Miguel Krassnoff, Marcelo Moren Brito, and Raúl Iturriaga Neumann are among those implicated.

The minister for extraordinary cases of human rights violations at the Santiago Court of Appeals, Hernán Crisosto, sentenced 77 agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) this Monday for their responsibility in the kidnapping of Héctor Garay Hermosilla in 1974.

Garay Hermosilla, a member of the Revolutionary Student Front (FER), was 19 years old when he was detained near his home on July 8, 1974. Days later, his name appeared in the national press on a false list of 119 people killed due to alleged internal disputes within the MIR, in what was termed "Operation Colombo." According to the judge's findings, "the publications that declared the victim Garay Hermosilla dead originated from disinformation maneuvers carried out by DINA agents abroad."

According to the reconstruction of events carried out by the presiding minister, the DINA agents who captured Garay "forced him into the back of a gray Chevrolet C-10 pickup truck and took him to the home of a friend of the victim, who was also forced into the aforementioned truck, to be driven to an unknown destination."

"Subsequently, it was established through testimonies that Héctor Marcial Garay Hermosilla passed through the clandestine detention center known as 'Londres 38,' which was guarded by armed guards and to which only DINA agents had access," the ruling continues, establishing that to this date, there is no further information regarding Garay's whereabouts.

The convicted In the resolution, the presiding minister sentenced the following to 13 years in prison: César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Marcelo Luis Moren Brito, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann, as authors of the crime perpetrated in 1974.

Meanwhile, the following former agents must serve 10 years in prison, also as authors: Gerardo Ernesto Urrich González, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, Ciro Ernesto Torré Sáez, Sergio Hernán Castillo González, Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, José Nelson Fuentealba Saldías, Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes, José Enrique Fuentes Torres, José Mario Friz Esparza, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, Claudio Orlando Orellana de la Pinta, Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar, Gustavo Galvarino Caruman Soto, Hiro Álvarez Vega, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Olegario Enrique González Moreno, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Rudeslindo Urrutia Jorquera, Alfredo Orlando Moya Tejeda, Carlos Alfonso Sáez Sanhueza, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Hernán Patricio Valenzuela Salas, Hugo Rubén Delgado Carrasco, Juan Alfredo Villanueva Alvear, Juan Evaristo Duarte Gallegos, Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Máximo Ramón Aliaga Soto, Manuel Rivas Díaz, Juan Ángel Urbina Cáceres, Risiere del Prado Altez España, Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte, Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca, and Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle.

As accomplices to the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Garay Hermosilla, the presiding minister sentenced the following to 4 years in prison: Luis Eduardo Mora Cerda, José Jaime Mora Diocares, Camilo Torres Negrier, Carlos Justo Bermúdez Méndez, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, Fernando Adrián Roa Montaña, Gerardo Meza Acuña, Héctor Raúl Valdebenito Araya, Jaime Humberto Paris Ramos, Jorge Laureano Sagardia Monje, José Dorohi Hormazábal Rodríguez, José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, José Stalin Muñoz Leal, Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, Luis René Torres Méndez, Manuel Antonio Montre Méndez; Moisés Paulino Campos Figueroa, Nelson Aquiles Ortiz Vignolo, Nelson Eduardo Iturriaga Cortés, Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, Reinaldo Alfonso Concha Orellana, Sergio Hernán Castro Andrade, Víctor Manuel de la Cruz San Martín Jiménez, Gustavo Humberto Apablaza Meneses, Héctor Carlos Díaz Cabezas, Jorge Antonio Lepileo Barrios, Óscar Belarmino la Flor Flores; Rufino Espinoza Espinoza, Héctor Manuel Lira Aravena, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, Sergio Iván Díaz Lara, Juan Miguel Troncoso Soto, and Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel.

Meanwhile, Rodolfo Valentino Cocha Rodríguez and Armando Segundo Cofre Correa were acquitted due to a lack of participation in the events.

Source: t13.cl, August 31, 2015

Chilean judge Víctor Montiglio prosecuted Army non-commissioned officer Juvenal Piña Garrido, who confessed a few days ago to having murdered the secretary-general of the Chilean Communist Party in hiding, Víctor Díaz, in 1977, judicial sources confirmed today.

The father of Viviana Díaz, a historic leader of the Association of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared, died of asphyxiation after Piña Garrido placed a plastic bag over his head, while simultaneously an Army lieutenant injected him with cyanide to accelerate his death, according to the non-commissioned officer's statement in court.

The individual, nicknamed "El Elefante" (The Elephant), said he asked his victim for forgiveness for having to kill him, "but those are the orders I was given," he told the judge.

Piña Garrido was an agent of the "Lautaro" Brigade of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), the secret police of the dictatorship led by the late Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).

Montiglio also prosecuted former agent Pedro Gutiérrez Valdés, former Carabineros non-commissioned officer Claudio Orellana de la Pinta, and Army non-commissioned officer Joyce Ana Ahumada Despouy in this case.

All of them belonged to the "Lautaro" Brigade, tasked with exterminating the leadership of the Communist Party between 1976 and 1977, an operation known as "Calle Conferencia," the location where they were ambushed.

In that operation, the dictatorship's repressive agencies detained and forcibly disappeared the members of two clandestine leaderships of the Communist Party, including Jorge Muñoz, the husband of the late secretary-general of that group, Gladys Marín.

Along with "El Elefante" and the other three former DINA agents, the number of those prosecuted in this case totals 51.

The existence of the DINA's "Lautaro" Brigade, unknown until now, was revealed by a former member of the group who testified before Judge Montiglio at the end of 2006.

Source: terra.cl, March 21, 2007

Judge Montiglio prosecuted 98 former agents for victims of Operation Colombo - The biggest blow to repression

Among the accused, all retired, are eight colonels and 23 Army non-commissioned officers, 40 Carabineros officers and non-commissioned officers, two former FACH (Air Force) agents, one former Navy agent, and seven former Investigative Police agents.

The biggest blow to the repression of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship was dealt yesterday by Minister Víctor Montiglio, by prosecuting 98 former agents from different branches of the Armed Forces, Carabineros, and the Investigative Police for 42 victims of Operation Colombo.

This is the largest resolution issued among the nearly 400 cases of human rights violations currently being investigated in the country. It even surpassed the 67 former agents prosecuted by the same Judge Montiglio in 2007 for the crimes of the Lautaro Brigade and its "Grupo Delfín" at the Simón Bolívar barracks.

Among those accused for Colombo are eight retired Army colonels, six of whom had not been prosecuted in any case before. Also declared defendants were 23 retired Army non-commissioned officers, of whom at least 50 percent appear for the first time in these types of cases.

Among these non-commissioned officers is Juvenal Piña, alias "El Elefante," a former agent of the Lautaro Brigade, who was the one who asphyxiated the Communist leader in hiding (1976), Víctor Díaz, with a plastic bag over his head, prior to injecting him with cyanide.

Furthermore, the magistrate prosecuted 40 former Carabineros officers and non-commissioned officers, among whom are Ricardo Lawrence, Heriberto Acevedo, Claudio Pacheco, and José Mora, all former members of the same Brigade. Among those prosecuted are also former agents who belonged to the Investigative Police. The only civilian (Army) is Juan Suárez.

Of the total list, at least thirteen are already serving sentences for other cases (see list).

As of the closing of this edition, the accused were still being detained to be interned in various locations, such as the Peñalolén Military Police Battalion.

Among the 42 victims for whom the minister issued his resolution are María Angélica Andreolli, Miguel Acuña Castillo, Juan Carlos Perelmann Ide, Juan Chacón Olivares, Jorge Müller Silva, Luis Guendelmann Wisniak, Mario Calderón Tapia, and Carmen Bueno Cifuentes.

Operation Colombo and the media

The list of the 119 was published in the magazine Lea (Buenos Aires) and the newspaper O Dia (Brazil) in 1975; this information was also false. Both publications were created by DINA agents.

Operation Colombo was part of Operation Condor and consisted of a setup by the dictatorship to make the population believe that 119 detainees who were forcibly disappeared had clandestinely left for Argentina and died there in clashes with police and Army forces during the phase prior to the 1976 military coup in Argentina.

Some of those names appeared as militants "murdered" in Buenos Aires and its surroundings, with signs on their bodies stating they had been executed by their own comrades as a settling of scores due to internal disputes. However, this also turned out to be a setup.

The list of the 119 was published in the magazine Lea (Buenos Aires) and the newspaper O Dia (Brazil) in 1975; this information was also false. Both publications were created by DINA agents abroad and had only one edition.

In Chile, the pro-dictatorship press, such as the newspapers El Mercurio, La Tercera, Las Últimas Noticias, and La Segunda, reproduced the intelligence services' setup. The headline of the evening paper that reported "Exterminated like rats: 59 Chilean MIR members fall in military operation in Argentina" remains in memory. They were part of the list of the 119 disappeared of Colombo.

The former fugitive Raúl Iturriaga, who was one of those in charge of the DINA's foreign department, was the one who first shed light on this operation in Buenos Aires.

According to former civilian agent Enrique Arancibia Clavel, convicted in Buenos Aires for the murder of General Carlos Prats and his wife, it was Iturriaga who met with him at the beginning of 1975 to ask him to prepare what was necessary because "we have to make some dead people from Operation Colombo appear."

It was about preparing the appearance of the supposed bodies of Jaime Robotham and Luis Guendelmann as part of the setup.

List of the prosecuted

Army (all retired)

Víctor Molina Astete (colonel); Sergio Castillo González (col); Eduardo Guerra Guajardo (col); Víctor San Martín Jiménez (col); José Fuentes Torres (col); Manuel Carevic Cubillos (col); Jaime Paris Ramos (col); César Manríquez Bravo (col); Raúl Toro Montes (non-commissioned officer); Eduardo Reyes Lagos (NCO); Orlando Torrejón Gatica (NCO); Osvaldo Tapia Alvarez (NCO; committed suicide); Juvenal Piña Garrido (NCO; "El Elefante"); Juan Suárez Delgado (civilian); Nelson Paz Bustamante (NCO); José Aravena Ruiz (NCO); Luis Torres Méndez (NCO); Raúl Soto Pérez (NCO); Jorge Andrade Gómez (NCO); Juan Escobar Valenzuela (NCO); Rolando Concha Rodríguez (NCO); Gustavo Apablaza Meneses (NCO); Hiro Alvarez Vega (NCO); Víctor Alvarez Droguett (NCO); Jorge Venegas Silva (NCO); Carlos Rinaldi Suazo (NCO); Carlos Letelier Verdugo (NCO); Reinaldo Concha Orellana (NCO); Máximo Aliaga Soto (NCO); Hugo Clavería Leiva (NCO); Samuel Fuenzalida Devia (NCO);

Investigative Police

Juan Urbina Cáceres; Hugo Hernández; Manuel Rivas Díaz; Herman Alfaro; Eugenio Fieldhouse; Osvaldo Castillo;

Carabineros (officers and non-commissioned officers, all retired):

Gerardo Godoy García; Ciro Torres Sáez; Alejandro Molina Cisternas; Camilo Torres Negrier; Héctor Lira Aravena; José Fritz Esparza; Claudio Pacheco Fernández; Jorge Sagardia Monje; Sergio Castro Andrade; Luis Villarroel Gutiérrez; Armando Cofré Gómez; Fernando Roa Montaña; Gerardo Meza Acuña; Enrique Gutiérrez Rubilar; Luis Mora Cerda; José Muñoz Leal; Juan Duarte Gallegos; Carlos Miranda Meza; Rufino Jaime Astorga; Luis Urrutia Acuña; Luis Zúñiga Ovalle; Pedro Alfaro Hernández; Orlando Inostroza Lagos; Rosa Ramos Hernández; Gustavo Caruvan Soto; Héctor Valdebenito Araya; Manuel Avendaño González; José Mora Diocares; Guido Jara Brevis; Nelson Ortiz Vignolo; Ruderlindo Urrutia Jorquera; Héctor Flores Vergara; Jerónimo Neira Méndez; Manuel Montré Méndez; Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo; Claudio Orellana de la Pinta; Nelson Iturriaga Cortés; Luis Gutiérrez Uribe; José Ojeda Obando;

Air Force

Delia Gajardo Cortés; Hernán Avalos Muñoz;

Navy

Teresa Navarro Osorio;

Prosecuted individuals already serving sentences:

Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda; Pedro Espinoza Bravo; Raúl Iturriaga Neumann; Marcelo Moren Brito; Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko; Ricardo Lawrence Mires; Basclay Zapata Reyes; Conrado Pacheco; Francisco Ferrer Lima; Gerardo Urrich; Orlando Manzo Durán; Rizier Altez España; Fernando Lauriani Maturana

Source: lanacion.cl, May 27, 2008

Miguel Angel Acuña Castillo: The disappearance of the 19-year-old at Londres 38

He was detained in July 1974 in the commune of Macul. Numerous witnesses saw him at the torture and extermination center of Londres 38. He is one of the victims of "Operation Colombo." The justice system sentenced 78 former DINA agents for this crime against humanity.

The minister of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Hernán Crisosto, issued a first-instance sentence for the kidnapping and disappearance of Miguel Angel Acuña Castillo.

The magistrate established that the young man, a militant of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR), was detained in the vicinity of his home located at Pasaje Talca N° 2033 in the commune of Macul, by State agents belonging to the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), among them Osvaldo Romo Mena, alias "el Guatón Romo."

His sister, Rosa Acuña Castillo, declared that her father tried to climb into the back of the covered pickup truck as they were taking him away, but he was struck in the mouth by one of the subjects, falling to the ground.

A week after the kidnapping, Romo went to his home again and told her that her brother was in good condition along with Héctor Garay Hermosilla, who also disappeared. Both were members of the Revolutionary Student Front (FER) at Liceo 7 in Ñuñoa.

Judge Crisosto determined that the DINA agents "transferred him to the clandestine detention center known as 'Yucatán' or 'Londres 38'."

Acuña Castillo belonged to the secondary student structure of the MIR's Military Political Group 3 (GPM3), an organization that grouped militants from the eastern zone of the capital and was led by Agustín Reyes González, whose trail was lost forever at Londres 38.

There, he "remained without contact with the outside, blindfolded and tied up, being continuously subjected to interrogations under torture by DINA agents," and the last time he was seen alive "occurred on an undetermined day in the month of July or August 1974, remaining disappeared to this date," the first-instance ruling states.

They laughed at Londres 38 along with Héctor Garay Hermosilla

At the "Yucatán" barracks, he was seen by Erika Hennings, who was detained on July 30, 1974. "I can say that he was very young, I think they called him 'El Pampa'," she asserted during the proceedings.

She heard that they took roll call twice a day for the detainees. On July 31, 1974, she heard the name of Miguel Angel Acuña Castillo, who answered "present." Later, she did not hear him called again. "They took them out of Londres 38, just like other detainees, among whom she remembers María Inés Alvarado," a 21-year-old forcibly disappeared person.

Hugo Chacaltana Silva, detained on May 4, 1974, a former student of Liceo Manuel de Salas and member of the Revolutionary Student Front (FER), also saw him at Londres 38. He recounted that in the early hours of July 8 to 9, 1974, Miguel Angel Acuña arrived along with Héctor Garay Hermosilla, whom they called "Titín"; he was able to see them through a gap that formed between his nose and cheekbones under the blindfold.

Chacaltana noted that he met Castillo in 1971, when both were secondary students. Both coincided in meetings held at the time between members of the FER, the judicial ruling notes. He remembers "Miguel Ángel as a young man of great leadership capacity and great physical resistance."

He stopped seeing him on September 11, 1973. He met him again at Londres 38. He arrived along with Héctor Garay to the same room where he remained lying on the floor. "At that moment, I did not address Miguel Ángel"; on the contrary, he pretended to be unaware of his presence. "The next day, when the mattresses on which we detainees lay were removed and replaced by chairs, I sat down and, to one side, I observed that they were still sitting.

It struck him that both were talking and laughing, which made him think that they were unaware of the magnitude of what awaited them. Miguel Ángel approached him at Londres 38, telling him, 'I know you'."

His mother found out at the hair salon that her son was at Londres 38

León Gómez, detained on July 15, 1974, and transferred to Londres 38, saw Miguel Angel along with Héctor Garay, whom he knew. Someone commented to him that among the detainees was "Pampino," which he corroborated upon hearing him "with his typical jokes that he made to the guards, as if giving the impression that what was happening in the place had no importance.

Even Titín and Pampino would drive the guards crazy. They were very irreverent."

David Cuevas Sharon, detained on May 4, 1974, also testified to having seen him. "Despite showing signs of mistreatment, 'El Pampino' appeared to have great presence of mind; he was very physically strong." He shared time with him for at least five days.

When Cuevas was released, Acuña Castillo remained a prisoner. His maternal grandmother had a hair salon in Ñuñoa, and one of her clients was Miguel Angel's mother. In a conversation, "she found out about the problem she had with a disappeared son.

Given this, my grandmother had her come to the hair salon, where she met Pampino's mother and told her what she knew about him, specifically the place where he had been imprisoned with him."

Regarding the torments applied to the detainees at Londres 38, including Miguel Angel, Minister Crisosto incorporated statements from Osvaldo Romo, who stated that among other tortures, detainees were subjected to "the dry submarine, which was covering the detainees' breathing with a plastic bag placed over their heads; their eyes would look like 'fried eggs,' and blood would come out of their noses and eardrums.

After the interrogations and duress, the detainees would be exhausted."

Another former agent, Samuel Fuenzalida Devia, specified in this regard that "the general treatment of the prisoners was to keep them blindfolded, they were not allowed to wash, there were no beds for them to sleep on, the food was scarce, and they were subjected to intense interrogations in which electricity was applied to them, especially to their genitals and breasts.

Another form of torture consisted of keeping the detainees sitting in chairs, tied by their feet and hands, while current was applied to them with magnets, although common electric current was also applied, which burned those people, a procedure in which many people died."

Eugenio Fieldhouse Chávez maintains that as an official of the Investigative Police, in mid-June 1974, he was assigned to that repressive agency and indicated that the same DINA agents who intervened in the detention and interrogation of the detainees, once the sought-after information was obtained, were the ones in charge of making them disappear, following an order from DINA superiors.

The name of Miguel Ángel Acuña Castillo appeared among the 119 Chileans of Operation Colombo, on a list disseminated in the national press, after appearing in publications that appeared only once in Brazil and Argentina, "in which it was reported that Miguel Ángel Acuña Castillo had died in Argentina, along with 58 other people belonging to the MIR, due to internal disputes."

The convictions

"The publications that declared the victim Acuña Castillo dead had their origin in disinformation maneuvers carried out by DINA agents abroad," determined Judge Crisosto, who sentenced 78 former DINA agents for his disappearance.

The magistrate issued a sentence of 13 years of major imprisonment in its medium degree to Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda; César Manríquez Bravo; Pedro Espinoza; Marcelo Luis Moren Brito; Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko; and Raúl Iturriaga Neumann.

Likewise, he sentenced to 10 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree Gerardo Ernesto Urrich González; Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García; Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires; Ciro Ernesto Torré Sáez; Sergio Hernán Castillo González; Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos; José Nelson Fuentealba Saldías; Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes; José Enrique Fuentes Torres; José Mario Friz Esparza; Julio José Hoyos Zegarra; Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante; Claudio Orlando Orellana de la Pinta; Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar; Gustavo Galvarino Caruman Soto; Hiro Álvarez Vega; José Alfonso Ojeda Obando; Luis Salvador Villarroel Gutiérrez; Olegario Enrique González Moreno; Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica; Rudeslindo Urrutia Jorquera; Alfredo Orlando Moya Tejeda; Carlos Alfonso Sáez Sanhueza; Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo; Hernán Patricio Valenzuela Salas; Hugo Rubén Delgado Carrasco; Juan Alfredo Villanueva Alvear; Juan Evaristo Duarte Gallegos; Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza; Leónides Emiliano Méndez Moreno; Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda; Rafael De Jesús Riveros Frost; Víctor Manuel Molina Astete; Manuel Rivas Díaz; Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle; Juan Ángel Urbina Cáceres; Risiere del Prado Altez España; Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca; and Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte.

As accomplices to the kidnapping and disappearance of the 19-year-old, he sentenced to 4 years of minor imprisonment in its maximum degree Luis Eduardo Mora Cerda; José Jaime Mora Diocares; Camilo Torres Negrier; Carlos Justo Bermúdez Méndez; Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández; Fernando Adrián Roa Montaña; Gerardo Meza Acuña; Héctor Raúl Valdebenito Araya; Jaime Humberto Paris Ramos; Jorge Laureano Sagardia Monje; José Dorohi Hormazabal Rodríguez; José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo; José Stalin Muñoz Leal; Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido; Luis René Torres Méndez; Manuel Antonio Montre Méndez; Máximo Ramón Aliaga Soto; Moisés Paulino Campos Figueroa; Nelson Aquiles Ortiz Vignolo; Nelson Eduardo Iturriaga Cortes; Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo; Reinaldo Alfonso Concha Orellana; Sergio Hernán Castro Andrade; Víctor Manuel de la Cruz San Martin Jiménez; Gustavo Humberto Apablaza Meneses; Héctor Carlos Díaz Cabezas; Jorge Antonio Lepileo Barrios; Oscar Belarmino La Flor Flores; Rufino Espinoza Espinoza; Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel; Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett; Héctor Manuel Lira Aravena; and Sergio Iván Díaz Lara.

Regarding Víctor Manuel De la Cruz San Martín Jiménez, due to having fallen into dementia, the fulfillment of the sentence is suspended, and he must, in due course, be handed over under custody bail to a family member.

Source: Villa Grimaldi.cl, February 3, 2015

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

The minister on special visit 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 the 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.

The majority of those convicted were agents and leaders of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), and the others were members of the army aviation command, the agency responsible for the execution of the so-called "death flights."

Carlos José Leonardo López Tapia, former army colonel, head of the Villa Grimaldi torture center at the time of the events, sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment, in addition to the legal accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and to the payment of court costs, as the perpetrator of the crime of qualified homicide.

Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, former police lieutenant colonel, head of the Eagle Group of the Caupolicán Brigade of the DINA (currently a fugitive from justice), sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment, in addition to the legal accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and to the payment of court costs, as the perpetrator of the crime of qualified homicide.

He must also serve 4 years of imprisonment 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 of imprisonment, in addition to the legal accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and to the 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 of imprisonment, in addition to the legal accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and to the payment of court costs, as accessories after the fact 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 of imprisonment, in addition to the legal accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification for political rights and absolute disqualification for public offices for the duration of the sentence; and to the payment of court costs, as the perpetrator of the crime of simple kidnapping.

Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo and Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, former police non-commissioned officers, both sentenced to 10 years and one day of imprisonment, in addition to the legal accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and to the payment of court costs, as co-perpetrators of the crime of qualified homicide.

In addition, they must serve 2 years of imprisonment as perpetrators of the crime of simple kidnapping.

Emilio Hernán Troncoso Vivallos, former police non-commissioned officer, sentenced to 5 years and one day of imprisonment, in addition to the legal accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence; and to the payment of court costs, as a co-perpetrator of the crime of qualified homicide.

In addition, one year of imprisonment as the perpetrator of the crime of simple kidnapping.

For their part, the 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 of imprisonment, in addition to the legal accessories of suspension from public office for the duration of the sentence; and to the payment of court costs, as co-perpetrators of the crime of simple kidnapping.

In addition, the 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 of imprisonment, in addition to the legal accessories of suspension from public office for the duration of the sentence; and to the payment of court costs, as accomplices to the crime of simple kidnapping.

Meanwhile, the 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 group, 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 N° 908 in the commune of La Cisterna, a place 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 in the direction of Avenida Matta, who warned her that something strange was seen in the sector and it seemed to be watched, but she insisted on continuing her path, not knowing that Dr.

Iván Insunza had already been detained previously 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, without any order, proceeded to her detention at the office of Dr.

Insunza, who had been detained previously for his communist affiliation, an office that was being watched by security agencies; she was then transferred to the clandestine detention center of said agency, 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 knowing 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 commune of Santiago, a place 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 being 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 crew member, and a DINA operational agent, an aircraft that took off for the coast, heading out to sea, to then, from a height, throw her body into the high seas.

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 one of wire tied to her neck, which was severed and showed clear signs of having received physical duress; she also presented signs of needle marks on her arms.

The corpse was transferred to the La 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 in homicidal circumstances, where the direct cause of death was polytraumatism and luxofracture of the spine on September 9, 1976; the second expert report, of October 22, 1976, concluded that the cause of death was thoraco-abdomino-pelvic trauma, whose extension on February 22, 2010, determined that the final event that led to her death was asphyxia by strangulation with wire.

9.- That the Army Aviation Command had its center of operations at the Tobalaba airfield, among others, for the flight of Puma helicopters, which had greater flight and transport capacity, for whose displacement authorizations from the highest authorities of the Army were required, since it was necessary to assign at least in advance the pilots, co-pilots, and mechanics who were to form the flight crew.

These ships were used institutionally and regularly, in conjunction with the DINA, for several years, to eliminate the bodies of people detained in the various detention centers of said agency, who were taken directly to the Tobalaba airfield or taken to the Peldehue Regiment, to then undertake flight to the high seas, where they were thrown into the ocean.

Source: resumen.cl, July 1, 2016

18 former agents of the dictatorship convicted for the murder of teacher Marta Ugarte

"It was sufficiently proven that State agents acted with the precise objective of detaining the victim, without prior order and exclusively for political reasons, the act being executed on the occasion of a policy of repression and disappearance of a person for their thinking, with the state authority refusing to provide any information about the detention and the destination of that person, which is an attack against the human person," argues the judicial decision.

This Monday, the decision of the Supreme Court was made official, an entity that confirmed the conviction of 18 former agents of the dictatorship for the kidnapping and murder in 1976 of the teacher and PC militant Marta Ugarte Román, after the rejection of the cassation appeals presented against the previous ruling, reports the Judiciary.

In the sentence, the Second Chamber of the highest court discarded an error of law that convicted Ricardo Lawrence Mires, Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo, and Claudio Pacheco Fernández to 15 years of imprisonment as perpetrators of qualified homicide and to 10 years of imprisonment as perpetrators of qualified kidnapping.

Regarding Pedro Espinoza Bravo, José Ojeda Obando, Juvenal Piña Garrido, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, Orlando Altamirano Sanhueza, Guillermo Díaz Ramírez, Jorge Díaz Radulovich, Orlando Torrejón Gatica, Carlos Miranda Mesa, and Carlos López Inostroza, they received a sentence of 10 years of imprisonment as perpetrators of qualified kidnapping.

For his part, Carlos Mardones Díaz was sentenced to eight years of imprisonment as an accomplice, while Luis Polanco Gallardo was sentenced to five years of imprisonment as an accessory after the fact to qualified homicide.

Leónidas Méndez Romero and José Seco Alarcón must serve a sentence of five years of imprisonment as accomplices to qualified kidnapping, and Emilio Troncoso Vivallos was sentenced to four years of imprisonment as an accomplice to qualified kidnapping.

Details of the ruling

The sentence ended by discarding the error of law in the decision that established that Marta Ugarte Román was detained and murdered for political reasons, specifically for her militancy in the Communist Party.

"It is the detention of a person and subsequent homicide, whose motivations were of a political order, for the sole circumstance of belonging to a political conglomerate that had been decided to be combated drastically, by State agents in an organization—the National Intelligence Directorate—that had an entire structure, specifically, for the persecution, location, and detention of members of the Communist Party and, in their case, to make them disappear, as they were treated as enemies of the country," argues the court's decision.

And it subsequently adds that "it was sufficiently proven that State agents acted with the precise objective of detaining the victim, without prior order and exclusively for political reasons, the act being executed on the occasion of a policy of repression and disappearance of a person for their thinking, with the state authority refusing to provide any information about the detention and the destination of that person, which is an attack against the human person."

In parallel, the national justice system established that the half-prescription does not apply to reduce the sentence as it is a crime against humanity.

The case

Regarding the case, the site Memoria Viva details that on August 9, 1976, DINA agents detained Marta Ugarte. According to the account of witnesses, the teacher was detained at Villa Grimaldi, where she subsequently died as a consequence of the torture she received.

After the crime, those responsible threw her into the sea, where she was found semi-naked and inside a sack tied to her neck with a wire, on September 9 of that year on La Ballena beach, in Los Molles.

The autopsy report confirms that while alive, Ugarte suffered a spinal luxofracture, thoracic-abdominal trauma with multiple rib fractures, rupture and bursting of the liver and spleen, dislocation of both shoulders and hip, and a double fracture in the right forearm. Her date of death corresponds to September 9 of that year.

Source: eldesconcierto.cl, November 29, 2021

Santiago Court confirms ruling that convicted 30 DINA agents for the qualified kidnapping of a pregnant young woman

The appellate court confirmed the sentence convicting 30 agents of the defunct National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Reinalda del Carmen Pereira Plaza.

A 29-year-old woman, five months pregnant, she was detained on December 15, 1976, in the current commune of Macul and taken to the clandestine detention center located at Calle Simón Bolívar Nº 8800, in the commune of La Reina, from where her trail was lost.

The Santiago Court of Appeals confirmed the sentence convicting 30 agents of the defunct National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Reinalda del Carmen Pereira Plaza.

A 29-year-old woman, five months pregnant, she was detained on December 15, 1976, in the current commune of Macul and taken to the clandestine detention center located at Calle Simón Bolívar Nº 8800, in the commune of La Reina, from where her trail was lost.

In the ruling (case file 3.023-2019), the Sixth Chamber of the appellate court—composed of justices María Rosa Kittsteiner, María Paula Merino, and Paula Rodríguez—ratified the sentence that condemned Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Juan Morales Salgado, and Ricardo Lawrence Mires to 10 years of imprisonment as perpetrators of the crime.

Meanwhile, in their capacity as co-perpetrators, Gladys Calderón Carreño, Juvenal Piña Garrido, Héctor Valdebenito Araya, Sergio Escalona Acuña, Jorge Manríquez Manterola, María Angélica Guerrero Soto, Orfa Saavedra Vásquez, Elisa Magna Astudillo, Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo, Claudio Pacheco Fernández, Emilio Troncoso Vivallos, Teresa Navarro Navarro, José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, Gustavo Guerrero Aguilera, and Jorge Arriagada Mora must serve 7 years of imprisonment.

In the case of José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, José Miguel Meza Serrano, Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich, Jorge Segundo Pichunmán Curiqueo, Sergio Hernán Castro Andrade, Carlos Enrique Miranda Mesa, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, Orlando del Tránsito Altamirano Sanhueza, Guillermo Eduardo Díaz Ramírez, Bertha Yolanda del Carmen Jiménez Escobar, Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza, and Joyce Ana Ahumada Despouy, they must serve 4-year sentences as accomplices.

The appellate court adopted the findings that allowed the visiting judge Miguel Vázquez Plaza to establish the responsibility and participation of the then-state agents in the kidnapping and disappearance of the medical technologist.

“That, in this course of action, the reasoning in the reviewed sentence is shared, for the purpose of establishing the participation of those convicted, as the evidentiary records outlined in the appealed sentence—in points fourteen against Espinoza Bravo, seventeen against Morales Salgado, twenty against Lawrence Mires, twenty-nine against Calderón Carreño, thirty-two against Piña Garrido, forty-one against Valdebenito Araya, forty-four against Escalona Acuña, forty-seven against Manríquez Manterola, sixty-five against Saavedra Vásquez, sixty-eight against Magna Astudillo, seventy-one against Oyarce Riquelme, seventy-four against Acevedo, seventy-seven against Pacheco Fernández, eighty against Troncoso Vivallos, eighty-six against Navarro Navarro, ninety-five against Sarmiento Sotelo, one hundred seven against Guerrero Aguilera, and one hundred twenty-two against Arriagada Mora—constitute a set of judicial presumptions which, given their multiplicity, gravity, precision, and consistency, and for meeting the legal requirements provided in Article 488 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, allow for the accreditation of the participation attributed to them as co-perpetrators, under the terms provided in Article 15 No. 1 of the Penal Code, in accordance with the reasoning in points fifteen, eighteen, twenty-one, thirty, thirty-three, forty-two, forty-five, forty-eight, sixty-six, sixty-nine against Magna Astudillo, seventy-two, seventy-five, seventy-seven, eighty-one, eighty-seven, ninety-five, one hundred seven, and one hundred twenty-three respectively, and which is complemented by the reasoning in foundations one hundred seventy-three, one hundred seventy-eight, one hundred eighty-two, one hundred eighty-six, one hundred eighty-nine, one hundred ninety-five, one hundred ninety-seven, two hundred three, two hundred six, and two hundred ten,” it is detailed.

The resolution adds: “At this point, it should be specified that the participation as a co-perpetrator attributed to Juan Morales Salgado falls squarely within the provisions of Article 15 No. 1 of the Penal Code, since he acted under the direct orders of Manuel Contreras and was in charge of the Simón Bolívar barracks at the time of the events.

In that capacity, it was his duty to coordinate the operational work of the brigades acting under his command, especially in relation to the dismantling of the Communist Party, assigning personnel under his charge for this purpose, directing investigation efforts, and receiving the corresponding reports, ordering the entry and detention of those detained at the unit, as well as the interrogations and torture to which they were subjected and, where applicable, their death and disappearance.

It was established that he was present during the interrogation and torture of the victim in these proceedings, which determines that he intervened immediately and directly in the events, so his conduct implies a functional contribution to the global result, maintaining, together with the other perpetrators, the co-dominion of the act.”

“For its part, the attribution of responsibility as a co-perpetrator, under the terms provided in Article 15 No. 1 of the Penal Code, imputed to the accused María Angélica Guerrero Soto, is established by virtue of her confession in accordance with the provisions of Article 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which is corroborated by the merit of the records indicated in foundation fifty-seven of the appealed sentence, to which is added the reasoning in motivation one hundred ninety-three,” the ruling adds.

“That, in the same sense,” it continues, “it adheres to what is indicated in the sentence under study, as the indications pointed out in points thirty-five against Ojeda Obando, fifty against Meza Serrano, fifty-three against Lagos Yáñez, fifty-nine against Díaz Radulovich, sixty-two against Pichunmán Curiqueo, eighty-three against Castro Andrade, ninety-eight against Miranda Mesa, one hundred one against Álvarez Droguett, one hundred four against Altamirano Sanhueza, one hundred thirteen against Díaz Ramírez, one hundred twenty-five against Jiménez Escobar, one hundred thirty-four against López Inostroza, and one hundred forty-three against Ahumada Despouy, gather the necessary force to configure judicial presumptions, which, given their multiplicity, gravity, precision, and consistency, allow for the accreditation of the participation attributed to them as accomplices, in accordance with the provisions of Article 16 of the Penal Code, according to the reasoning in foundations thirty-six, fifty-one, fifty-four, sixty, sixty-three, eighty-four, ninety-nine, one hundred two, one hundred five, one hundred fourteen, one hundred twenty-six, one hundred thirty-five, and one hundred forty-four, respectively, to which are added the reasonings one hundred seventy-one, one hundred seventy-nine, one hundred eighty-seven, one hundred ninety-eight, two hundred, two hundred four, and two hundred eight of the ruling.”

For the appellate court, in this instance: “(…) as noted, it has been sufficiently demonstrated that all the accused were part of an organized structure under subordination and dependency, in which those who exercised management duties and operational personnel coexisted, dedicated to investigation as well as the detention, custody, interrogation, torture, and, where applicable, the death and disappearance of the detainees.

In this, one observes, on one hand, the division of roles typical of co-perpetration, since all of them made a functional contribution to the execution of the crime, each of them having co-dominion of the act, and on the other, a facilitation of the means with which the crime is committed, thus cooperating in the act of another, through prior or simultaneous acts, which is what characterizes complicity.”

“With that understanding, contrary to what the defenses argued in court in support of their appeals, it is convenient to specify that the convicted are not punished merely for belonging to the institution, but for the conduct displayed by each one in relation to the events concerning the victim of these proceedings, Ms.

Reinalda Pereira Plaza, which also leads to ruling out the intervention of those accused with respect to whom, despite having been established that they were part of the same institution and performed functions at the property located at Simón Bolívar No. 8800 in La Reina, their punishable participation in any of the forms provided by law has not been proven,” it concludes.

Detention and disappearance

In the appealed ruling, the visiting judge Miguel Vázquez Plaza established the following facts:

• a) That the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), on an unspecified date but during the first half of 1976, occupied and enabled a property at Calle Simón Bolívar Nº 8800, in the commune of La Reina, consisting of a country house that was conditioned for its purpose of confinement. It had a single access gate, a guard booth to its right where gate duty was performed, a house at the back, a small soccer field, parking lots, and on the left side of the property, a kind of gym where there was a mess hall, kitchen, and changing rooms and bathrooms, which were conditioned to be used as dungeons. This property was where the Lautaro brigade, under the command of Major Juan Morales Salgado, operated, and it was used as a secret and clandestine place of confinement; people were brought to this facility as detainees to be interrogated under the use of various physical coercion techniques, especially regarding those who had or had had political militancy adhering to the Communist Party.
• b) That likewise, in the second half of 1976, DINA groups under the command of officers Germán Barriga and Ricardo Lawrence moved to said facility, together with their operational agents, who were fundamentally concerned with investigating, locating, raiding, pursuing, repressing, and dismantling members of the Communist Party, especially its leadership, for which provisional facilities were enabled for their installation, consisting of offices, a gym, and changing rooms that were confinement dungeons, where interrogations and torture were carried out, using coercion with various methods.
• c) That Reinalda del Carmen Pereira Plaza, pregnant with her first child, 5 months into her pregnancy, a medical technologist and communist militant, who worked sheltering people and as a liaison between Eliana Ahumada and Fernando Navarro, although also related to the communist militant Fernando Ortiz, was detained at 29 years of age, at approximately 8:30 PM, while waiting for public transport, by security agents on December 15, 1976, at the corner of Calle Exequiel Fernández and Rodrigo de Araya, in the commune of Ñuñoa, currently the commune of Macul. The agents who detained her were traveling in two Peugeot brand cars; one of them with license plate HLN-55, from which a subject got out and grabbed her violently. When she screamed for help, a second subject got out, with whom she was forcibly subdued and placed inside the vehicle. The detention was carried out in the presence of witnesses who were in the various surrounding commercial establishments, who report that once the victim was subdued and the detention carried out, the car headed along Rodrigo de Araya in a northerly direction.
• d) That Reinalda del Carmen Pereira Plaza was taken to the secret detention center Simón Bolívar, where she was seen together with other prisoners who, in turn, had been detained by the same brigades under the same operational policy between December 13 and 15, 1976; that is, Héctor Véliz Ramírez, Fernando Navarro Allendes, Lincoyán Yalu Berríos Cataldo, Juan Fernando Ortiz Letelier, and Horacio Cepeda Marincovich. In this place, Reinalda was severely beaten, tortured, illegitimately coerced, and then made to disappear, with no news of her whereabouts to this date.
• e) That the Chilean government of the time, given the search efforts carried out by her relatives, reported that the affected person had registered an exit ‘on foot’ through the Los Libertadores border crossing between Chile and Argentina on December 21, 1976, an official version that was judicially established as false, as stated in the process reviewed, case file Rol 2-77, in which it was verified that the route sheet that recorded said circumstances had been forged.
• f) That the victim in this case was detained on public roads just like thirteen other people in similar circumstances; eleven belonging to the Communist Party and two to the MIR, and where the information provided by the Military Government was similar and erroneous, demonstrating a large-scale operation that obeyed a policy of investigation, persecution, and dismantling of the Communist Party and not an isolated event.
• g) That all the aforementioned persons, including the victim, were detained to be interrogated and tortured by reason of their political militancy, and in order to obtain information about their party activities and the identification of other members of the Communist Party in hiding; coercion that did not cease until the required information was obtained or until the victims became unconscious.

Source: pjud.cl, March 4, 2022

Among those implicated in the crime is the former Army Brigadier Pedro Espinoza, deputy director of Augusto Pinochet’s repressive agency in the 1970s. The list includes agents linked to the Brigada Lautaro, one of the most feared units of that era.

The ruling by the Santiago Court of Appeals, which acquitted and reduced the sentences of 17 former agents of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA)—the dictatorship’s secret police that operated between 1973 and 1977—caused indignation among some.

Specifically, the panel composed of ministers Juan Cristóbal Mera Muñoz, Mireya López Miranda, and lawyer Cristián Lepín Molina acquitted seven DINA agents in the case regarding the disappearance of 16 people and the murder of a 17th, events that occurred in 1976. The victims were last seen at the Villa Grimaldi detention center.

The victims are the following militants and leaders of the Communist Party: Luis Emilio Recabarren González, Manuel Guillermo Recabarren González, Nalvia Mena Alvarado, Manuel Segundo Recabarren Rojas, Clara Canteros Torres, Alejandro Rodríguez Urzúa, Daniel Palma Robledo, Carlos Enrique Godoy Lagarrigue, Iván Sergio Insunza Bascuñán, José Eduardo Santander Miranda, Mario Jesús Juica Vega, Víctor Hugo Morales Mazuela, Carlos Mario Vizcarra Cofré, Miguel Nazal Quiroz, Juan Aurelio Villarroel Zárate, Julio Roberto Vega Vega, and Eduardo Canteros Prado (the only one who was not forcibly disappeared).

In light of this controversy, INTERFERENCIA investigated the criminal records of these State agents who were part of the machine of torture, disappearance, and homicide that systematically violated human rights, primarily in the 1970s. Most of those who benefited are involved in other cases of similar characteristics, meaning they will remain in prison.

The Acquitted 1. Pedro Espinoza Bravo. Former Army Brigadier and former deputy director of the DINA. He was convicted for the murder of former Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier, former Army Commander-in-Chief General Carlos Prats, and Spanish diplomat Carmelo Soria.

He was part of the Caravana de la Muerte and a material author of the murders of American journalists Charles Horman Lazar and Frank Randall Teruggi Bombatch. He also received convictions in France for "kidnapping accompanied by torture and acts of barbarism" in the cases of French citizens Jorge Klein, Etienne Pesle, Alfonso Chanfreau, and Jean Yves Claudet.

The Santiago Court of Appeals acquitted Espinoza exclusively of the crimes committed at the Villa Grimaldi detention and torture center. "There is no evidence that he led any brigade that operated in Villa Grimaldi, much less the Delfín group, during the year 1976, which is what matters for these purposes," the ruling reads.

Specifically, he is exempted from responsibility in the kidnapping and disappearance of 17 victims carried out by the so-called Delfín group in 1976.

2. Rolf Wenderoth Pozo. Former Army Colonel and deputy director of Internal Intelligence for the DINA. He was a member of the Brigada Mulchén, known for the use of sarin gas in several murders and for being responsible for the murder of Carmelo Soria.

Wenderoth was the liaison agent for Luz Arce, a member of President Salvador Allende’s GAP, who was turned through torture into a DINA agent. He was part of the teams in charge of the Villa Grimaldi and Belgrano detention and torture centers.

3. Hermón Alfaro Mundaca. Former PDI commissioner and DINA agent. He was part of Villa Grimaldi from 1975 and was prosecuted along with 97 other agents for the disappearance of 41 people in the context of the Operación Colombo and the "Caso de los 119," a disinformation operation by the dictatorship in collusion with El Mercurio and La Tercera to hide disappearances.

This case corresponds to the famous headline in La Segunda on July 24: "Exterminated like rats."

4. Pedro Bitterlich Jaramillo. Former Army non-commissioned officer and DINA agent. He was part of the Brigada Lautaro, which—among other criminal missions—was in charge of the "Death Flights," through which the DINA disposed of the bodies of its victims using Army Puma helicopters.

This operation includes the case of Marta Lidia Ugarte Román, a victim of a death flight whose body was returned by the sea, a case for which Bitterlich was convicted as one of the authors of qualified kidnapping, along with Pedro Espinoza and several other agents.

He was also implicated in the cases known as Operación Colombo, Calle Conferencia I and II (aimed at the extermination of the Communist Party leadership), and Operación Cóndor (in which the repressive agencies of several Southern Cone dictatorships colluded to commit and cover up crimes beyond their borders).

5. Claudio Pacheco Fernández. Former Carabineros non-commissioned officer and DINA agent. He was also part of the Brigada Lautaro. He was implicated in Operación Colombo.

6. Orlando Torrejón Gatica. Former Army non-commissioned officer and agent for the DINA and the CNI. He was part of the Brigada Lautaro and later became part of the Green and Blue Brigades of the CNI, the repressive organization that succeeded the DINA. He was prosecuted in the Calle Conferencia II case.

7. Orlando Altamirano Sanhueza. Former Navy non-commissioned officer and DINA agent. He was also part of the Brigada Lautaro.

8. Carlos López Inostroza. DINA agent. Implicated in the Calle Conferencia I case and the Marta Ugarte case.

Those Who Received Sentence Reductions 9. Ricardo Lawrence Mires. Former Carabineros lieutenant colonel and DINA agent. According to Memoria Viva, he is one of the agency's main and cruelest torturers, having been the one who pressured Luz Arce before her conversion.

He was stationed at the Londres 38, José Domingo Cañas, and Villa Grimaldi torture centers. Lawrence is known recently for having been a fugitive and one of the most wanted by the PDI for the murder of Alfonso Chanfreau, having turned himself in to the OS-9 of the Carabineros on January 10.

10. Jorge Andrade Gómez. Former Army lieutenant colonel and agent for the DINA and the CNI. He was part of the School of the Americas, an institution created by the United States to teach repression and torture techniques that would be used in the dictatorships of the 1970s in Latin America.

He was a lieutenant to Miguel Krassnoff after his time at Villa Grimaldi and was implicated in the Calle Conferencia and Cóndor operations, as well as numerous kidnappings. In the CNI, he was part of Operación Alfa Carbón I, in which the CNI killed seven MIR militants, and he was convicted for the 1985 murder of 20-year-old Paulina Alejandra Aguirre Tobar of the MIR.

11. Juan Morales Salgado. Former Army colonel and director of the DINA’s Brigada Lautaro. Also known for his participation in the 1974 murder of Prats and his wife, Sofía Cuthbert, in Buenos Aires. For this crime, he was sentenced to 15 years and 1 day of presidio mayor in its maximum degree, as well as for illicit association.

This retired Armed Forces officer only entered prison in 2010. He also faces another conviction for the kidnapping of five young people in an episode known as the Linares Case, for which Morales Salgado received a sentence reduction from the Supreme Court in 2011.

12. Gladys Calderón Carreño. Former Army lieutenant, nurse, and agent of the DINA’s Brigada Lautaro. She was convicted in 2018 by visiting judge Mario Carroza for her role in the events involving Operación Cóndor, for her authorship in the qualified homicides of Ricardo Ignacio Ramírez Herrera, Jacobo Stoulman Bortnik, Matilde Pessa Mois, Hernán Soto Gálvez, and Ruiter Enrique Correa Arce.

Also, as published by El Mostrador, she participated in the Calle Conferencia operation and the detention of Víctor Díaz López of the Communist Party.

13. Ciro Torré Sáez. Former Carabineros captain and administrative chief of the DINA. According to the Memoria Viva website, Judge Llanos sentenced him in 2017 to 15 years and 1 day of presidio in its maximum degree as the author of the qualified kidnapping of Luis Emilio Recabarren González, Carlos Enrique Godoy Lagarrigue, and Iván Sergio Insunza Bascuñán.

Previously, Torré had been convicted by the Supreme Court for the qualified homicide of Lumi Videla Moya, a member of the MIR, who was kidnapped along with her husband by the DINA in 1974 and died at the José Domingo Cañas detention center. The highest court sentenced him to 5 years and 1 day in 2009.

14. Orlando Escalona Acuña. Former Navy non-commissioned officer and member of the DINA’s Brigada Lautaro. He was previously convicted as a co-author of the 1976 kidnapping and qualified homicide of Víctor Díaz López, a Communist Party militant who in 1973 held a leadership position in the Central Única de Trabajadores de Chile (CUT).

Additionally, the Supreme Court issued a sentence against him for the 1976 kidnapping of former communist deputy Bernardo Araya Zulueta and his wife, María Olga Flores Araya.

15. Juvenal Piña Garrido. Army non-commissioned officer and member of the DINA’s Brigada Lautaro. He received the same sentence reduction as Sergio Orlando Escalona Acuña; both were involved in the kidnapping of Daniel Palma Robledo.

Piña is also serving a sentence for the qualified kidnapping of Alfredo Rojas Castañeda, Michelle Marguerite Peña Herreros, Ricardo Ernesto Lagos Salinas, Mireya Herminia Rodríguez Díaz, and Exequiel Ponce Vicencio.

16. Jorge Díaz Radulovich. Air Force non-commissioned officer and member of the DINA’s Brigada Lautaro. The Supreme Court sentenced him to 5 years and 1 day of presidio as a co-author of the 1976 kidnapping of former deputy Bernardo Araya Zulueta and his wife, María Olga Flores Araya.

According to Memoria Viva, Díaz was mentioned in the book La Danza de los Cuervos as a member of the "Vengadores de Mártires" Command.

17. Gustavo Guerrero Aguilera. Carabineros non-commissioned officer and member of the Brigada Lautaro. He was implicated in the Calle Conferencia operation. He originally received a ten-year sentence for the kidnapping of Daniel Palma Robledo, but his sentence was reduced to three years and one day of presidio menor in its maximum degree.

Source: interferencia.cl, April 13, 2020

Supreme Court revokes ruling and sentences 14 former DINA agents for the 1976 crime against 17 communist militants

The Supreme Court sentenced 14 agents of the dissolved Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) for their responsibility in the qualified kidnapping of Luis Emilio Recabarren González, Manuel Guillermo Recabarren González, Nalvia Rosa Mena Alvarado, Manuel Segundo Recabarren Rojas, Clara Elena Canteros Torres, Alejandro Rodríguez Urzúa, Daniel Palma Robledo, Carlos Enrique Godoy Lagarrigue, Iván Sergio Insunza Bascuñán, José Eduardo Santander Miranda, Mario Jesús Juica Vega, Víctor Hugo Morales Mazuela, Carlos Mario Vizcarra Cofré, Miguel Nazal Quiroz, and Juan Aurelio Villarroel Zárate; and the qualified homicide of Eduardo Canteros Prado. The crimes were committed between April and August 1976 in the province of Santiago.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 71.900-2020), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, María Cristina Gajardo, María Soledad Melo, and Eliana Quezada—revoked the sentence issued by the Eighth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals in April 2020, which had applied the "half-prescription" (statute of limitations) to the accused.

In a replacement sentence, the Supreme Court sentenced former DINA leaders and former Army officers Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo and Jorge Claudio Andrade Gómez to 15 years and 1 day of presidio as authors of 16 counts of qualified kidnapping, and 10 years and 1 day as authors of one count of qualified homicide.

Meanwhile, Rolf Arnold Wenderoth Pozo was sentenced to two terms of 10 years and 1 day of presidio as the author of three qualified kidnappings and one qualified homicide; Juan Hernán Morales Salgado and Gladys de las Mercedes Calderón Carreño were sentenced to 10 years and 1 day of presidio as authors of six qualified kidnappings.

In the case of former agents Sergio Orlando Escalona Acuña, Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich, and Gustavo Enrique Guerrero Aguilera, they were sentenced to 5 years and 1 day of presidio as authors of a single case of qualified kidnapping.

Likewise, former agents Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, Orlando del Tránsito Altamirano Sanhueza, and Carlos Eugenio López Inostroza must serve 7 years as accomplices to the 16 qualified kidnappings and 5 years and 1 day of presidio as accomplices to the qualified homicide.

Finally, Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca must serve 7 years as an accomplice to 15 qualified kidnappings and 5 years and 1 day of presidio as an accomplice to the qualified homicide.

The criminals Carlos José Leonardo López Tapia and Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, who had been sentenced in the first-instance ruling issued by Judge Leopoldo Llanos in July 2017 to 20-year prison terms, died during the proceedings. Also deceased are those convicted in the first instance: Ciro Ernesto Torré Sáez, Orlando José Manzo Durán, and Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo.

In dismissing the "half-prescription," the Supreme Court established that: "(...) it is necessary to take into consideration that the matter under discussion must also be analyzed in accordance with international Human Rights regulations contained mainly in the Geneva Conventions, which prevent prescription, total or gradual, regarding crimes committed in cases of non-international armed conflicts."

The resolution adds: "The same conclusion is reached considering both the norms of the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons and those of the Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, since, in accordance with those regulations, gradual prescription has the same nature as total prescription."

"From another perspective, legal doctrine on this matter has expressed that its foundations are found in the same considerations of social stability and legal certainty that gave rise to Article 93 of the Penal Code, but that it is intended to produce its effects in those cases where the realization of the purposes provided for prescription does not occur naturally but after a gradual process, that is, when the time necessary to prescribe is about to be fulfilled, which would justify the mitigation of the penalty," it adds.

"However," it continues, "it is evident that that conclusion is for cases that do not present the characteristics of crimes against humanity, as these are imprescriptible. Consequently, for such mitigation to be appropriate, it is necessary that it be a crime in the process of prescribing, which is not the case here, so the passage of time does not produce any effect, because social reproach does not diminish over time, which only occurs in cases of common crimes."

The Facts In the first-instance ruling, special judge Leopoldo Llanos Sagristá established that within the framework of the systematic repression of opponents of the military regime, between April and August 1976, a series of detentions of people, all militants of the Communist Party, took place.

On April 29, 1976, in the sector of Santa Rosa and Sebastopol streets in the San Miguel commune, brothers Manuel Guillermo (22) and Luis Emilio Recabarren González (29) were detained by DINA agents, along with Nalvia Rosa Mena Alvarado (20) and her two-year-old son. The minor was abandoned near his home at night.

The following day, April 30, at 7:00 a.m., Manuel Segundo Recabarren Rojas (50) was detained shortly after leaving his home in the same sector as he was about to board a public bus.

All detainees were taken to the clandestine detention and torture center 'Villa Grimaldi'; Manuel Guillermo Recabarren González and Manuel Segundo Recabarren Rojas were also seen at the 'Simón Bolívar' facility, and Luis Emilio Recabarren González at 'Cuatro Álamos.' From those facilities, the DINA made them disappear.

On July 23, 1976, around 8:00 p.m., at the intersection of Rojas Magallanes and Panamá streets in the La Florida commune, young Clara Elena Canteros Torres (21) was detained by DINA agents. She was subdued while getting off public transport.

She was taken to 'Villa Grimaldi' where she was seen by witnesses, and on August 20, 1976, she was taken from that facility along with fellow detainees Mario Juica Vega and Óscar Ramos. Since then, they have been disappeared.

At 9:40 p.m., Eduardo Canteros Prado (48), Clara Elena’s uncle and a civil engineer, was detained on the public road by DINA agents in front of his home on Panamá Street in the La Florida commune. He was taken to 'Villa Grimaldi.' In 1990, his remains were found at the Las Tórtolas estate in Colina, a facility that belonged to the Army until 1980.

On July 27, 1976, around 5:15 p.m., Alejandro Rodríguez Urzúa (49) was detained by DINA agents from his office located at Mallinkrodt 70, Barrio Bellavista. They took him to the 'Villa Grimaldi' facility.

On August 4, 1976, Daniel Palma Robledo (61), a businessman, was detained in the morning on Avenida Matta, between San Diego and Arturo Prat streets; after picking up his mail, he bought a newspaper, and as he was leaving, he was detained and taken to an unknown destination, but he was seen at the 'Simón Bolívar' extermination barracks.

On the same day, August 4, at 3:00 p.m., physician Carlos Enrique Godoy Lagarrigue (39) was detained. He was captured while traveling between the San Bernardo Parochial Hospital and his private practice, located at Barros Arana and Arturo Prat streets. He was taken to 'Villa Grimaldi' and subsequently to 'Cuatro Álamos,' from where he was made to disappear.

On the night of August 4, surgeon Iván Sergio Insunza Bascuñán (43) was detained by DINA agents while driving his vehicle. He was taken to 'Villa Grimaldi' and then to 'Cuatro Álamos.'

On August 6, 1976, shortly after leaving his home, around 9:30 a.m., student leader and Central Única de Trabajadores member José Eduardo Santander Miranda (29) was detained by DINA agents; surviving witnesses saw him at the 'Villa Grimaldi' facility.

On August 9, Víctor Hugo Morales Mazuela (45), a carpenter, construction worker, union leader, and organization head for a Communist Party regional branch, was detained in the morning in the vicinity of the 'Villa México' neighborhood in the Maipú commune and taken to 'Villa Grimaldi.' Subsequently, he was seen at the 'Simón Bolívar' barracks.

On the same day, August 9, Mario Jesús Juica Vega (34), a merchant, was detained around noon in the vicinity of Plaza Egaña in the Ñuñoa commune and taken to 'Villa Grimaldi,' where he was seen by numerous witnesses. On August 20, he was taken from that facility along with two other detainees, and since then, the DINA has kept them disappeared.

On August 11, 1976, at 9:00 a.m., while leaving his home located on Chiloé Street, between Santa Rosa and Gran Avenida in the San Miguel commune, merchant Miguel Nazal Quiroz (44) was detained by DINA agents. He was taken to 'Villa Grimaldi.'

On the night of August 11, Carlos Mario Vizcarra Cofré (31), a body shop worker, was detained at his home in Quinta Normal by agents who took him to 'Villa Grimaldi,' a facility where witnesses saw him until August 25 of that year. Subsequently, he was seen at the 'Simón Bolívar' facility.

On August 13, Juan Aurelio Villarroel Zárate (55), a union leader and photoengraver, was detained around noon by DINA agents near the Estación Mapocho while traveling from his home in Conchalí. He was taken to Villa Grimaldi.

On August 16, 1976, at 11:30 a.m., worker Julio Roberto Vega Vega was detained by DINA agents on Avenida Presidente Balmaceda, between Cueto and Libertad, in the Santiago commune. Several witnesses saw him detained at both 'Villa Grimaldi' and the 'Simón Bolívar' barracks.

By Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl, July 30, 2023

Extermination at Simón Bolívar: The horror revealed by Manuel Contreras’s "mocito"

It is striking that, despite suspicions of the use of the large "cookers" (ovens) at the Arauco fishmeal plant to make bodies disappear, a detailed investigation was never conducted into the macabre use of this fish processing plant during the dictatorship.

A report by the German broadcaster WDR revealed unpublished information about the role of Nazi Walther Rauff in the disappearance of political prisoners in Chile, applying the directive known as "Nacht und Nebel" ("Night and Fog"), issued by Adolf Hitler in 1941, which established the criteria and steps for kidnapping and carrying out mass disappearances.

According to the report, "Pinochet’s German Godfathers," the SS-Standartenführer and former SS officer—responsible for the murder of half a million prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp—introduced unprecedented disappearance practices while advising the DINA of the Chilean civil-military dictatorship between 1973 and 1990.

Rauff arrived in Chile in 1958 after having met Augusto Pinochet in Ecuador, where Pinochet was part of a military mission to reorganize the Ecuadorian War Academy. In our country, he dedicated himself to managing a king crab processing plant starting in the 1960s in Porvenir, Tierra del Fuego province, Magallanes region. In parallel, he served as an agent for the German BND secret service.

Pesquera Arauco: The Auschwitz of the Chilean dictatorship

Pesquera Arauco Ltda. and Empresa Pesquera Chile Ltda. were subsidiaries of the Corporación de Fomento Productivo (CORFO) and had been formed by this entity, which was dependent on the Ministry of Economy and the Banco del Estado.

After the civil-military coup, the company was managed and directed by Manuel Contreras and members of the DINA, who assumed positions on the board of directors alongside civilians from the dictatorship.

The refrigerated trucks, vans, and infrastructure of the fishing plant located in San Antonio were used as key logistical elements in the DINA’s criminal actions and the disappearance of prisoners.

It is striking that, despite suspicions of the use of the large "cookers" (ovens) at the Arauco fishing plant to make bodies disappear—using large-scale machinery to produce fishmeal through a cooking process at over 90ºC, the contents of which were subsequently pressed to eliminate leached liquids and obtain "press cake"—a detailed investigation was never conducted into the macabre use of this fish processing plant during the dictatorship.

Plan Cóndor and the use of the fishmeal and fish oil plant

In the WDR report, based on the testimony of Jorgelino Vergara, a DINA member who has been key in various judicial proceedings to reveal the existence of clandestine detention and extermination centers such as the Simón Bolívar barracks in Peñalolén, he stated: "Everything came from Germany.

From the former Nazis. They brought the technology to torture, kill, and make people disappear." Regarding Rauff, he said: "They called this man 'The Jackal.' He was in charge of making them disappear entirely."

The article "German broadcaster WDR reveals the role of Nazi Walter Rauff in 'Pinochet’s German Godfathers'" by journalist Marco Fajardo of El Mostrador includes a detail not covered in the German report, pointing out the destination of the bodies of several detainees from Londres 38 and Villa Grimaldi after being taken to the port of San Antonio.

A criminal pattern

"Regarding those who passed through Londres 38, which are 85 people, they were taken out and moved to different centers, notably Tejas Verdes and Santo Domingo, located in San Antonio. We have investigations that show they moved people in sacks, already dead. That is to say, the responsibility of the fishing plant is very important in relation to these disappeared people," according to the report.

Prisoners were moved from the center of the capital to San Antonio aboard refrigerated trucks adapted for that purpose. These vehicles, the document notes, left from Rinconada de Maipú or from the company’s facility located in Lo Valledor, in Santiago.

Once they arrived at the DINA’s "Cuartel Yucatán" (Londres 38), the list of detainees carried by the drivers was read, and then they were loaded into the back of the truck, completely blindfolded.

"The route from Santiago to San Antonio was through Melipilla. And from Cucumén the road to Lo Gallardo, a bad road where there was no one, just peasants. Next to the bridge between Santo Domingo and San Antonio, there was a military post where they changed the driver to continue toward the fishing plant that was inside the port.

This driver, with the surname 'Tolosa,' a soldier, was the only one authorized to enter; no one stopped him. The truck took two to three hours to return, empty and cleaned."

In the report, a former detainee in San Antonio tells of Rauff’s presence at the site: "And there was a warehouse where the net-makers worked. You could see him around these parts, where the vans with the detainees in the back were. He is the one in the photo, yes. With a German accent and a bad Nazi."

Citing former DINA agents, the report indicates that the detainees were murdered at the site. Vergara himself affirms what happened to their bodies: "They gave Rauff the position as director of the Arauco fishing plant, of the dictatorship.

The bodies were thrown into the Arauco plant’s crusher. The one who did it was The Jackal, although not personally. He was accompanied by agents from the DINA itself," who told Vergara that "we threw them in and they turned into fishmeal."

El Mostrador included some of Vergara’s testimonies that were not part of the radio report. Among them, Rauff’s participation in the creation of Plan Cóndor—the Latin American repression system to eliminate political opponents—is mentioned, in a secret meeting that took place in 1975.

"I accompanied the tray where coffee, a piece of cake, and pastries would be served for everyone who was there; there were more or less between 12 and 15. From here went (Christoph) Willeke, who was director of the ENI, the National Intelligence School, and this man was there, The Jackal.

He was next to Manuel Contreras, and on the other side was José María Verdeguer from Uruguay, the director of intelligence of Uruguay. That was where they agreed on Plan Cóndor," Vergara states.

When asked if Rauff was present, he responds: "Yes, he was present. He had knowledge of everything that was agreed upon. The person was very involved in the intelligence services."

"The German connection" In the various processes regarding the disappearance of prisoners' bodies in the sea off San Antonio, there is a marked connection with German businessmen. This is the case with the use of the tugboat "Kiwi," belonging to the maritime consortium Ultramar, owned by brothers Sven and Wolf Von Appen. Subsequently, this ship was moved to Peru, where they renamed it "El Brujo."

The patriarch of this family, Julio Alberto Von Appen, arrived in Chile in the 1940s, serving as the leader of Nazi intelligence operations in Latin America, to later build a successful path in the shipping business. In 2013, it became known that the Von Appen family appeared as financiers of the Pinochet Foundation.

According to the author of the report, after 1945, about a thousand SS, SA, and Gestapo officers arrived in Chile, being called "our German troop" within the DINA.

Pesquera Arauco and Pesquera Chile had Hubert Fuchs as administrator and legal manager of the fishing company. Fuchs, a retired sailor, was the link between the DINA and the company Standard Electric, as noted in a CIPER report published in 2009. Fuchs was a key man in the financial framework that supported the repressive apparatus in the first years of the dictatorship.

The "Final Solution" and the Santiago dog crematorium

In the German report, Vergara also tells of what happened at the stray dog crematorium in the city of Santiago, which today is the "La Perrera" cultural center.

"Look, look, they always talked to me about the 'packages,' the packages have to be eliminated, but we have a place in Quinta Normal where it can be done so as not to leave evidence and all that bullshit: Extermination of packages.

Rauff was the one in charge of making them disappear entirely... It was cruel, very cruel. People were burned, human bodies in the Perrera, yes. In Santiago, wherever there were more bodies, they took them to the Perrera." When asked how many there were, he responds: "Look, to give you a number: more than 300."

This testimony was confirmed by a former worker at the La Perrera stray dog crematorium, who, speaking anonymously, noted: "During the dictatorship, strange vehicles came to the place. We couldn't stay close. The strangers threw sacks into the ovens. From what I saw from afar, the bodies in the sacks were larger than dogs."

"Simón," who cites another former DINA member, indicates: "He worked at the GH (General Headquarters) at this time, and he accompanied Willeke and Rauff many times visiting the Perrera in Parque de los Reyes. It was for dogs, but now it had to be for human beings. Rauff was in this section, I don't know, it had a name: section for the 'final solution' (sic)."

Source: lacuarta.cl, September 11, 2023

Former DINA agents sentenced to 10 years in prison for qualified kidnapping of a salesman

Rodolfo Núñez Benavides was classified as a forcibly disappeared person.

The sentence was issued against Lieutenant Colonel Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Major Juan Morales Salgado, and First Corporal Juvenal Piña Garrido, all of the Army, who were responsible for the disappearance of Rodolfo Núñez Benavides on May 18, 1976.

This Monday, the San Miguel Court of Appeals sentenced three former agents of the dissolved Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) for their responsibility in the consummated crime of qualified kidnapping of dairy products salesman Rodolfo Marcial Núñez Benavides, an illicit act perpetrated starting May 18, 1976.

The sentence was issued by the special visiting judge for human rights violation cases of the aforementioned court, Marianela Cifuentes, who decided to impose a ten-year prison sentence on the accused Pedro Espinoza Bravo, an Army lieutenant colonel at the time of the events; Juan Morales Salgado, an Army major; and Juvenal Piña Garrido, a first corporal of the same institution, as authors of the crime.

The ruling establishes accessory legal penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and political rights, and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentences, plus the payment of court costs.

In the civil aspect, the sentence accepted the lawsuit filed and ordered the State to pay a total compensation of 160 million pesos for moral damages to the victim's family.

Facts In the resolution, Judge Cifuentes established the facts that occurred 47 years ago, when the DINA was headed by Colonel Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda—currently deceased—and seconded by the director of Operations of said organization, Lieutenant Colonel Pedro Espinoza Bravo, who had under his command all regional brigades, from Arica to Punta Arenas, among them the Metropolitan Intelligence Brigade (BIM).

From that brigade depended the Brigada Lautaro, in charge of Army Major Juan Hernán Morales Salgado, a unit that occupied the 'Simón Bolívar' barracks in the La Reina commune. Likewise, an elite group called 'Delfín' operated, in charge of Army Captain Germán Barriga Muñoz and Carabineros Lieutenant Ricardo Lawrence Mires—both deceased—which "was created for the purpose of pursuing and exterminating the Communist Party (PC) leadership that worked at the clandestine detention center called 'Villa Grimaldi' and, later, at the 'Simón Bolívar' barracks," the ruling states.

In that context, on May 18, 1976, around 3:00 p.m., on Avenida Departamental at the intersection with Avenida Ochagavía, DINA agents illegally detained the victim, who was a PC militant and was traveling with his son, Rodolfo Francisco Núñez Moya, in a vehicle, and moments later they raided his home in the La Cisterna commune.

In this sense, the captors kept Núñez Benavides locked up in the 'Villa Grimaldi' clandestine detention center, located in Peñalolén, being subsequently transferred to the 'Simón Bolívar' clandestine detention center, which was in charge of Army Major Juan Hernán Morales Salgado, where the 'Delfín' group operated.

This would be the last news known of the kidnapped person, who "was transferred by Army First Corporal Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, an agent of the aforementioned 'Delfín' group, to a dependency of the mentioned detention center that was used to torture detainees, with his whereabouts unknown since then," the sentence concludes.

Source: latercera.cl, November 20, 2023