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 indemnity 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 civil matters, 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. Additionally, 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-author 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 Dominican citizen, then 25 years old, 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 in charge of 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 move, the State of the Dominican Republic sued Chile over the events. However, the court ultimately dismissed it.

In civil matters, 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, and 75 million pesos to a brother.

Source: biobiochile.cl, November 3, 2022

As anticipated by ZonaImpacto.cl in June of last year (Edition No. 125 "Aldoney Case: plaintiffs will request the prosecution of two other former Navy non-commissioned officers; the six detainees appeal to the Court of Appeals"), the minister in charge of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Gabriela Corti, issued two new indictments in the case of the disappearance of journalist, civil engineer, Limache councilman, and comptroller of the Compañía de Cervecerías Unidas (CCU), Jaime Aldoney Vargas, a socialist militant.

The indictments were decreed for the crime of aggravated kidnapping and affect retired Navy captains Guillermo Vidal Hurtado and Germán Valdivia.

In 1973, when Aldoney was murdered and forcibly disappeared, the two former marines who have now been prosecuted were serving at what is now the former El Belloto Naval Air Base in Quilpué, as lieutenants, according to PPD deputy Laura Soto, one of the plaintiff lawyers in the case.

The other sponsor of the lawsuit being investigated by Minister Corti is deputy Juan Bustos (PS), representative of District 12 (Quilpué, Villa Alemana, Limache, and Olmué).

The new indictments were issued because both declared a version of the events that culminated in Aldoney's disappearance that differed from what had been previously declared by the other defendants in the case, according to deputy Soto.

The other six defendants, all retired Navy officers, are retired Rear Admiral Ernesto Huber von Apen, who in 1973—when the then-socialist councilman disappeared—was in charge of the El Belloto Naval Air Base.

In addition to Huber, those charged in this process are retired Captain Sergio Mendoza Rojas, retired Captain Patricio Villalobos Lobos, retired non-commissioned officer Manuel Bush López, retired Captain Jaime Undargarín Romero, and retired Lieutenant Pedro Arancibia Solar.

Detained in Limache

On September 12, 1973, the then-comptroller of the CCU, Limache councilman, civil engineer, and journalist Jaime Aldoney was detained at the brewery plant in Limache. He was taken first to a Carabineros station and then to the El Belloto Naval Air Base, where he was subjected to torture that caused his death, apparently on September 14 of the same year.

Councilman Jaime Aldoney was 30 years old at the time of his detention; he had been one of the founders of MAPU (Movement of Unitary Popular Action), but later joined the Socialist Party.

The case has been under investigation for more than two years by Minister Corti, who was appointed to handle human rights violation cases in the region and has conducted an extensive investigation, which included testimonies collected abroad by Interpol police agents.

Source: Zonaimapcto.cl, February 5, 2004

Court releases perpetrators of the crime against former councilman Jaime Aldoney

The Valparaíso Court of Appeals applied such low sentences that the seven convicted will serve them in freedom.

The Third Chamber of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals did not apply international criminal law, which declares crimes against humanity to be non-amnestiable and imprescriptible, and released the seven kidnappers of socialist councilman Jaime Aldoney Vargas, whose body was presumably thrown into the sea by the same released Navy officers.

Judges Manuel Silva Ibáñez and Gonzalo Morales (majority vote) applied the legal criterion of "half-prescription" and imposed sentences of three years and 541 days on the six retired Navy captains—Patricio Villalobos Lobos, Pedro Arancibia Solar, Jaime Urdangarín Romero, Germán Valdivia Keller, Guillermo Vidal Hurtado, and Sergio Mendoza Rojas—and retired Rear Admiral Ernesto Huber von Appen.

Since the sentences are less than five years and one day, all those sentenced will serve them in freedom.

"Half-prescription" is a "reconciliation" formula, installed two years ago by the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court, which allows for low sentences for those who committed crimes during the dictatorship.

The sentence was considered "serious and regrettable" by the lawyer for the Ministry of Interior's Human Rights Program, Karina Fernández, a plaintiff in the case: "a type of prescription was applied to human rights violators that allows them to remain free, in a ruling that is absolutely contradictory to the principles of international law."

The lawyer told La Nación that "the Navy did not cooperate in the investigation, which makes it even more unjust," and added that "we will file a cassation appeal before the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court."

Jaime Aldoney, former comptroller of the Compañía de Cervecerías Unidas in Limache and brother of the former intendant of Valparaíso, Gabriel Aldoney, was detained after the 1973 military coup and tortured at the El Belloto naval air base, from where he disappeared.

Source: lanacion.cl, June 10, 2009

Supreme Court convicts 6 Navy members in Aldoney case

The Supreme Court issued a final judgment in the investigation into the aggravated kidnapping of Jaime Aldoney Vargas, a journalist and former Limache councilman, who was executed starting September 12, 1973, at the El Belloto naval air base.

In a split decision, the judges of the Second Chamber, Nibaldo Segura, Jaime Rodríguez, Rubén Ballesteros, Hugo Dolmestch, and Carlos Künsemüller, determined the sentences, upholding the investigation conducted by the minister of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Julio Miranda Lillo.

The conviction was issued with the dissenting votes of judges Segura and Ballesteros, who were in favor of accepting the statute of limitations for criminal action. 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.

Five 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 only 4 years, also with supervised release.

In civil matters, it was determined that the convicted Valdivia Keller, Arancibia Solar, Urdangarín Romero, and Mendoza Rojas must pay a joint indemnity of 30,000,000 pesos to Gabriel and Iván Aldoney Vargas, brothers of the victim.

Likewise, the lawsuit against the Chilean State was dismissed, accepting the plea of absolute incompetence of the court. In civil matters, the decision to accept the exception in favor of the Chilean State was adopted with the dissenting votes of judges Dolmestch and Künsemüller.

Source: lanacion.cl, May 5, 2011

Dictatorship agents prosecuted for torture of a 16-year-old adolescent

The minister in extraordinary visitation for human rights violation cases of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Jaime Arancibia Pinto, prosecuted Juan Fernando Vásquez Huidobro, Jorge Benjamín Ginouves Contreras, Jaime Miguel Urdangarin Romero, Miguel Juan Gallegos Sole, Pedro Victorio Frioli Otonel, Germán Patricio Valdivia Keller, Manuel Alejandro Buch López, and Arístides Alejandro León Calffas for the crimes of illegal detention and torture of Mónica Soledad Sánchez Larraín (or Mónica Soledad Antonsen), committed during various periods in the years 1973, 1974, and 1975 in Valparaíso.

In the resolution, Minister Arancibia prosecuted the state agents for the crime of illegal detention. Meanwhile, for the crime of torture, the following were prosecuted: Jorge Benjamín Ginouves Contreras, Jaime Miguel Urdangarin Romero, Miguel Juan Gallegos Sole, Germán Patricio Valdivia Keller, Manuel Alejandro Buch López, Arístides Alejandro León Calffas, and Guillermo Retamales Ruz.

According to the information gathered during the investigative stage, the following facts were proven:

"Based on the aforementioned detailed information, it was established that on September 12, 1973, at 16 years of age, the victim, Ms. Mónica Soledad Sánchez Larraín or Ms. Mónica Soledad Antonsen, was detained by naval personnel who transported her to the facilities of the El Belloto Naval Air Base, in the commune of Quilpué, where she was interrogated and tortured along with other people in a hangar designated for that purpose.

In said naval facility, she had to remain for about two weeks, suffering various injuries as a result of the mistreatment she received.

Subsequently, in 1974, her house was raided by military personnel, who, before taking her into custody, destroyed her home and mistreated her younger siblings, who were under her care. On that occasion, she was taken to the Quilpué Investigative Police Station.

She was locked in a cell at that police unit from where DINA personnel would take her out to interrogate her; these procedures became increasingly rigorous and more torture was applied, because they accused her of being a member of the Communist Party. She remained in those conditions for about a month and a half at the Quilpué Investigative Police, always hooded.

In 1975, she was detained again and taken to the Quilpué Investigative Police Station; from that facility, she was transported in a Navy vehicle to the Naval War Academy in Valparaíso, where she remained for about two months.

In this last facility, she was subjected to brutal interrogations regarding her political militancy and was always kept incommunicado. When interrogating her, they would sit her in a dentist-type chair, where they would sometimes apply electric shocks. On one occasion, she had to be taken to the Naval Hospital as a result of the beatings she received during an interrogation."

Source: elciudadano, June 2, 2015

Five retired Navy officials convicted for kidnapping, detention, and torture of two children during the dictatorship

Minister in visitation Jaime Arancibia convicted five retired Navy officials for the crimes of kidnapping, illegal detention, and torture of minors, committed in August 1974.

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

However, Arancibia granted the benefit of conditional remission of the sentence to Frioli, Buch, and León, while Retamales and Valdivia must serve it effectively.

During the investigation, it was proven that the five military personnel kidnapped José Miguel and Isabel Verónica Sánchez Larraín, who were minors at the time of the events, raiding the house where they lived in the commune of Quilpué.

"During the month of August 1974, around 00:00 hours, the house of the victims, minors at that time, located in the Seventh Sector of Belloto Sur, was raided by a large number of Chilean Navy officials, coming from the El Belloto Naval Air Base," the resolution details.

At the same time, they maintain that the objective of the raid was to look for the victims' older sister, whom they assumed was a member of the Communist Youth.

"At the time the events occurred, the victims were in the care of their older sister, because 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 investigation confirmed that the convicted individuals caused various damages to the home after entering, in addition to stealing valuables that were inside. Furthermore, they confirmed that "on several occasions, during the detention of the victims, they were beaten with the weapons carried by the uniformed officers, while they searched and registered the rooms looking for weapons."

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

The ruling also ordered the state to pay an indemnity of 35 million pesos to the victims for the moral damage caused.

Source: eldesconcierto.cl, December 28, 2018

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

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

The military personnel from Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship were convicted by the minister in extraordinary visitation for human rights violation cases of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Max Cancino Cancino.

The news portal of the University of Valparaíso, Chile, explained that the conviction of seven retired Navy members was due to their responsibility in the crime of "kidnapping with serious harm or aggravated 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, with the legal accessories of absolute perpetual disqualification from public offices and positions and political rights, and absolute disqualification from 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 from political rights and absolute disqualification from public offices and positions for the duration of the sentence, as a co-author 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 minister in visitation considered the following facts proven:

"That there existed a hierarchical and disciplined military intelligence group, 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 civilian was apprehended, 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 had others at its disposal, such as the Quilpué Investigative Police Station, premises where 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 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, who 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.

Investigations 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 measures 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 a case or naval 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 premises by the Intelligence Service officials were not to be registered.

The same happened 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 civilians opposed to the military regime.

In that place, the prisoners had to remain permanently in a prone position, with their hands behind their backs, outdoors, and guarded by at least two armed officials from the Naval Air Base. This sector was strictly restricted, with only officials from 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 justification, was taken on several occasions to the Air Control Information Office, where he was interrogated and physically pressured by officials of the Ancla 2 Naval Intelligence Service and in the presence of the military command and other officials who collaborated closely with that Service, all with the aim of getting him to 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 October 1973, transferred the victim and kept him deprived of liberty in the cells of the Quilpué Investigative Police Station.

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

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

Due to the complaint that the Chief of that Sub-station expressed to the Naval Command regarding the victim's state of health, he was removed from that place by officials of the intelligence group, to an unknown destination, and there has been no news of his whereabouts to date."

In civil matters, the ruling upheld the lawsuit filed and ordered the state to pay an indemnity of 150,000,000 pesos for moral damages to the victim's father (Ramón Andrés Blanco Fernández); and 75,000,000 pesos to a brother.

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

Supreme Court convicts retired Navy members for kidnapping of minor siblings in 1974

In a unanimous ruling, the Second Chamber of the highest court convicted Pedro Frioli Otonel, Manuel Buch López, Arístides León Calffas, Guillermo Retamales Ruiz, and Germán Valdivia Keller to 541 days in prison, with the benefit of supervised release, for their responsibility in the crime of simple kidnapping of siblings José Miguel and Isabel Verónica Sánchez Larraín (children at the time of the events).

The crime was committed in August 1974, in the El Belloto sector of the commune of Quilpué.

The Supreme Court convicted retired Navy members Pedro Victorio Frioli Otonel, Manuel Alejandro Buch López, Arístides León Calffas, Guillermo Retamales Ruiz, and Germán Patricio Valdivia Keller to 541 days in prison, with the benefit of supervised release, for their responsibility in the crime of simple kidnapping of siblings José Miguel and Isabel Verónica Sánchez Larraín (children at the time of the events).

The crime was committed in August 1974, in the El Belloto sector of the commune of Quilpué.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 21.037-2020), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of judges Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Leopoldo Llanos, and judge María Teresa Letelier—partially accepted the cassation appeal filed by the common defense of the sentenced Retamales Ruz and Valdivia Keller and, in a replacement sentence, recognized only the mitigating circumstance of irreproachable prior conduct of the convicted Valdivia Keller.

"That, regarding the defense's protest that regarding the sentenced Valdivia Keller, not only was the mitigating circumstance of Article 11 No. 6 of the Penal Code not recognized, but the aggravating circumstance of Article 12 No. 16 of the same body of law was considered configured, despite the fact that at the date of the occurrence of the events his criminal record was clean, it is necessary to point out that the justification given by the lower court judges to proceed in such a way is erroneous in that it cites, as a basis for dismissing his irreproachable prior conduct—and incidentally for considering the aggravating circumstance of specific recidivism configured—a conviction that dates from the year 2014, that is, a criminal reproach determined forty years after the event that has been judged in these proceedings," the ruling maintains.

The resolution adds: "That, this being the case, it arises that the reasons put forward by the court to discard the modifying circumstance of criminal responsibility of irreproachable prior conduct—provided for in Article 11 No. 6 of the Penal Code—and, consequently, to consider the aggravating circumstance of Article 12 No. 16 of the Penal Code configured, are contrary to law, since from reading the precepts in question it is inferred that the requirement of maintaining an irreproachable prior conduct—as well as that of having been previously convicted by the culprit for a crime of the same species—relate to the behavior prior to the commission of the punishable act that is currently being judged, so that by having proceeded the lower court judges in the way they did, they incurred in an infringement of law that has substantially influenced the dispositive part of the ruling, in that they configured regarding the defendant Valdivia Keller an aggravating circumstance of criminal responsibility that was not appropriate, denying him in the process the mitigating circumstance of irreproachable prior conduct, which was fully applicable, and incurring in an erroneous and more burdensome determination of the penalty attributed to said defendant," concludes the cassation ruling.

Therefore, it is resolved in the replacement sentence:

"I.- The appealed sentence of December 5, 2017, is confirmed, with the declaration that the accused Germán Patricio Valdivia Keller, Pedro Victorio Frioli Otonel, Manuel Alejandro Buch López, Arístides León Calffas, and Guillermo Retamales Ruz are convicted as authors of the consummated crime of simple kidnapping, described and punished in Article 141, paragraph 1 of the Penal Code, which occurred in the month of August 1974, in the town of El Belloto, commune of Quilpué, to suffer each of them a penalty of five hundred and forty-one (541) days of minor prison in its degree, plus legal accessories.

II.- Meeting the requirements provided for in Article 4 of Law No. 18.216, modified by Law No. 20.603, regarding the defendants Germán Patricio Valdivia Keller, Pedro Victorio Frioli Otonel, Manuel Alejandro Buch López, Arístides León Calffas, and Guillermo Retamales Ruz, the fulfillment of the corporal sanction imposed is substituted by the penalty of conditional remission for the same term as that of the custodial sanction imposed—five hundred and forty-one days—, with the convicted remaining subject to the discreet observation and assistance before the administrative authority during said period of time."

Kidnapping In the first-instance sentence, the minister in visitation of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Jaime Arancibia Pinto, established the following facts:

"That during the month of August 1974, around 00:00 hours, the house of the victims, minors at that time, located in the Seventh Sector of Belloto Sur, was raided by a large number of Chilean Navy officials, coming from the El Belloto Naval Air Base.

That the purpose of the raid was to search for and detain the victims' older sister, who was said to belong to the Communist Youth. At the time the events occurred, the victims were in the care of their older sister, because 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. That at the moment the naval patrol entered the home, it caused various damages to the house, in addition to stealing the valuables that were found inside.

On several occasions, during the detention of the victims, they were beaten with the weapons carried by the uniformed officers, while they searched and registered the rooms looking for weapons. The naval patrol was stationed inside the home until the next day, after having slept and consumed all the food that was in the house, thereby keeping the victims kidnapped inside their own home."

Source: pdju.cl, March 3, 2023