The highest court sentenced 10 Army officials as perpetrators of the qualified homicide of 38 people and one Carabineros officer for the qualified kidnapping of two victims. The Court reclassified the crimes, increasing the sentences of those convicted.

After 49 years since the events occurred, the Supreme Court issued a final ruling in one of the most emblematic cases perpetrated by the military dictatorship. Through its Second Criminal Chamber, it sentenced former uniformed officers for the qualified homicide of 36 agricultural workers and 2 businessmen, all from the town of Paine, who were executed at the Cuesta Chada and the Quebrada Los Quillayes on October 3 and 16, 1973, respectively, at the hands of officials from the Escuela de Infantería de San Bernardo.

Justices Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, María Teresa Letelier, and ad hoc lawyers Diego Murita and Leonor Etchebery, in a historic ruling, sentenced Jorge Romero Campos and Arturo Fernández Rodríguez, Army captain and second lieutenant respectively, to 20 years of presidio mayor in its maximum degree as perpetrators of the qualified kidnapping of the victims.

In this case, the highest court increased their sentences in relation to the second-instance ruling issued by the Court of Appeals of San Miguel, in which Romero had been sentenced to 15 years and Fernández to 10.

Similarly, the Court increased the sentences for Corporal José Vásquez Silva and conscripts Carlos Lazo Santibáñez, Juan Opazo Vera, and Carlos Durán Rodríguez from 5 to 10 years of presidio mayor in its minimum degree, also as perpetrators of qualified homicide.

The same sentence was received by conscripts Roberto Pinto Labordarie, Jorge Saavedra Meza, and Víctor Sandoval Muñoz. In the case of conscript Raúl Francisco Areyte Valdenegro, the Court increased his sentence from 5 to 6 years of presidio mayor in its minimum degree as the perpetrator of 14 qualified homicides.

It should be noted that for all the aforementioned convicts, the highest court reclassified the crimes in relation to the second-instance ruling, from qualified kidnapping to qualified homicide. Likewise, the justices recognized the collaboration provided by the conscripts through their statements, which contributed to the identifications, and applied the special mitigating factor of substantial collaboration and irreproachable prior conduct.

Meanwhile, Carabineros Captain Nelson Bravo Espinoza was sentenced to 10 years of presidio mayor in its medium degree, a sentence that was increased by 5 years, and his crime was reclassified from simple kidnapping to the qualified kidnapping of Ramón Capetillo Mora and Mario Muñoz Peñaloza, which occurred between October 8 and 10, 1973.

Meanwhile, Osvaldo Magaña Bau, Juan Guillermo Quintanilla, and Carlos Kylling Schmidt, who had been convicted during the process, were dismissed due to their deaths, as was the case with Víctor Pinto Pérez.

Plaintiff lawyer Nelson Caucoto, who represents the families of 37 victims, expressed satisfaction as the Court accepted all the cassation appeals they presented and celebrated the ruling, stating that "tomorrow will be a brighter day for the families of the victims of Paine, executed by soldiers from the Escuela de Infantería de San Bernardo, a day filled with new sensations and hopes." Caucoto, who has handled the case since its inception, stated that "The highest court of the Republic has issued a final judgment in this case, which speaks of a massacre that occurred 49 years ago in that rural town. Impunity, indolence, and barbarity have been overcome. What the Supreme Court has done is an act of healing for those families and for Chilean society in general. One of the unforgivable crimes of the civic-military dictatorship has been resolved by the Chilean justice system in a civilized manner. Despite the long time that has passed, Justice is possible." It should be mentioned that the Human Rights Program of the Ministry of the Interior, the Association of Relatives of Political Executed (AFEP), the Federation of Students of the Universidad Católica (FEUC), and lawyer Luciano Fouillioux, as representative for the father of lawyer Pamela Pereira, Andrés Pereira Salsberng, also acted as plaintiffs in the proceedings. In civil matters, the res judicata that had been decreed by the Court of Appeals of San Miguel, which prevented some relatives of the victims from accessing reparations, was set aside.

Source: radio.uchile.cl, June 15, 2022