While information about the larger Condor strategy was spreading through the upper levels of the Ford administration, Pinochet and Contreras were putting in motion an audacious plan to eliminate Orlando Letelier in his safe haven in Washington, D.C.
In July 1976, two DINA operatives - Michael Townley and Armando Fernandez Larios - went to Paraguay where DINA had arranged for them to get false passports and visas for a trip to the United States.
Townley and Larios were using the false names Juan Williams and Alejandro Romeral and a cover story claiming they were investigating suspected leftists working for Chile's state copper company in New York.
An alarmed Landau recognized that the visa request was highly unusual, since such operations were normally coordinated with the CIA station in the host country and were cleared with CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
Though granting the visas, Landau took the precaution of sending an urgent cable to Walters and photostatic copies of the fake passports to the CIA. Landau said he received an urgent cable back signed by CIA Director Bush, reporting that Walters, who was in the process of retiring, was out of town.
When Walters returned a few days later, he cabled Landau that he had "nothing to do with this" mission. Landau immediately canceled the visas.
Landau also alerted senior State Department officials. In one cable, Landau said the "Paraguayan caper" had "troublesome aspects" and recommended that the two Chileans be barred from entering the United States.
"If there is still time, and if there is a possibility of turning off this harebrained scheme," assistant secretary Shlaudeman wrote in reply, "you are authorized to go back [to Paraguayan officials] to urge that the Chileans be persuaded not - repeat not - to travel."
But the Ford administration dithered over delivering a formal demarche demanding that Pinochet's government cease and desist in its cross-border assassinations. Though a plan for warning Santiago was developed, the State Department could not agree how to carry it out without offending the prickly Pinochet.
Bush's CIA
It also remains unclear what - if anything - Bush's CIA did after learning about the "Paraguayan caper."
Normal protocol would have required senior CIA officials to ask their Chilean counterparts about the supposed trip to Langley. However, even with the declassification of more records in recent years, that question has never been fully answered.
The CIA also demonstrated little curiosity over the Aug. 22, 1976, arrival of two other Chilean operatives using Juan Williams and Alejandro Romeral, the phony names that were intended to hide the identity of the two operatives in the earlier plot.
When these two different operatives arrived in Washington, they made a point of having the Chilean Embassy notify Walters's office at CIA.
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