Ricardo Cañete
FBI informant in Brooklyn who in the spring of 1977 sold forged identity papers to Ignacio Novo of the Cuban Nationalist Movement and reported his talk of counterfeit money and war to the bureau.
Ricardo Cañete, of 2730 West 33rd Street, Brooklyn, was an informant of the FBI's New York office, debriefed by Special Agent Larry Wack in May 1977, fifteen months before the indictments in the murder of Orlando Letelier. His reports concerned Ignacio Novo of the Cuban Nationalist Movement.1
Frederick Pagan
Novo drove him to the Bergenline Avenue district of Union City, "seemed 'uptight,'" and wrote on the back of a restaurant guest check what he wanted: a DD-214 discharge form, a New York State temporary security card, a birth certificate, and a West German passport, all in the name Frederick Pagan. On another evening Novo carried under his coat a 9-millimeter Uzi that "appeared to have a silencer attached" and "appeared to be 'cut down' in length." Cañete delivered a DD-214, two baptismal certificates from Baton Rouge, a blank New York temporary license, and two Louisiana birth certificates, all for Frederick Pagan, born April 20, 1942, hidden in a motorcycle magazine at a restaurant at 2332 Broadway, where a woman introduced as "Martha" was present. Novo took the magazine to the men's room and came back to say "he needed four more sets of forged identification papers and that one set must be 'completely built up.'" Wack kept copies "for evidentiary value." On May 18 Novo said that four men had left for Miami, by bus, by plane, by car, and by way of Washington, each carrying copies of the Pagan papers.1
Wine
Novo told him that the movement referred to counterfeit money as "wine" on the telephone, "because that country exports a lot of wine," and "since the NSA listens to calls placed to foreign countries and NOVO believes Chile is one of those countries monitored." Any purchase would be made through lockers at an airport or bus terminal. Asked "Did the Chilean wine get in?" Novo answered "Not yet."1
The Photograph
On May 2, 1977, Novo showed him a photograph of an FBI agent and said: "This is the cocksucker, who wants Guillermo." On May 13 Cañete recognized the man in the photograph as Wack. Around May 9 Novo told him of the bureau's pressure over the Letelier investigation: "If GUILLERMO goes inside, it's war. This was already decided on tonight." Asked who would be involved, he named the prosecutor and the FBI and said "up to BELL if we have to," and that if the United States and Cuba normalized relations "the bodies are going to be all over." At Novo's office at a New Jersey Ford dealership on May 5 Cañete heard him take a call: "Let me speak to ALEJANDRO first," then "FLACO, what's happening?"1
Sources
- Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York office, reports of interviews of Ricardo Cañete by Special Agent Larry E. Wack, May 10 to May 18, 1977, scans at https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/MNC/canete.pdf. The FBI file on the same site also holds Cañete's telephone toll records and his false identity papers. ↩
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