SALVADORAN GENERAL CONTRADICTS BUSH, DENIES U.S. CIVILIANS AID WAR ON REBELS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000200970025-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 21, 2010
• Sequence Number: 25
• Publication Date: October 14, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

,STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/21: CIA-RDP91-60587R000200970025-9
LOS ANGELES TIMES
ON PAGE
By DAN WILLIAMS, Three, Staff writer
SAN SALVADOR-Contradict-
nx a statement marls by Vi
ce
S i t-% i sent George Bush. E Salva.
or's mwtary chief of staff said
STAT
14 October 1986
Salavdoran General Contradicts Bush,
Denies U.S. Civilians Aid War on Rebels
Coors. Tio Told
"He (Rodriguez) didn't have spokesman for the Salvadoran
anything to do with us (El Salva- armed forces, said, 'I don't know
doo's armed forces)," one military anything about this. But You know
officer said. "He was mixed up with how the at farce is here. They
the contras." keep the doors closed tight.'
None of the Salvadorans inter. BustlIlo could not be reached for
viewed on the subject linked the comment.
contras supply operation with the Political sensitivities apparently
U.S. government, but they pointed keep the Salvadorans from openly
out that S- military advisers and acknowledging their role in any
American to E Embassy officials have contras supply effort, Officially, the
access hardly have base and government upholds a Policy of not
could d haardl are of eying in the affairs of Nlcara.
gua. separated from El Salvador by
One Salvadoran officer said that the 25-mile-wide Gulf of Fonseca.
Rodriguez was one of "several" Unofficially however military
.-.__L_ .dilea_.- _ r
Cuban-Americana wh
o
Monday that no American citizens
nor other foreigners except autho-
rized American military advisers
have been working with the Salva-
doran, armed forces in the fight
against leftist guerrillas.
..No one could hire a civilian as
an adviser," said Gen. Adolfo Blan-
don, the nation's top military staff
officer. "It would have to be autho-
rized not only by us (the armed
forces) but by the government" of
President Jose Napoleon Duarte.
Bush said Sunday that a Cuban-
American he identified as Felix
JAil" and he has also ed. east spring, he add- rillas fighting the Salvadoran
ment of El Salvador put d o w n d o w n. . . to the contras. The hKILU Of arms ave operated ~~w at sup.
a Marxist-led revolution." Gomes's up to three flights a weefrom ing arms. to the Marl fly
real name is reported to Ilopango sin- 1 guer-
Air Crow Survivor
Last week, Eugene Hasenfus,
sole survivor among the crew of a
C-123 transport plane shot down
by Sandinista troops in neighboring
Nicaragua, said that Max Gomez
was a CIA employee who directed
an undercover operation through
El Salvador's Ilopango Military Air
Base to supply arms to the contras,
the U.S.-backed guerrillas fighting
the Sandinistas.
Bush's remarks and those of
officials here and of Hasenfus
raised questions about just what
Rodriguez/Gomez-who in the
past has worked for the CIA-was
doing in El Salvador and for whom.
A spokesman for Bush said that
Donald Gregg, one of the vice
president's aides, recommended
Rodriguez to the Salvadoran air
force to serve as a military adviser.
Publicly, Salvadoran officials de-
nied that Rodriguez held any kind
of position with the Salvadoran
armed forces, but they would say
little else. Privately, some Salva-
doran military officers said that
Rodriguez was part of program
that began last spring to help the
contras.
Another military Lary source said that "The solution to our problems,"
an unspecified number of Nicara- said one official. "Is to get rid of the
guan exiles also were involved in Sandinistas,"
the contras supply operations at
IIopango. These Nicaraguans, he
said, were once members of the
Nicaraguan air force under dictator
Anastasio Somoza, who was over-
thrown by the Sandinistas in 19,79.
The Nicaraguans were wel-
comed at Ilopango because they
had formed friendships with Salva-
doran air force officers before So-
mosa's fall, the source said.
Previously, the source added, the
Salvadoran air force had let Nica-
raguan rebels commanded by for-
mer Sandinista guerrilla leader
Eden Pastore use Ilopango as a
he said, CIat Program ended.
aidaatora's
rebels was cut off in 1984.
The Times has reported that
Gen. Juan Rafael Bustillo, head of
the Salvadoran air force. let the
contras supply operation use the
Ilopango base. One Salvadoran of-
ficer said that an assortment of
military irregulars operate routine.
ly out of IIopango.
ela Hers, some among group
of free-lancers,
of fortune, some arms
vendors, whom Bustillo lets work
out there," he said.
Col. Mauricio Hernandez,
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/21: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200970025-9