In a unanimous ruling, the Sixth Chamber of the appellate court—composed of ministers Paola Plaza, Maritza Villadangos, and Guillermo de la Barra—sentenced Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo and Juan Viterbo Chiminelli Fullerton to a single life sentence as the perpetrators of the 26 homicides.

The Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced eight retired members of the Army for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated homicide of 26 victims who were executed by firing squad by the so-called Caravan of Death during its passage through Calama on October 19, 1973.

In a unanimous ruling, the Sixth Chamber of the appellate court—composed of ministers Paola Plaza, Maritza Villadangos, and Guillermo de la Barra—sentenced Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo and Juan Viterbo Chiminelli Fullerton to a single life sentence as the perpetrators of the 26 homicides, the Judiciary stated.

Meanwhile, former military officers Carlos George Max Langer von Furstenberg, Hernán Rómulo Núñez, and Víctor Ramón Santander Véliz must serve a sentence of 15 years and one day in prison as perpetrators of the repeated crime of aggravated homicide; and Óscar Figueroa Martínez must serve 16 years in prison.

In the case of Emilio Robert de la Mahotiere González and Luis Felipe Polanco Gallardo, they must serve 12 years in prison as accomplices to the crimes. Finally, the acquittal of Álvaro Romero Reyes was confirmed. "Since the final judgment is the stage to carry out the process of subsuming the proven facts into the corresponding typical figure, once the plenary phase has concluded, this Court considers that those described in the second motive of the ruling under review constitute solely the crimes of repeated aggravated homicide, committed on October 19, 1973, an illicit act provided for in Article 391 No. 1 of the Penal Code, with the concurrence of circumstances 1 and 5 of the aforementioned precept, that is, committed with treachery and known premeditation," the ruling maintains. The resolution adds: "Regarding the first, in addition to what the ruling maintains, the act was carried out with certainty, both because the prisoners were tied and blindfolded and because their captors carried automatic firearms, all of which was intended to ensure the execution of the crimes and eliminate the risk to the perpetrators arising from any defense the victims might offer. The second, because the action that culminated in the death of the offended parties was planned in advance, which reveals the purpose of committing the crime adopted with a cold and calm spirit, which persisted in the spirit of the accused from the moment the decision was made until the instant of the execution of the criminal act." "Regarding this qualification," it continues, "it should also be added that from the evidence provided by the case, it is undeniable that all the victims were put to death by firing squad on the same occasion in the Topater sector of the city of Calama, and although it has not been possible, to date, to find the remains of Haroldo Cabrera Abarzúa, David Ernesto Miranda Luna, and Rafael Pineda Ibacache, this is exclusively due to the ignominious actions taken after taking their lives, with the aim of trying to erase every trace of their existence, through the exhumations of their bodies—at least on two occasions—and, finally, by throwing their remains into the sea, so that these three people were also victims of homicide." "This conclusion is ratified by the statements of Victoria Saavedra Gonzalez, on pages 2,964, 6,079, 12,477, and 13,025 verso, who maintained having heard from Army Chaplain Luis Jorquera and Sub-Officer Jerónimo Rojo Rojo that the 'Law of Flight' was applied to the detainees, putting them all to death," it adds. In the civil aspect, the sentence ordering the state to pay compensation of between $10,000,000 and $60,000,000 to the victims' families was confirmed.

Source: elmostrador.cl, May 19, 2020

Carmen Hertz after the conviction of her partner's killers: "Justice so delayed is almost a denial of justice"

The Communist Party parliamentarian expressed her grievances on social media following the Supreme Court ruling that convicted former agents of the Caravan of Death committee for the murder of 26 political prisoners in 1973, among whom was her husband.

Human rights lawyer and Communist Party deputy, Carmen Hertz, published her grievance on her Twitter account this Friday night regarding the late Supreme Court ruling against the former Army agents who murdered her partner, Carlos Berguer, in 1973. "Finally, after 49 years since the massacre of 26 political prisoners was carried out, among them my husband, the lawyer and journalist Carlos Berguer Guralnik, in Calama by the Caravan of Death, the final ruling of the Supreme Court was issued," the parliamentarian wrote to begin her thread on social media.

In it, she details that General Pedro Espinoza Bravo and Colonel Juan Chiminelli Fullerton were sentenced to life imprisonment as perpetrators. "The only survivors of the criminal committee, the others died in impunity, among them Arellano Stark," Hertz denounces.

Apart from these high-ranking officers, the court also ruled against officers Carlos Langer, Hernán Nuñez, and Víctor Santander, who were sentenced to 15 years and one day of major imprisonment for their participation in the events.

In addition, the pilots of the Puma helicopter that transported the former agents to the scene of the massacre, Emilio Mahotiere and Luis Felipe Polanco, received a sentence of 12 years of major imprisonment. "Justice so delayed is almost a denial of justice," reflected Deputy Carmen Hertz in her last tweet, to which several users and colleagues from her party responded, including Mayor Daniel Jadue.

Source: eldesconcierto.cl, September 24, 2022