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Ghosts of Sheridan Circle: How a Washington Assassination Brought Pinochet's Terror State to Justice

Online ISBN:
9781469653525
Print ISBN:
9781469653501
Publisher:
University of North Carolina Press
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Ghosts of Sheridan Circle: How a Washington Assassination Brought Pinochet's Terror State to Justice

Alan McPherson
Alan McPherson
Temple University
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Published online:
17 September 2020
Published in print:
21 September 2019
Online ISBN:
9781469653525
Print ISBN:
9781469653501
Publisher:
University of North Carolina Press

Abstract

On September 21, 1976, a car bomb killed Orlando Letelier, the former Chilean ambassador to the United States, along with his US colleague Ronni Moffitt. The murder shocked the world, especially because of its setting--Sheridan Circle, in the heart of Washington, D.C. Letelier’s widow and her allies immediately suspected the secret police of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who eliminated opponents around the world. Because US political leaders saw the tyrant as a Cold War ally, they failed to warn him against assassinating Letelier and hesitated to blame him afterward. Government investigators and diplomats, however, pledged to find the killers, defying a monstrous, secretive regime. Was justice attainable? Finding out would take nearly two decades. With interviews from three continents, never-before-used documents, and recently declassified sources that conclude that Pinochet himself ordered the hit and then covered it up, Alan McPherson has produced the definitive history of one of the Cold War’s most consequential assassinations. The Letelier car bomb forever changed counterterrorism, human rights, and democracy. This page-turning real-life political thriller combines a police investigation, diplomatic intrigue, courtroom drama, and survivors’ tales of sorrow and tenacity.

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