NICARAGUAN SAYS HE SPIED FOR CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505260001-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: September 2, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505260001-4
ON PAGE
MIAMI HERALD
2 September 1986
Around the AmerIcas
Nicaraguan says he spied for CIA
By SAM DILLON
Herald Staff Writer
MANAGUA, Nicaragua - A
prominent businessman, haggard,
red-eyed and stammering after
two weeks of incommunicado
detention, described to reporters
Monday three years of alleged
collaboration with CIA agents.
Guillermo Quant, 54, owner of a
large Managua trucking company,
vice president of the Nicaraguan
Chamber of Commerce and a
board member of Managua's
American School, spoke at a
carefully orchestrated press con-
ference, his first public appearance
since his arrest Aug. 19.
Quant said that after initial
contacts with officials of the U.S.
Embassy here, he had been trained
in clandestine communication
methods in Miami and Costa Rica
and had sent by mail a series of
secret messages to foreign ad-
dresses given him by the CIA.
Quant said he had passed along
information on Nicaragua's petro-
leum facilities, of which he had
knowledge through his business,
as well as information he picked
up "on the street." He denied that
he had revealed military secrets.
Quant's recollection of dates
was poor, but Interior Ministry
Capt. Oscar Losa claimed Quant
had collaborated with the CIA
since 1983.
Quant's confession comes at a
time of heightened counterintelli-
gence vigilance here, with Sandi-
nista authorities and diplomats
predicting an increase in espionage
activities directed at Nicaragua as
Congress is expected to soon lift a
two-year ban on CIA involvement.
Several features of Quant's case,
however, seemed especially curi-
ous, justifying skepticism about
the veracity of his statements.
Quant had in recent months loudly
criticized the Sandinista govern-
ment at diplomatic parties and
other gatherings in Managua. pe-
culiar behavior for a man allegedly
involved in clandestine espionage
activity.
Also, the circumstances of his
arrest were odd for an accused
spy. Quant was first detained Aug.
19, after a quarrel with an agent
from Nicaragua's Embassy Protec-
tion corps over a parking infrac-
tion outside the U.S. embassy. He
was then held for nearly four days
at a local lockup of the Sandinista
police, said his friends and rela-
tives, who were told Quant would
serve a sentence of several months
for the crime of "lack of respect
for a police officer."
The public accusations of
Quant's involvement in the CIA
first emerged on Sandinista televi-
sion Aug. 23, five days after his
initial detention.
Furthermore, last November,
Quant had been detained by
officials of Nicaragua's Director-
ate of State Security in November
and held for a day in the El
Chipote prison in downtown Ma-
nagua. That detention came amid a
series of brief detentions of busi-
nessmen and others known for
their peaceful political opposition
to the Sandinistas.
Monday, Capt. Losa claimed that
authorities had known of Quant's
alleged CIA ties at the time of his
November detention, but that they
had then decided not to hold Quant
or charge him with spying. "We
considered that it was sufficient to
warn him at that time," Losa said
Monday.
Now, Loss said. Quant will be
tried for espionage.
Quant said he had been held
since his arrest at a local police
station in a Managua suburb and
at State Security's Casa 50, in the
El Chipote security complex.
Before Quarit was led by green-
uniformed police into a conference
room at interior Ministry head-
quarters Monday, Losa showed
reporters a German-made bath-
room scale he claimed the CIA had
given Quant for the concealment
of secret code charts, and a Sony
shortwave radio Quant allegedly
used to receive encoded messages
from the CIA.
Quant's wife said in an inter-
view that she had never seen the
scale before. Quant said he had hid
the scale from his wife in their
palm-shaded suburban home.
Quant named three U.S. officials
based in Nicaragua as his alleged
contacts. An embassy official con-
firmed two had worked at the
embassy. They were: Michael
Donovan, chief economic counsel-
or from 1984 to 1986, who left a
month ago as part of a normal
rotation, and Benjamin Wickham,
first secretary from 1983 to 1985.
Quant was indistinct in pro-
nouncing the third American's
name, and embassy officials could
not confirm whether the person
had been posted here.
After Nicaraguan authorities ar-
rested two Interior Ministry offi-
cials as CIA agents in February,
two of four U.S. officials named as
their managers were transferred
out of Nicaragua, according to
U.S. Embassy spokesman Al
Lawn. The other two officials had
already left Nicaragua, Lawn said.
Lawn said that, because Quant
held a position on the Board of the
American School, he "could have
dealt with any number of Ameri-
can officials without it having
anything to do with spying."
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505260001-4