Víctor Jara participates in all of Allendes political meetings. He gives free concerts in support of the government and tours all over the world, highlighting to the audience Chiles peaceful way to socialism. However, after a bloody coup on September 11, 1973, the military, led by the commander in chief Augusto Pinochet, removes Allende, who dies of unknown causes during the attack on the presidential palace.
At that same time, Jara is at the technical university in Santiago, where he is a teacher. The university lies only some hundred meters away from the presidential palace and is surrounded by the military, so no one can get out. Víctor calls his English wife, Joan, from the university and tells her to stay inside the house with their two girls until the fighting is over. He tells her he will spend the night at the university with other teachers and students and return home in the morning. They declare their love to each other before he hangs up. It is the last time she hears his voice. In the morning, the students and the teachers are attacked by the military, and, together with thousands of other pro-Allende Chileans, they are led to the national soccer stadium, Estadio Chile. Here Jara is tortured. First they force him to sing and play his guitar. Then they cut his hands off with an axe before killing him with forty-four shots in the head, chest, arms, and legs. A few days later, Joan finds his body in a ditch outside of Santiago.14