Human rights campaigners protest over Chile’s Esmeralda ‘prison ship’ at Millwall Docks

[Judi Lynn]

Source: East London Advertiser

Human rights campaigners protest over Chile’s Esmeralda ‘prison ship’ at Millwall Docks

11:23 29 August 2015
Mike Brooke


Chilean naval training vessel once said to have been used as a “prison torture ship” by the Pinochet regime is facing protests today at the Millwall Docks in east London.

British priest Michael Woodward was one of “at least 140 detainees” imprisoned aboard the Esmerelda who vanished during the Pinochet dictatoriship 40 years ago, members of the London-based Memoriaviva human rights group claim.

Fr Woodward’s body was never recovered, despite four decades of campaigning by his family and ex-patriot members of the protest group who are turning up to demonstrate against the “goodwill” visit by the Chilean Navy.

“The Esmeralda is a living monument to atrocities of Pinochet’s dictatorship,” the group’s Jimmy Bell told the East London Advertiser.

Read more: http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/politics/human_rights_campaigners_protest_over_chile_s_esmeralda_prison_ship_at_millwall_docks_1_4213704

[PatrickforO]

1. And we're the ones who put Pinochet in power, and the Chicago school economists ruined its economy.

[lonestarnot]

3. Shocking doctrine.

[mopinko]

2. does it get any more tone deaf than this?

[Johnyawl]

4. WTF??!!

Pinochet is long gone; Chile has had a President that herself was imprisoned, raped and tortured by Pinochet. The monsters responsible for the tortures and murders, the ones who used the beautiful Esmeralda for a prison torture ship no longer run the Chilean Navy. What the fuck do they think they're protesting? The ship is not a" living monument", she's a structure, like a building, like the fucking Tower of London that was once used to house and torture political prisoners and is now one of the tourist attractions in London.

The Esmeralda represents Chile NOW, not the Chile of 40 years ago. The ship is not alive, she is not responsible for the bad uses that bad humans put her to 40 years ago.

[Judi Lynn]

5. "Bad uses" barely covers a ship used entirely for torturing suspected leftists offshore,

one of THREE torture ships used by the Pinochet filthy, bloody government.

It has been given a definition and a purpose which cannot be cleansed, not ever.

Progressives everywhere seriously dislike having that floating torture chamber pull into their countries for right-wingers to admire. You can be certain no progressives, no leftists, no liberals would be impressed, not anywhere, by a ship used to terrorize, torment, torture, and even murder people like themselves.

It's far beyond being just a pretty ship. The world can do without her grand appearances in ports, reminding them of the barbaric treatment of human beings for their leftist beliefs, for their moral stands.

That ship has been protested again and again. When it arrived in Baltimore, the FBI was there to take photos and information on the US protesters who felt their consciences compelled them to protest that obscenity barging in to remind people of how much power fascists can get, and use against human beings.

There is NO excuse for any of the aspects of the rule of terror by the man who claimed not a blade of grass dared move in Chile against his will.

[Johnyawl]

6. Utter nonsense

"Used entirely for torturing suspected leftists" is utter nonsense. The ship has a long history that pre-dates Pinochet,(launched in 1953) and that monster has been out of power for 25 years. And I've never seen any evidence that the vessel was taken off shore during the years it was used as a torture vessel. All the information I've seen says it was parked at a dock during those years.

The name "Esmeralda" runs through Chilean naval history starting during their war for independence. The current "Esmeralda" is the 5th Chilean vessel to bear this name. Should all that be forever tainted by what one monster (and his cohorts) did?

So what do you want Chile do to? Sink the vessel?

And Judi Lynn you DO NOT speak for every progressive in the world nor do you get to define what makes one a progressive, liberal or leftist.

[forest444]

8. I think you miss the point.

No one's saying the Esmeralda has been used, in all these 62 years, as nothing but a floating torture chamber. It's become an issue not just because of the ship's own history; but primarily because Chile has done almost nothing to prosecute Pinochet's dirty war - during which 300,000 were tortured and 3,200 were killed (in a country of just 11 million at the time).

Excuses for why they've avoided it abound, not the least of which is the specter of a retaliatory coup. It is true that Chilean generals and right-wing tycoons frequently threaten their countrymen with a coup should trials begin in earnest (just as Pinochet himself always did while he was still alive). But the same was true in Chile neighbor, Argentina.

And yet: since immunity was revoked for Argentina's Dirty War suspects in 2003, over 1,600 defendants have been charged and over 500 have been convicted - including all four former dictators who presided over the Dirty War.

Though largely ignored by the media, this made Argentina the only country in the world to have systematically prosecuted crimes against humanity regardless of perpetrators' rank or even civilian status at the time (rather than just a few former dictators and the top brass).

Did the Argentine military bitch and moan? Yes. Did their well-financed right-wing supporters try to destabilize the country in retaliation? Definitely. But the trials went through nonetheless, and still are.

The Chileans can't expect sooth sailing for anything with a history like the Esmeralda until they man up about the need for human rights trials. Argentina did it, and so can they.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. I think the protesters should be going straight to President Bachelet

since she lost family to Pinochet and was tortured herself, but obviously is happy with the continued existence and use of the Esmeralda:

http://www.armada.cl/armada/noticias-navales/presidenta-michelle-bachelet-despidio-al-buque-escuela-esmeralda-en-valparaiso/2015-05-29/144943.html

[EX500rider]

9. Tempest in a teapot...

....this vessel, the US Coast Guard "Eagle" was formerly know as the "Horst Wessel" and flew the Nazi flag.....was she forever tainted by association too?

[Joe Chi Minh]

10. Was she used for the torturing of multiple innocent civilian, political prisoners?

[EX500rider]

11. Unless someone was keel hauled, the ship wasn't used to torture anybody.

[Joe Chi Minh]

12. Not the brightest point to make. Torture chambers don't torture people

either. I wonder why they call them that...?