CUBANS REPORTED IN NICARAGUA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000301900064-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 64
• Publication Date: October 20, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000301900064-2
STAT
Kft T CLE ..41TEARED
PAGE
ON
THE WASHINGTON POST
20 October 1981
Cubans Report
edin naragua
By Don Oberdorfer ? .
WeatIngton Post Stal wnue
Several hundred Cuban troops
are reported to have mysterious-
ly flown to Nicaragua in recent
weeks but there is no clear in-
dication that they are ultimately
headed to El Salvador, State De-
partment SCRUM said yesterday.
? Intelligence reports of the
troop movements, which are still
not considered confirmed; were
closely held to a small group of cy.
officials here until publicized by
columnists. Rowland Evans and
Robert Novak in Monday's edi-
tions of The Washington Post.,
the sources said.'..- -
Their account said the re-
ported arrival of 500 to 600
' Cuban speciellorces troops "may
be aimed at setting up a revolu-
tionary Marxist government in
eastern El Salvador." The colum-
nists' account suggested that the.
destruction of an important? ",
bridge over the Lempa River in
El Salvador was the work of the
Caban troops.
Among U.S. officials dealine
with Central American affairs,
- the working assumption is that
the mission of the Cuban forces!
is more likely .to deal with the;
deepening dissention within Nic-
aragua. than with the struggle in4
..El Salvador, "according to the.;
sources. The initial belief was1
that the troops were intended to
Shore up Sandinista leader Dan-
iel Ortega in the growing faction-
' al strife, sources said-:. ,
The intelligence Eeportajre
said to lave_described the arriv-
'ing troops, Coming by air fr?
Havana to Managua in the mid-
' die of last month, as members of
Cuban President Fidel' Castro's
special guard attached,. to the..
Ministry of Interior.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000301900064-2