USA MEMORIAL FOR ORLANDO LETELIER 20 YEARS AFTER ASSASSINATION

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(22 Sep 1996) Eng/Spanish/Nat • • Sunday saw the 20th anniversary of the first ever international terrorist attack on US soil. • • On September 22, 1976, a car-bomb explosion killed former Chilean Ambassador Orlando Letelier and his companion Ronnie Moffitt on the streets of Washington, DC. • • The attack was ordered by the Chilean military dictatorship which took power through a bloody coup three years earlier. • • Chileans and Americans alike gathered at Sheridan Circle in Washington, DC, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the car-bomb attacked that killed former Chilean ambassador in the U-S Orlando Letelier. • • The explosion also killed Letelier's U-S companion, Ronnie Moffitt, and was the first international terrorist attack ever on American soil. • • Letelier had become one of the most persistent critics of the Pinochet dictatorship. • • According to a U-S investigation, the Chilean secret police, the DINA, ordered the assassination of Letelier, one of the more than 3-thousand people who died or vanished during the military rule. • • Democracy was restored to Chile in 1990. • • The current Chilean ambassador hoped that the Letelier anniversary would also mark the beginning of a more peaceful era not only for Chile but for the entire world. • • SOUNDBITE: (English) • And we are extremely happy in Chile that after death, his values continue to flourish, his family, his sons, everywhere, the strength of ideas is so great that in spite of this loss, in spite of this century that has been so cruel, I think we are optimistic. Things are going to be different thanks to people like you that are able to forgive but not forget. • SUPER CAPTION: John Biehl, Chilean Ambassador • • The car-bomb explosion happened in the heart of Embassy Row, just two hundred yards from the Chilean embassy. • • The U-S investigation concluded that the attack was carried out by two ex-DINA agents -an American and a Chilean- and two exiled Cubans. • • All were convicted in the U-S. • • But it was another 20 years before the instigators of the attacks were to go to prison. • • SOUNDBITE: (English) • And today in Chile, for the first time since we begun to meet here so many years ago, former DINA General Manuel Contreras and former DINA Colonel Pedro Espinoza are behind bars serving seven and six years in prison respectively for the killings of Orlando Letelier and Ronnie Moffit. They should have known better. • SUPER CAPTION: Mark Schneider, Former Advisor to Senator Edward Kennedy • • According to the investigation Contreras personally ordered the assassination. • • The former general is now serving his sentence in a military prison after years of challenging the Chilean courts' decision. • • His accomplice Espinoza is also at the same military prison outside Santiago. • • The Letelier case however has deeply divided the Chilean society between those who support Pinochet and those who do not. • • In Washington, those commemorating the anniversary, renewed their promise to forgive but never forget one of the bloodiest eras in Chile's history. • • Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork • Twitter: / ap_archive • Facebook: / aparchives • Instagram: / apnews • • • You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...

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