Orlando Letelier

Early Life and Education

Orlando Letelier del Solar was born on April 13, 1932, in Temuco, Chile, to Orlando Letelier Ruiz and Inés del Solar Rosenberg. Raised in a middle-class family with a progressive intellectual tradition, Letelier grew up in Santiago, where his father worked as a civil servant. He attended the prestigious Instituto Nacional and showed early promise in economics and politics. At age 16, he enrolled at the University of Chile’s Law School, studying economics and public administration, and graduated in 1954 with a degree in law and social sciences. His academic excellence and fluency in English, honed during a brief stay in the United States, positioned him for a career in public service. Letelier’s early exposure to nationalist ideas, influenced by Chile’s vibrant political scene, shaped his lifelong commitment to a free and democratic Chile.

Early Career and International Work

In 1955, Letelier joined the Chilean Copper Department (Departamento del Cobre), analyzing the copper industry, a cornerstone of Chile’s economy. His work caught the attention of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and in 1959, he moved to Washington, D.C., as an economist, focusing on Latin American development projects. At the IDB, Letelier honed his expertise in economic policy, advocating for equitable growth and regional integration. During this period, he married Isabel Margarita Morel Gumucio in 1955, with whom he had four sons: Cristián, José, Francisco, and Juan Pablo. The family’s time in Washington exposed Letelier to U.S. political circles, including contacts with intellectuals and diplomats.

In 1964, Letelier returned to Chile, joining the administration of President Eduardo Frei Montalva as an economic advisor. He worked on modernizing Chile’s copper industry and supported Frei’s Christian Democratic Party’s reforms, though he grew critical of its moderate pace. By the late 1960s, Letelier aligned with the Socialist Party of Chile, drawn to its vision of structural change under Salvador Allende, a close friend and political mentor.

Allende Government and Diplomatic Roles

(1970–1973) When Allende won the presidency in 1970, Letelier became a key figure in his administration. Appointed Ambassador to the United States in 1971, he played a critical role in negotiating the nationalization of Chile’s copper mines, owned by U.S. companies like Anaconda and Kennecott. Letelier’s diplomatic skills secured international support for Allende’s policies, despite U.S. opposition led by President Richard Nixon and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, who sought to “make the Chilean economy scream,” per declassified Nixon tapes. As ambassador, Letelier also defended Chile’s nationalist experiment against U.S. media criticism, building ties with U.S. figures like Senator Edward Kennedy.

In 1973, Letelier returned to Santiago, serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs (May–June 1973), Minister of the Interior (June–August 1973), and Minister of Defense (August–September 1973). His rapid ascension reflected Allende’s trust in his ability to navigate Chile’s escalating political crisis, fueled by U.S.-backed destabilization efforts, including CIA funding of opposition groups and media, as detailed in The Pinochet File by Peter Kornbluh. On September 11, 1973, General Augusto Pinochet’s military coup overthrew Allende, who was killed in La Moneda Palace. Letelier, as Defense Minister, was arrested during the coup and detained at the Military Academy before being sent to Dawson Island, a remote prison camp in the Strait of Magellan.

Imprisonment and Exile

(1973–1974) At Dawson Island, Letelier endured brutal conditions, including forced labor, malnutrition, and psychological torture, alongside other Allende officials like José Tohá and Clodomiro Almeyda. Held without charges, he faced constant threats of execution. International pressure, led by Isabel Letelier, U.S. academics like John Kenneth Galbraith, and Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez, secured his release in September 1974. Expelled from Chile, Letelier and his family moved to Caracas, Venezuela, where he worked briefly as an economic consultant, before settling in Washington, D.C., in 1975.

Activism in Exile

(1975–1976) In Washington, Letelier became a leading voice against Pinochet’s dictatorship, joining the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), a think tank, as a senior fellow. He published influential articles, including a 1976 piece in The Nation, exposing Pinochet’s economic policies under the “Chicago Boys” as benefiting elites while impoverishing Chileans. Letelier collaborated with Ronni Karpen Moffitt, a 25-year-old IPS researcher, on reports documenting human rights abuses. He also worked with the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam, lobbying European governments to isolate Pinochet’s regime, and testified before the United Nations and U.S. Congress, urging sanctions.

Letelier’s activism made him a target of Operation Condor, a U.S.-backed campaign by Southern Cone dictatorships to eliminate dissidents. In July 1976, Pinochet revoked Letelier’s citizenship, signaling his vulnerability. The CIA, aware of Condor’s assassination plans via a 1976 cable, failed to act decisively, as revealed in declassified documents (National Security Archive).

Assassination

(1976) On September 21, 1976, Letelier and Ronni Moffitt were killed in Washington, D.C., when a car bomb detonated under Letelier’s Chevrolet Chevelle on Sheridan Circle. The bomb, planted by Michael Townley, a DINA operative with CIA ties, was remotely triggered by Townley and Cuban exiles from the Cuban Nationalist Movement (CNM), including José Dionisio Suárez and Virgilio Paz Romero. Letelier, aged 44, died instantly; Moffitt, in the passenger seat, succumbed to injuries shortly after. Moffitt’s husband, Michael Moffitt, in the back seat, survived with minor injuries.

The assassination, the most brazen act of Condor on U.S. soil, shocked Washington and strained U.S.-Chile relations. Townley, extradited in 1978, confessed to orchestrating the attack under DINA chief Manuel Contreras’s orders, implicating Pinochet. He received a 10-year sentence, serving 62 months, and entered U.S. witness protection. Contreras and DINA officer Pedro Espinoza Bravo were indicted but not extradited by Pinochet. In 2015, Chile’s Supreme Court convicted Contreras, Espinoza, and others, with sentences up to 20 years, though Pinochet’s 1998 immunity shielded him until his death in 2006.