Chile: Seven retired military officers convicted of 1973 murder of Víctor Jara

Chile's Supreme Court has sentenced seven retired military officers to up to 25 years in prison for the kidnapping and murder of singer-songwriter Victor Jara, which occurred a few days after the establishment of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship.

In a unanimous ruling issued on Monday, Chile's highest judicial body sentenced seven former officers of the Chilean Army to sentences of between eight and 25 years in prison. The judgment also considers the murder and kidnapping of former prison director Littré Quiroga, who was detained with Víctor Jara in the then-called Estadio Chile, a detention center located in the center of Santiago where some opponents were taken after the fall of Salvador Allende's socialist government.

The sentence was 15 years for the murders of Jara and Quiroga and 10 for two kidnappings of former army officers Raúl Jofré, Edwin Dimter, Nelson Haase, Ernesto Bethke, Juan Jara and Hernán Chacón, and eight years for acting as an accessory to Rolando Melo. The convicts are currently between 73 and 85 years old, and all were free.

Another of the accused, Pedro Barrientos, is wanted in extradition from the United States. In 2016, a Florida federal court found him responsible for Jara's murder and ordered the payment of $28 million in compensation to his family. Last July, Barrientos lost his U.S. citizenship for his involvement in this crime.

The Supreme Court's decision comes two weeks before Chile commemorates the 50th anniversary of the coup d'état and the installation of the regime of General Augusto Pinochet on Sept. 11, 1973. The ruling ratifies the sentence issued in the Court of Appeals, which in November 2021 increased the sentences from 18 to 25 years for the six former military officers involved in the kidnappings and homicides of Jara and Quiroga.

Victor Jara was a member of the Communist Party. He was arrested, tortured and killed by 44 gunshots after being arrested at the State Technical University, where he worked as a professor, days after the coup d'état.