The recent detention and release of former Chilean intelligence operative Armando Fernandez Larios has brought renewed attention to a decades-old case that continues to resonate across U.S. and Chilean legal history. According to documents and court records published by the National Security Archive, Fernandez Larios was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in October 2025 for criminal acts of homicide before being released in March 2026 after challenging his detention in federal court.
The National Security Archive disclosed the development alongside declassified records detailing Fernandez Larios’ involvement in the September 21, 1976 assassination of former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier in Washington, D.C., one of the most significant acts of international terrorism carried out on American soil during the Cold War. The release of the documents coincides with the approaching 50th anniversary of the attack and revisits the long and complex legal history surrounding a former agent of Chile’s military dictatorship.
Fernandez Larios, a former officer of Chile’s Directorate of National Intelligence, known as DINA, appeared on the Department of Homeland Security’s “worst of the worst” list after his detention at the Krome Detention Center in Miami. His incarceration remained largely unknown until the public listing drew attention to the case. Court records obtained by the National Security Archive show that rather than responding to his habeas corpus petition and breach-of-contract claim, ICE released Fernandez Larios on March 19, 2026. Chief U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga later dismissed the lawsuit as moot because he had already been released from custody.
The court proceedings marked the latest chapter in the legal history of a man whose name has long been associated with the Pinochet regime’s campaign of political repression. Fifty years earlier, Fernandez Larios served as a 26-year-old DINA operative during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. According to declassified U.S. government records cited by the National Security Archive, he participated in preparations for the assassination of Orlando Letelier, one of Pinochet’s most prominent critics living in exile.
The records describe how Fernandez Larios and fellow DINA operative Michael Townley were assigned to support the operation. They traveled to Paraguay to obtain false passports and U.S. visas before later returning to Chile after concerns that American authorities had become suspicious of their cover story. Fernandez Larios subsequently traveled to Washington under a false identity, conducting surveillance of Letelier’s daily movements and supplying Townley with maps, addresses and operational information used in the planning of the attack.
On September 21, 1976, a bomb attached beneath Letelier’s vehicle exploded as he drove through Sheridan Circle in Washington. Letelier and his colleague, Ronni Karpen Moffitt, were killed in the explosion, while Moffitt’s husband survived. The bombing became one of the most internationally significant crimes linked to the Pinochet dictatorship and prompted extensive investigations in both the United States and Chile.
Years later, Fernandez Larios entered into a plea agreement with the U.S. government after seeking to defect from Chile. In 1987, he pleaded guilty as an accessory after the fact to murder, admitting that he had provided false information and helped conceal those responsible following the assassination. In exchange for his cooperation and testimony regarding the operation and General Pinochet’s role, the Justice Department recommended a reduced sentence and agreed that it would neither seek his deportation to Chile nor cooperate with his extradition there unless the agreement was violated.
That agreement became central to the lawsuit Fernandez Larios filed while in ICE custody. According to his complaint, the government had breached its obligations by initiating removal proceedings and detaining him for possible deportation. Before the court ruled on the merits of those claims, ICE released him, leading to dismissal of the case.
The National Security Archive’s publication also highlights declassified records from Fernandez Larios’ 1987 debriefings with U.S. officials. While he maintained that he had not been explicitly told Letelier would be assassinated, documents show that polygraph examinations indicated deception regarding his knowledge of the mission. According to summaries included in the Archive’s release, Fernandez Larios later acknowledged that his surveillance activities contributed to the deaths of Letelier and Moffitt.
The records further document his participation in efforts to conceal the operation after the bombing. Fernandez Larios admitted misleading Chilean investigators, providing false testimony before the Chilean Supreme Court and giving inaccurate statements to U.S. investigators during the years following the attack. Separate CIA assessments cited in the released documents concluded there was convincing evidence that General Pinochet personally ordered the assassination and later directed efforts to obstruct investigations into the crime.
The National Security Archive also places Fernandez Larios within another of the Pinochet regime’s most notorious operations: the “Caravan of Death.” Following the September 1973 military coup, the military unit traveled across Chile executing political prisoners and local officials believed to support the deposed government of President Salvador Allende. Approximately 72 people were summarily executed during the campaign.
Witness testimony gathered during later investigations identified Fernandez Larios as an active participant in those operations. In 2003, a federal civil jury in Florida found him liable for extrajudicial killings, torture and crimes against humanity in connection with the execution of Winston Cabello, awarding the victim’s family $4 million in damages. The case marked a significant legal proceeding involving human rights violations committed during Chile’s military dictatorship.
Over the years, Chilean authorities repeatedly sought Fernandez Larios’ extradition in connection with multiple human rights investigations, including cases related to the Caravan of Death and the disappearance of political prisoner David Silberman. According to the National Security Archive, Chile submitted five extradition requests, including one connected to the murder of Ronni Moffitt. Those requests were returned, rejected or did not receive a response from U.S. authorities.
The recently released records indicate that Fernandez Larios’ immigration status has remained unresolved for decades. Although he has lived in Florida for many years, previous efforts to secure permanent immigration protections were unsuccessful. His detention by ICE in late 2025 demonstrated that questions surrounding his legal status remained active despite the passage of nearly four decades since his plea agreement with federal prosecutors.
With the 50th anniversary of the Letelier-Moffitt assassination approaching, the publication of court records and declassified documents by the National Security Archive has renewed public attention to Fernandez Larios’ role in the 1976 Washington bombing, his later cooperation with U.S. authorities, his documented participation in the Caravan of Death following Chile’s 1973 military coup, and the unresolved legal questions that continue to surround one of the most consequential human rights cases connected to the Pinochet era.
