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La Esmeralda: A Reminder of Chile's Past
By Paola Evans
SOURCE: The Human Rights Data Bank - Spring 2001, Vol. 8, No. 1
http://www.hri.ca/tribune/viewArticle.asp?ID=2611
The Chilean ship, La Esmeralda, sailed into the port town of Valparaiso, Chile
this past November after completing the Tall Ships 2000 competition. Joining 80
other boats from 25 countries, La Esmeralda began the transatlantic race from
the port of Southampton, England. A beautiful four-mastered Chilean naval ship
built in 1952 as a navy-training vessel, its Captain, Edmundo Gonzalez,
described La Esmeralda as Chile's "greatest icon".
Upon its arrival in Chile, La Esmeralda did not receive the welcome that a great
icon deserves. Rather, it was greeted by hundreds of protestors gathered at the
docking point forcing the ship to change its original course. This was not the
first such instance. La Esmeralda had sailed into protests by Amnesty
International and human rights defenders in every port since it left Southampton
in April.
The reason for the demonstrations are personified by the condor painted on the
side of the ship. Serving as the figurehead, the condor is not only a symbol of
the Chilean coat of arms, but also as a reminder of the Condor Plan elaborated
by Augusto Pinochet and his fellow military dictators of the Southern Cone
countries in the early 1970s. Essentially a systematic attempt at terrorism and
repression in Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina, the Condor Plan
allowed the use of military intelligence services to eliminate political
opponents through kidnapping, disappearances, torture and assassinations. The
condor on the ship identifies La Esmeralda as part of the most sinister plan
ever implemented in the region. In fact, there are various reports claiming that
La Esmeralda, along with ships Lebu and Maipo, was used as a torture chamber
during the military regime of Pinochet.
The information distributed by crewmembers along the race failed to mention this
background. Including only a short history on Chile and its geography, the navy
chose to omit the most vital aspect of Chile's recent past -- Augusto Pinochet's
17-year rule. Perhaps the reason for this oversight was that shortly after
Pinochet came to power the Chilean navy made a special contribution to his new
military junta by allowing La Esmeralda to be used as a prison and torture
chamber. During Pinochet's rule, close to 120 political prisoners were held and
interrogated on the boat for more than two weeks without charges or a trial. The
prisoners include the former mayor of Valparaiso who described being tied to one
of the ship's masts and electrocuted repeatedly, and Michael Woodward, a
British-Chilean priest who died as a result of the torture he received on board.
Reports from the OAS Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Amnesty
International, the US Senate and the Chilean National Commission on Truth and
Reconciliation, all confirm the use of the ship as a torture and detention
centre where people were raped, beaten and disfigured. Perhaps the most
noteworthy report is that of the Chilean Commission, entitled the Rettig Report.
Drafted in 1991, it provides the only official record in Chile that assigns
human rights violations to the military government, and confirms that the navy
"used the ships Lebu, Maipo and La Esmeralda as prison, interrogatory and/or
torture sites in the port of Valparaiso".
The Tall Ships 2000 competition is not the only time that La Esmeralda had been
greeted by protests. In 1974, activists in San Francisco succeeded in turning
the ship away from its port. In 1976 Baltimore was also the scene of
demonstrations by human rights activists, when La Esmeralda participated in
Operation Sail's American Bicentennial. In 1986, the boat again participated in
a bicentennial, in celebration of the Statue of Liberty. That time it was the US
Senate that protested its presence by passing a resolution condemning the ship's
participation and calling on Operation Sail to withdraw the invitation. Senator
Edward Kennedy stated, "The Statue of Liberty would weep at the sight of La
Esmeralda entering the gateway of freedom at New York Harbour".
Nonetheless, the captain of the ship and the rest of the navy firmly deny the
allegations, passing them off as lies and accusing the protestors of "living in
the past". For many, however, the past is still alive and will never be
forgotten. Woodward's sister, Patricia Bennetts, flew from Madrid to protest the
Chilean government's use of the ship. Bennetts, along with other human rights
activists, demand that the government (who is fully aware of, and has
acknowledged the Rettig Report) discontinue its use of the ship as a "floating
ambassador". Most important for Bennetts is the need for clarification and
admittance by the navy of the events surrounding her brother's death and the
hundreds of other tortures, so that those responsible can be brought to justice.
Although this will not bring Brother Woodward back, nor erase the memories of
those tortured in La Esmeralda, it will be one more step towards achieving
justice at a time when Chile is making efforts to overcome the horrors of the
Pinochet regime.
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