Chilean police have succeeded in arresting the last remaining convict in the murder of iconic singer Víctor Jara, who was tortured and killed following the military coup that overthrew Salvador Allende’s socialist government on September 11, 1973. Former military officer Nelson Haase, who had been evading justice and law enforcement, was captured by Chilean police during a surprise operation on Sunday (26th).
Following the court verdicts issued over the 1973 murders of singer-songwriter and musician Víctor Jara and former National Director of Prisons Littré Quiroga, Nelson Haase had reportedly been on the run attempting to flee the country since 2023. However, Chilean authorities managed to arrest Haase in Los Lagos, located 950 kilometers away from Chile’s capital, Santiago.
In 2023, a Chilean court sentenced Haase and five other military officers to 25 years in prison (15 years for murder and 10 years for kidnapping) after finding them guilty of murdering Víctor Jara by shooting him 44 times following the coup. Accordingly, Raúl Jofré Gonzáles, Edwin Bianchi, Ernesto Wulf, Juan Jara Quintana, Ernesto Bethke, and Hernán Cachón were identified as direct participants in the assassination.
While these five individuals are already serving their prison sentences, another primary accused, General Hernán Chacón, committed suicide the day before the court verdict was delivered. Since then, former military officer Nelson Haase—the last remaining key accused—had been hiding on a rural property in the municipality of Puyehue in the Los Lagos region. Haase was the final individual convicted in this case after the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court issued its final ruling in August 2023.
Additionally, former military prosecutor Rolando Melo Silva was sentenced to eight years in prison for his involvement in these murders and illegal detentions.
Víctor Jara, a leading figure in Chile’s highly popular Nueva Canción (“New Song”) movement, was arrested along with thousands of students and young people at the University of Santiago following the coup against President Salvador Allende on September 11, 1973.
Fellow prisoners attempted to protect Víctor Jara, recognizing that his fame, activism, and powerful influence through music made his life particularly vulnerable under the military junta. It is said that his final, unfinished poem, “Estadio Chile,” written on a scrap of paper in a notebook, was hidden and passed from hand to hand among the prisoners. However, military officers identified Jara, led him aside, and subjected him to brutal torture.
On the early morning of September 16, 1973, local residents discovered Víctor Jara’s body near Chile’s Metropolitan Cemetery. His hands and fingers had been crushed, and his body bore 44 gunshot wounds alongside extensive marks of torture. The body of Littré Quiroga, the National Director of Prisons who had advocated for the prisoners, was also found nearby. During the Pinochet dictatorship, over 20,000 young men and women were killed or forcibly disappeared.
Renowned Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez later wrote: “Víctor Jara sang as he gave his life for the liberation of the Chilean people, transforming his death into a symbol of the Chilean people’s great struggle.”
