Floor SpeechCeremonial2026-09-23

ORLANDO LETELIER AND RONNI KARPEN MOFFITT

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On 2026-09-23, Senator Peter Welch (D-VT) delivered a floor speech titled "ORLANDO LETELIER AND RONNI KARPEN MOFFITT" in the Senate.

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ORLANDO LETELIER AND RONNI KARPEN MOFFITT

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 151 (Wednesday, September 23, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 151 (Wednesday, September 23, 2026)] [Senate] [Pages S4912-S4913] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] ORLANDO LETELIER AND RONNI KARPEN MOFFITT Mr. WELCH. Madam President, 50 years ago yesterday, on September 21, 1976, Chile's former ambassador to the United States Orlando Letelier and his colleague Ronni Karpen Moffitt were murdered by a car bomb placed by agents of the Chilean secret police. [[Page S4913]] Every year on the anniversary of that horrendous crime, people gather to pay tribute to Ambassador Letelier and Ronni Moffitt at Sheridan Circle, just 3 miles from the Capitol Building, where a small monument marks the spot where their lives were violently cut short. That monument is inscribed with the words ``Justice--Peace--Dignity''-- ideals they embraced in their professional and personal lives. For years, justice eluded Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt and much has been written about the decades-long effort to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice. I want to acknowledge and credit the Institute for Policy Studies where Letelier and Moffitt both worked, along with Peter Kornbluh and the National Security Archive for their unending efforts to obtain the declassification of documents that record that long arc of justice, and to keep the memory of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt and the ideals they stood for in the public consciousness for the past 50 years. Eventually, the FBI identified two DINA operatives, American-born Michael Townley and Maj. Armando Fernandez Larios, as leading suspects. The U.S. then sought the extradition of DINA's top two officers, Manuel Contreras and his deputy Pedro Espinoza, which Chile's dictator General Pinochet blocked. A CIA review of its own intelligence on the car bombing concluded that there was ``convincing evidence that President Pinochet personally ordered his intelligence chief to carry out the murder'' and that Pinochet ``decided to stonewall on the case to hide his involvement and, ultimately, to protect his hold on the presidency.'' When Chile returned to democracy in 1990, the George H.W. Bush administration agreed to drop sanctions against the Pinochet government for protecting the DINA officers if the new government prosecuted Contreras and Espinoza. They were both found guilty of conspiring to assassinate Letelier and given short prison sentences of 7 and 6 years respectively. But Pinochet, still the head of the Chilean Army, remained immune from prosecution, as did all the other torturers and executioners from his cruel dictatorship. It was not until Pinochet was arrested in London in October 1998 under the European Anti-Terrorism Convention that his immunity was lifted. Although the British released him after more than a year of house arrest, just days after his return to Santiago a courageous judge, Juan Guzman, filed papers in court to strip Pinochet of his immunity from prosecution. At the time he died in 2006 at the age of 91, he faced indictments and investigations for corruption and human rights atrocities. In 2012, a Chilean court finally ordered that Ronni Moffitt's case be officially investigated. Fourteen years later, on June 15, 2026, Chile's magistrate for human rights, Judge Paola Plaza, ruled that three former DINA officials were guilty of killing Moffitt. Brig. Gen. Pedro Espinoza, DINA's former deputy director for operations, was sentenced to 15 years. Gen. Raul Iturriaga, a high-ranking officer in DINA's ``Exterior'' department, was also sentenced to 15 years, as was retired Brig. Gen. Jose Zara Holger, also a director in DINA's international operations division. Fifty years after the assassination, the Moffitt ruling is part of the final chapter in the effort to hold General Pinochet and his DINA accomplices accountable for an act of international terrorism in Washington, DC. This past July, The New York Times reported on ICE's detention--and then release--of one of those accomplices, Armando Fernandez Larios, who defected to the U.S. in 1987 and served just 5 months in prison for his role in the assassination plot. Last October, in its quest to find immigrants with real criminal backgrounds, ICE detained Fernandez Larios and the Department of Homeland Security rightly labeled him ``the worst of the worst'' for his past crimes of homicide. But while hundreds of migrants who have no criminal history are summarily arrested and deported from this country every day, Fernandez Larios was quietly freed from the Krome Detention Center in Miami on March 19--a glaring example of the Trump administration's double standard in the administration of justice. Fernandez Larios should be deported for his part in the assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt and the egregious human rights crimes he committed before coming to this country. The United States must not be a haven for foreigners who violate human rights or commit acts of terrorism. The Fernandez Larios case and the recent ruling in the case of Ronni Moffitt have refocused attention on the September 21 bombing a half- century ago. I join those who honor the memory of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt and reaffirm that no matter how long it takes for the wheels of justice to turn, no one is above the law, especially those who abuse their positions of power to commit heinous crimes. ____________________

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ORLANDO LETELIER AND RONNI KARPEN MOFFITT Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 151 (Wednesday, September 23, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 151 (Wednesday, September 23, 2026)] [Senate] [Pages S4912-S4913] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] ORLANDO LETELIER AND RONNI KARPEN MOFFITT Mr. WELCH. Madam President, 50 years ago yesterday, on September 21, 1976, Chile's former ambassador to the United States Orlando Letelier and his colleague Ronni Karpen Moffitt were murdered by a car bomb placed by agents of the Chilean secret police. [[Page S4913]] Every year on the anniversary of that horrendous crime, people gather to pay tribute to Ambassador Letelier and Ronni Moffitt at Sheridan Circle, just 3 miles from the Capitol Building, where a small monument marks the spot where their lives were violently cut short. That monument is inscribed with the words ``Justice--Peace--Dignity''-- ideals they embraced in their professional and personal lives. For years, justice eluded Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt and much has been written about the decades-long effort to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice. I want to acknowledge and credit the Institute for Policy Studies where Letelier and Moffitt both worked, along with Peter Kornbluh and the National Security Archive for their unending efforts to obtain the declassification of documents that record that long arc of justice, and to keep the memory of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt and the ideals they stood for in the public consciousness for the past 50 years. Eventually, the FBI identified two DINA operatives, American-born Michael Townley and Maj. Armando Fernandez Larios, as leading suspects. The U.S. then sought the extradition of DINA's top two officers, Manuel Contreras and his deputy Pedro Espinoza, which Chile's dictator General Pinochet blocked. A CIA review of its own intelligence on the car bombing concluded that there was ``convincing evidence that President Pinochet personally ordered his intelligence chief to carry out the murder'' and that Pinochet ``decided to stonewall on the case to hide his involvement and, ultimately, to protect his hold on the presidency.'' When Chile returned to democracy in 1990, the George H.W. Bush administration agreed to drop sanctions against the Pinochet government for protecting the DINA officers if the new government prosecuted Contreras and Espinoza. They were both found guilty of conspiring to assassinate Letelier and given short prison sentences of 7 and 6 years respectively. But Pinochet, still the head of the Chilean Army, remained immune from prosecution, as did all the other torturers and executioners from his cruel dictatorship. It was not until Pinochet was arrested in London in October 1998 under the European Anti-Terrorism Convention that his immunity was lifted. Although the British released him after more than a year of house arrest, just days after his return to Santiago a courageous judge, Juan Guzman, filed papers in court to strip Pinochet of his immunity from prosecution. At the time he died in 2006 at the age of 91, he faced indictments and investigations for corruption and human rights atrocities. In 2012, a Chilean court finally ordered that Ronni Moffitt's case be officially investigated. Fourteen years later, on June 15, 2026, Chile's magistrate for human rights, Judge Paola Plaza, ruled that three former DINA officials were guilty of killing Moffitt. Brig. Gen. Pedro Espinoza, DINA's former deputy director for operations, was sentenced to 15 years. Gen. Raul Iturriaga, a high-ranking officer in DINA's ``Exterior'' department, was also sentenced to 15 years, as was retired Brig. Gen. Jose Zara Holger, also a director in DINA's international operations division. Fifty years after the assassination, the Moffitt ruling is part of the final chapter in the effort to hold General Pinochet and his DINA accomplices accountable for an act of international terrorism in Washington, DC. This past July, The New York Times reported on ICE's detention--and then release--of one of those accomplices, Armando Fernandez Larios, who defected to the U.S. in 1987 and served just 5 months in prison for his role in the assassination plot. Last October, in its quest to find immigrants with real criminal backgrounds, ICE detained Fernandez Larios and the Department of Homeland Security rightly labeled him ``the worst of the worst'' for his past crimes of homicide. But while hundreds of migrants who have no criminal history are summarily arrested and deported from this country every day, Fernandez Larios was quietly freed from the Krome Detention Center in Miami on March 19--a glaring example of the Trump administration's double standard in the administration of justice. Fernandez Larios should be deported for his part in the assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt and the egregious human rights crimes he committed before coming to this country. The United States must not be a haven for foreigners who violate human rights or commit acts of terrorism. The Fernandez Larios case and the recent ruling in the case of Ronni Moffitt have refocused attention on the September 21 bombing a half- century ago. I join those who honor the memory of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt and reaffirm that no matter how long it takes for the wheels of justice to turn, no one is above the law, especially those who abuse their positions of power to commit heinous crimes. ____________________