THE CIA AND THE SALVADORAN NATIONAL GUARD: SUCH GOOD FRIENDS?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201120001-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 19, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: February 4, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201120001-8
,- - - ter. T
NEW YORK
4 February 1985
The CIA and the Salvadoran National Guard: Such Good Friends?
sA VAnORAN WOMAN
is fighting deportation
from the U.S. in a case
that raises renewed ques-
tions about whether the CIA
passes in o t_ab.Qu1
dissidents to El Salvador's
controversial security agen-
cies.
Ana Guevara Flores was
arrested along with a group
of her countrymen after they
entered this country illegally
in 1981. According to docu-
ments released under. the
Freedom of Information Act,
she was carrying "a leftist
appearing letter," and the
FBI queried an official at the
U.S. Embassy in El Salvador
about her.
A classified cable-re-
leased without the usual
name deletions-identified
the official as "deputy chief
of station," a CIA title, and
said he "advised that El Sal-
vadoran authorities deter-
mined that subiect is not a
known guerrilla/subversive."
Still, the official told the FBI,
the Salvadorans asked to be
notified of Guevara's flight
number if she was deported
back to El Salvador, because
it was illegal "to possess sub-
versive literature [there] and
she could be detained." The
cable said the Salvadoran
authorities wanted copies of
all documents found on
Guevara, and it suggested
they be handed to a pilot of
the Salvadoran airline, TACA,
and addressed them to the'
director general of the Sal-
vadoran ` National Guard. -
The Senate Intelligence.
Committee' concluded last
year that the CIA only iden-
tified dissidents for the Sal-
vadoran security agencies,
which have in the past been
linked to ri ht-wing- death
squa s, in "highly unusual"
circumstances, in which it is
unlikely that the information
could be -misused."
-Guevara's case may be an
exception, said Jay Peterzell
of the Center for National
Security Studies-a Wash-
ington group affiliated with
the American Civil Liberties
Union--which obtained the
documents while. preparing
an article for the next issue
of its magazine, First Princi-
ples. `But it's disturbing that
at least in her case, there
was a 'casual an o iging
exchange between the CIA
and the Salvadoran National
Guard," Peterzell added.
Guevara had entered the
U.S. seeking political asylum
"for religious reasons," ac-
cording to Thelma Garcia,
her lawyer, in Texas. Gue-
vara's letter "vas simply an
introduction to a church
group in Puerto Rico," said
Garcia. "But the FBI con-
strued compahero as 'com-
rade' when it simply means
'friend."' After the embassy
official's query,. Garcia
claimed, National Guards-
men began harassing Gue-
.vara's family: "She's afraid
she'll be jailed or. killed if
she's deported."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201120001-8