Víctor Jara was one of the most famous singer-songwriters in Chile.
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A retired Chilean soldier, sentenced to prison on Monday for the murder of singer-songwriter Víctor Jara in 1973, died this Tuesday at his home when he was about to be arrested and transferred to prison.
Hernan Carlos Chacon Sotowho was an army brigadier, was one of seven soldiers sentenced to prison on Monday by the Supreme Court for his participation in the acts oftorture and murder of Jara and the lawyer Littré Quiroga.
It is presumed that Chacón Soto took his own life when the Investigative Police (PDI) was preparing to comply with the arrest warrant and transferred to the Puntateuco prison.
When the agents and human rights officials showed up at his home, in the Las Condes neighborhood of the Chilean capital, the 86-year-old soldier asked for a moment to take some medicine.
Shortly after, he took his own life, presumably with a weapon that he owned, according to the first investigations.
The retired brigadier was sentenced to 25 years in prison together with five other soldiers -Raúl Jofré González, Edwin Dimter Bianchi, Nelson Haase Mazzei, Ernesto Bethke Wulf and Juan Jara Quintana- for the charges of homicide and qualified kidnapping for the deaths of Jara and Quiróga.
Another defendant, Rolando Melo Silva, received an 8-year sentence for covering up the crimes.
The death of Jara, one of the most famous Chilean singer-songwriters of the time, occurred after the coup led by General Augusto Pinochet on September 11, 1973.
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Chile captive song: the testimony of Víctor Jara
Chacón’s sentence
Chacón Soto’s defense maintained that his client only fulfilled the function of guarding the external perimeter of the Chile Stadium, the place to which thousands of those persecuted by the military government were taken.
When reviewing the case, the Supreme Court of Chile considered that the brigadier was in “conditions that allowed him to intervene directly in the development of the interrogations”, as well as “in the previous process of classifying the detainees”.
“Several testimonies corroborated that this participated in the selection workreporting the same to his superiors, for which reason his statements were not credible or credible as soon as he maintained that he had only guarded the external perimeter of the compound, functions that are not consistent with his high degree, nor with the various elements of conviction gathered ”, argued the sentence.
“At the time, he was carrying a 9-millimeter STEYR pistol, weapons fully consistent with the technical description of the injuries that, according to the forensic records, caused the death of Jara Martínez and Littré Quiroga,” he added.
The body of Jara, who was a member of the Communist Party and supported President Salvador Allende’s Unidad Popular coalition, was found five days after being admitted to the Chile Stadium with marks from dozens of bullets. He was 40 years old.
For his part, Quiroga, 33, and also a member of the Communist Party, was found with signs of torture along with other prisoners.
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