One of the those complicit in the US backed torture and murder of Victor Jara

[ConsAreLiars]

is being brought to trial in Chile.

It was the atrocity which symbolised Chile's descent into dictatorship: soldiers used rifle butts to smash the hands of Victor Jara, a political activist and folk singer, so he could not play guitar. Then they shot him 44 times.

Yesterday, almost 36 years later, justice caught up with one of killers. José Adolfo Paredes Márquez, a former conscript in Augusto Pinochet's army, was charged with murder.

The burly 54-year-old was tracked down in San Sebastian, a spa town outside the capital Santiago, where he was working as a waiter and gardener.

Activists who have campaigned for the case to be reopened welcomed the announcement but urged authorities to focus on arresting commanding officers. "There are other people responsible – those who ordered the torture and the execution," said Joan Turner Jara, the singer's English-born widow.

More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/28/chile-regime-murder-charge-victor-jara

Too many will ask, "Victor who?" Go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Jara
Much more here, including, some playable/savable mp3 music files: http://www.sreyes.org/vjindex.htm

As for the US role in the military coup that brought the murderous dictator Pinochet to power, look it up, but here is a short summary of the School of the Americas training of the particularly sadistic officer who was identified as responsible for those horrible crimes:

In recent months, and after various testimonies from ex-prisoners, Victor Jara’s alleged killer was identified as Edwin Dimter Bianchi. A Chilean military officer with a bad reputation (he was also known as “El Loco Dimter”) who in 1970 attended the School of the Americas (SOA), then located in Panama, and completed a one month course in “Combat Arms Orientation”. Shortly after his stint at the SOA, Dimter participated in the failed coup attempt against Salvador Allende in June of 1973 known as the “Tanquetazo” led by a rogue military brigade. Dimter and his fellow conspirators were arrested and then set free shortly after the successful coup of September 11, 1973. Upon his release, he was assigned to serve in the Estadio Chile.

Survivors of the detention center have testified that on his arrival at the stadium he was full of spite and vengeful due to his recent imprisonment under the Unidad Popular and quickly gained a reputation as a sadist. Due to his good looks and arrogant swagger he received the nickname “The Prince”. An ex-prisoner, Chilean attorney Boris Navia, described “the Prince’s” modus operandi: “He would make rounds through the different levels of the Stadium screaming insults and intimidating prisoners. He would show up unexpectedly in a section of the Stadium and the prisoners had to remain silent in his presence. He behaved like a frustrated stage actor. He always carried a leather club and when he walked through the rows of prisoners who were waiting to be brought into the stadium and had been on their knees for hours and hours with their hands on their heads he would hit and insult them”. In another episode described by ex prisoners, “The Prince”, ordered another soldier to kill a prisoner by beating him with his rifle after he tripped and stumbled over his legs. According to testimonies such as these, Dimter was directly involved in the beating and death of Victor Jara.

More at http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0808-30.htm

Not enough justice, there are far worse criminals here in the US still being paraded around and praised and profiting enormously because of the mass suffering and murders of millions they have caused on behalf of their corporate masters, but this is one one more grain of sand on the scales.

(edit tiny typo)

[EFerrari]

1. Having your hand smashed is horribly painful.

Having both smashed, unimaginable.

[mahina]

2. singing! "It Could Have Been Me", by Holly Near

Verse:
Students in Ohio 200 yards away
Shot down by a nameless fire one early day in May
Some people cried out angry you should have shot more of them down
But you can't bury youth my friend
Youth grows the whole world round

Verse:
The junta broke the fingers on Victor Jara's hands
They said to the gentle poet "play your guitar now if you can"
Victor started singing but they brought his body down
You can kill that man but not his song
When it's sung the whole world round


Chorus:
It could have been me, but instead it was you
So I'll keep doing the work you were doing as if Iwere two
I'll be a student of life, a singer of songs
A farmer of food and a righter of wrong
It could have been me, but instead it was you
And it may be me dear sisters and brother
Before we are through
But if you can work for freedom
Freedom, freedom, freedom
If you can work ( die, sing, live, work, speak) for freedom
I can too
If you can die for freedom I can too

Verse:
A woman in the jungle so many wars away
Studies late into the night, defends the village in the day
Although her skin is golden like mine will never be
Her song is heard and i know the words
And i'll sing them until she's free

Additional verses added over time:

Verse:
One night in Oklahoma Karen Silkwood died
Because she had some secrets that big companies wanted to hide
There's talk of nuclear safety and there's talk of national pride
But we all know it is a death machine and that's why Karen died


Verse:
The songs of Nicaragua and El Salvador
Will long outlast the singers who face the guns in war
They sing at the line of fire, they sing from the fire within
All across the land the poets stand
El pueblo unido jamas sera vencida
El pueblo unido jamas sera vencida

[ConsAreLiars]

4. Holly Near has always sung the truth

for decades. I've admired her for decades, and last heard her perform about five years ago. One of those utterly clear sighted and good hearted troubadours who will never get promoted by Corporate Media. That chorus gets it exactly right.

[rabs]

3. There was a re-enactment of Jara's death reported on Thursday

reported by the Santiago newspaper La Nacion. The walk-through was on May 22, a week ago.


The Victor Jara Stadium as it appears today

The story names the army officer who first shot Jara in the head and then ordered conscripts, including José Paredes Márquez (54) to empty their rifles into Jara's body.

The word among the Unidad Popular at the time was that before killing him, the soldiers had smashed both his hands with rifle butts and taunted him, "Now play your guitar."

Paredes has said that Jara and several other prisoners were separated from others who were taken to the National Stadium on Sept. 15, four days after the overthrow of Allende's government.

Paredes identified the officer who ordered Jara's execution as Army Lt. Nelson Haase Mazzei, the officer in charge of the Estadio Chile prisoners, and the officer who shot Jara in the head as Lt. Pedro Barrientos. Barrientos, with Haase's consent, then ordered Paredes and at least three other conscripts to empty their rifles into Jara's corpse.

Btw, there is a glaring error in the Guardian article. Jara was killed in the Estadio Chile, not the National Football (soccer) stadium. The enclosed Estadio Chile is near downtown Santiago, while the soccer stadium is several kilometers away in the Nunoa sector of the capital. The Estadio Chile has since been renamed the Victor Jara Stadium.

The investigation into Jara's death is part of the ongoing trials of former military officers and soldiers accused of crimes against humanity during the Pinochet dictatorship.


(Spanish) http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias_v2/site/artic/20090528/pags/20090528224458.html

(edited to correct date of re-enactment)

[billyoc]

5. Mi canto es un canto libre,

que se quiere regalar.

[TomClash]

6. "Those Washington bullets again" nt

[Wednesdays]

7. K&R

:kick:

[ConsAreLiars]

8. kick for a few more reads, and as a reminder

of how rarely those who torture and murder in service to the Corporate Masters get punished.


And as a tribute to Victor Jara and so many more.