Ex-soldier accused of killing Chilean singer Victor Jara faces U.S. civil suit.
| Autor | Witte-Lebhar, Benjamin |
History may finally be catching up to a former Chilean Army officer--and long-time resident of the US state of Florida--who allegedly played a lead role in the 1973 murder of famed Chilean singer-songwriter Victor Jara.
Four decades after the iconic musician's death, suspect Pedro Pablo Barrientos Nunez will finally be forced to explain himself in a court of law, albeit not in Chile--where he has a pending warrant for his arrest--and not with any immediate threat of jail time hanging over his head.
In early September, the California-based human rights organization Center For Justice and Accountability (CJA) named Barrientos in a civil suit filed before a US district court in Jacksonville, Florida. The suit--submitted on behalf of Jara's widow and two daughters--accuses the Chileanborn soldier of arbitrary detention; extrajudicial killing; and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. The complaint claims Barrientos "not only led, with other Chilean army officers, the arbitrary detention and brutal torture of Victor Jara, but also personally participated in the execution of Victor Jara on or about September 15, 1973, and then ordered his subordinates to repeatedly shoot Victor Jara's corpse."
The CJA submitted the lawsuit just days before Chile commemorated the 40th anniversary of the 1973 military coup that toppled then President Salvador Allende (1970-1973) and unleashed a tidal wave of repression against supposed leftwing subversives (NotiSur, Sept. 20, 2013). Chile's top Army commander at the time, Gen. Augusto Pinochet, consolidated power soon thereafter. During Pinochet's 17-year dictatorship, state agents murdered and/or disappeared at least 3,000 civilians and tortured more than 27,000, according to a pair of hallmark government reports issued after Chile's return to democracy in 1990 (NotiSur, Nov. 19, 2004).
Jara, who also worked as a theater director and university professor, was one of thousands rounded up shortly after the Sept. 11 military takeover and transported to a makeshift Santiago prison camp in what was then known as the Estadio Chile. The stadium has since been renamed in Jara's honor (NotiSur, Sept. 12, 2003). Investigators believe Jara was separated from the main group of prisoners and tortured during the course of several days. His lifeless and discarded body was discovered on or around Sept. 19 near the city's Cementerio Municipal.
The CJA lawsuit describes Jara as "a widely popular Chilean folk singer...
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