A court in Chile has ruled that the United States’ military intelligence services played a key role that led to the killings of two Americans nearly 41 years ago in the South American country in a case that inspired the Oscar-winning film “Missing”.
The court ruling, which was issued on Monday night, said former US Navy Capt. Ray E. Davis provided information to Chilean officials about American citizens Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi that led to their capture and execution days after the 1973 coup, The Associated Press reported.
“The military intelligence services of the United States had a fundamental role in the creation of the murders of the two American citizens in 1973, providing Chilean military officers with the information that led to their deaths,” Judge Jorge Zepeda said in the ruling.
In September 2013, Chileans marked the 40th anniversary of a CIA-backed coup that overthrew the country’s democratically elected President Salvador Allende and brought General Augusto Pinochet to power.
Tens of thousands of Chileans marched in and around the capital Santiago to remember the 40,000 people killed, imprisoned or tortured by the military dictatorship of Pinochet after he toppled the socialist Allende on September 11, 1973.
That day, Allende took his own life as Pinochet’s troops stormed the La Moneda presidential palace following an aerial bombardment.
The Central Intelligence Agency played a key role in the events leading up to the September 11 military coup and later helped the junta establish one of the 20th-century’s worst dictatorships in Latin America.
More than 3,200 people were killed and about 38,000 others were imprisoned and tortured on political grounds under the Pinochet regime.
Pinochet died in 2006, aged 91, without ever having gone on trial for the atrocities he had committed during his 17-year rule.
The 1973 Chilean coup is referred to by many in Latin America as the “first 9/11”.
GJH/GJH
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