Raúl Barragán

Raúl Horacio "YUYO" Barragán (born 1959) is a man from Concepción del Uruguay, Entre Ríos, Argentina.

Barragán became a general manager of Aerolíneas Argentinas in 1978 at Concordia, a border city between Argentina and Uruguay. He is a member of an affluent Uruguayense family.

According to police records, Barragán admitted to having used the SITA (Sociedad Internacional de Telecomunicaciones Aeronáuticas, or International Society of Aeronautical Telecommunications) computer system named. With SITA, he would pretend to be an employee for another airline and convince other international airlines that it should process tickets for him, which would later be paid by the airline of which he pretended to be an employee.

The records say that Barragan began hacking after one of his legitimate free trips that he earned as an employee. During that trip, he made a girlfriend in Caracas, Venezuela, and, apparently, he became so infatuated by her that he wanted to visit every weekend. This motivated him to cheat airlines to authorize free travel. Supposedly, he also gave away many tickets to his friends.

The records also said that Barragan went to Brazil on a week's trip with a friend and found himself almost broke with three days left before his return to Argentina. With little food left in his hotel, Barragan allegedly booked himself onto a first class trip to Tokyo. He and his friend boarded the plane to Japan, flew there, waited at the airport and then boarded the return flight to Brazil the next day, allowing them to enjoy the first class food and amenities.

He was detained and investigated in 1983, but because no airline was willing to prosecute him, he was released.

Arrested once again in 1993, Barragan was convicted by judge Juan Jose Galeano. His conviction has been criticised by many because no airline ever testified against him and for other possibly relevant circumstances.

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