"As of September 11, 1973, I was a second lieutenant in the Chilean Air Force and was working at the Cerro Moreno Air Base, in the city of Antofagasta. I was a man with no political affiliation." "After the coup, I traveled to perform my duties in Antofagasta.

I told my colleagues that I did not approve of the coup nor the violent repression against the Chilean people. On October 4, 1973, I was arrested at the Officers' Club by officers Gonzalo Pérez Canto, a group commander in the Air Force, and Raúl Tapia Edal, a captain in the FACH, who told me that I was accused of treason and espionage." "According to what they told me, the accusation was because I was an officer of Plan Z, a plan that targeted the lives of all officers of the Armed Forces, their relatives, and their children.

I was also accused of having handed over a map of the air base in Antofagasta to the enemy." "As soon as I was arrested, I was confined alone in a building of the Oficina de Investigaciones in Antofagasta, that is, the civil police (Investigaciones).

I was locked up without food for five days, and I was savagely tortured. In that building, I was taken to a special room, where I was undressed and led naked and hooded through a corridor, where other officers and troops of the fascist junta were present." "Afterward, I was laid out on a table, or rather a metal sheet, tied by my hands and feet with cables.

They applied electrodes to different parts of my body: toes and fingers, testicles, penis, mouth, ears, nose, and they gave me electric shocks. I was tortured for five days, morning and afternoon, and during that time the torturers insisted on getting the names of the officers who were going to participate in Plan Z." "Other tortures I received: I was hung by my arms for a day and a half, while they interrogated me about General Bachelet, may he rest in peace." "I have the names of the torturers and heads of the concentration camps in Chile.

The torturers are: Air Force Lieutenant Luis Castillo; Air Force Captain Carlos von Mülhenbrog; Engineer Lieutenant Fernando Mujica; Lieutenant Hernán Miquel Carmona; Lieutenant Cristián Backs; Lieutenant Américo Allué; Captain Hernán Gabrielli."

Source: International Commission of Inquiry into the Crimes of the Military Junta in Chile (Finland) 1975

Chile: Attempt to defend the torturers

Carlos Bau, aware of Pinochet's order to hide the murder of Ruiz-Tagle and to protect his torturer, Hernán Gabrielli, current Chief of the General Staff of the FACH, stated: "Pinochet lies when he claims that Eugenio Ruiz-Tagle was not tortured, because he was tortured from the first day..." At the same time, Insulza's statements to prevent legal actions against the torturers are doomed to failure.

Bau met a different fate than Eugenio Ruiz-Tagle. After being tried by a fraudulent war council, he was sentenced to 48 years in prison—later commuted to 20 years of exile. Bau, like Ruiz-Tagle, was a member of the Mapu and an executive at INACESA.

Both presented themselves voluntarily on September 12, 1973, to the command of the VI Army Division in Antofagasta, after being called to do so, as were Mario Silva (PS), one of the managers of Corfo, and the city's mayor, Germán Miric Vega (PC).

He was transferred to the FACH's Cerro Moreno air base. It is here that Bau states that one of the FACH officers who burst into the Officers' Club where they were being held to beat them, especially Ruiz-Tagle, was the current Chief of the General Staff of the FACH, General Hernán Gabrielli Rojas. "I have no reason to doubt, yes, I am sure, I have no doubt, and furthermore, I saw him," he states, and considering that the torturer is today the second-in-command of the FACH, he adds: "But if that is normal, those who tortured and killed are the ones who made a career, and those who were good to the prisoners were imprisoned with us later. FACH Lieutenant Ricardo Navarro was imprisoned with us two months later." The then-mayor of Antofagasta, Germán Miric, remembers the act of torture. Like Bau, who remained a prisoner for two years and eight months, he agrees that the group of prisoners was received at the air base by Commander Vargas Miquelle and Lieutenant Ricardo Navarro. "They received us with a speech telling us that we were protected by the Geneva Convention, but hours later Gabrielli and Duffey, another officer, and other barbarians arrived, and they kicked Ruiz-Tagle in front of us," Bau states. Meanwhile, Miric recalls: "Around 5 in the morning, a group of officers entered violently and asked for Ruiz-Tagle Orrego. They beat him and then took him to a room next door where we could hear them hitting him. Later, three of them threw him into the middle of us like a sack." In contrast, the government stated that the accusations against Gabrielli should be "de-dramatized." The Minister of the Interior, José Miguel Insulza (PS and former Mapu militant), preferred not to make "hasty judgments" regarding his participation in the acts he is accused of. At the same time, he omitted that Gabrielli ascended without problems in 1998 and 1999 when he was promoted, respectively, to the rank of air brigadier general and aviation general by President Frei, even though his history as a human rights violator was known.

BACKGROUND OF TORMENT AND TORTURE

The torments experienced at the Cerro Moreno Air Base are still alive in the memory of Juan Ruz, where he was subjected to torture just like Eugenio Ruiz-Tagle, who—Ruz asserts—was brutally beaten and tortured by Hernán Gabrielli Rojas.

But, at the same time, he cannot explain how, after so many years, the torturer "passed the government's filters" and became the second man in the FACH chain of command: "This gentleman had a career called brilliant by the FACH itself, and within that brilliant career, he includes torture and brutal punishments." Ruz says he decided to tell his story after Bau's accusations.

He adds that "it is very understandable" that he does so now, "because I did not know that Gabrielli was Gabrielli. I did not know that this Gabrielli who is now the Chief of the General Staff of the FACH was the lieutenant who at that time brutally punished Eugenio Ruiz-Tagle.

I had the image in my mind of that punishing lieutenant at Cerro Moreno." In this regard, he recounts what happened: "There, some members of the FACH in combat gear beat us, treating us with insults and giving us rifle-butt blows to the back...

The blows were getting stronger and they told us to put our hands on the back of our necks and made us go into an open field, where we were ordered to run inward and they machine-gunned us from behind." After the mock execution, the beatings continued. "From there they made us get up and took us to a club.

It is there that I recognize that all the people described by Carlos Bau are there... In front of us was a group in combat gear lined up, led by an individual who, at a certain moment, steps forward and brutally beats Eugenio Ruiz-Tagle with a kick to the genitals that makes him double over." He also identifies the torturer as Hernán Gabrielli, "based on the photographs I have seen in the press." The accusations continue.

Héctor Vera, Vice-Rector of the University of Antofagasta at the time of the coup, was detained and then transferred to the Cerro Moreno air base, where he joined the group of prisoners including Eugenio Ruiz-Tagle, Carlos Bau, Mario Silva Irirarte, and others.

He has never testified before a court. But once Bau and Juan Ruz spoke, he made up his mind. Like both of them, he has vivid memories of Gabrielli's participation in acts of torture. Indeed, he says he recognized the torturer as soon as his face began to appear on TV screens. "I remember his face very well." But, more than his features, what stuck with him about Gabrielli was another trait: his brutality. "Gabrielli... it wasn't easy to forget him... a guy who brutalized his participation, and now, seeing his photo, I recognize him...

Maybe I don't remember all the names, but the case of Gabrielli, yes, I effectively remember, because the guy made sure to let it be known that he had a leading role... He was a man who stood out for following orders, so that his superiors would know he was a tough man." Furthermore, he claims to have seen Gabrielli "a couple of times.

When they did a mock execution on us, he was there... He appears in combat gear."

HOW A TORTURER IS PROTECTED

The statements by Carlos Bau, identifying Gabrielli as one of the uniformed men who participated in the torture of Eugenio Ruiz-Tagle, caused an impact in the FACH. In a statement, they defend the torturer.

They point out that Hernán Gabrielli ascended to the position of Chief of the General Staff "after a brilliant professional career, for which he has the trust of the superior authorities to continue serving in the high command." That is to say, it is ruled out that what happened with General Hernán Ramírez Hald, who resigned when involved in a legal process, will be repeated.

Meanwhile, the eternal protector of Pinochet and his henchmen, José Miguel Insulza, stated that this is a strictly "moral" issue, since there is no open trial against the torturer in the courts. These facts indicate that Hernán Gabrielli is a trusted man for Pinochetism, with or without a uniform.

He has performed tasks such as directing and coordinating technical analyses and negotiations with the company Lockheed Martin for the purchase of F-16 fighter-bombers. Likewise, he participates in the preparation of the fraudulent report on some disappeared persons that the Armed Forces delivered to President Lagos.

Furthermore, he replaced Ríos on December 1st at the meeting where the military leadership demanded the summoning of the COSENA, after Judge Guzmán's first attempt to prosecute Pinochet. Carlos Bau's testimony caused concern in the Government.

Insulza was cautious in his statements: "I am not going to make comments about any person based on a mention in a testimony, I would have to have much more information than that," he noted. But the complicated thing for the general is that Bau's testimony will be part of the investigation being conducted by Judge Juan Guzmán.

To face its effects, negotiations took place between the government and the FACH command: Gabrielli faces an extrajudicial accusation, and La Moneda not only grants him the benefit of the doubt until some judicial resolution is adopted, but will also pressure for him not to be tried.

If these methods do not work, only then could one speak of the applicability of the so-called "Izurieta doctrine," which separated General Hernán Ramírez Hald from the ranks of the Army, involved in the crime of Tucapel Jiménez, and which already failed in the Carabineros when Colonel Luis Acevedo, one of those responsible for the murders of Operation Albania, was prosecuted.

Once the agreement was reached, Insulza assured that "it is better to wait for the situation to be clarified." Meanwhile, Minister of Defense Fernández emphasized: "The government supports Gabrielli in that he has the right to assert everything to clear his honor." Immediately afterward, the FACH announced that "he has the trust of the superior authorities to continue serving in the institutional high command." This is how a torturer who appears in reports by UN rapporteurs linked to human rights violations is protected.

Background information that is also contained in a statement archived by the Vicaría de la Solidaridad and in a witness report to the Rettig Report. While the shock caused by the accusations involving Gabrielli in torture has become a serious problem that the Government and the Armed Forces are trying to minimize, a new testimony incriminates Gabrielli.

This accusation dates back to March 1976. It was formulated by the then-FACH second lieutenant, Ricardo Navarro Valdivia, before the International Commission of Inquiry into the Crimes of the Military Junta in Chile, which met in Finland.

On that occasion, the non-commissioned officer declared that Gabrielli "tortured a 14-year-old boy, causing him sequelae that led to his death in the city's hospital [Antofagasta]." Furthermore, he relates that he was "savagely" tortured ("They applied electrodes to different parts of my body: toes and fingers, testicles, penis, mouth, ears, nose.

I was tortured for 5 days, morning and afternoon"). He also said he remembered the names of his torturers. Among them, he mentioned "FACH Lieutenant Luis Castillo; FACH Captain Carlos von Mülhenbrog; Engineer Lieutenant Fernando Mujica; Lieutenant Hernán Miquel Carmona; Lieutenant Cristián Backs; Lieutenant Américo Allué; Captain Hernán Gabrielli." Faced with the accusations of crimes and torture that are mounting against Pinochet's "men," Minister of the Interior José Miguel Insulza jumped into the fray in defense of the torturers.

He stated that filing lawsuits for "illegal coercion" was inconvenient for the country. "The question is how far we can go in this matter... From the country's point of view, I think a worrying situation can be generated." Furthermore, he added: "We all know that in 1973 a massive violation of human rights occurred.

That a great many people were imprisoned, tortured, beaten, exiled, etc. Are we going to do individual justice in each of these cases?"... "Does anyone believe that a person who was brutally beaten 27 years ago can effectively achieve justice?" He disguised such fallacious argumentation with a call for "prudence" and "not to produce a massification of the trauma of the year '73." Therefore, one should have "prudence" to file a lawsuit for cases of torture. "I think many people will be frustrated if they believe they can take their case to the courts 27 years later.

The only thing we are going to achieve is a great commotion, a backlog in the courts of justice, an increase in conflict and discussion about this issue." His words received support from Canessa, a senator designated (by Pinochet): "any attempt to corner our Armed Forces must be prevented, because that is taking the wrong path of reconciliation and reunion." In contrast, to Carlos Bau, who denounced the acting commander-in-chief of the FACH, it seems "surprising and contradictory" that the Minister of the Interior points out that it is better for the country not to denounce these facts.

In this sense, Insulza's categorization under the argument that in the matter of human rights one cannot advance at all costs, nor does it make sense to start trials against thousands of torturers to reach a "known truth," left Bau "absolutely confused." Because, he said, he denounced Gabrielli not because of a personal problem, but one for the whole country, given that in Chile "there are thousands of victims" of these situations.

Furthermore, he recalled that after the coup d'état, he spent 3 years in prison "and I saw an enormous number of people who died, who were tortured, exiled, relegated." "What the minister does," insisted Bau, "is inhibit the conduct of the victims of the tyranny.

That seems surprising and contradictory to me." He even commented that, to some extent, the facts he saw are reaffirmed by Gabrielli's statements. "Those confusing versions that he wasn't there, that he was married, that he rejoined, that he arrived on the 13th.

If he had said that on the 11th he was in Japan, I could have said that I saw his twin brother. He says he is innocent, but he acknowledges that he was in the place I point out." The former prisoners of Cerro Moreno, who have denounced that Hernán Gabrielli tortured Eugenio Ruiz-Tagle, filed lawsuits against him for "illegal coercion." Furthermore, Mario Silva Hiriarte's widow, Graciela Alvarez, and the daughter of the murdered Ruiz-Tagle will file lawsuits against Gabrielli and Pinochet.

And, Bau indicated that the lawyer Carmen Hertz presented a brief to Judge Juan Guzmán, who is investigating the death of Eugenio Ruiz-Tagle as a case added to the Caravan of Death process, so that he summons him, Ruz, Vera, and Gabrielli to testify.

According to lawyer Hugo Gutiérrez, these appeals are supported by testimonies from former officials of the FACH itself who attest to Gabrielli's participation in the application of torture at the Cerro Moreno air base. "I believe that the circumstance of Gabrielli having proclaimed himself innocent has caused quite a bit of resentment in several former FACH officials, who are willing to give their statement and point out that this subject was a torturer at Cerro Moreno." Insulza's maneuvers, which have Lagos's approval, are doomed to failure.

Source: Rebelion.org February 20, 2001