RIGHTS-CHILE:
Ex-Soldier Arrested for Víctor Jara Murder
By Daniela Estrada
SANTIAGO, May 27 (IPS) - A judge in Chile has charged a former soldier in the 1973 murder of internationally renowned Chilean folk singer Víctor Jara. Up to now, the only person prosecuted in the case was the commanding officer at the temporary prison camp where the songwriter was killed shortly after the Sept. 11, 1973 coup led by General Augusto Pinochet.
On Tuesday, Judge Juan Fuentes indicted 54-year-old José Paredes, who is now in preventive detention in the Santiago High Security Prison, where he and another former army conscript had been held incommunicado since May 22 on the judge’s orders.
Fuentes charged Paredes but released the other former soldier, Francisco Quiroz – also 54 years old – for lack of evidence on Tuesday.
Both men, who were 18-year-olds doing their compulsory military service in 1973, were reportedly guarding Jara in the Estadio Chile, the stadium in Santiago where more than 5,000 political prisoners were held and tortured after the coup that toppled the democratically elected government of socialist President Salvador Allende (1970-1973).
Despite the advances made in the investigation of the folk singer’s murder, the lawyer for the Jara family, Nelson Caucoto, did not celebrate the former soldier’s indictment.
"It is not our aim to chase down conscripts, I want to make that very clear. The conscripts formed part of the larger scheme of things, but they were the weakest and most vulnerable link, and cannot be held responsible. I am interested in the chiefs that gave the orders to execute Víctor Jara," said Caucoto.
Fuentes has not yet reached any conclusions about the participation of a mysterious officer known as "El Príncipe" (The Prince), described by a number of witnesses as the one who especially had it in for Jara, and who may have given the order to kill him.
Jara’s widow, British ballet dancer and choreographer Joan Turner, said she had no desire for revenge against former conscripts who may have been involved in the case.
"Our legal action was against Pinochet," said Turner.
During Pinochet’s 17-year dictatorship, some 3,000 people were killed and forcibly disappeared, and another 35,000 were tortured, according to truth reports.
Jara was one of the highest-profile victims of the 1973-1990 dictatorship.
The singer-songwriter is known worldwide as one of the leading figures of the Chilean Nueva Canción (New Song) movement, which emerged in the 1960s and combined traditional Latin American folk music styles with modern and often political lyrics.
Jara, whose songs include "Te recuerdo Amanda" (I Remember You, Amanda) and "El derecho de vivir en paz" (The Right to Live in Peace), has often been described as the "Bob Dylan of Chile."
He was seized the day after the coup at the Metropolitan Technical University where he worked as a professor, and taken to the Estadio Chile (renamed the Estadio Víctor Jara in 2003). He was savagely beaten and tortured before his body was riddled with 44 bullets on Sept. 15, 1973. His corpse was dumped near a cemetery in Santiago.
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.
The difficulty of investigating the crime committed 36 years ago led Judge Fuentes to close the probe on May 15, 2008, only accusing one person of the murder: retired Colonel Mario Manríquez Bravo, commanding officer at the Estadio Chile internment camp.
But Fuentes reopened the case on Jun. 5, 2008 after receiving more than 90 documents from Caucoto, the Jara family lawyer.
Government spokesperson Carolina Tohá said Tuesday that the judge’s decision to indict the former soldier "should be cause for satisfaction," because Jara "is part of Chile’s identity, helped cultivate Chilean culture, brought joy to Chilean families, is a cultural icon both within and outside of Chile, and was the victim of one of the cruelest crimes committed in Chile."
On Tuesday, Joan Turner urged the government of socialist President Michelle Bachelet to declare the Estadio Victor Jara a national monument.
On May 6, the Chilean Congress granted Turner Chilean citizenship in return for her contribution to the country as a dance teacher.
Turner had worked for years as a dance instructor at the University of Chile Theatre School, where she met Jara, who was the theatre director there. After fleeing the country when her husband was killed, she returned in 1985 to head the Victor Jara Foundation. She also founded the Spiral Dance Centre. (END/2009)
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46998http://www.kpfk.org.nyud.net:8090/pledge/catalog/images/VictorJara_A260.jpg http://library.stanford.edu.nyud.net:8090/depts/hasrg/german/exhibit/GDRposters/vjara.jpg http://api.ning.com.nyud.net:8090/files/Re7GTQlS7RwK0iG7ndf28p5b72V7e8RECnL93fZ2uQeqqo4I-qTzA-CNunFOJOspEPsNKMRCtP6AIzWL-bKQDM84HUEDUaZC/wqy35kuxcc1.jpgVideo: Te Recuerdo Amanda
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRmre8ggkcYWikipedia:
~snip~
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). 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. Reports that one of Jara's hands, or both of his hands, had been cut off, are, however, erroneous<5>. Fellow political prisoners have testified that his captors mockingly suggested that he play guitar for them as he lay on the ground. Defiantly, he sang part of Venceremos, a song supporting the Popular Unity coalition<6>. After further beatings, he was machine-gunned on September 15 and his body dumped on a road on the outskirts of Santiago, and then taken to a city morgue.
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 Victor Jara Foundation. The Chile Stadium, also known as the Victor Jara Stadium, is often confused with the Estadio Nacional (National Stadium).
Before his death, Victor 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/Victor_JaraLBN:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3895308The part about playing Russian Roulette seems to be more a contrivance created to make it appear the man was not in deep terror when he was killed. All reports from fellow prisoners available on the internet up to now have always NOT included any "game of russian roulette" but rather included beating, crushing, and heavy gunfire.
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