The Santiago Court of Appeals today sentenced former agents of the "Comando Conjunto" (Joint Command) to effective prison terms for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of José Weibel Navarrete, Mariano Turiel Palomera, Francisco Ortiz Valladares, José Rocha Álvarez, and Carlos Sánchez Cornejo. These crimes were committed between October 15, 1975, and July 15, 1976.

In a split decision, the Third Chamber of the appellate court upheld the contested ruling issued by investigating judge Miguel Vázquez Plaza, which sentenced Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger, Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, and Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa to 18 years in prison, plus legal accessories, as perpetrators of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Francisco Hernán Ortiz Valladares, José Santos Rocha Álvarez, Carlos Enrique Sánchez Cornejo, José Arturo Weibel Navarrete, and Mariano León Turiel Palomera.

Meanwhile, Antonio Quirós Reyes must serve a 6-year prison sentence, plus legal accessories, as the perpetrator of the aggravated kidnapping of Mariano León Turiel Palomera.

Finally, agents Alejandro Segundo Sáez Mardones, Roberto Alfonso Flores Cisterna, and Carlos Hernán Rodrigo Villarreal must serve 5 years and one day in prison, plus legal accessories, as perpetrators of the aggravated kidnapping of José Arturo Weibel Navarrete.

Additionally, due to their deaths, partial and definitive dismissals were approved regarding Jorge Rodrigo Cobos Manríquez, César Luis Palma Ramírez, and Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunguer.

Regarding civil matters, the court ratified the ruling ordering the state to pay a total indemnity of $1,520,000,000 to the victims' families.

Source: nuevopoder.cl, April 10, 2019

Supreme Court confirms convictions against Comando Conjunto agents for kidnapping during the dictatorship

The Second Chamber of the Supreme Court finalized the convictions against former uniformed officers and agents of the Comando Conjunto, who were accused of the aggravated kidnapping of 5 communist militants between 1975 and 1976, dismissing potential modifications to the defendants' sentences.

The session concluded with the rejection, by the presiding ministers and lawyers, of the cassation appeals that had been filed by the defense of the two sentenced individuals. These appeals were originally filed against the ruling issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals in April 2019.

The appeals sought a reduction of the defendants' sentences through the application of "media prescripción" (partial statute of limitations)—which comes into effect when half of the time required for a full statute of limitations has elapsed and the offender presents themselves or is found before the full term is completed—a measure that was ultimately dismissed by the court.

Thus, the Court refused to modify the conviction of Navy officer Daniel Guipert Corvalán and sentenced him to 12 years of major imprisonment as the principal perpetrator of the crime of aggravated kidnapping regarding three of the victims.

The same occurred with Navy member Carlos Hernán Rodrigo Villarreal, who was sentenced to 5 years and one day of major imprisonment in its minimum degree as a co-perpetrator of the kidnappings.

Lawyer Nelson Caucoto, representing 3 of the 5 victims, stated: "A new trial against the Comando Conjunto comes to an end with the ruling of the highest court. The crimes of that organization have definitively been brought to light, and the administration of justice has fulfilled its function by sanctioning them."

"It is a great sorrow not to have located the whereabouts of the victims, and this revives the obligation of the State of Chile and its authorities to locate them, without renunciation and by making the maximum efforts in that regard," the lawyer added.

The individuals who were forcibly disappeared by the Comando Conjunto were: Carlos Sánchez Cornejo, a retired postal and telegraph worker, detained on December 17, 1975; Francisco Hernán Ortiz Valladares, a furniture maker, detained on October 30, 1975; José Santos Rocha Álvarez, a textile artisan, detained on October 31, 1975; José Weibel Navarrete, a leader of the Communist Youth, detained on March 29, 1976; and hydraulic engineer Mariano Turiel Palomera, detained on July 15 of the same year.

Comando Conjunto

The Comando Conjunto operated between 1975 and 1976. It was composed of agents from the Air Force intelligence directorate (DIFA), the Carabineros (DICAR), the Navy (SIN), and the Army (DINE), as well as civilians. Its primary objective was the repression of the Communist Youth and the Communist Party.

To achieve this goal, they proceeded to detain individuals linked to said party, who were deprived of their liberty to obtain information through physical and psychological torture, and were subsequently released, transferred to an unknown destination, or murdered.

The Facts

On December 17, 1975, Carlos Sánchez Cornejo, a militant of the Communist Party, left his home located in this city, Población Huemul N°2, in the afternoon to buy the evening newspaper. He was detained by agents of the Comando Conjunto and taken to "Remo Cero," a place where he was seen by other detainees and from where his trail was lost.

On the afternoon of the 30th of the same month, around 18:30, the member of the Communist Party of Chile, Francisco Hernán Ortiz Valladares, was detained in his furniture workshop located inside his home on Calle Romero N° 3016 by two individuals in civilian clothes, who took him from the area in a car driven by a third individual.

Around 23:30 that same day, about eight individuals in civilian clothes, carrying submachine guns, entered the home of Raúl Armando Castro Vega by jumping over the exterior fence of the property, with Ortiz Valladares handcuffed. Following this event, he would remain disappeared to this day, with his actual whereabouts unknown.

Added to this attack is the one that occurred on December 31, 1975, in which the member of the Communist Party José Santos Rocha Álvarez, known and politically related to Ortiz Valladares, was detained. He would eventually be captured and taken to an unknown destination by a group armed with firearms.

Subsequently, Ortiz Valladares would be seen at Remo Cero, where he was interrogated and tortured, and a political investigation file was created for him by agents of said command, dated 04/11/1975. A similar file was created for Rocha Álvarez on 02/11/1975, with the final destination of both remaining unknown.

Similarly, on March 29, 1976, José Weibel Navarrete was kidnapped during a bus trip on the Américo Vespucio route, where he was traveling with his spouse and 2 minor children. The agents of the "Conjunto" intercepted and boarded the bus, taking advantage of the commotion to forcibly remove Navarrete and put him into a vehicle in which he was transported to the detention center "La Firma."

On July 15, 1976, at 8:00, the member of the Communist Youth of Chile, Mariano León Turiel Palomera, was seen leaving his home with his wife; the latter headed to her work, and he went to carry out various errands. In the afternoon of that day, after withdrawing money for a housing subsidy at the Banco Estado located at Bandera and San Pablo, his trail was lost.

Following the disappearance of Turiel Palomera, an anonymous letter was sent to the courts, the author of which states that the Communist Youth militant Mariano León Turiel Palomera was detained near the Estación Mapocho by the so-called Comando Conjunto, and that the material apprehenders were the team of Chilean Navy agents belonging to said command, which fully coincides with the place where the trail of Mariano León Turiel Palomera was lost on that day, 15/07/1976.

Source: elclarin.cl, July 20, 2022

Supreme Court confirms ruling that sentenced Comando Conjunto agents for aggravated kidnappings

The Supreme Court rejected the cassation appeal filed against the sentence that convicted, among others, two agents who were part of the so-called Comando Conjunto for their responsibility in the consummated crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Carlos Enrique Sánchez Cornejo, José Arturo Weibel Navarrete, and Mariano León Turiel Palomera.

These crimes were perpetrated on different dates between December 1975 and July 1976 in the Metropolitan Region.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 18.762-2019), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Jorge Dahm, minister María Teresa Letelier, minister Diego Simpértigue, and lawyer (i) Pía Tavolari—confirmed the sentence that convicted Daniel Luis Enrique Guimpert Corvalán to a single sentence of 12 years of effective imprisonment as the perpetrator of the consummated crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Sánchez Cornejo, perpetrated on December 17, 1975; Weibel Navarrete (March 29, 1976); and Turiel Palomera (July 15, 1976).

Meanwhile, Carlos Hernán Rodrigo Villarreal must serve 5 years and one day in prison as a co-perpetrator of the aggravated kidnapping of Weibel Navarrete.

In the sentence, the highest court dismissed the claim of legal error in the contested ruling, issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals, which refused to apply the "media prescripción" to the former agents convicted as perpetrators of crimes against humanity.

"That, once the reasons for invalidation presented by the appellant are known, it is entirely necessary to consider that the matter under discussion must be analyzed in accordance with international human rights law contained mainly in the Geneva Conventions, which prevent the statute of limitations, total or gradual, regarding crimes committed in cases of non-international armed conflicts.

The same conclusion is reached by collating both the norms of the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons and those of the Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, insofar as, in accordance with that regulation, the gradual statute of limitations has the same nature as the total one," the ruling maintains.

The resolution adds that: "The doctrine on this matter has expressed that its foundations are found in the same considerations of social stability and legal certainty that gave rise to Article 93 of the Penal Code, but that it is intended to produce its effects in those cases in which the realization of the ends provided for the statute of limitations does not occur naturally but at the end of a gradual process, that is, when the time necessary to prescribe is about to be fulfilled, which would justify the mitigation of the penalty.

However, it is evident that such a conclusion is for cases that do not present the characteristics of crimes against humanity, such as aggravated kidnapping, since these are imprescriptible. Consequently, for such mitigation to be appropriate, it is necessary that it be a crime in the process of prescribing, which is not the case here, so the passage of time does not produce any effect, because the social reproach does not diminish with time, which only occurs in cases of common crimes."

"As anticipated," it elaborates, "this is a matter in which international treaties have precedence, in accordance with Article 5, paragraph 2, of the Political Constitution of the Republic. Those norms prevail, and the penalty must fulfill the ends that are proper to it and that were enunciated by the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution 2583, of December 15, 1969, which states: 'The punishment of those responsible for such crimes is an important element in preventing these crimes and protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms and in promoting confidence, stimulating cooperation between peoples and contributing to international peace and security.' In the same sense, Article 1.1 of the American Convention on Human Rights establishes the obligation to punish those responsible for crimes against humanity with a penalty proportional to the crime committed."

Likewise, the ruling records that: "As this Court has held in numerous previous rulings, Article 103 of the Penal Code is not only contemplated in the same title as the statute of limitations, but is developed after it, and as both institutes are based on the passage of time as a justifying element for their application, the impropriety of applying the total statute of limitations must necessarily reach the partial one, since there is no reason to recognize time as having the effect of reducing the sanction, because both situations are based on the same element that is rejected by the international humanitarian penal order, so that neither is appropriate in illicit acts such as the one in the present case."

"Furthermore, this court takes into consideration that the estimation of the gradual statute of limitations regarding those responsible for the commission of crimes against humanity affects the principle of proportionality of the penalty, since the gravity of the acts perpetrated with the intervention of State agents determines that the response to the author of the transgression must be consistent with the affectation of the legal good and the culpability with which they acted," the ruling affirms.

For the Criminal Chamber, in this case: "(...) it should be borne in mind that the way in which the brief presents the cause in relation to Article 103 of the Penal Code, that is, for the ruling to dismiss the requested gradual statute of limitations, without prejudice to the reference to the dissenting vote of the appealed ruling and the mere mention of Article 5 of the American Convention on Human Rights, does not question in a well-founded manner the application of international law examined in the third consideration of the appealed ruling, which refers to the thirty-fifth, thirty-sixth, and forty-first considerations of the first-instance ruling, in which it finds shelter to rule out the application of the partial statute of limitations of the criminal action in the case sub lite, such as the 1968 Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, the Geneva Conventions, not only the aforementioned American Convention on Human Rights."

"That, consequently, the application of the figure of the partial statute of limitations or gradual statute of limitations of the penalty, contemplated by Article 103 of the Penal Code, is not admissible in the case of crimes against humanity, since the aforementioned qualification obliges us to consider the regulations of International Human Rights Law, which excludes the use of both the total statute of limitations and the so-called partial statute of limitations, understanding such institutes as closely linked in their foundations and, consequently, contrary to the jus cogens regulations coming from that sphere of International Criminal Law, which reject impunity and the imposition of penalties through the passage of time," it concludes.

Comando Conjunto

In the first-instance ruling, investigating judge Miguel Vázquez Plaza established the following facts:

«a) That there existed a military intelligence group, hierarchical and disciplined, called Comando Conjunto, which operated between 1975 and 1976, composed of agents belonging to the Air Force intelligence directorate (DIFA), the Carabineros (DICAR), the Navy (SIN), and the Army (DINE), plus civilians, whose main objective was the repression of the Communist Youth and the Communist Party, for which they proceeded to detain persons linked to said party, who were deprived of their liberty to obtain information through physical and psychological torture, and subsequently released, transferred to an unknown destination, or killed; b) that, for operational repression, the so-called Comando Conjunto used secret detention centers, such as the "Casa de Apoquindo," the "Hangar" at the Cerrillos Airport, and others that had been seized from militants of persecuted political parties, such as those called "Nido 18" and "Nido 20," all of which constituted clandestine detention centers; then the prison "La Prevención" appeared on the scene, built inside the Colina Air Artillery Regiment, better known as "Remo Cero," operating approximately from August 1975 until the first months of 1976, and finally the property on Calle Dieciocho, assigned to the Carabineros, which corresponded to the place where the former newspaper El Clarín operated, being called "La Firma" until the end of 1976, centers in which prisoners were kept blindfolded and were interrogated under illegitimate duress.

c) That, on 17/12/1975, Carlos Sánchez Cornejo, a militant of the Communist Party, left his home located in this city, Población Huemul N°2, in the afternoon to buy the evening newspaper, being detained by agents of the Comando Conjunto and taken to Remo Cero, a place where he was seen by other detainees and from where his trail was lost.

d) That, on 29/03/1976, while José Weibel Navarrete was traveling on bus 9046 of the Américo Vespucio route, license plate SL-45, in the company of his spouse and 2 minor children, agents of the so-called Comando Conjunto intercepted and boarded said bus, and taking advantage of a commotion due to an alleged robbery, they forcibly removed him, putting him into a vehicle that transported him to the detention center "La Firma." He was also kept in the FACH conscripts' bachelor house, agents of the Comando Conjunto, at Bellavista N° 125; from there he was taken by the heads of the operational groups, with his final destination unknown.

e) That, on the afternoon of 30/10/1975, around 18:30, the member of the Communist Party of Chile, Francisco Hernán Ortiz Valladares, was detained in his furniture workshop located inside his home on Calle Romero N° 3016 by two individuals in civilian clothes, who took him from the area in a car driven by a third individual. (SIC) Around 23:30 that same day, about eight individuals in civilian clothes, carrying submachine guns, entered the home of Raúl Armando Castro Vega, jumping over the exterior fence of the property, holding Ortiz Valladares detained and handcuffed, a place where in September of that same year he had made a closet; one of the subjects stated that they were looking for a false bottom in the closet where weapons or documents were hidden; upon finding nothing, they left the place in four cars, and since that date he has been disappeared, with his whereabouts unknown.

f) That, in the early hours of 31/10/1975, between 3:00 and 4:00, the member of the Communist Party José Santos Rocha Álvarez, known and politically related to Ortiz Valladares, was detained at his home in Puerto Aysén, site 155, Población Las Casas, Barrancas commune, by people in civilian clothes who were moving in 3 vehicles, and firearms were found in that place.

Both detainees were taken to an unknown destination, with Ortiz Valladares being seen later at Remo Cero, where he was interrogated and tortured and a political investigation file was created for him by agents of said command, dated 04/11/1975, and for Rocha Álvarez, the same type of file was created on 02/11/1975, with the final destination of both remaining unknown.

g) That, on 15/07/1976, at 8:00, the member of the Communist Youth of Chile, Mariano León Turiel Palomera, left his home with his wife, she to go to her work and he to carry out different errands. That day he picked up clothes from a dry cleaner on Calle Merced, between Ahumada and Bandera, and also money for a housing subsidy at the Banco Estado, located at Bandera and San Pablo, from where his trail was lost.

Following the disappearance of Turiel Palomera, an anonymous letter was sent to the courts, the author of which refers that the Communist Youth militant Mariano León Turiel Palomera was detained near the Estación Mapocho by the so-called Comando Conjunto, that the material apprehenders were the team of Chilean Navy agents belonging to said command, which fully coincides with the place where the trail of Mariano León Turiel Palomera was lost on that day, 15/07/1976»

coincidence with the place where the trail of Mariano León Turiel Palomera was lost that day, 15/07/1976”. In civil matters, the sentence, which was not appealed, was upheld, ordering the state treasury to pay a total compensation of $1,520,000,000 (one billion five hundred twenty million pesos) to the victims' families.

Source: larazon.cl, July 21, 2022

Comando Conjunto: Santiago Court sentences former agents to effective prison terms as perpetrators of five qualified kidnappings.

The appellate court confirmed the contested sentence, which sentenced Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger, Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, and Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa to 18 years in prison, plus legal accessories, in their capacity as perpetrators of the crimes of qualified kidnapping.

In a split decision, the Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced former agents of the "Comando Conjunto" to effective prison terms for their responsibility in the crime of qualified kidnapping of José Arturo Weibel Navarrete, Mariano León Turiel Palomera, Francisco Hernán Ortiz Valladares, José Santos Rocha Álvarez, and Carlos Enrique Sánchez Cornejo.

These crimes were committed between October 15, 1975, and July 15, 1976. The appellate court confirmed the contested sentence, issued by visiting judge Miguel Vázquez Plaza, which sentenced Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger, Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, and Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa to 18 years in prison, plus legal accessories, in their capacity as perpetrators of the crimes of qualified kidnapping of Francisco Hernán Ortiz Valladares, José Santos Rocha Álvarez, Carlos Enrique Sánchez Cornejo, José Arturo Weibel Navarrete, and Mariano León Turiel Palomera.

Meanwhile, Antonio Benedicto Quirós Reyes must serve a sentence of 6 years in prison, plus legal accessories, as a perpetrator of the crime of qualified kidnapping of Mariano León Turiel Palomera. Finally, agents Alejandro Segundo Sáez Mardones, Roberto Alfonso Flores Cisterna, and Carlos Hernán Rodrigo Villarreal must serve 5 years and one day in prison, plus legal accessories, as perpetrators of the crime of qualified kidnapping of José Arturo Weibel Navarrete.

Likewise, due to death, partial and definitive dismissals were approved regarding Jorge Rodrigo Cobos Manríquez, César Luis Palma Ramírez, and Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunguer. The sentence maintains that regarding the statute of limitations and amnesty alleged by all the defendants, it should be specified that these chapters are duly addressed in the thirty-fifth and forty-first grounds of the appealed sentence, and given the repeated jurisprudence of the highest court that kidnapping is a permanent crime, the application of such institutes is not appropriate.

Amnesty has only a delimited temporal space of application, and for the statute of limitations, it is not yet possible to begin counting the period given the permanent nature of the crime and its status as a crime against humanity, which prevents its application.

It also states that the mitigating factors of criminal responsibility alleged are analyzed in the ruling under review and that this court agrees with their application. In civil matters, the sentence was ratified, ordering the state treasury to pay a total compensation of $1,520,000,000 to the victims' families.

The decision was adopted with the dissenting vote of lawyer Herrera Fuenzalida, who points out: A) Regarding the criminal sanction, she was of the opinion to accept the argument regarding the partial statute of limitations of the criminal action and consequently reduce the imposed penalty, making its effects applicable to all those convicted, since the gradual statute of limitations constitutes a qualified mitigating factor of criminal responsibility, the effects of which influence the determination of the quantum of the corporal sanction, independent of the statute of limitations, with different foundations and consequences. Thus, this is also explained thanks to humanitarian regulations that find their reason for being in how senseless such a high penalty is for events that occurred more than 40 years ago. The above does not imply that the crime is left unpunished, but rather that a mitigated penalty is imposed. Likewise, as it is a rule of public order, the judge must apply it, as it is favorable to the defendant. B) Regarding the civil actions, she was in favor of rejecting them and accepting the payment exception filed by the Chilean State, understanding that these had already been paid, due to the reparatory nature of the compensation provided by the State of Chile, which was taken into account for the enactment of Law No. 19.123, which created the "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" or "Rettig Commission," where reference is made to the moral and patrimonial reparation sought by said project, so the sums of money agreed upon are to address its extracontractual liability, establishing within the functions of the Commission the promotion of the reparation of the moral damage of the victims referred to in its article 18. That, due to such purposes, the mentioned law, together with Law No. 19.980, contemplates direct payment in money to human rights victims, such as their children, which is the case in these proceedings, along with other reparations, such as those through the assignment of rights to state benefits and symbolic reparations, all with the same reparatory objective. Therefore, it is evident that all those legal benefits have the same foundation and the same reparatory purpose for moral damage as the compensation claimed in these proceedings.

Source: pjud.cl, April 11, 2019

Supreme Court confirms ruling that convicted agents of the Comando Conjunto for qualified kidnappings

In a unanimous ruling, the highest court rejected the appeal for cassation on the merits filed against the sentence that convicted, among others, two agents who were part of the so-called Comando Conjunto, for their responsibility in the consummated crimes of qualified kidnapping of Carlos Enrique Sánchez Cornejo, José Arturo Weibel Navarrete, and Mariano León Turiel Palomera.

The Supreme Court rejected the appeal for cassation on the merits filed against the sentence that convicted, among others, two agents who were part of the so-called Comando Conjunto, for their responsibility in the consummated crimes of qualified kidnapping of Carlos Enrique Sánchez Cornejo, José Arturo Weibel Navarrete, and Mariano León Turiel Palomera.

These crimes were perpetrated on different dates, between December 1975 and July 1976, in the Metropolitan Region. In a unanimous ruling (case file 18.762-2019), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Jorge Dahm, minister María Teresa Letelier, minister Diego Simpértigue, and acting lawyer Pía Tavolari—confirmed the sentence that sentenced Daniel Luis Enrique Guimpert Corvalán to a single penalty of 12 years of effective prison, in his capacity as perpetrator of the consummated crimes of qualified kidnapping of Sánchez Cornejo, perpetrated on December 17, 1975; Weibel Navarrete (March 29, 1976), and Turiel Palomera (July 15, 1976). Meanwhile, Carlos Hernán Rodrigo Villarreal must serve 5 years and one day in prison, in his capacity as co-perpetrator of the qualified kidnapping of Weibel Navarrete. In the sentence, the highest court dismissed the claim of legal error in the contested sentence, issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals, which refused to apply the partial statute of limitations to the former agents convicted as perpetrators of crimes against humanity. Comando Conjunto In the first-instance ruling, visiting judge Miguel Vázquez Plaza established the following facts: «a) That there existed a military intelligence group, hierarchical and disciplined, called Comando Conjunto that operated between the years 1975 and 1976, formed by agents belonging to the intelligence directorate of the Air Force (DIFA), Carabineros (DICAR), Navy (SIN), and Army (DINE), plus civilians, whose main objective was the repression of the Communist Youth and the Communist Party, for which they proceeded to detain persons linked to said party, who were deprived of liberty to obtain information through physical and psychological torture, and subsequently released, transferred to an unknown destination, or killed; b) that, for operational repression, the so-called Comando Conjunto used secret detention facilities, such as the Casa de Apoquindo, the Hangar at the Cerrillos Airport, others that had been seized from militants of persecuted political parties, such as those called Nido 18 and Nido 20, all of which constituted clandestine detention centers; then the La Prevención prison appeared on the scene, built inside the Colina Air Artillery Regiment, better known as ‘Remo Cero’, operating approximately from August 1975 until the first months of 1976 and, finally, the building on Calle Dieciocho, assigned to Carabineros, which corresponded to the place where the former newspaper El Clarín operated, being called La Firma until the end of 1976, facilities where prisoners were kept blindfolded and were interrogated under illegitimate duress. c) That, on 17/12/1975, Carlos Sánchez Cornejo, a militant of the Communist Party, left his home located in this city, Población Huemul No. 2, in the afternoon to buy the evening newspaper, being detained by agents of the Comando Conjunto, taken to Remo Cero, a place where he was seen by other detainees and from where his trail was lost. d) That, on 29/03/1976, while José Weibel Navarrete was traveling on bus 9046 of the Américo Vespucio route, license plate SL-45, in the company of his spouse and 2 minor children, agents of the so-called Comando Conjunto intercepted and boarded said bus, and taking advantage of a commotion due to an alleged robbery, they forced him off, putting him into a vehicle that took him to the La Firma detention center; he was also kept in the bachelor quarters of the FACH conscripts, agents of the Comando Conjunto, at Bellavista No. 125, from where he was taken by the heads of the operational groups, his final destination being unknown. e) That, on the afternoon of 30/10/1975, around 18:30, the member of the Communist Party of Chile, Francisco Hernán Ortiz Valladares, was detained in his furniture workshop located inside his home on Calle Romero No. 3016, by two individuals in civilian clothes, who took him out of the area in a car driven by a third individual. (SIC) Around 23:30 that same day, about eight individuals in civilian clothes, carrying submachine guns, entered the home of Raúl Armando Castro Vega, jumping over the exterior fence of the property, who had Ortiz Valladares detained and handcuffed in their possession, a place where in the month of September of that same year he had made a closet; one of the subjects stated that they were looking for a double bottom in the closet where weapons or documents were hidden, upon finding nothing they left the place in four cars, and since that date he has been disappeared, his whereabouts being unknown. f) That, in the early hours of 31/10/1975, between 3:00 and 4:00 hours, the member of the Communist Party José Santos Rocha Álvarez, known and politically related to Ortiz Valladares, was detained at his home in Puerto Aysén, site 155, Población Las Casas, Barrancas commune, by people in civilian clothes who were moving in 3 vehicles and, in that place, firearms were found; both detainees were taken to an unknown destination, with Ortiz Valladares being seen later in Remo Cero, a place where he was interrogated and tortured and a political investigation file was drawn up for him by agents of said command, dated 04/11/1975, and for Rocha Álvarez, the same type of file was drawn up on 02/11/1975, the final destination of both being unknown. g) That, on 15/07/1976, at 8:00 hours, the member of the Communist Youth of Chile, Mariano León Turiel Palomera, left his home together with his wife, she to go to her work and he to carry out different errands. That day he picked up clothes from a dry cleaner on Calle Merced, between Ahumada and Bandera, and also money for a housing subsidy at the Banco Estado, located at Bandera and San Pablo, from where his trail was lost. Subsequent to the disappearance of Turiel Palomera, an anonymous letter was sent to the courts whose author states that the militant of the Communist Youth, Mariano León Turiel Palomera, was detained near the Estación Mapocho by the so-called Comando Conjunto, that the material apprehenders were the team of agents of the Chilean Navy belonging to said command, which fully coincides with the place from which the trail of Mariano León Turiel Palomera was lost that day, 15/07/1976”. In civil matters, the sentence, which was not appealed, was upheld, ordering the state treasury to pay a total compensation of $1,520,000,000 (one billion five hundred twenty million pesos) to the victims' families.

Source: pjud.cl, July 20, 2022

Supreme Court confirms convictions of 27 former agents of the Comando Conjunto for crimes against five communist militants committed between 1975 and 1976

The Supreme Court rejected the appeals for cassation on the merits filed by the defenses of the former agents of the so-called Comando Conjunto, against the sentence that convicted 27 of them for their responsibility in the crimes of simple kidnapping and qualified homicide of Ignacio Orlando González Espinoza and Juan René Orellana Catalán; and in the qualified kidnappings of Ricardo Manuel Weibel Navarrete, Luis Desiderio Moraga Cruz, and Luis Emilio Gerardo Maturana González, all militants of the Communist Party.

The crimes were perpetrated between October 1975 and June 1976, in the city of Santiago. The so-called Comando Conjunto was a repressive apparatus created by the dictatorship under the tutelage of the Air Force (Fach) and the participation of agents from the army, the navy, the carabineros, and fascist civilians, which operated mainly between the years 1975 to 1977, and whose reason for being was to compete in repressive and criminal tasks with the absolute power held by the DINA under the tutelage of the army and the leadership of Pinochet and Contreras.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 32.012-2022), the Second Chamber of the highest court -composed of ministers Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, minister María Teresa Letelier, and minister Jean Pierre Matus- confirmed the contested sentence, issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals, which sentenced former Fach officer Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola and former carabineros officer Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa to sentences of 18 years in prison, plus 13 years and plus 3 years in prison, each.

Former navy officer Daniel Luis Enrique Guimpert Corvalán to sentences of 18 years, plus 12 and plus 3 years in prison. Former army officers Álvaro Julio Federico Corbalán Castilla and Sergio Antonio Díaz López, and former navy officer Jorge Aníbal Osses Novoa, to sentences of 12 years in prison, plus 10 years and one day, plus 400 days in prison each.

Agents Raúl Horacio González Fernández and Alejandro Julio Segundo Sáez Mardones to two sentences of 10 years and one day in prison, and plus 400 days in prison each. Agents Roberto Alfonso Flores Cisterna and Juan Carlos Hernán Rodrigo Villarreal to sentences of 10 years and one day, plus 5 years and one day, plus 400 days in prison each.

Fascist civilian Otto Silvio Trujillo Miranda to the sentence of 10 years and one day in prison. Agent Lenin Figueroa Sánchez, two sentences of 5 years and one day, plus 400 days in prison. Agents Sergio Daniel Valenzuela Morales, Juan Atilio Aravena Hurtuvia, to sentences of 5 years and one day in prison, plus 5 years, plus 400 days in prison.

Fascist civilians Andrés Pablo Potín Lailhacar, Viviana Lucinda Ugarte Sandoval, Emilio Mahias del Río, and agents Juan Luis Fernando López López, José Evaristo Rojas Alruiz, Francisco Segundo Illanes Miranda, to sentences of 5 years and one day in prison, plus 400 days in prison.

Ernesto Arturo Lobos Gálvez, Alejandro Jorge Forero Álvarez, to sentences of 5 years and one day in prison, plus 60 days in prison. Roberto Francisco Serón Cárdenas, to the sentence of 5 years and one day in prison.

Robinson Alfonso Suazo Jaque, Pedro Ernesto Caamaño Medina, Pedro Juan Zambrano Uribe, and José Hernando Alvarado Alvarado, to the sentence of 4 years, plus 60 days in prison each. Those also convicted, Antonio Benedicto Quiros Reyes and Miguel Arturo Estay Reyno, died during the course of the process.

In the judicial investigation and first-instance ruling, judge Miguel Vásquez Plaza established that there existed a de facto group that operated clandestinely between the years 1975 and 1976, formed mainly by agents who belonged to the Intelligence Directorate of the Air Force, in addition to Carabineros de Chile, Navy, and Army, with the collaboration of civilians, whose main objective was the repression of the Communist Party Youth, for which they proceeded to the detention of several of them.

This group, called Comando Conjunto, used various facilities for detentions and torture: Hangar de Cerrillos; Nido 20, a secret detention and torture center located at Calle Santa Teresa No. 037, stop 20 of Gran Avenida; Nido 18, a secret center located at Calle Perú No. 9053, La Florida, Santiago, which was used exclusively for torture; La Prevención or Remo Cero, which were dungeons located inside the Air Artillery Regiment in Colina, all this during the year 1975; La Firma, at the beginning of 1976, said group moved its operations to the rear of the building in charge of Carabineros de Chile, located at Calle Dieciocho, opposite No. 229, which belonged to the former newspaper Clarín, being called La Firma. The operational action of the group consisted of detaining people with the modality of kidnapping, keeping them captive in secret facilities, and subjecting them to interrogations and torture, physical and psychological, to obtain information and break their will, achieving the collaboration of some of them, to the point that some were assimilated as operational agents of the group, which provided greater effectiveness in the chain detention of communist militants, whom they made disappear; of some of them, over the years, part of their remains were found. On November 7, 1975, at approximately 22:00 hours, Ricardo Manuel Weibel Navarrete was detained at his home on Calle Río Maule in the Recoleta Commune, by subjects wearing civilian clothes; he was kept deprived of liberty in the facility called La Prevención or Remo Cero, located inside the Air Artillery Regiment in Colina, the last place where he was seen alive and, subsequently, his bones were found on the grounds of Fuerte Arteaga, Peldehue. On October 20, 1975, in the early hours of the morning, Luis Desiderio Moraga Cruz was detained at his home on Pasaje Tokio in the Población Juanita Aguirre, Conchalí commune, Santiago, by subjects wearing civilian clothes; he was kept recluse in the Air Artillery Regiment in Colina, inside which was the facility called La Prevención or Remo Cero, this being the last place where he was seen alive. On December 4, 1975, in the early hours of the morning, Ignacio Orlando González Espinoza was detained at his home on Calle Soberanía in the Santiago commune, by subjects wearing civilian clothes; he was kept deprived of liberty in the facility called La Prevención or Remo Cero, located inside the Air Artillery Regiment in Colina, the last place where he was seen alive and, subsequently, he was executed on the grounds of Fuerte Arteaga, Peldehue, where his bones were found. On June 8, 1976, in the Estación Central sector, Luis Emilio Gerardo Maturana González met with Juan René Orellana Catalán, both militants of the Communist Youth in hiding due to the political persecution they were subjected to, with the purpose of handing over party money to Orellana Catalán for himself and so that he in turn could hand it over to other party militants, since Maturana González was in charge of distributing it; at that moment they were detained by operational agents of the aforementioned Comando Conjunto, keeping them recluse in the facility called La Firma, from where their trail was lost. Subsequently, Orellana Catalán was executed at Cuesta Barriga, where his remains were found.

Source: resumen.cl, April 26, 2024