Davis Ray E

He has been in the Foreign Service since 1947, so wedded to it that when asked if he ever wanted to do anything else he says simply, "I don't know." His assignments have included Bulgaria, Guatemala (where, since his predecessor had been murdered, he traveled with armed guards), Washington and Switzerland. But it was his two-year stint as U.S. ambassador to Chile that made Nathaniel Davis the model for the ambassador in the 1982 film "Missing" and left a scar on his life.

Last Monday, lawyers for Davis and two other embassy officials who served with him in Chile filed a $150 million libel suit in U.S. District Court in Alexandria against Universal City Studios Inc., which made "Missing," about the disappearance and death of American Charles Horman in Chile, and against Thomas Hauser, who wrote the book upon which the film is based. Also named were Constantin Costa-Gavras, the director of "Missing"; MCA Inc., the parent corporation of Universal; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc., publisher of the hardcover book by Hauser; and the Hearst Corp., whose Avon Books division published the paperback version.

In the suit, the lawyers single out passages of the book and movie, stating they are "false, unfair, inaccurate and defamatory." The plaintiffs "have been held up to public disgrace, scorn, and ridicule," according to the suit.

"I've lived with the Horman case personally and professionally," Davis says quietly in an airport restaurant outside Providence, R.I. The case, he says, was not the reason he was brought back to Washington to become director general of the Foreign Service a month and a half after the young American's disappearance. "But it affected my career after that."

When he was nominated for assistant secretary for African Affairs in January 1975, the Organization of African Unity issued an unprecedented formal statement questioning his appointment because of the cloud cast over him by the suspicion of U.S. involvement in the coup in Chile. He was appointed to the post, but seven months later he resigned over the decision to increase covert U.S. intervention in the Angolan civil war. Davis went to Switzerland after that. He has been teaching at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., since 1977.

The movie "Missing" and the book of the same name portray the U.S. ambassador to Chile — who is called simply "the ambassador" — as a defender of big business, with a veneer of ambassadorial politeness masking a deep coldness.

Sitting in a quiet restaurant, the 57-year-old former ambassador is polite and friendly but guarded in his answers. White-haired and portly, he clasps his hands and places them squarely on the table when talking or leans back in his seat, hands in the pockets of his dark, three-piece suit. Certain scenes in the movie make him indignant and resentful, he says, but if there is bitterness at his portrayal in the film and book, it doesn't show; if there is emotion it doesn't show; there's just a flicker of resignation.

"Well, it hasn't been a very happy experience," he says.

More than nine years have passed since Sept. 17, 1973, when Charles Horman, an adventurous, 30-year-old American free-lance journalist, was taken from his home in Santiago, Chile. In late October, his body was found in the municipal cemetery. In the weeks between, Horman's wife, Joyce, and his father, Edmund, took up a painful and arduous search for him in a country reeling from the military coup Sept. 11 that toppled the Marxist government of Salvador Allende.

It was a search, the Hormans have said, that U.S. embassy officials in Santiago not only didn't aid but actually hindered — to the point where the Hormans suspected U.S. officials of complicity in Charles Horman's death, which allegedly occurred at the hands of the Children military. The Hormans suspected that Charles was murdered because he had, by chance, received sensitive information about American involvement in the coup through conversations with a naval engineer in Vina del Mar, Chile.

Nathaniel Davis picks his words carefully, and articulates them as deliberately as if he were speaking to one of his classes at the Naval War College.

Some of his own first-hand recollections of Chile and the Hormans are vague, but he's well-versed in the details of the book and the movie.

He has been the movie twice. The first time was when "Good Morning, America" arranged for him to see it a year ago in New York before making an appearance on the show to discuss the movie. The second time was recently, in preparation for questions after the filing of the lawsuit. He rented a video cassette recording of the movie in Newport for $4 and borrowed a machine on which to play it.

"Obviously, the movie has great dramatic impact, doesn't it?" he says with a little smile. " . . . I can certainly say what the impact of the movie brought home to me is that most people who see it end up believing it — which is very bothersome.

"I was also said that this unhappiness and frustration of the family seemed to find its expression in turning on U.S. public officials who were trying to help them." He pauses and smiles slightly. "It was kind of said."

Despite this, he says he feels no resentment toward Edmund Horman, who has publicly expressed his dislike of the ambassador. "Whatever grief they've given me," Davis says, "they've suffered more."

That's why Davis excluded Edmund Horman from the suit.

"My own feeling is that Edmund Horman has lost his only child," says Davis. "He's a little different from people who are making a pile of money on saying things that are false about me and my colleagues and the U.S. public service. It's a little different.

"I understand what the family has gone through. Well, perhaps I don't understand. But I can understand what it's like to lose your son," adds Davis, who has four children. "I don't mean I've lost any of my children, but I think I can imagine what he feels like. That has to condition my feelings about him."

But not his feelings about the movie.

"The thrust of the movie essentially is that we were complicit in telling the Chileans to murder Charles Horman," says Davis. "Charles and Terry Simon [a visiting friend] went down to Vina and learned too much and… as a result of trying to suppress what they learned down there, we either agreed to or put the Chileans up to killing them. That's what the movie says or suggests. It's very bothersome to me, in the first place not only personally but for what this says about the U.S. Foreign Service, that an ambassador, who is a professional, would go abroad and be in the position of telling the authorities of another country to kill an innocent young American who's committed no crime. That's a very corrosive thing to suggest about public service when it's false."

"The movie does raise questions about government officials," says Sheldon Mittleman, the head of Universal's legal department. "We felt and still feel that it's not defamatory… I think Ambassador Davis sees a lot of innuendo that's not there. That's my personal opinion. I think the ambassador reads things in that aren't there. The courts will decide that down the line."

"I think that the complaint is an example of cheap-shot draftsmanship," says author Hauser, who is also a lawyer. "There's nothing in that suit that pertains to me that isn't virtually protected." Hauser points out that many of the statements from his book cited in the suit are quotes from other people.

"I have never said, nor has the book said, that any of the plaintiffs ordered the execution of Charles Horman," says Hauser. "Obviously, I've said some of the officials were not as forthcoming with information about the Horman case as they should have been."

Last year, Hauser says, he made a "generous offer" to Davis to apologize for anything Davis could prove wrong in the book and then make a correction in subsequent editions. Davis, he says, never took him up on it. "To this day, I stand by the book," says Hauser.

"I don't remember that offer," says Davis. "And that's not generous at all when he's gone through the paperback and hardcover editions. What good is [a correction] for a possibly nonexistent next edition? I remember him making a challenge."

The movie premiered a year ago, and Davis said it has taken that year for all three plaintiffs to make a collective decision to sue. The other two plaintiffs are out of the country — former consul Frederick Purdy is now head of the U.S. consular section in Brasilia and Capt. Ray E. Davis (ret.) is in Santiago

"They feel very strongly about it," says Nathaniel Davis. "It isn't just my interest."

The suit says Ray Davis is the model for the character named Ray Tower in the movie. He is portrayed as a lecherous military official who tries to make a pass at Charles Horman's wife one evening while she is taking a bath. The characterization has apparently brought Ray Davis some unwelcome attention from embassy personnel in Santiago when Davis has business at the embassy. "I think he said they snicker and giggle," says former ambassador Davis. "He's pretty deeply unhappy."

Nathaniel Davis said he considered suing when Hauser's book, originally titled; "The Execution of Charles Horman: An American Sacrifice," appeared in 1978, "but… it's a big decision and it's also a big decision if you're not wealthy," says Davis, who makes $58,500 a year as a Foreign Service officer. "Eleven of us were, in fact, sued first by the Hormans." That suit was dismissed in 1981 without prejudice, which means it can be brought again. Edmund Horman said last year he requested the dismissal because government documents important to the case had been withheld.

"At that point we were being represented by the attorney for the Justice Department," says Davis, "and this attorney made it clear to us that although he would assist us in defending ourselves against the [Horman] suit, in any action we might take, the U.S. government was not prepared to involve itself."

Asked how he feels about this lack of legal support, Davis says, "I'd prefer not to comment on that."

The post-Allende Santiago of the Costa-Gavras film was one of grim chaos — soldiers in tanks rolling down boulevards, bloodied and mutilated bodies lying at the curbside, a flash of a white horse galloping wildly through the city.

"Well, I didn't see the white horse running down the street," says Davis. "There were a lot of guns going off." But he did see bodies in the streets. A couple of blocks from the Moneda, the presidential palace, which was being bombed, embassy staff blocked the windows with mattresses.

"If you get someone like Costa-Gavras trying to depict this, the image you get is of utter butchery," says Davis. "If you get right-wingers, on the other hand, they'd like you to think Costa-Gavras' image is an utter, vivid lie… My image is not embracing either extreme."

Davis says the first time he heard of Charles Horman was when a consular official informed him of a telephone call from a Horman friend. Two people who knew Horman had received mysterious phone calls from Chilean military intelligence and relayed them to the embassy.

"I took all kinds of actions in trying to find him," says Davis, "and bear in mind that he wasn't the only one we were concerned with. How many were missing or known to be picked up by the military? About a couple dozen."

Davis says he even went to the new head of the Chilean government at one point. "I personally carried the inquiries all the way up to [Gen. Augusto] Pinochet," says Davis, who recalls discussing a number of items of business during his visit with Pinochet. "I asked him about both Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi [another American picked up by the military and later found dead]. He said he'd do his best to find out."

Hauser comments that that's the first time he's ever heard Davis mention going to Pinochet.

What Davis finds especially stinging is a scene in the film that is cited in the suit:

Horman: What is your role here besides endorsing a regime that murders thousands of human beings?

Ambassador: Let's level with each other, sir… This mission is pledged to protect American interests, our interests, Mr. Horman.

Horman: They're not mine.

Ambassador: There are over 3,000 U.S. firms doing business down here and those are American interests. In other words, your interests. I am concerned with the preservation of a way of life.

Says Davis: "… I'm depicted having a set of values in which I'm perfectly prepared to order or acquiesce in the killing of an innocent American in order to defend some business interests. That scene talks about 3,000 businesses doing business in Chile. That's nonsense. You could count the number of U.S. businesses in Chile in September of 1973 on your fingers."

The Chilean government now says officially that Charles Horman was found dead on a street in Santiago and delivered to the morgue on Sept. 18, 1973.

Davis has not been back to Chile since 1973. A year ago, when he appeared on "Good Morning, America" with the Hormans for a discussion of the film, Edmund Horman refused to appear on the same screen with him. Instead, Davis sat on one side of the set for his interview with host David Hartman. On another side of the set, Edmund and Joyce Horman sat for their interview with Hartman.

"As best I know, Charles Horman was dead when those phone calls [to the embassy] were made," muses Davis. "Now, if that's true, there's not a thing in the whole world we could have done. Now, I suppose in a sense that's a consolation for the successes and failures we had." He pauses. "I suppose I have a little bit of hope that if he had been alive, we could have found him."

A Chilean judge is seeking the extradition of a former U.S. military officer to face murder charges in the 1973 slaying of freelance journalist and filmmaker Charles Horman, a case dramatized in the Oscar-winning film “Missing,” court sources confirmed Tuesday.

Judge Jorge Zepeda wants former U.S. Navy Capt. Ray E. Davis, whose whereabouts were not immediately clear Tuesday, to face trial in Chile for his alleged involvement in the deaths of Horman and U.S. student Frank Teruggi. The two Americans were arrested and executed by Chilean forces shortly after President Salvador Allende was overthrown in a military coup on Sept. 11, 1973.

Horman, 31, was working as a screenwriter for state-run Chile Films when military rebel forces led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet attacked the presidential palace La Moneda. Allende committed suicide that day rather than surrender.

Horman was arrested Sept. 17 and executed the next day, according to court documents. His body later was found on a Santiago street. Teruggi, 24, was killed on Sept. 22 and his body also dumped on a street in the capital. Davis then was head of the U.S. military group attached to the American Embassy in Santiago.

A recent truth commission found that 41,000 people were arrested, tortured or killed during Pinochet’s 16-year reign of terror. At least 3,200 are thought to have died.

Zepeda wrote in court documents that his investigation bore out suspicions from the outset that “there was participation [in the murders] by citizens of the same nationality.” Zepeda wrote that Davis did nothing to stop the execution of the two Americans “although he had the opportunity of doing so,” and that he is suspected of giving Pinochet officials a “list of subversive U.S. citizens in Chile.”

A former top official with Chile’s DINA intelligence agency, Gen. Pedro Espinoza, was also charged with homicide in the cases.

In documents seeking authorization of the Davis extradition, Zepeda said he received cooperation from the U.S. State Department in preparing the case.

The State Department does not comment on specific extradition matters, but the U.S. government supports a thorough investigation into the Horman and Teruggi deaths, said spokesman Will Ostick.

The 1982 film directed by Costa-Gavras and starring Jack Lemmon as Horman’s father and Sissy Spacek as his wife, won an academy award for best screenplay.

The anonymous death in a Santiago nursing home of a former U.S. Navy officer wanted for trial in the 1973 killing of two Americans in a case that inspired the Oscar-winning film “Missing” is generating frustration and questions in Chile and the United States.

Courts in Chile have long sought former Capt. Ray E. Davis, believing he was living in Florida. Last October, Chile’s Supreme Court approved an extradition request for Davis to face trial for the deaths of American journalist Charles Horman and U.S. student Frank Teruggi, who were killed in the early days of the 1973-90 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

But Davis was secretly living in the Chilean capital all along. A Chilean death certificate says he died at age 88 of “multisystemic failure” at a nursing home in an affluent Santiago neighborhood on April 30.

“They were working to get Davis extradited and he was literally less than a couple of miles down the road,” said Peter Kornbluh, author of “The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability.”

“You’d think that the foreign ministry has records of who enters the country and when, and that those documents get shared with official authorities,” Kornbluh said.

The surprising discovery that Davis lived and died in Santiago not only thwarted Chilean justice, but also has left Horman’s widow, Joyce, deeply frustrated and questioning of the news.

“I just don’t like what I hear and would like to have additional proof from the U.S.,” Joyce Horman told The Associated Press. “After 40 years, this is extraordinarily frustrating.”

Mrs. Horman wants the U.S. government to demonstrate that Davis’ pension was suspended to confirm he is dead.

“I need to get real verification from the United States that this man is either dead or alive,” she said. “And I don’t see that happening because the U.S. Embassy is accepting the death certificate from the Chileans, which sort of absolves the U.S. about having to say anything about this man. And that’s wrong.”

Judge Jorge Zepeda, who requested Davis’ extradition, also seems not to be convinced of the death and has asked the U.S. government to confirm the information. Documents obtained by the AP show Zepeda told Chile’s Supreme Court in June that “there is no record that can help conclude without a doubt that the death certificate … belongs to the person wanted internationally as there are five U.S. citizens named Ray Davis” in Chile.

The U.S. Embassy in Santiago said it found out about Davis’ death on May 10 and added that “the U.S. government was not aware that Davis had been living in Chile.”

Citing “privacy concerns,” the embassy would not provide details on when Davis left the U.S. and entered Chile. It declined to comment on Davis’ pension or whether the U.S. would provide any further proof of his death.

After Davis was charged with murder in 2011, the AP contacted his wife, Patricia Davis, at her home in Niceville, Florida. She said her husband previously denied any involvement in killings. She also said he no longer talked because of Alzheimer’s disease and was in a nursing home that she declined to identify.

Records obtained by the AP say Davis was cremated at Santiago’s Parque del Recuerdo cemetery.

Davis commanded the U.S. military mission in Chile at the time of the Sept. 11, 1973, coup that ousted the democratically elected government of Marxist President Salvador Allende. Davis was investigating Americans as part of a series of covert intelligence operations by the U.S. Embassy targeting those considered subversives or radicals, said lawyer Sergio Corvalan, who represents Horman’s widow.

Horman, a freelance journalist and filmmaker, was arrested Sept. 17, 1973, just days after the coup and taken to Santiago’s main soccer stadium, which had been turned into a detention camp. He was 31.

A national truth commission formed after the dictatorship ended said Horman was executed the next day while in the custody of Chilean state security agents.

The commission said Teruggi, then a 24-year-old university student, was executed Sept. 22.

The search for Horman by his wife and his father was the topic of the 1982 movie “Missing,” which starred Sissy Spacek and Jack Lemmon. The film won a best screenplay Oscar.

The film suggested U.S. complicity in Horman’s death and at the time drew strong objections from U.S. State Department officials.

The case remained practically ignored in Chile until 2000, when Mrs. Horman came and filed a lawsuit against Pinochet. She said she was acting on behalf of all victims of the dictatorship.

The government estimates 3,095 people were killed during Pinochet’s rule, including about 1,200 who were forcibly disappeared.

A Chilean court said U.S. military intelligence services played a key role that led to the 1973 killings of two Americans in Chile in a case that inspired the Oscar-winning film "Missing."

A court ruling released late Monday said former U.S. Navy Capt. Ray E. Davis gave information to Chilean officials about journalist Charles Horman and student Frank Teruggi that led to their arrest and execution just days after the 1973 coup that brought Gen. Augusto Pinochet to power.

"The military intelligence services of the United States had a fundamental role in the creation of the murders of the two American citizens in 1973, providing Chilean military officers with the information that led to their deaths," the ruling by Judge Jorge Zepeda said.

Zepeda also upheld the decision to charge retired Chilean army Col. Pedro Espinoza with the murders, and Rafael Gonzalez, a former civilian counterintelligence agent, as an accomplice in Horman's murder. The two Chileans and Davis had been indicted in 2011.

Davis commanded the U.S. Military Mission in Chile at the time of the Sept. 11, 1973, American-backed coup that ousted the democratically elected government of leftist President Salvador Allende. Davis was investigating Americans in Chile as part of a series of covert intelligence operations run out of the U.S. Embassy targeting those considered to be subversives or radicals, according to lawyer Sergio Corvalan, who represents Horman's widow.

Courts in Chile had long sought Davis, believing he was living in Florida. Chile's Supreme Court had approved an extradition request so he could face trial. But Davis was secretly living in Chile, and he died in a Santiago nursing home last year.

Horman, 31, a freelance journalist and filmmaker, was arrested Sept. 17, 1973, and taken to Santiago's main soccer stadium, which had been turned into a detention camp.

A national truth commission formed after the Pinochet dictatorship ended said Horman was executed the next day while in the custody of Chilean state security agents. The commission said Teruggi, a 24-year-old university student, was executed Sept. 22.

The search for Horman by his wife and father was the topic of the 1982 movie "Missing," directed by Costa-Gavras, starred Sissy Spacek and Jack Lemmon. The film won an Oscar for best adapted screenplay and was also nominated for best picture, actor and actress.

The film suggested U.S. complicity in Horman's death and at the time drew strong objections from U.S. State Department officials.

The case remained practically ignored in Chile until 2000, when Horman's widow, Joyce, came and filed a lawsuit against Pinochet.

"More than 40 years after my husband was killed, and almost 14 years since I initiated judicial proceedings in Chile, I am delighted that the cases of Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi are moving forward in the Chilean courts. At the same time, I remain outraged that, through death and delay, a key indicted U.S. official, Captain Ray Davis, has escaped this prosecutorial process," Joyce Horman said after the judge's ruling was released.

"Judge Zepeda's ruling both implicates and incriminates U.S. intelligence personnel as playing a dark role in the murder of my husband," she said. "My hope is that the record of evidence compiled by the court sheds further light on how and why Charles was targeted, who actually ordered his murder, and what kind of information on one of its own citizens the U.S. government passed to the Chilean military who committed this heinous crime."

Chile's government estimates 3,095 people were killed during Pinochet's dictatorship, including about 1,200 who were forcibly disappeared.

"The judge's ruling brings the Horman and Teruggi families one step closer to a courtroom verdict, as well as a verdict of history on the role of the U.S. government and the Chilean military in these atrocities," said Peter Kornbluh, author of "The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability."

Missing: Espinoza, González y el misterioso gringo Davis

Tras 41 años de los asesinatos del periodista estadounidense Charles Horman y del estudiante de Ciencias Políticas de la misma nacionalidad, Frank Teruggi, ocurridos en el Estadio Nacional después del golpe de Estado, el ministro Jorge Zepeda condenó a 7 años de presidio como autor de ambos homicidios al brigadier y ex segundo de la DINA, Pedro Espinoza Bravo. También condenó a dos años de libertad vigilada al ex agente civil de la Fuerza Aérea de Chile, Rafael González Berdugo, como cómplice del crimen de Horman. A la vez, sentenció al fisco a pagar $200 millones a la viuda de Horman, Joyce, y la misma suma a JanisTeruggi, hermana de Frank.

La noche del 10 de septiembre de 1973, Horman y su amiga Terry Simon llegaron tarde a Viña del Mar. A las once de la noche entraron al Hotel Miramar y pidieron una habitación. Les dieron la 315. Joyce, la esposa de Horman, no pudo viajar con ellos a Valparaíso y Viña porque debía renovar su pasaporte. Era un viaje para mostrar a Terry las bellezas de ambas ciudades. Pero Horman no estaba en Chile para hacer turismo. Se había instalado en el país, al igual que Teruggi, para seguir de cerca la revolución hacia el socialismo.

Los dos formaban parte de la agencia de prensa Fuente de Investigación Norteamericana, FIN, de la cual Horman era cofundador. Horman intuía que en las próximas horas ocurriría un golpe de Estado en contra del Presidente Salvador Allende, y que éste lo iniciaría la Marina en Valparaíso.

Sin embargo, lo que no sabía era que el capitán de navío de la Defense Intelligence Agency, DIA, Ray E. Davis, le seguía los pasos desde hacía algún tiempo. También a Teruggi y a todos los ciudadanos estadounidenses establecidos en Chile que mostraban simpatía con el gobierno de la Unidad Popular.

La DIA era dependiente del Departamento de Estado norteamericano con sede en el Pentágono.

Davis era el Jefe del Grupo de Asistencia Militar de Estados Unidos en Chile, instancia responsable de centralizar la intervención golpista del gobierno de Richard Nixon para derrocar a Allende. Un hombre acostumbrado a caminar por la sombra, lejos de miradas intrusas.

La misma noche del 10, la embajada de Estados Unidos en Santiago se enteró de la estadía de Horman y Simon en el hotel, según un documento desclasificado: “Los dos se registraron en el Hotel Miramar en la pieza 315. Horman dio la dirección de Paul Harris 425 en Santiago y dijo que era escritor”. La información era del oficial de la Marina estadounidense Art Creter, quien también estaba en Chile en los preparativos del golpe y se alojaba en el Miramar.

En paralelo, los agentes de la CIA instalados en Santiago habían instaurado el llamado The MHCHAOS Program, cuyo objetivo era el seguimiento, intercepciones telefónicas, vigilancia y espionaje de periodistas y ciudadanos estadounidenses que permanecían en Chile interesados en cubrir el avance hacia el socialismo del gobierno de Allende. El archivo que fabricaron en esta operación lo llamaron TheFamilyJewels.

Ocurrido el golpe, el 15 de septiembre Davis llamó por teléfono al capitán de la Marina chilena Raúl Monsalve Poblete, oficial de enlace entre la Armada chilena y el Grupo que comandaba Davis.

–Necesito un salvoconducto para viajar en mi automóvil desde Viña del Mar a Santiago… llevo invitados.

Davis condujo su automóvil a la capital: sus invitados eran Horman y Terry Simon.

Por esas horas en Valparaíso y Viña habían sido presentados por el coronel del Ejército de Estados Unidos Patrick Ryan, quien estaba en Chile desde hacía nueve meses y venía de la Base Militar de Pendleton en California. Un feroz anticomunista que había estado en la guerra de Vietnam y Bahía Cochinos. En el Miramar, Ryan se les acercó de manera amable en el vestíbulo para tener el placer de conocerlos, dijo a Horman y Terry.

Davis llegó a las tres de la tarde a Santiago sitiado por patrullas militares y dejó a los invitados en el Hotel Carrera, en diagonal al Palacio de La Moneda, donde estos quisieron engañarlo diciéndole que se hospedaban allí. Pero Davis sabía que era mentira. La embajada de Estados Unidos quedaba entonces justo frente al Carrera por Agustinas.

Mientras tanto, el Comando de Área Jurisdiccional de Seguridad Interior, Cajsi, creado en Santiago, con sus cinco agrupaciones, desde el mismo 11 de septiembre había tomado el control de todas las operaciones represivas, estableciéndose por sobre el Estado Mayor de la Defensa Nacional, EMDN,  que presidía el vicealmirante Patricio Carvajal e integraban el general de Ejército Augusto Lutz y el general de la Fuerza Aérea Nicanor Díaz. Hasta entonces el EMDN fue siempre la estructura superior de mando militar en Chile. Los Cajsi fueron creados en cada provincia del país y en ellos estaban representados los mandos superiores de las provincias de las tres ramas de las Fuerzas Armadas y los respectivos Servicios de Inteligencia.

En la oficina de Lutz

Dejados en el Hotel Carrera y producto del toque de queda, Horman y Simon decidieron cenar y alojarse allí esa noche. A la mañana siguiente, salieron para ir donde los esperaba Joyce en una casa de la Avenida Vicuña Mackenna. Era el día 16 de septiembre. El día 17 Terry se alojó en el Hotel Riviera en el centro de Santiago. Allí la buscarían Charles y Joyce al día siguiente, el 18. El matrimonio haría los trámites en el consulado de Estados Unidos frente al Parque Forestal, para intentar que los tres viajaran rápidamente de regreso a su país. Chile era ahora una guillotina que pendía sobre sus cuellos.

Pero no llegaron el 18. El 19 de septiembre Joyce la buscó en el Riviera para darle la noticia entre lágrimas: “Anteayer detuvieron a Charles”.

El capitán Davis había informado del arribo de Horman a Santiago al general Augusto Lutz, jefe del Servicio de Inteligencia Militar, SIM.

La tarde-noche del día 17 Horman fue conducido a la oficina de Lutz en el edificio de las Fuerzas Armadas, en Alameda con Zenteno.

Ahí lo esperaba el coronel de rango civil de la Fach, Rafael González Verdugo, viejo agente de inteligencia que venía infiltrando a organizaciones sociales y sindicales desde comienzos de los años sesenta. Fue él quien lo interrogó. El interrogatorio fue extenso y extenuante, pero sin violencia. Desde allí lo llevaron al Estadio Nacional, que ya operaba como centro de detención, tortura y exterminio. Alcanzó a estar pocas horas. Al día siguiente, el 18 de septiembre, fecha de la instalación de la Primera Junta de Gobierno de Chile, su cuerpo apareció tirado en una calle de Santiago con múltiples impactos de bala. Lo ingresaron a la morgue y lo sepultaron en una fosa común en el Cementerio General de la capital. No se alcanzó a cruzar con su amigo Teruggi en el estadio.

El 20 de septiembre de 1973 el general Lutz se comunicó con la Dirección de Inteligencia de Carabineros y ordenó el arresto de Teruggi. Lo detuvieron junto a su amigo David Hathaway. Los llevaron a la Escuela de Suboficiales de esa policía. Al día siguiente los condujeron al Estadio Nacional, donde mataron a Teruggi. El 22 de septiembre lanzaron el cuerpo a la calle y apareció en la morgue. Hathaway fue liberado seis días después y aún vive.

El Espinoza del poder

En el estadio mandaba el mayor Pedro Espinoza Bravo. Es una de las novedades de la investigación del juez Zepeda, porque hasta ahora siempre se supo que el comandante de ese lugar era otro Espinoza: el coronel Jorge Espinoza Ulloa. El mismo que luego fue el comandante de la Secretaría Nacional de Detenidos, Sendet. Si bien éste estaba al mando del estadio, permanecía bajo el mando de Espinoza Bravo.

Espinoza Bravo, el hombre de la Caravana de la Muerte y de muchas otras caravanas del terror, operaba en el Departamento II de Contrainteligencia del EMDN y era jefe del mismo departamento del Ejército. En el estadio fue quien decidió quiénes debían morir, lo mismo extranjeros y chilenos. Y no sólo lo decidió, sino también se encargó de verificar que las muertes ocurrieran. Así lo estableció el proceso, aunque él lo sigue negando.

El 12 de octubre de 1973, el capitán Ray E. Davis y el embajador de Estados Unidos Nathaniel Davis, se reunieron con Pinochet para tratar el caso Horman. Pero de su muerte nada informan a su padre que ya estaba en Santiago para buscarlo. Tampoco informan a su esposa Joyce que residía en Chile.

El 30 de octubre de ese año, el general Lutz emitió un informe oficial sobre la “investigación” realizada por el régimen militar acerca de las muertes de Horman y Teruggi, pedida por el embajador Davis. “La información que se dispone es que los ciudadanos Horman y Teruggi habrían sido muertos por extremistas disfrazados de militares”, informó Lutz.

Ante la presión del gobierno estadounidense que calificó el caso Horman-Teruggi como un prettyscandal,  el 21 de marzo de 1974 el agente González Verdugo, acompañado del vicecónsul de Estados Unidos James Anderson, ubicó el cuerpo de Horman en la fosa común del cementerio. Tenía ocho balazos. Lo llevaron a la funeraria San Pancracio para que lo embalsamaran y cuatro días después su padre pudo llevárselo a su país.

En 1982, el cineasta Costa-Gavras inmortalizó el caso Horman con la película Missing.

El abogado Sergio Corvalán, que representa en el proceso a Joyce Horman y JanisTeruggi, dijo a El Mostrador que “los crímenes cometidos en contra de ciudadanos estadounidenses en el Estadio Nacional, ocurrieron en el contexto de un genocidio en contra de extranjeros tras el golpe militar”.

De acuerdo a informaciones oficiales chilenas, en el Estadio Nacional llegaron a existir 29 ciudadanos estadounidenses detenidos.

El jurista agregó: “Los militares chilenos que detuvieron y llevaron a cabo los homicidios de Horman y Teruggi, lo hicieron en forma concertada con las fuerzas estadounidenses que intervinieron en el golpe de Estado. Ellos utilizaron información precisa proporcionada por el capitán de navío Ray. E. Davis, que dirigía las investigaciones secretas de seguimiento de ciudadanos norteamericanos los días previos al golpe”.

El Estado chileno no es parte en este juicio a través del Programa de Derechos Humanos del Ministerio de Interior.

El último misterio

El 18 de octubre de 2012, la Corte Suprema chilena pidió a Estados Unidos la extradición del capitán de navío Ray E. Davis, ya debidamente procesado en ausencia por el juez Jorge Zepeda. Pero, fiel a caminar siempre por la sombra, el gringo estaba oculto en Chile con identidad falsa y casado con Patricia, una chilena que hoy vive en Miami.

Sin embargo, en Santiago seguía cobrando su pensión de ex agente con su verdadero nombre. De todos aquellos misteriosos pasos de Davis, las autoridades estadounidenses jamás informaron a los tribunales chilenos.

Lejos del mundanal ruido, el hombre clave y coordinador con el golpismo chileno de las actividades de Estados Unidos en Chile para, primero desestabilizar el gobierno de la Unidad Popular y luego derrocar a Allende, murió el 30 de abril de 2013 a los 88 años. Abandonado por su  mujer, estaba internado en un hogar de ancianos en la comuna de Providencia. En el Cementerio Parque del Recuerdo existe un registro de la cremación de su cuerpo. Sus cenizas desaparecieron.

Años después de los asesinatos de Horman y Teruggi, Rafael González Verdugo cambió la V de su apellido por una B. Ya como Berdugo, en 1977 se asiló en la embajada de Italia diciendo que lo perseguía la DINA. Allí, en enero de ese año, lo interrogaron funcionarios de la embajada de Estados Unidos. Su tifa de agente tenía el número 27759. “Fui el único oficial de la Fuerza Aérea de Chile que el 11 de septiembre de 1973 participó en la toma del Palacio de La Moneda”, les dijo.

Italia lo sacó de Chile. Una tarde de 1980, haciéndose pasar por disidente de la dictadura chilena, se fue a tomar el té con el padre de Horman.

Después de 1990, regresó a Chile y se hizo pasar por exonerado político. Hoy está acreditado como tal y recibe una pensión del Estado.