In brief
On Saturday, Chilean police arrested Nelson Haase, a retired colonel convicted in 2018 of kidnapping and murdering folk singer Victor Jara during General Augusto Pinochet’s regime. Haase had fled after his 2023 sentencing and remained on the run for almost three years, making this arrest a landmark moment in the country’s pursuit of justice. The case, which involved 44 gunshot wounds and extensive torture, is one of the most visible examples of the brutal repression that defined Pinochet’s 17‑year dictatorship. Roughly five thousand victims were targeted after the 1973 coup, and Haase’s capture illustrates the continuing reckoning in Chile for past injustices.
Police in Chile say they have captured a man convicted years ago of the kidnapping and murder of popular folk singer Victor Jara under military ruler Augusto Pinochet.
Nelson Haase was one of a group of officers given jail terms for the killing, which took place just five days after the coup that brought Pinochet to power in 1973. He was sentenced to 25 years.
Haase fled when the sentence was announced in August 2023 but was found by police on Saturday in the south of the country.
Jara, who became famous in the 1960s and 70s for his protest and pacifist songs and supported the ousted socialist president Salvador Allende, was subjected to torture and shot 44 times.
He was one of about 5,000 people, arrested in the immediate aftermath of the coup, who were taken to a sports stadium in the capital.
Survivors recounted how soldiers crushed Jara’s fingers and told him he would never be able to play his guitar again. The singer’s case is one of the most striking examples of how the Pinochet dictatorship dealt with its enemies.
Haase, a retired colonel, was one of eight officers found guilty of Jara's murder in 2018. After five years of appeals, the Supreme Court made a final judgement, sentencing him to 15 years for murder and another 10 for kidnapping.
The then 80‑year‑old failed to appear voluntarily to serve his sentence and disappeared for nearly three years. Local media said he was found in Puyehue, in the Los Lagos region 950 km south of Santiago on Saturday.
Another convicted man, Gen Hernán Chacón, died by suicide when police came to arrest him. The remaining five are all in jail.
Also in 2023, the U.S. extradited to Chile retired army lieutenant Pedro Barrientos, who a Florida jury had found liable for Jara’s murder.
