Chilean police have succeeded in arresting the last remaining convict in the murder of iconic singer V\u00edctor Jara, who was tortured and killed following the military coup that overthrew Salvador Allende\u2019s 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).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following the court verdicts issued over the 1973 murders of singer-songwriter and musician V\u00edctor Jara and former National Director of Prisons Littr\u00e9 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\u2019s capital, Santiago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 V\u00edctor Jara by shooting him 44 times following the coup. Accordingly, Ra\u00fal Jofr\u00e9 Gonz\u00e1les, Edwin Bianchi, Ernesto Wulf, Juan Jara Quintana, Ernesto Bethke, and Hern\u00e1n Cach\u00f3n were identified as direct participants in the assassination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While these five individuals are already serving their prison sentences, another primary accused, General Hern\u00e1n Chac\u00f3n, committed suicide the day before the court verdict was delivered. Since then, former military officer Nelson Haase\u2014the last remaining key accused\u2014had 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Additionally, former military prosecutor Rolando Melo Silva was sentenced to eight years in prison for his involvement in these murders and illegal detentions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
V\u00edctor Jara, a leading figure in Chile’s highly popular Nueva Canci\u00f3n (“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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fellow prisoners attempted to protect V\u00edctor 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the early morning of September 16, 1973, local residents discovered V\u00edctor Jara\u2019s 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 Littr\u00e9 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Renowned Colombian author Gabriel Garc\u00eda M\u00e1rquez later wrote: “V\u00edctor 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.”<\/p>\n