Thursday, December 1, 2011

Chilean judge charges ex-US military officer

A judge investigating abuses during Chile’s dictatorship is seeking the extradition of a former U.S. military officer on murder charges in the 1973 killing of two Americans, including one whose disappearance was the focus of the film “Missing,’’ court officials said Tuesday.

Former U.S. Navy Capt. Ray E. Davis was charged in the deaths of journalist Charles Horman and U.S. student Frank Teruggi, who were killed during the 1973-1990 regime of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. The court statement said retired Chilean army Brigadier Pedro Espinoza Bravo was also charged in the murders.


Judge Jorge Zepeda asked Chile’s Supreme Court to authorize an extradition request so that Davis may be tried in Chile, the court said in its statement.

Davis was the commander of the U.S. military mission in Chile at the time of the coup that toppled socialist President Salvador Allende, working as a liaison between the U.S. and Chilean militaries.


His current whereabouts were not immediately clear. Espinoza is jailed in a special Chilean prison for offenders convicted of human rights abuses serving sentences in separate cases.


“I’m stunned. I’m so glad for this step forward,’’ Horman’s widow, Joyce Horman, told The Associated Press.


The U.S. Embassy in Chile released a statement saying that as a matter of policy the State Department does not comment on specific extradition matters.

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