The Eighth Chamber of the appellate court rejected the appeals filed against the first-instance sentence issued by special judge Mario Carroza, confirming it with the declaration that the sentences and the participation of some of the convicted individuals were modified from accomplices and cover-ups to perpetrators of the crimes.

The Santiago Court of Appeals issued a second-instance ruling in the investigation into the qualified homicides of Claudio Rómulo Tognola Ríos, Carlos Miguel Garay Benavides, Luis Orocimbo Segovia Villalobos, Agustín de la Cruz Villarroel Carmona, Reynaldo Armando Aguirre Pruneda, Freddy Álex Araya Figueroa, Julio Enrique Brewe Torres, Breno Benicio Cuevas Díaz, Vicente Ramón Cepeda Soto, and Carlos Óscar Gallegos Santis; and the qualified kidnapping of Manuel del Carmen Muñoz Cornejo.

These crimes were perpetrated in September and October 1973 in the commune of Tocopilla.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 1.748-2019), the Eighth Chamber of the appellate court—composed of justices Mireya López Miranda, Rafael Andrade Díaz, and María Inés Lausen Montt—rejected the appeals filed against the first-instance sentence issued by special judge Mario Carroza, confirming it with the declaration that the sentences and the participation of some of the convicted individuals were modified from accomplices and cover-ups to perpetrators of the crimes.

Thus, the court resolved that the defendants Luciano Astete Almendras, Álex Adalberto Cantín Leyton, and Gilberto Arturo Santiago Egaña García "are sentenced as perpetrators of the repeated crimes of qualified homicide of Claudio Rómulo Tognola Ríos, Carlos Miguel Garay Benavides, Luis Orocimbo Segovia Villalobos, Agustín de la Cruz Villarroel Carmona, Reynaldo Armando Aguirre Pruneda, Freddy Álex Araya Figueroa, Julio Enrique Brewe Torres, Breno Benicio Cuevas Díaz, Vicente Ramón Cepeda Soto, and Carlos Óscar Gallegos Santis; and for the qualified kidnapping of Manuel del Carmen Muñoz Cornejo, to suffer, each, the corporal penalty of FIFTEEN YEARS of presidio mayor in its medium degree, in addition to the accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights, and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence."

Meanwhile, Raúl Darío Almonacid Valdivia "is sentenced as a perpetrator of the repeated crimes of qualified homicide of Claudio Rómulo Tognola Ríos, Carlos Miguel Garay Benavides, Luis Orocimbo Segovia Villalobos, Agustín de la Cruz Villarroel Carmona, Reinaldo Armando Aguirre Pruneda, and Freddy Alex Araya Figueroa, to suffer the corporal penalty of EIGHT YEARS of presidio mayor in its minimum degree.

In addition, he is imposed the accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights, and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence."

Finally, regarding the criminal aspect: "The aforementioned sentence is confirmed with the declaration that Luis Ramón Guerrero González and Ivar Liborio Muñoz Peña , who are sentenced as perpetrators of the crime of qualified kidnapping of Manuel del Carmen Muñoz Cornejo, shall each suffer the corporal penalty of FIVE YEARS of presidio menor in its maximum degree, in addition to the accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights, and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence."

"Given the quantum of the penalty imposed on the convicted individuals Luciano Astete Almendras, Alex Adalberto Cantín Leyton, Gilberto Arturo Santiago Egaña García, Raúl Darío Almonacid Valdivia, Luis Ramón Guerrero González, and Ivar Liborio Muñoz Peña, and as they do not meet the requirements referred to in Law 18.216, they are not granted the benefits of substitute sentences, and each must effectively serve the corporal penalty imposed, taking into account the credits that appear in the first-instance sentence," the resolution states.

Participation

In resolving the participation in the events of the convicted individuals Astete Almendras and Cantín Leyton, the Santiago Court "(...) agrees with the conclusion reached by the first-instance judge, contained in the Ninth and Tenth considerations respectively, that based on the evidence gathered during the investigation, it is possible to construct various judicial presumptions that, by meeting the requirements of being based on real and proven facts, being multiple, serious, precise, direct, and concordant, are sufficient to maintain with the judicial conviction referred to in Article 456 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, that these defendants participated as perpetrators, in the terms of No. 2 and 1, respectively, of Article 15 of the Penal Code, in the repeated crimes of qualified homicide of Claudio Rómulo Tognola Ríos, Carlos Miguel Garay Benavides, Luis Orocimbo Segovia Villalobos, Agustín de la Cruz Villarroel Carmona, Reynaldo Armando Aguirre Pruneda, Freddy Álex Araya Figueroa, Iván Florencio Morán Araya, Ernesto Manuel Moreno Díaz, Julio Enrique Brewe Torres, Breno Benicio Cuevas Díaz, Vicente Ramón Cepeda Soto, and Carlos Óscar Gallegos Santis; and the qualified kidnapping of Manuel del Carmen Muñoz Cornejo."

The resolution adds: "In his case, the defendant Luciano Astete Almendras was, as of September 1973, the Prefect of Carabineros of Tocopilla, and by virtue of that, based on his orders, a civil commission was formed, remaining under the command of the Carabineros Lieutenant at the time, Álex Adalberto Cantín Leyton.

Through said group, in that city, opponents of the military government of the time were repressed, affecting in the case sub judice, first the liberty, and then the life of the persons indicated above.

The foregoing is according to the evidentiary background already detailed in the appellate sentence, concluding in the Twenty-Third and Twenty-Fourth foundations that both defendants had participation as perpetrators. Under such conditions, it is appropriate to maintain the conviction of these defendants."

"Regarding the participation of the defendants Gilberto Arturo Santiago Egaña García and Raúl Darío Almonacid Valdivia , this Court shares the opinion of the Judicial Public Prosecutor's Office that both are perpetrators and not accomplices in the investigated events, given the real and exact participation of both defendants that has been reconstructed regarding the investigated events.

Indeed, from the accumulation of evidence detailed in the Eleventh consideration, which includes what was declared by Egaña García himself, who in his capacity as a Carabinero was part of the civil group under the command of Lieutenant Adalberto Cantín and participated directly in the detentions of the victims.

Although in principle Egaña denied having been part of Cantín's group, the truth is that he ended up acknowledging it by stating in the process, '...that he recognizes that he went out to carry out political detentions in a group, but did not participate in Cantín Leyton's group'; only for Egaña himself to later indicate '...that he was part of Cantín's group because the Carabinero Cisternas left the group, and Cantín chose him and took him...'.

Furthermore, the testimony of several uniformed officers points to him as a member of Cantín Leyton's group. The accumulation of statements synthesized in the Twenty-Sixth foundation of the first-instance sentence, which precisely place Gilberto Egaña as a member of the group under the command of Lieutenant Cantín, also contributes to reaching the conviction for conviction," the resolution details.

For the Eighth Chamber of the appellate court: "It being clear that the detentions of Claudio Rómulo Tognola Ríos, Carlos Miguel Garay Benavides, Luis Orocimbo Segovia Villalobos, Agustín de la Cruz Villarroel Carmona, Reynaldo Armando Aguirre Pruneda, Freddy Álex Araya Figueroa, Julio Enrique Brewe Torres, Breno Benicio Cuevas Díaz, Vicente Ramón Cepeda Soto, and Carlos Óscar Gallegos Santis; and of Manuel del Carmen Muñoz Cornejo, culminated in the murders of each of them as well as in the disappearance of the latter, the truth is that Egaña García's responsibility is that of a perpetrator, having carried out direct conduct in relation to these persons by detaining them, and such detentions concluding in the qualified homicide of most of them, and in the qualified kidnapping of the last one, it results that the work of this defendant is that of a perpetrator-executor of conduct that ended in the death and disappearance of the victims of the case sub judice."

Likewise, the participation that Almonacid Valdivia "had in the events that are the subject of the case is that of a perpetrator, and it derives from the evidence gathered in the criminal investigation carried out, which reveals that he participated as a member of the firing squad at the 'La Veleidosa' mine; therefore, his participation in such events cannot be other than that of a perpetrator-executor of the homicide of such victims, thus sharing this Court's opinion with the Judicial Public Prosecutor's Office."

"Indeed, the sentence under review in the Eighteenth consideration collects the statements of this defendant, given in the process, and he indicated that as of September 11, 1973, he was a second corporal in the Navy, and at page 2,683 he acknowledged that he was part of the squad and explains in his version '...that he did not manage to fire along with the others, and that later he pulled the trigger of the weapon but the person who was standing in front fainted, but he did not see him with blood, and an army officer approached and gave him a tiro de gracia (coup de grâce)...'.

The statement of this defendant allows him to be placed precisely as part of the firing squad at the 'La Veleidosa' mine, in the vicinity of the city of Tocopilla, on October 6, 1973, even firing; thus, his behavioral work cannot be other than that of a perpetrator-executor of the crime of qualified homicide of these persons," the chamber concludes.

"To the above," it deepens, "must be added the assertion of witnesses who place him as part of the firing squad at the 'La Veleidosa' mine on that occasion. To this effect, the statements of witnesses and co-defendants collected in the Thirtieth foundation, which account for such participation, must be considered.

From what has been stated, it flows that the participation of Raúl Darío Almonacid Valdivia is that of a perpetrator of the repeated homicides and qualified kidnapping of the victims of the case."

Regarding the participation of Luis Ramón Guerrero González "in the punishable acts that are the subject of the case, and having the rank of sub-lieutenant of Carabineros as of September 1973, and despite the fact that he denies participation in them, as noted from his judicial statements collected in the Twentieth foundation of the sentence, it happens that according to the evidence collected in the case, it is clear that he was part of the group in charge of Lieutenant Adalberto Cantín Leyton, being also the secretary of the Ad-Hoc Military Prosecutor of the time, the Sub-prefect of Carabineros Juan de Dios Salazar Lantery (deceased), this despite the fact that this defendant points out that he never exercised such secretary functions," the resolution affirms.

"Indeed," it continues, "Guerrero González himself acknowledges in his judicial statements that he was appointed secretary of the indicated Ad-Hoc Military Prosecutor, and yet, without giving greater meaning, he points out that he never truly exercised such functions.

Contrary to the exculpatory claim of the defendant Luis Guerrero González, the statements synthesized in the Thirtieth foundation of Diocario Contreras Labrín, who places Luis Guerrero González as part of the group headed by Cantín Leyton, serve to prove his participation as a perpetrator, indicating '...that on one occasion he ordered him to accompany him to detain Manuel del Carmen Muñoz Cornejo, who was the Manager of Soquimich, and thus, all on board a pickup truck, they moved and detained him at said company'; of Waldo Humberto Retamales Argandoña, indicating '...that he places sub-lieutenant Luis Guerrero as part of the group under the command of Lieutenant Adalberto Cantín Leyton, who brought detainees to the police station'. In the same sense, there are the statements of Juan Manuel Bonilla Castro '...who mentions sub-lieutenant Luis Guerrero as participating in the operations of the group led by Cantín Leyton'. Also, and in the same vein, are the statements of the co-defendant Ivar Liborio Muñoz Peña, who points to sub-lieutenant Luis Guerrero indicating '...that it seems to him that he was part of the group that was under the command of Lieutenant Cantín Leyton, and that this group used, to carry out interrogations, a kind of room or warehouse located on the first floor, and after the interrogation, on some occasions they were handed over to the Gendarmerie'."

"According to what has been indicated, this Court reaches a judicial conviction that Luis Ramón Guerrero González is criminally responsible as a perpetrator of the crime of qualified kidnapping of Manuel del Carmen Muñoz Cornejo, an event that occurred in Tocopilla on September 14, 1973, thus sharing the criterion in this sense of the Judicial Prosecutor," it concludes.

In the case of Ivar Liborio Muñoz Peña, "his own judicial statement must be considered, recorded in the Twenty-First consideration of the appellate sentence; he indicated, in summary, '...that he served as head of the First Carabineros Police Station of the city of Tocopilla, indicating that it operated in the same building as the Prefecture, under the command of which was Luciano Astete Almendras, adding that political detentions were carried out by Lieutenant Cantín and his group, and the interrogations were done in the unit's facilities, in a warehouse, at night; he also points out having participated in the detention of governor Mario Arqueros'."

For the appellate court: "Despite the denial of this defendant's participation in the investigated events, the truth is that, given the hierarchy of command that Muñoz Peña held as of September 11, 1973, his participation is that of a perpetrator, since it cannot be considered that his participation is only that of a cover-up as was maintained in the first-instance sentence, at least regarding the qualified kidnapping of Manuel del Carmen Muñoz Cornejo, because in the case there is evidentiary background that this victim was detained by State agents, and taken that day, September 11, 1973, and was detained for three days in the facilities of the First Carabineros Police Station of Tocopilla, his whereabouts being unknown until today. The police unit just indicated was under the command of, precisely, this defendant, a Carabineros Officer at the time."

"Indeed, in the present case, several testimonies were collected that place Muñoz Peña precisely in charge of the police station, in his capacity as Commissioner. Adalberto Cantín Leyton in his judicial statement collected in the Tenth consideration maintains '...the officer in charge of the first police station was Muñoz Peña, and upon the closing of the Precinct that was under his charge, he remained at the disposal of the First Carabineros Police Station', adding '...that the prefecture operated on the second floor of the same building as the Police Station and the Prefect was Luciano Astete Almendras, and the sub-prefect was Juan de Dios Salazar Lanteri, and orders were given to detain several people and that the Governor and the Mayor of Tocopilla were detained, who were sent to Antofagasta, and later he learned that General Arellano Stark's entourage carried out executions regarding these persons'." In his case, Luis Ramón Guerrero González, in his judicial statement recorded in the Twentieth consideration of the appellate sentence, declares '...that in charge of the First Police Station was commissioner Muñoz and under his charge about 60 officials, and the civil commission was under the charge of lieutenant Cantín Leyton'. Regarding the disappearance of Manuel Muñoz Cornejo, he points out '...that he was detained on September 11, 1973, he was one of the heads of Soquimich, he was detained by Carabineros personnel and taken to the first Police Station and after a few days taken to the jail and later he learned that his wife was complaining because she had not been able to find him'," the ruling transcribes.

"In his case," it continues, "Jorge Veliz Alvear also declared, a judicial statement that appears collected in the Twenty-Second consideration of the sentence, indicating that regarding the disappearance of Manuel Muñoz Cornejo he can declare that he saw Muñoz Cornejo detained in the facilities of the First Carabineros Police Station of Tocopilla.

The police report of the PDI Human Rights Crimes Brigade maintains in its report 1.219, dated November 14, 2012, 'that in the First Carabineros Police Station of Tocopilla, a civil commission was formed under the charge of Lieutenant Cantín Leyton'."

"Also, Hernando Silva Soto gave a judicial statement, which is recorded in the Twenty-Fourth Consideration, who '...stated that he was the sub-commissioner at the time of the First Police Station of Tocopilla, and indicates that the detainees, while they were in the Police Station, were guarded by subordinate personnel of the unit'."

"In addition, Ángela del Carmen Vega Lang declared judicially, pages 7197 and 7274, who stated '...that she was the spouse of Manuel del Carmen Cornejo Muñoz and details how on September 11 Carabineros personnel arrived at her house asking for her husband, and forced the entrance, and upon seeing that he was not there they withdrew, later she received a phone call from her husband, indicating that he would turn himself in voluntarily because he knew they were looking for him'.

Then she refers '...that from the balcony of her house, one could see in the distance the facilities of the Soquimich company, and she could see that the same vehicles in which the Carabineros who were looking for her husband moved were now transporting him and she saw him coming out of the facility'.

Then she adds '...that that day she brought blankets and food to the first Carabineros police station of Tocopilla, and later they told her that he was no longer there and she never saw him again'."

Thus, for the Eighth Chamber: "From the accumulation of evidence detailed above, it can only be concluded that Ivar Liborio Muñoz Peña, at the time commissioner of Carabineros, and given the rank of major of that institution, and being in charge of the First Carabineros Police Station of Tocopilla, knew that Manuel Muñoz Cornejo remained detained in the cells of the unit, of which he was the officer in command, and by virtue of that, his participation turns out to be that of a perpetrator in the terms of Article 15, number 3, of the Penal Code, since although he does not participate in the detention directly, there is no doubt that he witnessed the fact of this person being detained in the facilities of his police unit, and he accepted it, in the manner of concerting his will in a detention not adjusted to the law."

Decision adopted with the prevention of Justice Andrade Díaz, who was in favor of imposing higher penalties on all the convicted individuals.

Indemnifications

In the civil aspect, the ruling regulated the indemnifications that the State of Chile must pay to each of the victims, for moral damages: Georgina Ramírez Gallardo, María Gregoria Torres Flores, Ariela Lau Núñez, and Adriana Benavides Espinoza, mothers and spouses, in the sum of $100,000,000 (one hundred million pesos) for each.

In the case of the plaintiffs Carlos Gallegos Ramírez, Georgina Gallegos Ramírez, Silvio Cuevas Martínez, Carolina Cuevas Martínez, Breno Cuevas Martínez, Hernani Cuevas Martínez, Maritza Cuevas Vega, Tania Brewe Lau, Mayra Tognola Vega, Alejandrina Mireya Muñoz Vidal, and Ángela Ema Sanhuesa Vega, children of the victims, each must receive the sum of $50,000,000 (fifty million pesos).

Meanwhile, the siblings of the victims, Mercedes Brewe Torres, Rita Moreno Díaz, Catalina del Carmen Morán Araya, Lucía Cepeda Muñoz, Sonia Garay Benavides, Patricia Garay Benavides, Adriana Garay Benavides, and José Ezequiel Garay Benavides, must each be compensated by the treasury with the sum of $20,000,000 (twenty million pesos).

Finally, the plaintiffs Rebeca Vega Carrasco, Rosa Vega Carrasco, Ivonne Villalobos Salcedo, Jocelin Valeska Muñoz Macías, and Sandra Constanza Muñoz Macías must be compensated with $10,000,000 (ten million pesos) for moral damages, in their capacities as partners of the first two, Breno Benicio Cuevas Díaz and Claudio Tognola Ríos, respectively; and the third in her capacity as cousin of Luis Orocimbo Segovia Villalobos.

Executions

In the first instance, Judge Mario Carroza considered the following facts established:

"A.- Events that occurred on September 18, 1973, which caused the death of Iván Florencio Morán Araya and Ernesto Manuel Moreno Díaz. On September 18, 1973, at night, around 8:00 PM, Carabineros of Tocopilla commanded by Raúl Gaete Cuevas (deceased), Juan Bonilla Castro (deceased), and Diocario Contreras Labrín (deceased), detained Iván Florencio Morán Araya and Ernesto Manuel Moreno Díaz at their homes to take them to the Police Station of that city, where they would be interrogated; however, in the early hours of the following day, both were executed outside the Police Station by police officers who were following orders from their superiors under the pretext of having attempted to flee, their bodies subsequently being handed over lifeless with gunshot wounds at the morgue of the Marcos Macuada Hospital in Tocopilla;

B.- Executed at the La Veleidosa Mine. On another occasion, these same officials of the Tocopilla Police Station detained during the course of the days from September 11 to October 4, 1973, several people identified as Claudio Rómulo Tognola Ríos, Carlos Miguel Garay Benavides, Luis Orocimbo Segovia Villalobos, Agustín de la Cruz Villarroel Carmona, Reinaldo Armando Aguirre Pruneda, and Freddy Álex Araya Figueroa, and kept them deprived of liberty first in the cells of the First Carabineros Police Station of that city and then, in the Public Jail of said port, the latter place from where they were taken on October 6 of that year, handcuffed, to the mining pit called 'Mina La Veleidosa' or 'La Descubridora', located at an approximate distance of 30 kilometers to the east of the center of the city of Tocopilla; in that place, they were ordered to get down and a firing squad was formed, integrated by officials of Carabineros, Investigations, the Navy, and the Army, who were ordered to fire on them with their weapons."

firearms, to take their lives. Subsequently, the lifeless bodies of Tognola, Garay, Segovia, and Villarroel were thrown into the aforementioned mine shaft, which at that time was over six hundred meters deep.

Their remains were partially recovered and identified during the year 1991; however, the bodies of Aguirre and Araya were taken to the morgue of the Marcos Macuada Hospital in Tocopilla, with the claim that they had been killed during an escape attempt while a search operation for weapons and explosives was being conducted in the area of an unnamed mine.

The events that caused the death of Julio Enrique Brewe Torres, Breno Benicio Cuevas Díaz, Vicente Ramón Cepeda Soto, and Carlos Óscar Gallegos Santis in the early hours of October 23 of that same year.

Regarding Julio Enrique Brewe Torres, Breno Benicio Cuevas Díaz, Vicente Ramón Cepeda Soto, and Carlos Óscar Gallegos Santis, they were detained between September 16 and 20, 1973, by personnel under the same Carabineros Prefecture of Tocopilla and transferred to the First Police Station of that city, where they were held in the cells until the early hours of October 23 of that same year.

On that occasion, all four were killed inside their cells using machine guns. Their bodies were subsequently delivered to the morgue of the Marcos Macuada Hospital, and the public was informed that the detainees had seized a Sig rifle from a sentry guarding them, which they could not use due to lack of knowledge, and because of this, the police unit's service personnel had to open fire and cause their deaths.

Aggravated kidnapping of Manuel del Carmen Muñoz Cornejo, which occurred on September 14, 1973.

As previously noted, for September 11, 1973, in the context of the events occurring in the country, Delegate Prefect Luciano Astete Almendras was given the mission to create an operational group for political repression in Tocopilla.

For this purpose, he designated Carabineros Subprefect Juan de Dios Salazar Lantieri (deceased) as Ad-Hoc Military Prosecutor. To fulfill his task, the latter proceeded to designate specific officers from the First Police Station of Tocopilla to be in charge of the detention and interrogation of individuals known to be supporters of the government deposed by the military coup.

This Carabineros operational group was led by Lieutenant Alexis Cantín Leyton and permanently integrated by police officers who had full knowledge of the illegality of the acts being committed and, even so, cooperated in their execution through prior or simultaneous acts.

Thus, on September 11, 1973, these Carabineros officers appeared at the SOQUIMICH company, commanded by Lieutenant Álex Cantín Leyton, and detained Manuel del Carmen Muñoz Cornejo, whom they transferred to the Tocopilla Police Station and then to a cell in the Tocopilla Preventive Detention Center, where he remained for three days under cruel and inhuman torture.

On September 14, 1973, he was taken from the prison by the same Lieutenant Cantín and his subordinates to an unknown location, where his trail was lost, and his destination or whereabouts remain unknown to this date.

Source: pdju, September 2, 2021

Supreme Court convicts former uniformed personnel for homicides and kidnapping of 11 people in Tocopilla in 1973

The Supreme Court convicted six former uniformed personnel of the Carabineros and the Navy for their responsibility in the crimes of aggravated homicide of Claudio Rómulo Tognola Ríos, Carlos Miguel Garay Benavides, Luis Orozimbo Segovia Villalobos, Agustín de la Cruz Villarroel Carmona, Reynaldo Armando Aguirre Pruneda, Freddy Álex Araya Figueroa, Julio Enrique Brewe Torres, Breno Benicio Cuevas Díaz, Vicente Ramón Cepeda Soto, and Carlos Óscar Gallegos Santis, and the aggravated kidnapping of Manuel del Carmen Muñoz Cornejo.

The crimes were committed between September and October 1973 in the commune of Tocopilla.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 82.318-2021), the Second Chamber of the high court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Jorge Dahm, minister Eliana Quezada, and lawyers (i) Pía Tavolari and Carolina Coppo—sentenced former Carabineros officer Luciano Astete Almendras and former non-commissioned officer Gilberto Arturo Santiago Egaña García to 20 years in prison as authors of the crimes.

Meanwhile, former Navy non-commissioned officer Raúl Darío Almonacid Valdivia must serve 15 years and one day in prison as the author of the aggravated homicides.

Former Carabineros officers Luis Ramón Guerrero González and Ivar Liborio Muñoz Peña were sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison as authors of the aggravated kidnapping.

Finally, former Carabineros officer Juan José Rojas Fuentes was sentenced to 800 days in prison as an accomplice to the kidnapping, with the benefit of conditional remission of the sentence.

Former Carabineros officer Álex Adalberto Cantín Leyton, who had been sentenced to 15 years in prison in previous instances, passed away during the proceedings.

In the ruling, the high court established an error in the appealed sentence, as it applied partial prescription to those convicted of crimes against humanity.

The facts The judicial investigation established that the detentions of Claudio Rómulo Tognola Ríos (42), Carlos Miguel Garay Benavides (25), Luis Orozimbo Segovia Villalobos (28), Agustín de la Cruz Villarroel Carmona (34), Reynaldo Armando Aguirre Pruneda (28), Freddy Álex Araya Figueroa (21), Julio Enrique Brewe Torres (26), Breno Benicio Cuevas Díaz (45), Vicente Ramón Cepeda Soto (31), Carlos Óscar Gallegos Santis (30), and Manuel del Carmen Muñoz Cornejo (32) culminated in the murders of the first 10, as well as the disappearance of the latter.

The executions of the prisoners were carried out at the "La Veleidosa" mine site, located about 30 kilometers from Tocopilla, in early October 1973.

As a consequence of the military coup of September 1973, Navy Captain Humberto Fuentes Morales assumed the position of governor of Tocopilla, who, due to health problems, handed over that responsibility to Carabineros Prefect Luciano Astete Almendras.

The latter designated then-Lieutenant Álex Adalberto Cantín Leyton to work in coordination with military personnel, the Navy, and Investigations to carry out operations against the city's civilian population, consisting of raids, detentions, interrogations, torture, and summary executions.

Thus, on the night of September 18, 1973, Carabineros personnel from Tocopilla commanded by Raúl Gaete Cuevas (deceased), Juan Bonilla Castro (deceased), and Diocario Contreras Labrín (deceased) detained Iván Florencio Morán Araya and Ernesto Manuel Moreno Díaz at their homes to take them to the city's police station.

In the early hours of the following day, both were executed outside the police station by police officers under the pretext of having attempted to escape, their bodies subsequently delivered lifeless with gunshot wounds to the morgue of the Tocopilla Hospital.

These same officers from the Tocopilla Police Station detained several people between September 11 and October 4, 1973, including Claudio Rómulo Tognola Ríos, Carlos Miguel Garay Benavides, Luis Orozimbo Segovia Villalobos, Agustín de la Cruz Villarroel Carmona, Reinaldo Armando Aguirre Pruneda, and Freddy Álex Araya Figueroa, and held them in the cells of the First Carabineros Police Station of that city and, later, in the Public Jail of said port.

From the latter location, they were taken on October 6 of that year, handcuffed, to the mine shaft known as 'Mina La Veleidosa' or 'La Descubridora,' located approximately 30 kilometers east of Tocopilla.

At that location, they were made to get out, and a firing squad composed of Carabineros, Investigations, Navy, and Army personnel was formed, who were ordered to shoot them with their firearms to take their lives.

Subsequently, the lifeless bodies of Tognola, Garay, Segovia, and Villarroel were thrown into the aforementioned shaft, which at that time was over six hundred meters deep. Their remains were partially recovered and identified during the year 1991.

However, the bodies of Aguirre and Araya were taken to the morgue of the Tocopilla Hospital, with the argument that they had been killed during an escape attempt while a search operation for weapons and explosives was being conducted in the area of an unnamed mine.

On the other hand, between September 16 and 20, 1973, Julio Enrique Brewe Torres, Breno Benicio Cuevas Díaz, Vicente Ramón Cepeda Soto, and Carlos Óscar Gallegos Santis were detained by personnel from the same Carabineros Prefecture of Tocopilla and transferred to the First Police Station of that city, where they were held in the cells until the early hours of October 23 of that year.

On that date, the four detainees were killed inside their cells using machine guns. Subsequently, their bodies were delivered to the morgue of the Tocopilla Hospital, and the public was informed that the detainees had seized a Sig rifle from a sentry guarding them, and because of this, the police unit's personnel had to open fire and cause their deaths.

On September 11, 1973, a group of Carabineros commanded by Lieutenant Álex Adalberto Cantín Leyton appeared at the SOQUIMICH company and detained, among others, Manuel del Carmen Muñoz Cornejo, whom they transferred to the Tocopilla Police Station and then to a cell in the Tocopilla Preventive Detention Center, where he remained for three days under cruel and inhuman torture.

On September 14, 1973, he was taken from the prison by the same Lieutenant Cantín and his subordinates to an unknown location, where his trail was lost, and his destination or whereabouts remain unknown to this date.

Source: resumen.cl, August 31, 2023

Supreme Court convicts retired Carabineros for homicide and aggravated kidnapping in Tocopilla

In a unanimous ruling, the Second Chamber of the high court sentenced Luciano Astete Almendras and Gilberto Egaña García to 20 years in prison as authors of the crimes. Meanwhile, Raúl Almonacid Valdivia must serve 15 years and one day in prison as the author of the aggravated homicides.

The Supreme Court convicted retired Carabineros for their responsibility in the crimes of aggravated homicide of Claudio Rómulo Tognola Ríos, Carlos Miguel Garay Benavides, Luis Orocimbo Segovia Villalobos, Agustín de la Cruz Villarroel Carmona, Reynaldo Armando Aguirre Pruneda, Freddy Álex Araya Figueroa, Julio Enrique Brewe Torres, Breno Benicio Cuevas Díaz, Vicente Ramón Cepeda Soto, and Carlos Óscar Gallegos Santis; and the aggravated kidnapping of Manuel del Carmen Muñoz Cornejo.

These crimes were committed between September and October 1973 in the commune of Tocopilla.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 82.318-2021), the Second Chamber of the high court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Jorge Dahm, minister Eliana Quezada, and lawyers (i) Pía Tavolari and Carolina Coppo—sentenced Luciano Astete Almendras and Gilberto Egaña García to 20 years in prison as authors of the crimes.

Meanwhile, Raúl Almonacid Valdivia must serve 15 years and one day in prison as the author of the aggravated homicides.

Luis Ramón Guerrero González and Ivar Liborio Muñoz Peña must serve 5 years and one day in prison as authors of the aggravated kidnapping.

Finally, Juan José Rojas Fuentes was sentenced to 800 days in prison, with the benefit of conditional remission of the sentence, as an accomplice to the kidnapping.

In the ruling, the high court established an error in the appealed sentence by applying partial prescription to those convicted of crimes against humanity.

"Given that both partial prescription and the cause for the extinction of criminal responsibility are based on the passage of time as a justifying element for their application, the impropriety of applying total prescription necessarily extends to partial prescription, as there is no reason to recognize the effect of reducing the sanction based on time, considering that both institutions are based on the same element that is rejected by international humanitarian criminal law, so that neither of such institutes is appropriate in crimes of this nature," the ruling maintains.

The resolution adds that: "(...) on the other hand, the estimation of gradual prescription regarding those responsible for the commission of crimes against humanity affects the principle of proportionality of the sentence, since given the gravity of the acts perpetrated with the intervention of State agents, it determines that the response to the author of the transgression must be consistent with the impact on the legal interest and the culpability with which they acted."

Meanwhile, in the civil aspect, the appeal for cassation was accepted, and the compensation for moral damages to be received by the victims' partners was set at $100,000,000, the same amount that the treasury must pay to the spouses, as they are entitled to the same right to reparation.

"Regarding the action filed by Ms. Rebeca Vega Carrasco and Ms. Rosa Vega Carrasco, in their capacity as partners of the victims Breno Cuevas Díaz and Claudio Tognola Ríos, respectively, they claim reparation for the damage caused, which, although it was accepted by the first and second instance sentences, in both it was done to the detriment of the named individuals, without any reason or motive having been explained for this, which in the opinion of this Court constitutes discrimination not permitted by our legal system.

Since what is relevant is the close emotional bond with the victims who were murdered, which from an emotional point of view is the same affection that a spouse can feel and, consequently, the same damage," the ruling states.

For the Criminal Chamber, on this point: "We must keep in mind that there is not a single type of family that must be protected; on the contrary, as resolved in the Atala Riffo and Daughters Vs. Chile Case of February 24, 2012, Series C No. 239, 'Therefore, speculations, presumptions, stereotypes, or generalized considerations regarding the personal characteristics of parents or cultural preferences regarding certain traditional concepts of the family cannot be admissible.'"

"Our Political Constitution of the Republic provides in its article 19 No. 3, paragraph 1, 'the equal protection of the law in the exercise of rights,' being a general mandate of effective judicial protection in the application of the law," it adds.

"In this case, the factual basis of the partners to claim fair reparation does not differ from that which the spouses could have felt, so the compensation amount that will be set, in order not to affect the principle of equality, will be the same as that determined for the spouses of the other victims," the ruling orders.

Executions In the first instance sentence, the visiting minister Mario Carroza Espinosa established the following facts:

1) That as a result of the events that occurred in the country on September 11, 1973, the Military Government ordered control to be taken of the city of Tocopilla, and to carry it out, the Navy, Carabineros, Investigative Police, and military units in the jurisdiction were instructed on specific missions to be carried out;

2) That thus, initially, Navy Captain Humberto Fuentes Morales assumed the position of governor of Tocopilla, who, in view of his state of health and logistical resources, handed over that responsibility to Carabineros Prefect Luciano Astete Almendras, and in turn, Subprefect Juan de Dios Salazar Lantery was designated as military prosecutor for the department of Tocopilla, with his functions directed at instructing the processes related to the political and subversive activities that were taking place in the province.

3) That for such a task, on the instructions of Prefect Luciano Astete Almendras, the military prosecutor designated a Civil Commission under the command of then-Lieutenant Álex Cantín Leyton, to work in coordination with military personnel, the Navy, and Investigations to carry out operations against the city's civilian population, consisting of raids, deprivation of liberty, interrogations, torture, and summary executions, as in the cases indicated below:

A.- Events that occurred on September 18, 1973, which caused the death of Iván Florencio Morán Araya and Ernesto Manuel Moreno Díaz. On the night of September 18, 1973, around 8:00 PM, Carabineros personnel from Tocopilla commanded by Raúl Gaete Cuevas (deceased), Juan Bonilla Castro (deceased), and Diocario Contreras Labrín (deceased) detained Iván Florencio Morán Araya and Ernesto Manuel Moreno Díaz at their homes to take them to the city's police station, where they would be interrogated; however, in the early hours of the following day, both were executed outside the police station by police officers following orders from their superiors under the pretext of having attempted to escape, their bodies subsequently delivered lifeless with gunshot wounds to the morgue of the Marcos Macuada Hospital in Tocopilla;

B.- Executed at the Mina La Veleidosa. On another occasion, these same officers from the Tocopilla Police Station detained several people identified as Claudio Rómulo Tognola Ríos, Carlos Miguel Garay Benavides, Luis Orocimbo Segovia Villalobos, Agustín de la Cruz Villarroel Carmona, Reinaldo Armando Aguirre Pruneda, and Freddy Álex Araya Figueroa between September 11 and October 4, 1973, and kept them deprived of liberty first in the cells of the First Carabineros Police Station of that city and then in the Public Jail of said port.

From this last place, they were taken on October 6 of that year, handcuffed, to the mine shaft known as 'Mina La Veleidosa' or 'La Descubridora,' located approximately 30 kilometers east of the center of the city of Tocopilla.

At that location, they were ordered to get out, and a firing squad composed of Carabineros, Investigations, Navy, and Army personnel was formed, who were ordered to shoot them with their firearms to take their lives.

Subsequently, the lifeless bodies of Tognola, Garay, Segovia, and Villarroel were thrown into the aforementioned shaft, which at that time was over six hundred meters deep. Their remains were partially recovered and identified during the year 1991; however, the bodies of Aguirre and Araya were taken to the morgue of the Marcos Macuada Hospital in Tocopilla, with the argument that they had been killed during an escape attempt while a search operation for weapons and explosives was being conducted in the area of an unnamed mine;

C.- The events that caused the death of Julio Enrique Brewe Torres, Breno Benicio Cuevas Díaz, Vicente Ramón Cepeda Soto, and Carlos Óscar Gallegos Santis in the early hours of October 23 of that same year.

Regarding Julio Enrique Brewe Torres, Breno Benicio Cuevas Díaz, Vicente Ramón Cepeda Soto, and Carlos Óscar Gallegos Santis, they were detained between September 16 and 20, 1973, by personnel under the same Carabineros Prefecture of Tocopilla and transferred to the First Police Station of that city, where they were held in the cells until the early hours of October 23 of that same year.

On that occasion, all four were killed inside their cells using machine guns. Their bodies were subsequently delivered to the morgue of the Marcos Macuada Hospital, and the public was informed that the detainees had seized a Sig rifle from a sentry guarding them, which they could not use due to lack of knowledge, and because of this, the police unit's service personnel had to open fire and cause their deaths;

D.- Aggravated kidnapping of Manuel del Carmen Muñoz Cornejo, which occurred on September 14, 1973. As previously noted, for September 11, 1973, in the context of the events occurring in the country, Delegate Prefect Luciano Astete Almendras was given the mission to create an operational group for political repression in Tocopilla.

For this purpose, he designated Carabineros Subprefect Juan de Dios Salazar Lantery (deceased) as Ad-Hoc Military Prosecutor. To fulfill his task, the latter proceeded to designate specific officers from the First Police Station of Tocopilla to be in charge of the detention and interrogation of individuals known to be supporters of the government deposed by the military coup.

This Carabineros operational group was led by Lieutenant Álex Cantín Leyton and permanently integrated by police officers who had full knowledge of the illegality of the acts being committed and, even so, cooperated in their execution through prior or simultaneous acts.

Thus, on September 11, 1973, these Carabineros officers appeared at the SOQUIMICH company, commanded by Lieutenant Álex Cantín Leyton, and detained Manuel del Carmen Muñoz Cornejo, whom they transferred to the Tocopilla Police Station and then to a cell in the Tocopilla Preventive Detention Center, where he remained for three days under cruel and inhuman torture.

On September 14, 1973, he was taken from the prison by the same Lieutenant Cantín and his subordinates to an unknown location, where his trail was lost, and his destination or whereabouts remain unknown to this date.

Background information used to establish the punishable act: It is not disputed, despite the official version from the time of the events, which was communicated through decrees and consisted of the claim that the victims were 'discharged' due to an attempt to flee or to seize police weapons, or simply that they escaped.

Source: pdju.cl, August 30, 2023