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Attack on America: How Justice Finally Came in Chile

By Alan McPherson

The killing of Orlando Letelier sent shockwaves through Washington DC. But a full accounting of the former ambassador's death was decades in the making.

On the misty morning of September 21, 1976, a dust-blue Chevrolet Malibu made its way down Embassy Row in Washington, D.C. At the wheel was Orlando Letelier, who had been ambassador to the United States and minister of foreign relations, interior, and defense under Chile’s Marxist president, Salvador Allende. Following the 1973 coup by Augusto Pinochet, Letelier worked at the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), a think-tank based in Dupont Circle. He was accompanied by his IPS colleague Ronni Moffitt, 25, and her husband, Michael, who rode in the back seat.

As the Malibu rounded...

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