The assassination of Orlando LETELIER DEL SOLAR and Ronnie MOFFITT

On September 21, 1976, Orlando Letelier del Solar and Ronnie Moffitt died in Washington, D.C., United States, when a bomb placed under the floor of the vehicle in which they were traveling exploded. Ronnie Moffitt’s spouse, Michael Moffitt, was also in the vehicle and survived unharmed.

Orlando Letelier, 44, had been the Ambassador of President Allende’s government to the United States of America, having also served during that administration as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Defense, the latter being the position he held on September 11, 1973.

Orlando Letelier was arrested that same day at his offices in the Ministry of Defense. He spent a long period deprived of liberty, first at the Regimiento Tacna, then at the Escuela Militar. From there, he was taken for eight months to the Isla Dawson detention camp.

Subsequently, he spent time in the basement of the Fuerza Aérea Academia de Guerra, from where he was finally transferred to the Ritoque camp, the place from which he regained his freedom and departed into exile.

He first traveled to Venezuela and later to the United States, where he worked at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. During that period, he also resumed his party duties within the Partido Socialista, in which he was a militant, fulfilling highly important functions for that party and in activities of opposition to the Chilean government abroad.

Shortly before his death, his Chilean nationality was revoked by the Chilean government.

Ronnie Moffitt, 25, was a United States citizen and also worked at the Institute for Policy Studies.

In the judicial investigation of these events carried out by the United States justice system, there are confessions from three participants responsible for them, who consistently account for the participation of DINA agents in the assassination, both in its planning and its execution.

The highest authorities of that security service were involved in the conception of the crime, entrusting its execution to one of their agents who had previously received the mission to carry out other tasks abroad.

Initially, an attempt was made to obtain false passports to enter the United States in Paraguay; when this failed, false official Chilean passports issued by the Foreign Ministry were used.

The prior surveillance of the victim, who was initially only Letelier, was carried out by a pair of agents who traveled to the United States for that purpose.

The execution of the crime involved the help of members of a clandestine anti-Castro group in the United States, who assisted both in the construction and the placement of the bomb that would blow up the victim's vehicle. Ultimately, they themselves would activate the remote control mechanism to detonate it.

According to their respective autopsy protocols, Letelier died from blood loss caused by the traumatic amputation of his lower extremities, and Moffitt died from blood aspiration, laceration of the larynx, and the right carotid artery.

Following the terrorist act, and once it became evident that Chilean agents were involved, various maneuvers were carried out in the country to prevent the clarification of the crime. Among these were the presentation of individuals other than those involved to answer the letters rogatory (exhortos) presented by the United States government and, according to testimony, the destruction of incriminating statements given before the Chilean Military Prosecutor who was conducting the investigation.

The Commission has studied and weighed all the abundant background information that exists on this case, both in Chile and abroad. Among these are the records from case 192-78, conducted by the Military Justice system in Chile to investigate the falsification of passports related to the Letelier case and other crimes referring to the same case; and the judicial and extrajudicial documentation regarding the investigation of the case in the United States, in its various phases and instances.

The Commission has also obtained, directly, various statements pertinent to this case.

On this basis, the Commission has reached the conviction, in conscience, that Orlando Letelier and Ronnie Moffitt died, in violation of their human rights, as victims of an act of terrorism committed by agents of the Chilean State, specifically the DINA, who conceived the terrorist act and executed it with the help of other individuals.