Key facts
- Retired Colonel Nelson Haase Mazzei has been arrested in Chile, three years after becoming a fugitive.
- Haase Mazzei was convicted of the kidnapping and murder of folk singer Victor Jara and Littré Quiroga Carvajal during the Pinochet dictatorship.
- He was sentenced to 25 years and two days in prison.
- Victor Jara was tortured and killed in 1973, five days after the military coup that overthrew President Salvador Allende.
- Haase Mazzei was the last of those convicted in the case to begin serving his sentence.
Retired Colonel Nelson Haase Mazzei has been arrested in Chile, more than 50 years after the murder of popular singer-songwriter Victor Jara. Haase Mazzei had been a fugitive for three years after being convicted of kidnapping and murdering Jara and Littré Quiroga Carvajal during the 1973-1990 military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. He was sentenced to 25 years and two days in prison. Jara, a member of the Communist Party and a prominent figure of the New Chilean Song movement, was arrested on campus and taken to Chile Stadium, where he was tortured and executed. His body was found with 44 bullet wounds and multiple fractures. The crimes are considered emblematic of the dictatorship's brutality. Haase Mazzei, 80, was the last of those convicted to begin serving his sentence. Jara's daughter, Amanda Jara, stated that while the arrest is appreciated, it is difficult to consider it complete justice, expressing hope that authorities will find all fugitives accused of crimes against humanity.