More than 1,200 former agents of the DINA and its successor—the CNI—have been prosecuted, but only 142 are serving effective prison sentences for torturing, imprisoning, making bodies disappear, staging false confrontations, or committing murders disguised as accidents or illnesses.

The dictatorship created a vast apparatus to terrorize the population. However, there were men and women who kept the flame of freedom alive and organized in the underground with the purpose of building a democratic country.

Justice is approaching for 16 forcibly disappeared persons. 106 former DINA agents were convicted in a first-instance ruling issued by Judge Hernán Crisosto. The 16 disappeared persons are part of the 119 victims of Operation Colombo.

The DINA mounted that operation in collaboration with intelligence agencies from the Southern Cone of Latin America. They disseminated reports of alleged confrontations in Brazil and Argentina and a list of 119 victims.

In reality, all of them had been massacred in Chile. The defense for the former DINA agents argued that the organization had a legal existence and that they acted within the framework of a state of emergency under a government led by the Armed Forces and Order.

In this regard, Judge Hernán Crisosto argued that "the functions of the Armed Forces are not to rise up against the constitutionally established government, nor to apprehend supporters or social leaders affiliated with the deposed regime; much less, of course, to murder them or make them disappear." Furthermore—the magistrate adds—"we are facing crimes against humanity, committed by State agents in the context of grave human rights violations, within the framework of harassment, persecution, or extermination of a group of people whom the military regime identified as ideological adherents to the deposed political regime, or whom the repressive groups considered suspicious of hindering the purposes of the regime or the impunity of the intelligence service agents." Another of the grounds for exemption from criminal responsibility invoked by the former agents was that they were following superior orders. Regarding this, Judge Crisosto pointed out that according to Article 334 of the Code of Military Justice, to be exempt from responsibility, a military officer must protest the illegality of the order to their superior, a matter that none of the convicted individuals proved. Likewise, Judge Crisosto justified the compensation granted to the victims' families, stating that "the disappearance of a son, a daughter, a father, a mother, a brother, a sister, a spouse, a partner, and even a brother-in-law, in the circumstances in which it occurred—that is, amidst the conviction that during their confinement they were tortured, humiliated, subjected to cruel, inhuman treatment, harmful to their psychological and moral integrity, devoid of any due respect for the dignity inherent to a human being, without the most elementary pity for a fellow human, and removed from every moral principle—has caused the plaintiffs psychological suffering that has resulted in moral damage that the State, as responsible for the actions of its agents, must compensate." The victims Francisco Aedo Carrasco, architect, 63 years old, socialist; Juan Andrónicos Antequera, 23 years old, university student, MIR; Jorge Andrónicos Antequera, 25 years old, electrical engineering graduate, Universidad Técnica del Estado, MIR; Jaime Buzio Lorca, 21 years old, UTE student, Revolutionary Communist League; Mario Eduardo Calderón Tapia, journalist, 31 years old, MIR; Cecilia Castro Salvadores, 24 years old, law student at the Universidad de Chile, MIR; Juan Carlos Rodríguez Araya, 30 years old, engineering student at the Universidad de Chile; Rodolfo Espejo Gómez, 18 years old, socialist; Agustín Fiorasso Chau, 23 years old, Spanish language teacher, MIR; Gregorio Gaete Farías, 22 years old, laborer and night-school secondary student, socialist; Mauricio Jorquera Encina, 19 years old, sociology student at the Universidad de Chile, MIR; Isidro Pizarro Meniconi, 21 years old, technician, MIR; Marcos Esteban Quiñones Lembach, 26 years old, public employee; Sergio Reyes Navarrete, 26 years old, Corfo official, MIR; Jilberto Patricio Urbina Chamorro, 25 years old, medical student at the Universidad Católica, MIR; Ida Vera Almarza, 31 years old, Bolivian architect, MIR. The convicted agents Sentenced to 20 years as perpetrators: César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann, and Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko. Sentenced to 13 years as perpetrators: Orlando Manzo Durán, Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Ricardo Lawrence Mires, Ciro Torre Sáez, Manuel Carevic Cubillos, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca, Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, José Abel Aravena Ruiz, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, Nelson Aquiles Ortiz Vignolo, Rudeslindo Urrutia Jorquera, José Alfonso Ojeda Obando, Gerardo Meza Acuña, Manuel Heriberto Avendaño González, José Nelson Fuentealba Saldías, Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte, Alejandro Francisco Astudillo Adonis, Demóstenes Eugenio Cárdenas Saavedra, Daniel Alberto Galaz Orellana, Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, Leoncio Enrique Velásquez Guala, Gerardo Ernesto Urrich González, Sergio Hernán Castillo González, Teresa del Carmen Osorio Navarro, José Enrique Fuentes Torres, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Hiro Alvarez Vega, Gustavo Galvarino Carumán Soto, Orlando Jesús Torrejón Gatica, José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo, Luis René Torres Méndez, Rodolfo Valentino Concha Rodríguez, Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar, Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Juan Angel Urbina Cáceres, Manuel Rivas Díaz, Risiere del Prado Altez España, Daniel Valentín Cancino Varas, Juan Duarte Gallegos, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Guido Arnoldo Jara Brevis, Leonidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno, Jorge Antonio Lepileo Barrios, Lautaro Díaz Espinoza, Pedro Ariel Aravena Aravena, Carlos Alfonso Sáez Sanhueza, Juan Carlos Villanueva Alvear, Alfredo Orlando Moya Tejeda, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, Silvio Antonio Concha González, Luis Fernando Espinace Contreras, Hernán Patricio Valenzuela Salas, Luis Rigoberto Videla Inzunza, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, Sylvia Teresa Oyarce Pinto, Osvaldo Pulgar Gallardo, José Yévenes Vergara, and Olegario Enrique González Moreno. Sentenced to 10 years and one day as perpetrators: Werner Enrique Zanghellini Martínez and Héctor Alfredo Flores Vergara. Sentenced to 6 years as perpetrators: Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo and Jaime Alfonso Fernández Garrido. Sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison as accomplices: José Jaime Mora Diocares, Armando Segundo Cofré Correa, Moisés Paulino Campos Figueroa, Oscar Belarmino La Flor Flores, Sergio Iván Díaz Lara, Roberto Hernán Rodríguez Manquel, Jaime Humberto Paris Ramos, Jorge Laureano Sagardía Monje, José Stalin Muñoz Leal, Víctor Manuel de la Cruz San Martín Jiménez, Juvenal Piña Garrido, Camilo Torres Negrier, Manuel Antonio Montre Méndez, Sergio Hernán Castro Andrade, Nelson Eduardo Iturriaga Cortes, Carlos Justo Bermúdez Méndez, Fernando Adrián Roa Montaña, Reinaldo Alfonso Concha Orellana, Osvaldo Octavio Castillo Arellano, Gustavo Humberto Apablaza Meneses, Hugo Hernán Clavería Leiva, Juan Carlos Escobar Valenzuela, Carlos Enrique Miranda Mesa, Víctor Manuel Alvarez Droguett, Juan Ignacio Suárez Delgado, Raúl Alberto Soto Pérez, José Dorohi Hormazabal Rodríguez, Rufino Espinoza Espinoza, Héctor Carlos Díaz Cabezas, Jorge Segundo Madariaga Acevedo, and Miguel Angel Yáñez Ugalde. Sentenced to 3 years and one day with the benefit of supervised release as accomplices: Jorge Luis Venegas Silva, Edinson Antonio Fernández Sanhueza, and Pedro Mora Villanueva. Sentenced to 541 days in prison as a perpetrator: Samuel Fuenzalida Devia.

Source: puntofinal.cl, July 20, 2017

Santiago Court convicts former DINA agents for the aggravated kidnapping of Juan Carlos Perelman.

The appellate court sentenced Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann to 13-year prison terms as co-perpetrators of the crime. In a split decision, the Santiago Court of Appeals convicted 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." The appellate court sentenced Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann to 13-year prison terms as co-perpetrators of the crime. Meanwhile, 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. Likewise, the acquittal of the following former DINA members was decreed: José Jaime Mora Diocares, Delia Virginia Gajardo Cortés, Reinaldo Concha Orellana, Osvaldo Octavio Castillo Arellano, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Guido Arnoldo Jara Brevis, Hugo Hernán Clavería Leiva, Jorge Luis Venegas Silva, Juan Carlos Escobar Valenzuela, Carlos Enrique Miranda Mesa, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, Raúl Alberto Soto Pérez, Pedro Mora Villanueva, Moisés Paulino Campos Figueroa, Óscar Belarmino la Flor Flores, Miguel Ángel Yáñez Ugalde, Héctor Carlos Díaz Cabezas, Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, César Manríquez Bravo, Alejandro Francisco Molina Cisternas, Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, Héctor Raúl Valdebenito Araya, José Stalin Muñoz Leal, Nelson Aquiles Ortiz Vignolo, Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, Gustavo Galvarino Caruman Soto, Carlos Enrique Letelier Verdugo, Herman Eduardo Ávalos Muñoz, Raúl Bernardo Toro Montes, Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda, and Sergio Iván Díaz Lara. The facts During the investigation phase of the case, visiting judge Hernán Crisosto established the following sequence of events: -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, Providencia commune, by State agents belonging to the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), who transported him to the clandestine detention center known as "Cuartel Terranova" or "Villa Grimaldi," located at Lo Arrieta No. 8200, in the La Reina commune, which was guarded by numerous armed guards and to which only agents of said organization had access; -Perelman Ide remained in "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. 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; -Subsequently, the name of Juan Carlos Perelman Ide appeared on a list of 119 people, published—without corresponding corroboration—in the national press after it appeared on a list published in the Brazilian magazine "O'DIA" on June 25, 1975, which was later determined to have only circulated 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 disputes among the members of that Chilean political organization, and -From the evidence enumerated in the first finding, it is unequivocally clear that the publications that declared the aforementioned Perelman Ide dead, as a victim of a homicide perpetrated by people affiliated with his political ideology, originated from disinformation maneuvers planned by the DINA and carried out by agents of the same organization abroad. In the civil aspect, the ruling revoked the sentence that ordered the State to pay compensation to the victim's family members. The decision was adopted, in the revoked parts, with the dissenting vote of Judge Llanos, who points out, among other things, that to dismiss the statute of limitations defense raised by the Chilean State, one must consider the ruling of the Supreme Court—arguments that this dissenter shares—on November 22, 2012, in case Rol No. 3573-2012, in which it stated: "That all international regulations applicable in this case by constitutional mandate, which tend toward the full reparation of victims, certainly include the patrimonial aspect. Indeed, in the case at hand, we are in the presence of what legal conscience calls a crime against humanity, a classification that not only entails the impossibility of granting amnesty for the illicit act or declaring the statute of limitations for 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 action for damages derived from the crime that has been proven. Thus, in the case of a crime against humanity for which the criminal prosecution is imprescriptible, it is not coherent to understand that the civil action for damages is subject to the rules on statutes of limitations established in internal civil law, since this contradicts the express will manifested by international Human Rights regulations—part of the national legal order 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, so it is contrary to law to declare the action brought by the plaintiff against the convicted parties as time-barred, so this section of the appeal will also be upheld."

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl, November 6, 2018

56 DINA Agents Convicted for Disappearance of Filmmakers Carmen Bueno and Jorge Müller

The extraordinary visiting judge for human rights violation cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Hernán Crisosto Greisse, issued heavy sentences against 56 agents of the National Intelligence Directorate for their responsibility in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of the filmmaker couple Carmen Bueno Cifuentes and Jorge Müller Silva, perpetrated starting September 29, 1974, in Santiago.

In the resolution, the judge sentenced the agents: César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann, and Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko to 20-year prison terms as perpetrators of the crimes.

Meanwhile, the following agents must serve 12 years in prison, also as perpetrators: Orlando Manzo Durán, Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, Alejandro Francisco Astudillo Adonis, Demóstenes Eugenio Cárdenas Saavedra, Sylvia Teresa Oyarce Pinto, Gerardo Ernesto Godoy García, Manuel Heriberto Avendaño González, Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo, Nelson Aquiles Ortiz Vignolo, Julio José Hoyos Zegarra, Silvio Antonio Concha González, Pedro Ariel Araneda Araneda, José Mario Friz Esparza, Luis Rigoberto Videla Inzunza, Jorge Segundo Madariaga Acevedo, Teresa del Carmen Osorio Navarro, José Abel Aravena Ruiz, Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, Ciro Ernesto Torré Sáez, Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes, Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández, Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Luis René Torres Méndez, Rodolfo Valentino Concha Rodríguez, Juan Ángel Urbina Cáceres, Jerónimo del Carmen Neira Méndez, Luis Fernando Espinace Contreras, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, Hugo Rubén Delgado Carrasco, Carlos López Inostroza, Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Francisco Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, Fernando Eduardo Lauriani Maturana, Héctor Wacinton Briones Burgos, and Leonidas Emiliano Méndez Moreno. Likewise, Judge Crisosto sentenced the following agents to 6 years in prison as accomplices to both crimes: Daniel Valentín Cancino Varas, Fernando Enrique Guerra Guajardo, Jorge Antonio Lepileo Barrios, Lautaro Eugenio Díaz Espinoza, Raúl Alberto Soto Pérez, José Jaime Mora Diocares, Eugenio Jesús Fieldhouse Chávez, Jaime Humberto Paris Ramos, José Stalin Muñoz Leal, Juan Carlos Escobar Valenzuela, Pedro Segundo Bitterlich Jaramillo, Víctor Manuel San Martín Jiménez, Juvenal Alfonso Piña Garrido, Reinaldo Concha Orellana, Osvaldo Octavio Castillo Arellano, Guido Arnoldo Jara Brevis, Hugo Hernán Clavería Leiva, Carlos Enrique Miranda Mesa, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett, Olegario Enrique González Moreno, Miguel Ángel Yáñez Ugalde, Víctor Manuel Molina Astete, Gustavo Galvarino Caruman Soto, Rafael de Jesús Riveros Frost, and Héctor Carlos Díaz Cabezas. In the case of agent Samuel Fuenzalida Devia, a sentence of 3 years and one day in prison was applied for his responsibility as a perpetrator, with the benefit of supervised release. Likewise, agents Alejandro Francisco Molina Cisternas, Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, Héctor Raúl Valdebenito Araya, Carlos Enrique Letelier Verdugo, Herman Eduardo Ávalos Muñoz, and Raúl Bernardo Toro Montes were acquitted. The facts During the investigation phase, Judge Hernán Crisosto managed to determine the following facts: "On September 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 the corner of Francisco Bilbao and Los Leones in Santiago, by agents belonging to the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) who forced them into a C-10 pickup truck and transported 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; The victims Carmen Cecilia Bueno Cifuentes and Jorge Hernán Müller Silva, during their stay at the Villa Grimaldi and Cuatro Álamos barracks, remained without contact with the outside world, blindfolded and bound, being in the former 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 its members; The last time the victims Bueno Cifuentes and Müller Silva were seen alive was on an undetermined day in mid-December 1974, and to date, there is no information regarding the whereabouts of both, and they remain disappeared to this day; 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 Argentine magazine 'LEA' on July 15, 1975, which reported that Carmen Cecilia Bueno Cifuentes had died in Argentina, along with 59 other people belonging to the MIR, due to internal disputes that had arisen among those members; The publications that declared the victim Bueno Cifuentes dead originated from disinformation maneuvers carried out by DINA agents abroad." In the civil aspect, Judge Crisosto ordered the State of Chile to pay compensation of $50,000,000 (fifty million pesos) to the victims' daughter. Judge Crisosto convicts retired Carabineros General for the homicide of an architecture professor Visiting judge Hernán Crisosto convicted retired Carabineros General Sergio Jiménez Albornoz to a sentence of 10 years of major imprisonment in its minimum degree, as the perpetrator of the crime of aggravated homicide of Leopoldo Raúl Benítez Herrera, which occurred in Santiago on September 17, 1973.

The magistrate determined that

"On September 17, 1973, around 8:00 PM, while the 'Curfew' decreed by the Military Junta that had deposed the constitutionally established government days earlier was in effect, and under circumstances where Leopoldo Raúl Benítez Herrera, a professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and a left-wing sympathizer, was at the home of his in-laws located at Calle Los Olmos No. 2930, in the current commune of Macul, a raid on the home was carried out by a group of personnel belonging to the Carabineros Non-Commissioned Officers School, at that time called the Non-Commissioned Officers Improvement Center, under the command of an officer, who, within the framework of selective repression against sympathizers of the deposed government, proceeded to take Benítez against his will in a bus manned by personnel from the same institution, which was witnessed by family members who were accompanying him at the home," the ruling states.

It adds that

"a few minutes after Leopoldo Benítez Herrera was taken, family members heard a burst of machine-gun fire. On September 24, 1973, the lifeless body of Leopoldo Raúl Benítez Herrera was found by family members at the Legal Medical Service of Santiago, the cause of death according to the autopsy report being 'multiple gunshot wounds,' with records indicating that the body was found by military personnel on a public street around 1:00 AM on September 18, 1973, with gunshot wounds.

In the civil aspect, the State was ordered to pay total compensation of $310,000,000 (three hundred and ten million pesos) to the victim's family members for moral damage."

Source: reddigital.cl, January 12, 2020