PRESS ARTICLES SEPTEMBER 10, 1984[SANITIZED] - 1984/09/10

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Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
00041111
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RIFPUB
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U
Document Page Count: 
22
Document Creation Date: 
April 3, 2019
Document Release Date: 
April 12, 2019
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Publication Date: 
September 10, 1984
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Serwc..es of Mead 03rd Centra Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 LEVEL 2 - I OF 8 STORIES The Associated Press PAGE 1 The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The ociated Press. September 10, 1984, Monday, Ph cycle SECTION: International News LENGTH: 729 words HEADLINE: Bomber At Rebel Conference Still At Large BYLINE: An AP Extra, By REID G. MILLER, Associated Press Writer DATELINE: SAN JOSE, Costa Rica KEYWORD: Bomber-at-Large BODY: He is slender and muscular, about six feet tall with hooded, blue-grey eyes a professional assassin with innocent blood on his hands and little threat of capture. More than three months ago, he exploded a bomb by remote control at a news conference at a rural guerrilla camp in southern Nicaragua, killing four people and injuring 24 others. Today his identity and whereabouts remain a mystery. Costa Rican authorities, whose investigation was slow to start and has been marred by errOrs, admit that their probe has come to a dead end for lack of any solid clues, The principal target of the attack was Eden Pastora, the anti-Sandinista chieftain known as "Commander Zero," who suffered burns and shrapnel wounds. Killed were a Nicaraguan rebel and three reporters, including Linda Frazier, 381 a writer for an English-language weekly newspaper in San Jose and the wife of an Associated Press correspondent. four of the injured were hurt so badly they still remain under medical care. Although the explosion on May 30 occurred on Nicaraguan soil, Costa Rica undertook tte investigation on the assumption the assassination attempt had been plotted within its boundaries. After the blast, investigators let 4$ hours elapse before barring the exit from the country of witnesses and others who sight have been involved. Tony Avirgan, an ABC-TV correspondent injured in the explosion, found himself detained as a prime suspect three days after the blast. � At first he was denied exit from the country to seek medical treatment for a badly mangled hand. He was interrogated in his hospital bed in San Jose for LEMS NEXUS LEWIS NEM Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 Services of Mea j Da 7O Ceqtra' Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 PAGE 2 The Associated Press, September ID) 1984 more than five hours before receiving permission to fly to the United States. Three weeks ago, police showed up at the home of hark Baillie� a corresponoent for the Reuters news agency, with a search warrant naming him as the possible terrorist. Baillie, who is short, stocky and bears no facial resemblance to the prime suspect, was able to clear himself with a call to the British Embassy, and the police retreated apologetically after a three-hour search of his house. Authorities agree that the man they really want was posing as a photojournalist and traveling under a stolen passport that identified hit as Per Anker Hansen. The real Per Anker Hansen, a Danish architect, reported his passport missing four years ago and has never been to Central America. Two days after the explosion, reporters visited the small, cheap hotel in downtown San JOSe where the terrorist lived for almost a month before the assassination attempt. Iney were able to obtain a record of his telephone calls from the switchboard operator. But it was another three days before Costa Ricar investigators got to the hotel, too late to find any fingerprints. They then spent hours trying to find the "suspicious foreigners" . actually newsmen who had been trying to trace some of the real suspect's calls. The man known as Hansen had traveled with legitimate journalists to Pastora's camp on the northern bank of the San Juan River, which marks the eastern boundary between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, Carrying an aluminum equipment case. In that case, investigators say, was a bomb made of plastic explosive and metal shrapnel, which he touched off with a hand-held detonator after slipping unobtrusively from the riverside building minutes before Pastora began his news conference. According to witnesses, he then forced himself into one of the first boats evacuating the wounded and was taken to a regional hospital for treatment of what doctors later said were two minor cuts. He took a taxi to San Jose the next morning. There, he checked out Of hiS hotel and disappeared. Photographs of the suspect taken before and after the explosion have been distributed to law enforcement agencies worldwide. Theories abound on whom employed him. Custls Winsor, the U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica, has speculated that the terrorist was employed by Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government. Pastora, who has recovered from his injuries, has variously attributed the crime to the Sandinistas, then CIA and to enemies within his own anti-Sandinista group. LENIS NEWS LEXCIS NEM it,,nroved for Pelisse Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 Se-vices of Mea:"Dara Cenira Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 PAGE 3 The Associated Press, September 10, 1984 ENIOR'S NDE Reid G. Miller, an Associated Press correspondent based in San Jose, Wa5 one of the reporters covering the Eden Pastora news conference at which the bombing occurred, and was among those wounded. LEXCIS NEXUS LENIS NEM Atproved. foxi-te1R0* Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 tee-ve e; ofPle.a:." Dare, cntra' Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 PAGE 4 LEVEL 2 - 2 Or 8 STORIES Copyright a 1984 The Washington Post August 28, 1984, Tuesday, final Edition SECTION: first Section; Al2 LENGTH: 1De7 wors HEADLINE: Costa Rica Stymied in Hunt for Assassin BYLINE: By Edward Cody, Washington Post foreign Service DATELINE: SAN JOSE, Costa Rica KEYWORD: E.RICA BODY: ' The assassin who tolled three reporters and a guerrilla in an attempt to blow up Nicaraguan rebel leader Eden Pastore three months ago has vanished, leaving behind rage and poistery but no solid leads. Costa Rican investigators Say they have come to a dead end in their effort to establish his identity and whereabouts, and await answers from police in other countries to queries sent out about the prime suspect. But with no major government intelligence agency putting a high priority on the search, diplomatic Sources acknowledge, the man who tried to kill the anti-Sandinista guerrilla leader, Killing four other people and wounding two dozen in the process, is likely to remain free for other assignments in the future. Eased on interrogation of reporters present at the May 30 blast, Costa Rican investigators are convinced it was set Off by 3 bearded man posing as a photographer and carrying a stolen Danish passport identifying him as Per Anker Hansen. The aluminum camera case he was carrying, they say, was packed with C4 plastic explosive ane detonated by signals from a small radio device found later near the shack wrere Pastore had just begun a news conference. The investigators know the assassin was not Hansen. The real Hansen, a Danish architect who reported his passport stolen four years ago, has never been to Central America. They also believe the Killer was not a photographer. The agency he said he works for does not exist and french authorities report nobody ever heard of or saw him at the Paris address he listed On registering at the Gran Via Hotel in San Jose. Instead, inquiries about the bomber produce a picture of a ruthless professional trained in living underground without leaving a trail and backed up by�enOugh resources to carry out his mission with reliable technology and at least two Seta De false documents. Although not conclusive, sources close to the investigation say, this points to a government intelligence agency or well Organized Underground group as sponsor of the assassination attempt. Those following the Case have speculated in all directions, usually In line with their political leanings. Curtin Winsor, the U.S. ambassador here, has announced that Nicaragua's Sandinista government is the logical author of the crime. But some of LE1KIS NEXUS LEMS NEM twsroved fgr rele Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 Sere5. 0! Mead Dwa Cerra? Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 PAGE 5 0 1984 The Washington Post , August 28, 1964 Pastora's associates, with no more to go on than Wirsor, have pointed at the CIA. Still others have suggested the bomber was workirg for the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, a rival anti-Sandinista group that, at CIA urging, was seeking an alliance that Pastora would not accept. Pastora, new recovered from burns suffered in the bombing, has publicly blamed the CIA. Just as publicly, however, he has suggested it could have been the Sandinistas, rival guerrillas or colleagues with whom he was feuding over the suggested alliance. Close associates say the flamboyant guerrilla chief has no proof for any of the speculation. Some Costa Rican investigators have privately underlined two elements they say point suspicion at Nicaraguan intelligence. first are reports from undisclosed sources that the assassin left Costa Rica overland for Nicaragua the day after the explosion. Second, they say, the method used May 30 resembled an earlier attempt to assassinate Pastora, privately attributed by Costa Rican Officials to Sandinista intelligence agents. In that attempt, June 29, 1983, a Nicaraguan was killed and a second injured when a bomb they were carrying to a meeting here with Pastora exploded prematurely. Against this background, Investigators here note that the radio device used to detonate the May 30 bomb used two frequencies, a precaution they say was designed to prevent premature explosion by stray signals from other radios such as walkie-talkies. Eut unless the killer is captured and interrogated, investigators say, these leads are little more than informed speculation. Angel Edmund� Solano, Costa Rica's recently dismissed public security minister, has acknowledged that authorities here moved too slowly to detain witnesses and gather evidence in the first hours after the blast. The man posing as Hansen had left the riverside Shack, just Inside the Nicaraguan border, moments before the bomb exploded at 7:20 p.m. He was among the first to climb into boats taking wounded to nearby Ciudad Guesada in Costa Rica, according to reporters on the scene, despite the fact that he was only slightly wounded. At a hospital in Ciudad Guesada, he was treated for minor cuts, doctors recorded. It was there that photographers took the pictures that Costa Rican authorities and news agencies have distributed around the world. During his overnight stay, he also gave an interview to Radio Cita of Ciudad Guesada, describing the bombing scene, and asked nurses whether a woman had come asking for him. The next morning he traveled by taxi to San Jose with Peter Torbiornsson, a Swedish television producer with whom he had traveled in search of Pastora in previous weeks. The pair arrived at the &ran Via Hotel about 10:30 a.m. Torbiornsson went to a San Jose hospital for treatment of his wounds and the man calling himself Hansen paid his hotel bill and dropped out Of sight. Since then, investigators of the Costa Rican Intelligence and Security Directorate, under Salm�, and the Organization for Judicial Investigations, an arm of the courts, say they have established few details about the killer. LEWIS NENIS LENIS NEM Approved for Release Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 Se-o: c; 41&60 ava, Genf, a' Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 PAGE 6 I; 1984 The Washington Post August 28, 1984 Analysis of the interview tape indicates his Spanish was native, despite his claim to be Danish and efforts to fake an accent. Some who have heard the tape believe the intonations are those of the southern countries of South America. There is no record of his having left the country after the bombing, and airline and immigration officials have no recollection of anyone matching his description flying out May 31 or Jmne 1. Nor is there any record of a departure by Patricia Anne Boone Marescot, te identity in the french passport, also stolen, of a woman who had traveled with the so-called Hansen during earlier recorded exits and entries around Central America. Various reports generated by distribution of the photographs -- that the killer was, a Basque terrorist, a Uruguayan rightist or a Uruguayan leftist -- have led investigators nowhere. Part of the problem, they say, is that police agencies in other countries have been slow to respond to the Costa Rican queries. ,LEMIS NEMIS LEMIS NEN' Approved for Eeleae Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 Df M69.7 Da* Gentra! Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 PAGE 1 LEVEL 2 - 1 Or 3 STORIES Copyright al 1984 Latin American Newsletters, Ltd.; Latin America Weekly Report July 27, 1964 SECTION: URAGWAY; WR-64-29; Pg. 6 LENGTH: 413 words HEADLINE: POLITICS: Tupataros cast a shadow; DARk DEEDS OF THE PAST HAUNT THE PRESENT BODY: Aldunate and General Liter Seregni back on the scene, it was only a matter of time before those other protagonists of the early 19705, the Tupamaros, made an appearance. The MovitLento de Liberacion Nacional (MLN-Tupamaros) is no longer a political force. But three separate incidents have brought its name back into the limelight in recent weeks. * A military tribunal has finally sentenced tnree MLN leaders -- Julio Angel Marenales Saenz, Henry Willy Engler Golovchenko an Marcos Mauricio Rosencoff. They have al.eady served 12 years In prison, apparently without trial. The reason for recalling their existence now, as the government has just done, is apparently to link them to the Blanco party leader, Ferreira Aldunate. He was clapped in jail as soon as he arrived tack in Uruguay from exile in June and is awaiting trial on distinctly flimsy charges of subverting public order. The authorities now claim that he took part in a meeting with two of these three Tupamaro leaders, Rosencoff and Marenales Saenz, at an unspecified date -- a completely new charge, according to the Blanco leader's lawyers. a Another MLN prisoner, Adolfo Wasim Alaniz, is on hunger strike. He, too, has been in jail for 12 years and is now suffering from cancer. A group of faithful supporters have been demonstrating daily in central Montevicleo to demand his release. The government has so far responded only with a communique listing the crimes he is charged with. � The third reminder of the former urban guerrilla group comes from an article in the Colorado party paper, Opinar, which reprints infomation from the Spanish weekly lnterviu about the Tupamaro deserter, Hector Amodio Perez. Amodio was a key defector from the MLN in 1972. He deliberately betrayed some 30 hideouts, including the carcel del pueblo, a field hospital, and a number of arsenals and documentation centres (LA VI, 35). It was his 'information', too, which Was Used to prepare the military's case against senator Enrique Erro of the Frente AmpliO. The executive's demand for the removal of Erro'S parliamentary immunity was one of the factors which precipitated the constitutional crisis of hay-June 1973 and the final imposition of military rule. Opinar and Interviu now claim that Amodio was Infiltrated into the MLN by the CIA. They also say that he was the author of the assassination attempt against the Nicaraguan contra leader, Eden Pastora, in Nicaragua in June this year, LEXUS NEXUS LEMS NEM Aprove& for R91_e_ris Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 .5f -t "viva: tfa:o Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 PAGE 1 LEVEL 1 - 1 OF 8 STORIES Copyright t 1984 Latin American Newsletters, Ltd.; Latin Ame ort SECTION: uRAGWAI; WF-84-29; LENGTH: 413 wprds HEADLINE: POOTICS: Tupamaros cast a shadow; DAR: DEEDS OF THE PAST HAUNT THE PRESENT BODY: ... far responded only with a communique listing the crimes he is charged with. � The third reminder of the former urban guerrilla group comes from an article in the Colorado party paper, Opinar, which reprints infomation from the Spanish weekly Interviu about the Tupamaro deserter, Hector Amodio Perez. Amodio was a key defector from the MLN in 1972. He deliberately betrayed Some 30 hideouts, including the carcel del pueblo, a field hospital, and a number of arsenals and documentation centres (LA VI, 35). It Was his 'information', too, which was used to ... LEVEL 1 - 2 Of 8 STORIES Copyright t 1976 Latin American Newsletters, Ltd.; SECTION: LA ), 7; Pg. 54 LENGTH: 1010 words HEADLINE: Argentina: operation cross the road BODY: OrganisatiOn's challenge to Peron and its return to clandestine resistance. It is quite nicely that Dana Tea has some idea of gmulating the Uruguayan army officers who Succeeded in splitting the Tupamaros over the issue Of connotation with the armed forces. This led directly to the defection of Hector Amodio Perez and the virtual destruction of the TupamarOs In Early 1972. It is, however, not necessarily 'non-aarxist to wish to collaborate with the armed forces. Throughout Latin America Noscow-line Communist Parties have been urging such a strategy on anyone prepared to listen. It is also LEVEL 1 - 3 OF 6 STORIES Copyright e 1973 Latin American Newsletters, Ltd.; Latin America L NIS NEXUS LENIS NE= ipprOV: fgoE0u1sTre Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 Ja 31 fc3:Da* Cenva' Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 0 1973 Latin American td., May 18, 1973 SECTION: NEWS IN BRIEF; LA VII, LENGTH: 250 words HEADLINE: Uruguay PAGE 2 EDDY: ... an exceptionally tense situation, unresolved at mid-week, the senate on Tuesday night refused the government's request for the lifting of the parliamentary immJnity of senator Enrique Erro, accused of links with the Tupamaro guerrilla organization. TIT charges': made by Hector Amodio Perez, a Tupamaro defector in military Custody, have been flatly denied by Erro, but the armed forces have been insisting on his arrest. To add to their pressure on parliament, the armed forces moved troops from the interior into Montevideo, and stationed SOME of them outside the parliament ... LEVEL 1 - 4 OF 8 STORIES Copyright fi 1973 Latin American Newsletters, Ltd.; Latin America May it, 1973 SECTION: LA VII, 19; Pg. 146 LENGTH: 570 words HEADLINE: Uruguay: on many fronts BODY: ... remains evident that the military did not win an outright victory last February. The limits of military power and authority have not yet been properly tested, and it may require a new institutional crisis to indicate where the frontier runs. , On Monday, Hector Amodio Perez, a former leader of the Tupamarc* who defected last year Isee Vol. VI, No. 351, was brought before the senate committee, which is considering the Erro case, and repeated his charge that the senator had sheltered Tupamaros. The appearance of Amodio Perez, still evidently ... LEVEL 1 - 5 OF 8 STORIES Copyright 6 1973 Latin American Newsletters, Ltd.; Latin America May 4, 1973 SECTION: NEWS IN BRIEF; LA VII, 18; Pg. 144 LENSTN: 150 words HEADLINE: Urupay LENIS NENIS LENIS NEM innroved for Releas, Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 .5C '4. t. Da'a Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 PA5E 3 6 1973 Latin American Newsletters, Ltd., May 4, 1973 BODY: ... in the morning newspapers. Erro, a ffiember of the left-wing Frente Amplio, was accrsed -- on the testimony of captured guerrillas. -- of having Sheltered Tupamaros in his house. Erro denies the care and observers noted that the evidence came from known Tupamaro defectors, including Hector Amodio Perez, or from prisoners who suffered particularly from torture, such as Alicia Rey. A number of other prisoners denied Erro's involvement. Eordaberry Ordered the cicse for three days of those newspapers which printed the details Of the charges against Erro. LEVEL 1 - 6 OF 8 STORIES Copyright 6 1972 Latin American Newsletters, Ltd.; Latin America November ID, 1972 SECTION: LA VI, 45; Pg. 354 L(NGTH: 990 wo-ds HEADLINE: Uruguay: fatal decay EDDY: ... Ex-defence minister Augusto Legrani, Over hi S demand that the head of army intelligence, Colonel Carlos Trabal, be dismissed for withholding information from the minister (see Vol. VI, No. 43). The particular documents which caused the trouble were tne 'memoirs' of the lupamaro 'traitor', Hector Amodio Perez (See VOL VII No. 35) and so a manifesto (authorship unknown), circulating among senior officers app re a to be an attempt to achieve a political consensus within th t was a measure of the desperate pass which had been reached LEVE F 8 STORIES Copyright 6 1972 Latin American Newsletters, Ltd.; Latin America September it 1972 . SECTION: LA VI, 35; Pg. 279 LENGTH: 670 words HEADLINE: Uruguay: under torture BODY: ... security forces may well have been given by the fact that their great coups in April and Hay (see Vol. VI, NOS. 16 6 221 all stemmed from one major betrayal) and not from consistently improving intelligence. The traitor is now known to have been Hector Amodio Perez -- for long a Key figure in the Tupamaros' upper command. His decision to betray hiS Comrades was not made under torture, but rather followed a collective decision to reduce his authority in view of his evident personal ambitions, according to ... LENIS NEXUS LEXUS NEXCI surovad ttr_ Rp.,1A3 s Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 Da!a Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 PAGE 4 LEVEL I - 8 OF 8 STORIES Copyright t 1972 Latin American Newsletters, Ltd.; Latin America March 10, 1972 SECTION: NEWS IN BRIEF; LA VI, 10; P. 80 LENGTH: 40 words HEADLINE: Uruguay FODY: Police have arrested two Tupamaro leaders, Hector Amodio Perez and Jorge Manera Lluveras, who were both among the 10L prisoners who escaped last SeptemDer. SOME 18 alleged lupamaros have been detained during the past 10 days. LEMS NEXUS LEXUS NEM Anbroved for_Ralte50 Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 o' Mea Daa Centra � Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 LEVEL - 3 Of 8 STORIES The Associated Press PAGE 7 The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These materials may not be republished without the express written Consent of The Associated Press. June 21, 1984, Thursday, PM cycle SECTION: International News LENGTH: 782 words BYLINE: An AP Extra By CARL MANNING, Associated Pres5 Writer DATELINE: SAN JOSE, Costa Rica VEYWORD: Costa Rica Bombing BODY: Off to a slow start and diverted by false leads, Costa Rican authorities have not solved the bombing that Killed four people and wounded 27 at a news conference by Nicaraguan rebel leader Eden Pastora, Police officials have issued an international arrest warrant for a man who posed as a Danish photographer, but they Co not know his true Identity or where he might have gone. And they Co not know who was behind the attempt to kill Pastora. Authorities didn't begin their investigation until four days after the May 30 bombing. And they started on a cold trail that abruptly ended at a downtown hotel where the wanted man was last seen a day after the explosion. The bombing occurred just inside Nicaragua On the banks Of the San Juan River that divides the two nations. The bomb went off as Pastora, military leader of the Costa Rican-based Revolutionary Democratic Alliance, began talking to reporters who had traveled from San Jose to hi 5 headquarters. The blast killed an American journalist, two Costa Rican journalists and a rebel. Costa Rican authorities say the man probably entered the room in the wooden building with a "military-type mine" in an aluminum case and triggered it by remote control while standing Outside. The man called himself Per Anker Hansen. About three weeks before the bombing he checked into the downtown Bran Via Hotel where he made friends with a Swedish television producer, Peter Torbiornsson. The two took some trips together before the bombing and they made the trip to the news conference together. As it turned out, the man had a passport stolen in 1980 from a Per Anker Hansen in Copenhagen who told Danish authorities he has never been to Central America. LEM NEXUS LENIS NENI sworoved for _Eqtve Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 Se- pt Me-aV Clara Celtra; Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 PA5E a The Associated Press, June 211 1984 Torbiornsson said the wanted man spoke 'very bad Danish.' But Iorbiornsson saio he did not think anything was amiss until after the bombing when press reports began implicating the ran. Costa Rican authorities are investigating because the explosion involved Costa Rican citizens and at least part of its planning is presumed to have been done in Costa Rica. One official, who discussed the case on condition he not be identified, conceded that the authorities moved too slowly in the beginning and rade a 'serious mistake" by not dusting for fingerprints in the tan's hotel room. They first went to the hotel on June 5 , three days after Hansen's name first Surfaced in local newspapers as a possible suspect. A judge on June 3 ordered all journalists at the news conference detained in the country until questioned by authorities. Officials now say they should have closed the borders earlier. At one time, authorities felt the man they wanted might be Spanish, based on a taped interview with reporter hours after the bombing. They even had a name for the man _ Jose Miguel Lujua Gorostiola. But that lead fell apart when french police said Gorostiola had been under house arrest and had not left France in several months. Meanwhile, an Uruguayan exile living in Sweden said he recognized a photograph of the wanted ran made at the bombing scene and that he was a fellow Uruguayan now living in Venezuela. Authorities, however, have not been able to confirr that. Costa Rican Investigators last week went to Panama in hopes of finding some clue to the man's identity there. Agents of the Judicial Investigations Organization say they learned a man calling himself Per Anker Hansen entered Panama in May 1982, adding they feel it was the same man. The agents said they also are looking for a woman who traveled with a bogus french passport and Was on the same jetliner as the phony Dane when he landed in San Jose from Los Angeles in October. Like 6 Hansen, " authorities do not Know the woman's identity or what role, if any, she played in the bombing. . One agent, who spoke on condition he not be identified, said authorities have pieced together from immigration records that the man and woman apparently traveled together on at least eight occasions in or out of Costa Rica. Also unanswered by authorities is the question of why the bombing occurred. Some Pastora supporters have said that the attack could have come from either the left or the right of the political spectrum in Central America. Pastora, who was wounded in the explosion and now is recovering in Venezuela, had called the news conference to explaim his reasons for refusing to join the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, a military group fighting the Nicaraguan government with the support of the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA had been putting pressure on Pastora and the Revolutionary Democratic Alliance of Nicaraguan rebels based in Costa Rica to merge with the LENIS NEXUS LENIS Avnroved for Fe.lme s Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 Se-viz-es of M& Ca Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 PAGE 10 LEVEL 2 - 4 a 8 STORIES Copyright I 1984 The New York limes Company; Ire New York Times June 14, 1984, Thursday, Late City Final Edition SECTION: Section A; Page 4, Column 3; foreign Desk LENGTH: 102 words HEADLINE: ATTACg ON PASTORA: MUCH INTRIGUE BUT FEW FACTS BYLINE: By RICHARD J. MEISLIN DATELINE: MEXICO CITY, June 13 TwO weeks after a bombing attack on Eden Pastora Gomez, an anti-Sandinista rebel leader, the Costa Rican authorities have established a Key suspect - a man who, using a stolen Danish passport; traveled the region in recent months posing as a photographer. That is nearly all they know. The man's identity retains a mystery. His current whereabouts is unknown. for whom he was working, if anyone, at the time of the blast has not been determined. lt is not known whether he acted alone or with the help of others. Tile pomp, which went off at a crowded news conference in Nicaragua near the Costa Rican border, killed four people - three journalists and an anti-Sandinista rebel - and wounded more than two dozen other people, including Mr. Pastora. At the same time, it introauced a new and less predictable type of terrorism into the long- running conflict in Central America and sharply increased tension among and within the opposing factions. The investigation has been hampered by false leads, conflicting political interests and the fact that the bombing took place in a rebel-controlled area that the Costa Ricans have no jurisdiction to enter and the Nicaraguans have no ability to enter. Various investigations and interested parties have concentrated on different possible motives for the attack, generally in line with their political orientation. A False Lead Is Abandoned Costa Rican Government investigators spent days pursuing a lead that the mysterious photographer, who went by the name of Per Anker Hansen, was actually Jose Miguel Lujua GorostiOla, a member Of the Basque separatist group E.T.A. While the two men bear some facial Similarities, this lead was abandoned when the French authorities told Costa Rica that Mr. Lujua Gorostiola was under a form of house arrest in France and had not been out of the country in several months. A Uruguayan exile in Sweden Said Monday that he recognized the key suspect as a fellow Uruguayan with whom he engaged in leftist political activities in the late 1960's and early 1970's. The exile, who asked not to be identified for security reasons; said in a telephone interview that the man was now living in LENIS NEXUS LE)XIS NEN! Asoroved for Reloase Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 Serv,:..e,:, of tv16-ao Da 6 Centra' Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 PASE 11 6 1984 The New York Times, June 14, 1984 Venezuela. He said the man's name had been turned over to Interpol, the international police cooperative organization. The motives for the bombing remain a matter of speculation. Ine explosion took place at a time of heavy pressure from the Central Intelligence Agency on the two major groups fighting the Sandinista Government - the Democratic Revolutionary Alliance based in Costa Rica and the Honduran-based Nicaraguan Democratic Force. The C.I.A. has sought to consolidate their forces, a move that hr. Pastora strongly opposes unless the group based in Honduras expels some leaders who were in the national guard of Anastasio Somoza Debayle when he was Nicaragua's dictator. The bombing came as well at a time when the Nicaraguan 6overnment appears to feel increasing pressure from armed and unarmed opponents. Pastora's Y:ew Wavers Mr. Pastore has wavered between blaming the C.I.A., the Honduran-based rebels and the Sandinistas. "For several months, the C.I.A. has been preparing the ground, mounting a campaign against me, saying I am the only obstacle to unification witn the Nicaraguan Democratic Force," he said shortly before being flown to Cara:as for medical treatment. "This attack is punishment for not yielding." United States officials have promoted the idea that the Sandinistas were to blame, possibly acting through the Easque separatist group. A State Department spokesman said today, however, that the United States had "no indepenoent confirmation of who might be responsible." The idea has been strongly pursued by the Costa Rican Government with little result. Ambassador Curtin Winsor Jr., speaking Of the Sandinistas, said: "There's nobody else I can think of who would have the motive. The C.I.A. doesn't do this kind of thing." Despite the initial failure to establish a link to E.T.A., Costa Rica is still looking for an E.T.A. role, according to an official involved in tne investigation. "The E.T.A. Was launched on the streets to cause confusion," he said of rumors about E.T.A. involvement, adding that it was his belief that as a result, the Costa Rican investigation "will COME to nothing." Rebels Check 2 Possibilities Meanwhile, investigators from the rebel group based in Costa Rica, which is known by its initials in Spanish as ARDE, are looking more closely at two possibilities. One is that the attack could have been the result of increased friction in Its Own ranks because the majority of its people are said to be willing to consolidate with the Honduran forces. lhe other possibility is that the attack sight have been an effort by the Honduran-based rebel group to eliminate Mr. Pastora and therefore the obstacles to consolidation. For the Sandinistas, an ARDE investigator said, "the fact is that it is politically more convenient to have him alive and causing divisions." Of the C.I.A., he said, "It's not their style." Little is known about the key suspect in the bombing. LEXCIS NEXUS LE>Avas NEXO Approved tor Release Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 5t�o;:e5c/ 10e-a. Da:a Ce-nra' Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 PAGE 12 a, 1984 The New York Times, June 14, 1984 The imposter had been in the region since at least February and perhaps since October, according to Costa Rican investigators, an had entered and left the Country at least Slx times on trips to Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Mexico. He said hE Was representing a Paris-based photo agency called Europe 7, which does not appear to exist. He usea the Danish passport of Per Anker Hansen, a young architect who later said his passport was stolen in a robbery about four years ago. Few Details On Imposter In the month before the bombing, the imposter traveled with a Swedish journalist and television producer, Peter Torbiornsson, who has been working on a documentary on Central America, and his Bolivian assistant, Luis Fernando Prado. According to Mr. Prado and Mr. Torbiornsson, they met in early May at the Hotel Gran Via, a modern but somewhat rundown hotel in downtown San Jose, the capital of Ccsta Rica. Mr. Prado, in an Interview Saturday in San Jose's Hospital Mexico, where he is recovering from wounds received in the blast, also mentioned that the supposed Danish aournaliSt appeared to be familiar with Uruguay. 1 "WE were talking one night about where would be the best place to be," he recalled. "I said the Obelisk in Buenos Aires at midnight. He said the Port of Montevideo at 10:30, or something like that." Mr. Prado aaid the supposed Dane spoke little Danish, a fact that both he ano Mr. Tortiornsaon said struck them as odd only after press reports began linking the imposter to the bombing. He Said they talked with the imposter mostly in English and that "his Spanish was forced," as if he was trying to disguise an accent. He also said that the imposter "knew idioms from a lot of places." The three men made two trips together to rebel territory. The first was from May 17 to 22, according to Mr. Prado, when they visited rebel camps and tried without success to find Mr. Pastora. The secono was on May 30, the day of the bombing. Camera Case is Suspect Although he used only three cameras - a Pentax, a Nikon and a Polaroid, according to Mr. Prado - the man carried a bulky aluminum camera case on both trips. The authorities now believe, based on metal fragments found at the site and in the victims, that this Case Contained the bomb used in the attack. The bomb exploded at 7:20 P.M., just as a group of journalists had gathered around Mr. Pastora to hear him explain his reasons for refusing to ally his forces with the Honduras-based rebels. The man who called himself Per Anker Hansen had left the room only moments before, according to witnesses. Photographs taken just after the blast show hip looking dazed but relatively unharmed, lying against a group of barrels outside the Stilted building where the news conference was taking place, not far from the Stairs leading to the entrance. Although he was practically unscathed, he was the first, other reporters said, to board the boats that took the wounded to a hospital in Ciudad Ouesada, in northern Costa Rica. LEXIS NEXUS LEIVIS NEM Approved_for Fele_tse Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 Se-v/.:-.es of 1,46:,31 Ce9ira' Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 PAGE 13 1984 The New York Times, June 14, 1984 At the hospital, where he was found to have only minor cuts, the imposter gave an interview to a local radio station in which he described himself as "really lucky." Speaking in nearly flawless and unaccented Spanish, he said he "was on the stairs and fell to the floor" when the explosion took place. The Trail Ends The imposter left the hospital early the next morning with Mr. Torbiornsson, and they returned to the capital by taxi. Hours later he told Mr. Torbiornsson he was leaving the country and, in what officials new concede was a major flaw in their investigation, he apparently was able to dO so. Early reports said he boarded an Air Florida plane for a direct flight to Miami, but the name of Per Anker Hansen does not appear on the flight roster Or in Costa Rican immigration records. A spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Miami Said Monday that the agency was trying to determine whether he had entered the United States, but it had been unable to do so. A Costa Rican investigator said the authorities established that the imposter had headed for the airport, stopping along the way to change money, but did not know whether te had boarded a flight. He said the imposter was believed to have changed money from dollars into Costa Rican colons, which could indicate that he intended to travel by land or even remain in the country. The authorities have been unable to trace hit beyond that point. GRAPHIC: photc of Eden Pastora Gomez SULJECT: BOMES AND BOMB PLOTS; CIVIL WAR AND GUERRILLA WARFARE; IMPERSONATIONS; PASSPORTS; ASSASSINATIONS AND ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATIDNS NAME: MEISLIN, RICHARD J; PASTORA GOMEZ, EDEN; HANSEN, PER ANKER GEOGRAPHIC: NICARAGUA; COSTA RICA LExis NEXUS LENIS NEIKI Approved .F2re Fejeas, Date P!,� ou, Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 of Ma J Data Central Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C00041111 PAGE 14 LEVEL 2 - 5 OF 8 STORIES Proprietary to the United Press International $964 June 13, 1984, Wednesday, PM cycle SECTION: International LENGTH: 315 words HEADLINE: Costa Rica seeks additional suspect in Pastora bombing BYLINE: By PATRICIA WALSH DAIELINE: SAN JOSE, Costa Rica VEYwORD: Pastva tiny: Costa Ricans investigating the bomb that injured Nicaraguan rebel Eden Pastora have a new suspect -- a journalist believeC to be the son of a close associate to revolutionary Che Guevara. Francisco Ruiz, spokesman for the Judicial Investigation Organization, said Tuesday a secord person who identified himself as a journalist and attended the ill-fated news conference on May 30 was under investigation. Ruiz refused to identify the suspect, who Was still in San Jose, but said "It is a probability" the man was the son of a close associate of the legendary revolutlonary Che 6uevara. Guevara, an Argentine, was one of Cuban President Fidel Castro's top assistants and Was Pilled in Bolivia in 1967 while trying to launch a revolution. Ruiz said al investigation showed the new suspect had lived recently in Nicaragua and had traveled various times to Cuba. Costa Rican authorities said last week they were searching for a man and a woman accomplice believed connected with the bombing attempt that killed nine people and injured 28, including Pastora. The first sJspect, a ran posing as a journalist and traveling with a stolen Danish passport in the name of Per Anker Hansen, vas believed to have fled Costa Rica two days after the assassination attempt on Pastora at his 'headquarters inside Nicaragua. Police originally identified a Basque terrorist as the main suspect but French authorities said the man had been under house arrest in southern France. Authorities also identified his French accomplice, but the woman named Works In Paris for a consumer sagazine and said her passport was stolen in 1979, Investigators believed that the first suspect, who identified himself as a photographer for a non-existent French news agency, placed a bomb inside a photographer's petal Suitcase and detonated it from outside the hot where Pastora was holding the news conference, .LEXUS NEXUS LEX