Chile Charges 8 People in Singer’s Killing

[Judi Lynn]

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.

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. More information on the political murder of Victor Jara:

More information on the political murder of Victor Jara:

[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

[Judi Lynn]

2. 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

[flamingdem]

3. Justice after all these years

And once again the culprits living comfortably in the USA.

[Judi Lynn]

4. So many of these right-wing a-hole enemies of the people end up in Florida.

Someone once wrote it's as if all of Latin America has vomited its garbage out upon the shores of Florida. Death squad members, murderous military and political figures, narcotraffickers, etc., etc., etc. They all make a direct path right to the Sunshine State, and merge with the other right-wing war criminals, human rights abusers, frauds and thieves living there.

[sabrina 1]

6. Why are they allowed to live here? Murderers, genocidal maniacs and they vote

here too I bet. Maybe this is the reason why this country has so many problems. We always seem to get the remnants of these dictatorial regimes who apparently are welcomed here with open arms.

I wonder will the US turn them over or continue to protect them as we protect our own war criminals.

And we are holding secret GJ hearings to go after Julian Assange!! While we harbor these vile, vicious killers!

[Judi Lynn]

7. True! They would kill Assange in a heartbeat, if they thought they could pull it off openly.

Their only concern is the lashback they could get if they don't wait until they can swing it by molding public perception through propaganda, outright lies, etc.

Don't forget a HUGE number of the most vicious, lethal of the Latin American political escapees to Florida, etc. are actually graduates of our own School of the Americas, School of the Assassins.

[sabrina 1]

8. Shameful really the people this country calls 'allies'. People like Karamov of

Uzbekistan eg, to whom we provide money and support, making it impossible for the people there to overthrow that regime and establish a government as the people of Venezuela have done.

We like our dictators and hypocritically remain silent about their brutality and corruption while attacking democratically elected leaders who have been chosen by their own people in fair elections. I would like someone to explain these twisted policies someday. Karamov belongs in prison for life for the crimes he has committed against his own people. But, as the Wikileaks cables revealed, it is not that the US isn't aware of his brutality, 'he's not a nice guy, but he lets us keep bases in his country'. So for that, we support him. It truly is reprehensible.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Apparently you can hush the opposition effectively by boiling dissidents alive.

These allies really know their stuff, don't they?

It's true, we just don't hear a lot of protest coming from Uzbekistan. It must mean _{George W. Bush's} little buddy is doing everything right, or at least right-wing!

[sabrina 1]

10. I know, and whenever I have mentioned our dictator allies, there is such silence

from the anti-democratically Chavez contingency. Maybe they just don't know what the word 'dictator' means? It certainly seems that way.

Burning people in oil, yes, let's ignore that and attack a leader who is popular with his people, who has worked hard for them trying to undo decades of gross inequality. Amazing, although way back in 2003 I recall asking Bush supporters why they hated Chavez but not Karamov and got much the same response, silence. And at that time, every Dem I knew supported Chavez and cheered when the people of Venezuela overturned the Bush backed coup attempt to replace him with a puppet government. I wonder what happened?

[AndSheGoesDown]

12. It gets worse

That's nothing, unfortunately. This is all from wiki:

"Michael Vernon Townley is a US citizen currently living in the United States under terms of the federal witness protection program. A Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent and operative of the Chilean secret police, DINA, Townley confessed, was convicted, and served 62 months in prison in the United States for the 1976 Washington, D.C., assassination of Orlando Letelier, former Chilean ambassador to the United States. As part of his plea bargain, Townley received immunity from further prosecution and was therefore not extradited to Argentina to stand trial for the assassination of Chilean general Carlos Prats and his wife. Townley has also been convicted (1993), in absentia, by an Italian court for carrying out the 1975 Rome murder attempt on Bernardo Leighton. Townley worked in producing chemical weapons for Chilean dictator, General Pinochet's, use against political opponents along with Colonel Gerardo Huber and the DINA biochemist Eugenio Berríos.

(...)

According to head of DINA Manuel Contreras, Townley returned to Chile at the end of 1973, working for the CIA, with the intent of receiving from the "Highest National Authority, in agreement with what had already been planned by the CIA ... the order to act in direct, personal and exclusive form, without intermediaries, against General Prats in Buenos Aires". Prats was killed with a car bomb in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1974. Contreras also said that Townley travelled with a false passport provided by the CIA under the name of Kenneth Enyart. Contreras stated Townley was aided by CIA agents as well as Argentine and Chilean agents and paramilitary groups such as the Triple A and the Grupo Milicias. Contreras stated he thought this occurred because the CIA feared Carlos Prats would try to overthrow Pinochet's dictatorship with the help of the Argentine Army, thus leading to a war between Chile and Argentina which would constitute "a difficult problem for the United States in the Cold War era"."

[Judi Lynn]

5. 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

[AndSheGoesDown]

11. I'm chilean and...

I really hope finding the ones who killed Victor Jara and others and finally making justice will help with our healing process.

Here they've taken forever to look for the criminals who killed and "disappeared" these people, because society wanted to avoid the issue which only brought division, and because there was so much to do in politics that they were putting stability over everything else. The left wing (which, compared to the rest of LA, isn't really all that lefty) was on power for two decades, but I graduated from high school in 2007 and we never talked about any of this in history class. We never talked about Pinochet, the cold war was just there far away in the northern hemisphere, and there was a "military government" here until right when we were born. That's all they wanted us to know. No controversy at all, just silence.

Now, I see part of the left wing abusing this history, because it wasn't given its importance for so long that they see a neoliberal conspiracy everywhere. And there's also the fact that people ignore the crimes committed by the far left in those years and the tension that existed, which makes the right wing think there's a communist conspiracy. It's about the country not being ready, or more likely, the politicians thinking the country wasn't ready.

Unfortunately, this broke into a "you're rich and your grandfather supported Pinochet" or "you're poor and your grandfather supported Allende" fight that is leading nowhere. In the middle, there's the people who think ok, this was terrible from both sides, let's do something constructive for once and let our country evolve. I'm one of them. But while I think we need to leave all of this behind, first there needs to be justice; finding the criminals and prosecuting them accordingly should be a good way to close this unfortunate episode of trying to look the other way while some people were still stuck in the cold war, and finally moving on.