Chile court sends elderly ex-soldiers to prison over singer’s 1973 murder

After the coup d’etat that installed dictator Augusto Pinochet, singer Victor Jara was interrogated, tortured and killed in a Santiago sports stadium

The soldiers, aged between 73 and 85 and free men until the ruling, will now have to serve sentences of between 8 and 25 years

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People hold a portrait of Chilean singer Victor Jara in Santiago, Chile in 2009. Photo: AFP

Published: 6:53am, 29 Aug 2023Updated: 8:37am, 29 Aug 2023

A Chilean court on Monday confirmed jail terms for seven elderly ex-soldiers for the 1973 murder of beloved folk singer Victor Jara in the aftermath of the coup d’etat that installed dictator Augusto Pinochet.

The soldiers, aged between 73 and 85 and free men until the ruling, will now have to report to prison to serve sentences of between eight and 25 years.

Jara, then 40, was arrested the day after the September 11, 1973 CIA-backed coup that overthrew Salvador Allende.

His body was found days later, riddled with 44 bullets. He had been held, along with some 5,000 other political prisoners, in a sports stadium where he was interrogated, tortured and killed.

Former detainee Hector Hipolito Alvarez poses for a photo inside the dressing room of the National Stadium in Santiago, Chile, which was used as a prison and place of torture in 1973. Singer Victor Jara was also held prisoner there before his murder. Photo: AP

Among other horrors, the singer-guitarist’s fingers were crushed – broken by rifle butts and boots.

Jara was a member of Chile’s Communist Party and a fervent supporter of the Popular Unity coalition that backed Marxist president Allende, who came to power by popular vote in 1970.