US expels an ex-Chilean army officer accused of a folk singer's torture and murder

MIAMI– The US has deported a former Chilean army officer accused of torturing and killing folk singer Victor Jara during the bloody 1973 coup.

Pedro Barrientos had emigrated to Florida in 1990, the same year that the bloody dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet came to an end.

This year, he was stripped of his U.S. citizenship after it emerged that he had concealed information about his Chilean military service during his immigration proceedings.

A popular singer and university professor, Jara was a staunch supporter of socialist President Salvador Allende. He was captured and taken to a stadium in Santiago where thousands of prisoners were being held, just hours after Pinochet attacked the presidential palace and overthrew Allende on September 11, 1973. There he was beaten and shot with at least 44 bullets. the first of more than 3,000 Chileans killed for opposing Pinochet's iron rule.

Barrientos has always denied any involvement in Jara's murder

But in 2016, a federal jury in Florida found him liable for Jara's torture and murder in a civil lawsuit filed by Jara's widow, British dancer Joan Turner Jara.

Homeland Security Investigations said Barrientos was removed from a flight from Miami on Thursday and taken into custody by Chilean law enforcement officials upon his arrival in the South American country.