By Maxine Lowy, for Memoria y Justicia

March 14, 2005

In 1976 the United Nations General Assembly voted the first of several resolutions, condemning the practice of torture and calling on Chilean officials to prosecute individuals responsible for the inflicting torture. Nearly 30 years later, the Chilean courts have finally heeded the UN resolution, with the first arraignments for torture practiced in the Teas Verdes prisoner camp during the first phase of the military dictatorship.

On March 7 Judge Alejandro Solis Muñoz issued indictments for former DINA chief Manuel Contreras, as well as the retired military officers Mario Jara Seguel, David Miranda Monardes, Raul Quintana Salazar, Patricio Carranca Saavedra, Claudio Kossiel Horning and former Investigations Police Chief Nelson Valdes Cornejo for the crimes of aggravated abduction and torture that occurred at the Army Engineer Regiment of Tejas Verdes.

On March 11 the Sixth Bench of the Santiago Court of Appeals denied freedom on bail for the six former DINA agents who the court found to be danger to society. The five former members of the Army are in custody in the Telecommunications Command of the Army ,where Manuel Contreras already entered upon his conviction for the disappearance of Miguel Angel Sandoval Rodriguez. The former Investigations chief Valdes is held in the Intelligence Police Headquarters.

At present the case involving the crimes committed at Tejas Verdes is divided into two files. One comprises the crimes of aggravated abduction of Rebeca Espinoza Sepulveda, Jose Perez Hermosilla and Jose Orellana Meza, who were brutally tortured prior to their disappearance. The other file consists of the cases of 7 women and 12 men who survived acts of extreme cruelty and denigration at Tejas Verdes.

Hangings, application of electric current, beatings and rapes of both men and women were common occurrences at Army Engineer Regiment of Tejas Verdes, one of the first concentration camps established after the military coup. The cruel treatment left permanent scars of post traumatic stress that the victims endure to this day.

Numerous witnesses, former prisoners who also suffered at Tejas Verdes, have testified that they saw the three persons who today are disappeared, in very bad physical condition. In the case of Rebeca Espinoza, 40 years of age at the time of her detention and mother of four, witnesses testified that she was enclosed in a small wooden shack, and not allowed to communicate with other prisoners. The fingers of her hands were broken, she was nearly unconscious, and was frequently raped at night. The last time witnesses saw Rebeca, two military men were leading her towards the Maipo River.

Writer Hernan Valdes, In his autobiographical book "Tejas Verdes, Diario de un Campo de Concentracion de Chile," writer Hernan Valdes recalls that after having been subjected to five hours of torture in March 1974, he thought to himself, "All I knew about evil until now was only caricature, only literature. Now evil has lost all moral reference."

Operated by the Army between late 1973 until mid 1974, Tejas Verdes was organized for torture, characterized by a tremendous savagery. Tejas Verdes was a school and testing ground for the formation of the DINA. It is here that Manuel Contreras, future director of the repressive agency, first becomes known. Located in the municipality of San Antonio, the prisoners were transported there in refrigerator trucks confiscated from fishing companies. Most prisoners were brought from the port of San Antonio or from Santiago, often after prior detention at the Londres 38 detention center.

Citing the International Convention against Torture and other Cruel Treatment or Punishment, Judge Alejandro Solis identifies three elements that define the act of torture in Chile: "1) It inflicted extreme pain or suffering, either physical or psychological; 2) It was inflicted with a deliberate intent, and 3) It was inflicted by public employees or by persons who exercised public functions, upon instigation by officials or with his own consent and acquiescence."

Judge Solis traces the development of international jurisprudence related to torture from the Nuremberg Tribunal and the Geneva Conventions to the establishment of the principle of jus cogens in the case of torture. Jus cogens encompasses norms so fundamentally accepted by the international community that States cannot overstep them. Solis cites the sentence the Inter American Human Rights Court issued on September 7, 2004 (Tibi v. Ecuador) that defines the absolute prohibition of torture as a norm of jus cogens.

Solis cites still another Inter American Human Rights Court sentence (Barrios Altos Case of March 14, 2001) that declares inadmissible amnesty provisions, statutes of limitation, and provisions that impede prosecution in cases of human rights violations such as the forced disappearances and torture of this case. Thus, Judge Solis reinforces the principle established in the Miguel Angel Sandoval Rodriguez case that the amnesty decree law is inapplicable to crimes against humanity.

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