KISSINGER SHOULD TALK TO BOLANOS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100630004-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: July 22, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/23: CIA-RDP
WASHINGTON ':IMiS
22 July 19E3
CORD MEYER
STAT
Kissinger should
to Bolanos
en
Ki
ry
ssinger and the In effect, Nicaragua under San-
presidentially appointed dinista rule has become the
bipartisan commission of training base, the communication
H
which he is chairman center and the supply depot for the
should spend a few hours early in Salvadoran guerrillas. Cuban
their deliberations listening to the experts in Managua run the encry-
most recent defector from the pted radio network that reaches
Nicaraguan government, Miguel into every Salvadoran province,
Bolanos Hunter. and the logistical mix of trucks,
As the young, courageous leader boats and planes that supplies the
of a 60-man guerrilla unit in the rev- guerrillas is directed by Cubans.
olution against Somoza, Bolanos
Behind the more than stand
,000
won a high position in the Sandin-
ista security apparatus. The one Cuban advisers in Nicaragua stand
published interview with him since hundreds of Soviet and Fast Ger-
published
man experts, and the whole ex
defection o
en-
l
p
n
y scratched the
the original
surface of his knowledge. Most sive enterprise is made possible by popular movement to
instructive is his insiders adv; PP .,,, the more than $4 billion annual overthrow Somoza, Bolanos clearly
LuIU dry Training programs to
tral America. r Bolanos specifically warns that strengthen the commitment to
Having hijacked a small plane to many of the 2,000 Cuban teachers in democratic institutions. He com-
escape to Costa Rica two months Nicaragua are also trained as tank bines this with a plea for detailed,
ago, Bolanos was quickly flown to crews and are capable of operating informative and powerful radio
the U.S. where he has impressed the the T-SSSoviet tanks which the San- broadcasts to his countrymen.
State Department with the accu- dinistas are still learning to drive. While there is wide agreement
racy of his information. Warning The feared escalation of a dis- on the need for a long-term U.S. pro-
that the American media and public guised Cuban troop presence has gram of economic assistance to
gravely underestimate the Cuban- already begun. Central America, the newpresiden-
Soviet role in Central America, In his tial commission cannot avoid a
Bolanos describes how much more counterintelligence role in
the Department of State Security, clear choice between those who
difficult it was for Castro to help the Bolanos not only participated in believe with Bolanos that the U.S.
Sandinistas than it is for him now to should commit sufficient military
support the Salvadoran guerrillas. attempts to compromise American
diplomats but also saw at first hand resources to contain the Cuban-
Back in 1978, the Cubans had no how the Sandinistas used every Soviet expansion and those who
-secure base on the mainland, and trick in the book to demoralize all believe military aid can be safely
Bolanos remembers how he and the competing social organizations reduced in favor of dialogue and
other Sandinista cadres had to be from the democratic political par- negotiation.
transported by circuitous routes to ties to the free trade unions and the If Henry Kissinger can use this
Cuba for training. Lines of commu- Catholic Church. Feeling himself opportunity to forge a broad
nication and transport were con- the privileged beneficiary of an bipartisan consensus behind the
tinuously subject to hostile inter- increasingly repressive system, he combination of economic and mili-
diction. and it was only by bribery managed to escape with his wife tary measures that are now
that some supply routes were kept and son. His advice to Americans is urgently necessary, he will con-
open. blunt. found his detractors and give
Bolanos describes the As a first priority, he urges con- democracy a new lease on life in
transformation that has already tinued American support to all Central America.
taken place in the geopolitics of three elements of the armed anti-
Central America as the result of the Sandinista resistance, including
establishment on the mainland of a the Miskito Indians in the north, the
Cuban ally. He explains in vivid "contras" in the west and Eden Pas-
detail how the entire governing tora's guerrillas in the south. He
apparatus of his country has co- would like to see the U.S. joined in
operated with the Cubans in their this effort by all the moderate
effort to score a second guerrilla democratic governments in the
triumph in El Salvador. region, and believes the internal
popular opposition to Sandinista
misrule is deep and growing.
Although Bolanos does not favor
the use of U.S. troops in El Salvador,
he believes the ,U.S. has-no choice
but to continue supporting the Sal.
vadoran government with eco-
nomic and military aid against the
Cuban-directed guerrilla offensive.
He cannot understand the logic
behind the congressional limitation
of 55 U.S. military advisers when
the Cubans seem to have the U.S.
outnumbered by 50-to-i in this cate.
gory of military assistance.
As abeliever in the objectives of
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100630004-9