CIA gave "green light" to murder Americans in Chile

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

NY Times, February 13, 2000

U.S. Victims of Chile's Coup: The Uncensored File

By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO

Twenty-six years ago, as the forces of Gen. Augusto Pinochet overthrew the
Socialist government of Salvador Allende, two American supporters of
President Allende were killed in Chile under circumstances that stirred
suspicions of C.I.A. involvement.

American officials categorically denied any role in the young men's deaths,
which were dramatized in the 1982 movie "Missing."

Compelled by the Freedom of Information Act, the government in 1980
released the results of classified internal investigations, heavily
censored in black ink, that appeared to clear the American and Chilean
governments of any responsibility.

But now, those thick black lines have been stripped away. Spurred by the
arrest of General Pinochet in 1998, President Clinton has ordered the
declassification of "all documents that shed light on human rights abuses,
terrorism and other acts of political violence during and prior to the
Pinochet era in Chile."

Some of those documents make clear for the first time that the State
Department concluded from almost the beginning that the Pinochet government
had killed the men, Charles Horman, 31, and Frank Teruggi, 24. The
investigators speculated, moreover, that the Chileans would not have done
so without a green light from American intelligence.

"U.S. intelligence may have played an unfortunate part in Horman's death,"
said one newly declassified memo. "At best, it was limited to providing or
confirming information that helped motivate his murder by the government of
Chile. At worst, U.S. intelligence was aware the government of Chile saw
Horman in a rather serious light and U.S. officials did nothing to
discourage the logical outcome of government of Chile paranoia."

Complete article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/americas/021300chile-us-cia.html


Louis Proyect
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