In a unanimous ruling, the Second Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals increased to $55,000,000 (Chilean pesos) the moral-damages compensation the Treasury of Chile must pay to M.M.B.H. and C.R.R.R., who, during the dictatorship were detained and tortured by state agents as adolescents—in 1974 and 1973, respectively—within a repressive circuit that included police units, army regiments, the National Stadium, and clandestine detention centers.
The decision, issued by judges Omar Astudillo and Olaya Gahona and attorney member Nicolás Stitchkin, upheld the first-instance judgment of the 17th Civil Court of Santiago but increased the compensation after weighing a crucial factor not fully considered initially: the victims’ minority at the time of the events.
The ruling clearly defines the concept of moral damage warranting compensation, noting that «it can be understood as harm suffered as a consequence of an unlawful act that, by injuring a person or their property, affects the psychic or spiritual elements essential to the normal development of the human being».
«In broad terms, this means an affective impairment—an attack on an individual’s values or, more broadly, feelings—as interests protected by law, arising from the commission of an unlawful act against their person or property», it states.
According to the Court of Appeals, in the case of M.M.B.H. and C.R.R.R. it was established that «there is moral damage caused by the detentions and deprivation of liberty, the physical and psychological coercion, assaults, and torture inflicted by state agents (…), for which the plaintiffs must be repaired and compensated to an extent that—if it is possible to determine—corresponds to the pain and distress suffered by the claimants as a consequence of the proven facts».
On this point, the appellate court explained that assessing the severity of what both victims endured requires considering the specific circumstances of each case.
«To do so, one must weigh the characteristics of what they lived through, such as the duration of the deprivation or restriction of liberty; the methods used or the manner in which the suffering was inflicted; the seriousness of the injuries and/or their aftereffects; the physical and mental impacts in each case and the subsequent or future effects; as well as the victims’ conditions, including age, sex, health status, and other personal circumstances. These parameters can serve as guiding criteria for those purposes, inspired by considerations of proportionality, prudence, equity, and experience. In this way, as far as possible, one should consider objective data—the proven facts—the nature of the damage, and seek some degree of proportionality between the extent of that damage and the sum to be awarded», the ruling details.
Here, the court introduces the fundamental reason for the increase: «(…) in this case (…) there is no indication that, with respect to Mr. M.M.B.H. and Mr. C.R.R.R., consideration was given to the fact that they were still minors at the time of their detentions and coercion, being 18 and 20 years old, respectively—circumstances that certainly aggravate both the unlawful actions taken against them (…), and the effects those actions produced in both their physical and psychological spheres».
Consequently, the Court ordered the following: to prudently increase the moral-damages compensation payable by the Treasury of Chile to $30,000,000 for M.M.B.H., and to $25,000,000 for C.R.R.R.
The ordeal of the adolescents detained and tortured
The case file compiles the victims’ statements, detailing the systematic human rights violations they suffered after being detained and tortured in a police unit, army regiments, the National Stadium, and clandestine detention centers.
M.M.B.H., detained in October 1974 at age 18, recounts how his ordeal began: «They started pounding the door, so he went to open it. As he reached the gate, he came upon a group of civilians with their guns drawn (…) who, without any warning, pointed their pistols at him and threatened to kill him amid a barrage of insults and shoves (…). When he tried to avoid being arrested, they immediately began to beat him hard, striking him with the butts of their guns and kicking him».
He was taken to the Puente Alto regiment, where he was interrogated and tortured: «Because he would not accept what they accused him of, they began to beat him. It started slowly, like a warning. If he did not collaborate, they said, it would be worse. When nothing changed, the blows increased in number and intensity. At that point, the beating began to break him. He started to cry and begged them to leave him alone».
The account also describes one of the dictatorship’s most feared practices: «His torturers stopped asking questions and proceeded to wet him, pouring water on his body. They tied him to a metal structure and placed cables on his genitals and in his mouth to administer electric shocks (…). With each shock his body gave out; the pain was unlike anything he had felt before—utterly unbearable».
After spending four months at the regiment, the then-teenager was transferred to the Tres Álamos detention center and subsequently to the Ritoque concentration camp.
The ruling notes that the personal and psychological consequences of his imprisonment and torture are indelible.
«The mere thought that I could be subjected to the same torment again kept me from continuing my political activities; the fear of reliving it immediately drained my desire to engage with the world (…). I began to experience panic attacks», he said.
C.R.R.R., for his part, was 20 years old in September 1973 when he was detained at the Comandari textile factory in San Joaquín. «A large group of soldiers arrived and immediately surrounded the plant, entering while shooting (…), detaining all the workers (…). They threw them face down and forced them to keep their hands on their necks for more than five hours,» he recalled.
Regarding his passage through mass detention centers under the Pinochet regime, he said that after being held at the 12th Police Station of San Joaquín and the Tacna Regiment—where he was beaten in the “paso oscuro”—he was taken to Estadio Chile.
«The regime was terrifying; the treatment was marked by abuse of power and constant death threats that made it impossible even to rest,» he described.
Finally, he was transferred to the National Stadium, where the mistreatment and interrogations continued before he was unexpectedly released «for lack of evidence».
C.R.R.R. added that once free he began «a second prison, defined by a lack of opportunities, discrimination, and the deep psychological harm that would haunt him for years—he lost his job and had no chance of getting it back».
