CONGRESS GIVEN REPORT DETAILING CUBAN-NICARAGUAN AID TO REBELS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201090056-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 56
• Publication Date: April 18, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201090056-2
MIAMI HERALD
18 APRIL 1983
Congress given report
detailing Cuban-Nicaraguan
aid to rebels
By ALFONSO CHARDY
Herald Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - The Reagan
Administration has quietly- given
Congress a report containing details
designed to show how Cuba and
Nicaragua are aiding leftist rebels
in El Salvador.
The document reportedly is based
on previously classified information
gathered in Central America by the
CIA. Congressional aides said it
contains the most detailed informa-
tion they have seen recently on ad-
ministration charges about Nicara-
guan and Cuban involvement in the
Salvadoran war.
The release of the report appar-
ently is part of the administration's
effort to buttress its attempts to de-
flect growing controversy in Con-
gress over U.S. support for rightist
guerrillas fighting Sandinista gov-
ernment forces in Nicaragua.
Despite the details provided in
the report, congressional aides said
U.S. accusations against Nicaragua
and Cuba are not conclusively prov-
en. They noted the report does not
contain sources, does not tell how
the information was gathered and
confirmed, and does not say wheth-
er the administration tried to check
it with foreign intelligence agencies
of allied nations.
The main accusations in the doc-
ument are that the Nicaraguan gov-
ernment is supplying arms, training
and financial aid to the leftist guer-
rillas in El Salvador, and have al-
lowed them to run their war for
two years from a command center
in the Nicaraguan capital, staffed
by Nicaraguan and Cuban advisers
along with Salvadorans.
The document was attached to
prepared testimony delivered last
.week to the Senate Foreign Rela-
tions Committee and the House For-
eign Affairs Committee by Thomas
Enders. assistant secretary of state
for inter-American affairs.
The report said arms and ammu-
nition destined for clandestine de-
livery to El Salvador reach Nicara-
gua by ship and by direct -flights
from Cuba. It said the weapons
then remain stockpiled near Mana-
gua until it is time to ship them to
El Salvador.
The Sandinistas, according to the
report, "use a variety of routes,
overland, air drop and sea, to fur-
nish arms, and. increasingly, vitally Cuba for extensive military training
needed ammunition.", in the Caribbean island,, where
Arms supplied in 1982 included ",over 900 Salvadorans were receiv-
"increased quantities of heavier ing training."
weapons" such as M60 machine The report went on to say that
guns, M79 grenade launchers and "several terrorists captured in a sa-
M72 antitank weapons, the report fehouse in (the Honduran capital ofd
said. Tegucigalpa in November 1981 told
it said that two overland ship- authorities that the Nicaraguan
ments from Nicaragua through government had provided them
Honduras discovered in 1981 con- with funds for travel and explo-
tained weapons originally shipped sives."
to American combat units in Viet- In a statement released Thursday,
nam, and that a captured Salvado- the State Department said that
ran guerrilla leader, identified only based on the latest intelligence re-
as Lopez-Arriola, "confirmed" that ports the arms flow from Nicaragua
the Sandinistas control weapons de- to El Salvador has dropped over the
livered from Vietnam to Nicaragua past month.
for the Salvadoran insurgents. In separate developments:
Another Salvadoran guerrilla, ? Guerrillas fighting to topple
identified in the report as Alejandro the Nicaraguan government
Montenegro. allegedly captured last claimed they shot down a Sandinis-
August during a raid on a guerrilla to air force plane piloted by a Cana-
safehouse in Honduras, "confirmed dian. They also reported killing 90
that Nicaragua remains the primary government soldiers in an ambush
source of insurgent weapons and
north-
ammunition" for the Salvadorans, near Santa Rosa, 105 miles north-
the report said. west of Managua. Neither report
"One of the guerrillas captured could be independently confirmed.
? Two Honduran coast guard
with Montenegro had made five ships violated Nicaragua's territori-
trips to Managua in 1982 to pick up al waters in an attack on a Nicara-
arms," the document said. guan patrol boat that wounded four
In his testimony, Enders ac- soldiers, Managua charged.
knowledaed reports that some Sal-
vadoran government soldiers or of-
ficers at times do sell some of their
US; supplied weapons and bullets
to guerrilla contacts.
Since mid-1980, Salvadoran guer-
rillas have trained in Nicaragua and
Cuba "in military tactics, weapons
and explosives" and Cubans "and
.other foreign agents" are involved,
the report said.
It said a Salvadoran guerrilla
who ael ected to Honduras in Sep-
tember 1981 reported that he and
12 others went from Nicaragua to
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201090056-2