WHO ARE THE CONTRAS?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000201100002-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: September 30, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09: CIA-RDP90-60552R000201100002-7
ARTICLE APJEARED NEW RE P UB L I C
ON PAGE. -- 30 September 1985
CORRESPONDENCE
WHO ARE THE CONTRAS?
To the editors:
Edgar Chamorro would have us believe
that Nicaragua's "idealistic young peo-
ple ... are being used as an instrument
of U.S. foreign policy by the CIA ...
and Somocista politicians who simply
want to go back to Nicaragua to get
back the money and power they lost in
1979" ("Confessions of a Contra," Au-
gust 5). Arturo Cruz says, "Congress is
sadly wrong if it imagines that it can
obtain peace by cutting off aid to the
Nicaraguan insurgents. The insurgency
is no longer a product of United States
intervention; it is the revolt of Nicara-
guans against oppression by other Nic-
araguans.' I believe that Mr. Chamorro
stands virtually alone with the Sandi-
nistas in his judgment.
There was a time when the contras
were a small band largely dependent on
the CIA and ex-National Guardsmen.
At that time it was not supported by
prominent Democratic leaders such as
Arturo Cruz, or ex-Sandinista patriots
such as Eden Pastora (whose only com-
plaint about the FDN contras now is that
they are willing to negotiate with the
Sandinistas). Nor were they connected
with leftist political parties, such as the
Independent Liberal Party.
Today the resistance movement con-
sists of every democratic political party,
free labor union, and business coalition
in Nicaragua. The church has offered to
mediate a true national dialogue lead-
ing to free elections in Nicaragua. And
the people overwhelmingly support the
church and oppose the government.
It is hard to understand why THE
NEW REPUBLIC, which has been so sup-
portive of true national reconciliation in
Nicaragua, would lend its pages to a
traitor whose idea of reconciliation is
"the abolition of the contra army."
Clearly, there could be no quicker path
to the permanent Sandinista dictator-
ship, which the Nicaraguan people re-
ject. No friend of democracy would ad-
vocate such a solution, certainly not
Cardinal Obando y Bravo, the most re-
vered man in Nicaragua today.
DAN BURTON
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C.
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201100002-7