Victor Jaras mordere begæres anholdt – 39 år efter

Forfatter billede

Den verdenskendte sangers banemænd skal opspores og stilles for retten i Chile – han blev tortureret, hans hænder og håndled knust, hvorefter han blev gennemhullet af 44 kugler fra en maskinpistol i september 1973.

A judge in Chile has ordered the arrest of eight former army officers over the murder 39 years ago of left-wing singer Victor Jara, one of the best known victims of Chilean military rule, BBC online reports Friday.

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

An international arrest order has been issued for one of the alleged leaders of the death squad, lieutenant Pedro Barrientos Nunez, who lives abroad. He has previously denied any involvement in Victor Jara’s death.

Mr Barrientos and another retired army officer, colonel Hugo Sanchez Marmonti, are accused of homicide (drab). The other six men were accused of complicity to commit murder.

Victor Jara, who was also a member of the Chilean Communist Party, was one of the founding fathers of Chile’s ‘New Song’ movement which in 1970 helped elect the democratic popular unity government of Salvador Allende – se også http://www.last.fm/music/Victor+Jara

ON 11 September 1973 the 38-year-old singer-songwriter was taken to a sports stadium in the capital which had been turned into a makeshift prison and torture centre.

On 16 September, after being tortured, electrocuted and having his wrists and the bones of his hands broken, he was machine-gunned to death. His body was found later in the streets of the Chilean capital with 44 bullet wounds.

More than 3.000 people were killed or went missing during military rule in Chile, from 1973 to 1990, BBC notes.