ARGENTINE DEFECTOR TELLS OF MULTINATIONAL PLOTS FOR SANDINISTAS OUSTER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000302620049-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2010
• Sequence Number: 49
• Publication Date: December 2, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302620049-7
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WASHINGTON POST
2 DECEW. BEP 1982
Argentine Defector fieIls
Of Multinational Plots
For
By Christopher Dickey
Washington Post Foreign Service
MEXICO CITY, Dec. 1-A man
saying he is a defector from Argen-
tine intelligence in Central America,
speaking on a videotape shown here,
has outlined in detail a complex sys-
tem of clandestine connections
among the Argentine military, the
Honduran high command and Ni-
caraguan exiles seeking to overthrow
their country's leftist Sandinista gov-'
ernment. -
Identifying himself as Hector
Frances, of Argentina's "Intelligence
Battalion 601," he names scores of
alleged contacts in Central America,
including one American he describes
as having ties to Sen. Jesse Helms
(R-N.C.). He also claims that the
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is
funding these covert operations and
describes a plot to kill exiled Ni-
caraguan hero-turned-rebel Eden
Pastora and blame it on the Sandi-
nistas.
Those parts of the tape that could
be independently corroborated pro-
vide the first small but substantive
clues of what was until now the vir-
tually impenetrable Argentine con-
nection in Central America's secret
wars. -
Other parts of Frances' 70-minute
statement echo standard .Sandinista
charges about U.S.-orchestrated-co-
vert and overt aggression against
Nicaragua. There are indications
that Sandinista sympathizers, if not
'the government itself, were involved
in its distribution. - : -
Independent sources in Central
America and the United States say
that an Argentine named Hector
Frances, living on a tourist visa in
Costa Rica and known to have close
ties with anti-Sandinista Nicaraguan
exiles, disappeared from San Jose in
an apparent kidnaping a little more
than a month ago.
Sandlinistas' Ouster
According to official Costa Rican j
sources, that country's police had
been following his movements. An
official said Frances was known fre-
quently to be in possession of large
sums of money that police "sus-
pected he was receiving from his
government" and that "with certain
regularity, he traveled to Honduras."
Although several men struck
Frances and his wife outside their
house and threw Frances into a wait-
ing van, the sources said, no one
claimed responsibility for the deed
and the Argentine Embassy made no
representation on Frances' behalf to
the Costa Rican government. His
wife, they said, has left the country.
Pastora, in a telephone interview
from his home in Costa Rica yester-
day, confirmed knowing Frances,
whom he described as "from Argen-
tine intelligence" and working in
Costa Rica with exiled Nicaraguan.
national. guardsmen fighting the
Sandinistas.
A 'senior member of the Ni-
caraguan Democratic Forces, the
principal anti-Sandinista exiles, also
acknowledged knowing him.
Nat Hamrick,' who is named, in
the tape as having "ties" with Helms
and "opening doors" in Washington
for anti-Sandinista exile operations,
was reached at his North.Carolina
home. Hamrick, who said he is "in
the lumber business," acknowledged
"knowing and liking" Helms and said'
he . had "business" meetings with
Frances and rightist Costa Ricans in
San Jose. Hamrick denied any po-'
litical- involvement with* anti-Sandi-
nista rebels. But, he added, "I sym-.
pathize with them and I empathize
with them and I hope they over-
throw the bastards."
Although the Reagan administra-
tion. repeatedly has declined public
comment on reports that it is en- `
gaged, along with Nicaraguan exiles
and other Latin American military,
forces, in a covert campaign to des-
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release
tablize the Sandinistas,- numerous
accounts of such activity have been
published over the past year.
Last February, The Washington
Post reported that. the administra-
tion had authorized a broad program
of political, economic and propagan-
da activities against the Cuban pres-
ence in Nicaragua and the alleged
Sandinista supply of weapons to
guerrillas fighting : the U.S.-backed
government in El Salvador.
A further account, published in
March, said that- Reagan subse-
quently had authorized, in Decem-
ber 1981, a $19 million program of
indirect CIA covert operations
against Nicaragua, including the
buildup and funding of a 500-man
Latin American paramilitary force to
operate out of commando camps
spread along the Nicaraguan-Hon-
duran border. -
Training for and operation of the
program were to be done in conjunc-
tion with "friendly" Latin American
governments. -
'Since then, although both govern-
ments have refused to confirm that
such a program actually was put into
operation, anti-Sandinista Ni-
caraguan exiles operating out of
Honduras have claimed a growing
.string of successful cross-border and
internal sabotage attacks against the
Sandinista government.
Beyond that somewhat 'sketchy
framework, and a steady stream of
accusations 'launched from 'all sides,
little has been reported.'
Three weeks. ago,. - however, two
Washington Post reporters received
in Washington copies of the same
Frances -tape shown here yesterday
by the leftist Democratic Journalists'
Union of Mexico.
The copies of the tape sent to the
reporters came from a fictitious sub-
urban address -outside' Washington.
The presentation yesterday took'
place at the Mexico City office of the
Latin American .Jnttrnalic+e'