Retired General Hernán Ramírez Rurange testified this morning before the investigating judge Sergio Muñoz, within the framework of the evidentiary stage of the investigation into the death of labor leader Tucapel Jiménez, which occurred on February 25, 1982.

On this occasion, General Ramírez Rurange, who is accused of helping the confessed perpetrator of the crime, Carlos Herrera Jiménez, flee the country in September 1991, reiterated his "absolute innocence" and maintained that he never gave an order for Herrera Jiménez to leave Chile.

General Ramírez Rurange, who was director of the DINE in 1991, is accused of being an accessory in the case, and appeared to testify as a witness for retired General Fernando Torres Silva, a former military prosecutor.

Ramírez Rurange further stated that he only learned that Carlos Herrera Jiménez had killed Tucapel Jiménez through the press last year. Retired General Hernán Ramírez Hald also attended today's session to provide a statement; however, he did not testify before Judge Muñoz because the defense for retired Brigadier Víctor Pinto Pérez called him as a witness.

Crime recounted The case of the labor leader's death took a new turn after retired Major Carlos Herrera Jiménez provided details of the homicide of Tucapel Jiménez during a public judicial hearing on April 12.

Although he stated that, out of honor, he would not name those who accompanied him at the scene of the crime, he had a slip of the tongue and said that one of the non-commissioned officers was Letelier, an identity that corresponds to another of those prosecuted in the case.

The confessed perpetrator of the crime against the president of the National Association of Fiscal Employees (ANEF) said that he received the order to eliminate the union leader from his superiors in the Army Intelligence Corps, Brigadier (ret.) Víctor Pinto Pérez and the former commander of the organization, Lieutenant Colonel (ret.) Francisco Ferrer Lima.

He maintained that the man who was the top chief of the Army Intelligence Directorate in 1982, General Ramsés Álvarez Sgolia, was identified by Pinto Pérez as a person who was aware of the criminal plan when he communicated the order to eliminate the union leader.

According to what Herrera declared, he executed the crime together with two non-commissioned officers who were placed under his command. He added that after the homicide, which took place on February 25, 1982, Brigadier Pinto took him to General Álvarez's office, where the director of the DINE congratulated him for the mission.

Source: El Mercurio, Friday, April 19, 2002

First-instance ruling issued 20 years after the crime TUCAPEL CASE: Life sentence for Herrera; Corbalán acquitted

For his responsibility in the qualified homicide of Tucapel Jiménez, General (ret.) Arturo Ramsés Alvarez Sgolia was sentenced to 10 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree as an author, without benefits.

After an exhaustive investigation of just over three years, the first-instance ruling of the extraordinary investigating judge, Sergio Muñoz, was released in the case of the crime against Tucapel Jiménez on February 25, 1982.

The ruling, delayed during the morning due to computer problems, acquitted Major (ret.) Alvaro Corbalán Castilla, Brigadier (ret.) Roberto Urbano Schmied Zanzi, civilian Julio Olivares Silva, and Carabineros Captain Miguel Hernández Oyarzo, who were prosecuted as accomplices.

For his responsibility in the qualified homicide of Tucapel Jiménez, Muñoz sentenced General (ret.) Arturo Ramsés Alvarez Sgolia to 10 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree as an author, without benefits.

Major (ret.) Carlos Herrera Jiménez was sentenced to life imprisonment without benefits as the author of qualified homicide against the former president of the ANEF and the carpenter Juan Alegría Mundaca.

Meanwhile, Brigadier (ret.) Víctor Pinto Pérez and Lieutenant Colonel (ret.) Maximiliano Ferrer Lima were sentenced to 8 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree, without benefits, as authors of qualified homicide.

As authors, Miguel Letelier Verdugo and non-commissioned officer Manuel Contreras Donaire were sentenced to 6 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree, without benefits. Major Juan Carlos Arriagada Echeverría and Jorge León Alessandrini (civilian) were sentenced by Magistrate Sergio Muñoz to 3 years of minor imprisonment in its medium degree, as accomplices (remitted sentence).

General (ret.) Fernando Torres Silva (former Army auditor), General (ret.) Hernán Ramírez Hald, and General (ret.) Hernán Ramírez Rurange were sentenced to 800 days of minor imprisonment in its medium degree (remitted sentence), as accomplices.

As an accessory, Colonel (ret.) Enrique Ibarra was sentenced to 541 days of minor imprisonment in its medium degree. Finally, the weapon used in the crime was confiscated: a .22 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver, serial number 22547, which is registered under the name of the General Directorate of National Mobilization.

Judicial process In three years of investigation, Judge Sergio Muñoz shook the Army. In 1999, he prosecuted the former director of the CNI, the now-deceased Humberto Gordon, and in June of that year, he preempted Juan Guzmán by sending a request for information to Pinochet during his detention in London.

However, his most daring step was to prosecute Hernán Ramírez Hald, the first general on active duty to be charged in a human rights case. Ramírez Hald was charged on November 22, but one day earlier, President Ricardo Lagos received him in his office for an hour to support the general's gesture of retiring from the Army and facing the process as a civilian.

The former officer remained detained at the Telecommunications Command until he was released on bail in mid-2000. It should be remembered that Judge Muñoz took over the investigation in April 1999, after 17 years of fruitless work by Judge Sergio Valenzuela Patiño, who was removed from the case by the Supreme Court.

Source: La Tercera, Monday, August 5, 2002

Berríos Case: Extradition of Uruguayan military officers requested and new prosecutions ordered

Investigating judge Alejandro Madrid will request the extradition of three Uruguayan military officers for their alleged responsibility in the murder of former DINA agent Eugenio Berríos. The resolution affects Uruguayan Army officers Tomás Casella, Eduardo Radaelli, and Wellington Sarli.

The three were prosecuted by Judge Madrid along with Chilean military officers for the crime of illicit association, which is in addition to the charges of kidnapping and homicide for which some Chilean officers are already being prosecuted.

The new charges point to Generals Hernán Ramírez Rurange and Eugenio Covarrubias, as well as officers Juan Pérez Santillán and Marcelo Sandoval and non-commissioned officer Nelson Román, the latter three on active duty.

In addition, the civilians Nelson Hernández, Raúl Lillo Gutiérrez, and the former secretary of the Special Unit Erika Silva, and the former majors also prosecuted as authors, Arturo Silva and Jaime Torres, are included.

The prosecuted Chileans also face charges of embezzlement of public funds and falsification of public documents. Eugenio Berríos, a chemist by profession, worked for the DINA in the manufacture of sarin gas, and it is presumed that he was involved in the death of former President Eduardo Frei Montalva in 1982.

Likewise, his name has been linked to the kidnapping and murder of the Spanish United Nations diplomat Carmelo Soria in 1976. In 1991, when he was supposed to testify in the trial for the crime of former Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier, Berríos was surreptitiously taken out of Chile and brought to Uruguay, where he was last seen in November 1992, when he appeared at a police station to report that he was being kidnapped.

The agent was handed over by the police to some military officers who arrived after him, and nothing more was known until April 1995, when his corpse, tied up and with gunshot wounds to the skull, was found on a beach near Montevideo.

In the trial in Chile, former majors Arturo Silva and Jaime Torres are prosecuted as authors, and several other officers are prosecuted for obstruction of justice, including retired Generals Hernán Ramírez Rurange and Eugenio Covarrubias, both former heads of the Army's Intelligence Directorate (DINE).

Last July, the Santiago Court of Appeals recommended a series of proceedings to Judge Madrid, including the possible stripping of immunity from former Army Commander-in-Chief Augusto Pinochet and the responsibility of 18 other military officers, among them retired General Fernando Torres, former general auditor of the Army.

Lawyer Fabiola Letelier, a plaintiff in the case, stated that the resolution is based on the judge's certainty regarding the existence of an illicit association formed within the DINE with the objective of kidnapping and murdering Eugenio Berríos.

Letelier, sister of Orlando Letelier, the former foreign minister who was assassinated in Washington in 1976, added that once she studies the resolution, she will decide whether to request the reopening of the investigation into her brother's crime.

For that death, former DINA chief Manuel Contreras and Brigadier Pedro Espinoza, his second-in-command of that organization, served prison sentences of seven and six years, respectively. Meanwhile, another of the plaintiff lawyers in the case, Tomás Ehrenfeld, pointed out that the ruling is "praiseworthy" and "an action of complete justice." The jurist indicated that with this resolution, they are entering the "structural work of what this operation meant to kill Berríos and obstruct justice."

Source: La Nación, December 29, 2003

Freedom denied for former officers in Berríos case

The Santiago Court of Appeals once again refused to grant freedom to retired Generals Hernán Ramírez Rurange and Eugenio Covarrubias, both prosecuted for various crimes in the so-called Berríos case. Eugenio Berríos, a chemist who produced the deadly sarin gas, was taken out of the country by members of the Army's DINE at the end of October 1991, after Judge Adolfo Bañados requested him for his alleged involvement in the assassination of former Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier and ECLAC official Carmelo Soria.

The last time he was seen alive in Uruguay was on November 15, 1992, and his remains were found with bullet impacts to the skull in April 1995, half-buried on a beach near Montevideo.

Source: La Tercera, January 12, 2004

Prison confirmed for Generals (ret.) in Berríos case

For the second time, the Eighth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals refused to grant provisional release to two Generals (ret.), former heads of the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE), and two other officers (ret.), prosecuted as part of a criminal illicit association and as authors and accessories to the crime of kidnapping in the trial for the crime of former DINA chemist Eugenio Berríos.

Attempting a common maneuver in the courts, the defenses of the prosecuted, who remain under arrest by order of investigating judge Alejandro Madrid, the instructor of the case, insisted on the request that had already been denied a few days ago by the same chamber, taking advantage of a change in its members.

However, this time, although Judge Raimundo Díaz, who presided over the chamber, voted to grant the request, Judge Mauricio Silva and the member lawyer Emilio Pfeiffer voted against it. Thus, Generals (ret.) Eugenio Covarrubias and Hernán Ramírez Rurange, and Lieutenant Colonels (ret.) Pablo Rodríguez Márquez and Manuel Pérez Santillán remain in preventive detention at the Military Police Battalion in Peñalolén.

In the trial for the kidnapping and homicide of Berríos, 17 people are charged, most of them officers and non-commissioned officers (ret.) of the Army who were and still are members of the DINE. Berríos was clandestinely taken out of Chile on October 26, 1991, first to Argentina and then to Uruguay, in a complex operation ordered by the DINE to prevent him from testifying in the trials for the murders of former Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier and international official Carmelo Soria.

Source: La Nación, January 13, 2004

Berríos Case: Freedom granted to former DINE chief

The Chilean justice system today granted freedom to retired General Hernán Ramírez Rurange, prosecuted for the death of former repressive agent Eugenio Berríos, whose corpse appeared in 1995 in Uruguay, judicial sources reported.

The resolution was adopted in a split decision by the VIII Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals, which set a bail of 1,500,000 pesos (2,533 dollars) for the former member of the Army. Ramírez Rurange, former director of the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE), was prosecuted at the end of December by the special judge instructing the case, Alejandro Madrid, for the crimes of illicit association and obstruction of justice.

The same chamber refused to grant the same benefit to another former director of the repressive organization, General Eugenio Covarrubias, and to civilian Raúl Lillo. Regarding the latter, the judge had granted provisional release with consultation to the higher court, a benefit that said court revoked for considering that Lillo is "a danger to society." Judge Madrid prosecuted 17 former officers and civilians on December 29, including four Uruguayans, for the crimes of illicit association, obstruction of justice, and kidnapping with homicide, within the framework of the trial regarding the disappearance and death of Berríos. Berríos was a chemist and agent of the fearsome National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) and manufactured the sarin gas in Chile that was used to assassinate dissidents. As established by the courts, the chemist was taken out of Chile in October 1991, when he was supposed to testify in the trial for the assassination of former Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs Orlando Letelier. The agent lived in Montevideo until almost the end of 1992, when he was taken from his house by DINE agents in charge of watching him, from whom he managed to escape. In 1995, his corpse appeared buried on a Uruguayan beach.

Source: TVN.cl, March 5, 2004

Berríos Case: Court increased sentences for authors of the kidnapping and homicide of the former DINA chemist

The Court of Appeals increased the sentences of the authors of the kidnapping with subsequent homicide of the former chemist of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), Eugenio Berríos, and those who formed an illicit association with the purpose of murdering him in 1992 in Uruguay.

In a split decision, the judges of the Fifth Chamber of the appellate court, Carlos Cerda, Gloria Ana Chevesich, and member lawyer Teresa Álvarez, confirmed the sentence of Judge Madrid regarding the penalties and increased the prison terms.

Thus, Major (ret.) Arturo Silva Valdés was sentenced to an effective term of 15 years and one day for his responsibility as an author of the crime of kidnapping with homicide and 5 years and one day for illicit association.

The former head of the DINE, General (ret.) Hernán Ramírez Rurange, received an effective sentence of 10 years and one day for his responsibility as an author of the crime of kidnapping; 10 years and one day for illicit association, and was acquitted of obstruction of justice, while the former Army general auditor Fernando Torres Silva was sentenced to 10 years and one day for his responsibility as an author of the crime of illicit association.

In the civil aspect, the chamber revoked the resolution that had accepted the claim for compensation in favor of Fabiola Letelier del Solar and Gladys Schmeisser, but maintained the payment of $20,000,000 for the succession represented by the plaintiff Gonzalo Berríos Sagredo.

The rest of the Court's sentences

Eugenio Covarrubias Valenzuela: 10 years and one day for his responsibility as an author of the crime of kidnapping; 5 years and 1 day for illicit association, and acquitted of his participation as an accessory to kidnapping with homicide and obstruction of justice.

Without benefits. Jaime Torres Gacitúa: 10 years and one day for his responsibility as an author of the crime of kidnapping and 5 years and one day for illicit association. Without benefits. Manuel Provis Carrasco: 10 years and one day for his responsibility as an author of the crime of kidnapping and 5 years and one day for illicit association.

Without benefits. Pablo Rodríguez Márquez: 10 years and one day for his responsibility as an author of the crime of kidnapping and 800 days for illicit association. Without benefits. Raúl Lillo Gutiérrez: 10 years and one day for his responsibility as an author of the crime of kidnapping and 800 days for illicit association.

Acquitted of the charge of obstruction of justice. Without benefits. Manuel Pérez Santillán: 5 years and one day for his responsibility as an accomplice to the crime of kidnapping and acquitted of the charge of illicit association.

Without benefits. Tomás Casella Santos (Uruguayan military officer): 10 years and one day for his responsibility as an author of the crime of kidnapping and 5 years and one day for illicit association.

Without benefits. Eduardo Radaelli Copolla (Uruguayan military officer): 10 years and one day for his responsibility as an author of the crime of kidnapping and 800 days for illicit association. Without benefits.

Wellington Sarli Pose (Uruguayan military officer): 5 years and one day for his responsibility as an accomplice to the crime of kidnapping and 60 days for illicit association. Without benefits. Marcelo Sandoval Durán: 10 years and one day for his responsibility as an author of the crime of kidnapping, 800 days for illicit association, and acquitted of infringement of article 295 bis of the Penal Code.

Without benefits. Nelson Román Vargas: 10 years and one day for his responsibility as an author of the crime of kidnapping, 800 days for illicit association, and acquitted of the charge of infringement of article 295 bis of the Penal Code.

Without benefits. Enrique Ibarra Chamorro: acquitted of his responsibility as an author of the crime of illicit association. Mario Cisternas Orellana: acquitted of his responsibility as an author of the crime of infringement of article 295 bis of the Penal Code.

Nelson Hernández Franco: acquitted of his responsibility as an author of the crime of infringement of article 295 bis of the Penal Code. Erika Silva Morales: acquitted of her responsibility as an author of the crime of infringement of article 295 bis of the Penal Code.

Emilio Rojas Gómez: acquitted of his responsibility as an author of the crime of obstruction of justice. The ruling of Judge Alejandro Madrid In September 2010, Judge Alejandro Madrid released the resolution of the extensive sentence in which he convicted the authors of the kidnapping with subsequent homicide of the former DINA chemist.

The magistrate established in the investigation that Berríos was hidden to prevent him from testifying in the investigation into the homicide of former Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier. In his ruling, he established that the events occurred between the years 1991 and 1993—when the body appeared on a beach—a period "of full validity of the constitutional order," and that it was perpetrated by "military personnel on active duty of the Armies of Chile and Uruguay." At that time, the highest penalty of the 14 convicted was for Major (ret.) Arturo Silva Valdés, sentenced to an effective term of 10 years and one day as an author of kidnapping with homicide and 3 years and one day for illicit association. To the former head of the DINE, General (ret.) Hernán Ramírez Rurange, he gave an effective sentence of 5 years and one day for kidnapping and 3 years and one day for illicit association, as well as to Major (ret.) Jaime Torres Gacitúa and Brigadier (ret.) Manuel Provis. To the former director of the DINE, General (ret.) Eugenio Covarrubias, he gave 3 years and one day for kidnapping and 541 days for illicit association, with supervised release. To the former Army general auditor Fernando Torres Silva, he sentenced him to 3 years and one day for illicit association without benefits, and to Major (ret.) Raúl Lillo to 5 years and one day for kidnapping and 100 days for illicit association. Added to this are military officers Pablo Rodríguez Márquez, Marcelo Sandoval, and Nelson Román with 3 years and one day for kidnapping and 60 days for illicit association. The judge acquitted all those who were prosecuted for obstruction of justice, a crime that is repealed, and for the infringement of not reporting the illicit association. Among them, Mario Cisternas, Nelson Hernández, Érika Silva, and Emilio Rojas. And Colonel (ret.) Enrique Ibarra, of illicit association.

Source: El Mercurio, August 23, 2013

The harsh speech of Colonel Ramírez Rurange in his days as intendant

The retired military officer who passed away after taking his own life in Santiago after his conviction in the Berríos Case was confirmed had a stint in the Coquimbo Region where he was characterized by the directness of his words.

The death at the Military Hospital of the former head of the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE), General (ret.) Hernán Ramírez Rurange, did not go unnoticed in the Coquimbo Region. The retired military officer had been a military intendant in the mid-1980s and had arrived preceded by his strong personality and closeness to General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, of whom he had been a personal aide-de-camp.

Ramírez Rurange took his own life days after having been sentenced to 20 years in prison for the death of DINA chemist Eugenio Berríos. The Second Chamber of the Supreme Court had confirmed the sentence handed down by the Santiago Court of Appeals against 14 people for the crimes of kidnapping, homicide, and illicit association in the case of the death of Eugenio Berríos.

For Ramírez Rurange, the court confirmed the sentence of 10 years and one day in prison for his responsibility as an author of the crimes of kidnapping and another 10 years and one day for illicit association, while he was acquitted of obstruction of justice. He was to report to the Punta Peuco prison to serve the sentence.

WITHOUT BEATING AROUND THE BUSH

In June 1986, the then-intendant of the Coquimbo Region, Hernán Ramírez Rurange, granted El Día an extensive interview where he faced all topics, including the role of the CNI and the future of General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte.

He was characterized by facing all topics, even if they were complex or controversial for the moment the country was living. Looking back, the interview was granted in what the Communist Party had defined as the decisive year.

Three months after the attack on Augusto Pinochet Ugarte. When asked if there was a direct relationship between the existence of terrorism and security agencies, the then-Colonel Ramírez was blunt. "Yes and no.

Although they are different things. The CNI is an institution that must provide strategic information to the leadership of the nation. The CNI is not only dedicated to combating terrorism. It also covers other fields of information and analysis that have nothing to do with terrorism.

Just like the security services of the Armed Forces, they exist and are present in the region, but Military Intelligence has nothing to do in the field of terrorism. They have other security functions." He did not even avoid the question of the existence of an image of the CNI associated with torture and flogging.

He pointed out that that position, "I would say it is biased. It never appears in any media outlet, nor does the opposition say it when a bomb is deactivated. And that is another of the CNI's functions.

Theirs is an anonymous job that can be thankless, but they are also human beings." "But we Chileans have a bad memory; I would say that in this period there are fewer problems than when the 1925 constitution was consolidated.

Before, they also blamed the 'guatones' of the PP. They would arrest and flog people. They were specialized police personnel, but they were part of investigations. The CNI was created with the object, among other things, of avoiding and deactivating all the damage that terrorism can do, providing strategic information for government resolutions.

Because security or intelligence services fulfill other functions, of national security." Regarding what would happen after 1989, Colonel Ramírez responded laconically. "What is provided for in the Constitution..." And what is provided for in the Constitution? "It's a matter of reading it... the Constitution clearly establishes that the Junta of Commanders-in-Chief will propose a candidate who will be put to a plebiscite.

What happens is that all these doubts provoke attention..." He insisted that General Pinochet had been clear in maintaining that the deadlines established in the Constitution would be met, "because that is what the citizenry indicated in 1980 with 67 percent of the majority.

A country does not need a plebiscite every other day, something that has already been put to a plebiscite." "It's like marriage, are you going to ask your wife, 'Hey, are we going to stay married?' It's tacit.

You get married and that's it." Two years after the Yes and No plebiscite, Colonel Ramírez avoided answering whether General Pinochet would run for an election. "I don't know what my general thinks, it would be jumping to a conclusion on a totally private matter.

But rest assured that whatever he decides will be the best for the country. What I can give you full assurance of is that the deadlines and modifications and what he may think are inserted in the Constitution.

In the government, there is no sectarianism. The military government has not chosen a party, it has not created a government party, despite the fact that there are many opinions that it is good. We are uniformed and we are military..." NEW DESTINATION In November 1986, Colonel Ramírez Rurange was appointed as military attaché at the embassy in Uruguay.

He began to carry out his duties in January 1987 and had to leave the position of regional intendant.

Source: diarioeldia.cl, September 13, 2009

The story of the late General Ramírez Rurange

The high-ranking retired officer was convicted for his participation in the case regarding the death of DINA chemist Eugenio Berríos. Army General (ret.) Hernán Ramírez Rurange (76), convicted in the judicial case for the death of DINA chemist Eugenio Berríos—which occurred in Uruguay in 1995—passed away this Thursday morning after shooting himself in the head with a weapon.

The Military Hospital issued a statement regarding Ramírez's situation, noting that the former officer entered the emergency service at 1:30 a.m. with a gunshot wound to his skull. Ramírez passed away two hours later due to the severity of his wound.

Ramírez was head of the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE) in 1991 and an aide-de-camp to Augusto Pinochet in the 1980s. Currently, he was sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison for his responsibility in the kidnapping and homicide of the chemist Eugenio Berríos, who worked for the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) during the regime of Augusto Pinochet.

Ramírez Rurange had also been sentenced to another 10 years and one day for illicit association. According to La Tercera, the late retired general was a man very close to Augusto Pinochet, who entrusted him at the end of 1991 with taking Berríos out of the country, as Ramírez himself declared before investigating judge Alejandro Madrid.

Berríos did not want to testify in the trial for the assassination of former Chilean Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier, which occurred in 1976 in Washington. According to El Mostrador, Berríos settled in Montevideo—after leaving Chile for Argentina in October 1991 through the Monte Aymond pass—under the false name of Tulio Orellana and was last seen in November 1992, when he appeared at a police station to report that he was being kidnapped.

The chemist was handed over to Uruguayan military officers and nothing more was known of him until April 1995, when his corpse was discovered, buried on a beach, tied up and with gunshot wounds to the skull.

In April 1991, Ramírez had also taken former CNI agent Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ros out of Chile, who was in the sights of the justice system. After directing the DINE, Ramírez was appointed by Pinochet as head of the Santiago garrison.

According to the same media outlet, Ramírez Rurange was also interrogated in the trial for the death of former President Eduardo Frei Montalva, which occurred in 1982, when he was Pinochet's aide-de-camp.

El Mostrador points out that Judge Alejandro Madrid investigated him regarding two secret operations, one of them called "Olimpo" and another "Yngecto," regarding which there are suspicions that they could have been the beginning of the production of toxins that later ended Frei's life.

Ramírez stated that the first "was merely a matter of military and national security, while the second, it seems to me, could be counter-espionage." Ramírez's death occurs almost two years after the suicide by a gunshot to the head of General Odlanier Mena, former head of the National Information Center (CNI), on September 28, 2013.

Mena committed suicide after the government of Sebastián Piñera ordered the transfer of former officers convicted of human rights violations from the Cordillera Prison to Punta Peuco.

Source: t13.cl, August 13, 2015

Suicide of Ramírez accelerates demands for clarification of human rights crimes

The death of the retired general, convicted for the kidnapping and murder of Eugenio Berríos, generated diverse reactions, such as the urgency of eliminating intra-prison benefits in sentences related to human rights, as well as the evidence that there is still information that continues to be hidden.

A couple of years ago, it was the suicide of former CNI director Odlanier Mena Salinas, when the closure of the Cordillera Prison and his imminent transfer to Punta Peuco was confirmed. Last week, the death of former DINA director Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, who, despite being held in said penitentiary center, lived his last year of life in the Military Hospital, with all the comforts that implies.

And this morning, it was the turn of former DINE director Jorge Ramírez Rurange, who ended his 76 years of life with a gunshot to the head. This, just a couple of days after the sentences for the kidnapping and murder of former DINA chemist Eugenio Berríos were made known, among which was precisely Ramírez.

Three retired Army generals. Three references of the repressive organizations of the civil-military dictatorship. Even of the post-dictatorship. Three officers who died without losing their ranks and recognitions.

Representing the Government, the Minister of Justice, Javiera Blanco, referred to the particular event, as well as the differences that exist when it comes to serving sentences in the Armed Forces. "What corresponds is that once the truth is established, people face their sentences and serve them.

Obviously, this case is a regrettable situation and as a Government, we will continue working for the establishment of the truth," she stated. And she added: "We are also working for the certain possibility that in these types of very serious events, such as human rights abuses, it will be impossible to access intra-prison benefits." "Chilean society is still sick," lamented Socialist Senator Juan Pablo Letelier, regarding how the past and national memory have been addressed, regarding those who have been part of pacts of silence, both civilians and former officers, in addition to those, according to him, who from the Judiciary were accomplices to the cover-ups. Regarding the suicide of General Ramírez, the parliamentarian warned of the obstacles this generates. "Those responsible who are dying of old age or who have committed suicide, in this case, because he wanted to continue covering up the torment for the crimes that were committed. It is a regrettable situation, as it makes it evident that there are people who do not want the whole truth to be known," he explained. Likewise, he made "a call, in particular to the commander-in-chief of the Army, among others, to contribute, facilitate, and hand over the information from files and background information that we believe and know they have." Hernán Ramírez Rurange entered the Military Hospital at 1:30 this morning, after shooting himself in the head on the emergency staircase of the building where he resided, in the Las Condes commune. From the medical facility itself, they confirmed his death at 3:20 a.m., just a couple of days after his sentences of 10 years and one day as an author of the crime of kidnapping and another 10 years and one day for illicit association were made known.

Source: atodacostaiquique.wordpress.com, August 13, 2015