NICARAGUAN BARES PLAN TO DISCREDIT FOES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100490005-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 30, 2010
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: June 19, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/30 :CIA-RDP90-008068000100490005-2
ARTICLE ~~ ~-
ON PA~~~_"-~..-.~. WASHINGTON PCBT
19 June 1983
lvicara~uan -Bares ~
~Diseredit does
By Don Oberdorfer . ,
. _ and Joanne -Omang _ ,
w..nu,~a, rocauua~eacs
The recent -:expulsiou..pf,~bree
xJB..diplomats from`Nicaraguawas
?the .product of a two-year~lan; 8u-
thorized at high levels of_the leftist .
_ Sandinista .government ~ :in~Maa~'
_ gUa;, to discredit democrstic..oppo-'
sition forces there through'a?web of
false acxasations, according ''to ~ a-
former official of Nicaraguan-state
security. -
~The" former official, Miguel I
Bolanos Hunter, said he was in I
charge of surreptitiously filming r
American diplomats as part of the
plan and participated in meetings
on the operation that were presided
. over, by Lenin Cerra, director of
the Direction General de Seguridad
..del Fstado (DGSE); ;-the Ni-
caraguan Interior _Ministry's =.de- .
partment of state security...
Bolanos, 24, who led a 60-man
-:guerrilla unit in the 'fmal battles
that brought the Sandinistas to
power in 1979,. defected .from Nic-.
aragua six weeks ago by hijacking a
light plane to Costa Rica. He has
provided . an uneapec~ted intelli-
gence bonanza for the very U.S.
_agencies he worked :against for the
last three years. -. ~'_
Bolanos had served briefly:after
the Nicaraguan revolution as -ape=
~..cial assistant to -the Sandinista
army ~ =.chief ~ bf".~?staf~-;:.~oaquin
Cuadra. -
F~om January 1980.until his de- i
faction May 7 he was an official of .
state security, nearly all of that
time acounterintelligence-case of-
facer `with special responsibility for
surveillance Hof U.S. Embassy.~nd
~CIA;actiyitiesdnNicaragua.- ~':
'~5ince ~nng' Costa;~caf about ;
'-~irigeno"ent~anth t~h~eLU~~:S~. F?nt~~arssy' I
r' ~4[~e~e,..D~[~`~'1WiS'{1OC11idebnCl~.:
~ :.eitermivelg .:by ?=State Department
_-and CIA ~ffieaals: . ~. ~' ~-? .
-Axoaes~o-him was offered tore- -.
gx-rteis :for~'The Washington ~,Fost
Fby`State Departmentrofficials;~rho-
=_ arranged formeetings with Bolanos
?at the Heritage Foundation, a con-
servative think tank. Washington
1?ost reporters interviewed barn
-there for .13 hours late -last week,
with no questions barred. .: __ -
Yariou~:?.-independent-- 4sources
here and m Central America con-
fu7ned Bolanos'~ identity, though it
.was impossible to obtain tonfirma-
tion > of .the detat7s he provided ? of
the ?secretive and influential inter-
nal -seciiiity-?apparatas yin- "Nicara-
. - Bolanos' ? account. includes ~de-
tailed information about .the pres-
ence and role of .Soviet, Cuban,
Bulgarian and East German advis-
ers and assistance in -the Ni-
caraguan security apparatus.
_ The defector said. their presence
-is .extensive, with two high-ranking
,:.soviet .officers .and aCuban -officez
assigned'ss advisers to the 35 Ni-
:. caraguans in the counterintelli-
gence section where . Bolanos
worked. , , .
? ~ :He said mapy more such advis-
ers worked with other Nicaraguan
military and security fords.
_ ~~nrr~vr~'r~
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/30 :CIA-RDP90-008068000100490005-2