The Supreme Court of Chile sentenced seven soldiers on Monday in retirement to sentences of up to 25 years in prison for the kidnapping and murder of the emblematic singer-songwriter Víctor Jara 50 years ago, days after Augusto Pinochet’s coup.
Two weeks after the anniversary of the bloody overthrow of Salvador Allende on September 11, 1973, the highest court handed down the final sentence for the crime of Jara, one of the most recognized voices of popular music in Latin America.
Seven former officers will have to pay between 8 and 25 years in prison, as ruled by the court that decided to raise the sentences initially set, after analyzing an appeal for review presented by the defendants.
Within the same case, the judges also sentenced them for the murder and kidnapping of former prison director Littré Quiroga, who was detained together with Jara in the then called Chile Stadium, which today bears the name of Víctor Jara, and which came to house 5,000 detainees.
Former Army officers Raúl Jofré, Edwin Dimter, Nelson Haase, Ernesto Bethke, Juan Jara and Hernán Chacón must pay 15 years for the murder of Jara and Quiroga, in addition to 10 years for both kidnappings, according to the ruling.
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Singer Víctor Jara, who was tortured and shot dead during the Chilean dictatorship.
The soldier Rolando Melo received an eight-year sentence as an accessory after the fact. Aged between 73 and 85 years, the convicted were still in the process at liberty, so they must be taken to prison in the following days.
Another of those accused as a material author, Pedro Barrientos, is required in extradition from the United States.
The Florida federal court found him responsible for Jara’s murder in June 2016, and ordered the payment of $28 million in compensation to his family.
Member of the Communist Party, Jara was arrested, tortured and killed with 44 bullets after being detained at the State Technical University, where he worked as a teacher. He was 40 years old.
Littré Quiroga was the national director of prisons and also a member of the Communist Party. He received 23 bullets.
Author of songs such as “I remember you Amanda”, “The right to live in peace” or “Manifesto”, Víctor Jara is considered a symbol of the New Chilean Song, a musical and social movement from the 1960s to the beginning of the 1960s. 70.
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His assassination was one of the most treacherous committed by the dictatorship (1973-1990), which left as a balance 3,200 victims, between dead and missing.
Jara was viciously punished by the military for being a public figure at that time.
“Physical torture was applied to him, the most severe blows being those he received in the region of his face and on his hands,” according to the investigation by Judge Miguel Vázquez.
![Victor Jara](https://www.eltiempo.com/files/article_content_new/uploads/2023/08/28/64ed3ea8670e0.jpeg)
Flag representing the late Chilean musician Víctor Jara.
The attacks “had as their main incentive” their artistic, cultural and political activity, “closely linked to the recently overthrown government” of the socialist Salvador Allende, adds the sentence.
After three days of torture, when the transfer of the detainees from the Chile Stadium to the National Stadium was ordered, Jara and Quiroga were separated from the prisoners and taken to the dressing rooms, where they were killed.
The attacks had as their main incentive their artistic, cultural and political activity,
The bodies of both were thrown onto the public road, along with other corpses. They were identified by residents and taken to the Legal Medical Institute, where Jara’s body was delivered to his family, which he secretly buried.
In December 2009, 36 years after his death, the Chilean justice system ordered the exhumation of his remains, which allowed the artist to be buried in an official ceremony in which the then president of Chile Michelle Bachelet participated.
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When it is close to remembering the 50 years of the coup d’état, the Chilean justice system has issued several emblematic sentences.
Among them, against six retired soldiers for the assassination of the Spanish diplomat Carmelo Soria in 1976.
He also sentenced three former Army officers for the torture and kidnapping of 10 victims from the detention center known as the “Sexy Bandage.”
AFP
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