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Original article: Tenía 15 años: procesan a cuatro exagentes de la DINA por sustracción de adolescente y apremios ilegítimos

Four Former DINA Agents Face Charges for Kidnapping and Torture of 15-Year-Old during Pinochet Dictatorship

The extraordinary visiting minister for cases related to human rights violations at the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, issued a processing order against four members of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their involvement in the completed crimes of kidnapping a minor under 18 years old and illegal coercion, committed since January 28, 1974, in the San Miguel area.

This judicial decision marks another significant step in investigating the human rights violations recorded during the civic-military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, focusing this time on the case of a 15-year-old adolescent who was forcibly taken from his family environment and subjected to systematic torture in two clandestine detention centers.

In this resolution, the judge processed Ricardo Fortunato Soto Jerez, Raúl Pablo Quintana Salazar, Fernando Armando Cerda Vargas, and Vittorio Orvieto Tiplitzky as perpetrators of the crimes. All of them held key roles within the repressive DINA structure: ranging from interrogation tasks to direct command at the Londres 38 center, as well as medical and operational supervision at Tejas Verdes facility.

Teen Tortured During the Dictatorship

The investigation gathered sufficient evidence to confirm not only the illegal detention of the adolescent known as J. A. P.V. at the time, but also the physical and psychological abuse he endured during his captivity.

According to the established facts, the minister noted that “on January 28, 1974, in the afternoon, at the premises located at Los Copihues St. No. 3,558, in the La Legua neighborhood of San Miguel, DINA agents, led by Colonel Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda, including Alberto Esteban Palacio González, nicknamed ‘the Argentine,’ detained J. A. P.V., a 15-year-old, illegally during a repressive operation.

The teenager was taken to the clandestine detention center known as “Londres 38,” located at the same-named street number 38 in Santiago, which at the time was under the management of Major Marcelo Luis Manuel Moren Brito.

Here, the documentation states, “he was interrogated and forced, through illegal coercion inflicted by agent Alberto Esteban Palacio González, among others, to provide the identity and whereabouts of left-wing militants from La Legua neighborhood.” The coercion methods included direct physical violence, threats, and all kinds of psychological pressure, common in DINA’s strategy to break the will of detainees.

The ruling further elaborates that, during this period, DINA detention centers depended on the National Intelligence Brigade, led by Army officer César Manríquez Bravo, evidencing the hierarchical and organizational structure of the repressive apparatus.

J.A.P.V. was not only confined in Londres 38; he was subsequently transferred to the prisoner camp set up at Barracks No. 2 of the Military Engineers School of Tejas Verdes. There, his captivity continued under the command of lieutenants Raúl Pablo Quintana Salazar and Fernando Armando Cerda Vargas, along with First Sergeant Ramón Luis Carriel Espinoza, among others. There, he “was illegally held and suffered physical and psychological mistreatment,” as noted in the ruling.

The conditions of confinement at Tejas Verdes were particularly brutal, and the case of the teenager was no exception. The judicial record establishes that “on two occasions he was transferred to the basement of the officers’ casino at the Military Engineers School of Tejas Verdes, where he was interrogated through illegal coercion, such as being stripped naked, subjected to electricity in various parts of his body, and immersion in a container with excrement.” These practices, documented in numerous cases of human rights violations during the dictatorship, aimed to maximize the victim’s suffering to obtain information.

The investigation also clarified that among those responsible for the interrogations in Tejas Verdes were Major Mario Alejandro Jara Seguel, Lieutenant Ricardo Fortunato Judas Tadeo Soto Jerez, and doctor Vittorio Orvieto Tiplitzky, among others.

Arrest Order and Preventive Detention

In her resolution, Minister Cifuentes —under articles 274 and 276 of the Criminal Procedure Code— declared that she would prosecute and impose preventive detention on the former DINA agents Ricardo Fortunato Soto Jerez, Raúl Pablo Quintana Salazar, Fernando Armando Cerda Vargas, and Vittorio Orvieto Tiplitzky, as perpetrators of the crimes of kidnapping a person over 10 years old and under 18 years old, at consummate level, and illegal coercion, at consummate level, against J. A. P.V.

She also issued a warrant for their arrest for Soto Jerez and Cerda Vargas through the Human Rights Crimes Investigative Brigade of the Chilean Investigative Police (PDI).

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