Justice for Letelier timeline

The Institute for Policy Studies and Transnational Institute applaud the U.S. Department of State for finally declassifying documents related to the 1976 assassination of two IPS colleagues by agents of the Chilean dictatorship and call for the remaining ones to be declassified. Read more.

28th Annual Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Awards at the National Press Club Ballroom with the Domestic Award going to Military Families Speak Out, presented by Mike Farrell, and the Special Recognition Award to Seymour Hersh, presented by Isabel Morel de Letelier

Annual Sheridan Circle Memorial, to commemorate Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffitt's commitment to justice by celebrating this year's advances in the Pinochet case and in Chile's democratisation, organised by the Institute for Policy Studies, Washington.

As a contribution to the events in The Netherlands being organised to commemorate the 30th anniversary of General Pinochet's coup in Chile, TNI co-organises a number of public discussions with Roger Burbach, the author of a new TNI book The Pinochet Affair. Discussions are held at the Institute for Social Studies, The Hague, American Book Center and Latin American Centre in Amsterdam

Preparations for activities on the event of the visit to Delfzijl harbour in the Netherlands of the Chilean torture vessel "Esmeralda" (by TNI, Amnesty and Chilean organisations) lead to the cancellation of the visit. The Esmeralda also had to take Sweden and Spain off its itinary. The Esmeralda was due to arrive in Delfzijl on 16 June, and was also invited for "DelfSail", to take place 10-14 July. Campaigns against the ship, which has a notorious history as "torture boat" under Pinochet's dictatorship, take place all over the world, and have led to cancellations in Peru, Ecuador and Panama earlier this year.

Memorial Service for Victims of Torture on the Chilean Naval Vessel Esmeralda

The US Justice Department has reopened a grand jury investigation aimed at indicting Gen. Augusto Pinochet for a notorious 1976 car bombing that killed former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier. - Washington Post

Spanish lawyer Juan Garcés is presented in the Swedish parliament the 1999 Right to Livelihood Award, better known as the alternative Nobel Prize. Garcés is being awarded this distinguished prize for being the driving force behind Spain's efforts to bring general Pinochet to justice in a Spanish court for the human rights violations under his 1973 to 1999 Chilean dictatorship. Acceptance speech

Juan Garcés at IPS, October 1999. Photo by Mariël Otten

TNI with the Committee against Impunity in Chile organise the Forum "The Pinochet Trial. Developments in the Pinochet Case" at De Balie, Amsterdam. Speakers Saul Landau (TNI), Joan Garcés, Fabiola Letelier (Chile), Oscar Vallespier (Chile) and Jan de Kievid. 100 participants.

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In honour of Letelier and Moffitt a movie is shown at TNI, entitled "Debts". Marcos Arruda gives an accompanying lecture.

The 5th Annual Letelier-Moffitt Memorial Human Rights Awards Ceremony is being held in Washington DC. This year's recipients are Jacobo Zimmerman and the Congregation of Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic.

Assassination on Embassy Row, an account of the IPS investigation of the Letelier-Moffitt murders, by Saul Landau and John Dinges, is published.

Letelier Memorial, Salvador Allende Centre, Rotterdam.

The 4th Annual Letelier-Moffitt Memorial Human Rights Awards Ceremony is being held in Washington DC. This year's recipients are Reverend William Wipfler of the National Council of Churches and the Legal Aid Office of the Archdiocese of San Salvador.

TNI publishes "De ABN en Chili: De steun die een Nederlandse bank sinds 1977 aan Pinochet verleent" [The "General Bank of the Netherlands" and Chile: On the support given by a Dutch bank since 1977 to Pinochet] (in cooperation with the Chile Committee and research organisation MOL).

3rd Annual Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Awards (Howard University, Washington, DC.). This year's recipients are the Association of Relatives of Disappeared People (Chile) and Alfred 'Skip' Robinson of the United League of Mississippi.

Meeting "Letelier Challenges Pinochet from the Grave", Friends House, London. Sponsored by: Race & Class, TNI, Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, Chile Committee on Human Rights, and Chile Solidarity Campaign. With speakers and films on "The Investigation into the Assassination Conspiracy" and "Multi-national Banks and Repression in Chile".

Letelier-Moffitt Memorial in Sonesta Hotel, Amsterdam. Speech by Carlos Lazo, International Secretary of the Chilean Socialist Party, living in Paris.

2nd Letelier-Moffitt Memorial Human Rights, Howard University, Washington DC. Awards go to Reverend Benjamin Chavis (black civil rights advocate, convicted and in jail) and Samuel Rubin.

Press conference at TNI to release to the press the official indictments against eight conspirators in the assassinations of Letelier-Moffitt. Present: Political Secretary of the Chilean Socialist Party in Holland, Mr. Rodrigo Araya.

TNI publishes They Educated the Crows An Institute Report on the Letelier-Moffitt Murders, written by Saul Landau.

US federal grand jury indicted eight people in connection with the murders of Letelier and Moffitt:

• Five Cuban exiles:
  Guillermo Novo, Alvin Ross, Jose Dionisio Suarez and Virigilio Paz for conspiracy to assassinate a foreign diplomat; and Ignacio Novo for concealing knowledge of the crime from authorities.
• Three Chileans:
  Armando Fernandez Larios, a Chilean army captain who conducted surveillance on Letelier prior to the bombing; Pedro Espinoza, the Director of Operations of the Chilean secret police, who helped plan and order the bombing from Chile; and Manuel Contreras, chief of the secret police from its inception to late 1977.

Isabel Letelier and Michael Moffitt publish "HUman Rights, Economc Aid and Private Banks. The Case of Chile", a report submitted to the Subcommittee on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, UN Commission on Human Rights.

Memorial meeting for Letelier and Karpen Moffitt at KIT, Amsterdam, organised by TNI, Salvador Allende Centre, Chilean Socialist Party and Dutch Chile Committee. Minister Pronk, Relus ter Beek, ANDRÉ Van der Louw en Jorge Arrate as speakers.

The Letelier-Moffitt Memorial Fund for Human Rights is established and the Letelier-Moffitt Awards become an annual convocation of human rights activists in Washington, DC.

Isabel Letelier and Michael Moffitt present a copy of TNI Pamphlet 5 to Senator EDWARD KENNEDY at the Awards Ceremony

TNI Reprints is published: The Letelier/Moffitt Murder - This is How it was Done By Saul Landau and Ralph Stavins, originally published in The Nation.

Funeral mass for Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffitt, held at St. Mark's Cathedral, Washington DC. Address by Michael Moffitt

SL: Several thousand people march from Sheridan Circle, where the murder occurred, to St. Matthew's Cathedral for a requiem mass for Orlando and Ronni. A banner in the front says Orlando lives in the hearts of the people. The banner at the rear denounces fascist oppression. Hortensia Allende and Isabel Letelier, two widows of the struggle, walk in the front. As the marchers pass the spot where Orlando's car came to rest, they lay their flowers in the curbside. Then each mourner raises a fist in anger at the Chilean embassy. A suspected DINA agent is recognized in the crowd taking photographs.

A March is held in The Hague, from the Embassy of the US to the Chilean Embassy. André van der Louw, Mayor of Rotterdam, addresses the audience and delivers a speech.

Meanwhile, a successful IPS/TNI investigation reveals the involvement of the Chilean secret service, DINA, in the assassination. Saul Landau and Ralph Stavins undertake the investigation, which leads to the indictment of Michael Townley and other suspects in 1979.

SL: The FBI takes over jurisdiction from the DC Metropolitan Police. The people at the Institute feel apprehensive since IPS has a suit against the FBI for admittedly tapping phones, opening mail and planting informers. Special Agent Cornick assures us, We're on the same side in this one. This does not reassure most at IPS, as FBI agents question members of the Letelier family and IPS staff and Fellows about areas that appear irrelevant. Orlando is buried in Caracas. Ronni is buried in Passaic, New Jersey.

Newsweek's Periscope column publishes an unusual paragraph stating that the CIA is convinced that the Chilean government is not implicated in the assassinations. They conclude this from studying the FBI lab report, which claims the explosive was too crude to be used by the Chilean secret police. What's more, the paragraph continues, the Chilean government, according to the CIA, has too much to lose from such an action. We ask Newsweek where the story comes from. They will not reveal the source. A story appears in the Washington Star that headlines 'Leftists Being Considered in Murder' and 'Martyr Theory Probed'. The Washington Post says that the CIA is cooperating in the investigation and that CIA Director George Bush has met with Stanley Pottinger of the Justice Department. The cooperation remains unclear. IPS people suspect that the CIA is covering itself. The Agency knows who did it, or knew beforehand who did it or is remiss in not knowing. Milton Friedman, chief theoretician of Chile's economic policies, is awarded the Nobel Prize for economics; it does not mention Chile's applications of the theory. US investigators ask Isabel Letelier, on three separate occasions, if the murder of her husband could have been a crime of passion.

SL: At a rally held at Dupont Circle, a block from the Institute, speeches are made. Rage is expressed. Bev Fisher, speaking for Ronni's co-workers, expresses a widely held feeling about how a woman is treated even in death. Her talk moves many to tears as she recalls Ronni. She says Orlando's death is seen as martyrdom, Ronni's as a tragic accident. It was not an accident. Ronni was not an anonymous victim. Ronni was a committed woman.

Request to Discharge Committee on the Judiciary from Further Consolidation of House Resolution 1559 Condemning Murders of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffitt, Congressional Record - House, 22 September 1976

SL: 8:45 a.m. A strange car is seen parked near the Letelier house. A witness says the man standing near the car is probably Latin American. He appears nervous. Ronni and Michael arrive at the Letelier house at about 8:55 a.m. They enter, wait for Orlando to finish breakfast. He and they leave at 9:15, Orlando driving. Ronni rides in the front, Michael in the back. They proceed down River Road into the District of Columbia and turn south on 46th Street through suburban Washington. Forty-sixth Street joins Massachusetts Avenue, and Orlando turns left, passing the row of embassies and ambassadors' residences. He sees, as he usually does, the Chilean flag flying in front of the house he once used as his residence. As the car passes the Chilean embassy, there is a buzzing sound inside. Then a flash. A tremendous explosion. Michael finds himself, dazed, outside the car as it crashes to a halt, colliding with a VW illegally parked in front of the Irish embassy. He assists his wife, Ronni, her face blackened. She walks a few steps. He assumes she is safe. Orlando is pinned under the car. Michael tries to pull the wreckage from him.

The Executive Protection Service direct traffic. Michael sees that Orlando's legs have been severed. He appears barely conscious and in great pain. More police and ambulances arrive. Much confusion ensues. A nurse is assisting Ronni. At the hospital Orlando dies quickly. Ronni's carotid artery has been severed and she drowns in her own blood 20 minutes after Orlando dies. Michael, by a miracle, suffers a minor head wound. In the fraction of a second, and for the rest of his life, fascism will have its most concerete meaning.

Two Metropolitan Police detectives begin to investigate the murders, interviewing people at the Institute. Police dogs sniff their way through the IPS building. Who could have done it? the officers ask. We tell them that the Chilean secret police did it. They scratch their heads. A spontaneous and angry demonstration takes place in front of the Chilean embassy. The crowd is read an ordinance that forbids demonstrating on Embassy Row. The East German ambassador invites the crowd to move onto his property across the street. The police say no to that as well. Rage and outrage combine with grief. The mourners cross the street to the East German property and chant until the police threaten arrest. Thirty-five club-wielding police stare at the mourners. The day seems interminable. Occasional outbursts of tears, sobs wrack everyone. Work is therapy. Manuel Trucco, the Chilean ambassador, accuses Letelier of having tried to bomb the Chilean embassy and of having had the bad luck of it blowing up in his face. The police and FBI determine quickly that the explosive had been placed under the driver's legs. The ambassador says he is now sympathetic to the widow and will cooperate in the investigation.

SL: A workday, Ronni in her new Institute role as fundraiser speaks at a staff meeting. She criticizes some of the Fellows for their lack of cooperation. She nags with a smile on her face. She makes her points without anyone feeling guilty. She reports on the work she has done to begin a major fundraising campaign. Orlando and I meet in the morning and afternoon on administrative matters. I leave him at 6 pm. Michael Moffitt, Ronni's husband, goes to Orlando's office to finish a pamphlet with him. I meet Ronni in the reception room of the Institute. She is also working late, and she tells me that she and Michael are going to the Letelier's for dinner. I warn her against Orlando's cooking. We laugh. I read The Wall Street Journal editorial attacking Orlando's recent article in The Nation. It accuses him of torturing the facts and goes on to tell how well Chile's economy is doing under the guidance of Milton Friedman's disciples and the generals.

They ignore Orlando's key points. The economy is not functioning well, but to make it even function at all, torture and murder are necessary. State implements and must be used routinely. Rule by terror is the only way to convert a country that had a tradition of free political parties, labor unions and habits of association. To rule they have killed thousands, tortured thousands, imprisoned hundreds of thousands and sent their best minds - those they didn't murder - into exile. I put The Wall Street Journal down.

I leave as Ronni is leaving, happy about going to dinner, liking her job and loving her husband - she said all this in her walk, her bounce, her sparkle. Ronni's and Michael's car doesn't start. Orlando takes them in his car, a dust-blue Chevelle. They arrive, eat, work. Michael and Ronni drive Orlando's car home. Two Chilean colleagues of Orlando felt funny that day. They saw people watching them and him. Orlando dismissed this as paranoia.

SL: The third anniversary of the Chilean coup. Orlando appears at Madison Square Garden's Felt Forum. The junta has just issued a decree stripping him of his nationality, and he is visibly upset. One of the reasons for this action, the junta declares, is Orlando's role in blocking the Dutch project. Before 5,000 people who fill the Forum and 2,000 more outside, Orlando declares: I was born a Chilean. I am a Chilean. I will die a Chilean.

Threats on Orlando's life increase. Isabel is getting phone calls: Are you the wife of Orlando Letelier? Yes. No, you are his widow.

Planning Board meeting in Washington.
Orlando Letelier, Defence/Foreign Minister in Chile during President Allende's government and ambassador to the US, is appointed director of TNI and begins a major program to promote the New International Economic Order.

SL: By the end of 1975, Chile has received more than $2 billion in foreign credits and loans. It is expected to receive more than $500 million up until 1980 from foreign lenders. Its foreign public debt now approaches $5 billion; interest payments on this debt consume over a third of Chile's export earnings. The money is not keeping the Chilean economy afloat.
Inflation reaches 341 per cent. Unemployment in Santiago has climbed to 18 per cent, six times the rate under Allende. A large part of the population is living on the edge of starvation, while, simultaneously, income is transferred into fewer and fewer hands. In 1972 Chilean workers and government employees received 62.9 per cent of total national income; the propertied classes received 37.1 per cent. By 1974 the situation had reversed, with wage earners getting 38.2 per cent and the propertied sector receiving 61.8 per cent. In less than two years, one observer notes, half a century's gains by the Chilean working class have been wiped away.

It is this life under the junta that Orlando Letelier is now describing to Dutch officials in Amsterdam. Following his release from prison, Orlando has moved to Washington and becomes first an associate fellow, then director of the TNI, Transnational Institute, the international program of the Institute for Policy Studies, where I work. In February Orlando travels to the Netherlands to meet with TNI Fellows. In Holland he also speaks to the Dockworkers' Federation. They respond by calling for a total boycott on handling of Chilean goods. Orlando organizes financial aid for Chilean refugees. He persuades Dutch leaders that the junta violates every value that Holland has traditionally stood for. The Dutch cancel a $60 million loan for Chilean industrial development. When the cancellation is later announced, the junta will blame Letelier.

In the year and a half since his release, Orlando's qualities make him a central figure among the Chilean exiles. He meets with Christian Democrats and members of the MIR, the Movement of the Revolutionary Left. He persuades them gently to drop most of their differences. He makes it clear that the Socialists and Communists will participate in any future democratic government. His mastery of diplomacy and dialog, reason and argument, his ability to make necessary but not principled compromises, allow the center Christian Democrats and Catholic Church officials to open dialog with Socialists and Communists.
In Washington Orlando and I and Michael and Ronni Moffitt work closely together at the Institute for Policy Studies. We also socialize. One evening, Orlando and his wife, Isabel, walk into a dance concert already under way. He sees that he is seated next to the Chinese delegation and is noticeable disturbed.
During intermission he comes out looking confused. I must admit, he whispers to me, that in the Cabinet I was pro-Chinese. What a foolish thing. The Chinese had closed their embassy doors on all Chileans seeking entry after the coup. Now they supply loans, credit and arms to the junta. At work Orlando concentrates for long hours. At play he concentrates on freedom. Swimming in the ocean he takes lusty butterfly strokes. How wonderful freedom is.

He talks little about his torture or about Dawson Island. Once he confides to me almost matter-of-factly: You know what happened to me when they tortured me and I couldn't take any more pain? My mind and body separated and I could see me looking at myself. I couldn't talk no matter how much I wanted them to stop. So I split myself in two. My body felt pain and my mind became a separate thing. Orlando chooses to concentrate on the future.

Orlando is a six-foot redhead. He obviously comes from a wealthy family. One sees it in his face and his clothes, his presencia, as they say in Spanish. He is a graduate of a military school and holds degrees in law and economics. He is, in the British sense of the word, a gentleman.

TNI's FIRST CONFERENCE "The Lessons from Chile". Around 50 people participate. The conference received a lot of media coverage. Through the conference the institute played a significant part in formulating the political response to the fascist coup d'etat, and established itself as a serious presence among radicals in Europe. Participants include Jacques Chonchol, former Minister of Agriculture under Allende; David Baytelman, former head of the land reform programme; Claude Bourdet of Combat and Le Nouvel Observateur; Ralph Miliband of the University of Leeds; André Gunder Frank from the Free University of Berlin; Herbert Marcuse; Johan Galtung of the Institute of Conflict and Peace Research Oslo; as well as former US senator Eugene McCarthy.

Links:

• Pictures and list of participants
• LESSONS FROM CHILE, edited by John Gittings, is the first official TNI publication. It contains several papers of the Chile conference, held 22-24 February, in Amsterdam, e.g.
• Richard Barnet's The Kissinger Doctrine and Chile.
• The conference itself attracted a lot of attention in the international as well as the national media, e.g. NRC Handelsblad.