'COMMANDER ZERO, DESERTED'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90B01390R000400510059-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 19, 2011
• Sequence Number: 59
• Publication Date: June 3, 1986
• Content Type: MISC

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WASHINGTON POST
; ?PPEARED
26 May 1986
Rowland Emu and Robert Novak
Commander Zero, Deserted
U.S. agents have told Costa Rica no to
otter political asylum to the fabled anti-
Saodiita 'guern~s hider whose
iehtetnnm were w~borned to desert him
and who then gave bond UP for rdc d
ammuautaon, boots and clothes far his
ft0WL R~e.__tn dose White Hahne
ties Cannot t dew
agents are tied to load CIA
W laid us, %t if not the CLA, who ac
Go t1=1"
hat be stated as fad is that fare
of Pastoca'a top guerrilla ieutenants
went to a safe house in San Jose early
the month. Each received $5,000 cash
to desert Pastaca's movement and join
the United Nicaraguan Opposition The
payment was pexsonaIly made by Alfon-
so Robeb, a bey UNO leader.
That tightened the net an Command-
er Zero, famed throughout Nicaragua
for his role in overturning Anastasio
Sonora and then defecting from the
communist regime established by his
revolutionary comrades. Deserted by
four of his an command antes (two re-
fused to lave him) he turned himself in
to Costa Rican authorities on May 16.
Only weds before that tragic series
of events. Pastas had been promised by
an unofficial U.S. negotiator that he
would get immediate help. He was
promised ammunition. boots, clothes
and a remote mmm*niations system in
exchange for this pledge: deliver his
2.000-plus guerrillas to a Nicaraguan
with UNO leaders; incept a retired U.S.
most as musty adviser to end his
movement's arganimtional troubles.
Even though this arrangement is be-
beved to have had the bkpg of Assist-
ant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams. it
was systematically subverted. Instead of
getting what had been pledged, Pastas
ford his lieutenants suborned, his abr7r
ty to keep going ruthlessly choked.
This repudiation of a patriot and a
pabtial pluralist seemingly violates the
Reagan doctrine of support to antjoom-
mxmgt movernents
At try blocked from
asylum in Costa Ric, Pastors finds his
navamhet lea eel by an w aee:h hand. A
propasl here that be shorrld travel in
Ehabpe as a modernday Minuteman to
exptaih the truth about Nicaragua's
covvnuast regime may atw be dead. In
the shrouded world of freedom tightens
acting under the thumb of covert imtehli-
gence agents to advance the muse of
deocracy, Pastas has been hung out
to dry.
Costa Riau authorities, urging him to
seek asylum Ni Panama, say that is what
the United States wants. If they send
hen to Panama.' an ihsidtx with wide
ci ienoe in Central America told is,
They are smtenottg him to death.' The
reason Cuban agents are hegnoiing to
overrun Panama
Here is March, Pastaca'a hand was
warmly shaken by no kris than Secre-
tary of State George Shultz That ges-
ture was seen by U.S. admirers as
showing Shhuks's support for Pastas.
If so. Shultz has now been overruled
by those shadowy on-the-scene U.S.
agents who regard Pastas as a trouble-
mak r braise he does not play by their
rules-std possibly because they know
he would not negotiate with the Sandi-
nis as unless he was certain that they
could be defeated militarily.
When we saw the anti-Sonata rev-
oktaonaty leader at one of his jungle
headquarters a year ago, the duplicity of
Washington- onnected political attacks
against him was plain. He had been
charged with being a mere propagandist
who operated only on the Costa Rican
sided the border, with hints that he
might be in cahoots with the old Sandi-
mgta comrades he deserted king ago.
The day we were there, wounded
guerrillas were arriving by ramshackle
boat in a amp with primitive medical
facilities The crisis he faced was vivid:
no amimnution, food or clothing. He had
already been frozen out by the CIA and
victimised ate thieve when
his Hughes 500C bcb=er umn n
and flown to Caw Ric. lteoded hhn
with UNP. The bribe noel the
theft was W.000.
Pastora's wore won crisis this acnin?
to lum both in the Nicaraguan dun
re m
the UA just before . Singlaub
went to Central America and reached
the across-th -board agreement with
Pastors. It was accepted by Abrams
who, with other c6cials, believes Pasto-
ra's name alone is a prioekss asset for
the contras throughout Nicaragua.
But in the real world of the Reagan
administration, policy operates accord-
ing to no rules. Although the nominal
victim in this tragedy is a single man,
the real victim is one of Ronald
Reagan's major principles.
elm. N... Agnm s,.ac.1.
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ON POQ
FAI
30 May 1986 -
C.I.A. Role Reported in Contra's Fall
WASHINGTON, May a (AP) - A
sass bum go Nicanminan r*d- as an
albdal Of the Central Imelligeooe
dean theta InOn leader Edin
of rival ~ aIoia. rti to officials
Mr. Pastas, a hero at the Sandinista
revohtke who later turned against the
may be VVION theme his low
rfila campaign because the C.I.A.
"denied as aid." Tbare was speculation
diet it dssartfoo of mast of his high
taajar tor in
W
Mr. Pastaca, brawn by. the nom de
PM" Commander to ally his Democratic~~ bad bonged
Alliance with an C.I.A.-organissd
N Democratic Pasco, ar-
that it was dominated by forma
Nat National Guardsman who had served
tha dictator Anastasio Somoa'a Do.
Mr. Pastors, new saskiag political
asylum in Carta Rica, is being detained
by autborlil there. In a telephone in-to die.
alas tbs reported C.I ~ In his
OUP'-AN said: "The Americans warm
in 101MOVO 0100 Bviernment and Impose
wft
We want nothing to do
C.I.A.
Release M Camssat
Aid about a C.I.A. role in the and
dMr. Pasesea's guerrilla movement, a
had
onoomma_ ot_n' Kathy per .
Rebel dficors said a man Identified
only by do aver name of "Armando"
but previously known to them as a
Ci contact adjured Mr. Festal Is
commanders Vallitary ed aid er they would
an.
pwi known ass the UdtsddNioo-
r The bell wle t ter UNO.
The rebate wars tdd that the military
where it ould UNO but not
C.Since A f~ ~ has barred the
Saving military aid and ad-
the agency is
vice to rebels, --ame with
them. The C.I bas also s few
=W seMal millk dollars to the
repels, who are generally, called coo-
tras, for political projects tins past
year, united slaw officials say.
Itabel Qmdals said UNO's Costa
~w~ of arms that were Scei
need
to notice Mr. Pastora's poorly aUplied
treops to switch allegiances. Doan
a
U14" mlit7 ~ Sup came > von
sources," but earid not
elaborate.
The repel offs isle, representing both
Mr. Pastore and UNO, said they had
known "Armando" as an American
C.I.A. officer attached to the United
stow Fmbasry Ea Costa Rica MW
rebeY1~ Alvaro Jena, a leader
of a Costa Rica, said "Armando " ~ias bean
a C.I.A. liaison to the rebels for several
Yom
AM Repertedy 01kn d
One Nicaraguan at a weeklong series
Cdosta meeting Said " Armando" pJscmd,
JUM tbmta b by ding military aid bat m-
isting that the commanders first join
UNO "because that wan the lostrement
A> caty had chosen to help Nia-
On May f, the aid-starved Pastore
ac.
COMMADdus stood an aPml F~ agreement
CCbmtoorro, the
chief military commander of the Costa
Ricao-based repels. Mr. Chamorro
leads an UNO.allied group of abort 400
emtras !mown as the Nicaraguan
Democratic Union. Mr. Pastora's
army, the Democratic Revatutiooary
Alliance, claims a Imes of several
esti-
Mr. Jared said Mr. Paste a believed
he had an agreement with the State Do-
as
I ~ tion
with other
betions.
Mr. Jere said that when Mr. Pas-
tars learned abort the attempt to hue
away his commanders, rebels loyal to
him protested to the State Department
and C.I.A. IJ headquarters but the talks
A UNO spokesman, Carlos Ulvert,
disputed the assertions that the com-
maoders bad been hued away - from
Mr. Pastas. He said that several
montlro ago, the commanders - not
UNO - made "the first contact" to the
talks that led to their desertion from
Mr. Pastors.
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