The Long Arm of The Law Reaches Out From Chile to NYC to Deltona, Florida

In Jacksonville on Wednesday, a lawsuit was filed against the alleged murderer of a Chilean folk singer. The suit is brought on behalf of a 1973 Chilean murder victim's estate, his widow and and his two surviving adult offspring against a former Chilean military officer trained at the School of the Americas in Panama.

The wrongful death lawsuit was filed on September 4, 2013 against a Deltona man. The Chilean immigrant allegedly murdered Victor Jara, a folk musician, song writer, university professor and progressive activist who supported Chilean President Salvador Allende and helped to get him elected with his songs about inequality.

Pedro Pablo Barrientos Nunez (Barrientos), the defendant, now living in Deltona, Florida, is graphically and in detail described in the complaint as torturing and killing Chilean folk musician Victor Jara after the September 11, 1973 coup led by General Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet's coup plotters killed some 3000 Chileans.

Barrientos is subject of a pending extradition request by Chile, and is charged with muurdering Victor Jara. The Orlando Sentinel says it was unable to reach him for comment.

United States District Judge Marcia Morales Howard of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida (Jacksonville Division) is assigned to the case, Jara v. Barrientos, which asks for a Jury Trial.

It was Judge Howard who found in 2009 that the City of St. Augustine violated the First Amendment in its unconstitutional mistreatment of visual artists, resulting in an out-of-court settlement and payment of attorney fees. Before John Regan became City Manager, our City of St. Augustine arresed hundreds of artists and entertainers over the years in violation of the First Amendment, and has repeatedly been fund to have acted illegally.

The lawsuit was filed by the Jacksonville law firm of Smith, Hulsey & Busey, the international law firm of Chadbourne & Park LLP and the Center for Accountability and Justice on behalf of Victor Jara's estate, widow and surviving adult offspring.