D'AUBUISSON SAYS HE WASN'T IN PLOT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000201450003-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 1, 2010
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: June 28, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/01: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201450003-8
ARTICLE APPEARED NEW YORK TIMES
ON PAGE____ ____ 28 June 1981+
D'AUBUISSON SAYS
NE WASN'T IN PLOT
Salvadoran Thinks There Was
a Plan to Kill U.S. Envoy
but Denies involvement
By HEDRICK SMITH
Special to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, June 27 - Roberto
d'Aubuisson, the Salvadoran rightist,
said today that he believed there had
been a plot to assassinate the United
States Ambassador 1.o El Salvador but
that he was not involved. He told re-
porters he had "helped to avoid such a
terrible thing" by denouncing it in pub-
lic.
In a closed meeting with about a
dozen senators, Mr. d'Aubuisson, who'
lost the presidential runoff election on
May 5 to Jose Napoleon Duarte, report-
edly charged that the election was
"fraudulent" but promised nonetheless
to accept the results. 4
When reporters later asked him if
this meant he would support President
Duarte, he replied: "Yes, always, if he
is within the Constitution. This decision
was made by our party. This way we
make good things for our country."
i Mr. d'Aubuisson's appearance here,
after he was denied American entry
visas in June 1980, November 1983 and
last February, touched off a sharp,
largely partisan controversy on Capitol
Hill.
Some Democrats said it was "repre-
hensible" for the Administration to
admit Mr. d'Aubuisson in view of intel-
ligence information that some of his as-
sociates were involved plotting the as-
sassination of Ambassador Thomas R.
Pickering and repeated reports linking
Mr. d'Aubuisson to right-wing terror-
ism in El Salvador.
Some Republicans Persuaded
Conservative Republicans said Mr.
d'Aubuisson, leader of El Salvador's
rightist National Republican Alliance,
was being unfairly subjected to un-
founded accusations. Several came
away from his 90-minute session at the
Capitol saying he was persuasive in
taking on what one called "every tough'
question in the book" and denying all
charges against him.
Late this afternoon, Mr. d'Aubuisson
met for 45 minutes with Langhorne A.
Motley, Assistant ; Secretary of State
for Inter-American Affairs, to discuss
his party's role in El Salvador. Mr.
Motley was a key figure in the Admin-
istration's decision to grant Mr. d'Au-
buisson's visa as part of what officials
describe. as an effort to draw the for-
mer Salvadoran Army major into the
democratic political system there. ' .
In that effort and also to placate
American political conservatives,
President Reagan was reported by a
Government source to have written a
warm personal letter to Mr. d'Aubuis-
son shortly after he lost the runoff elec-
tion to President Duarte.
One Democrats Attends
Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, the
Republican whip, said he invited all 100
senators to meet with Mr. d'Aubuisson
today. But every -Democrat except
Russell B. Long of Louisiana boycotted
the session, as did a large majority of
Republicans, including the majority
leader, Howard H. Baker Jr. of Tennes-
see, and Charles H. Percy of Illinois,
the Foreign Relations, Committee
chairman. Mr. Stevens, evidently an-
ticipating a small turnout, reserved a
relatively small room.
Voicing the views echoed by others
Senator Robert C. Byrd, Democrat of
West Virginia, the minority leader, told
reporters that he was not meeting with
Mr. d'Aubuisson "because he's tied to
death squads and this plot to assassi-
nate a U.S. Ambassador."
After a briefing by the Central Intel-.
ii ence A enc on the lot Mr. Byrd
said e_r ga> mrt _ as
I
"very, veJy seriour an! ;L '
"rather strge that the Administra-
tion would grapt Mr. d'Abusson a
visa after dgnyuig..it..previot y.
'Search for Respectability'
"I don't think many senators would
want to legitimize his visit, his search
for respectability," the West Virginia
Democrat said.
But Senator John P. East, Republi-
can of North Carolina, accused Mr.
D'Aubuisson's critics of "stacking the
rhetorical deck against him" by re-
peatedly accusing him, without conclu-
sive evidence, of links to death squads
and the plot to assassinate Ambassador
Pickering.
"I call it cheap, left- McCarth -
ism, Mr. Eas ,sal . "It's a same o id
story. You repeat a bin lie often enough
and le beg n to believe it. There is
no proof o it. The C.I.k doesn't h
any proof. No one has any proof."
But Senator Jesse ems, epubli-
can of North Carolina, who had been
Mr. d'Aubuisson's most outspoken de-
fender and political patron on Capitol
Hill, seemed to back away from that
role today. Facing sharp attacks from
Gov. Jim Hunt, his senatorial oppo-
nent, for connections with Mr. d'Au-
buisson, Senator Helms told reporters
today that he was not acting in any way
as host for the Salvadoran leader.
As he arrived for the Senate session,
Mr. d'Aubuisson was asked by repot-
ers about charges that he was involved
in the plot against Ambassador Picker-
ing. Officials have reported that the
Ambassador is at an undisclosed loca-
tion on vacation, but also under close
security guard because of fears that
the assassination attempt might take
place in this country.
"I have not been In any plot," Mr.
d'Aubuisson answered through an izl-
terpreter. "1 helped to avoid such a ter-
rible thing that could have happened
against Ambassador Pickering.
'I do believe there was a plot against
the Ambassador," the Salvadoran
said. "I gave a press conference in San
Salvador that anything that could have
happened like this would be avoided."-'
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/01: CIA-RDP90-00552 R000201450003-8