NICARAGUA SEEKS WARPLANES FROM PRAGUE, OFFICIAL SAYS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100010028-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 18, 2010
• Sequence Number: 28
• Publication Date: October 27, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/18: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100010028-1
;WASHINGTON POST
27 October 1984
Nicaragua Seeps Warplanes
From Prague, official Says
By Robert J. McCartney
Washington Font Foreign Service
MANAGUA, Nicaragua, Oct.
26-Nicaragua is seeking to obtain
military aircraft from Czechoslova-
kia but has no firm plans yet to
bring in either these or more ad-
vanced warplanes, Nicaraguan of-
ficials said today. -
"It is not planned at this time that
MiG airplanes will come, and it is not
planned at this time that any other
type of planes will come," Interior
Minister Tomas Borge said at a news
conference this afternoon.
The government has said previous-
j ly that it would like to obtain Soviet-
made MiG 21 jet fighter-bombers,
but it has failed to get them after a
year of trying. U.S. officials have sug-
gested strongly that the United
States would attack any MiGs that
were delivered to Nicaragua, and dip-
lomatic sources here have said that
the Soviet Union did not want to send
any MiGs because it did not want to
anger Washington.
Chief military spokeswoman Lt.
Rosa Pasos said Nicaragua was "ar-
ranging" to obtain L39 aircraft from
Czechoslovakia, but she said that no
date has been fixed for their arrival.
L39s, which are smaller and less so-
phisticated than MiG 21s, often are
used as military trainers but can be
converted for use in combat. It was
unclear whether the Czechoslovak
government was resisting supplying
the L39s to Nicaragua, or whether
negotiations still were under way
over terms for delivering them.
The government statements on
the aircraft were triggered by news
reports from the United States that
radar gear for use with advanced
aircraft had arrived recently at Nic-
aragua's Caribbean port of El Bluff. '
U .S. officials here said militarye
equipment was being unloaded at El
Bluff, but they said they were not _
sure what kind of equipment it is.
Special security procedures have
been in effect at El Bluff since Sun-
day, and travelers need special per
mission to enter or leave the port,,
special correspondent John Lanti
gua reported from the port of Puer-'
to Cabezas to the north.
Residents in the area said that one _i
or two ships were unloading a special
cargo at El Bluff and that the usual,
stevedores were not permitted to,-.'
handle the cargo, Lantigua reported.
One of the Interior Ministry's highest,
ranking security officers was in the
area, he reported.
Nicaraguan military officials said,
that the cargo being unloaded at El--.
Bluff was not planes, but they left
open the possibility that it might beY,
weapons of some type.
In another development, Interior,,
Minister Borge said the CIA had
paid thousands of dollars toa Nk
caraguan Finance Ministry official.'
for information without knowing_
that the official was working for Ni
caraguan intelligence.
The CIA first contacted the dou-
ble agent, Horacio Arguello, in late
1982 by means of diplomats from a
European country that Borge de
cliner-_t ient' he sai : h_e~17~
paid $2,000 a month into Arguello'9'41
Citibank account in Miami for an'
unspecified period, and o fered to
raise it to $3,000 a month if Art
guello would leave Nicaragua and",
denounce the coming elections here
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/18: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100010028-1