On July 2, 1986, Rojas and Carmen Gloria Quintana were taking part in a protest against Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship in Santiago de Chile when they were intercepted by a military patrol, beaten, doused with fuel and burned.
Carmen Gloria managed to escape with serious consequences, but Rodrigo died on July 6 of the same year. Both became symbols of human rights violations.
“This verdict is a very important victory for me because for many years I was looking for lawyers who could take on the case, but no one wanted to,” De Negri told Prensa Latina.
The crime caused a deep shock not only in this country but worldwide and went down in history as the Quemados case.
The day before, justice was finally served when the Supreme Court sentenced Julio Ernesto Castañer, Iván Humberto Figueroa, Nelson Fidel Medina and Pedro Fernández Dittus to 20 years and one day in prison for committing the crime of completed murder in the Rojas case and frustrated murder in the person of Carmen Gloria.
He also sentenced Luis Alberto Zúñiga, Jorge Osvaldo Astorga, Francisco Fernando, Leonardo Antonio Riquelme, Walter Ronny Lara, Juan Ramón González, Pedro Patricio Franco and Sergio Hernández to three years in prison and one day as accomplices to these crimes.
The court ordered the Treasury Department to pay financial compensation to the victims' families.
“I am very grateful that my son can finally rest in peace. I hope that all the mothers, daughters, sisters and nieces of the disappeared prisoners can say the same,” De Negri said via Zoom from the United States, where she lives in exile.
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