May 30, 1986
C.I.A. Role Reported in Contra's Fall
AP
A man known to Nicaraguan rebels as an official of the Central Intelligence Agency induced six senior commanders to desert the insurgent leader Eden Pastora Gomez, according to officials of rival rebel factions.
Mr. Pastora, a hero of the Sandinista revolution who later turned against the Nicaraguan Government, announced May 16 that he was giving up his guerrilla campaign because the the C.I.A. ''denied us aid.'' There was speculation that the desertion of most of his high command was a major factor in his decision to quit.
Mr. Pastora, known by the nom de guerre Commander Zero, had refused to ally his Democratic Revolutionary Alliance with the C.I.A.-organized Nicaraguan Democratic Force, arguing that it was dominated by former National Guardsmen who had served the dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle.
Mr. Pastora, now seeking political asylum in Costa Rica, is being detained by authorities there. In a telephone interview from jail, he declined to discuss the reported C.I.A. role in his ouster but said: ''The Americans want to remove one government and impose another. We want nothing to do with that.''
C.I.A. Refuses to Comment
In another development, the Nicaraguan Vice President, Sergio Ramirez Mercado, said that since Mr. Pastora had stopped fighting, he was welcome to return to Nicaragua under an amnesty program ''without any threat of retribution from the Government.''
Asked about a C.I.A. role in the end of Mr. Pastora's guerrilla movement, a C.I.A. spokesman, Kathy Pherson, had no comment.
Rebel officers said a man identified only by the cover name of ''Armando'' but previously known to them as a C.I.A. contact offered Mr. Pastora's commanders military aid if they would join the United States-sponsored umbrella group known as the United Nicaraguan Opposition, or UNO.
The rebels were told that the military aid would come through UNO but not where it would originate.
Since 1984, Congress has barred the C.I.A. from giving military aid and advice to rebels, although the agency is allowed to exchange intelligence with them. The C.I.A. has also secretly funneled several million dollars to the rebels, who are generally called contras, for political projects this past year, United States officials say.
Rebel officials said UNO's Costa Rican-based forces recently received five shipments of arms that were used to entice Mr. Pastora's poorly supplied troops to switch allegiances. Bosco Matamoros, a contra spokesman, said UNO's military supplies came from ''international sources,'' but would not elaborate.
The rebel officials, representing both Mr. Pastora and UNO, said they had known ''Armando'' as an American C.I.A. officer attached to the United States Embassy in Costa Rica. The rebels, including Alvaro Jerez, a leader of a Pastora-allied political group in Costa Rica, said ''Armando'' has been a C.I.A. liaison to the rebels for several years.
Aid Reportedly Offered
One Nicaraguan at a weeklong series of meeting in a suburb of San Jose, Costa Rica, said ''Armando'' opened the talks by offering military aid but insisting that the commanders first join UNO ''because that was the instrument the Americans had chosen to help Nicaraguans.''
On May 9, the aid-starved Pastora commanders signed an agreement accepting Fernando Chamorro as the chief military commander of the Costa Rican-based rebels. Mr. Chamorro leads an UNO-allied group of about 400 contras known as the Nicaraguan Democratic Union. Mr. Pastora's army, the Democratic Revolutionary Alliance, claims a force of several thousand men but independent estimates are much lower.
Mr. Jerez said Mr. Pastora believed he had an agreement with the State Department on sharing future United States aid in exchange for cooperation with other rebel factions.
Mr. Jerez said that when Mr. Pastora learned about the attempt to lure away his commanders, rebels loyal to him protested to the State Department and C.I.A. headquarters but the talks continued.
A UNO spokesman, Carlos Ulvert, disputed the assertions that the commanders had been lured away from Mr. Pastora. He said that several months ago, the commanders - not UNO - made ''the first contact'' in the talks that led to their desertion from Mr. Pastora.