Arrest in murder of journalist who inspired 'Missing'
 |
Story Tools
|
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A former Chile Air Force officer has been indicted and arrested in the 1973 murder of a U.S. journalist that inspired the movie "Missing," Chilean officials say.
Rafael Gonzalez Verdugo is the first person charged in the death. He admitted being present during the interrogation of Charles Horman, six days after the coup that brought Gen. Augusto Pinochet to power in Chile. Horman's bullet-riddled body was later found in a common grave.
Horman was sympathetic to the left-wing government of Salvador Allende, which was overthrown during the coup.
Gonzalez was indicted as an accomplice to murder Wednesday night in Santiago by Chilean Judge Jorge Zepeda, who has been investigating the Horman case. Court officials told CNN Gonzalez has been arrested and is being held at an unidentified military base.
The story of Horman's family's attempts to find him, and their complaints that the U.S. Embassy did not help, inspired Costa-Gavras's 1982 film "Missing," starring Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek.
Peter Kornbluh, an expert on U.S. activities in Chile in the 1970s from George Washington University, called the indictment "a big break in the case" which could lead to additional charges against others. Kornbluh and Horman family members have sought for years to prove that U.S. Embassy or CIA officials were involved in the killing, or at least knew of the danger to Horman and other Americans and did nothing to protect them.
In 1975, Gonzales sought asylum in the Italian Embassy. Horman's widow, Joyce, told CNN's Frank Ensor in a 2000 interview that Gonzalez offered information about the killing, including that among the people in the room when Horman's fate was decided was a man "who appeared by his clothing and demeanor to be an American."
