Armando Fernández Larios is a Chilean citizen who now resides in Miami-Dade County, in the State of Florida. At the time of the coup d’etat in Chile on September 11, 1973, defendant Fernández Larios was an officer in the Chilean army who participated actively in the coup that removed President Allende from office and installed the military junta headed by General Augusto Pinochet.
During October 1973, General Sergio Arellano Stark, acting on orders from General Augusto Pinochet, then the Commander-in-Chief and President of the four-man junta, traveled throughout northern Chile to local garrisons, jails and military facilities. General Arellano and his squad—Lieutenant Colonel Sergio Arredondo González, Major Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Major Marcelo Moren Brito, and Lieutenant Juan Chiminelli Fullerton—used the power of the Chilean state, to cause the torture, abuse, and extrajudicial killing of at least 72 prisoners held at jails and military facilities in the towns of Cauquenes, La Serena, Copiapó, Antofagasta, and Calama, all located in northern Chile.
After the Caravan of Death, Major Espinoza, Major Moren, and the defendant became members of the Chilean secret police organization, known as the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (Directorate of National Intelligence) or DINA.
Defendant Fernández Larios resigned from the Chilean army in or about January 1987, by which time he had risen to the rank of Major. At the time of his resignation from the Chilean army, and at other times relevant to this Complaint, the defendant publicly admitted that he had been a member of General Arellano’s squad in October 1973.
Defendant Fernández Larios secretly entered the United States on or about January 1987 and lived in an undisclosed location under the protection of the United States government.
On or about February 4, 1987, defendant Armando Fernández Larios pleaded guilty to being an “accessory after the fact” – in violation of the U.S. statute on the murder of foreign officials (18 U.S.C. §§ 1116 and 3) – to the 1976 DINA-sponsored car-bombing in Washington, D.C. that killed Orlando Letelier – the former Chilean Ambassador to the United States – and his assistant, Ronni Karpen Moffitt.
For More information, read Fernández Larios’ Plea Agreement
