Visiting Judge Jorge Zepeda Arancibia issued a final judgment in the investigation into the homicides and kidnappings during the dictatorship of 23 employees and workers of the El Toro and El Abanico hydroelectric plants, within the framework of the so-called Endesa case.

The homicides were committed in the final days of 1973 and the beginning of 1974, in the commune of Los Ángeles, Biobío Region. The opponents were detained after the military coup, and the remains of several of them were found in 1990 inside the La Mona estate, which is currently owned by the forestry company Mininco.

Among those convicted is General (ret.) Patricio Martínez Moena, head of the Department II of Intelligence of the Los Ángeles Regiment, who received a 6-year prison sentence. Likewise, he sentenced Ismael Espinosa Silva to 5 years for the kidnapping of Manuel Arias Zúñiga.

In this case, the benefit of supervised release was granted. Furthermore, for the first time in Chile, he applied the regulations of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, by acquitting Colonel (ret.) Walter Klug Rivera based on the defense of due obedience.

The sentence also considers a dismissal due to death in the case of the Regiment commander, Alfredo Rehren Pulido. Judge Zepeda also accepted the claims for compensation for damages against the State. The State must pay 50 million pesos to each of the 9 relatives of the victims who filed a judicial action.

Source: La Nación, November 18, 2010

Compensation amount increased for relatives of a forcibly disappeared person at the El Abanico hydroelectric plant

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

In a unanimous ruling, the Fourth Chamber of the appellate court shared the grounds for the appropriateness of the compensation established in the first-instance judgment, but "regarding the compensatory quantum, the total sum fixed is meager and does not correspond to the merit of the evidence presented." In the first instance, Judge Rocío Perez Gamboa, of the 17th Civil Court of Santiago, established the responsibility of the State for the crime against humanity of which Domingo Norambuena Inostroza was a victim, setting the total compensation at $40 million. "In relation to the first premise, that is, the existence of an unlawful act, in accordance with the nature of the matter and facts to which the litigation relates, it should be noted that the State of Chile has made a formal recognition of a series of facts constituting human rights violations that occurred starting from September 11, 1973, through the message that created the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, and that the disappearance of Mr. Domingo Antonio Norambuena Inostroza was the product of acts originating from State agents, as is also stated in the Report of the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, as well as in the judgment case file 2182-1998 'Endesa' episode, issued by Judge Jorge Zepeda Arancibia, dated November 18, 2010," the first-instance ruling states. The resolution adds that: "with the merit of the described documentation, in particular the simple copy of the judgment dated November 18, 2010, issued in the case file 2182-1998 'Endesa' episode, issued by Judge Mr. Jorge Zepeda Arancibia, partially confirmed by the Santiago Court of Appeals, case file 105-2011, on October 25, 2013, and finally confirmed by the Honorable Supreme Court, in case file 17030-2013, dated October 23, 2014, Patricio Gustavo Martínez Moena, Ismael Humberto Espinosa Silva, and Walter Klug Rivera were convicted as authors and accomplices of the crime of homicide and aggravated kidnapping committed—among others—against the person of Domingo Antonio Norambuena Inostroza; it has been proven in the case files that the father and spouse of the plaintiffs was indeed detained without legal cause and illegally by State agents, and remains disappeared to this date." "(...) the conduct described above accounts for the commission of illegal and arbitrary acts, which affect the most essential aspects of human beings, such as their life, their freedom, and their dignity, and which, due to their extent and scope, transcend the individual himself, affecting all of humanity, and therefore fall within the concept of a crime against humanity," it concludes. The amount of compensation set by the appellate court is divided into: $25 million for María Pinto Otárola (the victim's spouse), and $15 million for each of the 4 children of the marriage.

Source: elciudadano.cl, April 20, 2017