On 6 October 1975, an assassination attempt in Rome, Italy, targeted Bernardo Leighton, a Chilean Christian Democratic politician living in exile, and his wife, Anita Fresno. The couple were shot as they returned to their apartment on Via Aurelia. Both survived but sustained serious injuries; Fresno suffered permanent mobility impairment, while Leighton sustained severe neurological injuries. Italian courts later established that the attack had been organized by DINA, the Chilean secret police under the military government of Augusto Pinochet, with the participation of Italian neo-fascist militants.
In 1993, DINA operative Michael Townley was convicted in absentia by an Italian court and sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment for the attempted murders. In 1995, DINA director Manuel Contreras and senior DINA officer Raúl Iturriaga were convicted in absentia of organizing the attack and sentenced to 20 and 18 years in prison, respectively. The convictions of Contreras and Iturriaga became final in 1996.
Background
Bernardo Leighton Guzmán was a Chilean lawyer and politician who was a founding member of the Christian Democratic Party of Chile. He served as a deputy and as minister of labor, education, and interior under three Chilean presidents. During the presidency of Eduardo Frei Montalva, he served as Minister of the Interior from 1964 to 1968 and assumed the vice presidency of the Republic on several occasions while Frei was absent from the country.
Following the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, Leighton was among Christian Democratic leaders who publicly rejected the overthrow of President Salvador Allende and the dissolution of Congress. In November 1973, he traveled to Italy at the invitation of the Italian Christian Democratic movement to speak about the political situation in Chile. In September 1974, while he was still in Europe, the military government issued a decree preventing his return to Chile, effectively forcing him into exile. Leighton subsequently became involved in efforts to coordinate democratic opposition to the Pinochet government.
The attack occurred during a period in which DINA was conducting operations against opponents of the Chilean military government outside Chile. The National Security Archive has described the shooting of Leighton and Fresno as one of the high-profile acts of international terrorism carried out by DINA during this period, alongside the 1974 assassination of former Chilean Army commander Carlos Prats and the 1976 assassination of Orlando Letelier.
Attack
On the evening of 6 October 1975, Leighton and Fresno were returning to their apartment on Via Aurelia in Rome, near St. Peter's Square. As they approached their home, a gunman opened fire on them from behind. Both were seriously wounded but survived the attack.
Fresno suffered a serious spinal injury and was left with permanent mobility impairment. Leighton suffered severe neurological injuries, including damage that affected his speech and hearing, and his health remained seriously impaired for the rest of his life.
According to evidence later presented in the Italian proceedings, the gunman was Italian neo-fascist militant Pierluigi Concutelli. The operation involved members of the neo-fascist organization Avanguardia Nazionale, led by Stefano Delle Chiaie, while Townley acted as an intermediary for DINA.
Investigation and prosecutions
Italian investigators initially pursued members of the Italian far right suspected of involvement in the attack. In 1983, the investigation resulted in the indictment of Concutelli, Delle Chiaie, and Silvano Falabella. Their trial before the Court of Assizes of Rome ended on 7 January 1987. Falabella was acquitted because he was found not to have committed the acts attributed to him, while Concutelli and Delle Chiaie were acquitted for insufficient evidence. The court nevertheless ordered that material concerning Townley and Cuban exile Virgilio Paz Romero be transmitted to prosecutors for further investigation.
The investigation was subsequently revived using information supplied by Townley. In 1993, a Rome court convicted Townley in absentia of the attempted murders of Leighton and Fresno and sentenced him to 18 years in prison, with two years of remission. Townley, a U.S. citizen who had worked for DINA, admitted that he had commissioned the attack on behalf of the Chilean secret police and had arranged for Italian right-wing militants to carry it out. At the time of his conviction, he was living in the United States under the federal witness protection program after cooperating with U.S. authorities in the Letelier case.
Townley later testified before Italian prosecutors in May 1995. He stated that he had received orders from DINA's senior leadership to arrange the killing of Leighton. His testimony implicated DINA director Manuel Contreras and Raúl Iturriaga, who had responsibility for DINA's foreign operations.
On 23 June 1995, the Court of Assizes of Rome convicted Contreras and Iturriaga in absentia of organizing the attempted murders. Contreras was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment and Iturriaga to 18 years. Italian neo-fascist Giulio Crescenzi, who had been accused of complicity in the attack, was acquitted for lack of evidence. The court also awarded damages to Fresno and the Chilean state.
The convictions of Contreras and Iturriaga became final in 1996. Human Rights Watch later reported that a higher Italian court confirmed the sentences in July 1996. Neither man was extradited to Italy to serve the sentences.
Later life of the victims
The attack effectively ended Leighton's active political career. In 1978, the Chilean military government permitted him to return to Chile, after which he largely withdrew from political activity because of his health. He died in Santiago on 26 January 1995, several months before the Italian court convicted Contreras and Iturriaga.
Anita Fresno survived the attack and remained disabled for the rest of her life. She died in 2011.
See also
Operation Condor Letelier case Carlos Prats Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional
References