Historical Overview of DINA Operations and Townley Correspondence (Canada/USA)

The years surrounding the Chilean dictatorship reveal a troubling network of operations, financings, and covert meetings that tied international figures to grim acts. Michael Townley, born in Waterloo, Iowa in 1942, recorded a chilling message in Santiago on March 13, 1978. He wrote that if there were enough grounds to open the envelope, he would accuse the Chilean Government with his own death. Townley stood as the executor for the regime under the direction of the National Intelligence Directorate, known as DINA. Manuel Contreras led the group, and Townley himself acted as an international operative for the Pinochet government from 1974 to 1978. He faced long years in a U.S. prison for murder but survived, aided by resources and time. Orlando Letelier, a former minister in Salvador Allende’s government, sought protection in Washington, D.C. in 1976 and became a prominent figure under federal witness protection. The National Security Archive, a nonprofit at George Washington University, published six handwritten letters from Townley, believed to be authored with the North American Department of Justice. The letters describe two operational groups within DINA that used a residence in the upscale Lo Curro district as a base of operations, where Townley and his wife Mariana Callejas conducted meetings with right‑wing intellectuals and politicians over drinks while tortures and investigations took place in a basement lab created by an explosives expert. Sarin gas research was mentioned as part of the regime’s interest in suppressing opponents. The first letters outline the personnel of DINA’s Mulchen Brigade and recount the kidnapping and murder of Carmelo Soria, an economist associated with the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. Soria, born in 1921, was the grandson of Arturo Soria, the urban planner known for Madrid’s so‑called cartoon city concept and a member of the Spanish Communist Party before moving to Chile. The account notes that Soria was brought to Townley’s house and killed in the front yard with physical methods. The road from Pirán to Concholi was cleared for the operation, which used a Chilean police uniform during the kidnapping. The chilling paragraph omits many details about the torture Soria endured. Arguably decades passed before Carmelo Soria’s case reached trial in Santiago in 2019, a result the result of decades of persistent advocacy by his family. Laura González‑Vera, daughter of journalist José Santos González‑Vera, is mentioned in connection with the case. Townley faced a separate sentence in New York’s District of Columbia, though the amount of compensation involved remained disputed. The Chilean Supreme Court later confirmed a verdict relating to this matter in 2023, many years after the events. The letters also recount the murder of Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier in Washington, including the involvement in placing a bomb under a car on Embassy Row in September 1976. There is a gap in the narrative about major crimes tied to the era. Carlos Prats González, the former commander-in-chief of the Chilean Army, was targeted in Buenos Aires in 1974. Townley reportedly placed a bomb under Prats’ car and stood nearby when his wife, Mariana Callejas, could not operate the remote control during a subsequent attempt. The Argentine case confirmed that other officials bore responsibility for the second attack. The letters suggest that Townley described events in another note he sent to his father, Vernon Townley, who had traveled to Chile in 1957 to help manage the group for Ford Motor Company. The full contents of that letter have never been disclosed. Researchers from the Prensa Ibérica project, which works on declassifying NSA documents, commented that Townley’s letters appear to be the most complete record of his writings to date. This material had been requested by the Biden administration, and a Chilean journalist was tasked with locating it. The Chilean presidential archives eventually housed the documents after a change in leadership, with officials noting they did not originate from a private archive. Juan Gabriel Valdés, the Chilean ambassador in Washington, offered remarks on ongoing disclosures. He recalled that an investigation into Pinochet’s role in Letelier’s assassination had been authorized by Janet Reno during the Clinton administration. Valdés explained that an inquiry, requested in light of the 50th anniversary of the coup, was pursued in 2000 after Pinochet’s arrest in London and concurrent with his release. The suggestion to sue Pinochet in the United States did not materialize, and an FBI inquiry, conducted with Chilean judicial participation, involved a large number of military leaders. The broader material remains largely unknown and unresolved, underscoring the long shadows cast by those years.