One was a military officer, the other a carabinero; one is now 70 years old, the other 50; one is a family man, the other has no children; one was with the DINA, the other with the CNI; one rose to the rank of general, the other retired as a colonel; the military officer never pulled the trigger; the carabinero did.

Despite this, there is something that unites retired Army General Raúl Iturriaga Neumann and retired Carabineros Colonel Iván Raúl Belarmino Quiroz Ruiz. The former was a fugitive for 54 days before being captured and taken to prison to serve a sentence for human rights violations.

Quiroz, meanwhile, has been evading justice for 23 days because he does not want to serve a 10-year prison sentence for the homicides of the infamously remembered Operation Albania, the operation in which the CNI liquidated 12 members of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front in 1987.

Quiroz is armed and has made the decision not to surrender if he is captured. Furthermore, he is furious, as he claims to be one of the repressive agents who "got his hands dirty with blood" while Álvaro Corbalán, the CNI's operational chief, held sway in the institution.

In addition to the so-called "Corpus Christi massacre," another 13-year prison sentence is hanging over him, about to be made effective for the murders of journalist José Carrasco and three other left-wing militants: Gastón Vidaurrázaga, Felipe Rivera, and Abraham Muskatblit.

Following Quiroz's escape, the Investigations police have developed a complex operation to determine his whereabouts. However, his flight was not a surprise, because before the sentences were made effective, and with the memory of Iturriaga's adventure still fresh, there was talk in military circles about who was not willing to surrender to justice.

And of all those convicted for Albania, suspicions always leaned toward Quiroz. Not even the highest-ranking former officer convicted, retired General Hugo Salas, showed signs of rebellion. Despite this, the Civil Police's Special Affairs and Human Rights Brigade had located all the CNI agents, except for the former Carabineros officer.

The work has not been easy. Those who know Quiroz know that he has extensive experience on the streets. Also playing in his favor is his minuscule immediate family circle: he has no children or a stable partner.

Furthermore, he has been quite a bit more skillful than Iturriaga, who made quite a few mistakes during his flight. As far as is known, Quiroz has had no contact, either direct or via e-mail or telephone, with his relatives.

There are no bank movements or use of cards, and he does not even have a cell phone registered in his name, although it is not ruled out that he is using one belonging to someone close to him, the same person who could be assisting him economically and logistically.

Since before his escape, detectives have monitored the places he habitually frequented and others where he was seen sporadically. Throughout this time, moreover, the minister in charge of the cases against the former CNI agents, Mario Carroza, has met with the detectives in charge of Quiroz's capture.

The magistrate notes that he is satisfied with the actions, since the search team, led by Sub-prefect Mario Zelada, is the same one that has investigated cases such as Albania, the crime of José Carrasco, and that of the five frentistas forcibly disappeared in 1987 for several years. "They are the police officers who know Quiroz, his history, and his profile best," Carroza asserted.

Although it transpired at the beginning of the week that all trace of the fugitive had been lost, the police are handling at least three hypotheses for his location; one of them, which cannot be revealed, is the most compelling.

Furthermore, and although the possibility that Quiroz has left the country was practically ruled out, the judge issued an international capture alert, in case the stir his escape has caused in the press could have prompted him to seek impunity on the other side of the border.

Quiroz, like some lower-ranking officers who were in charge of the CNI's bloodiest actions during the dictatorship, is annoyed with the higher commands. He feels abandoned and believes that it has not been recognized that he acted following orders.

For the same reason, he was so indignant when, in 1995, while he held the rank of colonel, his career was abruptly truncated by the Carabineros high command. That action was framed within a kind of "cleansing" that the institution carried out of all those cadres involved in human rights violations who could be the subject of judicial proceedings.

Iván Quiroz Ruiz arrived at the CNI in 1983, and his career there was soon on the rise. He was a comrade-in-arms of agent Francisco Zuñiga ("Gorka") and a lieutenant to Álvaro Corbalán. The investigation into Operation Albania established that Quiroz's operational name or chapa in the organization was "Captain Velasco," and all his subordinates identified him as the second-in-command, both in that operation and in the one that ended the lives of José Carrasco and the other left-wing militants.

While he was in the organization, Carabineros removed Quiroz from its records. But once the CNI was dissolved in 1990, he was reincorporated into the institution's Welfare Directorate. When only a few months had passed since the return to democracy, President Patricio Aylwin decorated him with the Mission Accomplished Medal for his services during the elections.

When Minister Hugo Dolmestch took on the Albania case in 1998 and managed to clarify the participation of the agents and their true identities, Quiroz was the first to testify before the judge. And when the magistrate issued the first indictment on July 27 of that year, the Carabineros officer was included in the decision. But Quiroz did not appear and declared himself in rebellion.

Minister Dolmestch then gave him a 30-day deadline to appear before requesting his capture. When 28 days had passed, the police officer appeared voluntarily at the Norambuena building of the Carabineros.

A comrade-in-arms remembers him as an introverted guy, almost lacking in character. "But when he arrived at the CNI, he knew how to deal with that. He understood that violence and brutality were highly valued factors there, and he began to show how cruel he could be with detainees. That is how he became increasingly sullen, but he won the sympathy of Álvaro Corbalán."

He would go out partying with him on those curfew nights that the bloodthirsty CNI operational chief liked so much. "When Corbalán played guitar in some cabaret or told a joke in a bar, he always had the sure applause of Quiroz, who tried to please him in everything," says a former agent, recalling that, at that time, it was estimated that the two of them could spend up to 20 million pesos a month on their sprees.

Another officer who served at the Borgoño Barracks remembers another factor that did not play in favor of Quiroz's image: the majority of the barracks' operational agents belonged to the Army. "At one point, he began to be associated with the image of a sycophant.

Although he passed by his side, no one ever heard him rebut an opinion of his. He was always willing, and although they say he spoke quite a bit in private with Corbalán, he never made comments in public about any topic that was being discussed," he adds.

The former agent points out another reason that could have pushed Quiroz toward the CNI leadership: before the coup d'état, he and several of his relatives had been active militants of Patria y Libertad, a movement to which Corbalán also subscribed.

However, Quiroz's personal life shows a much less festive side. He is infertile, and those who know him remember that this condition brought him more than one problem. "One of his women tried to trap him with a child.

She didn't know that Quiroz couldn't be a father, so she insisted and insisted even though he claimed it was impossible. In the end, they went to court, and he, for obvious reasons, won."

The detectives who are pursuing him know him. These background details, plus his history, have allowed them to develop a psychological profile that could bring them closer to the place where he is hiding.

For now, the mission is being carried out in silence, because it is estimated that Quiroz's determination not to surrender and to resist arrest by force is greater than that of Iturriaga, who, despite his bravado, was captured while in his pajamas and did not even try to oppose his arrest.

Source: La Nacion.cl, October 21, 2007

The former director of the organization, retired General Hugo Salas Wenzel, is identified as the mastermind behind the execution of twelve young members of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front.

Visiting Minister Hugo Dolmestch indicted 18 former agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Center (CNI) for their participation in the murder of 12 young people on June 15 and 16, 1987, a case known as "Operation Albania."

The magistrate determined that the former director of the intelligence organization, retired General Hugo Salas Wenzel, is the mastermind responsible for the homicide of the opponents of the military regime.

In this way, Dolmestch ends fifteen years of investigation and begins the stage prior to the issuance of first-instance sentences.

Accused as co-authors of the crime of homicide are: retired General Hugo Salas Wenzel, retired Major Álvaro Corbalán, retired Commander Iván Quiroz, retired Commander Krantz Power Donoso, retired Major Rodrigo Pérez Martínez, and Army officer Jorge Vargas Bories.

These accusations against the aforementioned uniformed officers refer to the deaths of Recaredo Valenzuela, Patricio Acosta, Julio Guerra, Juan Henríquez, and Wilson Henríquez.

Other implicated parties

In addition, they are accused of the crime of kidnapping followed by homicide in the case of Ester Cabrera, Manuel Valencia, Ricardo Rivera, Elizabeth Escobar, Patricia Quiroz, José Valenzuela Levi, and Ricardo Silva, executed at the property at Pedro Donoso 582, in the commune of Conchalí.

As an accomplice, the magistrate accused retired Army Captain Arturo Sanhueza Ross for the homicide of Julio Guerra and the kidnapping followed by homicide of Ester Cabrera.

Meanwhile, former detective Hugo Guzmán is accused as an accomplice for the crime of kidnapping with homicide of Patricia Quiroz. His colleague Gonzalo Maass del Valle is accused as the author of the crime of kidnapping followed by homicide of Ricardo Rivera.

Retired officers René Valdovinos Morales, César Luis Acuña Luengo, and Manuel Morales Acevedo were accused as authors of the homicide of Ignacio Valenzuela Pohorezcky and as accomplices in the kidnapping followed by homicide of the victims of Pedro Donoso 582.

The Corpus Christi massacre

In the so-called Operation Albania, which took place between June 15 and 16, 1987, during the Corpus Christi holiday, twelve people who belonged to the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front were murdered in different parts of Santiago.

According to the official versions of the military government, the young people died in "clashes with security forces," but the autopsies showed that the shots were fired when the victims were lying on the floor.

The action took place just four days after the Eighth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals declared the FPMR an "illicit terrorist association," whose members were to go to prison and be repressed, a resolution that legitimized all types of violent action against the left-wing group.

It should be remembered that the ruling was resolved by the appellate court at the request of the military regime's Ministry of the Interior, following a petition presented by a group of frentistas accused of various crimes.

CNI operation To carry out the operation, the National Intelligence Center carried out a gigantic intelligence operation, which meant mobilizing dozens of agents and carrying out numerous arrests and raids, with the final objective of repressing the frentistas.

The CNI's action was accompanied by a great display of pro-government publicity, which reproduced the official version of a "clash" without doubts or questioning.

The first victim, Ignacio Valenzuela Pohrecky, one of the founders of the FPMR, was shot to death on Alhué Street, Las Condes commune, on June 15, 1987, at 12:00 PM. At 6:00 PM, CNI agents killed Ricardo Acosta Castro on Varas Mena Street, in front of number 630.

A few hours later, near midnight, on the same Varas Mena Street, in the property marked with number 417, Juan Henríquez Araya and Wilson Henríquez Gallegos were killed.

At the same time these deaths occurred, that of Julio Guerra Olivares took place in the Villa Olímpica.

Subsequently, around 5:00 AM on June 16, 1987, at the house at Pedro Donoso 582, Recoleta commune, seven frentistas were riddled with bullets. They were Ricardo Silva Soto, José Valenzuela Levy, Elizabeth Escobar Mondaca, Patricio Quiroz Nilo, Manuel Valencia Calderón, Ester Cabrera Hinojosa, and Ricardo Rivera Silva.

Source: Tercera.cl, April 5, 2002

Indicted for homicide, he continued as Pinochet's bodyguard

The two former agents of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) who testified yesterday within the framework of the evidentiary stage of the Albania case agreed that on June 15 and 16, 1987, they participated in the operation that ended with the death of 12 members of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR) out of fear of reprisals from the institution if they refused.

The first to appear before Minister Hugo Dolmestch, who handles all cases of crimes committed by the CNI, was retired Major Rodrigo Pérez Martínez, who at that date was the captain in charge of the Anti-Terrorist Unit (UAT) and who, according to documents revealed by El Mostrador.cl in the year 2000, could not act without the consent of the President of the Republic at the time.

Pérez is indicted as one of the authors of the homicides committed on Alhué Street, Varas Mena, and Villa Olímpica, and for the kidnapping followed by homicide of the members of the Front executed on Pedro Donoso Street.

Fear of fatal consequences

The former officer was asked about the moment he received the order from retired Commander Iván Bellarmino Quiroz to eliminate one of the frentistas detained at the Borgoño barracks. According to Pérez, and faced with the evidence of being before a "criminal" act, he asked where the order came from.

Quiroz responded that it came from the "higher echelon," to which he had no other option but to comply, also considering that the retired commander had greater seniority and rank than he did.

At the same time, he pointed out that the subordinate who accompanied him on that occasion and was also a member of the UAT, Eric Silva, also found the order improper, as he manifested days after the staging of the operation.

For this reason, Silva, indicted for his participation in the kidnapping and subsequent homicide of Ester Cabrera, requested his transfer from the unit. According to what Pérez remembers, a month or a month and a half later, Eric Silva joined the presidential escort.

When asked by one of the plaintiff lawyers if this fact could be considered a promotion or a reward for his performance in the events, the former head of the UAT said that in no case, despite the high connotation and trust that a position of this type requires.

He never made his concern about the "criminal-type" order known in the days that followed to any superior, not even at the camaraderie barbecue held on Rondizonni Street, presided over by General Salas Wenzel, who took the opportunity to "congratulate" all the personnel who participated in the "neutralization" of the frentistas.

The former head of the UAT indicated to the magistrate that "he could not ignore the order he received because it could bring fatal consequences for his family and for him." He exemplified his fear with what happened to the former chemist Eugenio Berríos, who died in Uruguay at the hands of agents of the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE), and to Armando Fernández Larios, who was accused of treason for his collaboration with the US justice system in the Letelier case.

In this way, Pérez followed the same line as retired Commander Iván Bellarmino Quiroz, who declared in the year 2000 that a superior order "could not be discussed unless one exposed oneself to very serious situations in relation to our physical integrity and that of our family group." This former officer and subordinate of Álvaro Corbalán Castilla at the CNI's Borgoño barracks is indicted for the same crimes as Pérez.

Pérez Martínez also had to explain the relationship that existed between the UAT and the Borgoño barracks, from where all the actions of the so-called "Corpus Christi Massacre" were coordinated.

He indicated that his unit received 12 or 13 officials from Borgoño as an "indefinite service commission" to train them in "military tactics" such as anti-guerrilla warfare and hostage rescue, given that the members of the UAT were made up of commandos and paratroopers. Some of whom were later provided to the barracks for surveillance work.

The officer recounted that he placed himself at the disposal of Corbalán on the morning of the 15th after a phone call made by the latter to the UAT facilities on Simón Bolívar Street in the La Reina commune, between 08:00 and 09:00 AM.

On that occasion, and although they normally received orders first from the director of the CNI, he agreed to Corbalán's request because he told him that there was authorization from higher up. At that moment, he did not ask why and for what they specifically needed them. He added that he lost command of his unit, given that his men were assigned to different teams.

Terror of being executed

Then it was the turn of former detective Gonzalo Mass del Valle, against whom the State Defense Council (CDE) has requested a sentence of simple life imprisonment for his participation in the homicides of the frentistas.

The former officer and member of the "green brigade" that operated in the Borgoño barracks commanded by Corbalán, ratified his presence on Pedro Donoso, after being ordered to attend to carry out a raid. Once at the place, he does not remember who gave him the order to enter one of the rooms: "they just told me, you there."

The former detective, 29 years old at that date, said that he felt "terror" at those moments upon realizing that he could be executed by his own comrades to justify casualties, since it was evident that the frentistas "kidnapped" in Borgoño had been moved to Pedro Donoso Street to simulate a fake clash.

He specified that in the instant he was in the room, the fear was such that "I urinated and defecated."

He also pointed out that "being just passing through the CNI," in his capacity as a civil police officer, where those who dominated were the Army officers, made him a potential victim to be executed. The former agent remembers that before entering the CNI, he heard comments "that the world of intelligence was dirty," so it did not surprise him to be executed in that or another operation.

Asked if he had the intent to kill, he said that "at no time," "I didn't kill anyone," which later earned him discrimination within the institution.

On the other hand, and regarding retired Lieutenant Jorge Vargas Bories, to date a member of the CNI Special Unit that operated in the Borgoño barracks and who has denied his participation in the bloody events of those days, he acknowledged that he saw this agent on Varas Mena and on Pedro Donoso.

Vargas says that he arrived at both places when the events had concluded. However, the former detective specified the opposite and added that he can attest to the participation of the Special Unit in the operations due to the presence of his "white jeep with a machine gun" that operated at both points.

Vargas Bories, for whom the CDE requested 20 years in prison, went yesterday to sign his statement from Tuesday and took the opportunity to stay in the room and listen to Pérez and Mass.

The same was done by another indicted person, retired Lieutenant Colonel Kranz Bauer Donoso, a member of the "blue brigade" that operated in Borgoño and indicted for the same events as Vargas. The presence of both caused deep annoyance among the families of the victims of "Corpus Christi," which they made known to the CDE lawyer, María Elena Horvitz.

Horvitz explained to them that there is nothing illegal about the fact and that they are within their rights. Furthermore, they had already given their testimony and could not be removed from the room.

In any case, the state lawyer asked Minister Dolmestch to take some kind of measure to calm the families and so that those testifying would not feel pressured by the stares of their former colleagues. The incident that occurred at the end of the former head of the UAT's statement motivated the magistrate to indicate to Mass that all his answers should be given looking at him and not at the lawyer asking the questions, as is the norm, with the objective of not feeling any type of intimidation at the moment of responding.

Source: El Mostrador.cl, April 15, 2004

Legal certainty of what was known: CNI avenged the attack on Pinochet with 4 deaths

Visiting Minister Hugo Dolmetsch yesterday granted legal certainty to what had been known since 1986: that the crimes of José Carrasco, Felipe Rivera, Gastón Vidaurrázaga, and Abraham Muskablit at the hands of the CNI were a revenge by the dictatorship for the attack on Augusto Pinochet on Sunday, September 7, 1986.

In a rather "ordering" resolution in which he indicted seven new former agents, maintained seven others who were already being prosecuted by Judge Dobra Lusic since 2000, and exonerated three of those already indicted by the magistrate, Minister Dolmetsch provided some details of the operation that until now were not public.

The three former agents dismissed by the magistrate are Hernán Vásquez Villegas, Egon Barra Barra, and Arturo Sanhueza Ros.

The judge maintained in his ruling that moments after the attack on Pinochet in the Cajón del Maipo occurred—an act carried out by the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR) in which five bodyguards died—the member of the Military Junta, Admiral José Toribio Merino, summoned the head of the CNI, General Humberto Gordon, to an emergency meeting at La Moneda.

Once the meeting ended, Gordon summoned the CNI general headquarters on República Street, the commander of the Anti-Subversive Division of that organization, Major Álvaro Corbalán, and the commander of the Metropolitan Political Division "in charge of the control of the political parties of the time," Major Manuel Provis Carrasco. "These two divisions represented at that moment of emergency the basic organs of the CNI in its operational aspect," says the judge.

In that meeting, "the general, deeply upset, ordered them that agents from their respective departments should go out and avenge the five bodyguards who died in the attack, a revenge that should be in a proportion of two to one in relation to the victims (bodyguards)," the ruling states.

In this way, Dolmestch managed to determine that the groups of agents that operated in the arrests and executions were different, except in the cases of Carrasco and Muskablit, where some are repeated.

The judge's document does not clarify, in any case, why the CNI only murdered four opponents and not ten, as was the order issued by Gordon and which probably emanated from La Moneda. At least a fifth victim was supposed to be the lawyer for the Vicariate of Solidarity, Luis Toro, who saved himself by reinforcing the doors and windows of his house to hinder the entry of the agents and alerting the neighbors.

The point is relevant when incorporating into the puzzle the intervention, almost in parallel, of the Investigations police the same dawn that the CNI kidnappings began. This police force detained some opposition leaders, such as the current President Ricardo Lagos, former minister Germán Correa, current deputy (PPD) Patricio Hales, and former undersecretary of Labor Eduardo Loyola.

According to the former spokesperson for the military regime, Francisco Javier Cuadra, the Investigations police acted by order of its director, retired General Fernando Paredes, to avoid more deaths at the hands of the CNI. However, it is not clear why the CNI, with the power it had over the Investigations police, did not continue with the executions to "meet the quota" ordered by General Gordon.

Nor is it known with certainty if the action of the Investigations police was indeed for the purpose that Cuadra maintains. Although, at least, one fact is certain: that those detained by that police force survived.

What is not credible is Cuadra's assertion in the sense that, when Operation Albania occurred a year later—in which the CNI murdered 12 FPMR militants it linked to the attack—the regime "did not support that operation nor did it give it communicational support." Upon consulting the press of the time and Cuadra's own statements, the opposite is confirmed.

Felipe Rivera Gajardo Communist militant Treasury of the Republic official Detained at 02:00 on Monday, September 8, 1986, at his home at Diagonal Las Torres No. 6678, Sara Gajardo neighborhood, Cerro Navia.

Indicted as authors of the crime of kidnapping and homicide: Álvaro Corbalán Castilla, Pedro Guzmán Olivares, Gonzalo Maass del Valle, Víctor Lara Cataldo, and René Valdovinos Morales. (Lara and Valdovinos are newly indicted; the rest were already indicted by Judge Dobra Lusic's resolution in 2000). Executed on Américo Vespucio, in front of the Toyota plant, with six gunshots.

Gastón Vidaurrázaga Manríquez MIR militant Teacher Detained at 04:00 on Monday, September 8, 1986, at his home on Maestranza Street, in front of No. 627. Indicted as authors of the crime of kidnapping and homicide: Álvaro Corbalán Castilla, Krantz Bauer Donoso, Víctor Muñoz Orellana, Jorge Jofré Rojas, Eduardo Chávez Baeza, and Juan Jorquera Abarzúa. (Jofré, Chávez, and Jorquera are newly indicted; the others were already indicted since 2000).

Executed on Route 5 South at kilometer 16, with twelve gunshots.

José Carrasco Tapia MIR militant Journalist Detained at 05:00 on Monday, September 8, 1986, at his home on Santa Filomena Street No. 111, apartment 209, Santiago commune. Indicted as authors of kidnapping and homicide: Álvaro Corbalán Castilla, Iván Quiroz Ruiz, Jorge Vargas Bories, and Guillermo Fachinetti López. (Fachinetti is newly indicted, while Quiroz and Vargas were already indicted since 2000).

Executed on Américo Vespucio, south side of the Parque del Recuerdo Cemetery, with fourteen gunshots.

Abraham Muskablit Eidelstein Communist militant Sales Manager of Editorial Cono Sur Detained at 02:15 on Tuesday, September 9, 1986, on 27 de Septiembre Street No. 0423, Casas Viejas neighborhood, Puente Alto commune.

Indicted as authors of kidnapping and homicide: Álvaro Corbalán Castilla, Iván Quiroz Ruiz, Jorge Vargas Bories, and José Meneses Arcauz. (Arcauz is newly indicted; the others were already indicted since 2000). Executed on Camino a Lonquén at number 2360, with nine gunshots.

Source: La Nacion.cl, October 27, 2005

Highest sentence against retired general for crimes during the dictatorship Operation Albania: Supreme Court confirms life imprisonment against Hugo Salas Wenzel

The Supreme Court confirmed this Tuesday the life sentence against retired General Hugo Salas Wenzel, former director of the National Information Center (CNI), for his responsibility in the crime of twelve frentistas (members of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front) in June 1987, within the framework of Operation Albania.

Salas Wenzel was sentenced as the intellectual author of the murders, which were planned as one of the acts of retaliation for the attack on Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, which occurred in September 1986. With this resolution, the former head of the repressive agency became the retired general who has received the longest sentence for human rights violations committed during the military dictatorship.

The decision was adopted by the Second Chamber (Criminal) which also ruled on the sentences that Judge Hugo Dolmestch handed down against fourteen other former uniformed officers who participated in the operation, also known as the Corpus Christi Massacre.

In court, it was explained that since Salas Wenzel began to be tried before the law was modified, he will be subject to a simple life sentence, which allows him to access some type of benefit after 20 years in prison.

The highest court also decided to increase from 15 to 20 years in prison the sentence against the former operational chief of the repressive agency, Álvaro Corbalán Castilla, who is already serving time for other human rights violations perpetrated during the military dictatorship.

Meanwhile, it maintained the 10-year prison sentence against retired Carabineros Commander Iván Quiroz Ruiz, while it increased the punishment against former CNI agent Enrique Neira Donoso from 7 years and one day to 8 years in prison.

These four former members must serve their punishment in prison alongside former agent Manuel Morales Acevedo, who had initially been sentenced to three years in prison, but the Supreme Court increased his punishment to five years and one day.

Meanwhile, former agents Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ross, Rodrigo Pérez Martínez, César Acuña Luengo, Patricio Miquel Carmona, and Fernando Burgos Díaz were sentenced to five years and one day in prison, while Eric Silva Reichart received a five-year prison sentence.

Gonzalo Maas del Valle, José Miguel Morales Morales, and René Valdovinos Morales were sentenced to three years in prison, while Hugo Guzmán Rojas received a punishment of 541 days in prison. The Supreme Court also confirmed the acquittal of 11 agents who participated in the operations and who had already been exonerated by Dolmestch and the Santiago Court of Appeals, among whom are former agents Kranstz Bauer and Jorge Vargas Bories, as well as the former Carabineros prosecutor Luis Acevedo.

Last June, the State Defense Council (CDE) and the victims' relatives reached a reparation agreement in which the State committed to paying an indemnity of $300 million to each family group. Plaintiffs celebrate decision Lawyer Nelson Caucuto, representative of the victims, highlighted that this is the first life sentence for a military officer with the rank of general, which in his opinion reveals "the gravity of the judged facts and the importance of this case." "We have managed to establish the truth of what happened and high criminal sanctions, where there is a life imprisonment sentence and also finally there is reparation. In a single sentence, we have managed to bring together the three aspects that comprise a complex concept such as justice, which are truth, criminal sanction, and reparation,” he maintained. “It seems extraordinary to me to have closed this chapter with these sentences that the highest court has handed down,” he pointed out.

Source: El Mostrador.cl, August 29, 2007

Carroza: search continues for fugitive in Albania case

The investigating judge for the Albania case, Mario Carroza, indicated yesterday that work is underway to find the whereabouts of retired Carabineros Captain Iván Quiroz, who is a fugitive from justice after failing to appear for the notification of the sentence following the Supreme Court ruling.

Carroza said that the police are carrying out the necessary procedures to find Quiroz's whereabouts so that he can be captured and serve his sentence of ten years and one day in prison for the murders of 12 members of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front killed by agents of the National Information Center (CNI), which occurred between June 15 and 16, 1987. "We have been carrying out all the necessary procedures to locate Mr.

Quiroz. I have been receiving permanent information from the investigative officers," the judge explained. The former uniformed officer was supposed to appear at the Gendarmerie School on September 24, from where he would be taken to Punta Peuco to serve his sentence alongside the other convicted individuals.

However, he did not appear, and the search began. The minister stated that during the course of the day he will meet with officers from the Investigative Police who are in charge of locating the retired Carabineros officer.

Furthermore, he clarified that Iván Quiroz could be declared in contempt once the arrest warrant issued against him is returned, due to his failure to appear for the notification of the sentence. Victims' relatives The president of the Association of Relatives of Political Executions, Marta Godoy, said that the citizenry must collaborate so that these people do not move about freely, as they must be in prison serving their sentence. "They have all the guarantees that our relatives did not have, who were murdered without trial just for the fact of being young idealists who fought against the dictatorship," noted the leader of the association.

Source: La Nacion.cl, October 2, 2007

Albania Case: International arrest warrant ordered for retired Colonel Iván Quiroz

Procedures entrusted to the Special Affairs and Human Rights Brigade of the Investigative Police widen the net to arrest the former Carabineros officer, one of the former CNI agents convicted for the murder of 12 frentistas in 1987, a crime also known as the Corpus Christi Massacre.

Visiting Judge Mario Carroza issued an international arrest warrant this Wednesday against the fugitive retired Carabineros Colonel Iván Quiroz, who was sentenced by the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court to 10 years in prison in the case of the so-called Operation Albania.

The procedures entrusted to the Special Affairs and Human Rights Brigade of the Investigative Police widen the net to arrest the former uniformed officer. Quiroz was supposed to appear on September 24 at the Gendarmerie School to be transferred to the Punta Peuco prison, where he would begin serving his sentence of 10 years and one day of incarceration, which never materialized.

The judge met with the head of the BAE, Rafael Castillo, for an hour in one of the offices of the Third Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals, where they coordinated the actions to follow. The magistrate is one of the 15 former agents of the National Information Center (CNI) convicted for the deaths of 12 frentistas between June 15 and 16, 1987, in the case known as Operation Albania or the Corpus Christi Massacre.

Source: El Mostrador.cl, October 17, 2007

Sentences confirmed against CNI agents for the murder of José Carrasco

The longest sentence is for the former operational chief of the repressive agency, retired Major Álvaro Corbalán Castilla, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Another of those convicted, to 13 years, is the fugitive retired Carabineros officer Iván Quiroz.

The ruling, however, rejected indemnifying the relatives of the journalist and three other professionals murdered in 1986. The Ninth Chamber of the Court of Appeals unanimously confirmed this Friday the sentences against 14 former agents of the dissolved National Information Center (CNI) for the murder of journalist José Carrasco Tapia and three other professionals, which took place a few hours after the failed attack against retired General Augusto Pinochet, which occurred on September 7, 1986.

The court, composed of judges Jorge Dahm, Víctor Montiglio, and lawyer member Jorge Lagos, thus confirmed the ruling issued on December 29, 2006, by visiting judge Haroldo Brito, also for the murders of MIR militant and visual artist Gastón Vidaurrázaga, and Communist Party (PC) militants Felipe Rivera Fajardo and publicist Abraham Mufkatblit Eidelstein.

The longest sentence, of 18 years and one day in prison, is against retired Army Major and former CNI operational chief Álvaro Corbalán Castilla, while retired Army Captain Jorge Vargas Bories and retired Carabineros Major Iván Quiroz, who has been a fugitive for three months after failing to appear to serve another sentence for his responsibility in the case known as Operation Albania, are sentenced to thirteen years and one day.

In their capacity as co-authors, Pedro Javier Guzmán Olivares, Gonzalo Fernando Mass del Valle, Kranz Bauer, Jorge Enrique Jofré Rojas, and Juan Alejandro Jonquera were sentenced to eight years and one day.

Meanwhile, former agents Víctor Hugo Lara Cataldo, René Armando Valdovinos Morales, Víctor Manuel Muñoz Orellana, Eduardo Martín Chávez Baeza, Guillermo Fascinetti López, and José Ramón Meneses Arcauz must spend five years and one day in prison.

Meanwhile, the appellate court, also unanimously, rejected providing an indemnity of $250 million to each of the mothers, widows, and children of the professionals, in addition to $75 million to each of the siblings.

Source: El Mostrador.cl, December 28, 2007

Albania Case: Convicted individual has been a fugitive for 4 months

Four months with zero results have passed this week in the search for the whereabouts of retired Carabineros Colonel Iván Quiroz, sentenced to ten years and one day in prison for the deaths of 12 members of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, within the framework of the so-called Operation Albania, which occurred in June 1987.

Despite the fact that a special team from the Investigative Police is working on the search for the escaped former agent of the dissolved National Information Center (CNI), as four months have passed since he was declared a fugitive from justice, relatives of the victims reiterated their apprehensions regarding the procedures used for the capture of the uniformed officer.

The former uniformed officer was supposed to appear on September 24 of last year at the Gendarmerie School to be transferred to the Punta Peuco prison, where he must serve the imposed sentence. The gravity of the case meant that an international arrest warrant was even issued against him, as he could have left the country.

Among the other sentenced individuals who have already begun serving their sentences in that facility is retired Army General Hugo Salas Wenzel, sentenced to life imprisonment after it was determined that he gave the order to murder the frentistas.

For the Operation Albania case, 11 other former repressors were sentenced to various prison terms, in addition to Quiroz, while the victims' relatives were favored with an indemnity of about 571,000 dollars each, agreed upon with the State Defense Council (CDE).

Among the victims of what is also called the "Corpus Christi Massacre" are: Recaredo Ignacio Valenzuela Pohorecky, Patricio Ricardo Acosta Castro, Juan Waldemar Henríquez Araya, Wilson Daniel Henríquez Gallegos, Julio Arturo Guerra Olivares, Esther Angélica Cabrera Hinojosa, Elizabeth Edelmira Escobar Mondaca, Patricia Angélica Quiroz Nilo, Ricardo Hernán Rivera Silva, Ricardo Cristián Silva Soto, Manuel Eduardo Valencia Calderón, and José Joaquín Valenzuela Levi.

Source: La Nacion.cl, January 21, 2008

Judge Carroza notifies retired Carabineros officer who evaded sentence

Iván Quiroz was arrested this Wednesday by Investigative Police officers in the Bio-Bio Region. His internment in Punta Peuco is expected for today. Visiting Judge Mario Carroza went this Thursday morning to the Independencia barracks of the Investigative Police to notify retired Carabineros Colonel Iván Quiroz of his sentence, who was recently captured after evading the sentence in the Operation Albania case for four months and 10 days.

Asked about the participation of the captured individual in the events, the magistrate explained that within the criminal process, the determination regarding his guilt was fundamentally made not only with his statements, but with the evidence provided.

Additionally, the judge confirmed an additional indictment against the former CNI agent for five disappearances that occurred in 1987. A signal The former uniformed officer commented briefly that "I never wanted to resist.

What happened is that I wanted to express a feeling of not agreeing with the procedural part." "I never fired a shot and, nevertheless, people who did use shots have lower sentences," he said regarding the 10-year and one-day sentence for the crime of 12 members of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR) in 1987. "It was not (my intention) to run away forever," he added, but only to give a "signal" of discontent, while ruling out collaboration from third parties.

Despite this, it transpired that his mother rented the plot of land where he lived in San Pedro de la Paz, in the Bio-Bio Region, where farmer Hugo Camilo Schiavi (66) was also arrested for his "logistical support." "I am not innocent," he clarified upon his arrival at the facility, where the Undersecretary of the Interior, Felipe Harboe, and the operational sub-director of Investigations, René Castellón, also appeared.

The police authority explained that the long period to locate him "is due solely and exclusively to his experience in terms of intelligence, his handling of characterization, and control of the entire environment that supported him." Quiroz was transferred to Santiago after being caught around 8:00 PM this Wednesday by officers of the Human Rights and Special Affairs Brigade.

Waiting to be taken to the Punta Peuco prison, the retired police officer, a former CNI agent known as "Captain Velasco," had a generous white beard and hair considerably longer than usual at the time of his apprehension.

Bad business In this regard, the Minister of Justice, Carlos Maldonado, reiterated the concepts formulated when Quiroz's escape became known: "In Chile, it is not good business to be a fugitive from justice." "The only thing those who have tried it have achieved is to remain in precarious conditions, trying to hide, and, finally, they are captured anyway.

The arm of justice is long and the law finally prevails," he said. For the official, the apprehension of the former police officer "is a very clear signal that in Chile the law prevails, justice does its job, and judicial sentences are fulfilled."

Source: El Mostrador.cl, January 24, 2008

New indictments issued for the last disappeared of the dictatorship

Visiting Judge Mario Carroza indicted seven former CNI agents for the disappearance of five frentistas, kidnapped in retaliation for the kidnapping of Colonel Carlos Carreño. Visiting Judge Mario Carroza indicted seven former agents of the National Information Center (CNI) for the qualified kidnapping of five young militants of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR) in September 1987.

The magistrate indicted them for varying degrees of participation in the kidnappings of José Julián Peña Maltés, Alejandro Pinochet Arenas, Manuel Sepúlveda Sánchez, Gonzalo Fuenzalida Navarrete, and Julio Muñoz Otárola, which occurred starting September 1, 1987.

The resolution affects Juan Carlos Orellana Morales, Hernán Antonio Vásquez Villegas, Raúl del Carmen Durán Martínez, José Guillermo Salas Fuentes, Marco Antonio Pincheira Ubilla, and Jorge Raimundo Ahumada Molina.

The list also includes Iván Quiroz Ruiz, who remained a fugitive for the Operation Albania case and who was arrested on Wednesday night. According to the ruling, the first six former agents face charges as authors of the qualified kidnapping of Peña Maltés, while Quiroz was indicted for the same case, as well as for Pinochet Arenas, Sepúlveda Sánchez, Fuenzalida Navarrete, and Muñoz Otárola.

The investigation establishes as proven that the five frentistas were kidnapped in retaliation for the kidnapping of Colonel Carlos Carreño Barrera, then an official of the Army Factories and Workshops (Famae), perpetrated on September 1, 1987.

According to the investigations, the bodies of the five victims were thrown into the sea, for which Army helicopters were used. Other indicted individuals Before leaving the case and ascending to the Supreme Court in May 2007, Judge Haroldo Brito had indicted retired General Julio Cerda Carrasco, former head of the Army Intelligence Battalion (BIE), and retired officer Fernando Rafael Rojas Tapia, also a member of the aforementioned military body.

As accessories to the disappearances, meanwhile, he indicted Aquiles Navarrete Izarnotegui, Víctor Campos Valladares, and Hugo Barría Rogers. And in September 2006, Brito indicted twelve former CNI agents, among whom are retired General Hugo Salas Wenzel, and his subordinates retired Brigadier Álvaro Corbalán Castilla and Krantz Bauer Donoso, as co-authors of the kidnapping of Sepúlveda Sánchez, Fuenzalida Navarrete, and Muñoz Otárola.

On that occasion, the judge also indicted former agents Manuel Ángel Morales Acevedo, César Acuña Luengo, and René Valdovinos Morales as co-authors of the kidnappings of Peña Maltés, Sepúlveda Sánchez, Fuenzalida Navarrete, and Muñoz Otárola.

To them were added former CNI members Víctor Ruiz Godoy, Manuel Ramírez Montoya, Luis Sanhueza Ross, and Luis Santibáñez Aguilera, who were indicted as co-authors of the kidnappings of Pinochet Arenas, Sepúlveda Sánchez, Fuenzalida Navarrete, and Muñoz Otárola.

Source: El Mostrador.cl, January 24, 2008

Police captured retired Carabineros officer who was a fugitive in Operation Albania case

Iván Belarmino Quiroz was located by the Investigative Police in the capital of the Biobío Region, after four months in which the former uniformed officer remained out of the reach of justice. Retired Carabineros officer Iván Belarmino Quiroz Ruiz was finally located in the vicinity of Concepción by the Investigative Police, thus ending the almost four months in which he remained a fugitive from the justice system that had convicted him for the crimes of Operation Albania.

Officers from the Human Rights Brigade of the civil police found Quiroz in the commune of San Pedro de la Paz, near Concepción, at the moment he was moving in his private vehicle, and upon arresting him, the police found the former officer with his physical appearance totally changed.

At the moment of capture, he did not offer much resistance. The prefect of Investigations, René Castellón, explained that the police's delay in arresting him was due to the fact that the retired officer and former member of the National Information Center (CNI) is “a person who has intelligence knowledge” and who knows his environment very well, in addition to mastering techniques to change his physical appearance.

It was thought that he might have left the country. During the early morning, he will be transferred to the capital, and by eight in the morning, he should be at the Independencia barracks of the civil police.

From that moment on, he will begin to serve his sentence for the death of 12 people, murders that occurred in 1987, in some prison facility that has not yet been defined. The plaintiff lawyer for the Albania case, Nelson Caucoto, expressed his satisfaction with the capture. “We are deeply satisfied.

We are completely closing the Operation Albania issue with this apprehension of this convicted individual so that he can serve his sentence for the serious crimes he committed and which had undoubtedly put the police and the justice system in check, fundamentally, but we can now be much more satisfied, much calmer that effectively when institutions set their minds to it, the objectives they have set for themselves are met,” he expressed.

History of an escape Retired Lieutenant Colonel Quiroz Ruiz had been a fugitive since September 24, when he was supposed to begin serving a 10-year and one-day prison sentence for the homicides that occurred on June 15 and 16, 1987, in the so-called "Operation Albania" or "Corpus Christi Massacre." Quiroz, like other convicted individuals, was supposed to appear to serve the sentence at the "Punta Peuco" military prison, 35 kilometers north of Santiago, but he did not appear and his trail was lost.

Quiroz's escape followed the one carried out by retired Army General Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann, who on June 11 did not appear to serve a five-year and one-day prison sentence for the qualified kidnapping (disappearance) of an opponent of the dictatorship.

Iturriaga Neumann declared himself in rebellion, but was captured 52 days later, last August, after being discovered by the police hiding in a downtown apartment in Viña del Mar. For the "Operation Albania" case, eleven other former repressors were sentenced to various prison terms, in addition to Quiroz, while the victims' relatives were favored with an indemnity of about 571,000 dollars each, agreed upon with the State Defense Council.

Source: cooperativa.cl, January 23, 2008

11 former agents free for the crime of Pepe Carrasco

The punishment for the former operational chief of the National Information Center (CNI), Álvaro Corbalán, and members of the September 11 command, Jorge Vargas and Iván Quiroz, was also reduced. Eleven former agents of the National Information Center (CNI) will not go to jail.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court resolved that they will be able to serve the sentences imposed on them for their participation in the cruel murders of journalist and editor of Análisis magazine José Carrasco Tapia, electronic technician Felipe Rivera Gajardo, teacher Gastón Vidaurrázaga Manríquez, and manager of the Cono Sur publishing house Abraham Muskatblit Eidelstein under supervised release.

They were all killed between September 8 and 9, 1986, as revenge for the frustrated attack against dictator Augusto Pinochet. The highest court accepted the mitigating factor of half-prescription, which grants benefits to those who have been arrested after half the time expected for a criminal action to be extinguished has passed.

In this way, the judges gradually reduced the sentences handed down by the appellate court. Thus, the former operational chief of the CNI, Álvaro Corbalán Castilla, was sentenced to 12 years in prison, obtaining a discount of six years.

The same fate befell the members of the September 11 brigade: Jorge Vargas Bories and Iván Quiroz Ruiz, whose sentences were reduced from 13 to seven years. But, without a doubt, those who received the greatest prerogative were the operational agents of the repressive agency and those who executed the four professionals.

They are Pedro Guzmán Olivares, Gonzalo Maas del Valle, Kranz Bauer Donoso, Jorge Jofré Rojas, Juan Jorquera Abarzúa, Víctor Lara Cataldo, René Valdovinos Morales, Víctor Muñoz Orellana, Eduardo Chávez Baeza, Carlos Alberto Fachinetti López, and José Ramón Meneses Arcauz.

The 11 agents were sentenced to 5 years; however, they will not spend a single day behind bars, as they were left under the supervision of the Gendarmerie. Regarding economic reparations to the families, the State had already agreed to pay $210 million to the relatives of José Carrasco and the same sum to the relatives of Gastón Vidaurrázaga, $270 million to those of Abraham Muskablit, and another $90 million to those of Felipe Rivera Gajardo.

Plaintiff lawyer Nelson Caucoto called for looking at the resolution from a positive perspective, as it is a trial in which the truth was reached and there was reparation. "The issue of the criminal sanction remains pending for us; we believe that for horrific crimes there must be more substantive and much higher penalties," he said.

He added that "we are getting used to very little" in the face of the scenario that the victims lived through "on a night when the CNI and the police went crazy in this country." Finally, he said that this case will be enshrined in history with a conviction, with a respectable sentence for the leaders. "It must be highlighted that the leaders are being sentenced more than the subordinates, which seems to me a correct criterion," pointed out Caucoto, who defined this crime as "one of those unforgivable ones."

Source: La Nación.cl, August 14, 2009

Magistrate Carroza charges five former CNI members for cases of forcibly disappeared persons

There were five accusations that visiting judge Mario Carroza issued against former CNI agents for the disappearance of a group of militants of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, the last one to occur during the dictatorship led by Augusto Pinochet.

Among those accused are former Army General Hugo Salas Wenzel, as well as the former operational chief of the CNI, Álvaro Corbalán Castilla, and agents Kranz Bauer, Arturo Sanhueza Ross, and Iván Quiroz Ruz.

The disappeared FPMR militants are Gonzalo Fuenzalida Navarrete, Julio Muñoz Otárola, Manuel Sepúlveda Sánchez, Alejandro Pinochet Arenas, and Julián Peña Maltés. In the accusation presented by Judge Carroza, it is stated that the five frentistas were detained to carry out an exchange for the then-kidnapped Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Carreño.

Source: Radio universidad de Chile.cl, October 8, 2010

Case Roll No. 39.122-C: Qualified Kidnapping Case of Julián Peña, Alejandro Pinochet, Manuel Sepúlveda, Gonzalo Fuenzalida, Julio Muñoz

G.-That IVÁN RAÚL BELARMINO QUIROZ RUIZ and GONZALO FERNANDO MAASS DEL VALLE, already identified in the case files, are sentenced for their participation as authors of the crimes of Qualified Kidnapping of Julián Peña Maltés, Alejandro Pinochet Arenas, Manuel Sepúlveda Sánchez, Gonzalo Fuenzalida Navarrete, and Julio Muñoz Otárola , each, to the penalty of TEN YEARS AND ONE DAY OF MAJOR IMPRISONMENT IN ITS MEDIUM DEGREE and accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and positions and political rights and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence, and to the payment of the costs of this case.

Source: Judiciary, October 14, 2013

Judge Carroza sentences former CNI agents for homicide in Estación Central

Among them is Álvaro Corbalán, who added another five years and one day in prison.

The visiting judge for human rights violation cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Mario Carroza , sentenced four former members of the National Information Center (CNI) for their responsibility in the crime of qualified homicide of José Daniel Murga Medina, an illicit act perpetrated on April 18, 1986, in the commune of Estación Central.

In the ruling, the visiting judge sentenced Iván Quiroz Ruiz and Álvaro Corbalán Castilla to sentences of 5 years and one day in prison, in their capacity as authors of the crime. Meanwhile, as accomplices, Roberto Farías Santelices was sentenced to 3 years and one day in prison, with the benefit of supervised release, and Juan Carlos Vergara Gutiérrez to 541 days in prison, with the benefit of conditional remission of the sentence.

In the investigation stage of the case, Judge Carroza managed to establish that on that day members of the CNI decided to intercept José Daniel Murga Medina, 28 years old, a member of the MIR, when he was getting off a public transport bus to go to his home , for which they drew their service weapons and proceeded to shoot him with around 22 bullets, in different parts of the body, one of them hitting him in the head, without an exit wound, which caused his immediate death.

In the civil aspect, the State was ordered to pay a total indemnity of $150,000,000 (one hundred and fifty million pesos) to the victim's spouse and children.

Source: eldinamo.cl, November 20, 2018