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 visiting 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 possible to establish, through testimonies, the passage of Héctor Marcial Garay Hermosilla 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 judge sentenced the following to 13 years of imprisonment: César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Marcelo Luis Moren Brito, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann, as authors of the crime perpetrated in 1974.

Meanwhile, the following former agents must serve 10 years of imprisonment, 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 judge sentenced the following to 4 years of imprisonment: 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

Eight spots at the Army Telecommunications Command in Peñalolén were designated for an equal number of former agents of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) who were prosecuted—as authors of aggravated kidnapping—by the visiting minister Mario Carroza in the so-called case of the five disappeared persons of '87.

The emblematic case relates to the last disappearances carried out during the dictatorship, which ended with the members of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR) kidnapped, killed, and thrown into the sea (tied to railway sleepers) at the hands of members of repressive agencies and the Army Intelligence Battalion (BIE).

The events occurred in the context of the kidnapping of Colonel Carlos Carreño Barrera. According to the judge's findings, between September 9 and 10, Julián Peña Maltés, Alejandro Pinochet Arenas, Manuel Sepúlveda Sánchez, Gonzalo Fuenzalida Navarrete, and Julio Muñoz Otárola were detained without a judicial warrant; they were members of the FPMR and were selected from institutional files to be exchanged for the kidnapped Carreño.

During those days, according to the indictment, they were held at the Cuartel Borgoño, only to be eliminated once the officer appeared in Brazil. After that episode, an operation was initiated to transport the bodies to the Fuerte de Peldehue, from where they were transported by helicopter and thrown into the waters off the coast of Quintay, tied to railway sleepers to prevent them from surfacing.

The ruling highlights that after compiling a large amount of evidence, it is reasonable to think that "these bodies correspond to the kidnapped persons, who, having been thrown into the sea, were not identified."

In the case, it is recognized that individuals from different departments participated in an operation that had "different stages," such as detention, imprisonment, interrogation in the interval prior to their death, and the transport of their bodies to the depths of the sea.

Those charged are Gonzalo Maas del Valle, Heraldo Velozo Gallegos, Sergio Mateluna Pino, Roberto Rodríguez Manquel, José Fuentes Cortez, Juan Alejandro Jorquera Abarzúa, Alejandro Astudillo Adonis, and Patricio Leonidas González.

Along with the prosecution, Minister Carroza ordered their entry into the Army Telecommunications Command, where they must remain for the duration of the investigation.

Source: April 9, 2008, La Nacion

Miguel Angel Acuña Castillo: The disappearance of the 19-year-old in Londres 38

He was detained in July 1974 in the Macul district. 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 Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR), was detained near his home located at Pasaje Talca No. 2033 in the Macul district 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, falling to the ground.

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

Judge Crisosto determined that the DINA agents "transported 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 at 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 disappeared to this day," the first-instance ruling states.

Laughing in Londres 38 with 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 detainees being called for roll call twice a day. On July 31, 1974, she heard the name of Miguel Angel Acuña Castillo, who answered "present." Later, she did not hear 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 a member of the Revolutionary Student Front (FER), also saw him at 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 notes. He remembers "Miguel Ángel as a young man of great leadership capacity and great physical resistance."

He stopped seeing him on September 11, 1973. He met him again at Londres 38. He arrived with Héctor Garay to the same room where he remained lying on the floor. "At that moment, I did not speak to Miguel Ángel"; on the contrary, he pretended not to notice his presence. "The next day, when the mattresses on which we detainees lay were removed and replaced by chairs, I sat down and, to one side, 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 me in Londres 38, saying 'I know you'."

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

León Gómez, detained on July 15, 1974, and transferred to Londres 38, saw Miguel Angel along with Héctor Garay, whom he knew. Someone commented to him that among the detainees was "Pampino," 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. "Pampino, despite showing signs of mistreatment, seemed 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 found out about the problem she had with a disappeared son.

Given this, my grandmother made her go 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 the detainees at Londres 38, including Miguel Angel, Minister Crisosto incorporated statements from Osvaldo Romo, who stated that among other tortures, the detainees were subjected to "the dry submarine, which was 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 exhausted."

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

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

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

The name of Miguel Ángel Acuña Castillo appeared among the 119 Chileans of Operation Colombo, on a list disseminated in the national press, after it appeared in publications that were printed only once in Brazil and Argentina, "which 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, in due course, be handed over under custody bail to a family member.

Source: Villa Grimaldi.cl, February 3, 2015

Sentence issued against 28 repressive agents of the dictatorship for the crime of Marta Ugarte

The minister for extraordinary causes regarding human rights violations at the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vázquez Plaza, issued a first-instance sentence in the investigation into the kidnapping and aggravated homicide of the teacher Marta Lidia Ugarte Román, whose body appeared on La Ballena beach, in the Los Molles sector, on September 12, 1976.

In the resolution (case file 2182-1998), Minister Vázquez issued a sentence against the following 28 State agents for their responsibility in the crimes perpetrated between August and September 1976. Most of those convicted were agents and leaders of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), and the others were members of the Army aviation command, the agency responsible for the execution of the so-called "death flights."

Carlos José Leonardo López Tapia, former Army colonel, head of the Villa Grimaldi torture center at the time of the events, sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment, in addition to the legal accessory of absolute perpetual disqualification from public office and political rights, and absolute disqualification from professional practice for the duration of the sentence; and the payment of court costs, as the author of the crime of aggravated homicide.

Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, former Carabineros lieutenant colonel, head of the Eagle Group of the DINA's Caupolicán Brigade (currently a fugitive from justice), sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment, in addition to the legal accessory of absolute perpetual disqualification from public office and political rights, and absolute disqualification from professional practice for the duration of the sentence; and the payment of court costs, as the author of the crime of aggravated homicide.

He must also serve 4 years of imprisonment as the author of the crime of simple kidnapping.

Carlos Oscar Gregorio Evaristo Mardones Díaz, former Army colonel, head of the aviation command that carried out "the death flights": 8 years of imprisonment, in addition to the legal accessory of absolute perpetual disqualification from public office and political rights, and absolute disqualification from professional practice for the duration of the sentence; and the payment of court costs, as an accomplice to the crime of aggravated homicide.

Antonio Palomo Contreras, former Army brigadier, and Luis Felipe Polanco Gallardo, former Army major, members of the aviation command, both sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment, in addition to the legal accessory of absolute perpetual disqualification from public office and political rights, and absolute disqualification from professional practice for the duration of the sentence; and the payment of court costs, as accessories after the fact to the crime of aggravated homicide.

Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, former Army brigadier, imprisoned in Punta Peuco for countless other convictions for crimes against humanity, sentenced to 4 years of imprisonment, in addition to the legal accessory of absolute perpetual disqualification from political rights and absolute disqualification from public office for the duration of the sentence; and the payment of court costs, as the author of the crime of simple kidnapping.

Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo and Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, former Carabineros non-commissioned officers, both sentenced to 10 years and one day of imprisonment, in addition to the legal accessory of absolute perpetual disqualification from public office and political rights, and absolute disqualification from professional practice for the duration of the sentence; and the payment of court costs, as co-authors of the crime of aggravated homicide.

In addition, they must serve 2 years of imprisonment as authors of the crime of simple kidnapping.

Emilio Hernán Troncoso Vivallos, former Carabineros non-commissioned officer, sentenced to 5 years and one day of imprisonment, in addition to the legal accessory of absolute perpetual disqualification from public office and political rights, and absolute disqualification from professional practice for the duration of the sentence; and the payment of court costs, as a co-author of the crime of aggravated homicide.

In addition, one year of imprisonment as the author of the crime of simple kidnapping.

For their part, the agents Eugenio Jesús Fieldhouse Chávez, Pedro Mora Villanueva, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, José Mario Friz Esparza, Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, Orlando del Tránsito Altamirano Sanhueza, Eduardo Patricio Cabezas Mardones, Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich, Guillermo Eduardo Díaz Ramírez, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Carlos Enrique Miranda Mesa, and Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza were sentenced to one year of imprisonment, in addition to the legal accessory of suspension from public office for the duration of the sentence; and the payment of court costs, as co-authors of the crime of simple kidnapping.

In addition, the agents José Javier Soto Torres, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, and José Domingo Seco Alarcón were sentenced to 61 days of imprisonment, in addition to the legal accessory of suspension from public office for the duration of the sentence; and the payment of court costs, as accomplices to the crime of simple kidnapping.

Meanwhile, the agents Jorge Segundo Madariaga Acevedo, José Nelson Fuentealba Saldías, Hugo Hernán Clavería Leiva, Raúl Alberto Soto Pérez, and Juan Carlos Escobar Valenzuela were acquitted due to a lack of participation in the events.

During the investigation stage, Minister Vázquez managed to prove the following facts:

1.- That Marta Lidia Ugarte Román was a militant of the Communist Party of Chile and a member of the Central Committee of that collective, working in the organization of the Party during 1976. 2.- That, as a consequence of the military coup of September 11, 1973, she went into hiding because she was sought by intelligence services, living with Elvira Solari Ahumada at the address Callejón Lo Ovalle No. 908 in the La Cisterna district, where she had been residing since the aforementioned September 1973 for security reasons, given her political militancy. 3.- That, on August 9, 1976, Marta Ugarte Román left the Callejón Lo Ovalle address around 3:00 PM, heading to the office of Dr. Iván Insunza, located on Vicuña Mackenna, to be treated for an infection in her leg resulting from a dog bite, meeting on the way Héctor Acela, now deceased, with whom she walked along Avenida Vicuña Mackenna in the direction of Avenida Matta; he warned her that something strange looked to be happening in the sector and that it seemed to be under surveillance, but she insisted on continuing her path, not knowing that Dr. Iván Insunza had already been detained previously by intelligence services. 4.- That, agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), belonging to the Purén Brigade, whose immediate objective was the tracking, location, and detention of Communist Party militants, proceeded to her detention without any warrant at the office of Dr. Insunza, who had been detained previously for his communist affiliation, an office that was being watched by security agencies; she was then transferred to the clandestine detention center of said agency, known as Villa Grimaldi or Terranova, where she was kept deprived of liberty, interrogated, and subjected to physical duress, being recognized and identified by other detainees who were in the same place at that time. 5.- That, the political authorities of the time, belonging to the Ministry of the Interior and the DINA itself, officially denied the detention of Marta Ugarte Román and knowing her whereabouts. 6.- That, while deprived of liberty, she was taken out to the street by agents in order to identify other militants and supporters of the Communist Party, being seen in one of those operations at a residence on Calle Constitución, in the Santiago district, a place where party meetings were held. 7.- That, approximately on September 9, 1976, Marta Ugarte Román was transferred along with other detainees from the Villa Grimaldi facility to the locality of Peldehue by DINA operational agents, where she was killed, her body covered with a sack and tied with wire around her neck; she was then loaded onto a Puma helicopter of the Army Aviation Command, whose crew consisted of a pilot, co-pilot, a flight mechanic, and a DINA operational agent, an aircraft that took off for the coast, heading out to sea, to then, from a height, throw her body into the high seas. 8.- That, on September 12, 1976, on La Ballena beach, in the locality of Los Molles, the body of Marta Lidia Ugarte Román was found lifeless by Marcel Dupré David, presenting only a piece of cloth and a piece of wire tied around her neck, which was severed and showed clear signs of having received physical duress; furthermore, she presented signs of needle marks on her arms. The corpse was transferred to the hospital in La Ligua and then to the Legal Medical Service of Santiago for the corresponding autopsies. The first report, dated September 14, 1976, concluded a violent death under homicidal circumstances, where the direct cause of death was polytraumatism and luxofracture of the spine on September 9, 1976; the second expert report, dated October 22, 1976, concluded that the cause of death was thoraco-abdomino-pelvic trauma, and an expansion dated February 22, 2010, determined that the final event that led to her death was asphyxiation by strangulation with wire. 9.- That, the Army Aviation Command had its operations center at the Tobalaba airfield, among others, for the flight of Puma helicopters, which had greater flight and transport capacity, for whose movement authorizations from the highest Army authorities were required, since it was necessary to designate at least in advance the pilots, co-pilots, and mechanics who were to form the flight crew. These ships were used institutionally and regularly, in conjunction with the DINA, for several years to eliminate the bodies of people detained in the various detention centers of said agency, who were taken directly to the Tobalaba airfield or taken to the Peldehue Regiment, to then take flight to the high seas, where they were thrown into the ocean.

Source: resumen.cl, July 1, 2016

Operation Colombo: Supreme Court sentences 30 former DINA agents for the aggravated kidnapping of a young MIR militant in 1975

The Supreme Court sentenced agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the consummated crime of aggravated kidnapping of the student from the Higher Institute of Commerce of Talca, Francisco Eduardo Ugás Morales, 22 years of age, a militant of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR), who was kidnapped starting on February 7, 1975, in the Estación Central district, 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 lawyer (i) Pía Tavolari—accepted the appeals for cassation on the merits 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 of imprisonment, in the capacity of authors 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 of imprisonment as co-authors of the aggravated kidnapping.

In the case of agent Samuel Enrique Fuenzalida Devia, the resolution of visiting minister Hernán Crisosto was confirmed, sentencing him to 541 days of imprisonment, 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, have incurred in the errors of law denounced by the plaintiff, by estimating, in summary, as evidenced by the reasoning that precedes, .... artificially reducing the responsibility attributed to each of them to their condition as DINA agents, through an incomplete reproduction of the foundations 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, furthermore, considered as crimes against humanity, for violating jus cogens norms of International Humanitarian Law, and for the same reason, subjected 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 Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR), on a public street in the Estación Central sector in Santiago, and transferred him to the clandestine DINA detention center known as 'Cuartel Terranova' or 'Villa Grimaldi,' located at Lo Arrieta No. 8200, in the La Reina district, which was guarded by armed guards and to which only DINA agents had access.

During his stay at the Villa Grimaldi barracks, according to the testimonies of 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 disappeared since that date.

Source: resumen.cl, February 23, 2024