PEACEFUL ECUADOR SEES RISE OF TERROR IN MARXIST AVC

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302050029-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 29
• Publication Date: August 1, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ST AD-reclassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25: CIA
? APPEARED
? PAGE 7-4
WASHINGTON TIMES
1 August 1985
Peaceful Ecuador
sees rise of terror
in Marxist AVC
Efy Roger Fontaine
TEIE WASHINGTON TIMES FOREIGN SERVICE
QUITO, Ecuador ? This is a small
republic, about the size of Colorado
with roughly three times the pop-
ulation, on the west coast of South
America at the equator, for which it
is named. It escaped the clutches of
Military rule six years ago and is
governed by an elected government
that is determined to make free
enterprise work ? with or without
the help of the United States.
Its president, Leon Febres Cor-
dero, is a businessman-politician.
He is a baseball-loving, pro-
American leader who likes hot dogs
? he once ordered them at New
York City's posh Pierre Hotel ? and
is absolutely determined to get along
with the international financial com-
munity, including the International
Monetary Fund (IMF), which is the
loete noire of most Latin American
politicians, in order to do what he
wants.
What he wants is money so the
economy can free itself of balance-
of-payments constraints and take off
M sustained growth rates that he
hopes will guarantee a free-market
strategy will survive his term of
office.
President Febres may well suc-
ceed, but Ecuador is not without
Problems. One of them has drawn
liple international attention as far as
Ecuador is concerned, and even
here, it remains a nearly invisible
issue. That issue is terrorism.
_ Ecuador has much less terrorism
than its two immediate neighbors,
Colombia and Peru, but the threat is
real and growing. The country has
several terrorist groups. The largest
and best organized is Alfaro Vive
Carajo -- known here as AVC.
_ Although the government is play-
ing down the threat for the moment,
it is known that President Febres
eordero is concerned.
The AVC is Marxist, but has no
Ispown ties with Ecuador's orthodox,
pro-Soviet Communist Party.
?. In the past, it has been labeled
Maoist, and then pro-Albanian ?
hence AVC's nickname here "los
Albanistas," for the Albanians who
ate said to have helped finance its
astivities. What that communist
state on the Adriatic might have had
in mind is anyone's guess.
Over the years, the AVC has
become well-organized, tightly-
disciplined and unpenetrated by the
police. It is said to have a clear and
precise plan of insurgency, and to be
Eillowing its timetable scrupulously.
AVC's major effort is directed at
Quito, the capital; its rural arm is far
Jess active.
? Ecuador's terrorists' actions so
far have been largely limited to bank
robberies to fund their operations,
atid the takeover of television sta-
2tions to publicize themselves.
' At times, AVC demonstrates that
it is still in the learning stage. A few
months ago, an AVC bomb factory
Mew up in a Quito residential neigh-
borhood, killing several of the ter-
rorists.
". But the group is increasingly
apable of bold and effective action.
Last March, the terrorist raided a
police armory and captured a sub-
?tantial stockpile of arms and
'ammunition.
.? Recently, AVC members scrawled
Nevolutionary slogans on the walls of
the Liberal Party center in full view
of the guards assigned to protect the
U.S. Agency for International Devel-
opment mission next door. Wisely,
the outnumbered and outgunned
security force did nothing but
watch.
So far, the AVC has used a mini-
mum of violence?although it killed
several policemen in a Guayaquil
shootout recently. Observers here
believe the AVC is still in the "Robin
Hood stage" of its insurrection, in
which the attempt to attract popular
support is paramount.
But there is growing evidence
that the AVC is planning the second
stage right now. That they are capa-
ble of careful planning has already
been proved by a daring jailbreak of
AVC leaders involving the con-
struction of a sophisticated tunnel.
Phase two, which some intelli-
gence sources say is imminent, is
expected to involve kidnappings and
-RDP90-00965R000302050029-4
political assassinations. Americans
may be among the targets.
How well-connected is the AVC to
international terrorism? The evi-
dence is sketchy.
President Febres Cordero, for
one, believes the group is linked with
drug traffickers. The U.S. govern-
ment is not yet sure. But AVC ties
with Colombia's guerrilla organ-
ization, M-19, are suspected in some
circles.
Recently, evidence turned up link-
ing AVC with the Sandinistas of
Nicaragua and with Libya. That evi-
dence came to light after the Ecua-
doran police captured Rosa
Cardenas, one of five top leaders of
the movement, last year. Unfortu-
nately for Miss Cardenas, she was
caught carrying documents proving
the AVC was soliciting funds from
Managua and 114ipoli.
Nicaragua and Libya responded
tentatively in the affirmative ? pro-
vided the AVC prove itself an effec-
tive outfit. Apparently, even within
the terrorist network, money is
limited and scarce resources must
be allocated for relatively sure
things.
The lure of cash is likely to push
the AVC soon to the next stage of the
revolution -- and that means a lot
more shooting.
It is strongly suspected here that
the AVC already has cadres in El Sal-
vador and Nicaragua, which would
mean that Ecuadorian terrorists are
getting on-the-job training in guer-
rilla warfare.
Ecuador is clearly not prepared
for an onslaught of terrorism. More-
over, the government is anxious to
attract foreign investment, and
therefore is not anxious to talk much
in public about the problem.
Yet it is there, festering, and both
the army and the police have no
experience in this form of warfare,
in contrast to Ecuador's neighbors,
Colombia and Peru, which have bat-
tled guerrillas and terorists since
the 1960s.
Nntimed
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302050029-4
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302050029-4
The police are undermanned,
poorly trained, and have little intel-
ligence capability ? critical factors
in combatting terrorism. Further-
more, they are handicapped, like the
other police forces in the hemi-
sphere, by Section 660 of the For-
eign Assistance-Act, which forbids
U.S. assistance to Latin America's
police.
The army, well-educated and pro-
fessional, is still geared to fight a
conventional war ? namely, against
Peru, with which Ecuador has long
disputed their Amazon Valley
boundary.
Instead of helicopters, Quito's
military men still covet Mirage
fighters to match Lima's modern air
force.
U.S. officials are trying to re-focus
Ecuador's efforts at internal secu-
rity ? with some success, judging
from remarks by the foreign min-
ister to The Washington Times last
week.
2,
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302050029-4