At the end of last month, the minister visiting the Valparaíso Court of Appeals for human rights violation cases, Jaime Arancibia, indicted several individuals for the kidnapping of a young man in October 1973 from his home in Valparaíso. One of those indicted currently works as a naval engineer at the CCHEN, which falls under the Ministry of Energy.

In the early hours of October 12, 1973, when Marco Antonio Contardo Guerra was 15 years old, a Navy detachment, an officer, and a detective from the Investigations police arrived at his home on Calle Artillería in Valparaíso.

Contardo was taken at that time, along with his mother and grandmother, to the Naval War Academy, where he was subjected to beatings and electric shocks by people he could not see because he was blindfolded.

That morning, all the mistreatment was witnessed by his mother, who remained by his side until he was taken to the ship Lebu, from where he was released two weeks later. However, there would be more beatings.

At the beginning of November of that year, he was detained again by Navy personnel and taken to the War Academy, where he would be subjected to torture at the beginning of November, until being released at the beginning of December, according to the resolution of the minister visiting the Valparaíso Court of Appeals for human rights violation cases, Jaime Arancibia.

On August 29, he indicted several people involved, including Jaime Erick Riesle Wetherby, who has worked as a naval engineer at the Chilean Nuclear Energy Commission (CCHEN) since June 2, 1976, and has been appointed, since September 1, 1989, as a permanent staff member in the position of Professional, grade 4, of the same institution.

According to Arancibia's resolution, regarding Riesle—who is now released on bail—“there are well-founded presumptions to estimate that he participated in the kidnapping with grave harm of Contardo that morning in October 1973.”

The Chilean Nuclear Energy Commission—which falls under the Ministry of Energy—indicated to El Mostrador that they are aware of Riesle's judicial situation and that the naval engineer himself informed the institution that he is being prosecuted by Minister Arancibia.

“The Institution is aware that the proceedings being carried out before the visiting minister are for human rights cases, as the perpetrator of a crime of kidnapping and a crime of kidnapping with grave harm to the person or interests of the kidnapped individual,” they stated at the CCHEN, where they also highlighted that Riesle is currently released on bail in both cases. “To date, we have not received any notification from the aforementioned visiting minister indicating that this official has been declared a prisoner or convicted.

Once a sentence is handed down, the CCHEN will act in accordance with current legal provisions,” the Commission stated.

El Mostrador attempted to contact Riesle, without success.

Marco Antonio Contardo is currently 58 years old and lives in Valparaíso. In a telephone conversation, he explains that Riesle “was behind a human hunt” against his father, Emilio Contardo, a renowned human rights lawyer and Socialist leader in Valparaíso. “There are many testimonies that prove that Mr. Riesle worked from and for a torture center, and that center is called the Naval War Academy.”

Contardo also believes that the fact that the engineer remained working for so many years in an agency dependent on the State is “a regrettable fact.”

Likewise, he relates that with these actions he does not seek revenge, but to clarify the facts: “I was tortured in front of my mother at 15 years old and this is a stance of healing regarding an event that the Navy had no desire to assume.”

Source: elmostrador.cl, September 15, 2016

Case File No. 21-2016: Kidnapping with grave harm and illegal detention of Marco Antonio Contardo Guerra

20.- Judicial statement of Ricardo Aníbal Bravo González on page 631, who states that María Bravo is his mother, he knows Jaime Riesle because he was his childhood friend and later learned that he had entered the Naval School , and that his brother Jaime was detained and savagely tortured on the Lebu.

His mother was also detained and tortured by people from the War Academy.

Riesle detained his mother and took her to the War Academy and directed the torture they inflicted on her . They asked his mother about Emilio Contardo. Apparently, though he is not sure, they were accompanied by Riesle and an Investigations official named Rubén Fuentealba and another unknown police officer.

He is unaware of the relationship that Riesle has with the detention of Marco Contardo and his relatives; he has been told about it but does not remember it, he has forgotten it.

Twenty-fourth: That upon giving an investigative statement, Jaime Erick Riesle Wetherby on page 120, states that he was a Navy official, an officer, from 1965 to 1976. In September 1973, he was at the Naval Engineering School.

He was mobilized and participated in a company composed of about 100 people; they were under his command, as he was a second lieutenant. They guarded the perimeter of the Naval War Academy. Lieutenant Di Giorgis and Sub-lieutenant Mackay were also there.

This was from October 1973 until January or February 1974. The headquarters of the SICAJSI of the first zone operated at the Academy; prisoners were received and then sent to the Silva Palma barracks.

Interrogations were carried out at the Academy. He ignores on which floor they were carried out; in any case, they were not carried out on the first floor. At that time, he participated in patrols and carried out orders for detention and raids.

Regarding who the interrogators at the Academy were, he ignores it. There were people from the Navy, the Army, Carabineros, and Investigations. The heads of the War Academy gave them the orders to carry out the operations.

He never participated in the planning of the operations. He does not remember any detective named Guilfor Aracena who was at the War Academy. Regarding Riesco , he recognizes him, he was somewhat reddish-haired. He was never in an operation with him. He has no knowledge of an operation carried out in the month of October 1973 in Playa Ancha.

Several times he was sent to look for a certain Emilio Contardo , and Guastavino, but he never found them. About five times each, he was entrusted to look for them, but without positive results.

Thirty-seventh: That regarding the responsibility that falls upon Jaime Erick Riesle Wetherby in the investigated facts, first of all, there is his investigative statement on page 120. In it, he acknowledges that after September 11, 1973, he carried out patrols, complying with orders for detention and raids.

He ignores who the interrogators at the Academy were, remembering only one female official and there were also one or two from Investigations. He also did not participate in the planning of the operations.

He says that several times he was sent to look for a certain Emilio Contardo and Guastavino, but he never found them. About five times he was entrusted to look for them but without positive results. That regarding the link that this accused could have with the investigated facts, it is the mention made by Ricardo Aníbal Bravo González on page 631, but referring to other detainees.

Regarding the examination of his service record, it is noted that starting from September 11, 1973, he served in the Counterintelligence of the SIJACSI PRIZONA. However, from the study of those records, it is not possible to link him to the facts referred to in the investigation of the case, that is, that he participated in the detention of the victim or that he acted in the interrogations of the victim.

By virtue of these considerations and there being no conviction of guilt on the part of the judge regarding the facts of the accusation against the aforementioned, an acquittal will be issued in favor of the accused Jaime Riesle Wetherby for the charges formulated against him.

Source: Judiciary, April 30, 2019

Minister María Cruz Fierro sentences retired Navy officials for kidnapping of minors

In the civil sphere, the extraordinary visiting minister also accepted the lawsuits against the State and sentenced it to pay compensation for moral damages.

The extraordinary visiting minister of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals for human rights violation cases, María Cruz Fierro Reyes, issued two conviction sentences against three retired Navy officials for their responsibility in two different crimes of kidnapping with grave harm, as crimes against humanity. These illicit acts were perpetrated in 1973 and 1974, respectively.

In the first ruling (case file 144.137-2013), Minister Fierro Reyes sentenced Valentín Evaristo Riquelme Villalobos and Juan de Dios Reyes Basaur to 5 years and one day of effective imprisonment, plus the legal accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices, positions, and political rights, and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentences, as perpetrators of the consummated crime of kidnapping with grave harm of Viviana Victoria Fernández Montenegro.

The illicit act was committed in Valparaíso in February 1974.

In the case, the acquittal of Gilda Mercedes Ulloa Valle, Eduardo Mauricio Núñez Contreras, and Jaime Erik Riesle Wetherby was decreed regarding the accusation that identified them as perpetrators of the crime.

In the civil sphere, the ruling accepted the lawsuit filed and sentenced the State to pay compensation of $80,000,000 for moral damages to the victim.

In the resolution, the visiting minister considered it proven, beyond any reasonable doubt, that in February 1974: “(...) as a result of decisions adopted by the Analysis Department of the Intelligence Service of the Command of the Jurisdictional Area of Internal Security, SICAJSI, of the Chilean Navy, which operated at the Naval War Academy of Valparaíso, due to the political ideas she professed, as well as her family, Viviana Victoria Fernández Montenegro, at that time 14 years of age, was detained at her home on Cerro Florida in Valparaíso and taken to the Silva Palma Barracks, adjacent to the Naval War Academy, the same place to which her sister Morelia del Rosario Fernández Montenegro and her mother Emma Mercedes Montenegro Mena were taken, detentions carried out by members of the Chilean Navy, without an order from a competent court (...)”.

The resolution adds: “That, in the aforementioned detention facility, Viviana Victoria Fernández Montenegro was interrogated, as were her indicated relatives, about her political activities and about the existence of alleged weapons or deposits of them that would be hidden; she was sexually abused, and also received beatings, insults, death threats, and the application of electric shocks to her intimate parts, ankles, and fingers.”

“That, after approximately one week, she was released, but had to sign in weekly for a year at a Carabineros station on Cerro Alegre, without any judicial process being initiated against her, neither military nor ordinary,” the ruling adds.

As a consequence of the mistreatment and humiliation, the victim: “(...) resulted in emotional, family, and psychosocial damage, with feelings of vulnerability, threat, and family and political disorganization that has affected her evolutionary identity processes, her sense of belonging, and visualization of authority, presenting significant psychic suffering, all as a result of the policies of persecution and intimidation carried out by the aforementioned organization.”

In the second ruling (case file 144.136-2013), the visiting minister sentenced retired Marine Infantry sub-officer Valentín Evaristo Riquelme Villalobos to a penalty of 5 years and one day of imprisonment, plus the legal accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices, positions, and political rights, and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentence, as the perpetrator of the crime of kidnapping with grave harm of Yeri Omar Prado Ojeda.

The illicit act was perpetrated in September 1973 at the Silva Palma barracks.

In the case, the acquittal of Guillermo Tomás Morera Hierro was decreed regarding the accusation that held him as the perpetrator of the crimes of kidnapping with grave harm and the application of torture.

In the civil aspect, the ruling accepted the lawsuit filed and sentenced the State to pay compensation of $60,000,000 for moral damages to the victim.

In the resolution, Minister Fierro Reyes considered it proven, beyond any reasonable doubt, that on September 25, 1973: “Yeri Omar Prado Ojeda was kidnapped by members of the Chilean Navy (...), at a time when the victim, at that date 15 years of age, went to the naval facility called Almirante Silva Palma located in the city of Valparaíso, in order to get news of his father, who had been taken prisoner and transferred to that same place the day before.”

“That, in this facility, the victim was the object of physical and psychological duress, which translated into threats to his life and physical integrity and that of his father, mock executions, sleep deprivation, and deprivation of physiological needs, beatings, and baths with cold water,” it adds.

“(...) before being released, the victim was transported by naval personnel in a jeep to Fuerte Papudo, located in the Recreo sector of the commune of Viña del Mar, where he reunited with his father, who until that moment still remained detained. After this brief encounter, he was released, being abandoned in the Caleta Portales sector (...)”, on September 30, 1973.

Source: pdju.cl, January 19, 2024