Kin of Man Missing in Cuba Deny He Killed Self

The relatives of a Cuban-born Los Angeles man who failed to return from a January trip to the island claim that the U.S. State Department is wrong in publicizing a report that he apparently killed himself in a Cuban jail.

The missing man, Nicolas Raul Valladares, 56, “is a very good Catholic and would never commit suicide,” insisted Anna Royero of Los Angeles, the wife of Valladares’ nephew.

She said she and other relatives here talked by telephone Friday with “somebody very dear” to Valladares who “said they had seen him in the Cuban jail and that under the circumstances he’s doing fine.”

Royero declined to identify the caller, but contended that if Valladares were actually dead, “this person wouldn’t be able to be so calm and say he wasn’t.”

‘Lovable, Honest Person’

She said she has been told that he was charged with espionage, but that he could not possibly be involved in anything like that. “He’s a very lovable and very honest person,” she said. “When you’re trying to connect espionage to him, they just don’t mix.”

State Department spokeswoman Phyllis Oakley, who said the United States would protest to Cuba over the apparent mistreatment of Valladares, said the department had been informed indirectly that he had committed suicide while in Cuban custody.

The information, Oakley said, came from the office of Rep. Howard Berman (D-Panorama City), who learned of the death from a member of the Cuban Interest Section, a Castro government office that operates in Washington under the Czechoslovakian flag. Cuba and the United States do not have full diplomatic relations, but each maintains such an office in the other country in order to communicate.

‘Demand an Explanation’

“We intend to protest to the government of Cuba its disregard of normal diplomatic practice and to demand an explanation of this matter,” Oakley said.

She said Cuba was obligated under the Vienna Convention to give such information directly to the United States, but “the facts have never been communicated to us officially by the Cuban government.”

According to Oakley, Berman learned that Valladares’ family was told May 26 that Valladares had taken his own life. Berman’s office inquired about Valladares at the request of the congressman’s cousin, Harvey Levich, for whom Valladares worked as a resident manager at a Hollywood apartment house.

Like Royero, Levich described Valladares as neither a political activist nor a likely candidate for suicide. Levich said the Cuban-born Valladares had worked for him a little more than two years and was “a conscientious employee.”

‘Very Faithful’

Levich said that Valladares, who was unmarried, “was very faithful” to his mother, brother and sister in Cuba, visiting them several times in recent years and frequently sending them money. “He was very concerned about them,” he said.

Royero told The Times that her husband’s uncle, who was a resident alien until he became a U.S. citizen last year, left for Havana last Jan. 5 on one of his periodic visits. She said he traveled via Mexico City on a Cuban passport because he knew the Cubans would not recognize his U.S. passport.

He was scheduled to return here Jan. 25, but failed to arrive. Royero said she and her husband subsequently learned that he had been taken into custody at the airport in Cuba as he prepared to depart.

She said she had asked the State Department not to publicize the report of Valladares’ suicide. “We know he’s alive,” she said. “We just wish that they would have waited a little longer.”