U.S. ENVOY IN SALVADOR SAID TO MEET WITH AGENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000200970023-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 21, 2010
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: October 16, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/21: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200970023-1
ARTICLE APP R D N_W YORK TIMES
ON PAGE 16 October 1986
U.S. Envoy in Salvador Said
to Meet With Agent
By LYDIA CHAVEZ
Special to no New York Timm
SAN SALVADOR, Oct. 15 -
United States Ambassador to El Salva-
contras. He added that despite what
Mr. Bush had said, Mr. Gomez was not
working as an adviser to the Salvado-
ran military.
The highly placed official who said
Ambassador Corr met with Mr.
Gomez, known to the Ambassador by
the name Rodriguez, also said that Mr.
Gomez was not working as an adviser
to the Salvadoran military, but as a pri-
vate citizen for the "resistance."
A Salvadoran military source said,
"There is a group of American civil-
ians working here with the contras."
I "I cannot say for sure that they are-
n't with the embassy because I don't
know," he added.
A paper found on the downed rebel
plane reportedly lists the name of the
former charge of the United States
Embassy here, David Passage. The
three American crew members of the
plane carried Salvadoran Air Force
identity cards. Business cards of a Sal-
vadoran officer and of a close associate
of White House officials were also
found on the rebel plane.
Navy Chief in Denial
The commander of the navy, Lieut.
Col. Humberto P. Villalta, whose card
was found on one of the American crew
members, said today that he did not
know any of them.
He explained that he often gave out
his card, attaching it to funeral
wreaths and handing it to Americans
he meets on Fridays at the Sheraton
Hotel's "happy hour."
A senior Salvadoran official said Mr.
Bush's statements had put President
Jose Napoleon Duarte in a "very diffi-
cult" position.
Days before Mr. Bush's said that he
knew Mr. Gomez and that he worked as
an adviser to the military, Mr. Duarte !
denied knowing anything about Mr.
Gomez or supply flights from Ilopango
air base.
The senior Government official said
Mr. Bush had put Mr. Duarte in the
position of having to explain why he
said earlier. that he did not know Mr.
Gomez and of having to bring the
armed forces into line for running such
an operation.
"How can we come back and say we
know about this man without taking
any action?" he asked
nce
109 to suou v ooera-
Aaencv
act
tinn: nr ant-Sand ata reDS15.
placed official said today.
For the first time today, Salvadoran
military and Government sources also
acknowledged that American civilians
working for the Nicaraguan rebels,
known as contras, operated out of El
Salvador.
Earlier this week, Ambassador
Edwin G. Corr denied knowing the
longtime agent, Max Gomez. An em-
bassy spokesmwr ak isdtly that Mr.
Corr "did not mean that." However,
the spokesman declined to give further
details.
Mr. Gomez has been named as the di-
rector of an American-backed rebel
supply operation from the llopango air
base east of San Salvador.
Restrictions by Congress
Mr. Gomez was first identified as the
operation's director by an American
captured in Nicaragua after his plane
was shot down during one of these mis-
sions. His position here was later con-,
firmlg two highly sources!
with clo contacts,
ongress ono restrictions prohibit
the use of any United States aid for
such operations, and ever since Eugene
Hasenfus, the captured American,
gave details of the contra supply mis-
sions from El Salvador at a news con-
ference in Managua American officials
have tried to distance themselves from
the group.
Reagan Administration officials at
first said Mr. Gomez worked for a pri-
vate American group helping the con-
tras. Vice President Bush then said he
had met Mr. Gomez three times and
that the Cuban-American worked for
the Salvadoran military as an adviser
in counterinsurgency tactics.
These statements linking Mr. Gomez
to El Salvador have both angered and
embarrassed the Salvadoran Govern-
ment, according to military and Gov-,
ernment sources, who acknowledged
for the first time today that American
civilians here run a contra supply
operation.
"Bush tried to wash his hands of this
and hand the problem to us," said
Mauricio Salvador Hernandez, a
spokesman for the military.
Not Adviser, Spokesman Says
Mr. Hernandez said both Honduras
and El Salvador had been used by the
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/21: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200970023-1