Office of the Historian

227. Memorandum From Secretary of State Vance to President Carter1

Washington, April 20, 1979

[Omitted here is material unrelated to Chile.]

6. Chile. We expect a decision from the Chilean Supreme Court sometime next week on our request for extradition to the US of the three DINA officials indicted for the Letelier/Moffitt murders.2 The Court has three alternatives: extradition for trial in the US; trial in Chile; complete rejection of the demand. A minimally acceptable alternative would be a vigorous and open prosecution of the defendants in Chile. In order to avoid sending a potentially misleading signal on the eve of the Chilean Supreme Court decision, I recommended to the Export-Import Bank today that it take no action at this time on applications to increase the $750,000 limit the Bank has imposed since 1975 on any [Page 671] loan involving a project in Chile. We hope to be able to concur in approval of larger loans as soon as the Letelier matter is satisfactorily resolved.3

  1. Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Subject File, Box 21, Evening Reports (State), 4/79. Secret. Carter wrote, “Cy. J” in the top right hand corner of the memorandum.↩
  2. In an April 24 intelligence information cable, the CIA reported that Pinochet had told [less than 1 line not declassified] that the extradition request “was in the hands of the Chilean courts and that, consequently, the case did not represent a political problem,” and “that his government would comply with the ruling of the Chilean Supreme Court on the extradition request.” The CIA also reported that Contreras, although he “believed that the Supreme Court’s ruling in the extradition case would be favorable to him,” was also “upset that he might be forced to submit to a local trial in order to placate the U.S. Government and preserve Chilean-U.S. relations.” (Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Asian, Pacific, Latin American, and African Analysis, Job 07S01568R, Box 1, Folder 9)↩
  3. Further discussion of the question of Ex-Im Bank credits for Chile can be found in a February 1 action memorandum from Vaky, Derian and Katz to Christopher (Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Staff Material, North/South, Pastor, Country Files, Box 9, Chile, 1-12/79) and in a February 6 memorandum from Newsom to Christopher. (National Archives, RG59, Lot 81D154, David Newsom Files, 1978–81, Box 14, Latin America)↩