Retired Colonel Nelson Haase Mazzei has been arrested and imprisoned after fleeing justice for over 50 years for the murder of Víctor Jara.
Chilean police announced that Nelson Haase Mazzei, a retired colonel, has been arrested in the rural south of the country and ordered into immediate imprisonment. He was the last remaining fugitive in connection with the murder of folk singer Víctor Jara, who was killed during the 1973 US-backed coup led by Augusto Pinochet. Haase Mazzei was sentenced in absentia in 2023 for the murder of Jara and Littré Quiroga. While he had claimed for years that he was not at the stadium where the murders occurred, sworn testimony placed him at the scene. He received a 25-year sentence for his role in the murder of Jara, who was tortured and riddled with 44 bullet wounds. The arrest of Nelson Haase Mazzei marks the final act in a long quest for justice for one of the most recognizable victims of the Pinochet dictatorship. His defense has requested a transfer to a well-appointed jail north of Santiago specifically built to house human rights criminals from that era.