LatinNews Daily - 09 June 2016

Chile: On 2 June the US-based human-rights group Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) announced that former Chilean soldier Pedro Pablo Barrientos Núñez will be tried in a Florida court on 13 June for the 1973 murder of Víctor Jara, a singer-songwriter and political activist – one of the most emblematic human-rights violations cases that took place under Chile’s military government (1973-1990) led by General Augusto Pinochet. In September 2013, on behalf of Jara’s family members, CJA filed a civil suit in a Florida court against Barrientos, now a US citizen, on claims of torture and extrajudicial killing. The suit seeks to hold Barrientos accountable for Jara’s torture and murder. Barrientos argued that US courts lacked jurisdiction, but in April 2015 the court ordered the case to move forward. According to a CJA press release, “the witness testimony that CJA attorneys collected during multiple trips to Chile shows that Barrientos is not only responsible for the torture and murder of Víctor Jara, but also helped set up and direct the mass detention center at Chile Stadium, where thousands of citizens were unlawfully arrested, and many were tortured or murdered”.

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