Pinochet-era soldier jailed for killing folk singer 53 years ago

Víctor Jara was arrested and killed by soldiers in the coup that brought the rightwing dictator Augusto Pinochet to power in Chile in 1973. Photograph: Fundacion Victor Jara, Antonio L/AP View image in fullscreen Víctor Jara was arrested and killed by soldiers in the coup that brought the rightwing dictator Augusto Pinochet to power in Chile in 1973. Photograph: Fundacion Victor Jara, Antonio L/AP Pinochet-era soldier jailed for killing folk singer 53 years ago Nelson Haase Mazzei was sentenced for murdering Víctor Jara in 2023, but fled from authorities in Chile More than 50 years after the murder of the Chilean folk singer Víctor Jara , the last man wanted in connection with his death has been tracked down and brought to justice. Nelson Haase Mazzei, a retired colonel, fled from authorities in 2023 after he and six other retired soldiers were sentenced in absentia for murdering Jara and another man. Chilean police announced on Saturday that Haase Mazzei had been arrested in Puyehue, in the rural south of the country, with a judge ordering his immediate imprisonment. The Víctor Jara Foundation, set up by his widow, the British dancer and activist Joan Jara, said in a brief statement: “We learned that retired Colonel Nelson Haase Mazzei, who had been a fugitive from justice since 2023, was found and imprisoned. We welcome this news. “However, it is important for us to emphasize that, half a century after the murders of Víctor Jara and Littré Quiroga, it is difficult to see this as this justice.” Jara, a singer and leftwing activist, was arrested in Santiago, the capital of Chile, on 11 September 1973, the day after Gen Augusto Pinochet’s bloody US-backed coup to depose the socialist president, Salvador Allende. View image in fullscreen Víctor Jara’s widow, Joan, who died in 2023, was a British dancer and activist who set up a foundation in her late husband’s name. Photograph: Roberto Candia/AP Jara was held along with thousands of others at a small covered stadium in central Santiago. Four days later, he was murdered in the changing rooms alongside Allende’s national director of prisons, Littré Quiroga. Haase Mazzei’s arrest is likely to be the final act in the long quest for justice on behalf of Jara, one of the most recognisable victims of the Pinochet dictatorship, which killed or disappeared more than 3,000 people and detained and tortured tens of thousands during 17 years of repressive rule. At the stadium, Jara was tortured and humiliated by officers who played Russian roulette with him before breaking his hands, shattering his skull, and riddling him with automatic gunfire. His body was found dumped near the main cemetery in Santiago with 44 bullet wounds and 56 broken bones. He was 40 years old. The body of Quiroga, who had been shot 23 times, was found at the same time. After evading justice for nearly half a century, seven retired soldiers were found guilty of the murder and sentenced in absentia to varying jail terms in August 2023. Ha