MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Pinochet's legacy on the spotlight.

Human rights militants protested this weekend the presence in the port of Buenos Aires of the Chilean Navy school vessel “Esmeralda” which is claimed that during the military regime of General Pinochet became a centre of “torture and extermination”.

"This is an insult to the Argentine people", said Nora Cortiñas one of the founders of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo group, an organization of mothers demanding information and justice about the disappearance of their sons and daughters during the Argentine dictatorship, 1976-1983.

The Chilean four masts schooner called in Buenos Aires as part of the instruction tour for Navy cadets and has faced similar protests in European ports.

According to the official Rettig report sponsored by the Chilean democratic government and the Catholic Church which lists human rights abuses under General Pinochet administration (1973-1990), the "Esmeralda", (twin schooner of the Spanish Navy "Juan Sebastián Elcano"), was used as a prison and torture centre.

Last month a former Chilean Navy commander and current life senator, Admiral Jorge Arancibia Reyes for the first time admitted the information in spite of the official line of the Chilean Armed Forces denying the evidence.

"This is particularly offensive for the Argentine people because many of the victims of the "dirty war" were dumped from aircrafts into the River Plate", remarked Mrs. Cortiñas.

Protestors in Buenos Aires included the Mothers and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, Next of kin of disappeared and political detainees, Children of disappeared and Amnesty International.

Since 2003 is a particularly sensitive anniversary, the thirtieth year of the 1973 military coup in Chile, the "Esmeralda" was forced to cancel visits to Sweden, Holland, United Kingdom and Spain.

According to the Rettig report among the jailed victims later tortured to death in the "Esmeralda", then docked in Valparaíso in September 1973 was British born Catholic priest Miguel Woodward.