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Chilean captain denies torture allegations - It's all lies, skipper says
By Michael Lightstone TALL SHIPS 2000
SOURCE: The Halifax Herald Limited
DATE:: July 21, 2000
Ted Pritchard / Herald Photo
Capt. Edmundo Gonzalez says a seven-volume report from Chile's first democratic
government exonerated the Esmeralda.
[Read what the
actual report says]
The skipper of a controversial Chilean tall ship said Thursday his vessel was
never a detention centre for Augusto Pinochet's former military government.
Capt. Edmundo Gonzalez said human-rights crusaders are wrong when they say
detainees were interrogated and tortured aboard the Esmeralda in 1973.
"All the things they say about my ship are false," he told reporters in Halifax.
"There's no way to say that Esmeralda was a torture ship or a prison."
Capt. Gonzalez acknowledged the majestic 48-year-old ship, in town for the Tall
Ships 2000 festival, has been a target of activists at ports around the world.
But he said a seven-volume report from Chile's first democratic government after
the Pinochet regime cleared Esmeralda's name.
Capt. Gonzalez dismissed the ship's critics as "mainly Chilean people who live
outside the country. . .(who) are stuck in the past."
But those critics, and others, say the Chilean navy hopes denials will keep
tortures on Esmeralda swept under the rug. Human-rights activists plan to
protest near the ship this morning.
Amnesty International officials want the Chilean navy to acknowledge the ship's
dark past and apologize to relatives of people they assert were detained and
tortured.
They're also seeking an independent investigation into the Esmeralda's role
under Pinochet.
Patricia Bennetts, the sister of a man whom Amnesty members say died of injuries
received while being interrogated aboard the ship, flew to metro this week from
her Spanish home to protest the boat's presence here.
Amnesty officials say Rev. Michael Woodward, a Catholic priest, died in the
Esmeralda's home port of Valparaiso in September 1973. His death came shortly
after Pinochet's forces overthrew the government of elected president Salvador
Allende in a bloody coup.
A navy training vessel, the Esmeralda is his country's "main icon," Capt.
Gonzalez said. He said the controversy has not kept away visitors.
"There's 4,000 people waiting to come on board," said Capt. Gonzalez, 44, who
assumed command of Esmeralda last year.
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