ADMINISTRATION PORTRAYAL OF NICARAGUA INACCURATE, WOMEN SAY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505290034-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 13, 2010
• Sequence Number: 34
• Publication Date: June 17, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/13: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505290034-5
UNITED PRESS INTERNA TION J
17 June 1983
Administration portrayal ol' Nicaragua inaccurate, w
SEATTLE
Two women armed with a video casette say their recent trip to Nicaragua
opened their eyes about the leftist Sandinista government and the Central
American nation's image as portrayed by the Reagan administration.
The video casette is a complete recording of the news conference held by the
Nicaraguan government earlier this month announcing the expulsion of three top
U.S. diplomats, a move that set off a serious dipimatic reprisal by the United
States.
The women believe the tape is the first copy of the complete charges against
the American officials to reach.the country, at least through unofficial
channels.
Shown on Nicaraguan television, the news conference contained allegations of
a CIA plot to poison Nicaragua's foreign minister, Miguel D'Escoto, a Roman
Catholic priest. U.S. officials have heatedly denied the charges.
Frances Romero, who left Seattle for Nicaragua with her retiring husband,
Marco, nine months ago, said she was shocked at what she learned there. The
extent of her past political involvment was volunteer campaign work for former
Washington state Gov. Dan Evans, a Republican.
Mrs. Romero returned to Seattle this week with another woman, Gretchen
Sleicher, and both said the alleged CIA plot indicated President Reagan has
not been truthful in his descriptions of what's been going on in Nicaragua.
On the tape, a young Nicaraguan woman named Marlene Moncada contends she was
recruited by CIA agents while working as a Nicaraguan consular official in
Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
Ms. Moncada claims she again was approached by CIA officials after she was
transferred to Managua, where she was asked to provide personal and political
information on D'Escoto.
But she said the agents didn't know that she already had told the Nigaraguan
government of her being recruited and much of the CIA's subsequent actions
involving her were recorded on film.
Ms. Moncada said she was asked by a CIA official she identified as ''Baby
Johnson'' to give a bottle of poisoned Benedictine liqueur to D'Escoto. ''I
said, 'Me, eliminate a priest? Never!''' the woman said during the news
conference.
She eventually agreed to take part in the alleged plot, but instead turned
the bottle over to the-government, which tested it and found it to contain
thallium,,a metalic element.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/13: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505290034-5