EL SALVADOR/DEATH SQUADS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100980018-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 22, 2010
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: March 21, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000100980018-6
21 March 1984
EL SALVADOR/ RATHER: A major obstacle to President Reaga-n's policy in
DEATH SQUADS Central America, especially where El Salvador is
concerned, has been the Salvadoran death squads. The
political right and the left in that country have been STAT
accused of random and wanton killings. Until now, those
who have ordered the killings have been anonymous, but as
Walter Cronkite reports, some of those on the political
right now have names, and they are the names of
high-ranking Salvadoran officials.
(File tape) CRONKITE: A former high military official
from El Salvador claims that the man who once directed his
country's infamous death squads was a paid informer of the
CIA. (To Unidentified Man): Do you think the United
States or any of its agencies, the CIA, for instance, knew
about the death squads? UNIDENTIFIED MAN (Voice of
Interpreter): I understand, yes, precisely because they
had people in their employ who were in the high levels in
Salvador.
CRONKITE: Can you tell us who that is? UNIDENTIFIED MAN:
For ejemplo... (Voice of Interpreter): For example, Col.
*Caranza.
CRONKITE: Right there at the top._ UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Si.
(Voice of Interpreter): Yes, sir.
CRONKITE: Col. Nicolas Caranza is the chief of the El
Salvador Treasury Police. Our source was interviewed in
disguise in a secret location in the United States. He
was in a sensitive post in the. top ranks of the Salvadoran
Security Establishment. The official was brought to.the
United States and given financial assistance, which is
expected to reach $50,000. The money came from critics of
the administration's Salvadoran policy. They made him
available to CBS News. Our source fingered as the
originator and still-active head of the death squads
former army Maj. Robert D'Aubisson, the right wing's
candidate for president in El Salvador's election next
Sunday. UNIDENTIFIED MAN (Voice of Interpreter): The way
it was carried out was that D'Aubisson worked under the
orders of Caranza.
CRONKITE: And yet he is an employee of CIA. UNIDENTFIED
MAN (Voice of Interpreter): He always has been, for five
or six years.
CRONKITE: Well, do you think that the CIA actually gave
orders on some of these assassinations? UNIDENTIFIED MAN:
No, no lo creo que si. (Voice of Interpreter): No, I
don't believe so.
Continued
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000100980018-6