Case No. 52-2010: Homicide case of José Enrique Espinoza Santic

Indeed, Sergio Eulogio Ávila Gallegos, at page 869, indicated that he joined the Chilean Air Force in 1968 as a student at the School of Specialties, graduating in 1969 with the rank of corporal second class and the specialty of propeller mechanic.

He was assigned to the Aviation School at the El Bosque Air Base. In the month of October 1973, he was discharged for political reasons, specifically for having sympathized with the government of President Allende and the Unidad Popular.

On October 12, 1973, he was informed that he had to report to the Personnel Department of the El Bosque Air Base. Upon doing so, he was detained and transferred to the Air War Academy, where he was subjected to interrogation and torture.

He was then transferred to the Aeronautical Polytechnic Academy, where he remained until December 22, 1973. From there, he was taken to the Public Jail, where he remained for more than a year. Ultimately, he was expelled from the country to England.

He knew José Enrique Espinoza Santic because they were classmates and he also held leftist ideas. While detained at the Aeronautical Polytechnic Academy, he heard a gunshot in the adjacent room, followed immediately by a moan, running, and the voices of guards.

The next day, he learned that it was José Espinoza Santic and that he had died. He learned that the perpetrator of the shot was a student of the School of Specialties with the surname Sarmiento.

Source: Judiciary, May 31, 2017

Supreme Court issues final judgment for the homicide of a FACH non-commissioned officer at El Bosque air base.

In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court issued a final judgment in the investigation into the simple homicide of Chilean Air Force corporal José Espinoza Santic, which occurred on October 26, 1973, at the El Bosque air base.

In the civil aspect, the appeal for annulment was accepted, and the State was ordered to pay a total indemnity of $180,000,000 to the victim's relatives, rejecting the statute of limitations for civil action as it was a crime against humanity.

The ruling maintains that in the case of a crime such as the one investigated, which the international community has classified as a crime against humanity, the civil action brought against the State aims to obtain full reparation for the damages caused by the actions of a State agent, as follows from the international treaties ratified by Chile and the interpretation of domestic law in accordance with the Political Constitution of the Republic.

It adds that the defendant's allegation regarding the non-existence of objective and imprescriptible responsibility on the part of the Chilean State must be dismissed, as the responsibility sought to be enforced emanates from the law, specifically that of constitutional rank contemplated in Article 5 of the Constitution, which has enabled the incorporation into the national legal system of the obligations contemplated by international instruments that encompass the general principles of Humanitarian Law, among which is the obligation to indemnify damages produced by the violation of human rights. The investigation by the visiting minister of the Court of Appeals of San Miguel, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, established that: 1° That on the afternoon of October 26, 1973, José Enrique Espinoza Santic, a corporal 2nd class of the Chilean Air Force, was inside a classroom at the Aeronautical Polytechnic Academy of the Air Force located inside the El Bosque Air Base, in the commune of El Bosque, which had been converted into a cell, in the capacity of a detainee held incommunicado, by decision of the aviation prosecutor Orlando Gutiérrez Bravo, General of the Air Brigade, adopted in case file No. 1-73 of the Wartime Aviation Prosecutor's Office, brought against Alberto Bachelet Martínez and others for the crime of sedition, provided for in Article 274 of the Code of Military Justice. 2° That in charge of the custody of José Enrique Espinoza Santic and the other detainees occupying the same cell was the sentry Juan Carlos Sarmiento Fuentes, a student of the School of Specialties of the same institution, who was carrying a Mauser H 7429 rifle. 3° That in the context of time and space indicated, with José Enrique Espinoza Santic locked in a cell and without any provocation on his part, Juan Carlos Sarmiento Fuentes shot him in the back with the Mauser rifle he was carrying, at close range, causing his death due to acute anemia, due to the involvement of the dorsal spine, the aorta, both lungs, and the heart.

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl, November 22, 2018