The first 6 individuals had been detained since September 1973, and many of them had presented themselves voluntarily to the “military authorities.” The last 3 were detained on January 17, 1974, and remain forcibly disappeared to this day.

On January 18, all of them were executed by decision of Fernando Paredes and Sergio Arredondo González. Witnesses reveal that the last three detainees were murdered and illegally buried inside the Infantry School on January 18, 1974, and confirm the participation in their kidnapping of a series of retired officers, including Ángel Custodio Torres Rivera, who at the time held the rank of colonel and served as Chief of Intelligence; the patrol commander, Captain Francisco Pérez Eghert; and Lieutenant Colonel (ret.) Sergio Arredondo González, who was prosecuted as one of the main defendants in the Caravan of Death case.

Source: latercera.cl, April 2000

Sentence handed down in human rights investigation known as the Military Patrol Assault.

The "Military Patrol Assault" case refers to a simulated extremist attack on October 17, 1974, which was in reality the execution of eight people and the subsequent disappearance of two of them.

The extraordinary visiting judge of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Julio Miranda Lillo, handed down sentences against several individuals involved in the so-called "Military Patrol Assault" case, which occurred in Quillota on January 17, 1974.

The magistrate determined sanctions for the perpetrators of the crimes of kidnapping with grave injury committed against Rubén Guillermo Cabezas Pares, Pablo Gac Espinoza, Levy Segundo Arraño Sancho, Víctor Enrique Fuenzalida Fuenzalida, Manuel Hernán Hurtado Martínez, Hugo Hernán Aranda Bruna, Ángel Mario Díaz Castro, Osvaldo Mario Manzano Cortés, and Arturo Julio Loo Prado.

The sanctions are detailed below

• Ángel Custodio Torres Rivera: 6 years, without benefits.
• Sergio Carlos Arredondo González: 6 years, without benefits.
• Francisco Javier Pérez Egert: 5 years. Granted the benefit of supervised release.
• Leonardo Quilodrán Burgos: 5 years. Granted the benefit of supervised release.
• Daniel Javier Walker Ramos: 3 years and one day. Granted the benefit of supervised release.
• Pedro Alberto Durcurdoy Montandón: acquitted for lack of participation.
• Raúl Aurelio Muñoz Gutiérrez: acquitted for lack of participation.
• Laureano Enrique Hernández Araya: acquitted for lack of participation.

Likewise, Judge Miranda Lillo determined to accept the civil claims filed and to order, jointly and severally, the Treasury and the convicted individuals Ángel Custodio Torres Rivera, Sergio Carlos Arredondo González, Francisco Javier Pérez Egert, Daniel Javier Walker Ramos, and Leonardo Quilodrán Burgos to pay the plaintiffs acting on behalf of the nine victims of this investigation the amount of nine hundred million pesos ($900,000,000), corresponding, consequently, to the figure of one hundred million pesos ($100,000,000) for each of the victims.

This is the second sentence handed down by Judge Miranda Lillo in human rights violation cases under his jurisdiction.

Source: afepchile.cl, October 29, 2008

The Valparaíso Court of Appeals today increased to 10 years in prison the sentences of five retired military officers for their participation in the death of nine opponents of the military dictatorship in the so-called "Patrol Assault," in January 1974 in the city of Quillota.

According to judicial sources, the second-instance ruling of the Valparaíso appellate court establishes effective imprisonment without benefits for the former uniformed personnel.

The so-called "Patrol Assault" dates back to January 18, 1974, when military personnel fabricated the escape of nine prisoners who were then executed by gunfire under the San Isidro bridge in Quillota.

The five convicted are the then-military governor of Quillota, Ángel Custodio Torres; the director of the Quillota Armored Cavalry School, Sergio Arredondo; and retired uniformed personnel Francisco Pérez Egert, Daniel Walter Ramos, and Leonardo Quilodrán.

Ángel Custodio Torres and Sergio Arredondo were already sentenced by a judge in the first instance to six years of effective imprisonment last year, while the three retired uniformed personnel received five-year suspended sentences.

Thus, the Valparaíso Court of Appeals increased the military officers' sentences, a ruling that was welcomed with satisfaction by Karina Fernández, a lawyer for the Ministry of the Interior's Human Rights Program.

"Given the magnitude of the damage suffered by the victims and their families, increasing the sentences to 10 years, as far as we are concerned, since these are cases of forced disappearance and homicide, leaves us satisfied because the sentences for these five convicted individuals have been increased," she stated.

Meanwhile, Eda Hurtado, daughter of Manuel Hurtado, one of those murdered, acknowledged that she expected even higher sentences for those responsible for the executions given "the magnitude of the crime," although she positively valued that the sentences of the five convicted individuals had been equalized.

Source: elmostrador.cl, August 28, 2009

Five Former Uniformed Personnel Convicted for Executions in Quillota

Five former uniformed personnel were convicted for the eight murders recorded in January 1974 at the San Isidro bridge, in the commune of Quillota, Valparaíso Region.

Former military governor Ángel Custodio Torres and retired Colonel Sergio Arredondo received six years in prison; General (ret.) Francisco Pérez Eghert and Leonardo Quilodrán Burgos were sentenced to five years, and Daniel Valderrama to three years and one day.

In January 1974, eight people were executed, including the former socialist mayor Pablo Gac Espinoza, the lawyer Rubén Cabezas Paredes, and the peasant leader Levi Arraño Sancho.

The case was made known as the "patrol assault," in allusion to alleged clashes between extremists and military personnel, a version that was delegitimized by the Rettig Report after the return to democracy.

Source: Cooperativa.cl, October 29, 2008

General (ret.) Ángel C. Torres Prosecuted

The resolution by visiting judge Gabriela Corti to prosecute the former military governor of Quillota, General (ret.) Ángel Custodio Torres Rivera, in the case known as the "patrol assault," caused diverse reactions in Quillota.

This concerns the episode recorded on January 18, 1974, when nine political prisoners were murdered while being transported from the Engineers Regiment to the Cavalry School. It was officially reported that the patrol transporting them had been assaulted by "extremist elements," as a result of which six detainees were killed, while two others—former mayor Pablo Gac and lawyer Rubén Cabezas—had allegedly escaped, and all information regarding the ninth detainee, Levi Arraño, was denied.

Last year, Judge Corti established that detainees Manuel Hurtado, Hugo Aranda, Arturo Loo, Eduardo Manzano, Ángel Díaz, and Víctor Fuenzalida were executed by the military, by gunfire and grenades, in the vicinity of the underpass on the Camino a San Isidro.

The lifeless bodies of Gac, Cabezas, and Arraño were also taken to the Cavalry School, where the following day they were removed by a Navy helicopter and thrown into the sea.

As a result of her investigations—which have been ongoing for almost two years—a few months ago Judge Corti prosecuted Brigadier General (ret.) Francisco Pérez Egert; retired colonels Sergio Arredondo González, Pedro Durcudoy Montandon, and Daniel Walker Ramos; retired non-commissioned officers Raúl Muñoz Gutiérrez, Leonardo Quilodrán, and Sergio Placencia Sepúlveda; and retired Carabineros Sergeant Major Laureano Hernández Araya.

Former Provincial Governor

It drew attention that the then-Governor, Military Chief of Quillota, and Commander of the Engineers Regiment, at the time Colonel Ángel Custodio Torres, currently a retired general, had not testified in the case nor had he been prosecuted, because although he might not have participated directly in the events, he would at least be an accessory, as he signed the official statement with the crude and distorted version of what happened, maintaining that it was an extremist assault.

The parts of the file known to ZonaImpacto.cl do not shed full light on the details, but sources close to the process assured us that the former governor is suffering from total dementia. In the file, there is a medical certificate that indicates partial memory loss due to his pronounced alcoholism.

However, a couple of months ago, Torres Rivera underwent a new examination at the Legal Medical Institute, whose report established that the highest-ranking officer involved in the episode is absolutely fit to stand trial, which motivated the visiting judge's resolution.

In Quillota, the victims' families reacted to this decision by reiterating their support for the handling that Judge Gabriela Corti has given to this process. This was expressed, among others, by teacher Pedro Pablo Gac, son of former mayor Pablo Gac, and fellow teacher Edda Hurtado, daughter of former socialist leader Manuel Hurtado.

Source: ZonaImpacto.cl, March 12, 2004

Military Personnel Convicted in Quillota Patrol Assault Case

Visiting judge Julio Miranda sentenced five former Army officers to prison terms of between 6 and 5 years for the so-called "Patrol Assault" case, an event that occurred on January 18, 1974, in Quillota, where 9 political prisoners died.

In his ruling, the magistrate sentenced the accused Ángel Custodio Torres Rivera (former governor of Quillota) and Sergio Carlos Arredondo González as authors of the crimes of kidnapping with grave injury committed against Rubén Cabezas, Pablo Gac, Levy Arraño, Víctor Fuenzalida, Manuel Hurtado, Hugo Aranda, Ángel Díaz, Osvaldo Manzano, and Arturo Loo, to 6-year prison terms.

Francisco Javier Pérez Egert (officer in charge of the patrol) was also sentenced as the author of the crime of kidnapping with grave injury to a 5-year prison term.

The accused Daniel Javier Walter Ramos was sentenced to 3 years and one day, and Leonardo Quilodrán Burgos for the crime of kidnapping to a 5-year prison term.

In his first-instance ruling, Judge Julio Miranda acquitted Pedro Durcudoy, Raúl Muñoz Gutiérrez, and Laureano Hernández Araya, as their participation in the process was not sufficiently proven.

The event took place on January 18, 1974, when a military patrol was transporting nine political prisoners from the Engineers Regiment to the Armored Cavalry School, when six people were riddled with bullets, along with the detention and disappearance of three other individuals: former Quillota mayor Pablo Gac, CORA lawyer Rubén Cabezas, and peasant leader Levi Arraño.

Source: mercuriovalpo.cl, October 29, 2008

Discontent Over Sentence in "Patrol Assault" Case

Family members of the nine socialist leaders murdered in the setup known as the "Patrol Assault" in 1974 described as insufficient the sentence that the Supreme Court handed down last Thursday for five retired military personnel involved in the case that shocked the Quillota community. 37 years after the events, the son of the former mayor of Quillota, Pablo Gac Espinoza, Pedro Pablo Gac, stated that the only salvageable thing about this ruling is the fact that it was clarified that the victims had no culpability whatsoever in the matter and that they remained "heroes of the Chilean revolution."

It should be mentioned that the sentence handed down by the Supreme Court for these five military personnel was 5 years with the benefit of supervised release for Ángel Custodio Torres Rivera and Sergio Arredondo González, while for Leonardo Quilodrán Burgos, Daniel Gálvez Ramos, and Francisco Pérez Egert, a sentence of 4 years in prison was applied.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court acquitted Pedro Alberto Durcudoy Montandon, Raúl Aurelio Muñoz Gutiérrez, and Laureano Enrique Hernández Araya, as their participation in this process was not proven.

In the event that occurred on January 18, 1974, which took place in the San Isidro sector in the commune of Quillota, the military simulated a terrorist attack on a patrol from the Quillota Cavalry School, shooting in the back Pablo Gac Espinoza, former mayor of Quillota; Rubén Guillermo Cabezas Pares, official of the Agrarian Reform Corporation (CORA); Levy Segundo Arraño Sancho, peasant leader; Mario Manzano Cortés and Arturo Julio Loo Prado, union leaders; Víctor Enrique Fuenzalida Fuenzalida, Agrarian Reform executive; Manuel Hernán Hurtado Martínez, Treasury official; neighborhood leader Hugo Hernán Aranda Bruna; and Ángel Mario Díaz Castro, agricultural leader.

SYMBOLIC SENTENCE

For the son of the former mayor of Quillota, the sentence from the Supreme Court is a simple symbolic act, since for him, in cases like the Patrol Assault, there is no appropriate sentence, as the gravity of the events is immensely superior to any type of punishment that justice can apply.

On the other hand, he said that the fact that Justice handed down a sentence 37 years after the events occurred is regrettable. In this sense, Gac asserted that "Chilean Justice acts according to the fluctuations of the country. 16 years were lost for reasons not worth delving into; the regrettable thing here is that 20 more years were lost."

Meanwhile, the son of former CORA official Rubén Cabezas, Pablo Cabezas, declared that the ruling in this case was "expected" considering the behavior of the Supreme Court in recent days. Despite this, he valued that after almost 20 years since the case was opened, the truth was found and the military personnel were sentenced as the real culprits, beyond the sentence they received.

"UNHEARD-OF" SENTENCE

For his part, Deputy Hugo Gutiérrez, who as a lawyer served in the 90s as a plaintiff in several Human Rights cases, described the sentence applied by the Supreme Court in this case as "unheard-of," arguing that the low sentence will only cause new damage to the victims' families, and stated that these events demonstrate that there is no State committed to human rights cases.

The communist deputy explained that the investigation lacked rigor, since the other individuals involved in the case (Durcudoy, Muñoz, and Hernández) were not sentenced for not having been material authors of the crime, without having considered their intellectual participation.

Source: mercuriovalpo.cl, April 25, 2011

Military Personnel Sentenced to Supervised Release in Quillota Patrol Assault Case

The Supreme Court handed down a final sentence in the investigation into the qualified kidnappings of Rubén Cabezas Pares, Pablo Gac Espinoza, Levy Arraño Sancho, Víctor Fuenzalida Fuenzalida, Manuel Hurtado Martínez, Hugo Aranda Bruna, Ángel Díaz Castro, Osvaldo Manzano Cortés, and Arturo Loo Prado, in the case known as the "Quillota Patrol Assault."

In a split decision, the ministers of the Second Chamber, Nibaldo Segura, Jaime Rodríguez, Rubén Ballesteros, Hugo Dolmestch, and Carlos Künsemüller, determined the following sentences against those identified:

• Ángel Custodio Torres Rivera: 5 years in prison. Granted the benefit of supervised release.
• Sergio Carlos Arredondo González: 5 years in prison. Granted the benefit of supervised release.
• Francisco Javier Pérez Egert: 4 years in prison. Granted the benefit of supervised release.
• Leonardo Quilodrán Burgos: 4 years in prison. Granted the benefit of supervised release.
• Daniel Javier Walker Ramos: 4 years in prison. Granted the benefit of supervised release.

In the civil aspect, it was determined that the convicted individuals Arredondo González, Pérez Egert, and Quilodrán must pay, jointly and severally, an indemnity of $30,000,000 (thirty million pesos) to each of the family groups of the 7 victims.

Likewise, the claim against the Treasury of Chile was rejected due to the court's deemed incompetence.

In the criminal and civil aspects, the decision was adopted with the dissenting vote of ministers Segura and Ballesteros, who were in favor of accepting the statute of limitations for the action.

Source: diarioenaccion.cl, April 23, 2011

Sentences Increased for 'Patrol Assault' Case. Retired Army Officers Received Seven Years in Prison as Authors of Kidnapping with Grave Injury

Quillota, Chile. In a unanimous ruling, the Valparaíso Court of Appeals sentenced five retired Army officers to seven years in prison, without benefits, as authors of the crime of kidnapping with grave injury committed against nine political prisoners in the case known as the "Patrol Assault," an event that occurred on January 18, 1974, in Quillota.

In the resolution adopted by the Valparaíso appellate court, in a second-instance sentence, it was established that Ángel Custodio Torres Rivera, former governor of Quillota; Sergio Carlos Arredondo González, former director of the Armored Cavalry School; Francisco Javier Pérez Egert, commander of the military patrol; Leonardo Quilodrán Burgos; and Daniel Walker Ramos were sentenced to seven years in prison, without benefits.

The victims were Rubén Guillermo Cabezas Pares (CORA lawyer), Pablo Gac Espinoza (Mayor of Quillota), and Levy Segundo Arraño Sancho (peasant leader), whose bodies have not been found, in addition to the executions of Víctor Enrique Fuenzalida Fuenzalida, Manuel Hernán Hurtado Martínez, Hugo Hernán Aranda Bruna, Ángel Mario Díaz Castro, Osvaldo Mario Manzano Cortés, and Arturo Julio Loo Prado.

The ruling established that the former military personnel were sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison, but they were benefited by their irreproachable prior conduct, and since no aggravating factors prejudiced them, the maximum sentence was not applied; therefore, a sentence of seven years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree was finally imposed.

In the first-instance ruling of October 2008, handed down by visiting judge Julio Miranda Lillo, the former uniformed personnel had been sentenced to prison terms of between three and six years.

Disproportionate Sentences

As explained by Karinna Fernández, lawyer for the Ministry of the Interior's Human Rights Program, the ruling, although it increases the sentence of those convicted in the first instance to 10 years, "demonstrates the existence of disproportionate sentences when it comes to cases involving grave human rights violations in the past, since it concerns the kidnapping of nine victims who currently remain disappeared."

Furthermore, the benefit of supervised release is revoked for the sentenced individuals Pérez Egert, Walter Ramos, and Quilodrán Burgos, because due to the length of the sentence imposed, it is not appropriate to grant them any alternative benefit for its fulfillment.

The acquittal of Pedro Alberto Durcudoy Montandon, Raúl Aurelio Muñoz Gutiérrez, and Laureano Enrique Hernández Araya was confirmed, as their participation in this process was not sufficiently proven, and it was considered that they acted out of due obedience to their superiors.

Source: mercuriovalpo.cl, August 28, 2009