Eight spots at the Army Telecommunications Command in Peñalolén were allocated for an equal number of former agents of the National Information Center (CNI) who were prosecuted—as perpetrators of aggravated kidnapping—by visiting judge Mario Carroza in the case known as the five disappeared of '87.

This emblematic case relates to the final disappearances carried out during the dictatorship, which ended with members of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR) kidnapped, killed, and thrown into the sea (tied to railway sleepers) at the hands of members of the repressive apparatus and the Army Intelligence Battalion (BIE).

The events took place in the context of the kidnapping of Colonel Carlos Carreño Barrera. As established by the judge, between September 9 and 10, Julián Peña Maltés, Alejandro Pinochet Arenas, Manuel Sepúlveda Sánchez, Gonzalo Fuenzalida Navarrete, and Julio Muñoz Otárola—who were members of the FPMR—were detained without a judicial warrant, having been selected from institutional files to be used in a prisoner exchange for the kidnapped Carreño.

During those days, according to the indictment, they were held at the Borgoño Barracks, only to be eliminated once the officer appeared in Brazil. Following that episode, an operation was initiated to transport the bodies to the Peldehue Fort, from where they were transported by helicopter and thrown off the coast of Quintay, tied to railway sleepers to prevent them from surfacing.

The ruling highlights that after gathering a large amount of evidence, it is reasonable to believe that "these bodies correspond to the kidnapped persons, who, having been thrown into the sea, were not identified." In the case, it is acknowledged that individuals from different departments participated in an operation that involved "different stages," such as the detention, imprisonment, interrogation in the interval prior to their death, and the transport of their bodies to the depths of the sea.

Those charged are Gonzalo Maas del Valle, Heraldo Velozo Gallegos, Sergio Mateluna Pino, Roberto Rodríguez Manquel, José Fuentes Cortez, Juan Alejandro Jorquera Abarzúa, Alejandro Astudillo Adonis, and Patricio Leonidas González.

In conjunction with the prosecution, Judge Carroza ordered their entry into the Army Telecommunications Command, where they must remain for the duration of the investigation.

Source: lanacion.cl, April 2008

1987 forcibly disappeared: Convictions of CNI agents confirmed and increased

In a unanimous ruling, the Eleventh Chamber of the appellate court—composed of judges Mario Gómez Montoya, Alejandro Rivera, and Carlos Carrillo—ratified the sentence handed down in October 2013 by visiting judge Mario Carroza; however, it modified the sentences applied and the level of participation of some of those convicted for the kidnappings of the five members of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR), which corresponds to the last case of forcibly disappeared persons from the period between September 11, 1973, and March 10, 1990.

In the resolution, the 15-year prison sentences were ratified for: Hugo Salas Wenzel, former director of the National Information Center (CNI), and Álvaro Corbalán Castilla, in their capacity as perpetrators of the crimes.

Likewise, the sentences of 10 years and one day in prison were confirmed for Iván Quiroz Ruiz and Gonzalo Maass del Valle for their responsibility as perpetrators of the crimes. Sentences were increased from 5 years and one day to 10 years and one day in prison, also in the capacity of perpetrators, for Raúl Durán Martinez, 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 Cortez, César Acuña Luengo, and René Valdovinos Morales. Meanwhile, for former agent Luis Sanhueza Ross, the court maintained the sentence of 5 years and one day in prison for his responsibility as a perpetrator of the crimes. For agents Manuel Morales Acevedo and Manuel Ramírez Montoya, the sentence was increased from 3 years and one day to 5 years and one day, in their capacity as perpetrators of the crimes. For agents Aquiles Navarrete Izarnotegui, Fernando Rojas Tapia, Julio Cerda Carrasco, Marco Antonio Bustos Carrasco, and Hugo Prado Contreras, a sentence of 5 years and one day in prison was handed down for their responsibility as accomplices to the crimes, modifying their initial participation from accessories after the fact and, consequently, increasing their initial sentence of 3 years and one day in prison. In the case of Rodrigo Pérez Martínez and Víctor Campos Valladares, a sentence of 3 years and one day in prison was handed down—with the benefit of supervised release—for their responsibility as accomplices, changing their initial participation from accessories after the fact and increasing the initial sentence of 541 days in prison. Finally, Rodrigo Barría Roger, initially convicted as an accessory after the fact to 541 days in prison, was acquitted. In the civil aspect, the Santiago Court confirmed the claims for compensation filed against the State of Chile, determining that the treasury must pay 50 million pesos to each of the three parents and one child who were plaintiffs, and 20 million pesos to each of the nine siblings of the victims.

Source: villagrimaldi.cl, April 27, 2018

Supreme Court sentences 33 former state agents for aggravated kidnapping of 1987 forcibly disappeared persons

The Supreme Court sentenced 33 former agents of the National Intelligence Center (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.

In a split decision (case file 8.642-2015), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of judges Carlos Künsemüller, Lamberto Cisternas, Carlos Cerda, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, and Jorge Dahm—accepted the appeal for cassation filed against the sentence handed down by the Santiago Court of Appeals and issued a replacement sentence.

In the resolution, the Supreme Court sentenced agents Álvaro Corbalán Castilla and Hugo Salas Wenzel to 15-year prison terms in their capacity as perpetrators of the aggravated kidnappings. Meanwhile, 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. In addition, former agents Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ross, Manuel Morales Acevedo, and Manuel Ramírez Montoya must serve a sentence of 5 years and one day in prison as perpetrators of the aggravated kidnappings. Agents 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 in their capacity as accomplices to the crimes. Meanwhile, Mario Campos Valladares must serve 3 years and one day in prison, with the benefit of supervised release. Finally, agent Hugo Barría Rogers was acquitted of the charges. Thrown into the sea During the investigation stage of the case, visiting judge Mario Carroza managed to establish that the five victims were kidnapped by State agents in retaliation for the kidnapping of Army Colonel Carlos Carreño and were made to disappear in a joint operation between the CNI, the Army Intelligence Battalion (BIE), and the Army Aviation Command, with their remains thrown into the sea off the coast of Quintay. "On the occasion of the kidnapping of Army Colonel Carlos Carreño Barrera, which occurred in Santiago on September 1, 1987, officials of the National Information Center participated in a previously planned operation for the purpose of monitoring and following certain individuals. Between September 9 and 10 of the same year, they received instructions to detain, without a judicial warrant, five members of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, 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 detained persons were interrogated and kept hidden under custody at the Borgoño barracks of the aforementioned entity, with no intention whatsoever of placing them at the disposal of the respective judiciary. During the period they remained at the Borgoño Barracks, operational teams commanded by officers and personnel of the Army Intelligence Battalion, a unit belonging to the Army National Intelligence Directorate, commissioned to participate in the investigation aimed at clarifying the kidnapping of Colonel Carreño, established an official coordination with the National Information Center, allowing some of its agents to frequent and remain for several days in areas adjacent to the cells, with full knowledge that people were being held in those facilities for prolonged periods in an illicit manner, and thereby obtaining intelligence information. 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 purpose, organized an operation that allowed the 5 bodies to be removed as bundles from the premises where they were being held, apparently lifeless or previously drugged, and they were transported in an Army Aviation Command helicopter from the Peldehue Fort to the coast of Quintay, where their bodies were finally thrown into the sea tied to railway sleepers. From the above, it can only be concluded, due to the magnitude of the operation, in which there were different stages, such as the detention, subsequent imprisonment at the Borgoño barracks, the interrogation to which they were subjected, the search for railway sleepers, the request for a helicopter, and subsequently the transport of the bodies to the coast of Quintay in order to throw them into the sea, that not only agents who made up the CNI participated in such operations, but also members of the Intelligence Battalion belonging to the Army Intelligence Directorate and the Aviation Command of the same institution, operations that the military chain of command of the aforementioned organizations could not have been unaware of nor failed to control, since it is an institution with hierarchical power, in which there is a vertical and direct line of command. For the same reason, it is entirely reasonable to think, based on the information collected in the case, that these bodies correspond to the kidnapped persons, who, having been thrown into the sea, were not located or identified," the highest court's ruling details. In the civil aspect, the claims for compensation filed against the State of Chile were confirmed, with the total amount to be paid set at $380,000,000 (three hundred and eighty million pesos) to the victims' families.

Source: cronicadigital.cl, March 22, 2017

Colina 1 Prison to receive first individuals convicted of human rights crimes

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

The sentences of 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 objective of exchanging them for Colonel Carlos Carreño, who had been kidnapped by the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR), in what is considered the last repressive act of the DINE and the CNI during the dictatorship.

Finally, 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 transferred 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 of time 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 family members visiting the inmates. "There is only one entrance (to the prison) and, in my opinion, neither the physical integrity nor the life of the visitors is guaranteed," he stated.

Source: t13.cl, April 24, 2017

Case file 6671-2005: Crime of torture committed against Sergio Patricio Aguiló Melo e) Heraldo Veloso Gallegos (346), insofar as he asserts that he was assigned to perform duties at the Borgoño barracks in March 1978 and became part of the "Green Group," tasked with investigating the Christian Left, with the Chief being the Investigative Sub-commissioner surnamed Urbina; he subsequently formed part of the "Blue Group" tasked with investigating the MIR.

He recalls as one of the members who investigated the Christian Left the Carabineros Sergeant Carlos Eduardo Correa Habert, whose operational name was "Rossini." He did not know nor hear of Felipe Villaseca Rodríguez or Patricio Medina Novoa as the captors of Sergio Aguiló, since on the date he was detained, he was performing duties in another group.

Source: Judiciary, June 4, 2012

Case File No. 39.122-C: Aggravated Kidnapping Case of Julián Peña, Alejandro Pinochet, Manuel Sepúlveda, Gonzalo Fuenzalida, Julio Muñoz

1.- That RAÚL DEL CARMEN DURÁN MARTÍNEZ, LUIS ALBERTO SANTIBÁÑEZ AGUILERA, VÍCTOR EULOGIO RUIZ GODOY, JUAN ALEJANDRO JORQUERA ABARZÚA, HERNÁN ANTONIO VÁSQUEZ VILLEGAS, SERGIO AGUSTÍN MATELUNA PINO, JOSÉ ARTURO FUENTES PASTENES, JUAN CARLOS ORELLANA MORALES, ROBERTO HERNÁN RODRÍGUEZ MANQUEL, ALEJANDRO FRANCISCO ASTUDILLO ADONIS, JOSÉ GUILLERMO SALAS FUENTES, HERALDO VELOZO GALLEGOS, MARCO ANTONIO PINCHEIRA UBILLA, JORGE RAIMUNDO AHUMADA MOLINA, JOSÉ MIGUEL MORALES MORALES, EMA VERÓNICA CEBALLOS NUÑEZ, and PATRICIO LEONIDAS GONZÁLEZ CORTEZ, already identified in the case files, are sentenced for their participation as perpetrators of the crimes of Aggravated Kidnapping of Julián Peña Maltés, to the penalty of FIVE YEARS AND ONE DAY OF MAJOR IMPRISONMENT IN ITS MINIMUM DEGREE, and the accessory penalties of absolute perpetual disqualification for public offices and positions and political rights, and absolute disqualification for professional titles during the time of the sentence, and to the payment of the costs of this case.

Source: Judiciary, October 14, 2013

Supreme Court sentences Álvaro Corbalán to 15 years in prison for aggravated kidnappings

The former head of the CNI was sentenced along with 32 other agents for the aggravated kidnapping of six Chilean citizens that occurred in 1987. The Supreme Court sentenced 33 former agents of the National Intelligence Center (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.

In a split decision, the Second Chamber of the highest court accepted the appeal for cassation filed against the sentence handed down by the Santiago Court of Appeals and issued a replacement sentence.

In the resolution, the Supreme Court sentenced agents Álvaro Corbalán Castilla and Hugo Salas Wenzel to 15-year prison terms in their capacity as perpetrators of the aggravated kidnappings. Meanwhile, 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. In addition, former agents Luis Arturo Sanhueza Ross, Manuel Morales Acevedo, and Manuel Ramírez Montoya must serve a sentence of 5 years and one day in prison as perpetrators of the aggravated kidnappings. Agents 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 in their capacity as accomplices to the crimes. Meanwhile, Mario Campos Valladares must serve 3 years and one day in prison, with the benefit of supervised release. Finally, agent Hugo Barría Rogers was acquitted of the charges. Thrown into the sea During the investigation stage of the case, visiting judge Mario Carroza managed to establish that the five victims were kidnapped by State agents in retaliation for the kidnapping of Army Colonel Carlos Carreño and were made to disappear in a joint operation between the CNI, the Army Intelligence Battalion (BIE), and the Army Aviation Command, with their remains thrown into the sea off the coast of Quintay. In the civil aspect, the claims for compensation filed against the State of Chile were confirmed, with the total amount to be paid set at $380,000,000 to the victims' families.

Source: radio.uchile.cl, March 22, 2017