Posted on 02/16/2004 9:49:41 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
SANTIAGO, Chile -- A Chilean spy who swore that a U.S. intelligence officer was present during the 1973 interrogation and disappearance of an American citizen after a U.S.-backed coup in Chile now says he made up the story.
Rafael Gonzalez Verdugo, 66, who was charged on Dec. 10 with being an accomplice in the death of American Charles Horman, said through his son that he falsely implicated the CIA to avoid being expelled from the Italian Embassy in Santiago, where he was seeking asylum at the time.
Horman disappeared from his Santiago apartment on Sept. 17, 1973, six days after Gen. Augusto Pinochet seized power in a bloody U.S.-backed coup. Gonzalez made his accusations in a 1976 interview with reporters from CBS News and the Washington Post.
Missing, a 1982 movie about Horman's death, won actor Jack Lemmon an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Horman's determined and grieving father, Edmund. The movie helped lodge his son's case in the nation's memory and, in its scenes of his interrogation, includes the shadowy figure of an unidentified CIA agent.
Gonzalez's claim that an American was present at Horman's questioning -- and when Chilean authorities decided to kill him -- led to congressional hearings. The case energized demands for reform in the CIA and encouraged President Carter's pledge to make human rights a central element of U.S. diplomacy. The Nixon administration had encouraged Pinochet's overthrow of elected Chilean leftist leader Salvador Allende.
Gonzalez said in affidavits that he was called to Horman's interrogation at Chile's Ministry of Defense, although it's not clear whether he acted as an interpreter or as an interrogator. Months later, Chilean officials ordered Gonzalez to fetch Horman's decomposing body from the cemetery wall in which it had been buried and together with a CIA officer deliver the corpse to U.S. Embassy personnel.
Gonzalez continues to say the CIA officer, James Anderson, helped him deliver Horman's body, and Anderson has never refuted that claim.
In June 1976, when Gonzalez met with reporters Frank Manitzas of CBS News and Joanne Omang of the Washington Post, Gonzalez was out of favor with the Pinochet government and feared he'd be killed. He'd slipped into the Italian Embassy, where, like several other regime foes, he'd found sanctuary.
Gonzalez told Manitzas and Omang that he'd recognized an American at Horman's questioning because he cross-laced his shoes in the distinctive way that Americans do. He later signed a sworn affidavit that his tale to Manitzas and Omang was true -- meaning he's either lying now or committed perjury then.
Gonzalez's allegations "sort of reopened everything (about Chile) ... and the U.S. Congress got involved, there were investigations," Omang recalled recently. "Before, it was just one missing American."
In a recently declassified document dated Aug. 25, 1976, three mid-level State Department officials wrote this to the assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs in Washington about Gonzalez's allegations: "U.S. intelligence may have played an unfortunate part in Horman's death. At best, it was limited to providing or confirming information that helped motivate his murder by the GOC (Government of Chile)."
Through his son, Sergio Daniel Gonzalez, Rafael Gonzalez said that he implicated U.S. intelligence because his hosts in the Italian Embassy demanded that he do so. On the streets of Santiago at the height of the military dictatorship, a spy who turned against Pinochet's regime would likely have disappeared as Horman did.
Horman's widow, Joyce, a native of Kiester, Minn., is still fighting to learn who killed her husband and why. She brought suit in Chile on Dec. 17, 2000, after Chilean courts lifted Pinochet's immunity from prosecution. A panel of Chilean judges in 2002 declared Pinochet, by then 87, too old and feeble to stand trial.
Chile is divided ethnically with more Indians in the North and more Europeans in the South. The North is also somewhat poorer than the South, although Antofagasta is really not poor by Latin American standards.
My own impression of Chile was that it is rapidly becoming a country of middle-class people. I never saw beggars or people suffering with malnutrition or any of the other obvious signs of poverty you see in Mexico.
The streets were very safe and though there were policemen everywhere, they seemed very professional, not obviously corrupt or abusive.
I hope this helps.
there was a general uproar when he was placed in house arrest in london a few years back, some were happy of course but many of those against pinochet wanted to just let him live out his years in chile (but to stay out of politics!). the socialist government in power down here negociated furiously for his return to Chile, which they accomplished, and pinochet is basically retired from public view and fading into the sunset...
the secret to understanding Chile and its success, is that it is perhaps the most law-abiding of all the South American countries. there is the usual Latin anarchy, and "manipulating the rules" to suit, but by tradition Chileans respect and follow the rule of law. the federal police are respected by everyone and astonishingly honest for example
Pinochet was a hero a first but became corrupted by power, warping the law to suit himself and his inner circle...none-the-less the tradition of the law in Chile affected even him, and he felt compelled to seek a referendum to legitimize his rule. (now compare this to Chavez). the Chilean voters threw him out in order to return to their democratic law abiding traditions...
(1) Chile's length.
In order to remain a national entity, all institutions in Chile, the military, government agencies, the federal police, the telephone companies, the post office, etc have to project themselves over a fairly long distance -- e.g.- they have many of the projection problems the US has (Miami to Seattle anyone?) without the big population base to fund it all. as a result, institutions have had to be efficient and disciplined, and the urgency of more uniform laws was/is important to make this all work.
Chile is a really small country (population wise) deposited in a very large country (at least in one dimension).
(2) the Andes
Like Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia, the Andes makes it harder for outside influences to get to Chile, at least from other Latin American countries. In this respect, Chile is very much like an Island. The influences that DID get through were very Northern European (particularly from English, US and German immigrants by sea) and the law abiding ways of those people rubbed off.
(3) weather much like Europe or the US (or... JAPAN)
I think having seasons of the year, and in particular harsh weather, makes it important for people to plan ahead, and steady laws make things easier to plan ahead. Anyway, Chile is in fact quite different than even Argentina, Chileans have had to work much harder to make a go of things, the Argies are/were cursed by too much bounty so they have become too wrapped up in having a good time!
True, but I like the Argies...spent Christmas in Mendoza and had a swell time, (cheap too!). The Park Plaza Hyatt is a great hotel.
Most educated Chileans will admit that the Pinochet regime was the only thing that kept Chile from being like Peru, Argentina, or any number of dreadful South American countries with tremendous potential, but a miserable future.
The always left-leaning press in the USA tends to speak of Pinochet as a brutal dictator...seldom mentioning that Allende was only elected to power with 36% of the vote, due to a splintering of the centrists. Within 3-years Allende had ruined the country...housewives in Santiago were in the streets banging on pots demanding reform. He nationalized the copper mines and graft and union corruption was the rule. Copper production was down and inflation was through the roof.
There is a good article, about two-years old, that describes the situation in Chile under Allende and how the Supreme Court even gave notice that Allende had to go. He was not popular at the time...in fact, he is probably more popular now, in part due to the dismal books that his niece, Isabell keeps churning out. The funny part is, she doesn't even live in Chile.
Cheers from Chile
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.