Cops·cover for Omega 7 killers By Stu Singer Stein said, "the FBI feels [Armando SEPT. 17-A week after Felix Garcia Santana) is the key Omega 7 operative Rodriguez, a member of the Cuban in this area." delegation to the United Nations, was assll8sinated on a busy New York City The September 23 Newsweek quoted street, police have made no arrests. ,. Alfredo Chumaceiro, a right-wing ter· Right-wing terrorists who tOok credit rorist, as insisting "'there is no con· for the murder threatened to kill other nection' between the [Cuban National­ Cubans. They specifically targeted the ist) movement and Garcia's assll8­ head of Cuba's UN delegation, Dr. sination." Chumaceiro just might be RaUl Roa Kouri. lying. He and Santana spent two years At least three .45 caliber shots were in jail after New York police caught fired at Garcia, killing him Thursday them setting a bomb at a theater evening, September 11, as he was showing a Cuban film festival in 1976. driving on Queens Boulevard. The March 27, 1979 Times reported A caller told United Press Interna­ that the FBI said "its investigations tional severai minutes after the shoot· indicated that Omega 7 was 'a pseudo­ ing: "Omega 7 commandos are respon· nym used by members of the Cuban sible for the execution of a Cuban Nationalist Movement.' " delegate to the UN.... We intend to The media have reported that the continue to eliminate all these traitors CNM has a public office at 4207 New from the face of the earth and .we are York Ave., Union City, New Jersey. going to continue on executing all Three members of the CNM are in these people who are responsible for jail for the assassination of Chilean conditions in Cuba." exile leader Orlando Letelier and In the past five years, "Omega 1" American Ronnie Moffitt. Letelier's car has taken credit for other murders. was blown up in Washington Sep· They killed Carlos Muniz Varela in tember 21, 1976. The trial of the terror· San Juan Puerto Rico, April 28, 1979 ists revealed the murder was ordered and Eulalio Jose Negrin in Union City, by the Chilean secret police, Dina, and New Jersey last November 25. Muniz that there was some degree of CIA and Negrin were both opponents of the involvement. U.S. blockade against Cuba. No one Ironically the three CNM members has been charged in their murders. jailed for the Letelier and Moffitt Omega 7 has taken credit for twenty­ murders won a federal appeals court two bombings in the New York City ruling September 15 that overturned area in the last five years. There have their convictions. They are supposed to been no arrests. (See page 18 for the be tried again. history of police protection for Omega 7.) Hypocrites ana- liars On Friday afternoon, the day after When Carter admitted the shah of the murder of Garcia, 500 people dem­ Iran to this ·country, Iranian students onstrated outside the United States seized the U.S. Embassy. U.S. officials Mission to the UN. The demonstrators branded this the most heinous viola· demanded the arrest of the Omega 7 tion of international diplomatic norms terrorists and protested the U.S. block­ in history. ade against Cuba. The United States is host country to The afternoon edition the United Nations. Since 1975 Omega . ~ rf!. Post ~1l8 . alre Cl;dY . ~~'t;IifN ,t.;,;'V;,1:;!li .•_ 7 terrorists have claimed responsibility ti'ftOnt page dedared t' for bombing the UN missions of Vene­ police said today they feared a bloody Top, 500 In New York protested killing of Cuban diplomat. car blown up by zuela (twice), Cuba (five times), the war here between pro- and anti-Castro terrorlats In 1976 killing of Chilean leader Lateller. Killers will now get new trial. Soviet Union, and Angola. Now a groups· following the assassina­ Cuban diplomat has been gunned tion. .. 'There could be a lot of down. No action has ever been taken blood in the streets,' a top law enforce­ by U.S. authorities against the terror· ment source told the Post." cast in much of the news media.. They slow." ists for these attacks on "international wanted to turn the victim into the But the slow progress has nothing to diplomacy." Condolences and spy storIes criminal and relieve ·the pressure on do with lack of information. The In the last few years some bombings In reacting to the murder, U.S. offi· the. g.overnment to move against the names and pictures of key leaders of were supposedly committed by Puerto cials· expressed "sincere regret" (UN terrorists. the terrorists and the address of their Rican independence supporters. U.S. ambassador Donald McHenry), "enor· The charge is repeated in the News· public headquarters in Union City, police not only arrested and convicted mous distress" (New York MaYOr Ed week issue dated September 22, but the New Jersey have been published re­ people allegedly responsible, but at· Koch) and regret over the "reprehensi­ spy stories have since disappeared peatedly. tempted to terrorize all supporters of ble murder" (Secretary of State Ed­ from the local press. New York Police The Times .reported September 14 Puerto Rican independence in the pro· mund Muskie). and FBI officials have been quoted as . that police have been "unable to find cess. People were jailed for "conspi· But instead of arresting the terror­ saying "We don't have any informa­ any members of Omega 7." The news racy"; or jailed for contempt because ists, the government floated stories tion that he was in intelligence." media seems to have luId ·better luck. they chanted independence slogans in that Garcia, the Yictim, "served some (Times, September 13). The Daily News of September 14 court. intelligence furictions" (September 12 Raul Roa said of the charges, "[Gar­ carried an interview with Pedro Her· It is an outright lie that U.S. officials New York Times). The September 13 cia) was a protocol officer at the mis­ nandez, a right-wing newspaper pub­ do not know or cannot get a conviction Daily News headlined their article sion-that is all. The media is trying to lisher. Hernandez said he supported against the anti·Cuban terrorists. "Believe envoy killed for spy activity" invent all these fabrications to justify the murder of Garcia because "justice arid quoted unnamed "federal authori­ what has happened, and that is that is being done." Carter's policy ties" that "Omega 7 decided to execute Felix Garcia has been murdered in Whatever ·the facts eventually show Garcia after unmasking.him as a high plain daylight." In the March 10, 1980 Village Voice, about the direct links between the U.S. level spy sent here by Fidel Castro to writer Jeff Stein identified Hernandez government and Garcia's killers, the wipe them out." The article claims, U.S. protects terrorists as, "a close ally of [Armando] Santa­ Omega 7 terror campaign fits right in ."Garcia was thought to be keeping The September 16 New York Times na's Cuban Nationalist Movement with the policy of the Carter adminis· surveillance on a Cuban drug ring quotes FBI spokesman Quentin Ertel: and, according to New York police tration. operating in Miami." "I think in terms of developing wit· files, 'a suspect in recent Cuban bomb­ That policy is to block the revolution· Similar reports were initially broad- nesses and hard evidence, progress is ings.'" ary upsurge in Central America, and to isolate Cuba. The Omega 7 killings are inseparable from this policy, which could drag the American people into a Felix Garcia Rodriguez: a fighter since youth new Vietnam in Central America. The following biographical was arrested twice by Batista's for building new workers' housing. The violence is also aimed at intimi· sketch of the slain Felix Garcia police during student demonstra· dating the ·growing number of people Rodriguez is based on information tions. He served as an official of MIN­ in the Cuban community in this coun· REX and then worked as a journal· issued by the Cuban Mission to the He graduated from the schools of try who want a friendly policy toward United Nations. diplomatic law and journali&m at ist on the daily Victoria, published Cuba. Born in 1939 of humble origins, the university. on the Isle of Youth, and on Juuen· To the extent the murderers get the Havana daily. He Garcia worked from his earliest A member of a combat unit.of the Iud Rebelde, away with their crimes, they are en· was then appointed a diplomatic years to help support his family. people's militia, he participated in couraged to step up their attacks. attache to the Cuban UN Mission. As a student at the University of numerous mobilizations in defense Washington's message to Omega 7 He was, since 1977, a protocol offi· Havana, he was active in the move­ of the revolution. He was also thus far is: you have a license to kill. cial. ment against the Batista dictator­ active in voluntary sugar·harvest­ A different message has to be sent ship, cooperating with the Revolu­ ing mobilizations. As a member of He is survived by a brother, back to Washington: the American tionary Directorate, a student the Ministry of Exterior Relations Domingo Garcia Rodriguez, cur· people are sick of government-trained organization, and the July 26 (MINREX) he participated in pro­ rently the Cuban ambassador to killers freely walking the streets of this Movement, led by Fidel Castro. He jects sponsored by the department Egypt. country, whether they are.counterrevo­ lutionary Cubans or Ku Klux Klan scum.