August 11, 1980

SENATORS ASKED TO STUDY PUERTO RICO KILLING INQUIRY

(SAN JUAN, P.R.) The leaders of all three opposition political parties have called on the Senate Judiciary Committee, headed by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, to look into the Justice Department's handling of a grand jury investigation into the death of two radicals in Puerto Rico at the hands of the police.

In recent letters to Senator Kennedy,  two of the leaders noted that Gov. Carlos Romero Barcelo, who had always been considered a
Republican, visited Attorney General Benjamin R. Civiletti in December for the announced purpose of discussing jurisdictional
problems over possible offshore mineral deposits.

The presidents of the two pro-independence parties declared that shortly after that visit the Governor announced himself a Democrat
and campaigned to deliver the island's 41 Democratic Party convention votes to President Carter. In the March 16 primary, Mr. Carter
obtained 21 convention delegates to Senator Kennedy's 20.

On April 25, the Justice Department's civil rights division announced that, for lack of evidence, it was concluding its investigation into
the police's shooting of the two radical advocates of independence. Critics of the government contended that a deal had been made in
which the inquiry would be ended in exchange for Governor Romero Barcelo's help in delivering the island's Democratic delegation to
President Carter.

Aides to Senator Kennedy said yesterday that the letters were under study.

Waiting Policemen

The killings on July 25, 1978, have been highly controversial here. The police said that Carlos Soto Arrivi, 18 years old, and Arnaldo
Dario Rosado, 24, were going to Cerro Maravilla, a peak on the highest mountain in Puerto Rico, to sabotage a commercial television
station's relay tower. A police undercover agent, Alejandro Gonzalez Malave, who had penetrated their small group, the Armed
Revolutionary Movement, accompanied the two. He had notified his superiors, who stationed a squad of policemen in civilian clothes
on the mountain to wait for them. The police contended the two were killed after they ignored an order to surrender and opened fire
on the police.

This version was contradicted by a taxi driver who had been abducted by the young radicals and the undercover agent. The driver,
Julio Ortiz Molina, said he was under the dashboard when the shooting started and could not see who shot first. He told reporters and
investigators for the Puerto Rico Bar Association, however, that when he got out of the car the two young men were alive and were
being beaten by the police.

Mr. Ortiz Molina said that the police took him to another place nearby, from where he heard a second volley of gunfire. He told
reporters and other persons that the police and investigators for the Puerto Rico Justice Department had put pressure on him to say
there had been only one volley and to deny ever seeing the police beating the young men.

Last week The San Juan Star reported that a policeman who had been at Cerro Maravilla had told the Federal grand jury there had been  two rounds of shots. The policeman, Jesus Quinones, quit the force shortly after the shooting. The newspaper also quoted three
civilians as saying they had heard two volleys but never reported it to the authorities.

Ruben Berrios, president of the Puerto Rican Independence Party, and Juan Mari Bras, secretary general of the Puerto Rican Socialist
Party, then demanded a Senate investigation. Former Gov. Rafael Hernandez Colon also wrote Senator Kennedy, asking for an inquiry
into the conduct of the Federal investigation.