Irán del Tránsito CALZADILLA ROMERO, 22 years old, a worker at FIAP-TOME.

Fernando Humberto MOSCOSO MOENA, 20 years old, a Wood Engineering student at the Universidad Técnica del Estado in Concepción. Both were sentenced to the maximum penalty by the War Council Case File Ancla-5, dated December 16, 1973, initiated by the Navy, which affected 52 people.

The following day, the ruling was approved by the Commander of the II Naval Zone, and the execution by firing squad was carried out on December 20. The bodies were not returned to their families but were buried in Cemetery No. 2 of Talcahuano. Later, the families were able to transfer the remains to the Tomé Cemetery.

Source: Rettig Report

Mocha, Santa María, and Quiriquina: The islands used as political prisons in Bío Bío

In this fourth excerpt from the book “Islas-cárcel, castigo a la transgresión política” [Prison Islands, Punishment for Political Transgression], Ediciones Mapocho Press, 2020, the author refers to the sending of communists, anarchists, and other opponents to the islands located in the VIII Region.

The legendary Isla Mocha, depopulated by the Spanish to prevent the resupply of English and Dutch pirates, also served as a prison. It is believed to have been the refuge of an albino sperm whale that inspired Herman Melville to write Moby Dick in 1851.

Located 34.3 km from Tirúa, in the Arauco province, this 48 km² island with 800 inhabitants is a sacred site for the Mapuche religion. Furthermore, human and chicken fossils recently discovered would show that there was some relationship between this island in the Bío Bío region and Polynesia in times prior to the arrival of the Spanish.

Today—without the Covid pandemic—it is a successful tourist attraction. No one remembers that with Carlos Ibáñez, it also began to be used to confine political dissidents. An account by the communist Elías Laferte, relegated to this island, described what is sold to tourists today as an earthly paradise: “On the afternoon of June 16 [1932], while we were in a meeting, news reached us that [the journalist] Carlos Dávila, supported by some regiments of the garrison, was seizing the government [nothing less than the Socialist Republic of Marmaduke Grove and Eugenio Matte Hurtado].

Another coup. By radio, we heard the desperate calls of the government, asking the people to come and defend it. We agreed to go out, but to inform ourselves beforehand of what was happening, agreeing to meet again at eleven at night.”

“At that hour, everything was already accomplished. When we arrived at the Nataniel premises, we found it surrounded by police. We then went to Arturo Prat, to the House of the Proletariat, where news reached us of the first acts of the Dávila government: there were already hundreds of prisoners, Grove and Matte were on their way to Valparaíso to be taken to Easter Island, raids on communists and socialists were being carried out, a state of siege was proclaimed with a curfew at ten at night…”.

“With orders to ‘go underground,’ I went to a house on Calle Santiago Concha, where a small, very noisy rodón printing press was kept. I stayed there for five days printing proclamations against the government. Then I moved to Independencia past Panteón, where I was hidden for the end of June, July, and August, working in different ways against the Dávila dictatorship.”

“Bernardo Ibáñez lived near there, and the police directed their action against him and other professors. Thanks to a tip given by a former rebellious sailor named Jara, the prefect of Investigations of Valparaíso, Rencoret, arrived in Santiago and arrested me, finding me in the company of Marcos Chamudes.

By a matter of seconds, Carlos Contreras escaped being caught. I had let my beard grow and thought they wouldn’t recognize me… But, apparently, Rencoret already knew this detail.”

“In Investigations, they threatened to beat us if we didn’t reveal the whereabouts of the other Party leaders. To ensure that, if they tortured me, at least this would be known outside, in the presence of the head of Investigations, Pelochounneau, I told my sister Inés that I was threatened with flogging.”

“This, and the annoyance of the Santiago police because it had been the port authorities who arrested us, saved me from the usual treatments of General Mackenna [main headquarters of the Investigative Police].”

“In Valparaíso, Professor Anabalón, an active member of the Party, had been flogged and murdered. His body was later found dumped in the bay. Responsible for this was Prefect Rencoret, the same one who had arrested me.

Years later, this policeman was ordained as a priest, as they say, repentant for the death of Anabalón… It is curious, some become priests because of things like that. Others end up in jail.”

“The lawyer Jorge Jiles had filed a writ of amparo [habeas corpus] in our favor, and one day, in patio five of the jail, he announced to us that these had been accepted by the courts and that we were going to be set free. But the warden, a Mr. Ponce, said that he would not let us go free, even if he received twenty orders from the Court.”

“We were with our things packed, ready to leave… but not to the street, but to relegation. In the afternoon, they took fourteen of us out of the jail, put us in a van, and took us to Talcahuano, where they embarked us for Isla Mocha.

There was already a considerable number of relegated people there, more than a hundred, and among them, I met Galo González, Juan Chacón Corona, the typographer from Antofagasta Inés Infante, Astolfo Tapia, and Oscar Waiss.

There was also the journalist Abraham Reyneld, of whom they said he was my secretary; today he is Undersecretary of Economy, and one of the prominent men of the Volpone group [Darío Saint Marie, owner of Clarín, a newspaper he later sold to Víctor Pey Casado].

There were socialists, communists, anarchists, and people without a Party. When we arrived on the “Sibbar,” the relegated people gave us a warm welcome.”

“At first they wanted to put me in a dungeon, where Juan Chacón Corona was being held under special treatment. But it seems that later they thought I wasn’t that dangerous. There were three commands on the island: carabineros, marines, and gendarmes.

We lived crowded into army remount sheds, under terrible treatment from the uniformed men and eating filthy food. On Sundays we could improve it, as they allowed us to go to the beach to gather sea urchins.”

This relegation lasted only eleven days. Then we learned that Blanche had fallen in turn, overthrown by a civil-military movement initiated in Antofagasta by General [Pedro] Vignola, and the President of the Supreme Court, Mr.

Abraham Oyanadel, had assumed power with the title of provisional Vice President. The new Minister of the Interior, Mr. Javier Ángel Figueroa, immediately decreed the release of all political prisoners, and we were finally able to return.

They took us to Santiago in two third-class carriages, which were filled with prisoners from Santiago, Valparaíso, Antofagasta, and Iquique. They left us all in Santiago, and a few days later, as general secretary of the FOCH, I requested an interview with Figueroa to ask him for the government to pay the fares for all the northerners who had been torn from their homes.

The minister received me very kindly, agreed to provide the requested fares, and asked for calm, patience, that no rallies be held in the streets, etc.,” recounted Lafferte.

The Isla Quiriquina prison

The small island of Quiriquina, of barely 4.86 km², located 11 km north of Talcahuano, also served as a political prison. Converted into a military base since it was discovered in 1557, today it is administered by the Navy and serves as the headquarters for a school for naval apprentices, although it was used on repeated occasions as a political prison, the last time by the civil-military dictatorship headed by Pinochet (1973-2000) and backed by right-wing civilians.

One of the first exiles in 1815, for his revolutionary ideas against the Spanish metropolis, was a 16-year-old youth: the future conservative president Manuel Bulnes Prieto (1841-1851), commander-in-chief of the army (1841-1866), and son of a Hispanic officer.

When the royalists heard the first rumors about the imminent arrival of the Liberating Army, which would cross the Andes in 1817, they sent 200 youths from Concepción to the island, among them Bulnes and his brother Francisco, to prevent them from joining the Chilean-Argentine patriotic forces.

Several months later, when the liberating troops headed south, the royalists fled the island but left the prisoners abandoned to their fate. The youths returned to the continent on improvised and precarious rafts.

About thirty drowned on the short crossing, but among the survivors who reached the coast were the Bulnes brothers. In 1915, Quiriquina served as a prisoner-of-war camp for the sailors of the German ship SMS Dresden, sunk by the British in Cumberland Bay, Robinson Crusoe Island, during the First World War.

Three prisoners escaped, among them Lieutenant Wilhelm Canaris, future admiral and head of the Abwehr secret service during the Nazi period. In 1921, the Germans abandoned the island. Between September 11, 1973, and the end of 1974, it was used as a political prison for nearly a thousand people, under the control of the Navy.

According to the Rettig Report, the International Red Cross determined, in October 1973, that some 552 prisoners remained in Quiriquina, among them 33 women and 19 foreigners: 8 Brazilians, 4 Uruguayans, 3 Bolivians, 2 Venezuelans, 1 Panamanian, and 1 Pole.

Among the best-known prisoners were Pedro Hidalgo, Mireya García (former vice-president of the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared, AFDD), Santiago Bell (former intendant of Ñuble), and Fernando Álvarez Castillo (former intendant of Concepción).

Guarded by the Navy, the prisoners were subjected to severe torture with the application of electricity, beatings, humiliations, and deprivation of food and water. According to the Valech Commission report, women were interrogated while naked, subjected to humiliations, and frequent sexual abuse.

The criminal perpetrators and their main accomplices were Rear Admiral Jorge Paredes Wetzer, Commander of the 2nd Naval Zone; Frigate Captain Eduardo Young, Subdirector of the School for Naval Apprentices; and the director of the School for Naval Apprentices of Quiriquina, Aníbal Aravena Miranda.

Santa María, prison island off Lota

Throughout its two centuries of history, Chilean governments of every stripe felt a weakness for setting up prison islands to confine political prisoners and certain common criminals. A sector of Santa María Island, two hours by boat from Lota or Coronel (Bío Bío Region), was set up as a prison for 300 common criminals between 1944 and 1989.

The open prison was closed because supplying and maintaining it was too expensive for the public treasury. Some convicts were able to stay by marrying local women and founding families. In May 2000, the radical leader José Antonio Gómez, Minister of Justice in the governments of Eduardo Frei R.T. and Ricardo Lagos, proposed reopening the prison exclusively for inmates sentenced to life imprisonment, but the idea did not prosper.

The prison territory remained in the hands of the Navy. In its 3,200 hectares, the island has two towns, Puerto Sur and Puerto Norte, equipped with a civil registry, schools, a carabinero police station, and shops. The southern side has drinking water.

Source: interferencia.cl, February 19, 2021

Supreme Court decrees the acquittal of a textile worker sentenced to death by a War Council in Talcahuano

The highest Court established the absolute innocence of the worker, who was unjustly sentenced and executed with evidence obtained under torture. The Supreme Court accepted the review appeal filed by the victim's sisters and decreed the acquittal of the textile worker sentenced to death and executed by firing squad by a sentence handed down by a War Council in Talcahuano in December 1973.

The ruling states that it is demonstrated that there existed a method, pattern, or general system of physical or mental impairment and affront to dignity to which the accused were subjected before the convened War Councils—among which the appellant is included—which were committed by their interrogators, guards, or other officials who intervened in the procedure while said defendants were held in detention, all with the object of obtaining their admission or confession of the facts attributed to them, as well as to have them implicate or accuse the rest of the defendants in the same facts.

The resolution adds that cause No. 4 of article 657 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, invoked by the appellant, distinguishes several situations from a temporal point of view, but under the assumption that they have occurred after the conviction that is the subject of the review claim.

It is a legal requirement of this cause that these annulling situations must meet as an essential requirement the absolute ignorance of their occurrence during the course of the impugned process, since they will occur, be discovered, or inevitably appear after the conviction ruling has become final.

As a second requirement of the alluded rule, it is that from the gravity and force of these subsequent events, the innocence of the convicted person must be derived unequivocally. It adds that, on the other hand, the cause of ordinal 4° of article 657 of the Code of Criminal Procedure requires, in order to be accepted, that the fact or document invoked be of such a nature that it is sufficient to establish the innocence of the convicted person.

The resolution affirms that in the case at hand, as observed when reading the sentence handed down in the cause File No. Ancla-5 of Wartime, the participation of the accused is built solely on the basis of his confessions, which must be disregarded as has already been said, as well as the incriminating statements coming from other accused persons.

For the Supreme Court, in the case under review, disregarding those confessions and statements, there are no evidentiary elements left that would allow the War Council to reach the conviction of guilt in the sentence subject to review and, consequently, the circumstances that have been discovered subsequently are of such a nature that they allow for the clear establishment of the innocence of the person convicted there.

The ruling concludes that, given the purpose of justice that justifies the review appeal, the action will be granted and it will be declared that everything done in the impugned process, in relation to the sentenced Calzadilla Romero, is null and void.

Therefore, it is resolved that the request for review filed by the lawyer, representing Ana Victoria, Silvia de las Nieves, Marta Verónica, Gaby Magdalena, surnamed Calzadilla Romero, as well as Rebeca del Tránsito and Humbertina Elisabeth, both Fuentes Romero, is accepted, and consequently, the sentence handed down by the Naval Court of Talcahuano is invalidated, and, consequently, everything done in the case File No.

Ancla-5 of Wartime is annulled, subsequently approved by Rear Admiral Jorge Paredes Wetzer—Commander in Chief of the II Naval Zone—declaring that Irán del Tránsito Calzadilla Romero is acquitted of the charges formulated against him in said process, as his complete innocence has been satisfactorily proven.

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl, November 14, 2022

The Cofradía Náutica del Pacífico Austral [Pacific Austral Nautical Brotherhood]

The traditional right began to worry about the growth of left-wing parties from the mid-60s. Agustín Edwards, owner of the newspaper El Mercurio and head of the economic group that bore his surname, decided to create an entity that would surreptitiously group high-ranking Navy officers and prominent businessmen to prevent the left from reaching La Moneda in 1970.

They failed and then renewed their efforts to overthrow President Salvador Allende. On August 22, 1967, Agustín Edwards Eastman—owner of El Mercurio and one of the country's main economic groups—created the Cofradía Náutica del Pacífico Austral, inspired by the English Royal Yacht Squadron.

Attending the constituent meeting, in addition to Edwards, were Hernán Cubillos Sallato, Enrique Puga, Bendro Drummond, José Toribio Merino, Oscar Buzeta, Eric Weber, Isidoro Melero Rodríguez, John Hardy, and Roberto Kelly Vásquez.

The brotherhood, under the pretext of “cultivating nautical sports,” served as a cover to begin gathering businessmen, bankers, and high-ranking officers of the national Navy, worried about the growth of left-wing parties that aspired to win the presidential elections scheduled for 1970.

The Brotherhood received its legal status through D.S. No. 1,870 of October 17, 1968. A fundamental piece in the Brotherhood was Hernán Cubillos Sallato, son of Hernán Cubillos Leiva, former commander-in-chief of the Navy between 1962 and 1964 and former ambassador to Brazil.

His grandfather was Rear Admiral Demetrio Cubillos, who was stationed in Great Britain as a naval attaché at the Chilean legation when the ambassador and representative to the League of Nations was Agustín Edwards Mac Clure, grandfather of Edwards Eastman.

In his childhood, Cubillos Sallato studied at the Sagrados Corazones schools in Viña del Mar and at the Oratory Preparatory School in Branksome Park, Bournemouth, Great Britain. He was a friend of Roberto Kelly since his childhood.

He entered the Naval School, from which he graduated in December 1953 as a midshipman. He remained in that armed institution until 1961, the date on which he retired with the rank of lieutenant and as an expert in navigation.

In 1962, he assumed the position of general secretary of Cemento Melón, in Valparaíso, a company with majority British capital. Later, he was an advisor and member of the board of directors of the Empresa El Mercurio, between 1963 and 1973.

It was also agreed “to invite as the first naval partners by right the CJA, DGPA, DGSA, DGTM, CJ1aZN, Commanders of the Training Ship Esmeralda, Chief of the Puerto Montt Naval Base, President of the Maritime League and Fedeyates” and “Mr.

Roberto Kelly was designated to make the first contacts between the Chiefs of the Navy and Mr. Hernán Cubillos with the civilians.” It was also decided “to donate an annual prize to the cadet of the Naval School who graduates into service and who has demonstrated the most outstanding maritime spirit” and “to sponsor the Training Ship Esmeralda to give maximum support to its work of disseminating the Chilean nautical spirit, in its training voyages.” There was an agreement, in turn, “for the founding partner, Don Agustín Edwards, to propose the definitive name of this Brotherhood, its distinctive pennant, and its development plan.” In 1968, the then-colonel Sergio Arellano Stark was designated military aide-de-camp to President Eduardo Frei Montalva, replacing Colonel Oscar Bonilla in the position, who was sent to Madrid as a military attaché of the Chilean diplomatic representation in the Spain of the dictator Francisco Franco. The following year, in 1969, Arellano also left for Spain as a military attaché, where he remained until August 1971. By that date, the Nautical Brotherhood created by Agustín Edwards had grown significantly. Joining the founders were other high-ranking Navy officers such as Patricio Carvajal, Ismael Huerta, Arturo Troncoso, and Pablo Weber, all key in the gestation of the future coup of '73. In 1970, after Allende's triumph, it was his turn to receive and link up with numerous Chileans who fled the country, fearful of the “communist regime” that the Popular Unity would supposedly impose, among them some of the participants in the attempted kidnapping and murder of General René Schneider, commander-in-chief of the army, in October 1970. At the end of August 1971, Arellano returned to Santiago, and at the beginning of 1972, he was designated commander of the “Maipo” Infantry regiment, the main army unit in the Valparaíso military garrison. By that date, the Nautical Brotherhood created by Agustín Edwards had grown significantly. Joining the founders were other high-ranking Navy officers such as Patricio Carvajal, Ismael Huerta, Arturo Troncoso, and Pablo Weber, all key in the gestation of the future coup of '73. Civilians also joined, such as Fernando Léniz, administrator of Agustín Edwards' assets; Jorge Ross, owner of the Compañía Refinadora de Azúcar de Viña del Mar, CRAV; Ricardo Claro, Enrique Puga Concha, Alfredo Barriga Cavada, Marcos Cariola, René Silva Espejo, Sergio de Castro, and Emilio Sanfuentes, among others. Roberto Kelly, who acted as executive secretary of the Brotherhood, was a Navy officer until 1967, a classmate of admirals Lorenzo Gotuzzo, the dictatorship's first Minister of Finance; Jorge Paredes Wetzer, intendant of Valparaíso between 1974 and 1976; Horacio Justiniano, commander of the Third Naval Zone in 1973; and Pablo Weber, commander-in-chief of the Squadron at the time of the coup. Like many of his comrades in the Navy, Kelly rejected the “political world” outright, and Edwards had made comments about how poorly paid, in his opinion, officers as capable as him were in the Navy. Thus, Kelly, at 47 years old, shortly before being promoted to admiral, decided to leave the ranks and became one of Edwards' trusted collaborators, who put him in charge of the poultry farm Genética Avícola y Animal Limitada. His salary was several times higher than what an admiral earned. By mid-1972, Kelly incorporated Colonel Sergio Arellano, commander of the “Maipo” regiment of Valparaíso, and Carabineros General Arturo Yovane, in command of the uniformed police forces in the port, into the brotherhood. Kelly knew nothing about administration or chickens. In reality, his task was to strengthen ties between the holders of large fortunes and the existing circles of coup-plotting officers in the Navy, the Army, the Air Force, and the Carabineros. By mid-1972, Kelly incorporated Colonel Sergio Arellano, commander of the “Maipo” regiment of Valparaíso, and Carabineros General Arturo Yovane, in command of the uniformed police forces in the port, who would become the manager of the coup in the uniformed police at the national level. Almost at the same time, Kelly created new brotherhoods in Talcahuano, Puerto Montt, and Punta Arenas, port cities where there were naval bases.

Source: interferencia.cl, April 4, 2023

The sailors of Talcahuano in defense of the Allende government

This text was taken from the book Proa al golpe en la Armada. El caso Asmar-Talcahuano [Bow to the Coup in the Navy. The Asmar-Talcahuano Case], (Ediciones Al Aire Libre), whose author is an academic and researcher in the Department of History at the Universidad de Concepción.

One of the main concerns that hovered over the high commands of the Navy was the certainty of the political-ideological infiltration work that the Popular Unity parties were developing within the Armed Forces.

Those assessments were reaffirmed by the speeches of some parties and movements through constant calls for the troops to disobey their high commands. For example, the general secretary of the Socialist Party stated that “soldiers, sailors, airmen, and carabineros cannot lend themselves, at any time and under any circumstances, to murdering workers.

And should the case arise where some officers rise up again, the officers, non-commissioned officers, enlisted men, and soldiers have no obligation of obedience. Even clearer: they not only have the duty to refuse to obey orders that mean firing on the people [...], but to actively oppose them.” The Navy maintained that the left's penetration work aimed to produce an insurrection in its ranks.

A fact that for them was demonstrated in the first week of August, specifically on Monday the 6th, in the early morning, when some members of the institution began to be arrested, among them corporals, sailors, and non-commissioned officers in both Valparaíso and Talcahuano.

Meanwhile, Miguel Enríquez, in mid-July in a speech at the Caupolicán theater, stated that “non-commissioned officers, soldiers, and carabineros must disobey the orders of the coup-plotting officers, and in that case, all forms of struggle will become legitimate.

Then, it will indeed be true that the workers with the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and carabineros, the non-commissioned officers and anti-coup officers, will have the legitimate right to build their own army, the Army of the People.” The Navy maintained that the left's penetration work aimed to produce an insurrection in its ranks.

A fact that for them was demonstrated in the first week of August, specifically on Monday the 6th, in the early morning, when some members of the institution began to be arrested, among them corporals, sailors, and non-commissioned officers, in both Valparaíso and Talcahuano.

The officers of the Naval Intelligence Service had detected those elements in some naval installations linked to Popular Unity activists, sympathetic to left-wing ideas, supporters of the Government, and willing to defend it.

Days after the arrest of the institution's personnel, some press media, especially opposition ones, made known the news of an “infiltration or attempt at subversion in the Navy.” At the same time, it was pointed out that: “In the Silva Palma barracks, a prison that the Navy possesses in this port dependent on the Marine Corps located on Cerro Artillería, yesterday around 50 officers and crew members of the ships 'Almirante Latorre' and 'Blanco Encalada' were detained.

The detainees were surprised carrying out subversive activities according to investigations carried out by the Naval Intelligence Service.” In the opinion of the institution, this action was a consequence of the sustained campaign by left-wing groups, intended to break internal discipline through different calls for disobedience within the institution.

But that was not all; parallel to what was happening in some units of the Squadron, at the Navy's Shipyards and Arsenals (Asmar) plant in Talcahuano, the institution and its Intelligence Service had detected another movement of similar characteristics to those denounced in Valparaíso.

In this regard, the Commander in Chief of the Second Naval Zone, Rear Admiral Jorge Paredes Wetzel, issued a public statement which said: “It has been irrefutably detected that, in this Naval Zone, civilian elements of the extreme left attempted to infiltrate some Units and the ASMAR Plant in Talcahuano, succeeding in having a very small number of naval personnel gravely infringe their military obligations [...] in this regard, all necessary measures have been taken and the situation is totally controlled and neutralized.

The officers and personnel dependent on this Naval Zone, like the workers of the Navy's Shipyards and Arsenals, have reacted with absolute indignation, virility, and firmness, in the face of a situation like the one indicated above, expressing through their regular channels their total adherence to the institution.” However, a group of Asmar workers, objecting to the opinions of Rear Admiral Paredes, expressed their discomfort at the aggressions they had been victims of in recent days, during the inspection of the industrial plant that the institution's personnel had carried out in search of possible connections of some workers with the detainees or with left-wing elements outside the institution. In this regard, the naval institution issued a statement indicating that a “subversive movement in two units of the Navy supported by extremist elements outside the institution” had been detected. The statement from the shipyard workers indicated that “... we are in total disagreement with any act of abuse that goes against respect and labor dignity [...] as workers conscious of our role in the company where we work, we are always willing to defend the Constitution and order.” The declaration was signed by leaders Ramón Carrasco, Sergio Ceballos, Francisco Cabrera, Jesús Bustos, Humberto Carrasco, and Francisco Aranda. In this same line, the CUT, plus the industrial cordons of Talcahuano, Center, and San Vicente Fishing, made a call to all leaders and grassroots organizations to show solidarity and demand the freedom of the detained Asmar workers, who had been violently humiliated and trampled on in their rights. To Salvador Allende, another problem was added. To the already known difficulties that the Government was facing, now he had to explain what his position would be in the face of this complex event, especially when the institution had pointed the accusations at two prominent Popular Unity leaders, such as the socialist senator Carlos Altamirano and the MAPU deputy Oscar Guillermo Garretón. In a statement, President Salvador Allende stated that the Government, in its policy of respect for the Rule of Law, does not issue judgments on events that are being investigated. At the same time, he criticized the policy of some sectors that intend to produce an antagonism between the people and the Armed Forces. “The Government has insisted that the Chilean reality cannot be deformed with a false antagonism between the people and the Armed Forces. These institutions must maintain their integrity and professionalism to fulfill the high responsibilities imposed by national defense and security.” These opinions were reaffirmed by the Minister of Defense, Orlando Letelier del Solar, by pointing out that it has been noted with concern in recent days how some press organs and publications have intended to damage the prestige and institutionality of the Armed Forces. Regarding the accusations of torture to which the detainees were allegedly being subjected, President Allende stated that “if there are those guilty of torture, they will be sanctioned; otherwise, those who have been responsible for unfounded imputations will be punished.” More energetic and committed were the Political Committee and the National Executive Committee of the Popular Unity. Through two statements, they expressed their solidarity and support for Carlos Altamirano, general secretary of the Socialist Party, and Oscar Guillermo Garretón, general secretary of the MAPU; furthermore, they absolutely ruled out that these leaders were involved in any act that would mean subversion or altering internal order in the Navy or the country. “... the UP Political Committee reaffirms its solidarity with the general secretary of the PS, Senator Carlos Altamirano, and with the general secretary of the MAPU, Deputy Oscar Guillermo Garretón. It is outside of all logic that officials of parties belonging to the Government and a coalition that has repeatedly expressed its position of unrestricted respect for the professional and constitutionalist character of the armed institutes could participate in subversive activities.” “On August 7, there was an attempt at communist infiltration in the ships in the Squadron; those who appeared responsible were immediately detained, and the corresponding judicial summary was initiated, which remained within the jurisdiction of the commander-in-chief of the First Naval Zone and naval judge [...] it is important to highlight that those who promoted and tried to destroy institutional discipline were the named parliamentarians [Carlos Altamirano and Deputy Oscar Guillermo Garretón], in addition to the general secretary of the MIR, Miguel Enríquez, who had managed to penetrate and establish relationships with a sergeant who was skillful enough to convince others.” In this regard, the naval institution issued a statement indicating that a “subversive movement in two units of the Navy supported by extremist elements outside the institution” had been detected. For his part, the then-head of the First Zone and naval judge, Admiral José Toribio Merino, had no doubts about who was pulling the strings of the infiltration and subversion in the Navy. In this way, he recalls the event: “On August 7, there was an attempt at communist infiltration in the ships in the Squadron; those who appeared responsible were immediately detained, and the corresponding judicial summary was initiated, which remained within the jurisdiction of the commander-in-chief of the First Naval Zone and naval judge. I had to take charge of this process, which was of singular importance both institutionally and nationally, since from the beginning, Senator Carlos Altamirano and Deputy Oscar Guillermo Garretón appeared as instigators [...] it is important to highlight that those who promoted and tried to destroy institutional discipline were the named parliamentarians, in addition to the general secretary of the MIR, Miguel Enríquez, who had managed to penetrate and establish relationships with a sergeant who was skillful enough to convince others.” For other uniformed men, the plans of these sailors related to politicians were very clear. It was a work of infiltration by left-wing parties into the institutional ranks, to produce subversion in some units. For example, Patricio Carvajal has pointed out that “... in August of '73 there was an attempt at sedition in the Navy promoted by Garretón and other socialists [...] at the beginning there were certain people who were seduced by them because they offered them salaries several times higher in private life. Then they began to plan what had to be done. The plan was quite simple: kill all the officers at night, then bomb Las Salinas where the naval population is.”

Source: interferencia.cl, August 28, 2023