U.S. TIES TO ANTI-SANDINISTS ARE REPORTED TO BE EXTENSIVE - 1983/04/03

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Argentina Declassification Project - The "Dirty War" (1976-83)
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 05536943
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: April 3, 2019
• Document Release Date: April 12, 2019
• Publication Date: April 3, 1983

ILE TI CLE APPEARED
Pi1CLE, A -
Approved for Release: 2018/09/17 C05536943
3.5(c)
NFW YORK TIMES
3 .APRIL 1983
U.S. Ties to Anti7San.dinists,
Are Reported to Be Extensive
EO
13526
3.5(c)
_ The following article is based on reporting by Philip Taubman and Rayrnonc(
_
Bonner and was written by Mr. Bonner.
WASHINGTON, April 2 A Hondo- :
ran who was directly Involved in plan- !
ning American covert activities reports
that the United States has been giving 1
Intelligence assistance and military ad- i
vice in Honduras to forces fighting the
Sandini.st Government inNicaragua.
According to this. Honduran, the
United States was extensively involved
In training and arming the paramilitary
forces before they recently entered
Nicaragua from Honduras.
The information supplied by the Hon-
duran in a series of interviews over the
last few days was confirmed in large
measure by two senators on the Senate
Intelligence Committee and a highly
placed Reagan Administration official.,
In its detail, the information supplied
by the Honduran suggests a mosaic of
American covert activities that Admin-
istration officials acknowledge is ap-
parently having the effect of supporting
the current insurgency in Nicaragua.
The political and military leaders of the
; anti-Sandini.st form have openly
vowed to overthrow the Government.
Ad-ministration officials say, how-
ever, that the United States' objective
in Nicaragua is to harass, not over-
throw, the Government. A law passed
by Congress last year prohibits United
States support of efforts to topple the
Sandinist Government.
Ac,-.1in;staton officials say the
United States' involvement dew not
:mark a shift in policy, and they main-
tamn that the support for the anti-San-
; ciinis-t_forces, although increasing,z:
mains consistent with the original in-
tention of blocking arms shipments
from Nicaragua to.guerrillas in El Sal-
vador.
The conflicting descriptions of the
purpose of the American involvement
may reflect the difficulty inherent in
tying to manage foreign paramilitary
tonnes in a highly volatile region.
Several senators on the Senate Intelli-
gence Committee, reporting that their
colleagues had grown increasingly un-
easy in recent weeks about the Amen-:
can role in Honduras and Nicaragua,
said the Central Intelligence Agency
had overestimated itsabiliry to control
the a.nti-Sandinist forces. As a result,
they said, it appeared to have been been
drawn into underwriting more ambi-
tious operations than it intended.
^
The Honduran informant has close
ties to the Honduran military as well as
Othierican diplomatic and military offi-
cials in Tegucigalpa and was directly !
Involved in joint military plaming until
early this year. He said that to his
knowledge no Americans were operat-
ing inside Nicaragua with the insur-
gents. Be described these covert
American activities:
(1Providing frequent intelligence re-
ports to the insurgent forces about the
movement of Nicaraguan Government
soldiers as well as the location of Nica-
raguan tanks and artillery.
cTraining and arming the paramili-
tary forces, incleding the shipment of
planeloads of arms and ammunitions in
August 1982 to Moskito Indian units in
eastern Honduras. More than 50 United
States military advisers, most of wham
were of Hispanic background and .did
not dress in uniforms, trained paramili-
tary units in Honduras last year. The
C.I.A.. and the Pentagon refused to com-
ment on these matters.
Providing underwater equipment
and explosives to Argentine-trained
sabatoge teams that were infiltrated
into Nicaragua earlier this year and
blew up port installations in Puerto
Cabezas in Nicaragua. The C.I.A. and
the Defense Department declined to
comment.
The Honduran source said the intelli-
� gence reports are based in part on infor-
� mation collected by planes manned .bY
� United States Air Force personnel that
- make regular retcommaissance flights
� along the Nicaraguan-Honduran border
as part of an intelligence-gathering
operation with the code name Royal
; Duke.
The reports are given to the Hondu-
� ran military with the understanding
that they will be shared with the com-
manders of the paramilitary forces, he
. said. The C.I.A. and the Defense De- .
pa.rtment refused to comment an the
Air Force operation or other intelli-
gence-gathering efforts.
'The Pretension Is Over'
The activities described by the Hon-
duran source would indicate a far
deeper level of American involvement
In the Nicaraguan conflict than the Rea-
' gan Administration has publicly ac-
knowledged. The Administration, while ;
refusing to deny a covert American role
, in the fighting, has portrayed the con-
flict in Nicaragua as a factional dispute
' between different elements of the coali-
tion that seized power from Gen. Anas-
tasio Somoza Debayle in 1979.
/
The Honduran informant said the I
"real objective" of the operation in
Nicaragua "is to overthrow' the San-
:dinists. He added that "the pretension
. is over" that the United States was In.:
'wrested only in harassing the Sandinist
:Government.
Although he is troubled by the Marx-
:1st orientation of the Sandinista, he said, ,
;he is more concerned that the current ;
:hostilities in Nicaragua may expand '
'Into a war between Honduras and Nice-
:ragua�
� The Honduran said the United States
Ambassador to Honduras, John D. Ne-
froponte, and the thief of the Honduran
znilitary, Gen. Gustavo Adolfo Alvarez
Martinez, were "the brains behind the
operation."
"They were, and they still are," the!
Informant said, referring to the role the
two men played during the planning of
the operation and its execution. He said
the two met daily to discuss the
progress of the war, including strategy.
Mr. Negroponte has refused to com-
ment on such reports.
Three Command Centers
The Honduran said the operation was
'being directed from three command
centers. He said the rebels' command
center was in the southern part of Hon- !
duras, and two or three liaison officers
from the Honduran military were as- I
signed � there. The Honduran military 1
high command directs the operation i
from its regular headquarters in Te-
gucigalpa and the United States partici-
pation is directed out of the American
Embassy, he said.
The three-tier system is apparently
part of an effort by the American mis-
sion in Honduras to remain insulated
from direct contact with the anti-San-
� dinist forces now that the irregular
troops are operating in Nicaragua.
C.I.A. officials have cited the system to
Congress as an example of how the
agency has organized its operations to
remain in compliance with the law, ac-
cording to two members of the Senate
Intelligence Committee.
According to the Honduran inform-
ant, the United States is most active in
gathering intelligence information
about activities inside Nicaragua. He
said the United States was supplying
the Hondurans with surveillance photo-
graphs, tapes of intercepted communi-
cations between Nicaraguan leaders,
and other raw intelligence information. ,
pproved for Release: 2018/09/17 C05536943
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