PLANNING BY WH DIVISION TO COPE WITH KIDNAPING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80M01048A000400070005-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 3, 2005
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: September 1, 1970
• Content Type: MF

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MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Central Intelligence
SUBJECT
Planning by WH Division to Cope with
Kidnaping
1. This memorandum is for information only.
2. Attached is a narrative account of the Western Hemisphere
Division's efforts to cope with the kidnaping threat in Latin America
and to protect its officers in the field. I have attached this particular
account in response to your concern because it describes the efforts
of the Area Division most affected by the kidnaping threat.
3. The attached paper goes into the origins of the problem, the
revolutionary intent of the perpetrators, and the practical means by
which we are trying to grapple with it. I think you will be interested
to read here of the meshing together of the various Agency components
as mutual efforts are made by various offices and officers to protect
our people in the field. The paper describes efforts in the armoring
of vehicles, weapons training, tradecraft, and the use of sirens and
other gear (as well as the rejection of inapplicable gadgetry) as
means to reduce the frequency of kidnaping. But there is, of course,
no complete solution.
4. 1 wish to call your attention specifically to an ominous aspect
to what is happening in Latin America, one going well beyond the risks
of exposure and possible loss of life that the paper describes. This
is the net effect of the coincidence of the East German publications
fingering our people and what may be a developing disposition on the
part of the terrorists to use those lists for targetting. If we assume
that the KGB's Disinformation Bureau, directly and through the Bloc
services, has worked for years to discredit and embarrass this
Agency for the purpose of impeding its operations, and that Cuban
support of revolutionary terrorist movements over the last decade
has had at least Moscow's tacit support, then the effect of both is
coming to be more than just the loss of some of our officers, which can
now be expected. Without claiming that this has been the KGB design,
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its disinformation, failing on highly charged Latin soil, is increas-
ingly limiting our freedom of operation. As this study makes clear,
we are already circumscribed in certain Latin countries as to how
we operate and how much we can operate. This state of affairs
could spread to other countries and other areas.
Thomas H. Karamessines
Deputy Director for Plans
Attachment: a/s
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ATTACHMENT
THE KIDNAPING SITUATION IN LATIN AMERICA
AND EFFORTS OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE DIVISION
TO PROTECT ITS OFFICERS
THE PROBLEM
Kidnaping is a well established terrorist tactic in Latin America.
it is part of the Cuban-revolutionary doctrine of urban guerrilla warfare,
essentially a low risk tactic which can obtain spectacular results,.
generate a great deal of international publicity for the terrorists' cause,
and contribute substantially to left-wing psychological warfare.
Kidnaping is an acute problem today in those countries where
Castro-backed insurgent movements are most viable, namely Uruguay,
Guatemala, and Brazil and only to a slightly lesser degree in the Dominican
Republic, Venezuela, and Chile. The other countries possess the potential
for kidnaping.
Kidnaping is generally seen as a means by which terrorists obtain
money to carry on revolution or obtain the release of prisoners but in
actual practice kidnaping as part of urban terrorism is intended to dis-
credit the government in power, cause foreign concern, and disrupt the
normalcy of everyday living. Kidnaping is part of Regis Debray's revolu-
tionary philosophy that a peaceful situation can be turned into a revolutionary
one, it is specifically included as such in subversive publications, for
example, Carlos Marighella's "Mini-Manual 1br Urban Guerrillas", now
being distributed world-wide.
A knowledge of the purpose of kidnaping and the terrorists' intent
is necessary to enable us to understand the limitations of action and
counteraction in protecting our officers without aiding the terrorists' purpose.
For example, any action which appears to be foreign intervention, such
as the use of U. S. military equipment or personnel in rescue attempts,
serves the kidnapers' political intent by showing the inabilities of the local
government to cope alone with the situation.
The tactic of kidnaping has changed as its use has increased and
the act has become both more deadly and of more immediate concern to
the Agency. Until recently the victim was released unharmed but kidnaping
is now more politically cynical and even homicidal. Since 1967 two
Ambassadors (one American) have been killed and three United States
military officers have been murdered, two in Guatemala and one in Brazil.
A Public Safety Officer has just been murdered in Uruguay and numerous
other kidnapings of local personalities have taken place, many fatal, and
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countless unsuccessful attempts have been made. Other foreign diplomats
(German, Japanese, Paraguayan) have been kidnaped by terrorists in
the last year and released in return for "political" prisoners, i. e. ,
captured terrorists. As to the local populations, the statistics contain
long lists of obscure people kidnaped or killed for reasons not known,
most of them caught up in urban terrorism.
As these events unfolded, it quickly became clear s
I"he terrorist-
were trying to make a target specifically of CIA officers.
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