The visiting judge of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vázquez, issued an indictment in the investigation into the aggravated kidnapping of Reinalda Pereira Plaza, who has been forcibly disappeared since December 15, 1976, in the Metropolitan Region.

The magistrate held 51 former members of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) who served at the Simón Bolívar barracks responsible for the crime committed against the woman, who was pregnant at the time of her disappearance.

The list of agents is as follows

1- Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda. 2- Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo. 3- Juan Hernán Morales Salgado. 4- Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires. 5- Federico Humberto Chaigneau Sepúlveda. 6- Hernán Luis Sovino Maturana. 7- Gladys de las Mercedes Calderón Carreño. 8- Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido. 9- José Alfonso Ojeda Obando. 10- Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo. 11- Jorge Laureano Sagardía Monje. 12- Héctor Raúl Valdebenito Araya. 13- Bernardo del Rosario Daza Navarro. 14- Sergio Orlando Escalona Acuña. 15- Jorge Lientur Manríquez Manterola. 16- José Miguel Meza Serrano. 17- Luis Alberto Lagos Yáñez. 18- María Angélica Guerrero Soto. 19- Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich. 20- Guillermo Jesús Ferrán Martínez. 21- Jorge Segundo Pichunmán Curiqueo. 22- Orfa Yolanda Saavedra Vásquez. 23- Elisa del Carmen Magna Astudillo. 24- Claudio Orlando Orellana de la Pinta. 25- Eduardo Alejandro Oyarce Riquelme. 26- Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo. 27- Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández. 28- Emilio Hernán Troncoso Vivallos. 29- Sergio Hernán Castro Andrade. 30- Teresa del Carmen Navarro Navarro. 31- Juan Edmundo Suazo Saldaña. 32- Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica. 33- José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo. 34- Carlos Enrique Miranda Mesa. 35- Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett. 36- Orlando del Tránsito Altamirano Sanhueza. 37- Gustavo Enrique Guerrero Aguilera. 38- Manuel Antonio Montre Méndez. 39- Guillermo Eduardo Díaz Ramírez. 40- Hiro Álvarez Vega. 41- Celinda Angélica Aspe Rojas. 42- Jorge Hugo Arriagada Mora. 43- Berta Yolanda del Carmen Jiménez Escobar. 44- Justo Bermúdez Méndez. 45- Eduardo Patricio Cabezas Mardones. 46- Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza. 47- Italia Donata Vaccarella Gilio. 48- Camilo Torres Negrier. 49- Joyce Ana Ahumada Despouy. 50- Marilín Melahani Silva Vergara and 51- José Domingo Seco Alarcón. According to the background of the events, it was determined that: "The incriminating evidence outlined in the previous paragraph allows us to establish that it is legally proven that, after 16:00 on December 15, 1976, at the intersection of Exequiel Fernández and Rodrigo de Araya streets, in the commune of Ñuñoa, Reinalda del Carmen Pereira Plaza, 29 years old, a medical technologist and communist militant, who was pregnant, was detained by DINA agents traveling in two cars. She was forced into one of them and taken to a secret barracks located at 8800 Simón Bolívar Street, where she was interrogated under illegitimate duress and subsequently forcibly disappeared, with no news of her whereabouts to this date. The facts described in number 2 constitute the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Reinalda del Carmen Pereira Plaza, as provided for and sanctioned in the 3rd paragraph of Article 141 of the Penal Code of the time, since the victim's confinement resulted in serious harm to her person, as she was never seen alive again."

Source: cronicadigital.cl, June 14, 2014

Judge indicted 53 former DINA agents for the disappearance of the second clandestine leadership of the Communist Party

The visiting judge of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vázquez, who is investigating the so-called "Conferencia 2" case, indicted 53 former DINA agents for the crimes of aggravated homicide and aggravated kidnapping perpetrated against six victims – Fernando Navarro Allendes, Lincoyán Berríos Cataldo, Horacio Cepeda Marinkovic, Fernando Ortiz Letelier, Héctor Véliz Ramírez, and Waldo Ulises Pizarro Molina – all of whom were members of the Communist Party leadership.

Likewise, he requested that the Supreme Court ask the government of Australia for the extradition of Adriana Rivas González, who is being prosecuted in this case and against whom an international arrest warrant has been issued.

The communist leaders were taken to the secret barracks that the DINA maintained at 8800 Simón Bolívar Street, in La Reina. There, they were interrogated, tortured, and subsequently forcibly disappeared.

Likewise, Minister Vázquez requested that the Supreme Court ask the government of Australia for the extradition of Adriana Rivas González – Manuel Contreras's secretary – who is being prosecuted in this case and against whom an international arrest warrant has been issued.

In this regard, the plaintiff lawyer Eduardo Contreras described the magistrate's request as historic. "This decision by Minister Vázquez shows how the courts are acting now. In this new situation, it seems to us that it is a historic decision, since Adriana Rivas – who participated in the extermination of the entire leadership of the Communist Party in the fateful Simón Bolívar barracks – is a central figure, both for her own responsibility and for the information she possesses," the lawyer maintained.

Plaintiff lawyer Eduardo Contreras stated that he trusts that the oceanic country will send the repressor to Chile to face justice. "According to the current institutional framework that unites the countries of Chile and Australia, this is a perfectly viable extradition," the jurist stated.

In January, Judge Vázquez had already requested Rivas's extradition for the disappearance of the PC general secretary, Víctor Diaz. List of the accused According to what is indicated in the resolution, the accused as co-perpetrators of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Fernando Alfredo Navarro Allendes, committed starting December 13, 1976, and Lincoyán Yalú Berríos Cataldo, Horacio Cepeda Marinkovic, Juan Fernando Ortíz Letelier, and Héctor Véliz Ramírez, committed starting December 15, 1976, are: 1.- Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda, 2.- Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, 3.- Juan Hernán Morales Salgado, 4.- Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, 5.- Federico Humberto Chaigneau Sepúlveda, 6.- Hernán Luis Sovino Maturana, 7.- Gladys de las Mercedes Calderón Carreño, 8.- Eduardo Antonio Reyes Lagos, 9.- Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, 10.- José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, 11.- Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, 12.- Jorge Laureano Sagardía Monje, 13.- Héctor Raúl Valdebenito Araya, 14.- Bernardo del Rosario Daza Navarro, 15.- Sergio Orlando Escalona Acuña, 16.- Jorge Lientur Manríquez Manterola, 17.- José Miguel Meza Serrano, 18.- Luis Alberto Lagos Yáñez, 19.- María Angélica Guerrero Soto, 20.- Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich, 21.- Guillermo Jesús Ferrán Martínez, 22.- Jorge Segundo Pichunmán Curiqueo, 23.- Orfa Yolanda Saavedra Vásquez, 24.- Elisa del Carmen Magna Astudillo, 25.- Claudio Orlando Orellana de la Pinta, 26.- Eduardo Alejandro Oyarce Riquelme, 27.- Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo, 28.- Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, 29.- Emilio Hernán Troncoso Vivallos, 30.- Sergio Hernán Castro Andrade, 31.- Teresa del Carmen Navarro Navarro, 32.- Juan Edmundo Suazo Saldaña, 33.- Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, 34.- José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, 35.- Carlos Enrique Miranda Mesa, 36.- Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, 37.- Orlando del Tránsito Altamirano Sanhueza, 38.- Gustavo Enrique Guerrero Aguilera, 39.- Manuel Antonio Montre Méndez, 40.- Guillermo Eduardo Díaz Ramírez, 41.- Hiro Álvarez Vega, 42.- Celinda Angélica Aspe Rojas, 43.- Jorge Hugo Arriagada Mora, 44.- Berta Yolanda del Carmen Jiménez Escobar, 45.- Carlos Justo Bermúdez Méndez, 46.- Eduardo Patricio Cabezas Mardones, 47.- Adriana Elcira Rivas González, 48.- Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza, 49.- Italia Donata Vaccarella Gilio, 50.- Camilo Torres Negrier, 51.- Joyce Ana Ahumada Despouy, 52.- Marilín Melahani Silva Vergara, 53.- José Domingo Seco Alarcón. Regarding the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Waldo Ulises Pizarro Molina, committed starting December 15, 1976, the accused as co-perpetrators were: 1.- Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda, 2.- Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, 3.- Juan Hernán Morales Salgado, 4.- Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires Finally, regarding the commission of three crimes of aggravated homicide against Juan Fernando Ortiz Letelier, Horacio Cepeda Marinkovic, and Lincoyán Yalú Berríos Cataldo, perpetrated between December 15, 1976, and December 25, 1976, the accused as co-perpetrators are: 1.- Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda 2.- Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo 3.- Juan Hernán Morales Salgado 4.- Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires 5.- Eduardo Antonio Reyes Lagos 6.- Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido 7.- José Alfonso Ojeda Obando 8.- Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo 9.- Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett 10.- Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich 11.- Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo 12.- Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández 13.- Emilio Hernán Troncoso Vivallos 14.- Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica 15.- Orlando del Tránsito Altamirano Sanhueza 16.- Carlos Enrique Miranda Mesa 17.- Guillermo Eduardo Díaz Ramírez 18.- Eduardo Patricio Cabezas Mardones 19.- Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza 20.- José Domingo Seco Alarcón According to the background available in the case, it was considered proven that: a) on December 13, 1976, at the intersection of Grecia and Ramón Cruz streets, in the commune of Ñuñoa, Fernando Alfredo Navarro Allendes, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Chile, was detained by agents of the National Intelligence Directorate, DINA, who forced him into one of the vehicles they were traveling in and took him to a secret barracks located at 8800 Simón Bolívar Street, in the commune of La Reina, where he was subsequently forcibly disappeared; b) on December 15, 1976, in the morning, in the area of the Lo Plaza roundabout, in the commune of Ñuñoa, Lincoyán Yalú Berríos Cataldo, 48 years old, a primary education teacher and communist militant, was detained by DINA agents, who took him to a secret barracks located at 8800 Simón Bolívar Street, in the commune of La Reina, where he was interrogated under illegitimate duress and subsequently killed; c) on December 15, 1976, on a public street in the city of Santiago, Horacio Cepeda Marinkovic, 54 years old, a communist militant, was detained by DINA agents and taken to a secret barracks located at 8800 Simón Bolívar Street, in the commune of La Reina, where he was interrogated under illegitimate duress and subsequently killed; d) on December 15, 1976, on a public street in the city of Santiago, Juan Fernando Ortiz Letelier, 54 years old, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Chile, was detained by DINA agents, who took him to a secret barracks located at 8800 Simón Bolívar Street, in the commune of La Reina, where he was interrogated under illegitimate duress and subsequently killed; e) on December 15, 1976, on a public street in the city of Santiago, Héctor Véliz Ramírez, 43 years old, a coordinator or liaison between the regional and central leaderships of the Communist Party, was detained by DINA agents, who took him to a secret barracks located at 8800 Simón Bolívar Street, in the commune of La Reina, where he was interrogated under illegitimate duress and subsequently forcibly disappeared; f) around 18:00 on December 15, 1976, Waldo Ulises Pizarro Molina, a militant of the Communist Party of Chile, was detained by agents of the National Intelligence Directorate, DINA, who took him to a secret barracks located at 8800 Simón Bolívar Street, in the commune of La Reina, where he was interrogated under illegitimate duress and subsequently forcibly disappeared. Vásquez is thus preparing for the final stage of the trial under the old criminal procedure, in order to then issue a first-instance sentence in the investigation into the repression and extermination of the second clandestine leadership of the PC. According to the investigation, starting December 13, 1976, in different parts of the capital – mainly the eastern zone – the former agents detained Fernando Navarro Allendes, Lincoyán Berríos Cataldo, Horacio Cepeda Marinkovic, Fernando Ortiz Letelier, Héctor Véliz Ramírez, and Waldo Ulises Pizarro Molina, all communist militants. The leaders were taken to the secret barracks at 8800 Simón Bolívar Street in the commune of La Reina, where they were interrogated under brutal torture and subsequently forcibly disappeared. The DINA relied on the Lautaro Brigade and the Mehuín and Delfín units with the primary objective of repressing, detaining, and dismantling the PC, an action in which several women participated in the illegitimate duress, such as Gladys Calderón, nicknamed "Doctor Hoffmann," who administered lethal injections to the detainees. Also accused are Adriana Rivas, Berta Jiménez, and Celinda Aspe, alleged secretaries to the director of the DINA, Manuel Contreras, but who took an "operational" part in the execution of the crimes. Judge Vázquez requested to expand the extradition of Adriana Rivas, currently in Australia. The person who provided the most accounts in the case regarding what happened at the Simón Bolívar barracks was Jorgelino Vergara Bravo, the so-called "mocito" (errand boy) of the DINA, who asserts that the detainees were executed, put into sacks, some were weighted with rails to be thrown into the sea, and others were forcibly disappeared in the lime mines of Lonquén or the Cuesta Barriga. "The mocito" recounts in the case that Fernando Ortiz begged to be killed because his legs had been broken with clubs. One of the victims of Calle Conferencia is Waldo Pizarro, father of the president of the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared, Lorena Pizarro, who is skeptical about the possibility of justice, especially considering the recent benefits granted to those convicted in the "Degollados" case: "Today, I still don't know exactly what happened to him. I know generalities, because the pact of silence continues among the uniformed personnel, because justice 'to the extent possible' continues to be present, and because we have a State that pardons or gives prison benefits to those who committed such barbarity (...) I hope no one has to live through this again."

Source: reddigital.cl, October 22, 2015

35 DINA agents sentenced for the crime against PC militant Reinalda Pereira

The minister for extraordinary causes regarding human rights violations at the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vázquez Plaza, sentenced 35 former members of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the aggravated kidnapping of Reinalda Pereira Plaza, who was 5 months pregnant at the time of her detention and disappearance in December 1976.

In the ruling (case file 2.182-1998), Minister Vázquez imposed 10-year prison sentences on former army officers Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo and Juan Hernán Morales Salgado, and former carabineros officer Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, in their capacity as perpetrators of the crime.

Meanwhile, agents Gladys de las Mercedes Calderón Carreño, Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, Héctor Raúl Valdebenito Araya, Sergio Orlando Escalona Acuña, Jorge Lientur Manríquez Manterola, María Angélica Guerrero Soto, Orfa Yolanda Saavedra Vásquez, Elisa del Carmen Magna Astudillo, Eduardo Alejandro Oyarce Riquelme, Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, Emilio Hernán Troncoso Vivallos, Teresa del Carmen Navarro Navarro, José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, Gustavo Enrique Guerrero Aguilera, Manuel Antonio Montre Méndez, and Jorge Hugo Arriagada Mora must serve 7 years in prison as perpetrators of the illicit act.

Likewise, agents Hernán Luis Sovino Maturana, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, José Miguel Meza Serrano, Luis Alberto Lagos Yáñez, Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich, Jorge Segundo Pichunmán Curiqueo, Sergio Hernán Castro Andrade, Carlos Enrique Miranda Mesa, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, Orlando del Transito Altamirano Sanhueza, Guillermo Eduardo Díaz Ramírez, Berta Yolanda del Carmen Jiménez Escobar, Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza, and Joyce Ana Ahumada Despouy were sentenced to 4 years in prison for their responsibility as accomplices in the victim's disappearance.

In the same case, the presiding minister decreed the acquittal of agents Federico Humberto Chaigneau Sepúlveda, Juan Edmundo Suazo Saldaña, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Hiro Álvarez Vega, Celinda Angélica Aspe Rojas, Carlos Justo Bermúdez Méndez, Eduardo Patricio Cabezas Mardones, Italia Donatta Vacarella Gilio, Camilo Torres Negrier, Marilin Melahani Silva Vergara, and José Domingo Seco Alarcón.

The Facts During the investigation phase, the visiting minister established the following facts:

«a) That the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), on an unspecified date during the first half of 1976, occupied and enabled a property at Calle Simón Bolívar No. 8800, in the commune of La Reina, consisting of a country house that was conditioned for its purpose of confinement.

It had a single access gate, a guard booth to its right where door duty was performed, a house at the back, a small soccer field, parking areas, and on the left side of the property, a type of gymnasium where there was a mess hall, kitchen, and changing rooms and bathrooms that were conditioned to be used as dungeons.

This property was where the Lautaro Brigade, led by Major Juan Morales Salgado, operated, and it was used as a secret and clandestine place of confinement. People were brought to this facility as detainees to be interrogated using various techniques of physical coercion, especially regarding those who had or had had political militancy adhering to the Communist Party.

b) That, likewise, in the second half of 1976, DINA groups led by officers Germán Barriga and Ricardo Lawrence, together with their operational agents, moved to said facility. They focused fundamentally on investigating, locating, raiding, pursuing, repressing, and dismantling members of the Communist Party, especially its leadership, for which temporary facilities were set up for their installation, consisting of offices, a gymnasium, and changing rooms that served as dungeons where interrogations and torture were carried out using various methods of coercion.

c) That Reinalda del Carmen Pereira Plaza, pregnant with her first child (5 months along), a medical technologist and communist militant who worked sheltering people and as a liaison between Eliana Ahumada and Fernando Navarro, and who was also related to communist militant Fernando Ortiz, was detained at 29 years of age, at approximately 8:30 PM, while waiting for public transportation, by security agents on December 15, 1976, at the corner of Calle Exequiel Fernández and Rodrigo de Araya, in the commune of Ñuñoa (currently the commune of Macul).

The agents who detained her were traveling in two Peugeot automobiles; from one of them, license plate HLN-55, a subject got out and grabbed her violently. When she screamed for help, a second subject got out, with whom she was forcibly subdued and placed inside the vehicle.

The detention was carried out in the presence of witnesses who were in the various surrounding commercial establishments, who reported that once the victim was subdued and the detention carried out, the car headed north along Rodrigo de Araya.

d) That Reinalda del Carmen Pereira Plaza was taken to the secret detention center of Simón Bolívar, where she was seen alongside other prisoners who had also been detained by the same brigades under the same operational policy between December 13 and 15, 1976; namely, Héctor Veliz Ramírez, Fernando Navarro Allendes, Lincoyán Yalu Berrios Cataldo, Juan Fernando Ortiz Letelier, and Horacio Cepeda Marincovich.

In this place, Reinalda was severely beaten, tortured, subjected to illegitimate coercion, and subsequently forcibly disappeared, with no news of her whereabouts to this date.

e) That the Chilean government of the time, given the search efforts made by her relatives, reported that the affected party had exited "on foot" through the Los Libertadores border crossing between Chile and Argentina on December 21, 1976, an official version that was judicially established as false, as recorded in the case file (Rol 2-77), in which it was verified that the route log documenting these circumstances had been falsified.

f) That the victim in this case was detained on a public street, as were thirteen other people in similar circumstances; eleven belonging to the Communist Party and two to the MIR, and where the information provided by the Military Government was similar and erroneous, demonstrating a large-scale operation that obeyed a policy of investigation, persecution, and dismantling of the Communist Party, and not an isolated event.

g) That all the aforementioned persons, including the victim, were detained to be interrogated and tortured due to their political militancy and in order to obtain information about their party activities and the identification of other members of the Communist Party in hiding; coercion that did not cease until the required information was obtained or until the victims lost consciousness.»

This first-instance ruling must still be ratified by the Santiago Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court.

Source: Resumen.cl, October 18, 2017

Case File No. 2.182-98 Episode "Conferencia C" or "Conferencia 1"

One hundred and seventy-eight: That the evidence described above does not meet the requirements of Article 488 of the Code of Penal Procedure to establish the participation of Marilín Melahani Silva Vergara in the aggravated kidnapping of Víctor Díaz López, under the terms of Article 15 of the Penal Code, in any of its hypotheses, since it does not possess the necessary gravity to generate in this judge the conviction that she participated directly in his detention, interrogations, torture, or use in operations, as there are no charges that allow for such a conclusion.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, this does not imply her acquittal, given that the evidence does allow for the conclusion that she cooperated in the execution of the illicit act through acts simultaneous to its perpetration, constituted fundamentally by her role as secretary and guard at the Simón Bolívar barracks; a place where the victim was locked up for four months, interrogated, and used to locate others in hiding; a period in which the brigades of Lawrence, Barriga, and Morales acted in operations against the Communist Party as a single unit; a conglomerate of which the victim was the General Secretary and a fundamental piece for reaching other communist militants. The accused, Silva Vergara, alias "Daniela Adaos," was a civilian employee of the Air Force, an agent of the Lautaro Brigade identified by the name "Violeta," who performed, according to her own accounts, administrative functions, office work, prepared memos and official letters, assisted the general staff, provided security for Manuel Contreras's house, stood guard at the barracks, and carried out ordered missions. At the same time, and attentive to the charges presented, she also performed distraction work in operations and investigation in the artistic-cultural area, together with Joyce Ana Ahumada Despouy and Gustavo Guerrero Aguilera, reporting if people spoke against the Government, identifying and locating them; therefore, her exculpatory version that she had no knowledge of the arrival of the Barriga and Lawrence brigade and the detainee Víctor Díaz will not be accepted, due to her function as secretary and guard of the facility where Víctor Díaz was held and used for a long time, a function in which she guarded the only existing entrance to the barracks and the detainees, whom she even had to feed as a custodian; reasons for which she will be sanctioned as an accomplice under Article 16 of the Penal Code.

Source: Judiciary, November 30, 2018

Convictions confirmed against 47 DINA agents for the aggravated kidnapping of eight communist leaders in 1976

The Sixth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals ratified the conviction of 49 agents (two of whom are already deceased) of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of 8 communist leaders perpetrated in April and May 1976 in Santiago.

The repressive episode is labeled as "Case Conferencia Uno" because, subsequent to these detentions, in December 1976, the DINA carried out the kidnapping of another group of communist leaders in an episode judicially labeled as "Conferencia Dos."

In the ruling (case file 2545-2019), the Sixth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals – composed of ministers Graciela Gómez Quitral, Andrea Díaz-Muñoz (s), and minister (s) Matías Felipe de la Noi – rejected the cassation appeals filed by some of those convicted in the first-instance sentence, issued in November 2018 by Minister Miguel Vásquez Plaza, and confirmed the convictions of 49 former agents for their responsibility as perpetrators or co-perpetrators in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, Uldarico Donaire Cortez, Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, Lenin Adán Díaz Silva, Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández, and Víctor Manuel Díaz López; and for their responsibility in the homicide of the aforementioned Díaz López.

The resolution confirms the 20-year prison sentences for former army officers Carlos José Leonardo López Tapia (deceased), Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, and Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko as perpetrators of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of: Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso and Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, perpetrated starting May 4; of Uldarico Donaire Cortez and Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, committed starting May 5; of Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, perpetrated starting May 6; of Lenin Adán Díaz Silva, committed starting May 9; of Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández, perpetrated starting May 12; and of Víctor Manuel Díaz López, perpetrated starting May 12, all in the year 1976.

Former carabineros officer Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires (also deceased), who was sentenced to 20 years in prison as a perpetrator of the eight crimes of aggravated kidnapping, plus 15 years in prison as a co-perpetrator of the aggravated homicide of Víctor Díaz López, perpetrated on an undetermined day in the first half of January 1977.

Former army officer and former head of the clandestine extermination center Cuartel Simón Bolívar, Juan Hernán Morales Salgado, must serve 8 years in prison as a co-perpetrator of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping and 15 years in prison as a co-perpetrator of the aggravated homicide of Víctor Díaz López.

Former army officers Federico Humberto Chaigneau Sepúlveda and Jorge Claudio Andrade Gómez were sentenced to 6 years in prison as co-perpetrators of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Víctor Manuel Díaz López.

Meanwhile, agents Emilio Hernán Troncoso Vivallos, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, Jorge Iván Díaz Radulovich, Orlando del Tránsito Altamirano Sanhueza, Eduardo Patricio Cabezas Mardones, Guillermo Eduardo Díaz Ramírez, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, Carlos Enrique Miranda Mesa, Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza, Lionel de la Cruz Medrano Medrano Rivas, Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, José Domingo Seco Alarcón, Leonidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, and Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel were sentenced to 15 years in prison as co-perpetrators of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, Uldarico Donaire Cortez, Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño, Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández, Lenin Adán Díaz Silva, and Víctor Manuel Díaz López.

Agents Sergio Orlando Escalona Acuña, Gladys de las Mercedes Calderón Carreño, and Jorge Segundo Pichunmán Curiqueo were sentenced to 5 years and one day as co-perpetrators of the aggravated kidnapping and 12 years in prison as co-perpetrators of the aggravated homicide of Víctor Díaz López.

Additionally, agents Elisa del Carmen Magna Astudillo, Orfa Yolanda Saavedra Vásquez, Celinda Angélica Aspe Rojas, Teresa del Carmen Navarro Navarro, Berta Yolanda del Carmen Jiménez Escobar, Ana del Carmen Vilches Muñoz, Italia Donata Vaccarella Gilio, María Angélica Guerrero Soto, Joyce Ana Ahumada Despouy, Marilín Melahani Silva Vergara, Nelson René Herrera Lagos, Jorge Hugo Arriagada Mora, Eduardo Alejandro Oyarce Riquelme, Jorge Lientur Manríquez Manterola, José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, Gustavo Enrique Guerrero Aguilera, Luis Alberto Lagos Yáñez, Sergio Hernán Castro Andrade, Pedro Antonio Gutiérrez Valdés, Hiro Álvarez Vega, José Miguel Meza Serrano, Carlos Justo Bermúdez Méndez, Camilo Torres Negrier, and Juan Edmundo Suazo Saldaña, all members of the groups that operated in the Simón Bolívar extermination barracks, were sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison as co-perpetrators of the aggravated kidnapping of Víctor Díaz López.

During the course of the process, first-instance convicts Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo, Héctor Raúl Valdebenito Araya, and Pedro Bitterlich Jaramillo passed away, in addition to the aforementioned Carlos López Tapia and Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires. The accused René Miguel Riveros Valderrama was acquitted.

The Facts During the investigation phase of the case, Minister Miguel Vásquez established that on April 30, 1976, around 3:00 AM, DINA agents arrived at the residence at Calle Conferencia No. 1587, in the commune of Santiago, knowing that a meeting of the Communist Party leadership acting in hiding would take place, and detained its residents: Juan Becerra Barrera, his spouse María Angélica Gutiérrez Gómez, and her cousin Eliana Vidal.

They were taken to various secret detention and torture centers to obtain information regarding the people who were going to or were supposed to attend their home and, in particular, regarding Mario Zamorano Donoso and Víctor Díaz López, among other communist militants.

Once the information was obtained by the agents, the residents were returned to the Calle Conferencia home to be forced to appear to live a normal daily life, but under the control of agents armed with submachine guns.

There, they set up an operation called "Ratonera" (Mousetrap), with 5 agents remaining inside the place, taking turns in silent and covert wait for the arrival of each of the members of the Communist Party who would attend the meeting, in order to detain them.

A similar operation was also set up at the home of Juan Becerra Barrera's mother, María de las Mercedes Barrera Pérez, who on occasion hosted Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso at her house located at Calle Alejandro Fierro No. 5113, in the commune of Quinta Normal; an operation that was carried out simultaneously and in coordination with the one on Calle Conferencia, and in which at least 20 DINA officials participated together.

Under these conditions, at approximately 7:00 PM on May 4, 1976, Mario Jaime Zamorano Donoso arrived at the Calle Conferencia property. A friend of the tenant and a leather worker, he was pursued by the repressive apparatuses and, after the military coup, became the National Organization Manager of the Communist Party.

Upon entering the house, a struggle with DINA agents resulted in him being shot in the thigh. As he was bleeding out, he was taken to one of the rooms at the back of the house so as not to obstruct the operation; later, he was taken out at night, wrapped in a blanket, and transported to the Villa Grimaldi or Terranova detention barracks, located at Avenida José Arrieta No. 8200, in the commune of La Reina, where he remained and was seen by other surviving detainees of that time.

Around 9:00 PM on the same day, May 4, 1976, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, arrived at the Calle Conferencia property. Upon being identified as the husband of Gladys Marín, he was detained, led inside the property, and finally transported to the Villa Grimaldi barracks, according to testimonies provided by former security agents Carlos Ramón Rinaldi Suárez, Eduardo Antonio Reyes Lagos, and Guido Arnoldo Jara Brevis, among other evidence.

The following day, May 5, 1976, Uldarico Donaire Cortez arrived at the aforementioned Calle Conferencia property around 9:00 AM, and Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño around 9:30 AM; both members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, who were immobilized and detained as soon as they entered; then taken out in vehicles, handcuffed, guarded by agents, and transported to the Villa Grimaldi barracks.

On May 6, 1976, between 1:00 PM and 2:00 PM, liaison Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, was detained by DINA agents at the same property using the same procedure, and was also taken to the Villa Grimaldi barracks.

On May 9, 1976, around 9:00 AM, Lenin Adán Díaz Silva, a member of the Technical Commission of the Communist Party, responsible for contacts between members of the Central Committee and for finding houses for meetings or for the protection of Party members, was detained by DINA agents at the property owned by his father-in-law, located at Calle Gaspar de Orense No. 993, in the commune of Quinta Normal.

He left for an unknown destination along with the already detained Elisa Escobar and a DINA agent, to be later seen as a prisoner at the Villa Grimaldi barracks by a surviving detainee (who shared a cell with Lenin Díaz on Tuesday, August 24, Wednesday, August 25, and Thursday, August 26, 1976).

On May 12, 1976, Eliana Marina Espinoza Fernández, a member of the National Propaganda Commission of the Communist Party and liaison between Mario Zamorano and Víctor Díaz (who had already been previously sought by Elisa Escobar), upon learning of the raid on the home of some architects, decided to take the risk and leave her refuge at Calle Adorno No. 648 in order to warn Víctor Díaz López.

In this scenario, she left her house around 5:00 PM, wearing her sister's clothes so as not to be recognized, and accompanied by her brother-in-law, who took her to the sector of Independencia and Nueva de Matte to take public transportation to a destination she did not reveal, at which point she was detained at an undetermined location by DINA agents and taken to the Villa Grimaldi detention barracks.

In the early hours of May 12, 1976, DINA agents set up an operation they called "The Night of the Long Knives," raiding the home at Calle Bello Horizonte No. 979 in the commune of Las Condes. At that moment, its residents and eyewitnesses to the events were abruptly awakened with the phrase "We are from the DINA," intimidated with submachine guns, and forced to show the interior of the home, where they discovered the General Secretary of the Communist Party, Víctor Manuel Díaz López, nicknamed "Chino Díaz" and using the assumed name "José Santos Garrido Retamal," who had been in hiding since September 11, 1973, and had been sought for a long time by the security services, as evidenced by the various raids his family was subjected to.

Once Víctor Díaz López was discovered in one of the rooms of the property, he was forced to walk, revealing his limp, for which he was insulted and severely beaten with fists. After his detention, Víctor Díaz López was taken to the Villa Grimaldi barracks, where he was interrogated and tortured in order to make him give up other members of the party, given the "Modus Operandi" of that time used to dismantle political parties.

The dictatorial government only responded to the search efforts made by the victims' relatives by stating the falsehood that Mario Zamorano Donoso and Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays had left the country for Argentina; which is illustrative of a preparation and concertation that escapes the scope to which operational agents could have access, evidencing the participation of the higher echelons of the DINA in the planning of the intelligence and disinformation operation.

The DINA, on an unspecified date, but from late 1975 or early 1976, occupied and enabled the property at Calle Simón Bolívar No. 8800, in the commune of La Reina, consisting of a country house that was later conditioned for its purpose of confinement.

It had a single access gate, a guard booth to its right where door duty was performed, a house at the back, a small soccer field, parking areas, and on the left side of the property, a type of gymnasium where there was a mess hall, kitchen, and changing rooms and bathrooms.

This property was where the Lautaro Brigade, led by Major Juan Morales Salgado, operated, and it was used as a secret and clandestine place of confinement, which operated in practice as an extermination barracks; a situation that is recognized by the very agents who were members of the National Intelligence Directorate, DINA.

At the end of August or the beginning of September 1976, the DINA groups led by officers Germán Barriga and Ricardo Lawrence also moved to the Simón Bolívar barracks, together with their operational agents, and formed a single unit.

They continued the work of investigating, locating, raiding, pursuing, repressing, and dismantling members of the Communist Party, especially its leadership, for which temporary facilities were set up for their installation, consisting of offices, a gymnasium, and changing rooms that served as dungeons where interrogations and coercion were carried out.

Víctor Manuel Díaz López was transferred to this facility along with said brigades, and he remained there for at least four months in a regime of confinement, permanently guarded, interrogated, and used by the agents who operated in said barracks.

All the victims in the process were detained to be interrogated and tortured due to their political militancy, with the aim of obtaining information about their party activities and, especially, the subsequent identification of other members of the Communist Party in hiding; coercion that did not cease until the required information was obtained or until the victims lost consciousness.

All the people detained and kidnapped in these repressive operations became forcibly disappeared.

Source: Resumen.cl, April 27, 2023