DOMINGO ANTONIO NORAMBUENA INOSTROZA

38 years old, married, worker, forcibly disappeared on September 11, 1973, in El Abanico, Bío-Bío province. Domingo Antonio Norambuena Inostroza was detained that day by military personnel in the El Abanico sector, Bío-Bío province.

He has been missing ever since. According to witness statements, Domingo Norambuena was detained at his workplace, the Monte Negro Sawmill, by a military patrol for being responsible for keeping some crates of explosives owned by the sawmill.

Despite the efforts made by his relatives, they were unable to locate him. The Rettig Report states that in that sector, Carabineros from Antuco and soldiers from the Los Angeles Regiment carried out numerous detentions after September 11, 1973.

Several of those detained, workers at the El Toro Hydroelectric Plant of the Empresa Nacional de Electricidad (ENDESA), are classified as forcibly disappeared and were declared victims of human rights violations by that Commission.

Among others, the cases of Mario Omar Belmar Soto, Bernardo Samuel Meza Rubilar, Benjamín Antonio Orrego Lillo, and Alamiro Santana Figueroa are recorded in this Report. Considering the evidence gathered and the investigations carried out by this Corporation, the Superior Council reached the conviction that Domingo Antonio Norambuena Inostroza was made to disappear while he was detained by State agents.

For this reason, it declared him a victim of human rights violations.

Source: Corporation Report

Retired Lieutenant Colonel Walther Klug Rivera must serve a 10-year prison sentence for his responsibility as the perpetrator of qualified kidnappings and homicides between September and November 1973.

The minister visiting human rights cases for the Santiago Court of Appeals, Paola Plaza González, ordered the entry—today, August 2, 2021—of retired Lieutenant Colonel Walther Klug Rivera into the corresponding prison as a convicted prisoner.

He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his responsibility as an accomplice in the so-called Endesa Episode, a case involving human rights violations. The order for imprisonment was carried out after an Italian court granted the extradition request filed by the visiting minister Mario Carroza—then the instructor of the case—so that Klug Rivera could serve the sentence handed down in October 2014.

That ruling convicted Klug Rivera for his responsibility in the qualified kidnappings and qualified homicides of victims Juan Miguel Yañez Franco, César Augusto Flores Baeza, Víctor Jerez Meza, Mario Belmar Soto, Mario Samuel Olivares Pérez, Juan Eladio Ulloa Pino, Víctor Adolfo Ulloa Pino, Abraham López Pinto, José Abel Coronado Astudillo, Abel José Carrasco Vargas, Alamiro Segundo Santana Figueroa, Luis Leopoldo Sepúlveda Núñez, Plutarco Coussy Benavides, Wilfredo Hernán Quiroz Pereira, Exequiel del Carmen Verdejo Verdejo, DOMINGO ANTONIO NORAMBUENA INOSTROZA, Luis Eduardo Vergara Corso, Benjamín Antonio Orrego Lillo, José Óscar Badilla García, Manuel Antonio Aguilera Aguilera, Manuel Sepúlveda Cerda, Bernardo Samuel Meza Rubilar, and Manuel Jesús Arias Zúñiga, all of whom were linked to the El Toro and El Abanico hydroelectric plants and were detained between September and November 1973 by members of the Chilean Army.

Source: pjud.cl 08/02/2021

Date: 08-02-2021

Judge orders imprisonment of Lieutenant Colonel Walter Klug for crimes against humanity

The minister visiting human rights cases for the Santiago Court of Appeals, Paola Plaza González, ordered the entry this Monday of retired Lieutenant Colonel Walther Klug Rivera into the corresponding prison as a convicted prisoner.

He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his responsibility as an accomplice in the so-called Endesa Episode, a case involving human rights violations. The order for imprisonment was carried out after an Italian court granted the extradition request filed by the visiting minister Mario Carroza—then the instructor of the case—so that Klug Rivera could serve the sentence handed down in October 2014, which convicted him for his responsibility in the qualified kidnappings and qualified homicides of victims linked to the El Toro and El Abanico hydroelectric plants, who were detained between September and November 1973 by members of the Chilean Army. The list of victims: Juan Miguel Yañez Franco, César Augusto Flores Baeza, Víctor Jerez Meza, Mario Belmar Soto, Mario Samuel Olivares Pérez, Juan Eladio Ulloa Pino, Víctor Adolfo Ulloa Pino, Abraham López Pinto, José Abel Coronado Astudillo, Abel José Carrasco Vargas, Alamiro Segundo Santana Figueroa, Luis Leopoldo Sepúlveda Núñez, Plutarco Coussy Benavides, Wilfredo Hernán Quiroz Pereira, Exequiel del Carmen Verdejo Verdejo, Domingo Norambuena Inostroza, Luis Eduardo Vergara Corso, Benjamín Antonio Orrego Lillo, José Óscar Badilla García, Manuel Antonio Aguilera Aguilera, Manuel Sepúlveda Cerda, Bernardo Samuel Meza Rubilar, and Manuel Jesús Arias Zúñiga.

Source: elclarin.cl 08/02/2021

Date: 08-02-2021

Walther Klug, the criminal against humanity who fled to Argentina, is admitted to a Military Regiment

The Judiciary reported during the night that Walther Klug Rivera, a criminal against humanity from the Chilean Dictatorship who had fled the country attempting to evade the legal proceedings against him, was admitted to the Santiago Military Police Regiment No. 1 in the Peñalolén commune.

The former colonel Klug Rivera is a well-known member of the Dictatorship's repressive forces in southern Chile, and today he is wanted in two cases involving human rights violations: the kidnapping and death of 21 Endesa workers in the Antuco commune, Bío Bío Province, and the qualified kidnapping of the president of the Federation of Students of the University of Concepción, Los Ángeles branch, Luis Cornejo.

In the first case, Klug was sentenced by the Supreme Court to 10 years in prison, without benefits, for his responsibility in the homicides of: Juan Miguel Yañez Franco, César Augusto Flores Baeza, Víctor Jerez Meza, Mario Belmar Soto, Mario Samuel Olivares Pérez, Juan Eladio Ulloa Pino, and Víctor Adolfo Ulloa Pino; in addition to the qualified kidnappings of: Abraham López Pinto, José Abel Coronado Astudillo, Abel José Carrasco Vargas, Alamiro Segundo Santana Figueroa, Luis Leopoldo Sepúlveda Núñez, Plutarco Coussy Benavides, Wilfredo Hernán Quiroz Pereira, Exequiel del Carmen Verdejo Verdejo, Domingo Norambuena Inostroza, Luis Eduardo Vergara Corso, Benjamín Antonio Orrego Lillo, José Óscar Badilla García, Manuel Antonio Aguilera Aguilera, Manuel Sepúlveda Cerda, Bernardo Samuel Meza Rubilar, and Manuel Jesús Arias Zúñiga. In the second case, Klug is identified as the person responsible for the disappearance of the Topography student and president of the student union of the Los Ángeles branch of the University of Concepción, Luis Cornejo. Klug had fled to Germany in 2015, taking advantage of the leniency shown to human rights violators in our country. Thus, he used his dual nationality and benefited from the European nation's difficulty in extraditing its citizens, even if they are criminals against humanity. However, in 2019 he was detained during a trip he made to Italy, the country from which he was extradited to Chile. Nevertheless, despite the gravity of the crimes committed—he is convicted by the Supreme Court—the criminal against humanity was not imprisoned and fled again, this time to Argentina, from where he was expelled to our country. Klug did not comply with the precautionary measures ordered by Minister Carlos Aldana—who did not order his detention despite the existence of this background—for the other case for which he is being prosecuted: the qualified kidnapping of Luis Cornejo. The visiting minister of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Paola Plaza, indicated that Walther Klug Rivera will serve a 10-day quarantine period at the Santiago Military Police Regiment No. 1 before his procedural situation is reviewed.

Source: resumen.cl 06/29/2021

Date: 06-29-2021

Chile: criminal Walther Klug, former military intelligence agent, finally detained.

Former agent of the Pinochet dictatorship convicted of human rights crimes captured in Italy.

by Felipe Díaz Montero/ Fabián Polanco/Radio Bío-Bío. Walther Ludwig Klug Rivera, a former agent of the Military Intelligence Service (SIM) during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet and convicted of human rights crimes, was captured in Parma, Italy, according to reports from La Repubblica.

In October 2014, the Supreme Court issued a final sentence against Klug Rivera for the kidnappings and homicides of 23 workers from the El Toro and El Abanico plants that occurred in the Bío Bío province during September 1973, in the so-called Endesa Episode.

Subsequently, the former military officer managed to flee the country with a German passport, which is why an international arrest warrant had been issued for him. According to sources close to the investigation in Concepción, Interpol had managed to locate the man some time ago at his place of residence near the German city of Cologne, from where he had traveled to northern Italy with his partner, who is also Chilean.

The retired colonel is also being prosecuted for the disappearance of the University of Concepción student in Los Ángeles, Luis Cornejo Fernández. However, the charges for qualified kidnapping in the case led by visiting minister Carlos Aldana had to be dismissed following the former officer's flight in 2015, before he began serving the 10-year and 1-day sentence handed down in Santiago by the special minister, Jorge Zepeda.

Despite his detention, because there is no extradition treaty between Chile and Germany, and by asserting his citizenship, the possibility that Walther Klug Rivera can return to our country to serve the sentence in the Endesa case, and even less so to face the investigation by Minister Aldana for the disappearance of Luis Cornejo, is remote, judicial sources indicated to Radio Bío Bío, noting that it could only be requested that the 10-year sentence be served in a German prison.

Source: cctt.cl 06/05/2019

Date: 06-05-2019

Santiago Court increases compensation amount for relatives of forcibly disappeared person at El Abanico Plant

The Santiago Court of Appeals ordered the State of Chile to pay total compensation of $85,000,000 (eighty-five million pesos) to the relatives of the forcibly disappeared Domingo Antonio Norambuena Inostroza, who was last seen in the sector of the El Abanico hydroelectric plant on September 11, 1973.

Source: tribunadelbiobio.cl 04/20/2017

Date: 04-20-2017

Supreme Court issues final sentence for kidnappings and homicides of workers from the El Toro and El Abanico plants

The Supreme Court issued a final sentence in the investigation into the crimes of qualified kidnapping and homicide of 23 workers from the El Toro and El Abanico hydroelectric plants; seven of them were executed and the rest were made to disappear.

These crimes were perpetrated between September 11 and November 17, 1973, and were investigated in the first instance by Minister Jorge Zepeda Arancibia. In a split decision (case file 17030-2013), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Milton Juica, Carlos Künsemüller, Haroldo Brito, Lamberto Cisternas, and Andrea Muñoz—rejected the cassation appeals filed against the sentence of the Santiago Court of Appeals that convicted: Patricio Martínez Moena to a sentence of 20 years in prison, without benefits; Walter Klug Rivera to 10 years and 1 day in prison, without benefits, and Ismael Espinoza Silva to 5 years in prison, with the benefit of supervised release. Sentences that they must serve for their responsibility in the homicides of: Juan Miguel Yañez Franco, César Augusto Flores Baeza, Víctor Jerez Meza, Mario Belmar Soto, Mario Samuel Olivares Pérez, Juan Eladio Ulloa Pino, and Víctor Adolfo Ulloa Pino; in addition to the qualified kidnappings of: Abraham López Pinto, José Abel Coronado Astudillo, Abel José Carrasco Vargas, Alamiro Segundo Santana Figueroa, Luis Leopoldo Sepúlveda Núñez, Plutarco Coussy Benavides, Wilfredo Hernán Quiroz Pereira, Exequiel del Carmen Verdejo Verdejo, Domingo Norambuena Inostroza, Luis Eduardo Vergara Corso, Benjamín Antonio Orrego Lillo, José Óscar Badilla García, Manuel Antonio Aguilera Aguilera, Manuel Sepúlveda Cerda, Bernardo Samuel Meza Rubilar, and Manuel Jesús Arias Zúñiga. In the civil aspect, the Criminal Chamber ratified the sentence that ordered the treasury to pay compensation of $50,000,000 (fifty million pesos) to each of the nine relatives of the victims who were executed or disappeared in 1973 in the mountainous sector of Los Ángeles, Bío Bío Region. According to Minister Zepeda's investigation, the following sequence of events was determined: «a) That in the mountainous sector, to the east of the city of Los Ángeles, are located the El Toro and El Abanico hydroelectric plants, belonging to the Empresa Nacional de Electricidad, ENDESA. b) That the workers of said hydroelectric plants, as of September 11, 1973, mostly resided with their families in small rural towns in said area, forming the towns of "Los Canelos," "Rayenco," "Polcura," "Antuco," in addition to work camps for the "El Toro" and "El Abanico" Hydroelectric Plants, and further to the east, behind the Laja lagoon, that of "Cuatro Juntas," a sector that was called "Mallines del Sol," belonging to the Alto Polcura ravine, patronymic of the "Polcura" river, which runs through the place, where the workers also spent some periods fulfilling their habitual duties. c) That subsequent to the date indicated above, upon the violent change of government due to the Coup d'État of September 11, 1973, the aforementioned workers, as well as the rest of the civilian population of said towns, supporters of the previous government that was deposed on that day, in application and knowledge of a policy of the new regime and in a flagrant attack on human dignity and the very notion of humanity, were persecuted and detained by State agents, under the pretext that the victims intended to attack detention centers to free people deprived of liberty by the military authority and/or attack the hydroelectric plants where many of them worked, with their final destination being their confinement or deprivation of liberty in the Regiment located in the city of Los Ángeles or in places dependent on this unit, and ultimately killed and, in other cases, made to disappear to this day». The Supreme Court's sentence was adopted with the dissenting vote—in the criminal aspect—of Minister Lamberto Cisternas, who was in favor of accepting mitigating factors of responsibility in the case of the convicted Klug Rivera; and the dissenting opinion of Minister Muñoz, who was in favor of accepting the statute of limitations for the civil action in the case.

Source: angelino.cl 10/24/2014

Date: 10-24-2014