U.S. SAID TO PLAN A MILITARY BASE IN HONDURAS TO TRAIN SALVADORANS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100260041-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 21, 2010
• Sequence Number: 41
• Publication Date: April 10, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

/ Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/21 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000100260041-9
I 'Z C! AFs -" s ,. NEW YORK TIMES
" FAGS r 10 APRIL 1983
sensitive" and was being "played very ! cause of a war the two countries fought 1 Battalion was trained in El Salvador by
n--A- B
Un ted States ad
i
th
l
aid began to arrive two years?ago. In re-
cent months, they have attacked and
By RAYMOND BONNER held for brief periods such major cities
- Spec&toTheN YorkT;mee as Suchitoto and Berlin.
WASHINGTON, April 9 - The United Hondurans Badly Defeated U.S. Commander 'Pessimistic'
States is planning to set up a military Lieut. Gen. Wallace Nutting, head of
base in Honduuas for the training of Sa]- One of the conditions still being no- the United States Southern Command in
vadoran soldiers, according to two Rea. gotiated, according to another diplo. Panama, recently told a Congressional
gan Administration officials. mat, is how many Hondurans would delegation that he was "very pessimis-
One of the officials said the base, also be trained at the base. The Handu- tic about the military situation in El
Salvador.
would be staffed with about 100 United cans were said to be demanding such. One cause for alarm among Salvado-
States military advisers and that the training because they do not want their, ran and United States military officials
Defense Department expected to have army to become inferior to that of the is that nearly all the soldiers who make
it operating in six weeks to two months. Salvadorans. up the Atlacatl and Ramon Belloso bat
The second official, in a separate in. Them is still considerable anomosity talions are scheduled to be discharged
terview, said the matter was "highly in Honduras toward Salvadorans be, in the next six months. The Atlacati.
U.S. Said to Plan a Military Base
Honduras uras to Train Sallyer 'car rt
In Hon to Train Sva~'oran
In spite of the helicopters and jet air-
craft, other equipment and training
that the Salvadorans- have_receiyed
from the United States, the guerrilla
e forces fight rig the Government appear'
stronger than they were before th
e
egotiations Acknowledged fore a truce was arranged. Today many
N edged 77-A.-- `--
agreement in principle had been During that brief but bloody'confliet,
reached by the two countries and that the Honduran Army was badly defeat-
only the details remained to be worked ed, with Salvadoran troops closing in on
out. Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, be-
close to the vest." He added that an I in 1969.
era
y cheaper than
A foreign diplomat in Honduras said bringing them to the United States, as
today that "internally, politically," the cording to several Government officials
issue was so volatile that Honduran familiar with the plan. It cost approxi-
Government officials had been publicly mately $18 million to train some 1,400
de-iy4mg all reports of negotiations Salvadoran soldiers and officer cadets
at Fort Bing
about the training camp. N.C.,
ast yerm ear. , Ga., and Fort Bragg,
The need for further training of Sal-I
vadoran soldiers is regarded as press-
ing because the war is not going partic-
ularly well for the Salvadoran Army.
J-1 Pc VL 1.' Ivilc LCpd.flIIICII1 UTACi51
acknowledged that the United States
was very interested in having a training
installation in-Honduras and that it was ~
discussing the possibility with the Hon-
durans,'but he said a final agreement
had, not yet been reached. Publicity
aba8 .the possibility of a base in Hon.
duras he added, might jeopardize the
.negotiations.
.. The Reagan Administration has an
agreement with Congress not to place
more than 55 United States military ad-
visers in El Salvador, an agreement
that apparently would not be directly
violated by sending the advisers to Hon-
duras to conduct training there. There
is no limit on the number of United
States military advisers in Honduras.
v
sers,
e
e
-
loso Battalion at Fort Bragg.
Those two battalions have been by far
the most effective in combat and have
been rushed from one crisis spot to the
next, with very little time for the sol-
diers to recover mentally or physically
between battles. But the troops have
greater distrust of the Salvadoran gained considerable combat experi-
ence.
Army than of th
S
e
andinista in Nic
ara. gua
To man the two battalions with raw
The Administration official who pro. recruits would be a severe blow to the
overall effectiveness of the Salvadoran
vided the information about the train- Army, according to Salvadoran and
ing base in Honduras said the Defense United States military officials.
Department's pri mary concern now On the other hand, they recognized
was the reaction of Congress and the' that to extend the enlistments of the
United States public. current members of the two units be-
The two Government officials and a yond two years could lead to serious
third who is iamniar with the plan noted morale problems.
that training the Salvadorans in Hon-
duras would avoid the appearance of
greater United States involvement in El
Salvador.
Besides avoiding the problem of the
ceiling on advisers who can be sent to El
Salvador, another advantage of train.'
ing the soldiers in Honduras is that it!
would be consid
bl
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/21: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100260041-9