---
alias:
- Orlando Garcia Vasquez
- Orlando García
category: Intelligence & Government
created: 2026-09-21
location: Caracas, Venezuela
summary: Cuban exile with CIA training who headed Venezuela's DISIP, received Orlando
  Bosch at Caracas airport in September 1976, and was said to have ordered CORU attacks
  to relieve pressure on him after the Cubana bombing.
tags:
- Person
- OrlandoGarciaVasquez
- DISIP
- Venezuela
- CubanExiles
- CIA
- CubanaFlight455
updated: 2026-09-21
---

Orlando García Vásquez, a Cuban exile and friend of [Orlando Bosch](/people/orlando-bosch/), was head of DISIP, the Venezuelan security police, with Rafael Rivas Vásquez as his deputy and [Luis Posada Carriles](/people/luis-posada-carriles/) as chief of operations. "All had received CIA training." The FBI described him in 1976 as "Minister Counsellor on Security Matters to Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez."[^1][^2]

### September 1976

When Bosch landed at Maiquetía on September 8, 1976, García, Posada, and [Ricardo Morales Navarrete](/people/ricardo-morales-navarrete/) met him, "all members of the Presidential Police Security Organization in Venezuela," and dined with him at La Hacienda. Through two government men lodged at the Caracas Hilton Bosch was offered police protection, a pistol, permission to raise funds "for the cause of Cuba," and an interview with "a top level person," which Bosch took to mean the president; he in turn "promised to stop terrorism by his group in Venezuela, Costa Rica and Colombia, but not Panama." Four weeks later a [Cubana airliner](/events/cubana-flight-455-bombing/) was blown up. García told a Miami detective that DISIP's bomb expert, Carlos Fabri, "became very nervous" at the prospect of testifying, and the detective's police source said DISIP took the investigation from the judicial police "to cover it up."[^2][^3]

### 1977

On January 21, 1977, an FBI informant reported that a [CORU](/organizations/coru/) member had come to Miami "carrying out instructions for the 'people in Venezuela,'" understood to be García, who wanted "two immediate missions": "a naval operation against Cuban shipping enterprises, which should result in a maximum number of Cuban nationals killed," and "a bombing of a consulate, embassy, or the like of any country having relations with Cuba," to "take away the 'pressure' from Orlando Bosch and specifically from the Republic of Venezuela." The Venezuelans "were interested in prosecuting Luis Posada Carriles to the fullest," while Bosch "may be able to extricate himself." García later lived in Miami.[^4]

[^1]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, p. 249.
[^2]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami, teletype to Director, "Bombing of Cubana Airlines DC-8 Near Barbados, West Indies, October 6, 1976," November 2, 1976, JFK Assassination Records Collection. National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book 153, document 10.
[^3]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami, file 2-471, "CORU," August 16, 1978. National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book 153, document 13.
[^4]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami, file 2-471, "Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU)," January 24, 1977. National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book 153, document 12.