Justice orders the Navy to withdraw the portrait and photograph of ex-commander José Toribio Merino from the institution’s premises

The Fifth Chamber of the Court of Appeals of Santiago ordered the Chilean Navy to remove the portrait and photograph of the former commander-in-chief of the institution and member of the Military Junta who participated in the 1973 coup, José Toribio Merino Castro, from its dependencies.

In a divided ruling, the court ordered the institution to remove the image of the former commander-in-chief from the General Secretariat and Commander-in-Chief of the First Naval Zone, where, until today, a painting with his figure is kept.

The ruling established that the Navy committed an “arbitrary and illegal” act by keeping on display a series of images of one of the soldiers who led the offensive against the government of Salvador Allende, and who would later participate in a de facto administration that would commit crimes against humanity.

For the Santiago appellate court, “the only reason given for not accessing the withdrawal of a photograph and portrait is that they are located next to those of other people who held the same position as Mr. Merino’s.”

However, it clarifies that “such a distinction becomes illegal in light of the guarantee of non-repetition enshrined in article 63.1 of the Convention on Human Rights and applicable to our country in accordance with article 5 of the Constitution, which provides that ‘ When it decides that there was a violation of a right or freedom protected in this Convention, the Court will provide that the injured party be guaranteed the enjoyment of his violated right or freedom.”

Thus, the room, made up of the ministers María Soledad Gutiérrez, Erika Villegas and the member lawyer José Ramón Gutiérrez, accepted the protection appeal presented by Luis Mariano Rendón, lawyer and member of the List of political prisoners and tortured, known as the Valech Commission II.

“The appeal for protection is accepted, only as soon as the Chilean Navy is ordered to remove the portrait and photograph of José Toribio Merino Castro from the General Secretariat of the Navy and Commander-in-Chief of the First Naval Zone, within a period of three days from the date this ruling becomes final”, concludes the ruling of Justice.

It should be remembered that in June 2022, the same Santiago Appeals Court had ordered the Navy to remove a statue of Toribio Merino from the front of the Valparaíso Maritime Museum.

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