CASTRO SAID TO INCREASE ARMS FLOW

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000201040051-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 1, 2010
• Sequence Number: 51
• Publication Date: March 21, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/01: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201040051-0
STAT
ZAR
S.
THE BALTIMORE SUN
21 March 1982
. What the administration did not reveal yester-
day was detailed intelligence on which some of its
conclusions were based, such as agent reports and
electronic interceptions. To do so, said Dean Fisch'.
er, the State Department spokesman, "might risk
the:Hves of some brave people who believe it is im-
portant that the government of the United States
know what is going on."
"A government that does nbt keep secrets does
not,receiVe. them," he- said:: ",The purpose here is
. ' thps'not to produce new ~?ations, but to describe
the general pattern"M ou*.slee:support for El Salva-
dor's guerillas, including arms' supply, training and
command and control."
.In:fact, l;oweyer the`three.documentsreleased)
aims to disrupt
Salvadoran, voting
.S. ass eras Cuba '
By Henry frewhitt
Washington Bureau of The Sun
Washington-In mid-December, the State De-
partment reported yesterday, Cuban President
Fidel Castro ordered a heavy increase in arms ship-
ments to insurgents in El Salvador with the imme
date objective of disrupting the elections scheduled
for next Sunday.
The weapons have been used, it said, through
commands issued by insurgency headquarters near
Managua, Nicaragua.
Before and since Mr. Castro's order, according
to the department's account, the Nicaraguan ves- J
sels Monimbo, Aracely and Nicarao have made d
many arms runs from Cuba to Nicaragua. From
there, it said, the arms were distributed to El Sal-
vador directly by air or overland through Honduras
and Guatemala, and indirectly through Costa Rica.
The Papalonal air field near Managua was cited
as the base for "direct airlift" of weapons to guer-
rillas. Serial numbers on arms caches seized in
Guatemala showed that the weapons were among
those left behind by American troops in Vietnam..
With such details, the administration sharpened
its charges that Cuba and Nicaragua, with Soviet
support, sustain the insurgency in El Salvador and
growing violence elsewhere in Central America. It
drew on the recorded remarks of Cuban, Nicara-
guan and insurgent leaders, despite their formal
denials, to support its case.
In an additional move to reinforce its position,
the administration summarized the reactions to
private briefings of prominent Americans repre-
senting a wide political spectrum. Their remarks
argue that still-secret information demonstrates
Nicaragua's role as a base for the Salvadoran in-'
?urgency.
yesterday-dealing with the Cuban-
Nicaraguan roles, the insurgent orga-
nization in El Salvador and the
"statements by distinguished Ameri-
cans"-did contain new details. They
were one more in a series of recent
actions to strengthen the administa-
tion position in support of the Salva-
doran junta under President Jose Na-
poleon Duarte.
Two weeks ago, Adm. Bobby
Inman, the deputy director of central
intelligence, made public details -in-
cluding photographs-of Nicaragua's
own military buildup. Officials at that
time promised a second public brief-
ing to show links between the Salva-
doran insurgency and its outside sup-
porters.
Secret details were provided to
Congress and groups of private citi-
zens, mostly former officials of both
Republican and Democratic adminis-
trations. Meanwhile, a brisk debate
continued within the administration
about what details to make public.
Yesterday's release of the three
papers, . essentially a compromise,
was the result.
The documents made three basic
points. The first, regarding arms sup- j
plies, was reinforced by evidence as
diverse as reports of ship and aircraft
movements and of arms supplies
,supply insurgents in Salvador, Hon-
temala.
'duras, Costa Rica and Gua
Re -ding the training of guerril-
g
A separate political wing of the
FbILN, the Democratic Revolution-
ary Front (FDR) "operates outside El
Salvador" according to the report. In
fact, officials say privately, many of
its members are in Mexico, though
that was omitted from the report to
avoid offending Mexican leaders.
Most of the power in the FMLN
rests with leftist groups committed to i
violent revolution, according to U.S.
officials. Some smaller moderate
groups, including Social Democrats .111
under Guillermo Manuel Ungo, have
helped to make the insurgency re.I
spectable to some Americans.
The documents, in support of the
contention that the increased arms:
shipments were aimed at the March
28 elections, cited a raid by Costa
Rican police only six days ago on a:
"safe house" that produced, along; .
with nine arrests, the seizure of weap
ens including machine guns, explo-
sives and grenades. ? ? ,
las, the administration reported that
seized documents show Salvadoran
insurgents are instructed in both
Cuba and Nicaragua. For command
and control, the documents say, the
five insurgent groups in El Salvador
are directed by a Unified Revolution-
Directorate (DRU) based near
ary
Managua. The insurgents are united,
temporarily at least, under the Fara-
`bundo Marti National Liberation
Frnnt (FMLN).
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/01: CIA-RDP90-00552 R000201040051-0
seized throughout Central America. ii
In some cases, the report said, it was ?!
impossible to learn where the in-
creasingly complex weapons were to
be used, since Cuba and Nicaragua