Chilean singer Víctor Jara, in an undated photo provided by the Jara Foundation.

Santiago de Chile.— With his hands ruined from beatings, Víctor Jara wrote his last verses in a notebook which he gave to one of his comrades and is today preserved by the Jara Foundation: “Song, how imperfect you are / when I most need to sing, I cannot / I cannot because I am still alive / I cannot because I am dying.”

It was in the Chile Stadium - one of the most sinister symbols of the Au­gus­to Pinochet dictatorship - on September 16, 1973, five days after the coup which overthrew Socialist President Salvador Allende, where the singer spent the last hours of his life.

Those who were there that fateful day later noted that his torturers never managed to completely wipe away his smile, not even after brutal and repeated beatings, before he was riddled with bullets. More than 40 bullets were found in his body.

After his executioners had finished playing a vicious game of Russian roulette with him, he was killed by a shot to the neck taken at almost pointblank range.

The Chile Stadium, today the Víc­tor Jara Stadium, continues to be the silent witness to incalculable horrors committed at the outset of the Pinochet regime (1973-1990).

Forensic tests carried out in 2009 after his remains were exhumed, proved that he had been tortured. His body was found on the outskirts of the Metropolitan Cemetery, where a Memorial in his honor was inaugurated last year.

A visit to the Museum of Memory in the capital leaves a bitter taste in one’s mouth. Among the objects displayed is the last poem written by the author of “Te re­cuerdo Amanda”and numerous other love and political songs.

Four decades later, Víctor Jara’s family, who have never ceased in their search for justice, were able to smile again. A Florida judge ordered that the man identified as Jara’s killer, Pedro Pa­blo Ba­rrientos, appear in court on charges of torture and extrajudicial murder.