Santiago Court sentences retired Carabineros for homicides in Población Roosevelt in 1973.

The appellate court confirmed the sentence that condemned Patricio Alejo López Godoy to 15 years and one day in prison as the perpetrator of the 12 homicides. In a unanimous ruling, the Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced two retired members of the Carabineros for their responsibility in the qualified homicides of: Miguel Segundo Orellana Barrera, Jorge Bernardino Pinto Esquivel, Sergio Hugo Muñoz Maturana, Martín Segundo Saravia González, Juan Humberto Alberto Orellana Alarcón, Juan Eliseo Rojas Acevedo, Jorge Nicolás Lira Yáñez, Jaime Meneses Cisternas, Juan Jorge Coria Calderón, Guillermo Vásquez Romo, Nardo del Carmen Sepúlveda Mancilla, and Ramón Jara Espinoza, perpetrated in September 1973 in the Población Roosevelt of Recoleta. Thus, the Court confirmed the sentence that condemned Patricio Alejo López Godoy to 15 years and one day in prison as the perpetrator of the 12 homicides; and Orlando Marcial Umanzor Gutiérrez to 10 years and one day in prison as an accomplice. Furthermore, it revoked the sentence that had convicted José Alejandro González Inostroza and decreed his acquittal, as well as that of Héctor Martínez Soto and Luis Solís Lillo, due to a lack of evidence of their participation in the events. The ruling maintains that, in summary, the conduct imputed to the accused consists of the fact that on the morning of September 23, 1973, an operation was carried out in the Población Franklin Délano Roosevelt; homes were searched, residents were separated, and backgrounds were checked. Sixteen or seventeen of them were forced to board public transport buses, at least two of which arrived at the Recoleta Sub-Commissariat with detainees; among the detainees were the victims of this case. Family members went to the police unit to inquire about the detainees, and the Carabineros confirmed their detention and stated they would be released the following day. Later, they were informed that the previous night they had been transferred to the Estadio Nacional, where they received no further news of them until several lifeless bodies were found on the Panamericana Norte, which were removed in vehicles to be taken to the Legal Medical Service, where they were able to identify them. The resolution adds that the case under analysis involves a group of Carabineros acting not out of their own determination, but whose actions were immersed in a general process corresponding to a State policy established by the new order of things following the events of September 11, 1973, in which the Armed Forces and Order overthrew the constituted government and began a persecution of the militants and sympathizers of the previous government. Thus, the agents who caused the deaths of the victims in this case did not personally seek the situation of armed superiority that their status as police officers gave them; rather, it was inherent in a regime controlled precisely by the Armed Forces and Order that had prevailed since a few days before the events. Acquittal Regarding the appeal filed by the defense of José Alejandro González Inostroza, the appellate court considered that the evidence contained in the challenged sentence, which established his participation in the events, "rests on the statement of the official Solís Lillo, who indicates that he had participated in the raid on the Población Franklin Délano Roosevelt." The ruling specifies that the statement made by this sole witness is contradicted by evidence emanating from official documents incorporated into the process. Indeed, in a document appearing on page 1524, issued by the Personnel Directorate of the Carabineros de Chile, the ‘List of Carabineros de Chile personnel assigned to the Recoleta Sub-Commissariat of the 5th Commissariat of Santiago during September 1973' is described. In this document, signed by Mr. Marco Antonio Donoso Cabello, 1st Corporal (sec) of the Carabineros, 41 officials are listed, with the staff headed by Patricio Alejo López Godoy (Captain), followed by Orlando Marcial Umanzor Gutiérrez (1st Vice Sergeant), José María Ladrón de Guevara (2nd Sergeant), 10 corporals, and 28 carabineros, with the then-Captain González Inostroza not appearing on it. Finally, it concludes that the aforementioned documents, which place the accused González in a statistics course, with no evidence proving that he returned to the sub-commissariat after September 11, which is consistent with his own statement and the statements of Alejo López, Orlando Umanzor, and Arias Gómez—who place González outside the sub-commissariat, which is further corroborated by the staff list—weaken the statement of the witness Solís Lillo. Furthermore, in a subsequent confrontation, Solís Lillo expressed doubts as to whether the accused was in charge of the sub-commissariat. These factors constitute evidence that, at the very least, generates reasonable doubt for this Court as to whether González actually had any participation in the events that occurred, which prevents reaching the conviction necessary to issue a guilty verdict against him; he must, consequently, be acquitted in this case.

Source: pjud.cl, October 18, 2018