NICARAGUA/FIGHTING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000201220010-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 10, 2008
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: May 29, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2008/12/10: CIA-RDP88-01070R000201220010-2
29 May 1984
NICARAGUA/ MACNEIL: The Nicaraguan government said today that its
FIGHTING troops have mounted a major attack on the northern part of
the country against rebels operating from bases in
Honduras. A military source said about 200 of the
insurgents have been killed. At the same time, the
governments of Nicaragua and Costa Rica have formed a
commission to investigate attacks back and forth across
their common frontier on the southern flanks of Nicaragua.
Nicaraguan rebels, called contras, operate from bases in
Costa Rica in a campaign to overthrow the Marxist
Sandinista government of Nicaragua, and Costa Rica has
accused the Nicaraguans of sending their troops into Costa
Rica to attack the rebel bases. Meanwhile, the Nicaraguan
government is trying to create a calm atmosphere for a
general election next November, and the Costa Rican
government is coming under domestic political pressure to
suppress the Nicaraguan rebels on Costa Rican soil. Both
governments say the raids should stop, but they go on.
Recently, there was heavy fighting on the Caribbean coast
of Nicaragua when the rebels captured and for two days
held a fishing village called San Juan del Norte near a
larger town called Bluefields. After that engagement,
Bruce Garvey, of the CBC, visited both sides of the
frontier and talked about the contras and the Sandinistas.
Here's his report.
GARVEY: Through the tall brush that can cut like a razor,
with the sun beating down at more than 100 degrees, a
march down a booby-trapped jungle trail, escorted by tense
Costa Rican civil guardsmen, a march that will sneak us
into Nicaragua, free Nicaragua*as the rebels here like to
call it, down a steep embankment, and then we meet the
self-styled freedom fighters of our day, the democratic
revolutional alliance. They're suspicious and
trigger-happy, but a sumbolic handshake shows Costa Rica
supporting this guerrilla war against the Marxist
Sandinista government. The documents issued by Arday's
political headquarters in in Costa Rica carefully checked
and rechecked. Across a narrow creek and into a secret
guerrillas base camp where nervous young peasants can pick
up a CIA paycheck that's double the going rate for stoop
labor in a jungle plantation. It's here they train with
U.S.-supplied uniforms automatic rifles and machine guns
before they're smuggled north to skirmish with the
Sandinista army and militia. It's from bases like this
one they call Delta that the guerrilla war against the
Sandinistas is being fought. This is Nicaraguan
territory, but the contras control it. And, as the action
heats up along the border with Costa Rica, the Sandinistas
are heading back with frequent rocket attacks from the
air. On the ground and on the river, however, this is
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very much contra-controlled territory. This is the second
front against Nicaragua, much publicized in recent weeks
following this action filmed by a contra combat cameraman.
The guerrillas stormed and occupied an isolated border
village called Santa del Norte, a bloody battle that was
costly to both sides. But it gave credibility to the
contras even though the Sandinistas recaptured it within
days. There were Sandinista prisoners and a military
success for charismatic contra leader Eden Pastora. He's
a mercenary traitor to the Sandinistas, but in Central
America he's a legend. The U.S. media has portrayed
Pastora as a democratic Che Guevara, a liberator. Now
Pastora says publicly he plans to seize Blue Fields, the
administrate of Nicaragua's huge Atlantic region. It's
just a little tin-shack town on the host swampy plain the
British used to call the Mosquito Coast when they ran it.
And Blue Fields has become an important strategic garrison
town. It's Blue Fields that's the guerrillas' target. If
they can take it, they'd control a big piece of
Nicaragua's Atlantic seaboard and use this town to set up
a provisional government to fight the Sandinistas in the
rest of the country, at least that's the plan. And it
makes sense, for if the revolution is lukewarm and
vulnerable anywhere in Nicaragua, it's here in Blue
Fields, with its mix-master blend of Spanish, Indians and
former West Indian slaves, who still speak a
Caribbean-accented English. That's why the army's here.
The region's traditional alienation is becoming more acute
as the economic squeeze tightens. The government has
failed to increase production. And more and more
resources are being diverted to the military buildup.
It's tough on everyone. Even a resourceful guy such as
*Joquin Malaspan, a cab driver who knows how to hustle a
deal. The fact that Joaquin owns his own cab puts him
solidly in Blue Fields' middle class. There aren't too
many other kids in town who get chauffeured to school
every morning. And nobody's denying that school is one
thing the Sandinistas have improved. (Footage of
unidentified classroom of students reciting in unison, in
Spanish)
GARVEY: In Blue Fields, if they're waiting for the
contras to come, then nobody seems too worried about it.
On sultry May nights, they dance around a makeshift May
pole in a bizarre relic of some half-remembered folklore
the British brought with them. (Footage of bingo game)
And in the bingo.hall they're still playing the numbers,
using beans for counters. It's. the quickest way to make a
buck in Blue Fields, and no revolutionary government is
about to put them out of business. The war has come to
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Blue Fields out across the bay. To navigate these deadly
waters today you need a pilot with nerves of steel who can
pick his way through the invisible mine field. This is
where the ammunition ships used to tie up with crates from
Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria, but that was before the
mines. We're sitting here in the middle of a mine field.
This is the harbor or El Bluff, a strategic port on
Nicaragua's Atlantic coast, one of several laid with mines
by the CIA. The half-sunk fishing boat behind us was
struck by one. And we've inched our way out here very
slowly, in order not to suffer the same fate. The
Nicaraguans just don't have the means to sweep the harbor
clean, and right now it's virtually closed to ocean-going
vessels. Perhaps more than anything, this is the catalyst
for criticism of the the U.S. The shock wave when this
old shrimp boat triggered a mind sent ripples around the
world. Canada, Britain, France, the World Court all
recoiled in horror. Today it sits there like some
embarrassing sore on the body of U.S. foreign policy. At
this summer mill at *Cucla Hill, north of Blue Fields,
conveyor belts have ground to halt, and the cane piling
up, production at a standstill. This kind of thing isn't
new. In fact, Nicaragua's gross national product has been
declining since the revolution. But suddenly, the mining
and U.S. economic sanctions have given the Sandinistas a
ready scapegoat. At'Cucla Hill, there's a man they call
the king of innovators. He's learned to make replacement
parts out of almost anything. Ask him about it, and he'll
tell you why. UNIDENTIFIED NICARAGUAN MALE (Speaking
Spanish, voice of translator): Because we haven't been
able to get spare parts that we used to get from abroad
before. Because right now we're blockaded.
GARVEY: Perhaps the foreman of this work gang said it
best'. 'We're simple peasants,' he said. 'Why don't the
Americans just leave us alone?' You find the other side
of the argument here on this airstrip being carved out of
the bush at Blue Fields. Sure, the town needs something
more than the present dirt runway. But those big Japanese
graders don't come cheaply. And there's no need to
building this 10,000 meter runway for 727s loaded with
tourists. Maybe, like the contras say, the Sandinistas do
have MiG 25s waiting for delivery from Cuba. Who knows?
Right now they just laugh and point to a few ancient
hand-me-downs, like this Israeli-built veteran that
constitute Nicaragua's tiny air force, beefed up with some
rocket power that's effective in jungle warfare. They
don't laugh when they load up their old Russian
helicopters with supplies that include coffins, daily
supply runs to the troops in the bush fighting contras
while they wait for the gringo invasion.
06nwd
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MACNEIL: The Reagan administration has repeatedly denied
that it plans any U.S. invasion of Nicaragua. As for
future contra activity, that may well depend on the
willingness of Congress to vote further clandestine aid.
The house recently voted no, and another vote in the
Senate is expected soon.
Approved For Release 2008/12/10: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000201220010-2