Truth and Justice for Victor Jara!

Chilean Communist Party (Proletarian Action)

These days we have witnessed, in Chile and the whole world, a new crime against the historic memory of the peoples, the closing of the investigation into the case of the emblematic Chilean singer Victor Jara not only shows the moral corruption of the Chilean Judicial Power, but also shows perhaps in a very underhanded manner the intention of the supporters of the system to erase the history of the country ‘in one stroke’.

The minister in charge of the case, Juan Eduardo Fuentes, justifies his decision with the argument that all inquiries had been exhausted, and that the final result of the investigation placed sole responsibility for the crime on retired Army Colonel, Mario Manríquez Bravo. It left the latter as the only person accused as the author of the murder, and further stated that it was impossible to discover the identity of ‘The Prince’ who, according to the survivors of the Chile Stadium, was the direct author of the crime against Victor, since the parliamentary representatives Antonio Leal, Ximena Vidal and Tucapel Jimenez assured in a press conference that the Army knows the name of the official called ‘The Prince’. Here there clearly exists evidence of enormous contradictions among the supporters of the system. On the one hand, the ‘justice’ system claims the impossibility of providing the identity of ‘The Prince’ and, on the other hand, these representatives appear putting responsibility on the Army for its refusal to provide evidence. Also one must mention the fact that some years ago the so-called Funa Commission made a public accusation of the presumed murderer of Victor, a person identified as Edwin Dimter Bianchi, who was ‘The Prince’.

Edwin Dimter Bianchi ‘The Prince’, Presumed Murderer of Victor

The death of Victor Jara is surrounded by cruelty and brutality. Victor lived and died for the higher cause of the necessary transformation of the world, for a true democracy for his people and the peoples of the whole world, but today, 34 years since his murder, we cannot say: Victor, at last we have democracy and your death has not been in vain! The cruel assassination of Victor Jara can in no way go unpunished, truth and justice for Victor and all our fallen are needed, but it is impossible under this dual administration of the right-wing. The impunity in the ‘emblematic Case of Victor Jara’ continues to clearly show for whom the Concertación [coalition of the governing parties – translator’s note] and the Alliance govern Chile. Rather than words and ‘salutes to the flag’ in repudiating this act of cowardice and ineffectiveness of the judicial system and the government as a whole, one must come out more forcefully to face the maintainers of this system. True justice for Victor and all our fallen will be to win socialism for Chile. Rather than hope for ‘democratic’ gestures from the old right and the Concertados [members of the governing Concertación – translator’s note], we must advance toward justice for those who are no longer there, for those of us who remain and for those who will come; socialism.

There are five thousand of us here
in this small part of the city.
We are five thousand.
I wonder how many we are in all
in the cities and in the whole country?
Here alone
are ten thousand hands which plant seeds
and make the factories run.
How much humanity
exposed to hunger, cold, panic, pain,
moral pressure, terror and insanity?
Six of us were lost
as if into starry space.
One dead, another beaten as I could never have believed
a human being could be beaten.
The other four wanted to end their terror
one jumping into nothingness,
another beating his head against a wall,
but all with the fixed stare of death.
What horror the face of fascism creates!
They carry out their plans with knife-like precision.
Nothing matters to them.
To them, blood equals medals,
slaughter is an act of heroism.
Oh God, is this the world that you created,
for this your seven days of wonder and work?
Within these four walls only a number exists
which does not progress,
which slowly will wish more and more for death.
But suddenly my conscience awakes
and I see that this tide has no heartbeat,
only the pulse of machines
and the military showing their midwives’ faces
full of sweetness.
Let Mexico, Cuba and the world
cry out against this atrocity!
We are ten thousand hands
which can produce nothing.
How many of us in the whole country?
The blood of our President, our compañero,
will strike with more strength than bombs and machine guns!
So will our fist strike again!
How hard it is to sing
when I must sing of horror.
Horror which I am living,
horror which I am dying.
To see myself among so much
and so many moments of infinity
in which silence and screams
are the end of my song.
What I see, I have never seen
What I have felt and what I feel
Will give birth to the moment ...

Chile Stadium, September 1973.

English translation of the poem by Joan Jara.

Reopen the ‘Case of Victor Jara’ Now!
Truth and Justice for All the Victims of the Dictatorship!
Another Chile Is Necessary: A Socialist Chile That Victor and All the Fallen Dreamed Of!


Tuesday, May 20, 2008

http://accionproletaria.com/2007/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=112&Itemid=53#akocomment161

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