MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chilean Navy confirms killing of British priest in 1973

British-Chilean priest Michael Woodward

Despite decades of denial surrounding the kidnapping, torture and death of British-Chilean priest Michael Woodward, a retired Chilean Navy official has admitted that the priest died aboard the school ship “Esmeralda”.

In a surprising development in the Woodward case, Eduardo Barison, former second in command of the "Esmeralda", testified that the British-Chilean national died on the Chilean flagship from torture complications rather than on the streets of Valparaíso -heretofore the official story put out by Navy authorities. The retired commander explained the methods of torture that ultimately led to the death of Father Woodward and the subsequent cover up. Barison said Woodward was struck repeatedly and subjected to agonizing acts such as water torture. According to the testimony of other former Navy personnel, including José Manuel García Reyes, the priest was turned upside down and repeatedly dunked in the swimming pool at the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María. Witnesses confirmed that the torment continued until the victim began to suffocate. When the brutality seemed to have brought Woodward on the brink of death, Chilean Navy officials transferred Woodward to the Esmeralda where an attempt to revive the priest failed. According to Chile's Truth and Reconciliation Commission's report, also known as the Rettig Report, Michael (Miguel) Woodward was arrested by a Navy patrol in Valparaíso on September 16, 1973, just days after the military coup that ousted President Salvador Allende from power. On September 22, six days later, he was reported dead by doctors at the Naval Hospital in Valparaíso. A death certificate issued by Dr. Carlos Costa stated that Woodward died of cardio-respiratory arrest. After 35 years, information pieced together by the Woodward family and by Chile's courts has established that, following his arrest, the priest was interrogated and tortured mercilessly. In a correspondence with The Santiago Times, Patricia Woodward, Woodward's sister, confirmed the difficulties associated with the quest for justice for her brother's death. "Many people still believe the smear campaign waged by the forces of the coup against my brother," she said. In an interview with "The Independent" on January 31, 2000, Patricia Woodward related how a hospital chaplain recognized her brother's body, resulting in attempts by the diocese of Valparaíso to retrieve the corpse to carry out a proper burial. Despite requests by the Church, the Navy insisted on burying Woodward secretly. Woodward's sister recalled how, in 1986, she visited the Playa Ancha cemetery and "saw in the registry that Michael had been buried in a common grave". Recent developments in the Woodward case may shed light on other unsolved cases occurring in the dark days just after the 9/11/73 coup, thus allowing victims' families to have some sense of justice – albeit decades later. The Rettig Report related that numerous Chilean vessels, including the Esmeralda and the Lebu, were used as detention and torture centres by the Navy following the 1973 coup lead by Gen. Augusto Pinochet. According to the Rettig Report, a group of Navy officials aboard the Esmeralda "installed a unit for the interrogation of detainees. Such interrogation included, as a general rule, ill treatment and torture". In September 1999, the Commander-in-Chief of Chile's Navy, Admiral Jorge Patricio Arancibia Reyes, appeared on national television stridently denying the use of naval ships or installations as torture centres. Arancibia made his appearance in response to the testimony of two former prisoners - Antonio Leal, now an elected deputy for the Party for Democracy (PPD) and Ivan Aldoney Vargas – who claimed that political prisoners were tortured on board the Esmeralda and other Navy vessels and installations. Leal described the type of torture carried out on the Esmeralda, including applying high-voltage electric charges to prisoners' testicles, hanging prisoners by the feet and dumping their heads in water or excrement. Aarancibia is now a senator representing Independent Democratic Union (UDI) party in Valparaiso. Despite various ups and downs in the case Valparaíso Judge María Elena Quezada indicted 13 retired members of Chile's Navy in September of this year. Among the alleged culprits are four officers accused of directly participating in Father Woodward's kidnapping. The 13 individuals charged and currently being held in preventative detention are Víctor Valverde Steilein, Luis Holley de la Maza, José Yáñez Riveros, Marcos Silva Bravo, José García Reyes, Alfredo Mondaca Salamanca, Luis Pinda Figueroa, Carlos Miño Muñoz, José Rojas Araya, Pedro Vidal Miranda, Héctor Palomino López, Guillermo Inostroza Opazo and Claudio Cerezo Valencia. Following the September indictments, Judge Quezada began receiving death threats, inducing Radical Party (PRSD) Senator Nelson Ávila and others to insist that Chile's government take measures ensure the judge's safety. "I am asking the Interior Ministry, especially the Undersecretary of Carabineros (Chile's uniformed police), about details regarding the threats against Judge Quezada and the proposed strategy to protect those prosecuting human rights offenders" Senator Avila told The Santiago Times. According to the Rettig Report, Chile's military regime killed about 3,200 people for political reasons and "disappeared" more than 1,000 others during the dictatorship. The Santiago Times