--- alias: - Felipe Rivero Díaz - Felipe Rivero Diaz category: Extremism & Violent Networks created: 2026-09-21 location: Miami, Florida summary: Founder and ideological chief of the Cuban Nationalist Movement whom Michael Townley named as the man who sent him to Guillermo Novo in 1975, called before the Letelier grand jury in 1977 and never charged. tags: - Person - FelipeRivero - CubanNationalistMovement - CubanExiles - Brigade2506 - OrlandoLetelier - MichaelTownley updated: 2026-09-21 --- Felipe Rivero Díaz, a veteran of Brigade 2506 at the Bay of Pigs, founded the [Cuban Nationalist Movement](/organizations/cuban-nationalist-movement/) with the brothers [Guillermo Novo](/people/guillermo-novo/) and [Ignacio Novo](/people/ignacio-novo/) and wrote its political thesis, "La guerra por los caminos del mundo," war along the roads of the world. In [Miami](/places/miami/) he worked at Biltmore Motors, a car dealership.[^1][^2] ### Townley In December 1974 Rivero sent Guillermo Novo and [Jose Dionisio Suarez](/people/jose-dionisio-suarez/) to [Chile](/places/chile/) "to pay homage to Pinochet," and they entered the country with [Orlando Bosch](/people/orlando-bosch/).[^3] Early in 1975 [Michael Townley](/people/michael-townley/) of [DINA](/organizations/dina/) came to Miami looking for Cuban exiles to help kill two Chilean exiles in [Mexico City](/places/mexico-city/). According to the government's summary of his testimony at the 1979 trial, "the Cuban groups whom he was able to contact appeared to be too talkative and loose in security. Finally, a man named Felipe Rivero suggested he talk to appellant Guillermo Novo, the head of the Cuban Nationalist Movement (CNM) in New Jersey. Townley remembered the name as being one of the people who had arrived with Orlando Bosch in Chile in late 1974."[^4] Townley's wife, [Mariana Callejas](/people/mariana-callejas/), said in August 1978, hours before leaving [Santiago](/places/santiago/) for the United States under [FBI](/organizations/federal-bureau-of-investigation/) protection, that she had known Rivero in Miami, where Townley worked at Amco Transmission near Rivero's dealership, that Rivero was one of her husband's friends, and that he was "the man who established the contact between Townley and Guillermo Novo."[^2] ### The Grand Jury Rivero was summoned to appear on Wednesday, May 4, 1977, before the federal grand jury in [Washington](/places/washington-dc/) investigating the murder of [Orlando Letelier](/people/orlando-letelier/), the fifteenth Cuban exile called in seven months. "They summon me because of my dual role, on the one hand as ideological chief of the Cuban Nationalist Movement and on the other as a member of the Brigade. Both groups fall under certain suspicions," he said, calling the suspicions "absurd" and "unfounded." At least seven of the fifteen belonged to the movement, and three, Rivero and the Novo brothers, were founders; others were [Alvin Ross](/people/alvin-ross/), Suárez, Roberto Carballo of the veterans' association, and its military operations chief Armando López Estrada.[^1] In August 1978 an FBI source in New York refused to comment on links between Rivero and Townley, confirmed that Rivero had been before the grand jury months earlier, and called "absurd" the suggestion that the bureau had agreed to leave him out of the prosecution in return for information.[^2] That month Rivero called General [Augusto Pinochet](/people/augusto-pinochet/) "a coward and a traitor" for surrendering to the American authorities men they had linked to the death of Letelier, whom he called "the notorious spy of Allende and Castro." He said the five accused Cubans, Guillermo Novo, Ross, [Virgilio Paz](/people/virgilio-paz/), Ignacio Novo, and Suárez, "do not deserve this kind of accusation," and asked "all exiled Cubans" for 100,000 dollars for their defense.[^5] The Chilean investigation of [Manuel Contreras](/people/manuel-contreras/) and [Pedro Espinoza](/people/pedro-espinoza/) later put to a witness by letters rogatory: "Have you met or spoken to Felipe Rivero? If so, state the date and purpose of each such meeting, its location, and the subjects discussed," between the same questions about Bosch and about false documents from the Novos, Suárez, and Ross.[^6] [^1]: Marina, Gloria. "Citan a Felipe Rivero en el caso Letelier," *El Miami Herald,* May 3, 1977, scan at latinamericanstudies.org/belligerence/Rivero-Letelier.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish [^2]: de Dios Unanue, Manuel. "FBI no comenta posibles nexos Rivero y Townley," *El Diario-La Prensa,* August 21, 1978, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/DLP-8-21-1978-11.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish [^3]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 147-152. [^4]: Brief for Appellee, *United States v. Sampol,* Nos. 79-1541 and 79-1542 (D.C. Cir. 1979), https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Letelier-brief-appellee.pdf, statement of facts, citing trial transcript pp. 1599-1600. [^5]: Alles, Agustín. "Pinochet es un cobarde y un traidor, dice Felipe Rivero," *Réplica,* August 3, 1978, p. 2, scan at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/Replica-8-3-1978-2.pdf. Quotations translated from the Spanish [^6]: Corte Suprema de Justicia de Chile, proceso contra Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda y Pedro Espinoza Bravo, ministro instructor Adolfo Bañados, tomo 1, interrogatories in English, scan at latinamericanstudies.org, Causa-Contreras-Espinoza-1991.pdf.