NICARAGUA/FIGHTING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000201170008-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 10, 2008
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: April 24, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2008/12/10: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000201170008-1
IN U 1i IN 1V111 L J. IN 1., tNJ
24 April 1984
)ICARAGUA/ BROKAW: Again and again we have been hearing from the
FIGHTING Reagan administration how Nicaragua's leftist government
is supporting the rebels in neighboring E1 Salvador, and
how that is undermining democracy in El Salvador. What
has not been known until now is how extensively the
government of El Salvador is aiding the United
States-backed rebels in Nicaragua. Fred Francis tonight
on this connection.
FRANCIS: NBC News has learned that E1 Salvador, bogged
down.i.n a civil war it blames on Nicaragua, is now deeply
involved in the administration's efforts to overthrow the
Nicaraguan government. Last August, the CIA built a
supply depot for Nicaraguan rebels near the city of La
Union in southern El Salvador. it is from a secret base
here that rebels in Costa Rica get their.air-dropped
supplies. So across this strategic gulf... (nap indicates
Gulf of Fonseca) ...weapons now go both wa_;s, Salvador
allowing its airfields to be used by American-backed
rebels because it believes leftist guerrillas in Salvador
are supplied by Marxist-'Nicaragua. The arms flown out of
Ei Salvador go to Nicaraguan rebel leader Eden Pastoral
who has long denied CIA financing. But NBC News has
learned that Pastora has been sponsored by Washington for
more than two years and now has the support of El
Salvador. And Salvador's involvement in the war for
Nicaragua goes much deeper. The mining of Nicaragua's
ports, supervised by Americans, originated from El
Salvador, and the frogmen who laid the mines were
Salvadorans. That has infuriated Congress, the use of
Americans and Salvadorans for a questionable operation
which could have been done by congressionally-financed
Nicaraguan rebels. These are rebel frogmen trained by the
United States, Nicaraguans who have blown up piers and
sown small mines along the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts.
(several Latin American frogmen are shown) But they were
not used in the CIA's recent, controversial mining.
Because of that and congressional outrage, the
administration's complicated Central American strategy, in
the words of one American diplomat, is beginning to
unravel. Fred Francis, NBC News, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
Approved For Release 2008/12/10: CIA-RDP88-0107OR000201170008-1