Chile Will Pay Settlement in Car-Bomb Case

The families of the late Chilean Ambassador Orlando Letelier and his aide Ronnie Moffitt will share in a $2.6-million settlement under a decision announced Saturday by the State Department.

The money will be paid by the government of Chile to the U.S. government for distribution to the families affected by the 1976 car bombing in Washington that killed Letelier and Moffitt.

Part of the money also will go to Michael Moffitt, who was injured in the blast. The Moffitts were married.

Under an agreement reached June 11, 1990, the then new government in Chile agreed to pay compensation for the bombing--without admission of official liability by the previous government. It was left to an international commission to set the amount.

The military government of President Augusto Pinochet, which yielded power in 1990 after the election of Patricio Aylwin, had ignored a 1980 order by a U.S. federal district judge to pay families of the victims $2.9 million.

“This decision helps bring to a close a matter that has been a source of friction between the two governments for many years,” a State Department statement said.