Repressors from the U. Santa María processed in Woodward case

In a massive resolution, Judge Eliana Quezada of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals processed four officers and nine non-commissioned officers (ret.) of the Navy as co-perpetrators of the kidnapping—in September 1973—of the priest Miguel Woodward.

With this, the minister raised the number of those indicted in this investigation to 19, precisely as the 35th anniversary of the disappearance of the clergyman, who was a member of the MAPU, is reached.

For the first time, the magistrate held accountable the Navy Captain (ret.) Víctor Valverde Steinlein, who, as the then-director of the Navy's School of Operations, was the head of the Federico Santa María Technical University (UTFSM), which the Navy used until the end of October 1973 as a detention center following the military coup.

She also indicted Navy Captain (ret.) Luis Holley de la Maza and Frigate Captains (ret.) José Yáñez Riveros and Marcos Silva Bravo. These men commanded the teams that the Navy formed, coordinated by Valverde, to repress in the Los Placeres, Esperanza, and Barón hills, using the UTFSM facilities as a place of confinement for those arrested in that area.

Miguel Woodward was detained at his home in Placeres on September 21 and taken to that university, where he received the first beatings and torture. "A patrol from the UTFSM Operations Barracks detained Woodward, where he was interrogated, beaten, and subjected to various forms of torture by Navy officials who were part of the School of Operations Company stationed there, only to be handed over the following day to the Naval War Academy (AGN)," states Judge Quezada's ruling.

Ten of the thirteen processed individuals are already under arrest at the Marine Infantry barracks in Las Salinas in Viña del Mar, after being located by Investigations officials. Frigate Captain (ret.) José Yáñez Riveros is returning to Chile in November because he is aboard a commercial vessel.

Regarding the other Frigate Captain (ret.) Marcos Silva Bravo, he is on vacation in the south, where he is being sought by police officials. Non-commissioned officer Alfredo Mondaca Salamanca lives in Iquique and has already been located.

Both are expected to enter the same barracks today to serve their arrest. Miguel Woodward continued to be tortured at the AGN and was left dying, for which he was taken to the training ship Esmeralda, where a field hospital existed.

There, he was checked by the naval officer and doctor Kenneth Gleiser, who recommended taking him to the Naval Hospital, then located on the Playa Ancha hill. The exact place where Woodward died has not been determined.

The current processed individuals had participation in the detention, beating, and torture of the priest, as well as in his subsequent transfer to the AGN and the Esmeralda. The head of the AGN and the torturers of the clergyman at this academy—three vice admirals, two navy captains, and one lieutenant, all retired—were already indicted last April.

List of Processed Individuals

1.- Víctor Valverde Steilein (Navy Captain ret.) 2.- Luis Holley de la Maza (Navy Captain ret.) 3.- José Yáñez Riveros (Frigate Captain ret.) 4.- Marcos Silva Bravo (Frigate Captain ret.) 5.- José García Reyes (Non-commissioned officer ret.) 6.- Alfredo Mondaca Salamanca (Non-commissioned officer ret.) 7.- Luis Pinda Figueroa (Non-commissioned officer ret.) 8.- Carlos Miño Muñoz (Non-commissioned officer ret.) 9.- José Rojas Araya (Non-commissioned officer ret.) 10.- Pedro Vidal Miranda (Non-commissioned officer ret.) 11.- Héctor Palomino López (Non-commissioned officer ret.) 12.- Guillermo Inostroza Opazo (Non-commissioned officer ret.) 13.- Claudio Cerezo Valencia (Non-commissioned officer ret.)

Source: La Nación, September 24, 2008

Trial for the aggravated kidnapping of Miguel Woodward: Another thirteen processed for the disappearance of the priest

Four former officers and 9 other retired Navy officials were placed in preventive detention at a naval facility. VALPARAÍSO.— The special judge of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, María Eliana Quezada, issued thirteen more indictments yesterday in the investigation she is conducting into the disappearance of the Anglo-Chilean priest Miguel Woodward, which occurred after the 1973 military coup, after he had been held at the training ship Esmeralda.

With this resolution, the number of processed individuals rises to 19, all former Navy officials. The new processed individuals are Navy Captains Víctor Valverde Steinlein and Luis Holley de la Maza; Frigate Captains José Yáñez Riveros and Marco Silva Bravo; Senior Non-commissioned Officers José Manuel García (the only one from the Marine Infantry), Alfredo Moncada Salamanca, Luis Pinda Figueroa, and Carlos Miño Muñoz; and Non-commissioned Officer José Rojas Araya.

Also, First Sergeants Pedro Vidal Miranda and Héctor Palominos López; Second Corporal Guillermo Inostroza Opazo; and First Seaman Claudio Cerezo Valencia. Yesterday, 10 of the 13 new processed individuals were notified and placed in preventive detention at the Navy's Order and Security Barracks 2 in Las Salinas.

Already processed in the case are Vice Admirals (ret.) Guillermo Aldoney Hansen, Juan Mackay Barriga, Adolfo Walbaum Wieber, and Sergio Barra von Kretschmann; Marine Infantry Navy Captain (ret.) Ricardo Riesco Cornejo; and First Lieutenant of the Medical Corps (ret.) Carlos Costa Canessa, all of whom are released on bail.

Minister Quezada said that the investigation is close to being closed. Meanwhile, the Navy, through the head of Public Relations, Commander Felipe García Huidobro, indicated that the institution enabled the facility where the processed individuals will remain by judicial order.

Sentences for the Prats case

Judicial Prosecutor Daniel Calvo submitted a report to the Court of Appeals supporting the sentence issued by special judge Alejandro Solís against the former director of the DINA, Manuel Contreras, and eight other former agents of the organization for the crimes of illicit association and aggravated homicide of the former Commander-in-Chief of the Army Carlos Prats and his wife, Sofía Cuthbert, which occurred on September 30, 1974.

Calvo recommended that the appellate court dismiss all appeals filed by the lawyers of the convicted to reverse the sentences, and expressed agreement with the classification of the crimes imputed to General (ret.) Contreras and Pedro Espinoza, Raúl Iturriaga, Cristoph Willeke, José Zara, Juan Morales, Mariana Callejas, Reginaldo de la Cruz, and Jorge Iturriaga.

In his report, the judicial prosecutor criticizes the amnesty and agrees with Solís that the crimes investigated in the case constitute a crime against humanity, and therefore are imprescriptible and not subject to amnesty.

Source: El Mercurio, September 24, 2008

Supreme Court rejects appeals and maintains sentences in Woodward case

The Supreme Court rejected the appeals filed against the resolutions of the visiting judge Julio Miranda Lillo and the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, which determined the dismissal of 19 people in the investigation into the aggravated kidnapping of the priest Miguel Woodward.

In a unanimous ruling, ministers Nibaldo Segura, Jaime Rodríguez, Hugo Dolmestch, Carlos Künsemüller, and the member lawyer Alberto Chaigneau rejected the filings made by the Ministry of the Interior, the State Defense Council (CDE), and the plaintiffs, who sought to annul both rulings.

The Supreme Court's sentence determines that the appealed judges did not commit a serious fault or abuse when issuing the dismissal, considering that participation in the crime, which occurred starting in September 1973, was not proven.

On May 12, visiting judge Julio Miranda Lillo declared the summary closed in the investigation into the kidnapping of the priest Miguel Woodward, issuing two resolutions in the process. In the first, he accused 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 as perpetrators of the illicit act.

Meanwhile, in the second, he decreed the partial and temporary dismissal in favor of 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 Diamantti, Juan de Dios Reyes Basaur, Jaime Lazo Pérez, Alejo Esparza Martínez, Carlos Líbano Riquelme, and Sergio Hevia Febres.

Source: El Mercurio, September 29, 2011