This concerns the case of aggravated kidnapping of Darío Miranda Godoy, recorded in 1976, which was ruled on this Wednesday by the Ninth Chamber of the Court of Appeals. The appellate court also issued sentences in the case of the 1973 homicide in Coquimbo of the married couple consisting of the Argentine Bernardo Lejderman and the Mexican María del Rosario Ávalos.

The Ninth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals, in two separate resolutions and with a different composition of magistrates, issued two sentences in investigations into human rights violations that were probed by visiting ministers of the capital's appellate court.

As reported by the Judiciary's Communications Department, in the first case, and in a split decision, the chamber composed of ministers Juan Escobar Zepeda, Juan Manuel Muñoz Pardo, and the acting lawyer Rodrigo Asenjo Zegers sentenced former Army officers Fernando Guillermo Santiago Polanco Gallardo, Luis Humberto Fernández Monje, and Héctor Omar Vallejos Birtiola to 10 years and one day in prison for the homicides of the married couple Bernardo Mario Lejderman Konujowska (Argentine) and María del Rosario Ávalos Castañeda (Mexican), which occurred on December 8, 1973, in the Quebrada de Gualliguaica in the Coquimbo Region. The ruling also acquitted former Army officer Ariosto Alberto Francisco Lapostol Orrego due to a lack of participation in the events and ordered the State to pay the sum of 300 million pesos for the moral damages caused to the couple's son, Ernesto Yoliztly Lejderman Ávalos, who was left an orphan at two and a half years of age following the homicide of his parents. Magistrate Escobar and acting lawyer Asenjo (author of the ruling) were in favor of overturning the first-instance sentence of the special visiting minister Joaquín Billard Acuña, who on July 14, 2006, acquitted the four officers by applying the statute of limitations to the criminal action. The majority judges determined that the homicides of the Lejderman-Ávalos couple are crimes against humanity and therefore imprescriptible, both from a criminal perspective and from the perspective of civil law. Meanwhile, Minister Muñoz Pardo (minority vote) was in favor of confirming Judge Billard's resolution and applying the statute of limitations, estimating that the Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and the so-called Geneva Conventions do not apply in Chile, as both international instruments have not been approved by Chile. Darío Miranda and others case In the second case, also in a split decision, ministers Jorge Dahm Oyarzún, Víctor Montiglio Rezzio, and acting lawyer Paola Herrera Fuenzalida ratified the first-instance ruling that sentenced the former director of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), General (ret.) Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, and Carlos López Tapia to 10 years and one day in prison and five years in prison, respectively, for the aggravated kidnappings of Darío Francisco Miranda Godoy, José Gerardo Solovera Gallardo, and Enrique Jeria Silva, which occurred on August 18, 1976, at three different points in the Metropolitan Region. In a first-instance ruling on January 31, special visiting minister Juan Eduardo Fuentes Belmar had issued the sentence against Contreras Sepúlveda and López Tapia, dismissing the defense's arguments for both convicted men to apply the statute of limitations and the 1978 Amnesty Decree Law. Judge Dahm and lawyer Herrera supported the ratification of the sentence, considering the events to be crimes against humanity and therefore imprescriptible and non-amnestiable. For his part, Minister Montiglio estimated that it was necessary to overturn the first-instance ruling, accepting the application of the 1978 Amnesty Law, estimating that this legal body is fully in force in Chile and that the international instruments that sanction human rights violations are not applicable, as these instruments have not been ratified by the country. With these two sentences, the Santiago Court of Appeals completes 18 sentences in cases of human rights violations during 2007 and 38 rulings since the first conviction in this type of investigation, issued in 2004.

Source: elmostrador.cl, December 19, 2007

Former dictator-era repressor dies in prison

The former military officer, who suffered from terminal gallbladder cancer and whose leg had been amputated due to diabetes, was admitted on May 14 to the hospital at the Punta Peuco military prison center, about 35 kilometers northeast of Santiago, where he died this Tuesday night, sources specified.

Vallejos Birtiola entered prison in August 2009 to serve a five-year and one-day prison sentence for the aggravated homicides of the Argentine Bernardo Lejderman and his wife, the Mexican María del Rosario Ávalos, which occurred on December 8, 1973, a few months after Augusto Pinochet's coup d'état.

The couple was murdered in the Elqui Valley, in the Coquimbo region, about 500 kilometers north of Santiago, when they were apparently attempting to flee to Argentina through a pass in the Andes mountains.

The case was opened in Chile due to a complaint filed in the year 2000 by the couple's son, who was two years old at the time of the events, against Pinochet and other members of the Army for crimes of "homicide, illicit genocidal association, and illegal burial." Along with Vallejos, retired Brigadier Fernando Polanco Gallardo and former non-commissioned officer Luis Fernández Monje were also convicted.

Last March, Vallejos requested a presidential pardon for humanitarian reasons, a request that was denied. Two other individuals convicted of human rights violations have died in prison: Carlos Marco Muñoz, a former member of the "Lautaro" brigade of Pinochet's secret police, who died in 2005, and Osvaldo Romo Mena, alias "el guatón Romo," who was also part of the DINA and died in 2007.

Source: euromundoglobal.com, May 27, 2010

Human Rights: Three former agents have died while serving sentences

The death of former agent Héctor Vallejos Birtiola, which occurred the night before last, became the third case of a human rights violator dying from a terminal illness while serving a sentence. He was interned at Punta Peuco.

Before him, in 2007, former repressors Osvaldo Romo and Osvaldo Pincetti died under similar circumstances. That same year, while serving preventive detention at the Peñalolén Military Police Battalion after being prosecuted in the Conferencia case, former Lautaro Brigade member Carlos Marcos Muñoz died in a strange suicide.

More than a dozen former agents have died to date from various causes while prosecuted but enjoying provisional freedom with trials in progress. In this capacity, the former Army vice-commander-in-chief indicted for the Pisagua crimes, General (ret.) Carlos Forestier Hänsgen, died in 2005.

Likewise, former chief of the Purén brigade and the Delfín group, Colonel (ret.) Germán Barriga, who was also prosecuted and on provisional release, died in January 2005 by jumping from a building. Vallejos, who suffered from cancer, had requested a presidential pardon on March 2, 2010, but then-President Bachelet denied it.

However, in 2009, Vallejos had received a significant benefit from the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court which, applying the "Dolmetsch doctrine"—a compensatory measure named after its author and member of that chamber, Hugo Dolmetsch—reduced his sentence from ten years and one day to 5 years and one day.

At that time, Vallejos and the other two convicted men, Brigadier (ret.) Fernando Polanco and non-commissioned officer (ret.) Luis Fernández, who received the same reduction, were on the verge of being acquitted when two of the five members of that criminal chamber, Rubén Ballesteros and Nibaldo Segura, who were in favor of amnesty and the statute of limitations for crimes against humanity, voted for acquittal.

Vallejos was serving a sentence as a co-perpetrator of the 1973 crime in La Serena, on the border with Argentina, against the Argentine-Mexican couple Bernardo Ledjerman and María Avalos. According to the case file, the couple's two-year-old son, Ernesto, was placed in the custody of the Sisters of Providence in La Serena by then-Lieutenant Juan Emilio Cheyre, arguing that his parents "committed suicide."

MINISTER

Yesterday, Minister of Justice Felipe Bulnes said that pardoning human rights violators "is a complex issue," because "natural mercy is combined with our commitment to enforce the law." The vice president of the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared, Mireya García, stated that "life and death are part of our existence, and that does not imply that human rights violators should go free because they suffer from an illness." The AFDD opposes the Church asking the government for pardons.

Source: lanacion.cl, May 31, 2010

Justice: Rejection of pardon for deceased former military officer "occurred before we took office"

Minister of Justice Felipe Bulnes clarified that the presidential pardon requested by former Army non-commissioned officer Héctor Vallejos Birtiola, who died last night of cardiac arrest, was presented on March 2 "and was rejected by the previous administration.

The rejection occurred before we took office; it is not something we had to resolve." In any case, in Bulnes's opinion, every time a pardon request is presented for humanitarian reasons, it is "complex and very difficult to resolve, because natural mercy is combined with the idea of doing justice." Regarding whether he will take into account the Church's proposal on Bicentennial pardons, the minister said that said topic is not within the government's program, although he would analyze it once the proposal is on the table.

Vallejos suffered from terminal gallbladder cancer and had been interned in the prison hospital since May 14. He was convicted along with Brigadier Fernando Polanco Gallardo and non-commissioned officer Luis Fernández Monje for the aggravated homicides of Argentine citizen Bernardo Lejderman and his Mexican wife, María del Rosario Ávalos, which occurred on December 8, 1973, in the Elqui Valley, Coquimbo Region.

Source: latercera.cl, May 26, 2010

Minister Mario Carroza issues indictment in Caravana de la Muerte case, La Serena episode

The visiting minister of the Santiago Court of Appeals issued an indictment against 16 retired Army members for their responsibility as perpetrators and accomplices in the homicides of 15 people in the "La Serena Episode" of the so-called Caravana de la Muerte case.

The magistrate held Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Sergio Arredondo González, Juan Chiminelli Fullerton, Ariosto Lapostol Orrego, and Víctor Alegre Rodríguez responsible as perpetrators, and Emilio de la Mahotiere González, Luis Felipe Polanco Gallardo, Jaime Ojeda Torrent, Hernán Valdebenito Bugmann, Guillermo Raby Arancibia, Hugo Leiva González, Juan Emilio Cheyre Espinosa, Mario Vargas Miguieles, Mario Larenas Carmona, Luis Humberto Fernández Monjes, and Luis Araos Flores as accomplices in the kidnappings of the 15 victims detained on October 16, 1973.

The victims are: Óscar Gastón Aedo Herrera, Marcos Enrique Barrantes Alcayaga, Mario Alberto Ramírez Sepúlveda, Hipólito Pedro Cortés Álvarez, Jorge Abel Contreras Godoy, Roberto Guzmán Santa Cruz, Jorge Mario Jordán Domic, Gabriel Gonzalo Vergara Muñoz, Carlos Enrique Alcayaga Varela, Jorge Ovidio Osorio Zamora, Jorge Eduardo Araya González, Óscar Armando Cortés Cortés, Manuel Jachadur Marcarian Jamett, Víctor Fernando Escobar Astudillo, and Jorge Washington Peña Hen, perpetrated on October 16, 1973.

The investigation managed to determine that: 1.- That as a result of the events that took place in the country starting September 11, 1973, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army at the time, Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, had entrusted his subordinate, Brigadier General Sergio Arellano Stark (currently deceased), to travel the country to accelerate the proceedings affecting political prisoners and, in their case, proceed to execute them; 2.- That in one of the stages of this illicit action, in the morning hours of October 16, 1973, General Arellano arrived in the city of La Serena in a "Puma" helicopter of the Chilean Army with a group of military personnel, among whom were officers Sergio Arredondo González, Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Emilio de la Mahotiere González, Luis Polanco Gallardo, Juan Chiminelli Fullerton, Marcelo Moren Brito (deceased), and Hugo Héctor Leiva González, and after disembarking, he held a meeting with the First Commander of the No. 2 Arica Artillery Regiment of La Serena, Ariosto Lapostol Orrego, and informed him of his mission, for which he required from Military Prosecutor Manuel Adolfo Cazanga Pereira (deceased) the military files where political prisoners were listed, and then selected the detainees who were to be executed. In order to comply with that decision, an Army contingent in official vehicles in charge of Non-Commissioned Officer Héctor Vallejos Birtiola (deceased) and Sergeant Luis Segundo Esteban Araos Flores traveled to the La Serena Public Jail and removed the victims Oscar Gastón Aedo Herrera, Marcos Enrique Barrantes Alcayaga, Mario Alberto Ramírez Sepúlveda, Hipólito Pedro Cortés Álvarez, Jorge Abel Contreras Godoy, Roberto Guzmán Santa Cruz, Jorge Mario Jordán Domic, Gabriel Gonzalo Vergara Muñoz, Carlos Enrique Alcayaga Varela, Jorge Ovidio Osorio Zamora, José Eduardo Araya González, Oscar Armando Cortés Cortés, Manuel Jachadur Marcarian Jamett, Víctor Fernando Escobar Astudillo, and Jorge Washington Peña Hen from the prison, whom they transported without any decree or authorization to the Regiment and placed at the disposal of the military authority of the city of La Serena. Parallel to this circumstance, the detainee Oscar Gastón Aedo Herrera was taken from the dungeons of the same Regiment, whom they led and joined with the other prisoners to the shooting range of that military facility; 3.- That the aforementioned shooting range of the La Serena Regiment was guarded by two security rings; the first was located in the courtyard of the military unit and was in charge of then-Second Lieutenant Mario Emilio Larenas Carmona, and the second security ring, very close to the first, was in charge of First Sergeant Héctor Omar Vallejos (deceased), seconded by then-First Corporal Luis Humberto Fernández Monjes, along with a group of reserve soldiers. Once at the range, the detainees were executed without prior trial by means of shots fired by Army personnel; 4.- That subsequently, and in the manner already planned, the Regiment's troops proceeded to register the deaths of the victims without having performed the respective autopsies, nor even recognition by their relatives; immediately afterward, military personnel proceeded to transport their bodies to the local cemetery and buried them in a common grave, in a hidden manner, for which the Regiment's authorities had previously made the pertinent arrangements with the administration of the Municipal Cemetery. 5.- That once the stage of disappearance of the victims' bodies was concluded, the Regiment's authorities, particularly the Zone Headquarters, decided to publish a Military Communiqué in the media informing the citizenry of the execution of fifteen extremists in compliance with what was resolved by Military Tribunals in Times of War, which both the Regiment Commander and his Aide who took it to the media and the officers of said military unit were certain had not happened, and that the execution occurred without prior trial, based solely on the circumstance of their ideology; 6.- That in 1998, the Legal Medical Service found human remains in the Municipal Cemetery of La Serena, so it carried out expert reports and recognition procedures, managing to identify the 15 victims shot on October 16, 1973, verifying that all of them presented multiple projectile impacts in different parts of their bodies.

Source: madero.cl, April 26, 2017

Indictment issued against Juan Emilio Cheyre for "Caravana de la Muerte" case

The visiting minister of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Mario Carroza, issued an indictment against 16 retired Army members for their responsibility as perpetrators and accomplices in the homicides of 15 people in the "La Serena Episode" of the so-called Caravana de la Muerte case.

The magistrate held Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Sergio Arredondo González, Juan Chiminelli Fullerton, Ariosto Lapostol Orrego, and Víctor Alegre Rodríguez responsible as perpetrators, and Emilio de la Mahotiere González, Luis Felipe Polanco Gallardo, Jaime Ojeda Torrent, Hernán Valdebenito Bugmann, Guillermo Raby Arancibia, Hugo Leiva González, Juan Emilio Cheyre Espinosa, Mario Vargas Miguieles, Mario Larenas Carmona, Luis Humberto Fernández Monjes, and Luis Araos Flores as accomplices in the kidnappings of the 15 victims detained on October 16, 1973.

Óscar Aedo Herrera, Marcos Barrantes Alcayaga, Mario Ramírez Sepúlveda, Hipólito Cortés Álvarez, Jorge Contreras Godoy, Roberto Santa Cruz, Jorge Jordán Domic, Gabriel Vergara Muñoz, Carlos Alcayaga Varela, Jorge Osorio Zamora, Jorge Araya González, Óscar Cortés Cortés, Manuel Marcarian Jamett, Víctor Escobar Astudillo, and Jorge Washington Peña Hen are the victims of the crimes perpetrated that October 16, 1973.

The "La Serena Episode" Among the background information that the investigation managed to determine, it is established that as a result of the events that took place in the country starting September 11, 1973, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army at the time, Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, had entrusted his subordinate, Brigadier General Sergio Arellano Stark (currently deceased), to travel the country to accelerate the proceedings affecting political prisoners and, in their case, proceed to execute them.

In one of the stages of this illicit action, in the morning hours of October 16, 1973, General Arellano arrived in the city of La Serena in a "Puma" helicopter of the Chilean Army with a group of military personnel, among whom were officers Sergio Arredondo González, Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Emilio de la Mahotiere González, Luis Polanco Gallardo, Juan Chiminelli Fullerton, Marcelo Moren Brito (deceased), and Hugo Héctor Leiva González.

After disembarking, Arellano held a meeting with the First Commander of the No. 2 Arica Artillery Regiment of La Serena, Ariosto Lapostol Orrego, and informed him of his mission, for which he required from Military Prosecutor Manuel Adolfo Cazanga Pereira (deceased) the military files where political prisoners were listed, and then selected the detainees who were to be executed.

In order to comply with that decision, an Army contingent (within which was Cheyre) in official vehicles in charge of Non-Commissioned Officer Héctor Vallejos Birtiola (deceased) and Sergeant Luis Segundo Esteban Araos Flores traveled to the La Serena Public Jail and removed the aforementioned 15 victims from the prison.

All of them were transported without any decree or authorization to the Regiment and placed at the disposal of the military authority of the city of La Serena. Parallel to this circumstance, the detainee Oscar Gastón Aedo Herrera was taken from the dungeons of the same Regiment, whom they led and joined with the other prisoners to the shooting range of that military facility.

The aforementioned shooting range of the La Serena Regiment was guarded by two security rings; the first was located in the courtyard of the military unit and was in charge of then-Second Lieutenant Mario Emilio Larenas Carmona, and the second security ring, very close to the first, was in charge of First Sergeant Héctor Omar Vallejos (deceased), seconded by then-First Corporal Luis Humberto Fernández Monjes, along with a group of reserve soldiers.

Once at the range, the detainees were executed without prior trial by means of shots fired by Army personnel. Subsequently, and in the manner already planned, the Regiment's troops proceeded to register the deaths of the victims without having performed the respective autopsies, nor even recognition by their relatives, and then military personnel proceeded to transport their bodies to the local cemetery and buried them in a common grave, in a hidden manner, for which the Regiment's authorities had previously made the pertinent arrangements with the administration of the Municipal Cemetery.

Once the stage of disappearance of the victims' bodies was concluded, the Regiment's authorities, particularly the Zone Headquarters, decided to publish a Military Communiqué in the media informing the citizenry of the execution of fifteen extremists in compliance with what was resolved by Military Tribunals in Times of War, which both the Regiment Commander and his Aide who took it to the media and the officers of said military unit were certain had not happened, and that the execution occurred without prior trial, based solely on the circumstance of their ideology.

In 1998, the Legal Medical Service found human remains in the Municipal Cemetery of La Serena, so it carried out expert reports and recognition procedures, managing to identify the 15 victims shot on October 16, 1973, verifying that all of them presented multiple projectile impacts in different parts of their bodies.

Last September, Minister Mario Carroza reopened the summary of the "La Serena episode" of the "Caravana de la Muerte" after the appearance of the guard book of that city's jail from October 1973. In said document, it speaks of the departure from the facility of at least 50 political prisoners, among whom were the 15 who are part of the case.

The information contained in the book would reaffirm the testimony of Nicolás Barrantes, then 17 years old, brother of one of the victims of the Caravana (Marcos Enrique Barrantes), who declared that he was tortured by Juan Emilio Cheyre at the Arica regiment in La Serena.

Source: elciudadano, May 26, 2017

Caravana de la Muerte Case: Minister Mario Carroza sentences 11 retired military officers for the La Serena episode.

The visiting minister for human rights violation cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Mario Carroza, issued a sentence against 11 retired military officers as perpetrators and accomplices in 15 crimes of homicide.

These illicit acts were perpetrated in the framework of the so-called Caravana de la Muerte during its passage through La Serena in October 1973. In the ruling, the special minister sentenced Ariosto Alberto Francisco Lapostol Orrego to 15 years and one day in prison as the perpetrator of the repeated crimes of aggravated homicide of: Óscar Gastón Aedo Herrera, Marcos Enrique Barrantes Alcayaga, Mario Alberto Ramírez Sepúlveda, Hipólito Pedro Cortés Álvarez, Jorge Abel Contreras Godoy, Roberto Guzmán Santa Cruz, Jorge Mario Jordán Domic, Gabriel Gonzalo Vergara Muñoz, Carlos Enrique Alcayaga Varela, Jorge Ovidio Osorio Zamora, José Eduardo Araya González, Óscar Armando Cortés Cortés, Manuel Jachadur Marcarian Jamett, Víctor Fernando Escobar Astudillo, and Jorge Washington Peña Hen, perpetrated on October 16, 1973. Meanwhile, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Juan Viterbo Chiminelli Fullerton, Víctor Hugo Alegre Rodríguez, Jaime Manuel Ojeda Torrent, and Emilio Robert de la Mahotiere González must serve five years and one day in prison as accomplices to the crimes; and former military officers Hernán Emilio Valdebenito Bugmann, Guillermo Óscar Raby Arancibia, Juan Emilio del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Cheyre Espinoza, Mario Hernando Vargas Miguieles, and Luis Segundo Araos Flores were sentenced to 3 years and one day in prison, with the benefit of supervised release, as cover-ups. In the case, Minister Carroza decreed the acquittal of Luis Felipe Polanco Gallardo, Hugo Héctor Leiva González, Mario Emilio Larenas Carmona, and Luis Humberto Fernández Monjes, as their participation in the events was not proven. During the investigation stage of the case, Minister Carroza managed to establish the following facts: 1.- That as a result of the events that took place in the country starting September 11, 1973, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army at the time, Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, had entrusted his subordinate, Brigadier General Sergio Arellano Stark (currently deceased), to travel the country to accelerate the proceedings affecting political prisoners and, in their case, proceed to execute them; 2.- That in one of the stages of this illicit action, in the morning hours of October 16, 1973, General Arellano arrived in the city of La Serena in a "Puma" helicopter of the Chilean Army with a group of military personnel, among whom were officers Sergio Arredondo González, Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Emilio de la Mahotiere González, Luis Polanco Gallardo, Juan Chiminelli Fullerton, Marcelo Moren Brito (deceased), and Hugo Héctor Leiva González, and after disembarking, he held a meeting with the First Commander of the No. 2 Arica Artillery Regiment of La Serena, Ariosto Lapostol Orrego, and informed him of his mission, for which he required from Military Prosecutor Manuel Adolfo Cazanga Pereira (deceased) the military files where political prisoners were listed, and then selected the detainees who were to be executed. In order to comply with that decision, an Army contingent in official vehicles in charge of Non-Commissioned Officer Héctor Vallejos Birtiola (deceased) and Sergeant Luis Segundo Esteban Araos Flores traveled to the La Serena Public Jail and removed the victims Oscar Gastón Aedo Herrera, Marcos Enrique Barrantes Alcayaga, Mario Alberto Ramírez Sepúlveda, Hipólito Pedro Cortés Álvarez, Jorge Abel Contreras Godoy, Roberto Guzmán Santa Cruz, Jorge Mario Jordán Domic, Gabriel Gonzalo Vergara Muñoz, Carlos Enrique Alcayaga Varela, Jorge Ovidio Osorio Zamora, José Eduardo Araya González, Oscar Armando Cortés Cortés, Manuel Jachadur Marcarian Jamett, Víctor Fernando Escobar Astudillo, and Jorge Washington Peña Hen from the prison, whom they transported without any decree or authorization to the Regiment and placed at the disposal of the military authority of the city of La Serena. Parallel to this circumstance, the detainee Oscar Gastón Aedo Herrera was taken from the dungeons of the same Regiment, whom they led and joined with the other prisoners to the shooting range of that military facility; 3. That the aforementioned shooting range of the La Serena Regiment was guarded by two security rings; the first was located in the courtyard of the military unit and was in charge of then-Second Lieutenant Mario Emilio Larenas Carmona, and the second security ring, very close to the first, was in charge of First Sergeant Héctor Omar Vallejos (deceased), seconded by then-First Corporal Luis Humberto Fernández Monjes, along with a group of reserve soldiers. Once at the range, the detainees were executed without prior trial by means of shots fired by Army personnel; 4.- That subsequently, and in the manner already planned, the Regiment's troops proceeded to register the deaths of the victims without having performed the respective autopsies, nor even recognition by their relatives; immediately afterward, military personnel proceeded to transport their bodies to the local cemetery and buried them in a common grave, in a hidden manner, for which the Regiment's authorities had previously made the pertinent arrangements with the administration of the Municipal Cemetery. 5.- That once the stage of disappearance of the victims' bodies was concluded, the Regiment's authorities, particularly the Zone Headquarters, decided to publish a Military Communiqué in the media informing the citizenry of the execution of fifteen extremists in compliance with what was resolved by Military Tribunals in Times of War, which both the Regiment Commander and his Aide who took it to the media and the officers of said military unit were certain had not happened, and that the execution occurred without prior trial, based solely on the circumstance of their ideology; 6.- That in 1998, the Legal Medical Service found human remains in the Municipal Cemetery of La Serena, so it carried out expert reports and recognition procedures, managing to identify the 15 victims shot on October 16, 1973, verifying that all of them presented multiple projectile impacts in different parts of their bodies. In the civil aspect, the ruling accepted the lawsuits filed, ordering the State of Chile to pay compensation to the victims' relatives in the amounts of $80,000,000, $70,000,000, and $40,000,000 (eighty, seventy, and forty million pesos). Other episodes Minister Mario Carroza's sentence is the latest in the series of rulings issued for the various investigated episodes into which the case known as Caravana de la Muerte was divided, which totals 96 victims of kidnappings and homicides, proceedings that since 1998 have been investigated and sentenced by visiting ministers. In the "San Javier" (4 victims) and "Arica" (3 victims) episodes, there are Supreme Court sentences from October 15, 2008, and December 3, 2008, respectively. Both proceedings were ruled on in the first instance by Minister Víctor Montiglio. In the "Antofagasta" (4 victims) episode, there is a Supreme Court ruling from December 15, 2015; the first-instance sentence was issued by Minister Leopoldo Llanos. In the "Copiapó" (16 victims) and "Curicó" (2 victims) episodes, there are Supreme Court rulings from April 10, 2017, and July 7, 2017, respectively. Both cases were ruled on in the first instance by Minister Patricia González. In the "Cauquenes" (4 victims) and "Valdivia" (12 victims) branches, there are only first-instance rulings by Minister Patricia González, issued on November 11, 2016, and November 22, 2017, respectively. In the "Calama" (26 victims) episode, there is a first-instance sentence by visiting minister Hernán Crisosto, issued on April 23, 2018. Furthermore, in this last episode, there is a first-instance sentence for the illegal exhumation of remains, issued by Minister Leopoldo Llanos on May 19, 2015.

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl, November 9, 2018