Chile in their Hearts: A Conversation with Journalist John Dinges

This event has been postponed until 2026 due to an unexpected change in the speaker’s schedule. 

John Dinges was one of few American journalists present for the coup in Chile and the establishment of the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. He writes extensively on U.S. intervention in Chile and how this informs its relationship with the United States today. His publications include Our Man in Panama (Random House 1990), The Condor Years: How Pinochet and his Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents (The New Press 2003), and Chile in their Hearts: the Untold Story of Two Americans Who Went Missing After the Coup (University of California Press 2025).

John Dinges will visit Minnesota in November for a special conversation about how the historical U.S.-Chile relationship impacts the country today. With general elections in Chile due in November 2025, don’t miss this opportune moment to discuss how the vestiges of U.S. Cold War policy have influenced Chile’s current political trajectory and the human rights situation in the region.

Copies of John’s latest book Chile in their Hearts will be available for purchase at the event and are also available here.

About the Speaker: John Dinges

John Dinges is an investigative reporter and writer who worked in Latin America for many years as a foreign correspondent. He was in Chile during the revolutionary government of Salvador Allende, witnessed the military coup of 1973 and continued to report throughout the military dictatorship. In the 1980s, John covered the civil wars in Central America and the U.S. invasion of Panama.

His first job in journalism was at the Des Moines Register & Tribune. He studied Theology at the University of Innsbruck, Austria and obtained a Masters Degree in Latin American Studies at Stanford. Upon returning from Chile, he worked on the Foreign Desk of the Washington Post, then moved to NPR News, serving as deputy foreign editor and managing editor. More recently, John taught at Columbia University as the the Godfrey Lowell Cabot Professor of International Journalism, and is currently professor emeritus.

Please contact Addy Cross at [email protected] for questions or accessibility accommodations.

This program is being presented by Global Minnesota, the University of Minnesota Human Rights Program, the Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication, the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, the Minnesota Journalism Center, the University of Minnesota Department of History, and the University of Minnesota Department of Political Science.