Te Recuerdo Joan
An obituary of Joan Jara (November 22, 2023) in a major U.S. newspaper conveyed her admirable impact on the arts and human rights. She will be missed.
In describing advocacy to hold her husband’s murderer Pedro Barrientos to account, however, the article omits the U.S. role in training Barrientos and aiding the coup which provided cover for the killing. Barrientos trained at the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas in 1968.
While working at nonprofit School of the Americas Watch in 2013, colleagues Arturo Viscarra, María Luisa Rosal, Pablo Ruiz, and I initiated a mass postcard writing campaign, sending thousands of personalized letters to U.S. officials in support of Jara’s work with the Center for Justice and Accountability to extradite Barrientos.
The number of U.S.-trained Chilean soldiers increased significantly for three consecutive years before the military overthrew democratically-elected President Salvador Allende in 1973. While the Nixon Administration’s supportive role in the bloody coup is well established, revelatory documents implicating the U.S. — and Henry Kissinger, specifically — continue to be published.
As we recognize Jara’s legacy, hold domestic officials accountable for violent U.S. policy in Latin America, a significant push factor in the ongoing forced migration crisis.
Update: On December 1, 2023, Pedro Barrientos was extradited to Chile, arriving on an afternoon flight from Miami to Santiago airport, where he was then helicoptered to a police barracks.
Update 2: On December 6, this article was published in Spanish on the Chilean news site Derecho a la Paz.
