The Condor Years (53 page)

211
  
PVP:
Interviews with Hugo Cores, one of the founders of the PVP, who confirmed the kidnapping and ransom amount. The kidnap victim was an Argentine businessman, Federico Hart. Ransom was paid quietly in 1974, without involvement
of the Argentine police and with little public notice. The PVP-OPR-33 activities and organization are described in a book-length military publication,
“El Proceso Politico: Las Fuerzas Armadas al Pueblo Oriental,”
no date (copy obtained from human rights sources).

212
  
Clear evidence of cooperation:
Montevideo 4161, November 1, 1976 (Argentina Project).

212
  
Uruguayan disappeared:
The testimonies of survivors of the Uruguayan Condor operations in Argentina are excerpted in an elegantly documented summary of evidence,
El Contexto Represivo
, compiled by Raul Olivera, of the union federation PIT/CNT. The electronic document consists of a seventy-five-page chronology, excerpts from key testimony, and hyperlinks to the transcriptions of testimonies of almost one hundred witnesses. A total of forty-six Uruguayans disappeared in Argentina in 1976. Those seen in Automotores Orletti, with date of capture, are:

6/9/76, Gatti Antuña, Gerardo Francisco;

6/15/76, Méndez Donadio, José Hugo;

6/15/76, Rodríguez Rodríguez, Julio;

6/?/76, Candia, Francisco Edgardo;

7/13/76, Duarte Luján, León Gualberto;

8/26/76, Cruz Bonfiglio, Mario Jorge;

9/3/76, Betancourt Garin, Walner Ademir;

9/23/76, Morales von Pieverling, Juan Miguel;

9/23/76, Kleim Lledo de Morales, Josefina Modesta;

9/26/76, Julien Caceres, Mario Roger;

9/26/76, Grisonas de Julien, Victoria;

9/26/76, Mechoso Méndez, Alberto Cecilio;

9/26/76, Soba, Adalberto Waldemar;

9/26/76, Tejera Llovet, Raúl;

9/26/76, Errandonea Salvia, Juan Pablo;

9/27/76, Islas Gatti de Zaffaroni, María Emilia;

9/27/76, Zaffaroni Castilla, Jorge Roberto;

9/28/76, Trias Hernández, Cecilia Susana;

9/28/76, Cram González, Washington;

9/30/76, Prieto González, Ruben;

1/10/76, Lezama González, Rafael;

1/10/76, Moreno Malugani, Miguel Angel;

1/10/76, Rordíguez Mercader, Carlos;

1/10/76, Recagno Ibarburu, Juan Pablo.

1/10/76, Carretero Cardenas, Casimira Maria del Rosario.

List compiled by human rights researcher Anabel Alcaide,
Liga Argentina para protección de los derechos humanos
, based on data on individual cases in CONADEP and PIT/CNT.

212
  
DIA cable:
IR 8 804 030076, September 20, 1976. This document in the author’s possession was released to Italian investigating Judge Giancarlo Capaldo during a visit to the United States in 2001. It has not been released in any of the document collections.

213
  
DIA report on Condor:
IR 6 804 0334 76, October 1, 1976, Buenos Aires (Chile collection). The report contains an annotation “date of information: 1976, Sep 28.” Other cables reporting on the kidnapping of Uruguayans in Argentina and the subsequent reappearance of some of them in Uruguay are: Buenos Aires 5661, August 30, 1976; Montevideo 4161, November 1, 1976; State 267364, October 29, 1976; Montevideo 4136, October 29, 1976; Buenos Aires 7203, November 2, 1976; Montevideo 4143, October 30, 1976; Buenos Aires 6884, October 19, 1976; and State 213081, August 27, 1976 (Argentina Project and Dinges FOIA Release).

214
  
Brazilian document:
Brazilian Air Force, “Evolution of the Anti-subversive Fight, January to May 1977,” discovered in a government archive and published by Folha de Sao Paolo.

215
  
Siracusa defense of Uruguayan military:
Montevideo 3095, August 20, 1976, rebuts a human rights study on Uruguay by the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) paragraph by paragraph. In clear contradiction to the recent cable traffic on Condor, he asserted there was “no evidence” that GOU (government of Uruguay) ordered the murders of Michelini and Gutiérrez. In rebutting one of the WOLA charges, he contradicted his own cable report, in which he reported that “Michelini was considered by Argentine authorities to be working with the Revolutionary Coordinating Junta (JCR) in Argentina in orchestrating the Propaganda campaign against Uruguay.” Montevideo 2238, June 18, 1976 (FOIA Release Carlos Osorio).

216
  
Siracusa and Koch:
The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, Foreign Affairs Oral History Project, interview with Ernest V. Siracusa, by Hank Zivetz, June 1989.

216
  
Bush call to Koch:
Interviews with Edward Koch and his congressional aide Charles Flynn. Neither could remember the date of the call except that it was subsequent to the Letelier assassination. The FBI call to Koch was October 19, according to FBI Memorandum, October 21, 1976, “Irritation of the Uruguayan Military with U.S. Congressman Edward I. Koch (FOIA Release to Koch).

218
  
CIA letter to Koch:
Letter to Koch from Robert J. Eatinger, Jr., Chief, Litigation Division, CIA, September 26, 2001. After an interview with the author about the possible Operation Condor implications of the incident, Koch wrote to the CIA in 2001 and filed FOIA requests for documents. The account here is based on five documents released to him and an interview with Colonel Fons, who described his relationship with Latrash but refused to comment about the Koch threat. None of Siracusa’s cables on the subject have been released, and other documents released to Koch are heavily censored. Siracusa mentioned the incident to Assistant Secretary
for Human Rights Patricia Derian in a meeting in 1977. A memorandum on that conversation was obtained by journalist Martin Edwin Andersen, who included a sentence mentioning Koch in his book,
Dossier Secreto.
It was Andersen’s account that led the author to investigate the incident’s deeper connections to Operation Condor. See Andersen, 228.

218
  
Shlaudeman blocks appointments:
Memo to Philip Habib, December 13, 1976 (Koch FOIA request). The memo refers to two cables on the Koch threat, which the State Department has refused to release to Koch. They are Montevideo 4652, December 2, 1976; and State 292202, December 1, 1976.

219
  
Condor goes forward:
INR Afternoon Summary, September 24, 1976 (Chile Project).

219
  
René Valenzuela:
Valenzuela remained active in Europe after the dissolution of the JCR. In 1992 he was arrested in Spain on charges of participating in activities of the Basques terrorist group ETA. See Jorge G. Castañeda,
Utopia Unarmed: The Latin American Left After the Cold War
(Knopf, 1993), 67n.

221
  
Condor targets in Europe:
This account of the Paris-Lisbon Condor mission is based on multiple sources, cited here and in other notes, each of which provides a piece of the puzzle. The still secret Senate Report on Activities of Certain Foreign Intelligence Agencies mentions Carlos as a target. The CIA appears not to have known the identity of the two targets in Paris. Townley’s account also must be pieced together from his statements in several documents. See Townley testimony to Judge Giovanni Salvi, July 9, 1993, 98 (about Valenzuela); testimony to Salvi, November 24, 1992, 65 (Italian transcript): “When I was in Europe, I wasn’t just dealing with Leighton and for Alfredo. At a certain point I was looking for Carlos with the same intensity that you carried out your investigation. We were always trying to discover what the Red Brigades were preparing, what were the activities of Baader Meinhof, what the IRA was doing in Ireland or what ETA was plotting in Spain. Thanks to all of these groups, along with the revolutionary faction of the left, the MIR, we discovered contraband arms in shipping containers for electric appliances from Siemens Electric as they were leaving from Hamburg. There were Scorpion M-66 from Czechoslovakia, and also engines, many, many engines.” See also Propper and Branch, 324, in which Townley links the two unnamed targets in Paris to Carlos.

221
  
Condor presence in Europe:
“Operation Condor Goes Forward,” INR Afternoon Summary, September 24, 1976; “Condor Activities Continue,” INR Afternoon Summary, November 23, 1967 (Chile Project).

221
  
Condor ruined:
Interview with Robert Scherrer. See Dinges and Landau, 237–240.

221
  
Knowledge of Paris operation:
Briefing Memorandum, Shlaudeman to Habib, September 25, 1976 (Chile Project and FOIA release to journalist Lucy Komisar, which adds the key line about knowledge of the Paris operation).

222
  
Paris mission:
Townley handwritten affidavit to Chilean court, March 1978, document in author’s possession.

222
  
Wilson Ferreira threat:
Correspondence with his son, Juan Raúl Ferreira. The elder Ferreira died in the 1980s.

222
  
Final Condor meeting:
CIA Directorate of Operations cable, April 18, 1977 (Chile Project). Argentina was indeed responsible for leaking information about Condor to FBI legat Robert Scherrer, as reported in his September 28 cable on Operation Condor. But there were other leaks. The CIA knew about the Paris-Lisbon plans before Scherrer learned of it from his Argentine source, and the September 25 briefing memo from Shlaudeman to Habib indicates the Condor countries were aware of the United States’ knowledge about the Paris plans.

223
  
Bolivian prisoners:
They included Graciela Rutila Artés, Efraín Villa, and Luis Stamponi, who had been captured in Bolivia around the time of the killing of Juan José Torres. Rutila Artes’s baby, Carla, was also taken to Argentina, where she was adopted by one of the Orletti taskforce members, Alfredo Ruffo.

224
  
Condor party:
Testimony by Captain Eduardo Rodolfo Cabanillas, November 17, 1977, to court martial. The military court was investigating kidnappings allegedly carried out by the Orletti Taskforce 18 team under the leadership of a fellow officer and civilian taskforce chief Anibal Gordon. The case is important in that it demonstrates that some entities of the Argentine army were trying to get some aspects of the dirty war under control, at least insofar as it was investigating kidnappings whose purpose was not to eliminate subversives but rather to extort money for personal gain by the officers involved. Gordon and his group had been involved in such nonpolitical extortion schemes, and the military let it be known that Gordon’s illegal activities were the reason for the firing of his boss, General Paladino. The other reason for Paladino’s dismissal, the compromised Condor operation, has remained secret until now.

224
  
Ecuador joins Condor:
CIA DO, February 14, 1978 (Chile Project), reports that Ecuador joined Condor in January 1978, installed Condortel communications equipment, and received scholarships to send four officers for training at the Chilean intelligence school. Participation of Peru: Chilean Central Nacional de Informaciones No. 201755, April 14, 1978, Secret, to Vice Minister of Foreign Relations (among documents leaked to
La Nación
newspaper in Chile and obtained by author). The memo reports that the Peruvian director of intelligence called the director of CNI to inform him that Peru agreed to the presence of a Chilean Condor representative in Peru. Last document on Condor: Report on exile group
Mopoco
by Pastor Coronel to Francisco Brítez, April 13, 1981, no microfilm numbers (Paraguay Archive). The report say
Mopoco
, a dissident faction of Stroessner’s Colorado Party, was trying to organize a large convention of activists but was fearful “about the possibilidad that they will be detected and arrested by the Argentine Armed Forces within Operation ‘Condor.’ ”

225
  
Paraguay arrests of Argentines and Uruguayans:
Paraguay Archive documents, all with letterhead “Police of the Capital, Department of Investigations,” March 29, 1977, April 9, 1977, May 16, 1977; May 23, 1977 and undated “Interrogation Report from Nelson Rodolfo Santana Scotto. See also intelligence report on PVP and OPR-33 groups, DPA 402, 5/23/81, 21:1776 (Paraguay Archive). The group of suspects included Argentines José Luis Nell, Dora Marta Landi, and Jose Antonio Loboluso and Uruguayans Gustavo Inzaurralde and Nelson Rodolfo Santana Scotto. Officers arriving in Asunción to participate in the interrogation were Lieutenant José Montenegro and Alejandro Stada of Argentina’s SIDE, and Major Carlos Calgagno of Uruguay’s SID. A document lists the names of the Argentine and Paraguayan officers involved in the transfer, the pilot of the plane, and the airplane’s license plate number.

225
  
Goiburú disappearance:
There are dozens of documents about surveillance, investigation, and arrest of Goiburú in the Paraguay Archive. Most can be found in folder 1051 “Caso Goiburú.” The U.S. embassy was following the case closely. See Asunción 4376, October 25, 1977, and State 127171, May 18, 1978 (Dinges FOIA Release). See also Gladys Meilinger de Sannemann,
Paraguay y la operación Condor en los archivos del terror
(Asunción, 1993), 99; and Alfredo Boccia Paz, Miguel H. Lopez, Antonio V. Pecci, and Gloria Gimenez Guanes,
En los sotanos de los generales: los documentos ocultos del operativo Condor
(Asunción 2002), 17–31, for an investigative account of Goiburú’s capture.