"Worst of the Worst" ICE and the Case of Chilean Intelligence Operative Armando Fernandez Larios

“Worst of the Worst”: ICE and the Case of Chilean Intelligence Operative Armando Fernandez Larios Search ICE Detained Ex-Chilean Agent for Criminal Acts of Murder—Then Let Him Go 50 Years Ago, Fernandez Larios Participated in Pinochet Plot to Assassinate Orlando Letelier in Washington, D.C. Former DINA Agent Was Part of “Caravan of Death” that Executed Civilians After September 1973 Military Coup Published: Jul 10, 2026 Briefing Book # 926 Edited by Peter Kornbluh For further information, contact: Peter Kornbluh: 202-374-7281 or peter.kornbluh@gmail.com Subjects Human Rights and Genocide Secrecy and FOIA Terrorism and Counterterrorism Regions South America Events Chile – Coup d’État, 1973 Project Chile book The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability By Peter Kornbluh, New Press (September 11, 2013) book cover Pinochet desclasificado by Peter Kornbluh, Un Dia en La Vida/Editorial Catalonia (August, 2023) assassination on embassy row book cover Assassination on Embassy Row by John Dinges and Saul Landau, Pantheon Books (January, 1980) The Condor Years: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents by John Dinges, The New Press (August 1, 2012) Los Anos del Condor book cover Los años del Cóndor (Spanish Edition) by John Dinges, DEBATE (June 1, 2021) Operation Condor book cover Operation Condor: The Pact That Terrorized a Continent by Francesca Lessa, Sebastián Santana (May 12, 2026) Washington D.C., July 10, 2026 - On October 27, 2025, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents quietly detained Armando Fernandez Larios, a former Chilean secret police operative living in Florida. His incarceration at the Krome Detention Center in Miami remained unknown until he appeared on the Department of Homeland Security’s “worst of the worst” list—one of several Trump administration publicity stunts from January 2026 meant to demonstrate that ICE was rounding up immigrants with actual criminal backgrounds. Despite detaining Fernandez Larios for past crimes of “homicide,” ICE released him from custody after he filed an “unlawful detention” lawsuit, according to court records posted today by the National Security Archive alongside declassified documents on his role in an act of international terrorism in Washington, D.C., 50 years ago. Rather than respond to the lawsuit, ICE officials freed Fernandez Larios on March 19, 2026, according to a legal ruling in the case obtained by the Archive’s Chile Documentation Project. The March 30 ruling by Chief U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga dismissed the Fernandez Larios suit as “moot” because ICE had already released him. But the ruling provides details on the latest twist in the saga of a notorious Chilean human rights violator who has been living freely in Florida for decades despite his involvement in the September 21, 1976, car bombing that took the lives of former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier and his 25-year-old associate, Ronni Karpen Moffitt, in downtown Washington, D.C., and his conviction in a 2003 federal civil lawsuit for his role in an elite military unit known as “the Caravan of Death.” The Letelier-Moffitt Assassination In his lawsuit against ICE, Fernandez Larios presented “a breach-of contract claim,” arguing that the U.S. government had broken a legal agreement made in early 1987 when he sought to defect to the United States during the final years of the Pinochet dictatorship. For his role in the Letelier-Moffitt assassination, Fernandez Larios would plead guilty to being an “accessory after the fact to murder” and testify truthfully about the Letelier operation and General Pinochet’s role in it. In return, the U.S. Justice Department recommended a reduced sentence and promised that it “would neither seek to deport [him] to Chile nor cooperate in his extradition to Chile, absent a violation of the agreement.” Now, according to the Fernandez Larios complaint, the U.S. government had “materially breached the parties’ plea agreement by initiating removal proceedings and detaining [him] for the purpose of deporting him to Chile.” Fifty years ago, Fernandez Larios was a 26-year-old agent of the Chilean Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA)—the Pinochet regime’s secret police force responsible for much of the repression during the early years of the military dictatorship, including international assassination operations. In mid-1976, Fernandez Larios and DINA’s leading hitman, Michael Townley, were ordered to undertake an operation in the United States against General Pinochet’s leading critic in exile, Orlando Letelier. DINA’s deputy director, Col. Pedro Espinoza, instructed Townley that he and Lt. Col. Armando Fernandez Larios were to travel to Paraguay to obtain false passports and U.S. visas and then on to Washington, D.C., for a mission “the result of which would be the assassination of Orlando Letelier,” according to a declassified State Department summary of the case. Townley and Fernandez Larios did travel to Asuncion, Paraguay, as part of a collaboration of Southern Cone secret police services known as Operation Condor where they obtained false passports from the Paraguayans. After some delay, they were provided visas from the U.S. Embassy, after claiming to be on a secret mission to meet with CIA deputy director Vernon Walters at Langley headquarters in Virginia. But instead of flying to the United States, they returned to Santiago, concerned that U.S. officials were suspicious of their cover story. After waiting a month to see if the Letelier operation had been compromised, Fernandez Larios traveled to Washington using a false Chilean passport under the name “Armando Faundez Lyon.” His assignment was to conduct advance surveillance on Letelier’s movements. In a men’s lavatory at John F. Kennedy airport on September 9, 1976, Fernandez furtively rendezvoused with Townley to provide him with a surveillance map, notes on Letelier’s home and office addresses, as well as cash for the operation. Townley then recruited members of the violent anti-Castro Cuban exile group, the Cuban National Movement, to assist him in building, placing, and detonating the car bomb. On September 21, 1976, Letelier and his 25-year-old colleague at the Institute for Policy Studies, Ronni Karpen Moffitt, were killed when the bomb attached to the undercarriage of the Chevrolet Chevelle they were riding in exploded as they drove to work in downtown Washington, D.C. Moffitt’s husband, Michael, was the sole survivor of the bombing. polygraph In a “Factual Proffer” provided to U.S. officials in early February 1987, Fernandez Larios claimed he had been excluded from all discussions on eliminating Letelier. But he conceded that he “understood that the true purpose might be other than the limited surveillance mission described to him, [and] that the outcome to the object of the mission, Orlando Letelier, might very well be harm or even death.” A polygraph test administered to him in Brazil as U.S. officials sought to determine his credibility showed “consistent signs of deception in Fernandez’ disclaimers” that he did not know the true intention of his DINA mission. “He now acknowledges that his surveillance contributed to the death of Letelier and Moffitt,” according to a secret summary of his polygraph results included in today’s posting. In the aftermath of the assassination, Fernandez Larios participated in an extensive cover-up orchestrated by high DINA officials—and by General Pinochet himself. Fernandez Larios admitted to deceiving official military investigators, testifying falsely before the Chilean Supreme Court (after he was identified in the U.S. and Chilean press, along with Townley, as a lead suspect in the car bombing), and lying to U.S. investigators from the FBI and Justice Department. After the Carter administration demanded his extradition in 1978, Fernandez Larios was confined to a military hospital in Santiago for 14 months, along with former DINA director Manuel Contreras and deputy director Pedro Espinoza. When he let it be known that he wanted to go to the United States “to resolve this matter,” he was called to a meeting with General Pinochet, who ordered him to stay put. “Be a good soldier, tough it out,” Pinochet told him, “and this problem will have a happy end.” A comprehensive CIA review of its intelligence on the Letelier-Moffitt case, conducted a few months after Fernandez Larios defected, concluded that there was “convincing evidence that President Pinochet personally ordered his intelligence chief to carry out the murder.” The assessment added that Pinochet later “decided to stonewall on the case to hide his involvement and, ultimately, to protect his hold on the presidency.” In late 1985, U.S. officials used an intermediary to approach Fernandez Larios, and he renewed his efforts to defect to the United States. An initial secret meeting with several U.S. officials, lasting ten hours, took place in Santiago in mid-January 1987. State Department and FBI officers then arranged to debrief him in Brazil later that month and subsequently brought him to the United States. On February 4, 1987, Fernandez Larios appeared in the Washinton courtroom of Judge Barrington Parker. He was not charged as an accomplice in a terrorist attack, but rather as an “accessory after the fact” who “did testify falsely and provide false information” to help his DINA superiors “escape apprehension for trial and punishment.” To obtain a reduced sentence for him, Justice Department officials pledged to “make the Court aware of the nature and extent of Mr. Fernandez Larios’ cooperation with all branches of the United States government with which he is assisting”—an indication that Fernandez Larios might be sharing information on DINA operations with U.S. intelligence agencies. letelier moffit monumen Letelier-Moffitt Memorial, Sheridan Circle, Washington, D.C. (Photo credit: Peter Kornbluh) On May 6, 1987, Judge Parker sentenced him to up to seven years in prison. Almost immediately, U.S. officials began lobbying for his release. “I personally have come to know Mr. Fernandez Larios and his character well,” State Department legal advisor Michael Kozak wrote to the U.S. Parole Commission in July 1987. “I can attest that when he is released from prison he will nonetheless continue to be punished every day. He has given up a great deal because of his willingness to come forward and pay his debt to the United States and society at large,” according to Kozak. “In my judgement, Mr. Fernandez Larios is a remarkably stable and responsible individual who poses no danger to society.” After only five months of incarceration, Fernandez Larios was released on parole on September 11, 1987—the 14th anniversary of Chile’s military coup. The Caravan of Death As part of his plea-bargain negotiations, according to a secret summary of his first debriefing with U.S. officials, Fernandez Larios was “fully aware that if he fails any further tests of his credibility…on any significant point, including involvement in other violent acts, any agreement would be void and he would be in serious jeopardy.” Yet Fernandez Larios appears to have withheld information on his multiple violent human rights atrocities committed as a member of an elite military unit known as the “Caravan of Death.” In the weeks following the coup, an elite team of military operatives helicoptered into smaller towns in the north and south of Chile seizing municipal officials—mayors, council members, police chiefs, and others—who were supporters of the deposed president, Salvador Allende. Approximately 72 individuals were summarily executed; many of them then disappeared. Multiple witnesses identified Fernandez Larios as one of the most ruthless members of the military death squad. Fernandes Larios Fernandez Larios during the Caravan of Death civil suit, July 2003 After Pinochet was forced from power in 1990, investigations into the atrocities of his regime began. As the Caravan’s victims were located and exhumed, Chilean authorities initiated legal proceedings against the perpetrators, including Fernandez Larios. On March 19, 1999, the family of Winston Cabello, a 28-year-old regional planning director in the northern town of Copiapó who was executed along with 12 other political prisoners by the Caravan of Death on October 17, 1973, filed a Federal lawsuit against Fernandez Larios in Florida for “extrajudicial killing, torture, crimes against humanity and cruel and inhuman treatment.” (The family was represented by the San Francisco-based Center for Justice and Accountability with the support of the Palo Alto law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich Rosati, and the Florida-based lawyer, Robert Kerrigan.) Over three years of investigation—much of it conducted by Cabello’s sister, Zita Cabello-Barrueto—the legal team tracked down and deposed Chilean witnesses who identified Fernandez Larios as a participant in the torture and executions of prisoners in multiple municipalities. In Copiapó, one witness testified, Fernandez Larios had personally slashed Cabello to death with a curved knife known as a corvo. During the trial, Fernandez Larios testified that he was the only member of the military unit that carried that weapon as an “ornament” on his uniform. Winston Cabello Winston Dwight Cabello Bravo The three-week trial ended on October 15, 2003, 30 years after Cabello’s death. The jury found Fernandez Larios liable for extrajudicial killings, torture and crimes against humanity, and awarded the family $4 million in damages. “Our lawsuit marked the first time in US history that in a contested jury trial someone was found responsible for crimes against humanity,” Zita Cabello-Barrueto wrote in her memoir about her brother’s case, In Search of Spring. “It was also the first time that any Pinochet operative had been tried in the United States for human rights abuses in Chile.” Extradition Requests During the civil trial against Fernandez Larios, the jury also heard testimony about another human rights crime he committed—the kidnapping and disappearance of the former manager of Chile’s largest copper mine, David Silberman. On October 4, 1974, a team of DINA agents arrived at the Santiago penitentiary where Silberman was being held as a political prisoner and carried him away in an unmarked pick-up truck; he was never seen again. The warden at the jail testified that the leader of the DINA unit that took him was Fernandez Larios. Silberman’s disappearance became another human rights crime linked to Fernandez Larios; and as they had done in the Caravan of Death cases, Chilean judicial authorities sought his extradition from the United States. Indeed, since the late 1990s, Fernandez Larios has been the subject of five extradition efforts, most recently as part of an investigation into the September 1976 murder of Ronni Moffitt. Last month, a Chilean magistrate, Paola Plaza, announced she had closed that case, finding three more DINA agents guilty of participating in the terrorist plot 50 years ago. The U.S. never responded to Chile’s extradition request for Fernandez Larios. Presumably, Fernandez Larios remains protected from being extradited to Chile; but he still could be deported to a third country—a practice the Trump administration has notoriously used to expel immigrants from the United States—and transferred to Chile from there. In addition, his arrest by ICE last October reveals that Fernandez Larios’ immigration status remains in limbo, as it has been for decades. In 2005, Fernandez Larios attempted to secure an “S” visa that protects foreign informants from ejection from the United States. But key U.S. government officials opposed granting him that protective status. “Some immigration officials have wanted to detain Fernández Larios to face deportation proceedings, citing his lack of any immigration papers and a 1996 law that mandates deportation of foreigners convicted of aggravated felonies,” the Miami Herald reported at the time. More than 20 years later, that little-known effort to deport him appears to have been revisited. Although Fernandez Larios is, once again, living freely in Florida, the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Letelier-Moffitt assassination is likely to bring renewed attention to his role in one of the most infamous atrocities ever committed on the streets of Washington, D.C. “If there is anyone who truly qualifies as ‘the worst of the worst,’ observes the Archive’s senior analyst on Chile, Peter Kornbluh, “it is Armando Fernandez Larios.” The Documents ebb926 d1 Document 1 United States District Court, Armando Fernandez-Larios, petitioner, v. Charles Parra, et al, Respondents, March 30, 2026 Mar 30, 2026 Source United States District Court, Southern District of Florida This four-page ruling by Chief U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga reveals key details about what transpired after ICE agents detained former Chilean DINA operative Armando Fernandez Larios in October 2025. After spending almost four months at the Krome Detention Center in Miami, on February 20, 2026, Fernandez Larios filed a writ of Habeas Corpus petition, challenging his detention, with an additional “breach of contract” claim. That claim argued that the United States government had violated a plea agreement Fernandez Larios had made in 1987 to provide information on the September 21, 1976, car-bombing assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt in return for a shortened prison sentence and a promise that the Government “would neither seek to deport [him] to Chile nor to cooperate in his extradition to Chile.” The judge ordered ICE to respond to the suit by March 19, 2026. But instead of responding, ICE officials released Fernandez Larios. “On March 19, 2026—the same day Respondents’ Return was due,” the judge stated in her ruling, “the Government paroled [Fernandez Larios].” On the basis of his release and with “no pending removal proceeding or threatened proceeding,” the judge dismissed the Habeas suit. ebb926 d2 Document 2 State Department, Roger Channel Cable, [Highlights of U.S. Team’s Ten-Hour Interview with Fernandez Larios], Top Secret/Eyes Only, January 15, 1987 Jan 15, 1987 Source Clinton Administration Chile Declassification Project This Top Secret/Roger Channel cable from the U.S. Embassy in Santiago reports on a secret ten-hour meeting between Armando Fernandez Larios and U.S. officials. Fernandez Larios recounts his role in the assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt, divulging that General Augusto Pinochet personally engaged in a cover-up of the crime by blocking Fernandez Larios from turning himself over to the United States. “Pinochet was upset that Fernandez had developed this attitude, told him that he had to be a good soldier, to continue the struggle and this problem would have a happy end.” U.S. officials deemed Fernandez Larios “credible” and reported that “what he has to offer as a witness is of substantial impact from both a law enforcement and foreign policy standpoint.” ebb926 d3 Document 3 State Department, Roger channel cable, “Letelier,” Secret, January 26, 1987 Jan 26, 1987 Source Clinton Administration Chile Declassification Project After debriefing Fernandez Larios in Santiago in mid-January 1987, U.S. officials assisted his departure from Chile on January 22 to Brazil. There, he underwent further debriefings and took a series of polygraph exams to determine his credibility. On the key issue of his knowledge of the true intent of his Letelier mission, he failed. A polygraph showed “consistent signs of deception in Fernandez’ disclaimers,” and “he now acknowledges that his surveillance contributed to the death of Letelier and Moffitt,” according to this secret cable summarizing the results of the polygraph exams. “Polygraph examination has resulted in acknowledgement by Fernandez that he ‘supposed’ prior to trip to Paraguay that operation was to result in death of Letelier.” ebb926 d4 Document 4 Department of State, memorandum, “Results of Interview with Indicted Letelier Assassin,” Secret/Sensitive, January 26, 1987 Jan 26, 1987 Source Clinton Administration Chile Declassification Project In a report on the results of the debriefings of Fernandez Larios, an unidentified State Department officer appears to ignore the results of the polygraph tests and declares that “Fernandez is not a murderer or party to a conspiracy to murder.” The document states that “Fernandez also asserts no involvement in other crimes”—a claim later disproven by evidence of his role in the Caravan of Death and other DINA operations. The report points out that his information on the Letelier-Moffitt case is “of limited value” but that “the foreign policy benefits are substantial” and warrant a plea bargain deal for his cooperation. ebb926 d5 Document 5 DOJ, “Factual Proffer,” February 4, 1987 Feb 4, 1987 Source DNSA, Chile and the U.S.: U.S. Policy toward Democracy, Dictatorship, and Human Rights, 1970–1990 This 15-page “proffer” summarizes Fernandez Larios’ testimonial confession of events relating to the assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt and the subsequent effort by General Pinochet and high-ranking DINA officers to cover up the regime’s role in an act of international terrorism. Fernandez Larios has convinced U.S. officials that he was never told he was participating in a mission of international assassination. But he concedes in his proffer that he “understood that the true purpose might be other than the limited surveillance mission described to him, [and] that the outcome to the object of the mission, Orlando Letelier, might very well be harm or even death.” The proffer details his role in the cover-up after the assassination as well as his interactions with General Pinochet, whose role in the terrorist attack the cover-up was designed to hide. ebb926 d6 Document 6 Federal District Court, Transcript, [Fernandez Larios Plea Bargain Hearing], February 4, 1987 Feb 4, 1987 Source Federal District Court On February 4, 1987, Armando Fernandez Larios appeared in the Washington, D.C., courtroom of Judge Barrington Parker to plead guilty to one charge of “accessory after the fact to murder of an internationally protected person.” The hearing addressed his cooperation in return for a reduced sentence; the Justice Department sought a prison term of seven years and assured the judge that they would “make the Court aware of the nature and extent of Mr. Fernandez Larios’ cooperation with all branches of the United States government with which he is assisting.” ebb926 d7 Document 7 Department of State, Letter, [Legal Advisor Michael Kozak Letter to Parole Board on Releasing Fernandez Larios], July 21, 1987 Jul 21, 1987 Source Clinton Administration Chile Declassification Project Almost as soon as Fernandez Larios went to prison, U.S. officials began lobbying for his quick release. The State Department’s legal advisor, Michael Kozak, sent a letter to the U.S. Parole Commission in July 1987 lauding Fernandez Larios for coming forward and providing evidence on an international crime in which he had participated. “I personally have come to know Mr. Fernandez Larios and his character well,” Kozak wrote to the Parole Commission. “I can attest that when he is released from prison he will nonetheless continue to be punished every day. He has given up a great deal because of his willingness to come forward and pay his debt to the United States and society at large.” Their lobbying efforts were successful. After only five months of incarceration, Fernandez Larios was paroled in the fall of 1987. ebb926 d8 Document 8 Department of State, Memorandum from Secretary Shultz to President Reagan, “Pinochet and the Letelier-Moffitt Murders: Implications for U.S. Policy,” Secret, October 6, 1987 Oct 6, 1987 Source Special Chilean Government request for US Records on 40th anniversary of the Letelier-Moffitt Assassination The defection of Armando Fernandez Larios and his testimony implicating General Augusto Pinochet in an act of international terrorism in Washington, D.C., revived interest in the Letelier-Moffitt assassination—in the United States and in Chile. Inside the Reagan administration, Secretary of State George Shultz used the renewed attention to the case to press the President to abandon U.S. support for the Pinochet dictatorship. Shultz instructed the CIA to review its intelligence files on Pinochet’s role in the assassination and then used their conclusions that Pinochet had “personally ordered” the operation as ammunition to convince Reagan that it was time to support a return to democracy in Chile. In this secret memo to the President, Shultz draws on the CIA report and on the Fernandez Larios testimony. “Fernandez’ revelations have had a significant political impact within Chile and the CIA concludes that Pinochet will be ‘unable to satisfy the military’s concern that Pinochet take effective steps to repair the damage already done to the armed forces’ reputation,’” Shultz reports to Reagan. “While some in the USG had previously believed that Pinochet had ordered the murders, and there were strong signs that he was involved in the cover-up, the CIA has never before drawn and presented its conclusion that such strong evidence exists of his leadership role in this act of terrorism.” ebb926 d9 Document 9 Department of State, “The Letelier Dispute: Background and Factual Summary, January 1989 Jan 1989 Source Clinton Administration Chile Declassification Project As the U.S. government presses the Pinochet regime to expel indicted DINA officials to the United States, the State Department provides a comprehensive history of the Letelier-Moffitt case and efforts to bring those responsible to justice. According to the official summary, “In late June or early July 1976, Colonel Pedro Espinoza, Director of Operations for DINA, instructed Michael Vernon Townley, an expatriate United States citizen living in Chile, and Armando Fernandez, a lieutenant in the Chilean Army, to participate in a mission, the result of which would be the assassination of Orlando Letelier.” The nine-page summary provides a chronology of U.S. efforts to obtain the extradition of Espinoza and DINA chief Manuel Contreras, and the Pinochet regime’s ongoing obstruction of justice in the case. “The United States continues to demand that Chile cooperate in bringing this matter to a satisfactory resolution,” the report concludes. ebb926 d10 Document 10 Chilean Supreme Court, Extradition Petition for Armando Fernandez Larios in the Caravan of Death Operations, November 9, 2016 Nov 9, 2016 Source Chilean courts In 2016, human rights judge Mario Carroza sought to revive prosecution of the Caravan of Death murders that were carried out on Pinochet’s orders in the weeks following the September 11, 1973, military coup. In an extradition petition authorized by the Chilean Supreme Court, Judge Carroza identified Fernandez Larios as a member of the military death squad that landed in La Serrena on October 16, 1973, and executed, one-by-one, 15 local pro-Allende officials. The victims were then buried in a common grave, according to the petition’s summary of the facts. This extradition petition was one of five sent from Chile for Fernandez Larios as Chilean judicial authorities investigated the human rights atrocities he was involved in. The U.S. government returned, rejected or did not respond to those formal petitions for extradition, which included a request that Fernandez Larios be returned to Chile to be prosecuted for the murder of Ronni Moffitt, who was killed alongside Orlando Letelier in the car bombing, 50 years ago, on September 21, 1976.