Operation Albania: 18 former CNI agents accused. The former director of the agency, retired General Hugo Salas Wenzel, is identified as the intellectual author

Visiting Minister Hugo Dolmestch charged 18 former agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Center (CNI) for their participation in the assassination of 12 young people on June 15 and 16, 1987, a case known as "Operation Albania." The magistrate determined that the former director of the intelligence agency, retired General Hugo Salas Wenzel, is the intellectual author of the homicide of the opponents of the military regime.

In this way, Dolmestch brings a fifteen-year investigation to an end and begins the stage prior to the issuance of first-instance convictions. Charged as co-authors of the crime of homicide are: retired General Hugo Salas Wenzel, retired Major Alvaro Corbalán, retired Commander Iván Quiroz, retired Commander Krantz Power Donoso, retired Major Rodrigo Pérez Martínez, and Army officer Jorge Vargas Bories.

These charges against the aforementioned uniformed personnel refer to the deaths of Recaredo Valenzuela, Patricio Acosta, Julio Guerra, Juan Henríquez, and Wilson Henríquez. Other implicated parties Furthermore, they are charged with the crime of kidnapping followed by homicide in the cases of Ester Cabrera, Manuel Valencia, Ricardo Rivera, Elizabeth Escobar, Patricia Quiroz, José Valenzuela Levi, and Ricardo Silva, who were executed at the property at Pedro Donoso 582, in the commune of Conchalí.

In the capacity of accomplice, the magistrate charged retired Army Captain Arturo Sanhueza Ross for the homicide of Julio Guerra and the kidnapping followed by homicide of Ester Cabrera. Meanwhile, former detective Hugo Guzmán is charged as an accomplice for the crime of kidnapping with homicide of Patricia Quiroz.

His colleague Gonzalo Maass del Valle is charged as the author of the crime of kidnapping followed by homicide of Ricardo Rivera. Retired officers René Valdovinos Morales, César Luis Acuña Luengo, and Manuel Morales Acevedo were charged as authors of the homicide of Ignacio Valenzuela Pohorezcky and as accomplices to the kidnapping followed by homicide of the victims at Pedro Donoso 582.

The Corpus Christi massacre In the so-called Operation Albania, which took place between June 15 and 16, 1987, during the Corpus Christi holiday, twelve people belonging to the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez were assassinated in different locations in Santiago.

According to the official versions of the military government, the young people died in "clashes with security forces," but autopsies demonstrated that the shots were fired while the victims were lying on the floor.

The action took place just four days after the Eighth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals declared the FPMR an "illicit terrorist association," whose members were to be imprisoned and repressed, a resolution that legitimized all types of violent action against the leftist group.

It should be recalled that the ruling was decided by the appellate court at the request of the military regime's Ministry of the Interior, following a petition presented by a group of FPMR members accused of various crimes.

CNI operation To carry out the operation, the National Intelligence Center conducted a massive intelligence operation, which involved mobilizing dozens of agents and carrying out numerous arrests and raids, with the ultimate goal of repressing the FPMR members.

The CNI's action was accompanied by a large deployment of officialist publicity, which reproduced the official version of a "clash" without doubts or questioning. The first victim, Ignacio Valenzuela Pohrecky, one of the founders of the FPMR, was shot to death on Calle Alhué, in the commune of Las Condes, on June 15, 1987, at 12:00 PM.

At 6:00 PM, CNI agents killed Ricardo Acosta Castro on Calle Varas Mena, in front of number 630. A few hours later, near midnight, on the same Calle Varas Mena, at the property marked with number 417, Juan Henríquez Araya and Wilson Henríquez Gallegos were killed.

At the same time these deaths occurred, the death of Julio Guerra Olivares took place in the Villa Olímpica. Subsequently, around 5:00 AM on June 16, 1987, at the house at Pedro Donoso 582, in the commune of Recoleta, seven FPMR members were riddled with bullets.

They were Ricardo Silva Soto, José Valenzuela Levy, Elizabeth Escobar Mondaca, Patricio Quiroz Nilo, Manuel Valencia Calderón, Ester Cabrera Hinojosa, and Ricardo Silva.

Source: La Tercera, April 5, 2002

Former CNI director sentenced to life imprisonment

Visiting Minister Hugo Dolmestch reported that the former director of the CNI, Hugo Salas Wenzel, was sentenced to life imprisonment for his responsibility in "Operation Albania," in which 12 FPMR members died on June 15 and 16, 1987.

After more than a decade of investigation, the magistrate managed to determine his responsibility in the events that occurred at different points in the capital between June 16 and 17, 1987. The sentences include life imprisonment for the former director of the National Intelligence Center (CNI), General Hugo Salas Wenzel; 15 years of imprisonment for the former head of operations of the dissolved CNI, Álvaro Corbalán Castilla; and 10 years in prison for Carabineros Commander Iván Quiróz.

Meanwhile, all those who participated in the arrests, such as Iván Cifuentes, Jorge Vargas Boríes, and Kranz Bauer, were acquitted. Plaintiff lawyer Nelson Caucoto expressed his satisfaction with the sentences, since in his opinion, "it was made evident here that the State lied shamelessly about the existence of a clash that never existed." The jurist stated that this final phase of the trial marks a unique experience in the development of proceedings for human rights violations perpetrated during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet Ugarte.

Source: tvn.cl, January 28, 2005

Court confirms sentences for those responsible for Operation Albania

The Ninth Chamber of the Court of Appeals, in a unanimous vote, confirmed the sentences issued last January by visiting Minister Hugo Dolmestch to 15 members of the former CNI, in the framework of the so-called Operation Albania, in which 12 members of the Frente Manuel Rodríguez died.

Thus, its former director Hugo Salas Wenzel will remain sentenced to life imprisonment as the author of the simple homicide of five of the deceased and the qualified homicide of the other seven. Salas is identified as directly responsible for the event, as he was the one who gave the order to carry out the operation, which is also known as the "Corpus Christi massacre." However, the court revoked the acquittal that the minister had issued against three involved parties, to whom an effective sentence of five years and one day of imprisonment was applied.

These are César Acuña Luengo, René Valdovinos Morales, and Fernando Burgos Díaz, who had responsibility in the death of Ignacio Valenzuela Pohorecky. Thus, of the 26 prosecuted in this case, eight were released, given that they did not have direct responsibility for the events.

The court, composed of ministers Raúl Rocha, Juan Araya, and Mauricio Silva, also resolved to increase to 500 million pesos the compensation for damages of 250 million pesos that Minister Dolmestch had set for the victims' families.

Operation Albania took place in three different locations in Santiago on June 15 and 16, 1987, and in it, FPMR militants Recaredo Valenzuela Pohorecky, Patricio Acosta Castro, Juan Henríquez Araya, Wilson Henríquez Gallegos, Julio Guerra Olivares, Esther Cabrera Hinojosa, Elizabeth Escobar Mondaca, Patricia Quiroz Nilo, Hernán Rivera Silva, Ricardo Silva Soto, Manuel Calderón, and José Valenzuela Levy lost their lives.

Source: emol.com, December 28, 2005

CNI leadership prosecuted for the disappearance of five FPMR members in 1987

Visiting Minister Haroldo Brito established yesterday for the first time the crime of qualified kidnapping (also known as permanent) in the process he is following against former CNI agents for the disappearance of five members of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez (FPMR) in 1987.

For this crime, he indicted former agents Víctor Ruiz Montoya, Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ros, and Luis Santibáñez Aguilera. In the resolution issued by Brito, it is stipulated that it can be proven that following the kidnapping of Army Commander Carlos Carreño Barrera, which occurred in this city (Santiago) on September 1, 1987, CNI officials decided to kidnap Manuel Sepúlveda Sánchez, Gonzalo Fuenzalida Navarrete, Julio Muñoz Otárola, Julián Peña Maltés, and Alejandro Pinochet Arenas.

For the same events, the magistrate, who took over the investigation from his colleague Hugo Dolmestch—now a Supreme Court justice—indicted as co-authors of the kidnapping the former director of the CNI, retired General Hugo Salas Wenzel, and his two collaborators, Álvaro Corbalán and Krantz Bauer.

They are followed for the same crime by Manuel Morales, César Acuña, and René Valdovinos. Meanwhile, as accessories to the crimes are retired Army officers Gonzalo Asenjo Zegers and Rodrigo Pérez. The selection of the FPMR members was carried out between September 8 and 9 with the aim of exchanging them for the kidnapped commander, which is why the detainees were immediately transferred to the intelligence service's Cuartel Borgoño.

Helicopter According to the resolution, upon the release of the military officer, five corpses were removed by CNI officials from the security facility to be thrown into the sea from an Army helicopter.

From the same evidence, it is also proven that the participation of the military helicopter and its pilots was arranged by the people who were in command of the operations investigating the kidnapping of Carlos Carreño, the resolution states.

These conclusions were reached because on July 20, Minister Dolmestch recreated, together with Army personnel, the throwing of the FPMR members into the sea at the port of San Antonio. During the proceeding, it was determined with certainty that the bodies were thrown in sacks with pieces of rails tied to their feet, so that they would not float.

An article published by La Nación last July revealed that Augusto Pinochet's former pilot, nicknamed "El Chino Campos," declared to the magistrate how in September 1987, his boss, Colonel Mario Navarrete, ordered him to use one of the institutional helicopters to travel to the Peldehue area to pick up some packages, which contained the bodies. "El Chino Campos" recounted that for said operation, he traveled together with his co-pilot, an officer who recently retired and who until a few months ago was the head of a military attaché office in Europe.

Even the head of the Special Affairs and Human Rights Brigade, Rafael Castillo, and his colleague Mario Zelada, traveled through the old continent looking for a key witness for this process. Stages Minister Dolmestch proved that the operation was separated into three stages.

The first of these was the detention of the FPMR members to pressure the FPMR and recover the kidnapped military officer. Once detained, they were interrogated by the CNI. After this, the order arrived that the military regime did not negotiate with terrorists, so the five FPMR members were assassinated.

After the execution, Francisco "Gurka" Zúñiga was designated to coordinate with the Army to obtain the necessary elements to carry out the dumping of the bodies off the coast of San Antonio.

Source: La Nacion, September 22, 2006

Salas Wenzel, the next fugitive?

When the name Hugo Salas Wenzel is read in the Supreme Court ruling for the Albania case, the circle of the toughest generals from the final stage of the CNI and the dictatorship will be closed, following the fall of Fernando Torres Silva this week.

For this reason, there is an alert in the police, courts, and the Government that the former director of the repressive agency might follow in the footsteps of his comrade Raúl Iturriaga and evade justice.

After the State accepted to pay 300 million pesos as compensation to each of the families of the 12 victims, a clear signal was given that the convictions will be ratified. The Criminal Chamber of the highest court must issue the sentence on the last appeals that sought to annul the convictions against 14 former agents who assassinated the young FPMR members in June 1987, of whom Salas Wenzel was the only one sentenced to life imprisonment by Minister Hugo Dolmestch.

Later, the Court of Appeals ratified the sentence. Police sources indicated that the former general will be located before he is notified and that his addresses are already being verified. In Operation Albania, Recaredo Valenzuela Pohorecky, Patricio Acosta Castro, Juan Henríquez Araya, Wilson Henríquez Gallegos, Julio Guerra Olivares, Esther Cabrera Hinojosa, Elizabeth Escobar Mondaca, Patricia Quiroz Nilo, Hernán Rivera Silva, Ricardo Silva Soto, Manuel Calderón, and José Valenzuela Levy were riddled with bullets and killed.

Source: La Nacion, July 29, 2007

Highest sentence against a retired general for crimes during the dictatorship. Operation Albania: Supreme Court confirms life imprisonment for Hugo Salas Wenzel

The Supreme Court confirmed this Tuesday the life imprisonment sentence for retired General Hugo Salas Wenzel, former director of the National Intelligence Center (CNI), for his responsibility in the crime of twelve FPMR members in June 1987, in the framework of Operation Albania.

Salas Wenzel was sentenced as the intellectual author of the assassinations, which were planned as one of the acts of revenge for the attack on Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, which occurred in September 1986.

With this resolution, the former head of the repressive agency became the retired general who has received the highest sentence for human rights violations committed during the military dictatorship. The decision was adopted by the Second (Criminal) Chamber, which also ruled on the sentences that Minister Hugo Dolmestch issued against fourteen other former uniformed personnel who participated in the operation, also known as the Corpus Christi Massacre.

In court, it was explained that since Salas Wenzel began to be tried before the law was modified, simple life imprisonment will be applied to him, which allows him to access some type of benefit after 20 years in prison.

The highest court also decided to increase from 15 to 20 years in prison the sentence against the former head of operations of the repressive agency, Álvaro Corbalán Castilla, who is already serving time for other human rights violations perpetrated during the military dictatorship.

Meanwhile, it maintained the 10-year prison sentence against retired Carabineros Commander Iván Quiroz Ruiz, while it increased the punishment against former CNI agent Enrique Neira Donoso from 7 years and one day to 8 years in prison.

These four former members must serve their punishment in prison together with former agent Manuel Morales Acevedo, who had initially been sentenced to three years in prison, but the Supreme Court increased his punishment to five years and one day.

Meanwhile, former agents Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ross, Rodrigo Pérez Martínez, César Acuña Luengo, Patricio Miquel Carmona, and Fernando Burgos Díaz were sentenced to five years and one day in prison, while Eric Silva Reichart received a five-year prison sentence.

Gonzalo Maas del Valle, José Miguel Morales Morales, and René Valdovinos Morales were sentenced to three years in prison, while Hugo Guzmán Rojas received a punishment of 541 days in prison. The Supreme Court also confirmed the acquittal of 11 agents who participated in the operations and who had already been exonerated by Dolmestch and the Santiago Court of Appeals, among whom are former agents Kranstz Bauer and Jorge Vargas Bories, as well as former Carabineros prosecutor Luis Acevedo.

Last June, the State Defense Council (CDE) and the victims' relatives reached a reparation agreement in which the Treasury committed to paying compensation of $300 million to each family group. Plaintiffs celebrate the decision Lawyer Nelson Caucoto, representative of the victims, highlighted that this is the first life sentence for a military officer with the rank of general, which in his opinion reveals "the gravity of the judged facts and the importance of this case." "We have managed to establish the truth of what happened and high criminal sanctions, where there is a life imprisonment sentence and finally there is also reparation. In a single sentence, we have managed to bring together the three aspects that comprise a complex concept such as justice: truth, criminal sanction, and reparation," he maintained. "It seems extraordinary to have closed this chapter with these sentences that the highest court has issued," he pointed out.

Source: elmostrador.cl, August 29, 2007

Chilean Supreme Court ratifies for the first time a life sentence for human rights violations

The Supreme Court of Chile ratified, for the first time in the judicial history of this country, in an unappealable ruling, a life imprisonment sentence against a former head of the repression of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) for human rights violations committed during that period.

It is the life sentence that must be served by former Chilean Army General Hugo Salas Wenzel, former head of the National Intelligence Center (CNI), the agency that succeeded the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), in his capacity as the author of the assassinations of 12 people that occurred between June 16 and 17, 1987.

The event, which cost the lives of members of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez (FPMR), was known as 'Operation Albania' or 'Corpus Christi Massacre' and was carried out as retaliation by the officialdom for the attack that the former dictator had suffered in September 1986.

The CNI agents riddled the 12 people, all under 30 years of age, with bullets and simulated a clash, which was disproven by the evidence presented by the victims' defense. Salas Wenzel, who had received this sentence in 2005 and had appealed it, must be transferred in the coming hours to a military facility.

The Supreme Court's ruling also increased by five years, to 20, the sentence for the other CNI head, the civilian Álvaro Corbalán Castilla, and also sentenced former civilian agents Iván Quiroz, Emilio Neira Donoso, and Miguel Morales Acevedo to 10 years and one day, eight years and one day, and five years and one day, respectively, and issued other sentences of between seven and three years for the remaining implicated parties.

Likewise, as it appeared in the original ruling, the Supreme Court maintained the decision to acquit 11 other people. January 24, 2008 El Mostrador New indictments issued for the last disappeared of the dictatorship Minister Mario Carroza indicted seven former CNI agents for the disappearance of five FPMR members, kidnapped in retaliation for the kidnapping of Colonel Carlos Carreño.

Visiting Minister Mario Carroza subjected to prosecution seven former agents of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) for the qualified kidnappings of five young militants of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez (FPMR) in September 1987.

The magistrate indicted them for different degrees of participation in the kidnappings of José Julián Peña Maltés, Alejandro Pinochet Arenas, Manuel Sepúlveda Sánchez, Gonzalo Fuenzalida Navarrete, and Julio Muñoz Otárola, which occurred starting September 1, 1987.

The resolution affects Juan Carlos Orellana Morales, Hernán Antonio Vásquez Villegas, Raúl del Carmen Durán Martínez, José Guillermo Salas Fuentes, Marco Antonio Pincheira Ubilla, and Jorge Raimundo Ahumada Molina.

The list also includes Iván Quiroz Ruiz, who remained a fugitive in the Operation Albania case and who was arrested on Wednesday night. According to the ruling, the first six former agents face charges as authors of the qualified kidnapping of Peña Maltés, while Quiroz was indicted for the same case, as well as for Pinochet Arenas, Sepúlveda Sánchez, Fuenzalida Navarrete, and Muñoz Otárola.

The investigation considers it proven that the five FPMR members were kidnapped in retaliation for the kidnapping of Colonel Carlos Carreño Barrera, then an official of the Army's Factories and Arsenals (Famae), perpetrated on September 1, 1987.

According to the investigations, the bodies of the five victims were thrown into the sea, for which Army helicopters were used. Other prosecuted individuals Before leaving the case and ascending to the Supreme Court in May 2007, Judge Haroldo Brito had indicted retired General Julio Cerda Carrasco, former head of the Army Intelligence Battalion (BIE), and retired officer Fernando Rafael Rojas Tapia, also a member of the aforementioned military body.

As accessories to the disappearances, he prosecuted Aquiles Navarrete Izarnotegui, Víctor Campos Valladares, and Hugo Barría Rogers. And in September 2006, Brito indicted twelve former CNI agents, among whom are retired General Hugo Salas Wenzel and his subordinates, retired Brigadier Álvaro Corbalán Castilla and Krantz Bauer Donoso, as co-authors of the kidnapping of Sepúlveda Sánchez, Fuenzalida Navarrete, and Muñoz Otárola.

On that occasion, the judge also prosecuted as co-authors of the kidnappings of Peña Maltés, Sepúlveda Sánchez, Fuenzalida Navarrete, and Muñoz Otárola the former agents Manuel Ángel Morales Acevedo, César Acuña Luengo, and René Valdovinos Morales.

They were joined by former CNI members Víctor Ruiz Godoy, Manuel Ramírez Montoya, Luis Sanhueza Ross, and Luis Santibáñez Aguilera, who were indicted as co-authors of the kidnappings of Pinochet Arenas, Sepúlveda Sánchez, Fuenzalida Navarrete, and Muñoz Otárola.

Source: Terra.es, August 30, 2007

Magistrate Carroza charges five former CNI members for cases of forcibly disappeared persons

There were five accusations issued by visiting Minister Mario Carroza against former CNI agents for the disappearance of a group of militants of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez, the last to occur during the dictatorship led by Augusto Pinochet.

Among those accused are former Army General Hugo Salas Wenzel, as well as the former head of operations of the CNI, Álvaro Corbalán Castilla, and agents Kranz Bauer, Arturo Sanhueza Ross, and Iván Quiroz Ruz.

The disappeared FPMR militants are Gonzalo Fuenzalida Navarrete, Julio Muñoz Otárola, Manuel Sepúlveda Sánchez, Alejandro Pinochet Arenas, and Julián Peña Maltés. In the accusation presented by Minister Carroza, it is stated that the five FPMR members were detained to carry out an exchange for the then-kidnapped Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Carreño.

Source: radio.uchile.cl, October 8, 2010

Hugo Salas Wenzel, former CNI leader, responsible for 'Operation Albania' and sentenced to life imprisonment, dies

This Thursday, the death of Hugo Salas Wenzel was announced, a former military officer who was serving a life sentence for violating human rights during the dictatorship. He was a former CNI leader and responsible for 'Operation Albania,' where 12 members of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez were executed.

This Thursday, at the age of 85, former military officer Hugo Salas Wenzel passed away. He was serving a life sentence for a series of human rights violations during the Pinochet dictatorship, in addition to being the former director of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) between 1986 and 1988.

The retired general was identified as the person responsible for 'Operation Albania,' giving the order to execute 12 members of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez, in an event that became known as the "Corpus Christi Massacre." For that event, Salas Wenzel, in 2005, was the first Army general to receive a life imprisonment sentence for a proven case of human rights violation, remaining confined in the Punta Peuco prison.

It should be recalled that 'Operation Albania' occurred between June 15 and 16, 1987, when at different points in Santiago, the former general gave the order to execute the 12 FPMR members. The Pinochet dictatorship, at that time, described the event as a 'clash' with members who had attempted to assassinate the dictator Pinochet in 1986.

His death occurred this Thursday, as a result of a series of medical complications, at the Military Hospital of Santiago.

Source: eldesconcierto.cl, August 12, 2021

Supreme Court sentences 33 dictatorship agents for the disappearance and dumping into the sea of FPMR members in 1987

Álvaro Corbalán Castilla and Hugo Salas Wenzel were sentenced to 15 years in prison as authors of the crime. The Supreme Court sentenced 33 former agents of the National Intelligence Center (CNI), the Army Intelligence Battalion (BIE), and the Army Aviation Command for their responsibility in the kidnappings and disappearances of Julián Peña Maltés, Alejandro Pinochet Arenas, Manuel Sepúlveda Sánchez, Gonzalo Fuenzalida Navarrete, and Julio Muñoz Otárola, perpetrated starting in September 1987.

In a split decision, the Second Chamber of the highest court accepted the cassation appeal presented against the sentence issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals and issued a replacement sentence that sentences the agents Álvaro Corbalán Castilla and Hugo Salas Wenzel to 15 years in prison as authors of the qualified kidnappings.

Meanwhile, Iván Quiroz Ruiz, Gonzalo Maas del Valle, Raúl Durán Martínez, Luis Santibáñez Aguilera, Víctor Ruiz Godoy, Juan Jorquera Abarzúa, Hernán Vásquez Villegas, Sergio Mateluna Pino, José Fuentes Pastenes, Juan Carlos Orellana Morales, Roberto Rodríguez Manquel, Alejandro Astudillo Adonis, José Salas Fuentes, Heraldo Velozo Gallegos, Marco Antonio Pincheira Ubilla, Jorge Ahumada Molina, José Morales Morales, Ema Ceballos Núñez, Patricio González Cortés, César Acuña Luengo, and René Valdovinos Morales must serve 10 years and one day in prison for their responsibility as authors of the five crimes. In addition, former agents Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ross, Manuel Morales Acevedo, and Manuel Ramírez Montoya must serve a sentence of 5 years and one day in prison as authors of the qualified kidnappings, while agents Aquiles Navarrete Izarnótegui, Fernando Rojas Tapia, Julio Cerda Carrasco, Marco Antonio Bustos Carrasco, Hugo Prado Contreras, and Rodrigo Pérez Martínez must serve the same sentence as accomplices to the crimes. Meanwhile, Mario Campos Valladares must serve 3 years and one day in prison, with the benefit of supervised release. Agent Hugo Barría Rogers was acquitted of the charges. Thrown into the sea Between September 9 and 10, 1987, agents of the CNI, the Army Intelligence Battalion (BIE), and the Army Aviation Command received instructions to detain, without a judicial order, five members of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez (FPMR) in retaliation for the kidnapping of Army Colonel Carlos Carreño, which occurred on September 1, 1987. The detained persons were interrogated and kept hidden under custody at the Borgoño barracks in Quintay, without any intention of placing them at the disposal of the respective judiciary. Before the release of Colonel Carreño in Brazil and not being possible to carry out an exchange, the security agencies decided to eliminate the detainees and, for this, organized an operation to throw their remains off the coast of Quintay.

Source: eldesconcierto.cl, March 22, 2017

The reward for a former CNI agent: the apartment they bought for Emilio Neira Donoso for being part of Operation Albania

He was highlighted for his "professional vocation" and "recognized among his superiors and subordinates." That is how the CNI's head of operations, Álvaro Corbalán, wrote a note in the retired colonel's service record in September 1987 after he participated in the well-known Operation Albania.

The military officer served a sentence for his responsibility in these events, but he also made a fortune from the "rewards" that the Army transferred to him. Here we tell his case. On June 15, 1987, Recaredo Ignacio Valenzuela (30), an economist from the University of Chile and a member of the national leadership of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez (FPMR), was shot 25 meters from his mother's house in the commune of Las Condes.

His body was found with a pistol and a grenade hidden in his jacket; it was the perfect scenario set up by the National Intelligence Center (CNI) to fake a clash. Valenzuela, or "Commander Benito," had been followed for some time, and they had given the order to "neutralize" him.

He left behind a seven-year-old son. That action was part of the so-called Operation Albania, also known as the Corpus Christi Massacre, which ended with twelve FPMR members assassinated in different communes of Santiago on June 15 and 16, 1987.

The CNI, under the command of Hugo Salas Wenzel, had carried out months of surveillance. It was the hardest blow to the FPMR. One of the assassinated FPMR members, Patricia Quiroz Nilo, was pregnant. Emilio Enrique Neira at that time was part of the so-called Green Brigade of the CNI, in charge of the repression of the Communist Party, the FPMR, and also anti-terrorist brigades.

For his participation in this massacre, he obtained the congratulations of Álvaro Corbalán and obtained the recognition of his superiors and subordinates. The "achievement" was highlighted in his service record with an entry date of September 1987, three months after he participated in Operation Albania.

At times, Emilio Neira was "Eduardo Correa Valenzuela," the alias or "chapa" he used to hide his identity and evade justice. However, despite the maneuvers with which he tried to avoid his responsibility as the author of the crime of qualified homicide of Valenzuela Pohorecky and as the author of the crime of qualified homicide of José Joaquín Valenzuela Levi, the conviction was ratified by the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court on August 28, 2007.

Enrique Neira Donoso entered Punta Peuco on September 24, 2007, and was released on July 1, 2015. His name jumped back into the spotlight that same year, when the former treasurer and retired Army colonel Clovis Montero—once indicted—began providing more details of the operation that defrauded the treasury and which in his case totaled more than 980 million pesos.

In an interview published in The Clinic in 2015, Montero assured that with the money coming from the Reserved Copper Law, funds from the regular budget of the Army Command were also embezzled, and he named a specific case: the purchase of an apartment for Enrique Neira Donoso to ensure his silence.

Montero also specified that that apartment was acquired while General Carlos Cid Muñoz was in charge of the Army's Finance Directorate (DIFE), between 1999 and 2005. Neira was released and resumed his life, but what was unknown was the hefty disability pension that both he and other former uniformed personnel received monthly.

They were called pensions for "post-traumatic illnesses," and in Neira's case, it amounted to two million six hundred thousand pesos. His diagnosis was "affective psychosis." The program Informe Especial revealed that scandal in 2017, and it was explained that this type of pension is given to military personnel who suffer accidents in the line of duty, which would prevent them from continuing to perform their functions, but as in the case of Neira himself, some remained active in the private sector.

According to the documents to which El Desconcierto had access, it was during those years, in 2002, that Neira's wife, María Cristina Espinoza, bought an apartment located in Las Condes for 3,630 UF, at that time about 82 million pesos.

The apartment was paid in a single installment to the construction company León Wolf S.A and to the Sociedad Inmobiliaria Dora Tabacman S.A and registered in the Property Registry of the Real Estate Registrar in 2002.

As established by the statement of those charged, the delivery of money was done in briefcases to avoid any trail that could account for the crime. Neira is a former agent rewarded with state money embezzled just like the rest of the officers who benefited from irregular retirements, but in this case, the purchase of a property would have been added.

An investigation that over time adds new chapters and prosecuted individuals. The truth is that it would be a gratuity made in democracy for the crime perpetrated during the dictatorship. For the President of the Association of Families of Politically Executed Persons, Alicia Lira (AFEP), this is "money that comes from the usurpation that the Armed Forces have carried out in order to maintain the pacts of silence (...) Those are the ways they have to keep the information hidden, giving them pensions on a permanent basis and benefits of all kinds," she commented.

She added that, in the case of the pensions, the justice system is investigating the transfer of more than one billion pesos to former agents, but that also, in her opinion, the transfers of other types of assets that would fulfill the same functions should be known.

In 2015, Adriana Pohorecky, mother of Recaredo Valenzuela, together with lawyer Cristian Cruz, presented a complaint against the Army before visiting Minister Omar Astudillo. According to the lawyer at that time, the court—which the Martial Court ratified—did not allow the criminal action to be processed in the military judicial venue. "That is not surprising, and it becomes increasingly urgent to modify such situations, where only in a small percentage of cases is it possible to approach truth and justice.

Let us remember that the higher instance, the Martial Court, is composed of 5 members, three of whom in practice are not Ministers; they are cronies of the Army, the Air Force, and the Carabineros—that is, the uniformed personnel are the majority, and there is no guarantee of a proper process," he commented to El Desconcierto. "There is a culture in the Army, like the other branches of the Armed Forces and the Carabineros, of protecting human rights violators, of misusing public money, and of persevering with their pacts of silence, thus favoring impunity and a degree of criminality among some commanders and their close associates," concluded Cruz.

Source: eldesconcierto.cl, January 15, 2019

Hugo Salas Wenzel, former CNI director sentenced to life imprisonment, dies at 85

The sentence for the so-called "Operation Albania" was being served in the Punta Peuco prison, but on July 15 he was admitted to the Military Hospital, where he passed away. This Thursday, the death of Hugo Salas Wenzel, former director of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity, was confirmed at the age of 85.

The retired officer of the Chilean Army was sentenced to life imprisonment for his participation in the so-called "Operation Albania," when former CNI agents assassinated 12 members of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez (FPMR) in 1987, in the midst of the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

In 2007, the Supreme Court sentenced him for being the author of five simple homicides and seven qualified homicides. Salas Wenzel was serving his sentence in the Punta Peuco prison, but on July 15 he was admitted to the Military Hospital, the place where he passed away. Hugo Salas Wenzel, like Manuel Contreras, is another former military officer who dies while serving a sentence.

Source: t13.cl, August 12, 2021