"No son or grandson is judicially responsible for what their father or grandfather did, but in this case, Deputy Karla Rubilar should have recused herself for ethical and moral reasons from assuming the presidency of and serving on the Chamber’s Human Rights Commission due to her grandfather’s past," stated retired Chilean Air Force (FACh) Colonel Ernesto Galaz to La Nación.

The FACh physician in 1973, Álvaro Yáñez del Villar, expressed the same sentiment. Both point to the fact that the FACh Justice officer, lawyer Víctor Manuel Barahona Bustos—now deceased, grandfather of the RN parliamentarian, and father of the UDI mayor of Renca, Vicky Barahona—interrogated under torture and beat a prisoner at the FACh Air War Academy (AGA) during the period when officers and non-commissioned officers of that institution were detained there, among them General Alberto Bachelet, who were accused of opposing the military coup by upholding the constitutionalist traditions of the Armed Forces. Both Colonel (R) Galaz and the physician Yáñez testified in court, accounting for Víctor Barahona’s presence at the AGA, according to Galaz, "wearing a uniform." "On one occasion when I was taken to the upper floor to be interrogated while blindfolded and with my hands tied, I recognized the voice of Mr. Barahona, present here, as well as the voice of (Sergio) Lizosoaín and Orlando Gutiérrez (general and aviation prosecutor). I was subjected to physical torture, having devices placed on me that squeezed my fingernails and being lifted by a rope between my legs to damage my testicles. In one of those sessions under torture, Barahona, present here, also interrogated me along with Gutiérrez." This is part of the judicial confrontation held on March 21, 2000, between Galaz and Barahona. "I do not know this man," replied Barahona, who was confronted at that time in the capacity of "accused" and not as a witness, in accordance with the old criminal procedural system. In turn, the physician Álvaro Yáñez, accused of promoting Marxist infiltration in the FACh, like all the officers and non-commissioned officers convicted in that War Council, testified in court on April 13, 2000, that "when I was detained at the AGA, from my cell-room I was able to lift my hood when I heard a person being mistreated and interrogated in the hallway. I saw that the detainee, whose identity I could not determine, was being beaten from behind by an Air Force lawyer whom I recognized as Víctor Barahona. A dark-skinned, short, stocky man with abundant black hair and a small mustache." Deputy Karla Rubilar provided information regarding alleged false cases of the forcibly disappeared that turned out to be part of the falsehoods written in a book by the former head of the DINA, Manuel Contreras. For this reason, she was removed from the presidency of the Chamber’s Human Rights Commission. This information will be delivered tomorrow to Minister Carlos Gajardo by human rights lawyer Hugo Gutiérrez.

Source: Wednesday, January 28, 2009, La Nación

The following officers, non-commissioned officers, and civilian personnel of the Air Force, mainly from the Air War Academy, participated in, practiced, or directed the torture sessions to which the accused were subjected in the "FACh vs. Bachelet and others" trial, according to a list compiled by retired Captain Jaime Donoso:

• Engineer General Orlando Gutiérrez Bravo, operational chief and prosecuting attorney in the trial.
• Group Commander Pilot Sergio Lizosain Mitrano, presumably second in the chain of command of the torturers.
• Squadron Commanders Edgar Ceballos Jones (engineer), Ramón Cáceres Jorquera, and González Pérez Canto (pilots). The latter operated at the Cerro Moreno base and was well known for his sadism.
• Squadron Commander Pilot Jaime Lavín Fariña (later promoted to general and prohibited from entering the U.S. due to his participation in acts of torture).
• Flight Captain Pilots Alvaro Gutiérrez (also recognized for his aggressiveness and sadism), Víctor Mettig, León Duffey (operated in Antofagasta and AGA, later promoted to general), and Florencio Dublé (also promoted to general).
• Lieutenants Juan Carlos Sandoval (engineer), Hernán Gabrielli Rojas (pilot, operated in Antofagasta and was promoted to general), Franklin Bello, and another with the surname Dumont.
• Non-commissioned officer Juan Norambuena, Aviation Sergeant Hugo Lizana, and Aviation Corporal Gabriel Cortés.
• Legal advisors Víctor Barahona, Jaime Cruzat, and Cristián Rodríguez.

Retired General Sergio Poblete and other former FACh prisoners identified Lieutenants José García Huidobro, Alberto Waschtendorf, and John Ramírez—most with military intelligence degrees obtained in Panama, Brazil, and the United States—as well as lawyer Colonel Julio Tapia Falk, who was an auditor in the war council that convicted the defendants.

That council was presided over by Brigadier General Juan Soler Manfredini and included Colonels Eduardo Fornet Fernández (later promoted to general), Humberto Berg Fontecilla (physician), Sergio Sanhueza López (engineer), Javier Lopetegui Torres, and Group Commander Pilot Carlos Godoy Avendaño. _

Source: puntofinal.cl Edition 529