EX-SALVADORAN OFFICER SAYS KILLING RAGED IN EARLY '80S

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90B01390R000500590041-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 9, 2011
• Sequence Number: 41
• Publication Date: February 14, 1986
• Content Type: MEMO

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/09: CIA-RDP90BO139OR000500590041-6
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/09: CIA-RDP90BO139OR000500590041-6
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/09: CIA-RDP90BO139OR000500590041-6
ON PAGE' j
WASHINGTON TIMES
13 February 1986
Ex-Salvadoran officer says' killing
raged in early 'SOs
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A former Salvadoran army officer
says he participated in death squad
killings in the early 19901 and wit-
nessed the slaughter of civilians by
El Salvador's military.
Former Lt. Ricardo Ernesto Cas-
tro, who plans to seek political asy-
lum in the United States, said the
Salvadoran army routinely killed
suspected "subversives" in early
1981. He said he personally com-
manded four assassination missions,
claiming about a dozen lives.
Mr. Castro, who left El Salvador in
mid-1982, is the first Salvadoran
army officer to publicly state that he
participated in death-squad killings,
though this was a period when
human-rights abuses in the Central
American nation were known to be
widespread. He initially told his
story to free-lance reporter Allan
Nairn for an article in the current
issue of Progressive, a left-of-center
monthly magazine. There was no ex-
planation of why he had not come
forward with his story until now
Mr. Castro, 35, a 1973 West Point
graduate, said he also saw the army
execute unarmed women and chil-
dren during a counterinsurgency
sweep near the Rio Lempa in the fall
of 1981 and leave the bodies in shal-
low streams as a warning to leftist
guerrillas.
"My company was thirsty, but the
soldiers would not take water from
one of these streams because of
these kids' corpses:' Mr. Castro said
in an interview at his suburban
Washington home.
Mr. Castro, however, said in the
interview he was recruit to work
with the CIA and serve as a
trans for or an mencan w o
trained the __Sava oran m itarv on
interrogation techniques. He said
the Amencan trainer not a vo-
ca e torture but su est t t sus-
pects a tot soriented throw h
iso ion an of er psyc o o cal
facucs.
Mr Castro's statements support
allegations made by human rights
groups that the Salvadoran lknibtary
committed massive abuses in the
early 1980s, killing tens of thousands
of civilians. During those years, the
Reagan administration noted that
abuses were occurring but disputed
some of the specific charges
brought against the government.
In a July 1982 report certifying
human rights progress in El Salva-
dor, the State Department said,
"There has been no evidence to sup-
port periodic guerrilla allegations of
large-scale massacres allegedly
committed by government forces."
The administration says abuses
have largely been brought under
control, and human-rights groups
say government forces still commit
selective murders in the cities and
use firepower indiscriminately in
the countryside.
An estimated 50,000 civilians have
died in the 6-year-old civil war.
Mr. Castro said he came to the
United States in mid-1982 to tell U.S.
officials about the corruption and
atrocities, which many young offi-
cers felt were undermining pros-
pects for restoring peace in El Salva-
dor. After his appeals received little
attention, he said he decided to stay
with his wife and three children. He
plans to request political asylum.
Mr. Castro said the military high
command initially used army per-
sonnel to carry out the assassina-
tions. But by mid-1981, the killings
were being carried out by the gov-
ernment security forces.
"All the killings I know of were
done by the armed forces, Mr. Cas-
tro said. "It was one of these deals
when you come back from a mission,
the colonel calls you over and says,
'Lieutenant, you're going out on a
mission. You're going to get dressed
up as a civilian and you're going to
go out and this individual will show
you the way.' "
1W
Former Lt. Ricardo Ernesto Castro
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/09: CIA-RDP90BO139OR000500590041-6