14 March, 2021 • Francisco Letelier
40 years after the assassination, artist Francisco Letelier paints a mural that goes on display at American University (photo courtesy American University Museum, Washington, DC).
The following essay derives from artist Francisco Letelier’s Paso del Condor Project, which examines the legacy of Operation Condor through text and art installations. Ironically, the project was partially funded by Michael Vernon Townley, the arch villain in this story—lawyers for the Soria lawsuit, mentioned below, have channeled some of the restitution payments Townley makes towards Letelier’s work. “I have been collecting information about Chile and the murders for over four decades now,” Letelier notes. “It is difficult to reach back that far.” —Ed.
Francisco Letelier
On September 21, 1976, I am pulled out of my home room at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland, just outside of Washington DC. Our aunt Cecilia is waiting to drive my brother and me to George Washington Hospital. “There has been an accident” is all she will say. On the way we navigate snarled traffic, I hear the sound of sirens and emergency vehicles. We pass Sheridan Circle and the Chilean Embassy (Ambassador’s Residence), where firemen are hosing off the asphalt. At the hospital we learn that a car bomb has ended the life of my father, Orlando Letelier, and the life of Ronni Karpen Moffitt, a 23-year-old colleague.
The day after the murders, we are all in shock, barely able to talk, weighed down by a crushing darkness. The FBI wants to question us and one by one we are escorted over to the house next door. Our neighbor on a quiet cul de sac happens to be an FBI agent, and the interrogations are held in his living room.
I was sleeping in my bedroom with an open window, when yards away, Michael Townley, who will soon become famous as an assassin, crawls under the light blue Malibu sedan parked in our driveway and secures the bomb.
The agent and his co-conspirators hide in plain sight, sitting in a car on the street casing our home, noting the comings and goings of family members. I borrow the car when I can wrestle it away from my parents and drive it with the C2 explosive attached to its undercarriage in the days before it is detonated.
The 1976 assassination of former Chilean ambassador and dissident Orlando Letelier along Embassy Row shocked the nation (photo Washington Post).
The bomb severs my father’s legs. As he bleeds to death, Ronni makes it out of the car to the sidewalk, but soon drowns in her own blood from a piece of shrapnel in her throat. They set up the questioning in my neighbor’s living room. I can hear the metallic swish of the basketball hoop set at the end of the cul de sac. When I’m called over, the men know a lot about my father, his travels and friendships.
More:
https://themarkaz.org/dinner-at-the-white-house-in-the-lions-den/
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Wikipedia:
. . .
Background
In 1971, Letelier was appointed ambassador to the United States by Salvador Allende, the socialist president of Chile.[3] Letelier had lived in Washington, D.C., during the 1960s and had supported Allende's campaign for the presidency. Allende believed Letelier's experience and connections in international banking would be highly beneficial to developing US–Chile diplomatic relations.[4] During 1973, Letelier served successively as Minister of Foreign Affairs, then Interior Minister, and, finally, Defense Minister. After the Chilean coup of 1973 that brought Augusto Pinochet to power, Letelier was one of the first members of the Allende administration to be arrested by the Chilean government and sent to a political prison in Tierra del Fuego.
He was held for 12 months in different concentration camps and suffered severe torture: first at the Tacna Regiment, then at the Military Academy. Later, he was sent to a political prison for eight months at Dawson Island. From there, he was transferred to the basement of the Air Force War Academy, and finally to the concentration camp of Ritoque. Eventually, international diplomatic pressure, especially from Diego Arria, then Governor of the Federal District of Venezuela, and United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger[5] resulted in Letelier's sudden release on the condition that he immediately leave Chile for Venezuela. He was told by the officer in charge of his release that "the arm of DINA is long; General Pinochet will not and does not tolerate activities against his government." This was a clear warning to Letelier that living outside of Chile would not guarantee his safety.[6]
After his release in 1974, he moved to Washington, D.C., where he became a senior fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies, an independent international policy studies think tank.[7] He plunged into writing, speaking and lobbying the US Congress and European governments against Augusto Pinochet's regime, and soon he became the leading voice of the Chilean resistance, in the process preventing several loans (especially from Europe) from being awarded to the military government. He was described by his colleagues as being "the most respected and effective spokesman in the international campaign to condemn and isolate" Pinochet's government.[8] Letelier was assisted at the Institute for Policy Studies by Ronni Moffitt, a 25-year-old fundraiser who ran a "Music Carryout" program that produced musical instruments for the poor, and also campaigned for democracy in Chile.[9]
. . .
Assassination
Orlando Letelier was driving to work in Washington, D.C., on 21 September 1976, with Ronni Moffitt (January 10, 1951 – September 21, 1976) and her husband of four months, Michael. Letelier was driving, while Moffitt was in the front passenger seat, and Michael was in the back behind his wife.[16] As they rounded Sheridan Circle in Embassy Row at 9:35 am EDT, an explosion erupted under the car, lifting it off the ground. When the car came to a halt after colliding with a Volkswagen illegally parked in front of the Irish Embassy, Michael was able to escape from the rear end of the car by crawling out of the back window. He then saw his wife stumbling away from the car and, assuming that she was safe, went to assist Letelier, who was still in the driver seat,[17] barely conscious and appearing to be in great pain. Letelier's head was rolling back and forth, his eyes moved slightly, and he muttered unintelligibly.[citation needed] Michael tried to remove Letelier from the car, but was unable to do so, despite the fact that much of Letelier's lower torso was blown away and his legs had been severed.[18]
Both Ronni Moffitt and Orlando Letelier were taken to the George Washington University Medical Center shortly thereafter. At the hospital, it was discovered that Ronni's larynx and carotid artery had been severed by a piece of flying shrapnel.[18] She drowned in her own blood some 30 minutes after Letelier's death,[17] while Michael suffered only a minor head wound. Michael estimated the bomb was detonated at approximately 9:30 am; the medical examiner report set the time of Letelier's death at 9:50 am and Moffitt's at 10:37 am, the cause of death for both listed as explosion-incurred injuries due to a car bomb placed under the car on the driver's side.[citation needed]
More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Orlando_Letelier#:~:text=Orlando%20Letelier%20was%20driving%20to,the%20back%20behind%20his%20wife.
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