R. Berrellez; ITT Inquiry Figure
Robert Berrellez, who in 1978 was charged with lying about the efforts of International Telephone & Telegraph Corp. to prevent the election of Chilean President Salvador Allende, died Wednesday.
Berrellez was 65 and suffered a brain hemorrhage about two weeks ago. He died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Berrellez was a public information officer for ITT when he and Edward J. Gerrity Jr., an ITT vice president, were indicted on charges of giving untruthful testimony before a 1973 Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee investigating allegations that ITT and the CIA made efforts to block the 1970 election of Allende.
ITT was allegedly afraid that Allende’s accession to power would lead to government takeover of its businesses. Allende was later overthrown and died in a military coup.
A year later the government dismissed the perjury and conspiracy charges, saying it did not want to risk revealing national secrets in open court.
Berrellez is survived by a son, two brothers and three sisters.
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