Seven retired members of the Navy were convicted for the kidnapping of Haitian citizen Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo, who remains forcibly disappeared to this day after being tortured for his political orientation during the dictatorship. Six of the seven were sentenced to 15 years in prison. In addition, a multi-million peso compensation must be paid to the victim's family.

The Valparaíso Court of Appeals sentenced seven retired Navy members to prison for their responsibility in the crime of kidnapping a Dominican citizen during the military dictatorship.

In the civil aspect, the ruling accepted the lawsuit filed by the relatives and ordered the state to pay compensation of $150 million pesos for moral damages to the victim's father. Additionally, $75 million pesos were awarded to a brother.

The sentences

The court sentenced Ernesto Huber von Appen, Wilfredo Zepeda Iturriaga, Víctor Rey Ringele, Jaime Urdangarín Romero, Arístides León Calffas, and Germán Valdivia Keller to 15 years in prison. All of them are retired members of the Navy, responsible for the crime of kidnapping the Dominican citizen Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo.

Meanwhile, Jorge Ginouvés Contreras was sentenced to 5 years in prison, with the benefit of supervised release, as a co-author of the crime.

Kidnapping of a Dominican man during the military dictatorship

The events date back to September 1973 in the city of Villa Alemana. There, due to his political orientation, the Dominican citizen, then 25 years old, was detained and held in different centers, where he was tortured. Since then, his whereabouts remain unknown.

This was detailed by the judge in charge of human rights violation cases, Max Cancino, who specified that it was Navy officials who detained him and took him to a police station for interrogation.

"Finally, he was removed from that place by Navy officials to an unknown destination," he noted.

The judge also granted all of them absolute perpetual disqualification from public offices and positions, political rights, and professional titles for the duration of their sentences.

Lawsuit

Criminal lawyer and academic at the University of Valparaíso, Felipe González, explained that in this case, in an unprecedented move, the State of the Dominican Republic sued Chile over the events. However, the court ultimately dismissed it.

In the civil aspect, the ruling accepted the lawsuit filed by the family of Juan Blanco. Thus, it ordered the state to pay compensation of $150 million pesos for moral damages to the victim's father, and $75 million pesos to a brother.

Source: biobiochile.cl, November 3, 2022

Dictatorship. In 1972, Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo returned from the former Soviet Union to the Dominican Republic after studying at the Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow. Upon his arrival at "Las Américas" airport in Santo Domingo, the young Juan Blanco was expelled from the country by Dominican authorities for coming from a communist country, as stated by his father, Ramón Blanco, a Dominican politician and academic who had been one of the founders of the "14th of June Clandestine Movement" that fought against the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo (1930-1961) and was later a member of the central committee of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD).

Joaquín Pérez

Juan Blanco thus began a journey through Latin America, arriving first in Venezuela, then Uruguay, and finally landing in Chile at the beginning of 1973, where he began to militate in the MIR.

On October 14, 1973, at 25 years of age, Juan was detained at his home and transferred to the "El Belloto" naval air base in Quilpué. The detention and torture center was also known as Acapulco, El Hoyo, or El Pozo.

Subsequently, he was taken to a Quilpué investigative police station, where officials from the intelligence group interrogated and tortured him, using, among other techniques, the application of burning newspaper to scorch his abdomen.

According to the judicial file, Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo was removed from the Quilpué Investigative Police Station by the aforementioned intelligence group and transferred to the Quilpué Carabineros Sub-station, being in serious condition as a result of the burns caused to his body. "Due to the complaint that the Chief of that Sub-station expressed to the Naval Command regarding Juan Blanco's state of health, he was removed from that place by intelligence group officials, heading to an unknown destination, and there has been no news of his whereabouts to date," the document stated.

Witnesses claim he was transferred to the Chilean Navy ship "Lebu," although there is no certainty of this. What is known is that six months after his detention, the police found his body in the vicinity of the town of Colliguay, and his remains were buried in a mass grave at the Quilpué cemetery.

His family and the Dominican Republic embassy in Chile took legal action regarding his case, which ended in the prosecution and conviction by the Valparaíso Court of Appeals judge, Julio Miranda Lillo, in November 2022, of Navy Captain Patricio Villalobos Lobos, Sergeant Major Osvaldo Rey Vergara, First Sergeant Víctor Rey Ringele, First Corporal Manuel Busch López, and Wilfredo Zepeda Iturriaga, who worked as a civilian employee of the institution, to 15 years in prison.

All of them were part of the Navy's intelligence services (Ancla 2).

Source: resumen.cl, August 19, 2023

7 retired military personnel convicted in Chile for the kidnapping of Dominican Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo

Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo was the son of the prominent lawyer and politician Ramón Andrés Blanco Fernández.

Dictator Augusto Pinochet, supported by the US government to overthrow President Salvador Allende.

Seven retired military personnel from Chile were convicted for the kidnapping and the damages caused in 1973 to the Dominican Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo, son of the politician and lawyer Ramón Andrés Blanco Fernández.

The military personnel of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship were convicted by the judge in charge of human rights violation cases of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Max Cancino Cancino.

The news portal of the University of Valparaíso, Chile, explained that the conviction of seven retired members of the Navy was due to their responsibility in the crime of "kidnapping with serious injury or qualified kidnapping of the Dominican citizen Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo."

The crime was committed in September 1973, in the city of Villa Alemana, after the coup d'état against President Salvador Allende on September 11 of that year, which gave way to the imposition of a bloody right-wing dictatorship.

"In the ruling (case file 53.046-2009), Judge Cancino Cancino sentenced Ernesto Leonardo Huber von Appen, Wilfredo Hernán Zepeda Iturriaga, Víctor Orlando Rey Ringele, Jaime Miguel Urdangarín Romero, Arístides Alejandro León Calffas, and German Patricio Valdivia Keller to 15 years in prison, with the legal accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification from public offices and political rights, and absolute disqualification from professional titles for the duration of the sentences," the portal indicates.

Likewise, it explains that Jorge Benjamín Ginouvés Contreras was sentenced to 5 years in prison, with the benefit of supervised release, remaining subject to the permanent supervision and guidance of a delegate for the same period.

This defendant was also sentenced to absolute perpetual disqualification from political rights and absolute disqualification from public offices during the time of the sentence, as a co-author of the crime.

In the case, the acquittal of the accused José Abraham Gutiérrez Bello, Víctor Vicente Sepúlveda Cuevas, and Guillermo Samuel Aldoney Hansen was decreed, as their participation in the events was not proven.

In the resolution, the aforementioned portal reports, the judge in charge established the following facts as proven:

"That there existed a hierarchical and disciplined military intelligence group, called the Ancla 2 Intelligence Service, belonging to the Naval Aviation Command, which operated actively starting September 11, 1973, made up of agents belonging to the various departments of the El Belloto Naval Air Base and even officials from other departments, such as Marines, whose main objective was the repression of people opposed to the military regime, for which they proceeded to search for and detain them, who were then deprived of liberty to obtain information through physical and psychological torture.

To achieve the detention of the people, the heads of the naval patrols maintained direct communication with the Naval Intelligence Service, who, once the apprehension of the civilian was obtained, took them to the Air Control Office (OICA) for their confinement and interrogation."

It adds that for operational repression, "the so-called Ancla 2 Naval Intelligence Service, dependent on the Naval Aviation Command, used various facilities of the El Belloto Naval Air Base, in particular the so-called Air Control Information Office (OICA or ARO) and had others at its disposal, such as the Quilpué Investigative Police Station, premises where prisoners were interrogated under illegitimate duress."

It narrates that, on an undetermined date in September 1973, after the 20th, Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo, a citizen of the Dominican Republic, who had entered Chile in January of that year from the USSR, 25 years old, was ordered to be detained due to his political orientation by the Ancla 2 Naval Intelligence Service of the Naval Aviation Command, which was carried out by a naval patrol, led by 2nd Lieutenant Jorge Ginouvés Contreras, in the Barrio Norte sector of Villa Alemana, near the train station, and he was taken to the naval facility to be handed over to the personnel of said Intelligence Service. The aforementioned Officer, in command of the naval patrol, as stated, acted in coordination with the personnel of the aforementioned Intelligence Service.

Investigations confirmed that neither the military command of the Naval Aviation Command nor that of the Ancla 2 Naval Intelligence Service belonging to that Command adopted any measures to report to the competent authority either the detention of Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo or any alleged illicit act committed by the Dominican. Nor was any naval case or investigation formed in that regard.

"On the contrary, it was deliberately ordered to the officials of the Quilpué Investigative Police and the Quilpué Carabineros Sub-station that the entries of the detainees brought to those premises by the Intelligence Service officials were not to be registered.

The same happened at the Naval Air Base, where the names of the detainees were not noted in any official register," the information maintains.

It narrates that the victim was initially held in a sector of the El Belloto Naval Air Base called 'Acapulco', 'El Hoyo', or 'El Pozo' together with other prisoners, a detention site that was enabled by the Naval Aviation Commander after September 11, 1973, for the confinement of civilians opposed to the military regime.

In that place, the prisoners had to remain permanently in a prone position, with their hands behind their backs, outdoors, and guarded by at least two armed officials from the Naval Air Base staff. This sector was strictly restricted, with only officials from the Naval Intelligence Service of the Ancla 2 Unit belonging to the Naval Aviation Command authorized to approach.

The confinement sector was strategically located in front of the Command Office and the Air Control Office (OICA or ARO)."

It highlights that during the period he remained locked up, the Dominican Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo, without any justifying motive, was taken on several occasions to the Air Control Information Office, where he was interrogated and physically pressured by officials of the Ancla 2 Naval Intelligence Service and in the presence of the military command and other officials who collaborated closely with that Service, all with the aim of having him answer about his activities and the location of alleged weaponry hidden in Santiago.

Likewise, after Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo remained locked up at the El Belloto Naval Air Base, officials of the Ancla 2 Naval Intelligence Service, on an unspecified date in October 1973, transferred the victim and kept him deprived of liberty in the cells of the Quilpué Investigative Police Station.

It explains that in a room at this facility, the intelligence group officials interrogated and severely tortured him, using, among other techniques, the application of burning newspaper to scorch his abdomen.

"On an unspecified day in October 1973, Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo was removed from the Quilpué Investigative Police Station by the aforementioned intelligence group and transferred to the Quilpué Carabineros Sub-station, with the victim being seriously injured as a result of the burns caused to his body.

Due to the complaint that the Chief of that Sub-station expressed to the Naval Command regarding the victim's state of health, he was removed from that place by intelligence group officials, heading to an unknown destination, and there has been no news of his whereabouts to date."

In the civil aspect, the ruling accepted the lawsuit filed and ordered the state to pay compensation of $150,000,000 (one hundred and fifty million pesos) for moral damages to the victim's father (Ramón Andrés Blanco Fernández); and $75,000,000 (seventy-five million pesos) to a brother.

Source: acento.com.do, February 3, 2023