Chilean-American to Stand Trial for Death of Victor Jara

April 16, 2015 by Leave a Comment

September of 1973 was one of the worst months I can remember living through, and September 11 the worst day until another 38 years later.   A bright and hopeful new, democratically elected government in Chile, was smashed by Chilean armed forces, aided and abetted by the United States.  Thousands were rounded up.  Many were tortured and killed, among them Victor Jara, an internationally known singer song-writer.  His guitar hand was crushed and he was killed.  By the end of the regime in 1990 some 40,000 Chilean citizens had been detained, many of them tortured.  Over 200,000 left the country for exile.

Now, perhaps, one of those responsible, will get some time to reflect on what he did.

“A US judge has ordered a former Chilean army officer to stand trial in Florida in connection with the killing of folk singer Victor Jara in 1973.

Pedro Barrientos, who has US citizenship and lives in Florida, will answer charges of torture and extrajudicial killing.

Jara was one of thousands of people rounded up at a stadium in the capital Santiago after the coup that brought General Augusto Pinochet to power.

He was tortured and shot dead.”

 BBC

Filed under Latin America, Torture Tagged with , , ,

Iraq Vet Offers to Family He Destroyed — His Anguish

October 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment

In a powerful article called Atonement in The New Yorker by the unparalleled Dexter Filkins we get a story that should be part of every recruiting package to anyone who thinks joining the armed forces is a good thing to do.

It tells of Lu Lobello, a hell-raising kid who joined the U.S. Marines and found himself in a fire-fight in Baghdad that nothing. nothing, nothing, had prepared him — or any of his squad– for.  Trained only for “when in doubt, light ’em up,” he was part of a massacre of an Armenian Christian family who were themselves trying to get out of harms way.  His memories of the afternoon have destroyed the rest of his life:  dishonorable discharge, heavy drinking,  continual insomnia.  Finally, in desperation, he decided to track down the young woman in the car they had shot at. And he found her — living in the United States, her shattered shoulder healed.  Filkins, who had written about the family after the incident, helped arrange a meeting between Lobello and Nora Kachadoorian.  And, out of uniform, away free fire zones and in the deepest wonder of human beings, he found forgiveness.

This is a story you will long remember.  It should be widely known, and read for all its lessons:

  • once in a war, you don’t get to chose what happens
  • what happens in 10 minutes may affect the rest of your life
  • bullets don’t know good guys from bad
  • no matter what you’ve prepared for, you haven’t prepared for this
  • no matter what your superiors tell you, they haven’t planned for this
  • some people, some times, find empathy beyond the imaginable

Some excerpts… but read it all..  New Yorker Oct 29 & Nov 5  [Sorry, no complete link.  You have to log in, or buy the issue, or go the library or a friend with a subscription, and of which will reward you] Read more of this post

Filed under War Tagged with , , , , , ,