Chilean singer Jara’s murderers arrested

This music video says about itself:

VÍCTOR JARA – Vientos del pueblo

Víctor Lidio Jara Martínez (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈbiktor ˈliðjo ˈxaɾa marˈtines]) (September 28, 1932 — September 16, 1973) was a Chilean teacher, theatre director, poet, singer-songwriter, political activist and member of the Communist Party of Chile.

A distinguished theatre director, he devoted himself to the development of Chilean theatre, directing a broad array of works from locally produced Chilean plays, to the classics of the world stage, to the experimental work of Ann Jellicoe. Simultaneously he developed in the field of music and played a pivotal role among neo-folkloric artists who established the Nueva Canción Chilena (New Chilean Song) movement which led to a revolution in the popular music of his country under the Salvador Allende government.

Shortly after the Chilean coup of 11 September 1973, he was arrested, tortured and ultimately shot to death with 44 bullet shots by machine gun fire. His body was later thrown out into the street of a shanty town in Santiago. The contrast between the themes of his songs, on love, peace and social justice and the brutal way in which he was murdered transformed Jara into a symbol of struggle for human rights and justice across Latin America.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Chile arrests suspects over Jara killing in ’73

Thursday 03 January 2013

by Our Foreign Desk

Victor Jara‘s widow has welcomed the “message of hope” brought by charges against eight ex-military officers for suspected involvement in killing her husband during Augusto Pinochet’s 1973 coup.

Joan Turner-Jara called on the United States to extradite one of them, Pedro Barrientos Nunez, who lives in Florida.

Progressive folk singer Mr Jara, a member of the Communist Party of Chile, was rounded up with other figures thought likely to resist Pinochet’s brutal US-backed dictatorship on September 16 1973.

He was taken to the Chile Stadium – now the Victor Jara stadium – and tortured, with officers breaking the bones in his hands before demanding he play the guitar.

He died after being shot 44 times.

Judge Miguel Vazquez issued charges last week against eight men believed to be involved. Mr Barrientos, along with Hugo Sanchez Marmonti, has been charged with murder and the other six are accused of being accomplices to the crime.

The defendants all deny their guilt.

Speaking to supporters in the stadium alongside her two daughters, British-born Ms Turner-Jara urged Chile’s Supreme Court to formally request Mr Barrientos’s extradition from the US as advised by Mr Vazquez.

She said the case could not only solve her husband’s murder but would provide hope for many other families. Hardly any of the 1973-90 dictatorship’s thousands of victims’ deaths have been conclusively investigated.

Mr Vazquez said former military officers were still unwilling to speak to investigators, making prosecutions difficult.

The Jara family’s lawyer Nelson Caucoto said the Chilean military still denies having any information about which officers were assigned to the stadium in September 1973.

Most information has come from surviving prisoners or conscripts.

Mr Barrientos and one of the alleged accomplices, Edwin Dimter, have both previously been accused of being “the prince,” an as yet unidentified officer remembered by Pinochet victims incarcerated in the stadium for whipping and torturing prisoners.

Related articles

• Chile makes arrests in Jara case (bbc.co.uk)
• Charges brought in Chilean singer’s death, 39 years later (edition.cnn.com)