BIG MEDIA REPORTERS COVER UP EVIDENCE OF LETELIER AS CUBAN AGENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000403680042-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 22, 2010
• Sequence Number: 42
• Publication Date: October 7, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ISTAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000403680042-6
An
Leteliera'sC ubanget
Reed, Irvine..
ARTICLE At'i':~r+is~
ON PAGI__j&,..-_.
Just four years, ago, in September 1976, Orlando
Letelier was -assassinated in Washington, D.C.
Letelier had been the Chilean ambassador to the'
United. States and later a cabinet officer in the"
Marxist Allende government of Chile. He had been
imprisoned. by the military government, that over-
threw Allende in'1973, but he was later released and
allowed to go into exile. Coming to Washington, he
was gone-to work-for the Institute for Policy Stud-
ies, a radical think tank:, One of his main activities
was to work for* the overthrow of the military
government in Chile. He said that he was working
for the restoration- of human rights in his native
land.
The Letelier assassination shocked the nation
and it brought forth numerous articles in the prss
and stories on television, first at the time of the
murder, and later when three men. were arrested and
convicted for- the crime. It continued to attract
widespread attention when they U.S. government
sought the extradition of the Chilean intelligence
chief, charging: that hehad ordered the murder. of
Letelier. The affair has come -in for "additional
publicity this year with the publication of-'a.new'
book about the case, .. and -most recently when -a
federal court ordered-- new , trails -.for threeanti
Despite all the thousands of words that have bee
written-and spoken about the;Letelier case,almost;
nothing has been .said ' about the papers found in',
Letelier s briefcase at the time of his death.. These
documents showed that Letelier was regularly re-
ceiving $1,000 a month from Cuba and that he hop-
ed to -eventuallydo'for Chile. what Castro had done
for Cuba. The real Letelier was hardly the fighter:
for human ,rights, and democracy that , the public
Letelier pretended to be.
Many of thes; revealing.documents were leaked
to some. members of the press late in-.1976.-`They
went discussed by some syndicated columnists, but
they were virtually ignoredby'news'reporters. There
seemed tp be a feeling by many in- the media that it .11 :
ropriate to expose to' public view the evi-
was ina
pp
dence that Orlando Letelier.'was a ,Cuban agent:' It
over Up Evidence of
WASHINGTON WEEKLY
7 October 1980
1Vieciia neporters
was evenzsuggested that those who sought to reveal
this information were trying to= condone-- his
assassination.
That is ridiculous.. The* media "did not ~ refrain
from . saying unsavory things about Anastasio
Somoza for fear of being accused of condoning his
assassination. They have an obligation to the public
to tell the truth about Letelier:,
Accuracy in :Media has obtained the Letelier
briefcase papers from the FBI, using a freedom of
information request..-This complete file shows that.
Letelier was working closely with Cuban" intelli-
gence and that he had ties to both the East Germans
and the Soviets. He:was being paid regularly from
Havana, and he was very anxious to keep the Cu-
ban connection secret, knowing that its exposure;
-would impair his effectiveness. In one letter to his
paymaster,-the Chilean wife of a high ranking Cu-
ban intelligence officer,Letelier boasted of his
"apparatus" in the United States. He had persuad
ed a number of prestigious Americans to serve as a
facade. Letelier warned that care should be taken to
keep the Cuban connection secret. He feared any
hint of that would cause some of his liberal spon-
sors. to resign. "You know how these :'liberals'.
.The evidence in --the -files indicates that Julian
Rizo, Castro's top spy in the U.S., was-Letelier's
"control." Rizo was stationed at the UN in 1975.
He is now ambassador to Castro's client state,
Grenada. He and Letelier were in frequent contact.
Leteler was also in touch with. another tog Cuban
intelligence.` agent, _.Teofilo- - Acosta.. His address
book, contained home and office phone number
for the Cuban foreign minister and the head of th
Cuban Communist Party- Carlos Rafael Rod
riguez. The address book also shows, that Letelie
had excellent journalist contacts. in the U.S., espec
ret activitjes of_an important agent of influence for
the.Soviet.bloc The.failureof.the media to tell the
story is one more indication-of how.vulnerable this
country has become to manipulation by the agents
of influence and disinformation of oiu,enemies
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000403680042-6