The Seventh Guarantee Court issued the dismissal of the General Director of Carabineros, Ricardo Yáñez, for his command responsibility in the death of a juggler in the commune of Panguipulli, Los Ríos Region, registered in February 2021.
On the day of the events, Carabineros Corporal Juan González shot down the juggler Francisco Martínez, after he resisted a police control and pounced on the uniformed man with two juggling implements described as “white weapons, machete type” .
For this case, last February the Supreme Court confirmed that the uniformed man acted in legitimate defense and that he could not be charged with a crime.
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However, in parallel, the Public Ministry was investigating the authorities of the time, after a complaint from the National Human Rights Commission, which claimed that this case was part of a crime against humanity.
In this context, General Yáñez’s defense attorney, Jorge Martínez, asked the court to order the dismissal of his client.
The hearing began after 11:00 and was chaired by Judge Marcia Figueroa. After listening to the arguments of Martínez -who reported that on the day of the events General Yáñez was not operational and that there were legal reports that ruled out the existence of crimes against humanity-, the North Central prosecutor Ximena Chong and the National Commission of Human Rights, the judge decided to rule in favor of the defense.
After the hearing, Jorge Martínez argued that the National Human Rights Commission “linked the Panguipulli incident with the existence of crimes against humanity, which is legally incorrect, because it was an isolated event that occurred two years after the so-called social outbreak.”
Martínez added that “the effect that exists in the processing of these cases is that the courts in many do not exercise a correct admissibility examination, especially in this type of crime that has a very serious national and global connotation.”
