CONTRAS PLAN POWERFUL RADIO BROADCASTS INTO NICARAGUA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504430005-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 27, 2012
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: December 26, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504430005-4
ARTICLE APP PHILA]'ELPHI.a INQUIRER
ON ME 26 December 1986
Contras plan powerful radio
broadcasts into Nicaragua
By Marjorie Miller
MIAMI - U.S.-backed Nicaraguan
rebels soon will launch a powerful
clandestine radio broadcast to try to
fuel public discontent with Nicara-
gua's ruling Sandinistas and win pop-
ular support inside the country.
The 50,000-watt broadcasting sta-
tion, apparently the world's only AM
guerrilla radio channel, would be
the Nicaraguan contras' biggest ef-
fort yet in the war's political side,
which they have largely ignored un-
til now.
"I think the radio is as important
as the finsurgentl army," rebel
spokesman Leonardo Somarriba said.
"It is the tool we can use to get to the
people's minds."
Radio Liberacion, as it is named, is
expected to be on the air by the first
of the year, Somarriba said. The 6
p.m.-to-6 a.m. broadcasts are expected
to include anti-Sandinista music,
soap operas, editorials and commen.
tary by rebel leaders.
Productions already prepared in-
clude mocking characterizations of
President Daniel Ortega and Interior
Minister Tomas Borge speaking in
the countryside, with sound effects
of barking dogs, crowing roosters
and piano scales for drama.
The polished programs have high-
tech lead-ins with beeping radio sig-
nals and canned applause. And al-
ways the rebels' message: "Radio
Liberacion ... the voice of those who
have no voice.... Thousands of com-
patriots who form the commandos of
liberty in a country oppressed by
international communism through
nine traitors of the Sandinista front.
... Communists - enemies of God
and man."
Rebel leaders said their news pro-
grams would be "objective, without
propaganda and without censor.
ship," in an effort to earn them cjedi-
bility and a wide audience and to
counter the Sandinista-controlled
media in Nicaragua.
"We want to be tne number-one
radio station in Nicaragua," said
Frank Arana, a rebel spokesman.
U.S. officials who asked not to be
identified said that the rebel radio
would be broadcast from nearby El
Salvador, where a leftist guerrilla
movement is fighting to oust the US.-
backed government. Contra sources
said only that the transmitter "could
be anywhere" and would not com-
ment further.
The Salvadoran guerrillas receive
assistance for their clandestine Ra-
dio Venceremos from Nicaragua.
Contra leaders said that they had
studied Venceremos as well as the
U.S. government's Spanish-language
Radio Marti, which is beamed at
Cuba.
Radio is the most popular medium
in poor countries such as Nicaragua
and El Salvador, where television is
expensive and illiteracy is high. Ra-
dio has been used extensively for
"psychological operations" in the
Salvadoran government's counterin-
surgency war.
Contra spokesmen said that fund.
ing for the radio station did not come
out of the $100 million in aid that
Congress approved for the contras
this year. However. the spokesmen
would not identify the source or
quantity of the "private donations"
that they said were supporting the
radio.
U.S. sources say that State Denart?
meat and Central Intelligence
Agency o icia s have a vi the
re s on a ra io but contra
s kesmen would not comment on
whether they receive and
ance. Regional political analysts
have said that one of the contras'
major problems was their lack of a
political program and internal pro-
paganda.
"They should have done this a long
time ago," said a U.S. official who
asked not to be identified. 'They
have got to get their message to the
population. They have got to articu-
late what this war is about."
With the radio, the contras hope to
increase the name recognition of
their leaders, many of whom are
little-known inside Nicaragua. They
hope to convince Nicaraguans that
they are a nationalistic movement -
rather than a U.S. mercenary force,
as the Sandinistas portray them in
the state-run media - and to show
that they are united.
The radio will be run under the
name of the United Nicaraguan Op-
position, the rebel's umbrella group.
The Nicaraguan Democratic Force,
the largest armed group, has had a
weaker shortwave radio called 15 de
Septiembre, which aired two hours
daily but was hard to receive.
Sandinista spokesmen could not be
-eached for official comment on the
radio, but a Defense Ministry official
said, "First, let's see if they get it on
the air, and then well worry about
lamming it."
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504430005-4