The Fifth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals, in a split decision, revoked one of the seven indictments issued last week by special judge Juan Guzmán Tapia against military personnel who threw the bodies of detainees into the sea following the 1973 coup d'état.

The appellate court annulled the charges against pilot Emilio de la Mahotiere because it was proven that he was in France at the time of the events. De la Mahotiere had been charged as an accessory to kidnapping with homicide in the case of Communist Party militant Marta Ugarte, whose body appeared after being thrown from a helicopter onto the beach of Los Molles, in the Fifth Region.

The Court, however, upheld Guzmán's ruling against the former director of the DINA, Manuel Contreras, and his cousin and head of the DINA's Metropolitan Intelligence Brigade, Carlos López Tapia, who were indicted for kidnapping with homicide as co-perpetrators.

Likewise, it ratified the indictments against Carlos Mardones (pilot) as an accomplice, and pilots Antonio Palomo, Oscar Vicuña, and Luis Felipe Polanco as accessories. According to the Rettig Report, Ugarte Román, a dressmaker, was 42 years old at the time of her detention.

She was a militant in the Communist Party, which in 1976 was operating with a clandestine leadership. Another of her roles was as secretary to former deputy Mireya Baltra. Her detention was carried out by DINA agents on a public street, and her death was recorded on September 9, 1976, as a result of the torture she was subjected to at Villa Grimaldi, where the head of the facility was, precisely, López Tapia.

Source: El Mostrador.cl, November 21, 2003

Conferencia Case: Court releases three indicted pilots

The Fifth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals, unanimously, granted bail to the three individuals indicted as accessories to the kidnapping with homicide of Communist militant Marta Ugarte Román in the so-called Calle Conferencia case.

The three pilots from the Army's aviation command—between 1973 and 1978—Major (ret.) Luis Felipe Polanco, Captain (ret.) Antonio Palomo, and Second Lieutenant (ret.) Oscar Vicuña, had been charged by Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia as accessories to that crime.

According to the decision made today by the capital's appellate court, the military personnel, who were being held at the Telecommunications Command, will be released after paying a bail of 500,000 pesos each, Radio Cooperativa reported.

Marta Ugarte was 42 years old at the time of her detention and was first detained by agents of the dissolved DINA and then transferred to Villa Grimaldi, where she reportedly died as a result of a series of illegitimate pressures. As stated in the case file, her body was thrown into the sea from a Puma helicopter and her remains later appeared on Los Molles beach in the Fifth Region.

Source: emol.cl, December 1, 2003

Caravan Case: Latest indictments signal closure of the case

Special judge Juan Guzmán Tapia issued five new indictments in the so-called "Caravan of Death" case, suggesting that the summary of the case, which has been under investigation since 1998, is close to closing.

The magistrate charged—for the third time—his cousin, Colonel (ret.) Carlos López Tapia, for the victims in Valdivia and Cauquenes, as reported by the newspaper La Segunda. Likewise, he indicted the pilots of the Puma helicopters in which the military delegation traveled between September and October 1973, among whom are Commanders (ret.) Antonio Palomo and Emilio de la Mahotiere, and Major (ret.) Luis Felipe Polanco.

The former participated in the trips the caravan made to the north of Chile, while the latter were part of the delegation that traveled to the south. The magistrate also charged Juan Chimenelli Fullerton, who was the logistics officer for the military personnel led by General (ret.) Sergio Arellano Stark, acting as a delegate of Augusto Pinochet.

The "Caravan of Death" was a military delegation that traveled across the country to its two extremes to "accelerate the war councils," which resulted in several executions, disappearances, and torture. It is attributed with the death of some 75 officials and supporters of the Salvador Allende government.

Source: El Mostrador.cl, March 24, 2004

Conviction issued against 28 repressive agents of the dictatorship for the crime of Marta Ugarte

The minister in extraordinary visitation for human rights violation cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vázquez Plaza, issued a first-instance sentence in the investigation into the kidnapping and qualified homicide of teacher Marta Lidia Ugarte Román, whose body appeared on La Ballena beach, in the Los Molles sector, on September 12, 1976.

In the resolution (case file 2182-1998), Minister Vázquez issued a conviction against the following 28 state agents for their responsibility in the crimes perpetrated between August and September 1976.

Most of the convicted were agents and leaders of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), and the others were members of the Army's aviation command, the organization responsible for the execution of the so-called "death flights." Carlos José Leonardo López Tapia, former Army colonel, head of the Villa Grimaldi torture facility at the time of the events, sentenced to 12 years in prison, in addition to the legal accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and payment of court costs, as the perpetrator of the crime of qualified homicide. Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, former Carabineros lieutenant colonel, head of the Eagle Group of the DINA's Caupolicán Brigade (currently a fugitive from justice), sentenced to 12 years in prison, in addition to the legal accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and payment of court costs, as the perpetrator of the crime of qualified homicide. He must also serve 4 years in prison as the perpetrator of the crime of simple kidnapping. Carlos Oscar Gregorio Evaristo Mardones Díaz, former Army colonel, head of the aviation command that carried out "the death flights": 8 years in prison, in addition to the legal accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and payment of court costs, as an accomplice to the crime of qualified homicide. Antonio Palomo Contreras, former Army brigadier, and Luis Felipe Polanco Gallardo, former Army major, members of the aviation command, both sentenced to 5 years in prison, in addition to the legal accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and payment of court costs, as accessories to the crime of qualified homicide. Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, former Army brigadier, imprisoned in Punta Peuco for countless other convictions for crimes against humanity, sentenced to 4 years in prison, in addition to the legal accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification for political rights and absolute disqualification for public offices for the duration of the sentence; and payment of court costs, as the perpetrator of the crime of simple kidnapping. Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo and Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, former Carabineros non-commissioned officers, both sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison, in addition to the legal accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and payment of court costs, as co-perpetrators of the crime of qualified homicide. Additionally, they must serve 2 years in prison as perpetrators of the crime of simple kidnapping. Emilio Hernán Troncoso Vivallos, former Carabineros non-commissioned officer, sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison, in addition to the legal accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and payment of court costs, as a co-perpetrator of the crime of qualified homicide. Additionally, one year in prison as the perpetrator of the crime of simple kidnapping. For their part, agents Eugenio Jesús Fieldhouse Chávez, Pedro Mora Villanueva, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, José Mario Friz Esparza, Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, Orlando del Tránsito Altamirano Sanhueza, Eduardo Patricio Cabezas Mardones, Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich, Guillermo Eduardo Díaz Ramírez, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Carlos Enrique Miranda Mesa, and Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza were sentenced to one year in prison, in addition to the legal accessory penalties of suspension from public office for the duration of the sentence; and payment of court costs, as co-perpetrators of the crime of simple kidnapping. Furthermore, agents José Javier Soto Torres, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, and José Domingo Seco Alarcón were sentenced to 61 days in prison, in addition to the legal accessory penalties of suspension from public office for the duration of the sentence; and payment of court costs, as accomplices to the crime of simple kidnapping. Meanwhile, agents Jorge Segundo Madariaga Acevedo, José Nelson Fuentealba Saldías, Hugo Hernán Clavería Leiva, Raúl Alberto Soto Pérez, and Juan Carlos Escobar Valenzuela were acquitted due to lack of participation in the events. During the investigation stage, Minister Vázquez managed to prove the following facts: 1.- That Marta Lidia Ugarte Román was a militant of the Communist Party of Chile and a member of the Central Committee of that collective, working in the Party's organization during 1976. 2.- That, as a consequence of the military coup of September 11, 1973, she went into hiding because she was sought by intelligence services, living with Elvira Solari Ahumada at the address Callejón Lo Ovalle No. 908 in the La Cisterna commune, where she had been residing since the aforementioned month of September 1973 for security reasons, given her political militancy. 3.- That, on August 9, 1976, Marta Ugarte Román left the Callejón Lo Ovalle address around 3:00 PM, heading to the office of Dr. Iván Insunza, located on Vicuña Mackenna, to be treated for an infection in her leg resulting from a dog bite, meeting on the way Héctor Acela, now deceased, with whom she walked along Avenida Vicuña Mackenna toward Avenida Matta; he warned her that something strange seemed to be happening in the area and that it appeared to be under surveillance, but she insisted on continuing her path, unaware that Dr. Iván Insunza had already been detained by intelligence services. 4.- That agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), belonging to the Purén Brigade, whose immediate objective was the tracking, location, and detention of Communist Party militants, proceeded to detain her without any warrant at Dr. Insunza's office, as he had been detained previously for his communist affiliation, an office that was being monitored by security agencies; she was then transferred to the clandestine detention center of said organization, known as Villa Grimaldi or Terranova, where she was kept deprived of liberty, interrogated, and subjected to physical duress, being recognized and identified by other detainees who were in the same place at that time. 5.- That the political authorities of the time, belonging to the Ministry of the Interior and the DINA itself, officially denied the detention of Marta Ugarte Román and any knowledge of her whereabouts. 6.- That, while deprived of liberty, she was taken out to the street by agents in order to identify other militants and supporters of the Communist Party, being seen in one of those operations at a residence on Calle Constitución, in the Santiago commune, where party meetings were held. 7.- That, approximately on September 9, 1976, Marta Ugarte Román was transferred along with other detainees from the Villa Grimaldi facility to the town of Peldehue by DINA operational agents, where she was killed, her body covered with a sack and tied with wire around her neck; she was then loaded onto a Puma helicopter of the Army Aviation Command, whose crew consisted of a pilot, co-pilot, a mechanic, and a DINA operational agent, an aircraft that took off toward the coast, heading out to sea, to then throw her body into the high seas from a height. 8.- That, on September 12, 1976, on La Ballena beach, in the town of Los Molles, the body of Marta Lidia Ugarte Román was found lifeless by Marcel Dupré David, presenting only a piece of cloth and a wire tied around her neck, which was severed, with clear signs of having received physical duress; she also presented signs of needle marks on her arms. The corpse was transferred to the Ligua hospital and then to the Legal Medical Service of Santiago for the corresponding autopsies. The first report, dated September 14, 1976, concluded a violent death under homicidal circumstances, where the direct cause of death was polytraumatism and spinal luxofracture on September 9, 1976; the second expert report, dated October 22, 1976, concluded that the cause of death was thoraco-abdomino-pelvic trauma, and its expansion on February 22, 2010, determined that the final event that led to her death was asphyxiation by strangulation with wire. 9.- That the Army Aviation Command had its operations center at the Tobalaba airfield, among others, for the flight of Puma helicopters, which had greater flight and transport capacity, for which authorization from the highest Army authorities was required, as pilots, co-pilots, and mechanics had to be assigned in advance to form the flight crew. These ships were used institutionally and regularly, in conjunction with the DINA, for several years to dispose of the bodies of people detained in the various detention centers of said organization, who were taken directly to the Tobalaba airfield or taken to the Peldehue Regiment, to then take flight to the high seas, where they were thrown into the ocean.

Source: resumen.cl, July 1, 2016

Caravan of Death: Former General Sinclair and three other former Army officers convicted for crimes in Valdivia in 1973

The Supreme Court convicted four former Army officers for their responsibility in the consummated crimes of qualified homicide of Gregorio José Liendo Vera, Rudemir Saavedra Bahamondez, Víctor Eugenio Rudolph Reyes, Víctor Segundo Valeriano Saavedra Muñoz, Santiago Segundo García Morales, Luis Mario Valenzuela Ferrada, Sergio Jaime Bravo Aguilera, Luis Hernán Pezo Jara, Víctor Fernando Krauss Iturra, Pedro Purísimo Barría Ordóñez, Enrique del Carmen Guzmán Soto, and José René Barrientos Warner.

The crimes were perpetrated in October 1973, in the city of Valdivia, in the case known as: Caravan of Death, Valdivia Episode. In a unanimous ruling (case file 122.163-2020), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, minister María Teresa Letelier, and acting lawyer Ricardo Abuauad—revoked the challenged sentence and, in a replacement sentence, sentenced former General Santiago Arturo Ariel de Jesús Sinclair Oyaneder to an effective prison term of 18 years as the perpetrator of the crimes.

Meanwhile, Juan Viterbo Chiminelli Fullerton must also serve 18 years of imprisonment, convicted as a co-perpetrator. Both had been sentenced to 5 years in prison in the Santiago Court of Appeals ruling.

Meanwhile, the convicted former officer Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo must serve 10 years in prison as a perpetrator, and Emilio Robert de la Mahotiere González, 5 years and one day in prison as an accomplice.

The aforementioned resolution of the capital's court had sentenced the latter to 3 years in prison; in the case of Espinoza Bravo, the sentence is maintained. Three of the convicted were members of the ominous caravan led by Sergio Arellano Stark, and the fourth, Santiago Sinclair, was commander of the Cazadores Regiment in Valdivia.

Four other former Army officers directly implicated in these crimes died during the course of the process; these deceased are Carlos José Leonardo López Tapia, Hugo Alberto Guerra Jorquera (both sentenced in the first instance to 12 years in prison), Antonio Alberto Palomo Contreras, and Guillermo Juan Carlos Michelsen Délano.

Former General Sinclair has also been under indictment since June 2021 in another case of crimes against humanity investigating the Chihuío massacre, committed in October 1973 in the mountain range of the Valdivia province, where 17 peasants were murdered.

It is worth mentioning that, subsequent to these criminal episodes, Santiago Arturo Sinclair Oyaneder was promoted by Pinochet to important positions in his dictatorial regime. He was appointed vice commander-in-chief of the Army, then chief of the dictator's presidential staff, a member of the Military Junta during the dictatorship, and in the post-dictatorship period, a designated senator (between 1990 and 1998).

The Facts On October 3, 1973, the same day the Puma helicopter with Arellano Stark's delegation arrived in Valdivia, it was ordered to remove from the public jail of that city Gregorio José Liendo Vera, an agronomy student, militant of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), and leader of the Revolutionary Peasant Movement, who was being held in prison, accused of having instigated and led an attack on the Neltume Carabineros station on September 12 of that year.

Liendo Vera was taken to the Llancahue military property, specifically to the shooting range of the Valdivia military garrison, where he was executed by firing squad. Likewise, the following day, October 4, 1973, it was ordered to remove from the same aforementioned jail Rudemir Saavedra Bahamondes, Víctor Eugenio Rudolph Reyes, Víctor Segundo Valeriano Saavedra Muñoz, Santiago Segundo García Morales, Luis Mario Valenzuela Ferrada, Sergio Jaime Bravo Aguilera, Luis Hernán Pezo Jara, Víctor Fernando Krauss Iturra, Pedro Purísimo Barría Ordóñez, Enrique del Carmen Guzmán Soto, and José Rene Barrientos Warner, who were also taken to the shooting range of the Valdivia military garrison, in Llancahue, where they were executed. Supreme Resolution The highest court established an error of law in the sentence pronounced by the Santiago Court of Appeals, issued in August 2020, by applying in its ruling the so-called "half-prescription," a common loophole used by certain judges and ministers to benefit or favor criminals against humanity. In this regard, the ruling of the Second Chamber states: "(...) consequently, the application of the figure of half-prescription or gradual prescription of the sentence, contemplated by article 103 of the Penal Code, is not admissible in the case of crimes against humanity, since the aforementioned qualification obliges the consideration of International Human Rights Law regulations, which exclude the use of both total prescription and so-called half-prescription, understanding such institutes to be closely linked in their foundations and, consequently, contrary to the jus cogens regulations coming from that sphere of International Criminal Law, which reject impunity and the imposition of sentences not proportional to the intrinsic gravity of the crimes, based on the passage of time." "That, such being the case, by having accepted the mitigating factor of half-prescription or gradual prescription of the sentence regarding the accused, the sentencing judges have incurred an error of law that has substantially influenced the operative part of the ruling, insofar as its application allowed them to make a reduction of the sentence to be imposed, in a case not permitted by law, for which reason the appeals for cassation on the merits under study will be accepted in what relates to the present cause," it concludes. by Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl, June 17, 2023