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Joan Jara, wife of the Chilean singer and songwriter Victor Jara, murdered and tortured by the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, died today in Santiago, Chile, at the age of 96, his family said. Joan, who since her husband’s mutilated body was found in September 1973, had dedicated her life to the search for justice, died just two weeks before the United States extradited retired Chilean Army lieutenant Pedro Barrientos, convicted in the country, to Chile. North American as material responsible for the crime and torture of the singer and composer and the penitentiary director of Salvador Allende’s government, Littré Quiroga.
“We regret to inform you that our beloved Joan Jara, aged 96, passed away today, November 12th, at 5:30 pm”, confirmed, in turn, the Victor Jara Foundationin a short message.
???? We regret to inform you that our beloved Joan Jara, aged 96, passed away today, November 12th, at 5:30 pm.
We will soon be informing you about his funeral.
???? Milko Ulloa. pic.twitter.com/DoXzaLL5DB
— Víctor Jara Foundation (@FundVictorJara) November 12, 2023
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Sources close to the family told EFE that Funeral will be held from Mondaybut that “the act is still being staged” that filled everyone close to him with sadness, at a time when a ray of happiness appeared with the long-awaited extradition of Barrientoswhich Joan worked for all her life.
The singer and the dancer
Born in 1927 in London, Joan Alison Turner de Jara, better known as Joan Jara, was first a dancer and then a woman in love with one of the most famous singers in South America.
They were united by one determined political activity against the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) and in favor of the memory of her husband and all those tortured, murdered and detained during the repression.
According to his official biography, it was a visit to Haymarket Theater from the hands of her mother, at the age of 15, the one who made her fall in love with dancing, where He met choreographer Kurt Jooss, who discovered his activities.
Two years later he joined the newly opened Sigurd Leeder Dance Schooland three later he joined Jooss Ballets in Germanywith whom she performed in West Germany, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, England, Scotland and Ireland, and where she met Chilean choreographer, dancer and actor Patricio Bunster, whom she would marry.
In Chile, he signed up for the Chilean National Ballet through a competition first as a dancer and then as a choreographer. Additionally, she began teaching at the university, where she met another musician and theater director named Víctor Jara.
Coup d’etat
Divorced and with a daughter, Joan began a relationship with Jara, with whom she had a daughter before the fateful September 11, 1973.day in which the Chilean Army, under the command of General Augusto Pinochet, took up arms against the democratically elected government of socialist Salvador Allende.
Estevawho became famous with his songs with high political and social content, He was arrested that same day at the university and taken with thousands of other people to the national stadium, where he was tortured for five days before being abandoned in an area of Santiago, mutilated and shot to death.
On September 20th, Joan had to perform the body examination and, after the funeral, she had to go into exile in Great Britain with her two daughters, adopting her husband’s surname.
He did not return to Chile until the mid-1980s.date in which he intensified his political activity and created the Spiral Dance Center, fundamental in the training of several generations of dancers and choreographers.
Trial and identification of the culprits
His efforts to clarify the death of Victor Jara and finding the culprits only began to bear fruit in 2009, the year in which The perpetrator of the crime was identified.
Four years later, Chilean judge Miguel Vásquez ruled that Víctor Jara died on September 16, 1973 due to “at least 44 gunshot wounds” shot, among others, by Lieutenant Barrientos. who, according to one of his subordinates, He used to raise his service weapon to declare: “I killed Víctor Jara with this.”
On June 27, 2016, A federal court in Orlando, United States, ruled that the former Chilean soldier, who fled to the United States on a tourist visa and became naturalized after marrying an American, was guilty. of torture and extrajudicial murder of Víctor Jara.
He was ordered to pay compensation of US$28 million to his family, but the Office of Homeland Security Investigations in Tampa, on the Space Coast, in the United States, only arrested him last October.
A few days ago it was reported that Barrientos will be extradited to Chile on November 28 on American Airlines flight number 957, departing from Miami (USA), something Joan fought for her entire life, but will not be able to see.
Source: Elcomercio
I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.
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