CIA & NICARAGUA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303090047-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 26, 2010
• Sequence Number: 47
• Publication Date: October 19, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303090047-7
+..+~tL1L-LL111WL\ 1\ JRVUn
19 October 1983
)ACNEIL: In a moment we're going to hear both sides of the covert air debate in the
Congress. First, we hear both sides in the struggle in Nicaragua from a key member of
the Sandinista leadership and a leader of the contras, or rebels., Last week, on
assignment for us, Charles Krause talker in Managua with Humberto Ortega, Nicaraguan
defense minister and commander in chief, about the miliiary situation. HU!'iLERTO
ORTEGA (Voice of Interpreter): What we see in the coming weeks is a worsening of
military factors and the real possibility of war with Honduras, to the extent that
Eonduras is becoming more fully and directly involved in the aggression against
Nicaragua. It's no longer the counter-revolutionaries receiving help from Honduras
but rather the counter-revolutionaries as part of U.S. strategy to use Honduras to
distract our forces and create conditions allowing Honduras to make overwhelming
attacks against our revolution, against our army.
KRAUSE: Then you're expecting war with Honduras? -ORTEGA: Against Nicaragua.
KRAUSE: And the United States? ORTEGA: O course and with the support of the United
States. There are American soldie3s in Honduras with full logistical and adviser
support, assurance of all kinds of material for agression. Now, whether the United
States is going to get directly involved in our war, that I can't predict. I'm not a
fortune-telling wizard who Can Say exactly what will happen. But I Can affi.-m that
with the vankees and troops that are in Honduras, if there is a conflict between
Bonduras and Nicaragua, arising from the activities of the Somozista
counter-revolutionaries, then the possibility of the U.S. getting involved in that
conflict is much greater. the real scenario I see for the coming weeks is serious.
It's deteriorating because efforts toward peace, efforts at understanding are not
preceding a pace with the sabotage, the build-up of the Honduran forces and the
counter-revoluionaries in Honduras and in Costa Rica.
KRAUSE: What's more likely, negotiations or war? ORTEGA: If the United States has a
number of poinLs to make that they believe Nicaragua is supplying arms to El Salvador,
that Nicaragua has Cuba=, advisers or from elsewhere, etc., if there are a number of
things that they don't like about Nicaragua, there are also aspects of U.S. policy
that we don't like. And we think that there can and should be analysis, talks;
discussions but in a framework of mutual. respect, decent framework, a civilzied
framework, a framework: without conditions, without abusing the strength of one over
the other, without threats, without holding .a gun to our head.
MACNEIL: Later, back in Washington, Charle Krause talked with Adolfo Calero,
commander in chief of one of the largest contra groups, the FDN, or Democratic Forces
of Nicaragua. Krause asked for his reading of the situation in Central America.
Ct.LZR0: Well, I would say the situation is real hot and, ah, it will continue to heat
up. And, ah, we will not cease in our efforts to establish democracy in Nicaragua, by
whatever means it takes. At the beginning, right after the SomcZa overthrow, we,
political parties. private enterprise, practically all Nicaraguans gave the
Sandinistas the opportunity to establish a Democratic government. in January of this
year we told the Sandinistas that we were ready, ah, to put down our arms if they
would fulfill the. commitments that they made to the Organization of American States
for democracy, pluralism, elections, respect of human rights. And since none of those
commitments have been fulfilled, ah, we have been obliged to take up arms against this
sea of troubles that Nicaraguans are going through.
CQ.1 ~?711ti
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303090047-7