workingclasshistory:

On this day, 16 September 1973, Chilean communist folk singer and musician Victor Jara was murdered by the forces of general Augusto Pinochet following his US-backed coup a few days before.
Jara was taken prisoner along with thousands of others in the Chile Stadium, where guards tortured him, smashing his hands and fingers and then told to try playing his guitar. Jara responded defiantly, instead singing the protest song “Venceremos” (We will prevail). The song concludes with the refrain:
“We shall prevail, we shall prevail
A thousand chains we’ll have to break,
We shall prevail, we shall prevail
We know how to overcome misery.”
He was then shot over 40 times and killed.
In 2003, the stadium was renamed the Victor Jara Stadium. In 2018, eight former Chilean army officers were convicted for Jara’s murder and sentenced to just over 18 years’ imprisonment.
In 2019, a wave of rebellion swept Chile, in which Jara’s songs were sung by thousands of people in the streets. The protests resulted in the government agreeing to abolish the Pinochet era-constitution which was still in effect. The proposed new constitution was recently rejected in a referendum, and calls have begun to circulate to restart the struggle in the streets.
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