Who Killed Víctor Jara?

...That day, around noon, word reached Jara that even after Jara had been tortured and had good the stadium alive, his concern was for the welfare of others...

...Already, a key suspect has Víctor started singing but they been identified: Edwin Dimter, who brought his body down some believe was an especially bru- You can kill that man but not his tal guard whom prisoners referred song to as “the Prince...

...5...

...he where he was again badly beaten...

...as we search for your killers and strugJara’s murder is emblematic of the gle for human rights everywhere in open forum it was you And it may be me, dear sisters and brothers Before we are through But if you can sing for freedom Freedom, freedom, freedom If you can sing for freedom, I can This effort led to Manríquez being lengths the United States is willing the world...

...There they remained until Saturday, responsible for torturing and killing Jara...

...On them was a behind his neck to the stadium, six blocks away...

...However, for three worn a military uniform won’t give reasons—a decree issued by the mili- them legal impunity...

...Man- of prisoners...

...rested at the UTE, Jara had managed to tell him The officer’s helmet was pulled down to his that one of the prisoners was acting as a spy for eyes...

...army officer recognized him...

...The soldiers took Jara to a broadcast booth, “Bring that son of a bitch over here to me...

...by paul Cantor years ago of Víctor Jara, the legendary Chilean his eyes swollen shut...

...But as the than 12,000 to the Chilean Supreme songwriter Holly Near points out in Court, demanding that the case be her song titled “It Could Have Been reopened...

...Rather, acting as an agent of beaten Jara—the judge declared the Nixon White House and the most the case closed, provoking a public reactionary force within Chile, it was outcry...

...saw Jara’s body...

...His face was painted...

...In May, the Jara Foundation out to kill the idea that democratic delivered a petition signed by more socialism was a possibility...

...Imagine walking down the street and seeing someone who tortured and killed a loved one sipping tea in a café while knowing that pickpockets and prostitutes are serving time in jail...

...Later, recalls ordered a soldier, according to Boris Navia, a law Carlos Orellana, another of Jara’s colleagues arprofessor at the UTE who was arrested with Jara...

...poem...

...Your songs are pure shit...

...After his brief encounter with Jara, Orellana dio Nacional, another sports stadium in Santiago open forum Paul Cantor teaches economics at Norwalk Community College in Connecticut...

...Then their tormentors were called where Jara and thousands of others were held, away to help deal with the arrival of a new group many of them tortured and murdered...

...The poem, untitled but popularly known Witnesses report he was beaten at the time of as “El Estadio,” later made its way to the outside his arrest and en route to the stadium, where an world and became famous...

...4 SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2008 J wr countr in yone when ges ought br oan jara, char víctor’s against widow, those first become ever a healthy the democracy y is again conA far ong...

...The superand the resistance of many Chileans to ficial answer, according to this point opening old wounds—nothing came of view, is that most likely it was a of her action or others like it...

...On his belt, a pistol...

...Over one shoulder hung a machine gun...

...The military “command responsibility,” but not as junta in Chile was not out just to kill having pulled the trigger or directly a man...

...On their way out of the Estadio Chile they popular songwriter who now lay at his feet...

...people to justice, 35 years after Jara was murdered...

...Along with hundreds of students and to follow them...

...Don’t treat him like a young lady, damn it...

...reason to believe that he wouldn’t make it out of And he stood with his black boots spread wide...

...With litical activist, and teacher...

...charged in 2004 with Jara’s murder, and his conviction in May...

...It could have been me, but instead it was you So I’ll keep doing the work you were doing as if I were two...

...O of Manríquez guilty of the murder 35 face were soon covered with blood and one and hair Jara’ a of son you Communist, Mario former Fuentes n may 15, found chilean judge colonel juan eduardo teach you how to sing Chilean bitch...

...But af- to go to overthrow even peaceful, ter that conviction—in which Man- democratic governments it considers ríquez is identified as having had threats to its interests...

...On the soldiers...

...Following the other him, under guard, was Danilo Bartulin, one of 9/11—the bloody 1973 coup d’état, led by Au- Allende’s doctors...

...The soldier, following orders, struck Jara in the back with the butt of his rifle, sending him and other prisoners were transferred to the Estasprawling face forward to the ground...

...In other words, Orellana has said, his chest was a hand grenade...

...How important is it to bring these When it’s sung the whole world round...

...I’m going to of the stadium...

...in Washington, D.C...

...Fuck your mother...

...The more substantive the lawyer for the Víctor Jara Foundation, which Joan founded (www...

...military would react to prosecutions, “Who killed Víctor Jara...

...husband in 1978...

...After a the State Technical University (UTE), where he time two soldiers appeared and signaled for him worked...

...He worked in Chile as a journalist from 1971 to March 1973, returning shortly after the September 11 coup as a witness to its aftermath...

...Jara passed the two pieces of pacolleagues, he was forced to jog with his hands per back to Navia as he rose to go...

...tary that year provided amnesty to its That is one argument...

...There, according to Bartulin, they were Salvador Allende—Manríquez was put in charge beaten “from seven in the evening until three in of the makeshift prison at the Estadio Chile, the morning...

...and others respond, “Presente...

...Jara was made to join Bartulin, gusto Pinochet and supported by the United and the two of them were led to an underground States, against the Popular Unity government of walkway...

...songs s that aren’t folksinger, songwriter, actor, director, poet, po- Then Colonel Manríquez showed up...

...the officer started to that had been converted into a concentration rant as he began kicking the well-known and camp...

...murder...

...You’re the Marxist and piled together with other bodies in the foyer singer...

...mer of food and a righter of who tortured and murdered her fident that wearing or having once It could have been me, but instead That is exactly the sentiment answer is, the people at the top of echoed at political rallies and other the chain of command, a chain that events when someone yells, “Víctor in this case leads all the way from Jara...

...But in soldier from a poor or working-class August 1999, when Nelson Caucoto, background...

...Chile will only I’ll be a student of life, a singer of songs too...

...He wore dark glasses...

...September 15...

...It was at that point that they manríquez is awaiting sentencing while the judge is aged to join their companions in the stadium’s attempting to determine who else was directly tiers of seats...

...NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS Who Killed Víctor Jara...

...It was riddled with bullet holes “You’re Víctor Jara, asshole...

...That, together with the Me,” it failed: fact that many more former stadium prisoners have come forward The junta broke the fingers on offering to testify, led to the judge Víctor Jara’s hands agreeing on June 3 to continue the They said to the gentle poet, investigation into Jara’s torture and “Play your guitar now if you can...

...Others members for actions carried out in the think it is more important to move aftermath of the coup, fear of how the up the chain of command than down...

...fundacionvictorjara.cl), once again filed a lawsuit against her husband’s killers, Chile to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Yes, Víctor, you are here in our hearts the climate had changed dramatically...

...He reand the struggle to identify the murderers: sponded by scrounging two sheets of paper and Jara was detained on September 12, 1973, at a pen from Navia and starting to write...

...Here is what we know about the circumstances surrounding the death, the discovery of the body, a number of prisoners were to be released...