--- alias: - Guillermo Novo Sampol - Bill Novo category: Extremism & Violent Networks created: 2026-09-21 location: Union City, New Jersey summary: Head of the northern zone of the Cuban Nationalist Movement who fired a bazooka at the United Nations in 1964, visited Pinochet's Chile in 1974, and supplied Michael Townley with explosives for the Letelier bomb. tags: - Person - GuillermoNovo - CubanNationalistMovement - CubanExiles - OrlandoLetelier - DINA - Terrorism updated: 2026-09-21 --- Guillermo Novo led the northern zone of the [Cuban Nationalist Movement](/organizations/cuban-nationalist-movement/) from Union City, New Jersey. He "was not a refugee from the Castro government, having left Cuba in 1952, seven years before Castro took power. Also, he had never worked for the CIA." Investigators met "a rather dapper man, given to three-piece pinstripe suits." An agent of the [FBI](/organizations/federal-bureau-of-investigation/)'s Newark office knew him as "an accomplished fund raiser and public speaker, a man of considerable philosophical knowledge, who would blow out a store window or dent the hull of a Russian ship, but who was not a killer."[^1] ### The Bazooka In December 1964 Novo fired a bazooka at the [United Nations](/organizations/united-nations/) building while [Che Guevara](/people/che-guevara/) was speaking inside. The shell "had been a semidud, aimed poorly, and had plopped harmlessly into the East River."[^1][^2] ### Chile In December 1974 the movement's leader, Felipe Rivero, sent Novo and [Jose Dionisio Suarez](/people/jose-dionisio-suarez/) to [Chile](/places/chile/) "to pay homage to Pinochet." They entered the country with [Orlando Bosch](/people/orlando-bosch/). When [Michael Townley](/people/michael-townley/) of [DINA](/organizations/dina/) and his wife, [Mariana Callejas](/people/mariana-callejas/), first came to a Union City motel, Novo, Suarez, and Armando Santana "drew guns and ordered the couple to sit down," searched the luggage, and found an American passport in the name Kenneth Enyart and a Chilean identity card in the name Andres Wilson. "Finally, Novo put away his pistol and extended his hand to Townley." The movement lent Townley [Virgilio Paz](/people/virgilio-paz/) for a DINA mission to [Mexico](/places/mexico/) and Europe. A communique in the name of "Zero," a label used by Novo, his brother Ignacio, and Suarez, claimed the shooting of [Bernardo Leighton](/people/bernardo-leighton/) in [Rome](/places/rome/) in October 1975. The FBI credited it "because it provided details of the attack that only the assassins could know."[^2] ### Letelier On September 10, 1976, at Union City, Townley "outlined my DINA mission to assassinate Letelier and requested the assistance of the Cuban Nationalist Movement." Novo demanded a full explanation and argued that "DINA should have killed Otero rather than turn him over to the FBI," a reference to the surrender of [Rolando Otero](/people/rolando-otero/) to [Robert Scherrer](/people/robert-scherrer/). After a meeting at the Chateau Renaissance Motel he sent formal word that the movement would help. He introduced Townley to [Alvin Ross](/people/alvin-ross/), once a blackjack dealer at the Tropicana in Havana. On September 15 "Novo handed Townley a paper bag" holding detonating cord, C-4, and TNT. Paz and Suarez went with Townley to [Washington](/places/washington-dc/), where [Orlando Letelier](/people/orlando-letelier/) and [Ronni Moffitt](/people/ronni-moffitt/) were killed on September 21.[^2] Asked by the prosecutor [Eugene Propper](/people/eugene-propper/) and the agent Carter Cornick where he had been the night before the bombing, Novo said: "That is my trump card. That is the ace up my sleeve." The informant [Ricardo Morales](/people/ricardo-morales-navarrete/), then an officer of the Venezuelan DISIP, had planted a story that Bosch was telling associates the "Novo brothers" had killed Letelier. "Bosch is a liar and a traitor to freedom," Novo said.[^1] ### Trials Indicted on August 1, 1978, Novo was tried with Alvin Ross and his brother Ignacio Novo from January 8, 1979. Michael Townley, who had pleaded, testified that DINA "ordered him to secure assistance from the CNM" so as to isolate itself, and that Novo had insisted Townley take part personally. A jailhouse informant, Antonio Polytarides, testified to Novo's admissions. The defense argued that Townley "was in fact an agent of the United States Central Intelligence Agency which had planned the assassination of Letelier." On February 14, 1979, the jury convicted all three; Novo received two life terms and five years for lying to the grand jury. On September 15, 1980, the court of appeals reversed under *United States v. Henry*, decided that June, which barred testimony from informants cultivated by the government among pretrial detainees; Ignacio's conviction fell for want of a separate trial. At the retrial of May 1981 the jury acquitted Novo and Ross of the murders and convicted Novo of the false declarations. In October 1981 he was released from federal prison by mistake, officials having confused him with his brother. An FBI informant had reported in January 1978 that he was organizing [CORU](/organizations/coru/) cells in Union City "for military action in the U.S. and against the country of Venezuela."[^3][^4] [^1]: Branch, Taylor, and Eugene M. Propper. *Labyrinth*. Viking, 1982, pp. 101-108. [^2]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 9-21, 147-152, 240. [^3]: *United States v. Sampol,* 636 F.2d 621 (D.C. Cir. 1980). [^4]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami, file 2-471, "CORU," August 16, 1978. National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book 153, document 13. "Wrong Man Freed in Letelier Case," *Washington Post,* October 21, 1981, as summarized.