Chile Documentary: Outing Victor Jara's Killer

What ever became of my torturer? Did he win a trip to Panama, or a scholarship in the USA? Or maybe nothing happened...?



He beat me like a professional. He wanted something confessional. He beat me like an eager beaver, wanted to know if I was a union leader.

Cooperate, weón, save Chile you miserable communist!

Has his hair fallen out? Did he retire from the service, is he an old man working in an office, did he see me on the bus?

...so goes my highly interpretive selection, translation, and ordering of the lyrics of Triste Funcionario Policial by Mauricio Redolés, Chilean poet who now lives in a lower middle class neighborhood of Santiago with his son but was tortured before being exiled to England during the dictatorship.

Great song, listen to a live version on Youtube, get the lyrics here. It's quite a fitting lead-in to this new documentary about the surprise public outings of killers and torturers from Pinochet's military junta, many of whom haven't been arrested and tried but rather live and work freely in Chile, thanks often to junta-era impunity that carries over even today (although Redolés' song was written 20 years ago).

The process is called funa (from funar --> funado --> funa'o --> funa - right?) and the one that this documentary focuses on is super high profile because it involves El Príncipe vs Víctor Jara.



At about minute 2:10 this Funa Commission member "Héctor" says, "Funa is a pretty Chilean concept..." but I have to say that's bullshit. Argentina has a version of funa, so I've heard, where they'll camp out for a week in front of the killer's house. (Not to mention the bus-toppling intensity of Argentineans' memory protests, which can make Chileans' demonstrations seem frustratingly meek and non-indicting). Then there's Megan's Law picketing, etc. So yes, the funa chilena is quite Chilean, but Hector's unqualified 'it's so Chilean' bugged me. Of course, his whole point is to bug, I mean really bug certain people. If he's grating on YouTube I can only imagine how a killer would feel with Héctor at the bullhorn.

That's Grating in a Good Way, I'd have to say.

Two more sections and call the doc a wrap:





Thanks to Pehuen, a great Chilean blog about Latin American social causes, politics, news and opinion, as well as Trinchera Sur for the Documentary film on Víctor Jara and Funa, and some blogging and photos about the El Príncipe Funa, when it happened, plus the first photo in this very blog entry, by Trinchera de la Imagen.