Víctor Jara

Independent activity Marxism–Leninism 1932.9.28.–1973.9.16. ✕ Tortured and shot in custody

Singer of the Nueva Canción, tortured and killed at Chile Stadium five days after the coup

On the afternoon of 15 September 1973 he was taken out of a line of prisoners being moved to the National Stadium. It was the last time he was seen alive.

Born to tenant farmers in Ñuble, Jara studied theatre at the University of Chile and became a stage director and singer. Influenced by Violeta Parra, he became a leading figure of the Nueva Canción Chilena, which built socially engaged songs on folk music, and joined the Communist Party of Chile in the early 1960s. Under Popular Unity he acted as a cultural ambassador of the government and taught at the State Technical University. Arrested there the day after the coup and held at Chile Stadium (now the Víctor Jara Stadium), he was beaten and tortured for several days and shot around 16 September; his body bore 44 bullet wounds. The junta's Foreign Ministry said he had been killed by "snipers firing indiscriminately", but the Rettig Commission concluded that government agents executed him without trial. Chilean courts convicted former officers for his murder in 2018 and 2023.

Also known as: Víctor Lidio Jara Martínez