The minister for extraordinary causes of human rights violations at the Concepción Court of Appeals, Ms. Yolanda Méndez Mardones, has initiated proceedings against two former Carabineros officers for the crime of torture against a person detained in October 1989 at a Carabineros police station in the city of Lota.

In the resolution (case file 13-2018), Minister Méndez Mardones issued an indictment against Roberto Arsenio Ulloa Bahamondes as the perpetrator of the crime, and against Segundo Erasmo Segovia Ojeda as an accomplice to the torture inflicted upon the worker Miguel Ángel Millar Muñoz, classified as a crime against humanity.

For the court: "(...) the facts referred to in the preceding consideration constitute the crime of torture and illegitimate coercion, an illicit act provided for and sanctioned in Article 150 No. 1 of the Penal Code, in its text in force at the time of the investigated events, in the consummated degree, committed to the detriment of Mr. Miguel Ángel Millar Muñoz."

It adds: "That the illicit acts described above are, furthermore, crimes against humanity, since the punishable acts were perpetrated in a context of serious, massive, and systematic violations of the human rights of detained persons, verified by State agents who had at their disposal all the material and economic means to carry out a state policy of exclusion, harassment, persecution, and/or extermination of citizens who, immediately following September 11, 1973, were identified as belonging to or sympathizing with the political regime deposed by the military government that assumed control of the country from that date."

Regarding the facts of this case, the worker Miguel Millar Muñoz was detained along with his brother Juan Belarmino on Sunday, October 8, 1989. The detention took place outside the Carlos Cousiño Carabineros police station, which reported to the Fourth Precinct of Lota, a place where the Millar Muñoz brothers had gone to inquire about the situation of their friend Marco Antonio Soto Vega, who had been detained hours earlier following a dispute that occurred after a soccer match at the Población El Morro field in Lota.

The detention and presence of Soto Vega at the police station were denied by the Carabineros present at the unit, a matter that prompted the angry protest of the Millar Muñoz brothers, who were then detained for the crime of "public insults to Carabineros," as recorded by the officers in the respective police report.

At that moment, they were apprehended by Carabineros José Ortiz Ortiz (now deceased) and Segundo Segovia Ojeda, who were on duty that day; Miguel Ángel Millar Muñoz resisted arrest and continued to insult the Carabineros.

The Millar Muñoz brothers were taken inside the police station while being beaten and were placed in the holding cell. It was in this place that Miguel Ángel Millar Muñoz received brutal beatings from Carabineros officers and other individuals whom the victim and his brother identified as 'azules' (blues), presumably corresponding to security guards from the Enacar company, whose facilities were located next to the police station, so named due to the color of their uniforms.

As a result of the beatings received during the afternoon of the 8th and the early hours of October 9, 1989, Miguel Ángel Millar Muñoz was left in a deplorable physical state, with evidence on his face and body, such as profuse bleeding from the nose and ears, and bruising on various parts of his body caused by the blows received, in addition to his clothes being bloodstained.

The following day, in the morning hours, Miguel Ángel Millar Muñoz was transferred along with his brother Juan Belarmino by the then-Chief of the police station, First Sergeant Roberto Ulloa Bahamondes, and Carabineros Rodolfo Rozas Silva and Luis Villarroel Fierro, to the Military Prosecutor's Office of Concepción.

After taking their statements, the Military Prosecutor of the time ordered the release of Juan Belarmino Millar Muñoz due to lack of evidence on that same day, October 9. Meanwhile, Miguel Ángel Millar Muñoz was admitted to the Coronel prison, where he remained incarcerated until November 13, 1989, the date on which he was released on bail with the obligation to report every Friday to sign the book for released prisoners.

Finally, he was acquitted of the alleged crime of "public insults to Carabineros on duty" by a sentence dated June 28, 1991, issued by the former Fifth Criminal Court of Concepción.

Source: resumen.cl, August 27, 2022