NICARAGUA: A CHONOLOGY OF DECEPTION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000100070004-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 23, 2011
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: March 18, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP91-00587R000100070004-2
ON rk`E !ASHI'JGTON TIMES
18 March 1936
Nicaragua: A chronology
of deception
This chronology has been compiled from historical ma-
terial that is part of the public record, as well as from
intelligence sources. All of it has been available to key
members of Congress.
April 19, 1959 - First public indication in West that
Nicaragua guerrillas are involved with Castro's rebel
forces in Cuba when Cuban army raids a Nicaraguan rebel
training camp near San Diego de los Banos in Pinar del
Rio Province.
Juno-July - Julian Lopez Diaz. a veteran Cuban intel-
ligence officer, who has specialized in creating revolution.
ary upheaval in the Western Hemisphere' for 14 years.
coordinates Sandinista tactics and the flow of weapons to
the guerrillas from a forward command post just inside
the Costa Rican border. Cuba provides some 500 tons of
supplies in a month. Under Mr. Lopez's direction, the
Sandinistas adopt Mr. Castro's example of a dual gov.rn-
ing structure - the inner core led by the Marxist-Leninist
FSLN, the outer core, designed to hoodwink Western and
local opinion, by the FSLN's democratic allies.
July 12 - GRN junta - the outer core - Telexes its
program and a pledge of free elections to the secretary-
general of the Organization of American States.
July 23,1961- Under the direction of Fidel Castro, three
Nicaraguan Marxist radicals - Carlos Fonseca Amador,
Tomas Borge (now interior minister, overseer of secret
police and Castro's closest friend in Nicaragua) and Silvio
Mayorga - set up the FSLN in Honduras. FSLN junta now
rules Nicaragua.
1969.1970 - Tomas Borge, now one of the nine San-
dinista comandantes, functions as one of Castro's princi-
pal envoys to the PLO. Trains at PLO camp in south Leba-
non and travels throughout the Middle East. Sandinsta
representative Benito Escobar arranges with three PLO
representatives in Mexico City for Libyan-funded PLO
training in Lebanon for a contingent of 60 Sandinistas.
Among them were the present vice minister of interior,
Rene Vivas, the late Communication Minister Enrique
Schmidt, and Henry Ruiz, minister for external co-
operation.
Sept. 6, 1970 - Sandinista Patrick Arguello Ryan is
killed in an El Al airline hijacking attempt. Arguello is now
revered by the Sandinistas as a hero; a large dam in
Nicaragua is named after him. PLO-trained Sandinista
terrorists also participate in the hijacking and destruction
of three Western commercial aircraft at a desert strip in
Jordan Later that same month. Sandinistas fight
alongside the PLO in the aborted attempt to topple King
Hussein.
Feb. 5, 1979 - PLO and FSLN issue joint communique
affirming"the bonds of solidarity which exist between the
two revolutionary organizations."
March 6, 1978 - The Marxist Democratic Front for the
Liberation of Palestine )DPLP) and FSLN issue a joint
declaration of war from Havana against "Yankee imperi-
alism." "the racist regime of Israel." and the Nicaraguan
government.
1978-79 - PLO-Sandinista relations intensify. Col.
Muammar Quaddafi invites leaders of Central America's
Marxist-led guerrilla groups. including Sandinistas, to a
meeting in Libya where he pledges financial and political
support.
1979
Feb. 8 - U.S. formally terminates military aid to Nicara-
gua already suspended for several months).
June 16 - Provisional Junta of the Government of Na-
tional Reconstruction (GRN) formed in Costa Rica to re-
place the Anastasio Somoza regime in Nicaragua.
June 23 - OAS approves a Venezualan resolution calling
for the immediate replacement of the Somoza regime by
a democratic government.
July 17 - Mr. Somoza resigns and interim government
announced.
July IS - Julian Lopez Diaz. the top Cuban operative in
the carefully orchestrated takeover, flies into Managua
and becomes the Cuban ambassador. (He has been Cuban
pro-counsul in Nicaragua ever since.)
July 19 - Interim government collapses; FSLN military
forces arrive in Managua; GRN officially assumes power.
July 21-27 - Cuban military and civilian advisers begin
arriving secretly in Managua. The Interior Ministry is the
Cubans' most important power-base. Tomas Borge is Cas-
tro's homme de confiance in Managua and was his per-
sonal choice to run the country after the revolution. With
Mr. Borge's okay, Cuban advisers take over the running of
all the key agencies involved in political repression. A
team of 194 Cuban officers from the Direccion General
de Inteligencia (D(,1) and the Direccion de Seguridad del
Estado move into the Interior Ministry and begin organ-
izing the secret police. The contingent is headed by a Gen.
Caldeiro. It includes three other generals and 18 full colo-
nels. Among those identified: Leopoldo Gonzalez Gires,
Paul Garrido, Francisco Ruiz T}alavera, Alfredo Vazquez
Matus and Zoila Gonzales Proveida. Most of the senior
officers had previously controlled provincial directorates
of the secret police in Cuba.
July 27 - The U.S. announces airlift of food and medical
supplies.
Aug. 1 - More than 100 Nicaraguan police officers. who
had graduated from special courses at the Antonio
Briones Monoto training academy near Guanabacoa in
Cuba, become the nucleus of the Sandinista Police (PS).
They are under the command of two Cuban advisers, Gen.
Leonardo Gonzalez and Col. Irwin Guaresma. Their or-
ders are to create an elite corps of PS whose members are
totally ideologically "reliable." They had picked local po-
lice officers for advanced training in Eastern Europe (15
are sent to the "Wilhelm Pieck" school for political cadres
in East Germany and ten to the East German VOPO school
at Aschersleben ).
Aug. 15 - There are so many Cuban VIPs commuting to
Nicaragua that the DGI is now operating an executive air
taxi service out of Managua. It has been given an English
name (Executive Charter Airways), presumably to con-
ceal its real identity.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/23: CIA-RDP91-00587R000100070004-2