In a unanimous decision, the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court issued a condemnatory ruling against former officials of the Army and the Investigative Police (PDI), for crimes that took place in November 1973 in the communes of San Miguel and San Bernardo.
These are former Army officer Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena and former PDI officer Roberto Arcángel Rozas Aguilera, for their participation in the crimes of qualified kidnapping of Luis Heriberto Contreras Escamilla, an electrical technician and former militant of the Socialist Party (PS), as well as the abduction of his son, Luis Heriberto Contreras Peñaloza, 16 years old at the time of the events.
The sentence, confirmed by the ministers Haroldo Brito, Jorge Dahm, Diego Simpertigue, and the member lawyers Leonor Etcheberry and Carolina Coppo, ratifies the sentences imposed in the first instance.
- Faúndez Norambuena was sentenced to 6 years in prison for qualified kidnapping and 4 years for kidnapping.
- Rozas Aguilera received a sentence of 3 years and one day, in addition to 541 days in prison, with the benefit of supervised release for 5 years, as a co-author of the crimes.
Rozas Aguilera, who worked as an interrogator at the Cerro Chena prison camp, was mentioned in the ruling along with Carabineros and military officials.
The plaintiff lawyer, Freddy Henríquez, from Estudio Caucoto Abogados, valued the sentence as a significant milestone in judicial terms, highlighting the arduous process that involved bringing this case to light after so many years.
The investigation, directed by the extraordinary visiting minister of the Court of Appeals of San Miguel, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, revealed a series of events that occurred in November 1973, including the illegal detention of Contreras Escamilla and his son, as well as the criminals physical and psychological treatment they suffered in the Cerro Chena prison camp. Tragically, Contreras Escamilla was executed inside this facility on November 15, 1973.
This ruling not only represents progress in the search for justice for the victims of the military dictatorship in Chile, but also highlights the perseverance of those who fight tirelessly for human rights and the historical memory of their country.
The facts
- According to the investigation carried out by the minister during an extraordinary visit of the Court of Appeals of San Miguel Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, the following facts can be established:
- “That on November 10, 1973, at night, soldiers from the San Bernardo Infantry School, detained, without right, Luis Heriberto Contreras Escamilla, a member of the Socialist Party, at his home, located in Porto Alegre passage No. 5,742, Brasilia town, in the commune of San Miguel.
- That, immediately afterwards, the aforementioned military patrol detained, without right, Luis Heriberto Contreras Peñaloza, 16 years old, member of the Front of Revolutionary Students of the Revolutionary Left Movement, son of Contreras Escamilla, in a building in the Carbomet town of the commune of San Bernardo.
- That, subsequently, both detainees were transferred to the prison camp of the San Bernardo Infantry School, located on Cerro Chena, where they were kept locked up, without rights, and were subjected to interrogations and physical and psychological abuse.
- That, at that time, the Cerro Chena prison camp was in charge of Captain Víctor Raúl Pinto Pérez – currently deceased – and Lieutenant Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena, both from the Chilean Army.
- That, likewise, in the aforementioned temporal context, Army Second Lieutenant Osvaldo Andrés Alonso Magaña Bau, Carabineros Lieutenant Sergio Heriberto Ávila Quiroga and Investigative Police officers Óscar performed functions in the aforementioned prison camp as interrogators. Hernán Vergara Cruces – currently deceased – and Roberto Arcángel Rozas Aguilera.
- That on November 15, 1973, inside the aforementioned prison camp, Luis Contreras Escamilla was executed, outside the legal system, by means of multiple shots with a firearm.”
