CHILEAN OFFICIAL WHO KNEW SUSPECTS DIED MYSTERIOUSLY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81M00980R002000090067-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 4, 2004
• Sequence Number: 67
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2004/10/12 : CIA-RDP81 M00980R002000090067-8
Chilean Official Who Knew
Suspects Died Mysteriously
By Juan de Onis
New York Times News Service
SANTIAGO, Chile - A Chilean
diplomat who might have identified
two men wanted for questioning in
the bombing that killed former
Ambassador Orlando Letelier in
Washington died five months ago
under mysterious circumstances.
The diplomat, Guillermo Osorio,
had signed a request to the U.S.
Embassy here that diplomatic visas
be granted to two men .carrying offi-
cial passports issued by his office.
The passports, with false names,
were used b two men who entered
the United States in July 1976 and
who are suspected of having ar-
ranged with Cuban exiles to blow up
Letelier's car two months later. The
exiled Letelier was an active oppo-
nent of the military regime here.
THE IDENTITY OF the two men,
however, is not known. The names on
the passports, Juan Williams Rose
and Alberto Romeral Jara, are, false.
A man named in the local press as
being one of them on the basis of
photographs has denied any involve-
ment. Rafael Undurraga Cruzat, an
electronics technician reported to be
the man named as Alberto Romeral
Jara, said he had never been in the
United States. The other supposed
missing person, Michael Townley,
was reported to be in Santiago, but
has not made a public appearance.
The death of Osorio is the subject
of a court inquiry. According to legal
sources, the death certificate gave
the cause of death as a heart attack.
A new autopsy was ordered after
members of his family said he had
been shot in the head, and the body
has been exhumed.
The day the diplomat died in his
bedroom he had been to an official
lunch for visiting Peruvian military
authorities. According to his wife, he
came home accompanied by Gen.
Juan Manuel Contreras Sepulveda,
who was then the head of Chile's Na-
tional Intelligence Directorate.
FAMILY MEMBERS said he had
been in good spirits up to the day of
his death, particularly after having
been told he was to be appointed to
an important ambassadorship. Re-
ports at the time that he had commit-
ted suicide were not dispelled by the
death certificate, which was issued
by the Chilean Forensic Institute.
U.S. Justice Department investiga-
tors inquiring into Letelier's death
believe that the two bearers of the
passports were agents of Chile's se-
cret intelligence service, DINA, then
under Contreras. The general is now
a high official in the army ministry
and a close adviser to President
Augusto Pinochet.
Approved For Release 2004/10/12 : CIA-RDP81 M00980R002000090067-8