Dictator's crime

C.I.A. Believed Pinochet Ordered 1976 Assassination in U.S., Memo Reveals

The Central Intelligence Agency had “convincing evidence” that the Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet ordered the 1976 assassination of a former Chilean ambassador, Orlando Letelier, and an American colleague, Ronni Moffitt, in Washington and that General Pinochet considered eliminating his chief of intelligence to cover it up, according to newly declassified State Department records.

In a secret 1987 memorandum to President Ronald Reagan, George P. Shultz, then the secretary of state, refers to a C.I.A. report that contained “what we regard as convincing evidence that President Pinochet personally ordered his intelligence chief to carry out the murders.”

The C.I.A. review also confirmed that “Pinochet decided to stonewall on the U.S. investigation to hide his involvement” and kept doing so, even considering the “elimination” of his former intelligence chief, Gen. Manuel Contreras.