The Jackal of Nahueltoro
The grave of Jorge del Carmen Valenzuela, executed in 1963, which became a place of devotion in the San Carlos cemetery.
In the cemetery of San Carlos, in the Ñuble region, lies the grave of Jorge del Carmen Valenzuela Torres, known as the “Jackal of Nahueltoro”. It is one of the best-known cases in Chile of popular devotion to a man sentenced to death.
What happened
Valenzuela was a poor, illiterate farmworker. In 1960 he murdered his partner, Rosa Elena Rivas, and her five children near Nahueltoro. He was sentenced to death.
In Chillán prison he learned to read and write and to make guitars, converted to Catholicism and showed remorse. His mentor, the priest Eloy Parra, asked for a pardon; President Jorge Alessandri refused it, and Valenzuela was executed by firing squad on 30 April 1963.
An uneasy devotion
According to Memoria Chilena, his death gave rise to an incipient cult, fed by the feeling that his punishment had been unjust: the man who was executed was no longer the one who had committed the crimes. His grave still receives visitors and plaques.
This entry does not seek to justify the crimes. It also remembers his six victims, and shows how Chilean folk religion has turned some executed men into figures of devotion.
In culture
Miguel Littín’s film “El Chacal de Nahueltoro” (1969) retold the case and is considered one of the most important works of Chilean cinema.
Visiting
The map pin marks the cemetery, not the exact grave.