A group of B.C. residents are calling on local authorities to stop a Chilean navy ship with ties to torture and human right violations from docking in Victoria on Monday.
La Esmeralda, a four-masted barquentine that acts as a goodwill ambassador for Chile, is currently sailing from San Francisco and is scheduled to stay on Victoria's shores from Aug. 1 to 5.
But the beautiful boat has a dark history connected to an infamous case of torture in Chile. The ship, also known as "The White Lady" in Chile, is associated with crimes of torture and rape during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet beginning in 1973.
Amnesty International, Central America Support Committee, Victoria Coalition for Survivors of Torture and the Fernwood Community Association are uniting forces to prevent the boat from docking.
"Our voice is a voice of reason, is a voice of humanity, not only for the women that were raped, for the men, for all those individuals that are still carrying the signs of torture and living with that trauma," said Carlos Flores from the Central America Support Committee.
Protesters plans to demonstrate if the ship docks at the Victoria Harbour on Monday, Amnesty International told ctvbc.ca in an email.
But harbour authorities won't prohibit the ship from tiding up in the city.
"We are responsible for accommodating ships looking for safe harbour. We do not make decisions on behalf of the federal government on which ships are going to enter," said Curtis Grad, CEO of the Victoria Harbour Authority.
La Esmeralda will be open for public tours Monday to Thursday from 2:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. and demonstrators want to educate visitors in Victoria about the human rights atrocities the Pinochet regime committed on board of the ship.
Victoria-Swan Lake MLA Rob Fleming reproached the Canadian government in a letter for inviting the ship to dock in the province. He stated that the ship's arrival contradicts the city's interests and it is contrary to deeply held Canadian values and beliefs.
Eyewitness accounts indicate at least 112 Chileans were tortured on board the ship. Father Michael Woodward, a Catholic priest with a dual British-Chilean nationality, died as a result of the torture he endured during his detention at La Esmeralda, activists say.
Woodward's death remains unpunished after three decades. A Chilean judge dropped charges against most of those implicated in his death in July, Amnesty International said in a statement.
"It is bitterly ironic that the Esmeralda is still going from international port to international port as a so-called ambassador for Chile, even as those involved in this infamous case of torture below its decks seem to be getting away with murder," said Guadalupe Marengo, Amnesty International's Deputy Director for the Americas in a statement.
The priest's sister, Patricia Woodward, hasn't given up on justice and will be attending demonstrations in Victoria all week, Amnesty said via email.
