The Chilean Supreme Court on Monday sentenced seven retired soldiers to sentences of up to 25 years in prison for the kidnapping and murder of singer-songwriter Víctor Jaraoccurred a few days after the establishment of the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, on September 11, 1973, the Judiciary reported in a statement.
The ruling imposed a 15-year sentence for the murders of Jara and the former director of Prisons Littré Quiroga Carvaja1 and 10 years for the kidnapping of both retired Army officers Raúl Jofré, Edwin Dimter, Nelson Haase, Ernesto Bethke, Juan Jara and Hernán Chacón, and eight years as concealer for Rolando Melo. Those convicted are between 73 and 85 years old and are all free.
Last month it was reported that retired Lieutenant Pedro Barrientos, one of those accused of murdering Víctor Lidio Jara Martínez (such as his full name) lost his US nationality for his involvement in the assassination of the singer-songwriter that occurred during the dictatorship.
The Court resolved to reject “the appeals in form and substance filed by the defendants’ defense,” according to the newspaper La Tercera, Biobío radio, and the AFP and Sputnik news agencies.
In the civil aspect, the treasury was ordered to pay each of his brothers 80 million pesos (93,600 dollars) and the victim’s widow and children 150 million (175,500 dollars) for each one.
The news was announced at the same time as an act that took place at the University of Santiago de Chile (Usach), headed by the president Gabriel Boric.
In that house of studies, on September 11, 1973, the photographic exhibition called “For Life, Always!” was to be held, with the presence of the president who was overthrown that day, Salvador Allende. The coup d’état postponed the opening of the exhibition by 50 years.
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Víctor Jara, victim of the Chilean dictatorship
A member of the Communist Party, theater director, professor, and writer, Víctor Jara was arrested, tortured, and killed with 44 bullets after being detained at the State Technical University, where he worked as a professor, days after the coup.
It was an international benchmark for the protest song, one of the most emblematic of the musical-social movement called “New Chilean Song”, and one of the pillars of Latin American music.
He was 40 years old and his body was found on September 19, 1973 near the Metropolitan Cemetery, with 44 shots.
During the Pinochet dictatorship, more than 28,000 people were tortured, 3,227 were assassinated, and some 200,000 were forced into exile, according to official figures.
Source: Ambito
