After almost 50 years of the case known as “Paine Substation episode”the First Chamber of the Court of Appeals of San Miguel issued a judgment of second instance and convicted the former carabinero for the qualified kidnapping of the merchant Luis Nelson Cadiz Molina and the teacher Alberto Leiva-Vargas during September 14, 1973.
According to what was stated by CooperativeThe ministers Patricio Martinez and Marcelo Ovalletogether with the member lawyer Ignatius Castlereconfirmed what was resolved by the minister Marianela Cifuentes in July 2021.
In his first instance ruling, Cifuentes condemned the former uniforms Jose Retamal Burgos and Nelson Bravo Espinoza to 15 years and one day in prison in its maximum degree, as perpetrators of qualified kidnapping of both victims.
The last one, Bravo Espinoza, was a retired colonel and worked as head of the police station in Police of Paine at the time of the events. Currently, he is already serving a sentence in the prison of Punta Peuco for being linked to other crimes against humanity, during the dictatorship.
It should be noted that in the original case there were four former police officers accused in the case, but two of them died before being sentenced, while Burgos broom He died in October 2021, months after being sentenced in the first instance by the minister.
In this regard, the plaintiff attorney Nelson CaucotOr, he maintained that the conviction “is good news for the families of these victims, who have waited 49 years for the State of Chile to do justice to their loved ones.”
Case “Paine police station episode”
Luis Nelson Cadiz Molina and Alberto Leiva Vargas They are two of the 70 victims who were executed and disappeared by the military dictatorship in Paine, who were mostly peasants from the area.
The investigation established that “on September 14, 1973, after becoming aware of a summons against him, Luis Nelson Cádiz Molina voluntarily presented himself at the Paine Carabineros Substation, where he was kept locked up, without rights and that, instead of being placed at the disposal of the judicial authority, his whereabouts are unknown to date”.
“On the same day, in the afternoon, Alberto Leiva Vargas, an assistant employee of Fundamental Education at the Rural Education Institute and a Philosophy student at the Catholic University of Chile, was arrested at his home on Baquedano Street, in the Paine district. and, immediately afterwards, transferred to the aforementioned police unit, where he was kept locked up and to date his whereabouts are unknown,” the file adds.
“At the time of the events, the Paine Carabineros Deputy Police Station was under the command of Captain Nelson Iván Bravo Espinoza, assisted by non-commissioned officers José Floriano Verdugo Espinoza and Manuel Antonio Reyes Álvarez, currently deceased, who took turns in their duties. every 24 hours. At that time, the guard of the aforementioned police unit was in charge of the carabineros José Retamal Burgos and Víctor Manuel Sagredo Arenas, who also took turns in their work every 24 hours, “he concludes.
The full sentence of the Court here: “Paine Substation episode”
