-Can you first say something about the conditions in which they have been held since their arrest?
I met thein For the fust time in the public jail in Valpariso, where they were being held separately from the rest TICS TO BE SUENE SUE of the building, on the third Noor. Conditions there were pretty bad, with as many as eight of ten people crammed into small cells, some of which measured only 2 x 3mettes across, Thea we were all transferred to the Melinca concentration camp, near Limache in the province of Valparaiso. It's absolut cy Isolated on a sman paccau at doc top of a hill, and the temperatures there are extreme -very hot by day, very cold by night. We were herded into wooden hits, and there was no running water at all. Instead they hrought it in a lowry - still water, very infectious, for 200 pcople.
They also used the water for a special punshment called the "picadero". For the slightest transgression you were pushed in the water and then forged to roll in the dirt and go to bed just like that It was hardly surprising that many people bec two with fover in each but.
Eventually, However, we were shifled to another camp, Punchuncari Conditions there were slightly better especially an the Red Cross were doe to come and inspect it.
By the time I met them they had al ready survived the worst part of their onl Naval Intelligence between August and December 1973.
was to take them on board ship, tie ropes to their feet, and then dangle them apside down in the seu. Or again, they might be Jowcred in the same way into a hole dug in the sand, so that they scarly suflocatod You could still see the marks from this treatmont - thair tocs were unnaturally open from where the ropes had cut into the skin.
Then of course the junta's torturen used electric shock treatment, applying water first to increase the effect. The shocks were adminestered to vanious parts of the body, Inclading the genitals - but 1 can tell you from my on a usperince that the wont part of all i the mouth It's so bad that your buad scors to burst The aim of these and other tortures was to get the sailors and especialty Enem sapposed leader, Sergeant Juan Cardenasto confess thut they had been misled by But none of them pave way they all stood firm.
So then the torturers tried another ploy by thrcatening to harm the sailons? families saying they would rape their wives and kill their chaldren, that sort of uny thing bocause they wete contident their families wouldn't collaborate, either.
-It was after they had been through these tortures that you met them. What kind of shape were they in?
Well, I think that some of them only survived this kind of treatment because they were so fit as a result of their training in the Navy. By the time I met them they were in very bad ohwe shape Some har troubles with their lungs or were urinating blood, and many had ulcers as a result of the extreme nervous tension during interr agation.
But their momle was stil surprisingly high - psychologically, they were very weil. They have a great confidence in the will of the Chilean people to resist, and they also know that they can count on the support of millions of workers around lie world They believe that if the international isol ation of the junta can be maintained then There is a good chance that it may fall quite soon. Even in jail they heard about MARTIN FLANNERY, MP Special train leaves Euston B.50 a.m.
Government sailors by Naval Intelligence.
emment.
Ided to set a trap for them.
camp as the sailors.
actions sach as the blaoking of the Irigates here, which strengthened their determinatJon not to pive way. -What kind of impact has their case had inside Chile itself?
It's been most significant, of course, in the mari lime provinces —in Concepcion and Valparano. Their stand has been hold in the months before the overthrow of the Popular Unity Government in Chile on 11 September 1973, one of the most telling indications that preparations for a coup were well advanced was the arrest of some 30 proThese sailors had become increasingly alarmed at the way in which their officers were openly trying to whip up hostility to the regime. An example of this was the action of some officers in the Second Zone of Talcahuano, who arranged with local businessmen that they would stop supplying the troops and then blamed the shortages on the 'Marxist policies' of the GovTo voice their concern at this situation, the sailors met with leaders of various left-wing parties - the Socialist Party, the MAPU (Movement for United Popular Action), and the MIR (Movement of the Revolutionary Left) - in early August. But the officers got wind of this move, and dec In the early hours of 5 August the sailors were told that their commanders had decided to seize power because "the Government of President Allende is illegal', and were given two hours to get ready and form up in their units. The pro-Government sailors, taken in by this manocuvre, at once went to their units to start agitating against this mobilisation. There waiting to arrest them-were the Naval Intelligence experts.
Despite the fact that the sailors were victims of an obvious provocation by the officers, the Government did nothing to defend them -so anxious was it to placate the top brass. In fact, of course, the Government's weak-kneed stance only encouraged the top brass to go further. A month later came the bloody coup which established the present military junta Today those sailors, who saw it as their duty to defend the Popular Unity Government against the reactionary plots of their commanders, are on trial for their lives, Last week, Martin Meteyard talked about their case to a Chilean refugee who was held for some time in the same prison ITICAL PRISONERS! FREEDOM FOR THE CHILE AN SAILORS AND ALL POLto take part in the coup against the Popular Unity
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-What had happened to the sailors between the time of their arrest and the time you met them?