WIFE DENOUNCES KIDNAPPING OF ALLEGED ARGENTINE SPY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000202010003-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 21, 2010
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: December 7, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/21: CIA-RDP90-00552R000202010003-5
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
7 DECEMBER 1982
Wife denounces kidnapping of alleged Argentine spy
WILLIAM CESPEDES
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica
The wife of an Argentine kidnapped in Costa Rica three months ago accused
Nicaragua Tuesday of holding her husband and using him to produce a pro-leftist
propaganda videotape.
The tape was shown to journalists in Mexico City last week and purported to
show Hector Frances as an Argentine intelligence agent stationed in Costa Rica
who had deserted to the Nicaraguan side.
But Frances' wife in San Jose denied the claim.
''My husband was never a revolutionary, and he doesn't have any revolutionary
friends. Only under extreme tension and pressure would he have said the things
he did on the tape, ' said Clara de Frances.
Mrs. de Frances said she had received information that her husband was being
held in Nicaragua.
"I know his kidnapping was ordered by the head of security for the
Sandinista regime, Lenin Cerna, " she said.
Hector Frances had lived in Costa'Rica for a year under a tourist visa,
traveling frequently to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. He was kidnapped
outside his home by gunmen last September.
Mrs. de Frances claimed at the time of the kidnapping that he worked as an
architect, but police were not able to confirm that.
The videotape said the CIA, with Argentine military assistance, was funding
an invasion of Nicaragua that began in October when 800 rightist guerrillas
infiltrated into Nueva Segovia province, across the border from Honduras.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/21: CIA-RDP90-00552R000202010003-5