Chile to probe assassination of Moffitt in US
Jun 19, 2012, 5:06 PM
Associated Press
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) – Chile will investigate the 1976 assassination of American Ronni Moffitt by Chilean police secret agents in Washington D.C.
Orlando Letelier was a former Chilean Cabinet minister and top critic of dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Moffitt was his 26-year-old assistant. Both died when a bomb blew up Letelier’s car on Embassy Row Sept. 21, 1976. Letelier was ambassador to Washington under the government of Socialist President Salvador Allende, who was toppled by Pinochet in a 1973 coup.
A Santiago appeals court on Tuesday ordered a probe into Moffitt’s assassination, revoking a decision by a judge last year to close the case. Chile convicted two leaders of the country’s feared secret police for Letelier’s death. They remain in prison for crimes against humanity committed during Pinochet’s 1973-1990 dictatorship.
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