An Open Letter to Frederick Forsyth: Writing the truth about Chile, Allende, and Pinochet

HubMP2012

JANUARY 16, 2025

Pedro Alejandro Matta sets the record straight.

Frederick Forsyth is famous for his gripping portrayals of spies, assassins, and the assorted heroes and villains of the Cold War. Some of his best known works were made into movies and are based in historical events (The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Dogs of War, to mention just a few). Readers have the not unreasonable expectation that historical personalities in his books are presented accurately. 

Yet in his recent autobiography, The Outsider: My Life in Intrigue, he alludes to real events in Chile, while engaging in serious factual distortion. He writes: 

“Years after Berlin, the pretty vicious DINA, the secret police of the not-so-saintly Salvador Allende of Chile, transferred without a blip to the service of General Pinochet. They even used the same torture chambers. Only the victims changed.” (Penguin Random House, 2017, Chapter “Helping out the cousins”, page 152).

With a little basic research, from sources readily available in London, Mr. Forsyth would have discovered that the dictator Pinochet’s DINA was entirely his own creation and had nothing to do with President Allende, his democratically elected predecessor. There was in fact no police force remotely similar to the DINA under Allende, no torture centres, no forced disappearance of political adversaries, as was indisputably the grim reality under Pinochet. 

In October 1998, General Pinochet was arrested by Scotland Yard in London at the request of a Spanish Court, which charged Pinochet with crimes against humanity, including disappearances, widespread torture and targeted assassinations in Chile and abroad. Among his victims, in addition to several thousand Chileans, were citizens of Spain, France, and the United States. 

His British victims were Michael Woodward, a Catholic Priest who died under torture on board the Esmeralda, the Chilean Navy training ship, William Beausire, and Alejandro Ávalos Davidson. 

During his detention in London, proceedings at the Bow Street Court publicly revealed the details of many of General Pinochet’s crimes. Although the court granted Spain’s request for his extradition, he was released “for health reasons” and allowed to return to Chile in March 2000. These facts were readily available, had Mr. Forsyth reviewed the London judicial record or the ample press coverage before writing the paragraph in question. 

In contrast, there is no factual basis for his libel against President Allende, whose government respected human rights and the rule of law even as he attempted to bring radical social change. 

I don’t know if Mr. Forsyth has visited Chile. I hope he comes again. I will be honoured to take him on a guided visit to Villa Grimaldi, or to Venda Sexy, two of the most notorious torture and disappearance centres of the Pinochet period, where Beausire, Ávalos and I were held and tortured. Unlike those two British citizens, I was able to survive.

Having said so, this is a standing invitation…

I certainly hope that in newer editions of his autobiography, Mr. Forsyth, a writer and a journalist, could correct the aforementioned paragraph, check his historical perspective, and be loyal to his motto: “Verify, verify, and verify again, rigorous accuracy and absolute impartiality. Then write…” 

Pedro Alejandro Matta  was a Law student at the University of Chile and a militant of the Socialist Youth at the time of the coup d’etat in September of 1973.  In 1975, he was kidnapped by the DINA and taken to Venda Sexy and then to Villa Grimaldi.  Later, and after 13 months of political detention, with no charges filed, nor ever been taken to a court of law, he was forced into exile.  Since his return following the end of the dictatorship, he has been involved in investigations about human rights and crimes committed during the dictatorship. 

Image: Venda Sexy, clandestine torture centre under Pinochet.