Miguel Krassnoff, Marcelo Moren Brito, and Raúl Iturriaga Neumann are among those implicated.

The minister for extraordinary causes regarding human rights violations at the Santiago Court of Appeals, Hernán Crisosto, sentenced 77 agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) this Monday for their responsibility in the kidnapping of Héctor Garay Hermosilla in 1974.

Garay Hermosilla, a member of the Revolutionary Student Front (FER), was 19 years old when he was detained near his home on July 8, 1974. Days later, his name appeared in the national press on a false list of 119 people killed due to alleged internal disputes within the MIR, in what was termed "Operation Colombo." According to the judge's findings, "the publications that declared the victim Garay Hermosilla dead had their origin in disinformation maneuvers carried out by DINA agents abroad."

According to the reconstruction of events carried out by the presiding minister, the DINA agents who captured Garay "forced him into the back of a gray Chevrolet C-10 pickup truck and took him to the home of a friend of the victim, who was also forced into the aforementioned truck, to be driven to an unknown destination."

"Subsequently, it was established through testimonies that Héctor Marcial Garay Hermosilla passed through the clandestine detention center known as 'Londres 38,' which was guarded by armed guards and to which only DINA agents had access," the ruling continues, establishing that to date, there is no further information regarding Garay's whereabouts.

The convicted In the resolution, the presiding minister sentenced the following to 13 years in prison as authors of the crime perpetrated in 1974: César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Marcelo Luis Moren Brito, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann.

Meanwhile, the following former agents must serve 10 years in prison, also in the capacity of authors: Gerardo Ernesto Urrich González, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, Ciro Ernesto Torré Sáez, Sergio Hernán Castillo González, Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, José Nelson Fuentealba Saldías, Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes, José Enrique Fuentes Torres, José Mario Friz Esparza, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, Claudio Orlando Orellana de la Pinta, Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar, Gustavo Galvarino Caruman Soto, Hiro Álvarez Vega, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Olegario Enrique González Moreno, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Rudeslindo Urrutia Jorquera, Alfredo Orlando Moya Tejeda, Carlos Alfonso Sáez Sanhueza, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Hernán Patricio Valenzuela Salas, Hugo Rubén Delgado Carrasco, Juan Alfredo Villanueva Alvear, Juan Evaristo Duarte Gallegos, Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Máximo Ramón Aliaga Soto, Manuel Rivas Díaz, Juan Ángel Urbina Cáceres, Risiere del Prado Altez España, Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte, Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca, and Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle.

As accomplices to the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Garay Hermosilla, the presiding minister sentenced the following to 4 years in prison: Luis Eduardo Mora Cerda, José Jaime Mora Diocares, Camilo Torres Negrier, Carlos Justo Bermúdez Méndez, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, Fernando Adrián Roa Montaña, Gerardo Meza Acuña, Héctor Raúl Valdebenito Araya, Jaime Humberto Paris Ramos, Jorge Laureano Sagardia Monje, José Dorohi Hormazábal Rodríguez, José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, José Stalin Muñoz Leal, Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, Luis René Torres Méndez, Manuel Antonio Montre Méndez; Moisés Paulino Campos Figueroa, Nelson Aquiles Ortiz Vignolo, Nelson Eduardo Iturriaga Cortés, Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, Reinaldo Alfonso Concha Orellana, Sergio Hernán Castro Andrade, Víctor Manuel de la Cruz San Martín Jiménez, Gustavo Humberto Apablaza Meneses, Héctor Carlos Díaz Cabezas, Jorge Antonio Lepileo Barrios, Óscar Belarmino la Flor Flores; Rufino Espinoza Espinoza, Héctor Manuel Lira Aravena, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, Sergio Iván Díaz Lara, Juan Miguel Troncoso Soto, and Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel.

Meanwhile, Rodolfo Valentino Cocha Rodríguez and Armando Segundo Cofre Correa were acquitted due to a lack of participation in the events.

Source: t13.cl, August 31, 2015

He was detained in July 1974 in the commune of Macul. Numerous witnesses saw him at the torture and extermination center of Londres 38. He is one of the victims of "Operation Colombo." The justice system sentenced 78 former DINA agents for this crime against humanity.

The minister of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Hernán Crisosto, issued a first-instance sentence for the kidnapping and disappearance of Miguel Angel Acuña Castillo.

The magistrate established that the young man, a militant of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), was detained near his home located at Pasaje Talca No. 2033 in the commune of Macul by State agents belonging to the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), among them Osvaldo Romo Mena, alias "El Guatón Romo."

His sister, Rosa Acuña Castillo, declared that her father tried to climb into the back of the covered pickup truck as they were taking him away, but he was struck in the mouth by one of the subjects and fell to the ground.

A week after the kidnapping, Romo returned to their home and told her that her brother was in good condition along with Héctor Garay Hermosilla, who is also forcibly disappeared. Both were members of the Revolutionary Student Front (FER) at the Liceo 7 in Ñuñoa.

Judge Crisosto determined that the DINA agents "took him to the clandestine detention center known as 'Yucatán' or 'Londres 38'."

Acuña Castillo belonged to the secondary student structure of the MIR's Military Political Group 3 (GPM3), an organization that grouped militants from the eastern part of the capital and was led by Agustín Reyes González, whose trail was lost forever in Londres 38.

There, "he remained without contact with the outside world, blindfolded and tied up, being continuously subjected to interrogations under torture by DINA agents," and the last time he was seen alive "occurred on an undetermined day in the month of July or August 1974, and he remains forcibly disappeared to this day," the first-instance ruling notes.

Laughing in Londres 38 alongside Héctor Garay Hermosilla

In the "Yucatán" barracks, he was seen by Erika Hennings, who was detained on July 30, 1974. "I can say that he was very young, I think they called him 'El Pampa'," she asserted during the proceedings.

She heard the guards take roll call twice a day for the detainees. On July 31, 1974, she heard the name Miguel Angel Acuña Castillo, who answered "present." Afterward, she never heard him called again. "They took them out of Londres 38, just like other detainees, among whom she remembers María Inés Alvarado," a 21-year-old forcibly disappeared person.

Hugo Chacaltana Silva, detained on May 4, 1974, a former student of the Liceo Manuel de Salas and member of the Revolutionary Student Front (FER), also saw him in Londres 38. He recounted that in the early hours of July 8 to 9, 1974, Miguel Angel Acuña arrived along with Héctor Garay Hermosilla, whom they called "Titín." He was able to see them through a gap that formed between his nose and cheekbones under his blindfold.

Chacaltana noted that he met Castillo in 1971, when both were secondary students. Both coincided in meetings held at the time between members of the FER, the judicial ruling states. He remembers "Miguel Ángel as a young man of great leadership capacity and high physical resistance."

He stopped seeing him on September 11, 1973. He encountered him again in Londres 38. He arrived with Héctor Garay to the same room where he was lying on the floor. "At that moment, I did not address Miguel Ángel," on the contrary, he pretended not to notice his presence. "The next day, when the mattresses on which we detainees slept were removed and replaced by chairs, I sat down, and on one of the sides, I observed that they were still sitting.

It struck me that both were talking and laughing, which made me think that they were unaware of the magnitude of what awaited them. Miguel Ángel approached him in Londres 38, saying, 'I know you'."

His mother learned at the hair salon that her son was in Londres 38

León Gómez, detained on July 15, 1974, and taken to Londres 38, saw Miguel Angel along with Héctor Garay, whom he knew. Someone commented to him that "Pampino" was among the detainees, which he corroborated upon hearing him "with his typical jokes that he made to the guards, as if giving the impression that what was happening in the place was of no importance.

Even Titín and Pampino would drive the guards crazy. They were very irreverent."

David Cuevas Sharon, detained on May 4, 1974, also testified to having seen him. "Despite showing signs of mistreatment, 'El Pampino' appeared to have great presence of mind; he was very physically strong." He shared space with him for at least five days.

When Cuevas was released, Acuña Castillo remained a prisoner. His maternal grandmother had a hair salon in Ñuñoa, and one of her clients was Miguel Angel's mother. In a conversation, "she learned about the problem she had with a disappeared son.

Given this, my grandmother had her come to the hair salon, where she met Pampino's mother and told her what she knew about him, specifically the place where he had been imprisoned with him."

Regarding the torments applied to detainees in Londres 38, including Miguel Angel, Minister Crisosto incorporated statements from Osvaldo Romo, who stated that among other tortures, detainees were subjected to "the dry submarine, which consisted of blocking their breathing with a plastic bag placed over their heads; the detainees' eyes would look like 'fried eggs,' and blood would come out of their noses and eardrums.

After the interrogations and duress, the detainees would be left exhausted."

Another former agent, Samuel Fuenzalida Devia, specified in this regard that "the general treatment of prisoners was to keep them blindfolded, they were not allowed to wash, there were no beds for them to sleep on, food was scarce, and they were subjected to intense interrogations in which electricity was applied, especially to the genitals and breasts.

Another form of torture consisted of keeping the detainees sitting in chairs, tied by their hands and feet, while current was applied with magnets, although common electric current was also applied, which burned those people, a procedure in which many people died."

Eugenio Fieldhouse Chávez maintains that as an official of the Investigative Police, he was assigned to that repressive agency in mid-June 1974 and indicated that the same DINA agents who intervened in the detention and interrogation of the detainees, once the sought-after information was obtained, were the ones in charge of making them disappear, following an order from DINA superiors.

Miguel Ángel Acuña Castillo's name appeared among the 119 Chileans of Operation Colombo on a list disseminated in the national press, after appearing in publications that were printed only once in Brazil and Argentina, "in which it was reported that Miguel Ángel Acuña Castillo had died in Argentina, along with 58 other people belonging to the MIR, due to internal disputes."

The convictions

"The publications that declared the victim Acuña Castillo dead had their origin in disinformation maneuvers carried out by DINA agents abroad," determined Judge Crisosto, who sentenced 78 former DINA agents for his disappearance.

The magistrate issued a sentence of 13 years of major imprisonment in its medium degree to Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda; César Manríquez Bravo; Pedro Espinoza; Marcelo Luis Moren Brito; Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko; and Raúl Iturriaga Neumann.

Likewise, he sentenced the following to 10 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree: Gerardo Ernesto Urrich González; Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García; Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires; Ciro Ernesto Torré Sáez; Sergio Hernán Castillo González; Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos; José Nelson Fuentealba Saldías; Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes; José Enrique Fuentes Torres; José Mario Friz Esparza; Julio José Hoyos Zegarra; Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante; Claudio Orlando Orellana de la Pinta; Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar; Gustavo Galvarino Caruman Soto; Hiro Álvarez Vega; José Alfonso Ojeda Obando; Luis Salvador Villarroel Gutiérrez; Olegario Enrique González Moreno; Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica; Rudeslindo Urrutia Jorquera; Alfredo Orlando Moya Tejeda; Carlos Alfonso Sáez Sanhueza; Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo; Hernán Patricio Valenzuela Salas; Hugo Rubén Delgado Carrasco; Juan Alfredo Villanueva Alvear; Juan Evaristo Duarte Gallegos; Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza; Leónides Emiliano Méndez Moreno; Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda; Rafael De Jesús Riveros Frost; Víctor Manuel Molina Astete; Manuel Rivas Díaz; Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle; Juan Ángel Urbina Cáceres; Risiere del Prado Altez España; Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca; and Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte.

As accomplices to the kidnapping and disappearance of the 19-year-old, he sentenced the following to 4 years of minor imprisonment in its maximum degree: Luis Eduardo Mora Cerda; José Jaime Mora Diocares; Camilo Torres Negrier; Carlos Justo Bermúdez Méndez; Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández; Fernando Adrián Roa Montaña; Gerardo Meza Acuña; Héctor Raúl Valdebenito Araya; Jaime Humberto Paris Ramos; Jorge Laureano Sagardia Monje; José Dorohi Hormazabal Rodríguez; José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo; José Stalin Muñoz Leal; Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido; Luis René Torres Méndez; Manuel Antonio Montre Méndez; Máximo Ramón Aliaga Soto; Moisés Paulino Campos Figueroa; Nelson Aquiles Ortiz Vignolo; Nelson Eduardo Iturriaga Cortes; Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo; Reinaldo Alfonso Concha Orellana; Sergio Hernán Castro Andrade; Víctor Manuel de la Cruz San Martin Jiménez; Gustavo Humberto Apablaza Meneses; Héctor Carlos Díaz Cabezas; Jorge Antonio Lepileo Barrios; Oscar Belarmino La Flor Flores; Rufino Espinoza Espinoza; Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel; Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett; Héctor Manuel Lira Aravena; and Sergio Iván Díaz Lara.

Regarding Víctor Manuel De la Cruz San Martín Jiménez, due to having fallen into dementia, the fulfillment of the sentence is suspended, and he must be handed over under custody bail to a family member when appropriate.

Source: Villa Grimaldi.cl, February 3, 2015

6 CNI agents prosecuted for frustrated homicide using explosives in May 1984

This Monday, January 18, the minister for extraordinary causes regarding human rights violations at the Santiago Court of Appeals, Mario Carroza, issued an indictment against six former agents of the National Information Center (CNI) for their responsibility in the crime of frustrated aggravated homicide against Héctor Enrique Muñoz Morales, perpetrated in May 1984 on Cerro San Cristóbal in the Metropolitan Region.

In the resolution (case file 238-2010), the presiding minister charged the following as co-authors of the crime: former Army Lieutenant Colonel Álvaro Julio Federico Corbalán Castilla, alias "Faraón"; former Army Lieutenant Colonel Fernando Rafael Mauricio Rojas Tapia, alias "El Piscola"; former Army Captain Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ros, alias "El Huiro"; and former Army civilian agents Patricio Leonidas González Cortez, alias "El Gigio"; Luis René Torres Méndez, alias "Negro Mario"; and Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, alias "El Suave." All of the accused were agents of the CNI's Blue Brigade.

During the investigation stage, Minister Carroza managed to determine the following facts:

"On May 17, 1984, between 10:00 PM and 11:00 PM, while Héctor Muñoz Morales, a MIR militant, and his partner María Loreto Castillo were returning to their home located in the commune of Pedro Aguirre Cerda, Población Dávila, after having gone to buy food, they were intercepted on a public street by operational agents of the CNI's Blue Brigade who were traveling in at least two vehicles.

After subduing them through the use of firearms, they put them into a van, blindfolded them, and took them to the institution's Cuartel Borgoño, where they were beaten and interrogated for several hours, until a moment when they were taken to another point in Santiago, still blindfolded, near the La Pirámide sector of Cerro San Cristóbal, where they were separated.

On that occasion, Héctor Muñoz Morales was repeatedly struck in the head with force by CNI agents, losing consciousness. He awoke moments later, surrounded by explosives that failed to detonate, managing to flee the scene to a medical center where he was able to recover and report what had happened.

It is necessary to indicate—the resolution notes—that Héctor Muñoz Morales was being subjected to tracking and surveillance that day and on previous days by agents of the CNI's Blue Brigade, who knew his routine and his movements." The act constitutes the crime of frustrated aggravated homicide, the ruling concludes.

Days later, Héctor Muñoz Morales, accompanied by lawyers from the Vicaría de la Solidaridad, made a public denunciation of the event, as well as the murder of his partner. María Loreto Castillo Muñoz had also managed to break free and flee the place where they tried to blow her up along with Héctor, but she was almost immediately recaptured by the henchmen, who took her to another place and this time succeeded in executing the treacherous crime.

María Loreto was found the next day in the commune of Pudahuel, next to some high-voltage towers, where she had been murdered by the CNI agents using another explosive device.

At the same time, Jorge Eduardo Muñoz Navarro, another MIR member detained on the same date, who also remained in the Cuartel Borgoño along with the couple, was taken to another place in the commune of Renca where he was also murdered, next to a high-voltage line, staging a false confrontation to cover up the crime.

Last June, Minister Carroza prosecuted these same subjects as authors of the aggravated homicide of María Loreto Castillo Muñoz, and Álvaro Julio Corbalán Castilla, Fernando Rafael Rojas Tapia, Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ros, and Rafael Primitivo Salas Cataldo as authors of the aggravated homicide of Jorge Muñoz Navarro.

The farces of false confrontations and the treacherous bomb crimes committed by the dictatorship's repressive agents are slowly being unveiled by the justice system, and despite the cover-ups, pressures, and maneuvers of impunity, the truth ends up prevailing.

Source: resumen.cl, January 20, 2016

The minister on extraordinary assignment for human rights violation cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Mario Carroza Espinoza, issued a sentence against 20 former agents of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) for their responsibility in the qualified homicides of former militants and leaders of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) Lucía Orfilia Vergara Valenzuela, Arturo Vilavella Araujo, and Sergio Peña Díaz, crimes perpetrated on September 7, 1983, on Calle Fuenteovejuna in the commune of Las Condes.

The event was an episode of a staged confrontation with which the CNI and the dictatorship attempted to hide crimes and murders, with the active complicity of the corporate press. In the ruling (case file 539-2011), Minister Carroza sentenced former Army Brigadier Roberto Urbano Schmied Zanzi, former head of the CNI’s Metropolitan Division, to 15 years and one day in prison as the perpetrator of the qualified homicides.

Meanwhile, former Army officers Aquiles Mauricio González Cortés, alias "Caracha," former head of the Blue Brigade at the time of the crimes; Álvaro Julio Federico Corbalán Castilla, former head of the CNI’s anti-subversive division; Norman Antonio Jeldes Aguilar, alias "Gorilón," former member of the Special Brigade; and former Army civilian employee Manuel Mariano Ventura Laureada Núñez, alias "Piolín," also an agent of the Special Brigade, were sentenced to 10 years and one day as perpetrators of the crimes.

In the same case, former Army officer and second-in-command to Schmied Zanzi in the Metropolitan Division, Sergio María Canals Baldwin, and former agents Juan José Pastene Osses, Patricio Leonidas González Cortez, Luis René Torres Méndez, Manuel Ángel Morales Acevedo, Luis Hernán Gálvez Navarro, Sergio Daniel Valenzuela Morales, Juan Modesto Olivares Carrizo, Raúl Hernán Escobar Díaz, Eduardo Martín Chávez Baeza, Luis Eduardo Burgos Cofré, Raúl Horacio González Fernández, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, and Juan Alejandro Jorquera Abarzúa were sentenced to 3 years and one day in prison, with the benefit of intensive supervised release, as accomplices.

Meanwhile, former Special Brigade agent Egon Antonio Barra Barra, alias "Siete Fachas," was acquitted of participation in this episode (the group he was part of was simultaneously committing other crimes on Calle Janequeo).

Blue Brigade

During the investigation phase of the case, Minister Mario Carroza was able to establish that, following the assassination of the Intendant of the Metropolitan Region Carol Urzúa Ibañez, committed on August 30, 1983, the director of the National Intelligence Center (CNI), Humberto Gordon Rubio (deceased), ordered the Metropolitan Anti-Subversive Division, under the command of Roberto Schmied Zanzi, to form a new group: the Blue Brigade, to investigate the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR).

In this context, on the morning of September 7, 1983, the arrest of MIR members who were in the property at Fuenteovejuna 1330, which had been previously located, was ordered. A considerable number of agents under the command of Álvaro Corbalán Castilla (commander of the Metropolitan Anti-Subversive Brigade) and Aquiles González Cortés (head of the Blue Brigade) were sent to the location in the afternoon.

"In the initial actions, the agents installed a firing base in front of the property, consisting of a Rheinmetal machine gun, 7.62 mm caliber, mounted on the roof of a jeep, which was driven on that occasion by Manuel Ventura Laureada Núñez, and the weapon operated by at least two people: one who fired, Norman Antonio Jeldes Aguilar, and the other in charge of feeding the ammunition belt, with a firing capacity of 10 rounds per short burst and a full firing rate of 500 per minute, with tracer bullets," the ruling states.

The resolution adds that

"once the firing base was in position, the officer in command ordered it to be aimed and fired at the property for about a minute, that is, about 500 rounds; then they stopped their action and, using loudspeakers, ordered the occupants of the property to surrender."

"One of them," it continues, "Sergio Peña Díaz, decided to surrender and came out with his hands on the back of his neck, but as he walked toward the agents, they shot him, and his wounds caused his death, which incited the reaction of the only woman in the group, who confronted them with a weapon; faced with this reaction, Álvaro Corbalán again gave the order to fire the firing base in the direction of the property, which caused not only the death of Lucía Orfilia Vergara Valenzuela from gunshot wounds, but also the burning of the house and the incineration of the third member of the movement, Arturo Vilavella Araujo."

On the same day, September 7, 1983, the CNI carried out a simultaneous operation on Calle Janequeo, in Quinta Normal, where two other MIR militants were executed.

This episode, however, is being processed in a separate case and by a different visiting minister.

Source: resumen.cl, January 18, 2018

Supreme Court sends 59 former DINA agents to prison for Operation Colombo

Operation Colombo was a major intelligence operation and a media setup by the DINA that attempted to make 119 people kidnapped in Chile appear as if they had been killed abroad.

The Second Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court revoked a sentence that had acquitted more than 60 former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) and convicted them as responsible for the disappearance of 16 left-wing militants, mostly from the MIR, in the process known as Operation Colombo, which in this case was perpetrated between June 17, 1974, and January 6, 1975, during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

The ruling was issued by ministers Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, María Teresa Letelier, and Diego Simpertigue, who revoked the sentence issued by the Court of Appeals and sentenced former DINA chiefs and officers César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff, and Raúl Iturriaga Neumann to 15 years and one day of major imprisonment in its maximum degree as perpetrators of the crimes of qualified kidnapping of the victims.

Similarly, the court sentenced 53 former agents to an effective penalty of 10 years and one day of major imprisonment in its medium degree as perpetrators of the same crime, who had previously been acquitted by the capital's appellate court, despite having been convicted in the first instance as accomplices and perpetrators.

Furthermore, this time all must enter prison, with some of them already incarcerated for other crimes against humanity.

These are former DINA agents Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Manuel Andrés Carevic, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, Jose Abel Aravena Ruiz, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, Nelson Aquiles Ortiz Vignolo, Rudeslindo Urrutia Jorquera, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Manuel Heriberto Avendaño Gonzalez, Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte, Alejandro Francisco Astudillo Adonis, Daniel Alberto Galaz Orellana, Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, Leoncio Enrique Velásquez Guala, José Enrique Fuentes Torres, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, Luis René Torres Méndez, Rodolfo Valentino Concha Rodríguez, Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar, Hugo Del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Manuel Rivas Diaz, Daniel Valentín Cancino Varas, Juan Evangelista Duarte Gallegos, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Jorge Antonio Lepileo Barrios, Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza, Pedro Ariel Aravena Aravena, Carlos Alfonso Sáez Sanhueza, Juan Carlos Villanueva Alvear, Alfredo Orlando Moya Tejeda, Rafael De Jesús Riveros Frost, Silvio Antonio Concha González, Luis Fernando Espinace Contreras, Hernán Patricio Valenzuela Salas, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, Sylvia Teresa Oyarce Pinto, Osvaldo Pulgar Gallardo, José Avelino Yévenes Vergara, Olegario Enrique González Moreno, Werner Zanghellini, and Hector Flores Vergara.

Jaime Alfonso Fernández Garrido received a sentence of 5 years and one day of major imprisonment in its minimum degree as a perpetrator of the crime of qualified kidnapping of Ida Vera Almarza. Meanwhile, Samuel Fuenzalida Devia was sentenced to 541 days and one day for the same crime, but will not serve time in prison.

This is an extensive process that had its first sentence in the first instance in 2017 at the hands of minister Hernán Crisosto Greisse. During the course of the investigation, some agents have died, such as Basclay Zapata, Ciro Torré, Manzo Duran, and Ricardo Lawrence, among others.

For Nelson Caucoto, the plaintiff lawyer representing 13 of the 16 victims, this is "a transcendent ruling in Chilean judicial history, since the Supreme Court has restored the sense of justice for crimes of this nature, which had literally remained in an unacceptable situation of impunity.

The highest court has once again rejected the half-prescription and the defense appeals of the convicted, and has accepted the appeals of the plaintiffs," he noted.

Caucoto adds that "it is a modern ruling based on international law and domestic legislation. It is undoubtedly the case that justice operates in this instance as a healing process for so many relatives of victims who still survive, and it is a pity that others did not live to see this end."

Operation Colombo was a major intelligence operation and a media setup by the DINA that attempted to make 119 people kidnapped in Chile by the DINA appear as if they had been killed abroad, claiming they had perished after fighting among themselves.

This process investigated the fate of 16 of those 119 victims. They are Francisco Aedo Carrasco, Jorge Elías Andrónicos Antequera, Juan Carlos Andrónicos Antequera, Jaime Buzio Lorca, Mario Calderón Tapia, Cecilia Castro Salvadores, Rodolfo Espejo Gómez, Agustín Fioraso Chau, Gregorio Gaete Farías, Mauricio Jorquera Encina, Isidro Pizarro Meniconi, Marcos Quiñones Lembach, Sergio Reyes Navarrete, Ida Vera Almarza, Juan Carlos Rodríguez Araya, and Jilberto Urbina Pizarro.

Source: radio.uchile.cl, March 3, 2023

Operation Colombo: Supreme Court issues convictions against 32 DINA agents in cases of two victims

The Supreme Court issued replacement sentences convicting 32 former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the qualified kidnapping of two victims of the so-called Operation Colombo.

In separate cases and rulings, the highest court issued resolutions on the cases of Ismael Darío Chávez Lobos, detained on July 26, 1974, and Jorge Alejandro Olivares Graindorge, detained on July 27, 1974, both in the commune of Quinta Normal, in Santiago.

In the first case, referring to Ismael Chávez Lobos, in a unanimous ruling (case file 79.461-2020), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, minister María Teresa Letelier, and acting lawyers Pía Tavolari and Gonzalo Ruz—established an error of law in the sentence issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals in June 2020, which had acquitted the agents who performed operational functions and served as guards at the Londres 38 facility of responsibility for the proven facts.

For this reason, in the replacement sentence, it classifies them as guilty and convicts them for the crime, while increasing the sentences of the other convicted individuals.

At the same time, it accepted the cassation appeals filed by the plaintiffs and, issuing a replacement sentence, sentenced former DINA leaders and former Army officers César Raúl Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann to 10 years and one day in prison, as perpetrators of the crime.

Meanwhile, former Carabineros officer Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, former Army officer Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, and former agent José Enrique Fuentes Torres were also sentenced to 10 years in prison as perpetrators of the crime.

Meanwhile, former agents Juan Evaristo Duarte Gallegos, Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Manuel de la Cruz Rivas Díaz, Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte, Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca, Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Rudeslindo Urrutia Jorquera, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar, Hiro Álvarez Vega, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Olegario Enrique González Moreno, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Alfredo Orlando Moya Tejeda, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Hernán Patricio Valenzuela Salas, Juan Alfredo Villanueva Alvear, Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, Carlos Alfonso Sáez Sanhueza, Máximo Ramón Aliaga Soto, and José Avelino Yévenes Vergara must serve 5 years and one day in prison as perpetrators of the crime.

In the second case, referring to Jorge Olivares Graindorge, in a unanimous ruling (case file 122.171.2020), the Second Chamber, composed of the same ministers as the previous case, established an error of law in the sentence issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals in July 2020, by mistakenly acquitting agents who performed operational functions and served as guards at the Londres 38 facility.

For this reason, in the replacement sentence, it classifies and convicts them as guilty of the crime.

Similarly, it increases the sentences of the other convicted individuals and sentenced former DINA leaders and former Army officers César Raúl Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann to 10 years and one day in prison, as perpetrators of the crime.

Meanwhile, former officers Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García and Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, and former agent José Enrique Fuentes Torres were also sentenced to 10 years in prison as perpetrators of the crime.

Likewise, for this crime, former agents Juan Evaristo Duarte Gallegos, Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Manuel de la Cruz Rivas Díaz, Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte, Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca, Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Rudeslindo Urrutia Jorquera, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar, Hiro Álvarez Vega, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Olegario Enrique González Moreno, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Alfredo Orlando Moya Tejeda, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Hernán Patricio Valenzuela Salas, Juan Alfredo Villanueva Alvear, Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, Carlos Alfonso Sáez Sanhueza, Máximo Ramón Aliaga Soto, and Osvaldo Enrique Pulgar Gallardo must serve 5 years and one day in prison as perpetrators of the crime.

In both cases, twelve other agents convicted in the first instance died during the course of the process, including former officers Gerardo Urrich González, Ricardo Lawrence Mires, Ciro Torré Sáez, and Sergio Castillo González, and agents Basclay Zapata Reyes, Risiere del Altez España, Juan Ángel Urbina Cáceres, José Nelson Fuentealba Saldías, Hugo Rubén Delgado Carrasco, José Mario Friz Esparza, Claudio Orlando Orellana de la Pinta, and Gustavo Galvarino Carumán Soto, who were acquitted of these crimes.

The victims

Ismael Darío Chávez Lobos, 22 years old, was a Social Sciences student at the University of Chile and a militant of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR). He was detained on the night of July 26, 1974, at his home located at Calle Los Copihues No. 1977 in the commune of Quinta Normal, by agents belonging to the DINA, who transferred him to the clandestine detention center 'Londres 38', located at that address in the city of Santiago.

Jorge Alejandro Olivares Graindorge, 23 years old, a gardener by trade and also a MIR militant, was detained by DINA agents on the public street on the afternoon of July 27, 1974, near his home located at Pasaje Salta 2258, in the commune of Quinta Normal. He was also transferred by the agents to the clandestine detention center "Londres 38."

From this place of detention and torture, the trail of both detainees is lost. Subsequently, in July 1975, they appeared mentioned in the lists of the international disinformation maneuver known as "Operation Colombo," carried out by the DINA, which included 119 forcibly disappeared persons.

by Darío Nuñez

Source: resumen.cl, December 4, 2023

Operation Colombo: Supreme Court convicts 30 former DINA agents for qualified kidnapping of young MIR militant in 1975

The Supreme Court convicted agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the consummated crime of qualified kidnapping of Francisco Eduardo Ugás Morales, a 22-year-old student at the Instituto Superior de Comercio de Talca and a militant of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), who was kidnapped starting February 7, 1975, in the commune of Estación Central, in Santiago.

Rodrigo Ugás's name subsequently appeared on the list of 119 forcibly disappeared persons included in the disinformation maneuver implemented by the DINA and the dictatorship known as "Operation Colombo."

In a unanimous ruling (case file 63-094-2020), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, minister María Teresa Letelier, and acting lawyer Pía Tavolari—accepted the cassation appeals filed by the plaintiffs and established an error of law in the challenged sentence, issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals in April 2020, annulling and replacing it.

In the replacement sentence, the Supreme Court confirmed the first-instance sentence issued by minister Hernán Crisosto Greisse in June 2015, which sentenced former Army officers and former DINA leaders Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann to 13 years in prison as perpetrators of the crime.

Meanwhile, former officers Rolf Gonzalo Wenderoth Pozo, Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, and Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, and former agents Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Luis René Torres Méndez, Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Manuel Rivas Díaz, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza, Luis Rigoberto Videla Insunza, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Pedro Mora Villanueva, Osvaldo Octavio Castillo Arellano, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, José Abel Aravena Ruiz, Rodolfo Valentino Concha Rodríguez, Silvio Antonio Concha González, and Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel must serve 10 years and one day in prison as co-perpetrators of the qualified kidnapping.

In the case of agent Samuel Enrique Fuenzalida Devia, the resolution of visiting minister Hernán Crisosto was confirmed, sentencing him to 541 days in prison, with the benefit of conditional remission of the sentence. At least 11 other agents convicted in the first-instance ruling died during the course of the process.

In the resolution, the Second Chamber establishes that: "....it is clear that the lower court judges, at the time of resolving the controversy submitted to their knowledge and acquitting the accused Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Luis René Torres Méndez, Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Manuel Rivas Díaz, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Carlos López Inostroza, Luis Rigoberto Videla Insunza, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, Leonidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Pedro Mora Villanueva, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, and Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, committed the errors of law denounced by the plaintiff, by estimating, in summary, according to the reasoning that precedes, .... artificially reducing the responsibility attributed to each of them to their status as DINA agents, through an incomplete reproduction of the grounds put forward by the first-instance court…..," the ruling maintains.

"That on the other hand," it continues, "as has already been outlined, in addition to said legal qualification, the sentencers estimated.... that the facts were committed in a context of systematic or generalized attack against the civilian population, which determined that the established illicit act was, in addition, considered a crime against humanity, for violating jus cogens norms of International Humanitarian Law, and therefore, subject to said international legal statute."

Villa Grimaldi

In the first-instance sentence, the visiting minister of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Hernán Crisosto Greisse, established that on the afternoon of February 7, 1975, members of the DINA detained Rodrigo Eduardo Ugás Morales, a militant of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), on the public street in the Estación Central sector in Santiago, and transferred him to the clandestine DINA detention center called 'Cuartel Terranova' or 'Villa Grimaldi,' located at Lo Arrieta No. 8200, in the commune of La Reina, which was guarded by armed guards and to which only DINA agents had access.

During his stay at the Villa Grimaldi barracks, according to testimonies from survivors, the detainee Ugás Morales remained without contact with the outside world, blindfolded and tied up, being continuously subjected to interrogations under torture by DINA agents operating in said barracks.

The last time Rodrigo Ugás Morales was seen by other detainees occurred on an undetermined day at the end of February 1975, and he has been missing since that date.

Source: resumen.cl, February 23, 2024