U.S. MAY RESUME AID TO LATIN POLICE FORCES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201080038-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 38
• Publication Date: August 6, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201080038-3
r ARTICLE APPEA ED
ON PAGE .Z0
MIAMI HERALD
6 August 1985
U.S. may resume aid to Latin
police forces
By ALFONSO CHARDY
Herald Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - The Reagan
administration has assembled a
new $53 million military and
police assistance program to help
U.S. allies in Central America
combat terrorism, according to a
confidential State Department
memorandum.
The program would provide
additional military aid and, for the
first time in years, police training
in El Salvador, Honduras, Costa
Rica, Guatemala and Panama, said
the 15-page memo submitted to
National Security Adviser Robert
McFarlane.
Congress banned U.S. training
of policemen abroad in the early
1970s because of allegations that
U.S. advisers taught torture tech-
niques to foreign police forces.
The memo said the Regional
Counter-Terrorism Program
would include $27 million in
military aid and $26 million in
police assistance. A breakdown
showed that El Salvador would
receive the largest amount, $22
million, followed by $11 million
for Honduras, $9 million for Costa
Rica, $6 million for Panama and $5
million for Guatemala.
The police part of the program
would involve the creation of
anti-terrorist units and bomb
squads, and the delivery of new
bomb detection and disposal
equipment, night vision devices,
weapons, police cruisers, trucks
and helicopters, the document
said. The Justice Department
would coordinate the police part
of the program, it added.
A State Department spokesman
confirmed the program proposal
but said that it may undergo a
final review just before it is
submitted to Congress, sometime
after it reconvenes Sept. 4.
Administration sources, who
gave The Herald a copy of the
memo, said the White House will
justify the plan as its first concrete
response to the June 19 guerrilla
slaying of four U.S. Marines at a
San Salvador sidewalk cafe.
"The June 19 terrorist attack,"
said the memo's opening para-
graph, "provoked a reassessment
of the ability of our allies in
Central America to meet the
terrorist threat. We determined
that the friendly governments in
the area lack adequate means to
counter this threat. It is in our
mutual interests to provide addi-
tional assistance to them."
The sources said the aid package
is also part of the administration's
reply to what it perceives as a
growing "terrorist" threat from
leftist-ruled Nicaragua. In mid-Ju-
ly, U.S. officials said they had
intelligence information indicating
that Nicaragua was involved in
planned terrorist attacks against
Americans living in Honduras.
Managua denied the charge, and
no such attack took place.
They said the White House
hopes Congress will approve the
program by Sept. 30 so that it can
disburse the funds during the
current fiscal year, which ends on
that day.
Congressional aides aware of
the program said it may face some
resistance in the Democratic-con-
trolled House of Representatives
because of the provisions for
police training and aid to Guate-
mala, where human rights viola-
tions are alleged to be continuing.
Although Congress last month
partially lifted the police training
ban for El Salvador. Honduras and
Costa Rica, it has not done so for
other countries. It also withheld
any further U.S. military. aid to
Guatemala until a civilian govern-
ment is in place.
The memo indicated that the.
White House would seek waivers
for police training elsewhere and
persuade Congress to permit early
delivery of aid to Guatemala,
arguing' that "terrorists" could
disrupt its November election.
McFarlane and other senior ad-
ministration officials anorove the
project Friday at an interagency.
meeting in which the Contra'
Intelligence Agency, the State
Department, the Agency for Inter-
national Development and the
National Securit Council support
ed t e 53-million plan, the
sources said.
The memo showed, however,
that the Pentagon backed a much
higher price tag for the combined
economic and military aid pro-
gram - $481.7 million.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201080038-3