REAGAN: NO PLOT IN NICARAGUA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505400087-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2010
• Sequence Number: 87
• Publication Date: April 15, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505400087-4
L'SA TODAY
15 Aga, 1983
gaga
no plod in
car
and Juan J. Walte
USA TODAY
President Reagan broke.the
official silence on the U.S. role
in Nicaragua's guerrilla war
and flatly stated Thursday the
United States is not attempting
to topple the leftist Sandinist re-
gime.
"We are not doing anything
to try to overthrow the Nicara-
guan government," Reagan
told a hastily called news corn
lerence. "Anything we are do-
ing is aimed at interdicting sup-
ply lines and stopping efforts to
overthrow the government of
El Salvador."
It was the strongest adm1nls-
trahon statement yet on the is-
sue - and came as congressio-
nal committees edged toward a
confrontation with the White
House over the U.S. role in
Central America.
Reagan spoke just hours af-
ter the StRte Department
charged that congressional re-
strictions on aid and other as-
pects of U.S. policy could help
.the Sandinistas.
By Ann .Devroy
"The State Department
lashed out at a House subcorn-
rnitiee .for prohibiting covert
-support 'for Nicaraguan anti-
:.government guerrillas and re- -
jetting emergency military aid ^ Eden Pastors, the Nicara--
i for :El .Salvador.-.'Decisions of gran revolutionar3~..hero. rho,
this' type destroy the capacity : defeetsd after elp'uug put -the'
rtuty "col r e ftoris;' ?;?eaCfnistas- i ower, ;se-
'said spokesman-John Hughes {pcried .Thursday to be bark in'
Hughes called the .Salvador+* his homeland ? leading a ,rebel',
.an aid restriction "rigid, corn- force against the Sandinist gov
plex and highly ambitious" and ernment.
due action on Ncaragua'a- sig-
nal to the Sandinistas that the}
could act tth impunity .re.
gardless of how egregious their
actions might become." : " ,*
-Reagan said be was abiding,
by a 1982 amendment to the
defense appropriations bill for-'
bidding USA assistance "for
the purpose" of .overthrowing'
the Nicaraguan government or:
provoking a military confron-`
tation between Nicaragua and;
Honduras:-
Earlier, White House Coun
selor Edwin Meese called the
amendent='"unnecessary and'
undesirable" interference with
Reagan's right to conduct for.,
eign policy.
Reflecting the administrs
bon's deep irritation over con-
gressional efforts to probe co-
vert action in Central America,
Meese said the administration
has "an absolute moral right to
do what-we-are doing" - and
asked that 'foreign policy be
left to--Reagan
.
In related developments
t In San Salvador, air force
officers planned a possible mu-
tiny against El Salvador's con-
troversial defense minister
Jose Guillermo Garcia to force-
him to resign bytoday, but said
aid
they would not stop _ fighting
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09: CIA-RDP90-00552R000505400087-4