'COMMANDER ZERO' ON THE NEW NICARAGUA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000504880060-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 15, 2010
• Sequence Number: 60
• Publication Date: May 27, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/15: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504880060-2
BALTIP")PF SUN
27 P`ay 1984
`Commander Zero` Ulu' uie
new Nicaragua.
As "Commander Zero" he was a San-
dinista hero in the movement to over-
throw Nicaragua's Somoza regime.
Now, years later. the bushy-bearded
Eden Pastora Gomez is an outlaw
again, fighting this time against the
very revolution he helped bring about.
Unlike the counterrevolutionary Na-
tional Democratic Front, which has
been accepting support from the Unit-
ed States, Mr. Pastora's ARDE (Demo-
cratic' Revolutionary Alliance). which
appears to be gaining strength, refuses
to align with any other nation. Mr. Pas-
tora was interviewed by Mexican tele-
vision journalist Juan Francisco Cas-
taneda. Here is an excerpt from the in-
terview, which appeared recently on
the Mexican television network Televi-
sa.
We are revolutionaries, but not Marxist- Q: At this time how many hmee4n~does ARDE
LeniniMs in the Stalinist mold. We want a rev- have and what are their e stook its 130 kilometers
olution with freedom of the press. We want a A: Look, a year
revolution where there's the freedom to criti- of border with 360 or 370 men, I forget the ex-
cize the government if we don't like it. We act figure. Now we have 10,000 armed peas-
want freedoms. We want a mixed economy; ants fighting in the mountains and in their vil-
laws and government by the consent of the lages. We're fighting through the rivers.
people, whether it be by congress or assem- We're about to arrive at Bluefields (capital of
bly. We want free elections and not elections the southeastern coastal district of Zelaya,
that are just advisory. We want laws, not de- the most densely populated district in Nicara-
creel. We want sugar, lard, medicine, boots, gua). We have the agricultural settlement of
and we want liberty and peace. Nueva Guinea surrounded. We're fighting in
. We don't want to align ourselves with the 30,000 square kilometers.
Soviet Union just as we haven't wanted to At San Juan del Norte we demonstrat-d
align ourselves with the United States. We our force beyond a doubt. The force that the
want a nonaligned revolution. We want a rev- Sandinista Front had in the last war we have
olution without Cuban intervention. We want now. We have had offers of 10,000 rifles, and
a nationalist revolution, not an international I'm going to ask for them. In 90 days we think
revolution. We want a revolution for us, the we will have 20,000 guerrillas, all campesinos
Nicaraguans, that is made by the Nicara- (peasants).
guans themselves. We want our own literacy Q: What can you tell us about the various
orts that were being
mine ta
icaragu
program. We had one, but it was with the help p
S'
igence
l
of 8,000 to 9,000 Cubans who brought their A: The CIA [U'
JUAN FRANCISCO CASTANEDA: Why own ideology with them. Agency] has given its supl men to the we aunchedl
have you taken up this new fight? Q: Last month your forces occupied the Democratic Front [FDN]
EDEN PASTORA GOMEZ: Well, it's not small coastal village of San Juan del Norte. our armed struggle by bombing Managua,
new, but a continuation of the past. The But after three days, you retreated in the face three days later the FDN - the stepchild of
Sandinista directorate betrayed the funda- of a government attack. What happened the CIA - bombed Corinth (a wester" Port
mentals of Sadinismo - nonalignment and there? city). When we attacked Pena Blanca (in the
free elections - by bringing in foreign A: We are fighting a guerrilla war - just southwest), three days later the FDN attacked
troops. Some 2,500 Cuban military personnel like the Salavadoran guerrilla war. We take another port. They have been imitating as
are in Nicaragua. The directorate has assassi- places, then pull back. So far, San Juan has that way. They imitated us when we decided
nated our Indians in the name of Marxism. been our biggest victory. We can't take prov- to mine the ports with homemade mines and
There is no religious liberty and no freedom inces yet. We're fighting in 30,000 square ki- mines from World War 1.1 that we obtained
of association. As a result, we have passed lometers that is a quarter of the country. Of from the Mafia. We put them in the Atlantic
from American imperialism to Soviet imperi- that, we control 5,000 square kilometers, and at Corinto on the Pacific. The CIA ar-
alism. They betrayed the Sandinista ideals, which have been totally liberated and where 'rived, and they installed sophisticated mines.
and after a year of political struggle we had the enemy doesn't enter. So we're fighting as We protested this foreign intervention. It de-
to go back to war. We are the true Sandinistas guerrillas; we can't fight a conventional war. tracts from what is an internal nationalist
- the anti-imperialist revolutionaries, but We're fighting against Moscow. We're fight- war. You lose political force in the country
anti-imperialist toward both the United ing against dozens of helicopters, against when there's foreign intervention. We are not
States and the Soviet Union. rockets, artillery and large quantities of mor- responsible for these silly mines that hit a
Q: What is ARDE? fishing boat and cannot sink it.
A: We're the revolutionaries. We're for tars. We are also fighting this killing rain . Q, If ARDE gains power, what does Eden
revolution. We realize Nicaragua has had a that's falling. Pastora want?
revolution and that there have been some rev- We're fighting against all the logistics of A: We are going to win a war, but I am not
olutionary achievements - for example the the Soviet Union. And who helps us? We get a going to stay in power. I want the assembly to
national literacy campaign. That's something few cents and timid and cowardly indiffer- name a chief of state, and I want free elec-
we defend. The nationalization of natural re- ence from the so-called democracies of Latin tions. I won't be one of the candidates. I want
sources is also something, we agree with, as . America. Some of them give us aid, but it em- a vacation, a celebration. I am going to offer
well as the seizure of the Somoza properties barrasses them. It's starting to come, though. my congratulations to the elected president
_
and assets. In addition, we support the nation- They give us help on the condition,we don't
The most important form of
ir names
th
.
e
alization of the banks and the export trade. use
These are positive achievements of the revo- support - political support - they don't give
lution. us. They're afraid of stirring up the Commu-
nist parties in their own countries or causing
problems with the leftist elements in their
own parties. For that reason, the fight is diffi-
cult and unequal. So we have to fight a guer-
rilla war.
COntlnued
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/15: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504880060-2