Hernán Chacón Soto, 86, had been sentenced to 15 years in prison for aggravated homicide and 10 years for aggravated kidnapping for the assassinations of the singer and Littré Quiroga
Santiago – Aug 30, 2023
One of the seven former members of the Chilean military convicted of the torture and assassination of singer-songwriter Víctor Jara, retired brigadier Hernán Chacón Soto, took his own life after the verdict was returned by the Supreme Court, as confirmed to this newspaper by the Ministry of the Interior. Soto, 86, was found dead by the Investigations Police (PDI), as reported by Radio ADN, who arrived at his home to transfer him to prison to serve his sentence: 15 years for aggravated homicide and 10 years for aggravated kidnapping for his part in the murders of Jara and Littré Quiroga, who oversaw the prison system during the socialist government of Salvador Allende. The killings took place a few days after the coup d’état of September 11, 1973.
According to local media, the PDI arrived at Chacón’s home in the municipality of Las Condes, in the eastern part of Santiago, to notify him of the ruling, when he reportedly asked for permission to go to his bedroom to retrieve some medicines. At that point, he shot himself.
According to his defense testimony, in his rank of major at the time of the coup, he was only tasked with guarding the perimeter of the Estadio Chile, where the crimes took place. However, the court said such an assignment was not consistent with his rank, nor with the testimonies and evidence gathered.
According to the 2021 ruling of the Court of Appeals, which was ratified Monday by the Supreme Court, Chacón had tactical and intelligence knowledge, “conditions that allowed him to intervene directly in the interrogations” that were carried out in the locker rooms of the Estadio Chile, where Jara and Quiroga were imprisoned along with thousands of Allende supporters, “as well as in the previous process of classification of the detainees” — deciding who was to be interrogated.
The investigation adds that “several testimonies corroborated that he participated in the selection process and reported these to his superiors, so his statements that he was guarding the perimeter were neither credible nor plausible.” It was also noted that according to witnesses Chacón “was carrying a 9-millimeter STYER pistol at the time, a weapon that fully coincides with the technical description of the injuries that, according to forensic records, caused the deaths of Víctor Jara and Littré Quiroga.”
