More than 50 years after the murder of Chilean folk singer Víctor Jara, the last man wanted in connection with his death has been tracked down and brought to justice. Nelson Haase Mazzei, a retired colonel, was arrested in Puyehue, southern Chile, on Saturday, according to Chilean police. A judge ordered his immediate imprisonment.
Fugitive since 2023
Haase Mazzei fled from authorities in 2023 after he and six other retired soldiers were sentenced in absentia for murdering Jara and Littré Quiroga, the national director of prisons under President Salvador Allende. The Víctor Jara Foundation, set up by Jara's widow, Joan Jara, said in a statement: “We learned that retired Colonel Nelson Haase Mazzei, who had been a fugitive from justice since 2023, was found and imprisoned. We welcome this news. However, it is important for us to emphasize that, half a century after the murders of Víctor Jara and Littré Quiroga, it is difficult to see this as justice.”
Jara's murder in 1973
Jara, a singer and leftwing activist, was arrested in Santiago on 11 September 1973, the day after General Augusto Pinochet's US-backed coup. He was held at a small covered stadium in central Santiago, where he was tortured and humiliated. Officers played Russian roulette with him before breaking his hands, shattering his skull, and riddling him with automatic gunfire. His body was found dumped near the main cemetery in Santiago with 44 bullet wounds and 56 broken bones. He was 40 years old. Quiroga's body, shot 23 times, was found at the same time.
Long quest for justice
Haase Mazzei's arrest is likely the final act in the long quest for justice for Jara, one of the most recognisable victims of the Pinochet dictatorship, which killed or disappeared more than 3,000 people and detained and tortured tens of thousands during 17 years of repressive rule. In August 2023, seven retired soldiers were found guilty of the murder and sentenced in absentia to varying jail terms. Haase Mazzei received a 25-year sentence. He claimed for years he was not at the stadium, now renamed Estadio Víctor Jara, but sworn testimony placed him there.
Haase Mazzei's background
Haase Mazzei joined the Chilean army's Tejas Verde brigade in 1972 and later served in Pinochet's secret police, the Dirección Nacional de Inteligencia (Dina), where he worked closely with its leader, Manuel Contreras, who was sentenced to more than 500 years for crimes against humanity before his death in 2015. Sentenced alongside Haase Mazzei was 86-year-old Hernán Chacón, who took his own life in 2023 when police arrived to arrest him. Another officer, Pedro Barrientos, was deported from the US to Chile in December 2023 after a decade-long extradition effort. One former soldier testified that Barrientos had the habit of brandishing his pistol and declaring, “I killed Víctor Jara with this!”
Haase Mazzei's transfer request
Haase Mazzei's defence has already requested his transfer from a prison in Osorno to Punta Peuco, a well-appointed jail north of Santiago built to house human rights criminals of the Pinochet era. Jara's widow, Joan Jara, died at age 96 in 2023, just weeks before Barrientos was returned to Chile.
