LETTER TO WILLIAM J. CASEY FROM LEE H. HAMILTON

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP87M00539R002203520018-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 14, 2009
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: March 25, 1985
• Content Type: LETTER

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EXECUTIVE SECRETARIAT
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ealthy Eases impneatea
1 Salvadoran Bishop's Death
L-Intelligence 'Chief Levels Allegations
By Don Oberdorfer
Washington No Staff Writer
'he assassination of Salvadoran
hbishop Oscar Romero 'five
rs ago was carried out by fbrmer
araguan national guardsmen di-
ed by Col. Ricardo Lata', who
hec me chief nf_inteltioence
the CIA-backed rebels fighhting
inst the Sandinista ove ' ent,
~rmer a va oran security' bff-
charged yesterday.
.ol. Roberto Santivanez, who
head of El Salvador's central
elligence agency in 1978-79,'said
a Washington news conference
t Lau had been paid $120,000 in
inection with Romero's assassi-
.ion by wealthy Salvadoraq exiles
March 27, 1980, three days af-
- the killing.
The killing of Romero, who was
Detail Offered''
On BishoP " 's
Assassination
Santivanez said yesterday 't
"money was not my motivation" bhp
His revelations caused an imme-
te stir even without use of his
me.
There
ALIfthi,
COL. ROBERTO SANTIVANEZ
... appears at news conference:
was learned that Santivanez had
been promised $50,000 as living
expenses by critics of U.S. policy in
Central America.
Bruce Cameron, a former con-
gressional aide who helped arrange
Santivanez's original testimony,
said he actually received $32,500.
See LATIN, A28, Col. I
e U.S. planning its largest military
exercise in Honduras. Page A28
the death squads and was paid for
Romero's assassination.
Lau was later chief of intelligence
for the "September 15 Legion," one
of the earliest paramilitary organ-
izations fighting against the leftist
Sandinista government that took
over Nicaragua after Somoza's fall.
After the formation in August
1981 of the Democratic Front of
Nicaragua (FDN), the umbrella
group for the anti-Sandinista fight,
Lau was its first chief of intelli-
gence.
Secret Central Intelligence Agen-
cy support for the FDN and other
elements of the "secret war"
against the Sandinistas was author-
ized by President Reagan in No-
vember 1981.
Lau was forced out of the FDN
intelligence post about September
1982, reportedly on CIA instruc-
tions, but has been described as tak.
ing an unofficial role in FDN coun-
terintelligence as late as last year.
Bosco Matamoros, Washington
representative of the FDN, said
Lau at present has "no connection
in any capacity" with the anti-San-
dinista organization.
Matamoros said "we have no
knowledge" that Lau had a role in
the assassination of Romero, an act
which Matamoros described as
"condemnable."
Santivanez was removed from his
post as chief of the Salvadoran na-
intelligence agency. ANSE-
tional
SAL, as a result of the October
1979 coup that brought a reformist
group of military officers to power.
In the following months, including
the period of Romero's assassina-
tion, Santivanez was residing in
Guatemala, where he said the as-
his life and travel.
The news conference' yesterday,
sponsored by an independent fl{tt-,
maker who is releasing. a docume*
tary on Santivanez, came as the ad-;
ministration is preparing a large
scale effort to persuade Congress t)';
reverse its cutoff of 'secret fundittg!
for the anti-Sandinista'insurgents.
Beyond his charge against Lau-;r
which was not mentioned in his r'--
marks last y>;ar, Santivanez's
news conference was notable for its
description of th'e links between
various Central Am,erican rightist
officials and groups, in connection
with the Salvadoran death squads.r
According to Santivanez, the de-
cision to kill the archbishop was
made by Miami-based Salvadoran
capitalists "who gav'e''?the money"
and was passed along inside El Sal-
vador by Roberto D'Aubuisson, ; a
former major in the'seeurity service
who has since become a prominent
figure in Salvadoran politics.
The killing was planned in Gua-
temala. according to . Santivanez,
and carried out by 1,W o ex-Somoza
[Nicaragua) national guardsmen
working with a Salvgdpian National
ard team"
G
u
Santivanez did not pame Lau. Guatemala had been a haven for
who had been an intelligence officer right-wing exiles following the fall
and field commander for former Ni- of Somoza in July 1979 and the re-
caraguan president Anastasio So- formist coup in El Salvador in Oc-
moza, as one of the archbishop's tober that year. Santivanez said he
killers had spoken at the time with hired
Santivanez said tF t,'on the basis assassins who made frequent flights
cf a captured 'diary' of death squad from Guatemala into E aly as r to
activity and "several other sources." kill people selected for
Lau payed "a key role' in training tion.
among the most popular and impor-
tant figures in El Salvador at the
time, was .a key event in polarizing
the political situation in that coun-
try. Salvadoran President Jose Na-
poleon Duarte has said the govern-
ment is investigating the widely
discussed crime, but no results of
the investigation have been an-
nounced.
Santivanez gave interviews to
several news organizations and
about two dozen members of Con-
gtess a year ago recounting his in-
side knowledge of death squad ac-
tivity in El Salvador, but at the time
ii-'i;isted that his name not be used
fQir fear of reprisals.
sassination was planned.
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