Journalist Penetrated the CIA for Nicaragua, Sandinista Aide Alleges

The government newspaper quoted Interior Minister Tomas Borge on Thursday as saying that a Nicaraguan journalist penetrated the CIA as a Sandinista agent in the late 1970s.

The reporter was identified as Maria Lourdes Pallais Checa, a graduate of Columbia University in New York. She is a niece of the late Anastasio Somoza, the Nicaraguan dictator overthrown in July, 1979, by a popular uprising with the Sandinistas in the vanguard.

Barricada, the Sandinista newspaper, quoted Borge as saying Pallais was “a counterintelligence agent who worked in enemy ranks.” He made the remarks Sunday during a tour of Nicaragua’s remote Caribbean coast, the newspaper said.

Borge was quoted as saying: “She carried out missions in the heart of the CIA.”

Ron Kuby, a lawyer for Pallais, said in New York: “My client has instructed me to confirm the accuracy of Mr. Borge’s statement.”

Kuby said he had no information about whether Pallais worked for the CIA or Sandinistas while she was employed by American and European news organizations during five years in the United States.

Pallais, who now lives in Managua, worked for the Associated Press in New York from August, 1978, until November, 1979, first on the editing desk of the Latin American service and then in the New York City bureau, the AP said.