In Florida, a jury has found former Chilean army officer Pedro Barrientos liable for the murder of legendary folk singer and activist Víctor Jara in September 1973. In the days after dictator Augusto Pinochet seized power in a U.S.-backed coup, Víctor Jara was rounded up, tortured and shot more than 40 times.
In 2013, on the 40th anniversary of Víctor Jara’s murder, his wife and daughters filed a civil lawsuit in U.S. court against the former military officer Pedro Barrientos, who has lived in the United States for more than two decades and is now a U.S. citizen. The Jaras sued him under a federal civil statute known as the Torture Victims Protection Act, which allows U.S. courts to hear about human rights abuses committed abroad. Chilean prosecutors have indicted Barrientos and another officer with Jara’s murder, and Chile is seeking his extradition so he can be tried on criminal murder charges.
in a landmark legal victory Monday, an Orlando court ruled Barrientos is liable for the killing of Víctor Jara, and awarded the Jara family $28 million in damages. The Guardian newspaper called the verdict, “one of the biggest and most significant legal human rights victories against a foreign war criminal in a US courtroom”.
Joan Jara talking:
And during this trial, I learned many things about what happened in the stadium. And that, in itself, is a wonderful progress to justice in Chile, because other people will be able to find a certain amount of justice for their loved ones who were killed there. But I must say that during the trial there was so much evidence against Barrientos, so much evidence and so much lying on the part of the people who were defending him and the witnesses—I mean, incredible, just easily proved lies, which were quickly dismissed and overcome by our lawyer, our wonderful lawyer.
Manuela Bunster talking:
Barrientos, we’ve known about him for years now, around seven years, I should say. Many conscripts have—I mean, he’s been denying having been in Chile Stadium, and he’s been, you know—the evidence presented in this, in this trial, and also all the previous investigations that have been going on in Chile, have put them in the stadium, with a command responsibility in the stadium. And this has been confirmed, you know? And no officers who have command responsibility in a situation like that, during that week, that specific week, you know, just after the coup in Chile, can say they didn’t know anything and that they—I mean, they’ve been constantly denying everything that happened in the stadium. And also, basically, he’s been denying having even been there in that week.
Dixon Osburn talking:
Pedro Barrientos was a former lieutenant under Pinochet. And what—what we were able to show in the court was in direct contradiction to what Barrientos claimed, which is that he didn’t know Víctor Jara, that he had never been in the stadium. We had one of the conscripts who testified, very chillingly, that Barrientos bragged—not just once, but many times—that he’s the one who shot and killed Víctor Jara. We had other conscripts who identified Barrientos as being in Chile Stadium and having command responsibility there, performing a wide variety of duties, and therefore having responsibility over the events at Chile Stadium. We had civilians. We had a former student from the university where Víctor taught who identified that Víctor was assaulted, beaten badly at the university when the military laid siege to it. And we had another witness who identified Víctor’s body tossed outside of Chile Stadium. So, through and through, we presented more than a dozen witnesses and significant evidence of what transpired in the days following the Pinochet coup, and specifically what happened to Víctor Jara.
It’s a very significant case. This is the first time that the Jara family has had their day in court, and for a court—a jury of six individuals was able to find somebody liable and responsible for the torture and murder of Víctor Jara. I think this is not only significant for the family, as they have said, but for so many victims and survivors who are continuing to look for truth and justice in what happened under the Pinochet coup.
What happens next for Barrientos? Now, this was a civil lawsuit; it’s not a criminal lawsuit. What the jury found is that he was liable, and they awarded damages. The next step will be to enforce that judgment to the extent that we can.
>If Chile has been seeking his extradition, why has the U.S. government not extradited him?
hat’s a good question for the U.S. government. No, we certainly urge the U.S. government to move forward with extradition at this point. As you correctly noted, Chile has indicted him. They’ve requested it. The U.S. government has moved forward on other extradition requests. So we hope that the U.S. government will take this request very seriously and move forward.
Joan Jara talking:
to go on as one has been going for 40 years, is to seek justice for all the victims. I mean, this trial has revealed, in a very special way, what has been hidden for years, because there has been a veil over the history of what happened in the Chile Stadium. And it is our job to force this—the request to get together with the relatives of other victims to continue the search for justice for all, and to know, from moment to moment, what happened in the stadium.
it’s been extraordinary how all this has been hidden for so long.
___________
Joan Jara
widow of Chilean singer Víctor Jara, who was tortured and killed following the 1973 coup. She is the author of An Unfinished Song: The Life of Victor Jara, first published in 1984.
Manuela Bunster
one of the daughters of Joan and Víctor Jara. She was 13 years old when Víctor Jara was killed.
Dixon Osburn
executive director of the Center for Justice and Accountability.
— source democracynow.org