D.O.B. : 19/12/52, 20 years of age at the time of his detention Address : House 29, John Kennedy Housing Project, Talca Marital Status : Married Occupation : Worker at the "El Abanico" Power Plant of ENDESA.

Political Affiliation : None Date of Detention : September 17, 1973 José Abel Coronado Astudillo, 20 years of age, married, a worker at the "El Abanico" Power Plant of the National Electricity Company (ENDESA), with no political affiliation, was detained on September 17, 1973, at approximately 07:30 hours, at his residence located within the "El Abanico" plant, Los Angeles, by a Carabineros patrol belonging to the "El Abanico" police station.

Police authorities informed the victim's family that he had been transferred to the Los Angeles Regiment; however, that facility did not acknowledge the detention. Ms. María Celinda Astudillo González, the victim's mother, stated in a sworn affidavit signed before a notary that the detention of José Abel Coronado Astudillo occurred on September 17, 1973, at his former residence located at the "El Abanico" plant in Los Angeles, and that on that occasion, her sons Celso and Juan Carlos Coronado Astudillo were also detained.

The detention was carried out by Lieutenant Aslo García Agüero, Second Sergeant Arriagada, and two Corporals both surnamed Contreras, all belonging to the local Carabineros station. In case file 46.723, regarding the disappearance of Wilfredo Quiroz Pereira, it was determined that the identity of said Lieutenant is Zacarías Hannower García Agüero.

Both Celso and Juan Carlos were released that same day. At the time of the victim's detention, Lieutenant García Agüero stated that they were detaining him because they were looking for a certain Juan Tirapey, adding, according to the witness, "that when he appeared, my son would be released, which was not the case, since Tirapey turned himself in 8 days after my son's detention," and yet the victim did not regain his freedom.

In the same sworn affidavit, the mother states that "Lieutenant García Agüero told me on several occasions that my son had been handed over the same day of his detention, at 17:00 hours, to the Los Angeles Regiment." It should be noted that on September 22, 1973, the President of the "El Abanico" Plant Union, Víctor Jerez Meza, was detained; he is currently forcibly disappeared.

In February 1975, the mother sent a letter to the Warden of the Los Angeles Public Jail, inquiring about her son's admission to that facility. The Warden replied that, after consulting the prison's statistical records, there was no record of Coronado Astudillo's admission to the facility at any time.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On August 27, 1974, Mr. José Alejandro Coronado filed a writ of amparo on behalf of his son before the Court of Appeals of Concepción, which was registered under No. 3.136. Having obtained information from the Criminal Courts of Los Angeles indicating that there were no proceedings against the subject of the amparo nor had any order been issued against him, and likewise having received reports from Military and Carabineros authorities stating they had no records regarding José Abel Coronado Astudillo, the Court of Appeals dismissed the writ of amparo on September 13, 1974, ordering that the Duty Court of Los Angeles be notified to initiate proceedings for the alleged disappearance of the victim. Thus, on September 24, 1974, case file 46.261 was initiated before the First Criminal Court of Los Angeles. Upon appearing, Mr. José Alejandro Coronado ratified what was stated in the writ of amparo filed on behalf of his son and also identified three people who may have been detained along with the victim. When these individuals appeared in court, they agreed that they had been detained by Carabineros for public intoxication, but they did not recall having been detained alongside Coronado Astudillo. On August 20, 1975, the summary investigation was closed, and the case was only provisionally dismissed on August 4, 1976, for "being misplaced among the pre-archive files." The Court of Appeals of Concepción, reviewing said resolution, stated: "bearing in mind only that it has not been proven in the case files that the reported event is the consequence of a crime, the resolution of August 20 of last year is approved as consulted..." José Abel Coronado Astudillo remains to this day in the status of forcibly disappeared.

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

The visiting judge for human rights cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Paola Plaza González, issued an order of incarceration—today, August 2, 2021—for retired Lieutenant Colonel Walther Klug Rivera, who 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 incarceration order was carried out after an Italian court granted the extradition request filed by the visiting judge Mario Carroza—then the instructor of the case—for Klug Rivera to serve the sentence handed down in October 2014, which 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 Norambuena Inostroza, Luis Eduardo Vergara Corso, Benjamín Antonio Orrego Lillo, José Óscar Badilla García, Manuel Antonio Aguilera Aguilera, Manuel Sepúlveda Cerda, and Bernardo Samuel Meza Rubilar, 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 8/2/2021 Date: 08-02-2021

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

The Judiciary reported late at night the admission of Walther Klug Rivera to the Santiago Military Police Regiment No. 1, in the commune of Peñalolén. Klug Rivera is a criminal against humanity from the Chilean Dictatorship who had fled the country attempting to evade the judicial proceedings against him.

Former Colonel Klug Rivera is a well-known member of the Dictatorship's repressive forces in southern Chile and is currently wanted in two cases of human rights violations: the kidnapping and death of 21 Endesa workers in the commune of Antuco, Bío Bío Province, and the qualified kidnapping of the president of the Student Federation of the University of Concepción, Los Angeles 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; as well as 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 center of the Los Angeles 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. He used his dual citizenship 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 to Italy, the country from which he was extradited to Chile. Nevertheless, despite the gravity of the crimes committed—he is sentenced 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 information—for the other case in which he is being prosecuted: the qualified kidnapping of Luis Cornejo. The visiting judge of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Paola Plaza, stated that Walther Klug Rivera will serve a 10-day quarantine period at the Santiago Military Police Regiment No. 1 before his procedural status is reviewed.

Source: resumen.cl 6/29/2021 Date: 06-29-2021

Supreme Court confirms sentence for 16 disappearances and 7 murders of workers from the El Toro and El Abanico hydroelectric plants

The crimes against humanity were perpetrated between September 11 and November 17, 1973, in the mountain sector of Los Angeles, Bío Bío Region. The investigation was led by Minister Jorge Zepeda. 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 forcibly disappeared.

In a split decision, 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, which sentenced Patricio Martínez Moena to 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.

Regarding civil matters, the Criminal Chamber ratified the sentence ordering the state to pay compensation of 50 million pesos to each of the nine families of the victims who were executed or disappeared in 1973 in the mountain sector of Los Angeles, Bío Bío Region.

These sentences must be served 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.

The sentence also includes 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.

According to Minister Zepeda's investigation, it was determined "that in the mountain sector, to the east of the city of Los Angeles, are located the El Toro and El Abanico hydroelectric plants, belonging to the National Electricity Company, ENDESA." "The workers of said hydroelectric plants, as of September 11, 1973, for the most part—according to Minister Zepeda's sentence—resided with their families in small rural towns in that area, forming the villages of 'Los Canelos', 'Rayenco', 'Polcura', 'Antuco', as well as work camps for the 'El Toro' and 'El Abanico' hydroelectric plants, and further to the east, behind the Laja lagoon, the 'Cuatro Juntas' camp, a sector that was called 'Mallines del Sol', belonging to the Alto Polcura canyon, named after the 'Polcura' river that runs through the place, where the workers also spent periods performing their usual duties." Following September 11, 1973, "when the change of government occurred violently 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 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 to attack the hydroelectric plants where many of them worked," states the ruling by Minister Zepeda, ratified by the country's highest court. The final destination of these people was "their confinement or deprivation of liberty in the Regiment located in the city of Los Angeles or in places dependent on this unit, and ultimately they were killed and, in other cases, forcibly disappeared to this day," the ruling states. The Supreme Court's sentence was adopted with the dissenting vote—on 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: villagrimaldi.cl 10/30/2014 Date: 10-30-2014

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

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

In Parma, Italy, Walther Ludwig Klug Rivera was captured. He was a former agent of the Military Intelligence Service (SIM) during the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship and was convicted of human rights crimes, according to 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 led to an international arrest warrant being issued against him. According to sources close to the investigation in Concepción, Interpol had managed to locate the man some time ago in 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 Angeles, Luis Cornejo Fernández. However, the charges for qualified kidnapping in the case led by visiting judge Carlos Aldana had to be dismissed after the former officer fled in 2015, before he could begin serving the 10-year and 1-day sentence handed down in Santiago by the special judge, 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 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 he be ordered to serve the 10 years in a German prison.

Source: cctt.cl /6/2019