'WE CAN'T RETURN TO WAY WE WERE'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303000006-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: July 27, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303000006-1
^T'!1 17 A
Bianca Jagger, 33, a
native Nicaraguan,
has campaigned
against military aid to
Central American na-
tions accused of violat-
irjg human rights. The
former wife of rock
star Mick Jagger has
also appealed for aid
for Salvadoran politi-
cal refugees. She was
interviewed in Mana-
gua for USA TODAY
by free-lance writer
Morgan Strong -
JS,, :CDAl
27 Jul, 1983
Topic: NICARAGUA
Bianca Jagger
`We can't return
to way we were'
USA TODAY: What do you think President Reagan
wants to accomplish in Nicaragua?
JAGGER: The Reagan administration's rationale is,
"We want military victories in Central America" They
feel as if it will be possible to get rid of the Sandinistas as
if they were a group of 20 or 50 that you could just ex-
tract from the Nicaraguan society, put some systems
back in place, and things will be exactly as they were in
the past. The only thing they don't realize is that in Nica-
ragua there has been an irreversible process that has
nothing to do with the Sandinistas, but with the people of
Nicaragua. Things cannot go back to be the same as they
were in the past for Nicaragua, for El Salvador or Guate-
mala.
USA TODAY: But that's not what the administration
has stated as its goals, is it?
JAGGER: They hoped that the people in Nicaragua
were going to turn against the Sandinistas and go to the
counterrevolutionaries. But the Nicaraguans feel that
once again the United States is about to intervene mill-
tarily in this country. The United States has had 14 mili-
tary interventions in this country. There is nobody that
could really tell me that we can write out completely the
possibility that there won't be an intervention of troops
from the United States in Central America.
USA TODAY: Do you think the United States would
support an invasion of Nicaragua?
JAGGER: In my conversations with many members
of Congress, I got the impression that they have been led
to believe that the covert operations and the money the
CIA is providing to the counterrevolutionaries was only
with the intention of intercepting arms going from Nica-
ragua into El Salvador. But, the El Salvadoran embassy
and the Nicaraguan embassy have privately told mem-
bers of the House and Senate intelligence committees
that they feel the amount of arms going from Nicaragua
to El Salvador is negligible. Therefore, the argument
that It is only with the intention of intercepting arms
doesn't hold up.
USA TODAY: Is there any other reason you don't
accept that argument?
JAGGER An article appeared in the Washington
Post that said the administration intended to fund and
back-up militarily 12,000 to 50,000 counterrevolutionar-
ies - that will be almost double the number of insur-
gents in El Salvador. To me, that makes it very difficult
for Congress to believe that there is no desire, whatso-
ever, on the part of the Reagan administration of over-
throwing the Nicaraguan government.
USA TODAY: How did you become involved in
these issues?
JAGGER: In 1981, I accidentally witnessed a group of
Salvadorans, military and paramilitary, come within
five kilometers of the Honduran border into the refugee
camps to abduct refugees. That led me to try to under-
stand what kind of conniving there was between the Sal-
vadoran and Honduran governments.
USA TODAY: What did you do to learn more about
the issues?
JAGGER: I decided to go to the Atlantic Coast because
I wanted to look into the issues more in depth. I also
wanted to cross the border area to see about the counter-
revolutionaries, to see whether there was enough sup-
port from the people toward the Sandinista government,
and to see if the government of Honduras was really par-
ticipating or seriously backing the counterrevolutionar-
ies.
USA TODAY: How do you feel about Honduras' role
in this conflict?
JAGGER: It was sad that Honduras, who had just had
free elections and had the possibility of becoming a dem-
ocratic government in Central America, was used by the
United States and has become a military base for the
purpose of destabilizing the Nicaraguan government
USA TODAY: What have you done about what
you've learned?
JAGGER: I testified before Congress about the danger
of regionalization of the conflict in Central America. I
made a comparison between the role that Cambodia has
played at this stage and the role that Honduras was
about to play in Central America. I also spoke of the pos-
sibility of splitting the conflict into two war fronts, one in
El Salvador and another in Honduras.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303000006-1
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