Nearly fifty years after a car bombing in Washington D.C. killed Orlando Letelier, a Chilean exile, and Ronni Karpen Moffitt, a 25-year-old American, a court in Santiago has delivered a verdict. On June 18, 2026, a judge sentenced three former members of Chile's secret police to 15 years in prison for their involvement in Moffitt's death. The men, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, José Octavio Zara Holger, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann, were found guilty of aggravated homicide.
The 1976 assassination was part of a covert mission directed by the Dirección Nacional de Inteligencia (DINA), Chile's secret police under General Augusto Pinochet. Letelier, a former minister under President Salvador Allende, had become a critic of Pinochet's government. Moffitt also worked at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, where Letelier was targeted.
This bombing was linked to Operation Condor, a campaign of state terror involving South American dictatorships. Michael Townley, a DINA operative, built the bomb. The three men recently sentenced had received military training at the U.S. Army School of the Americas. Historical records suggest U.S. officials knew about planned assassinations by Operation Condor governments but did not prevent the attack.
While the sentences are for Moffitt's death, previous legal actions targeted Letelier's assassination. The recent verdicts offer a measure of justice for the victims' families, though many who sought accountability did not live to see it. The Institute for Policy Studies has long pushed for justice in this case.