LATIN TERRORISTS' LEADER RETAINS SUPPORT OF CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000605700010-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 2, 2010
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: January 30, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000605700010-4
ARTICLE APPEARED WASHINGTON POST
ox PAGE. 32, 30 January 1984
1 ' 1
Latin Terrorists' Pi eJao boArb nhGuzmane It
succeeded the following year.
Leader Retains By the mid-1960x, Sandoval had
emerged as .e.deader of the organi-.
(~ii zation, and. he wwas,evidently a bitter
Support of aal and vengeful man.?One former con-
'been --by - fidant.asid?Sandovalmad once been
For 30 years the CIA has
bankrolling a man reported to be the captured .. wefts rand tortured
'evil genius . behind the .light-~iu>I. ';with an electricakWe:rod.
his ' e ~began to define
terror that has claimed tens of thou-,
- -rcommunists as .just about anyone
sands of.lives-in `Central.America: '-I- who di(n't share .iiisfierceanti-com-
Several-offitials in'the intelligence anunist=views, -and to--equate them
community and the National Seca- with the people who-had tortured
city Council :have vehemently .pro- him. It was about the same time that
tested the continuation of what they the -first .:death squad in Central
consider a sinister, shameful. rela- America was formed, with close ties
tionship. But intelligence sources to the National Liberation Move-
told my associates Dale an Atta went. - -
..-and Jon Lee Anderson that-the ' The-death squad took the name,
funding continues despite the oppo- L'a Mano Blanca (The White Hand),
sition. and
leftist sus-
CIA me t0 terrorize
Th
e
seems untroubled by the
-fact that the White House has de-
nounced the right-wing death squads
in El Salvador. Yet the death squads
may have gotten their Inspiration
from the CIA's protege, Mario San-
doval Alarcon.
Sandoval, a former vice president
of Guatemala, now heads the Na-
tional ,Liberation Movement, which
styles itself "the party- of organized
.:
ua
e-.
violence." At 60, he is a - solid,. . malan unit appeared throughout
chunky, cold-eyed hombre. - Central and South- America The
The National Liberation Move- bloodiest work in recent years has
ment was founded by the CIA in been done by the death squads in El
1953 as a paramilitary force with one Salvador- -
pects in Guatemala. It was respon-
sible for as many. as 8,000 deaths in
the 1960s, .plus .thousands more dur-
ing a resurgence:m the.1970s. In the
1980 election campaign the National
Liberation Movement all but ac-
knowledged its association with -the
death squad. -
The - idea of - "anti-communist"
death squads proved to be export-
able
Carbon copies of the G
t
The underground terror soups go
by different names. In Guatemala
alone, there have been the Secret
Anti-Communist Army, Organiza-
tion Zero and the Order of Death. I
recently disclosed evidence that the
death squads -throughout Latin
America are linked, and are
"fronted" by the regional affiliate of'
the World Anti-Communist League.
. Zn 1981, in a public speech, the
regional anti-communist-league's sec
retary paid extravagant -tribute to
Sandoval and the National Libera
tion Movement for :being "on the
front line" of the battle-against coin
munism _ .
Sandoval has been a pillar of the
World Anti-Communist League. In
1978, when he was Guatemala's vice
president, he spoke .-to the league's
11th annual conference and de-
nounced everyone from President
Carter to the Catholic church as
'tools of marxism. His complaint:
their stand on human -rights and
their criticism of the death squads.
Perhaps it was no coincidence that the death squads--soon began
their bloodiest rampage, killing tens
of thousands of suspected leftists
and sympathizers in :Guatemala and
El Salvador. And it certainly was no
coincidence that Amnesty Interns.
tional traced the Guatemalan death
squads during that period to the
presidential palace.
Meanwhile, the CIA continues to
provide secret funding to Sandoval.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000605700010-4