Adelino Pérez Navarrete, an agricultural worker, married, father of 2, union leader, and member of the Communist Party, was detained on September 9, 1973, by the Carabineros of Mulchén, accused of having participated in the takeover of the "Mondungo" estate in that locality.

The detention took place at the victim's home, and no arrest warrant was presented. Subsequently, he was taken to the Public Jail of Mulchén, where he remained until September 15. On that day, upon leaving the prison facility, he was detained again, this time by civilians, and taken to the Carabineros Police Station of Mulchén.

After five days, he was transferred to the Liceo de Hombres in Los Angeles, which had been converted into a detention center following the Military Coup, and from there to the Mountain Infantry Regiment of that city, arriving in an agonizing state.

Eyewitnesses have indicated that the victim was carried lying down in a military truck, bearing the weight of the other detainees on top of him. At the Regiment, he was attended to by doctors who were also detained and who knew him. His body was left abandoned in the courtyard, after which there was never any news about him again.

On October 6, 1973, the newspaper "La Tribuna" of Los Angeles published the following under the headline "Four Extremists were executed": "The following individuals were discharged after having attacked the sentries in charge of their custody and having attempted suicidal escapes: Lister Flores, Adelino Pérez Navarrete, Jaime Araya, and Osvaldo Rojas.

Their bodies were buried in the common grave of our city's General Cemetery."

His family was never notified of his death, no death certificate exists, and they have not been able to find his remains.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On November 29, 1974, the victim's spouse filed an Amparo appeal on his behalf before the Court of Appeals of Concepción, registered under No. 3256. In January 1975, the appeal was rejected, a resolution that was appealed by the petitioner before the Supreme Court, which confirmed the rejection.

Source: Vicaría de la Solidaridad

The former officer is serving 10 years and one day in prison as an accomplice in the crime of kidnapping in the so-called Endesa episode, regarding his eventual participation in the events that culminated in the disappearance of the worker.

The minister on special assignment for human rights violation cases for the jurisdictions of Concepción and Chillán, Carlos Aldana Fuentes, took a statement from retired Army Colonel Walther Klug Rivera as part of the investigation he is conducting into the kidnapping of agricultural worker Adelino Alfonso Pérez Navarrete. The crime was perpetrated in September 1973, in the commune of Los Angeles.

In the proceeding (case file 4-2021), which lasted about two hours, Minister Aldana Fuentes interrogated the former officer—who is serving 10 years and one day in prison as an accomplice in the crime of kidnapping in the so-called Endesa episode—about his eventual participation in the events that culminated in the disappearance of Pérez Navarrete.

According to testimonies collected by Minister Aldana, Pérez Navarrete was detained on September 15, 1973, by members of the far-right group Patria y Libertad of Mulchén, who took him to the commune's Carabineros Police Station.

It was a police unit where he was allegedly subjected to torture for five days. Later, the agricultural worker and union leader was taken to the Liceo de Hombres in Los Angeles and from there to the city's Mountain Infantry Regiment, where he arrived in an agonizing state, leading to his body being abandoned in the courtyard, with his trail lost since then.

Source: latribuna.cl 08/01/2022 Date: 08-01-2022

Visiting minister interrogates Walther Klug for the 1973 kidnapping of a peasant

The minister on special assignment for human rights violation cases for the jurisdictions of Concepción and Chillán, Carlos Aldana Fuentes, took a statement from retired Army Colonel Walther Klug Rivera as part of the investigation he is conducting into the kidnapping of agricultural worker Adelino Alfonso Pérez Navarrete, a crime perpetrated in September 1973, in the commune of Los Angeles.

In the proceeding (case file 4-2021), which lasted about two hours, Minister Aldana Fuentes interrogated the former officer—who is serving 10 years and one day in prison as an accomplice in the crime of kidnapping in the so-called Endesa episode—about his eventual participation in the events that culminated in the disappearance of Pérez Navarrete.

According to testimonies collected by Minister Aldana, Pérez Navarrete was detained on September 15, 1973, by members of the far-right group Patria y Libertad of Mulchén, who took him to the commune's Carabineros Police Station.

It was a police unit where he was allegedly subjected to torture for five days. Later, the agricultural worker and union leader was taken to the Liceo de Hombres in Los Angeles and from there to the city's Mountain Infantry Regiment, where he arrived in an agonizing state, leading to his body being abandoned in the courtyard, with his trail lost since then.

Source: elclarin.cl 03/04/2022 Date: 03-04-2022

Retired Army officer interrogated for the kidnapping of an agricultural worker in Los Angeles

The minister on special assignment for human rights violation cases for the jurisdictions of Concepción and Chillán, Carlos Aldana Fuentes, took a statement from retired Army Colonel Walther Klug Rivera as part of the investigation he is conducting into the kidnapping of agricultural worker Adelino Alfonso Pérez Navarrete. The crime was perpetrated in September 1973, in the commune of Los Angeles.

In the proceeding (case file 4-2021), which lasted about two hours, Minister Aldana Fuentes interrogated the former officer—who is serving 10 years and one day in prison as an accomplice in the crime of kidnapping in the so-called Endesa episode—about his eventual participation in the events that culminated in the disappearance of Pérez Navarrete.

According to testimonies collected by Minister Aldana, Pérez Navarrete was detained on September 15, 1973, by members of the far-right group Patria y Libertad of Mulchén, who took him to the commune's Carabineros Police Station.

It was a police unit where he was allegedly subjected to torture for five days. Later, the agricultural worker and union leader was taken to the Liceo de Hombres in Los Angeles and from there to the city's Mountain Infantry Regiment, where he arrived in an agonizing state, leading to his body being abandoned in the courtyard, with his trail lost since then.

Source: latribuna.cl 3/4/2022 Date: 03-04-2022

Mulchén: relatives describe sentences for the 1973 massacre of peasants as "a mockery"

Sentences of between 300 days and 10 years in prison were handed down by Minister Carlos Aldana for the crime of 18 peasants from Mulchén and the concealment of their remains in the so-called "Operation TV Set Removal" (Operación Retiro de Televisores), sentences that were described as a mockery by the relatives.

The process concluded with only former members of the Carabineros receiving effective prison sentences for the qualified homicides and the kidnapping of the peasants murdered after the 1973 military coup in the commune belonging to the Bío Bío province.

While the former police officers will be notified this afternoon of sanctions of between 5 and 10 years in prison, the military personnel accused of the disappearance of the remains—in the Operation TV Set Removal executed by the Army in 1978—only received sanctions of up to 3 years and 1 day with the benefit of supervised release.

For the victims' lawyer, Patricia Parra, these are low sentences that do not correspond to the gravity of the investigated facts.

The Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared received the sentence with indignation, which is expected to be made official this afternoon by the Court of Appeals of Concepción. The vice president of the association, Norma Panés, described the ruling as a mockery by the courts.

In the Mulchén case (and the Operation TV Set Removal branch), a dozen former Carabineros and former members of the Army were accused.

List of those convicted

Retired Carabineros Jacob Ortiz, Juan de Dios Higueras, Osvaldo Díaz, and Héctor Guzmán were sentenced for 12 qualified homicides to a term of 10 years and 1 day of effective prison, in addition to 5 years and 1 day for the crime of kidnapping, without benefits, and 300 days for the illegal burials and exhumations of the victims.

Former Army members José Iturriaga, Jaime Miller, Julio Fuentes, Luis Palacios, Juan Carlos Balboa, and Jaime García Zamorano received a sentence of 3 years and 1 day in prison as accessories to the crime of simple homicide, in addition to 541 days for the illegal exhumation of the remains in Operation TV Set Removal, while Julio Reyes was sentenced to 3 years and 1 day in prison for accessory and 300 days for illegal exhumation, all benefiting from supervised release for the fulfillment of the sentences.

Retired Army non-commissioned officer José Puga, who had been accused of accessory and illegal exhumation, was finally acquitted of the charges brought against him in the framework of Operation TV Set Removal.

Source: biobio.cl 10/30/2017 Date: 10-30-2017

Supreme Court declares it appropriate to request the extension of the extradition of a retired military officer for the homicide of an agricultural worker

The Supreme Court deemed it appropriate to request from Italy the extension of the extradition of retired Army officer Walther Klug Rivera, required by the minister on special assignment Carlos Aldana Fuente for his eventual participation in the crime of simple homicide of agricultural worker Adelino Alfonso Pérez Navarrete. The crime was perpetrated on September 18, 1973, in Los Angeles.

In a split decision (case file 3.854-2024), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Manuel Antonio Valderrama, María Teresa Letelier, María Cristina Gajardo, Roberto Contreras, and acting lawyer Leonor Etcheberry—established that in this case, the requirements are met to extend the extradition of the former military officer who is serving a sentence at the Punta Peuco prison.

"It should be noted that an Extradition Treaty was signed between Chile and Italy in Rome on February 27, 2002, and its Additional Protocol, signed between the same parties on October 4, 2012, in Santiago, promulgated by Decree number 85 of May 3, 2017, and published in the Official Gazette on August 4 of the same year," the ruling states.

The resolution adds: "That, in accordance with what was agreed upon in said bilateral instrument, the governments of both countries have committed to 'hand over to the other party, in accordance with the rules and conditions established in this Treaty, persons who are in their territory and who are sought by the Judicial Authority of the other Party, because a criminal proceeding has been initiated against them or because they have been sentenced to a penalty restricting or depriving them of personal liberty,' with extradition being appropriate when, in accordance with Article I of the referred Treaty, as indicated in its Article II, the crime for which it is requested is punishable according to the legislation of both States with a penalty restricting or depriving them of personal liberty whose duration is greater than one year at its maximum or more severe, and is not in the exception situations of its Article IV, which refer to the person being subject to criminal proceedings or having already been judged by the judicial authorities of the requested party, to the fact that the act for which the extradition is requested is considered a political crime, or exclusively military and not a crime according to common law, or if it is estimated that the claimed person will be subjected to a procedure that does not guarantee respect for the minimum rights of defense."

"Likewise, it will not be granted if, at the date of receipt of the request, the penalty or the criminal action has expired, according to the law of one of the parties," it adds.

For the Penal Chamber: "(...) on this point, it is appropriate to keep in mind that Article VII of the international instrument under study deals with the principle of specialty, according to which 'The extradited person may not be subjected to restrictions or deprivations of personal liberty due to the execution of a penalty, nor to other measures restricting or depriving them of personal liberty, for an act prior to their surrender, different from that for which the extradition was granted, unless: a) the requested Party consents to it...'," adding that "To obtain the consent related to paragraph 1, letter a), the Party to which the person has been extradited must present a request attaching the documentation specified in Article X. It must also accompany said request with the statements of the extradited person, made before a Judicial Authority of said Party, in relation to the request for extension of the extradition."

"Regarding the last requirement," it deepens, "Walther Klug Rivera was notified of the resolution that orders requesting this Court to extend his extradition, as stated on page 1,043, with his legal defense appearing during the course of the processing, which attended the hearing of the case and presented its arguments in court, before this Court."

Likewise, the ruling states: "That, it can be extracted as a conclusion that the indicated principle of the specialty of extradition, despite containing a limitation on the requesting State regarding judging only those crimes for which it has been granted, admits its extension to include other illicit acts not considered in the first grant.

Thus, and given that our country was obligated not to prosecute or punish the individual in accordance with what was transcribed ut supra, it is necessary to request from the requested State an extension of the extradition already granted for the new crime described in the request for extension, since the lack of authorization prevents compliance with the provisions of Article 636 of the Chilean Code of Criminal Procedure, and the background information provided accounts for the existence of means of conviction that satisfy the requirements established in Article 274 of the cited legal text and that would allow the subjection to process of the required person."

"That, in this order of things, all the requirements outlined above are met in this process, since the crime referred to in the first motive was perpetrated in the Biobío Region, Republic of Chile, so it corresponds to a Chilean court to hear it.

Furthermore, the described facts are punishable according to the legislation of both States and are sanctioned with penalties exceeding one year of deprivation of liberty; nor is it a political crime or connected to another of a political nature, nor purely military or against religion," it clarifies.

"Finally, although it is a crime that was configured at a time when the statute of limitations for the criminal action could be discussed, the truth is that this question, given the nature of the punishable act and the gravity of the penalty established by law (crime), will be a substantive issue that can only be elucidated when, once the extension of the extradition is accepted, the corresponding final sentence is issued, so that prima facie the extinction of the crime for which said extension is required does not appear clearly and reasonably established in the present matter," it concludes.

Therefore, it is resolved that: "it is declared that it is appropriate to request from the Government of the Republic of Italy the extension of the extradition already granted of the Chilean citizen Walther Klug Rivera, Identity Card number 6.036.211-4, retired Army Major, regarding the crime of simple homicide of Adelino Pérez Navarrete, investigated in case Nº3-2011 (accumulated Nº4-2021), which is being instructed by the minister on special assignment of the Court of Appeals of Concepción, Mr.

Carlos Aldana Fuentes."

"For the fulfillment of what has been resolved, an official letter shall be addressed to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, so that he may see fit to order the diplomatic proceedings that are necessary for that purpose.

A copy of this ruling and the main background information on which it is based, the opinion of the judicial prosecutor (s), the provisions that establish the illicit act, define the participation of the accused, specify the sanction and establish rules on the statute of limitations, with proof of its notification to whom it corresponds, the background information on the identity of the required person, his photograph, if applicable, and the legal provisions cited in this ruling, with certification of their validity, shall be attached to the official letter," it orders.

Decision agreed upon with the dissenting votes of Minister Valderrama and Minister Gajardo.

Source: pjud.cl 3/7/2025