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 English priest Miguel Woodward, who was also subjected to political imprisonment and torture aboard the Chilean Navy training ship Esmeralda and subsequently forcibly disappeared.

It should be noted that on August 26, Judge 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 "Plan Cochayuyo," designed to repress social organizations and control the area following the military coup.

After 11:00 a.m., the retired Carabineros and Navy officials involved in this human rights case began arriving at the Fifth Region Court of Appeals to be notified by the magistrate of their indictment and pretrial detention.

Those indicted 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 Corps 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 total number of individuals indicted in this case—an emblematic human rights matter in Valparaíso—reaches 33.

Source: radiouchile.cl, August 30, 2010

Judge indicts eight sailors and six police officers in Woodward case

Judge Eliana Quezada, of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, indicted 14 retired uniformed officers as co-perpetrators of the crime of aggravated kidnapping and the disappearance of the priest Miguel Woodward (pictured), which occurred after the 1973 military coup in that port city.

In her resolution, the magistrate also issued arrest warrants for the accused: Carabineros colonels Héctor Tapia Olivares, Angel Lorca Fuenzalida, and Enrique Corrales Díaz; Major of the same police force Ricardo Araya Maureira; Carabineros Captain Nelson López Jofré; and non-commissioned officer of the same institution, Jorge Leiva Cordero.

The minister also indicted Navy Captain Pedro Abregó Diamante, and retired Marine Corps senior non-commissioned officers Manuel Leiva Valdivieso, Juan Reyes Basaur, Jaime Lazo Pérez, Bertalino Castillo Soto, Alejo Esparza Martínez, Carlos Líbano Riquelme, and Sergio Hevia Febres.

To date, Judge Quezada has issued indictments against 33 officers and non-commissioned officers in this case, all of whom are retired. Of these, 25 belong to the Navy and six to the Carabineros. This is the first time the magistrate has indicted members of the uniformed police for this crime.

The figure of 33 is currently reduced to 31, due to the death last year of Rear Admiral (Ret.), former commander of the Valparaíso Naval War Academy, and DINA agent, Sergio Barra von Kretschmann, and the revocation of the indictment against Navy Captain (Ret.) Luis Holley de la Maza.

Source: La Nación, August 28, 2010

Supreme Court rejects appeals and upholds sentences in Woodward case

The highest court backed the decision of the local Court of Appeals, which determined the dismissal of charges against 19 people in the investigation into the aggravated kidnapping of the priest Miguel Woodward, which began in September 1973.

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

In a unanimous ruling, justices Nibaldo Segura, Jaime Rodríguez, Hugo Dolmestch, Carlos Künsemüller, and acting 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 judges in question did not commit a serious fault or abuse in ordering 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 phase of the investigation into the kidnapping of the priest Miguel Woodward closed, issuing two resolutions in the process. In the first, he charged 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 a partial and temporary dismissal of charges 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: soychile.cl, September 29, 2011

18 former Navy and Carabineros uniformed officers indicted for the disappearance of the priest Miguel Woodward

In his resolution, visiting judge Jaime Arancibia highlighted that it is a crime "that is permanent in nature," as there is still no trace of the whereabouts of the clergyman, who was detained after the 1973 military coup.

The extraordinary visiting judge for human rights violation cases of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Jaime Arancibia Pinto, indicted 18 former Navy and Carabineros officials for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of the British-born priest Miguel Woodward Iriberry, an illicit act perpetrated starting in September 1973.

In the case, Judge Arancibia issued an indictment against retired Navy officials Guillermo Samuel Aldoney Hansen, Juan Guillermo Mackay Barriga, Ricardo Alejandro Riesco Cornejo, Víctor Sergio Valverde Steinlen, José Ignacio Yáñez Riveros, Pedro Vidal Miranda, Alfredo Hugo Moncada Salamanca, Claudio Francisco Cerezo Valencia, Pedro Abrego Diamantti, Juan de Dios Reyes Basaur, Jaime Segundo Lazo Pérez, Alejo Esparza Martínez, Carlos Líbano Riquelme, and Sergio Hevia Febres (*).

Likewise, he indicted former Carabineros officials Héctor Nelson Tapia Olivares, Ángel Lorca Fuenzalida, Enrique Orlando Corrales Díaz, and Luis Ricardo Araya Maureira. In the resolution, and after the description of the facts, the magistrate established that "the existence of the crime of aggravated kidnapping, as contemplated in Article 141, paragraphs 1 and 4 of the Penal Code, is configured in the person of the priest Miguel or Michael Roy Woodward Iriberry, meeting all the requirements that constitute it, since he was deprived of his freedom of movement without legal right, kept under detention or confinement, first in a facility controlled by the Navy and then in units of said institution, being subjected to continuous interrogations and torture, with his trail being lost, which has continued from his detention in the month of September 1973 until the present time, without his whereabouts being known or his remains having been found." He added that it is an illicit act "that is permanent or of continuous execution in nature and is understood to be in the degree of commission throughout the entire period that the situation typified and sanctioned in the aforementioned legal provision lasts, which continues to this day because the whereabouts or destination of Michael Woodward, or eventually his remains, are still unknown, with no concrete information about the victim having been found to date." (*) Editor's Note: Through resolution, Roll no. 140.454-2001, it is rectified that the second surname of the indicted Sergio Hevia—cited in this note—is Febres, so on March 15, 2017, the text was modified on this particular point, clarifying that the aforementioned individual is Sergio Hevia Febres.

Source: elmostrador.cl, May 8, 2015