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United States·Human Rights

Pinochet-era agents convicted over 1976 Washington DC car bomb that killed Chilean diplomat and US colleague

Wednesday, 24 June 2026, 06:23 · 1 min read

A Chilean court has convicted three former agents of Augusto Pinochet's secret police for the 1976 car bomb murder of Ronni Karpen Moffitt, an American aide killed alongside exiled Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier on a Washington DC street nearly 49 years ago. Judge Paola Plaza sentenced Pedro Espinoza, José Zara, and Raúl Iturriaga — all members of the Dirección Nacional de Inteligencia (Dina), Pinochet's feared intelligence service — to 15 years in prison. The ruling closes a long legal gap: while several Chilean officials and a US collaborator were convicted in the 1990s, a 2012 appeals court ordered Moffitt's case reopened because the perpetrators were Chilean nationals, meaning her killing had never been fully prosecuted.

Sources
The GuardianFormer Pinochet agents convicted over 1976 Washington DC carbomb murder ↗︎
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