OMEGA 7'S KILLERS STRIKE IN NEW YORK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000201110097-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 13, 2011
• Sequence Number: 97
• Publication Date: September 22, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/13: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201110097-0
ARTICLE
ON PAG i 3 S'"
Omega ?'s Killers
Strike in New York
Felix Garcia Rodriguez, a low-ranking
aide at the Cuban mission to the United
Nations in New York, was driving through
-Queens early one evening last week in his
maroon Pontiac station wagon. Suddenly,
shots were fired from a nearby car. Garcia
was hit by two bullets, one below his left
ear and one above it, and died instantly-
the first U.N. diplomat ever assassinated
on the streets of New York. About ten
minutes later, a Hispanic-sounding man
called several news organizations, claiming
that the assassination had been carried out
by Omega 7-a violently anti-Castro
group of Cubans that the FBI has labeled
the most dangerous terrorist organization
operating in the United States.
Spree: It was the second murder in a
year laid to Omega 7, which has also
claimed to have setoff at least twenty bombs
in the past five years-five of them in at-
tacks on the Cuban U.N. mission and one
against the Soviet mission. The FBI feared
that last week's shooting might launch a
new spree of violence, and officials worried
about the possible international implica-
tions of the murder. Secretary of State Ed-
mund Muskie expressed "deep regret" over
the slaying and promised a "vigorous in-
vestigation." U.N. Secretary-General Kurt
Waldheim denounced the killing as "a wan-
ton act of terrorism," and both the FBI
and New York police pledged tighter se-
curity for diplomats. The official Cuban
newspaper Granma, meanwhile, charged
that the terrorists acted with "impunity,"
and the Soviet news agency Tass propa-
gandized that the murder was accom-
plished with the "full connivance" of l
American authorities.
Justice Department officials believe that
Omega 7 draws its membership from the
Cuban, Nationalist Movement, an above-
ground anti-Castro group with headquar-
ters in Miami and in Union City, N.J. Some.
of its leaders are CIA-trained Bay of Pi s
veterans w o are sti edicated tot the over-
t row o t e astro regime. Three CNM
mom ors are now in prison in connection
with the assassination of former Chilean
Ambassador Orlando Letelier in Washing-
ton four years ago. Two others were charg-
ed ed in that case but remain fugitives; they
are also wanted for questioning in a 1979,
bombing at Kennedy airport, for which
Omega 7 claimed responsibility. Earlier this
year, after police found a bomb outside ,
the residence of Cuba's U.N. Ambassador
flEWS:JEEK
22 September 1980
Raul Roa Kouri, the Federal government
began a grand jury investigation of CNM
and Omega 7. One key line of questioning:
does the movement extort money from local
businessmen or receive aid from foreign
and domestic organizations?
The leader of the New Jersey branch
of the CNM is Armando Santana, 29, who
once served a jail sentence for placing a
bomb in front of a New York theater where
a pro-Castro festival was to be held. In
an interview with NEWSWEEK last year,
Santana explained the group's objective.
"We should be rulers of our own destiny,"
he said. "Cuba has never been free. We
are not looking to turn the clock back to
Batista. We're not Western oriented and
do not look to the Soviet mode. We're look-
ing for a new, third position." Santana re-
fused to confirm or deny any connection
with Omega 7, but last week CNM member
Alfredo Chumaceiro insisted that "there
is no connection" between the movement
and Garcia's assassination.
Efforts to crack the terrorist ring are
hampered by the support CNM receives
within the passionately anti-Castro Cuban
community of Union City. "I know nothing
about the assassination or Omega 7, but
it's OK with me," said businessman Guido
Guirado. "We cooperate with the move-
ment freely. Any penny we have we happily
give to them," added his wife, Felicia, sister
of one of the Letelier fugitives. The hard-
line Cuban nationalists reject any attempt
to deal with Castro. Omega 7's activities
picked up sharply after a group of Cuban
moderates, called the Committee of 75, be-
gan dialogues with Castro two years ago
that led to the release of 3,000 Cuban po-
litical prisoners and the visits of hundreds
of thousands of Cuban exiles to their home-
:.land. Last year, committee member Carlos
Mufliz was shot to death in San Juan, and
another member, Eulalio Negrin, was mur-
dered later on the streets of Union City.
Officials believe Omega 7 is responsible for
the Negrin killing.
A Cuban Spy? One unanswered question
about last week's shooting was why Garcia
was picked as the victim. One officer at
the Cuban mission in New YorlVsaid that
Garcia "was just a gofer. He was not im-
portant." But other sources suggested that
Garcia was actually a spy sent to counter
anti-Castro militants and to keep watch
over a Cuban drug ring in Miami. Whatever
Garcia's true role, lawmen seemed at a loss
in the search for his killers. Without more
cooperation from the.Cuban community,
they may be hard pressed to put amend
to the terror of dmega 7.
DENNIS A. WILLIAMS with SUSAN AGREST
and HELENA JOSHEE in New York
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/13: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201110097-0