During the morning, the Human Rights Brigade of the Investigative Police (PDI) began the transfer to the Valparaíso Court of Appeals of the last 14 individuals indicted for the disappearance of the British priest Miguel Woodward, who was also subjected to torture aboard the Chilean Navy training ship Esmeralda and subsequently disappeared.

It should be noted that on August 26, Minister María Eliana Quezada ordered the indictment of these fourteen former uniformed officers. The events date back to the first days of the military dictatorship, when the Chilean Navy implemented the "Plan Cochayuyo," devised to repress social organizations and control the area following the military coup.

After 11:00 hours, the retired Carabineros and Navy officials involved in this human rights case began arriving at the Fifth Region Court of Appeals so that the magistrate could notify them of their indictment and pretrial detention.

The indicted individuals are retired Carabineros Héctor Tapia Olivares, Ángel Lorca Fuenzalida, and Enrique Corrales Díaz, all colonels; as well as Major Luis Araya Maureira, Captain Nelson López Cofré, and Second Sergeant Jorge Leiva Cordero.

Also indicted were former Navy officers: Captain Pedro Abregó Diamanti; and retired Marine Infantry non-commissioned officers Manuel Leiva Valdivieso, Juan de Dios Reyes Basaur, Jaime Lazo Pérez, Bertalino Castillo Soto, Alejo Esparza Martínez, Carlos Líbano Riquelme, and Sergio Hevia Febres.

With this action, the number of those indicted in this case, which is emblematic in terms of human rights in Valparaíso, rises to 33.

Source: radio.uchile.cl, August 30, 2010

Detainees in the Woodward case remain held in their institutional barracks

PDI officials apprehended 12 former Navy and Carabineros officials indicted for the kidnapping and disappearance of the priest in 1973. Twelve former Navy and Carabineros officials, whom the Valparaíso Court of Appeals found guilty of the crime of aggravated kidnapping and disappearance of the priest Miguel Woodward—who was tortured aboard the training ship Esmeralda in 1973—remained detained in their respective institutional barracks.

The officials were apprehended this Monday by PDI personnel in Valparaíso and its surroundings, and were notified of their indictment in court. The visiting minister, María Eliana Quezada, indicated that two missing individuals will appear in the coming days.

Meanwhile, the group of friends of the Woodward family, based in Spain, expressed satisfaction with the decision made by Quezada and insisted that "now the President must say no to the pardon and strip all the accused of their honors." The indicted individuals, led by Colonel (ret.) Héctor Tapia Olivares, Sergeant Jorge Leiva, and five other Carabineros officers, in addition to Frigate Captain Pedro Abrego Diamanti and seven Marine Infantry non-commissioned officers under his command, were those who set in motion in '73 the so-called "Plan Cochayuyo," considered the first signal to put an end to the Unidad Popular government led by former President Salvador Allende.

Source: latercera.cl, August 31, 2010

Supreme Court of Chile ratifies dismissal of charges against 19 military personnel who disappeared a priest

The Supreme Court of Chile (CSC) ratified this Thursday the dismissal of charges against 19 retired military personnel who are being accused of the disappearance of the British-Chilean priest Miguel Woodward during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), reports TeleSUR.

This resolution by the high Chilean court was made after rejecting the appeals filed by the Ministry of the Interior, the State Defense Council (CDE), and the plaintiffs who sought to annul the ruling.

The ruling issued by the ministers of the Second Chamber of the highest court, Nibaldo Segura, Jaime Rodríguez, Hugo Dolmestch, Carlos Künsemüller, and the acting lawyer Alberto Chaigneau, indicates that the judges did not commit a serious error or abuse in ordering the dismissal.

Last May, the CSC ruled that the following citizens were perpetrators of the crime committed against Woodward: Luis Francisco Pinda Figueroa, Carlos Alberto Miño Muñoz, Guillermo Carlos Inostroza Opazo, José Manuel García Reyes, Marcos Cristián Silva Bravo, Nelson Roberto López Cofre, Jorge Leiva Cordero, Manuel Atilio Leiva Valdivieso, Bertalino Segundo Castillo Soto, and Héctor Fernando Palomino López.

In another sentence, the judicial body established a partial and temporary dismissal for: Guillermo Aldoney Hansen, Juan Mackay Barriga, Ricardo Riesco Cornejo, Carlos Costa Canessa, Víctor Valverde Stelenlen, José Yañez Riveros, Pedro Vidal Miranda, Alfredo Mondaca Salamanca, Claudio Cerezo Valencia, Héctor Tapia Olivares, Ángel Lorca Fuenzalida, Enrique Corrales Díaz, Luis Araya Maureira, Pedro Abregó Diamanti, Juan de Dios Reyes Basaur, Jaime Lazo Pérez, Alejo Esparza Martínez, Carlos Líbano Riquelme, and Sergio Hevia Febres.

The determination in favor of those mentioned was established because the participation of these individuals in the event was not fully proven. Priest Miguel Woodward was arrested on September 19, 1973, by members of the Chilean Navy in a town in Valparaíso on the central coast of Chile.

Shortly after, he was transferred to the Federico Santa María University in that city, where he was subjected to all kinds of torture. Finally, he was taken to the Naval War Academy, where he received further torture until he was taken to the training ship Esmeralda, where he ultimately died and his body was never found.

The latest report from the National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture, known as the Valech Commission report, raised the number of victims during the dictatorship to more than 40,000.

Source: ContraInjerencia.cl, September 30, 2011