A ruling by the Court of Appeals that unanimously confirmed pretrial detention for two former FACH officers for the death of four athletes from the port city is a “great step in the search for justice,” the parliamentarian maintained.

The socialist deputy received with satisfaction the ruling of the Puerto Montt court that ratified the pretrial detention of two of those responsible for the death of four athletes from the regional capital who were executed by firing squad in 1974; the former officers Ronald Peake de Ferrari Beltrán and José Jacinto Pérez Pérez. “Long years may have passed, but those crimes, even though they went unpunished for a long time while the victims' families cried out for justice, today receive just punishment.

What has happened in this case is an example that human rights violators will at some point in their lives be reached by the hand of justice.” The parliamentarian, who is a victim of state terrorism having lost his father, Luis Espinoza, a former deputy, indicated that this case is one of many being meticulously investigated by the visiting judge Leopoldo Vera. “I trust that not only will those who murdered my father fall into the hands of justice, but also those who took the lives of dozens of peasants and citizens of our region.

Human rights violations are crimes against humanity and, therefore, do not expire with time, even though the military dictatorship for years protected the perpetrators of these serious acts with an amnesty law, which today is of no use to them, due to the very international treaties that the country has signed.” Athletes “In this specific case, it was proven that the young athletes from Puerto Montt killed by FACH officials were literally executed by firing squad, for the sole reason that they had a verbal exchange with the officers, which ultimately cost them their lives.

They tried to pass it off as a confrontation, when it was simply a cold-blooded murder. False confrontations, the application of the ‘law of flight’—these were the excuses given in those years to justify the worst atrocities,” the Concertación parliamentarian maintained. “Today a giant step has been taken in the interest of justice.

That contributes to ensuring that there are never again human rights violations in our country. There can be no state terrorism that goes unpunished. That is the main significance of this ruling.” Espinoza concluded by expressing that although these two FACH officers are detained in the organization’s facilities, what has occurred with their deprivation of liberty contributes to healing the wounds of the past.

Source: prensafidelespinoza.wordpress.com, June 26, 2012

Puerto Montt: low sentence criticized in the case of the murder of Lintz athletes

42 years will have passed since the four young men, who were not political, were murdered. Judge Leopoldo Vera investigated the case, which occurred in January 1974. The alleged participants were FACh officials.

Although the ruling has not yet been published by the Judiciary, the victims' families and human rights groups in Puerto Montt have already learned of the low sentence applied to one of those involved in the emblematic murder of the four athletes from the Lintz neighborhood, which occurred on January 31, 1974, four months after the coup d'état.

The ruling will not be made public until all parties have been notified of the resolution. The case was investigated by the Puerto Montt Court of Appeals judge Leopoldo Vera, and only one of the six alleged participants—Ronald Peake de Ferrari Beltrán—received a sentence of five years of minor imprisonment in its maximum degree, which he will be able to serve under supervised release.

Five other individuals under investigation were acquitted by the judge. Among them were José Pérez Pérez, Juan Gallegos Vega, Héctor Estuardo Gajardo, José Quilodrán Espinace, and Samuel León Correa, all retired non-commissioned officers of the Chilean Air Force.

The case was one of the last investigated in Puerto Montt regarding human rights. It dates back to January 31, 1974, following an argument between the athletes and an officer from a FACh patrol. The investigation report indicates that the accused, former officials of the Chilean Air Force, entered the homes of Pedro Antonio Bahamonde Rogel (21), José Santiago Soto Muñoz (23), Héctor Hugo Maldonado Ulloa (26), and José Mañao Ampuero (22) on that date.

They beat them and then took them to the Puerto Montt police station, where the Carabineros refused to keep them in custody due to the deteriorated state of health in which the residents were left after being assaulted. “It was then that the accused took the four doomed men to a local road where they executed them, subsequently transporting the lifeless bodies of these people to the local Legal Medical Service,” the document indicates.

Alfredo Árgel, president of the group of families of political executions and the forcibly disappeared of Puerto Montt, described the ruling as a “disgrace.” He criticized the fact that it was five years of investigation with “poor results.” The leader acknowledged that on Monday, the lawyers will appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court. “We were asking for harsh sentences for everyone.

The process was opened along with others several years ago. At first, it was treated as qualified homicide, and now the ruling speaks of simple homicide,” Árgel stated. The group of families of political executions and the forcibly disappeared of Puerto Montt also issued a statement rejecting the ruling. “This January 31, 2016, marks 42 years since the execution of our relatives, a case known as the athletes of the Lintz neighborhood.

Today, the judge of the Puerto Montt Court of Appeals, Mr. Leopoldo Vera, who classified this crime in his process as qualified homicide, has handed down a sentence for this crime against humanity, leaving all those responsible for the murders committed unpunished and free,” they stated.

Source: soychile.cl, January 20, 2016

Deputy Fidel Espinoza on the delay in human rights cases: “Many family members are dying without being able to see justice served”

Through an open letter, the socialist parliamentarian recalled that a few days ago, the widow of a dictatorship victim in Puerto Montt managed to see the conviction for her husband's death and died 24 hours later.

Socialist Party (PS) deputy Fidel Espinoza sent a letter to the president of the Supreme Court, Guillermo Silva, expressing his concern about “the delay in the initiation of human rights proceedings, which means that currently many of the victims' family members are dying without obtaining justice.” In the parliamentarian's opinion, the victims' families cannot continue waiting. “Many of them have died waiting for a simple act of justice, a reparatory one, that at least humanizes the drama of the loss of their loved ones.

Our country has a moral and human debt to hundreds of family members who are victims of human rights violations,” stated the parliamentarian for the Los Lagos region. “A few days ago, we learned of the conviction in the case of the murder of José Mañao in Puerto Montt.

In this case, officers and members of the FACh were investigated, including retired Lieutenant Ronald Peake de Ferrari and retired non-commissioned officer José Jacinto Pérez, as well as other retired non-commissioned officers,” the deputy noted.

Espinoza criticized that the result of this process, after “46 years,” was that the Puerto Montt Court of Appeals sentenced Ronald Peake de Ferrari to 5 years of minor imprisonment in its maximum degree and the payment of court costs for his responsibility as the perpetrator of the crime of simple homicide, in a repeated manner, which was later increased to 10 years by the Supreme Court, but incomprehensibly, the prison sentence was replaced by supervised release for the duration of the sentence. “And the retired non-commissioned officers and senior non-commissioned officers of the FACH were acquitted,” he highlighted. In Fidel Espinoza's opinion, “although a minimal act of justice was reached in this case, the widow of José Mañao passed away 24 hours after the ruling was announced. This same situation is occurring in hundreds of cases in Chile,” explains Deputy Espinoza in his letter. In this vein, the parliamentarian insisted that “the perpetrators have established as a ‘way to evade the action of justice, the delay in the initiation of the processes or generating the conditions for an excessive postponement due to expert reports, interrogations, or rulings.’” “It is on the basis of the consequences of this strategy that many try to argue reasons of health or age, so as not to be held responsible for their acts, for which, moreover, they have not repented. Hence the concern of the groups and all the family members who seek justice,” states Deputy Espinoza in his letter. Thus, the socialist legislator finally points out that “this open letter does not seek to exert illegitimate pressure, nor to question the actions of the courts. But only to share the concern, unease, and sorrow that exists among the families of those people who were murdered, executed by firing squad, tortured, and forcibly disappeared, who even knowing who the material authors of those crimes were, finding them on the streets of the same cities where they live, after decades, have not received the expected ruling and the conviction that, at least, helps to mitigate the pain of the absence and of a life turned upside down,” he concludes.

Source: elmostrador.cl, June 19, 2019

Supreme Court convicts former FACH members for executions in Puerto Montt

The Supreme Court convicted four retired members of the Air Force (FACH) for their responsibility in the repeated crime of qualified homicide of Pedro Antonio Bahamondes Rogel, José Santiago Soto Muñoz, Héctor Hugo Maldonado Ulloa, and José Mañao Ampuero.

These crimes were perpetrated in the Lintz neighborhood of Puerto Montt on January 31, 1974. In a split decision (case file 8.914-2018), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of judges Carlos Künsemüller, Haroldo Brito, Lamberto Cisternas, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, and Jorge Dahm—increased to 10 years and one day of imprisonment the sentence to be served by the convicted Ronald Peake de Ferrari; meanwhile, it maintained the 3 years and one day of imprisonment, with the benefit of supervised release, for Juan Antonio Gallegos Vega, Héctor Stuardo Gajardo, and José Javier Quilodrán Espinace. “It is worth noting that, even when the recognition of the gradual statute of limitations, regulated in Article 103 of the penal code, lacks influence on the operative part of the ruling under study, the constant jurisprudence of this Criminal Chamber has repeatedly pointed out that the classification of the illicit act committed as a crime against humanity obliges the consideration of International Human Rights Law regulations.” “These regulations exclude the application of both the total statute of limitations and the so-called partial statute of limitations, understanding such institutions to be closely linked in their foundations and, consequently, contrary to the ius cogens regulations originating from that sphere of International Criminal Law, which reject impunity and the imposition of penalties not proportional to the intrinsic gravity of the crimes, based on the passage of time,” the ruling states. Likewise, the resolution establishes that in this case, it is not appropriate to recognize the mitigating factor of zealously repairing the harm caused to the convicted Peake de Ferrari: “However, the mitigating circumstance of criminal responsibility described in the previous motive is based on considerations of criminal policy, whose scope of application is general, it being necessary for its operation that there be in the process any form of reparation for the damage caused by the crime or that its reparation has been sought.” For the highest court, for said mitigating factor to be configured: “It must be an action of ‘zealous reparation of the harm caused,’ that is, one that produces in the accused an attitude, a conduct, a decision subsequent to the crime, of repentance and a certain and effective purpose of achieving the greatest possible reparation, rationally speaking.” “(…) although—it continues—Ronald Peake de Ferrari made three deposits in the process for the sums of $1,000,000 on November 10, 2014, when answering the accusation; $800,000 on January 28, 2015; and $2,200,000 on March 17, 2015, totaling $4,000,000, such disbursements do not reveal an effective spirit of reparation, and merely constitute a unilateral act of will, without any effective link to the harm caused being appreciated in them.” This is “because they have been materialized more than 40 years after the commission of the illicit acts, and more than 4 years after the start of this process, which is inconsistent with the objective material effectiveness of the reparation that the mitigating factor requires for its recognition and only seeks to obtain a mitigating circumstance for the purpose of moderating the penalty to be imposed.” In the civil aspect, the sentence that ordered the state to pay a total compensation of $205,000,000 (two hundred and five million pesos) to the victims' families was confirmed, a decision agreed upon with the dissenting vote of Judge Cisternas, who was in favor of recognizing, regarding Peake de Ferrari, the mitigating factor of zealous reparation of the harm caused. In the investigation stage of the case, led by the visiting judge of the Puerto Montt Court of Appeals, Leopoldo Vera Muñoz, it was established that: “On January 31, 1974, in the city of Puerto Montt, at night, during the curfew, a group of soldiers belonging to the FACH, heavily armed with SIC rifles, raided three homes.” In this context, “they took four young men whom they had already identified from their beds, whom they beat with the butts of their rifles and took, bleeding, to a rural place where they were stood in front of a mound and executed by firing squad, to then deliver the corpses to the morgue.” “Faced with the insistence of the families, several days later the remains were delivered in closed coffins and they were denied the possibility of holding a wake and mass as they wished. Furthermore, on February 1 of that year, the FACH hierarchy issued a public statement, which appeared in the city's newspapers, blaming the victims for having attacked a military patrol. Which, as has been said, never happened.”

Source: suractual.cl, June 17, 2020

Supreme Court convicted former FACh officials for executions in Puerto Montt

The events occurred in the Lintz neighborhood on January 31, 1974, and there were four victims. The sentences are 10 years for one of the convicted and three years under supervised release for three others.

The Supreme Court convicted four retired members of the Air Force (FACh) for their responsibility in the repeated crime of qualified homicide of Pedro Antonio Bahamondes Rogel, José Santiago Soto Muñoz, Héctor Hugo Maldonado Ulloa, and José Mañao Ampuero, illicit acts perpetrated in the Lintz neighborhood of Puerto Montt on January 31, 1974.

In a split decision, the Second Chamber of the highest court, composed of judges Carlos Künsemüller, Haroldo Brito, Lamberto Cisternas, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, and Jorge Dahm, increased to 10 years and one day of imprisonment the sentence to be served by the convicted Ronald Peake de Ferrari; meanwhile, it maintained the 3 years and one day of imprisonment, with the benefit of supervised release, for Juan Antonio Gallegos Vega, Héctor Stuardo Gajardo, and José Javier Quilodrán Espinace.

In the investigation stage of the case, led by the visiting judge of the Puerto Montt Court of Appeals, Leopoldo Vera Muñoz, it was established that “on January 31, 1974, in the city of Puerto Montt, at night, during the curfew, a group of soldiers belonging to the FACH, heavily armed with SIC rifles, raided three homes and took four young men whom they had already identified from their beds, whom they beat with the butts of their rifles and took, bleeding, to a rural place where they were stood in front of a mound and executed by firing squad.” Subsequently, “they delivered the corpses to the morgue. Faced with the insistence of the families, several days later the remains were delivered in closed coffins and they were denied the possibility of holding a wake and mass as they wished. Furthermore, on February 1 of that year, the FACH hierarchy issued a public statement, which appeared in the city's newspapers, blaming the victims for having attacked a military patrol. Which, as has been said, never happened.” The ruling clarifies that despite the time elapsed and that it would generate the statute of limitations for the crimes, in this case, it does not apply because they are crimes classified as crimes against humanity, according to International Human Rights Law. Likewise, monetary contributions made by Ronald Peake de Ferrari were not considered as mitigating factors because “such disbursements do not reveal an effective spirit of reparation, and merely constitute a unilateral act of will, without any effective link to the harm caused being appreciated in them, since they have been materialized more than 40 years after the commission of the illicit acts, and more than 4 years after the start of this process.” In the civil aspect, the sentence that ordered the state to pay a total compensation of $205 million to the victims' families was confirmed.

Source: soychile.cl, June 17, 2020

Puerto Montt: Name change from Regimiento Street to Los Deportistas Street made official

In recent days, with the installation of the corresponding signage, the name change of Regimiento Street in Puerto Montt was made official, as approved in 2020 by the Municipal Council of the capital city of the Los Lagos region.

As Mayor Gervoy Paredes recalled, at that time […] In recent days, with the installation of the corresponding signage, the name change of Regimiento Street in Puerto Montt was made official, as approved in 2020 by the Municipal Council of the capital city of the Los Lagos region.

As Mayor Gervoy Paredes recalled, at that time “a group of leaders from various organizations came, including the neighborhood association and sports clubs, and they brought this proposal that did not originate from the municipality, it was born from the people themselves, from friends of the families of four athletes who were murdered at that time, and they requested that Regimiento Street could be named Los Deportistas Street, and it was won in the Municipal Council,” said the mayor.

Thus, on every corner, the new name defined as “Los Deportistas” can now be seen, in honor of four young amateur soccer players murdered during the dictatorship. They are Pedro Bahamonde, José Soto, Héctor Maldonado, and José Mañao, who were executed by firing squad in 1974 by Air Force personnel after having had an altercation in a bar in the Lintz neighborhood.

Let us remember that in June 2018, the Supreme Court sentenced Ronald Peake de Ferrari, the officer in charge of the military patrol, to 10 years and one day in prison; and Juan Gallegos, Héctor Stuardo, and José Quilodrán to 3 years and one day, with supervised release. The families were compensated with $205 million.

Source: radionahuel.cl, May 26, 2023