'DEATH SQUADS' CONTINUE DESPITE U.S. PRESSURES

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP90-00965R000100130132-4
Release Decision: 
RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
1
Document Creation Date: 
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date: 
December 21, 2011
Sequence Number: 
132
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
January 26, 1984
Content Type: 
OPEN SOURCE
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PDF icon CIA-RDP90-00965R000100130132-4.pdf84.58 KB
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S~,Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/21 :CIA-RDP90-009658000100130132-4 I :TICLE APPEARED ;;,Y ?A~E~(~ WASHINGTON POST 26 January 1984 `Death Squads' Continue Despite~~ U.S. Pressures President Reagan would like to stamp out the infamous right-wing "death squada? that have cast .a long shadow over the anti-communist cause in Latin America. It won't be easy. The reasons: ? Our CIA may ~yg helped -set un the first d a aq~da_ jn Guate- male. Thev evolved out Qf the Na_ tiongl Liberation Movement, a pars=~ military~olitical or?anization that overthrew lef~st prey, dent Jacoho Arbenz in 1954 with tag not-eo-co- ver,Laid of CIA arents. ? The CIA has continued to main- tain contacts inside the death s uads. The Reagan administration. therefore; knows more than it cares to admit ~1Q~ut the composition and o_ perations of the death s uada. In fact-die a ministration 'van a st o ea _ 9'Q~ua ea ers to the inter~irr- civi ian president of El Sal- yador, Alvaro Ma?ana. ? Some death. squads operate through the World Anti-Communist League. This was once a respectable association of ultraconservative groups, but it has come increasingly under the influence of extremist, even neo-Nazi organizations. Nev- ertheless, some of Reagan's staunch supporters continue to sympathize with the league. ? The Dresident has solid intelli- gence that hard-core revolutionaries, trained and indoctrinated b the eta an ubans have moved Into y posrbona in the rebel mov~- menta of Central America. The only way to stop the spread of communist influence in our back yard, White House aides say, is to bolster anti- communist governments in the -re- gion. But the death squads are eo deeply entrenched in these govern- ments that it is almost impossible to extricate them. I have been investigating the death squads, which operate throughout Latin America under.the name of La Mario Blanca {White Hand). In .the cause of executing communists they have slaughtered .tens of thousands of suspected left- ists (including four U.S. churchwo- men) without a trial. A loose rumor or accusation may bring a death sen- tence upon an entire family. La Marro Blanca's political assea- sins are protected by a Mafia-like code of .loyalty and silence. One of the rare sources. who dared to talk about.the death squads explained to my associate Jon Lee Anderson: "La Marro Blanca means that whoever is involved. in the killing is protected by powerful, invisible hands. These hands whitewash all evidence lead- ing ~to a member." An admitted assassin, whom I call El Lobo (The Wolf), boasted: "We go by different names in each coun- try and make up new ones to con- fuse our enemies. But we are all La Marro Blanca" The front organization. for the ~ death squads,-he confirmed, is the Latin American Anti-Communist' . Confederation, an affiliate of the. World Anti-Communist League. The: affiliate, known by the initials CAL, pretends to keep its skirts clean of the clandestine murders. But some-; times the truth slips out. At a World Anti-Communist League meeting in 1981, CAL Sec= retary Rafael Rodriguez came close,. to letting the black cat out of the bag. He boasted that many members- of the Latin American affiliate were- involved in "active resistance' to the communist threat, "whether with weapons, with the pen or with the spoken word ....Their mission is. to back with action any authority taking effective measures to oppose. communism." - Despite pressure from the White House, no criminal charges have been brought in EI Salvador or Gua-' female for right-wing assassinations. La Marro Blanca is simply too pow-, erful. Meanwhile, the butchery goes on. Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/21 :CIA-RDP90-009658000100130132-4