Attempted assassination of Bernardo Leighton
Leighton case | |
---|---|
Location | Rome, Italy |
Date | October 6, 1975 (UTC+1) |
Target | Bernardo Leighton |
Attack type | shooting |
Deaths | 0 |
Injured | 2 |
Perpetrators | DINA, Avanguardia Nazionale |
Motive | political murder |
On October 6, 1975, an assassination attempt in Rome, Italy, was carried out against Bernardo Leighton, a former Chilean Christian Democratic vice-president, then in exile. The assassination attempt seriously injured Bernardo Leighton, and his wife, Anita Fresno, leaving her permanently disabled.
Leighton was one of the founding members of the Chilean Christian Democrat Party. In 1966, he entered the government of Eduardo Frei Montalva, becoming a vice-president. Leighton left Chile in December 1973, after the coup d'état. In exile, he opposed the new regime of Pinochet, he had already been nominally open to Salvador Allende. In 1974, a year before the Leighton assassination attempt, General Prats, another Chilean exile, was murdered in the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires.
Chilean General Manuel Contreras, head of DINA, has been indicted in Italy in 1995 for ordering the Leighton murder. Part of the indictment was based on testimony from Michael Townley. However, the Italian government was unable to get Contreras extradited from Chile, where he had already been incarcerated for ordering the assassination on Orlando Letelier. The deputy director of DINA, Raúl Iturriaga, was also sentenced.[1]
See also[]
- Operation Condor
- Letelier case
References[]
- ^ "Two Chileans Convicted in 1975 Shooting". Associated Press. 1995-06-23.
- 1975 in Chile
- 1975 crimes in Italy
- Failed assassination attempts in Europe
- Failed terrorist attempts in Italy
- Terrorist incidents in Europe in 1975
- 1970s in Rome
- Crime in Rome
- October 1975 events in Europe
- Terrorist incidents in Italy in the 1970s