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The First Terrorist Attack on American Soil
The former Chilean ambassador to the United States was brazenly bombed in 1976.
International terrorism is too much of a common occurrence for America nowadays. It has a foreign policy to especially cater to it too now. However, back in the 1970s, that was not the case. The first-ever case of international terrorism is brutal and chilling to its very essence and involved the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. The victim, unfortunately, was his leading opponent Orlando Letelier.
Resisting Dictatorship Despite Torture
Orlando was a remnant of Salvador Allende’s 1971–73 presidency of Chile. Salvador appointed him as the ambassador to the United States- however, he had lived in Washington well before the start of the presidency. So it is no wonder that Orlando chose the USA as his refuge later on.
The coup of 1973 brought the vindictive dictator Augusto Pinochet to power, and soon enough, Orlando was one of the many forced to pay the price for it. He was severely tortured and held in various concentration camps for well over a year until eventually…
