MONTHLY REPORT -- PANAMA BUREAU - APRIL 1985

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86-00040R000300590008-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 13, 2010
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: May 6, 1985
• Content Type: MEMO

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FOREIGN BROADCAST INFORMATION SERVICE
PANAMA BUREAU
DRAWER 927
APO MIAMI 34004
6 May 1985
MPA-5018
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director, Foreign Broadcast Information Service
THROUGH : Chief, Operations Group
SUBJECT : Monthly Report - Panama Bureau - April 1985
The bureau continued its ROSET cruising efforts against television
targets outside its traditional coverage area. The effort against Peruvian,
Chilean, and Argentine television transmissions via satellite is now
completed, and the effort against Brazilian television nearly complete. We
have found that for the time being, at least, Brazilian channels on the
21.5W INTELSAT are in parallel on the recently launched 65.OW BRASILSAT.
Responding to a special request from MOD, we conducted a cruising
spotcheck survey of West European television monitorable in Panama. The
two-week check confirmed our observations of January, and no new sources of
West European television were identified.
A gear-box problem with the operational ROSE was quickly fixed by two
UAI contractors - who flew in from Texas on the 24th - and the bureau's
ROSET engineer. A loose pin in the azimuth brake caused the brake to fail,
and this in turn loosened an opposite gear-box. During the time the ROSET
was immobile, we were able to lock it on the 34.5W INTELSAT, the major
source of our press agency coverage. For a few days we lost coverage of
Mexican, Venezuelan, and Colombian television.
A. Monitorial/Editorial
Bureau operations continued at a hectic pace in April. In El
Salvador, elections to the legislative assembly were held on 31 March.
After a lengthy vote count process, complete with the usual charges of fraud
and improper vote count procedures, the ruling Christian Domocratic Party
emerged with a parliamentary majority. Jose Napoleon Duarte's
administration and the rebel FMLN-FDR forces continued their lengthy,
unsuccessful haggling over a date and venue for a third round of the peace
talks initiated last Desomber.
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Colombia's President Belisario Betancur went on a whirlwind
ten-day tour to discuss the Central America situation and the Contadora
Group's efforts, and other economic and political topics of international
interest. Betancur's tour included a trip to the United States that
afforded him the opportunity to receive a firsthand account of President
Reagan's Holy Week peace proposal for Nicaragua. In turn, the Colombian
president discussed the Reagan initiative with Central American leaders
during subsequent stops on his tour, highlighting what otherwise would
have been a routine coverage situation.
The Sandinist leadership in Nicaragua categorically rejected
President Reagan's peace proposal, reaffirmed their refusal to negotiate
with the contras, and insisted on direct negotiations with the United
States. Daniel Ortega apparently coordinated the official Nicaraguan
response with the Cubans during an unannounced and little publicized trip
to Havana and meeting with Fidel Castro on Easter Sunday. The official
Nicaraguan media provided extensive criticism of the Reagan proposal, as
well as of the President's bid for $14 million in aid for the Nicaraguan
counterrevolutionaries. Following the U.S. House of Representatives'
rejection of the aid package for the contras, President Daniel Ortega left
on a tour of East Bloc countries to try to drum up $200 million in
much needed economic assistance.
Normally tense relations between Nicaragua and Honduras were
t 7 acerbated even more in early April when a squad of Nicaraguan soldiers in
seven military vehicles unwittingly entered Honduran territory and were
taken prisoner. Following a flurry of clarifications, communiques, and
coordination, the vehicles and soldiers were returned to Nicaragua.
In Honduras, the political turmoil continued unabated with
President Roberto Suazo Cordova under steady fire from dissident factions
of his own Liberal party, the political opposition, and from labor and
peasant sectors. Amid charges, rebuttals, countercharges, and political
debates, the bureau's production from Honduran sources was more than twice
its average monthly figure.
In Guatemala, rumors of a coup d'etat prompted by widespread
protests over new taxes forced Head of State General Oscar Mejia Victores
to cancel a scheduled trip abroad in mid-month. Following several days of
close monitoring of this critical situation Mejia Victores repealed the
announced tax reform law, restoring peace to the nation.
In Cuba, Fidel Castro kept up his recent steady pace of lengthy
talks with the media, granting an interview to a group of Ecuadorean
journalists following a state visit by Ecuadorean President Leon Ferbres
Cordero. Earlier in April, the bureau processed a 25,000-word PRENSA
LATINA report on "excerpts" of an interview granted by President Castro to
the Mexico City newspaper EXCELSIOR.
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After unsuccessfully trying to operate the NEFAX facsimile
transmitter on our four wire dedicated remote circuit, NEFAX units were
installed at the bureau and at our Honduras remote site using a regular
two-wire commercial telephone line. Following two weeks of trial
transmissions and tests, feed procedures were set up and NEFAX
transmission of selected Honduran newspaper items began on 15 April.
Print quality is generally fair to good. Increased accuracy, improved
selection of excerpts and a wider selection of material are some of the
benefits that offset the higher cost of facsimile transmission. In the
future we plan to use similar NEFAX press feeds from our other Central
American remote sites. If we could use our dedicated remote lines in
place of the commercial telephone lines for NEFAX transmissions the
monetary savings would be significant.
At the suggestion of Key West Bureau, a five-year-old phone patch
plan was dusted off and updated to allow Panama to assist Key West with
processing of lengthy Cuban material not aired over Havana International
Service. A successful test of the phone patch capability was made on 10
April.
B. Communications
In April the bureau's primary AUTODIN communications experienced
outages totaling over 160 hours. On 24 April an outage began and lasted
until 3 May. The ten-day outage, the longest in the history of the
bureau, was eventually restored after the Panama Automated Relay flew a
specialist in from the United States to work on the Army communications
computer. During the outage, the bureau made heavy use of the commercial
Telex for its priority altroute and formalized procedures to use the Fort
Clayton Telecommunications Center as an altroute for the bureau's incoming
and outgoing routine traffic.
Following coordination with FBIS headquarters, the bureau
promulgated six Address-Indicating Group packages for consumers interested
in materials on selected topics in the Latin American coverage area. The
bureau will begin using the six AIG packages on 3 June. Key West and
Paraguay Bureaus and FBIS headquarters are authorized users for five of
the six packages and all FBIS bureaus and FBIS headquarters may use the
sixth AIG package for materials on Cuba.
C. Lateral Services
A reverse phone patch from the bureau to our independent
contractor in Tegucigalpa was used to provide the American Embassy in
Honduras with a recording of a 51-minute radio interview that Honduran
Armed Forces Commander in Chief, General Walter Lopez Reyes, granted a
Radio America newsman on 15 April.
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D. Technical
Panama Bureau's automatic switching system from commercial power
to the emergency generator was repaired by Army Engineers. The bureau was
without an automatic system for two days.
The bureau procured locally:
1. One Sony Portable Radio Recorder (Battery and A/C operated) Model
WA-800, Serial No. 43043. Unit Price $165.00.
2.
One Executive Desk. Unit Price $350.00 (On loan to FBIS Tegucigalpa)
3.
One Credenza, Model la Constancia. Unit Price: $400.00 (On loan to
FBIS Tegucigalpa)
4.
One Executive Desk (In Rosewood), Model Expo Unit Price: $1,187.00.
5.
One Executive Chair (Rust), Model 010. Unit Price:
$527.00.
6.
Two Visitor Chairs (Rust Upholstered) Model 1103.
Unit Price:
$736.00.
7.
Two Visitor Chairs (Rust Upholstered) Model 1104.
Unit Price:
$656.00.
8.
One Round Table (Wood). Unit Price: $795.00.
9.
One Executive Credenza, Model Expo (In Rosewood).
Unit Price:
$998.00.
10. One Hitachi VCR Model #VT-39EM multisysteu video cassette recorder
Serial No. 50321796. Unit Price: $633.30.
The following property was transferred, with Headquarters'
concurrence, to FBIS Swaziland:
Two Extel Printers RO, Model AFR-11, Serial No. 115537 and 36247.
The following accountable property was received:
Two Keyboard, Keytronic, Model DB5150, Serial No. 605179 and 605180
(f/u/w IBM PC) Unit Price: $269.00 each - Total Price: $538.00.
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A. Personnel
entered on auty Apr ii.
-5-
our new radio technician (boardman),
Federal Service Emblems were passed out to six local employees
at a ceremony in the chief's il. Those receiving
them were (both 25 years of
service ? (both 20 years); and
years .
Senior editor (departed Panama on 26 April on
emergency travel in connection with the death of her father in Oregon.
Deputy Chief met on 9 April with Lieutenant Colonel
Ken Lamb, SOUTHC(}1 Treaty At airs, to discuss specific elements of the
Bureau's physical security requirements. On 12 April, he attended a
reception in a downtown hotel for Mr. Michael Nelson, deputy managing
director and general manager of Reuters, and Mr. Peter Holland, manager of
Reuters Overseas. Besides talking with the senior Reuter managers, the
deputy chief had the opportunity to meet and chat with Mr. Michael Blair,
Reuter regional manager.
The bureau chief attended the annual Bureau Chiefs Conference in
Washington, 15-24 April.
Bangkok Bureau Chief) Paraguay Bureau Chief
and Key West Bureau Chief~ arrived in Panama on
29 April efore returning to their bureaus after the conference. The
major purpose of the brof visits was an orientation on ROSET. However,
took the opportunity to work out several regional
coordination problems.
Regional Engineer) )arrived on 30 April for one of his
periodic inspections of the bureau physical plant. He departed on
4 May.
Two UAI engineers were at the bureau 24-26 April to repair a brake
and gear-box problem in the operational ROSET.
Chief, Panama Bureau, FBIS
Attachment:
Production Report
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Panama Bureau Production Report for April 1985
I. TOTALS. FROM ALL SOURCES:
TOTAL PUBLISHABLE WORDAGE FILED DURING MONTH:
TOTAL NON PUBLISHABLE WORDAGE FILED 'DURING MONTH;
,..TOTAL NUMBER OF-PUBLISHABLE ITEMS FILED DURING MONTH:.
533480
18100
1353
BROAD- PRESS PUBLI-
CASTS 'AGENCIES CATIONS
II. INPUT OF REGULAR COVERAGE: 10980.00 43380.00 .208.00
(minutes or issues per week) min. min. `issues
III. (publishable words per month)
ARGENTINA
Buenos Aires LATIN in
Spanish
CLANDESTINES
Clandestine Radio Farabundo Marti in
Spanish to El Salvador 9270
Clandestine Radio Venceremos in
Spanish-to El Salvador 30090
Clandestine Voice of Sandino in
Spanish to Nicaragua 10690
COLOMBIA
Bogota Cadena Radial Super in
Spanish 4750
Bogota Domestic Service in
Spanish 8230
Bogota Emisoras Caracol Network in
Spanish 4150
Bogota Television Service in
Spanish 3670
Bogota EL SIGLO in
Spanish 4330
Bogota EL TIEMPO in
Spanish 5230
COSTA RICA
San Jose Radio Impacto in
Spanish
San Jose Radio Reloj in
Spanish
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BROAD- PRESS PUBLI-
CASTS AGENCIES CATIONS
San Jose LA NACION in
Spanish
2000
San Jose LA PRENSA LIBRE in
Spanish
1050
San Jose LA REPUBLICA in
Spanish
5840
San Jose LIBERTAD REVOLUCIONARIA in,
Spanish
340
San Jose LIBERTAD in
Spanish
2070
San Jose Nicaragua HOY in
Spanish
1600
San Jose RUMBO CENTROAMERICANO in
Spanish
CUBA
Havana International Service in
Quechua
Havana International Service in
Spanish
Havana PRELA in
English
Havana PRELA in
Spanish
ECUADOR
Quito Radio Quito in
Spanish
Quito Voz de los Andes in
EL
San
Spanish
SALVADOR
Salvador
Spanish
Domestic Service in
2060
San
Salvador
Spanish
Radio Cadena Sonora in
3640
San
Salvador
Spanish
Radio Cadena YSKL in
1240
San
Salvador
Spanish
Radio Cadena YSU in
16350
San
San
Salvador
Spanish
Salvador
Spanish
SALPRES in
DIARIO LATINO in
230
San
Salvador
Spanish
EL DIARIO DE HOY in
3160
San
Salvador
Spanish
EL MUNDO in
3310
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BROAD- PRESS
CASTS AGENCIES
PUBLI-
CATIONS
San
Salvador
Spanish
EL TIEMPO in
0
San
Salvador
Spanish.
LA PRENSA GRAFICA in
3900
San
Sal'vador
Spanish
PROCESO in
0
San
Salvador
English
THE NEWS GAZETTE in
'FRANCE
Paris AFP in
English
Paris AFP in
Spanish
GERMANY
Hamburg DPA in
Spanish
GUATEMALA
Guatemala City Cadena de Emisoras
Unidas in
Spanish 6570
Guatemala City Domestic Service in
Spanish 6510
Guatemala City Radio Fabulosa in
Spanish 330
Guatemala City Radio Nuevo Mundo in
Spanish 5310
Guatemala City Radio Television
Guatemala in
Spanish 6360
Guatemala City EL GRAFICO in
Spanish
Guatemala City PRENSA LIBRE in
Spanish
HONDURAS
Tegucigalpa Cadena Audio Video in
Spanish 16550
Tegucigalpa Domestic Service in
Spanish 17610
Tegucigalpa Radio America in
Spanish 9700
Tegucigalpa Televisora Hondurena in
Spanish 1760
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Tegucigalpa Voz de Honduras Network in
Spanish
San Pedro Sula LA PRENSA in
Spanish
San Pedro Sula TIEMPO in
Spanish
Tegucigalpa EL HERALDO in
Spanish
Tegucigalpa LA TRIBUNA in
Spanish
MEXICO
Mexico City XEW Television Network in
Spanish
Mexico City XHDF Television
Network in
Spanish
Mexico City EL DIA in
Spanish
Mexico City EL NACIONAL in
Spanish
Mexico City EL UNIVERSAL in
Spanish
Mexico City EXCELSIOR in
Spanish
Mexico City THE NEWS in
English
Mexico City UNOMASUNO in
Spanish
BROAD- PRESS PUBLI-
CASTS AGENCIES CATIONS
1320
13240
1930
1400
3850
2370
390
NICARAGUA
Managua International Service in
Spanish 8180
Managua Domestic Service in
Spanish 9430
Managua. Radio Noticias in
Spanish 1800
Managua Radio Sandino Network in
Spanish 20990
Managua Radio Sandino in
Spanish 12520
Managua Sistema Sandinista Television
Network in
Spanish 3710
Managua ANN in
Spanish
Managua ANN in
English
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Managua PRELA in
Spanish
Managua BARRICADA in
Spanish
Managua EL NUEVO DIARIO in
Spanish
Managua LA PRENSA in
Spanish
PANAMA
Panama City Circuito RPC
Television in
Spanish
Panama City Domestic Service in
Spanish
Panama City Televisora Nacional in
Spanish
Panama City ACAN in
Spanish
Panama City CRITICA in
Spanish
Panama City DIALOGO SOCIAL in
Spanish
Panama City EL SIGLO in
Spanish
Panama City EXTRA in
Spanish
Panama City LA ESTRELLA DE PANAMA in
Spanish
Panama City LA GACETA FINANCIERA in
Spanish
Panama City LA PRENSA in
Spanish
Panama City LA REPUBLICA DOMINICAL in
Spanish
Panama City LA REPUBLICA in
Spanish
Panama City MATUTINO in
Spanish
Panama City QUIUBO GRAFICO in
Spanish
Panama City STAR AND HERALD in
English
Panama City THE SUNDAY REPUBLIC in
English
SPAIN
Madrid EFE in
Spanish
BROAD- PRESS PUBLI-
CASTS AGENCIES CATIONS
1240
4210
2140
3400
1810
6790
1120
0
2070
410
2030
0
2220
40
650
1980
180
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Madrid PRELA in
Spanish
USSR
Moscow TASS in
Spanish
'VENEZUELA
Caracas Television Service in
Spanish
Caracas EL NACIONAL in
Spanish
Caracas EL UNIVERSAL in
Spanish
BROAD- PRESS PUBLI-
CASTS AGENCIES CATIONS
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PANAMA BUREAU PRODUCTION REPORT FOR APRIL 1985 -- ANNEX
TOTALS FROM ROSET SOURCES:
COLOMBIA
Bogota Television Service in
Spanish
CUBA
Havana PRELA in
Spanish
EL SALVADOR
San Salvador SALPRESS in
Spanish
MEXICO
Mexico City XEW Television Network in
Spanish
Mexico City XHDF Television Network in
Spanish
3,670
26,750
1,000
3,400
4,720
NICARAGUA
Managua ANN in
English 680
Managua ANN in
Spanish 9,940
Managua PRELA in
Spanish 3,790
SPAIN
Madrid EFE in
Spanish
Madrid PRELA in
Spanish
USSR
Moscow TASS in
Spanish
VENEZUELA
Caracas Television Service in
Spanish
2,330
2,280
TOTAL FOR APRIL 1985 59,220
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