Judge Raquel Lermanda has indicted five Army personnel for the 1984 execution of Fernando Gabriel Vergara, a member of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR). Among those charged by the magistrate, who holds exclusive jurisdiction at the Ninth Criminal Court of Santiago, are active-duty non-commissioned officers of the military institution Luis Gálvez Navarro and Francisco Orellana Seguel.

Also appearing are Colonel (ret.) Aquiles González Cortes, Captain (ret.) Luis Sanhueza, and non-commissioned officer (ret.) Jorge Ramírez, who were prosecuted for the crime of qualified homicide. According to the Rettig Report, which in 1991 investigated and archived cases of human rights violations during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, Vergara died on December 15, 1984, after having entered the country clandestinely.

On that date, personnel from the National Intelligence Center (CNI) intercepted an individual in downtown Santiago who, upon noticing the presence of security personnel, fired two shots; the officials returned fire, causing his death.

There is evidence that the MIR militant, an operator for the clandestine station Radio Liberación, had been followed previously by CNI officials, which casts doubt on the claim that he was discovered by chance.

It was also proven that the weapon with which Vergara supposedly fired the two shots was malfunctioning, as it had a broken hammer and could not have been used. Taking this into account, the Report concluded that the young man was followed, detained, and executed by CNI personnel, and his death was considered a human rights violation.

Source: Radionuevomundo.cl, July 2, 2003

The judge with exclusive jurisdiction at the Ninth Criminal Court of Santiago, Raquel Lermanda, prosecuted five military personnel for the death of MIR member Fernando Vergara, an event that occurred on December 15, 1984.

Among those charged are active-duty non-commissioned officers Luis Gálvez Navarro and Francisco Orellana Seguel, in addition to Colonel (ret.) Aquiles González Cortes, Captain (ret.) Luis Sanhueza, and non-commissioned officer (ret.) Jorge Ramírez, who were prosecuted for the crime of qualified homicide.

So far, only the former military officer Luis Sanhueza has been notified of the resolution. The three retired officers belonged to the CNI's Blue Brigade, which was organized primarily to dismantle the MIR.

Source: La Nacion, July 3, 2003

Sentences for former CNI agents for death of MIR member

A new sentence was handed down yesterday by Minister Juan Eduardo Fuentes affecting five former CNI agents. This time, it concerns the case regarding the homicide of the former operator of the MIR's Radio Liberación, Fernando Vergara, which occurred in 1984.

The first-instance sentence affects former CNI operations chief Álvaro Corbalán with ten years and one day in prison as the perpetrator of qualified homicide; for the same offense, but with five years and one day in prison, the magistrate sentenced former agents Luis Sanhueza and Aquiles González; non-commissioned officers Luis Gálvez, Francisco Orellana, and Jorge Ramírez face five years.

The latter three agents were granted the benefit by Minister Fuentes to serve their sentences under supervised release by a Gendarmerie delegate. Vergara was intercepted by the CNI on December 15, 1984.

The agency's version was that Vergara was carrying a weapon and attempted to engage in a shootout with the personnel, for which he was annihilated. However, the magistrate proved that this version was not true.

In this same case, there are police statements from two former CNI agents who asserted that Pinochet's former minister, Francisco Javier Cuadra, arrived at the scene accompanied by Corbalán himself, but they diametrically changed their statements in their judicial testimonies.

Minister Fuentes also refused to accept the claim for damages filed by the family and represented by lawyer Nelson Caucoto.

Source: La Nacion, March 24, 2006

Sentences increased for former CNI agents for homicide of former MIR member

The Fourth Chamber of the Court of Appeals increased the sentences that had been handed down in the first instance for the perpetrators of the crime against Fernando Vergara Vargas, which occurred in 1984.

The Fourth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals issued sentences of between five and 10 years in prison for six former agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Center (CNI) for the qualified homicide of former MIR militant Fernando Vergara Vargas, recorded on December 15, 1984, in Santiago.

As reported this Tuesday by the Judiciary's Communications Department, the appellate court sentenced Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ross and Jorge Ramírez Romero to 10 years and one day, and Luis Gálvez Navarro and Francisco Orellana Seguel to five years and one day.

Likewise, the chamber—composed of ministers Jorge Dahm Oyarzún, Manuel Valderrama Rebolledo, and acting lawyer Luis Orlandini Molina—acquitted former CNI operations chief Álvaro Corbalán Castilla and Aquiles González Cortés due to a lack of participation.

Furthermore, the ruling ordered the state to pay 90 million pesos in compensation for moral damages to the victim's relatives. In the first instance, Minister Juan Eduardo Fuentes Belmar had sentenced the six former agents on March 23, 2006, but to shorter sentences in each case, and the civil claim had been rejected.

The assassination of Fernando Vergara took place at the corner of Santa Elvira and Santa Elena streets, when he was intercepted and shot by agents in a supposed confrontation.

Source: elmostrador.cl, October 16, 2007

Final Supreme Court ruling in the case of Fernando Vergara Vargas

CNI executioners of young MIR member will not go to prison

The final ruling maintained the acquittal of former agents Álvaro Corbalán and Aquiles González, and favored four others with the requested benefit of "supervised release." The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court resolved that none of the perpetrators of the homicide of MIR militant Fernando Vergara Vargas, committed on December 15, 1984, in Santiago by CNI agents, will have to serve effective prison time.

Although this final sentence maintained the acquittal previously issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals for former agents Álvaro Corbalán and Aquiles González, in the case of the other four former agents, it reduced their sentences to five years in prison, thereby allowing them to qualify for the benefit of supervised release, which was granted to them.

Those favored by this measure are former agents Luis Sanhueza Ros, Luis Gálvez Navarro, Francisco Orellana Seguel, and Jorge Ramírez Romero. In any case, Corbalán is serving a simple life sentence (after 20 years he may obtain benefits) for the crime of carpenter Juan Alegría, committed to try to cover up the assassination of union leader Tucapel Jiménez.

Corbalán also holds another 20-year sentence for Operation Albania. Thus, the homicide committed against the person in charge of the MIR's clandestine communications and director of Radio Liberación, who had returned to Chile in 1982 with a false identity after a period of exile, was left without anyone serving effective jail time.

The dictatorship attempted to present Vergara's crime as a "confrontation," but the judicial investigation concluded that it was a homicide and a crime against humanity, which does not expire with time nor can it be amnestied.

In this case, the former minister and spokesperson for the oppressive regime, Francisco Javier Cuadra, was very close to being prosecuted. Seven former agents testified in the trial that Cuadra arrived at the crime scene together with Álvaro Corbalán, and that he later publicly justified the death with the false version of a confrontation.

Cuadra denied it, and Colonel (ret.) Aquiles González lobbied on behalf of the former minister so that the former agents would retract their statements. However, Orellana Seguel maintained his incriminating statement against Cuadra.

The same former CNI officials recounted in the investigation the task carried out by Aquiles González in favor of the former minister. Radio Liberación managed to interfere several times with other stations and television channels to broadcast proclamations against the military regime.

Source: La Nacion, September 9, 2008