The Lautaro Brigade of the DINA was the extermination unit established by Manuel Contreras and directed by Army Major Juan Morales Salgado. This brigade operated from the clandestine barracks at Calle Simón Bolívar 8630.

The actions of this group of DINA agents known to date include the capture of the leadership of the Communist Party in 1976. The brigade operated with a contingent of more than 70 members, whose operational personnel carried out the gathering of information, arrests, interrogations/torture, execution, and the disappearance of the detainees' bodies.

For these purposes, they had access to a large infrastructure; in addition to the barracks themselves, they had a varied number of vehicles at their disposal, as well as access to Puma helicopters from the Army Aviation Command (CAE) that operated from Peldehue.

The members of the Lautaro Brigade came from the four branches of the Armed Forces, in addition to having some civilian agents attached to the various branches. Its composition was mostly non-commissioned officers.

The fact that there were at least seven agents from the Navy in this brigade makes it clear that the institution lied when it declared that the Navy withdrew all its personnel from the DINA in 1975. Another characteristic of the Lautaro Brigade is that it had a large number of women, who, as has been discovered, were characterized by their coldness and cruelty in the face of the crimes.

Several of them, due to their knowledge of medicine and nursing, cooperated in the experiments carried out in the chemical laboratory at Michael Townley's house in Lo Curro. Townley constantly attended the Calle Simón Bolívar barracks to experiment on detainees with the gas manufactured by the chemist Eugenio Berrios.

The information that has been recovered as of August 2007 emerged after the investigation of the "Calle Conferencia" case carried out by Judge Víctor Montiglio, who managed to establish the fate of a number of detainees from the Communist Party leadership, including the clandestine General Secretary of the PC, Víctor Manuel Díaz López, as well as Bernardo Araya Zuleta, María Olga Flores Barraza, Mario Zamorano Donoso, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, Uldarico Donaire Cortés, Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, Elisa Escobar Cepeda, Lenín Adán Díaz Silva, Eliana Espinoza Fernández, and Marta Lidia Ugarte Román. To date, it has been established that Víctor Manuel Díaz López was arrested in the early hours of May 12, 1976, at the house located at Calle Bello Horizonte No. 979, in the Las Condes district, days after the arrest of several PC leaders detained in the operation known as the "Ratonera" at Calle Conferencia No. 1587. Víctor Díaz was taken to the Villa Grimaldi torture center and subsequently transferred to "Casa de Piedra," another DINA torture center located in the Cajón del Maipo, a place where it is known that Augusto Pinochet visited Víctor Díaz and other PC leaders detained there. At the beginning of 1977, Manuel Contreras gave the order to Juan Morales Salgado to eliminate Víctor Díaz, and in compliance with that order, agents Sergio Escalona Acuña and Bernardo Daza Navarro took Díaz out of a cell and tied a plastic bag over his head, suffocating him, while the Army lieutenant (nurse) Gladys de las Mercedes Calderón Carreño injected him with cyanide. Subsequently, they proceeded to put the body into plastic bags, tie it up, attach a piece of rail to it, and put it into potato sacks, then tie it with wire to ensure the bindings would not open. The body was transported in vehicles to the Army regiment in Peldehue, where they had other executed victims brought from Villa Grimaldi and tied in the same way as Víctor Díaz. They loaded the bodies into the Army Aviation Command's Puma helicopter and departed for the coast of the Fifth Region to throw the bodies into the sea. This modus operandi of the Lautaro Brigade agents demonstrates the brutality and dehumanization of all its members. Below is the list of some of the agents of the Lautaro Brigade. 1 Acevedo Acevedo, Heriberto del Carmen - Carabineros - Sub-officer (Ret.) 2 Ahumada Despouy, Joyce Ana - Army - Sub-officer (Ret.) 3 Altamirano Sanhueza, Orlando del Tránsito - Navy - Sub-officer (Ret.) 4 Alvarez Droguett, Victor Manuel - Army - Sub-officer (Ret.) 5 Alvarez Vega, Hiro - Army - Sub-officer (Ret.) 6 Arriagada Mora, Jorge Hugo - FACH (Air Force) - Civilian employee (Ret.) 7 Aspe Rojas, Celinda Angélica - Navy - Sub-officer (Ret.) 8 Benavides Escobar, César Raúl - Army - General (Ret.) 9 Bermúdez Méndez, Carlos Justo - Army - Sub-officer (Ret.) 10 Bitterlich Jaramillo, Pedro Segundo - Army - Sub-officer (Ret.) 11 Cabezas Mardones, Eduardo Patricio - FACH (Air Force) - Sub-officer (Ret.) 12 Calderón Carreño, Gladys de las Mercedes - Army - Officer (Ret.) and nurse 13 Castro Andrade, Sergio Hernán - Carabineros - Sub-officer (Ret.) 14 Chaigneau Sepúlveda, Federico Humberto - Army - Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.) 15 Daza Navarro, Bernardo del Rosario - Navy - Sub-officer (Ret.) 16 Díaz Radulovich, Jorge Iván - FACH (Air Force) - Sub-officer (Ret.) 17 Díaz Ramírez, Guillermo Eduardo - FACH (Air Force) - Sub-officer (Ret.) 18 Escalona Acuña, Sergio Orlando - Navy - Sub-officer (Ret.) 19 Escobar Fuentes, Jorge Marcelo - Army - Brigadier (Ret.) 20 Ferrán Martínez, Guillermo Jesús - Army - Sub-officer (Ret.) 21 Garea Guzmán, Eduardo - Army - Civilian employee (Ret.) 22 Guerrero Aguilera, Gustavo Enrique - Carabineros - Sub-officer (Ret.) 23 Guerrero Soto, María Angélica - Army - Sub-officer (Ret.) 24 Gutiérrez Valdés, Pedro Antonio - Army - Sub-officer (Ret.) 25 Jaime Astorga, Rufino Eduardo - Carabineros - Sub-officer (Ret.) 26 Jímenez Escobar, Berta Yolanda - Navy - Sub-officer (Ret.) 27 Krassnoff Martchenko, Miguel - Army - Brigadier (Ret.) 28 Lagos Yañez, Luis Alberto - FACH (Air Force) - Civilian employee (Ret.) 29 Lawrence Mires, Ricardo Víctor - Carabineros - Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.) 30 López Tapia, Carlos José - Army - Colonel (Ret.) and Army Professor 31 Magna Astudillo, Elisa del Carmen - Army - Officer (Ret.) 32 Manríquez Manterola, Jorge Lientur - Navy - Sub-officer (Ret.) 33 Marcos Muñoz, Carlos Segundo - Civilian - attached to the Army 34 Meza Serrano, José Miguel - Navy - Sub-officer (Ret.) 35 Montre Méndez, Manuel Antonio - Carabineros - Sub-officer (Ret.) 36 Morales Salgado, Juan Hernán - Army - Colonel (Ret.) and Army Professor 37 Navarro Navarro, Teresa del Carmen - Navy - Sub-officer (Ret.) 38 Obreque Henríquez, Manuel Jesús - Army - Sub-officer (Ret.) 39 Ojeda Obando, José Alfonso - Carabineros - Sub-officer (Ret.) 40 Orellana de la Pinta, Claudio Orlando - Carabineros - Sub-officer (Ret.) 41 Oyarce Riquelme, Eduardo Alejandro - Army - Sub-officer (Ret.) 42 Pacheco Fernández, Claudio Enrique - Carabineros - Sub-officer (Ret.) 43 Pichunmán Curiqueo, Jorge Segundo - Carabineros - Sub-officer (Ret.) 44 Piña Garrido, Juvenal Alfonso - Army - Sub-officer (Ret.) 45 Reyes Lagos, Eduardo Antonio - Army - Sub-officer (Ret.) 46 Rinaldi Suárez, Carlos Ramón - Army - Sub-officer (Ret.) 47 Rivas González, Adriana Elcira - FACH (Air Force) - Sub-officer (Ret.) 48 Riveros Valderrama, René Miguel - Army - Officer (Ret.) 49 Saavedra Vásquez, Orfa Yolanda - Army - Sub-officer (Ret.) 50 Sagardía Monje, Jorge Laureano - Carabineros - Sub-officer (Ret.) 51 Sarmiento Sotelo, José Manuel - Carabineros - Sub-officer (Ret.) 52 Silva Vergara, Marilin Melahani - Carabineros - Sub-officer (Ret.) 53 Sovino Maturana, Hernán Luis - Army - Captain (Ret.) 54 Torrejón Gatica, Orlando Jesús - Army - Sub-officer (Ret.) 55 Troncoso Vivallos, Emilio Hernán - Carabineros - Sub-officer (Ret.) 56 Urrutia Acuña, Luis Arturo - Carabineros - Sub-officer (Ret.) 57 Vacarella Gilio, Italia Donata - Carabineros - Sub-officer (Ret.) 58 Valdebenito Araya, Héctor Manuel - Carabineros - Sub-officer (Ret.) 59 Vilches Muñoz, Ana del Carmen - FACH (Air Force) - Civilian employee (Ret.)

Source: AFDD, La Nacion, El Mostrador, Punto Final, Memoria Viva archives

Press

Calle Conferencia 1: DINA agents sentenced for kidnapping of leaders and homicide of PC General Secretary

The minister on special assignment for human rights violation cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vázquez Plaza, sentenced 53 former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the completed crimes of eight qualified kidnappings and one qualified homicide of Communist Party leaders, detained within the framework of the so-called "Calle Conferencia 1" case.

In the ruling, the presiding judge issued a sentence against the former state agents for their responsibility, as authors or accomplices, in the crime of qualified kidnapping of Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, Uldarico Donaire Cortez, Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, Lenin Adán Díaz Silva, Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández, and Víctor Manuel Díaz López; and the homicide of Díaz López.

These crimes were perpetrated in 1976 in the Metropolitan Region. In the resolution, the minister sentenced:

• Carlos José Leonardo López Tapia and Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko to 20 years in prison as authors of the crimes of qualified kidnapping of: Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso and Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, perpetrated starting May 4, 1976; of Uldarico Donaire Cortez and Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, committed starting May 5, 1976; of Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, perpetrated starting May 6, 1976; of Lenin Adán Díaz Silva, committed starting May 9, 1976; of Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández, perpetrated starting May 12, 1976; and of Víctor Manuel Díaz López, perpetrated starting May 12, 1976.
• Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires must serve 20 years in prison as the author of the eight crimes of qualified kidnapping; and 15 years in prison as a co-author of the qualified homicide of Víctor Díaz López, perpetrated on an undetermined day in the first half of January 1977.
• Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo, Emilio Hernán Troncoso Vivallos, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich, Orlando del Tránsito Altamirano Sanhueza, Eduardo Patricio Cabezas Mardones, Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, Guillermo Eduardo Díaz Ramírez, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, Carlos Enrique Miranda Mesa, Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza, and Lionel de la Cruz Medrano Medrano Rivas must serve 13 years in prison as co-authors of the crimes of qualified kidnapping of Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, Uldarico Donaire Cortez, Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, and Víctor Manuel Díaz López; and as accomplices to the crime of qualified kidnapping of Lenin Adán Díaz Silva and Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández.
• Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido must serve 13 years in prison as a co-author of the crimes of qualified kidnapping of Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, Uldarico Donaire Cortez, Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, and Víctor Manuel Díaz López; and as an accomplice to the crime of qualified kidnapping of Lenin Adán Díaz Silva and Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández; in addition to 12 years in prison as a co-author of the qualified homicide of Víctor Díaz López.
• José Alfonso Ojeda Obando was sentenced to 11 years in prison as a co-author of the crimes of qualified kidnapping of Víctor Manuel Díaz López and Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández; and as an accomplice to the crimes of qualified kidnapping of Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, Uldarico Donaire Cortez, Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, and Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda.
• José Domingo Seco Alarcón was sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison as a co-author of the crime of qualified kidnapping of Víctor Manuel Díaz López and as an accomplice to the crimes of qualified kidnapping of Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, Uldarico Donaire Cortez, Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, and Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández.
• Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel and Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno must serve 7 years in prison as accomplices to the crimes of qualified kidnapping of Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, Uldarico Donaire Cortez, Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, Víctor Manuel Díaz López, Lenin Adán Díaz Silva, and Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández.
• Juan Hernán Morales Salgado must serve 8 years and 15 years in prison as a co-author of the crimes of qualified kidnapping and qualified homicide of Víctor Díaz López, respectively.
• Jorge Claudio Andrade Gómez was sentenced to 6 years in prison as a co-author of the crime of qualified kidnapping of Víctor Manuel Díaz López.
• Sergio Orlando Escalona Acuña, Gladys de las Mercedes Calderón Carreño, and Jorge Segundo Pichunmán Curiqueo were sentenced to 5 years and one day and 12 years in prison as co-authors of the qualified kidnapping and qualified homicide of Víctor Díaz López, respectively.
• Nelson René Herrera Lagos, Héctor Raúl Valdebenito Araya, Federico Humberto Chaigneau Sepúlveda, Elisa del Carmen Magna Astudillo, Orfa Yolanda Saavedra Vásquez, Celinda Angélica Aspe Rojas, Teresa del Carmen Navarro Navarro, Berta Yolanda del Carmen Jiménez Escobar, Jorge Hugo Arriagada Mora, Eduardo Oyarce Riquelme, Ana del Carmen Vilches Muñoz, Italia Donata Vaccarella Gilio, Jorge Lientur Manríquez Manterola, José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, Gustavo Enrique Guerrero Aguilera, Luis Alberto Lagos Yáñez, María Angélica Guerrero Soto, Sergio Hernán Castro Andrade, Pedro Antonio Gutiérrez Valdés, Joyce Ana Ahumada Despouy, Hiro Álvarez Vega, José Miguel Meza Serrano, Carlos Justo Bermúdez Méndez, Marilín Melahani Silva Vergara, Camilo Torres Negrier, and Juan Edmundo Suazo Saldaña were sentenced to 3 years and one day in prison as accomplices to the crime of qualified kidnapping of Víctor Díaz López.

Meanwhile, agents Jorge Segundo Madariaga Acevedo, Hugo Hernán Clavería Leiva, José Javier Soto Torres, Raúl Alberto Soto Pérez, Juan Carlos Escobar Valenzuela, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Pedro Mora Villanueva, and Jorge Marcelo Escobar Fuentes were acquitted.

The facts During the investigation stage of the case, Minister Miguel Vázquez managed to establish the following facts: "1.- That the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), at the end of 1975 or the beginning of 1976, underwent an operational evolution, resulting in a restructuring of its various groups, at which point the objective became the persecution and repression of the Communist Party.

The Barriga group, which was tasked with combating that party, operated in the Villa Grimaldi barracks, and the Lawrence group operated in parallel, in a first stage, at the Venecia barracks; and, without prejudice to the foregoing, the repressive operations were carried out in a coordinated and joint manner. 2.- That, circumscribed within such a context, agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), on April 30, 1976, around 03:00 hours, went to the residence at Calle Conferencia No. 1587, Santiago commune, knowing that a meeting of the Communist Party leadership would take place, and arrested its occupants, Juan Becerra Barrera, his spouse María Angélica Gutiérrez Gómez, and her cousin Eliana Vidal; they were taken to various secret DINA establishments, where they were intimidated and interrogated under duress in order to provide information regarding the people who were going to or were supposed to attend their home and, in particular, regarding Mario Zamorano Donoso and Víctor Díaz López, among other communist militants. 3.- That, once the information handled by the agents was corroborated, the occupants were returned to the Calle Conferencia residence to be forced to appear to live a life of daily normality, under the supervision of security agents armed with submachine guns, who set up an operation called "Ratonera," with 5 agents remaining inside the place, who took turns in stealthy and covert anticipation of the arrival of each of the members of the Communist Party who would attend the meeting, with the aim of arresting them. 4.- That, in parallel, an operation of similar characteristics was also set up at the home of Juan Becerra Barrera's mother, Mrs. María de las Mercedes Barrera Pérez, who on occasions hosted Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso at her house located at Calle Alejandro Fierro No. 5113, Quinta Normal commune; an operation that was carried out simultaneously and in coordination with the one at Calle Conferencia, and in which at least 20 DINA officials participated together. 5.- That, in such a scenario, at approximately 19:00 hours on May 4, 1976, Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso arrived at the Calle Conferencia property; he was a friend of the tenant, a leather worker, and belonged to the Communist Party, first as a member of the Communist Youth and later of the Communist Party, becoming the National Organization Manager of said party in 1973. He was pursued by the security services, and upon entering the house, as a result of a struggle with DINA agents, he was wounded by a bullet in the thigh. As he was bleeding, he was taken to one of the rooms at the back of the house so as not to obstruct the operation, and was later taken out at night, wrapped in a blanket, and transported to the Villa Grimaldi or Terranova detention barracks, located at Avenida José Arrieta No. 8200, La Reina commune, where he remained and was seen deprived of liberty by other detainees at that time, such as Máximo Vásquez Garay (detained in Villa Grimaldi from August 11, 1976, who identified him physically and by his thigh wound), and data provided by Edwin Bustos Streter, DINA agents Carlos Ramón Rinaldi Suarez, Guido Arnoldo Jara Brevis, and Eduardo Antonio Reyes Lagos; Police Report No. 103 and reports on page 8286 and 8290, issued by the Documentation and Archive Foundation of the Vicaría de la Solidaridad. His current whereabouts are unknown. 6.- That, around 21:00 hours on the same day, May 4, 1976, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays arrived at the Calle Conferencia property; he was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, and upon being identified as the husband of Gladys Marín, he was arrested, led inside the property, and finally transported to the Villa Grimaldi barracks, according to the information provided by former security agents Carlos Ramón Rinaldi Suárez, Guido Arnoldo Jara Brevis, and data incorporated by the reports on pages 8286 and 8290, issued by the Documentation and Archive Foundation of the Vicaría de la Solidaridad. His current whereabouts are unknown. 7.- That, the following day, May 5, 1976, Uldarico Donaire Cortez (also known as Rafael Cortez) arrived at the aforementioned Calle Conferencia property around 09:00 hours, and Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño arrived around 09:30 hours; both were members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, and as soon as they entered, they were immobilized and arrested; then taken out in vehicles, handcuffed, guarded by agents, and transported to the Villa Grimaldi barracks, according to the information provided by former security agents Carlos Ramón Rinaldi Suárez, Eduardo Antonio Reyes Lagos, Guido Arnoldo Jara Brevis; and reports on pages 8290, 8297, and 8301, issued by the Documentation and Archive Foundation of the Vicaría de la Solidaridad. Their current whereabouts are unknown. 8.- That, in the same way, on May 6, 1976, between 13:00 and 14:00 hours, the liaison Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, known as "Marcela" or "La Chica Elisa," a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, was arrested by DINA agents at the same property and using the same procedure; she was also taken to the Villa Grimaldi barracks, according to the information provided by former security agents Carlos Ramón Rinaldi Suárez and Guido Arnoldo Jara Brevis; witness Sergio Helio Ovalle Farias, and reports on pages 8290 and 8305, issued by the Documentation and Archive Foundation of the Vicaría de la Solidaridad. Her current whereabouts are unknown. 9.- That the Chilean government of the time, given the search efforts made by the victims' families, reported that Mario Zamorano Donoso and Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays had left the country for Argentina, false data that was not confirmed by the Argentine authorities; which is illustrative of a preparation and concertation that escapes the scope to which operational agents can access, evidencing a participation of the higher echelons of the DINA in the planning of the intelligence operation, which is corroborated by Police Report No. 907 in relation to reports No. 531 and No. 603 of the Interpol National Central Bureau of the Investigative Police of Chile. 10.- That, on May 9, 1976, around 09:00 hours, Lenín Adán Díaz Silva, a member of the Technical Commission of the Communist Party, in charge of contacts between members of the Central Committee and searching for houses for meetings or for the protection of Party members, was arrested by DINA agents at the property owned by his father-in-law, José Apolonio Ramírez Ortega, located at Calle Gaspar de Orense No. 993, Quinta Normal commune, from where he left for an unknown destination, together with the already detained Elisa Escobar and a DINA agent, to be seen later deprived of liberty at the Villa Grimaldi barracks by the also detained Isaac Godoy Castillo (who shared a cell with Lenín Díaz on Tuesday the 24th, Wednesday the 25th, and Thursday the 26th of August 1976), which is corroborated by Humilde Apolonia Ramírez Caballero; report on page 8305 provided by the Documentation and Archive Foundation of the Vicaría de la Solidaridad, Police Report No. 103, police reports No. 117 and 973, among other data from the case. His current whereabouts are unknown. 11.- That, on May 12, 1976, Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández, with the political names "Sara" and "Ana," a member of the National Propaganda Commission of the Communist Party and a liaison between Mario Zamorano and Víctor Díaz (who had already been previously sought by Elisa Escobar), upon learning of the raid on the home of some architects, decided to take the risk and leave her refuge at Calle Adorno No. 648 in order to warn Víctor Díaz López. In such a scenario, she left the house very nervous, around 17:00 hours, using her sister's clothes so as not to be recognized, and accompanied by her brother-in-law Hernán Rivera Delgado, who took her to the sector of Independencia and Nueva de Matte to take public transport to a destination she did not reveal, at which point she was arrested at an undetermined point by DINA agents to be taken to the Villa Grimaldi detention barracks, where she remained deprived of liberty, which is evidenced by the existing connection between her and the rest of the detained members of the same group, as well as by the modus operandi of that time, in accordance with the data provided by Ninfa Ana Espinoza Fernández, Juan Espinoza Vega, Humilde Apolonia Ramírez Caballero, and Sandra Eugenia Vila Macchiavello, and the report from the Investigations information department on page 4745. Her current whereabouts are unknown. 12.- That, in the early hours of May 12, 1976, DINA agents, in an operation called "The Night of the Long Knives," raided the home at Calle Bello Horizonte No. 979, Las Condes commune, at which time its occupants and eyewitnesses to the events, Jorge Canto Fuenzalida, his wife Sandra Eugenia Vila Macchiavello, and their daughters, were abruptly awakened with the phrase "We are from the DINA," intimidated with submachine guns, and forced to show the interior of the house, a place where they discovered the General Secretary of the Communist Party, Víctor Manuel Díaz López, nicknamed "Chino Díaz" and using the assumed name "José Santos Garrido Retamal," who had been in hiding since September 11, 1973, and had been sought for a long time by the security services, as evidenced by the various raids to which his family was subjected and the testimonies of Viviana Elisa Díaz Caro, Héctor Aureliano Zúñiga Muñoz, and José Alejandro Cifuentes Calderón, among others. 13.- That, once Víctor Díaz López was discovered in one of the rooms of the property, he was forced to walk, revealing his limp, for which he was insulted and beaten severely with fists; he was arrested, interrogated, and forced to leave the property under the pretext, as communicated to the owners of the house, that he would be taken to the "Cuatro Álamos" detention center and returned to the property, probably the following day. 14.- That, after his arrest, Víctor Díaz López was taken to the Villa Grimaldi barracks, where he was interrogated and tortured in order to make him give up other members of the party, given the "Modus Operandi" of that time used to dismantle political parties, and the data provided by the detainees of that time, Isaac Godoy Castillo, Pedro Rolando Jara Alegría, Emilio Iribarren Ledermann, Horacio Renato Silva Balbontín, Rosa Elsa Leiva Muñoz, and Leonardo Alberto Scheneider Jordán; and DINA agents Eduardo Antonio Reyes Lagos and Carlos Ramón Rinaldi Suárez, among others. 15.- That the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), on an unspecified date, but from the end of 1975 or the beginning of 1976, occupied and enabled the property at Calle Simón Bolívar No. 8800, La Reina commune, consisting of a country house, which was later conditioned for its purpose of confinement. It had a single access gate, a guard booth to its right where the door guard was stationed, a house at the back, a small soccer field, parking lots, and on the left side of the property a kind of gymnasium where there was a canteen, kitchen, and some dressing rooms and bathrooms; a property in which the Lautaro Brigade, in charge of Major Juan Morales Salgado, operated as a secret and clandestine place of confinement, which in practice operated as an extermination barracks; a situation that is recognized by the agents themselves who were members of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA). 16.- That, in such a scenario, at the end of August or the beginning of September 1976, the DINA groups in charge of officers Germán Barriga and Ricardo Lawrence moved to the Simón Bolívar barracks, together with their operational agents, who continued with the work of investigating, locating, raiding, pursuing, repressing, and dismantling the members of the Communist Party, especially its leadership, for which provisional facilities were enabled for their installation, consisting of offices, a gymnasium, and dressing rooms that were used as prison cells, where interrogations and duress were carried out; a facility to which Víctor Manuel Díaz López was transferred together with said brigades, and where he remained for at least four months in a regime of confinement, permanently guarded, interrogated, and used by the agents who operated in said barracks to locate others in hiding; without prejudice to the privileges he obtained, such as television, a nightstand, and a radio, for collaborating at least apparently with the DINA agents, as a result of the duress to which he was subjected; at which time the groups of Morales, Barriga, and Lawrence formed a single unit; which is why there are so many testimonies in the case files that account for his stay in such barracks, among them Hugo Luis Castillo Ovalle, Jorgelino del Carmen Vergara Bravo, Carlos Segundo Marcos Muñoz, Jorge Laureano Sagardía Monje, Guillermo Jesús Ferrán Martínez, Claudio Orlando Orellana de la Pinta, and Eduardo Antonio Reyes Lagos. 17.- That all the victims of the process were arrested to be interrogated and tortured by reason of their political militancy, with the aim of obtaining information about their party activities and, in particular, the subsequent identification of other members of the Communist Party in hiding; duress that did not cease until the required information was obtained or until the victims lost consciousness. 18.- That, once it was considered that Víctor Díaz López had nothing more to contribute, DINA agents proceeded, in compliance with an execution order issued by the institution's superior and transmitted by the barracks chief to his subordinates, to kill Víctor Manuel Díaz López while he was inside a cell at the Simón Bolívar barracks, which took place during an afternoon on an undetermined day in the first half of January 1977. 19.- That, to kill him, the joint action of several agents of the barracks was used, who covered his head with a plastic bag and tied it to his neck, preventing him from breathing, which caused his death by asphyxiation, according to what was revealed by eyewitness Eduardo Antonio Reyes Lagos; by hearsay witnesses Carlos Segundo Marcos Muñoz, Jorge Laureano Sagardía Monje, Claudio Orlando Orellana de la Pinta; data provided by the accused (exclusively for kidnapping crimes), Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich, Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, Eduardo Alejandro Oyarce Riquelme, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando; by what was reported through the newspaper "El Siglo," and even by the self-confessed author, Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido. Once his death was confirmed, the perpetrators put the corpse into two thick polyethylene bags, one for the head and one for the feet, which they tied with wires around his waist, attaching it to a piece of rail, as it was the method used so that the bodies in the sea would go to depth and not be found, by virtue of what was accused by Jorgelino del Carmen Vergara Bravo, Jorge Laureano Sagardía Monje, and data provided by Juan Carlos Molina Herrera and Police Report No. 1615, among other data from the case. 20.- That, immediately afterward, the corpse was put into two burlap sacks, one for the head and one for the extremities, joined with wires, loaded into the trunk of a brigade vehicle, and transported to the Peldehue sector, where it was loaded onto a helicopter that departed for the high seas, being thrown from the heights at an undetermined point; a circumstance that is proven by the testimonies of Jorgelino del Carmen Vergara Bravo, Carlos Segundo Marcos Muñoz, Jorge Laureano Sagardía Monje, information provided by the newspaper "El Siglo," police reports No. 973 and 242, police reports No. 907, statements of the accused (exclusively for kidnapping crimes) Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo, Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, and even by Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda himself on page 4343 when declaring: "...that there were more than 400 thrown into the sea, although not by the DINA." 21.- That the administrative government authority denied the arrests of all the victims in the case, reporting through the Confidential Department of the Ministry of the Interior that they were not detained by order of the Ministry, except for the peculiar situation of Víctor Díaz López, in which, by Exempt Decree No. 2052 of May 12, 1976, the arrest of "José Santos Garrido Retamal" at the Cuatro Álamos Camp was noted, with his release being recorded by Exempt Decree No. 2054 of May 13, 1976, which is clarified by an official letter on page 4373, establishing that Víctor Díaz López and José Santos Garrido Retamal correspond to the same person, in accordance with what was stated by his spouse. 22.- That the throwing of bodies into the sea was a systematic practice used by security agents from the beginning of 1974 until 1978, which is proven by the different accounts of the personnel of the Army Aviation Command, among others, aviation mechanics and those in charge of maintenance, who account for those operations called "Military Secrets," in which they describe the way in which the bundles were loaded, preferably into Puma SA 330 models; the places from where the flights started, the coastal areas toward which they headed, and the way in which the bundles called "Packages" were thrown into the sea from the heights, either through a hatch in the center of the platform that was removed or through the side doors; a conclusion that is consistent with the joint reading of the accounts of Juan Carlos Molina Herrera, Bernardo de la Cruz Sepúlveda Lara, José Miguel Cabezas Flores, Ernesto Samuel Araneda Ortiz, Juan Jesús Pacheco Figueroa, Sergio del Carmen Castro Cano, Marcos Segundo Cáceres Rivera, Eufemio Segundo Pérez Vargas, Rigoberto Saavedra Navarro, Gabriel Enrique Saldaña Molina, Juan Domingo Pérez Collao, Juan Alfonso Díaz Morales, Julio Cesar Urbina Muñoz, and José Domingo Ávila; information provided by police report No. 1654; and testimonies of the Sub-commissioners of the Investigative Police Sandro Gonzalo Gaete Escobar and Abel Alfonso Lizama Pino." In the civil aspect, the presiding judge ordered the State of Chile to pay total compensation of $3,460,000,000 (three billion four hundred sixty million pesos) to the victims' families.

Source: AdPrensa, Dec 3, 2018

Santiago Court increases sentence for former DINA agents for their responsibility in qualified kidnappings and homicides of victims of Operation Condor

The Eleventh Chamber of the appellate court modified the trial court's ruling and sentenced a total of 22 former DINA agents for their responsibility in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated homicide committed in Chile and abroad.

The Santiago Court of Appeals increased the sentences to be served by 22 former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for the aggravated kidnappings of Jorge Fuentes Alarcón, Julio Valladares Caroca, Juan Hernández Zazpe, Manuel Tamayo Martínez, Luis Muñoz Velásquez, Alexei Jaccard Siegler, and Héctor Velásquez Mardones, and the aggravated homicides of Ricardo Ramírez Herrera, Jacobo Stoulman Bartnik, Matilde Pessa Mois, Hernán Soto González, and Ruiter Correa Arce.

These crimes were perpetrated within the framework of the so-called “Operation Condor,” a cooperation agreement between the repressive groups of Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Uruguay in the 1970s.

In the ruling (case file 4.545-2019), the Eleventh Chamber of the appellate court—composed of justices Jessica González, Loreto Gutiérrez, and Jaime Balmaceda—modified the trial court's convictions and increased the criminal penalties for the former agents involved in the crimes committed both in Chile and abroad.

1) Agents Cristoph Willike Floel and Raúl Iturriaga Neumann must serve a 20-year prison sentence as authors of the aggravated kidnappings of Jorge Fuentes Alarcón, Julio Valladares Caroca, Juan Hernández Zazpe, Manuel Tamayo Martínez, Luis Muñoz Velásquez, Alexei Jaccard Siegler, and Héctor Velásquez Mardones, and a 20-year sentence as authors of the aggravated homicides of Ricardo Ramírez Herrera, Jacobo Stoulman Bartnik, Matilde Pessa Mois, Hernán Soto González, and Ruiter Correa Arce.

2) Agent Juan Morales Salgado was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the aggravated kidnappings of Alexei Jaccard Siegler and Héctor Velásquez Mardones, and 20 years in prison for the aggravated homicides of Ricardo Ramírez Herrera, Jacobo Stoulman Bartnik, and Matilde Pessa Mois.

3) Meanwhile, agent Pedro Espinoza Bravo must serve a 20-year prison sentence for the aggravated kidnappings of Julio Valladares Caroca, Manuel Tamayo Martínez, Alexei Jaccard Siegler, and Héctor Velásquez Mardones; and a 20-year prison sentence for the aggravated homicides of Ricardo Ramírez Herrera, Jacobo Stoulman Bartnik, Matilde Pessa Mois, Hernán Soto González, and Ruiter Correa Arce.

4) Jorge Escobar Fuentes, Federico Chaigneau Sepúlveda, and Miguel Riveros Valderrama will serve an 18-year prison sentence for the kidnappings of Alexei Jaccard Siegler and Héctor Velásquez Mardones; and an 18-year prison sentence for the aggravated homicides of Ricardo Ramírez Herrera, Jacobo Stoulman Bartnik, Matilde Pessa Mois, Hernán Soto González, and Ruiter Correa Arce.

5) Agent Gladys Calderón Carreño was sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison for the aggravated kidnappings of Alexei Jaccard Siegler and Héctor Velásquez Mardones; and 15 years and one day in prison for the aggravated homicides of Ricardo Ramírez Herrera, Jacobo Stoulman Bartnik, Matilde Pessa Mois, Hernán Soto González, and Ruiter Correa Arce.

6) Agents Jose Ojeda Obando and Eduardo Oyarce Riquelme will serve a 5-year and one-day prison sentence for the aggravated kidnappings of Alexei Jaccard Siegler and Héctor Velásquez Mardones; and a 10-year and one-day prison sentence for the aggravated homicides of Ricardo Ramírez Herrera, Jacobo Stoulman Bartnik, and Matilde Pessa Mois.

7) Miguel Krasnoff Martchenko and Gerardo Godoy García will serve 15 years and one day in prison for the aggravated kidnapping of Jorge Fuentes Alarcón.

8) Agent Hermon Alfaro Mundaca was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the aggravated kidnapping of Jorge Fuentes Alarcón. José Fuentes Torres, Jorge Andrade Gómez, José Aravena Ruiz, Luis Torres Méndez, María Gabriela Órdenes Montecinos, Osvaldo Pulgar Gallardo, and Rodolfo Concha Rodríguez, who had been acquitted in the first-instance ruling, were sentenced to the same penalty for the same crime.

9) Finally, Jerónimo Neira Méndez and Manuel Rivas Díaz must serve a 3-year and one-day prison sentence for the aggravated kidnapping of Jorge Fuentes Alarcón.

The Court shared the first-instance criterion regarding the participation of those convicted in the case, as there were real and proven facts regarding their participation in the events, whether as inducing authors or direct authors of the crimes attributed to each.

“Regarding the convictions and, specifically, in relation to those defendants whose participation was classified as co-authorship, the Court agrees with the conclusion reached by the first-instance judge, in that with the background information collected 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 conviction that the defendants Cristoph Georg Willeke Floel, Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann, Juan Hernán Morales Salgado, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Jorge Marcelo Escobar Fuentes, Federico Humberto Chaigneau Sepúlveda, Miguel René Riveros Valderrama, Gladys de las Mercedes Calderón Carreño, Carlos José Leonardo López Tapia, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Eduardo Alejandro Oyarce Riquelme, Héctor Raúl Valdebenito Araya, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Ciro Ernesto Torré Sáez, and Orlando José Manzo Durán intervened as co-authors, in the terms of Nos. 1, 2, and 3 of Article 15 of the Penal Code, as specified in each case, of the repeated crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Jorge Isaac Fuentes Alarcón, Juan Humberto Hernández Zazpe, Manuel Jesús Tamayo Martínez, Luis Gonzalo Muñoz Velásquez, Julio del Tránsito Valladares Caroca, Alexei Vladimir Jaccard Siegler, and Héctor Heraldo Velásquez Mardones, and of aggravated homicide of Ricardo Ignacio Ramírez Herrera, Jacobo Stoulman Bortnik, Matilde Pessa Mois, Hernán Soto Gálvez, and Ruiter Correa Arce,” the ruling states.

It adds: “Indeed, in the case of those who were part of the Exterior Department of the National Intelligence Directorate—Willeke Floel, Iturriaga Neumann, and Espinoza Bravo—in the twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth, thirty-first, thirty-second, thirty-fourth, and thirty-fifth foundations, all the evidentiary background on which the charges are based is set forth one by one, and it is correctly concluded that the form of authorship applicable to each of them is that of No. 1 of Article 15 of the Penal Code for the first-named, having taken part in the execution of the acts immediately and directly, and of No. 2 in relation to the remaining two, as it was demonstrated that they forced or directly induced others to execute them.

The same applies to the agents of the National Intelligence Directorate who were part of the so-called Lautaro Brigade, which operated in the barracks located at Calle Simón Bolívar No. 8630 in the commune of La Reina, in relation to the aggravated kidnappings of victims Jaccard Siegler and Velásquez Mardones and the aggravated homicides of victims Ramírez Herrera, Stoulman Bortnik, and Pessa Mois, that is, the convicted Valdebenito Araya, Morales Salgado, Oyarce Riquelme, and Ojeda Obando; and the sentenced Calderón Carreño, Riveros Valderrama, Chaigneau Sepúlveda, and Escobar Fuentes in these same illicit acts and also in the aggravated homicides of victims Soto Gálvez and Correa Arce.

The thirty-seventh, thirty-ninth, forty-fourth, and fifty-fourth foundations, regarding the first four, and the forty-second, forty-seventh, fiftieth, and fifty-second motives, in relation to the remaining four, provide a detailed account of the background information according to which it is possible to deduce with certainty that at the time of the events, these defendants were part, as operational agents, of the National Intelligence Directorate brigade that carried out the kidnapping of Communist Party militants, among whose members were the persons just named, such that, although some of them did not remember their specific names, it is indisputable to conclude, as the lower court does, that they took part in their illegitimate deprivation of liberty, in some cases, and their homicide, in others, whether immediately and directly, or by forcing or directly inducing others to execute these acts, in the manner provided for in the aforementioned Nos. 1 and 2 of the cited Article 15 and that, therefore, they are punishable co-authors of these illicit acts.

In turn, the defendants Godoy García and Krassnoff Martchenko, agents of the National Intelligence Directorate assigned to the so-called Cuartel Terranova or Villa Grimaldi and convicted for the aggravated kidnapping of the victim Jorge Isaac Fuentes Alarcón, are also authors in the terms of No. 1 of the same Article 15, as chiefs of operational groups—Tucán and Halcón respectively—in charge of the dismantling of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) through the kidnapping and homicide of its members, one of whom was the aforementioned Fuentes Alarcón, who, as stated, was illegitimately deprived of liberty in the town of Enramada in the Republic of Paraguay and transferred first to Cuatro Álamos and then to Villa Grimaldi, the latter being the place where, according to numerous pieces of evidence reviewed in the first-instance ruling, he was interrogated and subjected to torture to obtain information about the organization in which he was a militant, activities in which the chiefs of the aforementioned operational groups evidently had to participate, and which abundant evidence also indicates they directed these interrogations. In these capacities as direct interrogators or indirect custodians of a person who, after being kidnapped, was kept deprived of liberty in Villa Grimaldi, it must be concluded that, as in the previous cases, despite not remembering the specific name of the victim Jorge Isaac Fuentes Alarcón, the defendants Godoy García and Krassnoff Martchenko took part in his kidnapping immediately and directly in the manner provided for in No. 1 of Article 15 of the Penal Code.

It should be noted that according to this rule, in what is of interest, those who take part in the execution of the act immediately and directly are considered authors; and the truth is that in the case of the crime of kidnapping, the execution of the typical conduct is not exhausted with the act of—to put it one way—the material or physical “apprehension” of the kidnapped person, but continues to be executed, and therefore the crime is in the process of consummation as long as the illegitimate confinement or illegitimate deprivation of liberty lasts.

Consequently, those who perform acts that allow that state to be perpetuated are strictly executing the conduct described by the type, regardless of the prior agreement that may or may not have mediated with other participants.

In other words, their acts are not simple facilitation of means for the execution or mere presence without taking direct part in it (in which case the determination of the eventual prior agreement to qualify the intervention as authorship or complicity would be relevant, according to what is provided by Articles 15 No. 3 and 16 of the Penal Code), but are executive acts proper to authorship.

For the same reason, whoever forces or induces another to execute any of these acts is evidently a mediate author in the terms of No. 2 of Article 15 and their conduct, therefore, is also punishable.

Under such conditions, we agree with the first-instance judge when he concludes that those who were accused as co-author executors of the crime of aggravated kidnapping or as mediate co-authors of the same effectively hold such status, since the conduct displayed by each of them, as was proven, satisfies the requirements of the type of Article 141 of the Penal Code, in relation to the first part of No. 1 of Article 15 of the same legal body and No. 2 of that precept.”

Civil Reparations

In the civil aspect, the amounts of the indemnities for some of the victims' relatives were modified, and two new reparation measures requested by the spouse of Alexei Jaccard Siegler were accepted: ordering the State to allocate the sum of $15,000,000 so that, through the Ministry of Education, books on the subject of Human Rights can be acquired, which must be delivered equitably to all public schools in the commune of Chiguayante, and that a plaque be installed in a visible place in the libraries of each of them informing of the existence of such books and that they were delivered in memory of Alexei Jaccard Siegler, a victim of human rights violations during the military dictatorship.

In addition, the State of Chile must deliver $75,000,000 to the University of Concepción so that it may institute the “Alexei Jaccard Siegler” award, which will be granted annually to a regular student of that institution who develops research on the subject of Human Rights in the context of their studies at the University of Concepción, and which will amount to the equivalent in pesos of 100 Unidades de Fomento, with the University itself having to regulate the requirements, prerequisites, and conditions of the work.

The Facts

During the investigation stage, Justice Mario Carroza established:

• That as a result of the events that occurred in the country on September 11, 1973, the Military Government formally instituted on November 25, 1975, in a meeting held in the city of Santiago, Chile, a plan for the coordination of actions and mutual support between the leaders of the intelligence services of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Chile, intended to destabilize opponents of the regimes assumed by the Armed Forces and Order;

• That this link generated in a state and immediate manner a reality that had already been forged in concrete actions between the aforementioned countries, that is, surveillance, detentions, interrogations under torture, transfer between countries, disappearance, or execution of persons contrary to the de facto instituted governments;

• The previous scenario would have allowed cases such as those indicated below to be consummated:

• That on May 17, 1975, Jorge Isaac Fuentes Alarcón, a militant of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), was detained in the Republic of Paraguay, in the town of Enramada, and then transferred to the city of Asunción, where he remained deprived of liberty until September 23, 1975, when his clandestine transfer to Chile by air by DINA agents was decided. Once in the country, they took him to the secret detention and torture centers maintained by this organization, that is, Cuatro Álamos and Villa Grimaldi. It is in this last place where Fuentes remained a prisoner and deprived of liberty for the longest time, received cruel treatment from his captors, was interrogated under torture, and was kept in inhumane conditions until probably January 17, 1976, when other prisoners saw him for the last time, his whereabouts remaining unknown to this day.

• That, in turn, on July 2, 1976, in the city of La Paz, Republic of Bolivia, the Chilean citizen Julio del Tránsito Valladares Caroca, a militant of the Socialist Party, was detained by the Directorate of Political Order, the security agency of that country at that time. In the aforementioned condition, he remained detained until November 13, 1976, the date on which he was handed over to DINA agents in the border town of Charaña, who transferred him to our country and took him to the "Cuatro Álamos" Prisoner Camp, which was located on Calle Canadá at the 3,000 block of Vicuña Mackenna, remaining under the custody of its agents, a place where, according to witnesses, he remained locked up and incommunicado, and where he was seen alive for the last time at the end of November 1976;

• That on the other hand, on April 3, 1976, in the city of Mendoza, Republic of Argentina, three Chilean citizens were detained: Juan Humberto Hernández Zazpe, Manuel Jesús Tamayo Martínez, and Luis Gonzalo Muñoz Velásquez, socialist militants, who were transferred clandestinely by land to Chile and placed at the disposal of the agents of the National Intelligence Directorate, who took them to the Villa Grimaldi Barracks, located at Avenida José Arrieta No. 8200 in Santiago, as has already been said, a political prisoner camp that belonged to the aforementioned intelligence organization. In that place, they were locked up, interrogated, and tortured, and they were seen alive for the last time at the end of April 1976, their whereabouts remaining unknown to date;

• That finally, in an episode that occurred in 1977, Communist Party militants, whose external organic leadership had decided on the need to channel external financial aid to the Party in Chile, asked one of them to travel from Switzerland—Alexei Vladimir Jaccard Siegler—to Chile, with a stopover in Buenos Aires, to meet with another militant who was to travel from Russia—Ricardo Ignacio Ramírez Herrera—and for both to also contact the militant who resided in that city—Héctor Heraldo Velásquez Mardones. This meeting could not take place because all three were detained by the Argentine Federal Police on May 16, 1977, without legal basis, and deprived of liberty to be handed over to the agents of the National Intelligence Directorate, who transferred them to Santiago, Chile, where they were locked up in the Simón Bolívar Barracks, located on the street of the same name, No. 8630, were interrogated under torture, and disappeared on an undetermined date. The search continues to this day as it has not been possible to find the victims Jaccard and Velásquez, who do not have recorded exits or entries, nor are their deaths confirmed, but part of the remains of their companion in misfortune, Ricardo Ignacio Ramírez Herrera, has been found in Chile, in the sector called "Cuesta Barriga," as well as those belonging to the married couple formed by Jacobo Stoulman Bortnik and Matilde Pessa Mois, who traveled to Buenos Aires to finalize the dispatch of the money to our country, but were detained beforehand—on May 29, 1977—at Ezeiza Airport, at the moment they were getting off the plane that brought them from Chile, losing all trace of them from that moment on, until the aforementioned certain evidence of both having been buried in the aforementioned place;

• In this operation, Communist Party militants who were in Chile and served as liaisons in this operation also participated, but when the ruse was discovered, they were executed: Hernán Soto Gálvez on an undetermined date, between June 7 and November 10, 1977, and Ruiter Enrique Correa Arce on May 28 of that same year; and

• The analysis of the background information outlined in the preceding paragraphs makes evident the noted cooperation and coordination of the intelligence services in concrete cases, where the intelligence agents of our country, in these cases, colluding with those of Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia, not only concerted the detention of the victims but also created the conditions to lock them up and transfer them to our country, with the sinister purpose of confining them in clandestine centers to interrogate them, torture them, and then proceed with extreme cruelty to eliminate them.

Source: pjud.cl, July 25, 2022

Updated list of human rights violators who are fugitives from justice made official

This is a list prepared by the Caucoto Abogados Law Firm, which includes 14 criminals, among whom stand out individuals linked to the homicide of Víctor Jara, the execution of 38 peasants in the main Paine Case, and the assassination of the Spanish diplomat Carmelo Soria.

This Friday, the Caucoto Abogados Law Firm made official the updated list of former uniformed personnel who are fugitives from justice and convicted of various crimes against humanity.

There are 14 people, some of them involved in the crime of Víctor Jara and Littré Quiroga, in the execution of 38 peasants in the main Paine Case, and the assassination of the Spanish diplomat Carmelo Soria, among other investigations, details a statement from the office specialized in human rights.

Regarding the list, it is made up of former military personnel, police (Carabineros), former Navy officials, and civilians who were members of the dictatorship's repressive apparatus, such as the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), the National Intelligence Center (CNI), and naval intelligence, who are accused as authors and co-authors of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated homicide, illicit association, and the application of torture, among other illicit acts.

Specifically, it is composed of

1. Jorge Octavio Vargas Bories (retired Army officer, CNI), sentenced as a co-author of the assassination of Federico Álvarez Santibáñez to 10 years and one day.

2. Rubén Aroldo Morales López (retired Carabineros officer), sentenced to 10 years and one day of major imprisonment as the author of the aggravated homicide of Jorge Vásquez Matamala.

3. Luis Enrique Barrueto Bartning, a businessman sentenced to 10 years and one day as a co-author of seven aggravated kidnappings (forced disappearances) perpetrated in the commune of Santa Bárbara.

To these are added four convicted in the Conferencia II episode:

4. Federico Humberto Chaigneau Sepúlveda (retired Army officer, DINA)

5. José Miguel Meza Serrano (retired Navy official, DINA)

6. Eduardo Alejandro Oyarce Riquelme (retired Army non-commissioned officer, DINA)

All of them are sentenced as co-authors of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Fernando Navarro Allendes and Héctor Véliz Ramírez, to a penalty of 12 years in prison each, to which are added the crimes of simple kidnapping of Juan Fernando Ortiz Letelier, Horacio Cepeda Marinkovic, and Lincoyán Berríos, for which they were sentenced to three years in prison, respectively.

7. Víctor Álvarez Droguett (retired Army official, DINA), convicted as a co-author of the crimes of aggravated homicide of Juan Fernando Ortiz Letelier, Horacio Cepeda Marinkovic, and Lincoyán Yalú Berríos Cataldo, to a penalty of 15 years and one day of major imprisonment in its maximum degree.

In addition, he is sentenced as a co-author of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Fernando Alfredo Navarro Allendes and Héctor Véliz Ramírez, to a penalty of 12 years of major imprisonment in its medium degree.

Additionally, he was convicted as an author of the crimes of simple kidnapping of Juan Fernando Ortiz Letelier, Horacio Cepeda Marinkovic, and Lincoyán Yalú Berríos Cataldo, to a penalty of three years of minor imprisonment in its medium degree.

Finally, Álvarez Droguett faces a 10-year prison sentence for the aggravated kidnapping of Marta Ugarte Román.

8. Alberto Roque del Sagrado Corazón Badilla Grillo, retired Navy officer, who was sentenced as the author of the aggravated homicide and the application of torture against Enrique López Olmedo, to penalties of 12 years and 541 days respectively.

9. Juan Dionisio Opazo Vera (former conscript) sentenced as a co-author of 38 aggravated homicides to a penalty of 10 years and one day, in the Paine Case, Main Episode.

10. Nelson Edgardo Hasse Mazzei (retired Army officer)

11. Juan Renán Jara Quintana (retired Army officer), who together with Hasse Mazzei is convicted as a co-author of the aggravated kidnappings and aggravated homicides of Víctor Jara Martínez and Littré Quiroga Carvajal. For these crimes, a penalty of 10 years and one day was established for the kidnappings, in addition to 15 years in prison for the crimes.

12. Guillermo Salinas Torres (retired Army officer)

13. Pablo Belmar Labbé (retired Army officer)

14. René Patricio Quilhot Palma (retired Army officer)

In the case of these three fugitives from justice, they were convicted as co-authors of the crimes of aggravated homicide of Carmelo Soria Espinoza, and as authors of an illicit association. For the first charge, a penalty of 15 years and one day was imposed on Salinas Torres, and 10 years and one day on the other two, while for the crime of illicit association, all were sentenced to the penalty of 541 days in prison.

“Sentences must be served”

Regarding this list, lawyer Francisco Bustos assures that it is a worrying situation that should be a priority for the authorities.

“States have the duty to investigate, judge, and punish crimes against humanity,” he maintains.

“This duty is not exhausted with the mere issuance of a conviction; these sentences must be served, and in that sense, the existence of fugitives for any crime, and especially 14 fugitives for crimes against humanity, represents a serious failure of state duties,” he adds.

Finally, he stressed that “the judiciary and the plaintiffs in cases of crimes against humanity must take extreme measures, including the imposition of precautionary measures, in order to avoid this form of impunity.”

Source: eldesconcierto.cl, November 24, 2023