Strange bedfellows at the end of the Cold War: the Letelier assassination, human rights, and state sovereignty.

Based in part on newly released documents and interviews, this article asks about the impact of the 1976 assassination of Chilean exile Orlando Letelier in Washington. It finds that the case contributed to the end of the Cold War in Latin America by uniting strange bedfellows: advocates of human rights and defenders of national sovereignty. Human rights proponents found allies among US diplomats shocked at an Augusto Pinochet regime that thought it could challenge US national sovereignty with impunity. Because human rights were limited in their potential, the article suggests that, outside of the Soviet sphere, a reassertion of US hegemony against runaway allies proved a necessary condition for ending the Cold War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]