Chile: retired soldiers sentenced over 1986 attack on activists burned alive

[Judi Lynn]

Staff and agencies

Thu 21 Mar 2019 17.13 EDT Last modified on Thu 21 Mar 2019 17.52 EDT


A Chilean court has sentenced three retired soldiers to 10 years in prison for their part in a horrific attack on two democracy activists who were doused with petrol and set on fire.

The 1986 attack on Rodrigo Rojas and Carmen Gloria Quintana was one of the most notorious torture cases in the 17-year military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

On Thursday, Julio Castaner, Ivn Figueroa and Nelson Medina were found guilty of murder and attempted murder. Eight other former soldiers received three-year prison sentences for acting as accomplices in the attack.

Rojas, a US resident, had returned to Chile to photograph popular protests against Pinochet. He and Quintana were captured by soldiers on 2 July 1986 during a two-day national strike.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/21/chile-soldiers-activists-attack-rodrigo-rojas-carmen-quintana

LBN:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142290273



Carmen Gloria Quintana and Rodrigo Rojas




In the photo: Officer Julio Castañer, one of the
thirteen accused of having burned on July 2, 1986
in Estación Central, burned Rodrigo Rojas de Negri
and Carmen Gloria Quintana: Rodrigo died as a
result of the burns.

~ ~ ~



When the "Case Burned" occurred , the official press of the time said that it had been their fault, that they were carrying explosives that broke and exploded . Carmen Gloria Quintana and Rodrigo Rojas were 18 and 19 years old at that time, on July 2, 1986, they were stopped by a group of soldiers who sprayed them with benzine: she, who was standing in front of a wall, from head to toe him, in the back, for being face down on the ground. Both went to one of the many marches against the Pinochet dictatorship.

They set them on fire, then covered them with blankets and hours later threw them into a ditch in Quilicura. There they woke up, got up to seek help and were helped by a group of workers. Later, a Carabineros patrol took them to an office. 60 percent of Quintana's body was burned and 65 percent of Rojas's body was burned. He, who was exiled in Canada and then in the United States since he was 9 years old and who returned to Chile to photograph what was happening, died four days later.

The only defendant was the officer Pedro Fernández Dittus and only for not moving Carmen Gloria and Rodrigo to the hospital. What happened in this, the so-called "Case Burned", was what thousands have been accusing for years: the pacts of silence that exist within the Armed Forces to silence the deaths, torture and violations of Human Rights that occurred during the dictatorship.

But one of these obscure agreements broke this week. Fernando Guzmán Espíndola, who at 21 was part of the group that burned Quintana and Rojas, spoke after 30 years . He saw everything from the patrol and confessed that the testimonies they had given were lies, that they were forced to learn the statements, that the one who started the fire was Lieutenant Julio Castañer with a lighter and that the Army gave them money and permits in exchange for to keep their silence.

. . .

A mixture of sadness, to open new wounds; but also pride. Reliving this history - and at the same time remembering thousands of similar ones - has made me proud once more of those who fought against the dictatorship at any cost, of the families that up to now and will always continue fighting for the truth to be known and for justice to come, and also of hope to know that there is still courage and dignity.

https://www.zancada.com/2015/07/23/caso-quemados-la-tristeza-y-el-orgullo/

[safeinOhio]

1. Part of Pinochets' Libertarian miracle? N/T