NICARAGUA ALLEGES U.S. PLOT TO OUST SANDINISTA REGIME

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201090073-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 73
• Publication Date: August 11, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201090073-3
ARTICLE AFFEARED
0i1 FAGE___1LA
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
11 August 1982
Nicaragua alleges U.S, plot to':
oust Sandinista regime
By Alfonso Charily
inquirer Wien Bureau
WASHINGTON - Nicaragua is ac-,
cusing the Reagan administration of
plotting a war between Honduras
and Nicaragua in hopes .of ousting !
Nicaragua's revolutionary govern-
ment.
U.S. officials deny the accusation
but say that Nicaragua's neighbors -
particularly Honduras and Costa
Rica - are fearful of military attacks
against them now that Nicaragua,
with help from Cuba, has become a
base for the spreading of Marxist
subversion in the region.
Both Honduras and Costa Rica
have requested US. security assis-
tance, according to the U.S. officials.
The positions of the two sides have
been gleaned from a diplomatic note
of protest that Nicaragua delivered
to the United States last week and.
from conversations with Nicaraguan
diplomats and State Department offi-
cials in the last few days.
Both sides agree that tension is
increasing in Central America, par-
ticularly along the Honduran-Nicara-
guan. border area.. which frequently
is used by Nicaraguan exiles based in
Honduras for cross-border strikes
against Sandinista forces.
Nicaragua says a warwith Hondu-
ras cannot be ruled out because the.
Hondurans not only refuse to bring
the exiles under.control but also are
probably arming and guiding them
with US. help and encouragement.
"What the United States wants to
do is crush the Sandinista revolu-
tion," said an angry Nicaraguan dip-
lomat here.
But US. officials believe that al-
though more border clashes are pos-
sible, a war seems improbable at the
moment. In any case, officials say
they have advised the Hondurans
not to overreact by invading Nicara-
gua. - '
"Honduras' interests would be bet-
ter served if it did nothing and wait-
ed for Nicaragua to strike first and-
then act ?asthe aggrieved party in
this case,", tine State Department offi-
cial said.
"We are in frequent contact with
the Hondurans," he added. "We are
constantly reassuring them."
The charges and countercharges
are visible evidence of the deteriora-
tion of U.S.-Nicaraguan relations af-
ter an apparent relaxation in ten-
sions in April, when the United
States offered an eight-point plan to
improve strained relations between
the two countries.
Washington recently insisted that
Nicaragua, despite denials by Mana-
gua, was continuing to supply weap,
ons to rebel forces in El Salvador.
Nicaragua retorted that the Uited
States was trying to arm Honduras so
that the Honduran government
could police Central America in the
place of President Anastasio Somoza,
overthrown as leader of Nicaragua
by the Sandinista revolutionaries in
1979.
The hardened U.S. attitude toward
Nicaragua was . spelled out to the.
House Foreign Affairs Committee
late last month by Nestor D. Sanchez,
assistant secretary of defense for in-
ter-American affairs, in testimony
aimed at justifying US. military co-
operation with Honduras.
"In Honduras," said Sanchez, "the
Cuban-Nicaraguan coalition has
been working very hard to prepare
the groundwork for an eventual full-
scale insurgency such as has been
sponsored in El Salvador.... They
have regularly and systematically vi-
olated the sovereignty of this peace.
ful nationlHondurasi, using Its terri-
tory as a supply conduit to support
the guerrillas in El Salvador.... The
Cuban-Nicaraguan coalition _ seems
ready to begin regionalizing the
war."
Also last month, there were reports
from the area of intensified border
fighting. A few days later, the Penta-
gon announced joint military exer-
cises with the Honduran army.
"All of these elements have forced
us to realize the inevitable," said the _
Nicaraguan diplomat. "The United
States is fortifying Honduras for a
first strike against Nicaragua."
Late last week. Nicaragua's ambas-
sador to Washington, Francisco Fial-
los Navarro, called on the State De-
partment _,with the protest note,
which indirectly accused the United
States of fomenting war.
It expressed Nicaragua's alarm at
the US: Honduras maneuvers be-
cause they coincide with an "in-
crease in counterrevolutionary, ac-
tivities carried out against `-our
territory" by former Somoza soldiers.
The maneuvers and recent ' pub-
lished re its about a. S19 million
VA p an for covert anti-Nicaragua
activities are "clear examples of the
serious attempts to destabilize my
country:" the note said.
It added: "The ... maneuvers con-
firm the interventionist attitude of
the United States toward the Central
American region, and further repre-
sent a clear and open provocation
which appears to be aimed at causing
an unnecessary war between Hondu-
ras and Nicaragua, with unforesee-
able consequences."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201090073-3