Fugitive in 1973 murder of iconic singer Victor Jara is captured

Police have captured a fugitive who was convicted of kidnapping and murdering iconic singer-songwriter Victor Jara in 1973, during Chile’s military dictatorship, a Justice Department statement said Sunday.

Author of songs such as “El derecho de vivir en paz” (The Right to Live in Peace), Jara was a major figure of New Chilean Song, a musical and social movement of the 1960s.

Former military officer Nelson Haase was convicted of the death of Jara, who was tortured and murdered with 44 bullets on September 16, 1973, five days after Augusto Pinochet’s coup against then-President Salvador Allende. He was 40 years old.

“He was subjected to physical torture, the most severe blows being those he received to his face and hands,” according to court documents from 2023.

On August 28, 2023, weeks before the 50th anniversary of the coup and the assassination of Jara, seven retired military officers were sentenced for his death to prison terms ranging from eight to 25 years.

Haase, 80, fled when his 25-year sentence was announced.

“An order has been issued for the imprisonment of retired military officer Nelson Haase Mazzei,” said the Justice Department statement sent to AFP.

According to local media, the former officer was found in the Los Lagos region, 590 miles south of the capital.

Another of the seven men convicted, General Hernan Chacon, 85, died by suicide when police went to arrest him in 2023. The other five are in prison, including Pedro Barrientos, who was arrested by ICE during a traffic stop in Florida in 2023.

“On Sept. 11, 1973, General Augusto Pinochet led a violent coup against Salvador Allende, the democratically elected president of Chile,” ICE said in a statement at the time. “In the following weeks, many people were detained and tortured in Chile Stadium, an indoor sports facility that the military commandeered as a de facto detention center. Many disappeared or were executed. Victor Jara, a popular folk musician, was among the most famous victims.”

In 2003, Chile Stadium was renamed after Victor Jara.

The murder of Jara is considered one of the most heinous crimes committed by the dictatorship (1973-1990), which left a toll of 3,200 victims, including both those killed and disappeared.