The Burnt Alive Case (Spanish: Caso quemados) was a politically motivated crime and political scandal in that took place in Chile.
Events of the case
During this time Chile was experiencing widespread political instability and human rights abuses. A national protest was organized for on July 2 and 3, 1986, against the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet and barricades were going up in different areas of Santiago.
At 8 AM on July 2, 1986, a small group of people were setting up a barricade in the Los Nogales neighborhood, in the municipality of Estacion Central area. The group was carrying five old tires, a molotov cocktail and a gallon of gasoline. They were intercepted by an army patrol that was clearing barricades in the area of General Velasquez Avenue. All escaped except for Rodrigo Rojas DeNegri (19), a young photographer, and Carmen Gloria Quintana (18), an engineering student at the University of Santiago, Chile. The army patrol, under the command of Lieutenant Pedro Fernandez Dittus, was composed of three officers, five noncommissioned officers, and 17 soldiers.
There are two contrasting versions for the succeding events: according to the official version of the military patrol as Quintana and DeNegri were arrested, some of the molotov cocktails they were carrying broke, setting them on fire accidentally. The opposing version (of Quintana, the only survivor) accuses that both of them (herself and DeNegri) were severely beaten by military personnel, and later soaked with gasoline and set afire.
What is clearly known is that after both of them were in flames and unconscious, patrol members wrapped them in blankets, loaded them into a military vehicle and drove them to an isolated road in the outskirts of Santiago, over 20 kilometers away. There, in an irrigation ditch, they were dumped and left to die. Some agricultural workers found them and notified the police, who then took them to a public hospital.
Rodrigo Rojas' burns were fatal. He had second- and third-degree burns that covered 90 per cent of his body, a broken mandible and broken ribs, and a collapsed lung. He lingered for four days after the incident, and died on July 6, 1986. Carmen Gloria Quintana suffered second- and third-degree burns that covered 62 per cent of her body, many broken teeth, and teetered between life and death for weeks, but she survived. Quintana underwent a long medical treatment in Chile and Canada, but still sustains disfiguring scars as a result of her burns.
Aftermath
On January 3 1991 a military court found Fernandez Dittus guilty of negligence for failing to get medical attention for Rojas, but absolved him of any responsibility in the Quintana burning. In 1993 the Supreme Court sentenced Fernandez Dittus to 600 days in prison for his responsibility in the burning death of Rojas DeNegri and the serious burns sustained by Quintana. In October 2000 a court ordered the government to pay Quintana 251.7 million pesos (about US$500,000) in compensatory damages.
See also
- Chile under Pinochet
- Chilean political scandals
References
- 1999 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
- Memoria viva
- News compilations
- "Fernandez Dittus Sentenced to 600 days in Caso Quemados"
- "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000" (US Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor)
- Derechos en Chile
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History-of-Chile
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Chilean-political-scandals
Other pages about Chilean political scandals
-2006–? -Alejandrina Cox incident -Augusto Pinochet's arrest and trial -Burnt Alive case -Caso Degollados -Charles Horman -Cuban packages -Letelier case -List of major political scandals in Chile -Scorpion scandal -Seguro Obrero massacre
Other pages about History of Chile
-1925 Chilean coup d'etat -1973 Chilean coup d'etat -1992 Galvarino -2006–? -Alejandrina Cox incident -Alessandri family -Allende family -Allende stamps -Antonio Samore -Arauco War -Ariostazo -Army of the Andes -Burnt Alive case -Capture of Valdivia -Carrera family -Caso Degollados -Charles Horman -Chile under Allende -Chile under Pinochet -Chilean Civil War -Chilean Revolution of 1829 -Chilean coup d'etat -Chilean transition to democracy -City of the Caesars -Clemente de Lantano -Colonia Dignidad -Covadonga (ship) -Crossing of the Andes -Cuban packages -DINA -Death of Salvador Allende -Economic history of Chile -Errazuriz family -Esmeralda (BE-43) -Estadio Nacional de Chile -Estadio Victor Jara -Figueroa mutiny -First Ladies of Chile -Flach (submarine) -Forced disappearance -Frei family -Gabino Gainza -Garcia de Nodal expedition -Government Junta of Chile (1924) -Government Juntas of Chile -Heroes (Chilean miniseries) -History of Chile -History of Chile during the Parliamentary Era (1891-1925) -Huaso (horse) -Ines de Suarez -John E. Hamm -Kingdom of Araucania and Patagonia -Kingdom of Chile -Leighton case -Letelier case -Liberal-Conservative Fusion (Chile) -List of archaeological sites in Chile -List of major political scandals in Chile -List of presidents of Chile -Lonco -Maitland Plan -Mapuche -Maria Callcott -Marusia massacre -Michael Townley -Missing (film) -Montt family -National Party (Chile) -Norte Grande insurrection -Nueva Extremadura -Occupation of the Araucania -Operation Colombo -Operation Condor -Operation TOUCAN (KGB) -Paul Schafer -Pedro de Valdivia -Project Cybersyn -Project FUBELT -Ranquil massacre -Rettig Report -Royal Governor of Chile -Saber noise -Sailors' mutiny -Schneider Doctrine -Scorpion scandal -Seguro Obrero massacre -Supreme director -Tacnazo insurrection -Tanquetazo -Timeline of Chilean history -Toqui -Valech Report -Valparaiso bombardment -Villa Grimaldi
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Burnt_Alive_case
