The Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced a group of former members of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Juan Carlos Perelman Ide, an illicit act perpetrated starting February 20, 1975, within the framework of the so-called "Operation Colombo." In a split decision, the First Chamber of the appellate court sentenced Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann to 13 years in prison as co-perpetrators of the crime.

During the investigation phase of the case, the visiting judge Hernán Crisosto established that on the morning of February 20, 1975, Juan Carlos Perelman Ide, a militant of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), was detained at an apartment located at Avenida Francisco Bilbao No. 2911, in the commune of Providencia, by state agents belonging to the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA).

Perelman was taken to the clandestine detention center known as "Cuartel Terranova" or "Villa Grimaldi," located at Lo Arrieta No. 8200, in the commune of La Reina, which was guarded by numerous armed guards and to which only agents of said organization had access.

The ruling states that Perelman remained at "Villa Grimaldi" without contact with the outside world, blindfolded and bound, and was continuously subjected to interrogations under torture by DINA agents operating in said barracks, which they carried out with the purpose of obtaining information regarding members of the MIR in order to proceed with the detention of other members of that organization.

He was last seen by other detainees on an undetermined day in February 1975, and there is no information to establish a final destination to this date. Former agents Rolf Gonzalo Wenderoth Pozo, Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, Ciro Ernesto Torré Sáez, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, Teresa del Carmen Osorio Navarro, Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, José Abel Aravena Ruiz, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo, Luis René Torres Méndez, Rodolfo Valentino Concha Rodríguez, Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Juan Ángel Urbina Cáceres, Manuel Rivas Díaz, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Silvio Antonio Concha González, Carlos López Inostroza, Luis Rigoberto Videla Inzunza, Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, Osvaldo Pulgar Gallardo, Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, and Leonidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno must serve 10 years and one day in prison; and Samuel Enrique Fuenzalida Devia must serve 541 days in prison, with the benefit of conditional remission of the sentence.

Source: fortinmapocho.cl, November 6, 2018

Operation Colombo: Santiago Court sentences 28 former DINA agents for aggravated kidnapping.

The appellate court sentenced César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann to 13 years in prison. In a unanimous ruling, the Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced 28 former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) as perpetrators of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Teobaldo Antonio Tello Garrido, an illicit act perpetrated starting August 22, 1974, within the framework of the so-called Operation Colombo.

The appellate court sentenced César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann to 13 years in prison. Meanwhile, Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, Ciro Ernesto Torré Sáez, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, Hermón Helec Alfaro Mundaca, José Ojeda Obando, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, José Abel Aravena Ruiz, Teresa del Carmen Osorio Navarro, Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Luis René Torres Méndez, Rodolfo Valentino Concha Rodríguez, Juan Ángel Urbina Cáceres, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Silvio Antonio Concha González, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, Leonidas Emiliano Méndez, Luis Rigoberto Videla Inzunza, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, and Gerardo Ernesto Urrich González must serve 10 years in prison. In the case of Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett and Samuel Enrique Fuenzalida Devia, they must serve 4 years and 541 days in prison, respectively. The judgment maintains that this case originated to investigate the circumstances of the forced disappearance of Teobaldo Antonio Tello Garrido, after having been detained by state agents belonging to the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) on August 22, 1974, and held in the detention centers 'Ollagüe', 'Villa Grimaldi', and 'Cuatro Álamos', facilities that were guarded by armed guards, where Teobaldo Tello was subjected to torture by agents of that organization, with his whereabouts remaining unknown to this day. This act has been classified as a consummated crime of aggravated kidnapping, against the person of Teobaldo Tello, perpetrated in this city, starting August 22, 1974. The resolution adds that there is no doubt that the aforementioned crime constitutes a crime against humanity, since aggravated kidnappings—referred to by International Human Rights Law as 'forced disappearances'—are part of a generalized and systematic attack against a specific group of the civilian population, composed, in this case, by members and supporters of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), a condition the victim held at that time. Furthermore, it is a common requirement for conceiving the crime as one against humanity that the perpetrators or accomplices be state agents, a status the accused held at that time. It adds that among the characteristics that distinguish this type of transgression are imprescriptibility, the impossibility of granting amnesty, and the impossibility of establishing exclusionary clauses of responsibility that attempt to prevent the investigation and punishment of those responsible for such serious violations of essential rights such as torture, summary, extra-legal, or arbitrary executions, and forced disappearances, all of which are prohibited by international human rights law. In the civil aspect, with the dissenting vote of Justice Rojas, the sentence ordering the State to pay $80,000,000 to the victim's family members was confirmed.

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl, September 2, 2019

Operation Colombo: Supreme Court sentences DINA agents for the aggravated kidnapping of Juan Carlos Perelman

In a unanimous ruling, the Second Chamber of the highest court sentenced 31 agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of chemical engineer and economist Juan Carlos Perelman Ide, detained on February 20, 1975, in the commune of Providencia, within the framework of the so-called "Operation Colombo." The Supreme Court sentenced 31 agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of chemical engineer and economist Juan Carlos Perelman Ide, detained on February 20, 1975, in the commune of Providencia, within the framework of the so-called "Operation Colombo." In a unanimous ruling (case file 32.907-2018), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of justices Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Raúl Mera, and attorney (i) María Cristina Gajardo—accepted the appeal in civil matters and ordered the State to pay a total compensation of $155,000,000 (one hundred and fifty-five million pesos) for moral damages to the victim's family members. "That, in the case of crimes such as those investigated, which the international community has classified as crimes against humanity, the civil action brought against the State has the purpose of obtaining full reparation for the damages caused by the actions of state agents, as follows from the international treaties ratified by Chile and the interpretation of domestic law norms in accordance with the Political Constitution of the Republic," the ruling maintains. The resolution adds that: "Indeed, this right of the victims and their family members finds its foundation in the general principles of International Human Rights Law, and normative consecration in the international treaties ratified by Chile, which oblige the State of Chile to recognize and protect this right to full reparation, by virtue of the provisions of the second paragraph of Article 5 and Article 6 of the Political Constitution." For the Criminal Chamber: "(...) the compensation for the damage produced by the crime, as well as the action to make it effective, are of maximum importance when administering justice, compromising the public interest and aspects of material justice. In the case under analysis, given the context in which the illicit act was verified, with the intervention of state agents protected by a cloak of impunity woven with state resources, it not only entails the impossibility of declaring the statute of limitations on the criminal action arising from it, but also the unfeasibility of proclaiming the extinction—due to the passage of time—of the possibility of exercising the civil indemnification action derived from the crime that has been established. Indeed, in the case of crimes against humanity, if the criminal prosecution action is imprescriptible, it is not coherent to understand that the civil indemnification action is subject to the rules on prescription established in domestic civil law, since this would contradict the express will manifested by international Human Rights regulations—part of the national legal system by provision of Article 5 of the Fundamental Charter—which enshrines the right of victims and other legitimate holders to obtain due reparation for the damages suffered as a consequence of the illicit act." "That—it continues—in sum, with the duty to repair the victim weighing on the State, enshrined by international Human Rights regulations, domestic law does not become a sustainable argument to exempt it from compliance. Not only because of what has already been expressed, but because this duty of the State also finds its consecration in domestic law. Indeed, the State's responsibility system also derives from Article 3 of Law 18.575, the Constitutional Organic Law on General Bases of State Administration, which provides that the State Administration is at the service of the human person, that its purpose is to promote the common good, and that one of the principles to which it must subject its action is that of responsibility; and, consequently, in its Article 4 it provides that 'the State shall be responsible for the damages caused by the organs of the Administration in the exercise of their functions, without prejudice to the responsibilities that could affect the official who caused them'. Thus, it must be concluded that the moral damage caused by the illicit conduct of the officials or state agents who were the perpetrators of the aggravated kidnapping addressed in this investigation must be compensated by the State." "That, under these conditions, it is true that the lower court judges incurred an error of law when accepting the exception of prescription of the civil lawsuits filed by the victims against the State, an error that has substantially influenced the operative part of the sentence, so that the appeal in substance will be accepted in this segment," it adds. In the criminal aspect, the ruling confirmed the sentence that condemned Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Raúl Iturriaga Neumann, and Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko to 13 years in prison, as perpetrators of the crime. Meanwhile, Rolf Gonzalo Wenderoth Pozo, Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, Teresa del Carmen Osorio Navarro, Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, José Abel Aravena Ruiz, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo, Luis René Torres Méndez, Rodolfo Valentino Concha Rodríguez, Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Manuel Rivas Díaz, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Silvio Antonio Concha González, Héctor Washington Briones Burgos, Carlos López Inostroza, José Nelson Fuentealba Saldías, Luis Rigoberto Videla Inzunza, Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, Osvaldo Pulgar Gallardo, Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, and Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno must serve 10 years and one day in prison. Finally, Samuel Enrique Fuenzalida Devia will serve a sentence of 541 days in prison. Disinformation maneuvers In the first-instance ruling, the extraordinary visiting judge Hernán Crisosto Greisse established the following facts: "That on the morning of February 20, 1975, Juan Carlos Perelman Ide, a militant of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), was detained in an apartment located at Avenida Francisco Bilbao No. 2911, in the commune of Providencia, by state agents belonging to the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) and they took him to the clandestine detention center known as 'Cuartel Terranova' or 'Villa Grimaldi', located at Lo Arrieta No. 8200, in the commune of La Reina, which was guarded by numerous armed guards and to which only agents of said organization had access; That Perelman Ide remained at 'Villa Grimaldi' without contact with the outside world, blindfolded and bound, being continuously subjected to interrogations under torture by DINA agents operating in said barracks, which they carried out with the purpose of obtaining information regarding members of the MIR, to proceed with the detention of other members of that organization, and he was last seen by other detainees on an undetermined day in the month of February 1975, without there being any information that allows establishing a final destination to this date; That subsequently, the name of Juan Carlos Perelman Ide appeared on a list of 119 people, published—without the corresponding corroboration—in the national press after it appeared on a list published in the magazine 'O'DIA' of Brazil, dated June 25, 1975, which it was later determined only had circulation on that date, reporting that Juan Carlos Perelman Ide had died in Argentina, along with 58 other people belonging to the MIR, due to internal quarrels that arose among the members of that Chilean political organization, and, from the information that has been enumerated in the first foundation, it is unequivocally deduced that the publications that declared the aforementioned Perelman Ide dead, a victim of a homicide perpetrated by people aligned with his political ideology, had their origin in disinformation maneuvers planned by the DINA and carried out by agents of the same organization, abroad".

Source: pjud.cl, October 26, 2021

Operation Colombo: Supreme Court sentences 25 DINA agents for the crime of a MIR detective in 1974

The Supreme Court confirmed the sentence that condemned 25 former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the aggravated kidnapping of photographer Teobaldo Antonio Tello Garrido, a forcibly disappeared person since August 22, 1974, and one of the 119 victims who appeared on the lists of the international disinformation maneuver known as "Operation Colombo." Teobaldo Tello, 25 years old, married, was a detective of the Investigative Police, a photographer, and a militant of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR).

He was detained and kidnapped on the afternoon of August 22 on a public street when he was preparing to hold a clandestine contact in the center of Santiago. His detention was part of a repressive raid on members of the MIR linked to the Investigative Police and the Identification Cabinet.

In the sentence (case file 36.979-2020), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of justices Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Leopoldo Llanos, and attorneys (i) Eduardo Morales and Gonzalo Ruz—rejected the appeals filed by the convicted and ruled out error in the challenged sentence.

The ruling of the highest court sentenced the former Army officers and DINA leaders César Raúl Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann to 13 years in prison for their responsibility as perpetrators of the crime.

Meanwhile, also sentenced as perpetrators of the crime to 10 years in prison were former officers Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García and Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, and former agents Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Silvio Antonio Concha González, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Teresa del Carmen Osorio Navarro, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, José Abel Aravena Ruiz, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Luis René Torres Méndez, Rodolfo Valentino Concha Rodríguez, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, Leonidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, and Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca, Luis Rigoberto Videla Inzulza, and Jorge Segundo Madariaga Acevedo, the latter three being Investigative Police officials commissioned to the DINA. Former agent Samuel Enrique Fuenzalida Devia must serve a sentence of 541 days in prison, with the benefit of conditional remission, as a perpetrator of the crime. Finally, former agent Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett was sentenced to 4 years in prison, with the benefit of supervised release, as an accomplice to the crime. The sentence dismissed the infringement of the facts established by the first-instance courts as they were crimes against humanity. "That regarding the cause contained in Article 546 No. 2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, given the nature of the demonstrated events, which are unalterable for this Court since the cause that allows their modification was dismissed, there is no doubt that they were committed as a crime against humanity, since the investigated illicit act occurred in a context of serious, massive, and systematic human rights violations, verified by state agents, with the victim of this case constituting an instrument within a policy on a general scale of exclusion, harassment, persecution, or extermination of a group of numerous people who, in the time immediately following September 11, 1973, were identified as belonging ideologically to the deposed political regime or who for any circumstance were considered suspicious of opposing or hindering the realization of the social and political construction devised by those holding power, guaranteeing impunity to the executors of said program through non-interference in their methods, both with the concealment of reality before the request of the ordinary courts of justice for relevant reports, and through the use of state power to persuade local and foreign public opinion that the complaints formulated to that effect were false and responded to a campaign tending to discredit the authoritarian military regime. It adds: "That crimes against humanity are those injustices that not only contravene the legal interests commonly guaranteed by criminal laws, but at the same time imply a denial of the moral personality of man, such that for the configuration of this illicit act there is an intimate connection between common crimes and an added value that arises from the disregard and contempt for the dignity of the person, because the main characteristic of this figure is the cruel way in which various criminal acts are perpetrated, which are clearly and manifestly contrary to the most basic concept of humanity; also highlighting the presence of cruelty with a special class of individuals, thus conjugating an eminent intentional element, as a specific inner tendency of the agent's will. In short, they constitute an outrage to human dignity and represent a serious and manifest violation of the rights and freedoms proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, reaffirmed and developed in other relevant international instruments." In the judicial investigation and first-instance ruling, the visiting judge Hernán Crisosto Greisse established that the kidnapped Teobaldo Tello was taken by his captors to the clandestine detention center known as "Ollagüe," located at Calle José Domingo Cañas No. 1367, in the commune of Ñuñoa, and subsequently they took him to the clandestine detention centers of "Villa Grimaldi," located at Lo Arrieta No. 8200, in the commune of La Reina, and "Cuatro Álamos," located at Calle Canadá No. 3000, in Santiago, facilities that were controlled by the DINA. During his stay at the barracks of José Domingo Cañas, Villa Grimaldi, and Cuatro Álamos, he remained without contact with the outside world, blindfolded and bound, being continuously subjected to interrogations under torture by DINA agents with the purpose of obtaining information regarding members of the MIR, to proceed with the detention of members of that organization. In these facilities, Tello Garrido was seen by other surviving detainees with his arms and legs broken as a result of the torture. The last time he was seen alive was on an undetermined day in the month of September 1974. The name of Teobaldo Antonio Tello Garrido appeared on a list of 119 people, published in the national press after it appeared on a list published in the magazine "LEA" of Argentina, dated July 15, 1975, in which it was said that he had died in Argentina, along with 59 other people belonging to the MIR, due to internal quarrels among those members. The aforementioned publications were the product of disinformation maneuvers carried out by the DINA, in what has become known as "Operation Colombo." by Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl, September 22, 2023

Operation Colombo: Supreme Court sentences 30 former DINA agents for the aggravated kidnapping of a young MIR member in 1975

The Supreme Court sentenced agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the consummated crime of aggravated kidnapping of the student of the Higher Institute of Commerce of Talca, Francisco Eduardo Ugás Morales, 22 years old, a militant of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), who was kidnapped starting February 7, 1975, in the commune of Estación Central, in Santiago.

The name of Rodrigo Ugás appeared, subsequently, on the list of 119 forcibly disappeared people included in the disinformation maneuver implemented by the DINA and the dictatorship known as "Operation Colombo." In a unanimous ruling (case file 63-094-2020), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of justices Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Justice María Teresa Letelier, and attorney (i) Pía Tavolari—accepted the appeals in substance filed by the plaintiffs and established an error of law in the challenged sentence, issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals in April 2020, annulling and replacing it. In the replacement sentence, the Supreme Court confirmed the first-instance sentence issued by Judge Hernán Crisosto Greisse in June 2015, which sentenced former Army officers and former DINA leaders Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann to 13 years in prison, as perpetrators of the crime. Meanwhile, former officers Rolf Gonzalo Wenderoth Pozo, Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, and Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, and former agents Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Luis René Torres Méndez, Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Manuel Rivas Díaz, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Carlos Eusebio López Inostroza, Luis Rigoberto Videla Insunza, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, Leónidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Pedro Mora Villanueva, Osvaldo Octavio Castillo Arellano, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, José Abel Aravena Ruiz, Rodolfo Valentino Concha Rodríguez, Silvio Antonio Concha González, and Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel must serve 10 years and one day in prison, as co-perpetrators of the aggravated kidnapping. In the case of agent Samuel Enrique Fuenzalida Devia, the resolution of the visiting judge Hernán Crisosto was confirmed, sentencing him to 541 days in prison, with the benefit of conditional remission of the sentence. At least 11 other agents sentenced in the first-instance ruling died in the course of the process. In the resolution, the Second Chamber establishes that: "....it appears clear that the lower court judges at the time of resolving the controversy submitted to their knowledge and acquitting the accused Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Luis René Torres Méndez, Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Manuel Rivas Díaz, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Carlos López Inostroza, Luis Rigoberto Videla Insunza, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, Leonidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Pedro Mora Villanueva, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, and Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, have incurred in the errors of law denounced by the plaintiff, by estimating, in synthesis, as evidenced by the reasoning that precedes, .... artificially reducing the responsibility attributed to each of them to their condition as DINA agents, through an incomplete reproduction of the foundations put forward by the first-instance court…..", the ruling maintains. "That on the other hand—it continues—as has already been outlined, in addition to said legal qualification, the sentencers estimated...., that the facts were committed in a context of systematic or generalized attack against the civilian population, which determined that the established illicit act was, in addition, considered as crimes against humanity, for violating ius cogens norms of International Humanitarian Law, and for the same reason, subjected to said international legal statute." Villa Grimaldi In the first-instance sentence, the visiting judge of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Hernán Crisosto Greisse, established that on the afternoon of February 7, 1975, members of the DINA detained Rodrigo Eduardo Ugás Morales, a militant of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), on a public street in the Estación Central sector in Santiago, and took him to the clandestine DINA detention center known as 'Cuartel Terranova' or 'Villa Grimaldi', located at Lo Arrieta No. 8200, in the commune of La Reina, which was guarded by armed guards and to which only DINA agents had access. During his stay at the Villa Grimaldi barracks, according to testimonies of survivors, the detainee Ugás Morales remained without contact with the outside world, blindfolded and bound, being continuously subjected to interrogations under torture by DINA agents operating in said barracks. The last time Rodrigo Ugás Morales was seen by other detainees occurred on an undetermined day at the end of February 1975, and he has been missing since that date.

Source: resumen.cl, February 23, 2024

Operation Colombo: Supreme Court confirms sentences of 24 former DINA agents for the aggravated kidnapping of a UdeC leader in Santiago in 1974

The Supreme Court rejected the appeals in form and substance filed by the defense against the sentence that condemned agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of sociology student Ariel Martín Salinas Argomedo, committed starting September 25, 1974, in Santiago.

The name of Ariel Salinas Argomedo appeared, subsequently, on the list of 119 forcibly disappeared people included in the disinformation maneuver implemented by the DINA and the dictatorship known as "Operation Colombo." In a unanimous ruling (case file 135.568-2020), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of justices Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Justice María Teresa Letelier, and attorney (i) Pía Tavolari—accepted the appeal in form filed by the plaintiff, the Human Rights Program of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, and, consequently, invalidated the challenged sentence, only in the part that acquitted the accused Manuel Heriberto Avendaño González and, in a replacement sentence, sentenced him to 10 years in prison, as a perpetrator of the crime. The Supreme Court ruling confirmed the sentences of former Army officers and former DINA leaders César Raúl Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann, who must serve 13 years in prison for their responsibility as perpetrators of the aggravated kidnapping. While, in addition to the aforementioned Manuel Heriberto Avendaño González, the former officers Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, and former agents Hermón Helec Alfaro Mundaca, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Silvio Antonio Concha González, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Luis Rigoberto Videla Inzunza, Teresa del Carmen Osorio Navarro, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, José Abel Aravena Ruiz, Alejandro Francisco Astudillo Adonis, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte, Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda, and Juan Evaristo Duarte Gallegos must serve 10 years of imprisonment, all convicted as perpetrators of the crime. Another 12 agents, also convicted in the first-instance ruling issued by Judge Hernán Crisosto Greisse in October 2015, died in the course of the process. Regarding the case of the accused Manuel Avendaño González, the Criminal Chamber points out: "(...) under such conditions, the appeal proposed by the Human Rights Program of the Ministry of the branch must be accepted, since from the mere reading of the objected sentence, foundations that are completely contradictory are evidenced in it, annulling each other, making the decision that acquits the accused Avendaño González, which is declared in the operative part, devoid of all foundation, configuring the vice of invalidation denounced. "Indeed, at the time of the events, these accused were part, as hierarchical superiors and operational agents, together with other defendants whose participation would be analyzed in the following considerations, of the groups belonging to the National Intelligence Directorate that materialized the kidnapping of the members of the Revolutionary Left Movement, among whose members was Salinas Argomedo, in such a way that although they did not remember his specific name, it is indisputable to conclude, just as the lower court does, that they took part in the illegitimate deprivation of his liberty immediately and directly in the form provided by the recently cited norm and that, for the same reason, they are punishable co-perpetrators of this illicit act." Operation Colombo Ariel Martín Salinas Argomedo was a former sociology student at the University of Concepción. The young man, 26 years old, married and father of a daughter, was a militant of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), was part of the university leadership of the MIR in Concepción and, until the military coup, was president of the student center of the sociology program at the UdeC. After the coup, he had to go into hiding to avoid being captured. He moved to Santiago to continue his militant activity and a year later he was detained. In the first-instance ruling, the visiting judge Hernán Crisosto Greisse established that on the morning of September 25, 1974, Ariel Salinas was detained on a public street by agents belonging to the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), who took him to the clandestine DINA detention center known as 'Ollagüe', located at José Domingo Cañas No. 1367 in the commune of Ñuñoa. Subsequently, he was taken to the clandestine detention centers known as 'Villa Grimaldi', located at Lo Arrieta No. 8200, in La Reina, and 'Cuatro Álamos', located at Calle Canadá No. 3000, in the commune of Santiago, facilities that were guarded by armed guards and to which only DINA agents had access. According to the testimony of surviving prisoners, during his stay at the barracks of José Domingo Cañas, Villa Grimaldi, and Cuatro Álamos, the detainee Ariel Salinas remained without contact with the outside world. In the first two places, he was blindfolded and bound, being continuously subjected to interrogations under torture by DINA agents operating in said barracks. The last time Ariel Salinas Argomedo was seen alive by other detainees occurred on an undetermined day in the month of November 1974, and he has been missing since that date. by Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl, February 26, 2024

Kidnapping of Jorge Müller and Carmen Bueno: DINA agents are sentenced for the disappearance of the filmmakers

The members of the defunct National Intelligence Directorate, César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Raúl Iturriaga Neumann, and Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko will receive a sentence of 20 years in prison for their status as perpetrators.

In a unanimous ruling, the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court confirmed the sentence that condemned César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Raúl Iturriaga Neumann, and Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko to 20 years in prison, as perpetrators of the crime.

The highest court rejected the appeals in form and substance filed against the sentence that condemned agents of the defunct National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of the filmmaker couple Jorge Hernán Müller Silva and Carmen Cecilia Bueno Cifuentes.

Illicit acts committed starting November 29, 1974. In a unanimous ruling (case file 43.971-2020), the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court—composed of justices Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Jorge Dahm, Justice María Teresa Letelier, and attorney (i) Pía Tavolari—confirmed the challenged sentence, issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals, which sentenced César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann, and Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko to 20 years in prison, as perpetrators of the crime.

Meanwhile, Orlando Manzo Durán, Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, Alejandro Francisco Astudillo Adonis, Sylvia Teresa Oyarce Pinto, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Manuel Heriberto Avendaño González, Nelson Aquiles Ortiz Vignolo, Silvio Antonio Concha González, Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda, Luis Rigoberto Videla Inzunza, Jorge Segundo Madariaga Acevedo, Teresa del Carmen Osorio Navarro, José Abel Aravena Ruiz, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Luis René Torres Méndez, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, Carlos López Inostroza, Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, and Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana must serve 12 years in prison, as co-perpetrators. "That, in this way, the elements of the examined illicit act and the participation in them of these accused were considered verified by the first-instance court, conclusions that the second-instance judiciary made its own, endorsed in the 7th consideration of the objected sentence," the ruling states. The resolution adds: "That, consequently, and even ignoring the serious formal defects of the examined substantial nullity appeals, the infringements denounced by the defenses of Carlos López Inostroza, Jerónimo Neira Méndez, Luis Videla Inzunza, Pedro Alfaro Fernández, Raúl Iturriaga Neumann, Pedro Espinoza Bravo, and César Manríquez Bravo have not been configured in this case, since the facts established in the challenged sentence and the participation in them of these accused have been adjusted to the laws regulating evidence, so that no reproach can be raised on the matter to the challenged sentence, so that the substantial nullity appeals under examination will be entirely dismissed." Operation Colombo In the first-instance sentence, the visiting judge of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Hernán Crisosto Greisse, established the following facts: On November 29, 1974, Carmen Cecilia Bueno Cifuentes and her partner Jorge Hernán Müller Silva, militants of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), were detained on a public street, at Calle Francisco Bilbao with Los Leones in Santiago, by agents belonging to the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) who put them into a C-10 pickup truck and took them to the clandestine DINA detention center known as 'Villa Grimaldi', located at Lo Arrieta No. 8200, in La Reina, and subsequently to the clandestine detention center known as 'Cuatro Álamos', located at Calle Canadá No. 3000, in Santiago, which were guarded by armed guards and to which only DINA agents had access. During their stay at the barracks of Villa Grimaldi and Cuatro Álamos, they remained without contact with the outside world, blindfolded and bound, being in the first of them continuously subjected to interrogations under torture by DINA agents operating in said barracks with the purpose of obtaining information regarding members of the MIR, to proceed with the detention of their members. The last time the victims Bueno Cifuentes and Müller Silva were seen alive occurred on an undetermined day in the middle of the month of December 1974, and there is no information to date regarding the whereabouts of both, and they remain disappeared. The name of Carmen Cecilia Bueno Cifuentes appeared on a list of 119 people, published in the national press after it appeared on a list published in the magazine 'LEA' of Argentina, dated July 15, 1975, in which it was reported that Bueno Cifuentes had died in Argentina, along with 59 other people belonging to the MIR, due to internal quarrels that arose among those members. The publications that declared the victim Bueno Cifuentes dead had their origin in disinformation maneuvers carried out by DINA agents abroad. In the civil aspect, the sentence that condemned the State to pay compensation of $50 million for moral damages to the sister of the victim Bueno Cifuentes was confirmed.

Source: radio.uchile.cl, February 23, 2024