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10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/George Landau.md

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+---
+category: "Intelligence & Government"
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - GeorgeLandau
+  - StateDepartment
+  - Paraguay
+  - Chile
+  - OrlandoLetelier
+  - VernonWalters
+  - DINA
+alias:
+  - George W. Landau
+  - George Walter Landau
+summary: "American ambassador to Paraguay who in July 1976 copied the photographs in the false passports of two Chilean agents bound for Washington and sent them to the CIA, weeks before the murder of Orlando Letelier."
+location: "Washington, D.C."
+created: 2026-09-21
+updated: 2026-09-21
+---
+
+George Walter Landau was the [[United States]] ambassador to [[Paraguay]] from 1972 to 1977, to [[Chile]] from 1977 to 1982, and afterward to [[Venezuela]].[^1]
+
+### The Passports
+
+Landau testified in February 1979 that the Paraguayan chief of protocol, [[Conrado Pappalardo|Conrado Papalardo]], told him in "a bizarre conversation" in July 1976 that Chile wanted to send two army officers to the United States on Paraguayan documents "to be less conspicuous." "Papelardo told me the Paraguayan government had decided to give them the passports and that he had told them to contact Walters in the U.S. He said that would give Walters full control over their visit." General [[Vernon Walters]], deputy director of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], had been in Paraguay shortly before. Landau tried to telephone Walters, failed, let the visas issue, had the passport photographs copied, and sent the copies to CIA headquarters with a full report to Walters. On July 27 or 28 he was told that Walters had left the agency and that Director [[George H.W. Bush|George Bush]] had the report. On August 4 Walters told him "he knew nothing of the matter and did not want to get involved in it." Landau revoked the visas and demanded the passports. They came back with the photographs removed. The men were [[Michael Townley]] and [[Armando Fernandez Larios|Armando Fernández Larios]] of [[DINA]]. Two men using the same names entered the country in late August on Chilean passports, and [[Orlando Letelier]] was killed on September 21.[^2][^3]
+
+[[The New York Times]] reported that Landau had told the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] that Papalardo said the request "had come directly from [[Augusto Pinochet|General Pinochet]]." By agreement of both sides, and at his own request, he was not asked about this in court and said only that the request came from a "high level" in Chile. He was by then ambassador in [[Santiago]], and he was called as a witness by the defense of the [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]] members on trial, which hoped his exchange with Walters would tie Townley to the CIA.[^2]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, "'The First Terrorist Attack in the U.S.': The Letelier-Moffitt Assassinations," February 2014. https://adst.org/2014/02/the-first-terrorist-attack-in-the-u-s-the-letelier-moffitt-assassinations/
+[^2]: O'Leary, Jeremiah. "U.S. Envoy's Testimony Puts CIA Twist in Letelier Case," *The Washington Star,* February 9, 1979, and Burnham, David, *The New York Times,* February 9, 1979, CIA Reading Room clipping.
+[^3]: Radio TV Reports, "Interview with Dinges and Landau," June 30, 1980, CIA Reading Room document 05535911.