"Assassination of Dissidents Involved"...The Final Fate of a Chilean Secret Agent Protected by the U.S. for Over 40 Years

Involved in the 1976 Assassination of Letelier
Arrested by ICE Last Year, Now Facing Deportation

A former Chilean secret agent, who played a decisive role in the assassination of domestic dissidents and has lived under protection in the United States for over 40 years, has been arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and now faces possible deportation.

On July 11, Yonhap News, citing the New York Times (NYT), reported the story of Armando Fernandez Larios, a former Chilean military officer in his seventies.

According to the National Security Archive, an investigative journalism center affiliated with George Washington University in the U.S., which first revealed Fernandez's current situation, his activities in the United States date back 50 years. In September 1976, Fernandez entered the U.S. and collected details such as the commuting route, vehicle information, and office location of Orlando Letelier, a Chilean economist and diplomat who had publicly criticized the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. He then passed this information to another Chilean agent and returned to his country.

Salvador Allende (left) and Augusto Pinochet.

Two weeks later, Letelier was killed in a car bomb attack in Washington, D.C., along with his American colleague. In 1987, Fernandez was indicted on charges of involvement in murder along with six other assassination conspirators, but the Chilean government refused to extradite him to the United States. However, the U.S. contacted Fernandez and persuaded him. Feeling remorse, Fernandez left Chile for Brazil in January 1987, where he was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

During the investigation in Brazil, Fernandez completely denied the charges, claiming that his intention was only to monitor Letelier and that he had no intention of participating in the murder. However, as the investigation continued, he admitted that the terrorist act at the time involved the participation of Pinochet. Ultimately, in February 1987, Fernandez was sentenced to a prison term of 27 to 84 months for being an accessory after the fact in the murder of a foreign official.

After Fernandez was incarcerated, the U.S. Department of State sent a letter to the parole board requesting leniency on his behalf. As a result, he was released after just five months of imprisonment and avoided deportation to Chile, residing in Florida until recently.

The persistent demands for Fernandez's confession by the U.S. government and his rapid release were rooted in the efforts of U.S. intelligence agencies during the Cold War to prevent the spread of communism in Chile and other Latin American countries, as well as the complicated relationship between the two countries.

When Salvador Allende’s socialist government, the first in South America to be democratically elected, came to power in 1970, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) sought ways to overthrow it. In 1973, Pinochet, then a military officer, succeeded in a coup with the covert support of the CIA. Afterward, the U.S. administration effectively turned a blind eye to the Pinochet regime’s human rights abuses.

However, when U.S. President Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, cracks began to appear in the relationship between the Pinochet regime and the United States. The occurrence of the Letelier bombing further strained relations, and, according to the NYT, then-Secretary of State George Shultz used Fernandez’s confession as grounds to persuade President Reagan to change U.S. policy toward Chile.

After his release, Fernandez was also ordered in 2003 to pay damages to victims for his involvement in the mass killings carried out by the Pinochet regime in the 1970s, but he refused to comply and continued to reside in the United States. However, reality eventually caught up with Fernandez, who had hoped that the U.S. would protect him indefinitely. In 2005, he applied for a special visa for witnesses and informants, but only his stay was permitted and the special visa was not granted. After his request for the special visa was denied, nearly 20 years later in October last year, ICE arrested Fernandez at his home and transferred him to a detention facility in Miami. In January this year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security labeled Fernandez “the worst of the worst,” citing his past involvement in murder.

The NYT pointed out, “Despite the long deterioration in relations between the U.S. and Chile, the American government regarded Fernandez as a useful Cold War collaborator. Ultimately, he became a criminal subject to deportation, highlighting how rapidly alliances and priorities can change.”

Whether Fernandez will be deported is scheduled to be decided at a trial on August 5.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.