Pinochet ordered killing on US soil of Chilean diplomat

[bemildred]

October 8, 2015 1:30PM ET
by Al Jazeera Staff

General Augusto Pinochet ordered the 1976 assassination in Washington D.C. of a Chilean diplomat fleeing his dictatorship, according to declassified U.S. documents.

Orlando Letelier, who served as foreign minister under socialist president Salvador Allende, was imprisoned and tortured by the Pinochet government after Allende was deposed in a coup on Sept. 11, 1973.

He later went into exile in the United States, where he led resistance to Pinochet. In 1976 he was killed, along with Ronni Moffitt, his U.S. co-worker at the Institute for Policy Studies, by a car bomb detonated at Sheridan Circle in Embassy Row. Moffit’s husband, Michael, was seriously injured in the blast.

"There is a report from the CIA which is conclusive regarding Pinochet’s responsibility in ordering the assassination of my father. This is the first time there is evidence of this," Juan Pablo Letelier, a Chilean senator and a son of the victim, told Tele13 Radio on Thursday.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/10/8/pinochet-directly-ordered-killing-on-us-soil-of-chilean-diplomat.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Pinochet behind ’76 deadly car bombing in U.S. Embassy Row, CIA evidence, files handed to Chile indi

Pinochet behind ’76 deadly car bombing in U.S. Embassy Row, CIA evidence, files handed to Chile indicate

AFP-JIJI

SANTIAGO – The CIA had evidence that Chile’s military dictator, Augusto Pinochet, ordered the brazen assassination in Washington of an exiled former Chilean foreign minister, the diplomat’s son said Thursday.

. . .

Declassified U.S. documents turned over to Chile this week add weight to the theory.

. . .

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry handed 1,000 declassified U.S. documents related to the sensitive case to Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet during a conference in Chile on Monday and Tuesday.

She passed them on to Letelier’s son, a Chilean senator.

More:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/10/09/world/crime-legal-world/pinochet-behind-76-deadly-car-bombing-u-s-embassy-row-cia-evidence-files-handed-chile-indicate/#.Vhbg7OSFPDd

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Before Orlando Letelier was assassinated by Pinochet's order, some of his killers being US-based Cuban "exile" henchmen, he had been tortured at length by Pinochet's order in Chile. He got the whole right-wing treatment for his political beliefs.

From Wikipedia:

. . .

In 1971, Letelier was appointed ambassador to the United States by Salvador Allende, the socialist president of Chile.[2] Letelier had lived in Washington, D.C. during the 1960s and had supported Allende's campaign for the presidency. Allende believed Letelier's experience and connections in international banking would be highly beneficial to developing US–Chile diplomatic relations.[3] During 1973, Letelier served successively as Minister of Foreign Affairs, then Interior Minister, and, finally, Defense Minister. After the Chilean coup of 1973 that brought Augusto Pinochet to power, Letelier was one of the first members of the Allende administration to be arrested by the Chilean government and sent to a political prison in Tierra del Fuego.

He was held for 12 months in different concentration camps suffering severe torture: first at the Tacna Regiment, then at the Military Academy. Later he was sent to a political prison for eight months at Dawson Island. From there he was transferred to the basement of the Air Force War Academy, and finally was sent to the concentration camp of Ritoque. Eventually, international diplomatic pressure especially from Diego Arria, then Governor of the city of Caracas, Venezuela, and United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger[4] resulted in the sudden release of Letelier on the condition that he immediately leave Chile. He was told by the officer in charge of his release that "the arm of DINA is long, General Pinochet will not and does not tolerate activities against his government." This was a clear warning to Letelier that living outside of Chile wouldn't guarantee his safety.[5]

After his release in 1974, he moved to Washington, D.C., where he became a senior fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies, an independent international policy studies think tank.[6] He plunged into writing, speaking, and lobbying the US Congress and European governments against Augusto Pinochet's regime, and soon he became the leading voice of the Chilean resistance, in the process preventing several loans (especially from Europe) from being awarded to the military government. He was described by his colleagues as being "the most respected and effective spokesman in the international campaign to condemn and isolate" Pinochet's dictatorship.[7] Letelier was assisted at the Institute for Policy Studies by Ronni Moffitt, a 25-year-old fundraiser who ran a "Music Carryout" program that produced musical instruments for the poor, and also campaigned for democracy in Chile.[8]

Letelier soon became a person of interest for Operation Condor, a campaign initiated by right-wing dictatorships in South America to gather intelligence on opposition movements and to assassinate the leaders of these movements. Former General and political figure Carlos Prats, who had become a vocal opponent of the Pinochet government,[9] was killed by a radio-controlled car bomb on September 30, 1974, in an assassination planned and executed by members of DINA.[10] Letelier's pro-democracy campaign and his vehement criticisms of Pinochet had been under watch by the Chilean government. Letelier became a target in DINA director Manuel Contreras' efforts to eliminate resistance to the Pinochet government.[11]

More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Orlando_Letelier