Oberlin Professor Recalls Chile Coup

U.S. citizens Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi were not much older than the average Oberlin student when they were executed by the Chilean military as their own government stood by.

26 years ago, General Augusto Pinochet led the Chilean military in a coup that toppled the Socialist government of Salvador Allende. During the time immediately after the military took power, Horman, 31, and Teruggi, 24, were murdered. There were rumors of C.I.A. involvement. In the decades since the coup, the American government denied any connection to their deaths, until Pinochet's recent arrest prompted the Clinton administration to release previously censored documents that clearly show U.S. knowledge of the events that transpired.

In 1973, Oberlin Professor of History Steven Volk was living in Santiago finishing his dissertation when he met Horman and Teruggi. They began to publish a newsletter in which they reprinted articles critical of US policies in Latin America. "My wife and I began working with a group of North Americans that became known as FIN, or Fuente de Informacion NorteAmericana [North American Information Source]," said Volk. "We were sympathetic with Allende's government and were also quite concerned with the role the U.S. was playing at that time in Chile."

There was evidence that the U.S. was employing an informal blockade of the country, cutting off economic and multi-lateral aid to weaken the Socialist government. In a matter of months, FIN went from distributing about 200 to 300 newsletters a month on the street to reaching upwards of 300,000 readers by being published in national newspapers supportive of Allende. This would eventually make the members of FIN targets of Pinochet's forces during the coup. "Frank and Charlie and I worked together in this group, and we were quite close," said Volk.

The Fall of 1973 was a time of disarray in Chile as opposite political ideologies fought to gain control of the country. "Most of us knew that something was coming. The last few months was like living through a civil war that hadn't broken out yet," said Volk. On Sept. 11, the forces of Gen. Pinochet overthrew the Socialist government. "I was able to see from my window the bombing of the Presidential Palace by these jets that went by."

"Right after the coup, when the military took over, they broadcast and distributed leaflets by throwing them out of helicopters all over the city and the country that called on Chileans to turn in foreigners who they thought were involved in Socialist activity. My own apartment was searched twice by the military while I was there. You could hear them kicking down doors, taking people away," said Volk.

"Frank's household was denounced by his neighbors. They turned him in to the police," said Volk. Teruggi was taken for questioning to Santiago's National Stadium. "That was the last anybody saw of him."

After members of FIN had worried and searched for Teruggi, the U.S. embassy suggested they could find his body in the city morgue. The task of identifying his corpse fell to Volk. "There were hundreds and hundreds of bodies in every room, just lying in long stacks. So I just walked up and down until I saw Frank," said Volk. Although the U.S. embassy later stated Teruggi had been shot 17 times, claiming he was killed for being outside after the militarily enforced curfew, Volk said he had been shot three times and his throat was cut. "What I saw was that he had been executed."

Charles Horman disappeared within days of Teruggi's murder. "He and his wife got separated for one night. When she went back to their house to get their belongings, she found that it had been destroyed. The neighbors said that the army had come and taken Charles away," said Volk. Horman's friends and family searched frantically for a month. The Chilean government claimed he was a leftist guerilla who had left the country. The U.S. Embassy said it had no knowledge of his whereabouts. Yet the recently released documents make clear that the State Department deduced from almost the beginning that the Pinochet government had killed him. "The U.S. really could care less that 5,000 Chileans were killed. But they knew there would be a reaction if North Americans were killed. So they simply kept information that they knew all along hidden from the family," said Volk. Horman's body was eventually found buried in the wall of the national cemetery in an unmarked grave.

"What's finally come out in these documents, that have finally been uncensored after 26 years, is that there is an abundance of circumstantial evidence that the US either played a direct role in [Horman's] murder, or knew of his arrest, knew that he was going to be murdered, and didn't do anything to protect him," said Volk. Joyce Horman, Horman's widow, has asked the current Chilean government, which once again is trying a Socialist experiment, to release any information in their files regarding his death.

"At one level we always thought that North Americans would be ok. When Frank and Charlie disappeared, that sense that we were somewhat protected disappeared altogether," said Volk.

The release of documents confirming suspicions that have festered for 26 years "is a great victory. It's almost inconceivable that we've been fighting for this for a quarter century," said Volk.

Pinochet Demonstration: Man in Pinochet mask protests in Chile. (photo courtesy Amnesty International)