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1104-10072-1024:

2025 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992

24 April 1970

extracted

izin

Wit /3/83

MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD

SUBJECT: Meeting With WUSLAB/I on 22 April 1970

1. Arrangements and Security:

The meeting took place

in

the Difice?safehouse) at 1400 on the above date and ended

at 1500. There were no incidents of a security nature.

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.

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 frankldwith him, and tell him what

he situation is like back in La Paz. He WIll attend the

ClAporeview of the Bolivian progkal.

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 OAS. The project is up for board approval and will last

at least a year:

7.

WUSLAB/I/went on at length on the difficulties between

Miss Alexander, the former Bolivian ambassador to the As 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

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.

reappeared.. When Miss Alexander returned to La Paz she read

a Noxander

When her parents were killed he

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 Figures,

had also been invited to the inauguration. Sanjines said

that it would be interesting to talk to Paz.

I asked WUSLAB/Lif there were any recent develop-

ments between his assistant] and the Soviet Embassy. During

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his absence Mr.

Spenty, 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 Unitea Nations

These documents are being sent to

KUTAKOV. WUSLAB/1 remarked that the soviets are alway:

Interested in the information assistants in his office/

and never

the office director. They were interested in

[Manton, Thompson and Peary

eyes choked so to son on 20 Apa 2o are nas

FLOYD B. MCCULLY

ELSLASJORS

SEGRET

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