The human rights activist died two weeks before her husband’s killer is due for extradition from US to Chile

The British dancer, choreographer and human rights activist Joan Jara, widow of the late Chilean folk singer Víctor Jara, has died in Santiago at the age of 96, two weeks before her husband’s killer is due to be extradited from the US to Chile.

She became a symbol of opposition to the Chilean dictatorship for her unrelenting pursuit of truth and justice for her husband, who was brutally tortured and killed after Gen Augusto Pinochet’s coup d’état.

Gabriel Boric makes speech outside palace where Salvador Allende was overthrown in 1973, ushering in brutal military dictatorship

• ‘It became an obsession’: the long search for the remains of Pinochet’s victims

Chile’s president has given an outspoken defence of democracy as the country marked the 50th anniversary of General Augusto Pinochet’s coup d’état, which ushered in 17 years of brutal military dictatorship.

“Problems with democracy can always be solved … and a coup d’état is never justifiable – nor is endangering the human rights of those who think differently,” said Gabriel Boric in a speech outside La Moneda, the presidential palace bombed by British-built Hawker Hunter jets during the 1973 coup.

Chilean state finally assumes responsibility for finding those executed and forcibly disappeared under dictatorship

Chile’s government has announced its much-anticipated plan to search for the victims of forced disappearance and political execution under Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, which began with a coup 50 years ago next month.

The plan nacional de búsqueda, or national search plan, will seek to establish the circumstances and conditions under which each person was forcibly disappeared, guarantee access to government records and provide reparations and guarantees for victims’ families.