DINA's Children

A verdict in the Letelier case

"Viva Cuba!" With this shout and fists raised high, three Cuban exiles marched out of a Washington courtroom last week. The dramatic defiance drowned out the sobbing of shocked relatives, but only for a moment. Two of the men, Guillermo Novo Sampol, 39, and Alvin Ross Diaz, 46, had just been found guilty of first-degree murder in the bomb-killing in Washington of former Chilean Ambassador Orlando Letelier, 44, on Sept. 21, 1976. A third, Guillermo's brother Ignacio, 40, was convicted of perjury and failure to report a crime.

The convictions followed a 21-day trial in which the Government's star witness was the cool, enigmatic, self-described leader of the assassination squad, Michael Vernon Townley, 36, an American who cooperated with the prosecution in return for a lenient sentence of three years and four months. Townley testified that Letelier's murder had been ordered by General Manuel Contreras Sepulveda, chief of the now defunct Chilean secret police, DINA. According to Townley, Contreras had demanded the killing because Letelier, a socialist, was considered a dangerous opponent of Augusto Pinochet Ugarte's military regime.

Townley described how he and five conspirators -the three defendants plus two other Cuban exiles who are still at large -put together a bomb, which Townley attached to the chassis of Letelier's light blue Chevelle and then detonated by radio. Letelier was blown to pieces, along with an American assistant, Ronni Moffitt, 25. Townley expressed regret only for Moffitt's death. Said he of Letelier: "He was a soldier, I was a soldier."

Chief Defense Attorney Paul Goldberger argued, with little supporting evidence, that Townley had killed Letelier on the instructions of the CIA rather than DINA. Goldberger called Townley "an animal" and "a man who talks about eliminating people as if they were bugs." Replied Prosecutor E. Lawrence Barcella Jr.: "Then what kind of people are Guillermo Novo and Alvin Ross?" The jurors needed less than nine hours of deliberation to answer that question.

Guillermo and Ross could get life terms when sentenced next month. Ignacio may receive 13 years in jail. The Justice Department, meanwhile, will try to extradite from Chile Contreras and two other ex-DINA colleagues who Townley says helped plot the murder. The Pinochet regime is not expected to oblige. qed

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