Updated

Newly declassified U.S. intelligence documents reveal that Gen. Augusto Pinochet directly ordered the 1976 assassination of a Chilean diplomat in Washington, D.C.

Former Defense and Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier was killed in a car bomb, along with American Ronni Moffitt.

Letelier had been a top official under President Salvador Allende. After the Pinochet-led coup in 1973, Letelier was tortured and jailed. He later fled to the United States.

Former Chilean secret police chief Manuel Contreras was convicted in 2005 of Letelier's death.

Letelier's son, Sen. Juan Pablo Letelier, told reporters on Wednesday that he had received copies of the documents at the behest of President Michelle Bachelet.

Bachelet received them from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who was in Chile on Monday for an oceans conference.