CNS Esmeralda docks in Portsmouth as demonstrators protest against "torture chamber"

The News, Portsmouth

Protestors gathered outside Victory Gate in Portsmouth in response to the ship's visit.

Transcript

00:30Why? Because it was used as a torture centre in 1973 by the Pinochet regime.

00:39And in that chip, many of our Chilean compatriots were killed or disappeared,

00:46and amongst them, a British priest, Father Michael Woodward,

00:51was arrested and tortured for six days, and then he disappeared,

00:57and never we have found his remains.

01:00Michael Woodward's family have been campaigning tirelessly

01:04to ask the Chilean Navy for the whereabouts of their relatives,

01:10but also campaigning to the British government

01:15to stop that chip from coming to British waters,

01:20and because of the violation of human rights committed inside that chip.

01:27So that's why we are here.

01:29Because some of our relatives also disappeared or were tortured there.

01:34So how does it make you feel that, almost a symbol of the Pinochet regime,

01:39how does it make you feel that that is now being used as a diplomatic tool by Chile itself?

01:45Carlos? And then Lucho.

01:49Well, it is unthinkable that Chile had to be represented by a chip with that history.

01:56That's our position.

01:59And it is a kind of wound that is still festering at the moment.

02:13There hasn't been any possibility of the military, and especially the Navy, to do that right.

02:22We are asking them to put on the chip something to remember the people that died there.

02:28And it hasn't happened.

02:31Lucho, how does it make you feel?

02:35Well, mixed feelings, really.

02:38Because I am from the hometown where this chip is placed.

02:43And therefore, the issue for us is exactly what my companion has said.

02:51It is a representative of torture, violation of human rights.

02:55And although this Navy crew were not even born at the time of the coup,

03:00we want them to be aware what was the meaning of being born.

03:05Why being used?

03:07But it has always been a representative, right?

03:10But what makes it seem worse is the fact that the Pinochet regime used the torture of people like us

03:16and made them disappear.

03:18And that's why we are protesting against the fact that it's going to British waters

03:23The Chilean Navy has not made any recognition of the fact that the bomb was used for torture.

03:30The visit of this ship to me made me very angry.

03:35Because it's a shame that the British government allowed this ship to come to British waters

03:44and allowed a ship that was used on the violation of human rights to dock here.

03:52And when the British government was also responsible for the hawking hunters

03:57that bombed the presidential palace in 1973.

04:01So as Luis said, it's very mixed feelings when we see this.

04:07Before 1973, we were very proud of this boat.

04:12It represents a lot to us.

04:14After 1973, it's just a shameful ship.

04:19The blood of our brothers and sisters have stained that boat, have stained that ship.

04:26And it will never be clean again.

04:29You see that it's a white boat, but it's neither white nor pure.

04:34It was a center of torture.

04:36The issue, in addition to what my companion has said, is the fact that the Royal Navy should have said

04:45we are not going to sell you any more boats until you recognize that these boats that come into Britain's waters

04:51were used as a torture center.

04:53There should be a condition for selling weapons and ships to the Royal Navy.

05:00So with this ship as things stand, what do you think should happen to it now?

05:04It should be departed as soon as possible.

05:07It shouldn't be allowed to stay five days in British waters.

05:12It shouldn't be allowed to be representing diplomatically the Chilean Navy when it was a torture center.

05:21Why should it be allowed to dock in British waters?

05:24Why should our government allow this boat with such a shameful part to dock here?

05:32So, no, it shouldn't. It's a shame.

05:35It's a shame on us, shame on the British government.

05:38Tomorrow, according to a member of the public who supports you guys and has different opinions of the ship itself,

05:44what are those opinions and what is your reaction to what just happened there?

05:50Well, this man had a son in the crew.

05:54And he has all the right to say that history has changed, right?

05:58Because his son is new about it.

06:01But his father hasn't recognized the fact that it was used as a torture center.

06:05That's the issue. And we want to keep this memory alive.

06:08We want the crew to know what was used for.

06:13We don't want people to forget.

06:15And we want the Chilean people, the young Chilean people, and also the young British people here to know what happened,

06:23to know history, and to never allow that history to repeat again.

06:29Because when we talk about atrocities committed around the world, and we say never again,

06:36that is precisely what we are saying.

06:38And when this person was saying, oh no, no, no, but everything has changed.

06:42No, nothing has changed.

06:43When you don't have justice, when people don't want to acknowledge that crimes have been committed,

06:52then nothing has changed.

06:54Since you guys obviously have a family connection of what happened on that ship, relatives have gone on there,

07:01what do you want the Chilean nation to do now?

07:05The Chilean nation?

07:06What do you want the Chilean nation to do, and what do you want the Royal Navy to do in response to this?

07:10We want the Royal Navy to request from the Chilean Navy to recognize the fact that it was used as a torture center.

07:18And to tell the Chilean people and to the British people that they are sorry about it, and it will never happen again.

07:26That's what we want them to say.

07:28They should not do that.

07:29They should not send this ship around the world as an embassy of a country.

07:37It's an offense to the relative, to a part of our history.

07:44And they shouldn't, because it's really laughing in our faces at the end of the day.

07:49And they're laughing into the Chilean history.

07:51So why to use that specific ship to do the publicity of the Chilean government or this kind of diplomatic embassy?

08:04It doesn't make any sense.

08:07Finally, the main thing we are doing is trying to find again the negation of what happened.

08:14That's negationismo in Chile, which is quite common somewhere else as well.

08:19It's like people in Germany trying to deny that the Holocaust happened.

08:24Same happening in Chile.

08:26So that's our duty, is to be doing this protest, reminding people of this.

08:3450 years on, we will still go on until we find answers to the whereabouts of the people that disappeared in that boat.

08:43And we are asking the Trojan Navy and also the Chilean Navy, once and for all, to let us know where are they,

08:54to give us a closure so we can move on.

08:58Until we have justice, we cannot move on.

09:01At my 80 years of age, I have to come here and protest. That's not right.

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