Florida jury holds ex-officer liable for slaying Victor Jara in Chile

[Judi Lynn]

Florida jury holds ex-officer liable for slaying Victor Jara in Chile
by: Mike Schneider & Terry Roen
July 15 2016

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - A former lieutenant under the brutal dictator Augusto Pinochet tortured and killed famed Chilean folk singer and political activist, Victor Jara, whose family had been seeking justice for more than 40 years, a federal jury in Florida ruled June 27. The jury in the civil case ordered former Lt. Pedro Pablo Barrientos Nunez to pay singer Victor Jara's family $28 million in damages.

Jara's family had claimed that Barrientos was in charge of soldiers at the stadium where Jara was tortured and killed in the days after Pinochet's coup d'état in 1973. The coup led to the torture and disappearance of thousands of political opponents: trade unionists, students, journalists, communists, socialists, filmmakers and others.

. . .

The lawsuit was filed by Joan Jara; Victor Jara's daughter, Amanda, who was 8 when her father died; and his stepdaughter, Manuela, who was 13, under the Torture Victim Protection Act, which allows civil lawsuits to be filed in the United States against people who have committed torture.
. . .

Victor Jara was a popular singer and political activist who worked for the candidacy of Salvador Allende, a Socialist who was elected president of Chile in 1970. Allende's efforts to nationalize industries, including the takeover of U.S.-owned copper companies, drew fierce opposition internally and from the United States, which opposed leftist influences in Latin America.

More:
http://peoplesworld.org/florida-jury-holds-ex-officer-liable-for-slaying-victor-jara-in-chile/

LBN:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141520558

[Judi Lynn]

1. Barrientos fled to Florida, as do so many other LatAm fascists who hope to avoid prosecution

for the atrocities they committed against their fellow men and women in their own countries. They always hope to hide from the natural consequences their sadistic, evil behavior. Many people are protected here for the rest of their lives. In other cases, the fascist governments in their countries gave them all amnesty before stepping down, and those monsters are off the hook, perpentually, unless a leftist is elected and the people are able to require legal punishment of the fascist vampires.

As the article said, Victor Jara's wife, Joan, said it is ironic he finally was judged here, considering the US involvement in the violent coup which destroyed the elected leftist President Salvador Allende, and put the evil fascist monster Pinochet in the President's office.

Pedro Pablo Barrientos Nunez has been skulking around in Florida for years, having gone there years ago as a younger war criminal.

From 2015:

Chilean War-criminal Sheltering In the US May Finally Face Justice

A member of Pinochet’s secret police has lived in the U.S. for decades without the threat of being extradited to Chile to face murder charges, but a legal team has finally found a way around that: Prosecute him in the U.S.

By Ramona Wadi @walzerscent | April 27, 2015

ORLANDO — Earlier this month, Chilean media erupted with the news that a former member of Chile’s secret police under the dictator Augusto Pinochet would face trial in the United States for the 1973 murder of , a popular revolutionary folk singer.

The Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) confirmed the news with a statement on its website on April 14. “We are delighted with the news that our case will move forward for torture and extrajudicial killing,” CJA International attorney Almudena Bernabeu is quoted as saying.

Pedro Pablo Barrientos Nuñez, a former National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) agent, has been living in the U.S. since 1989. Knowing that a number of previous extradition requests from Chile had failed, the CJA filed the lawsuit on behalf of Jara’s family in a U.S. District Court in Florida, asserting claims under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) and the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA).

Court documents made available by the CJA show that Barrientos is being held responsible “for the arbitrary detention, torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and extrajudicial killing of Victor Jara at the Stadium on or about September 15 1973.”

After subjecting Jara to extreme torture, Barrientos played Russian roulette, eventually shooting the nueva canción singer in the back of the head. Jara’s body was then riddled with bullets by five military conscripts under orders from Barrientos.

More:
http://www.mintpressnews.com/pedro-pablo-may-finally-face-justice/204854/


I should add, his men took their rifle butts and crushed Victor Jara's hands, and mocked him, challenging him to play his guitar for them. He did write music while in prison, and had it passed outside to his wife, Joan, before he was murdered.