NICARAGUA: US SAYS ARMS BALANCE IN AREA 'UPSET'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100420036-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 6, 2012
• Sequence Number: 36
• Publication Date: March 10, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/06: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100420036-9
BOSTON GLOBE
ARTICLE A-E'F-"` .' 'D 10 MARCH 1982
ell FAGE- --?
Nicaragua:
ing that they're standardly gr
sa s arms -r~ with 'How can we believe you un- its neighbors. The intelligence. offs-
less you show all the detailed ev!- cials said there are more than 6000
:dente?"' Cubans in Nicaragua, including
balance m '-, CIA Director William Casey'ex- about 2000 military and security
ercised his authority to declassify advisers. Another 50 to ?5 Soviet
?.,l some of the intelligence in order to officers, they said, were on hand to
upset make a public case, Inman said. ,advise senior Nicaraguan military
area 11 v i series of reconnaissance-phoo' officers on force planning and tat
tos .were flashed on a screen in aI tics.
Sate Department' auditorium and, Inman said after a marked dif-'
By William Beecher ':1 analyzed by John;.Hughes, a depu-l ference in tactics during the 1960s
Globe Staff tyidirector of DIA who first came toy when Cuba actively supported
WASHINGTON - Top Americans p4blic, attention I in 1962 when he guerrilla movements In Latin a
intelligence officials charged -yes3 bhefed on photos of Soviet missiles America-while the Soviet Union
._ concentrated on established Com-
terday that the military buildug-ir% ir#Cuba
The photos were detailed) munist Party political organiza-I
Nicaragua has already "upset tb~ , ,
military balance" in Central Amer enough to show what Hughes de-4 tions in the region, the two coun-j
bed as troops in the field inI tries now appear to be coordinating
ica and appears aimed at support . scri
ing revolutionary movements or lcaragua training with Soviet) efforts to actively support, supply
threatening direct intervention (n; aintiaircraft and antitank guns. and advise guerrilla movements.
the future. Since the rise of the Sandinistas Asked what was behind the
One of the officials. Adm. Bobby I> Nicaragua, Hughes said, regular buildup In Nicaragua, Inman said
Inman, deputy director of the Cen aamy? garrisons have been expand-! he could recall a time when the
tral Intelligence Agency (CIA), said ed?from 13 to 49, and 14 new air-l United States regarded Castro as
it appears to be following "exactly fflds?,have been built, including merely an "agrarian reformer" and
the same pattern" as occurred in ftur with runways long enough toI withdrew support from Fulgencio
Cuba after the rise of Fidel Castro,. a othmodate MIG21 fighter-bomb- Batista, the Cuban dictator. But
In a briefing at the State Depart' eZes. - when Castro assumed power, In-
ment. complete with aerial recon- Inrhan said the intelligence com- man said, he built Cuba into a mili-
naissance photos taken as recently, munity believes that Nicaraguan tary bastion for the export of revo-
as two weeks ago, officials from the plots now undergoing "advanced" lution in the Western hemisphere.
CIA and Defense Intelligence Agen= fOght, training in Bulgaria and "I believe we're seeing exactly
cy (DIA) attempted to document Ctiba will return home later this -. the same pattern in Nicaragua." he
publicly for the first time evidence year rand that MIG21s probably declared.
of the military buildup in Nicara- , Dll be delivered shortly thereafter. Hughes showed before-and-after
gua as well as of alleged Nicara- ; The scope of facilities being con- photos of several Miskito Indian
guar destruction of Miskito Indian sructed, Inman added, probably villages on the Nicaraguan side of,
villages on the Nicaragua-Hondu- mans that another 50 to 75 Soviet the border with Honduras, which
ras border. tanks vyill be added soon to the 25. he said showed the systematic
Administration officials are ex- T55 tanks now iri Nicaragua. By burning down of all homes,'
petted to follow later this week, way of comparison, he said. Guata- churches and other' structures in
possibly Friday, with their long- n ala" has only five World War I1. January and February. Some j
10,000 Indians. have been forcibly
promised evidence of outside mill- -tdnXs.
tary supplies to the guerrillas iii El! Besides intantry and armored relocated in Nicaragua, he said,
Salvador and of command and c9hi battalion garrisons, which he said and another 12,000 have fled to
trol of their activities from Nicara were built on the Soviet-Cuban Honduras.
I model, Hughes showed photos of-a Asked why this was going on,
gu The public briefin s, which s'6_- -'' training facility near Managua Inman said he could only speculate
plement classified sessions on Cape- where he said troops were gettin that the Nicaraguans might want
itol Hill this week, are aimed at the commando-type training in how t to clear the area preparatory to,
attack airfields and destroy planes! moving a Cuban military unit into
rising tide of skepticism that the`;
Administration may be overstating with small explosive-satchel, a nearby facility under construe-
the case for Cuban and Soviet in- charges. He noted an effective at tion.
terference in Central America. tack of that sort occurred recently' Other sources suggested the
"I've watched over the past cou- in El Salvador, but he stopped Miskitos had opposed some of the!
pie of weeks public servants trying short of tying Nicaraguans to that' Sandinista programs and the latter'
to grapple with the difficulty of raid. . may have feared they would make
conveying information while pro- In answer to questions. Inman common cause with Nicaraguan
tecting critical Intelligence sources said the scope of facilities under exiles in Honduras.
construction suggest plans for- a Jaime Wheelock Roman, a.
and methods," Inman said,. "find- Nicaragua standing militaryforce I member of the nine-man Sandin
of from 25,000 to 30,000 men and a ista National Directorate, which
militia of 100,000 to 150,000. Such rules Nicaragua, claimed In a news
a force; he said, was much larger el, conference last week in Washing-
jthan Nicaragua would need for de- 'ton. that; the.f`rced removal was
necessary-to protect civilians from
being. caught ups in the, fight ngt'=
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/06: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100420036-9