BLOWBACK: MURDER IN WASHINGTON: The Long Shadow of U.S. Support for Pinochet, A Talk by Sarah Anderson

This September marks the 50th anniversary of a political assassination carried out on U.S. soil, a car bombing in Washington, D.C., ordered by agents of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Until September 11, 2001, it was among the most notorious acts of international terrorism ever committed in the nation’s capital.

The Windham World Affairs Council welcomes Sarah Anderson of the Institute for Policy Studies for an evening exploring this extraordinary history, and what it can teach us about U.S. foreign policy, human rights, and accountability today.

The target of the September 1976 bombing was Orlando Letelier, Chile’s former ambassador to the United States and a cabinet minister under President Salvador Allende. Three years earlier, Allende’s democratically elected government had been overthrown in a military coup that brought General Augusto Pinochet to power. The United States had worked to undermine Allende’s government and supported forces seeking his removal amid Cold War fears about the spread of socialism and communism in Latin America.

Letelier survived imprisonment and exile and became a prominent international critic of the Pinochet dictatorship. While working at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, he continued to challenge the regime’s human rights abuses and international legitimacy. On September 21, 1976, a bomb planted beneath Letelier’s car exploded as he drove through Washington’s Embassy Row. Letelier and his 25-year-old American colleague, Ronni Karpen Moffitt, were killed. Their murders did not end the struggle for accountability.

Over the next five decades, former colleagues, family members, lawyers, journalists, and human rights advocates transformed the tragedy into a sustained international campaign for justice. Among its most consequential moments was Pinochet’s 1998 arrest in London, a landmark case that helped establish that former heads of state could face prosecution for grave human rights abuses beyond their own borders. The pursuit of accountability continues today, including the conviction by a Chilean judge this year of three former secret police agents in connection with Moffitt’s murder.

About Sarah Anderson

Sarah Anderson directs the Global Economy Project and co-edits Inequality.org at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. For several decades, she has supported efforts in the United States, Chile, and internationally to secure accountability for the assassinations of Letelier and Moffitt and for other victims of political repression.

In 2025, the Chilean government inducted Anderson into the Order of Bernardo O’Higgins, Chile’s highest honor for non-Chilean citizens, in recognition of her contributions to these efforts.

The “Blowback” Series

This event is part of the Windham World Affairs Council’s “Blowback” series, which examines how U.S. foreign policy; particularly military intervention, covert action, and support for regime change—can produce consequences that reverberate for decades.

The term blowback, originally used within the U.S. intelligence community, refers to the unintended consequences of covert or direct actions. Scholar and former CIA consultant Chalmers Johnson later brought the concept into wider public debate, arguing that events Americans often experience as isolated international crises can have roots in earlier policies and interventions largely forgotten—or never fully understood—at home.

Chile offers a powerful lens through which to examine this phenomenon. While Americans may have limited knowledge of the events surrounding the 1973 coup, the dictatorship that followed, and the role of the United States, these histories remain deeply present in Chile and throughout Latin America.

What responsibilities do governments have for the long-term consequences of their foreign policies? What does meaningful accountability look like decades after political violence? And what lessons can this history offer for U.S. foreign policy and human rights advocacy today?

Sarah Anderson will draw on five decades of work surrounding the Letelier-Moffitt case to explore these questions and the continuing struggle for justice.

Special Exhibition

A selection of Chilean arpilleras—political protest textiles depicting Letelier and Moffitt and the struggle against repression—will be on display in the 118 Elliot gallery during the event.

Wednesday, September 9, 2026
Doors: 6:30 p.m. | Talk: 7:00 p.m.
118 Elliot, Brattleboro, Vermont

Suggested donation: $10. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.