Eight Are Charged With Chilean Singer’s 1973 Murder After Military Coup


SUGGESTED BY GLORIA STEVENSON
Published: December 28, 2012

SANTIAGO, Chile — Eight retired army officers were charged on Friday with the murder of a popular songwriter and theater director, Víctor Jara, who was tortured and killed days after the 1973 military coup in a stadium that had been turned into a detention center.

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Jara was a supporter of the Chilean president, Salvador Allende. When Allende was overthrown in a US-aided coup, Victor Jara was dragged off with thousands of others to a football stadium, where he was tortured (after a savage beating his fingers were broken and amputated) and murdered by the victorious troops of General Pinochet. An autopsy revealed more than 44 shots in his body.—Eds