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2025 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
SUBJECT:
SECRE
24 April 1970
Meeting With
[WUSLAB/1]
on 22 April 1970
1. Arrangements and Security: The meeting took place
in the office? safehouse) at 1400 on the above date and ended
There were no incidents of a security nature.
at 1500.
2. Production: Bolivian Ambassador Julio Sanjines
Goytia talked on the phone to president Ovando on 20 April.
Ovando said that there was pressure from the civilian members
of the cabinet on the Debray case. They related their request
that Debray should be released to a letter Ovando wrote the.
Italian novelist Alberto Moravia which they claimed stated
he would release Debray. Ovando commented to Sanjines that.
he had not committed himself to release Debray. The civilians
think that the release of Debray and Bustos would take the
pressure off the government. Ovando admitted that the govern-
ment could not control the students. The Minister of Education
had been destroyed when the USIS installation was damaged.
Ovando commented that he would reconsider the Debray situation
and commented that there were no legal precedents for Debray's
release. The military will go along with it if Ovando and
the cabinet will put down the union members if needed. Marcelo
Quiroga still claims to be able to influence a segment of the
mineworkers. Ovando does not want to suppress by force the
student demonstrations. Ovando indicated that there is a wave
of uneasiness in the country. He is thinking about taking a
stronger hand in certain issues and compromise on other issues.
3. Minister of Planning Jose Ortiz Mercado is coming to
Washington on 2 May for a four day visit before he goes to
San Jose for the inauguration of Pepe Figueres.
WUSLAB/1
believes that Ortiz will be frank with him], and tell him what
the situation is like back in La Paz. He will attend the
[CIAP : review] of the Bolivian program.
4. Sanjines described the Rogelio Miranda Baldivia
problem (Miranda is the Army Chief of Staff in Bolivia) as
a personal matter which has now become ideological. He does
not get along with General Juan Jose Torres, the Commander of
the Armed Forces. Miranda is now trying to change some
commanders in field commands.
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5. I asked some clarifying questions on the OAS report
of a possible demonstration against the OAS Assembly in Santo
Domingo in June 1970. He said that Rolz-Bennett normally
maintains contact with the OAS Deputy Secretary General
Urquia, who is a close personal friend and is also a Central-
American. The head of the UNDP office in Santo Domingo is
Hugo Navegas. He has been asked to get the information on
the possibility of such a disruption.
6. Victor Paz Estenssoro, is one of three experts picked
up under an OAS contract with the University of Engineering
in Lima. In actuality, Paz will receive a P-4 salary from
The project is up for board approval and will last
at least a year.
the OAS.
7.
[WUSLAB/1 went on at length on the difficulties between
Miss Alexander, the former Bolivian ambassador to the OAS whose
parents were murdered in La Paz, and Sanjines. In brief, Miss
Alexander was accompanied to Washington by a catholic priest
Father Eduardo. Sanjines offered to find him lodging in a
Washington monastery, but he demurred. Whenever Sanjines
called Miss Alexander during crises in Bolivia at early morning
hours the father would answer the phone. He also helped with
Miss Alexander's work at the OAS and was around the Embassy
office. Sanjines once found them doing some research in his
files. Colonel Banzer, when assigned to Washington, said
that there was an intelligence report that Father Eduardo
had been involved with the guerrillas. The military finally
forced the father to leave the Embassy. Miss Alexander sent
him $100 on which to live. When her parents were killed he
reappeared.. When Miss Alexander returned to La Paz she read
a written report submitted by Sanjines on her affair with
the priest, and when she came back to Washington she called
up Sanjines and told him off.
8. Sanjines said that his relations with the State
Department have cooled off. He thinks that the nationaliza-
tion of Gulf Oil has weakened the government. There is a
vacuum in Bolivia and this has caused the present Bolivian
government to be much more subservient to the United States
than was the government of Rene Barrientos. He believes,
however, that his own position with the Bolivian government
had been strengthened. Sanjines is going to San Jose for
the presidential inauguration. He heard from Colonel Ayoroa
that Victor Paz Estenssoro as a personal friend of Figueres,
had also been invited to the inauguration. Sanjines said
that it would be interesting to talk to Paz.
During
9. I asked (WUSLAB/1 if there were any recent develop-
ments between his assistant] and the Soviet Embassy.
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[his absence Mr. Peary, his assistant], received a telephone
call from KUTAKOV, the Soviet Under-Secretary, who asked
that [Peary] send directly to him Congressional reports on
Chemical Warfare, USSR-US cultural exchanges, hearings on
the United Nations, These documents are being sent to
KUTAKOV. [WUSLAB/1] remarked that the Soviets are always
interested in the information assistants in his office]
and never the office director]. They were interested in
Manton, Thompson and Peary]
10.
Plans: The next meeting will be on 28 April at
1400. [WUSLAB/1] goes: :::/:D:D:D:Catimore] on 29 April to have his
eyes checked.
[WLSLAB]OPS
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