Letelier del Solar, Orlando

(1932–1976)

   Foreign minister under President Salvador Allende Gossens (1970–1973) of Chile and former ambassador to the United States. Immediately following the coup of 11 September 1973, Letelier del Solar was detained at Dawson Island with other officials from the Unidad Popular government. Released, he went into exile in Washington, D.C., where he joined the Institute for Policy Studies. He was killed on 21 September 1976 when his car exploded as he was traveling along Washington’s Embassy Row. Ronni Karpen Moffitt, a staff member at the institute, also died in the explosion. An investigation revealed that Letelier del Solar, a critic of the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, had been targeted by the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA, Directorate of National Intelligence), Chile’s secret police.

   The bomb had been made and planted by Michael V. Townley, a U.S. citizen working for DINA. The story began to unfold in 1978, when a Chilean judge, investigating a case of false passports, discovered a trail leading from Townley to two DINA officials, General Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda and Colonel Pedro Espinoza Bravo. Turned over to U.S. authorities in 1978, Townley cooperated, confessing to his role in the crime and stating that Contreras Sepúlveda and Espinoza Bravo had ordered the assassination. Townley was convicted and served five years in prison. In 1979 the United States asked Chile to extradite the two DINA officials, but Chile refused, saying that Chilean law did not allow evidence obtained through plea bargains. The United States renewed its extradition request in 1987, prompted by the voluntary confession of Major Armando Fernández Larios, a DINA agent, who told U.S. authorities that he had participated in the assassination by tracking Letelier del Solar’s whereabouts in Washington. Again, Chile rejected the request. A small measure of justice came in 1993, when a Chilean court convicted Contreras Sepúlveda and Espinoza Bravo for their role in the murders of Letelier del Solar and Moffitt. They were sentenced to seven years and six years, respectively, and served time in a special military prison.