Michael Woodward
QUERELLA POR TORTURA Y MUERTE DEL PADRE MIGUEL WOODWARD:
Se Entabla La Primera Demanda Por Persecucion Religiosa
Miguel Woodward Iriberri vivió un cristianismo intensamente comprometido con los
desposeidos. Ese mismo compromiso le hizo blanco para los militares que lo
detuvieron, torturaron y mataron en las semanas después del golpe de estado.
Así sostiene su familia y el abogado de FASIC Sergio Concha quien el 30 de enero
entabló la primera demanda por persecución religiosa contra Augusto Pinochet y
otros ante la Corte de Apelaciones de Valparaiso.
Detenido el 18 de septiembre de 1973 en su casa de Cerro Placeres por una
patrulla naval, Miguel Woodward fue llevado primero al carguero Lebu y luego a
la buque escuela Esmeralda. Testigos confirman que fue brutalmente torturado,
muriendo producto de la tortura mientras le trasladaban agónico en ambulancia
rumbo al Hospital Naval.
La querella criminal que se presentó ante la Ministra Gabriela Corti, surge por
iniciativa de la familia, quien espera que conduce a la primera investigación
judicial a la muerte del joven sacerdote.
En 1991 un autor ingles escribió un libro que aportó antecedentes desconocidos
para la familia, entre otros, el hecho de que Miguel Woodward estaba sepultado
en una fosa común en el cementerio de Playa Ancha de Valparaiso. Hasta casi 20
años después de su homicidio, no sabían donde estaban enterrado.
Las pistas aportadas por la investigación periodística animaron la búsqueda por
la verdad que la familia perseguía. Miguel tenía doble nacionalidad
británica-chilena y desde esa época la comunicación con el gobierno ingles ha
sido más frecuente y sostenida, En varias oportunidades el gobierno ingles ha
pedido que se haga justicia en este caso. La respuesta del gobierno de Chile ha
sido que los familiares tienen que recurrir al poder judicial y querellarse
porque el poder judicial es un poder independiente. En vista de esa respuesta
del gobierno chileno la familia querellarse.
La demanda nombra como responsables de la muerte de Miguel Woodward a Augusto
Pinochet, varios miembros de la jefatura de la Armada y oficiales tripulantes
del Lebu y de la Esmeralda.:
"Dada la estructura jerárquica y verticalizada existente en las Fuerzas Armadas
chilenas y que se reforzó sólidamente desde la preparación del golpe de Estado
de 1973, los responsables criminales por los ilícitos cometidos contra la
víctima con en primer lugar sus mandos superiores, que impartieron las órdenes,
luego los inferiores que las cumplieron, y por último los operativos, que
ejecutaron las criminales funciones de interrogadores lo cual implicaba siempre
ser torturadores de los prisioneros y muchas veces sus homicidas."
Fundamentándose a tanto en legislación chilena (la Constitución de 1980 y el
Código Penal) como derecho internacional, la acción criminal se entabla por los
delitos de genocidio por motivos de índole religioso, terrorismo de Estado,
homicidio calificado, secuestro calificado, tortura, inhumación y exhumación
ilegales, y asociación ilícita.
La Armada en el Golpe de Estado
La Armada estaba preparado desde el d’a del golpe. La buque escuela Esmeralda y
el carguero el Maipo sirvieron de naves de prision desde el mismo 11 de
septiembre de 1973. Cuando el Maipo zarpo con su carga de presos hasta el campo
de prisioneros de Pisagua el 15 de septiembre, el Lebu lo reemplazo en
Valparaíso. Ambos el Lebu y la Esmeralda permanecieron anclados en la bahia de
Valparaiso, utilizados como barcos de prision hasta diciembre 1973.
Bien conocido es la formacion de oficiales del Ejercito, entre ellos futuros
miembros de la DINA, en la Escuela de las Americas de Panama. Menos conocido es
que oficiales de la Armada tambien recibieron entrenamiento en los Estados
Unidos durante 1973 anterior al golpe y posiblemente antes.
Para embarcar a los demas ramas de las Fuerzas Armadas, fue decisiva el apoyo de
la Armada. Fue la rama tradicionalmente mas conservadora y mas golpista. El 10
de septiembre la Armada zarpo supuestamente a alta mar para encontrar a los
barcos de los Estados Unidos en los ejercicios de UNITAS. Pero en la noche
volvio y en la madrugada del 11 de septiembre, la Armada se tomo el puerto y la
ciudad de Valparaiso.
Un grupo de Marinos constitucionalistas leales al gobierno de Allende hicieron
llegar al gobierno la informacion que la Armada preparaba un golpe. Estos
Marinos fueron todos detenidos antes del golpe y torturados en buques de la
Armada en diferentes puertos. El gobierno supo de la tortura de ellos pero desde
su posicion ya debilitada no pudo hacer nada: ni apoyar a los marinos ni tomar
medidas para atajar al golpe.
Sacado del sitio:
http://www.memoriayjusticia.cl/espanol/sp_derechos-woodward.html
Complaint for Torture and Murder of Priest Michael Woodward
Michael Woodward Iriberri lived as a Christian intensely committed with the
dispossessed. That same commitment made him a target for the military officers
who arrested, tortured, and killed him in ten days after the military coup in
Chile.
Such is the conviction sustained by the Woodward family and his lawyer Sergio
Concha, who on January 30, 2002 filed the first criminal complaint for religious
persecution against Augusto Pinochet and high-ranking Naval authorities before
the Valparaiso Court of Appeals.
Arrested September 18, 1973 in his home on Cerro Placeres by a Navy patrol,
Michael Woodward was taken first to the cargo ship the Lebu and then to the Navy
cadet ship Esmeralda. Witnesses confirm that he was brutally tortured and died
in an ambulance en route to the Navy Hospital.
The criminal complaint filed with Judge Gabriela Corti, arises on initiative of
the family, who hope it will lead to the first judicial investigation into the
death of the young priest.
In 1991 a British author wrote a book that contributed new information,
previously unknown to the family, including the fact that Michael Woodward was
buried in a mass grave in Playa Ancha Cemetery of Valparaiso. Nearly 20 years
after his murder, the family had no idea where he was buried.
The clues provided by the journalist encouraged the family's search for the
truth about what happened to Michael. Michael had dual British-Chilean
citizenship and since the early 1990s communication with the British government
has been more frequent. On several opportunities, the British government has
asked for justice in this case. The response from the government of Chile has
been that the families have to bring their complaint to the courts because the
judicial branch is independent. In view of this reply, the family, which had
previously demanded that the State of Chile investigate, decided to file the
legal action.
The legal action names Augusto Pinochet and Navy commanders as responsible for
the death of Michael Woodward:
"Considering the hierarchical and vertical structure of the Chilean Armed Forces
and the manner in which they prepared for the military coup of 1973, penal
responsibility for the crimes committed against the victim lies first with the
superior commanders who issued the orders, then with lower-ranking officers who
carried out their orders, and lastly, with the operatives who executed the
criminal funcions of interrogators, which always meant serving as torturers of
the prisoners and often their executioners."
Founded upon Chilean law (the Constitution of 1980 and the Penal Code) as well
as international law, the legal action is brought for the crimes of genocide for
religious motives, State terrorism, first degree murder, aggravated abduction,
torture, illegal interment and exhumation and illicit association.
Genocide has been a cause of action in many complaints filed against Pinochet
but this is the first time it is specified for religious motives, deriving its
legal grounds on the Geneva Conventions and the Convention for the Prevention
and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (ONU, 1953). The complaint states:
"Following the bloody coup headed by Augusto Pinochet, among the many in the eye
of the repressive forces were priests who lived in working class neighborhoods,
and participated in organizations and Christian base communties. Michael was a
focus of the repressiion, which deemed him an "extremist", even though his only
model and teacher was the Christ of the poor. Michael had the intransigient
conviction that the misery and vulnerability of the poor, particularly of the
people with hwom he lived in Valparaiso, was an injustice that clamored to the
heavens and was rooted in greed, egoism, and the defense of priviledges of the
rich. Michael was a man of singular integrity who struggled to give witness with
his life, until delivering that life in union with Christ, for his friends."
It is important to note that Michael Woodward was ordained as diocesan priest in
1968 by Raul Silva Henriquez, then bishop of Valparaiso. He was a member of
Christians for Socialism and of the MAPU political party, comprised of
Christians who separated from the Christian Democrats in 1969. His neighborhood
in Cerro Placeres named him president of the Junta de Abastecimiento (JAP),
organized in 1972 when food staples became scarce, orchestrated by powerful
economic sectors opposed to the Allende government. Michael was a person
well-known to the people of Cerro Placeres as well as the opponents of the
Popular Unity government.
Lawyer Sergio Concha explains: "Michael had problems with the new bishop of
Valparaiso, Emilio Tagle. In August 1972 the bishop suspended him from the
priesthood, with no explanation. Due to the suspension, he left the parish
church and could not as celebrate mass, give communion, baptisms or officiate at
marriages. Many people did not know why he stopped going to the parish."
Another crime charged for the first time in this legal action is the crime of
State terrorism in connection with an illicit association. The text of the
complaint states:
This illicit association unleashed a State terrorism in the country, that
employed torture as an important foundation from which to implant mass fear in
the population. It is believed that approximately 500,000 persons were tortured
during the dictatorship. The numbers of persons subjected to torture in
Valparaiso and all the Fifth Region cannot be easily calculated, since every
person arrested was, at some point, subjected to torture. Figures that exist are
only estimates and are imprecise. Government reports and human rights
organizations estimate that in Region Five 88 persons were killed and 39 are
disappeared. At least 4,000 prisoners passed through the "Lebu," 500 through the
"Esmeralda." Another boat, the "Maipo" received at least 1000 prisoners. Three
thousand people passed through the Valparaiso Stadium, another 2000 in
concentration camps nearby such as Melinka, Ritoque and Punchuncavi. Some 4000
people were taken held prisoner in the War Academy and the Silva Palma regiment;
around 2000 in different police stations, 1000 in investigation police
commissions, more than 2000 were held in the Region's prisons and at least 2000
in secret detention centers of the DINA and the CNI.
The Navy in the Coup
The Navy was ready from the day of the coup. The cadet ship Esmeralda and the
freighter the Maipo served as prison ships on September 11, 1973. When the Maipo
left with its cargo of prisoners for the Pisagua prison camp on September 15,
the Lebu replaced it. Both the Lebu and the Esmeralda remained anchored in
Valparaiso harbor and employed as prison ships until December 1973.
Training of Army officers, including future members of the DINA, at Panama's
School of the Americas is common knowledge. Less known, however, is that naval
officers also were trained in the United States, in 1973, and possibly earlier.
The support of the Navy was crucial for enlisting the other branches of the
Armed Forces in the coup project. The Navy was traditionally the most
conservative and the most avid supporter of uprisings. On September 10, 1973 the
Navy cast anchor, supposedly to rendezvous with the United States fleet in
UNITAS exercises. But the ships returned that night and in the dawn of September
11, took over the port and the city.
A group of sailors loyal to the Allende government informed the government that
the Navy was making preparations for a coup. These sailors were all arrested
before the coup and tortured in various navy vessels. The government learned of
their torture, but was already too debilitated to be able to react: it could do
nothing to support the sailors, neither take any steps to avert the coup.
SOURCE:
http://www.memoriayjusticia.cl/english/en_home.html
Ação contra Pinochet por assassinato de sacerdote inglês
FUENTE: Espaço Vital, Brasil
http://www.espacovital.com.br/asmaisnovas31012002.htm
FECHA: 31 de enero del 2002
(Criminal - 31.01.2002)*
Os familiares de um sacerdote britânico assassinado em 1973 no porto de
Valparaíso ajuizaram, nesta 4a. feira (30/01), uma ação por genocídio, seqüestro
e formação de quadrilha contra o ex-ditador chileno Augusto Pinochet. A ação se
refere ao religioso Miguel Woodward, de 42 anos, que foi torturado a bordo da
embarcação Escuela Esmeralda, da Marinha chilena, segundo testemunhos de presos
políticos.
O pedido foi apresentado pelo advogado Sergio Concha à juíza Gabriela Corti, da
Corte de Apelações de Santiago. A magistrada instrui uma investigação pelos 56
presos políticos desaparecidos em Valparaíso durante a ditadura (1973-1990) e
uma ação contra Pinochet pelo desaparecimento de três professores em 1977, na
mesma cidade, a 125 quilômetros a oeste de Santiago.
Segundo o "Relatório Rettig", que documentou as violações dos direitos humanos
durante o regime militar, o sacerdote Woodward foi detido em sua casa no morro
Los Placeres de Valparaíso no dia 16 de setembro de 1973 e depois foi levado ao
navio "Esmeralda". A embarcação serviu de centro de reclusão da Marinha nas
primeiras semanas depois do golpe de Estado de 11 de setembro de 1973, que
derrocou o presidente socialista Salvador Allende e levou Pinochet ao poder.
Segundo a petição inicial, o sacerdote recebeu atendimento médico pelas torturas
aplicadas em seu local de detenção e faleceu no dia 22 de setembro no Hospital
Naval do porto. "Ele morreu por causa das brutais torturas que sofreu no
Esmeralda seis ou sete horas após ter sido detido", disse o advogado.
Augusto Pinochet, que enfrenta mais de 250 ações, foi processado como encobridor
de 75 crimes da denominada "Caravana da Morte", comitiva militar que executou
presos políticos em outubro de 1973 em diferentes cidades do país.
__________________
* Hacemos notar que este artículo fue publicado en la sección Criminal del
periódico Espaço Vital, Brasil, que es donde corresponde. En contraste, en Chile
sin embargo la prensa oficialista y oficiosa publica todas las noticias
relativas a los crímenes de la dictadura en la sección "Política"...
--
