'CMDR. ZERO' OUTLINES GOALS FOR NICARAGUA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100140004-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 13, 2012
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: December 3, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/13 :CIA-RDP90-009658000100140004-5
v i
ItiASIiINGTON POST
3 December 1983
`Cmdr. Zero'
outlines Goals
For Nicaragua
Eden Pastors, the Nicx~raguan
guerrilla l~der, visited Washington
recently.. He stopped by my office
for a visit. Though it was the first
time we had met, we knew of each
other.
I've .reported the legendary ex-
ploits of the revolutionary "Com-
mander Zero" since ? the days when
he first took up arms against the
U.S.-backed dictatorship of Anasta-
sio Somoza. In 1978 and 1979 my
former associate Bob Sherman spent
same time with Pastors at his jungle
hideout. Not long afterward, Pastors
and his Sandinista fighters captured
the presidential palace in Managua.
Somoza had fled.
Now Pastors is fighting the San-
dinista regime he helped to bring to
power. Several months ago I sent my
roving reporter, Jon Lee Anderson,
to travel with Pastors in the Ni-
caraguan bush, where he comrr;ands
approximately 2,000 guerrillas.
The charismatic rebel leader was
in Washington soliciting support
from the Reagan administration for
his financially strapped troops. He
didn't have much luck.
The reason is simple: for eU his
cialism than the Reagan adminietra-`
tion wants.
When we spoke the other day,
.Pastore told me his condrtiaae for
joining ranks with the FDN: "They
must get rid of all the ex-Na~ior~al
Guardsmen. They must also agree
that what comes to Nicaragua after
victory must be revolutionary es well .
ae democxatia".: . ~ ... .
It'e that kind of taller that scares
the Reagan administration, 'which'
has spread the rumor:that- Pastore
has a Castro connection..: Though he
denies it, he does admit that:one. of
his top aides has talked reoently . to'
the Cuban dictator. Pastore evident-
ly feels it's a good tactic to make the
Reagan people worry about-hie open-
ing to Cuba's Fidel Castro, a warning
that. he can get .help elsewhere if
W
Ga
8~ ~~
other
n turns him down. -
eemanshia President.
few kind words to
that obsess
about the video
y,.Ameri
stars. "Many
veloped in
Dung. people
brain coordina
games," he told a
.science students.
lievee these kids
pilots when they
But the presid
their parents
to play vid
"Homework
first," he said...
rugged charm and the glamor of his
past adventures, Pastors is a polit-
ical maverick the:~CIA doesn't trust.
He is an outspoken revolutionary;
the CIA suspects hire of leaning too.
far to the9eft.
So Pastors has received only a
token offering of CIA money and
guns, nothing like the support en-
joyed by the CIA's anti-Sandinista
creation, the Nicaraguan Democratic
Force {FDN). The CIA is trying to
coerce Pastors to join the FDN,
which he says he ,will never do ae
long as its, military leadership in-
cludes former officers of Somoza's
National Guard.
Instead of encouraging him, Pae-
tora said, the CIA ie trying actively
to sabotage his efforts to raise funds.
"They are afraid I will eclipse their
Somocista army," Pastors said. "But
~ they want me around to legitimize
the FDN, which has no popular ap-
peal in Nicaragua:"
Pastors is right about the last
point: the FDN's civilian leaders are
conservative businessmen and pol-
iticians, and its top 'military officers
are almost all former National
Guard members. This taint8 the
whole group as far as most Ni-
caraguans are concerned:
Pastora'8 group, on the -other
-hand, is led mainly by former San-
dinistas. Their quarrel rvlth the Ma-
nagua junta is simply that it be-
trayed the rierrolution. They are anti-
communist, but they favor more so-
~n in ,p
the
amen
ve ~de-
eye and
Lhese'
of math and
Air Force ~e-
outatandiag
tened to sad
e kids telling
t it was okay
she time.
ends come ,
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/13 :CIA-RDP90-009658000100140004-5