[Editor’s note: This document was released both as a State Department cable as part of its 1981 FOIA release, and as Serial 1628 of the FBI’s RYMUR release. The State Department release withheld all names associated with Peoples Temple from this cable. They are denoted below in red type.
[The text for this document was released in 2014 by the now-defunct Wikileaks website at https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1979GEORGE00120_e.html. This URL may be available through the Wayback Machine.]
UNCLASSIFIED
PAGE 01
GEORGE 00120 101704Z
ACTION ARA-15
INFO OCT-01 ISO-00 SCS-06 CA-01 SY-05 SYE-00 FBIE-00 USSS-00 L-03 H-02 SSO-00 /033 W
——————122988 101706Z /50
O 101700Z JAN 79
FM AMEMBASSY GEORGETOWN
TO SECSTATE WASHDC NIACT IMMEDIATE 8685
AMEMBASSY BRIDGETOWN NIACT IMMEDIATE
INFO AMEMBASSY PORT OF SPAIN IMMEDIATE
UNCLAS GEORGETOWN 0120
DEPT PLEASE PASS TO FBI, USSS.
E.O. 12065:NA
TAGS: CASC, GY (PEOPLE TEMPLE)
SUBJ: TRAVEL PEOPLES TEMPLE SURVIVORS
1. THE EMBASSY HAS JUST LEARNED OF THE DEPARTURE OF CUBANA FLIGHT 455 (TO BARBADOS) OF TWO PT MEMBERS: MIKE TOUCHETTE AND CARL BARNETT.
2. EMBASSY BELIEVES THEY WILL ATTEMPT TO RENDEUVOUS WITH PT SHIP “ALBATROSS III.”
3. FOR DEPARTMENT: PLEASE NOTIFY CONCERNED FEDERAL AGENCIES.
4. FOR BRIDGETOWN: PLEASE ATTEMPT TO REMAIN AWARE OF THEIR WHEREABOUTS.
BURKE
UNCLASSIFIED
NNN