For the first time, the wife of a man implicated in crimes during the dictatorship recounts the experience of being the forced confidante of horrific passages in our history. After keeping a guilty silence, Patricia Gallardo Callahan dared to break free from the fear that immobilized her for more than three decades.

Her ex-husband, Ricardo Monje Mohr, was aboard the Esmeralda and is currently a high-ranking official at ENAP.

Tormented for 34 years by the confessions made to her by her husband, First Lieutenant (R) Ricardo Monje Mohr, one of the marines who was aboard the Esmeralda and the Maipo in the days following the military coup, Patricia Gallardo decided to let out "a cry of freedom" and tell LND the truth that has kept her awake until now.

She never thought, when she was 20 years old, that the then-gentleman in the red turtleneck she met in Punta Arenas would turn into a murderer and a security agent.

It was Christmas, and a cousin invited her to a celebration at the Club de la Unión in Punta Arenas, where she introduced her to a marine from Osorno with whom she developed a close friendship almost immediately. She felt protected by his manly lineage, and in 1971 they were married in Punta Arenas, Patricia's hometown and Monje's assigned post.

Thus, in 1972, for work reasons, the couple moved to Viña del Mar. There, Patricia began to live the worst nightmare of her life, which she dared to tell this newspaper after reading the article "The Exorcism of the White Lady," published three weeks ago (April 22 edition), which reveals details of the advanced investigation into the crimes committed on the training ship Esmeralda.

While reading the names of some of the marines responsible for the torments against the detainees in the improvised torture center, Patricia realized she knew them all. However, one fundamental person was missing: her ex-husband, who had allegedly been the direct supervisor of the marines and who, in turn, had been under the orders of Captain (R) Ricardo Riesco.

The latter has already acknowledged in the legal proceedings that he witnessed torture on the training ship.

Patricia told LND that, although she has no justification, she had not decided to speak earlier out of fear (she is separated from Monje and in the process of divorce). And for years, she claims, she lived with domestic violence.

Perhaps that is why, upon starting the conversation, her hands tremble and her thoughts are continuously lost in her mind. She has too many bitter memories, but undoubtedly the hardest one relates to the death of the head of the Customs investigations department and Socialist militant, Luis Enrique Sanguinetti Fuenzalida, which occurred on September 14, 1973. "My husband had no reason to give me information of that nature.

I was not prepared for something like that. I did not go to the Naval Academy; I was not his peer or his comrade-in-arms, but his wife. Until now, it has been a terrible burden on my conscience," the woman reflects before providing the details that enrich and put a face to the version that had been handled until now regarding Sanguinetti's death.

According to the report by the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, Sanguinetti allegedly committed suicide in "a fit of desperation" on the deck of the freighter Maipo—a ship that was docked at the Valparaíso pier alongside the Lebu and the Esmeralda—as a result of the deplorable state he was in after having been a victim of torture.

The mission of September 11

-Did your husband speak to you about the Luis Sanguinetti case? -He told me that they arrested him at the Customs building with a group of commandos. According to him, Sanguinetti and more officials from that department were holed up, trying to defend the place. That is why they were taken prisoner, and he told me they were taken to the Esmeralda.

-Did he give you details about the treatment they gave him? -Yes, unfortunately, he told me. My great mistake must have been asking what his mission was on the night of September 10 to 11. In a very derogatory way, he told me that he had seen a person die for his ideals, which obviously were not his.

-How did he recount the passage to you? -He told me that this man did not want to keep answering more questions, that he had nothing more to say, and that he preferred to die. So they took him to the deck of the Maipo and instigated him in such a way to commit suicide, telling him "that if he was..." (she stops and thinks).

He revealed the words they used against him, but I do not want to repeat them so as not to hurt Mr. Sanguinetti's family. Then they opened the hatches of the three holds that were empty. According to my ex-husband, Sanguinetti threw himself from there.

-You had the possibility of giving this information to human rights organizations. Why didn't you do it? -I would have to go into details that are not appropriate, but there was fear; there always was.

He has tried to declare me crazy, like when the Rettig Commission passed through where we lived, and he still tries to this day. If it is true, then welcome to my madness, because after many years I can shout the truth and make it public. And I have felt like a coward for not doing it. I have no excuse; surely for many people I will not have one, but there were reasons.

-What tasks did Ricardo Monje perform afterward? -Between '73 and '75, he was in charge of the commandos that went out every afternoon, a fairly large convoy of trucks. He is the one who went at the head of the convoy to raid all the neighborhoods of Valparaíso and Viña del Mar. Since he had told me the time he was leaving, I would stand with the car on Los Marineros beach and watch him pass by.

-Did your ex-husband tell you about his time on the Esmeralda? -Of course. He told me how the detained people were taken to the Esmeralda and that, because it became full, they started taking them to the Maipo and another ship.

-Did you ask him for other details about the actions he carried out? -I couldn't say anything; what he did was the correct thing. Communication with him was very difficult. There were no explanations for that, because I shouldn't ask. He told what he wanted to tell, and I couldn't go any further.

-Did he speak to you about more interrogations or torture? -He didn't refer to it in those terms. It was something much softer. He never used the word torture; it was much less harsh.

-And how did he refer to the people who were tortured? -In a very derogatory way.

Lying in the cold

Ricardo Monje was contacted by LND at ENAP Magallanes, Punta Arenas, where he currently resides. In a telephone conversation, he explained that he works as the company's head of security, also that he was a marine, and he confirmed that he was aboard the ships Esmeralda, Lebu, and Maipo.

While he recognized other marines who have confessed to their presence during torture, he denied any participation on his part. Regarding the Sanguinetti case, he only limited himself to saying: "I am unaware of that part, and it is indeed like that. I am not evading responsibility."

In 1977, Monje requested his discharge from the institution, citing "loss of motivation." This is difficult to understand, taking into account that he was a man who showed a degree of "extreme fanaticism for the institution," his ex-wife warns.

However, at that time, Patricia believed him, and after a short stay in the capital, Monje was hired by ENAP Magallanes. Thus, the couple returned to Patricia's homeland. She remembers that her ex-husband proposed that they join the Catholic religious movement Schoenstatt.

Patricia had no problem with it, but it seemed incorrect to her that her husband, being a Lutheran of German origin and a native of Osorno, would make a proposal of that type to her. "I remember that people there would ask me if he was an agent, and I stayed silent.

Ricardo participated in the retreats; he made his first communion as a Catholic. But at home, in his daily life, he did not pray. When we separated ('87), he immediately returned to the Lutheran church," Patricia remembers.

-At any point did he indicate to you that he hadn't left the institution, but had become an agent? -No, but it wasn't evident. He was simply like that.

-Aside from the silence you kept regarding your husband's obvious lies, did you have to perform any other conspiratorial work? -There was a time when Ricardo was transferred out of Punta Arenas and I stayed in the city.

There, some tremendously strange events happened, distressing for me. Before leaving, he told me that I would be called on the phone and that the person on the other end of the line would only speak if I answered, no one else in the house.

Indeed, these people would call me and give me a four-digit number, and I immediately had to call him and give him a code of numbers. Three hours later, he would appear back in Punta Arenas.

-Did you ever find out the effects of this intelligence work? -On one of those occasions when I called him on the phone, he returned to the house, and I heard some guys enter at one in the morning. I have never forgotten it.

They told him, 'My Lieutenant, we have orders to arrest José Ruiz de Giorgio' (a former senator who was then an ENAP leader). His response was, 'You are crazy. At this moment, it would be like grabbing a pig by the tail. I will indicate to you when.' The next day he left back to his work.

For Patricia, the police statement given on Thursday at the Human Rights Special Affairs Brigade was not enough. She also needed to give a public interview because, until that moment, she felt a great debt to the Sanguinetti family and to the women tortured on the Esmeralda. "If I had declared only with a protected identity, I would have felt that my work was not complete and I would be acting in hiding, just as he did."

Source: May 13, 2007, La Nación