Chile Arrests Retired Colonel Wanted for Killing Folk Singer in 1973
Judge Paola Plaza ordered his immediate imprisonment after police found the retired colonel, the last convicted officer still not serving a sentence.
- Chilean police captured retired Colonel Nelson Haase Mazzei on Saturday in Puyehue, ending three years as a fugitive after his conviction for kidnapping and murdering folk singer Victor Jara.
- Jara, a symbol of the New Chilean Song movement, was murdered on September 16, 1973, five days after General Augusto Pinochet's coup overthrew President Salvador Allende.
- After five years of appeals, the Supreme Court sentenced Haase Mazzei to 25 years and two days in prison; Judge Paola Plaza ordered his "immediate imprisonment" as the final convict to begin serving.
- "We appreciate this news," said Jara's daughter Amanda Jara, though she added it is "difficult to consider this justice" while the family advocates for broader accountability.
- During the 17-year dictatorship, official documents estimate more than 2,000 executed and 1,469 victims of enforced disappearance; Chile has established truth commissions investigating violations committed between 1973 and 1990.
82 Articles
82 Articles
We Shall Prevail: An Echo That Doesn't Die
More than 50 years after the murder of Chilean folk singer Victor Jara, the last man convicted of killing him has been tracked down and brought to justice. In 1973, a day after Pinochet's coup, Jara was seized, tortured, his hands broken to silence what was deemed music "more powerful than a thousand machine guns." Today, in a world tilting right, he remains an icon of resistance. Manifiesto: “A song has meaning/ When it beats in the veins/ Of a…
Chile: Last Fugitive in Víctor Jara Murder Case Captured
Chilean police have reported the capture of former military officer Nelson Haase Mazzei, who had been a fugitive since 2023 for the kidnapping and murder of singer-songwriter Víctor Jara and prison director Littre Quiroga, during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Security forces located the fugitive last Sunday, July 26, on a rural plot in the commune of Puyehue. The former officer was immediately transferred to a penitentiary center to serv…
Nelson Haase Mazzei, the last wanted man in the case of the 1973 assassination of Chilean folk musician and political activist Víctor Jara, has been apprehended. The retired colonel, who had been on the run since 2023, will be sent to prison immediately.
Chile: Sentences against Víctor Jara's murderers upheld — MercoPress
Chile's Supreme Court Monday sentenced seven retired military officers involved in the Sept. 12, 1973, kidnapping and murder of singer-songwriter Víctor Jara to 25 years in jail, it was reported in Santiago. Those convicted are between 73 and 85 years old and are all at liberty.
Associated Press News
A fugitive colonel is finally jailed in Chilean Víctor Jara's murder case, decades after the crime
Chilean police have arrested a retired military colonel for the killing of singer-songwriter Víctor Jara over 50 years ago.
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