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---
category: "Intelligence & Government"
tags:
- Person
- ArmandoFernandezLarios
- DINA
- Chile
- OrlandoLetelier
- CaravanOfDeath
- PleaBargain
- ImmigrationAndCustomsEnforcement
alias:
- Armando Fernández Larios
- Alejandro Romeral
summary: "Chilean army officer of the 1973 Caravan of Death and DINA's advance man in the Letelier murder, who defected to the United States in 1987, served five months, and was detained by ICE in 2025."
location: "Florida, United States"
created: 2026-09-21
updated: 2026-09-21
---
Armando Fernández Larios was an officer of the [[Chile|Chilean]] army and of [[DINA]]. He left the army in January 1987 with the rank of major and has lived since in the [[United States]].[^1]
### The Caravan of Death
In October 1973 he was one of the squad of General [[Sergio Arellano Stark]] that toured provincial garrisons removing prisoners for execution. A federal appeals court recorded that on October 17 at [[Copiapó]] the squad chose thirteen prisoners, "drove the thirteen prisoners ten minutes outside of Copiapo toward the City of La Serena, ordered the prisoners out of the truck, and executed each by gunfire or by stabbing." The economist [[Winston Cabello]] "refused to leave the truck and was stabbed to death by Fernandez who slashed Cabello with a corvo, a short, curved knife that is designed to inflict fatal wounds while causing a prolonged and painful death." Fernández denied at trial that he had been present. In 2003 a federal jury awarded Cabello's family four million dollars under the [[Alien Tort Claims Act]] and the [[Torture Victim Protection Act]], and the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit|Eleventh Circuit]] affirmed in 2005.[^1]
### Letelier
In July 1976 Fernández and [[Michael Townley]] went to [[Paraguay]] for false passports in the names Alejandro Romeral and Juan Williams, which Ambassador [[George Landau]] photographed. That September he went ahead of Townley to Washington to watch [[Orlando Letelier]], and met Townley at [[John F. Kennedy International Airport|Kennedy Airport]] on September 9. Letelier and [[Ronni Moffitt]] were killed on September 21. A Washington grand jury indicted Fernández in 1978 with [[Manuel Contreras]] and [[Pedro Espinoza]], and Chile refused to extradite them.[^2]
### The 1987 Arrangement
In mid-January 1987 he met American officials secretly in [[Santiago]] for ten hours. He left for [[Brazil]] on January 22, was questioned there by officers of the [[Department of State|State Department]] and the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]], and was brought to the United States. Polygraph examinations found "consistent signs of deception" in his denial that he had known the purpose of the mission. A [[State Department]] memorandum of January 26 declared that "Fernandez is not a murderer" and that "the foreign policy benefits are substantial." On February 4 he pleaded guilty before Judge [[Barrington Parker]] to being an accessory after the fact. The government promised that it "would neither seek to deport [him] to Chile nor to cooperate in his extradition to Chile." Parker sentenced him on May 6 to up to seven years. In July the State Department's lawyer [[Michael Kozak]] wrote to the parole commission: "I personally have come to know Mr. Fernandez Larios and his character well." He was paroled on September 11, 1987, after five months.[^1][^2]
In 2005 he applied without success for the visa given to foreign informants. On October 27, 2025, agents of [[Immigration and Customs Enforcement]] detained him in [[Florida]] and held him at the [[Krome Detention Center]], and in January 2026 the [[Department of Homeland Security]] put him on a published list of the "worst of the worst." He petitioned for habeas corpus on February 20, pleading the promise of 1987. Chief Judge [[Cecilia Altonaga]] ordered the government to answer by March 19. It released him that day instead, and she dismissed the case as moot on March 30.[^2]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Cabello v. Fernandez-Larios, 402 F.3d 1148 (11th Cir. 2005).
[^2]: Kornbluh, Peter, and Sebastian Santana. "'Worst of the Worst': ICE and the Case of Chilean Intelligence Operative Armando Fernandez Larios," National Security Archive, July 10, 2026. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2026-07-10/worst-worst-ice-and-case-chilean-intelligence-operative-armando