GENERAL WALTERS' TRIP TO BRAZIL EXPLAINED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000700100008-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 9, 2005
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: January 19, 1973
• Content Type: NSPR

STAT
Approved For Release 2005/07/01 : CIA-RDP91-00
GENERAL WALT]RS' 'TRIP TO BRAZIL EXPLAINED
[Article; Havana, Bohemia, Spanish, 19 January 1973, p 85]
Regardless of how much Galo Plaza discounts it, the CIA
does think and does act. Therefore it does exist, to
paraphrase the erudite Cartesian saying. For example, the one
who currently is making a survey of military garrisons in
Brazil is. not exactly an ethereal, tourist phantom, nameless
and inaccessible, but a tough flesh and bones person, aggressive
and active, a four-star general in the hierarchy of the Pentagon.
His name is Vernon Walters and he is second in command in the.
Central Intelligence Agency's regisl'e:r, an operational officer
responsible for the preservation of imperial order in the Latin
American world. The PL [Prensa Latina`] , from which this
commentary is extracted, does not speci y the background of the
gallant Yankee warrior. But this is not~,necessary in order to
correctly place him. One does not become\deputy chief of the
CIA by collecting butterflies or cultivating roses and jasmine.
What is needed is the capacity for operational maneuvering and
intrigue, and also brutality without contemplation. At least
in theory, a high-level CIA chief has to know the art of
crushing testicles and obtaining reactions with an electric
goad.
General Walters arrives in Brasilia about the middle
of December on flight 290 of the VASP. He is met at the airport
by his counterparts in intelligence and information. The very
day of his arrival he meets with General Carlos Albert
Fontoiira, considered the second man in the gorilloid regime of
Garrastazu Medici. Then he hops to Sao Paulo to partake of a
dinner, behind closed doors, with General Augusto Jose
Presgr.ave, Commander of the Second Army Division; Brigadier
Delio Jardin do Nattos, of the Fourth Air Zone; and Admiral
Sylvio de Magalhaes Figuereido,. Commander of the Sixth Naval
District. Later, still. in a clandestine atmosphere, he has
an interview with Garrastazu in the "Granja do Torto, the
Approved For Release 2005/07/01 : CIA-RDP91-00901 R000700100008-5
 Approved For Release 2005/07/01 : CIA-RDP91-00901 R000700100008-5
presidential. retreat. The Minister of War, General Orlando
Geisel, is present at the secret meeting. In a matter of a
few days, the, diligent visitor surveys the whole military and
police register of the carioca country, from top to bottom.
Very soon the objectives of the visit become apparent.
The CIA deputy, carrying out specific instructions from Nixon,
comes to urge a "hard line" with regard to the government of
Chile. The success of the mission is apparent ? from the first
shots directed at the Popular Unity government. Scarcely
wrapped in thin cellophane. General Humberto de Souza Melo
opens fire. "Brazil and the United States," he proclaims,
"will continue to fight against communism, which is digging its
claws into South America." Further on he refers to "the red
menace which blows from the seas of the Pacific." "Red" menace
and seas of the Pacific? The conclusion is obvious. Chile in
the sights of the CIA's Brazilian affiliate.
8255
CSO: 4200-W
Approved For Release 2005/07/01 : CIA-RDP91-00901 R000700100008-5