Latin America

By Kenneth Bredemeier
February 15, 1979

Three anti-Castro Cuban exiles were convicted yesterday on all counts in connection with the 1976 bombing assassination here of former Chilean Ambassador Orlando Letelier and a colleague.

The U.S. District Court jury of seven women and five men deliberated for 8 1/2 hours over the last two days and then told Judge Barrington D. Parker in a hushed courtroom that it had found the defendants -- Guillermo Novo Sampol, his brother, Ignacio Novo Sampol, and Alvin Ross Diaz -- guilty on all 15 charges that they faced stemming from the Embassy Row bombing death.

The killing of Letelier, one of the most ardent critics of the current Chilean military dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, was the most notorious act of international terrorism ever committed here. Indeed, the jury accepted the government's contention that the Chilean secret police, once known as DINA, had masterminded the murder plot.

. . .

As they were led to the cellblock behind the courtroom, Ignacio Novo and Ross raised their fists and shouted: "Viva Cuba!"

The outcome of the case was presaged moments before the jury returned to the courtroom. Guillermo Novo looked at his friends in the courtroom and said in Spanish, "It's sure that they screwed us." As he made the comment, Novo drew a hand across his throat.

In rendering the guilty verdict, the jury accepted the contention of three young U.S. prosecutors -- Eugene M. Propper, E. Lawrence Barcella Jr. and Dianne H. Kelly -- that Letelier's slaying was carried out by the Cubans in conjunction with the government's key witness, Michael Vernon Townley.

A 36-year-old American-born DINA agent who refers to the Chilean secret police as "my service," Townley told the jury that he recruited the Cubans to help in the assassination mission on orders of his DINA superiors.

Townley pleaded guilty in August to murdering a foreign official in exchange for a government promise that it would recommend parole for him after he serve the minimum amount of 3 1/3-to-10-year sentence.

Townley, who has about 2 1/2 years to go on the terms, is not required by his plea bargain agreement to tell U.S. officials about any terrorist activities he might have committeed that do not involve U.S. citizens or were not committed in the United States.

More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/02/15/cuban-exiles-guilty-in-letelier-death/53ec3609-baee-485c-bed7-e9e0ac736a3a/

Same story, without a subscription:
https://web.archive.org/web/20211022192448/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/02/15/cuban-exiles-guilty-in-letelier-death/53ec3609-baee-485c-bed7-e9e0ac736a3a/






Guillermo Novo Sampol, Cuban "exile" assassin



Guillermo Novo Sampol, and his brother, Ignacio Novo Sampol



Ignacio Novo Sampol, on the left, in Miami





and Alvin Ross Diaz



Alvin Ross Diaz, Guillermo Novo Sampol, and his brother, Ignacio Novo Sampol

(Where have we seen a stupid lightning bolt, like the one in their group's emblem before? Duh.)