Sebastián Acevedo Becerra (20 January 1933 – 11 November 1983) was a Chilean worker who, in protest at the arrest of his children by the secret police of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship,

self-immolated The term self-immolation broadly refers to acts of altruistic suicide, otherwise the giving up of one's body in an act of sacrifice. However, it most often refers specifically to autocremation, the act of sacrificing oneself by setting oneself o ...

in front of the Cathedral of the Most Holy Conception, in the town of Concepción. On 9 November 1983, Galo and

María Candelaria Acevedo María Candelaria Acevedo Sáez (born 12 September 1958) is a Chilean politician from the Communist Party of Chile. She is the daughter of Sebastián Acevedo Sebastián Acevedo Becerra (20 January 1933 – 11 November 1983) was a Chilean w ...

, two of Sebastián's children, were arrested by armed civilians who did not identify themselves. He searched for them in different precincts, suspecting that they were being held by the National Information Center. Two days later, on 11 November, after he was unable to establish their whereabouts, he sprayed gasoline and kerosene on his clothes at the Plaza de Armas in Concepción as a sign of protest to pressure the authorities. When a rifleman tried to stop him, he set fire to his clothes. He died a few hours later as a result of the burns. Before he died, he received the last rites from Enrique Moreno who recorded his last words on a tape recorder: "I want the CNI to return my children... Lord, forgive them and also forgive me for this sacrifice". Acevedo's daughter María Candelaria Acevedo was elected to the

Chamber of Deputies of Chile The Chamber of Deputies ( es, Cámara de Diputadas y Diputados, links=no) is the lower house of Chile's bicameral Congress. Its organisation and its powers and duties are defined in articles 42 to 59 of Chile's current constitution. Eligibil ...

in the 2021 general election.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Acevedo, Sebastián 1931 births 1983 deaths Suicides by self-immolation Suicides in Chile Chilean communists Military dictatorship of Chile (1973–1990) 20th-century Chilean people People from Concepción, Chile