In a ruling that will have significant repercussions for human rights cases, the Seventh Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals ordered the release of thirteen uniformed officers and revoked their indictments, deeming that the principle of res judicata and the Amnesty Law applied.

The ruling finds no merit to maintain the indictments against thirteen personnel who belonged to the Comando Conjunto and who were prosecuted by the head of the 25th Criminal Court, Carlos Hazbún, who serves as a judge with preferential dedication.

This follows the May 2nd decision by the head of the First Civil Court of San Bernardo, Cecilia Flores, to declare herself incompetent to hear the case regarding the kidnapping of David Urrutia Galaz, who was captured by Comando Conjunto agents in 1975, and to refer the records to the judge of the 25th Criminal Court of Santiago, Carlos Hazbún.

The defense for the former uniformed officers, led by lawyer Carlos Portales, estimated that the resolution opens the door to follow the same path for the remaining fifty or so military personnel currently being prosecuted by judges with exclusive dedication to these cases.

According to El Mercurio, the Human Rights Program of the Ministry of the Interior ordered a special meeting for tomorrow with all its lawyers to analyze the new scenario. The director of the agency, Luciano Fouillioux, indicated that the final word regarding the application of the principle of res judicata and the Amnesty Law lies with the Supreme Court.

This is because it is the first time an appellate court has applied a ruling of this nature in cases of human rights violations investigated by special judges who were appointed as a result of the "Dialogue Table." The head of the 25th Criminal Court of Santiago, Carlos Hazbún, had indicted the following uniformed officers on January 7, 2002, as perpetrators of "illicit criminal association": César Palma Ramírez, Otto Trujillo Miranda, Raúl González Fernández, and Manuel Muñoz Gamboa.

Likewise, the indictment included retired FACh (Chilean Air Force) non-commissioned officer Pedro Caamaño Medina; the retired commander of the FACh Colina regiment, Carlos Madrid Hayden; active FACh non-commissioned officer Robinson Suazo Jaque; retired FACh non-commissioned officer Fernando Zúñiga Canales; retired FACh non-commissioned officer Eduardo Cartagena Maldonado; retired Navy lieutenant Daniel Guimper Corvalán; retired FACh non-commissioned officer Guillermo Urra Carrasco; retired FACh non-commissioned officer Pedro Zambrano Uribe; and retired FACh non-commissioned officer Juan Chávez Sandoval, all of whom have now benefited from this provision.

Source: elmostrador.cl, June 16, 2002

Comando Conjunto: Eight former officers indicted for kidnapping

The judge with exclusive dedication, Christián Carvajal, indicted eight former members of the Comando Conjunto, including retired General Enrique Ruiz Bunger, former director of the Air Force Intelligence Directorate (DIFA), and Alvaro Corbalán Castilla, former operations chief of the CNI.

The measure adopted by the head of the Third Criminal Court refers to the disappearance of student Ignacio González Espinoza (24 years old), a militant of the Communist Party, on December 4, 1975. Also indicted as perpetrators of qualified kidnapping were Juan Saavedra Loyola, Sergio Díaz López, Daniel Guimpert (Navy), Manuel Muñoz Gamboa, and the former Navy officer and head of the Counterintelligence Department of the Naval Intelligence Service (SIN), Jorge Osses Novoa.

Otto Trujillo, the well-known "Colmillo Blanco" (White Fang), was charged as an accomplice. A few days ago, the magistrate—who inherited the cases from the current prosecutor Mario Carroza—indicted Alvaro Corbalán and former uniformed officer Sergio Díaz López for the qualified kidnapping of Luis Moraga Cruz and Ricardo Weibel Navarrete, who disappeared on October 20 and November 7, 1975, respectively.

With the decision of the head of the Third Criminal Court of Santiago, it is confirmed that Corbalán, prior to belonging to the National Information Center (CNI), was part of the DINE, an organization that, within the Comando Conjunto, detained and killed opponents of the military regime.

Corbalán is currently serving a life sentence for his participation in the murder of carpenter Juan Alegría Mondaca, a crime linked to the homicide of the former president of the National Association of Fiscal Employees (ANEF), Tucapel Jiménez Alfaro.

Currently, the retired major remains incarcerated at the Military Police Battalion Number 1 in Santiago, located on the premises of the Army Telecommunications Command in the Peñalolén commune. Also for the disappearance of Weibel, Judge Carvajal has indicted former uniformed officers and former members of the Comando Conjunto Juan Francisco Saavedra, Enrique Ruiz Bunger, and Viviana Ugarte, known as "La Pochi," wife of retired FACh General Patricio Campos.

Last week, the special judge also indicted former Navy officer Jorge Aníbal Osses and retired FACh Colonel Roberto Serón Cárdenas for the kidnapping of Weibel Navarrete and Luis Moraga Cruz.

Source: lanacion.cl, March 14, 2003

Cerro Chena: Judge Flores issued first indictments

Judge Cecilia Flores Sanhueza, who is investigating human rights violations that occurred inside Cerro Chena, San Bernardo, issued the first indictments yesterday afternoon as a result of her work as a judge with exclusive dedication to cases of the forcibly disappeared.

Flores, head of the First Civil Court of San Bernardo, indicted a total of 10 people for the crimes of illicit association and kidnapping. Four are retired officers from the Cerro Chena Infantry School: Magaña Bau, Alfonso Faúndez, Víctor Pinto, and Sergio Rodríguez.

A fifth, Sergio Ávila Quiroga, was an officer of the Sixth Carabineros Precinct of San Bernardo. The other five are former members of the Comando Conjunto, most of whom are already being prosecuted by the judge of the 25th Criminal Court of Santiago, Carlos Hasbún.

They are Otto Trujillo, Manuel Muñoz Gamboa, Eduardo Cartagena Maldonado, César Palma Riquelme, and Fernando Zúñiga Canales. The indictments issued by Judge Flores—reported by the newspaper La Hora—correspond to the investigation she is conducting into the disappearance of the young communist militant David Edison Urrutia Galaz.

They also concern the kidnapping of union leader Manuel Ahumada Lillo and the son of the governor of San Bernardo at the time, Fernando Ávila Alarcón.

Source: elmostrador.cl, March 27, 2003

Six former uniformed officers indicted for human rights case

The head of the Third Criminal Court of Santiago, Graciela Gómez, indicted six former uniformed officers for their participation in the kidnapping of former communist leader José Weibel and the detention of Carlos Sánchez Cornejo.

The indictment affected former FACH members Enrique Ruiz Bunger, Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, Jorge Rodrigo Combos, and Daniel Luis Guimpert; former Carabineros officer Manuel Muñoz Gamboa; and civilian César Luis Palma Ramírez. They were also indicted as perpetrators, along with Alejandro Sáez Mardones, currently incarcerated in the Punta Peuco prison, for the kidnapping of José Weibel.

Source: lanacion.cl, January 30, 2004

Justice touches the Comando Conjunto

The Comando Conjunto case—a group of State agents and far-right civilians coordinated by the four intelligence agencies of the Armed Forces that operated between 1975 and 1976—has entered its final phase.

It is perhaps one of the emblematic human rights violation trials due to the ferocity directed against the victims (nearly 70) and because it is the only case in which all branches of the military participated, although the FACH and Carabineros were the most involved.

In fact, some of its members joined the Dicomcar in the 1980s. The judge with exclusive dedication from the Third Criminal Court of Santiago to investigate the crimes committed by this repressive organization, Graciela Gómez, issued the first accusations in recent days against its agents, those responsible for the kidnapping of Carlos Contreras Maluje, son of the first Intendente of the UP in the Concepción province, former councilman for the Concepción commune, and leader of the Communist Party.

This is one of the four episodes that divide this trial, but it is the most symbolic, because the events surrounding the kidnapping of the leftist militant exposed the acts committed by the CC and provoked the immediate dissolution of the repressive organization.

Names Accused as the intellectual authors of the kidnapping were retired FACH General Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger and retired Colonel of the same institution Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola. Meanwhile, accused as material authors were Alejandro Sáez Mardones (currently serving a sentence for the "degollados" case), Jorge Cobos Manríquez (alias ‘Kiko’ and retired FACH lieutenant), Daniel Guimpert Corvalán (retired Navy lieutenant), César Palma Ramírez (alias ‘Fifo’, a civilian formerly of Patria y Libertad and mentioned in at least 15 murders), and Manuel Muñoz Gamboa (alias ‘Lolo’, a retired Carabineros major who was also convicted in the "degollados" case). Ruiz Bunger was in charge of FACH Intelligence and was a trusted man of the then-commander-in-chief of the Air Force and member of the Military Junta, General Gustavo Leigh, whom he accompanied when he was dismissed by General Augusto Pinochet in 1978. The facts In her resolution, Judge Gómez reaches the conviction that the agents kidnapped Contreras Maluje and, after torturing him, used him to set up an operation where they intended to capture other communist militants. On November 2, 1976, after obtaining information provided by another detainee under torture, the agents intercepted him on Nataniel Street and forcibly took him to the detention center known as La Firma (located on Dieciocho Street, where the offices of the newspaper Clarín previously operated). After subjecting him to illegal duress, the former councilman offered to take the agents to a place where they could capture another communist militant. But Contreras Maluje’s plans were different. As established, the following day the CC set up an operation on Nataniel Street. Upon arriving at the scene, the judge states, Contreras Maluje "manages to evade his guards and throws himself into the path of a public transport vehicle traveling south on Nataniel Street, becoming injured as a result of the impact, despite which he asks for help from passersby and a Carabineros officer." He said he was being kidnapped, but the officers could do nothing because a vehicle with license plate EG-588 appeared, which was later proven to belong to the FACH and was for the exclusive use of Ruiz Bunger, head of FACH Intelligence. Its occupants identified themselves as DINA agents. Nothing more was heard of Contreras Maluje.

Source: lanacion.cl, November 24, 2004

Seven former members of the Comando Conjunto convicted

Minister Juan Fuentes Belmar sentenced seven former members of the Comando Conjunto today to various penalties for their responsibility in the disappearance of communist leader Carlos Contreras Maluje in November 1976, judicial sources reported.

In his resolution, the magistrate did not apply the Amnesty Law enacted in 1978 by former dictator Augusto Pinochet, but did apply the gradual statute of limitations for the sentence, taking March 11, 1990—the date of the return to democracy—as the end date of the qualified kidnapping.

The first-instance convictions affect four retired officers of the Air Force (FACH), one former member of the Navy, and two from the Carabineros, all members of this group of State agents and far-right civilians coordinated by the four intelligence agencies of the Armed Forces that operated between 1975 and 1976.

The judge sentenced the director of the FACH Intelligence Service, Freddy Ruiz Bunger, Colonel Juan Saavedra Loyola, Navy officer Daniel Guimpert, and former Carabineros officer Manuel Muñoz Gamboa to three years of suspended prison (served in freedom).

The same sentence, but with nighttime incarceration, was given to former FACH member César Palma Ramírez and retired police officer Alejandro Sáez Mardones, who has been serving another sentence for human rights violations in prison since August 2003.

In that sense, he also sentenced former FACH captain Jorge Cobos Manríquez to three years and one day in prison. Finally, Fuentes Belmar dismissed a civil lawsuit against the State filed by the lawyer for the victim’s family, Nelson Caucoto.

The case of Carlos Contreras Maluje was one of the few in which the Court of Appeals of the time accepted a recurso de amparo (habeas corpus) filed by his family after his detention. On November 2, 1976, Contreras Maluje, then 29 years old, a former councilman of Concepción and a chemical pharmacist by profession, was detained by Comando Conjunto agents and taken to the facility known as "La Firma" (located on Dieciocho Street, where the offices of the newspaper Clarín previously operated), where he was tortured.

Subsequently, according to the Rettig Report, the leader was taken by the agents to a place where Contreras was supposedly going to make a contact, on Nataniel Street, at which point he threw himself under the wheels of a bus, shouting his name and his kidnapping situation.

Immediately, the agents took him back to the "La Firma" facility and executed him that same night on a road near Santiago, where his remains were buried clandestinely without having been found to this day.

Source: La Nacion, November 30, 2005

Court of Appeals issues conviction against former Comando Conjunto agents

The Santiago Court of Appeals confirmed yesterday the conviction for the qualified kidnapping of Humberto Fuentes Rodríguez, which occurred in 1975. In a unanimous ruling, the ministers of the Sixth Chamber, Jorge Dahm, Joaquín Billard, and the participating lawyer Nelson Pozo, ratified the ruling issued by Minister Juan Fuentes Belmar on September 29, 2006, but modified the sentences against the agents of the so-called Comando Conjunto.

Thus, Freddy Ruiz and Juan Francisco Saavedra were sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison; Manuel Muñoz, Eduardo Cartagena, and César Palma were sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison; and Otto Trujillo to 3 years and one day in prison. Meanwhile, Daniel Guimpert was acquitted due to lack of participation.

Source: lanacion.cl, December 12, 2008

Supreme Court issues sentence for human rights case

Ministers of the Second Chamber of the highest court definitively convicted former members of the FACh Intelligence Service for the qualified kidnapping of Humberto Fuentes Rodríguez. The Supreme Court issued a final sentence in the investigation into the qualified kidnapping of Humberto Fuentes Rodríguez, who has been a forcibly disappeared person since November 1975 in the city of Santiago.

In a split decision, the ministers of the Second Chamber of the highest court—Jaime Rodríguez, Rubén Ballesteros, Hugo Dolmestch, Carlos Künsemüller, and the participating lawyer Alberto Chaigneau—determined the sanctions indicated against those responsible for these crimes attributed to personnel of the SIFA (Air Force Intelligence Service).

The court sentences César Palma Ramírez to 5 years in prison for his responsibility as a perpetrator, without benefits; Freddy Ruiz Bunguer to 5 years in prison for his responsibility as a perpetrator, granting him supervised release.

The same sentence was given to Juan Saavedra Loyola, Eduardo Cartagena Maldonado, and Manuel Muñoz Gamboa. Meanwhile, Otto Trujillo Miranda was sentenced to 541 days in prison for his responsibility as an accomplice, granting him the benefit of conditional remission.

Daniel Guimpert Corvalán was acquitted due to lack of participation. In the civil aspect, the State was ordered to pay compensation for moral damages of $80 million to Humberto Fuentes Godoy, the victim’s son. In this aspect, the sentence was determined with the dissenting vote of ministers Ballesteros and Rodríguez, who were in favor of accepting the plea of absolute incompetence of the court.

Source: lanacion.cl, April 27, 2010

Minister Mario Carroza convicts retired Carabineros for kidnappings in the Plaza de la Constitución underground

The minister on extraordinary visit for human rights violation cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Mario Carroza Espinosa, convicted nine retired members of the Carabineros for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Ana María Campillo Bastidas and Patricia del Carmen Herrera Escobar, who were detained in June 1974 and remained illegally held in the underground of the Plaza de la Constitución.

In the ruling, the visiting minister sentenced Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa to an effective penalty of 5 years and one day in prison, as the perpetrator of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping, of a sexual nature, as it was committed with the motive or occasion of the kidnapping, involving rape to the detriment of Ana María Campillo Bastidas and Patricia del Carmen Herrera Escobar between the months of June and July 1974, in Santiago.

Meanwhile, Francisco Segundo Illanes Miranda, José Luis Contreras Valenzuela, Wiston Humberto Cruces Martínez, Ernesto Arturo Lobos Gálvez, Sabino Adán Roco Olguín, Alejandro Segundo Sáez Mardones, and José Hernando Alvarado Alvarado were sentenced to 3 years and one day in prison, with the benefit of supervised release, as accomplices to the crime; José Edgar Hoffmann Oyarzún to 541 days in prison, with the benefit of supervised release, as an accomplice; and Pedro Retamal Ortega was acquitted due to lack of participation in the events.

During the investigation stage of the case, Minister Carroza managed to establish the following facts: That the Intelligence Service Section of the General Secretariat of the General Directorate of Carabineros (SICAR) was the intelligence group of that institution that, after September 11, 1973, was structured as a security and repression service against sympathizers and militants of leftist parties, and that by 1974 it was divided into four working groups, two of them operational, ‘Operations' and ‘Counterintelligence', and the other two of an administrative nature, ‘Analysis' and ‘Archive and Kardex'; That from that date, the aforementioned service began to carry out procedures outside its institutional duties and assumed a repressive role with surveillance, raids, detentions, and interrogations under torture; That among the clandestine places where they carried out their illicit activities by 1974 was the well-known Barracks No. 1, called ‘El Hoyo', located in the underground of the Plaza de la Constitución; That, on June 19, 1974, around 7:30 PM, Ana María Campillo Bastidas, a sympathizer of the Socialist Party, was at the address of Lynch Norte No. 390 in the La Reina commune, together with members of the Central Committee of the Socialist Party, when five men dressed in civilian clothes carrying submachine guns burst in and deprived her of her liberty for the first time; after three days they released her, and days later she was again deprived of her liberty and locked up without a judicial or administrative order by the same restrictive group; That days later, on June 27, 1974, around 11:00 PM, Patricia del Carmen Herrera Escobar, a 19-year-old university student belonging to the Socialist Party Youth, was apprehended outside her house located at Gauchos de la Plata No. 7862, in the Cerrillos commune, also by men dressed in civilian clothes, who blindfolded her and threw her onto the floor of a vehicle, and left for an unknown destination; That after their respective deprivations of liberty, both women were taken to the underground of the Plaza de la Constitución, where they were kept locked up without rights for several days. It is the case that during the time of captivity in the aforementioned facility, Ana María Campillo and Patricia Herrera remained blindfolded, handcuffed, and were subjected to conditions of extreme defenselessness, through successive interrogations and repeated attacks against their sexual integrity, as they were raped and sexually abused in the facility by their kidnappers, the SICAR officials. In the civil aspect, the State was ordered to pay compensation of $50,000,000 to each of the victims.

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl, April 30, 2019

Comando Conjunto: Santiago Court sentences former agents to effective prison terms as perpetrators of five qualified kidnappings.

The appellate court confirmed the challenged sentence, which sentenced Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger, Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, and Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa to 18-year prison terms, plus legal accessories, as perpetrators of the crimes of qualified kidnapping.

In a split decision, the Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced former agents of the "Comando Conjunto" to effective prison terms for their responsibility in the crime of qualified kidnapping of José Arturo Weibel Navarrete, Mariano León Turiel Palomera, Francisco Hernán Ortiz Valladares, José Santos Rocha Álvarez, and Carlos Enrique Sánchez Cornejo.

These crimes were committed between October 15, 1975, and July 15, 1976. The appellate court confirmed the challenged sentence, issued by the visiting minister Miguel Vázquez Plaza, which sentenced Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger, Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, and Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa to 18-year prison terms, plus legal accessories, as perpetrators of the crimes of qualified kidnapping of Francisco Hernán Ortiz Valladares, José Santos Rocha Álvarez, Carlos Enrique Sánchez Cornejo, José Arturo Weibel Navarrete, and Mariano León Turiel Palomera.

Meanwhile, Antonio Benedicto Quirós Reyes must serve a 6-year prison term, plus legal accessories, as the perpetrator of the crime of qualified kidnapping of Mariano León Turiel Palomera. Finally, agents Alejandro Segundo Sáez Mardones, Roberto Alfonso Flores Cisterna, and Carlos Hernán Rodrigo Villarreal must serve 5 years and one day in prison, plus legal accessories, as perpetrators of the crime of qualified kidnapping of José Arturo Weibel Navarrete.

Likewise, due to death, partial and definitive dismissals were approved regarding Jorge Rodrigo Cobos Manríquez, César Luis Palma Ramírez, and Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunguer. The sentence maintains that regarding the statute of limitations and amnesty alleged by all the defendants, it should be specified that these chapters are duly addressed in the thirty-fifth and forty-first grounds of the appealed sentence, and given the repeated jurisprudence of the highest court that kidnapping is a permanent crime, the application of such institutes is not appropriate.

Amnesty has only a delimited temporal space of application, and for the statute of limitations, it is not yet possible to begin counting the term given the permanent nature of the crime and the situation of a crime against humanity that prevents its application.

It also states that the mitigating factors of criminal responsibility alleged are analyzed in the ruling under review and that this court shares their application. In the civil aspect, the sentence ordering the State to pay a total compensation of $1,520,000,000 to the victims' families was ratified.

The decision was adopted with the dissenting vote of lawyer Herrera Fuenzalida, who states: A) Regarding the criminal sanction, she was of the opinion to accept what was referred to regarding the partial statute of limitations of the criminal action and consequently reduce the imposed penalty, making its effects applicable to all those convicted, since the gradual statute of limitations constitutes a qualified mitigating factor of criminal responsibility, whose effects affect the determination of the quantum of the corporal sanction, independent of the statute of limitations, with different foundations and consequences. Thus, this is also explained thanks to humanitarian regulations that find their reason for being in how senseless such a high penalty is for events that occurred more than 40 years ago. The above does not imply that the crime is left unpunished, but rather that an attenuated penalty is imposed. Likewise, as it is a public order rule, the judge must apply it, as it is favorable to the defendant. B) Regarding civil actions, she was in favor of rejecting them and accepting the exception of payment deduced by the State of Chile, understanding that these have already been paid, due to the reparatory nature of the compensation given by the State of Chile, which was taken into account for the enactment of Law No. 19.123, which created the “Truth and Reconciliation Commission" or "Rettig Commission", where reference is made to the moral and patrimonial reparation that said project sought, so the sums of money agreed upon are to address its non-contractual liability, establishing within the functions of the Commission the promotion of the reparation of moral damage to the victims referred to in its article 18. That, due to such ends, the mentioned law, together with No. 19.980, contemplates direct payment in money to human rights victims, such as their children, which is the case of these proceedings, along with other reparations, such as those through the assignment of rights over state benefits and symbolic reparations, all with the same reparatory object. Then, it is evident that all those legal benefits have the same foundation and equal reparatory purpose for moral damage as the compensation claimed in these proceedings.

Source: pjud.cl, April 11, 2019

San Miguel Court convicts seven Comando Conjunto agents for qualified kidnapping and illicit association

The San Miguel Court of Appeals convicted seven agents of the so-called Comando Conjunto for their responsibility in the crimes of illicit association and qualified kidnapping of Ulises Merino Varas. These crimes were perpetrated starting in February 1976, in the La Granja commune.

In a unanimous ruling (case roll 3.724-2020), the Second Chamber of the appellate court—composed of ministers Claudia Lazen Manzur, Patricia Salas Sáez, and the participating lawyer Ignacio Castillo Val—ratified the challenged sentence, issued by the minister on extraordinary visit Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, which convicted Antonio Benedicto Quirós Reyes and Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola to effective penalties of 10 years and 5 years and one day in prison, as perpetrators of the crimes of qualified kidnapping and illicit association, respectively.

Meanwhile, former agents Daniel Luis Guimpert Corvalán and Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa must serve effective penalties of 8 years and 5 years and one day in prison, as perpetrators of qualified kidnapping and illicit association.

In the case of Francisco Segundo Illanes Miranda and Ernesto Arturo Lobos Gálvez, they were imposed 6 years and 541 days in prison, as perpetrators of the crimes of qualified kidnapping and illicit association, respectively.

Finally, Alejandro Segundo Sáez Mardones must serve 6 years in prison for the crime of qualified kidnapping. “That the participation of the accused, as perpetrators of the crime of qualified kidnapping, in the terms provided in number 3 of article 15 of the Penal Code, has been established in the nineteenth to forty-second grounds of the appealed sentence, based on: a) the testimony of the accused themselves, who, although they denied their participation in the events of the in iudice case, recognized, in some cases with nuances, their participation in the so-called ‘Comando Conjunto’; b) the testimonial and documentary evidence of the process, especially that which is recorded in the ninth to eleventh considerations of the appealed sentence,” the ruling states. The resolution adds: “That regarding the aggravating circumstances of criminal responsibility alleged at the time, those of numbers 6, 8, and 11 of article 12 of the Penal Code, which were rejected by the a quo judge, this Court shares the grounds put forward to do so, as explained in the eighty-first to eighty-third considerations.” “That, likewise, the eighty-fourth ground is shared, in its letters a) through h) regarding the penalty to be imposed on the defendants, considering the nature of the illicit act—a crime against humanity—and the extent of the harm caused; the same being proportional in light of what is provided in article 69 of the Penal Code. On the other hand, the differentiation of the penalty is founded and justified by the different hierarchical degrees and responsibility held by those who participated in the illicit act in question,” it adds. In the civil aspect, the ruling that accepted the claims for compensation for damages filed and ordered the State to pay the total sum of $180,000,000 (one hundred and eighty million pesos) for moral damages to the victims' families was confirmed. In the ratified first-instance resolution, Minister Cifuentes Alarcón established the following facts: “1st That, at the time of the events, there existed a hierarchical, disciplined, and military-structured organization called ‘Comando Conjunto’, composed of individuals belonging to the intelligence agencies of the Air Force, Carabineros, and Navy, that is, the Air Force Intelligence Directorate (DIFA), the Carabineros Intelligence Directorate (DICAR), and the Naval Intelligence Service (SIN), which, under the command of Air Brigadier General Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger and Commanders Antonio Benedicto Quirós Reyes and Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, had, among others, the mission of dismantling the Communist Party and its Youth. 2nd That this group had its headquarters in the building located at Juan Antonio Ríos No. 6 in the Santiago commune, called ‘JAR-6’, and used as detention and torture centers the facilities ‘Remo Cero’, located in the Colina Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment; ‘La Firma’, located on Dieciocho Street opposite No. 229 in the Santiago commune; the ‘Casa de Solteros’, located at Bellavista No. 125 in the Providencia commune; and the 24th Carabineros Precinct, located at Las Tranqueras No. 840 in the Las Condes commune. 3rd That on February 2, 1976, around 2:30 PM, Ulises Merino Varas, a leader of the Communist Youth, was detained, without rights, by agents of the ‘Comando Conjunto’, in the vicinity of the La Granja Municipality. 4th That, subsequently, Ulises Merino Varas was deprived of liberty in ‘Remo Cero’, ‘La Firma’, the 24th Carabineros Precinct of Las Condes, and the ‘Casa de Solteros’. 5th That, at the end of April 1976, Merino Varas was transferred again to ‘La Firma’, with his whereabouts unknown since that date.”

Source: legalnews.cl, December 15, 2021

Sentences increased for the murder of young Iquique native Víctor Zerega Ponce, detained in the underground of La Moneda and thrown into the sea in Valparaíso

It was not possible to establish the crime of qualified homicide. Only that of aggravated kidnapping. The sentence establishes compensation which, when made effective, will not benefit the sole beneficiary, Alberto Zerega Ponce, but will instead be allocated to human rights causes.

Anyelina Rojas Valdés.- A gesture of superior nobility is that of Iquique native Alberto Zerega Ponce, who decided to donate the funds—being the sole recipient—derived from the proceedings regarding the kidnapping of his brother, murdered during the dictatorship, Víctor Zerega Ponce, so that they may be allocated to human rights causes, primarily regarding investigations that allow for the preservation of memory in Tarapacá, both of his brother and of other young people who, like him, died fighting for democracy and a fairer country.

Both Víctor and Alberto began their political life and militancy in the Socialist Party of Chile. However, he notes that this collective never did anything to support the families of the operational group of the first Clandestine Directorate of the PS, all of whom were murdered.

Alberto Zerega spoke again about the case of his beloved brother Víctor—a young man murdered during the dictatorship when he was only 26 years old, with a whole life ahead of him that was cut short—after the Santiago Court of Appeals ruled on the first-instance sentence regarding the uniformed officers identified as responsible for the "aggravated kidnapping" of Víctor Zerega Ponce, as there was a lack of evidentiary elements to establish the crime of qualified homicide.

The Court of Appeals accepted the appeal filed by the plaintiff parties against the first-instance resolution, increasing the first-instance sentence from 5 years and 1 day of major imprisonment in its minimum degree to 10 years for:

MANUEL AGUSTÍN MUÑOZ GAMBOA, alias "El Lolo," second-in-command of the barracks that operated in the underground of the Plaza de la Constitución, known as "El Hoyo," and which managed the Carabineros' SICAR.

Meanwhile, JOSÉ EDGAR HOFFMANN OYARZÚN, now deceased, received an increase in his sentence from 61 days of minor imprisonment in its minimum degree to 3 years, maintaining the same degree. During the course of the proceedings, the man who was the head of personnel of the internal barracks that operated in El Hoyo passed away, so obviously, the sentence will not be served.

During that time of the dictatorship, it was his duty to order guard services and coordinate the missions that had to be carried out during the day.

There is a third person involved, Sabino Adán Roco Olguín, who was acquitted in the first-instance sentence and whose appeal was not considered by the Santiago Court of Appeals, meaning he remains at liberty. Alberto Zerega Ponce will continue with the case because he finds it inconceivable that one of the actors in his brother's crime should go unpunished.

Regarding the convictions, Alberto Zerega points out that the main perpetrator, Manuel Muñoz Gamboa, alias "El Lolo," is linked to other human rights cases such as the "Caso Degollados" (Slit Throats Case) and for having been part of the Comando Conjunto, due to which "he has so many sentences that the sentences increased by the justice system from 5 to 10 years do not influence his prison situation at all."

Regarding Sabino Roco Olguín, he stated that he was acquitted. "I believe he cannot be free, because he was part of those who kidnapped us and was part of the events that gave rise to Víctor's case, which ended in his murder," he affirmed.

The sentence of the Santiago Court of Appeals states that the facts established in the criminal proceedings:

"show that Mr. Víctor Zerega Ponce was subjected to cruel treatment, devoid of all due respect for the dignity inherent to a human being; without the most elementary pity for a fellow human, and far from any moral principle by executing actions aimed at ending the life of a young professional, only to then throw him into the sea, thus configuring a multiple and continuous violation of numerous rights, which has been qualified by the Assembly of the Organization of American States as an 'affront to the conscience of the Hemisphere and constitutes a crime against humanity,' transgressions that the world community has 'committed to eradicate, as such acts deserve a categorical reprobation of the universal conscience, as they attack fundamental human values, which no convention, pact, or positive norm can derogate, enervate, or conceal, so that the injustice of the case must be qualified as a crime against humanity.'"

SAD HISTORY

As we have reported on this portal, Iquique native Alberto Zerega Ponce was detained a few days before his brother in Santiago. It was June 1974, and a harrowing story was unfolding, because when he was leaving the detention and torture center in the underground of La Moneda, the Plaza de la Constitución sector known as "El Hoyo," his brother was being brought into the place by members of the Carabineros de Chile Intelligence Service (SICAR).

The torments against Víctor lasted for a month, after which time he was transferred to the Fifth Region, where he was thrown into the sea and shot. He was already in very poor physical condition as a result of the torture.

Indeed, as has been successfully proven, in "El Hoyo," Víctor and other detainees were brutally tortured. Despite the torments, the young Iquique native and member of the first clandestine directorate of the Socialist Party maintained his integrity, his inner strength, and his ideals.

On April 22, 2018, we recorded on this portal:

"On July 2, 1974, he was thrown into the sea. However, stubborn nature prevailed and literally brought the truth to the surface, as Víctor Zerega's body appeared on a beach on the central coast, and a curious and sad coincidence is that they called civil registry officials for his identification.

His aunt was the one who arrived to fulfill the task of taking the fingerprints of the corpse, discovering that it was her beloved nephew. Although the university student's body showed signs of torture and gunshot wounds that destroyed his liver and one of his lungs, the death certificate states that he died by drowning, as is recorded in various human rights and memory rescue pages."

Although his brother Alberto Zerega began some investigations in 1974, this never prospered. After the recovery of democracy in 1990, this lawsuit for homicide and illicit association was reactivated, identifying the place "El Hoyo" as a detention and torture center used by the Carabineros Civil Commission, the place where Zerega was last seen before being taken to the Fifth Region.

Furthermore, they managed to call the agents who participated in the operation to testify, and they participated in confrontations.

LATE JUSTICE IS NO LONGER JUSTICE

Alberto Zerega, who has never stopped fighting to clarify the truth about his brother's murder, points out that today he has mixed feelings. A little happiness, because with the action of the Santiago Court of Appeals, he takes one more step and advances.

However, he is also very sad about how things happened, ending in the murder of his brother and so many other comrades. Also, because his parents died without getting to know these procedural advances, just like dear friends. So, justice becomes untimely.

"When justice takes so long, it is almost no longer justice. 48 years have already passed and there are still 2 or 3 more years to go (he will present new legal appeals), because in this penultimate stage, it is still expected that the litigants on both sides will appeal to the Supreme Court and carry out other actions."

"As a family, undoubtedly, and as a socialist, I feel very good that the facts are endorsed in a forceful sentence and that the culprits are punished; that is important for democracy and for everyone, for the well-being of this society. Although many years have passed, a truth is judicially sanctioned and that is important."

With the recent action of the Court of Appeals, it is impossible for him not to review everything he lived through, from his own captivity, the murder of his brother at the hands of State agents, and the beginning of the process that started in 1974, when he filed an amparo (habeas corpus) appeal through the Committee for Peace of that time.

During the 17 years of the dictatorship, obviously, there was zero progress, he relates. In democracy, he filed a new lawsuit "and as happened during the first years of the recovery of democracy, as everyone knows, whether out of fear or because the judges were educated by Pinochet, or because there was a pact not to rock the boat too much for the Armed Forces... for the first 10 years almost nothing happened."

However, he relates that they managed to conduct the confrontation with his captors and managed to advance somewhat in the process, where some facts were proven, but the progress was also very slow. "I regret that the Socialist Party of Chile, of which Víctor was a member of its first clandestine directorate, being part of those who began its reconstruction after the coup d'état, did nothing." He refers to the possibility of supporting families in seeking justice, with the assistance of lawyers.

He highlighted the work in his brother's case carried out by the lawyer of the Human Rights unit of the Ministry of the Interior, Joaquín Parera.

Zerega refers to about six or seven members who were the operational group of that first clandestine directorate.

Of the group, the first to fall was Arnoldo Camus, murdered in September 1973. On July 2, 1974, they murdered Víctor. In March 1975, Ariel Mansilla fell, who remains a forcibly disappeared person to this day; later they murdered Ezequiel Ponce, Carlos Lorca, and Ricardo Lagos Salinas.

"What hurts is that the Socialist Party never provided lawyers for Ariel Mansilla or for Víctor Zerega. They did so belatedly for three comrades (Ponce, Lorca, and Lagos) and without achieving good results."

He adds: "It hurts that this party, which exists thanks to those people, they were not cared for like their children. And what is painful is that throughout all of Chile, I do not know of them having helped the families of the victims by hiring lawyers."

MAXIMUM NOBILITY

In the sentence, the compensatory indemnity is increased, substituting 30 million for 100 million, which will surely be appealed by the State Defense Council, as it is the State that must respond with those funds, whose sole beneficiary is Alberto Zerega Ponce. "But those resources are not mine, they are Víctor's and other victims'... socialists, communists, from the MIR... for their history, for their dedication, their struggle, their memory."

For this reason, he announced that regardless of the amount, all the money, when the indemnity is realized, will not remain in his hands, it will not be for his personal benefit, but he will distribute it. 10% for lawyers, who gave themselves completely to this cause. Another 10% for the Association of Political Executed Persons and other victims.

Also for human rights and memory purposes. "This money will be destined to promote memory, in the land where Víctor was born, whose funds will be managed by the Corporation for Human Rights and Sites of Memory, which is currently presided over by his friend and comrade Luis Caroca, with fund management in a dual-signature account of my son Víctor and my niece Marcela Victoria.

Every year I want those resources to reward students who write and think about the human rights of all those executed and disappeared in the First Region. It is my small contribution to this cause: neither forgiveness nor forgetting."

A NEW CHILE

Zerega Ponce pointed out that the current context is hopeful. "I believe that within the political framework of a second left-wing government in Chile after 50 years; in the context of a unique constituent process, which will undoubtedly change the political geography of our country or the type of State, fundamental social rights will be established."

He also hopes that this will allow "the institutional conditions to be generated so that those super-majoritarian quorums that have prevented us from advancing in transformative processes are now overcome and we can recover our wealth. We can recover our economic sovereignty, recover water for human use before commercial use... such fundamental things."

"That is why we are hopeful about this process that this very intelligent young man of the left, Gabriel Boric, will lead, a broad, unitary man who has known how to read what our people want," concluded Alberto Zerega Ponce.

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Source: edicioncero.cl, January 29, 2022

"More than 17,000 days" after being kidnapped by the Comando Conjunto: Justice at last for José Flores Garrido

The former agents who were convicted are currently serving other sentences at the Punta Peuco prison for human rights violation cases.

This week, Minister Marianela Cifuentes of the Santiago Court of Appeals issued a first-instance sentence and convicted four former agents of the Comando Conjunto, members of the Navy, Air Force, and Carabineros, as responsible for the aggravated kidnapping of José Edilio Flores Garrido, a university student and leader of the Communist Party, which occurred starting on August 11, 1976.

The magistrate sentenced Air Force Colonel Juan Francisco Saavedra to 10 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree as the perpetrator of the aggravated kidnapping of the victim, who currently remains a forcibly disappeared person.

Similarly, Navy Captain Daniel Guimpert Corvalán and Carabineros Colonel Manuel Muñoz Gamboa were sentenced to 8 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree, and Alejandro Sáez Mardones, a Carabineros second sergeant, to 6 years of imprisonment, all as perpetrators of aggravated kidnapping.

In the case of former Air Force employee Roberto Flores Cisterna, the minister acquitted him of the crime of aggravated kidnapping and illicit association.

The former agents are currently serving sentences at the Punta Peuco prison, involved in other human rights violation cases.

In this regard, the plaintiff lawyer and legal coordinator of the Caucoto Abogados firm, Francisco Ugás Tapia, stated that "as lawyers representing the family that survives Mr. José Edilio Flores Garrido, we celebrate and positively value the sentence of Minister Marianela Cifuentes.

This puts an end to the first instance of the case, convicting 4 subjects for their intervention as perpetrators of the aggravated kidnapping of the victim."

"Nearly 47 years after the events, national justice acts through this decision, which begins to put an end to that state of impunity that covered those responsible for this crime against humanity," the professional added.

Ugás also maintained that "although we identify some legal aspects that we do not share, which will motivate our challenge, we recognize in this sentence great work by the national judiciary, personified by the minister, as it evidences compliance with the international obligations that impose on the State the duty to investigate and punish these facts and those responsible, and to repair the victims, as required by international law."

For his part, the victim's brother, Roberto Flores Garrido, expressed that "nearly 47 years have passed since my brother's kidnapping by the State security apparatus under the civil-military dictatorship. 47 years of pain, tragedy. It has been 47 years of constant searching."

"My parents, like many parents in my country, passed away with the heartbreaking pain of not knowing what happened to their son. Nearly 47 years have passed, that is to say, more than 17,000 days that we have tried to live one by one in dignity, preserving memory.

Perhaps we will never know the absolute truth, perhaps we will never find the body to fulfill the ritual as human as saying goodbye to our dead," added Flores.

Finally, the victim's brother stated that "this sentence comes to alleviate this injustice in a considerable but not absolute way. I hope this ruling contributes to strengthening the 'never again' that we so long for and need for our homeland. My family and I receive this ruling in peace, without resentment but with memory."

The facts According to the investigation led by Minister Cifuentes, it was established that: 1) That, at the time of the events, August 11, 1976, a group of people, composed of officials from the Air Force, Navy, Carabineros, and civilians, formed a de facto hierarchical organization, called the Comando Conjunto, with the purpose of investigating and repressing the Communist Party of Chile and the Communist Youth. 2) That, in that period, said organization was led by Air Force Brigadier General Freddy Enríquez Ruiz Bunger, director of the Air Force Intelligence Directorate (DIFA); Group Commander (A) Antonio Benedicto Quiroz Reyes, head of the Counterintelligence Department of the DIFA; and Squadron Commander (A) Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, chief officer of the Air Force Intelligence Directorate, and integrated by 1st Lieutenant IM Daniel Luis Enríque Guimpert Corvalán, head of the Counterintelligence Department of the Navy Intelligence Service (SIN); Carabineros Lieutenant Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa, of the Counterintelligence Department of the Carabineros de Chile Intelligence Directorate (DICAR); Carabineros official Alejandro Segundo Sáez Mardones, and civilians César Palma Ramírez and Miguel Arturo Estay Reyno, among others. 3) That said organization had an institutional building located at Juan Antonio Ríos St. No. 6 in the commune of Santiago and detention centers, among them, the facility called "La Firma," located at Dieciocho St. No. 229 in the same commune. 4) That on August 11, 1976, in the afternoon, agents of the aforementioned organization, who were traveling in a light blue Peugeot 404 model car and a cream-colored Renault car, illegally detained José Edilio Flores Garrido, a militant of the Communist Party, at the intersection of Club Hípico Avenue and Lago Pirihueico Street. 5) That, subsequently, the victim was taken to the clandestine detention center located on Dieciocho Street in the commune of Santiago, called "La Firma," a place that was in charge of Chilean Navy 1st Lieutenant Daniel Guimpert Corvalán and Chilean Carabineros Lieutenant Manuel Muñoz Gamboa, among others, and where César Luis Palma Ramírez, the former communist militant Miguel Estay Reyno, and Alejandro Sáez Mardones, among others, performed duties as civilians.

6) That, to date, the whereabouts of José Edilio Flores Garrido remain unknown.

by Opazo

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Source: elciudadano.cl, April 23, 2022

Supreme Court confirms convictions of 27 former Comando Conjunto agents for crimes against five communist militants committed between 1975 and 1976

The Supreme Court rejected the cassation appeals filed by the defenses of the former agents of the so-called Comando Conjunto against the sentence that convicted 27 of them for their responsibility in the crimes of simple kidnapping and qualified homicide of Ignacio Orlando González Espinoza and Juan René Orellana Catalán; and in the qualified kidnappings of Ricardo Manuel Weibel Navarrete, Luis Desiderio Moraga Cruz, and Luis Emilio Gerardo Maturana González, all militants of the Communist Party.

The crimes were perpetrated between October 1975 and June 1976 in the city of Santiago.

The so-called Comando Conjunto was a repressive apparatus created by the dictatorship under the tutelage of the Air Force (FACh) and the participation of army, navy, and carabineros agents and fascist civilians, which operated mainly between the years 1975 and 1977, and whose raison d'être was to compete in repressive and criminal tasks with the omnipotent power held by the DINA under the tutelage of the army and the direction of Pinochet and Contreras.

In a unanimous ruling (case roll 32.012-2022), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, minister María Teresa Letelier, and minister Jean Pierre Matus—confirmed the challenged sentence, issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals, which convicted former FACh officer Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola and former Carabineros officer Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa to sentences of 18 years of imprisonment, plus 13 years, plus 3 years of imprisonment each.

Former Navy officer Daniel Luis Enrique Guimpert Corvalán was sentenced to 18 years, plus 12, plus 3 years of imprisonment.

Former Army officers Álvaro Julio Federico Corbalán Castilla and Sergio Antonio Díaz López, and former Navy officer Jorge Aníbal Osses Novoa, were sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment, plus 10 years and one day, plus 400 days of imprisonment each.

Agents Raúl Horacio González Fernández and Alejandro Julio Segundo Sáez Mardones were sentenced to two terms of 10 years and one day of imprisonment, plus 400 days of imprisonment each.

Agents Roberto Alfonso Flores Cisterna and Juan Carlos Hernán Rodrigo Villarreal were sentenced to 10 years and one day, plus 5 years and one day, plus 400 days of imprisonment each.

Fascist civilian Otto Silvio Trujillo Miranda was sentenced to 10 years and one day of imprisonment. Agent Lenin Figueroa Sánchez was sentenced to two terms of 5 years and one day, plus 400 days of imprisonment.

Agents Sergio Daniel Valenzuela Morales and Juan Atilio Aravena Hurtuvia were sentenced to 5 years and one day of imprisonment, plus 5 years, plus 400 days of imprisonment.

Fascist civilians Andrés Pablo Potín Lailhacar, Viviana Lucinda Ugarte Sandoval, Emilio Mahias del Río, and agents Juan Luis Fernando López López, José Evaristo Rojas Alruiz, and Francisco Segundo Illanes Miranda were sentenced to 5 years and one day of imprisonment, plus 400 days of imprisonment.

Ernesto Arturo Lobos Gálvez and Alejandro Jorge Forero Álvarez were sentenced to 5 years and one day of imprisonment, plus 60 days of imprisonment.

Roberto Francisco Serón Cárdenas was sentenced to 5 years and one day of imprisonment. Robinson Alfonso Suazo Jaque, Pedro Ernesto Caamaño Medina, Pedro Juan Zambrano Uribe, and José Hernando Alvarado Alvarado were sentenced to 4 years, plus 60 days of imprisonment each.

The also convicted Antonio Benedicto Quiros Reyes and Miguel Arturo Estay Reyno passed away during the course of the proceedings.

In the judicial investigation and first-instance ruling, Minister Miguel Vásquez Plaza established that there existed a de facto group that operated clandestinely between the years 1975 and 1976, composed mainly of agents who belonged to the Air Force Intelligence Directorate, in addition to Carabineros de Chile, the Navy, and the Army, with the collaboration of civilians, whose main objective was the repression of the Communist Party Youth, for which they proceeded to detain several of them.

This group, called Comando Conjunto, used various facilities for detentions and torture: the Cerrillos Hangar; "Nido 20," a secret detention and torture center located at Santa Teresa St. No. 037, stop 20 of Gran Avenida; "Nido 18," a secret center located at Perú St.

No. 9053, La Florida, Santiago, which was used exclusively for torture; "La Prevención" or "Remo Cero," which were dungeons located inside the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina, all this during the year 1975; "La Firma," at the beginning of 1976, said group moved its operations to the back of the property in charge of Carabineros de Chile, located on Dieciocho Street, opposite No. 229, which belonged to the former newspaper Clarín, calling it "La Firma."

The operational action of the group consisted of detaining people with the modality of kidnapping, keeping them captive in secret centers, and subjecting them to interrogation and torture, physical and psychological, to obtain information and break their will, achieving the collaboration of some of them, to the point that some were assimilated as operational agents of the group, which provided greater effectiveness in the chain detention of communist militants, who were then made to disappear; of some of them, in the course of the years, part of their remains were found.

On November 7, 1975, at approximately 10:00 PM, Ricardo Manuel Weibel Navarrete was detained at his home on Río Maule Street in the Recoleta commune by subjects wearing civilian clothes; he was kept deprived of liberty in the center called "La Prevención" or "Remo Cero," located inside the Anti-Aircraft Regiment in Colina, the last place he was seen alive, and subsequently, his bones were found on the grounds of Fuerte Arteaga, Peldehue.

On October 20, 1975, in the early hours of the morning, Luis Desiderio Moraga Cruz was detained at his home on Tokio passage in the Juanita Aguirre neighborhood, Conchalí commune, Santiago, by subjects wearing civilian clothes; he was kept confined in the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina, inside which was the center called "La Prevención" or "Remo Cero," this being the last place he was seen alive.

On December 4, 1975, in the early hours of the morning, Ignacio Orlando González Espinoza was detained at his home on Soberanía Street in the Santiago commune by subjects wearing civilian clothes; he was kept deprived of liberty in the center called "La Prevención" or "Remo Cero," located inside the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina, the last place he was seen alive, and subsequently, he was executed on the grounds of Fuerte Arteaga, Peldehue, where his bones were found.

On June 8, 1976, in the Estación Central sector, Luis Emilio Gerardo Maturana González met with Juan René Orellana Catalán, both militants of the Communist Youth in hiding due to the political persecution they were subject to, with the purpose of giving party money to Orellana Catalán for himself and so that he, in turn, could give it to other party militants, since Maturana González was in charge of distributing it; at that moment, they were detained by operational agents of the aforementioned Comando Conjunto, keeping them confined in the center called "La Firma," from where their trail was lost. Subsequently, Orellana Catalán was executed at Cuesta Barriga, where his remains were found.

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Source: resumen.cl, April 26, 2024

Supreme Court confirms conviction of former Comando Conjunto members for the 1976 crime of a municipal worker in La Granja

The Supreme Court rejected the cassation appeals filed by the defenses against the sentence that convicted members of the repressive organization known as Comando Conjunto for their responsibility in the consummated crime of aggravated kidnapping of municipal employee Ulises Jorge Merino Varas, perpetrated starting on February 2, 1976, in the commune of La Granja.

Ulises Merino Varas, 33 years old, married, with one child, was a militant of the Communist Party and worked as an inspector in the Traffic Directorate of the La Granja municipality. On February 2, 1976, around 2:30 PM, he was detained by repressive agents of the Comando Conjunto in the vicinity of the aforementioned municipality.

Then, the detainee was taken to the detention and torture centers of this organization known as "Remo Cero," "La Firma," the 24th Carabineros Police Station of Las Condes, and the "Casa de Solteros." At the end of April 1976, Merino Varas was transferred again to "La Firma," and his whereabouts have been unknown since that date.

In a unanimous ruling (case roll 3.989-2022), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of Minister Manuel Antonio Valderrama, ministers María Teresa Letelier and María Cristina Gajardo, and ad hoc lawyers Leonor Etcheberry and Andrea Ruiz—confirmed the sentence that convicted Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola to 10 years of imprisonment; Daniel Luis Enrique Guimpert Corvalán and Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa to 8 years of imprisonment; and Francisco Segundo Illanes Miranda, Ernesto Lobos Gálvez, and Alejandro Segundo Sáez Mardones to 6 years of effective imprisonment, as perpetrators of the crime. Other implicated individuals, some prosecuted and convicted, passed away during the course of the proceedings.

In the resolution, the Penal Chamber invalidated the challenged sentence ex officio and, in a replacement sentence, revoked it in the part that convicted Saavedra Loyola, Guimpert Corvalán, Muñoz Gamboa, Illanes Miranda, Lobos Gálvez, and Sáez Mardones as perpetrators of the crime of illicit association.

Comando Conjunto

The so-called Comando Conjunto was a military intelligence group, hierarchical and disciplined, conceived by the Air Force commands as a way to maintain the dispute with the DINA for the monopoly and authorship of the repressive actions aimed at destroying left-wing organizations and the resistance to the dictatorship.

Since the military coup at the end of 1974, this dispute with the DINA was represented by the FACh Intelligence Service (SIFA) and its criminal actions at the Air War Academy (AGA), which was converted into a detention and torture barracks for political prisoners.

Later, the FACh invented this Comando Conjunto that operated between the years 1975 and 1976, composed of agents belonging to the intelligence groups of the Air Force, Carabineros, the Navy, and the Army, plus civilian individuals from the far-right fascist movement.

The main objective of this entity was the repression of the Communist Youth and the Communist Party, for which they proceeded to detain people linked to said party, who were kidnapped, interrogated, and tortured physically and psychologically to obtain information.

Subsequently, the detained people could be released, or transferred to some concentration camp for prisoners, or transferred to an unknown destination to make them disappear, or murdered.

At the time of the events, the repressive entity operated under the command of Air Force Brigadier General Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger and commanders Antonio Benedicto Quirós Reyes (both deceased), and Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, and had, among others, the mission of dismantling the Communist Party and its Youth.

For the commission of its crimes, this repressive apparatus had its headquarters in the building located at Juan Antonio Ríos St. No. 6 in the commune of Santiago, called "JAR-6," and used as detention and torture centers the facilities "Remo Cero," located in the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment of Colina with the name "La Prevención Prison"; "La Firma," located on Dieciocho Street opposite No. 229 in the commune of Santiago, which corresponded to the place where the former newspaper El Clarín operated, which was seized by Carabineros, calling it "La Firma," until the end of 1976.

To these are added the "Casa de Solteros," located at Bellavista St. No. 125 in the commune of Providencia, and the 24th Carabineros Police Station, located at Las Tranqueras St. No. 840 in the commune of Las Condes; the Casa de Apoquindo, the Hangar at the Cerrillos Airport, Nido 18, and Nido 20, which were properties that had been seized from militants of persecuted political parties.

by Darío Núñez