SANTIAGO, Chile -- (AP) -- Two former intelligence agents were indicted in the mailing last September of an envelope containing explosives to the U.S. Embassy here and to a prominent local lawyer.

 Judge Jorge Zepeda issued the indictments of Lenin Guardia and Humberto Lopez close to midnight Monday after a day of questioning.

 Midnight was the legal deadline for the judge to make a decision after the two men had been investigated for several days.

 Guardia and Lopez had been agents for a government intelligence unit established in the early 1990s by the civilian government that succeeded the 17-year dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

 The unit's main role was to try to fight to small pro-Communist guerrilla gangs that had been organized to fight the Pinochet regime and refused to disband after civilian rule was restored.

 After the intelligence unit was closed by the government, Guardia and Lopez opened a private company to advise businesses on security matters.

 Zepeda said he charged Lopez with sending the envelope to the embassy while Guardia was charged with obstructing justice, apparently for refusing to answer questions.

 It was not clear why the two men sent the envelopes to the embassy and to lawyer Luis Hermosilla last Sept. 27, but local media speculated that apparently they wanted to fuel a climate of lack of security that would attract clients to their business.

 The envelope was detected by embassy security personnel. Security had been reinforced in the wake of the Sep. 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

                                    © 2001