The Armada de Chile (Chilean Navy) dismissed the two sergeants formally charged with the rape of a 23-year-old woman on Rapa Nui (Easter Island), in the Región de Valparaíso. The institution announced the measure in a public statement issued on Tuesday night.
According to T13, the Armada explained that, notwithstanding the administrative summary investigation opened to determine responsibility for breaches of internal regulations, "the servicemen involved were dismissed, as their continued presence is detrimental to the service". To do so, it used the powers granted by the Estatuto del Personal de las Fuerzas Armadas (Armed Forces Personnel Statute).
In the same statement, the institution said it will cooperate with the authorities and the ordinary courts to clarify the events, which in its view "depart from institutional values". It also reaffirmed its commitment to the Rapa Nui people and maintained that the cases reported by the press involve individual conduct.
According to the complaint the victim filed with Carabineros (Chile's national police), the events took place in the early hours of Saturday inside a Infantería de Marina (Marine Corps) garrison on the island. BioBioChile reported that it was an unauthorized party.
The Rapa Nui prosecutor, Sergio Espinosa Daza, said the assault took place "in a celebratory setting, with people from outside the Armada, and with alcohol consumption involved". The two marines were arrested in flagrante over the weekend.
On Sunday, the Fiscalía (Public Prosecutor's Office) formally charged both with rape before the Juzgado de Garantía de Rapa Nui (Rapa Nui pretrial court). According to the Ministerio Público (Public Prosecution Service), the defendants committed the offense against a young woman of Rapa Nui ethnicity who was deprived of the ability to resist in a context of alcohol consumption.
The court granted the Fiscalía's request and ordered pretrial detention for the two sergeants. Both are serving the precautionary measure at an Armada facility in Talcahuano, Región del Biobío, on the mainland.
The young woman's father gave a broader account. He said his daughter was assaulted by at least four Infantería de Marina personnel and that a friend tried to seek help, but the officer on duty allegedly refused to provide it. For now, that accusation goes beyond what has been established in court, where there are only two defendants.
The investigation will have to determine whether more people took part and what happened inside the facility. The court set an investigation period of 80 days.
