U.S. IS SAID TO AID CONTRAS VIA SALVADOR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403790046-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 46
• Publication Date: February 13, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
~ Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09 :CIA-RDP90-009658000403790046-2
eRT~f'lE APPEARED ~
J~>! SAGE X13 ~ .
NEW YORK TIMES
13 February 1986
U.S. Is Said to Aid Contras Via Salvador
By JAMES LeMOYNE
S~V ro TAe New Yort Times
SAN SALVADOR, Feb. 12 -United
States assistance to Nicaraguan guer-
rillas has recently been channeled
Lhrargh El Salvador, according to
American std Nicaraguan exile offi-
cials, apparently in an eNort to make
uHp~~recent cutoff of supplies by
At least some of the aid has been
flown from the military airport at Ilo-
pango air base, just outside this capi-
tal, one source said. It was not clear
whether approval for the flights has
come only from the Salvadoran Air
Force or also from the Government of
President JosE Napoleon Duarte.
Ottldally, both Government and
tniittary of'fidals continue to deny as-
sisting the Nicaraguan anti-Govern-
mentguerrillas, who are known 1Qcally
as contras.
_ But, the S~rtLn+ent permitted the
Central Intel ~+ce Artencv's air and
eer
re in an sup-
plies to Nicaraguan guem las were
flown out of El Salvador on a regular
basis in the same period, several rebel
sources said.
Assistance from El Salvador now ap-
pears to have picked up again, because
the Honduran Government has ob-
structed supply flights since October,
using the issue to press the United
States for better terms on economic
and political issues.
Embarrasslttg Bad Luau
A highly re8able source with close
contacts in the C:overnment said that
he was certain that at least one of the
Platys was carrying cargo for the Nica-
raguan guerrillas and that he sus-
pected the other was as well.
The least deniable Wddent occurred
last week. when a plane trade a forced
landing ~0 mild northeast of the capi-
tal at a small airstrip after having me`
duutical problems.
Salvadoran press reports identified
the plane as a De HavUland registered
in eitpher Canada or the United States, i
I number~CG GX C~rted, under the ~
The plane's crew included a pilot and
two Passertgets who did not speak
wentto the porters who
several boodles were throw~ttout of the
Rlane before it landed. Salvadoran
troops in helicopters combed the area
to recover the unidentified gear, local
residents said.
i Meroeoaries Cite Flights
Other reports of Nicaraguan rebel
old passing through El Salvador be-
~ came public last year, when the Costa
Rican police arrested five foreign sol-
diers of fortune in the camp of a Nica-
raguan anti-Government guerrilla
group on the Costa Rican border.
Two of those who were jailed -
Steven P. Carr, who is an American,
and Peter F. Glibbery, who isBritish-
said in interviews that they had first
flown to El Salvador on a rebel weap-
ons flight from Miami that landed at
Ilopango military airport last June.
The DC3
l
cargo p
ane, with aCuban- ?
Alt!-ough ~' ~~ ~^ ~~~ the I American pilot, was filled with guns
rebel flights out of El Salvador have and ammuNtion tots the rebels, both
had a run of bad Ludt that has made men said. They were