D'AUBUISSON URGES U.S. BACK 'CONTRAS' OPENLY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000201450001-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 25, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: December 6, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/25: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201450001-0
STAT-
V71'[F APPEAR WASHINGTON POST
M< PA'N 6 December 1984
'Aubuisson Uraes U.S.
Back 'Con'tras'. Openly
Salvadoran Speaks at Georgetown
Roberto D'Aubuisson, the leader
of E1 Salve or's extreme right
wing, last night urged the Reann:
administration to convert covert
support. for "contra" rebels in Nic
are a to an program of aid..
Speaking at Georgetown Univer-
sity, D'Aubuisson said the admin-
istration "ought to make a decision
clearly."
"Let them support the 'contras,'
but let them do it openly. Let them
define their position clearly," D'Au-
buisson said in response to a ques-
tion. "Let's not have another Bay of
Pigs," he added in a reference to
the U.S.-supported 1961 attempt
by Cuban exiles to overthrow Fidel
Castro.
By Joanne Omang
Wahington ha SUN Writer
D'Aubuisson?, a former army ma-
jor and unsuccessful presidential
candidate of the ARENA party last
March, delivered a kind- of civics
lecture to about 120 Georgetown,
students and faculty members.
About 20 members of the audience
stood and turned their backs as fie
began speaking.
Outside the auditorium, about
200 Georgetown students braved
the rain to protest D'Aubuisson's
appearance. They chanted "Asesino
[assassin] D'Aubuisson" and called
on the United States to get out of El
Salvador.
In his remarks, D'Aubuisson said
he was pleased to see the demon-
strators because "if this were Cuba
or Moscow, it would not be going
on."
He told his audience to remem-
ber that Marxism "is not a revolu-
tion, it is only a-conspiracy." He said
El Salvador is key to preventing So-
viet expansionism into the Carib-
bean, which is strategically impor-
tant because of the oil of Venezuela i
and Mexico?and because of the Pan-
ama Canal.
"The Caribbean should belong to
us Americans,. in the broad sense,
and not to the Soviet Union," he
said. -
D'Aubuisson's visit to the cam-
pus sparked a controversy over
tickets to the speech when YAP
campus president Gerard Alexan-
der said he was giving them out to
ensure "a positive audience" for the
appearance. Walter Cramer, assist-
ant dean of student affairs, said it
would have been against university
policy to exclude anyone, but added
he had received-no complaints on
the matter. ' '-
Some of the students protesting
last night said the YAF purposely
chose a small auditorium to limit
the number of demonstrators.
"We're paying for this and-we
can't even get in to criticize him,"
said Miles Irish, a sophomore.
Alexander said he chose the au-
ditorium for security reasons, and
added that tickets were made avail-
able to various student groups.
D'Aubuisson' spoke directly to
the concerns of the demonstrators.
"I only made one mistake in my
campaign" for president, he said. "I
told the truth ... and I was no
longer [labeled] the leader of a
democratic party. I was a rightist.
"When I said the Caribbean was
the goal of Soviet expansionism,
then I was charged with being the
leader of the death squads by the
international press.!-
D'Aubuisson directly challenged
Craig Pyes, the author of a contro-
versial series of articles about the
origins and functions of El Sal-
vador's death squads that was pub-
lished last year in the Albuquerque
Journal and the Los Angeles Times.
"I would like to meet him," D'Au-
buisson said. "He had details of my
life I don't even know myself."
During the question period that
followed, Pyes, who was in the au-
dience, responded to D'Aubuisson's
assertion that they had never met.
D'Aubuisson then admitted 'that
they had, and said that Pyes had
"become part of the conspiracy"
against him because "he sneaked in
among us as a friend; he lived it up
.with friends of ours in El Salvador,
and for money he went to print his
story. He's the one who says he has
the proof., Let him show it and
present it to a judge."
Pyes' articles, written with Lau-
rie Becklund of the Los Angeles ;
Times, caused a stir at the time of
their publication for the detailed
information the reporters said they
,had obtained from death-squad
members. Pyes is now a reporter.:
for the Committee for Investigative -
Reporting.
Aiming his speech at "the youth
of America" through the news me-
dia, D'Aubuisson said he was "to-
tally innocent of all that I am ac-
cused of," referring to charges by
U.S. officials that he is linked to
death-squad activity in El Salvador.
"I speak from my heart, my belief in
God, my mother and my children,"
he said.
D'Aubuisson said he had been
demanding for four years that his
accusers offer proof of their
charges and that it had never been
produced.
The Rev. Timothy S. Healy,
president of Georgetown- --Univer-
sity, called D'Aubuisson "a murder-
ous thug" last March in refusing t9.
'allow the campus Young Americans
for Freedom to invite D'Aubuisson. i
to speak. Healy is "badly informed"
about the situation, D'Aubuisson
said last night.
He spoke of the third day_ of a
four-day visit to the United States,
during which he has met with sev-
eral media organizations and re-
ceived a plaque from more than a
dozen conservative , organizations
honoring him for his efforts against
communism in El Salvador.
Staff writer Lyle' V. Harris
contributed to this report.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/25: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201450001-0