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Orlando Letelier
Marcos Orlando Letelier del Solar (13 April 1932 – 21 September 1976) was a Chilean Marxist and diplomat during the presidency of Salvador Allende. A member of the Socialist Party of Chile, he fled from the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, Letelier accepted several academic positions in Washington D.C. after his exile from Chile. In 1976, agents of Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), the Pinochet regime's secret police, assassinated Letelier in Washington in a car bombing. The agents had been working in collaboration with members of the Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations, an anti-Castro militant group.
Sergio Orlando Letelier del Solar was born in Temuco, Chile, in South-Central Chile, the youngest child of Orlando Letelier Ruiz and Inés del Solar. He studied at the Instituto Nacional in Santiago. At 16, he was accepted as a cadet at the Chilean Military Academy, where he completed his secondary studies. Later, he abandoned a military career. He did not finish college and never received a university degree. In 1955, he joined the recently formed Copper Office (Departamento del Cobre, now CODELCO) and worked there until 1959 as a research analyst in the copper industry.
On 17 December 1955, Letelier married Isabel Margarita Morel Gumucio and they had four children: Cristián, José, Francisco, and Juan Pablo.
In 1959 Letelier was fired from the Copper Office, ostensibly for having supported Salvador Allende's unsuccessful second presidential campaign. The Letelier family left for Venezuela, where Orlando Letelier became a copper consultant to the Finance Ministry.
While at university, Letelier became a student representative in the University of Chile's Student Union. In 1959, he joined the Chilean Socialist Party (PS). In 1971, President Allende appointed him ambassador to the United States. His specific mission was to advocate in defense of the Chilean nationalization of copper, which had replaced the private ownership model favored by the U.S. government.
In 1973, Letelier was recalled to Chile and served successively as Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Interior, and Defense. In the coup d'état of 11 September 1973, he was the first high-ranking member of the Allende administration to be arrested. He was held for twelve months in various concentration camps and suffered severe torture: first at the Tacna Regiment, then at the Military Academy. Later he was sent for eight months to a political prison on Dawson Island; from there he was transferred to the basement of the Air Force War Academy, and finally to Riotoque, a concentration camp north of Valparaíso, Chile. After international diplomatic pressure, especially from Diego Arria, then Governor of Distrito Federal of Venezuela, he was released in September 1974 on the condition that he immediately leave Chile.
After his release, he and his family moved to Caracas, Venezuela, but later went to the United States on the recommendation of American writer Saul Landau. In 1975, Letelier moved to Washington D.C., where he became senior fellow of the Washington, D.C.–based Institute for Policy Studies, a think tank in which Landau was involved. Letelier became director of the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute and taught at the School of International Service of the American University in Washington, D.C.
Letelier wrote several articles criticizing the "Chicago Boys", a group of South American economists trained at the University of Chicago by Milton Friedman and Arnold Harberger who returned to their home countries to promote and advise leaders on the benefits of a free-market economy. This economic model was used to great effect in Chile where General Pinochet sought to dismantle the country's socialist economic system and replace it with a free-market economy. Letelier believed that in a resource-driven economy such as Chile, allowing markets to operate freely simply guaranteed the movement of wealth from the lower and middle classes to the monopolists and financial speculators. He soon became the leading voice of the Chilean resistance, preventing several loans (especially from Europe) from being awarded to the Chilean government. On 10 September 1976, he was stripped of his Chilean nationality.
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Orlando Letelier
Marcos Orlando Letelier del Solar (13 April 1932 – 21 September 1976) was a Chilean Marxist and diplomat during the presidency of Salvador Allende. A member of the Socialist Party of Chile, he fled from the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, Letelier accepted several academic positions in Washington D.C. after his exile from Chile. In 1976, agents of Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), the Pinochet regime's secret police, assassinated Letelier in Washington in a car bombing. The agents had been working in collaboration with members of the Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations, an anti-Castro militant group.
Sergio Orlando Letelier del Solar was born in Temuco, Chile, in South-Central Chile, the youngest child of Orlando Letelier Ruiz and Inés del Solar. He studied at the Instituto Nacional in Santiago. At 16, he was accepted as a cadet at the Chilean Military Academy, where he completed his secondary studies. Later, he abandoned a military career. He did not finish college and never received a university degree. In 1955, he joined the recently formed Copper Office (Departamento del Cobre, now CODELCO) and worked there until 1959 as a research analyst in the copper industry.
On 17 December 1955, Letelier married Isabel Margarita Morel Gumucio and they had four children: Cristián, José, Francisco, and Juan Pablo.
In 1959 Letelier was fired from the Copper Office, ostensibly for having supported Salvador Allende's unsuccessful second presidential campaign. The Letelier family left for Venezuela, where Orlando Letelier became a copper consultant to the Finance Ministry.
While at university, Letelier became a student representative in the University of Chile's Student Union. In 1959, he joined the Chilean Socialist Party (PS). In 1971, President Allende appointed him ambassador to the United States. His specific mission was to advocate in defense of the Chilean nationalization of copper, which had replaced the private ownership model favored by the U.S. government.
In 1973, Letelier was recalled to Chile and served successively as Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Interior, and Defense. In the coup d'état of 11 September 1973, he was the first high-ranking member of the Allende administration to be arrested. He was held for twelve months in various concentration camps and suffered severe torture: first at the Tacna Regiment, then at the Military Academy. Later he was sent for eight months to a political prison on Dawson Island; from there he was transferred to the basement of the Air Force War Academy, and finally to Riotoque, a concentration camp north of Valparaíso, Chile. After international diplomatic pressure, especially from Diego Arria, then Governor of Distrito Federal of Venezuela, he was released in September 1974 on the condition that he immediately leave Chile.
After his release, he and his family moved to Caracas, Venezuela, but later went to the United States on the recommendation of American writer Saul Landau. In 1975, Letelier moved to Washington D.C., where he became senior fellow of the Washington, D.C.–based Institute for Policy Studies, a think tank in which Landau was involved. Letelier became director of the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute and taught at the School of International Service of the American University in Washington, D.C.
Letelier wrote several articles criticizing the "Chicago Boys", a group of South American economists trained at the University of Chicago by Milton Friedman and Arnold Harberger who returned to their home countries to promote and advise leaders on the benefits of a free-market economy. This economic model was used to great effect in Chile where General Pinochet sought to dismantle the country's socialist economic system and replace it with a free-market economy. Letelier believed that in a resource-driven economy such as Chile, allowing markets to operate freely simply guaranteed the movement of wealth from the lower and middle classes to the monopolists and financial speculators. He soon became the leading voice of the Chilean resistance, preventing several loans (especially from Europe) from being awarded to the Chilean government. On 10 September 1976, he was stripped of his Chilean nationality.