2000: Baltimore - USA
From The Baltimore Sun, Sunday, June 18, 2000:
This tall ship has a bloody, brutal history!
Mas sobre Baltimore, en castellano
La Esmeralda: The Chilean vessel was used as a torture chamber during Pinochet's
rule, and an English priest died on board.
By Stacie Jonas and Sarah Anderson
Stacie Jonas coordinates the Bring Pinochet to Justice Campaign and Sarah
Anderson is the Director of the Global Economy Program at the Institute for
Policy Studies in Washington.
TALL SHIPS FROM around the world are scheduled to sail into Baltimore's Inner
Harbor on Friday for what organizers are touting as an event to promote
"cultural exchange and good will."
The ships will surely be a majestic sight. But behind the stately image of one
of these ships, La Esmeralda, lies a terrifying history that should not be
forgotten.
In 1973, in the aftermath of a bloody coup against the democratically elected
government, the Chilean Navy made a special contribution to the new military
junta led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet. They allowed La Esmeralda, a four-masted
Chilean naval ship, to be used as a prison and torture chamber. According to
testimony collected by Amnesty International and the Organization of
American States, at least 110 political prisoners - 70 men and 40 women -
were interrogated aboard the ship for more than two weeks without charges
or trial.
The former mayor of Valparaiso, where the ship was stationed, described being
tied to one of the ship's masts and subjected repeatedly to electric shock. "I
couldn't sleep for six days because they woke me up every six minutes, night and
day," he told Amnesty International. "We could hear how the others were tortured
right where we were."
According to a Chilean lawyer held on board, military officials stripped and
savagely beat the prisoners and shot them with high-pressure jets of water that
produced "an unbearable pain in the head, ears, eyes, and lungs" At least one of
those tortured on board La Esmeralda, a British-Chilean priest named Michael
Woodward, died as a result. His body was thrown into an unmarked mass grave.
In the past, La Esmeralda has received angry receptions when it came to the
United States:
In 1974, the Longshoreman's Union and other protesters succeeded in
turning La Esmeralda away from the San Francisco port.
In 1976, when the ship traveled to Baltimore as part of Operation Sail's
American Bicentennial celebration, local human rights activists greeted it with
strong protests.
Undeterred, La Esmeralda returned in 1986 for the Bicentennial celebration of
the Statue of Liberty. This time, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution
condemning the ship's participation and called on Operation Sail to withdraw the
invitation.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, said that "the Statue of Liberty
would weep at the sight of La Esmeralda entering the gateway of freedom at New
York Harbor."
Why, then, would Operation Sail extend yet another invitation to this maritime
pariah? We phoned Operation Sail and discovered that the group was not fully
aware of the ship's dark past.
"Conditions have changed significantly in Chile. Our main goal is to
promote sail training and good will among nations ....We hope that the Esmeralda
will continue to promote good will and communication between our countries," a
spokesperson said.
A decade has passed since the end of the reign of Pinochet, the man who led the
coup and ruled the country with an iron fist for 17 years. After losing a
plebiscite, Pinochet allowed democratic elections to take place in 1990. In
exchange, he received a series of concessions, including immunity from
prosecution for his role in more than 3,000 killings and tens of thousands of
torture cases.
Noting international law, British police courageously arrested Pinochet in
October 1998 after a Spanish court charged him with "crimes against humanity"
including the murder of Woodward. Although British officials allowed the
84-year-old general to return home in March on alleged health grounds, he faces
more than 100 cases against him in his home country. Recently, a Chilean court
lifted a major obstacle to these cases by revoking Pinochet's immunity.
Times have changed in the United States as well. Back in the summer of
1976 when La
Esmeralda was last docked in Baltimore harbor, FBI investigators were busy
conducting extensive surveillance of the Americans protesting the ship. In
hindsight, the FBI's focus appears shockingly misplaced. While they had their
lenses on peaceful protestors, the real security threat was heading toward our
nation's capital apparently unnoticed. On Sept. 21, 1976, Pinochet's
agents detonated a car bomb, killing former Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier
and 25-year-old American Ronni Karpen Moffitt in Washington as they drove
to work at our organization, the Institute for Policy Studies.
The attack - still the only proven act of state-sponsored terrorism in the
United States - shocked U.S. officials who had supported Pinochet's coup and who
failed to predict that the dictator's assassins would dare to operate on
U.S. soil. An FBI investigation eventually resulted in the convictions of
several of Pinochet's top secret police and intelligence agents, but the
dictator has never been indicted for this crime - even though a former
assistant U.S. attorney has said that it is "inconceivable" that the
assassination occurred without Pinochet's approval.
After nearly 24 years, however, the U.S. Justice Department has recently
reactivated the investigation into Pinochet's role in the Letelier-Moffitt
murders. In April, U.S. investigators traveled to Chile to take testimony
and gather evidence, while the Chilean Supreme Court recently interrogated
42 witnesses regarding this crime.
Last month, Isabel Letelier, Orlando's widow, met with Attorney General Janet
Reno, who assured her that the United States is fully committed to pursuing
the case. In addition, the U.S. government has responded to public pressure by
beginning to declassify documents related to the Pinochet era.
Thus, La Esmeralda sails as the representative of a democratic nation that
is making efforts to overcome the horrors of the Pinochet regime and to hold
human rights violators accountable. It arrives in U.S. waters at a time
when our government is also working to achieve more openness about its own
role in supporting Chile's bloody dictatorship and is pursuing justice for
Pinochet's victims.
It's unfortunate that Operation Sail invited La Esmeralda to participate
in the event. But the ship's arrival should be seen as an opportunity to learn
from the lessons of history and to take a step toward reconciliation. While
Pinochet's crimes may seem distant to many, for Pinochet's victims and
their family members, the horror remains a part of their daily lives.
Woodward's sister, Patricia Bennetts, has repeatedly requested that the
Chilean navy clarify the events surrounding her brother's death. Her letters
have gone unanswered.
None of those responsible ever apologized, nor have they ever been held
accountable for their crimes.
Bennetts explains: "Twenty-seven years after the murder of my brother, La
Esmeralda will pay an important visit to U.S. ports. A whole class of future
officers, their instructors, and the crew are embarked on a memorable voyage. It
is crucial that the truth about what happened on this ship be revealed.
The Chilean navy must ask for forgiveness and those responsible for these
crimes must be brought to justice. This is the only way we can achieve peace and
reconciliation."
Unless the crimes committed aboard La Esmeralda are brought out into the
open and the
torturers held accountable, we will all remain burdened by our heavy past. We
will greet La Esmeralda in Baltimore, but with the memory of Pinochet's
victims at the center of our thoughts. They - and what they suffered on La
Esmeralda - will not be forgotten.
Baltimore demonstration -
Mas sobre Baltimore, en castellano
