Repressors from U. Santa María indicted in Woodward case

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

With this, the judge raised the number of those indicted in this investigation to 19, precisely as the 35th anniversary of the disappearance of the clergyman, who was a member of the MAPU, is marked. For the first time, the magistrate included the captain (ret.) Víctor Valverde Steinlein, who, as the then-director of the Navy's Operations School, was the head of the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María (UTFSM), which the Navy used until the end of October 1973 as a detention center following the military coup.

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

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

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

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

It is expected that both will enter the same barracks today to serve their arrest. Miguel Woodward continued to be tortured at the AGN and was left in a dying state, for which he was taken to the training ship Esmeralda, where a field hospital existed.

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

The current defendants participated in the arrest, beating, and torture of the priest, as well as his subsequent transfer to the AGN and the Esmeralda. The head of the AGN and the clergyman's torturers at that academy—three vice admirals, two captains, and one lieutenant, all retired—were already indicted last April.

List of Indicted

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

Source: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 La Nación