Judge Mario Carroza, who is also presiding over the case of Rodrigo Rojas and Carmen Gloria Quintana, has indicted two retired military officers for the homicide of Agustín Corvalán Cerda. Agustín was 20 years old when he was detained on January 19, 1974, in the city of Santiago, along with other relatives in the Esmeralda neighborhood.

He appeared murdered on the 26th of that same month, as a result of several gunshot wounds. Judge Carroza indicted two military officers, Aldo Véliz Vargas and Hugo Gajardo Castro, as responsible for the murder.

In another case, the visiting minister of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Jaime Arancibia, indicted 4 members of the Navy—Ramón Humberto Neira Rodríguez, Sergio Alejandro González Quiroz, Luis Nibaldo Pizarro Díaz, and Gabriel Gonzalo Baeza Ceballos—for the death of Óscar Eduardo Marchant Céspedes.

Óscar died on February 19, 1974, in Viña del Mar, as a result of a gunshot wound; he was murdered in the context of the curfew. Finally, Minister Miguel Vázquez indicted former DINA agents for the aggravated kidnapping of Exequiel Ponce Vicencio, Ricardo Lagos Salinas, Jaime López Arellano, Carlos Lorca Tobar, and Alfredo Rojas Castañeda, leaders of the Socialist Party who were detained between 1974 and 1975.

Among the indicted agents are Manuel Contreras, Marcelo Moren Brito, Raúl Iturriaga Neumann, and Juvenal Piña Garrido. Exequiel Ponce and Ricardo Ernesto Lagos Salinas were detained on June 25, 1975, and transferred to Villa Grimaldi; both remain among the forcibly disappeared.

Jaime Eugenio López Arellano was detained at the end of December 1975 and also transferred to that detention center, as was Carlos Enrique Lorca Tobar, detained on June 26, 1976, and Alfredo Rojas Castañeda in March of that same year.

This DINA operation was aimed at dismantling the Socialist Party by detaining, torturing, murdering, or disappearing several of its leaders. Beyond the fact that the aforementioned DINA agents have been indicted, it is important that other former agents—not only those whose names are known and who already have several convictions—also be tried, including those who participated in torture, the doctors who collaborated, among others.

Source: laizquierdadiario.cl, August 4, 2014

4 members of the Navy indicted for the aggravated homicide of a waiter in 1974

Visiting minister of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Jaime Arancibia, also ordered the preventive detention of the uniformed officers. The visiting minister of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Jaime Arancibia, has indicted four Navy personnel for their responsibility in the death of a restaurant worker, committed in Viña del Mar in 1974.

They are Navy members Ramón Humberto Neira Rodríguez, Sergio Alejandro González Quiroz, Luis Nibaldo Pizarro Díaz, and Gabriel Gonzalo Baeza Ceballos, who were indicted as perpetrators of the crime of aggravated homicide of Óscar Eduardo Marchant Céspedes.

Marchant Céspedes, 27 years old at the time of his death, worked as a waiter at a restaurant in the Reñaca resort area and died after being wounded by gunfire from members of a Navy ground patrol that intercepted him while he was walking along Calle 12 Norte in the "Garden City," while the curfew was in effect.

Minister Arancibia ordered the preventive detention of the four uniformed officers indicted, and has officially requested the Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Navy to define a location where they will serve the precautionary measure.

Source: puranoticia.pnt.cl, August 4, 2015

Visiting minister issues homicide indictment against four former Navy officials

The event occurred in February 1974 in Viña del Mar, in the midst of the military dictatorship.

VIÑA DEL MAR—

This morning, the extraordinary visiting minister for human rights cases of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Jaime Arancibia Pinto, issued an indictment against four retired Navy officials for the aggravated homicide of Oscar Eduardo Marchant Céspedes, an event recorded on February 19, 1974, in Viña del Mar.

The magistrate held Ramón Humberto Neira Rodríguez, Gabriel Gonzalo Baeza Ceballos, Luis Nibaldo Pizarro Díaz, and Sergio Alejandro González Quiroz responsible for their participation in the illicit act.

During the investigation of the case, it was established that the victim worked as a waiter at a restaurant in the Reñaca sector, in the commune of Viña del Mar, and that, in the early hours of February 19, 1974, he was allegedly murdered by this group of uniformed officers.

According to the case details, "after sharing time with a friend in a house located on Calle 12 Norte in the aforementioned city, he decided to return home, for which he walked to Calle 15 Norte, taking Calle Calera to reach a staircase, without realizing that a patrol with naval personnel was arriving in a Chevrolet C-10 pickup truck.

At the moment of advancing a few steps, he received a gunshot wound to the left thigh that caused severe hemorrhaging, subsequently dying from acute anemia."

Source: elobservador.cl, December 3, 2018

Minister Jaime Arancibia sentences retired Navy non-commissioned officers for the 1974 homicide of a waiter

The extraordinary visiting minister for human rights violation cases of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Jaime Arancibia Pinto, sentenced three retired Navy non-commissioned officers as perpetrators of the consummated crime of simple homicide of Óscar Eduardo Marchant Céspedes.

The illicit act was perpetrated on February 19, 1974, in the city of Viña del Mar. In the sentence (case roll 110.209-2011), Minister Arancibia Pinto sentenced former naval non-commissioned officers Ramón Humberto Neira Rodríguez, Sergio Alejandro González Quiroz, and Luis Nibaldo Pizarro Díaz to 5 years and one day of effective imprisonment, along with the legal accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification from public offices and political rights, and absolute disqualification for professions for the duration of the sentences, plus the payment of court costs.

In the case, the visiting minister decreed the acquittal of Gabriel Gonzalo Baeza Ceballos, as his participation as a perpetrator in the crime was not proven. With the evidence gathered in the case, the visiting minister established the following facts as proven: "That Oscar Marchant Céspedes, who worked as a waiter at a restaurant in the Reñaca sector, commune of Viña del Mar, went at the end of his workday on February 18, 1974, along with a coworker, to a restaurant/nightclub known as 'El Submarino,' located at the corner of Calle Calera and Rojas Trigo, in the same commune.

After 00:00 hours on February 19, 1974, with the curfew already in effect, while the victim was still at the location, he went out to the street and became involved in a fight with other people who were outside the establishment.

Despite the incident outside the establishment having ended, the people who were there, including Marchant Céspedes, were warned of the arrival of a Navy patrol moving in a Chevrolet model C-10 pickup truck, led by Sergeant 1st Class Aniceto Gómez (deceased) and composed of the accused Neira González, Baeza Ceballos, González Quiroz, and Pizarro Díaz, and others (already deceased), who were returning from their patrol in the Canal Beagle neighborhood and were heading back to their base at the Naval Engineering School, located in the same commune.

These people began to flee in different directions to avoid being detained for violating the curfew; in the victim's case, he headed to the staircase that connects Calle Calera with Av. Concón. While Marchant was climbing the stairs, he was ordered by Sergeant Gómez to stop, an order that was allegedly disobeyed by Marchant, who continued climbing.

For this reason, Sergeant Gómez himself gave the order to fire shots, which were allegedly fired by officials Pizarro and Robles, first into the air and then one into the victim's body, striking him in his left thigh, causing him to fall wounded on one of the landings of the staircase.

By order of the Sergeant, Marchant Céspedes was grabbed by two of the patrol officials and dragged down the stairs to then be loaded into the back of the pickup truck. After 20 minutes, the victim was transported to the Viña del Mar Hospital, dying in that medical facility at 1:55 hours on the same day, February 19."

Source: diariolaquinta.cl, February 27, 2021