EL SALVADOR/DEATH SQUADS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000201120003-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 21, 2008
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: March 21, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2008/10/21 : CIA-RDP88-0107OR000201120003-1
21 March 1964
EL SALVADOR/ RATHER: A major obstacle to President Reagann's policy in
DEATH SQUADS Central America, especially where El Salvador is
concerned, has been the Salvadoran death squads. The
political right and the left in that country have been
accused of random and wanton killings. Until now, those
who have ordered the killings have been anonymous, but as
Walter Cronkite reports, some of those on the political
right now have names, and they are the names of
high-ranking Salvadoran officials.
(File tape) CRONKITE: A former high military official
from El Salvador claims that the man who once directed his
country's infamous death squads was a paid informer of the
CIA. (To Unidentified Man): Do you think the United
States or any of its agencies, the CIA, for instance, knew
about the death squads? UNIDENTIFIED MAN (Voice of
Interpreter):- I understand, yes, precisely because they
had people in their employ who were in the high levels in
Salvador.
CRONKITE: Can you tell us who that is? UNIDENTIFIED MAN:
For ejemplo... (Voice of Interpreter): For example, Col.
*Caranza.
CRONKITE: Right there at the top. UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Si.
(Voice of Interpreter): Yes, sir.
CRONKITE: Col. Nicolas Caranza is the chief of the El
Salvador Treasury Police. Our source was interviewed in
disguise in a secret location in the United States. He
was in a sensitive post in the-top ranks of the Salvadoran
Security Establishment. The official was brought to.the
United States and given financial assistance, which is
expected to reach $50,000. The money came from critics of
the administration's Salvadoran policy. They made him
available to CBS News. Our source fingered as the
originator and still-active head of the death squads
former army Maj. Robert D'Aubisson, the right wing's
candidate for president in El Salvador's election next
Sunday. UNIDENTIFIED MAN (Voice of Interpreter): The way
it was carried out was that D'Aubisson worked under the
orders of Caranza.
CRONKITE: And yet he is an employee of CIA. UNIDENTFIED
MAN (Voice of Interpreter): He always has been, for five
or six years.
CRONKITE: Well, do you think that the CIA actually gave
orders on some of these assassinations? UNIDENTIFIED MAN:
No, no to creo que si. (Voice of Interpreter): No, I
don't believe so..
Continued
Approved For Release 2008/10/21 : CIA-RDP88-0107OR000201120003-1
 Approved For Release 2008/10/21 : CIA-RDP88-0107OR000201120003-1
CRO1KITE: The former officials said he had no evidence
that the CIA had been given the details of the death squad
operations, but this was his assumption because of the
Caranza connection.
CRONKITE: Well, is there a central control that decides
on who the victims will be? UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Algun
tiempo... (Voice of Interpreter): Generally, there is
control over designating the victims of the death squads.
However, every once in a while they get out of hand, and
they designate their own victims.
CRONKITE: Who was involved when there was a formal
selection process? UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Generalmente,
siempre Mayor D'Aubisson. (Voice of Interpreter): Always
Maj. D'Aubisson.
CRONKITE: Maj. D'Aubisson was the key man in the death
squads? UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Creo que si. (Voice of
Interpreter): Yes.
CRONKITE: He ordered the assassination of these various
people. UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Si, si. (Voice of
Interpreter): Yes, sir.
CRONKITE: Our informant said D'Aub.isson was directly
involved in the murders of Archbishop Oscar Arnolfo Romero
and two American labor advisers. However, he said the
murder of four American churchwomen (Graphic: Ford,
Clarke, Kazel, Donovan), including three nuns, was not the
work of the death squads. Five national guardsmen were
charged with those murders, and our., informant claims that
a superior ordered the nuns killed. (To Unidentified
Man): And who was the authority in La Paz who gave the
order? UNIDENTIFIED MAN (Voice of Interpreter): The
officer was a Col., uh, Oscar Eduardo Casanova.
CRONKITE: Casanova is a cousin of the present minister of
defense, Vides Casanova, who at the time was the head of
the'national guard. (To Unidentified Man): He must have
known as well, right? UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Perfectamente.
(Voice of Interpreter),: Perfectly.
CRONKITE: And he's covering up the assassination of the
nuns. UNIDENTIFIED MAN (Voice of Interpreter): Yes, yes,
that's so, because of famil... family ties.
Can5nu&
Approved For Release 2008/10/21 : CIA-RDP88-0107OR000201120003-1
 Approved For Release 2008/10/21 : CIA-RDP88-0107OR000201120003-1
CRONKITE: The president of El Salvador at the time was
Jose Napoleon Duarte, the Christian Democrat presidential
candidate in Sunday's election. (To Unidentified Man):
Did Duarte know about the cover-up of the murder of the
nuns? UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Debe tener que conocerlo.
(Voice of Interpreter): He had to know about it.
CRONKITE: Why? UNIDENTIFIED MAN (Voice of Interpreter):
Because he was the provisional president of the country,
and he had to be asking strongly what was, what happened
in the case of the nuns.
CRONKITE: So in other words, the cover-up went broadly
through the government, civilian and military.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Si, si. (Voice of Interpreter): Yes,
sir.
CRONKITE: Robert D'Aubisson always has denied any
involvement with the death squads. State Department
experts don't buy all the informant's story. Deputy
Assistant Secretary of the State for Latin American
Affairs Craig Johnston says he knows some of the
statements are inaccurate. For instance, he denies Col.
Casanova was involved in the churchwomen's murders and
said Duarte did not participate in any cover-up. The
Central Intelligence Agency refused to either confirm or
deny Caranza's relationship with them but said that the
CIA oes no emp oy assassins.. However, several
in a igence sources in Washington have confirmed for CBS
News that our source was in a position to know about the
ma ters he discusse wi us an Massachusetts Democrat
Paul E. songas, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, said he spent more than four hours questioning
our source and believes that our story is essentially
correct.. Walter Cronkite, CBS News, Washington.
Approved For Release 2008/10/21 : CIA-RDP88-0107OR000201120003-1