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 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 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 from the Third Criminal Court of Santiago to investigate the crimes committed by this repressive body, Graciela Gómez, has issued the first indictments in recent days 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 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 body.

Names General (Ret.) of the FACH Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger and Colonel (Ret.) of the same institution Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola were accused as the intellectual authors of the kidnapping. Meanwhile, Alejandro Sáez Mardones (who is currently serving a sentence for the "Degollados" case), Jorge Cobos Manríquez (alias ‘Kiko’ and Lieutenant (Ret.) of the FACH), Daniel Guimpert Corvalán (retired Lieutenant of the Navy), 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’, retired Major of Carabineros 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 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 illegitimate 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 “manages to elude his guards and throws 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 asks for help from passersby and a Carabineros officer.” He said he was being 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 officers prosecuted for human rights case

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

The prosecution affected former FACH members Enrique Ruiz Bunger, Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, Jorge Rodrigo Cobos, 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

Seven former members of the Comando Conjunto convicted

Judge Juan Fuentes Belmar sentenced seven former members of the Comando Conjunto today to various penalties for their responsibility in 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 aggravated kidnapping.

The first-instance convictions affect four retired Air Force (FACH) officers, one former member of the Navy, and two from Carabineros, all 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 remitted imprisonment (served in freedom).

The same sentence, but with night-time 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 presented by the lawyer for the victim’s family, 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 agents of the Comando Conjunto 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 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 buried clandestinely and have not been found to this day.

Source: lanacion.cl, November 30, 2005

Sexual violence during the dictatorship: ruling recognizes sexual crimes committed by SICAR agents against women

The ruling sentenced Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa to an effective penalty of 5 years and one day in prison as the author "of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping, of a sexual nature, having been committed with the motive or occasion of the kidnapping, including rape to the detriment of Ana María Campillo Bastidas and Patricia del Carmen Herrera Escobar." Despite the sentence, the plaintiffs who began their legal actions nearly 10 years ago in search of truth, justice, and reparation filed an appeal, since "although what was resolved by Minister Carroza is a tremendous step, the penalties defined for those responsible are very low and are not consistent with the gravity of the crimes committed."

The Court of Appeals, Mario Carroza, issued a sentence for the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Patricia del Carmen Herrera and Ana María Campillo, who were detained and tortured during the dictatorship by agents of the Carabineros Intelligence Service (SICAR) in the basements of the Plaza de la Constitución, where they remained illegally detained.

The crime, which occurred in June 1974, included interrogations with torture, rape, and sexual abuse against both victims, who were kept blindfolded, handcuffed, and subjected to conditions of extreme helplessness for several days.

THE SENTENCE OF MINISTER CARROZA

The ruling sentenced Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa to an effective penalty of 5 years and one day in prison as the author "of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping, of a sexual nature, having been committed with the motive or occasion of the kidnapping, including rape to the detriment of Ana María Campillo Bastidas and Patricia del Carmen Herrera Escobar between the months of June and July 1974, in Santiago."

Meanwhile, Francisco Segundo Illanes Miranda, José Luis Contreras Valenzuela, Wiston Humberto Cruces Martínez, Ernesto Arturo Lobos Gálvez, Sabino Adán Roco Olguín, Alejandro Segundo Sáez Mardones, and José Hernando Alvarado Alvarado were sentenced to 3 years and one day as accomplices, granting them the benefit of supervised release; and José Edgar Hoffmann Oyarzún, also considered an accomplice, to 541 days of remitted sentence.

Regarding the results of the ruling, the President of Corporación Humanas stated that "this sentence represents, without a doubt, an advance in the recognition of sexual violence committed during the dictatorship, especially against women, insofar as the events were classified as aggravated kidnapping due to the serious damage caused by the rapes and sexual abuse on one hand, and on the other, it recognizes the need to repair the damage caused to the victims by the State through the corresponding compensation."

APPEAL

Despite the sentence, the plaintiffs who began their legal actions nearly 10 years ago in search of truth, justice, and reparation filed an appeal, since "although what was resolved by Minister Carroza is a tremendous step, the penalties defined for those responsible are very low and are not consistent with the gravity of the crimes committed."

"We value this ruling for what it represents as recognition of the crime committed, but we consider it a duty to demand full justice, with penalties consistent with the gravity of these crimes," the plaintiffs declared.

"It is also about continuing on a path that can open spaces for other women who also suffered torture and sexual violence during the dictatorship and who have not yet initiated legal actions to trust that it is possible to achieve truth and justice. That is why it is important to appeal; we seek justice not 'to the extent possible,' but full truth and justice," they pointed out.

Source: humanas.cl, July 24, 2007

Pardon: 9 sentenced to life in Punta Peuco may not qualify

They are sentenced for the murder of carpenter Juan Alegría Mundaca, Operation Albania, and the "Degollados" case. Among them are Álvaro Corbalán Castilla and Carlos Herrera Jiménez. They would not meet the requirements for benefits for humanitarian reasons.

Nine former military personnel sentenced to life imprisonment are serving their sentences at the Punta Peuco prison, according to data from the Human Rights Observatory of the Diego Portales University (UDP). These inmates cannot receive benefits before 20 years of their sentence and would not be eligible for a possible pardon for humanitarian reasons.

They are Álvaro Julio Corbalán Castilla, Carlos Herrera Jiménez, Armando Cabrera Aguilar, Hugo Iván Salas Wenzel, Miguel Arturo Estay Reino, José Florentino Fuentes Castro, Guillermo Washington González Betancourt, Alejandro Segundo Sáez Mardones, and Claudio Alberto Salazar Fuentes.

Army Major (Ret.) Álvaro Julio Corbalán Castilla does not require much introduction. In 2000, the former operations chief of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) in Santiago was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Supreme Court for the aggravated homicide of carpenter Juan Alberto Alegría Mundaca.

THEY "SUICIDED" HIM

In 1983, Alegría’s corpse appeared in Valparaíso with his wrists cut, next to a "suicide note" in which he incriminated himself for the murder of union leader Tucapel Jiménez. However, the murderers made the mistake of cutting one hand so deeply that he would not have been able to handle a sharp weapon to cut the other.

For the crime against Alegría Mundaca, Army Major (Ret.) Carlos Herrera Jiménez and Carabineros Sub-officer (Ret.) Armando Cabrera Aguilar, both attached to the CNI, were also sentenced to life imprisonment. The murderers thought that, as an alcoholic and having a criminal record, the carpenter would be the perfect scapegoat for the union leader’s crime.

Herrera Jiménez is another who does not require an introduction. He was a fugitive in Argentina, from where he was extradited. Paradoxically, in 2004, Herrera Jiménez was sentenced by the Supreme Court to only 10 years in prison as the material author of the homicide of Tucapel Jiménez, former president of the National Association of Fiscal Employees (ANEF), a crime committed in 1982.

OPERATION ALBANIA

In 2007, the country’s highest court upheld the life sentence against Army General (Ret.) Hugo Iván Salas Wenzel, former director of the CNI, as a co-author of five simple homicides and as a co-author of seven aggravated homicides in the Albania case.

Operation Albania, or the "Corpus Christi Massacre," took place between June 15 and 16, 1987, in Santiago. In it, twelve members of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR) were executed by CNI agents at various points in the capital in alleged confrontations.

In this same case, Álvaro Corbalán was sentenced by the Supreme Court to 20 years in prison as a co-author of four simple homicides and as a co-author of eight aggravated homicides.

"DEGOLLADOS" CASE

The other five sentenced to life imprisonment are former Carabineros who participated in one of the worst crimes of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship: the throat-slitting of communist professionals José Manuel Parada Maluenda, Manuel Leonidas Guerrero Ceballos, and Santiago Esteban Nattino Allende.

On March 28 and 29, 1985, the three were kidnapped by agents of the Carabineros Communications Directorate, Dicomcar. The following day, their bodies appeared with their throats slit and with signs of torture on a road in Quilicura. In August of that year, the case caused the departure of the General Director of Carabineros, César Mendoza, from the Government Military Junta.

In 1995, Carabineros Colonel (Ret.) Guillermo Washington González Betancourt, former head of Dicomcar, was sentenced by the Supreme Court to life imprisonment as the author of the kidnappings followed by homicides of Parada, Guerrero, and Nattino, and also as the author of the kidnappings of six other people.

Nattino and Guerrero belonged to the Association of Educators of Chile (Agech), an entity parallel to the then-pro-government Teachers’ College. The six kidnapped survivors belonged to Agech. Sociologist José Manuel Parada was the son of actors Roberto Parada and an official of the Vicariate of Solidarity.

The other former Carabineros sentenced to life imprisonment for this crime are former civilian employee Miguel Arturo Estay Reino ("El Fanta"), Sergeant (Ret.) José Florentino Fuentes Castro, and Corporals (Ret.) Alejandro Segundo Sáez Mardones and Claudio Alberto Salazar Fuentes.

Source: lanacion.cl, April 4, 2011

Alejandro Sáez Mardones: "Degollador" regains Sunday release

The Santiago Court of Appeals accepted a protection appeal filed by Alejandro Sáez Mardones, a former member of the Carabineros' Dipolcar sentenced to life imprisonment for the "Degollados" case, against a decision that revoked his Sunday release benefit.

Alejandro Sáez Mardones had lost the benefit in October 2014. The Court of Appeals considered that the decision of the warden of Punta Peuco against Alejandro Sáez was "arbitrary."

Sáez enjoyed Sunday releases from Punta Peuco from January 2013 until October 2014, when the warden revoked the measure, a decision that judges Juan Manuel Muñoz and Dobra Lusic considered "arbitrary."

The lawyer member of the Chamber, José Luis López Reitze, voted against it, considering that the warden of Punta Peuco acted within his powers.

According to the ruling (see attached file), "at the time the benefit claimed (by Sáez) was granted, the proceedings followed against the appellant were considered, which were known to the respective Technical Council, and because he met the regulatory requirements, the prison benefit of release was granted to him, and he had been making use of it for more than a year."

"Although, in accordance with the provisions of Article 98, first paragraph of the Regulations for Penitentiary Establishments, the revocation of prison permits is an exclusive power of the Head of the Establishment, said power must be exercised in a reasonable and motivated manner, having to have been based on new antecedents, subsequent to the granting of the benefit, that made its revocation pertinent," it adds.

In this case, "the revocation of the benefit appears to have been ordered by the respondent with identical foundations and antecedents taken into consideration at the time of its granting, which makes it an arbitrary decision, which implies discrimination against the appellant, forbidden by the Constitutional Charter in Article 19 No. 2, second paragraph, which guarantees non-discrimination."

Source: DarioRedDigital.cl, February 13, 2015

Supreme Court confirmed freedom for "Degollador" Sáez Mardones

The Supreme Court declared inadmissible the motions for reconsideration filed against the resolution that granted conditional release to former Carabineros official Alejandro Segundo Sáez Mardones, convicted for the crime against communist professionals José Manuel Parada, Santiago Nattino, and Manuel Guerrero, which occurred at the end of March 1985.

Meanwhile, the Court of Appeals rejected the protection appeal filed by the defenses of Miguel Estay Reyno and Claudio Fuentes Salazar against the decision of the facility’s conduct tribunal that classified them in List 2, which prevents them from accessing intra-prison benefits.

In a unanimous ruling, the Third Chamber of the highest court, composed of ministers Pedro Pierry, Rosa Egnem, María Eugenia Sandoval, and lawyer members Jaime Rodríguez and Rodrigo Correa, declared the motion for reconsideration filed against the decision of the Court of Appeals, which had already been endorsed by the Supreme Court, to be inadmissible.

This resolution rendered ineffective the strategy of the victims’ families and the Human Rights Program of the Ministry of the Interior, who intended for the benefit to be reviewed again.

The ruling addressed "the nature of the appealed resolution, that is, that it is a final judgment regarding which the motion for reconsideration does not proceed," which also dealt with another person convicted of crimes against humanity, Miguel Pablo Muñoz Uribe, who was also a beneficiary of conditional release.

As detailed by the Judiciary on its website, Minister Pierry considered it necessary to state that the conditional release of Alejandro Sáez and Miguel Muñoz was "proposed by the Conduct Tribunal, composed of officials of the Gendarmería de Chile, a centralized public service dependent on the Ministry of Justice."

"It must be pointed out that the proposal of the Conduct Tribunal is an agreement of a collegiate body of an administrative nature and, therefore, an administrative act (...) and can, if it is deemed illegal by said body that authored the act—which, as has been said, is part of the Gendarmería de Chile dependent on the Ministry of Justice—be invalidated, ex officio or at the request of a party, in accordance with the provisions of Article 53 of the cited law and through the procedure contemplated therein," the ruling adds.

SANTIAGO COURT REJECTS PROTECTION APPEAL FILED AGAINST THE CONDUCT TRIBUNAL OF PUNTA PEUCO PRISON

The Santiago Court of Appeals rejected the protection appeal filed by the defenses of two inmates of the Punta Peuco Prison against the decision of the facility’s conduct tribunal that classified them in List 2, which prevents them from accessing intra-prison benefits.

In a unanimous ruling (case roll 49155-2015), the Twelfth Chamber of the appellate court—composed of ministers Omar Astudillo, Maritza Villadangos, and lawyer (i) Claudia Chaimovich—ruled out arbitrary and illegal action by the body when granting the classification to Miguel Estay Reyno and Claudio Fuentes Salazar, sentenced to 23 years in prison in the so-called "Degollados case."

"Now, examining the matter from the perspective being referred to, no illegality or arbitrariness is observed in the tasks executed by the 'Conduct Tribunal of the Punta Peuco Penitentiary Compliance Center.' For now, because it complied with the regulations and instructions that were given to it on the matter and because the classification in List 2 of the appellants is the necessary consequence of the parameters to which it had to adhere; and, immediately, because the decision to deny the benefit was finally adopted by the Conditional Release Commission.

Now, as the actions of the latter have not been questioned, it must be assumed that it is protected by the presumption of legality, from which it follows that it studied the antecedents and that it resolved with knowledge of the cause, in its capacity as a collegiate and deliberative body.

Thus, it cannot be suggested, nor can this Court operate under the understanding that said commission was 'induced' to take its decision in a certain direction, with 'equivocal' information or 'contrary to reality,' as is pointed out in the appeal," the ruling maintains.

The resolution adds: "Finally, without prejudice to the collegiate nature of the Conduct Tribunal, it is not possible to avoid that the inclusion of a petitioner in list 1 or list 2 is not irrelevant. As can be inferred from what is established in Article 17 of the Regulations of the Conditional Release Law, this determines the quorum necessary for the granting of the benefit.

Thus, in the case of an inmate included in list 2, the benefit can only be granted by the unanimity of the members of the commission. However, the appellants did not obtain any favorable vote, as stated in the report on page 49 and in the text of the respective resolution."

Source: reddigital.cl, October 22, 2015

"Degollados": Victims appeal to the Supreme Court to reverse conditional release of convicts

The plaintiff lawyer in the so-called "Degollados" case, Fernando Leal, will appeal to the Supreme Court to try to put an end to the prison benefits currently enjoyed by those convicted for the crime against teachers Manuel Guerrero, Manuel Parada, and Santiago Nattino, who had their throats slit after being detained in March 1985.

These are the agents of the Carabineros Communications Directorate (Dicomcar) Miguel Pablo Muñoz Uribe and Alejandro Segundo Sáez Mardones, to whom the Eighth Chamber of the Court of Appeals granted conditional release.

The ruling—described by the plaintiff as "a disgrace"—was rejected by the victims’ families, who have until Friday to file an appeal with the intention that it be the highest court that pronounces on the matter. "We are going to appeal because we believe that the actions of the Eighth Chamber leave much to be desired," Leal stressed to Emol, detailing that if the appeal does not prosper, he will appeal to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights "so that the State of Chile is sanctioned." In the case of Sáez Mardones, the plaintiff emphasized that "it is not possible for benefits to be granted to him because even his psychological report does not recommend the free environment for his rehabilitation." This is because, as established in the document, the convict has no awareness of the crime and the harm caused, so he can hardly have a favorable reintegration. Last February, the Santiago Court of Appeals had accepted, in a split decision, a protection appeal filed by Mardones, imprisoned in Punta Peuco and sentenced to life imprisonment for his participation in the event. This was after the former uniformed officer appealed regarding the decision that revoked his Sunday release benefit, granted in January 2013. On that occasion, it was determined that the decision of the prison warden, who revoked the benefit in October 2014, was arbitrary.

Source: elmostrado.cl, July 14, 2015

"Degollados" Case: Supreme Court confirms conditional release for Alejandro Sáez

The Supreme Court ratified the conditional release granted by the Santiago Court of Appeals to the former agent of the Carabineros Communications Directorate (Dicomcar), Alejandro Sáez Mardones.

The decision was granted by the ministers of the Third Chamber of the country’s highest court, by four votes in favor and one against.

Sáez was sentenced in 1991 to life imprisonment for the murders of José Manuel Parada, Manuel Guerrero, and Santiago Nattino, which occurred in 1985.

LONG CRIMINAL RECORD OF SÁEZ MARDONES

Alejandro Sáez was sentenced in December 1991 to life imprisonment as the author of the kidnappings followed by homicide of José Manuel Parada, Manuel Guerrero, and Santiago Nattino and as the author of the kidnappings of six other people, which occurred in March 1985.

In the same case, he was sentenced to 541 days as the author of illicit association. He is also definitively sentenced to 3 years and 1 day as the author of the simple homicide of Carlos Contreras Maluje, which occurred in November 1976.

He is also accused of illicit association in the disappearance of Víctor Humberto Vega Riquelme, in January 1976, and prosecuted as the author of the aggravated kidnapping of José Weibel, in March 1976, and prosecuted as an accomplice to the aggravated kidnappings of Ricardo Weibel and Juan René Orellana Catalán, in November 1975 and June 1976, respectively.

The First Corporal (Ret.) of Carabineros was a member of Dicomcar, the Carabineros group that in March 1985 kidnapped three professionals who were members of the Communist Party.

Nattino, a graphic designer, was approached at the streets of Apoquindo and Badajoz, while Guerrero, a leader of the Association of Educators of Chile (AGECH), and Parada, a sociologist and head of the Analysis Department of the Vicariate of Solidarity, were kidnapped the following day from the doors of the Colegio Latinoamericano, on Calle Los Leones.

The kidnapping of Parada and Guerrero was particularly brazen due to the number of Carabineros forces deployed to carry it out. According to the account of journalists Andrea Insunza and Javier Ortega, an Opala Station Wagon without license plates braked sharply and three subjects seized the professionals at the door of the school in Los Leones.

Teacher Leopoldo Muñoz went out to defend them, but one of the kidnappers knocked him down and shot him at point-blank range in the abdomen, and the vehicle sped off. Meanwhile, a couple of blocks away, traffic had been diverted and a helicopter was flying low over the educational establishment.

After their kidnapping, the three professionals were taken to a secret barracks on Calle 18, in the center of Santiago, the same one that the Comando Conjunto used in the mid-70s and that was known as "La Firma."

The three were handcuffed, blindfolded, and tortured.

The judicial file of the case established that between the night of Friday the 29th and the early hours of Saturday the 30th, the three kidnapped individuals were put into a Chevrolet Opala, two lying in the trunk and one in the back seat.

At the wheel was Corporal Claudio Salazar, as co-pilot First Corporal Alejandro Sáez, and in the back Second Sergeant José Fuentes. A second car, a Chevy Chevette, was driven by Colonel Guillermo González Betancourt. As co-pilot was "El Fanta," Manuel Fuentes, while one of the back seats was occupied by Captain Patricio Zamora. All were members of Carabineros and agents of Dicomcar.

The cars moved to an area of Quilicura near the airport. They parked on the shoulder, near the El Retiro estate. "El Fanta," Zamora, and González Betancourt stayed in their vehicle.

Guerrero was the first to be taken down. On his knees, handcuffed and blindfolded in a kind of hollow next to the road, Sergeant Fuentes grabbed his head from behind and slit his throat with a corvo (knife).

The vehicle moved about 30 meters to the north. They took down Nattino, also handcuffed and blindfolded. Using the same weapon, Corporal Sáez repeated the execution. The car moved forward a few more meters, where Parada was taken down.

Lying on his back, handcuffed and blindfolded, Corporal Salazar took the corvo and gave him a deep cut in the abdomen. The victim resisted and screamed in pain, which terrified his executioner. A third agent got out of the car and slit his throat. The blindfolds and handcuffs were removed from the three bodies. Once the crimes were committed, the group moved to their barracks on Calle 18.

After noon on Saturday, March 30, two peasant brothers found the three corpses. Seven hours later, they were taken to the Legal Medical Institute, where family and friends of Parada, Guerrero, and Nattino were waiting to learn the identity of the bodies.

When the identities were confirmed and details of the crime became known, the national outrage over the so-called "Degollados Case" was such that it reached the Military Junta.

The General Director of Carabineros, César Mendoza, had to resign.

Source: 24horas.cl, August 12, 2015

Chile: Funas, activism against the impunity of genocidaires

Dozens of people head on Saturday toward a house in the southern periphery of Santiago. Equipped with loudspeakers, their message is amplified: "Alert, alert neighbors, a murderer lives next to your house."

It is a movement known as escraches—or in Chile, funas—which is based on public booing to denounce the existence of a genocidaire who has not been imprisoned and to prevent him from leading a normal life.

A way to denounce, through public activism, the impunity still enjoyed by many of those who participated in torture and crimes against human rights during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), one of the most violent in its repressive apparatus in Latin America.

The one chosen on Saturday morning is Alejandro Segundo Sáez Mardones, a member of the Carabineros Communications Directorate and convicted for the kidnappings and homicides of sociologist José Manuel Parada, teacher Manuel Guerrero, and publicist Santiago Nattino, all communists.

Popularly known as the "Degollados case" due to the savage way in which the crime was perpetrated, it was one of the most iconic episodes of human rights violations of the Pinochet dictatorship. At the end of March 1985, the three men appeared with their throats slit.

Sáez Mardones—accused also of other kidnappings and disappearances—was sentenced to life imprisonment for the "Degollados" case in 1991, but in August 2015, the Supreme Court changed his confinement to night-time incarceration.

"It seems to me minimal and our responsibility to be able to inform people, Chilean society, the neighbors, who this person is, what he is doing, and to take some kind of measure. If, unfortunately, the Chilean State does not fulfill its mission, it is our responsibility to at least do something about it," explained Manuela Libertad Guerrero Madera, daughter of Manuel Guerrero, who was not yet born at the time the events occurred.

"Today we have gathered here because we are going to denounce another of the criminals who is in impunity," affirmed Julio Oliva, spokesperson for the Funa Commission, which organizes the act, formed largely by children of the forcibly disappeared and people who want to fight for justice and truth in crimes against human rights, to The Associated Press.

The activists carry placards explaining their act, distribute leaflets with the genocidaire’s data—name, photo, and identity card—among the neighbors of the neighborhood, and stick posters on streetlights and poles. They also painted the word "murderer" on the external gates that protect his home.

Sáez, if he was in the house, did not show his face.

"It seems important to say that there is a man who slit a person’s throat, who had no consideration for what that means, of whom there is a psychological report that cites that there is no repentance, that they have no awareness of what he did, and that therefore at any moment he could repeat it," pointed out Guerrero Madera.

The commission chooses the person to whom its activity will be directed based on different factors.

"We have a lot of information that we have collected over the years, and in general, we decide on the one for whom we have the most background. The information is still a lot; the guys still believe themselves to be in such great impunity that it is not even difficult to find them," points out Oliva, who explains that they chose Sáez because of the date, since Guerrero, Parada, and Nattino were kidnapped by a group of police officers on March 29, 1985, and appeared with their throats slit the following day.

"For us, this way of denouncing and fighting against impunity, for memory, for truth, is a great satisfaction; we are not moved by personal hatreds," affirmed Oliva. "The criminals, the violation of human rights, and the impunity of yesterday have to do with the country we have today...

We believe that by fighting against impunity, we also fight against the Pinochet legacy that unfortunately has continued to deepen."

Source: 20minutos.com, April 2, 2016

On April 26, the Minister of the Court of Appeals, Mario Carroza, issued a sentence for the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Patricia del Carmen Herrera Escobar and Ana María Campillo Bastidas, who were detained in June 1974 and remained illegally held in the basements of the Plaza de la Constitución, where they were subjected to torture, rape, and sexual abuse.

Patricia del Carmen Herrera Escobar and Ana María Campillo Bastidas were transported by agents of the Carabineros Intelligence Service (SICAR) to the basement of the Plaza de la Constitución, where they were held unlawfully for several days.

Both remained blindfolded, handcuffed, and were subjected to conditions of extreme defenselessness through successive interrogations and repeated attacks on their sexual integrity, being raped and sexually abused by their kidnappers.

The President of Corporación Humanas stated: “This sentence represents, without a doubt, an advance in the recognition of sexual violence committed during the dictatorship, especially against women, as the facts were classified as aggravated kidnapping due to the serious damage caused by the rape and sexual abuse on one hand, and on the other, it recognizes the need to repair the damage caused to the victims by the State through the corresponding compensation.”

For the plaintiffs, who began their legal actions nearly 10 years ago in search of truth, justice, and reparation, the work of the courts is crucial for the full recognition of the events that occurred and for guarantees of non-repetition.

However, the victims represented by Corporación Humanas have filed an appeal, as, although the ruling by Minister Carroza is a tremendous step, the sentences defined for those responsible are very low and do not correspond to the gravity of the crimes committed.

“We value this ruling for what it represents as a recognition of the crime committed, but we consider it a duty to demand full justice, with sentences commensurate with the gravity of these crimes. It is also about continuing on a path that can open spaces for other women who also suffered torture and sexual violence during the dictatorship and who have not yet initiated legal actions to trust that it is possible to achieve truth and justice.

That is why it is important to appeal; we seek justice not 'to the extent possible,' but full truth and justice. We take this opportunity to tell you that we will soon attend the official birth of the Colectivo Plaza de la Constitución, which is born from the recognition of that space, the basements adjacent to La Moneda, as a site of memory,” the plaintiffs noted.

The testimonies of the kidnapping and sexual violence against Patricia Herrera and Ana María Campillo were submitted to the National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture (Valech Commission).

However, at that time, many victims did not dare to declare the sexual violence they suffered at the hands of State agents, and this ruling opens the possibility for other women to provide their testimonies and turn to the justice system.

The sentence of Minister Carroza

In the ruling, Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa is sentenced to an effective prison term of 5 years and one day, as the perpetrator “of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping, of a sexual nature, having been committed with the motive or occasion of the kidnapping, involving rape to the detriment of Ana María Campillo Bastidas and Patricia del Carmen Herrera Escobar between the months of June and July 1974, in Santiago.” Meanwhile, Francisco Segundo Illanes Miranda, José Luis Contreras Valenzuela, Wiston Humberto Cruces Martínez, Ernesto Arturo Lobos Gálvez, Sabino Adán Roco Olguín, Alejandro Segundo Sáez Mardones, and José Hernando Alvarado Alvarado were sentenced to 3 years and one day as accomplices, being granted the benefit of supervised release; and José Edgar Hoffmann Oyarzún, also considered an accomplice, to 541 days of commuted sentence. Pedro Retamal Ortega was acquitted, as the court did not consider there to be sufficient evidence of his participation in the events.

Source: radio.uchile.cl, May 14, 2019

Judge Carroza issues conviction against retired Carabineros for kidnappings during the dictatorship

The sentence condemns Manuel Muñoz Gamboa to 5 years and one day of effective prison, and Francisco Illanes Miranda, José Contreras Valenzuela, Wiston Cruces Martínez, Ernesto Lobos Gálvez, Sabino Roco Olguín, Alejandro Sáez Mardones, and José Alvarado Alvarado to 3 years and one day of supervised release for the aggravated kidnappings of Ana María Campillo Bastidas and Patricia del Carmen Herrera Escobar.

The minister on special assignment for human rights violation cases, Mario Carroza, convicted nine retired Carabineros officials for their responsibility in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Ana María Campillo Bastidas and Patricia del Carmen Herrera Escobar, who remained illegally held in the basements of the Plaza de la Constitución during June and July 1974.

The facts established by the magistrate relate to the activity carried out by the Carabineros Intelligence group which, after the 1973 coup d'état, was structured as a security and repression service against sympathizers and militants of leftist parties.

In 1974, this unit was divided into four working groups; two of them were operational, ‘Operations’ and ‘Counterintelligence,’ and the other two were administrative, ‘Analysis’ and ‘Archive and Kardex.’

It was then that this service began to carry out procedures outside its institutional duties and assumed a repressive role involving surveillance, raids, detentions, and interrogations under torture in clandestine places such as Cuartel N° 1, called ‘El Hoyo,’ located in the basement of the Plaza de la Constitución.

Minister Carroza, during his investigation, concluded that on June 19, 1974, around 7:30 PM, Ana María Campillo Bastidas, a sympathizer of the Socialist Party, was at 390 Lynch Norte Street, in the commune of La Reina, together with members of the Central Committee of the Socialist Party, when five men dressed in civilian clothes carrying submachine guns broke in.

They subsequently captured her, only to release her three days later, before depriving her of her liberty again and locking her up without any judicial or administrative order authorizing such action.

Days later, on June 27, 1974, around 11:00 PM, Patricia del Carmen Herrera Escobar, a 19-year-old university student belonging to the Socialist Party Youth, was apprehended outside her home located at 7862 Gauchos de la Plata Street, Cerrillos, also by men dressed in civilian clothes, who blindfolded her, threw her onto the floor of a vehicle, and departed for an unknown destination.

Both women were transported to the basement of the Plaza de la Constitución, where they were kept locked up for several days, blindfolded, handcuffed, and “subjected to conditions of extreme defenselessness, through successive interrogations and repeated attacks on their sexual integrity, as they were raped and sexually abused in the facility by their kidnappers, the SICAR officials,” notes Magistrate Carroza in the 166-page ruling.

In civil matters, the State was ordered to pay compensation of $50,000,000 (fifty million pesos) to each of the victims.

Source: radio.uchile.cl, April 29, 2019

Kidnappings in the La Moneda basement: 9 retired Carabineros now convicted

The minister on special assignment for human rights violation cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Mario Carroza, convicted 9 retired members of the Carabineros for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Ana María Campillo Bastidas and Patricia del Carmen Herrera Escobar, who were detained in June 1974 and remained illegally held in the basements of the Plaza de la Constitución, a place known as “El Hoyo.”

In the ruling, the visiting minister sentenced Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa to an effective prison term of 5 years and one day, as the perpetrator “of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping, of a sexual nature, having been committed with the motive or occasion of the kidnapping, involving rape to the detriment of Ana María Campillo Bastidas and Patricia del Carmen Herrera Escobar between the months of June and July 1974, in Santiago.”

Meanwhile, Francisco Segundo Illanes Miranda, José Luis Contreras Valenzuela, Wiston Humberto Cruces Martínez, Ernesto Arturo Lobos Gálvez, Sabino Adán Roco Olguín, Alejandro Segundo Sáez Mardones, and José Hernando Alvarado Alvarado were sentenced to 3 years and one day of prison, with the benefit of supervised release, as accomplices to the crime; José Edgar Hoffmann Oyarzún to 541 days of prison, with the benefit of supervised release, as an accomplice; and Pedro Retamal Ortega was acquitted due to a lack of participation in the events.

During the investigation stage of the case, Minister Carroza was able to establish that members of the Intelligence Service Section of the General Secretariat of the General Directorate of Carabineros (SICAR) in June 1974, on two occasions, kidnapped the Socialist Party sympathizer Ana María Campillo Bastidas.

For her part, Patricia del Carmen Herrera Escobar, a 19-year-old university student belonging to the Socialist Party Youth, met the same fate.

“After their respective deprivations of liberty, both women were transported to the basement of the Plaza de la Constitución, where they were kept locked up unlawfully for several days. (…) During the time of captivity in the aforementioned facility (…) they remained blindfolded, handcuffed, and were subjected to conditions of extreme defenselessness, through successive interrogations and repeated attacks on their sexual integrity, as they were raped and sexually abused in the facility by their kidnappers, the SICAR officials,” the ruling details.

In civil matters, the State was ordered to pay compensation of $50,000,000 to each of the victims.

The other conviction

It should be remembered that approximately a month ago, Minister Carroza had convicted two retired Carabineros members for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of the socialist militant Víctor Zerega Ponce, an illicit act perpetrated starting in June 1974 in the center of the capital.

The magistrate sentenced Manuel Muñoz Gamboa to a prison term of 5 years and one day, as the perpetrator of the kidnapping of the member of the Socialist Party political commission, who remained detained in the basements of the Plaza de la Constitución and was subsequently executed at Los Lilenes beach in Viña del Mar.

Source: elciudadano, April 29, 2019

Comando Conjunto: Santiago Court sentences former agents to effective prison terms as perpetrators 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 perpetrators of the crimes of qualified kidnapping.

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

These illicit acts were committed between October 15, 1975, and July 15, 1976.

The appellate court confirmed the challenged sentence, issued by the visiting minister 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 perpetrators of the crimes of qualified kidnapping of Francisco Hernán Ortiz Valladares, José Santos Rocha Álvarez, Carlos Enrique Sánchez Cornejo, José Arturo Weibel Navarrete, and Mariano León Turiel Palomera.

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

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

Likewise, due to death, partial and definitive dismissals were approved regarding Jorge Rodrigo Cobos Manríquez, César Luis Palma Ramírez, and Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger.

The sentence maintains that regarding the statute of limitations and amnesty alleged by all the defendants, it should be specified that these chapters are duly addressed in the thirty-fifth and forty-first grounds of the appellate 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 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 civil matters, the sentence ordering the State to pay 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 the partial statute of limitations of the criminal action and consequently reduce the imposed penalty, making its effects applicable to all those convicted, since the gradual statute of limitations constitutes a qualified mitigating factor of criminal responsibility, the effects of which influence the determination of the quantum of the corporal sanction, independent of the statute of limitations, with different foundations and consequences.

Thus, this is also explained thanks to humanitarian regulations that find their reason for being in how senseless such a high penalty is for events that occurred more than 40 years ago. The 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 rule, 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 exception of payment deduced by the State of Chile, understanding that these have already been paid, due to the reparatory nature of the compensation provided by the State of Chile, which was taken into account for the enactment of Law N° 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 its extra-contractual liability, establishing within the functions of the Commission the promotion of the reparation of the moral damage of the victims referred to in its article 18. That, due to such ends, the mentioned law, together with Law N° 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

"More than 17 thousand days" after being kidnapped by the Comando Conjunto: There is finally justice for José Flores Garrido

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

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 qualified kidnapping of José Edilio Flores Garrido, a university student and leader of the Communist Party, which occurred starting 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 perpetrator of the qualified kidnapping of the victim, who currently remains a forcibly disappeared person.

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 Saéz Mardones, a second sergeant of the Carabineros, to 6 years of prison, all as perpetrators of qualified kidnapping.

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

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

In this regard, the plaintiff lawyer and legal coordinator of the Caucoto Abogados firm, 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 puts an end to the first instance of the case, convicting 4 subjects for their intervention as perpetrators of the qualified kidnapping of the victim.”

“Almost 47 years after the events, national justice acts 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 a great work by the national judiciary, personified in the minister, as it evidences compliance with the international obligations that impose on the State to investigate and punish these events and those responsible, and to repair 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 civic-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 thousand 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 ritual as human as it is to say 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 long for and need so much 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 Comando Conjunto, with the purpose of investigating and repressing the Communist Party of Chile and the Communist Youth. 2) That, in that period, said organization was led by Air Force Brigadier General Freddy Enríquez Ruiz Bunger, director of the Air Force Intelligence Directorate (DIFA); Group Commander (A) Antonio Benedicto Quiroz Reyes, head of the DIFA Counterintelligence Department; and Squadron Commander (A) Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, chief officer of the Air Force Intelligence Directorate, and integrated by 1st Lieutenant IM Daniel Luis Enríque Guimpert Corvalán, head of the Counterintelligence Department of the Navy Intelligence Service (SIN); Carabineros Lieutenant Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa, of the Counterintelligence Department of the Carabineros of Chile 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 6 Juan Antonio Ríos Street in the commune of Santiago, and detention centers, among them, the facility called “La Firma,” located at 229 Dieciocho Street 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 model car and a cream-colored Renault car, detained, without legal right, José Edilio Flores Garrido, a militant of the Communist Party, at the intersection of Club Hípico Avenue and Lago Pirihueico Street. 5) That, subsequently, the victim was transported to the clandestine detention center located on Dieciocho Street in the commune of Santiago, called “La Firma,” a place that was in charge of the 1st Lieutenant of the Chilean Navy, Daniel Guimpert Corvalán, and the Carabineros Lieutenant of Chile, Manuel Muñoz Gamboa, among others, and in which César Luis Palma Ramírez, the former communist militant Miguel Estay Reyno, and Alejandro Saéz Mardones, among others, performed duties as civilians.

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

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

The crimes were perpetrated between October 1975 and June 1976, in the city of Santiago.

The so-called Comando Conjunto was a repressive apparatus created by the dictatorship under the tutelage of the Air Force (Fach) and the participation of army, navy, carabineros, and fascist civilian agents, which operated mainly between the years 1975 and 1977, and whose reason for being was to compete in repressive and criminal tasks with the absolute power held by the DINA under the tutelage of the army and the 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 prison terms of 18 years, plus 13 years, plus 3 years, each.

Former Navy officer Daniel Luis Enrique Guimpert Corvalán was sentenced to prison terms of 18 years, plus 12, plus 3 years.

Former Army officers Álvaro Julio Federico Corbalán Castilla and Sergio Antonio Díaz López, and former Navy officer Jorge Aníbal Osses Novoa, were sentenced to prison terms of 12 years, plus 10 years and one day, plus 400 days, each.

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

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

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

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

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 5 years and one day of prison, plus 400 days.

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

Roberto Francisco Serón Cárdenas was sentenced to 5 years and one day of 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, each.

The also convicted Antonio Benedicto Quiros Reyes and Miguel Arturo Estay Reyno died during the course of the process.

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

This group, called Comando Conjunto, used various facilities for detentions and torture: Cerrillos Hangar; Nido 20, a secret detention and torture facility located at 037 Santa Teresa Street, 20th stop of Gran Avenida; Nido 18, a secret facility located at 9053 Perú Street, La Florida, Santiago, which was used exclusively for torture; La Prevención or Remo Cero, which were dungeons located inside the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina, all this during the year 1975; La Firma, at the beginning of 1976, said group moved its operations to the back of the property in charge of Carabineros of Chile, located on Dieciocho Street, opposite N° 229, which belonged to the former newspaper Clarín, being called La Firma.

The operational action of the group consisted of detaining people with the kidnapping modality, keeping them captive in secret facilities, and subjecting them to physical and psychological interrogation and 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 made to disappear; of some of them, over the years, part of their remains were found.

On November 7, 1975, at approximately 10:00 PM, Ricardo Manuel Weibel Navarrete was detained at his home on Río Maule Street in the Recoleta commune by subjects wearing civilian clothes; he was kept deprived of liberty in the facility called La Prevención or Remo Cero, located inside the Anti-Aircraft Regiment in Colina, the last place he was seen alive, and subsequently, his bones were found on the grounds of Fuerte Arteaga, Peldehue.

On October 20, 1975, in the early hours, Luis Desiderio Moraga Cruz was detained at his home on Tokio passage in the Juanita Aguirre neighborhood, Conchalí commune, Santiago, by subjects wearing civilian clothes; he was kept held in the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina, inside which was the facility called La Prevención or Remo Cero, this being the last place he was seen alive.

On December 4, 1975, in the early hours, Ignacio Orlando González Espinoza was detained at his home on Soberanía Street in the Santiago commune by subjects wearing civilian clothes; he was kept deprived of liberty in the facility called La Prevención or Remo Cero, located inside the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment in Colina, the last place he was seen alive, and subsequently, he was executed on the grounds of Fuerte Arteaga, Peldehue, where his bones were found.

On June 8, 1976, in the Estación Central sector, Luis Emilio Gerardo Maturana González met with Juan René Orellana Catalán, both militants of the Communist Youth in hiding due to the political persecution they were subject to, with the purpose of giving party money to Orellana Catalán for himself and for him to in turn give it to other party militants, since Maturana González was in charge of distributing it; at that moment they were detained by operational agents of the aforementioned Comando Conjunto, keeping them held in the facility called La Firma, from where their trail is 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 crime of a municipal worker in 1976 in La Granja

The Supreme Court rejected the appeals in substance filed by the defenses against the sentence that convicted members of the repressive organization known as Comando Conjunto for their responsibility in the consummated crime of qualified kidnapping of the municipal employee Ulises Jorge Merino Varas, perpetrated starting on 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.

Then, the detainee was taken to the detention and torture centers of this organization known as 'Remo Cero', 'La Firma', the 24th Carabineros Police Station of Las Condes, and the 'Casa de Solteros'. At the end of April 1976, Merino Varas was transferred again to 'La Firma', his whereabouts being 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, María Cristina Gajardo, and lawyers (i) Leonor Etcheberry and Andrea Ruiz—confirmed the sentence that convicted Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola to 10 years of prison; Daniel Luis Enrique Guimpert Corvalán and Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa to 8 years of prison; and Francisco Segundo Illanes Miranda, Ernesto Lobos Gálvez, and Alejandro Segundo Sáez Mardones to 6 years of effective prison, as perpetrators of the crime.

Other implicated individuals, some prosecuted and convicted, died 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 perpetrators of the crime of illicit association.

Comando Conjunto

The so-called Comando Conjunto was a military intelligence group, hierarchical and disciplined, 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 destined to destroy the organizations of the left and the resistance to the dictatorship.

From 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.

Then, the Fach invented this Comando Conjunto that operated between the years 1975 and 1976, composed of agents belonging to the intelligence groups of the Air Force, Carabineros, Navy, and Army, plus civilian individuals coming from the fascist ultra-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, or transferred to some prisoner concentration camp, 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 Force 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.

For the commission of its crimes, this repressive apparatus had its headquarters in the building located at 6 Juan Antonio Ríos Street in the commune of Santiago, called 'JAR-6', and used as detention and torture centers the facilities 'Remo Cero', situated in the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment of Colina with the denomination 'La Prevención Prison'; 'La Firma', located on Dieciocho Street opposite N° 229 of the commune of Santiago, which corresponded to the place where the former newspaper El Clarín operated, which Carabineros seized, being called La Firma, until the end of 1976.

To these are added the 'Casa de Solteros', located at 125 Bellavista Street in the commune of Providencia, and the 24th Carabineros Police Station, situated at 840 Las Tranqueras Street in 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.

Source: resumen.cl, May 20, 2025