36 years after Chile's coup, progress in solving who killed folk singer Victor Jara

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

36 years after Chile's coup, progress in solving who killed folk singer Victor Jara

http://snsimages.tribune.com.nyud.net:8090/media/photo/2009-11/50725926.jpg

Victor Jara's widow Joan Jara looks on during an interview with The Associated Press in
Santiago, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009. The murder of Jara, who was tortured and shot to
death underneath a stadium where 5,000 supporters of ousted President Salvador Allende
were detained during the first days of Chile's 1973 coup, has never been solved.
(AP Photo/Roberto Candia) (Roberto Candia, AP / October 1, 2009)

MICHAEL WARREN
Associated Press Writer
2:31 a.m. EST, November 26, 2009

The notorious murder of the popular folk singer — who became a symbol of resistance after he was tortured and shot to death in the chaotic first days of Chile's 1973 coup — has never been solved.

The soldiers involved were ordered long ago to carry their secrets to their graves or face a similar fate. Jara's brutal death — his hands were smashed, head beaten and body pumped with at least 44 bullets — was meant as a warning to anyone who challenged Gen. Augusto Pinochet's authority during the long, dark years of Chile's dictatorship.

The climate of fear remains, even with two decades of democracy and Pinochet dead and buried. But some facts are finally emerging after 36 years of silence, institutional resistance, blind turns and myth-making about Jara, who was detained in a stadium with 5,000 other supporters of ousted President Salvador Allende. His struggle and death have been immortalized by everyone from American folk singer Pete Seeger to Argentina's Los Fabulosos Cadillacs and the Irish rockers U2.

Because of the tenacity of his widow, Joan Jara, whose personal appeal encouraged stadium survivors to provide testimony and evidence to the courts, his murder case has regained momentum in the last year. Court investigators have methodically tracked down and interrogated hundreds of aging former soldiers who were drafted into Pinochet's army. In June, Jara's body was exhumed for a proper autopsy. The family now has the resulting forensics report, the Victor Jara Foundation confirmed Wednesday, and has scheduled a news conference for Thursday. Ballistics and other evidence from the autopsy may help investigators identify who ordered the killing — and who fired a handgun into Jara's skull that night.

Read more: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-lt-chile-jaras-killer,0,2478201.story

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http://www.freedomarchives.org.nyud.net:8090/images/Joanvictor16.jpg

Joan and Victor Jara.

http://kapirasongkritika.files.wordpress.com.nyud.net:8090/2009/06/victor-jara-21.jpg

[Agony]

1. Same as it ever was...

The "few bad apples" take the fall and those in charge get rich.

snip
An article published Tuesday by the Centre for Investigative Journalism (CIPER) attempted to reconstruct the circumstances surrounding his death.

According to CIPER, an unidentified second lieutenant, in the presence of then lieutenant Nelson Haase and several conscripts, reportedly played Russian roulette with Jara in a room in the stadium until the gun finally went off, shooting the singer in the head. The second lieutenant then allegedly ordered the conscripts, including Paredes, to open fire on the folksinger.

The article says Paredes is a construction worker who never told anyone, not even his wife, of his alleged participation in the crime.

Lieutenant Haase, who is today a prominent businessman, might be the infamous "El Príncipe", CIPER says in the article. Haase denies the allegation.
snip

more--->http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46998
RIGHTS-CHILE: Ex-Soldier Arrested for Víctor Jara Murder
By Daniela Estrada