After 50 years, the former Chilean soldier Pedro Barrientos, the material perpetrator of the murder of the singer-songwriter Víctor Jara committed a few days after the 1973 coup d’état, has been arrested in Daltona, in the United States.
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed the arrest of the former member of the Chilean army on October 5, specifying that Barrientos is now awaiting extradition to Chile.
According to documents in the court’s possession, the former soldier arrived in the US in July 1990 – months after the end of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship – using a tourist visa.
Seven years later he married a US citizen, allowing him to obtain American citizenship. However, last July the local justice system found that the former soldier obtained citizenship illegally, having been responsible for extrajudicial killings and providing false testimony, invalidating his obtaining that status.
The musician, actor, theater director and composer Víctor Jara was arrested on September 12, 1973, the day after the coup d’état, in his place of work, the State Technical University (now the University of Santiago de Chile), and transferred to the Stadium of Chile where he was brutally tortured after being recognized by the military responsible for the sports facility. His ribs were kicked and his hands were broken with rifle butts by torturers, who ironically asked him to “play his guitar.” After four days he was murdered with more than 40 shots and thrown into an abandoned lot.
Although Barrientos has always denied his participation in Jara’s crime, last August the Chilean Supreme Court unanimously ratified the 15-year and one-day sentence of seven former soldiers as perpetrators of the crime against Jara, author of ‘Te recuerdo Amanda’, ‘Plegaria para un labrador’ and ‘El cigarrito’.
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2023-10-10 23:05:00
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