TARGETING A U.S. AMBASSADOR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000302620021-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2010
• Sequence Number: 21
• Publication Date: July 2, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302620021-7
ARTICLE APPEARED NEWSWEEK
ON PAGE Z_ 2 July 1984
Targeting a U.S. Ambassador
For the record, his assignment was to
convey President Reagan's congratula-
tions to El Salvador's new president-elect,
Jose Napoleon Duarte, and to accompany
Duarte back to Washington. But when Rea-
gan's ambassador at large, Gen. Vernon
Walters, arrived in San Salvador that Friday
last May, he was rushed toU.S. Ambassador
Thomas Pickering's` heavily guarded resi-
dence on an urgent secret mission. Waiting
there with Pickering was not Duarte, but
Roberto D'Aubuisson, the right-wing can-
didate still bridling at his defeat by Duarte
two weeks earlier. And Walters wasted no
time in announcing the United States had
incontrovertible evidence that D'Aubuis-
son and other members of his ARENA Par-
Pickering and Helms: Was the letter to blame?
ty were plotting a political murder. The
intended target: none other than U.S. Am-
bassador Pickering himself.
Walters's warning of dire consequences
for El Salvador's right-should the murder
plot succeed-seems to have squelched the
alleged conspiracy. But the bizarre scenario,
confirmed last week by sources in San Salva-
dor and Washington, remained a disturbing
lesson in the savagery of Salvadoran politics.
And it was likely to cast a shadow over the
administration's extensive-and expen-
sive-policy there. There was also the politi-
cally damaging assertion that one of the
U.S. Senate's conservative icons-North
Carolina's Republican Sen. Jesse Helms,
now battling for re-election-was blamed by
some top administration figures for inad-
vertently triggering the assassination plot.
According to sources in El Salvador, the
plot against Pickering was prompted by a
letter Helms wrote to President Reagan-a
rambling, vitriolic missive protesting U.S.
interference in Salvadoran elections on be-
half of the moderate candidate, Duarte.
Sources in El Salvador say that a Helms staff
aide telephoned D'Aubuisson in San Salva-
dor and leaked the contents of the letter
before it became public. A top Helms aide
denied any direct contact between anyone in
his office and D'Aubuisson, but recalled that
early copies had been made available to
Salvadoran journalists in Washington.
Whatever the source, "ARENA was livid
about the elections," said a source in San
Salvador. "The whole thing was unleashed
by the Helms letter."
D'Aubuisson, who could not be reached
forcomment, has longbeen regarded by U.S.
government officials as a principal architect
of El Salvador's right-wing death squads.
Sources in that country said that within days
of the Helms letter becoming public,
D'Aubuisson met with a "very small"
group of party officials to discuss
Pickering's murder as a response to
U.S. meddling. "They mentioned
Pickering by name," said one source.
The plotters did not mince words or
speak in code, the source said. "There
was no doubt."
`Take It Seriously': There was also
no solid evidence as to how far-if at
all-the murder plans had actually
progressed before the Walters mis-
sion. "One never uncovers a plot as
such," says one knowledgeable U.S.
government source. "One uncovers
evidence and then has to decide
whether to take it seriously or not.
This one we took seriously." Indeed
the intelligence report prompted Rea-
gan to dispatch former CIA official
Walters, a veteran military and diplo-
matic hand respected by Latin conser-
vatives for ai strong anticommunist
stance. A U.S. official said the general
lectured D'Aubuisson on the proper
"role of the loyal opposition" and did not
have to dwell specifically on D'Aubuisson's
pending request fora U.S. visa or ARENA's
vulnerable lifeline to Salvadoran supporters
living in the United States-who would not
welcome federal investigations of their im-
migration status, currency transactions, tax
returns and bank accounts.
In the wake of that meeting,
the ARENA leader ceased his
public denunciations of the
election-and his hints about
ignoring the returns. He was
further encouraged in this
lowered profile by Senator
Helms himself-at President
Reagan's request. Even before
the death plot was discover-
ed, Washington sources said,
the president had summoned
Helms to the White House pri-
vate quarters for a "stern lec-
ture" about the senator's public
discussion of CIA involvement
in the Salvador elections. Later,
with the help of Senate Majority Leader
Howard Baker, Helms was hastily added to
a delegation headed for Duarte's inaugura-
tion-and asked to make contact with
D'Aubuisson. But farfrom being blamed for
setting off a murder plot, one Helms aide
insisted, the senator was called on as "a
peacemaker ... to rebuild links with the 46
percent of the people there who voted for
D'Aubuisson."
Just four years ago former U.S. Ambassa-
dor to El Salvador Robert White told a
congressional hearing that D'Aubuisson
was a "pathological killer" who could-at
least by U.S. judicial standards-be convict-
ed of murdering El Salvador's Archbishop
Oscar Romero in 1980. White's successor,
Deane R. Hinton, tried a more conciliatory
tack; emerging from a meeting with D'Au-
buisson after his party's surprising strong
showingin 1982 Assembly elections, Hinton
proclaimed, "Bobby proved himself to be a
fine, young democrat."
Plot: Now, despite the alleged conspiracy,
relations seem cozier than ever-at least on
the surface. On May 31 D'Aubuisson was
granted a temporary U.S. visa previously
denied him, and he was expected to meet
with Helms and other members of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee in Washing-
ton this week. Though administration fig-
ures have privately contended that it is safer
to have D'Aubuisson inside the
political process rather than
outside, the plot against Picker-
ing may well complicate fur-
ther efforts to work with him
-ter with anyone else on El
Salvador's extreme right wing.
The latest disclosure also will
raise questions about the ethi-
cal sensitivity of an administra-
tion that complains loudly
about harassment ofU.S. diplo-
mats overseas and then grants a
visa to someone it believes has
plotted to murder one.
MARK STARR with ROBERT
RIVARD in San Salvador and JOHN
WALCOTT, JOHN LINDSAY and
THOMAS M. DeFRANK in Washington
Walters: Lifesaver
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302620021-7