Pedro Barrientos Loses US citizenship for Heinous Crimes
Barrientos illegally acquired citizenship because, having committed illegal acts, given false testimony and participated in extrajudicial executions, he was invalidated to do so, according to the court file.
HAVANA TIMES – A US judge stripped former Chilean lieutenant Pedro Barrientos of US citizenship, who in 2016 was found “responsible” in a Florida court for the torture and extrajudicial murder in 1973 of singer-songwriter Víctor Jara in a civil case.
According to court documents, Judge Roy Dalton of the Central District of Florida stripped Barrientos of his citizenship for his role in the death of the folk singer.
“The naturalization of the defendant Pedro Pablo Barrientos is revoked and the Certificate of Naturalization (…) issued to the defendant, effective as of the original date of his naturalization, December 17, 2010, is cancelled,” Judge Dalton wrote.
Barrientos illegally acquired citizenship because, having committed illegal acts, given false testimony and participated in extrajudicial executions, he was invalidated to do so, according to the court file.
In 2016, a jury in federal court in Orlando held the ex-military officer responsible for Jara’s death after a lawsuit filed by the singer’s wife, Joan, and her two daughters, Manuela Bunster and Amanda.
In 2016, the jury asked the former Chilean military officer to pay a million-dollar compensation for damages to the Jara family.
The events took place at Chile’s National Stadium, converted into a detention and torture center at the beginning of the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).
According to court documents, the ex-officer entered the United States in July 1990 on a visitor’s visa and seven years later he married a US citizen.
Barrientos replied in the immigration procedures, including those for permanent residence and citizenship, that he had not been linked to any political organization or military service.
He likewise denied that he had participated in any genocide, or the murder of any person based on race, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, or political opinion.
The civil lawsuit was filed in 2013 by the San Francisco-based Center for Justice and Accountability, under the Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991.
Since then, the family has also pushed for Barrientos to be extradited to Chile.