U.S. CONFIRMS THAT CUBAN GENERAL CARRIED OUT DUTIES IN NICARAGUA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201090043-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 43
• Publication Date: June 21, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sl Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/24 :
MIAMI HERALD
21 June 1983
CIA-RDP90-00965R000201090043-6
U.S. confirms that Cuban general
carried- out duties in Nicaragua
By ALFONSO-CHARDY answer to a question at a press
Herald Washington Bureau briefing.
WASHINGTON --Cuba tas'dis- Another administration- -official
patched one'ofits top militarycom= ' -said-both''the'Tentagon-and?the'CU'~
bat officers - Gen- Arnaldo Ochoa believe the principal reason for'
Sanchez - to Nicaragua, the State Ochoa's presence.in Nicaragua isto
Department confirmed Monday. assess the.military situation in light
Ochoa, said to be a deputy to of . the U.S.-backed, anti-Sandinista
armed forces minister Raul Castro, insurgency and determine whether
reportedly played.a major role in it may require increased Cuban mil-
organizing the Cuban military in- itary involvement.
volvement and buildup in Angola The Nicaraguan Embassy had no
and Ethiopia in 1976 and 1977, re- comment. But a Cuban diplomatic
spectively. source in Washington said that al-
How the news about Ochoa sur- though he could neither confirm nor
faced and the way the Reagan Ad- deny the State Department infor-
ministration handled the affair sug-
gested that it was deliberately de-
signed to create speculation that
Cuba may be preparing to widen its
military involvement in Nicaragua.
High-level administration offi-
cials have been saying in recent
weeks that the United States could
no longer rule out the possibility of
deploying combat troops in Central
America if Cuba put troops of its
own into the region.
However, the same officials said
Monday that Ochoa's presence in
Nicaragua:should not be taken as an
"automatic signal" that Cuban
troops would follow.
"We do have information that
places General Ochoa in Nicaragua
and which suggests that he has
been assigned duties there, but be-
yond that I really can't offer you
anything." State Department
spokesman Alan Romberg said in
mation, he could say that Ochoa "is
one of our leading generals who has
been active both in Angola and
Ethiopia."
The report about Ochoa's pres-
ence in Nicaragua first appeared in
Sunday's editions of The New York
Times. It said that according to an
intelligence report disclosed by a
Reagan Administration official.
Ochoa - described as Cuba's top
military combat commander - had
been working in Nicaragua for
about a month and had been "se-
cretly assigned to duty" there.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201090043-6