and transferred to torture centers such as Londres 38, the Estadio Chile, and Cuatro Álamos, places where he was kept deprived of liberty, sometimes isolated, blindfolded, and subjected to torture until his disappearance.

For the crime of aggravated kidnapping, Minister Crisosto sentenced former agents Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda, then an Army colonel and head of the DINA; César Manríquez Bravo; Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo; Marcelo Luis Moren Brito; Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko; and Gerardo Ernesto Urrich González to 13 years in prison, without benefits, for their responsibility as authors of the crime of aggravated kidnapping.

Meanwhile, Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann; 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 Fritz Esparza; Julio José Hoyos Zegarra; Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante; Claudio Orlando Orellana de la Pinta; Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar; Gustavo Galvarino Carumán 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; José Fernando Morales Bastías; Juan Alfredo Villanueva Alvear; Juan Evaristo Duarte Gallegos; Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza; Leonidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno; Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda; Rafael De Jesús Riveros Frost; Víctor Manuel Alvarez Droguett; and Víctor Manuel Molina Astete were sentenced to 10 years in prison, without benefits, for their responsibility as authors of aggravated kidnapping.

In the case of Luis Eduardo Mora Cerda; José Jaime Mora Diocares; Alfonso Humberto Quiroz Quintana; 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; Juan Manuel Troncoso Soto; 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; Orlando Enrique González Moreno; Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo; Reinaldo Alfonso Concha Orellana; Sergio Hernán Castro Andrade; Gustavo Humberto Apablaza Meneses; Héctor Carlos Díaz Cabezas; Jorge Antonio Lepileo Barrios; Luis Fernando Espinace Contreras; Oscar Belarmino La Flor Flores; Rufino Espinoza Espinoza; and Sergio Iván Díaz Lara, they were sentenced to 4 years in prison, without benefits, for their responsibility as accomplices to aggravated kidnapping.

Operación Colombo

Although Jorge Grez's name is not included in the lists published in Operación Colombo, a communication and intelligence setup intended to cover up DINA crimes, according to which left-wing militants were eliminating each other in the context of internal struggles, the judge linked the investigation of the case of Jorge Grez Aburto's disappearance to the dictatorship's communication maneuver deployed in July 1975.

Upon releasing the ruling, Magistrate Crisosto described Operación Colombo as a "very crude" and "very failed" "setup" by the DINA.

The sentence of more than 400 pages and 310 considerations is the first that Crisosto has issued since he was appointed special minister for human rights violation cases in August 2013.

In the civil aspect, Minister Crisosto ordered the payment of an indemnity of $70 million for moral damages to Rebelión Grez Rodríguez, the victim's daughter.

Source: Londres38.cl, May 9, 2014

In a resolution released today, the Court of Appeals of Concepción ratified the sentences against 17 agents of the National Information Center (CNI) who were convicted in a first-instance ruling issued in May 2018 by Judge Carlos Aldana.

After more than four years of unjustified delays and obstructive maneuvers introduced by the criminals' defense attorneys, this stage of the proceedings, which had remained stagnant in the tangle of the courts, has been concluded.

Darío Núñez The case known as the "Vega Monumental Massacre" (docket No. 11-2009) substantiates the criminal investigation into the aggravated homicides of seven militants of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) committed by agents of the defunct CNI on August 23 and 24, 1984, in a coordinated repressive action called "Operation Alfa Carbón," which took place in the cities of Concepción, Los Ángeles, Temuco, and Valdivia.

The repressive action culminated in the murder of Luciano Humberto Aedo Arias, in the current commune of Hualpén; Nelson Adrián Herrera Riveros and Mario Octavio Lagos Rodríguez, in Concepción; Mario Ernesto Mujica Barros, in Los Ángeles; and Rogelio Humberto Tapia de la Puente, Raúl Jaime Barrientos Matamala, and Juan José Boncompte Andreu, in Valdivia.

In the ruling, the Sixth Chamber of the appellate court of Concepción, composed of judges Rodrigo Cerda San Martín, Rafael Andrade Díaz, and Claudia Montero Céspedes, rejected the cassation appeals filed by the criminals' attorneys and confirmed the sentence convicting six former Army officers who operated as commanders in the CNI.

Former Army Brigadier Marcos Spiro Derpich Miranda, alias "Gitano," head of the CNI Regional Division at the time of the events, and former Lieutenant Colonel Álvaro Julio Federico Corbalán Castilla, alias "Faraón," head of the CNI Anti-Subversive Division, were sentenced to 20 years in prison as co-perpetrators of all the aggravated homicides and to 5 years and one day in prison as co-perpetrators of illicit association.

Former Captain Patricio Lorenzo Castro Muñoz, alias "BJ," must serve a sentence of 15 years and one day in prison for the three homicides in Valdivia, and 5 years and one day as a co-perpetrator of illicit association.

Former Lieutenant Colonel Jorge Camilo Mandiola Arredondo, at the time of the events the CNI regional head in Concepción, was sentenced to 15 years and one day in prison as a co-perpetrator of the aggravated homicides in Talcahuano, Concepción, and Los Ángeles.

However, he was acquitted of the crime of illicit association. Former Lieutenant Colonel Luis Alberto Moraga Tresckow, CNI regional head in Valdivia and material author of the crimes perpetrated at Puente Estancilla, was sentenced to five years of supervised release.

Former Major Oscar Alberto Boehmwald Soto, CNI regional head in Puerto Montt, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Meanwhile, agents Roberto Antonio Farías Santelices, alias "Petete," and Luis Hernán Gálvez Navarro, alias "Vitoco," were sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison as co-perpetrators of the aggravated homicide of Luciano Aedo Arias committed in Hualpén.

Meanwhile, José Abel Aravena Ruiz, alias "Muñeca," Sergio Agustín Mateluna Pino, alias "Guatón Órdenes," Luis Enrique Andaur Leiva, and Patricio Alfredo Bertón Campos were sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison as co-perpetrators of the aggravated homicide of Nelson Herrera Riveros committed at Kilometer One of the Camino a Santa Juana, in the Idahue sector.

The only person prosecuted and accused by Judge Aldana for the aggravated homicide of Mario Lagos Rodríguez, committed at the Vega Monumental, the criminal Manuel Ángel Morales Acevedo, alias "Baretta," was acquitted by the judge.

Regarding Los Ángeles, the ruling states that Bruno Antonio Soto Aravena, alias "Chico Pato," and José Artemio Zapata Zapata, alias "Huaso," must serve a sentence of 10 years and one day in prison as co-perpetrators of the aggravated homicide of Mario Mujica Barros.

As for the events in Valdivia, Gerardo Meza Acuña, alias "Patitas," and Luis René Torres Méndez, alias "Negro Mario," were sentenced to 15 years and one day in prison as co-perpetrators of two aggravated homicides committed at Puente Estancilla, on the road to Niebla, against Rogelio Tapia De La Puente and Raúl Barrientos Matamala.

For this same act, Luis Alberto Moraga Tresckow was sentenced to 5 years in prison, with the benefit of supervised release. Finally, Oscar Alberto Boehmwald Soto and Ema Verónica Ceballos Núñez, alias "Flaca Cecilia," were sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison as co-perpetrators of the aggravated homicide of Juan José Boncompte Andreu, committed in the Población Teniente Merino.

Three of the criminals involved died in the period between the first-instance ruling and the Court's resolution; in September 2019, the convicted criminal José Zapata committed suicide; in July 2020, the also-convicted Gerardo Meza Acuña passed away; and in December 2021, "Baretta," Manuel Ángel Morales Acevedo, passed away, whose acquittal—unusually, even though he had not been convicted by Aldana—was appealed by the plaintiff attorneys.

It should be noted that during the course of the proceedings, Judge Aldana refused to prosecute Moraga Tresckow and Boehmwald Soto for illicit association, and in his first-instance ruling, he did not convict Mandiola Arredondo for this crime—the CNI head in Concepción and manager of the concerted action of surveillance, tracking, and preparation of the operation that culminated in the August crimes, in which Mandiola participated actively.

Likewise, Judge Aldana refused to prosecute another dozen agents involved, a decision that was endorsed by the Concepción Court at the time. Tribute act to the murdered militants. Concepción. Photograph by Natalia Figueroa.

Alfa Carbón Precisely during the investigation stage, Judge Aldana managed to establish that in 1984, the CNI head of Concepción, Army Major Jorge Mandiola, received information regarding the re-articulation of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) in the area, managing to detect some of its leaders.

After informing Army Colonel Marcos Derpich Miranda, head of the CNI Regional Division, and confirming the fact, they informed the director of the CNI, General Humberto Gordon Rubio (now deceased), who determined that Army Major Álvaro Corbalán Castilla, in charge of the Anti-Subversive Division and the Regional headquarters, should coordinate operations to neutralize the members of the MIR operating between the Biobío and Los Ríos regions, naming these actions "Operation Alfa Carbón." As a result of the above, Corbalán Castilla ordered several teams, composed of agents from the different Brigades of the Cuartel Borgoño in Santiago, consisting of two or three people and with mobilization and financing provided by the Anti-Subversive Division, to move to Concepción, Los Ángeles, Temuco, and Valdivia, so that, in coordination with members of the CNI Regional units of those cities, they could carry out the tasks ordered by the various headquarters. Likewise, he ordered his subordinate Patricio Lorenzo Castro Muñoz to establish himself in Valdivia, in charge of the teams brought from Santiago, to direct and carry out the operations in that region. In parallel, and with the same purpose, Marcos Derpich Miranda ordered the head of the CNI Chillán barracks, Héctor Reinoso Muñoz, to join his counterpart in Concepción; Mandiola and the head of Puerto Montt, Oscar Boehmwald, along with two agents from his unit, were to report to the head of Valdivia, Moraga Tresckow, to support the respective operations. Once in Concepción, the teams and commanders who arrived in the city, plus those from this region, met in the days leading up to August 23, 1984, at the CNI barracks located on Avenida Pedro de Valdivia, where they coordinated the actions to be developed, led by Álvaro Corbalán, Joaquín Molina (deceased), and Marcos Derpich. In that meeting, the decision was made to carry out various raids and arrests (without judicial orders or proceedings) and that the fate of the detainees would depend on the degree of danger they posed to the military regime prevailing in the country, assuming that some of them might end up dead. This operation included repressive actions in Talcahuano and Concepción as well as in Los Ángeles, Temuco, Valdivia, and other locations in the southern zone. The Events On the morning of August 23, 1984, several CNI teams set up surveillance on three members of the MIR at the Plazoleta El Ancla in Talcahuano. One of them, Luciano Humberto Aedo Arias, boarded a public transport bus heading toward the Hualpencillo sector, where he got off the vehicle and tried to flee on foot, being intercepted by CNI members around noon at the corner of Grecia and Nápoles streets, where agent Luis Hernán Gálvez Navarro shot him with a firearm he was carrying, causing him to fall wounded to the ground, at which point agent Roberto Antonio Farías Santelices approached and finished him off with a burst from his AK-47 rifle in his back. The other two members of the MIR detected and watched earlier in Talcahuano, Nelson Adrián Herrera Riveros and Mario Octavio Lagos Rodríguez, boarded another bus heading to Concepción, followed by other CNI operational teams, who coordinated with the Carabineros along the way to intercept the bus—which was carrying passengers—in front of the Vega Monumental. Upon the vehicle's arrival at that location, CNI members intercepted the bus and ordered everyone to get off, but as some refused, including those being pursued, they threw tear gas canisters. When they descended, they shot Herrera and Lagos, causing them wounds. Lagos Rodríguez tried to flee, so an agent shot him with the AK rifle he was carrying, causing his death on the spot. For his part, Herrera Riveros was apprehended by CNI agents Sergio Mateluna Pino, José Abel Aravena Ruiz, Luis Andaur Leiva, and Patricio Alfredo Bertón Campos, who put him into one of their vehicles and headed to the Regional Hospital of Concepción for the treatment of his wounds. However, during the journey, Derpich Miranda ordered his execution, so they took him to kilometer 0.9 of the road to Santa Juana, where they took him out of the vehicle and Aravena Ruiz ordered Andaur Leiva to execute the crime; he shot him in the forehead with his revolver, causing a craniocerebral gunshot wound that resulted in instantaneous death. Around 5:30 p.m. that same day, once the CNI agents from Concepción José Zapata Zapata and Bruno Soto Aravena, who were following Mario Mujica Barros, along with several teams led by the deceased Karl Johans Bauer, followed the instructions of their boss Jorge Camilo Mandiola Arredondo, they approached Mujica Barros's home in the Población Orompello in Los Ángeles. They entered the property by surprise and violently, shooting the victim in the head while he was on the ground, causing his death. Meanwhile, around 4:00 p.m. on August 23, 1984, CNI operational teams that had arrived from Santiago, led by Patricio Castro Muñoz, arrested Rogelio Tapia de la Puente and Jaime Barrientos Matamala near the Puente Las Ánimas in the city of Valdivia. Subsequently, they crossed the Calle Calle River on a ferry and took them to Puente Estancilla, located on the road from Valdivia to Niebla, in the Torobayo sector, a place where traffic for all vehicles and people had previously been cut off by Carabineros, and in circumstances where the detainees had their hands tied and their eyes blindfolded, the agents proceeded to execute them, by order of Castro Muñoz, who fired, along with agents Luis René Torres Méndez and Gerardo Meza Muñoz and others not identified in the process. Likewise, the CNI regional head of Valdivia, Luis Moraga Tresckow, who had allegedly refused to shoot, upon the repeated order of Castro Muñoz, finished them off. The victims received multiple projectile wounds, some of which struck Tapia de la Puente and Barrientos Matamala in the skull and thorax. Subsequently, weapons were placed in the hands of the deceased to simulate a confrontation. The next day, August 24, 1984, around 3:00 p.m., several CNI operational teams, led by Patricio Castro Muñoz, surrounded the home of Juan José Boncompte Andreu, located in the Población Teniente Merino in Valdivia, entering it to arrest Boncompte Andreu, who tried to flee from his captors, being wounded by shots from Oscar Boehmwald Soto, falling to the ground, where Ema Verónica Ceballos Núñez shot him in the head with her firearm, causing his death. Source: resumen.cl, June 10, 2022

Supreme Court confirms sentences of 15 CNI agents for crimes of Operation Alfa Carbón

The Supreme Court confirmed the sentences against 15 former agents of the National Information Center (CNI) for their responsibility in the aggravated homicides of seven militants of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) perpetrated on August 23 and 24, 1984, in a coordinated repressive action that took place in the cities of Concepción, Los Ángeles, Temuco, and Valdivia, called "Operation Alfa Carbón" by the repressive organs, but popularly known as the "Vega Monumental Massacre." The repressive operation culminated on August 23 with the murder of Luciano Humberto Aedo Arias, 34 years old, committed in the current commune of Hualpén; in Concepción, in front of the Vega Monumental, Nelson Adrián Herrera Riveros, 30, and Mario Octavio Lagos Rodríguez, 34, were killed. That same day in Los Ángeles, Mario Ernesto Mujica Barros, 32, was murdered, and in Valdivia, Rogelio Humberto Tapia de la Puente, 31, and Raúl Jaime Barrientos Matamala, 23, were executed. The following day, Juan José Boncompte Andreu, 31, was executed. In addition to this, as part of the repressive offensive, dozens of people, militants, and resistance members against the dictatorship were arrested in the aforementioned cities and in other towns and localities in the south. In a unanimous ruling (Case Docket 75.716-2022), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of judges Haroldo Brito Cruz, Jorge Dahm Oyarzún, Leopoldo Llanos Sagristá, and acting lawyers Leonor Etcheberry C. and Gonzalo Ruz L.—rejected the cassation appeals in form and substance filed by eight of the convicted criminals and ruled out any error of law in the challenged sentence, issued by the Court of Appeals of Concepción in June 2022 (docket 325-2019), which ratified the first-instance ruling issued in May 2018 (docket 11-2009) and convicted the accused for their responsibility in the crimes. The Criminals With this resolution, the Second Chamber confirms the sentence convicting the 15 former CNI agents; two other individuals convicted in the first instance died during the course of the proceedings. The convicted are six former Army officers who operated as commanders in the CNI: former Brigadier Marcos Spiro Derpich Miranda, at the time of the events head of the CNI Regional Division, and former Lieutenant Colonel Álvaro Julio Federico Corbalán Castilla, head of the CNI Anti-Subversive Division, who were sentenced to 20 years in prison as co-perpetrators of all the aggravated homicides and to 5 years and one day in prison as co-perpetrators of illicit association. Former Captain Patricio Lorenzo Castro Muñoz, alias "BJ," must serve a sentence of 15 years and one day in prison for the three aggravated homicides committed in Valdivia, and 5 years and one day in prison as a co-perpetrator of illicit association. Former Lieutenant Colonel Jorge Camilo Mandiola Arredondo, at the time of the events CNI regional head in Concepción, was sentenced to 15 years and one day in prison as a co-perpetrator of the aggravated homicides committed in Talcahuano, Concepción, and Los Ángeles. Former Lieutenant Colonel Luis Alberto Moraga Tresckow, at the time of the events CNI regional head in Valdivia and material author of the crimes perpetrated at Puente Estancilla in Valdivia, was sentenced to five years of supervised release. Former Major Oscar Alberto Boehmwald Soto, CNI regional head in Puerto Montt, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the aggravated homicide perpetrated in the city of Valdivia against Juan José Boncompte Andreu. Meanwhile, agents Luis Hernán Gálvez Navarro and Roberto Antonio Farías Santelices were sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison as co-perpetrators of the aggravated homicide of Luciano Aedo Arias committed in Hualpén. Meanwhile, José Abel Aravena Ruiz, Sergio Agustín Mateluna Pino, Luis Enrique Andaur Leiva, and Patricio Alfredo Bertón Campos were sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison as co-perpetrators of the aggravated homicide of Nelson Herrera Riveros committed at Kilometer One of the Camino a Santa Juana, in the Idahue sector. The only person prosecuted and accused by the investigating judge Carlos Aldana for the aggravated homicide of Mario Lagos Rodríguez, committed at the Vega Monumental, the criminal Manuel Ángel Morales Acevedo, was acquitted by the judge. Later, during the course of the proceedings, this individual died in December 2021. Regarding the crime committed in Los Ángeles, agent Bruno Antonio Soto Aravena must serve a sentence of 10 years and one day in prison as a co-perpetrator of the aggravated homicide of Mario Mujica Barros. The other individual convicted in the first instance to the same sentence for this crime, José Artemio Zapata Zapata, committed suicide in September 2019. For the criminal acts committed in Valdivia, agent Luis René Torres Méndez was sentenced to 15 years and one day in prison as a co-perpetrator of the two aggravated homicides committed at Puente Estancilla, on the road to Niebla, against Rogelio Tapia De La Puente and Raúl Barrientos Matamala. For this same act, agent Gerardo Meza Acuña had also been convicted in the first instance to the same sentence, but this individual died in July 2020. Finally, in addition to Oscar Alberto Boehmwald Soto, agent Ema Verónica Ceballos Núñez was sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison as a co-perpetrator of the aggravated homicide of Juan José Boncompte Andreu, committed in the Población Teniente Merino. It should be noted that during the course of the proceedings (case docket 11-2009), Judge Carlos Aldana refused to prosecute another dozen agents involved in the criminal acts, a decision that was endorsed at the time by the Concepción Court of Appeals. Likewise, Judge Aldana refused to prosecute the implicated officers Luis Moraga Tresckow and Oscar Boehmwald Soto for illicit association; and for this crime, despite having subjected him to prosecution, he did not convict Jorge Mandiola Arredondo, the CNI head in Concepción and manager of the concerted action of surveillance, tracking, and preparation of the operation that culminated in the August crimes, in which Mandiola Arredondo participated actively. Furthermore, the convicted criminal Patricio Castro Muñoz attempted to question the legality of the judicial process and the conviction against him, and in October of last year, he appealed to the Constitutional Court (TC), invoking vices of unconstitutionality in the trial and the conviction that affected him. However, on January 9 of this year, the TC ruled, declaring the appeal filed by the criminal and his representative inadmissible, rejecting the petition. Operation Alfa Carbón During the investigation stage, it was established that at the beginning of 1984, the CNI head of Concepción, Major Jorge Mandiola, received information about the re-articulation of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) in the area, managing to detect some of its leaders and a large number of militants and resistance members. After informing his superior, Colonel Marcos Derpich Miranda, head of the CNI Regional Division, and having confirmed the detection of the MIR organization in the south, they informed the CNI director, General Humberto Gordon Rubio (now deceased), who determined that Major Álvaro Corbalán Castilla, in charge of the Anti-Subversive Division, should coordinate with the Regional headquarters to carry out operations aimed at neutralizing the members of the MIR operating between the Biobío and Los Ríos regions, naming these actions "Operation Alfa Carbón." As a result of the above, Álvaro Corbalán ordered several teams, composed of agents from different Brigades of the Cuartel Borgoño (Blue, Yellow, Green, Brown, and Special) in Santiago, consisting of two or three people and with mobilization and financing provided by the Anti-Subversive Division, to move to Concepción, Los Ángeles, Temuco, and Valdivia, so that, in coordination with members of the CNI Regional units of those cities, they could carry out the tasks ordered by the various headquarters. Likewise, Corbalán ordered his subordinate Patricio Lorenzo Castro Muñoz, deputy head of the Yellow Brigade, to establish himself in Valdivia, in charge of the teams brought from Santiago, to direct and carry out the operations in that region. Similarly, he ordered Krantz Johans Bauer, deputy head of the Special Brigade, to establish himself in Los Ángeles to take charge of operational tasks, supported by joint teams from Santiago and the Regional units. In parallel, and with the same purpose, Marcos Derpich Miranda ordered the head of the CNI Chillán barracks, Héctor Reinoso Muñoz, and agents from his unit to join his counterpart in Concepción, and that the head of Puerto Montt, Oscar Boehmwald, along with agents from his unit, report to the head of Valdivia to support the repressive operations. With the information accumulated through tracking, surveillance, and wiretaps, the CNI commanders decided to strike the final blow. In the days prior to the event, led by Álvaro Corbalán, Joaquín Molina Fuenzalida (deceased), Marcos Derpich, and others, the commanders, heads, and teams that had arrived in the city, plus the local agents, met at the CNI barracks located on Bahamondes street at Avenida Pedro de Valdivia, in Concepción, where they coordinated the actions to be developed. In that meeting, the decision was made to carry out various raids and arrests (without judicial orders or proceedings) and that the fate of the detainees would depend on the degree of danger they posed to the military regime prevailing in the country. There, the CNI commanders established which MIR members would be eliminated and who would be arrested at the moment of "bursting" or executing the operation. This operation included repressive actions in Talcahuano and Concepción as well as in Los Ángeles, Temuco, Valdivia, and other locations in the southern zone. The Events The date chosen by the CNI commanders was August 23, 1984. On the morning of the 23rd, in Concepción, several CNI teams set up surveillance on three members of the MIR, who converged at a restaurant located at the Plazoleta El Ancla in Talcahuano. They were Nelson Herrera, Mario Lagos, and Luciano Aedo. Around noon, one of them, Luciano Humberto Aedo Arias, boarded a public transport bus heading toward the Hualpencillo sector where he resided, where he got off the bus upon noticing the obvious surveillance, and tried to flee on foot, being intercepted by CNI agents at the corner of Grecia and Nápoles streets. At that moment, agent Luis Hernán Gálvez Navarro shot him with a firearm he was carrying, causing Luciano to fall wounded to the ground; then agent Roberto Antonio Farías Santelices approached the fallen man and finished him off with a burst from his AK-47 rifle in his back. A couple of hours later, and without perceiving what was happening outside, the other two members of the MIR detected and watched at the restaurant in Talcahuano, Nelson Adrián Herrera Riveros and Mario Octavio Lagos Rodríguez, boarded another bus heading to Concepción, followed by other CNI operational teams, who coordinated with the Carabineros along the way to intercept the bus—which was carrying passengers—in front of the Vega Monumental. Upon the vehicle's arrival at that location, CNI members intercepted the bus and ordered everyone to get off, but as some people refused, including those being pursued, they threw tear gas canisters inside the bus, forcing its evacuation. Once the passengers got off, the two MIR members descended from the bus with their hands up, but CNI agents shot Herrera and Lagos on the spot, causing them wounds. Mario Lagos tried to flee, so an agent shot him with the AK rifle he was carrying, causing his death on the spot. For his part, Nelson Herrera Riveros was apprehended by CNI agents Sergio Mateluna Pino, José Abel Aravena Ruiz, Luis Andaur Leiva, and Patricio Alfredo Bertón Campos, who put him into one of their vehicles and—as part of the setup—announced aloud that they were heading to the Regional Hospital of Concepción for the treatment of the detainee's wounds. However, they deviated from the route and took him to kilometer 0.9 of the road to Santa Juana, where they took him out of the vehicle and Aravena Ruiz ordered Andaur Leiva to execute the crime; he shot him in the forehead with his revolver, causing a craniocerebral gunshot wound that resulted in instantaneous death, just as Derpich Miranda had ordered them by radio. To finish the farce, the executioners headed with the murdered man to the Regional Hospital and admitted him through the emergency room, already deceased. The agents left Nelson Herrera at the hospital handcuffed behind his back. Later, they returned to release and recover the handcuffs. Los Ángeles In Los Ángeles, around 5:30 p.m. on that same day, the 23rd, once the CNI agents from Concepción José Zapata Zapata and Bruno Soto Aravena, who were following Mario Mujica Barros, along with several teams led by the deceased Krantz Johans Bauer, followed the instructions of their boss Jorge Camilo Mandiola Arredondo, they approached Mujica Barros's home in the Población Orompello in Los Ángeles. They entered the property by surprise and violently, shooting the victim in the head while he was on the ground, causing his death. Valdivia Meanwhile, in Valdivia, around 4:00 p.m. on August 23, CNI operational teams that had arrived from Santiago, led by Patricio Castro Muñoz, arrested Rogelio Tapia de la Puente and Jaime Barrientos Matamala near the Puente Las Ánimas in the city of Valdivia. Subsequently, they crossed the Calle Calle River on a ferry and took them to Puente Estancilla, located on the road from Valdivia to Niebla, in the Torobayo sector. In that place, where traffic for all vehicles and people had previously been cut off by Carabineros, and in circumstances where the detainees had their hands tied and their eyes blindfolded, the agents proceeded to execute them, by order of Castro Muñoz, who fired himself, along with agents Luis René Torres Méndez and Gerardo Meza Muñoz and others not identified in the process. Likewise, the CNI regional head of Valdivia, Luis Moraga Tresckow, who had initially allegedly refused to shoot, upon the imperative order of Castro Muñoz, finished them off with shots from his weapon. The victims received multiple projectile wounds, some of which struck Tapia de la Puente and Barrientos Matamala in the skull and thorax. Subsequently, weapons were placed in the hands of the deceased to simulate a confrontation. The next day, August 24, around 3:00 p.m., several CNI operational teams, led by Patricio Castro Muñoz, surrounded the home of Juan José Boncompte Andreu, located on Rubén Darío street, in the Población Teniente Merino in Valdivia, entering it to eliminate Boncompte Andreu, who tried to flee from his captors through the backyard of the house, being wounded by Oscar Boehmwald Soto. In the backyard, other agents were waiting in ambush and also shot him; once on the ground, agent Ema Verónica Ceballos Núñez finished him off by shooting him in the head with her firearm, ensuring his death. Juan José Boncompte received 22 bullet impacts. by Darío Núñez Source: resumen.cl, March 5, 2024