Tribute to Orlando Letelier in Chile 50 years after the attack in Washington D.C.
Chile commemorated on Monday the murder of Orlando Letelier, which occurred on 21 September 1976 in Washington D.C. with a bomb beneath his car.
Half a century after the attack, Chile remembers Orlando Letelier
Orlando Letelier, foreign minister and defence minister under Salvador Allende's government, died on 21 September 1976 along with his secretary Ronni Moffitt when a bomb placed under his car was detonated by remote control in Washington D.C. Monday marked 50 years since that assassination.
According to reporting by cronicadigital.cl, the tribute ceremony held in Santiago brought together relatives of Letelier and various political and social figures. Among those present were the Socialist Party president, Paulina Vodanovic; former senator and daughter of Allende, Isabel Allende; former foreign ministers José Miguel Insulza and Alberto van Klaveren; the Communist Party general secretary, Bárbara Figueroa; the 2026 National Prize for Human Rights recipient, Alicia Lira; and former officials from the Popular Unity government.
Declassified CIA documents indicate that it was dictator Augusto Pinochet who personally ordered the assassination. Pinochet tasked Manuel Contreras, head of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), the regime's secret police, with carrying out the operation.
Born in Temuco in 1932, Letelier held several positions during the Popular Unity government (1970–1973): he was appointed ambassador to the United States in 1971, served as foreign minister between May and August 1973, and took office as defence minister until the coup d'état on 11 September that year.
Following the coup, Letelier suffered imprisonment and torture in various detention centres, and was sent to Dawson Island with other officials. In 1974 he went into exile, first to Venezuela and then to the United States, where he settled.
Ten days before the attack, on 10 September 1976, Pinochet stripped him of his Chilean nationality. Letelier responded publicly: "I have been deprived of my dignity as a Chilean, but I want you to know that I am Chilean, I was born Chilean and I will die Chilean. They, the fascists, were born traitors, live as traitors and will always be remembered as fascist traitors."
Source: Google News CL — Crime