3 U.S. DIPLOMATS EXPELLED FROM NICARAGUA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404340004-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 22, 2010
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: June 7, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000404340004-4
WASHI1\1G j. ON PCS ,
7 Jtine 1983
U.S. 3 Dij)lomats Expelled From _ Nicaraorua
By Terri Shaw
'.;]taill Loll h-., Fmei.u Senic.
Nicar2gua yesterday expelled
three U.S. diplomats, accusing them
of plotting to kill officials of the San-
dinista government, including For-
eign Minister Miguel D'Escoto.
The U.S. Embassy immediately
-protested the expulsions and dis-
missed the charges as "absurd."
Asked if the United States was plan-
.ninz to retaliate by expelling Ni-
caraguan diplomats here, a State
Department spokesman said. "We
have under consideration what steps
might be appropriate in the light of
this action."
White House deputy press secre-
tart' Larry Speakes commented on
the Nicaraguan charges, saving the
administration "totally reiects their
conclusions and their charges in that
matter.
Nicaraguan officials held two I
news conferences in Managua yes-
terday to present detailed accounts
of an alleged Central Intelligence
Agency plot to assassinate Sandi-
nisz leaders and otherwise "desta-
bilize" the government- They
presented videotapes of the U.S. dip-
lomat: meeting with Nicaraguans
and exhibits of alleged espionage
paraphernalia.
The Nicaraguan charges and the
expulsions brought relations between
Washington and the revolutionary
Sandinista government,to their low-
est point since the Sandinistas over-
threw dictator Anastasio Sornoza
almost four years ago.
The United States has criticized
the Sandinistas for supporting guer-
rillas in RI Salvador and restricting
political, freedoms at home. The Ni-
caraguans, in turn, have accused the
United States of supporting armed
groups seeking to overthrow the rev-
olutionarv eovernment.
Reports'. from Nlariagua by -news
services identified the three diplo-
mats declared -persona -non grata as
Linda Pfeifel, a political affairs of-
ficer; David Noble Greg. first sec-
retarv. and Ermila Loreta Rodriguez,
second secretary. The order, issued
at 10. p.m. Sunday, gave them 2-f-
hours to-leave the country.
Saul Arana? director of the North
American Department of the Ni-
caraguan Foreign Ministry, said the
accusations against the three diplo-
mats were first detailed at a press
conference by Lenin Cerna,-head of
.the,Jnterior Ministry's Department
of State Security.
-A,rarra, who ran the Nicaraguan
Embassy in Washington immediate-
ly--a ter-the Sandinista takeover. said
two Nicaraguans were also impli-.
gated-in the -alieged plots. One of
them, -att.ornev Carlos Icaza, took
refuge in the Venezuelan Embassy.
.he said. The other, Mario Castillo,
head of the youth organization of the
Democratic Conservative Party, was
arrested, he added.
Susan Morgan. a British free-
fenc ejournalist who -attended me
..news conference, rave the following
account. The star Lilac;: % a itiar-
Tene Moncada. 2#, a Nicaraguan con-
solar official who said she had been
recruited h' the CIA iast year white
working in Honduras. Moncada said
-she reported the effort to recruit he.-
to .Nicaraguan authorities and agreed
to work as a double agent.
When she returned to Managua,
Moncada said, she was trained by
Pfeifel in spying techniques inciucl-
ing -the sending of coded mes..sat es,
radio transmissions and dropping
information in secure sites. She said
Pfeifel asked her to study Foreign
Minister D'Escoto's dail routine
and eventually gave her a poisoned
,bottle of a liqueur to give to him.
- Cerra, the director of state secu-
riry, -took up the theme of CIA in-
volvement by the three. diplomats,
saving that Rodriquez was directly
responsibly for, the assassination plot
against D'Escoto. that Greig was the
CIA station chief in Nicaragua and
that Pfeifel was a CIA official with
special responsibility for contacting
opposition political parties and
right-wing trade unions for counter-
revolutionary activities.
His briefing was punctuated Leith
the showing of a short videotape
with a dramatic .Jane;-1iond-style
soundtrack perportin to show the
meeting of ufeilel with contacts and
other alleged CIA agents in a Ma-
n:,_ua restaurant.
Blown-up black-and-white pho-
togranhs covered the walls showing
the picking-up of the poisoneebot.tle
from the base of a tree trunk - by
.:Moncada, photographs of meetings
between embassy officials and their
contacts and, on another wall. pho-
tographs of spying equipment in- .
cluding pads of codes, two carved
wooden. Statuettes--one hoiiow-in
which messages were allegedly tram--
nutted. a radio used for transmitting
coded me-sages and paper that
- ruuirf fie swalluwFCl_ _
\lorran -reported that- t;,c elabo-
rate preparations for the pry-, con-
ference with h loncada, and a later
crte with another avuble agent.
Army Lt. Jorge Rustran, caused
speculation among diplunat? end
other observers about the Sandinis-
tas' motives in making the accusa
tions at this time.
"The Nicaraguans never (to anv-
thing on the spur of the moment."
one western diplomat said. "All this
was-Clearly-carefully thought otit_'.
-Diplomats and opposition party
sources suggested that the expul-
sions were connected to a crackdown
on the opposition that has already
begun. In addition to Castillo. En-
rigae Borget;, another Conservative
Party leader, was arrested this morn-,
int. -
Cerna said the entire network of
"collaborators with the CIA" had not
yet been arrested.
Nicaragua's Sandinista leaders,
have expressed fears that the. United:
States would try lo overthrow them,
since shortly after they took power'
in .July 1979. Their tears werel
heightened after the election of Rea-II
;an who had criticized the Ni -I
caraguan revolution in his campaign.,
The Reagan administration first'
cut off aid to Nicaragua because of
alleged Nicaraguan aid to the Sal..
vadoran guerrillas, then authorized,
covert assistance to the Nicaraguan:
exile groups fighting the Sandinistas
ostensibly to ctit the supply lines to
the Salvadorans.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000404340004-4