COMMANDER ZERO, DESERTED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000301890024-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 24
• Publication Date: May 26, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

3
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000301890024-8
"`r g ITEARED WASHINGTON POST
aii ha 1. 26 May 1986
Rowland Evans andRobert Novak
Commander Zero, Deserted
? Further Omens the well for ailed
, freedom fighter jilmaidwa,_ahadowy
U.S. agents have told Costs Rica not to,
oder poitical asylum to the fabled anti-
Sandinista amen* lesder whose
beutesionts wee suborned to dined him
and who then gem himself up for hick of
ammunition, boots and clothes for his
Mg*
tielttri.,, with dale White House
that these
to
" could
thm?'
?Vara) be gated as fact is that four
of Panon's top guerrilla lieutenants
went to a safe house in Son Jose early
this month. Each received $5,000 cash
to desert Panora's movement and it
the United Nicaraguan Opposition. The
? psynient was personally made by Alfon-
so Rohn* a key UNO leader.
That tightened the net on Command-
er Zero, famed throughout Nicaragua
for his role in overturning Anastasio
Sanaa and then defecting from the
communist regime established by his
revolutionary comrades. Deserted by
four of his six cornmandentes (twv re-
fined to lea* hind he turned himself in
to Costa Rican authorities on May 16.
Only weeks before that tragic series
of events, Pastors had been promised by
an unofficial U.S. negotiator that he
would get immediate help. He was
promised ammunition, boots, clothes
and a secure comniunications system in
exchange for this pledge: deliver his
2,000-plus guerrillas to a Nicaraguan
meeting place with UN O; cooperate
with UNO leaders; accept a retired U.S.
officer as mina*, adviser to end his
movements orgenisetional troubles.
Even though this arrangement is be-
braid to have Ind the bieseing of Assist-
ant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams, it
was systematically subverted. Instead of
getting what had been pledged, Pastors
found his lieutenants suborned, his abib-
ty to keep going ruthlessly choked.
This
repudiation of a pstriot and a
political pluralist seemingly violates the
Reagan doctrine of support to anti:am-
monia rnomments.'
At least temporardy blodted from
asylum in Costa Rica. Panora finds his
momment killed by MI unseen hand. A
prol s! here that he should travel in
Europe as a modern-day Minuteman to
main the truth about Nicaragua's
communist regime nay also be dead. In
the shrouded world of freedom fighters
acting under the thumb of covert intedi-
gene agents to advance the cause of
democracy, Pastore has been hong out
to dry.
Costa Rican authorities, urging him to
seek asylum in Panama, say that is what
the United States wants. If they send
Inn to Panama; an imider with wide
experience in Central America told us,
'they are sentencing him to death.* The
reason: Cub= agents are beginning to
onimm Patina
Here ii Mardi, Past's hand was
warmly shaken by no leas than Seize-
tsrY af State George Shultz. That ges-
ture was seen by U.S. admirers al
showing Shults's support for Pastors..
If 90. Shultz has now been overruled
by those shadowy on-the-scene U.S.
agents who regard Pastors as a trouble-
maker because he does not play by their
rules?and pcesibly because they know
he would not negotiate with the Sandi-
nistas wiless he was certain that they
could be defeated militarily.
When we saw the anti-Sornom rev-
olutionary leader at one of his jungle
headquarters a year ago, the duplicity of
Washington-connected political attacks
against him was Wm. He had been
charged with being a mere propagandist
who operated only on the Costa Rican
side of the border, with hints that he
might be in cahoots with the old Sandi-
nista comrades he deserted long ago.
The day we were there, wounded
guerrillas were arriving by ramshackle
bon in a camp with primitive medical
facilities. The crisis he faced was vivid:
no ammunition, food or clothing. He
already been frosen out by the CIA and
cxinsumiw conservatives, torehabili-
tate -both in the Nicaraguan jungles
and mut -mtFPIdentaurey reaciers in
Muir&
Just before Easter, SngIaub
went to Central America and reached
the across-the-board agreement with
Pastors. It was accepted by Abrams
who, with other officials, beim. Pato-
ra's name alone is a priceless asset for
the contras duoughout Nicaragua.
But in the real world of the Reagan
adninietration. Policy Wastes accord-
ing to no rides. Although the nominal
victim ii this tragedy is a single man,
the real victim is one ci Ronald
Reaves mitior PrinCiPle&
01999. News Mario *dime
,? ? Declassified and Approved_For Release 2912/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000301890024-8