Sao Paulo, May 30 (Prensa Latina) The US was more involved in the Condor Plan, a repressive agreement among Latin American dictatorships, than was originally thought, US journalist John Dinges, researcher on the topic, affirmed Monday.

Dinges, a Washington Post correspondent in Chile between 1972 and 1978, agreed to give an interview from Venezuela to Brazil´s Folha de Sao Paulo daily on his book "The Condor Years: How Pinochet and his Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents," which will be presented here next week.

The writer divides the plan into three stages: information exchange among the dictatorships in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay; persecution and assassination of people from one of those countries, and executions outside Latin America, such as that of former Chilean Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier in Washington.

Dinges affirms "the three phases are contained in a September 1976 FBI document," as well as others revealing the US implication was higher than thought at first.

"It was initially believed the US only knew about phase one, which proved to be false. They not only know about the three phases, but could have prevented those assassinations from happening," he added.