Copyright by Gregory Krauss 2007 - The University of Texas at Austin

policymakers including Rep. Don Fraser, Senator Ted Kennedy, the State
Department’s refugee staff, and Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American
Affairs William D. Rogers. At the suggestion of the refugee staff, Lister arranged
another meeting with Edward Loughran, the top staffer to Louisiana Senator James
Eastland, and the “most active opponent” of the idea of an asylum program. 80
Loughran initially was incredulous, asking why the U.S. should accept “people who
have been put in jail by their own government.” 81 However, with Lister’s help, by the
end of the meeting, Poblete convinced Loughran to soften his position. 82
In the early 1980s, contact between the Chilean democratic opposition and the
State Department had become rare. 83 The U.S. Ambassador in Chile, James D.
Theberge, preferred to maintain smooth relations with Pinochet. 84 Many members of
the opposition, assuming the U.S. government and especially the Reagan
administration was pro-Pinochet at its heart, were skeptical about trying to influence
U.S. government policies. 85
Lister took the initiative to persuade members of the opposition to renew a
dialogue through the human rights bureau. One of the first opposition leaders Lister
tried to convince was Sergio Bitar. 86 Early in Abrams’ tenure, Lister met with Bitar
for lunch to urge him to more actively try to influence U.S. government policy in an
anti-Pinochet direction. 87 As described in Chapter 4, Lister convinced Bitar to make
his case to the State Department and the Congress. “By sitting around complaining
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