Minister Marianela Cifuentes sentences former Carabineros for homicide at Puente Esperanza in Padre Hurtado.

The visiting judge sentenced Gerardo Alejandro Aravena Longa, a Carabineros lieutenant and head of the Curacaví station at the time of the events, to effective prison terms of 3 years and 15 years and one day, as the perpetrator of the consummated crimes of simple kidnapping and qualified homicide of Muñoz Rojas.

The extraordinary visiting judge for human rights violation cases of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, sentenced retired members of the Carabineros for their responsibility in the consummated crimes of simple kidnapping and homicide of Segundo Hernán Antonio Muñoz Rojas, illicit acts perpetrated in 1973 in the communes of Curacaví and Padre Hurtado.

In the ruling, Judge Cifuentes Alarcón sentenced Gerardo Alejandro Aravena Longa, a Carabineros lieutenant and head of the Curacaví station at the time of the events, to effective prison terms of 3 years and 15 years and one day, as the perpetrator of the consummated crimes of simple kidnapping and qualified homicide of Muñoz Rojas.

Meanwhile, former police officer Carlos Patricio Donoso Figueroa must serve 541 days and 5 years and one day of effective prison time, as the perpetrator of the consummated crime of simple kidnapping and as an accomplice to the qualified homicide, respectively.

In the case, the visiting judge sentenced Eduardo Matías Cabello Villena and Ciro del Carmen González Hernández to 541 days in prison, with the benefit of conditional remission of the sentence, as perpetrators only of the crime of simple kidnapping; and decreed the acquittal of César Valenzuela Sepúlveda due to a lack of participation in the crime of simple kidnapping, and acquitted Eduardo Matías Cabello Villena, Ciro del Carmen González Hernández, and César Valenzuela Sepúlveda of responsibility in the qualified homicide.

Regarding civil matters, the ruling accepted the filed claim for damages, ordering the State of Chile to pay, as moral damages, the sums of $100,000,000 (one hundred million pesos) and $50,000,000 (fifty million pesos) to the victim's mother and sister, respectively.

During the investigation phase of the case, Judge Cifuentes was able to establish the following facts: 1° That on October 11, 1973, during the night, Segundo Hernán Antonio Muñoz Rojas was detained, without legal basis, at his home located in the Laura Allende camp in the commune of Curacaví, by Lieutenant Gerardo Alejandro Aravena Longa and personnel under his command, including Sergeants Eliseo Santander Ramírez, Manuel del Carmen Espinoza Aguilera, and Benjamín Seguel Ortiz—currently deceased—and Carabineros officer Ciro del Carmen González Hernández, all assigned to the Curacaví Carabineros station. 2° That, subsequently, Muñoz Rojas was taken to the Curacaví Carabineros station, a police unit under the command of Lieutenant Gerardo Alejandro Aravena Longa, where he was kept locked up, without legal basis, until the early hours of October 14, 1973, during which time he was subjected to physical abuse. 3° That on October 14, 1973, in the early hours of the morning, Lieutenant Gerardo Alejandro Aravena Longa, accompanied by 2nd Sergeant Benjamín Seguel Ortiz and police officer Carlos Patricio Donoso Figueroa, transported Muñoz Rojas from the aforementioned police unit to the Esperanza bridge, at Km 4 of Route G 68, in the commune of Padre Hurtado, where Benjamín Seguel Ortiz shot him, causing his body to fall into the riverbed. 4° That, subsequently, the victim's body was found at that location and, after being sent to the Legal Medical Service, it was determined that he died as a result of a gunshot wound that entered through the abdomen.

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl, May 29, 2018

48 years after the crimes, three retired Carabineros were sentenced for executions at Cuesta Barriga in September 1973

The court sentenced retired Carabineros Lieutenant Gerardo Aravena Longa and former officers Ciro Del Carmen González Hernández and Arnoldo Alfredo Valdebenito Sanhueza, all from the Curacaví station at the time of the events, to 15 years and one day of major imprisonment in its maximum degree.

Aravena Longa is identified as the person who directed human rights violations in the area starting on September 12, 1973. The Fifth Chamber of the San Miguel Court of Appeals issued a second-instance sentence in the so-called "Curacaví" episode and sentenced three retired Carabineros for the crimes against Jorge Gómez, Gastón Manzo, and Enrique Venegas, events that occurred at Cuesta Barriga in September 1973.

Thus, the chamber—composed of judges Liliana Mera, Nelly Villegas Becerra, and acting judge Marcelo Ovalle—confirmed the ruling issued by the extraordinary visiting judge for human rights cases, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, in her first-instance judgment.

The court sentenced retired Carabineros Lieutenant Gerardo Aravena Longa and former officers Ciro Del Carmen González Hernández and Arnoldo Alfredo Valdebenito Sanhueza, all from the Curacaví station at the time of the events, to 15 years and one day of major imprisonment in its maximum degree, as perpetrators of three consummated crimes of qualified kidnapping starting on September 12, 1973.

Plaintiff lawyer Pablo Fuenzalida Valenzuela, of the law firm Caucoto Abogados, expressed satisfaction with this ruling, as "after 48 years, the Court of Appeals has sentenced Carabineros to 15 years and one day in prison for crimes in that locality.

Jorge Gómez, Gastón Manzo, and Enrique Venegas, all very humble people, were kidnapped and executed by police forces under the command of Lieutenant Gerardo Aravena Longa, who directed the human rights violations in the area starting on September 12, 1973.

In an incredible story, Mr. Venegas survived the execution and managed to escape while wounded. Jorge Gómez and Gastón Manzo died on the spot in the horrendous massacres of Curacaví." The facts The resolution establishes that on the afternoon of September 12, 1973, Jorge Gustavo Gómez Retamales, Gastón Raimundo Manzo Santibáñez, and Enrique Patricio Venegas Santibáñez were detained at their respective homes or in their vicinity in the commune of Curacaví by police officers assigned to the Curacaví Carabineros station, which at that time was under the command of Lieutenant Gerardo Alejandro Aravena Longa. Subsequently, the detainees were taken to the Curacaví Carabineros station, where they were kept locked up along with other people until September 16, 1973, a period during which they were subjected to interrogations and abuse. On the early morning of September 16, a patrol commanded by Lieutenant Gerardo Alejandro Aravena Longa—also composed of 2nd Sergeant Benjamín Seguel Ortiz (currently deceased), Carabineros officers Ciro del Carmen González Hernández, Manuel Arturo Lepe Barraza (currently deceased), and Arnoldo Alfredo Valdebenito Sanhueza, and officials of the Chilean Army—transported a group of detainees from the aforementioned police unit to Cuesta Barriga, where they were forced to get out of the vehicle. Immediately thereafter, after lining them up and standing in front of them, they shot at them, abandoning the bodies at the site. Among others, Jorge Gustavo Gómez Retamales died at the scene due to a craniocerebral wound, and Gastón Raimundo Manzo Santibáñez died due to a gunshot wound that compromised the large vessels of the neck, while Enrique Patricio Venegas Santibáñez and a third person managed to survive.

Source: elmostrador.cl, September 16, 2021

Supreme Court sentences former Carabineros for the crime against a worker in Curacaví in 1973

The Supreme Court rejected the application of partial statute of limitations and confirmed the conviction of four former members of the Carabineros for their responsibility in the simple kidnapping and qualified homicide of agricultural worker Segundo Hernán Muñoz Rojas, 19 years old, committed in October 1973 in the commune of Curacaví. by Darío Núñez In the sentence (docket 33.452-2019), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of judges Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, and acting lawyer Diego Munita—accepted an appeal filed by the plaintiffs, rejected the appeal filed by the convicted parties, and, in a replacement sentence, ratified the first-instance ruling that sentenced former Carabineros officer Gerardo Alejandro Aravena Longa to 15 years in prison for his responsibility as a perpetrator of qualified homicide and 3 years in prison for his responsibility as a perpetrator of kidnapping. Meanwhile, former Carabineros officer Carlos Patricio Donoso Figueroa must serve a sentence of 5 years and one day in prison as an accomplice to the homicide and 541 days in prison as an accomplice to the kidnapping. Finally, former Carabineros officers Eduardo Matías Cabello Villena and Ciro del Carmen González Hernández must serve a sentence of 541 days in prison as perpetrators of the simple kidnapping of the victim. The Supreme Court considered that a chamber of the San Miguel Court of Appeals had committed an error in October 2019 by applying the partial statute of limitations to reduce Aravena Longa's sentence, as it omitted the nature of the crime against humanity committed by the offender, which had been addressed in the ruling by the first-instance judge, Marianela Cifuentes. In this regard, the Supreme Court's resolution states: "in accordance with international human rights law, contained primarily in the Geneva Conventions, the statute of limitations, whether total or gradual, is prohibited regarding crimes committed in cases of non-international armed conflicts. The same conclusion is reached by collating the norms of the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons with those of the Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, since, in accordance with that regulation, the gradual statute of limitations has the same nature as the total one." It adds: "For this reason, this court takes into consideration that the estimation of the gradual statute of limitations regarding those responsible for the commission of crimes against humanity affects the principle of proportionality of the sentence, since the gravity of the acts perpetrated with the intervention of State agents determines that the response to the author of the transgression must be consistent with the impairment of the legal interest and the culpability with which they acted." In March 2019, the visiting judge for human rights cases, Marianela Cifuentes, issued a sentence in which she sentenced Aravena Longa, Donoso Figueroa, Cabello Villena, and González Hernández to the same sentences now reinstated by the Supreme Court's ruling. Regarding this criminal act, the investigation by Judge Cifuentes established that on the night of October 11, 1973, Segundo Hernán Antonio Muñoz Rojas was detained, without legal basis, at his home located in the Laura Allende camp in the commune of Curacaví, by Lieutenant Gerardo Alejandro Aravena Longa and personnel under his command, including Sergeants Eliseo Santander Ramírez, Manuel del Carmen Espinoza Aguilera, and Benjamín Seguel Ortiz—currently deceased—and Carabineros officer Ciro del Carmen González Hernández, all assigned to the Curacaví Carabineros station. The detainee, Muñoz Rojas, was taken to the Curacaví station, a police unit under the command of Lieutenant Gerardo Alejandro Aravena Longa, where he was kept locked up and subjected to physical abuse until the early hours of October 14, 1973. At that time, Lieutenant Aravena Longa, accompanied by 2nd Sergeant Benjamín Seguel Ortiz and police officer Carlos Patricio Donoso Figueroa, transported Muñoz Rojas from the aforementioned police unit to the Esperanza bridge, at Km 4 of Route G 68, in the commune of Padre Hurtado, where he was executed; by order of Aravena Longa, Carabineros officer Benjamín Seguel Ortiz shot him, causing the victim's body to fall into the riverbed. Subsequently, the body was found by third parties at that location and later sent as a John Doe (NN) to the Legal Medical Service and buried in that condition in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery of Santiago.

Source: resumen.cl, June 17, 2022