CIA HELPED CHILE RECRUIT CUBAN KILLERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000201280003-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 1, 2010
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: February 24, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/01: CIA-RDP90-60552R000201280003-7
p~`CSCII% ilYY:a%4LD
ON FAG1;(~..11
WILMINGTON SUNDAY NEWS JOURNAL
24 February 1980
were shot to death in
Africa home in Novem'cf
Another couple, Chi
leader Bernardo Leight
wife Ana, were seriousli
an unsuccessful asst
attempt in Rome in Octo
The South African g
that controlled BOSS is n
power, and the new gov
trying to solve the Smit
The new government's
Copyright 1980, The News-Journal Company ' . I "It is politically impera t.
WASHINGTON A!hit team of Cuban terrorists,, minister of police; said
involved' in. at least a .,dozen: murders since- 1974, investigation has. expan
was recruited with Central Intelligence Agency help seas because it "may'i
for the secret: police of. South':Africa. and Chile,. a international plot. Le G
.The victims include Chilean exile leader. Orlando tors.in London exploring
:-Letelier and a high.-ranking South African official who national connection."
uncovered a majorgovernmentscandal Spencer. told the Sum
South Africa's Bureau for State Security (BOSS) and. Journal that BOSS "had a'. ~. AY, IJC.CtA
`its Chilean counterpart, called DINA began hiring relationship with DINA and would
CIA-trained anti-Castro fanatics in.1973. to carry out exchange favors."- Spencer said
contractldilings. BOSS was disbanded last year and
Sunday News Journal reporters followed a chain of reorganized as a less powerful
evidence that included weapons, gold' coins. and pass National Intelligence Service.
ports and other documents that linked the contract hit' "I can only tell you that many of
team with South Africa's and Chile's secret'police.- ,.i the former BOSS officials have gone--
The News Journal investigation included interviews underground. The murder of the.
with secret government witnesses now in-hiding under Smits has not been solved. Our gov-
false identities,. with current and former South African ernment has no idea of who did it,
and Chilean intelligence agents and with present and Spencer said.
former officials of..the' CIA, the Justice and State CIA spokesman bale Peterson
Deppartments. said that he could not discuss details
These sources say the CIA helped form the hit team of the relationship between the CIA
by arranging introductions for operatives of BOSS and and other governments- "Sources
DINA to leaders of the Cuban nationalist movement in and methods are something we just
Miami and Union City, N.J. In return; DINA killed at can't talk about, and that's what you
least 17 agents of the Cuban Intelligence Service and are getting into."
BOSS provided information about Communist activi- Juan Prado, press attache at the
ties in Africa. Chilean embassy in Washington,
FBI and Justice Department officialssay.theCIA did said he had no information about
not inform them that Cuban Nationalists-were receiv- " any links and would not discuss the I Letelier-Moffit killings were a CIA-
ing arms, money or false passports even after the hit matter further on the telephone. operation from the beginning. The
team killed Chilean exile Letelier and an American in a-. Informed by the Sunday News Justice Department has insisted the
1975 W`ashington; D.C., car bombing Journal of the hit team's operations;- murders were plotted by agents of
'x TheFBI has been hunting two Cuban Nationalists for a member of the Senate Select Com 'the Chilean government.
the Washington'assassinations- and is looking into how mittee on Intelligence, charged the CIA started. working closeI~ -;
their; flight was financed and how ,they are linked to with CIA oversight, said last week ; in i eo with anti-Castro Cubans;
Omega?7-and ZERO,'two-.Cuban Nationalist Movement "This may have been an.attempt by. training them in Miami and Guate-y
groups. claiming credit for a number of terrorist aets,: the CIA to -get around..the prohib-: ' mala before the Bay of Pig s inva
including one of the assassination attempts ' itiori? on assassinations. The idea:. Sion The CIA also
ed a Iar
la
e
g
p
y
Jtistice_-Aepartment.and FBI officials say privately that they, turned in intelligence role in the overthrow of the Marxist
.they.are incensed by, the-lack of:cooperation-from. the sources who had been on their pay-- Allende government in -Chile in
-
CTA ..-. At..'.......L:.....
.nm
i r th
.g
r
i _--_> - - .
robe of-t
-
n
p
e
-
anc
e l
search for the missing Letelier murder suspects.,-.7--f..-': `! The prohibition on assassinations'1
t
i
D
.We have professional killerstrained by one of our came. in a presidential. executive
-own government agencies,'on'the loose," _said one FBI
agentfamiharwith the case- , = order after a .1975 Senate .probe.;
I : revealed CIA. .involvement : in
.Theknown:.victims of -the hitteam include .Former. attempts on the lives -of foreigii
Chilean Gen.. Carlos Pmts and his wife, Cora, killed in leaders. - .
'
Aires;; Chilean
an October 1974 bombing in. Buenos'
Minister of Defense Oscar Bonillo;:blown up with five
other . people; in a helicopter. in Chile;dn-March`-1975;
STAT
the Cuban nationals. . . - ~'
These lawyers say that the CIA
was not required to give them any
information not directly related to
the hotelier bombing.
Ricardo'Canete, a protected wit-
ness in the Letelier bombing, told
the Sunday News Journal that Vir-
gilio Pablo Paz and Dionisio Suarez
the fugitives wanted in be Letelier.,
killing, had been using CIA-supplied I
.counterfeit money and South Afri-
can gold Krugerrands to live on.1
while at large. I
Testifying under the name of
Carlos. Casado,' Carete gave that''
information in secret to a grand
jury in March 1973, but did not-
repeat it at the public trial.
- The convicted Cubans defended
-themselves by claiming that the'
epar
ment.
FBI and Just
ce
sources ' said the ' relationship.
d t
I IN
A an
A, tIhe ,~
between the C
Cubans explains why the CIA was
reluctant to help track down Paz"
.and Suarez, the two Cubans who
.remain at large.;, . _:
Ronne Kapen Moffitan_d.Orlando Letelier; who died in-
the?Se Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/01 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000201280003-72nU