# Robert Scherrer

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**Robert William Scherrer** (August 21, 1935 – November 15, 1995)[1][2][3] was an [FBI](/source/FBI) agent posted in [Latin America](/source/Latin_America) in the 1970s. Named by journalist [John Dinges](/source/John_Dinges) as an "intelligence centre all by himself",[4] he had extensive sources in the intelligence communities and military across the countries of the [Southern Cone](/source/Southern_Cone), and was one of the agents transmitting information from local intelligence sources to the United States as part of [Operation Condor](/source/Operation_Condor). He later participated in investigations relating to Condor's international killings, and is one of John Dinges' sources.[5] He was the person who, in 1979, revealed the existence of "phase 3" of [Operation Condor](/source/Operation_Condor), the programme of international assassinations.[6]

## Mission

Born in [Brooklyn](/source/Brooklyn), and of German-Irish heritage, Robert Scherrer spoke Spanish almost perfectly, and had a mission to ensure the [international police cooperation](/source/International_police_cooperation) of [Argentina](/source/Argentina), [Chile](/source/Chile), [Uruguay](/source/Uruguay), [Paraguay](/source/Paraguay) and [Bolivia](/source/Bolivia).[4] All of these countries were under military dictatorship since at least 1973, except Argentina, who had a brief civil intermediary period between the [March 1973 Argentine general election](/source/March_1973_Argentine_general_election) and the [National Reorganization Process](/source/National_Reorganization_Process), and collaborated with [Operation Condor](/source/Operation_Condor).

"Officially in charge of legal affairs at the United States Embassy in Buenos Aires" in 1975, he had been in post for six years,[4] and travelled regularly to [Paraguay](/source/Paraguay), where he personally knew General [Benito Guanes](/source/Benito_Guanes), [Head of G2](/source/G2_Officer) (Intelligence Service of Staff) and [Pastor Coronel](/source/Pastor_Coronel), head of the [DIPC](/source/Departamento_de_Investigaciones_de_la_Polic%C3%ADa).[4]

In 1979, the head of the [Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional](/source/Direcci%C3%B3n_de_Inteligencia_Nacional), [Manuel Contreras](/source/Manuel_Contreras), declared in a judicial deposition that Robert Scherrer was: "in permanent contact with [the Condor representative in Buenos Aires] and received the information he had requested, on the files he had requested, on many occasions. (...) Equally, the [CIA](/source/CIA) knew the existence of the Condor organisation, and provided it with information on many occasions.[7]

## The inquest into the assassination of Carlos Prats (1974)

He also investigated the assassination of Chilean General [Carlos Prats](/source/Carlos_Prats) in September 1974 in [Buenos Aires](/source/Buenos_Aires), receiving testimony from [Michael Townley](/source/Michael_Townley) who explicitly implicated the Argentine [SIDE](/source/SIDE) and the *[Milicia](/source/Milicia_(Argentina))*, an extreme-right group, in the death.[8]

## The arrest of Santucho and Fuentes (1975)

After the arrest in [Paraguay](/source/Paraguay), on 16, of two Chileans from the [Revolutionary Left Movement (Chile)](/source/Revolutionary_Left_Movement_(Chile)), members of the [Revolutionary Coordinating Junta](/source/Revolutionary_Coordinating_Junta) (JCR), [Amilcar Santucho](/source/Amilcar_Santucho) (brother of [Mario Roberto Santucho](/source/Mario_Roberto_Santucho)) and [Jorge Fuentes](/source/Jorge_Fuentes), Robert Scherrer was informed at every moment of their interrogation (during which the militants were [tortured](/source/Torture)).[4]

He passed this information to the [FBI](/source/FBI), who interrogated presumed members of the JCR in the United States, including the wife of Fuentes.[1][a] He also informed [courrier](http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/ch30-01.htm) Chilean General [Ernesto Baeza](/source/Ernesto_Baeza) on 6 of the arrest of the Chileans (the letter was transmitted to the [Rettig Commission](/source/Rettig_Commission) who classed it in their "confidential" section.),[4] after which Argentine and Chilean interrogators went to [Asunción](/source/Asunci%C3%B3n).[4]

## Assaination of Cuban Rolando Masferrer (1975)

Scherrer told [Saul Landau](/source/Saul_Landau) that the Cuban [Rolando Masferrer](/source/Rolando_Masferrer), who was planning to assassinate [Fidel Castro](/source/Fidel_Castro), and who was killed by a car bomb in October 1975, was killed by the Novo brothers ([Guillermo](/source/Guillermo_Novo) and [Ignacio](/source/Ignacio_Novo)) on the orders of [Jorge Mas Canosa](/source/Jorge_Mas_Canosa), leader of the [Cuban American National Foundation](/source/Cuban_American_National_Foundation) and rival to Masferrer, whom he considered as too "moderate".[9]

## Assassination of Torres, Letelier and the 1976 Operation Condor cable

A short time after the assassination in [Buenos Aires](/source/Buenos_Aires) of former Bolivian president [Juan José Torres](/source/Juan_Jos%C3%A9_Torres) (2), Scherrer accumulated evidence to show that it had taken place as part of Condor.[10]

Then, a week after the assassination of former minister of [Allende](/source/Salvador_Allende), [Orlando Letelier](/source/Orlando_Letelier), in Washington (September 1976), Scherrer sent a [cable](http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/ch23-01.htm), dated 28, describing [Operation Condor](/source/Operation_Condor), in particular "phase 3", that is, assassinations overseas.[11] This document, which [John Dinges](/source/John_Dinges) received in 1979, two years after its [declassification](/source/Classified_information),[11] was cited in a book, written by Dinges and [Saul Landau](/source/Saul_Landau),[12] about the assassination of Letelier.[11] According to Scherrer, it was only with the assassination of Letelier that the United States became aware of the existence of "phase 3" of Condor.[13] [John Dinges](/source/John_Dinges), however, has shown that this "was [false]" and that "American intelligence knew of the plans to execute the Condor Plan many months before the attack on Letelier".[14]

Much later, this cable was also used by Joan Garcés, former assistant to Allende, in a lawsuit launched in 1996 in Spain, before Judge [Baltasar Garzón](/source/Baltasar_Garz%C3%B3n) and the [Audiencia Nacional](/source/Audiencia_Nacional), accusing the [military dictatorship of Chile (1973–90)](/source/Military_dictatorship_of_Chile_(1973%E2%80%9390)) and the [National Reorganization Process](/source/National_Reorganization_Process) of a "criminal cartel" known as "[Operation Condor](/source/Operation_Condor)", to assassinate its political opponents.[11]

This is also when Scherrer became aware of planned assassinations in [Paris](/source/Paris) and [Lisbon](/source/Lisbon) by Condor agents, in particular, members of the [Batallón de Inteligencia 601](/source/Batall%C3%B3n_de_Inteligencia_601) and the [SIDE](/source/SIDE) (Argentina), Uruguayans and Chileans.[15] While these failed, the [CIA](/source/Central_Intelligence_Agency) offered support to its French and Portuguese equivalents due to their imminence. Another project, possibly planned from the same source, against Uruguayan Senator [Wilson Ferreira Aldunate](/source/Wilson_Ferreira_Aldunate) also failed, with [Scotland Yard](/source/Scotland_Yard) offering close protection.[16]

## Notes and references

1. Dinges refutes the version that journalist [Tim Weiner](/source/Tim_Weiner) states in [F.B.I. Helped Chile Search For Leftists, Files Show](https://www.nytimes.com/1999/02/10/world/fbi-helped-chile-search-for-leftists-files-show.html?pagewanted=1), *[New York Times](/source/New_York_Times)*, 10 February 1999, where the FBI had no trace of the militants in the United States.

1. Dinges & Bourdon 2005, pp. 103–105.

1. [Washington Post, Robert Scherrer Dies](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1995/11/29/robert-scherrer-dies/86a7178e-93ec-4618-979a-38d755c5a57b/)

1. [Social Security Death Index](https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JB5M-2MK)

1. Dinges & Bourdon 2005, p. 103.

1. Dinges & Bourdon 2005, p. 9.

1. Dinges & Bourdon 2005, p. 237.

1. Dinges & Bourdon 2005, p. 133.

1. Dinges & Bourdon 2005, p. 90.

1. Saul Landau. ["Rolando Masferrer"](https://web.archive.org/web/20140405164921/http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKmasferrerR.htm). *Spartacus Educational*. Archived from [the original](http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKmasferrerR.htm) on 2014-04-05.

1. Dinges & Bourdon 2005, p. 163.

1. Dinges & Bourdon 2005, p. 38.

1. Dinges & Landau 1980, pp. 238–239.

1. Dinges & Bourdon 2005, p. 201.

1. Dinges & Bourdon 2005, p. 202.

1. Dinges & Bourdon 2005, p. 224.

1. Dinges & Bourdon 2005, pp. 226–227.

## Annexes

### Bibliography

- [Letter](http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/ch30-01.htm) of 6 June 1975 from Scherrer to Chilean General [Ernesto Baeza](/source/Ernesto_Baeza) (on the [National Security Archives](/source/National_Security_Archives) site)
- [Cable from Robert Scherrer](http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/ch23-01.htm) on 28 September 1976 describing [Operation Condor](/source/Operation_Condor) and its "phase 3" (on the [National Security Archives](/source/National_Security_Archives) site)
- [Cable from the American Embassy in Buenos Aires](http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB309/19750814.pdf) on 14 August 1975 (with *clearance* from Robert Scherrer) concerning the assassination of Chilean militants exiled in Argentina, and strongly urging the Minister [José Lopez Rega](/source/Jos%C3%A9_Lopez_Rega) that these may be coordinated across different services across the [Southern Cone](/source/Southern_Cone)) (site of the [National Security Archives](/source/National_Security_Archives), [declassified document used in the trial](http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB309/index.htm) of the ex-Uruguayan dictator [Juan Maria Bordaberry](/source/Juan_Maria_Bordaberry), sentenced in 2010)
- Dinges, John & Bourdon, William (2005). *Les Années Condor, comment Pinochet et ses alliés ont propagé le terrorisme sur trois continents* [*The Condor Years: How Pinochet and his Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents* (2004)]. Translated by Isabelle Taudière. La Découverte (ed.). Paris. ISBN 978-2-7071-4424-9.
- Dinges, John & Landau, Saul (1980). *Assassination on Embassy Row*. New York: McGraw-Hill.

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Robert Scherrer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Scherrer) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Scherrer?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.