Federal judge allows lawsuit to proceed in slaying of Chilean folk singer killed after 1973 coup
Source: Washington Post
Federal judge allows lawsuit to proceed in slaying of Chilean folk singer killed after 1973 coup
By Nick Miroff April 17 at 3:19 PM
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A woman in Santiago waves a flag with a portrait of Chile's slain folk singer Victor Jara in 2009. Florida is set to reopen a trial in Jara's 1973 slaying. (AP)
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One of Latin America's darkest Cold War-era crimes is being reopened in Florida, where a U.S. judge has allowed a lawsuit to go forward against a former Chilean officer accused of torturing and murdering folk singer Victor Jara in 1973.
Jara's grisly death in the days following Gen. Augusto Pinochet's U.S.-backed coup d'etat remains an open wound in Chile. The killing became an early symbol of the cruelty of Pinochet's 17-year military rule, in which some 3,000 Chileans were slain or forcefully disappeared.
Scores of murder and torture cases from the Pinochet era remain under investigation, including Jara's. In 2012, several former soldiers implicated in Jara's murder named an ex-lieutenant, Pedro Barrientos, as the commanding officer and triggerman.
Barrientos has been living quietly in central Florida since 1989, according to local media accounts, and had obtained U.S. citizenship.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/04/17/florida-reopens-trial-in-slaying-of-chilean-folk-singer-who-opposed-u-s-backed-dictatorship/?tid=hpModule_04941f10-8a79-11e2-98d9-3012c1cd8d1e
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Victor Jara
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