On September 21, 1976, a car bomb killed Orlando Letelier, the former
Chilean ambassador to the United States, along with his colleague
Ronni Moffitt. The murder shocked the world, especially because of
its setting--Sheridan Circle, in the heart of Washington, D.C.
Letelier’s widow and her allies immediately suspected the secret
police of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who eliminated opponents
around the world. Because U.S. political leaders saw the tyrant as a
Cold War ally, they failed to warn him against assassinating Letelier
and hesitated to blame him afterward. Government investigators and
diplomats, however, pledged to find the killers, defying a monstrous,
secretive regime. Was justice attainable? Finding out would take
nearly two decades.
With interviews from
three continents, never-before-used documents, and recently
declassified sources that conclude that Pinochet himself ordered the
hit and then covered it up, Alan McPherson has produced the
definitive history of one of the Cold War’s most consequential
assassinations. The Letelier car bomb forever changed
counterterrorism, human rights, and democracy. This page-turning
real-life political thriller combines a police investigation,
diplomatic intrigue, courtroom drama, and survivors’ tales of
sorrow and tenacity.
