One of the seven ex-soldiers convicted of the assassination of singer-songwriter Víctor Jara, retired Army Brigadier Hernán Chacón Soto, 86, took his own life this morning. The death was discovered by the Investigative Police (PDI), As reported by Radio ADNwho came to his home to serve the sentence reported yesterday by the Supreme Court: 15 years in prison for qualified homicide and 10 years for qualified kidnapping as perpetrator for the crime of the artist and Littré Quiroga, in charge of Prisons in the Government of Salvador Allende, committed after the coup d’état of September 11, 1973.
86-year-old Chilean, born in Santiago, he was a retired Army brigadier. According to the account of his defense, in his rank as a major in the Army, he only fulfilled the function of guarding the external perimeter of the Chile Stadium, functions that, for the court, are not consistent with his high rank, nor with the various elements of conviction gathered.
According to the ruling of the Court of Appeals of 2021 and ratified this Monday by the Supreme Court, he had tactical and intelligence knowledge, “conditions that allowed him to intervene directly in the development of the interrogations” that they carried out in the dressing rooms of the Chile stadium, where Jara and Littre were imprisoned, “as well as in the previous process of classifying the detainees”, deciding who was separated to be taken for interrogation and, finally, “the ultimate destination of these, being of all evidence that inside the Chile Stadium there was an order imposed by the rigid structure of the existing command”.
The investigation adds that “several testimonies corroborated that he participated in the selection tasks, reporting them to his superiors, for which reason his statements were not credible or credible as he only maintained that he had guarded the external perimeter of the enclosure, functions that were not do not agree with his high degree, nor with the various elements of conviction gathered”. And, it is also noted, “at the time he was carrying a 9-millimeter STYER pistol, a weapon fully consistent with the technical description of the injuries that, according to the forensic records, caused the death of Jara Martínez and Littré Quiroga.”
The seven ex-soldiers convicted of the murder of Jara and Quiroga reached high ranks in the Army, brigadiers and colonels. They are between 73 and 86 years old and they were all free, so they would have to serve their sentence in effective prison.
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