U.S. DECRIES BUILDUP OF NICARAGUAN FORCES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000302860009-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 29, 2010
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: March 10, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/29: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302860009-5
4
ON PAGE I ?
,By Henry Trewhitt
Washington Bureau of The Sun
Washington-Intelligence authori-
ties yesterday made public aerial
.photographs to support claims that
-Nicaragua is building the most pow
.erful armed forces in Latin America
;and burning villages to clear Indians
from the border with Honduras.
.r--
One sequence of photographs
-showed extensive construction of run-
ways to accommodate jet fighters
that Nicaragua does not yet have. An-
other showed a series of new garri-
sons, some still under construction,
that are almost duplicates of Cuban
-bases-photos of which also were dis-
,'played for comparison.
Appearing throughout the photo-
graphs was an array of equipment
;tanks, guns, trucks, helicopters, am-
phibious vehicles-which John
Hughes, the premier American inter-
preter of intelligence photographs,
identified as Soviet-made. It was Mr.
,Hughes who in 1962 discovered on
photographs the Soviet missiles in
Cuba that led to Soviet-American con-
frontation.
Adm. Bobby R. Inman, the deputy
director of central- intelligence, said
the evidence supports the belief that
Nicaragua already has "upset the
military balance in Central Ameri-
ca." When the expected Soviet jet
'fighters arrive, he added, it will have
the most powerful air force in the re-
gion. Admiral Inman conducted the unu-
sual briefing, backed, by Mr. Hughes
and Lt. Gen. James Williams, direc-
; ;or of the Defense Intelligence Agen- 100,000, to.. 150,000. Some- analysts
cy. The intelligence~ comrnunity went
3.ALT1:10_ , i- N
10 i-larch 1`2
public, declassifying sensitive photo-
graphs, the-admiral said, partly be-
cause he was -"concerned and angry."
He was-concerned over what the
buildup "means for this country," he
explained, and angry because of skep-
ticism-presumably on the part of
the media-toward previous adminis-
tration claims. The photographs were
taken. from manned reconnaissance
planes, he said, and he did not make
public even more sensitive material,
such as agent reports.
The administration plans a compa-
rable report for Friday regarding the
situation in El Salvador: U.S. officials
say the leftist insurgency there re-
ceives at least part of its arms
through Nicaragua.
Admiral Inman only rarely de-
parted from presentation of the evi-
dence yesterday. But he did speculate
that the offensive potential in Nicara-
gua was evidence that Cuba and the
Soviet Union had resolved four.or five
years ago a long debate about how to
encourage revolution.
Other officials have argued that
the Soviets earlier chose to operate
only through established Communist
parties, avoiding sponsorship of such
groups as the Sandinista leaders of
Nicaragua. Their indirect involve-
ment in Nicaragua, and the even less
direct one in El Salvador, would
mean by that judgment that the more
assertive approach of President Fidel
Castro of Cuba has prevailed. ,
From the evidence now available,
Admiral Inman said, Nicaragua-
projects regular forces of at-least
predict
added,
ty "is not ready to go that high."
With 70,000 men in combined
forces; he reported, Nicaragua now'
has a more formidable military struc-
ture than it did under the late dictator
Gen. Anastasio Somoza Debayle. It;
has no conceivable defensive use for;
such forces, he said, implying than
they could only be used against Nica-
ragua's neighbors.
The bases and airfields now built
or under construction, he said,l
amount to "clearly the infrastructure'
for a larger military force." He re-
marked that the training of 50 Nica-
raguan pilots in Bulgaria has been ex-
tended, indicating that they will get
the MiG-21 fighter, not the less potent
MiG-17. - - .
Admiral Inman reported 16 Miski-
to Indian villages destroyed along thei
Coco River, which marks the border
with Honduras. Before and after
photographs indicated complete de-'.
struction.
"There are 23,000 now homeless,"
the admiral said, 12,000 of whom'
have fled to Honduras. The Sandinista
government has reported 8,500 in its
own camps, saying they were relocat
ed to reduce provocations-
But, again speculating, Admiral'
Inman judged that the northeast Mis-'
kito area is where any substantial
contingent of Cubans probably would
be assembled. A new airfield is under;)
construction at Puerto Cabezas on the.
Caribbean in that region.
To illustrate the similarity of
Nicaragua's new garrisons and those"
of Cuba, Mr. Hughes showed slides of
one in Cuba, and a comparable one at
Managua, Nicaragua. The-latter base.
also includes a mockup of an airfield
with derelict aircraft.
Admiral Inman said the field is-1
used for training in guerrilla activity.,
-such as the raid that destroyed)
much of. El Salvador's air force in-!
January.
Other slides showed details. that
Mr. Hughes identified-.-as Soviet-,1
model obstacle courses for training
troops and even 'grease - pits for.
trucks.
Admiral Inman observed that the.
Sandinista government has yet turned
completely to the Cuban model, not 'A
ing that it still tries, to keep peace' 1
-with private capital. But the stage is?
set for change,. he said, "and I believe;
you can see some pattern, developing,
here."
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/29: CIA-RDP90-00552R000302860009-5