By Laura Mor on June 19, 2026
Ronnie Moffitt
A Chile’s Court has sentenced three former DINA officers to 15 years in prison for the 1976 assassination of U.S. citizen Ronnie Moffitt during a transnational operation targeting diplomat Orlando Letelier in the heart of Washington DC.
Chilean Magistrate Paola Plaza González sentenced three former secret police officers of the Augusto Pinochet’s civic-military dictatorship to 15 years in prison for the 1976 Washington murder of U.S. citizen Ronnie Moffitt.
This landmark judicial ruling targets the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), the brutal secret police apparatus of the Chilean military regime of Augusto Pinochet
The sentenced officers, retired colonels Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, José Octavio Zara Holger and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann, were found guilty as direct co-authors of aggravated homicide. This long-awaited historical sentence officially closes a persistent loophole of transnational impunity that protected key perpetrators of state terrorism operating outside of Chile.
The targeted terrorist assault occurred on September 21, 1976, in Washington D.C. The primary target of the bombing was Orlando Letelier, the former Chilean Foreign Minister under Salvador Allende’s Presidency, who was then working at the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies (IPS). It was no secret that car bomb was planted by US and UK-backed dictator General Pinochet’s secret police.
The massive remote-controlled explosion completely destroyed Letelier’s vehicle, killing him instantly and mortally wounding his young secretary, Ronnie Moffitt, who was only 25 years old.
The court order stated: “Magistrate Paola Plaza sentenced three former DINA agents to 15 years in prison for the murder of U.S. citizen Ronnie Moffitt, which occurred in the bombing that caused the death of former minister Orlando Letelier.”
Transnational Terrorist Conspiracy
September 2015, family and colleagues gather at Dupont Circle at the memorial for Orlando Letelier and Ronnie Moffitt, foto: Bill Hackwell
According to the judicial investigation, the assassination was a meticulously planned clandestine operation orchestrated by the “DINA in exterior” network directly from Santiago. The conspiracy was initiated when DINA sent Captain Armando Fernández Larios to Paraguay to secure fraudulent passports. Subsequently, notorious agent Michael Vernon Townley Welch joined the operation to establish alliances with the counterrevolutionary organization known as the Cuban Nationalist Movement.
The conspirators conducted intensive surveillance on Letelier’s residence and daily routine in the U.S. capital. On September 18, 1976, the operational team sent all gathered intelligence to Pedro Espinoza Bravo, who supervised the terror mission. Under direct institutional orders from the high command, the agents assembled and attached a high-potency explosive device beneath the chassis of the Chevrolet Chevelle Malibú Classic used by the diplomat.
Ending Dictatorship Impunity
Magistrate Paola Plaza González based her definitive judicial ruling on extensive declassified documentation and key forensic evidence provided by the U.S. Government. This bilateral cooperation proved vital to reconstructing the rigid chain of command that operated from Santiago de Chile.
This court decision marks a significant triumph for Human Rights organizations fighting against the dark legacy of the Pinochet regime. While the main conspirators of Letelier’s death faced prosecution back in 1995, the murder of Ronnie Moffitt remained a symbol of unpunished crimes for 50 years. Today’s ruling effectively terminates decades of legal evasion for the senior intelligence leadership.
In this case the Chilean judiciary reinforces international Human Rights law, proving that state-sponsored crimes transcend sovereign borders and remain punishable regardless of the passage of time.
Source: Telesur