Justice? Los Ángeles: four crimes, one conviction. And the Supreme Court reduces the sentence.

The Supreme Court issued a final judgment in a case regarding human rights violations committed in the city of Los Ángeles in September 1973. The case was investigated by visiting judge Carlos Aldana of the Concepción Court of Appeals, who, in the first instance, had sentenced the only convicted individual to 10 years and one day for three crimes and 541 days for the fourth crime.

In a split decision (case file 12.226-2017), the Second Chamber of the country's highest court—composed of ministers Milton Juica, Carlos Künsemüller, Lamberto Cisternas, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, and acting lawyer Jaime Rodríguez—sentenced former Carabineros officer José Jermán Salazar Muñoz to 5 years and one day in prison as the perpetrator of the aggravated kidnapping of Ejidio Acuña Pacheco, HEIBERTO RIVERA BARRA, and Juan Chamorro Arévalo; and to 61 days in prison as an accomplice in the simple homicide of Tito Villagrán Molina.

These crimes were perpetrated starting on September 16, 1973, in the city of Los Ángeles, Biobío Region.

The crimes were carried out by five Carabineros officers. Of them, only three were prosecuted by a justice system that was late and lenient with criminals. Two of the accused, Juan Manuel Villablanca Méndez and José Miguel Beltrán Gálvez, died in the eternal confusion of a complicit, blind, and inefficient justice system.

The procedural stage only ended in September 2015 with a single person convicted. Now, the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court has added the final insult to this farce by reducing the sentences that had been imposed on the only convicted criminal.

The pro-impunity majority that established itself in the chamber this time continues to make its criteria prevail; only ministers Juica and Valderrama voted to, at the very least, maintain the first-instance ruling.

Source: resumen.cl September 15, 2017

Concepción Court of Appeals visiting judge Carlos Aldana sentenced retired Carabineros first sergeant José Jermán Salazar Muñoz to 10 years and one day in prison for three cases of forcibly disappeared persons and one political execution in the city of Los Ángeles.

The extraordinary visiting judge of the Concepción Court of Appeals, Carlos Aldana, sentenced a retired Carabineros officer to 10 years and one day in prison for his responsibility in four cases of human rights violations that occurred in the city of Los Ángeles, in the Bío Bío Region.

The individual is retired Carabineros first sergeant José Jermán Salazar Muñoz, who was found guilty of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Ejidio Acuña Pacheco, Heriberto Rivera Barra, and Juan Chamorro Arévalo, and for the aggravated homicide of José Luis Tito Villagrán Villagrán.

For this last case, the retired officer was sentenced to 541 days in prison.

According to the evidence gathered in the investigation, on September 16, 1973, Carabineros personnel arrested Ejidio Roespier Acuña Pacheco, Heriberto Rivera Parra, and Juan Guillermo Chamorro Arévalo in the Vista Hermosa neighborhood of Los Ángeles, all of whom "were taken to a place, until now, unknown," where it is assumed they were executed.

In the case of Villagrán Villagrán, his death occurred the following day at the Los Ángeles hospital due to an indeterminate gunshot wound, as established by the investigating judge of the case.

Regarding civil matters, the ruling also accepted the claims and ordered the State of Chile to compensate the families of the forcibly disappeared persons.

Source: puranoticia.pnt.cl, October 5, 2015

Former Carabineros officer convicted of human rights violations is sentenced for abusing his granddaughter

A former Carabineros officer who was serving a sentence for human rights violations during the dictatorship while at liberty was sentenced by the Oral Criminal Court of Los Ángeles to six years of effective prison time for abusing his granddaughter.

The individual is José Germán Salazar Muñoz, who was a Carabineros non-commissioned officer in 1973. As the head of a police patrol, he proceeded on September 16 of that year to arrest five people in Los Ángeles, who subsequently disappeared.

The remains of only one of the detainees, Tito Villagrán, were found later.

While Concepción Court of Appeals judge Carlos Aldana prosecuted Salazar Muñoz for the cases of Egidio Acuña Pacheco, Heriberto Rivera Barra, and Juan Chamorro, Santiago Court of Appeals judge Joaquín Billard sentenced him to 3 years and one day of supervised release for the kidnapping of Juan Heredia.

The prosecutor in charge of the sexual abuse case, María Gemita Rojas, noted that the prosecutions for human rights violations did not influence the sentence handed down by the court.

For Silvia Chamorro, sister of one of the disappeared, it is outrageous that only now, after being found guilty of the sexual abuse of a granddaughter, will the 75-year-old former officer have to serve a custodial sentence.

Chamorro added that what is happening in Chile regarding cases of forcibly disappeared persons, 40 years after the military coup, is regrettable.

The conviction for sexual abuse can still be appealed by José Germán Salazar to the Concepción Court through an appeal for annulment, the Los Ángeles Prosecutor's Office pointed out.

Source: Biobioclile.cl, August 26, 2013

Conviction of three retired Carabineros non-commissioned officers confirmed

The judges reduced the criminal sanctions to eight years in prison.

The Seventh Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals confirmed the convictions of three retired Carabineros non-commissioned officers for the aggravated kidnapping of Juan Isaías Heredia Olivares, which occurred starting on September 16, 1973, in the city of Los Ángeles, Biobío Region.

In a unanimous ruling, ministers Emilio Elgueta, Helga Marchant, and acting lawyer Enrique Pérez ratified the conviction issued by visiting judge Joaquín Billard on December 11, 2007, but reduced the criminal sanctions to eight years in prison for José Jerman Salazar Muñoz, José Miguel Beltrán Muñoz, and Juan Manuel Villablanca Mendez.

In the first instance, Judge Billard had sentenced Salazar Muñoz and Beltrán Muñoz to a term of 12 years in prison.

Source: El Mostrador, August 26, 2008

Court of Appeals confirms conviction for the kidnapping of Juan Heredia

The three retired Carabineros non-commissioned officers involved in the incident must serve eight years.

The Seventh Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals confirmed the convictions of three retired Carabineros non-commissioned officers for the aggravated kidnapping of Juan Isaías Heredia Olivares, which occurred starting on September 16, 1973, in the city of Los Ángeles, Biobío Region.

In a unanimous ruling, ministers Emilio Elgueta, Helga Marchant, and acting lawyer Enrique Pérez ratified the conviction issued by visiting judge Joaquín Billard on December 11, 2007, but reduced the criminal sanctions, establishing the following penalties:

José Jerman Salazar Muñoz and José Miguel Beltrán Muñoz saw their sentences reduced to 8 years in prison, despite the fact that Judge Billard had sentenced them to 12 years in prison in the first instance.

The other accused, Juan Manuel Villablanca Méndez, also received an eight-year sentence.

Juan Heredia (married, 3 children, teacher) was arrested at approximately 09:30 at his home in the city of Los Ángeles by a Carabineros patrol, in the presence of his spouse Nancy Burgos Barriga, his daughters, the domestic worker, and neighbors.

Source: emol.com, August 26, 2008