Roberto Souper Lt . Colonel Roberto Federico Souper Onfray is a Chilean military officer who launched an unsuccessful coup d ' état against the Marxist regime of Salvador Allende , surrounding the presidential palace with a tank regiment . 22 civilians were killed during the brief coup attempt , including Leonardo Henrichsen , a Swedish - Argentine news photographer filming the events . Souper was married to María Eugenia Wilshaw . He attended the Chilean military academy ( " Escuela Militar " ) following his attendance at the Jesuit - run seconary school , " San Ignacio " in Santiago . After being commissioned as an Army officer he rose through the ranks and served with units including the " Húsares " of Angol , and the " Granaderos " ( grenadiers ) of Iquique . Souper ' s family was characterised as being of a " military caste " following the entry of the first Souper on the Chilean historical scene , when colonel Robert Souper Howard ( born in Harwich , England ) played a prominent role in the War of the Pacific . The aforementioned attempted coup , known as the Tanquetazo , took place on June 29 , 1973 . At the time , Souper was the commander of the " Regimiento Blindado Nº2 " Chilean Army tank force in the Santiago region . Souper ' s failure is considered significant in that it provided the military with a valuable lesson as to what conditions were necessary for a coup to succeed . Some continue to speculate that the United States government may have sponsored Souper , although most CIA documents covering this subject area have been declassified and no linkage has been uncovered . There is no reliable evidence that the US actively assisted or even approved of Souper ' s tanquetazo and given the absurdly uncoordinated nature of the event , and the lack of support for it within the rest of the Chilean military , such a connection is considered unlikely . However , there is considerable published information about the Chilean organisation " Patria y Libertad " that did promote the coup attempt and members of that group notoriously took refuge in the embassy of Ecuador when the coup ' s failure was made clear . Souper ' s cousin , Carlos Souper Quinteros , along with Roberto ' s brothers Jaime and Patricio , were active members of " Patria y Libertad . " Souper , detained under the Allende administration and under prosecution for sedition in a military court , was released following the successful coup on 11 September 1973 . He then became an agent for the Santiago regional intelligences services ( División de Inteligencia Regional de la División de Inteligencia Metropolitana ) . Declassified CIA documents do not identify American participation in the tanquetazo , but in those materials Souper was named by the CIA as early as August 1971 as one of eight known officers predisposed to oppose the government of Salvador Allende . In 2001 Souper was a director of the " symbolic " armoured cavalry unit known as " Coronel Santiago Bueras " . In 2004 the Chilean newspaper " La Cuarta " identified Souper as a probable participant in the death of Chilean musician and songwriter Victor Jara , according to the finding of special judge Juan Carlos Urrutia . In 2005 the daughter of the Swedish - Argentine filmmaker , Leonardo Henrichsen , killed near the presidential palace during the " Tanquetazo " in 1973 , initiated legal proceedings in Chile against those responsible for the death of her father . The story was carried in the Argentine media . In 2012 Souper was charged in Chile , along with several others , with the murder of Chilean folk singer Victor Jara in 1973 . At the time , Souper was reported to be in a rest home , suffering from Alzeimer ' s .