Charles Horman

A Chilean judge has indicted the former U.S. military group leader in his country for being linked to the murder of two Americans in the days immediately after the 1973 coup.  I am VERY pleased to say that the official indictment and request to extradite retired U.S. Navy Captain Ray Davis cites testimony I gave to a Chilean judge and homicide detectives in 2003.

The two Americans murdered, whom I both knew, were Charlie Horman and Frank Teruggi.  Horman's story was the basis for the award-winning Costa Gavras film, "Missing."

As the Telegraph reports:

According to the indictment, a US government agency had told the FBI that Mr Teruggi had close links to an organisation called the Chicago Area Group on the Liberation of the Americas.

Frank Teruggi

He was said to have been producing leftist propaganda to be distributed in the US. Mr Zepeda alleges that the two killings took place as US officials conducted a secret investigation into "activity that US agents considered 'subversive'" by Americans at home and in Chile.

Justice Zepeda said Horman may have also been killed because he inadvertently found out about US "collaboration during the military events unfolding" with the coup.

Davis is now in his mid-80′s and is reportedly suffering from Alzheimer's in a D.C.-area rest home.  I see no way he would be extradited, but the investigation by Judge Zepeda in Santiago is shedding new light on this four decade old unresolved case. If you can speak Spanish, you can read the full text of the indictment here, including reference to my testimony.

Here is the excerpt from that indictment that refers to my testimony on file:

TOMO IX del proceso.-

m) Orden de investigar de la Policia de Investigaciones de Chile, de fojas 2.843, en cuanto contiene las circunstancias relatadas por ciudadanos estadounidenses, de que la vi?ctima Charles Edmund Horman Lazar, antes de ser sustrai?da y muerta, estuvo acompan?ada por Ray E. David, Capita?n de la U.S. Navy; que Charles Edmund Horman Lazar, antes de su sustraccio?n concurrio? y pidio? auxilio para salir del pai?s sin resultados a la Embajada y Consulado de los Estados Unidos de Ame?rica en Santiago y las circunstancias que rodearon su posterior privacio?n de libertad e inmediata muerte; para ello, en la orden se tomo? declaracio?n a Terry Ann Simon, a fojas 2.890; a Joyce Horman, a fojas 2.896; a George Irving Platt, a fojas 2.929; a Patricia Marie Garret, a fojas 2913; a Marc Errol Cooper a fojas 2.922; y a Frank Manitzas, a fojas 2932;

I have no personal knowledge of what Capt. Davis' role may or may not have been in the death of the Americans.  The testimony I offered focused on the refusal of all American Embassy officials refusing to provide any assistance to threatened Americans living in Chile at the time of the coup. My appearance before the judge resulted in a face to face confrontation (careo in Spanish juridical terms) with the former U.S. Consul Frederick Purdy. Purdy has the misfortune of retiring and living in Chile and therefore was forced to respond to a subpoena and offer counter-testimony to mine.  In the middle of the process, he was interrupted by then-Judge Guzman Tapia who upgraded his status from "witness" to "suspect." He was never indicted, however.

The current indictment clearly suggests that the evidence gathered over years of investigation establishes a clear clink between the murders and collaboration between U.S. and Chilean military intelligence with Capt. Davis in the chain.  My reading of the indictment is that the investigating magistrate believes that at a minimum, Captain Davis could have prevented the murders carried out by Chilean military officers. Also indicted is a former Chilean Brigadier General already serving time for human rights abuses.

When I have been asked about American involvement in the killing of the two Americans I knew, I have always said the Nixon administration bore moral guilt for feeding and oiling Pinochet's death machine and, specifically, for turning a blind eye to the fate of Americans living in Chile at the time of the coup. I leaned toward NOT believing that any U.S. officials, including Davis, were somehow directly involved in the assassinations as it would take only a drop of common sense for them to have understood that it was politically volatile to do so and, frankly, not worth it (from their perspective). At least that second part has turned out to be true as this case lives on in infamy 38 years later.

Perhaps, now, we will learn about the first part of that equation. Were some American functionaries, including Davis, actually craven and stupid enough to stand by and watch two young Americans senselessly murdered in Santiago?