CHILE IN THEIR HEARTS: Book Launch & Conversation with Author John Dinges

Sunday, May 25, 2025 | 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM | Doors open at 5:30 PM
FREE EVENT | La Peña Cultural Center | 3105 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA

RSVP at: Lapena.info/John-Dinges (case-sensitive) | Sign up to Volunteer here!

Join us for an evening uncovering an untold story behind U.S. intervention in Chile. this event features the launch of CHILE IN THEIR HEARTS: The Untold Story of Two Americans Who Went Missing after the Coup, by investigative journalist John Dinges.

Dinges will present his newly published book and engage in dialogue with the audience about the real events surrounding the 1973 U.S.-backed coup in Chile, and the lives and deaths of Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi, two Americans who believed in Allende’s democratic revolution and were executed in its aftermath.

• Books will be available for purchase.
• The conversation will be held in English.
• All ages welcome.

About Chile in Their Hearts: The Untold Story of Two Americans Who Went Missing After the Coup

Set against the romance of revolution and the terror of a military coup, this arresting mystery is also a reckoning with the callousness of U.S. foreign policy.

In 1972 two idealistic young Americans, Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi, arrived in Chile to participate in President Salvador Allende’s socialist and democratic revolution. A year later they were secretly executed as Chile’s military, with U.S. backing, deposed Allende. Following a sham investigation and cover-up, a Chilean defector leveled a stunning but ultimately false accusation: a CIA agent was in the room when one of the killings was ordered.

The defector’s tale inspired the acclaimed 1982 film Missing and established U.S. involvement as the accepted narrative. But Chile in Their Hearts exposes the tale as a fabrication and leads us to a more intriguing reality. This book will force readers to rethink what they thought they knew about this infamous case. Renowned investigative journalist John Dinges scoured U.S. and Chilean archives and interviewed new witnesses to reveal the true story of the killings and the compelling adventure of the two Americans’ lives against the backdrop of U.S. intervention in Chile. (University of California Press, April 2025)

Read more about the book at johndinges.com

About John Dinges

John Dinges is an award-winning investigative journalist who covered Latin America for The Washington Post and NPR. He reported from Chile during Allende’s government, the 1973 coup, and the early Pinochet years. He later covered Central America’s civil wars and held senior editorial roles at NPR. Dinges is emeritus professor at Columbia University and has received the Maria Moors Cabot Medal, DuPont-Columbia batons, and Chile’s “Órden de Bernardo O’Higgins.” He co-founded APSI, CIPERChile, and ArchivosChile. Originally from Iowa, he began his career at the Des Moines Register and studied theology in Austria.

To read his full bio and learn more about his work visit johndinges.com