SANDINISTS EXPLOITED POPE, EX-OFFICER SAYS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505120019-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 27, 2010
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: July 12, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505120019-0
ARTICLE A I~^ E
RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
12 July 1983
Sandiiiists explo
page, ex-officer says
By Ed Briggs .
Tfm &-nkpttcb reupon writer
WASHINGTON - A former intelli-
gence officer in the Sandinist govern-
Miguel Bolanos Hunter, a former
Sandinist counterintelligence officer,
reported the plan yesterday during a
Washington seminar sponsored by-a
conservative religious group, Insti-
tute on Religion and Democracy.
Hunter spoke to a luncheon meet-
ing of the seminar on religious free-
dom. The two-day seminar ended last
.night.
The former officer said that San-
;dinist officials tried to capitalize on
the pope's trip by keeping Catholics
from entering Managua. Square,
where the pontiff was to say' *Mass.
"The Catholics were in their
churches praying for two days before
the pope arrived, and Sandinist mobs
surrounded the- churches .and kept
them from going to the square until
after the square was opened," said
Hunter. He added that the square WAS
also closed until an hour before the
pontiff's arrival
In the meantime, be added, Sandin-
ist forces in civilian clothes filled the
square behind the-mothers of Sandin-
ists slain in the military coup that
ousted the former president, Anasta-
sio Somoza Jr.
during his March visit to legitimize
the revolution in 'the eyes of the
world.
went says that the Nicaraguans at-
tempted to use Pope John Paul n
During the pope's Mass, the forces.
.pushed the mothers onto the stage
where the pontiff was and chanted
pro-Sandinist slogans.
"They took the pope's microphone
and said the slogans. When the Catho-
lics at the rear of the crowd tried to
protect the pope, said Hunter, "they
were held of by someone with a load-
ed AK-47 rifle:"
Hunter, who said be was trained in
Cuba three years ago, said that the
Sandinists have. begun a program to
undermine the Catholic Church in
Nicaragua.
He said Sandinists have entered the
Catholic priesthood in a long-range
plan that has targeted the hierarchy
and ultimate control of the Nicara-
guan church.
"Whey have placed double agents as
priests in the Catholic Church. Their
plan will take years, but it will lead. to
a secure junta."
Also, be said Catholics are hin-
dered in their liturgies and the gov-
ernment allows full freedoms to Prot-
estant evangelicals who have not
taken political stances against the re-
gime, as have Catholic leaders.
Hunter's theme that religious free-
dom is being thwarted by a leftist
government is part of the seminar's
overall ' theme that there is no reli-
gious freedom in communist lands.
E?CEP,F_?
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505120019-0