Beheaded's Case

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Beheaded's Case (caso Degollados) was a politically motivated crime and political scandal in that took place in Chile.

[edit] Events of the case

On March 30, 1985 three Communist Party members were savagely murdered. The bodies of Santiago Nattino, Manuel Guerrero and José Manuel Parada were discovered near Santiago's airport, their throats slashed. Nattino, a painter and supporter of the AGECH teachers' union, had been kidnapped March 28, while AGECH leader Guerrero, and Parada, a Vicaría de la Solidaridad staff member, were abducted March 29.

The brutal triple murder, which came to be known as Caso Degollados, evoked widespread indignation and compelled the Supreme Court to appoint Judge Jose Canovas as special prosecutor to investigate the crime.

Only four months later, the investigation carried out by Judge Cánovas led to the arrest of two Colonels, one Major, two Captains and two non-commissioned officers of the police force. The aftereffects of this case provoked, on August 2, 1985, the resignation of General César Mendoza, Director General of the Carabineros and Member of Government Junta since September 11, 1973 as well as the dissolution of DICOMCAR, an agency of the Carabineros that had allegedly carried out the kidnappings and assassinations. In its 1985 special report, the Inter-American Commission on human rights stated that it hoped that “the case now under way will lead to the identification and punishment of the persons responsible for the execution of so culpable an act.”^[1]

Eventually six members of the Police's secret service were indicted and sentenced to life for the murder.