The extraordinary visiting minister of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes, issued first-instance convictions against seven human rights violators for the crimes of the so-called Paine-Aculeo episode.

The individuals are retired military personnel Iván de la Fuente Sáez, Julio Cerda Carrasco, Alejandro Emilio Valdés Visintainer, Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena, Osvaldo Andrés Magaña Bau, retired Carabineros officer Sergio Heriberto Ávila Quiroga, and the Investigations prefect, Roberto Arcángel Rozas Aguilera.

In her ruling, released this Thursday, June 24, the magistrate sentenced the seven repressors to serve terms of between 15 and 18 years for the crime of aggravated kidnapping, in their capacity as authors.

Following years of investigation, Minister Cifuentes attributed to all of them material participation in the arrests, torture, executions, and/or forced disappearances of Santos Calderón Saldaño, Benjamín Camus Silva, Juan Díaz Inostroza, Rolando Donaire Rodríguez, Luis González Mondaca, Francisco Lizama Irarrázaval, Pedro Meneses Brito, Juan Manuel Ortiz, Luis Ortiz Acevedo, Bautista Oyarzo Torres, and Manuel Pavez Henríquez, committed between October 13 and 20, 1973, in the rural area of Aculeo.

As with previous rulings, the case must now navigate a new stage, as the defenses of the convicted repressors, as well as the State Defense Council, will surely appeal this first-instance ruling. From the Paine Memorial, we once again praise the work of Minister Marianela Cifuentes and trust that future instances will ratify the established convictions, following long years of waiting by the families.

Source: serpajchile.cl, June 29, 2021

Minister Marianela Cifuentes sentences five former military officers to 18 years in prison for the aggravated kidnapping of 11 peasants from Paine; the State must pay damages

The extraordinary visiting minister for human rights violation cases of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, convicted five retired Army officers, one retired Carabineros officer, and one retired Police of Investigations officer for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of 11 peasants.

The illicit act was committed starting in October 1973 in the commune of Paine and surrounding sectors. The individuals are former Army members Iván de la Fuente Sáez, Alejandro Emilio Valdés Visintainer, Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena, Osvaldo Andrés Magaña Bau, Sergio Heriberto Ávila Quiroga, and former Police of Investigations member Roberto Arcángel Rozas Aguilera, who will face 18 years in prison; meanwhile, retired Carabineros officer Julio Cerda Carrasco must serve 15 years and one day in prison, in their capacity as authors of the aggravated kidnappings.

In civil matters, the State was ordered to pay a total sum of $4,700,000,000 to the victims' families. In the resolution, Minister Cifuentes Alarcón established the following facts: 1st. That on October 13, 1973, starting in the early morning hours, a military contingent from the San Bernardo Infantry School, accompanied by a police officer from the Pintué station of the Carabineros de Chile and a civilian from the sector, carried out raids and selective arrests in various peasant settlements of the Agrarian Reform located in the vicinity of the Aculeo lagoon, in the commune of Paine, including Mansel Alto, Patagual, and Rangue. 2nd. That, in that context, the military illegally detained agricultural workers who held leadership positions in the aforementioned peasant settlements: José Manuel Díaz Inostroza, President of the Mansel Alto settlement; Francisco Javier Lizama Irarrázaval and Jorge Manuel Pavez Henríquez, President and Treasurer, respectively, of the El Patagual settlement; and brothers Juan Manuel Ortiz Acevedo and Luis Celerino Ortiz Acevedo, President and Vice President of the Rangue settlement. 3rd. That, immediately thereafter, the detainees were transferred to the prisoner camp of the San Bernardo Infantry School, located on Cerro Chena, where they were imprisoned and subjected to interrogations and mistreatment. 4th. That on October 20, 1973, starting in the early morning hours, a military contingent from the San Bernardo Infantry School carried out new raids and selective arrests in the Agrarian Reform peasant settlements located in the vicinity of the Aculeo lagoon, including El Vínculo, Huiticalán, and El Patagual, at which time they brought the brothers Juan Ortiz Acevedo and Luis Ortiz Acevedo, whom they still held in their custody, to the location. 5th. That, in that context, the military illegally detained leaders of the aforementioned peasant settlements: Pedro Juan Meneses Brito, President of the El Vínculo settlement; Luis Osvaldo González Mondaca, President of the Huiticalán settlement; and agricultural workers Santos Pascual Calderón Saldaña, Benjamín Adolfo Camus Silva, Rolando Anastasio Donaire Rodríguez, and Bautista Segundo Oyarzo Torres. 6th. That, subsequently, the detainees were transferred to the prisoner camp of the San Bernardo Infantry School on Cerro Chena, where they were imprisoned and subjected to interrogations and mistreatment. 7th. That the military contingents that carried out the aforementioned raids and arrests acted under the command of Major Iván de la Fuente Sáez, Captain Francisco José Rojas Martínez, and Lieutenants Julio Cerda Carrasco and Alejandro Valdés Visintainer. 8th. That, furthermore, at the time of the events, the Cerro Chena prisoner camp was in charge of Army Captain Víctor Raúl Pinto Pérez, currently deceased, and Army Lieutenant Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena. 9th. That, during that period, the following served as interrogators at the aforementioned prisoner camp: Army Lieutenant Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau, Carabineros Lieutenant Sergio Heriberto Ávila Quiroga, and Police of Investigations officers Óscar Hernán Vergara Cruces and Roberto Arcángel Rozas Aguilera. 10th. That the detainees, instead of being placed at the disposal of the competent court, were executed by firearm shots and their bodies were illegally buried or abandoned. 11th. That, in this manner, on October 23, 1973, on the banks of the Maipo River, near the Maipo bridge, the bodies of José Manuel Díaz Inostroza –detained on October 13, 1973– and of Santos Pascual Calderón Saldaña, Benjamín Adolfo Camus Silva, Luis Osvaldo González Mondaca, and Pedro Juan Meneses Brito –detained on October 20 of the same year– were found. 12th. That, subsequently, on November 13, 1973, inside the San Vicente de Lo Arcaya estate, in the commune of Pirque, the bodies of Francisco Javier Lizama Irarrázaval, Juan Manuel Ortiz Acevedo, and Luis Celerino Ortiz Acevedo –detained on October 13, 1973– and of Rolando Anastasio Donaire Rodríguez and Bautista Segundo Oyarzo Torres –detained on October 20 of the same year– were found partially buried and in a state of decomposition. 13th. That, finally, the remains of Jorge Manuel Pavez Henríquez, detained on October 13, 1973, were found in grave No. 2,476 of Patio 29 of the General Cemetery.

Source: enestrado.com, July 13, 2021

A former Carabineros officer, a PDI officer, and five Army officers convicted for the executions of eleven peasants from Paine

The lawyer for the victims' families highlighted the decision that convicted four colonels and one Army general. "Justice advances silently, acknowledging these great wounds left by our dictatorial past," he stated.

The Fifth Chamber of the San Miguel Court of Appeals issued a second-instance ruling and convicted seven former uniformed officers as authors of the aggravated kidnapping of eleven peasants, events that occurred in October 1973, in what is known as the Paine-Aculeo episode.

Thus, ministers María Catalina González, Carolina Vásquez, and Celia Olivia Catalán confirmed the convictions issued by magistrate Marianela Cifuentes of the San Miguel Court in her July 2021 ruling, and sentenced retired Army colonels Osvaldo Andrés Magaña Bau, Iván de la Fuente, Alejandro Emilio Valdés Visintainer, and Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena; former Carabineros officer Sergio Heriberto Ávila Quiroga; and Investigations prefect Roberto Arcángel Rozas Aguilera to the penalty of 18 years of major imprisonment in its maximum degree as authors of the aggravated kidnapping of the eleven victims. Meanwhile, former Army Division General Julio Cerda Carrasco received a 15-year sentence as an author of the same crime. According to the investigation, the convicted individuals detained, tortured, and executed agricultural workers Santo Calderón Saldaño, Benjamín Camus Silva, José Manuel Díaz Inostroza, Rolando Donaire Rodríguez, Luis González Mondaca, Francisco Lizama Irarrázaval, Pedro Meneses Brito, Juan Manuel Ortiz Acevedo, Luis Ortiz Acevedo, Bautista Oyarzo Torres, and Jorge Pavez Henríquez between October 13 and 20, 1973, in the rural area of Aculeo. For lawyer Nelson Caucoto, a plaintiff in the case, "a new step has been taken to achieve justice for these 11 peasants from the area of Aculeo, Rangue, and Patagual, adjacent to Paine, all of whom were taken to the San Bernardo Infantry School and the Cerro Chena Prisoner Camp, where they were martyred. Once murdered, their bodies were abandoned, some at the Maipo River bridge and others on an estate in Pirque," he maintains. Caucoto continues, adding that "it is striking that the sentence reaches four colonels and one Army general, making this ruling the first to convict a group of officers from that institution. Justice advances silently, acknowledging these great wounds left by our dictatorial past," the lawyer concluded. The facts On October 13, 1973, soldiers from the San Bernardo Infantry School, together with a police officer and a civilian from the sector, carried out raids and arrests in various Agrarian Reform peasant settlements located in the vicinity of the Aculeo lagoon, in the commune of Paine. On that occasion, they detained peasant leaders, including: José Manuel Díaz Inostroza, president of the Mansel Alto settlement; Francisco Javier Lizama Irarrázaval and Jorge Manuel Pavez Henríquez, president and treasurer, respectively, of the El Patagual settlement; and the brothers Juan Manuel Ortiz Acevedo and Luis Celerino Ortiz Acevedo, president and vice president of the Rangue settlement. They did the same on October 20 of that year, this time in the El Vínculo, Huiticalán, and El Patagual sectors, detaining Pedro Juan Meneses Brito, president of the El Vínculo settlement; Luis Osvaldo González Mondaca, president of the Huiticalán settlement; and agricultural workers Santos Pascual Calderón Saldaña, Benjamín Adolfo Camus Silva, Rolando Anastasio Donaire Rodríguez, and Bautista Segundo Oyarzo Torres. Subsequently, the victims were transferred to the prisoner camp of the San Bernardo Infantry School on Cerro Chena, where they were subjected to interrogations under torture, only to be later executed with firearms, their bodies illegally buried and abandoned. The aforementioned prisoner camp was headed by Army Captain Víctor Raúl Pinto Pérez, currently deceased, and Army Lieutenant Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena. Likewise, the interrogations were in charge of Army Lieutenant Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau, Carabineros Lieutenant Sergio Heriberto Ávila Quiroga, and Police of Investigations officers Oscar Hernán Vergara Cruces and Roberto Arcángel Rozas Aguilera. According to the investigation, on October 23, 1973, the bodies of José Manuel Díaz Inostroza and of Santos Pascual Calderón Saldaña, Benjamín Adolfo Camus Silva, Luis Osvaldo González Mondaca, and Pedro Juan Meneses Brito were found on the banks of the Maipo River, near the Maipo bridge. On November 13, 1973, the bodies of Francisco Javier Lizama Irarrázaval, Juan Manuel Ortiz Acevedo, Luis Celerino Ortiz Acevedo, Rolando Anastasio Donaire Rodríguez, and Bautista Segundo Oyarzo Torres were found partially buried and in a state of decomposition, all inside the San Vicente de Lo Arcaya estate, in the commune of Pirque. Finally, the remains of Jorge Manuel Pávez Henríquez were found in grave number 2,476 of Patio 29 of the General Cemetery.

Source: radio.uchile.cl, October 3, 2022

Supreme Court convicts retired Army officers as authors of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of a textile worker

The Second Chamber of the highest court convicted three retired Army members for their responsibility in the aggravated kidnapping of textile worker Jorge Leonel Gaete Espinoza. The illicit act was committed starting on September 20, 1973, in the current commune of San Joaquín.

The Supreme Court convicted three retired Army members for their responsibility in the aggravated kidnapping of textile worker Jorge Leonel Gaete Espinoza. The illicit act was committed starting on September 20, 1973, in the current commune of San Joaquín.

In the sentence (case roll 36.665-2019), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito Cruz, Leopoldo Llanos Sagristá, María Teresa Letelier Ramírez, Juan Manuel Muñoz Pardo, and Dobra Lusic Nadal—sentenced officers Alejandro Emilio Valdés Vistainer and Iván de la Fuente Sáez to 5 years and one day in prison, in their capacity as authors of the crime.

Meanwhile, it confirmed the 3-year and one-day prison sentence imposed on Gilberto Ubaldo Sepúlveda del Pino; and decreed the acquittal of Hernán Ricardo Ovalle Hidalgo. The Supreme Court considered it an error in the second-instance sentence, issued by the San Miguel Court of Appeals, to reclassify the crime as simple kidnapping. "That it is now appropriate to analyze the first chapter of the appeal for cassation on the merits proposed by the Human Rights Program Unit of the relevant Undersecretariat, insofar as the sentencers are reproached for having carried out a reclassification of the criminal type regarding the established facts, from the aggravated form of kidnapping contained in the final paragraph of article 141 of the penal code, in its wording in force at the time of the events, to the form of simple kidnapping in its first paragraph," the ruling states. The resolution adds: "That, to qualify the crime attributed to the defendants as simple kidnapping, the appealed sentence estimated in its nineteenth consideration, just as it was transcribed in the fifth foundation ut supra, 'that the qualification of kidnapping cannot be due to the fact that, on the occasion of the confinement or in the context of it, the agents caused the death of the victim. Regarding the reference to 'the agents' who allegedly intervened according to the ruling in the execution of the victim, it is also questioned because it is worth remembering that the defendants are not charged with the crime of homicide, since it was not possible to prove who caused the death of Jorge Leonel Gaete Espinoza', a reasoning that is erroneous since it implies the precise determination of the perpetrator who caused the death; however, from the merits of the process, it appears that, after the deprivation of liberty, the victim appeared dead on the public thoroughfare, presenting six ballistic projectile impacts in the anterior part of the thoracic region, four of them with projectile exit. That is to say, the deprivation of liberty ended with his death." "However, the qualifying factor specified by the rule under study, that is, the serious damage to the victim's person—which does not rule out a fatal result in the wording of the time—is verified in this case, since the detention itself originates from a totally irregular and arbitrary procedure, in a context of repression at a national level that it was impossible to ignore, even less so for personnel of the Chilean Army, of the 3rd Company of the Combat Grouping Center Battalion of the San Bernardo Infantry School, as they were the ones in charge of the Sumar company premises, among others of the Nylon section, as was established in the sixth motivation of the first-instance ruling." "Well then, the deprivation of liberty and the subsequent subjection of the victim to interrogations and physical and psychological mistreatment, as was established in the ninth foundation of the first-instance ruling, necessarily implies accepting the serious damage that is foreseen will be caused to him with such action and, therefore, acting with eventual intent, which the form of kidnapping aggravated by the result of serious damage admits 'and even guilt' (Matus, Jean Pierre and Ramírez, María Cecilia. Manual de Derecho Penal Chileno, 3rd ed., tirant lo blanch, 2019 pp. 246 and 247)." "It is worth noting that in the established facts there is no break in continuity in their development, since they begin with the illegitimate deprivation of liberty of Jorge Leonel Gaete Espinoza by the defendants and concluded only with his death." It is also considered: "That in this way, there has been an error in the qualification of the illicit act imputed to the defendants as constituting simple and not aggravated kidnapping, an error that has had an influence on the dispositive part of the ruling since it has enabled the imposition of a penalty lower than that which legally corresponds to them."

Therefore, it is resolved that

"I. That the appeals for cassation on the form, filed by the defenses of the defendants Alejandro Emilio Valdés Visintainer, at page 2,766; Hernán Reinaldo Ricardo Ovalle Hidalgo, at page 2,775; and Gilberto Ubaldo Sepúlveda del Pino, at page 2,832, against the sentence of January 18, 2019, written at page 2,692 and following, pronounced by the Extraordinary Visiting Minister Ms.

Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, are rejected. II. That the aforementioned sentence is revoked, insofar as it convicted Hernán Reinaldo Ricardo Ovalle Hidalgo as an author of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Jorge Leonel Gaete Espinoza, perpetrated starting on September 20, 1973, in the commune of San Miguel—today San Joaquín—and, in its place, it is decided that he is acquitted of such charge.

III. That the aforementioned sentence is confirmed, with the declaration that Iván de la Fuente Sáez and Alejandro Emilio Valdés Visintainer are sentenced to the penalty of five years and one day of major imprisonment in its minimum degree and to the accessory sanctions of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and positions and political rights, absolute disqualification for professional titles while the sentence lasts, and the payment of costs, in their capacity as authors of the crime of aggravated kidnapping, in a consummated degree, committed against Jorge Leonel Gaete Espinoza, starting on September 20, 1973, in the commune of San Miguel—today San Joaquín—." IV. That given the death of Víctor Daniel Guzmán Martínez, which occurred on March 6, 2022, the Extraordinary Visiting Minister, or whoever replaces her, must issue the resolutions that are appropriate in law." Decision to reduce the sentences of the convicted Fuente Sáez and Valdés Visintainer, with the dissenting vote of ministers Brito and Llanos. Sumar Textile In the first-instance ruling, the visiting minister of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, established the following facts: "1st. That, days after September 11, 1973, Jorge Leonel Gaete Espinoza, a militant of the Socialist Party, responding to the call of the new authorities of this country, presented himself at his workplace, the Sumar textile industry, Nylon plant, located at Calle El Pinar No. 205 of the commune of San Miguel (currently the commune of San Joaquín), at which time he was illegally detained, with the consent of Army Major Iván de la Fuente Sáez, by soldiers of the San Bernardo Infantry School, under the charge of Lieutenant Alejandro Emilio Valdés Visintainer and officers Gilberto Ubaldo Sepúlveda del Pino (lieutenant), Hernán Reinaldo Ricardo Ovalle Hidalgo (second lieutenant), and Víctor Guzmán Martínez (second lieutenant). 2nd. That, days before, in compliance with an order from Major Iván de la Fuente Sáez, Lieutenant Alejandro Emilio Valdés Visintainer, together with soldiers, student corporals, and officers Sepúlveda del Pino, Ovalle Hidalgo, and Guzmán Martínez, all from the San Bernardo Infantry School, had taken charge of the aforementioned textile factory, at which time Lieutenant Valdés Visintainer distributed the officers and subordinate personnel into the Cotton, Polyester, and Nylon sections. 3rd. That the aforementioned State agents, after detaining Jorge Leonel Gaete Espinoza, kept him deprived of liberty inside some dependencies of the aforementioned factory, specifically in the Welfare office of the Nylon plant. 4th. That on September 21, 1973, during the night hours, Jorge Leonel Gaete Espinoza was found on the public thoroughfare, deceased, as a result of the impact of six projectiles in the thorax, which were fired with a firearm."

Source: pdju.cl, January 5, 2023