Pinochet and State Terrorism in Washington: CIA Findings Reveal He Personally Ordered Orlando Letelier’s Assassination

Original article: Pinochet y el terrorismo de Estado en Washington: CIA concluyó que ordenó personalmente el asesinato de Orlando Letelier

An investigative report by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States in 1987 concluded that dictator Augusto Pinochet personally ordered the assassination of former Chilean chancellor and ambassador Orlando Letelier, carried out through a bombing on September 21, 1976, in Washington D.C.

The bomb was planted by Michael Townley, an agent of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA). It exploded in Letelier’s car, causing immediate death. His colleague from the Institute for Police Studies, American activist Ronni Moffitt, also died, while her husband, Michael Moffitt, was severely injured.

The document, disclosed by CHV Noticias to mark the 50th anniversary of the crime, was prepared in 1987 at the request of then-U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz during Ronald Reagan’s administration, gathering information from both the attack in September 1976 and subsequent maneuvers recorded in 1977 and 1978.

Titled “Pinochet’s Role in Letelier’s Assassination and Subsequent Cover-Up”, the report stated that “a review of our files on Letelier’s assassination provides what we consider compelling evidence that Pinochet ordered his intelligence chief to carry out the crime.”

The document referred specifically to Manuel Contreras, who was then serving as the director of DINA.

U.S. journalist, official, and researcher Peter Kornbluh, referenced in the CHV Noticias report, described the document as “the Holy Grail of the Letelier case.”

According to the specialist in declassified documentation on Chile, the CIA concluded that there were links directly connecting the dictator to the order for Letelier’s murder and its subsequent cover-up, based on intelligence file reviews and through their own investigations, witness testimonies, and analysis of diplomatic cables and press clippings related to the bombing and the actions taken afterward to obfuscate responsibility, as reported by the cited source.

CHV Noticias noted that the case of the late chancellor Letelier is still regarded as the only instance where a foreign government committed an act of state terrorism on United States soil, specifically in its capital.

50 Years Since Letelier’s Assassination

It is important to recall that, just like other high-ranking officials of the Unidad Popular government, Orlando Letelier was arrested immediately following the coup d’état on September 11, 1973 against former President Salvador Allende and subsequently subjected to torture and held in various detention centers, including the Dawson Island prisoner camp.

After pressure from various personalities and international support committees, the former chancellor was released and went into exile, first to Venezuela and then to the United States, where he performed significant duties as a representative of the opposition to Augusto Pinochet, denouncing the crimes committed by his regime, prompting the repeal of his Chilean nationality through a decree signed by the dictator himself just weeks before the assassination.

The judicial investigation conducted by U.S. authorities, which included confessions from three participants in the bombing, determined the involvement of DINA agents in both planning and executing the attack. Among them were American Michael Townley and Chilean military officer Armando Fernández Larios, who sought refuge under the U.S. government’s witness protection program, preventing them from being prosecuted by courts in Chile.

In light of this evidence, the dictatorship undertook various maneuvers to obstruct clarification of the crime, and it was only after the return to democracy that the case was reopened, leading to the conviction of several agents of Pinochet’s regime, including former DINA director Manuel Contreras.

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