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7
10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Alvin Ross.md
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@ -20,13 +20,18 @@ Alvin Ross Díaz had been a blackjack dealer at the [[Tropicana Club|Tropicana]]
### Trial
An FBI informant reported in January 1978 that "a young action oriented cell under the control of Francisco 'Frank' Castro of the [[CORU]] organization," made up of Ross and Raciel Rodríguez, had bombed the Viasa Airlines office in Miami Beach on December 23, 1977. Indicted for the Letelier murders on August 1, 1978, Ross was tried with the Novo brothers from January 8, 1979. [[Sherman Kaminsky]], a racketeer awaiting sentence who had met him in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, testified that Ross said "he was involved in the murder of Orlando Letelier together with generals in DINA," called Townley "a traitor, a rat, an informer," called Letelier "a rotten Communist Marxist," said he was "glad Letelier was dead," admitted "he had contributed two wires used in the bomb," and said "he would not pay for Letelier's murder because the CIA would be the scapegoat, people would believe anything of the CIA." The sentencing judge had told Kaminsky: "I am going to suspend the operation of that sentence depending on how you come through." Ross was convicted on February 14, 1979, and sentenced to two concurrent life terms.[^2][^3]
An FBI informant reported in January 1978 that "a young action oriented cell under the control of Francisco 'Frank' Castro of the [[CORU]] organization," made up of Ross and Raciel Rodríguez, had bombed the Viasa Airlines office in Miami Beach on December 23, 1977. Indicted for the Letelier murders on August 1, 1978, Ross was tried with the Novo brothers from January 8, 1979. [[Sherman Kaminsky]], a racketeer awaiting sentence who had met him in the [[Metropolitan Correctional Center]] in New York, testified that Ross said "he was involved in the murder of Orlando Letelier together with generals in [[DINA]]," called Townley "a traitor, a rat, an informer," called Letelier "a rotten Communist Marxist," said he was "glad Letelier was dead," admitted "he had contributed two wires used in the bomb," and said "he would not pay for Letelier's murder because the CIA would be the scapegoat, people would believe anything of the CIA." The sentencing judge had told Kaminsky: "I am going to suspend the operation of that sentence depending on how you come through." Kaminsky's notes, given to his lawyer in August 1978 with a request that the CIA be told, recorded Ross saying "that a person blown up in Washington was a double agent of the CIA" and that he planned to blow up Russian ships in American harbors. Ross was convicted on February 14, 1979, and sentenced on March 23 to concurrent life terms on four counts and a consecutive life term for the murder of Moffitt; one of the four was vacated on March 27.[^2][^3]
On September 15, 1980, the court of appeals reversed: after *[[United States v. Henry]]*, decided that June, testimony so obtained was inadmissible. At the retrial in May 1981 Townley, asked what Ross had done to carry out the assassination, answered: "There is nothing I can think of." The jury acquitted Ross and Novo of the murders.[^2][^4]
### Bail
His motion for bail after the reversal, filed from the penitentiary at [[Marion, Illinois|Marion]] when he had "been incarcerated for over two years," said that before his arrest he had been questioned repeatedly by FBI agents in New Jersey about Letelier, subpoenaed to the grand jury, and had "made no attempt to flee or leave the country." He was born in [[Cuba]], had lived in the [[United States]] for more than twenty years, eight of them at 541 36th Street in Union City and eight before that in [[Hackensack, New Jersey|Hackensack]], was divorced with two children, and had sold cars for ten years at Carter Ford and Ascione Motors in [[North Bergen, New Jersey|North Bergen]], after work as a draftsman in Moonachie. "Although he has been arrested on other criminal charges, the defendant has no criminal record." Judge [[Barrington Parker]] refused to reassign the case on December 23, 1980, asked for appraisals of the New Jersey property offered as collateral, and had not ruled five weeks after receiving them when the defense went to the court of appeals.[^5]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, p. 14.
[^2]: *United States v. Sampol,* 636 F.2d 621 (D.C. Cir. 1980).
[^3]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami, file 2-471, "CORU," August 16, 1978. National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book 153, document 13.; "USA v. Guillermo Novo Sampol et al., 78-CR-367," case synopsis, latinamericanstudies.org, not verified against the docket.
[^4]: "Michael Moffitt, who survived a car bomb that killed his wife," United Press International, May 13, 1981; "New Tactics Led to Acquittal in Letelier Case," CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP90-00552R000403680028-2, as summarized.
[^5]: Motion for bail and for reassignment, *United States v. Sampol,* Nos. 79-1541 and 79-1542 (D.C. Cir., 1981), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-bail.pdf; Motion for bail, defendant Alvin Ross Diaz, Crim. No. 78-367 (D.D.C., 1980), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-alvin-bail.pdf; Petition of the United States for Rehearing and Suggestion for Rehearing En Banc, *United States v. Sampol,* Nos. 79-1541 and 79-1542 (D.C. Cir., October 29, 1980), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-rehearing.pdf, footnote 3; Orders of transfer, *United States v. Contreras Sepulveda et al.,* Crim. No. 78-367 (D.D.C., August 1978 and 1980), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-transfer-2.pdf and Letelier-transfer.pdf.

6
10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Eugene Propper.md
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@ -22,6 +22,10 @@ Eugene M. Propper was the assistant [[United States Attorney]] in Washington ass
The [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] began sending him classified files, most of them on Chilean leftists. It "withheld from Propper the information that Deputy Director [[Vernon Walters]], a few weeks before the assassination, had learned about a covert mission to Washington by two Chilean intelligence officers using the names Juan Williams and [[Armando Fernandez Larios|Alejandro Romeral]]," the subject of Ambassador [[George Landau]]'s cable from [[Paraguay]], which Director [[George H.W. Bush|George Bush]] "had personally handled." A source with personal knowledge said that Bush, meeting Propper, "made no mention of the mysterious Chilean agents or of his discussions with Walters." On October 21, 1976, Propper sat beside Attorney General [[Edward Levi]] when Letelier's widow and her lawyer asked that the CIA be subpoenaed, which Levi declined. The photographs from the Paraguayan passports, which the [[Department of State|State Department]] had given him in the fall of 1976, were first shown to a witness on July 12, 1977, and identified [[Michael Townley]]. Propper obtained Townley's expulsion from [[Chile]] in April 1978 and his guilty plea that August.[^2]
Newspaper clippings filed by the defense in 1978 reported that Propper, Assistant Attorney General [[Stanley Pottinger]], and the director of central intelligence, George Bush, had "met to determine to what extent that agency could help in the investigation," and that "a carefully worded agreement placing the Letelier case in a 'national security' status allowed that cooperation." During the trial Townley telephoned Chile from Propper's office, with his consent for calls about the extradition proceedings, and once, on January 30, 1979, without it, a call that was taped at the other end and given to the defense.[^3]
The letter rogatory that carried the investigation to Chile, signed by Chief Judge William B. Bryant and certified by [[Cyrus Vance]] and [[Griffin Bell]], asked the Supreme Court of Chile to have "[[René Riveros|Juan Williams Rose]]" and "[[Rolando Mosqueira|Alejandro Romeral Jara]]" answer 55 written questions under oath, with Propper present. It stated that "at least one of these men met with one of the persons believed to be responsible" for the murders. The Chilean prosecutor in turn asked for a statement from Vernon Walters; Propper had already noted on June 9 that Walters had retired on July 2, 1976, and "was no longer there at the time either mission to the United States by DINA personnel took place"; he and Barcella sent the FBI's interview of June 14 on June 22.[^4]
### Afterward
With the journalist [[Taylor Branch]] he wrote *Labyrinth* (1982), an account of the case. By 1988 he was with the Washington law firm of Lane and Edson and a partner, without title, in [[Counter Terrorism Consultants, Inc.]], formed with Cornick, Scherrer, who had "recently retired from the FBI as its records chief," and Barcella. The firm offered governments, airlines, shipping companies, and the sponsors of events such as the Olympic Games "pro-active" plans against attack, the management of kidnappings and hijackings, "in-depth intelligence files," and "liaison programs with national and international law enforcement and intelligence agencies."[^1]
@ -30,3 +34,5 @@ With the journalist [[Taylor Branch]] he wrote *Labyrinth* (1982), an account of
[^1]: "A group of top former FBI agents and federal prosecutors," United Press International, August 2, 1988. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/08/02/A-group-of-top-former-FBI-agents-and-federal/9684730900658/
[^2]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 242-243, 252, 297, 309-311.
[^3]: Motion for change of venue, *United States v. Contreras Sepulveda et al.,* Crim. No. 78-367 (D.D.C. 1978), with newspaper clippings attached as exhibits, legible only in fragments, https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-venue.pdf; Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington field office, file 185-425, reports of interviews of Michael Vernon Townley by Special Agents Robert W. Scherrer and L. Carter Cornick, February 6, 8, and 16, 1979, https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-townley-phone.pdf.
[^4]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, letter rogatory, Exp. 20931, and oficio of the Ministry of Foreign Relations, February 27, 1978; Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78, as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* tomo 2, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991-2.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, memoranda of Eugene M. Propper and E. Lawrence Barcella, June 5, 9, and 22, 1978.

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10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Felipe Rivero.md Normal file
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---
category: "Extremism & Violent Networks"
tags:
- Person
- FelipeRivero
- CubanNationalistMovement
- CubanExiles
- Brigade2506
- OrlandoLetelier
- MichaelTownley
alias:
- Felipe Rivero Díaz
- Felipe Rivero Diaz
summary: "Founder and ideological chief of the Cuban Nationalist Movement whom Michael Townley named as the man who sent him to Guillermo Novo in 1975, called before the Letelier grand jury in 1977 and never charged."
location: "Miami, Florida"
created: 2026-09-21
updated: 2026-09-21
---
Felipe Rivero Díaz, a veteran of [[Brigade 2506]] at the [[Bay of Pigs Invasion|Bay of Pigs]], founded the [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]] with the brothers [[Guillermo Novo]] and [[Ignacio Novo]] and wrote its political thesis, "La guerra por los caminos del mundo," war along the roads of the world. In [[Miami]] he worked at Biltmore Motors, a car dealership.[^1][^2]
### Townley
In December 1974 Rivero sent Guillermo Novo and [[Jose Dionisio Suarez]] to [[Chile]] "to pay homage to Pinochet," and they entered the country with [[Orlando Bosch]].[^3] Early in 1975 [[Michael Townley]] of [[DINA]] came to Miami looking for Cuban exiles to help kill two Chilean exiles in [[Mexico City]]. According to the government's summary of his testimony at the 1979 trial, "the Cuban groups whom he was able to contact appeared to be too talkative and loose in security. Finally, a man named Felipe Rivero suggested he talk to appellant Guillermo Novo, the head of the Cuban Nationalist Movement (CNM) in [[New Jersey]]. Townley remembered the name as being one of the people who had arrived with Orlando Bosch in Chile in late 1974."[^4] Townley's wife, [[Mariana Callejas]], said in August 1978, hours before leaving [[Santiago]] for the United States under [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] protection, that she had known Rivero in Miami, where Townley worked at Amco Transmission near Rivero's dealership, that Rivero was one of her husband's friends, and that he was "the man who established the contact between Townley and Guillermo Novo."[^2]
### The Grand Jury
Rivero was summoned to appear on Wednesday, May 4, 1977, before the federal grand jury in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] investigating the murder of [[Orlando Letelier]], the fifteenth Cuban exile called in seven months. "They summon me because of my dual role, on the one hand as ideological chief of the Cuban Nationalist Movement and on the other as a member of the Brigade. Both groups fall under certain suspicions," he said, calling the suspicions "absurd" and "unfounded." At least seven of the fifteen belonged to the movement, and three, Rivero and the Novo brothers, were founders; others were [[Alvin Ross]], Suárez, Roberto Carballo of the veterans' association, and its military operations chief [[Armando López Estrada]].[^1] In August 1978 an FBI source in New York refused to comment on links between Rivero and Townley, confirmed that Rivero had been before the grand jury months earlier, and called "absurd" the suggestion that the bureau had agreed to leave him out of the prosecution in return for information.[^2]
That month Rivero called General [[Augusto Pinochet]] "a coward and a traitor" for surrendering to the American authorities men they had linked to the death of Letelier, whom he called "the notorious spy of Allende and Castro." He said the five accused Cubans, Guillermo Novo, Ross, [[Virgilio Paz]], Ignacio Novo, and Suárez, "do not deserve this kind of accusation," and asked "all exiled Cubans" for 100,000 dollars for their defense.[^5] The Chilean investigation of [[Manuel Contreras]] and [[Pedro Espinoza]] later put to a witness by letters rogatory: "Have you met or spoken to Felipe Rivero? If so, state the date and purpose of each such meeting, its location, and the subjects discussed," between the same questions about Bosch and about false documents from the Novos, Suárez, and Ross.[^6]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Marina, Gloria. "Citan a Felipe Rivero en el caso Letelier," *El Miami Herald,* May 3, 1977, scan at latinamericanstudies.org/belligerence/Rivero-Letelier.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish
[^2]: de Dios Unanue, Manuel. "FBI no comenta posibles nexos Rivero y Townley," *El Diario-La Prensa,* August 21, 1978, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/DLP-8-21-1978-11.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish
[^3]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 147-152.
[^4]: Brief for Appellee, *United States v. Sampol,* Nos. 79-1541 and 79-1542 (D.C. Cir. 1979), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-brief-appellee.pdf, statement of facts, citing trial transcript pp. 1599-1600.
[^5]: Alles, Agustín. "Pinochet es un cobarde y un traidor, dice Felipe Rivero," *Réplica,* August 3, 1978, p. 2, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Replica-8-3-1978-2.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish
[^6]: Corte Suprema de Justicia de Chile, proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo, ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, interrogatories in English, scan at latinamericanstudies.org, Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf.

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10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Guillermo Novo.md
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@ -27,19 +27,28 @@ In December 1964 Novo fired a bazooka at the [[United Nations]] building while [
In December 1974 the movement's leader, [[Felipe Rivero]], sent Novo and [[Jose Dionisio Suarez]] to [[Chile]] "to pay homage to Pinochet." They entered the country with [[Orlando Bosch]]. When [[Michael Townley]] of [[DINA]] and his wife, [[Mariana Callejas]], first came to a Union City motel, Novo, Suarez, and Armando Santana "drew guns and ordered the couple to sit down," searched the luggage, and found an American passport in the name Kenneth Enyart and a Chilean identity card in the name Andres Wilson. "Finally, Novo put away his pistol and extended his hand to Townley." The movement lent Townley [[Virgilio Paz]] for a DINA mission to [[Mexico]] and Europe. A communique in the name of "Zero," a label used by Novo, his brother [[Ignacio Novo|Ignacio]], and Suarez, claimed the shooting of [[Bernardo Leighton]] in [[Rome]] in October 1975. The FBI credited it "because it provided details of the attack that only the assassins could know."[^2]
A card of the Chilean [[Central Nacional de Informaciones|CNI]] records that Novo entered Chile on December 3, 1974, "together with Orlando Bosch Ávila," on American passport E-2.380.607, from [[Venezuela]]. Townley told the Chilean prosecutor in 1978 that Novo's nom de guerre was Santiago Otero, that they met at the restaurant La Estrella in Union City in September 1976, and that the movement's directorate asked him for "a quiet place, preferably in the countryside," in Chile where its people could train. A Chilean admiral recalled a letter signed by Novo to the consul in New York declining to attend the visit of the training ship Esmeralda in July 1976 because Chile had handed [[Rolando Otero]] to the Americans.[^3]
### Letelier
On September 10, 1976, at Union City, Townley "outlined my DINA mission to assassinate Letelier and requested the assistance of the Cuban Nationalist Movement." Novo demanded a full explanation and argued that "DINA should have killed Otero rather than turn him over to the FBI," a reference to the surrender of [[Rolando Otero]] to [[Robert Scherrer]]. After a meeting at the Chateau Renaissance Motel he sent formal word that the movement would help. He introduced Townley to [[Alvin Ross]], once a blackjack dealer at the [[Tropicana Club|Tropicana]] in [[Havana]]. On September 15 "Novo handed Townley a paper bag" holding detonating cord, C-4, and TNT. Paz and Suarez went with Townley to [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]], where [[Orlando Letelier]] and [[Ronni Moffitt]] were killed on September 21.[^2]
On September 10, 1976, at Union City, Townley "outlined my DINA mission to assassinate Letelier and requested the assistance of the Cuban Nationalist Movement." Novo demanded a full explanation and argued that "DINA should have killed Otero rather than turn him over to the FBI," a reference to the surrender of Rolando Otero to [[Robert Scherrer]]. After a meeting at the Chateau Renaissance Motel he sent formal word that the movement would help. He introduced Townley to [[Alvin Ross]], once a blackjack dealer at the [[Tropicana Club|Tropicana]] in [[Havana]]. On September 15 "Novo handed Townley a paper bag" holding detonating cord, C-4, and TNT. Paz and Suarez went with Townley to [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]], where [[Orlando Letelier]] and [[Ronni Moffitt]] were killed on September 21.[^2]
Asked by the prosecutor [[Eugene Propper]] and the agent [[Carter Cornick]] where he had been the night before the bombing, Novo said: "That is my trump card. That is the ace up my sleeve." The informant [[Ricardo Morales Navarrete|Ricardo Morales]], then an officer of the Venezuelan [[DISIP]], had planted a story that Bosch was telling associates the "Novo brothers" had killed Letelier. "Bosch is a liar and a traitor to freedom," Novo said.[^1]
### Trials
Indicted on August 1, 1978, Novo was tried with Alvin Ross and his brother Ignacio Novo from January 8, 1979. Michael Townley, who had pleaded, testified that DINA "ordered him to secure assistance from the CNM" so as to isolate itself, and that Novo had insisted Townley take part personally. A jailhouse informant, Antonio Polytarides, testified to Novo's admissions. The defense argued that Townley "was in fact an agent of the United States Central Intelligence Agency which had planned the assassination of Letelier." On February 14, 1979, the jury convicted all three; Novo received two life terms and five years for lying to the grand jury. On September 15, 1980, the court of appeals reversed under *[[United States v. Henry]]*, decided that June, which barred testimony from informants cultivated by the government among pretrial detainees; Ignacio's conviction fell for want of a separate trial. At the retrial of May 1981 the jury acquitted Novo and Ross of the murders and convicted Novo of the false declarations. In October 1981 he was released from federal prison by mistake, officials having confused him with his brother. An FBI informant had reported in January 1978 that he was organizing [[CORU]] cells in Union City "for military action in the U.S. and against the country of Venezuela."[^3][^4]
Indicted on August 1, 1978, Novo was tried with Alvin Ross and his brother Ignacio Novo from January 8, 1979. Michael Townley, who had pleaded, testified that DINA "ordered him to secure assistance from the CNM" so as to isolate itself, and that Novo had insisted Townley take part personally. A jailhouse informant, Antonio Polytarides, testified to Novo's admissions. The defense argued that Townley "was in fact an agent of the United States Central Intelligence Agency which had planned the assassination of Letelier." On February 14, 1979, the jury convicted all three. On March 23 Judge [[Barrington Parker]] sentenced Novo and Ross to concurrent life terms for conspiracy, for killing a foreign official, for the murder of Letelier under District of Columbia law, and for destroying a vehicle in interstate commerce, and a consecutive life term for the murder of Moffitt under District law; the judgment on the third count was vacated on March 27. Novo received five years, concurrent, on each count of false declarations; Ignacio received eight years. Polytarides's evidence was one sentence Novo spoke to him in mid-December 1978, when Polytarides was reporting to a customs agent on gun purchases: "I have been betrayed by some persons in my case, but we will pay them back." On September 15, 1980, the court of appeals reversed under *[[United States v. Henry]]*, decided that June, which barred testimony from informants cultivated by the government among pretrial detainees; Ignacio's conviction fell for want of a separate trial. The government's petition for rehearing was denied on December 9, 1980. Novo, held at [[Leavenworth]], and Ross, at [[Marion, Illinois|Marion]], were moved to Washington for the retrial; Parker refused on December 23, 1980, to hand the case to another judge and let their bail applications lie for weeks. At the retrial of May 1981 the jury acquitted Novo and Ross of the murders and convicted Novo of the false declarations. On June 26, 1981, his lawyer asked that another judge sentence him, since Parker "sentenced this defendant to two life sentences in the first case"; Parker refused and gave him 54 months with credit for the three years served, recommending a minimum-security prison near New York. In October 1981 he was released from federal prison by mistake, officials having confused him with his brother. An FBI informant had reported in January 1978 that he was organizing [[CORU]] cells in Union City "for military action in the U.S. and against the country of Venezuela."[^4][^5]
### The CIA Defense
Defense counsel told the jury in opening that "the CIA and not the Chilean government masterminded the Letelier assassination." Parker ruled: "I'm not going to let you put the CIA on trial in this case," and barred cross-examination of government witnesses on the subject, so that the prosecutor could ask Senator [[George McGovern]] what Letelier had said to him about the agency ("Nothing that I can recall") while the defense could not follow. The appeal brief rested the theory on "Townley's admissions that he had had several contacts with the CIA," on discovery material showing he "had been interviewed by the CIA and had been given 'operational status,'" on the absence from the agency's folder on Townley of any indication that he had worked for DINA, and on "a CIA front organization" in [[Florida]] said to have "attempted to establish an alibi for Townley on the day of the Letelier assassination." The organization was [[Audio Intelligence Devices]] of John Holcomb in [[Fort Lauderdale, Florida|Fort Lauderdale]], where Townley, by his own testimony, spent several hours on the morning of September 21, "signing in and out as was required," while the bomb went off in Washington. The government answered that Townley had twice telephoned the agency's public office in [[Miami]], in 1970 and 1973, and "never did any work whatsoever for the CIA"; that its director of security, [[Robert Gambino]], had testified he did not know whether there were agents in Chile in the early 1970s; and that Audio Intelligence Devices "has never been a 'front,' proprietary, or any other type of sub-organization owing allegiance to the CIA," while quoting a study of freelance operators to the effect that Holcomb "won't talk about any connections he may have to the CIA, but creates the impression that the ties are there, and binding." Newspaper clippings the defense filed to show prejudicial publicity reported that Propper, Assistant Attorney General [[Stanley Pottinger]], and the director of central intelligence, [[George H.W. Bush|George Bush]], had met to decide how far the agency could help, under "a carefully worded agreement placing the Letelier case in a 'national security' status."[^6][^7]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Branch, Taylor, and Eugene M. Propper. *Labyrinth*. Viking, 1982, pp. 101-108.
[^2]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 9-21, 147-152, 240.
[^3]: *United States v. Sampol,* 636 F.2d 621 (D.C. Cir. 1980).
[^4]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami, file 2-471, "CORU," August 16, 1978. National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book 153, document 13. "Wrong Man Freed in Letelier Case," *Washington Post,* October 21, 1981, as summarized.
[^3]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78, as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* tomo 2, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991-2.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, CNI ficha on Guillermo Novo Sampol; declaración of Admiral McIntyre, 1978; Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, declaración of Michael Vernon Townley Welch, March 29, 1978.
[^4]: *United States v. Sampol,* 636 F.2d 621 (D.C. Cir. 1980).
[^5]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami, file 2-471, "CORU," August 16, 1978. National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book 153, document 13. "Wrong Man Freed in Letelier Case," *Washington Post,* October 21, 1981, as summarized.
[^6]: Brief for Appellants, *United States v. Sampol,* Nos. 79-1541 and 79-1542 (D.C. Cir. 1979), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-appeal.pdf, points on cross-examination and discovery, citing trial transcript pp. 1233, 1262, 1348-1360, 1474, 4657-4668, 5019, 5061; Brief for Appellee, *United States v. Sampol,* Nos. 79-1541 and 79-1542 (D.C. Cir. 1979), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-brief-appellee.pdf, citing trial transcript pp. 1584-1590, 4995, 5024-5031, and footnote 72; Motion for change of venue, *United States v. Contreras Sepulveda et al.,* Crim. No. 78-367 (D.D.C. 1978), with newspaper clippings attached as exhibits, legible only in fragments, https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-venue.pdf.
[^7]: Petition of the United States for Rehearing and Suggestion for Rehearing En Banc, *United States v. Sampol,* Nos. 79-1541 and 79-1542 (D.C. Cir., October 29, 1980), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-rehearing.pdf, footnote 4; Transcript of sentencing, *United States v. Guillermo Novo Sampol,* Crim. No. 78-367 (D.D.C., June 26, 1981), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-novo-sentence.pdf; Motion for bail and for reassignment, *United States v. Sampol,* Nos. 79-1541 and 79-1542 (D.C. Cir., 1981), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-bail.pdf; Motion for bail, defendant Alvin Ross Diaz, Crim. No. 78-367 (D.D.C., 1980), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-alvin-bail.pdf; Orders of transfer, *United States v. Contreras Sepulveda et al.,* Crim. No. 78-367 (D.D.C., August 1978 and 1980), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-transfer-2.pdf and Letelier-transfer.pdf.

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---
category: "Law Enforcement & Legal"
tags:
- Person
- HectorOrozco
- Chile
- OrlandoLetelier
- DINA
- MilitaryJustice
alias:
- Héctor Orozco Sepúlveda
- Hector Orozco
summary: "Chilean army general named ad hoc military prosecutor in March 1978 for the Letelier passport case, who took the DINA officers' statements and had the FBI interview Vernon Walters."
location: "Santiago, Chile"
created: 2026-09-21
updated: 2026-09-21
---
Héctor Orozco Sepúlveda was appointed ad hoc military prosecutor of causa 192-78 by decree of March 21, 1978, with Major Jaime Vergara Lönnberg as his secretary, after the letter rogatory from the federal court in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] on the two Chilean officers who had entered the [[United States]] in August 1976 under false names. Two days later the civilian case on the passports, in which the judge Marcos Libedinsky had found that they were used by "two Army Captains, in fulfillment of a confidential mission assigned to them by their superiors," was joined to his file.[^1]
### The Statements
His file holds the sworn statements of [[Manuel Contreras]], [[Armando Fernandez Larios|Armando Fernández Larios]], [[René Riveros]], and [[Rolando Mosqueira]] (March 22), [[Michael Townley]] (March 29), [[Mariana Callejas]] (April 4), [[Pedro Espinoza]] (April 24), and [[DINA]]'s passport clerk (April 12); Mosqueira had already testified before the civilian judge on March 20. On March 23 he widened the investigation with requests to Enrique Montero, General Odlanier Mena of the CNI, General Washington Carrasco, General Nilo Floody, and the military mission in Washington. On April 10 he ordered Espinoza, [[Raúl Iturriaga Neumann]], Townley, and others re-examined on the code names Quetropillán and Avispa, a confrontation between Townley and Espinoza "as to who assigned Townley each of the operations he carried out abroad," and a handwriting sample from Callejas against a document in the file. Before May 1 he asked the American authorities for a sworn statement from General [[Vernon Walters]], or failing that his answers to whether "in exercising his duties as former Deputy Director of the CIA, he asked General Contreras to send him some contacts to receive the names of certain lobbyists." The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] interviewed Walters on June 14, 1978, and the Chilean embassy reported by secret telex that this had been done "acceding to Fiscal Orozco's request." His oficio of June 23 explained that routine requests went through the CNI to the FBI, while letters rogatory were reserved for the sworn interrogatories. On March 14, 1979, the military judge Enrique Morel replaced him with General Santiago Sinclair, a month after Contreras and Espinoza, through [[Sergio Miranda Carrington]], had asked the Supreme Court for access to the file in the extradition proceedings.[^2]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, decree of March 21, 1978, and order of March 23, 1978.
[^2]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, resolutions of April 10 and before May 1, 1978, and the declaraciones cited; Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78, as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* tomo 2, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991-2.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, oficio of June 23, 1978; telex of the Chilean embassy in Washington; decree of Enrique Morel Donoso, March 14, 1979; pleading of February 19, 1979.

35
10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Ignacio Novo.md Normal file
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@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
---
category: "Extremism & Violent Networks"
tags:
- Person
- IgnacioNovo
- CubanNationalistMovement
- CubanExiles
- OrlandoLetelier
- FBI
alias:
- Ignacio Novo Sampol
summary: "Co-founder of the Cuban Nationalist Movement, brother of Guillermo Novo, who bought forged papers from an FBI informant in 1977 and was convicted in 1979 of lying to the Letelier grand jury."
location: "Union City, New Jersey"
created: 2026-09-21
updated: 2026-09-21
---
Ignacio Novo Sampol founded the [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]] with his brother [[Guillermo Novo]] and [[Felipe Rivero]].[^1] The communiques in the name of "Zero" that claimed the shooting of [[Bernardo Leighton]] in [[Rome]] in 1975 used a label shared by the brothers and [[Jose Dionisio Suarez]].[^2]
### The Informant
In the spring of 1977, as the grand jury in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] examined the murder of [[Orlando Letelier]], Novo bought forged identity papers in the name Frederick Pagan from [[Ricardo Cañete]] of [[Brooklyn]], who was reporting to Special Agent [[Larry Wack]] of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]. He showed Cañete a photograph of an FBI agent, "This is the cocksucker, who wants Guillermo," not knowing that the agent was Wack. He said of the bureau's pressure: "If GUILLERMO goes inside, it's war. This was already decided on tonight." He explained that counterfeit money was called "wine" on the telephone because the [[National Security Agency|NSA]] listened to calls to [[Chile]], and reported that four men had left for [[Miami]] with copies of the Pagan papers. He was carrying a cut-down Uzi with a silencer.[^3] By May 1977 he was among fifteen exiles summoned before the grand jury.[^1]
### Trial
The indictment of August 1, 1978, charged him with two counts of false declarations to the grand jury and one of misprision of felony. His lawyer, Jerry Feldman, moved for a separate trial: the charges against his co-defendants were "substantially more serious," and "since one of the defendants named in the more serious charges in this indictment is Ignacio Novo Sampol's brother, the jury in a joint trial would be inclined to consider the evidence against the brother as incriminatory." Judge [[Barrington Parker]] denied it. The jury convicted him on February 14, 1979, and on March 23 he was sentenced to five years on each false declaration count, concurrent, and three years consecutive for misprision. On September 15, 1980, the [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit|court of appeals]] reversed "on the ground that he should have been severed from the other defendants."[^4][^5] In October 1981 federal officials released his brother by mistake, confusing the two.[^6]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Marina, Gloria. "Citan a Felipe Rivero en el caso Letelier," *El Miami Herald,* May 3, 1977, scan at latinamericanstudies.org/belligerence/Rivero-Letelier.pdf
[^2]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 147-152.
[^3]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York office, reports of interviews of Ricardo Cañete by Special Agent Larry E. Wack, May 10 to May 18, 1977, scans at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/canete.pdf
[^4]: Motion for a Severance, defendant Ignacio Novo Sampol, *United States v. Contreras Sepulveda et al.,* Crim. No. 78-367 (D.D.C. 1978), with order granting, https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-severance-ignacio.pdf; Petition of the United States for Rehearing and Suggestion for Rehearing En Banc, *United States v. Sampol,* Nos. 79-1541 and 79-1542 (D.C. Cir., October 29, 1980), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-rehearing.pdf, footnote 1; Brief for Appellee, *United States v. Sampol,* Nos. 79-1541 and 79-1542 (D.C. Cir. 1979), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-brief-appellee.pdf, statement of the case.
[^5]: *United States v. Sampol,* 636 F.2d 621 (D.C. Cir. 1980).
[^6]: "Wrong Man Freed in Letelier Case," *Washington Post,* October 21, 1981, as summarized.

2
10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Johnny Roselli.md
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@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ tags:
- LasCosas
- PROMIS
category: "Organized Crime"
summary: "Johnny Roselli was a senior Chicago Outfit figure operating in Las Vegas and Hollywood who was recruited by the CIA in 1960 as the primary organized crime conduit for assassination plots against Fidel Castro, testified before the Church Committee in 1975-1976, and was murdered and stuffed in an oil drum in Dumfoundling Bay, Florida, shortly after his second Senate appearance."
summary: "Chicago Outfit man in Las Vegas and Hollywood recruited by the CIA through Robert Maheu in 1960 against Castro, who testified to the Church Committee and was found in an oil drum off Miami."
born: 1905-07-04
died: 1976-08-09
location: "Los Angeles, California / Las Vegas, Nevada"

13
10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Jose Dionisio Suarez.md
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@ -20,17 +20,20 @@ updated: 2026-09-21
José Dionisio Suárez Esquivel, a former officer of the Cuban revolutionary army, was called "El Cepillo" and "Charco de Sangre," pool of blood, "for his work in carrying out executions since the revolutionaries' victory." In December 1974 he went with [[Guillermo Novo]] to [[Chile]] "to pay homage to Pinochet," entering with [[Orlando Bosch]]. At a [[Union City, New Jersey|Union City]] motel he and Armando Santana searched [[Michael Townley]]'s luggage at gunpoint and found the passport of Kenneth Enyart.[^1]
A card of the Chilean [[Central Nacional de Informaciones|CNI]] records that Suárez, "Cuban exile of the MNC," entered Chile on December 4, 1974, on Venezuelan passport 1.289.386, and left on December 19 for [[Colombia]] "posing as an American tourist"; Guillermo Novo had entered the day before "together with Orlando Bosch Ávila" on an American passport.[^2]
### September 1976
Suárez was at the meeting of September 10, 1976, where Townley asked the [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]] for help. He "drove to Washington in his late-model American car" on September 18, lent Townley more than a hundred dollars, and because he had a new job to start in [[New Jersey]] on Monday pressed the others to move quickly. He supplied a blasting cap. "During the ride to Letelier's house, I was informed by Paz and Suarez that they expected me to place the device on the car as they wished to have a DINA agent, namely myself, directly tied to the placing of the device," Townley stated. Suárez drove him to [[National Airport]] for the first flight to Newark. Townley told investigators he believed Suárez set off the bomb "by pressing two buttons on a telephone beeping device as he trailed Letelier at [[Sheridan Circle]]."[^1][^2]
Suárez was at the meeting of September 10, 1976, where Townley asked the [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]] for help. He "drove to Washington in his late-model American car" on September 18, lent Townley more than a hundred dollars, and because he had a new job to start in [[New Jersey]] on Monday pressed the others to move quickly. He supplied a blasting cap. "During the ride to Letelier's house, I was informed by Paz and Suarez that they expected me to place the device on the car as they wished to have a [[DINA]] agent, namely myself, directly tied to the placing of the device," Townley stated. Suárez drove him to [[National Airport]] for the first flight to Newark. Townley told investigators he believed Suárez set off the bomb "by pressing two buttons on a telephone beeping device as he trailed Letelier at [[Sheridan Circle]]."[^1][^3]
### Fugitive
Indicted on August 1, 1978, with Novo, [[Alvin Ross]], [[Manuel Contreras]], [[Pedro Espinoza]], [[Armando Fernandez Larios|Armando Fernández Larios]], and [[Virgilio Paz]], he had earlier "spent 11½ months in a D.C. jail rather than testify before a grand jury." FBI agents found him on April 11, 1990, in a modest house in [[St. Petersburg, Florida]], an unemployed painter known as Jose Suárez, with his wife and a fifteen-month-old son. "Jose is basically a scapegoat," his wife said. "In exchange for a promise not to prosecute his wife," he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder a foreign official and was sentenced to eight years. Released on probation in 1997, he was held by the immigration service at [[Bradenton, Florida|Bradenton]] because [[Cuba]] would not take him, until the Supreme Court's ruling of June 2001 against indefinite detention. Freed on August 14, 2001, he said: "I want to clarify a lot of things. There have been many lies."[^2][^3][^4]
Indicted on August 1, 1978, with Novo, [[Alvin Ross]], [[Manuel Contreras]], [[Pedro Espinoza]], [[Armando Fernandez Larios|Armando Fernández Larios]], and [[Virgilio Paz]], he had earlier "spent 11½ months in a D.C. jail rather than testify before a grand jury." FBI agents found him on April 11, 1990, in a modest house in [[St. Petersburg, Florida]], an unemployed painter known as Jose Suárez, with his wife and a fifteen-month-old son. "Jose is basically a scapegoat," his wife said. "In exchange for a promise not to prosecute his wife," he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder a foreign official and was sentenced to eight years. Released on probation in 1997, he was held by the immigration service at [[Bradenton, Florida|Bradenton]] because [[Cuba]] would not take him, until the Supreme Court's ruling of June 2001 against indefinite detention. Freed on August 14, 2001, he said: "I want to clarify a lot of things. There have been many lies."[^3][^4][^5]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 16-21, 148-151, 240.
[^2]: McAllister, Bill. "Suspect Arrested in Letelier Slaying," *Washington Post,* April 12, 1990.
[^3]: *United States v. Sampol,* 636 F.2d 621 (D.C. Cir. 1980).; "USA v. Guillermo Novo Sampol et al., 78-CR-367," case synopsis, latinamericanstudies.org, not verified against the docket.
[^4]: "Conspirator in '76 Letelier Assassination Released," Reuters, *Washington Post,* August 16, 2001, p. A13.
[^2]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78, as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* tomo 2, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991-2.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, CNI fichas on José Dionisio Suárez Esquivel, Guillermo Novo Sampol, and Virgilio Pablo Paz Romero, undated, 1978.
[^3]: McAllister, Bill. "Suspect Arrested in Letelier Slaying," *Washington Post,* April 12, 1990.
[^4]: *United States v. Sampol,* 636 F.2d 621 (D.C. Cir. 1980).; "USA v. Guillermo Novo Sampol et al., 78-CR-367," case synopsis, latinamericanstudies.org, not verified against the docket.
[^5]: "Conspirator in '76 Letelier Assassination Released," Reuters, *Washington Post,* August 16, 2001, p. A13.

11
10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Lee Pennington.md
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@ -20,18 +20,19 @@ Lee R. Pennington Jr. was "a former FBI inspector" and "an old family friend of
### June 1972
Shortly after [[James McCord]] was arrested at the [[Watergate scandal|Watergate]], Pennington visited the McCord house, "where he found Mrs. McCord, with her daughter and son-in-law, destroying papers." He reported it. In August 1972 the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]'s Alexandria office asked the Office of Security about a "Pennington" who might have been McCord's supervisor. The agency answered with "the name of another Pennington, an employee of the CIA Office of Security, but who had never been a supervisor of McCord." The Senate minority staff found the purpose was "to withhold the name of Lee R. Pennington." In November and December 1972 he passed his case officer a memorandum by McCord about [[Jack Anderson]].[^1][^3]
Shortly after [[James McCord]] was arrested at the [[Watergate scandal|Watergate]], Pennington visited the McCord house, "where he found Mrs. McCord, with her daughter and son-in-law, destroying papers." He reported it. In August 1972 the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]'s Alexandria office asked the Office of Security about a "Pennington" who might have been McCord's supervisor. The agency answered with "the name of another Pennington, an employee of the CIA Office of Security, but who had never been a supervisor of McCord." The Senate minority staff found the purpose was "to withhold the name of Lee R. Pennington." The Kennedy assassination records include memoranda of 1960 and 1961 by a C. H. Pennington of the agency's Alien Affairs Staff on [[Tony Varona|Manuel Antonio Varona]], [[José Miró Cardona]], and the visa of [[Marcos Díaz Lanz]]; whether he was the employee named to the bureau is not stated in the record.[^4] In November and December 1972 he passed his case officer a memorandum by McCord about [[Jack Anderson]].[^1][^3]
The published minority report of the Senate committee gives the retainer as "$250 per month until December of 1973" and states: "The Agency has advised that the Security Research Staff was abolished in August of 1973."[^4]
The published minority report of the Senate committee gives the retainer as "$250 per month until December of 1973" and states: "The Agency has advised that the Security Research Staff was abolished in August of 1973."[^5]
### 1974
In January 1974, when the agency's inspector general was to review the Watergate files, [[Howard Osborn]] "ordered that the Pennington materials be removed." An employee of the Personnel Security Division copied them to his safe and told the inspector general. Osborn's memorandum of February 22, 1974, went to the Senate committee, the oversight committees, and the special prosecutor. Pennington testified in executive session on February 23 "that he did not go to the McCord home for the purpose of searching for or destroying CIA-related documents, but does acknowledge witnessing the destruction of documents." The testimony of others, the staff wrote, indicated "more active participation." Osborn retired on February 26. "The Security Research Staff has now been abolished." The staff noted that Pennington "may have been a 'domestic agent,' possibly in violation of the CIA's charter," and that his agency file "apparently has portions missing from it." The file itself went only to the House subcommittee of [[Lucien Nedzi]], with "gaps" the agency acknowledged. Nedzi concluded that the agency had not sent him to burn the papers. McCord wrote that Pennington, then 60, "came over to bring food to my family" and destroyed nothing.[^1][^2][^5]
In January 1974, when the agency's inspector general was to review the Watergate files, [[Howard Osborn]] "ordered that the Pennington materials be removed." An employee of the Personnel Security Division copied them to his safe and told the inspector general. Osborn's memorandum of February 22, 1974, went to the Senate committee, the oversight committees, and the special prosecutor. Pennington testified in executive session on February 23 "that he did not go to the McCord home for the purpose of searching for or destroying CIA-related documents, but does acknowledge witnessing the destruction of documents." The testimony of others, the staff wrote, indicated "more active participation." Osborn retired on February 26. "The Security Research Staff has now been abolished." The staff noted that Pennington "may have been a 'domestic agent,' possibly in violation of the CIA's charter," and that his agency file "apparently has portions missing from it." The file itself went only to the House subcommittee of [[Lucien Nedzi]], with "gaps" the agency acknowledged. Nedzi concluded that the agency had not sent him to burn the papers. McCord wrote that Pennington, then 60, "came over to bring food to my family" and destroyed nothing.[^1][^2][^6]
### Footnotes
[^1]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, minority staff, "CIA Investigation," memorandum of Senator Howard H. Baker Jr., 1974, later printed in *Final Report,* S. Rept. 93-981, pp. 1115-1165. CIA Reading Room copy, document 01481990.
[^2]: Anderson, Jack. "Washington Merry-Go-Round," *Washington Post,* April 2, 1974, p. B15.
[^3]: Central Intelligence Agency, "Questions Raised About Lee R. Pennington," 1974. CIA Reading Room, document 01435032.
[^4]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities. "Minority Report on CIA Involvement, Submitted at the Request of Senator Howard H. Baker, Jr.," in *The Senate Watergate Report,* Dell, 1974, vol. 2, pp. 732 ff. (S. Rept. 93-981, 1974), "Pennington Matter."
[^5]: McCord, James W., Jr. Letter to the editor, *Washington Star-News,* July 3, 1974. CIA Reading Room, document 01482011.
[^4]: Pennington, C. H., Alien Affairs Staff. Memoranda of August 19, 1960, February 20, 1961, and March 27, 1961, JFK records 104-10130-10149, 104-10130-10142, 104-10130-10140; telephone note of March 24, 1960, JFK record 104-10260-10095.
[^5]: U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities. "Minority Report on CIA Involvement, Submitted at the Request of Senator Howard H. Baker, Jr.," in *The Senate Watergate Report,* Dell, 1974, vol. 2, pp. 732 ff. (S. Rept. 93-981, 1974), "Pennington Matter."
[^6]: McCord, James W., Jr. Letter to the editor, *Washington Star-News,* July 3, 1974. CIA Reading Room, document 01482011.

35
10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/René Riveros.md Normal file
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---
category: "Intelligence & Government"
tags:
- Person
- ReneRiveros
- DINA
- OrlandoLetelier
- VernonWalters
- Chile
alias:
- René Riveros Valderrama
- Rene Riveros Valderrama
- Juan Williams Rose
summary: "DINA captain who flew to Washington on August 21, 1976, as Juan Williams Rose, the false name Townley had carried on a Paraguayan passport, on a mission to find General Vernon Walters."
location: "Santiago, Chile"
created: 2026-09-21
updated: 2026-09-21
---
René Miguel Riveros Valderrama, a captain of the Chilean army serving in an "extra-institutional commission" of [[DINA]], testified on March 22, 1978, that in August 1976 [[Manuel Contreras]] gave him and Captain [[Rolando Mosqueira]] a mission to [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] "to make contact with the North American General [[Vernon Walters]] in order to receive certain information relating to the names of certain persons." They left on August 21 on official Chilean passports, his in the name Juan Williams Rose and Mosqueira's as Alejandro Romeral Jara, "handed to us ready by the passport staff at DINA, together with the tickets via Aero Perú." The passport was issued on August 17, 1976, number 528/76, with a birth date of March 12, 1949, an address at Bustamante 24, and blue eyes; the American embassy in [[Santiago]] issued official A-2 visas the same day. The names were those on the Paraguayan passports that [[Michael Townley]] and [[Armando Fernandez Larios|Armando Fernández Larios]] had carried in July, whose visas the [[United States]] had revoked.[^1][^2]
### Washington
They could not find Walters, who was giving up his post and on leave; "finally a CIA secretary whom we could not identify told us that General Walters no longer worked at that intelligence agency." They called on a Chilean general Mosqueira knew, giving their real names and ranks but not their errand, and when every approach failed telephoned [[Pedro Espinoza]], DINA's chief of operations, who authorized their return. Walters, interviewed by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] on June 14, 1978, "laughed and dismissed the idea as being ludicrous on its face," since he had retired on July 2, 1976.[^1][^3]
### The Letters Rogatory
A letter rogatory of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, signed by Chief Judge William B. Bryant and certified by Secretary of State [[Cyrus Vance]] and Attorney General [[Griffin Bell]], was delivered unsealed to the Chilean foreign ministry by the chargé d'affaires, Thomas Boyatt, and forwarded to the Supreme Court on February 27, 1978. It stated that "two members of the Chilean armed forces entered the United States one month before the murder of Mr. Letelier and Mrs. Moffitt. At least one of these men met with one of the persons believed to be responsible for the acts in question. Previously, both had obtained visas to enter the United States by using fraudulent documents from a country other than Chile," the Paraguayan passports of Townley and Fernández Larios, and asked that "Juan Williams Rose" and "Alejandro Romeral Jara" answer 55 written questions under oath with [[Eugene Propper]] present: who gave the orders; whether they had discussed the mission with Contreras or with "the President of Chile, Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, or with any of his direct subordinates"; their contacts with [[Guillermo Novo]], [[Ignacio Novo]], [[Jose Dionisio Suarez|José Dionisio Suárez]], [[Alvin Ross]], [[Orlando Bosch]], and [[Felipe Rivero]]; whether they had brought explosives; whether they had stayed at the Chilean embassy or military mission; and a meeting in February 1976 with [[Rolando Otero]], "at that time a fugitive from United States law," attended by "a man who introduced himself as Major Torres of DINA" and another calling himself Marcelo Estobel. Chile's Supreme Court noted that no treaty on letters rogatory existed between the two countries. General Nilo Floody, the officer the two captains had called on in Washington, reported to the prosecutor that they had visited him. In March 1978 the civilian judge Marcos Libedinsky, who had taken the statements of the two captains on March 20 and released them on bond, found that the passports "were used in August 1976 to travel to the United States and then return to Chile by two Army Captains, in fulfillment of a confidential mission assigned to them by their superiors," and sent the case to the military courts, where on March 23 it was joined to the file of the ad hoc military prosecutor [[Héctor Orozco]], before whom Riveros testified on March 22.[^4]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, declaración of René Miguel Riveros Valderrama, March 22, 1978.
[^2]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, letter rogatory, Exp. 20931, and inspection of official passport 528/76; declaración of Luis Humberto García González, April 12, 1978.
[^3]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78, as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* tomo 2, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991-2.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, memorandum of Eugene M. Propper and E. Lawrence Barcella, June 22, 1978, with the FBI report of the interview of Vernon Walters, June 14, 1978, and addendum of June 9, 1978.
[^4]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78, tomo 1, oficio of General Nilo Floody Buxton to the prosecutor, 1978 (column-bled scan, read in part); Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, letter rogatory with questionnaire of 55 questions; oficio of the Ministry of Foreign Relations to the President of the Supreme Court, February 27, 1978; resolution of the Supreme Court; resolution of Ministro en Visita Marcos Libedinsky, March 21, 1978, and order of March 23, 1978, joining causa 88.112-2 to causa 192-78.

2
10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Robert Scherrer.md
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@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ updated: 2026-09-21
Robert Scherrer was the legal attaché of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] at the embassy in [[Buenos Aires]], responsible from 1972 for the southern cone of [[South America]]. The bureau "recruited him when he was eighteen, gave him a job as a filing clerk, and sent him to [[Fordham University]] to get a law degree." In the middle 1960s he served on the [[New York City|New York]] squad that watched Cuban exiles. "He had made it his business to get to know Chile's [[Manuel Contreras]]," on whom he called "on each trip to Chile."[^1]
"In fact, he was a one-man intelligence station whose sources in all of the [[Southern Cone]] countries were the envy of the CIA and U.S. military intelligence." He had gone abroad with the first wave of legal attachés after [[J. Edgar Hoover]] persuaded President [[Richard Nixon]] in 1970 to approve the program. After arrests of members of the [[Junta Coordinadora Revolucionaria]] in [[Paraguay]], "Scherrer sent a letter informing his main police source in Chile, General [[Ernesto Baeza]]," which has been called "the first documented case of U.S. official participation in the multicountry operations against the JCR." The bureau called it a "routine and traditional form of cooperation." "They should be rounded up," Scherrer said of the revolutionaries in 1979. "But they should be tried, not slaughtered." He said the military governments in 1975 formally proposed that the bureau have a "more open exchange of information with them" about people in the [[United States]] they considered terrorists. Contreras later testified that Scherrer was in "permanent contact" with Condor's representative in Buenos Aires "and received the information that he asked for." Scherrer said he learned that the CIA had provided DINA with the computer systems he presumed were used in the Condor data bank.[^2]
"In fact, he was a one-man intelligence station whose sources in all of the [[Southern Cone]] countries were the envy of the CIA and U.S. military intelligence." He had gone abroad with the first wave of legal attachés after [[J. Edgar Hoover]] persuaded President [[Richard Nixon]] in 1970 to approve the program. After arrests of members of the [[Junta Coordinadora Revolucionaria]] in [[Paraguay]], "Scherrer sent a letter informing his main police source in Chile, General [[Ernesto Baeza]]," which has been called "the first documented case of U.S. official participation in the multicountry operations against the JCR." The bureau called it a "routine and traditional form of cooperation." "They should be rounded up," Scherrer said of the revolutionaries in 1979. "But they should be tried, not slaughtered." He said the military governments in 1975 formally proposed that the bureau have a "more open exchange of information with them" about people in the [[United States]] they considered terrorists. Contreras later testified that Scherrer was in "permanent contact" with Condor's representative in Buenos Aires "and received the information that he asked for." Scherrer said he learned that the CIA had provided [[DINA]] with the computer systems he presumed were used in the Condor data bank.[^2]
### The Condor Cable

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10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Rolando Otero.md
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@ -22,9 +22,12 @@ At 5:58 on the morning of October 17, 1975, an Eastern Airlines reservation cler
Otero fled to [[Chile]]. In 1976 the FBI's legal attaché in [[Buenos Aires]], [[Robert Scherrer]], obtained his surrender. "The Chilean government first denied having Otero, then offered to turn him over in a coffin." Cuban exiles complained that Chile had given haven to Otero and [[Orlando Bosch]], "both fugitives from the FBI, only to betray them." When [[Michael Townley]] of [[DINA]] asked the [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]] for help against [[Orlando Letelier]] in September 1976, [[Guillermo Novo]] argued that "DINA should have killed Otero rather than turn him over to the FBI." A Dade County detective went to Venezuela in October 1976 to persuade [[Ricardo Morales Navarrete]] to testify at Otero's trial. An index to Morales's deposition of 1981, as transcribed on an exile website, lists Otero under the alias "Condor."[^3][^4]
The letter rogatory sent by the federal court in Washington to Chile in February 1978 put to the bearer of the name Juan Williams Rose, which Michael Townley had carried on a Paraguayan passport in July 1976 and Captain [[René Riveros]] of DINA on a Chilean one in August: "In February 1976, you met with Rolando Otero Hernández, who at that time was a fugitive from United States law. Present at that meeting was a man who introduced himself as Major Torres of DINA," and another "under the name Marcelo Estobel," and asked their true names. Townley testified that at the meetings in Union City in September 1976 the talk included "spreading rumors to justify and explain Otero's arrest in Chile and his subsequent handover to the FBI. The idea was to blame Otero himself for his 'blunder.'"[^5]
### Footnotes
[^1]: *United States v. Otero-Hernandez,* 418 F. Supp. 572 (M.D. Fla. 1976).
[^2]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami, teletype to Director, "Bombing of Cubana Airlines DC-8 Near Barbados, West Indies, October 6, 1976," November 2, 1976, JFK Assassination Records Collection. National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book 153, document 10.
[^3]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 9-10, 130.
[^4]: Deposition of Ricardo Morales Navarrete, Dade County Circuit Court, criminal case 81-17247, index.
[^5]: Fiscalía Militar Ad-Hoc, Santiago, causa 192-78 (fiscal Héctor Orozco), as reproduced in *Proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo,* ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish, letter rogatory, Exp. 20931, questionnaire; declaración of Michael Vernon Townley Welch, March 29, 1978.