"In Talcahuano, they interrogated us without blindfolds and were in charge de facto, Messrs. Kohler, Captain Bunster, Lieutenants Jaeger, Letelier, Luna, Alarcón, Tapia, Maldonado, and Letich. They made us speak into tape recorders what they wanted, hitting us with rifle butts from all sides, and they told us: 'You have to say the same thing to the prosecutor.' And the prosecutor would ask us, 'Are you feeling bad, if they have done something to you, tell me.'" The weekly magazine, Chile Hoy, accuses the lieutenants: Jaeger, Letelier, Luna, Alarcón, Tapia, Maldonado, and Sub-lieutenant Boetsch, of the Marine Infantry. Chile Hoy 63, 24-8-73. On September 2, 1973 – as we have seen – the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Admiral Montero, orders the Naval Prosecutor's Office to initiate summary proceedings against the torturers and tasks the lawyer for the Valparaíso Intendancy, Luis Vega, with gathering the evidence so that the Government may join as a party. Vega, 1983, 246. The relatives of the detainees ask the lawyer to file a complaint for torture and communicate the names of the torturers to him: "Captains Gajardo, Acuña, and Kooller [Kohler]; Lieutenants Luna, Alarcón, Letelier, Tapia, Maldonado, Boetsch, Jaeger, and others." "I understood then the urgency of filing a complaint," states Vega. Vega, 1983, 215. For their part, several sailors filed appeals against the statements extracted under torture. However, to this day, the sailors' torturers have never had to answer before any court and enjoy total impunity. The head of the group that tortured in Talcahuano – or at least one of them – is the then-corvette captain of the Marine Infantry, Luis Kohler Herrera. He is the first torturer mentioned in the sailors' letter to the President of the Republic; his name and his image dressed in camouflage gear remained etched in the memory of many of his victims. After the coup d'état, Captain Kohler, and Lieutenants Cáceres and Alarcón, appear among the officers who were in charge of the Francisca Acosta stadium in Talcahuano, a center for political imprisonment and torture, where detainees were kept incommunicado under inhumane conditions. www.memoriaviva.com. In the year 2000, Luis Kohler is president of the Corps of retired senior officers of the Armed Forces in the Fifth Region. www.capredena.cl/pub/oirs/circulos.htm#5,pc 4-5-07. Corvette Captain René Gajardo Alarcón is described by the magazine Chile Hoy as the head of the Intelligence Service of the II Naval Zone and linked to the Bofe, that is to say, the groups that carry out terrorist attacks. Chile Hoy 65, 7-9-73 in Las Fuerzas Armadas y…, 234. He had directed arrests and raids in Talcahuano and Concepción. Chile Hoy 63, 24-8-73. The lawyer Luis Vega identifies him as one of the officers who was subjected to summary proceedings for torture. It is likely Captain Gajardo who prevented the entry of lawyers into the Talcahuano base to hide the tortured sailors. Lieutenant Santiago Lorca, of the electronics division of the cruiser Prat, mentioned by García and López. He goes to verify the progress of the interrogations (with torture) at the Fuerte Borgoño. Lieutenant Pedro Augusto Benavides Manzoni, secretary of the Naval Prosecutor's Office, participates in the repression of the anti-coup sailors from the very first days. On Tuesday, August 6, 1973, when prosecutor Bilbao interrogates the detainees at the War Academy, Lieutenant Benavides walks around, draws his pistol, and points it at their heads. Ibarra, 2003.

Source: Jorge Magasich, Excerpt Los que dijeron «No», LOM, Volume II, 345-349

At the end of January, the Bicentennial Regatta 2010 will take place, a voyage convened by the navies of Chile and Argentina in which 13 countries from Europe and America will participate. The president of the organizing committee, Lieutenant (R) Santiago Lorca González, has not been able to focus exclusively on that task.

Lorca, an electronics engineer and businessman, had to testify before the minister of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Eliana Quezada, regarding a complaint for torture filed by former sailors who opposed the 1973 coup d'état.

His former comrades-in-arms accuse him of having taken them out on the night of August 7, 1973, from the cruiser Prat under the ruse of a "service commission" and handing them over to a platoon of marines at the Fuerte Borgoño in Talcahuano, where they were beaten and tortured for several days.

They were blamed for hatching a plan to seize the squadron's ships in order to oppose the military coup that was being gestured within the Navy. The accused acknowledged to the judge that he had taken "two or three sailors" from the Prat, "taking them to Fuerte Borgoño, a mission I carried out on two or three occasions that same night." Furthermore, he declared that he had custody over those electronics-specialty sailors on the ship, "because I was the head of the electronics sailors' division." One of the former sailors, Víctor López Zambrano, who currently presides over the Coordinator of Exonerated Navy Personnel, told LND that "then-Lieutenant Santiago Lorca González kidnapped me from the cruiser Prat, because he took me out at twelve at night under the ruse of a service commission to supposedly retrieve some electronic equipment. But that was false, because he took me to Fuerte Borgoño, where I was brutally tortured. He was present while they interrogated me. The Prat had been in Talcahuano for several days (in August 1973) for repairs." The same happened to sailors of the same specialty, Antonio Ruiz Uribe and Carlos García Herrera, whom Lorca also detained aboard the Prat and led to Borgoño. The three former sailors later formed part of the so-called squadron trial, accused of the attempt to seize the ships to try to resist the coup d'état, in a plan devised, according to the Navy, by the general secretaries of the MIR, Miguel Enríquez; of the PS, Carlos Altamirano; and of the MAPU, Óscar Guillermo Carretón, which was finally proven to be false. The procedural fate of Santiago Lorca is still uncertain, given that the magistrate is still in the investigative stage of this complaint filed by the former sailors. "A character like that cannot be assuming this representation at an international level, much less representing Chile in this event," said Víctor López. According to the procedural statement of Santiago Lorca, given in the capacity of an accused and not as a simple witness on October 14, he would have only handed over the three sailors "at the guard post of Fuerte Borgoño," but in another part of it, he acknowledges that he was present at the interrogations, at least of one of them, without mentioning who it was. "They made me pass into an office where there were around seven people, and upon asking one of them, who at that moment was being interrogated by a commander, he told me that they planned to take the ships by force. They looked in good physical condition, without signs of having been beaten," Lorca declared to the judge. However, Víctor López expressed that "that is false, because I and the others had already been severely beaten and tortured, and Lorca was there present and saw the state I was in at that moment, in that room, where Commander Luis Köller was also present, who was the second-in-command of Fuerte Borgoño, who tortured me." Lorca's version LND spoke with Santiago Lorca, who acknowledged that "I am the president of the organizing committee of the complete South American regatta and a Chilean admiral in active service (José Miguel Romero) chairs the regatta committee specifically for Chile," he said. Regarding his procedural statement before Judge Quezada and the accusations made against him in this complaint, Lorca stated, "that is something that is in the hands of the courts of justice. It is about something that happened before September 1973 and those sailors were tried and convicted. There was a trial." Regarding the charges made against him of detaining people under ruse and handing them over to torture, Lorca expressed that "anyone can give an opinion regarding what I do, I only say that this is in the hands of the courts. If they charge me with crimes, those charges must be resolved by the courts." In his defense, Lorca told LND that, although he admits that he detained those sailors aboard the cruiser Prat, "I did that because I was given a superior order, it was not my decision. I was only a lieutenant in 1973." He added that he feels frustrated that someone wants to overshadow this regatta initiative. "They are the same ones who recently set up a story at the molo de abrigo in Valparaíso and because of that, that act could not be held aboard the Esmeralda. The Esmeralda is a ship and one cannot disqualify a ship for what could have happened aboard it. This regatta thing is something very beautiful and it cannot be destroyed with these things," he maintains. The sailors who accuse him say they know Lorca very well, as they were with him in 1971 and 1972 at the Navy electronics school in Viña del Mar. "He, as an officer, was the head of our course in terms of command, therefore it is impossible for him to confuse me. Furthermore: we know that he betrayed us in 1973 because we opposed the coup d'état that was being openly gestured in the Navy. He was one of those who supported it," affirmed Víctor López.

Source: La Nación, January 3, 2010

He is charged with illegitimate coercion

Navy supports questioned Bicentennial regatta advisor According to the Association of Constitutionalist Sailors, the questioned former lieutenant was prosecuted and convicted for another crime before the torture of the crew members, although no further details were provided.

It added that by having a judicial sanction, he does not have an irreproachable record, so it is unacceptable for the Navy to have him as an advisor for the international event. The Navy affirmed this Saturday that it will not distance itself from the advisory role that former lieutenant and businessman Santiago Lorca González, linked to human rights violations, provides to the institution in the organization of the Bicentennial Regatta 2010.

González collaborates with Rear Admiral José Miguel Romero, who chairs the organizing committee of the Bicentennial Regatta 2010, an event developed by the Navy of Chile and Argentina, in which 13 countries from Europe and America will participate.

The businessman is in the status of an accused by the Valparaíso judge Eliana Quezada, in a trial for torture against sailors arrested aboard the cruiser "Prat" at the beginning of August 1973 for opposing the coup d'état that Navy officers were preaching among the troops.

Consulted at the beginning of January by Efe, González said: "I am the international president of the organizing committee of the complete South American Regatta, and a Chilean admiral in active service (José Miguel Romero) is the one who chairs the Regatta Committee specifically for Chile." Regarding the torture accusations, he said that "it is something that is in the hands of the courts of justice." "It is about something that happened before September 1973 and those sailors were tried and convicted, there was a trial," he indicated.

Complaints from the Association of Constitutionalist Sailors of Chile, who opposed the military coup in August 1973, and from human rights organizations in Argentina and Uruguay, warned about Lorca's presence on the Navy's Organizing Committee.

The head of Navy Communications, Frigate Captain Rodolfo Besoain, told Efe that "Mr. González is a collaborator and external advisor to the Organizing Committee of the Bicentennial Regatta Velas Sudamérica 2010 Chile." The Regatta Organizing Committee is an entity of the Chilean Navy in charge of organizing the Regatta, the officer added. "Given the experience he has of many years in the sailing specialty, Mr.

Lorca advises the president of that Organizing Committee, who is Rear Admiral José Miguel Romero. He does not receive a single peso from the Navy because his position is ad honorem," he stressed. When Besoain was asked why the Navy has González's advice when, although he is not prosecuted, he is in the status of an accused in a torture trial, he replied that "for the Navy, this is a professional advisory." "It involves nothing more than good advice and the contacts of this gentleman to produce this regatta," said Besoain, who added: "The Navy is very respectful of judicial aspects, but we understand that ultimately nothing of what he is accused of has been proven against him." Constitutionalist Sailors However, the president of the Association of Constitutionalist Sailors, Víctor López, one of González's accusers, told Efe that the former lieutenant was prosecuted and convicted for another crime before the torture of the sailors, although he did not give further details. "The important thing is that he already has a conviction and therefore does not have an irreproachable record," he expressed. "Mr. Lorca's situation is unacceptable for the Chilean Navy to continue having him as an advisor for this international event," added López. On December 2, the Chilean Navy suspended the presentation act of the Bicentennial Regatta 2010 after the arrest of several retired officers who have been prosecuted for torture committed in 1973. The ceremony, led by the Minister of Defense, Francisco Vidal, and to which the ambassadors of the thirteen countries participating in the regatta were invited, was to be held on the training ship "Esmeralda," where the torture of which the detainees are accused was practiced. Hours before that act, in the port of Valparaíso, Judge Eliana Quezada notified the prosecution to the accused, who were arrested. Among them are two retired vice admirals, a navy captain, and seven non-commissioned officers of the Navy, in addition to a former colonel and a former non-commissioned officer of the Carabineros. The torture of political detainees aboard the training ship "Esmeralda" occurred days after the military coup led by Augusto Pinochet on September 11, 1973.

Source: El Mostrador, January 30, 2010

Will not distance itself from the advisory role provided by former lieutenant Santiago Lorca González

NAVY SUPPORTS TORTURER AS ADVISOR FOR THE BICENTENNIAL REGATTA

According to the Association of Constitutionalist Sailors, the questioned former lieutenant and businessman Santiago Lorca González was prosecuted and convicted for another crime before the torture of the crew members, although no further details were provided.

It added that by having a judicial sanction, he does not have an irreproachable record, so it is unacceptable for the Navy to have him as an advisor for the international event. The Navy affirmed yesterday, Saturday, that it will not distance itself from the advisory role that the former lieutenant, linked to human rights violations, provides to the institution in the organization of the Bicentennial Regatta 2010.

González collaborates with Rear Admiral José Miguel Romero, who chairs the organizing committee of the Bicentennial Regatta 2010, an event developed by the Navy of Chile and Argentina, in which 13 countries from Europe and America will participate.

The businessman is in the status of an accused by the Valparaíso judge Eliana Quezada, in a trial for torture against sailors arrested aboard the cruiser "Prat" at the beginning of August 1973 for opposing the coup d'état that Navy officers were preaching among the troops.

Consulted at the beginning of January by Efe, González said: "I am the international president of the organizing committee of the complete South American Regatta, and a Chilean admiral in active service (José Miguel Romero) is the one who chairs the Regatta Committee specifically for Chile."

Source: http://www.g80.cl, January 31, 2010

Exonerated person refutes future Armed Forces undersecretary: "She asked to withdraw complaints against torturers" Víctor López, president of the Association of Exonerated Sailors, rejected the statements of Carolina Echeverría, who is questioned by human rights organizations.

SANTIAGO.- The interview given yesterday by Carolina Echeverría (PPD), the new undersecretary of the Armed Forces designated by the President-elect, Michelle Bachelet, sharpened the questioning against her by human rights organizations, which demand her resignation, among other reasons, because her father is indicated as a torturer.

This was stated this Thursday by the president of the Association of Sailors Exonerated in 1973, Víctor López, who denied that the efforts made by Echeverría during the previous Bachelet government - in which she held the position of undersecretary of the Navy - sought to grant them pension benefits, as she assured yesterday to "La Segunda." The former sailor, kidnapped and tortured in the weeks prior to September 11, 1973, told Radio Cooperativa that in 2010 Echeverría asked him directly to withdraw the complaints against those responsible for these crimes for political reasons. "I read Carolina Echeverría's interview and the truth is that it leaves me with a bitter taste. (In 2010) She had an attitude absolutely contrary to what she says today. She was seeking that those responsible for our torture, whom we were suing, remain unpunished. That today, in light of everything we have known, seems to me an open obstruction of Justice and has nothing to do with what she proposes today, that she does have confidence and does believe in Justice," said López. The former sailor recalled that the members of his group, for having lost their jobs weeks before the Coup, did not have the right to be classified as political exonerated persons. To correct that situation, they worked on a bill with the then-Minister of Defense, Michelle Bachelet, who, upon assuming the Presidency, left it in the hands of Echeverría. "This project, this lady (Echeverría) made it disappear. It was never possible to advance and we never knew what happened to it," recalls López, who continued working in parallel with the commander-in-chief of the Navy and admirals of the time to reach an agreement, which - he says - was also blocked by the now-nominated undersecretary of Bachelet. "She never had a disposition to help the organization, (whose members) had been violated in their capacity as public officials, who were detained, tortured, and expelled from the institution, we spent 3 years in prison…. And when we reached an agreement with the Navy and the high command, directly (…) this lady calls me, with whom we had not had contact for 1 year, and tells me: 'You know that we are going to give you support as a government, but you have to desist from the complaints,'" he accused. López added that "so it is an issue that seemed inappropriate to me, because we had talked for six months with the Navy and the Navy had never set as a condition that I withdraw the complaint against the torturers. So that a government official would appear…." Finally, the president of the Association of Exonerated Sailors pointed out that he believes Echeverría acted that way for political reasons. "She had certain commitments to certain Navy officials who were indeed involved in human rights violations. In the year 2010, at the beginning of 2010, the Bicentennial program was being prepared in the Bachelet government. And there, one of the important issues was the Bicentennial regatta. And overnight, after having pressured me to withdraw the complaints, Mr. Santiago Lorca González appears as international coordinator of the Bicentennial regatta, and that man is the one who kidnapped me from the Cruiser Prat in 1973 and handed me over to the Borgoño Infantry fort, where they tortured me and he was present at the interrogations. So it seems like a slap in the face that first she asks me to withdraw the complaints and then that this same gentleman appears as the coordinator of the regatta. Which side is this lady on? The side of the victims or the victimizers?" said López.

Source: Emol.com, March 6, 2014

Exonerated person refutes future Armed Forces undersecretary: "She asked to withdraw complaints against torturers" Víctor López, president of the Association of Exonerated Sailors, rejected the statements of Carolina Echeverría, who is questioned by human rights organizations.

The interview given yesterday by Carolina Echeverría (PPD), the new undersecretary of the Armed Forces designated by the President-elect, Michelle Bachelet, sharpened the questioning against her by human rights organizations, which demand her resignation, among other reasons, because her father is indicated as a torturer.

This was stated this Thursday by the president of the Association of Sailors Exonerated in 1973, Víctor López, who denied that the efforts made by Echeverría during the previous Bachelet government - in which she held the position of undersecretary of the Navy - sought to grant them pension benefits, as she assured yesterday to "La Segunda." The former sailor, kidnapped and tortured in the weeks prior to September 11, 1973, told Radio Cooperativa that in 2010 Echeverría asked him directly to withdraw the complaints against those responsible for these crimes for political reasons. "I read Carolina Echeverría's interview and the truth is that it leaves me with a bitter taste. (In 2010) She had an attitude absolutely contrary to what she says today. She was seeking that those responsible for our torture, whom we were suing, remain unpunished. That today, in light of everything we have known, seems to me an open obstruction of Justice and has nothing to do with what she proposes today, that she does have confidence and does believe in Justice," said López. The former sailor recalled that the members of his group, for having lost their jobs weeks before the Coup, did not have the right to be classified as political exonerated persons. To correct that situation, they worked on a bill with the then-Minister of Defense, Michelle Bachelet, who, upon assuming the Presidency, left it in the hands of Echeverría. "This project, this lady (Echeverría) made it disappear. It was never possible to advance and we never knew what happened to it," recalls López, who continued working in parallel with the commander-in-chief of the Navy and admirals of the time to reach an agreement, which - he says - was also blocked by the now-nominated undersecretary of Bachelet. "She never had a disposition to help the organization, (whose members) had been violated in their capacity as public officials, who were detained, tortured, and expelled from the institution, we spent 3 years in prison…. And when we reached an agreement with the Navy and the high command, directly (…) this lady calls me, with whom we had not had contact for 1 year, and tells me: 'You know that we are going to give you support as a government, but you have to desist from the complaints,'" he accused. López added that "so it is an issue that seemed inappropriate to me, because we had talked for six months with the Navy and the Navy had never set as a condition that I withdraw the complaint against the torturers. So that a government official would appear…." Finally, the president of the Association of Exonerated Sailors pointed out that he believes Echeverría acted that way for political reasons. "She had certain commitments to certain Navy officials who were indeed involved in human rights violations. In the year 2010, at the beginning of 2010, the Bicentennial program was being prepared in the Bachelet government. And there, one of the important issues was the Bicentennial regatta. And overnight, after having pressured me to withdraw the complaints, Mr. Santiago Lorca González appears as international coordinator of the Bicentennial regatta, and that man is the one who kidnapped me from the Cruiser Prat in 1973 and handed me over to the Borgoño Infantry fort, where they tortured me and he was present at the interrogations. So it seems like a slap in the face that first she asks me to withdraw the complaints and then that this same gentleman appears as the coordinator of the regatta. Which side is this lady on? The side of the victims or the victimizers?" said López. Carmen Hertz also demands Echeverría's resignation. The emblematic Human Rights lawyer, Carmen Hertz, considered it "an insult" that the new undersecretary of the Armed Forces, in order to defend her father, Colonel Víctor Echeverría Henríquez - accused of torture and violations -, stated that he "has not been subject to any judicial conviction." "The intervention of Undersecretary Echeverría is very unfortunate. It is insulting that she questions the quality of the victims with the explanation that she believes in Justice and that if there is no conviction that is enough," she told "The Clinic." "The justice she speaks of favored impunity for almost forty years, and therefore in her words there is a profound ignorance of what this country is. Does she not know what the role of the judiciary was during the extermination and until well into the transition? It would be good for Echeverría to find out that only for two years has justice been considering torture as what it is: a crime against humanity. Before, complaints were not even accepted for processing," she added. In that line, the lawyer pointed out that "Echeverría's statements are an insult and she should resign irrevocably, because if she considers that it is exculpatory not to have a judicial conviction, it could be deduced that she is questioning the Valech Report, which is not based on sentences, but on testimonies of the victims."

Source: emol.cl, March 6, 2014

Navy supports questioned Bicentennial regatta advisor

According to the Association of Constitutionalist Sailors, the questioned former lieutenant was prosecuted and convicted of another crime prior to the torture of the crew members, although no further details were provided.

It added that, having a judicial sanction, he does not possess an irreproachable record, making it unacceptable for the Navy to have him as an advisor for the international event.

The Navy stated this Saturday that it will not distance itself from the advisory role that former lieutenant and businessman Santiago Lorca González, linked to human rights violations, provides to the institution in the organization of the 2010 Bicentennial Regatta.

González collaborates with Rear Admiral José Miguel Romero, who chairs the organizing committee for the 2010 Bicentennial Regatta, an event developed by the Navies of Chile and Argentina, in which 13 countries from Europe and the Americas will participate.

The businessman is currently under indictment by Valparaíso judge Eliana Quezada in a trial regarding the torture of sailors arrested aboard the cruiser "Prat" in early August 1973 for opposing the coup d'état that Navy officers were advocating among the troops.

Consulted in early January by Efe, González said: "I am the international president of the organizing committee for the entire South American Regatta, and an active-duty Chilean admiral (José Miguel Romero) is the one who chairs the Regatta Committee specifically for Chile."

Regarding the accusations of torture, he said that "it is something that is in the hands of the courts of justice."

"It concerns something that happened before September 1973, and those sailors were tried and convicted; there was a process," he indicated.

Complaints from the Association of Constitutionalist Sailors of Chile, who opposed the military coup in August 1973, and from human rights organizations in Argentina and Uruguay, warned about Lorca's presence on the Navy's Organizing Committee.

The Navy's Chief of Communications, Frigate Captain Rodolfo Besoain, told Efe that "Mr. González is a collaborator and external advisor to the Organizing Committee of the Bicentennial Regatta Velas Sudamérica 2010 Chile."

The Regatta Organizing Committee is an entity of the Chilean Navy in charge of organizing the Regatta, the officer added.

"Given the experience he has from many years in the sailing specialty, Mr. Lorca advises the president of that Organizing Committee, who is Rear Admiral José Miguel Romero. He does not receive a single peso from the Navy because his position is ad honorem," he stressed.

When Besoain was asked why the Navy relies on González's advice when, although he is not prosecuted, he is under indictment in a torture trial, he replied that "for the Navy, this is a professional advisory role."

"It involves nothing more than the good advice and contacts of this gentleman to produce this regatta," said Besoain, who added: "The Navy is very respectful of judicial matters, but we understand that, ultimately, nothing of what he is accused of has been proven against him."

Constitutionalist Sailors

However, the president of the Association of Constitutionalist Sailors, Víctor López, one of González's accusers, told Efe that the former lieutenant was prosecuted and convicted of another crime before the torture of the sailors, although he did not provide further details.

"The important thing is that he already has a conviction and therefore does not have an irreproachable record," he expressed.

"Mr. Lorca's situation is unacceptable for the Chilean Navy to continue having him as an advisor for this international event," added López.

On December 2, the Chilean Navy suspended the presentation ceremony for the 2010 Bicentennial Regatta following the arrest of several retired officers who have been prosecuted for torture committed in 1973.

The ceremony, led by Minister of Defense Francisco Vidal and to which the ambassadors of the thirteen countries participating in the regatta were invited, was to be held on the training ship "Esmeralda," where the torture of which the detainees are accused was practiced.

Hours before that event, in the port of Valparaíso, Judge Eliana Quezada notified the accused of their prosecution, and they were arrested. Among them are two retired vice admirals, a navy captain, and seven Navy non-commissioned officers, as well as a former colonel and a former non-commissioned officer of the Carabineros.

The torture of political prisoners aboard the training ship "Esmeralda" occurred days after the military coup led by Augusto Pinochet on September 11, 1973.

Source: elmostrador.cl, January 3, 2010

Prosecution ordered against members of the Armed Forces for human rights violations

According to the Supreme Court verdict, 18 officials of the Armed and Air Forces allegedly committed detentions and torture between July and August 1973.

Visiting judge Jaime Arancibia Pinto ordered the prosecution of 16 former members of the Armed Forces and two retired officials of the Air Force for the crimes of illicit association, kidnapping, illegal detention, and torture against 9 members of the Navy.

The process, known as "Constitutionalist Sailors" or "Anti-coup Sailors," was opened in April 2012 after the Supreme Court Chamber unanimously decided to resume the investigation.

Víctor López, president of the Anti-coup Sailors association, valued the Court's resolution and indicated that for "a long time it was difficult for us to prove that our own comrades had detained us."

"We were detained in August 1973, and the charge we faced at that date was failure to perform military duties, but after the 11th, without any possibility of defending ourselves, the Navy changed the classification of the case and accused us of sedition and mutiny, and this led us to spend 5 years in prison," said López.

In this sense, Víctor López pointed out that the accusations occurred after a group of sailors decided to inform the government of Salvador Allende about the possibilities of a coup d'état: "When the 'Tancazo' of 1973 occurred, there was practically no doubt within the Navy that the coup d'état was going to happen, and that alerted us to put that information at the disposal of the Government; unfortunately, the intelligence services detected us and detained us at the beginning of August '73."

Furthermore, the information indicated that between July and August 1973, Claudio Espinoza Tordecilla, Bernardo Flores Valdebenito, Luis Jorquera Silva, Víctor López Zambrano, Julio Gajardo Neira, Ricardo Tobar Toledo, Mariano Ramírez Ramírez, Pedro Blaset Castro, and Pedro Lagos Carrasco were detained and subjected to torture.

According to the data, the officials were allegedly tortured on the ships "Blanco Encalada" and "Latorre," as well as in military units in the Valparaíso Region.

In the resolution, Judge Arancibia Pinto indicted retired Navy members Hernán Julio Macuada, Pedro Benavides Monzoni, Sergio Mendoza Rojas, Jaime Urdangarín Romero, Luis Kohler Herrera, Santiago Lorca González, Juan Tapia Villalón, Julio Alarcón Saavedra, Ernesto Huber von Appen, Víctor Villegas Herrera, Samuel Ginsberg Rojas, Fernando Landeta Ahues, Juan Mackay Barriga, Jorge Davanzo Cintolesi, Ary Acuña Figueroa, and Fernando Rojas Jiménez.

Additionally, he prosecuted retired Air Force members Jorge Almarza Pizarro and Jorge Rojas Carvajal, ordering their entry into preventive detention in military units.

Source: radio.uchile.cl, October 23, 2015

Anti-coup sailors: Justice draws near

16 members of the Navy and two from the FACH (Chilean Air Force) are prosecuted. They were accused of the crimes of illicit association, kidnapping, illegal detention, and torture, perpetrated against members of the Navy, starting in July 1973.

A group of sailors denounced, shortly before the coup d'état of September 11, the seditious meetings and the plan being prepared to overthrow former President Salvador Allende.

All of this was based on the absolute illegality that it implied on the part of the Navy to transgress with its acts the Political Constitution of the Republic of 1925, in force at the time.

The sailors made these complaints to, among others, parliamentarians of the time, including the former General Secretary of the Socialist Party, Senator Carlos Altamirano, the leader of the MAPU, Deputy Oscar Guillermo Garretón, and the General Secretary of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), Miguel Enríquez.

The revelation that the coup project had been denounced became known to the Navy's intelligence service, which meant, even before the coup d'état took place, detentions and torture for them.

For many years, the sailors tried to have justice served, despite all the powers that were set in motion to prevent it.

More than two years ago, on April 2, 2012, the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, reopened the case because the investigation was not exhausted, ordering the carrying out of various proceedings, after visiting minister Eliana Quezada decreed the definitive dismissal of the case.

With that resolution, the extraordinary visiting minister for human rights violation cases of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Jaime Arancibia Pinto, prosecuted 16 former members of the Navy and two retired officials of the Air Force for their responsibility in the crimes of illicit association, kidnapping, illegal detention, and torture, crimes perpetrated against 9 members of the Navy, starting in July 1973.

Detained on ships and units of the V Region

In the process, known as Constitutionalist Sailors, the magistrate is investigating the illegal detentions and application of torture against Claudio Espinoza Tordecilla, Bernardo Flores Valdebenito, Luis Jorquera Silva, Víctor López Zambrano, Julio Gajardo Neira, Ricardo Tobar Toledo, Mariano Ramírez Ramírez, Pedro Blaset Castro, and Pedro Lagos Carrasco, detained between July and August 1973 by Navy personnel and subjected to torture aboard the ships Blanco Encalada and Latorre, and also in military units of the Valparaíso Region.

The victims were prosecuted by the Naval Court of Valparaíso for the crime of failure to perform military duties, a case that, after September 11, 1973, began to be investigated as sedition or mutiny, with the detainees continuing for several months subjected to mistreatment.

In the resolution, Judge Arancibia Pinto indicted retired Navy members: Hernán Julio Macuada, Pedro Benavides Monzoni, Sergio Mendoza Rojas, Jaime Urdangarín Romero, Luis Kohler Herrera, Santiago Lorca González, Juan Tapia Villalón, Julio Alarcón Saavedra, Ernesto Huber von Appen, Víctor Villegas Herrera, Samuel Ginsberg Rojas, Fernando Landeta Ahues, Juan Mackay Barriga, Jorge Davanzo Cintolesi, Ary Acuña Figueroa, and Fernando Rojas Jiménez.

Additionally, he prosecuted retired Air Force members Jorge Almarza Pizarro and Jorge Rojas Carvajal, ordering their entry into preventive detention in military units.

Magistrate Arancibia Pinto certified that on August 7, 1973, Claudio Espinoza Pinto, "a first-class sailor on the ship Blanco Encalada, anchored in Valparaíso, was called by Commander Julio Macuada, who accused him of having held seditious conversations with civilians and sailors, which was denied by him; subsequently, he was taken by a first corporal, Morales, to the Silva Palma barracks, where he was again interrogated under different tortures, consisting of being hung by his feet and being beaten with sandbags and rods, with electricity also being applied to his genitals."

Interrogations, threats under a hood

Afterward, he was forced to sign a statement and accused by the naval justice system of the crime of failure to perform military duties.

The magistrate determined that with the investigative statements of the accused, "there appear well-founded presumptions that allow establishing the following crimes: kidnapping, illegal detention, torture or other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, and illicit association."

In the ruling, the judge details that Luis Reginaldo Jorquera Silva was on medical leave in July 1973 and "an officer from the base came to look for him at his home, for which he had to appear before Commander Sergio Mendoza Rojas, who asked him about his intervention in a seditious proposal to replace said commander, after which he was detained and taken to the Silva Palma barracks."

"In the first days of October 1973, the victim was detained in Limache by marines and taken to the Olmué sanatorium, where he was subjected to kicks and punches while hooded; then he was transferred to Investigations and Carabineros and finally to the War Academy, where he was again beaten and interrogated, and also threatened, being able to realize that among those questioning him was Navy Lieutenant Jaime Urdagarin Romero," the resolution details.

Víctor López Zambrano, a first-class sailor and electronic mechanic on the cruiser Prat in Talcahuano, was detained on August 7, 1973, by naval personnel and taken to the Borgoño fort in that city.

There, López was "beaten by a group of marines and then stripped, and subsequently subjected to different tortures consisting of being submerged headfirst in a drum full of excrement and waste" and other tortures while they kept him hooded, adds Judge Arancibia in the prosecution.

Served prison sentences

A similar situation was experienced on June 15, 1973, by Julio Gajardo Neira, a second corporal and electronic mechanic at the El Belloto naval air base of the Chilean Navy; he was called by Commander Sergio Mendoza Rojas, who, in the presence of other officers, including Ernesto Von Appen, accused him of seditious and political attitudes.

Subsequently, he was sent to the Silva Palma barracks, held incommunicado.

After the coup d'état, Gajardo was taken out of the Valparaíso jail and brought to the Naval War Academy to be tortured with electricity, causing him burns, and then he had to serve a sentence.

Ricardo Tobar Toledo, a first-class sailor in the Navy, was detained in Quintero by personnel of the Chilean Air Force (FACH), led by flight captain Jorge Almarza Pizarro and second lieutenant Alejandro Rojas Carvajal, taken to the FACH base, and then to the Las Salinas armaments school, where he was tortured.

Tobar recognized by their voices the School commander Jorge Davanzo, Captain Cárdenas, and Lieutenant Rodríguez. They then took him to the Silva Palma barracks to torture him psychologically. They held a War Council and convicted him.

Mariano Lautaro Ramírez Ramírez, a second corporal and electrician in the Navy, was detained at the Naval Engineering School of Las Salinas in Viña del Mar on August 11, 1973, and taken to the Silva Palma barracks.

The other sailors suffered similar situations.

The constitutionalist sailors were victims of crimes against humanity, such as the crime of torture practiced by State agents, in accordance with international treaties signed and ratified by Chile, which, according to jurisprudence, are understood to be incorporated into the internal legal system and have constitutional rank.

However, the trial is just beginning, as the accused still need to present their defenses, a possibility that the victims did not have, who also paid with prison time. Subsequently, a sentence must be handed down, which will surely be appealed, and finally, as happens in a large part of the processes, the Supreme Court will have to rule.

By Carlos Antonio Vergara

Source: Villa Grimaldi.cl, April 9, 2018

MINISTER JAIME ARANCIBIA SUBJECTS 18 FORMER MEMBERS OF THE NAVY AND THE FACH TO PROSECUTION IN THE CASE KNOWN AS "CONSTITUTIONALIST SAILORS"

The extraordinary visiting minister for human rights violation cases of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Jaime Arancibia Pinto, issued today - Wednesday, October 21 - an indictment against 16 former members of the Navy and two retired officials of the Air Force for their responsibility in the crimes of illicit association, kidnapping, illegal detention, and torture, crimes perpetrated against 9 members of the Navy, starting in July 1973.

In the process, known as "Constitutionalist Sailors" or "Anti-coup Sailors," the court minister is investigating the illegal detentions and application of torture against Claudio Espinoza Tordecilla, Bernardo Flores Valdebenito, Luis Jorquera Silva, Víctor López Zambrano, Julio Gajardo Neira, Ricardo Tobar Toledo, Mariano Ramírez Ramírez, Pedro Blaset Castro, and Pedro Lagos Carrasco, detained between July and August 1973 by Navy personnel and subjected to torture aboard the ships "Blanco Encalada" and "Latorre," as well as in military units of the Valparaíso Region.

Detainees who were prosecuted by the Naval Court of Valparaíso for the crime of failure to perform military duties, a case that, after September 11, 1973, began to be investigated as sedition or mutiny, with the detainees continuing for several months subjected to mistreatment.

In the resolution, Judge Arancibia Pinto indicted retired Navy members: Hernán Julio Macuada, Pedro Benavides Monzoni, Sergio Mendoza Rojas, Jaime Urdangarín Romero, Luis Kohler Herrera, Santiago Lorca González, Juan Tapia Villalón, Julio Alarcón Saavedra, Ernesto Huber von Appen, Víctor Villegas Herrera, Samuel Ginsberg Rojas, Fernando Landeta Ahues, Juan Mackay Barriga, Jorge Davanzo Cintolesi, Ary Acuña Figueroa, and Fernando Rojas Jiménez; additionally, he prosecuted retired Air Force members: Jorge Almarza Pizarro and Jorge Rojas Carvajal, ordering their entry into preventive detention in military units.

Reopening

On April 2, 2012, the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, reopened the process because the investigation was not exhausted, ordering the carrying out of various proceedings by a non-disqualified judge, after visiting minister Eliana Quezada decreed the definitive dismissal of the case.

Source: pjud.cl, October 21, 2015

Uncategorized «Neither so lady nor so white»

«Starting from the coup d'état, the Training Ship Esmeralda, an instruction center for young future officers of the Chilean Navy, became a symbol of impunity.

After the coup d'état of September 11, 1973, in the port of Valparaíso, the Navy used the ships "Lebu," "Maipo," and the Training Ship "Esmeralda" as centers for detention, interrogation, and torture. According to the background information provided to the "Commission against Torture" of the Fifth Region (Valparaíso), about 500 political prisoners passed through the Training Ship "Esmeralda," one thousand through the "Maipo," and four thousand through the "Lebu," a ship provided by the Compañía Sudamericana de Vapores (a company owned by the late businessman Ricardo Claro).

The macabre role played by the Training Ship "Esmeralda" as a detention and torture center in the port of Valparaíso has been reliably demonstrated by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the OAS (Report 24/OCT/74), Amnesty International (Report AMR 22/32/80), the United States Senate (Resolution 361-16/JUN/86), and the Report of the (Chilean) National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation (Third Part, Chapter I, Section 2 f.2.).

The testimonies that the Training Ship "Esmeralda" was effectively used as a floating torture chamber are multiple and consistent. Among them stand out those of the Chilean lawyer Luis Vega, residing in Israel; the former official of the National Institute for Agricultural Development, Claudio Correa, who resides in England; and the university professor and former mayor of Valparaíso, Sergio Vuscovic, currently based in Chile.

According to the Report of the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation (Rettig Report), in the case of the Training Ship "Esmeralda," the investigations made it possible to verify that a specialized unit of the Navy was installed there with the purpose of interrogating the detainees who were on the same ship and those who were brought from other detention centers.

The methods of "persuasion" used in these interrogations included mistreatment and torture.

Although the number of detainees aboard the Training Ship "Esmeralda" varies according to the testimonies, as they were transferred from one ship to another as they were being interrogated, according to what the United States Senate indicated in 1986, there were up to 112 in the facilities of the "Training Ship," among whom, according to available evidence, at one point there were about 40 women detained, who were subjected to all kinds of mistreatment, torture, humiliation, and rape.

Among these hundreds of detainees, what happened to the young Chilean/British priest Miguel Woodward, deeply committed to the church of the poor through Liberation Theology, stands out.

On September 16, 1973, he was detained and, according to the testimonies collected in the judicial process opened in 2002, he was brutally tortured in the facilities of this ship until his organs burst. Six days after his detention, he was seen dying on the deck.

Father Woodward's case is duly accredited in the investigations of the Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón of the National Court of Spain, Summary 19/97-J, against Augusto Pinochet and others for the crimes of genocide and international terrorism, conspiracies for murder, kidnapping, torture, and disappearances (Order dated 03/NOV/98, Tenth Antecedent).

His body was never handed over, and on September 25, he was buried by the Navy itself in a common grave over which a road was later built, and his family was given a Death Certificate, in which "cardiac arrest" appears as the cause of death.

After those days, Father Woodward went on to join the long list of Forcibly Disappeared of Chile.

The situation of the Chilean Navy regarding Human Rights is more serious than in the other military institutions; it is the only one that has refused to make an official acknowledgment of the crimes against humanity committed, using individual responsibilities as an argument, omitting the strict chain of command that makes the massive application of torture and the murder of prisoners impossible without the knowledge of superiors.

Let us not forget that the Chilean Navy led the fascist insurrection of 1973.

And in the Bicentennial year, the complaint about the presence on the Organizing Committee of the "International Bicentennial Regatta: Velas Sudamérica 2010" of the former Navy Lieutenant, electronic engineer, and businessman, Santiago Lorca González, a recognized former torturer, in his capacity as advisor to the president (for Chile) of said Committee, Rear Admiral José Miguel Romero, takes on special relevance.

Consulted in early January by Efe, Lorca González said: «I am the international president of the organizing committee for the entire South American Regatta, and an active-duty Chilean admiral (José Miguel Romero) is the one who chairs the Regatta Committee specifically for Chile».

On December 2, the Chilean Navy suspended the presentation ceremony for the "International Bicentennial Regatta: Velas Sudamérica 2010" after the arrest of several retired officers who have been prosecuted for torture committed in 1973.

The ceremony, led by the Minister of Defense, and to which the ambassadors of the countries participating in the regatta were invited, was to be held on the training ship "Esmeralda," where the torture of which the detainees are accused was practiced.

Hours before that event, in the port of Valparaíso, Judge Eliana Quezada notified the accused of their prosecution, and they were arrested.

Among them are two retired vice admirals, a navy captain, and seven Navy non-commissioned officers, as well as a former colonel and a former non-commissioned officer of the Carabineros.

Former Lieutenant Lorca González faces a lawsuit for torture filed by former sailors who opposed the coup d'état in 1973, and who were accused of the attempt to seize ships to try to resist the coup d'état in a plan devised, according to the Navy, by the general secretaries of the MIR, Miguel Enríquez; of the PS, Carlos Altamirano; and of the MAPU, Óscar Guillermo Carretón, which was finally proven to be false.

The Training Ship "Esmeralda," besides being a ship of death and torture, is a symbol of sinister crimes committed against human beings for the sole "crime" of thinking differently, and in its visits to different ports of the world, it will never be welcome as long as the Chilean Navy does not recognize the criminal use that was made of the ship.

For the Human Rights defender and Alternative Nobel Peace Prize winner, the Paraguayan academic Martín Almada, who discovered the archives of "Operation Condor" coordinated by the dictatorial governments of South America and the CIA between 1970 and 1980, this ship, which was used as a torture center during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, must be transformed into a "Floating University of Human Rights."

And as Patricia Woodward, sister of the murdered priest, says, "It cannot be that this ship continues to represent Chile internationally."

By DANIEL RETAMAL

Source: elsoldeiquique.cl, September 13, 2017

Supreme Court ruling on constitutionalist sailors who were victims of torture since August 1973

Neither white, nor pure, It was a torture center!

HOW WHITE IS THE "WHITE LADY"?…

The day was cloudy, and there was still the hangover from the new year, from fireworks, from restorative seafood stews, from dancing and revelry. Shortly after noon, the Training Ship "Esmeralda" was leaving the port of Valparaíso; it was beginning its 55th instruction cruise, which coincides with the participation in the Bicentennial Regatta South American Sails 2010 event.

This event is organized jointly between the Navies of Chile and Argentina, and the first launch was suspended due to the trial of high-ranking officers of the Chilean Navy, who were prosecuted and placed in preventive detention for the kidnapping of 6 people on the "Esmeralda."

Around 3,000 people, including family members, friends, and Government authorities, went to say goodbye to the ship's departure at the breakwater; there were cuecas, hugs, and tears. Meanwhile, a few meters away at the Muelle Prat, according to the press, about 100 people intensified their shouts:

NEITHER WHITE! NOR PURE! IT WAS A TORTURE CENTER!

They were diverse people, comrades, family members, and victims of the repression, as well as Human Rights organizations that were demonstrating against the Navy, demanding the recognition of its responsibility in the human rights violations and in the face of this new cruise of the Training Ship "Esmeralda." There was the unmistakable figure of Patricia Woodward, whose brother, the priest and MAPU militant Miguel Woodward, was tortured on the Esmeralda, dying as a result of it a few days after the coup of September 11, 1973.

She pointed out: "Everyone knows the dark history of the 'White Lady.' It cannot be that this ship continues to represent Chile internationally."

There were comrades from the MAPU with their flags, the "Friends of Miguel Woodward," as in many of the Esmeralda's departures, but on this occasion, they were accompanied by Martín Almada, a Paraguayan, 2002 Alternative Nobel Prize winner and discoverer of the Terror Archives (Operation Condor).

They were challenging Michelle Bachelet through a banner; the constitutionalist sailors were also there, those who were kidnapped and tortured before the Military Coup of 9/11/1973 for defending the Constitutional Government of President Salvador Allende.

They denounced that they were blackmailed at the Government level, since if they did not desist from a lawsuit for torture that they filed in May 2008, their retirement in CAPREDENA would not be viable, which they flatly rejected.

Along with that, they denounced that the Coordinator of the Bicentennial Regatta, appointed by the Government and the Chilean Navy, Mr. Santiago Lorca González, a current businessman and former Navy lieutenant, is a kidnapper and torturer of the constitutionalist sailors in August 1973.

In his speech, Martín Almada pointed out: "We come here to demand justice. The documents we have are not just about lamentations and complaints. It is an act of integrity to demonstrate who the culprits are before our society.

And to say now that the ship that is leaving at this moment represents the culprits," to then add that one must move from protest to proposal, and he suggested that a HUMAN RIGHTS UNIVERSITY be established on the Training Ship "Esmeralda," with which it would become the first floating Human Rights university.

The organizers of the 4th Social and Human Rights Film Festival of Valparaíso, which was held between January 2 and 9, 2010, contemplating the presentation of more than 100 films and to whose inauguration they invited for that day 3/1/2010 at the Municipal Theater of Valparaíso, were also present.

The demonstration ended in front of the Headquarters Building of the I Naval Zone of the Chilean Navy, which, it is worth remembering, was previously the Intendancy building and to this day has not been returned.

One of the banners challenged the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Admiral González, to answer for the debt the Navy has for human rights violations. A fellow survivor of the Navy's torture addressed those present, who pointed out briefly:

I WAS TORTURED ON THE ESMERALDA!

It should be remembered that a few days earlier, the commander-in-chief of the Navy, Juan Edmundo González Robles, called for Human Rights groups and family members of victims not to demonstrate against the training ship Esmeralda the following Sunday, when it leaves the port of Valparaíso, as if there had been TRUTH, JUSTICE, AND COMPREHENSIVE REPARATION!

The Esmeralda, after its departure from the Port of Valparaíso, will call at 17 ports: Punta Arenas (Chile), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Mar del Plata (Argentina), Montevideo (Uruguay), Buenos Aires, Isla de los Estados and Ushuaia (Argentina), and Cape Horn, Talcahuano, and Valparaíso (Chile).

To then continue to Callao (Peru), Guayaquil (Ecuador), Cartagena de Indias (Colombia), La Guaira (Venezuela), Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), Veracruz (Mexico), Corpus Christi (United States), and Balboa (Panama).

The start of the indicated regatta will take place on February 7, 2010, in Rio de Janeiro, and it is to be hoped that the people of Rio, as well as the people of each of the ports where the Esmeralda calls, will receive it with a unanimous clamor:

NEITHER WHITE! NOR PURE! IT WAS A TORTURE CENTER!

The "Esmeralda" will again be back in Valparaíso on April 15, 2010, on an official cruise visit.

Although the number of detainees aboard the "Esmeralda" varies according to the testimonies, as they were transferred from one ship to another as they were being interrogated, the United States Senate (1986) indicates that there were up to 112 of them.

According to available evidence, at one point there were about 40 women detained, who were subjected to all kinds of mistreatment, torture, humiliation, and rape.

According to the background information provided by the Commission against Torture of the Fifth Region, it is stated that about 500 political prisoners passed through the "Esmeralda."

"Esmeralda," ship of death and torture, is a dirty lady.

Source: unidadmpt.wordpress.com, May 7, 2012