FIGHTING EXPANDS IN NORTH NICARAGUA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403490010-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 27, 2012
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: January 8, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403490010-4
CNP 8 January 1981
Fighting Expands in North Nicaragua.ey STEPHEN IDNiER dents, the mine was triggered by the Although contras have succeeded in
SPWW S to P Nw vat Timm rear wheel of a truck. At the site today, ABISINIA, Nicaragua, glass fragments and chunks of tire still gerous, the coffee horvet more dan-
Jan 1-Just lay on both sides of the road. , they havenot systematically
y
as Lorenzo Herrera Blandon had ex- 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 Governmentowned La Sor- move toward the interior and link up
ista Army h this area whose unit said was and hag seven passengers plantation. Two military with units in the central part of the today, icomuges have seen more id
in truck, both of them soldiers, were
the last two weeks than in the six killed as they were doing the job Mrs. Neutral diplomats in Managua esti-
months before that. Castro now refuses to do, bringing food mate that the contra forces total be.
"It looks like the contras are trying to the pickers. tween 10,000 and 12,000
to move a big force," he said, referring A third victim, Carlos Perez, 20 as half of whom may men, as many
to rebels backed by the United States. years old, is recovering from shrapnel Nicaragua. now be inside
"They're getting into the country." wounds and serious bruises in an unlit The Sandinista Army
According to American intelligence room with a dirt floor here. He said to prevent more contratfromemovi g
reports cited last week by Assistant that he had been in the army for almost into Nicaragua and has blocked some
reports c of State Elliott Abrams, seven years, but that following his in. traditional infiltration routes. But
Into Ni contras have
2,010 contras have recently crossed juries he was told he would now be dis- some contra units have apparently suc-
from their bases in charged. ceeded in entering at other points.
Honduras. Their infiltration is the first' 'A Cowardly Tactic' "The terrain around here favors ir-
step in what military officers and diplo- "I was thrown regular warfare," a soldier on patrol
mats in Managua believe could become lost consciousness, from I dthe ont u remem. said. "You
just can't station a man
the largest contra offensive of the five- her anythin&" Mr. Perez said. "It's a every 100 meters for the length of the
year-old war.
cowardly tactic." border.'
U.S. Supplies Ruch Contras Dr. Ma) Stormogipson, an American Weeks of Fighting on Border
Supplies bought with American aid physician who last week completed 22 The beginning of contra reinfiltration
have reached the contra forces, and the months of work at a hospital in Ji- into Nicaragua comes after several
first contras trained in the United notega where mine victims have been weeks of fighting along the border.
States have returned to Central Amer- treated, said fear of such explosions Nicaraguan forces crossed into Hon.
ica, a to diplomats and others had a$ed the mobility" of people duras in search of contra bases, and
who 1 Iollow the conflict. in this area. planes hit two to ets in "The These factors, together with the con- mining is something new that r6
tras' desire to make visible progress In began last year," she said. "The uncer- Sandinista in e lead aders ation. the field to impress their backers in tainty of not knowing if the danger is troops that their
Washington and elsewhere, suggest there or not is deeper and more terrify- rOOps entered Honduras, but a solders
that the coming months will be filled Ing than ambushes or attacks. People guarding the Sandinista headquarters
with violence, think that if they come face to face with to in NAbisinia icaragua on Dec. today said
De 24 had after three
As the contras slipped from Hon- the contras, they might be able to out- weeks in Honduran t after three
duras into Nicaragtui, some moved maneuver them or talk their way out, whis eeks had territory. ro sAof'
south through the rugged terrain that but you have no chance it you're caught squad
surrounds Abisinia, which is 35 miles In an explosion. contra "
and Honduran so diee s to auk
from the border. Large numbers of Though the danger has reduced the of eight firef
au-
Government troops have been de- traffic, a number of jeeps and pickup thorities deny eny that their soldiers htix
Played in the area to find and engage trucks laden with goods or passengers with the contras.
them. were traveling this week The soldier, Pablo Antonio Solaro
"On Sunday, there was fighting for roads that wind through Mite dirt Cuadra, said he had been fighting in the
three hours," said Herminia Lopez shrouded mountains here. area of Las Vegas and El Parefso,
three Gonzilez, who lives in a small shack a "People don't go out if they don't where contras maintain bases. Aski*,
few miles south of here. "The mortars have to, but I have to' said Aristides to detail where he had fought, he rat.,
were oak~!ga tremendous noise," Pineda,who travels to Jinotega once a tied off the names of half a dozen Hon.
While soldiers exchange gunfire , week to pick up supplies for the pri- dun a peechts in the same area.
h vilians have altered their patterns of vately Owned La Pita coffee farm, IesOrteg Saavedra
weeks ago, Presfdt
life out of fear of another weapon, the where he is an overseer. Daniel Ortega Saavedra described the
he
lan
weirte States d mwith Coffee Harvest at peak Nicaraguan conflict as a case of United
contras were Man
UWG QV arMV in!". The harvest of coffee beans. Nicara- ista slogan fort1987Hwould bee' Nodq{~
tnfnea tss ista as IV ng=
gun's principal source of export in- surrenders here."
come, is now at its peak. Pickers in-contra lesidisgv denied troops use mind. clude local peasants who have been
"Now you~only leave town it it's an doing this work for years, and also
emergency, said Efigenfa Castro as t ear schools or who have bent sent from
she looked up from baking bread in her
but in the village of Pueblo Nuevo. Last sure that therred boas are picked as.
they spoil.
year at this time, Mrs. Castro was on fore Until the mine explosion at La Sor-
the road every day, carrying food to press the harvest had been calm, sev.
coffee pickers working in nearby fields. eral pickers said. As they worked, sol-
This year, frightened by the prospec of Were armed with automatic weapons
running over a mine, she decided nott to stood 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 mines 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 fad
hies because, according to nearby plosion, but they're still working."
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403490010-4