(FILES) A man holds a portrait of Chilean singer Victor Jara, during his three-day funeral in Santiago on December 5, 2009, six months after his remains –secretly buried for 36 years after his death by agents of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship (1973-1990)– were exhumed following a court order as part of an investigation on his death. Chile’s Supreme Court on August 28, 2023, sentenced seven former officers of the Chilean Army to between 8 and 25 years in prison for the kidnapping and murder of singer-songwriter Víctor Jara a few days after Augusto Pinochet’s coup d’état that overthrew socialist Salvador Allende on September 11, 1973. (Photo by CLAUDIO SANTANA / AFP)
Santiago, Chile — A retired Chilean general killed himself on Tuesday before he could be jailed for the 1973 murder of beloved folk singer Victor Jara in the aftermath of a military coup that installed dictator Augusto Pinochet, the attorney general’s office said.
Hernan Chacon, 85, was among seven former soldiers who had jail terms confirmed on Monday after an appeal.
When police went to his home to bring him to prison he “took a firearm, firing a shot that caused his death,” prosecutor Claudio Suazo told reporters.
The singer Jara, 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.
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.
The body of a fellow detainee, Littre Quiroga, 33 — national prisons director and a Communist Party member — was found with signs of torture near that of Jara and three other political prisoners.
Monday’s ruling confirmed sentences of 15 years for the murders of Jara and Littre and another 10 years for their kidnapping, for Chacon and five other ex-army officials.
Another former soldier received eight years for his role in covering up the crimes.
Jara, a pacifist singer whose lyrics spoke of love and social protest, became an icon of Latin American popular music with songs like “The Right to Live in Peace.”
He inspired musicians from U2 to Bob Dylan, and at a 2013 concert in Santiago, Bruce Springsteen paid tribute to him.
Pinochet ruled Chile until 1990 and died in 2006 without ever being convicted for the crimes committed by his regime, which is believed to have killed some 3,200 leftist activists and other suspected opponents.
A few days ahead of the anniversary of the coup, the Supreme Court on Tuesday posthumously bestowed the title of lawyer on eight people murdered under Pinochet — including Allende’s former interior minister Jose Toha.
His daughter and current Interior Minister Carolina Toha said the symbolic gesture was an “act of justice” and an important display of “repair efforts” by state institutions.