Justices of the Second Chamber of the high court have definitively convicted former members of the FACh Intelligence Service for the aggravated kidnapping of Humberto Fuentes Rodríguez. The Supreme Court issued a final ruling in the investigation into the aggravated kidnapping of Humberto Fuentes Rodríguez, who has been forcibly disappeared since November 1975 in the city of Santiago.

In a split decision, the justices of the Second Chamber of the high court, Jaime Rodríguez, Rubén Ballesteros, Hugo Dolmestch, Carlos Künsemüller, and acting attorney 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 a perpetrator, without benefits; and Freddy Ruiz Bunguer to 5 years in prison for his responsibility as a perpetrator, granting him supervised release.

The same sentence was handed down 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, with the benefit of conditional remission granted.

Daniel Guimpert Corvalán was acquitted due to lack of participation. In the civil aspect, the State was ordered to pay 80 million pesos in compensation for moral damages to Humberto Fuentes Godoy, the victim's son.

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

Source: lanacion.cl, April 27, 2010

Judge in Víctor Jara case acquits six FACh military personnel

Visiting Judge Juan Fuentes Belmar applied the statute of limitations and cited a lack of participation regarding members of the Chilean Air Force Intelligence Service (SIFA), also clearing civil servant César Palma Rodríguez of charges.

The leadership of the so-called Air Force Intelligence Service (SIFA) was cleared of charges in the trial held 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 personnel involved in these crimes, as well as those against civil servant César Palma Rodríguez.

These individuals are retired FACh Generals Edgar Cevallo Jones, Roberto Serón Cárdenas, Juan Luis López López, Freddy Ruiz Bunguer, Juan Saavedra Loyola, and Daniel Guimpert Corvalán. The first three were cleared because the magistrate deemed there was a lack of participation, while for the others, he applied the statute of limitations to the criminal action.

The same was decreed regarding the civilian. This ruling left several human rights 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 inquiries 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 claims for compensation for the victims' families, similarly accepting the statute of limitations for 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 transferred to the Air War Academy (AGA). In this facility, occupied by the dictatorship's repressive agencies, he was reportedly brutally tortured and later 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, he disappeared in June 1976. Former FACh member Andrés Valenzuela Morales declared during the proceedings that he knew members of the SIFA took Flores to the Cajón del Maipo and disposed of his body.

This was allegedly because they had learned that he was providing information to the DINA about the command's activities. This deeply angered those in charge of the AGA. The same conduct, according to this witness, was attributed to officer Guillermo Bratti, a 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 provided 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 allegedly offered them more money, a vehicle, and a house."

Source: lanacion.cl, August 1, 2009

Court of Appeals issues conviction against former Comando Conjunto agents

The Santiago Court of Appeals confirmed yesterday the conviction for the aggravated kidnapping of Humberto Fuentes Rodríguez, which occurred in 1975. In a unanimous ruling, the justices of the Sixth Chamber, Jorge Dahm, Joaquín Billard, and acting attorney Nelson Pozo, ratified the ruling issued by Judge Juan Fuentes Belmar on September 29, 2006, but modified the sentences against the agents of the so-called Comando Conjunto.

Thus, Freddy Ruiz and Juan Francisco Saavedra were sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison; Manuel Muñoz, Eduardo Cartagena, and César Palma were sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison; and Otto Trujillo to 3 years and one day in prison. Meanwhile, Daniel Guimpert was acquitted due to lack of participation.

Source: lanacion.cl, December 12, 2008

Court ratifies conviction against six former military personnel for aggravated kidnapping. The 10-year and one-day sentence decreed against the retired FACh general stands out.

In a unanimous ruling, the VI Chamber of the appellate court ratified the ten-year and one-day prison sentence for retired General Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger and for Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola. Manuel Muñoz Gamboa, Eduardo Cartagena Maldonado, and César Palma were sentenced to five years and one day in prison, and Otto Trujillo Miranda to three years and one day, while former Navy officer Daniel Guimpert Corbalán was acquitted after his lack of participation was proven.

The convictions relate to the case of Humberto Fuentes Rodríguez, a councilman for the Santiago municipality of Renca and a Communist Party militant, detained at the end of 1975 by agents of the Comando Conjunto, a repressive organization that brought together members of various armed institutions and the police.

According to testimonies, Fuentes, 59, was detained at his home by Comando Conjunto agents on November 4, 1975, after which he was taken to the Colina air base, a town north of Santiago. At the end of that year, he was taken from the base along with other detainees and placed, drugged, into a helicopter to be thrown into the sea.

However, he regained consciousness during the flight, so an Army commando unit participating in the operation struck him on the head with an iron bar, opened his stomach with a combat knife, and threw him into the sea from a high altitude.

The court's ruling also accepted the claim filed by the victim's son and ordered the State to pay 80 million pesos in compensation for the moral damage caused by the disappearance of Humberto Fuentes. The convicted individuals were not granted any alternative benefits, so they must enter prison to serve the imposed sentences.

Source: emol.cl, December 11, 2008

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 statute of limitations for the sentence, taking March 11, 1990—the date of the return to democracy—as the end date of the aggravated kidnapping.

The first-instance convictions affect four retired Air Force (FACH) officers, one former Navy member, and two Carabineros, all members of this group of State agents and far-right civilians coordinated by the four intelligence agencies of the Armed Forces, which 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 Carabinero officer Manuel Muñoz Gamboa to three years of suspended prison (served in freedom).

The same sentence, but with nighttime confinement, 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 and have not been found to this day.

Source: lanacion.cl, November 30, 2005

Justice reaches 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 emblematic human rights violation trials due to the ferocity directed at the victims (nearly 70) and because it is the only case in which all branches of the military participated, although the most involved were the FACH and the Carabineros.

In fact, some of its members joined the Dicomcar in the 1980s. Graciela Gómez, the judge with exclusive dedication at the Third Criminal Court of Santiago to investigate the crimes committed by this repressive organization, issued the first indictments in recent days against its agents, those responsible for the kidnapping of Carlos Contreras Maluje, son of the first UP 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 trial, 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 organization.

Names Retired FACH General Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger and retired Colonel of the same institution Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola were accused as the intellectual authors of the kidnapping. Meanwhile, Alejandro Sáez Mardones (currently serving a sentence for the "degollados" case), Jorge Cobos Manríquez (alias ‘Kiko’ and retired FACH lieutenant), 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) were accused as material authors. 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 he was dismissed by General Augusto Pinochet in 1978. The facts In her resolution, Judge Gómez reached 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, despite which he asked for help from passersby and a Carabinero officer.” He said he was kidnapped, but the officers could not do anything 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, head of FACH Intelligence. Its occupants identified themselves as DINA agents. Nothing more was heard of Contreras Maluje.

Source: lanacion.cl, November 24, 2004

Six former uniformed personnel prosecuted in human rights case

The head of the Third Criminal Court of Santiago, Graciela Gómez, prosecuted six former uniformed personnel 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 Carabinero Manuel Muñoz Gamboa; and civilian César Luis Palma Ramírez. They were also prosecuted as authors, along with Alejandro Sáez Mardones, currently incarcerated in Punta Peuco prison, for the kidnapping of José Weibel.

Source: lanacion.cl, January 30, 2004

Comando Conjunto: Eight former officers prosecuted for kidnapping

Judge with exclusive dedication Christián Carvajal prosecuted eight former members of the Comando Conjunto, among them retired General 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 Communist Party militant, 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 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" (White Fang), was charged as an accomplice. A few days ago, the magistrate—who inherited the cases from the current prosecutor Mario Carroza—prosecuted Alvaro Corbalán and former uniformed 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 Information Center (CNI), was part of the DINE, an organization 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 Number 1 Military Police Battalion in Santiago, located on the premises of the Army Telecommunications Command in the commune of Peñalolén. Also for the disappearance of Weibel, Judge Carvajal has prosecuted former uniformed personnel and former members of the Comando Conjunto Juan Francisco Saavedra, Enrique Ruiz Bunger, and Viviana Ugarte, "La Pochi," wife of retired FACH General Patricio Campos.

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

Source: lanacion.cl, March 14, 2003

Former Comando Conjunto chiefs prosecuted for kidnapping, not for obstruction

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

Their victims are the 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 of the repressive organization, 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, having only been charged by Justice Carlos Cerda in 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 the statements of the former agent of the repressive organization, 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 has not ended, 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 kept in a secret file. This means that, at least until now, the inquiries carried out by the magistrate would not allow for the establishment of well-founded suspicions that former agents of the repressive organization acted by pressuring—through threats or financial compensation—the lower-ranking operational agents, including Otto Trujillo, to avoid being 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: elmostrado.cl, September 27, 2002

12 members of the “Comando Conjunto” sentenced for illicit association and the disappearances of Nicomedes Toro and Raúl Montoya

The extraordinary visiting judge for human rights violation cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Leopoldo Llanos Sagristá, issued a sentence this Friday against 12 members of the so-called “Comando Conjunto” for their responsibility in the crimes of illicit association and repeated aggravated kidnapping, offenses perpetrated in 1975 and 1976, respectively.

The former agents Enrique Ruiz Bunger, Antonio Quirós Reyes, Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, Daniel Guimpert Corvalán, Manuel Muñoz Gamboa, César Palma Ramírez, Raúl González Fernández, Juan Aravena Hurtuvia, Eduardo Lobos Gálvez, and Miguel Estay Reyno were sentenced to 18 years in prison as authors of the crime of illicit association, perpetrated starting in 1975; and for the aggravated kidnappings of Nicomedes Toro Bravo and Raúl Montoya Vilches, offenses committed starting on July 28, 1976, and July 21, 1976, respectively.

Meanwhile, agent Otto Trujillo Miranda must serve 10 years and one day for illicit association and for the aggravated kidnapping of Montoya Vilches; and Viviana Ugarte Sandoval was sentenced to 7 years in prison as an author of illicit association and an accomplice in both kidnappings.

The investigation successfully established that during the years 1975 and 1976, the repressive organization “Comunidad de Inteligencia,” later known as the “Comando Conjunto,” operated, composed of members from different branches of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, as well as some civilians who were former members of the anti-Marxist group known as “Patria y Libertad.” Furthermore, it was proven that the illegal repressive organization operated in clandestine centers for political imprisonment and torture, known as “Nido 20” (at the 20th stop of Gran Avenida) and “Nido 18” (at the 18th stop of Vicuña Mackenna); and subsequently, from October or November 1975, in “Remo 0,” located inside the Colina Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment of the Chilean Air Force (hereinafter, FACH).

Finally, at the beginning of 1976, the operational agents moved from this last location—excluding members of the Army, who distanced themselves from the organization at that time—to the “La Firma” barracks, located at 18 de Septiembre street in downtown Santiago, near the 200 block, in the building of the former newspaper “El Clarín.”

In the case of Nicomedes Toro Bravo, the testimony of his personal friend Benito Pascual Arias, a survivor of “La Firma” on 18 de Septiembre street, was vital. Pascual testified to having been confronted with the prisoner, who remains forcibly disappeared to this day.

Nicomedes Toro (father) and his daughter Sonia were also detained, where they heard the voice and screams of Nicomedes Toro (son) at the moments he was undergoing torture.

In the case of Raúl Montoya, it was revealed that in the days prior to his detention, he had met with an agent who performed duties for both the Comando Conjunto and the DINA, named Otto Trujillo, who offered to provide him with information regarding the whereabouts of forcibly disappeared persons in exchange for money.

Following that, he was detained on July 21, 1976, and remains forcibly disappeared to this day.

Source: eldesconcierto.cl, August 12, 2016

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29 former agents of the Comando Conjunto sentenced for the kidnapping and homicide of members of the Communist Youth

The Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced 29 former agents of the Comando Conjunto for their responsibility in the kidnapping and aggravated homicide of five members of the Communist Youth.

As detailed in the ruling by visiting judge Miguel Vázquez, the victims are former militants Ricardo Manuel Weibel Navarrete, Juan René Orellana Catalán, Luis Desiderio Moraga Cruz, Ignacio Orlando González Espinoza, and Luis Emilio Gerardo Maturana González, murdered between October 1975 and June 1976 in Santiago.

See the full list of those sentenced below:

• Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola: 18 years in prison; 13 years in prison and 3 years in prison.
• Manuel Agustin Muñoz Gamboa: 18 years in prison; 13 years in prison and 3 years in prison.
• Daniel Guimpert Corvalán: 18 years in prison; 12 years in prison and 3 years in prison.
• Antonio Quiros Reyes: 18 years in prison; 6 years in prison and 540 days in prison.
• Raúl González Fernández: 10 years and one day in prison; 10 years and one day in prison and 400 days in prison.
• Roberto Flores Cisterna: 10 years and one day in prison; 5 years and one day in prison and 400 days in prison.
• Carlos Rodrigo Villarreal: 10 years and one day in prison; 5 years and one day in prison and 400 days in prison.
• Alejandro Sáez Mardones: 10 years and one day in prison; 10 years and one day in prison and 400 days in prison.
• Jorge Osses Novoa: 12 years in prison; 10 years and one day in prison and 400 days in prison.
• Sergio Díaz López: 12 years in prison; 10 years and one day in prison and 400 days in prison.
• Álvaro Corbalán Castilla: 12 years in prison; 10 years and one day in prison and 400 days in prison.
• Lenin Figueroa Sánchez: 5 years and one day in prison; 5 years and one day in prison; 400 days in prison.
• Miguel Estay Reyno: 5 years in prison; 5 years and one day in prison; 400 days in prison.
• Sergio Valenzuela Morales: 5 years in prison; 5 years and one day in prison; 400 days in prison.
• Juan Aravena Hurtuvia: 5 years in prison; 5 years and one day in prison; 400 days in prison.
• Ernesto Lobos Gálvez: 5 years and one day in prison; 60 days in prison.
• Alejandro Forero Álvarez: 5 years and one day in prison; 60 days in prison.
• Viviana Ugarte Sandoval: 5 years and one day in prison; 400 days in prison.
• Andrés Potin Laihacar: 5 years and one day in prison; 400 days in prison.
• Emilio Mahias del Río: 5 years and one day in prison; 400 days in prison.
• Juan López López: 5 years and one day in prison; 400 days in prison.
• Evaristo Rojas Alruiz: 5 years and one day in prison; 400 days in prison.
• Francisco Illanes Saavedra: 5 years and one day in prison; 400 days in prison.
• Roberto Serón Contreras: 5 years and one day.
• Otto Trujillo Miranda: 10 years and one day in prison.
• Robinson Suazo Jaque: 4 years in prison and 60 days in prison.
• Pedro Caamaño Medina: 4 years in prison and 60 days in prison.
• Pedro Zambrano Uribe: 4 years in prison and 60 days in prison.
• José Alvarado Alvarado: 4 years in prison and 60 days in prison.

Source: theclinic.cl, October 8, 2019

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Supreme Court sentences seven former Comando Conjunto agents for homicide

The Second Chamber of the Supreme Court sentenced seven former agents of the so-called Comando Conjunto for the aggravated homicide of Carlos Humberto Contreras Maluje, which occurred on November 2, 1976, in the city of Santiago.

In a split decision, a sentence of three years and one day was issued against Freddy Ruiz Bunguer, Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, Daniel Giumpert Corvalán, César Palma Ramírez, Manuel Muñoz Gamboa, Alejandro Saéz Mardones, and Rodrigo Cobos Manríquez.

All those sentenced were granted the benefit of supervised release, remaining under the surveillance of the Gendarmería for the duration of the sentence.

Justices Alberto Chaigneau, Rubén Ballesteros, Jaime Rodriguez, and Hugo Dolmestch were in favor of applying the sentence, dismissing the arguments of total statute of limitations for criminal action and the 1978 Amnesty Law.

The majority judges made the so-called Geneva Conventions fully applicable, considering that our country was in a state of war at the time the events occurred. “That, having committed the crime in the context of serious, massive, and systematic human rights violations, verified by State agents who intended to exclude, harass, persecute, or exterminate those who were contrary to the regime established on September 11, 1973, specifically dealing in the case at hand with the elimination of a person who was a militant of the Communist Party, that is to say, ideologically belonging to the recently deposed political regime, it must be concluded that we are in the presence of what legal conscience calls a crime against humanity, a classification that entails the impossibility of granting amnesty for the aforementioned offense, as well as declaring its statute of limitations, in accordance with the imperative rules of international law or ius cogens, which—as has been declared in previous rulings—has prevalence over national legislation. The rules of ius cogens are true legal norms in a substantial sense, providing guidelines or models of conduct, from which erga omnes obligations arise, which exist independently of their formulation, in terms that when they are expressed in a legal formula, they do not change their legal nature.

This Court reiterates once again that the principles of international law and the norms of customary law form part of the Chilean legal system with primacy over internal laws, even when not translated into treaties or conventions mandatory for Chile,” the ruling states.

Meanwhile, Justice Nibaldo Segura was in favor of acquitting those sentenced by applying the statute of limitations for criminal action, given the time that had elapsed since the events. “It has not been proven that at the time in reference there existed in Chile an opposition between two armed forces or between the armed forces of Chile and one or more armed groups that did not recognize the authority of the former and that were under the command of a responsible authority, which exercised dominion or control over a part of Chilean territory, which allowed it to carry out sustained and concerted military operations and apply the provisions of humanitarian law. Nor has it been proven that on September 12, 1973, there existed in Chile a militarized rebellion capable of provoking a state of internal war, a situation that was not even mentioned in its considerations,” Justice Segura posits.

Source: emol.cl, November 13, 2007

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Judge Fuentes issues first conviction against Comando Conjunto

Special judge Juan Eduardo Fuentes, who is investigating various human rights cases, issued today the first conviction affecting former members of the Comando Conjunto for the aggravated kidnapping of Communist militant Carlos Contreras Maluje.

The magistrate decreed three years with conditional remission of the sentence for Air Force Brigadier General (ret.) Freddy Ruiz Bunger, Colonel (ret.) Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, Navy Frigate Captain Daniel Guinper, and FACh officer Manuel Muñoz Gamboa.

The former FACh officer César Palma Ramírez was sentenced to the same term, but with night-time incarceration. Likewise, the magistrate also sentenced retired Carabineros Sergeant Alejandro Sáez Mardones to three years, who must remain in prison as he is serving a sentence for another case since August 2003.

In his extensive resolution, and just as he has done in previous cases, Judge Fuentes did not apply the Amnesty Law, but did apply the gradual statute of limitations for the sentence, taking as the end date of the aggravated kidnapping March 11, 1990, the date on which a democratic government began to govern in Chile.

Carlos Contreras Maluje was detained on November 2, 1976, and the following day was tortured at the La Firma facility of the Comando Conjunto. The former chemical pharmacist, who was a councilman for the Communist Party in Concepción, managed to escape the site and boarded a bus, from which he threw himself upon discovering that he had been reached by agents who were boarding.

At that moment, he was picked up by other agents who took him aboard a Fiat 125 vehicle, whose license plate, EG-388, was identified by passersby and used as data to file a recurso de amparo (habeas corpus) in his favor, which was accepted by the Court of Appeals at the time.

Subsequently, it was proven that the vehicle belonged to the Air Force Intelligence Directorate. To this day, the fate of Contreras Maluje, who is on the country's list of forcibly disappeared persons, remains unknown. In the sentence, Judge Fuentes rejects the claim for compensation filed by the Contreras family.

Source: emol.cl, November 30, 2005

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Judge indicts nine former members of the Comando Conjunto

The interim judge of the Third Criminal Court of Santiago, Christian Carvajal, indicted nine former agents of the Comando Conjunto (CC) this morning for the aggravated kidnapping of Luis Moraga Cruz, which occurred on October 20, 1975, and of Humberto Fuentes Rodríguez, which occurred on November 4 of the same year.

After a long day of interrogations held yesterday, the magistrate, who investigates with exclusive dedication the crimes allegedly committed by members of the intelligence organization, decided to prosecute as authors of the aforementioned crimes Colonel (ret.) Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, former operational chief of the organization, and General (ret.) Enrique Ruiz Bunger.

Both had been previously prosecuted as authors of the aggravated kidnapping of Communist militants Juan Orellana Catalán and Ricardo Weibel Navarrete.

The magistrate also indicted today as authors of the kidnappings of Moraga and Fuentes: Carabineros Major (ret.) César Palma Ramírez; Manuel Muñoz Gamboa; Daniel Enrique Guimpert, Carabineros Major (ret.); Raúl González Fernández; Eduardo Cartagena Maldonado, FACh Major (ret.); and Roberto Flores Cisternas, Carabineros Major (ret.).

Former CC agent Otto Trujillo Miranda was indicted today as an accomplice in the same kidnappings. Carvajal also issued the first accusation against five former agents, among whom are also Saavedra Loyola and Ruiz Bunger, in addition to Carabineros Major (ret.) César Palma Ramírez, Fernando Zúñiga Canales, and Eduardo Cartagena Miranda, accused of the kidnapping of Edison Urrutia Galaz, an event that occurred on December 24, 1975.

The case now moves to the plenary stage, so the evidentiary stage must begin before the first-instance sentences can be issued.

Source: emol.cl, January 29, 2003

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Comando Conjunto: Judge indicts Navy officer (ret.)

The magistrate of the Third Criminal Court of Santiago, Christian Carvajal, who investigates human rights cases with exclusive dedication, indicted Rear Admiral (ret.) Jorge Aníbal Osses Novoa as a mediate author of the aggravated kidnappings of Ricardo Weibel and Luis Moraga, which occurred in 1975.

Weibel and Moraga, both Communist militants, disappeared on November 7 and October 20, 1975, respectively, at the hands of agents of the so-called Comando Conjunto.

Osses Novoa was the head of counterintelligence of the Naval Intelligence Service, and therefore the superior chief of the Comando Conjunto within the Navy. It was reported that in the coming hours, Magistrate Carvajal would issue new indictments in relation to members of the Comando Conjunto.

Court sources reported that one of those affected would be FACh Colonel (ret.) Roberto Cerón Cárdenas, who would be indicted as a mediate author of the aggravated kidnapping of Communist militant Juan Orellana Catalán, who disappeared in 1976.

Within the framework of the investigation into human rights violations committed by members of the aforementioned group, Judge Carvajal has indicted more than a dozen former members of the organization, among whom are the retired Colonel of the Chilean Air Force Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, former agent Viviana Ugarte (alias "La Pochi"), and retired General Enrique Ruiz Bunger.

Source: emol.cl, March 3, 2003

*

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

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

These offenses were 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 years in prison, plus legal accessories, as authors 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 Benedicto Quirós Reyes must serve a sentence of 6 years in prison, plus legal accessories, as an author of the crime of 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 authors of the crime of aggravated 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 noted that these chapters are duly addressed in the thirty-fifth and forty-first considerations 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 term given the permanent nature of the crime and the situation of it being 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 the civil aspect, the sentence that ordered the State to pay a total compensation of $1,520,000,000 to the victims' families was ratified.

The decision was adopted with the dissenting vote of lawyer Herrera Fuenzalida, who states: A) Regarding the criminal sanction, she was of the opinion to accept what was referred to regarding the partial statute of limitations of the criminal action and consequently reduce the imposed sentence, making its effects applicable to all those sentenced, since the gradual statute of limitations constitutes a qualified mitigating factor of criminal responsibility, whose effects affect 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 foregoing does not imply that the crime is left unpunished, but rather that an attenuated penalty is imposed. Likewise, as it is a public order norm, 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 exception of payment deduced by the State 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 that said project sought, so the sums of money agreed upon are to address the extra-contractual responsibility of the State, establishing within the functions of the Commission the promotion of reparation for the moral damage of the victims to which its article 18 refers. That, by reason of such ends, the mentioned law, together with Law No. 19.980, contemplates direct payment in money to human rights victims, as is the case for their children, which is the case in these proceedings, along with other reparations, such as those through the assignment of rights over state benefits and symbolic reparations, all with the same reparatory object. 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: diarioconstitucional.cl, April 11, 2019

Sicarios of the Comando Conjunto Prosecuted for Disappearance of PC Security Chief

The minister on extraordinary assignment for human rights violation cases of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, issued an indictment against three members of the Comando Conjunto in the investigation into the kidnapping and disappearance of José Edilio Flores Garrido, head of the "Security Apparatus" of the Communist Party, committed beginning on August 11, 1976.

In the resolution, the magistrate ordered the pretrial detention of Comando Conjunto members Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger, Antonio Benedicto Quiroz Reyes, and Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, in their capacity as perpetrators.

According to the evidence gathered during the investigation phase, the visiting minister established the following facts: "That on August 11, 1976, in the afternoon, at the intersection of Avenida Club Hípico and Calle Lago Pirihueico, José Edilio Flores Garrido, political alias 'Juaco' and 'Marcelo,' head of the 'Security Apparatus' of the Communist Party, was detained, without legal basis, by members of the so-called 'Comando Conjunto,' a de facto organization composed at that time of agents from the Chilean Air Force, the Chilean Carabineros, the Chilean Navy, and civilians, led by Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger, Antonio Benedicto Quiroz Reyes, and Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, which was in charge of the investigation and repression of the Communist Youth." "That, subsequently, the victim was taken to the clandestine detention center located at Calle Dieciocho No. 229 in the commune of Santiago, known as 'La Firma,' a place that was under the charge of, among others, Chilean Navy First Lieutenant Daniel Guimpert Corvalán (nicknamed 'Horacio') and Chilean Carabineros Lieutenant Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa (nicknamed 'Lolo'), and where several civilians performed duties, including the Chilean Air Force civilian employee César Luis Palma Ramírez (nicknamed 'Fifo') and the former communist militant Miguel Arturo Estay Reyno (nicknamed 'Fanta')." "That, on August 12, 1976, while Flores Garrido was deprived of his liberty, three checks from the current account he held at the Banco de Talca, Bandera branch, were presented for collection by individuals who identified themselves as María Pilar Valdés Yáñez and Francisco Mansilla Elgueta, for the total sum of $8,000." "That, likewise, on August 20, 1976, the 'Casa Propia' Savings and Loan Association issued a check for the sum of $3,295.80, payable to José Edilio Flores Garrido, in payment of a deposit certificate he held at that association, which was withdrawn by a person who identified themselves as María Pilar Valdés Yáñez." "That, to date, the whereabouts of José Edilio Flores Garrido remain unknown."

Source: reddigital.cl, April 12, 2016

Santiago Court sentences former Comando Conjunto agents for the aggravated kidnapping of Nicolás López Suárez

The Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced nine former agents of the so-called Comando Conjunto for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Nicolás Alberto López Suárez, perpetrated beginning on July 30, 1976, in the Metropolitan Region.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 22-2017), the Fourth Chamber of the appellate court—composed of ministers Gloria Solís, Paola Robinovich, and acting lawyer Rodrigo Asenjo—sentenced Antonio Benedicto Quirós Reyes, Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, Daniel Luis Gimpert Corvalán, Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa, Raúl Horacio González Fernández, Juan Atilio Aravena Hurtuvia, Ernesto Arturo Lobos Gálvez, and Miguel Arturo Estay Reyno to 10 years and one day of imprisonment as perpetrators of the crime.

Meanwhile, Viviana Ugarte Sandoval was sentenced to 3 years and one day of imprisonment as an accomplice. By majority vote, with Minister Robinovich dissenting, the chamber revoked the ruling regarding the conviction of the defendants for illicit association. "Regarding the crime of illicit association for which the defendants in this case were accused and convicted, these judges share the opinion expressed by Judicial Prosecutor Clara Carrasco Andonie in her report on page 2,626 and following of the case file, when she states: 'I do not share the thesis of the sentencing judge who considers this illicit act justified; rather, I believe that this criminal category is not configured in this instance, since the prosecuted individuals are State agents, members of the country's defense institutions, and therefore it cannot be considered that they constitute a criminal association, as this type is structured as a particular form of criminal organization whose objective is precisely to commit acts contrary to the law, which is repugnant to the principles governing the country's defense institutions, which is why I am of the opinion that the sentence should be revoked in this aspect and the accused acquitted on this count,'" the ruling states. The resolution adds: "Furthermore, it is not possible, given the nature of the institution to which the defendants belong, to consider that the objective elements required for the configuration of the illicit act in question are present in this case. Thus, as a consequence of the aforementioned, the allegation raised by the defense of the defendant Saavedra Loyola must be accepted, in that the existence of the crime of illicit association for which his client was charged has not been proven, and consequently, he must be acquitted of said crime, as must his co-participants." In the civil aspect, the State was ordered to pay a total compensation of $210,000,000 (two hundred and ten million pesos) to the victim's relatives.

Source: adprensa.cl, December 5, 2019

Former dictatorship agents sentenced for crimes of aggravated kidnapping

The minister on extraordinary assignment for human rights violation cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vásquez, sentenced four former members of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) and eight former agents of the Comando Conjunto to 15 years in prison for their participation in eight crimes of aggravated kidnapping, which occurred in September 1974 and July 1976, respectively.

In the first case, Vásquez sentenced Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Ciro Torré Sáez, Orlando Manzo Durán, and Basclay Zapata Reyes as co-perpetrators of the crime of aggravated kidnapping against Héctor González Fernández, Carlos Zapata Fernández, and Roberto Chaer Vásquez, who is one of the victims of Operation Colombo.

These crimes were perpetrated in Santiago on September 6 and 10, 1974. In that resolution, the visiting minister decided to acquit agent César Manríquez Bravo. During the investigation phase of this case, it was established that "a group of agents belonging to the National Intelligence Directorate, DINA, who depended on the Metropolitan Intelligence Brigade (BIM), focused on investigating the activities of individuals who were part of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) and those who collaborated with said organization, proceeding to detain members and/or adherents of the aforementioned movement, taking them to secret detention centers maintained by the organization, where they were interrogated under physical duress, and taken out to tour different places on public roads with the purpose of identifying other members of the MIR." Meanwhile, in the second case, referring to the Comando Conjunto, Minister Vásquez sentenced eight members of this group for their responsibility in the aggravated kidnappings of Carlos Sánchez Cornejo, José Weibel Navarrete, Francisco Ortiz Valladares, José Santos Rocha, and Mariano Turiel Palomera, which were carried out between October 1975 and July 1976. Thus, Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger, Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, and Manuel Muñoz Gamboa were sentenced to 18 years in prison. For their part, Daniel Guimpert Corvalán and Antonio Quiros Reyes were sentenced to 12 and six years in prison, while Roberto Flores Cisternas, Alejandro Sáez Mardones, and Carlos Rodrigo Villarroel must serve five years and one day. In both cases, the visiting minister accepted the civil claims filed against the State, ordering compensation for the victims' relatives.

Source: radio.uchile.cl, July 4, 2017

State must compensate relatives of Comando Conjunto victims

The Supreme Court determined that the State must pay a multi-million peso compensation to five relatives of three victims of the so-called Comando Conjunto. In a split decision, it was determined that the relatives of José Sagredo Pacheco, Alfredo Salinas Vásquez, and Juan Antonio Gianelli Company, who were forcibly disappeared between November 3, 1975, and July 26, 1976, will receive 100 million pesos each.

The sentence determines that the acts are crimes against humanity; therefore, they must be redressed in both the criminal and civil aspects, in accordance with international legislation regulating the matter.

With this, the five years and one day of imprisonment for former Comando Conjunto agents Freddy Ruiz Bunguer, César Palma Ramírez, Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, and Manuel Muñoz Gamboa are confirmed; as are the four years of prison for former agent Daniel Guimpert Corvalán, with the benefit of conditional remission; and the acquittal of agents Viviana Ugarte Sandoval, Eduardo Cartagena Maldonado, Raúl González Fernández, and Otto Trujillo Miranda.

Source: 24horas.cl, June 11, 2014

Chilean general arrested for obstruction of justice

Retired General Patricio Campos, who resigned from his post in the Chilean Air Force three weeks ago, was arrested yesterday accused of obstructing investigations into the forcibly disappeared under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, reported the court that ordered his arrest.

The general, who until a few weeks ago held the position of Director of Civil Aeronautics, will remain detained at the El Bosque air base by order of Magistrate Mario Carroza, who announced his resolution through a statement.

Patricio Campos submitted his resignation to the institution after a report published by the newspaper "La Nación" linked his wife, Viviana Lucinda Ugarte Sandoval, nicknamed "La Pochi," to the so-called Comando Conjunto.

According to the newspaper, Ugarte Sandoval belonged to the repressive group from its inception and participated in detention, surveillance, and interrogation operations. Reports on the disappeared The arrest warrant was issued for the "alleged obstruction of justice" incurred by Campos when, two years ago, he compiled the records of dozens of political prisoners whose forced disappearances were attributed to the Comando Conjunto that operated within the Chilean Air Force during the Pinochet regime.

The Air Force was supposed to deliver those records to a Dialogue Table composed of military personnel and human rights organizations, but Campos allegedly hid some of those reports. In the open case, the magistrate has already prosecuted former Colonel Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola and General Hernán Ramírez Rurangue, both members of the organization's general staff.

Source: abc.es, October 8, 2002

Comando Conjunto: Santiago Court sentences former agents to effective prison time as perpetrators of five aggravated 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 years in prison, plus legal accessories, in their capacity as perpetrators of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping.

In a split decision, the Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced former agents of the "Comando Conjunto" to effective prison time for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated 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 challenged sentence, issued by visiting minister 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 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 Benedicto Quirós Reyes must serve a sentence of 6 years in prison, plus legal accessories, as a perpetrator of the crime of 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 crime of aggravated 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 motives 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 shares their application. In the civil aspect, the sentence ordering the State to pay a total compensation of $1,520,000,000 to the victims' relatives was ratified.

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 reference to the partial statute of limitations of the criminal action and consequently reduce the imposed penalty, 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 the statute of limitations, with different foundations and consequences. Thus, this is also explained thanks to humanitarian regulations whose reason for being lies 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 accused. B) Regarding civil actions, she was in favor of rejecting them and accepting the exception of payment filed by the State 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 that said project sought, so the sums of money agreed upon are to address the extra-contractual responsibility of the State, 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 over state benefits and symbolic reparations, all with the same reparatory object. 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

The San Miguel Court of Appeals sentenced seven agents of the so-called Comando Conjunto for their responsibility in the crimes of illicit association and aggravated kidnapping of Ulises Merino Varas. These crimes were perpetrated beginning in February 1976 in the commune of La Granja.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 3.724-2020), the Second Chamber of the appellate court—composed of ministers Claudia Lazen Manzur, Patricia Salas Sáez, and ad hoc lawyer Ignacio Castillo Val—upheld the challenged sentence issued by the minister for extraordinary cases, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón.

The ruling sentenced Antonio Benedicto Quirós Reyes and Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola to effective prison terms of 10 years and 5 years and one day, respectively, as authors of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping and illicit association.

Meanwhile, former agents Daniel Luis Guimpert Corvalán and Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa must serve effective prison terms of 8 years and 5 years and one day, as authors of aggravated kidnapping and illicit association.

In the case of Francisco Segundo Illanes Miranda and Ernesto Arturo Lobos Gálvez, they were sentenced to 6 years and 541 days in prison, as authors of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping and illicit association, respectively.

Finally, Alejandro Segundo Sáez Mardones must serve 6 years in prison for the crime of aggravated kidnapping.

"The participation of the accused, as authors of the crime of aggravated kidnapping, under the terms provided in numeral 3 of Article 15 of the Penal Code, has been established in the nineteenth to forty-second foundations of the appealed sentence, based on: a) the testimony of the accused themselves, who, although they denied their participation in the events of the case sub iudice, acknowledged—in some cases with nuances—their participation in the so-called 'Comando Conjunto'; b) the testimonial and documentary evidence of the process, especially that recorded in the ninth to eleventh considerations of the appealed sentence," the ruling states.

The resolution adds: "Regarding the aggravating circumstances of criminal responsibility alleged at the time, those of numerals 6, 8, and 11 of Article 12 of the Penal Code, which were rejected by the lower court judge, this Court shares the grounds put forward for doing so, as explained in the eighty-first to eighty-third considerations."

"Likewise, the eighty-fourth foundation is shared, in its letters a) through h), regarding the penalty to be imposed on the defendants, considering the nature of the illicit act—a crime against humanity—and the extent of the harm caused; the penalty being proportional in light of the provisions of Article 69 of the Penal Code.

On the other hand, the differentiation of the penalty is founded and justified by the various hierarchical ranks and responsibilities held by those who participated in the illicit act in question," it adds.

In civil matters, the court confirmed the ruling that accepted the filed claims for compensation for damages and ordered the state to pay a total sum of $180,000,000 (one hundred and eighty million pesos) for moral damages to the victims' families.

In the ratified first-instance resolution, Minister Cifuentes Alarcón established the following facts:

"1st. That, at the time of the events, there existed a hierarchical, disciplined organization with a military structure called the 'Comando Conjunto,' composed of individuals belonging to the intelligence agencies of the Air Force, Carabineros, and the Navy—that is, the Air Force Intelligence Directorate (DIFA), the Carabineros Intelligence Directorate (DICAR), and the Naval Intelligence Service (SIN)—which, under the command of Air Brigadier General Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger and Commanders Antonio Benedicto Quirós Reyes and Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, had, among others, the mission of dismantling the Communist Party and its Youth wing.

2nd. That this group 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,' located at the Colina Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment; 'La Firma,' located on Calle Dieciocho opposite No. 229 in the commune of Santiago; the 'Casa de Solteros,' located at Calle Bellavista No. 125 in the commune of Providencia; and the 24th Carabineros Precinct, located at Calle Las Tranqueras No. 840 in the commune of Las Condes.

3rd. That on February 2, 1976, around 14:30 hours, Ulises Merino Varas, a leader of the Communist Youth, was unlawfully detained by agents of the 'Comando Conjunto' in the vicinity of the La Granja Municipality.

4th. That, subsequently, Ulises Merino Varas was deprived of liberty at 'Remo Cero,' 'La Firma,' the 24th Carabineros Precinct of Las Condes, and the 'Casa de Solteros.'

5th. That, at the end of April 1976, Merino Varas was transferred again to 'La Firma,' and his whereabouts have been unknown since that date."

Source: legalnews.cl, December 15, 2021

"More than 17,000 days" after being kidnapped by the Comando Conjunto: Justice at last for José Flores Garrido

The former agents who were sentenced are currently serving other sentences at the Punta Peuco prison for human rights violation cases.

This week, Minister Marianela Cifuentes of the San Miguel Court of Appeals issued a first-instance sentence and convicted four former agents of the Comando Conjunto—members of the Navy, Air Force, and Carabineros—as responsible for the aggravated kidnapping of José Edilio Flores Garrido, a university student and Communist Party leader, which occurred beginning on August 11, 1976.

The magistrate sentenced Air Force Colonel Juan Francisco Saavedra to 10 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree as the author of the aggravated kidnapping of the victim, who is currently listed as forcibly disappeared.

Similarly, Navy Captain Daniel Guimpert Corvalán and Carabineros Colonel Manuel Muñoz Gamboa were sentenced to 8 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree, and Alejandro Sáez Mardones, a second sergeant of the Carabineros, to 6 years in prison, all as authors of aggravated kidnapping.

In the case of former Air Force employee Roberto Flores Cisterna, the minister acquitted him of the crime of aggravated kidnapping and illicit association.

The former agents are currently serving sentences at the Punta Peuco prison, having been involved in other human rights violation cases.

Regarding this, the plaintiff lawyer and legal coordinator of the firm Caucoto Abogados, Francisco Ugás Tapia, stated that "as lawyers representing the family that survives Mr. José Edilio Flores Garrido, we celebrate and positively value the sentence of Minister Marianela Cifuentes.

This brings an end to the first instance of the case, convicting 4 subjects for their intervention as authors of the victim's aggravated kidnapping."

"Nearly 47 years after the events, national justice is acting through this decision, which begins to put an end to that state of impunity that covered those responsible for this crime against humanity," the professional added.

Ugás also maintained that "although we identify some legal aspects that we do not share, which will motivate our challenge, we recognize in this sentence great work by the national judiciary, personified by the minister, as it evidences compliance with the international obligations that impose on the State the duty to investigate and punish these facts and those responsible, and to provide reparations to the victims, as required by international law."

For his part, the victim's brother, Roberto Flores Garrido, expressed that "nearly 47 years have passed since the kidnapping of my brother by the State security apparatus under the civil-military dictatorship. 47 years of pain, tragedy. It has been 47 years of constant searching."

"My parents, like many parents in my country, passed away with the heartbreaking pain of not knowing what happened to their son. Nearly 47 years have passed, that is to say, more than 17,000 days that we have tried to live one by one in dignity, preserving the memory.

Perhaps we will never know the absolute truth, perhaps we will never find the body to fulfill the human ritual of saying goodbye to our dead," added Flores.

Finally, the victim's brother stated that "this sentence comes to alleviate this injustice considerably, but not absolutely. I hope this ruling contributes to strengthening the 'never again' that we so long for and need for our homeland. My family and I receive this ruling in peace, without resentment but with memory."

The facts According to the investigation led by Minister Cifuentes, it was established that:

1) That, at the time of the events, August 11, 1976, a group of people, composed of officials from the Air Force, Navy, Carabineros, and civilians, formed a de facto hierarchical organization called the Comando Conjunto, with the purpose of investigating and repressing the Communist Party of Chile and the Communist Youth.

2) That, during that period, said organization was led by Air Brigadier General Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger, director of the Air Force Intelligence Directorate (DIFA); Group Commander (A) Antonio Benedicto Quirós Reyes, head of the DIFA Counterintelligence Department; and Squadron Commander (A) Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, chief officer of the Air Force Intelligence Directorate, and was composed of 1st Lieutenant (IM) Daniel Luis Enrique Guimpert Corvalán, head of the Counterintelligence Department of the Naval Intelligence Service (SIN); Carabineros Lieutenant Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa, of the Counterintelligence Department of the Carabineros Intelligence Directorate (DICAR); Carabineros official Alejandro Segundo Sáez Mardones; and civilians César Palma Ramírez and Miguel Arturo Estay Reyno, among others.

3) That said organization had an institutional building located at Calle Juan Antonio Ríos No. 6 in the commune of Santiago and detention centers, among them the facility called "La Firma," located at Calle Dieciocho No. 229 in the same commune.

4) That on August 11, 1976, in the afternoon, agents of the aforementioned organization, who were traveling in a light blue Peugeot 404 and a cream-colored Renault, unlawfully detained José Edilio Flores Garrido, a militant of the Communist Party, at the intersection of Avenida Club Hípico and Calle Lago Pirihueico.

5) That, subsequently, the victim was taken to the clandestine detention center located on Calle Dieciocho in the commune of Santiago, called "La Firma," a place that was under the charge of 1st Lieutenant of the Chilean Navy Daniel Guimpert Corvalán and Carabineros Lieutenant Manuel Muñoz Gamboa, among others, and where civilians César Luis Palma Ramírez, former communist militant Miguel Estay Reyno, and Alejandro Sáez Mardones, among others, performed duties.

6) That, to date, the whereabouts of José Edilio Flores Garrido remain unknown.

By Opazo

Source: elciudadano.cl, April 23, 2022

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

The Supreme Court rejected the appeals in cassation 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 aggravated homicide of Ignacio Orlando González Espinoza and Juan René Orellana Catalán; and in the aggravated 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, Navy, Carabineros, and fascist civilians, which operated mainly between 1975 and 1977, and whose raison d'être was to compete in repressive and criminal tasks with the absolute power held by the DINA under the tutelage of the Army and the direction 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 challenged 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 terms of 18 years, plus 13 years, plus 3 years in prison each.

Former Navy officer Daniel Luis Enrique Guimpert Corvalán was sentenced to terms of 18 years, plus 12 years, 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, were sentenced to terms of 12 years, plus 10 years and one day, plus 400 days in prison each.

Agents Raúl Horacio González Fernández and Alejandro Julio Segundo Sáez Mardones were sentenced to two terms of 10 years and one day, plus 400 days in prison each.

Agents Roberto Alfonso Flores Cisterna and Juan Carlos Hernán Rodrigo Villarreal were sentenced to terms of 10 years and one day, plus 5 years and one day, plus 400 days in prison each.

Fascist civilian Otto Silvio Trujillo Miranda was sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison. Agent Lenin Figueroa Sánchez was sentenced to two terms of 5 years and one day, plus 400 days in prison.

Agents Sergio Daniel Valenzuela Morales and Juan Atilio Aravena Hurtuvia were sentenced to terms of 5 years and one day, 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, and Francisco Segundo Illanes Miranda were sentenced to terms of 5 years and one day, plus 400 days in prison.

Ernesto Arturo Lobos Gálvez and Alejandro Jorge Forero Álvarez were sentenced to terms of 5 years and one day, plus 60 days in prison.

Roberto Francisco Serón Cárdenas was sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison. Robinson Alfonso Suazo Jaque, Pedro Ernesto Caamaño Medina, Pedro Juan Zambrano Uribe, and José Hernando Alvarado Alvarado were sentenced to 4 years, plus 60 days in prison each.

The also-convicted Antonio Benedicto Quirós Reyes and Miguel Arturo Estay Reyno passed away during the course of the process.

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

This group, called the Comando Conjunto, used various facilities for detentions and torture: the Cerrillos Hangar; Nido 20, a secret detention and torture center located at Calle Santa Teresa No. 037, Paradero 20 of Gran Avenida; Nido 18, a secret center located at Calle Perú No. 9053, La Florida, Santiago, which was used exclusively for torture; and La Prevención or Remo Cero, which were cells located inside the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina, all during 1975.

At the beginning of 1976, the group moved its operations to the back of the building under the charge of the Carabineros, located on Calle Dieciocho, opposite No. 229, which belonged to the former newspaper Clarín, calling it La Firma.

The operational actions of the group consisted of detaining people through kidnapping, keeping them captive in secret facilities, and subjecting them to interrogation and physical and psychological torture 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, who were then forcibly disappeared; for some of them, parts of their remains were found over the years.

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 dressed in civilian clothes; he was kept deprived of liberty at the facility called La Prevención or Remo Cero, located inside the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina, the last place where he was seen alive.

Subsequently, his remains were found on the grounds of Fuerte Arteaga, Peldehue.

On October 20, 1975, in the early morning, Luis Desiderio Moraga Cruz was detained at his home in Pasaje Tokio in the Juanita Aguirre housing project, Conchalí commune, Santiago, by subjects dressed in civilian clothes; he was held at the Anti-Aircraft 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 morning, Ignacio Orlando González Espinoza was detained at his home on Calle Soberanía in the Santiago commune by subjects dressed in civilian clothes; he was kept deprived of liberty at the facility called La Prevención or Remo Cero, located inside the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina, the last place where he was seen alive.

Subsequently, he was executed on the grounds of Fuerte Arteaga, Peldehue, where his remains 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 for him to hand it over to other party militants, as Maturana González was in charge of distributing it.

At that moment, they were detained by operational agents of the aforementioned Comando Conjunto, keeping them held at 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

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 organization known as the Comando Conjunto for their responsibility in the consummated crime of aggravated kidnapping of municipal employee Ulises Jorge Merino Varas, perpetrated beginning on February 2, 1976, in the commune of La Granja.

Ulises Merino Varas, 33 years old, married, with 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 14:30 hours, 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 organization 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,' and his whereabouts have been unknown since that date.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 3.989-2022), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of Minister Manuel Antonio Valderrama, ministers María Teresa Letelier and María Cristina Gajardo, and ad hoc lawyers 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 individuals, some prosecuted and convicted, passed away during the course of the process.

In the resolution, the Penal 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 intelligence group, hierarchical and disciplined, conceived by the Air Force command as a way to maintain the dispute with the DINA for the monopoly and authorship of the repressive actions intended to destroy organizations of the left and the resistance to the dictatorship.

Since the military coup at the end of 1974, this dispute with the DINA was represented by the FACh 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, which operated between 1975 and 1976, composed of agents belonging to the intelligence groups of the Air Force, Carabineros, the Navy, and the Army, plus civilian individuals 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 tortured physically and psychologically to obtain information.

Subsequently, the detained people could be released, transferred to a prisoner concentration camp, transferred to an unknown destination to be forcibly disappeared, or murdered.

At the time of the events, the repressive entity operated under the command of Air Brigadier 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 wing.

To commit 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,' located at the Colina Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment under the name 'La Prevención Prison'; 'La Firma,' located on Calle Dieciocho opposite No. 229 in the commune of Santiago, which corresponded to the place where the former newspaper El Clarín operated, which was seized by the Carabineros and named 'La Firma' until the end of 1976.

Added to these are the 'Casa de Solteros,' located at Calle Bellavista No. 125 in the commune of Providencia; the 24th Carabineros Precinct, located at Calle Las Tranqueras No. 840 in the commune of Las Condes; the Casa de Apoquindo; the Hangar at the Cerrillos Airport; and 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