Chilean judge orders detentions in priest's disappearance
Chilean judge orders detentions in priest's disappearance
May 8, 4:20 PM EDT
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) -- A Chilean judge is ordering the detention of 14 retired military members and four former police officials in the disappearance of the Rev. Michael Woodward during the country's dictatorship.
Friday's decision by Judge Jaime Arancibia is a shift in the case, which had been dismissed. Persistence of the family and new evidence led to it being reopened.
The detainees include two former vice admirals and four captains.
According to the judge, the priest of Chilean and British origin was detained in September 1973 at a university in the port city of Valparaiso and kept at various naval facilities, where he was tortured. His body was later delivered to a naval hospital.
More:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_CHILE_DICTATORSHIP_DETENTIONS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-05-08-16-20-15
LBN:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141088773
[center]
Rev. Michael Woodward
La Esmeralda, one of Chile's Pinochet's three torture ships,
and the last place where Michael Woodward drew his last breath.[/center]
Saturday, August 28th 2010 - 06:46 UTC
Indictments related to the killing of Anglo Chilean priest in 1973 total 33
Chilean Justice indicted on Friday fourteen former members of Carabineros (militarized police and Navy) for the kidnapping and killing of Anglo-Chilean Catholic priest Miguel Woodward.
He was tortured to death in 1973 by agents from General Pinochet’s military dictatorship on board the Navy school vessel, “Esmeralda”.
“It is with great satisfaction that we have been informed of the indictment which is now completed and closes this line of investigation that has been on-going for years”, said Karina Fernández, solicitor from the Ministry of Interior Human Rights Program which acted as plaintiff.
Magistrate Eliana Quezada from Valaparaíso Appeals Court said that “it was a kidnap, a crime related to crimes coordinated from the very organization of the (Chilean) Navy”.
Contrary to other human rights violations case, the homicide of Father Woodward was not executed by a “repressive organism” from the (Chilean) State but rather by an institution such as the Navy.
More:
http://en.mercopress.com/2010/08/28/indictments-related-to-the-killing-of-anglo-chilean-priest-in-1973-total-33
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In fact she has a rather sordid history. According to reports by the United States Senate, Amnesty International and the Chilean Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the Esmeralda was used as a floating torture chamber for dissidents and political prisoners from 1973 to 1980. This is during the reign of Dictator General Augusto Pinochet, who aided by the United States government, successfully plotted and carried out a coup to kill and usurp the democratically elected socialist President Salvador Allende.
In 1973, Maria Comene was held as a political prisoner on the ship for 10 days."It is a bad boat," Comene says. "A boat where blood was spilled."
It is suggested that over 110 prisoners, seventy men and forty women, were kept on board, subject to rape and genital shocks and brutal beatings. It is said that the British priest Michael Woodward died as a result of the brutal interrogation and torture he endured on the rigger. A good synopsis of the ship's bloody history can be found here. The Amnesty International document here.
More:
http://www.blueheronblast.com/2011/07/la-esmeralda-de-sangria.html
