SOVIET WEAPONS FOR SANDINSTAS SPOTTED IN CUBA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302050023-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: November 4, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302050023-0
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ON PAGE - -
WASHINGTON TIMES
4 November 1985
Intercepts of conversations of Cu-
Soviet. weapons ban anti-aircraft units monitored-by
U.S. intelligence showed both sur-
prise and frustration at the SR-71's
capabilities at speed and evasion.
That frustration as well as the in-
? ? telligence obtained,
fe ajam
or ils . sgur\g?usbteadn? rmayctiaocncotounthtefonrigthhet. an-
Besides the usual strong protest
to Washington, Cuban authorities or-
dered 20,000 demonstrators to ap-
pear before the U.S. Interests Sec-
tion of the Swiss embassy in Havana
to protest the flight ? the first such
demonstration since the Mariel
boatlift, crisis of 1980, and the first
ever against U.S. reconnaissance
flights, which have been carried out
regularly since the beginning of the
Reagan administration.
U.S. officials in Washington on Fri-
day said the protest was peaceful,
but declined further comment on
the first report of the flight, made by
the official. Cuban news agency,
Prensa Latina. saying they were not
authorized to confirm or deny al-
leged intelligence operations.
The Castro government filed a
complaint with the United States
these sources,
spotted in Cuba
By Roger Fontaine
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Soviet and Bulgarian freighters at
the Cuban port of Mariel have been
transferring large amounts of heavy
war materiel to Nicaraguan coastal
freighters for delivery to the Sandin-
ista government, administration
sources told The Washington Times.
The operation was confirmed by
a U.S. SR-71 Blackbird reconnais-
sance plane that flew over Cuba
Thursday night.
Reagan administration officials
have had evidence for several weeks
that the Soviets were supplying
Nicaragua in this indirect manner,
but the SR-71 photos have now con-
firmed it, these officiab .d.
U.S. intelligence had frus-
trated until late last ?m obtain-
ing hard evidence of the new
procedure owing to heavy cloud
cover over the island associated with
a nearly stationary Hurricane Juan.
The supplies of Soviet equipment
are not being delivered directly to
Nicaraguan ports, but are being
transferred to two small Nicaraguan
coastal freighters at Mariel, Cuba.
The freighters then proceed to Nic-
aragua's Caribbean port, El Bluff,
and then go up the Escondido River
to Rama where the materiel is un-
loaded and dispersed by road to mili-
tary bases around the country, ac-
cording to administration officials.
It is the first time, according to
the sources, that this form of decep-
tion has been carried out by the So-
viet Union.
Officials speculated that the new
arrangement is designed to call less
attention to the Soviet role in Nica-
ragua at a delicate time prior to the
U.S.-Soviet summit in Geneva. Of-
ficials also recalled that the last
heavy Soviet shipments that went di-
rectly to the Nicaraguan Pacific port
of Corinto in November 1984 came
too close to crossing "the threshold,"
in the words of one official, and that
Moscow was unwilling to cross it at
this time.
The photographs, which are now
being studied closely, indicate that
the Soviets may be supplying sub-
stantial amounts of arms including
tanks, artillery', and possibly planes
to strengthen the Sandinista re-
gime's drive against Nicaraguan re-
sistance forces.
One administration official told
The Times that there have been at
least three or four dozen T-54155
tanks in Mariel awaiting shipment to
Nicaragua. But other administration
sources cautioned that much of the
materiel still is in crates and a final
assessment of what they contain is
still pending.
The first official told The Times
that the shipment of the new tanks
would be a substantial addition to
Nicaragua's already formidable
armored forces, the largest in Cen-
tral America. He said the tanks are
right off Soviet production assembly
lines that were reopened in 1979 to
supply Third World clients such as
Nicaragua with a highly capable
tank.
The Sandinista offensive against
the resistance coincides with a
crackdown on the unarmed opposi-
tion as well, part of Managua's cam-
paign to destroy the anti-Sandinista
forces by the end of the year.
The U.S. Air Force spy plane en-
tered Cuban airspace Thursday
night and made two sweeps of the
island in little less than an hour.
The supersonic craft with highly
sophisticated cameras was fired on
by Soviet-made SAM missiles, ac-
cording to these same sources, but
the plane returned to its U.S. base
unharmed.
Thursday night immediately after
the flights were detected, according
to a Prensa Latina lispatch
monitored in Mexico City.
According to Prensa Latina, the
SR-71 entered Cuban airspace at
9:58 p.m. Thursday over San Antonio
in the province of Pinar del Rio.
The Cuban news agency said the
plane flew over the island and left
Cuban airspace at 10:25 p.m., only to
return 15 minutes later for another
run over the island nation.
The craft left Cuban airspace at
10:53 p.m., about 20 miles northwest
of Havana, and headed toward the
United States, the news agency said.
Prensa Latina said the same type
of plane flew over Cuba on Aug. 8
and that the Castro government had
also filed a complaint about the inci-
dent.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302050023-0
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302050023-0
UPI
This is a U.S. SR-71, a Blackbird reconnaissance plane such as the one which flew over Cuba Thursday, finding
weapons are being transshipped from the Soviet Union to Nicaragua via Cuba, according to administration sources.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302050023-0