Seven retired members of the Navy were convicted for the kidnapping of Haitian citizen Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo, who remains forcibly disappeared to this day after being tortured for his political orientation during the dictatorship. Six of the seven were sentenced to 15 years in prison. In addition, a multi-million peso compensation must be paid to the victim's family.

The Valparaíso Court of Appeals sentenced seven retired Navy members to prison for their responsibility in the crime of kidnapping a Dominican citizen during the military dictatorship.

In the civil aspect, the ruling upheld the lawsuit filed by the relatives and ordered the state to pay an indemnity of $150 million pesos for moral damages to the victim's father. Furthermore, $75 million pesos were awarded to a brother.

The sentences The court sentenced Ernesto Huber von Appen, Wilfredo Zepeda Iturriaga, Víctor Rey Ringele, Jaime Urdangarín Romero, Arístides León Calffas, and Germán Valdivia Keller to 15 years in prison. All of them are retired members of the Navy, responsible for the crime of kidnapping the Dominican citizen Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo.

Meanwhile, Jorge Ginouvés Contreras was sentenced to 5 years in prison, with the benefit of supervised release, as a co-perpetrator of the crime.

Kidnapping of a Dominican man during the military dictatorship

The events date back to September 1973 in the city of Villa Alemana. There, due to his political orientation, the then 25-year-old Dominican citizen was detained and held in different centers, where he was tortured. Since then, until today, his whereabouts remain unknown.

This was detailed by the minister visiting for human rights violation cases, Max Cancino, who specified that it was Navy officials who detained him and took him to a police station for interrogation.

"Finally, he was removed from that place by Navy officials to an unknown destination," he noted.

The minister also granted all of them absolute perpetual disqualification from public offices and positions, political rights, and professional titles for the duration of their sentences.

Lawsuit Criminal lawyer and academic at the University of Valparaíso, Felipe González, explained that in this case, in an unprecedented manner, the State of the Dominican Republic sued Chile over the events. However, the court ultimately dismissed it.

In the civil aspect, the ruling upheld the lawsuit filed by the family of Juan Blanco. Thus, it ordered the state to pay an indemnity of $150 million pesos for moral damages to the victim's father. Additionally, $75 million pesos to a brother.

Source: biobiochile.cl, November 3, 2022

Since time immemorial, the wind has dwelled in Valparaíso: crouching there among the rocks and the song of the pelicans, caressing the death rattles of first love with its laughter. But one cold late-winter morning, the laughter ended, the gannets of the bay fled in terror, and the sea breeze dressed itself in uniform when the Chilean Navy went out to kill.

And it did so with hatred, organized, planned, crushing skulls and ribs, streets and dreams alike.

Dozens of men and women were tortured on the training ship "Esmeralda," among them the priest Miguel Woodward, who died.

Fear and horror enthroned themselves in the city with agonizing screams, with muffled weeping, and desperate efforts to survive the nightmare established by the dictatorship.

But the commander-in-chief of the Navy knew nothing of this. Admiral Miguel Angel Vergara recently asserted, without a hint of shame, that regarding human rights violations, "to be quite honest, I found out quite late." In fact, according to the oblivious admiral, it was as a result of the dialogue table—that is, only a couple of years ago—that he "realized the magnitude of what had happened."

However, this supposed late revelation does not constitute sufficient information for the Navy to acknowledge its participation in the repression. On the contrary, Vergara reiterates what has been the Navy's position for 30 years.

Denying any institutional responsibility for what occurred, resorting, tiresomely, to a double argument: "In those circumstances, there were people who unfortunately exceeded their authority" and, "responsibilities are individual and not institutional." For the same reason, Admiral Vergara does not feel "responsible for anything, unless I knew and had the slightest evidence that the Chilean Navy institution, as a doctrine, had any document where it was mentioned that human rights violations should be imposed.

I would ask for forgiveness on my knees, but there is no evidence in that regard." Well, Admiral. These are the testimonies of men and women detained and tortured by officers and personnel of the Navy, kept as prisoners in the facilities of your institution.

All of them, unlike you, Mr. Admiral, remember perfectly what happened starting in 1973 in Valparaíso and provide the evidence you require to "ask for forgiveness on your knees," as you so humbly and feelingly proclaim.

NAVY REPRESSION BEFORE THE MILITARY COUP

Despite the candor of Admiral Vergara's statements and his claim that "in an institution like the Chilean Navy, the violation of human rights has never been in its doctrine. On the contrary, our values-based, ethical training demands the protection of human rights," history proves otherwise.

The Navy used torture even before the military coup, particularly in the repression of a group of democratic sailors who in July of '73 revealed the coup preparations. Ricardo Tobar, then a Navy corporal, was detained by an Air Force patrol in Quintero, but it was not until the arrival of a contingent of Naval Intelligence that the situation changed radically.

Tobar states: "They put us in a room where they beat us hard until the 18th. They were intelligence groups, sailors who were in the departments; I didn't know any of them. There they hooded us, the positions on our knees and with our heads bowed, fetal position, the blows, the kicks; you didn't know where they were going to come from, where they were going to hit you.

They start interrogating you about many things; I don't remember if they did the same to other comrades, it was never the same for any of the three. At certain moments, the people who were with us let us glimpse something—'damn, if it's going to happen to me, at least let me warn my family'—it was a matter of great fear; the tortures were aimed at getting you to denounce more people.

Fortunately, they kept asking me about the relationship I had with some of the detainees, so I had to answer, and I always answered with the truth. Why? Because, for example, they asked me about Claudio Espinoza, how could I not know him if we played together on the soccer team, we went to school together, how could I not know him; Sebastián Ibarra, we entered school together, how could I not know him.

At a certain moment, they took me to the soccer field, where there was a kind of target practice, where they practiced shooting with pistols. There they put us as if to execute us and they did a fake demonstration; that was the moment I was afraid.

I was afraid there, I cannot deny it. It was the only moment I felt fear that ran through me from top to bottom, but after having passed that stage of fear, I realized that it was a lie that they were going to execute us, because they had me taken, they didn't have me alone, so they weren't going to shoot.

Fortunately, they didn't kill me; they shot and everything, but they weren't shots at me, but into the air."

Naval Intelligence practiced on its own personnel what would later become a systematic policy of extermination and repression against militants or sympathizers of the Unidad Popular, the MIR, and, later, against opponents of the dictatorship in the area.

It is within this framework that the detention, torture, and disappearance of Jaime Aldoney Vargas, a socialist militant and supervisor of the Compañía Cerverías Unidas in Limache, materialized. Aldoney was detained by Carabineros on September 11 itself, tortured at the city's police station, and transferred two days later to the El Belloto Naval Air Base.

This facility was used as a detention and torture center and, in Aldoney's case, for murder and disappearance. The investigation by Judge Gabriela Corti and the Fifth Department of Investigations has been able to establish that Aldoney was at the base and never left alive, contrary to the Navy's version that maintains Aldoney had escaped.

Furthermore, the investigation has been able to determine those responsible for the murder of Jaime Aldoney: Rear Admiral Ernesto Huber Von Appen, commander of Naval Aviation at that time; the head of the Limache and Olmué garrison, Navy Captain Sergio Mendoza Rojas; Navy Captain Patricio Villalobos Lobos, in charge of base intelligence; Navy Captain Jaime Undargarín Romero; Frigate Captain Pedro Arancibia Soler, one of the most cruel torturers at the facility; and Petty Officer Manuel Buch López.

For a week now, they have been prosecuted by the special judge Gabriela Corti, of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, who ordered the arrest of these six former sailors.

NAVAL WAR ACADEMY: TORTURE AND DEATH

The Navy used its facilities as places of detention and torture: the ships Lebu and Maipo, the Naval School, the Silva Palma barracks, the Submarine School, and, of course, the training ship Esmeralda, where men and women were tortured and raped, and the priest Miguel Woodward was also murdered.

Nevertheless, three decades after those events, the commander-in-chief, Miguel Angel Vergara, states that "I do not have any concrete evidence that human rights were violated against people on board the training ship Esmeralda." Surely he says the same regarding the Naval War Academy, a place that recalls the infamous Navy Mechanics School (ESMA) in Buenos Aires, where few detainees survived.

The Naval War Academy, located on Pedro León Gallo street on the Playa Ancha hill, overlooks the sea and is located above the now renovated Silva Palma barracks. They communicate internally, which is why many of the prisoners were indiscriminately tortured in one place or the other, day and night.

Paddy Ahumada was one of them. A socialist leader, he was detained at the end of September 1973 and taken to the Silva Palma barracks: "That's where the systematic torture sessions began. In my case, they stripped me; they kept us in a room from where they would call us one by one.

There we all looked at each other, worried, scared, our hearts beating at 150 beats per minute. They call me, they cover my head with a hood, they force me to take off my clothes, then they tie my hands behind my back and the dance of kicks, insults, and what have you begins.

A very special situation occurred for me. My reaction was to start yelling at them, 'faggots, cowards!' 'Shut up, motherfucker,' they told me, and I kept yelling, 'faggots, cowards!' They beat me so much that they left me unconscious.

They didn't ask me anything, they just beat me; they cracked several of my ribs. That was when they took me on a stretcher to the Naval Hospital, where they left me in the hallway. I was unconscious; a nurse who was a relative of one of our leaders, named Armando Barrientos, saw me and gave notice.

I must have been really bad, because the news went international; even the name Paddy Ahumada came out on Radio Moscow; the Cubans also made statements that they had killed me in Valparaíso."

Admiral Vergara says he never heard of these blows and screams, sufferings and bravery of the prisoners, but all of Valparaíso knew that in that concrete block, there, on the fourth floor, the cowardice of the Navy officers and the bravery of the detainees who defended themselves with nothing but their dignity coexisted.

Patricia Saéz, a militant of the Communist Youth at the time of the coup, was detained at the beginning of 1974. She also vividly remembers what she saw at the Naval War Academy, recounting that "the memories that haunted me for many years were seeing torture.

They would take you to an interrogation room, hooded; sometimes they would bring another detainee and torture them in front of you. It is terrifying. They only made me watch, they didn't ask me anything, they made me watch a boy; I thought they were going to break him, he was so thin, he was a university student, I didn't know him, they told us we worked together; they accused me of Plan Z.

They even laughed when they talked about Plan Z. They said the charge didn't matter, whatever they could think of they were going to do and no one was going to tell them otherwise.

They beat this boy so much, they dragged him. I remember he had a scarf and they wrapped it around his neck and started dragging him. He was choking. Since he was choking, he grabbed the scarf with both hands to keep from choking, and when he grabbed the scarf, they kicked him in the testicles.

I didn't know what to do, they dragged him in a circle around me. Poor thing, with one hand he covered his testicles and with the other he tried not to choke. It was something that never ended. I tried several times to throw myself on top of him and he said no, not to do anything; so I felt bad, I felt like a coward. Amidst all his pain and desperation, he told me not to do anything."

For his part, Juan Méndez, a leader of the Communist Youth, detained in December 1973 at the Silva Palma barracks, remembers that he did not have to witness torture, "but I did see the results; I remember having seen an old man, they had beaten the soles of his feet with coligüe rods; the feet were not feet, they were completely deformed, enormous."

He adds that "when we were upstairs, on the court, the interrogations could be heard very loudly." Of course, Juan Méndez was not only subjected to the psychological torture of hearing how other prisoners were humiliated, but he experienced the brutality in his own flesh. "They would place a magnet that has bare wires on your toes, toe and testicles, toe and glans, toe and finger, both hands, both ears—but I get the impression they had some kind of adapter, because on the ear it was like a clamp.

In one of those interrogations, I got very heated, I got angry and tried to take off the blindfold; I think if I had taken it off today I wouldn't be here. One of them grabbed me, immobilized me, and handcuffed me, but I was already out of control, I couldn't take it anymore. They applied a lot of current to me, in addition to the 'potro' (rack)."

Méndez remembers this last form of torture as one of the heaviest, explaining that "it was a rod that was placed between two chairs or on a bench. The idea was for you to lie on your stomach and hang by your feet and hands. They would leave and leave a guard watching you.

When they told me to do that, I said, this is a piece of cake. After 5 minutes I didn't want any more, the pain was unbearable." Another prisoner recalls that "at the Naval War Academy, all detainees were tortured, physically or psychologically.

In fact, it was an agonizing situation of screams, of permanent wails, of men and women at the limit of their resistance. In the Silva Palma barracks, adjacent to the Academy, there was a room where no more than a dozen of us prisoners were found.

Opposite, there was another similar one that housed women. There, every night, blows and desperate, hysterical screams were heard. It was a comrade, a 15-year-old girl, who tried to commit suicide by hitting her head against the wall, because they had raped her repeatedly and she no longer wanted to keep living." No one knows what happened to that adolescent whose only "crime" was being poor and supporting the Unidad Popular government.

But she was not the only girl who fell into the hands of the cowardly Navy officers, because the dictatorship made no distinction of gender, age, or political militancy. It simply detained, tortured, and murdered when it deemed it convenient.

For this reason, Marco Antonio Contardo was detained when he was only 15 years old, in October 1973. 30 years have passed, but it still hurts Contardo to remember those moments, when he was detained together with his mother, Nidia Guerra, and his grandmother, Olga Hogtert, 65 years old, a teacher and assistant director of Girls' School No. 18, in Playa Ancha: "We were detained by a naval patrol in charge of a Marine Infantry officer and a person in civilian clothes.

We were taken to the Naval War Academy. There were different rooms for the newcomers and for those who had already gone through interrogations and torture. I was tortured the next day, previously tied up, blindfolded, and stripped, listening in the room to my mother's screams begging them not to do anything to me.

The interrogation was solely and exclusively with the objective of revealing the whereabouts of my father—the lawyer for the Valparaíso Intendancy at the time, Emilio Contardo—on the assumption that I should know it.

The interrogation began, apparently formal, to increase in violence, with multiple blows all over the body and applications of electricity. During my detention, I was able to verify the presence of children, the elderly, women, and men. The entire human spectrum, who systematically and massively went through the torture process."

When he had the possibility of not being blindfolded, Marco Antonio Contardo was able to recognize people who remained detained at the Academy: Silvia Lillo, Reinaldo Narváez, Heraclio Mendoza, Sergio Fischer, a prominent cardiologist, the photographer Jorge Cárdenas, being "the first time in my life that I saw a body completely black from the blows."

Marco Antonio Contardo remained detained for two weeks on the ship Lebu, released, and then detained again by the Navy in November of the same year. He is emphatic in indicating that "I was detained by Navy officers and I always remained in Navy facilities, being tortured only for being the son of Emilio Contardo." He also points out that Admiral Miguel Angel Vergara's statements are laughable when he speaks about the Navy's doctrine including respect and protection of human rights, when "I personally saw how Navy officers played with an epilepsy patient whom they put on a ping-pong table and bet on which side of the table he would fall off when he had a seizure."

Is it possible to forget this, is it possible to speak of reconciliation and forgetting when such horror was lived?

NEITHER FORGIVENESS NOR FORGETTING: ONLY JUSTICE

For Admiral Vergara and the Navy, it is easy to do so: they do not feel responsible for anything that happened in naval facilities nor for any of the crimes committed by officers of the institution. Moreover, the commander-in-chief of the Navy states that "forgiveness is a process of deep individual reflection, of each person; in that sense, I would feel, to be honest, betraying my institution by asking for forgiveness for something for which it is not responsible."

The Navy continues to deny its participation in the massive violation of human rights despite all the information available that testifies to the contrary. Despite the information contained in the Rettig Report, in the report of the Ethics Commission against Torture of the V Region, and the testimonies of men and women who were tortured in naval installations or in the concentration camps established by the Navy.

The government also does not contribute to the clarification of the facts by maintaining, like the military institutions, the idea that here there were only "excesses" by some individuals and that the repression did not constitute an institutional policy.

Such a situation makes Paddy Ahumada feel "a mixture of indignation and helplessness so great that, really, for the sake of mental health, one tries to think about something else. But that situation pisses me off, that there isn't a stronger attitude; it seems like nerve, cynicism, and an unacceptable cheekiness.

I, at least, as long as I have a molecule of energy, will oppose in whatever spaces I can that that type of policy of forgetting and forgiveness works, because the only way to save yourself if you have a tumor in your body is to excise it, and that necessarily involves truth and justice and I add: punishment for the murderers; it cannot be that some assholes who tortured, killed, raped, murdered walk down the street very calmly; that generates trauma in society."

And of course, because the arguments adduced by the Navy are puerile and unacceptable. Admiral Vergara maintains that "98% of the cases being investigated occurred before '78," that is, "25 years ago in a country that was, let's say, at least convulsed or in the process of normalization, with institutions that were not functioning at full capacity.

So it is not easy—he states—it is not a matter of will, it is not easy to reconstruct things that happened 25 years ago."

Marco Antonio Contardo rejects those claims, expressing that "for me, it is very easy to reconstruct what happened twenty-five years ago and for the torturers it should also be; the rest are excuses."

It is that clear, and since the commander-in-chief of the Navy maintains that his institution is always open to discussing any proposal to solve the issue of human rights, here is a proposal that is also clear and concrete: hand over all the information about the repression in Valparaíso, hand over the names of the officers and troops who tortured, raped, and murdered; let them be placed at the disposal of justice and, finally, ask for institutional forgiveness for the atrocities committed against each and every one of the victims of the National Navy.

Source: puntofinal.cl, June 17, 2003

5 retired Navy officials convicted for torturing minors during the dictatorship

The minister for extraordinary causes for human rights violations of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Jaime Arancibia Pinto, sentenced 5 retired Navy officers for the kidnapping, illegal detention, and torture of José Miguel and Isabel Verónica Sánchez Larraín, who were minors at the time of the events, during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

In the ruling, Minister Arancibia sentenced Pedro Victoria Frioli Otonel, Manuel Alejandro Buch López, Arístides León Calffas, and Guillermo Retamales Ruiz, as perpetrators of the crimes, to 541 days in prison; and Germán Patricio Valdivia Keller to 60 days, as an accomplice.

The convicted individuals Frioli, Buch, and León were granted the benefit of conditional remission of the sentence; meanwhile, Retamales and Valdivia must serve their sentences effectively.

In the case, the visiting minister decreed the acquittal of Juan Fernando Vásquez Huidobro, Jorge Benjamín Ginouves Contreras, Miguel Juan Gallegos Sote, and Jaime Miguel Urdangarín Romero.

During the investigation stage, the magistrate established that in August 1974, in the Belloto sector, Quilpué commune, the victims' house was raided by a large number of Chilean Navy officials from the El Belloto Naval Air Base, in search of the victims' older sister, who allegedly belonged to the Communist Youth.

"At the time the events occurred, the victims were in the care of their older sister, as their mother was working as a private nurse in the city of Viña del Mar. Despite this, she was taken by the uniformed officers to the El Belloto Naval Air Base," the resolution states.

The magistrate's investigation adds that "at the moment the naval patrol entered the home, it caused various damages to the dwelling, in addition to stealing the valuables found therein. On several occasions, during the detention of the victims, they were struck with the weapons carried by the uniformed officers while they searched and registered the rooms looking for weapons.

The naval patrol remained stationed inside the home until the following day, after having slept and consumed all the food that was in the house, thereby keeping the victims kidnapped inside their own home," the resolution notes.

In the civil aspect, the State was ordered to pay compensation of $35 million to each of the victims for the moral damages caused.

Source: elmostrador.cl, December 28, 2018

Navy members sentenced for "qualified kidnapping" of journalist after military coup

The Supreme Court issued a final sentence regarding eight members of the Navy for the qualified kidnapping of journalist Jaime Aldoney Vargas, which occurred on September 12, 1973, one day after the military coup.

Judicial sources consulted specified that, in a split decision, the ministers of the highest court determined the sentences by accepting the investigation carried out by the minister of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Julio Miranda Lillo.

The ruling acquitted two of the eight accused in the case due to a lack of participation in the events: retired Rear Admiral Ernesto Huber Von Appen and retired officer Manuel Buch López.

Four of the other accused were sentenced to 5 years in prison with the benefit of supervised release. They are Navy captains Patricio Villalobos Lobos, Pedro Arancibia Solar, Jaime Urdangarín Romero, and Germán Valdivia Keller.

Captain Guillermo Vidal Hurtado was sentenced to the same term as an accessory, while retired captain Sergio Mendoza Rojas was given 4 years, also with supervised release.

In the civil aspect, it was also determined that the convicted individuals Valdivia Keller, Arancibia Solar, Urdangarín Romero, and Mendoza Rojas must pay joint compensation of 30 million pesos to Gabriel and Iván Aldoney Vargas, brothers of the victim.

Aldoney Vargas, a journalist, civil engineer, and councilman for Limache, was detained on September 12, 1973, by Carabineros officers who violently broke into his workplace in that town, arresting about 12 people, including workers and executives.

All those apprehended were taken to the Carabineros police station of that municipality, and in the afternoon of that same day, Jaime Aldoney was violently removed from the police facility by Navy personnel and taken to the El Belloto Base, where he was beaten and tortured with electricity.

On September 13, he was transferred again, this time being taken to the merchant ship "Maipo," where he was last seen on September 14.

Source: latercera.cl, May 5, 2011

Constitutionalist sailors case: 18 former Navy and Air Force officers prosecuted for detention and torture

The minister for extraordinary causes for human rights violations of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Jaime Arancibia Pinto, issued an indictment this Wednesday, October 21, against 16 former members of the Navy and two retired officials of the Air Force for their responsibility in the crimes of illicit association, kidnapping, illegal detention, and torture, crimes perpetrated against members of the Navy starting in July 1973.

In case file No. 980-2008, known as "Constitutionalist Sailors" or "Anti-coup Sailors," the special minister is investigating the illegal detentions and application of torture against 9 sailors who filed complaints against the officers and commanders who detained and tortured them.

The detained anti-coup sailors numbered several dozen in successive episodes that occurred between July and September of '73; detentions and torture that continued and intensified after the military coup was consummated.

In this episode of the case, the 9 complainants are the sailors: Claudio Espinoza Tordecilla, Bernardo Flores Valdebenito, Luis Jorquera Silva, Víctor López Zambrano, Julio Gajardo Neira, Ricardo Tobar Toledo, Mariano Ramírez Ramírez, Pedro Blaset Castro, and Pedro Lagos Carrasco, detained between July and August 1973 by Navy personnel and subjected to torture aboard the ships "Blanco Encalada" and "Latorre," as well as other military units in the Valparaíso Region, such as the El Belloto Naval Air Base.

These detainees were prosecuted by the Naval Court of Valparaíso for the false crime of failure to perform military duties, a case that, after September 11, 1973, began to be investigated as sedition or mutiny, with the prisoners continuing to be subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment for several months by their former commanders and work superiors.

The same fate befell the other sailors detained during that period.

In the resolution, Minister Arancibia Pinto indicted the retired Navy officers: Hernán Julio Macuada, Pedro Benavides Monzoni, Sergio Iván Mendoza Rojas, Jaime Miguel Urdangarín Romero, Luis Eduardo Kohler Herrera, Santiago Lorca González, Juan Tapia Villalón, Julio Humberto Alarcón Saavedra, Ernesto Leonardo Huber von Appen, Víctor Villegas Herrera, Samuel Ginsberg Rojas, Fernando Landeta Ahues, Juan Guillermo Mackay Barriga, Jorge Davanzo Cintolesi, Ary Antonio Acuña Figueroa, and Fernando Rojas Jiménez; he also prosecuted the retired Air Force officers: Jorge Almarza Pizarro and Jorge Rojas Carvajal, ordering their entry into preventive detention in military units.

Reopening After the visiting minister Eliana Quezada decreed the definitive dismissal of the case, the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court, on April 2, 2012, in a unanimous decision, reopened the process, considering that the investigation had not been exhausted, and ordered the carrying out of various proceedings by a judge who was not disqualified.

Source: resumen.cl, October 22, 2015

Murderers of MIR member Santiago Rubilar prosecuted and accused of massacring a Dominican

This Wednesday the 2nd, the judiciary reported that the visiting minister for human rights violation cases of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes, issued an indictment in the investigation into the simple homicide of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR) militant SANTIAGO RUBILAR SALAZAR and the frustrated simple homicides of Hernán Patricio Villalobos Ruiz and Ana Sonia Ruiz Veas, crimes committed on July 28, 1980, in the El Pinar neighborhood of the San Joaquín commune.

In her resolution (case file No. 194-2011), Minister Cifuentes held the former Carabineros officials Carol Nelson Prado Naranjo, Omar Guillermo Benavides Mena, Julio Antonio Díaz Silva, Jorge Ricardo Imas Lastra, Juan Carlos Morales Valenzuela, and Daniel Humberto Ojeda Cárdenas responsible as perpetrators of the crimes.

According to the information gathered in the investigation stage, the visiting minister established the following facts:

1° That on July 28, 1980, around 09:00 hours, members of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR) entered, simultaneously and armed with firearms, the branches of the Banco de Chile, Banco Concepción, and Banco de Crédito e Inversiones, located in the vicinity of Rodrigo de Araya and Santa Elena in the San Joaquín commune, stole various sums of money, killed a security guard, and wounded a cashier, fleeing the sector in different directions.

2° That, moments later, on Avenida Carlos Valdovinos, one of the aforementioned subjects, Santiago Rubilar Salazar, boarded the Chevrolet Chevette automobile, license plate ICS-81, driven by Hernán Patricio Villalobos Ruiz, in the company of his mother Ana Sonia Ruiz Veas, through one of the rear doors, threatened them with the Star brand 7.65 mm caliber pistol, serial number 111392, that he was carrying, and forced them to take him away from the scene.

3° That, meanwhile, Carabineros de Chile officials, alerted to the crimes committed at the aforementioned banking entities, initiated a police operation with the aim of locating those who participated in them.

4° That, in this context, on Calle Central, between Comercio and Castelar Sur, inside the El Pinar neighborhood, Carabineros de Chile officials, including Carol Nelson Prado Naranjo, Omar Guillermo Benavides Mena, Julio Antonio Díaz Silva, Jorge Ricardo Imas Lastra, Juan Carlos Morales Valenzuela, and Daniel Humberto Ojeda Cárdenas, intercepted the automobile in which Santiago Rubilar Salazar was traveling and, making excessive use of force, fired against all the occupants of the vehicle, resulting in Santiago Rubilar Salazar suffering injuries from ballistic projectiles in the cervical area—which severed his spinal cord—thoracic area, left arm, right gluteus, right thigh, and left thigh; Ana Sonia Ruiz Veas suffered open fractures from ballistic projectiles in her right ankle, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd left metatarsals, and 5th left toe; and Hernán Patricio Villalobos Ruiz suffered injuries from ballistic projectiles in the right lumbar area and right thigh, all of them being taken to the Barros Luco Hospital as detainees, where Rubilar Salazar died five days later.

5° That there is no objective evidence to establish that, at the moment the shots were fired against the victims, the police officials knew that Hernán Patricio Villalobos Ruiz and his mother were under threat.

On the contrary, the fact that the officials fired indiscriminately against the occupants of the vehicle and that, after doing so, they were sent to the Barros Luco Hospital as detainees, demonstrates the opposite.

6° That it is also not determined by any objective evidence that Santiago Rubilar Salazar fired against the police personnel, nor that the injuries the Carabineros officials suffered in the framework of this operation were caused by shots fired with the firearm he was carrying, which was found inside the aforementioned vehicle.

7° That, by reason of the above, the aforementioned State agents fired arbitrarily against the three occupants of the aforementioned automobile, depriving Santiago Rubilar Salazar of his life, which constitutes an extrajudicial execution.

Juan Blanco was dangerous for being a student and a foreigner

For the crime of kidnapping resulting in death ("grave damage") of the young Dominican JUAN ANDRÉS BLANCO CASTILLO, who was detained a few days after the September 1973 coup and subjected to interrogations and torture by his captors, the minister for extraordinary causes for human rights violations of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Jaime Arancibia Pinto, issued an accusation against 12 retired Navy henchmen—including a rear admiral, a vice admiral, officers, and non-commissioned officers.

Minister Arancibia Pinto accused the former sailors Patricio Horado Valentín Villalobos Lobos, Manuel Alejandro Buch López, Wilfredo Hernán Zepeda Iturriaga, Víctor Orlando Rey Ringele, Ernesto Leonardo Huber von Appen, Jaime Miguel Urdangarín Romero, Germán Patricio Valdivia Keller, Arístides Alejandro León Calffas, Guillermo Samuel Aldoney Hansen, José Abraham Gutiérrez Bello, Víctor Vicente Sepúlveda Cuevas, and Jorge Benjamín Ginouves Contreras.

The last mentioned, Ginouves, not only acted violently toward young people but also toward children. So much so that, along with 8 other "brave" little sailors, he is also prosecuted for the kidnapping and torture applied to two children in 1974.

Such uniformed terrorists were part of the Navy patrol that, in August 1974, raided the victims' house to detain their older sister—who was in charge of their care while their mother worked in Viña del Mar—keeping the infants kidnapped in their own home for two days.

During the investigation of the case (file 53.046-2009), it was established that the citizen of the Dominican Republic and economics student Juan Andrés Blanco "was detained by a patrol of Navy personnel assigned to the El Belloto Naval Air Base, led by 2nd Lieutenant Jorge Ginouves Contreras, in the Barrio Norte sector of Villa Alemana, near the train station, and was taken to the naval facility to be handed over to personnel of the Naval Aviation Command Intelligence Service (COMAVNAV)."

"After remaining detained at the El Belloto Naval Air Base, Juan Blanco Castillo was taken to the Investigative Police barracks in Quilpué, to remain held in the dungeons of said facility, which are located in the basement where he was subjected to interrogations and illegitimate duress by his captors, with numerous testimonies existing regarding his physical deterioration through other people detained in both facilities," the resolution establishes.

The investigation also determined that "after some time, the victim was taken out with evident signs of physical and psychological abuse from the aforementioned facility, in an unknown direction. After a period of six months, the Investigative Police of the Quilpué commune had to go to a sector called 'Curva M' in the town of Colliguay, where the discovery of an unidentified male corpse was made.

According to the characteristics of the deceased's clothing and the examination of the corpse, the police personnel presumed it was the Dominican Juan Blanco Castillo, whose autopsy was not located, and the remains were presumably sent to a common grave in the Quilpué Cemetery, which to this day have not been able to be located, thus configuring the crime of kidnapping with grave damage to the person of Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo, a situation that remains permanent to this day."

Well, as always, it will depend on popular and left-wing organizations to ensure that the scoundrels who committed these and other crimes against humanity, from these or other armed branches, as well as the coup plotters who did not wear uniforms, go to jail without any hesitation or amnesty.

Source: acciondirectachile.blogspot.com, August 3, 2017

7 retired military personnel sentenced in Chile for the kidnapping of the Dominican Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo

Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo was the son of the prominent lawyer and politician Ramón Andrés Blanco Fernández. The dictator Augusto Pinochet, supported by the US government to overthrow President Salvador Allende.

Seven retired military personnel from Chile were sentenced for the kidnapping and the damages caused in 1973 to the Dominican Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo, son of the politician and lawyer Ramón Andrés Blanco Fernández.

The military personnel of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship were sentenced by the minister for extraordinary causes for human rights violations of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Max Cancino Cancino.

The news portal of the University of Valparaíso, Chile, explained that the sentence of seven retired members of the Navy was due to their responsibility in the crime of "kidnapping with grave damage or qualified kidnapping of the Dominican citizen Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo."

The crime was committed in September 1973, in the city of Villa Alemana, after the coup d'état against President Salvador Allende, committed on September 11 of that year, which gave way to the imposition of a bloody right-wing dictatorship.

"In the ruling (case file 53.046-2009), Minister Cancino Cancino sentenced Ernesto Leonardo Huber von Appen, Wilfredo Hernán Zepeda Iturriaga, Víctor Orlando Rey Ringele, Jaime Miguel Urdangarín Romero, Arístides Alejandro León Calffas, and German Patricio Valdivia Keller to 15 years in prison, legal accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and positions and political rights, and absolute disqualification for professional titles for the duration of the sentences," the portal indicates.

Likewise, it explains that Jorge Benjamín Ginouvés Contreras was sentenced to 5 years in prison, with the benefit of supervised release, remaining subject to the permanent surveillance and guidance of a delegate for the same period.

This defendant was also sentenced to absolute perpetual disqualification for political rights and absolute disqualification for public offices and positions during the time of the sentence, as a co-perpetrator of the crime.

In the case, the acquittal of the accused José Abraham Gutiérrez Bello, Víctor Vicente Sepúlveda Cuevas, and Guillermo Samuel Aldoney Hansen was decreed, as their participation in the events was not proven.

In the resolution, the aforementioned portal reports, the visiting minister considered the following facts proven:

"That there existed a military intelligence group, hierarchical and disciplined, called the Ancla 2 Intelligence Service, belonging to the Naval Aviation Command, which operated actively starting September 11, 1973, made up of agents belonging to the various departments of the El Belloto Naval Air Base and even officials from other departments, such as Marines, whose main objective was the repression of people opposed to the military regime, for which they proceeded to search for and detain them, who were then deprived of liberty to obtain information through physical and psychological torture. To achieve the detention of the people, the heads of the naval patrols maintained direct communication with the Naval Intelligence Service, who, once the apprehension of the civilian was obtained, took them to the Air Control Office (OICA) for their confinement and interrogation."

It adds that for operational repression, "the so-called Ancla 2 Naval Intelligence Service, dependent on the Naval Aviation Command, used various facilities of the El Belloto Naval Air Base, in particular the so-called Air Control Information Office (OICA or ARO) and made use of others, such as the Quilpué Investigative Police Barracks, facilities in which the prisoners were interrogated under illegitimate duress."

It narrates that, on an undetermined date in the month of September 1973, after the 20th, Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo, a citizen of the Dominican Republic, who had entered Chile in the month of January of that year from the USSR, 25 years of age, due to his political orientation, was ordered to be detained by the Ancla 2 Naval Intelligence Service of the Naval Aviation Command, which was carried out by a naval patrol, led by 2nd Lieutenant Jorge Ginouvés Contreras, in the Barrio Norte sector of Villa Alemana, near the train station, and he was taken to the naval facility to be handed over to the personnel of said Intelligence Service. The aforementioned Officer, in command of the naval patrol, as stated, acted in coordination with the personnel of the aforementioned Intelligence Service.

In the investigations, it was confirmed that neither the military command of the Naval Aviation Command, nor that of the Ancla 2 Naval Intelligence Service belonging to that Command, adopted any measure to report to the competent authority either the detention of Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo or any alleged illicit act committed by the Dominican.

Nor was any naval case or investigation formed in that regard.

"On the contrary, it was deliberately ordered to the officials of the Quilpué Investigative Police and the Quilpué Carabineros Sub-station that the entries of the detainees brought to those facilities by the Intelligence Service officials were not to be registered.

The same occurred at the Naval Air Base, where the names of the detainees were not noted in any official register," the information maintains.

It narrates that the victim was initially held in a sector of the El Belloto Naval Air Base called 'Acapulco,' 'El Hoyo,' or 'El Pozo' together with other prisoners, a detention site that was enabled by the Commander of Naval Aviation after September 11, 1973, for the confinement of civilian persons opposed to the military regime.

In said place, the prisoners had to remain permanently in a prone position, with their hands behind their backs, in the open air, and guarded by at least two armed officials assigned to the Naval Air Base.

This sector was of strictly restricted access, with only officials of the Ancla 2 Naval Intelligence Service belonging to the Naval Aviation Command authorized to approach. The confinement sector was strategically located in front of the Command Office and the Air Control Office (OICA or ARO)."

It highlights that during the period he remained locked up, the Dominican Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo, without any justifying motive, was taken on various occasions to the Air Control Information Office, a place where he was interrogated and physically pressured by officials of the Ancla 2 Naval Intelligence Service and with the presence of the military command and other officials who collaborated closely with that Service, all with the object of having him answer about his activities and the location of alleged weaponry hidden in Santiago.

Likewise, after Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo remained locked up at the El Belloto Naval Air Base, officials of the Ancla 2 Naval Intelligence Service, on an unspecified date in the month of October 1973, transferred the victim and kept him deprived of liberty in the dungeons of the Quilpué Investigative Police Barracks.

It explains that in a room of this facility, the officials of the intelligence group interrogated and severely tortured him, using among other techniques the application of burning newspaper to burn him on the abdomen.

"On an unspecified day in the month of October 1973, Juan Andrés Blanco Castillo was removed from the Quilpué Investigative Police Barracks by the aforementioned intelligence group, being taken to the Quilpué Carabineros Sub-station, with the victim being seriously injured as a consequence of the burns caused on his body.

Due to the complaint that the Chief of that Sub-station expressed to the command of the Naval Command regarding the state of health of the victim, he was removed from that place by officials of the intelligence group, in an unknown direction and without any news of his whereabouts to date."

In the civil aspect, the ruling accepted the lawsuit filed and ordered the State to pay compensation of $150,000,000 (one hundred and fifty million pesos) for moral damages to the victim's father (Ramón Andrés Blanco Fernández); and $75,000,000 (seventy-five million pesos) to a brother.

Source: acento.com.do, February 3, 2023