Judge Raquel Lermanda has prosecuted five Army personnel for the 1984 execution of Fernando Gabriel Vergara, a member of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR). Among those indicted by the magistrate, who holds exclusive jurisdiction at the Ninth Criminal Court of Santiago, are active-duty non-commissioned officers of the military institution Luis Gálvez Navarro and Francisco Orellana Seguel.

Also charged are Colonel (ret.) Aquiles González Cortes, Captain (ret.) Luis Sanhueza, and Non-commissioned Officer (ret.) Jorge Ramírez, all of whom were prosecuted for the crime of qualified homicide.

According to the Rettig Report, which in 1991 investigated and archived cases of human rights violations during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, Vergara died on December 15, 1984, after having entered the country clandestinely.

On that date, personnel from the Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI) intercepted an individual in downtown Santiago who, upon noticing the security personnel, fired two shots; the officials returned fire, causing his death.

There is evidence that the MIR militant, an operator for the clandestine station Radio Liberación, was being followed by CNI officials beforehand, which casts doubt on the claim that he was discovered by chance.

It was also proven that the weapon Vergara allegedly used to fire the two shots was in poor working condition, as it had a broken hammer and could not have been used. Taking this into account, the Report concluded that the young man was followed, detained, and executed by CNI personnel, and his death is considered a human rights violation.

Source: Radionuevomundo.cl July 2, 2003

The former director of the agency, General (ret.) Hugo Salas Wenzel, is identified as the mastermind behind the execution of twelve young members of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez. Investigating judge Hugo Dolmestch charged 18 former agents of the dissolved Central Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI) for their participation in the murder 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, General (ret.) Hugo Salas Wenzel, is the intellectual author of the homicide of the opponents of the military regime. With this, Dolmestch concludes fifteen years of investigation and begins the stage prior to the issuance of first-instance convictions. Accused as co-authors of the crime of homicide are: General (ret.) Hugo Salas Wenzel, Major (ret.) Alvaro Corbalán, Commander (ret.) Iván Quiroz, Commander (ret.) Krantz Power Donoso, Major Rodrigo Pérez Martínez, and Army officer Jorge Vargas Bories. These accusations against the aforementioned uniformed personnel refer to the deaths of Recaredo Valenzuela, Patricio Acosta, Julio Guerra, Juan Henríquez, and Wilson Henríquez. Other implicated individuals Furthermore, they are accused of 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 located at Pedro Donoso 582, in the commune of Conchalí. As an accomplice, the magistrate charged Army Captain (ret.) Arturo Sanhueza Ross for the homicide of Julio Guerra and the kidnapping followed by homicide of Ester Cabrera. Meanwhile, former detective Hugo Guzmán is accused as an accomplice for the crime of kidnapping with homicide of Patricia Quiroz. His colleague Gonzalo Maass del Valle is accused as the author of the crime of kidnapping followed by homicide of Ricardo Rivera. Officers (ret.) René Valdovinos Morales, César Luis Acuña Luengo, and Manuel Morales Acevedo were accused as authors of the homicide of Ignacio Valenzuela Pohorezcky and as accomplices in 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 murdered in different parts of Santiago. According to the official versions of the military government, the young people died in "clashes with security forces," but autopsies showed 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 remembered 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 Central Nacional de Informaciones 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 major official publicity campaign, which reproduced the official version of a "clash" without doubt 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 Rivera Silva.

Source: La Tercera April 5, 2002

Convictions in last CNI crime

Three Army officers (ret.), former members of the CNI, were prosecuted as authors of the homicide of MIR leader Jécar Neghme Cristi, which occurred via gunfire on the night of Monday, September 4, 1989, on Calle Bulnes in the western zone of Santiago.

With this resolution by investigating judge Hugo Dolmetsch, the authors of the last crime committed by the dictatorship's security services were indicted. The resolution affected Brigadier (ret.) Enrique Leddy Araneda, who replaced Alvaro Corbalán as head of the CNI's Metropolitan Brigade after the Operation Albania homicides in June 1987.

Nicknamed “El Burro” (The Donkey) for his stubbornness, Leddy had not been accused until now of any bloody act during the regime of Augusto Pinochet.

BLUE BRIGADE

Dolmetsch also prosecuted Colonel (ret.) Pedro Guzmán Olivares, who is also currently declared a defendant by the same magistrate in the homicide of journalist José Carrasco. The third accused is Luis Sanhueza Ros, one of the most bloodthirsty officers who operated in the CNI and later in the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE).

Sanhueza, alias “El Huiro,” using the alias Ramiro Droguett Aránguiz, is prosecuted for the crimes against Carrasco, Operation Albania, and the five FPMR members forcibly disappeared in 1987 by the CNI.

The judge's ruling established that the authors were members of the so-called Blue Brigade of the CNI, tasked with investigating the activities of the MIR. Sanhueza Ros directed it. Once the CNI was dissolved at the end of 1989, “El Huiro” became part of one of the DINE structures to continue carrying out clandestine operations even after the dictatorship ended.

His connection to the crime of the “manager” of the Army's illegal financial firm, La Cutufa, gastronomic businessman Aurelio Sichel, in addition to the swords of justice already hanging over him for the other homicides, were reportedly the reasons why in 1991 the DINE decided to clandestinely remove him from the country to settle him for a time in Argentina.

Around that same time, for the same reasons of fear of justice, the DINE also clandestinely removed Major (ret.) Carlos Herrera Jiménez from the country, the material author of the assassination of union leader Tucapel Jiménez.

Herrera and Sanhueza were part of the elite of the most obedient operational officers of the repressive services. That same year, the DINE had taken former DINA agent and chemist Eugenio Berríos to Uruguay—also under a false name—to obstruct the investigation in Chile into the crime of Orlando Letelier.

He would later be murdered by Chilean and Uruguayan military personnel near Montevideo. After the split of the MIR in 1987, Jécar Neghme abandoned the option of armed struggle and began to lead the sector called MIR-Político, which was in favor of joining the political struggle against the military regime, alongside the parties and movements already engaged in it.

Death surprised him in that condition.

INVESTIGATION

The judicial investigation opened after the homicide was committed passed through the hands of several investigating judges before reaching the jurisdiction of magistrate Hugo Dolmetsch. The first judge appointed by the Supreme Court, a few days after the crime, was Judge Carlos Meneses.

Later, magistrate Guillermo Navas was appointed after Meneses assumed the role of secretary of the Supreme Court. Finally, the current president of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Alfredo Pfeiffer, instructed the case.

THE PUBLIC MIR LEADER

If there is one thing that was surprising about the assassination of Jécar Neghme Cristi, it was that it was committed at a juncture in which the military government was fading, with a CNI in the process of dissolution, and targeting a person who had evolved from the social spokesperson of a MIR still committed to armed actions to heading the political wing.

This wing was in favor of joining the political path, in the heat of the incorporation of leftist sectors into the peaceful solution after the October 1988 plebiscite. Neghme, who at the Pedagógico in the early 80s headed the Unión Nacional de Estudiantes Democráticos (UNED), a branch of the MIR's student front, was a leader of the MDP and in 1987 chose to lead the MIR toward a less military and more social project following the organization's rupture.

At that time, Andrés Pascal Allende remained with the more insurrectionist thesis. When he was assassinated, Neghme was already a visible face of the MIR's shift.

Source: La Nacion May 29, 2003

Implicated individuals prosecuted in death of MIR member

The judge with exclusive jurisdiction at the Ninth Criminal Court of Santiago, Raquel Lermanda, prosecuted five military personnel for the death of MIR member Fernando Vergara, an event that occurred on December 15, 1984.

Among those indicted are active-duty non-commissioned officers Luis Gálvez Navarro and Francisco Orellana Seguel, as well as Colonel (ret.) Aquiles González Cortes, Captain (ret.) Luis Sanhueza, and Non-commissioned Officer (ret.) Jorge Ramírez, who were prosecuted for the crime of qualified homicide.

So far, only former military officer Luis Sanhueza has been notified of the resolution. The three retired officers belonged to the CNI's Blue Brigade, which was organized basically to dismantle the MIR.

Source: La Nacion July 3, 2003

Convictions for former CNI agents for death of MIR member

A new conviction was issued yesterday by Minister Juan Eduardo Fuentes affecting five former CNI agents. This time it concerns the case for the homicide of the person who was the operator of the MIR's Radio Liberación, Fernando Vergara, which occurred in 1984.

The first-instance sentence affects former CNI operations chief Álvaro Corbalán with ten years and one day in prison as the author of qualified homicide; for the same offense but with five years and one day in prison, the magistrate sentenced former agents Luis Sanhueza and Aquiles González; non-commissioned officers Luis Gálvez, Francisco Orellana, and Jorge Ramírez face five years.

The latter three agents were granted the benefit by Minister Fuentes to serve their sentences under supervised release by a Gendarmería delegate. Vergara was intercepted by the CNI on December 15, 1984.

The agency's version was that Vergara was carrying a weapon and attempted to engage in a shootout with the personnel, for which he was annihilated. However, the magistrate proved that the version was not true.

In this same process, there are police statements from two former CNI agents who claimed that Pinochet's former minister, Francisco Javier Cuadra, arrived at the scene accompanied by Corbalán himself, but they diametrically changed their statements in their judicial testimonies. Minister Fuentes also rejected the claim for damages presented by the family and represented by lawyer Nelson Caucoto.

Source: La Nacion March 24, 2006

Dolmestch files charges against six former CNI agents for crime of Jécar Neghme

The assassination of the MIR leader occurred on the same day that Patricio Aylwin was proclaimed as the presidential candidate of the Concertación. Hugo Dolmetsch, the investigating judge who is investigating the assassination of the spokesperson for the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR), filed charges for qualified homicide against six former agents of the Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI).

The accused are Brigadier (ret.) Enrique Leddy Araneda; retired colonels Eduardo Norambuena Aguilar and Pedro Guzmán Olivares; captains Silvio Corsini Encárate and Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ross; and Major (ret.) Manuel Navarrete Tello, all for the crime of qualified homicide that occurred on September 4, 1989.

According to the newspaper Siete, all members of the Blue Brigade have confessed to the crime since last May, except for Brigadier (ret.) Leddy Araneda. Riddled with bullets Jécar Neghme was riddled with bullets when he was leaving the MIR headquarters (located on Calle Bulnes) just on the day that Patricio Aylwin was proclaimed as the candidate for the Presidency of the Republic, an election that the party's most important spokesperson had tried to legitimize among his comrades, sparking a political struggle within the conglomerate.

This circumstance was used for years by the repressive agents to distance themselves from the responsibility they bore in the crime, attributing the homicide to Neghme's own comrades.

Source: El Mostrador.cl February 6, 2006

CNI leadership prosecuted for disappearance of five FPMR members in 1987

Investigating judge Haroldo Brito established yesterday for the first time the crime of qualified kidnapping (also known as permanent kidnapping) 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 as a result of the kidnapping of the Army commander, Mr.

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 Dolmetsch—now a Supreme Court justice—indicted former CNI director General (ret.) Hugo Salas Wenzel and his two collaborators, Álvaro Corbalán and Krantz Bauer, as co-authors of the kidnapping.

They are followed for the same crime by Manuel Morales, César Acuña, and René Valdovinos. Meanwhile, as accessories to the crimes are Army officers (ret.) 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, so the detainees were immediately transferred to the 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 to investigate the kidnapping of Carlos Carreño, the resolution states.

These conclusions were reached because on July 20, Minister Dolmetsch, together with Army personnel, recreated the throwing of the FPMR members in the port of San Antonio. In the proceeding, it was determined with certainty that the bodies were thrown in sacks with pieces of rail 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 retired recently 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, toured the old continent looking for a key witness for this process. Stages Minister Dolmetsch proved that the operation was separated into three stages.

The first of them 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 came that the military regime did not negotiate with terrorists, so the five FPMR members were murdered.

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

Source: La Nación September 22, 2006

Highest conviction against retired general for crimes during dictatorship Operation Albania: Supreme Court confirms life imprisonment for Hugo Salas Wenzel

The Supreme Court confirmed this Tuesday the life sentence against retired General Hugo Salas Wenzel, former director of the Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI), for his responsibility in the crime of twelve members of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez (FPMR) in June 1987, within the framework of Operation Albania.

Salas Wenzel was sentenced as the intellectual author of the murders, which were planned as one of the acts of retaliation for the attack on Augusto Pinochet Ugarte that 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 Chamber (Criminal), which also ruled on the sentences that Judge Hugo Dolmestch handed down against fourteen other former uniformed officers 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, he will be subject to a simple life sentence, 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 operational chief 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 for 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 alongside 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 the former Carabineros prosecutor Luis Acevedo.

Last June, the State Defense Council (CDE) and the relatives of the victims reached a reparation agreement in which the State committed to paying an indemnity of $300 million to each family group. Plaintiffs celebrate decision Lawyer Nelson Caucuto, 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 sentence and also finally there is reparation. In a single sentence, we have managed to bring together the three aspects that comprise a complex concept such as justice, which are truth, criminal sanction, and reparation,” he maintained. “It seems extraordinary to me to have closed this chapter with these sentences that the highest court has handed down,” he pointed out.

Source: El Mostrador, August 29, 2007

Sentences increased for former CNI agents for the homicide of a former MIR member

The Fourth Chamber of the Court of Appeals increased the sentences that had been handed down in the first instance for the perpetrators of the crime against Fernando Vergara Vargas that occurred in 1984.

The Fourth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals handed down sentences of between five and 10 years in prison for six former agents of the dissolved Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI) for the qualified homicide of former MIR militant Fernando Vergara Vargas, recorded on December 15, 1984, in Santiago.

As reported this Tuesday by the Judiciary's Communications Department, the appellate court sentenced Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ross and Jorge Ramírez Romero to 10 years and one day, and Luis Gálvez Navarro and Francisco Orella Seguel to five years and one day.

Likewise, the chamber composed of judges Jorge Dahm Oyarzún, Manuel Valderrama Rebolledo, and lawyer Luis Orlandini Molina acquitted the former operational chief of the CNI, Álvaro Corbalán Castilla, and Aquiles González Cortés due to a lack of participation.

In addition, the ruling ordered the State to pay an indemnity of 90 million pesos for moral damages to the victim's relatives. In the first instance, Judge Juan Eduardo Fuentes Belmar had sentenced the six former agents on March 23, 2006, but to lower sentences in each of the cases, and the civil lawsuit had been rejected.

The murder of Fernando Vergara took place at the corner of Santa Elvira and Santa Elena streets, when he was intercepted and shot by the agents in a supposed confrontation.

Source: El Mostrador, October 16, 2007

New indictments issued for the last disappeared persons of the dictatorship

Judge 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 Judge Mario Carroza indicted seven former agents of the Central Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI) for the qualified kidnappings of five young militants of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez (FPMR) in September 1987.

The magistrate indicted them for varying 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 on 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 for the Operation Albania case and 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 those of 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 Fábricas y Maestranzas del Ejército (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 indicted 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.

Meanwhile, he indicted Aquiles Navarrete Izarnotegui, Víctor Campos Valladares, and Hugo Barría Rogers as accessories to the disappearances. 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 indicted former agents Manuel Ángel Morales Acevedo, César Acuña Luengo, and René Valdovinos Morales as co-authors of the kidnappings of Peña Maltés, Sepúlveda Sánchez, Fuenzalida Navarrete, and Muñoz Otárola.

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: El Mostrador, January 24, 2008

Final Supreme Court sentence in the Fernando Vergara Vargas case

CNI executioners of young MIR member will not go to prison

The final instance ruling maintained the acquittal of former agents Álvaro Corbalán and Aquiles González, and favored four others with the recurring benefit of "supervised release." The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court resolved that none of the authors of the homicide of MIR militant Fernando Vergara Vargas, committed on December 15, 1984, in Santiago by CNI agents, will have to serve an effective prison sentence.

Although this final sentence maintained the acquittal previously issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals for former agents Álvaro Corbalán and Aquiles González, in the case of the other four former agents, it reduced their sentences to five years in prison, thereby allowing them to qualify for the benefit of supervised release, which was granted to them.

Those favored by this measure are former agents Luis Sanhueza Ross, Luis Gálvez Navarro, Francisco Orellana Seguel, and Jorge Ramírez Romero. In any case, Corbalán is serving a simple life sentence (after 20 years he can obtain benefits) for the crime of carpenter Juan Alegría, committed to try to cover up the murder of union leader Tucapel Jiménez.

Corbalán also accumulates another 20-year sentence for Operation Albania. In this way, the homicide committed against the person in charge of the MIR's clandestine communications and director of Radio Liberación, who had returned to Chile in 1982 with a false identity after a period of exile, was left without those responsible serving an effective prison sentence.

The dictatorship tried to present Vergara's crime as a "confrontation," but the judicial investigation concluded that it was a homicide and a crime against humanity, which does not prescribe over time nor can it be amnestied.

In this case, the former minister and spokesperson for the oppressive regime, Francisco Javier Cuadra, was very close to being indicted. Seven former agents testified in the trial that Cuadra arrived at the scene of the crime together with Álvaro Corbalán, and that he later publicly justified the death with the false version of the confrontation.

Cuadra denied it, and retired Colonel Aquiles González lobbied in favor of the former minister so that the former agents would retract their statements. However, Orellana Seguel maintained his incriminating statement against Cuadra.

The same former CNI officials recounted in the investigation the task carried out by Aquiles González in favor of the former minister. Radio Liberación managed to interfere several times with other stations and television channels to broadcast proclamations against the military regime.

Source: La Nación, Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Supreme Court granted remitted sentence to those guilty of the Jecar Nehgme crime

The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court confirmed the sentences, but with remitted sentences, for all those responsible for the crime of Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR) militant Jecar Nehgme Cristi, murdered by agents of the Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI) on September 4, 1989.

According to the investigation carried out by Judge Hugo Dolmestch, Nehgme was murdered to provoke people to desist from supporting the "No" option in the 1988 plebiscite, since the militant was an active participant in the campaign for the return to democracy.

Accepting the statute of limitations measure, in addition to the mitigating factors that the Santiago Court of Appeals pointed out at the time, the highest court sentenced the former metropolitan head of the CNI, retired Brigadier Enrique Levy Araneda, to five years of remitted sentence, and retired Colonel Pedro Guzmán Olivares and retired Captain Luis Sanhueza Ross to three years.

The plaintiff lawyer in the case, Nelson Caucoto, harshly criticized the ruling, stating that he does not understand how the confessed authors and intellectual authors of this crime "are simply sent to their homes." The sister and other relatives of Jecar Nehgme made a presentation to the Supreme Court, requesting that remitted sentences not be granted in this case, the last known case of repression during the dictatorship.

Source: Cooperativa.cl, Wednesday, January 28, 2009

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

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

Among the accused are former Army General Hugo Salas Wenzel, as well as the former operational chief 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 Judge Carroza, he states 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

Justice investigates Deputy Rosauro Martínez for the death of MIR members in Neltume

Last week, PC Deputy Hugo Gutiérrez filed a criminal complaint against more than a thousand personnel who belonged to the defunct Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA). He attached to the document a list where the agents appear, among whom was the current RN parliamentarian, Rosauro Martínez.

Martínez was asked by the EFE agency about his past in the repressive service, but he denied having been part of it and limited himself to stating that he was assigned to the Army General Command. In many service records of other former DINA members, the same was written.

However, Martínez is currently being investigated in another case related to the homicides committed against a series of MIR militants, within the framework of the operation to annihilate the guerrilla that had installed itself in the Neltume area, in Valdivia.

The background information appears in the proceedings substantiated by Judge Ema Díaz, who has been able to establish the participation not only of the CNI, but could also prove the participation of Martínez—nicknamed "pata de gallo"—although he has not been indicted until now.

Surrender or lead In 1981, Martínez was the chief of the 8th Command Company in Valdivia, and in that capacity, it was his duty to initiate the search for the MIR members in Neltume, and according to different statements contained in the file, he participated in a confrontation.

The first to mention Martínez was former Carabineros officer Alfonso Rojas, who gave a statement on August 4, 2010. According to the officer, the military discovered a house where the MIR members were hiding.

The Army personnel, Rojas points out, shouted "you wretches, surrender, you are surrounded." Another who mentions Martínez in the Neltume area is former CNI member and member of the Anti-Terrorist Unit who went to the guerrilla settlement, Luis Bascur Gaete.

Bascur recalls that in the area there was "an enormous contingent of military and air forces of the Army," in addition to Carabineros and intelligence personnel. He recognized Martínez when asked by the justice system as the chief of the Command Unit that was in the area.

In the same company was the then-Lieutenant Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ross, who at the end of 1981 would join the CNI and who at the beginning of the 90s would become one of the first military officers to be framed in the Army's Secret Espionage Service to take them out of Chile, hide them in Uruguay, all with the aim of avoiding the action of justice in cases of human rights violations.

Sanhueza Ross assured that Martínez had the most seniority and that he gave him the order to carry out a "reconnaissance and patrol" task in the area. When they discovered a group of MIR members, another officer notified Rosauro Martínez by radio, who sent reinforcements "and a great operation began." According to the statement of Sanhueza Ross, the CNI that arrived at the place contacted Martínez for all operational purposes.

Complication With the information gathered, the justice system ordered Martínez to be located. The parliamentarian, upon learning that he was required, declared by official letter because he had parliamentary immunity.

His testimony has been in the file since November 9, 2011. In it, he confirms that he was the chief of the Valdivia commands and that he established himself in Neltume to search for the MIR guerrillas and that he sent two patrols for the mission and assured that he did not have support from the CNI.

Another who recognizes him was Enrique Sandoval, a former DINA and former CNI agent nicknamed "Pete el Negro," like the Disney comic character, who recognized that after the discovery by the company in charge of Martínez, a contingent of the Army and the CNI traveled to the place.

Martínez's work as a deputy and as a possible member of the Human Rights Commission of the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino) could be complicated. This week he must travel to Panama together with Jorge Burgos, the EFE agency reported last week.

The trip was approved on April 4 by the Internal Regime Commission of the Corporation. In fact, Martínez also received $16 million, with which he will hold another Parlatino meeting in Punta Arenas, between April 26 and 27.

On that occasion, Martínez will attend the commissions on Indigenous Peoples and Ethnicities and on Citizen Security, Combat, Prevention of Drug Trafficking, Terrorism, and Organized Crime. For the lawyer and communist deputy Hugo Gutiérrez, sponsor of the legal action, it is "unacceptable" that Martínez serves as vice president of Parlatino and that he should be "removed" from that multilateral instance.

Source: The Clinic, April 16, 2012

Judge Carroza issues indictment of three former CNI agents

Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ross, Jorge Fernando Ramírez Romero, and Aquiles Mauricio González Cortés were placed in preventive detention for the murder of a MIR member in 1983. Visiting Judge Mario Carroza (in the photo) issued an indictment in the investigation for the qualified homicide of Juan Espinoza Parra, committed on December 29, 1983, in the Metropolitan Region.

The magistrate indicted three agents of the Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI) for their responsibility, as authors, of the homicide perpetrated at the intersection of Andes and General Barbosa streets, in the commune of Quinta Normal.

The indicted individuals, Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ross, Jorge Fernando Ramírez Romero, and Aquiles Mauricio González Cortés, were placed in preventive detention at the Army's Military Police Regiment. "On December 29, 1983, in the afternoon, agents of the Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI) who made up the anti-subversive apparatus of this city were following the victim Juan Elías Espinoza Parra, known as 'Yuri', a militant of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR), who had allegedly entered the country illegally.

They located him in the Quinta Normal sector, between Andes and General Barbosa streets, and upon attempting to arrest him, a supposed confrontation allegedly occurred between him and personnel of the former CNI, and under the pretext of this armed confrontation, he was executed by members of the Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI)," the ruling says.

The investigation also showed that "said agents carried out maneuvers at the scene of the event with the purpose of making it appear that a confrontation had occurred between the agents of the security agency and the victim, a scenario that was intended to be endorsed by the statements of the participants when they testified with operational names before the Military Prosecutor's Office that heard the facts at the time, delivering the official version that the victim in question had been shot down in an armed confrontation."

Source: 24horas.cl, October 7, 2013

Six former CNI agents indicted for the homicides of two young MIR members

In his resolution, Judge Carroza maintains that agents Humberto Leiva Gutiérrez, Hugo Acevedo Godoy, Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ross, Víctor Caro Pizarro, Armando Ávila Fierro, and Juan Farías Orellana had direct participation in the operation that ended the lives of both young men.

Visiting Judge Mario Carroza indicted six agents of the defunct CNI implicated in the qualified homicide of two young MIR militants, Iván Palacios and Eric Rodríguez, murdered in a previously prepared ambush on April 18, 1989, in the commune of Quinta Normal.

In his resolution, Judge Carroza maintains that agents Humberto Leiva Gutiérrez, Hugo Acevedo Godoy, Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ross, Víctor Caro Pizarro, Armando Ávila Fierro, and Juan Farías Orellana had direct participation in the operation that ended the lives of both young men.

The case of the young MIR members Eric Rodríguez and Iván Palacios is remembered because it was the consequence of an infiltration operation orchestrated by the CNI and led by an individual known as "Miguel," a civilian employee of that repressive apparatus of the Pinochet dictatorship, who provided weapons to young people from working-class areas of Greater Santiago.

Both young men were ambushed in the area of San Pablo and Radal streets, where Palacios died after being shot by the agents, while Rodríguez passed away days later in a healthcare center. In his investigation, Judge Carroza established that after shooting at both young men, the CNI agents "carried out a series of maneuvers at the scene of the event with the purpose of making it appear that a confrontation had occurred between the agents of the security agency and the victims."

Source: Cambio21, February 17, 2015

6 CNI agents indicted for frustrated homicide using explosives in May 1984

This Monday, January 18, the minister for extraordinary causes regarding human rights violations at the Santiago Court of Appeals, Mario Carroza, issued an indictment against six former agents of the National Information Center (CNI) for their responsibility in the crime of attempted qualified homicide of Héctor Enrique Muñoz Morales, perpetrated in May 1984 at Cerro San Cristóbal in the Metropolitan Region.

In the resolution (case file 238-2010), the visiting minister indicted the following individuals as co-perpetrators of the crime: former Army Lieutenant Colonel Álvaro Julio Federico Corbalán Castilla, alias "Faraón"; former Army Lieutenant Colonel Fernando Rafael Mauricio Rojas Tapia, alias "El Piscola"; former Army Captain Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ros, alias "El Huiro"; and former Army civilian agents Patricio Leonidas González Cortez, alias "El Gigio"; Luis René Torres Méndez, alias "Negro Mario"; and Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, alias "El Suave".

All of the accused were agents of the CNI’s Blue Brigade.

During the investigation phase, Minister Carroza established the following facts:

"On May 17, 1984, between 10:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m., while Héctor Muñoz Morales, a militant of the MIR, and his partner María Loreto Castillo were returning to their home located in the Pedro Aguirre Cerda commune, Dávila district, after having gone to buy food, they were intercepted on a public road by operational agents of the CNI’s Blue Brigade who were traveling in at least two vehicles.

After subduing them with the use of firearms, they forced them into a van, blindfolded them, and transported them to the institution’s Cuartel Borgoño. There, they were beaten and interrogated for several hours, until they were moved to another point in Santiago, still blindfolded, near the La Pirámide sector of Cerro San Cristóbal, where they were separated.

On that occasion, Héctor Muñoz Morales was repeatedly beaten by CNI agents with great force on the head, causing him to lose consciousness. He awoke moments later surrounded by explosives that failed to detonate, managing to flee the scene to a medical center where he was able to recover and report what had happened.

It is necessary to indicate—the resolution notes—that Héctor Muñoz Morales had been the subject of tracking and surveillance that day and on previous days by agents of the CNI’s Blue Brigade, who were aware of his routine and his movements." The act constitutes the crime of attempted qualified homicide, the ruling concludes.

Days later, Héctor Muñoz Morales, accompanied by lawyers from the Vicaría de la Solidaridad, made a public denunciation of the event, as well as the murder of his partner. María Loreto Castillo Muñoz had also managed to break free and flee the place where they had attempted to blow her up along with Héctor, but she was almost immediately recaptured by the henchmen, who transported her to another location and this time succeeded in executing the treacherous crime.

María Loreto was found the following day in the Pudahuel commune, next to some high-voltage towers, where she had been murdered by the CNI agents using another explosive device.

At the same time, Jorge Eduardo Muñoz Navarro, another MIR militant detained on the same date, who had also remained at Cuartel Borgoño along with the couple, was taken to another location in the Renca commune where he was also murdered next to a high-voltage power line, staging a false confrontation to cover up the crime.

Last June, Minister Carroza indicted these same subjects as perpetrators of the qualified homicide of María Loreto Castillo Muñoz, and Álvaro Julio Corbalán Castilla, Fernando Rafael Rojas Tapia, Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ros, and Rafael Primitivo Salas Cataldo as perpetrators of the qualified homicide of Jorge Muñoz Navarro.

The farces of false confrontations and the treacherous crimes involving bombs committed by the dictatorship's repressive agents are gradually being unveiled by the justice system, and despite the cover-ups, pressures, and maneuvers of impunity, the truth ends up prevailing.

Source: resumen.cl, January 20, 2016

Chile: AFEP Launches Campaign to Locate Fugitives of Human Rights Violations

The Association of Relatives of Political Executions recently launched a campaign featuring the photographs of human rights violators who are currently fugitives in Chile. They are: Juan Carlos Orellana Morales, Ricardo Lawrence Mires, Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ross, Pedro Javier Guzmán Olivares, and Reimer Eduardo Koblitz Fell.

The president of the Association of Relatives of Political Executions (AFEP), Alicia Lira, met last July with leaders of the Confederation of Chilean Students (Confech) to present the campaign, which seeks to locate the dictatorship's criminals who have been convicted by the courts and remain at large.

Alicia Lira spoke at the Confech plenary session before the 19 university federations that were present. There, she stressed the importance of making the campaign widespread so that justice can be made effective. "I presented the campaign we are promoting and told them about all the efforts we have made so that there is no more impunity in the country, such as the meeting we had with the director of the PDI," the AFEP president noted.

The leader added that "our concern is to make the campaign widespread because there is a cover-up by several institutions, and especially by the Army, in the case of the fugitives. For example, Ricardo Lawrence has been a fugitive since 2014." Alicia Lira stated that Confech committed to distributing the campaign posters and issuing a statement to assume the commitment to truth and justice.

The spokesperson for the No + AFP Coordinator, Luis Mesina, who was also invited by Confech to speak, joined the campaign for truth and justice to make the faces of the fugitive criminals visible and invited AFEP to participate in the coordinator's future mobilizations.

Source: afepchile.cl; August 10, 2017

6 CNI Agents Sentenced for 1989 Murders of 2 MIR Militants in False Confrontation

The minister for human rights causes at the Santiago Court of Appeals, Mario Carroza Espinosa, sentenced six former agents of the National Information Center (CNI) for the homicides of young men Eric Rodríguez Hinojosa (20) and Iván Palacios Guarda (19), militants of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), who were executed on April 18, 1989, in the Quinta Normal commune.

The magistrate sentenced the former Army general, who was Director of the CNI at the time of the crimes, Humberto Leiva Gutiérrez, and former Army Lieutenant Colonel Hugo César Acevedo Godoy, who was head of the CNI's Anti-Subversive Division at the time, to 15 years and one day in prison for their responsibility as perpetrators of the homicide.

Meanwhile, agents Juan Raúl Farías Orellana, Víctor Rolando Caro Pizarro, and Jorge Enrique Rivas Arancibia must serve a sentence of 5 years and one day in prison.

The latter subject infiltrated popular and resistance organizations operating in the Pudahuel commune in Santiago, presented himself as a MIR militant under the alias "Miguel," and set the trap that led to the murder of the two victims.

Former Army Captain Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ros, alias "El Guiro," who was head of the CNI's Blue Brigade at the time of the events, must serve a sentence of 3 years and one day in prison for his responsibility as a perpetrator. Minister Carroza granted this criminal the benefit of supervised release.

The ruling acquits agent Armando Rodolfo Ávila Fierro. Previously, former Army Brigadier and head of the CNI's Metropolitan Division at the time, Enrique Leddy Araneda, had been acquitted due to dementia.

Minister Carroza established that the Anti-Subversive Division of the National Information Center (CNI) organized an operation in search of the militants of the Revolutionary Left Movement of the time, for which it infiltrated an agent from its ranks into the organization who used the alias "Miguel."

"Thus, on April 18, 1989, at approximately 9:00 p.m., two militants of the Revolutionary Left Movement, Eric Enrique Rodríguez Hinojosa and Iván Palacios Guarda, were summoned to meet on Calle San Pablo near No. 4000 by a subject identified as Miguel, who ultimately turned out to be an agent of the National Information Center.

He had infiltrated popular neighborhoods, claiming to be the zonal head of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), and his function was to recruit young people so that they would join the so-called 'Resistance Command.' To gain the trust of the movement's members, this individual provided them with weapons and imparted military instruction," the resolution states.

It adds: "Prior to the victims' arrival at the aforementioned meeting, the officials of the CNI's Anti-Subversive Unit had deployed a vast operation in the sector for the purpose of preparing an ambush for them.

Therefore, when they arrived at the location and positioned themselves in the meeting zone, part of the agents appeared and ordered them to stop. Before they could react—whether to protect themselves, flee, or repel the attack—the CNI agents initiated a shootout that wounded and took the life of victim Iván Palacios Guarda at the scene.

His companion, Eric Enrique Rodríguez Hinojosa, was left seriously wounded and had to be rushed to public assistance, where he remained in a coma and passed away on September 4, 1989, as a result of the complicated craniocerebral gunshot wound, with no exit wound, that was inflicted upon him on that occasion."

Furthermore, it is considered that: "Subsequently, eyewitnesses have pointed out that the CNI agents, once the shootout had ended, carried out a series of maneuvers at the scene of the event with the object of simulating a confrontation with the victims, establishing a context that they attempted to have endorsed by the statements of the participants when they testified under operational names before the Military Prosecutor's Office, providing as the official version that the victims were preparing to place explosive devices on two public lighting poles that held a transformer, but that when ordered to stop, they fired at them and they had no other alternative but to repel said attack with the consequences already described."

Source: resumen.cl, July 7, 2018

Human Rights: 23 Former CNI Agents Sentenced for False Confrontation During Dictatorship

In the ruling by visiting minister Miguel Vázquez Plaza, one of those sentenced is Álvaro Corbalán Castilla, former operational chief of the dictatorship's National Information Center, who adds another 20 years of imprisonment.

The minister for extraordinary causes regarding human rights violations at the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vázquez Plaza, sentenced 23 former agents of the National Information Center (CNI) for their responsibility in the crimes of homicide of Alejandro Salgado Troquián and Hugo Ratier Noguera, illicit acts perpetrated in 1983 in a false confrontation on Calle Janequeo in the Quinta Normal commune.

In the ruling, the visiting minister sentenced Roberto Schmied Zanzi, Álvaro Corbalán Castilla, and Aquiles González Cortés to 20 years in prison; meanwhile, former agents José Aravena Ruiz, José Salas Fuentes, Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ross, Egon Barra Barra, Jorge Vargas Bories, Norman Jeldes Aguilar, Fernando Rojas Tapia, Manuel Morales Acevedo, Sergio Canals Baldwin, and José Vidal Veloso must serve 15 years and one day in prison as perpetrators of the crimes.

In the case of Raúl Méndez Santos, Rodolfo Olguín González, Ema Ceballos Núñez, Miguel Gajardo Quijada, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, Francisco Orellana Seguel, Juan Carlos Vergara Gutiérrez, Raúl Escobar Díaz, Rafael Ortega Gutiérrez, and Luis Gálvez Navarro, they were sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison as accomplices.

In the case, Minister Vázquez Plaza decreed the acquittal of agents Zinaida Vicencio González, Jorge Ahumada Molina, and Eduardo Chávez Baeza, as their participation in the events was not proven.

According to the investigation, on September 7, 1983, a number of CNI agents, members of the Chilean Investigative Police, and other repressive agencies went to the residence located at Calle Janequeo No. 5707, Quinta Normal commune, which had been under surveillance for some weeks, "proceeding to surround and cordon off the place, and then, through the use of a base of fire and other weaponry, to fire without any provocation and with great firepower against the property.

As a result, Hugo Ratier Noguera (José) was killed by various gunshot wounds in the backyard of the house."

Furthermore, the process established that "upon arriving at the same residence where he lived, Alejandro Salgado Troquián was gunned down by multiple gunshot wounds on the public road, that is, on Calle Janequeo in front of number 5946."

Source: elmostrador.cl, July 22, 2019

Santiago Court Sentences 23 Former CNI Agents for Murders in 1983 False Confrontation

The Santiago Court of Appeals confirmed the first-instance sentence issued by Minister Miguel Vásquez Plaza on July 19, 2019, which sentenced 23 former agents of the National Information Center (CNI) for their responsibility in the crimes of qualified homicide of Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) militants Hugo Ratier Noguera and Alejandro Salgado Troquián.

The crimes were perpetrated on September 7, 1983, in a false confrontation on Calle Janequeo in the Quinta Normal commune.

In the ruling (case file 4741-2019), the Third Chamber of the appellate court—composed of ministers Verónica Sabaj Escudero, Alejandro Aguilar Brevis, and Rodrigo Carvajal Schnettler—resolved to reject the appeals and cassation motions filed by some of the convicted individuals and confirm the first-instance sentence, with the declaration of reducing from 20 to 17 years the prison sentences applied to former Army officers and former CNI leaders Roberto Urbano Schmied Zanzi, Álvaro Julio Federico Corbalán Castilla, and Aquiles Mauricio González Cortés, in their capacity as co-perpetrators of the crime. The first of the convicted, Schmied Zanzi, served as head of the CNI's Metropolitan Division; Corbalán Castilla was head of the Anti-Subversive Division; and Aquiles González acted as head of the Blue Brigade, specialized in the repression of the MIR.

Meanwhile, former Army officers Sergio María Canals Baldwin, Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ross, Fernando Rafael Mauricio Rojas Tapia, Norman Antonio Jeldes Aguilar, and former agents José Abel Aravena Ruiz, José Guillermo Salas Fuentes, Egon Antonio Barra Barra, Jorge Octavio Vargas Bories, Manuel Ángel Morales Acevedo, and José Isaías Vidal Veloso must serve 15 years and one day in prison as perpetrators of the crimes.

For their part, former agents Rodolfo Enrique Olguín González, Ema Verónica Ceballos Núñez, Luis Hernán Gálvez Navarro, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, Francisco Javier Orellana Seguel, Miguel Fernando Gajardo Quijada, Juan Carlos Vergara Gutiérrez, Raúl Boris Méndez Santos, Raúl Hernán Escobar Díaz, and Rafael Ricardo Ortega Gutiérrez were sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison as accomplices to the crimes.

In the case, the acquittal of agents Zinaida Lena Vicencio González, Jorge Raimundo Ahumada Molina, and Eduardo Martín Chávez Baeza was decreed, as their participation in this event was not proven. Another person indicted in this case, former PDI officer Jorge Arnaldo Barraza Riveros, passed away during the course of the process; meanwhile, the indicted former Carabineros officer Miguel Ángel Patricio Soto Duarte remains a fugitive.

This false confrontation was carried out by the CNI on the same day and immediately following the execution of three other MIR militants on Calle Fuenteovejuna, in a criminal act also orchestrated as a false confrontation. Judicially, both events are processed as separate episodes, in circumstances where it was a single repressive operation.

In the investigation of the repressive act, it was demonstrated that the dictatorship's repressive agency developed a tracking and surveillance operation during the months prior on a group of MIR members who were acting in clandestinity in the resistance struggle against the tyrannical regime.

With the data obtained from that prior observation, the CNI orchestrated the extermination operation that resulted in the detention of a dozen people, the attack and murder of the three residents of the house on Calle Fuenteovejuna in the Las Condes commune, and then the attack and murder of two other militants in the house on Calle Janequeo in the Quinta Normal commune.

On September 7, 1983, dozens of agents from the CNI, SIFA, the Investigative Police, and other repressive agencies went to the residence located at Calle Janequeo No. 5707, Quinta Normal commune, which had been under surveillance for some weeks, proceeding to surround and cordon off the place, and then, through the use of a base of fire and other weaponry, to fire without any provocation and with great firepower against the property.

As a result, Hugo Ratier Noguera, 39 years of age, was killed by various gunshot wounds in the backyard of the house. Additionally, upon arriving at the same residence where he lived, Alejandro Salgado Troquián, 30 years of age, was gunned down by multiple gunshot wounds and executed on the public road, that is, on Calle Janequeo in front of number 5946.

A minor, an adopted son of Salgado and a resident of the house along with Salgado and Ratier, was a victim and witness to the events but, in the middle of the shootout, managed to flee to neighboring houses, thus saving his life and later denouncing the criminal attack.

Source: resumen.cl, November 18, 2021

Supreme Court Confirms Sentences of 22 CNI Agents for Crimes in False Confrontation in Quinta Normal in September 1983

The Supreme Court confirmed the sentences against 22 agents of the National Information Center (CNI) for their responsibility in the crimes of qualified homicide of Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) militants Hugo Ratier Noguera and Alejandro Salgado Troquián. The crimes were perpetrated on September 7, 1983, in a false confrontation on Calle Janequeo in the Quinta Normal commune, in Santiago.

In a unanimous ruling, the Second Chamber of the highest court (case file 10.047-2022)—composed of ministers Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Leopoldo Llanos Sagristá, Jean Pierre Matus, and acting lawyers Gonzalo Ruz L. and Leonor Etcheberry C.—ruled out any error of law in the sentence and rejected the cassation motions on form and substance filed by almost all of the convicted individuals against the ruling of the Santiago Court of Appeals, issued in November 2021, which in turn confirmed with some changes the first-instance ruling issued in July 2019 by Minister Miguel Vásquez Plaza.

In the resolution, the Second Chamber confirms the sentences applied to former Army officers and former CNI leaders Roberto Urbano Schmied Zanzi, Álvaro Julio Federico Corbalán Castilla, and Aquiles Mauricio González Cortés, who are sentenced to 17 years in prison in their capacity as co-perpetrators of the crime.

The first of the convicted, Schmied Zanzi, served as head of the CNI's Metropolitan Division; Corbalán Castilla was head of the Anti-Subversive Division; and Aquiles González acted as head of the Blue Brigade, specialized in the repression of the MIR.

Meanwhile, former Army officers and CNI operatives Sergio María Canals Baldwin, Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ros, Fernando Rafael Mauricio Rojas Tapia, Norman Antonio Jeldes Aguilar, and former agents José Abel Aravena Ruiz, José Guillermo Salas Fuentes, Egon Antonio Barra Barra, Jorge Octavio Vargas Bories, and José Isaías Vidal Veloso must serve 15 years and one day in prison as perpetrators of the crimes.

For their part, former agents Rodolfo Enrique Olguín González, Ema Verónica Ceballos Núñez, Luis Hernán Gálvez Navarro, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, Francisco Javier Orellana Seguel, Miguel Fernando Gajardo Quijada, Juan Carlos Vergara Gutiérrez, Raúl Boris Méndez Santos, Raúl Hernán Escobar Díaz, and Rafael Ricardo Ortega Gutiérrez were sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison as accomplices to the crimes.

Agent Manuel Ángel Morales Acevedo, also sentenced in previous instances, passed away during the course of the process.

False Confrontation

On September 7, 1983, dozens of agents from the CNI, SIFA, the Investigative Police, and other repressive agencies went to the residence located at Calle Janequeo No. 5707, Quinta Normal commune, which had been under surveillance for some weeks, proceeding to surround and cordon off the place, and then, through the use of a base of fire and other weaponry, to fire without any provocation and with great firepower against the property.

As a result, Hugo Ratier Noguera was killed by various gunshot wounds in the backyard of the house.

Simultaneously, upon arriving at the neighborhood and the same residence where he lived, militant Alejandro Salgado Troquián was gunned down by multiple gunshot wounds and executed on the public road, that is, on Calle Janequeo in front of number 5946, two blocks from the attacked house.

Hugo Norberto Ratier Noguera, 39 years of age, was of Argentine nationality, originally from Misiones, and had resided in Chile since 1970. He was a leader of the MIR and remained active in clandestinity.

He was married and a father of three children; shortly before these events, his wife and children had left the country for security reasons. Alejandro Salgado Troquián, 30 years of age, a veterinarian by profession and also a MIR militant, was married and a substitute father to his partner's children.

A minor, an adopted son of Salgado and a resident of the house along with Salgado and Ratier, was a victim and witness to the events but, in the middle of the shootout, managed to flee to neighboring houses, thus saving his life and later denouncing the criminal attack.

This false confrontation was carried out by the CNI on the same day and immediately following the execution of three other MIR militants on Calle Fuenteovejuna, in the Las Condes commune, in a criminal act also orchestrated as a false confrontation, where Arturo Vilavella Araujo, Lucía Orfilia Vergara Valenzuela, and Sergio Peña Díaz were murdered.

The three had returned clandestinely to Chile to join the struggle against the dictatorship. Judicially, both events are processed as separate episodes, in circumstances where it was a single repressive operation.

In the investigation of the repressive act, it was demonstrated that the dictatorship's repressive agency developed a tracking and surveillance operation during the months prior on a group of MIR members who were acting in clandestinity in the resistance struggle against the tyrannical regime.

With the data obtained from that prior observation, the CNI orchestrated the extermination operation that resulted in the detention of a dozen people, the attack and murder of the three residents of the house on Calle Fuente Ovejuna, and then the attack and murder of two other militants in the house on Calle Janequeo in the Quinta Normal commune.

by Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl, January 27, 2024

Minister Mesa Indicts Two Retired Military Officers for Qualified Homicides in Neltume in 1981

The minister for extraordinary causes regarding human rights violations for the jurisdictions of Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Coyhaique, Álvaro Mesa Latorre, indicted retired Army Major Sergio María Canals Baldwin and retired Army Lieutenant Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ross as perpetrators of the consummated crime of qualified homicide of Rodrigo Obregón Torres, René Eduardo Bravo Aguilera, Julio César Riffo Figueroa, and Juan Ángel Ojeda Aguayo.

These illicit acts were perpetrated in the locality of Neltume, Panguipulli commune, in 1981.

In the resolution (case file 1675-2003), Minister Mesa Latorre placed Canals Baldwin and Sanhueza Ross under the precautionary measure of preventive detention, in consideration of the nature of the crime and the sentence they face for their responsibility in the crime against humanity.

"Attending to the merit of the background information, from which it is clear that the freedom of the accused constitutes a danger to the safety of society; also taking into account the probable legal sanction for the crimes in which they are attributed participation; and having seen the provisions of Article 363 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the benefit of provisional release will not be granted to them," the resolution states.

"Having knowledge that the accused are currently incarcerated in the 'Colina I' Penitentiary Center of the Chilean Gendarmerie, serving a sentence for crimes investigated by another court, the decree of preventive detention is suspended until the completion of said sentence, and they shall be admitted at the appropriate time," the sentence concludes.

During the investigation phase, Minister Álvaro Mesa gathered sufficient background information to establish the following facts:

A) That during the month of March 1979, a group of Chilean exiles belonging to the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) who were residing in Europe decided to create a guerrilla front in the southern zone of Chile.

To this end, they met in Paris at the end of 1980, traveling from Madrid to Argentina and entering our country, specifically the Neltume zone, through unauthorized border crossings, creating the group called "Toqui Lautaro Guerrilla Detachment." In this place, they began a period of logistical work and military preparation, constructing shelters for the purpose of keeping their food, weapons, and clothing protected.

B) That the local residents noticed this situation and reported it to the Carabineros of the Neltume Station, in the current Los Ríos region. Therefore, in the month of June 1981, a group composed of personnel from the No. 8 "Llancahue" Special Command Troops detachment, by instruction of Captain Rosauro Martínez Labbé, went to that sector for the purpose of verifying whether the reports received were real or false.

C) That subsequently, on June 26, 1981, this group in charge of checking the area discovered one of the camps created by the members of the aforementioned Detachment and decided to assault it. As a result of this military operation, the Detachment group divided, and the Army seized some of the belongings found in their shelters (maps, passports, food, weaponry).

D) That from that moment, the military operation led by Captain Rosauro Martínez Labbé officially began, which had as its object the annihilation of the members of this group of young guerrillas. The following military and Carabineros units participated in this operation: Rancagua Aviation Regiment; No. 8 Special Command Troops Company; Valdivia Carabineros Prefecture, and all its dependent units.

E) That during the second fortnight of August 1981, and for the purpose of reinforcing the battalion led by Rosauro Martínez Labbé, the Anti-Terrorist Unit of the National Information Center (CNI), composed of approximately 15 uniformed personnel and in charge of Captain Conrado Vicente García Giaier, arrived in the conflict zone.

By this date, the Santiago and Valdivia units of the National Information Center had already been annexed to the battalion commanded by Rosauro Martínez Labbé, as well as its "Red Group," which was in charge of Chilean Army Captain Enrique Erasmo Sandoval Arancibia.

F) That in that context, and also having to keep in mind the inclement weather and scarce food that caused health problems for the young people belonging to the "Toqui Lautaro guerrilla detachment" group, the following situations occurred:

1) That on August 30, 1981, Julio Riffo Figueroa and René Bravo Aguilera, while both were resting after being fed by locals Pedro Morales and Julia Navarro, were detained by a patrol composed of three Carabineros officials from the Malalhue Station in the Huellahue sector.

After their detention, they were sent to Valdivia, specifically to the Las Ánimas Station. There, they were interrogated by the OS7 Carabineros from Santiago. Subsequently, Julio Riffo Figueroa and René Bravo Aguilera were transported to the Cuartel Borgoño in Santiago, belonging to the National Information Center (CNI), where they were tortured and interrogated.

On September 16, 1981, Julio Riffo Figueroa and René Bravo Aguilera were again transported to the conflict zone, particularly to Neltume, for the purpose of being used by the battalion in charge of Rosauro Martínez Labbé in the search for the other guerrilla camps and their members.

Finally, on September 21, 1981, they were executed, with the cause of death for René Bravo Aguilera being listed as craniocerebral and thoracic gunshot wounds, and for Julio Riffo Figueroa as craniocerebral gunshot wound.

2) That Pedro Juan Yáñez Palacios, in the course of his journey, suffered gangrene in his feet, for which he had to be left by his companions in the hollow of a tree with a rifle. However, due to the strong smell of medicine he was emitting, he was detected by the group of soldiers from the No. 8 Llancahue Command—also composed of Conrado García Giaier—who were monitoring the area, and they killed him.

His precise cause of death was a craniocerebral gunshot wound.

3) That as a result of the information provided by detainees Julio Riffo Figueroa and René Bravo Aguilera regarding the meeting place and the password, a group of soldiers, including Jerez Prussing and Enrique Sandoval Arancibia—already indicted in this case—and others from the No. 8 Llancahue Command under the command of Rosauro Martínez Labbé, managed to find and kill Raúl Rodrigo Obregón Torres on September 13, 1981, when he was going to meet his companions.

His precise cause of death was a cervicothoracic gunshot wound.

4) That around the middle of 1981, one of the young men, Juan Ángel Ojeda Aguayo, arrived at the house of a relative named Isaías Aguayo Márquez, located in the "Quebrada Honda" sector, in the vicinity of the Neltume locality, Panguipulli, staying in that place on repeated and discontinuous occasions where he went to look for food.

Specifically, on November 28, 1981, a group of Army and Carabineros personnel stationed in the Neltume sector approached the aforementioned house. After urging the residents to leave their home, Juan Ángel Ojeda Aguayo exited the place, where he was gunned down by a group of soldiers who fired multiple shots at him, resulting in a craniocerebral-facial gunshot wound, in addition to multiple cervicothoracic gunshot wounds with rupture and bursting of organs and gunshot wounds in the lower extremities, which caused his death.

5) That Patricio Alejandro Calfuquir Henríquez, Próspero del Carmen Guzmán Soto, and José Eugenio Monsalve Sandoval arrived at the house of Mrs. Floridema Jaramillo, in Remeco Alto, who provided them with food and immediately took actions to report them to the Carabineros.

This was ultimately achieved by sending her son, Juan Carlos Henríquez Jaramillo, who traveled on horseback to the Neltume Station to report this fact. Together with Carabineros, they headed back to her home, and upon passing in front of the Remeco school, they notified soldiers who were in a camp in the place, who in turn gave notice by radio.

Upon returning to the house, there were some Carabineros stationed in various places, around four, but at the same time, Captain Rosauro Martínez Labbé arrived accompanied by at least two lower-ranking soldiers—among them Corporal 2nd Class Julio Araki Tepano—who, after urging the guerrillas to leave the house, fired against the property until it was left practically unusable.

As a consequence, Patricio Calfuquir Henríquez, Próspero Guzmán Soto, and José Eugenio Monsalve Sandoval resulted dead. A large military contingent then arrived and continued with the operation and the transport of the deceased guerrillas.

6) Miguel Cabrera Fernández, known as "El Paine" and who was the leader of the group, died in the locality of Choshuenco on October 15, 1981, in a supposed confrontation with Carabineros belonging to the station's staff in that locality.

His precise, necessary, and immediate cause of death indicates "Cervicothoracic gunshot wound, anteroposterior, in a line, complicated by rupture of blood vessels and the left lung."

G) That in events 1 through 4, Rosauro Martínez Labbé participated in his capacity as Captain, who at the time of the events held the position of Commander of the No. 8 Command Company, of the "Llancahue" Battalion, dependent on the IV Army Division, a Company that was directing the operation in Neltume during the entire period it lasted.

The aforementioned Captain Martínez was in charge of organizing the different groups that moved through the sector, providing weaponry and giving instructions, among which it was highlighted that "They were at war" and that "upon seeing any man with the characteristics of a guerrilla, one should shoot to kill."

H) That among the members of the No. 8 Command Company who were collaborating with the operations commanded by Captain Martínez was Corporal 2nd Class Julio Araki Tepano, who was part of the reconnaissance group and, among his participation in the search and detention tasks of the guerrillas, was in charge of giving notice to the group leader, Lieutenant Iván Fuentes Sotomayor, that they had discovered a guerrilla base.

I) Likewise, regarding the events indicated in point 1, that is, Julio César Riffo and René Bravo Aguilera, Army Lieutenant Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ross, dependent on the No. 8 Command Company, participated.

He was one of the Officers in charge of one of the sections that was sent to the Neltume zone. Thus, according to statements from conscript soldiers who were members of the squad that was in charge of Lieutenant Sanhueza Ross, they have indicated their knowledge regarding detainees who were in the charge of CNI personnel, describing that they were guerrillas, tied by their hands, and that a stick was crossed behind their backs, tied with wires at each end of it at the height of their wrists.

They recounted how they were ordered to guard them and that subsequently, about fifty meters from where they were together with Lieutenant Sanhueza Ross, these detainees were executed, and then the same conscripts were ordered to wrap the bodies in polyethylene and load them into the interior of a helicopter that transported them to the Company in Valdivia.

In the same way, regarding the events indicated in number 4, that is, Juan Ángel Ojeda Aguayo, Lieutenant Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ross participated in them, in that he commanded the patrol that was in the vicinity of the Choshuenco locality and, upon receiving a notice from the Carabineros of that locality, he went together with the patrol under his charge to the house where Ojeda Aguayo was, mounting a security operation around the dwelling and participating in the events that resulted in the death of Juan Ángel Ojeda Aguayo.

J) That the Anti-Terrorist Unit of the National Information Center (UAT), directed by Captain Conrado García Giaier, also formed a fundamental part of this operation. He participated actively in the search, detention, and subsequent death of some of the aforementioned victims.

K) That in the same way, Army Major Sergio Canals Baldwin fulfilled active participation in the events described in numbers 1 and 3, that is, Julio Riffo Figueroa, René Bravo Aguilera, and Raúl Obregón Torres.

Major Canals Baldwin was part of the "Lead Group" of the National Information Center (CNI) and was sent to the Neltume zone, stationing himself together with his group and together with the other members of the CNI at the Liquiñe Hot Springs, occupying the entirety of the cabins during the entire time they remained in said locality, dependencies in which Julio Riffo Figueroa and René Bravo Aguilera were detained, and that as a result of the information provided by these detainees, it was possible to find and kill Raúl Obregón Torres.

This Officer performed operational and information-gathering duties regarding the activities in the zone and was the Army Officer with the highest rank in the group of people who made up the National Information Center (CNI) and who were sent from Santiago to support the work of other branches of the Armed Forces that were in the zone.

That in all the reports that account for the death of the members of the "Toqui Lautaro Detachment," it is mentioned that they would have died as a result of confrontations, which turns out to be implausible, since one cannot ignore the unequal and deteriorated condition in which the members of the "Toqui Lautaro" group were, not only in terms of weaponry and preparation, but mostly in their physical conditions, remembering that the victims were in a state of malnutrition and one of them even with part of his foot amputated.

The disproportion in the use of force by the State agents was evident, since they could simply have apprehended the members of the group without the need to reach the point of executing them.

Source: diarioelranco.cl, August 30, 2024