CHILE ORDERS INQUIRY IN THE LETELIER CASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81M00980R000600230096-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 21, 2004
• Sequence Number: 96
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2004/07/08: CIA-8M00988R000600230096-6
NEW YORK TIMES DATE: Page
CHILEORDERS INQUIRY
IN THE LETELIER CASE
Government Concedes Two Sought
by U.S. May Have Traveled
on . Official Passports
By JUAN de ONIS
SDeciai to The New York Times
SANTIAGO, Chile, March 6 -The Chi-
lean military Government conceded today
that official passports might have been
issued to two men being sought for ques-
tioning in the killing of the former For
eiign Minister Orlando Leteker in Wash-
ington.
An official statement said that Presi-
dent Augusto Pinochet had asked the Su-
preme Court to appoint a special judge
to investigate the case and had ordered
the Foreign Ministry to cooperate.
'The United States State Department
has forwarded to Santiago a request from
the Federal District Court for the District
of Columbia that two men, identified' as
Juan Williams Rose and Alejandro
Romerial Jama, be questioned
knowledge of the killing of Mr. Letelier
in August 1976.
According to the United States Consul-
ate here, visas good for six months were
stamped in offioial Chilean passports
bearing the names of the wanted men
it July 1976 at the request of the Chilean
Foreign Ministry.
Meeting With Cubans Reported
According to reports published In
Washington, the two men traveled to the
United States and met with Cuban exiles
before the bombing of Mr. Letelier's car,
apparently by remote control, whale he
drove in Washington.
Ambas-
Mr. Letelier, who had served as
sador in Washington before becoming
Foreign Minister in the left-wing Govern-
ment of the late President Salvador Al-
lende Gossens, was allowed to leave Chile
after being imprisoned by the military
junta that seized power in September
1973.
Once abroad, Mr. Letelier, a Socialist,
became an active opponent of the mili-
tary regime here and was deprived of
has Chile= citizenship.
The identity of the two men now being
sought for questioning is a major issue
off rail Chilean passports are presumed
false. The man named Juan Williams
Rose has been identified byy the news-
paper El Mercurio as Michael Vernon
Townley Welch, allegedly a North Ameri-
can who was living in Chile during the
Allende regime and was accused by the
press in 1973 of being an agent for the
Central Intelligence Agency.
The man named Romerall was identified
today by the newspaper La Segunda as
Rafael Undurrage Cruzat, a former naval
officer and electronics expert working as
production manager for a local electrical
company.
uot,n mi. iuwnley and Mr. Undurraga
were active members of the right-wing
xtremist organization known as Patria
y Libertad, which opposed the Allende
regime before it was overthrown.
Some members of Patria y Libertad
were incorporated into the secret intelli-
gence agency, known as Dina, that Presi-
dent Pinochet created in December 1973
to repress opposition to the military re-
gime.
The publicity given the request of the
District of Columbia court, acting on in-
formation gathered by the Department
of Justice, for questioning of the two
men has produced a sensation here. The
whereabouts of the two is not known,
but the appointment of a special judge
to investigate the case is expected to
produce a court order that they be
brought forward.
The Carter Administration has made
it clear to Chile that failure to respond
to the request for questioning of the two,
routine procedure in judicial relations
between the two countries, would lead
tions.
+~'"~ Object of Senate Inquiry
WASHINGTON, March 6-The Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence investi-
gated the activities of Michael Vernon
Townley, who may be a key figure in
the death of Orlando Letelier, according
to sources familiar with the investigation.
Sources familiar with the Intelligence
Committee said that the committee re-
ceived numerous allegations about a M
chael Townley during its 1975 inquiry,
but it could not establish whether he was
an agent of the C.I.A.
According to information received by
the committee, Mr. Townley became ac-
tive with conservatives in Chile in efforts
to unseat former President Salvadore Al-
lende Gossens.
Department of Justice sources declined
to comment on Mr. Townley's involve-
ent, if any, in the Letelier death.
U.N. Group Accuses Chile
Special to The New York Tlme%
GENEVA, March 6-The 32-member
United Nations Human Rights Commis-
sion today adopted a resolution co-spon-
sored by the United States that said fla-
grant violations of human rights contin-
ued in Chile under the military regime
of President Augusto Pinochet.
Only Brazil, Panama and Uruguay
voted against the resolution, which was
also co-sponsored by Austria, Britain and
Sweden. Four countries-Jordan, Nigeria,
the Ivory Coast and Peru--abstained on
technical grounds.
The commission recognized that the
number of political prisoners and of re-
ported cases of torture were on the wane
in Chile. However, it found that viola-
tions of human rights remained "in some
cases systematic and institutionalized."
It expressed "concern and indignation"
at the Chilean Government's failure to
account for the disappearance of about
1,000 political prisoners and demanded
that their fate be clarified "forthwith."
In a second resolution, the commission
urged the establishment by the General
Assembly of a voluntary fund to assist
persons imprisoned or forced to leave
Chile it violation of their human rights.
The vote was 21-3, with 6 abstentions,
including the United States. Edward M.
Mezvinsky, the United States representa-
said that he had abstained because
ti
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