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Counterterrorism in American Civil Courts: The Role of Letelier v. Republic of Chile

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 November 2020

Alan McPherson
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Extract

The very rarity of these situations makes the legislation all the more important.

Samuel Buffone, lawyer for Isabel Letelier

On September 21, 1976, former Chilean Ambassador and Minister Orlando Letelier drove to his job in Washington, DC, in his Chevelle, accompanied by his coworkers, Ronni Moffitt and Michael Moffitt. As the Chevelle veered off Massachusetts Avenue into Sheridan Circle, the bottom of the car exploded upward, blowing off Letelier's legs and killing him within minutes. A short time after that, at George Washington Hospital, Ronni Moffitt died from a severed carotid artery. Michael Moffitt, sitting in the back, survived with minor injuries. Most observers of the brutal dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, which had overthrown Marxist President Salvador Allende in 1973 and jailed and then exiled Letelier, Allende's defense minister, pinned the crime on the Chilean despot, and the Departments of Justice and State came to the same conclusion within a few years. The assassination remains to this day the only instance of state-sponsored terrorism in Washington. In the 1970s and 1980s, it spawned several criminal lawsuits in the United States and Chile, the most important of which was not settled until 1995, and remnants of which continue to this day. In Chile, the case also inspired a wave of legal activism against impunity for human rights violations.

Type
Original Article
Information
Law and History Review , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , February 2021 , pp. 1 - 27
Copyright
Copyright © the American Society for Legal History, Inc. 2020

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Footnotes

He is the author, most recently, of Ghosts of Sheridan Circle: How a Washington Assassination Brought Pinochet's Terror State to Justice. He thanks Silke Zoller for reading a draft of this article.

References

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53. Letelier v. Republic of Chile, 502 F. Supp. 259 (D.D.C. 1980).

54. “Survivors in Letelier Case are Awarded $5 Million,” New York Times, November 5, 1980, A14.

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84. Letelier v. Republic of Chile, 567 F. Supp. 1490 (S.D.N.Y. 1983).

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89. “¿Nuevas represalias?” Hoy, May 28–June 3, 1980, 9–12.

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96. Scott Armstrong, “Chilean Plane Leaves, Defying Letelier Judgment,” Washington Post, March 19, 1983, A1.

97. Tamar Lewin, “U.S. Judge Threatens Chilean Airline,” New York Times, December 20, 1983.

98. “Chile Airline Compliance Set,” New York Times, December 24, 1983, A40.

99. Cecilia Domeyko, “Buscando en LAN,” Hoy, January 17, 1984, n.p.

100. My translation. Cited in Domeyko, “Buscando.”

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102. Privitera to Borosage.

103. De Letelier v. Republic of Chile, 748 F.2d 790, 799 (2d Cir. 1984).

104. Singer, Terrorism, 73.

105. Cited in Senate, Foreign Sovereign, 74, 70.

106. John J. Privitera, memorandum, Washington, DC, June 20, 1985, folder 10, box 24, IPS Collection, WHS.

107. Cited in Senate, Foreign Sovereign, 71.

108. The bills were S. 1071 and H.R. 3137.

109. Senate, Foreign Sovereign, 3–4.

110. H.R. 3763 also enjoyed the support of the American Bar Association and of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). NAM wrote on behalf of its 13,500 member companies that the amendment would strengthen their case against “foreign entities [that] continue to use loopholes in the law as bases for refusing to accept their legal responsibilities.” See, Senate, Foreign Sovereign, 111.

111. Senate, Foreign Sovereign, 16, 17.

112. Ibid., 17, 19, 39.

113. Ibid., 51, 55.

114. Ibid., 62.

115. Samuel Buffone and John J. Privitera, “Chronology of Events: Letelier-Moffitt Assassination, 1976-August 1990,” August 1990, DNSA.

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118. Murphy, “Civil Liability,” 35–38.

119. Elsea, Suits, quotation on 1, 6–8.

120. Ibid., 9–11.

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123. 138 S.Ct. 816 (2018).

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130. Barbara Crossette, “$2.6 Million Awarded Families in Letelier Case,” New York Times, January 13, 1992, A11.

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