WHAT IS MOSCOW BUILDING IN NICARAGUA?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504730017-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 8, 2012
• Sequence Number: 17
• Publication Date: June 20, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504730017-8
17
ARTICLE APPEAREJ `R
ON PAGE
WASHINGTON POST
20 June 1986
Rowland Evans and Robert Novak
What Is Moscow Building in Nicaragua?
The state Department has re-
ceived a report of Soviet engineers in
Nicaragua preparing to build a second
Central American canal, and is using
the report to buttress President
Reagan's plea that the House next
week finally vote for contra aid.
The report is contained in a tele-
gram, classified "confidential," sent
June 13 by Ambassador Lewis Tambs
in Costa Rica. It cited a French engi-
neer's report to a high Costa Rican
official that there are "large numbers
of Russian engineers" at work on a
"canal project" in Nicaragua.
While saying nothing publicly, high
administration officials accept "large
numbers" of engineers as a factual
estimate. They suggest, however,
that the "canal" work is being used by
the Sandinistas as a cover for major
engineering projects for military and
intelligence purposes. That not only
would increase Nicaragua's _0 a
prowess in the re on but give t e
Soviet Union badly wanted intelli-
gence reporting and collection re-
sources.
Although the Tambs cable was not be done without Costa Rica's
made available to us by non-adminis- consent."
tration sources, there is no doubt that A Nicaraguan canal would cross the
Reagan strategists hope it will help isthmus some 250 miles north of the
convert reluctant House members to Panama Canal, using the San Juan
vote for the anticommunist guerrillas.
Legislative propaganda aside, how-
ever, the story of the Nicaraguan
canal-be it real or chimerical-fits
the expanding picture of the Krem-
lin's presence on the American main-
land.
The Tambs telegram reported that
he received his information from
Jorge Monge, Costa Rica's vice minis-
ter of natural resources. Monge re-
ported an encounter on June 10 in
Managua with a French technician
working on a project there for the
Organization of American States.
"The Frenchman told Monge," the
telegram continued, "that there were
large numbers of Russian engineers
in Nicaragua, who had told him they
were working on the canal project.
This came as an unpleasant surprise
to Monge,-because the construction
of a canal on the San Juan River could
River and Lake Nicaragua for much of
the distance between the two oceans.
The south bank of the river is Costa
Rican, and the canal project would
flood Costa Rican land. "Obviously,"
Tambs reported, "Costa Rica has no
desire to be confronted with a fait
accompli by the Nicaraguans."
Of more concern to Washington are
Soviet-Sandinista intentions. The ad-
ministration suspects the Soviet engi-
neers in Nicaragua ma-y`-UVb`u`i0mg
not a canal but secret m e'-Bence,
communication and transportation fa-
cilities, as well as m ary o ica-
tions to protect continued communist
control.
skepticism about the canal story is
fueled by Carter administration stud-
ies during the long struggle over the
Panama Canal Treaty and before the
Sandinista Marxists gained power in
Nicaragua and made their political
alliance with Moscow. The studies
showed that the cost of the Nicara-
guan route for an alternative canal
would be in multibillions of dollars.
The conclusion: Resources needed for
the job might require an international
consortium, with the United States
and Japan picking up the tab and
providing technology and equipment.
"None of this rules out a Soviet-
built canal," one administration official
told us, "but it demonstrates the scale
of investment that Moscow would
have to make for an admittedly high-
stakes gamble."
The gamble would consist of an
attempt at a more dramatic Soviet
presence and influence in a region
ripening for political explosion from
Mexico to Panama.
Moscow's tendency to move in un-
expected directions means the ambas-
sador's report from Costa Rica cannot
be ruled out. It would mean that the
transformation of Nicaragua into as
open a Soviet ally as Cuba is well
under way.
CO 1986, News America Syndicate
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504730017-8