Chile captures fugitive convicted of singer Victor Jara's murder under Pinochet

What the report says

BBC World News reports that Chilean police have detained Nelson Haase, a retired army colonel convicted in the kidnapping and murder of folk singer Victor Jara during the early days of Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship. Haase had been sentenced to 25 years in prison but fled after Chile’s Supreme Court finalized the judgment in August 2023.

According to the BBC, police found Haase on Saturday in Puyehue, in the Los Lagos region, about 950km south of Santiago. He was among eight former officers convicted in 2018 over Jara’s killing, with his final sentence comprising 15 years for murder and 10 years for kidnapping after years of appeals.

Jara, a prominent musician known for protest and pacifist songs and a supporter of ousted socialist president Salvador Allende, was detained after the 1973 coup that brought Pinochet to power. The BBC reports that he was taken with thousands of others to a stadium in Santiago, tortured and shot 44 times, making his death one of the best-known cases linked to repression under the 17-year dictatorship.

The report adds that another convicted officer, Gen. Hernan Chacon, died by suicide when police arrived to arrest him, while five others are imprisoned. In related proceedings, the United States extradited retired army lieutenant Pedro Barrientos to Chile in 2023 after a Florida jury had found him liable for Jara’s murder.