Still Looking for Justice

STILL LOOKING FOR SOME JUSTICE
Chilean Judge Juan Guzman, who is responsible for investigating the more than 250 human rights cases pending against former military dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet, heard testimony Friday from former U.S. Consulate to Chile, Frederick Durban Purdy, about the murder of journalist Charles Horman. Horman was arrested in Chile six days after the CIA backed coup and went missing until his battered and bullet-riddled body was found in a morgue a month later. Horman’s widow, Joyce Horman, filed a lawsuit against Pinochet in December of 2000, accusing the former general of kidnapping, murder, illegal burial and illegal exhumation. The lawsuit also involves retired Gen. Sergio Arellano Stark, former Defense Minister Gen. Herman Brady and Jorge Espinoza, who was responsible for administering the National Stadium's detainment, torture and death camp in Santiago. U.S. citizens Adam Chez, Steve Volk and Mark Cooper also traveled to Santiago last week to testify in the case. Chez is a historian who was detained at the National Stadium following the coup. Volk lived in Chile during the government of ousted President Salvador Allende and Cooper was a journalist and translator, like Horman. Horman's widow and family believe Purdy and other former U.S. diplomats have information regarding the journalist's murder. Purdy was the U.S. Consulate between 1969 and 1975 and was the second ranking diplomat after then-Ambassador Nathaniel Davis. (Research indicates almost one-third of the staff at the U.S. Embassy in Santiago were on the CIA payroll at the time of the coup. The list according to some includes Frederick Purdy; John Isaminger; Raymond Alfred Warren; Deane Roesch Hinton, Harry W. Shlaudeman, Daniel N. Arzac, James E. Anderson, John B. Tipton, Arnold M. Isaacs, Frederick W. Latrash, Joseph F. McManus, Keith W. Wheelock, and Donald H. Winters). Purdy, who resides in Chile, testified in the Horman case last year, but was summoned again because of 22 inconsistencies between his story and those of Chez, Volk, Cooper and Mrs. Horman. Chez, Volk, Cooper and Mrs. Horman say the U.S. Embassy was unwilling to cooperate with efforts to locate Horman and U.S. citizen Frank Teruggi, who was also murdered at the National Stadium

After nearly an entire day of testimony Friday, Purdy grew aggressive with journalists in Santiago. When pressured about his involvement in Horman's murder, Purdy grabbed one journalist by the shirt sleeve and shouted obscenities in English.
Marc Cooper says that he will testify before Judge Guzman this week on how this same Purdy and, indeed, how the entirety of the U.S. Embassy in Chile -- apparently under Kissinger's orders -- consistently denied any aid or protection to U.S. citizens during the Pinochet coup. He wrote last Friday in the LA Weekly, "On three different occasions during that first nightmarish week of military rule in 1973, I asked the U.S. Embassy for protection. And three times I was turned down flat. The last time was on the morning of September 17 in a face-to-face encounter that I and a small group of fellow Americans had with Consul Purdy. He denied there was any threat to Americans. He told us to stay home and obey the new authorities. He warned us that the only danger was from what he called ‘left-wing snipers.’ The consul told us that Ambassador Nathaniel Davis was too busy to meet with us. As history would have it, just about the same time we were making our plea for protection, a few miles to the south a truckload of Chilean troops had broken into Charlie Horman's house and were carrying him away to the National Stadium."

Judge Guzman is determined to get to the bottom of this sorry story. As reported previously in the OD, the judge sent a letter to the U.S. government demanding that Henry Kissinger -- who directed U.S.-Chilean policy at the time -- as well as other former American officials, including then U.S. Ambassador to Chile Nathaniel Davis, testify about their knowledge of these events. So far, the U.S. government has not officially responded. But Judge Guzman is not a man to be toyed with. He says if he doesn't soon hear back from Washington, he will file for Kissinger's extradition.

Joyce Horman said embassy officials denied her husband assistance, which might have saved his life. Additionally, the journalist's widow said the Embassy was irresponsible in its handling of Horman's remains. Once Horman's body was located at the Santiago General Cemetery, and his death confirmed, it took the U.S. government more than one year to repatriate the remains. The delay and consequent decay eliminated any possibility for an autopsy to determine the cause of death. She believes that her husband Charles was targeted by right-wing forces. She also believes he had information linking the United States to the coup. She says, "I think if we find who pulled the trigger or who tortured Charlie, or who said, ‘Kill him,' then we're going to have a fuller picture of what went on and a fuller ability to try the crime."
Sources: Santiago Times, La Nacion, La Tercera, El Mercurio, Public Information Research, Inc., LA Weekly, Newsday

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