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Chile: who killed Victor Jara?

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Chilevision screens remarkable new films

Four days after the military coup in September 1973, Chilean folk-singer Victor Jara was murdered by guards in the Chile Stadium, Santiago. His widow, the British born dancer Joan Turner, his family and supporters have for years been trying to identify and bring to justice those responsible. They are convinced that Jara was deliberately targeted for assassination.

In a remarkable three-part documentary screened in May 2012, the TV channel Chilevision interviews conscript soldiers, one of whom directly witnessed the singer’s death and fellow prisoners from the stadium. The officers responsible are named, confronted and, predictably, deny being present.

However the evidence is clear that orders came from the junta high command in the Ministry of Defence to segregate and eliminate Victor Jara and another prisoner, Litré Quiroga. The regiment involved, from the Tejas Verdes Engineering School, San Antonio, was under the command of General Manuel Contreras, who later went on to direct Pinochet’s secret police, the DINA.

The programmes in Spanish:

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