The former Chilean military man Pedro Pablo Barrientos, accused of torturing and murdering the emblematic singer-songwriter Víctor Jara 50 years ago, at the beginning of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), was arrested last week in Florida, southeastern United States, this announced Tuesday local authorities.
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Barrientos is in the custody of US immigration services after his arrest in the city of Deltona on October 5. It is expected that he will be extradited to Chile, where Justice has been demanding him since 2013.
“He will now have to respond to the charges against him in Chile for his involvement in the torture and extrajudicial executions of Chilean citizens,” John Condon, the officer in charge of the Homeland Security Investigations Office in Tampa, said in a statement.
The former military man, who had lived in the North American country since 1989, lost his US citizenship in July after a court determined that he had withheld information related to his military service when requested.
Arrest that follows the conviction of seven other soldiers for the murder of Jara
In 2016, a federal court in Florida found Barrientos guilty of torturing and murdering Víctor Jara, following a civil lawsuit filed by the family of the popular Chilean singer. Barrientos was then a 24-year-old lieutenant and one of the officers in charge of the detainees in the Chile Stadium, used at that time by the military as a torture center.
A militant of the Communist Party, Jara was tortured and murdered with 44 bullets after being detained at the State Technical University, where he worked as a professor. He was 40 years old.
Author of songs such as ‘I remember you Amanda’, ‘The right to live in peace’ or ‘Manifiesto’, Jara is considered a symbol of the New Chilean Song, a musical and social movement of the 60s that extended until the beginning of the 70s. Jara was viciously punished by the military for being a public figure at that time.
His murder, recorded days after the coup d’état of September 11, was one of the atrocities committed by the Pinochet dictatorship, which left more than 40,000 direct victims. Of them, some 37,000 were tortured and political prisoners and 3,200 were executed or forcibly disappeared.
Barrientos’ arrest comes weeks after the Chilean Supreme Court sentenced seven retired military officers to sentences of up to 25 years in prison for the kidnapping and murder of Jara and former prison director Littré Quiroga.
Former Army officers Raúl Jofré, Edwin Dimter, Nelson Haase, Ernesto Bethke, Juan Jara and Hernán Chacón must pay 15 years for the murder of Jara and Quiroga, in addition to 10 years for both kidnappings, according to the ruling. The soldier Rolando Melo received an eight-year sentence as an accessory.
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