The retired Army lieutenant colonel Juan Jara Quintanacondemned for his responsibility as author of the crimes of kidnapping and homicide of the singer-songwriter Víctor Jara and the former national director of the Gendarmerie, Littre Quiroga, He was captured.
This was announced by the Judiciary, which also reported that the minister visiting the Court of Appeals of Santiago, Paola Plaza, gave the order to enter as a finisher to the retired officer to comply with the ruling issued by the Supreme Court on August 23, 2023.
Minister Paola Plaza gives an entry order to a former soldier who was a fugitive after a final ruling for the kidnapping and murder of Víctor Jara and Littré Quiroga https://t.co/gcw4e0iUkU pic.twitter.com/y5qknncsCZ
— Chilean Judiciary (@PJudicialChile) May 21, 2024
Jara Quintana, who had been a fugitive since that date, was arrested this Monday and placed at the disposal of the court to be notified of the final ruling of the highest court that sentenced to 15 years and one day in prisonas the perpetrator of the homicides and 10 years and one day as the perpetrator of the aggravated kidnappings.
On August 28, 2023, the Supreme Court handed down a final ruling against seven retired members of the Army for their responsibility in the crimes of qualified kidnapping and qualified homicide of Víctor Jara Martínez and Littré Quiroga Carvajal, crimes committed in September 1973.
In a unanimous ruling, the Second Chamber of the highest court sentenced Raúl Jofré González, Edwin Dimter Bianchi, Nelson Haase Mazzei, Ernesto Bethke Wulf, Juan Jara Quintana and Hernán Chacón Soto sentenced to 15 years and one day in prison. Meanwhile, the former officer Rolando Melo Silva He was sentenced to serve 5 years and one day and 3 years and one day in prison, as an accessory to the homicides and kidnappings, respectively.
One day later, on August 29, 2023, retired Brig. Hernán Chacón Soto committed suicide in his apartment in the Las Condes commune of the capital. The discovery of the body was carried out by detectives from the PDI Human Rights Brigade, who came to notify him.
Likewise, on December 1, 2023, another defendant in the case, the former military man Pedro Barrientos, arrived deported from the United States. The next day, visiting Minister Guillermo de la Barra Dünner notified him of the prosecution in this case.
Finally, Barrientos was remanded in preventive detention in the Peñalolén Military Police Battalion awaiting the proceedings that are ordered to clarify his participation in the events.
Jara Quintana was one of the last fugitives after the ruling of the highest court was known.
INDH APPRAISED CAPTURE OF QUINTANA
The National Institute of Human Rights (INDH) valued Quintana’s capture and noted that is a «positive sign for the advancement in truth and justice of the causes of human rights violations during the dictatorship».
«Those guilty of these serious crimes must be brought to justice and served their sentences.«added the organization through its X account.
Those guilty of these serious crimes must be brought to justice and served their sentences.
— INDH Chile (@inddhh) May 21, 2024