Editing Michael Townley (section)

==DINA Operative and Assassinations==
As a DINA agent, Townley became a key operative in Operation Condor, a U.S.-backed campaign by Southern Cone dictatorships to eliminate leftists. His expertise in explosives and electronics made him a lethal asset, responsible for high-profile assassinations:

Carlos Prats Assassination (1974): General Carlos Prats, a former Chilean Army commander and Allende minister, went into exile in Buenos Aires after the 1973 coup. DINA chief Manuel Contreras tasked Townley with his assassination. Townley spent three weeks in Argentina monitoring Prats and his wife, Sofía Cuthbert. On September 30, 1974, he detonated a radio-controlled car bomb outside their apartment, killing both. Townley’s wife, Mariana Callejas, was implicated but not prosecuted due to ongoing Chilean trials, per a 2005 ruling by Judge Nibaldo Segura.

Bernardo Leighton Attempted Assassination (1975): In Rome, Townley, acting as an intermediary between DINA and Italian neo-fascist group Avanguardia Nazionale, orchestrated an attempt on Bernardo Leighton, a Chilean Christian Democrat leader, and his wife, Anita Fresno. On October 6, 1975, gunmen shot the couple, who survived but were severely injured. In 1993, an Italian court convicted Townley in absentia, sentencing him to 18 years (with two years remission), though he remained in U.S. witness protection arranged via the CIA.

Orlando Letelier Assassination (1976): Townley’s most infamous act was the assassination of [[Orlando Letelier]], Chile’s former ambassador to the U.S., and his American colleague Ronni Karpen Moffitt, a US citizen. On September 21, 1976, in Washington, D.C., Townley detonated a car bomb under Letelier’s vehicle, killing both. He confessed to hiring five anti-Castro Cuban exiles—José Dionisio Suárez, Virgilio Paz Romero, Alvin Ross Díaz, and brothers Guillermo and Ignacio Novo Sampoll—linked to the Cuban Nationalist Movement (CNM) and CORU all with ties to the CIA. Townley used a false passport under the name Kenneth Enyart, allegedly CIA-provided, per Contreras’s 2005 testimony to Chilean courts. The operation was planned at Townley’s home, where he built the bomb in the basement.