El buque "Esmeralda", símbolo de la impunidad criminal en Chile

 The "Esmeralda" ship, a symbol of criminal impunity in Chile

An account by Sergio Claudio Correa, detained on the ‘Lebu’ ship

I, Sergio Claudio Correa, a Chilean citizen, declare that I worked for 10 years as an agronomist for the Institute of Agricultural Development (INDAP), a department which depended directly to the Ministry of Agriculture in Chile.  Between 1970 and 1973 I was head of INDAP in Aconcagua, including a branch of San Felipe.  The coup d'etat of 1973 was something cruel and inhumane.  The people of Chile paid a high price for taking part in a process  which was to fight for a better future.  On September 16th I was brutally arrested and taken to what they call the Naval War Academy  at the Silva Palma Quarter.  After two days of consecutive and brutal torture, using electric shocks on sensitive parts of my body, together with more brutality and psychological torture, I was totally defeated and humiliated and was thrown onto the motor-ship "Lebu".  This was a horific place.  Inside there were two large warehouses, about 20 meters in depth and an empty cold iron floor, each held between 800 or 1000 prisoners.  Officials would come and go and kill systematicaly.  The guards had painted faces or wore masks, they were brutal and alienated, and would shoot under any pretext.  Torture was a complete abuse.  They would remove prisoners frequently and would take them to the  "Esmeralda’ ship which was next to the "Lebu".  There, torture experts caried out official orders to persecute, control and torture any groups of people or political parties which supported the President Salvador Allende.  It was during the removal of prisoners from one boat to the next that we found out about Father Michael Woodward how he was tortured and the poor condition he was in.  He was  tortured continuously with brutality and hatred.  We knew of his death when they took him to a hospital in a comma from the "Esmeralda". 

By: Sergio Claudio Correa, London, England

Pagina puesta al dia / Updated 15 March 2006     -       Webmaster