CONSPIRACIES FROM COSTA RICA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201170008-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 10, 2012
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: August 31, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/10 :CIA- i DP90-009658000201170008-6
ARTICLE A ED
ON PAGE
31 august 1985
BEST THE DE
Conspiracies From Costa Rica
On Sunday, July 28, Martha Honey, a journalist based in
San JosE, Costa Rica, reported on the Canadian Broad-
casting System's Sunday Morning about aright-wing group
in Central America that, among other things, organized the
attempted assassination of ARDE leader EdEn Pastore
Gomez last year.
Her chief source, aself-described anticommunist who
recently kft the group and now calls himself a "traitor to a
dirty cause," explained that the group plots violent actions.
often against civilians, which can then be blamed on the
Sandinistas. He identified the person who, disguised as a
Danish photographer, planted the bomb that killed three
journalists and wounded two dozen others at Pastora's
press conference last May.
According to Honey, the would-be assassin of Pastors
was a Libyan right-wing exile. He was apparently hired in
Chile early last year by representatives of the group, in-
cluding anAmerican C.I.A. agent who operates undercover
as_a journalist. Honey's source told her that the Pastore
bombing was planned in Honduras by the leaders of the
F.D.N., the main contra group. Also involved in the plan-
ning were another American, "a wealthy rancher," who is
the chief F.D.N. and C.I.A. liaison in Costa Rica, and two
Cuban-Americans who have been fighting with the F.D.N.
in Costa Rica and who have ties with nght-v~nng e e groups
in Miami oney quot er source as saytng, a group
has the support and cooperation of a number of Costa
Rican government officials, businessmen and journalists.
They planted false stories in the press blaming the bombing
on the Sandinistas and helped [the Libyan] get out of the
count ."
Honey said she had learned from the defector that the
group is about to launch a series of terrorist attacks in Costa
Rica and Honduras, with bombings against the U.S. Em-
bassies in both Tegucigalpa and San JosE as well as against
the offices of the Costa Rican President.
In an article printed in The Sunday Times of London the
same day as her broadcast was aired on the CBC, Honey
added that "in what appeared to be a further preparatory
move afar-right organization, Costa Rica Libre, recently
placed advertisements in the local press saying that Costa
Rican left wingers, acting on behalf of the Sandinistas, in-
tended to bomb the U.S. Embassy in San Jose." Honey
quoted cleft-wing member of the Costa Rican parlia-
ment, Sergio Eric Ardon, as saying that his own political
party was being set up as the supposed perpetrator of at-
tacks on U.S. targets. Ardon told Honey he had been shown
forged documents, allegedly originating from within his par-
ty, which included a plan of the embassy. "If this scenario is
true," Honey concluded her CBC broadcast, "it appears
that ... [the] terrorist group [is], with the assistance of
C.I.A. agents in the region, preparing a series of dirty tricks
designed to give the Reagan Administration the excuse it
needs to launch duce[ military strikes against Nicaragua."
In The Sunday Times Honey quoted "a senior administra-
tion official in Washington" as saying, "We continue to be
concerned about the connection between the communist
government in Managua and known terrorist groups. It is
entirely possible that stories of this nature may presage at-
tempts on Americans perpetrated by these groups in an ef-
fort to establish a prior disclaimer."
Four days later an associate of Honey in San JosE, Tony
Avergen, outlined some of the same material on National
Public Radio. Avergen was injured in the attempt on
Pastors.
ALEXANDER COCKBURN
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/10 :CIA-RDP90-009658000201170008-6