CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00975A013200120001-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 4, 2003
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: March 11, 1969
• Content Type: REPORT

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DIRECTORATE OF
INTELLIGENCE
Central Intelligence Bulletin
Secret
5
11 March 1969
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No. 0060/69
11 March 1969
Central Intelligence Bulletin
CONTENTS
South Vietnam: Situation report. (Page 1)
France: Communist labor confederation is trying
to refurbish its militant image through today's
general strike. (Page 2)
Venezuela: The new cabinet is made up mostly of
political independents and technicians. (Page 3)
Central America: Nicaragua may be aiming to re-
structure the Common Market in order to obtain a
privileged position. (Page 4)
Pakistan: Economic dislocations (Page 5)
USSR - Southern Yemen: Arms deliveries (Page 5)
Hungary: Rajk memorial (Page 5)
Chile: Squatter casualties (Page 6)
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NORTH
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South Vietnam: The pace of fighting has re-
mained fairly high in III Corps, amid signs that
Communist forces there are in the final stages of
preparation for ground attacks against key allied
installations and possibly against Saigon.
There is evidence that the Viet Cong 9th Di-
vision has begun to move within Tay Ninh Province,
possibly toward Saigon. In the past two days,
two battalions from this division have been iden-
tified in heavy contact with allied forces in
southern and western Tay Ninh. Prisoner reports
suggest that other elements of the 9th may be mov-
ing southeast toward the Phu Tho racetrack in
Saigon.
In I Corps, the enemy has lobbed rockets into
the city of Hue for the first time in the current
offensive, injuring several civilians in the south-
ern fringes of the city.
In the central highlands of II Corps, Special
Forces camps continue to bear the brunt of enemy
mortar and artillery attacks. In the delta, Viet.
Cong terrorists using crude homemade bombs attacked
two popular restaurants in the capital city of Kien
Phona Province, ounding at least two dozen people.
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France: By carrying off a general strike to--
day tie Communist-led General Confederation of La-
bor (CGT) is trying to refurbish its militant image.
The CGT's passivity as the large--scale strikes
got under way last May damaged its standing with
many workers. It suffered significant losses in
plant committee elections held since then. More-
over, the CGT has been able to recruit proportion-
ately fewer new members than the smaller Confedera-
tion of Democratic Workers which took the lead in
supporting the workers' demands last May.
Union leaders have suggested that other strikes
may follow today's general strike, which is sup-
ported by all three major federations, but the tem-
per of the rank and file is uncertain. The govern-
ment appears to be betting that the unions' demand
for wage increases of about 12 percent reflects
more the fear of union leaders that they will be
overtaken by the general membership than deep-rooted
worker dissatisfaction.
Indications that the strike will be extensive
and that students were planning to join in massive
street demonstrations led the government to put
riot troops and police on stand-by alert. A planned
shutdown of electricity, however, apparently will
not prevent broadcast later today of De Gaulle's
speech on the regional and senatorial reforms which
are to be submitted to referendum on 27 April.
Thus far, there have been no government moves
toward new talks, but the Patronat (National Asso-
ciation of Manufacturers) has repeated that it is
willing to confer at the industry level. Minister
of Social Affairs Schumann, in an attempt to put
the government in a better light, is stressing
that the talks which collapsed last week produced
two positive results: agreement to look into the
equity of social benefits and to study the minimum.
wagein relation to the cost of living index.
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Venezuela: President Caldera's new cabinet
is made up mostly of political independents and,
technicians.
Caldera, who was inaugurated today, gave six
of the thirteen cabinet posts to members of his
own Christian Democrat Party. Two of these, Perez
La Salvia and Lorenzo Fernandez, are close advisers
and were appointed to the Ministry of Mines and
Petroleum, and Interior, respectively. A third
close aide, Luis Alberto Machado, received another
high administrative post in the president's office.
The appointees are well regarded profession-
ally and reflect Caldera's aim to appoint a non-
controversial cabinet that will broaden support for
his administration in business and financial cir-
cles. The appointment to the Ministry of Mines of
Perez La Salvia, a moderate who has opposed nation-
alist pressures within the party, indicates an in-
tention to reach an agreement with the foreign oil
companies over the development and exploitation of
the country's oil fields once the present conces-
sion contracts expire in 1983. 25X1
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Central America: There are increasing in-
dications that President Somoza's goal in the cur-
rent Common Market crisis is to restructure the
organization to give Nicaragua a more favored
position.
Managua has indicated that it will call for
a complete restructuring of the market. Deposit:
of outstanding protocols, establishment of a
Customs Union, and creation of a tribunal to set-
tle integration disputes, would be the first phase.
This would be followed by renegotiation of all Com-
mon Market agreements and replacement of the mul-
tiple protocols with a single new treaty.
Somoza provoked the present imbroglio on 28
February when, in contravention of integration
agreements, he imposed a tax on certain imports
from other Common Market countries. Their response
was to levy an equivalent tax on Nicaraguan ex-
ports.
Somoza initially described his action as an
attempt to raise badly needed government revenue
and also to pressure his Common Market partners
to ratify, deposit, and implement outstanding pro-
tocols. Neither the present tax, which is only an
interim measure, nor even the full implementation
of the protocols, however, will likely be sufficient
to halt Nicaragua's continuing balance-of-payments
deficit or adequately increase government revenue.
Central American leaders seem prepared to go
to great lengths to avoid a break with Somoza, but
they would not be willing to solve Nicaragua's prob-
lems at their own expense. Thus, the Common Market
will be in grave difficulty if Somoza insists on a
definite commitment to this two-stage program as
the price for settlement of the present crisis.
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NOTES
Pakistan: Protracted civil and labor unrest:
has resulted in serious economic dislocations
throughout the country, and the political feedback
could affect the outcome of the government-opposi-
tion talks which resumed yesterday in Rawalpindi.
The recent upsurge in labor agitation, manifested
in a series of violent strikes--the most signifi-
cant being a port tie-up by longshoremen in Kara-
chi--is disrupting economic life. In addition,
critical food shortages which have developed in
East Pakistan could la into the hands of olit-
ical extremists.
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USSR - Southern Yemen: Moscow continues to
supply military equipment to Southern Yemen. A
Soviet freighter arrived in Aden on 5 March and
reportedly unloaded =helicopters, artillery,
small arms, and ammunition. The USSR has already
delivered MIG-17 jet fighters,
trucks, an small arms to Southern Yemen. 25X1
Hungary: The government took an important
step to win popular support by staging memorial
ceremonies on 8 March for Laszlo Rajk, the symbol
of Hungary's victims of Stalinist oppression. Rajk
was rehabilitated by the party in 1956 before the
revolution, but the recent ceremonies marked the
first public demonstration of respect for his mem-
ory since that time. The Kadar leadership, which
announced a reinvigoration of its domestic reform
program on 7 March, probably intended the ceremony
to demonstrate the permanency of its rejection of
Stalinist methods and to win over those who remain
cynical about the regime's intentions.
(continued)
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Chile: At least four persons were killed and
47 wounded Sunday when police evicted several hun-
dred families from land they had illegally occupied
on the outskirts of Puerto Montt in southern Chile.
Among those arrested as instigators was a member
of the extreme left Socialist Party who was elected
to the Chamber of Deputies on 2 March. The Min-
istry of the Interior said the use of firearms was
necessary because of the organized armed resistance
offered by the squatters. The Communist and So-
cialist press is already accusing the government
of "massacring" the people.
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