Chile Charges 8 People in Singer’s Killing (During Nixon-supported dictator Pinochet takeover)

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Chile Charges 8 People in Singer’s Killing
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 28, 2012 at 1:14 PM ET

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Eight former army lieutenants have been charged in the killing of communist singer and songwriter Victor Jara almost four decades ago.

Appellate Court Magistrate Miguel Vazquez also ordered the arrest of Hugo Sanchez Marmonti and Pedro Barrientos Nunez, who lives in the U.S. state of Florida, as the authors of the killing, and the other six former military officials as accomplices. All have been detained except Barrientos, who is expected to undergo extradition proceedings.

Jara was detained along with many others at Chile's State Technical University the day after the Sept. 11, 1972 coup that toppled President Salvador Allende. His body was found several days later, riddled with bullets and bearing signs of torture. The killing transformed Jara into a symbol of struggle against Latin America's military right-wing dictatorships.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/12/28/world/americas/ap-lt-chile-victor-jara.html?_r=0

---

(Short article, no more at link.)

[Judi Lynn]

1. Information on how this political murder occurred:

[center]

"The Right to Live in Peace"

[/center]

You Tube songs:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/HCGKPTECxxOK0

Wikipedia:

Víctor Lidio Jara Martínez (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈbiktor ˈliðjo ˈxaɾa marˈtines]) (September 28, 1932 – September 16, 1973[1]) 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.[2] 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.

~snip~
Death

On the morning of September 12, Jara was taken, along with thousands of others, as a prisoner to the Chile Stadium (renamed the Estadio Víctor Jara in September 2003[5] ). In the hours and days that followed, many of those detained in the stadium were tortured and killed there by the military forces. Jara was repeatedly beaten and tortured; the bones in his hands were broken as were his ribs.[6] Fellow political prisoners have testified that his captors mockingly suggested that he play guitar for them as he lay on the ground with broken hands. Defiantly, he sang part of "Venceremos" (We Will Win), a song supporting the Popular Unity coalition.[6] After further beatings, he was machine-gunned on September 16, his body dumped on a road on the outskirts of Santiago and then taken to a city morgue where 44 bullets were found in his body.

Jara's wife Joan was allowed to come and retrieve his body from the site and was able to confirm the physical damage he had endured. After holding a funeral for her husband, Joan Jara fled the country in secret.

Joan Turner Jara currently lives in Chile and runs the Víctor Jara Foundation. The Chile Stadium, also known as the Víctor Jara Stadium, is often confused with the Estadio Nacional (National Stadium).

Before his death, Jara wrote a poem about the conditions of the prisoners in the stadium, the poem was written on a paper that was hidden inside a shoe of a friend. The poem was never named, but is commonly known as Estadio Chile.

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%ADctor_Jara

[mahina]

4. "It could have been me"

The junta broke the fingers on Victor Jara's hands
They said to the gentle poet "play your guitar now if you can"
Victor started singing but they brought his body down
You can kill that man but not his song
When it's sung the whole world round


It could have been me, but instead it was you
So I'll keep doing the work you were doing as if I were two
I'll be a student of life, a singer of song
A farmer of food and a righter of wrong
It could have been me, but instead it was you
And it may be me dear sisters and brother
Before we are through
But if you can work for freedom
Freedom, freedom, freedom
If you can work ( die, sing, live, work, speak) for freedom I can too

[Judi Lynn]

6. So glad to hear this song and singer for the first time because of your post.

It was a wonderful expression. so glad there are people who have learned about him despite all efforts to keep U.S.Americans in the dark about what happened in Chile throughout the years this filthy, vicious sadistic violence in Chile was happening with U.S. total support.

It's wonderful knowing the hard work to suppress the truth has failed, after all, isn't it?

Thank you.

[mitchtv]

2. thank you goddess of Justice

the bastards broke his hands in the stadium

[Judi Lynn]

7. This is a tremendous recording, video. Thank you for the chance to see it. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

3. Chile: Ex-army officials implicated in Victor Jara's death

28 December 2012 Last updated at 14:26 ET
Chile: Ex-army officials implicated in Victor Jara's death

A judge in Chile has ordered the arrest of eight former army officers over the murder 39 years ago of well-known left-wing singer Victor Jara.

He was brutally killed only days after the coup that brought Gen Pinochet to power, on 11 September 1973.

The folk singer was arrested and taken to a stadium in Santiago where he was tortured and killed.

His body was found later in the streets of the Chilean capital with 44 bullet wounds.

More:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-20861432

[center]

Pedro Pablo Barrientos Núñez [/center]
Chilean Court Indicts Two Men for Murder of Singer Victor Jara
By Sebastian Boyd - Dec 28, 2012 10:34 AM CT

A Chilean court ordered the arrest of two men, Hugo Sanchez and Pedro Barrientos, for the murder of singer Victor Jara following a military coup in the South American nation 39 years ago.

Jara was shot 44 times while being held in military custody at Chile’s national stadium in the days after Augusto Pinochet seized power on Sept. 11, 1973, the court found according to a copy of the resolution forwarded by e-mail by the press office of the Chilean judiciary today. Five more men were indicted as accomplices in the killing.

Since Barrientos is out of the country, the court ordered an international arrest warrant to be issued.

Both men are former army officers, La Tercera reported.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-28/chilean-court-indicts-two-men-for-murder-of-singer-victor-jara.html

[mahina]

5. Thank you.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

8. 40 years overdue - now arrest Kissinger

Wire fences still coiled with flowers of the night
Songs of the birds like hands call the earth to witness
Sever from fear before taking flight.
Fences that fail and fall to the ground
Bearing the fruit from Jara's Hands

And in the world a heart of darkness
A fire zone
Where poets speak their heart
Then bleed for it
Jara sang - his song a weapon
In the hands of one
though his blood still cries
From the ground

It runs like a river runs to the sea
It runs like a river to the sea

[Judi Lynn]

11. Wonderful getting to here these songs for the first time. Completely moving,

so appropriately intense.

It's important learning these musicians/writers have known about this man and his treatment by the fascist Pinochet regime, and have shared their awareness and reaction to his life with the world.

Thank you.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

15. one more

singing a song written by Sara's father and Caitlin's grandfather
http://www.arlo.net/resources/lyrics/victor-jara.shtml

[Judi Lynn]

17. Overwhelming. Tears flowing, nose running before it ended. Wow.

Did not anticipate it would be so powerful.

Thank you for taking the time to post this one. It is the best performance of that song I've heard.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Chile: Ex-officers charged in '73 slaying

Chile: Ex-officers charged in '73 slaying
New York Times
Published 8:26 pm, Friday, December 28, 2012


[font size=1]
FILE - In this undated file photo, singer and songwriter
Victor Jara poses for a photo in Chile. A Chilean court on
Friday, Dec. 28, 2012, charged eight former army lieutenants
in the killing of Jara almost four decades ago. Jara was
detained along with many others at Chile's State Technical
University the day after the Sept. 11, 1972 coup that toppled
President Salvador Allende. His body was found several days
later, riddled with bullets and bearing signs of torture. The
killing transformed Jara into a symbol of struggle against
Latin America's military right-wing dictatorships. (AP Photo,
File) Photo: Anonymous, Associated Press / SF
[/font]
Santiago, --

Chile - Eight retired army officers were charged Friday with the murder of a popular songwriter and theater director, Victor Jara, who was tortured and killed days after the 1973 military coup in a stadium that had been turned into a detention center.

Judge Miguel Vasquez charged two of the former officers, Pedro Barrientos and Hugo Sanchez, with committing the murder and six others as accomplices.

Sanchez, a lieutenant colonel, was second-in-command at the stadium.

Barrientos, a lieutenant from a Tejas Verdes army unit, lives in Deltona, Fla., and was interrogated by the FBI this year at the request of a Chilean court. Attempts to reach Barrientos for comment were unsuccessful; his two listed telephone numbers had been disconnected.

Vasquez issued an international arrest warrant against Barrientos through Interpol Santiago and ordered the arrest of the other seven, who were in Chile. Those charged as accomplices are Roberto Souper, Raul Jofre, Edwin Dimter, Nelson Hasse, Luis Bethke and Jorge Smith.

More: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Chile-Ex-officers-charged-in-73-slaying-4153315.php#ixzz2GQfv0LH5

[idwiyo]

10. K&R it took a long time but finally someone is going to pay for that horrific murder.

I almost gave up hope it would ever happen.

PS I was a small kid when my grandma made me watch a documentary about life and death of Victor Jara. She wanted to make sure I understood and remembered what fascism looks like.

[Judi Lynn]

13. That's a great documentary, isn't it? I believe the name is "The Right to Live in Peace"

in the English version which is available, maybe, on DVDs, perhaps.

Here's a new documentary, I believe, covered in a trailer at this website:

The Resurrection of Victor Jara

"Victor lives in the heart of his people"
--Michelle Bachelet, Former President of Chile

http://www.resurrectionofvictorjara.com/#!__englishhome

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

12. Those monsters likely murdered Pablo Neruda as well

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/05/201252172550321452.html

[Judi Lynn]

14. Thanks for this great report by Lucia Newman, an excellent journalist.

After hearing the facts, the unavoidable conclusion emerges, as his former employee indicates.

Pinochert, his backers, and his henchmen spread the kind of fear throughout the country which is only just now beginning to ease, only a few years after Pinochet's excessively long and unchastened life.

He was the one who said, "Not a blade of grass moves without my permission". We have Richard M. Nixon and Henry Kissinger, and the CIA to thank for unleashing this hellish monstrosity upon the citizens of Chile.

[Octafish]

16. Milton Friedman in a letter to General Augusto Pinochet

Milton Friedman in a letter to General Augusto Pinochet, April 21, 1975

If this shock approach were adopted, I believe that it should be announced publicly in great detail, to take effect at a very close date. The more fully the public is informed, the more will its reactions facilitate the adjustment.

p93
Killing and locking up the government was not enough for Chile's new junta government, however. The generals knew that their hold on power depended on Chileans being truly terrified, as the people had been in Indonesia. In the days that followed, roughly 13,500 civilians were arrested, loaded onto trucks and imprisoned, according to a declassified CIA report. Thousands ended up in the two main football stadiums in Santiago, the Chile Stadium and the huge National Stadium. Inside the National Stadium, death replaced football as the public spectacle. Soldiers prowled the bleachers with hooded collaborators who pointed out "subversives"; the ones who were selected were hauled off to locker rooms and skyboxes transformed into makeshift torture chambers. Hundreds were executed. Lifeless bodies started showing up on the side of major highways or floating in murky urban canals.

... Even though Pinochet's baffle was one-sided, its effects were as real as any civil war or foreign invasion: in all, more than 3,200 people were disappeared or executed, at least 80,000 were imprisoned, and 200,000 fled the country for political reasons.

p96
For the first year and a half, Pinochet faithfully followed the Chicago rules: he privatized some, though not all, state-owned companies (including several banks); he allowed cutting-edge new forms of speculative finance; he flung open the borders to foreign imports, tearing down the barriers that had long protected Chilean manufacturers; and he cut government spending by 10 percent-except the military, which received a significant increase. He also eliminated price controls -a radical move in a country that had been regulating the cost of necessities such as bread and cooking oil for decades.

The Chicago Boys had confidently assured Pinochet that if he suddenly withdrew government involvement from these areas all at once, the "natural" laws of economics would rediscover their equilibrium, and inflation-which they viewed as a kind of economic fever indicating the presence of unhealthy organisms in the market would magically go down. They were mistaken. In 1974, inflation reached 375 percent-the highest rate in the world and almost twice the top level under Allende. The cost of basics such as bread went through the roof. At the same time, Chileans were being thrown out of work because Pinochet's experiment with "free trade" was flooding the country with cheap imports. Local businesses were closing, unable to compete, unemployment hit record levels and hunger became rampant. The Chicago School's first laboratory was a debacle.

Sergio de Castro and the other Chicago Boys argued (in true Chicago fashion) that the problem didn't lie with their theory but with the fact that it wasn't being applied with sufficient strictness. The economy had failed to correct itself and return to harmonious balance because there were still "distortions" left over from nearly half a century of government interference. For the experiment to work, Pinochet had to strip these distortions away-more cuts, more privatization, more speed.

... Pinochet and de Castro got to work stripping away the welfare state to arrive at their pure capitalist utopia. In 1975, they cut public spending by 27 percent in one blow-and they kept cutting until, by 1980, it was half of what it had been under Allende. Health and education took the heaviest hits. Even The Economist, a free-market cheerleader, called it "an orgy of self-mutilation .1128 De Castro privatized almost five hundred state-owned companies and banks, practically giving many of them away, since the point was to get them as quickly as possible into their rightful place in the economic order. He took no pity on local companies and removed even more trade barriers; the result was the loss of 177,000 industrial jobs between 1973 and 1983.° By the mid-eighties, manufacturing as a percentage of the economy dropped to levels last seen during the Second World War.

CONTINUED...

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Naomi_Klein/Birth_Pangs_SD.html

Thanks to Corporate McPravda, the USA has no idea...

[Judi Lynn]

18. Good grief. Your excerpts should not be missed. Republicans, Freeps STILL insist his plan worked.

Sure did, if you admit his plan was to traumatize an entire nation into absolute silence for ages following a total unleashing of
absolute evil, sadistic hell upon a shocked, confused citizenry, and turn a country into a madhouse.

I learned over a decade ago about the spectacle Chileans used to see around them in Santiago, on a daily basis. I saw a photo once of one man standing on the banks of the river flowing through the capital looking down as a body of a young man floated down and past him. I haven't been able to find that photo again, didn't think fast enough to get a copy for my files at the time.

I DID find a photo of an old man looking down from a bridge across the same river, painted to commemorate that national trauma, seeing dead citizens floating by in the river:

[center]







Mapocho River, Santiago



Pinochet's supporters paying respect to his fascist body.

[/center]

[Octafish]

19. Conservatives loved the man. You know Margaret Thatcher was a good friend of Pinochet.

And you know who else was a good friend of Maggie?

Censored, Savile's private letters to Mrs Thatcher: Files edited two months ago... AFTER child abuse claims surfaced

Letter from Jimmy Savile to former PM released under 30-year rule

Declares his love for her in gushing 1980 note written following a lunch

Also refers to his 'girl patients' and says 'they all love you'

But other correspondence between the two has been censored

Savile spent 11 consecutive New Year's Eves with Mrs Thatcher

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2253929/Jimmy-Saviles-private-letters-Margaret-Thatcher-Files-edited-2-months-ago.html

Thank you, Judi Lynn. I feel the same way about you and your work. Sept. 11, 1973 is the template for what these same gangsters are doing to America -- without the water cannon or the filled stadium. Ronnie Moffit was a victim of the national security state -- ours.

[Judi Lynn]

21. Your own link is a flawless example of the way so many of us would love to see DU working for Dems.

What we all crave is the information which has been denied us by our corporate fourth estate. We should have actually learned all of this already but it takes deliberate effort to find it, actually since it has been intentionally withheld, and buried.

We must have reality as our foundation. That is the ONLY starting place, or we would all be Republicans!

Thank you, so much, for sharing with those of us who missed the first opportunity to read this.

As it's plain to see, you have a informed, intelligent readership. (Sure hope to see sfexpat2000 and sfexpat2000's close associate EFerrari back at DU soon! )

[center][/center]
You have brought the truth to so many already. A link like yours should be fully studied.

[mahina]

20. I think we should all buy "A Force More Powerful" for our local libraries

http://www.aforcemorepowerful.org/order.php

The book is good but the two DVD set is thrilling.

From Ghandi to King to Poland, South Africa, Chile, the people rise up and defeat dictatorships with nonviolence.

For peace!