Tougher sentences in Chile for the murder of Allende’s collaborators

These are the political and economic advisors, doctors and members of the Popular Action Party who were arrested in La Moneda Palace on September 11, 1973, after the coup against the Popular Unity government, and taken to the Beldeho Military Complex, where they were detained. shot.

Following these events, the Second Court confirmed the rulings issued by the Court of Appeal of Santiago in November 2021, and also increased the penalties and annulled the acquittals of some uniformed officers on that occasion.

The court sentenced Pedro Octavio Espinosa to 20 years in prison as a qualified co-author of the murders of 15 of the 23 victims, and added 20 years in prison for the kidnapping of the other eight.

Meanwhile, Eliseo Antonio Cornejo, Servando Moreira and Jorge Ismael Gamboa must serve 30 years in prison for the same crimes, and Teobaldo Mendoza and Bernardo Soto must serve seven years in prison.

Lawyer Nelson Kakuto announced, “The final and final ruling was issued by the highest court in the Republic in the La Moneda case, and it is a ruling that resolves an important chapter in national history.”

The lawyer, who represents the families of 18 of the 23 victims, noted that the atrocities committed in the La Moneda Palace inaugurated 17 years of state terrorism in Chile.

Those killed in Beldeho were Central Bank Director General Jaime Barrios. Secretary General of the University of Chile, Egidio Enrique Paris; Doctor George Klein; and presidential advisors Claudio Grendi and Hector Pincheira.

Among those shot were also 10 members of the security body known as the Group of Friends of the President (GAP): Luis Aviles, Manuel Castro, Oscar Lagos, Julio Moreno, Luis Rodriguez, Jaime Gilson, Luis Fernando Tapia, Hector Urrutia, Juan. Vargas and Juan José Monteglio.

The Director General of the Investigative Police, Juan Paredes, joined the list; Under-Secretary-General of the Government, Arsenio Bobin; Palace deans Sergio Contreras and Enrique Huerta; Chief of Staff Daniel Escobar and former GAP members José Freire, Daniel Gutierrez and Oscar Enrique Valladares.

Kakuto acknowledged the activity of the courts, which over the past twenty years have undertaken their primary mission of overcoming impunity and resolving these crimes committed by the state.

L/car