The transfer of the majority of the 33 prisoners sentenced for the deaths of five members of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez (FPMR) in 1987 to that facility has begun. The prison has a special module for them.

This morning, the transfer of the majority of the 33 individuals convicted of the crimes against five FPMR members to Colina 1 Prison began, which will receive those sentenced for human rights cases for the first time.

The sentences handed down by Judge Mario Carroza follow the case regarding the deaths of Julián Peña Maltés, Alejandro Pinochet Arenas, Manuel Sepúlveda Sánchez, Gonzalo Fuenzalida Navarrete, and Julio Muñoz Otárola, who were kidnapped in September 1987 with the goal of exchanging them for Colonel Carlos Carreño, who had been abducted by the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez (FPMR), in what is considered the final repressive act of the DINE and the CNI during the dictatorship.

Ultimately, once the military officer was released in Brazil in December of that year, it was decided that the five would be murdered and thrown into the sea by the Army Aviation Command. Given that the capacity of the Punta Peuco prison is practically full, with the exception of five spots that will be occupied for this case, it was decided to transfer the remaining sentenced individuals to Colina 1, where they will have a module specially conditioned to receive them and will be isolated from the rest of the facility's population.

Meanwhile, the only woman involved will be sent to the Women's Penitentiary Center. Among those convicted are 13 who are already serving sentences for other crimes. Among them is Álvaro Corbalán, who received 15 years, the same amount as Hugo Salas Wenzel.

Sentenced to 10 years were Iván Quiroz Ruiz, Gonzalo Maas del Valle, Raúl Durán Martínez, Luis Santibáñez Aguilera, Víctor Ruiz Godoy, Juan Jorquera Abarzúa, Hernán Vásquez Villegas, Sergio Mateluna Pino, José Fuentes Pastenes, Juan Carlos Orellana Morales, Roberto Rodríguez Manquel, Alejandro Astudillo Adonis, José Salas Fuentes, Heraldo Velozo Gallegos, Marco Antonio Pincheira Ubilla, Jorge Ahumada Molina, José Morales Morales, Ema Ceballos Núñez, Patricio González Cortés, César Acuña Luengo, and René Valdovinos Morales.

Meanwhile, Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ross, Manuel Morales Acevedo, Manuel Ramírez Montoya, Aquiles Navarrete Izarnótegui, Fernando Rojas Tapia, Julio Cerda Carrasco, Marco Antonio Bustos Carrasco, Hugo Prado Contreras, and Rodrigo Pérez Martínez must serve five years and one day in prison.

Mario Campos Valladares, meanwhile, received three years and one day, which he must serve under supervised release. Raúl Meza, a defense attorney, expressed his concern for the safety of the relatives visiting the prisoners. "There is only one entrance (to the prison) and, in my opinion, neither the physical integrity nor the lives of the visitors are guaranteed," he stated.

Source: t13.cl, April 24, 2007

New indictments issued for the last disappeared of the dictatorship

Minister Mario Carroza indicted seven former CNI agents for the disappearance of five FPMR members, kidnapped in retaliation for the abduction of Colonel Carlos Carreño. Visiting Minister Mario Carroza indicted seven former agents of the Central Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI) for the aggravated kidnapping of five young militants of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez (FPMR) in September 1987.

The magistrate indicted them for varying degrees of participation in the kidnappings of José Julián Peña Maltés, Alejandro Pinochet Arenas, Manuel Sepúlveda Sánchez, Gonzalo Fuenzalida Navarrete, and Julio Muñoz Otárola, which occurred starting on September 1, 1987.

The resolution affects Juan Carlos Orellana Morales, Hernán Antonio Vásquez Villegas, Raúl del Carmen Durán Martínez, José Guillermo Salas Fuentes, Marco Antonio Pincheira Ubilla, and Jorge Raimundo Ahumada Molina.

The list also includes Iván Quiroz Ruiz, who had remained a fugitive in the Operation Albania case and was arrested on Wednesday night. According to the ruling, the first six former agents face charges as perpetrators of the aggravated kidnapping of Peña Maltés, while Quiroz was indicted for the same case, as well as for those of Pinochet Arenas, Sepúlveda Sánchez, Fuenzalida Navarrete, and Muñoz Otárola.

The investigation establishes as proven that the five FPMR members were kidnapped in retaliation for the kidnapping of Colonel Carlos Carreño Barrera, then an official of the Fábricas y Maestranzas del Ejército (Famae), perpetrated on September 1, 1987.

According to the investigation, the bodies of the five victims were thrown into the sea, for which Army helicopters were used. Other indicted individuals Before leaving the case and ascending to the Supreme Court in May 2007, Judge Haroldo Brito had indicted General (Ret.) Julio Cerda Carrasco, former head of the Army Intelligence Battalion (BIE), and retired officer Fernando Rafael Rojas Tapia, also a member of the aforementioned military body.

As accessories to the disappearances, he indicted Aquiles Navarrete Izarnótegui, Víctor Campos Valladares, and Hugo Barría Rogers. And in September 2006, Brito indicted twelve former CNI agents, among whom are General (Ret.) Hugo Salas Wenzel and his subordinates, Brigadier (Ret.) Álvaro Corbalán Castilla and Krantz Bauer Donoso, as co-perpetrators of the kidnapping of Sepúlveda Sánchez, Fuenzalida Navarrete, and Muñoz Otárola.

On that occasion, the judge also indicted former agents Manuel Ángel Morales Acevedo, César Acuña Luengo, and René Valdovinos Morales as co-perpetrators of the kidnappings of Peña Maltés, Sepúlveda Sánchez, Fuenzalida Navarrete, and Muñoz Otárola.

They were joined by former CNI members Víctor Ruiz Godoy, Manuel Ramírez Montoya, Luis Sanhueza Ross, and Luis Santibáñez Aguilera, who were indicted as co-perpetrators of the kidnappings of Pinochet Arenas, Sepúlveda Sánchez, Fuenzalida Navarrete, and Muñoz Otárola.

Source: elmostrador.cl, January 24, 2008

Quiroz among those indicted for the '87 kidnappings

Former CNI agent, captured last night in Concepción, in addition to his notification for the Albania case, was charged for the disappearance of 5 FPMR members in the final days of the Pinochet dictatorship.

Seven former uniformed officers, among them the recently arrested Iván Quiroz Ruiz, were indicted this morning by special judge Mario Carroza for their varying degrees of participation in the disappearance of 5 former FPMR members in September 1987.

In addition to the Carabineros colonel, the magistrate indicted Juan Carlos Orellana Morales, Hernán Antonio Vásquez Villegas, Raúl del Carmen Durán Martínez, José Guillermo Salas Fuentes, Marco Antonio Pincheira Uribe, and Jorge Raimundo Ahumada Molina.

Quiroz, who was part of the Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI), was notified of his indictment in this case by Carroza at the moment he was formally informed of his 10-year and one-day prison sentence for his role in Operation Albania.

According to the investigations, the 5 members of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez (FPMR) were kidnapped after that organization kidnapped Army Commander Carlos Carreño Barrera, eventually to exchange them for said officer, who was finally handed over alive in Brazil—a fate not shared by the civilians.

Based on such judicial evidence, the agents took the group to the Borgoño barracks of the dissolved CNI, where they were kept hidden and under guard. From this facility, days later, five bodies were removed by officials of the same organization, which are presumed to correspond to the FPMR members, and were later thrown into the sea from a military helicopter, which is why they were not identified.

The forcibly disappeared are Manuel Sepúlveda Sánchez, Gonzalo Fuenzalida Navarrete, Julio Muñoz Otárola, Julián Peña Maltés, and Alejandro Pinochet Arenas.

Source: tribunachilena.blogia.com, January 24, 2008

Supreme Court modifies ruling and convicts six CNI agents for the 1984 homicides of four people

The Supreme Court issued a final sentence for the aggravated homicides of Enzo Muñoz Arévalo, Héctor Patricio Sobarzo Núñez, Juan Manuel Varas Silva, and Ana Alicia Delgado Tapia, crimes perpetrated on July 2 and 3, 1984, in various parts of the Metropolitan Region.

Enzo Muñoz, 30 years old, was a merchant, originally from the Arauco province and a militant of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez (FPMR); Héctor Sobarzo, 31 years old, was a teacher, a native of Lebu and a militant of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR).

Both were friends since their years living in the south. For his part, Juan Varas was a militant of the MIR and Ana Delgado was a member of the FPMR. In a split decision (case file 27178-204), the Second Chamber of February—composed of ministers Hugo Dolmestch, Carlos Künsemüller, Haroldo Brito, Ricardo Blanco, and Andrea Muñoz—sentenced former Army officers and agents of the Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI): Álvaro Julio Federico Corbalán Castilla, former lieutenant colonel, currently serving a sentence at Punta Peuco Prison; Pedro Javier Guzmán Olivares, former colonel; Juan Eduardo Rubilar Ottone, former lieutenant colonel; Reimer Eduardo Kohlitz Fell, former Army major; and former Army non-commissioned officers Hernán Antonio Vásquez Villegas, alias "Pablito," and Jorge Eduardo Hernández Espinoza, alias "Oscarito," to 15 years and one day in prison for their responsibility in the homicides of the 4 victims. At the time the homicides occurred, Corbalán was serving as head of the Anti-Subversive Division of the CNI, which operated out of the Borgoño Barracks in the capital; the other convicted individuals were all members of the Green Brigade, a unit in charge of the persecution of the Communist Party and the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez. The first-instance ruling, issued in January 2012 by visiting minister Joaquín Billard, had sentenced Corbalán to 15 years in prison, Kohlitz Fell and Vásquez Villegas to 6 years, Rubilar Ottone and Hernández Espinoza to 3 years, and acquitted Guzmán Olivares. The repeated practice of fake confrontations According to the evidence gathered during the investigation stage, visiting minister Joaquín Billard managed to prove that the four victims were murdered by the agents, debunking the official version that identified them as having died in confrontations with security forces. "With the merit of the analyzed evidence, weighed in a legal manner, it has been established that, contrary to the official version, on July 2, 1984, at approximately 11:00 PM, personnel from the so-called Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI) who were traveling in a car from south to north, intercepted a private vehicle that was stopped on Avenida José Pedro Alessandri, three hundred meters before reaching the Departamental Roundabout, and at the moment one of the occupants of the private vehicle went to a public telephone booth located in front of No. 6132 of that avenue, the CNI personnel riddled the driver of the vehicle who was inside it with bullets at that site, and after putting the other subject into a utility-type van, proceeded to execute him in the vicinity of the 'Zanjón de la Aguada,' a few meters from the arrest, an illicit act constituting the crime of aggravated homicide against Enzo Muñoz Arévalo and Héctor Patricio Sobarzo Núñez," the ruling maintains. The resolution adds: "With the merit of what was outlined above, it is justified in the case files that, on the night of July 2, 1984, agents of the Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI), who made up the anti-subversive apparatus and whose headquarters were located at the Borgoño Barracks in this city, proceeded to arrest a man and a woman in the vicinity of the Departamental Roundabout, the place where a supposed confrontation had occurred between personnel of the former CNI and supposed extremists, to subsequently transport them both to the Borgoño Barracks located in this city, in whose basement they were interrogated. Subsequently, in the early morning hours, both detainees were removed from that place and transported to the vicinity of Callejón Lo Ovalle and San Petersburgo street in the San Joaquín commune, a place where, around 6:00 AM, under the pretext of an armed confrontation, both detainees were executed by members of the Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI), with the official version being given that the victims in the case had been killed in an armed confrontation in the vicinity of Callejón Lo Ovalle, acts constituting the crime of aggravated homicide perpetrated against Juan Manuel Varas Silva and Ana Alicia Delgado Tapia." The final decision of the Supreme Court was adopted with the dissenting votes of ministers Dolmestch and Künsemüller, who were in favor of applying the statute of limitations. This attitude is almost customary for these two judges, who are ideologically in favor of granting undue benefits to criminals, even contravening international commitments that oblige the Chilean State to adopt certain anti-impunity and anti-privilege behaviors in crimes against humanity and human rights.

Source: resumen.cl, August 10, 2015

33 former agents and military personnel convicted for the aggravated kidnappings of 5 FPMR members in 1987

In an unprecedented ruling, the Supreme Court confirmed the sentences of 33 former agents of the Central Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI), the Army Intelligence Battalion (BIE), and the Army Aviation Command for their responsibility in the aggravated kidnappings of Julián Peña Maltés, Alejandro Pinochet Arenas, Manuel Sepúlveda Sánchez, Gonzalo Fuenzalida Navarrete, and Julio Muñoz Otárola, crimes perpetrated starting in September 1987.

The country's highest court sentenced Álvaro Corbalán Castilla and Hugo Salas Wenzel to 15 years in prison as perpetrators of the aggravated kidnappings, while Iván Quiroz Ruiz, Gonzalo Maas del Valle, Raúl Durán Martínez, Luis Santibáñez Aguilera, Víctor Ruiz Godoy, Juan Jorquera Abarzúa, Hernán Vásquez Villegas, Sergio Mateluna Pino, José Fuentes Pastenes, Juan Carlos Orellana Morales, Roberto Rodríguez Manquel, Alejandro Astudillo Adonis, José Salas Fuentes, Heraldo Velozo Gallegos, Marco Antonio Pincheira Ubilla, Jorge Ahumada Molina, José Morales Morales, Ema Ceballos Núñez, Patricio González Cortés, César Acuña Luengo, and René Valdovinos Morales must serve 10 years and one day in prison for their responsibility as perpetrators of the five crimes. They are joined by former agents Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ross, Manuel Morales Acevedo, and Manuel Ramírez Montoya, who must serve 5 years and one day in prison as perpetrators of the aggravated kidnappings. Additionally, Aquiles Navarrete Izarnótegui, Fernando Rojas Tapia, Julio Cerda Carrasco, Marco Antonio Bustos Carrasco, Hugo Prado Contreras, and Rodrigo Pérez Martínez were sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison as accomplices to the crimes. Meanwhile, Mario Campos Valladares must serve 3 years and one day in prison, with the benefit of supervised release—meaning he will not enter prison. The judicial investigation determined that the kidnapping of the 5 members of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez was carried out as retaliation following the organization's kidnapping of former Army Colonel Carlos Carreño Barrera on September 1, 1987. "Between September 9 and 10 of the same year, they received instructions to arrest, without a judicial warrant, five members of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez, chosen from institutional files, to eventually exchange them for said officer. They acted through teams organized and coordinated by a general command, communicating via codes to hide their authorship and avoid being discovered by third parties," the investigation notes. Following this, they were subjected to interrogations and torture, and their bodies were finally thrown into the sea, tied to railroad ties. "Before the release of Colonel Carreño in Brazil and it not being possible to carry out an exchange, these security agencies decided on the elimination of the detainees and, for this, organized an operation that allowed the 5 bodies to be taken out like bundles from the facility where they were being held, apparently without life or previously drugged, and they were transported in an Army Aviation Command helicopter from Fort Peldehue to the coast of Quintay, where their bodies were finally thrown into the sea tied to railroad ties," the investigation states. The kidnapping of Carreño Barrera by the FPMR had the objective of publishing a proclamation against the dictatorship in all Chilean press media, the exchange for some political prisoners, and the distribution of food, clothing, toys, and construction materials in 13 neighborhoods of Santiago. The action was dubbed "Operation Prince" and showed the audacity of the organization, which allowed it to keep the military officer kidnapped for 3 months, only to later release him in Brazil, without the dictatorship having detected them, using clandestine border crossings. The negotiations failed and the Frente could not secure the release of the political prisoners; however, they agreed to the release of Carreño after his family paid 13 truckloads of clothing and food, which were distributed in poor neighborhoods of Santiago.

Source: resumen.cl, March 22, 2017

Former Army Colonel Juan Eduardo Rubilar Ottone, CNI agent a fugitive since 2015, captured in Pucón

This Sunday afternoon, in a supermarket in the city of Pucón, the Location of Persons Brigade (BRIUP) of the Investigative Police (PDI) managed to capture the former Army officer who operated in the CNI's Borgoño Barracks during the 1980s, forming part of the Anti-Subversive Division of the repressive entity in Santiago.

The captured Juan Eduardo Rubilar Ottone, alias "El Gato," used the alias "Pedro Lira," called himself "Captain Lira," and acted in the Plomo, Apache, and Café units, and in the Green Brigade of the aforementioned Division.

In the latter, he operated as head of the unit destined to combat the FPMR and the Communist Party. In August 2015, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the Supreme Court for the murders of Enzo Muñoz Arévalo, Patricio Sobarzo Núñez, Juan Varas Silva, and Ana Alicia Delgado Tapia, perpetrated on July 2 and 3, 1984, in Santiago.

Enzo Muñoz, 30 years old, was a merchant, originally from the Arauco province and a militant of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez (FPMR); Héctor Sobarzo, 31 years old, was a teacher, a native of Lebu and a militant of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR).

Both were friends since their years living in the south. For his part, Juan Varas was a militant of the MIR and Ana Delgado was a member of the FPMR. In the court's ruling, in addition to former Colonel Juan Eduardo Rubilar Ottone, the following former agents of the Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI) were convicted: Álvaro Julio Federico Corbalán Castilla, former lieutenant colonel, currently serving a sentence at Punta Peuco Prison; former Colonel Pedro Javier Guzmán Olivares; former Army major Reimer Eduardo Kohlitz Fell; and former Army non-commissioned officers Hernán Antonio Vásquez Villegas, alias "Pablito," and Jorge Eduardo Hernández Espinoza, alias "Oscarito," all to 15 years and one day in prison for their responsibility in the homicides of the 4 victims.

Source: resumen.cl, July 9, 2018

Another fugitive arrested for the crime against Patricio Sobarzo

In a Pucón supermarket, the Investigative Police arrested Juan Eduardo Rubilar Ottone, alias "Captain Lira," a former Army Colonel and agent of the Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI), who had been a fugitive since 2015 after being convicted of crimes committed during the dictatorship. "Captain Lira" commanded a CNI brigade made up of 25 agents.

His superior in the organization was Álvaro Corbalán, currently imprisoned in Punta Peuco. Rubilar Ottone is responsible for murdering, along with his team, four anti-dictatorship resistance members, among them the person who served as Executive Secretary of CODEPU, Héctor Patricio Sobarzo Núñez, who had gone to a clinic to inquire about and provide humanitarian aid to an FPMR militant who had been wounded in a propaganda action by said organization.

Patricio Sobarzo and Enzo Muñoz Arévalo, who had known each other for years, went to the location, but previously stopped at a public telephone to make a call, all in the vicinity of the Departamental Roundabout.

At that moment, they were murdered by the CNI brigade. Meanwhile, the left-wing militants who were at the clinic heard the shots and began to leave the place due to the danger of a raid. Among the people who left the residence were Juan Varas Silva and Ana Delgado Tapia, who were arrested in the vicinity of the house and taken to the CNI's Borgoño Barracks, where they were harshly interrogated and tortured, and then in the early morning hours were taken from that place and transported to the vicinity of Callejón Lo Ovalle and San Petersburgo street, in the San Joaquín commune.

There, around 6:00 AM, both detainees were executed by the CNI. For these crimes, among others, Álvaro Federico Julio Corbalán Castilla, Hernán Antonio Vásquez Villegas, Jorge Eduardo Hernández, Juan Eduardo Rubilar Ottone, and Reimer Eduardo Kohlitz Fell were convicted.

The latter was also a fugitive since 2015 and was only arrested in November of last year after an anti-drug operation by Carabineros. The version provided by the dictatorial authorities and the official press media in 1984 was that the crimes were the result of confrontations, which was clearly a farce.

Patricio Sobarzo was a history teacher, a colleague of Inés Castillo, and was one of the founders of the AGECH and the UNED. At the time of his death, at 31 years old, he was the regional secretary of CODEPU.

Since his adolescence in Concepción, he was a militant in the MIR and was president of the student center at the Enrique Molina Lyceum during the times of the Unidad Popular. After the civic-military coup, Patricio was detained for more than a year in the Concepción prison.

Upon being released, he moved to Chillán to study history pedagogy at the University of Chile. In 1981, he moved to Santiago, worked as a teacher, participated in the AGECH, and joined CODEPU. The arrest of the fugitive Juan Eduardo Rubilar Ottone and the previous arrest of the other fugitive, Reimer Eduardo Kohlitz Fell, must be considered a worrying situation, as they are not the only perpetrators of crimes against humanity who have been fugitives.

There are others. And everything indicates that on the part of the former agents of the dictatorial security services, there is only the desire to evade necessary justice, and there is no repentance for the crimes committed.

Source: codepu.cl, July 10, 2018