Quoting Galadriel Ravelli’s and Anna Cento Bull’s The Pinochet Regime and the Trans‐nationalization of Italian Neo‐fascism in Hayek: A Collaborative Biography, pages 374–380:
The relationship between Pinochet and the Neo‐Fascists significantly evolved in 1975, when they were asked to kill Chilean Christian Democratic deputy Bernardo Leighton, who had moved to Rome after the 1973 coup (Mayorga 2003, 11). The case of the attempted murder of Bernardo Leighton illuminates the key rôle played by right‐wing groups in implementing Pinochet’s transnational repression plans and explains why the Neo‐Fascists fed to Chile in 1977.
[…]
Prats, a former Chilean army commander at the time of Allende’s government, had moved to Argentina after the coup to avoid the Junta’s prosecution. The general and his wife were killed in September 1974 by a bombing attack. Judicial investigations clarify that ‘the assassinations were carried out by agents of DINA with the assistance of members of the Fascist Argentine group Milicia […] and the complicity of the Argentine army and police’ (McSherry 2005, 69, 70).
The Prats murder was one of the frst extraterritorial DINA’s executions and it proved that the Chilean intelligence could rely on the support of neighbouring countries in targeting political opponents. McSherry argues that the surveillance cooperation established between Chile and Argentina in 1973 was the prototype of Operation Condor. The attack against Bernardo Leighton and his wife, which occurred on the 6 October 1975, should thus be considered as part of the preliminary operations of the Condor prototype led by the Chilean intelligence.
Why was Leighton attacked in Italy? First, the Prats murder suggests that from the very beginning the Chilean Junta carried out a borderless crusade against its political opponents. Whether these were still based in Latin America or elsewhere, they had to be monitored and eventually eliminated.
Second, Leighton’s political rôle and his relations in Italy were considered as particularly problematic by the Chilean régime. The main concern was Leighton’s capacity to unify and potentially organise Chilean political opponents abroad, with unpredictable consequences for the régime (Relazione introduttiva sui fatti e i mezzi di prova 1995, 6).
Furthermore, the DINA was particularly worried about the potential collaboration between the Italian Christian Democratic party and the Italian Communist Party (which had been under discussion at the time). In September 1973, the leader of the Italian CP, Enrico Berlinguer, launched the proposal to collaborate with its main political enemy, the Italian CD party, ‘to restore the economy and maintain public order’ (Clark 2008, 388).
The proposal for a ‘historic compromise’ seemed to pave the way for an involvement of the Communists in the government, a perspective that obviously scared conservative forces. The concerns were echoed by the DINA, which according to its former agent Townley feared that the collaboration between the two parties in Italy would have legitimized a similar convergence in Chile ‘and would have, in great part, unifed the Marxist opposition in Europe against Chile’ (U.S. District Court, Deposition of Michael Vernon Townley 1992, 76).
Hence, the attack against Leighton played a double rôle: on one hand, it aimed at sending a clear message to the exiled opponents of the Junta that they were still under the DINA’s radar, even in Europe. On the other hand, it aimed at discouraging any compromise with Communist forces at a transnational level.
The key element in the Condor operation was covert action. The operation relied on a state parallel structure, which could count on the collaboration of paramilitary squads and non‐state actors such as right‐wing groups. This was crucial to the survival of the military Juntas, as ‘to secure at least a minimal acceptance of their legitimacy, the national security states needed to mask the involvement of the state in the atrocities being carried on’ (McSherry 2005, 21).
This explains why the Argentine right‐wing group Milicia was involved in the Prats assassination and why the Italian Neo‐Fascists were asked to kill Leighton in 1975. The aforementioned relationship between Delle Chiaie and Pinochet, provides a further explanation for the Neo‐Fascists’ involvement. Thanks to the transnational relations between Fascists and Fascist sympathizers, Pinochet could count on the expertise of the Italian Neo‐Fascists to eliminate his enemy in Rome.
As previously highlighted, the political performance of the Neo‐Fascists in Italy was marked by their deep involvement in the Strategy of Tension, which made them experts on political violence and terrorism techniques.
Judicial investigations carried out by the Rome Prosecutor’s office provide an exhaustive overview of the relationship between the Chilean Junta and the Italian Neo‐Fascists. The evidence gathered by judicial authorities highlighted that the murder was first commissioned to the Neo‐Fascists by DINA agent Townley in summer 1975 and eventually carried out by Delle Chiaie’s group. As Vincenzo Vinciguerra¹ reconstructs, despite the direct relationship between Pinochet and Delle Chiaie, it was agent Townley who contacted him about the Leighton operation.
This was necessary as the relationship between Pinochet and the militant, who was a fugitive under investigation for several crimes, had to be covert to protect the dictator from possible scandals (Tribunale Ordinario di Milano, hearing of Vincenzo Vinciguerra, 22/05/02).
In spring 1975, the Neo‐Fascists were asked by Townley logistic support to coordinate the assassination of Carlos Altamirano, leader of the Chilean Socialist party who had found refuge in Spain. At the time, the Neo‐Fascists were mostly based in the Spanish sanctuary, where they had a close relationship with the Spanish intelligence.
According to Vinciguerra (Procura della Repubblica di Roma, hearing of Vincenzo Vinciguerra, 9/09/92), Townley, as a DINA agent, preferred to avoid direct contact with the Spanish intelligence to prevent diplomatic incidents and hence asked for the Neo‐Fascists’ support, given their relationship with the Spanish intelligence. Delle Chiaie discouraged the operation against Altamirano, warning Townley that the Spanish intelligence was not keen on foreign interferences within its territory.
As a matter of fact, the operation was called off (Relazione introduttiva sui fatti e i mezzi di prova 1995, 18–19). While the preparatory meetings for the murder of Leighton between Townley and the Neo‐Fascists took place in Rome in summer 1975, the Altamirano episode highlights that already in the early months of 1975 the DINA relied on the group to implement its transnational repression plan. The agency wanted to target its enemies in Europe and the relationship between Pinochet and the Neo‐Fascists proved to be a valid asset to this end.
(Emphasis added.)
Click here for events that happened today (September 11).
1899: Philipp Bouhler, the SS official responsible for the Aktion T4 euthanasia program that massacred more than 250,000 disabled adults and children, as well as co‐initiator of the Aktion 14f13 campaign that massacred 15,000–20,000 concentration camp prisoners, disgraced humanity with his existence.
1935: U‐12 launched at the Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel.
1937: Following the advice of Berlin’s advisor to China, Falkenhausen, Chinese troops dug in at Luodian near Shanghai to defend against an Imperial offensive. The 300,000 Chinese infantry troops would hold on to Luodian for four days against attacks by 100,000 Imperialists with overwhelming firepower.
1938: Rudolf Höss received the rank of SS‐Obersturmführer.
1939: As the Third Reich officially lost its diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, ‘Lord Haw‐Haw’ began broadcasting his ‘Germany calling’ programme on Radio Hamburg. The name was linked to William Joyce, a Yankee citizen who had spent some time in Ireland, had been Propaganda Director of Oswald Moseley’s (qv) British Union of Fascists and who had fled to Berlin a week before the outbreak of war. Additionally, Georg von Küchler’s superiors awarded him Clasp 2nd Class to his Iron Cross, and Wolfgang Falck shot down two Polish aircraft (a bomber and a reconnaissance aircraft).
1940: Northwest of Ireland between 0326 and 0328 hours, Fascist submarine U‐28 assaulted Allied convoy OA‐210, sinking the Netherlandish ship Maas, massacring twenty, and severely damaging the British ship Harpenden, killing somebody. Afterwards, Fascist submarine U‐99 sank British ship Albionic at 0716 hours, slaughtering twenty‐five.
After an entire morning without aerial attacks, three hundred Fascist bombers flew across Kent in southern England and up the Thames Estuary in two waves at about 1500 hours, then some bombers got through British defences and bombed the East End of London. On the same day, the Fascists also bombed Portsmouth and Southampton, then they bombed London and Liverpool overnight. Off Ramsgate, Kent, the Fascists assaulted destroyers HMS Atherstone and HMS Fernie in the Strait of Dover, seriously damaging HMS Atherstone, which also suffered six deaths.
Lastly, as Luigi Torelli began patrolling waters off the Azores Islands, Winston Churchill noted that the coming week was to be dangerous as intelligence showed a Fascist amphibious invasion about to be launched, but IJA Major General Issaku Nishihara reported to Tōkyō, complaining that French authorities were delaying negotiations regarding Indochina matters.
1941: Axis artillery bombarded Leningrad throughout the day, and submarines U‐82, U‐202, U‐207, U‐432, and U‐433 assaulted the Allied convoy SC‐42 east of Greenland, sinking seven merchant ships. Meanwhile, Charles Lindbergh gave a speech accusing the British, Jews and FDR régime of pressing for war with the Third Reich.
1942: Axis submarine U‐404 attacked Allied convoy ON‐127 west of Ireland, damaging Norwegian tanker Marit II at 0016 hours and ending two lives. At 0135 hours, U‐218 also attacked the same convoy, damaging Norwegian tanker Fjordaas. At 0147 hours, U‐584 sank British tanker Empire Oil west of Ireland. Elsewhere, U‐96 sank Portuguese sailing vessel Delães at 1150 hours, U‐517 sank corvette HMCS Charlottetown in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in northeastern Canada at 1300 hours (slaughtering nine but leaving fifty‐five alive), and U‐584 sank Norwegian merchant ship Hindanger at 1925 hours (killing somebody but leaving forty alive).
During the day, USS Saratoga delivered aircraft to Henderson Field at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. Axis destroyers landed troops at Guadalcanal; in the past two weeks, six thousand men were successfully delivered to the island. Meanwhile, Axis aircraft attacked Henderson Field.
1943: The Axis commenced its three‐day liquidation of the Jewish ghetti in the Byelorussian cities of Minsk and Lida. Coincidentally, Axis authorities raided Jews in Nice, France. Italian forces in various Aegean islands surrendered to the Axis, and at 1500 hours, Kurt Student ordered Major Harald Mors to have a plan for the rescue of Benito Mussolini ready at his desk as soon as possible, with the plan to be executed on the following day at 0730 hours. Lastly, the Wehrmacht occupied Corsica and Kosovo‐Metohija, thereby discontinuing the Kingdom of Italy’s occupation of Corsica.
1944: Axis troops under Friedrich Schubert and Greek paramilitary fighters under Georgios Poulos exterminated one hundred twenty civilians in the city of Giannitsa, Greece according to an anticommunist operation. On the other hand, the Axis lost at least 11,000 lives to a firestorm that an RAF bombing raid on Darmstadt caused.
1945: Australian 9th Division forces arrived at the Axis‐run Batu Lintang camp, a POW and civilian internment camp on the island of Borneo.