U.S. Demands Chile Pay $12 Million to Bomb Victims’ Kin

The U.S. government has demanded that Chile pay $12 million in damages to relatives of Orlando Letelier, a Chilean exile leader, and his American co-worker, Ronni Moffitt, who were killed by a car bomb on Washington’s Embassy Row in 1976, the State Department said Thursday.

Department spokesman Charles Redman said the U.S. government has endorsed the claims previously filed by Moffitt’s widower, Michael Moffitt; Letelier’s son, Juan Pablo Letelier, and other relatives of the victims because the Administration considers the demand to be valid.

“This means the U.S. government is now pursuing the claims on behalf of these U.S. citizens as (if they were) claims of the U.S. government,” he said.

However, Redman said Chile has not responded to the demand, first made last April. The U.S. government claim was not announced at the time.

Letelier, defense minister in the Marxist government of Salvador Allende, fled to Washington after Allende was overthrown in 1973 by Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who still serves as the country’s military president. An American citizen, Michael Townley, pleaded guilty to murder in the case and implicated Chilean intelligence officers.