ARTICLE ON EDEN PASTORA - 1982/11/15

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Argentina Declassification Project - The "Dirty War" (1976-83)
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 03427816
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: April 3, 2019
• Document Release Date: April 12, 2019
• Publication Date: November 15, 1982

Thc Director Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C03427816
ONO
Washington. D C 20505
15 November 1982 .
MEMORANDUM FOR: The Honorable William P. Clark
Assistant to the President for
National Security Affairs
SUBJECT: Article on Eden Pastora
This article is Pastora polishing his revolutionary
image. We have known and accepted his need to do this.
Our people think he has gone too far in doing this at
the expense of Alvarez, applying the Somoza label to
the Honduran-based Nicaraguan Democratic Party, and
.then identifying Argentine and American officers. (The
story indicates the latter as coming from "well-placed
sources in Honduras.")
They think he should be sent a message. I send
this to you as a basis for discussion of ways and means
at our meeting on Wednesday, when some meaningful new
developments will also be reported.
William J. Casey
Attachment:
NEW YORK TIMES article
dtd 15 Nov 82, "Sandinist
Renegade Says CIA Hamstrings
Him" -
CL BY 0008074
RVW OADR
SECRET
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OPERATIONS CENTER/CURRENT SUPPORT GROUP 6K5
News Bulletin
15 NOVEMBER 1982
ITEM NO. 1
ITEM FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES, PAGE A-2.
Sandinist Renegade Say CIA. Hamstrings
Him
By ALAN RIDING
Special tense New York Ilmee
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, Nov. 9 �
Eden Pastore Gomez paced impa-
tiently around his small office, digging
out old documents that he said showed
his political consistency, removing an
AR-15 rifle that hangs in front of a map
of Nicaragua to point out which Sandia-
1st garrisons had recently deserted to
join forces with him.
But the "Commander Zero" of the
1979 Nicaraguan Revolution could not
hide his frustration. His war exploits
had helped make him the most popular
Sandinist leader, yet in July 1981 he re-
signed as Deputy Defense Minister and
left Managua, disillusioned with the
revolution.
Finally, last April, he publicly de-
nounced the radicalism of his former
colleagues and pledged to "rescue" the
revolution � if necessary, by force. The
mere mention of his name was banned
by the Sandinists, while Nicaraguans
braced themselves for some spectacu-
lar coup similar to the attack that Mr.
Pastora led on the Somoza regime's Na-
tional Palace in August 1978.
Yet since then, he says, he has been
unable to act, caught in the crossfire of
the confrontation between Washington
and Managua. "The United States does-
n't want any revolution and the Sandia-
1st National Directorate wants to hold
on to power at all cost," Mr Pastors
said. "Between them, they're leading
. the country to a disaster."
Mr. Pastora said he believes that the
United States is supporting remnants of
the Somoza regime's national guard op-
erating in bands out of southern Hon-
duras and that this support is strengt*
ening the Sandinists.
� Playing a Waiting Game
� "Al] we ask is that the United States
withdraw and allow democratic Nicara-
guans to resolve things," he said. "If
you removed the guard from the north,
the directorate wouldn't stay in power
longer than a fly on a monkey's ear. But
the C.I.A. is doing what the Sandinists
want; the entire country would rise up
against any force that invaded under
the flag of the hated guard."
In his headquarters on a quiet hillside
outside San Jose, the 45-year-old Mr.
Pastora has been forced to play a wait-
ing game. He worries that his inaction
may be eroding his popularity in Nica-
ragua, but he remains convinced that
only he can offer a viable "third way"
that will eliminate the most radical
Sandinists and keep extreme rightist
counterrevolutionaries from seizing
power. "I know the Sandinists have sold
the image of Eden as a -mad, erratic
warmonger," he said. "But I'm really a
politician. If I'd been the 'bang-bang'
type, I'd have already gone in there and
killed a bunch of people. I'm in favor of
negotiating with the Sandinists. I'd go
to Washington if I were invited."
But neither the Sandinists' nine-man
directorate nor the Reagan Administra-
tion has taken up his offer. "They both
see me as a danger," he said. "The di-
rectorate won't listen to me when I tell
them that we shouldn't impose the
Cuban revolution on Nicaragua. And
the United States knows that my demo-
cratic anti-imperialist ix-evolution would
be imitated across the region."
.A Matter Of Principles
1#4...stora insisted that before he
spoke out in public against the director-
ate last April, he made repeated at-
. .
'tempts to negotiate a return to the revo-
lution's original principles, including
preservation of a mixed economy and
1 political pluralism. The directorate, he
said, ignored his proposals and under-
mined his efforts to help Guatemalan
guerrilla groups.
Mr. Pastora therefore formed his
awn Sandino Revolutionary Front,
made up of what he calls 'authentic"
Sandinists, and turned his wrath
against the Nicaraguan Government.
But he maintained that his efforts to
build a new "liberation" army have
been repeatedly blocked by the Reagan
Administration. �
Late in May, after a wave of deser-
tions by Sandinist soldiers and officials
i thivatened to turn Costa Rica into a
'springboard for armed incursions
against the Sandinists, as it had been
against the Somoza regime three years
earlier, Mr. Pastora was abruptly ex-
pelled by the Costa Rican Government,
which, though openly anti-Sandinist,
was fearful of border clashes.
Condtions Are Rejected
Mr. Pastora then flew to Honduras
for talks with the head of its armed
forces, Gen. Gustavo Alvarez Martinez,
who, according to Honduran military
sources, has long been working with Ar-
gentine military advisers and members
of the United States Central Intelli-
gence Agency in helping exiled national
guardsmen operating from bases in
southern Honduras. But Mr. Pastore
said he was merely invited to join
forces with the guard.
The dissident Sandinist, whose father
was murdered by a guard officer and
who himself fought for 18 years against
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cioe-to
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Eden! "Viva Zero!' People in Nicara-
gua confused. The Sandinists
pointed to this as proof I was a traitor.
My reply to both the C.I.A. and the Na-
tional Directorate was to dissolve the
Sandino Revolutionary Front." �
After promising not to use Costa Rica
for more than political activities, he
was given a three-month residence per-
mit. Unable to operate militarily, he
formed the Revolutionary Democratic
Alliance, with supporters of Alfonso
Robelo Callejas, a former Nicaraguan
junta member, of Brooklyn Rivera, a
dissident Miskito Indian leader, and of
Fernando Chamorro Rappaccioli, a
long-time opponent of both the Somoza
regime and its leftist successor. �
Another Trip to Honduras
In the last week of October, the four
!ley/ to Honduras to make a new at-
tempt to persaude General Alvarez to
withdraw his support for the "Somocis-
ta" forces and to permit them to oper-
ate there. Mr. Pastora was reluctant to
discuss the meeting beyond noting that
no progress was made. 'I didn't need
the K.G.B. before," he explained indi-
rectly, "and I don't need the C.I.A.
now."
Well-placed sources in Honduras,
however, reported that General Alva-
rez told them that the "war" against
the Sandinists was being won without
Mr. Pastors and that, if the new Revo-
lutionary Democratic Front wanted to
play a role, it would have to work with
exiled guardsmen and follow the orders
of the United States, Argentina and
Honduras. The sources added that Gen-
eral Alvarez was accompanied at the
The New York nines/Alan Riding meeting by an Argentine officer known
Eden Pastors G6Tez in his office in San Jose, Costa Rica. as Oswaldo Riveiro and by two Ameri-
cans who identified themselves as
�
the *Somoza regime, rejected the condi-
tions outright and flew to Western Eu-
rope for Wks with Social Democratic
party leaders in Portugal, Italy, West
Germany and Spain. On his return to
-Honduras early in July, he said he be-
came aware that former Somoza sup-
porters had been organized into a new
Nicaraguan Democratic Front and
were now receiving extensive support
from the t.I.A.
"Alvarez tried to keep me in Hon-
duras so my presence would serve as an
endorsement of the guard," he said. "I
then saw their game. Columns of 'con-
tras' penetrated Nicaragua and, when
they attacked, they'd shout, 'Viva
"Donald" and "John".
Since his return to San Jose, Mr. Pas-
tora has resumed his uncharacteristic
role of exiled politician, looking for
ways of negotiating a compromise with
the Sandinists as a way of averting a
civil war or an invasion from Honduras.
"Believe me, I'm not a gunslinger,"
he said, as if trying to shake off the
reputation that made him famous.
"I've seen too much fighting to want
more. My position is to search for
peace. But if it doesn't work, the United
States is going to put 3,000 guardsmen
into Nicaragua and start a conflict that
will lead to a war between Honduras
and Nicaragua. Then the whole region
will go up in smoke." .
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