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---
category: "Intelligence & Government"
tags:
- Person
- ManuelContreras
- DINA
- Chile
- OperationCondor
- CIA
- PaidAsset
- Letelier
alias:
- Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepulveda
- Manuel Contreras Sepulveda
summary: "Chief of the Chilean secret police DINA, in contact with the CIA from 1974 to 1977 and paid by it once in 1975, who said he had Orlando Letelier killed on Pinochet's orders."
location: "Santiago, Chile"
created: 2026-09-21
updated: 2026-09-21
---
Manuel Contreras Sepulveda was the army officer who organized and commanded [[DINA]], the secret police of the Chilean junta, after the coup of September 11, 1973. The [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] reported to Congress in 2000 that it "maintained contact" with him "during a period between 1974 and 1977," that the relationship was approved by policy officials "in spite of concerns that this relationship might lay the CIA open to charges of aiding internal political repression," and that it made him one payment. His agents killed the exiled former minister [[Orlando Letelier]] in Washington on September 21, 1976.[^1]
### The CIA Relationship
The agency told Contreras at the outset that it would not support activities of his service "which might be construed as 'internal political repression,'" and urged him to follow a Chilean defense ministry circular of January 17, 1974, on the treatment of prisoners under the [[Geneva Conventions]]. "By April 1975," its report states, "intelligence reporting showed that Contreras was the principal obstacle to a reasonable human rights policy within the Junta, but an interagency committee directed the CIA to continue its relationship with Contreras." The American ambassador in [[Santiago]] urged the deputy director of central intelligence, General [[Vernon Walters]], to receive him in Washington "in the interest of maintaining good relations with Pinochet." The meeting took place in August 1975 with interagency approval.[^1]
"In May and June 1975," the report continues, "elements within the CIA recommended establishing a paid relationship with Contreras to obtain intelligence based on his unique position and access to Pinochet. This proposal was overruled, citing the US Government policy on clandestine relations with the head of an intelligence service notorious for human rights abuses. However, given miscommunications in the timing of this exchange, a one-time payment was given to Contreras."[^1]
### Condor
Within a year of the coup the agency knew of cooperation among the security services of the region "to track the activities of and, in at least a few cases, kill political opponents." [[Operation Condor]], the formal arrangement among [[Chile]], [[Argentina]], [[Brazil]], [[Paraguay]], and [[Uruguay]], was established in 1975. "By October 1976 there was sufficient information that the CIA decided to approach Contreras on the matter. Contreras confirmed Condor's existence as an intelligence-sharing network but denied that it had a role in extra-judicial killings."[^1]
### Letelier
In the summer of 1976 two DINA officers obtained American visas in [[Asuncion]] on Paraguayan passports, telling Ambassador [[George W. Landau]] that their trip was known to the CIA. Landau sent photographs of the passports to Washington. Walters replied that the agency had no connection with the men. The bomb that killed Letelier and [[Ronni Moffitt]] was placed by the DINA agent [[Michael Townley]], an American.[^2][^3]
The agency's first report naming Contreras in connection with the murder is dated October 6, 1976. "During 1977, CIA met with Contreras about half a dozen times; three of those contacts were to request information on the Letelier assassination. On 3 November 1977, Contreras was transferred to a function unrelated to intelligence so CIA severed all contact with him." Chile refused to extradite him. A [[State Department]] cable of January 22, 1987, quotes him as saying he "authorized the assassination of Letelier on orders from Pinochet." The CIA's assessment of May 1, 1987, concluded that [[Augusto Pinochet]] personally ordered the killing and afterward considered having Contreras eliminated to keep him silent.[^1][^4]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Central Intelligence Agency, "CIA Activities in Chile," report to Congress (Hinchey Report), September 18, 2000.
[^2]: Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, "'The First Terrorist Attack in the U.S.': The Letelier-Moffitt Assassinations," oral history of Ambassador George W. Landau. https://adst.org/2014/02/the-first-terrorist-attack-in-the-u-s-the-letelier-moffitt-assassinations/
[^3]: "Interview with Dinges and Landau," Radio TV Reports transcript, June 30, 1980, CIA Reading Room document 05535911.
[^4]: Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "CIA: 'Pinochet personally ordered' Letelier bombing," National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 560, September 23, 2016; "The Pinochet File: U.S. Declassifies Missing Documents in the Letelier-Moffitt Case," Electronic Briefing Book No. 532, October 8, 2015.