FIGHTING EXPANDS IN NORTH NICARAGUA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403490004-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 27, 2012
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: January 8, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP9O-00965ROO0403490004-1
NEW YORK.TIMES
car 8 January 1987
Fighting Expands in North Nicaragua
.,Tay KINIER dents, the mine was triggered by the Althou contras
STEPHEN Bh have succeeded
sp?,at w Tiro NW Yak Tines rear wheel of a truck. At the site today, making the coffee harvest in
ABISINIA, Nicara glass fragments and chunks of tire stH1 more dan-
gua, Jan. 6 -Just gerous, they have not systematically
as Lorenzo Herrera Blandon had ex- lay on both sides of the road. tried to disrupt it. According to diplo-
pected, the war in northern Nicaragua The other explosion, on Jan. 3, came mats and other foreign experts, their
has begun to intensify. not on a public road, but on a path in- principal goal is not to fight here, but to
Mr. Blandon, a draftee in the Sandin- side the Government owned La Sor- move toward the interior and link up
ista Army whose unit was passing presa coffee plantation. Two of the with units in the central part of the
through this area today, said he and his seven passengers aboard a military country.
truck
both
f
h
,
o
t
em soldiers, were
comrades have seen more combat in
the last two weeks than in the six killed as they were doing the job Mrs.
months before that. Castro now refuses to do, bringing food
"It looks like the contras are trying to the pickers.
to move a big force," he said, referring A third victim, Carlos Perez, 20
to rebels backed by the United States. years old, is recovering from shrapnel
"They're getting into the country." wounds and serious bruises in an unlit
According to American intelligence room with a dirt floor here. He said
reports cited last week by Assistant that he had been in the army for almost
Sebretary of State Elliott Abrams, seven years, but that following his in.
2,M contras have recently crossed juries he was told he would now be dis-
into Nicaragua from their bases. in charged.
Honduras. Their infiltration is the first.
step in what military officers and diplo-
mats in Managua believe could become
the largest contra offensive of the five.
year-old war.
'A Cowardly Tactic'
"I was thrown from the truck and
lost consciousness, so I don't remem-
ber anything," Mr. Perez said. "It's a
cowardly tactic-
V.& Supplies Reach Contras Dr. Maj Stormogipson, an American
Supplies bought with American aid Physician who last week completed 22
have reached the contra forces, and the months of work at a hospital in Ji-
first contras trained in the United notega where mine victims have been
States have returned to Central Amer- treated, said fear of such explosions
ica, according to diplomats and others had "decreased the mobility" of people
who closely follow the conflict. in this area.
These factors, together with the con- "The mining is something new that
tras' desire to make visible progress in began last year," she said. "The uncer-
the field to impress their backers in minty of not knowing if the danger is
Washington and elsewhere, suggest there or not is deeper and more terrify-
that the coming months will be filled ing than ambushes or attacks. People
with violence. think that if they come face to face with
As the contras slipped from Hon- the contras, they might be able to out.
duras into Nicaragua, some moved maneuver them or talk their way out,
south through the rugged terrain that but you have no chance if you're caught
surrounds Abisinia, which is 35 miles in an explosion."
from the border. Large numbers of Though the danger has reduced the
Government troops have been de- traffic, a number of jeeps and pickup
ployed in the area to find and engage trucks laden with goods or passengers
them. were traveling this week on the dirt
"On Sunday, there was fighting for roads that wind through the mist-
three hours," said Herminia Lopez shrouded mountains here.
Gonzalez, who lives in a small shack a People don't go out if they don't
few miles south of here. "The mortars have to, but I have to '.1 said Aristides
were making a tremendous noise." Pineda, who travels to Jinotega once a
While soldiers exchange gunfire, week to pick up supplies for the pri-
c{vilians have altered their patterns of' vately owned La Pita coffee farm,
life out of fear of another weapon, the where he is an overseer.
land mine. Officials with a- to Coffee Harvest at Peak
Western The harvest of coffee beans, Nicara.
contras were ant' mines on roc qua's principal source of export in-
used
ontra ea come, is now at its peak. Pickers in.
move r= vi
denie their troops use mines., have elude local peasants who have been
"Now you only leave town if it's an doing this "brigadistas" fohave r years been sand aim
emergency," said Efigenia Castro as their ir schools or Government o bent to from
she looked up from baking bread in her sure that the e red are d be-
hut in the village of Pueblo Nuevo. Last ed d beans are picked be-
year at this time, Mrs. Castro was on fore they spoil.
the road every day, carrying food to prey' Until the the mine harvest had explosion
been cat La sev-
coffee pickers working in nearby fields. dial pickers said. alm, s ol-
This year, frightened by the prospect of stood armed with As they worked,
automatic ons
running over a mine, she decided not to stood gu weapons
guard.
travel and joined a local bakers' coop. "It's going great," said one soldier,
erative instead. Francisco Ruiz Salgado, who was
Since Christmas, at least two minim posted at the La Colonia plantation.
have blown up near here. One of the ex- "People are afraid after the mine ex-
plosions, on Dec. 26, caused no fatal- plosion, but they're still working."
ities because, according to nearby real-
Neutral diplomats in Managua esti.
mate that the contra forces total be.
tween 10,000 and 12,000 men, as many
as half of whom may now be inside
Nicaragua.
The Sandinista Army is determined
to prevent more contras from moving
into Nicaragua and has blocked some
traditional infiltration routes. But
some contra units have apparently suc-
ceeded in entering at other points.
"The terrain around here favors ir-
regular warfare," a soldier on patrol
said. "You just can't station a man
every 100 meters for the length of the
border."
Weeks of Fighting on Border
The beginning of contra reinfiltration
into Nicaragua comes after several
weeks of fighting along the border.
Nicaraguan forces crossed into Hon-
duras in search of contra bases, and
Honduran planes hit two targets in
Nicaragua in retaliation.
Sandinista leaders deny that their
troops entered Honduras, but a soldier
guarding the Sandinista headquarters
in Abisinia today said he had returned
to Nicaragua on Dec. 24 after three
weeks in Honduran territory. He said,
his squad had engaged mixed groupsof?
contra and Honduran soldiers in a bntwt.
of eight firefights. The Honduran au-
thorities deny that their soldiers }nix
with the contras.
The soldier, Pablo Antonio Solano
Cuadra, said he had been fighting in the
area of Las Vegas and El Parafso,
where contras maintain bases. Asiw*
to detail where he had fought, he r=at.,
tied off the names of half a dozen Hon-
duran hamlets in the same area.
In a speech two weeks ago, President;
Daniel Ortega Saavedra described the
Nicaraguan conflict as a case of United
States aggression. He said the Sandin.
ista slogan for 1987 would be, "No qW,
surrenders here."
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP9O-00965ROO0403490004-1