Supreme Court Upholds Sentences Against Two Former Police Officers for Executing Young Men and Disposing of Their Bodies in Zanjón de la Aguada

Original article: DD.HH.: Suprema confirma condenas contra dos excarabineros por ejecutar a jóvenes y lanzar sus cuerpos al Zanjón de la Aguada

In a unanimous ruling bolstering the fight against impunity for crimes against humanity, the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court confirmed the sentences against two former members of Carabineros for their involvement in the execution of young men J.A.G.L. and J.R.M.M. and subsequently disposing of their bodies in Zanjón de la Aguada on September 18, 1973, following the coup d’état that led to Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship.

Ministers Manuel Valderrama, Leopoldo Llanos, María Cristina Gajardo, and members Juan Carlos Ferrada and Eduardo Gandulfo rejected all defense appeals, effectively concluding a judicial process that has spanned decades.

Carlos Gastón Manterola Miranda, a former Carabineros major, was confirmed as the perpetrator of the aggravated murders, receiving a sentence of 15 years and one day in the maximum degree of confinement. Meanwhile, José Alejandro Cabrera Tapia, a former sergeant of the institution, retained his status as an accomplice, with a penalty of 5 years in the maximum degree of minor confinement.

Both former officials were found responsible for the deaths of the victims, who were forcibly taken from their homes that night, executed in public, and later thrown into the waters of Zanjón de la Aguada, in an attempt to conceal the crime that kept them classified as forcibly disappeared for nearly two decades.

The events, reconstructed by visiting judge Paola Plaza González, recount that on September 18, 1973, the young men were returning home after celebrating Fiestas Patrias. When they arrived at Bascuñán Guerrero Street, amid a curfew, a neighbor reported them for disturbances in public, prompting Carabineros from the 8th Police Station in Santiago to respond. Although both managed to enter their home, the officers forcibly broke into the property, dragged them out, and ordered them to lie on the ground. «Taking advantage of their defenseless state, they shot both of them, inflicting severe injuries that caused their immediate deaths,» stated the magistrate.

The judicial investigation revealed that once their deaths were confirmed, the bodies of J.A.G.L. and J.R.M.M. were loaded onto a police van and taken to the Zanjón de la Aguada bridge, where the officers disposed of them into the river’s current, making it impossible for their families to locate them, despite extensive searches.

It was not until 1991 that their remains were discovered in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery of Santiago and properly identified as J.A.G.L. and J.R.M.M. Forensic examinations determined the cause of death as «gunshot wounds, with the immediate cause of death being hemorrhagic shock, in the context of legally classified, violent homicide.»

Justice in Challenging Times for Human Rights in Chile

For claimant Andrea Gattini of the Caucoto Law Firm, this verdict holds significant relevance in the current context of human rights advocacy in the country.

The lawyer emphasized that «in these difficult times for human rights in Chile, achieving justice in these cases becomes even more important, regardless of how much time has passed since the occurrence of these heinous crimes.»

«This highlights the importance of making visible the work that our courts continue to undertake, which must persist until Justice is achieved for all,» she stressed in a press release.