"I am going to declare war"

It had been a long time since Dr. It seemed that it would he impossible to Orlando Bosch had talked to a reporter. By Blake Fleetwood see Bosch. I knew that Joanne Omang of He had been a fugitive for three years— the Washington Post had spent weeks in ever since he boasted he was going "un- trying to see Bosch and hadn't derground to direct the internationaliza- been successful. In desperation 1 had tion of the war" against his one-time called another lawyer, who surprised me comrade Fidel Castro. Sometimes, as he with a simple suggestion. "Tomorrow is flew from one Latin American capital to visiting day," he said. "Be there at 8 another, he would forget what name he a.m. and maybe you can get in." had decided to use and would begin fum- At eight the next morning, I bling among his four phony passports. showed up at the prison gates and saw He had once been a practicing pe- two lines of visitors waiting to enter the diatrician, first in . then in ,. prison. On the left were about 300 wom- but for more than 20 years now the tools en burdened down with baskets of fruit, of his real trade had been instruments of pies, cakes and fresh linen for their im- death—plastic explosives, rifles and ba- prisoned menfolk. To the right stood the zookas. He led a group of Cuban exiles four male visitors to the prison. In a few implicated in some '150 bombings and minutes the line started to move and I some 50 murders in the last two years followed along. I passed a table where (New Times. October 29, 1976). His someone asked me for my cedula. Al- group had been linked to the car-bomb though I understand some Spanish. this assassination of Chilean exile leader Or- was not a word I knew. Everyone else lando Letelier in Washington. D.C., last handed him what looked like an I.D. September, and now he was under arrest card, so I took out my passport. He took in Caracas, . charged with or- it and gave me a small plastic stub. One dering the bombing of a Cuban commer- Orlando Bosch is in a of the guards, who spoke a rough, coun- cial airliner last October 6, which killed Venezuelan jail, charged try Spanish that was difficult to under- 73 people. He is one of the most famous stand, told me to put down my briefcase terrorists in the world. with ordering the bomb- and ushered me into a small bathroom A tall, heavy-set man with thick ing of a Cuban plane in where I was frisked. Then my briefcase glasses, he was sitting in the sun in the was quickly searched and handed back Caracas prison when I walked up to him. which 73 people died. to me. I followed the other four men "Dr. Bosch?" I asked hesitantly. In an exclusive inter- through two barred gates. And suddenly "Yes?" he replied. I realized I was in the prison—at liberty I introduced myself as a reporter view, he talks about his to find Bosch among the lounging prison- from New York. He squinted as he care- years as a terrorist, his ers. I asked one of the more respectable- fully looked me over. looking prisoners where I could find Or- "How did you get in here?" he secret alliances with lando Bosch. asked suspiciously. Latin American govern- "You're in the wrong place alto- I told him I had called his lawyer gether. I'll take you to him." And he two weeks before and been told to come ments and his plans to did—through endless corridors and cell down to Venezuela. By the time I ar- get even with the blocks. We ended up in a sunlit court- rived, his lawyer had gone on vacation put yard in a section of the prison reserved and I couldn't reach him. i was in de- "traitors" who for special prisoners. He pointed to a spair. I'd flown 3,000 miles for nothing. him in jail man 20 feet away, as if he didn't want to

5/13/77 NEW TIMES 45 get too close to the most famous killer in one point, the agency had up to 6,000 mite and C-4 explosives for blowing up all of South America. "Over there, at Cuban exiles on its payroll. ships. He also fixed and put in firing con- that table. Thai's him." Bosch interrupted himself and dition the bazooka Bosch used against I told Bosch that not-only hadn't took me to his cell, a small six-by-eight- the Polish ship. Morales testified that they asked me whom I was going to see. foot room lined with Spanish tile wallpa- Bosch had said he was sorry that the but that they had somehow missed the per. A small Sony television sat on a bomb he planted in a ship called the Osa- compact tape recorder in my briefcase. shelf in the corner, and there were fresh ka Maru went off in Tampa Bay, because Bosch, as it turned out, was anxious to "designer" sheets on the bed. Bosch in- "the thing- that he wanted was for that talk to a foreign reporter, saying that the troduced his cellmate, Luis Posada, who ship to blow up outside in the middle of Venezuelan government had prevented is also being held in connection with the the sea because he was anxious to see all other interviews. For six hours, over the plane bombing. Posada pulled out a box the laps swimming and screaming 'Wee, din of homemade drums in a nearby of cigars and offered me one: wee, wee!' while the ship was sinking." courtyard, he poured out his story. "America may have an embargo against Bosch was sentenced to ten years Cuban cigars, but we don't." in federal prison, but was freed on parole "Fidel Castro and I were born in Bosch and Posada had worked on November 1, 1972. Cuba the same month 50 years ago. We together during the heyday of CIA-spon- During his imprisonment, Bosch's both came from fairly prosperous mid- sored anti-Castro activities in the early wife had left him. His voice broke as he dle-class families. We both ended up at sixties, including bombing missions told me about it. "This fight cost me my the University of Havana in the late against Cuban sugar mills and gunboat family and my five kids. They love me 1940s. I was in medical school and presi- attacks against Castro's fishing boats. and are very proud of their daddy, but I dent of the student council, and Castro But, in 1963, after the Cuban missile cri- was in jail for five years when they really was a delegate to the student council sis and the subsequent reduction of anti- needed me. They were 13. 11, 10, 8 and from the law school. Although we had Castro activities by the Kennedy ad- 5. They grew up without me. You know our differences, we worked together of- ministration, Bosch realized that the how society is there, all the drugs and ten and were both elected to our posi- CIA was no longer wholeheartedly com- crime. I wasn't a very good husband." tions from the same political party, mitted to his cause. "I felt betrayed by Bosch has always lived simply, which was very much in the center be- wearing a succession of old baggy suits, tween the right and left. It's not like to- often staying at the slum houses of his day when all Latin American universities "The Dominican supporters. "If I had stayed in Miami are dominated by Marxists. We were government let me stay and practiced medicine I would have both very anticommunist and anti-Batis- in the country and made many millions by now. But I could ta and very nationalistic." not do that while my country was in ago- Bosch left Cuba in 1952 for two organize 'actions.' I ny. I have paid very much for the strug- years of internship in pediatrics at Tole- wasn't going to church gle, very expensively, but that's the only do Hospital in Ohio. "When I finished in every day. We were way I know. Sometimes a man has a 1954, 1 returned to my hometown of San- conspiring there. higher duty than to his children. Some- ta Clara and set up a practice as a pedia- times a man has a duty to his homeland. trician. But the tyranny of the Batista Planning bombings and That's the duty I feel." dictatorship made me join up with Cas- killings" Soon after his release from pris- tro again. on, Bosch's sense of duty took an omi- "The Batista dictatorship was nous new turn. Detente between the choking us. I became the leader of the the Kennedy administration and by the and Communist countries July 26th Movement in my province and CIA. They held out a dream to us and was chilling to the militant Cuban exiles. we won the fight. I was appointed to the then let us down." A new exile group formed—the National government as a minister of communica- His own militancy had only in- Front for the Liberation of Cuba, or tion, But even as the war was ending, we creased. An exile group he led claimed FLNC, said to be modeled after the Pal- were having problems with the Commu- credit for 11 bombing attacks against Cu- estinian terrorists, Soon an FLNC death nists. They were taking over everything. ban territory; six times Bosch was ar- list began to circulate around Little Ha- I complained, I fought against it, but rested for violating U.S. neutrality laws. vana, and then one exile leader on that there was nothing I could do. At the time, Finally, on September 16, 1968,,he was list, Jose Elias de la Torriente, was as- I still had faith in Castro and his revolu- caught in the act of firing a makeshift ba- sassinated. Ricardo Morales narrowly tion. But then it got too bad, and after a zooka into the hull of a Polish ship escaped death when a bomb exploded month I resigned from the government. docked in Miami. under the front seat of his car. The Mi- That's when I started conspiring against Most of the testimony against ami homicide squad wanted to talk to Castro." Bosch at his subsequent trial came from Bosch, but he had disappeared. Bosch told me about the group of Ricardo Morales Navarette. Morales is a A few months later, in a clandes- anti-Castro guerrillas he had led in the man of many hats—terrorist, informant, tine interview with the Miami News, Escambray mountains in Cuba in 1960. hit man, mercenary and cop. He had Bosch praised the Torriente assassina- Castro, Bosch says, sentenced him to been an agent in Castro's secret police, a tion as "a good lesson to the exile com- death. After running out of supplies, he CIA operative, a paid informant for the munity, so that no one else will now and his followers fled to Florida, where FBI, an agent provocateur, an anti-Cas- come forth with phony theories to fool they found a benefactor in the CIA. At tro terrorist. Today he is a top Venezue- and rob the people." Nevertheless, he lan secret-police official. disclaimed direct responsibility, and said New York free-lance writer Blake Bosch and Morales met in Miami he had gone underground because he had Fleetwood last wrote for New Times on in 1968. Morales, acting on instructions coincidentally violated his parole by mercury poisoning in . from the FBI, supplied Bosch with dyna- traveling to New Jersey around the time

44 NEW 11MES 5113/77 of the assassination. But, he added, "I went underground to direct the interna- tionalization of the war. I thought that the action people [terrorists] should get out of the U.S. and operate from differ- ent bases throughout Central and South America." In the next 18 months, four of the ten people on the FLNC list were killed, and a fifth had his legs blown off. During that period, Bosch was traveling widely in the . (Did he ever slip back into the U.S.? Bosch laughed. "If I have to go to the United States. 1 go.") His main goal was to forge alliances with friendly govern- ments in Nicaragua. the Dominican Re- public, and Venezuela—all Countries with powerful Cuban exile communities. Bosch claims that he made his first pact with the Venezuelan govern- ment in 1974, He had entered Venezuela from the in June of that year, using a false Dominican pass- port in the name of Pedro Penya. "We set off a bomb in front of the Panamani- an embassy in Caracas. We chose the 10th of October because that is the date the liberation of Cuba was announced in 1898. We did it because the Torrijos dictator ['s president] announced that he was going to Havana, and he did, and he kissed Castro. At the beginning the authorities blamed some Panamanian general who was in exile here. About two weeks later a Communist Cuban of- ficial was invited to speak at the Vene- LYNCHBURG has some of the oldest homes zuelan-Cuban friendship club. I infiltrat- ed into the audience and before the guy in Tennessee. And the oldest registered could speak the whole thing blew up. We had to do it. We didn't want to hurt any- distillery in America. one. but we just didn't want the guy to talk. Its name, of course, is Jack Daniel's. Where "I continued conspiring all that we still make whiskey the way Mr. Jack fall, raising money and planning bomb- ings and other actions. But about the made it in 1866. And then smooth it out middle of November I was arrested by the DISIP [the Venezuelan secret politi- with his age-old charcoal mellowing process. cal police]. They denied to the press that If you're interested in I was in the country or even under ar- rest. [The U.S. knew of Bosch's deten- old Tennessee homes, tion, but passed up the opportunity to we'd be glad to show extradite him.] Then I made my first for- CHARCOAL mal agreement with the Venezuelan gov- you around Lynchburg. MELLOWED ernment. I dealt with Rivas Vasquez and Orlando Garcia [second and third in If you're curious about command of the DISIP]. old Tennessee Whiskey, DROP "I promised that no more actions against Castro's friends would be taken let a sip of Jack Daniel's in Caracas, and they promised me in the BY DROP name of President Carlos Andres Perez be your guide. that no high official of the Cuban regime would be allowed into Venezuela." Bosch was then released. He flew Tennessee Whiskey • 90 Proof • Distilled and Bottled by Jack Daniel Distillery to Curacao, where he met with Guiller- Lem Motiow, Prop., Inc., Lynchburg (Pop. 361), Tenn. 37352 mo Novo and other Cuban exile leaders Placed in the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Government.

5/13/77 NEW TIMES 47 from the U.S. "From Curacao," he said, S. Carlos Rivero Collade, a former "Novo and I flew to and made a lot Cuban exile leader who has returned to of effort there." Bosch lived in Chile Cuba, has written that Bosch received from December 1974 to December 1975. special instruction in assassination and where he had another family with a Chi- personal attacks during his year in Chile lean woman. According to press reports, from the Chilean National Intelligence he lived as a guest of the government in a Department. "The purpose behind the government apartment. "I passed sever- training was to have Bosch assassinate Andres Pascal Allende, nephew of the al times from Chile to . We slain Chilean president," he wrote. tried to shoot some Cuban diplomats in the middle of 1975 and we set off a bomb According to former Costa Rican at the Mexican embassy in Buenos Foreign Minister Gonzalo Facia, Bosch Aires. We made good contacts there arrived in his country with the Andres with members of the triple-A party [a Pascal assassination assignment given to right-wing extremist group]. Because of him by the Chilean junta. Using a Chi- the contacts we made down there, we set lean passport, a Chilean driver's license up the murder of two Cuban diplomats. and other Chilean documents in the That was part of the agreement I had name of Hector D'Avanzo Cintolessi, with them. On August 9th last year, I had Bosch entered the country from Nicara- a call from our people down there. They gua where, according to Facia, he had said, 'You read the papers today?' " met with "close aides of President Anas- Bosch then made a slashing motion from tasio Somoza." On the basis of intelli- gence reports Bosch was detained in Costa Rica and, while being held, ac- cording to Pacio, "he told interrogators he intended to kill Secretary of State Kissinger, who was due to arrive here soon thereafter." Bosch admitted to me that he had been in Costa Rica, but would not acknowledge any role in the alleged assassination plots. "After leaving Costa Rica I went to live in Santa Domingo until August of 1976. I had a number of good friends there and we planned many actions. "The Dominican government let me stay in the country and organize ac- tions. I wasn't going to church every day. We were conspiring there. Planning bombings and killings. . . People were coming in and going out. I was plotting with them. Secretly, of course." Bosch's plotting culminated in a secret meeting of the top terrorist lead- ers of the hemisphere in the Dominican Republic. "The story of CORU [Coordi- nation of the United Revolutionary Or- ganizations] is true," he told me. "There was a meeting in the Bonao mountains of 20 men representing all different [Cuban exile] activist organizations. It was a meeting of all the military and political directors with revolutionary implica- tions. It was a great meeting. Everything Was Bosch involved? Orlando Letelier (top) was murdered in Washington, O.C. was planned there." The bombing of a Cuban jet off killed 73; In bottom photo, rescue The top men from Alpha 66 (New workers examine a body pulled from the water Jersey), Abdalah (a New York-based youth group), the 2506 Brigade (veterans one end of his throat to another. The two in Europe. After doing everything that is of the Bay of Pigs invasion), FLNC, F 14 members of the Cuban embassy in Ar- possible in the South Cone [Chile. Ar- () and Accion Cubana (a gentina who were kidnapped August 9 gentina and Uruguay]. we had three group Bosch headed) met for two days in last year. and who have not been heard good actions [bombings or shootings]. It the Bonao mountains in early June, 1976. from since. apparently will not be heard was not only the job that we did but also They decided to band together uncy an from again. the image and relationships that we es- umbrella organization, CORU, with "We have contacts with people tablished while we were down there Bosch as the only identified spokesman like that all over Latin America and even whi= h was the main purpose." and leader.

48 NEW TIMES 5113777 "At last we had all the Cuban rev- Dominican Republic. In exchange they box on page 52]. olutionary fighters and leaders together, would let me live in Venezuela under an Up till that point. Bosch told me, after 17 years. We decided to upscale the assumed name and organize other terror- "the pact (with Venezuela] was going action after that. We wanted to beat the ists' actions elsewhere. They wanted me perfectly well. In fact, I was supposed to guy (Castro] or at least make his life im- to include Panama and Guyana. meet with President Perez on October possible. I told them that we couldn't "I said emphatically, no. I agreed 10, but then the plane blew up on the 6th just keep bombing an embassy here and to include Costa Rica, but I didn't want and all the trouble started. I had a lot of a police station there. We had to start to include Panama because it is a [leftist] conversations with Garcia. He lived in taking more serious actions—hijack- dictatorship. And I didn't want to in- the Anauco Hilton also. I asked him ing." (According to a Cuban exile news- clude Guyana. We had already attacked what should I do and he said, 'Nothing is paper, one of the resolutions that came Guyana. The CORU already blew up the going to happen, just stay quiet. Don't out of that meeting was a vow "to begin Guyana embassy in Trinidad. worry, everything is going to be nice.' attacking Castro's planes in the air.") "Finally they said, 'All right. "Then one day he calls me up and "I accepted the leadership of We'll just include the three countries. says, 'The president wants you to stay CORU because I wanted to set every- You can do what you want in all the oth- here [at the police headquarters]. No thing up on an organized basis. We were ers.' They offered me use of weapons, problem. You'll be safe.' But I have tired of being frustrated and not accom- but I refused. saying that we already had been under 'protective custody' for sev- plishing everything that we wanted to all that we could use. They offered me en months now, and the president has do." Bosch brought the other leaders up- bodyguards from the DISIP [the secret said on television that I was a member of to-date on the kind of help they could ex- police], but I didn't need those either. the CIA and trying to destabilize his gov- pect in Nicaragua, the Dominican Re- They gave me an identification card ernment." public, Venezuela and Chile. Then the from the DISIP which I took—I think it Bosch claims that Orlando Garcia group dispersed. In the II months since was in the name of Sucre. I was always has told him to "sit tight, everything will that meeting. Bosch boasts, CORU has traveling around the countryside with a be all right. We will let you go as soon as been responsible for over 50 bombings in great many bodyguards and lots of weep- the publicity blows over." But Bosch is Miami, New York, Venezuela, Panama, not sure he believes him, and is getting and Argentina. (Bosch refused very impatient. He spoke to me with ex- to admit any personal involvement in Bosch's secret pact with treme bitterness about "the betrayal of bombings within the United States; po- Venezuela "was going the Cuban people" by the Venezuelans lice sources say the leaders had agreed who had so. recently befriended him. He not to take credit for actions within the perfectly well. In fact, I is even willing to entertain charges that U.S. because the FBI was putting too was supposed to meet Venezuela set him up from the day he much heat on them.) with President Perez on was invited to live there. Could his old After the Bonao meeting the Da- October 10, but then the archenemy Morales have cleverly gotten minican government called Bosch in and even in this way? told him he was "too hot" and would plane blew up on the 6th "Some of my friends said that have to leave the country. and all the trouble they called me back deliberately to be- "I told them how cowardly they started" tray me. I don't know. It is possible." were and how scared of Castro they had In any case, Bosch has decided to become, but to no avail. I went back to resume the offensive. "When I was Costa Rica, and Oduber [the president], ans. If I got stopped, I would just show brought to the court the last time, report- to make up for the damage they had done my secret-police card and I wouldn't ers crowded around me, but I didn't say when they arrested me [for the alleged have any problems." anything. They asked me if I had a DIS- Kissinger assassination plot], gave me So Bosch had found in Venezuela IP card. I denied it, but I can't keep quiet three passports. One from and two a seemingly secure base for his terrorist anymore. others from Costa Rica. Then I went activities. Then, within a two-week peri- "We're pushed up against the back to Nicaragua,where I began getting od last fall, two terrorist incidents put wall by [President] Perez. We're going to phone calls from Orlando Garcia [securi- the Cuban exiles on the front pages—and accuse him of betraying us. A traitor to ty adviser to Venezuelan President Perez landed Bosch in jail. The first was the democracy, a traitor to the Cubans. and and a top officer in the DISIP]. Garcia September 21 assassination in Washing- also a traitor to the American cause. I am told me that he had been jogging with the ton, D.C., of Chilean exile leader Or- going to declare war on the Venezuelan president—he exercises with the presi- lando Letelier, whose car blew up as he government in the name of the Cuban dent every day—and that Perez had told drove past the Chilean embassy in Sheri- cause. I don't care that 1 am sitting in him to invite me to Venezuela to make a dan Circle. Cuban exiles were immedi- jail. Perez is a traitor. He was making a deal. I didn't pay any attention, but after ately suspected of carrying out the crime pact with Castro at the same time that he he called me three times and sent me a as hit men for the Chilean junta. was making a pact with us. visa, I came. The second was the October 6 ex- "If they want to put me on trial, "At the airport 1 was met by plosion in flight of a Cuban jet they will also have to accuse the minister Garcia and Ricardo Morales [the man shortly after takeoff from Barbados. All of the interior, the DISIP director and whose testimony had sent Bosch to jail, 73 persons aboard were killed. The next the president. These people conspired and who had by that time become a high day. two Cuban exiles. Homan Ricardo with me. They should be put in jail as official in the DISIP]. They took me to a and Freddy Lugo. were arrested in Trini- wel I. luxurious government apartment in the dad. According to secret court docu- "Did you see the Viasa [Venezue- Anauco Hilton and we made a deal. I ments obtained by New Times, they con- lan Airline] office blown up in Puerto agreed that there would not be any ac- fessed to planting a bomb in the plane— Rico yesterday? My Cubans blew it up, tions in Venezuela, Costa Rica and the and implicated Orlando Bosch [see the but nobody is going to take credit for it.

5113/77 NEW TIMES 111 The bomb made a big bulge in here, no matter where.' " "The bus has left Ricardo's pocket and he was very They caught a plane to Trinidad, with the dogs": nervous. leaving their bags in the hotel room in It took only a few minutes in the Barbados. On the plane Ricardo buried How they blew up toilet, but then Ricardo found he his head in his hands and said to Lugo, the Cuban plane couldn't get out. He panicked and "Shit, Lugo! I'm desperate and I feel started banging on the door. The like crying. f have never killed anyone stewardess tried to open the door from before." The following account of the the outside, but she couldn't. She At the Holiday Inn in Trinidad, bombing of the Cubana Airline jet is called one of the pilots from the Ricardo called Bosch, who told him, based on secret Venezuelan court cockpit who kicked at it three times "Friend, we have to see each other in documents. Most of the information with his foot. Finally the door opened Caracas. You never should explode a comes from the confessions, since and Ricardo stumbled out. By the time bomb while a plane is in the air." repudiated, of the men charged with the he got back to his seat he was drenched Meanwhile, the Barbados cab crime. in sweat and appeared very nervous. driver, struck by Ricardo's erratic For the rest of the flight Ricardo held a behavior, had contacted the police. Hernan Ricardo, 22, had been newspaper in front of his face. They tracked Ricardo and Lugo to working at the private detective office They got off the plane in Trinidad. In their hotel room the police of Luis Posada in Caracas for about a Barbados, collected their luggage, and found two phone books containing year when, on September 10, 1976, made their way to the Hotel Village. At many different addresses, including Posada introduced him to a "Mr. one point in the cab ride Ricardo told those of Orlando Bosch, Luis Posada Panyagua." Posada assigned Ricardo the driver to stop, jumped out and and Joseph Leo, an FBI legal attache in to help "Mr. Panyagua" get around, as looked up at a passing plane. I4e was the United States embassy in Caracas. he was a stranger in the country. After very agitated and nervous. The Trinidad police separated a few days of helping "Mr. Panyagua," Lugo described the scene ten Lugo and Ricardo and during the Ricardo realized that he was really minutes later as follows. "The people questioning that followed over the next Orlando Bosch, "the maximum leader in ihe streets were very agitated and few days—the police threatened to of the Cuban people." pointing up to the sky, saying that a send them back to Cuba unless they On the night of October 5, plane had fallen. Ricardo said that we talked—they both confessed. Ricardo Ricardo. Bosch and Freddy Lugo. 25. were in big trouble because we had told Police Chief Denis Elliott Randwar met at a Cuban exile meeting. At traveled on false passports. At the that he had planted the bomb on the midnight that same day, Ricardo and hotel Ricardo told me to take the bags airplane. He also said, "I am a member Lugo flew to Trinidad aboard a Pan up to the room while he registered in a of a secret organization, the CORD or American flight. They stayed overnight false name. He said he was calling CONDOR, and the chief of this and the next morning inquired about Venezuela for advice." organization is Orlando Bosch," Cubana Airline flight 455, stopping in He had difficulty getting Ricardo added that he "was a CIA Barbados en route to Cuba. The clerk through. One call that he did get agent of the grade B-1" and that he had told them that the Cuban plane had through was to his girlfriend, Marines been recruited in 1971. He said that he been delayed, but that there was Vegas. She testified that he gave her a had received training in the another flight to Barbados leaving number and told her to get the manufacturing of bombs, the handling immediately. Ricardo protested, but following message to Luis or Gustavo: of firearms and photography had trouble getting his message across "Tell them Jam in a desperate by the CIA. since his English was not very good. situation and that they should send Before a number of Trinidad Standing behind Ricardo in line someone quick. That this is a question policemen he drew a picture of the were a few members of Cuba's of life or death and that 'the bus has bomb and described the plastic championship fencing, team, who were left with the dogs.' Tell them that I explosive that had been used. He sale returning home after an international threw away the phone numbers." he kept the "pencil" detonator in the tour. One of the fencers, also hooked Ricardo got a phone call back tube of Colgate toothpaste. TN:del-era on Cubana flight 455, translated for from Caracas during which Lugo colored chemical pencils cotdd trigger Ricardo. "He says that he doesn't want quotes him as saying, "What's an explosion in 8 minutes, 45 minutes, to go on an earlier flight. He only wants happening, Luis? I have a lot of 2 hours, 8 hours or 24 boars, he said. to travel on Cubana 455 and he's problems. I don't know what to do. He said he had been pa;d $25,000 willing to wait until it's ready to go." The bug has fallen into the water. Tell to plant the bomb. Lugo and Ricardo each checked this to Panyagua [Bosch]." On October 20, after signing his a hag, and Lugo carried with him a dark Just as he put down the phone confessions, Ricardo tried to kill alligator shoulder bag with two Ricardo saw someone staring at him himself by slashing his wrist with a cameras and a tube of Colgate and ran up to the room in a panic. Lugo razor, but he was taken to the hospital toothpaste in it. With 16 Cuban says Ricardo told him, "Let's get out and survived. fencers, 6 medical students from of here right away. The man who At funeral services for those South America, 5 Koreans and 45 stared at me in the lobby is a G-2 [agent killed on the plane, Fidel Castro other, mostly Cuban, passengers and of Castro's secret police]." charged that the CIA was directly crew. Lugo and Ricardo finally got on "We took a cab to the docks." responsible for the bombing. As a the plane. About half-way through the Lugo said, "and Ricardo threw result, he terminated the hijacking 20-minute flight, Ricardo got up to go to something in the water. Then he said, agreement Cuba had signed with the the bathroom to plant the explosive. 'We should get the first plane out of United Stales.

52 INEW nMES S1,3%77 This is just a message. There will be a ban exile leaders in the United States. FLASH! couple of messages more." They were arrested in 1964 for firing a New Program makes news! Ocean-fr ant Southampton Coffer I asked him if there was going to offers Education-Vacation. ROOM at board aprons S200 a bazooka at the United Nations while Che week (or family of 4. Undergraduate, graduate and teacher be a kidnapping attempt against Vene- Guevara was speaking there, but charges credits. American studies. art, business. public inanagemcni. zuelan diplomats. (An FBI informant re- sciences. English. history, political science, psychology, so- were dropped because they were not cial science, etc. Many orte•week intensive, Vacation fun' ported a plan to kidnap the Venezuelan read their rights before they confessed. swimming. sports, crafts, theatre. day camps rot kids 40- page brochure. Dep. O. Ms. Skinner. Snmhampton College, ambassador to the United Nations in Guillermo Novo (or Bill, as he is known LIU. Southampton, NY 11964. (5161241-4000. March. The ambassador was informed at the Chevrolet dealership in Union and surrounded with extra security.) City, New Jersey, where he is a new-car Bosch replied: "There are going to he a sales manager) was sentenced to live lot of things after I declare war. This is years in jail in 1971 for possession of ex- RESEARCH going to be a tremendous risk for me be- plosives. He served six months, and was SEND $2.00 for large catalog of prewrit- cause I'll still be in jail. After the war given probation for five years. Under the ten research. Original writing also. Pro- declaration there are going to be a lot of fessional, Reasonable. Fast! Information terms of his parole he was not allowed to Clearinghouse, Box 4391, Washington, bombings, a lot of kidnappings, a lot of leave New Jersey. But Bosch told me of D.C. 20012 (202) 723-1715 shootings. We have to attack everything two foreign trips Bill Novo took—the except their planes in the air. Their of- first to Curacao and Chile, the second to fices on land, yes." Bonao. Bill Novo could be sent back to And what about the spectacular jail for these trips in violation of pa- crimes that put the Cuban exiles in the role—which he denies making. NOTICE: spotlight? Bosch's story to Vasquez about Record Raters Wanted Cuban government officials have the Novos' involvement in the Letelier (No eirperience required.) Each month you will told recent American visitors that Or- murder correlated with a story that had receive nationally released albums to rate. You pay only a small membership lee which covers lando Bosch was enlisted and paid by the been told to authorities by an FBI infor- all costs of the albums, including postage and Chilean junta to carry out the Letelier handling. There is no extra charge for the albums mant in Washington. (Contrary to re- you receive. In return for your opinion you will assassination. Bosch, they claim, par- ports in most American papers, no U.S. build a substantial album collection. Applicants accepted on "first come basis." For application official has been allowed by the Vene- and hither details write: zuelan government to see Bosch.) On the E.A.R.S., INC., Dept. NT, Box 10245, basis of these two leads Eugene Propper. Bosch concedes that 5521 W. Center SI., Milwaukee, WI 53210 the Cuban exiles the Assistant U.S. Attorney in charge of the Letelier investigation, has called The research program is guaranteed discussed Orlando about ten Cuban exile leaders before a Letelier. "Chilean Washington grand jury. Bill Novo was officials told me many called before the Letelier grand jury times when I lived there twice, and twice took the Fifth Amend- ment. The government has now begun w Times that they wanted him offering limited immunity to some of the dead" other Cuban exiles, hoping to force them Subscriber to talk. Recently a friend of Bill Novo's Note:Your present was jailed after refusing to testify before Service subscription will celcd out the money to other members of end with the Issue the grand jury about Novo's travels to noted in the upper CORU who actually blew up Letelier. Curacao. right corner of Bosch concedes that the Cuban exiles As for Bosch, his future is un- your mailing label new "discussed Orlando Letelier at (the Bo- clear. Venezuelan legal experts say the Entering a Address Change: subscription?: naol meeting, and the fact that [Lete- likelihood of convicting him in the air- Please attach the label Check the box and for your old addtese her Her's) campaign [to discredit the junta plane explosion case is not great. Ricar- till in your name and write in your and address below abroad) was bothering some of our new address below. do and Lugo, the chief potential wit- (To order gift sub- friends in Chile. Chilean officials told me Inquiries 6 complelnis: nesses against him, have repudiated their We can scriptions please many times when I lived there that they confessions after being deported to serve you attach a separate better sheet). wanted him dead." But Bosch denied Venezuela from Trinidad. In any case, and faster Renewing?: Check It you will knowing anything about the Letelier as- confessions made in Trinidad are not ad- enclose your label the box below and sassination. "Even if I did know," he with all correspondence make sure your missible in Venezuelan courtrooms. The mailing address is added, "1 wouldn't tell anyone, I'm not a government has tapes of Ricardo's tele- Mail this correct. There is stool pigeon or an informer." phone calls to Venezuela, but these, too, whole form to an additional According to a confidential intelli- New Times charge of $2.00 per are inadmissible, since they were not ob- P.O. Box 10046 year to cover gence report obtained by New Times. tained legally. It is thus entirely possible Des Moines, postage and han- Iowa 50340 however, Bosch was not so reticent that Bosch will be released. dling of issues to Canada. about the Letelier case when questioned If that happens, he will surely slip Please send New Times for 1 year, 513.00 by Venezuelan authorities shortly after again into the violent, murky world 0 New subscription 0 renewal his arrest. The report states that Bosch where desperate men are alternately 0 payment enclosed 0 bill me later told Rivas Vasquez, second in command used and betrayed by the secret agencies Name of DISIP, that, while he had nothing to of governments. It is a far cry from the (please print) do with the Letelier assassination, "the life of a prosperous pediatrician, a fami- Address Novo brothers are directly involved." ly man, a pillar of his community. But City State/Province Zip/Postcode Guillermo and Ignacio Novo are "some of us." as he told me, "have oth- For even raster service, phone toll free 800- 247-2160 (In Iowa call 1-800-362-2860) among the most militant and activist Cu- er roles to play." •

5/13177 NEW TIMES 13