Second indictment against General (ret.) Orozco

Special judge Daniel Calvo issued a new indictment against General (ret.) Héctor Orozco Sepúlveda, this time for the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Army non-commissioned officer Guillermo Jorquera Gutiérrez, who was forcibly disappeared in 1978, a case linked to the proceedings regarding the death of Orlando Letelier.

In addition to Orozco, Judge Calvo indicted Army Brigadier (ret.) Adolfo Born Pineda for the same crime. Both were notified at the Palace of Courts. It should be recalled that Judge Calvo had already indicted General (ret.) Orozco, along with two other former uniformed officers, as perpetrators of the aggravated homicide of the former mayor of Cabildo, Mario Alvarado Araya, and five other people, an event that occurred in October 1973.

Source: emol.com, September 2, 2003

General (ret.) accused of death of DINE non-commissioned officer released

The Fifth Chamber of the Court of Appeals resolved to grant provisional release to Army General (ret.) Héctor Orozco, who is currently under indictment for six counts of aggravated homicide of communist militants and the disappearance of the lieutenant and member of the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE), Guillermo Jorquera, who was detained on January 23, 1978, while attempting to seek asylum at the Venezuelan embassy.

The former director of the DINE had been detained in the first days of September, following an order issued by special judge Daniel Calvo. The judge was able to determine that when Jorquera Gutiérrez sought asylum at the Venezuelan embassy, located at Calle Bustos 2021 in Providencia, he was detained by Carabineros and transferred to the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE), to which the non-commissioned officer was assigned.

At that location, he was received by General Orozco, who allegedly informed him that he would be discharged and then sent him to his home. That was the last time Jorquera was seen alive. Orozco is also under indictment for the execution of six communist militants, an event that occurred in October 1973 in the town of San Felipe.

Source: emol.com, October 3, 2003

Former agent Orozco convicted in DINE non-commissioned officer case

General (ret.) and former head of the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE), Héctor Orozco Sepúlveda, and Brigadier (ret.) and former DINE agent, Adolfo Born Pineda, were sentenced to five years in prison as perpetrators of the kidnapping and disappearance of Army non-commissioned officer and fellow DINE agent, Guillermo Jorquera Gutiérrez.

This was the ruling of Judge Adriana Sottovia, acting for the human rights cases of Judge Joaquín Billard. On January 23, 1978, non-commissioned officer Jorquera attempted to seek asylum at the Venezuelan Embassy, where he was surprised by Carabineros who handed him over to the DINE.

Born, then a captain, removed him from the 14th Precinct and brought him before Orozco. Since then, Jorquera has been forcibly disappeared. In 1976, the non-commissioned officer was assigned by the DINE to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to operate in intelligence and personnel control tasks for the Chancellery.

There, Jorquera handled a large amount of information, among other issues, regarding the false documentation (passport case) that the ministry provided to DINA agents who traveled to Washington to assassinate Allende's former minister, Orlando Letelier.

At the end of 1977, the process for Jorquera's discharge began due to events that occurred in the Chancellery related to intelligence tasks. At that time, the director of the Consular Department of that ministry, Carlos Osorio, who participated in granting false passports to agents Armando Fernández Larios and Michael Townley, with which they traveled to Paraguay to prepare the attack on Letelier, appeared "suicided." On the day he tried to seek asylum, Jorquera visited the Comando Conjunto agent, Otto Trujillo, and told him of his decision to seek diplomatic protection, because "I am sure they are going to kill me just like Osorio," according to Trujillo's statement in the proceedings. The lawyer for the Jorquera family, Nelson Caucoto, highlighted the conviction and stated that "this shows that the repression reached the ranks of the dictatorship's intelligence services."

Source: lanacion.cl, May 8, 2007

Court convicts former DINE chief for kidnapping of former repressive agent

Retired General Héctor Orozco must serve eight years in prison for the disappearance of non-commissioned officer Guillermo Jorquera in 1978. Brigadier (ret.) Adolfo Born was also sentenced. The justice system convicted retired General Héctor Orozco, former head of the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE), to eight years in prison for the aggravated kidnapping (disappearance) of an agent of that organization, judicial sources reported.

According to a ruling by the Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals, for the same crime, said chamber also sentenced former DINE agent, retired Brigadier Adolfo Born Pineda, to a term of six years. The convictions refer to the kidnapping and subsequent disappearance of the non-commissioned officer and DINE agent, Guillermo Jorquera Gutiérrez, who on January 23, 1978, attempted to seek asylum at the Venezuelan embassy in Santiago, but was detained by police officers of the Carabineros corps.

Jorquera had learned that intelligence agents were looking for him, so he decided to ask for refuge in a diplomatic legation, when he was detained and handed over to Army officers. "From that moment on, he was never seen again," lawyer Nelson Caucoto of the Foundation for Social Assistance of Christian Churches (Fasic), a plaintiff in the case, told the Spanish agency EFE.

Caucoto recalled that both officers had been sentenced by Judge Adriana Sottovía to a term of five years and one day. However, judges Lamberto Cisternas and Mauricio Silva, along with participating lawyer Paul Warnier, accepted the arguments of Caucoto, who appealed to increase the sentences.

The lawyer stated in his argument that Orozco could not receive the same sentence as Born Pineda, given that it is established in the investigation that the order to detain and forcibly disappear Jorquera was issued by Orozco while he was head of the DINE.

Both are still on provisional release, because their lawyers Marcelo Cibié (Orozco) and Miguel Ángel Parra (Born) appealed to the Supreme Court through a cassation appeal, and this resolution is pending. General Orozco was also director of Televisión Nacional during the dictatorship of the late Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).

Source: elmostrador.cl, October 18, 2007

Supreme Court reduces sentence in human rights case

The Supreme Court accepted a cassation appeal in a human rights case, thereby reducing the sentence imposed on the two defendants for the kidnapping of Army non-commissioned officer Guillermo Jorquera Gutiérrez, which occurred on January 23, 1978.

The magistrates who make up the Criminal Chamber of the court unanimously accepted the motion and established that Héctor Orozco Sepúlveda would face a sentence of 4 years in prison as the perpetrator of aggravated kidnapping, and they also granted him the benefit of supervised release.

Meanwhile, the other defendant, Adolfo Born Pineda, was acquitted due to lack of participation. In the first-instance ruling, substitute judge Adriana Sottovia had determined a sentence of 5 years and one day, without any type of benefit, for the two convicted men.

Subsequently, the Santiago Court of Appeals had increased the sentence, establishing 8 years for Orozco Sepúlveda and 6 for Born Pineda. Today, however, the situation is different.

Source: lanacion.cl, September 17, 2008

Sentence issued for aggravated kidnapping of former Army non-commissioned officer

The Supreme Court issued a final judgment in the investigation into the crime of aggravated kidnapping of the former agent of the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE), Guillermo Jorquera Gutiérrez, which occurred starting on January 23, 1978, in the Metropolitan Region.

In a unanimous ruling, the second chamber of the highest court accepted the cassation appeal filed against the ruling of the Santiago Court of Appeals and proceeded to sentence the former head of the DINE, Héctor Orozco Sepúlveda, to four years in prison as the perpetrator of aggravated kidnapping, granting him the benefit of supervised release.

Meanwhile, Adolfo Born Pineda, also a former agent of the organization, was acquitted due to lack of participation. On January 23, 1978, non-commissioned officer Jorquera attempted to seek asylum at the Venezuelan Embassy, where he was surprised by Carabineros who handed him over to the DINE.

Born, then a captain, removed him from the 14th Precinct and brought him before Orozco. Since then, Jorquera has been forcibly disappeared. In 1976, the non-commissioned officer was assigned by the DINE to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to operate in intelligence and personnel control tasks for the Chancellery.

There, Jorquera handled a large amount of information, among other issues, regarding the false documentation (passport case) that the ministry provided to DINA agents who traveled to Washington to assassinate Allende's former minister, Orlando Letelier.

At the end of 1977, the process for Jorquera's discharge began due to events that occurred in the Chancellery related to intelligence tasks. At that time, the director of the Consular Department of that ministry, Carlos Osorio, who participated in granting false passports to agents Armando Fernández Larios and Michael Townley, with which they traveled to Paraguay to prepare the attack on Letelier, appeared "suicided." On the day he tried to seek asylum, Jorquera visited the Comando Conjunto agent, Otto Trujillo, and told him of his decision to seek diplomatic protection, because "I am sure they are going to kill me just like Osorio," according to Trujillo's statement in the proceedings. The lawyer for the Jorquera family, Nelson Caucoto, highlighted the conviction and stated that "this shows that the repression reached the ranks of the dictatorship's intelligence services."

Source: elmostrador.cl, September 17, 2008

General (ret.) Héctor Orozco detained for disappearance of former DINE agent

The high-ranking Army officer was indicted along with former health colonel Raúl Navarro and non-commissioned officer Milton Núñez for the execution of six people on October 11, 1976, among whom was the then-mayor of Cabildo, Mario Alvarado Araya.

Regarding the Jorquera case, Orozco is being held incommunicado. The former director of the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE) and former Military Prosecutor, General (ret.) Héctor Orozco, has been detained and held incommunicado since yesterday afternoon, by an order issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals judge, Daniel Calvo.

The apprehension of Orozco is related to the case of the disappearance of the former DINE non-commissioned officer, Guillermo Jorquera Gutiérrez, who was detained on January 23, 1978, while attempting to seek asylum at the Venezuelan embassy.

The former non-commissioned officer Jorquera—who was responsible for organizing the Isla Dawson prisoner camp—fell into "disgrace" in December 1977, when he was in charge of special investigations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, linked to intelligence work.

A position he had assumed in July 1976. A statement made at that time by the deputy director of the Armored School, Carlos Quiroga Vargas, and which was delivered to the spouse of the disappeared person, indicated that Guillermo Jorquera had been removed from the Army in December 1977 due to a loss of Chancellery documents related to the Letelier case.

A loss for which the former non-commissioned officer was blamed. On the day Jorquera attempted to request asylum at the Venezuelan embassy, he was detained by the Carabinero who was on fixed-point duty at the facility, Carlos Garrido Sotomayor, who took him to a police station.

There, he was received by the then-major Julio Mardones Ferrada who, upon verifying that he was a military man, placed him at the disposal of Army Captain Adolfo Fernando Born Pineda, a former DINE member.

According to statements made by Born, he personally took Guillermo Jorquera to the offices of General Héctor Orozco, an officer who was designated by Pinochet as military prosecutor in the so-called Passport case, linked to the assassination of Letelier in Washington.

Execution in Las Coimas Yesterday, Judge Daniel Calvo also ordered the detention and incommunicado status of former officer Born, for the potential responsibility he might have in these events and, in a separate investigation, indicted General Orozco and two other former military men.

This last indictment was issued for the execution, which occurred on October 11, 1973, of communist militants Mario Alvarado, Faruc Aguad, Wilfredo Sánchez, Artemio Pizarro, Pedro Araya, and José Fierro.

An "execution" that was allegedly carried out by Army personnel in the Las Coimas sector in San Felipe. Likewise, along with Orozco, former health colonel Raúl Navarro and non-commissioned officer Milton Núñez were indicted, against whom an arrest warrant was issued.

One of those executed in Las Coimas—Mario Alvarado Araya—was, until before the military coup, the mayor of Cabildo. Alvarado was detained for the first time on September 17, 1973, but quickly regained his freedom, without any charges being filed against him, as stated in the Rettig Report.

His second detention occurred on October 8 at his home. On this occasion, he was detained by Cabildo Carabinero personnel. Faruc Jimmi Aguad Pérez, who was 26 years old when he was detained by Cabildo Carabineros, was an employee of the Mining Supply Society (Sademi), and was in charge of elections and propaganda for the local Communist Party.

The detention occurred at his workplace, in the presence of other employees, on October 8, 1973. Along with him fell his coworker and fellow militant, Wilfredo Ramón Sánchez Silva, 28 years old. Artemio Pizarro Aranda, 37 years old, was also an employee of Sademi and was detained under the same circumstances as his colleagues Alvarado and Aguad, but the following day: October 9.

Meanwhile, Pedro Abel Araya Araya, 27 years old, was an overseer at the La Patagua mine. He was detained for the first time on September 11, 1973, but was released without charges a week later. His second detention also occurred on October 9, when he voluntarily presented himself to the Cabildo Precinct, responding to a summons left at his home by officials of that police unit.

Finally, José Armando Fierro Fierro, 24 years old and also an employee of the mining supply company, was detained on October 9 or 10 in Cabildo, by Carabinero personnel from that town. According to the official version of the Chief of the State of Siege Zone of Aconcagua Province and Commander of the Infantry Regiment No. 3, "Yungay," these six people were executed when they tried to flee and attacked a non-commissioned officer who was traveling in the Army truck that was transporting them from the San Felipe jail to the Putaendo jail.

It was indicated in said version that all of them had been proven to have direct participation in the terrorist organization of the Cabildo mining sector. The executed—according to this version—had been detained in an operation with a large quantity of weapons and explosives in their possession.

However, the information gathered by the Rettig Commission refuted that official version, since none of their homes were raided in search of weapons, nor was there a military operation at their workplace, where some of them were detained peacefully and in plain view of the other workers.

Source: elmostrador.cl, September 2, 2003

Punta Peuco prisoner Héctor Orozco dies in Military Hospital due to COVID-19

The former director of the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE), Héctor Orozco, brother of the former president of the Universidad de Chile club, passed away this Wednesday at the age of 93, while serving a sentence for aggravated homicides during the Dictatorship.

He reportedly contracted the virus at the Military Hospital. This Wednesday, the death due to COVID-19 of the former director of the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE), General (ret.) Héctor Orozco, who was serving a sentence of ten years and one day in the Punta Peuco prison for two aggravated homicides that occurred in San Felipe during the beginning of the Military Dictatorship, was confirmed.

The former military man and brother of the former president of the Universidad de Chile club, Dr. René Orozco, was hospitalized at the Military Hospital due to his poor state of health due to his advanced age (93 years), the facility where he reportedly contracted the virus.

It should be recalled that, just last July, and in the context of the pandemic, Alejandra Sepúlveda, granddaughter of the Punta Peuco prisoner, had requested a pardon for humanitarian reasons from President Sebastián Piñera, a request that had not yet been reviewed.

Héctor Orozco, who entered the penitentiary facility intended for human rights violators on August 21, 2017, suffered from Alzheimer's, which is why he was in the process of mental examinations to determine a possible pardon or rule it out.

This situation had already been ruled out by the Valparaíso Court of Appeals in 2018, after they did not grant a third expert opinion, demanded by the granddaughter and lawyer of the retired general to demonstrate his alleged senile dementia, which was described at the time as "revenge" by his brother, the nephrologist René Orozco.

Source: eldesconcierto.cl, August 26, 2020

The spy who infiltrated the PS and the MIR

The agent began operating in political organizations prior to the '73 Coup. He then worked in the external apparatus of the intelligence services until 1978, when, after attempting to seek asylum at the Venezuelan embassy, he was detained by Carabineros and handed over to the DINE.

The Supreme Court convicted General Héctor Orozco as the perpetrator of Jorquera's kidnapping. A recent Supreme Court ruling sentenced General (ret.) Héctor Orozco to four years in prison as the perpetrator of kidnapping, for his responsibility in the disappearance of Army intelligence non-commissioned officer Guillermo Jorquera Gutiérrez.

However, this proceeding contains within its pages an unknown story, starring Jorquera himself: his infiltration between the late 60s and early 70s into the Socialist Party and the MIR. In the intelligence curriculum that is in the file, it is revealed how, by order of his superiors, he began his infiltration work in the PS in 1967, mainly detecting the clandestine apparatus that received paramilitary instruction.

Jorquera also carried out espionage work in the MIR of Concepción and later participated in the interrogation of prisoners on Isla Dawson. The file contains the names of those who gave him the orders, who are those who would assume the leadership of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) after the Coup: Generals Odlanier Mena and Humberto Gordon.

Mena was the one who replaced the then-colonel Manuel Contreras in command of the dissolved DINA, restructuring that service and renaming it the CNI. In 1974, Jorquera, along with the then-major Gerardo Huber Olivares, who was assassinated in 1991 in the case of arms trafficking to Croatia, attempted an infiltration of the Argentine Montoneros.

The fall of the falcon In 1976, the agent was assigned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and that is where his debacle began. In the foreign service, he came to handle a large amount of information, among other things, the false documentation (passport case) that the ministry provided to DINA agents who traveled to Washington to assassinate Allende's former minister, Orlando Letelier.

At the end of 1977, the process for Jorquera's discharge began due to events that occurred in the Chancellery related to intelligence tasks. At that time, the director of the Consular Department of that ministry, Carlos Osorio, who participated in granting false passports to agents Armando Fernández Larios and Michael Townley, with which they traveled to Paraguay to prepare the attack on Letelier, appeared "suicided." On the day he tried to seek asylum, Jorquera visited the Comando Conjunto agent, Otto Trujillo, and told him of his decision to seek diplomatic protection, because, as he told him, "I am sure they are going to kill me just like Osorio," according to Trujillo's own statement in the proceedings. On January 23, 1978, non-commissioned officer Jorquera attempted to seek asylum at the Venezuelan Embassy, where he was surprised by Carabineros who handed him over to the DINE. The then-captain Born removed him from the 14th Precinct and brought him before Orozco. Since then, Jorquera has been forcibly disappeared. Infiltration is not something new in Chilean political history. There are paradigmatic cases, such as that of Carlos Narea González, the resident agent of the Army's Secret Espionage Service in Argentina. Narea even came to be elected president, representing the Radical Party, of the Pro-Return Committee in 1986.

Source: elmostrador.cl, September 23, 2008

Judge Jaime Arancibia Pinto issues indictments against three retired Army officials for the kidnapping of 4 victims in San Felipe.

The magistrate indicted Héctor Orozco Sepúlveda, former Army officer; Raúl Navarro Quintana, doctor and former Army officer; and Milton Núñez Hidalgo, former Army non-commissioned officer, as perpetrators of the crime of kidnapping with serious injury.

The visiting judge for human rights cases of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Jaime Arancibia Pinto, indicted three retired members of the Army for the crime of kidnapping with serious injury to the detriment of Faruc Jimmy Aguad Pérez, Mario Alvarado Araya, Pedro Abel Araya Araya, José Armando Fierro Fierro, Artemio Pizarro Aranda, and Wilfredo Ramón Sánchez Silva, an illicit act committed in San Felipe between October 8 and 10, 1973.

The magistrate indicted in the case (Rol 14-2014) Héctor Orozco Sepúlveda, former Army officer; Raúl Navarro Quintana, doctor and former Army officer; and Milton Núñez Hidalgo, former Army non-commissioned officer, as perpetrators of the crime of kidnapping with serious injury.

In the investigation stage of the case, the visiting judge was able to establish the following facts: that between October 8 and 10, 1973, the victims Faruc Jimmy Aguad Pérez, Mario Alvarado Araya, Pedro Abel Araya Araya, José Armando Fierro Fierro, Artemio Pizarro Aranda, and Wilfredo Ramón Sánchez Silva were detained by Cabildo Carabineros, without a judicial or administrative order, being taken first to the La Ligua Precinct and then to the San Felipe Carabinero Precinct, from which they were taken by superior order on October 11 of the same year, by a patrol composed of police personnel and troops from the Yungay Regiment to be taken—supposedly—to the Putaendo jail. On the road, at the height of the Las Coimas sector, they were taken out of the vehicle in which they were being transported and were killed, executed with firearm shots, thus configuring the crime of kidnapping with serious injury, insofar as the victims were deprived of their freedom, without right, for several days, a detention that caused serious damage to those affected, who were finally deprived of their lives, a figure provided for and sanctioned in article 141, paragraph 3, of the Penal Code of the time. The resolution adds that although it is true that those mentioned above were already indicted for the crime of homicide of the indicated persons, in case rol no. 2182-98 of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Mario Alvarado episode, a process in which a conviction was issued in the first instance and an acquittal for all of them in the second instance, it is no less true that the illicit act for which they were sentenced was aggravated homicide, with no pronouncement regarding the kidnapping and other crimes that occurred in the same events, and without prejudice to the fact that it is considered that regarding those, apparent or fraudulent res judicata would operate, so it appears amply justified to pursue the responsibility of Milton René Núñez Hidalgo, Héctor Manuel Rubén Orozco Sepúlveda, and Raúl Orlando Pascual Navarro Quintana for the illicit act to which this resolution refers. With Héctor Orozco Sepúlveda currently imprisoned at the Punta Peuco Penitentiary Compliance Center (CCP); and Milton Núñez Hidalgo and Raúl Navarro at the Colina 1 Penitentiary Compliance Center, "exhort the 34th Criminal Court of Santiago to notify them of this resolution, delivering a copy of it to them, and once done, order their entry as defendants in this case, also authorizing the exhorted court to grant the appeal in case it is filed."

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl, October 4, 2019

Regime lamented death in prison of dictatorship murderer, Héctor Orozco.

Former General Héctor Orozco died at age 93 in the Punta Peuco prison where he was serving a ten-year sentence for his responsibility in the murder during the civil-military dictatorship of Rigoberto del Carmen Achú Liendo and Absalón del Carmen Wegner Millar, on December 13, 1973, in the commune of San Felipe, an event that the regime lamented, indicating that they will insist on projects to pardon these criminals.

The criminal served as director of the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE) during the civil-military dictatorship and was convicted for his responsibility in the murder on December 13, 1973, of Rigoberto del Carmen Achú Liendo and Absolón del Carmen Wegner Millar.

The facts established in the case for which he was convicted indicate that the human rights violator of the dictatorship was in charge of a patrol of the then-Infantry Regiment No. 3 Yungay of San Felipe, taking the day of the crime from the jail those who would become his victims, a leader of the socialist party and another of the communist party, whom they riddled with bullets on the public thoroughfare by order of Orozco.

In principle, the former general was sentenced to serve an 18-year prison sentence for the crime by Judge Arancibia, a sentence that was reduced by the Valparaíso Court of Appeals to only 10 years, the same sentence shared by former military men Sergio Francisco Jara Arancibia and Pedro Luis Lovera Betancourt, as perpetrators.

For their part, former uniformed officers Raúl Orlando Pascual Navarro Quintana and Milton René Núñez Hidalgo were sentenced to 5 years. Orozco made news in 2018 when he tried to have Piñera pardon him alleging "humanitarian reasons," which was denied.

Upon learning of the death of the human rights violator, the regime, represented by the UDI's Víctor Pérez, lamented the death in prison of the military man, indicating that they are pushing bills to achieve the pardon of more people responsible for crimes against humanity of the civil-military dictatorship. "We deeply regret that a person dies in any prison, whatever it may be, as a result of an illness and also as a result of their advanced state, and that is why the government presented a humanitarian law that has not been able to advance in Congress," and recalled how Piñera pardoned two human rights violators a few weeks ago. In that line of impunity, Pérez stressed that they seek to include in pardon bills for those over 70 years old human rights violators of the civil-military dictatorship, pointing out that the regime "presented initiatives that were unfortunately rejected in Congress, so that people over 70 years old at risk of Covid, when it was possible to release or generate that people went to serve the rest of their sentences in prison, it was not allowed by the majority of Congress, that that could also be applied to those who had been Carabineros or military in the past." Finally, he concluded by lamenting not having the mechanisms for it: "we very much regret not having had those legal instruments that the Government presented in its opportunity to protect those who are in a risk condition, but that is the institutionality and we regret and we are going to continue, as the President has done, seeing the policy of particular pardons which is the instrument that he has at hand."

Source: ruil.cl, August 26, 2020