Visiting judge Mario Carroza ordered the prosecution and arrest of the resigned aide-de-camp of the Chamber of Deputies, Reinel Bocaz Rocha. Along with Bocaz, Luis Alberto Oyarzo Oyarzo was also indicted, both as authors of the qualified homicide of Óscar Delgado Marín, which occurred on October 5, 1973, at the Estadio Nacional.

The resolution details that on October 5, 1973, “Second Lieutenant Reinel Bocaz Rocha allegedly ordered Corporal Luis Oyarzo Oyarzo to take charge of Óscar Delgado Marín and transport him from the locker room sector where he was being held to the velodrome of the Estadio Nacional, the place where he was to be interrogated, with instructions from this officer to wait for the rest of the detainees to advance about 150 meters before beginning the transfer, since it was dangerous and to shoot him if necessary.”

“In the course of carrying out the order given by Bocaz Rocha, Delgado Marín allegedly lunged at Corporal Oyarzo, and the latter instinctively fired his service weapon at him, causing his death, which was confirmed by the doctor on duty at the Field Hospital located at the Estadio Nacional, a fact reported by the patrol officer to the commander of the prisoner camp, Colonel Jorge Espinoza Ulloa, now deceased,” the ruling states.

Reinel Bocaz resigned yesterday from his position as aide-de-camp of the Chamber of Deputies after being linked to this human rights case.

On this day, Carroza also ordered the prosecution of the former commander-in-chief of the Army, Juan Emilio Cheyre, within the framework of the investigation into the La Serena episode of the Caravan of Death.

Source: radioduna.cl, July 7, 2016

Santiago Court sentences former Army non-commissioned officer for the crime of a former GAP member at the Estadio Nacional in 1973

The Santiago Court of Appeals increased the prison sentence to be served by a former Army non-commissioned officer for his responsibility in the crime of qualified homicide of former GAP member Oscar Jesús Delgado Marín, perpetrated on October 5, 1973, at the Estadio Nacional, which was used at that time as a camp for political imprisonment and torture.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 1.392-2019), the First Chamber of the appellate court—composed of judges Miguel Vázquez Plaza, Elsa Barrientos Guerrero, and Inelie Durán Madina—sentenced Luis Alberto Oyarzo Oyarzo to 10 years and one day in prison as the author of the crime.

Furthermore, the ruling confirmed the acquittal of former Army officer Reinel Bocaz Rocha, who was the superior officer of the sentenced non-commissioned officer at the time of the events.

Oscar Delgado Marín, 30 years old, was a former member of the Army, from the "Boinas Negras" (Black Berets) commando detachment based in Peldehue, who had been expelled from the institution at the end of 1969 due to his ties with the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR).

Along with Delgado Marín, 13 other commandos from the same detachment were expelled in that uniformed purge. Subsequently, some of these commandos joined the GAP (Grupo de Amigos Personales) device in charge of the security of President Salvador Allende; one of them was Delgado Marín, who stopped belonging to Allende's protection system when the MIR was replaced in this task by members of the UP parties, in which other former commandos from the expelled group also participated.

When the military coup occurred, the former "boina" went into hiding, but was arrested in the first days of October 1973 in an apparently casual raid in the Quinta Normal commune in Santiago. Taken to the detention center at the Estadio Nacional, he was subjected to interrogation and torture by the officers in charge of the prisoners at that location.

There, he was allegedly recognized and denounced by an informant acting among the detainees. Later, Delgado Marín was separated from the group of prisoners, labeled as very dangerous, and subsequently executed. He was forcibly disappeared and buried as "NN" in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery of Santiago; his remains were only identified in 1990.

The first-instance sentence issued in November 2018 by judge Mario Carroza Espinosa had sentenced Oyarzo Oyarzo to five years, in addition to acquitting Bocaz. The Court shared the grounds for the conviction issued by the visiting judge but disagreed with the judge's decision regarding the acceptance of the mitigating factor of substantial collaboration by the convicted man in the crime against the GAP member.

In this regard, the court's resolution states:

«That, regarding the conviction of the sentenced Luis Oyarzo Oyarzo, this Court agrees with the reasoning made by the investigating judge regarding the culpable participation punishable by law, which is embodied in the eighth and fourteenth grounds of the ruling, so the appeal filed by his defense will not prosper».

And it adds: "It is not possible to consider that the sentenced man has cooperated in the terms provided by the rule, since this mitigating factor refers to a criminal policy reason that favors the action of justice which, otherwise, would be frustrated or delayed, allowing for the rewarding of those who acknowledge responsibility for the imputed facts».

«(...) the collaboration of an accused must necessarily occur in his statement or statements and, regarding the facts in which he allegedly participated, providing relevant data that helps to clarify the facts investigated by the Tribunal».

«In this way, the sentenced Oyarzo Oyarzo is only favored by the mitigating factor of the sixth numeral of article 11 of the Penal Code, as it is verified that in his file of affiliation and antecedents added to page 1706, there are no prior annotations, as recognized in the ruling», it concludes.

Source: resumen.cl, February 3, 2021

Conviction of former Army non-commissioned officer for the crime of a GAP member at the Estadio Nacional confirmed

The Supreme Court confirmed the sentence that condemned a former Army non-commissioned officer to 10 years in prison for his responsibility in the qualified homicide of Oscar Jesús Delgado Marín, a member of the Grupo de Amigos Personales of President Salvador Allende (GAP), perpetrated on October 5, 1973, at the velodrome of the Estadio Nacional.

In the sentence (file 28.922-2021), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of judges Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, judge María Cristina Gajardo, and ad hoc lawyers Pía Tavolari and Ricardo Abuauad—rejected the cassation appeal against the sentence issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals in February 2021.

The Second Chamber considered that the appeal of the sentenced former non-commissioned officer Luis Alberto Oyarzo Oyarzo could not prosper as it contained contradictory requests.

In the judicial investigation, it was established that starting on September 18, 1973, the family of Oscar Jesús Delgado Marín, a 30-year-old socialist militant, confirmed his disappearance and, presuming he had been arrested, began to take steps to try to locate his whereabouts, without success.

Later, they learned that the former GAP member had been executed at the Estadio Nacional while he remained a prisoner of the armed forces.

During the month of September 1973, the coup-plotting military troops enabled the country's main sports venue as a Political Prisoner Camp, and people from all areas of the Santiago province, arrested under various circumstances and repressive situations, were transferred there.

On October 5, 1973, around 7:00 PM, after Delgado Marín had been interrogated in the area set up for that purpose at the velodrome of the Estadio Nacional, he was handed over by the torturers to the officer in charge of the security and transfer of detainees, then-Second Lieutenant Reinel Bocaz Rocha.

This officer ordered that Delgado Marín be transferred to the locker room sector, entrusting this task to Army Corporal Luis Oyarzo Oyarzo. The aforementioned corporal received instructions to wait for the rest of the detainees who were to be transferred to advance about 150 meters before beginning to move the man labeled as a dangerous extremist.

It is in the course of this transfer procedure that non-commissioned officer Oyarzo used his service weapon to fire at the prisoner Delgado Marín from a distance of two meters, causing his death on the spot.

At the time, the First Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals increased the prison sentence to 10 years and one day, without benefits, issued in the first instance by judge Mario Carroza, who had sentenced the non-commissioned officer to five years in prison with the benefit of supervised release.

On the other hand, that ruling confirmed the acquittal of former Army officer Reinel Bocaz Rocha, who was the superior officer of the sentenced non-commissioned officer at the time of the events.

Oscar Delgado Marín was a former member of the Army, a member of the "Boinas Negras" commando detachment based in Peldehue, who had been expelled from the institution at the end of 1969 due to his ties with the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR).

In that uniformed purge, along with Delgado Marín, 13 other commandos from the same detachment were expelled. Subsequently, some of these commandos joined the GAP (Grupo de Amigos Personales) device in charge of the security of President Salvador Allende; one of them was Delgado Marín, who stopped belonging to Allende's protection system when the MIR was replaced in this task by members of the UP parties, in which other former commandos from the expelled group also participated.

When the military coup occurred, the former "boina" went into hiding but was arrested in mid-September 1973 in an apparently casual raid in the Quinta Normal commune in Santiago. Taken to the detention center at the Estadio Nacional, he was subjected to interrogation and torture by the officers in charge of the prisoners at that location.

There, he was allegedly recognized and denounced by an informant acting among the detainees. Later, Delgado Marín was separated from the group of prisoners, labeled as very dangerous, and subsequently executed. He was forcibly disappeared and buried as "NN" in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery of Santiago; his remains were only identified in 1990.

by Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl, April 18, 2023