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-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 Dialogue Table.

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 Joint Command was reportedly reorganized with the objective of distorting the information provided by the FACH to the Dialogue Table and hindering judicial investigations that implicate members of the Air Force, with the help of civilian lawyers funded 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 (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 thwarted his plans.

Regardless of whether or not the Joint Command was reorganized, the former Air Force personnel who are facing their torturers from 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 ignore 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 corresponds to 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, with two years of seniority at the time of the coup d'état, had early evidence of what the high command was 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 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 second in hierarchy after the commander-in-chief, César Ruiz Danyau. Upon entering the base, he saw the cars of almost all the generals 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 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 Banco del Estado. 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 that point 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 performed 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 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 tortures, they held the famous wartime summary proceeding 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 military justice, which is an aberration.

We are going to continue insisting because we want it 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 country,’ ‘creator of Plan Zeta,’ and ‘Plan Fuga.’ 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 imprisoned for two years in different military centers, and in the end, they took us to the General Mackenna public jail. In 1975, they applied DL 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 electricity, 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 smallness 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 true peacocks; now I see them hidden and crestfallen in the courts. 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 courts 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 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 ear damage, an immobilized limb, bone diseases from the beatings and electricity, or some parts of their brain don't function 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), 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 of pedagogy and current official of the Ministry of Education, and Héctor Vera, a doctor of 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 the 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 tortures executed 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 great 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 tortures 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 tells how they cut open the prisoners' bellies 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 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 entered interrogation. And although they could avoid it, because it wasn't 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 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 ‘mop-up operations,’ where there was also torture. 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 will say what I saw of history, from the place 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, 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 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 as any 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 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 brutal man who knew how to hide very well, tortured with Gabrielli in Antofagasta and later went to the 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. Everyone is 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 recognize what they did to us and that their guilt be 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 in the “FACH against Bachelet and others” process were subjected, according to a list compiled by retired Captain Jaime Donoso:

– General Engineer Orlando Gutiérrez Bravo, operational chief and prosecuting attorney in the process. – 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 lawyer Colonel Julio Tapia Falk, who was an auditor in the war council that sentenced the accused.

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: puntofinal.cl, October 2002

At Villa Grimaldi were Teresa Osorio, Rosa Humilde Ramos, and Palmira Almuna. Meanwhile, survivor Raúl Flores Castillo recounts that he was detained "by armed subjects, one of whom identified himself as Osvaldo Romo; they put him into a vehicle in which there were more people, a woman they called ‘la negra’ (Teresa Osorio) and a subject they called ‘el Troglo’."

Although many of the women who belonged to the DINA performed administrative duties, there is a team that has been categorized by survivors as "the most sadistic and cruel." Among them, Carabineros Sub-lieutenant Ingrid Felicitas Olderock Oelckers stood out, who had already been an instructor of torturers at the initial school in Tejas Verdes.

As a member of the Purén Brigade, she was a trainer of the dogs used in the sexual abuse committed against men and women at the secret barracks "Venda Sexy."

Also a Carabineros Sub-lieutenant, Palmira Isabel Almuna Guzmán, alias "la Pepa," was a member of the Purén Brigade and a torturer at José Domingo Cañas under the orders of Ciro Torré Sáez; she later worked under the orders of Pedro Espinoza Bravo.

She was in charge of selecting and instructing future agents, who were infiltrated as frivolous and pretty women into various spheres of national political relevance. She moved to the CNI and in 1985 returned to the Carabineros, serving in a juvenile correctional center in Iquique with the rank of commander in the female officer corps.

She was denounced at her home at Luis Beltrán 1000, in Pudahuel, on May 31, 2003, after which she has not been seen in the neighborhood again; she likely lives in Iquique.

Nélida Gutiérrez Rivera was the private secretary and mistress of Manuel Contreras. After her boss's arrest, she continued as his part-time secretary at the offices he had on Ricardo Lyon Street; the rest of the time she dedicated to her boutique "Mané" (Manuel and Nélida) in the Lyon and Providencia shopping arcade.

Although the role played by Viviana Pincetti Barra is not known with certainty—she appears receiving salaries from the DINA and is the daughter of Osvaldo Pincetti Gac, alias "charla"—her father took her on "visits" to Villa Grimaldi and other barracks of the repressive organization.

Various testimonies speak of the terrible role played by Marcia Alejandra Evelyn Merino Vega, alias "la flaca Alejandra," as an agent after having been a militant of the MIR. These days she lives in an insular area of Chile, from which she travels to Santiago to provide statements in the various trials against the DINA.

Another woman turned agent was Luz Arce Sandoval, who went from being a PS militant to the DINA. Survivors remember her present at torture sessions at Villa Grimaldi, Londres 38, and Cuatro Alamos. She continued her work in the CNI and in 1990 made herself available to the courts to testify in cases of the forcibly disappeared.

Today she lives outside of Chile and returns circumstantially to provide data in judicial proceedings.

María Alicia Uribe Gómez, alias "Carola," went from being a MIR militant to a DINA agent, then to the CNI, and after 1990 she was integrated into the DINE. Together with other collaborators, they carried out veritable "fashion shows" with the clothing of prisoners murdered in the DINA barracks. She was seen at Villa Grimaldi, Cuatro Alamos, and José Domingo Cañas.

Rosa Humilde Ramos Hernández was known as "the commander," a torturer at José Domingo Cañas and Villa Grimaldi and a member of the Aguila Group of the Caupolicán Brigade. Her memory is indelible among survivors due to her masculine appearance and the sadism she applied in torture. Also cruel is María Teresa Osorio, alias "Soledad" or "la negra," wife of Basclay Zapata.

In the Purén Brigade, dedicated to the repression of the PS, the PC, and the DC, the detective Ximena San Juan, Elsa del Tránsito Lagos Salazar, Francisca del Carmen Cerda Galleguillos, and Nancy Edulia Vásquez Torrejón, alias "Pelusa," appear with functions.

In the Halcón II Group of the Caupolicán Brigade, a group that participated in the confrontation with Miguel Enríquez, was María Gabriela Ordenes, alias "Marisol," who was seen present at torture sessions.

Agents in administrative functions were Mirtha Espinoza Caamaño, a DINA secretary who worked under the command of Augusto Deitchler in the Sub-directorate of Internal Intelligence. María Gabriela Coll Webar, secretary of the General Headquarters staff.

Marta Smock Teixido, secretary of the General Headquarters staff in the Sub-directorate of Economic Intelligence. Sandra Montecinos Sepúlveda, secretary of the General Headquarters staff. Eliana Quilodrán, alias "Ely," an agent of the Directorate of Operations who acted under the command of Pedro Espinoza Bravo in the Education and Informatics section.

Teresa Aburto, secretary of the C-2 Section, who continued working in the CNI and later in the DINE. Enriqueta Salazar Contreras, secretary of the Sub-directorate of Internal Intelligence with direct duties with Rolf Wenderoth, who would later be integrated into the Carabineros.

Maribel Maringue Moya, secretary to the Sub-director after Wenderoth's departure, who subsequently continued to perform functions in the CNI directorate.

Also appearing are Ana María Rubio de la Cruz, alias "Carmen Gutiérrez," an Army Non-Commissioned Officer and secretary of the Sub-directorate of External Intelligence, implicated in the assassination of General Carlos Prats and his wife.

María Eliana Moncada Prieto, secretary of the Sub-directorate of External Intelligence, who later joined the Counterintelligence Department. Sara Aguila Márquez, social worker of the Sub-directorate of Personnel.

Carmen Avila Ferrada, secretary to Arturo Ureta Siré in the Sub-directorate of External Intelligence, later moving to hold the same position in the CNI, under the command of Colonel Suau. Alejandra Damián Serrano, who used the alias "Roxana," was Michel Townley's secretary.

The nurse María Eliana Bolumburú Taboada (Bolumburó according to the list by "Elissalde and Poblete") was part of the DINA Health Brigade, working in clandestine clinics alongside several doctors who advised on torture. The last information on her whereabouts placed her working at a pharmaceutical company on Ejército Street and living in a villa in Maipú.

The girl from the Comando Conjunto

It seems that the only woman in the Comando Conjunto is the famous Pochi, who was seen dressed in a school uniform asking for people who would later be kidnapped. She was also active in the torture inflicted on dozens of prisoners in the clandestine torture centers known as Nido 20 and Nido 18.

Viviana Lucinda Ugarte Sandoval was a soldier (r) of the FACH, with assignments to the DIFA and the Comando Conjunto. Wife of General Patricio Campos Montecinos, General Director of Civil Aeronautics until the denunciation made by the newspaper La Nación.

Prosecuted during the dictatorship by Minister Cerda as the author of criminal illicit association and an accomplice in the disappearance of Reinalda Pereira and Edrás Pinto, she was amnestied by Judge Manuel Silva Ibáñez. These days she continues to be implicated in the proceedings being carried out against the Comando Conjunto.

by Julio Oliva García

Source: elsiglo.cl, 2004

The testimony of one of the two men who saw General Bachelet die

Jorge Silva did not smoke, but the day he finally decided to tell his whole story, he lit three cigarettes. In 1970, he was 35 years old when, by a fortuitous event, he was placed in charge of the Counterintelligence Department of the Air Force.

At that time, he held the rank of FACh captain. In that assignment, he detected and helped thwart a plan, unknown until now, to assassinate Salvador Allende before he assumed the Presidency. The conspiracy had as protagonists officers of the FACH, the Navy, and the Army.

Silva was not a man of the left, but that episode would mark his life. For that act, he was detained in October 1973, accused of treason, and tortured. Part of the memories that Silva recounts were already published in the book "Disparen a la bandada" by Fernando Villagrán.

In the Public Prison, Silva met General Alberto Bachelet. They slept in adjacent beds in the cell, and that is why he heard, from the general's own mouth, the reasons that led him to cardiac collapse. Silva was the only prisoner who was with Bachelet when the heart attack occurred and assisted him, together with Dr. Álvaro Yáñez, at the moment of his death.

The day Silva declassified his story for CIPER, he was accompanied by FACh commanders (r) Alamiro Castillo and Raúl Vergara. Flanked by them, Silva recounted that two other commanders (r) were responsible for his detention in 1973: Edgar Ceballos and Ramón Cáceres.

He knew the latter for family reasons and accuses him of having been one of his torturers. Last week, Judge Mario Carroza, who is investigating the death of General Bachelet, prosecuted and detained Ceballos and Cáceres.

-Captain, how do you remember the last hours of General Alberto Bachelet's life, with whom you shared closely while both were detained in the Public Prison for several months?

I remember his last hours of life very well. Because they took my general out of the prison that Monday, March 11, 1974, and took him to the Air War Academy (AGA). It was unexpected, like after lunch, I think, and they brought him back around 8 or 9 at night.

I slept in a bed that General Alberto Bachelet's wife, Ángela Jeria, brought to the prison. They were very fond of going camping, and since we were crowded into a cell where sometimes there were up to 18 prisoners, she brought two beds.

We would set up the bed when everyone else had already gone to sleep because there was no space. So, everyone would go to bed, and General Bachelet and I would then set up his bed and mine on the floor, one next to the other. They were so close that, sometimes, the general would fall asleep and his arm would fall on me. "My general, you are waking me up," I would tell him.

-Who was in that cell where you shared with General Bachelet?

The number of prisoners we were confined with in cell 12 of the Public Prison varied. Sometimes even civilians who arrived were put in our cell. The cell, located in a corner, had two areas. I remember that in one was Rolando Miranda, Patricio Carvacho, Colonel Carlos Ominami, Ernesto Galaz.

And in the other was General Sergio Poblete with about three bunks on top. And on the floor, General Bachelet and I slept.

-How was he before they took him for interrogation to the AGA?

Normal. And he returned affected, very affected. There is one last conversation that I have never said publicly. At night we were all in bed... and he made a comment to me: "They want to get me involved in a skirt-chasing mess that I hope Ángela doesn't find out about, because you know how these people are.

I had a problem and they are setting it up at this moment; and just as they are doing it, it will be very difficult for me to refute it. And most likely, they are going to tell her." (In judicial documents, there are testimonies indicating that General Bachelet heard in that last interrogation the screams of a woman they wanted to confess a connection with him).

The truth is that out of modesty I did not want to ask him anything else. That was the treatment we officers had with a general... I asked him not to worry, that they had shown they had no limits, that who knows what other things they are going to invent... "Okay," he told me, "we'll talk tomorrow." But I saw him so affected that I even decided to take his pulse.

That was the last thing we talked about that night...

-Was it frequent that the officers who were in that cell with you would tell what happened in the interrogation when they returned from the AGA?

No, it was not the usual thing. In fact, it was the first time General Bachelet said anything. Nobody told anything because, for obvious reasons, nobody wanted to listen either. Regarding the torture, there was no way to hide what had happened, because they arrived with marks, red marks.

We used to say they came back with "bracelets," because when they applied electric shocks to us, you would stretch out and the wires they put on your wrists would dig into your skin. They were parachute straps that they used for that.

I don't believe they physically tortured General Bachelet, but they did psychologically with the stories they started to invent about money and women. And that had him really very affected the night before he passed away.

-What happened the next morning?

That morning, General Bachelet and I were on duty to wash the breakfast things. And people have forgotten that precisely that morning, Chaplain Gilmoure and the prison chaplain went to the prison to hold a mass.

They held it in the courtyard where we were. General Bachelet did not go to the mass; he was a Mason, and we both stayed in the cell while the rest went to the mass, because I was making breakfast and he was washing the dishes.

And at one point he told me: "Flaco, I feel bad." "My general, lie down on General Sergio Poblete's bed," I told him. Because that was the first bunk in the cell. He lay down and told me: "Pass me the trinitrine." I handed him the tablets.

He put them in his mouth and I realized he was sweating a lot. I took his pulse and realized it was out of control. I remember I shouted and asked I don't know who to bring Dr. Yáñez (Álvaro Yáñez del Villar), another of the prisoners.

As soon as Dr. Yáñez entered the cell, he examined him and immediately said: "He is having a heart attack!, help me!". Between the two of us, we took him off the bed and put the general on the floor. And Dr.

Yáñez got on top of him, starting to give him cardiac massage. I remember he even tried to take out the dental prosthesis he had and couldn't. Then Yáñez told me: "Blow into him!, blow into him!, we have to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation!".

It was very impressive because everyone else was at mass and the background music was the prisoners' singing at mass: "The Lord is my shepherd...". A very sinister thing. We were at that when suddenly the prison warden enters with the medical assistant:

-What is happening here! -says the warden, pushing Dr. Yáñez aside.

When the assistant approaches, Yáñez challenges him: "What are you going to do to him!?".

-I'm going to put adrenaline in his mouth -the assistant responds.

-Don't be ignorant! How are you going to put adrenaline in a man who is unconscious! -Yáñez says with urgency.

-What do you know! -the assistant rebuked him.

-I do know what is happening to him, because I am a doctor -Yáñez said and approached the general again.

The warden took the assistant out of the cell and took him away, closing the cell. We stayed inside with Yáñez and a few minutes later the assistant returns with a stretcher, they place General Bachelet on the stretcher and leave.

"They went to tell me he was bad, 'it seems he is going to faint.' I spoke with the warden: 'General Bachelet is serious, he must be taken to an intensive care unit.' He was having an arrhythmia attack, he was collapsing. 'Please, he must be taken.

The J.J. Aguirre Hospital was five minutes away.' He told me he couldn't do it: 'The FACh forbids taking anyone out without authorization.' 'Ask for authorization by phone.' 'I can't, I have to send an official letter.' 'Please, he is going to die. I'll accompany him. Chain me to the stretcher.' We had to fight the collapse.

"It couldn't be done. 'He is fainting.' He had no pulse and was not breathing. We started giving him mouth-to-mouth and cardiac massage. We ran him to the infirmary. We continued the same. After 20 minutes I saw that we didn't manage to create a pulse and I said he is dead, let's leave him in peace. 'Rest from all this filth'."

-You and Dr. Yáñez saw him die...

I have the impression that General Bachelet left the cell dead. And I'm going to tell you why. Because when they put him on the stretcher, his sphincters released. I saw it. So as not to forget those moments...

And when I talked about it with my wife, who is a nurse, she told me that happens when a person dies. My general was taken to the infirmary and that is what I know, because I never saw him again. Many versions have come out.

Many have wanted to be the last one who had Bachelet in their arms, but the truth is that only Dr. Yáñez and I were there. Nobody else. Except for the moment when the warden enters with the assistant. The other lie that has been told is that General Bachelet had been playing basketball in the morning.

Lie! Because that day, due to the mass, basketball was not played. And the uniformed men who were prisoners attended it, and civilian prisoners also went.

-Were the interrogators the same?

Yes, Edgar Ceballos, Ramón Cáceres, and Víctor Mattig, the main ones. I think General Bachelet was also interrogated by prosecutor Orlando Gutiérrez.

-Were you a friend of General Bachelet before you were imprisoned?

No, I met him in prison. And we had a very good relationship. He was very open, he talked with everyone and performed all the functions like anyone else: he washed dishes, did the cleaning... He was very open and simple.

I remember precisely that a couple of weeks before they took General Bachelet to the AGA to interrogate him again, we had been accompanying and talking with one of the prisoners who was very affected by something personal that had happened to him.

And in that, General Bachelet arrived and told us: "Come on boys, finish with the story of worrying about women. I want one of you to say here honestly, who could assure that if it were the other way around, that our women were prisoners and we were free, after a good time we would continue to be absolutely faithful?".

-How long did you share with General Bachelet in prison?

General Bachelet was not with us the whole time. He arrived at the prison in December 1973, about four or five days before Christmas. And in all that time, from December to March, when he passed away, I never saw him affected, as affected as the night before he died.

I have the impression that his great sorrow was the damage they were going to cause his wife. The next day we didn't talk about the subject because we dedicated ourselves to household chores. I have always thought that the tragedy that caused the death or hurried the death of General Bachelet occurred when at the AGA they wanted to involve him in a sentimental mess.

It wasn't the only one they did it to. Later, talking with other prisoners in the prison, I found out they did the same to others. But that has to be told by each one... They told their wives stories of lovers, true or false.

It was the technique they used to inte to obtain other information or to break the strongest individuals: by creating extreme situations for the people they were interrogating.

In the case file maintained by Judge Mario Carroza, there is a statement from General Bachelet’s wife, Ángela Jeria, who testifies that her husband tried to warn her that they were trying to implicate him in falsehoods and asked her, “do not believe anything they tell you, do not speak to anyone until we see each other again.” The message was hidden in the collar of a shirt that Ángela Jeria retrieved from the prison among the laundry.

She found it on March 8, 1974. But she never spoke to her husband again. Bachelet died four days later.

CONSPIRACY TO KILL ALLENDE

-Why were you detained if you did not participate in any meetings of opponents to the coup-plotting group and were working in the FACH Intelligence Department?

Alamiro Guzmán, Raúl Vergara, and other FACH officers knew that I was against a coup, but what influenced things was a situation that haunted me, which occurred just as Salvador Allende was elected on September 4, 1970, and before his election was ratified by Congress. I will recount it for you.

One day, the person who was the commander-in-chief of the FACH at that time, General Carlos Guerraty, called me and told me to go to Quintero immediately, not to arrive at the Air Base, but to land in Rodelillo.

And he added: “And go talk to Colonel José Berdichewsky so that he can give you information that I have just received at this moment and that he needs to discuss with someone from Intelligence.”

What had happened? When Allende was elected, an absolutely abnormal situation occurred in the Air Force. When they want to send you as an attaché to an embassy or international organization abroad, it is usually a long process because it has to be published in the Official Gazette, assigned in the budget, and go through a series of other procedures.

And when Salvador Allende was elected, Colonel Mario Jahn was removed from the FACH Counterintelligence Department in five days. With unusual speed. Jahn went to Panama, and I, who was second in Counterintelligence, was left alone there with all the mess that had been created and with very little experience.

I was a captain and was 35 years old. I endured that entire period between Allende’s election on September 4, 1970, his confirmation by Congress on October 24, and the start of his government on November 4, all alone.

So, that day, very shortly after September 4, the day of Allende’s election, I went to Quintero and spoke with Colonel Berdichewsky. I told him that General Guerraty had sent me to speak with him regarding information he had to give me. “Yes,” he said, “I need to speak with you because I have become aware that a communist cell is operating within the Air Base,” and he gave me a series of details.

-Well, General, how did you obtain this information?

-I received it…

-Colonel, if you want me to investigate this, you must understand that you have to tell me from whom you obtained the information. The source. Because otherwise, I cannot do anything. The details you give me—that a Military Identification Card (TIFA) was lost in the mess hall, that it was found abandoned inside an airplane, and other information about people you have doubts or suspicions about—who gave them to you?

And after I insisted and told him clearly that if he did not give me the source, I would not be able to do anything, he said: “This information was given to me by Commander Montero.” A FACH officer who had retired a little over a year earlier.

-Where can I speak with Commander Montero? -I asked him.

-… I don’t know if I should tell you…, I don’t know –I heard as a response.

And there I said: “Either you give me the complete information, Colonel, or I am returning to Santiago.” “Montero lives in Viña del Mar.” And he gave me the address. It was a street that leads to the Coraceros Regiment.

I left immediately. I had arrived in Quintero around 10 at night, so I must have arrived at this Mr. Montero’s house around two in the morning. And the first thing that caught my attention was that the house had many lights on.

He himself came out to open the door for me. And he said: “What a pleasure, Captain, to have you here, I was waiting for you.” And he made me enter a kind of small library. He said again how happy he was that I had come, that he urgently needed to speak with me.

And he added: “You know that the Marxist Salvador Allende is coming to Valparaíso on Saturday, and when Mario Jahn left, he told me that whatever I needed I should talk to you about, because you could collaborate with us on what we needed.

And well, here in my house is Admiral Justiniano (Horacio Justiniano) and the commander of the Coraceros Regiment because we are going to assassinate the President (Allende) when he comes on Saturday.”

-Did Montero tell you that they were going to assassinate Salvador Allende?

Of course: “We are going to assassinate him.” Just like that. And he added: “I need you to provide me with automatic weapons and personnel to cover the retreat of the people who are going to operate.” He also told me that the commander-in-chief, General Guerraty, and the commander of the Combat Command, General Toro Mazote, were aware of what was going to be done.

I replied that I had not come to talk to him about that, but about a communist cell operating in the FACH, of which he had had knowledge and about which he had informed Colonel Berdichewsky.

-But Captain, I needed to speak with you and that is why I told Berdichewsky about the communist cell.

Well, I told Montero, I cannot answer you at this moment regarding what you are asking me. It is very serious and I must meditate on it. And I left. I arrived in Santiago at dawn and went straight to my office, to the Counterintelligence Department that operated at Bulnes and Calle Cóndor, and I wrote a written report of everything that had happened.

In it, I recount exactly everything I have just told you. And I did it with great calm because I was going to hand it to General César Ruiz Danyau, who was in contact with Allende and whom we all knew was going to be the next commander-in-chief of the Air Force.

-What did you do once you had the report written?

I finished the report and went to the Ministry of Defense. There I waited for General Ruiz Danyau to arrive. As soon as I saw him, I said: “General, I need to speak with you urgently.” He had me enter immediately and, without preamble, I handed him the written report.

The General began to read it, and I remember that at one point he had to adjust his glasses and he said: “I’m going to drop my glasses.” He finished reading, stayed thinking for a while, then picked up the phone and said: “Hello, General Guerraty, there is a report here that I think you should see immediately.” “Go up, Captain Silva, show him the document,” was the last thing I heard as I left General Ruiz’s office.

There I knew I was in trouble, because General Ruiz did not support me. The document I was handing over contained General Guerraty’s name, and now General Ruiz was sending me to talk to him… I went up to the commander-in-chief’s office, I entered General Guerraty’s office.

He read the report and when he finished, he looked at me and asked: “What do you think?” “General, this is a political crime; it violates and assaults the Armed Forces and the Air Force. Imagine the discredit for us,” I told him.

There, General Guerraty realized that I was not part of that story. And he ordered me to dress in civilian clothes and go back to Viña del Mar, to Montero’s house, and tell him not to keep making those comments. I am not very sure of the days, but I think this happened on a Wednesday and the following Saturday Allende was going to Valparaíso. What I do know is that it was in the same week.

-And did you go to Valparaíso again?

I must admit that I did not go to Valparaíso. I was truly terrified. Through a channel, I managed to speak with Salvador Allende’s secretary, Mr. Miguel Labarca. And I went with Alamiro Castillo, who is present here (he is listening to your testimony), because I thought I needed a witness, since if something happened, I would be an accomplice.

When we met with Miguel Labarca, I told him the story. And he said he needed me to speak with Allende immediately. We went to the so-called “Moneda Chica,” a house that belonged to the professors and where his command operated.

We were in uniform. It was already dark at the end of that endless day, the same day I spoke with Guerraty. We arrived in Mr. Miguel Labarca’s car. He got out, we saw movement, and Allende appeared and climbed into the car.

And we left in the car on the way to Valparaíso. And I narrated exactly what I have told you. I remember that Allende’s only interruption was to say: “And why didn’t Ruiz Danyau inform me!” And then he said: “Because I have knowledge of this information; General Daroch gave it to me.” Later, he asked us what we thought of Ruiz Danyau.

With Alamiro, we told him that he was an excellent professional, a leader, that the Air Force loved him very much… And Allende insisted: “Why didn’t he warn me!” Later, Allende said to me: “Would you mind if I gave a public account of this?” I replied that I did not want to be an accomplice to what might happen.

And he decided that since he had a rally on Avenida Grecia, he was going to inform them there. And he did. He said there was an officer from a branch of the Armed Forces, with the surname Montero, “who says he wants to kill me, but I warn you that I have full knowledge”…

-Did you stop that attempt to assassinate Salvador Allende?

It seems so. But I want to be very clear: it was not that I had a lot of courage. What moved me was that I did not want to be an accomplice to a political assassination. And Alamiro Castillo was my witness, because they could kill me and I wanted it to be known that I was not involved in that political assassination.

Furthermore, since I was in Counterintelligence, it was possible that people would think I was involved. And that is how the story was undone. That is what I believed… More or less ten days later, I received a letter via diplomatic pouch sent to me by Commander Mario Jahn, in which he told me to go in civilian clothes to the house of the same Commander Montero in Viña del Mar, because what happened was known, and to retrieve some war ammunition that he had given to Montero.

Obviously, I did not do any such thing. I did not go. Jahn was not my friend; he was my boss, and we had a good relationship because we had been working for years in the Counterintelligence Department.

And it was there that I made a serious mistake. Because later, Jahn called me on the phone. And convinced that he was calling me from the Panama Canal Zone, I asked him how he was. And Jahn told me that he was calling me from the Ministry of Defense, from the Undersecretariat of Aviation. “Come immediately to speak with me,” he said, and hung up.

I arrived there. “Did you receive the letter I sent you asking you to go to Montero’s house?” “Yes, Colonel, I received it.” “Where is that letter?” he said. “In my office,” I replied. And I didn’t have it.

Because it turns out that Miguel Labarca, to whom I told about the letter, informed President Allende. And the President asked him to lend it to him because he wanted to keep it as a historical fact. And I gave it to Labarca.

That is why, when Mario Jahn asked me for it, I did not have it. And I returned to the Undersecretariat of Aviation and told Colonel Jahn that I did not have it, that it had been taken from me. And there Jahn told me that the next day the President of the Republic was waiting for him, because he did have the letter.

-Mario Jahn, after the coup, was deputy director of the DINA and a key man in Operation Condor. Why did he leave so suddenly for Panama when Allende was elected?

Mario Jahn was the first officer who started with the Counterintelligence thing in the FACH. But Counterintelligence was not approached from a professional point of view, of espionage control and national security, but purely political.

That was what Jahn learned at the School of the Americas in the United States. So, he dedicated practically all his time to the persecution of people on the left, of non-commissioned officers who had some relative or a communist wife, and he would intercede to have them fired.

That was the terror he had when Salvador Allende was elected, because he thought they were going to see all the files we had: only people on the left. Jahn was terrified and went to Panama. And he disappeared from the map for that time. I have always thought that Mario Jahn was with the CIA.

-Did you know what happened the next day in the meeting between Salvador Allende and Mario Jahn?

I came to know about it three years later, when I was imprisoned with Osvaldo Puccio, Salvador Allende’s secretary, who told me what happened. Puccio told me that the President had Mario Jahn enter his office and showed him the letter.

The Colonel allegedly replied that he had indeed been involved in the events, but that he was very repentant. And Allende forgave him, and told him so right there. He forgave him and ordered him to return to his post in Panama.

And that must have been the case, because I did know that Jahn returned to Panama and no one requested his retirement. On the other hand, I only spent three more months in the Counterintelligence Department.

They removed me. For the terrible sin of having informed the President-elect that they were trying to assassinate him. That is why, after the coup, they almost killed me, because they never understood that after that terrible episode I never spoke with President Allende again, nor with his secretary, nor with anyone in his circle.

They could not understand that I did not ask for any favors, nor did I ever provide information about the Air Force again. And they had no accusation against me, because I never attended any meeting of those opposed to the coup because I knew they were infiltrated.

INFILTRATED “CONSTITUTIONALISTS”

-They tortured all the FACH officers they took prisoner after the coup, and none of them say that you participated in any of the groups opposed to the overthrow of Allende. That is seen in the War Council. And they kept torturing you?

I turned black, in reality. My body was entirely black with bruises. They took me to recover at the Polytechnic Academy, and there I saw when a sentry’s shot went off and killed a corporal who was behind me.

Kafkaesque things happened there. A shot from a Mauser rifle went off and killed Corporal Espinoza. And Corporal Benavides, who was also there, went into a kind of shock and started screaming and crying.

I tried to control him, I even slapped him to calm him down. And the officer who was in charge of the prisoners at the Polytechnic Academy arrived and forgot that I was a prisoner and ordered me: “Captain, take the prisoners out of here and place them in the room next door.” I did it.

I closed the door, while I was inside, and I didn’t know what happened to the dead man anymore. After a while, already in prison, I had been there for about ten or fifteen days when the prison warden called me and told me that he had an official letter from General Orlando Gutiérrez in which he told him that Jorge Silva should be released immediately for lack of evidence.

And the warden asked me if I had any complaints against the Gendarmerie personnel. “Absolutely not,” I told him, “on the contrary.” “Well, sign here and take your things, because you are going free.” I signed, left the office in the direction of the cell to get my things, when two officers fell on me.

Violently, they put a hood over my head and I left again in the direction of the AGA (Air War Academy). There I thought: “Now they are really going to execute me.” If I had signed the document in which they granted me my freedom… I arrived at the AGA and they put me in a closet.

And I was locked in that closet for the rest of the day and the night. They didn’t even take me out to go to the bathroom. And suddenly, the door opened. I didn’t know if it was day or night. They took me out, threw me into a pickup truck, and took me back to prison.

They didn’t interrogate me, they didn’t hit me, nothing. I arrived at prison and shortly after, the sentences arrived. There I appeared sentenced to 20 years. I never knew what happened.

-Did you never know what happened to you in those moments?

Until I was invited to a seminar that was held on the Armed Forces in Mexico. And I attended. And there were several political leaders of the Unidad Popular. At night, Mrs. Hortensia Bussi, Allende’s widow, invited me to eat at her house.

I was an officer without any political experience. And that night, I don’t know why, I told them about the great mystery that I had not been able to solve: what happened to me that they let me go free for lack of evidence, only to take me out of prison, lock me in a closet at the AGA, and then take me back to prison and sentence me to 20 years.

At Mrs. Tencha’s house was Jorge Insunza, who said he knew the other part. And he recounted that he had stayed in Chile clandestinely and that he knew that a lawyer spoke with Cardinal Raúl Silva Henríquez about my case, that the Cardinal spoke with General Gustavo Leigh, who said that I was going to be executed for treason.

That then the Cardinal had said that he was a relative of mine and that he requested to speak with me. That would have caused the end of my history as a prisoner.

-Did the high command know nothing about the meetings held inside the FACH by officers who were not with the coup or who clearly supported the Unidad Popular government?

I have a series of doubts. I was in the Counterintelligence Department. And General César Ruiz Danyau, then commander-in-chief of the FACH, knew about the meetings held by the group of institutional aviators, to which Captain Raúl Vergara and Alamiro Castillo belonged; and also about the group that belonged to the MIR.

And I know this because there was an officer who, having attended some meetings of Vergara’s group, the then-squadron commander and later General Patricio Araya—who was a favorite of General Ruiz—passed the information to General Ruiz, and the commander-in-chief passed the information to the head of the Counterintelligence Department, General Mario Jahn.

That is why I knew it, and I ask myself to this day why, if General Ruiz knew what was developing inside the FACH, he did not try to stop it at that moment, before the coup.

I even once told Raúl Vergara to be careful because the meetings he was holding were becoming known. I told him to watch out for Araya since his father was the public relations officer for the United States embassy in Chile at that time.

I couldn’t tell him more. That was the reason, among others, why I never went to any meeting of that group. I was in the Intelligence service and I was not going to attend meetings of a group that was already detected. So, sometimes, I ask myself: could it not have been a conspiracy? Could it not have been that they wanted this group of offi

"infiltrated" agents in the Air Force to later have a valid reason to use as an element to neutralize those who could oppose the Coup or the repression that was carried out later within the FACH itself?

Could it not have been something managed by the CIA? -I assume you knew Colonel Carlos Ominami in the FACH and in prison? What was your opinion of him? I have to say that Colonel Carlos Ominami was not a man of the left.

Ominami never gave opinions regarding the Unidad Popular government. I remember that I laughed a lot at him because he would buy El Mercurio and always sit down to read it in the corner of the patio where they played soccer.

And he would read the whole thing. And we would laugh because we said he even read the classified ads. They treated him very badly! They tortured him a lot. He arrived with marks on his legs… And he would tell us something that we laughed about a lot.

They took him to a dormitory there at the AGA and a guy arrived who seemed to be a hypnotist. And he started to hypnotize him. When some time had passed, the hypnotist said to him: “We are going to bring your son.” And Ominami recounted that he heard a voice saying: “Dad, do you remember the defense plan you gave me?” And Ominami says he replied: “Son, I don’t recognize you, your voice is very strange.” And then, with kicks, they threw him off the bed and continued beating him while shouting: “This one isn’t sleeping, he isn’t hypnotized!” What followed was hard. -Do you remember any specific event for which they interrogated you with insistence? They interrogated me and insisted a lot about the MIR leader Jorge Fuentes (the “Trosko” Fuentes, who was detained in Paraguay during an Operation Condor operation and murdered in Chile). I knew him because he was a very good friend of my younger brother. And one afternoon I was arriving at my apartment on Mac Iver with Agustinas and down below, outside the building, I ran into Choche, that’s what we called him at my house. “Hello Jorge, we’ve been looking for you for a long time, it’s a good thing I found you,” he said by way of greeting. “Let’s go up,” I said, “to my apartment.” And when we sat down, he started talking to me about Allende’s reformism and continued criticizing it, and then he said: “We wanted to know if you could facilitate our access to the El Bosque Base (where I was on duty at the time), to take out weaponry.” My response was immediate: “Look Choche, I want you to be very clear that I am not against the government. That there are constitutional instruments to accuse the government of what you think, but the way in which you express your discontent is not something I share at all. Don’t even think that I am going to facilitate your entry to take out weaponry. What’s more, if I am in charge on the day you try it, I will order them to shoot if we catch people trying to take out weaponry. Forget it. You are not going to achieve that with me.” I never heard from him again. One of the things they showed me when they were interrogating me was a document they found in the Torres de San Borja in which it said that contact was made with Colonel Jorge Silva. And there it says exactly what I told him on that occasion: that I did not agree with the MIR. When they interrogated me, they hit me and hit me again, asking me if after that conversation I had changed my mind and had collaborated with the MIR. They didn’t believe me, the same way I never spoke with Allende again. My impression is that much later they realized in the War Council that they had nothing to accuse me of, other than inventing that I was with the group of “constitutionalists” (the group of Raúl Vergara and Alamiro Guzmán), and they reduced my 20 years to five years for “failure to perform military duties.” It so happens that the president of the War Council was General Juan Soler Manfredini. I had a very good relationship with General Soler, since I was at the School of Specialties when he was director and General Soler had been an aide-de-camp to President Frei. And when I arrived at the School of Specialties, we would talk about politics with him. And he was quite clear regarding a constitutionalist position. But he began to change, to the point that he became a coup supporter. And I remember having been at his house talking and him trying to convince me because he knew I was against the Coup. “Imagine the Air Force command in charge of this country! With everything we have criticized them for regarding how they have administered and directed the Armed Forces and all the problems there are in the Air Force!” I would tell him. Soler knew what my position was and, as we had a good relationship, on the day of the Coup he called me. He was listening to the military communiqués and was furious because no one had informed him of anything that was going to happen. “Well, Flaco, and what do you think?” he said to me. “I am a professional, my Colonel, don’t think I am going to do something stupid because I am not going to do it, but I want to ask you a favor, I don’t want to go out into the street to repress people, because I won’t be able to carry out that order well.” “Alright, don’t worry, the deputy director is going to go out in charge of the whole force and you stay here in charge of logistics because the entire garrison from Colina and Cerrillos is going to come and install itself here and these people need to be fed and put to sleep. You stay in charge,” was his response. That is what I did. I saw how the trucks arrived loaded with prisoners who were left in a red hangar at the School of Specialties (the first unit of the El Bosque Base, located at stop 32 of the Gran Avenida). The hangar was full. That was when I saw two young men, very young (the then-university students Fernando Villagrán and Felipe Agüero), one was all wet with one of those gray FACH blankets, in the charge of a non-commissioned officer. I wasn’t even dressed for combat. I approached the non-commissioned officer and asked him: “What is happening with these two boys?” And the non-commissioned officer told me that they had been surprised in a car with a document in which they were preparing to confront the Military Junta, so they were going to execute them that night. -Look, there is a vehicle that is going to leave in two hours for the Estadio Nacional. Throw them in that vehicle -I told the non-commissioned officer. And the non-commissioned officer sent them to the Estadio Nacional. He took them out that same night with the rest of the prisoners from La Legua. And they didn’t execute them. They were saved.

DETAINED AND TORTURED

-When and how were you detained? I knew I was going to fall. I sensed it. Everything was Kafkaesque in that period. I knew that my great friend Alamiro Castillo was granted asylum in the Argentine embassy.

And I would drive my car in front of the embassy to see if I could see him, to know what was happening with him. I never saw him. But I also knew that Raúl Vergara was in prison along with other officers who were not coup supporters.

And I thought that I was also going to be detained, especially because of the problem of Mario Jahn’s letter, which they never brought up to me, but which was present. I knew it. They knew it. Finally, I was taken prisoner on October 9, 1973.

And since I knew that they were stealing the cars of the people who were taken prisoner, I told Nelsa, my wife, that she should drop me off in the car early and, since she was a nurse at the J.J. Aguirre clinic, she should leave with it.

That way, if they detained me, she would keep the car. Every morning we would go along the Panamericana and we would see the bodies of the dead on the corner of the Cementerio Metropolitano. I knew it was people they killed at the School of Specialties and then went to dump there.

But nothing happened to me. Until one day, I was arriving at my house around 10 at night and I found a FACH vehicle waiting for me. A driver from my group got out and said to me: “Captain, my Colonel Soler sent me to look for you.

But he said that before you left you should call him on the phone.” I called Colonel Soler at his house. “Listen, Captain, where are you at this moment? At your mother’s house or at yours in the center?” “I am in the center, my Colonel.” “Alright, Captain, because I want to ask you a favor, but do you have a problem coming here?” “No, my Colonel, I am going immediately.” “But are you sure?

Because if you can’t, we’ll talk about it tomorrow.” “No, my Colonel, if you need me I am going immediately.” I left in the same vehicle toward Colonel Soler’s house, which was in front of the School of Specialties.

It caught my attention that they took a long time to open the door. And the driver came out to open it for me. I entered, passed through the front garden, and when I was arriving at the door of the house, two officers fell on top of me.

One put a hood on my head, another took my weapon. And I felt that Colonel Soler was there. And I heard him say: “I know he will return. I know this isn’t true. I am going to keep the pistol.” They tied me up, threw me inside a vehicle, and took me straight to the Air War Academy.

And at that moment I stopped being a Captain in the Air Force. -In other words, Soler turned you in. He turned me in, but he gave me the possibility of not going to his house. But he couldn’t tell me more because Edgar Ceballos and Ramón Cáceres were there in his house.

They are the officers who fell on top of me and captured me. Cáceres is a very special case. I didn’t know him in the Air Force. One time I was arriving at my parents’ house, I was already a non-commissioned officer, and I ran into an officer at the house.

How strange, I said to myself, there must be a problem that they sent for me. And nothing of the sort, Cáceres was there because his girlfriend had been a schoolmate of my sister. That’s where I met him.

Later, he was at the School of Specialties, we were officers together there, we were even at his house more than once. He passed through Balmaceda and I was there. We had a friendly relationship, although he didn’t have a personality that attracted me.

Perhaps he considered himself a friend of mine. Well, when they were torturing me, in the end—and you will forgive me for telling you this—I was spitting blood everywhere, I was urinating blood, from behind, from my mouth…; and when I was very bad, Ferrada, who was also a prisoner there, would approach me and say: “Tell everything you know, you are spitting blood and you are dying, tell everything, they aren’t going to send you to the hospital, tell everything.” Well, one morning they took me out for interrogation and they sent a strong jolt of electricity through me.

And I don’t know for what reason that night blood had accumulated in my stomach and I spat out a lot of blood right there. “We burst him!” said one of those who was applying electricity to me. They took off my hood and I found myself with Cáceres, who had a pencil in his mouth and was one of those who was torturing me.

And I said to him: “You doing this!” Cáceres crouched down and said to me: “It’s because you wanted to kill my family.” “Does it fit in your head that we were going to kill your wife, your son?” And he repeated: “You wanted to kill my family!” Then I remember they took me to a bathroom that was there and I looked at myself in the mirror—because I had been under a hood for I don’t know how long—and I got scared. “My God, what have they turned me into!” I had yellow stains and stains of all colors, a beard, my hair was disgusting with blood.

And that was the last time they tortured me. They never did it again. And it was also the last time I saw Cáceres. -When did you leave Chile? I left Chile in 1977. I was in prison for three and a half years.

Although after two and a half years, when I had served half of my sentence, a document was presented so that they would grant me my freedom. But General Gustavo Leigh personally said no, that I could not be released.

I had the possibility of going to the United States, Germany, or England. And I went to England, because they gave me the possibility of going to the university. I got a scholarship and finished with a Master’s in International Relations that in the end was of no use to me, because later I started working when my daughter was born there… We all left thinking that this would end in Chile the following year.

And it wasn’t like that. It lasted 17 years. -Why do you tell every hard episode of your life as if it were about another person, with a calmness and clarity that is astonishing? What calmness are you talking about if I have smoked like three cigarettes while we have been talking… And I don’t smoke!

I think it is important to reconstruct history just as it happened. But it’s that I feel that nothing happened to me if I compare it with what happened to so many people who suffered much more. Many people lost their lives.

There are many people much more important than me who deserve more attention for what happened. A month ago, since my wife was a very good friend of a doctor at the J.J. Aguirre Hospital, María Elena Prieto, we coincidentally went to see the movie El regalo and there it appears that they dedicate the movie to Dr.

María Elena Prieto. My wife loved her very much, they were very good friends, and by e-mail she asked if it was the same doctor. And a woman answered her: “How lucky, it seems my mommy is helping me because we were thinking of making a movie about the prisoners of Pisagua, it failed, and now maybe your husband would like to help us make a movie about his story.” I answered her no, because there are many more important people.

I follow very closely what is happening here, because I believe there are many people who deserve to be remembered and that history should not be lost. -What days are important to you or do you commemorate in a special way?

I think that when I was released one leaves with a bit of sadness. Because the period I spent in prison helped me a lot to get to know labor leaders. I remember there was an old saltpeter worker leader who hadn’t missed any repression.

I talked a lot with him and we talked about philosophy. Unlike the communists who were always very sad and serious, this man was very vital. And one day I asked him why he knew so much about philosophy and politics and so many things.

And it was the first time that he sort of broke down a little and said to me: “Look, Captain, my mother was a cook at a saltpeter office. My mother was also a prostitute. I never went to school. I was taught to read by the leaders who were there and everything I know I have known through the books they have lent me.” Things like that impressed me a lot.

I became very good friends with Patricio Cariola, a Jesuit priest who was a prisoner. He even gave me his Bible. The priests left and, in the end, there was a prisoner in the same cell I was in, a certain Patricio Uribe who had been taken prisoner because of a check problem, because he was the head of exports for David del Curto.

We built a very good relationship and I remember that one day, when we were getting up in the morning, he was looking at me fixedly and I said to him: “What’s wrong with you?” And he said to me: “I see you like Jesus Christ, because you left your profession, your family, everything abandoned, worried about the poor people.

If you shouldn’t look at those people, because you aren’t going to change them, you aren’t going to fix the world. Do as I do: don’t look at them.” -When did you leave Chile? I left at the end of September 1977.

I left prison with sadness. It was painful, the prisoners congratulated you, they applauded you, and that gave you a very strong emotional burden. And I arrived at the airport and my father and mother were there.

It hurt me a lot that when my father went to see me they would search him completely, they would humiliate him. He never imagined that his son was going to end up in prison. And I must confess that I also didn’t have it within my possibilities to end up in prison.

I received great support from my family. -Did Colonel Juan Soler help you get released? He lowered my sentence from 20 to 5 years. And when you serve half the sentence you can leave. My lawyer, Luis Ortiz Quiroga, behaved very badly, because he never went to see me in prison and I never saw my defense and only heard it when they took me, but he charged me.

It cost me the car we had at the time. When we arrived in England, I thought we had the money from the sale of the car. And I asked Nelsa. And she told me “no, we don’t have anything, we paid all that money to the lawyer.” And I found she was completely right: one had to do anything to save the life of the person who was in prison.

But I never saw Ortiz Quiroga. I haven’t even read my defense. I would be grateful if you have it, if you could provide me with a copy. That is my story. The one who can tell you much more about what happened before is Alamiro Castillo, who was the only one who had the vision, or it was his wife, to seek asylum. He knows how and why the “institutionalists” were organized.

Source: ciper.cl, July 23, 2012

Let’s change the name of the Juan Soler Manfredini Avenue in Puerto Montt

The avenue that connects the center of Puerto Montt with the Pelluco beach resort bears the name of Juan Soler Manfredini, who was an Intendant of the Military Dictatorship. During the beginning of the dictatorship, he was sent to the War Academy, a place where many non-commissioned officers and officers of the FACH were tortured.

According to the testimony of some of the prisoners of that facility, such as General Sergio Poblete Garcés, they mention Soler Manfredini as one of the figures who applied torture to them. Soler Manfredini was President of the War Councils that were invented to judge soldiers loyal to the constitution and as such he headed the trials of many of his own comrades-in-arms, giving credibility to testimonies obtained under torture, accusing many of those who were there of participating in Plan Z… It is time to end tributes to figures linked to the military dictatorship who have their hands stained with innocent blood. It cannot be that one of the most beautiful avenues, not only in Puerto Montt but probably in Chile, bears the name of this coup-plotting soldier… I suggest that the avenue that connects the two most important universities in the city be known as the great avenue of culture and that it pay tribute to the painter Pacheco Altamirano on the side of the Universidad de Los Lagos and to the filmmaker Raúl Ruiz on the side of the Universidad Austral de Chile.

Source: change.org, December 13, 2017

The truth of how the father of former President Bachelet died in his cell in prison

The Brazilian president, the far-right Jair Bolsonaro, launched a harsh critique of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the former president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, whom he accused of defending "vagabonds" and even attacked on a personal level.

"Mrs. Michelle Bachelet: If it were not for the personnel of (Augusto) Pinochet, who defeated the left in 1973, among them your father (Alberto Bachelet), Chile today would be a Cuba," said Bolsonaro in response to statements by the former Chilean president, who criticized police violence and the human rights situation in Brazil.

After the Brazilian president, Jair Messias Bolsonaro—a former military officer, an extremist, misogynist, fascist, and worshiper of right-wing dictatorships and human rights violations by the armed forces—spoke, the question of how President Michelle Bachelet's father died remained hanging in the air.

There are several witnesses who saw the final minutes of the life of Alberto Arturo Miguel Bachelet Martínez. He was a prisoner in the Public Jail, which was located on Calle General Mackenna at the corners of Amunategui and Teatinos, occupying an entire block in the center of Santiago.

He had been taken there to join common prisoners and his colleagues from the Air Force, some of whom were directly opposed to the coup d'état and others who, due to the denunciation of their own comrades, had been detained and taken to that detention center.

Alberto Bachelet was a general in the FACh and had been appointed in 1972 by President Salvador Allende as secretary of the National Directorate of Supply and Marketing (DINAC), a position in which he had to direct the Supply and Price Control Boards (JAP).

By the time of the 1973 coup, General Bachelet was serving in the Accounting Directorate of the Chilean Air Force (FACh). As he opposed the coup d'état of September 11, he was detained for the first time on September 11, 1973, at his office in the Ministry of Defense. Released that same night, his house was raided on September 14 and he was arrested again.

He was held at the FACh Air War Academy (AGA), the director of which was then-Colonel Fernando Matthei, father of the current mayor of Providencia. In that place, he was subjected to interrogations and torture by his own comrades-in-arms.

In December, he was detained again and sent to the FACh Air War Academy, where he was savagely tortured with beatings, electric shocks, wet sacks placed over his body to leave no marks, cigarette burns on his chest and back, and other forms of torture.

In a letter to his son Alberto (who passed away), who lived in Australia, he recounted:

"They broke me inside; at one moment, they were morally destroying me—I never knew how to hate anyone—I have always thought that the human being is the most wonderful thing in this creation and must be respected as such, but I found myself with FACh comrades whom I have known for 20 years, my own students, who treated me like a criminal or like a dog."

He dies in his cell of a heart attack on March 12

On March 11, 1974, 50-year-old Alberto Bachelet was taken from the public jail to what would be his final brutal interrogation. Singularly, 32 and 40 years later, his daughter, Dr. Michelle Bachelet, arrived at the country's highest office on that same day: on March 11, 2006, and March 11, 2014, she assumed the presidency of the Republic.

General Bachelet was extremely thin and suffered from arrhythmias. And the right-wing press said he played basketball. On the day he died, no one played basketball in the jail.

An account by FACh Captain Jorge Silva, who slept next to General Bachelet in their 12-person cell, notes that on March 11, 1974, he arrived at night looking very haggard. Very distressed. And he slept poorly. He was battered after the torture and duress inflicted by his own friends and comrades-in-arms.

In Ciper Chile, he recounts the following about the day of Bachelet's death:

"That morning, General Bachelet and I were on duty to wash the breakfast things. And people have forgotten that precisely that morning, Chaplain Gilmoure and the jail chaplain went to the prison to hold a mass.

They held it in the courtyard where we were. General Bachelet did not go to the mass; he was a Mason, and we both stayed in the cell while the rest went to the mass, because I was making breakfast and he was washing the dishes. And at one moment he said to me: 'Flaco, I feel bad.' 'My General, lie down on General Sergio Poblete's bed,' I told him."

"Because that was the first bunk in the cell. He lay down and said to me: 'Pass me the trinitrine.' I passed him the tablets. He put them in his mouth and I realized he was sweating a lot. I took his pulse and realized it was out of control.

I remember I shouted and asked I don't know who to bring Doctor Yáñez (Álvaro Yáñez del Villar), another of the political prisoners. As soon as Doctor Yáñez entered the cell, he examined him and immediately said: 'He is having a heart attack! Help me!'"

"Between the two of us, we took him down from the bed and put the General on the floor. And Doctor Yáñez got on top of him, starting to perform cardiac massage. I remember he even tried to remove the dental prosthesis he had and couldn't.

Then Yáñez said to me: 'Blow into him! Blow into him! We have to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation!' It was very impressive because everyone else was at the mass and the background music was the prisoners' chants at the mass: 'The Lord is my shepherd….' A very sinister thing. We were at that when suddenly the jail warden enters with the medical assistant:

-What is happening here! -says the warden, pushing Doctor Yáñez aside.

When the assistant approaches, Yáñez challenges him: 'What are you going to do to him!?'

-I am going to put adrenaline in his mouth –the assistant responds.

-Don't be ignorant! How are you going to put adrenaline into a man who is unconscious! –Yáñez says with urgency.

-What do you know! –the assistant rebuked him.

-I do know what is happening to him, because I am a doctor –said Yáñez, and he returned to approach the General.

The warden took the assistant out of the cell and took him away, closing the cell. We were left with Yáñez inside, and a few minutes later the assistant returns with a stretcher, they place General Bachelet on the stretcher, and they leave.

Doctor Yáñez recounts: 'They went to tell me he was bad, "it looks like he is going to faint." I spoke with the warden: "General Bachelet is in serious condition, he must be taken to an intensive care unit." He was having an arrhythmia attack, he was collapsing. "Please, he must be taken.

The J.J. Aguirre Hospital is five minutes away." He told me he couldn't do it: "The FACh forbids taking anyone out without authorization." "Ask for authorization by phone." "I can't, I have to send an official letter." "Please, he is going to die. I will accompany him. Chain me to the stretcher." We had to fight the collapse.'"

"'It couldn't be done. "He is fainting." He had no pulse and was not breathing. We started giving him mouth-to-mouth and cardiac massage. We took him running to the infirmary. We continued the same. After 20 minutes, I saw that we could not create a pulse and I said he is dead, let's leave him in peace. "Rest from all this filth."'"

-You and Doctor Yáñez saw him die…

"I have the impression that General Bachelet left the cell dead. And I will tell you why. Because when they lifted him onto the stretcher, his sphincters released. I saw it. So as not to forget those moments… And when I spoke about it with my wife, who is a nurse, she told me that happens when a person dies.

My General was taken to the infirmary and that is what I know, because I never saw him again. Many versions have come out. Many have wanted to be the last one who held Bachelet in their arms, but the truth is that only Doctor Yáñez and I were there.

No one else. Except for the moment when the warden enters with the assistant. The other lie that has been told is that General Bachelet had been playing basketball in the morning. Lie! Because that day, due to the mass, basketball was not played. And the uniformed personnel who were prisoners attended it, and civilian prisoners also went."

According to the report on his death, 50-year-old Alberto Bachelet died due to "a cardiorespiratory arrest resulting from the poor physical and psychological condition in which he had been left."

In November 2014, Colonels Edgar Cevallos and Ramón Cáceres were convicted as perpetrators of the torture, both sentenced to four years in prison, absolute disqualification for political rights, and also absolute disqualification for public offices and positions during the period of the sentence. Ceballos died in February of this year, 2019. Cáceres is still alive.

The names of the torturers of the FACh Air War Academy (AGA) remained etched in the memory of the detainees, and new lawsuits were filed against them. Several of them have already passed away.

The torturers of the AGA

Orlando Gutiérrez Bravo, General (ret.) Sergio Lizosoain Mitrano, Colonel (ret.) Julio Tapia Falk, Lawyer Cristián Rodríguez, Legal Advisor Jaime Cruzat, Legal Advisor Víctor Barahona, Legal Advisor Jaime Lavín Fariña, Group Commander (ret.) León Duffey, Squadron Commander (ret.) Edgard Ceballos Jones, Group Commander (ret.) Ramón Cáceres Jorquera, Squadron Commander Florencio Dublé, Captain (ret.) José García Huidobro, Lieutenant (ret.) Juan Soler Manfredini, General (ret.) Eduardo Fornet, Colonel (ret.) who served as secretary of the FACh; Carlos Cáceres, Squadron Commander (ret.) pilot, Gonzalo Pérez Canto, Squadron Commander (ret.) pilot, Alvaro Gutiérrez, Flight Captain (ret.) pilot, Víctor Mettig, Flight Captain (ret.) pilot, Juan Carlos Sandoval, Lieutenant (ret.) Franklin Bello, Lieutenant (ret.) Juan Norambuena, Non-Commissioned Officer (ret.) Hugo Lizana, Aviation Sergeant (ret.) Humberto Berg Fontecilla, FACh Medical Colonel (ret.) Sergio Sanhueza López, Engineer Colonel Javier Lopetegui Torres, Colonel (ret.) pilot Carlos Godoy Avendaño, Group Commander (ret.) pilot by Alfredo Peña

Source: cambio21.cl, September 6, 2019

New book covers the life of Juan Soler Manfredini, first Intendant of the Tenth Region

An avenue that connects the center of Puerto Montt with the Pelluco beach resort and a school in the commune of Cochamó bear his name, but who was Juan Soler Manfredini?

This is what the anthropologist and Master in Social Sciences Wladimir Soto Cárcamo wants to answer in this new book, which covers the life of Air Brigadier General Juan Soler Manfredini (1927-1977), who would be the first Regional Intendant of the Tenth Region of Chile.

The present investigation aims to describe his professional trajectory, his support for the 1973 coup d'état, and his active participation in the dictatorship in the repression of members of the Air Force.

Subsequently, it describes his arrival on February 12, 1974, as Commander of ALA 5, Intendant of Llanquihue, and Command of CAJSI, Third Air Brigade, as well as the functions he performed until his arrival as Regional Intendant of the Tenth Region, an occupation he held until a serious illness led to his death.

Likewise, several cases of human rights violations committed in the Province of Llanquihue during his administration will be presented.

This book has been developed after years of research in the National Archive, the National Library, the Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Santiago, the virtual archive of the Vicariate of Solidarity, the Juan Pablo II Museum of Puerto Montt, and recently published judicial files.

Author Biography

Wladimir Roberto Soto Cárcamo was born on January 18, 1974, in Puerto Montt. He is an anthropologist, graduated from the Austral University of Chile. Subsequently, he completed postgraduate studies at the University of Arts and Social Sciences (ARCIS), obtaining a Master's degree in Social Sciences.

He has published numerous articles and literary works in publications in the Los Ríos and Los Lagos Regions, such as the magazine "Palabras de mujer" in Valdivia, "Meliwaren" in Puerto Montt, and "Araña gris" in Calbuco, in the newspaper El Llanquihue, and the electronic newspapers El Gong, ambitosur.com, and guardiandelsur.cl of Puerto Montt.

He has also been present on Rebelión.org, an international website, with a work titled "Pampa Irigoin, 1969: claves de una masacre," which was published in 2008.

In 2003, an investigation by this author titled "Fuentes para el estudio de las culturas indígenas entre el Río Bueno y el Canal de Chacao (1544 – 1767)" was published in the book of the First History Congress of Puerto Montt, edited by the University of Los Lagos in 2003.

Source: osornoenlared.cl, June 13, 2023

Case No. 2182-1998: Ramón Pavez and others Torture Episode

FOURTEENTH

That the accused, although they acknowledge performing duties inside the El Bosque Air Base at the date of the events in different units, have denied having direct participation in the investigated events and claim not to know the victims.

This is how the defendant Eduardo Cartagena Maldonado acknowledges that at the date of the events he had performed duties in the Intelligence Department of the El Bosque Air Base Garrison and that among his duties was the preparation of detainee files, carrying out operational tasks related to the verification of complaints, surveillance, and detentions.

He reaffirms the presence of detainees in a hangar inside the Air Base, and the existence, furthermore, of a sector specially equipped for the interrogation and torture of detainees, and within these latter tasks, he acknowledges the participation of, among others, the Director of the School of Specialties and an officer with the surname Miittig, which he knows because these people were the ones who requested the detainees' files, which contained information about their identification, personal data, militancy, position, seizures, and a summary of their interrogation.

He reports having witnessed an interrogation practiced on a detainee, where he was punished through beatings, and that he knows from hearsay through comments that electric current was also used as a means to obtain answers from the detainees. He points out that the Chief of the Intelligence Department was Renato del Campo Santelices.

That although he lacks information regarding the plaintiffs Ramón Pavez Casanova and Patricio Rivera Cornejo, he explains said omission by the number of detainees who entered the place (ratified by the statements of José Manuel Tapia Maluenda on page 325), which made it impossible for him to have clarity and remember their names, but he does not deny, but rather reaffirms, the vexations, mistreatment, and cruel, inhuman, and degrading acts to which they were subjected by personnel of the El Bosque Air Base, since he gives an account of the creation of a control system established for that purpose, in charge of a high-ranking officer, with personnel, resources, and means for said end.

In this way, there act against him, in addition to his statements and the account of his specific functions, the conclusions exposed in the police reports on page 47 and following, where it is pointed out that effectively at the El Bosque Air Base, dependent on the Chilean Air Force, at the date of the events, detained persons arrived, both women and men, who were left in the gymnasium of said facilities, to subsequently be entered into other offices and be subjected to interrogation sessions; the police reports on page 56 and following and on page 503 and following, which, based on the statements of the interviewees, all of them belonging to the Intelligence Service (SIFA), establishes the existence of a procedure to prepare cards with the background of the people who were detained and entered inside the El Bosque Air Base (statements of Lionel Darío Paredes Lazcano on pages 318, 325, and 355, and of Renato Miguel Kaplán Puga on pages 322 and 372) in addition to the existence of detainees and interrogations inside the hangar belonging to the School of Specialties or in an adjoining room, and that the Officers in charge of the interrogations and detentions would be the Director of the School of Specialties, identified as Soler Manfredini and others, and that although General Mario Viveros Ávila was the one in charge of instructing the orders to investigate, detentions, and patrols, the apprehensions were executed by the personnel of the School of Specialties in charge of the Colonel with the surname Gómez, with General Juan Soler Manfredini being in charge of the prison camp.

It is also reaffirmed that an office occupied by personnel of the investigative police, by the Director of the School of Specialties, and other officials of the Intelligence Department, to which the accused Cartagena Maldonado has acknowledged belonging, was the place where interrogations under torture were practiced, and that this is also ratified in the police report on page 168, where he is identified as one of the officials who performed duties at the El Bosque Air Base carrying out interrogations (endorsed by the statement of José Manuel Tapia Maluenda on pages 450 and 490) and torture of detainees, and mainly in the Police Report on page 470, which, based on his statements, provides the structure of the Intelligence Department of the El Bosque Air Base Garrison.

It must also be indicated in support of the interrogator functions that Department II had, the statements of one of its members starting in the year 1974, Carlos Vicente Neculman Calfumil on page 543, who, although he describes these functions in a later period but very far from the one investigated, specifies that they necessarily encompassed the interrogations of the detainees who arrived at the facility, fulfilling them physically in a gymnasium of the School of Specialties where the detainees were kept and in some offices located about 30 meters from the former.

In this way, his participation in the events appears founded on his membership in an Intelligence organization, in charge of the preparation of files and the interrogation of those people who entered the Air Base as detainees, which implies strict and full knowledge of the actions that said organization had with them, of the operational tasks deployed, and of the repression that their opponents suffered through the procedures that were employed to obtain information and background, and all this allows this judge to acquire the full conviction that he has had a participation as an author in the investigated crime of repeated application of torment provided for and sanctioned in Article 150 No. 1 and No. 2 of the Penal Code, committed against the persons of Patricio Mario Rivera Cornejo and Ramón Daniel Pavez Casanova, in the months of September and October 1973, respectively, which occurred inside the El Bosque Air Base, in this city, since in his capacity as the person in charge of preparing the detainees' files as a member of the Intelligence Department, he had access to and knowledge of the passage of the detainees through the place, cooperated in the use of methods and procedures based on the exercise of physical and psychological force against them, compiling the background obtained in the interrogations, and witnessed the torture to which they were subjected.

Source: Judiciary, December 13, 2017