Ricardo Navarro Valdivia, a former officer who suffered reprisals, accuses the 'number two' of the Chilean Air Force of violating human rights. Ricardo Navarro Valdivia has decided to blow the whistle.

When Augusto Pinochet led the coup d'état in Chile that overthrew President Salvador Allende—that fateful September 11, 1973—Navarro was 19 years old and a second lieutenant (the equivalent of an ensign in Spain) in the Chilean Air Force.

He was stationed at the Cerro Moreno air base, in the Antofagasta region, the very place where the grim Caravan of Death operated, which tortured and executed dozens of people. A few days after the bloody uprising, Navarro was summoned by the then-group commander and Chief of Staff of Cerro Moreno, Marcial Vargas del Campo, who informed him that, given his known "constitutional positions"—that is, opposition to the military rebellion—he was under arrest and forbidden from leaving the barracks.

Second Lieutenant Navarro, however, had a certain freedom of movement within the facilities assigned to officers and says that, for that very reason, he was able to see "things that make your hair stand on end." In a letter to the Chilean public, which EL MUNDO has accessed, Navarro states that "in those days, a group of torturers was quickly and voluntarily formed," headed by the aforementioned Vargas del Campo and "which included the then-group commander Gonzalo Pérez Canto, the then-captains Hernán Gabrielli Rojas, León Dufey, and Raúl Tapia Edole, and the sanitary squadron commander Silvio del Lago." The latter, according to Navarro's testimony, was the doctor who "kept the tortured alive so that they could continue to be tortured." Navarro, who is now a stomatologist and resides in Madrid, states in detail that he saw how Gabrielli and Rafael Ulzurrún—the most brutal, in his words—tortured Eugenio Ruiz-Tagle, an engineer who ended up being executed by firing squad without a prior trial in October 1973. "It was between September 15 and 20. They hit him with the butts of their rifles in the back, they kicked him, they insulted him... In plain sight!" he stated. Gabrielli is now a general and the number two of the Chilean Air Force, and he is already facing accusations from at least two former political prisoners who also label him as having practiced torture. After abruptly canceling his vacation to provide explanations to civil and military authorities, Gabrielli yesterday denied the charges against him "categorically" and announced that he had filed a criminal complaint for defamation. "Gabrielli is a sinister person. He is a pathological liar. I know him very well, since he was 14 or 15 years old, from the days of the Aviation School," maintains Navarro, who is prepared to testify before Judge Juan Guzmán. "All these torturers have the same personality thread. On the outside, they are pleasant people, but inside they are ruthless beasts." Was Navarro a witness to even more serious crimes, such as murder? "I know many things, but I have no direct proof. From what I saw, I believe that people died in Cerro Moreno due to torture. Things got out of hand. Later, they invented the story about the helicopters that left for the Pacific [to throw the victims into the sea]." Navarro himself was arrested on October 6 of that year and was tortured by four colleagues from the air base (for the moment, he prefers not to name them). "They applied the 'submarine' [they put the tortured person's head under water and pull it out when they are about to drown], they gave me electric shocks. Another time they left me completely naked all night [in a region where it is very cold]." Sentenced to five years and one day in prison for treason, Pinochet commuted his sentence to extrañamiento (forced exile). A political asylum seeker in Spain, he was only able to visit his homeland in 1990. Why hasn't this valuable eyewitness spoken before? "The truth is that I already had. I made statements in the middle of the dictatorship, in 1976-1977, but they didn't pay attention to me. The first time, in an interview with a German newspaper; the second, during an anti-fascist congress in Helsinki." Now he considers that "it is the opportune moment" to evoke the past, because "things have changed a lot in Chile," especially after "Pinochet was fingerprinted." "I know positively that there are very decent people within the Chilean Armed Forces. There are colonels who want to change the image of the military establishment and punish the torturers. I am very proud of the Chilean people and their Armed Forces," concluded Navarro.

Source: elmundo.es, February 13, 2001

The secrets of the FACH: Former Captain Jaime Donoso reveals names of torturer officers

The efforts of the FACH (Chilean Air Force) 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 man in the institutional chain of command, General Patricio Campos Montecinos, former head of the General Directorate of Civil Aeronautics 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 allegedly reorganized with the goal 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 financed by the institution.

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

Most were prosecuted by visiting minister 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 minister, and the judicial investigation remained in the hands of the judge of the Third Criminal Court of Santiago, Mario Carroza, who handles the majority of the cases of victims of the Joint Command.

But President Ricardo Lagos also requested an investigation from the high command within the Air Force, and there was no shortage of those who called 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 Staff and second in institutional seniority, had to retire.

He was seen as a future commander-in-chief until five lawsuits for torture frustrated his plans. Regardless of whether or not the Joint Command has been 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 hallways of the courthouse 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 so as not to fall into contradictions. I am convinced that they are hiding information about the forcibly disappeared. Commander-in-Chief Patricio Ríos cannot ignore this, and it is very likely that there is an interaction between the four institutions, which seems like a mistake to me because, in my opinion, those responsible for the crimes are individuals and not the institutions themselves." The testimony provided by former Captain Jaime Donoso corresponds to the repression exercised by the FACH against around 60 men in its ranks in the first 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, with 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 my entry.

That seemed extremely 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," recounts the former officer.

He decided to take him at gunpoint to where General Leigh was, who at that time was Chief of 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 spectral silence. Normally, when a captain kicks 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 the 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 didn't believe them. He said he was convinced that the military would never carry out a coup d'état because they had sworn loyalty to him.

I think Allende was very proud. He was convinced that 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 country.

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 enlisted men. They sought the maximum degradation of our personality. There were prisoners who had their nails pulled out.

Others were torn apart, 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 normal 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 corresponds to us.

After the summary, we had a 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 country,' 'creator of Plan Zeta,' and the 'Escape Plan.' None of that existed.

We were sentenced 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 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, went beyond 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 of them 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, damned coward, how can you not recognize what you did?' They lower their heads and answer, '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 damned 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 lived in exile in different countries, but they always maintained ties 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 of them, 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 start taking action in the courts? "The former FACH prisoners were only able to 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 those exonerated. Finally, some people decided to sue for physical damages and losses. There are former prisoners who are insane in England, confined in psychiatric hospitals.

Others have damage to their ears, some immobilized limb, bone diseases due to 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 Industria Nacional de Cemento S.A. (Inacesa), reported 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-second 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 second 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 declared 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 Staff of that institution are Captain Juan Muñoz and Second 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 held him in high esteem.

When we were in jail, prisoners from Antofagasta began to arrive, such as 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 that 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 break.

A pilot or non-commissioned officer will appear who will tell how they cut the guts of the prisoners and threw them into the sea! We have to keep looking for mechanisms to corner them." What kind of torturer was Gabrielli? "There were 'professional' torturers, like those at the Air War Academy, and occasional ones, who were the ones on guard duty.

Gabrielli was in this last group, 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 would grab them and beat and kick 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 second 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 carrying out 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's why I'm writing a book with my memoirs where I'm 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 different principles than theirs, as simple as that." Have you ever been threatened? "Indirectly, I received 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's 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 isolation of the military 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 held 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 sent 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 should 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 Dufey, a brutal man who knew how to hide very well, tortured with Gabrielli in Antofagasta and then moved to the War Academy.

He was seen very little at the Academy, just like Florencio Dublé, who became Chief of Staff when Fernando Rojas Vender was commander-in-chief. But we identified them well. Everyone is being prosecuted and will have to testify.

They must be judged, but not with the goal of having them punished. The only thing that interests me is that they recognize what they did to us and that their guilt is clearly established."

Source: Punto Final, October 2002