The government requested the detention of four retired army officers accused of the kidnapping and qualified homicide of the Chilean folklorist Víctor Jara, who was riddled with bullets in September 1973.

The request was presented to Judge Juan Fuentes Belmar, who has been handling the Jara case since 2006, by lawyer Cristián Cruz of the Ministry of the Interior’s Human Rights Program. The complaint concerns retired army officers Edwin Dimter, Hugo Sánchez, Raúl Jofré, and former prosecutor Rolando Melo, a source who requested anonymity to avoid harming the case informed the AP.

Jara was detained inside the Universidad Técnica del Estado on the same day as the military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet on September 11, 1973. He was held at the Estadio Chile along with some 5,000 prisoners.

Witnesses who were at the stadium testified in the judicial investigation that when Jara and 14 other people were recognized by their captors, they were taken to the facility's underground locker rooms.

None came out alive. The lawsuit states that Dimter, Sánchez, and Jofré were inside the stadium when the folklorist was shot. The results of Jara's autopsy, performed in November 2009, indicate that he died from "multiple projectile wounds throughout his body—skull, legs, arms, thorax—which caused acute hemorrhagic shock, brought about by a violent, homicidal situation." The head of the Legal Medical Service, Dr.

Patricio Bustos, added that Jara was tortured before being murdered. "He also had fractures caused by another type of blunt object, not by bullets. All produced at the moment this homicide was executed." Dimter has been linked by multiple witnesses to "El Príncipe" (The Prince) of the Estadio Chile and identified as a perpetrator of torture and murder.

Until now, the only person prosecuted for the homicide is former conscript José Paredes Márquez, 56, who claims innocence. Paredes told the AP in an interview last year that the person responsible for the crime must be an officer because conscripts used rifles, and a human body would have been torn apart by such a weapon.

The widow, Joan Jara, noted that she had no difficulty recognizing the artist's remains at the morgue in September 1973.

Source: El Nuevo Herald, December 22, 2010

CDE lawyer prosecuted as an accessory to the crime of Víctor Jara

Rolando Ramón Camilo Humberto Melo Silva (74) is being prosecuted by Minister Miguel Vásquez for his alleged participation in the death of the singer-songwriter that occurred in September 1973. On August 29, lawyer for the State Defense Council (CDE) Rolando Ramón Camilo Humberto Melo Silva (74) was prosecuted as an accessory to the crimes of simple kidnapping and qualified homicide of singer-songwriter Víctor Jara Martínez.

This was determined by the minister in charge of the case, Miguel Vásquez, who also resolved to prosecute former Army members Hernán Chacón Soto and Patricio Vásquez Donoso alongside the professional, as perpetrators of the described illicit acts.

The magistrate also attributed the same responsibilities to all of them in the murder of the former director of the Prison Service, Littré Quiroga Carvajal, both events having occurred on September 16, 1973, at the Estadio Chile.

According to the background information gathered in the process, Vásquez established, based on the statements provided by the defendants themselves, that on the day of the events, Chacón and Vásquez were in the Estadio Chile room performing command functions inside the facility and that Melo Silva—still active in the CDE—went to take official statements at said location "without knowing their fate and the autopsy reports that were sent to him in his capacity as Chief Prosecutor of the Second Prosecutor's Office." Therefore, according to the ruling, there are sufficient presumptions to estimate that Chacón and Vásquez had participation as perpetrators, while Silva Melo had participation as an accessory to the events investigated in the case. Melo Silva—who also holds a diploma in Criminal Procedural Reform from the Alberto Hurtado University School of Law—also served as Auditor General of the Army.

Source: emol.com, September 3, 2014

Incredible: Accessory to the Murder of Víctor Jara is a Lawyer for the State Defense Council

Indignation is caused by the actions of the State Defense Council (CDE): one of its lawyers, Ramón Melo Silva, is being prosecuted for being an accessory to the heinous crime of Víctor Jara. He was a military prosecutor in 1973 and interrogated the famous singer-songwriter a few hours before he was executed by 44 bullets.

However, this individual maintains the privileges of his position, enjoying vacations financed by all taxpayers. The State Defense Council (CDE) has been in the eye of the storm in recent months. First, it was Juan Ignacio Piña, a former lawyer for the Pinochets, who caused controversy by emigrating in the dead of night from Sebastián Piñera's Ministry of Justice at the end of that government.

Then, it was revealed that among the members of the CDE was the accessory to the murder of singer-songwriter Víctor Jara and former Gendarmerie director Littré Quiroga, lawyer Ramón Melo Silva, who was recently prosecuted.

The CDE is "the public institution of Chile that defends and judicially represents the patrimonial and non-patrimonial interests of the State, through the exercise of judicial actions and defenses." In such a capacity, the Council has had and will have to deal with the determination of reparations for victims of Human Rights violations committed during the dictatorship.

It must also determine how to recover from the Pinochets the billions defrauded from the treasury. How to do it, if among its ranks is none other than the lawyer who represented the interests of the Pinochet family against the treasury (that is, its interests) in the Riggs case?

How to do it if among its ranks is a former military prosecutor who is being prosecuted for complicity in the cruel murder of Víctor Jara and Littré Quiroga? To the defendants' bench Human rights cases have been advancing, slower than their families would like and faster than the criminals who committed crimes against humanity desire, as they now find themselves facing the need to answer for them.

Even more so if, as it seems will happen, the Amnesty Law is annulled. One of the cases that has managed to advance is that of singer-songwriter Víctor Jara. Recently, the minister handling the case prosecuted three former agents of the repressive organs for the crimes; one of them, a former military prosecutor, was prosecuted as an accessory to simple kidnapping and qualified homicide of the artist, an event that occurred on September 16, 1973, at the Estadio Chile.

Magistrate Miguel Vásquez, in charge of the case pursuing Jara's murderers, determined what is an open secret: that it was members of the Army who ended the artist's life. But immediately something caught the attention: that one of them, accused of covering up the crime, was none other than Ramón Melo Silva, a prosecutor for the military institution at that time and who currently serves as a lawyer for the State Defense Council.

Reactions of repudiation and shame have not been long in coming. What was his task? This is a legitimate question that families of victims of human rights abuses committed at that time ask themselves. Human rights lawyer Héctor Salazar was emphatic, pointing out to Cambio21 that: "it does not surprise me, because in the first years of the military dictatorship, military justice served to repress and paralyze any criminal investigation in which a uniformed officer could be involved, and there one can find figures of cover-up, denial of justice, and prevarication of judicial officials, in this case, a military prosecutor." Deputy Hugo Gutiérrez (PC), president of the Human Rights Commission, stated to Cambio21 that "if Melo had been a person who fulfilled his duty of jurisdiction, we would not have taken so long to find those materially responsible for the artist's death, but he embarked on the path of hiding the necessary information to arrive at who the material authors of Jara's murder were. He is rightly being prosecuted." "What's more," the parliamentarian states, "lawyer Ramón Melo should have been prosecuted many years ago; his participation in the events that involved covering up those responsible for the murder of Víctor Jara and Littré Quiroga was clear." Illegal detentions In case Roll No. 4.352-2 of the Third Criminal Court of Santiago, which Judge Vásquez is instructing, the magistrate established the following facts: That on September 11, 1973, the then-Director General of the Prison Service, Littré Quiroga Carvajal, was detained by a patrol of Carabineros belonging to the Third Police Station of Santiago, immediately transferring him to said Police Unit, then being taken to the 2nd Armored Regiment, where he was subjected to physical duress and, in the subsequent hours, to the then-Estadio Chile (current Estadio Víctor Jara). That same day, the then-Universidad Técnica del Estado was besieged by troops of the "Arica" Regiment of the Chilean Army, coming from the city of La Serena, under the command of the then-Captain Marcelo Moren Brito; who proceeded on September 12, 1973, after firing projectiles of various kinds, to occupy its facilities and detain teachers, students, and administrative staff who were in the educational establishment. All those people "were transported in public buses to the then-Estadio Chile. Among the apprehended teachers was the popular singer and also researcher of said University, Víctor Jara Martínez, who entered the Estadio Chile together with the aforementioned group of detainees, to subsequently be placed with them in the stands of said sports venue," the judge points out in the process. "The aforementioned detentions were decided by the administrative authorities without any judicial order of any nature and under no procedure, and the confinement in the Estadio Chile, which was a place used for sports and cultural events, was decided by the authorities who were in charge of it, without the authority to do so, without having left a record of the identity of the detainees, the reason, and the charges against them," the magistrate indicates verbatim in the prosecution. Savages with rank insignia They were cruel to both, who were tortured in a special way, the process indicates: "during the respective periods of their detention, both Víctor Jara and Littré Quiroga were recognized by the military personnel installed inside the Estadio Chile, being separated from the rest of the prisoners, to subsequently be taken to other facilities located in the locker rooms, occupied as interrogation and duress rooms, where they were physically assaulted on a permanent basis by different Officers." And the judge continues: "That, between September 13 and 16, 1973, interrogations of detainees took place inside the Estadio Chile, without them obeying prior judicial and/or administrative procedures, some of which were practiced by personnel of the Second Military Prosecutor's Office of the time." They were riddled with bullets On September 16, 1973, "the transfer of all detainees from the Estadio Chile proceeded, with the exception of Víctor Jara and Littré Quiroga, who were isolated from the group by the military officer in charge of said facility, ordering that they be taken to the basement, locker room sector, where there was military personnel (...) an occasion in which both were killed, an event that occurred as a result of at least 44 bullet impacts and 23 bullet impacts, respectively, in all cases of 9.23-millimeter caliber, as specified in the corresponding autopsy reports, weaponry that was officially used by the Army Officers who were in said facility," the judicial resolution reads. But it was not enough to torture and kill them, "the corpses of Víctor Jara and Littré Quiroga were found in the following days, together with the corpses of three other people of unknown identity—also killed by ballistic projectiles—by residents in the vicinity of the Metropolitan Cemetery, on a vacant lot near the railway line, with obvious signs of having received blows and the bullet impacts detailed in the respective autopsy reports." The reasons for prosecuting him The facts set forth in the judicial resolution constitute the crimes of "simple kidnapping and qualified homicide" committed against the persons of Víctor Jara and Littré Quiroga. Ramón Camilo Humberto Melo Silva, as can be deduced from pages 2551 and 4099, where he gave a statement before the judge, went to the Estadio Chile in his capacity as a military prosecutor to take statements from Jara and Littré. Not only did he interrogate them, but he also made the statements of both disappear, as well as the autopsy reports that were sent to him in his capacity as Chief Prosecutor of the Second Prosecutor's Office. This gave well-founded grounds for the presumptions to estimate that Ramón Melo had "participation as an accessory to the events investigated in this case," the prosecution states. What reasons did Ramón Melo have to make the statements disappear? Who was he protecting? Who gave the order to kill them? These are all and many more questions left by his malicious act of hiding evidence essential to know the whole truth. Imprisoned… for a day One of the situations that causes the most irritation in the families of the victims and the country in general is the little consequence that such disastrous events entail in people's lives. Judge Vásquez ordered the capture of Ramón Melo Silva through the Human Rights Crimes Investigative Brigade of the Investigative Police, in order to ensure his appearance; however, he was released on bail with the payment of only 500,000 pesos. How little a human being's life is worth. Joan Turner, Víctor Jara's widow, upon learning of the new prosecutions, expressed that "that must be celebrated despite everything and hope that this investigation continues forward with all possible force, not only in the Estadio Chile, but also in other places. At this moment, I send my solidarity to all the other family members who accompany us. It is a great advance," she highlighted. On vacation… Cambio21 inquired at the CDE about the current employment situation of the prosecuted lawyer Ramón Melo Silva. From that department, we were informed by the Human Resources Department that he "was on vacation without knowing for how long he will be in that situation." Of course, with paid vacations and, according to the Chile Transparency page, with a salary that is not small… more than three million pesos per month, given his grade 5 in the EUS. Melo Silva has served as a lawyer for the CDE from 2000 to date and is part of the professional scale. For Deputy Hugo Gutiérrez, "what should happen now is that the State Defense Council should request some type of internal summary or make the decision to make him resign. For my part, as president of the Human Rights Commission, I am going to request all the necessary background information from the State Defense Council regarding the events that led to Melo working in that institution to this day." What bad taste, to interrupt the ex-prosecutor's vacation. Justice that is delayed is not justice, but it mitigates The other defendants on this occasion were retired Army majors Patricio Vásquez and Hernán Chacón, as perpetrators of the homicides, and they could not opt for the benefit of release on bail, since the Santiago Court of Appeals dismissed this option, considering them a danger to the security of society. But they will not go to the public jail like any other defendant; they will serve their preventive detention at the Army Military Police Battalion, located in Peñalolén. As will be remembered, in this process, Minister Vásquez has already prosecuted as responsible for the homicides of Víctor Jara and Littré Quiroga the members of the Army: Hugo Sánchez Marmonti and Pedro Barrientos Núñez, as perpetrators; and Roberto Souper Onfray, Raúl Jofré González, Edwin Dimter Bianchi, Nelson Hasse Mazzei, Luis Bethke Wulf, and Jorge Smith Gumucio, as accomplices. The Piña case Juan Ignacio Piña, current President of the Council, acted as a lawyer against the same State Defense Council, defending relatives of Pinochet in the Riggs case. From that position, he will decide on a case that cost the State millions of dollars due to the fraud of the former dictator. There were several officials of the Piñera government who "earned" appointments by hand in different public offices, notaries, and other state bodies. Some were rendered ineffective by the Supreme Court (notary case). In the other cases, the new authorities have done nothing. Piña, who served as undersecretary and in the last two months as Minister of Justice of the right-wing government, was appointed in his final days by Piñera as President of the CDE. In this matter, the aphorism "Caesar's wife must not only be honest but must also appear to be so" is applicable. The lesson of this singular Roman case is that in the administration of power and public affairs, there can be no room for doubt. That was not understood by Juan Ignacio Piña, who should have resigned from the CDE due to his performance in this case against the State of Chile, even more so when it comes to the defense of the actions of the greatest criminal in national history and when, furthermore, the defrauded monies, never returned, are precisely those of the State of Chile, whose interests are now under his care. by Mario López Moya

Source: reddigital.cl, October 22, 2015

Supreme Court: 25 years for the murderers of Víctor Jara and Littré Quiroga

The Second Chamber confirmed what was previously decided by the Santiago Court of Appeals and maintained the sentences totaling 25 years for the kidnapping and qualified homicide of both victims, who were executed on September 15, 1973, at the Estadio Chile, after having been tortured, after which their riddled bodies were thrown into the street, in the vicinity of the General Cemetery of Santiago.

Within the framework of the emblematic Human Rights violation sentences that the Supreme Court is issuing (with the goal of issuing them before September 11, as reported by El Mostrador), the Second Chamber of the highest court issued a harsh sentence this afternoon against the murderers of the singer-songwriter Víctor Lidio Jara Martínez and the general director of prisons in 1973, Littré Abraham Quiroga Carvajal.

Six of those convicted for the homicides of Víctor Jara and Littré Quiroga were sentenced as perpetrators of qualified kidnapping and qualified homicide in both cases. The decision of the second chamber (composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Jorge Dahm, minister Eliana Quezada, and the lawyers (members) Carolina Coppo and Leonor Etcheberry) thus confirmed the second-instance sentence, which had sentenced the accused to 15 years and one day for the homicides, and 10 years and one day for both kidnappings.

In this way, the sentences against former military officers Raúl Jofré González, Edwin Dimter Bianchi, Nelson Haase Mazzei, Ernesto Bethke Wulf, Juan Jara Quintana, and Hernán Chacón Soto were confirmed.

Meanwhile, former military prosecutor Rolando Melo Silva was sentenced to five years and one day and three years and one day in prison, as an accessory to the homicides and the kidnappings, respectively.

In the investigation, the minister visiting the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vázquez Plaza, explained that on the night of September 11, 1973, Quiroga was detained in his office by a patrol from the Third Police Station of Santiago, after which they took him to the Ministry of Defense and then to the 2nd Armored Regiment, where he was tortured, after which they transferred him to the Estadio Chile.

The next day, they also took Víctor Jara there, who was detained on September 12 inside the University of Santiago (Universidad Técnica del Estado, at that time, of which he was a professor and researcher), after said facility was besieged and attacked by troops of the "Arica" Regiment, under the command of who would later be one of the most important DINA officers: Marcelo Morén Brito.

According to what was investigated by the visiting minister, when Jara arrived at the Estadio Chile together with the other prisoners, "he was immediately recognized by the military personnel located at the access to the facility, being verbally and physically assaulted from his arrival, to be temporarily placed in the stands sector, together with the people detained at that house of studies, without any charge being formulated against him." After that, he was separated from the others, the same as happened with Littré Quiroga.

The latter, in fact, suffered during "his entire captivity, constant and violent episodes of physical and verbal aggression by the Army officers present there," since they accused him of "having been responsible for the imprisonment and mistreatment that Army General Roberto Viaux had allegedly suffered, which aggravated the punishment that was inflicted on him by those who passed by his side, even encouraging the conscripts themselves to take part in said punishment, and, in a very similar way, regarding Víctor Jara Martínez, the aggressions had as their main incentive the artistic, cultural, and political activity of the same, closely linked to the recently overthrown Government, who was subjected to identical physical torture, the most severe blows being those he received in the region of his face and his hands; both victims were subjected to kicks, punches, and blows with the butts of weapons." In this way, both were arduously tortured between September 13 and 15, being also constantly interrogated by military personnel and also (on several occasions) by personnel of the Second Military Prosecutor's Office of the time. On the 15th, Jara and Quiroga were separated from a group of prisoners who were being taken to the Estadio Nacional and "both were killed, an event that occurred as a result of at least 44 and 23 bullet impacts, respectively, in all cases of 9.23-millimeter caliber, as specified in the corresponding autopsy reports and ballistic expertise, which corresponds to the service weaponry that was used by the Army officers who were in said facility." After that, both bodies were thrown onto the public road and found "on September 16, 1973, by residents who belonged to community and social organizations, in the vicinity of the Metropolitan Cemetery, on a vacant lot near the railway line, who cleaned their faces and were able to recognize them." In civil matters, the treasury was ordered to pay each of the plaintiffs, spouse and children of Littré Quiroga, the sum of 150 million pesos, and to each of his siblings the sum of 80 million. Meanwhile, 150 million must be paid to each of Víctor Jara's widow and children.

Source: elmostrador.cl, August 28, 2023

Indictment issued against Pedro Barrientos for the murder of Víctor Jara

The former military officer was deported by the United States at the end of 2023, after being requested by the Chilean justice system since 2013, an occasion in which the Supreme Court authorized his extradition for his participation in the crime of Jara and Littré Quiroga.

The Fuero Minister, Paola Plaza González, issued an indictment against former military officer Pedro Barrientos Núñez, as the perpetrator of the crimes of qualified kidnapping and qualified homicide committed against the national singer-songwriter Víctor Jara Martínez and Littré Quiroga Carvajal, former National Director of Prisons, events that occurred between September 12 and 15, 1973, in Santiago.

Barrientos was deported by the United States at the end of 2023, a country where he was a fugitive for decades, after being requested by the Chilean justice system since 2013, an occasion in which the Supreme Court authorized his extradition for his participation in the crime of Jara and Quiroga.

In 2016, a jury in a civil case in the U.S. had found Barrientos responsible for the torture of Víctor Jara and other prisoners at the Estadio Chile. The former military officer had escaped from Chile to the U.S. in 1989, at the end of the dictatorship, obtaining American nationality, which was revoked on July 14, 2023, for having used false information to obtain it.

For that violation of U.S. immigration laws, he was deported to Chile on November 30, 2023. Once he arrived in our country, Barrientos was notified of the prosecution orders issued in 2012 and 2014 by Minister Miguel Vásquez Plaza, who previously handled the case for the crimes of kidnapping and homicide of Jara and Quiroga.

It would be this same magistrate who, in the absence of the defendant, determined his temporary dismissal. With the indictment of Minister Paola Plaza, he is closer than ever to receiving a sentence. According to the plaintiff lawyer, Nelson Caucoto, representative of the victims' family, "from our point of view, Mr.

Barrientos's fate cannot be different from that of the other military officers who were convicted and sentenced in this case, with significant penalties, proportional to the gravity of the crimes and unanimously confirmed by the Supreme Court," he maintained. "This indictment by Minister Plaza constitutes the beginning of the end of a trial that has lasted more than 50 years and that makes the longing for justice of Víctor and Littré's families a reality.

Justice in this case will be possible despite the passage of time," expressed Caucoto. Other convicted persons In August 2023, the Second Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court convicted seven retired Army members for their responsibility in the crimes of qualified kidnapping and qualified homicide of the singer-songwriter and Quiroga.

They are Raúl Jofré González, Edwin Dimter Bianchi, Nelson Haase Mazzei, Ernesto Bethke Wulf, Juan Jara Quintana, and Hernán Chacón Soto, with sentences of 15 years and one day, as perpetrators of the homicides, and 10 years and one day in prison for the kidnapping of both victims.

Meanwhile, the former officer and former military prosecutor, Rolando Melo Silva, was sentenced to five years and one day in prison as an accessory to both homicides, as well as three years and one day in prison for also being an accessory to the kidnappings.

Haase Mazzei, a former Army officer, is currently a fugitive from justice, while Jara Quintana, a former colonel, fled after the sentencing was issued, being captured and detained in May 2024. 44 bullet impacts According to the investigation, Víctor Jara was detained on September 12, 1973, at the Universidad Técnica del Estado, being subsequently taken to the Estadio Chile.

September 15 is the last day he was seen alive, when in the afternoon Víctor Jara was taken out of a line of prisoners who were to be transferred to the Estadio Nacional. The dawn of the following day, his body was found by some residents in the vicinity of the Metropolitan Cemetery, together with five other corpses, among which was that of Littré Quiroga Carvajal.

According to the autopsy report, Víctor Jara died as a result of 44 bullet impacts and multiple fractures. Littré Quiroga, meanwhile, suspended his medical leave to go to his office at the National Prison Directorate.

From there, he decided to send most of the officials to their homes and communicated with a high military authority. In response, he was told to report at 8:00 a.m. on the 12th at the Ministry of Defense.

However, about twenty Carabineros arrived at the Prison Service offices. Littré Quiroga surrendered voluntarily to them. At night, he was transferred to the 2nd Armored Regiment. On September 13, he was sent to the Estadio Chile, where he suffered multiple tortures and humiliations applied by Army personnel.

He remained there until September 15, and the following day his body was found near the Metropolitan Cemetery, with 23 bullet impacts and multiple fractures.

Source: radio.uchile.cl, December 10, 2025