A SECRET WAR FOR NICARAGUA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000504880110-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 27, 2010
• Sequence Number: 110
• Publication Date: November 8, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504880110-6
NEWS WEEK
8 November 1982
INTERNATIONAL
A Secret War
For Nicaragua
A covert operation to restrict the flow of Cuban arms
to El Salvador expands into a larger plan to undermine
the Sandinista government in Managua, miring the
Reagan administration deeper in Central America.
The smoky bar in Tegucigalpa was a
cousin to Rick's Cafe in "Casa-
blanca," a nightly gathering place
for the dangerous and the desperate in Hon.
duras. Squeezed into a corner one evening
last week were four Argentine military ad-
visers, speaking machine-gun Spanish and
occasionally stealing furtive glances around
the room. A half-dozen Americans stood in
a loose line at the bar, drinking beer and
talking too loudly about guns. In the center
of the room, grouped around a table that
listed far right, were seven men drinking
rum. One of them wore a gold earring. He
explained that the seven men were Nicara-
guan exiles who belonged to various fac-
tions of 10 contra, a band of counterrev-
olutionaries trying to topple the leftist
Sandinista regime. They were ready to
move toward Managua, one of the men said.
"We just need to hear from The Boss that
it's time to go." Who was The Boss? The
man with the earring was impatient with
stupid questions. "He's the man you call
'Mr. Ambassador'."
The envoy in question was John D. Ne-
groponte, the American ambassador in
Honduras. Official sources told NEWS-
WEEK last week that Negroponte is oversee-
ing an ambitious covert campaign to arm,
train and direct Nicaraguan exiles to inter-
cept the flow of arms to leftist guerrillas in
El Salvador. But the operation has another
objective: to harass and undermine the Cu-
ban-backed government of Nicaragua. The
project traces back to Jimmy Carter's ef-
forts to support Nicaraguan moderates.
Ronald Reagan added the task of cutting
the Cuban-Nicaraguan arms pipeline to El
Salvador. The plot, launched mostly with
popguns and machismo, now threatens in-
stead to destabilize Honduras, to fortify the
Marxists in Nicaragua and to waste U.S.
prestige along the tangled banks of the Coco
River. Worse, U.S. officials concede there is
CQlJI;L\YLIZ)
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504880110-6