Fugitive Chilean colonel arrested in Argentina for human rights violation

Argentine police arrested a retired Chilean army colonel in Buenos Aires on Saturday after fleeing neighboring Chile, where he was convicted of human rights violations during the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship, authorities reported Chilean and local media.

Walter Klug Rivera was convicted of the disappearance and murder of 23 workers in 1973, shortly after Pinochet took power in a coup that resulted in the ousting and death of the incumbent president Salvador Allende.

“Walter Klug Rivera was apprehended outside the hotel where he was staying, which he intended to leave in the next few hours in order to continue to escape justice,” Chilean police said on Twitter.

More than 3,000 people died or disappeared in political violence under the Pinochet military regime from 1973 to 1990. The secret services and the army also tortured and forced into exile thousands of dissidents and leftists, such as truth commissions and police investigations have shown this.

Klug will be held in Buenos Aires until Monday, when he is due to appear before federal judge Julián Ercolini, who will begin extradition proceedings to Chile, Argentine media reported.

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