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Frank Teruggi, Jr. (1949–1973) was an American student, journalist, and member of the
Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), whose members are nicknamed "Wobblies", is an international labor union founded in Chicago, United States in 1905. The nickname's origin is uncertain. Its ideology combines general unionism with indu ...
, from Chicago, Illinois, who became one of the victims of General
Augusto Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean military officer and politician who was the dictator of Military dictatorship of Chile, Chile from 1973 to 1990. From 1973 to 1981, he was the leader ...
's military shortly after the September 11, 1973, Pinochet ''
coup d'état A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...
'' against Socialist President
Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 1970 until Death of Salvador Allende, his death in 1973 Chilean coup d'état, 1973. As a ...
. A Chilean court in 2014 found that the United States played a key role in Teruggi's murder.


September 11, 1973

On September 11, 1973, the Chilean presidential Palace was bombed, and president Salvador Allende died. A coup d'état led by General Augusto Pinochet took place in Chile and a military regime was imposed. Teruggi's death, as well as the death of fellow journalist Charles Horman, occurred as a part of the wave of killings, torture and kidnappings that took place as the military regime solidified its control over the government of Chile. Teruggi's death along with Horman's death were the subject of the 1982
Costa-Gavras Konstantinos "Kostas" Gavras (; born 12 February 1933), known professionally as Costa-Gavras, is a Greek-French film director, screenwriter, and producer who lives and works in France. He is known for political films, such as the political thril ...
film '' Missing''.


Arrest and death

On September 20, 1973, nine days after the coup d'état, Frank Teruggi, in the same way as Charles Horman, was seized by the Chilean military at his home and taken to the
National Stadium Many countries have a national sport stadium, which typically serves as the primary or exclusive home for one or more of a country's national representative sports teams. The term is most often used in reference to an association football ...
in
Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...
, which had been turned into an ''ad hoc'' concentration camp, where prisoners were interrogated and tortured and many were executed. In the film ''Missing'', by Costa-Gavras, Teruggi is depicted as a contributor for a small newspaper and friend of Charles Horman who had spoken with several U.S. operatives that assisted the Chilean military government. The film alleges that Horman's discovery of U.S. complicity in the coup led to his secret arrest, disappearance, and execution. American complicity in the Chilean coup was later confirmed in documents declassified during the
Clinton administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following his victory over Republican in ...
. The declassified documents mention Teruggi as one of the Chilean military executions and initially U.S. embassy officials in Santiago released false information that he had returned to the United States. His body was later found in a Chilean morgue among the "unidentified bodies" of the victims of the regime.


Book, film, and television depictions of the case

The main character of the '' Missing'' (1982), directed by
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filmmaker
Costa-Gavras Konstantinos "Kostas" Gavras (; born 12 February 1933), known professionally as Costa-Gavras, is a Greek-French film director, screenwriter, and producer who lives and works in France. He is known for political films, such as the political thril ...
, was Charles Horman, but Teruggi is also depicted and his fate is described in the movie by David Hathaway, his roommate who was arrested at the same time Teruggi was. Teruggi was portrayed by actor Joe Regalbuto. When the movie was released by
Universal Studios Universal Studios may refer to: * Universal Studios, Inc., an American media and entertainment conglomerate ** Universal Pictures, an American film studio ** Universal Studios Lot, a film and television studio complex * Various theme parks operat ...
, Nathaniel Davis, United States Ambassador to Chile from 1971 to 1973, filed a
USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...
$150 million libel suit against the director and the studio, although he was not named directly in the movie (he had been named in the book). The court eventually dismissed Davis's suit. The movie was removed from the market during the lawsuit but re-released upon dismissal of the suit.


State Department memo

For many years thereafter, the U.S. government steadfastly maintained its ignorance of the killing and torture of Americans in Chile. It was only in October 1999, that President
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
ordered the release of a document admitting that US intelligence agents played a role in the deaths of Americans. The
United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy of the United State ...
memo, dated August 25, 1976, was declassified on October 8, 1999, together with 1,100 other documents released by various U.S. agencies which dealt primarily with the years leading up to the military coup. Written by three State Department functionaries — Rudy Fimbres, R.S. Driscoll and possibly W.V. Robertson and addressed to Harry Shlaudeman, a high-ranking official in the department's Latin American division — the memorandum described the Horman case and mentions Teruggi's as well. The authors recorded that Horman and his associates had aroused the suspicion of the new régime in Santiago and considered it possible that "U.S. officials did nothing to discourage the logical outcome of overnment of Chileparanoia."


Later indictments and convictions

On November 29, 2011, Chilean judge Jorge Zepeda indicted Ray E. Davis, commander of the U.S. Military Group in Chile during the time of the coup, along with Pedro Espinoza, a Chilean general, and Rafael González Verdugo, a member of Chilean army intelligence, in the murders of Frank Teruggi and Charles Horman. Teruggi and Horman were among the 40,000 who were detained in the Stadium. In 2012, Chile’s Supreme Court approved an extradition request for Davis. As of September 11, 2013, the U.S. had not been served with the request. Davis, secretly living in Chile, died in a Santiago nursing home in 2013.Chilean court links US intelligence to 1973 killings of two Americans
''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
,'' July 1, 2014. Retrieved March 9, 2015. In 2015 the court sentenced Espinoza to 7 and Verdugo to 2 years. Chile's Supreme Court however reviewed the case in 2016 and significantly increased the sentences to 15 years for Espinoza and 3 years for Verdugo. In addition they were ordered to pay $196,000 to Horman's widow and $151,000 to Teruggi's sister.Eva Vergara
''Chile toughens sentences in ‘Missing’ killings of Americans''
AP News, July 21, 2016


See also

* Charles Horman *
1970 Chilean presidential election Presidential elections were held in Chile on 4 September 1970. Salvador Allende of the Popular Unity (Chile), Popular Unity alliance won a narrow Plurality (voting), plurality in a race against independent Jorge Alessandri and Christian Democra ...
* Juan Guzman *
Operation Condor Operation Condor (; ) was a campaign of political repression by the right-wing dictatorships of the Southern Cone of South America, involving intelligence operations, coups, and assassinations of left-wing sympathizers in South America which fo ...
* U.S. intervention in Chile * Chilean political scandals * United States intervention in Chile#1973 coup * Jeffrey Davidow


References

;Notes ;Bibliography * Hauser, Thomas (1978). ''The Execution of Charles Horman: An American Sacrifice.'' New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. * Hauser, Thomas (1982). ''Missing''. Penguin. .


External links


State Dept. Memos regarding Horman
(both the blacked-out version given to the family and the more complete version released in 1999) {{DEFAULTSORT:Teruggi, Frank 1949 births 1973 deaths American people executed abroad Assassinated American journalists Military dictatorship of Chile (1973–1990) Harvard University alumni Industrial Workers of the World members Phillips Exeter Academy alumni 20th-century executions of American people 20th-century executions by Chile 20th-century American writers