Word: moffitt
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...Moffitt projects three reasons for the junta's "assassination" of Letelier. First, the government was "terrified of the Democrats coming to power because of the possible cut-off of loans." In early 1976, Letelier managed to convince the Dutch government to cancel its $60 million loan to Chile. In addition he met with the heads of the dockworkers union and convinced them not to unload Chilean goods--not only in Holland but anywhere in the world. Shortly after this successful trip, Moffitt says, the Chilean press began to extensively cover Letelier's activities. He notes how Letelier and his wife...
Secondly, the junta is "almost obsessed with the fact that there are people walking around--Chileans--who know how they operate," Moffitt says, adding that every other defense minister under Allende "who knew these guys (the junta) intimately is dead, Jose Toha, Carlos Pratts, and the others...
...third reason Moffitt offers is that Letelier was one of the principal movers in getting a dialogue-in-exile going with the Christian Democrats following the military coup that overthrew the Allende government. Letelier apparently united the Christian Democrats and the remnants of the Popular Unity Party to draw up concrete plans for a transitional government in Chile. Moffitt claims the Christian Democrats trusted Letelier because he was a graduate of the military academy in Chile, a lawyer at the Inter-American Development Bank, and "he was never identified with the far left of the Socialist Party...
...Moffitt has toured the country, talking to different groups to try to put pressure on the U.S. government to solve the "murders" of his wife and Letelier. In addition, he and Isabel Letelier published a report last month through the Transnational Institute, an adjunct of IPS, detailing the "relationship between foreign economic assistance, private capital flows and the state of human rights in Chile since September 11, 1973, when the military junta led by General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the democratically-elected government of President Salvador Allende." One of the purposes of the report is to air "the conflicts between...
...Moffitt explains that if Pinochet had to answer to President Carter, he would not have outlawed the PDC in March of 1977. Instead, the report states, the same month the party was outlawed, U.S. banks loaned him $51 million. In January, 1978, Pinochet exiled 12 Christian Democrats for participating in illegal political activities and the same month, the report indicates, "the bank consortium headed by Wells Fargo lent the government $125 million and Exxon purchased approximately $100 million worth of shares of the La Disputada (copper) mines...