Royal Navy: Force welcomes CNS Esmeralda praising "reliable" ally Chile despite "torture centre" ship protest

CNS Esmeralda, which has visited other parts of the UK in the past, sailed into the dockyard over the weekend. The four-masted barquentine is being used by Chile’s navy as an embassy vessel while conducting a diplomatic mission with the UK.

Angry demonstrators gathered on Monday (July 1) to protest against her arrival, stating The White Lady was used as a “torture centre” by former dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1973 to torture and execute anyone who opposed him. More than 3,000 people - politicians, citizens and even a British national - were killed, forced into exile or simply disappeared.

Protestor Carlos Gonzalez, who travelled from London for the demonstration, previously said the horrors associated with the vessel has caused a “wound which is still festering”, and challenged the Chilean Navy to “put something on the ship to remember those who have died there”. Fellow demonstrator Maria Pelusa, who said her brother Manuel Taquias-Vergara was executed by the Pinochet regime on October 15, 1973, said the British government should not have allowed CNS Esmeralda to dock on British waters.

She added: “The blood of our brothers and sisters have stained that ship, and it will never be clean again. She’s called The White Lady, but it’s neither white, nor pure, it is a centre of torture. We want the young Chilean people and the young British people to know history and to never allow for that history to be repeated again.”

British citizen Father Michael Woodward, a Roman Catholic priest, was seized by the Pinochet regime and tortured on the CNS Esmeralda for ten days. His body was never found. Ms Pelusa previously added: “There have been so many human rights violations committed on that ship. Some of our relatives also disappeared and were tortured there.” Protestors Luis Goldames said he does not have a problem with the current Chilean Navy and its sailors, but believes the ship is nothing more than a symbol of human rights violations.

Chile has held a strong and long-standing relationship with the UK and the Royal Navy. Personnel from both nations were Unitas, a large multinational exercise conducted off the coast of Colombia in 2023. Portsmouth-based destroyer HMS Dauntless represented the Royal Navy as part of a total of 26 ships, three submarines, 25 aircraft and around 7,000 sailors and marines from 20 countries.

In response to the opposition to CNS Esmeralda, and calls by protestors for the Royal Navy to respond to the ship’s past, a spokesperson said: “The Royal Navy has welcomed the Chilean ship Esmeralda to Portsmouth and the opportunity to strengthen ties with our long-standing and reliable ally in South America.”