public and fired a shot at their car. He immediately tendered his resignation, but Allende refused to accept it. Days later, an attempted coup known as the Tanquetazo took place; Prats' rapid response helped to defeat the coup and somewhat restored his public standing. Resignation On August 22, 1973, the wives of Prats' generals and officers staged a rally in front of his home, calling him a coward for not restoring civil order in Chile. This event convinced Prats that he had lost support of his fellow officers. The next day he resigned his positions, both as Interior minister and as Commander in Chief of the Army. The only two other generals in favor of a constitutional solution to the political crisis, generals Mario Sepulveda Squella and Guillermo Pickering (both in key troop command positions), also presented their resignations in a show of support for him. General Augusto Pinochet, previously second in command and thought to be loyal to Allende, was appointed Commander in Chief of the Army, taking over the position on August 23, 1973. Prats had personally recommended Allende to appoint Pinochet to the position as well. Prats' retirement removed the last real obstacle to a military coup, which took place three weeks later, on September 11, 1973. Immediately after the coup, on September 15, 1973, Prats voluntarily went into exile with his wife in Argentina. Assassination On September 30, 1974, in Buenos Aires, Prats and his wife Sofia were killed outside their apartment, by a radio-controlled car bomb. Debris reached the ninth-floor balcony of the building across the street. Later, it was learned that the assassination was part of Operation Condor, and planned by members of the Chilean secret police, Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA). It was committed by the American expatriate and Chilean citizen Michael Townley, who also committed the Orlando Letelier assassination in Washington, DC in 1976. Legal aftermath and investigations The former leaders of DINA, including chief Manuel Contreras, ex-chief of operation and retired general Raúl Iturriaga, his brother Roger Iturriaga, and ex-brigadiers Pedro Espinoza and Jose Zara, were charged in 2003 in Chile with Prats' assassination, and were later convicted. The Chilean judge investigating the case, Alejandro Solis, exempted Pinochet from prosecution after the Chilean Supreme court rejected a demand in January 2005 to lift the ex-dictator's immunity . In Argentina, DINA's civil agent Enrique Arancibia was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment