Efforts by the FACH to distance itself from the crimes committed during the military dictatorship have proven futile. A direct consequence of the investigative reports by journalist Víctor Gutiérrez published in the newspaper “La Nación” was the resignation of the fifth-ranking officer in the institutional chain of command, General Patricio Campos Montecinos, former head of the Civil Aviation General Directorate and the institution's liaison during the roundtable dialogue.

His wife, Viviana Lucinda Ugarte Sandoval (“la Pochi”), played an active role in the sinister Joint Command, according to statements made to “La Nación” by the former agent “Colmillo Blanco,” whom the newspaper “El Mercurio” identified as retired FACH Colonel Otto Trujillo, currently prosecuted and held in the former Penitentiary.

The Command was reportedly reorganized with the objective of distorting the information provided by the FACH to the roundtable dialogue and obstructing judicial investigations that implicate members of the Air Force, with the help of civilian lawyers funded by the institution.

The informant from “La Nación” also mentioned Colonel Roberto Serón Cárdenas, Commander Juan Luis López López, and the civilian Alejandro Figari Verdugo (a former militant of Patria y Libertad) as repression agents who remain active.

Most were prosecuted by visiting judge Carlos Cerda in 1986 and later dismissed by the Supreme Court. Despite the significance of the allegations, the Court of Appeals rejected the appointment of an extraordinary judge, and the judicial investigation remained in the hands of the judge of the Third Criminal Court of Santiago, Mario Carroza, who oversees the majority of the cases involving victims of the Joint Command.

Furthermore, President Ricardo Lagos requested that the high command conduct an internal investigation within the Air Force, and there was no shortage of those calling for the departure of the commander-in-chief, General Patricio Ríos.

This is the second major crisis to shake the FACH under the command of General Ríos. Last year, his right-hand man, General Hernán Gabrielli, chief of the general staff and second in institutional seniority, was forced into retirement. He had been positioned as the future commander-in-chief until five lawsuits for torture frustrated his plans.

Regardless of whether or not the Joint Command was reorganized, the former Air Force personnel who are facing those who tortured them in the early days of the military dictatorship in court do not doubt that a plot has been hatched to obstruct justice.

One of them is Jaime Donoso Parra, an aeronautical engineer and retired FACH captain, who was part of the group of constitutionalist officers opposed to the coup d'état. “I have testified in many trials and participated in several confrontations, and all they do is deny what they did,” he says. “Then, one leaves the confrontation and in the courthouse hallways sees how the guy who just testified tells his lawyers everything he said to the judge.

That allows them to instruct the next person summoned by the court on what to say to avoid contradictions. I am convinced they are hiding information about the forcibly disappeared. Commander-in-Chief Patricio Ríos cannot be unaware of this, and it is very likely that there is interaction between the four institutions, which seems like a mistake to me because, in my judgment, those responsible for the crimes are individuals, not the institutions themselves.”

The testimony provided by former Captain Jaime Donoso concerns the repression exercised by the FACH against approximately 60 men from its own ranks in the early years of the military regime, specifically at the Air War Academy (AGA), a true school for those who formed the Joint Command in 1975.

One of the most brutal torturers at the AGA was the head of the nascent Joint Command, Edgar Ceballos Jones (“Commander Cabezas”).

BACHELET AND THE OTHERS

Captain Donoso, who had two years of seniority at the time of the coup d'état, had early evidence of what the high commands were preparing. Between May and June 1973, he served as the patrol officer for the Santiago Garrison, and on one occasion, he was ordered to inspect the Air War Academy at two in the morning. “When I identified myself to the guard non-commissioned officer, who knew me because I was a student at the Academy, he tried to prevent me from entering.

That seemed highly suspicious to me, so I drew my pistol and arrested him for preventing the patrol officer, the highest authority of the garrison, from entering the base. Then he explained to me that General Gustavo Leigh, who was inside, had asked him not to let anyone in,” the former officer recounts.

He decided to take him at gunpoint to where General Leigh was, who at that time was chief of the general staff and the second-highest rank after the commander-in-chief, César Ruiz Danyau. Upon entering the base, he saw that the cars of almost all the generals were parked there.

The conference room was lit, but the door was closed. “I kicked it open, with my pistol in my hand and the non-commissioned officer beside me. The room was plunged into a ghostly silence. Normally, when a captain kicks down a door, the least a general does is arrest him.

But they all stayed quiet. What was immediately etched in my mind was the map of Santiago, where they had placed planes designing circuits to attack La Moneda, the president's house in Tomás Moro, and radio stations.

I had no doubt that a coup d'état was being planned. General Leigh asked me to excuse him, gave me every possible explanation, said they were playing a war game... Sure, at two in the morning! I imagine the insults the general who sent me to carry out the patrol must have received.”

What did you do after having that evidence?

“It was a warning light for the five or six captains who were constitutionalists. We had been to university, most of us were engineers, and we had a relationship with society different from that of the pure military man.

We were not for the coup d'état, and we felt our mission was to denounce what was being prepared. We decided to group together more closely and seek political channels to deliver that information to the President of the Republic.

We met with senators Eric Schnake (PS) and Anselmo Sule (PR), and with Carlos Lazo, president of the State Bank. They managed to get an interview for some members of the group with President Salvador Allende, but he did not believe them.

He said he was convinced that the military would never stage a coup d'état because they had sworn loyalty to him. I think Allende was very proud. He was convinced he could handle the situation politically and that he would not be overwhelmed.”

Did you sympathize with any political party?

“No, we didn't even agree with Allende's government, which by then was not good, although I had voted for him because I liked his program. But we had the conviction that we had to respect the Constitution and the law, in accordance with what we had sworn.

For us, the supreme chief was the President of the Republic and not the commander-in-chief. That is why, until the last moment, we continued to insist on delivering the information we had. When the coup d'état occurred, they arrested us all, along with Generals Alberto Bachelet and Sergio Poblete, and Colonel Ernesto Galaz.

They attributed Marxist ties to them, but they were only doing their duty.”

Did they keep you at the AGA?

“Yes, and the aggression against us was brutal because they considered us traitors... to them. When we talked, we told them that they were the ones betraying the Constitution and the fatherland. They beat us, they staged mock executions, they applied electricity to the most sensitive parts—even on open wounds—and they burned us with cigarettes.

They also used drugs and hypnosis. Some were hung from hooks, like in a butcher shop, and whipped. The Air War Academy was an atrocious torture center. The generals were kicked on the ground by the low-ranking soldiers. They sought the maximum degradation of our personality. There were prisoners who had their fingernails pulled out. Others were mangled, cut just like a butcher cuts a pig.”

Who was in command?

“Leigh was involved there. I saw him giving precise instructions on what had to be done. I had been a flight instructor for General Orlando Gutiérrez, and later he was my torturer. He was the boss; he witnessed everything.

Leigh was also present when they tortured General Poblete. He told me about it in a letter he wrote to me, which is in the trial. They burned him on his chest and hands. In the Air Force, in 1973, torture was established as a standard procedure for interrogating prisoners.

They didn't ask what to do with a prisoner; they simply tortured him and said, ‘this is what you have to confess.’ It was a standard procedure.”

Were you prosecuted?

“After the torture, they held the famous wartime summary trial called ‘FACH against Bachelet and others,’ which we are now challenging before the Court of Appeals. Unfortunately, it indicated that the case should go to the military justice system, which is an aberration.

We are going to continue insisting because we want it to be recognized that due process was not followed and that they give us the documentation that belongs to us. After the summary, we were put on trial in which we had no defense; our lawyers were not allowed to argue torture.

I, who had denounced the coup, was accused of ‘incitement to sedition,’ ‘treason to the fatherland,’ ‘creator of Plan Zeta,’ and the ‘Escape Plan.’ None of that existed. They sentenced us in December 1973, five to the death penalty and others to prison.

My sentence was 20 years. Later, they reduced it to 15 years, and for those sentenced to death, to 30 years in prison. I was a prisoner for two years in different military centers, and in the end, they took us to the General Mackenna public jail. In 1975, they applied Decree Law 504, which allowed us to go into exile.”

Did you ever meet General Alberto Bachelet?

“We were together in jail. General Bachelet had a heart problem that was perfectly treatable, but if they applied current, things got complicated. That is what happened. One day they took him out to take him to the Air War Academy.

He returned with cigarette burns, electrode marks, and violent tachycardia. Dr. Alvaro Yáñez, who was one of the prisoners, said he was very ill and needed special care. Shortly after, he died. On one occasion, Leigh said how could anyone think that the Air Force could do such things. The cynicism of the torturers was incredible.”

Have you had the opportunity to face your torturers?

“I have been confronted with those who were my direct torturers in different trials led by judges Juan Guzmán, Mario Carroza, and Rubén Ballesteros. I have testified against Hernán Gabrielli, General Orlando Gutiérrez, and a whole list of torturers.

In the confrontations, I have verified the pettiness of these men who, when they were torturing and had all the power, surpassed human rationality. At the Academy, they killed a sergeant with a gunshot, and General Gutiérrez congratulated the soldier who shot him.

And now I see some seriously damaged, like Edgar Ceballos Jones; commanders Ramón Cáceres and Sergio Ulises Swain; General Orlando Gutiérrez. At that time, they walked around the Academy like real peacocks; now I see them hidden and crestfallen in the courthouses.

One says to them, ‘coward, cursed coward, how can you not acknowledge what you did?’ They lower their heads and respond, ‘I don't remember.’”

Do they show no remorse?

“I don't think so, but they do show shame, because they don't dare to look you in the eye. And they never give their addresses. They are cursed cowards; there is no other way to say it. Happily, they have fallen into contradictions.

The big difference with them is that we walk with our heads held high, we show ourselves anywhere, and we go to the courthouses openly, without any fear, because we have a clear conscience.”

THE GABRIELLI CHAPTER

The former FACH prisoners experienced exile in different countries, but they always maintained bonds of friendship among themselves. Jaime Donoso Parra went to England, where he studied advanced aeronautics and earned a doctorate in aerodynamics and fluid mechanics at the University of London.

He became a highly qualified scientific researcher and developed a successful professional career in the private sector. He invented four high-tech methods to solve complex mathematical problems, which were duly patented. With one, he won a National Science and Technology Award in 1997 granted by the Ministry of Defense. He lived his last years of exile in Switzerland.

When did you initiate legal action?

“We former FACH prisoners could only return to Chile at the beginning of the 90s, when it was impossible to bring a trial against the Armed Forces because the de facto powers had their power intact. But we thought we had to do something, and we participated actively in the process of creating the law for exonerated persons.

Finally, some people decided to sue for physical and moral damages. There are former prisoners who are insane in England, confined in psychiatric hospitals. Others have damage to their ears, some part of their body immobilized, bone diseases from the beatings and electricity, or some parts of their brain don't work well and they forget things.

That's how we found CODEPU, which has advised us in the trials, and the problem of General Hernán Gabrielli. In February 2001, Carlos Bau Aedo, a former executive of the National Cement Industry S.A. (INACESA), denounced that Gabrielli had tortured him and other prisoners in 1973 at the Cerro Moreno air base in Antofagasta, then in charge of Commander Marcial Vargas del Campo.

Joining his complaints were former detainees Juan Ruz, a doctor in pedagogy and current official of the Ministry of Education, and Héctor Vera, a doctor in communications and vice-rector of the University of Antofagasta.

All three were victims of physical and psychological torment and witnessed how the then-sub-lieutenant Gabrielli savagely tortured Eugenio Ruiz-Tagle Orrego, manager of INACESA, who, along with the manager of CORFO, Mario Silva Iriarte, was machine-gunned on October 19 by the Caravan of Death.

The affected parties initiated a torture trial against Hernán Gabrielli, in which former FACH prisoners have participated as witnesses. According to statements by one of them, the then-aviation sub-lieutenant Ricardo Navarro Valdivia, Hernán Gabrielli not only tortured him but also a 14-year-old boy, causing him sequelae that ended his life in the Antofagasta hospital.

Navarro testified from Spain in an interview with Televisión Nacional: ‘The entire Air Force knew and knows that Gabrielli is a torturer.’ Other FACH witnesses who were victims or witnessed torture carried out by the man who became chief of the general staff of that institution are Captain Juan Muñoz and Sub-lieutenant Oscar Navarro, officers of the FACH finance branch in Antofagasta, and second corporals Luis Gabriel Torres Valeria and Antonio Jara Castro.”

Did you know former General Gabrielli?

“We met at the Aviation School; we were friends, and I had a lot of esteem for him. When we were in jail, prisoners from Antofagasta began to arrive, like Carlos Bau and some non-commissioned officers, who described Gabrielli as one of their torturers.

There was no doubt. I wrote him two letters between 1999 and 2000, before the trials, so he would see a way to compensate those of us who were from the Air Force. First, in the moral aspect, which is what interests us most, and then material, because they cut our lives short at 30 years old.

He never answered those letters. The lawsuit that Gabrielli filed against Carlos Bau, Juan Ruz, and Héctor Vera for defamation, insults, and slander was closed after three months by Judge Ballesteros, making it evident that Gabrielli tortured, although this continues to be one person's word against another's.

He continues to deny it, but everyone who saw him and suffered the torture will continue to testify. According to what is legally established, we will have these people on the front line until at some point they have to burst.

A pilot or non-commissioned officer will eventually appear who will tell how they cut open the prisoners' bellies and threw them into the sea! We have to keep looking for the mechanisms to corner them.”

What kind of torturer was Gabrielli?

“There were ‘professional’ torturers, like those at the Air War Academy, and others who were occasional, who were the ones on guard duty. In this latter group was Gabrielli, who at that time was a 24 or 25-year-old lieutenant.

The ‘official’ torturers of the Cerro Moreno base, like Commander Gonzalo Pérez Canto, told the young lieutenants to ‘soften up’ the prisoners before they went into interrogation. And although they could avoid it, because it was not their obligation, they grabbed them and beat and kicked them.

I call them ‘clumsy torturers.’ This happened at all the bases, including Quintero, where General Patricio Ríos, the current commander-in-chief, was. All the lieutenants and sub-lieutenants of that time, if they were on duty, must have had contact with prisoners.

Also, the ensigns and sub-ensigns, who today are the generals under Ríos, must have participated at least in the ‘rake operations,’ where torture also took place. Who hit more and who hit less, history will have to determine.

That is why we are conducting these trials. We are going to dig until we find witnesses who dare to testify, because the truth is that many in the Air Force still haven't taken that step. In the years 96-97, some asked me please not to name them, because they and their families had been threatened.

But now we have a press law that allows us to speak. That is why I am writing a book with my memoirs where I am going to say what I saw of history, from the place where it put me. And it put me on this side, because I had principles different from theirs, as simple as that.”

Have you ever been threatened?

“Indirectly, they sent me threats by phone when I filed an amparo appeal against General Fernando Rojas Vender, at the time he was commander-in-chief. But I was never afraid; I am doing what is appropriate.”

Why that amparo appeal?

“It relates to another problem we have. When we retire or are discharged, they have to give us a document that says one is an Air Force officer who has been discharged, retired, exonerated, or whatever.

They haven't given us that document, and that is why they don't allow us to enter some FACH places. They have even obstructed my passage at the Ministry of Defense. To what level does the enclosure in which the uniformed personnel are reach that they don't even allow the Minister of Defense to intervene in this!

It should be enough for Minister Michelle Bachelet to tell the commander-in-chief to give us the documentation, because that is what is legally appropriate. At this moment, an attempt is being made to reach an agreement, but if there isn't one, I am going to sue the Air Force General Command.

Previously, I filed an amparo appeal against General Rojas Vender and Jaime Lavados, rector of the University of Chile. It happened that both institutions called for a diploma in Aeronautical and Space Law, and I applied like any other citizen.

The classes were given at the Air War Academy. The rector of the University of Chile consulted the FACH, and they sent him a letter signed by Rojas Vender saying that I could not enter. Clumsily, he forwarded that letter to me.

And with it in hand, I filed the appeal. Fernando Rojas delayed the processing of the appeal as much as he could, and in the end, he sent a letter to the Supreme Court saying that I had no prohibition to enter the Academy.

He presented it on August 28, and the course ended on September 1. That is the dirty mentality these people have! But nothing can be surprising from someone like Fernando Rojas Vender, who took furniture to his house as war supplies.

He has a dark history within the FACH because he was always of bad character. Of course, all the generals who traveled abroad at that time brought jet skis and furniture as war supplies, in circumstances where the law allows them, just like diplomats, to bring goods of up to 15 or 20 thousand dollars without taxes. But they brought much more!”

Have you ever faced Hernán Gabrielli?

“He has refused to talk to me. The day we had a confrontation before Magistrate Mario Carroza, he went to the United States and left the judge and me standing. He didn't show up for another confrontation before Judge Ballesteros either.

I have no doubt that he tortured; we have witnesses tortured by him and others who witnessed those tortures. That is what I have testified in three courts. Judge Carroza is going to call me again, because I asked him that I want to see Gabrielli and face him.

General León Duffey, a brute of a man who knew how to hide very well, tortured with Gabrielli in Antofagasta and later went to the Air War Academy. He let himself be seen very little at the Academy, just like Florencio Dublé, who became chief of the general staff when Fernando Rojas Vender was commander-in-chief.

But we identified them well. They are all being prosecuted and will have to testify. They must be judged, but not with the objective of having them punished. The only thing that interests me is that they acknowledge what they did to us and that their guilt is clearly established.”

FACH Torturers

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 against Bachelet and others” trial, according to a list compiled by retired Captain Jaime Donoso:

• General Engineer 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. for 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 Colonel Lawyer Julio Tapia Falk, who was an auditor in the war council that sentenced 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 (doctor), Sergio Sanhueza López (engineer), Javier Lopetegui Torres, and Group Commander Pilot Carlos Godoy Avendaño.

Source: Revista PuntoFinal.cl Edition 529

FUNA: Franklin Bello Calderón, FACH Lieutenant and member of the Air War Academy.

Arriving to "funa" (publicly denounce) a torturer of the military dictatorship, on Saturday, November 5, in the commune of Macul, Santiago de Chile, the month began for the Funa Commission. The name of the "funado": Franklin Bello Calderón, FACH Lieutenant and member of the Air War Academy.

The Funa Commission tirelessly searches for the kidnappers, torturers, and murderers of thousands of Chileans during the dictatorship. These dark characters maintain a "normal" life to this day, walking like clean citizens through the sad streets that saw them commit their human rights violations.

The Funa exists to make a public accusation, at the homes or workplaces of the torturers, warning their neighbors of the existence of a murderer who lives in impunity, often hidden. All this is done amidst singing, dancing, banners, posters, and the reading of the criminal record of the pig of the day; in short, amidst a lot of noise.

With the shout: “If there is no justice!!! There is Funa!!!” a point of certain vindication is established before the existing inoperability on the part of the Government—so-called socialist—in matters of Human Rights.

That Saturday, November 5, even the neighbors of Franklin Bello Calderón came out to the street to join us, unaware of the identity of that animal who lived near their homes and who also mistreated the children and dogs of the sector.

“Let's go, comrades, we have to put in a little more effort; those who fell are our memory from the resistance to victory!”

“We will 'funa' every murderer who today calmly waters his garden while talking to his neighbor.” Once again, we are here, facing everyone, to publicly and openly denounce another criminal of the dictatorship: Franklin Bello Calderón; one of the many who killed and tortured, executing a demented policy of extermination of Chilean men and women, vilely betraying the oath they made upon receiving the weapons that the country, the people, gave them to defend us.

Upon being prosecuted in the Ninth Criminal Court of Santiago, you have limited yourself, Franklin Bello Calderón, to describing the beautiful geography of the compound where you worked with others; and to recounting how you turned the names of the blindfolded and beaten detainees into numbers; numbers that you took to cells, to torture, and to death.

But you do not forget that those numbers breathed, resisted defenseless, suffered while you crucified them; but you know well that their eyes will never stop haunting you.

Once again, we are the street memory of those who are not here; today their faces, their dreams are reborn, their names revive: Luis Baeza Cruces, Alfonso Carreño Díaz (Do you remember them, Franklin?), in this incorruptible memory that we who are here today embody, to tell everyone who surrounds you who you are, Franklin Bello Calderón.

Source: Comision Funa, November 5, 2005

Judge Zepeda prosecuted two (R) colonels for torture against former minister Tohá

Judge Jorge Zepeda submitted two (R) colonels of the Chilean Air Force (FACH) to prosecution for the crime of repeated application of torment against former Minister of Defense and socialist militant José Tohá.

They are the former officers Sergio Contreras and Ramón Cáceres, former assistants to the late former FACH prosecutor Horacio Otaíza.

Both were notified this Thursday by the magistrate, to subsequently be transferred to a facility of the Armed Forces branch, presumably at the Colina air base.

The lawyer for the Tohá family, Deputy Juan Bustos (PS), expressed his full satisfaction with the new direction the case is taking and predicted that more indictments will come in the coming months.

According to the representative, Magistrate Zepeda's charges will point to the material authors and accomplices of what he described as the “homicide” of the former head of Defense.

Along with highlighting the virtual reclassification of the cause of Tohá's death, he explained that he could hardly have committed suicide, considering that his deteriorated physical condition (47 kilos in weight and a height of 1.90 meters) prevented him from doing so.

According to the background information provided by the so-called Rettig Report, the Secretary of State of Salvador Allende's government died on March 15, 1974, at the Military Hospital of Santiago.

On September 11, 1973, Tohá was arrested at the La Moneda Palace along with a group of authorities and collaborators of the deposed government.

Subsequently, he was transferred along with them to the Military School, from where he went to Dawson Island, a place where he was subjected to repeated mistreatment and illegitimate coercion by the military personnel in charge of the facility.

With a critical state of malnutrition and a quite deteriorated psychological condition, the former minister ended up committing suicide in his room at the military hospital, according to the authorities of that time who argued this to the family.

Zepeda's motives

In one of the considerations, in which Zepeda gives an account of the background to prosecute the former officers, he establishes that the investigation does not accredit the fact that Tohá committed suicide.

This is because the summary trial in charge of the respective Second Prosecutor's Office of the Army and Carabineros was not attached to this process, as it was impossible to find it.

However, the magistrate did establish that Tohá was deprived of his liberty for more than six months, without a trial being instructed or charges being filed against him during that prolonged period. Along with this, he determined that during his captivity, he was the object—by agents of the FACH intelligence service—of “cruel and degrading” acts, with the purpose of harming his psychic and physical integrity.

Indirectly, the magistrate establishes in his document, the repeated torment was intended to instill fear in a sector of the population. On the other hand, Zepeda confirmed that the former minister was secretly transferred from the Military Hospital to the Air War Academy facility to be cruelly interrogated, as he was considered “a source of information.”

These illegitimate coercions were also applied to him in the same medical facility, “as proven by the manuscripts discovered in the present investigation, found in the room where Tohá died.”

Such documents had been prepared by the President Allende collaborator himself and by the agent who coerced him and formulated the questions in writing.

El Mostrador April 29, 2005

2 former FACH members prosecuted for torture at the AGA

The head of the 9th Criminal Court of Santiago, Raquel Lermanda, issued the first two prosecutions within the framework of the torture lawsuit filed by nearly 40 former political prisoners who were held at the Air War Academy (AGA) of the Air Force during the military regime.

This was reported by the lawyer sponsoring the legal action, Alejandra Arriaza, specifying that the charges affected retired officer Edgar Cevallos Jones (alias “Commander Cabezas”) and retired non-commissioned officer of that military branch, Ramón Cáceres Jorquera, for the crime of repeated application of torment.

These former officers would be only part of the defendants in these events, which affected nearly 40 opponents of the de facto government who were held at the AGA between 1973 and 1975.

This legal action was filed in 2001 and is the first that had the objective of pursuing the crimes of torture, as recalled by Arriaza, who indicated that the facts are fully accredited.

Meanwhile, other people requested by CODEPU are Luis Enrique Campos Poblete, Sergio Contreras Mejía, César Palma Ramírez, Luis Fernando López López, Sergio Lizasoin Mitrano, Franklin Bello Calderón, and the civilian Leonardo Schneider Jordán, known as “Barba Schneider.”

The professional explained that although the former FACH commander-in-chief Fernando Matthei was director of the War Academy, his participation in the events denounced by nearly fifty former officers and non-commissioned officers of the institution is not accredited.

Source: elmostrador.cl, April 21, 2005

Authors of torture against deputies Teillier and Aguiló receive prison sentences

The justice system issued sentences against retired military personnel accused of the torture of deputies Guillermo Teillier and Sergio Aguiló, which occurred when they were arrested during the de facto regime of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).

Visiting judge Miguel Vásquez sentenced retired Chilean Air Force officers Edgardo Ceballos Jones and Franklin Bello as authors of illegitimate coercion against Guillermo Teillier, president of the Communist Party.

The torture of the communist deputy occurred at the end of 1974, when he was being held at the Air War Academy of the Chilean Air Force (FACH).

For this, the magistrate sentenced Colonel Ceballos Jones to 27 years in prison and officer Bello to five years in prison.

The Second Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals, in a split decision, ratified the sentence for the torture applied to the Izquierda Ciudadana deputy, Sergio Aguiló Melo, whose events occurred in December 1981 at a barracks of the defunct National Intelligence Center (CNI).

The 3-year prison sentences affect the former director of the CNI, retired General Roberto Schmied Zanzi, and former agents Alejandro Morel Concha, Álvaro Corbalán Castilla, and Manuel Gallardo Sepúlveda.

The 61-day prison sentences for former CNI agents Carlos Contreras Ferrada and Sergio Díaz Lara were confirmed. In all sentences, the benefit of conditional remission was made possible.

Source: radio.uchile.cl, September 2, 2014