El Ciudadano
Original article: 15 años de cárcel para exagentes DINA por homicidio de Ronnie Moffit, secretaria de Orlando Letelier en EEUU
The visiting judge for human rights cases at the Appeals Court of Santiago, Paola Plaza, has sentenced three former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for the aggravated homicide of American citizen Ronnie Karpen Moffitt, which took place on September 21, 1976, in Washington D.C.
In ruling 910-2011, the judge sentenced Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, José Octavio Zara Holger, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann to 15 years in prison for their roles as perpetrators of this crime.
During her investigation, the judge determined that:
«a) The operation was part of a plan developed by DINA agents under the authority of General Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda and operational leader Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, which involved a series of attacks on Chilean citizens outside the national territory;
b) To execute this plan, various coordinations and meetings were carried out. The first phase involved assigning DINA officer Captain Armando Fernández Larios to travel to Paraguay to obtain passports that would enable him and an operational team to travel to the United States. Michael Vernon Townley Welch was also given these instructions and established contacts with the Cuban group known as the Nationalist Cuban Movement, assigned to surveil Orlando Letelier del Solar, Chile’s former Foreign Minister in the US, who was then working at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C.;
c) On September 18, 1976, the entire team moved to the home of Orlando Letelier del Solar to conduct an area reconnaissance, routine assessment, and review movements. Subsequently, they reported back to Lieutenant Colonel Pedro Espinoza Bravo, in charge of controlling the operation. With the received information directed through hierarchical channels, he issued the order to install an explosive device, which was placed underneath the vehicle of the former Foreign Minister, as documented in official communications sent from the US embassy to the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
d) Thus, it is established that on September 21, 1976, the explosion caused by the device planted on a lateral cross-member of the chassis beneath the floor plate of the Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu Classic, which Letelier was driving at the time, resulted in his death while driving one of Washington D.C.’s avenues. As a direct consequence of this illicit act, his secretary, 25-year-old American citizen ROMMY KARPEN MOFFITT, was also killed, while her husband, Michael Moffitt, survived unharmed and was accompanying her in the vehicle;
e) The Chilean officials overseeing the operation carefully planned their actions from the very beginning—preparing, selecting agents, arranging financial means, and coordinating activities abroad—demonstrating that they consciously decided to carry out the crime, as well as manage its consequences and implications, controlling the execution and realization of the act;
f) Evidence presented in the case indicates that by 1976, within the structure of the DINA, there existed a foreign department made up of agents focused on understanding international affairs and policies, with operational tasks supervised by individuals known by ‘codes’, among whom Raúl Iturriaga Neumann was one of those in leadership and control at the time of the events».
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El Ciudadano
La entrada 15 Years Imprisonment for Former DINA Agents in the Homicide of Ronnie Moffitt, Secretary of Orlando Letelier in the US se publicó primero en El Ciudadano.
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