Latin America

2023/10/13

MIAMI — In one of the last songs Chilean folk singer Víctor Jara ever recorded over 50 years ago, he transformed the ominous verses of one of his homeland’s greatest poets into a ballad of stubborn and hopeful nation-building.

“I do not want the country divided, or bled out by seven knives, I want Chile’s light raised over the new house built,” he sings in “Aquí me quedo,” (Here I stay), blending the words of Pablo Neruda with the thrum of guitars.

Jara never finished what would become his final album. In September 1973, he was tortured and killed during a military coup that brought General Augusto Pinochet to power in the South American nation. Jara’s wife and children have fought for half a century to hold accountable those responsible. But it wasn’t until earlier this month that Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced authorities had arrested Pedro Barrientos Núñez, an ex-Chilean Armed Forces Lieutenant suspected of executing Jara, during a traffic stop in Volusia County, Florida, on Oct. 5.

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The American government secretly spent millions to weaken Allende and Chile’s left in the ‘60s and ‘70s. The CIA revealedin declassified documents that it had tried to launch a separate coup right after Allende’s victory. The agency said it didn’t help with the 1973 coup. But it acknowledged in the records knowing about the plan, being in contact with some of its masterminds for intelligence collection, not discouraging the takeover, and “actively” backing the military junta after the ousting.

Over 3,000 people were killed, disappeared and executed for political reasons during Pinochet’s repressive government, according to Chilean government estimates. Tens of thousands more were detained, persecuted and tortured.

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