Orlando Letelier

Orlando Letelier
Letelier in 1976
Minister of National Defense of Chile
In office
23 August 1973 – 11 September 1973
PresidentSalvador Allende
Preceded byCarlos Prats
Succeeded byPatricio Carvajal
Foreign Affairs Minister
In office
22 May 1973 – 9 August 1973
PresidentSalvador Allende
Preceded byClodomiro Almeyda
Succeeded byClodomiro Almeyda
Personal details
BornSergio Orlando Letelier del Solar
(1932-04-13)13 April 1932
Temuco, Chile
Died21 September 1976(1976-09-21) (aged 44)
Manner of deathAssassination by car bomb
PartySocialist Party of Chile
Spouse
Isabel Margarita Morel Gumucio
(m. 1955)
Children4
Signature

Marcos Orlando Letelier del Solar (13 April 1932 – 21 September 1976) was a Chilean Marxist and diplomat during the presidency of Salvador Allende. A member of the Socialist Party of Chile, he fled from the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, Letelier accepted several academic positions in Washington D.C. after his exile from Chile. In 1976, agents of Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), the Pinochet regime's secret police, killed him in Washington by a car bomb. The agents had been working in collaboration with members of the Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations, an anti-Castro militant group.