Agency: HSCA
Originator: HSCA
From: FONZI, GAELTON.
To: TANNENBAUM.
Document date: 03/20/1977
Document type: PAPER-TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

## Page 1

JFK Assassination System

Identification Form

Agency Information

Date:

10/13/20

AGENCY: HSCA

RECORD NUMBER :

180-10108-10059

RECORD SERIES: NUMBERED FILES.

AGENCY FILE NUMBER: 015107 (FOLDER 1 OF 4)

Released under the John

F. Kennedy

Assassination Recorda

Collection Act of 1992

144 USC 2107 Notel.

Case#:NW 56829 Date:

04-13-2018

Document Information

ORIGINATOR: HSCA

FROM: FONZI, GAETON.

TO:

TITLE: INTERVIEW WITH ROLANDO OTERO.

DATE:

PAGES:

SUBJECTS :

03/20/1977

3

CIA, ADMINISTRATION

OTERO, ROLANDO; INTERVIEW.

LEADS & INFORMATION.

FBI.

DOCUMENT TYPE: MEMORANDUM.

CLASSIFICATION: Unclassified

RESTRICTIONS: Consulted

CURRENT STATUS : Withhold

DATE OF LAST REVIEW:

06/24/1993

OPENING CRITERIA:

COMMENTS:

Box 297. FBI tabbed 297-1.

v9.1

HW 56829

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## Page 2

MAR 2 4 1977

MEMO - 3/20/77

TO : :

Tanenbaum

FROM: Fonzi

Re :

Interview with Rolando Otero

I spoke with Rolando Otero on March 16, 1977, at the Okaloosa

near Eglin Air Force Base, Fort

I was with his attorney, Bob Rosenblatt of the Miami Publi Florida.

Defender's Office, who had earlier contacted our office about

Otero's wanting to talk with us about the Kennedy assassination.

Otero was scheduled to be sentenced the following day and both

he and his attorney expected a long term, perhaps 10 years.

They were convinced the judge had been swayed-by the FBI and

was prejudiced against Otero.

of nine charges

involving the bombing of public buildings in

the Miami area. Earlier last year he had been found innocent

of

the very same charges in a Federal court, so when the State

brought the same charges against him, Otero and his attorney

claim, the FBl went all out to get him convicted in order to

cover

its embarrassment of his

earlier acquital. The Federal

judge in the case, District Judge Norman Roettger, specifically

commented before the verdict in Otero's first trial that the

Government's case was "weak."

There is a very strong case to

be made for Otero's innocence, which is relevant to his now

feeling that he has suffered the last straw in the American

system of justice.: The FBI's case

against him was originally

nade by their veteran informant, Riccardo Morales, a CIA contract

agent now working tor the Venezuelan, security police. Otero believes

Morales set the bombs he is charged for

and, in fact, may be

a Castro double agent.

Otero admits he is a terrorist

bomber who

has devoted his life to fighting Castro and communism, but claims

he would never plant bombs within the United States, which is

exactly, he says, why Morales would want him out of the way.

All of the above is relevant to why Otero wanted to speak with us.

At this point, he said, he has nothing to lose. He asked for "

nothing for himself in

return for the information he gave.

And,

in tact, his evaluation of his situation seemed to be verified

on the day after 1 spoke with him when the Okaloosa County CircuIt

Court Judge Clyde Wells sentenced him to 40 years in prison.

The day after that

? Otero took an overdose of tranquilizers in

an attempt to commit suicide.

He was in critical condition for

two days but this morning seemed to be recovering.

According to Otero himself, his knowledge of the Kennedy assassination

is based on two factors:

Second-hand information and his long

association with and knowledge of the tactics and procedures of

CIA operations.

(Although his opinions are strong

Otero was

anxious that we do not evaluate too highly the quality of the

information he provided, since it is not first hand.) Otero's

involvement with the CIA goes back to when he was 18 and a member

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MAR 2 4 1977

of Brigade 2506 that was captured at the Bay of Pigs.

He

spent 18 months in a Cuban jail and since his release in

December of 1962 was involved in a series of anti-Castro

operations in the Caribbean and Latin America, including

an aborted assassination attempt on Castro in Venezuela

in 1975.

He appears to have always been a lower-level,

front-line operator and so

his direct knowledge of the

strategic directors of most of his operations is limited.

Even in reviewing the conversation with Otero, it is difficult

to filter out the specific details from the general

analysis

he provides

of numerous aspects of the Kennedy assassination.

He insists,

fast food thatsary, involveerate n she Ormation

Wanted by the ciA wo throw off a legitimate investigation.

the Mafia angle was first injected at the time of

Garrison's investigation when the Agency decided that it was

a way of short-circuiting his efforts.

It has since, says

Otero, further developed the misinformation scenario.

attempts against Castro's life involving the CIA and

the

Mafia were, says Otero, very lightly considered,

never got

beyond the conversational stage, if that, but are.now being

advanced as having been of serious significance. He feels

that any attempt to lay the blame for the Kennedy

assassination

on Castro is part of the ploy to throw the investigation off

the true track.

Oswald, says Otero,

was sent to Russia as a CIA agent and that

the decision to kill Kennedy was made before his return to the

United States.

He says he has no specific knowledge but he

figures, fson his general knowledge of CIA operations and from

heard about it over the years, that there were

between 30 and 35 CIA agents in Dallas on

the day Kennedy was

killed, including the actual hit team.

He figures there were

at least three on the hit team, at least one in front and one

in the rear of Kennedy.

Otero says he heard that most of the final planning and coordination

took place at meetings held

in the Dallas YMCA building.

Otero says

he also heard that at least three unsolved murders of

Cubans in Miami over the last several years were connected with

the Kennedy assassination.

He doesn't know the

men killed but

gave me the

locations, which I'll have to check out. This, he

emphasizes, is not hard information.

These

are the people Otero says were involved in the Kennedy

assassination:

Howard Hunt, Bernardo Torres, Norman Diaz,

Orlando Urra,

Nildo Acevedo.®

Otero says

was told by a

source that Torres worked with Oswald and was posing as a

photographer on Dealey Plaza on November 22nd. He

says he

does not know how directly involved the others were, although he

says he does know there were a few recent attempts on Diaz's life.

Otero gave me the name of his

source of information, which I'll

follow up. I'll also send separately copies of notes Otero made

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KAR B

1977

3

before andduring our interview.

The interview was taped but

because Otero thought there was a possibility that the room

in which we were was bugged, he often gave me vocally contrary

answers

to questions while indicating on paper the real

answers.

Otero has been transferred to

another jail since his

sentencing and suicide attempt. Since it's closer to Miami,

this will

make it a bit easier

for me to re-contact him

for additional information.

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