U.S. Reopens Probe of Chile Envoy’s Slaying

The Justice Department has reopened a long-dormant grand jury investigation aimed at indicting Gen. Augusto Pinochet for a notorious 1976 car bombing that killed former Chilean Ambassador Orlando Letelier and an American colleague on Washington’s Embassy Row.

Six people were sentenced to prison years ago for the bombing, but the U.S. had not targeted Pinochet for prosecution until the ex-dictator was arrested in Britain 17 months ago on a warrant from a Spanish judge looking into the murder of Spanish citizens in Chile during the 1970s.

Galvanized by the Spanish effort, U.S. human rights activists and victims’ relatives demanded that the Justice Department revive its investigation into whether Pinochet ordered the assassination of Letelier, a prominent opponent of his regime. The Sept. 21, 1976, blast tore through the car Letelier was driving, killing him instantly and fatally wounding his colleague, Ronni Moffitt.

The chances that Pinochet, if indicted, would be extradited to the U.S. to stand trial are remote, given his failing health and a host of legal problems posed by the antiquated extradition treaty between the two nations. But U.S. officials say an indictment would have symbolic value and could ratchet up the pressure on Chile to put Pinochet on trial for human rights abuses during his 1973-90 rule.