The following officers, non-commissioned officers, and civilian personnel of the Air Force, primarily from the Air War Academy (Academia de Guerra Aérea), 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 aggression 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 of whom held military intelligence degrees obtained in Panama, Brazil, and the United States—as well as lawyer Colonel Julio Tapia Falk, who served as 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 (physician), Sergio Sanhueza López (engineer), Javier Lopetegui Torres, and Group Commander Pilot Carlos Godoy Avendaño.

Source: Punto Final, No. 529

This concerns retired FACH General Enrique Montealegre Jullian, who has denied the charges and who became the institution's Director of Intelligence in 1994, after the restoration of democracy in Chile.

An officer of the Chilean Air Force (FACH) who allegedly piloted one of the planes that bombed La Moneda on September 11, 1973, has been accused of being a torturer of fellow service members who opposed the military coup, according to the trial file.

This concerns retired FACH General Enrique Montealegre Jullian, who has denied the charges and who became the institution's Director of Intelligence in 1994, after the restoration of democracy in Chile.

Montealegre's name appears in several accounts as one of the pilots who bombed and destroyed the La Moneda Palace during the coup led by Augusto Pinochet, during which President Salvador Allende died at the seat of government.

Last July, within the framework of a lawsuit related to the events that occurred on the day of the coup, lawyer Roberto Ávila requested that Montealegre appear in the case. To date, the exact list of pilots who bombed La Moneda remains unknown, and the only confirmed name is that of fellow retired General Mario López Tobar, who in 1999 published the book “El 11 en la mira de un Hawker Hunter” (“The 11th in the sights of a Hawker Hunter”), in which he withheld the names of the other officers.

Of the names that have circulated, two are deceased: Ernesto González Yarra and Gustavo Leigh Yates, and a third, Fernando Rojas Vénder, became Commander-in-Chief of the FACH. Montealegre Jullian was identified as a torturer by fellow General Orlando Gutiérrez Bravo in the trial regarding the torture of prisoners committed after the coup at the Air War Academy (AGA), which is currently being investigated by Judge Alejandro Madrid.

Gutiérrez acted as prosecutor at that Academy, conducting interrogations of Air Force officers and non-commissioned officers who opposed Pinochet's coup and were accused of being “Marxists” who intended to “infiltrate” the FACH.

According to Gutiérrez's testimony, one of the interrogators of prisoners was “Enrique Montealegre, whom they called ‘Monti’”. Gutiérrez maintains in his extensive statements, accessed by Efe, that “they knew perfectly well how to interrogate.

When the detainees gave contradictory statements, they were stripped naked and the ‘droplet’ system was used on them.” This consisted of letting “a drop of ether fall directly onto the skin, which, upon evaporating, produced a burning sensation.

This was done in a special room. The person was laid on a stretcher, naked and blindfolded. This was a very effective system,” he explained. The former prosecutor provided the testimony before passing away in 2007.

When questioned by the judge, Enrique Montealegre denied Gutiérrez's assertions, although he admitted that he did indeed serve at the Air War Academy at that time. However, he said, “I was only in charge of about 20 people who were assigned to me for a perimeter patrol.

I also controlled the number of detainees arriving and supervised the sentries on the inside of the Academy.” Gutiérrez, however, states in his declarations that Montealegre was one of the officers who, under his orders, also went out to carry out arrests, “with the authority to enter homes, even by force, in search of people, documents, or other information that could compromise or incriminate them.” Montealegre acknowledged that “they did indeed call me ‘Monti’; that was my call sign used in flight.

All pilots had their call signs.” Among the victims of torture at the AGA was FACH General Alberto Bachelet, father of former President Michelle Bachelet, whose death is currently being investigated in another trial led by Judge Mario Carroza, who also investigated the cause of Salvador Allende's death, concluding that he committed suicide.

Both cases appear on a list of more than 700 lawsuits regarding alleged human rights violations that had not previously been investigated by the justice system. Bachelet remained detained after the military coup at the Air War Academy and died on March 12, 1974, in the Santiago prison as a result of torture.

Former prosecutor Orlando Gutiérrez, in addition to pointing to Enrique Montealegre, mentioned as torturers at the AGA the officers Luis Campos Poblete, Juan Bautista González, Víctor Mättig, Álvaro Gutiérrez, Florencio Dublé Pizarro, Roberto Serón, Edgar Cevallos, and Ramón Cáceres.

Source: El Mostrador, October 4, 2011