NICARAGUAN BARES PLAN TO DISCREDIT FOES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000606580001-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 20, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: June 19, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000606580001-7
ARTICLE a .r
Olv PA4 WASHINGTON POST
19 June 1983
.Nicaraguan Bares Plan](i
Discredit Foes
By Don Oberdorfer
and Joanne Omang
Washington Po t surf "Un'
The -recent -expulsion:.nf,,3hree
U.S. diplomats from`Nicaragua~was
-the product of a two-year-plan, au-
thorized at high levels of-the leftist
Sandinista government iir7'Man
g'ua;. to discredit democratic..oppo
sition forces there through'a-web of
false accusations, according to -a-
former official of Nicaraguan state
security.
The- former official, Miguel I
Bolanos Hunter, said he was in
charge of surreptitiously filming
American diplomats as part of the
plan and participated in meetings
on the operation that were presided
over. by Lenin Cerna, director of
the Direccion General de Seguridad
del Estado (DGSE); =--the Ni-
caraguan Interior --Ministry's , de-
partment of state security. .
-Bolanos, 24, who led a 60-man
.guerrilla unit in the `final 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 unexpected 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 spe
cial assistant to - the Sandinista
army =chief of -'-staff, -,. Joaquin
Cuadra. .
From January 1980 until his de-
fection May 7 he was an official of
state security, nearly all of that
time a counterintelligence-case of-
ficer with special responsibility for
surveillance Hof U.S. Embassy,-and
-CIA activities in 14icaragua.
mince3ea6ng Costa Rica about
=utliiee~veeks.xigo as~att:+of an -
'
-raagement: with the 'U.S. Embassy'
-there, Bolanos has : been .debriefed
extensively by State,- Department
-and CIAofscials.
-Access-to him was offered :ta-re-
!porters for-The Washington ,Post
'by `Sta'te Department-officials;-who--
arranged for meetings with Bolanos
-at the Heritage Foundation, a con-
servative think tank. Washington
Post reporters interviewed him
there for 13 hours late last week,
with no questions barred.
Variou?,:...independent-- -sources
here and in Central America con-
firmed Bolanos' identity, though it
was impossible to obtain confirma-
tion, of the details he provided ' of
the secretive and influential inter-
nal -security-'apparatus -in--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 a Cuban officer
assigned" as advisers to the 35 Ni-
caraguans in the counterintelli-
gence section where . Bolanos
worked.
He said many more such advis-
ers worked with other Nicaraguan
military and security forces.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000606580001-7