Approximately one hundred people linked to human rights organizations and the Comisión Funa demonstrated today against the training ship La Esmeralda, which arrived today at the port of Valparaíso after concluding a tour of the Americas.

Along with the ships Lebu and Maipo, La Esmeralda was used as a site for the political imprisonment and torture of political prisoners following the 1973 military coup, as has been documented in the Rettig Report and other reports by the Organization of American States (OAS), Amnesty International, and the United States Senate.

The Comisión Funa identified the following officers as responsible for the torture in Valparaíso after the military coup:

• Vice Admiral Adolfo Walbaum Wieber, Commander of the 1st Naval Zone
• Vice Admiral Pablo Weber Munnich, Commander-in-Chief of the Fleet
• Rear Admiral Hugo Cabezas Videla, Chief of the Naval General Staff
• Navy Captain (CN) Sergio Huidobro Justiniano
• Navy Captain Guillermo Aldoney Hansen, Chief of Staff of the 1st Naval Zone
• Navy Captain Carlos Borrowman Sanhueza, Director of the Naval School
• Navy Captain Raúl López Silva, Director of the Naval War Academy
• Navy Captain Homero Salinas Núñez, Director of the Naval Engineering School
• Navy Captain Arnt Arentsen Pettersen, Director of the Marine Infantry School
• Navy Captain Jorge Sabugo Silva, Commander of the Training Ship Esmeralda
• Navy Captain Hernán Sepúlveda Gore, Commander of the Marine Infantry
• Frigate Captain Jorge Davanzo Cintolesi, Director of the Armaments School
• Frigate Captain Hernán Soto-Aguilar, Deputy Director of the Marine Infantry School
• Frigate Captain Julio Vergara, Head of the Naval Intelligence Service, 1st Zone
• Commander Santa Cruz, Marine Infantry, Silva Palma Barracks, Valparaíso
• Lieutenant Luis Rebolledo, Marine Infantry, Motor Vessel Lebu
• Lieutenant Guillermo Morera, Marine Infantry, Motor Vessel Lebu
• Lieutenant Rafael Yussef, Motor Vessel Lebu
• Lieutenant Rodríguez, Marine Infantry, Training Ship Esmeralda

Source: elmostrador.cl, September 5, 2000

Case No. 2.182-98: José Alberto Salazar Aguilera case

54) Assertions by

Luis Ricardo Araya Maureira (591), Carabineros officer who served as a liaison officer between the Carabineros and the Navy, serving at the Naval War Academy: ” …after September 11, 1973…a group of Carabineros officers arrived assigned to the War Academy under the command of Commander Héctor Trobok, who installed himself in an office of the deputy director…There was a group dedicated to interrogating detainees inside the Silva Palma Barracks …the Silva Palma Barracks was under the control of a group of Marine Infantrymen, who were supervised by Marine Infantry Lieutenant Ricardo Riesco and everyone was under the orders of… Hernán Soto Aguilar … ”. 78) Testimonies of Erwin Hugo Andrés Conn Tesche (1414 and 1655), Navy officer assigned to the Naval War Academy : “ At the end of 1973, the SICAJSI was established and in that institution I continued with the same role as an analyst…In the first semester of 1974, I replaced Rigoberto Cruz Johnson as Deputy Chief of the SICJASI until April of that same year…Indeed, interrogations were carried out at the Silva Palma Barracks since this facility had been set aside for…the interrogation of political prisoners…in accordance with the “ Plan Cochayuyo ”…This Plan was under the charge of the Chief of the Naval Zone General Staff; the person in ultimate charge was Admiral Merino and subsequently Adolfo Walbaum…Indeed, as a result of the information gathered by this organization, operations were carried out and people were detained… in the interrogations, techniques acquired by the Chilean Navy in the USA were applied ., it is a type of standard technique, where I do not rule out the use of physical blows given the era…The SICAJSI system was highly compartmentalized, so the responsibility lay with each team assigned to its function. There was a Marine Infantry Commander. At that time, Hernán Soto-Aguilar was in charge, who had trained personnel under his command and they carried out the interrogations …Regarding Juan Mackay Barriga …he was in the

SICAJSI

...he was responsible for taking a course in Brazil on “Psychological Warfare,” oriented toward media outlets against terrorist delinquency…I knew Ricardo Riesco Cornejo. He was a Marine Infantryman, he worked in the SICAJSI … ”

Source: Judiciary, November 19, 2013