LETTER TO WILLIAM J. CASEY FROM LEE H. HAMILTON

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP87M01152R000500700013-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 18, 2010
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: March 25, 1985
• Content Type: LETTER

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EXECUTIVE SECRETARIAT
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SUSPENSE 3 April
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TO #14 : Please prepare response for
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3637 (10-81)
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Wa1thy rx i1es im neaten -
II Salvadoran Bishop's Death
Ex-Intelligence Chief Levels Allegations
By Don Oberdorfer
K zshirgton Past Staff Writer
The assassination of Salvadoran
Archbishop Oscar Romero five
years ago was carried out by former
Nicaraguan national guardsmen di-
rected by Col. Ricardo Lau, who
later became chief of -11;--
for the CIA-backed rebels fighting
against the Sandinista government,
a former Salvadoran security off-
cfa c arge yester ay.
Col. Roberto Santivanez, who
was head of El Salvador's central
intelligence agency in 1978-79, said
at a Washington news conference
that Lau had been paid $120,000 in
connection with Romero's assassi-
nation by wealthy Salvadoran exiles
on March 27, 1980, three days af-
ter the killing.
The killing of Romero, who was
Derail Offered
On Bishop's
Assassination
31,
among the most popular and impor-
tant figures in El Salvador at the
time, was .a key event in polarizing
the political situation in that coun-
try. Salvadoran President Jose Na-
poleon Duarte has said the govern-
ment is investigating the widely
discussed crime, but no results of
the investigation have been an-
nounced.
Santivanez gave interviews to
several news organizations and
about two dozen members of Con-
gress a year ago recounting his in-
side knowledge of death squad ac-
tivity in El Salvador, but at the time
insisted that his name not be used
for fear of reprisals.
His revelations caused an imme-
diate stir even without use of his
name.
There was a further stir when it
Santivanez said yesterday that
"money was not my motivation" but
that funds were essential to support
his life and travel.
The news conference yesterday,
sponsored by an independent film-
maker who is releasing a documen-
tary on Santivanez, came as the ad-
ministration is preparing a large-
scale effort to persuade Congress to
reverse its cutoff of secret funding
for the anti-Sandinista insurgents.
Beyond his charge against Lau-
which was not mentioned in his re-
marks last year-Santivanez's
news conference was notable for its
description of the links between
various Central American rightist
officials and groups in connection
with the Salvadoran death squads.
According to Santivanez, the de-
cision to kill the archbishop was
made by Miami-based Salvadoran
capitalists "who gave the money"
and was passed along inside El Sal-
vador by Roberto D'Aubuisson, a
former major in the security service
who has since become a prominent
figure in Salvadoran politics.
The killing was planned in Gua-
temala, according to Santivanez,
and carried out by "two ex-Somoza
[Nicaragua] national guardsmen
working with a Salvadoran National
Guard team."
Santivanez did not name Lau,
who had been an intelligence officer
and field commander for former Ni-
caraguan president Anastasio So-
moza, as one of the archbishop's
l1Jle...
tnanez s ,,_id that, on the basis
of a car,tured "diary" of death squad
2 P. tv and "se'. er al other sources,"
;;:a;ed ie; role" in training
COL. ROBERTO SANTIVANEZ
... appears at news conference:
was learned that Santivanez had
been promised $50,000 as living
expenses by critics of U.S. policy in
Central America.
Bruce Cameron, a former con-
gressional aide who helped arrange
Santivanez's original testimony,
said he actually received $32,500.
See LATIN, A28, Col. 1
o US planning its largest military
exercise in Honduras. Page A28
the death squads and was paid for
Romero's assassination.
Lau was later chief of intelligence
for the "September 15 Legion," one
of the earliest paramilitary organ-
izations fighting against the leftist
Sandinista government that took
over Nicaragua after Somoza's fall.
After the formation in August
1981 of the Democratic Front of
Nicaragua (FDN), the umbrella
group for the anti-Sandinista fight,
Lau was its first chief of intelli-
gence.
Secret Central Intelligence Agen-
cy support for the FDN and other
elements of the "secret war"
against the Sandinistas was author-
ized by President Reagan in No-
1981.
vember
Lau was forced out of the FDN
intelligence post about September
1982, reportedly on CIA instruc-
tions, but has been described as tak-
ing an unofficial role in FDN coun-
terintelligence as late as last year. i'
Bosco Matamoros, Washington
representative of the FDN, said
Lau at present has "no connection
in any capacity" with the anti-San-
dinista organization.
Matamoros said "we have no
knowledge" that Lau had a role in
the assassination of Romero, an act
which Matamoros described as
condemnable."
Santivanez was removed from his
post as chief of the Salvadoran na-
tional intelligence agency, ANSE-
SAL, as a result of the October
1979 coup that brought a reformist
group of military officers to power.
In the following months, including
the period of Romero's assassina-
tion, Santivanez was residing in
Guatemala, where he said the as-
sassination was planned.
Guatemala had been a haven for
right-wing exiles following the fall
of Somoza in July 1979 and the re-
formist coup in El Salvador in Oc-
tober that year. Santivanez said he
had spoken at the time with hired
assassins who made frequent flights
from Guatemala into El Salvador to
kill people selected for assassina-
tion.
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