---
alias:
- Virgilio Paz Romero
category: Extremism & Violent Networks
created: 2026-09-21
location: Union City, New Jersey
summary: Cuban Nationalist Movement member lent to DINA in 1975, who travelled with
  Michael Townley through Mexico and Europe, proposed the false Cuban claim for the
  Leighton shooting, and accompanied him to kill Orlando Letelier.
tags:
- Person
- VirgilioPaz
- CubanNationalistMovement
- CubanExiles
- DINA
- OrlandoLetelier
- MichaelTownley
updated: 2026-09-21
---

Virgilio Paz was a member of the [Cuban Nationalist Movement](/organizations/cuban-nationalist-movement/), "an unemployed sometime used-car salesman." His father, expelled from the Cuban army after the revolution, died of pneumonia in [Mexico City](/places/mexico-city/) on the way to the [United States](/places/united-states/). "Paz blames Castro, Mexican doctors, and the American bureaucracy."[^1][^2]

### Open Season

In 1975 Paz joined [Michael Townley](/people/michael-townley/) and [Mariana Callejas](/people/mariana-callejas/) of [DINA](/organizations/dina/) for what Townley called "Operation Open Season," "a nine-month, eight-country DINA mission to terrorize targeted Chilean exiles and the enemies of the Cuban Nationalist Movement." Major [Eduardo Iturriaga](/people/raúl-iturriaga-neumann/), head of DINA's foreign operations, approved his inclusion. In the Mexican desert a mixture of explosives Townley was preparing in their camper began to hiss and smoke, and Paz fled. Of a hostel for Chilean exiles he said: "It is a symbol. A nest of Marxism. Cubans believe in symbolism." He and Callejas stole a dentist's rotary file for its list of exiles' addresses.[^1][^2]

In [Rome](/places/rome/), where Townley was arranging with the followers of [Stefano Delle Chiaie](/people/stefano-delle-chiaie/) the killing of [Bernardo Leighton](/people/bernardo-leighton/), "Paz offered a unique cover-up plan to throw the subsequent investigation off the trail of both DINA and the Italians. The Italians would kill the Chilean target, and the Cuban exile movement would claim credit." Leighton and his wife were shot on October 6, 1975.[^1]

### Washington

In September 1976 Paz gave Townley the remote-control detonator used against [Orlando Letelier](/people/orlando-letelier/), one Townley "himself had constructed months before in Santiago by modifying a radio paging device." Paz and [Jose Dionisio Suarez](/people/jose-dionisio-suarez/) drove with Townley to Letelier's house. "I was informed by Paz and Suarez that they expected me to place the device on the car," Townley stated, "as they wished to have a DINA agent, namely myself, directly tied to the placing of the device."[^1]

Paz was indicted with six others on August 1, 1978, and remained a fugitive when Suárez was caught in 1990. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder a foreign official and was sentenced to twelve years.[^3]

[^1]: Dinges, John, and Saul Landau. *Assassination on Embassy Row*. McGraw-Hill, 1980, pp. 16-19, 152-160.
[^2]: Branch, Taylor, and Eugene M. Propper. *Labyrinth*. Viking, 1982, pp. 243-246, 303.
[^3]: McAllister, Bill. "Suspect Arrested in Letelier Slaying," *Washington Post,* April 12, 1990. "USA v. Guillermo Novo Sampol et al., 78-CR-367," case synopsis, latinamericanstudies.org, not verified against the docket.