Former general acknowledges that repression was "institutional."

A high-ranking FACH (Chilean Air Force) officer, prosecuted in two human rights violation cases, has reportedly formally admitted to the justice system that the repression during the government of Augusto Pinochet was the result of an institutional policy and not the individual excesses of certain agents.

This is indicated in a judicial statement signed by General (R) Enrique Ruiz Bunge, former head of the Air Force Intelligence Directorate (DIFA), which was provided to the Spanish agency EFE by judicial sources.

The former intelligence chief made the statement before Judge María Teresa Díaz, who prosecuted him last February as the intellectual author of the kidnapping of Alonso Gahona Chávez, who was forcibly disappeared, and before Magistrate Carlos Hasbún, who is in charge of prosecuting him for criminal illicit association in the trial regarding the disappearance of Víctor Vega Riquelme.

Ruiz Bunge is considered one of the individuals most responsible for the formation and operation of the so-called Comando Conjunto (Joint Command), which operated from 1973 to 1978 and focused on the persecution of members of the MIR.

The Comando Conjunto competed fiercely with Manuel Contreras's DINA, to the point that at least two agents of the Command were murdered by their own colleagues after it was discovered they were passing information to the other repressive group. "Direct from the Junta" According to the statement, orders to the Comando Conjunto "emanated directly from the commander-in-chief of the Air Force, Gustavo Leigh, and from the Military Junta, which even ordered that all intelligence agencies operate in a centralized manner, from the same office in downtown Santiago." It adds that all personnel involved in the repression "did so by obeying instructions emanating from the highest institutional level (...), and consequently, they acted as soldiers obeying their hierarchical superiors, with the understanding that they were doing so for the greater good of the Fatherland." Until now, the Chilean Armed Forces had argued, at a political and judicial level, that human rights violations were the product of "excesses" committed by certain personnel, without compromising the institutions themselves. The Comando Conjunto functioned until 1978, when Leigh was dismissed following a heated confrontation with Pinochet.

Source: El Mostrador, March 26, 2002

Prosecution of FACh commander for disappearance of communist militant revoked

The Seventh Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals revoked this Monday the indictment against the Air Force health commander, Alejandro Forero Alvarez, for the 1976 disappearance of a communist militant.

As reported by the newspaper "La Segunda," the appellate court also granted the benefit of release on bail—of 500,000 pesos—to the retired general of that same institution, Enrique Ruiz Bunger. The resolution was made by the chamber composed of ministers Rubén Ballesteros, Hugo Dolmestch, and Juan Muñoz Pardo.

Source: emol.cl, May 6, 2002

Former Comando Conjunto chiefs prosecuted for kidnapping, not obstruction

Judge Mario Carroza, who is investigating the alleged re-articulation of the Comando Conjunto, prosecuted Air Force General (R) Enrique Ruiz Bunger and Colonel (R) Juan Francisco Saavedra only as authors of the crime of aggravated kidnapping.

Their victims are the forcibly disappeared Víctor Vega, David Urrutia, Juan Carlos Orellana, and Ricardo Weibel Navarrete. He also prosecuted them for the crime of kidnapping survivors Isabel Stange, Javier Ruiz-Tagle, Amanda Velasco, and María Isabel Calvo.

Enrique Ruiz Bunger, director of intelligence for the repressive agency, had not been prosecuted for these crimes until now, but only for the kidnapping of Alfonso Gaona Chávez, which is being investigated by the Fourth Criminal Court of San Miguel.

In this round of exclusive judges, "El Mono" Saavedra had never been prosecuted; he only had an indictment issued by Minister Carlos Cerda within the framework of the investigation into the so-called "case of the 13." That prosecution was annulled after the Supreme Court applied the amnesty law in that case.

Obstruction of justice Judge Carroza did not prosecute Ruiz Bunger or Saavedra for obstruction of justice, despite the fact that statements by the former agent of the repressive agency, Otto Trujillo—made to La Nación under the pseudonym "Colmillo Blanco"—pointed to both as leaders of the re-articulation of the dangerous organization.

However, he said that "this is not over, the proceedings continue." There are some proceedings that will be carried out in the coming days whose purpose is to verify if there are groups currently operating with the objective of obstructing justice to protect certain people and falsify information to the courts. "As long as I do not issue a resolution defining this, the matter will continue to be investigated," said the magistrate.

It has transpired that everything related to the obstruction of justice is being kept in a secret file. This means that, at least until now, the investigations carried out by the magistrate would not allow for the establishment of well-founded suspicions that former agents of the repressive agency acted by pressuring—through threats or financial compensation—lower-ranking operational agents, including Otto Trujillo, so as not to be linked to the trials.

Ruiz Bunger was placed under house arrest, while Juan Francisco Saavedra will remain at the El Bosque Air Base. The representation of Ruiz Bunger was placed in the hands of lawyer Jorge Balmaceda, and that of Saavedra in the hands of his son, Juan Carlos.

Regarding the interrogation of the former commander-in-chief of the Air Force, Luis Rojas Vender, it transpired that it will not be today, but it is scheduled as one of the proceedings.

Source: elmostrador.cl, September 27, 2002

First prosecutions issued for the death of Rivera Matus

The first indictments for the death and disappearance of Juan Luis Rivera Matus were issued today by the head of the First Criminal Court of Santiago, Joaquín Billard. The magistrate prosecuted Alvaro Corbalán Castilla, who was a member of the Comando Conjunto; Air Force General (R) Enrique Ruiz Bunger; Arturo Madrid, also a member of that repressive entity; and Sergio López Díaz, a former member of the DINE, for the crime of aggravated kidnapping.

Ruiz Bunger had also been prosecuted by Judge Mario Carroza last week as the author of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Víctor Vega, David Urrutia, Juan Carlos Orellana, and Ricardo Weibel Navarrete, who are listed as forcibly disappeared, and of four survivors.

Carroza is also investigating the implications of the alleged re-articulation of the Comando Conjunto recently denounced by former agent Otto Trujillo. Díaz López, meanwhile, is a former Army officer who was part of the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE).

Until the statement of former Comando Conjunto agent Andrés Valenzuela—alias "Papudo"—made in France in January of this year, there was evidence that Rivera Matus had been detained at the Colina military facility, where that repressive agency operated.

The indication was that the detainee had been removed by the DINE after being killed. However, the testimony of "Papudo" allowed for the verification that the person in charge of removing the Chilectra leader from that military facility was Corbalán, who was accompanied by López.

The investigation into the Rivera Matus case has advanced by establishing that his death is a different case from other crimes that occurred during the military regime, as it cannot be attributed to a specific repressive group but rather to individuals who allegedly carried out the crime in isolation.

Because an indictment was never issued in this case for nearly 27 years, the Supreme Court, as a final instance, could not refer to the principle of res judicata. Doubts on the table The name of Juan Luis Rivera Matus appeared in the report delivered by the Armed Forces to the "Mesa de Diálogo" (Dialogue Table), which indicated that his remains had been thrown into the sea.

However, as part of the search for other forcibly disappeared persons substantiated by Minister Amanda Valdovinos, his remains were found at the Army's Justo Arteaga fort in Colina. The discovery was one of the first and most dramatic alerts regarding doubts and inaccuracies in the information compiled by the Armed Forces in that instance.

The remains of the union leader were delivered to his relatives in May of last year: they showed signs of having been burned after death, according to experts from the Legal Medical Service (SML). Rivera Matus was a member of the Communist Party and a union leader at Chilectra.

He was detained on November 6, 1975, at the corner of Santo Domingo and San Antonio by about five people in civilian clothes who put him into a white Peugeot station wagon without license plates. On the same day of his kidnapping, a writ of amparo was filed on his behalf before the Santiago Court of Appeals, which, like almost all similar actions filed during the military regime, was rejected without further processing by the appellate court following a negative report on the detention issued by the Ministry of the Interior.

On May 26, 1976, the case had been provisionally dismissed.

Source: elmostrador.cl, October 4, 2002

Prosecution against former FACH Intelligence chief confirmed

The Sixth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals confirmed the prosecution of the former head of the Air Force Intelligence Directorate, General (R) Enrique Ruiz Bunger, for the case of the forcibly disappeared Juan Luis Rivera Matus.

In a split decision, ministers Alfredo Pfeiffer, Amanda Valdovinos, and the participating lawyer Claudio Díaz dismissed the motion by the retired general's defense, which sought to clear him of the charges issued by Judge Joaquín Billard for the kidnapping of the communist leader.

Minister Valdovinos and participating lawyer Díaz decided to maintain the prosecution; while Minister Pfeiffer was in favor of annulling the sentence, considering that the general had no participation in the events.

The hearings at the appellate court were attended by the plaintiff lawyer in the case, Julia Urquieta; the representative of the Human Rights Program of the Ministry of the Interior, Francisco Bravo; and the defense attorney for General Ruiz Bunger, Jorge Balmaceda.

Also present were the children of Rivera Matus, who, after the ruling was made known, expressed their satisfaction with the judicial resolution of the appellate court. On Friday, October 4, Judge Billard, of the First Criminal Court of Santiago, prosecuted General Ruiz Bunger and three other members of the Comando Conjunto for the kidnapping of Juan Rivera Matus, whose remains appeared in a grave at Fort Arteaga in March 2001.

Along with the former high-ranking officer, the judge prosecuted FACH Commander (R) Carlos Madrid Hayden; Lieutenant (R) Sergio Antonio Díaz López; and Army Commander (R) Alvaro Corbalán Castilla. At the beginning of the week, the Sixth Chamber annulled the prosecution of Díaz López, but on that occasion, the tribunal was composed of ministers Pfeiffer, Valdovinos, and Jorge Zepeda, who was replaced in today's hearing by a participating lawyer.

Rivera Matus was detained in November 1975 by agents of the Comando Conjunto and taken to the Colina Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment, a military unit known as "Remo Cero" by the repressive agencies of the military regime.

The remains of Rivera Matus were found in a grave at the Army's Fort Justo Arteaga by Santiago Court of Appeals Minister Amanda Valdovinos, when she was carrying out proceedings at that military unit in search of a grave of 20 unidentified disappeared persons, according to information provided by the Armed Forces to the Dialogue Table.

The same information mentioned that Rivera Matus, a Chilectra leader who had been missing since November 5, 1975, had been thrown into the sea off the coast of San Antonio. It was the first questioning of the military report.

Source: TVN.cl, October 18, 2002

Former general prosecuted for Rivera Matus case granted freedom

The First Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals granted release on bail to the former commander of the FACH Intelligence Directorate, General (R) Enrique Ruiz Bunger. According to TVN, in a split decision, the appellate court granted the benefit to the military officer prosecuted for his alleged responsibility in the kidnapping of Juan Luis Rivera Matus, whose body was missing for 25 years until it was found at Fort Arteaga.

In this way, the magistrates ratified the decision of the judge of the First Criminal Court, Joaquín Billard, who had granted the benefit upon payment of a 500,000-peso bail. Ruiz Bunger is under house arrest, so this determination will end his preventive detention in the coming hours.

Source: latercera.cl, November 14, 2002

General (R) Ruiz Bunger granted release on bail

The first chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals resolved to grant release on bail to the Chilean Air Force (FACH) General (R) Enrique Ruiz Bunger, who is being prosecuted for the disappearance of communist militant Juan Luis Rivera Matus.

Ruiz Bunger was indicted on October 4 as the author of the aggravated kidnapping of Juan Luis Rivera Matus, who was working as a union leader when he was detained by plainclothes officers on November 6, 1975, as he left work.

According to data provided by the military to the Dialogue Table, his body had been thrown into the sea off the coast of the central littoral. However, in April of last year, Rivera Matus's skeleton was found among the bone remains discovered at an Army military facility, which cast doubt on the veracity of the information collected by the Dialogue Table.

Source: emol.cl, November 18, 2002

Comando Conjunto: Eight former officers prosecuted for kidnapping

The judge with exclusive dedication, Christián Carvajal, prosecuted eight former members of the Comando Conjunto, among them General (R) Enrique Ruiz Bunger, former director of the Air Force Intelligence Directorate (DIFA), and Alvaro Corbalán Castilla, former operational chief of the CNI.

The measure adopted by the head of the Third Criminal Court refers to the disappearance of student Ignacio González Espinoza (24 years old), a member of the Communist Party, on December 4, 1975. Also prosecuted as authors of the aggravated kidnapping were Juan Saavedra Loyola, Sergio Díaz López, Daniel Guimpert (Navy), Manuel Muñoz Gamboa, and the former Navy officer and head of the Counterintelligence Department of the Naval Intelligence Service (SIN), Jorge Osses Novoa.

Otto Trujillo, the well-known "Colmillo Blanco," was indicted as an accomplice. A few days ago, the magistrate—who inherited the cases from the current prosecutor Mario Carroza—prosecuted Alvaro Corbalán and former officer Sergio Díaz López for the aggravated kidnapping of Luis Moraga Cruz and Ricardo Weibel Navarrete, who disappeared on October 20 and November 7, 1975, respectively.

With the decision of the head of the Third Criminal Court of Santiago, it is proven that Corbalán, prior to belonging to the National Intelligence Center (CNI), was part of the DINE, an agency that, within the Comando Conjunto, detained and killed opponents of the military regime.

Corbalán is currently serving a life sentence for his participation in the murder of carpenter Juan Alegría Mondaca, a crime linked to the homicide of the former president of the National Association of Fiscal Employees (ANEF), Tucapel Jiménez Alfaro.

Currently, the retired major remains incarcerated at the Army's No. 1 Military Police Battalion in Santiago, located on the premises of the Army Telecommunications Command in the Peñalolén commune. Also for the disappearance of Weibel, Judge Carvajal has prosecuted former officers and former members of the Comando Conjunto Juan Francisco Saavedra, Enrique Ruiz Bunger, and Viviana Ugarte, "La Pochi," wife of FACH General (R) Patricio Campos.

Last week, the special judge also indicted former Navy officer Jorge Aníbal Osses and FACH Colonel (R) Roberto Serón Cárdenas for the kidnapping of Weibel Navarrete and Luis Moraga Cruz.

Source: lanacion.cl, March 14, 2003

Six former officers prosecuted for human rights case

The head of the Third Criminal Court of Santiago, Graciela Gómez, prosecuted six former officers for their participation in the kidnapping of former communist leader José Weibel and the detention of Carlos Sánchez Cornejo.

The indictment affected former FACH members Enrique Ruiz Bunger, Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, Jorge Rodrigo Combos, and Daniel Luis Guimpert; former Carabineros officer Manuel Muñoz Gamboa; and civilian César Luis Palma Ramírez. They were also prosecuted as authors, along with Alejandro Sáez Mardones, currently incarcerated in the Punta Peuco prison, for the kidnapping of José Weibel.

Source: lanacion.cl, January 30, 2004

Judge issued convictions in three cases of forcibly disappeared persons

The head of the First Criminal Court of Santiago with exclusive dedication to human rights cases, Joaquín Billard, sentenced former CNI operational chief Álvaro Corbalán Castilla to ten years and one day in prison for the aggravated kidnapping and death of Juan Luis Rivera Matus, which occurred in December 1975.

Along with Corbalán, and with the same sentence, former Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE) member Sergio Díaz López was convicted. Meanwhile, in the capacity of accessories, Freddy Ruiz Bunger, head of the Air Force Intelligence Service (SIFA), and Carlos Madrid Hayden received sentences of 600 days of remitted prison.

The notification, in Corbalán's case, was made this morning at Punta Peuco. Sources close to the case indicated that the Army preferred not to transport him to the court to avoid problems following his recent outings.

Juan Luis Rivera Matus was named in the first report of the Dialogue Table as one of the victims of the repression who had been thrown into the sea, along with 131 other people. However, in 2001, his remains appeared on the grounds of the "Justo Arteaga Cuevas" Fort in Peldehue.

For many, this fact destroyed the credibility of this instance. Rivera Matus was a member of the PC and a union leader at Chilectra. He was detained on November 6, 1975, at the corner of Santo Domingo and San Antonio by about five people in civilian clothes who put him into a white Peugeot station wagon without license plates.

On the same day of his kidnapping, a writ of amparo was filed on his behalf before the Santiago Court of Appeals, which, like almost all similar actions filed during the military regime, was rejected without further processing by the appellate court following a negative report on the detention issued by the Ministry of the Interior.

On May 26, 1976, the case had been provisionally dismissed. Other cases But this was not the only sentence issued by the magistrate. He also convicted former DINA agent Osvaldo Romo Mena for the crime of aggravated kidnapping in the person of Jorge Espinoza Méndez, nicknamed "Abel" or "Juancho," whose last traces date back to June 18, 1974.

According to the Rettig Report, Espinoza Méndez was seen by witnesses at the Londres 38 detention center and disappeared while in the custody of the DINA, with no further news of him. The magistrate also sentenced former DINA agents Miguel Krassnoff, Marcelo Moren Brito, Basclay Zapata, and Osvaldo Romo to ten years and one day for the crime of aggravated kidnapping against former MIR militants Elsa Leuthner, María González, Hernán González, and Ricardo Troncoso Muñoz.

The case of Troncoso Muñoz is particular. Before his detention, he had remained in asylum at the Mexican Embassy in Santiago from October 10, 1973, until March 1, 1974, the date on which he left the asylum, desperate due to the delay in being granted a safe-conduct.

Fifteen days later, he was detained by DINA agents. The magistrate is still investigating the case of Juan Suil Faúndez, who was made to disappear by SIFA agents in the mid-seventies. The other two cases the magistrate had, one of them for Operation Colombo, were attached to the file being substantiated by special minister Juan Guzmán Tapia.

With the convictions in these three cases, the path is opened for the Supreme Court to unify the criteria regarding the application of the Amnesty Law. In 1997, it changed the ruling criteria of the Second Criminal Chamber of the highest court, where the application of that legal body was modified and the theory of permanent kidnapping was established.

Source: elmostrador.cl, May 4, 2004

First conviction against FACH general

A sentence of 600 days in prison against the former head of the FACH Intelligence Service, General (R) Enrique Ruiz Bunger, as an accessory to the kidnapping of communist militant Juan Luis Rivera Matus in November 1975, was issued by the head of the First Criminal Court of Santiago, Joaquín Billard.

Although the sentence was issued as "remitted"—meaning it is not served in prison in exchange for periodic identity control—it is the first time a judge has sentenced Ruiz Bunger, one of the organizers of the Comando Conjunto in 1975.

The magistrate also convicted former CNI operational chief, Major (R) Alvaro Corbalán, as the author of the same crime. Likewise, he sentenced former Army officer Sergio Díaz López to ten years as an author.

Former FACH officer Carlos Madrid Heiden was sentenced as an accessory to 600 days of remitted prison. Corbalán has been serving a life sentence for a few days at the Punta Peuco prison for the crime of carpenter Juan Alegría Mundaca, committed by the CNI and the DINE in 1983 to attempt to cover up the murder of union leader Tucapel Jiménez.

In addition, another ten-year prison sentence was issued against him for the homicide of Lisandro Sandoval. The fate of Rivera Matus acquired a special connotation, since it was the first case that cast doubt on the 2001 Armed Forces report on the final fate of 200 forcibly disappeared persons as a result of the human rights dialogue table.

In March 2001, while carrying out excavations at Fort Arteaga in Colina, as a result of information contained in the aforementioned report, Minister Amanda Valdovinos found a complete skeleton, which was finally proven to be the remains of Rivera.

However, he appeared in that report as having been thrown into the sea along with 150 other political prisoners. The kidnapping and homicide of Rivera Matus corresponded to a joint operation between the DINE, for which Corbalán worked in 1975, and the newly formed Comando Conjunto, one of whose promoters was General Ruiz Bunger.

Rivera, a Chilectra worker, was kidnapped and taken to the FACH Colina Regiment, where he remained for a few days. From there, he was taken out by Corbalán and Díaz and driven to the interior of the then-military facility of Peldehue, where he was executed.

The autopsy performed on his remains revealed that the detainee, after being killed, was doused with oil and burned. Rejection of amnesty In 2002, the revelations of Otto Trujillo, "Colmillo Blanco," in La Nación Domingo, pointed to a piece of data that was barely known until then: the collaboration between the DINE and the Comando Conjunto in 1975 to kidnap and murder Juan Luis Rivera Matus.

The information provided by Trujillo was key to the lead followed by Judge Joaquín Billard. This also continued the path opened by Minister Alejandro Solís and did not apply amnesty in favor of those convicted.

Even the defense attorneys for those sentenced argued that Juan Luis Rivera Matus was no longer a forcibly disappeared person since his remains were found at Fort Arteaga in 2001. And that, therefore, the figure of kidnapping as a crime of a permanent nature to reject amnesty could no longer be invoked.

But the judge dismissed these arguments and said that, in that case, the crime continued to be committed beyond March 1978, the date until which the amnesty extends. But the magistrate's fundamental arguments pointed out that these crimes, because they are crimes against humanity, are not subject to amnesty.

Source: lanacion.cl, May 5, 2004

Justice touches the Comando Conjunto

The Comando Conjunto case, a group of State agents and far-right civilians coordinated by the four intelligence agencies of the Armed Forces that operated between 1975 and 1976, has entered its final phase.

It is perhaps one of the most emblematic cases of human rights violations due to the ferocity directed against the victims (nearly 70) and because it is the only case in which all branches of the military participated, although the FACH (Chilean Air Force) and Carabineros were the most involved. In fact, some of its members joined Dicomcar in the 1980s.

The judge with exclusive dedication at the Third Criminal Court of Santiago to investigate the crimes committed by this repressive body, Graciela Gómez, has in recent days issued the first indictments against its agents, those responsible for the kidnapping of Carlos Contreras Maluje, son of the first UP (Popular Unity) intendant in the province of Concepción, former councilman for the commune of Concepción, and leader of the Communist Party.

This is one of the four episodes that divide this process, but it is the most symbolic, because the events surrounding the kidnapping of the leftist militant exposed the acts committed by the CC and provoked the immediate dissolution of the repressive body.

Names Accused as the intellectual authors of the kidnapping were FACH General (Ret.) Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger and Colonel (Ret.) of the same institution Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola. Meanwhile, accused as material authors were Alejandro Sáez Mardones (currently serving a sentence for the "degollados" case), Jorge Cobos Manríquez (alias ‘Kiko’ and FACH Lieutenant (Ret.)), Daniel Guimpert Corvalán (retired Navy Lieutenant), César Palma Ramírez (alias ‘Fifo’, a civilian formerly of Patria y Libertad and mentioned in at least 15 murders), and Manuel Muñoz Gamboa (alias ‘Lolo’, a retired Carabineros Major who was also convicted in the "degollados" case).

Ruiz Bunger was in charge of FACH Intelligence and was a trusted man of the then-Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force and member of the Military Junta, General Gustavo Leigh, whom he accompanied when the latter was dismissed by General Augusto Pinochet in 1978.

The events In her resolution, Judge Gómez reaches the conviction that the agents kidnapped Contreras Maluje and, after torturing him, used him to set up an operation where they intended to capture other communist militants.

On November 2, 1976, after obtaining information provided by another detainee under torture, the agents intercepted him on Calle Nataniel and forcibly took him to the detention center known as La Firma (located on Calle Dieciocho, where the offices of the newspaper Clarín previously operated).

After subjecting him to illegal duress, the former councilman offered to take the agents to a place where they could capture another communist militant. But Contreras Maluje’s plans were different. As established, the following day the CC set up an operation on Calle Nataniel.

Upon arriving at the scene, the judge states, Contreras Maluje “managed to elude his guards and threw himself into the path of a public transport vehicle traveling south on Calle Nataniel, becoming injured as a result of the impact, notwithstanding which he requested help from passersby and a Carabineros officer.” He said he was being kidnapped, but the officers could do nothing because a vehicle with license plate EG-588 appeared, which was later proven to belong to the FACH and was for the exclusive use of Ruiz Bunger, the head of FACH Intelligence.

Its occupants identified themselves as DINA agents. Nothing more was heard of Contreras Maluje.

Source: lanacion.cl, November 24, 2004

Seven former members of the Comando Conjunto convicted

Judge Juan Fuentes Belmar today handed down various sentences to seven former members of the Comando Conjunto responsible for the disappearance, in November 1976, of communist leader Carlos Contreras Maluje, judicial sources reported.

In his resolution, the magistrate did not apply the Amnesty Law issued in 1978 by former dictator Augusto Pinochet, but did apply the gradual prescription of the sentence, taking March 11, 1990—the date of the return to democracy—as the end date of the qualified kidnapping.

The first-instance convictions affect four retired officers of the Air Force (FACH), one former member of the Navy, and two from Carabineros, members of this group of State agents and far-right civilians coordinated by the four intelligence agencies of the Armed Forces that operated between 1975 and 1976.

The judge sentenced the director of the FACH Intelligence Service, Freddy Ruiz Bunger, Colonel Juan Saavedra Loyola, Navy officer Daniel Guimpert, and former Carabineros officer Manuel Muñoz Gamboa to three years of suspended prison (served in freedom).

The same sentence, but with nighttime incarceration, was given to former FACH member César Palma Ramírez and retired police officer Alejandro Sáez Mardones, who has been serving another sentence for human rights violations in prison since August 2003.

In that sense, he also sentenced former FACH Captain Jorge Cobos Manríquez to three years and one day in prison.

Finally, Fuentes Belmar dismissed a civil lawsuit against the State filed by the victim's family lawyer, Nelson Caucoto.

The case of Carlos Contreras Maluje was one of the few in which the Court of Appeals of the time accepted a writ of amparo (habeas corpus) filed by his family after his detention.

On November 2, 1976, Contreras Maluje, then 29 years old, a former councilman of Concepción and a pharmaceutical chemist by profession, was detained by Comando Conjunto agents and taken to the facility known as "La Firma" (located on Calle Dieciocho, where the offices of the newspaper Clarín previously operated), where he was tortured.

Subsequently, according to the Rettig Report, the leader was taken by the agents to a place where Contreras was supposedly going to make a contact, on Calle Nataniel, at which point he threw himself under the wheels of a bus, shouting his name and his kidnapping situation.

Immediately, the agents took him back to the "La Firma" facility and executed him that same night on a road near Santiago, where his remains were clandestinely buried without having been found to this day.

Source: lanacion.cl, November 30, 2005

Court increased sentences for former Comando Conjunto agents

The Seventh Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals increased the sentences of two members of the former Comando Conjunto, including its creator, FACH General (Ret.) Enrique Ruiz Bunger, for the 1975 kidnapping of communist militant Juan Luis Rivera Matus.

Ruiz Bunger’s sentence was increased from 600 days to 10 years, and that of the former agent and now retired FACH Colonel, Carlos Madrid Haydn, by the same proportion. Both also had their status changed from accessory to author.

The chamber maintained the 10-year prison sentence for Army Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.) Sergio Díaz López, but reduced the sentence of former agent and head of the CNI Metropolitan Brigade, Major (Ret.) Álvaro Corbalán, from 15 to 10 years.

Judge Jorge Zepeda cast the minority vote, as he was in favor of sentencing the four former agents to only three years "for humanitarian reasons." In this sense, Judge Zepeda has been criticized by plaintiff lawyers for the low sentences he applies for crimes against humanity, although he is not in favor of applying amnesty.

The majority vote was formed by Judge Jorge Dahm and lawyer member Victoria Valencia. The first-instance sentence was issued by Judge Joaquín Billard.

Rivera Matus’s remains were found in 2001 while the bodies of the disappeared from La Moneda were being searched for in the Peldehue area, where the Army’s Fuerte Arteaga is located today, by order of the Supreme Court, according to data received by the Dialogue Table in 2000.

Source: lanacion.cl, June 28, 2006

Supreme Court reduces sentences for the homicide of Juan Rivera Matus

The highest court accepted the appeal in cassation filed by the defense of the retired military officers convicted for the crime of the former communist leader.

The Second Chamber of the Supreme Court considerably reduced the sentences imposed for the qualified homicide of communist leader Juan Rivera Matus, who disappeared in November 1975 at the hands of members of the Comando Conjunto.

The highest court sentenced retired Chilean Air Force (FACH) General Enrique Ruiz Bunger and FACH Commander (Ret.) Arturo Madrid Hayden to suspended prison sentences.

For the same crime, former CNI operational chief Álvaro Corbalán Castilla and officer (Ret.) Sergio Díaz López, a former member of the DINE, were sentenced to four years in prison.

The latter was granted the benefit of supervised release, while in Corbalán’s case, the sentence must be served effectively.

In the second-instance ruling, the Seventh Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals had sentenced the four former military officers to ten years.

Rivera Matus, 52 at the time of his disappearance, was married and had seven children. He worked as an electrical technician at Chilectra, where he was also a union leader.

He was detained on November 6, 1975, by five men in civilian clothes as he left work.

The Rivera Matus case is considered one of the most emblematic regarding human rights violations, as it revealed the inaccuracy of the information provided by the Armed Forces to the Dialogue Table.

Although the military branches included him on a list of detainees whose bodies had been thrown into the sea, Judge Amanda Valdovinos determined that his remains had been buried at the Army’s Fuerte Arteaga, in Colina.

Source: elmostrador.cl, July 30, 2007

Judge in the Víctor Jara case acquits six FACH military officers

Visiting Judge Juan Fuentes Belmar applied the statute of limitations and lack of participation to the members of the Chilean Air Force Intelligence Service (SIFA), also releasing civilian official César Palma Rodríguez from charges.

The leadership of the so-called Air Force Intelligence Service (SIFA) was cleared of charges in the trial against them for the kidnapping of former Communist Party (PC) militant Carol Flores Castillo and the murder of Comando Conjunto member Guillermo Bratti Cornejo.

This occurred after visiting Judge Juan Fuentes, the same judge investigating the murder of singer-songwriter Víctor Jara, dismissed the charges against the six military officers involved in these crimes, as well as civilian official César Palma Rodríguez.

These are FACH Generals (Ret.) Edgar Cevallo Jones, Roberto Serón Cárdenas, Juan Luis López López, Freddy Ruiz Bunger, Juan Saavedra Loyola, and Daniel Guimpert Corvalán.

The first three were released because the magistrate deemed there was a lack of participation, while for the rest, he applied the statute of limitations to the criminal action. He decreed the same regarding the civilian.

This ruling left several human rights-related organizations concerned, especially because the criterion of the expiration of criminal action was applied by the judge who is currently investigating the crime of Víctor Jara, as well as other investigations linked to crimes against humanity.

Sources close to the case indicated that this sentence will be appealed to the Court so that those responsible may be convicted.

In the same vein, the magistrate dismissed the compensation claims for the victims' families, similarly accepting the statute of limitations for the civil action for the families of Flores and Bratti.

Carol Flores Castillo was a PC militant until 1974. That year, he was detained along with his brothers and taken to the Air War Academy (AGA). In this facility, occupied by the dictatorship’s repressive bodies, he was allegedly brutally tortured and then released.

Witnesses, in the Rettig Report, declared that after this episode, Flores began to collaborate with the SIFA, denouncing PC comrades, which coincides with a series of arrests of communist militants during this period. However, in June 1976, he disappeared.

Former FACH member Andrés Valenzuela Morales declared in the proceedings that he knew that SIFA members took Flores to the Cajón del Maipo and disposed of his body.

This was because they had allegedly found out that he was providing information to the DINA about what the command was doing. This deeply annoyed those in charge of the AGA.

The same conduct, according to this witness, was imputed to officer Guillermo Bratti, the victim in this judicial case. Before the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, Andrés Valenzuela stated that both Flores and Bratti were executed because there was a "version that they had given information we possessed to the DINA, which carried out operations harming our group (Comando Conjunto).

The DINA, according to the statements of the detained agents, had offered them more money, a vehicle, and a house."

Source: lanacion.cl, August 1, 2009

Supreme Court issues sentence for human rights case

Ministers of the Second Chamber of the highest court definitively convicted former members of the FACH Intelligence Service for the qualified kidnapping of Humberto Fuentes Rodríguez.

The Supreme Court issued a final sentence in the investigation into the qualified kidnapping of Humberto Fuentes Rodríguez, a detained-disappeared person since November 1975 in the city of Santiago.

In a split decision, the ministers of the Second Chamber of the highest court, Jaime Rodríguez, Rubén Ballesteros, Hugo Dolmestch, Carlos Künsemüller, and lawyer member Alberto Chaigneau determined the sanctions indicated against those responsible for these crimes attributed to personnel of the SIFA (Air Force Intelligence Service).

The court sentenced César Palma Ramírez to 5 years in prison for his responsibility as an author, without benefits; Freddy Ruiz Bunger to 5 years in prison for his responsibility as an author, granting him supervised release. The same sentence was given to Juan Saavedra Loyola, Eduardo Cartagena Maldonado, and Manuel Muñoz Gamboa.

Meanwhile, Otto Trujillo Miranda was sentenced to 541 days in prison for his responsibility as an accomplice, granting him the benefit of conditional remission.

Daniel Guimpert Corvalán was acquitted due to lack of participation.

In the civil aspect, the Treasury was ordered to pay compensation for moral damages of $80 million to Humberto Fuentes Godoy, the victim’s son.

In this aspect, the sentence was determined with the dissenting vote of ministers Ballesteros and Rodríguez, who were in favor of accepting the plea of absolute incompetence of the court.

Source: lanacion.cl, April 27, 2010

FACH General (Ret.) serving sentence in Punta Peuco passes away

This is Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger, who suffered from multisystemic cancer and was hospitalized at the Chilean Air Force Clinical Hospital.

On Thursday afternoon, the death of Air Brigade General (Ret.) Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger was confirmed; he was serving a sentence in Punta Peuco for illicit association and qualified kidnapping.

Ruiz Bunger, 93, suffered from terminal multisystemic cancer, for which he had been hospitalized at the Chilean Air Force Clinical Hospital for almost five months.

As had transpired, his lawyers had presented an appeal to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights "so that he would be granted the right to die with dignity in his home together with his loved ones," since the Chilean justice system had allegedly denied him the benefit.

This event occurs after, during the current week, following an interview by President Michelle Bachelet on Canal 13, doubts resurfaced regarding a possible closure of the prison facility before Sebastián Piñera assumes the presidency.

Taking that into account, the lawyer representing 80 of the prison’s inmates, Raúl Meza, indicated to La Tercera that they have "the deep conviction that the general’s death arrives as a very powerful signal in favor of the elderly, chronically ill, and terminally ill prisoners serving sentences in the Punta Peuco prison, especially at a time when the President continues to think about the possibility of closing it, 3 days before leaving power."

"President Bachelet, we make a supplicant humanitarian call for you to allow elderly prisoners, many with chronic and terminal illnesses, to continue serving their sentences with dignity in the Punta Peuco prison.

We want the human rights of elderly prisoners not to continue being violated, and for the Inter-American Convention on the Protection of the Human Rights of Older Persons, which you signed during your government, to be respected," he stated.

Source: latercera.cl, March 8, 2018

Detention ordered for two Air Force officers (Ret.)

Resolution involves the former head of Air Force intelligence, General (Ret.) Enrique Ruiz Bunger.

The judge of the Third Criminal Court, Mario Carroza, who is investigating the alleged re-articulation of the "Comando Conjunto," prosecuted the former head of Air Force intelligence, General (Ret.) Enrique Ruiz Bunger, and the only detainee in the case, Colonel (Ret.) Juan Francisco Saavedra, as authors of various crimes of kidnapping.

The magistrate indicted Ruiz and Saavedra in three different resolutions. In one of them, he accuses them of being "co-authors of the crime of qualified kidnapping" committed against the persons of Ricardo Weibel Navarrete, which occurred on November 7, 1975; and Juan Orellana Catalán, which occurred on June 8, 1976.

A second resolution refers to the kidnapping of David Urrutia Galaz, who was detained in December 1975, and whose whereabouts have been unknown since January 1976.

The third resolution refers to repeated crimes of kidnapping of Víctor Vega Riquelme, Isabel Stange Espínola, Jaime Estay Reyno, Amanda Velasco Pedersen, and María Eugenia Calvo Vega, previously classified by the judge of the 25th Criminal Court of Santiago, Carlos Hazbún.

BUNGER WAS DETAINED

General (Ret.) Ruiz Bunger will remain detained in his home by order of the magistrate, and Colonel (Ret.) Saavedra, meanwhile, will remain in the same place where he has been held until now, the El Bosque Air Base.

Asked if the resolution also included the crime of torture, Carroza stated that "kidnapping does not only relate to the detention of the person, the illegitimate deprivation of liberty, but we are talking about people who were detained, interrogated, tortured, and then disappeared."

The magistrate maintained that the investigations into the case will continue and that the next steps he takes will be aimed at investigating the possible crime of obstruction of justice and the crime of illicit association, which members of the "Comando Conjunto" may have committed.

"I think we have to continue investigating. We are talking about an investigation that is just beginning, we cannot be making assumptions or taking situations as defined. I think this step we are taking is a first step that had to be taken, and to immediately establish what the responsibilities were, but obviously there are other crimes that must continue to be investigated," he declared.

He also said that within the framework of his investigation, he received cooperation from the Air Force.

Source: mercuriovalpo.cl, September 28, 2002

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

The appellate court confirmed the challenged sentence, which sentenced Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger, Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, and Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa to 18-year prison terms, plus legal accessories, as authors of the crimes of qualified kidnapping.

In a split decision, the Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced former "Comando Conjunto" agents 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.

Crimes committed between October 15, 1975, and July 15, 1976.

The appellate court confirmed the challenged 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-year prison terms, plus legal accessories, as authors 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 6-year prison term, plus legal accessories, as author 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 authors 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 Bunger.

The sentence maintains that regarding the prescription and amnesty alleged by all the defendants, it should be specified that these chapters are duly treated 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 prescription, it is not yet possible to begin counting the term given the permanent nature of the crime and the situation of one against humanity that prevents its application.

It also says that the mitigating factors of criminal responsibility alleged are analyzed in the ruling under review and that this court shares in their application.

In the civil aspect, the sentence that ordered the Treasury to pay a total compensation of $1,520,000,000 to the victims' families was ratified.

Decision adopted with the dissenting vote of lawyer Herrera Fuenzalida, who points out: A) Regarding the criminal sanction, she was of the opinion to accept what was referred to the partial prescription of the criminal action and consequently reduce the imposed sentence, making its effects applicable to all those convicted, since gradual prescription constitutes a qualified mitigating factor of criminal responsibility, the effects of which influence the determination of the quantum of the corporal sanction, independent of prescription, with different foundations and consequences.

Thus, this is also explained thanks to the 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 an attenuated 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 civil actions, she was in favor of rejecting them and accepting the payment exception deduced by the Treasury of Chile, understanding that these have already been paid, due to the reparatory nature of the compensation given 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 face the extra-contractual responsibility of the latter, 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 ends, the mentioned law, together with No. 19.980, contemplates direct payment in money to human rights victims, as it is to their children, whose case is the one in these records, together with other reparations, such as those through the assignment of rights over state benefits and symbolic reparations, all with the same reparatory object. Then, it is evident that all those legal benefits have the same foundation and equal reparatory purpose of moral damage as the compensation claimed in these records.

Source: pjud.cl, April 11, 2019

Supreme Court confirms conviction of former Comando Conjunto members for the 1976 crime of a municipal worker in La Granja

The Supreme Court rejected the appeals in cassation filed by the defenses against the sentence that convicted members of the repressive body known as Comando Conjunto for their responsibility in the consummated crime of qualified kidnapping of municipal employee Ulises Jorge Merino Varas, perpetrated starting February 2, 1976, in the commune of La Granja.

Ulises Merino Varas, 33 years old, married, one child, was a militant of the Communist Party and worked as an inspector in the Traffic Directorate of the La Granja municipality. On February 2, 1976, around 2:30 PM, he was detained by repressive agents of the Comando Conjunto in the vicinity of the aforementioned municipality.

Later, the detainee was taken to the detention and torture centers of this body known as 'Remo Cero', 'La Firma', the 24th Carabineros Precinct of Las Condes, and the 'Casa de Solteros'. At the end of April 1976, Merino Varas was transferred again to 'La Firma', with his whereabouts unknown since that date.

In a unanimous ruling (case roll 3.989-2022), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of minister Manuel Antonio Valderrama, ministers María Teresa Letelier, María Cristina Gajardo, and lawyers (i) Leonor Etcheberry and Andrea Ruiz—confirmed the sentence that convicted Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola to 10 years in prison; Daniel Luis Enrique Guimpert Corvalán and Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa to 8 years in prison; and Francisco Segundo Illanes Miranda, Ernesto Lobos Gálvez, and Alejandro Segundo Sáez Mardones to 6 years of effective prison, as authors of the crime.

Other implicated parties, some prosecuted and convicted, died in the course of the process.

In the resolution, the Criminal Chamber invalidated the challenged sentence ex officio and, in a replacement sentence, revoked it in the part that convicted Saavedra Loyola, Guimpert Corvalán, Muñoz Gamboa, Illanes Miranda, Lobos Gálvez, and Sáez Mardones as authors of the crime of illicit association.

Comando Conjunto

The so-called Comando Conjunto was a military-style, hierarchical, and disciplined intelligence group, conceived by the Air Force commands as a way to maintain the dispute with the DINA for the monopoly and authorship of the repressive actions intended to destroy leftist organizations and the resistance to the dictatorship.

From the military coup at the end of 1974, this dispute with the DINA was represented by the Air Force Intelligence Service (SIFA) and its criminal actions at the Air War Academy (AGA), which was converted into a detention and torture barracks for political prisoners.

Later, the FACH invented this Comando Conjunto that operated between the years 1975 and 1976, made up of agents belonging to the intelligence groups of the Air Force, Carabineros, the Navy, and the Army, plus civilian individuals coming from the fascist far-right.

The main objective of this entity was the repression of the Communist Youth and the Communist Party, for which they proceeded to detain people linked to said party, who were kidnapped, interrogated, and physically and psychologically tortured to obtain information.

Subsequently, the detained people could be released, or transferred to some concentration camp for prisoners, or transferred to an unknown destination to make them disappear, or murdered.

At the time of the events, the repressive entity operated under the command of Air Brigade General Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger and commanders Antonio Benedicto Quirós Reyes (both deceased), and Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, and had, among others, the mission of dismantling the Communist Party and its Youth.

For the commission of its crimes, this repressive apparatus had its headquarters in the building located at Calle Juan Antonio Ríos No. 6 in the commune of Santiago, called 'JAR-6', and used as detention and torture centers the facilities 'Remo Cero', situated in the Colina Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment with the name 'Cárcel La Prevención'; 'La Firma', located on Calle Dieciocho in front of No. 229 of the commune of Santiago, which corresponded to the place where the former newspaper El Clarín operated, which was seized by Carabineros, being named La Firma until the end of 1976.

To these are added the 'Casa de Solteros', located at Calle Bellavista No. 125 of the commune of Providencia, and the 24th Carabineros Precinct, situated at Calle Las Tranqueras No. 840 of the commune of Las Condes; the Casa de Apoquindo, the Hangar at the Cerrillos Airport, Nido 18, and Nido 20, which were properties that had been seized from militants of persecuted political parties.

by Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl, May 20, 2025