Original article: Suprema ratifica condenas a 4 efectivos (r) del Ejército por secuestrar y torturar a 8 personas y 1 adolescente en Tejas Verdes entre 1973 y 1974
The Supreme Court has confirmed the sentences of four retired soldiers for their involvement in the aggravated kidnapping of eight adults and a 16-year-old girl, who were detained at various times between September 1973 and February 1974. They were subjected to torture during interrogations at the Military Engineering School in Tejas Verdes, located in San Antonio.
It is important to note that this notorious location was overseen by General Manuel Contreras, who would later lead the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) following the coup against Salvador Allende and the Popular Unity.
In a split decision, the Second Chamber of the highest court—comprised of Justice Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Justices María Cristina Gajardo, Eliana Quezada, acting Attorney Leonor Etcheverry, and acting Attorney Carlos Urquieta—rejected the appeals for cassation filed by the defendants against the convictions of Raúl Pablo Quintana Salazar, Ramón Luis Carriel Espinoza, Ricardo Fortunato Judas Tadeo Soto Jerez, and Vittorio Orvieto Tiplitzky, sentencing them to five and three terms of 10 years and 6 years in prison for committing eight counts of aggravated kidnapping. Each was also given an additional sentence of 10 years and one day of confinement for the crime of abducting the teenager.
From a civil perspective, the ruling requires the state to pay $70 million in damages for moral harm to each of the recurring victims.
Command Structure of Tejas Verdes
In the initial judgments, Minister Marianela Cifuentes, appointed for extraordinary trials concerning human rights violations by the San Miguel Court of Appeals, determined that «all victims, after being detained, were transferred to the Army’s Military Engineering School located in Tejas Verdes, San Antonio. Once in this military unit, they were subjected to torture during interrogations in the officers’ casino basement.»
At the time of the incidents between September 1973 and February 1974, the Military Engineering School in Tejas Verdes was led by Lieutenant Colonel Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda, assisted by Majors David Adolfo Miranda Monardes, Jorge Rosendo Núñez Magallanes, and Mario Alejandro Jara Seguel (all deceased).
The interrogations were conducted by Majors Jorge Núñez Magallanes and Mario Jara Seguel, supported by Captain Klaudio Erich Kosiel Hornig, Lieutenant Ricardo Fortunato Judas Tadeo Soto Jerez, Sergeant Second Ramón Acuña Acuña, Doctor Vittorio Orvieto Tiplitzky, and Inspector Nelson Valdés Cornejo from the Police Investigations, as noted in Minister Cifuentes’ investigation.
Recurrent Abuses and Rape of a Teenager
Addressing the case of the teenager, Minister Cifuentes established the following facts:
«1st On the morning of October 12, 1973, O.A.L.C., a 16-year-old student and member of the Revolutionary Students Front (FER), was unlawfully detained at the San Antonio High School by soldiers from the Military Engineering School of Tejas Verdes, commanded by Major Mario Jara Seguel, who violently loaded her into a truck and subsequently transferred her to the prisoner camp established at the military unit’s material park, overseen by Major David Adolfo Miranda Monardes, Lieutenant Luis Carevic Cubillos, Reserve Sub-lieutenant Raúl Pablo Quintana Salazar, and Sergeant 1st Ramón Luis Carriel Espinoza, all of the Chilean Army.»
«2nd During the illegal confinement of Olga Letelier Caruz at the prisoner camp of the Military Engineering School of Tejas Verdes, she was repeatedly taken to the basement of the base’s officers’ casino, where she was interrogated and subjected to illegal pressures, including undressing, electric shock, beatings, burns on various parts of her body, sexual touching, sexual abuse, and repeated rape, resulting in extreme post-traumatic stress as a consequence of the physical, psychological, and sexual violence endured.»
(… The interrogations under illegal duress conducted in the basement of the officers’ casino of the Military Engineering School of Tejas Verdes were led by Major Jorge Núñez Magallanes, Major Mario Jara Seguel, Captain Klaudio Erich Kosiel Hornig, Lieutenant Ricardo Fortunato Judas Tadeo Soto Jerez, Sergeant 2nd Ramón Acuña Acuña, and Doctor Vittorio Orvieto Tiplitzky, among others).
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