EL SALVADOR: A REBEL DEFECTOR TALKS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000605700023-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 2, 2010
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: June 17, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 : CIA-RDP90-
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ON PAGE
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17 June 1985
PERISCOPE
El Salvador: A Rebel Defector Talks
A high-ranking defector from one of El Salvador's two largest
rebel groups has provided U.S. and Salvadoran officials with a
detailed inside view of the operations of the government's left-wing
opposition. Napoleon Romero Garcia, a commander of the Popular
Liberation Forces (FPL) in San Salvador from March 1984 until he
turned himself in to government authorities last April, has handed
over lists of guerrilla leaders and sympathizers-and identified the
two men who murdered U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Albert Schaufelberger
in San Salvador in 1983. According to still-secret reports of his
interrogation by Salvadoran officials, Romero, who has passed
several lie-detector tests, claims the five main rebel groups now have
between 6,000 and 7,000 troops-down from a high of 9,000 to
10,000 estimated by U.S. intelligence officials in late 1983. Financial
aid and ammunition for the rebels are collected in Nicaragua before
being smuggled into El Salvador, he says. The movement's top
priorities, according to Romero: destabilizing El Salvador's econo-
my and sabotaging its infrastructure. Secondary goals include
assassinating Salvadoran Air Force officers (especially pilots) and
U.S. military advisers. Romero also provided details of rebel train-
ing in Soviet-bloc countries-including lessons in detonating plastic
explosives in Cuba and a course in terrorist tactics in Vietnam.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000605700023-0