Uruguay Police Agent Exposes U.S. Advisors
On April 15, 1972, an Uruguayan senator read a set of documents into his country's congressional record that should have provided U.S. correspondents in Latin America with one of their biggest...
...Agents of Repression box...
...internal security advisor to the Uruguayan police, the Tupamaros had only used violence as a last resort...
...I don't know if this project was carried out...
...safety adv...
...6/67 Montevideo, pub...
...5 Uruguay has been one of the top four recipients of OPS aid in Latin America ($1.3 million in the last three years...
...safety adv...
...Barbe, who replaced him as chief of Navy Intelligence...
...Reprinted below is the second declaration which dealt, in Bardesio's words, with the "penetration of Uruguay's forces of repression by foreign agents and organizations...
...city police officer 1954-63 U.S...
...These funds didn't come from AID, but directly from the Embassy...
...Pedro Antonio Mato commanded one of these groups made up of people from the Servicio de Informacion de Defensa (SID...
...asst...
...Agency for International Development (AID...
...The discovery of the exchange made the North Americans very nervous...
...However, even such a bastion of the "liberal establishment" press as the New York Times participates in hiding the facts from the public--a notorious example being the killing of a story in the Times which carefully documented preparations for the Bay of Pigs invasion...
...The other leading recipients are Guatemala, Brazil and the Dominican Republic...
...1/68 Montevideo, pub...
...After Cantrell left, Pirez and Conserva made contact with the Embassy in the Hotel Victoria Plaza, where they had lunch periodically with a Northamerican official who was simply called- 23 - U.S...
...11/70 superior honor award 1971 JOSE AMBROSIO HINOJOSA, JR U.S...
...BS 1954 U.S...
...TRANSLATOR'S NOTE: The following names are all used to describe the police intelligence agency: Direccion de Inteligencia, Direccion de Informacion e Inteligencia, DII, Office, Office of Intelligence, Office of Information and Intelligence...
...Otero said he was replaced three years ago because he disagreed with Mitrione...
...In the middle of 1970, I went on to the Ministry of the Interior to participate in organizing an information group which would be dependent directly on the Ministry...
...public safety advisors as of June, 1972...
...8/62 pub...
...7/60 Washington 11/61 Rio de Janeiro, training adv...
...safety adv...
...Copies were sent to the Embassy from all parts of the Office and the information processed by Headquarters...
...Carrasco is Montevideo's international airport...
...This explains why he left a ob he had in an office of commercial reports a few months after he was in the Office of Intelligence...
...8/71 LEE ELMER ECHOLS- 22 - Bardesio Document I, Nelson Bardesio, Uruguayan, married, 31 years old, employee of the Ministry of the Interior, declare before the People's Tribunal, my participation and all that I know about the penetration of foreign agents and organizations in the Uruguyan repressive forces...
...7/70 superior honor award 1971 (see biography in box below) ROY W. DRIGGERS U.S...
...analyst 1961-65 U.S...
...I picked him up at his house in the morning and took him to the Office of Intelligence, or police headquarters or the Embassy...
...He is the one who most likely took charge of the intelligence files and the contact with the Embassy, after Lemos went to live with his family in Australia at the end of 1971, after the second attack on his house...
...EmbassyQuito, econ.-commercial officer 4/65 Montevideo, political officer 9/69 Washington 12/70 DAN A. MITRIONE b. 8/4/20 - 7/31/70 (Illinois) U.S...
...customs agent 1938-40 customs agent 1940-43, 46, 52-57 U.S...
...But the gelignite was later used against Dr.- 25 - Artucio and Dr...
...AIDSan Salvador, police adv...
...news commentators, academics and government spokesmen often dismiss undocumented allegations by Latin Americans that U.S...
...Navy 1948-49, 50-56 U.S...
...State Department's official Foreign Service List and Biographical Register...
...safety adv...
...safety adv...
...His present whereabouts is unknown...
...The guerrillas also announced their intention of capturing 17 other men named by Bardesio (four of whom immediately took refuge in an embassy in Montevideo...
...The Spanish version Sen...
...I know about a high level Brazilian who visited Montevideo and met with the chief of police Colonel Rivero, and with the Director of DII, Inspector Castiglioni, in order to strengthen relations between the Brazilian and Uruguayan police...
...He was a Northamerican of Mexican descent...
...Erro read into the record were transcripts of four declarations by police intelligence agent and photographer Nelson Bardesio, who was kidnapped by the Tupamaro guerrillas on February 24, 1972...
...Dept...
...5/9/65 Montevideo, pub...
...Their assignments were in AID's Office of Public Safety or the U.S...
...Galan's mother was a good friend of Gestido's wife, and because of that connection he had been able to propose this to the new government...
...AID operatives (and probably CIA agents) in creating, supplying and coordinating the intelligence apparatus for Uruguay's police through the Office of Information and Intelligence...
...Army 1945-47, 50-53 (let t.- overseas) U.S...
...As far as we know, this is the first time this declaration has been published in English and with all the names mentioned...
...If it was for technical equipment, typewriters or something like that, Cantrell furnished the funds...
...Through him we obtained the material necessary to set up the office: radio and photo laboratories...
...At the beginning of 1971, complying with the instructions of sub secretario Carlos Piran, I went to Buenos Aires, taking the personal background forms of the five officials, in order to arrange the details of their course...
...The mail with the Embassy was and is taken care of by Sargent Yetulio Walter Werner Chaparro, who uses a black jeep in which he travels daily between the DII and the Embassy from 10:30-12 noon approximately, accompanied by a chauffeur and a guard...
...it decreases the language barrier...
...This fact was revealed by Campos Hermida himself...
...AIDLa Paz, pub...
...RICHARD D. BIAVA b. 7/11/06 (Oklahoma) U.S...
...in addition to our new pamphlet, America's Worldwide Military Apparatus...
...Once a week I took him to the Methodist Church on Calle Guavabos, where Cantrell was treasurer, leaving him there since he would go home later in his wife's car...
...opinion-makers would give them careful consideration and wide discussion...
...3 In July the International Commission of Jurists charged in a report issued in Geneva that the current Bordaberry government, as did its predecessors under Gestido and Pacheco Areco, has set aside the rle of law in trying to cope with the guerrillas...
...Dept...
...4/30/61 Montevideo, pub...
...police aid: Guatemala, Brazil, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay...
...This directory, which was one of our sources, is supposed to give biographies annually of all State Dept...
...He used the car from the Police Headquarters, a Maverick, and I saw him often talking with Colonel Martin, who was head of the Police Chiefs of Staff, and afterwards was named chief of police of Canelones...
...I found out later that the gelignite was to be used in an attack against Mayor Pablo Vicente, an Argentine resident of Montevideo for the last few years, in exchange for which the SIDE would teach the course to the five Uruguayan officials...
...See NACLA Newsletters of September and November 1970, January and April 1971 and January 1972...
...safety adv...
...staff spec...
...Foreign Service Officers by country...
...safety adv...
...When Armando Acosta y Lara was sub-secretario of the Ministry of the Interior, the subcomisario Campos Hermida, chief of D5, was called to his office and received instructions to make contact with the Brazilian Embassy in Montevideo...
...As a result of those contacts, at least two officials of D4 travelled to Brazil, to receive death squadron-type training...
...6/59 Panama 5/62...
...of Army 1956-59, 60-68 U.S...
...In March or April of 1964, Colonel Acuha put us in touch with William Cantrell, a Northamerican advisor for the Office of Technical Assistance, that was part of the U.S...
...11/69 superior honor award 1971 ROBERT W. ANDREWS b. 4/18/26 (New York) U.S...
...I went to the Departamento de Vigilancia de Investigaciones, Homicide Section...
...Bardesio speculates that William Cantrell, who presented himself as an AID official was actually a CIA agent...
...Erro read into the record and which was reprinted in Marcha, a Montevideo weekly, on April 28, 1972, omitted naming implicated officials who were still alive...
...Embassy's Political Section, both used as primary covers by the CIA...
...Galan was in charge of student activities, and I had the administrative responsibility for the intelligence office at 18th and Juan Paulier Street, working together with Cantrell...
...safety adv...
...14 I swear that all I've said is a true recounting of the acts and I admit my participation in and the accompanying responsibility for them...
...Besides Cantrell and Saenz, I knew other North American officials or advisors: Juan Noriega, funcionario of the Embassy and Cantrell's friend, who disappeared immediately after the discovery of the Positos telephone exchange from where they intercepted telephone calls from the Sovie...
...Thus, his terrorist group was probably inherited by Capt...
...Bardesio also mentions meeting Dan Mitrione, the OPS advisor who was kidnapped and later executed by the Tupamaros when the Uruguayan government refused to negotiate with them for the exchange of all political prisoners...
...safety adv...
...Mario Risso had also organized a terrorist group made up of his underlings...
...Maria Ester Gilio...
...After I finished giving them basic training, they were sent to Buenos Aires to receive an advanced finishing course...
...In previous articles NACLA has documented the role of the AID's Office of Public Safety (OPS) in creating, funding, training, supplying and advising the repressive police and military forces in Latin America...
...Liberoff, about which I have already testified before the People's Tribunal.ll The course at the SIDE included photography, surveillance, telephone bugging, lockpicking and anti-terrorist activities...
...He dropped the idea of creating an information service, and the officials in my group, except for Benitez who asked to drop out, were sent home to await instructions...
...1-/58 pub...
...I don't know exactly when he began to send copies of the information to the Embassy, but this was already established before I entered the police force, and happened with full knowledge of the Chief of Police and the Minister of the Interior...
...Navy 1942-45 city Juvenile officer 1949-52 city police captain 1953-55 city police chief 1956-60 U.S...
...He went on to say: Through conversations in the Navy Club I know that groups made up of military elements have carried out similar attacks...
...Although our project had not yet been completed, the Northamerican advisors had already established their own ideas for the creation of the new agency...
...They later participated in crimes already recounted before the Tribunal...
...As to the current advisors, I only know the name of a Mr...
...of Treasuryinvestigator 1959-60 U.S...
...Latin America's most active death squadrons today exist in the same four countries which have been the four chief beneficiaries of U.S...
...Embassy - Montevideo, political officer 5/68 Washington 3/71 WILLIAM A. CANTRELL b. 9/8/27 (Oklahoma) Okla...
...Army Capt...
...In his first declaration Bardesio described the death squadron attacks he participated in with other members of the police force against the homes of Dr...
...We have listed Robert Loker III and Robert Andrews because one of them is most likely the mysterious "Robert" who Bardesio claims was Cantrell's replacement...
...and former Under Secretary of the Interior Armando Acosta y Lara...
...2 The following confession mainly describes the role of U.S...
...Risso, who is now in Spain, was chief of M2, Navy Intelligence...
...This is a highly possible fact given that exactly the same situation was revealed by an ex-AID official in the Dominican Republic (see NACLA's exclusive interview with the official in the November 1970 NACLA Newsletter...
...Texas A&M 1959 San Antonio Police Academy 1963 city police dept...
...William Cantrell, a key advisor according to Bardesio, is quite an elusive figure...
...He himself commented that his group had carried out various actions without running into difficulties--for example, the firing on the home of Dr...
...Lemos received money from Cantrell for some special work...
...Copies of all this work were handed over, daily, to the Northamerican Embassy, through Lemos...
...2/67 spec...
...Bardesio was released by the Tupamaros on May 16th after 86 days of captivity...
...Agents of Repression The following U.S...
...As proof I sign my name...
...Cantrell loaned me $11,000 (pesos) for this...
...The program is administered in Uruguay by men like William Cantrell, Adolphe Saenz, Juan Noriega, Cesar Bernal, Dan Mitrione, Richard Biava, Richard Martinez and the mysterious "Robert" whom Bardesio mentions in his declaration...
...of Argentina...
...Marine Corps 1945-47 U.S...
...pers...
...2. La Opinion (Buenos Aires), May 17, 1972, and The New York Times, April 15, 1972...
...I met with Captain Nieto Moreno of the State Information Service (S.I.D.E...
...Liberoff...
...He moved with great independence, even in the Technological Office of AID, 8 whose head at that time as Adolphe Saenz, a very meddlesome man, who nevertheless didn't interfere at all in what Cantrell did in the Direccion de nteligencia...
...The President of the Uruguayan Chamber of Deputies who on April 24th consented to be "kidnapped" by the Tupamaros and was taken to talk with Bardesio, reported: "I spoke with him (Bardesio) several times and have the impression he was telling the truth...
...The following document was obtained by NACLA through friends in Uruguay...
...Even after I left the photo lab of the DII and went to the staff of Inspector Conserva, I continued going to Carrasco weekly to take out the film and reload the camera, because no one else knew how to do it...
...1 0 I understand that the mechanics of this machine are considered a military secret in the U.S...
...Our other information source was the monthly Foreign Service List which lists the names of all U.S...
...CAESAR P. BERNAL b. 6/12/28 (Texas) Rice U. 1947-49...
...I suppose that Cantrell was an employee of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA...
...citizen...
...9 Richard Martinez was Bernal's substitute...
...government uses Spanish-Americans to advise their Latin American counterparts...
...Biava who I understand replaced Richard Martinez...
...I joined the Montevideo police force on August 15, 1963, after a training course...
...AID (ICA)Belo Horizonte, pub...
...since AID does not give money, but rather finances acquisitions that must be repaid later...
...AID (ICA)La Paz, chief police adv...
...Air Force 1952-56 (overseas) detective 1956-65 U.S...
...See NACLA Newsletter July/August 1971, p. 7 for more on "ParaPolice Terror Squads...
...8. The Technological Office of AID is actually the AID's Office of Public Safety out of which operated public safety (police) advisors such as Dan Mitrione...
...He argued that until Mitrione took charge as chief U.S...
...Bureau of Customscustoms inspector 1928-38 asst...
...and it eases the racial tensions which result when white Northamerican advisors give orders to the local respressive agents...
...I also knew a Northamerican technician in photography whose name I don't remember, who taught me to load and unload a camera brought by the Embassy and installed in the airport of Carrasco to photograph the passports of passengers who enter the country...
...Another eight members of this parapolice group were sentenced to death by the Tupamaros...
...The CIA used the 18-man OPS program in the Dominican Republic as a cover for six of its agents...
...Those five funcionarios were Alberto Quinalbar Sosa Gonzalez, Herman Silvera Techera, Estanislao Lamenza Castro, selected from the Transit Authority, and Oscar Rodao and Nelson Benitez, selected from the Police Institute...
...As we prepared the project, Galan had new conversations with Gestido and with Colonel Raul Barloco, chief of police of Montevideo, and after some negotiations he put us in contact with Colonel Santiago Acuna, head of the Police Chiefs of Staff...
...officials named by Bardesio are listed in the U.S...
...He received the forms and handed me a package containing three sticks of gelignite to give to the Ministry of the Interior...
...Navy Captain Ernesto Motto Benvenutto...
...AIDPanama, pub...
...The U.S...
...The mail is sent in envelopes and packets which have tapes in them, probably from recordings of tapped telephones...
...If it was a question of repairing the building, masonry, pictures, or one of these things, the .A K44p money was furnished by Headquarters...
...The two officials, whose names I don't remember, then went under orders of the Paraguayan Angel Pedro Crosas Cuevas, advisor and close friend of Acosta y Lara...
...AIDPuerto la Cruz, pub...
...This office plays a crucial role in the Uruguayan police and armed forces' effort to combat the guerrillas--the same armed forces which were accused in June 1972 by Uruguay's Roman Catholic Bishops of "killings, physical oppression, torture and illegal imprisonment...
...safety adv...
...In case of his dismissal or sickness, sub-comisario Raul Lapaz was the substitute...
...The Brazilian diplomat offered to install equipment for direct radio communications between Brasilia and Montevideo...
...Current Public Safety Advisors in Uruguay The following names are the U.S...
...Army 1960 U.S...
...5. Latin America (London), August 21, 1970, p. 272...
...7 In addition, all the U.S...
...2/57 Santo Domingo, pub...
...JUP is Juventud Uruguaya de Pie, an ultraright group...
...1 The documents Sen...
...Although this wasn't part of his Job, I know that Bernal, at the request of Captain Mario Risso, chief of the Intelligence Service of the Navy, taught a course on marksmanship to various members of the Navy...
...Colonel Vigorito took over for Piran...
...In 1966, after the elections in which General Oscar Gestido was elected President, a friend of Atilio Galan Raiz, Jefatura, asked me to work with him to create a national office of police intelligence...
...7/69 RICHARD D. BIAVA b. 5/16/28 (Ecuador) U. of Calif...
...In the Bardesio Document, five of the eight U.S...
...Nieto Moreno told me...
...I was assigned a group of five men who would be given training as a surveillance team...
...Once it was set up, I worked there...
...staff...
...7/68 Washington 4/70 Montevideo, pub...
...he was in charge of administrative work at the Office of Technical Assistance and of organizing the regional courses for the police in the interior of the country...
...Air Force 1951-53 (t...
...Capt...
...Mitrione's direct connection with torture in Uruguay was revealed by the former chief of the country's Office of Information and Intelligence, Alejandro Otero, in an interview with Rio de Janeiro's largest newspaper, Jornal do Brasil.- 21 - Otero accused Mitrione of having instituted violent methods of repression and torture against the Tupamaros...
...1946-52 county sheriff 1961-63 U.S...
...In his fourth declaration Bardesio recounted how he participated with Ministry of Interior and Police officials in the kidnapping and assassination of Hector Castagnetto da Rosa, whom they suspected of being a Tupamaro...
...See NACLA Newsletter, July/August, 1971, p. 8 for more on Mitrione...
...If I took him to the Office of Intelligence, about noon I had to take him to the Embassy...
...safety officer 8/68 Panama 12/69 ROBERT C. LOKER III b. 6/10/38 (Maryland) William & Mary Coll...
...papers that Senator Enrique Erro had read the declarations by an Uruguayan police intelligence agent and photographer describing the close collaboration of official U.S...
...This serves three functions: it helps to disguise the U.S...
...Colon 6/62 Washington 5/64 Montevideo, chief pub...
...Besides my work in the photo lab, I was Cantrell's chauffeur, in a jeep from Headquarters that was used oy tne Dreccionde Inteligencia...
...For more information on Roy Driggers see an interview with him which appeared in NACLA's Latin American and Empire Report, January, 1972...
...Rifle Assn., field mgr...
...city patrolman 1955-58 U.S...
...One would expect, then, that when such charges are clearly documented, these U.S...
...The organization of the Office of Information and Intelligence began between November and December of 1966...
...4. The Christian Science Monitor, July 28, 1972...
...signed) March 1972 REFERENCES 1. Victor Bernstein and Jesse Gordon, "The Press and the Bay of Pigs," Columbia University Forum, Fall, 1967...
...The information he gives correlates exactly with the State Department information (see U.S...
...AB 1958 U.S...
...police and intelligence agents were named by Nelson Bardesio as having advised and collaborated with Uruguay's repressive apparatus...
...1950-65 U.S...
...safety adv...
...The attack on Mayor Vicente didn't occur...
...safety adv...
...the Embassy periodically solicits copies of certain information for use in their own archives...
...Northamerican" in this context means U.S...
...1/69 Montevideo, pub...
...For my work at the photo lab, I depended on the sub-comisario Juan Carlos Lemos Silveira, who was at that time in charge of processing all the material that was collected and was also responsible for the recruitment and training of personnel...
...As I have already declared before the People's Tribunal, Risso had formed a group of trusted subordinates to carry out attacks...
...safety adv...
...7. The New York Times, April 26, 1972...
...In addition, Cantrell had his own funds...
...safety adv...
...I saw him very few times, since he did not visit the Headquarters as regularly as Saenz did...
...A number of U.S.-trained and equipped Latin American police forces are now turning to quasi-clandestine para-police groups for carrying out their "dirty work"--harrassing, beating, torturing and assassinating those they consider to be subversive elements...
...Dan Anthony Mitrione was presented to me as Saenz's successor...
...U. of Agric...
...1 2 On their return, they brought back 10 Rossi 38 caliber revolvers that were delivered to the JUPi3 through the Ministry of the Interior...
...safety adv...
...9/12/65 JUAN F. NORIEGA b. 3/1/33 (New Jersey) Columbia U. - BS 1960 U. of Florida - MA 1962 U.S...
...Piran had told me that I would be given a package at SIDE, but he didn't tell me what it was...
...At the orders of Crosas and together with sub-comisario Delega, the official inspector Pedro Fleitas, Captain of the Navy, Jorge Nelson Nader of the JUP, Miguel Sofia Abelenda and myself, participated in the kidnapping and later assassination of Hector Castagnetto da Rosa...
...In any case, at 5:30 or 6:00 in the afternoon, I got him at the Embassy and took him home, keeping the car for the night...
...However, not one mention was made in the major U.S...
...presence...
...The Direccion de Informacion e Inteligencia was organized with funds from the Police Headquarters and the Northamerican Embassy...
...9. In his first declaration before the People's Tribunal Bardesio described death squadron attacks he had participated in with other members of the police force...
...On the same day these documents (in the form of cassette tape recordings and transcripts accompanied by a photograph of Bardesio) were passed to various congressmen, the Tupamaros executed three of the men named by Bardesio as being organizers of the death squadron: Oscar Delega, a police subcommissioner who worked with the Office of Information and Intelligence...
...AID included) personnel...
...EmbassyMontevideo, political officer 6/66 Washington 10/69 Mexico D.F., political officer 1/71 RICHARD R. MARTINEZ b. 2/12/33 (Texas) U.S...
...3/63 Washington 6/68 Montevideo, pub...
...Cesar Bernal was an advisor of the Technical Office of AID...
...Navy 1943-46 Natl...
...Cantrell himself interceded so that the Spanish couple who lived in the house on Ellauri Street where the tapping equipment was installed, would be allowed to go free...
...safety adv...
...As I said, when I was working in the DII, Lemos maintained contact with the Embassy...
...Navy Capt...
...3. The Miami Herald, June 17, 1972...
...The other three declarations focused on the organization and operations of the death squadron which was organized by members of the Uruguayan police force and the Ministry of the Interior (including Bardesio...
...Alejandro Artucio and Dr...
...safety adv...
...Dept...
...AID (ICA) - Vientiane 4/59 U.S...
...of Treasury 1954-61 U.S...
...AIDPanama, pub...
...AIDBogota, pub...
...Except for his biography in the State Dept.'s 1964 Biographic Register, his only other listing appears in incomplete form in the 1969 edition...
...Embassy...
...I suppose because of the indecision of Piran...
...correspondents in Latin America with one of their biggest stories of the year...
...agents named are Spanish-Americans (Bernal, Biava, Martinez, Noriega and Saenz...
...Galan and I were part of the original nucleus of the Direccion de Informacion e Inteligencia...
...safety adv...
...Navy 1955-58, 61-62 (overseas) private experience 1964-66 U.S...
...4/70 superior honor award 1971 A IL r- 24 - Robert...
...He immediately called two Uruguayan Senators, who, after obtaining guarantees for his life from high government and military officials, accompanied him to a military post where he gave himself over to authorities, He was later turned over to police officials...
...9/65 Caracas, pub...
...CIA agents and other U.S...
...Their "De Mucho Ruido" ('!Lots of Noise" or "Big Bang") actions were commented on daily over lunch in the Navy Club...
...agents with the country's repressive apparatus...
...1/65 pub...
...6. Reprinting congressional documents remains one of the last recourses the Uruguayan papers have for getting around severe censorship laws imposed by the government...
...Appl...
...AB 1960 U.S...
...safety adv...
...In the last months of 1964, I went to work in the Ayudantia de Investigaciones...
...7/66 ADOLPHE B. SAENZ b. 5/22/29 (New Mexico) U. of New Mexico - BBA 1958 U.S...
...0 There is little doubt about the authenticity of the contents of this document...
...AIDMonrovia, pub...
...Army 1951-53 (1st lt...
...Dept of Army - econ...
...Cantrell openly took care of the contacts with the higher-ups, visiting Inspector Pirez Castagnet and Inspector Conserva in their offices at the Office of Information and Intelligence...
...4/63 Washington 2/66, pers...
...On those occasions we merely exchanged greetings or other unimportant comments...
...The charges by Latin Americans are often parodied in the United States as the unsubstantiated ravings of "demagogues" and "extremists...
...These contacts were arranged by Inspector Castiglioni, who probably is the only one who officially knows the contact from the Northamerican Embassy...
...officials have knowledge of and collaborate with right wing para-police terror squads and in fact fund, train, supply and advise the repressive apparatus of various Latin American governments...
...11/68 Montevideo, pub.safety off...
...I didn't receive extra pay from Cantrell, but on more than one occasion he offered me money as a loan, which I accepted when I had a problem with the petty cash fund I operated in the DII...
Vol. 6 • July 1972 • No. 6
