Repressors from U. Santa María prosecuted in Woodward case

In a massive resolution, Judge Eliana Quezada of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals prosecuted 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 minister raised to 19 the number of those indicted in this investigation, precisely as 35 years have passed since the disappearance of the clergyman, who was a member of the MAPU. For the first time, the magistrate took account of Captain (ret.) Víctor Valverde Steinlein, who, as the then-director of the Navy's School of Operations, 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 officials who were part of the School of Operations 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 prosecuted are already under arrest at the Marine Infantry barracks in Las Salinas in Viña del Mar, after being located by Investigations officials. Frigate Captain (ret.) José Yáñez Riveros is returning to Chile in November because he is 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 officials. Non-commissioned officer Alfredo Mondaca Salamanca lives in Iquique and has already been located.

It is expected that both will report today to serve their arrest in the same barracks. 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 officer and naval 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.

Source: lanacion.cl, September 24, 2008

Woodward Case: 13 other retired Navy officials prosecuted

The special minister of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Maria Eliana Quesada, began notifying 13 other indictments against retired Navy officials for the crime of qualified kidnapping of the priest Miguel Woodward, who died in September 1973 after his detention on the training ship Esmeralda.

The newly prosecuted individuals began arriving after noon at the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, where they are currently being notified by the magistrate. They are four officers (ret.): Captains Víctor Valverde Steinlein and Luis Holley de la Maza, and Frigate Captains José Yáñez Riveros and Marco Silva Bravo; Sergeant Majors José Manuel García, Alfredo Moncada Salamanca, Luis Pinda Figueroa, and Carlos Miño Muñoz; and non-commissioned officer José Rojas Araya.

Also included are First Sergeants Pedro Vidal Miranda and Héctor Palominos López; Second Corporal Guillermo Inostroza Opazo and First Seaman Claudio Cerezo Valencia. Once they are notified of the judicial resolution, the newly prosecuted individuals will remain detained at the Navy's Order and Security Barracks No. 2 in Valparaíso.

Source: emol.cl, September 23, 2008

Supreme Court rejects appeals and maintains sentences in Woodward case

The Supreme Court rejected the appeals filed against the resolutions of the visiting minister Julio Miranda Lillo and the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, which determined the dismissal of 19 people in the investigation into the qualified kidnapping of the priest Miguel Woodward.

In a unanimous ruling, ministers Nibaldo Segura, Jaime Rodríguez, Hugo Dolmestch, Carlos Künsemüller, and the member lawyer Alberto Chaigneau rejected the filings made by the Ministry of the Interior, the State Defense Council (CDE), and the plaintiffs, who sought to annul both rulings.

The Supreme Court's sentence determines that the appealed judges did not commit a serious fault or abuse in ordering the dismissal, considering that participation in the crime, which occurred starting in September 1973, was not proven.

On May 12, visiting minister Julio Miranda Lillo declared the summary closed in the investigation into the kidnapping of the priest Miguel Woodward, issuing two resolutions in the process. In the first, he accused Luis Francisco Pinda Figueroa, Carlos Alberto Miño Muñoz, Guillermo Carlos Inostroza Opazo, José Manuel García Reyes, Marcos Cristián Silva Bravo, Nelson Roberto López Cofre, Jorge Leiva Cordero, Manuel Atilio Leiva Valdivieso, Bertalino Segundo Castillo Soto, and Héctor Fernando Palomino López as authors of the illicit act.

Meanwhile, in the second, he decreed the partial and temporary dismissal in favor of Guillermo Aldoney Hansen, Juan Mackay Barriga, Ricardo Riesco Cornejo, Carlos Costa Canessa, Víctor Valverde Stelenlen, José Yañez Riveros, Pedro Vidal Miranda, Alfredo Mondaca Salamanca, Claudio Cerezo Valencia, Héctor Tapia Olivares, Ángel Lorca Fuenzalida, Enrique Corrales Díaz, Luis Araya Maureira, Pedro Abregó Diamantti, Juan de Dios Reyes Basaur, Jaime Lazo Pérez, Alejo Esparza Martínez, Carlos Líbano Riquelme, and Sergio Hevia Febres.

Source: soychile.cl, September 29, 2011

13 former marines prosecuted for Woodward case

As of the closing of this edition, ten of 13 retired Navy officials had been notified by the special minister of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Eliana Quezada, of their indictments for the crime of qualified kidnapping of the priest Miguel Woodward, which occurred in September 1973.

The rest of the uniformed personnel were to be notified last night or this morning, as they were not in the area at the time the judge's determination became known. The list includes four officers (ret.): Captains Víctor Valverde Steinlein and Luis Holley de la Maza, and Frigate Captains José Yáñez Riveros and Marco Silva Bravo; Sergeant Majors José Manuel García, Alfredo Moncada Salamanca, Luis Pinda Figueroa, and Carlos Miño Muñoz; and non-commissioned officer José Rojas Araya.

Additionally, there are First Sergeants Pedro Vidal Miranda and Héctor Palominos López; Second Corporal Guillermo Inostroza Opazo and First Seaman Claudio Cerezo Valencia. When asked, the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Admiral Rodolfo Codina, acknowledged being aware of the events but did not offer further comments. Those notified remained detained in naval facilities.

Source: emol.cl, September 24, 2008

18 former Navy and Carabineros personnel prosecuted for the disappearance of priest Miguel Woodward

The minister in extraordinary visitation for human rights violation cases of the Valparaíso Court of Appeals, Jaime Arancibia Pinto, subjected 18 former Navy and Carabineros officials to prosecution for their responsibility in the crime of qualified kidnapping of the British-born priest Miguel Woodward Iriberry, an illicit act perpetrated starting in September 1973.

In the case, Minister Arancibia issued an indictment against retired Navy officials Guillermo Samuel Aldoney Hansen, Juan Guillermo Mackay Barriga, Ricardo Alejandro Riesco Cornejo, Víctor Sergio Valverde Steinlen, José Ignacio Yáñez Riveros, Pedro Vidal Miranda, Alfredo Hugo Moncada Salamanca, Claudio Francisco Cerezo Valencia, Pedro Abrego Diamantti, Juan de Dios Reyes Basaur, Jaime Segundo Lazo Pérez, Alejo Esparza Martínez, Carlos Líbano Riquelme, and Sergio Hevia Febres (*).

Likewise, he prosecuted former Carabineros officials Héctor Nelson Tapia Olivares, Ángel Lorca Fuenzalida, Enrique Orlando Corrales Díaz, and Luis Ricardo Araya Maureira. In the resolution, and after the description of the facts, the magistrate established that "the existence of the crime of qualified kidnapping, which is contemplated in Article 141, paragraphs 1 and 4 of the Penal Code, is configured in the person of the priest Miguel or Michael Roy Woodward Iriberry, meeting all the requirements that configure it, since he was deprived of his ambulatory freedom without legal right, kept under detention or confinement, first in a facility controlled by the Navy and then in units of said institution, being subjected to continuous interrogations and torture, with his trail being lost, which has continued from his detention in the month of September 1973 until the present time, without his whereabouts being known or his remains having been found." He added that it is an illicit act "that has the character of a permanent or continuous execution and is understood to be in the degree of commission throughout the entire period that the situation typified and sanctioned in the aforementioned legal provision lasts, which is maintained until today because the whereabouts or destination of Michael Woodward, or eventually his remains, are still unknown, lacking concrete information about the victim, until now."

(*) Editor's Note

By resolution, Roll No. 140.454-2001, it is rectified that the second surname of the prosecuted Sergio Hevia—cited in this note—is Febres, so on March 15, 2017, the text was modified on this particular point, clarifying that the aforementioned is Sergio Hevia Febres.

Source: elmostrador.cl, May 8, 2015