GUERRILLA HERO BLAMES CIA FOR HIS CEASE-FIRE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000504880082-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 15, 2010
• Sequence Number: 82
• Publication Date: July 16, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/15: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504880082-8
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Guerrilla Hero
Blames CIA for
His Cease-Fire
Eden_ Pastors, the charismatic
hero of the Sandinista revolution
that. overthrew Anastasio Somoza
four years ago, called a temporary
halt to his operations in southern
Nicaragua last 'month. He blamed
the CIA for .drying up the, secret
funds that had sustained his two-
month insurrection.
Because he wanted aid with no
strings attached, Pastors alleges that
the CIA turned down his request for
funding. U.S. officials tried to pres
sure him into joining the CIA-
backed guerrillas, but their ranks
included too many of his old enemies
from Somoza's national guard.
Pastors charges that the CIA set
out to sabotage his fund-raising ef-
forts. He described two specific ex-
amples to my associate Jon Lee An-
derson, whom I sent to report on
Pastors's independent guerrilla cam-
paign.
One incident involved Col. Man-
uel Noriega, an old buddy who now
heads Panama's national guard and
who, like Pastors, was a protege of
the late Panamanian - strong - man,
Omar Torrijos. Pastors sought out
WASHINGTON POST
16 Tuly 1983
Noriega in Panama last year and
asked for his help.
"Noriega promised me help," Pas-
tora said. "He promised me dollars
and guns." But when Pastors re-
turned two months later he found
Noriega's door closed to' him. -
"After six months of trying, I had
given up," Pastors recalled. "Then
one day I met him by - accident. I
said, `Friend, -what's happened?' And
he said, 'The -CIA %told me not to get
involved, because they were giving
you all the help you needed."
A second, similar incident oc-
said, they were deluged with offers
of money. The offers came from all
over, including a Cuban revolution-
ary group in Miami. Some asked
only for the number of a bank ac-
count to which they'
could send a
It's possible that Pastora's flam-
boyant move may bring in more
than the $10 million he had once
hoped, to get from the CIA-and
without strings.
Pastora makes:no bones about his :
willingness to accept help wherever
he can find it from Libyan dictator
has contacts in financial circles.
There he said he was. given
$50,000-"petty cash," he called it-
and was 'told to return in two weeks
for a lot more.
But when he came back, Pastors
said, "They told me the same thing
Noriega had, that the CIA had spo-
ken to them and had told them to
lay off, that they were taking care of
me."
Last -month, the CIA's perfidy
became clear when Pastora, in an
eloquent speech to his troops, told
them he had to call a temporary
cease-fire because his organization
was broke. He told my associate
there was less than $400 in the till.
The result of his dramatic an-
nouncement was electrifying. Within
hours after the cease-fire made head-
lines around the world, Pastors aides
fered him $5 million to foment rev-
olution in Guatemala; from Israel;
from Argentina, "from the devil him-
self," Pastors said, as long as there
are no strings attached.
He admitted after ,some prodding .
that one gift of 500 brand-new ma- .
chine guns through a.go-between in
Colombia probably came from the
detested CIA. The go-between "told
me the only condition placed in re-
turn for the guns was that I didn't
ask who was giving them," Pastors
said, adding: "Who but the CIA can
just give you 500 brand-new ma-
chine guns and at the same time tell
you to keep your mouth shut?"
Other weapons were obtained on
the black market in Europe and
Latin America-and on one occasion
in Los Angeles.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/15: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504880082-8