Letelier

TEN DAYS AGO the United States formally asked Chile to extradite three former Chilean secret police agents who have been accused of assasinating Orlando Letelier, former Chilean ambassador to the U.S. under Allende and outspoken critic of the present right wing military junta.

It took the premeditated murder of a former diplomat to put teeth into a Justice Department with a sometime questionable commitment to ferreting out the truth. Last August the Justice Department concluded a 22-month investigation of the assasination with indictments of four anti-Castro Cubans and the three Chilean agents of the now defunct DINA, Gen. Juan Manuel Contreras Sepulveda, former head of the DINA, Pedro Espinoza Bravo and Armando Fernandez Larios.

We commend the U.S. Attorney's Office for its thorough investigation which concluded that the assassination was not just an isolated anti-leftist act, but a concerted effort by an illegitimate government to silence its opposition in the face of threatened foreign aid cut-off.

The question of Pinochet's personal involvement in the assasination is still unresolved. The Chilean people have called for a full explanation from Pinochet, who continues to deny any involvement in the assassination, and has labeled pernicious the reports of his long-time friendship with Contreras. lies.

Israel Borquez, president of the Chilean Supreme Court, will have the opportunity to resolve many unanswered questions when he reviews the extradition requests. Under the terms of the extradition treaty between Chile and the United States, Borquez has four alternatives: he could find the evidence insufficient to warrant extradition and refuse to hear the case; he could label the assasination a political crime, which would also bar a trial under the treaty; he could order a trial in Chile, either open or closed; or he could decide to extradite the accused.

If we are ever to know the truth about Pinochet's involvement in Letelier's murder, the Court must choose the last of these alternatives. In the event that the Court decides to quash the investigation, however, we urge the U.S. government to sever economic and diplomatic relations with Chile.