Cia Denies Withholding Details About Guatemalan Murders But Won’t Talk About Whether Officer Was On Its Payroll

The CIA denied on Thursday charges by a New Jersey congressman that it withheld information about the deaths in Guatemala of an American innkeeper and a Guatemalan rebel leader married to a U.S. citizen.

But the CIA refused to address an additional charge that the two were murdered by a Guatemalan colonel who was on the CIA payroll.

The White House and the State Department both issued lengthy chronologies asserting that they learned details of the deaths early this year, disputing allegations by Rep. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., that the CIA had obstructed justice for years.

“When there is an investigation about the death of an American citizen, withholding information about those responsible and circumstances about that murder is not bad policy, it’s a crime,” said Torricelli, a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

He said he based his charges on information he received independently.

The CIA responded that the suggestion that it “had any information about the deaths … is a completely false and reprehensible charge. Credible information about the deaths of these individuals was acquired by the U.S. intelligence community well after they occurred.

“The agency shared all of this information with the appropriate intelligence agencies.”

At issue are the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Michael Devine, an innkeeper, in 1990, and Efrain Bamaca Velasquez, in 1992. Of the two cases, Bamaca’s has attracted the most attention, partly because of the crusade of his widow, Jennifer Harbury, to learn his fate.

Harbury, 43, staged a 32-day hunger strike in Guatemala City last fall and resumed the fast 12 days ago in front of the White House. She disclosed Thursday that, after losing 14 pounds, she was suspending the fast based on what she described as convincing evidence provided by Torricelli that her husband is dead.

While White House and State Department spokesmen insisted that Harbury was informed as far back as last November that her husband had almost certainly died in captivity, Harbury was equally insistent that vital information had been withheld from her.

She said she was “pained but not surprised that the truth was so long concealed from me. Apparently our relation with the bloodthirsty Guatemalan Army was more important than telling the truth.”

Torricelli charged that the two killings were ordered by Julio Roberto Alpirez, a Guatemalan colonel who he said was under contract to the CIA. The CIA’s ties with Alpirez have been severed, Torricelli said, adding that it was not clear whether the break occurred before or after a March 1992 firefight in which Bamaca was wounded. The lawmaker said Bamaca was killed about four months later.

The CIA does not normally discuss personnel matters and declined comment on the Alpirez connection.

Harbury recalled that during her hunger strike last fall, she “could have died at any time, and apparently the (U.S.) embassy was willing to stand by and let me die even though they knew the truth and were not willing to share it with me.”