Exhuming the truth

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Thirty-six years ago, on September 11, 1973, Augusto Pinochet ascended to power in Chile in a military coup. Within days, thousands of citizens were arrested, tortured and summarily executed. A Chilean folk singer named Victor Jara, was held prisoner in Santiago’s soccer stadium, a place used as a detention and torture center.

According to the testimony of the army conscript Jose Paredes, a sub-lieutenant fired a bullet into the singer’s head while playing Russian roulette and then he and another soldier were ordered to “finish the job by firing into Jara’s body.

Jara’s wife, British dancer Joan Turner, buried the singer in a hurried, lonely ceremony and later fled to exile with her 2 daughters.

The folksinger’s remains were exhumed last June after Judge Juan Eduardo Fuentes re-opened the investigation. A team of Chilean professionals and foreigners performed an autopsy trying to determine the cause of death and who ordered Jara’s murder. The new autopsy report detailed that Jara was beaten and tortured. His hands were crushed and he sustained multiple fractures throughout his body, including a fracture in his skull. There were also more than 40 gunshot wounds in his chest, stomach, arms, and legs, and two bullets pierced his skull. All these injuries caused his death through hemorrhaging from violent homicide.

On December 3, 2009, Victor Jara finally got a proper burial with a three-day long ceremony and festival. His remains in a close casket were honored by thousands and were buried in the same place as he was buried the first time in 1973.

Related info:

Many stories indicate that Victor Jara’s hands were cut off by the soldiers who tormented him during the last hours of his life so he couldn’t play the guitar, but his hands were actually broken.

The 1973-1990 military regime in Chile is blamed for more than 3,000 deaths and some 25,000 documented instances of torture.

Only one high ranking official was indicted in the murder. Pinochet, who died in 2006, never faced a full trial for crimes committed during his regime.

Chile stadium was renamed for Victor Jara in 2003.